Self Acceptance Part 2

Part of self acceptance is realizing where your value comes from. See when we look to the wrong things or people for our value we will always be let down, maybe not at first but eventually we will be. The trouble with looking to other people for our value is that these people may have warped values themselves. I learned this the hard way. The person I had admired and wanted to please to get my value, placed a lot of value in Education and weight issues. And you see I was never going to be good enough to really please this person. Now don't get me wrong this person really did not come out and tell me any of these values but I could tell by listening to what she said. She would be so impressed with so and so because they had this degree or their masters. It made the person more valuable in her eyes. So the messages did not always come verbally but I got the message.

One day not too long ago after I had hung up the phone after a conversation with this person, I was feeling really low. So I began to write a letter to this person. No- the letter was never sent to her, but it did me a lot of good. While I was writing this letter the Holy Spirit really helped me figure out what I had been doing wrong. You see I had placed this person on the throne. I had looked to them for my value and it was the WRONG place to be looking for my value. I needed to take that person off of the throne and allow God to be on the throne in my life. I needed to look to God for my value. God is not a respecter of persons. Your education, your looks, your weight, your money... none of these things impress Him. He loved each of us so much that He sent his Son, Jesus to die on the cross for us. He values us so very much. For He looks on the inside and He sees what he created us to be. This realization helped me tremendously. My value comes from God. I am valuable because I am a child of God and He loves me unconditionally. I don't have to be good enough. And that is so nice to know because I have struggled my whole life with trying to be good enough.

Self Acceptance Part 1

I have been watching "The Biggest Loser" the last couple of seasons. I have enjoyed the show; however, I have a bit of a problem with the show. I do feel that it is important to eat healthy and to exercise and all but I feel there is another important issue. I think that it is important to learn to like yourself. To accept yourself just the way you are. Until you can learn to love yourself you will continue to struggle. Because when you do not like yourself there are a lot of self defeating thoughts going on in your head. When you change the heart you are able to really change the way you are.

I have battled a weight problem for what feels like all of my life. And what is really sad is that I felt fat even when I wasn't. I look at the photos now and can not believe that I thought I was fat.
I come from a family of big boned people. I had 4 uncles who at about 5 ft. 6 - 7 inches were probably about 300 pounds. And these same uncles felt it was important to tell me and my sister not to get fat. We did not see them very often- maybe a couple of times a year. But they took every chance they got to tell us comments like, "Don't you ever get over 200 pounds" and "You don't want to get fatter."

And what is really sad is that my Mother did not want my sister and I to get big heads so she did not like us to get compliments so we were never given the idea that we were ok. We were not told that we were pretty, so we thought we were not. We thought we were worth less than other people.

Well during this time recently as I have been working on making changes in my life. I have just recently figured out that I am not lower than other people, nor am I higher than anyone. We are ALL equal. And that is a really nice feeling.

So I may be overweight but I am learning to like myself and to accept myself right were I am.

Tomorrow I am going to share how I have become able to accept myself and where I am getting my value from.

* I wish I had a photo of myself when I was a girl and I thought I was fat to share. And as soon as I can get ahold of one I will add one here.

A Beautiful Tuesday Here In Texas

Hello and welcome! When we first moved to our house about 10 years ago, there was no landscaping done at all. There were a few bushes along the front of the house, but that was about it. We did not have money or time to be doing very much the first part of living here and so we are slowly doing things around to make our place look nicer and to make it more enjoyable for us. You know that is really what counts- making our home and yard a nice place to be.
See these two planters on our front porch? Well we found them at Lowes for only $16.97. They are nice concrete ones too! I was so excited when I saw the price. I have seen the nice concrete ones before and really like them but they were way too expensive.

Since we have moved in my husband and sons made me the flower bed along the front of the house. We have planted the rose bushes. We are so happy that they seem to be thriving. As you can tell we will need to be trimming those bushes soon. The one on the right - was not there when we moved in. We planted it to even out that area. With the one bush on the left looked weird. Also we planted the Bartlett pear tree and made that flower bed as well. One flower from last year seems to be coming back in that flower bed. The plant to the left. Last night I planted the rest of the flowers there.

