Fair Entries

Good EARLY morning y'all!   I got my stuff entered in the fair yesterday to be judged in a few hours.   I should be sleeping, instead I have a case of nervous insomnia.  Just can't sleep.    So, hopefully after I get this update done I can get another couple of hours of sleep.

I had never worked at the fair before, so after I got all of my stuff entered yesterday, I checked around to see if anyone needs another warm body to attend a booth.  (I really do mean a warm body too, because it was sooooo hot and humid!!!!)  Well, I found out one of the booths did need someone, so I went and the lady and I hit it off.  We will get there in a little while for the judging to take place at 9:00am.   I am nervous.   Of course, I want everything I made to place.   But, I am also realistic.   I know that very little of it will, if any.   But, it was fun making all of it.

Holiday-Easter-Crucifixion-The ribbon on my Crucifixion was won at Cultural Arts and I didn't take another pic.  (File made by DoodlingDeb)

Amateur Photography-Color-The same with my Frozen Pines. 

Amateur Photography-Color-And my Fat Bird. 

Original Art-Dogwood Sculpture

Holiday-Thanksgiving-Rosette Pumpkin

Related Arts and Crafts-Decorated Tile, 4x4

Holiday-Christmas Card Holder

Holiday-Stocking-Any Material

Holiday-Christmas Door Hanger-Embroidered In the hoop door knob hanger

Related Arts and Crafts-Stamped Card-A Penny Duncan file was used to create the card

Related Arts and Crafts-Stamped Item-Click your heels card

Holiday-Christmas Ornaments, not needlework-Layered ornaments

Related Arts and Crafts-Wall Hanging-Card stock Quilt representing 147 yrs. of the Robertson County Fair

Related Arts and Crafts-Scrapbook page-Halloween

Related Arts and Crafts-Stamping photo or journal-Waterfall Folio-(pic does not show stamping I done on it)

Inside of the Waterfall folio

Holiday-Christmas-Rosette Tree

Holiday-Valentines-Decorated Plaque

Holiday-Halloween-Decorated Plaque

Related Arts and Crafts-Jewelry-3 separate entries-Necklace-Bracelet-Earrings

Related Arts and Crafts-Hand made picture-Crocus in the Snow

Original Art-Oil Painting-Beach Scene

There is actually one more piece, but for the life of me, I don't remember what it is and I didn't go get my claim tickets to figure it out.   When I do, I will add it later.

Well, this is my entries for the fair, such as they are.   Hopefully some of it will at least place.  At any rate, these are points for my Family Community Education Club.

For all you early birds, good morning!   For those of you who are still sleeping, I am envious.  gggg   I hope and pray that y'all have a wonderful day today.   Enjoy all the beauty of it and tell someone you know that Gods loves them.   Someone needs to hear that today and that someone just may be someone in your sphere of influence.   We never know what other people are going through and dealing with, but we do know that everyone needs hope, and our hope comes only from Jesus Christ.  If you are looking at the world, expecting to find hope, friends, you are looking in the wrong place.   Jesus Christ is the One and only source of True hope! 

Ladybug, sweet pea loves you!  Have a great day!

If I have any exciting news, I will let y'all know.   But until then, Be Blessed and remember that God loves y'all and so do I.   hugs, Patty

From Necklace to Pin

Good morning Y'all.   I hope and pray that this message finds each and every one of y'all enjoying TGIF day.   ggg   It has been a good, but busy week for me.   I still have a lot to do, but, I don't have as much to do as I did, WooHoo!!    Praises to God for that.   I have my Sunday School lesson to finish tackling in a while, but before I do that, I have something to share with y'all today.   I also want to pick up where I left off with Psalm 23.   I think that is what I will do first.

Psalm 23:2  "He makes me to lie down in green pastures: He leads me beside still waters."

Oh, I love this.   How the sheep and "us" are so much alike in so many ways.   Sheep, by nature, are a very jittery, nervous animal.   Any kind of disturbance or intrusion scare the sheep.   Can you relate, even just a little bit, to this description of the behavior of sheep?   Oh, I sure can.   It is hard to sleep with a disturbance going on out in the neighborhood.   It was hard for us, to lay down after someone tried to break in to our house, twice, about 2 years ago.   So, I can relate very well to the nervousness of the sheep.

