I need information

Ok - today I thought I would check out my site meter to find out where all my visitors are coming from and how they are getting here. Well I discovered that at least one of them got here through google images. I noticed several of my photos there- just under one search. So my question is- is this normal? And what can I do about it? I don't take that great of photo's but I really would rather people not use my photos without letting me know they are going to use them. Anyway - any help would be appreciated. Thanks :O)

Enjoying Springlike Weather

The weather here lately has been just gorgeous! This is just one of the reasons why I love living in Texas!!! Today I am actually wearing Capri's and it feels so good. Yesterday we stopped by TSC and bought some bird seed and some black oil sunflower seeds. I have a special feeder out for my squirrels and they love the black oil sunflower seeds. Here is a photo from last year.
And he is not a snob when it comes to food - he is perfectly content to go to a bird feeder and find what he would like. (again- photo from last year)
This morning when I went out to let my chickens out and to feed them - I was greeted by many birds singing. I love to hear them singing. What a treat to start my day!

I am hoping to be able to get out and do some work in the yard. I have some rose bushes that need to be pruned. And in fact, the rose bushes that are in my flower bed in the back yard are going to have to be transplanted to the front yard. There is a tree that blocks a lot of the sunlight so the vines are like stretching in a weird position to get sunlight. So we will move them to the flower bed in the front yard. With gardening - many time you have to just try things and when they don't work - try something different.

I am hoping to be able to use the flower bed in the back yard for an herb garden. We have had other flowers planted there that did quite well - so we will see. I just need to pick herbs that do not have to have full sunlight.

Well I hope you all have a great day! Hoping you have some sunshine in your day as well. :o)

God Has a Plan for Your Life

Lately I have talked to a friend who was sharing how she wished she were more like someone that she knew. Well I don't think she really wanted to be like this person but this person had some of the things that she really would like to have in her life. This person means a lot to me and so this morning - when I was awake but not yet awake enough to want to get out of bed, I got to thinking about all of this. And what I am about to share is what came to my mind (first thing in the morning my mind seems so clear and many times God uses this time to speak to me. I know it is God speaking to me because what he shares with me is so clear and I get it.)

So First of all I will share the first 3 steps of the 12 steps. These steps are very important and if you do not implement any of the rest of the steps into your life - these 3 are very important and will do you a lot of good.

Step 1 - We admitted we were powerless over our addiction - that our lives had become unmanageable
Step 2 - Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity
Step 3 - Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God.

Now, first of all, please remember the word addiction here does not just mean drugs or alcohol - it can mean so much more - here are just a few examples - self-centeredness, fear, food, sex, shopping ... I could go on.
So here is what I was reminded of this morning:
One of the most important things that we need to learn to do is to turn our will and our lives over to God and learn to depend on Him. (These are lesson's I have been learning) When we turn them over to Him and allow Him to lead us, then we can become more accepting of where we are in life. Because if God is in control, then we are right where we need to be. True, we make mistakes but just like with Samson - God can still work out His ultimate purpose for our life - even when we make mistakes. I hope that this makes sense. When I thought of it - I thought that I really needed to pass this on to you too. I know it has helped me. Because I think that many times we have high expectations and when our lives don't measure up to those expectations we can become discouraged, but when we realize that God is in Control - then we can let go of our disappointments and those high expectations. And we can look at our situation with acceptance and even learn to be content at where we are.

God has a plan for your life. And although that does not mean that everything will be hunky dory all the time - it does mean that God will work everything out for His glory. That promise is in Romans :
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28

So I share all of this because not only will it help my friend but it helped me and I am hoping that it will help you as well. God loves you and has a plan for your life. :O)

A Beautiful "New" Tablecloth(edited)

Today I had an appointment in town and stopped at one of my favorite thrift stores. And I found a treasure. I have not found a treasure in a long time, so today I was SO excited to find a great treasure:
A beautiful table cloth. And this photo does not do this table cloth justice at all. The design is at each corner of the table as well. And there are also a few little designs on each side of it as well. I love to find treasures like this. :o)

Edited: By the way - it cost me $5.00. I thought that was an awesome deal for what I got! :O)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sorry I have not posted for a few days. Things have been going pretty good. Our weather has been gorgeous!! Sabbath afternoon I went on a walk, after I had walked about 30 minutes a friend came by and we continued to walk for another hour. I sure wish she lived closer cause it would be easy to get that kind of a walk in - if I have a walking partner to talk to. Anyway the sunshine, fresh air and exercise did me a lot of good. Those things really are important to us, and don't always realize it till we got get them.

