Righteousness by Faith part 17: Temptation

Blessings to you today :O) 

My Best Deal ~ 2 for 1

It's a 2 for 1 day - 2 great deal!!  

Today I promised a great deal that is NOT a baby item. It is something that I have wanted ever since I saw my first one. Funny thing is I had no idea what it was when I first saw it just a few years ago. We were at a museum and it was hanging on the way. I thought it was awesome and have seen a couple here and there at antique stores but they always wanted a pretty penny for them, so I passed them up. But this one I couldn't pass up. 

My husband and I were walking through a local antique mall on our anniversary and all of a sudden I saw it! I picked it up and was debating about getting it or not and my husband took it from me and said we are getting it. He knew I had wanted one for quite some time. 

I love these old rug beaters!! Especially the ones with hearts, my favorite!! I thought the price tag said $17.00 but when I got to the front I got it for $12.00!! Yay!! 

And the 2nd best deal - the comforter in the back ground!!! I was at my local thrift store a couple of weeks ago and they had a black bag full of a comforter, sheets, dust ruffle, pillow shams. I loved the set, especially this comforter. I had been looking at getting one and they were pretty expensive - plus when you buy online you can't feel how it feels. So when I found this set I bought it - i knew it was big so I was figuring queen or king. Well when I got home I discovered the set was a king sized set -but the quilt fits on my bed great! I would rather have overhang then too short - so I kept the comforter and I donated the rest back to the thrift store. I only paid $12.00 for the set and I feel that is an awesome deal for a perfect comforter for my bedroom! It has colors I love in it - especially the greens - that is one of my most favorite colors!! 

One day when I was looking at the comforter I realized that it had the green and purple that match some bathroom towels I had bought from same thrift store months before and I just marveled at the fact that God helped bring all this together without any real effort on my part. What a special gift from God!!  

Have you found any great deals lately? I would love to hear about them in the comments! :O) 

Boy Did We Get Rain!!!

 So it seems I have a bit of "free" time this week. One of our grandsons tested positive for Covid so Mom will stay home and watch him and the baby that I usually watch on Wed-Friday. I say "free" because I do still have SO much to do. There always seems to be things to do around here. But since I needed to get on the internet to take care of a few things, I thought I would come over here for a bit for a chat. 

Sunday night through Monday we got 11-12 inches of rain....wow! We were in desperate need of rain- yes! But we needed a slow steady rain - not a gully washer! Our sunroom had some flooding so I had to work on that throughout the day. 

The positive about the rain is that we are off of the burn ban we were on - so my husband should be able to get my clothes line fixed- it needs to be welded back together. Remember when the tornado went through - several fence panels flew through the garden and one of them knocked the top post off of my clothes line. I will be SO happy to have it fixed and to be able to use it again. With electricity being SO expensive - I have put off washing bedspreads and blankets- to save money. It will be nice to get them washed and also be able to dry my towels and such on the line again. 

The worst part is that the people that put our fence up - put the pickets too close together so that when the boards swelled - they started bowing - and popping off the 2x4- by Monday morning - we had 4 pickets down - 2 next to each other because of the bowing and so I had to go see if I could fix it - to keep my chickens in - and the sad thing is that because the boards had swelled - there was only room for 1 of the boards - since then we have had 8-10 boards pop off and more that are bowed...we are SO disappointed in the work done. We have contacted the company and they have promised several times to come out - but I am not holding my breath. To say the least we will NOT be recommending them at all. 

I honestly figure that this company may have quite a few unhappy customers right now. If there workers put the pickets butt up against each other and on the pickets touching the ground - most of the time like they did ours - then there is more than likely the same issues going on for others as well. 

We are praying that this issue is resolved soon. Please keep us in your prayers. And pray that this company will do us right and any others that have been affected. 

So yesterday afternoon our church put on it's monthly food pantry. For the longest time our numbers were about 30 something families helped. Last month we had reached the highest number of people we have helped - 71!! This means 71 households helped. So this month we were prepared for 70 people to come through the line, but boy were we surprised when there were 108!!! That means 2 1/2 hours of people going through line to get food! The lady that runs it has gotten it so organized and it ran so smoothly. I am SO thankful for all those who come and help out with it. 

Anyway - I do have a lot of things to do today so I better get off of here and get busy. I need to catch up on things I have not been able to do because I was busy with the baby. I will be back to being VERY busy next week, I am sure. 

I hope you all are doing well. :O) 

Lesson Learned

 Today I wanted to share a lesson I have learned lately. It was a hard pill to swallow. My expectations cause a great deal of disappointment, but I have slowly come around to realizing it was a truth I needed to learn. 