But.....when the sheep feel safe and secure, they will lay down and sleep in the green pastures.   God is our shepherd, He is ever watching over us.   There are things of this world that is always trying to rob us of our security.   There are things that happen to shake us and stir us to the core.   But, God has got us eternally secure, if you have placed your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

The second phrase, "He leads me beside the still waters" is interesting also, in keeping with the sheep and their behavior.   Sheep are afraid of rapidly running waters.   They just don't like it.   Think about it, rapidly running water has a tendency to increase the heart rate.   Go and set beside an over the bank, rapidly running river and see what it does to you.   Then come back to it when the waters are calm and peaceful.   It is exciting to set by the rapidly running river for a little while, but it is really more peaceful to sit by that same stream of water when it is calm.   You can hear the trickle of water over the rocks in the stream.   This, in itself has a calming effect on the soul.   As opposed to the loud roar of the rapidly running river in your ears.

God's provision of the calm flowing stream has a soothing and calming effect on the sheep.   We all have troubled waters in our lives from time to time, but God is the one that can make those troubled waters into a calm flowing stream.   One that you can find rest and peace and solace beside.   I pray that if you are going through turbulent waters, that you will ask God to still the waters for you.   God is waiting to be your shepherd, through His Son, Jesus Christ.   The Lord wants to be your Shepherd, let Him.

Now, to the "necklace to pin" that I mentioned in my title.   I was recently at one of my fav shopping haunts, Cato, and I was checking out the clearance rack of jewelry.   I found a lovely necklace.   Actually there was a lot of them, but one jumped right in my hand, (hehehe) and I knew it wanted me to take it home.    So, I rescued it form just hanging there and not being enjoyed.   What else was I to do, really?

I got home with my new treasure and I really didn't like the way it hung around my neck.   It was a little wonky.   I said it was bashful, because it stayed turned around and all you could see was the backside of it.   In all actuality, when I seen it on the rack, I thought to myself, that would be a lovely pin!   So, after it wouldn't hang straight, I said, ok I can make a pin out of you.   So, yesterday I got out my jewelry tools and E6000 and low temp hot glue gun and the operation started.   After a few minor surgical procedures and a little gluing up, it was better than new.

This is what it started out looking like.   Nice, isn't it?    And to think it just jumped in my hand!   hehehe

I didn't want to show all the dirty surgical procedures, I think some of you may be squeamish.   But, I removed the chain and and the bail on the back of the necklace.  I put a coating of E6000 on the inside to seal the stones on the front that you could see from the back.   I then used my low temp glue gun and filled the back with it and set my pin back down in it a bit.  When that had set pretty good, I took more of the E6000 glue and put just a bit on top of the pin back to secure it to the hot glue and this morning, I will call it a success.

 This is my parrot minus the chain.  I am over the top about my new pin.   I told y'all I got it off the clearance rack.   I purposely did not tell you what I gave for it.  Make a wild guess.   Go ahead.   Pick a number, any number.   Nope, too high.   Ha, still too high.   Ok, drum roll please.......$1.99!   Yup, that's right folks.   They almost paid me to take it off their hands.   I will definitely be looking at necklaces in a new light now.   I have seen many in the past, but did not get them, but now, that's a different thing.   Knowing I can make a pin out of those big and beautiful baubles, watch out!!!!

By the way, no parrot was harmed in the making of this blog post!   Hahahaha

Hello ladybug, sweet pea hopes you are doing good and staying cool.  Love you bunches and hope to see you soon.

Have a great rest of the day Y'all!   Come back soon, as I will be sharing pics of my Fair entries.  (I can probably call most of them clinkers, already.  I know some of you know what a clinker is, if you've ever burned coal for heating purposes.)

