Cello-lo

Cello-lo...that's what I say when I'm joking around about the instrument I play. Do you know how incredibly wonderful my cello teacher is? Incredibly wonderful, that's what. I am currently in a bad groove right now with cello. A very bad groove. I was not looking forward to lessons today AT ALL.

However, today was duet day. Mercy!! Thank you!!

Reasons I love my cello teacher:

::merciful days like duet days -- something fun and a break from the norm::

::she is understanding::

::she is encouraging::

I explained my current bad groove and she understood what I was saying. Wonderful!! This is just a growth time. I will get through this.

Music teachers like her are hard to come by and I'm so thankful to be one of her students.

Now, I need to finish my bagel and get ready for the last night of the Conference which, btw, has been awesome!!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

I love lyrics!

I heard this song tonight and I just had to post it.

It's very appropriate for me right now.

{I'm sorry if it's boring to read lyrics but if you know the song, it's wonderful!}

I heard it sung tonight by the legendary Lester Roloff

Now everybody's talkin' about something
You can hear as the world passes by
Some are talkin' about their wealth and their mansions
Others are talkin' about their trouble and their strife
Now I don't know how to talk to a rich man
When compared I am a beggar, no doubt
But if you're talkin' about that old time religion
Well, I know what you're talkin' about

I like to talk about the time that Jesus saved me
When my poor soul was sinking down in sin
I like to talk about the times that He helped me
Through the sunshine, the storm, and the rain
I like to talk about the time of His coming
When I see His sweet face there's no doubt
Now if you're talkin' about that old time religion
Well, I know what you're talkin' about

Now if you're talkin' about the old time religion
Well, I can tell you what you're talkin' about
About the kind that would make you love your pastor
When 'ole Satan would say, "Kick him out."
About the kind that would comfort you in sorrow
And would never, never fail to make you shout
Now if you're talkin' about that old time religion
Well, I know what you're talkin about

Reasons to be happy today:
-awesome lesson in Sunday school today
-my Granny's 88th birthday
-rain
-Anne was surprised!!
-my family
-serving in the Lord's house
-kids making their own decision to come to church rather than a parent requiring them to attend
-not every Sunday is this hectic-Praise the Lord!!
-the Conference has officially started!

earth day

Guess what I did today?  I sure felt like a earth-huggin'-lovin' person.

I walked down to the paper recycle bin and carried the paper in my all-purpose {ahem-re-usable} bag.

Did I look like I was celebrating earth day?

But what if I told you that I ate chips and chocolate cake for lunch, hence the reason to get a few extra steps into my day.

And what if I told you that the church gets free $$ for recycling paper and it's a small way for me to contribute to the church.

And what if I told you that the re-usable bag is great for carrying paper because it's a sturdy plastic.

It's all a matter of perspective, isn't it?

The day after earth hour was celebrated was a Sunday and our Sunday school teacher gave an interesting "rant" on the whole "earth" movement.  I think we did have our lights off during earth hour but simply out of ignorance.  :)

So why do I recycle?  I think it's good to recycle because it's not being wasteful.  Back in the early to mid 20th century, people took pride in reusing things.  Milk was delivered in reusable bottles.  Anyone who went through the Great Depression spent a lifetime reusing everything.  They used every scrap of paper until it was filled.  Drank coffee {even stale} until it was gone.  I'm sure some reused foil, plastic wrap, and wax paper. 

So what's wrong to fill a red bucket with plastic containers and cardboard boxes to get reused? 

It's all a matter of perspective.  If my motive is to protect the earth, than I'm wrong.  But I'm not going to stop recycling just because all the people worshipping the earth recycle, too.

It's all a matter of perspective.

So do you recycle?

I love flowers!

My new favorite magazine is Country Living.  Does anyone else read it? 

I love it!!  It is not patchwork-quilt-type country, at all.  It pretty much is the style that I love. 

Here are two of my favorite pictures from the April edition. 

Raise your hand if you've been to Target and seen the Liberty of London line. 

Oh.

my.

word.

LOVE!

Some of the items in the pictures above are from that line.

{Click on the pictures to enlarge.}

And the Liberty of London store is right around the corner from the hotel we're staying at this summer.

We'll only be there for one night but I smell a detour!

I had to get a post up but I have a more promising one for tomorrow.