Here is our new weed eater. It is a Black and Decker "Grass Hog." I really like it. It is cordless. And it came with two batteries. It is super easy to start and handle. This morning I got out in the back yard and did a lot of weed eating. Well I wish I had have taken more advice from a couple of the writers of some blogs that I really like. And taken it is smaller time periods instead of just going and going. Once I got done my left arm was weak and shaky and it was hard to pick up a glass of tea and get it to my mouth. I asked my husband if this was normal and he told me when I weed eat I might want to switch sides ever so often as well. He also told me to get something to eat, because I had told him I was feeling a little bit sick as well. So I have and I feel better. Not 100% yet but I guess it was just a lesson I needed to learn. I tend to be that way..just push myself harder than I should sometimes.

This birdbath is in our back yard - directly out our back door and off of the porch a bit. This was a Mother's day present for me one year. I love birds and had wanted a nice birdbath for a long time. Oh and yesterday evening I planted the flowers around here too. They are not blooming yet but they are suppose to be purple and white. Oh and it was funny but one of the flowers from last year seemed to have made it through to this year as well. It is on the left.

When we moved to this house this area right off the back porch had thick, luscious grass. But we got two dogs and they cleared ALL the grass out of that area. It is slowly coming back. Oh we no longer have dogs. Just cats, chickens and fish.

These are a couple of the trees that we cut the limbs and all off the tree to about 4 - 5 feet up. We are hoping that they will continue to grow and give more and more shade out there. I am thinking of getting a bench or some chairs to put out there. When all the leaves come out on those trees it is a great spot - during the summer heat.

Ok - I better get the laundry moving right along. And a few other jobs around here that I need to. I am hoping to be able to spend a little bit of time on the back porch reading this afternoon. Then when my husband gets home - we are going to get working on getting the places for our vegetables ready so we can get our plants planted. Ya'll have a good day!!

Ranunculus

As I shared earlier, yesterday Jason and I were looking at Lowes and Home Depot for some plants for our garden and some flowers. And as we were leaving Home Depot we noticed these flowers. I just had to get a photo of them. So I used my cell phone. I think the photos turned out pretty well for being from my cell phone.

Anyway the tag on them said Ranunculus Mix Perennials. I think they are gorgeous flowers. Especially the photo of the pink and yellow ones.

So today I thought I would look up Ranunculus and here is a little of what I found.

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae

Division: Magnoliophyta

Class: Magnoliopsida

Order: Ranunculales

Family: Ranunculaceae

Genus: Ranunculus

I also found out that all Ranunculus species are poisonous when they are eaten fresh by livestock. But apparently they taste pretty bad and they cause blistering in the mouth so this keeps animals from wanting to eat very many of them. I don't blame them one bit. Oh and Buttercups are in this Genus of plants - I think is how you would say that. Maybe? And it also looks like humans probably ought to be careful when handling them as well.

As I have written all of this down - it makes me think that you can not always judge something from the outside. Often times looks are very deceiving. There are so many lessons in nature for us to learn. Sometimes we just need to slow down long enough to learn them.

Parkinson's

Last week my brother-in-law was diagnosed with Diabetes. And I hate to admit that part of me was kind of jealous. You may be wondering why I would be jealous, well I would have much rather my husband be diagnosed with Diabetes than with Parkinson's. See with Diabetes you can control it with diet and exercise. There is hope- that if you make changes and take good care of yourself that you will not have complications. But with Parkinson's? Well truthfully we do not know a whole lot about it. But we do know that it is not like diet and exercise can keep it under control. I have looked it up on the Internet and read all I can to see what all I can learn about it but it is a little discouraging to say the least. Yes- there are medicine that they can give for certain symptoms but it gets complicated because like one of the medicine. they can not start giving it to you too early or it can cause problems for your body. And then with it hitting my husband as early as it did - does that mean that he will really have to suffer with a more severe form of it than what we have seen in our family. I shared before that my husband's Granny and his step-dad both had Parkinson's but it did not hit until they were much older and so it did not get really bad. So anyway now you understand why I had been a little jealous. I don't wish anything bad on anyone. But I sure don't want my husband to have to suffer. In about 2 weeks we will be going to a "Parkinson's Disease Patient and Caregiver Symposium." I am hoping that we hear some positive information. At least a little bit.
I wish I knew someone that had a loved one that was diagnosed with Parkinson's at an early age and maybe they would know things that we need to know and be willing to share. If you are this person - please feel free to contact me - I would love to hear from you. I am hoping that there is some sort of support group that I can get involved in. But I am sure that God will bring that into my life when it is really needed.