Tell someone you know that God wants to be their Shepherd, today.   God loves y'all and so do I.   Till next time....hugs, Patty 

August Painting

Good early evening y'all!!!!     I do pray that y'all are enjoying this wonderful day.    In my neck of the woods, we were supposed to have a 50/50 chance of thunderstorms, but instead, we've had about 85-90 % humidity!    UGH!!    Can I tell y'all about "bad hair" days?    This is one of those days, but hey, I'm learning to just go with the flow.   WooHoo, bad hair and all.   I am just rockin' it out and proud to have hair and proud even more to be a part of this wonderful day.

Psalm 118:24 says, "This is the day the that LORD had made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."

So, with that in mind, it kinda makes a bad hair day, still a great day!    When things are sometimes going wrong, I will sing this verse out loud over and over and over until I can rejoice and be glad.   It helps me to put things in perspective.   I have two choices.    Every day is filled with choices.   We have no idea how many choices we do make in a days time.   Because we make choices without even thinking about it.   So, back to the two choices, I can either choose to be grumpy or I can choose to be glad to be a part of the most spectacular day.   Makes no matter what day it is, or whats going on, or how bad we may think it is.    The LORD made the day, He opted for you and me to be a part of it, and we have to decide to rejoice and be glad in it.   Some times it just flat out ain't easy y'all, but if we will decide that we are going to rejoice and be glad in it, that decision alone will make rest of your day go better.    Try it y'all, it will.   There is always going to be obstacles and hurdles to overcome.   Overcoming them with a good and positive attitude will make the next one that comes along a little easier to face.    So, "This is the day the that LORD had made; I will rejoice and be glad in it."

Thank you Father, for this day, and help me to make the best of every opportunity You put before me.   Amen.

So, today was another pretty neat day for me.   We had to take hubby's truck in early this morning to have a sensor in it replaced.   When we got back from taking the truck in, I fixed breakfast for us and then headed off to my once a month activity.   Oil Painting!    I have to say that I am in love with it.   This is the second one I have done and I just can't say how much I truly enjoy it.   I did take step by step pics like I did in June when I took the first class.   I hope you enjoy the pics and watching my canvas come alive.

The lighting was not good, so my pics are not great at all plus I had to cover faces up, that's why there is some funny white spots on some of the pics.  This first pic is of the liquid white covering the whole canvas for the oil paint to float over and spread easily.   Then, we took our yellow and laid in some sky.

This one, we added a bit of red to the top of the canvas and then around  in the yellow to create a pinkish, orange sky in areas.

Next we used the blue to make our water.  I wanted mine to look like it was kinda choppy water.

Next we used black and white to create gray and we used it to make a far away, distant mountain range.   The smaller your mountain range looks, the farther away it is.   The farther away it is, the less detail the eyes can make out.

Next, we took two more colors, I think one was a dark green and a lighter green and mixed them together and started putting in our greenery and land mass on the right hand side of the canvas.

Then we took brown and white and used our little liner brush and twirled it and made a sharp point and drew in our dead trees and limbs.

Then we mixed some green and yellow and laid in a little of that all over just to give some highlights all over the greenery.   It really perks it up some.

In this pic we took a brush that we had wiped off and laid it at the bottom of our greenery and pulled down, just to blur the line and make shadows in the water.

Next we took out knife blade a got a line of the white and green and then laid it in the area at the water we had just blurred a bit to make the foamy look of lapping water.

Next, we took the really dark mixture and and made another land mass on the left hand side and took our brush and drew upward to make the look of grass on the knoll.

We took our liner brush and the brown and white paint and made more little dead twigs and weeds along the bank.   We took one of the larger brushes again and tapped it into the green and yellow and tapped that over our little land mass  and it makes the little trees and twigs look like that actually grew out of the soil.

This is my finished and framed picture.   I am so thrilled with it.    I am so thrilled with meeting new people and making new friends.    I wish you could have seen my husband when he seen it.   His face lit up like a Christmas tree.   And of course, that just made me tickled pink, y'all.

I have been the worlds worst person about not doing things, because I thought I had to be perfect.   Well, I'm not perfect, no one is, so I'm trying to get over that and just have fun.    I believe what ever we invest time in, we need to try to have fun doing it.   If we do, it will show in the end results. 

