Thursday, November 4, 2010

Thankful Thursday Gratitudes

Greetings and Holykisses!

It's Thankful Thursday and I've been setting here thanking God for each and everyone of you who visit the Shabby Olde Potting Shed! It's such a beautiful day here. Garrett our weatherman said to expect some gusty winds today.... who doesn't love gusty winds on an Autumn day?! To see those leaves spin around and twirl down from the trees.... makes me happy!

I have so much to share today! It's been a busy week and there are many changes in thee air!
So here I share a few more random blessings....
Surely you're sick of seeing this picture, but bear with me! This is in my soul journal and I want you to have another glimpse so you can see what God's been doing..... Here; he'd brought to my mind to put my armor on everyday- some of you prolly remember.- (I know it's spelled probably but all the cool young folks say prolly- including our sons so I'm goin with "prolly" today.)
Well, here's a beautiful tag my dear friend Char sent me after seeing thee armor picture. This is a two part blessing because not only is this great tag a God thing... but so is her friendship! We've never met in real life, but God crossed our paths through the open door; here at the Shabby Olde Potting Shed. (Thanks God!!!)

This past Sunday, as I got dressed for church, my mind drifted to putting on my Godly armor.
So piece, by piece.... I imagined putting it on. My helmet of salvation, breastplate of righteousness, belt of truth, and then I reached for my shield of faith. After that I slipped on my comfy gospel boots and before leaving gripped my sword of the Spirit. I was dressed...and we headed out.
We pass by this suit of armor every day to go to church. It actually hangs on a fence and I've often admired it but this last Sunday we were a little early so I asked Myguy to stop and take a picture of me next to it since God keeps bringing this whole armor thing to my attention. Soon as he took the photo, we headed on to church. Walking through the doors, the greeter handed me the bulletin:
Should I even be surprised I ask?????????????????????
"We must... put the armor of FAITH and LOVE on our chests, and put on a helmet of the HOPE of SALVATION. (Thank you Abba Father for revealing Yourself to me and speaking in the most amazing, awesome, cool, rock my world kind of ways!!! I hear You, I'm listening, and please keep showing me things! " Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not." Jeremiah 33:3


Another cool random blessing this week is this: I received an email from someone I didn't know that had once read a Post here at the shed. Let me further explain: A couple years ago, another blogger friend sent me a link to a Gardening site and she told me to go look at these "potting shed" advent calendars. I went to the site and loved them but they were really expensive. I waited and they were later marked down but still not enough where I felt I could buy one. I kept thinking about them though and when I went back again... they were "sold out." I sorta kicked myself! Must have been last year then, I blogged about advent calendars and asked people if they had any good patterns or ideas to make one? You typically see wall hanging advent calendars made from wool. -- Then I think I wrote about this particular potting shed advent calendar and how I missed out on it. Fast forward now to this new email I received from a gal who'd visited the Shabby Olde Potting Shed long ago and who had read that post. Still with me? She said she'd actually purchased one of those exact potting shed advent calendars and no longer wanted it and asked me if I would like to buy it? She priced it extremely reasonable and I bought it from her. A couple days ago it came in the mail and look at it!!!! It's so dadgum cute! It's really big too! See all those little doors? They all open and have things like rubber boots, a water can, ... gardening things to take out on those days and decorate around the lil potting shed. (It makes me smile) And what a blessing! Thankyou Susan!!!! You blessed me so much! I can hardly wait til December 1st!!!
Onto some more random blessings.... our lil flock! Some of you are "prolly" shaking your head at me. I can't help it.... they really do bless me! These lil guys n gals are my friends! So many of them will eat right out of my hand and even though some are now molting.... they lay the best eggs!
Remember the Christmas hen? Our neighbor gave her to me for Christmas last year.
She lays the most beautiful big brown eggs! I love her! She will even let me pet her for a bread crumb.
See her eggs? Which came first... the chicken or thee egg? The chicken of course!
And God said "It was very good too!"

