Thankful

I am so thankful I was not hurt today. However, I can not say that about my van. I was headed to town around 1:40PM today and out of nowhere I deer "spike" decided to commit sucide. Here are a few pictures:

Getting ready for opening day (Deer season)

Ryan, Sarah and I was up at "Our Place" a couple of weeks ago getting ready for gun season. Here are a few pictures I made that day. Also, there is a picture of our friend, Keith. He was the supervisor as Ryan, his brother-in-law Tony, and I put his shooting house in place. I hope you enjoy.

Aliza

Aliza is the youngest of my beautiful neices. She is 20 months old and full of herself. This picture was made 11/9/12 at mom and dad's house. While waiting on mom's hair to dry, Aliza let me fix her hair. Here is the finished product :D

Amazing God

God is SO amazing. This picture was made just outside Aliceville, AL on 9/27/2012 at 6:17pm.

Saturday Morning

Good Saturday morning. Sitting here at Gordo FUMC waiting on the youth to leave. They are floating the Cahaba today. Anyway,I'm listening to the sound of a bird. SO calming. Thank you Lord for allowing me another day. Please keep the youth safe and I pray they gave a great time. In Jesus name, amen.

God's MasterPiece

Friday, July 27th

Monday, July 30th

Today, Thursday, August 2nd

Here is what I put up Sunday afternoon (and yes, I did go to church :D)  Pepper Sauce, Pickled Okra, and Salsa.  I have a few tomatoes left but I think I may be through with canning; however, I do plan on putting up a few more jars of pepper sauce.

These are going to be GOOD this winter.  Thank you Lord for supplying ALL our needs.

Pepper Sauce, Pickled Okra, and Jalapeno Salsa

God's AMAZING sunset - Thursday, July 19th, 2012

God is SO amazing!

Rebekah and I saw this in Palmetto, AL on our way to Vernon last week.

A Rainbow - God's promise - We saw this on our way to Camp Meeting last Monday.

My niece - Aliza enjoying the rain

WOW, God is SO amazing.

Tomatoes

more tomatoes

and more

and even MORE tomatoes

Tomato juice

and even more juice...I have some in quart jars too

Left - beans, Middle - tomatoes, Right - pepper

 

Pickled Okra

Rattlesnake beans

WOW, has God really blessed us this summer with a beautiful garden!  Thank you Lord for all the cucumbers, peas, okra, squash, beans, tomatoes and peppers I was able to put up.  

These pictures was taken Tuesday, July 3rd.  Top:  Lord, PLEASE let it rain! Bottom two: Please don't let the deer/rabbits/etc get the peas before we do.

This was sent to me by a friend!  We can all learn from it.  Have a blessed and wonderful Tuesday.

