Speak, Lord, I'm listening...

If you were raised going to Sunday School, you probably know the story behind this scripture.  Samuel's parents had not been able to conceive.  Hannah, his mother, promised God that if He gave her a child, she would give him back to the Lord.  God heard her cry and she gave birth to Samuel.  When he was weaned, she took him to the temple to be used in the Lord's service and handed him over to the care of the priest, Eli.  One night, Samuel heard someone call his name.  He went in to Eli to see what he wanted.  But, Eli hadn't been the one calling him. When it happened again, Eli gave Samuel the instructions, "if He calls you, you shall say, Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening".   The story goes on and tells of the things God revealed to Samuel when he listened to the voice of God.

My word for the year 2016 is listen.  I've come to realize that God is speaking a lot more than I think He is.  The problem is, my ears haven't been tuned in to His voice.  I haven't been carefully listening.  Even worse, sometimes I've heard Him loud and clear, but ignored what He said.  This year, I'm focusing on changing both of those bad habits, the habit of not listening for God's voice, and the habit of not heeding what He says. (Join me for the rest of this post on Sunday, Jan. 24th, at Woman to Woman Ministries where I'm sharing some Sunday Soul Food.)

still following,

Also happily linking up with the lovely Lisha Epperson 

Friday Faves...Coat hooks on an old window

This photo is taken from the living room of our new to us home.

The doors you see through the archway are to my home office.  

(Yes, the doors still need to be painted the same color of white as our new floor moldings.)

Through the doorway on the right is our dining room and kitchen.

Down the hallway are the bedrooms, bathrooms and laundry room.

Through the arch and to your left is the front door.

I've been looking and looking for something with coat hooks to hang on the wall

 above the boot tray you can see on the floor in the entry hall.

I haven't been able to find anything I love that is in a price range I'm willing to pay.

Suddenly, I had a lightbulb moment.

I remembered an old window I had out in the garage and decided to hang it on the wall and add coat hooks to it.

The window has chippy gray paint on one side and old raw wood on the other.

After holding the window up against the wall both ways, I chose the raw wood side.

There were hinges on the window so evidently it used to swing open.

I decided to take advantage of the hinges and just hang the window by them, using anchor screws.

Then I headed to Lowe's and chose some hooks.

I had to consider the size of the part of the hook that screws into the wood,

making sure it wasn't taller than the wood on the bottom of the window.

That eliminated one set of hooks I almost bought.

The hooks I chose were the only cost of this project. 

I'm loving it!

Well, it's almost Friday, friends.

Have a HAPPY, HAPPY Friday

and 

a safe and BLESSED weekend!

http://linda-coastalcharm.blogspot.com

             

Also sharing at the Share It One More Time Link Party

Cleaning house and heart...

When we moved four months ago, I thought that I had relentlessly given away a ridiculous amount of stuff.  We made trip after trip after trip to the Goodwill, dropping off a car full of things I used to treasure each time.  Yet, when we finally closed on the purchase of our new to us house and I began to unpack, I surprisingly found more stuff to get rid of.  A shelving unit that used to fit in the entry of our former home didn't look right in this house. Old nightstands were no longer needed in our new bedroom.  And what was I thinking keeping sweaters that I haven't worn in years?  Did I really want to keep those stilettos? They may still be cute and fashionable, but gosh, they sure aren't comfortable.

On a recent trip to Costo, I picked up Marie Kondo's book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up.  I still haven't read all of it, but in leafing through it, I saw that one of her criteria for keeping something is, "does it still give you joy?".  After reading that sentence, I realized that I was keeping some things that, in actuality, brought me pain. While some of the objects were lovely things that I liked, they were gifts from someone who is no longer in my life, someone who left my life in a painful way.  So, I made my way to the thrift store one more time, and this time I let go of a lot more than just some physical junk.

