Lazy Susan Face Lift

Years ago, we purchased a kitchen table which served eight.  At that time, there were only seven in our family and the whole crew was very vocal about the need to fill that extra seat.  Years went by and the first to fill the seat was our future daughter-in-law, then later our little Benjamin made number eight in our family.  With this square table came a Lazy Susan giving very handy access to delicious dishes.  However, a Lazy Susan and four boys means you have just invested in a kitchen table weapon.  The boys would spin the Lazy Susan with such force that the dishes would fly off, defying gravity's pull.  So Lazy Susan was vanquished to the kitchen pantry.  This week I decided to bring her back out for a face-lift and possibly the younger boys will not be as eager to use her as a table weapon...yea! right!

I began by looking through pictures on- line of other Lazy Susans that were painted. I marked out eight spaces with my pencil and began creating.

I grabbed leftover paint from my kitchen.  I kept the black and white checkered theme and threw in some Mary Engelbreit cherries.

I couldn't help but replay different conversations around the kitchen tables that occurred through the years, while painting words upon the Lazy Susan.

I had to add our family initial and the year this family was created.  Since our daughter's new name will also start with a "W," this Lazy Susan design will hold everyone's last name initial.

The Bible will hold Matt. 4:4 - "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God."

The red circle around the "W" will hold all our names.














I enjoyed painting.  It was really so relaxing and energizing. I must find more time to partake in this art form...now let's see, when will I find that time?

My part/part time job of keeping children for church events increases these next few months through the holidays.  It has been fun to rock babies and listen to young adults talking, some mothers, others not.  I have also been getting into people's homes one way or another.  I have been doing some cleaning and advising on decorating issues.  Even while cleaning homes, my mind is rearranging and decorating the house in my head....somehow my brain just works that way.   But as I mentioned in a recent post, we must learn to "feed our souls" and I think painting is one feeding I need to take the time to do.

  Sometimes we all can just use a "face-lift"... and a new outlook on life.

Prayers for all affected by the storm Sandy...and for those we know coming from Texas to help.

I Exercised My Freedom!!!

With early voting giving us days and days to vote there really isn't any excuse anymore!!

I hope you  exercise your freedom...it was bought with a price.

Feed My Soul

Leslie at Farm Fresh Fun just summed up my feelings through her excellent wording,  "feeding her soul".  I just nodded as I read her post and thought about how Vee at A Haven for Vee post on finding the covered bridge did the same thing...."fed my soul".

I know my need to consistently feed my "spirit". Therefore, I carve out time to be with the Lord daily and His Word.

I have learned through my aging process that I also need to feed my "physical" body, both with good nutrition and exercise.

The area I tend to neglect is "feeding my soul".  I can tell when I need to "feed my soul" and if I stop to give in, my whole countenance can change.   There are times when that "feeding" comes through creating, singing, reading, or visiting the arts.  The "feeding" that brings me back to my roots was what I did on Sunday.  I grabbed my tennis shoes and headed out the door for the sites and smells of the country.

A farm just miles down from our neighborhood. Even with all of Texas's growth we still have places that remind us of the past.  The cement jungle hasn't taken everything away...yet!

The cattle guard continues to keep in whatever cattle might still roam on this downsized farm...the abandoned tractor and farm equipment tells the story of the glory days of the past.

These train tracks are still used today, yet not to the extent of days gone by.

Each site just reminded me that others have passed this way also.  Life continues to move forward, and yet, remembrances of the past, while enjoying the sights and smells of nature, just "feeds my soul."

How do you feed your soul?

Pumpkin Patch

Although we are still running our  A/C,  we loaded  up and headed for the Pumpkin Patch.  For over 13 years we have made our way to the same Pumpkin Patch for fall entertainment.  Each year the younger four have been measured by the scarecrow and our daughter wanted her new finance to join the family tradition.  He didn't miss a beat as we measured him to see just how he measures up.

Daughter (Nicole) and Benjamin thinks he measures up just fine.  He has carved out a place in both of their hearts.

I was so glad Benjamin could enjoy this year with two healthy legs.  He doesn't even remember his broken leg from two years ago and for that I so thankful.  One of his friends joined us to play among the pumpkins.

There were bounce houses, pumpkin houses, hay rides and time for pictures.

We believe Michael measures up just fine....we know our daughter is beyond happy.

So in Texas....we do have fall...just a little warmer than most, but it still holds a time for making memories. We grabbed that time and made the most of it.

Table of Wisdom or Folly

My scripture reading this morning led me to the visual of the beautiful tables where we all enjoy sitting and dining.  All across the web you can learn how to entice your guest with your beautiful table.  The world does the same.  The enemy knows how to invite you to dine at his table.

