What's In Store?

A Cup of Inspiration!

What is inside your cup? Or maybe it’s better to ask…what fills you up?…What resides INSIDE of you?

I ask this, because what’s inside each of us, is what we pour out to others! I WANT to pour out love, light and inspiration! On days that I find that difficult to do, I hope someone will pour a little of their’s into my cup!

I asked my daughter, Ashleigh, for inspirational mugs this past Christmas! I don’t drink coffee, but I do like some tea now and then…and hot chocolate is always a WIN!

Sometimes, using an object, like these cups, can help us translate things to a higher, more spiritual understanding of life! I love the cups; but even more, I love the little bits of encouragement that are just inside the rims! On the butterfly: Be the change! The bee: Always bee kind! The elephant: Walk in peace! The dragonfly: Not all who wander are lost! Reminders to be kind, peaceful and understanding! The most profound for me is the reminder that it’s up to each of us to Be the CHANGE! It has to start with me…and you…

Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.
Dr. Wayne Dyer.

We each fill our cups with the things we watch and read, the people we spend our days with, the things we focus on! We can see the sunshine and feel it’s warmth OR only feel the sweat from standing in it! We can see the rain OR we can see the flowers bloom and know the rainbow is on it’s way!

I hope that when someone’s cup feels empty, I can help change that by pouring a little love on them! I hope that in this world we can change the way we look at things…that we can see that there is a lot of good! I hope we can be the change! It’s today’s cup of inspiration!

Time to Unplug…!

I’m taking a few days to put down the phone and turn off the computer…some time to ‘unplug’ from social media and ‘plug-in’ to life, relationship and soul~shine!

It’s time to rebalance! Life gets so busy and full of distractions from many things that need our attention. I wonder how many times in a week we have a ‘conversation’ with someone that is scrolling through their social media accounts at the same time? Or maybe you forget to set your own phone aside?

We all have those things that help us carry on through life. It is important that these things upon which we depend for daily strength are healthy for our character rather than harmful. We must ask ourselves whether the comforts we reach for each day are vices or virtues? Do they feed the best parts of us or do they rob us of them? Even when we are at our most fatigued and are tempted to reach for self-destructive things, we must try to seek out and take solace in those things that will lead to our eventual renewal; rather than those things that will only serve to bring us lower.
L.M. Browning

Don’t get me wrong, I love staying connected to friends and family through electronics, but every now and then I want to make sure I unplug and recharge! So…I will see you next week!

What Season are You In?

Spring has arrived and I love this time of year, even though my seasonal allergies are begging to differ! I love the sunshine that spring and summer bring; and yet sometimes, we are given more rain than sun! Being forced to wait for some of our favorite things, due to circumstances beyond our control, can be a challenge, whatever season we are in… It becomes a season of waiting.

What do I do while I wait? … When the yardwork can’t be caught up and the weeds are taking over? …When my walks are cut short because of the coming storm?

What do you do? Do you agonize over what you cannot accomplish, or celebrate the opportunity to slow down?

I remember as a child how much I loved the thunderstorms! Our dogs would run around like crazy, telling us that they weren’t so happy about it, but I enjoyed the storm! I still enjoy them; though as an adult, I am much more aware of not only the inconveniences they can cause, but also the damage and destruction that can come from them. I can’t control them, I can only prepare, to the best of my ability, for the storms that may or may not come and enjoy the things that I love about the wait for better weather!

In the literal sense, I will use this time to organize what’s inside! To read and fill my mind with good things! I imagine these are good things to do in the proverbial sense, too! Take care of what’s inside! What’s inside is all that we can give to others….if you don’t have love on the inside, you can’t pour love out to those who are in need.

Spring passes and one remembers one’s innocence. Summer passes and one remembers one’s exuberance. Autumn passes and one remembers one’s reverence. Winter passes and one remembers one’s perseverance.
Yoko Ono

Wherever you are, whatever you enjoy, if you are in a season of waiting or working, I hope that you enjoy the process of each one! There is joy to be found in each step along the path, even the ones that are difficult to get through! Fill up your “inside” with the love of God and “let it pour” out to others!

A little extra….

I’ve been looking forward to seeing these floors shine for way too long! Guess what…they were never going to shine themselves!

This product was recommended to bring them to the next level!

I wanted to paint a few scattered stones in metallic colors!

What’s In Store: Sunroom floor/two coats

The floor isn’t finished but this side is….I love it and it’s exactly the look I was hoping for! It’s amazing what a little extra work and shine can do! It has been well worth the wait!

The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.
Jimmy Johnson

I’m hopeful this project is a couple days from completion! For me…it’s going to be a little extra~ordinary!

Were You There?….

This is the hymn I remember my Grandma Harrel whistling when I was a young girl. Often times it was while she was playing checkers or doing household chores. It is a treasured memory. She was the only grandparent living when I was born and so…the only one I got the chance to know at all. She died when I was a teenager, but I will forever remember her by the testimony of her faith, lived in many ways, but remembered this Easter Sunday by the whistling of a song.

