Easter Project

TIE -dyed Easter Eggs

Yuck ~ Blowing Eggs

Blown.....

Tie dyeing eggs with old silk ties

All tied up

Wrapped again and ready to boil

Unwrapping - what will it look like?

Look at this one!

How about this one?

Wow!

Look what we did!!

For detailed instructions click this link:

Our Best Bites

Easter

At the Easter Sunrise service,

we were reminded of newness and freshness

that comes with each new day

each sunrise

each spring

 the resurrection of Jesus

and a life committed to Him.

And that everything He gives us is by His power

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine,

according to his power that is at work within us. 

  (Ephesians 3:20)

And here's a picture of
something that He's given me that is

more than I could ever think or imagine

Beautiful Cousins,

Hannah (6), Brenna (7), Addie (12) and Harrison (11)

Harrison and Hannah are ours,

but when their Mimi and Papaw left for Guatemala

eleven years ago,

I promised to love and take care of them all.

And they all call me Nana.

Thank you Mimi for the honor.

They are so precious.

Praying for Rain

My neighbor says we haven't had rain since September. 

The howling winds and dry tinder box of grass have spread fires across more than one million acres in Texas.

This afternoon's skies were streaked with a smokey haze from some distant inferno.

Texans have lost homes, barns, cattle, sheep, goats, deer, quail,and fences.

Recovery will be long and slow.

Most of our 450 acres is thigh high dead dry grass,

tumble weeds, and leftover sunflower stalks.

I've been out there,

singing rain songs.

"It's beginning to rain, rain, rain,

Hear the voice of the Father.

If you're thirsty and dry,

Just look to the sky,

It's beginning to rain."

(I get far away so human ears don't have to hear me!)

Snyder folks are meeting daily at the courthouse,

 uniting in prayer for rain. 

Prayers are for our own repentance as well as our country's.

Prayers remind the Father that this is His creation,

and His creation needs help.

"Have mercy on us, O, God"

Several in the group bring open umbrellas as an act of faith.

Ask the LORD for rain in the springtime;

it is the LORD who makes the storm clouds.

 He gives showers of rain to men,

and plants of the field to everyone

Zechariah 10:1

Yesterday evening we could see some storm clouds

and could smell the freshness.

We talked to the clouds,

"Come on Rain.  Come on Down."

Not yet.  Not yesterday.  Not today.

But it's coming.

Sewing Machines and Pianos

My 93 years young neighbor, Dena Faye,

knows exactly what we are doing while we are at home.

Mowing, cleaning, re-organizing, filing, paying bills, repairing stuff, getting ready to go again...

She traveled with her pipe fitter hubby in the 70's and 80's

following him and the 8 X 35 trailer from job to job.

She says she traveled all over the nation without a roadmap!

And her sewing machine AND her PIANO went along, too.

The thought of a piano in a travel trailer is so funny to me.

We have a 38 ft 5th wheel with 4 slide-outs -

which makes it pretty roomy,

and my man is pretty tolerant of the toys I bring along 

(lots of books, beads for jewelry, art supplies)

 but he has drawn the line on a sewing machine

 - and a piano?

Can you hear him laughing?

Pray and Watch

Lunch with a county commissioners:

Concern about the local fires

A visit with a city councilman

Talk about the fires

Visit to the fire station's open house

Talk about the fires

Driving her to a reported fire

And more talk about the fires

"The city council is going to proclaim

a day of prayer for rain

Maybe they should proclaim everyday

a day of prayer until it rains

Maybe they should declare a day of repentance

You call the station every time you hear a siren?

It might be my precinct

What did they say?

Lady, it's an ambulance

You should see the big trucks the forest service brought

Have you seen the helicopters?

I've seen a lot of pictures and reports on facebook

 It went all around the Eicke's house

But Eddie plowed a fire break and saved it

The Chandlers had to evacuate

Their house is ok

Our fire burned right between my place and Bill's

We never left

Fought it with shovels and water hoses

The county boys bladed around us

I have CRP on 3 sides and across the road

What should I do?