Busy Day

Ok - I only have a few minutes right now. It has been a very busy day, but we have gotten a whole lot of things done. We were able to get our yard mowed, second time of the season already. We got a lot of yucky limbs cut from four trees in our yard. The trees look so much better now. We will have to keep up with doing that so that they will continue to grow upwards and not just out. Then we were able to get a flower bed weeded and cleaned out and a rose bush planted where one had died last year. We got my 4 "Garden Boxes" (putting quotations there because they are the actual ones) moved to where we wanted them. We went and got some wonderful dirt out of some garden boxes that we had in the area that we fenced in for the chickens. Let me tell you those chickens love the garden boxes. So we are just going to take what ever dirt we need out of there and leave that area for them. We also got a lot of weed eating done around the yard. Oh I love our new weed eater. It is a Black and Decker "Grass Hog" It is light weight and easy to start and use. It is wonderful.

Then we went to Lowes and Home Depot to get plants and some stuff we needed. Then my husband built me a 2 X 4 foot garden box for us to plant our tomato plants in. I think he is going to make me another box later this week. We have not had time to get anything planted. The day ended before we had a chance to do that. Anyway our yard looks so much better. There is more work to be done but we will continue to work on the things throughout the week.

Above is a photo of my chickens enjoying the garden box after Jason took some dirt out of it.

At just the right speed...

Blogging is a funny thing. I think, "Oh, I know what I want to write about today." And I start in that direction and then it's like I get writers block and just have to walk away from the computer for a while. Meanwhile, What I really want to write about or really what I need to write about comes through my mind. And it seems like that idea is so clear. So here is what I really needed to write about today.

This morning, I heard an explanation that I really needed to hear. You know sometimes I feel really discouraged that I am not growing and changing into the person that I want to be as fast as I would like. Well it was pointed out to me that with a tree - you can cut them down and you can look at the rings to learn about their growth. Some years there is a lot of rain and sunshine and the tree experiences a lot of growth. Then other years are dry and the tree just gets by and has just a little growth. I have had years like both of those examples. Some years I feel like I am moving forward, making some progress. But other years I feel like I am not making any progress at all. What is so neat about it is that God knows exactly what we can handle and he does not give us more than we can handle. And even in those rough time periods when we don't feel much growth - they are happening for a reason. God works everything out for his purposes. And if I will just focus on Him and turn my life and my will over to Him, then I can be more relaxed at the pace I am going. Knowing that I am not going to slow or to fast...I am growing at just the right speed.

Actions speak louder than words

Today a friend posted the following as her status on Facebook.

"Your going to come across people in your life who will say all the right words at all the right times. But in the end, it's always their actions you should judge them by. It's actions, not words, that matter." Nicholas Sparks

It got me thinking how very true this is. I know a lot of people that do a lot of talking but the way they act just don't line up with what they say. Then as I was listening to a sermon on the radio they asked if our actions showed that we were Christians or not. I had to admit that in recent weeks I had realized how angry I was acting. Normally under the surface, but sometimes it showed up in ways like getting very upset with the way other people drive or when I am shopping and people were rude. And I realized that I had not been acting like a Christian. This past couple of weeks as I have been studying my Bible more and spending more time with God. I have actually felt a little bit of a change. Reacting positively in situations when I would have normally been upset. And it hit me - with Jesus in my heart - I am able to allow Jesus to love others through me. Oh don't get me wrong please... I am SO far from where I want to be. I still react in a negative way to things I shouldn't. But there has been just enough of a change that it gives me hope. Hope that I can become more and more like Jesus. Oh and if all of these "coincidences" weren't enough - I saw a church sign that said something like "Be a window that others can see Jesus through." God has so many different ways to speak to us. He uses so many different ways, if we will just pay attention. It is so neat when I figure out that I actually got the lesson that He was trying to teach me. I am sure there are many times that He has tried to speak to me and I was too busy. But I don't want to be to busy any more. I want my actions to speak that I am a child of God. I hold onto to this promise: "being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ" Philippians 1:6

"All the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action."

