scattered

whew. it's too hard to make a decision today about what to blog. let's do some scrambled content, shall we?


let's see. yesterday in church, we finished the 'jonah' series. i cannot remember enjoying a sermon series more. we mostly discussed the end of chapter 4, in which God tackles Jonah's bad attitude toward the ninevites.

Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city.

Then the LORD God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant.

But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered.

When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”


There you have it. Jonah was 'very happy about the plant' in his life, but didn't give a hoot about what God was doing with the ninevites. sadly, even when God brought a worm to remove the plant (some texts call it a gourd)...Jonah did not recognize that his own callous heart and need for personal comfort first were a problem for God.

i am jonah. this i know, and this i need to deal with. it's come to this. having two houses (gourds) to concern myself with has made me once again stuck in my own little web of self-issues. God, help me to see past the need for comfort and a paycheck. i need to know there is more.


in kind of an awkward subject matter change, look at what an ikea purchase looks like when you take it out of the box. sigh. good thing they don't really show you that when you are in the pretty showroom!


pretty sure my thumbs will never go back to their normal position after assembling this bad boy. however, i hope it's comfortable to sleep on.


and finally, take a look at the yummy apple i bought at the grocery store yesterday. good for you, but cost a whopping $1 dollar for one apple. um, that is kind of ridiculous. you can actually get a whopper jr. for $1....just sayin.'

:) happy monday.

junkaliscious

ah. back from a whirlwind trip to junk bonanza yesterday....one of my favorite places in the WORLD.

just like last year, the bonanza did not disappoint.


there were so many beautiful and inspiring things to behold. this year, i'm in a bit of a budget constraint until mabel sells, so i mostly took photos. i did get a couple of amazing things for my new office, which i'll show you in later posts.

ONE day like this can rejuvenate me for quite awhile. it's a chance to break out of the 'normal' that can become a small world, and feel hope and excitement again for things yet to come.




i am so blessed to have 2 of the best women in the world to support me and share their trials and joys with me. i love both of them dearly. this year, we also got to bring one more little art girl with us for her first bonanza. she will be born very soon, and i'm glad to know we will have more chances to go junking with her in the future ;)


ah. 24 hours of pure bliss. today, i have a sore throat and my head hurts. but my heart is super, super, super happy! thanks junk bonanza, see ya next year!

the freeze is on...

well, here we go. already. seems like just yesterday it was 90 degrees out! wait. that WAS yesterday. this morning, i had to turn the furnace on for just a little bit to warm up.

tonite we have a hard freeze warning. 29 degrees forecasted. which means i have to make time to haul in a million plants before i head to minneapolis for junk bonanza tonite.




good thing i tried these on at target last night! for the record, i did not buy them.

i'm not really ready for this. sigh. i think i will go make some soup now :)

a season for everything

ah, i've just finished reading both ecclesiastes and song of solomon these past days in the bible. i wish i could say i got much out of either....i didn't. i kind of don't want to hear 'everything is meaningless' over and over, and then get up and do my day. i also don't have breasts like grape clusters, so that seems kind of meaningless, too :)

i wonder. i wonder about God, and why he included such chapters in the word....

i have been thinking about ecclesiastes in terms of timing. how God's timing has worked in my life, and how i've never ever been comfortable with it. from being a small kid and having anxiety about the safety of my parents and various school challenges, to being a grown up and just wishing whatever i was enduring was OVER, i have never accepted God's timing.

i'm a little bit stuck right now in that i have no other choice. i don't KNOW what will happen, or when, or how. i so want to know. i want to not be walking around in a big cloud of darkness all the time, worrying about when and how and why. i know that is not God's plan for me, for the remainder of my days.

so, i am fighting it. fighting the unknown, like it's my worst enemy. because i have the One who knows inside of me. He'll give me eyes to see, even what i cannot see. my future is secure, and my days are secure, too. i think today i will spend living in that truth, instead of in the dark cloud.

But may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God;
may they be happy and joyful.
psalm 68:3

emerging

ah, monday, you come so quickly.

i spent another weekend in a basement, how about you?!

:) good news is, i'm getting closer to living on higher ground, as the basement work is getting nearer to completion. i am so excited to be moving over to fern to work, instead of frantically fixing on mabel.



i was so encouraged yesterday, i actually started to paint the pantry. eight years ago, when i moved into mabel, i did NOT paint the inside of the cupboards. yeah. still have not done it. and i'll tell ya, this pantry NEEDED. the awful dirty gold made me not want to store food in there. look at the difference! yay!



i have switched over to lowes for paint for the new house, due to some bad customer service at ace hardware. i have to say, i highly recommend the valspar 'signature' line! that paint is thick like sour cream. i had to paint with a brush for the hard-to-reach pantry, but i am betting it will work in one coat when i get out the roller. i love paint :)

naturally, the small progress has me planning for the kitchen spruce-up. i'm thinking of going with a mostly apple green and white/black theme. i do love a white/black kitchen.



what do you think of these fabrics? i am kind of leaning toward the green/yellow option, which allows me to still keep my vintage lovelies in the kitchen that i have collected over the past few years....


