Sharing Some Beauty With You Today!

Today I wanted to share a bit of beauty from around our yard, or nearby. 

I have been so happy with all of my perennials that have been blooming around my yard, such beauty to enjoy!! 

Last year we didn't end up with very many lady bugs in our yard. 

I was very disappointed. :( 

This year they are out in force and I love it! 

There were just a few that I saw in the front yard when doing some work out there! :) 

 

Why? Oh Why?

A couple of weeks ago our church had a women's ministries weekend. During the weekend they offered several special seminars - I signed up for the one about Beauty. I had no idea what to expect, but was happy to learn a few things that I wish I had have learned years and years ago! 

I think a lot of girls read magazines and such and learned a lot of pointers that I somehow missed, but thankfully I had the opportunity to learn a few recently. And I will share a few of the main ones that I did not know and have implemented into my routine. 

Using a wash cloth when taking a shower is something I just learned the reason why this is so important. When you use a wash cloth is helps rub the dead skin away leaving your skin fresher. And when you start using a wash cloth you will also realize that it helps invigorate your skin and I am sure gets the blood circulation going nicely. It also helps save on the amount of soap you use because you put some on your wash rag and then add water and it will lather right up. 

This is what I bought- it is 32 oz and cost about $8.00. Compared to other body washes that is a pretty good deal. Plus - like I said when you use a wash cloth it will last even longer. 

How many of you wash your face twice a day? I didn't either until I learned in this seminar that you need to wash your face morning and evening. And that for each time your forget it ages your skin 7 days. I have noticed that since I have begun washing my face 2 times a day that my skin seems to look a lot more moist and supple. 

When using moisturizers it is important to treat not only your face but also the neck and the chest area that shows- so basically at least to the bra line that way all of your skin that shows will age at the same rate. You don't want the face to look young and vibrant and your neck and chest to look old and wrinkly. You want them to age together- and to age slowly. 

I hope that some of this information was helpful to you as it was to me. It is worth the time to take care of our skin. And that time pays dividends of better looking skin and that is great news! :O) 

I would love to hear from you~

What would you say is the most important beauty tip? 

What beauty tips have you just recently learned? 

Gracious Words

Forgive me if I have already written about this topic.

I have been so busy- I think of things I want to write about and then most of the time I just haven't had a chance to write them out. But there is a chance that this is something that I have written about. But even if it is- I feel it is an important topic and that even if I have written about it before- it is worth the extra look at it.

 

 

(Something floating around Facebook)

 

You all know how hard this cancer "adventure" has been for me. Especially in terms of losing my hair, eye brows, and eye lashes(as I wrote this- I teared up- I had not anticipated that at all- but it goes to show how very deep the emotions go in regards to this.)

Never was I ever very comfortable wearing a hat or a wig. But I am so very thankful for some very special people that don't base beauty on a person's looks only.

 

My husband has been very supportive. He is probably the one person who truly knows how hard the past 8 months have been on me. And he did his best to reassure me of my beauty and he also helped me see the humor in this "adventure."

 

God blessed me with several best friends who also base beauty, not on the outer person only, but also are able to see the beauty that comes from within. They have been my cheerleaders throughout this journey. They have called me "beautiful" when I did not feel beautiful at all.

 

I have also been amazed at the loving support and acceptance I have gotten from so many people from my church. Some of them have gone above and beyond to show how much they care. And it has meant so much to me.

 

and I can not forget each one of you who have been so very supportive to me throughout this whole journey. I have trusted you guys with photos of me - with hardly any hair - and that says a lot. I did not even post the first 2 photos on facebook. Your positive response helped give me courage and strength to finally come to the point of taking off the hat and moving forward in this journey and I want to thank each one of you.

 

 

 It was because of all of these loving people that were willing to use their words to be of encouragement to me that helped give me strength to face the world each day.  

They also helped counteract the negative responses that I got. People can be cruel and I am so thankful for people who are willing to use their words to encourage and to heal. We need more people like that. :O)

You Don't Have to Try

This is a song going around Facebook and since I have been pretty busy. I was only able to finally able to watch it yesterday and thought that it was an amazing message. One that I have thought needed to be spread-even thicker than the message that tells us that we have to be perfect.
Anyway just in case some of you have not had a chance to see it yet- I thought I would share it.

