Freebie Friday

 Today's Freebie Friday is an awesome new business that I am SO happy that I finally checked out. I had heard about Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds for a long time but just had not ordered any seeds from them. Truthfully before this year - I bought half of my plants from Home Depot or Lowes. 

This year was different. I decided to grow most of the things for my garden from seeds! And got involved in a couple of great groups on Facebook - and decided to finally order seeds from this website! It was so easy. And not only was it easy - but they have free shipping!! What a deal! This could be a What a Deal post as well! 

Anyway - it looks like with every order- you get a free package of seeds! And you never know what those seeds will be. Some people have gotten free flower seeds, others some lettuce seeds and these are the seeds I got for free! 

So I wanted to take the opportunity to share with you this great company to do business with! You can ask for them to send you a free catalogue- then you can either order by mail or on line. If you order by mail - realize that they may have sold out of some of the seeds that you ordered so there would be no guarantees. But they are good at refunding your money - if they have run out of seeds. On-line you will be able to see what they have and what they have run out of. You can also sign up for them to notify you once a sold out seed has been restocked. That is pretty cool! 

Although I just got my first seed order last week - I am already working on my next seed order!! :o)   

Salad Greens

I am so very happy that my garden is producing wonderful greens for my salads now! So many great choices! What a blessing! So thankful! 

 

Value of a Smile

 Last Thursday while my husband and I were at Walmart (visiting with a relative we ran into) an older lady walked passed us- she had her mask in her hand while pushing her basket. When I saw her it made me SO happy! I gave her a big smile. She seemed a bit shocked to see a smile and then smiled a beautiful smile back! I almost cried!

I don't think most people realize how important it is to connect with people- even if it is just a sweet smile!!

The Garden

The Garden 

by Patience Strong  

He who puts his heart into a garden day by day never has a lonely moment. He can always say...there is something to enjoy, the grass, the birds, the flowers. All the precious harvest of his hard and busy hours. 

Everywhere he casts his eye he'll see a job to do; a plant to stake, a weed to pull, a bed to plan anew. Next years garden to design in colors bright and bold. A dream to dream when winter comes, a lovely hope to hold. 

He who make a garden makes a kingdom of his own...conjuring a little Eden out of earth and stone; bringing into bring things of beauty and of grace...thus he helps to make the world a fairer, sweeter place. 

Best Deal

Monday Morning - I knew I had to go to HEB and since I would already be in town, I decided to stop by Goodwill! And boy was I happy that I had! 

Not only did I find two cute tops for myself but I found this awesome deck storage.  

It was marked $15.49. I knew exactly how I would be using it!! Later I looked up on Amazon to see if I could find one similar and sure enough - I got a GREAT deal!! 

Sermon: Incredible Grace - Part 1

Editing to add - I have watched this sermon and part of the next one. Both are really good. 

In this sermon he tells 4 stories and you will need to pay attention to what the difference from the first 2 to the last 2 stories. Enjoy! :)

 

I have actually not been able to watch this sermon yet - but it is on my list to watch. I think it will be a great presentation. I hope we are all blessed by it. Happy Sabbath my friends. I hope you all are doing well. :O) 

Freebie Friday!

 This weeks Freebie Friday comes to you - courtesy of HEB! I had a $5.00 off $25 dollar purchase for more coupon that needed to be used by Monday SO a trip to HEB was a priority!  Oh and I had a coupon for a free bag of chips. 

The Meow Mix was free when you bought a 20 pound jug of HEB little - It is a litter that I have been using already so I just pick up one and got this 3 pound bag for free! 

The Dawn scrubbies were free when you bought 2 bottle of Dawn dish soap. I now have plenty of dish soap - but that it totally ok - because it will be used, as will the scrubbies! 

And then I also go the $5.00 off - so $5.00 of other free stuff as well. 

And was a great blessing when on Tuesday I received another $5.00 off of a $25 dollar purchase and a coupon for some free shredded cheese. So those will be used on my next trip to HEB. 

I have to say I really do love that store. They really do try to help people out and I appreciate it a lot! 

What's Up?!

 Just dropping in to say Hi! I unexpectedly have a few free minutes. So I have worked on a couple of up coming blog posts. Since it will be Friday before I get a post out- I thought I would at least drop in and say Hi! I hope you all are doing good. 

