Repeat.

This message keeps coming to mind: I'm not familiar with anything in the Bible saying God won't give you more than you can handle. Who came up with that, anyway? God does give us more than we can handle to make us understand we need HIM. If we could handle it all on our own, why would we ever look to the Lord? That makes more sense to me. Something I'm still chewing on.

Already I've not followed my #nestingwithjesus like I wanted to his year. Time to hop back on the horse and open my Bible ... Or app, whichever one works for me. I love my Dr Charles Stanely study Bible (www.intouch.org) but the Bible app having many different versions at your fingertips also has merit. Sometimes it helps me understand a verse to read a few versions. She Reads Truth taught me that. 

Dolls my mom made for me when I was a child. Macy enjoys playing with them now :)

Last week at the end of a doctor visit, I mentioned a total medical miracle that happened in my family I thought she'd be interested in. The conversation moved along to her asking me to pray for a friend's salvation. I was very humbled she asked - so add this request to your prayers, if you feel so moved. Thanks. 

Anyone else addicted to PBS programming right now? Sunday night: Mercy Street, Victoria, and then a show about Henry 8th and his 6 wives. Loving it!! Trying so hard to be patient and not spoil Victoria but they realllly left us hanging. Mercy Street did, too. Now to get Poldark back up and running. Man I need to invest in some series on DVD! 

Have I shared this already? My sister and I took Macy to her school parking lot last Sunday so she could practice riding her bike. She was so cute! She loved it! Asked this weekend - Bethie, do you remember me riding my bicycle in the parking lot? Hahah! The storms this weekend kept us all indoors. 

She also entertained us with puppet shows in the puppet tent my friend, Donna, and her niece, Ellie, bought Macy for Christmas. She's loving it. Luckily my mom fits in the tent with her so they can both put on shows. Hahaha

Macy begged for a Panther Drink! Oh no!

Ok I'm headed for bed 2 hours after my self-appointed bedtime. Have a great week! 

Pride

I'm sitting in a small out-of-the-way restaurant in a very small town. Had to google map it to find it. Older couple is sitting in front of me and the man asked the young waitress if the local football team played last night. "Yes sir." "Did Jordan play? I know he did." Made me smile seeing the pride these folks have in the local community.

I can't remember the last thing I wrote and service is so bad here I figure I can't pull it up. So did I tell you my bro-in-law made it through his third back surgery... 10-hours! While it seems the surgery is successful, a nerve is very angry and causing him great pain. Please pray this sucker calms down!  This family could really use a break. (This photo is from the chapel in the hospital. Just beautiful) 

My sister moved into a new school building. She wasn't allowed in to unpack and arrange all her belongings until the day before Roger's surgery... A week before school started. So Dad and I spent some time in there making it look ready for students. Thank heavens for family :) My parents have really been here for all of us. 

Sweet niece #1 hit high school this year! I can't believe it!! She playing sports, sorta learning to drive, and is just beautiful. And sweet niece #2 is going to 4K at the same school all of us attended. She wore her tiara to meet the teacher and has already made a name for herself. After her evaluation, Katie asked her how she did and Sweet Niece said, "I rocked it."  Hahahahaha

My twin sweet nephews are doing so well. Growing so fast and changing every day. I stopped in to see them last week and was amazed at how sweet and friendly they are!! They'll be 1 in the beginning of October. That just doesn't seem possible. 

(Once again, I never finished this so I'm posting it as is)

Late Night

Another night of early rising - three something in the morning. Should have never picked up my phone. It surely doesn't help me want to go back to sleep. Instead I find myself pinning dozens of quilt patterns and playing Words With Friends.

As I was surfing the web instead on sleeping tonight, I found this post on Instagram. She left this on someone else's page-I don't know either of them but I liked it: 

Another family member is back in the hospital. Been there since Wednesday night. We are pretty worn out and we are all lacking sleep. We are tired of being tired and tired of being so worried. Our preacher came by the hospital and read Psalm 42 & 43 to us and it just seemed to fit us. The writer is suffering deeply from something and cries out to God. As my preacher said - it reminds me of y'all with the years of suffering you have had. He said while we may not understand it today - or ever - God is with us. 

Here is Psalm 43:  

I don't know - maybe it will help someone else out there. 

The preacher made me smile - he's trying hard to encourage us but with medical issue after issue after issue - it's hard to explain why people are allowed to suffer. So he said several times - keep hope and look at the success with the babies. ;) 

And we are SO THANKFUL for their progress!! I miss seeing my sweet nephews so much. The hospital Is about an hour away and I am required to have one of their parents with me to visit. Just difficult to schedule. But they are doing well and are handsome little fighters. 

I've had some Macy time as it's her daddy in the hospital. She is struggling with the emotions of not having her parents with her much and not understanding all the tension. Please pray for all these situations. 

Slumber party at MawMaw and PawPaw's house!!! For both of us! 

Sweet nieces at a local produce stand. I tried getting Christmas Card pics but had little luck. These smiles are beautiful though. 

Volleyball season wrapped up a last week and we are very proud of AH and her team. They improved over last year tremendously! 

