Day 30 Reflecting and Counting My Blessings

 It was hard news; the kind that's hard to stomach.  

A winding long reel of world happenings in 2016.  

  Wars, terrorism, bombings,  and devastation.  

I walked over to watch.

Every gut wrenching evil and heart ache imaginable. 

The whole thing was all bad news  and I couldn't help but 

think  of it 

throughout the day. 

But then I started thinking about all the good news, and good things that the newscaster 

didn't report.  

Then I  started reflecting on my own life  and began counting  blessings.  

As the new year rolls in, I'll keep writing them down,  

 and giving God thanks.

 Tonight's post is going to have to be cut short.

I've got a huge mess going on... clipping magazines for vision boards in a journal.

I'll try to show pics in the days to come.  

Oh, had to share this clipping.... 

it was just meant to be!  

Day 29 More Planning For The New Year

 Hello friends,

I just poured this hot mug of tea using the cup I once gave to my AngelMother.  

On certain days like today,  I find myself choosing to use it over all thee other cups.

Some days I still talk outloud to her and I wonder do we  ever get over that?  

In some ways I hope not.  

Anyways I've sipped more than my share of hot vanilla tea the past couple days.  

Don't know if it's helping?  I feel better but it's like this head cold has slid down

to the hollow on the front part of my neck.  I think our voiceboxes are in there somewhere.  

So I keep sippin hot tea... 

Only three more days and we get to take down the old calendars

and hang up a brand new year.  

I've still not even bought one. Plenty of planner supplies but not

one little wall calendar. 

Our mechanics shop gets so many car calendars free in the mail

but .... they just don't float this boat.  

Guess I lean more toward flower gardens, and mountains.   

Do any of you get all fired up to get a new calendar?

Do you feel hope and inspiration when you turn to a 

fresh page?

I sure do.   

Just think of the possibilities. 

Because with God ALL things are possible.  

 This afternoon; I finished preparing a couple more 

inserts.  

 I sprayed the first few pages and 

I'm anxious to fill it all in.  

Sometimes the way the ink dries, you can see 

things to sketch in them.  

It's a little like seeing animals and characters in the clouds.

I sign off tonight with what I'll be carting with me along to bed. 

Talk about happy mail with  

more planning and dreaming to do.  

May visions of colorful, vine-ripened heirloom tomatoes,

an apron full of sweet peas, 

the sweet crunch of a cuke, and

an antique, aqua  Ball jar just chock-full of pink peonies

dance in our heads.  

Day 28 AND a Winter Cold RX

An old wives tale says ... feed a fever and starve a cold.

I don't know if there's  any truth to it?

It's definitely  harder to eat if you can't breathe though your nose though.  

I've also heard that  spicy food is  a good decongestant.

That one actually makes a little more sense.  

Anyways,  tonight I made this big pot of frito chili pie.  

It's one of Myguy's favorites and it just sounded comforting.

What are things you like to eat when you're down with the crud

or a bad case of  the blah's?

Day 27 Journal of The Contagious

Well.... every person in my family has had  the crud and I thought 

 I was going to escape it. 

Not so much. 

Yesterday the sore throat hit... 

This morning, I felt like I'd been run over by the same truck they said hit them.

  

How many times can a person sneeze in a day?  

I've lost count.

When you sneeze do you ever say God bless me?

My top teeth hurt... and

I don't even have any??? 

 These  implants would disagree.

Must be blogging outta my mind because why would I even want to share  that?

Oh well.

Here's to just keeping it real.  

Day 26 The Day After

The day after.  

The Christmas tree is still standing in a corner of our living room. 

The white curtain lights hanging from  the eaves of our house have been left on since Christmas Eve. 

The snowflake on the advent calendar hangs  from it's string not having a place to "be."  

And little by little the ziplock baggy of ham is shrinking in the fridge, and cookies and bars are either 

disappearing or getting stale.  

Soon the chickens will get the last of the leftovers and the day will come 

to box everything up and tuck it away in drawers, plastic totes and sheds.  

Some years, I'm one of "those" people who take it all down the day after Christmas.  

All but the "lights."  

Those I like  to keep for as long as we can.  

Today; light has new meaning.  

I'll share more about it closer to the new year.  

xoxo

Day 25 Merry Christmas

 Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas

from my house to yours. 

Day 24 Christmas Eve

 It's Christmas Eve.

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

Day 23 Planning Forward for 2017

With the new year around the corner, 

I thought I'd share some of the groups I've  participated in and also

how I use my planners and traveler's notebooks.  

The leather cover  up above is brand new from R Atelier.  

It's not been used yet and is waiting for the 

Hobonichi cousin notebook to go inside.  

