If I May?

April showers . . . bring more showers? The calendar page has turned to May, leaving April behind with its record-breaking most rainy drippiness ever tracked in our area.

Enter sparrow with a bright yellow umbrella. (Every little sparrow likes a good puddle. The puddles have turned to ponds.) Keeping the rain galoshes handy.

If I may: Showers bring Flowers

These were the $5 flowers I picked up for our Bed & Breakfast guests in April. I didn't want to double the price to get double the flowers. The photo doesn't do the stems in the water justice. Who knew the color and shape of tulip stems were as beautiful as the flower?

If I may: Destuffanize

Or maybe it is destufficate, or destuffify? Either way, I tackled more stuff - my scarf drawer today and was able to let go of six scarves. For those who don't see me often, I wear a scarf almost every day from fall to early spring. I have a LOT of scarves. Anyone have a great way to store them? When I design our new closet that is coming, I'd love to have a better system.

If I may: Friendship

This wasn't much of a lunch, but it would be great fun to share the morsels with you. I imagine all our conversations. Sharing challenges, reviewing milestones, breaking into laughter, rehearsing the beauty of what God is doing in our lives. You are welcome to my lunch table anytime! I've welcomed old and new friends to our kitchen these past weeks.

If I may: Noble Yearnings

"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble."  ~ Helen Keller

I love it that God has created each one of us to live a life that overflows with rich purpose. May your adventures be noble, whether great or small.

For me, I'm workin' on the small. And it's so much fun!

If I may: Wish you a sunny month!

margi
monkjo@live.com

March Randomness

There is a lot of March Madness going on at our house. College basketball games - 64 to 32 to 16 to 8 to 4 to 2 to 1 reigning champion team. Got the picture? Games and more games. It is fun, to a point :0)

What fills your month of March? I share some of our randomness:

1) We made a new friend from New Jersey. Lisa, a professional Deaf interpreter, came and stayed a weekend in our B & B while working on a project for the Deaf at Baptist Church Planters. Her reservation? Tumbleweed.

Lettering at the top of our stairway landing

Titles of Guest Rooms 

2) Remember the emptied closet? The next phase has officially begun. Clear the drywall dust. Chuck has been busy! (I love this handyman!!)



The Making of a New Master Bedroom


3) I tried out a new recipe yesterday for lunch for my Bible study ladies. Introducing Crab Quiche. I think the gals were being honest when they said they liked it and wanted the recipe. I served it with my own simple version of spinach salad (spinach, mandarin oranges, red onion slices and pecans with a light raspberry vinaigrette). The sweet finish: Banana Split Cake. If you're reading - Paula, Judy, Kim, Dee Dee, and Michelle - you're the best!!

Fresh from the Oven

Green Goodness

4) I made an official executive decision in our household. The scales have been put away. Out of sight. Probably not out of mind. Enough said on the subject. Maybe ever.

>>>>>>>

Do you find it easy sometimes to lose your aim in life? I do. 

I was reminded just this past week of this phrase from the book of Philippians.

This one thing I do. Words penned by Paul. Singleness of purpose.

What was Paul's one thing?  To become more and more like Jesus.

Time is flying. If we are keeping up at all with the world news, there is an urgency about the hour. We can't afford to be like the hare in the Tortoise and the Hare fable, in which the hare took a nap in the race.

Wake up. Game on. Focus. Perspective.

Applies to more than good college basketball!

With a spring in my wing!
margi

monkjo@live.com







A Place for Everything

Project this past week during snowstorm.

From this...

to this.

(Danae was our helper and is saving Scruffy from elimination!)

Part II on Guest House renovation begins. We are moving our master bedroom from upstairs to downstairs. The closet has to go. All the stuff had to either find a new home in our house or head out in boxes to Goodwill.

In the sorting through I found a garage sale purchase from last summer. A 50 cent antique-looking porcelain tray. I like the shape, size and color. I love the four little silver feet it sits on.

Make-up gets a make-over!

From this cluttered pile...

to this pretty display.

Mission accomplished.
1) I saved the elegant tray.
2) I gave my hard-working make-up a "lift."

Cut in to another mission, less fun and a lot less easy. My healthy eating 12 goals for 2011. I made January's goal five days early.

February's goal?

Although there were days I soared, there were too many day-flights grounded.

A nice way to say Sparrow crashed.

Back to the title, A Place for Everything.

Even a place in life for missed goals. Something to do with adjusting perspective. Learning in failing. Keeping on.

I'm so glad today that God's love is not dependent on my succeeding on Goal. Or on clean closets. Or on this or that or what or which.

"I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness." (Jeremiah 31:3)   

Did you catch the period at the end of that verse? Nothing in all our to-do lists can earn us God's love. So says the King of Kings. It's all in the Bible.

>>>>>
Like many of you, to create order and beauty in my home, I have an ongoing quest for finding a place for everything. I also am on a lifelong quest to get everything in my life in its rightful place.

The first quest is optional. The second quest is high-priority important. 

Lacing up Sparrow's 8.5 sneakers. Walking my way right into March. We've got a Goal to catch. Or not?

Chirp! Chirp! (will see)
margi

Dots & The Affair of Two Hearts

Take two small bottles of puff paint - I used pink and brown.

Dot the wooden letters. Let dry. Place them in a homemade stand made by hubster. The letters I bought at Pat Catans.

Buy some dotted scrapbooking paper for place settings. (Great bargain at .25 each.)

Fill small bags with M&Ms. Tie with place cards, also dotted with pink and brown puff paint, and coordinating ribbon.

Check seating diagram. Set table.

Voila! My simple tablescape for the Baptist Church Planters' Staff 2nd Annual Reuben Luncheon at our house.

Hubster was Chef for the day.


His Reubens

His Raspberry and Apricot Foldovers

It was a lotta dots and a lotta fun!


Fast forward two days later... Wayne & Wings for the men of our church at our house. No dots. Just lots of good food and friends in the company of John Wayne television.


Chuck asked me in the middle of this busy week what we might like to plan for Valentine's Day.

chirp. chirp. thinking...


Right now tuna fish (white tuna only) sandwiches sound pretty romantic.


Whatever the menu our two hearts decide on, I'm over-the-top-grateful this Valentine's Day for a husband who has the same passion for sharing our home with others.


To salvage my reputation in the lack of a candlelight dinner, here's the mini-card I made for my husband that I'll place on his pillow come February 14th.

Ahem - back to the tuna. What's on your menu?

Love is in the air,
margi

monkjo@live.com