Good can come from our struggles

Barabara at Stray Thoughts posted this and it really ministered to me. I thought it would surely be an encouragement to someone else, too. Thank you, Barbara:

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared and he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no further. So the man decided to help the butterfly by taking a pair of scissors and snipping off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily, but it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.
What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If God allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as we could have been. We could never fly.
Of course, we can’t take the analogy too far — this doesn’t mean no one should ever help anyone through a struggle. The Bible teaches that there are some burdens people are meant to bear, but others that we’re supposed to help each other with. But at least one reason for some of our struggles is the growth and strength we will develop as a result.
Romans 5:3-5: And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patienceAnd patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

You might find this interesting

Indiana Bible College has a wonderful website where you can listen to the music from past Musicfests. You will find it at www.ibcmusicfest.com Calvary Tabernacle also has an awesome website where you can listen to Bro. Mooney, Bro. Wayne Francis and others preach the wonderful word of God. Just go to www.calvarytabindy.org

A little humor always helps!

*smile*

1. Two peanuts walk into a bar, and one was asalted.
2. A jumper cable walks into a bar. The bartender says "I'll serve you, but don't start anything." 3. A sandwich walks into a bar. The bartender says, "Sorry we don't serve food in here."
4. A dyslexic man walks into a bra.
5. A man walks into a bar with a slab of asphalt under his arm and says: "A beer please, and one for the road."
6. Two aerial antennas meet on a roof, fall in love and get married. The ceremony wasn't much, but the reception was excellent.
7. Two cannibals are eating a clown. One says to the other: "Does this taste funny to you?"
8. "Doc, I can't stop singing "The Green, Green Grass of Home"." "That sounds like Tom Jones Syndrome." "Is it common?" "It's Not Unusual."
9. Two cows standing next to each other in a field, Daisy says to Dolly, "I was artificially inseminated this morning." "I don't believe you," said Dolly. "It's true, no bull!" exclaimed Daisy. 10. An invisible man marries an invisible woman. The kids were nothing to look at, either.
11. Two hydrogen atoms walk into a bar. One says, "I've lost my electron." The other says, "Are you sure?" The first replies, "Yes, I'm positive..."
12. Deja Moo: The feeling that you've heard this bull before.
13. A man takes his Rottweiler to the vet and says, "My dog's cross-eyed, is there anything you can do for him?" "Well," says the vet, "let's have look at him." So he picks the dog up and examines his eyes, then checks his teeth. Finally, he says "I'm going to have to put him down." "What? Because he's cross-eyed?" "No, because he's really heavy."
14. I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day but I couldn't find any.
15. I went to the butcher's the other day and I bet him 50 bucks that he couldn't reach the meat off the top shelf. He said, "No bet, the steaks are too high."
16. I went to a seafood disco last week... and pulled a mussel.
17. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly; but when they lit a fire in the craft, it sank, proving that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.
18. What do you call a fish with no eyes? A FSH.
19. Two termites walk into a bar. One asked, "Is the bar tender here?"

Dragging here......

I've been soooooo tired the past couple of days! What is wrong with me? Well, first of all, I put in a full day Monday, Tuesday was pretty busy, too, and then, once again yesterday, I had a full day, plus I was in alot of pain, for whatever reason. Perhaps it was the weather, but it was almost unbearable, even though I was taking pain medicine. But, today, I am weak as a pup, as Ed would say. *little smile* I've managed to get quite a bit accomplished the past few days, even though I have been having to push myself somewhat. (I can just hear my friend, Pat. *feeble grin* Am I in for a scolding?) I have choir and music practice tonight, so I am off to rest for awhile, while Ed is gone. We are having a singspiration Sunday night at church and I have quite of bit of practicing to do before then.

Today, I worked

No, seriously....I did....I actually worked an 8-hour job today. You see, some very good friends of mine own a printing business. A very BUSY printing business. Well, they had these books that had to be finished SOON, but they were done incorrectly by one of the employees, sooo instead of being done entirely by automation, they had to be done by hand. That is where I come in. They asked me yesterday, at church, if I would like to work at their shop today, doing these books and I said sure. Soooo, I showed up at 9am this morning, with my sack lunch, and worked until 5pm, with a couple of breaks in between. I wasn't sure how I would do, but I was able to sit on a cushioned stool and do this job, while also being able to stand occasionally and then walk around a bit and stretch, when needed. I really enjoyed the day, even if I was zonked when I left at five. This was the first time I have worked an 8-hour day outside of my home for about two years. Other than being really tired, I feel quite alright this evening. I am curious to see how I fare in the morning. *feeble grin* In the morning, I have hair to do at 6:30am and a piano lesson to give at 10am. I'm going to call the print shop afterward to see if they need me to come and finish up the job. If not, then it is back home, which I won't mind at all. *smile* Ed was so wonderful today and finished up the laundry while I was away. He also raked and cleaned all of the flower beds and finished planting several white pine trees that we got over the weekend. He was busy, busy today! After we both showered and all, we sat on the front porch and played with and petted Ellie and Rocky. It was a lovely evening here in our little valley. Well, I am going to take my weary self off to bed sleep,sleep, sleep. It has been a good and satisfying day.