it's so good to be able to start to accomplish some stuff. here's hoping it will carry over into the week, because i am already feeling like a nap!

ha. happy monday!

a fun-filled thursday

ps. that ironing board only looks like it is not securely attached.

some days just stop you in your tracks and make you KNOW how fortunate you are. today was one of those days. one of those MUCH-NEEDED days.

my good buddy carey came to town with mr. j's 1992 dodge dakota to help me haul the remaining nastiness out of the basement. have i ever mentioned how much i love this girl?!

it's good to have friends. especially ones with good personalities who also do px90. the whole time, while i complained about how heavy everything was, she lifted and hauled...alot! seriously. plus, she can back up a truck like nobody's business. things were rolling smoothly along for much of the morning. i also felt less lonely to have a helper. emotional plus.

but, as usually happens, i started to hyperventilate about all of the mounds of STUFF, and decided that maybe a dump-load would be nice and handy while i had access to the dakota. so, we loaded up for the dump (which is somewhere out in the middle of nowhere, between here and who knows where. the decision was that i would follow in bert, and then she could zip back home to mitchell in time for a zillion family activities tonight. easy, peasy!!!


which it was, until somehow the keys got locked in the car. seriously. at the dump. which did not smell good. and had a ton of flies. oh, and as we were parked in the wrong spot dumping the wrong things. we soon found out that they have people at the dump who patrol those kinds of things.


this is tim. he's the one who busted us for dumping in the wrong pile. he's retired, but works at the dump, primarily to see what kind of junk people throw away. sometimes, he takes the good stuff home (but i guess that is supposed to be a secret).

at first, tim was a little peeved by us. then, he was laughing at us for being silly girls who locked their keys in the car. THEN, he made friends with us and brought us a pepsi while we waited for AAA out in the smelly, fly-infested landfill for like an hour...!!! wheee!

tim made my day, he was great. AAA eventually came, and i was glad i got a groupon for it last month. and we all lived happily ever after. i will remember this day fondly - probably sometime in the future when they are filming me for an episode of 'hoarders'... ha ha.

apple cart diet

so, the apple cart has been upset once again in the last week, as mabel is now OFF the market for the next week or so. i'm taking care of an 'issue' that i kind of sort of have to deal with before she is ready to sell.


as i bump along in the apple cart, i've noticed my pants are getting a bit looser. which is sort of funny, as i have not eaten regular food for about a month. i just cannot make myself want to cook in a kitchen that is not mine anymore ;( however, i've also gotten to the point that just looking at a combo meal makes me kind of nauseous.

yesterday, i got up and dug around in my closet for a pair of jeans. all year, i've been alternating between 3 pair of gap jeans that all look the same. and all fit the same. when i slipped the jeans on, i noticed that they were slightly SNUG! what?! how can that be?


then, i re-examined. seems i grabbed a pair of jeans that had gotten much too SMALL for me, and that i had retired some months ago. at the time of retirement, i was having to lay on the bed in order to zip. we all know that feeling (well, some of us know)...not good.

so, the once way-too-tight-and-seriously-a-size-smaller jeans now are fitting! yep, a bit tight for the first half hour, but still!!!

a good companion to the apple cart diet has been the 'work your butt off to get this house sold' exercise plan. i noticed over the weekend, after a full day of moving/cleaning/packing/painting/fixing that i was not too sore the next day. much, MUCH better than a month ago!

now, if i could just find a cure for the 'it's 3am and i have no chance of falling asleep again' phenomena that seems to accompany this diet and exercise plan. then, and only then, i could probably relax and enjoy the ride ;)


happy WEDnesday!

A new week

i've got a whole new approach that i'm going to try out this week.

it's called 'watch and see.'


going thru the whole home-switching process has brought all kinds of extra stressors into my life. when that happens, i find myself becoming more and more inward-focused. my friend calls it 'navel gazing.' i think satan often plans it that way, if he can get us to concentrate on our troubles, and worry about figuring out a way to conquer them, he HAS us.

sadly, this happens to me often.







i am determined to find the blessing in this stressful time. i find peace in small measure, but i'm asking God for it to increase. He is showing me.


last night, after a good 'freebie' day at home, i fell into bed, and started to talk to God about finding Him in my mess. i opened my devotional for today, to sneak peek.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? Romans 8:35


time and time again, God assures me that His love for me is greater than my predicament. i need to press into this, however, so i asked God HOW do i know he is greater? well, i know, but how do i know to the point that i operate differently during my day?

the devo cautioned about using circumstances to measure God's love...because they are not indicative of His love, or work in our lives. and here was the nugget for me. the suggestion to 'watch and see' what God does in the circumstance. to EXPECT him in the circumstance. not necessarily to remove the trouble or change the reality of it, but to KNOW He is there. to look for the blessing of finding Him in the midst of trial.




i like that. i like that even now, when i am once again immersed, i can focus my attention on what God is up to, from the perspective of Him loving me, and me KNOWING He will show it.


folks, this is what it's all about. as i come up on the 10th anniversary of my acceptance of Jesus Christ, i want to live into His promises daily. i want to be the person He made me to be, to do the things He made me to do.