So since our tornado 4 months ago - we had some major jobs that needed to be done. And so, especially since it has been a hot, hot summer - we decided to pay companies to do the jobs. I had expected them to not only do a great job but also to do a reasonable amount of clean up after themselves.

After our roof was done my husband and I had to take quite a bit of time to pick up a whole lot of nails, trash. 

 This is just a part of what we picked up. And NO - no one in our family drink Pepsi - so certainly not our cans. There were other plastic trash and some more roofing pieces that were picked up and put in another trashcan. Plus a lot more nails. In fact when our 6 year old grandson came to visit use last week - he enjoyed using the magnet to hunt for nails. We wish we had have gotten him involved a lot sooner in the process. 

We also had our soffits and fascia replaced- well we had asked about having them all replaced - but we were told that what was needed was just spots here and there -and a price was given. Sadly - I expected for the price they charged for them to go around the entire house and replace any that needed replacing- but they did the worst and had to come out 2 times and still there are 2 -3 places on our house that I feel they should have replaced. I was so disappointed. 

Then we had the fence put in. My husband and I replaced a section of fencing by our driveway - because most of the metal poles were already there. Plus the amount that we were going to be charged for the south fence - we could NOT afford to have them do the other 2 sections we needed done. To this point we have replaced one of the areas and will wait till it gets cooler to work on the other section that needs to be replaced. Anyway SO we assumed that when we got out bid for the fence that they would be willing to take the old fencing that we had let. But we were told  - that is not included. And I am hoping that once they come to do the walk through to make sure everything is done nicely on the fence that they will pick up the remaining trash that is out there that they have left. 

So what lesson have I learned? Even if you pay a company to come do a job - you can not expect it to be done to your standards and you can't have expectations that they will clean up after themselves. And that it might just be better that my husband and I do the work - like we have in the past - it may not come out perfect- but apparently when you have it done "professionally" it doesn't always come out perfect then either. 

This lesson cost us A LOT of money. I am so glad these jobs are done. And hopefully it is a LONG time before those jobs have to be done again. 

Another lesson we learned was that if you have work done and pay them 1/2 before they do the work - you may want to wait to give them the last payment - after the clean up is done- that might encourage them to do that part of the job. Too bad we found that out too late. :( 

Righteousness by Faith part 16: Witness

Hope you all are doing well. Praying this will bless you today. :O) 

Just a Little Chat :O)

 Had a few minutes while the baby sleeps so I thought I would hop on my computer and have a bit of a chat with you this morning. 

Last week I was watching a youtube video of someone who lives in the UK. She was saying that what they considered a heatwave was 3 consecutive days of 28 Celsius or above . So, of course, I had to look up what temperature that would be in Fahrenheit - 82.4 degrees! Can you believe they would think that 82 degrees was a heatwave? Where they are quite lucky is the fact that at nights the temperatures go down to the 50's and 60's. Some might argue well they don't have AC - that is true -but with the temps going down quite cool - they have the ability to open up windows and let that coolness inside. I wonder how they would deal with our temps here - especially here in Texas - where most of this summer temps have been trip digits during the day and if we get lower than 78 at night we are quite lucky. Sometimes our lows were 82 0 their "Heatwave"....ugh. 

Lucky for us after our high being 103 yesterday we are suppose to only get up to 89 degrees today and might make it down to 70 tonight - that will feel heavenly compared to what we have gone through. I believe that my count of triple digit days this year so far is 47 and it could have possibly been one or two more - but I there were a few days I was not able to check our thermometer alot - and when I did it was 99.? a couple of times - so could have made it higher but because I didn't see it I didn't count it. 

So the weather forecast has been saying that we are suppose to get 1-2 inches of rain - I am certainly not holding my breath - I don't want to be disappointed if we don't get much rain. It's been a few months of hardly any rain at all and it has disappointed me when they talk like we will get rain, but we get just a sprinkling. 

The great news is that over the last 2 -3 weeks we have FINALLY gotten our roof replaces and our fence just was put up the last 2 days! We have to do a bit of tweaks to make that part of the yard more secure for the chickens before we pull down our temporary fencing so they get the rest of their chicken yard back! 

Speaking of our temporary fence - I just have to praise God for taking care of my chickens during the last 4 months since the tornado went through. We put up that temp fence but any animal serious about getting in would have been able to do so. We have heard of coyotes in the area and have seen them across the street. So I just have to say Thank You to Jesus for protecting our chickens! 

It is nice to have the fence back up. It brings back my privacy and ability to work in my back yard and really enjoy it! 

We have a long list of things we want to get done around here and we slowly are working towards marking things off. The last several Sunday mornings have found us outside working and this Sunday will be no different - but maybe we can get the job we are working on done! That would be awesome. It feels so good to be moving forward and getting these things done. 