James Russell Lowell

New Books

Last night my husband and I went to Lowes to look at some stuff to redo our bathroom. I got a little side tracked at their books, while he talked to one of the managers about some business we needed to get taken care of. Anyway I found 2 fantastic books. Normally I do not buy books new. I really like to get my books from thrift stores or used from Amazon or Ebay. But I just loved the way these two books were laid out. I am a visual learner and so I really am attracted to lots of great photos and a lay out that has basic info with the photos.

Here is a photo of the table of contents. I am hoping that you are able to click on it to enlarge it to see it. As you know I am very new to Blogging so I may not have done it in the right way for you to be able to do that. If not hopefully you can check out the book on the Internet. "Birds in your Backyard...A Bird Lover's Guide to Creating a Garden Sanctuary" It is a Readers Digest book.

Anyway the photos are gorgeous throughout the books. And they show step by step how to make really cool bird houses, feeders and birdbaths.

To the right is one of the photos from the book. I love this idea and am hoping that my husband will make me one for our back yard. I think it will be a great addition to our yard.

The other books that is in the Photo "Texas Gardeners' Resource... All you need to know to plan, plant, and maintain a Texas Garden" this book is by Dale Groom and Dan Gill. This book has 383 pages with lots of cool information dealing with everything from grasses, trees, bushes, flowers and vegetable gardening as well. I am sure you can find a lot of info about this book on the Internet as well.

Well I better get on with my day. It promises to be a busy one. But the weather will be nice ..so that is great. I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Enjoying the Journey

As I have shared before, I have been enjoying blogs for the last several years. Other people's blogs that is. I just did not think that I had anything to write about or anything of interest to anyone. Then a couple of weeks ago, I decided I need to start a blog - not for anyone else but for me. For me to write out my journey and maybe it can help someone along the way. What is so cool about it is that as I have been blogging, I have discovered that it makes me think on deeper levels. It has also encouraged me to spend a lot more time studying my Bible. You know I need to understand what I believe in order to share what I believe. And one of the best things that I think it has done for me is to help me realize that I have a right to have opinions. That's right- isn't that weird to be 40 years old and just now figure that out. I guess I have spent many years being a people pleaser. And when you are a people pleaser you tend to keep your mouth shut to keep peace. Now don't get me wrong - I am not one of those - in your face type of a person. But I love the fact that I can have opinions and if I want to share those opinions, even if they are different from your opinions that is OK. We all have our own opinions and sometimes we will agree and sometimes we wont - and that is also OK. I really am enjoying this journey to the me that God intended me to be, and I like having an avenue in which to get there.

Enjoying Roots

Although the weather person talked like it would be overcast and dreary today - it has turned out to be a very nice day- with sunshine. It does look like there is still a chance for some thunderstorms and rain to come our way.. so we are not out of the woods yet.

Earlier I was talking to my husband on the phone. As we talked I looked out our glass back door at our chickens. They were really enjoying their part of the yard. I told him how happy I was that we had decided to fence off part of the yard so that they would have such a good sized area. And my husband said yeah and if we were to sell the house then it would make a great area for dogs. I asked him why we would be moving and he said - oh if we won the lottery. Well first of all, we'd have to buy a lottery ticket in order to actually win the lottery but that is besides the point. Anyway I told him that even if we were to win the lottery that I would not want to move. I would like to have a few things done around here like - pave our driveway, put a carport or a freestanding garage up, enclose our back porch to make a sun room and landscaping, but I did not want to move. He said he'd at least like to get a little cabin by the lake, I said that would be fine.

As you can tell I really like roots. As a child, my family and I moved around so much. And it was very hard on me. I am so thankful that my husband understands my need for roots.

We are having Roast with carrots and potatoes for supper along with home made rolls. We are also having some home made macaroni and cheese because my oldest son and his family will be joining us for supper and that is what he requested. I can't wait to see our granddaughter. Ya'll have a good rest of the day!

*Photo above is a view out my back door. You can not see a good portion of the chicken yard that is from the house to the chicken coop. There are a lot of trees there and they love to lay in the dirt and relax.

