It's MONDAY again! :)

Good Monday afternoon!

Life has NOT slowed down one BIT, girls. I'm sooooooooo wiped out!!!! But it's OK; the show is in its final week, and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. :)

I have to admit, I was SO busy yesterday, even at church, that I didn't have a lot of time to LISTEN. It was Baby Dedication Day at church, and Kenn & I were asked to do the photography. :)

Kenn shot the baptisms, then headed back to set up for the formal photos at the luncheon. I took shots inside the service, but the lighting was AWFUL, so I ended up throwing away a BUNCH of photos because they were too blurry.

But this, dear friends, is Bella. Her mommy and daddy are wonderful young people whose wedding we photographed, as well - and they're moving to Texas in three weeks. I am SO sad to see them go, but pray God's blessings on their family and life!

So, what did YOU learn yesterday?? Did you enjoy a peaceful day? Or did you spend it like we did, rushing from one responsibility to another? :)

I'm praying for EVERYONE who put in a prayer request last week; I hope you'll report back on what's going on, ladies - and that each person will go back and check comments for prayer requests. PLEASE feel free to leave one WHENEVER you need/want!!!!!!! It's an HONOR and PRIVILEGE to bring requests before our Father! :)

COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS, dear one. You don't have to look too far at all - start from the moment you opened your eyes! KNOW YOU ARE BLESSED, AND HIGHLY FAVORED, BELOVED!

Wow, am I TIRED....

This has been a LONG road! I'm enjoying the last evening free THIS week, and next week we only have TWO nights - we have FOUR SHOWS next weekend. PHEW. But it's been a great experience - and we got a GREAT review from a local newspaper, so I've been beaming all afternoon. :)

I worked hard yesterday, and today it's all I can do to think straight - so I'm trying not to feel guilty for not doing too much! :)

What are YOU girls up to? I know Becky's on vacation with her family, and won't be back for a few days - lucky thing. :)

So, what's God saying to you lately? I have been simply AMAZED this year at how He's brought the world back to life almost overnight! The pear trees blossomed BEFORE the forsythia this year - that's unheard of! The underbrush is getting green quickly, as are the littler trees - we have one little crabapple tree that's leafing, and starting to bloom rather prettily! His handiwork never ceases to amaze me.

What about you? What's going on in your world? Are you being blessed? Or are you walking through a trial right now? May I walk with you? I'd love to pray for you.... Please, share. I care, and it's an honor for me to lift you to the Throne!

Thank you, Nancy! :) It IS a beautiful day in the 'hood!

Nancy gave me my first-ever blog award!!!!!! :) We're celebrating Mr. Rogers' birthday this month, and this is a Good Neighbor's Award. "Just for being you". :D Isn't that awesome????

Fred McFeely Rogers (March 20, 1928 – February 27, 2003) was an American educator, minister, songwriter and television host. Rogers was the host of the internationally acclaimed and highly successful children’s television show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, in production from 1968 to 2001. As Mister Rogers, he became an iconic presence to millions of viewers worldwide. Rogers was also an ordained Presbyterian minister. Throughout his life, he was an advocate for the education and welfare of children.

Of course, I'd grant it right back to her, but I can't do that! So, I'm passing it along to the following people. (Oh, and if anyone can help me figure out why Blogger is insisting on blowing this up and pixilating the picture, I'd REALLY appreciate it! AUGH!!!)

Becky, one of my best friends

Sparrow, who ALWAYS has something nice to say, or a topic to discuss that's interesting. I know we'd be friends IRL. :)

Lysa, because she always says something that inspires me to listen to her message. I hope I'll get the chance to meet her someday IRL.

Jennifer, because she makes me laugh, and because she's the only other person besides Becky brave enough to actually UTILIZE my Mr. Linky! :D

Jamie, because she's been a dear online friend for many years now. :) Thank you for always caring, Jamie!

