{ Tuesday Tidbits }

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East Tennessee weather is probably the most unpredictable anywhere in the United States.  This week's temps are like a roller coaster and then next week winter sets in with really cold temps, especially at night. But, Y'all.....

it's winter!!!

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The birdies have found the red barn feeder, but they're about to eat out of house and home.....

or house and barn!

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I'm on a cleaning frenzy -

it's sad to think about how two people can accumulate so much stuff, especially when one has difficulty throwing anything away.

(I won't name any names)

I've given away some things to Jess, but the den floor is full again of stuff that I just don't want/need any longer.  And, I haven't even watched that KonMari show on Netflix that everybody's talking about, or it could get worse.....

or better, depending on how you look at it!

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Do any of you set New Year's resolutions or goals? Or neither?  I don't do resolutions because my resolve usually dissolves in just a few weeks, but this year I am setting some goals. One is to HOPEfully FINALLY get my house in some kind of decent order. When I think about how neat and tidy the drawers and closets are that I've cleaned out so far it's like I'm able to breathe.  Clutter truly does clutter up the mind, too!  Another goal is to get back to eating better. I've lost a considerable amount of weight since my highest about 10 years ago, but have set a goal for myself to lose about 20 more.....

or maybe 10! Don't want to get too ambitious, you know!

😊

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Our girl sent me a text last evening asking if I had anything planned for this coming Thursday and I told her no, thinking she probably wanted me to keep the kiddos. Guess what she wanted?  To take me on a date, and she won't tell me where we're going, just told me to dress nice. I rarely get to go on dates, so Nannie is excited!

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She Shed update - 

sadly, no news to report, but Pappy is working on a couple of projects in our hall bath for me since it's too cold to work outside on the shed.

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If you saw my Facebook post about putting a Christmas tree back up and decorating it with snowmen and cardinals just for our second grandson - 

well, he loved it!

But with all the cleaning and organizing, I'm ready to take it back down and box it away for next year. I'm telling you all, this ain't like me at all, but I sincerely hope that I can keep it up!

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And, that's that about that, as my Mammie used to say.

HOPE your  Tuesday is terrific!

{ CHRIST-mas Blessings }

Merry, Merry CHRIST-mas!

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{ Friday Foto Friends #161 }

Merry, Merry CHRIST-mas from our home to yours!

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{ THANK-full Thursday }

 

Do you ever go through periods of time where you have a feeling of fear that something not so good is about to happen?  Along with that same train of thought, you sometimes feel excited because of feeling there's something new and unexpected right around the corner. In both instances, you're not able to put your finger on just exactly what's causing those feelings because you have no clue what the future holds, you just know you have "that feeling" in your heart and you're either filled with a feeling of dread or excitement.

Maybe it's because it's CHRIST-mas - I don't really think so - but my feelings lately are that God's about to do something BIG. I have no way of knowing what that is, but I do know this. I have some amazing friends and family that I'm so very THANK-full for who are standing in the gap for me in prayer about a certain situation. What would we do without prayer warriors in our life, Y'all?

And, as I'm typing this I think I just received a revelation.

That feeling of excitement has to do with the peace in knowing that God is still in control, 

that He's working ALL things out for HIS glory and for our good.....

and oh, how He loves us!

Happy, happy Thursday before CHRIST-mas, sweet Friends!

{ Tuesday Tidbits }

Can you even believe that Christmas is a week from today?

Me either!

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The young carpenter will be back this morning to hopefully finish up the cover over our back porch.

 Y'all, it looks like it should have been there all along!  

I'm so grateful God's allowed us to get this done.

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We're going to be spending time this afternoon with our Special Friends going to the Hatfield and McCoy dinner show - 

so excited!!!

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If you're looking for a short devotional and you have issues with "emotional strongholds" (or is that just me?), may I suggest "30 Days to Overcoming Emotional Strongholds", by Dr. Tony Evans. 

It's gonna take more than 30 days for me, but it's very good reading.

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My birthday is next month and my Keurig sounded like a wild animal in labor, so I splurged and got myself a combined Christmas/birthday gift - a new Keurig in the color "rhubarb". 

Our oldest grandson said he was glad I didn't get a black one, but chose a color - me, too!

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Y'all might have seen this on Facebook, but this is the ornament I made for our kiddos this year.....

times 4. I found the pattern at What Madeleine Loves and it's free. I had a really hard time figuring out how to display them but finally decided to buy round wooden disks (Hobby Lobby), painted them dark blue to represent the night sky and hot glued the ornaments to them. I wood burned our kiddos names and the year on the backs. I want to make our daughter - and myself one, too - but it'll have to wait until after Christmas. I'm blanket-stitched out right now!

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Do Y'all have birdfeeders?

We have two outside the window where our computer is and I enjoy watching the birdies oh, so much.  We only fill them with sunflower seeds, otherwise, we wind up with grass growing underneath the feeders - who knew?

