january is almost gone

Lucy is dancing on my bed.
One of those things that grammys
allow their grandchildren to do
when the parents are not around.
She asked if she could do some jumping.....
I said absolutely not.
We have to draw that line somewhere. :0)

January 31, 2011.....
One month of this new year is already behind us.
I must say it was a cold month and a long one.
I think I start longing
for the warmth of the sun so much
that it seems as if January will never make its departure.
At least all of my Christmas decorations are down,
but they are still in the basement waiting to be put away.
I leave some of them up through January
because they brighten the dark winter nights.

"Safely Home" by Randy Alcorn.
I don't think any book has affected me like this one.
The persecuted church in China
is flourishing while most of the churches in America are dying.
The book explains this phenomenon so well.
We take our gift of salvation so lightly.

God changes hearts.
Has your heart been changed?

i love you,
cathy

remember these?

They are now my screensaver.

~

From the list of obsolete English

words that need to make a comeback we have.....

~

deliciate (verb) "enjoy oneself, revel, luxuriate."

~

"After dinner, I deliciated with some blue belle ice cream. Maybe next time you can deliciate with me."

~

I really like the word deliciate!

~

Please read the quote below that I posted this morning.

One of my favorites....

cathy

~

ps...I've got to somehow be able to get my pictures in the center of the page again.

"the love of God.....

is like a mighty ocean....
I am swimming in it and yet how much remains!
We know,
and have believed,
and we go ever on, therefore,
to know more perfectly
that which we believe by faith."
(Life in Christ MLJ)

i like living.......

in a place where you hear this on the radio......

"The tide is going to be high

at around 6:00......

You are gonna have a nice big river

to look out over to see the sunset."

~

I listen to 107.9 "the coast"

from over on Hilton Head Island.

They are always talking about

places I love over there.

~

Just got back from "The Flying Fish"

on the way home from the beach.

My crab patty

was almost all pure lump crab meat.

~

"Though the fig tree should not blossom,

nor fruit be on the vines,

the produce of the olive fail,

and the fields yield no food,

the flock be cut off from the fold

and there be no herd in the stalls,

~

yet I will rejoice in the Lord;

I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

God, the Lord, is my strength;

He makes my feet like the deer's;

He makes me tread on high places."

Habakkuk 3:17~19

~

I've been hanging out in Habakkuk....

doing some reading and studying.

I will share more on this later.

One thing....

I want faith like that.....

~

That's Lucy....two years ago.

This picture popped up on my facebook page

just now and I had to share.

cathyc

with david on his birthday

Went down to the beach today...
you know I just can't stay away.
The weather was delightful.....
sunny, bright blue sky, a little warmth.
If we can hold on just a little longer,
winter will be gone...
long gone!

Thanks for all the sweet notes & calls
concerning the "baby boy."
I just know that I have
the best friends in the whole wide world.
Your encouragement and love
overwhelm me.
I count each one of you
as a blessing from the Lord.
cathy

"A friend loveth at all times."
Proverbs 17:17

cold & windy

I have not been able to get warm today.

My body is rebelling against this cold weather.

Seeing more light at the end of the day, though,

and with that comes the promise of spring.

~

David and Erika just got their new adoption referral.

It's a Boy!!!!

Yea and congratulations!!!!!

I will send out pictures to my e-mail group very soon.

I will say this....he is a real cutie.

He is wearing jeans and a red shirt emblazoned with an American flag.

We are very thankful and hopeful that he will be home soon.

~

I read this early this morning....

I love this passage!

~

"Trust in the Lord and do good;

Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.

~

Delight yourself in the Lord,

and He will give you the desires of your heart."

Psalm 37: 3&4

~

"Delight yourself in the Lord"

love Him

praise Him

worship Him

read His word

communicate with Him

tell others about Him

obey His word

serve Him

love what He loves & hate what He hates

~

"He will give you the desires of your heart"

If you delight yourself in Him,

your heart's desires will be right and good,

and He will be pleased to bless you with His best.