Ginny, for caring about others even though she's going through an incredibly long, dark valley herself.

There are more people I'd give it to, but many of them don't have blogs! :)

We're going to skip over the Sunday review, since it was Easter - the Gospel was heard! AMEN!! :)

Have a wonderful day, dear one. Know you are loved beyond measure, beyond comprehension, but not beyond your ability to accept! :D

HAPPY RESURRECTION WEEKEND!!!

God is SO good!! Enjoy your family, your worship, and your celebration of the greatest Gift ever given to man!

Show & Tell Friday!

Good morning! It's Show & Tell Friday, hosted by Kelli - go check out her website. It's a GREAT place - and her Mr. Linky has some great things to share. :)



My Show & Tell today is my flowers from my dear friend, Becky. She sent them to Kenn & I for the opening of our show last night, OUR TOWN - Kenn & I co-directed, and I'm also stage managing it. We've got one show down, nine more to go! It's a wonderful show, and this is probably one of the best times I've had with a show. :)







This is our Professor Willard, played by Daniel Mathews, and our Stage Manager, played by Bobby Daniels. I just LOVE this shot that Kenn grabbed on Wednesday evening. :)

I can't claim THEM as my own, but this show surely is!!!! If you live in the middle TN area, we'd love to have you come see our show! :)

Got to jet - miles to go before we end up at the theater again tonight. :D Have a WONDERFUL, BLESSED DAY!!!!!!!

Good Wednesday morning!

Can it already be Wednesday??!?!?!? Not that I'm complaining - I'll be glad to get the show open TOMORROW NIGHT! :) But my goodness. Life is just JAM-PACKED with things to do, isn't it?

And EASTER. Can you believe Resurrection Sunday is THIS WEEK? I've read an article that says this is the earliest Easter we'll ever encounter in our lifetimes. Interesting!

Do you have special plans? I haven't been able to do much yet, but Mom & Dad are providing steaks and scallops for our main meal - which will be WONDERFUL; with the show and work schedule, Kenn & I haven't had any real meals in I don't know HOW long! We aren't having a show Sunday, so it will actually get to be a day of rest. I can't wait!

Here's a picture to wrap up with today. Did you count your blessings yesterday? Especially the little ones? God is so amazing, so awesome.

Lift up your voice! Praise GOD for those blessings! Make today a day of GRATITUDE!

Good morning!

No words necessary today. GOD IS GOOD! (Click on the image to make it larger. :))

FIND YOUR BLESSINGS!!!

It's MONDAY!

And it's FUNNY - I've gotten more comments on my tag than anything else in weeks! :D I'm glad you like knowing about me - I'm not really that interesting.... :D









So. What did you learn at church yesterday? Our Sunday school was about being faithful thru crises. We talked a little bit about common sense for solving crises - but it's my opinion that we can get trapped in our conventional thinking, if we're not careful. God doesn't always solve our problems the direction we head on our own!





The church service was mostly music - our choir did from the entry into Jerusalem to the cross this week, and next week is from the cross to the resurrection! We had communion, and it was a wonderful time of thanking God for the Gift He gave.







Well, spring is DEFINITELY here. It's going to rush right into summer from here - but aren't the forsythia beautiful? :) The trees in our neighborhood actually started blooming BEFORE the forsythia, which is REALLY unusual!

Please, please pray for me this week. Unless someone earns my undying gratitude today, it looks like I'm going to have to stage manage our show. I really don't want to - I SHOULD be able to relax, at this point, but it's not going to happen that way. By the end of the run, it will be a full THREE MONTHS I've given to this show. My business isn't too bad, but I really want to get back to work! The stress isn't good for my glucose levels, either - I'm bouncing again, and very high in the mornings. So that would be another prayer request! :)

OK, I'm going to go - I have to do some photography business paperwork, then get going on show stuff. A woman's work is never done! :D

Have a wonderful, BLESSED day, dear one. Look for the blessings in your life - it will AMAZE you what God has put into your day!

