Wonderful Giveaway

If you love cottage style decorating, you should check out my friend Cynthia's blog: Cynthia's Cottage Design. Always a great source of inspiration, she is having an awesome giveaway until March 14th.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Alan has always been so wonderful about sending me flowers on special days or "just because", this Valentine's Day was no exception. But I messed up his plans this time-twice. He ordered the flowers a couple of weeks in advance. Early last week, I asked if he had done anything for Valentine's Day, "Not yet" he lies (he's all about surprises on holidays). So I tell him not worry about sending me flowers, that I'd rather he get me some pansies to set out, something that will last longer. Then Thurs. & Fri. I stay home sick with a cold/sinus/aching something or other. He leaves the house Friday morning to try to catch the flowers before they're delivered to school, but they've already been delivered & returned, so he brings them home. At this point, his presentation could have still been saved, but I was knocked out with medication and hardly knew he was home. Poor thing, he just puts them on top of the refrigerator (out of cat's reach!) and goes to Mama & Daddy's to work at the shop. So he misses the smile when I get up some time later and see the flowers. They're still just a pretty and meant just as much, but his best laid plans were messed up.

How often do we "mess up" God's plans for us like this? We take a wrong turn, make plans to suit "our" will not His Will. He often turns still uses us, turns our mistakes into something good, but how much better it would have been if we had listened to Him & followed His path for us from the beginning!

We had a beautiful Baptist Women's Day service at church today. Rev. Mari Wiles, the Campus Minister from Chowan University brought the message. Several ladies and three of our teenage girls took part in the service. Mari shared from her mission trips to Burma/Thailand and to Africa twice, were she & her students worked with orphans. Very touching and inspiring. She asked us to pray for Burmese Christian refugees in refugee camps in Thailand, and the children at the orphanage in Africa, and especially Sarah, a one year old girl (not an orphan) they helped get medical help for while there. Students from Chowan will be going on mission trips to Asheville over spring break to work with the Slavic community, and to St. Louis to help with at a camp during the summer. Please pray for them also.

Tomorrow starts "Random Acts of Kindness Week". Look for unexpected ways we can brighten someone's day, this week and everyday. Let's continue sharing love past Valentine's Day.

Beautiful Day!

It's been such a good day! The SUN was shining-Hooray!!! Still chilly, but a beautiful sunny day.

So many blessings today:

Mama was able to go to church this morning. Praise the Lord! Glad she was feeling better. Please continue remembering her in your prayers. Trying to adjust to new medicine, accept the fact she needs oxygen, & her heartbeat still is irregular.

My cousin-in-law Lauren Clemmons is amazing! Such an inspiration to everyone! She finished her chemo treatments Feb. 1st, now will start with radiation. She is doing so well though. She is thankful for the growth of her faith during these months and opportunities to be used by God to share His message and encourage others. Please continue prayers on her behalf as well.

Thankful that we were able to eat with Alan's parents and our brother-in-law Colin today. (Sure missed Shari & Corey-bug though!) It's been several weeks since we were there. Good to catch up a bit with them.

Blessed with wonderful friends! Encouragers, prayer warriors, and those who bring such joy and laughter to my life!

Thankful for sunshine & that our beautiful snowfall yesterday didn't stay around! I think everyone I know is ready for spring. I certainly am! I did see a couple of male goldfinches this morning and they were getting their yellow feathers-Spring WILL come!

Hope everyone has a wonderful week. Hopefully we will have a full week at school. Yes, this school librarian is actually not hoping for another snow day, at least not right away.

Welcome Back, again

Welcome...back (for me). It's been a loooong time since I last blogged. It's been a really busy school year. Many evenings I've worked on school work and haven't had time to blog. I've mentally written many posts, but didn't get them posted. Like many of our regulars, I too have been on Facebook mostly. I really enjoy FB for keeping in touch with family who live many miles away, as well as my local friends, but I do miss the blogs.

I'm also contemplating changing my blog style. Instead of just "reporting" the news of the day, I want it to be more of a true journal. A place to share meditations & thoughts the Lord lays on my heart that I just HAVE to write. A place to encourage & uplift others, through words or pictures. A place to share special things that inspire me and may inspire someone else. We'll just have to see what evolves. Please feel free to share your thoughts along the way.

Wednesday Wanderings

What a beautiful Fall day! Wish I could've been outside today! Would have been great to be at the beach, or working in the yard, sitting on the porch....

It was a great night at Weight Watchers too. I lost 6.6 lbs this week!! Tracking really does help! I've been slack about tracking the last month, mostly trying to remember. I've lost one or two lbs a week, but had gained 2 last week (part of it could've been the jean jumper I was wearing.) Anyway, I tried really hard this week so I could lose last week's gain plus some. I've lost a total of 34.8 lbs! I can hardly believe it! My mom has a whole stack of clothes to take up for me. That's a good feeling! Thanks for all the encouragement from my family, friends & co-workers - it really helps keep me motivated!

Please continue to pray for Lauren & Jody's family. I'm still not sure what's ahead for them as far as treatments go.

I'd better go try to find something to wear tomorrow. Gotta leave extra early in the morning to finish setting up our book fair.

Update on Lauren

Thanks for all the prayers! God is so good!! Lauren is doing well after the surgery and plans to come home tomorrow (Sunday). I don't know what is ahead for her as far as treatments, so continue to remember her & her family please. Her sister-in-law says she has really inspired everyone with her faith. I know her faith is important to her, but was glad to hear that she was relying on it to help her through this.

Prayer Request

Asking all my friends to please add my cousin-in-law Lauren Clemmons to your prayer list. She was diagnosed with breast cancer a couple of weeks ago. It is also in her lymph nodes, but thankfully the body scan showed it wasn't in any other organs. She will have surgery this Friday (Sept. 25). Lauren is in her late 20's -early 30's. She & my cousin Jody have 3 children. Please remember this young family. Jody's dad, my uncle also has cancer and Lauren's dad had cancer surgery the same day that she had her biopsy done. It seems it is coming at them from all angles. I know they are feeling overwhelmed. Thanks.