July 30. A few edited pictures

Saturday Night:  I LOVE these pictures of Emma. We seriously just took them "on the fly" without much thought or preparation; but now that I have my photo program back, I played with these just for the pure JOY of it for awhile tonight. 

Isn't she pretty?

I'm not sure which of the three is my favorite ... but that doesn't matter. I love all of them, and I love her.

July 30 Emma goes to a Quinceanera!

Saturday Afternoon:  Emma was invited to the Quinceanera of a co-workers sister. So ... she dressed up and even put make-up on (not too much though--Emma doesn't like to wear make-up). She even permitted me to take a few pictures! Yes!

So ... you might be wondering WHAT ON EARTH?!?!?  Did Emma die her hair bright pink?!!! No worries. She would NOT die her hair pink--NEVER! These pink curly-Q's are actually curlers! Aren't they interesting?

Oh.my.word. Look this dear person ... even with the pink curlers--she is beautiful.

Ah! This is better, though. I love her smile so much. 

Here is a full-length picture. The dress is longer in the back and crosses over--so pretty.

All of her curls turned out! I cautioned her NOT to let any charming gentlemen take off with her promising her hope and happiness. Emma's response? SO reassuring. "No, grandma. Hope? Happiness? That could only be Jesus." Yes, Emma. That is the total truth. And you are totally PRECIOUS to Him.

You are precious to me, too.
 

July 30 "Flying" children!

Friday Evening:  Here is another reason why today was such a PERFECT day ... I was able to go to Dylan and Kelly's and take care of the kiddos from 7-10pm to give Nanny Jen a break. DJ and Kelly have been out of town to celebrate #12 anniversary. When I arrived at 7, Jen told me that little Cal was already down for the night--which was actually good news because I wasn't sure HOW I was going to navigate getting all of them to bed otherwise.

The little kids wanted me to see their brand new carpet in the basement, so we went down there to play. They wanted to show me how they have learned to jump off the side of their couch onto their giant bean bag chair--so I took I bunch of pictures of them doing that. We were cracking up while I was taking pictures, because after each jump they would run over to me to see how it "turned out."

So ... these are blurry and not very good ... but they ARE funny!

Here is flying Erin! She looks like a blob of hair without a face! Whatever happened to her FACE?!?!

I missed Aidan in midair but here is his landing It looks like he is getting ready to water ski!

Here goes Erin!

Whoa! This girl FLIES! When Erin saw this picture, she said: "You'll show Kaity this picture, right?" I assured her I would.

This was our second attempt to catch Aidan mid-air ... here he goes ...

1, 2, 3 ... GO!

Rats! I missed him again. I got Erin, though, and it looks like she has fallen out of nowhere, out of the sky!

Ah! Here is Aidan springing off the couch like super hero ...

This is Aidan watching Erin's landing ...

This is the best one I got of Erin flying like a bird ... ("You HAVE to show Kaity this one, gwamma!")

And here goes Aidan ... out into the wild blue yonder ...

Oops! WHAT happened to Erin! All I can see is her HAIR!

It looks like Aidan has seen a ghost in this picture! No worries! He was just cracking up as he jumped.

We finally went upstairs to read books. We read SO MANY books tonight! (1) "Violet Comes to Stay" by Melanie Cecka (about a little white kitten trying to find God's plan for her life--it's a super cute story). (2) "Gregory, the Terrible Eater" by Mitchell Sharmat (about a little goat who liked fruits and vegetables, but his folks wanted him to eat tin cans, shoes, rope, etc. I knew Aidan would get a kick out of this story). (3) "The Mysterious Sea Bunny" by Peter Raymundo (which more of an informational book about sea slugs--but it was well illustrated, and the children had a fun time with it). (4) "The Rabbit Listened" by Cori Doerrfeld (a super cute story about a little boy who had built a block tower than fell down and how sad he felt) (5) and then we read a little book of mind, "Gideon, Blow Your Horn!" based on the Bible account of Gideon defeating the Midianites, and then (6) "Jesus Calms the Storm" about Jesus and His friends and the sudden storm on the Sea of Galilee and how AWESOME Jesus was when He spoke and the waves and wind OBEYED.

It was about a 30 minute process after that to get Erin and Aidan to brush teeth and use the potty, but we finally said our prayers and counted our blessings and then I got to spend some 1-on-1 with Brendan. We went through one of six chapters in Britannica's First Big Book of WHY--the chapter we read was about SPACE (the kind out in the OUTER space). We had such a nice time reading the chapter together.

Brendan is such an excellent reader and he LOVES to learn. He has a great memory too. I always end up learning stuff from HIM rather than the opposite. Look at his great smile. What a dear dear fellow he is.