LIVE WELL--LOVE MUCH--LAUGH OFTEN         I HOPE YOU ENJOY THE STORY LINE AS MUCH AS I DID....................     John Powell, a professor at Loyola University in Chicago, writes about a student in his Theology of Faith class named Tommy:   Some twelve years ago, I stood watching my university students file into the classroom for our first session in the Theology of Faith. That was the day I first saw Tommy. He was combing his long flaxen hair, which hung six inches below his shoulders.   It was the first time I had ever seen a boy with hair that long. I guess it was just coming into fashion then. I know in my mind that it isn't what's on your head but what's in it that counts; but on that day. I was unprepared and my emotions flipped.   I immediately filed Tommy under "S" for strange... Very strange.   Tommy turned out to be the "atheist in residence" in my Theology of Faith course.   He constantly objected to, smirked at, or whined about the possibility of an unconditionally loving Father/God. We lived with each other in relative peace for one semester, although I admit he was for me at times a serious pain in the back pew.   When he came up at the end of the course to turn in his final exam, he asked in a cynical tone, "Do you think I'll ever find God?" I decided instantly on a little shock therapy. "No!" I said very emphatically. "Why not," he responded, "I thought that was the product you were pushing."   I let him get five steps from the classroom door and then I called out, "Tommy! I don't think you'll ever find Him, but I am absolutely certain that He will find you!" He shrugged a little and left my class and my life.   I felt slightly disappointed at the thought that he had missed my clever line -- He will find you! At least I thought it was clever.   Later I heard that Tommy had graduated, and I was duly grateful.   Then a sad report came. I heard that Tommy had terminal cancer.   Before I could search him out, he came to see me.   When he walked into my office, his body was very badly wasted and the long hair had all fallen out as a result of chemotherapy. But his eyes were bright and his voice was firm, for the first time, I believe.   "Tommy, I've thought about you so often; I hear you are sick," I blurted out.   "Oh, yes, very sick. I have cancer in both lungs. It's a matter of weeks." "Can you talk about it, Tom?" I asked. "Sure, what would you like to know?" he replied. "What's it like to be only twenty-four and dying? "Well, it could be worse. "Like what?”   "Well, like being fifty and having no values or ideals, like being fifty and thinking that booze, seducing women, and making money are the real biggies in life.”   I began to look through my mental file cabinet under "S" where I had filed Tommy as strange. (It seems as though everybody I try to reject by classification, God sends back into my life to educate me.)   "But what I really came to see you about," Tom said, "is something you said to me on the last day of class." ( He remembered!) He continued, "I asked you if you thought I would ever find God and you said, 'No!' which surprised me. Then you said, 'But He will find you.’ I thought about that a lot, even though my search for God was hardly intense at that time. (My clever line. He thought about that a lot!) "But when the doctors removed a lump from my groin and told me that it was malignant, that's when I got serious about locating God. And when the malignancy spread into my vital organs, I really began banging bloody fists against the bronze doors of heaven.   But God did not come out. In fact, nothing happened. Did you ever try anything for a long time with great effort and with no success?   You get psychologically glutted, fed up with trying. And then you quit.   "Well, one day I woke up, and instead of throwing a few more futile appeals over that high brick wall to a God who may be or may not be there, I just quit. I decided that I didn't really care about God, about an afterlife, or anything like that. I decided to spend what time I had left doing something more profitable. I thought about you and your class and I remembered something else you had said:   'The essential sadness is to go through life without loving.’   But it would be almost equally sad to go through life and leave this world without ever telling those you loved that you had loved them.   "So, I began with the hardest one, my Dad. He was reading the newspaper when I approached him. "Dad. " " Yes, what?" he asked without lowering the newspaper. "Dad, I would like to talk with you." "Well, talk.” "I mean. It's really important." The newspaper came down three slow inches. "What is it?" "Dad, I love you, I just wanted you to know that." Tom smiled at me and said it with obvious satisfaction, as though he felt a warm and secret joy flowing inside of him. " The newspaper fluttered to the floor. Then my father did two things I could never remember him ever doing before. He cried and he hugged me. We talked all night, even though he had to go to work the next morning. "   “It felt so good to be close to my father, to see his tears, to feel his hug, to hear him say that he loved me." "It was easier with my mother and little brother. They cried with me, too, and we hugged each other, and started saying real nice things to each other. We shared the things we had been keeping secret for so many years. "   "I was only sorry about one thing --- that I had waited so long. "   "Here I was, just beginning to open up to all the people I had actually been close to..   "Then, one day I turned around and God was there.   " He didn't come to me when I pleaded with Him. I guess I was like an animal trainer holding out a hoop, 'C'mon, jump through. C'mon, I'll give you three days, three weeks."   Apparently God does things in His own way and at His own hour.   " But the important thing is that He was there. He found me! You were right. He found me even after I stopped looking for Him. "   "Tommy," I practically gasped, "I think you are saying something very important and much more universal than you realize. To me, at least, you are saying that the surest way to find God is not to make Him a private possession, a problem solver, or an instant consolation in time of need, but rather by opening to love..   You know, the Apostle John said that. He said: 'God is love, and anyone who lives in love is living with God and God is living in him.   "Tom , could I ask you a favor? You know, when I had you in class you were a real pain. But (laughingly) you can make it all up to me now. Would you come into my present Theology of Faith course and tell them what you have just told me? If I told them the same thing it wouldn't be half as effective as if you were to tell it..”   "Oooh.. I was ready for you, but I don't know if I'm ready for your class."   "Tom, think about it. If and when you are ready, give me a call."   In a few days Tom called, said he was ready for the class, that he wanted to do that for God and for me.   So we scheduled a date.   However, he never made it. He had another appointment, far more important than the one with me and my class.   Of course, his life was not really ended by his death, only changed.   He made the great step from faith into vision. He found a life far more beautiful than the eye of man has ever seen or the ear of man has ever heard or the mind of man has ever imagined.   Before he died, we talked one last time.   "I'm not going to make it to your class," he said. "I know, Tom." "Will you tell them for me? Will you ... tell the whole world for me?"   I will, Tom. I'll tell them. I'll do my best."   So, to all of you who have been kind enough to read this simple story about God's love, thank you for listening. And to you, Tommy, somewhere in the sunlit, verdant hills of heaven --- I told them, Tommy, as best I could.   If this story means anything to you, please pass it on to a friend or two.   It is a true story and is not enhanced for publicity purposes.   With thanks, Rev. John Powell, Professor, Loyola University, Chicago ______________________________

Flowers

Saturday, June 30th was mine and Ryan's 22nd wedding anniversary.  We carried nearly 2 bushels of purple hull peas to the Coop to be shelled . They charge $3.00 a bushel and it's worth every penny!  We parked in front of a bush with this flower attached.  Not only was the flower pretty but watching the bee fly around it was amazing (bee not in this picture).  It's awesome who God provides for all His living creatures.

God's word

The heavens proclaim the glory of God.  They skies display his craftsmanship.  Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known.
(Psalm 19:1-2 NLT)

Good afternoon!
No new pictures to share today; however, I just want to say 'thank you Lord for ALL you have done, are doing, and will do for me, my family and friends".

Rebekah, Sarah, & Ryan

God is SO amazing!

Yesterday, June 24th, was Rebekah's 19th birthday.  It was also the day we would take Sarah to Camp Sumatanga to spend the week.  These are some pictures taking on the way to Gallant, while we were there, and on the way home.  I hope you enjoy them.

I don't have a clue what this is

Saturday, June 23, Ryan and I got out and headed up to "Our Place" in the country.  We drove around talking about what we would like to do (one day).  In the meantime, I had my camera (as always) and decided to see what God had in store for me.  He amazes me daily.  From green grass, sawyer briars, TALL trees, to even the pesky horsefly...He created them all.  Thank you Lord for giving me eyes to see and ears to hear the wonders of your creation.

Thanks to my almost 19 year old daughter for helping me figure out how to do this :-D  I enjoy spending time with my family and the outdoors.  I make pictures all the time.  The ones I love to make the most are of Nature.  I'm a child of God and He is my inspiration.  I will try to post pictures on a regular basic. Good night.