Another dream - a quick one - the year was approx. 1997

Another dream - a quick one...In my dream my husband and I were walking down the sidewalk holding hands and enjoying the day. We were happy and content. As we were walking I looked up at the sky and remarked how beautiful it was. As my husband and I looked up at the sky I noticed some small black dots. I mentioned them to my husband and we watched them in wonder. As we watched the small black dots got closer to us and started getting a little larger. We watched, still baffled as to what they were. Soon the black dots got close enough for us to realize that they were falling from the sky, coming straight at us. Just when we realized that we were in danger we realized that the black objects were ...tires!!! Tires - falling from heaven!! My husband and I released hands and jumped off the sidewalk - dodging the tires. I woke.

In that season of my life I was attending a bible college (along with my husband). I told the dream to one of my mentors - a woman whose ministry was exclusively prayer. She simply asked me “who in your family works with tires”. Her question was sooo simple that I was taken back for a moment and then realized that my oldest son (a mechanic in the Army) worked with tires!! A few months later my husband and I graduated from the bible college and headed into another mission field - this time we went to work with Mercy Ships in Australia. We loved it there. We had found a little apartment close to the ocean where we could walk to work everyday. I was a graphic artist and my husband was an administrator assistant for the hospital ships. We were content and full of awe for the daily adventures we experienced. Six months went by in a flash - then my oldest son called us and told us that his wife of 8 years had left him and their 2 children to move in with another man. We were devastated for our grandchildren and our son. Our son is career Army - he needed family back up for the children so we immediately made plans to head home and take over the household for our son and grandchildren.

That was about 10 years ago. It was the beginning of a rough period but now...10 years later all has worked itself out and peace rules again:)

You learn what to look for in dreams when you write them down and refer to them later on. You learn which dreams are for a purpose and which are just from too much pizza the night before:) (I wonder why we always blame pizza and not mashed potatoes?)

the project that saved my sanity:)

Here is a project I finished in 1994. It was born out of pure - plain boredom!! My husband and I were stationed over seas with the Army and I didn't have anything to keep me artistically entertained so I bought some backing and some embroidery thread and just began....didn't know what I was doing and if you look closely you can see sometimes I went the wrong way with the thread - but 9 years later...TADA!!
Lessons learned....ALWAYS do this type needle work in a "ring" (ya know those things that hold your work stiff). I paid a lady $80 to stretch and starch this baby into shape and boy did it take her a long time and a lot of stretching.
do and learn:)

Yeah...after 53years I FINALLY made a quilt:)

I have started and given up on more quilts than I can remember but now...I FINISHED ONE!! Yeeeehhaaaa. It's really simple and was supposed to be a "rag" quilt, but I chickened out cause I forgot what my "teacher" said to do about the backing so I just made it into a traditional backed quilt. It's for my granddaughter's Christmas gift. She asked for sea horses and by golly she's gonna get sea horses. Note: As I was making the quilt I said I'd never do another!! But I've already seen 2 designs I want to put into a new quilt. I guess this is normal:)

dreams and time

I have learned over the years that when ever I have dreams about my home that I grew up in (I'm 53 now) I know it has something to do with my family or myself. For example...When I was about 40 years old I had a dream that I was out on my front porch of the house I grew up in. I hadn't lived in that house for 22 years, hadn't seen it for probably 10 years. Anyway, when I went onto the porch I heard heavenly praise music and began to dance. I saw my family out in the yard dancing to the music. The scene began to change...my family faded out and I saw "foreigners" dancing to a strange "foreign" music. I became very sad. I then began to move down to the right side of my porch. My porch seemed to go on and on and the further I went the darker it got. All of a sudden - at the end of the porch - I came upon a rose bush. It was full of white roses. It took my breath away, the roses were so beautiful in the darkness. I reached out to the roses, knowing that I could take as many as I wanted but I only pulled off 3. Then I hear the voice of God and I fell to my knees with my head to the ground. The voice said, "be holy, pure and righteous". I woke.About 3 months later my husband came home from work and told me that he felt the call to go into the mission field (a child hood dream of mine) but we were in our 40s and I had long ago let the dream go.Over the next 7 years we went into the mission field 3 time (3 roses). (The first place we were sent was China.) The love of my heart - the Lord - the white roses that filled me with unspeakable love. It took me 13 years to understand the full meaning of that dream.I've learned to wait, sometimes a long time for the meaning of my dreams. I don't have them as often either, but that's ok cause usually with dreams comes challenges and I am enjoying my peace ...and comfort for that matter:)

My husband and I took 2 1/2 months to travel 15,750 miles, visit 28 states, Canada, 35 national parks and monuments with our tent in the trunk...