Have a great night!

endless gifts {260-275}

260. Christ went all the way to the cross for me
261. conviction
262. hymns
263. an email from a friend
264. my single friends
265. provision every.single.week
266. white buds on trees
267. beautiful blue skies
268. spring
269. the story of Esther in the Bible and the reminder to have courage
270. a good, wholesome, clean movie {surely, hard to find these days}
271. anticipation of Preaching Conference next week
272. open roads and time alone on Sunday mornings while driving
273. freshly plowed fields
274. breaking of the fallow ground of my heart
275. helping others

sadness

Today, one of the visits that my friend and I were doing was to a brother and sister who haven't been coming to church for a bit. 

::Side edit--I'm going to be scarce on the details.::

I was in our big, white van so I was eye-level with the trailer that these folks live in.  I never look directly into house....who does that?  But as I was turning to assess how far the scary dog was coming, my eyes  caught the main window.  It was curtainless.  And I could see that the trailer was mostly empty.

Right then, the manager of the trailer park and owner of the dog came out of his office.  I rolled down my window to ask if they had moved.

"Yah, I was comin' to talk to ya'll about that." 

He proceeded with a story which basically involves abuse, a past history of crime, and an empty trailer.  They're gone. 

They're gone.

My heart is broken.  Did we do enough to help?  Did we show Jesus to them enough?  Did we show them how much we love them enough?

Did we, really?

I do believe that the teen girl was saved a while back.  She really struggled with the assurance of her salvation.  I had a great talk with her a few months ago and was able to use some of my personal struggle to encourage her. 

Only in eternity will we know how much we impacted them.  Our prayer is that they will find a church in Illinois or Ohio, wherever they ran.  That they will remember HIM -- our motivation to love THEM.

Another bus-route related post here

yummy weather!

up close and personal

stair-step trees

this is how blue the sky has been

::my amateur, unedited photos::

you've gotta watch this!

HILARIOUS! They played the audio this morning on the talk radio show that I listen to in the mornings. If you're local to me and you know what I'm talking about, he even SOUNDS like the TOTUS -- Teleprompter of The United States!!

April 14th

Guess where I went today?

To our local tea party event!  Yay!  This one was pretty calm compared to other events I've been at.  I only stayed 2 of the 3 hours that the event was being held.  I stood in the sun for most of the time {to work on my tan - ha}. 

This is the lady who started our local Tea Party group.

The crowd...it really started to fill up around 3:15-3:30, then simmered down, then picked back up.  This picture was taken before some people from our church brought the most ginormous Don't Tread On Me flag I have ever seen!

The pretty courthouse!

A singer who came and kicked off the event with a song he had written.

Sights like this totally make me choke up -- an older gentleman, presumably a vet -- he must be wondering what country he lives in!

Signatures from people who have attended past events.  We signed the back of the board today if we planned to vote in the primary.  Hello, who doesn't?  :)

More peeps...this was still at the beginning of the event.

The honor guard {or color guard -- I can't remember which it is.}

Local newspaper coverage

what's in the name?

When I first started up an Etsy shop several years ago, I picked a user-name that I had created for something else.  It was called:  yellowhope. 

So as I've been trying to get my little business going, I was stuck with a user-name that I wasn't crazy about.  But rather than going through all of the hassle to change everything, I thought I'd stick with what I had and make the best of it. 

After all, yellow is my favorite color and hope is a Biblical principle.

But last night, I FOUND MY VERSE!  I found the verse I want to use with my shop.  Here it is:

Now the God of hope 

fill you with all joy and peace in believing,

that ye may abound in hope,

through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Romans 15:13

Isn't that a fantastic verse? I love it!!

excursion!

In December, when my brother and I went with some friends to Chicago, we stopped by Macy's department store.  Marshall Field's was known for their beautiful window displays at Christmas and apparently Macy's has kept up the tradition.  It's an event to simply visit Macy's!  While we were there, my brother {the eager conversationalist} struck up a conversation with one of the employees.  She told us about the spring flower show at Macy's and that it was so beautiful.  I tucked that bit of information in the back of my mind and promptly forgot about it.

Over the weekend, my aunt came to visit us for a few days -- very, very fun!  I was looking for interesting things to do in downtown Chicago for a day and just-so-happened to see an ad in the paper for the Macy's spring flower show!  Ka-ching!

We planned to go downtown on Monday but decided to rearrange our plans.  The demolition of our kitchen began on Monday morning and it was a bit hectic getting all of the food in the proper places. 

Long story short, my Mom and I decided to go today.  I had two cleaning jobs scheduled but we fit it in the late afternoon.

Sadly, the only thing I came away with was this beautiful brochure:

I say "sadly" because we had a slight camera mishap so there are no pictures!