Some of you have written to me about our old cupboards. This one was missing a cutting board, so my handy Hubby cut a new board for it recently. Works great! He even cut a cute lil groove on the bottom for my fingers to pull it out. (I'm thankful God gave me a Handyman Husband!)
Out in the garden, I was blessed to find the Snow Queen Clematis I planted in Spring, had bloomed this week! My Angel Mother once won a Snow Queen contest so I planted it in her memory. Seeing this big bloom this week really touched me coz I've been experiencing a few sad missing her days again.
After our garden died down in August, I mowed it and cleaned it out. But the zinnia seed resprouted as well as more morning glories. Everything you see here came up without me planting it. Even the one cockscomb in that pot. (I'd planted petunias in that pot and they died when it got really hot.)

On this particular day this past week, I cut a whole mess of zinnas and the cockscomb and brought them inside to put in old fruit jars.
The night that I did this.... we got our first freeze! All the rest of them outdoors died out.
But these are still on our woodstove! Oh and the lil birdnest is yet another lil blessing. I have such a thing for birdnests and feathers n things. I found this little nest on the same day I cut the zinnias. It had fallen out of our Pecan tree!
Into the kitchen, .... more blessings. Some of my Facebook buddies encouraged me to try making a pumpkin roll. I've always thought they are beautiful but they do look abit intimidating? Next trip to town, I bought thee ingredients and gave it a go. (If you want the recipe, I ended up using the one that can be found on the back of a Libbys pumpkin can.) -- Oh looky... this is where I got to try out the new cutting board!
It was so much fun trying something new....
And they actually turned out!
Not eating the whole thing was the hard part.
Happily, both Myguy and me have both met our weight goals now! Which is yet another blessing! Maintaining is alot easier than losing that's for sure! As my friend Heidi would say, "You can have 1 cookie." Or in our case... 1 piece of pumpkin roll.
If anybody is still with me??? .... we're now out back and counting more blessings. First, Myguy has been on vacation all week. It's been awesome having him HOME. And another blessing is we got to start building a wrap around porch. For 15 years now; this is what it looked like to go out our back door. It's quite a drop down to concrete blocks, and then the ground. See our clothesline out by the fence?
I used to push off the top concrete block carrying my laundry basket coz I was afraid a snake could be inside these blocks.
This is what it used to look like.
And this is how it's coming along. We're pretty excited about it and very thankful.
We still have a few boards to put on the floor later today and then the railing around the whole thing and the steps on the right. I asked Myguy if instead of a step on the left, if I could have one cool flat rock. So I'll be watching for just the right one when I go walking through the woods.

We won't be able to get the roof on until next year because God willing, at that time we'll have a green metal roof put on our whole house as well as this porch. We're very grateful because almost everything it cost to do all of this was more blessings. We'd been saving all our pocket change for a few years and tossing in an antique pickle jar. For two nights this week, Myguy and I counted and rolled all our pennies, nickles, dimes and quarters and discovered we'd saved almost 700 dollars! Then, yesterday we hauled off three of our calves we had this year. With God; one pickle jar plus three calves can build a porch!

Well, I have a doctor appt I better go get ready for. Just a physical; you know how fun it is after 40... you get to go have mammygrammys and all kinds of good stuff. I shouldn't complain; instead I "prolly" should be saying "I get to go to the doctor today!" (yeah right; who am I kidding.) :D

Have a wonderful day!!
God's good!
Holykisses xoxo
L

16 comments:

Unknown said...

I can't believe you had any weight to lose, so tiny! Love the pumpkin roll, some day I'll have to try it! And a new deck, how nice and what fun to decorate it, only wish I lived closer to help!

From the Heart said...

I can tell also that you have lost weight. Good for you. I've gone down two dress sizes but can't seem to drop anymore.

Love your "thankfuls". Beautiful pictures and flowers.
Love you, AE

Anonymous said...