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There's a precious 4-year old in our church who was recently diagnosed with leukemia and he's going through chemo treatments. Please pray for Holston and his family. I think I have problems and troubles until I hear about things like this and it truly puts things into perspective. There's power in prayer, Y'all, and I know this family would appreciate any and all prayers!

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I could write on and on, but.....

That's that about that as my Mammie used to say!

HOPE everybody has a Terrific Tuesday!

{ Monday Motivation }

It's the week before Christmas and I'm pretty much ready, just have a couple of things to pick up for the family get-togethers but this week is going to be FULL.  Today, the carpenter and Pappy are trying to finish up what needs to be done for now on the porch cover, tomorrow we're going on an outing with our special friends (I HOPE they know how special they are to us), Wednesday we'll probably have our two littlest grands, Thursday is Grandboy #2's 11th birthday and Friday is a family gathering here at our house.

I saw this little "sign" and knew it was meant just for me and maybe somebody else, too.....

HOPE you have a happy and blessed, untangled week before CHRISTmas, Y'all!

{ Friday Foto Friends #160 }

Only one more Friday before Christmas, Y'all.

Isn't that hard to believe?

Are you ready?

All the shopping finished and wrapped?

Stockings stuffed?

I should be all set by the first of next week and can enjoy the time before Christmas Day!

Here are my fotos I want to share with everybody today.

We had a little bit of snow earlier in the week and when that happens the birds go crazy at the feeders. Not a clear foto, but I just happened to catch a blue jay standing guard!

I'm usually up way before sunrise - 

at least most of the time.  One morning this week I caught a glimpse of red outside the window where I was sitting in the living room and went out to the driveway - in my pj's - and got a couple of fotos. Again, not clear, but the sky was so red and gorgeous and as the sun rose there were shades of red and pink and purple and blue. Absolutely gorgeous!

Only God.....

HOPE everybody has a great weekend!

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{ THANK-full Thursday }

I'm so grateful for retirement so I can enjoy the early mornings with just me, 

coffee, 

the soft glow of the Christmas tree.....

 and JESUS!

HOPE your Thursday is blessed!

{ Tuesday Tidbits }

I'm sure Y'all wait with bated breath for what's happening in my life because it's so interesting so I won't keep you waiting one second longer!

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Last Friday our neighbor had a tree cut and a huge limb landed on the shared fence between our backdoor neighbor/friend tearing down a section of the fence and knocking a hole in my she-shed.  The fellows cutting the tree went way above and beyond to fix my shed and the fence and one of the young men even blew the leaves out from around the shed and most of our backyard!  There REALLY are some honest folks left in this world!

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I know many of you don't like scents, but I've mentioned before how much I love diffusing essential oils. My current faves are clove, cinnamon, and orange. So Christmasy!

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So, this brown spot appeared on the side of my face and I immediately started regretting not using sunscreen this past summer when I spent hours in the sun and as I looked at the spot closer and scratched it with my fingernail it hurt and I remembered talking on the phone with it under my chin and my head cocked sideways and using the curling iron at the same time and no, I didn't put the caller on speaker because I kept thinking it wouldn't last much longer and now I have an even browner, uglier spot on my face and learned two things - don't talk on the phone and curl your hair at the same time and use sunscreen!!!

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We've had snow this week and it was beautiful!

There's just something so peaceful about a snowfall and how everything looks fresh and new covered all in white! 

(a sweet example of salvation)

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I love it when you  get a haircut and you know you did but it doesn't really look like you did because you have such a fantastic hairdresser and you get to spend time chatting with her because she's your friend, too, and then afterward you are driving along knowing it's freezing outside and the wind's blowing but you're toasty warm in your car listening to Christmas music and spending time ALONE!!!

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I haven't wrapped the first Christmas present, Y'all. 

I'm hoping to get started on that today. 

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I love this time of year so full of all things Christmasy. We went to a play a couple of weeks ago that all 4 of our grands were in (be still my heart) and this past Saturday evening was a girl's night out for my daughter, grand-daughter and me - we went to see The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. I took Jess to see that when she was a little girl at the Bijou Theater in Knoxville. It was wonderful. If you haven't seen it, there are a few movies that are only around an hour long on You-Tube. It's really about the true meaning of CHRISTmas!!!

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And, I'll leave you with this because surely I'm not the only one......

Well, that's that about that as my Mammie used to say!  

HOPE everybody has a Terrific Tuesday!

{ Friday Foto Friends #159 }

I love winter skies and the views are so much better at Mom's house!

HOPE everybody has a great weekend!

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{ HOPE }

A sweet friend shared this on Facebook and Y'all know it spoke to my heart!

Hope  you have a terrific Thursday!

{ Wednesday's Word - Grief }

grief

keen mental suffering or distress over affliction or 

loss; sharp sorrow; painful regret

a cause or occasion of keen distress or sorrow

Being transparent and open and honest is hard, but so often God asks to do hard things but with His help. I really don't want to be writing and sharing this because I feel like it makes me vulnerable for criticism and all sorts of other emotions, but I'm doing it anyway, hoping that someone else can relate realizing that you're not alone. 