Virigina Tech

Remembering those who died, their families and friends
and the Cho family, in this time of great sorrow and loss.
STUDENTS:
Ross Abdallah Alameddine
Brian Roy Bluhm
Ryan Christopher Clark
Austin Michelle Cloyd
Matthew Gregory Gwaltney
Caitlin Millar Hammaren
Jeremy Michael Herbstritt
Rachael Elizabeth Hill
Emily Jane Hilscher
Jarrett Lee Lane
Matthew Joseph La Porte
Henry J. Lee
Partahi Mamora Halomoan Lumbantoruan
Lauren Ashley McCain
Daniel Patrick O'Neil
J. Ortiz-Ortiz
Minal Hiralal Panchal
Daniel Alejandro Perez
Erin Nicole Peterson
Michael Steven Pohle Jr.
Julia Kathleen Pryde
Mary Karen Read
Reema Joseph Samaha
Waleed Mohamed Shaalan
Leslie Geraldine Sherman
Maxine Shelly Turner
Nicole White
Instructors:
Christopher James Bishop
Professors:
Jocelyne Couture-Nowak
Kevin P. Granata
Liviu Librescu
G.V. Loganathan

GO HOKEYS!!

Once again.....

.......Ed has mixed up the english language. *smile* We went for a leisurely drive through the countryside, since it was just such a beautiful Ohio evening. I don't even remember what we were discussing exactly, but it ended up with me saying how I had been telling someone today how fit and trim Ed is. He is so healthy and in shape for his age (64!). To which he quipped, "Yes, I am very viral!" I about died laughing! I said, "Honey, I think you mean VIRILE" Although he could very well have been VIRAL a time or two in his lifetime, for all I know. LOL He definitely has a way with words!

A warm place

To make a short story long........we have not been using the woodburner for the past few days because it has been fairly nice during the day. AND our furnace motor went on the blink so we have not been able to use it. Here is Ellie laying on the area rug which we pulled up over the floor vent so she can lay there and soak up the heat when the furnace is running. This picture was taken a few weeks ago:
Well, since we aren't using the furnace, we have been using our propane wall heaters to heat our home. Well, Ellie, the kitty, has been at a loss as to where to find some warmth to lay on or near, because the wall heaters are a bit too high to really give her any direct heat. So yesterday, I got a load of warm clothes out of the dryer, put them on the bed and Ellie jumped up on the bed, onto those warm clothes pronto!! Now she knows she is not allowed to do that and "hair up the clothes", as Ed would say. So I scolded her and told her to get down, though I knew she was just looking for some warmth to lay on. She knows that warm stuff comes out of the dryer and when she hears me in the laundry room, sometimes she'll come in to see if I drop some warm piece of laundry on the floor, whereby she plops herself on it! *grin* So, after getting the clothes folded, I proceeded to get the iron out and press the button placket on one of Ed's clean shirts. And what do you think happened next? Ellie jumped right up on that shirt while it was still warm from the iron! Poooor kitty.....so once again, I scolded her and told her to get down, which she did. Well, I have to tell you that I was really beginning to feel sorry for her, so I got this grand idea. As you can see in this picture,
she has a little blanky that she lays on in front of the stove, but since there isn't any heat coming from the stove......I laid it around to the side of the stove. I then got our heating pad and placed it under the first layer of the blanky, plugged it in and turned that baby on! I then proceeded to wait and see how long it would take Miss Ellie to find the warm blanket and, believe me, it did not take long at all. *smile* Ed came home a while later and said he couldn't believe how I was spoiling that cat. I said that I just felt so sorry for her. Soooooooo, I get up this morning at about 6am and guess who had turned on the heating pad for Ellie? Mmmmhmmm, you guessed right...........Ed. Who's spoiling the cat? *grin* We just turn it on to about the minimum heat setting. I mean, we don't want fried kitty anytime soon. She is stuck to that warm blanky like glue, let me tell you. Here she is in all of her warm glory:

Bookmarkers

I wanted to share with you bookmarkers that I make from old greeting cards. I got this idea after I received a similar bookmarker at a ladies' Advent tea I had attended several years ago. I enjoy makingthem so much. I've made them twice and given them as favors at our ladies' meetings. It seems I have most often made them from Christmas cards but, as you will see in the pictures, you can make them any time of the year. I especially like the one with the shaggy dog and little duck. If you would like instructions for making them, just let me know. I'll try to make step-by-step instructions, though if you are fairly crafty in the first place, you can probably figure out, on your own, how to make them by just looking at the images below!

