I Don't Remember Asking for Help!

Well, despite my good intentions, dusting and vacuuming once again got set aside for the much more entertaining task of putting my new beads in the storage case and then making a few bracelets and earrings. I also un-did a couple of magnetic bracelets I had made a while ago that I wasn't crazy about. Little Man took a nap across my shoulders for a long time as I worked, and Cammie kept a close eye on the beads and an occasional swat at them. She loves to whack things around.

Rosemary & Thyme

This week, Little Man's father and I have been enjoying Series 3 of Rosemary and Thyme, a wonderful British mystery series starring Felicity Kendal (Good Neighbors) and Pam Ferris (Darling Buds of May). Our local library system has all 3 sets of DVD's, but Series 3 wasn't available for Hold Reserve until recently. Anyhow, I can't recommend them highly enough - 2 real women who look (and act!) their age, mystery, and gorgeous gardens! They are filmed in various fantastic gardens around England and on the continent, and are well acted and very entertaining.

Adventures in Cake Decorating Part 2

Well, here are the results! The rainbow cake was actually decorated in class according to the book design. I used store-bought Wilton colors. (Ran out of patience!) I just slapped some decorations on the Little Man cake tonight so I could go ahead and eat it! Both cakes were made with Betty Crocker Super Moist cake mixes. One had seedless raspberry jam between the layers and the other had pudding. At class we also learned the first 2 steps in making a rose. It was great fun and I can't wait to see what we learn next week!

Adventures in Cake Decorating

Little Man's father & I are taking Wilton Cake Decorating Course 1 at our local AC Moore store. Last week was the first session, which was all demonstration by the teacher - how to make icing (3 different consistencies), how to use the decorator bags and tips, and how to level, torte, and frost a cake. Tomorrow is session 2, where we will get hands on practice. We are supposed to show up with a leveled, frosted cake and an assortment of frostings of different consistencies to practice borders, writing, stars, and the famous Wilton rose. I spent quite a few hours this afternoon baking 2 cakes and making a total of 4 batches of buttercream icing. For some reason my stomach hurts! Could it be all that bowl licking? By the fourth batch even I was just tossing the beaters into soapy water without licking them first! Anyhow, here are the before pictures.

Saturday Breakfast

It's a beautiful sunny mid-winter day here in Upstate NY. Earlier the "Black North" (cloud bank over Lake Ontario) was in evidence, but now it's sunny. This AM Little Man's father hosted the Men's Prayer Breakfast for our church. We had 5 intrepid visitors who braved the long drive. Hopefully they thought it was worth it. On the menu was: Breakfast Casserole (egg, sausage, cheese), Link Sausages, Fruit Cup, Muffins, Bagels, and last, but definitely the star of the show, Gorilla Bread! Gorilla Bread is Paula Deen's revved up version of Monkey Bread, and it invariably draws rave reviews.

Attached is a picture of Little Man taken before the breakfast. As you can see, the preparations have exhausted him. Also attached is Cammie, keeping her mother's office chair warm.

Music Hunt

The other day my pastor told me he was helping with the music at the youth group retreat. He asked if I might have sheet music for some of the songs, to go along with the guitar chords he had been given. I had to laugh, because I had only heard of 2 of the 6 songs on the list, and only had music for one of them. I'm getting old!!! The praise & worship music that I am most familiar with is now practically ancient history, written in the 80's, 90's and maybe early 2000's. However, I must say, the task of becoming acquainted with some new stuff was a blessing indeed. Youtube and Myspace were a great help. Almost every song is available on one or both of those sites to listen to. I have always found it very helpful to actually hear a song, especially the contemporary ones, in order to know how they should sound. Tracking down the sheet music was a bit harder, but not too bad. www.worshiptogether.com has a lot of music available at very reasonable prices. Also, they always feature some free songs, which I try to print out. I also found a site called www.igracemusic.com which had hymns, old & new, available.

The biggest blessing was hearing Todd Agnew. I had never heard him or heard of him before, but I really like the music he has featured on his myspace page. His voice is a surprise, very deep and sort of like Johnny Cash. His style and words are passionate.

