Once a Month [old stuff] Give Away

Okay - so I have bunch of stuff that needs to GO - and I'm really tired of seeing the OMG abbreviation everywhere [I try hard to make my mind read 'oh my goodness!] so am hoping that we might also come to think of it as 'Once a Month [old stuff] Giveaway! I plan to randomly draw a name from the comments each month and send that person a little bag of goodies that hopefully they can use [new to them and all, you know...] So January's OMG goes to Casii - send me your address and I'll get some stuff in the mail to you!

LAST NIGHT, I SAW A VISION OF WHAT HEAVEN IS GOING TO BE LIKE FOR ME

From my sweet hubby, Craig:

First, let me tell you the story.

I have NEVER met Ed McMann or anyone from the Reader’s Digest either.

I NEVER win anything! My Cracker Jacks are only nuts and corn. Always.

But God had a different idea.

God wanted me to be at the Gaither Vocal Band concert in

Huntsville, Alabama on January 29, 2009.

He planned on me being there to the point that He allowed me to win two sets of tickets to the

same concert from two different radio stations.

(Shared a set with friends.)

Way back in November I won the first set and saved the date on our calendar.

Then, last Thursday my day started like this:

I listen to Paul Finbaum, a sports radio talk show in the afternoons.

Then in the mornings, I am a die-hard Rick and Bubba listener.

Even a member of the Rick and Bubba Army and extreme fan club.

But that morning when I started up my Expedition to drive to work, the radio was on the same station from the night before. I immediately heard, “Call now and qualify to win” and they listed a whole bunch of prizes. The only one I really heard was the $50.00 (I thought they said 50 pounds) of Bar-b-que from one of my favorite restaurants ( Lawler’s.)

SO -- I immediately called in and answered this question to qualify.

“What do these three things have in common?”

A flat tire --- a deck of cards ---- and the movie Wolf?

Answer: A Jack

As in Car Jack, Jack of, and Jack Nicholson.

They took my name and then said IFFFFFFF you WIN,

we will call you this afternoon and let you know.

Late that afternoon I got a message (out of cell-phone coverage) that I was their

Grand Prize Winner

for the day and I had won ALL of the prizes.

I didn’t even know what prizes I had won until I went to the station the next day to pick them up.

[Lots of movie tickets - the BBQ - tickets to a Chines Spectacular - Gaither Tickets, etc. etc. ]

So I shared the extra Gaither tickets with friends -

At the concert it was like One PRAISE after another.

Have you ever been to a concert where each new song makes you say.

“Oh Yea, I really like this one. Oh Yea, I like this one better than that last one.

Oh Yea, this is my favorite”.

Well that went on for about three and a half hours! Then they called Jason Crabb of the Crabb family from the audience and he sang another favorite, and then Michael English sang

“I Bowed on my Knees and Cried Holy”. It was one of only three concerts in the tour where Ernie Haase and Signature Sound is with them. One concert of only two, in Alabama, and of only five in the whole Southeast.

Southern Gospel is a favorite of mine -

God had a plan all right!

He said to me, THIS IS WHAT HEAVEN WILL BE LIKE FOR ALL OF ETERNITY.

Just, one better song after another. Praising our Savior all the day!

[My take, written last night:
well it's 11:30 here and - we've just got in from
the kick off concert for the Bill Gaither Vocal Band Reunion Tour - and
my - oh my what a blessing it was! So wonderful to hear David Phelps
again and what a joy to see
Michael English get his footing again with the Gaither Vocal Band
[said he first sang with them when he was 25...]
He admitted he was like a nervous cat -
and his humility showed.
And while Southern Gospel isn't my favorite genre, the whole time I was listening to this group I was thinking - the Crabb family MUST be in this audience somewhere and, oh how I'd love to hear Jason sing to the Lord, and lo and behold toward the end of then night when they were just singing whatever came to mind
[or yelled from the audience] they called Jason up to the stage... and he sang a little number for us too -
and of course I loved -loved-loved the sprinkling throughout the night of all the great praise
songs
that Bill and Gloria wrote and we grew up singing in youth groups
and beyond. A blessed night for us - for sure...

