A Butterfly Flitted

I meant to do my work to-day --

But a brown bird sang in the apple tree,

And a butterfly flitted across the field,

And all the leaves were calling me.

Richard Le Gallienne

I have been seeing beautiful butterflies out my back door and I just can't help but grab my camera and run outside. They are such amazing creatures.
The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough. ~Rabindranath Tagore
I read that a butterfly's life span is only 2-3 weeks. Their beauty is such a gift and lasts only a short time. I wonder what our lives would be like if we knew we only had a matter of days to share our beauty, gifts or talents with those around us? What if we didn't always think "I have tomorrow"?

If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies. Author Unknown

Caterpillars are rather ugly. Our hearts can be ugly, too. Just like God changes the ugly caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly, He takes our ugly hearts and fills them with joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness..... Thank you, Lord!

I didn't mean to preach to you today. These butterflies just stirred a lot of thoughts in my head. I hope there are butterflies in your world right now. Make sure to stop and enjoy their beauty.

{I did these things so you would realize that I am your God. But the LORD must give you a change of heart before you truly understand what you have seen and heard. Deuteronomy 29:4}

Junk Therapy

Good evening! Thank you for stopping by my blog. If you read this post you know that life has been a wee bit stressful around here. Well, late yesterday afternoon my husband finally got a phone call. He was not hired for the position he had applied for. We are very disappointed but know that He must have a reason.

I have neglected my antique booth for the past month or so. Not knowing if you were going or staying, I just wasn't sure what to do with it. Now that I know we will be here for a while longer I really need to get it spiffed up.

Junk therapy is always good for stress relief, so I headed out for a bit this morning. I was glad to find some things to put in my booth. This "Hermes Rocket" typewriter is the cutest little thing. I think if I can find a ribbon for it that it will work. Interestingly, I have a larger "Hermes" the same pretty green that I also need to sell.

Last weekend at a sale I bought two jelly jars with red lids. After I got home I was wishing I would have bought all the other jars they had. There were no lids, but I thought they would make great little dessert dishes. This morning I found all of these. Same jars - just moved to a different sale than last weekend. I guess it was meant to be - especially for 10 cents each!

I know, I know. I am supposed to be buying things to re-sell. So, while I love this pretty J&G Meakin platter, it is headed to the booth.

This little log cabin cookie jar might be headed to the booth. My parents live in a log house, so maybe I should give it to them. What do you think, Mom?

You really should click on this "black mammy" picture to enlarge it and see the details. It is not a painting, but actually a collage. The head wrap, dress, scarf and apron are cut out of fabric. The basket is some sort of textured material. This type of thing is pretty collectible down here in the south.

I know I could find a place for this hooked rug footstool in my house, but I guess I should sell it.
The wooden piece is an old prayer kneeling bench. I'm not sure exactly what you call it. I thought it was unique.
This book of "Horse Stories" was only 10 cents. It isn't in great shape, but I still liked it. It reminds me of the cowboy room my boys used to have.

The carved owl really isn't my type of thing, but I have a couple other owl items I will group together in the booth this fall. Of course, razorback items always sell here in Arkansas. Can't say I am really a Hog fan, but lots of people are.

I liked this green basket and the bottles came with it. I want to keep the basket. Maybe I will sell one I already have here and keep this one.

I wish I could get this one on the right clean. It has a "film" on it that I can't get off. Any suggestions? You can't see it, but it says "Union Made" on it. The other purple bottle will be very pretty as a flower vase.

I am keeping this one, because our last name is Covington. Do you suppose J.Y. was a relative?

I didn't take pictures of the very cool Lego set I found for the boys this morning. I also found a pair of dress pants for my hubby. That might have been the purchase I was most excited about. He is too tall for "regular" clothes, but not big enough for "big and tall" clothes. Shopping for him is not easy. I was very thankful to find the like-new pants today.

It is time for me to put Sweet Girl to bed. Then I need to take clothes off the line and make some banana bread with the "marked-down" bananas I bought yesterday. Yum!

{She knows when to buy or sell, and she stays busy until late at night. Proverbs 31:18}

Happy Birthday, Boy #1

Yes, it has been a busy week at our house. Sweet Girl's birthday was Monday, school started yesterday and today......

....this little guy turned 12! My sweet baby boy was born in Dickinson, ND. His doctor was known as the "Racing Stork" because he drove racecars as a hobby. In fact, while he was waiting for my labor to progress he left to go work on his race car. He was just happy that I didn't go into labor on the weekend while he was actually out on the track.

Oh, how my boy loved Veggie Tales when he was little!

He would work for hours helping Grandpa do chuckwagon cooking. He still would if we lived nearby.
Such a goofball with all his silly expressions!

Now that he is 12 I guess he is too cool to smile for the camera. My little baby is now taller than me (I know, I know - that isn't saying much). He loves to fish. He is intrigued by weather and storms. He will start jr. high football as soon as his arm is completely healed. I am very proud of the young man he is becoming.

