Friday

Autumn.

It finally got here!

These sights always make me think just a bit of Isaiah 40:5

"And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken"

Until we get to heaven and see Him and His glory face to face, I will continue to delight in the little glimpses of His glory here on earth.

His peace to your home!

Christmas Village Part II

If you have been following for the past few days, you know that Nancy and I made a trip to Christmas Village in Birmingham last week.  I found a lot of new favorite vendors.  Today I want to show you some models from a woodworker.  I'm trying to be careful to not go overboard with my adjectives here.  It's hard.  He's that good and I am dazzled by his talent.

Chris and Judy work with mahogany.  That should tell you something right there.  The work that they turn out is beautiful.  The talent is admirable.  When I spoke with Chris to ask permission to take pictures he was happy for me to do so.

It's an impressive inventory

The smaller pieces are lovely.

I have a special love for the SR-71 Blackbird.  It's a little quirky and I can't exactly explain it, but I find this plane fascinating.  Mr. Marvelous Jr spent a LOT of time at the Air Museum in Warner Robins, Georgia from the time he was 6 months old.  I loved to take him out there to see the airplanes, partly because his Grandpa worked out there and partly because they had (among other things) an SR-71.  I just think it is cool.  

Look what Chris made

Beautiful, isn't it?

If you are interested in seeing what they have, you may contact via email.

Another of our favorite vendors is Suzanne Davis from VintageCraft.  Suzanne's website is listed as Under Construction, but you can contact her by the email link above. 

Christmas ornaments....

...unique Christmas ornaments (I love these)

...burlap bows...and in the background you can see her signature linens. 

I'm sorry I did not get more pictures of her linens and cards.  They are gorgeous!

Next week I'm going to show you two more of my all-time favorites. 

I hope you are getting some shopping ideas!

Being Thankful FOR The Hard Things

My friend Rixie is an amazing woman.  Her thankful challenge this year (expressing thankfulness for the hard things) has challenged me.  Being thankful for these things is not in itself so hard; the hard part is expressing those thoughts and feelings.  It takes me a little time to process these things, and a little more courage to be transparent with them.  I think that transparency is important, and that is why I am working to process and sort through my thoughts and feelings....I'm just being a little slow about it.  There has been a LOT to process in the past few weeks.  I am grateful to have friends who have been holding my family in their prayers.

In the meantime, today I am thankful that I have mobility and transportation to be able to go and spend a few days with my parents.  Today is not an easy day for our family.  Today is the first time the we have Meaghan's birthday.  Without Meaghan.  It's one of those dreaded "firsts" that you hear about after a death.  The first birthday.  The first Thanksgiving.  The first Christmas.  And oh may God's mercy sustain them, the first Mother's Day and the first Father's Day.

I drove her mother to the hospital where her father met us and coached my sister through the birth of their first daughter.  I did my share of holding, rocking, singing, and loving on that baby, that girl, that young lady.  I love that lady.  The pain of her absence is intense.  The pain of watching my sister's grief is heavy.

In the middle of our pain and our grief, there is peace.  This was sung at Meaghan's funeral.

As we miss her so intensely, we are so thankful for the assurance that Meaghan has indeed risen.  Our parting is only temporary.  As my dear friend Debi says (who lost her own daughter a few years ago), "Just for a minute.  Maybe two."

The Further Adventures of Jack South

Jack has been settling in and getting used to his new home over the past couple of weeks.

On days when I go to town, he keeps an eye on the kitchen and protects it from hungry gremlins. 

I keep hoping that eventually he will learn to wash dishes.  I tell him that it would be nice to come home to a clean kitchen.  He mutters something irrelevant about not leaving until the kitchen is clean.  Crazy Jack!

He also keeps an eye on the cats while they hog the bed.  Perhaps he is protecting them from bad dreams?

Or maybe he is just there to moderate the inevitable fights.

He assisted Mr. Marvelous in turning the back porches into greenhouses.  Turns out he likes fresh lettuce in the winter as much as we do.

I'm thinking about taking him to the Y with me sometime soon.

I promise he will wear his seat belt

                           and ride in the back seat                              

I just hope we don't have to worry about a booster seat!