A great song

A great message

Part Three of our Date Day

Today I will share with you some of the beautiful flowers that we saw. This is just a small sampling.

 

This is actually called a Chenille Tree. I thought it was cool.  

 

I did not get the names of everything. I wish I had have. But at this point - I was getting tired. And we still had a couple of errands that we needed to run.

 It is such a blessing from God - to have so much beauty to see and enjoy.

 I think that He could have went with a lot less variety - but I think that the huge variety of His creations - shows just how very much He loves us.

Well that and of course the fact that He died on the cross for our sins.

I mean seriously - just Him giving up living in Heaven and coming down to this sinful world was already such a great sacrifice, but to lay down His life for us. This is true love.

 I love how being out in nature is really therapeutic to the soul.

 I feel close to God, while I am out in nature. And to be honest - I am getting more and more the desire to be around God's beautiful nature. 

Maybe it is because it is Spring. A time for new beginnings.

 

I hope you have enjoyed a little peak inside of our date day.
And I hope that it did your soul some good just looking at the photos.



Part Two of our Date Day

So as you walk into the botanical Conservatory - we were welcomed not only by the sound of the waterfall, and the beautiful view, but we also were welcomed by many butterflies fluttering around.

 

 And let me say that it is hard to get photos of butterflies. Many of the butterflies that we saw were always on the move.

 It seemed that most of the brighter colored butterflies were always moving. A lot of them were smaller butterflies as well.

 The sun was shining that day - and we were lucky to get a few of the butterflies sitting in the sunshine.

 This one - feeding at the pretty purple flowers -kept fluttering his wings but I think that my husband did a good job at capturing a photo of him.

And while we were walking around looking at the beautiful scenery and all of the butterflies,

my husband caught a glimpse of this guy and just had to get a photo.

 

Don't forget to come back tomorrow

as I will show some photos

of some beautiful flowers that we saw.

*****************************************

By the way- today is chemo #5 for me. I would sure appreciate it if you would all continue to keep me in your prayers. Pray that the chemo will only kill the cancer and that my healthy cells/organs and such will be protected from the poison. I sure do appreciate it. :O)

 

Part One of Our Date Day

So I told you all that my husband had worked a double and that way he was going to be off on Friday. Well since he was going to be off on Friday we decided to make it a date day. I had heard about Dallas Blooms- at the Arboretum and since it was only going to go through the first of April - we had planned to go there. Only problem was - it was going to cost quite a bit of money- and then the gas money and the time. And then I thought - I don't know if I have the energy to walk all of it and enjoy it to make it worth it. Plus we had wanted to go to the antique mall and had not had a chance to do that lately. And I knew for sure if we went by the antique mall - I would not be able to make it all the way through the Dallas Blooms. It was then that I remembered a Butterfly exhibit going on. So we decided to do that along with the antique mall. Going through the Antique mall- is great therapy to the soul. I love looking at all the stuff- even though half the time(or more) we don't get anything at all.

So once we were done - we went by Cracker Barrel for lunch. It was nice to sit and relax and have someone else wait on me and then clean up after me as well.

Then it was on to see the butterflies.

They had these awesome butterfly chairs, which we later found out were sold there for $250. each. No wonder they were locked down.

They had these awesome water fountains on either side of the entrance.  

 

 Since there are quite a few photos - I have decided to divide this post into several different posts. Today I will basically show some of the great scenery from this exhibit. Sorry that it seems I have made the photos a little smaller than I had meant to. I'll try to adjust them with the setting here at blogger.

 I was so proud of myself because I finally learned how to put the title of my blog on my photos- I wish I had have stopped and checked out the sizing of what I was doing the photos to- before I did them all. Oh well.

 You do still get a good idea of how pretty it was there. It seems to be such a calming place.
And I think it is awesome that they have the names of the plants and such labeled so if you see something you really like you are able to write down the name of it.

