Be Still and Know...Then and Now

How to begin… As a Christian, as a mom there are times when I feel overwhelmed. Case in point, last night on the way to church the girlchild was behind the wheel. The customary mode of operation is that as soon as her butt hits the seat there is an automatic change in the radio station. The concept of driving without music is just not an option. So there I sit in the passenger seat and it begins to wash over me. I am listening to the words that are pouring forth  from the radio and I am in shock. I continue to listen, wondering when the pod person is going to bust forth from my child's chest, because surely my sweet precious child would never listen to such as this. I cast a glance over to the drives side and watch as we travel along. Song number two comes on and again I am listing to the lyrics and becoming more and more alarmed. When my brain and my heart could take no more, fortunately we had come to a stop sigh. I had a moment to ask without distracting her, I asked “Do you

  I was listening to the radio this morning. I love listening to Victory 91.5 . This is a station based here in the state where I live but you can also listen on the internet if you want to check it out. They are truly a radio ministry. They read scripture and pray on the air several times a day. If you haven’t tuned in you should! In my prayer time this morning I was seeking some direction, some discernment in what I need to do. Do I need to seek some part time employment, no I need to commit to facilitate a bible study, do I need to sign up for a bible study, do I, do I, do I……I was asking for direction. A LOT of direction. The great thing about God is that no matter how much or what you place before him his well of attentiveness is bottomless. He never fails to draw near to listen. As I was driving this morning I was listening to a small teaching moment in between songs and the subject matter was the Parable of the Talents. The theme of the teaching moment was focusing on money

I would love to be able to share that I am out of my hormonal funk. Unfortunately this nasty cloud of toxic thinking still hovers. It feels as if it is stuck to me with super glue.  On the upside I do recognize that being the mature grown woman I am I do not have to let it invade all areas of my life. I may feel crappy emotionally as well as physically, this does not give license to make the others with in my sphere of influence miserable. I may want to inflict bodily harm and I am trying my best to keep it to myself. But I digress. I was looking for some relevant scripture to post over on the facebook page I set up for our pottery studio this morning. If you want to go over and take a look at our page here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/WildcatPottery . I try to keep it updated with all our current inventory. But I digress again… maintaining focus also seems to be influenced by hormonal deficiencies… Anyhoooo, I found this piece of scripture from Jeremiah. Jeremiah 18:3-

It started very early, before I even got out of bed. My thought life was going places it just did not need to go. As it does from time to time I woke with thoughts of doom and gloom. Thoughts that no mother ever wants to ponder upon. I lay there for several minutes allowing the thoughts to weigh heavy upon me, then I recognized it for what it was. Away from me Satan, it’s Sunday and I need to get ready for church. The evil one is persistent. It was a series of very small things, however it was just enough to shift my mood, my thoughts to a place where they should not have been. I got myself ready for church, I was ready to go, purse on my shoulder and the Girlchild points to my chin and announces “You have a GIANT white hair right there!” From the look on my face she then follows with “Well it’s better than waiting to point it out to you at church!” I concede to her logic and redeposit my purse and other things to the counter and go on a hair plucking mission. We managed to hit

Confession time here! There are times when I just want to dig a mote and build a huge wall around my house. I want to just shut myself off from the world. The evening news, the things and people you come in contact with on a daily basis, well most of it just hurts my heart. I want one of those “Hide” buttons like I have on Facebook. There are some things I just don’t want to see, and LOTS of things out there that are just not supposed to be seen. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a real life hide button. Just think of the possibilities… However living in the real world I know that there is a HUGE difference between the things I should not see and the things I don’t want to see. There are times when I am just like Paul, the very thing I know I should not do is the very things I end up doing. Then the things I know I should do, or the things I know Jesus would do are the very thing I don’t do. Life is so very hard sometimes. Doing the right thing, or the Jesus things is almost always

Which for me can be a bit dangerous. However with my fluctuating hormonal state I have to take the functional brain activity when I can get it. The other day at the pottery studio we were talking, that is not unusual, we are always chattering about all sorts of things, however one of our newest Pottery Peep’s commented on a picture I had posted on Facebook of my latest painting. She and I had been friend for years but apparently it had never come up in conversation “I had no idea you were an artist!” she said. There are things that may be, at times, to personal to share about ones self for fear that you place your heart out there for all the world to see. Plus sometime I just think the whole thing is just not noteworthy enough to bring up in conversation. Also at the age I am I am finding that I am less and less concerned of what other folks think of me, however I am a bit more sensitive where my creative endeavors are concerned. It is sort of like wanting to please your favorite a