~

So we wait for our new grandson......

and He gives us the desires of our heart.

i love this rainy day

All day today it has rained.....marvelous, glorious rain.

I took my dad to the clinic
and afterwards we breakfasted at "our place."
Always good food and a lot of conversation.
We talked about the state of the world
and why the world is in the state it is in.
After refilling his pill box I headed for home.
By that time it had really started "coming down."

This afternoon
I took my blanket and my book,
curled up in the bed,
and spent the afternoon there. (very rare occurrence)
And while I did that,
it poured and it poured and it poured.

Now, at almost 7:00 pm it is still pouring
and it looks like it will pour all night.
The wind has started howling too.
I absolutely love this weather!!!

Two verses about the rain for your pleasure....

The Lord to Noah....
"For in seven days I will send
rain on the earth forty days and forty nights,
and every living thing that I have made
I will blot out from the face of the ground."
Genesis 7:4

"For He makes His sun to rise
on the evil and the good,
and sends rain on the just and the unjust."
Matthew 5:45

I am reading "Safely Home" by Randy Alcorn.
....can't put it down.
You should read it too.

Tonight, I shall fall asleep
to the sound of the rain
beating against my windowpanes.
What a blessed girl I am!!!!
cathy

my prayer for you

"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
from whom every family in heaven and earth is named,

that according to the riches of His glory
He may grant you
to be strengthened with power
through His Spirit in your inner being,

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts
through faith~
that you,
being rooted and grounded in love,

may have strength to comprehend
with all the saints what is the
breadth
and length
and height
and depth,
and to know
the love of Christ
that surpasses knowledge,

that you may be filled
with all the fullness of God."
Ephesians 3:14~17

This is one of the apostle Paul's most beautiful prayers.
I pray this for all who read my blog.
I love you,
cathy

*that is a pyracantha bush in the picture.
I grew up with one of these in my yard.

happy birthday david william

Looking first at the last picture....this is David
preaching in his first grade Sunday School class.
Notice Kellie Rushing Lee sitting by our pastor John Tippett
who is sitting by my mom who was one of the teachers.
I keep this picture in my Bible.....just to remind myself
(as if I need reminding) of the gracious hand of God upon our lives.

The first picture is of David in the pulpit at Ferguson
Avenue Baptist Church. He is Youth Pastor there.
Thanks to Emily Wise for sharing this picture with me.

David, we love you and are so thankful for
the husband, father, and servant of Jesus Christ you have become.
mom

"Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season;
reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching."
II Timothy 4:2

*My scanning skills leave much to be desired.
Sorry about the huge gap.

what God does for those who know Him

"Thy lovingkindness, O Lord, extends to the heavens,
Thy faithfulness reaches to the skies.

Thy righteousness is like the mountains of God;
Thy judgements are like a great deep.
O Lord, Thou preservest man and beast.

How precious is Thy lovingkindness, O God!
And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.

They drink their fill of the abundance of Thy house;
And Thou dost give them to drink of the river of Thy delights.

For with Thee is the fountain of life;
In Thy light we see light.

O continue Thy lovingkindness to those who know Thee,
And Thy righteousness to the upright in heart."
Psalm 36: 5~10

Beside this passage in my Bible
I had written the word "awesome" with an exclamation point.
Meditate on the truth that is contained in these verses.
God's care for His children is beyond knowing.
Without Him we couldn't take our next breath.

A hidden nugget:
"With God is the fountain of life."
Did you know that?

Another:
"He gives us to drink of the river of His delights."
Can you just imagine what this means to us?

I am overwhelmed with this passage.

bike riding buddies

If you don't do anything else tonight,
go look at the moon.
An absolutely gorgeous example of God's handiwork.
"He spoke and it was done."

can you guess.....

what Lucy's big surprise is?

I will write more right here in just a little while....

after we go get an ice cream treat.

~

Well by now you have probably figured out

that Lucy is going to take ballet lessons.
We are very excited and cannot wait for Monday to come!

