Showing posts with label Bible Study. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bible Study. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

The Year that was...2012

I always love putting up the new calender and exchanging it for the old. Fresh and clean with no pen marks, red lettering, strike thrus, or smudges. A blank slate for optimism, hope, and a fresh start. Looking back on the past year is requisite; something that we inevitably do in life. It's a time to reflect on our accomplishments, things that have changed and evolved, but also a time to see where we are heading and taking inventory of our own personal lives.

A header that I made but never used, 
this image just speaks volumes to me about life.

Hallway bath repaint in late January and February.
A start on lightening up my walls and surroundings.


Looking back on this last year I didn't feel like I had accomplished very much. This has been one of those years that even though there have been many good things, over all it's one I would rather not have had to walk through. My New Year's wish, instead of resolutions, is always said with a hopeful and optimistic prayer, that this next year will be a better one than the last...


realistically, that doesn't always happen.



Immediately after the bath refresh came the Living Room RePaint.


What a huge difference in my daily frame of mind.





There's just something about a clean white wall
that visually and emotionally "lightens the load".










Within a week I was on to the Master Bedroom,
and my quest for the perfect shade of "greige".



I had realized that the darker colors I had loved 9 years ago were causing me to feel overpowered and claustrophobic. Sort of like the walls were closing in on me. It all had to go and this was the last bastion of dark and "heavy".


I still wake up everyday feeling the freshness of this change.


With the old darker color I was getting tired of all the dark wood,
 but once the paint was changed, I looked at it differently.








The bedroom RePaint ended the major projects of last year.
It was late Spring when my world needed to refocus.

(a few small projects like the trompe l'oeil print on canvas)



My new slipcovers for the Dining Room chairs were a huge success.
They got to put on a new "dress".
Joy, oh Joy!!!



and then the Dining Room became my "happy place".


June brought one of the highlights of my year;
getting to spend a week with this gal.


and then heading up to St. Louis 
to share a weekend with Elizabeth Maxson,
our dear and precious mutual friend.



After this trip, projects became few and far between,
but I managed to play a little with some fun Fall decor.
My favorite time of the year;
but then I've said that a gazillion times.



But this next photo sums it all up...
this guy.


I haven't talked about it too much here on this blog, but he's the center of my life. God has placed him there to love, trust, and to take care of me. I like to say that my hubby is the "pole" to my "tether ball". I may be hit and bounce around every which direction, but my guy is always the stable, unmoving, center of my life. Ten years ago I had 3 massive heart attacks and almost died. After that, our lives changed. We both had a wake up call to the important things in life...like waking up every day with those that you love still here. But this year he was the one with health challenges and I was the one that had to be strong for him. He was the one feeling like he was walking on quicksand...and I had to be the one that was immovable and unshakable. 

Without God as my strength, we would have been flailing. 

For several years he'd been having occasional attacks of vertigo, then they started becoming an everyday occurrence that changed everything. He's just never been "sick". Oh, you know occasionally a bout with the flu, but nothing serious. Last summer started a journey to not give up, but to seek God for guidance in a place of uncertainty. Tests, doctors, more tests, more doctors...I know that many of you have been through something similar. If it's not you or your husband, it's our kids or loved ones. It takes everything out of you, but then with God's help, He fills you up with His Spirit, His outlook, His Word. 

Fast forward six months and we've been seeing a specialist in St. Louis for Meniere's Disease. It's a tough one, with no cure (they say). We had no help in our area, only a fatalistic litany of defeat for the future. But we were not going to roll over and play dead with this...we faced it head on and now we are seeing positive results. He's not over it, but he's improving significantly. 

So many of you out there know people that are dealing with this life changing condition. The first thing we did was radically change our diet. no salt. Actually, we had to rethink our whole outlook on eating and how inevitably it defines our health, and then eventually, our life. Meniere's is basically the inner ear deteriorating to the point that fluid cannot be regulated so you feel dizzy, nauseated, like your head is under water (filled with water) and dreadful...most of the time. Can't drive, can't eat, can't walk with confidence...can't think straight. OK, I won't dwell on this, but let me tell you there are options out there that work. You don't have to live with this...it CAN get better. 

As with any illness, or life changing circumstance we've learned that there IS hope. God has a good plan for our lives and He has answers that no man does. not doctors, not ourselves, not our friends...He's the one with the way to make things change.



So if you thought that my posts had changed, well, they had. I had changed. I am changed. Walking through something life altering has a way of changing a person. Hopefully, for the better, but still changed. My Bible Study blog went on "hold", because I couldn't concentrate on much other than getting through each day with my husband. Encouraging him became my priority. But as I said earlier, what I lacked in output, I gained with God's "input". If we let circumstances defeat us, there is no "lesson". I want to learn all the lessons I can from God. Don't ever go through a "problem" without seeking God for something deeper to be given you.

I know this has been long, but now seemed like the time to share it all. If I haven't commented, please know that I haven't meant to slight any of you, there have just been days that I didn't have it in me. Thanks for hanging in there with me. I love you all; you have become such a big part of my life. I'm still here, just different. But still believing for a better year.

My prayer for each of you this year
 is for you to stay strong, seek God, love without limits.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Take a Step

This post was originally posted on my Spiritual Journey blog,
but I reposted here so I could link up with The Lettered Cottage for 
The Word of the Year
Please take a moment to read this, I don't think you'll be disappointed.


