Five Blessings Friday

" Let all the joys of the godly well up in praise to the Lord, for it is right to praise Him!" Psalm 33:1, The Living Bible


61. The joy of taking a train ride pulled by a real steam engine with 4-year-old Nicolas, train fanatic. High points would be going on "The Big Train" AND over bridges.

62. Liquid life falling from above, watering our parched ground, helping turn our green tomatoes red. Thank you Lord for rain. For cooler breezes and mist on bare arms, for the pitter-patter slapping of the rain on summer leaves.

63. Family time together riding on little trains, seeing steam engines, diesel engines, touring the Zephyr and bounce houses and finally getting soaked at the Spray ground at The Great Train Festival. How wonderful to see life through the eyes of grandchildren. And for WOC, the radio station where I won the tickets.

64. Yellow rudbeckia peeking up over the window sill, their faces greeting the sun.

65. 41 years of marriage to my best friend. (This picture is of us & the rudbeckia.)

Five Blessings Friday

"Because I have a happy heart, so I have continual JOY in Your presence, Lord.
Proverbs 15:15 KJV, "...he that is of a merry heart has a continual feast."


Here are Five Merry Making Moments I've experienced lately.


56. Eavesdropping on my dear sons-in-law, Craig and John, discussing the merits of a kids' PBS show, "Martha Speaks" and how the letters of the alphabet soup Martha ate wound up in her doggy brain instead of elsewhere. (Craig, John, a Martha fan and a future Martha fan.)


57. A very special God moment came last week when my 5-year-old grandson Ethan was visiting us. As we were chatting, I asked him, "Ethan who do you love MOST in the whole world?" I expected him to say his mother, but he emphatically said, "JESUS!"
I found myself taken aback, both thrilled, surprised and a little embarrassed at my shortsightedness. He further told me that we were all supposed to love Jesus the most and I gave him a BIG hug and agreed.
How blessed am I that my dear daughter(in-love) and son are teaching their children to love Jesus most of all and to remind their dear Grammy when she forgets!
To God be the glory for the blessings from the mouths of babes!

58. Re-connecting with old friends, Mike and Jan, Diane, Mary & Steve. Thank You Lord, for forever friends.

59. Reading 2 Chronicles this week I was caught up in the awe of Solomon building a magnificent Temple for God. Even so, Solomon was well aware that it was not good enough to contain our awesome God and His glory.
How incredibly humbling to realize that today, God chooses to make His home in us, simple, dusty, fragile, often unlovely jars of clay. Blessing beyond my comprehension.

60. My pastor's shirt tail. That man will do anything to reach unbelievers. He wears his shirt tail out b/c he cares more about relating to the lost, looking like a real person leading a real life than about pleasing the eyes of men. Whenever I see that shirt tail, I am challenged anew "...to meet people wherever they are on their spiritual journey and lead them into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ in order to change the world."

Five Blessings on a Monday Morning

Happy Monday! Here are five great blessings to start the week, even if you are sitting there at a messy desk!

My "blessed" desk is littered this morning with:

51. A "Miffy" book read over Skype to a granddaughter last night.

52. A brochure from Indiana dunes where we had a wonderful vacation last month.

53. A heart made of Lego blocks that my grandson Ethan and I are sharing.

54. My cell phone making all those I love just a few beeps away (for those of us who lived before the age of cell phones, that is a wonder.)

55. My Daily Walk Bible, where today I read this wonderful prayer of David:

"Yours is the mighty power and glory and victory and majesty.

Everything in the heavens and earth is yours, O Lord, and this is your kingdom.

We adore you as being in control of everything." I Chron. 29:11

What blessings does God have in store for you today? Ask Him to open your eyes to see through the messes all the way to the "blesses"!

May God grant you a blessed Monday and may you rejoice in the knowledge that He IS in control of everything!

Five Blessings Friday PLUS Five More

Psalm 103:2: Let all that I am praise the Lord: may I never forget the good things he does for me. (NLT)

41. For a wonderful Dad who let me know how much I was loved. He choose my name which means "father's joy." I am so thankful for such an incredible blessing from God.