Confessions of an Ebay junkie

I love Ebay! No, it should be I LOVE EBAY!!!!!!! I love selling on Ebay and I love buying on Ebay. Tonight's entertainment was looking at an Ebay seller's vast store of gemstone beads, while Little Man lay across my shoulders. It all happened because I won an auctions for some green goldstone beads. Since this seller combines shipping, and since the bead auctions all start at less than 99 cents, and since I have 8 days to combine my purchases, and since there are over 10,000 items listed (YIKES!!!), my eyeballs are about to fall out of my head from browsing. And, I might add, bidding. I have fallen in love with jasper. I have also discovered mookaite, mawsitsit, zoisite, and chrysocolla. They are gorgeous!

I also found out that goldstone also goes by the name of sun sitara. A few weeks ago I bought two large oval goldstone beads at a local bead shop, and since then have been on a quest for more. I found out (thanks to google) that goldstone is a manmade gem containing copper. It comes in a copper color, as well as green, blue, and purple. It is shot through with sparkles and is just beautiful. (Little Man's father says I would be a good game fish because I go for sparkly things.)

Time to turn off the computer and go to bed. Good night!

Something worth repeating

Here is a quote from J. I. Packer's book, "Knowing God": "I am a child of God. God is my Father; heaven is my home; every day is one day nearer. My Savior is my brother; every Christian is my brother too. Say it over and over to yourself first thing in the morning, last thing at night, as you wait for the bus, any time when your mind is free, and ask that you may be enabled to live as one who knows it is all utterly and completely true. For this is the Christian's secret of - a happy life? - yes, certainly, but we have something both higher and profounder to say. This is the Christian's secret of a Christian life, and of a God-honoring life, and these are aspects of the situation that really matter."

The Lord's Day - February 10, 2008

Praise God! As always, the enemy did everything possible to wreck this day and put my focus on myself and problems. As always, God blessed me through worshiping Him, fellowshipping with my Christian brothers and sisters, and hearing His word faithfully preached. Here's my attempt at a summary of today's sermon: When God's People Stray. The texts were Jer. 2:5-13, Jer. 3:1-5, and 2 Cor. 11:1-6. (This includes the well know verses about leaving God's springs of living water and digging our own broken cisterns - essentially turning away from God's abundance and turning toward lack.)

The first text is God giving His people a certificate of divorce. The first point in the sermon was that if there is a split between God and His people, it's never because of a fault in God. Therefore, if there is a problem, it is our fault - spiritual adultery of some form or other. A good point that I wrote in my notes was that in good times we tend to enjoy the blessings and forget Him, and in bad times we grumble and complain. Then when God convicts us of this sin, we get bitter against Him.

Spiritual adultery - 3 aspects - spiritual, moral, civic. In all 3, we are putting something else in God's place deliberately. Expanding on these 3 points were the bulk of the sermon, which I am too lazy to write out in detail. However, one point in particular struck me. If we say "I am empty - fill me up", are we looking to Jesus or to something/someone else to do so?

The conclusion was hugely encouraging to me. In the OT, adultery deserves stoning. However, in these passages, God does not annihilate His people but divorces them. This was gracious on His part. Also, God calls for His people to repent, and promises that if they do, He will restore them to virgin status. This is what happens to us in Christ - forgiveness and cleansing. Justification - as if I never committed the sin. Always, no matter what's gone on, God is calling me to repentance and waiting to restore me to fellowship with Him. Bottom line - Grace and Mercy is in Jesus. Praise God for this wonderful reminder!!!!!

I should be dusting!

Greetings!

Well, let's face it - playing on the computer is always more fun than dusting. (Anything is more fun than dusting.) I've had fun looking at other people's blogs and decided it was time to try one of my own. Actually, I'm Little Man's mother, but since he doesn't have opposable thumbs, he agreed to let me do the typing. It's February - yippee! That means work is slow, the year end bookkeeping is done, and the gardens are frozen solid. Therefore, more time to read, sleep, and play!

Here are pictures of Cammie and Little Man for your viewing pleasure!