Show and Tell and Fell

...Here is what we woke up to this morning!!!!!!!!! We had a wind storm come through last night and me and DH slept right through it!!!! There are two big maple trees on each side of our drive........ We knew that they needed to come down last summer but no time............ We had planned to take them out this spring.............. The wind gave us a hand last night and took out half of one..................... It just missed the HHR but hit the side of my Explorer............ It is an old Explorer 1999......... but it is my favorite vehicle to drive........... I think it may just have surface damage ............. We are thankful it did not hit the HHR.......... It is brand new............. You can just see the top of the Toyota in the background......... There is two beautiful Crepe Myrtle's under there somewhere......... !!!!!!!!! My sweet son Chris is headed over with a chain saw......... he is a sweetie............. Then I guess the rest of the tree will come down along with the other one on the south side of the drive....... I will miss them.......... but I am going to replace them this fall with something new............ Any suggestions.......... something that grows fast!

The only thing that makes me so sad is that both of these old trees is home to many redheaded woodpeckers and their babies.......... I hope they survived the fall........... Not sure what to do about that........... I cannot move them............. I love my birds and hate to see their home on the ground!

Happy Friday gals!!!!!!!!!!

Into The Closet In Groups

............ Back in the early 80's in Tulsa Oklahoma I was a member of a church that laid the foundation on which I stand today. I want to relate to you a story about prayer that happened in one of the sister churches in the community.

... The church had a membership of about 200 and in that 200 there were several ladies that came to church alone, as best I can remember it was about 7 or 8 ladies. They lived with unbelieving husbands. After several years of prayer for these men the heavens seemed to be closed over and no not one of them were brought into the kingdom of God.......... It was at a Women's Ministries meeting that one of the ladies had a thought, instead of praying for all of the men all of the time they should pray for one man at a time. Thus they wrote down each name into a little box and drew the first name. Those women, I do not know the number of women praying, began to petition heaven for the souls of those husbands and fathers. Over the course of a few years, these women were faithful to continue until each name had been drawn, and others added as needed, they saw each man one by one be born into the kingdom of God.

What do you want to pray for today?

....Prayer, it will move a mountain, it will mend a broken heart, and it will change the course of a nation. Prayer will comfort a grieving heart, prayer will find its way past the darkness of the hour, and give us direction through the rubble. Prayer will bind hearts together and cast asunder hate and prejudice. Prayer will overpower doubt and wipe away fear. It will unite a nation and bring it to it knees. Prayer is the faith filled words spoken by the child of God to bring God on the scene. We need God on the scene. Are you called by His name? Are you counted among the believers, then it is not just a privilege to pray, it is your duty. The word says that it is your reasonable service. Let us go beyond reasonable, and storm the gates of hell, there are souls to be saved. There are forces to be confronted. There is a spirit of antichrist that is flooding our Nation. We are one nation under God........ Let us be one people praying.

Ro 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

2Ch 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

I found this short quote in one of the many many emails that I am receiving each day as most of you are. I found it very profound and wanted to pass it along.

"It is humbling but I think C.S. Lewis said that pain is God's megaphone. In the midst of pain God is the only place we can go. The loneliest people there were the people who had no God to go to."(By Ken Walker, Baptist Press)

Our Nation is in Pain..... Our World is In Pain

Remeber those countries that are filled with the precious saints of God.

You Can Do Something..........You Can Pray!

Let Us Go To God....

Weekend Hero's

Two weekends ago we (DH, Son Chris, and moi (that is me in french) did some serious yard work. I finally got my camera out and started snapping some pretty cute pictures! Here we go!

Enjoy

My precious DH with a machete! Oh my gosh .. that is a testosterone thing I am sure because of that pose!!! Directly to his right is a huge oak tree sitting right on the south side of our home. I have plans to build an English garden right around that tree... What do you think? We have been so busy for the first three years that we have been here on other peoples homes and now it is our year! YEAH!!!! I will take pictures as we go...


and this would be my son Chris!! More testosterone and holding another machete! They have been in the woods to their left cutting down so tough underbrush and some poison ivy!


We have 10 acres and if you look right behind Chris is the south end of the property..Chris is talking abut building a split level house on the top of the south three acres.. They are clearing some of the years of neglect...( Not us, the people before us.. We have been here three years and we are trying to work out from the middle! Whew ! what a job..




This would be little mother as she sits and watches as we move from the south end of the house to the north end where her and Dad live... It was a bit cool but she was so excited to see what we were doing.... I got her a beautiful quilt out and wrapped her up good...



This is what DH and I were up to... We built little Mother a garden. It is 4 foot by 16 foot landscape timbers two high... We thought this would be easy for her to work without walking in the garden.. We drove rebar about 18" long in each end and four on each side to keep the timbers stable. We laid landscape plastic to keep the weeds at bay as best possible.

Now we are looking from the edge of the new garden back to Mom. You can see the plain jane yard and house.. But give me just a minute and keep looking!

Just to the left of their deck between their home and our home is an Iris garden that I planted two years ago. Mother and Dad lived in the same home for 40 years in a small town about 16 miles from where we are now. She had a white plastic pot sitting outside her back door with her Iris growing out of it every year. When they moved I picked up that plastic pot and brought it to our home. I planted it right under a small grove of trees to the north of my house. Now I have some of her mothers Iris bulbs that my cousin has given me and I have them planted there also. I have an old 4 pane window and an Iris stencil on my back porch and I am going to stencil an Iris on that 4 pane window and at the bottom will paint Mom's and Grandam's Iris Garden. What do you think? I will take a picture as soon as I get it hung.

