TEETH

Everyone loves a beautiful smile. Nothing can win the heart faster than a heartfelt smile. Beauty queens win because of their smile. Politicians are charismatic because of their smile. Movie stars spend a fortune on having the most beautiful teeth. We put a lot of importance on having perfect teeth.
Unfortunately, mine aren't so perfect anymore. Aging takes its toll on our teeth, so today I must take the first step and go visit my dentist to have two molars extracted. I'm doing my level best to be brave and to not have a panic attack, to simply breathe deep and know that I am in God's hands and nothing can happen to me that He does not allow. Part of my problem is I have never had novacaine before...nope, not for one single filling, cleaning...sans novacaine! You'd think I'd be thrilled, I won't feel anything, but I fear that needle. Silly, I know.
My plan, close my eyes, open my mouth and sing over and over in my head the words to Voice of Truth from Casting Crowns, Completely from Ana Leigh, and Redeemer from Nicole C Mullen. God promises to keep me in perfect peace if I keep my mind stayed on Him and also promises that His perfect love casts out fear. I'm counting on it!

A Beautiful Poem

Roses
by Joyce Kilmer, 1917

I went to gather roses and twine them in a ring,
For I would make a posy, a posy for the King.
I got an hundred roses, the loveliest there be,
From the white rose vine and the pink rose bush and from the red rose tree.

But when I took my posy and laid it at His feet
I found He had His roses a million times more sweet.
There was a scarlet blossom upon each foot and hand,
And a great pink rose bloomed from His side for the healing of the land.

Now of this fair and awful King there is this marvel told,
That He wears a crown of linked thorns instead of one of gold.
Where there are thorns are roses, and I saw a line of red,
A little wreath of roses around His radiant head.

A red rose is His Sacred Heart, a white rose is His face,
And His breath has turned the barren world to a rich and flowery place.
He is the Rose of Sharon, His gardener am I,
And I shall drink His fragrance in Heaven when I die.

The Waning Days of Summer

August is half over, school starts next week and summer is waving good-bye as it retires until next year. This has been the hottest summer on record here in Florida, and the humidity has been horrendous. There's been times it's been so hot and humid it's been hard to breathe and I've lived inside as much as possible this year. One good thing about that, I've read a lot of books I had on my shelf and even gone back and re-read some golden oldies.

I'm looking forward to fall, it's my favorite time of year. I'm looking forward to putting away the Americana decor from my home and bringing out the fall colors. They're so relaxing and comforting. It'll be time to put away the summer fruity candles and bring out my favorites, Autumm Wreath and Home Sweet Home...there's nothing like a Yankee Candle for bringing the scents of fall inside.

I'm ready for fall...are you?

ASK A SMART ALECK QUESTION, GET A SERIOUS ANSWER!

The other night my sweet husband was telling me how since he's been reading his Bible every day he's noticed it has all the answers to life's questions. Being the smart-aleck I can be at times, I asked, "do you suppose there's a diet in there that would really work?" (We'd also been talking about our need to eat healthier and for both of us to lose some pounds.)

I didn't give it anymore thought until I was surfing the television channels as I played with Kyle and noticed a man reading Isaiah 55: 1-2. What caught my ears was the phrase, "let your soul delight itself in fatness." That brought to mind one of my husband's favorite phrases, "oh forget the diet, eat what you want and die fat and happy." I don't think that's what this scripture really means. What it really means is that we work and struggle to try and find happiness. Instead we find depression, anger, tiredness, or _____ ( fill in your personal blank here) and then we eat to try and medicate that feeling. Instead of eating to live, we live to eat. We plan our next meal before we digest the one we just ate. If you're anything like me, if there's a piece of pie in the refrigerator it calls my name until I go eat it. We eat when we're really not even hungry, we eat because the clock tells us it's time to eat.

Anyway, I recalled Daniel in Babylon and how he didn't want to eat the King's rich foods and instead asked for pulse and water. Pulse? what's that? Basically it's seeds, whole grains, fruits and nuts. Hmmm that sounds more delicious than pulse! Then I remembered Ezekiel being in the wilderness and God giving him a specific recipe for bread...that's in Ezekiel 4:9. Then I read Ezekiel 4:10 and found out God even says how much meat to eat...."20 shekels a day". Okay, what's a shekel? I looked it up and 20 shekels of meat is 8 ounces. And there we have it....God's perfect diet! Whole grains, nuts, seeds, fruits and 8 ounces of meat a day, water to drink. How easy is that?

So I'm giving it a try.....I'll let you know how my progress goes as time goes along.

