"Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him...Thou hast turned my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness..." --- Psalm 34:8, Psalm 30:11
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This week at Hobbit Cottage? Life feels sweeter, like it used to. Whew.
Did we buy a new house for our later years?
Is Daniel The Cat walking on his own?
Is Tom The Husband walking on his own?
Did we install a first floor laundry room?
Did we solve the squeezing between Tom's office chair and treadmill problem the 10+ daily times I climb the stairs?
Did we install a door so I don't have to listen to Tom huffings and puffings on the treadmill?
And ---------------
Uh, no. No to all.
Instead, God helped me work through my disappointments.
He reminded me of everything going right.
He ushered me into a sweet acceptance.
He poured energy into me for creatively solving issues, leaving me with renewed openness to challenges.
And He didn't try to rush me through this. Most days I had that 'waiting room feeling'. (Gee, I read many books this May!)
Attitude.
Attitude can make your small house feel like a palace. Attitude reminds you of loveliness still yours. Attitude enables your eyes to view Life through hopefulness. Attitude can lead you to 24/7 gratitude...
... and a new creativity, a making something from nothing, smiles erasing frowns and a thankfulness blowing complaints to places far, far from home.
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Pam asked to see our gardens, so here you go, Pam. A few peeks of my much-appreciated perrenials--
My Herb and Etc. Garden out front. This 'woman of a certain age' can easily water it from her porch rail. Chives, oregano, green onions, catnip, mint, lettuce, garlic, forget-me-nots, peonies, daylilies; all do well with only bright morning sun, shade all afternoon.
Finally I created a bird bath, one I can fill from the porch. It's an upside down flower pot with a vintage bowl glued on top. I'd seen this idea in videos--another 'what took me so long to do this?' project.
Snow-in-Summer around the flagpole. Thrives on neglect! Love it.
The early morning sunny end of my Prayer Garden. The aforementioned snow-in-summer, daylilies, begonias, other plants not seen and the bushy stuff is an 'autumn daisy', my name for the best little .89 cent pot of WalMart flowers I ever bought.
... and this was taken in early Springtime, but see that small 'tree'? It's not a tree, but rather a stray root I dug up from our now-gone privet hedge around 11 years ago. Yearly I shape it more and more to resemble a tree. Tiny scented flowers will burst forth from it soon. (Gotta love a free tree!) ツ
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This weekend Tom and I enjoyed a refreshing movie: Jerry and Marge Go Large. Based on a true story, very little 'language'. I can't describe why I liked it so much other than it's a story about folks our age who found a fun project after retirement. Highly recommended.
I don't even like Formula One races (Tom really does), yet we both super enjoyed Downie Live's travel to one. (Some things just cannot be explained.) ツ
Here's a recipe for getting rid of weeds in sidewalk cracks. Haven't tried it yet, but will soon.
And I appreciate many types of decorating, but perhaps this is my favorite. I couldn't even finish watching the video--I loved what she'd done too much and envy threatened to flood my heart (this was while I was healing from some disappointments, so perhaps that explains it.....). Cozy California Home Tour.
We can fill our mind with complaints or creativity. But seldom is there room for both.
Contentment doesn't mean settling in an unhappy circumstance, rather, it's being happy where you are on the way to where you're going.
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"For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." ... Matthew 6:14,15
3 comments:
I love how you turn everything over to the Lord in all circumstances. I would have happily have let you have one of our moves recently. Five moves in 2 1/2 years is at least four too many! We are now where we plan to stay until the end, Lord willing. You could go to my blog and check out the pictures of the new condo if you would like to. We're only 3-5 minutes from Mom, depending on traffic. We have three bedrooms again which is nice because we love to have overnight guests. We've always been the home that housed visiting missionairies who were stateside for their rest period. We mostly used just the same furnishings and decor that we brought from Spokane, but since we had gotten rid of most of our furniture, we have had to buy some new things, but not much.
Take care Debra.
Blessings and hugs,
Betsy
http://betsy-thesimplelifeofaqueen.blogspot.com
I love your opening, "This week at Hobbit Cottage? Life feels sweeter, like it used to." And when you explained how God helped to make things better, it brought tears to my eyes. He's so good. So faithful.
Debra, your gardens look wonderful! I am so happy to hear all the different things that thrive for you in morning-only sunshine. I've been experimenting with planting on the east side of our garage and it only gets 5-6 hours of sun, per day. Sometimes you have to stick stuff in the ground and hope for the best!
Thank-you, Betsy, and I'm glad you are in your final home on Earth. All that moving, oh my, I couldn't have survived it. No, really, heh. I'm glad you had the grace! I did leave a comment at your blog after your home tour--so cozy! I'm sure you'll enjoy your new home through the years.
Pam--thanks so much for your kind words! And I did add green onions to the list of what's out there in that herb garden. It's intensely sunny there in the mornings so that must be what keeps it going during the total shade in the afternoons. And that's so true about experimenting with gardening!
Thanks so much, Ladies.... Blessings, Debra
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