Friday's Favs...Five favorite little things at my house

For years I've kept kosher salt for cooking in a miniature bowl by my stove.

When I recently got one of those "coupons too good not to use" from World Market,

I found this little salt jar with a lid.

Much better than an open bowl and cute to boot!

This candle also came home with me from World Market.

It's citrus vanilla scent is lovely and not overpowering,

and the fact that it's in a hobnail jar made it irresistible!

This "eggs" flashcard had to come home with me from the antique mall not far from my house.

Don't you agree that it belongs right next to those thrift store chickens on my kitchen windowsill?

This little pump jar to keep my dishsoap in next to the kitchen sink...love it!

It was a TJ Maxx find filled with hand soap.

I poured the hand soap into containers to be used in the bathroom and refilled the pump with dishsoap.

And last but not least...

I finally found the finishing touch to my wall arrangement of "Bonnie" the cow!

Read more about "Bonnie" here, here, and here.

This rustic wall basket, purchased at the same antique mall as the "eggs" flash card,

is the perfect "missing piece" on the right side of the picture of Bonnie.

I'm loving it!

Well, it's almost Friday, friends.

Have a HAPPY, HAPPY Friday

and

a BLESSED weekend!

                  

Jennifer Rizzo's Fabulously Creative Friday

A Long Ago Lesson...

(The hubs holding the little boy that my son-in-law's Ghanaian friend named after my son-in-law.)

Happily we're nearing the end of the hub's trip to Ghana.  On Saturday he'll be home where he belongs.  I miss him.

Here's a repost of a story from the beginning of our marriage...

We were married at the ripe old age of nineteen, which wasn’t all that uncommon back in the olden days…you know, the seventies.  (The nineteen seventies that is.) Hubby went to college in the mornings, worked the evening shift at a factory, and was the church janitor and volunteer youth leader on the weekends.  At the ripe old age of twenty I was a stay at home mama with a wee little brown eyed girl who had  the biggest dimples you ever saw.  We had one car.  We lived in a city located between the town where the college was, and the town where the church we attended was.  I had no car, and no friends who lived anywhere near by.  Day after day, night after night it was just the baby and me.  An exciting outing was putting the baby in a stroller and walking down to the corner gas station for a “Tab”. ( That was a  Diet Coke type drink popular in the olden days.)  I was lonely.  I was cry yourself to sleep lonely.  In all my 20 year old wisdom, I decided it was his fault.  Once you got married you were never supposed to be lonely, right?  Your spouse was responsible to meet all of your needs, right?  So, I told hubby that we needed to go to our minister for counseling. I was looking forward to the pastor straightening that man of mine out.

On the day of our appointment, we sat in front of the pastor’s desk.  I was all decked out in my indignant self-righteousness.  When the pastor turned to me and asked me what I thought was wrong with us, I emphatically, accusatorially, said, “He is not meeting my needs.  Blah, blah, blah, whine, whine, whine.” 

The pastor didn’t turn and correct my weary, overworked husband.  To my surprise, he dared to correct me. It changed my life.  It saved my life.  He said, “If another human being could meet all of your needs, then you wouldn’t need God.  That person would then become god to you.  God will never let another person meet all of your needs.  You need to use this opportunity to really get to know God, and let Him meet your needs.” 

Not that I didn’t occasionally still have pity parties after that, but I began a journey.  I began to really seek to know God.  While hubby was at school, I made a nice meal for us to have before he headed off to his job.  After he left for work, I would listen to Christian teaching on the radio, I would read and study my Bible, I would talk to God, I would sing, worship and pray as I fed or rocked the baby.  I sought the Lord and He heard me.  He began to fill me up as I went to Him with my loneliness.  Month after month went by and that was my routine.  While my husband was at work, I was mama, laundress, housekeeper, and God seeker. 

One Sunday, a young couple began to attend church, with a cute little baby girl, just a couple of months younger than our baby.  The husband was also a student by day, and worked evenings like my hubby.  His wife and I became the best of friends.  Many evenings, while our husbands were at work,  I would go to her house or she would come to mine.  Our babies became toddlers, and were as inseparable as siblings.  To this day, I believe God sent me a wonderful friend as an answer to prayer.  But first, He taught me the most important life lesson ever…nothing and no one can meet my needs, fill my emptiness, silence my loneliness, love me, like He can.

still following,

     

Also joining THOUGHT PROVOKING THURSDAYS 

at 3-D Lessons for Life

My recent Goodwill find...