Happy Birthday, Boy #1! I love you!

{Then, gathering the children up in his arms, he laid his hands of blessing on them. Mark 10:13}

Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl!

This sweet baby girl is 7 today. My baby is 7. Is that possible?


Love that smile! I wish we could go back to Kansas and have this amazing photographer take some pictures again.

Love that attitude! She needs that spunk with all she goes through with Rett Syndrome. You can find out more about Rett here and here.

She may be nonverbal, but she still has a lot to say. This picture is from her 5th Birthday Tea Party. Sorry for all the links, but I would also like to share Tea Party Dreams just in case you haven't read our story before.

She is such a beautiful girl and we love her so much. I thank God for blessing us with this precious daughter.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl!

{Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Matthew 19:14}

Thank you, friends!

Oh, my! I want you all to know how much your sweet comments on my last post mean to me. I am so thankful to have so many friends and family praying for me. You have touched my heart.

Overall, we had a pretty relaxing weekend. Although we probably should have stayed home and got some projects done around the house, we decided to get away instead. Well, actually Friday was a visit to the children's hospital to get a short cast put on my son's arm. Two more weeks and he should be cast-free! We then did a little shopping - if you can call it that. I spent less than $20 in Target and $8 of that was laundry detergent.

The 8 year old always wants to go to Toys 'R Us when he sees one. I think he has been inside one only two or three times. Since we were going right by we decided to stop. His eyes got big as we pulled into the parking lot. Do you know what the great part is? He was perfectly content to just look - mostly at the legos. He never once asked to buy anything and as we were leaving he said, "Thank you, mommy, for letting me go to Toys 'R Us." When we got home it was right back to his huge tub of legos that I bought from the thrift store for $2!

On Saturday the 11 year old went on a youth group trip and we took the other two down to Shreveport to Sciport. Again, we rarely do anything like this and it was a lot of fun. Before heading out of town I ran into a huge Hobby Lobby and spent - are you ready for this? - $3.13! I bought one thing and used a 40% off coupon.

Well, I was going to make this a quick, short post. I am not doing a very good job. It feels good to blog again. Back to the subject of friends again.....

Several weeks ago I was at a garage sale and some children's books caught my eye (as they usually do). Rummaging through them, I could hardly contain my excitement when I saw this one......

A book about me! Seriously, it could have been my story. Published in 1979 (when I was 6), it is about a little mouse who is very shy and doesn't have any friends. Her mother keeps encouraging her and she eventually makes friends. So sweet!
"A friend is fun to have," said Vanessa. "Especially an everyday, sit-by-the-fire-and-talk friend."

So true.

{The sweet smell of incense can make you feel good, but true friendship is better still. Proverbs 27:9}

Honesty

This is strange. It has been so long since I have blogged that I don't even know where to begin. I guess I will just jump right in and be honest. I haven't blogged because I didn't feel like I had anything to share. Creative projects? Not really. Pretty photos? Nope. Exciting news? I wish.

Avoiding my blog has been easier than trying to sugar coat things. Then I read this post by Jerusalem and it made me realize that it was okay to share the not so pretty things of my life. We don't all live in a perfect little blog world. Why make everyone think we do?

Honestly, life has been rough. My hubby had an unwanted and unexpected job change. Along with that came a significant pay cut. Thankfully he still has a job. Unfortunately, because of the pay cut we had to put our house on the market. That makes me sad. And stressed. I have to have it ready to show at a moment's notice. I am not good at that.

I guess I haven't been able to spend much time on my porch anyway. My favorite part of the house has been neglected all summer. Sweet Girl is still having a lot of vomiting issues in the night and early in the morning. I love to drink my first cup of coffee of the morning on the porch. Instead I have had to stay inside watching/listening for Sweet Girl's gagging. Just being honest.

Then there is this. The 11 year old (yikes - 12 in just two weeks!) had a bike wreck and broke his arm four weeks ago. We take him back to Arkansas Children's Hospital tomorrow and they should be able to replace this cast with a short one. He will have that for a couple of weeks. Fun stuff.

Back to hubby's job situation. He immediately began looking for a new job and only found one to apply for. Others were not really in his field and/or in really undesirable locations. The good news? The job he did apply for is three hours from my family and five from his. It has been a prayer of ours to be able to get closer to family. So....they flew him up for an interview. We waited. Finally we heard that they had narrowed it down to two and he was one of them. They decided to make more reference calls. We waited. We are still waiting. Each day, each hour, passes with the hope of a phone call. Today they said hopefully by next week.

School will be starting soon and I don't even know where we will be living. All of life seems to be on hold. Hubby and I are exhausted due to the job stress and the lack of sleep with Sweet Girl. We are praying...a lot. And trying not to get discouraged. It is hard. Very hard.

I am still trying to "bloom right here" but, honestly, I'm not doing a very good job. That is the honest truth.

{Celebrate God. Sing together—everyone! All you honest hearts, raise the roof! Psalm 32:11}