Encyclopedia of Your Ordinary Life -X

A few years ago I had the opportunity to complete this extraordinary scrapbook album designed by CathyZ and based on the book, Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Rosenthal. While I still haven't read the book, I love the concept of this album - a random sampling of those ordinary facts about your life [my life.] The homework involves keeping a list, A to Z, of random memories for several weeks and then gathering photos [or not] to support these memories. Love it. The album is really very simple [a la Cathy Z] and easy to put together with only two square photos per page and two to four 'definitions.' Have I said I love this album? And I want to share some of my life with you so I've committed to do just that in 2009 [keep in mind this was completed during the summer of 2007.] I'm going backwards today, I present: X

XHAUSTED

The feelings I had during the Spring and Summer of ’07 when I was diagnosed with low iron [and other health issues] and feeling pulled between being with my own family, taking care of me, and being available for my parents who were facing their own serious health issues. It’s a feeling of being too tired to even think coherent thoughts and having so little energy that I would collapse into sleep at a moment’s notice. Thank goodness I have such a loving and supportive husband and sons.

XXIV

Years of marriage together. Wow! The big 2-5 is looming and we’re embracing it. Sure we’ve had some ups and downs, but I am so blessed to be married to the love of my life! It’s been so fun to do another scrapbook album, “The Story of Us” that tells our story through the years…

XCELLENT

Our boys – just fantastic guys! It is just so wonderful to share with them as they grow into young adults. While we know we have to ‘let them go’ we hope that they will always stay close so we can be a part of their lives. Every stage of their lives has been fun for us, but these last few years have been great as we share on a more adult level as they grow.

Be There Poem

If you listen
In the silence
You will find
An opening
An opportunity
A window
To the future
You're Invited to
Be There

A place
Beyond race, religion,
Income, geography
It doesn't require
Additional resources
Of time or money
Make the most of the time you have...
Of the family you are, single parent, two parent, grandparent, blended,
It's all inside you...
Be There

Begin a new tradition
A sacred daily practice
To start and end the day...
Whatever time of day that is
It transcends school
Barriers, boundaries
Here, there are no obstacles
Only opportunities to
Be There

Get to the heart of
What's in your child's heart
Meet them where they live
And open to the possibilities
Here, there is no achievement gap
Just achievement
Success shines from the inside out
And life changes for generations
Be There

In a moment
You feel the difference
It's real...
By being present
You've connected and created peace
Eye to eye, heart to heart
Truth, trust are born
At any age...every age
Be There

By Wendy Elwell

Just wanted to share...

“The report of your obedience has reached everyone. Therefore I rejoice over you.” Romans 16:19

God’s willingness and unwavering desire to bless His people is one of the most repetitive concepts in both testaments of His Word. He is the Giver of all good gifts and greatly exults when a child cooperates enough to receive some.

Just as the Promised Land was a place of assured blessings to the children of God who followed His precepts in the Old Testament, New Testament believers were also promised blessings for their obedience. When you and I find our places in Christ where God can freely fulfill His promises to us , we too will experience immeasurable blessings.” – Beth Moore, Believing God: Day by Day, Growing in Your Faith all Year Long [January 20^th]

I believe His immeasurable blessings are not always material things, but are, more importantly, the satisfaction of knowing that He. Is. Enough. Day by day as we go through life – for Him.

Enjoying new challenges...

This one from the Sisterhood of Scrap a new site I've found that has
some great sketches-

This one worked well for some fun art photos I took when we visited the River Walk in Chattanooga during the fall. We always enjoy strolling around this part of the city - and eating at a yummy Italian place too...

Free Faithbook Class!

During the month of March I will be offering a free five week faith book class based on the book, Born to be Wild [rediscover the freedom of fun] by Jill Baughan. I first read this book last summer while I was enrolled in the Have More Fun class with Stacy J and loved reading this christian perspective on fun while learning how to have more fun with my scrapbook pages. And I want to share some of it with you. PLEASE, feel free to buy the book and read it thoroughly. It's such a great read!! The class will be structured [and all classes are already loaded and ready to be posted on their assigned day] and work like this:
Mondays - I will post a short exert from the book with a scrapbook layout sketch.
Wednesdays - I will post my take on the assignment for the week along with a photo of my layout.
Fridays - I will post feedback on any comments or links to your work. [Obviously, these are not pre-loaded...]
There is no cost for this class and anyone can join in for one week or all of the class. The only thing I ask is that those who join in post a comment and link to where they post their take on the assignments. I LOVE [love -love] to see how students put their own twist on layout ideas! I look forward to it and hope you'll plan to join in! Oh, and there will be prizes for the top three participants...

