Sunday Schoolisms #5: Prevenient Grace

Prevenient grace is the idea that God is working in our lives before we are aware of it. Every move we make toward God is in response to something God has already done in us.

....when we understand that God's love precedes us in everything we do, living by God's commands become an act of gratitude.

...this is not something for us to be proud of, but something for us to be grateful for.

                                                                                                   Sarah McGiverin

                                                                                                   Uniform Series: International

                                                                                                    Bible Lessons for Christian Teaching

California

My sisters and I have taken our parents to California!!

James is holding down the fort while we're gone, that means house remodeling decisions :-o Yikes!!

See you when we return...

Love ya'll,

Shelli

Vacation: a period of travel and relaxation when you take twice the clothes and half the money you need.

~Author Unknown

I feel about airplanes the way I feel about diets. It seems to me that they are wonderful things for other people to go on. 

~Jean Kerr

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.  Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime. 

~Mark Twain

No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow. 

~Lin Yutang

Discovery!!

As I have said before, a whole lot of Pine Cone Lane is covered in leaves- brown, dead leaves!! Two years worth of  piled-up leaves! But underneath those leaves are all kinds of discoveries.

When James tried to stick a hook for a bird feeder down into the ground, he realized there was rock below the leaves. And sure enough...

Now every gardener understands the need to have a "spot", a tranquil place where they can sit and commune with nature. In their spot they find peace and regeneration. Uncovering the stones surrounding this tree and ferns was the impetus for the first garden here at Pine Cone Lane. This shady spot with morning sun called for caladiums and impatiens. A quick trip to Lowes for flowers and to the storage building for stained glass, and I had set up a "spot" for us right off the back porch. It is a place where we can literally, and figuratively,  turn our backs on the house, take a deep breath, and relax and recharge.

I don't know if all gardeners name their gardens, but for whatever reason, I do. Maybe it's because I love each of them so! This first, small space will be the White Garden and look who has the place of honor, Moses!!

He has wandered from Louisiana to Mississippi, to another Promised Land.

Love ya'll,

Shelli

How fair is a garden amid the trials and passions of existence.

~Benjamin Disraeli

The garden is the poor man's apothecary.

~German Proverb

Now the man Moses was very meek,
more than all the people who were on the face of the Earth.
Numbers 12:3

Sunday Schoolism #4: The Holy Spirit

He originates and sustains all good.

All His works are good to the highest degree. He suggests good thoughts, prompts good actions, reveals good truths, applies good promises, assists in good attainments, and leads to good results.

All the spiritual good in the world originates and is sustained by Him.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Things Are Looking Up!

Things are definitely looking up here at PCL!!!!

No sooner do I write this,  I feel ashamed! I think of Katherine's years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Madagascar with no electricity or plumbing. I think of how many people live every day without so many of the luxuries we spoiled people take for granted, and not just in other countries, but here in the United States, in our own towns.....

I realize that privilege skews our perspective and topics like a house remodel are trivia. So let me state here and now that although I will continue to journal this fixer-upper project, it is all in anticipation of getting down to the important stuff of life - charity, service, loving your neighbor.

I have a friend back in Ruston who has an extra house on her property. Although it is as cute as pie, it is what she does with it that really matters. She uses it for others- visiting pastors and displaced families just to name a couple.

I want our home to be available for whatever God may send our way in the future, so perhaps I should quit saying we are remodeling and say that we are preparing!!

Love ya'll,

Shelli

It seems to me that any full grown, mature adult would have a desire to be responsible, to help where he can in a world that needs so very much, that threatens us so very much. ~Norman Lear

Past the seeker as he prayed came the crippled and the beggar and the beaten. And seeing them... he cried, "Great God, how is it that a loving creator can see such things and yet do nothing about them?" God said, "I did do something. I made you." ~Author Unknown

The Reason

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!!

We were able to lay aside paint colors, molding, mortar smear, and flooring to enjoy the real reason we moved here to Pine Cone Lane.

Love ya'll,

Shelli

I love these little people;

and it is not a slight thing when they, who are so fresh from God, love us.

~Charles Dickens

Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family.

~Anthony Brandt

Sunday Schoolism #3: Thus It Is Written

Thus it is written,

that the Christ should suffer

and on the third day rise from the dead,

and that repentance and forgiveness of sins

should be proclaimed in his name to all nations.

The Book of Luke

Take A Closer Look

When we first bought this place, all I saw was 7 1/2 acres of dead, brown leaves!!

But when I went out the other morning, purposefully looking for something, anything, to make a bouquet out of, I realized that this place is 7 1/2 acres of beautiful!!

I was just focusing on the wrong thing.