Like I said earlier, this is my second painting.   The first one I done was on June 16th.   If you missed it, look on the right hand side of my blog and go to June and then scroll till you see "A Special Day" and you will see it.   It is so much fun and relaxing.

So, this is another "fun little piece" of life.    Hope y'all enjoyed it and I hope y'all will come back again real soon.    Have a great rest of the day.

God Bless Y'all!!!    Remember, God loves y'all and so do I!  hugs, Patty

Celebration Goin' On Y'all

Good morning y'all!    What's everyone doin' today?    I hope and pray that everyone is doing well and have a fantastic day planned.    I just checked with Weather Bug, and she says it's supposed to be really mild temps today.    The high is said to be 79*.    That is almost unheard of for the dog days of August, but hey, I'll take it and be happy for it, because I know it will be hot again, sooner than later.

I have a couple of projects to share with y'all today.   I have been really busy working on other stuff that I just can't wait to share with y'all in the near future.   But, for today, I have a couple of small projects to share.   The first one is a card that I sent to a young friend on her birthday.

I love this shoe stamp.   I love the flowers on it and I love the possibilities of all the different colors.   I went with yellow and orange on this one and I do love the way it turned out.   I colored it with my Spectrum Noir alcohol markers.

The card base is craft card stock.    I really like that for a different effect at times.   I put some pale blue flat back gems in the corners.

I stamped the image on a stipple cut card topper that I had roughed the edges up.   I used my trusty clear star gelly roll pen on this card to get that bit of sheen and shine going on.   I love the cute little dragonfly too.

The next project, takes a totally different turn for me.    It was fun though.   So, I hope you like it.

Ok, so I went to my favorite local store, our new Dollar Tree pretty soon after opening back in May and they had thousands of these fedora style hats.   That was what was on the label.   hahaha    I walked right by, and then I turned and thought, "ah, why not", so I tossed it in my buggy.    It was plain.   It had nothing but the band.   So, when I got home, I had a box of flower layers and I picked out what I wanted to make a flower with and used a brad to hold the layers together and then I very carefully worked the arms of the brad through the weave of the hat and put my flower on there.   I really like it for a "bad hair day".    You have heard of some of my bad hair days as of late, so this is a tremendous help.

So, I decided I wanted to jazz my hat up a bit and used this hair clip that I got a the Masquerade Hospital Jewelry sale.   I got it because it was "purple".    That's good enough reason for me to buy just about anything.   But, I really liked the way it classed up my hat. 

So, this one is of some daisies that I had gotten at another on of my favorite places to shop, Mighty Dollar, up in Russellville, Ky.    It was a clear box, full of these flowers to use on projects.    I placed three of them on a piece of acetate and used pop dots to stick it to the band of my hat.   I really like this one a lot.

This is of all three hat toppers, side by side.     Ok, so around the first of the month we had what's called "Fashion Revue" through our FCE groups in the county.    We were to model our favorite, least expensive, great purchase.    So, I figured since I gave only a dollar for the hat and the two small flower pieces came to about 10 to 15 cents a piece and then the purple one was $5.00.    So my hat with three interchangeable hat toppers cost about $6.25.   I modeled my hat for the "accessories" category and  actually won 2nd place.   I did not expect to win anything!   It was fun, though, it kinda got me outta my comfort zone.   So, I hope you enjoyed these projects.

As I leave you this morning, I leave you with this favorite scripture:  Psalm23:1  "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want".

Have you ever thought about those simple words?    How many times have we read it and quoted it, but how many times have we stopped and thought about those simple words.    When David wrote this Psalm, he was writing from his own experiences.   David was a shepherd in his youth.   And he likened his relationship with God to that of a shepherd.    When David said "The Lord is my shepherd", he was speaking of the same trust that sheep have in their shepherd.  A good shepherd will protect and lead and direct his sheep to the most fertile grass and sweetest stream of water all the while standing guard and watch over his flock, to protect them.    Sheep follow their shepherd out of obedience to their shepherd.   Their shepherd would always protect them and provide for them, because the shepherd loved his sheep.   The sheep recognized their shepherds voice and the shepherd recognized the calls of his sheep.