~

Today she and I went to the beach.

Not really good beach weather,

but at least the sun was out

and it was a little warmer.

~

At the playground I decided to sit in a swing....

the big one with the molded bottom.

Well I sat down in a big puddle of water...

wet to the core and freezing.

I had to stay that way until we got home.

Sitting in a puddle of water is never fun,

but doing it in cold weather is very regrettable.

~

After a spa bath,

a game of pengoloo,

and some reading,

Lucy sleeps......

She will probably be dancing in her dreams.

cathy

what happens in grammy's big tub.......

stays in grammy's big tub.

~

Having fun with my granddaughter Lucy this week.

She is staying with us while her parents are away for a few days.
Right now she is napping in the big queen bed...

getting ready for her Cubbies class in a little while.

Her granddaddy made her pancakes this morning.

She and I dined for lunch at the Chick-fil-a.

~

The most eventful thing that we did today

was a visit to what we thought was a shop

that sells fish for aquariums.

Much to our surprise we saw huge snakes, turtles, and iguanas.

Maybe if I visit those iguanas every day

I will condition myself not to be afraid of lizards.

I could actually stand and look at them

without feeling my blood run cold.

They were being very still and not darting at me.

~

Note to David and Erika....

Lucy decided that she wanted

one of the three-foot dry land tortoises

for a pet.....

she said she would keep it in the house.

I wonder what Maude (her kitty) will think.

She was very serious.

The only thing that may save you

is that she was appalled by the smell. (nasty)

~

Tomorrow Lucy and I will have a surprise to announce.

She is beyond excited about this.

There will be a picture clue for you to enjoy as well.

~

so,

until then,

cathy

~

ps....Lucy and I were just having fun riding our bikes out front

when her bike chain came off unexpectedly

rendering all of her peddling useless.

The poor child dissovled into tears and would not be consoled.

We took a shortcut home through some weeds

and our shoes ended up coated with mud.

Granddaddy has promised to work a miracle for her

so that we can ride again tomorrow.

the gray tooth

A few weeks ago Lucy fell whilst in the bathtub and hit her mouth....hard.
She cried for a long time and the pain stayed with her for days.
Now, as you can plainly see, she has a gray tooth.
What does this mean?
Will it heal and turn white again?
Is it dead?
Will it fall out sooner than normal?
No one knows the outcome of "the gray tooth."
Having only turned five a few weeks ago,
and if the normal tooth fall out schedule is adhered to,
Lucy could have a gray tooth for a long while yet.
And even more horrifying...
what if it turns black and stays in?
We have assured her that our love will not be affected by this malady.
As for Lucy....
she could care less.
Life is a wonderful, exciting place,
not affected in the least by the color of her tooth.

twitter-light

One of my facebook pals that hails from Croatia had this post on her site yesterday..........
~
"Obsolete English Words That Should Make a Comeback." There were twenty of them.
~
"Twitter-light" is one of my favorites and I will start using it immediately. It means twilight; the time of day when the sun goes down. Very romantic I think.
~
Meet me at twitter-light down by the shore and we will stroll hand in hand.
~
I will share more of these in the days ahead.
~
Don't you just love Harry in his madis gras beads?
He made me wear all of these when I read to him the other night.
~
Keep him in your prayers this week.
Be brave little man....
We love you.

"He who fashions the heart"

"The Lord looks from heaven;
He sees all the sons of men.
From His dwelling place He looks out
on all the inhabitants of the earth,
He who fashions the hearts of them all,
He who understands all their works."
Psalm 33 13~15

Truth about our God from these verses....

1. God sees us from His dwelling place in heaven.

2. He made our hearts....
in this instance
He is speaking of our soul,
our being,
who we are.

3. He understands
why we do what we do
because He made us.
He knows our hearts
as even we are unable to know them.

Our awesome God!!!!

I'll write later....
cathy

3 word blog

Home,
Cold again.
c

tulips are coming

Right around the time of my birthday,

tulips start to bloom.The beautiful flowers always remind me that spring is soon to come.