Wisdom has built her spacious house with seven pillars.  She has prepared a great banquet, mixed the wines, and set the table.  She has sent her servants to invite everyone to come.  She calls out from the heights overlooking the city.  "Come home with me," she urges the simple.  To those without good judgement, she says, "Come, eat my food, and drink, the wine I have mixed. Leave your foolish ways behind, and begin to live; learn how to be wise." Proverbs 9;1-5

As I look around me I wonder how many are sitting at the table of wisdom?  Do they desire to seek wisdom?  Do I desire wisdom?

Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in understanding. Proverbs 9:10

There are the instructions on how to seek wisdom.  If I am not following the instruction manual, then I will be enticed to dine at the table of  folly.

The woman named Folly is loud and brash.  She is ignorant and doesn't even know it. (WOW, does that say tons?) She sits in her doorway on the heights overlooking the city.  She calls out to men going by who are minding their own business, "Come home with me," she urges the simple.  To those without good judgement, she says, "Stolen water is refreshing, food eaten in secret tastes the best!"  But the men don't realize that her former guests are now in the grave. Proverbs 9:13-18

My desire is for more than a beautiful table with tasty food....my desire is for wisdom and not folly.

Play Me a New Song - Note Card Party

Joining Vee for the Note Card Party which I dedicate to the Music in My Life. Each composes a different melody in the musical of my life.  Although the first born wasn't there, I still caught the uniqueness of my six children in the pianos found around the city. I guess these could be used to promote my home city, Austin, Texas   

Second born...just recently engaged.  On the Colorado River in Austin, Texas.  A pure musician at heart.

Our third born and third son...never met an instrument he can't play...all by ear.

Fourth born and only girl...recently engaged, singing our own composition over the city of Austin.

Number six standing to her left.

This one was literal placed on the map of Texas, as the piano pointed to the Capital.
I was standing in amazement at how much the city has changed in the fourteen years since we moved.
Somehow watching things grow up and change isn't always easy.

The father of all six...playing his fingers across the keyboard of his hometown.
From high school days to father of five he spread his musical gifs all of this town.

Sometimes it is just time to go back home and sing a different song!

my past post explaining this traveling event - http://janettessage.blogspot.com/2011/04/we-were-part-of-history.html

Zigged Instead of Zagged

You know the saying..."you zigged when you should have zagged?"  That sums up our Sunday.  We were already pushing the time clock...two baseball games, church and I had to work at my part time/part time job.  However, it was a beautiful day for baseball,  as we all loaded ourselves into the car to head to familiar sports field.  Our family is a sports family.  Our oldest started T-ball at age 7, (he is now 29) and we haven't stopped yet.  At one time I must of have had a lapse of sanity, because we had four in baseball/softball at one time!  We have also warmed the seats inside while four played high school basketball.

Therefore, we know the rules.  We know that foul balls shatter windshields.  We know that you watch where you park your car.  We not only know this as a general rule, but past experience of a shattered windshield taught us this isn't a wife's tale.

Hubby started watching the foul balls come off the bats.  Our son was pitching and the batter just couldn't get a hold of a good hit.  He was fouling   My husband looks around with an uneasy concern on where we had parked both of our cars.  He grabs the keys to move our cars into foul ball territory  safety.  He returns to the bleachers proudly  confident that our windshields wouldn't show evident of our Sunday adventures.

He could't believe it as he watches the ball soar over all our heads....yes, straight at his car!  We all stood stunned. The stands cleared out as everyone grabbed their keys to move their cars even further away....mine included.

• Praise...it is only a windshield, not an injury to anyone
• He saved other's cars from it happening to theirs
• It leaves this sports family with another sports "tale"
• Life is just too short to sweat the little things
• We all got our exercise walking from the car to the field

Now we did win that game.  I headed out to my job, then returned to the ball field.  The next game ended in a tie.....and this!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some things you just can't patch!

What can I say?  You just have to find the humor in all of it!

What Does Perseverance Look Like?

Men, like nails, lose their usefulness

when they lose direction and begin to bend.

Walter Savage Landon

Looking back at this week I have to sum it up with the word perseverance.  I didn't realize perseverance had been the character quality of this past week, until during my morning reading I read examples of those that persevered.  People's stories inspire me forward...to press on.

• Albert Einstein's PhD was rejected, it was called "irrelevant and fanciful"
• Abraham Lincoln lost eight elections, failed at business, before becoming President
• Thomas Edison's efforts with creating the incandescent lamp were unsuccessful over 1000 times
• Henry Ford faced bankruptcy three times before succeeding with mass production of the automobile
• Author John Creasey was rejected 753 times before his work was accepted and finally published into 564 books

The Ultimate Self-Help Book - 31 Days in Proverbs - Al Fike

"Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you.  Mark out a straight path for your feet; then stick to the path" Prov. 4;25-26

Google image... Charlotte's Web was finished this week...and that is me in the purple!