"The Little House on the Prairie"

When I was a little girl, I did not read through "The Little House on the Prairie" books like most girls did. I don't know if the reason was that my big sister was really into reading and so I needed to find another spot in the family. Or if I was just to busy playing outside to read. Anyway a couple of years ago, as I was watching one of the shows on TV and decided I wanted to watch the whole entire series from beginning to end. And I did. It was very therapeutic to me. I had not realized what it would do to help me, but it helped me see what was really important in life. Well as I have shared, this past year has been really challenging for us. And I am sure that it will continue to be challenging. So I decided that I needed something to help me get back to the simpler things in life. So I decided I was going to finally get around to reading the books through. So my sweet husband bought me the set of book. I am currently only half way through the second book. But it has been so fun to read them so far. There is so many interesting tidbits in these book. And it is so cool to learn the way that people lived back then. I know that a lot of people, including myself, talk about how much more simple life was back then and I think that a lot of times that concept is misunderstood. I think that most the time with someone says something about the simple life - the thought that automatically comes to mind is - an easy life and very plain life.
The truth is that they had to work so very hard. What is so cool about those simpler times is that there was not so much influence from the outside world which meant that the parents had so much more influence on their children. Oh and good Christian morals were so much more important. When someone said they would do something, they did. Shaking hands on a deal made it official. Mothers were at home and taught their children all the skills needed to take care of themselves. Fathers worked hard to support their families. Communities came together to help their neighbors. There are so many more reasons why I love these books, I just can put them into words are this time. I look forward to reading through these books.
What books do you like to read that help you understand the simpler times?

Putting my BOM block together

I just wanted to show you step by step how my Block of the Month block came together. These photos were taken from my cell phone so the colors are really a lot brighter. My cell phone photos just don't do the block justice. If you look down a few postings you will see another photo of the block.

The first photo you sew 4 triangles on the outside of the center square. Then you add another 4 triangles to the square to take you to the next step.

Then there are 4 more pieces of fabric to add to the square that you had from the last stage.

At this point I ended up making a mistake and had to unsew(another word for seam rip pieces apart) 4 pieces of fabric off of the block. I had thought that the next 4 color blocks went on the bigger edges of the block - but what I was really suppose to do was sew the green pieces onto the smaller ends of the quilt block.

And here is the finished product. In quilting - if you will break your project down into smaller sections it is easier to see what you are doing and what it will take to put the block together. Next month, I plan to start at the very beginning and show you how I get my kit and all of the steps that I have left out from this post on putting my BOM block together. I hope that this has been enjoyable to you. :o)

Sorry - I just don't quite understand how to put the photos on here and the writing and have things stay where I want it to be in the final posting of it. Hope you can still understand what I am talking about.

The start of a great hobby...

Seven years ago my friends Sylvia and Susan asked me if I wanted to go to a Block of the Month meeting with them. The idea of quilting sounded fun but I did not know if if was something I could do. I had went to a 4H club when I was a girl and had made a dress for myself. And I had taken home economics classes where I also made some things for myself. I had sewn several things for myself. But it had seemed like lately that patterns just were not right. Either they were too small or too big, and honestly I was getting tired of putting so much work into something only to find it did not even fit me. So I thought that maybe this quilting thing was the thing for me. I would be able to sew but would not have to worry about it fitting. So i said sure, well I had no idea what I was in for. The way that Block of the Month works is that you pay $6.00 for the first kit. Kit includes pattern for that months block and pieces of fabric for you to cut the pieces out of for the block. Then every month if you bring your block back to the meetings each month - finished - then you do not have to pay for the next block. So I started out. "One block a month, I can do this," I thought. Well it was very challenging at first. Luckily my friend Sylvia had me come to her house and watch her as she cut out her pieces and sew them together. I am a visual learner so this was very helpful. Anyway there were a few months that were very difficult and I just cried and thought, "there is no way I can do this." Well I just plugged away at it and have been doing it ever since. Above is my very first BOM quilt.