~

Somehow this winter has been brutal.

Cold building on cold........

a chill in the bones that will not go away.

~

We are in Orlando. It got up to seventy degrees today. The warmth of the sun on my skin......I have not forgotten you at all. You have been too long gone.

~

I am using Bubba's laptop and he forgot to bring the mouse. I am all over the place using my fingers. That coupled with my dyslexic tendencies are causing me untold frustrations.

~

Anyway, knowing that my daughter freaks out when I do not blog, I have made my feeble attempt to jot off something tonight.

~

Bubba and I were just laughing....

for some reason on this trip we forget to bring several very important things.

The worst for me is that I forgot my Bible and I am truly lost.

~

"Christian people in this world are meant to be full of joy.

That is what we are called to,

and we are failing in our Christian witness

unless we are experiencing and manifesting it."

(Life in Christ ~ MLJones)

~

Thankfully I didn't forget my book.

~

I bought some yellow shoes today the color of those tulips....

cathy

rice krispy treats

The most important words

I will write today

have already been written.

See the post I wrote early this morning.

~

I love them.

I made the mistake of

making a batch of them yesterday.

Rice Krispy Treats w/coffee...

the best treat in the world.

I will eat them all and be sorry I did.

(or maybe very glad)

They are yummy and I rarely indulge.

(so hopefully it is okay)

~

God answered a prayer for me this afternoon.

I am so thankful that our God is so near

and that He hears us when we cry out to Him.

~

I love the little squirrel munching on the peanut....

kinda like me munching on my rice krispy treats.

~

Orlando tomorrow....

warmer weather.

~

thankful,

cathy

the creation in psalms

"By the word of the Lord
the heavens were made,
and by the breath of His mouth
all their host."

"Let all the earth fear the Lord;
let all the inhabitants of the world
stand in awe of Him!"

"For He spoke and it came to be;
He commanded and it stood firm."
psalm 33: 6, 8&9

This morning notice one thing from these verses.....

God spoke
and the earth was created.

"He spoke
and it came to be....
He commanded
and it stood firm."

Think today about
the power of God
that by the very word of His mouth,
He made what is made.

in awe of Him,
cathy

bubba....

just called me
out of the blue
and asked if I wanted to go to Orlando this Friday
for a long weekend.
I hesitated for about two seconds and said
"yes~yes~yes."

The temps will be in the seventies!
An escape from the frigidness!!!
So exciting.

One more note for now.....
Someone just posted on Facebook
their utter outrage
that Starbucks
here in Savannah
cannot be supplied
with needed coffee supplies
because of all of the ice in Atlanta.
I guess we just need what we need when we need it.
No compassion..... :(

19 degrees tonight!

one~one one~one one

January is.........

gray sky
brown grass
freezing rain
silver rivers
bare trees
cold air
smoky breath
cold sheets
hot coffee
warm blankets
fireplaces
snow in the deep south

"He gives snow like wool;
He scatters the frost like ashes.
He casts forth His ice as fragments;
Who can stand before His cold?"
Psalm 147: 16 & 17

shivering~
c

ice on my face

This picture is to say....
winter can't last forever.
It will end....
hopefully soon.

Not a good day weather-wise here in Savannah.....
Cold, icy rain all day.
I had to get out in it to go to the eye doctor.
I felt the icy rain beating against my face.

Living so near the coast, thankfully,
keeps the really bad, destructive stuff away.
Savannah is tucked away in a little corner
keeping it safe from things
like hurricanes and blizzards.
That's why we live here.
That and my absolute love of the beach.

Not good news about my eye....
no better and no shots.
The doctor said and I quote......
"It goes against every grain in my body
to leave all of that swelling in your eye,
but I just can't take the risk of what may happen
if I give you another shot."

I even told him I was willing to take the risk,
but he said no.
I am thankful for the sight I do have
and will trust God for the rest of my days in this matter.

I love God's word.
Listen to what I read today....