I've been TAGGED!!

Charlotte tagged me today! :) She was nice enough to email me and let me know. :D Otherwise, I would have gone blindly along with my evening.... LOL!!

So, here are the rules: In the 8 facts about yourself, you share 8 things that your readers don’t know about you. Then at the end you tag at least 8 other bloggers to keep the fun going. So just know, if I've tagged you, I'm just trying to follow the rules. :D

So, here goes....

1. My middle name is Lynn.
2. My parents STILL call me "I SPY", because I have the ability to use inductive and deductive reasoning rather well - and can usually tell them what's been going on by the evidence on the scene. LOL!
3. I was born a month premature, so I can get overloaded by loud sounds and bright lights very quickly.
4. In kindergarten, I got in trouble for standing on a table and shouting, "The teacher said BE QUIET!!!!" :D
5. Junior high and 3/4 of high school was pure torture for me, and I don't really have many GOOD memories of those years.
6. My degree is in speech communications, from the University of TX, El Paso.
7. I love to take bubble baths.
8. My favorite time to go swimming is when it's dark and quiet outside - like after 11 pm. :)

So there! :D You know some more absolutely non-essential stuff about me. :D

My friends to be tagged: Nancy, Kelli, Jamie, Ginny, Jennifer, Constance, Marti, and Jo. PHEW! Lots of work! :D Have fun, friends - and be SURE to check out their wonderful blogs. They're all great, Godly women.

Happy Palm Sunday! :) Enjoy your weekend!!! BE BLESSED, dear sister!

Wow! Yesterday stirred some emotions!

I don't feel like facing all of them today, but suffice it to say I've never been comfortable with all of Easter, either; we tend to forget Passover - it's a FESTIVAL that celebrates that REDEMPTION COMES THROUGH DEATH - Christ's death, and our death to self, TO RESURRECTION. :)

Hope you're having a wonderful day, beloved! The show's in crunch mode, and my brain's totally frizzled. :D Talk again soon!

BACK TO NORMAL!! :D

Hi, everyone! I'm so sorry I've been MIA for so long; last week was difficult, with the family here AND things going on in real life. I am here now, so let's share! :)

Sunday shcool yesterday was about being faithful through hardships, using Jacob as an example. We talked about lessons you learn, etc., when walking through hardships.

Church was AWESOME! We had a Messianic Jewish pastor speak about Passover - his church is in Israel, or I know we'd be attending there! :D It was truly insightful, and he was passionate about Christ. We're getting the CD to listen to, because there was so MUCH meat to chew on we didn't get each piece in the first listening! :) His passage was Luke 12:12-19. If you'd like to read the passage, here's a link. :)

First of all, he said that the label for that passage is incorrect, because some of it has been mistranslated. He talked a bit about the festivals in Leviticus, and about how Passover shows the need for death for redemption. He was VERY scornful of celebrating Easter, because it IS a fertility celebration to Ishtar, the goddess of fertility. It's interesting history of the church - read up on it sometime. (I already knew this. :D) I've always felt that way, too, but part of the thing I see in most contemporary churches is a lack of history of both the church itself and the Jewish heritage.

He also spoke about true worship, and why we are supposed to worship. He did some research: the top 10 churches in America aren't teaching about GOD, they're teaching what God can do for YOU, how to feel better about yourself, and be blessed. TRUE WORSHIP is about worshipping HIM because He's worthy. Not because we're grateful - which is also important - but because HE is worthy of ALL praise, honor, and glory. Period! How long has it been since you worshipped, in spirit and in truth? Sometimes worship is an act of obedience - but out of that act can come TRUE repentance, joy, and a true understanding of our UNworthiness - and even more gratitude for His grace and mercy!

