Thursday, April 29, 2010

Foto Friday : Signs

This week on Foto Friday we were looking at SIGNS. I took a lot of pictures, but decided there wasn't much I could do with a Stop Sign or a weight limit sign.. so I was trying hard to think 'out of the box'.
Ok.. here we go...

I love you too, Joyce. For several years Joyce performed with a group called World of Children who 'signed' to all kinds of songs.. they are awesome.

I took this photo last Sabbath thinking to myself
"this is a good sign that someone is gonna get hurt".




Not a very clear shot, but I found it amusing..
just what happens to children after the 'next mile'.. ?


This wagon has seen a lot of years of labor up and down our road.
The triangle on the back of it warns drivers to slow down- it's a
Slow moving vehicle sign.


These photos show a sign of impending thunderstorm.

To all who follow this blog, you are cordially invited to
join us every Friday at Rebecca's blog for
FOTO FRIDAY!!










Sunday, April 25, 2010

Be content to wade through the waters betwixt you and glory with Him, holding His hand fast; for He knoweth all the fords.
Howebeit you may be ducked, yet, ye cannot drown, being in His company. Be not afraid, therefore, when ye come even to the black and swelling river of death to put in your foot and wade after him; the current, how strong ... whatsoever, cannot carry you down; the Son of God, His death and resurrection are stepping stones and a stay unto you; set down your feet by faith upon these stones and go through as on dry land; if ye knew what He is preparing for you, ye would be too glad.---Samuel Rutherford (letters)

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Saturday

Yeah, it's Saturday. Last evening I planted grass seed in the back of the house. It was windy and I got covered with the filler in the seed. Ugh. The weather report says it's going to rain today and all week pretty much so I tried to get at least some grass planted.
The front of our house is so difficult. I've been working at it for 3 days and the more I 'scratch' the surface, the more huge rocks appear. Some are just too big to move and others too heavy to carry. The smaller ones seem to be in the greatest number and I raked them up near the base of the house. I think we will plant grass seed on that embankment, but also some ground cover. I shudder to think of trying to mow that hillside with all it's rocks ..
I'm considering Vinca as a cover- it's an agressive plant and will pretty much take over wherever it's planted. Good in all weather.. Probably what we should put in. Maybe we can talk the Zombecks out of some lily of the valley? Another great ground cover.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

FOTO FRIDAY: RED

Hooray for Friday! That means it's time to enter our photography projects for the week. I had a bit of trouble selecting my subjects. I wanted a stop sign, but when I went out, I forgot the camera.
I have to say, as I was looking for RED, I noticed that almost all the food packaging is or has some red on it.. Just noting.
Join in the fun on Foto Friday at Rebecca's blog!

Pretty pink peach blossoms with red centers..

Peonies poking their red heads up through dry soil

A baby red maple just coming alive after a long winter



Okay.. I'm a redhead. I wanted to put red lipstick on,
but not only do I not own one, but I'd look more like
a zombie if I did accentuate my lips with it.
My new fly-swatter


I got this idea this afternoon..
and realized after I took the picture
that there is a box of videotapes in the background.
Lesson learned: watch the backgrounds in photos
Playing with lighting here- no flash made
his red color look redder to me.








It's Thursday.. I've been working outside trying to do a little raking and pulling out rocks around the house before it rains. I have a couple bags of grass seed that need planted.
I think I'm done for the day. My back is fine, but I am ill. Nauseated, headache, and GI upset that gets worse every time I hit the bathroom.
Chilling...I WAS planning a chicken stir fry tonite, but I think poor Wendell is gonna have to fend for himself. He'll be fine. I'm going to go lay down.

CLAY BALLS

A man was exploring caves by the Seashore.
In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay balls.
It was like someone had rolled clay balls and left them out in the sun to bake.
They didn't look like much, but they intrigued the man, so he took the bag out of the cave with him.
As he strolled along the beach, he would throw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as he could.
He thought little about it, until he dropped one of the clay balls and it cracked open on a rock .
Inside was a beautiful, precious stone!
Excited, the man started breaking open the remaining clay balls.
Each contained a similar treasure.
He found thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the 20 or so clay balls he had left.
Then it struck him.
He had been on the beach a long time.
He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of the clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves.
Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have taken home tens of thousands, but he had just thrown it away!
It's like that with people.
We look at someone, maybe even ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel.
It doesn't look like much from the outside.
It isn't always beautiful or sparkling, so we discount it.
We see that person as less important than someone more beautiful or stylish or well known or wealthy.
But we have not taken the time to find the treasure hidden inside that person.
There is a treasure in each and every one of us.
If we take the time to get to know that person, and if we ask God to show us that person the way He sees them, then the clay begins to peel away and the brilliant gem begins to shine forth.
May we not come to the end of our lives and find out that we have thrown away a fortune in friendships because the gems were hidden in bits of clay. May we see the people in our world as God sees them.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Today is my birthday