Nanny Jen returned exactly when she said she would. Just have to say HOW AMAZING this woman is--I just love her.

One more happy thing! Dylan texted me that they made an offer on a nice home that was actually accepted! YES!! I looked it up and it's such a great house for them. THANK YOU, Lord! Please let all of the transition, paperwork, legalities, etc. go smoothly for this dear family.

July 29 My rocks are crying out!

Friday afternoon:  Here's another reason my day was so perfect. Let's see ... this is a long story ... I need to shorten it down. Well. Last year when I began my fun journey of painting rocks that would PROCLAIM God's greatness and love, my goal was simply to tell HIS story; and since I am a very lousy evangelist, perhaps someone would read God's Word and surrender their life to Him. To my knowledge, this hasn't happened yet--but my rocks are getting noticed for sure. One day last week, I was washing dishes and looking out my kitchen window I noticed two elderly ladies who were reading every rock--with a rather mystified look at their faces--like perhaps the words were something they had never read before. I prayed that God's Word would speak to their hearts. I SHOULD have gone outside and introduced myself and been real neighborly and asked who they were and where the lived and listened to them ... but I didn't (sadly). 

Last fall, I took a few pictures of the rocks and I had painted and shared them with my Monday night Bible study friends. One of the ladies, Julie, just loved them. She is a gardener and her husband, Victor, is a calligrapher! Yikes. Now and then, when I paint a new rock, I'll send her a picture. I had no idea she was keeping the pictures on her phone to show to people. 

Julie is now in a different Bible study group in our Wednesday night study. This past Wednesday, their group was talking about HOW AWESOME God is and if we didn't praise Him, the rocks would cry out! Julie whipped out her phone and showed her group the pictures of my rocks. As it turned out, another of my neighbors (Judy) is in that small group and she shouted out that I am her neighbor! And then Julie passed her phone around and everyone saw the rocks, etc. 

This afternoon, this neighbor (a few blocks over) Judy brought a woman (Sherry) from that small group over to view the rocks. They called for me to come out and tell them all about the process of painting them. We had such a fun time talking together. They even came inside and looked at some of the cards I've been making, and they shared some very cool things God is doing in their lives. 

Here are a few recent pictures of my rocks:

I pray the Lord will use His word, that never returns empty, to move in the hearts of people TOWARDS Him and His love for them so that they will be rescued and brought into God's family.

July 29 Gloria's Garden

Friday:  Today was one of those PERFECT days that don't come along very often in my life. WHY was it perfect? Well ... I will show you in the next few posts just exactly WHY!

One of my neighbor's, Gloria, who lives a few streets further into the park, was diagnosed with COVID this week. Gloria is a believer, born and raised in Austin TX. She and her husband have been going to Calvary for a few years now. We met a couple of years back because I was walking by her house and noticed her flowers ... her gorgeous colorful amazing garden surrounding her entire house. So, naturally, I took pictures. She came out of her house and we began talking, which was when we found out we were believers. Anyway ... I made Gloria a get-well card and decided to just walk it over to her house and place it inside her mailbox. 

Here's the card:

Front

Back

Inside

Gloria and I are not close friends or anything; but we have had many nice conversations and I wanted her to know I was praying for her. So I walked the card over to her house and placed it in her mailbox. I walked around to the rear of her house because she has an entire fenced-in flower garden at the back of her property, as well as ALL around her house and shed. I took lots and lots of pictures!

Gloria was out back watering this part of her garden. She lit right up when she saw me with my camera! She knows ALL the names of these beautiful flowers. I can't remember half of what she told me. She's really got a green thumb--look how beautiful it is!

Her Zinnias are amazing!

And these Asiatic lilies!

More Zinnias!

The back of her shed ...

And all along her house ... beauty abounds.

I LOVE cone flowers ...

... they are so much FUN to photograph. 

Look at all the detail God puts into what He makes. AWESOME--isn't HE?

AH! Dahlias! I LOVE them!

Gloria was so pleased that I was taking pictures of all of her hard work (and God's blessings). She didn't open the card I made while I was there--in fact, I didn't expect to hear from her about my card at all. But I was wrong ...

Later in the day as I was driving over to Dylan and Kelly's, Gloria called to thank me for the card I had made her. She said she had never seen a more beautiful card! And then we had the nicest conversation as I was driving. I found out that Gloria HATES to pull weeds and she found out that I LOVE to pull weeds! We had a good laugh about that. I have been invited to free come and pull weeds out of her beautiful flower gardens any time that I need that kind of therapy! I will take her up on it FOR SURE. 

Part 2 of my perfect day follows ...