I have been busy this week in the garden, my yard and a few appointments outside of the home. Life is in session and there always seems to be something to do. 

We are suppose to get down into the 30's tonight so I had to bring my tomatoes into the house. I had not planted them yet. I had planned on planting them last week end but I saw the forecast and noticed that there was a LOW temp coming up and I decided to hold off. I am hoping that my other plants will do alright. 

Hope you all are well. I will check in again when I get a chance. :O) 

Best Deals

My early morning visit to HEB - netted me some great deals! 

 HEB Mac and Cheese - regularly $.68 ~ $.17 cents x 2 

HEB orange and ginger dish soap regularly $1.97 ~ $.49 

Crisco Oil regularly $2.88~ $.72

Aveeno Absolutely Ageless regularly $17.? ~ $8.97  

Jhirmack silver brightening conditioner regularly $4.47 ~ $2.23 

Have you gotten some great deals lately? I would love to hear about them! :O) 

Fully Connected / Abide

Happy Sabbath! Today is the last of a 3 part series. I hope you are blessed! :O) 

Freebie Friday

 So I have a great freebie Friday item -but it is actually something that I got free about 6 months ago - it needed fixing and it has been worked on a bit and has one more thing to be fixed. So hopefully by next week I can share about it! 

I hope you all are doing good. Things here are good. We have gotten a little over 3 inches of rain over the last 24 hours. How about you? 

I made it to HEB this week - so that will be my Best Deal Friday post. Apparently when your dollar amount of discounted things gets to a certain point - they have to have a CSM come and OK the transaction. That has never happened before! 

Oh and wouldn't you know it - the very afternoon that I bought these things at HEB - I got a postcard in the mail from HEB for $5.00 off when you spend $25. or more and a bag of free chips! Monday will be the last day I can use it - so that will be on my list of things to do for Monday for sure! I love to save money!  

The Beatitudes...series... Mourning That Brings Comfort

 Mourning That Brings Comfort 

To what kind of mourners does this beatitude apply? What kind of mourning brings comfort and happiness? The beatitudes of Jesus are inseparably connected. They form link in a chain of spiritual growth; they constitute the steps of a ladder that leads into the kingdom of blessedness. Blessed mourning is that which comes as a result of a recognition of spiritual poverty; it is truth heart sorrow for sin. Those who feel poor in spirit and who recognize that in a spiritual sense they are "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and bling, and naked," will mourn over this condition: and such mourning brings comfort. 

Paul thus describes the sorrow that brings comfort and happiness; "Now I rejoice, not in your grief, but because the grief let to repentance....For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, a repentance not to be regretted: but the sorrow of the world finally produces death." 2 Cor. 7:9, 10, Weymouth's translation. The only road to comfortable happiness is by way of godly sorrow for the sins that destroy peace, and which caused the indescribable sufferings of the One who paid the redemption price. Comfort is needed only where there is grief. There can be no comfort unless there is first a sorrow: there can be no healing unless there is first a wound. Heart sorrow is the essential preparation for pardon, and pardon is the prerequisite to comfort and happiness. One has said, "whom Christ pardons, He first makes penitent." Penitence is a heart sorrow for sin: a brokenness of spirit because of conscious failure. 

In the next verse Paul gives the happy results of godly sorrow: "Mark the effects of this very thing- your having sorrowed with a godly sorrow- what earnestness it has called forth in you, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what long affection, what jealousy, what meting out of justice! You have completely wiped away reproach from yourselves in the matter." Weymouth's translation. Because of the revival of godliness and reformation of life produced in the Corinthian believers through godly sorrow over sin, Paul was able to say, "I rejoice that I have absolutely confidence in you." We always have confidence in those who have tender consciences and who are sorry for their mistakes. 

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Next week we will be looking at "Godly And Ungodly Sorrow" 

The Gardener's Creed

 The Gardener's Creed

by Patience Strong

I believe in good brown earth, sun and seed and soil. Rest is sweetest when it comes after happy toil. I believe in miracles, bud and leaf and fruit, springing into loveliness from the hidden root. 

I believe that God who made rose and bird and bee, wanted us to make His world beautiful to see. Meant us to be gardeners, making green things grow. I believe we do His work when we plant and sow. 