David then says, "I shall not want".    Sheep are totally dependent upon their shepherd for guidance, protection and provision.    A good shepherd will take his herd to the best grassy field and the clearest, coolest, freshest streams of water.   A good shepherd will take care or his sheep to the point that they will have no needs or wants, because all needs are met.

This is the image that David is giving of himself, as the sheep and the Lord as his shepherd.    David knew that God had only his best interests at heart.   David knew that God would protect him and that God would provide for him.

I love looking at this scripture, and I hope that you do too.   I pray that you recognize "The Lord" as your "Shepherd".    I pray that you recognize the voice of God as your Shepherd.    Just know that God always has your best interest at heart.   I pray that if you have heard and felt the call of the Shepherd on your life, that you will listen and follow the Lord as your Shepherd.    Your life will not be pain free, but you will never have to take another breath alone.    The Good Shepherd is waiting to be your Shepherd.     I pray that you will let Him.

The title of my blog post today is "Celebration Goin' On Y'all".    What is the celebration about?     One year ago today, I started my blog at the direction and guidance of the Holy Spirit.    Who am I to have a blog?    What do I do or have to say that anyone would be interested in seeing and reading?    I still haven't quite figured that out yet, but I had the assurance that if I keep God first place in all I do, then this venture will be successful.   Y'all have helped this become a success story for me.    As of this morning, I have had over 70 countries and more than 460 thousand visits to my blog and google+, for that, I am most thankful!!!   For many of you, you have that many visits in two or three months and that is wonderful!   For me, I never figured I would ever have a thousand  hits in 10 years.    God is good and faithful!     So, I am thankful for each and every visit that y'all have given me.   There are many places on the web that you could be, but at this moment you are here.    Just know that I appreciate that and I do not take that lightly.    I pray that y'all will continue to visit and tell your friends about this little corner of the web where I share "Fun little pieces of Life", one piece at a time.

I thank you for your visits and I appreciate all the comments that y'all have left for me over the past year.    I pray that you'll continue to check this place out form time to time and that you will take something good away from time to time.

Ladybug, I pray that you are doing well and hope to see you soon.   Sweetpea loves you.

Have a blessed day y'all.   Just know that God loves y'all and so do I.  hugs, Patty

August Card Ministry

Good morning Y'all!     I hope this fine morning finds each and every one of y'all doin' "finer that frog hair"!      Now, that's fine, don't ya know!     Don't y'all just love some of the old timey sayins'?     Well, I sure do.     I think I'm gonna have to keep a note pad with me at all times, and when one comes to mind, or if I hear a good one, I'll write it down so I can share it with y'all, and give y'all a little chuckle for the day.    "Finer than frog hair" always makes me smile.    I'll bet it did you too.

I wanted to share the cards we made at Card Ministry night at church.    There was four of us there on Monday night.    We were down a bit in number, but not in heart.    We always love our time together.     Just sharing with each other a bit about how mean we "may" have been growing up.   hahaha    Not sayin' we were, just sayin' we "may" have been.     There's a big difference.     I am not admitting to or confessing to anything.    hahahaha      Oh well, I think I drifted a bit from the purpose of this post.    hahahaha

So, we made the usual three different cards.    Each one is lovely.    I just love how the ideas that the lady who brings this together each month keeps it fresh and fun with beautiful cards.    Then to see on Sundays the ladies in our Sunday School class looking over them like they are little mini treasures, which, by the way, they are.    So, as usual, I took pics and would love to share them with y'all.

Ok, this first one, simple black and white, but such a statement it makes.    I think it is sooooo elegant.    Very much like the red, white and black one we made in July.    After I got home with mine, I did take my faux stickles and put just a spot on each flower.    You can't see it well at all in this pic, but, in hand, it adds just that little bit of "bling".    Ohhhh, a bit of bling makes me happy!

Ok, now, this one is so gorgeous!!!!!    I just love it.    Perfect for weddings or anniversaries.    I am over the top about this card.

