I’ve been thinking a lot lately about God’s plan for my life at this point in time, it seems as if He has me in a holding pattern for the time being.  I used to think that I always had to be actively pursuing His plan and purpose for my life, that somehow it was my job to make things happen.  But, I’ve learned this isn’t the case, I just have to be obedient and follow His leading. 

My favorite scripture verse is Jeremiah 29:11, ” For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (NIV version)   This verse gives me such peace, to know that my Heavenly Father is in control of my life and I don’t have to be.   

 I remember when I first learned this verse years ago, I assumed it meant that God had my life all mapped out and it would be smooth sailing, with everything falling into place according to His plan.   I found out the hard way that my journey has many twists and turns, and what seem to me to be unexpected detours, but my Heavenly Father knows exactly what’s around every bend in the road.  There are no surprises for Him!

So, while I wait on Him to reveal the next step in my journey, I will find the joy in today.  I’ll rejoice in the small, everyday blessings that He brings my way.  I will find the joy in my journey!

Have a great night!

Love, Velvia

I find it hard to blog lately,  I’ve been enjoying the relaxed, unhurried days of summer.  Not having to do lesson plans, research, or studying for homeschooling, and being able to read books just for fun when we go to the pool or in the evenings after dinner has made me lazy when it comes to blogging.  Not that I don’t enjoy it, I do, but there are so many other things I want to do instead.  This cute image was on my Mary Engelbreit calendar a few days ago and it fits perfectly with my summer state of mind.  I had to scan it on my computer so the image in a little fuzzy, but you get the idea. 

I’ve been trying to get some projects done that I haven’t had time to get to before, I made a couple of wreaths and a picture frame from shells that I’ve collected over the years.  I had a huge bag of shells that I wanted to do something with so I filled a hurricane jar with some for my kitchen table, and then made a wreath for my kitchen and bathroom, and a picture frame that I put on the antique sideboard in my dining room.  I was very pleased with the results because it reminds me of the beach which I love, and makes me feel summery (is that actually a word?) every time I look a them. 

This frame took quite a while to make because it was trial and error, but I finally finished it.  I found a wooden frame at the thrift store for fifty cents, sanded it down, and painted it with off white acrylic paint mixed with sandbox sand.  I let it dry overnight, then painted it again with the off white paint and sprinkled sand all over it while the paint was still dry.  When it was completely dry, I glued the seashells on and sprayed it with hairspray (that’s all I had on hand) to keep the sand intact.  I was pretty pleased with the outcome.

These are the wreaths I made, the top one is smaller although you can’t really tell from the pictures, and it hangs in my kitchen.  The bottom one I hung in my bathroom.  These wreaths make me smile every time I look at them, because they evoke great memories from trips to the beach.  I really enjoy doing these kinds of crafts, although I’m not very creative, it’s still a lot of fun.

Well, I’m going to indulge in one of my favorite pasttimes, reading, before I turn in for the night.  I hope you have a wonderful week!

Love, Velvia

I want to wish a Happy Birthday to two very special people, my precious Mom and our good friend Rod,  they are both 75 years old this week.  Since my mom lives five hours away I was unable to be with her for this momentous occasion, seventy five years of a good life is truly reason to celebrate, and I would have loved to have been with her on her birthday.  But, with gas prices so exorbitant I just had to settle for a phone call.

                Happy Birthday Mom!       

We were able, however, to spend an evening with our friends Rod and Mia, they came over for dinner last night and we celebrated Rod’s birthday.   God brought Rod and Mia into our lives and we’re so grateful, they are the sweetest, kindest people you’d ever want to meet.  We feel so blessed to call them our friends,  Rod is quiet and introspective, and Mia is full of life and very outgoing, they complement each other perfectly.  We enjoyed sharing a meal and fellowship with them, and look forward to spending more time with them in the future.

Rod getting ready to blow out his candle

                             Mia and Rod

Last Thursday when we went over for Drama Queen’s art class with Mia,  we worked on a scarecrow that Mia had been asked to make for a nearby town’s Fall Festival in September.  The town has been sponsoring a scarecrow making contest for the past couple of years and this year they are attempting to break the world record for the most scarecrows in one place at the same time.  The current record is 3,311 and the town’s goal is 4,000,  if they break the record they will be in the Guinness Book of World Records.  We spent about three hours on it,  you can see how creative Mia is, I think it came out really cute.  It was so much fun making it, we laughed so hard sometimes we could hardly work on it.   

