The Little Things, Pt. 2

Philippians 4:18-20, NASB:  

“But I have received everything in full and have an abundance; I am amply supplied...a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.  And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.  Now to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever.  Amen." 

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, NASB:  
“Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 


Since there is just not that much to talk about or share, I decided that a pick-me-up post was in order.  Finally into February, after what seemed like a very long January, this time of the year always feels like winter will last forever.  So instead of giving in to the winter doldrums, I decided that it would be fun to look around and find pleasure in the simple things around me.  So, what are you grateful for?



1) I'm grateful for a warm house in the midst of the snow.

2) I'm grateful for fresh-from-the-oven cookies.

3) I'm grateful for a poinsettia that has lasted past Christmas.

4) I'm grateful for my husband and life-long partner, represented by my stuffed Rudolph.

5) I'm grateful for a God who loves me no matter how much I mess up each day.

6) I'm grateful for a car that runs and a job that pays the bills.

7) I'm grateful for my creativity.  By the way, the ironing board cover works great, and I love it!  No more store-bought covers for me.

8) I'm grateful for the ability to work with my hands.

9) I'm grateful for the dishes that I have to wash every day, the clothes that I iron, and the indoor bathroom that I clean--because God has provided everything we need, and those are little reminders.

10)  I'm grateful for love.

The Little Things

Howdy!  How does time fly by so quickly?  Hubby informed me that it's been twenty days since my last post.  So, to the one person who checks my blog frequently for updates, I apologize for the delay in posting.

There's nothing better than taking pleasure in the little things in life.  So, I've decided that this will be the topic of this entry.  There are no big things going on right now, and I'm okay with that.  In a few weeks, my hubby and I plan to take a trip to celebrate our eight year wedding anniversary, but I'll tell you more about that another time.  It's so hard to believe that we've had eight years together, and despite the ups and downs, they have been the happiest eight years of my life.  I wouldn't change a thing.  And most of the time, it is the little things about our life together that I love most.  So, I present to you: The Little Things.

One day, as I was getting ready for work, I noticed my husband's bar of soap on the ledge in the shower.  It's not uncommon for him to use absolutely as much of the soap as he possibly can.  Here is a great example:

When I saw this, I started laughing very hard.  It was wafer-thin.  I kindly set a new bar of soap out for him to use the next time he was in the shower.

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When the weather warms up, I don't like to wear socks.  I like to paint my toenails fun colors and go out in sandals whenever I can.  When the weather was in the 80s back in March, I had cabin fever and was wearing sandals for several days.  So, I decided it was time to break out the nail polish and paint the piggies:

I went with a periwinkle paint and a multi-color sparkle top coat.  Sadly, the weather turned cold again and I've had to keep my toes covered ever since.  The paint job has held up remarkably well, though!

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I read online somewhere that you can grow lettuce indoors all year 'round, as long as you are able to keep the plants in a sunny spot.  Our house doesn't have any great spots for growing plants, except for one window in the kitchen that I've put a low table in front of to keep plants on.  I planted four romaine lettuce plants in a glass bowl and set them out:

Sadly, not long after this was taken, the plants gave up and died.  But there's hope in the future, though--in the background are seeds for other delicious goodies I plan to plant, possibly this coming week.  So rest in peace, lettuces.  I'll plant my garden in your honor this year.

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Our back yard contains one large lilac shrub.  I say shrub, but it's taller than the roof line on our house, and it's getting hard for me to reach the blossoms.  The lilacs bloomed extremely early this year, so by the time I found them open, half had already passed their prime.  But I managed to find one good bunch that hadn't faded quite yet:

At a few stores, I have been having the good luck of finding old bottles.  I have never been interested in old bottles until now, and I'm starting to love the look and character of the old glass.  I have a collection of four now, and the one in the picture is from my collection.  It's an old blue Philip's Milk of Magnesia bottle.  I loved the color, and it looked so great with the lilac sprig inside.  I tied the last of a spool of purple iridescent ribbon around the mouth of the bottle and had myself a nice little fragrant centerpiece.  The lilacs only lasted a day inside, but they looked and smelled like the spring.  

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One day this week, we woke up to a surprise.  In my half-awake state, when I got up for work, hubby, who gets up a half hour earlier than me, grumpily told me to look outside.  I did, and this was what I saw:

The first picture is of the two trees in our front yard.  The next photo is of the view down the rest of the street.  Some kids must have been bored the night before, and decided to leave those of us in the neighborhood with a festive toilet paper surprise.  It was annoying, because they make the mess and we all have to clean it up.  But we know from past experience that they could have done much worse.  Living in the country with a booby-trapped moat can't come soon enough for us!  Oh, did I say booby-trapped moat?  I meant duck pond (insert evil laugh here).

