Gary and Aggie - I believe you both did! I don't know what happened to his mail. Maybe they just like me... :) I will find out the new info and post it to you both.

Gary - yeah...potty time! :) i just ate the most boring peach in my life. it came from CA...figures! lol :D

Aggie - I believe you now, i really do. :) Now, I am just waiting. Looks like i will be going to IL now... :D

Peace!

Good morning all!

I have had a busy weekend/week. More details to come. I have been lurking... Good thing you guys haven't been talking about me. LOL. Well the host ran off with DN again but we get her today which is her 1st birthday!!! I hope to get her to the weekend too. Well I have to finish getting ready to work.

Toodles!!

Ez-Money - Gary?

Well a-lot including me did not know how to cook Beets until I married and my New grandma taught me. They are made with a-lot of love & sweat. Solution: 2 cups vinegar, 2 cups of water 2 cups sugar.

You have to cook them in water after you separate them for so long till they are soft and peel easy, then you have to let them cool, peel, cut some leave small ones whole. Cover with the above solution, keep adding more solution till covered heat till boiling good . Have the jars good and clean, put in oven to stay hot on warm, get lids in warm water ready put canning lid in each jar to keep from breaking and fill jars. Better after a week but good then too. It is a lot of work especially the smaller the beets, you will think you will never finish peeling them! But they are more special have a better taste. People who don't like beets, [those school beets would turn a hog off! Yuck!!!] will love these beets. I have seen children eat them like candy and I had one friend who had cancer, that would ask me to bring her some beets when I come. She would tell me to go get her a fork and she would sit there and eat a whole pint of beets by their self. Of course I sit there amazed!

Blondie32 :welcome: Glad you found us! Yes, it will always have "Christian Encouragers" in the title of the thread.

If you click on the "thread tools" link above, you can chose to subscribe to the thread. Then when you come to 3FC, you can click the "quick links" menu and pick "subscribed threads". All the threads you want to keep track of can be kept there. It makes getting around 3FC so much easier!

The dinner was great. I gave away my entree and ate the salad, veggies and dessert. Probably not the highest protein meal of the day (there were nuts in the salad and dessert, and feta in the salad).

Tonight I'm off to a funeral visitation for a dear member of our congregation (and mother of a friend). So, gotta fly!

Prayers are continuing for all!

Blessings!

:scooter:

Hi All! Just a quick note to let you know I'm still alive. It has been a crazy week and I haven't had much time to sit down and post. I lost 1.8 lbs. on my WI Monday. It was nice to see the scale finally move.

I will try to post again tomorrow.

Have a great weekend!

Kathy

Hello, Everyone! Sorry I haven't been here in awhile, but the "busy's" are getting me :dizzy:. We've been helping at church getting ready for next week's VBS and ended up painting posters, which I have never done before and these were very large (one of them is taller than I am and no short jokes from any of you!) & detailed with lots of color shading. Now, I'm taking a day off and we may go to the pool for the afternoon, so I can:beach: and the boys can:swim:. I finally get to wear my new-size-18-not-30 swimsuit:woohoo:!

Want to say welcome to our newbies! Hope you keep coming back so we can get to know you better. The Christian Encouragers have been a great blessing to me in my new healthy lifestyle and I'm sure you'll find lots of support here as well.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Prayers said for all needs mentioned and I pray for God's blessing for all of you! Take care!

Hi all - happy Friday! I made it! All but one school building is done for the year! My job is still very intense, but very different in the summer. I really enjoy the change of pace :)

The weather is glorious here - I was able to get quite a bit of gardening done after work. I can't believe how fast the weeds take over!

What does everyone have planned for the weekend?

I hope it is something fun!

Blessings to all - and prayers ascending!

:scooter:

GARY ~ the picture function is working again; I just posted a pic of NIKO on the PRAYER WARRIORS thread a few minutes ago and it worked fine.

We have rain here, but it's better than the 80F with high humidity we woke up to this morning; now it's cooler and we can breathe. DH has hired a friend who is professional contracter to put a ramp in at my Dad's cottage in place of those faulty stairs and he is giving us a fabulous deal too! Almost everyone in my family has bad legs, knees, or feet, so this will be a blessing for all of us. Thanks for all your prayers and good thoughts about my health; GOD is good and He is taking good care of us ...


:wave: HI TO EVERYONE ELSE ~ hope you all have a great FRIDAY NIGHT and weekend ... :hug:ROSEBUD:hug:

Hi Everyone! :hug:

Sorry I haven't been on in a few days. Nothing much new to report, just the same old stuff. I am starting a First Place 4 Health group at our church and Sunday is the first meeting. This week is Vacation Bible School at our church. The two youngest kiddos will be leaving in one week to go to Florida and spend time with their grandmas & family. I am really hoping to have some relaxing summer time while they are gone.