Are you having a *Monday*?

The bank teller asked the customer in front of me… I’m assuming she meant something along the lines of – are you having a bad day? And this got me to thinking -- Are Mondays *bad days* for you? Is it the ‘ole get back to work, back to the grind thing? What are your Mondays like for you? Me? I love Mondays – I travel a little for work and always cherish having Mondays in my office to re-group and sort my schedule – check up on emails that might have been passed over during the rush of the week and plan my life for the coming days. Mondays are always good days for me. A day to get organized and feel some sort of control over my crazy schedule. I need them and feel a little discombobulated without them. Give me a week with a Monday holiday and I’m out of sorts all – week – long- Fortunately for me, despite the Monday Holiday, this entire week has been a week of Mondays – very nice to have time to organize and sort all the new information I’ve gathered from the new work project I’ve been on for the last four months. Nice to have time to sort and put away end-of-the-year items. Nice to get re-acquainted with some projects that were pushed to the side when the new stuff took precedence. Nice.

Reading More Lately

And enjoying it so much! I’ve always, always loved to read and can usually devour a book in a day or two [thus the reason I must be careful about getting my head into a book – not much else gets done if I’m stuck in a book.] During the time that we were putting together Faith Based Monthly [scrapbooking] Kits [past kits are still available at a reduced price by-the-way] I was consumed with finding just the right products for each and every kit which left little time for reading… so really, it’s been a little over three years since I’ve taken the time to read recreationally. And can I just say it’s great to be back with some of my favorite ‘friends’?! Loving it, but still trying to use my time wisely… in recent weeks I’ve read three books: High Calling: The Courageous Life and Faith of Space Shuttle Columbia Commander Rick Husband by Evelyn Husband; Multiple Blessings by Jon and Kate Gosselin; and Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella. This last one should be out in a movie soon and is the January Book for the BPS Reading Room [an on-line book club I joined in November of last year.] And Since I’m a total nut about Jon and Kate + 8 I was thrilled to get their book for Christmas and had finished it in two days. So neat to get some behind the scenes perspective – they are believers who are totally trusting God as they go through this life He has planned for them. [Can you even IMAGINE having 6 children under the age of seven?!?]

And High Calling was great – I bet you remember exactly what you were doing when you heard of Columbia’s tragedy [I was in our den with all the windows open on a warm winter day in the South, with Craig doing a few chores outside, the boys still asleep, and the TV on the NASA station – available since our little town has so many ties to the mission of space --- as I straightened things up to get ready to clean, when I heard there was no contact – surely everyone got the same news as we did, but I remember such a chilling force as the news unfolded. Knew the pilot was a believer, they’d played ‘Shout to the Lord’ as his wake-up call afterall… in short, this book is fantastic – Evelyn Husband does a remarkable job of painting the reality and imperfections of their lives as the Lord directed their paths [even in the times they were unaware of it.] And over and over as Rick grew closer to the Lord, he’d say, “The Lord has exciting plans for us.”

It’s no secret that I deal with a little anxiety from time-to-time. [lol] I look around and see the struggles that friends and family go through with health, death of children, poor financial decisions, and behavioral issues and I know that I’m blessed. I have a comfortable life, my kids are balanced [I think, anyway!] and I have the most wonderful and supportive husband… During the fall of 2008 satan used this to really get to me – trying to have me think about how something tragic must happen to me [or my children or my husband] in order for me to ‘pay’ for these blessings some how. The anxiety was horrible – always thinking something tragic would happen at any minute…and after reading this book the Lord and I had many – many conversations about my moving from ‘what do I have to endure to see God’s blessing in my life?’ to, ‘God has exciting things for me.’ This book was a powerful influence in my growth in this area. Because, I know that life is precious and can be changed in a moment [I saw that first-hand as a sixth grader getting ready for a birthday party when my best friend received a life-changing head injury in a car wreck; when we had our own wreck over 20 years ago and flipped end over end more than five times, and many more times throughout my life] but also, I know that God is faithful. I’ve felt His presence in my life during the bad times and the good… so after reading this book, I wrote in my journal [that I write in occasionally – I’m not a serious journal every day kind of gal…] “I really think I am so blessed & live a charmed life already – to the point of wondering when I’ll be slapped with some tragedy. So the other day God and I were talking…and how He wants to bless me [us – His children!] and does – just because He loves us. And how He wants to bless us and have us accept His blessings – freely – without a cost – just because He loves us. He wants me to see that He has exciting things for me and that I should live with the anticipation of that – and with His help, I’m trying to live with the anticipation of what He has planned for me” instead of the dread of what satan might do…Does this mean I believe I’ll never again have a tragedy in my life? Not a chance, I know this life we live is filled with the good, the bad, and the ugly, but with God’s help I will make the choice to accept the positive – to accept His blessings and, more importantly, His presence as we walk through this life together. Because, without Him, what is the purpose of our lives anyway? I hope and pray that you’ll make this choice with me…