I TRIED BEING NORMAL,
BUT I DIDN'T LIKE IT
It's my birthday. It's been a most wonderful day. Bright, sunny, slightly cool, and just such a blessed gift. Thank you Lord.
I started out by getting some laundry in the washer/dryer. I still need to finish that. Then I took a walk around the trailer and found 2 four inch tall and 1/2" wide asparagus. AHA! I decided to check my old patch to see if anything was sprouting out there. Nothing.. nada.. not even a sign. I guess 35 years was enough for it. Well, we still had 2 sprigs!
I wandered over toward the Z's and took their trash can in from the road. We sat down and had a lovely chat.. and I got to see the beginnings of their expanded garden. I love it!
A while later, I decided that the soil wasn't going to rake itself around the house, so I slowly started out raking the stones back to the driveway. It really looks pretty good. I have to be careful about using implements like rakes and shovels- I tend to mess up my back... and I also have to be careful I don't try to pat myself on the back for a job well done, as that tends to cause me injury too.
So I have this bag of grass seed and have decided to check the weather for this week. No rain till Saturday. No point in broadcasting till Friday... and then, it appears that it will keep raining for the rest of next week. I have my work cut out for me. I have to go slowly and given a whole week to rake, I may be ready by then... maybe...I dunno.
I took another walk.. this time up the driveway to get OUR trash can and the mail. I was trying to just make one round trip. UGH. I got back to the house and the 4 letters that came with a small catalog were missing. Now, how did that happen? I was careful. So, I turned around and made my 3rd trip to the road and home again empty handed. What happened to the mail? It HAD to be there. Maybe I stuffed it back in the mailbox? I could believe I would do something dopey like that. So, trip #4 to the mailbox again. It was when I got near the box that I saw the letters dumped on the ground. UGH! (slaps forehead in unbelief!)
I think I have had enough exercise for one day. My back was aching pretty good after walk #3.. but it relieved quickly with sitting down. There just isn't anywhere to sit on the driveway- at least where I can get UP again.
I'm enjoying the facebook birthday wishes. I am trying to thank everyone as they make their comments.. I loved Jane's note about matches.. and then Keith noting that he had alerted the Penn Twp fire department.. hehehehe
Yesterday, after missing church.. (very bad)... we had Paul and family here for lunch. It was a spiral cut honey baked ham from our grocery store. I had gotten it for free with one of their promotions. I didn't think it tasted like the usual one from the HBHam company.. nothing compares to that!
The meal was good though. After lunch we sat around the table playing 7-0, a variation of Uno. That 3 yr old Annabelle beat us all 3 times in a row! Hrmph! What a smarty! Then the older folks + Joyce and P3 played SkipBo, my very favorite card game. It was when I got up to get everyone Ice Cream that the decks all got stacked with wild cards.. everyone's but MINE!! I didn't catch on till P3 played his entire pile of wild cards after Jane and Amy and P2 had nearly done the same. We really laughed at that one..
Friday the grandkids stayed here and we made 36 colored eggs!!! We also made a chocolate cake for Sabbath day dessert. It was delicious.. but then coming from a chocoholic.. well.. trust me, it was GOOD!
John just brought barbecued ribs for supper.. gotta get going..before the hubby finds out how good they are.. AAACCKKK

Sunday, April 18, 2010

How important is the Bible

How Important is the Bible?


Your principles have been the music of my life throughout the years of my pilgrimage. I reflect at night on who you are, O Lord, and I obey your law because of this.
Psalm 119:54-55 NLT


The testimony of presidents


The Bible was clearly important to many American presidents.

A few examples:



It is impossible to govern the world without God and the Bible.
George Washington



The whole inspiration of our civilization springs from the teachings of Christ and the lessons of the prophets. To read the Bible for these fundamentals is a necessity of American life.
Herbert Hoover



In regard to this great book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book. But for it we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for man's welfare, here and hereafter, are to found portrayed in it.
Abraham Lincoln

Hold fast to the Bible as the sheet-anchor of your liberties; write its precepts in your hearts and practice them in your lives. To the influence of this book we are indebted for all the progress made in true civilization, and to this we must look as our guide in the future. Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people.
Ulysses S. Grant


From Great Thoughts and Funny Sayings by Bob Phillips (Tyndale House), pp 39-40

Friday, April 16, 2010

Foto Friday YELLOW

This week we were looking for YELLOW things to photograph and exhibit for Foto Friday. It was a mediocre topic here.. lots of daffodils, but then, I used them before... so I went out looking for something more out of the ordinary.. still found the flowers to be the best topics..
So.. here we go:


This is what's left of forsythia

I waited till after dark to get this shot of our bug light


Follow the yellow brick road!