Well, the little white cabinet I showed you last week made a short appearance in my kitchen.

I spied this little addition for my kitchen at the Goodwill this week and snatched it up.

I've been wanting one since I first saw a similar one here.

Unlike the little white cabinet, it actually has some practical uses.

It holds our coffee pods and favorite teas, as well as some stevia.

The little white cabinet is back out on the shelf in the garage for now.

Of course I had to set a few odds and ends on top as well.

I'm happy about my thrifty find!

still following,

     
         

"Simple" a little Texture Tuesday fun...

(edited with Kim's 1011 texture, dark mode, 50% opacity)

Today's Texture Tuesday photo prompt is "Simple".

I thought and thought and decided to photograph a simple ironstone bowl full of brown eggs.

(edited with Kim's 063 texture, multiply mode 30% opacity)

For some reason, I think brown eggs seem healthier, 

sort of like brown rice is better for you than white rice.

I know it makes no sense.

(edited with Kim's villa texture, screen mode, 30% opacity, then I erased most of the texture from the eggs and bowl)

I wish I could tell you these were gathered from my own chickens

or, at the very least, purchased at a nearby farm.

The truth is that I buy my eggs at Costco.

How unromantic!

(edited with Kim's rest texture, screen mode, 30% opacity)

I think my two favorite shots are the top photo, which is pretty heavily textured,

and the last photo with no texture at all.

Which photo do you think is "eggs-actly" right?

( no texture added)

still following,

Easter gratitude...

How can I not be overflowing with gratitude on Easter Sunday?

I just read on someone's Facebook post, 

"God's love language is Jesus", 

with a photo of Jesus on the cross from the movie "The Passion of the Christ".

What a price God was willing to pay for my redemption!

And the fact that Jesus rose again and that He, God in human flesh, is ruling on the throne of the universe, and will one day return to rule on the throne of David and make all things wrong in this world right again, 

well it just doesn't get better than that!

A million thank yous would never be enough to show my gratitude,

but I can at least try.

And so, I keep counting...

******************

Since 2009 I've been counting my blessings thanks to the prompting of Ann Voskamp.

 I continue to count my thanks

piling up gratitude day by day

in my little black journal.

(and capturing some of my blessings via my camera or iPhone)

#4546-#4572

4-14-14-

-lilacs blooming

-beautiful spring weather

-a yummy dinner at my middle daughter's house

-watching my grandson play baseball

-the "blood moon"

-the team from our church's safe arrival in Kumasi, Ghana

4-15-14-

-a phone call from Ghana from my husband 
-an Easter banner from a blog friend

4-16-14-

-facetiming with my husband

-what Augustina told my husband

-our two youngest granddaughters coming over for the evening

-snuggling with them on my bed and reading my favorite Robert McCloskey books to them

4-17-14-

-my Bible study groups

-praying together

-dinner with one of our elder's wives

4-18-14-

-Good Friday-thank You for the cross!

-spending the afternoon with a friend

-good news-hearing about answers to prayer, healing, job's provided, things going well with team in Ghana

4-19-14-

-getting the two youngest granddaughter's ready and taking them to "Code Orange Egg Drop"

(their mama and daddy pastor Hope City that puts on the egg drop so they were working at it)

-seeing volunteers from Truelife Church helping at Hope City's egg drop

-texts and photos from Ghana

(working on the orphanage)

4-20-14-

-CHRIST IS RISEN!  HE IS RISEN INDEED!

-the Truelife Church worship team,  children's ministry volunteers, elders, and our speaker for today doing an excellent job even though pastor and several of our people are in Ghana

-someone we haven't seen in years showing up at church

-flowers from my friend

-lunch with all my girls and grandkids at my oldest daughter's house

-a really great report from Ghana about the Easter service

gratefully yours,

Join the community of gratitude gatherers here...