Let's not discuss how much she's grown. Sniff sniff 

Preschool field trip. Seems someone loved the stick horse so MawMaw is making her one. 

Yesterday after Mommy got home from the hospital we had a front porch picnic. Macy was so glad to see her Mommy. She cried when we left to go up there. This evening when Katie came home after work and then the hospital, Macy grabbed her in a huge hug and said, "We are back together again!" So hard to juggle all life has put on their plates right now and know where to be and what balls not to drop. So tough.

A friend suggested I focus more on the positive. And there are positives!!! 

The sweet twins are getting stronger and have so many wonderful people praying for them. 

My dad got to meet his grandsons and introduce himself as Pop :) 

The support from our pastor, our church family, definitely our family and so many friends and friends of friends that we'll never know - thank you!!

S'mores with the family around the fire pit and eating too many marshmallows! 

The days have been beautiful, allowing us to enjoy the outdoors and Macy has been swinging her heart out. 

I'm so thankful I was able to attend AH's last game of the season, even though it was on an Election Day. God worked that one out! 

Every time my brother calls mom about a baby update, I can tell it just touches her heart. She's totally invested into her grandsons and hearing news is important to her. So glad Clay is keeping in good touch with her. 

A dear friend won her court case. Yay!! 

Rogers very life was in danger but the doctors were able to turn things around. Great nurses and doctors in the ICU, too! They deserve a lot of respect. 

My workplace has been so good about letting me off to take the day shift at the hospital with no guilt. They've texted and checked on us, too. 

Wow. An hour later and I'm wrapping this up. Y'all thanks for letting this be a place I can download emotions. It's hard to find someone to talk to when everyone around you is living it, too. 

Thanks for your prayers. :)

A wee catch up

Where on earth have I been? Who knows. No where exciting, that's for sure. But I'm here now! Yippie!!

I'm in the South and the South got hit with snow and ice. In my neck of the woods It was ICE. Macy was happy to play in it anyway. I wasn't as happy to drive in it... 

I made it into work, however, it was a tense drive. Halfway there it looked much better, thank heavens. Now the ice is gone but we the having insane cold temps for this area. This better severely dent the bug population this summer. 

I finally finished this piece of paint your own pottery. No clue how it will look once it's fired. Hopefully I'll pick it up this weekend, while I paint another with my Sweet Niece #1 as she turns 13! What!?!? 13! How did this happen!?! But it's true, she'll be 13 soon. Heaven help. 

I had wanted to finish this before her birthday but I don't see that happening. It's very busy - probably not the best choices in fabric but I think she'll like it. Or I hope she will. 

Ugh. I better go get a faucet dripping since it's already 13 degrees outside. Sigh. Y'all stay warm!!! 

Mondays. Thursdays. Whatever!

I have had this post sitting in save since MONDAY.  Just ridiculous. I finally deleted it and started over. :)

So - happy almost weekend, folks! I can't tell you how happy I am that the week has calmed down some for me. You know I asked for my boring life to be reinstated and we are getting there! I like boring! Because when it isn't boring, my family is having medical drama. So boring is GREAT!

I'm actually surprised how much I've been posting on Instagram lately and thought I'd share some of my photos here with you.  It does kinda show you what I've been up to. I know I posted the buttons pic, but I'm in love with it, so I'm posting it again.

Now I want to do an initial one for the aunt that gave me all these buttons AND hemmed four pairs of pants AND took in the waist on two (no, don't think I'm losing weight, they've been big from the get go)... and I need her to hem some shirts where the hems are ripping out. *smile* I love my family!

I saw this on Pintrest where you fold felt in half, sew the folded side, flip it over and sew the open side and cut every inch or so.  It works! But what am I going to do with all these random hearts? They made a cute banner with it, but I'm probably just going to trash mine.  I had to see if it works, and it does! Now I'm done with it.

Last week, I had training classes for one of our elections.  I didn't see many of my workers last year because I had help covering the training classes (which I'm so very very thankful for!), but I missed my peeps! So it was really nice to see some of them again.

Ya'll know I got a sewing machine for Christmas... I finally took it out and set it on the dining room table.  A few weeks later, I threaded it! I know, amazing! So I had this baby quilt kit for beginners from Fabric Editions - I won it from them! (you can buy the same thing at Walmart).  It took just about my entire Saturday, but I DID IT! And I was actually pretty proud of it - planned on giving it to a lady in our church expecting her first child! ... ... AND then Macy saw it and claimed it for her own. Bye Bye gift, guess I have to find something else.

The election happened this week and it doesn't matter how large or how small - you never sleep the night before an election. It's this crazy paranoia you will sleep past the alarm and THE WORLD WILL END.  So I was awake about every hour... but at this point I finally got up and got ready. That would be AM. So evil.

 And we'll wrap it up with this little Sweet Niece, who saw her daddy and pawpaw in hats and she wanted a hat, too! She ran to her room, grabbed up her straw cowboy hat and it was on! This kid cracks me up on a regular basis. She is Sassy with a Capital S!