Honestly ---

How many vegetables did you eat yesterday? I know we all know that we’re supposed to have 5 -8 servings a day – but, honestly – how many do you eat each day? Go ahead – get a pencil and write a little list … For me? I know I don’t put nearly enough of the nutritious stuff in my body and I’ve set a goal to fuel my body a little better in 2009. I’m trying to add a V-8 Juice and an apple to my lunch each day and to make wise choices as I plan my meals… Yesterday I went to salsaritas [almost as good as qdobas] for lunch and had my favorite nacho plate: chips, black beans [not a veggie,] a double scoop of grilled veggies [onions, yellow squash & zucchini,] black olives, a little guacamole, and of course, salsa. And then for dinner I had a yummy – yummy soup made from a recipe I got out of my newspaper [and credited to: ”The Best Slow & Easy Recipes” by the editors of Cook’s Illustrated Magazine, lest I incur the wrath of Zielske] It has a heavy tomato base even though nary a tomato do you see and also a few carrots thrown in. Reminds me so much of Campbell’s Vegetable Beef Soup. [A childhood favorite of mine.] I love it. Here’s the recipe, and note, I used at least a half cup of barley [bought at a local organic fruit market,] maybe as much as ¾ cup and added a couple of cups of water:

Slow-Cooker Beef & Barley Soup

28 oz. can of diced tomatoes

In a food processor [or with a hand-held blender] pulse with their juice until smooth, about 15 seconds. Set aside.

3 medium yellow onions, minced

¼ cup tomato paste

1 teaspoon thyme

Cook in 2 tabelspoons vegetatble oil until onions are softened and browned, about 10 minutes. Stir in:

½ cup dry red wine

Use a spoon to scrap up any browned bits. Transfer to slow cooker. Add the tomatoes. Add:

2 cups beef broth

2 cups chicken broth

2 carrots, cut into ½ inch pieces

1/3 cup soy sauce

¼ cup pearl barley

Season with salt and pepper and then nestle into other ingredients in the slow- cooker:

2 pounds blade steak, trimmed and cut into half inch pieces

Cover and cook on high for 5 – 7 hours.

Enjoy!

Encyclopedia of Your Ordinary Life - Y

A few years ago I had the opportunity to complete this extraordinary scrapbook album designed by CathyZ and based on the book, Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Rosenthal. I'm going backwards and today I present: Y

YOOHOO
Thin chocolate drink that came in a small bottle when I was younger. We didn’t drink many sodas [or ‘cokes’ as we called them] when I was growing up so it was a special treat to go on a Sunday afternoon drive and stop at a little country store for one. This was always my first choice [perhaps to go along with a ‘zero’ candy bar…] Now it seems this has become the call word for scrap bookers everywhere. Whenever someone yells it out we can all feel the excitement about our hobby! [--- Or is that ‘Woo Hoo ?!?]

YOUTH GROUP
My youth group at Woodward Avenue Baptist Church had a profound influence on my life. It’s with this group that I learned how to grow in my relationship with the Lord as well as accept others for who they are, flaws and all. We shared so many things together and learned love, acceptance, and even tolerance as we grew together during our teen years

... and the winner is

I've soooooo enjoyed each and every organizational tip that's been shared here these past couple of weeks - and I may be putting some of them to use in my own scrap space soon!
I'm out of town working so I had a friend draw a number for the winner and she drew # 24!

