Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Revisiting an Old Friend

I got this little jewel out and worked on her some tonight while watching Downton Abbey. It's been a while, I am going to try to work on it more to get it finished. 


Epic Winter Weather in the South!

I have now been out of school for three days straight after a small two day work week last week in which I was out two days for ice. Monday and Tuesday of this week we had sleet and ice. Today we are supposed to have sleet and then snow, LOTS of snow. My poor kiddos are not going to know how to act when we finally get back to school!  Needless to say, it will be a big adjustment when we finally go to school for a full week. 

I am not going to complain, though. It has been nice to be able to clean my house and cook decent meals for dinner. I could seriously get used to this life-style. Oh, how I wish I could be a stay-at-home wife. I am a homemaker at heart.  I love taking care of my home and family. It is nice to simply worry about cleaning and cooking. I completely understand why my female ancestors wanted to get out of the house and lead a cultural revolution that would spark a change in mind-set about female roles, abilities, and intellegience levels, but I must say, they messed up somewhere along the line because they ended up making a woman's role two-fold. All they really did was cause us to have to work two jobs and make a much lower grade of pay for it than men. Oh, I could go on and on about this subject, but I'll stop here and leave you with some of my favorite verses from my Bible study today:

1 Peter 3:12-17 
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their prayers; But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. “And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.” But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. 

Psalm 76:11-12 
Make vows to the Lord your God, and pay them; Let all who are around Him bring presents to Him who ought to be feared. He shall cut off the spirit of princes; He is awesome to the kings of the earth. 

Proverbs 19:8-9 
He who gets wisdom loves his own soul; He who keeps understanding will find good. A false witness will not go unpunished, And he who speaks lies shall perish. 

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Sketch Doodling with Prismacolors


I've had quite a bit of time due to the winter weather over the last few days. So, I was able to play around in my sketchbook. 

The Truth Shall Set You Free

My daily devotional this morning was about placing trust in men and women. The scriptural reference was 2 Kings 25:24. In this passage it talks about Gedaliah's mistake in putting trust in untruthful men. The author of my devotional made some really awesome points about trust that I wanted to share with you:
• Truth is spoken and lived by trustworthy men and women. 
• Experience and the practice of always acting on truth equips us to recognize the truth. 
• There is a great temptation for us to reject truth when it is unpleasant. 
• Truth does NOT change whether it is believed or not believed. 
• Only truth sets free and sets the right course. 
• By the very nature of God, speaking falsehood and turning from truth is sin and brings unhappiness and hurt. 
• Expect truth from upright, truthful persons who have demonstrated their character over time. 
• Accepting truth from an unproven person (friend or leader) can mean disappointment and consequences that affect a lifetime. 

We've all been a victim of the sin of untruthfulness, whether we've been dishonest or someone has been dishonest to us.  Let God's word be a guide to us to rightly discern truth. With His power and guidance through the Holy Spirit we can and will be set free. 

Taken from The Devotional Daily Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers. 

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Fort Smith, Golf Cart, Altus, Wine, and Valentine's Day

On Saturday, the hubs and I went on a little road trip to Fort Smith to trade in our old golf cart on a new one. Fortunately, this process was smooth and took only about 20 minutes!  We got a really nice, slightly used golf cart out of the deal. 


Please ignore the what should be a rookie mistake of placing my finger in front of the lens! Ugh! It disgusts me to see it there. Anyhow, our old one is on the right and the new one on the left. Nice, huh? I think so, too. 

Well, on our way back through we wanted to stop in at Altus and visit a couple of the wine vineyards. We've never been before, and wanted to check it out. We tried Weideker, first, but they were all booked up for Valentine's Day and not offering any tasting tours. So, we ended up at Post Familie where we sampled several wines, but ended up with our standard Moscato faves, strawberry and parachute. On our way back down the road to I-40, we came across this awesome little Catholic Church and hillside view:



All in all it was nice little Valentine's Day road trip! 




 


Monday, February 16, 2015

Snow Day 2015

A nasty little ice storm blew through my neck of the woods last night, and left us with solid sheets of ice over everything. So, we got a snow/ice day tomorrow. Since, I have another day to prepare for work, I spent this one doing fun things. Like snapping some pics of the ice:



And a little sketchbook doodling with ink and prismacolors while catching up on TV shows:



Sunday, February 15, 2015

Kitchen Valance



I quickly threw together this valance today to go over my kitchen window. It seems a little plain, but looks nice above my window. I think it would have looked better if I had made it scalloped on the bottom. This would have taken more time, though. Time is a precious commodity I do not have. Hopefully, we will get our snow day on Tuesday. A nice little break is much needed. ❄️⛄️

Friday, February 13, 2015

Rough, Long Week

I've been a mad, crazy busy woman this week. I had to go to a funeral on Tues. and my grandmother was placed in the hospital, as well. All of that combined with being behind on grading at work and my schedule still being crazy due to taking my mom to physical therapy has made for a mad house around here. I'm tired, stressed, and frustrated. So, into the Word I go this morning. This verse kept me going yesterday:

Proverbs 19:3 
The foolishness of a man twists his way, And his heart frets against the Lord. 

I'm praying for some new verses as I begin today's devotional in about two minutes. 

I'm hoping to be able to craft some this weekend. I'll be posting later, if I do. 

Saturday, February 7, 2015

Back Roads Drive

Today, I went on a drive through some rural areas in central Arkansas.  I snapped a few pictures of rural scenery as I went.  A few of these pics are of decaying buildings.  I took them to add to a group  belong to on Flickr called Rural Decay.  It was nice to get out and drive around today.  I haven't taken a photo drive in a very long time.  It was much needed and appreciated!


















Friday, February 6, 2015

Righteousness

Proverbs 21:21 

He who follows righteousness and mercy
Finds life, righteousness, and honor. 

Wow, it's been almost a week since I posted! Fell off the NY Resolution there! Anyhow, I'm back today with this verse. It's been a rough and prideful week for me! I could have used this verse on Monday as a reminder to be humble and obedient. It would've saved me a whole lot of trouble and anxiety this week. So, as we head into the weekend, I encourage you to meditate on the verse and strive to be humble and obedient to God and those you love!