Joyfull Living

  Happy Friday! I am participating in Five Minute Friday which is a fast, fun opportunity to strengthen my writing skills. A word prompt is given and you are encouraged to write for five minutes on a specific topic. Today's word is STRONG.   Strong is a powerful word to speak, but is much harder to put action into. The journey to strong usually begins with weakness - an area that needs improvement or to be strengthened. Becoming stronger can be a process or a journey, often filled with challenges that in the end, make us better.  Recently, my husband and I took a quick trip to the Georgia mountains. 2 of our sons are currently in Georgia, so we enjoyed a visit with them and then headed for a quick empty nest trip to the mountains.  One of our favorite things to do is to take walks on the mountain trails. There is something so calming about the mountain air, leaves and streams. We took off on a trail that would lead to a waterfall. There was only one sign at the begi...

 Hello June and Welcome Summer! As the summer season begins, our lives begin to embrace fun, relaxed activities such as swimming, cook outs and lots of outside time. June also holds some dates that are very emotional for our family - ones that represent the passing of one life and embracing of a new life. This June will find sweet hubby and I celebrating 32 years of marriage!  What a divine gift of God that came in His perfect timing. In the same year, 8 days before the wedding, my father was tragically killed. Our family gathered for a funeral and a wedding in the same week. Life can be like that, holding pain and joy in the same hand, but always being balanced with the gift of God's grace. As a Christian, I believe pain and grief comes from the result of living in an evil world. God does not cause the events that bring pain, but through the process of grief, we can find hope, wholeness and healing. And our stories from the other side of grief can be used to walk with others ...

For Five Minute Friday the word prompt is "Sunrise" .  This is my favorite time of the day and I've written numerous posts on the wonder and beauty of this daily gift from God. This post immediately came to mind to share for today's FMF. I can still feel the anticipation of catching sunrise at the beach!  August - 2016 Although the beach is always beautiful, my favorite time of the day there is sunrise. To see the sun breaking over the ocean is truly a sight to behold.  On a recent beach trip, we spent 3 mornings going for an early morning walk on the beach. On the first morning, the sun was already up in the sky.  It was pretty, but we decided to go a little earlier the next morning to try and catch a better view of the rising sun. On Day 2 the sun wasn't too high, but had already broken.  It was beautiful and peaceful to see, but we knew there was a moment of the morning that we were missing.  Day 3, we hit it just right.  As we walked to t...

When fall is in full swing, you have a little time off from work, the empty nest affords more freedom and the mountains call you name.....you simply GO! A spur of the moment trip to the mountains turned out to be one of the best trips we have taken.  Usually our mountain trips are efficiently planned out, the dates set in advance, a cabin reserved with the location and destinations in mind.  This trip, we saw we had some available time and simply headed north! Our first stop was to visit some dear friends who were vacationing that week. The next day we continued our drive still unclear on where we would land.  Here is our first stop, the quaint town of Helen, Georgia. Through the years we have made many visits to the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. We have visited a variety of locations, hiked many trails, drove many miles simply gazing at the beauty found there.  Cherished memories have been made with our children and family.  This trip we didn't do ...

It's mid July and for us (and apparently MANY others) last week was vacation week. Ours was a special vacation - after many years of taking the children and making memories with them, life happens, kids grow up, get jobs, or become a teenager and don't want to come along anymore. So, sweet hubby and I took off on our own little vacation. Our first stop was to visit our oldest son and his wife.  A few days were spent enjoying them and a trip on a local lake. Leaving them, we traveled to a couple of places we had never been before.  Of course, my favorite place on earth is the beach: After a couple days there, we headed to Savannah, Georgia to tour the historic city. There was lots of walking down quaint streets, a riverboat cruise and romantic dinner with a view to the river. Those are our Facebook worthy pics to share our fun time.  But it seems after every vacation, I bring something home, a truth that will hopefully lodge deep in the...

Our annual vacation discussion began like always... "where do you want to go? "  Being a beach girl, you know my standard answer... the beach! But sweet hubby is tired of the heat and humidity of summer plus sand and crowds are not his idea of relaxing.  Watching Shark Week didn't help my weak attempt to plea for a beach vacation either! Back and forth our discussions went until the beginning  of school was fast approaching.  Dates were cleared with our jobs and plans were quickly made to spend a week in the mountains.  I dearly love the beach, but there is something equally majestic about the mountains.  We arrived at the cabin to find the back porch overlooked this gorgeous view. After a day of adventure - my first time zip lining, and exploring hiking trails, creeks and walks I chose to spend the day at the cabin alone while the guys went golfing. After the initial thoughts of 'what am I going to do  all day by ...