Congrats Tracy!

when you are working. (And donate what you don't need or won't use to a school or child-care facility to purge as needed.)

January 11, 2009 1:15 PM

Anonymous said...

Tracy said . . . I use an open file container with hanging file folders to sort my paper and stickers by season, holiday, sports or event to help keep things organized. When I need supplies I just pull the folder and I have everything in one place.
I sort my other supplies by type in clear containers.

January 11, 2009 8:42 PM

Omaloriann said...

Hi Judy - I see where you only have 24 comments for this, so I will add mine organization 2cents worth!

Since I have no idea how to contact you -- please send me an email at the address to the right and let me know where to send your prize. I'd like to get it in the mail this weekend! again, thanks for all who joined in to share! I hope to have another give away in a few weeks.

Inchies

Ever heard of these? I hadn't until someone mentioned them on the Inspired Yahoo Group a few weeks back - then decided to have a swap... so I signed up and have the letter U [it's an alphabet swap] and have no idea what I'm doing...Did a little research about them and came up with my own idea...
Twenty-six U's later...
I only hope it's "worthy" of the artistic souls that belong to that group...

Just a Quick note

to urge you to check out this website: I Am Second. As Monique said, "Wow!" These will lift you up - I promise! There's lots of people you can see, but you can start with: Jason Castro, Stephen Baldwin, and Darrell Waltrip. And you know, as a believer it's so true... my name is Judy - and, I. Am. Second.

One Little Word

So many of us have accepted the challenge of finding 'one little word' for 2009 ala Ali E here. I've been pondering what mine might be. Ali's encouraged this on her blog for the past few years and I always mulled it around for a few days and then got busy with life without setting aside a word for the year... a word to think about as life happens and come back to throughout the year...

So this year I want to give it a go - I've thought of several words: Simplify - to remind me to slow down and not add extras that do not matter in the long-run, but then realized that as an 'empty-nester' my life really is so much simpler than it's been in years; Contentment - a place to be no matter what my circumstances. I look around and see people who live their whole lives never being happy and contented - always feeling they deserve more - and then I also see people who are content in the most meager of circumstances. After giving it some thought, I feel I am content in life; I try to live my life depending on the Lord, and my contentment doesn't depend on the things of this world; Another word that came to me was Joy - a word to remind me to look for the joy in the everyday. I love this word and think, if chosen [and maybe even now since it's on my mind] it would really help to change my attitude in those times when things may not be going my way. Joy can be found all around us if we only make the CHOICE to see it.

Choice is my word for 2009. The idea of free choice came to me way back as a freshman in college when I was sitting in my dorm lounge surrounded by girls who believed very - very differently from me. We discussed choice to the extreme and how God gave each of us free choice - to believe in Him, or not; to accept the beliefs of one religion or another; to surrender our lives to the Lordship of Christ, or not...God gave us the ability of choice -and the consequences of making the wrong ones. As a social worker I've talked and pondered on choice my whole life - one of the saddest things to see is a child who has never been allowed the freedom to make choices [could be as simple as a child in the hospital who was coloring a page with a flower and picked up a yellow crayon when the mom said 'no, that flower is red' and took away the child's choice] or see the consequences of choices ['if you hit your brother you'll be in time out' - and having the child in time-out when they make the choice to disobey.] And while I do try to mull over those important choices [and often list those pros and cons, and may tend to 'over-think' them] I also know that I often make choices without much thought -

I've been reading Choosing Happiness lately [marking quotes and already planning to do a re-read on it.] Recently I read the section on The Invaluable Moment of Choice [page183] and they are discussing how we sometimes 'give ourselves permission' to make the wrong choices - and how can we stop this? And I love this,

"Whatever you tell yourself - no one can force you to behave badly...the moment that you recognize that your behavior is hurting yourself or someone else - you can stop. Awareness of consequences is the key to conscious living. It is so empowering to know this.... in the moment before taking action resides our power to do good, as well as prevent harm. In less than the time it takes to think a thought, we are directing ourselves - and choosing."

So for 2009, my one little word is CHOICE and I want to be more aware of the choices I make, big or small, life changing or inconsequential. Each choice is important and deserves some thought...

Word Art was done by Stephanie over at Homegrown Hospitality. See how to get yours done and donate to Autism Speaks as well.