What Marie Kondo's book is to tidying up your home, Priscilla Shirer's book, Fervent, has been to the cleaning up of my heart.  I'm not just leafing through this one.  I'm reading, underlining, praying, then going back and rereading and praying some more.  Yesterday, my whole prayer time was spent praying through the chapter on "Your Hurts-Turning Bitterness to Forgiveness".  In our church,  I do a whole lot of ministry in the area of counseling and inner healing. I've got a lot of experience helping others work through forgiving and letting go of bitterness.  In my housekeeping, I do a deep cleaning and purge before the holidays and again in the spring. Similarly, I'm pretty good at doing regular soul maintenance. Yet, our move revealed that in spite of my bi-annual cleanings, I still had too much junk.  Then, Marie Kondo's book revealed a whole new layer of things I needed to get rid of.  Likewise, this move into 2016, the year God gave me the word LISTEN as my word for the year, He has been speaking to me and showing me that there's still stuff in my heart to get rid of, a whole new layer of junk. Both Marie's book on physical house cleaning and the spiritual house cleaning Priscilla mentions in her book, indicate that you have to be willing to be ruthless and relentless in getting rid of the junk.  I'm willing and ready to do just that, both in my home and in my heart. 

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Also joining THOUGHT PROVOKING THURSDAYS 

Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home...

"Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,

Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home." 

John Howard Payne

It's fun to travel, to get away, to see and experience new places.

But when all is said and done,  I'm always happy to come back home.

 (Kim Klassen's just a touch texture, lighten, 15% opacity)

I don't think I've actually done any staged still life photography since our move to our new to us house.

It has fabulous light, much better than our former home.

I'm excited to try some staged still life in this light, and need to take the time to do so.

Meanwhile here are some unstaged photos shot at my home today.

One of my favorite things to do in the "bleak midwinter",

is to buy a few green living things for indoors.

A hyacinth to force bloom indoors is a favorite winter tradition.

 (Kim Klassen's hughes texture, lighten, 20% opacity)

Grocery store herbs are another inexpensive and fun thing to grow indoors,

and if all goes well, they can be transplanted outside in spring.

Who says herbs are a kitchen only plant?

Here's a cheery pot of oregano growing in my living room.

What about you, are you a fellow homebody?

What do you do to bring some cheer to your environment in the "bleak midwinter"?

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texture-twist

songography at "You'll Shoot Your Eye Out"

image-in-ing:Variations

Remembering with thanks...

I think I'm on my fourth, or maybe it's the fifth, journal full of thanksgiving in this journey I've been on. I've been gratitude gathering almost six and a half years now, counting my blessings and writing them down.  I've passed seven thousand blessings that I've counted now.  I wonder what my children will think someday in the future when they find these journals with lists of things from "a hot cup of coffee" to "a big financial need met".  They'll see their names in there too, and the names of their children, the most amazing blessings God's given me.  They are my sure sign that God's grace works in our weakness, for I sure fumbled the parental ball plenty of times.

This week my list is full of things related to getting to spend time at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City with our sweet friends, (which seems not quite the right word since they feel like family), the pastors of our church's Truelife Español.  It was wonderful spending time in the prayer room, and we especially enjoyed being with them and their sweet baby girl, who was an angel on this trip. She was not cranky once, in spite of the travel, the long hours in the prayer room, and the different time zone.  

Coming home always fills me with gratitude as well.  Home, to me, is like a warm embrace. In this life, in our life, there are problems, challenges and even heartaches.  Yet, I see, I know, that I'm so richly blessed by my good, good Father God and I know that I can trust Him.  Counting your blessings, seeing and recording God's hand in your daily life, really does cause you to trust Him more.  I highly recommend that you try it for yourself.

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

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 journal.

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

#7008-#7033

1-11-16-

-a safe flight to K.C.

-getting to share this time at I.H.O.P. with W and S

-texted drawings from our six year old granddaughter

-a power nap

-sweet presence of Jesus

1-12-16-

-the washing of the Word

-finding the perfect hat on clearance for the 20 degree weather

-yielding, relinquishing, trusting, hoping

1-13-16-

-You know me fully, wholly.  You understand all of my ways and yet You love me.