I've been going through the stages of grief for quite some time and didn't even realize it until last Friday morning.  As God would have it, I "just happened" to watch an Instastory posted by a lady I follow. I had no idea that she would talk about grief before it was over, but she did, and she also prayed for those watching. As she spoke about the 5 stages of grief, I saw myself for a very long time going through each one of those powerful emotions and letting them cripple me and cause me to practically come to a stand-still in my life. I've allowed this to affect me physically and emotionally. I'm going to also say that it has affected my spiritual life, but I don't think that's been such a bad thing because it has caused me to cling even tighter to God's hand and His word has become sweeter to me. Each morning as I've poured my heart out to Him, He's whispered His precious comfort over my soul.  One of my very favorite things is to open up my Bible in the mornings and the feeling that comes over me often before I even read anything at all. It truly is a sweet aroma.

I'd like to share a few things that I've come to realize as I've pondered on these 5 stages of grief during the past week.

Denial 

My own denial is very selfish in thinking "how could this happen to me?" when in fact it should have been "why not me?". God uses the hard things to prune us and make us into better servants for Him to share our struggles with others.  That's something that isn't always easy for me because I have this tendency to want everybody to think my life is just perfect when in reality I'm a sinner and live in a sinful world. 

Anger

Y'all, I could write a book on this emotion. This doesn't even sound right to admit (remember the problem with perfection) but one thing I was angry about was I so wanted Pappy and me to share in some type of ministry after he retired and that hasn't happened. I won't go into detail all the other things that have caused so much anger and regret and deep sorrow, but all of those things have been there and it took practically nothing for them to surface.

Bargaining

This one's difficult to describe and maybe it didn't last long or wasn't even a part of this process at all. If you can call it bargaining, then it had to be my begging God to change the situation to what I wanted (selfish much?).


Depression

If you know me well, you know this is something I struggle with. This isn't something new and as I look back over my life, all the way to childhood, I know I've suffered bouts of depression for well over 50 years. During this battle it overcame me. You might wonder how in the world could she be a Christian if she admits to allowing herself to become depressed. Please know that I've asked myself that very same question over and over through the years. My consolation is remembering all those in the Bible who suffered from that same feeling of desperation.....
Moses, David (a man after God's own heart), Job (and Job's wife), Elijah, Jeremiah (the weeping prophet)

I believe the Bible lets us know about the depression and desperation these great saints went through as an example to us - after all, isn't that what the Bible is for?

Acceptance

From what I've read we can go through all of the first 4 emotions in any given order, but the final one is acceptance. Does this mean that we like how things are going, how our life turned out, that we don't get "our way"? Absolutely not. We realize there are situations and folks in our life that are completely out of our control. We accept that God has a greater plan and we have no idea the "why" of the way things are going. My own greatest acceptance is that He loves me and cares about how I suffer, but that He is using it for His glory!

If you're reading this and you're in the midst of grief, or just coming out of it, or like me and don't even realize you're grieving, let me pray for you. I've shared some of my struggles with very close friends whom I knew would pray for me and keep my confidence. Find such a friend for yourself. I'll be glad to pray for you in confidence if you would like to e-mail me at wiseoldowldesigns@comcast.net.

Thank you, sweet Friends, for listening and praying for me. 
I so appreciate all your kind comments and prayers and love. 

HOPE each of you has a Wonderful Wednesday full of blessings!

{ Tuesday Tidbits }

A few things going on in my neck of the woods.....

Yesterday was an awesome day!

Wanna know why?

I worked outside!

I'd rather be outside working than indoors any old day. The weather was warm - a little too windy - but there were lots of leaves that needed to be mulched and blown and I took advantage of the warmer day and we got a lot accomplished!

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The porch cover is coming along.

I haven't taken any fotos, but I will soon.

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I came across this little owlie in a box of decorations that I hadn't opened in several years. I've had this owl since I was very young before we were even married. One of his little ear tufts is missing, and I'm pretty sure Jess tore/bit it off when she was little. He's faded and kinda nappy, but he's loved and found a place to perch on our tree.

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We got to see all 4 of our grand kiddos perform in The Christmas Carol this past Saturday night. Y'all, I can't even describe the joy and pride for these precious little souls. 

Be still my ♥ 

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Not a very clear foto, but look who's started sleeping in one of the chairs under the carport.....

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I'm pretty much finished decorating for Christmas, except for the lights we bought on sale last year that I wanted to put around our porch - we'll see if that happens since I'm old and tired.....

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Today is the 24th anniversary of going to heaven of one of the most important and loved people in my life.....

my Daddy.

April 13, 1928 - December 4, 1994

(Daddy and me - 1955)

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And, that's that about that as my Mammie used to say!

HOPE everybody has a Terrific Tuesday!