A Favorite Gift

Do I have the world's greatest husband or what? I think so! For several years I've been collecting [off & on] the books from the Judy Bolton Mysteries series. They were printed from 1932 through 1967 and at the risk of revealing a little too much on the web - I am Judy Bolton, or was before I got married anyway. These books are very similar to the Nancy Drew / Hardy Boys series and were printed in different editions [book club, personal, library, etc] and my sweet hubby has spent the last few months cruising the web to gather them together for me. I now have 1-34 and 37 - 38 of the 38 books in the series! [Those last two are going for a pretty penny so it may be a while before they are added to our collection.] I'm thrilled! And since I'll be working out of town these next few weeks I plan to start reading them from the beginning once again! Yippee! A true gift from the heart -

Encyclopedia of Your Ordinary Life - Z

A few years ago I had the opportunity to complete this extraordinary scrapbook album designed by CathyZ and based on the book, Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Rosenthal. While I still haven't read the book, I love the concept of this album - a random sampling of those ordinary facts about your life [my life.] The homework involves keeping a list, A to Z, of random memories for several weeks and then gathering photos [or not] to support these memories. Love it. The album is really very simple [a la Cathy Z] and easy to put together with only two square photos per page and two to four 'definitions.' Have I said I love this album? And I want to share some of my life with you so I've committed to do just that in 2009 [keep in mind this was completed during the summer of 2007.] I'm going backwards, because well, Cathy is one of my Z words and since I would've never completed this without her design; it seems fitting that we start with Z:

ZIELSKE, CATHY

Scrapbook [and graphic] designer extraordinaire! I love her style and have taken to shamelessly scrap lifting it at any opportunity! This album was actually designed by her and I [simply] love the nice clean lines! Her original format was 8.5x11 and the CKU Class for 2007 was 12x12 – but I put my own spin on things with this 9x9 album.

ZZZs

Something I’ve always enjoyed, but can’t seem to get enough of these days due to low iron.

ZINNIAS

Another favorite flower that just screams “Summer!” to me. I so enjoy seeing large plantings of these and often stop to take photos. Have even been known to stop and ask permission to pick some! Would love to have a nice sunny spot to grow my own –hmmm, maybe that’s a project for next year!

Happy January 2009 Everyone!

If you look on the newsstands these days it seems everyone is talking about getting organized. And why not? A new year - a time for new beginnings, etc. etc.. Anyone who knows me well, knows I love for things around me to be organized and accessible. I'm willing to admit that I'm a little OCD and I'm more content when there is order in the chaos around me. And while I don't have my canned goods alphabetized - they ARE organized in the pantry according to 'group' - fruit -veggie - beans - starch - etc. and my spices are in bins according to use [mexican - itailian - or baking, etc.] Oh! And my calendar [organizer] - definitely color-coded according to each family member's activity - and a color for work & play activities as well. I can be a little hyper-organized at times, but can also let things go and have the need to regroup at times too. I believe organizational needs change as our interests and lifestyles change [for instance while the boys' activities used to be two separate colors in my organizer - they are now both coded with the same color because as they've grown older there are fewer things of theirs that I'm responsible for.]
Every few months [or maybe once a year or so] I re-group and re-think my scrap space and how it works for me. Just recently I realized that one of my favorite products was spread out in several different areas, causing me to search different places to find just the ones I wanted. So a couple of weeks ago I gathered all my alphabets [stickers - rubons - chipboard - etc.] and placed them in a cute basket purse I got in the bahamas a couple of years ago and placed it right next to my trimmer. So easy now to just glance through my selection and choose the ones I want to use. Good organization is about more than having everything 'put away' and looking pretty - really good organization helps the person work better and more effectively. To help you get more organized I'm giving away Wendy Smedley and Aby Garvey's book, The Organized & Inspired SCRAPBOOKER. This book is full of wonderful organizing ideas and tips on how to make your space work for you - big or small - whole rooms dedicated to scrapping, or areas that need to be put away from little hands -- it's all in here. I'll do a random drawing from comments to this post. THE RULES: I need to have 25 individual comments before a winner is chosen. The deadline to enter is January 9th [or will continue until there are 25 comments.] To enter: simply post a favorite way you organize your scrapbook area.