Looking Forward

Love this couple.  "Adore" might not even be an understatement.  Pete and Jane Beck.  Pete will be - even at his age - getting into his car tomorrow and making the drive to Knoxville.  He'll be dining in my home tomorrow evening, and ministering at Harvest Church this Sunday.

I'm looking forward to it all.   Though our Pete is an Alabama fan, we still love him.

Kindle Fire Happiness

It isn't mine.  The Kindle Fire isn't mine.  It was a gift that came this past Monday to The Preacher.

But I wish it were mine.  Because I'm on my second episode of the original Julia Child cooking show, The French Chef. Streaming free via The Preacher's Kindle Fire.

He's letting me play with his new Fire tonight, and I'm impressed, both with the Kindle and Julia. I learned more basic cooking tips in one episode with black-and-white old school Julia Child than in two or three episodes of any modern Food Network show. I would not lie to you.

In other news, my master bedroom is getting a huge makeover. It may take till summer to complete, but we got some furniture moved today.

 I've come to a very difficult conclusion: I am sick. Or rather, I have a sickness.

I have way, way, way too many books. And I have to dispense with more than a few. More like a hundred, no lie. They lay stacked on top of the painted wardrobe - the one that belonged to my grandma.  Books are stuffed in two large sets of floor to ceiling shelves, they stack on my bedside table, in my bedside table, stuffed in a small reading table purchased as a Levenger knock off, and there are even books in my bathroom.

I also have a few furniture items that will have to go to new homes, or perhaps I can find some kind soul who can store them for me until I get the luxury of a guest room and a studio back. I'm in no hurry for said guest room or studio, but I want to be ready when the time comes, and I have some right fine pieces that it would be better to keep than to donate to Goodwill.

But for this new design and color palette to work, I must spare, spare, and spare back again. Ah, what the hey? I'll go through everything while watching Julia do her thing, and all will be well and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.

Can you tell it stresses me...just a little? I have too-few days to conceive of what this space needs to become, now that seasons have changed and grandchildren are such a part of our daily living here at the Cottage, and our Monkey toddles back here every day to visit us and snuggle and "wrestle" and sit by the fire and be rocked in the antique rocking chair, and be loved and chased and read to.

And our next monkey will be here in July and we want her (he?) to have a lovely antique wood cradle at the foot of our bed. When my brain needs a break from coming up with fresh design ideas, I'll watch Julia do her Masterful Thing on that gorgeous Kindle Fire.

Did I tell you? It's my Preacher's. I wish so much it was mine. I would use it more, I'm just sure of it!

A Peek - My Email

I didn't send this little note...I checked my email via my Droid just now, and read this.  It was written by a lady who is a part of our ladies only email group we lovingly call "The Cafe".  It made me smile.  Because I very much agreed with her.

Had to share it with you.  Had to.  Local church life rocks...it really does.  And it rocks to be me.

Just sayin'. 

Instructional Video For My Trip to France

PS. I'm not really going to France. That I know of. Serving God is a wild adventure however, and He could send me this year!

I'd so go. Armed with this instructional video, I feel prepared.

On This Cloudy Day

...the results of my second Photoshop class...playing with "adding" white, black, and neutral pixels to a picture.

This shot is a classic "through the window" snap of an antique wooden toolbox, a gift from my neighbor Earl. I planted pansies in it last November, for the holidays, hoping they last into spring.

Took this picture just yesterday - lighting was a challenge.   We're having quite a stretch of gray days here in east Tennessee!

"One of These Things Is Not Like The Others..."

Guess which one is our son?

::sigh::  Yeah. The one covering the "Amb" and then the "adors" in the team name "Ambassadors".

I don't know where he gets it.

Help me, Rhonda. Jesus, take the wheel. God, grant me the serenity.

Another Grace-Song

Here is the sort of music a woman writes when the Gospel gets deep down into her bones...these lyrics resonate with me, so much. If you'll indulge me, please turn up your speakers, because it's the first song.

::smile::

These lyrics wonderfully describe the journey of my own heart out of law, and into grace - a choice I made deliberately and consistently and with abandon and not without alienating a few.

And I'd do it again. And again.

Because when lives are at stake, see, I can't play patty-cake or politics or pretend. And in many ways, the life at stake was...

...my own.

I truly have, in recent years, shown up for my own life. And I have to admit - as a result, a few more have shown up for their own. Once I have a key...any key...I will be found unlocking more prison doors than just my own. Be sure of it. That could be why the devil has it in for me.

Showed Up For My Own Life

~Sara Groves

Spending my time sleep walking
Moving my mouth but not saying a thing
Hoping the changes would take by working their way from the outside in
I was in love with an idea
Preoccupied with how a life should appear
Spending my time at the surface repairing the holes in the shiny veneer


There are so many ways to hide
There are so many ways not to feel
There are so many ways to deny what is real


And I just showed up for my own life
And I'm standing here taking it in and it sure looks bright
I'm going to live my life inspired
Look for the holy in the common place
Open the windows and feel all that's honest and real until I'm truly amazed
I'm going to feel all my emotions
I'm going to look you in the eyes
I'm going to listen and hear until it's finally clear and it changes our lives


There are so many ways to hide
There are so many ways not to feel
There are so many ways to deny what is real


And I just showed up for my own life
And I'm standing here taking it in and it sure looks bright


Oh the glory of God is man fully alive!
Oh the glory of God is man fully alive!

There are so many ways to hide
There are so many ways not to feel
There are so many ways to deny what is real


And I just showed up for my own life
And I'm standing here taking it in and it sure looks bright...