May 19 Rocks and flowers

Wednesday:  My dear friend, Brenda, came over for a little while this morning. She had a dentist appointment just a few minutes away and it worked out that she had a little bit of time to visit with me afterwards. It's always good to be with Brenda--I love her so much.

I've been wanting to do a project out in my rock yard and I believe God wants me to do it too! Many years ago, little Brendan and I were having a "chat" about Palm Sunday. We were talking about that day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the little donkey colt and the children were waving palm branches and shouting "Hosanna in the highest!" I told Brendan that some people were angry that the little children were praising Jesus like that BUT Jesus told them that if the little children had not cried out "Hosanna"! that the ROCKS would have had to do it for them! For the next few weeks after I told Brendan that (he was about 4 at the time), every time we would pass a bunch of rocks I would stop him and ask him if he could hear the rocks crying out "Hosanna!" which would make him laugh.

In my Monday night small group, one of the ladies is an expert gardener. She shared a lot of her joy with our group during the last few weeks of our Bible study and somehow an idea was planted (!!) in my brain to make my ROCKS cry out! I could paint them! I could make them praise God!

Anyway, I have some ideas--preliminary for now--but I did go out and get art supplies that I will need to accomplish the task.

This first rock is near the steps to my front deck. Perhaps this one could have the "Hosanna!" theme.

These next two rocks could maybe have a theme of God being our Rock and Fortress ...

Maybe this large rock in front of the huge tree could have words that describe JESUS: He is the Light of the world, He is hope and peace, etc.

And maybe this rock could have the theme of FORGIVENESS ...

This is all very preliminary in my brain right now ...

Those are just some "ideas" right now ... up for changes most likely ... God is SO awesome--perhaps people walking by will be reminded of that as they read these rocks. I'm going to decorate smaller stones (with some pretty designs) that will surround the larger rocks--I really want this to be a thing of beauty.

5/21/21: Update on the rocks: It turns out that I can't LIFT these large rocks in order to get them inside where I can do the painting on them. I truly can't do the painting outside with the little gnats and bugs flying around--plus, I can't do a single artistic thing with an audience of any kind, which I would have if I were outside. 

SO ... PLAN B:

I've gathered some medium sized and smaller rocks together, taken them inside my house and have painted primer on them (after thoroughly washing them) to get them ready for painting. I've been looking at some tutorials on Youtube and have gotten some good information and instruction on how to go about this little project. I think it will work better to surround or put on top these huge rocks that I CAN'T lift, the rocks that I CAN manage--that way I can take my time with each rock, paint them with leisure and put them in my rock garden when they are finished.

I also happened upon Mandala painting--using DOTS to form patterns--so I ordered some "Dot tools" (25 of them for $9.95) and they are due to arrive on Tuesday). I'd like to make pretty designs on smaller rocks that will surround the bigger rocks in my rock garden. That's the plan at this point ...

Here is how my flowers are looking so far. I usually don't even purchase annuals until Memorial weekend ... but I decided to take the chance this year. I've had these now for almost two weeks and they are doing just fine. I bought hearty flowers that survive slight frosts ... so hopefully they will last throughout the sumer season.

I love geraniums! And alysum! And daisies! And impatiens! And bogonia! 

I also got the window in my bedroom washed this afternoons--removed the screens, got the window sill spotless--and it looks so much better. It's been a very good day!