CRP is the worst.

Mow as close as you can

Short grass isn't so bad

Who's bringing all this food and water to the station?

The community has been great support

There are 9 fires going right now

Yes, we are tired

Most of us were out all night

Did you hear the radio just now?

That driver can see three fires

He wants to know which one to go to

Remember Elijah?

He prayed until it rained

And he kept sending his servant to watch for clouds

Remember?

We should pray

We should pray until it rains

Pray and watch for clouds

Pray and watch

Pray and Watch"

Cycles

I think after today, my blog posts are changing directions-

hopefully a little lighter

But along the same lines as the last few days,

I want to visit RECOVERY.

We stopped in Galveston for lunch

on our way home from Louisiana

Houses and shops had fresh paint

Most everything was clean and new

We ate at the highly recommended Mosquito Cafe

(sorry - no mosquitoes on the menu!)

And at the door was an 8 ft line marking

the Hurricane Ike (2008) high water mark

Galveston has a history of hurricane survival

The worst was 1900 when an estimated 8,000 were killed

(The deadliest natural disaster ever to hit the U.S. -

My grandma said that we had a relative

who survived in an attic with a goat)

The next was Hurricane Carla in 1961

(500,000 people were evacuated and only 43 lives lost but it caused $2 billion in damages) 

I remember seeing that devastation on a family trip

We get a little magazine, Texas Co-op Power, from our electric company.

This month's edition had an article about Galveston.

(and a picture of the Mosquito Cafe high water mark)

I love this quote from the article:

"Longtime residents know well the stages of life

on their beloved island:

growth and prosperity

devastation and despair

determination and renewal...

No one would wish for a hurricane,

but with hurricanes come a cleansing

and each cleansing brings new ideas

and new development."

Can I say this?

That'll preach!

So it is with life.

I've had a few of my own life cycles.

The cycles just have different names

We read and discussed Ecclesiastes 3

on the deck Sunday morning:

 There is a time for everything,
   and a season for every activity under the heavens:

 ² a time to be born and a time to die,
   a time to plant and a time to uproot,
 ³ a time to kill and a time to heal,
   a time to tear down and a time to build,
 ⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,
   a time to mourn and a time to dance,
 ⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
   a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
 ⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,
   a time to keep and a time to throw away,
 ⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,
   a time to be silent and a time to speak,
 ⁸ a time to love and a time to hate,
   a time for war and a time for peace.

The Galveston article says:

"And the cycle spins anew"

2 Mamas, 2 Sons, 1 God

Two Mamas

Same God

Same Town

Same Fervent Prayers

Same Day

Two Sons

One walking on dangereous ground in Afganastan

One walking on dangererous grounds of

teenage self discovery

One son steps on a land mine in a desolate country

The other son rolls his car on a desolate country road

The land mine didn't detonate

The car ejected the driver

One son stepped onto solid ground

and the other son stepped into eternity

Two Mamas

One mama is praising God with

song, dances, tambourine, and banners

The other mama, in the strong arms of God, 

 is weeping, acheing, questioning.

She buries her precious son today

along with all the hopes and dreams she had for him.

Julie we praise God with you

And Jennifer we hurt with you

(Rejoice with those who rejoice

and mourn with those who mourn

Romans 12:15)

You are both good mamas

Two Sons

Patrick we rejoice that God has spared your life.

Tyler we miss you but rejoice that you are

rockin' the streets of gold on your new drums.

(If we live, we live to the Lord;

and if we die, we die to the Lord.

So, whether we live or die,

we belong to the Lord.

Romans 14:8)

Same God

This side of heaven, we will never understand.

but then it probably won't matter to us.

Scripture tells us that

He is a good and just God

that His lovingkindness endures forever

That his mercy is unending

and that

He is the same yesterday, today, and forever

Two Mamas, Two Sons, Same God