My 2011 Face-lift!

Out with the old and in with the new...it is time for a face-lift... for my blog!

The surgeon... me, a non-tech person, started the process.  Beating the keys, hours of research,

deleted items, pictures not fitting and totally guessing along the way, the final, unknown results of the

surgery were completed.  Do you like it?  Please overlook the flaws... it is my first design surgery.

Last year, my starting blog reflected what God would do in my life through, what Paul Tripp calls

"the archeological dig" period of our life.  My shovel would uncover my past, my regrets, my sin, my 

failures, my "what ifs"and leave me looking daily for direction and the faithfulness of my Savior.

The blog template showed a journal with aging pages coming from an open book, along with aging roses 

around the heading.  The book reflected the "dig" I had begun, as I opened years of my own 

memorabilia throughout the year.  The rose reflected the stage of life I found myself in...an 

 aging rose at the end of  a stem of thorns. Even though my "surgeon's hands" were still unskilled, the face-lift needed to render a more whimsical, nostalgic and humorous view of life.  

The year 2011 finds me putting the "archeological shovel" back into the closet...it will surface in time.

I am replacing it with a garden shovel for planting new seeds for a new harvest.

My verse for the year is Isaiah 43:18-19: "Forget about what's happened; don't keep going over old history.

Be alert; be present.  I'm about to do something brand new. It's bursting out! Don't you see it? There it is!" 

(The Message) - verses have been confirmed through multiple confirmations. 

Excerpt from "Lost in the Middle" by Paul David Tripp:

Standing in a Pile of Your Own Leaves

    You're now in the autumn of your life, and you're quite aware the leaves are off the trees.  You're standing in a pile of the leaves of your marriage, your parenting, your extended family, your friendships,  your work, and your ministry.  These leaves of the past have grown wrinkled and dry, and you know you can not put them back on the tree.  It's tempting to sit down in the pile and examine leaf after leaf and wish you were holding a new bud from a new sapling, but you aren't.  The harvest has come in and it is what it is.  Yet in all of this, there is hope because your Lord is the Lord of new seasons.  With the new season comes the freedom to plant new and better seeds.  With the new season comes the expectation of a new harvest of new fruit.

     Stand up and walk away from your pile of yesterday's leaves.  Take the seeds of a new way into your hands, press them into the soil of your life and thank God that you will live to see a better harvest.

Welcome to my new face-lift...I have a vision for where I am going, if you come along for the ride,

I have already shown you the destination....new seeds, new planting, and new harvest!

Welcome age 50...I look forward to meeting you!!