Sounds like everyone else is having a busy summer as well.

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

~Tammy~

Rosebud - I popped over to see the picture of NIKO. He sure is a cutie. What a blessing for you and DH to have him. The ramp sounds like a GREAT idea!

Tammy - The First Place group should help you stay on track through the summer. You are doing so well, I'm betting that ticker will keep moving in the right direction!

A quiet day here. I scooted out to do some shopping this morning (needed pants that fit pretty badly). I got a few groceries too.

We have our annual block party tonight. We get a permit to block off the street and move the grills and chairs and tables out to the street. The kids ride their bikes or skateboard on the rest of the block - it is a lot of fun, and a good chance to catch up with changes.

We all have driveways off the alley in the back of the house, so in the winter we rarely see our neighbors. We wave, but not much chatting going on in the blustery winter.

Of course, it will be a challenge since it is potluck and EVERYONE seems to bring desserts ;) I'm making mini muffins and mini brownies (using mini-muffin pan) so that I have something to munch on. Boca's go great on the grill, so I'm all set there.

I'm off to do laundry and clean - not very exciting, except that I get to listen to my book while doing so :) Sometimes audiobooks are the only thing that can get me in a cleaning mood ;)

Well, gotta fly - the dryer is buzzing.


Prayers continuing for all!

Laurie :scooter:

Have you ever felt the excitement of knowing you were right around the corner from the biggest blessing of your life??? :) That is how I feel right now!!!!

i wrote a blog thursday night after church, which I hope you will enjoy...oh! and last night at the shelter we had 6 women!!!! :) Praise God
I realize this will be long...but I hope that God will use it for someone that needs it. That is the point of our existence right? To worship Him, learn about Him, love Him and show others the LIGHT!


"I am a corpse"

Today was my mom and her twin's 60th birthday. The fact that I get a 'two-fer' with them makes it nice. The way they laugh so goofy makes me laugh and the fact that I don't seem to look like them is surprising (i take after my dad's mom's folks...the Trueloves). But that laugh...that, I seem to have like theirs. I love to hear them laugh, I can hear my grandma when i hear them...i miss her. She would have been 99 on Saturday. it still hurts...

But that isn't what I am writing about. Susie and I had 'church' at home tonight after I got back from dinner with 'the twins'. I like when God speaks and it doesn't matter if there is just one...or one hundred thousand...all that matters is if one got something valuable. We talked about how we have the mind of Christ, how our minds must be renewed, transformed, how the enemy lies to us...his plans are the opposite of God's. God promises to prosper us, for good and not evil, He promises to give us hope and a future. The enemy's plan is the exact opposite. his are counterfeit...always. they may look right, but something is off. he canNOT create the correct duplicate of what God has...but his will be similar but so WRONG! how many people marry the counterfeit? have the counterfeit job? etc? I have to say that I am holding out for the GOD REALITY! :)

if he can't get you with the counterfeits...immediately (or ever) he tries to attack to wear you down.

Where does he attack the most? Well, for me: MY MIND!

Jesus was crucified on a hill called Golgotha. Golgotha means "place of the skull". hmmm...I believe that in every part of His life and death and subsequent resurrection, there was meaning to save us...from everything! If He was crucified on a hill that meant "place of the skull", His Blood ran on that hill...His blood that saves us, restores us, breathes life into us, heals us, gives us authority over all of **** and all of the enemy's strategies...that same blood was also specifically meant to protect, restore, heal, calm, renew our MINDS!

YEAH! :)

Most of my life I have dealt with the **** of tormenting thoughts in my mind: you aren't good enough, not worthy, fake, whore, loser, fat, ugly, stupid, dreamer, pathetic, psycho, crazy, no body likes you, your own father hates you, he always said you wouldn't amount to anything, your mother doesn't care about you, she let people molest you, she didn't save you when you were abused, you are worthless, idiot. you think you can preach? who the **** do you think you are? no one is listening to you. you suck. there are only 3 people here. you are doing nothing but spinning your wheels. seriously pointless. you are not good enough to love. God doesn't care...He isn't real. some aliens put you here as a test. the bible is a joke...slob. lazy. *****.

those are just a few. It's funny that most of those now are so obviously false to me that I hear it and laugh. Even if I get caught in listening, I can shut it down. I talked to a wonderful new friend in Abilene (rudy) a couple of Saturdays ago and mentioned the voices. he told me, "you know who that is...shut him down" and when i told him the voices had just gotten heavier in the past week since I had been in NM, "well, that is obviously the enemy and you are suppose to be a part of this and he doesn't want you here". He offered to pray for me and i so appreciate his generosity!

but it's the other words sometimes that i actually second guess and wonder if it's my 'rational' mind telling me that i am crazy! some (most-actually) of the stuff God tells me to do and places He tells me to go, FEEL CRAZY! They go against most EVERYTHING i was ever taught to do. it makes no sense...in the world. But I am NOT of this world...i am just in it.

