Some Recent Photos

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Gary & Me, below
Aaron & Hannah, right

December 2006

God in the Small Stuff

This is one of my favorite things that God did for me. It makes me think of the books I have seen that “God is in the Small Stuff”. I love it when God does something just to let you know He knows where you are.

It’s been sometime ago now. We were pastoring in Clear Lake, Texas. With our church in need of a permanent location, we were in the process of trying to purchase a building that was still, at the time, a business. We operated the business and set things up on Sundays for services.

This week night, I had been at that building all day, and was leaving very tired. On my way home it was necessary for me to go to the grocery store to buy some milk. In my thoughts, I thought that I would like nothing better than to go home, shower and sit down and enjoy a cold coke. (Coca-Cola was may favorite drink in those days.) I thought if I were to pass one on an end counter or in route to the milk, I would purchase one, but I was much too tired to go one step out of the way. As a result, I did not see any in sight and left with only the milk.

As I was pulling onto the road in that little bright blue truck in front of the grocery store, there it sat on the side of the road. It looked as if it had dropped from someone’s vehicle as they went onto the road. I told Aaron, “There’s my coke.” It was a brand new two liter Classic Coke. Just exactly what I was wanting.

I will not apologize to you and say, “Sorry, I know this is a silly story, hoping you will not think of me as “simple minded”. Let me just say, that God truly is in the small stuff. He says to “delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart”. For me, God told me, “You have been a good girl today”. But, in all sincerity, I think He really was telling me, “Donna, thank you for taking care of my business. This is my way of letting you know that I see your labor of love.”

My message to you is, don’t discount the “small stuff” that God would love to drop into your path. If you will just open your eyes and watch around you, He will be there in ways you would never think possible.

Meet My Sister, Linda

Linda, always the runt of the family was the first to lead our family to really going to church. Linda was a senior in high school, loads of make up, tight clothes, streaked hair and beginning to worry my parents. Had the drug scene been in full swing, she would have been there. Linda was the first to an altar of prayer. Her life was totally changed. She paved the path and one by one our family all found ourselves head over heels in the church. What a change in our lives.

This is Linda and me under our mother's carport with blueberries picked right from her yard.

Linda served an official in the Cenla Garden Club and spoke in many meetings at home and abroad. She has over 150 rose bushes on her acres of land along with many other flowering plant and bushes. Her specialty is making wreaths from her roses she dries from her garden.

For 25 years, she was a teacher’s aid in the Alexandria school district. Her latest endeavor is playing the violin. Her goal is to play in the Alexandria Symphony.

Here’s what you can expect at Linda’s home:
arm loads of fresh roses, salvia, daisies, and other flowers, buckets of blueberries or plums, enjoy handcrafted stained glass windows, visit her shop with handmade wreaths, dried flowers, doors with stained glass, a friendly, smiling hostess serving you New Orleans beignets and café’ ole or a sky high layered homemade coconut cake, parties with a candle lit country road to her home and beautiful pieces of furniture.

Mother of 2 children, David and Lamar Guillot and wife of Owen Crowder. Lamar is a pastor in Farmerville, La. with his wife, Stephanie and daughter, Lauren.

Laundry Solution 101

Please be patient with this article. If doing laundry is a snap and you can not imagine how the everyday success of the thing could be a mystery, then this article is not for you.
For those of us that have had struggles in the past or present making doing laundry a breeze, then read on.

In my cleaning house yahoo group, many have expressed their desire to get others ideas on laundry solutions. Somehow, it just gets done, but not always with ease.

Personally, when I moved into my present home, it was equipped with built in laundry shoots under each linen closet area. Laundry pretty much landed in there, but then I had to pull it all out, sorting in the hallway. Then, the hallway stayed in shambles until all was finally done.

Solution: I purchased 5 laundry baskets that did not protrude much into the walk space of the hallway. I labeled each basket to suit our needs: whites, colors, darks, reds & brights, & towels.
In clear view and easily accessible to the entire family, we were trained to place the laundry in the proper baskets. This is a tried and proven solution that has worked for me for about 2 years now. When a basket becomes full, it gets picked up and done. The basket is a good size that holds a normal size load of clothes.

We have now graduated with the same baskets in the original laundry shoots with labels outside the pull out door. The towels basket in under our vanity shelf in the master bath. Just a quick look occasionally, and I know when it is time to wash a load.

My favorite detergent: Gain and Gain fabric softener sheets. To pre spot I use the large "Mexican style" bar of soap found at a dollar store. Works great.

