...How Does Your Garden Grow...

My word, just where does the time go?

I have so many fun projects to show you and neat stories to share and a whole lot of catching up to do.  It seems each time I have sat down in front of the computer lately...no words have come.

Only sighs, and groans, and "maybe tomorrows"...  

Since when did life become so busy?  And the days just zoom by... I mean "'NEWSFLASH" 
...IT IS JULY!...

How?  I mean, I was just taking the tree down and cutting out paper hearts and decorating for spring and....and we've been in the new house for 8 months now!  Wow-ee....my how the time does fly!

Jack Frost and Apple Cobbler

I apologize for the dark and graininess {I'm not sure if that's even a word} of this picture.  But I just had to share with you the favorite spot in the house this evening.  So many of us are experiencing some frigid temperatures and here in sweet Carolina we haven't managed to get out of the 20's today.  We have had a nice mixture of sleet and freezing rain, which, is there really a difference?...They're both ice, right?  Schools were in session for about an hour and a half this morning and the work day was cut short by Mr. Jack Frost himself.  

Down south, we don't play around when it comes to winter weather.  No sir, we get prepared!  We cancel school, close businesses, and cancel plans for the next week, just in case.  Then we go home and pray for lots and lots of snow.  Well, enough to keep us home but not too much to keep us stranded.  And our pantries, well, that's the most important part for us Southerners...if the weather man mentions ice or snow, Mama rushes off to the grocery store dragging the whole family along, because heaven forbid we have no milk or bread.  What would we do without our milk sandwiches?  Really, milk and bread?  For what?   

A Psalm 150 Kind Of Day...

For those of you reading this that may not be from small town, whole-in-the-wall, North Carolina, I might need to feel you in on this February day. It is currently 10:12 am and it is 65 degrees outside, and the temperature is steadily on the rise. I am IN LOVE! I am a southern girl, born and raised. You know the saying you can take the girl outta the country but you can't take the country outta the girl. Well that's me. Not only am I southern but I embrace it, and in fact, I don't just embrace it, I could just squeeze it around the neck and never ever let go. Which is exactly what I plan on doing, if I may add. I love everything about the South. I love the smell of honeysuckle's, hot apple pie, and peach cobbler, I love when the fields turn white with cotton, when wild flowers and, my favorite, Sunflowers start popping up all over town. I love that down here, southern hospitality is more important than table manners and that the old men sit together in local stores and "chew the fat." "Bless her heart" is commonplace and no one is a stranger. But what I really love about the south is the SUNSHINE! I am a sunshine-loving, bare feet walking, roll the windows down kind of woman. And I tell you all that to explain why I am so IN LOVE with a day like today.

I am supposed to be cleaning the inside of my house today, but I can't seem to keep myself inside. I decided to start with the laundry this morning, all my quilts and blankets, just so that I could take them outside and hang 'em out to dry. I pulled the pillows off of my couches to take them outside, to air out. I rearranged the porch, put all my boys out in the pen (my dogs, they are not human, although you cannot tell them that, or me for that matter), pulled back all the curtains, and have opened all my windows and doors. Let that southern sun shine on in!

This is why today is a Psalm 150 kind of a day....

"Praise the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with timbrel and dancing, praise him with the strings and pipe, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD."

Everyday is full of reasons to praise the Lord, and although there are days when it seems a little harder than others, well, I can promise you there are still TONS of reasons. But, back to today. I would find it awfully hard to believe that "everything that has breath" isn't praising Him on a day like today. I know from the time I felt that glare on my face first thing this morning, even though it is my day off and I was anticipating sleeping in, I couldn't help but smile, and mumble a prayer of thanksgiving to Him. I need to let you in on another reason I am praising Him with all of my breath this morning. We ran out of heat about a week ago, and although I could have been a worry wort, I just know that my God promises me that He will supply all my needs. If that means that He turns the heat up outside on what should be a snowy February 19th day, so that the heat goes up inside, then I know that is what my God will do! I'll let you in on a little something, God is ALWAYS faithful, He is ALWAYS just, and He ALWAYS, ALWAYS, hears the prayers of His children!

So..."let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the LORD!"