Last year I used the techo size which is smaller and I found I didn't use

it as often as the last cousin size I used the year prior.  

Anyways for those of you who are interested and like to sketch or write

with fountain pens, the hobonichi is created from

tomoe river paper and it's so crinkly good after watercoloring and sketching.

And this leather embossed ROSES cover from R Atelier... well 

it's truly yummy in every sense of the word.  I can't wait 

for January 1 to start using her.  

 Two years ago I participated in 

Documented Faith.  This chubby moleskine planner book was

what I used for the whole year.  The edges of every page is washi taped and has

another page tipped in so I had room to add anything I wanted to my days.  

 Here's an example of the extra pages tipped in.  

Out of all my books/journals/planners,

this one... may be my most favorite.  

It's so full of life with pictures of my family as well

as documenting my faith.  

Last year, I made the mistake of not following along.

I chose other things and man did I regret it.  

I'm not good at jumping into something midway so I've waited til now

and am so excited to start again!

 I don't know what anyone is using but I decided I had to have

another Moleskine.  Look how skinny the poor thing is. 

I've started adding washi and hope to feed her well in the months to come!

 This I've shared before.  It's what I used for this month's 

plan books. It's from Chic Sparrow but I can't remember the name. I'm pretty sure it's not offered

anymore.    Inside, I paint in the pages, and plan and document every day.  

It often comes to bed with me so I can watercolor on the next day's pages or 

fill in things if plans changed.  Sometimes I also grab my phone and print out 

a picture of something from the day with the little polaroid zip on my night stand,

and stick it on the page since it has sticker paper.  Now that I'm a Grama, there

are always lots of pictures in my pages of Babygirl.  

 Lately I've been using  blank plan books from

Planner Perfect and 

have painted or decorated the covers.  

This past week the verse I had from my study time,

was the same as a card that my friend FancyNancy sent me.

I'll save it right there.  

 This is a Maverick from Chic Sparrow.  

Oldepottingshed is engraved on the bottom cover.  

It will be what I switch out of from the red Sparrow.  

Lately I've been enjoying wider notebooks inside, so it'll fit 

the new years quarterlies from Inkwell Press. 

 After going through the Books The Artist Way and 

The Creative Called, I have continued writing morning pages.  

Every day after devotionals I write for a good 20 minutes without a care in the world.

I just write whatever comes to my mind.  It's a great place to spill my guts, and 

dream, and speak truth to myself.  It  often turns into prayers.  

Anyways, I learned  going through the Artist Way to keep these pages to myself.

 As you can see, a November insert is still inside because it wasn't full after November and spilled into 

December.  I can't tell you how ... I absolutely lovelovelove doing this.  It's something

I look so forward to everyday.  I've missed a time or two and ... missed is the correct word 

there because I really did miss doing it.  It's something I will hopefully continue for as long as I'm able.  

 Here's another new book to start the new year.

It's a leather art journal sent from another artist friend.  

She got herself one as well and they even have peerless watercolors inside!  

I've used peerless before and they are the bomb.  

Notice she even attached a dragonfly to this one!  

I'm excited to start... and have already been dreaming what the very first

page might be?

 This is a sketch book that will be carried over this year.  

This past year I started sketching characters inside and it's not even half full yet.  

 It's another that gets carried to bed often.  

It's just so fun to just start playin around.  

These gals are kind of like cabbage patch people.

They're born in the pages of this book.   

 At the beginning of Advent I shared that this book; 

well, I almost put it back on the shelf.  I don't know why I struggled 

with what I'd read at first but I'm glad I kept going.    

It's now maybe my favorite advent book.  

It will be over January 7th and I don't even want it to end. 

Some of the authors I hope to continue with.   

This is another book from the author of the Artist Way.

I'll be starting it in January.  I enjoyed the others so much.

I found this copy on ebay.  

Aside from this I'm looking forward to 

Donna Downey's Inspiration Wednesday's,

and also a couple new bible studies.  

I'll share more about those on another day.  

Feel free to share any classes, books, studies, 

tn's, calendars, or things with me.  

I love learning about new things!  

Day 22 More Light

This morning's word study brought me to the book of Revelation 21: 23 that says  "The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it.  The Lamb is its light. I can't get that  out of my mind.  

Just imagine the New Jerusalem lit up by the Lamb of God.    

I love how dots connect.  

How someone from another state can inspire you to grab your old  bell jar out of the shed,

then for some reason... you have to  find the  lamb to put inside of it.

Then while reading the word the lamb in the bell jar

suddenly sparks into more sense than you'd have ever gotten otherwise.

To one person it would make absolutely no sense, but to you,

it makes perfect sense.  

Does that make sense?  

  

Now; in just two more days it will be  Christmas eve. 

