Thunder and Rain

Today is gorgeous and sunny.  Tender leaves are May-green, the sky Robin’s egg blue.  It could not be more beautiful. 

Saturday morning was beautiful as well, in the strange way of things.  A bout of insomnia had brought me to the couch sometime during the night, but I awoke before dawn when thunder broke the silence. 

This wasn’t any ordinary thunderclap; this one rumbled through the heavens like a bass drum, rolling on and on for literally minutes. 

Afterward, gentle rain.

The Lord spoke to me in those moments as raindrops pattered the roof. 

For several months, I’ve been heading a prayer team for a ladies’ retreat in May.  Working the teams for this community of believers is one of my greatest joys; I’d scrub floors with a toothbrush for the privilege of serving these women on a weekend.  I love it.

This assignment has been difficult.

I’ve been praying for months, but I’ve felt like my prayers were hitting the ceiling, dry as dust, sputtering and sporadic.

I have Prayer ADD.

Needless to say, praying for this team has made me feel insecure.

In the quiet of dawn, the Lord showed me that His Holy Spirit is coming to this group of women, to our church, to me.

Coming like thunder.

Then like rain.

In the devotions of the Everyday with Jesus Bible, Selwyn Hughes writes these words:

“If you could part the clouds for a moment and look into heaven, you would see in the heart of God such an intense longing and yearning for you to filled with His Spirit that it would completely overwhelm and overawe you.  He aches to give you the fullness of His Spirit—He really does.”

I want to be as eager to be filled with Him as He is to fill me. 

I want to hear the thunder.

Feel the rain.

Be blessed today.

Ginger

Checking In

Stopping in to say hello and thanks for your words of encouragement.  What a blessing to know so many of you are sure I’ll survive the next few years! :-) Being refined isn’t much fun, but I’m counting on my faithful Lord for beautiful results!

Just in case you think I haven’t done anything this week except change blog backgrounds (and sub and do laundry and go to Wal,mart and survive parenting …), I have also been listening to this, and I hope  you will, too.

Be blessed,

Ginger

Monday

*** A note for the woman sitting a few rows ahead of me at Beth Moore’s simulcast this weekend:

Your hands blessed me this weekend.  I could only see your hands and the top of your head, but right away I could tell you were a worshipper.   There were a few uplifted hands around you, but there was just something about yours.  They were exuberant.  Fingers outstretched, clapping, reaching to the heavens, they reflected your heart, your passion for our Father.  Your hands made me joyful. 

Thank you. 

As the last week in April zooms into focus, I’m:

-processing an amazing weekend with Beth Moore in Atlanta.   Must chew on this, pray on this, focus on this for a while.  GOOD stuff.  God stuff.

-done playing with blog backgrounds. I’m. Done.  Really.

-facing a week full of lots of little things to do.  I struggle to stay focused, and I need to be focused.

-praying for myself as a mom, because I have a teenager, and I’m not handling it well right now.  I want her to get what I’m saying to her, like, yesterday, and it’s not happening.

What’s up at your house this week? 

Be blessed

Ginger

Spring Cleaning

I’m playing in Live Writer tonight.

Can you tell?

Too many choices make me nervous.

I think I’m through playing with headers for tonight. 

My critics editors children vetoed the first header.  The OCD one still isn’t pleased.

Mom overruled.

More play time tomorrow.  I’m off to read The Last Battle  with DD#2.

Blessings,

Ginger

Little Black Dress(er)

Swaddled in old blankets, the dresser sat unloved on the porch of a used furniture store out in the boonies.

She was solid wood, with great lines, the right size and the right price.

There was only one problem.

She was wearing the wrong outfit.
We know all about that, ladies, don't we?
Good hair day, cute figure...but not your style. Try again.

I'm new at posting make-overs, so I don't have before pics. I bet you can visualize this with me.

This gal was maple. Translation: orange finish with antique-brass fixtures.
The polyester of furniture fashion, circa 1978.

She needed what every woman needs: a little black dress.

Now a few well-placed accessories:

Because every girl deserves a little bling.

I've had a couple of weeks at home, and I am loving it.
Can you tell? :)
Be blessed today,
Ginger
Posting this at Just a Girl
Posting at Strut Your Stuff Thursday.

(Laundry) Room with a View

Just because I love clothespins


and white towels

and the smell of this

and bleach, even though it's politically incorrect from here to the Azores,

these ordinary things are

to me.
I'm unwrapping this Tuesday over at Chatting at the Sky.

Be blessed,
Ginger

An Amazing Solution and a Blognapping

Notice this lamp?
It's THE lamp.
And that, my friends, is the original lampshade that wasn't going to work at first.

After numerous lampshade failures, I rigged this one for the cost of .25.

That weird wire thingy is part of another lampshade that cost me a whole quarter.

Ta-da! Perfect lampshade usable after all!

NO trips to Walmart were necessary in the creation of this accessory.

Please do not tell me if I've made a total fire hazard.

I'm awaiting my call from HGTV. Surely this qualifies me for my own show.

Or not.

Have a GREAT weekend, friends! :)

And now, a guest post:

DD2's Logic Question For The Day.
Actions speak louder than words, yet the pen is mightier than the sword,but pictures speak a thousand words. Which is true?
Ponder before answering. Thank you!

Blessings,
Ginger and DD2

This and That

Yesterday I finally got a chance to scope our largest thrift store on "new stuff" day.