A GREAT SUMMER READ

I recently began participating in the Tyndale House bloggers tour. They send you a book, you read it and write a blog about it. Easy enough? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Once in a while you get a book you find difficult to finish and write something constructive about. HOWEVER, and I want to strongly stress that word, HURRICANES IN PARADISE is one of my all-time top-ten summer reads!
DENISE HILDRETH shares the tale of four women from different walks of life but with something in common: deep, dark secrets that keep them from being the women they ought to be. In the midst of the book one of the characters is sitting in a little church and the congregation begins to sing the old hymn, Amazing Grace. Up to that point I'd had a hard time warming up to a couple of the characters, but suddenly I realized that God's amazing grace isn't just the saving kind of grace, although I'm very thankful for that grace, but it's also the kind of grace that helps us through the deepest, darkest valleys in our lives. For Riley, Winnie, Laine, and Tamyra it is especially true. HURRICANES IN PARADISE is also a story of friendship, built around a storm in the Atlantic Ocean, certainly, but more importantly a friendship built around the love they all share for the Lord, even though a few of them had forgetten about that love.
Normally I donate any book I read for review to our new church library, we're struggling so to get it off to a good start. HURRICANES IN PARADISE is firmly at home on my keeper shelf, it's a book I'll want to read again and again, anytime I need reminding that God's Grace is all-sufficient for any problem, any trial, any situation.
This book was provided for review by Tyndale House Publishing Company and is available for purchase at Amazon.com as well as your local bookseller.

SHADES OF MORNING

Marnie Wittier has life just where she wants it. Quiet. Peaceful. No drama. A long way away from her past. In the privacy of her home, she fills a box with slips of paper, scribbled with her regrets, sins, and sorrows. But that’s nobody else’s business. Her bookstore/coffee shop patrons, her employees, her friends from church—they all think she’s the very model of compassion and kindness.

Then Marnie’s past creeps into her present when her estranged sister dies and makes Marnie guardian of her fifteen-year-old son—a boy Marnie never knew existed. And when Emmit arrives, she discovers he has Down syndrome—and that she’s woefully unprepared to care for him. What’s worse, she has to deal with Taylor Cole, her sister’s attorney, a man Marnie once loved—and abandoned. As Emmit (and Taylor) work their way into her heart, Marnie begins to heal. But when pieces of her dismal past surface again, she must at last face the scripts of paper in her box, all the regrets and sorrows. Can she do it? Or will she run again?

I was prepared to enjoy SHADES OF MORNING, and I really dislike writing negative things about books, simply because an author works so hard to produce a novel for people to enjoy. However, I can honestly say there were a few parts of SHADES OF MORNING I didn't enjoy at all, from the confusing and disorienting beginning to the disturbing surprise ending. The middle, I DID enjoy! It was a heartwarming story of coming to grips with what is in life and learning that God allows us hurdles to overcome in order to learn to lean more on Him. It's also a story of learning to love who you are, who God made you, and of letting go of the past; a story of healing and miracles.

SHADES OF MORNING is available at Amazon.com and is a worthwhile summer read. This book was provided for review by Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing Group.

101 Reasons.....

Well there could be 101 reasons why I haven't blogged in over a month but the truth is I simply haven't felt like it. Yes, there's been a lot going to in my life taking up my time, but nothing so pressing that I couldn't have taken a few minutes and shared. I guess the real truth is I didn't have anything I felt was interesting enough to say. So, since the last time we visited:

I had my 1-year post op check and am blessed to be cancer-free.

We have a new addition in our life...Kyle. I started keeping him each day mid-way through April. He's 9 weeks old and such a blessing to our lives. We pray we can be an equal blessing to his parents and are humbled by their faith and trust in us to help raise this little one.

We have another new addition to our family....Bud. He's a 1-year-old German Shepard who is a big lap dog. He's a lot of fun to watch play. He's already knocked Paul down to the ground once playing.

We're doing a tomato plant experiment this year. We have one in a topsy-turvy planter and 3 in different types soil/fertilier/containers. I'll let you know as the season progresses which one yields best. Here's some pictures of the different plants and containers.

My azaleas were especially beautiful this year. I don't know if it's because it was so cold for so long, or if it's simply the year for azaleas. Here's a picture I took just as they reached their peak.

Our AWANA year at church was a success. One of my Puggles learned 35 Bible verses this year. This may not sound like much of an accomplishment until you remember she's only two years old. Two of my Cubbies completed an entire book, that's memorizing 24 Bible verses. One is four and the other five.

We'll soon be starting VBS and I'm looking forward to an exciting time for the kids. They're going to be studying God's Word: The Bible and looking at how we got our Bible, the men and women, such as Tyndale, who gave their very lives so we could have the Word of God for our own.

I guess that pretty much catches everyone up as to what I've been doing in my life lately. Time to get ready and go to church. I pray your lives are so very blessed.