You are not going to believe this!

I can hardly believe it myself. Okay, I had bought this little photo memories book thinking that if I started out small, I would stand more of a chance of finishing it. You see, I have been wanting to do some memory books for Daniel, our son, chronicling his life from the time that Ed and I were married to present day. Of course, the thought of doing something so elaborate discouraged me before I even got started......kind of overwhelmed me, you might say. Sooooo, I thought it might be best if I started "small". Welllllll.....I finished that little memories album yesterday! Now it isn't very fancy schmancy.......remember, I am not a detail-oriented person.....but it is cute, nonetheless, and I know that Daniel and Erin will love it. The only thing is, there are scarcely any pictures of me and Daniel, as I was always the picture-taker. :-( I've been looking for a picture of when I was expecting Daniel, but it is with a batch of pictures that I had gathered up for Daniel and Erin's wedding slide presentation. Welllll....when Erin returned the batch of pictures to me, I put them somewhere so I would remember where they were. Uh-huh. Right. Good-thinking. But now I can't remember where I put them!!!!!!! And I have looked EVERYWHERE for them. AND I consider myself to be an organized person! This has been happening more and more lately: Putting something somewhere so I'll remember where it is and then forgetting where I put it so I won't forget where it is. *siiiiggghhhhhhhh* Here are two pictures of the first two pages of the little album. The little blank area in the upper right hand corner of the gold page is for "me", if I ever find the pictures. *sigh* Help me, Lord Jesus......*feeble grin*

Can you believe it?

We went to a moving sale that a family in our church was having and found these lovely chairs! For $10 each!! Can you believe it? We also bought another Queen Anne reclining chair for Daniel and Erin. Again, for just $10! I just had to share our great find and bargain with you! Here they are:







Now, I just need to get a couple of pillows and perhaps a throw or two,hm? Oh, and that is Ellie beneath the one chair soaking up some heat from the woodburner. *smile* Here's a closer pic of her and another picture of our living room and my little computer desk area in the back.

I love my day off!

Here we are and it is Monday, once again. I try to keep Monday as "unbusy" as possible. I don't schedule anything or make plans to do anything on Monday because the weekends, especially Sunday, are usually busy-busy. This past weekend was no exception. Of course, Friday is what I call "hair day" as I do hair for two ladies. One comes at 6:30am/the other at 8:30am and I usually do my hair in between. I have a regular chiropractic appointment on Friday mornings. After my appointment, I was still in quite a bit of pain and came right home. I had some things to do because a close friend had called that morning, on her way to work and asked if we could get together later in the evening for dinner and some much-needed conversation, on her part. I tell you, I don't know why my pain level has been so high, but I almost cancelled on her. Still, I must press on and I did. And I'm glad that I did. We went to a couple of clothing stores then out to dinner and had such a fun time and talked and laughed ourselves silly.


On Saturday, I started giving piano lessons to a new student. I give lessons at the church, as it is just more convenient. We live out in the country and the church is easier for people to find as it is on the main highway through our area. The first lesson with new students is usually pretty lengthy as we are getting to know one another, finding out how much they know, what my style of teaching is like and so on. I met this student at the Music Share Day in Dayton last month and we have just really hit it off. She is going to do very well, I know.

After our lesson, I ran a few errands then came home and fixed lunch. Then Ed and I went back to the church as Bro. Daniel Hamman came down to help us get our multi-media in place and all. Pastor Martin was there, too and the signing team was practicing. We had such a good time talking and all. We were there until about six that evening. It had been raining and was so chilly all day. It was good to finally get home and snuggle in for the evening.


