What i have been reading

Courtesy of The Graphics Fairy

Hello sweetie pie! It sure has been a long time since I posted. Usually I read at least one book a week but I have come down with a dreadful cold that leaves me listless...so I read even more and drink tea with honey. This book is the one I just finished:

Me before You is about a young girl in England who has just lost her job due to changes in the economy and has taken on a new job as an assistant/companion to a young man who is a quadriplegic resulting from a motorbike accident.

Will is from a wealthy family and held a high power job making impossible deals come true. Lou is a free spirit. Although they butt heads in the beginning, they become sort of soul mates. The story has a Pygmalion air about it. 

The upset is that Will is planning on an assisted suicide in Switzerland. His parents are hoping that Lou will be able to change his mind in the six months that she has been hired.

This brings up again the culture of death that our society has been pushing lately, abortion being one example. 

I won't tell you the ending.

More about JoJo Moyes here.

Sandra of thistlecovefarm gave me permission to reprint this prayer here. I think it is very appropriate these days, don't you?

"Heavenly Father, 

we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and

to seek your direction and guidance.

We know Your Word says, "Woe to those who call evil good,"

but that is exactly what we have done.

We have lost spiritual equilibrium

and reversed our values.

We have exploited the poor

and called it the lottery.

We have rewarded laziness

and called it welfare.

We have killed our unborn

and called it choice.

We have shot abortionists

and called it justifiable.

We have neglected to discipline our children

and called it building self esteem.

We have abused power

and called it politics.

We have coveted our neighbor's possessions

and called it ambition.

We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography

and called it freedom of expression.

We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers

and called it enlightenment.

Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today;

cleanse us from sin and set us free.

Amen."

~ Billy Graham ~

May the love, joy, peace and happiness of the Lord, Jesus, be with you today and always!

XOXO

Home again, home again, jiggety jog!

photo courtesy of Virginia @AARoads-interstate.com

Dear Friend,

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers as we made the journey to and from Dallas, PA. for the funeral of my dear sweet MIL.

We had to be carried by the angels for what a trip it was. Here is one of those "I love my husband, but...." moments. I don't know who needed a Xanax more, Jim or me. Although I usually admire my husband's energy level when it comes to certain projects, it irks me when we are on the road.

Jim does not want any car to ever be in front of him. So...he is one of those dreaded tailgaters. He will follow at about 5 feet away from the car in front until they give up to move to the other lane or decide to get even. That can be a very dangerous game of cat and mouse. Needless to say, it can make one a nervous wreck.

There  were a few times that I almost saw my life in slow motion. Have you ever been in a bumper car? Then you know of what I speak....except we didn't actually ever bump anyone. Thank God.

Now I need a day to rest and recuperate. Wish me well, dear friend! I am glad to be in one piece.

XOXO

courtesy of the Graphics Fairy

It is with a heavy heart that I report that my sweet mother-in-law has passed away at the ripe old age of 93. She was a kind and intelligent lady. And we will miss her dearly.

So we begin our trek to Dallas, PA. today. Please pray for the safety of us all.

May Marion rest in peace.

Happy Shoes

 

Hi Sweet Pea! Were you glued to a news network for the past week wondering when the good guys would catch the bad guys in the Boston Marathon Bombing? I was. And I was devastated as you were probably also, at the loss of life and limbs.

Not to mention the fear and apprehension that the whole nation is reeling with again.
When will it end? When will it happen again? Only God knows.

 

Why is it that we open our doors to strangers from other countries and give them the same rights and freedoms that we enjoy, only to have them show hatred for us in the end?

Why do we keep doing it? And giving scholarships to their children when ours have to pay?

I must admit that when the video showed the perpetrators, and their pictures shown everywhere, I was proud of our FBI, CIA and all of the police forces for their efforts. But I also have to admit that knowing what these young men did, all I wanted then, was to see them hung publicly in Boston Square.

But then I remembered that I am a Catholic Christian who is now against capital punishment."Vengeance is mine, says the Lord." And so, I wait for God's justice.

 

By now you must be wondering why I am posting pictures of my shoes. Well, these are my happy shoes. When I walk out into the world, I will have no fear. I will not let these monsters get the best of me. Amen?

"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are at my side. Your rod and staff give me courage." Ps. 23: verse 4

Eastern Male Bluebird (not my photo)

Hi Sugarplum! Hope your weekend was fabulous!

Last week my husband who is very fond of birds, had to stop filling his six bird feeders because of the dreaded rats! We actually caught one hanging on the side of one feeder.