How often do we do that with our spouse, children, co-workers?

Shame on me!!

Love ya'll,

Shelli

In a rapidly ascending balloon were two men.
One watched the earth getting farther and farther away.
One watched the stars getting nearer and nearer.
~George Jean Nathan

"Viewpoint," A Book Without a Title, 1918

Closets, How Boring! Closet Doors, How Fun!

The topic is closets - boring, right!

  But since that is where so many of our belongings go, they're really kind of important and ours needed refreshing.  We are talking with a contractor for the big remodeling jobs, but in the mean time, painting the closets gives me a sense of accomplishment and helps us feel like we are inching (millimetering) toward completion.

Before

After. You're right, it's not the same closet , but I forgot to take a before of this closet so I had to use one from another bedroom.

 Now closets have doors and these closets have plain doors. Pinterest says add some molding and, sure enough, it can work wonders!

My carpenter and decorator came to spend the night this week and we did a little test run on this molding application which I plan on using on all the doors down the hall.

It helps when your workshop is in the dining room...

your table saw is on the front porch....

and your dad is your carpenter.

We cut molding to size and glued it on with liquid nails.

 We still had to use a few finishing nails to hold everything down well. Dad showed me how to sink the nail heads and then we Dapped over the holes.

Many coats of paint later,

and

voila!

Eventually, all the molding will be white,

eventually...

Love ya'll,

Shelli

There's something real satisfying about working, and having gotten it done.

~Lady Bird Johnson

Pole Barn and BBQ

This past Saturday was a gold-star day!

We started early in morning in the pole barn. It was filled with old firewood and random lumber, plus the few yard tools James had retrieved from storage.

(Let's talk about storage a minute. Because James and I are doing so much renovation to this house, when we moved in we only brought a few necessities - two beds, two chairs, and seven pieces of furniture that were too heavy for us to handle by ourselves. We have one pan, one pot, two forks and spoons, and  enough clothes for two months. Everything else is in storage. There was just no reason to fill the house up and then start shuffling things around for carpenters and painters.)

So back to the pole barn, it needed cleaning out and organizing. I forgot to take a "before" picture, so all I have to offer are these "afters".

We are excited to get the kayaks home because we live between two awesome sand bar filled rivers!

 Once the pole barn was clean and picked up, we were off to Tractor Supply for 3 cow panels to fence off a nice large, covered kennel for Fred and Ethel. Over the next couple of months, there are going to be workers in and out of here and they won't want to contend with two big, stinky dogs. Plus Ethel is a thief and would haul off gloves, paint brushes, and tools.

Livestock panels are an awesome alternative to rolls of wire. They are sixteen feet long by around four feet tall and are easy to cut with good wire cutters, but most of all they much easier to handle. Rolled fencing wants to stay rolled and will fight you to do so, fence panels maintain their straight, flat shape. I used these for the chicken yard at Turkey Creek Garden and they were perfect for this kennel project.

As our reward for a morning of hard work, we headed into town for one of Summits "On the Tracks" events.  In the Spring, they hold BBQing on the Tracks. James enjoyed the car show and I enjoyed some delicious Redneck Nachos. The band was good and as we enjoyed watching people dancing in front of the stage, we were reminded of how much closer we are to the Laissez les Bons Temps Rouler vibe of the Gulf Coast.

It really was a gold star day!

Love ya'll, Shelli

Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It's not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it's when you've had everything to do, and you've done it.

~Margaret Thatcher

Sunday Schoolisms #2: The Screwtape Letters

Last Sunday I met some really nice people from Centenary United Methodist Church in McComb.  They invited me to Sunday School where the Grass Class is studying The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis. In case your're not familiar with this book, here is a synopsis from Wikipedia:

The Screwtape Letters is a Christian apologetic novel by C. S. Lewis. It is written in a satirical, epistolary style and while it is fictional in format, the plot and characters are used to address Christian theological issues, primarily those to do with temptation and resistance to it. First published in February 1942,^[1] the story takes the form of a series of letters from a senior Demon Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood, a Junior Tempter. The uncle's mentorship pertains to the nephew's responsibility in securing the damnation of a British man known only as "the Patient".

And here is an excerpt for today's Sunday Schoolism:

Walmart Knows Their Science

So today was potty day.

You can just imagine toilets that have been sitting neglected for a couple of years - it's not pretty!

  If I've got to scrub them,

you've should at least see them...

  Now, that was only fair!

When you are scrubbing potties, and I imagine when you are reading about scrubbing potties, you don't really want to think about what is taking place, so instead you think of something more pleasant.  That was easy for me to do when I saw this box...

