Audio book Marriage to a Difficult Man

Sunrise at our country home.

 Hello Ladies,

I am stepping out of my usually once a week post to share a book that has been mentioned many times in paths I've crossed, whether online blogs or in person friends. The book is called Marriage to a Difficult Man by Ms. Dobbs.

The audio book found here Marriage to a Difficult Man is on SermonAudio.com and is free. The story is something I am enjoying as I go about my housework, though it is not as clear of a recording I would like, but I'm grateful it's free.

A free audio supports my goal this year to not purchase anything new unless it's replacing something. I am finding this is challenging, which is very good for me. 

Have a blessed day. Enjoy a cozy afternoon and cup of tea, and know I'm praying for you.

Dee

Christmas memories

Hello Ladies~

It's always a bittersweet time of year for me when we are past the Epiphany and it's time to take down the Christmas decorations. Before I do, I wanted to share wonderful Christmas memories.  These memories are made mostly during my marriage of almost 29 years. Prior to this, some memories are great and others not so great. 

I heard once we can recreate our holidays based on what makes us happy rather than what we are "suppose" to do. One lady I know started collecting holiday socks to wear, as a child she was not given that opportunity. Another story I've heard is of wearing fun holiday earrings, whether for Easter, Christmas, or Valentines, even her birthday she had little present earrings. So much fun!

For me, it was choosing to go away from the fancy decorated trees to a simple tree. Filled with memories. My husband and I love nice things, but in our hearts we are simple and love homemade and meaningful things. 

So my tree is a memory tree. My whole family knows this and each year before Christmas we scan the year and ask "What was the one most meaningful thing to us this year?" And then we hunt for an ornament. 

I even have an ornament of a tent camper with a little fire next to the tent. All you see is eyes peeking out from the tent and bear tracks outside. Well, this happened to us 3 years ago! We were tent camping and forgot to lock up the dog food and a bear stole the whole container! We found it off in the woods of the campground, with holes from his teeth and he/she ate the whole bag of dog food. Probably had a belly ache later. 

So we've been able to find all sorts of ornaments that represent the one major event of the year. This year, we wondered? Mask? or kitten? I don't want a mask ornament, so we are still hunting for a Ragdoll kitten ornament. So sweet and soft!

Here are some favorites on my tree:

The hand print of my grandson at 2 years old. They put glue on this hand, dipped in glitter then wrapped it around the little ball.  I love anything with handprints!

This was a magical year for me. I had always wanted to ride the Polar Express since we moved here. One year my husband's son, Evan, came out and graciously paid for all of us to ride the Polar Express. (The local train converts every year and we take a short ride north of town to the North Pole and see real reindeer). This was my ticket. My bell is on the tree too, and if you are wondering, yes we all wore pajamas. I had full footed bunny pj's with my snow boots, long coat, hat and scarf. It was so cold outside!

My sweet husband painted this for me when we were dating. I used to paint ceramics for fun, and he joined in one day. I have always treasured this as this is not something he usually does.

This sweet and simple little bell brings back a host of memories. We were stationed in Okinawa and my husband was gone. My youngest step-daughter was in Kindergarten and the school had a Christmas performance that each student held one of these to ring as they sang Jingle Bells. Oh my goodness were they cute!

1976  was one of the years I was in Brownies and we made these after school with our troop leader.  Such a long time ago, but good memories.

There is poor lighting here, but this is our lovely manger scene. Baby Jesus is hidden from view somewhere near until Christmas. Then the wise men "travel" across my living room from Christmas day to the Epiphany when they arrive at the stable. Yes, we still do this even though the kids are gone. One year the grandchildren helped move them along, that was fun. 

Sometimes I want to replace our stockings I made back in the first year of our marriage, but I always choose not to. The decorations on them were found at the Okinawan dollar store and the felt is what I had on hand. The toe of the girls stockings had a button that when pressed sang Jingle Bells. Memories. 

Thanks for letting me share with you. I hope this may inspire you to think of Creating your own Christmas or holiday memories.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New year,
Dee

Today is my birthday!

This is my favorite type of tea: frozen or fresh blueberries, hot water, and whipped cinnamon honey. So comforting!

Hello there to you!

Today is my birthday and I am so excited:

I have been through many things through my 50 something years and am excited to see what God has for me in the remaining years.  

My word this year is Create. To create joy, create relationships, create fun with my husband, create order and beauty in my home.

I have healed from Lyme, am journeying through menopause (albeit a rough one!), and can now say I have survived COVID. I have learned a great deal of Hope and Trust in God.  For it is by His hand that I am where I am today.

This season in my life has been much about reaching into that place in me that I so loved as a child, before the world said "you must do x", "your suppose to x".  What about the space of wonder, the place that gets terrible excited to get a bicycle bell for her new bike! (Yes, that was me last Christmas).  My husband as seen this part of me through the years, but now it's time to be genuine of those things I love. 

Like making baskets and weaving in recycled material, and doing away with plastic bags as much as possible. I've written about that before, so I won't go say too much here.

That I love to sit outside in the morning hours and watch the sun come up and thank the Lord for all the wonders of the earth and how they awaken more and more as the sun comes closer to full rise.

I love homemaking, but am learning it can't be my all. God created me to also create. The greatest flattery is imitation, I plan to use my word of the year to create more, and see what God has for me in learning more about "Create." To be more intentional about using recycled materials.

Seeing first hand how much I declutter, and take car loads down - but you can't tell, has opened my eyes to all the clutter I manage.  I have learned the term "inventory to manage" from Minimal Mom on you tube.  She has inspired me to relook at all the things sitting around that is actually using my mental energy. Trying to find time to clean out, put away, oil, tend to, dust, find a home for. All these things are "inventory to manage". I have other things I want to do in my life, so I am managing much inventory right out the door.

Since my oldest daughter and her family now live 4 hours from us, and my youngest daughter and her family (40 min from us) are very tied up with schooling from home and full time work, I am growing through a new season as a step-mom.  I raised them, but now see I can't put my life all around them. God made me for many things, this was one of them.

Fun is a word that I want to incorporate after almost a year of being home. Speaking of!!! 

Starting today! My husband joined me on a little walk on our snow packed gravel road. Coming back I noticed the road was very slippery so we did something WAY fun! I held his hands while being behind him and he ran just a bit so I could "ski". His shoes gripped better than my snow boots, so I was able to slide. Oh how fun! We did something like that YEARS ago when he was training in the Marine Corps. I put on my skates, and he put a jump rope around his waist and ran with me behind him. Oh you can only imagine!

Most of all my heart longs to reach out to every person who is home, lonely and forgotten. The ones that have no family. The ones who do have family but they are not involved for whatever reason. I would love to hug you and give you a lovely cup of tea to say "you ARE loved...by me and Someone greater than me."

Have a blessed day! If you have tea today pray for me, and I will pray for you.

D