My husband and I took 2 1/2 months to travel 15,750 miles, visit 28 states and Canada, visit 35 national parks and monuments with our tent in the trunk of a 1998 Dodge Neon. We were debt free. We worked and saved $4000 and lived off my husbands Army retirement monthly. Put the tent in the trunk of the Dodge Neon and stayed at National Parks mostly. We had a route planned but soon changed it when we found it too cold up north (we began the trip in April). So we headed south and then north in May. We were like kids again!! No responsibilities, dead lines, phones, appointments!!! That was 4 years ago and we are planning on doing it again as soon as we get out of dept again:) Tips: Buy national park passes - they are cheaper. Try not to stay where they provide electricity - more expensive. Buy groceries when you pass the "super" super markets and always buy ice for the ice chest when you stop. Enjoy every minute - good and bad - it'll be over way too soon!! We're thankful for: Wal Mart, small coleman stove, ice chest and our beloved Dodge Neon - great on gas.

creating mosaics

This is one of the mosaics I am in the process of completing. I got books from the library and READ a lot. I am redoing my middle bathroom and bedroom, making it into one large mosaic bathroom and this is one of the two mosaics I'm working on. The other one is a waterfall that surrounds my shower nozzle and handles. The wall in the toilet area will be a dragon I made out of clay (I have a kiln). I don't like the background so I will have to reglaze it and refire it before I can attach it to the wall. It is a sea dragon that will be coming out of the waterfall areas...one continuous water theme. One tip...try to keep your background colors more of the same...the bottom of this mosaic is ttttoooo busy.

dance in the moonlight...pure freedom!.

My husband and I have traveled for 20 years in the military and 7 in the mission field. As a kid we moved alot. So I have always moved. I love it but as I got older a need arose - that surprised even me - I needed to stop somewhere and rest. We had just come home from overseas. My husband wanted to live in an apartment but I just couldn't - we had just come from a big city in a foreign country. Just before we signed a contract for an apartment I found an add for a log cabin. I called but the cabin had been rented. I asked if she had ANYTHING else like that. She said she had something VERY rustic. I said, “I'd like to see it please”. My husband met her that afternoon and WOW. It was a 4 room house, one of those with 2 front doors. The oldest house in the area. It was located off a two lane road, off a back road, down a gravel road. The road actually led to a house and ended!! We eventually came to call it our place at the end of the world. When my husband saw it he said...“ no way”... when I saw it... “I said...oh yeah”!! My husband decided - with no nagging from me...honestly - to move into the house. What a year!! It had a stream running right in front of the porch - about 15 feet away - so you could sit on the porch and hear the small waterfalls. When the rain storms would come through the woods you could hear them coming long before they got there. Picture this - Tennessee in all 4 seasons. We found out that the trail of tears went right through that area. I had just found out that year that my family had lost a large number of family members in the “trail of tears”. Because we were so very secluded I would go out at night...in my birthday suit...and dance in the moonlight...pure freedom!. It was a very short year but it was one of the most supernatural years of my life.

musing over the state of the soul.

I hear people in the church repeat this Scripture and then reject everyone who isn't in the “inner circle”. I hear people recite this at their weddings and then treat their spouse as though they were a rug. I even found this on face book when you have a choice to push the “ignore” button rather than accept someone as a “friend”...ouch!! I know people can be dangerous - that's one thing - but from what I've seen from being on facebook, people are rejected because they aren't accepted into an already established circle of friends. And how did that circle of friends come about in the first place? It seems to me - from my 53 years of observation, 45 years of which were observations done in the church - one person starts the ball of rejection or acceptance rolling. One person!! AND if that one person rejects someone...God help anyone else - in that circle or out - who has compassion enough on the rejected person to try to befriend them.
I know this is an age old “happening” but it gets uglier when it involves people who should know better. People who should know better seem to feel they have more of a right to “make excuses for it”. Well...this person did this to me. Well...this person hurt my feelings. Well...this person LIKED my boyfriend so she will never be my friend or friends with ANY OF MY FRIENDS (said with a warning glance at other friends).
I can't help but wonder what makes the difference in us, why one person (so many people) can be so mean and make excuses for it while others can't find it in themselves to be mean by “rejecting” someone else in such a way that it simply says...“I reject you...so there”. As a kid and teen I did that from time to time...a girl stole my sister's boyfriend. It crushed my sister so I hated the girl and made her life miserable - for about a month - then - when my sister found another guy - I forgot about it and went on with my life. If I saw that girl today I'd apologize to her. I did make her cry once while in school. That haunts me today. There has been only one time as an adult that I have “rejected” someone on purpose. I recently had to cut ties with a woman I have known for 10 years (a family thing). I told her the hurts she had caused my grand children over the past 10 years - which in turn hurt me very much. I waited this long to confront her behavior because my grand children are now grown. Though they are grown she continues to hurt them. So I cut all ties with her. She called and left a 1 minute attempt at reestablishing the relationship and told everyone in the family I didn't accept her apology!! What apology? The phone message just left excuses for her supposed lack of understanding what the argument was about...no apology. This relationship I won't “allow” ever again. Why? Because she has caused unreparable damage in my family. That is what she does, she has a history of it. Therefore I can't take the chance of her continuing that destructive behavior in my family...and she will. How do I know she will? Because she is parading herself as the victim, she didn't apologize...she made excuses. Still the break in what friendship we had hurts my heart. We did have years of memories and family ties. I did like her as a person and wouldn't want to add to her “hurts room” (you know, the place in your soul where you store up all your life hurts). But I don't think I did really hurt her because she didn't apologize so she didn't get it...which means she has an ulterior motive, which will keep her continuing on the same path, without any understanding ever seeping into that thick layer of “contention making”. Some people are just like that and you have to recognize it and let go. BUT that is a mature decision. Not a off the cuff, “I don't like you” childish, purposely hurtful decision. I am 53 and can honestly say this is the first time I have had to cut ties with someone in this way.
So we are back to the why some people never seem to get it. How can you chose to push the “ignore button” when that person is trying to be friends? You don't have to marry the person, you just have to chose to “walk with them all the way home”. Does anyone get what that means? Or is the world hopeless?