How did perseverance play out in my life this week - what was its face?

• I continued to exercise - even though the scales are not kind to my efforts I pushed myself out to continue for my health and strength - I would love to see a change before the weddings, but if not, I know it is good for my health and my mental outlook
• I continued to push through with our home schooling - even though my mind kept wanting to jump to other issues, how to solve other problems - I relaxed in the joy of Benjamin's learning, I counted our accomplishments and saw we were achieving the goal of a good education
• I pushed forward with developing my business - even though income from it is not coming yet, I am learning - I went out to expand my decorating knowledge and gathered resources for my decorating blog
• I continued in the race - even when I wanted to throw up my hands and give up, I stepped out of bed each day to move forward
• I allowed myself to continue to dream - why not?  
• I read books on others who have persevered through life's curve balls with testimonies of humor, forgiveness and grace

1. A Marriage Made in Heaven or Too Tired for an Affair - Erma Bombeck
2. A Century of Wisdom - Lessons from the Life of Alice Herz-Sommer, the World's Oldest Living Holocaust Survivor - Caroline Stoessinger

• I recounted God's abundance instead of listening to the enemy only recount lack

I want to honor God through my accomplishments.  I want to live an adventure.  I want to use all that God has given me and not be wasteful.  As in the story of the talents (Matt. 25:14-30), I don't want to be found hiding mine just because I would not persevere.

I Can Not

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I woke to my brain rattling in my head...yes that is what is does when it has been in overdrive for weeks.  My husband tells me to turn it off, but when we are in a challenging situation, it runs on overtime.

I was trying to slow it down...to release all the dollar figures floating through my brain.  Trying to trust and not fear about what tomorrow would hold.  Trying to see how far I can stretch the remaining dollars before I was going to need a Moses experience of water from a rock and quail from heaven, when I got still enough to read my devotional.

My nature is to be calm in things I know I can't control...accidents, health, the choices my children make, the choices others make, but when I feel it is something that I should have control over....like finances,  then my trust seems to slip into my logical world.  The truth is I have no more control over this journey than I do any of the others.  God gentle reminded me of my position in Him....I felt the held in breath release with these word.

I cannot save and sanctify myself;

I cannot make atonement for sin;

I cannot redeem the world;

I cannot right what is impure;

or make holy what is unholy.

This is all the sovereign work of God. He made the perfect atonement for sin.

Oswald Chambers - Utmost for His Highest

Devotional two reminded me also.

Why do so many people think God is punishing them?  Who gets blamed when things go wrong?

God always wants what is best for us.  God says let go of sin and evil because of what sin does to us- not because of what He will do to us.

The Ultimate Self-Help Book Proverbs - 

We all live in a fallen world and struggles fall on the righteous and unrighteous. As our pastor has shared so many times through his cancer...He can, He will and Even if He doesn't I will still praise Him.  Our pastor had walked a life that should have prevented cancer...organic food, exercise, the specimen of health, and yet he had brain cancer.  

The economy is the same way for so many people today.  No matter how you prepared you couldn't have planned for all this fallen world would throw at you.  Another lesson in releasing control to Him and His economy were brought through time spent with him.

Phil 4:19 May God supply all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

Breathing easier, as I allow the word to soak away my logic....my anxiousness...and replace it with the truth, we enter another week of looking forward to the promise land and not looking back to Egypt.  

Change of Season Came in a Roar

Well if there was any doubt in North Texas that fall/winter has arrived, well this weekend announced her entrance with recorded breaking low temperatures.  This Native Texan family was caught off guard.  Camping boy was hanging in his hammock out in the woods Sunday night when the frost of change of season caught him at 34 degrees.  He entered the door trying to get warm and fussing about how his comforter didn't keep him warm enough.

Each year I love the first cold front.  I become all hyper with ideas of  what I am going to do with this change of season. Let's see....snuggle up with a blanket to read a good book

             ....head to the sewing room to sew

            ....grab some hand work that I have stored during the hot months

           ...curl up with a good movie

Too many choices.

I just enjoyed the cold weekend wearing double-layers of socks.  I spent time starting an upholstery job...a much loved chair needs a face lift.  I grabbed out my winter bedding and put away the light comforter.  I put on my to-do list that it is time to attack the ugly walls in my bedroom.   We all gathered around the television to watch our favorite University team NOT pull off a win, while enjoying a winter meal.

We had to have our favorite warm meal.

Cheese Soup
French Bread
Smoke Cheese  Chucks with Apple Slices

Now I need to go grab my basil and harvest before another cold front nips at her leaves.

What do you enjoy doing when the first cold front comes to visit?