               Our Silly Scarecrow

I am grateful for new friends and the opportunity to spend time with them getting to know them better.

I hope you have a wonderful evening!

Love, Velvia

Our precious little Ladybug fell Wednesday night while they were over at our house for dinner, she hit her eye on our coffee table and the poor little thing ended up with a black eye!  Talk about breaking your heart, we were all traumatized, praise God it wasn’t any worse and she is going to be fine.  But, it’s so sad to see her sweet little face with her eye all black and blue.  Beth emailed me this picture yesterday,  you can see how pitiful she looks below, but she’s such a trouper it hasn’t slowed her down a bit.

                Ladybug’s Boo Boo

Ashley was off today, so we took Drama Queen, Spiderman, and Ladybug to Chuckie Cheese’s for a couple of hours of fun.  We all had a blast, the kids played games and rode the little rides, and we had lunch.  They were so excited to be there, as soon as we arrived Ladybug had to get down and dance, and Spiderman couldn’t wait to play the games, he’s getting quite good at them.  Phillip, Beth, and the little ones are leaving for the beach tomorrow and will be gone for a week, so we enjoyed the time spent with the grandbabies before they leave for vacation.

   Spiderman and Chuckie Cheese

                   I bopped it!

       Ladybug, the Dancing Queen!

Watch out Jeff Gordon, Drama Queen’s behind the wheel!

Even though Drama Queen is growing up, she still enjoys going to Chuckie Cheese’s.  In fact, it was her idea.  She loves getting the tickets from the games and getting a prize with them.  I love it that she still has a lot of little girl left in her, I don’t want her growing up too fast! 

My favorite pasttime is spending time with my family, and today was so much fun,  I feel so blessed!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Love, Velvia

 We were blessed with a quick visit from Natalie, Joey, Cupcake, and Blue Eyes on Monday, they were only able to stay overnight and then had to head back to N.C. Tuesday morning, but we had a great family visit.   Phillip, Beth, Spiderman, and Lola came over Monday evening and we all had dinner together and a wonderful time as a family. 

                       Cupcake and Spiderman   

They are getting so big, I can’t believe how quickly they’ve grown, just looking at this picture and seeing how tall they’ve gotten amazes me.  Cupcake and Spiderman are always so glad to see each other when we get together, they really miss each other in between visits.  Spiderman turned to me at the dinner table and said ” I’ve really missed Cupcake”.   It was so precious, it blesses my heart that they are so close and I pray it will always be that way. 

                         Blue Eyes and Ladybug

These two little munchkins are so adorable, they had the best time coloring and riding Thomas the Train, they are just too cute for words.  It’s hard to believe that in just a few short months they will be turning two years old.  Where does the time go?  Sometimes, I wish I could make time stand still in order to enjoy them being little for a while longer, but time marches on, I just have to enjoy every minute that I have with them.

I tried to post more pictures, but there’s something going on with the way my photos post here on WordPress.  I tried last night for about an hour to figure it out with no luck, so I guess I’ll have to email WordPress Support to find out what’s going on.  I’m just thankful that I was able to get these pictures to post correctly.  

Have a great night!

Love, Velvia

           HAVE A SAFE, FUN FILLED DAY!

I pray you have a happy, safe July 4th!!!

Love, Velvia

I think we have our blurriness problem resolved so I’m posting pictures again, hopefully they will not appear blurry to you when you view them.  I mentioned last night that we had helped our friend Mia with her booth at a local Arts and Crafts fair on Saturday and I wanted to post a couple of pictures from the event.  Here are Drama Queen and Mia in her booth, we had a great time and enjoyed spending the day with Mia, she is so much fun to be around.  She is full of life and one of the most positive people I’ve ever met, I’m truly grateful that God has made us friends.  Drama Queen loves her too, and looks forward to art class at Mama Mia’s every Thursday.

          Drama Queen and Mama Mia

They had a face painting booth and Mia treated Drama Queen to having her face painted, the artist who did it was very talented as you can see by the beautiful butterfly on DQ’s face.  She even touched up DQ’s face before we left that evening as it had smeared a little from the heat.  By the time it was over we were all pretty worn out, but we’re already looking forward to the next show.