"I will instruct you and teach you
in the way you should go; I will counsel you
with My eye upon you." Psalm 32:8

How does He do this?
Through His word.
Thankful,
cathy

sunday night pancakes at ihop....

with lucy and harry.

Lots of........
laughter
syrup
sticky hands
tic tac toe games while waiting for the food
silver dollar pancakes
"grammy, can I fix your coffee for you?"
and lastly, "I love you sooooo much."

Spent some time cleaning out
my picture files this afternoon.
I came across some
random pictures that I will share
like the stars above
that have graced my windows
for the last month or so.
(They are still there by the way.)

January is always a hard month
for posting pictures
after all of the wonderful holiday photos.

Tonight I am glad that I don't still live in Atlanta.
That ice storm will definitely shut things down for a while.
I wish for snow....
but not all that ice.
It is very dangerous and destructive.

I hope all of you
get to stay inside
and enjoy it from the windows
of your cozy warm home.

I wonder why I smell like maple syrup?
cathy

what winter looks like at the beach

Sad today...

did some crying.

Better now.

~

Sometimes you just have to let the tears come.

There is a cleansing to them like nothing else.

God gave tears to us for a reason....

to be used to cleanse the eyes as well as the soul.

~

"Thou hast taken account of my wanderings;

Put my tears in Thy bottle;

Are they not in Thy book?"

Psalm 56:8

~

c :(

why He came

"For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men,

instructing us to deny
ungodlines and
worldly desires and
to live sensibly,
righteously,
and godly in the present age,

looking for the blessed hope and
the appearing of the glory
of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus;

who gave Himself for us,
that He might redeem us from
every lawless deed and
purify for Himself a people
for His own possession,
zealous for good deeds."
Titus 2: 11~14

I read this just now....
It is the gospel in a nutshell.

more later.......

legs

Just celebrated New Years Eve one week late.

Went to Charlies at the beach and ate those luscious crab legs..
Bubba looks a little bit astonished.......

i don't know why.

~

The moon was so beautiful on the drive home.....

a perfect crescent hanging low in the western sky.

God made it you know, and hung it there for us to be amazed.

~

Now...

looking forward to a warm bed and a good book

and the night will have been perfect.

~

Oh no....I'm up way past my bedtime.

Anyway, sleep well....

cathyc

God is still sovereign

"The Lord has established his throne in the heavens,
and His kingdom rules over all." Psalm 103:19

"In His hand is the life of every living thing,
and the breath of all mankind." Job 12:10

"But He is unchangeable,
and who can turn Him back?
What He desires, that He does." Job 23:13

"I know that You can do all things,
and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted."
Job 42:2

"Oh, the depths of the riches and
wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are His judgements
and how inscrutable His ways." Romans 11:33

"For who has known the mind of God." Romans 11:34

I do not understand why Mae will probably not be ours.
Scripture tells us that we cannot know the mind of God.

But I do know that there is a little girl over in Africa
that I will pray for all the rest of my life.
Maybe she will come to know the Lord
because we knew of her
and loved her
and because we prayed for her.

Trusting that He knows what is best.....
cathy

she cooks.....

because she loves too.
She cooks for her family to nurture and sustain.
She cooks because it is what we mothers do to show love to our families.

She cooks because of the thrill of those who are asked to come partake.
She cooks looking out at the beautiful marsh.
She cooks listening to her comforting music.

While she cooks,
she is thinking......
about those she loves and those who love her.
She is contemplating the great things that God is doing.
She is thinking about the sovereignty of God in the life of a little baby named Mae.
She will write about that tonight if the Lord allows.

she is me...
cathy

not just any story

"but the baby in her womb,
He was the maker of the moon,
He was the author of the faith,
that could make the mountains move."

from "Labor of Love"
in Andew Peterson's cd,
"Behold the Lamb"

Every year
we unpack the manger scenes,
listen to "Away in a Manger" & "Silent Night,"
Read and reread Luke 2: 1~20,
and
Drive through the live manger scenes.