Who’s there….well it’s me!   After a very long break from blogging, well long break for me that is. I have decided that I will try to be a bit more proactive with my blog. Thanks Dana for the bit of encouragement, it is nice to know one is missed from time to time :) Sometime ya just don’t have anything ta say…and sometimes ya do… I have been spending a lot of time working on my pottery and I have started painting again so my time has been a bit divided by my creative pursuits. I am having more fun than should be allowed, however it can be a bit of a downer when the reality of life interrupts the fun. Having to stop and be a mom every now and again can be a real drag…those pesky parental duties such as collage visits and senior portraits. All I can tell you is that back in the dark ages we did not do things like college visits or senior pictures. We all got the same blue velvet off the shoulder drape and that was the end of it. Now they do multiple changes of clothing, different

Who’s there? I am still pondering my lack of blog fodder, I think I have lost the capacity to come up with an original thought, or maybe I am just obsessed with the clay, it seems that's all I can think about…I wake up thinking about it and I go to sleep thinking about it! What I will make next, what I want to learn how to do next….. This is Angel #3….   My last angel bit the dust….literally!   Live and learn and keep practicing!!!!!!   I have to go wake the hubs up I a few minutes, and I was thinking about how quiet my house is this morning and how things change in life. My daughter and 160 of our youth at church are off to their annual Spring Break Retreat at PCB. They go to a Christian retreat facility in Laguna Beach every year. Confession time here: Where my daughter is concerned that nut did not fall to far from the maternal tree in sooooooo many ways. Last week when she was nearly driving me to distraction with all her preparations, double checking her list of

Ok I’m trying here…another post in the black hole that is or was my blogging mojo…. 1. What are your plans for Easter? Our plans are very simple. We are going to church and then probably just returning home for lunch. Are you cooking a big lunch or dinner?   Normally I do not cook on Sunday’s and Easter is no exception. However this year the Hub’s birthday falls on Easter Sunday, so I am throwing a small Easter/Birthday dinner. Dyeing eggs? Probably not, we did when the kids were little and Muffinhead has not been here in a few days so we have not had the opportunity to have any Easter fun. Attending a sun rise service?   Our church does hold a sunrise service out at our campground but I for one will be snug in my bed at seven am. Eating too much chocolate? Does German Chocolate Cake count? That’s the Hubs cake of choice for his birthday. I do still have to assemble Muffinhead Easter basket so there might be a few chocolate eggs involved…….. 2.  What is somet

My husband is out of town/really out of town as he is in Germany so we had frozen pizza for dinner last night. Since my husband is out of town I had not unloaded or reloaded the dishwasher in several days. It is now loaded and my kitchen sink is now full of very hot sudsy water trying to get the last bit of frosting residue off the decorating tips I used to make Muffinhead’s birthday cake. The aftermath….. The results, she really loved her cake y’all! I now re-remember why I stopped doing wedding cakes….the clean up is a killer. The lemon thyme that I cut back to nothing this past fall is now bursting up from the pruned stems in a dark green lushness that just makes me want to go out and run my fingers over. I love my herb garden. I have to make one last harvest of my swiss chard from the veggie patch and then I can get in there and turn over the dirt and amend it to get my spring veggie garden planted. My pottery buddy and I are trying to work up some inventory for a sprin

I only missed one day this week. By Friday evening I was down for the count. So I spent the day Saturday curled up in a blanket sipping my Alka Seltzer Plus and sleeping! Sunday, February 17 There is just something very satisfying about using a bowl that I made myself. This poor little bowl, a bowl only a mother could love, it wobbles and spins as it is not flat on the bottom and the rim is off and not flat either. But we were all happy with this new glaze combo.  It is just the right size for a double scoop of strawberry frozen yogurt. Monday, February 18 The Hub’s loves a big salad with something sliced up on top. I had some grilled pork chops in the freezer and I pulled them out and had dinner in under a few minutes. I love those kind of suppers! Tuesday, February 19 I entertained myself for a few minutes watching this Mourning Dove collect nesting materials in the back yard. It was very particular about searching for the proper ingredients. The nest is located on a large

