Joyfull Living

On a recent lazy Saturday morning, while leisurely drinking my coffee and reveling in the fact that I had a whole day at home with nowhere to go and lots of time to catch up around the house, I spotted this:  On my back porch the cat had knocked over my plant.  Not a big deal, but the back porch is almost the only place where my plants thrive! It brings such joy to look at my flourishing plants, but now one was in a mess. This was an unexpected mess.  I hadn't planned for it, didn't want to deal with it, but the only solution is to clean it up.  No use in being annoyed or irritated, but to move forward to make it right. Unexpected messes.   I thought about in life how each of us faces unexpected messes.  When things seem to be going along great, something will pop up to disrupt and distract us.  They may be minor messes or major messes, but most messes cannot be planned or fit in nicely with our schedules, they just come.  ....

The theme for today’s Texture Tuesday is “Orange”.  The thought was since autumn is coming, it was a perfect opportunity to show some orange.  In our area, the leaves don’t change colors and fall weather is still months away!  Today, the temperature hit 100!  So, I had to look pretty hard for something orange! My oldest son was wearing an orange shirt (football season is a sure sign of fall around here) and was working on his fishing reel.  After some adjustments to give the photo a vintage feel, I added the textures Mayzee and Serendipity, then used the eraser to bring back some of the orange color.  Not exactly autumn orange, but it’s the orange that’s going on around here!

This week is that transitional week of end of summer to beginning a new school year.  It is one more week of summer freedom from strict routine and filled with more fun than work, but there have to be some preparations made before the first week of school starts. ORDER!   Oh how I crave it!!  Especially in my home.  God has given to women the privilege and responsibility of being the manager of their home. We have as an important a task as the manager of any business. Just as a business can't run well without order, nor can a home. I don't know about you, but I can't run my home efficiently without some order. Here are a few tips on how to have some order in the home! O - ORGANIZATION A great sayings is, " Things don't just happen; you have to make them happen." We cannot make our home run efficiently unless we organize. This will be different in every home. Some women are high-powered organizers; others are laid back. Whatever our personality, we must have...

The area I live in is surrounded by natural springs.  These are beautiful, pure, natural, bubbling water, which is very cold!  Unfortunately, being raised a city girl, my swimming foundation is a concrete swimming pool, with nice, warm water. My husband was raised swimming in these springs and trained our boys to love them.  I, however was always a bit reluctant to get into the ice cold water, so I usually sit on the sidelines. Recently our church had a family day at one of these springs. It was clear and beautiful and on this hot afternoon, I stepped off into the water, which was way too cold for me and promptly backed out!  As only a little boy can do, my youngest son asked me to jump off the platform into the springs with him....and since he insisted that we have never done this together and hinted that he would be forever scarred if I didn't do this with him...I agreed.  With butterflies in my stomach and the dreaded anticipati...

I'm over At the Well today, talking about a recent growth spurt I had!!!  Even mothers can grow up sometimes!!

The theme for today’s Texture Tuesday is ‘back to school’.  Although our family homeschools, our first day back to school was this week.  As a Christian family, one of the blessings of schooling our children is to put the Word of God in their hearts.  I love the freedom to share the Bible in our teaching and desire for God to show us His ways and lead us in His paths.  This picture captures a great foundation and tool for our back to school.  The textures used were “Love in Layers, Not Too Shabby and Just Stitched”.  I love Kim’s textures and appreciate the opportunity to play and learn with them!

This week marks the end of the Media Monday series.  It has been interesting thinking about and sharing with others how media affects our lives as Christian women.  We have explored several relevant areas of our life with the intent of seeing "how is social media and this digital world of ipads, iphones and ipods affecting our relationship with God, our marriages, our parenting, our homemaking, our friendships and our health?" Media affects us each of these areas and it was a somewhat surprise how much I enjoy and use technology.  It also brought awareness of how time consuming this pleasure can be!  Relationships can be strengthened, knowledge can be gained, friendships formed and bonds made and encouragement can be given and received.  But reading, chatting, texting while being convenient should never take the place of face to face relationships or hinder our duties and tasks of being a wife, mother and keeper of the home. A recent Sunday School lesson brou...