Well folks, there you go.  Something to look at from my life.  Thanks for the prayers, thanks for the happy thoughts and comments - I appreciate it! :)

Lovin' the Leaves

I know, ya'll have heard me complain about working so hard... I'm sure you are SICK of it. But one of the reasons I get all grouchy is because I. LOVE. FALL.  I love the crisper temperatures, the deep blue of the sky, the sun streaming through the bright red, orange and yellow leaves - it's just my time of year.  So being stuck in an office late at night and multiple weekends during this favorite time of year just turns me into a grouch.  I want to go to every pumpkin festival with the nieces and take a million photos of their adorable autumnal garb amidst tons of fallen leaves and plump pumpkins.

Insert sad face here.

But... today, Sunday, I once again skipped church, slept late, took a hot bath and zoomed up to a dive meat and three to grab lunch before the church crowd got out.  On the way home, I took a very slow and leisurely spin through Kings Mountain Park, windows down, Christmas harp music blasting, soaking up the sunlight, the colors and the autumn spirit that I've missed so very much.

I will admit to being totally lazy and not getting out of my car for any photo today. 

I know our color isn't peaking yet - maybe it will wait until work slows down! Whoopie! I hope so, but this 30 minute drive did a lot to refill my soul.  Honestly. It was just so relaxing, my shoulders slipped down away from being hunched up at my ears and my head fell back with the wind totally destroying any styling left of my hair.  GOOOOOOOOD STUFF. Loved loved loved it. 

I'm also gonna share some pics I pulled off my real camera from earlier in the month.  I'm not sure why I'm so fascinated by fog on my morning drives to work, but the way this hill is, you kinda are above the fog, then in it, under it, in it again and back on top.  Just weird but so cool at the same time! 

Above it all, heading down under it and will be in it soon. Isn't it so cool?!

 The sun filters through so prettily 

 Until you get down under the fog and the sun just can't seem to penetrate the heavy layer of mist

 But wait! On the way up and the sun is coming back! 

I mean, honestly, can't you see why I'm so fascinated with it? Ok, maybe not, but hey - it keeps me entertained on the way to work in the mornings. :)  God is the most cool artist ever, with beautiful surprises around every curve. 

I could get started on the pumpkins growing outside our office... yes, more pumpkins! Folks coming in to vote are all interested in the pumpkins, someone picked up the vine trailing outside of the bed with pumpkins on it and placed it inside of the bed so it wouldn't get inadvertently damaged.  They are so in awe of the pumpkin in our office, grown right out front in the flower bed! If anything actually comes of the half dozen we have starting out there, you know I'll let you know... :) 

You still have a few hours of daylight, friends, run outside and enjoy it while you can! 

Continue.

I told you I would come back to my Edisto photos... I just needed a little time. Here are some pics that came from my real camera (vs. my or mom's cell phone).

Sweet Niece #1 hanging with the frog at the aquarium

Baby sweet niece

Preteen sweet niece

Sister Love! 

My sister and the youngins 

Little girl LOVED the beach

There you have it - sweet nieces on the beach.  We got so many great photos of the girls I see many photo frames in the future, filled with beachie pics.  :)

So on a totally unrelated note, I read a devotional this weekend about being encouraging to those around us.  You know - Don't be a hater, be a celebrator! It really hit home for me because I know I'm very judgemental. I may disguise my comments so very slightly but the receiver knows it's some kind of a put down, disapproval, etc. Basically, it's not making the person feel better.  How ugly is that? Why would I want to be that kind of person? So I'm trying to stop these types of words coming out of my mouth. It's slow. I'm not sure I'm seeing improvement yet, but it's so heavy on my heart I do believe I can improve. It's like now that I've had my attention drawn to it, I really see the ugliness in it and I want to clean it up. So pray that I change. :)

Ya'll go have a great week. :) I'll see you back here in a few days.

Home Sweet Home

Just got in, the car unloaded and strewn across the loving room floor, and heated up something to eat. Vacation is wonderful but nothing beats my own house and habits :)   

We kept it off social media and such, but my Mom, Dad, Katie, Roger, Sweet Nieces #1 and #2, and I headed for a week at Edisto Island, SC. Rented two houses, enjoyed hanging out at both houses, some beach time, some shopping time, just a good family vacay. 

One afternoon we took the girls to the beach for some sister pictures. I have others on my real camera so you'll be seeing them in the upcoming days. 

They are so adorable. Love love love! 

I'll talk to anyone and so will dad. We ate out for breakfast this morning and met a really nice thirty-something family from GA. They discovered they didn't like camping at the beach haha!  We always rent a house but this year our house was so horrible we left a day early and came on home. Ugh. Disappointing. The rental company was really nice though. But that didn't help the condition of the house! UGH!! 

If you've never enjoyed Edisto-it rocks. Not much to do, no chain restaurants, one Bi-Lo, a few gift shops, no hotels ... It's wonderful!! (Do you see this awesome photo?? Seriously!!) 

Sunset at the point. Dolphins were hopping by, tidal pools for the kids to jump in, sea shells and gentle lapping waves. Sunset at the point is unbeatable. 

I will recover from the lack of sleep and post more photos from my camera soon. Love Edisto but soooooo glad to be back in my house tonight!!!