Christmas Village Part I

This week I will be telling and showing what we found at the Christmas Village Exhibit in Birmingham last week.  This is one of my favorite Christmas traditions that we have.  It happens the first weekend in November each year at the HUGE downtown BJCC (Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex).  It is two floors and is 220,000 square feet.  That means that about 130 of my homes could fit in there.  They say that they had over 700 vendors this year.  It felt like a lot more!

We noticed that there were a lot of new vendors this year.  The past couple of years had felt a little stale with the same vendors and not as much inventory so having new things to look at and a lot of inventory at every booth was nice. 

I did not take any pictures without having specific permission from the vendor to do so.  As we came to the end of the upstairs booths, a couple of the vendors were down-right snarky about it, so I quit taking pictures.  Later I found out that the BJCC prohibits any kind of picture taking at this event.  Seems like they would have posted a notice about that!  Of course, with everyone having cameras on their phones these days, I really don't know quite how they plan to enforce that rule.  I do understand the reason for the rule, and I do try to be careful about what things I will and will not photograph.

One of the first booths we found was Miss Gabby Gumbo, who in addition to the Etsy shop linked there, also has a Facebook page here.  Oh my goodness, this lady has come up with some great ideas.  I love the colors she uses and one of my favorites that she had was this cute tambourine man

And isn't that guitar with the record cute?

Definitely some New Orleans flavor at this booth.

Our next stop was at RandomStuff (where vintage and paper meet).  Connie Hulsey is the owner of this shop and she has done some very creative things with old children's books, hymnals, and vintage cards and cartoons.

I think these journals are my favorite item.

The clocks are cute too

As are the badge holders and jewelry.

This is jewelry she has made from old hymnbooks.

I thought she did a fantastic job with her booth, and I obviously was not the only person who thought that.  She stayed pretty busy all day.  

Next up was Debbie's Birdhouses by Debbie and Jon Thompson.  For the quality of stoneware she makes ~ hand thrown and high fired ~ her prices are quite reasonable.  These are some of the prettiest birdhouses I have ever seen and I love the colors she chooses.

I love her display.  Did you notice that she had a picture of a bird peeping out of one of the houses?!

Tomorrow I'll show you some things from a man who carves mahogany.  He made an SR-71 that will make your eyes pop!

Friday A Tradition Continues

Nancy and I have a tradition of going to Birmingham's Christmas Village.  We have gone since before I moved here.  We have done this with me in a wheelchair, on a walker, and walking strong.  We have done it with just the two of us, with the other sister in law, with daughters (hers, not mine) and with friends.  We weren't sure that we were going to make it this year. 

But we did! 

We had even more fun than usual.  We were VERY thankful that God allowed us this small grace. 

There were a lot of new vendors and new things, and a few of our favorites back again.  The crowds were there but did not seem quite as bad as they have in the past. 

 I wore my Carol-dress (I'll tell you the story about this dress another day).

We found a few Christmas presents.  We walked through the whole thing.  We laughed.  Nancy had her favorite lemonade.  I got to visit with the ladies who made the Carol-dress.

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be sharing some of the vendors with you.  I only take pictures if the vendor gives me their permission and I only post pictures if there is a web-site you may go to for looking and maybe purchasing some Christmas gifts of your own. 

Stay tuned; there's some great stuff coming!.

Finishing Up The Garden

The garden is almost done for the year. 

There are a just a few tomatoes left on the vines in the back.  

 Mr. Marvelous put the hoop-house/green-house over the volunteer tomato plant.  We will try to baby it through the winter (that's quite an experiment!). 

And the rosemary.











Everything else is done for the year and the garden out back is looking a little sad and pathetic.

We had hoped to have a fall garden and dreamed of potatoes, broccoli, cabbage, but other things became more important so we scrapped those plans for this year.

Mr. Marvelous is already dreaming about next years' garden.  We have set stages:

1. dreaming
2. cleaning
3. planning
4. preparing
5. planting

The cleaning up from last year has to happen first.  A few weeks ago we were in the basement changing things from this:

 To this:

Yes Ma'am, those pots and that dirt are reusable!

