Hi All

Dear Bloggers
It has come to my attention that my attention is almost completely used up on the details of life...I find myself very, very busy with little time for blogging these days...and if I have the time, I do not have the time to think of something to say....my brain seems to be otherwise engaged...all day and all night... :) remember when I used to be bored?!?!
Also I find my self without much of value to say...and it's important to me to have a point...its my nature...
I have signed up for a class which begins next week so my scarcity of time promises to increase...
therefore...I pledge only to blog when the mood strikes me...or when I have something on my mind that needs saying...:)
I love you all, my dear blogging friends...and hope to continue to visit you and even to post on occasion...but just in case I'm not around much....you'll know why...
Until whenever...
I am forever sincerely yours,
...and as Paul says...Grace and Peace!

Cheryl
XOXOXO

Searching for Good News

My blogfriend Nancy French wrote this essay in response to the shooting at VT....

Falling down all over

Its springtime, finally...after all the horrible weather many of us have experienced over the last couple of weeks...so how do I know, you ask?...since as of Sunday we still needed the fireplace burning?

New spring/summer clothes are pouring in at Chicos...
I finished our taxes...hallelujah!
I'm working on vacation plans for the year...
My daughter and Navy SIL have received their spring time orders...its off to San Antonio for them...
My son is off on yet another US spring tour with the band... he flies out today...
My youngest daughter has started school for the first time in 4 yrs..she's a little rusty, but getting in the swing...
I'm cleaning and cleaning out like crazy...its weird how the urge strikes in the spring...i think the early Daylight Savings Time has messed with my brain....

Yesterday we(Jada and I) planted some flower pots and a perennial or two...
She had a blast digging in the dirt, playing with earthworms,(yuck!) and pulling her pint sized lawn chair out to the driveway along side mine to sit in the sun with a nice cool drink (apple juice for her, iced tea for me of course)....
She went running at one point and fell flat on the sidewalk...slightly skinning everything except her chin...both hands, both knees, and her tummy...poor baby...
tears streaming she clung to me as I checked her over for damages...

"I fell down all over" she cried...I tried valiantly not to laugh... :)
(wouldn't that make a good sermon title??) :)

Yep, its springtime..its outside time...its movin' and shakin' time...so get up people and move it! what's the worst that can happen?? You too could "fall down all over"...smile

LIF

Often on Friday I post Lyrics I Feel (LIF) here is what is speaking to me this week...

Everlasting God
Brenton Brown & Ken Riley

Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord

Our God, You reign forever
Our hope, our Strong Deliverer
You are the everlasting God
The everlasting God
You do not faint
You won't grow weary
You're the defender of the weak
You comfort those in need
You lift us up on wings like eagles


I once saw a momma Eagle teaching her babies to fly...she would fly up very high with them riding on her wings...then drop them off into thin air...they would thrash and flail about for several dozens of feet, sometimes dropping like little bricks until she caught them up again on her wings....but sometimes they accidentally caught a draft and soared off for a bit...just a little, riding the wind like their momma...I don't know if they learned to fly or not that day... for eventually she carried them away on her wings...

May you learn to fly...and when you can't quite get the hang of it...may He carry you on His wings...Selah

One Year Ago...

This past Sunday...April 8th...was the very first anniversary of my beautiful daughter, Bek and her hubby. What a wonderful day it was...and so much fun to plan together with them. In many ways it seems like its been a while..in others, like it was only yesterday...check out these old posts here , here, and here to read all about it, for those of you who love wedding drama..:) or stop in at Bek's for her thoughts on the subject, I'm sure she'll have some this week...:)
We love you both SO much!
Happy Anniversary!!

Resurrection Day

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection.....Phil. 3:10

Soundtracks

Music is an integral part of my life...
If I didn't love it my hubby would make it so...
He loves it as much as I, perhaps more...or perhaps differently...
He is the one who buys CDs, and brings them home....breaking them out for relaxation, for dinner, but often for special occasions...so that whenever I hear a track from one of those CDs I am instantly transported to the time and place where we grew to love that particular one....for example....
Years ago we lived in Philadelphia....we decided that the winters were just too incredibly long for our Southern blood...sooo we planned a beach party for our church...in February...its amazing what a feeling of summer you can create with beach chairs and towels, picnic foods, tanning lotion (for the scent:)) and of course The Beach Boys playing in the background...I can never hear them without thinking of that night...we turned the heat up to 90...wore shorts and flipflops...all my plants upstairs died from the heat...LOL ..but man was it fun!

Then there was our second trip to Europe...we spent several days in London... he had just bought me the Frank Sinatra Duets collection....I cannot hear "Foggy London Town" or any of the other Sinatra classics, without remembering that trip....our hotel, the pink tulips my hubby bought me off the street corner...the sights and sounds of Belgium, France and Germany....incredible!..and all set to the tunes of Old Blue Eyes...

There was the first year we moved to NC...a very lonely painful time...when this CD by Point of Grace, presented to me for my birthday, saved my life and my sanity....songs like Keep the Candle Burning, Gone Are the Dark Days, Any Road Any Cost...gave me the strength and courage to go on...
There are so many others.... Salty and Trout Fishing in America when the kids were younger, Christina and Britney, The Toasters, and John Legend as they grew....CDs we've taken on anniversary trips like the romantic Julio Iglesias, or the folk music of Nickel Creek and their Why Should the Fire Die...or perhaps our Miami trip, choreographed to the Latin influenced jazz of Ocean Drive....just hearing one cut causes me to taste salty air and hear the waves crashing...
Rod Stewart's Great American Songbook set the tone for my daughter's wedding, that along with Garth Brooks' Friends in Low Places...:) and Van Morrison's Bright Side of the Road smells like sunshine and the Natchez Trace to me.

Several years ago we were privileged to be a part of an amazing undertaking by a church we were involved with...we re-created several scenes from the Broadway musical, Les Miserables, as a tribute to a dear minister friend who loved the play. In honor of his 50 years in ministry...we adapted pieces of the story, setting, and sounds to relate the story of the church and the workers and saints who fight for Her existence.....it was one of the most spiritual and moving things I have ever been a part of. Needless to say...we lived with the Les Miserables soundtrack for months...it still has a profound effect on me to hear a track from this masterpiece.

Sometimes it seems as if my entire life is set to music....which could explain the "singing hopscotch", right?? :)
There is a soundtrack playing in my head which provides an appropriate backdrop for what ever the situation....

My spirit is also set to a soundtrack.... the Creator of music resides in me...the Song of the Redeemed is His gift to me...as I sing it or hear it sung I am transported to His realm...His home...my true home...my spirit knows and remembers from whence I have been born...and though my mind wanders and my flesh forgets...my spirit never does...one strain of His melody brings me back to who I truly am and to where I really live.....In Christ....

Lord, remind me....sing your song in me...

The Singing Hopscotch

Saturday was an awesome day.....

We bought chalk









We drew and drew.....















Then...we hopscotched...




When I asked Jada what kind of hopscotch she made...
She said...."its a singing Hopscotch".....


I can live with that.....:)