Sunset.. big yellow ball of fire. Directly below was a splotch of red that I can't account for. There is nothing red in that area.. hmmm?



One of my favorite shrubs.. cinnamon- fragrant like a hyacinth





Join us for the next Foto Friday- fun and easy. Hop on over to Rebecca's blog Renaissance to see what other's have posted for the topic Yellow.








Tuesday, April 13, 2010

41* and raining

singin' in the rain
I've decided to have a good day no matter what comes my way. It is rainy and that explains why my body is aching.. and Wendell's too. A good warm shower and the heating pad combined with a little medication for pain should bring us both around.
Yesterday was wonderful.. warm, sunny and just all around wonderful. I think the fact that we finally got our central air installed had a lot to do with that. It works. I switched the thermostat to heat this morning- just enough to take the chill off the room and now it's quiet.
Thomas disappeared at the first sight of the guys who came to install our AC. They worked all day and when the last truck left, it was only a minute or so when Thomas came out of hiding and begged for food. He had eaten his food in the early morning and in staying away all day, the boy was hungry when the crew left. Such a scaredy cat!
Today I have nothing on my agenda. I think I better concentrate on getting my back settled so I can be functional at least later on in the day.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Happy Birthday Jane

Tonite we treated Jane to a dinner out for her birthday...
what a good time we had. Sorry Keith couldn't join us.
We got Jane a 'sitter' for her porch and a pot sitter too.. both Frogs. Annabelle wanted to pose with them.. she sure is growing up fast, and so beautiful..

Daniel stopped to have his picture taken- what a good lookin' guy.


Aunt JJ and Annabelle..

I should know better than to leave my camera setting on the table.. This is my family at their best..
I love that sweet David smile.. it just makes you want to smile along with him.

Amanda and JJ..

John and Amanda..

Paul 2 and Charlie

Talk about handsome.... whew! Paul 3 is growing fast. He's gonna be a heart breaker for sure



We had a party for Jane.. Joyce posed with the frog too.. I thought that was a cutie- and the frog too


Amy with David who wanted badly to make a goofy face. I told him I'd keep this photo for his wedding day and pass it on to his new bride..hmmmm

















Easter revisited

This is NOT a current post.. I've 'resurrected' another post I had and decided to just express my feelings on Easter here. I'm really struggling with it..so... here we go:


Oh..I just noticed that tomorrow is Easter.. we don't feel the necessity to 'celebrate' that particular day here, as we celebrate Christ's resurrection every day of our lives. I fail to see what chocolate bunnies and colored eggs have to do with it anyway.

Speaking of colored eggs.. hemmm I'm guilty of doing that very thing and wish I could get the egg dyes all year round. I love to color them and one can tell which eggs are the hard boiled ones when they are colorful. One year I bought enough egg dyes, after the Easter season was over, to last me a year.. but I misplaced or lost them all.. sigh........ I never did that again. I know I can use other things for dyes, but I like the ones you buy around Easter.. one tablet and little mess.

I do have fond memories as a child with Easter traditions.. we all had our Easter baskets.. colored eggs, chocolate bunnies..simple and fun. And we got a new dress for Sunday, new shoes, and went to church as usual. There always seems to be an unusual amount of visitors in church on Easter.. so I suppose that in itself is a good thing. It gets people into the church to hear the gospel message..
I remember a few years back when I worked in the hospital that one of the nurse aides told me that she HAD to be in church on Easter with her children. I thought that commendable until I heard her reasoning.. The children were not to eat anything in their baskets until the pastor 'blessed the chocolate bunnies, eggs, toys, and sometimes live animals'. YIKE! Once that was accomplished, they would leave and go home.. no worship, no gospel.. oh, my....

Like Christmas, Easter is overly commercialized and there is no connection to Christianity that I can see in stores.. unless you count chocolate crosses which I find distressing. It seems to have become what it started out as.. a pagan holiday.
I know Easter LOOKS like a Christian holiday, as Christ's resurrection seems to be the central theme for Christians, it's origin certainly has a dark side. It's not mentioned in scripture except in the King James version which was a flagrant mistranslation from the Hebrew or Greek. The word should read "Passover", and had NOTHING to do with present tradition.

Ask yourself where the customs and traditions of Easter come from. How do bunny rabbits, colored eggs, hot-cross buns, baskets, hats, new clothes, sunrise worship services, lilies, and all the other Easter traditions glorify Jesus . Who told you to do these things?