I'm here to tell you that it's like going to Walmart.
The line reached to the back of the store.
Then I had to actually go to Walmart (for the 3rd time this week; have I mentioned that already?), so I spent a lot of time in lines yesterday.

Anyhoo.

Here's what I found:
Cute lamp: $2.00. Watch for this to appear on my new dresser. It started life in the wrong color, but I spray-painted it. ( All crafty Blogland loves spray paint, but we are not BFF's. I always think I'm about to be asphyxiated, even outside. No beauty without sacrifice.)

Lampshade for cute lamp: $1.50. Yes, this should sound like a score--new lamp for $3.50--but look closely at both pictures and you'll see my goof:
Do you see it?

Here's a hint: there is NO lamp harp on the cutie black lamp.

I refuse to go to Walmart today to remedy this problem. Do you hear me?

I. am. not. going. to. Walmart.

Moving on.

This candlestick is one of three in graduated sizes that I found for .25 each. They are similar to a very tall one I already own, so they will make a nice grouping:
Are you bored yet? Stick with me; I've saved the best for last!
Adorable denim capris and jeans THAT FIT. The jeans on the left are from Coldwater Creek. $5.00. Score!
Last but not least:
Girly girl t-shirt:$2.00. This was a stretch for me, because this shirt has bling, and I'm not usually into bling.

The longer I looked at it, though, the more I liked it.

Because in the eyes of my Savior, I am:

So are you.

Daniel 9:23 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)

²³ ...for you are treasured [by God].

Be blessed today!
Ginger
Linking up with Thrify Thursday .
Also linking at Thirty Home.

Today

Today has some projects to complete (watch for the dresser reveal coming soon): an oil change, scoping out the thrift store, my third trip to Walmart this week (because no one in this family knows how to write things on the list...until it's too late).

But what a greeting!

Gentle sunrise.

Bird singing worship songs to their Maker.

A beckoning porch swing.

Be blessed today!
Ginger

The Real Spring Break

SPRING has really, truly arrived here at our house! Hallelujah!
See this? That's green, people, just in case you don't remember that color on trees.



My kids head back to school today and race toward standardized testing at break-neck speed.

I'm done with my second long-term sub assignment and will race toward my basement to work on this, shown in all its primed glory:
This (not yet) lovely will have a home in our master bedroom. I'm copying my sister's brilliant idea to use a small dresser as her bedside table. It will hold sheets, cough drops, and about two dozen books.

Weeks later than the rest of blogland, I springified my mantel this weekend...
..and my coffee table:

I need to do some house-keeping and much needed updating on this blog, but it will take me a while; ya'll know I'm techno-phobic.

It's time for some spring cleaning in my house and my heart; know what I mean?

I want some soul-cleaning, wiping away some dusty attitudes, refreshing a stale prayer life, getting some cobwebs off my perspective.
How about you?
Be blessed!
Ginger

Mary Moment

Reading Psalms 129 this week, and listening to this song...

Among Friends

A year after we got married, Big Red and I moved to a medium-sized town smack-dab in the middle of our state. We bought a little tacky 70's ranch house and set about building a life together. That town and that little house were home for ten years, and we loved, laughed, raised babies, fought, gardened, painted, and worshiped there. We had the World's Best Neighbors, a church that nurtured and taught us, and good friends.

Then God called us to leave there.

Because God is all into leading us from things that are good for us to things that are best for us.

It's a long story.

Anyhoo, this week, we got to go back and visit sweet friends and even meet some new ones. While Big Red visited with old coaching buddies, I hung out with my best friend ever, Suzanne.

When I was a brand-new stay-at-home mommy in that ranch house, my phone rang one day and a cheerful voice offered me use of a baby swing. The rest was history. Suzanne and I have been BFF's for a long time. We have gabbed for hours, drunk gallons of coffee, pushed strollers a million miles, and shopped 'til we dropped. Even though we are quite different (everything about her is pink and girly and straight out an issue of Romantic Country magazine, and everything about me is, well, not), we have found in the other a kindred spirit.

For all of you who are pink and girly and fans of Romantic Country magazine, I should have taken pictures of her amazing home. Maybe next time. Today, I'll just share this rather unflattering picture of both of us when our families drove to the coast for the day.
She's looking cute and glamorous and I'm looking about 20 lbs heavier than I actually am thanks to the wind blowing up my shirt.

We look a bit more like ourselves here:
I love long friendships, don't you?

I love new friendships, too.

My old hometown is the newer hometown of blogging buddy Twinkle. It was so much fun to meet her in "real" life! Incidentally, she is also girly and straight out of Romantic Country; I must collect alter-egos. :)
( I have a picture, but it is rotated the wrong way on Blogger and I have no idea how to fix it. It looks correct everywhere else; can anyone explain this phenomenon ?)
(Have I mentioned that I really, really hate computers? Really, I do.)

Today is rainy and cool. I have oodles of laundry and tons of stuff to catch up on, but for now I am loving a quiet house and a quiet spirit, thanking God for His faithfulness across the seasons of my life.

Be blessed today,
Ginger

He is Risen!

Happy Easter!

A Brief Note from DD#1(Please scroll down for real post)

PLEASE PLEASE CONVINCE MY MOM TO NOT MAKE ME TAKE ALL FOUR AP CLASSES NEXT YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And Now Today's Real Post....

" If you live to be a hundred,
I want to live to be a hundred minus one day,
so I never have to live a day without you."
Winnie the Pooh

Happy Anniversary, Big Red