Living Life Beautifully

I never knew raising kids would be so hard. I didn't know that as soon as you have a child, you worry. You worry about everything. As they go through school you want them to make good grades, get along with other children and their teachers. When they start to date, you have all these questions about who they are dating, how that person was raised, what their family is like. You wonder if they will end up married to that person. When they get a job you worry about whether they can do the job well, what they will end up doing for a living, will they be able to support a family. When they start to drive.....OH MY....don't even get me started. You worry them through college, relationships, finances, health. Are they depressed, do they have anger management issues, are they healthy, are they happy, do they really believe in God or are they just trying to shut me up? Placing a child in God's hands and leaving the worry behind is hard to do. Sometimes you can do it for a moment, ...

I was going through some photos today and came across some pictures from a craft show I had, at the house in town, several years ago. I try to take pictures of everything I make. It makes it easier to part with each thing. I keep wanting to do something fun with the things I make, and use, to decorate my own home. I've been brain storming. :) Last night I was up till after 3am, in the morning, thinking of all kinds of things I want to do. I came up with an idea page with doodles of crafts and ideas. I have a passion for making things, which is good, but I don't have the storage space to keep everything I make, or the ability to use everything. So Bruce and I are thinking of trying to get into Gruene Market days, or something like it. That way I can keep making things and maybe they will eventually bless someone else...or at least that's the idea. Anyway....I thought it would be fun to post some of the pictures of the crafts I made back in 2003. It has been years since...

I keep thinking today is Monday. My weeks are flying by and these allergies are crazy. I was so hopeful I would have energy today. I have so much to do. So I got up this morning, took a shower, did the dishes, watched "The View", ate my breakfast, took all my medications and vitamins, Made the bed, put a load in the wash, folded a load from the dryer........etc.....etc..... I can't imagine having a full time job, running a house, managing kids, and taking care of anything else you might have to do. It takes me every bit of my time to manage home, kids, animals, and church stuff...and I don't even do that great of a job at any of those things. I have lots of tricks to make it look like I'm doing a good job. :) I have three of my four cats indoors at the moment. I tell ya, it's a trip. Maggie likes to distress all my furniture. I should rent her out. Mr Gretta likes to crawl up on things he shouldn't crawl up on. (no wonder he broke his leg this last year), ...

I was watching "The Nate show" on tv this morning and it got me thinking about how much fun it is to do an emergency decorating day with a friend who has some big thing coming up. One of my most favorite decorating days was when my cousin Kim called me one morning in a panic because her house was schedule to show to a potential buyer. I threw three kids in a car with two walkers and headed over. The twins were very small, so we put them in the walkers in the dining area and proceeded to go through each room making the most of what was available. Every once in a while we had to run into the dining room and take a collection of artificial flowers from one of the twins because he had pulled them from some arrangement we had displayed perfectly within his reach. It was a fun day. I rememeber a wall she had that they were in the process of removing mirrored tiles and it wasn't replastered yet. We went into a closet and found some long curtains in a burgundy color and ta...

It's so quiet here at home. The husband is working, the oldest is working and the younger three are at school. It's just me and the pets and all the pets are napping. I can hear the AC humming and the clicking of the keys as I type out my post. That's about it. It's funny how we get so used to noise to the point of feeling almost uncomfortable when it's totaly quiet. How cool it must have been to be alive when the world was slower and less occupied. I love to read books with stories from long ago when people cared more about their character and that of others. When children were expected to be respectful of themselves and others. When adults gave a thought to the example they set for their kids. When life was slower and friends were life long. When a barn burning was tragic but the entire town showed up to help build a new one. I'm sure it wasn't all a field of flowers, but you can see where I'm going with this. I want to have a day go by and lo...

I'm looking forward to the fall. I remember when I was little and the leaves would start to fall from the trees. I would run outside and soak it all in. I love to open my old windows, watch the curtains blow in the wind and smell the fresh breeze through the house. At our other house we had a property across the street that was empty and at some point during fall the lightning bugs would be everywhere. Sitting on the porch watching the kids try to catch them and put them in a jar was pretty cool. I've enjoyed this last year in the new/old house. Everything in my home is neutral in color because I have a lot of stuff. I figure it makes it look less cluttered that way. If I had a bunch of stuff in lots of different colors, my home would look like a circus. I learned a trick several years ago. I have very pale skin and learned that painting my walls in warm cream and white colors and decorating in dusty reds, greens, taupe and cream actually makes my skin look nicer. You get this ...

I am happy to report that our little mini kitty Maggie is doing great. Thanks to so many prayers from my fellow animal lovers. Her kidney count is still high but she is acting like normal and seems to be very content. She will have to be an indoor cat from now on, but I'm happy with that. I had to tell a story about something that happened on the day she was doing the worst and we were sure we were going to lose her. I had just gotten off the phone with the vet and wasn't too happy with the news. He was pretty sure she wouldn't make it through. It frustrated me how negative he was. Although after this phone call I was a bit depressed myself. Maggie was born to a barn cat owned by the Saur family. There were originally 4 kittens. The mother cat had disappeared when they were only a couple of weeks old and was never found again. One of the kittens didn't make it but the other three were nursed by hand by my son's girlfriend Kim until she couldn't do it anymore due...