I was talking with my husband the other day, we were discussing the saying “the grass is always greener on the other side”. We agreed that this saying appears to have some truth to it. I know that we all go though tough times that make us long for change; usually something that looks a lot like our neighbor’s situation. It’s a real shame when we get stuck focusing on all the negatives of our situation. We have taken for granted the positive things that we have in our lives, of course it could always be better but isn’t that pessimistic thinking (the glass is half empty). We all have a tendency to be short sighted not thinking of the problems our neighbor is facing that might possibly Read the rest of this entry »

Today I learned something else while soaking in the presence of the Lord.  I saw a vine with branches and remembered what Jesus said, “I am the vine and you are the branches”.  I understood that life, peace and joy flow through Him “the vine”, into me the branches.   I realized that the amount of nutrients that can flow though a vine is small.  Then I saw a large branch and realized that the amount of nutrients that can flow through it is much greater.  I understood that this relates to the anointing.

I also read Ephesians chapter 2 this morning and I related it to this vine picture and it was pretty cool, I could see it much clearer.  The picture shows that the same stuff that flows through Jesus flows through us when we’re abiding in Him.  “The same spirit that raised Christ from the dead now lives in me and quickens my mortal body”.

Then I understood more, the sun represents The Father, Jesus is the vine and the Word (seed), and the Holy Spirit is the rain and the wind.  The soil is our heart, and the seed is the (Word), once the seed takes root we move from death to life in Jesus and become part of His body.  Without the rain of the Holy Spirit we can become dry, every plant needs water.  Some of the body of Christ rejects the rain of the Holy Spirit and becomes weak and dead.

Before all of this I had been thinking about how Jesus was asleep in the boat with the disciples during the storm.  I’ve heard that because of the peace that indwelt Jesus, He could project it onto the circumstance.  But you can’t project what you don’t have.  Then I remembered that He rebuked the storm and it stopped.  I then thought that everything that Jesus did is our example, so when storms come in our lives we can rebuke them.  And as we abide in the Vine we will have all the peace, joy, and love that we need on the inside of us to meet the situation.

Earlier this year, I was dissatisfied with my lipstick choices and thought I would research and find out if there were any hard fast rules out there that would help me.

What I discovered was very simple; you simply choose a color that is the same tone and two shades darker than your natural lip color, or makeup color. Thin lips avoid dark colors; stick with light and bright colors to give the illusion of fuller lips.

Large lips avoid dark colors you don’t want your lips to be the only thing that people see, maintain balance.

When you go in search of that perfect color you’ll need to take a mirror along to compare it to your lip color. I’m not advising that you try it on in the store! Just hold the part of the lipstick that display’s the color near your lips so you can tell if that shade will work.

Something I’ve discovered along the way is that you can use a lip liner in the correct shade along with a tinted lip balm (make sure you blend them together) it works great and feels great. I like to hold on to my money and there are times when I just can’t bring myself to throw down several dollars on a tube of lipstick, but you’ve got to have lip balm don’t you.

Quick tip; most of the big chain drugstores offer in store rebates from time to time for different lip balm’s so you can use that money towards groceries and feel good about it.

Well we had fun this Halloween!

Haley dressed up as the Pink Panther and Jason went as Guy Fieri (Food Network Star).  I dressed up as a pioneer (made do with the stuff I had) thus pioneer woman emerged.  One of the funny things that happened to us was when we had to run to the grocery store for a few items before dinner on Halloween.

We went to a local store where a lot of older folks go to shop; you should have seen the looks especially at Jason’s sprayed white hair… too funny.  We also had a lot of fun carving pumpkins.

I wanted a classy magazine looking pumpkin while Haley and Jason went with the more traditional Jack O’ Lantern, 4 pumpkins in all.

Click on any of the photos below to see a larger version.