January 2012


I've read and enjoyed so many of your New Year's posts sharing your intentions and resolutions, plans and goals, and just plain old hopes and dreams. Especially you younger gals with big things happening in your lives. Blogging has given many of you some amazing opportunities this year;  from recognition in magazines, photography, television, and the book world, to actually "living your dreams". Honestly, I couldn't be happier for you...really...truly! 

I have to warn you though, as you get older the concept of making resolutions fades a bit and the turning of the calender page takes on a little less significance. Life experience and circumstances have a bad habit of wearing a person down a little. I know what it's like to have "resolutions" wind up in the ditch by the end of January, or to have something thrown in my path unexpectedly like a family crisis or health setback. "Life" has a way of derailing the best of intentions.  I guess the blessings of youth are optimism and the promise of the future. I'm not on a "downer" here, just contemplating life a little, I guess. And how we view what is ahead of us. 

Many of you have talked about how you have a "word" for the New Year. A word that some of you will use as a roadmap for the journey into 2012. To other's it's a definition of what you desire the atmosphere around you to be; a goal, an attitude, and a viewpoint. Hopefully our words are God given and spoken. I know that God likes using dates, times, and seasons to express Himself in our hearts. When we're prayerfully contemplating our lives and the prospect for change, He's is more than happy to speak to our open hearts and minds. He's an "encourager", and He desires to bring us into a place of possibilities and optimism. He's been working on me in that area...

OK, back to the "word" idea for the New Year. So I asked God if there was a specific word for me to contemplate and keep in my spirit for this year. It didn't come immediately, but as I was doing a short post for New Year's Day, a scripture verse came to mind. It had nothing whatsoever to do with the adorable vintage postcard with kittens, but it had to be included. 

Proverbs 16:9 "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps."

It seemed a little out of place and incongruous with that postcard post, but I've learned to go with it, if it's something from the Lord.  This verse has been rattling around in my head for a few days and the more I've thought about it the more I've realized God has been speaking to me concerning this thought for quite a while now.





Let me share just a little of what I think He may be trying to say. 

First of all for this verse to be truly accurate we need to be a child of God. Believers can have a firm faith that if we really love the Lord and seek Him that He will ultimately be in charge of our lives and destinations. If we never seek Him for help and guidance then it's easy to get off track in our thinking and plans. This in turn can send us down the wrong path. Staying in touch with the Father on a daily basis and letting the Holy Spirit lead us may not mean that our lives will be easy or perfect, but they will be "determined". The Oxford dictionary says this about the word "determine, -ed" fixed, precise, distinct, settled, persistent, unwavering.

Another word that stands out for me in this verse is "course". Here is the definition: onward movement or progression, path, way, route, or track, a lesson, a part of a meal, a series of hurdles, a horizontal layer of bricks" a length of water.

And then this word, which really means a lot to me at this time. "Step". a unit of movement, a manner of walking, a degree in the scale of promotion or advancement, making progress, pace, stride, taking action, being in agreement.

At this stage in my life I'm more "contemplative" about the future. I've learned the hard way not to run off on my own and in my own thinking to do a certain thing. I don't want to get into something that's just not part of God's plan for me. There have been a few things that I've been "measuring" in my mind and considering so I've turned them over to God for timing and specifics. He's determining them for me and I'm allowing Him to plot the course, not only of this New Year, but of my future. He can do all that for me, but if I don't lift up my foot one day at a time and exert some effort to take the "step" nothing will happen. 

I had a sprained ankle last week, and now that I think of it, it may have been a little teaching tool that the Lord allowed. The thought of not being able to walk for a few days had me reeling. The concept of taking a "step" has a little more significance than it did before.

Love you all, thanks for listening, and sharing my life. You're a huge blessing to me!


xoxo,



Monday, April 18, 2011

Easter Sideboard


Time for the April edition of  "The Hall Sideboard".
Or I guess we could call it "What's On YOUR Buffet?"

Either way,
 I've been enjoying some Easter "fluff" for the last couple of months.






Besides the sun room,
 this is the spot that gets a new look each month or Holiday Season.


I like to change out my vintage prints seasonally,
so this floral all pink and pastel really fit with my Easter theme. 








My little Velveteen Rabbit has climbed up in a garden chair;
he even has a little vintage fabric cushion for his back.





Do you remember these sweet little china crosses or Bibles with Bible verses?
My grandmother had one that set on top of her TV cabinet,
this one is from my husband's grandmother.



My German Glass Glitter bunny's nose and ears are starting to tarnish






I just love decorating with vintage Postcards.



All these items were purchased in flea markets or antique malls except the
Velveteen Rabbit; my favorite shopping places!




I don't mention this often, but because it's Easter Week,
I'd like to invite you over to my other blog,
which is a Bible Study (sort of)
It's my thoughts on scripture, and things that I've personally
been reading and studying.



(it's not your grandmother's Bible Study)
You can also find the link toward the top on my sidebar.


I'm linking up today with these fun parties.
The links are on the sidebar images.











Hope to see you Thursday afternoon for Vintage Inspiration Friday.
and hope you'll share your vintage Easter memorabilia.



Grab the button on the sidebar if you'll be coming!

Have a wonderful and blessed Easter Week,
love,
Debra 

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