This one to the left is my Second year of BOM quilt. I loved the fabrics that I picked to put it together. I love the color combination. As you can tell my the next quilt that I am showing today. This is actually the very last quilt that I have put together. It is a lap quilt. It is from blocks from the 3rd year of quilting. Oh and truthfully I did not make every block here - my husband also quilts and he made the first two blocks and then his schedule changed and he could not longer go to the meetings. Well the colors that I was working on that year were blue and yellow. I ended up giving those quilt blocks to my Mom. Who made a quilt. Anyway so I needed a project to work on so I picked out these fabrics to put these "Thimbleberries" BOM's together.
There have been a few more that I have made and I will see if I can get photos. Oh I have given a couple away so I do not have photos of all the quilts I have made. I am going to do better about getting photos of the quilts I make. When you make a quilt you really get attached to it. I think it is because of all the time and effort that goes into making a quilt. It is a lot of work but well worth it. Now that I make quilts myself, I can totally understand why homemade quilts are so expensive... There is ALOT of work put into them.

I have some BOM blocks that were done in civil war fabrics that I am working on putting together now. Well, actually I am in the process of cutting out ALL the pieces to put the quilt together. There is a lot of work just cutting out all the sashings and fabric to put the quilts together. It will be a while before it is done. I have a few little projects that I am working on. Like some place mats. I will show them when they are done. Oh and by the way..I am not the typical quilter by any means. My work is NOT perfect. I try really hard to do a good job but it just does not come out that way. So I like to believe that my mistakes - make my quilts - uniquely mine.

Not all it's cracked up to be...

When our children were young, our parents did not have time to take care of them or see them very often because they had their own careers. This made my husband and I sad because we knew that there would need to be time with their grandparents for our kids to get to know their grandparents.
My husband had great grandparents growing up. His grandparents would take care of him and his two brothers about every week end. And they even took the boys on vacation with them. I credit his Grandparents for a big part making him the man he is today. I grew up in many different towns and states - rarely any where near my grandparents so I really did not get a chance to really get to know them. I still loved them a lot but I really missed out on spending time with them and us really getting to know each other.
Because of all of this We decided that we would be good grandparents. We would not be to busy to see or take care of our grandchildren. We would be a part of their lives. We would get to know them. This past January, our first grandchild was born. We were so excited. The love in our hearts was so big it was spilling out. I realized for the first time what unconditional love really was. Nothing could make me not love her.
Our Granddaughter is now 2 months old. She lives about 2 miles from us. So you are thinking - you get to see her all the time...no. No we don't get to see her hardly at all. You ask why? Well because we know that they are a new little family and they do not need us just dropping by all the time. We don't want to over step our boundaries. We want to have a good relationship with our son and daughter-in-law. We have tried to have dinner and invite them over, and that seems to work pretty good. But it is just so hard to go a week and a half - two weeks without seeing her. It causes you to want to build up walls inside your heart so it does not hurt so much.
And truth be told - if we were not dealing with a lot of other hurts right now - this probably would not be so painful. My husband has Parkinson's - we have only known about it for 6 months. Oh and by the way he was only 39 years old when he was diagnosed. Anyway that has been so hard to accept. He is having to take meds. for different symptoms he is having. For 6-7 years he was a voluntary fire fighter for a small town nearby. He loved to drive the engines, be an engineer and fight fires. But just this past week he had to resign because of the meds he is taking. I am very sure that this has been very hard for him. He tries so hard not to let it show that he is hurting. He tries to be strong for me. But I know. So like I said our feelings are a little raw right now. And it makes it so much harder to accept that being a grandparent is not what it is cracked up to be. This is why it is so important to remember that it is not good to have expectations. When you have expectations - you are let down. So lower those expectations - it sure makes life easier to handle.

Springs Here!

Today I pulled my winter clothes down out of the closet. I folded them up and packed them into a couple of boxes. I am making room for my spring and summer clothes. I really do not like wearing long sleeved shirts so I really love this time of year. I am hoping I can find my box of summer clothes. I will probably wait till later this week to get them out.
I have also spent some time today working on my clothes that needed to be ironed. I really do not wear a lot of things that have to be ironed but with the couple that I have along the shirts that Jason and Nick wear to church, I end up with a few items to iron ever so often. Since the iron was hot I decided to cut out my pieces for BOM, which is Block of the Month. One of the local Quilting Stores in my area does a Block of the Month each month - on the first week end of the month. It is based on the first Saturday. But I am so thankful that she also has some classes on the Friday morning before that first Saturday. The very first month you pay $6.00 and each month you are given a plastic baggie of directions and several pieces of fabric to use to make the block for that month. If you make the block and bring it in to each class - you get the next kit free, which is awesome! This is the way that I have learned to quilt. A couple of my friends were going to the BOM and invited me to go. I have gone ever since then and I love it. The above photo is the block I will make this month. Bye :o )

