Prayers from a Mother’s Heart

I wanted to share a post that I'm borrowing from Linda over at Prairie Flower Farm.  She is one of the most genuine people I've ever come across.  She is a real sweetheart and loves the Lord with all her heart.  I just love going over to her blog and reading about their days on the farm and all the goodness they receive from our Lord!

A book called Prayers from a Mother’s Heart, by Ruth Bell Graham.  This was written by Shirley M. Dobson. Dr. James Dobson’s wife.

Heavenly Father, I praise and thank You for the privilege of coming before You humbly and interceding on behalf of my children and grandchildren.

Keep their hearts tender and sensitive to Your voice. Give them a love for Your Word and willing hearts to obey it. Help them to desire to walk before You in righteousness all the days of their lives. May they grow in the wisdom and knowledge of the Lord. Give them a heart of compassion and concern for the lost and the wounded. Lead them to a place of service in

Your kingdom’s work.

Lord, send a guardian angel to watch over their going out and their coming in, and lead them not into temptation, but deliver them from the evil one.

Send enough rain to keep them depended on You, but enough sun to give them hope and encouragement. And, Lord when they’re standing at the crossroads trying to decide which path to take, put a person of faith there to point them in the right direction.

Thank You for Your blessings, Your provision, and Your great love for my family. I ask this prayer in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen

To pray for our children daily is not only our main responsibility; it is so very rewarding and such a privilege.  What a blessing!  Thanks for a beautiful prayer Linda (and Ruth)!

I'm grateful that God allows us to come before Him and intercede on the behalf of our loved ones.  Once I learned how to pray for my husband and my children...  it seems that "life" just fell into place and that stress that I used to harbor melted away.  God is so faithful.  If you haven't already trusted in Him... give Him a try.  I would love to share Him with you.

Tea dyeing and some good sales happening this week

Can you guess what I'm doing?  I am enjoying my day off!  I SO can't wait until the time comes when I will be a full-time SAHM!!  Hopefully that will happen by the time school starts up again in August.  Sooner than that would be nice.

I am tea dyeing my little 4x6 flags in the 25 cent stock pot I bought at a garage sale!  I had been using one of my good pots so that was at the top of my summer garage sale hunt list.  Now at the top of my list is a double boiler to grubby up some candles.  Even though I've been tea dyeing for many years, I'm always up to try something different.  This past year I started adding cinnamon to my pot.  Thanks to you creative prim blog friends!  I can't believe I've never thought of that before!  Not only does it make your items smell good, but I really like the extra aging that the cinnamon gives.  I did a little experiment with two flags.  I soaked one in water before I put it in the pot.  I thought it might take to the tea mixture quicker and be darker.  Would you believe it actually took it a lot longer to absorb the tea mixture and it wasn't as dark!  So it's still soaking in the pot.

  I also bought a flag bunting that will go in the pot after these littles ones are done.  Some of you know that I will be making my living room into an Americana room this fall so I've been preparing for it now.  =]  I was showing my husband how I wanted to hang the bunting on the wall under some pictures.  He was starring at me with that "I can't believe you would even think of doing something like that..." look.  So I turned my head towards the window with that "I can't believe he doesn't think that's going to look good..." look.  (I love how we can have conversations without saying a word, Haha!).  Then it hit me!  Aha!  A window valance!  I took the flag bunting over to the window and would you believe it is the perfect size!  Big smile!!  He said it was perfect and my kids even really liked it.  Done deal!  Now I have to buy three more.  I'm so excited about this room and how much fun it's going to be.

Jo-Ann's fabrics is having a 50% off one cut of fabric this week!  I picked up 4 coupons last week.  I hope you got some too!  The sale lasts through the 29th so get in there before then.

Also, I just received my Gordman's email.  One of my favorite times to visit them is happening now-- Get an extra 33% off the clearance price!  That will be going on through May 31.

Don't forget to add Hobby Lobby to your list.  Right now we are in the process of marking down ALL garden to 50% off the regular price.  It should run in next week's ad, but stop by there by Saturday to get the first pick.  Also at Hobby Lobby, lots of Home Accents are marked down to 66%.  That happened the week of Mother's Day so it's already been shopped.  My favorite time to walk those aisles is when we mark it 80% off.  It'll be a few weeks before we do that though.  I'll keep you posted.  On a side note... we just got our first shipment of fall fabric in this week.  Can't wait to see it!