  What up with this? I think I have lost my blogging mojo.   Anybody else out there feeling this way?   Thinking of taking a break…   Does anybody even read these post????   What peeks your interest for visiting and reading a blog?   What do you want to read or why do you give a blog a look-see?   Ho Hum…bla bla bla…   Blogging blaa-ness…   Blessings R

I am trying to work up this post and keep an open line of prayerful communication at the same time. As parents we all face those times when the natural course of time brings the inevitable rites of passage. These things need to happen, yet as parents we would choose for them to be postponed indefinitely. We have a new driver in the family and today is the first day she will be driving herself home from church. I am sure that this is not a new concept to many of you. It happens to all of us. However I will openly confess that this mothers heart is a bit on the anxious side. I know she is a good driver, yet my desire is to wrap her and the car in a heavenly and very thick layer of bubble wrap of protection. So I am moving on to other distractions until she is safely home and out from behind the wheel, at least for today anyway. Prayer for safe travels would be greatly appreciated…. Sunday, February 10 My son and his family were over Sunday night. He required a bit of help from his d

This rarely happens, I actually have a picture for each day this week. Don’t hold your breath because it will probably not happen again for quite some time! Sunday. February 3 Something happened during the Youth Worship that I thought would never ever happen… the Girlchild did a violin performance with three other members of her youth group. They did great y’all! I am hoping that this will be the first of many performances! Monday, February 4 Muffinhead always has a unique take on how to watch television. She would pop her head out of the tub and then pop back down for a few seconds. She had a great time, however the dog was a bit confused! Tuesday, February 5 Tuesday the cupboards were so bare that Muffinhead and I had to go out for lunch. We went to Chick-Fil-A. I tried their new Chicken Tortilla soup, it was very good! After lunch Muffinhead had a great time in the play place. It was like bowling with pre-schooler’s. They would ALL climb up and then ALL come down the sli

I am going to go down a bit of a bunny trail here but hang with me I do have a very good point…in April of 2012 I was in a very minor fender bender. Some woman backed into the side of my car in the Kroger parking lot. We went ahead and had the side of my car repaired and paid the $200.00 deductible. The insurance company began the process of perusing the other insurance company for damages done to my car, as it was not my fault. Life goes on and I had not given much thought to the status of the claim. Fast forward to this morning. The Hubs is working on our taxes. We have been faithful to set aside a portion of our monthly income so that when the tax bill comes due we have the funds to pay it. We have long since stopped loaning the government an interest free loan long ago so we know we will have to pay each year. When all the numbers were calculated we had done very well. Our Federal Tax line item in the budget fell short by only $150.00 to pay both the federal and the state taxes

Happy Hodgepodge y'all! 1.  Chinese New Year will be celebrated on February 10th, and 2013 is the year of the snake. When did you last see a snake?  Are you okay around snakes or do they give you the shivers?  Snakes, I can’t claim to be necessarily phobic about them, however I don’t care to spend any long term time in the close vicinity of the slithery creatures. Also I can never remember those catchy rhymes that help you remember when snakes are venomous and which are not…red touches yellow your a good fellow….red touches black….I always forget. So I usually err on the side of caution! As a public service announcement I just Googled it and here is what I have found… Red touches Black, he's a friendly Jack. Red touches Yellow, he's a deadly fellow. 2. The color red in Chinese culture usually means good luck.  Do you believe in luck? Not really, more accurately I believe in God-incidences. I understand random happenings and things falling in place in a good way

We had some extreme weather, I made an awesome chocolate cake and our last glaze firing was full of lots of happy results! Monday, January 28 Overall I was very happy with this coffee cup, there is a slight boo boo on the other side due to an operator error when I glazed it but live and learn is the phrase for the day where me and the clay are concerned…. I call these glaze buggers…I am sure there is a technical pottery term but bugger works for me! Tuesday, January 29 Skoots1mom posted a recipe on her FB page for a vinegar cake, it was so simple that I had to try it. You can be sure I will be keeping this one around for a long time. The amazing thing is that the recipe required absolutely no eggs! It is just your simple every day pantry ingredient, and most of the time we all have them in our pantry all the time, so the next time you need a super quick desert idea….my suggestion is a vinegar cake. It was awesome. Click here for the recipe….. Cooks note, I replaced the wa