The cleaning is done and the dreaming has begun.  Mr. Marvelous has already put an order in to Totally Tomatoes and they filled it as quickly as they always do (much better than a bathing suit from China!).  He has started browsing through the left-over seed.  We have plastic to turn the back porches into a winter green-house this year; that should be fun.  Fresh lettuce in December perhaps?

I'm betting that he will be ordering seeds within the next week or two.  

The gloom of the early sunset we have in November and December will find us busy in the basement, happily getting ready for next years' garden.  I'll keep you posted.

Walkabout Wednesday And About Bathing Suits

October was a good month for walking.  My total for the month was one hundred twenty-seven and 4 one-hundredths miles, or 127.04.  That brings my total to three thousand thirty and 4 tenths, or 3030.40.  Am I excited to have passed the three thousand mile mark?  Oh, you betcha!  There is just something about those hundred mile marks, and the thousand mile marks are even better.  I have a long way to go yet, but I am undaunted (that's a very satisfying word by the way; you should try it sometime).   I'm still out in the Pacific Ocean and I still have a long way to go to get to Hawaii, but it is warm, sunny, calm and peaceful out here and I am surrounded by water.  That's a good thing.

Not all of those miles were on foot.  Recently the YMCA in our area ran a special.  If you joined in September you and everyone in your household could join and the total cost for everyone would be $39 per month through the end of the year.  So Mr. Marvelous and I both joined the Y for a good price.  This is great for Mr. Marvelous.  His new job is about a mile away from his favorite Y so he goes and works out either before work in the morning or during his lunch hour.  And me?  Well, for the first time in two years, I am back swimming!  I am thrilled that I am able to do this again; I love being in the water even if I am just floating, but being able to add to my total daily miles makes it even better.

There was just one problem.  When I went and pulled my bathing suit out of the bottom dresser drawer where it has been for the past two years, the elastic in the arm straps quit.  You men can't appreciate this fully, but you women know exactly what that meant.  A new bathing suit.  Try to buy one of those in October!  Somehow the word still has not gotten around to the local department stores (or even places like Academy Sports) that there is this marvelous new invention known as "Indoor Pool".  Bless their hearts.  I tried, I really did, but there were just no suits to be found.  Okay, so maybe there were a few, but Mama doesn't wear a two-piece of any sort, let alone a bikini (sorry to put that image in your brain.  Don't worry, it will fry out in a decade or two.  I hope.).  I don't even wear a one piece when the legs come up to my underarms and there are holes in the sides.  I know that some people think those holes are supposed to be there, but not in MY bathing suits, thank you very much.  At my age, I am strictly a swim dress girl.

There was nothing else to do but go on-line and see what was available.  Have you priced on-line bathing suits lately?  Even in October the prices are a little bit much.  Land's End is usually my go-to for bathing suits, but their prices were just more than I wanted to pay.  So I went to Amazon.  Ah-Ha!  I found it!  A nice, modest bathing suit with good reviews.  The reviews all said that the sizing seemed accurate and women were raving about the fact that they were able to order their normal size and they fit.  And the price was half what Land's End wanted.  I was thrilled!  I placed the order and settled myself in to wait for a couple of days.  Amazon tends to get their orders to me within a couple of days; I have never had to wait as long as a week.

Within a couple of hours, the seller sent me an email proudly announcing that my NEW BATHING SUIT would arrive by......wait for it.....November 25.  Wait, what?  November 25??  This was early October, what did they mean November 25??!!  Then I read the fine print at the bottom of the email.  The order was coming from China.  Shipping from China.  Nowhere in the information on the original page on Amazon did it say this would ship from China.  I went back and checked.  I am not in the habit of buying things from China.  In the spirit of Sam Walton, I normally prefer to buy American (not that this is easy to do these days).  China?!

My long face alerted Mr. Marvelous to a problem.  He asked what was going on.  I told him.  He then gave a decree.  He did not want me to have to wait until November to be able to swim.  Would I be able to return the bathing suit to China after it arrived?  Yes.  Therefore, I was to go and get a bathing suit from Land's End and pay Land's End prices in order to BE DONE WITH THE BATHING SUIT SHOPPING (my quests challenge his patience).

So.  I ordered the bathing suit from Land's End.  The day before it was due to arrive in the mail, guess what?  Yup.  The bathing suit from China got here five weeks early.  I thought, "Hmm".  So I brought it in the house and tried it on, thinking that maybe I could return the (expensive) Land's End bathing suit and keep the (cheap) China bathing suit.