Now, this one, is more on the fun side.   The other two were elegant, now this one is fun.    Do any of y'all remember the folk song back a few years ago that Joan Baez (I do believe it was her, it may not have been though) that went something like this, "If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the morning, I'd hammer in the evening, all over this land.    I'd hammer out warning, I'd hammer out danger, I'd hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters, all over this land".    Well, that's where my mind went when I seen this card and I started singing the song.    Now, I DO NOT sing good at all y'all!    So, they was happy when I started singing to myself.     hahaha     But, I figure with this card, I have my hammer and I can start hammering out all the things that need hammering.  (News flash: My hubby just informed me, as of 12:37 pm that it was Peter, Paul and Mary that sang the Hammer song.    There was many others that sang it, but the version going thru my head was theirs.   Thanks hubby!)

All the cuts for these cards was cut on her Big Shot machine, or punched from StampinUp punches.    I don't know where the Mr and Mrs die cut came from.    But, I really enjoyed making these cards and I hope you enjoyed looking at them.

I hope that each and every one of y'all have a special day planned today.    I pray that as you go about your day that you will ask God to let you see the world thru His eyes today.    I pray that you will take the time to pray for sick and hurting across the globe.    I pray you will pray for the sick and hurting in your neighborhood, in your families, and in your churches.    There are a lot of people who need hope.     This world does not offer hope.   Our hope is found only in Jesus Christ.

Look at this scripture.    Romans 12:12  "Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, and be constant in prayer."

I immediately see that we are to rejoice in our hope.    My hope is in Jesus Christ.   Jesus said that we are to "take up our cross daily" and follow Him.    Following Jesus is not easy.    If you are a follower of Christ, you know what I mean.    There are many distractions on the road of following Christ.   We must stay focused.    Paul went on to say that we are to be "patient in tribulation".    Really!     Patience and tribulation is a formula that does not mix.    But....this is what Paul told us to do.    "Tribulation" is a temporary situation.    If we hold on to our hope, which is in Christ, it will be worth it.    Some of our major growth spurts in the Lord has come during tribulation.     If you go thru a trying time and you don't grow in your relationship with the Lord, you may find yourself going through it again.    I always try to have the mind set to ask the Lord, what do I need to learn from this situation?     Help me learn what I need to learn, so I don't have to keep repeating this.   Then Paul said to "be in constant prayer".     That is one of the best pieces of advice I could give anyone, just exactly what Paul told us to do.    I always want that constant communication going on.    I thank God for the good and ask Him to help me withstand the bad and thank Him in every situation.    If we are focused on Christ, then the temporary things of this world, as bad as they can be and may be, will not steal our joy.    If I can praise God thru it, then someone else may see that it is possible to  "Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, and be constant in prayer." 

I pray that as you go about your day, that you will be "Rejoicing in hope, being patient in tribulation, and being constant in prayer."    Have a great day.   Thank God for it and share your hope with someone today that may never have heard of the hope in Jesus Christ.

Ladybug, I hope you stay cool in the village today and that you have a great day.   Sweetpea loves you.

I hope you enjoyed your visit here today and that you will come back real soon.   Be blessed in this day, y'all.   God loves y'all, so do I, hugs Patty

Grungy Card # 3

Well, guess what y'all?    It's August!!!   Oh my!    Where has summer gone?    Technically, it's still summer, but with school starting back today, it seems like it has been a short summer.    I can remember back in the day, when school let out the middle to the end of May and didn't start back up until after Labor Day!    Sure makes me feel old, recalling the "olden days".   hahahaha

I wanted to share my third grungy card.    Back in July when I posted about the first one, I said I had three, so this is the last one.    I am really enjoying learning my Spectrum Noir markers.    I don't know that I'll ever get as good as I hope to get with them, but I have had a good time working with them.

I hope y'all like this card.    I had a good time making it.    It is so amazing at how little it really takes to make a difference.    I hope you can see what I'm talking about in a minute, when you start looking at the pics.

I really had fun with this one.    I love the pink and green combo.   The embossing folder is quickly becoming a fav.    I inked the edge of the green with pink ink.   Then also the edge of the stamped image.    It is stipple cut, to mimic a ragged edge and then I even used my sandpaper on the edge of it too.    I had a very small bit of ivy vine that I had cut and I used a sprig in the upper and lower right hand corners.    I took two short pieces of grosgrain ribbon and just knotted it together and trimmed the ends and fluffed the ends out and I really like that look.    On the left hand corners, I put flat back pink pearls.  