The Dress

In less than five months my "only" daughter will become a bride.  I will wear the title of "mother-of-the-bride" only once.  She has made me so proud to be the "mother-of-the-bride".  As we venture forth in this once- in-a-life-time journey we continue to be humbled by God's faithfulness and provision.  The testimonies can already fill a book.

She played the role years ago in my own wedding dress.  She isn't your lace and ribbons girl...she was comfortable in softball and basketball uniforms.                                                                                       Our Ellie May Clampitt will marry her John Wayne/Rambo. 

Yet when it came time to shop for her wedding gown, my tomboy daughter, because a lace wearing bride-to-be.  Benjamin watched as his "sissy" tried on dress and veils.  May I say he wasn't silent on what he liked.  He even adjusted her veil and commented on how it needs to be and which one he liked.  He and I both gasp as she stepped out in the dress that would be the winner.

In just a few months she enters into the most important covenant of her life.  She will also move away from her family to begin a life in a small city.  Life will take the biggest change in her lifetime....and for that matter, in mine.

This is my wedding gown and hat! 

The Dress will be embellished with lace from her grandmother's wedding dress and mine.  She will be given away by her dad, me and her brothers...which is her request.

I smiled at the future for my daughter....all the hopes and dreams...all fulfilled in Christ.  Benjamin and I took pictures as she tried on dresses, which can't be seen yet, but I know our pictures will not hold a candle to the day she becomes a wife.

Revelation 19-7-9

⁷ Let us rejoice and be glad
    and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
    and his bride has made herself ready.
⁸ Fine linen, bright and clean,
    was given her to wear.”

(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)

⁹ Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”

The ultimate wedding is still to come, may we each make ourselves ready.

(www.simplyyourdecor.blogspot.com is up and running....come drop by for a visit)

My New Shingle

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There used to be a saying.(now I am revealing more of my generation), "put out a new shingle."  This saying
was referring to a new business in town or a change of name for an existing business.

Women are known for having various "shingles" hanging throughout their seasons of life.

My most important "shingle" is

Wife - delightfully serving in this capacity - 32 years

Mother - thrilled to have been a mother, who is still raising children at home - 29 years

Home Educator - still in service - 24 years

Then there are those other "shingles" we hang out...volunteer, community service, extended family, neighbors and friends.

At some point in most women's lives there is also employment beyond the walls of their home.  My shingles in this area are

Mother's Keepsakes - an art consignment store I owned, managed and contributed to through the first years of my firstborn son

Classic Stitches - my from-home business consisting of sewing... developed into a full fledged decorating business - it survived through three pregnancies, four children and many years while home schooling

Employee - Insurance Data entry - I worked at home during the evenings and weekends...allowing me to continue home schooling and being taxi cab driver to music, sports and youth activities

Employee - worked at a Home Educator's Bookstore - consulting, selling and distributing home education supplies 

Encouragement Pocket Pillows - my own online business for designer pillows I made with scriptures and words of encouragement on them

First Impressions Design - my own company that included interior selections for custom homes

Now to 2012 - at age 51, I really would like to put all my shingles into retirement and just continue the task of wife, mother and home school mom. However, once again I am looking into the closet for an additional "shingle" to hang.  This summer, I started a VERY part-time/part-time job of keeping kids at our church...this only takes me from the home on evenings and Sundays.  With the recent unemployment of hubby, I posted availability to clean houses...this would be two days a week while Benjamin attends outside classes.  Each of these would meet some financial need, however, they will not energize me.  I still want to be faithful.

"If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry.  He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well."

Martin Luther King Jr.

"Most people don't enjoy their work.  It's been said that  80% would change jobs right away if they felt they could move into work they have a passion for.   - Instead, they just keep plodding along, doing what they don't like every day - year-in and year-out. - Dennis Waitley: "Chase your passion, not your pension."  - When you're passionate about your job, you'll be amazed at your productivity, as well as your motivation."

The Ultimate Self-Help Book - 31 Days in Proverbs - Al Fike

So I went before the Lord and put out my fleece.  He knows the situation. He knows my heart's cry is to be with Benjamin...hey, He gave me Benjamin at age 45!!!  He knows what my passions and gifts are...He formed them in me.

Last week, I interviewed for house cleaning and I also had the delight of an interior decorating consultation with a client. Out of my consulting with this client, I decided to hang out my "shingle" again in this area.

Simply Your Decor

I will be opening a instructional blog that will go with my business...this will remain the blog in which I share my heart and walk with the Lord.  (www.simplyyourdecor.blogspot.com) will feature past interior decorating adventures and hopeful new transformations.  All I can do is put out my fleece, as I have learned before in each of my endeavors, the true owner of my business will guide and provide me with clients in His time.

My prayer taken from The Ultimate Self- Help Book

Lord, I commit my gifts, talents and the labor of my hands to You.

Through the opportunities You have given, may I honor You,

provide for my family and serve others today.