Saturday, March 27, 2010

Friday, March 26, 2010

Fingerprint Friday - God's generous bounty

I see God's Fingerprints in all the good food we can buy at the grocery store. We found this HUGE cabbage the other day. It weighs 4 1/4 pounds! We're going to have some fried cabbage tonight and maybe some cole slaw later this weekend.




I also found some big beautiful leeks and made one of my favorite vegetarian recipes with tofu and kale. You cut the tofu in cubes and brown it in oil in a skillet, then add sliced leeks and chopped kale and seasonings (the recipe calls for sesame seeds but I didn't find any in the spice cabinet so I added salt, basil and garlic). Add 1/4" of water, cover, and simmer about 10 minutes till the kale is soft. Yum!




Friday at 7:00 PM: Here is half of the head of cabbage fried by my husband.




 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food." ~ Genesis 1:29

~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~

There is a song by Steven Curtis Chapman that says:
I can see the fingerprints of God
When I look at you
I can see the fingerprints of God
And I know it's true
You're a masterpiece
That all creation quietly applauds
And you're covered with the fingerprints of God

So look around you and see where YOU can see God's fingerprints. Is it in nature? Kids? Animals? Where do you see them? To find out how to join "Fingerprint Friday" and see links to other posts, visit Beki at The Rusted Chain.


Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Life's Journey

Just happened across this poem and thought I'd share. It says so many things I've learned over the years.
[from livinglifefully.com]

An encouraging journey. . . .lessons on perspective



Life's Journey

Do not undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others.

It is because we are different that each of us is special.



Do not set your goals by what other people deem important.

Only you know what is best for you.

Do not take for granted the things closest to your heart.



Cling to them as you would your life, for without them, life is meaningless.

Do not let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past nor for the future.

By living your life one day at a time, you live all of the days of your life.

Do not give up when you still have something to give.

Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.

It is a fragile thread that binds us to each other.



Do not be afraid to encounter risks.

It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.

Do not shut love out of your life by saying it is impossible to find.

The quickest way to receive love is to give love.

The fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly.


In addition, the best way to keep love is to give it wings.










Do not dismiss your dreams.

To be without dreams is to be without hope.

To be without hope is to be without purpose.

Do not run through life so fast that you forget not only where you have been,

but also where you are going.

Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way.



Friday, March 19, 2010

Fingerprint Friday - Blooming!


I feel like the earth is holding its breath. Will it snow again? Is it safe for everything to burst forth in bloom? Even during this week's rainy, overcast days, there are tiny signs of spring - a few brave flowers daring to poke their tiny shoots out of the ground and a few brave bushes daring to open their blossoms on long-barren branches.

I was so excited to see this forsythia in bloom on the grounds at work today. There is hope.

"Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these."  - Matthew 6: 28 - 29


~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~

There is a song by Steven Curtis Chapman that says:
I can see the fingerprints of God
When I look at you
I can see the fingerprints of God
And I know it's true
You're a masterpiece
That all creation quietly applauds
And you're covered with the fingerprints of God

So look around you and see where YOU can see God's fingerprints. Is it in nature? Kids? Animals? Where do you see them? To find out how to join "Fingerprint Friday" and see links to other posts, visit Beki at The Rusted Chain.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Featured!


Thanks to Eaindar for featuring my face pendant in "Daily Beautiful Picks" on her Crafty Dream blog! Check out her shop at earringsnation on etsy.



Saturday, March 13, 2010

The Miracle of the Carpenter

I signed up for emails from Max Lucado this week, and this is the first one I got. I love this story and just want to share. It's an excerpt from his book "In the Eye of the Storm."