I love your new porch! It is going to be perfect. Lea, what are the birds that are gray with the little heads... long legs? Are they turkeys? Guess you can tell I am a city gal but I really want to country! Love you.
Janie

Anonymous said...

Oops, their legs are short and a big body. They have the white on the eye area.... Too cute.

Janie

Trace4J said...

What a wonderdul post..How thankful I am for your sharing with us all. I am also thankful toay for my family!

Sunnyside Up said...

giggle....I LOVE what God, a pickle jar of coins & 3 cows can buy...:)Im SO excited for you to get that deck...enjoy your time with Mike!!

AND oh...I saw your *Tweet* that said your cows were bawling their heads off for their babies....HOW COULD YOU???? poor cows....PROLLY traumatized for LIFE! hehe

Hey...I want to see a picture of your lil potting shed when you get all the lil things out! I cant wait to see the rubber boots & watering can...that is SO cute! Doin the HAPPY DANCE that you were blessed with it! I know you REALLY wanted it.....SMILE!!!! :D

Have a Wonder FILLED day...
Love ya! Char

My ADHD Me said...

I love that picture of you at the top of your blog!

Your posts are so vivid. I really enjoy them. And your incredible energy and faith that feels contageous!

BTW, A few years ago I wrapped up a "mess" of coins and took them to the bank. The teller nicely informed me that they are not allowed to take rolled coins there anymore. They have a machine that you just dump your coins in and it totals them immediately. SO, she and I sat there and unrolled all those hours of rolling! LOL. It was all good and actually the machine came up saying it was a few dollars more than I thought.

Have a great day!

Dee said...

Your going to have one grand porch to decorate and sit on while sipping tea in the summer. Your chicks might even enjoy sitting with you. November must be spurring everyone to start counting their blessings..I know I am.:)

irene said...

Lovely Lea.....I am so glad to see that you're getting your wrap around porch, I can't wait to see what you do with it, wish I could sit out there on your new porch when it's finished and have a cup o tea and good long chat! Because I live in a shabby old house and have a very busy builder husband I can fully identify with the excitement over any project getting started (let alone getting done!). We are slowly (as time and money allows) adding my sun porch (footings are formed up) and a new bay window in my little library.....oh, I love dreaming!! Thanks for sharing, your posts always make my day! XXOO

LisaShaw said...

Hi Lea,

This post is full of sweet nuggets of truth, wisdom and beauty, just like you! Love your header also!

I pray all is well with you!

I'm thankful for the goodness and kindness of the LORD and how He shows that through you.

Solid Rock or Sinking Sand said...

I really enjoyed reading the posts on your blog. I would like to invite you to come on over to my blog and check it out. God's blessings. Lloyd

Paula said...

I'd like to be the sort of friend that you have been to me. I'd like to be the help that you've been always glad to be; I'd like to mean as much to you each minute of the day, as you have meant, old friend of mine, to me along the way." {unknown}

Just sending you some love dear Lea. Thought of you this morning as Maggie and I were walking the road praying, and a big ole dragon fly came with us!!!

With Fond ALoha Paula

Covnitkepr1 said...

I have added myself to follow your blog. You are more than welcome to visit my blog and become a follower also.

Paula said...

I enjoyed this post so much, sweet Lea... I was with you every step of the way while you took on a trip around your cozy little world. The porch is going to be fantabulous- I can't wait to see the finished product!
And I love pumpkin rolls- they remind me of my momma because she used to make one every year for Thanksgiving.
Hugs to you today, dear friend.

Attic Clutter said...

WOW you are getting so thin ..congrats..
love the post~ the kitchen jars, eggs, chickens you by the armor man ..LOL
hugs,Patty

Tammy@Simple Southern Happiness said...

Oh, I would never want to leave your property if I lived there. Those hens would be my new friends.

I SO ADORE your journal and its armor page. Its the first time I have seen it. What an awesome talent God blesses you with. We do put on the whole armor of God each and every day.

Blessing to you!