Decor Inspiration

One of my favorite spaces from my Pinterest Boards.

Here's what you've got...

vertical lines of the curtains, the texture in the large vase, the up lighting in the right bottom corner,

the sharp bold stripes in the chair (the real punch), a clean desk, (may I add?) fresh flowers,

a personal photograph, framed nicely and papers staged for a clean slate to inspire.

As the saying goes...a picture says a thousand words.

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Set a Morning Prep Reminder the Night Before

Whether it's your watch, your cellphone, or a microwave reminder, set something in your home to beep at a certain time every night. When that beep goes off, around 10 p.m., for instance, it means you should drop what you're doing and spend just a bit of time preparing for your morning, while you're actually awake. LifeClever calls it the 10 O'Clock Rule, and suggests a few things we can all do to semi-automate our mornings: set out your clothes, pocket contents, and shoes, grind coffee, check your calendar for events and reminders, and packing anything you're bound to forget into your bag. It's a night person's best hedge against the morning, and a morning person's ticket to spending their energy on more exciting things.

Easy To Make Toffee

Easy To Make Toffee

1 cup unsalted butter (no margarine allowed)
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
40 saltine crackers

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Line jelly roll pan or cookie sheet with foil and spray with non-stick spray. Lay a flat layer of crackers out on the foil.

Melt the sugar and butter until a boil is reached. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 5-6 minutes or until mixture is thickened and sugar is completely dissolved.

Pour this mixture over the crackers and spread to coat evenly. Bake for 5-8 minutes, or until the toffee becomes bubbly. After removing the pan from the oven, let it sit for 3-5 minutes. Sprinkle on the chocolate chips, let them soften and melt, and then spread them into an even layer. (You can add nuts, cracker crumbs, or whatever else you desire at this point.)

Let cool and, if desired for expediting purposes, refrigerate until hardened. Break into pieces the size of your choice.

Catching Up A Bit

Weeks have been flying by.  At the start of Hannah's Junior school year, and her dual credit college hour we have all been busy shuffling schedules to get us all where we need to be.

This year I began to our community college, San Jac Central.  I am excited to go for several certificates in Interior Design.  I am loving my classes and excited about the knowledge I am gaining.  My professor, David Vanover is also the head of the Interior Design Department and is an excellent teacher.

My husband, Gary is now 75% complete with his first degree at San Jac also.  We are blessed to live only about 7 minutes from the college campus.

I have recently accomplished a 37 year task that procrastination has had the best of me.  Our garage is now under control and we can actually park a vehicle in it.  I am still towering through a few boxes inside our home, but refuse for them to go back in garage storage until I have combed through all.  Almost all done!

We have enjoyed our Sunday afternoons with our growing family.  Our son, Aaron now has a new baby, Abbey,  that is almost 5 months old and, we have a new 3 year old grandson, Noah, the son of Aaron's soon to be bride, Samantha.

We are so grateful for the miraculous miracle working power of God in our lives.  We are assured that Gary is now healed of the devastating disease of MS.  Now, we wait for God to give him full recovery of the effects in his body.  In Jesus' Name, he WILL walk again.

What a relief for the hot very dry days of summer to finally come to an end.  My favorite time of the year is when the cool fronts start to blow in and the dry cool crisp autumn days begin.  This is our front door just freshen up for the season.

Our Abbey.  So sweet.

Winning Victory Over Your Most Challenged Day

I recently wrote a post on "Tenacity". When I wrote this post, I had a huge breakthrough of my attitude towards life and how to replace haunting bad thoughts to powerful thoughts of victory. From that day forward, in spite of any odds, I have felt like a super hero knocking down every strong hold that I faced.

The ultimate test came just a few days ago. I will tell you that what happened to me knocked me down. I felt like I had been in the ring with my component and the referee was counting down as I was dead off my feet. In spite of the blow, somehow, I refused to let this situation take over my thoughts. Defeat, discouragement and anger was among the many emotions I was facing. This huge blow just did not allow my brain to stop rehearsing over and over the event that brought me down. In spite of trying to force myself to not allow this to take over me, I will say, it was nearly impossible.

Then, the thing that really was out right aggravating is to think how THIS event would STEAL my victory. I refused to go to bed that night without getting some resolution to my situation. I began to google things like, overcoming negative thinking, what to do when you have been wronged, were some among many. Then, wow, I ran across a super powerful article full of scriptures and written by a doctor that gave me my answer. Here is an excerpt of that article:

Practice Mindfulness: This is the concept of letting go of any thought that is unrelated to the present moment and finding something to enjoy in the present moment. Most people do not live well in the present moment; they are always wishing for a different moment in the past when things were happier or simpler, or wishing for a moment in the future when they think they can be happy, such as by getting a promotion, getting out of debt, or buying a new house. Find something enjoyable to focus on in the immediate moment all throughout the day, such as the warmth of the sun, the breeze, music. During breaks at work, don’t think about goals or projects; enjoy your cup of coffee or a magazine. If a stressful thought comes to mind, choose to move on to a thought that is related to what you are presently seeing, hearing, smelling, or feeling that is pleasant. Instead of complaining about what you don’t have, be grateful for what you do have, air conditioning in your house or a car to get to work. Dr. Colbert suggests that his patients go for a walk or go to the zoo to practice focusing on all that can be enjoyed in a moment.

In 2 Cor. 10:5, “Pull down imaginations …and carry every thought away into captivity and make it obedient to Christ.” In other words, do not allow your thoughts to control you. Control them by putting out of your mind ones that are not beneficial to your mental, emotional, physical, or spiritual health. God then instructs us to replace negative thoughts with good ones, “Whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy, think of these things (Phil. 4:8).”

Bottom line, "live in the moment". Haven't you heard of that one? Number one: we become so focused on the past, or in my case, what just happened. Secondly, we are focusing on the future, training our minds to visualize what we want. These two things prevents us to live in the present.

When I began to think in that moment, of all I had all around me, and be grateful for THAT moment, my spirit began to lift out of the pits that had been pulling me down. What an amazing experience I had when I realized the power of living in the moment.

Are You a Victim?

Do you want to move forward but strong events in your past seem to keep you a victim of your past?

About a week ago, my husband and I viewed a video online that was recorded in 1999 at a New Image convention. Personally, I don't think I had too much "junk in the trunk" but after hearing this speech, it became one of the most powerful speeches I have heard.

Dale brings this message across with passion and I promise you, it can change your life.

Follow this link to the speech. Please leave a comment once you have had a chance to listen.

Click here for link.