Soccer, Visiting, Thief and Art

Hello Friends,

Thank you so much for the encouragement I received for "getting back on the horse" in my first post in a long time!!!  Thank you especially to Don, Brenda and Linda!  Your words will stay in my heart!

The picture above was taken tonight when my daughter and her two girls stopped by for an impromptu visit after attending a Christian family concert at a farm tonight.  We had a good time taking some pictures and visiting with each other hugging and painting and just enjoying our time together.  My daughter is in her late 30's and proves you never get too hold to get some special love from dad!

This morning I went to my grandchildrens soccer games.  Four of my grandchildren were playing.  The first one I went to was my grandson's and then my middle granddaughters.  Since three of them played at the same time, I had to pick which one.  Their dad is the coach for the oldest, and their mom watched the youngest, so I got to watch my grandson.

I almost always take my little Kendell dog with me to the games.

Note she rides in the car with a seat belt, just in case!

And she always rides in style in her own stroller! 

Kendell gets lots of attention!

After the games I was invited to my son in laws family reunion which was also in the park.  They had a very big turn out and I must say they fixed some really good food!!!  My favorite was this broccoli salad!  Yum!!!

Since I will be sharing my art, I thought I'd tell you I'm into making these little ATC's which means, Art Trading Cards.  I'm trying to make some everyday.  They are a standard size of 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches.  The pictures I shared yesterday are ATC's, and here are two I made today.

This one is called "1000 Cities"

This one is called "Letters and Numbers".

While we were at the family reunion, my daughter's van was vandalized and they stole her wallet.  They had to report it to the police and report all the credit/bank cards and work ID's beside the cash stolen.  This is everyone's nightmare.  One misfortune of not locking the van, and this happened with loads of people around.  Praying for the thief to be caught and for them to be repentant of their crime.

Sighhhhh~~~  

How are you doing?  I would love to hear from you!  So happy to be back to keeping in touch!

God's blessings!  

Getting Back On The Horse~ I think!

Hello Friends,

Time has flown again!  I must say that I've had writing a blog post on my mind for a week or so.  It is almost like falling off a horse.  How do you get back to blogging and where do you start again.  I asked my husband what I should write about since I don't think I live as exciting a life as some seem to live.  He said to ask a question and see what answers I might get.  Not sure what that question should be though.  How about if I ask you just simply "how are you doing these days"?  Simple enough I guess.

I am doing pretty well these days.  As my close friends and family know, I have gotten hooked on painting, gluing and collage art.  My skill level is very elementary, but my enjoyment is great!  In fact, I just spent the last hour painting papers for a future collage picture or two.  With as many papers as I've painted in the past few months I should be set for life!  LOL

I know some of you have seen these already, but for those that haven't here are some examples of my recent art.

Many of us had loved ones in the path of the hurricanes in TX and FL, and I hope everyone you were concerned about came through okay.  It sure has been a very anxious time for lots of people.  My son who lives in FL was able to leave and his apartment was not damaged and I am very thankful for this!  It is still a stressful time though as people still have to deal with problems as a result of these hurricanes.  Many of my prayers have been directed to these people.

My family is doing well.  My grandchildren are all growing up faster than I'd like, but they are turning into lovely people.  My oldest entered high school last month and my youngest will enter kindergarten next fall.  There are 7 all together.  I am blessed.

Today I fixed a delicious roasted cabbage and ground beef casserole with celery, carrots and mini portabella mushrooms.  No sauce was made with it so we could either use Shiracha, or an India sauce we enjoy.  It turned out very good.  I also roasted French green beans and okra.  I ate them for lunch.  Took a few pictures.  I'll have to get use to taking pictures again too.

Those are corn breads with the beef/cabbage casserole

My friend Brenda and I are reading through the Book of John in the bible as many times as we can.  I am trying to read this one book at least 30 times.  I had a friend do this many years ago, and it was embedded in her heart and mind.  Brenda knows I have resorted to listening to the chapters on the Internet, and I can read along with the reading.  Here is a really good bible reading if you are interested.  Of course you can pick any book of the Bible and any chapter you want to read.
It is only in the King James version though, but that is my favorite.

AudioBible.com

Today I took a couple pictures of my birds.  The green birds one foot has been acting like it doesn't want to work, and daily I pray over him to be healed.  The Bible says that a sparrow doesn't fall that the LORD doesn't know about, so I know he cares for 'Green Birdy'.  

I read a blog post today about how to make a Bee Bath or Watering Dish and thought you might like to make one for next Spring.  I plan on making one for our back yard!  Here is the blog post:

Bee Bath  by A Creative Operation. 

Thank you for giving me a chance to get back on that horse/ writing a post!  