For lables, I used Gigi font, size 72 printed on card stock. I used decorative brads purchased at Hobby Lobby threading through both the label and a card backing secured again with double stick tape and tape over the brad prongs.

Merry Christmas From My Daughter, Hannah & American Idol's, Will Makar

This is my daughter, Hannah with her favorite American Idol, Will Makar of The Woodlands, Texas. Hannah was privileged to meet Will for the first time when he sang at the 2006 Fourth of July Celebration with the Houston Symphony. She got a chance to go back stage, meet him, and get a photo.

This Christmas, Will was featured at the "Winter Fantasy" in The Woodlands where again, Hannah was able to talk with Will and get some photos. Will’s first single will be sold in January.

You may enjoy visiting Will’s site: http://www.willmakarweb.com/

Merry Christmas!! From Hannah & Will

Why Decorate Your Office Space?

In the prayer of Jabez, he ask God to "enlarge his coast". I recently requested to work at a great company for two days a week. Thankfully, they found a way to work me in doing a portion of work that allowed this request. It was really neat to have a clean pallet given to me as my very own office area. Although there only two days a week, I loved the challenge of making my small part of my "office" world an extension of me. It is really a very "warm" feeling to come to work and feel "at home". Here is my idea of how I "enlarged my coast".

A real plant brings life, so this was my first priority. I used the planter, which I fell in love with, as my inspiration. As you can see, the fabric surrounding me is peachy tan, so, the soft teal was a good choice. I used inexpensive and light weight acrylic frames I caught on sale for half price at Hobby Lobby and had mats cut to match the planter. The frames holds pictures of my family. I chose a chocolate brown as a second color and used books, an antique hat, a copy of my sister’s original art in the small frame, an open weave basket for a pen holder and lamp, all in chocolates to balance out my color scheme. There is also a soft teal vase with dried flowers on the left.

Here is an idea for a splash of Christmas on your desk: I used 2 square glass vases, fake snow, fake pine limbs (although real would be even better), and teal Christmas bulbs to tie in my color scheme. I couldn’t resist to add a little bit of humor with my "all decked out" little bear.

I Chronicles 4:10 Read the "Prayer of Jabez", a powerful prayer to claim as your own.

BDP International Transport, Import/Export Clerk, 7th floor in the JFK Building, Houston, Texas

Why Do Our Homes Become Cluttered?

This is not really the question we often ask ourselves, but the "cluttered home" is a subject you can read about in almost any magazine article or book. The truth is, we are created and made in the image of God who is order. Our very being loves order and tranquility. A certain peace is attached to a life of order and organization. The buzz word today is, simplify. This, in a nutshell is order or organization.

When analizing my own life, I dug up a fear that I did not realize was even there. I have always felt that I was a "faith" person with a positive attitude. On the subject of clutter, I found that one of the reasons I held on to too many things was fear. Fear that if times were to get lean, I may need this stuff. As a result, I have a garage full of clutter that is my safety net to support the fear that I may some day need it.

This has been a very exciting revelation to me, because I am purging my life of fears that I have discovered. You see, without faith, God can not work in our lives. Fear is the opposite of faith!

Another reason people, including me, hang on to things is the sentimental attachment to things. Sometimes we have to let go of the past in order to live in the present. I have taken pictures of some of my children’s artwork that would have been bulky to keep, then thrown them away. If the things we are keeping are cluttering our lives, then we need to get rid of them.

When people give you things, you feel guilty to get rid of them, but it is not worth it to allow these things to clutter our lives if it is something that we do not really want. Give it to someone who would really appreciate it. Sometimes we just have to learn to say no when well meaning folks want to give you things like "hand me downs" if it is something that you really do not want.

Here is what I began to do: I began to give away, throw away or carefully house the things that I really felt were good things to keep.

It is necessary to invest in good plastic storage containers. If the items you are keeping are not worthy to be stored in good containers, then it is not valuable enough to be kept. Create a good storage area for your stored items.

Christmas is a great time of year to clear out a few things. When we are taking out all the decorations, decide to get rid of some of those items that are just so so. Make room for the items you plan to get after Christmas on clearance that you will need for next year.

January is my favorite time of the year to clear the clutter and begin the new year with a fresh start.

Begin today by purchasing some good storage boxes, all the same size so that they can be stacked for storage. Make a list of each item that you put in each box. Label the box and keep your storage list of what is in that box. This way this quote will never apply to us:

We never have the time to put it up, but we always have the time to find it.

Happy organizing!