On this one you can see where I used my trusty Sakura gelly roll pen in clear star just for a bit of sheen.    You really don't see it front on, but if you look at an angle, you see it really well.    I enjoy the look.    It's blingy without obvious bling.

I put it on the flower and the foliage of the flower.   

Ok, so this is where I was talking about a very small amount of something making a huge difference.    Do you see what I'm talking about?    I took my liquid pearls and made very tiny dots on some of the squares of the embossed area.   I have to tell you, in hand, it made a tremendous difference.   It was just the icing on the cake, er, card.    ggg

Hope you enjoyed that.   Now, off to something just a little different.    Make that a lot different!!!!

Ok y'all, I don't like snakes.   I want to say that again, "I don't like snakes!!"   Not in the least little bit, no way, no how, not gonna happen in this lifetime.   Nada, zilch, nope, not gonna happen!!!!    So, the week I was preparing to go up to Ky, I was out and about, getting things ready for my absence at home, for a bit.   I was getting ready to make a quick run to the grocery store and out the back door I went and bounded down the steps off the deck and was getting ready to go to the garage and something at the back of the garage caught my eye, just as I breezed by.   I stopped, stepped back a couple of steps and looked over my right shoulder, and I screamed and jumped and ran back up the steps, my hubby thought a "booger" had scared me.   I said "not hardly, I scare "boogers", they don't have a chance."    But what did scare me is what is in the picture below.

After I got over my initial shock, I got my cellphone outta my purse and took a couple of pics of it.   You see the numbers on it.   Ok, while in Ky, I was showing my brothers what I had a pic of.   One of them asked me how long it was.    I measured out with both hands to what the length of about 3 1/2 or 4 feet.   I thought it was from #1 and #2.    He said, look at that thing again, it's longer than that.   Well, I looked at it again and zoomed in on it some and I'm tellin' ya', I almost passed out!!!!!   It was a foot longer than I had originally thought.   In reality, it is between 5 and 6 feet long!    Now, here's what gets me, where there's one, there's always another one!    Now, every time I leave the house, I'm looking for a snake!!!!   Did I happen to mention, "I don't like snakes!!"    One thing Jim Stafford and I have in common is this, "I don't like spiders and snakes!"    (Some of you will know who Jim Stafford is, others will have to google him.   ggg)

This got me to thinking when I was a kid, maybe seven or so.    Our kitchen was at the back of the house, behind the living room and it was bumped out on the end so there was an outside door that was on the front of the house, because it faced the front.    It was a small covered porch and three or four poured concrete steps.   Once on the porch, you could look directly up, and there was the attic entrance that was covered with maybe a piece of plywood that you would just move it to one side if you needed to go to the attic and then move it back over the entrance.    It wasn't used for any kind of storage, so it wasn't used much.    On the wall just under the roof of the porch was an outside light.   Just a single bulb with a kind of clearish, whiteish globe.    I was getting ready to come in the kitchen and looked up just as I stepped up on the porch and there was a huge black snake hanging around that light fixture, just like you would wrap a scarf around your neck to hang evenly, that's how that snake was hanging there!!   I screamed and ran back off the porch and my family came running, anyone that was home came running to see what the commotion was.  All I could do was point and say "there".    It was at least five or six feet long.    It scared the stink plum out of me.    I never went in that back door again without looking closely to see if there was a snake.    I asked how it got up there.   Someone suggested that maybe it was coming from the attic and I said, "you mean we live in that house with snakes in the attic!!!"    My brother said, "If that's where it came from, it came from the attic, and not the house, so it wasn't in the house."    My argument, "Technically, it was in the house, and I was in the house."     Did I happen to mention, I just flat out don't like snakes!!!