Well today is my first day back at work at the bakery and guess what? My nephew - called in sick. This means that my son had to go in at about 5:45am and he will work till 8pm - with maybe a 2 hour break later this afternoon. This also means that I will go do my work and then I will also work from 10:30am-2:30pm on the grill helping my MIL - what my son usually does. So I will end up getting a full day - to welcome me back. That is OK because we need the money.

There has been some meetings being put on at my church about the 8 Health laws. And I will probably write a post or two sharing some of what I have learned. A lot of it is stuff that I have heard before but it is good to get a refresher every now and then. It helps re-enforce the information. If you would like to see what these 8 Health Laws are you can go to a post I wrote that tells about them Here.

Well I hope that you all have a Happy Valentine's Day! :o)

Of Lessons Learned..

I learned another lesson today. And maybe I did not learn the lesson I was suppose to learn - I don't know. I learned today that you are not always successful when you step out of your comfort zone. See - I had thought that when I stepped out of my comfort zone with putting in the applications for a job - that God would bless and that I would get the job. I had really felt like God was leading me to this job. I had put the application in and I had prayed and believed that if God wanted me to have this job that I would get the job. And that is where I went off track - I just assumed that because I felt like I was being led - that this was the job for me. I don't know what it was all about but today I got an e-mail letting me know that the job that I had applied for was already filled. AKA - You did not get the job. I was disappointed. God had prepared me for this fact- yesterday I had decided that working at the bakery my 6-10 hours a week - was better than nothing at all. And I had decided to go back - at that point it was till I heard something on a new job. But then today I got the e-mail letting me know that I did not get the job. And our budget needs the help of the money that I was bringing in. I know that the environment is not the best but I am hoping that if it is where God wants me to be -that he will take care of me. I know this all sounds jumbled up but that is because the thoughts are kind of jumbled up in my mind right now. I just don't know for sure what God wanted me to learn - but I have learned that you will not always be successful when you step out of your comfort zone - but that does not mean that you should not follow God's leading when he asks you to step out. Because one way or another I am learning the lessons that God has for me to learn.

I have also learned that with the economy being the way it is - I need to be thankful for the fact that I have a way to make money and contribute to our families budget. I will continue to try to save us money where I can and I will continue to follow God's leading.

I hope you all have a great week end! :O)

My Over Due Project

So yesterday I said that I would probably be working on an over due project. Well here it is! About a year and a half ago or so, my oldest son bought some fat quarters for a quilt for his room. He really likes red and black so these were the fabrics that he picked out. Well I traded out a fabric or two. He had picked out a black fabric that had some other colors in it and I just thought it would be bringing in too many other colors. So I put the white back ground with the outline of roses and a black fabric with little hearts in it.

So with the above 20 fat quarters and this quilting book, I got started.
Oh by the way, this book has a great pattern for making quilts using 20 fat quarter- which you cut into 4 different sized pieces. And my husband was sweet enough to make me some templates for these pieces need.

Here is one of the fat quarters - laid out with the templates on top.

And here is my pile of fabrics after I got them all cut up.

Last night I did get a lot of them sewn together- the only problem is that you make 4 blocks one way and the other 16 blocks another way - and guess what - I guess because I had a movie going - I got distracted and I accidentally did it opposite. So I am having to unsew one seam in 12 of the blocks and switch the long piece over to the other side. Then I can make some forward progress. That is always fun. :o)