Well, here I am….again!!

Did anyone know that it’s NATIONAL PANCAKE DAY!!!!
Well, actually I read that it does last most of this week!
February 18–24th
I just found out myself!
Link to the history of “the pancake”!
http://www.pancakeparlour.com/Annual_Events/Shrove/shrove.html
FYI….Free Pancakes @ International House of Pancakes, aka. IHOP!!! 

It is late in the day, but pancakes for dinner never hurt us!! 
They do have healthy whole grain pancakes for those trying to shed
those extra pounds…as I am…but we have to cheat just a little sometime, right??!!!

PAGE I

Hope you are all well, and blessed!!! 
I’m going to start with a much needed prayer request! 
My son had gone snowboarding about 3 weekends ago, and fell on his tailbone more times then I like to think about, ….I know I’ve shared this with some of you…..well, when they took the initial x-rays, they couldn’t tell if it was broken, or fractured, due to the swelling…it seemed to have been getting a little bit better, although still sore when sitting for too long.  He went to work yesterday, and lifted a compressor…very heavy, and felt sharp pain, so we took him back to the doctor, and got the final diagnosis that his tailbone is broken.  Nothing they can really do to speed the healing process, just lots of ice, and to be more careful working, He’s taking a couple of days off in hopes that it will feel better soon!  They say it can take weeks, even months to heal!  We would really appreciate your prayers! 

Well, another week has passed, and I’m finally able to post!  This will probably be a bit lengthy since I’m trying to catch up a whole week here!  I just need to post more often.!!  We’ve been a bit busy since Valentine’s Day, and I hope you all had a wonderful one!   We got quite a bit of snow that day, so we were homebound for the evening!  We had a delicious homecooked meal of baked rosemary & thyme chicken, buttered noodles, and herbed steamed vegies.  No major desserts…just a small Peppermint Pattie, and a cup o’ tea to finish off the dinner!  Love that!! 

It was quiet around here that following weekend…my son left early on the 14th for a weekend overnighter with his best friend…thankfully they got there before all that snow fall!!  They’ve been editing some film footage, and had worked down at the Boat, Sport, & Travel Show, and had a great time.  They were able to run the footage they edited at the show, and that was exciting…brought more business to their booth! 

The following morning, around 4:30AM, we woke up to find that our gas furnace had quit running, and we were freezing….it was -3* with a windchill in the double digits outside!  We had a kerosene heater, that my hubby picked up just before the last winter storm hit, so we were okay, but they didn’t get here to fix it till around 4:00PM the following afternoon.  It took all of 15 minutes to find the problem and get us running warm, and toasty, again!!  I’m not a big fan of kerosene heaters….they just get so hot!  But in emergencies, I certainly won’t complain!  We had another 3 – 4 inches of snow the following day, but I think it’s going to be slowing down now. Spring is definitely just ’round the corner!  It’s raining and close to 50* here today, and, being a “winter girl”, I’m not looking forward to saying buh, bye to the snow, and cold weather!  Oh, I love the spring…it’s the extremely hot and humid weather, that we are so blessed to have here in Indiana, that I hibernate from!  I can handle the heat, if it was dry…it’s the humidity that I don’t welcome!  I know a lot of my friends just love the summers here…they think I’m a bit strange!!   We also got a chance to go to the Boat, Sport, & Travel Show…I love walking through those RV’s…little “getaways on wheels”!  The dog demonstrations are fun to watch, too! 

PAGE II

Okay, I’ve got a word puzzle that I’ve been trying to find the name of.  I guess you would call it a ”meaning within a word” puzzle.  I heard Joyce Meyer use these one day, and I’ve searched and searched for the name of the technique. You take a word and write it down horizontally, then you find a word that begins with each letter, that in the end would give that original word it’s meaning.  Has anyone heard of these…or made a few up on your own?  I enjoyed doing this with some words a while back, but I can’t seem to find where I put them now.  Hard to explain this one, but here are a couple of examples:
                       
FEAR 
F = False
E = Evidence
A = Appearing
R = Real
Fear  =  False Evidence Appearing Real

This one I heard in a teaching one time……

DEBT
D = Doing
E = Everything
B = But
T = Tithing
Debt  =  Doing Everything But Tithing 

I do love word puzzles…and I know there is a name for this one…
so if anyone knows, or if any of you have done this, I’d love to see yours!