Two of our large feeders are off the ground about 20 feet on a very thin wire but the squirrels figured how to walk the tight rope and empty the contents. Curses!

 We have had an assortment of birds,but the prettiest are the finches. But lo and behold we have been sighting the Eastern bluebird, my favorite. Good thing we have lots of berry bushes in the backyard. That is what they like to eat.

Click here to hear their pretty song:Eastern Bluebird song

Spring has almost  come and gone here. It seems that my beautiful cherry tree blossoms were here for about a minute. And then gone with the wind. Have you ever seen pink snow?

You have to really stop and cherish every moment of each and every day, friend!

 

This is from my tree in the backyard. I always get lots of blooms but the squirrels get to the ripened fruit before we ever do.

 

Have a blessed week! Peace, joy and happiness of the Lord, Jesus, be with you today and always!

courtesy of The Graphics Fairy

Hello Sweets! Maybe you remember that i love all things "Owl". Well, in reading Andrew McCarthy's book (you may have remembered the actor who was dubbed as part of the "Brat Pack" in the '80's) The Longest Way Home I came across this cute little children's nursery rhyme. It was "perched high above the bar, a replica of an owl" (with these words below).

'A wise old owl sat on an oak,

The more he saw, the less he spoke.

The less he spoke the more he heard,

Why aren't we like that wise old bird?'  

Does that speak to you, like it did me?

XOXO

courtesy of The Graphics Fairy For reflection - this is not my writing but when someone sent it to me, it spoke to my heart and I have to share. Just think about it, no need to comment. In Another article to ponder from the Blog of Fr. Chori Jonathin Seraiah ....So here we are looking to the future and seeing the likelihood that we are going to move further down the scale into socialism, and we need to realize that communism is just around the corner. We fought it for years (and mocked those who accepted it), and now we have people saying "I'm all for it if it will help us" (exactly as people said with Lenin). What, then, is it that I have been praying for? Mercy. I have prayed, "Lord keep this nation under thy care" and "guide us in the way of justice and truth". I believe that He will answer this prayer for mercy, but that does not mean that He will answer it in the way that we desire. If we have been putting our hopes in a politician, then we are eventually going to be disappointed. They are not Jesus Christ, so they cannot live up to His perfection. They will always fail at one time or another........ .... It is not who is in the oval office that gives me confidence that God will be merciful. For sometimes, God's mercy comes in unexpected ways. Sometimes it comes through the ministrations of wicked men. Yes, God can even use the foolishness of a man who advocates murdering innocent babies (like Herod, or President Obama) to open an avenue for mercy. No, we do not want to encourage wicked leaders, but we cannot place our hope in the righteousness of our leaders. Only Christ can fulfill that hope. Only His righteousness will never fail. Yes, there are some politicians who could do a better job than others, and yes there are some whose understanding of civil government accords with the Catholic Church's teaching on social and economic issues. Yet, we cannot put our hope in them. For with them, or without them, the Lord God can still protect His people and show them His mercy. I would even say that we should be thanking God for doing what He knows is best for us. Will He use our current President for our good? Of course He will; but, once again, it may not be in the manner that we expect. God promises to be merciful to us, so if we believe those promises and we pray for Him to fulfill them, we can have perfect confidence that He will do so. We can also rest assured that He will do so in the manner that is best for us (as Scripture says so often--Rom8:28). This means that God has chosen to bless us through the particular trial of having a President come against the Church. What our current commander in chief is advocating is not only a destruction of the religious freedom that our forefathers fought so hard to achieve, but also a further entrenchment of the current practice of war on the womb. I cannot tell what this will lead to precisely, but one thing is definite: it will lead to a strengthening of the Catholic Church in America. Yes, it will likely also lead to a shrinking of the Church, for (as always happens in times of trial) it will weed out those who are unwilling to suffer for the sake of Christ. We have been enjoying the blessings of the past for a long time, and this means that we have become a bit lax in our faith. In this fallen world, the Church grows best when she is persecuted. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. As I said, once again, I prayed for mercy. I continue to pray for mercy. I pray that God will be merciful to grant us strength to stand true to the faith of our fathers. I pray that those who are weak in their faith (or who have compromised much of it away) will be encouraged to revive their spirits. I pray for our children. They are the ones who will likely have to endure the consequences of our actions today, and I know that they will need a powerful sense of tradition and the dogmas of Mother Church. Without a strong anchor, they will falter, and we are responsible to nurture them in a way that gives them that strong anchor. May we all persevere in whatever God sends our way, and may we each be bold to confess Jesus before all men. God have mercy on us. -----