Thank you girls for all your comments on my last post about an Etsy/selling blog.  You came up with some wonderful ideas!  That's what I love about this blog community!  I think I will start out with a selling blog.  Once I get going, then I will add Etsy.

Have a most delightful week my sweet friends~

I am ready

Well, I was going to share some pictures of my crazy, busy month.  I went to Picasa and only found two pictures downloaded for the whole month.  Hmm... I guess that post will have to wait.

In the mean time, I would appreciate some prayer please!  Here I am, back to that same question What to do? that I posted back in October.  I think my time has finally come.  I think I am about to be a full-time stay-at-home mom with no more work outside the home.  Rich and I talked briefly (well, texted briefly) today.  I know I am ready.  There is no more wonder... no more doubt... no more anxiousness about making the right decision.  Ironically, I spent the day at work daydreaming about what my new life at home would be like.  Yes, I am ready!

Prayers would still be appreciated!  Rich tried to get me to quit now but I am holding out.  We have three loans that total $5946.20.  My goal is to stay at work until they are gone.  But by the way our summer is filling up; I'm thinking it's going to be a little while longer until those loans are gone.  Rich even said he would pick up overtime here and there to make up for the loss of my pay.  He just wants me to be happy.  What a sweet man!

I truly desire to make the right decision for my family.  I am willing to put my needs and my feelings aside to serve my family.  Please join me in prayer for guidance, for wisdom to know when it's time.

I am so grateful to have a community of sisters that I feel comfortable enough to share what's on my heart.  I truly believe that you will pray for me.  Thank you dear ones!

Etsy? Selling blog?

Okay girls... I need some input please!  Which would you recommend?  An Etsy account or a selling blog?  Do you have any pros and cons you can throw my way for either of these?

What about buying?  Which do you prefer to buy from?  I know how easy it is to buy from a selling blog.  What about Etsy?  Is it easy to buy from?

I'm leaning towards a selling blog because I have more control over it, listing the items I want.  Of course, not having to pay the fees is nice too but you miss out on the Etsy exposure.

So please share with me any experience you deem necessary for me to know.  I would appreciate your help concerning this matter.

Thank you and have a great day!  =]

More winnings and some good deals

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there!  Since we have worked in our yard for the past two days, today was deemed a do-nothing day.  Those don't come very often around here so I thought I would celebrate it with a post.  =]

I was SO excited to receive my giveaway in the mail from Maria over at AMB Primitives!  Her stuff is awesome, she is very talented!  I finally have my first ever candle mat!  Yeah, it's crazy I know... but I've not owned one until now!  They are on my project list though.  Also, my first ever game board!  They are on my list too.  =]  I love everything from Maria and it will all fit perfectly in my patriotic living room, especially the striped star with the crow and picture of George Washington.  I have some other presidential pieces to go with it.  I just love it all and it's getting me really excited about my living room!  So here is a picture of what I won.  I can't show you where I put it yet, that will have to wait till the room is done.  Thank you so much Maria!!

Rich and I went garage saling on Friday.  He woke me up when he got home from work at 7:30 (he works the midnight shift).  He even brought breakfast home for me.  We headed out around 8 and made it back home at 3:30.  I was so shocked!  He has only been one other time with me and that was many years ago.  I kept telling him we could head home and he said "No, this is way too much fun!".  So I'm pretty excited that I got him hooked on garage sales.  Haha!  We so enjoyed the day just being together.  That doesn't happen very often with three kids!

I can never, ever resist jars!  Especially when they are only a quarter.  This turquoise one was my biggie at $3.  I love it because it has the bicentennial on it with the years.  Being the patriotic lover that I am, I sure couldn't pass it up.

This is some of the things I bought.  Can you believe the campfire marshmallow tin was only fifty cents?!?  I just love it!  We found a 5-pack of Coke of our great state of Oklahoma centennial for fifty cents.  That was a neat little find for us.  I guess someone was thirsty and needed a coke.  Hehe!  I love kids' books, especially old ones and paid $1 each for those.  The glass divider plate was a steal at $1!  It is extremely heavy and matches a plate that I found in my husband's grandmother's hutch we inherited.  I can't believe they match!  There is always so much joy in my heart at simple little pleasures like that!  I didn't need any more little glass bowls but they were only a nickel each so I can couldn't pass them by.  I can clean them up and put them in the flea market.