I believe that He whose hand fashioned Eden's bowers, put into the heart of man, love of trees and flowers. That is why a garden gives us blessings manifold...health and healing and contentment, peace and joys untold. 

 

Best Deal

This is my best deal of last week! I just couldn't pass up this sweet tray with all the herbs and flowers. 

$1.00 

Today the thrift store will be opening and they have switched over to the spring/summer clothes and such - so I am hoping to get to go and I am hoping to find some great things! We shall see. I will share next week if I do find anything. 

Growing in Christ ~Believe

Happy Sabbath my friends! Today is part 2 of this series. May you be blessed. :O) 

Freebie Friday

 I am so sorry that I am late getting this ready to go out - but life is in session and as you all know that spring time is a VERY busy time of year. I have a list of things I need to get done today but I just finished doing some work on the computer so I decided to get this post up right quick so you could see what I got for free this week!! 

First up is a another what I believe could be a vintage milk glass goblet. And it goes nicely with my footed dish I got a week or two ago- could have belonged to the same person. I think they are nice additions to my home -at least for now. 

Another freebie - was this sweet book: 

I enjoyed reading the story. 

So this next freebie - was something that at first I didn't even pay much attention to especially since the lid looks like it has a big hole in it- but upon further examination I realized that this was an awesome find! The lid will suction what ever level that you need it too- whether you have just a little in the bowl or almost full bowl - you can get the lid to suction close. 

Looking on the internet I found the following and realized I really did find a great deal. Sometimes you have to pick things up and check them out to realize what a great find you truly have! 

Well that is it for Freebie Friday - hopefully I will find something cook next week so I can have another post!! :O) 

Lesson Learned

A month or so ago I got a little plant kit at Dollar Tree. It took me a several weeks to finally get it planted. And then it started to come up. I took the plastic off of the little cup and all of a sudden I realized I had totally forgotten what it was that I had planted. Oops..... 

Luckily for me at a later time I was going through my photos on my phone and found this very helpful photo: 

Boy was I happy to have the photo to help me identify the what was growing! 

So lesson learned - be sure and label the things you plant! You will not remember everything. :O) 

 

The Beatitudes...series... Comforting the Mourners

 Comforting the Mourners 

"Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted," is the second beatitude. It sounds just as strange and paradoxical as does the first. It is seemingly contrary to the accepted views of all mankind in every age of human history. It is not our custom to envy those who weep, or to congratulate the brokenhearted. We usually pity them, and offer them our sympathy. We write them letters of condolence, and compliment ourselves for having escaped such a sorrow. But Jesus pronounces a blessing upon mourners. He declares them to be happy, and sets them apart as a special and privileged class. 

But this beatitude is not all inclusive. Its application is not universal. It does not embrace all who mourn, regardless of the cause. There is a mourning that knows no comfort; there are burning tears that will never be wiped away; there is a bitter anguish that will never be appeased by consolation. 

The "weeping and gnashing of teeth" of the finally lost will be a comfortless sorrow. There will be no alleviation for their bitter anguish. There can be no comfort for those who refuse to separate from sin, for those who reject the overtures of "the God of all comfort." Those who grieve away the great Comforter cannot be comforted. 

The apostle Paul declares that "the sorrow of the world worketh death." This sort of sorrow does not bring comfort; it brings death. There are millions of mourners whose sorrow is born of remorse, not because of their conduct, but because of the personal loss resulting from their conduct. They do not hate the sin; they hate its results. The jails and penitentiaries are filled with mourners of this sort, but their mourning seldom leads to blessed results. There is another large class of pessimistic people who glory in gloom and misery. "There are those who are veritable gluttons for wretchedness. They search for despair as bees search for honey. They are never so happy as when they feel that they have a perfect right to be miserable. They are never so miserable as when they feel duty bound to be happy." ~ "The Sermon on the Mount," Clovis G. Chappell. 

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Come back next week when we will look at the section titled:  "Mourning That Brings Comfort"

A Special Surprise

See these beautiful flowers?! They are some awesome flowers I found that were perfect to plant in my little concrete castle. The castle is divided into 4 sections. The depth is not very deep. But I knew I wanted to plant some pretty flowers that would do well here. And these flowers were just perfect for the area. 

