Mud Bugs - mmm,mmmm Good!

Saturday, March 29, 2008

What are mud bugs? Well, if you have ever lived in Louisiana or coastal Texas, they are a staple...crawfish! Like Bubba and his shrimp, in the movie, Forest Grump, we do everything with those little critters, we even make crawfish pizza. Last night my DH and I went for some boiled crawfish at a local place called On The River. Boy, were they good. They throw in some corn on the cob and potatoes while they are boiling the crawfish with spices and red pepper. Especially, if you were reared in Louisiana (where I was for most of my formative years), crawfish (shrimp and crabs) are just not right until they make your lips burn! mmm, mmm good! Oh yeah, there was a basket of fried pickles too.

I want to give a shout out to all my friends and family that had birthdays this week. Lynnis, Gayle, PJ, Jane, Jan and Stacy!

You saw the fabric cards I made for Jane and Lynnis. Gayle is my younger brother so, no, didn't sew anything for him. And I am working on a little something for my adorable niece, PJ. I have to tell you about Jan though. Jan is a dear friend and mentor. She taught me to crazy quilt. Last week while were at our sewing bee, I mentioned that DH and I were going to look for some trees for our front pasture and she said very casually that she wanted a red bud tree and needed to look for one. Well, I grabbed right on to that tidbit of information, knowing her birthday was only a few days away. So, when DH and I went to get trees yesterday, yep, got a really nice red bud tree about 6' tall, just sprouting out. I also found the cutest card for her at a quilt shop in Houston. It has a skirt made out of a vintage hankie. It just seem to fit Jan so well, no not the hankie - the personality of the card! She is a southern lady.

So, we dropped by last evening to give her her card and tree, and lo and behold when we pulled up, there was a red bud tree in her driveway that was about 10' tall and gorgeous! Come to find out, another friend from Bee, Chris, latched onto the same idea and beat me to it! So now, Jan has two red bud trees to plant - she is a happy camper. My DH wanted to take the pruning shears to the bigger one so as to not make ours look so much smaller, but I said "no!"

Today is Stacy's birthday and we have special plans this evening with her and her family to celebrate her! She is such a beautiful spirit and generously leads the youth at our Church!

Now, I want to entice you to be ready for CQMagOnline when it comes out with its new edition in a couple of weeks. Many of us have been working really hard on wonderful articles for our readers. I will give you a hint for one of my articles. It involves a beautiful lady, silk ribbon and .... a drill. Yes, a drill. You will have to wait for the article to figure that one out!

I mentioned Chris earlier, one of our regular sewing bee members. She brought a simple, elegant, CQ pillow to show us recently and I thought I would share a photo. She purchased it from another CQ artist. Aren't the sunflowers just beautiful! This would be a lovely accent to any living room sofa.

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Witnessing and temptation. Boy, often in today's world, it can be so hard to strike a balance when witnessing. Christians in a sense do not belong to this world, but we still need to be around those who are not Christians to be able to witness for Christ; which, means being in the midst of temptation. If I cut myself off from the world around me to protect myself, I would never be able to witness for Christ, give any type of Christian example, personal testimony, or even grow in my faith. It would not be a loving thing to do either and therefore, wouldn't be following one of God's foremost teachings; to love and serve others. But, it can be so difficult to lay down clear boundaries in certain circumstances. Often, Satan uses clever enticements, half truths and things we may have weighing on our conscience to try and make us stumble. When I venture into this type of situation, I ask myself if I ever feel tempted to compromise my faith, either in what I believe or in how I live. And, how can I be strong in the face of such temptation? Well, Jesus provided the answers and the example for me. He prayed often and made His objectives clear from the start- to worship and glorify God. And, He always acted from a loving heart, using God's word. God's word, scripture, is so helpful in dealing with any circumstance in our lives. Leaning on His promises and His character give me such hope! I just want to encourage you to read God's word often! I am trying to establish the habit of reading and studying every day and it has been such a blessing in my life. Yes, it is hard, I am not going to lie to you. Life and its busyness can get in the way when I let it. But, when I bump into those difficult moments that happen every day, if I have His word tucked in my heart, His strength to draw on - it makes all the difference in how I respond - from love, rather than anger or annoyance! I also want to encourage you to test anything you may hear or read against the scriptures so that the Holy Spirit can help you discern the truth. Yes, even anything I may say here! Sometimes people can have the best of intentions, but provide wrong or jumbled information. Search out God and His word for yourself if anything I say here strikes a cord - I promise it will bless you! Things can get pretty fuzzy sometimes, but God will bring everything back into focus!

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