             My Beautiful Girl

After we unloaded everything and dropped Mia off, we raced home to get cleaned up and pick up Ashley to head out to our town’s annual Freedom Fest.  Every year on the Saturday before the Fourth of July, our town has a celebration in the town square.  There’s a live band, games for the kids, and of course fireworks as soon as it’s dark enough.  We met Beth, Phillip, and the kids there, along with Beth’s mom, Gail (Gigi to Spiderman and Ladybug), and Beth’s younger brother, Rob. 

Spiderman showing his patriotic spirit!

Everyone had a great time, Spiderman and Ladybug enjoyed the games, Ladybug got three rings on the ring toss (with no help from anyone), more than anyone the whole evening and she’s only 20 months old, way to go!  Spiderman was very brave, he slid down the giant slide with Drama Queen and came down with a big grin on his face.

Beth and Ladybug dancing to the music

Phillip and Ladybug at the Ring Toss

The Freedom Fest has become a family tradition for us since we moved here three years ago, we all enjoy it and look forward to it.  The best part is being together and celebrating our country’s birthday.  I love the fireworks at the end of the evening, I still feel like a kid watching them, they’re so beautiful.  A couple of the pictures I took of them came out O.K.,  so maybe I’ll post those tomorrow night.  Well, I’m off to bed, have a restful night!

Love, Velvia

Well, after more than a week I’m back online and glad to be here!  Our antivirus software was not up to date and guess what, our computer got a very nasty virus.  Thankfully, a guy that Ashley works with fixes computers, he fixed ours and installed up to date antivirus and spyware software that is supposed to be very effective.  He charged us a super reasonable fee and we are very grateful.  Thanks Donny!!

There is still one kink to be worked out, for some reason everything shows up on the screen slightly blurred, so until we get that fixed I’m a little wary about posting pictures since I’m not sure how they will look on my blog.   Hopefully, Donny will be able to help us find out what’s up with that and soon I’ll be able to post my pictures again.

This past Saturday, Drama Queen and I helped our dear friend Mia with her booth at a local Arts & Crafts fair.  We had so much fun, we laughed, talked, and people watched,  it was a great experience.  I will post pictures when we get the blurriness worked out.   Mama Mia, as she is known to her friends, is Drama Queen’s art teacher and she is wonderful!  DQ just loves her and looks forward to art class every Thursday, Mia makes it fun.  

God has blessed us with Mia and her husband, Rod,  we have been going to church together for the past 2 1/2 years, but just in the last few months He has drawn us together as friends.   We are looking forward to spending more time with them and getting to know them even better.  It’s awesome how God brings people together and builds friendships that stand the test of time. 

Well, I’m off to try and catch up on more of my favorite blogs, I’ve missed reading them while the computer was down.  Have a great night!

Love, Velvia

We were so blessed to have our whole family together last night for dinner, Natalie, Joey, Cupcake and Blue Eyes were here for a quick visit so we all got together for some family time.  Beth, Spiderman, and Ladybug came over after the little ones had their naps, and Phillip joined us after work.   Natalie and Joey had some errands to take care of while they were here, so Cupcake and Blue Eyes spent the day with Drama Queen and I and we took them to the park yesterday morning.  

   Whee-e-e-e!!

Cupcake and Blue Eyes had so much fun, I love to watch them play, they go at it with such abandon.  I took this cute shot of them coming down the slide, I was excited that it came out as well as it did, a lot of the photos I take of people in motion tend to come out blurry.

          Kissing Cousins

I love this picture, Blue Eyes just put his little arms around Ladybug and she kissed him, it melts my heart to see how much my grandbabies love each other.  I feel so blessed to be Nana to my four little munchkins, they rock my world!

                    What’s so funny Spiderman?

Another great shot of the kids, Spiderman usually does not care for having his picture taken, but he is becoming more of a ham and I love it.  He was screaming CHEESE! in this photo and giggling.  It made for a great picture.  Ladybug looks like she’s not too sure what all the commotion is about, but Cupcake just kept right on shoveling the sand into the bucket.

The only drawback was I forgot to take pictures of the grownups, I was so busy snapping photos of the little ones ( sorry guys!).  But, I have tons of pictures of everyone because I usually have the camera in my hand when we get together, so I think they’ll understand that I slipped up this once. 

When I stop to think how God has blessed our family, I am amazed, He has been so gracious to us.   I am truly thankful for His love and mercy!

Have a great night!

Love, Velvia