My birthday flowers share the love

This is a close up of my rose bouquet from my daughter and her family 

in Texas.

The previous post shows more.

It didn't register at the time as they were scrunched together for safe mailing,

but there were two dozens roses.

Two dozen pastel and white gorgeous roses.

My husband and I agree on how to celebrate my birthday.

He sends me flowers and takes me out to dinner.

This year he also bought me a cake from my favorite bakery.

It was delicious.

I was messing around with my camera options and tried this setting.

I have featured my posy vases before.

I'm a big fan of little vases or misc. containers that hold one or a few flowers.

So I got some of the posy vases out,

as well as some bigger options,

and began to divide the flowers and greenery 

after enjoying them in their original bouquets

 for almost seven days..

[I kept the roses together for four days

 and then only took a few out at a time.]

One of my favorite keepsakes--a crystal glass pitcher.

This is in the center of my dining room table.

This is the corner of the small chest of drawers in my grading corner.

The big arrangement is no more.

A favorite pitcher holds another combo 

and sits on a washstand in the dining room.

Kitchen.

Corner of the sink in our only bathroom.

My jewelry chest in our bedroom.

On one of the kitchen counters--the one where my coffee pot sits.

I also took several to school to two dear friends.

One had bought me my first birthday cake in years.

The other simply needed cheering up.

Several others graced my desk in my classroom.

The girls loved them.

I just divided them up on Friday--that's how long they are lasting--

going on the second week and still looking good.

Some of the roses have finally drooped 

and I have peeled off the petals to dry for sachets.

So thanks to my husband and daughter,

flowers are lighting up various corners of the house

and for awhile several 'corners' of my school.

I'm very grateful to both.

I am gradually coming out of my reclusive February world.

This week's Prayer of Grace:

Dear Lord,

Today I will honor You with my thoughts,

my actions, and my prayers.

I will seek to please You,

and I will strive to serve You.

Your blessings are as limitless as Your love.

And because I have been so richly blessed, 

I will worship You, Father,

with thanksgiving in my heart

and praise on my lips,

this day and forever.

Amen.

"God is not hard to please. 

He does not expect us to be absolutely perfect.

He just expects us to keep moving toward Him

and believing in Him,

letting Him work with us to bring us into conformity

to His will and ways."

Joyce Meyer

Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God 

has been miraculously given to us 

by getting to know, 

personally and intimately,

the One who invited us to God.

The best invitation we ever received!

2 Peter 1:3 MSG

The prayer, quote, and scripture 

are from 

"Day 77 Pleasing God"

in 

100 Days of Grace for Women.

Blessings to you all as you go through this week!

Barn Charm # 65 and Prayer of the Week

This looks like it might have once been used for storing farm equipment.

It now stores lots of mattresses.

I'm not sure why.

I could only get this from far away

 and was having trouble getting the barn to show

 through the barb wire fence and winter shrubs.

So I went with black and white.

Both pics were taken out west of town

after a snowfall two weeks ago.

I'm combining two posts today.

Therefore, here's the 

Prayer for the Week:

Dear Lord, 

Your love is eternal and Your laws are everlasting.

When I obey Your commandments, I am blessed.

Today, I invite You to reign over every corner of my heart.

I will have faith in You, father.

I will sense Your presence;

I will accept Your love;

I will trust Your will;

and I will praise You for the Savior of my life:

Your Son Jesus.

 Amen.

Tough week ahead for me at school.

I will need to keep this prayer 'front and center' in my mind and heart

in order to get through it all.

May you all have a blessed rest of the week!

I am joining Tricia at Barn Charm.

Prayer and Pictures

I've decided to get back to beginning my week

with a prayer post.

I had committed to doing that when I first started this post.

Then somehow, I got away from it.

It was recently pointed out to me by a close blogger friend

that she rarely saw 'me' these days.

There were barns and a corner view topic

and that was it.

I explained why and she understood.

But she got me to thinking, and then to praying,

(and a lot of you know how that goes),

and the decision was made to start putting more of 'me' out there again.

I'm grateful to 'j' for her concern and honesty.

Here are some photos of that delightful countryside out west of my small town.

I featured it in my last post and got some nice comments about the countryside photo

in the blog and in email.

The first three are of an old silo.

These were taken early this month (July).

The next two were taken in April.

I thought you might enjoy seeing the difference!

Note the purple flowers in the lower left-hand corner.

They are just brambles in the second pic of these two.

The silo caught my attention driving west back in April.

But in July, I drove right past it and then wondered where it was!

When I drove back east and home, I saw it peeking out of the green foliage.

I guess we were playing a game of hide and seek!

Another silo played that game with me also,

but that will be for another time.

This is one of my favorite photos.

I came upon this scene and had to stop and snap it.

There are no other buildings for several miles.

I also didn't see a person--just this truck and metal shed.

Same day, same building, different perspective.

This building is now featured as my header.

This is to the left of a dirt/gravel road that leads to the shed.

I like the texture and contrast gates add to the countryside.

The lone small feed bucket sits there.

I wonder who it's waiting for.

I hope you enjoyed these.

I used to head to the lake to find peace in the midst of daily living.

Now I head out here.

Here's the prayer to start the week with.

It comes from the book

100 DAYS OF GRACE for WOMEN.

The author is anonymous.

Dear Lord, You have given me so many reasons to celebrate.

Today, let me choose an attitude of cheerfulness.

Let me be a joyful Christian, Lord,

quick to smile and slow to anger.

And, let me share Your goodness

with all whom I meet

so that Your love

might shine in me

and through me.

Amen.

Blessings to you all!

Renew the Mind

I find that my mind is 'clearest' when I am

working with plants.

Prayer by Stormie Omartian:

Lord, help me to not misuse my time and my mind

thinking thoughts that are a futile waste of time.

Help me instead to think high-minded thoughts---

thoughts that are creative and productive.

I give control of my mind to You, Lord,

and ask that You would fill it with Spirit-filled thoughts.

Don't let wrong thinking lead me astray

and alienated me from the life

You have for me.

Renew my mind with Christlike thoughts

and give me the ability to perceive things clearly.

Amen.

Accompanying Scripture:

Ephesians 4:17-18

And so I insist---and God backs me up on this---

that there be no going along with the crowd,

the empty-headed, mindless crowd.

They've refused for so long to deal with God

that they've lost touch

not only with God but with reality itself.

They can't think straight anymore.

The Message version

My Thoughts:

My mind has been my biggest problem/enemy this summer.

Mind games have been destroying confidence and zapping strength.

Our 40th class reunion did not help--

at least at first.

I went to see two close friends.

I only got to spend time with one of them.

The other was dancing to 70s music,

momentarily submerged in that time period.

I have no problem with how she 'enjoyed' the reunion.

I'm glad she was having fun.

I was simply unable to join her in that manner;

Often the very music that fellow classmates love,

bring back less than happy memories for me.

Plus, I am self-conscious about dancing

and esp. how my body looks.

Perhaps I need to lighten up.

Or perhaps I just need to accept my melancholy side

and find good from it.

I see no point in re-experiencing most of my high school times.

However, there are three incidents I talk about regularly

and those all involve English teachers who positively influenced my life

and my subsequent teaching of English to today's high school students:

But I digress.

I realized that a person I viewed as a friend (not the two previously mentioned)

has perhaps never really been a friend to me.

She has only reached out when she needed something.

However, I have reached out to her a lot in the past.

The realization hurt.
It didn't help that I have felt jealousy at times about how she looks---

awesome.

I turned to God.

He and I are working it all out.

Meanwhile I need to reprogram my thoughts.

Those mind games can be brutal.

And I am eating healthier.