ANYWAY. :D I'm going to have to wait until we get the CD to tell you the direct translation of some of the words - what a benefit to KNOW the languages of the Bible!!!! - but that the cries of the people in verse 12 were greeting Jesus as the person who would throw out the Romans. Here's what REALLY struck me: the rabbi said that if you ask ANY rabbi how many Messiahs there are, they will tell you TWO: the humble servant Messiah, and the triumphant, victorious Messiah - and that they believe that, with prayer and petition from His chosen nation, Israel, God will choose to SKIP sending the servant Messiah!!!!! WOW, talk about walking in blindness. How He must grieve!!!

Jesus's response to their not understanding who He is was to quote back the verse in Zech. 9:9, with ONE twist - and you'd never notice, if you didn't really study BOTH passages!!! JESUS said, "FEAR NOT"! Zechariah says REJOICE GREATLY!!!! Jesus was acknowledging that He came to fulfill Scripture, but at the same time telling them that He was not who THEY wanted him to be, and was NOT coming to defeat the Romans. But they didn't understand it, didn't want to - and the disciples didn't, either.

I'll share more when I get the CD and listen to it again. It's REALLY insightful!!! Such good, basic MEAT of the Word!!!! I don't know about you, but SO OFTEN I wonder what the ORIGINAL word really meant, and what the author REALLY meant. :)

SO. What did YOU learn yesterday?? What is God revealing to YOU???? Share!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE! :D

Have a blessed day, dear one. You are SO precious to Him!!!!! Worship Him! :)

Nope, not gone yet...! :D

Good afternoon, dear friend. Thanks for coming back and checking in. :D

Yes, my family is STILL here. God has a purpose, but sometimes, one just has to wonder.... :D They're SUPPOSED to be staying tonight in their RV if/when my brother-in-law and other niece get here, and taking off without seeing us in the morning. We'll see what God has planned!

Plans. Hopes. Dreams. Aspirations. Some days, I don't think I have any anymore. Sometimes, it feels like it's useless; like they're never going to come to fruition, so why even bother? Today is one of those days. BELIEVING that I am blessed and highly favored on these days is difficult - it's HEAD knowledge, but getting my HEART to know - well, it's a struggle.

Today is a good day for Psalm 42. I will be meditating on it today; I hope you're not in the same struggle I'm in today. But if you are, I pray this will help YOU, too. GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME. Regardless of my circumstances, my outlook, or my emotions, HE IS.

Psalm 42

1 For the director of music. A maskil of the Sons of Korah.

As the deer pants for streams of water,

so my soul pants for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

When can I go and meet with God?

3 My tears have been my food day and night,

while men say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"

4 These things I remember as I pour out my soul:

how I used to go with the multitude,

leading the procession to the house of God,

with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.

5 Why are you downcast, O my soul?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

my Savior and 6 my God.

My soul is downcast within me;

therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan,

the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.

7 Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls;

all your waves and breakers have swept over me.

8 By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me—

a prayer to the God of my life.

9 I say to God my Rock,

"Why have you forgotten me?

Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?"

10 My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me,

saying to me all day long, "Where is your God?"

11 Why are you downcast, O my soul?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

my Savior and my God.

They are STILL here! :D

Hi, everyone. My family is STILL here. Things have been detoured in Georgia for the past few days, so they're here. It's a houseful, and I think they're tired of being bored. :) It's difficult when everyone doesn't have their own space - but I think it's gone well. God is good. :)

We had a difficult time at Sunday school yesterday; the lesson was on Esau again. It was the stuff going on outside of the lesson that was difficult. I'll write more when I get a chance, and get my own feelings and thoughts sorted out. I ask you to pray for Kenn and for me. I promise to sort of explain later. :)

OK, I'm off. I have a class to go teach tonight, and another workshop tomorrow night. :) Plus show stuff to tend to - life is CERTAINLY busy around here right now. :)

THANK YOU for being faithful! I appreciate you, my friend, and I'm grateful that I can ask you to pray for us. May you be blessed beyond measure today - and may you pass that blessing on!!