-dinner at Cinzetti's with our friends that live near K.C.

-my husband praying with me

1-14-16-

-new mercies, forgiveness and grace

-a fun evening at the plaza 

-communion and prayer together

1-15-16-

-a smooth flight back home

-youngest grandson coming with mama to pick us up from the airport

-our daughter making dinner for us

-a photo of our youngest granddaughter playing "nun" after watching The Sound of Music

1-16-16-

-a grocery cart full of veggies for a healthy restart

-green plants in bleak mid-winter

-"wogging" (walking/jogging) and listening to podcasts

1-17-16-

-waking up earlier than normal and puttering around the house before church

-a much needed word

-God's faithfulness

-a parking lot chat with a friend

-God's resolution of a concern

still following,

A little something to help you remember to cast your cares on God...

Are you a fixer? I sure am. I like to fix things around the house. I like to turn someone else's trash into a treasure with a little paint and maybe some glue and a few nails. Unfortunately, I also try to be a fixer of circumstances beyond my control and a fixer of people. If you want an exercise in futility and frustration, just try to change someone besides yourself!

I once heard Joyce Meyer say that her husband Dave says, "Do what you can, then cast your care." In other words, there are things that are our responsibility to take care of, and things we just have to trust God with. For example, I am responsible, with God's help, to be the wife, mama and nana that He would have me to be. But when it comes to changing my husband or children, I've got to cast all of that care onto God's shoulders instead of trying to fix them myself.

Did you notice there's a whole lot of ALLs in the verse above? No care is too big, and no care is too small, to give to God.

And did you also notice the words "once and for all"? How often have I cast my care on God, then picked it right back up? Too often! To help me remember the "once and for all" sometimes I write down what I'm casting onto Him,then physically put it down somewhere, and refuse to pick it up. (For the rest of this post join me on Sunday, Jan. 17th, at Woman to Woman Ministries for some Sunday Soul Food AND A FREE DOWNLOADABLE PRINT to help you to remember to cast your care on God.)

still following,

Also happily linking up with the lovely Lisha Epperson 

Friday Faves...Embracing our new to us home

We've been away for a few days with the pastors of our church's spanish ministry.

It's been a rich time of refreshing and good fellowship,

but as inevitably happens, I'm a bit homesick.

Currently we're at the airport about to fly home.

(I'm such a homebody!)

Now that we've lived in our new to us home four months, 

I'm beginning to know it,

its strengths, its weaknesses, its "personality",

and I'm beginning to fall in love with it.

Its walls have begun to absorb some of our memories,

family dinners with the kids and grandkids,

 quiet evenings at home with just the two of us,

a few ladies gathered in the living room for a Bible study,

a full house on Thanksgiving, 

our first Christmas celebrated there, 

an impromptu New Year's Eve gathering,  

grandkid sleepovers,  

quiet times in prayer and Bible reading in my home office.

It's become HOME, 

which is one of my favorite words and places.

I'm trying to listen to the personality of the house as I decorate.

Its style feels just a wee bit more formal than our former house, 

a little more traditional and a little less cottage style.

There are more walls left bare, less tchotchkes and collectibles scattered here and there.

I'm enjoying less stuff and more simplicity.

I'm enjoying taking my time deciding what I want to change.

(New flooring, lighting and kitchen appliances were a no-brainer change that we made right away. 

So was the fireplace transformation.  

We turned it around in the wall, literally, 

to face our living room instead of the family room turned large dining room. 

We painted the oak fireplace surround white, and added a salvaged wood mantel.)

This is my simple January mantel.  

Well, it's Friday, friends!

Have a HAPPY, HAPPY Friday

and 

a safe and BLESSED weekend.

http://linda-coastalcharm.blogspot.com

             

Also sharing at the Share It One More Time Link Party