I love the sound of a waterfall. It is very relaxing.

 I thought it was cool that they had a waterfall - and an area where you could actually walk up under it. And feel the water splash and blow on you - when the wind blew.

This is a view to where you walk in at - across the way there - where the yellow thing was.

It as such a pretty day. We really enjoyed ourselves. Be sure to come back by tomorrow when I will have a post about some of the beautiful butterflies that we saw.

Lesson's From God Through Nature

After months and months of triple digit temperatures- the heatwave has broke!! Monday morning when I went out to let our chickens out and feed them scraps- I was pleasantly greeted by 67 degree weather along with a nice breeze! It was heavenly! Our grass is dead as can be. And I am so sad to report that my favorite tree - the one that holds several of my bird feeders ...died. You should see the brown leaves. I had hoped that the leaves changing colors was just like the change that comes around at fall but when I looked around at other Oak trees - I noticed that they looked just fine - well still some what green. So I have had to accept that it is dead. Had I known that it would die - I would have been out there watering it along with the chickens. Maybe a miracle can happen and it can recover..but I am not holding my breath.

This past week-end - we had the wonderful temperatures but it was quite breezing and apparently the weather was perfect for fire dangers. You would not believe the number of fires in Texas. On Facebook there is a page called "Texas Storm Chasers" and they usually cover the weather and fires and such. It got so busy that they could not stay on top of it all and just asked the public to post of fires. And let me tell you - there were a lot of them sharing. Along with photos. We have been lucky - none are in the area that I live. But ever so often I smell fire and I can imagine some of the fears that those people are dealing with. What is even sadder is that there have been people killed - I don't have a number for sure at this point I know for sure of people. And over 1,000 homes have been lost. If you would please pray for rain. And also there are areas that are getting flooding- pray that the rain lets up in those areas - we would gladly accept it.

Yesterday when I went out to get my chickens fresh water - I was thrilled to find this:
Right next to the water spigot is my flower bed. And I just happened to notice this "beautiful" flower. Why the ".." because it is not a perfect rose by any means but it has gone through so much this summer and it fought so hard to bloom and to show the beauty of it's creator! It hit me in a very personal way. Things that happen to us - can make us better 0r bitter. For this rose - it chose better. I, through God's power, choose better as well. :O)

Lesson from a Bird

I have a window in my bathroom. I love it. It is so convenient because as I stand at my sink to get ready when I look at my mirror, I can easily look outside. This morning as I was getting ready the prettiest bird I have seen in a long time landed on the fence right outside my bathroom window. As it sat there in the sunshine - I noticed the beautiful shade of blue on him. How I longed to turn around and try to get a closer look, but I knew that the movement of me turning would scare him away. Then the little bird hopped to a spot on the fence that did not have the sunlight shining down on it. As the bird sat there in the shade, the beauty did not shine as brightly and all of a sudden I realized that the bird had been sent to teach me a lesson. I was reminded that when we are in the light of the Son our beauty - our true beauty shines through. I was reminded that when we get away from the Son - our beauty fades. Because true beauty isn't really able to be captured in photos -no our true beauty is on the inside.
I think it is so cool how God uses nature in order to teach us lessons that we may not get any other way. Be sure to take notice of the nature around you - what does it tell you of God's Glory?! :o)

*Not actually the bird but a photo close - but you would have to imagine bright sunlight shining on the blue and much closer! :o)

Self Acceptance

This is such a great post on self acceptance - I wanted to make sure you all had a chance to see it.

Women Living Well Blog: The Comparison Trap: "I am having technical difficulties. So I am reposting an oldie but goodie: Psalm 139:13,14 'For you created my inmost being, you knit me to..."

Hope you all have a wonderful day. I will probably be back this evening with another post - we will see. :O)

Some Really Pretty Landscaping Photos from our Trip

All these photos were taken at the Wildseed Farms. I thought there was so much beauty and I wanted to share some of it with you all.

And this photo is a photo of the Butterfly house that they had. I thought it was cool! Do any of you know if Butterflies would really live in them if we were to build one? Have any of you ever had a Butterfly House?