An extra day! Make your list

A month from today is February 29. That means we have an extra day this year. I challenge you to be purposeful on that extra day. Go the extra mile for someone or lots of someones. We have been so blessed. Make that day count. Be a blessing!!!

How ? You ask. 

Cook a meal for someone or add an extra bean to your pot and share your supper. 

Take your pastor's wife to lunch or set a date to do that.

Have a group over to your house for lunch or supper or just coffee. I was at Sue's house recently and noticed how she added lemon to her water pitcher. Genius!!! I now do this!!!

You could use that day to plan your Easter celebration. Ours always involves dyeing eggs and our folks get really excited!!!

You could make a point to spend extra time with those you love doing what they love to do.

You could read to someone.

Other things you can do- drive through Chickfila or Starbucks and pay for the car behind you, go to the library to pay your fine and donate your change to the library- I've done this once and I felt like a rock star, they were so excited and it was $ .50, leave early enough so that you can let every car out into your lane- ok maybe not every car????, Get the idea?

Or if you are my friend Paige, you can celebrate your daughter's birthday.  She was born 4 years ago on the 29th so is she celebrating her 1st birthday or her 4th????

How about you??  What do you plan to do?

New Dining room, epantry, Mrs Meyers

My new Dining room. A few folks have asked what the 'new' dining room looks like.  Here it is on a picked up day.  

So I heard about a new to me site called epantry.com  I was encouraged to try them out because they were having a sale on Mrs Meyers products.  I jumped on the site and got me a nice order ready and added stuff to my cart and then checked out- but the page never showed that I had checked out.  I was confused and disappointed.  What do the confused and disappointed do.... They jump on amazon.com and add stuff to they 'pantry box'.  Amazon has this HUGE box that ships for 5.99 no matter what you put in it.  They have a list of what food or household products you can add to said box.  I love this because with my limitations this lets me shop from home for many things.  I got lots of Mrs Meyers things-lots of cool scents.  And then. A few days later I realized that my epantry order went through. So I have LOTS of Mrs Meyers stuff!!!!   This is half my stuff. 😳   I have given Marisa several items.  I plan to give a set of scents as my door prize for our upcoming Women's Retreat.  Sandy is thrilled and is enjoying using lots of different scents.

Kaitlin's favorite smell.   Do you enjoy using this product?  If so, what is your favorite scent?

Soon I'll have built in bookcases where this white bookcase is now. I'm beyond excited!  

This table is usually in the dining room but it is a train table for the present time.

Cozy Rooms, Goals and helpful children

I've rearranged, well, I should say, Kaitlin and Marisa rearranged the furniture in our dining room and living room.  Now I have a cozy room and a large dining room and I love these changes!


Have you made changes in the New Year?  Resolutions? Goals?
I'm a goal maker.

Here are my goals for 2016 in no order-
Write 91 letters- in honor of my mama.  She would be 91 this year if she were living and she loved writing letters and reading
Read 91 books- I'd love to read 50 that I already own and read 51 from library but alas this is something to strive for in the future as I have already seen things that jumped in my amazon cart and have made there way to my house since Jan 1.  I plan to use Tim Challies Reading Challenge.
Work for 3 hours a week on my counted cross stitch- I have three projects started
Listen to 12 TED talks- do you have a favorite one?
Learn to read a crochet pattern- I'm taking a class on craftsy
Read a commentary on Job- that book puzzles me
Go through every book we own and decide if we need to keep it or donate it- I have one bookcase that has crashed to the floor and I need to go through especially those books.  On a happier note I plan to have some built-in bookcases in the next few months
Pray through my Christmas card list
Pray through our church directory
Give gifts with ribbons and no strings- I have lately been convicted that I don't do this!
Make 24 meals for others
Keep on top of my verses that I have memorized and add more


What are your goals/resolutions?
I'll post the Dining room soon!

56, 57 and Indoor Camping

We live in a home that has things that go wrong and need to be fixed often  older home.  On Monday of this week at 4 very AM our power went out.  It is January and I know cold is all relative but soon that house grew cold.  My very smart husband checked out a few things and found out that our main breaker needed to be flipped back.  That worked for 2 hours and then we were plunged into darkness and coldness again.  He flipped it again but even I know that can't keep happening.

Carl found us an electrician and he came out yesterday.  The bad news is that the breaker is bad and needs to be replaced, the rest of the bad news is that they don't make that breaker anymore so they have to order one.  He recommended that we turn off our upstairs heat to give the breaker some relief in the chilly mornings when heat comes on in the whole house.

Last night was the first night in Operation Keep the Power on.  Now, I do sleep better when it is chilly but really chilly is well, really chilly.  I slept with a hooded jacket it and I looked like I belonged to the sand people from Star Wars and I thanked God all night for whoever invented the electric blanket.  I may have arthritis but I still have quickness when it comes to 'powdering my nose' in the middle of the night when it is so cold.  I don't even think the covers had time to touch the bed before I was back in them.  I do plan to buy a new/bigger rug for our bathroom because the bathroom floor was really cold but then again maybe that was what made me so fast?!?!

When I woke up this morning it was 56 degrees upstairs.  After I got dressed, in the blink of an eye, I decided to put my nightie and my hoodie under my covers so that tonight I'll warm them up with the electric blanket and then put them on.  That sounds like a great idea in theory but I am also 57 years old and I am afraid that between now and tonight I am going to forget when my night clothes are!!!!! I am setting all kinds of reminders and if you want to text and remind me that might be good too.

Where is Joanna Gaines when you need her?  I'm ready for a her to fix up my place!

2015, the stomach flu and a charm bracelet

I love new things.  New calendars, new list of goals, new journals, new books, new reading goals.  I think you get the picture!  I especially am enjoying them this year because I am ready to put 2015 behind us.  It was a hard  growing year for us.

One of my friends shared that we often yearn for the mountain tops but valleys have lots of growth in them and are often very beautiful.  I did see lots of growth and many blessings in 2015 and I am sure I will see more and more as the years go on.

7 years ago we were headed home from a family vacation from the happiest place on earth- WDW.  I came down with the mother of all stomach bugs.  We left Valdosta, GA about 6 AM Eastern Time and  my frequent stops to gas station and rest area bathrooms began about an hour later.  It was a rainy day.  I remember because we couldn't roll down the windows and my poor family that was in the back, well, bless their hearts.

We did watch a movie called Hoodwinked on our trip.  There was a scene in the movie where a mountain goat knew an avalanche was coming and he wasn't prepared.  Kaitlin and Marisa could tell when I was about to have a shall we say a 'reversal of fortune' and to each other they would say 'There is an avalanche coming and we are not prepared!!!!'   Long story short- I went thru all my clothes, clean and not clean and we had to stop at a motel in Tupelo, MS and my sweet family took my yuck clothes to a laundry mat and washed them while I was in a bed.

When we recall this trip we laugh the hardest about the trip home.  When our trip popped up on my Timehop app showing what we were doing 7 years ago I just smiled and thought about 2015.  I am sure that soon we will be laughing about all that went on there too.

A new day/ year/ beginnings are coming!

Below are some of our Christmas ornaments.  Some are older than I am.  My friend, Cindy, said that when she decorates her tree it is like looking at a charm bracelet.  You recall all the memories and that is so true!!!  Some of the ornaments below cost .25 cents and were ordered from an offer on the back of a Frosted Flakes box in 1951.

Some of the ornaments we bought in 2015 and I am sure that we will look back and think of all that we learned and see all the ways we have grown.   

I am so thankful for my church family, my friends, and my God that doesn't change. Ever.

Hello 2016!