Freedom

This morning my husband and our son were able to get the fence extended out to the back fence. When we took down the fencing keeping the girls in their original pin. Several of the chickens came and lined up right there were the grass was growing and started eating. Before too long several more chickens noticed the others and came to check it out. Not too long after that they started moving out to where a clover patch was. Oh they were happy girls. Life is good for them.
My husband and I walked back to the back fence to check things out and cut a few branches off of some of the trees growing back there and we turned around and there were 4 of our chickens following us out there.
I will leave you with a few of the photos of them enjoying their new found freedom!

Everything I Need to Know I Learned in My Garden

A Gathering of Acquired Wisdom for Inside and Outside the Garden Gate

Begin early. But it's never too late to start.
If it doesn't work, try something else.
Life is fragile. Protect it.
Life is enduring. Trust it.
Life is daily. Water it. Weed it. Prune it.
LIfe is indescribably beautiful. Enjoy it and say thank you.
Growth takes time. Be patient. And while you're waiting, pull a weed.
There's something for everybody- different blooms for different rooms.
Pruning hurts. Pruning helps you grow.
Recycle.
Sometimes the tiniest flowers smell the sweetest.
To everything there is a season. But know what zone you're in.
Dream big. But try not to let ambition turn your joy into drudgery.
Grow what you love. The love will keep it growing.
You reap what you sow. But there will be surprises!

This was found in the book " Time Began in a Garden" by Emilie Barnes on page 44

A beautiful day..

Today has been such a beautiful day! The sun has been shining and the tempatures have been in the upper 60's. These are the type days that really make me love living here in Texas. I was able to go on a walk with my Mom and that was really nice. I really needed the exercise, fresh air and sunshine.

Tomorrow will be the big day for my Chickies. We will be putting up the fencing so that they can have a much bigger area in which to enjoy life. The last two days we have gotten 5 eggs a day. Oh and we got our first full sized egg yesterday and when I cracked it this morning - I found a double yoke inside! I wonder what causes it to do that - anyone know?

He that doeth righteousness...

My Bible Lesson had me read 1 John 3:7 today.

"Little children, let no man deceive you:* he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous."

The cross reference section of my Bible sent me over to Ezekiel 18:5-9 to understand what "he that doeth righteousness" does. All of these verses are great so please take the time to read through them all. But this post is about verse 8 and it say, "He that hath not given forth upon usury, neither hath taken any increase..." I did not know what usury meant so I decided to look in my "The New Lexicon Webster's Dictionary of the English Language" ( I bought this for $2.00 this week from the Goodwill - oh it's copyright date is 1989.)

Here is what it says about Usury= the practice of lending money at interest, especially at an exorbitant or illegal rate of interest. I thought that was awesome that the Bible would mention that. Clearly stating that it is wrong to take advantage of people by charging too much interest.

Then this afternoon my husband and I were talking about the money that we owe to Lowes on their credit card and how I was so irritated about the fact that their credit card along with Home Depot - charges like 18 - 24% interest or something like that. Can you believe it? Then I started to think of how in the Bible God says to pay a tithe of 10%. Then I thought how can these companies think that they deserve an amount more than what God asks for. You know everything we have is God's and he just lends it to us - this is how I have heard it explained anyways.

Progress, Not Perfection...That is the goal.

Hello my name is Lisa and I am a recovering Perfectionist. Oh but please do not get me wrong...I am not perfect in any area - nor have I ever been. Although I have always(as long as I can remember) felt like I had to be perfect. And boy does that put a lot of pressure on a person. I always felt like somehow if I worked hard enough I could be perfect. But recently I learned, "Doing my best is as near perfection as I ever need to get."(From the book "Hunger for Healing" page 189) And this feels really good.
In the same way, I used to think that I could be good enough to be saved. I just had to work hard enough at it. I thought I had to be good enough for God to love me and accept me. But the truth is that God loves us so very much - with an unconditional kind of love. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16 And I am reminded of the verse, "But God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8. I am so thankful that God loves us so much and with an unconditional love. He loves me even though I struggle with unhealthy thinking. And he is guiding me to become more and more like Him.