Looking up I wonder what the night sky looks like over Bethlehem.    

Day 21 Be Still

It's just after 7 pm and Myguy and I just got home from dinner out.

Guess who met us on the porch rail 

again?  

All by herself sitting on the rail 

underneath  the Christmas lights. 

Henny Penny; the Araucana hen.

It's like it's becoming her thing.  

Maybe she needs a silent night?  

I dunno; but she reminds me of this other olde gal

pictured above.  I know I've shared the photo before but 

I need the true Light tonight.

Maybe someone else does too.

Day 20 Togetherness Trumps Biscotti

 Today's plans changed.  

The biscotti ...didn't happen.

And the last wrapping of gifts; 

that didn't happen either.

Instead; this afternoon I got a call from my hunny saying

he didn't know what I had planned but he was swinging by the house 

to load an old junk brush hog that's been laying around  and 

he was driving a load of scrap to the recycle place.  

" I didn't know what you had goin on," he hinted.

"Well, I've got a lot of wrapping to do and more baking to start," I told him.

After hanging up; it wasn't long and I heard that big 6.0 Diesel pull in 

the long driveway.

You know what?  Wrappin and baking can wait.  

I'd rather spend time with my guy. 

So while I heard him loading the junk out there with the tractor,

I hurried up and took the dogs all out to potty and put them in their pens.

Then I grabbed my coat and him a diet coke and me a coffee - and a couple 

M and M cookies for the road.  

Just in case he finished before me I sent a quick text:
Hey don't leave without me!
I'm comin!   

<3 nbsp="" p="">

He likes when I sit right beside him in his truck,

and I did. 

It was  a great afternoon together.

Side by side, smack dab in the middle of an ordinary Tuesday;

munching on cookies and the day just became..

extra-ordinary.  

It was good to get the load of scrap gone too.  

Marriage is a gift.  

May I not take him so for granted 

in the days to come.  

Day 19 First Pan of Shortbread

 Shortbread cookies are one of my favorites- 

They're kind of plain- yet 

oh so buttery and just slightly sweet.  

To me; they're that perfect little something with a hot cup of coffee

 or tea.  Over the weekend, I got this little pan to start making my own.  

The recipe on the back was so simple.

Preheat oven to 325

In a bowl: 

3/4 cup of room temperature butter

1/2 cup of powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

and 1 and 1/2 cups of flour.  

 When I first started mixing it, I kept looking back at the recipe

thinking... what did I forget?  It was so dry and took forever to 

turn into a ball.  But when it finally did it was so nice and soft.  

 Then I patted it into the sprayed pan.

The recipe said to use the kind of spray with flour in it but I didn't have any

so I just used what I had.  

You're supposed to prick it with a fork and I guess I was so excited

that I forgot to; and remembered it after it had started baking.

I  opened the oven door and did so and it was already starting

to bubble so it was good that I did.  

Then it's supposed  to bake for 30-35 minutes.  

(Mine was done by 30)

 I let it cool in the pan for ten minutes then loosened the edges

with a knife and turned it over and it popped right out.  

I wonder if I using the other spray; if  they might not brown quite as

much  as these did?  The floured spray is on my grocery list and I'm 

anxious to try it again.  I've also been looking up other recipes for them.

I know people use other flavors and also dip them etc.    

I really like them just plain little cookies though. 

I also made two more batches of M&M and White chocolate chip 

macadamia nut for the guys at the shop.

I wonder if they're getting sick of them yet?  lol

Tomorrow is Biscotti day 

and pumpkin bread.  

What's on your Christmas baking list? 

Day 18 A Drive Through Town

 Tonight was my first trip across the lighted bridge this Christmas season in the dark.  

It's such a welcomed sight every season and I always

look forward to it.  

And once again, our  court house is all dressed up in 

Christmas spirit  as well.  

As we headed out of town towards our little 

home sweet home,

we passed this beautiful  tree.

 It became tonight's scripture picture.  

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world.

Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness,

but will have the light of life."  

John 8:12  

Goodnight friends,

Leaon Mary

Day 17 A December Garden and Eating Snowflakes

It's a crazy weathered day.  

It warmed up in the night... and is supposed to reach the 60's this afternoon with

a cold blast right right behind it.  

When I first heard about it; I 

thought of my friend Dawn who's been enjoying a snowstorm.  

At our house; we're all dreaming of snow so 

an afternoon heat wave is... well I'm not even gonna write it. 

... it's a beautiful day!

I will fling open the door on the greenhouse 

water these blooming geraniums 

and clean up flower beds.   

Oh... and since snow isn't in our actual forecast...

I believe I'll have a little taste of it anyways. 

You know; for inspiration.