Happy Easter

"He is not here; he has risen!"
Luke 24:6

Alleluia! As a Christian, Easter is the crux of our faith. If Jesus had not been crucified, buried, and resurrected from the grave, our faith would be worthless. He died and rose again for you and me to reconcile us with God; and He's waiting with open arms to have a relationship with each of us. I hope all of you have a blessed Easter!

Carolyn

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines.....

...It's That Time of Year.

And so it begins - the first hustle and bustle of the holidays and all that comes with it. So often, Thanksgiving comes and goes in a rush as the wild dash for shopping starts after the unbelievable eating sprees (and we love it!)

This year is no exception; in a few days the family will roll in and we'll take off on the obligatory food frenzy and dash through the malls, having a blast. If you had told me a few years ago that I'd venture outside on Black Friday, I'd have asked you what planet you were from. However, it has become a family tradition including my two SIL's, DD's, and nieces. The fun and bonding we share is actually worth it. :)

I don't want to leave out the important part of Thanksgiving, though....giving thanks to God for his faithful provision, as the Pilgrims once did. My prayer is that I will remain thankful for the joy (and sorrow) I've had, regardless of what the future holds. Let me be a better person tomorrow than I am today, in His eyes.


So I invite you to join me and reflect during this Thanksgiving time; maybe to not only give thanks, but to aspire to be....

Kind....to strangers and loved ones alike, especially in this hectic time
Hard-working....let the days not be wasted
Honest.....let our words and dealings be true
Principled...may we be known as straight-shooters
Loving......may we show love to our neighbors as ourselves
Hopeful......that we can start afresh today, let the past be past, and leave it in God's hands
Thankful....for the small miracles in life, along with the big


Do you have someone in your life that was an example to you? I will be forever thankful for my parents, who were all of the above and more. What a legacy to leave behind. I'm also grateful for my faith, family, and friends -seen and unseen.
I count you all as such a blessing - your willingness to bring laughter, tears, smiles, appreciation, and a glimpse of your life into mine and others. Thanks for sharing your time.

Please feel free to share your own story - I'd love to hear about it. God bless you all and I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Carolyn

A Little Stitching & Fourth of July

This was a BD exchange gift that has now been received; one side is needlepoint and the other XS. I've also been trying to catch up on the Friendship RR. Here's the latest heart for Kathy...

Every Fourth of July holiday, we load up whoever's here and take off for the fireworks. And each year my DH says he's not going anymore. LOL Normally, my brother's family from OK are here. This year, we had an added bonus. My son and DIL, daughter living at college this summer, and friends were also there. We've been going for as long as our town has been having its own fireworks event, about 20 years, and this was the best weather we've ever had. Normally it's scorching and humidity is high; this year it was cooler with lower humidity and not a cloud in the sky. It's been a low key week, even though my family's been here. Appointments here and there, hanging out, and just enjoying time together. Below is a culmination of normal and abnormal people......and dogs.

Doesn't Montana look as if this homage is due him? Let me introduce Henry Waddlesworth Longfellow, AKA my DD's friend's new little long-haired dachshund. Don't you just love that name?! He is absolutely adorable, but feisty. He weighs a whopping 5#, next to Montana's ~60#.

To watch them play is hysterical, but we do have to keep a grip on Montana. He's not exactly known for his coordination, and his flailing legs could send Henry flying. Henry is a brave little soul... from the safety of his mommy's lap mostly, but ventured out a few times. Too funny.

And lastly, I'll leave you with a few pics of family fun at the park.

DS, DDIL, DD in back, my nephews and nieces in front - this is the family I went to see in OK earlier this year.

Me, DB, DSIL - note the silver hair, but he says at least he has hair - good point. LOL And he wonders why one of his kids always makes faces at the camera....