Every morning my youngest son calls out from his bed, "Mama".   After I answer he says the same thing every day, "I was just making sure you were there."   I always am.  If a rare occasion arises when I'm not, his daddy is - we would never leave him alone.  It blesses this mama's heart to know that  I can provide security and comfort.  I also know that he won't always wake with this as his first thought.  So for today, I put this blessing down on the August Gratitude List  to cherish and remember these moments. What if as Christian women, our first rising call would be to our Heavenly Father?  "I was just making sure You were there". Of course, we know He is, but for most women, their waking thoughts immediately give way to what needs to be done today and how little time we have to accomplish it. What a difference it would make in our day if our first thoughts were of the Lord and reminding and reassuring ourselves that He is in...

Recently my youngest and I went pear picking!  I picked pears… He posed!! And showed off his birthday gift…new shoes…. But we did get a bounty of pears… And gleaned a harvest of pears to put up some pear butter to enjoy through the year. Sometimes its the simple things that bring the most joy!

Today's topic for Media Mondays is "Media and Our Health".  This is one of my favorite media tools..(haven't I said that before???!!).  Google is my favorite doctor!! In the last month, our family has found remedies for gout, rotator cuff surgery,  inflammation, athlete's foot and others online.  Healthy eating, foods that detox and herbal remedies are areas where my knowledge has greatly increased due to the influence of media. As my knowledge has grown, also a little bit of wisdom has been gained.  Any health subject 'googled' will bring an enormous amount of information relating to that subject.  Here are a few tips to avoid information overload and falling into deception or receiving false advice. Try to be as specific as possible.   Typing in 'stomach pain' can span a diagnosis between constipation to cancer.  If you are looking for a diagnosis, type in specific symptoms (upper stomach pain), if you know...

"Going Green" is a byword of today's generation and began the idea behind taking care of God's creation which surely is a good plan.  But somewhere along the line things seem to go a bit overboard.  What started out as a very worthwhile cause many years ago has turned into a very commercialized thing that plays on peoples’ fears to promote everything from products to TV shows to platforms for political candidates. I'm always amazed when I come into contact with those who wonder and worry about eating the wrong thing or buying the wrong product.  How in the world did the former generations make it without 'being green"?   I read an interesting article that showed how wasteful the older generation was: In the line at the store, the cashier told the older woman that she should bring her own grocery bag, because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my...

Today's  Media Monday  topic is " Media and Our Friendships" and will probably be my favorite one!!  Media Mondays offer the opportunity to reflect and share how media and technology have affected our lives as Christian women.  Women need friendships.  They need connection.  C.S. Lewis said “Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one”.   At their best, friendships are a gift. They’re supportive, honest, uplifting and sometimes they can even be a lifesaver. There’s nothing like having a close friend to rely on, get advice from, shed our tears with and share our trials and tribulations with. A healthy friendship can often be our anchor in a storm. Friendships take time and effort.  In our lives today, dropping by a friend's house for cake, coffee and conversation doesn't happen very often.  We're busy, other demands are calling us and our friendships get put on hold.  ...

I picked up a book from the library recently entitled "Youiquely Woman - Becoming Who God Designed You To Be".   The theme of the book is to 'live purposefully and intentional".  A portion of the chapter I'm on is speaking on courage.  Here are some highlights that blessed and encouraged me greatly: "Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point."  C.S. Lewis  Since my personality type lacks courage (I'm easy going, peaceable etc.) , I was strengthened and stretched to read that courage is necessary for every woman who desires to discover God's design for her life.  It takes courage to be intentional in your life and to choose an uncommon path instead of following the crowd.  Each of us are uniquely made and equipped by God for His tasks for us.  Courage and living intentionally moves us to fulfill His purposes but...  It takes courage to...  stick to your commitment and to choose ad...

Last week my son and I went pear picking.  Of course I brought my camera!!!  I gave Kim Klassen’s Scratch Magic set a try and followed her suggestion to use the screen blending mode.  I like the end result!  Thanks, Kim for sharing some great textures!