Hugs~

Hi Everyone,

Wow, I have been absent for a long time!  I'm not even going to make excuses or promises, but I do hope to get back to reading blogs more, and maybe writing a few posts. 

Just wanted to say HI!  I'll hopefully post something else soon.  I know this is lame, but I have to start somewhere!

Smiles,
Cathy

Follow Jesus~ A Love Story

FOLLOW JESUS - A LOVE STORY

I woke up in the wee hours this morning thinking the above title! 

John 12:23-26
And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.

24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

25 He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

26 If any man serve me, let him follow me ; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.
KJV

What powerful words Jesus spoke here to his Disciples.  We are His disciples if we love Him and obey His Words.

John 10:27-30

27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me :

28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.

30 I and my Father are one.
KJV

The greatest Commandment is this:

Matt 22:37-40

37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

38 This is the first and great commandment .

39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
KJV

From Genesis to Revelations the LORD desires a LOVE relationship with us!  He looks over the earth to find those people that desire this relationship.  For those that desire this relationship with Him, they must deny themselves, pick up their cross daily, and follow Him! 

Luke 18:7-8

7 And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?

8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?KJV

Col 3:12-17

12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;

13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

14 And above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness.

15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
KJV

While we worry about the politics, and worry about the things of this world, The LORD tells us:

Heb 13:5-8

5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

6 So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

7 Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.

Heb 13:8

8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
KJV

Let not your heart be troubled!  Follow Jesus!  Pick up your cross daily, and follow Jesus!

Love Him without worry.  Forsake the temptations in this world, and obey His Holy Word!

These are the things on my heart this morning~

This is my baby Kendell Girl!  My granddaughter Katiegrace gave me this dog purse for my birthday this month, and yesterday was my first time using it.  It is really nice, and Kendell likes it too!  She doesn't try to get out, but it does have a built in strap just so she wouldn't be able to jump out while I am walking carrying her.  Her fur is growing out, and she is needing a little hair cut. 

Hello Friends,

Hope all is well with each of you!  I am doing pretty good today.  It is a dreary, steady, rainy day, and I'm LOVING it!  I have the back slider open and listening to the constant patter of the rain on our aluminum patio cover!  What a sweet sound!

I was going to write more today, but this is all I have to say.  It is now a few minutes to midnight~

So, Good Night Friends~

Hi Friends~

Hi Friends,
I am back!  LOL  Had no idea so much time would go by before I wrote another post.  The above sewing was from my Hubby for my Birthday this year.  I didn't even have all the plastic covering off of it yet.  I have plugged it in, but still have yet to put thread in it and run her~ (I want to give her a special name.)   Been looking on Pinterest for some ideas to get my imagination going again with sewing, and I think I will just start out with some type of free form sewing and make a tote bag.  I'll take pictures when I do.

This past month has been very nice with lots of family activities, and celebrations.  Tomorrow is my grandson Owen's 7th birthday, and then our 41st anniversary and my son's 39th birthday.  November is one of those few months of the year we don't have a birthday to celebrate, but there is Thanksgiving.

I have been thinking a lot about my dad recently.  He passed away in 1981 while I was expecting my third child Joan.  Not so sure why my mind is going to him so much, but it is. 

Well, I am crocheting my granddaughter Gwynnie an afghan right now.  Again, pictures later.  She picked out the colors herself. 

My daughter Joan and I have also been crocheting hats for Samaritan Purses Christmas Shoe Boxes...https://www.samaritanspurse.org/operation-christmas-child/pack-a-shoe-box/.  The hats will go to my other daughter Donna who puts together these boxes as her Christmas project.  So we all are a little involved in doing them.  It is a worthy charity~

Many of us have some level of depression we deal with for one reason or another.  I know I do.  It isn't real evident to most people, but those closest to me know I have lots of down days or moments.  This past 2 years I had lost interest in just about everything in life.  Nothing seemed to hold much interest for me.  Until recently I have been trying to get some of these interests back, like the crochet/knitting, and writing, and now sewing.  It is a very forced effort on my part to get these interests back.  I am so thankful for my family and friends that have been encouraging me to get my interest in being creative back.  Just this week I heard something from a woman I follow on You Tube.  You would never know she suffers from depression, but she tells us she does.  She always has such a big smile on her face and she is very creative and makes small art projects she sells on EBay.  Here is her advice for those suffering from depression:  LOOK forward each day.  PLAN ahead each day to do something special.  CREATE something each day.  I found this very encouraging to me.  If you have problems with depression this might help you too! 

Until later~

Good Sunday Morning!

LOL...I may as well skip Fall, and go right to Christmas the way I have been ignoring this blog.  Maybe it is because I have gone private, or something.  I made this commitment to myself, and to my friends, and here I am not keeping my commitment to write daily!  Forgive me, and I need to forgive myself for letting myself down.

On to something more positive!