But what I had the most fun buying that day was candleholders.  I was finding them for a quarter, the brass set was 75 cents.  The cow bowl was $2, but is nice, long and deep.  I am excited about doing some make overs on all this stuff!  After the third candleholder, Rich told me I could slow down on buying those-- you can only use so many.  I told him how I was going to re-do and re-sell them so then he started to be on the lookout for them.  It was funny.

Okay you pewter girls, help me out please!  I'm thinking this can't be real pewter as I only paid a quarter for each piece.  I've looked online but the only thing I came across is that you can do a lead test by rubbing the pewter on a piece of paper.  If it leaves a pencil-like mark when drawn across the paper, then it is real pewter.  I tried this test and all the pieces left a mark on the paper, but don't know how else to tell.

This is really blurry, but I couldn't get a better close-up.  These are the markings on all three of them.  They all say USA, RWP in a circle.

Well I finally found an article and discovered I have:  "Wilton Company of Pennsylvania.  Unfortunately, sellers mistakenly list these items as "pewter" or "antique pewter."  This is incorrect.  These Wilton items are not pewter or antique.  They are made of Armetale, a non-toxic aluminum-based alloy trademarked by the Wilton company and suitable for cooking and dining use.  Many Wilton pieces have an historic look."  The internet is a divine thing... is it not?  Oh well, it was exciting while it lasted to think I found real pewter pieces for a quarter.  Lol!  But that's okay... I still love the historic look they give.

Well I guess that's enough rambling for today.  Even though it's my "day off" my daughter is patiently waiting for me to help her with her solar system project.  Just once it would be nice if daddy's help would suffice.  But I enjoy these times for I know they will disappear before my eyes and she will be gone from our home.

Have a wonderful week my friends!

Four years ago

April 4, 2006

Four years ago I started this blog as a photo blog.  More for sharing my pictures with my family, not really for critique.  I just love taking pictures but I'm not interested in making them photo contest quality.  For you photographers out there... sorry you had to hear that!  I had just bought my Nikon dslr and was having a blast taking pictures with my new digital camera.

Over the years, I thought about using the blog to share my thoughts.  But I thought people would think I am the craziest thing they ever met.  I am not at all eloquent with words.  No one would even read it anyway.  So I just continued using it for pictures... until I got tired of doing that.  In 2008, I only had one post for the whole year.  That's so funny!

Then in September 2009, my good friend Julie put out a challenge on her facebook for people to come join the blog world.  I hadn't even looked at mine since the previous year, although I always thought it would be fun to blog.  Those same old feelings came creeping up again.  But this time, I started checking out other blogs.  Then I realized there are lots of crazy people out there!  I'm not the only one!

So I jumped on board and instantly became addicted to blogging!  Seriously, it was an overnight addiction... I was on it all night and didn't get any sleep at all because I kept blog hopping till the next morning!  I still blame Julie for my blog addiction!  Hehe!  But it's a wonderful addiction!

I now have two blogs.  At this moment, I follow 112 blogs.  I am addicted to blogs and LOVE them so much more than facebook!  My family calls me a blog freak.  (They also call me a clean freak, organize freak, craft freak, paint freak... I think they really just think I am a freak!).  But I love them all anyway.  I told them I need a laptop for Mother's Day/my birthday so I can multi-task blog and that will free up the computer for them.  Hoping that works!

Thank you Julie for introducing me to blogging in a whole new way!  I have met so many incredible, sweet, Godly women these past few months.  Women that became instant friends and friends I believe that will be life-long!  I have so enjoyed encouraging, praying, inspiring, and brightening their days just as they have done the same for me!  I never in my wildest dreams could ever imagine such loving kindness could come from a community of women that I will more than likely never see face-to-face while on this earth. When we make to Heaven girls, I'll get my hug from you then!  =]

I'm very grateful for the precious blog community that I belong to.  I thank God for the new sisters in my life and the sisters that I have known for many, many years.  You ALL are so very precious to me and I love you dearly!  Thank you for joining me in this awesome blog world where we live, we share, we laugh, we cry, and we love.