Here is the their Iris garden with my old wrought iron bench. It does not live there but am not sure what to do with it right now... What do you think about it being white?

Now here is little Mom last weekend (it was much warmer) We had gone out to the local nursery and she bought herself some flowers!!! Her and I planted her little garden with some tomato plants right here on the end closest to us (the plant in the foreground is a barberry and does not stay there, it was just sitting there for the time being, it goes in the ground this weekend)

She bought some Gerber Daisy's and lots of other little plants that she is tending over like a hen over her chicks.

We have to watch her pretty close or she will have them growing web feet.! We have well water and I can turn the pump off inside the house... Bless her heart , her short term memory is going and she forgets that she has watered once today...so I just turn the pump off and she runs out of water.

In the background you see the north end of my house.. so you see we do not live very far at all from Mom and Dad.... That is a good thing most of the days!

ahahhahaha

She has on her too cute little straw hat... She is in her element and she is one happy little camper. It is so wonderful to see her out here and smiling. Makes it all worth it....

She is still watering!

Now comes the hard part.... Me and DH landscaped the house... Remember how bad it looked? Well it looks like a new house now....

After we finished with the larger plants Mom went out and put some Marigolds between each of the larger plants.... She has her own hoe now... :) She is standing on the north end of their little house right under the computer room ( they both have computers) , Dad is the blogger but Mom just goes to jig zone to play jigsaw puzzles... We have her computer where she cannot get out on the Internet except to that one site... No telling the mess she could make!!!! Thanks goodness me and my DH has some computer knowledge!

Now there is a shot of the week.... She outworked me!!!



We bought her two more roses that are climbers and put her a trellis on the side of the house between their computer room and her kitchen window.. They are more yellow/orange than yellow. She checks them every day to see if they are running up the trellis yet?

She is a hoot.. Here she is planting some more Marigolds.

Here is the corner right by the ramp and it is planted with petunias and mums and various little purple flowers that she wanted... They have really taken hold and doing great.

Going right up the North end of the deck is some natural wood lattice and at the bottom we put two yellow climbing roses... She is so anxious to see them come up that lattice... They will grow pretty quick and I will take pictures as they climb. Right to the left of the deck you can see a Hydrangea. It will love that north side. We planted dwarf Nandina's with phlox between each Nandina. Oh it looks so pretty....

Here is a view looking from the North end to the south .... their little home faces due west but what you cannot see is a grove of trees about 40 thick about 25 feet from their deck... What beautiful shade they have most of the day ... The yard gets the sun till about 3 and then the shade moves over the house but the deck is in the shade all day with the covering... how nice is that!!!! You can just see the bird bath in the front of the picture.. I took an old milk can and took the lid off and put an old bird bath that had the base broken and walla! a bird bath.

You can just barley see to the north end of the house some plants in the shade. That is their A-Robic Septic Inc.system. We could not put in a septic system so we went with the A-Robic Septic system. The only trouble with that is it has three large lids and a control box sitting next to the front lid. It is not very pretty ..so we took some of the natural lattice and some 4x4 posts and made a three sided fence . Now you can only see the lids and control box from the other side.. We will be able to get to it with no problem. It takes about 3 gals of bleach a month. Anyway we then went back and planted honeysuckle on the lattice .. It will grow pretty quick and cover the lattice. Now was that a smart idea or what!

Hope you enjoy the tour.. I am getting better with the camera...

More landscaping today.... My house this time... YEAH!!!!!

So I leave you with this thought..

Conflicts are inevitable, combat is optional.

More Than Conquerors

..........We are headed to OKC tomorrow for my third shot in my back........ We have decided to try the third shot and see what it will do.......... I have promised to take it real easy on Saturday and Sunday and let the medicine do it's thing........ I made that promise to my DH with tongue in cheek!... But I will take it easy........... We have also decided to postpone the CT scan with dye for a while and see if rest and the third shot will do it's thing........ We are also considering a chiropractor......... I have to give that some thought....... I have never been crazy about them but I have heard some good things from a few ladies here in blog land............

.......... I did go outside yesterday and I did work in the yard for about 4 hours........ I did work in my shop today for another 4 hours and so far I am not in terrible pain........ so I am encouraged...... I know it is the prayers of the saints............ I will be gone most of the day tomorrow and Saturday and Sunday we have yard work that we have to do so it may be Monday before I get back here........... I have a post about finished regarding the Oprah issue of which I have some strong feelings and thoughts concerning that....... I am still listening to the Lord about that before I post......... I do not want to offend anyone but I must speak the truth as I hear it from the Lord............ It is too important to dance around........... ( I can't dance very well anymore anyway)

.......... I have also had an answer from the Lord on a very very important issue........ I blogged about it several months ago and I have to share that with you next week............ My faith is increased and my head is lifted up................

...........The design for the Tee shirt is finished and color separated and ready to print........ I have had a couple of ladies email me and ordering shirts............ I am glad that I have waited......... but I will get those printed and out to all you wonderful ladies sometime in the next couple of weeks...... I have decided not to tell you that they are coming so it will be a surprise...........

......... Have a great Friday and for the weekend I leave you with this thought..............

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. (Romans 8:35-37)

You Are All a Part Of My Garden

..... this came from Mary over at Mary's Writing Nook....... she is such a talent and such a gift .... Isn't this pretty..........