The flowers were beautiful!  The first floor had an exquisite aroma!  And they had all types and kinds of flowery merchandise for sale.  I am currently in love with flowers on clothes and shoes.  It was a lovely afternoon {even though it rained}.

cleaning tips & picks

I have been very blessed lately with ample work.  I don't clean a lot of houses compared to some but I clean enough for me.  And while I have not been cleaning for 20+ years, I have learned a few things over the past 2 1/2 years.

#1--If you have shower doors, always wipe them out.  We remodeled my bathroom about a year and a half ago.  I have not had to scrub out my shower once with any toxic cleaner because I wipe it out every day.  It may seem time consuming.  But in the long run, it's totally worth it.  When I notice that the water gets a little murky on the doors, I wipe it out with dish soap.   That's all and it works like a charm.  Now, I have to say that before the remodel, I did not wipe my shower out.  The house we bought had shower inserts, not tile.  But if you buy a new house or do a remodel, try to keep up on those shower doors.  You'll be glad you did! 

#2--Vacuum the pet beds.  Shaking them works just ok.  But I have found that running the vacuum right over them works like a charm.  Then use a "sticky" lint brush to get any other stray hairs.  I have tried this on large dog beds and on small cat beds and it works for both.

#3--If you have a non-washable, woven rug {ie--a jute rug} and you have a pet, run a "sticky" lint brush over it every once in a while.  You will be surprised at the pet hair that hasn't been caught by the vacuum.

#4--Use a little vinegar in water to wash wood floors.  I did a post once on my old blog about all of the different ways I clean wood floors.  It seems like everyone cleans them different. But if you use too much cleaner on them, sometimes they may look murky.  A touch of vinegar in simple hot water may do the trick!

#5--We don't generally use mops at our house but if I can use a mop while cleaning for others, I do!  It's a real knee-saver.  The best mop I have found is by Libman.  I call it the "floppy mop."  Try to avoid a sponge-mop.  They leave weird dirty-sponge marks at the end of each stroke.  The floppy mop can get under a small portion of a fridge.  If you live in an old house with hard floors and old-fashioned radiators, the floppy mop can reach underneath.  Plus, you can stick it in the wash which is a real ++.

#6--{This is a combination of 4 &5.}  Steam cleaners generally work great on wood floors.  I use them in a couple of houses.

#7--Does anyone have old-fashioned radiators in their house?  One house I clean has these.  They use Swiffer 360 dusters.  They have a cat and a dog so doing this periodically helps keep the dust and hair at bay.

#8--Use Bar Keepers Friend, Ajax, or Comet on a stainless steel kitchen sink.  It will shine brilliantly!

My picks:

best vacuum--Dyson or Oreck
best all purpose cleaner--Green Works all-purpose cleaner
best dusting spray--Endust
best window cleaner--Windex Crystal Rain

{This is for Mrs. M.!} :)

{I will get a paper copy to you, too!}

Mrs. M wrote on her blog about the pruning she did in her garden this week which led me to think about one of my favorite books. It is called Keep a Quiet Heart by Elisabeth Elliot. Outside of the Bible, it is hands-down one of the most influential books in my life. Period. I love it!

Here are some thoughts from two of the articles in this book with the idea of pruning in our lives.

We need to be pruned. If we are bearing fruit, then we must be pruned. This is a painful process. Jesus knew that His disciples would face much suffering. He showed them, in this beautiful metaphor, that it was not for nothing. Only the well-pruned vine bears the best fruit. They could take comfort in knowing that the pruning proved they were neither barren nor withered, for in that case they would simply be burned up in the brushpile.

Pruning requires the cutting away not only of what is superfluous but also of what appears to be good stock.

Measure thy life by loss instead of gain;
Not by the wine drunk but by the wine poured forth;
For love's strength standeth in love's sacrifice,
And whoso suffers most hath most to give.

[ I sense in our society today that we do not want hardships.  I mean, I don't want hardships either.  But what saints of God have recognized is that when we endure trials, it is for our benefit.  In our easy-peasy way of life, we want a microwaved, fast-food, instant coffee-type of life.  And that is not always how God works.  Maybe yes He will answer a prayer quickly but not always.  We must endure.  The sufferings of this life cause us to long for Heaven.  About a month ago, I was very burdened about eternity.  What is this life compared to eternity.  Really?  Really?  And we get bogged down because things don't go our way.  How petty we are! So what if I still live at home. So what if I'm not married {yet}. So what if I don't have my own car. So what if I don't make very much money. What will that matter in 80 years when I'm in Heaven. Absolutely nothing.  I'm not saying this because I've "mastered" the art of hardships -- hardly.  It's just something I've been thinking about. ]