sigh...just a matter of watching and seeing.
happy tuesday!

wrestling....

no, not that kind of wrestling, silly. although this poster is on my 'dream list' of things for the new house. because it mentions wahoo mcdaniel and mad dog vachon ... hello, names from my childhood!

exhibit #1: the circumstance that just about left me leaping over the edge of the wall this week.

no. i'm talking about a whole nuther kind of wrestling. wrestling with God, which is what my friend anne keeps bringing up when we chat...

at any rate, it seems to ring a little teeny tiny bell.... because every little circumstance that seems to come up, i'm met with the question "what do i DO with this, God? how am i supposed to deal? how are YOU going to deal with this? how do i be DIFFERENT than i was when this happened before? why do i keep doing it the same way OVER and over? what is your purpose? is it really possible that i have a purpose? are you really REALLY who you say you are?'

and on. and on.

and it starts and it stops and it keeps on keeping on. i admit, i'm a little tired from wrestling. but like any other sport, it draws you in. it's definitely NOT sitting on the sidelines, folks. i have to admit i've been thinking lately ... who wrestles with God, anyway?

um. yeah. i guess jacob did. and i think we all do, at some point or another. the good news is that God likes us to engage with Him. He is more than willing to wrestle back. and to show us Himself in the process. and just because we are just a wee bit weaker than He, he actually takes us seriously. which is something i cannot say for the wrestlers of my youth :)

just something to wrestle with :)


happy day, and especially happy Friday!

c'mon in

is it just me, or is that sign GINORMOUS?


i guess it's good, but wow....kind of crazy.





i have already decided that the LITTLE sign is what really matters :))
btw. first showing this afternoon. less than 24 hours on the market...so, yeah.



lots of adrenaline over here on the back forty, peeps!

peaceful

well, mid-week arrives, and for some reason it feels like friday. i'm looking forward to a 3-day weekend, even though i know it will probably involve some packing.

it's been overcast here the last couple of days, and i've actually been thankful. it makes me think of cooler temps, and starting to settle inside again. it lets me be okay with being still.



i have been enjoying many, many of the 3 b's in the back forty the last few weeks (bees/birds/butterflies)....it is so wonderful! i discovered earlier in the week that a hummingbird has taken up residence near the hyacinth bean. he will not let me take his picture, however, he never goes too far away :)



i don't blame him. i would stay back here too, all day, if i could :)

happy wednesday all!

look at the pretty!

so, mabel got 'all done up' by a professional photog today!! wowza! i swear, she is looking waaaaay too pretty to sell :)

The Help

big day over here on the back forty...my friend paul is coming to shoot photos of mabel, then the realtor is coming tomorrow to do the listing! whaaaaaaaaaaa! she is as clean as possible. however, still have a few small projects to do....seriously. nutso with the projects.



i thought i would blog about 'the help.' but that is kind of boring!

it's good. it's great! you'll laugh, cry and get mad (taken from another friend)...!

i kept seeing the people in the movie as other people i know.


i kept seeing myself in minny. i guess i'm a mini minny.


wouldn't minny be a good house name?




she is sassy, but the girl means well :))







go see it. it made me want to have time to read the book ALL THE MORE.

what i did for my birthday

i went to world market, and cashed in my $10 birthday coupon for a big bag o' sumatran.

i know.

the girl at the checkout asked me what day my birthday was (it was about 7pm) and when i told her, she said 'oh, sad.'

ha ha. yeah. sometimes the single life is a little sad.



however, don't feel bad for me. the celebrations are continuing into today, with a birthday lunch and a birthday movie tonite. so there!




have i mentioned that i like world market? i do. i wander around the food aisles and look at all the pretty packaging. sometimes, i even recycle the pretty packaging :)


yay! it's friday! have a great weekend, everybody!

49 and still loving wicker

whew. it's my birfday today. in honor of this special occasion, i think i'll blog about wicker.

anybody who knows the REAL me knows that i have a pretty big fascination with wicker. and let me tell ya, it's not for the faint-hearted. wicker rarely gets the accolades, people. oh sure, we all have our pier one moments, but MY moment has lasted 30 YEARS.

thank God for emily henderson, because she is bringin' back wicker. seriously. only in a good way. that is what i was thinking last saturday night when she did a 'retro polynesian kitsch' room on her show.


that chair made me seriously happy. as fortune happens, i ran into an almost EXACT duplicate at a thrift store last weekend. $68. i may need that chair.

i was thinking of putting it here:


and then, you know, obviously, i could recreate the whole vintage hawaiian thing in the sun porch, with a painted cement floor and bright color and a bunch of bark cloth....

yes. i knew you would agree.




ahem. the above pics are 'inspiration' photos, in case you don't know what vintage polynesian kitsch means. not that it's not fairly self-explanatory ;)






on a completely unrelated but quite related note, look what i got from lou for a birthday present last night! a pleasantly green version of a vintage rattan chair! rattan is quite similar to wicker! small world :)


happy day. live it like it's your birthday :)