It Starts with A Pillow

She has six sons, which means, six future daughter-in-laws.  She invest her time and talents into a piece of art, which she cross stitches with her prayerful hands.  For years she has raised her boys by home schooling and teaching them the Word of God.  The time comes when she hands over her sons to the new woman in their life.  Each daughter-in-law unique.  Each personality adds a new dimension to her growing family.  Each daughter-in-law becomes the daughter she never had.  This is the point I get to share in her story.

She trust me to take her piece of art and surround it in a pillow.  Each time...I have now done three...I pray over the piece and how it is to look.  I pray for the daughter-in-law that will receive this precious gift from her mother-in-law.  Each time I want to get it right. 

This is the gift she presents to her future daughter-in-law at the Rehearsal Dinner.  The pillows caused her to ask, when she found out the rehearsal dinner would be in my city, instead of hers, if I would do the rehearsal dinner.  What a privilege to use my Rachel business.

Yes, my Leah is producing much needed income, but like the Leah of the Bible with all her producing there was hard work.  My Rachael business just brings much needed energy. So when asked to use my Rachael business...decorating- well you can just guess I jump to the occasion   In the summer I started to collect items to bring about the dinner that would my friend would give her son.

Carnations would be the popcorn!

The only guides I received was they like "popcorn" movies...still not sure what that meant...comics, superheros and were gamers. The creative juices and fun began. The parents came down to my state for a shopping and brain storming day.   Here is the results.  

 Red chargers to dress up the tables.  We would serve the dinner on nice clear plastic that could be tossed in the trash.  She had ironed and folded the black napkins I had suggested, that would stand on each plate, giving a comfortable, practical and yet elegant place setting.

Excuse the pictures...what can I say?  I was busy getting it ready and only had my phone, which died on me!

See how the carnations became popcorn?

The head table held the Bride and Groom, surrounded by their loving and supportive parents.

Prayers and words of blessings were given during the dinner.

The hit of the evening...the POPCORN BAR!!

Invitations were custom printed movie tickets to the Rehearsal Dinner....custom stickers were bought for the popcorn holders...meal was catered by a local restaurant.   Fun was had by all.   My Rachel business was blessed by this precious family.  It was a blast for me!

          End results....SUCCESS AND JOY!!!

Lazy i Farms - My Kind of Woman

As I entered the room I felt her energy bounce across the floor, as I strolled over to meet her.  

I was there to decorate for her grandson's wedding rehearsal dinner.  Her daughter and I have know each other since our early mothering days...we both had only four at that time and now we both have six children.  Although I haven't had the delight to know her mother also, I felt our hearts just joined immediately.  She wasn't sure how I could pull off the theme of the night without looking "cheesy" as she told her daughter, but in the end, I think I won her over.  She sure won me over.

She is retired and yet in her retirement, I wonder if God hasn't saved the best for this season of her life.  She is a doting grandmother and supportive mother to her daughters.  Instead of just curling up and enjoying the relaxing years of deserved retirement, she ventured out with her daughter to start a business.

She is an entrepreneur  More importantly she is a precious woman of God.  You put those two together and I just gravitate toward a woman of that stature.

She is the owner of Lazy i Farms, which produces soaps and lotions from goats milk.  She just bubbles over in excitement talking about her business.  Her desire to help other is expressed through her help to cancer patients.  She has personally developed her products...they are totally American made.  Her daughter worked beside her for years, as they both raised goats and developed the business. Her grandson now attends market days with her.

Since I won her over with my not so "cheesy" decorating and coordinating of her grandson's rehearsal dinner ( I will post later what I did) she blessed me with a bag full of goodies from her business.

You know most things are really caught more than taught. I caught a hand full just visiting and being with this woman. Her daughter and son-in-law blessed my socks off also...I caught from them also. The Body of Christ blessing each other is really a joy to experience.

  So many times words are needless...actions speak so much louder.

Please check our her site....she is a jewel and her products are wonderful.  Maybe even do some shopping, as you visit, but please let her know I sent you her way.

http://store01.prostores.com/servlet/lazyifarms/StoreFront

Blast from the Past

Do you remember these????

Well, as much as I would love to stay in the "pinch me-is-it-real" movie setting, I had to return to reality and work!  Now work can be fun, but much of what I am doing right now is exactly that... WORK!

God in His mercy knows how to extend grace in the midst of my labor.  My calendar was full upon arriving back home.  My hours would extend my physical and emotional body, but then there would be light at the end of the road, also.

By the second week of daily and night time work, I found myself starting to need a good vitamin B-12 shot, which I didn't get in the natural, but I got it when I walked into this house.

My oldest son is not only a custom home builder, he is also acquiring rental property. His voice just bounced on the phone awhile back, as he gleamed in excitement over his "killer deal" of a rental property.  So as the time came for the repairs and some updating to be finished, he called for me to "Simply Clean" his rental.  My body was dragging as I arrived at the house, which needed some TLC for the new occupants.  This clean had come at the end of an already long week.

Yes I can use Power Tools when cleaning!!

I walked in thinking my son had lost it when he expected me to make this place shine in one day, but then God just reached down with a giggle.

It was the most retro home I have been in in years.  Oh my!... the memories of my teen days just came flooding back as I walked from room to room.  The lights, the knobs, the colors....I felt I had been blasted back into the 70's.  I needed the "Oldies but Goodies" music station blaring through the intercom system.  Can't you just hear the Bee Gees?

Believe it or not, just laughing at all signs of the past while doing a deep cleaning, made my job much easier.

The laughter was the topping of the day when my son showed me a picture he had taken before they started to clean up.  It was a Burt Reynolds poster in the closet! This isn't it..the one he had was Burt baring his hairy chest, something that isn't desired with this generation of females...hair!   Girls...yes, girls had lived in this house.  The evidence was everywhere.  They had left behind their mark...and I am sure a few tears, as they had cleared out what had been their Dad's house.

I kept thinking how life moves on.  This house occupied by a family, the kids grew up and left, the Dad then left this earth, now it is owned by my son.......................life goes on,  as does my own.

After 11 hours of cleaning, the house was ready for the new family.  What tales will the walls tell as this young family comes to occupy it?  What will be left behind when they leave?  Will they enjoy the "blast from the past"?  To them it will be new, because "what was old is now new again."