Learning New Tricks

I can do this. I know I can. For six and a half years now I have relied on the simple "Upload Picture" feature on Blogger. (Yes, I had to go look it up and see how long I've been blogging. My first post was in April 2006. I was astonished just now to see that there were 35 comments! Six of them were from me, but still. Ah, for the good ole' days before that wretched Facebook took over the planet. ~bleagh~ Blogging is so much better. And used to be sooooo much more fun when people DID it and came to visit one another's blogs and chit-chat.) Anyway, I have exceeded my picture capacity with Blogger's automatic Picasa Web Album thingie and now must pay money monthly to continue using it. Though I've been blogging for free for six and a half years, I can't make myself consider paying to do it if I can help it. So I've done some research and have figured a way around it. It takes a few extra steps, but nothing out-of-this-world time consuming like what I had to do in the previous post. I'm thankful to be able to add pictures again. Too bad I don't have any grand and glorious ones to add this time. Ha! But I'll slap a few up here in a little while.

Last night was been a great night. I worked all day toward having a clean house (minus dusting, as a certain friend so masterfully illustrated for us—ha!) and cooked and baked all sorts of goodies. Then Brother Hopkins, the Washburns and the Ridlespurges came over for our house dedication service. We’ve been wanting to do that for a long time and had hoped to do it around State Convention or Ministers Convention, planning to invite anybody and everybody who wanted to come. For one reason or another it just never worked out and James finally said, “Let’s just DO IT!” We would have loved to have had some more people join us, but it just didn’t work out that way. We’re so thankful for the friends who came! We had a really nice little service, dedicating to God what already belongs to Him, then went through the house and prayed over it. Then we just sat around and ate and visited for an hour or two. ~sigh~ I loved it. I’m so glad that we finally “officially” dedicated our home to the Lord. And I just LOVED having people here! And I especially loved that my house was clean (well, you know…) and smelled strongly of spiced apple cider and freshly baked gingerbread. ~Mmmmmm~ This is the best time of year. Next to winter itself, of course. ;-)

We had a wonderful Ladies' Retreat! I'm always amazed at how God helps us. Each one is so different from the last but just so, so good. There were lots of good, rich things shared from the Word of God and just such a good cohesiveness and unity there. I LOVED having Sister Shelton and "Red" with us! What a blessing they were. Everything still seems like a bit of a haze to me, but that could be because I was in such a haze all throughout the Retreat. I went in feeling completely exhausted and a little bit under the weather--not really sick, just congested mostly. And stuffed up mentally more than physically! Ha!

Sister Shelton did a great job ministering to us. The first night she preached about how much God loves us, next was about us loving the Lord in return, and finally about our love toward one another. Good, good stuff. Of course, her spirit is as big a blessing as her ministry is and I just loved being with her. And she is soooooo fun. Can I confess something? The first time I saw Mary Shelton, she scared me to death. Ha! She was singing at the Assembly and--as I would learn is common--she was WAY "into it." Being the rather reserved person that I am, and with very limited exposure to... well, let's just say it--hillbillies--I was just a little overwhelmed! Hahahaha! She is quite comfortable acknowledging herself as such and she has such a fantastic sense of humor--otherwise I can assure you I never would have said such a thing! Ha! The more I've seen of her over the years the more I've come to appreciate her sincerity and her spirit. And I just fell in love with her at Tennessee Ladies' Retreat last year. She is one in a million and just SUCH a blessing. I love 'er. :-)

I must say that the highlight of the Retreat for me this year was the devotions. Sister Tammy jumped in and took that job so willingly, even though I know it's not what she had in mind when she asked me a few weeks ago, "What can I do to help?" Ha! She just did sooooo good. She always has such good, good stuff to share. Substance. I like hearing things with substance, and you can always count on that from her. :-)

Here she's wearing her Invisible Cloak of Busyness, displaying all of the things that distract us and can so easily come between us and the Lord. (Our theme was "Nothing Between," by the way.) I was going to try to give you a quick run-down of her devotions, but if you click her name on my sidebar you can go and read them for yourselves--at least the shell version of them. :-) They were just so, so good and thought provoking. The next picture is from her last devotion. She talked about leaving a lasting image, much like the ones found in the aftermath at Hiroshima. But our won't be a "crime scene" image, it will be the record of our victory--like the "Hall of Faith" in Hebrews 11.

We had lots of fun, as always, though we played fewer games than usual. Sister Shelton got her guitar out on Saturday night and we all visited and sang and had a grand time. Poor Liz. She was sooooooo tired and she missed out on all the fun. :-)

Let's see... what else. I have committed myself to NOT teaching or doing devotions next year. Or possibly ever again. Ha! I would love to fully devote my time and energies to simply planning the Retreat itself instead of trying to juggle the class prep, too. I'm not good enough at multi-tasking to be able to do it without showing up to Retreat utterly wiped out and on the verge of being sick in bed! Ha! DELEGATE. I must learn to DELEGATE better.

I would write more about Retreat, but I can't think of anything right now. It will all come back to me slowly, but probably won't ever make it to the blog. Anyway, here's a picture of the whole group, minus photographer Susan Mason.

I've stayed plenty busy since Retreat. I'm so glad it's over. Ha! I LOVE Ladies' Retreat and I LOVE directing, but it really is nice to be able to breath the "it's all over" sigh of relief afterward. :-)

Can't remember much about Monday, but Tuesday was a happy day because I got all caught up on the laundry and ironing. It makes the rest of my week feel so FREE when I know I'm on top of that. Yet, it happens so rarely.

Hhmmm. I really can't remember what we've been up to this week. I know James has been busy in the basement and has been WONDERFUL to not drag me in to all of the dirty work down there! He's been mudding over cinder block walls and doing some texturing down there. Today he cut a big hole in a wall (sheetrock, not cinder block--ha!), hoping to create an opening large enough to be able to maneuver a couch through. He had investigated carefully but still managed to cut through a wire in the wall. Sam said it sparked everywhere but "Dad is fine." When James was telling me about it later he said--completely ignorant of the pun--"I was shocked, just genuinely shocked when I cut through that wire." Hahahaha! What a nerd. It's still really bizarre that there was a wire in that particular wall, but I'm thankful James is still around to be "shocked" by it--and he was able to get it fixed and taken in a different route.

I made some super fantastic corn chowder today, then Katie and I made some homemade bread to go with it. Yum. I ate way too much at dinner time. Yet I'm tempted to go have one more bowl. Ha! Don't worry, I won't. :-)

Madison is here to stay the night with Katie tonight. Kate is sooooo excited. I love seeing her have so much fun. While I was working with her in the kitchen today and watching her crazy, jovial antics--and complete over-elation to most any little thing--I couldn't help but think of how little she has changed since she was a toddler. Sometimes I fail to recognize the little ray of sunshine that bounces around the house. I love that girl so much. :-)

What else??? I know there's all kinds of stuff, I just can't think of it. Maybe it's because I really shouldn't be blogging and I'm only doing it because I'm sooooo not in the mood to work on the project that I'm really supposed to be working on. I started on it earlier, but it's moving rather slowly. Probably because I'm not in the mood. But alas, duty calls.