From Four to Forty....

in the blink of an eye.

Happy Birthday T.T.

Love ya,

Joy Joy

Searching for Pinky

I have been a mom for almost 13 years now. I have spent a large percentage of that time helping my two children search for their beloved stuffed animals that they claim they desperately need to fall asleep. My oldest daugther had Lambie Pie that she fell asleep with every night. She later added "Dog" to the mix. I have found these animals in obscure places. When she was little I would stumble across them while not looking for them. Like behind the blinds or in a foot stool that has a lid. Each time I would send a silent prayer of thanks to God for helping me locate these beloved items before a bedtime crisis ensued. Paige is outgrowing her Lambie Pie attachment. Now we search for cell phones, etc.

The latest search....

About four days ago my youngest daughter realized that Pinky was missing. Missing in action...Not there to hold and snuggle with her at night. We searched our house over. Underbeds, turned over toyboxes, rummaged thru clothes (clean and dirty)...nowhere was Pinky to be found.

As a mom the other thing I have done during all my free time is change the empty rolls on the toilet paper left for me. You ask what do these two have in common. Well I'll tell you. Last night I went into the bathroom in my master bedroom to sit and have a moment to myself and looked over and not even a square was left on the toiletpaper roll. So I opened up the cabinet directly in front of me that conveniently stores all the extra toiletpaper rolls and who did I SEE!

You guessed it. NONE OTHER THAN PINKY HERSELF.

Why wouldn't I have checked that cabinet before. What was I thinking???? That seems like a logical place to leave your favorite stuffed animal. Thank you God for once again revealing the hiding place of Pinky.

Amen.

Common Ground

The House that Dan Built:

Common Ground is the name of the conservation group at my church. We meet once a month and have different speakers. This month we had THE Dan Phillips. I want to introduce you to him if you haven't heard of him already. Dan has even been featured on HGTV's "What's With That House". He's been in People Magazine and on CNN and many other media outlets. Dan lives in Huntsville, Texas. He builds home out of salvaged materials that were destined for the landfill. He is most interested in helping single mothers, low-income families and artist. What most of us see as trash, Dan sees as ceiling or flooring material and many other imaginative ways of using items.

Another thing I admire about Dan is he uses unskilled laborers to build these homes. For instance, He teaches a person to lay tile or do carpentry and then after they develop a marketable skill he "kicks them out the nest" and sends them off to get a "paying job".

Here are samples of his work.

The picture at the top is Dan's vision of a storybook house. He built this house for a single woman who is an artist. This house is located in Houston. There is a project starting in Houston based on Dan's building philosophy called Discovery Green Project.

These are old frame samples from a framing store that were being thrown out when the store received updates samples. Dan created a beautiful ceiling for one of his houses:

The picture below shows a floor that was made from corks from wine bottles.

Go to Dan's website http://www.phoenixcommotion.com/ and check out his work and videos. You can see the passion he has for the environment and more importantly helping people.

Remember, your trash may be another man's treasure (or floor, or ceiling, or countertop). So think twice before you throw it away and always recycle what you can.

Stay Green,

Libby

I've been wanting to write a post on Libby for some time now. We got Libby in September - 4 years ago. So I guess on her 4th "gotcha" year, I'll showcase the fourlegged member of our family.
Libby is a rescue dog. I went to the adoption center to see a dog that was advertised. I got there and wasn't excited about that particular dog. My friend who went with me pointed out Libby. I thought she was pretty cute, but wasn't familiar with Schnauzers. At that time I had not had a dog in nearly 30 years. So this was a big step for me. You notice I keep using "I" and "me". Buster was in Mexico on business when I made this visit to Doggy Adoption Day. When he called home, I ran the idea past him. He was not quite on board with the idea. He just said "wait till I get home and we'll talk about it". So technically I did wait until he got home. When he arrived home from Mexico, I did not have Libby yet. BUT I did have dog food and dish, leash, collar, Libby I.D. tag, crate, dog toys etc. Since I had already invested in a dog I did not yet own, he went with me to the adoption center to take a look at her and signed off on her. Since this was an adoption all the adults in the household had to sign for her. She was spayed the next day and I picked her up a couple of days later.

So enjoy the pictures of Libby and check out your local doggy adoption center. You might find a loyal, four-legged friend there.

This was the day we brought Libby home back in Sept. 2004. I love this picture because she looks like she has a smile on her face. Sorry I could not get this image to download larger.

"My Three Girls"

Libby and her cousins-

Furby, Jazzie and Sugar.

Libby and her friend Logan.

As you can see Libby has a pretty stinkin' good nice life now. She has taken over our formal living room. I now call it "Libby's Condo". It definitely beats the streets where she was found wandering. Love and Licks from Libby and...

Isaiah 1 & 2

Today was the first day of my Fall Bible Study. This summer I felt God leading me to do a Kay Arthur Precepts Study this year. One of the local churches was offering Isaiah by Kay Arthur so I signed up. A couple of girlfriends also signed up so that makes it even better. This summer I did a 40 minute study by Kay Arthur not one of her inductive Bible studies so I'm very new to Precept Bible studies. I watched the video today on Isaiah chapter 1 & 2. I love Kay's style. She pretty much reads the scripture straight from the Bible and constantly references other related scriptures throughout the Bible. She doesn't offer her own "take" on scripture. She let's scripture interpret scripture.

There is so much, but today the lesson I took home was regarding idols. We hear that word a lot these days with sports idols, American Idol, political idols, etc. Isaiah 2:8 reads ...Their land has also been filled with idols. They worship the work of their hands. That which their fingers have made.

We can point at America, Washington DC, Wall Street, Hollywood or anyone, but really it starts individually, looking inward. What are my idols? Where do I spend my time, money and priorities?

Psalm 135:18 reads...Those who make (idols) will be like them.

Isaiah tells us what will happen to idols (2:20) In that day (the last days) men will cast them away to the moles and the bats. So those things we cling to won't be there for us in the end.

I also learned there are 2 direct command in Isaiah:

(2:5) Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.

(2:22) Stop regarding man, whose breath of life is in his nostrils; For why should he be esteemed.

Occassionally I'll share some of my Isaiah experience this year. Kay told us that Jesus and the Apostles quote more from Isaiah than any other Prophet. So there is a lot to learn from Isaiah. And one thing is...it's definitely more current than you think.