This past Tuesday evening was our monthly ladies meeting at church. I tell you.....*laughing*......if it didn't move, Sis. Jody and Sis. Pam decorated it! Sheesh! LOL They decorated the fellowhip hall in an Easter theme and it was absolutely beautiful but we did tease them about decorating "everything"!!! *smile* Here a couples of pics:
















As I was leaving for the ladies meeting, I almost decided to stay home.....because of the pain. I told Ed it is at times like these that I am tempted to just go to a wheelchair but I just can't. I have to keep moving. In fact, I am getting another pool membership this week at the local Amerihost Inn and I am also going to an exercise class for people with arthritis. Sooooo, I do press on and endeavor to keep myself moving and as limber and manage my pain, as much as possible. I told Dr. Gedeon, my chiropractor, that I feel about 35 INSIDE. Now, if I could just get the outside to cooperate. But he said feeling 35 inside will be a great help to me and also keeping a positive attitude. As Ed would say.....I AM keeping a positive attitude.....I'm positive I hurt. LOL He's very encouraging. *grin* He does keep me laughing and I cannot begin to tell you much that helps me. For instance, last Monday evening, Ed and I went shopping for me a pair of good tennis shoes. Dr. Gedeon told me that I needed them to cushion the blow to my back and hips and should wear them at home, too. So we are perusing the shoe selection. This is Ed: "Okay, let's see.....we having running shoes....mmhmm....and here we have walking shoes.....anddd, let's see......huh-uh......no....... no limping shoes here...... they don't have limping shoes, babe." Velly funny. I did laugh. Okay, I really laughed. It was funny. See how he is? He makes me laugh and, to me, that is priceless. What would I do without him? "God must have spent a little more time on you....." My dear, wonderful husband.......

Okay......now it may be my day off, but "someone" is hungry and wanting lunch, so I am off to prepare some culinary delight for "him". *wink*

I'll blog more later! Have a great and blessed Monday!

Let's Play "Pick Your Weather"!

Living in Ohio is interesting, to say the least! In the months of March and April you just never know what kind of weather you might have! Last week it was in the 80's; this week it is in the low 20's and snowing! And we wonder why we have been sick? But, thankfully, Ed and I both are on the mend. Just in time for the busyness of Easter. We have our final practice this morning at 10am, then the choir is all going to pitch in and clean the church and then we are all heading to Domino's for pizza! So it should be a fun day! I have a couple of last minute clothing alterations to do for a couple of people this afternoon and then I should be good to go for the rest of the weekend.

Yesterday, I went to my chiropractor and have been feeling so much better since going. I probably should have gone earlier in the week and next time...I will! After that appointment, I headed for Tri-County Career Center where I had made an appointment for a pedicure in the Cosmetology Center. Now, I have never had a pedicure. Erin has trimmed my toenails, as has Kaitlin, our special "daughter". Ed volunteered to some time ago, but he just doesn't have the "touch" for such tender work. *grin* Anywayyyy........with sandal season upon us, I just had to do something. I wasn't baring these toes to anyone in the outside world until they had been shaped up! Sooooo, the young lady helped me get in the salon chair and put my tootsies in this very warm sudsy whirlpool bath.....ohhhhh myyyyy, you talk about heavenly! Then she proceeded to trim my nails, file the rough spots on my feet, THE WORKS!!! Nail conditioner, cuticle softener, foot lotion, foot oil. Unbelievable. What in the world took me so long to have this done to my feet?! ANDDD it was only $7!! Needless to say, I will be a return customer!! My feet were pampered for about an hour. If you have never indulged yourself with a pedicure, you need to! Now! It is almost as good as a full-body massage and a visit to the chiropractor! I don't know...it might be better. Our feet take such a pounding, you know? I will have to do something else during June and July, though, when school is out.

Well, I must be off, to get ready for practice this morning! Have a great Saturday!!

Where Am I, You Ask?

I am once again....S-I-C-K. *little groan* Yes, Ed decided to share the sickness, which he is now over, with me. Oh, I know he didn't do it on purpose, but you understand.......we share the same house, the same bed, the same most everything, so I guess it was inevitable. *feeble grin* But....did it have to be THIS week? I have a music presentation to get primed and finished for Easter Sunday morning.....choir numbers, men's quartet, solos and more......... and I can hardly talk. My voice has been coming and going all week. *achooooooo* *groan* BUT.....I have managed, with the help of the Lord and some dear friends to get and keep it together, so all is not completely lost. *cough...cough* *sniffle* Andddd.....my back and leg pain has been really intense this week, too, perhaps because of the cold I have or because of the weather........86 one day/ 30 the next, snow, rain.....you name it! Soooooo......I may not post any more until after Easter. I pray that each of you has a wonderful Easter as we remember the ultimate sacrifice that He paid so that we might have eternal life with Him one day. What a hope we have!

"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

I am reminded of an old chorus......one of my favorites:

" I love Him, yes, I love Him

Because He first loved me,

And purchased my salvation,

On Calvary."