It is a beautiful story.
It is the heart of our Christmas.

But friends...
It is the most important story ever told.

The incarnation (coming to earth)
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
is the reason we live and have hope.
It is the revelation of the depths of the love of God.

Every night before I go to bed,
I read at least a chapter from the sermons
of my favorite author, Martyn Lloyd Jones.
"Life in Christ"----studies in I John.

I had put this book down over the holidays.
I picked it back up a few nights ago.
"The Manifest Love of God."
I wish I could copy it
word for word so that you could read it too.

This is one quote that I will share...

"The more I study the New Testament
and live the Christian life,
the more convinced I am that our fundamental difficulty,
our fundamental lack,
is the lack of seeing the love of God.
Thus our greatest object and endeavor
should be to know Him better,
and thus we will love Him more truly."

The love of God sent the baby Jesus to the manger.
It is the most important story we will ever hear.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sadly, we are not getting little baby Mae.
read David's account on his blog......

http://ethiopiancleland.blogspot.com/

God is good and right in all of His decisions
and His will is perfect for us.

beautiful things i found at tybee

Funny.....

I just dealt with all of the notes and stacks

that I mentioned in my post last night.

I took a deep breath,

wadded them up,

and threw them away.

I will now be able to start afresh

with no annoying hangovers from 2010.

One calendar and a blank sheet of paper.....

I feel very liberated!!!!

~

funny #2

~

I kept Lucy and Harry this morning

while Erika went downtown to Forsyth Park

to take some engagement pictures.

~

Lucy heard it coming

and made a dash to the big front window

with Harry following not far behind.

There was an actual trash pick-up taking place

right in front of our home.

You would have thought it was

the electronic light parade at Disney World.

~

She called for me to come watch what was going on.

She and Harry both stood amazed with jaws dropped

until the truck carrying our trash

finally disappeared around the corner in all its glory.

~

It made me stop and think.......
When did life stop being that simple?

When did it start taking something

really spectacular to cause us to even bat an eye?

~

I learn from these babies every day.

Thank you Lord for the opportunity.

cathy

why i love facebook

Facebook compiled some of the photos

that I posted during 2010 into a collage.

I was pleasantly surprised at how it turned out.

~

Facebook also compiled some of my status for the year as well.

(I have no idea how to do the plural of status and neither does spellcheck.)

A status is a little short blurb you post

every now and then on your facebook page.

I posted many more than above,

but these are the ones they chose.

Kinda funny and interesting all at the same time.

~

It was a good, restful day today.

Plenty of time for a nap

on a rainy Sunday afternoon

to get ready to start

the first normal week in a while.

~

I wanted to finish

going through all of my 2010 notes and stacks today

but it didn't happen.

I will try again tomorrow.

~

Anyway,

Here we go

into 2011

full steam ahead.

one/one/oneone

Day one of 2011 is almost over.
It has been a quiet ~ stay at home day for me.
I took the tree down,
but the rest of the lights will stay put for awhile.

For those who know us well,
we had the "tree being thrown over the balcony"
ceremony early this morning.
The tree stand went with
and was rendered useless for next year.
I have never seen a "deader" tree in all my years.

I don't do resolutions.
I have lost some weight and want to lose more.
I want to step up my exercising to the next and the next level.
I am feeling fantastic and want to keep feeling that way.
One more thing....
I want to spend more time in God's word and in prayer.
Nobel desires I think.
I will press forward.

Bubba and I are beginning to plan our trip to Hawaii.
This has been a dream for a while
and we hope to make it a reality this year.
I want to cruise from California to the Islands,
and then go around to all of the beautiful places
while lounging on the deck in the balmy weather.
Me thinks that would be just "loverly."

One thing I know for sure...
God is sovereign....
He is in control of the future.
He will lead and guide into the tomorrows of this year
and I will trust Him unequivocally to do so.

To all of the
beautiful,
glorius,
exciting,
days ahead
until we finally rest with Him.

Happy New Year...
cathy