Did you know that folks in China are not tall?  I'm not tall either in my opinion.  My sister in law Nancy and my friend Susan disagree with that, but I'm really not that tall.  I'm only 5'8" ~ probably 5'7.5" at this point in life.  Can you guess where I am going with this?  Even though I don't think I am tall, apparently to people in China I am a giant.  The bathing suit size was OK....if I had been a mere 3-5 inches shorter.  It was pretty funny.  And a more than a bit uncomfortable.

So to wrap up the story, the bathing suit from China is bagged up with a return tag graciously provided by Amazon sitting in my car awaiting a trip to the post office.  The Land's End bathing suit arrived the next day and is beautiful.  When I get their bathing suits I always remember why they cost a little more; they are well made, they fit (!), and they last. 

 I have been to the Y and have already put in enough laps to make half a mile.  I'm looking forward to getting several more.  And in spite of the fact that my friend Clair thinks the swimming miles should count double (since I am using my arms AND my legs), I'm still just counting them the same as the miles I walk.  As the trip goes on I may adopt her view of things!

Jack South

Jack had a lot of adventures in South Carolina before coming to Alabama.

He did not know that the humans were protected by the urRu/Mystics.

They did their job well; there were no Skeksis anywhere.

They humans had a large body of water.  Jack figured it must be the sea.  

He thought about taking a dip, but he had been taught never to go in the water without a life-guard around.

It was a little chilly, too, so he decided to warm up by the fireplace.

Clearly, Jack needs to work on his prepositions!

Jack tried out a guava fruit.

He prefers guava jelly.

Being the helpful kind of guy he is, he watered some of the plants for the humans.

He says that he did the household sweeping and mopping too.  

I was skeptical, but the floors did look shiny.

After all that work, he took a break.

I think he earned it.  

Stay tuned for Jack Goes To Alabama.

Memories

My friend Rixie over at The Life and Times of Rixie the 4th started a wonderful tradition a few Novembers ago of Random Thankfulness.  She talks about how after a few days of posting about the big things to be thankful for ~ like our Salvation, our families, and our freedom ~ people seem to flounder a bit to find equally significant things to talk about.  She challenges us to think about the little things, like woolly socks on a cold day and give thanks to God for these small blessings.

I love thinking about the little things.  Things like a fluffy comforter coming out of the dryer all warm. 

A quiet moment exchanging snuffle kisses with a rabbit.

Watching the patterns of the sunlight as it filters through the trees on the back hill.  

An unexpected visit from neighborhood turkeys.








You can be sure I will be sharing plenty of these moments this month.

I have a lot of big things for which to be thankful, too.  Salvation. 

My own Bible in my own language.

                              My family.

A good church with a pastor who is faithful to preach the Word of God.

 

You will be hearing about some of these things too.

I am also thankful for the times of illness, of pain, of weakness, of sleeplessness, of grief and of sorrow.  Not only do they better help me appreciate the other times, but the difficult times themselves are a gift from God.

I will be sharing my heart on those things as well.

Today however I want to talk about being thankful for remembering to be thankful.

During times of illness, you appreciate the well times much more than those who have never been ill.  Living with chronic pain, you have a greater appreciation for those moments of being pain free.  When you can't walk on your own power, or struggle to keep from falling when you try, you find greater joy in those days when you move without even having to think about it.  In times of sleeplessness, the mornings you wake up and realize that you slept soundly through the entire night are such a blessing.

When I have had those moments I have realized how little I remember to be thankful for the days when I feel healthy or pain-free, or mobile, or when I sleep soundly.  It is easy to slip into taking these things for granted.  I have asked the Lord to help me remember to better appreciate  the good moments.  Some days I will be working around the house and have to stop and sit down for a moment and rejoice in the blessing of being able to move without thinking about it and of feeling healthy and strong.  There is a lot of joy in those moments.  There is a great peace and contentment in the hard times when I can look back and see thankfulness during the easier times.

Thankfulness changes me.  When my heart sings praise to the God who created me and saved me, then I am in His will and in that, He is honored.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.   I Thessalonians 5:16-18