I hope you all are doing well. Please be praying we get rain - we desperately need it!!! Thank you! 

 

My Best Deal

So this weeks best deal came from the local little thrift store that I enjoy going to when I get a chance. Thankfully I dug down in the tote that had toys because I found this awesome toy for our grandsons to play with. 

Since I take care of one of our grandsons 3 days a week now - I need to have a good selection of toys for him to play with, but I don't want to spend a lot of money. Thankfully this awesome toy that makes a great amount of noise with its bell in the little blue ball inside- the grandson loves it - probably one of his favorites! 

 And for only 75 cents - I think I got and awesome deal!!! 

Be sure to come back next week because I got another great deal - that is NOT a baby toy! It is something I have wanted for quite some time and just could not bring myself to pay the $ most places were charging for it. See you then :O) 

Righteousness by Faith part 15: Abiding

Happy Sabbath! Be blessed :0) 

My Best Deal

 Wow - it has been a really long time since I have had a best deal. That is basically because I have much less time to get to the thrift stores to find the deals. But luckily for me, I have actually found a few good deals lately and I will do my best to get them posted. 

I decided to change my Best Deal posts to Thursdays. Since I am not posting something every day - my posts will be spread out. 

Todays deal came from a local Goodwill store - it was a bit of a gamble but ended up being well worth it. A gamble because it is an item that takes a battery and so I was not able to make sure it would work or what it actually did till I got it home to try it out. But just a couple of AA batteries and it is as good as new and just needed me to wipe it down with disinfectant wipes. 

 And for just $2.99 we have a cute little noise making, light up toy that our grandson loves!! 

I love getting baby toys and such for great deals. They don't use them a long time so it is best to find great things at great deals - and then you can pass them on to other people to use or donate them again. :O) 

Are we willing to be used......

 "It is of little use to ask God to bless others, unless we are willing to be used in conveying the blessing to them, unless we're willing to discommode ourselves for their sake.... It is easy to ask God to bless someone and to conclude that having done this, we have done our duty; for have we not prayed for him? But prayer is more than saying some words. If we are earnest we shall back our prayer with action."

"Prayer, to be effective, must be accompanied by works. Otherwise it abideth alone."

"The Faith of Jesus" by M.L. Andreasen. (pages 158-159)

One thing leads to another

 So we finally were able to get a new roof- quite a long wait from when we had the tornado but so thankful it is finally done. We also had some work done to replace some soffits and fascias on the house and since our gutters will be replaced- we figured we had to paint the house before that job was done - so that is one of the many things that we are working on. We are praying that the colors we picked out look nice. It is hard for me to tell - because I was so used to the yellow paint that has been on our house since we moved in over 20 years ago. So our new color scheme is different - and it will take a bit of time to get used to it. And I pray that we made good choices. 

It has been rough doing the work in such temperatures - today was actually the 46th triple digit day of the summer so far- and we had 22 days in a row - with 2 days Sunday and Monday that did not make it to 100- but close enough at 99 degrees....ugh.... I am SOOOO ready for fall. 

Anyway I just had a few minutes and thought I would jump on here and do a bit of an update. Hope everyone is doing well. :O) 

Righteousness by Faith part 14: Growth

May you be blessed and drawn closer to Jesus every day! :O) 

Conclusion of the Seven Petitions

  Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory. for ever. Amen. 

Matthew 6:5-13

"Thus reads the Lord's prayer. In it we acknowledge God as our Father, the One to whom belong all things, and to whom we must address our petition. This prayer inculcates reverence for God, desire for the coming of the kingdom, submission to the will of God, recognition of our temporal needs, reciprocity of forgiveness, need for help in temptation and deliverance from evil. It recognizes  and provides for ever human need, temporal and spiritual. It is a model and type of what our prayers should be." (page 156) 

 

Ugh

 Today is day #42 of triple digit weather for us in Texas :( ugh.... And on the long term weather forecast - it seems that every day will be in the triple digits---for the next 2 weeks. 

I have some tomato plants and some yellow squash plants that I started later than the other things that I am trying to keep alive - so that maybe I can get some things come fall. But I have never done a fall garden before and I find it hard to believe that plants will want to produce after enduring triple digit temperatures. It seems that this year we are at a major disadvantage when it comes to gardening. It is frustrating to say the least. 

Rain? Not a drop since I last wrote. And only .75 inches for the month of July and hardly any in June - we are beyond a drought - have been. Then I hear about the flooding in Kentucky and it is sad....we desperately need rain and then they got too much rain.... And again in the next 2 weeks - hardly any chance at all for rain. 

Sorry for all the negativity, I am thankful for AC - not at all looking forward to seeing our next electric bill or our water bill- both have been the highest we have seen since we have lived here. Still very thankful.