Quilt of Life

Our life here on earth is much the same

As a beautiful quilt on display

The pattern is there, we are given the cloth

To form the blocks each day.

As children, we choose the reds and the golds,

The pinks, the blues and the greens.

We have never yet seen the drabness that comes

With the shattering gray of our dreams.

We form the blocks haphazardly

With no thought of hues or design.

It is only when it is half finished

Do we notice the passing of time.

It is then we can see the red and the gold

More beautiful with patches of gray.

Just like the darkest nights of our lives

Are made bright by the breaking of day.

As the quilt stretches out in my twilight years

And I add a few stitches each day.

I can see the touch of the Master’s Hand

As I look at those patches of gray.

Life wasn’t meant to be an array

Of bright colored pinks and blue.

He knew there would be patches of gray

When He gave the pattern to you. 

Fern Estes

Of Roofs and Noses

 Saturday afternoon and evening we attended a Leadership Conference. During the seminar the speaker told of how when they first married they were quite poor. Recently they were much better set as far as money went and decided to sell the house they lived in and buy something bigger and nicer.

  But... THE DAY they were to have the place appraised, it rained.... And the roof LEAKED. It leaked so bad the wife had to go over to the neighbors and borrow more pots and pans. They were so sad and wondered "Why,God?? Why now? Just when we were ready to sell it?"

 They called a Roofer to come out and have a look. He came and when he was done he sat down with them and told them he does not understand this at all! He said 'your roof should have been leaking for 11 yrs! It has no tar paper, NO leak guard AT ALL!' Then they understood that God had been looking over them all those yrs when they were to poor to afford a roof change.

 As I sat through that story my mind went on a journey in my own life. We had moved about 3 yrs ago and since then had been (in America) poor. I know that's not the same as really truly poor. But anyway we often didn't even have money for food and twice had a repo issued on our house. Steve so often either didn't have work or had low paying jobs.

 Anyway this summer we were finally using the wisdom we learned at these seminars and a little better paying job and were 'getting to our knees'. And then suddenly our little girl got terribly sick! She had a tick bite on the calf of her leg behind the knee that the Dr felt was tick fever. And in that bite she developed staff infection. The Staff was scary as it would not respond to the medicines. It just kept spreading and spreading. I took her to the Dr and he gave her different doses of medications and said if that doesn't help they will have to hospitalize her. I went home just heartbroken. (ALL these Dr bills and now THIS???) But we gave her the medicines... And prayed! And God healed her. The morning we were to go back I got up and looked at her leg and the stuff had spread. Way out of the lines the Dr had drawn on her to indicate where it must not go! Then about 2 hrs before we were to leave it started going down! Just like Someone had stuck a pin in it! The swelling went down (WAY down) and the rash faded! By the time we got to the Drs Office it looked almost normal! Praise the Lord!! 
 But I was still struggling with the "why NOW,Lord???" Just when we were maybe seeing a light at the end of the tunnel? 
Then the Dr asked if any of us has had a problem with crusty sores on the nose that itch and don't want to heal? I said "YES,I have had that for 3 yrs now and its SO frustrating! What is it???" And he said that I am the carrier of the staff infection! He gave antibiotic ointment and instructions on treatment! 
 Then I realized... for 3 long very poor yrs, God had His Hand over my loved ones protecting them from this awful disease!
 What a Mighty God we serve!!
 Have a wonderful and blessed day!

Freezer Cookies

I always liked the thought of freezing my cookies ahead so that we would have them on hand for lunches, etc. But I always thought they tasted so 'old' after they were frozen! But then I discovered what everyone else probably already knows! (= If one freezes them while they are fresh  (as in just barely cooled) they are WONDERFUL! Get them out of the freezer, thaw, and they taste just like you just baked them. So I am very excited about this! (= I did also discover that waxed paper or something should be used between layers in case they are still a little warm cause they will fuse together and make a huge mess. I package them 3 cookies to a sandwich baggie and that is very handy! They can be laid out to freeze and then boxed up and put into lunches or used for snacks a little at a time. For large families tho this might be impractical... 

  Monster Cookies

2lbs brown sugar

2 cups white sugar

1 lb butter

12 eggs

1/4 cup vanilla

1 tbsp molasses

8 tsp soda

3 lbs peanut butter

18cups oatmeal

1 lb chocolate chips

1 lb M&M's

Mix all together well with commercial mixer or hands! (=

Drop onto ungreased cookie sheets and flatten slightly.

Bake 350* for about 10-12 min. Do not overbake!

Yields 124 lg cookies

Stuff

We have been on the 'warpath' around here against clutter!  This has been in the making for a little while now but it just recently started to actually happen! (=
 Quite a while ago (maybe a yr or so) I picked up a book at a thrift store on clutter control. For a while it became part of the clutter! :/ But then one day I started to read it... and then read more... and then other books... and blogs... and 'googled' clutter control. All by moms who have or are having success in the clutter control area. Of course these moms had to be good mothers and wives with sound principles or their clutter control ideas were carefully handled! (Taken with a pill) Not that clutter control has anything major to do with principles (??it might??) but I don't want to shirk my family for the 'spotless' house! Or spend to much of my husbands hard earned money!!!
 So now we are living a rather different life then we once were and that is what I am sharing! (=
 The very first thing I had to figure out was to 'eat that frog'! Or to do the job I dread the most FIRST before any other jobs! I highly recommend the Eat That Frog book written by Brian Tracy. Even tho it might not be about clutter it still helps! (=
 Also, use the 'slight edge' on everything. It doesn't have to all be done today but a little here and a little there must be done every day! And then maintained. Everyday.
 Involve the children. Ask for ideas (and use them). Praise them at least 5 times for every correction you must give. And do a little here, a little there, everyday!
 And draw every day from God Who gives us the strength to be Mothers! (=
 Clutter control is just that. Controlling clutter! In my case with my tiny house that meant getting rid of it! At first it was hard but now 'things' get thrown out or given away quite happily because after all the only 'things' I get to keep when Jesus comes back is my husband and children! (=
 So my encouragement to you is, if you don't like clutter and you DO like to be organized then you CAN do it!! (= I was one of the most disorganized 'phlegs' ever! So start reading and motivating yourself and let yourself go! (=