Which brings to mind, another reason I don't like snakes.    My grandparents lived in a big, old house out close to the church they went to.    Another house came available on the same road, but it was out closer to the main highway and they decided they wanted to move to that house.    If I remember correctly, the same land owner owned it that owned the one they was already living in.   So, he was gonna let them move in the one closer to the road.    It needed fixing up some, so my mom and dad was helping with cleaning and renovation of the house before they moved.     The two houses was a pretty good ways apart from each other.   Probably a mile or so.    There was a dirt tractor path through the farm area from one house to the other.    When mom and dad was at the house working  and the older boys helping, the younger ones of us could go over to Ma and Pa's and visit with them for a spell.   

The dirt on the path was as fine as powder.   Any barefoot tracks really shown.   If you knew the feet, you could easily pick out who they belonged to, just by seeing the prints in the dirt.    My two youngest brothers and I was walking along going over to see Ma and they were ahead of me by a little bit.   I was just moseying along and for some reason, I happened to look back over my shoulder and here came a "black racer" snake chasing me!!!    He had his head off the ground at least a foot and he was coming after me and I never seen anything like that before.    I screamed, and started running and ran and ran and ran and I didn't stop running till I got to Ma's house and I never made that walk through the dirt path again.  

I was talking about that with some of my brothers and mom and one of my brothers said that if I would have turned around and ran back at it, that I would have scared it as bad or more than it scared me.    I said, "Yeah, right! I still hate snakes!"   Now, I don't know if I could have scared the snake as bad as it scared me or not, but I would not have EVEN tried it back then for sure!    Not so sure I would try it now.    But, then again, I might have to do a stare down with one now, because now I could not "haul self" (run like the dickens)  like I did back then, when I was young.    Oh, to be young again, and be able to run from a snake!!!!    Even through all the years that have passed since these two incidents with snakes, "I STILL HATE SNAKES!!!"    Yup, that's right, still a sissy when it comes to all things slithery!    hahaha   Bet some of y'all are too!    hahaha

As I leave you this afternoon, I leave you with this scripture;  Psalm46:1 "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in our trouble."

Today, one of the major fixations is the "super-heroes" in the movies.    Every one loves a good movie with a good hero in the end to save the day or to ride off in the sunset, or to live happily ever after.   We just love it when the "good guy" wins.

Have you ever thought that we have our own hero.   We don't look at God in that light, because it is trivializing to what God has done for us, is doing for us and will do for us.    I never want to trivialize God in that manner.    But, if you just have to have a hero, I challenge you to look at what God does for us.

Since God is the creator of all that is, He is in charge over all.    Do you have fears and worries?    Of course you do, we all do.    We don't mean to, but we do, none the less.    We struggle with that every day, and we confess those sins to God and ask Him to help us.     God is always there, at all times!     Never is He not there.    God is the source of our security and peace.    What do you think of when you think of the word "refuge"?   God being our refuge?    I think about that place of safety, that secret place, that hidden place where only God is, and I am there with Him.    Never to be disturbed by the things that disturb us in this life.    I think about all the problems and situations of life that arise, but God is going ahead of me working it out.    Yes, there is things of this life that will touch each and every one of us and we will have to walk those things out.    But, we don't have to walk it out alone.    Anything in this life that can hurt us or cause us distress is temporary.   This life is temporary.    Our ultimate goal in this life should be "eternal glory"!    Absolutely nothing will happen to any one of us that God doesn't know about.    God knows His own.    If you are not in a right relationship with God, why not get that worked out, now, so that you too, can know the comfort of God as your refuge and strength, and your present help in trouble?    Jesus Christ said that no one comes to Father, except thru Me.   The way to God, the Father is thru Jesus Christ, the Son.   I hope that you will take the opportunity to repent and ask Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins and to be Lord of you life and to help you live your life with eternal glory at the fore front of your mind.    When we focus on eternal things, then the temporary problems doesn't seem so big.    I hope and pray that you will let God be your safe place to fall.

Have a wonderful rest of the day, y'all!    I hope you enjoyed your visit here this evening, and if you did, tell someone about your visit.   I hope you will come back soon.

Ladybug, I hope all is well in the village this evening.  Hope to see you soon.   Love you lots, Sweetpea!

Come back soon y'all.   Remember, God loves y'all and so do I.   hugs, Patty