Every day seems to be filled with activities, and things happening.  I can't go back and try to remember what has happened since Sept 7th, but I will start with today.  Today should be one of my days I call a Down Day.  Not down as in depressed, but Down as in nothing on the schedule and I can just relax and have my much needed alone time. 

I got a good night sleep!  Yay!!!  Yesterday was my Knitting group, and we are going to try to get as many children's hats and scarves made by the third week in November.  We are going to add them to the Franklin Graham Samaritan Purse Boxes that get sent around the world.  That is exciting to know that the hats and scarves will be in places I will never get to visit, and go to children that I would never meet.  Now there are only four of us in the group, and one of them suffers from arthritis, so can only do a little.  That makes me want to get really busy to see what I can contribute!

My plan today is to knit, read the bible, and watch some knitting videos.  Getting ready to have a nice salad for my Breakfast/Lunch.  What do you have planned today? 

Be back later I hope!

Hugs,

Cathy

A Good Day

Hi Friends,

This was a good day.  I had book club this morning from 10 to 11am.  We have 6 in our group and they are the most precious group of friends.  I am the baby and then the oldest is 94.  We have a very laid back chat about the chapters we've read, and end up chatting about something that was triggered in our own situations that responded to the book!  We meet at a coffee shop, and I got a nice iced coffee. 

Had a nice lunch time visit with my oldest daughter Donna.  I fixed stir fried vegetables and a fancy albacore tuna salad.  When she left I just spent the afternoon on FB, You Tube, answering emails and knitting on my granddaughter Megan's afghan. 

Don and I had our date night and ended up at a brand new restaurant that just opened this past week called Panda Express!  We got our meal to go and ate outside up on their hill with a pleasant breeze blowing on a very hot night~  Then we did our usual grocery shopping and home to watch our favorite shows on Wednesday nights which is American Pickers and Pawn Stars.  Had some ice cream for dessert and I knitted a little more.  Now I am about ready for bed.

Tomorrow morning about noon I will leave to get cousin Judy for her surgery and probably won't be home until early evening.  Please pray she does well, and will be good at home by herself.  There are some people to check in on her.

I am tired tonight!  How was your day???  I'd love to hear!!!  Comment or send me an email any time.  I LOVE hearing from you!!!

Love and hugs~

Cathy

Birthday Wishes!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLESSINGS TO YOU BRENDA on your 60th BIRTHDAY!!!

Brenda is my dear friend, who grew up on the same street I lived on too!  We became really good friends in High School and then it followed into when we each started our families!  I have to say that Brenda is so close to my heart, and I am so thankful for her!!! 

Today was a nice day, especially since I slept in longer than I've ever slept in my life!  I was up several times last night, but ended up sleeping until 1pm.~  I didn't do much until I went to the store at 4pm and then went to my grand kids soccer games at 5:15p.  The day just slipped by, but the kids did good at their games!

On the way home from the games, I had a sudden thought to call Don's cousin who I am taking to have surgery on Thursday.  She is without a car right now due to vandal's drilling a whole in her car gas tank.   When I called she was telling me she was suppose to be starting an antibiotic tomorrow but had no way to get her medication filled.  I was only a couple of miles from her apartment on my way home, and so I turned around and picked her up and took her to the Pharmacy.  She thanked me and I told her to thank the LORD because I thought it was surely Him who prompted me to phone her at just that time.  She told me she had been gripping to the LORD all day about it.  LOL  So the LORD hears our gripes too!  :)

Getting home at almost 9pm....Don and I went out to get pizza for dinner at a local parlor that has it on sale on Tuesdays nights!  So, sure turned out to be a nice day!! 

Well, tomorrow is my book club at 10am. and I still have 3 chapters to read and it is 11:15pm.  LOL  See you all later!  God is Good!!! 

HUGS~

Cathy

Good News!!!

Life is Precious!

Time is Precious!

Friends are Precious!

Family are Precious!

Take nothing for granted!!!

♥♥♥

by Cathy

WOW, WOW, WOW!!!  I just had a very long over due phone call from my son and daughter in law.  Most of you know the situation, but he is out of the hospital he has been in for the past 7 weeks, and has had extensive Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for PTSD and he was also diagnosed with brain injury.  This was new to me, but I'm sure it is a correct diagnoses!  The conversation lasted about 15 minutes, and then they arrived where they were going so we had to get off.  I had not heard from him in the 7 weeks, so it was so nice! 

The WOW factor is because he sounded so hopeful and so full of a desire to face his challenges.  He will continue out patient therapy for a few weeks, and then in Dec it sounds like there is another intensive therapy he will go into.  I am just so happy to hear his hope and sound mind!  Please praise the LORD for me!!!

God is good!  Just had to share this awesome news!!!

Be back later!  Hugs~