Easter has it's roots in ancient polytheistic religions and is well documented in history books and reference materials.
The word ‘Easter’ is derived from the name of a goddess, the dawn-goddess, the spring-deity, the goddess of fertility. This dawn-goddess was also well known as the Assyrian Ishtar, goddess of the morning.
Many cultures celebrated the coming of spring as an integral part of the worship of their gods or goddesses, particularly those associated with fertility. Bunnies and eggs were common symbols of fertility, and fertility was key to surviving in the agricultural community.
By the way, according to one source, the ancient Assyrians pronounced Ishtar the same way we pronounce Easter today.
In scripture, back at the time of the Tower of Babel, Nimrod was said, in Genesis 10, to have founded a 'mystery religion'. When he died, his wife was determined to keep his religion alive, and pronounced Nimrod as a 'sun god'. Later on, his wife gave birth to an illegitimate son she named Tammuz whom, she claimed, was Nimrod reborn. She named herself 'Queen of Heaven'.
Tammuz died at age 40 and was claimed to be resurrected each spring.
"It seems that anciently Ishtar and Tammuz were both involved in a mythological death and resurrection cycle—one as the moon-goddess of spring and fertility, the other as the sun-god messiah figure—making them perfect forerunners of the modern Easter tradition. According to Coulter, sunrise services originated with the Babylonian priesthood to symbolically hasten the resurrection of both. "

"Historically, laments were held for the departed Tammuz for forty days—a day for each year of his life. The period ended, of course, in the early spring at his “resurrection.” Hislop writes: “The forty days [of] abstinence of Lent was directly borrowed from the worshippers of the Babylonian goddess [Ishtar].” Is it a mere coincidence that Orthodox Christendom today practices a peculiarly similar custom—Lent’s forty days of mourning and abstinence leading up to Easter?"

The church at Rome tried to get as many pagans into the church as they could, and in doing so, merged their pagan beliefs into Christianity, and the result is what we have today,
a convergence of various heathen traditions applied to Jesus’ death and resurrection.

"Virtually all scholars agree that Asherah is none other than Astarte—also known as the “queen of heaven.” Notice Jeremiah 7:18: “The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger.”

Verse 10 calls the practice an “abomination.” The Jamieson Fausset & Brown Bible Commentary has this to say about Jeremiah 7:18: “Cakes were made of honey, fine flour, etc., in a round flat shape to resemble the disc of the moon, to which they were offered…. The Phoenicians called the moon Ashtoreth or Astarte: the wife of Baal or Moloch, the king of heaven. The male and female pair of deities symbolized the generative powers of nature….”

These are our "hot cross buns", or boun as it was called, with the round shape and cross on top, and was the symbol of the Babylonian sun diety.

And He said to me, ‘Turn again, and you will see greater abominations that they are doing.’ So He brought me to the door of the north gate of the LORD’S house; and to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz”—the false messianic figure who dies and is resurrected every spring!—“Then He said to me, ‘Have you seen this, O son of man? Turn again, you will see greater abominations than these.’ So He brought me into the inner court of the LORD’S house; and there, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping the [rising] sun toward the east. And He said to me, ‘Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here?’ ” (Ezek. 8:13-17).

Do not learn the way of the Gentiles….” (Jer. 10:2)—do not even mention the name of their gods! (see Ex. 23:13). The apostle Paul wrote: “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and lawlessness have in common? And what fellowship does light have with darkness? And what union does Christ have with Belial? Or what part does a believer have with an unbeliever? And what agreement is there between a temple of God and idols? For you are a temple of the living God, exactly as God said: ‘I will dwell in them and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’ Therefore, ‘Come out from the midst of them and be separate,’ says the Lord, ‘and touch not the unclean, and I will receive you’ ” (II Cor. 6:14-17)."

Are we being deceived? Think about it.

Friday, April 09, 2010

foto friday- blue

It's Foto Friday again... can't wait to see what everyone else submitted..
I thought blue was kind of hard.. so I concentrated on the outdoors..
















Just so you know, this is an untouched photo- the sky was BLUE





Join us over at Rebecca's blog called Renaissance and submit your own photos .. Can't wait to see what's coming up this week!






Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Allergies- ugh!


I just heard on the tv that this year will be the worst allergy year on record. That is NOT good news for we who have allergy/asthma problems. I'll be indoors more than usual when it gets going. So far this year, I've only had to use that nebulizer twice.
The up side is that we decided that for health reasons, we will be getting central air conditioning for our new home. It's pricey, but will be worth it in the long run. I don't sleep well in a warm room, and then start wheezing.
Wendell will do better with his breathing problems too with air that is filtered into the house. We think it's a wise move. Our trailer has fabulous insulation and the ductwork is there for it. It should be in by next week. Amen.
We discovered that if we open all the windows in the house we get a tremendous cross breeze. It's soooo cool! However, yesterday I noticed that we had about 20 houseflies inside.. one of the screens fell out. Glad it wasn't wasps that came in. And... the air brings pollens with it.. lots and lots of aggravating pollens.
I've been thinking about hanging clothes out to dry, but again, pollens stick all over anything that is in the wind.. the dryer works fine.