Thanks Lord for the Beautiful Sunny Day!

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

As you read in my last post, I was really getting tired of the dreary gray winter days. Well, today, God blessed us with a beautiful sunny day even though the temps were in the low 50's. On cool days like this, don't you just love how you can stand in the sun and just feel the sun's powerful warmth and energy wash over you? They predict rain for tomorrow so I am very thankful for the sunshine we had today - it was very uplifting.

It will be a busy weekend. I work out of my home as the Soccer Registrar for our county's Association and my DH is the Treasurer. We have been doing this for about nine years now. People always ask us why, since our children are long grown and out of the house - but there was a need and once you get into something like this.....well, you know how hard it is to let it go. I have to admit; however, that I hope before too long, we can hand it to a younger generation of parents whose children are playing the sport. We usually have between 2400 and 3000 kids playing in our Association. We have State Governing Board meetings this weekend in Austin. So we will be able to combine seeing my brother who is in that general area and celebrating my twin sons' 29th birthday as well. I have ordered an Italian Creme Wedding Cake, a favorite of ours, for a surprise at dinner that night. We might have to play hookie from a meeting or two to get all this in, but I promise we will do our best to uphold our obligations :-)

Well, here is snapshot of the latest progress of my butterfly block. I am going to put antique roses where I have begun the vines in the lower right of the block. You can see I have already added two or three. The few butterflies are just pinned right now to help with placement of flowers, but I plan to put about nine flitting around on the block. I have a lot of work to do adding roses and leaves. I had dyed some ribbon the other day a nice peach to co-ordinate with the embroidered flower on the green fabric in the lower left corner; however, when I decided to do antique roses, I wanted more variegation on the ribbon so I tried a technique I saw in a book recently just for fun.

I purchased an unfinished frame and push-pinned pieces of the ribbon across the frame. It was then easy to just spritz the ribbon with a bit of water and begin painting on my other colors softly. I added some touches of green and yellow with the peach to blend with similar colors from other areas on the block. I can't really say as to whether this was better than the other ways I dye bulk amounts of ribbon, but it was fun to try and I will probably be doing it again when I want to be very specific with coloring a ribbon or paint the edges of a ribbon. It dried quickly on the frame and was easy to carry from one spot to another when I needed that counter space for something else.

I wanted to show you this beautiful bracelet. Can you believe that a dear friend made this for me!? I use beads in my projects, but I am so clumsy with beads and my chubby little fingers just don't work well with making beaded jewelry so I rely on my dear friends to help me. We recently purchased these wonderful blue crystal cubes and silver tube beads, and my dear friend Dolores put it together for me. I just love it! Dolores is a very talented jewelry artist and CQer, not to mention, a beautiful lady inside and out. I am so blessed to be able to call her "friend".

The study of Matthew this year has just been amazing. I have read Matthew many times, but so much more is coming to light for me. This week, in Chapter 14, we were talking about Peter when he walked on the water. Peter had such bold faith. Sometimes, I feel like I have bold faith, but then just like Peter - I can lose it as quickly as I grabbed onto it. What do you suppose caused Peter to lose faith and begin to sink? Did he see a huge wave out of the corner of his eye and become fearful? Did he look back at the other disciples and brag a little? "Hey guys, look at me, I'm walking on water!" Either one of these things could be an example of me for sure. Doubt, fear and pride are definitely stumbling blocks for me. Our lecture leader does such a wonderful job of giving us food for thought. She said something that really stuck with me....could it be that Peter's faith waivered because he saw more than one possiblity? Instead of staying focused on Jesus and His power, Peter saw the other possibilities with his human intellect. Boy, is this me. I was taught to solve problems, take control, weigh the situation, etc. And boy do I! Letting go of control is a BIG thing for me. This was an excellent lesson for me to read and re-read for you see, the best part is that once Peter began to sink, all he had to do is cry out to the Lord and Jesus stretched out his hand and took hold of him. God is always there, willing and waiting - how blessed we are!

Oh, BTW - you know that carrot I posted a few days ago from our garden. Well, we pulled some more out of the garden and roasted them with potatoes and OMG - they were the best carrots I have ever tasted (no, really, I'm not bragging, they were soooo good). Being my first home-grown carrots, I wasn't sure what to expect, but I definitely recommend trying out your green thumb! Mmm, mmm good!

3 comments:

Judy Morphis said...

As always, your blog is so inspiring and tends to speak right when my heart needs to hear. The block is beautiful, as always and how pretty the bracelet is. Tomorrow, in East Texas, we are suppose to have some more cold weather.

Jane said...

Your block is growing more beautiful as your carrots are growing more dear -LOL... thanks for sharing the thoughts that try us all, you have a great way with perspective regarding the Word and applying it to your life, which in turn touches mine. Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

Lucky you, that bracelet is gorgeous!

 
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