Rudy gave me something solid...confirmation. He helped me to see, when i felt out of my comfort zone, that I was walking on water. The miracle isn't the water walking, that's the easy part when you get the faith. The miracle was that God places people in my life to shed light!

So, tonight...as i sat in front of 3 people talking about God. Showing scripture and explaining what they wanted to better understand...I saw light.

When we become children of God, born-again disciples of Christ, we die to ourselves. I am dead to my flesh...my sinful desires. Ok...heard all of that before. HOLD ON! How about this???? If we are dead...how can the enemy torment us?

When was the last time you saw a corpse sit up and cry because someone kicked them? Or said something mean? Seriously!!!! HAVE you ever seen a corpse get his/her feelings hurt? DID that corpse doubt his/herself?

Ok...so, impossible for a corpse to feel. A dead person cannot be taunted and antagonzied...right?

Are you dead to sin, but alive in Christ? huh? ARE YOU DEAD TO SIN? yes...ok. How can you let someone taunt you, irritate you, make you doubt God's plan for your life if you are DEAD? :)

Tell the imp to shut up. He can't effect you. You are dead to him. you are alive in the ONE that gave you life, that has a plan and a purpose for your life that is good and not evil.

You were made with a purpose. It may be that no one in your family understands, it may be that no one around you does, but I can guarantee that God does. He has a plan for your life. He has a plan for your blood line. He knows that you will see the fulfillment of all that He has placed within you. He may have meant for your parents or grandparents or some other ancestor to do this...and they failed. YOU WILL NOT FAIL! He will see to it that you succeed. First, you have to die to yourself...(metaphorically speaking of course-you put your desires down and take up his) and live in Him. Ask Jesus to be LORD of your life, to take over. LET HIM! All it takes is asking Him and then stepping aside to allow Him.

I promise that if you LET Him take over...your life will be so much easier...He takes all of your worries, you just have to GIVE them all to Him. He created you...He knows what is best. He has a plan and a purpose for your life...for good and not evil, for hope and a future. All you have to do is to daily allow Him to lead. Die to your selfish desires, those ugly, tormenting words in your head and allow HIM to live in you.

And by the way, God will give you the desires of your heart...it just may be that those desires CHANGE when He takes over. my whole life has changed. He changed my life. I am no longer climbing that corporate ladder, being Miss Independent, trying to conquer the world. I am climbing His ladder, have become Miss Dependant on God and helping to change the world. I love my life and am thankful for the peace that I have...the simple knowing that HE has me in the palm of His hand and His plan will succeed. I will have that happy family I joked aboutwanting as a kid. I am healed and restored. And I get the incredible joy in seeing lives restored, people healed, marriages restored and children rescued before the abuse begins. I get to see people walking and living in peace...families...In Jesus name! :)

And don't get discouraged in small numbers. The bible says that we should not be. It's the small beginnings that grow. It takes ONE seed to make a tree that gives countless more seeds. because susie bought the vette that needed work-Rich came around us and was interested in what we had in Christ - he started coming to our little 'church' aka bible study. NOW, he and his wife are working on their marriage. It was over, so they thought, when he first started coming around. She is still trying to figure out how he "found God" by working on a car. lol...

Just remember, you are a light...and you may be the only light someone sees.

I love you.
Peace.

p.s. be careful to those you are around. every person is going through something...be gentle. just because they don't think as fast, move as fast, or whatever...doesn't make them less. BUT if you treat that person less...it makes YOU less.

WOW! Rayne, Thank You so much I think I will come back everyday to read this post!Thanks!

wow...Bootsie, thank you! I am honoured.

This is the day the Lord hath made . Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Good Sunday Morning!
 

I keep telling myself that I'm going to post more often and then the days just slip away. I've been busy with getting my flowers in pots. It's still really cool here but I'm hopeful that we will get summer eventually!

I have company this weekend and we spent most of yesterday browsing shops. It was fun. Then we had more company in for a barbeque. It turned out well and the company was really nice.

Today DH and I are heading out for a couple of nights. It was our anniversary in April and my birthday is this week so we decided to take a break and spend sometime relaxing in a cottage at the lake. We'll do some hiking and just relaxing. Our menu is very healthy too! Then we come home to a big job. We're going to be laying pavers to create our patio. It's going to be lovely when it's finished. I plan on burning a few calories those days!

Gotta get going to church. Have a great Sunday!