Our Chickens

Last October we decided to get chickens again. So we ordered 25 chickens. Why did you order 25 chickens you ask? Well we wanted to make sure that we only got Hens and it is best to order 25 at a time so that they travel better. Anyway we got them the middle of October. During the first couple of months we ended up losing 4 chickens. Some kind of eye infection got them. We started doctoring any of the chickens that we noticed had the infection and giving them all some antibiotic in their water. And Praise the Lord we were able to get rid of that infection and save the rest of the chickens. There for a while we were a little worried that we would lose a lot more of them. They are now 5 months old. Yesterday my husband and I cleaned out their laying bins and my nosy chickens had to come and see what we were doing.

We have a small shed that we have a 10 box laying bins on each side of the shed. This has worked well for many years. We actually got our first chickens about 8 years ago. We had decided to get rid of them about 1 1/2 ago, but regretted it later. We decided to fence a part of our back yard for the chickens so that we can still have a garden and the chickens can have their own part of the yard.

Last week we found our first two eggs! How exciting is that?!! Our chickens are 5 months old now. And we have been getting anywhere from 2 - 4 eggs a day. Most of them are still small. But as they lay more the eggs will get bigger. It is so fun to go gather eggs. We are so glad that we decided to get chickens again.

This week we decided that they need more space than what we gave them so we have decided to get more fencing and take the fence from the back of the house all the way back to the back fence. That way they will have about 1/3 of our back yard. We will still have plenty of room for a garden and what ever else we want back there.

This past year...

This past year has been a hard one for my family. From Feb to July of 2009 we lost 5 members of my husband's family. In April my husband's Granddad that passed away. His mind was as sharp as a tack and we loved to listen to his stories. We had the privilege to go see him 1 week before he died. When we left we knew we would never see him alive again.
This past year was also the first time that we slowly watched someone die. My husband's step-dad had cancer and we watched as he went down hill. Well actually it was like a roller coaster ride. We would be doing good for a while then a bit of a down hill. Then he was doing good. He was a strong, good man and he loved the Lord. This was a hard experience for me to deal with. And I am so glad that I have the Lord and I was able to lean on Him and grow more into the person he wants me to be.
You know things don't always go the way you plan them to go. As an example of this in our lives: In May our 19 year old son came and told us that his girlfriend was pregnant. This was hard, but exciting for us. They got married the end of July(Which is also the month that my husband and I celebrate our anniversary - #21 this past year.)Since then they have bought their first house. It needed a lot of work but it looks so nice now. And in Jan our first grandchild was born. She is a beautiful, petite little girl. They make such a great little family. We always wanted a daughter and we got the next best thing - a daughter-in-law. God is Good.
I don't know if this is how every grandparent feels or if it is just where I am on my journey in life but after our granddaughter was born and I was able to hold her. I really understood unconditional love. I don't think I had really understood it up to that point in my life. To really love someone no matter what. This is the way in which God loves us. I mean we all memorize John 3:16. And that right there should have taught me about God's unconditional love but life got in the way and I just did not get it. I am so glad that God uses different experiences in our lives to teach us new lessons about Him and about life.
In Sept of 2009 My husband went to a neurologist. The Dr. really believes that He has Parkinson's. This was so hard for us to believe - my husband was only 39 years old. Parkinson's was something that happened to older people. You know his step-dad and his grandmother had it but it did not start till they were in their 60's and 70's. A week later he had a brain scan to make sure that the symptoms were not something more serious. Praise the Lord the scan came back normal. This is something that we are still trying to get used to. In April we will go to a Parkinson's Symposium to learn more about it.
Well at I am going to stop here - I have written so much already. I need to leave something to share next time.

Starting Out

I have been enjoying reading blogs for a couple of years now. I have always been to intimidated to try my hand at one. But lately I have been having a lot of thoughts that I would like to type out. Please remember as you read through my blog - these are only my thoughts and ideas - take what you would like and leave the rest. This is really something that I want to do in order to help myself as I journey through life.
I hope you all have a wonderful day!