DH and me....
And lastly, just a few fireworks...everyone have a wonderful Fourth of July. There were many that paid a price for our freedom, statesmen and soldiers alike. If you ever see a picture of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, note the somber faces. These men had a price tag put on their heads by doing this; they were marked men acorrding to King George III. They had no idea if any of them would survive or what would possibly happen to their families. Yet they were willing to take the chance. Let us never forget.




God bless the USA.

Family, Friends and Fun

Wow, time has certainly flown since my last post. Went to PA for the Creation Festival which is kinda like Woodstock for the Christian community - 4 days and 70,000 + people there - fantastic. I was helping a friend with her ministry of B.W.F.J. (Be weird for Jesus - based on 1 Peter 2:9 that we are called to be a "peculiar" people.) Wonderful time, but long hours. Came home and brother and his family came in that day. Almost seems like a blur, it went so fast. We don't get to see them very often as they live in OK. Children-4-have grown like weeds and we had a great time, especially at the local July 4th celebration with them and friends. Even though we are a small town outside a city, our celebration is one of the nicest around with the NC Symphony and a beautiful fireworks display.
Tomorrow, we're off to FL for visit with friends and then my residency week for the online course I've been doing. Still doing preparations for the wedding in between events and it's coming along nicely. This has all been fun, but I've not had a chance to stitch. So when I'm back home once again, I'll be glad to work on the projects I'm itching to do.

All grown up now & then some trivial pursuits of the weekend

My oldest DD finished grad school this weekend - shortest graduation ceremony I've ever attended -45 minutes. I must say, I've been somewhat amused at our last two commencement speakers. The first in an indirect, long-winded way told the grads that ALL the good jobs have gone overseas and good luck finding one. Current speaker told everyone WHY the jobs were overseas (it's a way US helps other countries - Methinks he may be looking through rose-colored glasses?! No self-serving greed at all? Interesting) However, his real point was to tell the grads to make a difference with their lives for others. Not so shabby advice, hmmm? I like this option. Much better overall, this time.
DH's truck had a flat tire graduation AM, but DS saved the day with his truck; In case you wonder the vast amount of truckage we brought an entire state across, we also moved said DD back home afterwards. Went rather smoothly, considering. Now she's all grown up, job-hunting, and preparing for a wedding!
Not too much on the stitching front. Started a needlepoint project by Nancy's Needle which is a seasons series- Two Cabins & Two Cottages are the first two. Still stitching the fifth house in Cottage Garden Series - I think I'm cursed with this one. I've removed a part of the border 4-5 times for the same darn error (in a different place). I will attempt to salvage my dignity and intelligence by blaming our Mon. night stitching group for being too interesting to listen to (& forget about small details in stitching - such as COUNTING), but oh well, let's be truthful. My BAD! Here's to paying attention to what you stitch. Oh btw, Chris, if you read this, - love the biscornu.
Mother's Day was nice - time with all my chickies and my mom. Mom's doing well, counting down the days to get the cast off her wrist. Youngest DD gave me pics of her and me at about the same age. Sweet gesture and note on back. Her pic is hauntingly beautiful and mine (sigh) - well, shall we say - ugly blouse and 70's hair. Taking that into account, not so bad. I'd love to weigh what I did then, for sure. But I love the idea and sentiment here.....oldest DD gave me a sweet booklet and DS brought flowers, too. DH gave me important things -you know, sunglasses & gloves for the Harley! Most fun time, but best of all was the family time spent together.
Well, back to everyday life and hopefully, more stitching this week than last.

Easter

Happy Easter everyone! Great day of worship and hanging out with family. A few weeks ago I went on a retreat with our LNS stitchers, The Lazy Daizy. We had Susan Greening Davis with us - what a treat! We have a wonderful large project that she gave us with instructions, but we were able to complete a practice piece for it on a pouch. Really cute. Sarah, our LNS owner, also gave us a cute project - about half done with that. Been slowly stitching on Cottage Garden. Finished Peony - now on Daisy. Haven't worked much on Travel Sampler - hope to finish out tonight doing that.