You can't beat a Pumie stick for cleaning certain stubborn stains, so it is the tool for the day. But it is the memory it brings back that will take my mind off of the chore at hand.

When I taught Earth science to eighth graders, lassoing their interest was 95 % of the battle. Whenever possible I started the lesson with, "WalMart really knows their science!" Then every face in the room turned to me, eye brows knitted together in that "What do you mean?" expression, and I knew that I had them.

"Yes," I would say, "you can buy a volcanic rock at WalMart." Out came the box you see above, and the Pumie stick was passed around the class for observation. Questions like "Why does it have so many holes?" led to a lesson on the characteristics of volcanic rock and the gases escaping the lava as the material solidified.

"Why is it so light weight?", led to a review lesson on density, including the density of water, which led to the students wanting to see if the pumice would float. The pumice was dropped in water, notes were taken, and by the end of the hour,  vocanic rock objectives had been met all because WalMart really knows their science.

Memory enjoyed.

Potties clean.

Love ya'll,

Shelli

Memory is more than a dustbin of time, stuffed with yesterday's trash. Rather, memory is a glorious grab bag of the past from which one can at leisure pluck bittersweet experiences of times gone by and relive them.

~Hal Boyle, 1971

Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose.

~From the television show The Wonder Years

Memory... is the diary that we all carry about with us.

~Oscar Wilde, "The Importance of Being Earnest"

The past is never dead, it is not even past.

~William Faulkner

Memory is what tells a man that his wife's birthday was yesterday.

~Mario Rocco

Day One....More or Less

Well yesterday was Day One here at Pine Cone Lane. I mean we had been here since Thursday, but were dealing with movers and storage buildings, and had one more trip back to Ruston to get Fred and Ethel who had been boarded during all the hoorah. So yesterday was Day One......more or less.

Day One To Do List:

1. Meet with an HVAC person. We have no heating or cooling, both must be replaced. We have been hoping for a little cool snap and have gotten lucky, plus it is so shady out here that we have been very comfortable with just the fans going, but that won't last forever! 

2. Meet with Propane Man. We want to convert the fireplace to gas logs, but natural gas isn't an option, so we will need to put in a small propane tank. We will also need to hire a chimney sweep as the chimney is full of swifts!

3. Clean mildew off all interior doors. Yuck!!

 This house has been unoccupied for almost two years. Due to heat and humidity, many surfaces were covered with mildew. As a precaution, we had the house tested for mold before we bought it, and those tests came back negative. Thank goodness! Mildew easily succumbs to bleach, so some rags and elbow grease will take care of this nasty issue.

4. Tame the Asiatic Jasmine. I have to say that this ground cover has never been one of my favorites. If it is located in the wrong place it struggles, looking sparse, brown, and pitiful. Planted in the right local, it will take over the world; which is what is happening here!

But there is nothing that a weed eater can't handle and I LOVE weed eating! There is something cathartic about hacking, cutting, shaping, controlling!!!

Remodeling this house and reclaiming this yard is going to be a long process. James and I are determined to relax and enjoy it along the way. On the back porch at the end of each day,  we are going to recount the day's accomplishments as well as it's blessings.

Here was today's blessing, found in an overgrown bed by the drive....

I have never seen an azalea flower patterned like this!

Aren't we lucky!!

Tomorrow, toilets....

Love ya'll,

Shelli

How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.

- Creighton Abrams

Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish. 

~John Quincy Adams

Adopt the pace of nature:  her secret is patience. 

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

How poor are they that have not patience!
What wound did ever heal but by degrees?
~William Shakespeare, Othello

Sunday Schoolism #1: Stop Trying To Work Things Out

My precious Sunday School class, Women of Grace, gave me the sweetest going-away gift, a beautiful leather bound copy of Jesus Calling.

So it is appropriate that this blog's first Sunday Schoolism should be a page from that devotional book. (It is also appropriate that today is my first Sunday at Centenary United Methodist Church in McComb, Mississippi and that their women's Sunday School class is the Grace Class.....)

     Stop trying to work things out before their times have come.  Accept the limitations of living one day at a time. When something comes to your attention, ask Me whether or not it is part of today's agenda. If it isn't, release it into My care and go on about today's duties. When you follow this practice, there will be a beautiful simplicity about your life: a time for everything, and everything in its time.

     A life lived close to Me is not complicated or cluttered. When your focus is on My Presence, many things that once troubled you lose their power over you. Though the world around you is messy and confusing, remember that I have overcome the world. I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have Peace.

                                                                                                 Sarah Young

                                                                                                 Jesus Calling

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.

-Ecclesiastes 3:1

"I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

-John 16:33