PAGE III

A Deeper Walk
Today during my devotions,
the LORD spoke to my heart on the subject of “Fervent Prayer”. 

We know that David was a man of faithful, fervent prayer. 
The Psalms are full of his prayers and petitions to God….

“With my whole heart have I sought thee:
O let me not wander from thy commandments.”
Psalm 119: 10 {KJV}

He had a strong desire to follow hard after the heart of the living God!

“As the hart panteth after the water brooks,
so panteth my soul after thee, O God. 
My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God:
when shall I come and appear before God?”
Psalm 42:1-2 {KJV}

This is the word of a man who was deeply fulfilled in his soul,
living in the state of grace!
I want that same fulfillment in my soul!
So I stop for some soul searching, and ask myself these questions….

*Am I praying with the same fervency as David did?
*Do I truly desire it?
*Do I thirst after the living God?
*Am I truly thirsty?
*Do I have a deep hunger for the wisdom of God?
*Am I truly hungry?
*Do I have a heart that is truly seeking and following hard after the living God!
*Am I diligently seeking?
*Can I say that the zeal of God has consumed me….deep in my soul?

These questions are a barometer for me…each morning I want to wake up
with that same fervency for prayer, that same thirst for the Word of God, 
and with a heart desiring to truly seek hard after our Living God, as David did! 
If I truly walk in these things, day by day, then I can say, without a doubt,
that the zeal of God has consumed me…..deep in my soul!! 

“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst
after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”
Matthew 5:6 {KJV}

Be blessed, get thristy, get hungry, get fervent in prayer,
and let the zeal for God consume you!!

Love & Hugs,
Deborah <><

Well, here again, a week has passed since my last post.  We finished up our antique/craft show Sunday, and it’s good to be home!  I have a few weeks here before we go again in March, so I’m going to tackle more of those needed areas, here at home that I’ve needed to purge, before then!  Last night after we unloaded our things, my husband took me to an early Valentine’s Day dinner at a wonderful Italian restaurant called Carrabba’s!  We had an awesome meal, and it was a good way to unwind after a busy weekend! 

I hope everyone is doing well!  We are expecting anywhere from 6 to 12 inches of snow here where I am, but 8 to 16 to the north of us, and 3 to 6 to the south of us, along with an accumulation of ICE!!  The news here in Indy just mentioned that the city itself might end up closing down if it gets too bad!  They are calling it a possible ”historical event”!!  So, off to the store we went to pick up some food items to have on hand.  What fun….fighting the crowds at the store when a winter storm is fast approaching!   I hope we get the 16 inches I mentioned above!  We’re smack dab in the middle of the state, so it could go either way!  FUN, FUN, FUN!!!  Good thing we went to an early Valentine’s dinner!!  We are probably going to be snowed in from what we hear!  The ice could also knock out electricity (been there, done that), so we also purchased a kerosene heater.  Right now the snow and ice mix is falling and everything is so white and quiet outside!  It is beautiful here right now!  

This past week friendship was mentioned, and I have to share that a very dear friend of mine, from the past, has finally come home!  We’ve known each other for 36 years, lost touch for quite a few years, found each other, then lost each other again, and now, she found me!  She was out of state, and is now back here caring for her mom, (whom I absolutely adored), full time!  She is now living about 20 minutes away!  We are getting together soon, and boy, do we have oodles of catching up to do!  I’ll post pictures soon!  This is the perfect month to share our stories of our special friendships!  God has given us the gift of friendship to encourage and uplift one another in every season of life! 
Friendship fills up all those little ruts in life’s road! 
Go on…go hug your friend, and have a blessed day!!