42. Spending time with family, creating precious summer memories to warm us all year long.

43. Listen, dancing and playing to Mozart, Beethoven and Carmen.

44. Vallarie asking "Is this Beethoven?"

45. Playing Legos with Ethan

46. Antibiotics

47. Nicolas "making coffee" by shaking marbles in a metal tin ala "grinding coffee beans". Black marbles only.

49. My "porch of praise," a little retreat every morning where I enjoy the blessings of the Lord's creation as I read His word, pray and praise Him.

50. For the wonderful guy who is father to my children. "Today and every day, I have a million things to be thankful for, but my thoughts always circle back to you, our family and our very special love."

Happy Father's Day, Honey.

Five Blessings Friday

"In daily life we must see it is not happiness that makes us grateful, it is gratefulness that makes us happy."
Unknown from Holly Springs by Jan Karon

Five Blessings Pondered at 20,000 Feet



36. Hearing a fellow flyer share Life with the passenger next to him.

37. "47.0 pounds"--my baggage came in at just under the 50 pound limit after I removed the books & some shoes at home before I left. Saved myself $25. (It weighted 48.5 on the way home.)

38. After having my Chicago-Houston flight canceled because of weather, American was able to get me onto Delta and I wound up arriving 6 minutes earlier than the original plan.

39. The reserve soldier sitting next to me on his way to Iraq--leaving his four-month-old daughter for me, for you, for us all, out of duty to his country. God please protect this new dad and bring him home safe.

40. Hearing my granddaughter say, "Sit by me, Grammy."

Five Things Friday

Ooops. I got so busy with my job working on the Quad-Cities Christian Writers Conference last week that I forgot all about Five Things Friday. The first time I remembered it was sitting in the morning session listen to the great Mike Brewer speak.

To make up for forgetting, this week I think we need at least two lists this week. And as I'm writing I'm also learning more about how the things we love are truly gifts from God given to reveal to each of us how very much He loves us. I'm just finishing up Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts, and going deeper and deeper into the idea of thanks for the gifts God so freely bestows.

What blessings come from counting our blessings!
I challenge you to join me and Ann and so many others. Open your eyes, begin counting the gifts that God is giving to you.

Five Gifts

• 26. Serving the QCCWC, amazingly talented, giving people, getting to spend time and serve God's Scribes, Apostles of Ink, and other servants of The Most High. I’m overwhelmed that God would use me to be a part of this wonderful blessing. ( I think I just had the spirit of my new friend, Gail, overtake me!)


• 27. A new sister and friend in Dr. Gail Hayes, Lioness for the Lord & Daughter of the King.


• 28. The delicious smell of Amaretto coffee wafting through the house—yum.


• 29. The tree budding outside my bedroom window. We moved it last fall and didn’t kill it! Hooray!


• 30. The power of written words to move the heart and change lives.

And Five More Gifts


31. Bright orange tulips in my yard 32. Papa Goose fasting while guarding Mama Goose noshing.

33. Mama Goose sitting on her nest.

34. Glowing green buds bring life to dead red sticks.

35. Promises of strawberry sweetness

The Forgotten Garden

"You make a life out of what you have: not what you're missing.”
from The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton


"The Forgotten Garden" by Kate Morton is an elegant Victorian, Gothic sort of story with mysteries, secrets, forbidding estates, abandoned children and even a few pirates, spread over 3 generations and two continents. Fascinating!
I really LOVED this big, long book that moved right along at the speed and intensity of an old time roller coaster. It's not the easiest plot to keep track of due to multiple families and time periods, but the charm and resiliency of the characters and the suspense surrounding their circumstances are mesmerizing. I think I read about the last 250 pages in one afternoon and long evening.

Beginning with a tiny girl abandoned on a ship, a mysterious English estate and "The Authoress," writer of imaginative fairy tales, this book is a fast paced read that keeps it's early promise as it twists the stories of three women into a tapestry of entertaining and beautiful prose. As soon as one mystery is solved another is begun, weaving a tales of betrayal, loss and love, in this tale reminiscent of Dickens, Bronte and maybe even a bit of Agatha Christie.

If you enjoy a suspenseful, complicated, involving story, filled with unusual people and places, this book will entertain, delight and ultimately satisfy your taste for a genteel armchair adventure, plus at over 500 pages, it delivers a nice, long read!