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My hubby decided to take a day off of work and spend the day with me today.  We decided to take a trip up to one of our favorite hangouts--the Toledo Zoo.  We had a great time and a beautiful day to enjoy together.  Here are a few photos from our day trip:

The polar bears were particularly active today.  There are three in the exhibit, but the two above were having the most fun.  Check out the teeth on the bear on the right in the bottom picture!

It's not easy to look this good all of the time.

 

 Just too pretty to pass up taking a picture.

I'm not so sure that this zebra is happy to be a part of the carousel.

The new tiger cubs...being cute is hard work.

The giantest crab I've ever seen.

 Even weirder close up.  "Look out, I peeench."

The Conservatory.  50 degrees outside.  100 degrees inside.  Not kidding.  Hot for even me.

 

 I didn't know you could grow Cheetos in a pot!

 A springtime stroll through the beautiful gardens.

 Mother Tiger, enjoying the peace and quiet of napping cubs.

 Come on, let us in!  We want to watch TV!!

Twweeeeet!  I'll give you the bird stink eye if I want to!

And thus concludes my observations of the little things that make life interesting.  I hope you've enjoyed them, too!

God loves it when we delight in Him and His creations.  Every time I look around, I marvel at the world that surrounds us.  If you stop and really think about it, it's astounding and reassuring that my Creator is an awesome God.  I have no doubt in my mind that He created the heavens and earth, and not some big bang.  I will never be convinced otherwise.  Romans 1:20 says, "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse."  Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of your heart."  I will delight always in the beauty of God's creation, and it will always be a reminder of what a great and awesome God we serve!

One Year Anniversary!

Where Did The Year Go?

Wow!  In looking back at my posts, I see that my first post was July 25, 2010.  I can't believe it's been a year already!  If you want to see the first post, click here.  There have been changes: I finally found a job after three years of looking, my husband finally got a job he likes, business trips, a new online store, a new vehicle, people have come and gone; there has been fun: our Gettysburg and Greenfield Village trips; and there have been constants: we still live in the same place, we still volunteer, I have a garden again, and we still love each other very much.  It's funny that in the first post I was saying it was gloomy and raining, and that I had a program to go to, and today, I again had a program to attend and it rained last evening and night, and then some this afternoon.  What are the odds?  Although, the difference is that it is incredibly hot right now, and that is not going to change.

Our program, an 1847 wedding, was a lot of fun, and we had a good turnout despite the heat.  We were all pretty sweaty after 3 hours in the heat, but it was great to be out there with friends having a good time.  And the wedding cake was pretty tasty, too!

The bride (in blue), the groom (far right), flower girl, and minister.  A fine day for a wedding!

Woes Of The Garden

Green bean flower

My garden is a bit sad this year.  Between the torrential spring rains and attack of the 2" hail, it has had a rough year.  And then there was a bit of a drought for about a month, and watering doesn't seem to have the same effect on a garden as a good, soaking rain.  It's struggled and suffered this year, which is too bad.  I think my flower seeds that I planted washed away...all but one kind, which looks like a carnation and is doing fairly well out there.  I have two celery plants that seem to be doing okay--I planted six, and only those two remain.  I have one good bean patch, but the other one is having a hard time, and my onions, thanks in part to the hail, are small again.  I've pulled up all but one onion.  I pulled up my potatoes yesterday, and have enough for maybe one or two meals of mashed potatoes.  Many of the stems were broken by the hail, and it may have contributed to the low yield.  I had more last year.  My tomato and pepper plants, which were planted late due to the extended cool spring weather, are not doing badly, but I haven't had any yield from them yet.  My only hope remains in the green beans, and I was able to pick a handful yesterday.  They seem to be okay right now, so that's encouraging.  I even planted some more beans where the potatoes were, and hopefully they'll grow.  Maybe next year, I'll just do beans and potatoes, since they are what we like most.  Plus, the asparagus should finally be in full swing next year, so we should start getting a little from those.

I just can't believe I've been doing this for a year now.  I wonder what the post a year from now will look like?  And I wonder what will change between now and then?  Change is constant; nothing can remain the same forever, or it will become stagnant, old.  Without change, we would be complacent and stop noticing what's all around us.  God makes everything for a specific purpose in a specific time.  Ecclesiastes 3:11-12 states, "He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live."  Amen!