What’s In Store: Blooming of the Cross, Community of Christ

This is just one of the many crosses that I bloomed , along with my fellow Community of Christ members, at our former McArthur location.

I’m so grateful for these memories, but even more grateful for faith in the love and hope promised us through Jesus Christ’s life, death and resurrection, and his example of love for all. I’m grateful I heard Grandma whistling ‘Were You There’…and I’m most grateful to know He Lives! HaPpY Easter! ✝️❤️

The Sun Sets on Another Trip…

What’s In Store: Home AWAVE from Home Sunset

We had a wonderful trip to our Home AWAVE from Home! (Has there ever been a bad one?…I think they’re all great!)

We ate great food, including lunch at Fishy, Fishy!

What’s In Store: Ship Lap Wall, Home AWAVE from Home

We got our ship-lap wall put up and the room painted! I love the look of the finished project!

What’s In Store: Oak Island Sunset Walk & Talk!

We took amazing sunset walks and we shared them with you during our live videos on Facebook!

There was time with family….Unexpected and so much fun! Serendipitous BLeSSiNGs!

“When I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in the worship of the creator.”
Mahatma Gandhi

Alas, the sun has set on the last night of this trip, but we leave with our souls expanded and a renewed appreciation for life! We leave the island and live in awe of our Creator and the tapestry that is painted before us each day…displayed beautifully in the sunset ….wherever we are!

A Grand Time!

My husband and I headed to our Home AWAVE from Home with a lengthy ‘to-do’ list!! We got started right away and made great progress in the ‘pink-room!’ That will be a later blog post!

I got a phone call from my daughter, Ashleigh, checking to see if we had any big plans for the weekend?! They were thinking about joining us if it would work with our schedule…and their’s!

The answer was a resounding ‘COME ON DOWN! We got to a stopping point with our work projects and readied the place for the grandchildren (and Mom and Dad, of course!) to arrive!

Upon their arrival, we knew we had a short amount of time…an extended weekend! We shopped, played some games, there was time for putting puzzles together, the kids even got to swim in the ocean and play in the sand! (Never fear, Steve and Adam made it in for an ocean swim, too!

You will never look back on life and think, “I spent too much time with my kids.”
Author Unknown

We had a wonderful weekend! The kids left this morning and now the condo is eerily quiet! If there is a choice to be made between chores or time with your family, always choose family! You won’t be sorry….you will have a Grand Time!

When Angels are Near….

My brother, Daniel, passed away in 2016. I was so blessed to be able to spend his last couple days with him. He was transported to the James Cancer Center in Columbus, and while it was a sad time, it was TIME. Time I had to sit with him, talk with him…time to say goodbye.

I almost always associate squirrel sightings as little ‘angel messages’ from Daniel. However, one day Steve and I were taking a little ride and Daniel was on my mind! My car window was about halfway down when a feather came through the window and landed gently in my lap. There’s a saying that goes something like…’When feathers appear, angels are near!!’ I immediately thought it was a precious angel message from Daniel, my brother.

Last night, we were taking a sunset walk on the beach at our Home AWAVE from Home. I saw this feather, and while it’s not uncommon to see feathers on the beach, this one spoke to me. I picked it up and carried it home with me and gratefully accepted the wink from a special angel and the hope it brings!

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,
Emily Dickinson

A Birthday Party in Heaven Today…

❤️😇❤️ There is a birthday party in Heaven today 😉 Happy Birthday, Tom Ferguson! Enjoy the music, angelic singing. and yellow cake with chocolate, peanut-butter icing!! I’m sure there will be some fishing down by the river or elk hunting in the woods, too! I celebrate your life–thank you for sharing your earthly life with me!❤️😇❤️

Not My Biggest Fan…but at Least I Have Two!

Our sunroom has been the project that seemingly never ends…As a matter of fact, the past couple years, it has become more of a dreary room!

We had a leak in the sunroom, which was the beginning of the never ending project! We had the rubber roof replaced that is directly above this three-season room.

We removed the drywall from the ceiling and for a minute I was hopeful when I saw the original ship lap…But, Alas…it had to come down, too!

This is what we were left with! I had long thought I would like to have a tin ceiling…so my search began for the product I would use …and the person to install it!

Fortunately, both of those were accomplished with a little time (or a lot;) and research! This is what the finished ceiling looks like! It’s actually a faux, aged copper, drop ceiling! You can see that we replaced the one large ceiling fan in the center with these two, very small, fans! Once the room is completed, one fan will be in the ‘exercise area’ and the other in the ‘seating area’! I have joked that while it’s not my BIGGEST fan…at least I have TWO of them!

Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Even though this room has not reached completion…the flame to ‘getter done’ has been ‘fanned!’