This year on our trips to Lowe's and Home Depot - I have looked for the plants to plant in my castle again this year and just could not find any at all. 

You can imagine my surprise when I was looking in the castle last week and noticed that I have plants coming up. My little plants are coming back this year! I had no idea they were perennials! 

I am so excited. I absolutely love these flowers and am looking forward to them blooming in the coming months!! :O) 

 

Making Do With What I Had On Hand

I am still enjoying this new journey that I am on with planting seeds and caring for my little seedlings. 

In the blue tub on the picnic table you will see my tomato plants(most of my tomato plants- more are in the white tub in the card at the bottom of the photo more about them later) They were growing pretty big for the solo cups they were in and I knew that since it would be another couple of weeks before I planted them outside I would need to up pot them soon. 

I had looked around for deeper solo cups and some garden pots from previous purchases of plants- but none of them seemed deep enough. Then I thought of the stack of Dickie cups under the sink. So we drilled hole into the bottom of the cups and I up potted my tomato plants! 

So here are all of my tomato plants. The 6 in the middle are the rouge tomatoes that I had rescued from garden boxes that we took down last week to replace. They are much smaller than my other ones. But I am working with them as well because they are from the tomato plants I had last year that did so well! 

I am so thankful that I thought of using the Dickie cups - it is really a great way to do things - use what you have. May use out of things that you have. These will be reused next year as well. Most of the things that I have gotten this year to garden with are things that can be used over and over. It is a great way to save money. And that way money can be put to a bigger seed collection. I am very new to this starting with seed thing - so I don't have a whole lot of seeds. 

I am also trying to figure out a great way to store the seeds. Any ideas? I would love to hear what ever ideas you have!! :O) 

 

Best Deal ...and Warning

 First of all I want to apologize for the photo not being very clear, but at least you get the idea of what my best deal of the week is~ Index cards! There are in the clearance area at HEB last week - I thought it was such a great deal that I picked up 2 packages. 

So what is my warning? Well it is very important to know your prices of things. Because the original price on these packs of index cards  - was $.79. Well I have see packs of index cards at Goodwill several different times and they had priced them at $1.00! Why would any one want to buy index cards at Goodwill if they are going to have to pay more than they would retail? I don't know - other than they just don't know what the "new" price was. 

Anyway I was happy with my best deal last week. Hope to have a best deal to share with you next Sunday. Until I hope you all are doing well! :O) 

Fully Connected ~ Confess

Today - we will start a sermon series.  Pavel Goia is the name of the preacher. "Fully Connected- Confess" is the title of the sermon.  I hope you are blessed! :O) 

Freebie Friday

On Tuesday I finally was able to make a visit to a favorite little thrift store in the area.

They have so many donations that they often put stuff out in boxes labeled "Free."

I love looking through these boxes. Sometimes I get lucky!  

This week I found this! I am not sure what it would be called....a vase? If you know what it is called - please leave a comment and let me know. Thank you so much!!  

A Wonderful Surprise!

 So I figured out a great way to get at least a couple of the things I wanted to share with you this week. So 

So I lost a majority of my rosemary bush. So this week end I cut out a big section of the rosemary bush. 

I was amazed at how large the main stem was!! It was almost treelike! 

After I cut the rosemary, I found a small sage plant growing! This was great news because my main sage plant had been lost this year as well. My Sage and Rosemary were like 5+ years old. I had already bought a sage plant to replace the one that died, but that is fine - I will just have 2 sage plants! 

What a blessing from God. 

I have had Rosemary, oregano, sage, and parsley in my herb garden. They have last quite some time, but either time or the super COLD snap we had that lasted 1 1/2 weeks with snow/ice on the ground got my rosemary and sage plants. But a sweet little sage plant was growing nicely. And my parsley plant has multiplied - and it is doing very well - especially since my chickens had eaten most of the leave. The plants have bounced back nicely! I will probably be trying to add a few herbs to my herb garden. 

The first year I did not even use any of my fresh herbs- I just did not know how. But over the years I have been incorporating more and more into my cooking and baking. And I am enjoying it. It is a blessing to have, especially when I want to make rosemary/olive bread!!!

What herbs are you growing? Especially the ones that come back year after year?