The Miracle of the Carpenter
by Max Lucado
Loretto Chapel took five years to complete. Modeled after the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, its delicate sanctuary contains an altar, a rose window, and a choir loft.
The choir loft is the reason for wonder.
Were you to stand in the newly built chapel in 1878, you might see the Sisters of Loretto looking forlornly at the balcony. Everything else was complete: the doors had been hung, the pews had been placed, the floor had been laid. Everything was finished. Even the choir loft. Except for one thing. No stairs.
The chapel was too small to accommodate a conventional stairway. The best builders and designers in the region shook their heads when consulted. "Impossible," they murmured. There simply wasn't enough room. A ladder would serve the purpose, but mar the ambiance.
The Sisters of Loretto, whose determination had led them from Kentucky to Santa Fe, now faced a challenge greater than their journey: a stairway that couldn't be built.
What they had dreamed of and what they could do were separated by fifteen impossible feet.
So what did they do? The only thing they could do. They ascended the mountain. Not the high mountains near Santa Fe. No, they climbed even higher. They climbed the same mountain that Jesus climbed 1,800 years earlier in Bethsaida. They climbed the mountain of prayer.
As the story goes, the nuns prayed for nine days. On the last day of the novena, a Mexican carpenter with a beard and a wind-burned face appeared at the convent. He explained that he had heard they needed a stairway to a chapel loft. He thought he could help.
The mother superior had nothing to lose, so she gave him permission.
He went to work with crude tools, painstaking patience, and uncanny skill. For eight months he worked.
One morning the Sisters of Loretto entered the chapel to find their prayers had been answered. A masterpiece of carpentry spiraled from the floor to the loft. Two complete three-hundred-sixty-degree turns. Thirty-three steps held together with wooden pegs and no central support. The wood is said to be a variety of hard fir, one nonexistent in New Mexico!
When the sisters turned to thank the craftsman, he was gone. He was never seen again. He never asked for money. He never asked for praise. He was a simple carpenter who did what no one else could do so singers could enter a choir loft and sing.
See the stairway for yourself, if you like. Journey into the land of Enchantment. Step into this chapel of amazement and witness the fruit of prayer.
Or, if you prefer, talk to the Master Carpenter yourself. He has already performed one impossible feat in your world. He, like the Santa Fe carpenter, built a stairway no one else could build. He, like the nameless craftsman, used material from another place. He, like the visitor to Loretto, came to span the gap between where you are and where you long to be.
Each year of his life is a step. Thirty-three paces. Each step of the stair is an answered prayer. He built it so you can climb it.


And sing.



Friday, March 12, 2010

Fingerprint Friday - First sign of Spring!


Last week's snow has melted and I was ecstatic to see LITTLE FLOWERS blooming in the grass bordering the parking area at church on Sunday! Everyone's hoping we won't get any more snow and that Spring is here to stay.

For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape, give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
 ~ Song of Solomon (ch. II, v. 11-12)


~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~

There is a song by Steven Curtis Chapman that says:
I can see the fingerprints of God
When I look at you
I can see the fingerprints of God
And I know it's true
You're a masterpiece
That all creation quietly applauds
And you're covered with the fingerprints of God

So look around you and see where YOU can see God's fingerprints. Is it in nature? Kids? Animals? Where do you see them? To find out how to join "Fingerprint Friday" and see links to other posts, visit Beki at The Rusted Chain.




Saturday, March 06, 2010

Friday, March 05, 2010

Fingerprint Friday - Guess what we got?


Woohoo! More snow!


This past Tuesday we had another snowstorm. It snowed ALL day and our area got around 5-7 inches. We've had so much this year, I'm beginning to feel like a "snow connoisseur" - able to differentiate various kinds of snow. This one was different than the other two big storms we had this winter - very wet and fluffy, like cotton. All the tree branches and bushes had big clumps of snow sitting on top of them.

At one point there were huge flakes, medium size flakes and small flakes - all falling at the same time - quite amazing!

Even though I'm SO tired of snow and looking forward to spring, I have to admit that this one was quite beautiful. Even better, it melted enough by Wednesday morning that I was able to go to work. :)


He sends His command to the earth;
his word runs swiftly.
He spreads the snow like wool
and scatters the frost like ashes.-
Psalm 147: 15-16


~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~
There is a song by Steven Curtis Chapman that says:
I can see the fingerprints of God
When I look at you
I can see the fingerprints of God
And I know it's true
You're a masterpiece
That all creation quietly applauds
And you're covered with the fingerprints of God

So look around you and see where YOU can see God's fingerprints. Is it in nature? Kids? Animals? Where do you see them? To find out how to join "Fingerprint Friday" and see links to other posts, visit Beki at The Rusted Chain.