“A friend loveth at all times.”
- Proverbs 17:17

Hugs,
~ Deborah <><

Another post, finally!!  Hope you’re all doing well, and staying warm!!  It doesn’t feel like it here,
but Spring is just around the corner!  Here, overnight, it’s going to be 6*…brrrrr!!  But the sky is so clear,
and the moon is so bright, and the stars are so twinkly!!  I love nights like this!  Crisp, clean, and clear!  

Yesterday morning I got up around 3:30AM (yawn), and finished packing up the guys for their trip to
Kentucky, and a weekend show.  After seeing them off, and my early morning devotions to start my day, 
I started in on a full day of housecleaning…..I’ll start on more decluttering later today, and also a good
deep cleaning of the fridge!  Now who, honestly, really, enjoys cleaning out the fridge?!!  Our electricity
went out for about 5 hours, and I have to get rid of some things that may no longer be edible!  
And now, after a long day of work, and a little sleep, I’m sitting here, cat by my side, a hot cup of tea at hand,
catching up on some visiting, and this post, before I call it a night/morning! (yes the time is early AM, but I
don’t sleep much when the guys are gone!…besides, I love watching the sun come up!…hope it’s not too
cloudy though!) 


                                                  ~ Fruit for the Day ~ 
God has been teaching me, today, that He is always with me, always growing me, even when I’m not acknowledging Him, when my mind is on other things, and when I don’t feel like I’m “bearing much fruit”. 
Sometimes we get so busy, or our thoughts are running on our own thread, that we set Him aside…not really meaning to, but it just happens!  He never draws back from us, instead, He begins to draw us by pruning us,
so that we will bear more fruit.  We need to surrender to Him, knowing that without Him we can do nothing….
we really are nothing!  He is the vine…we are the branches, and we must abide in Him in order to bear fruit…
in order to grow!  

     

He promises us in His word that if we abide in Him, and His word abides in us, we can ask the thing
that we desire, and He will do it for us! {John 15:7}.  We should desire to be like a tree planted by the rivers
of His living water, where our roots can grow down deep, so that we will bring forth fruit in season that
won’t wither. {Psalm 1:3}

Here I’d like to share a dream I was given, about 17 years ago.
In it, I saw a garden, with fresh rows of seeds, newly planted….
I looked, and Jesus was standing in one of the rows, over a small planted seedling…
He was very tall, and He looked transparent….
Then I looked closer, and saw myself within His transparency, very much shorter, like the seedling…

…and as I was looking, I began to notice that I was growing, slowly,
and getting taller, growing up IN Him! 
At the end of the dream, He showed me myself…in Him…grown up,
teaching me that it is In Him only, that I can, or ever, will grow! 
In Him only, can we find the freedom to grow, and flourish. 
In Him only, can we mature, and bear much fruit!

My heart’s cry to Him….
LORD, plant me in YOU, so I will bear the fruit of Your Spirit!
“Only when we are {planted} grounded in God’s word {abiding},
can we rise {grow} to new heights {maturity}”.

Now for something fun!
Birthdays…we all have them, and mine is fast approaching!
I was sent this “Birthday Calendar” with a link, from a friend, that is kind of fun to check out.
Some of the information is interesting.  Some I don’t pay any attention to, like the zodiac signs,
and there are a couple of other catagories that I overlooked as well.
The research that had to go into getting all of it must have taken quite a while! 

“BIRTHDAY CALENDAR CALCULATOR”  Only if you really want to know!!!!
It tells you how many hours and how many seconds you have been alive on this earth, 
and when you were probably conceived!  Just indicate your birthday submit it, and
read all the interesting facts about yourself!  After you’ve finished reading the info,
click again, and see what the moon looked like the night you were born!
http://www.paulsadowski.org/BirthDay.asp

Have a wonderful day!
Stay warm…
Hugs & Blessings!!
  Deborah  <><