I'm in the mood for Spring! I'm ready to pot plants. Today was beautiful. I painted our fountain and had it going. I love the sound of trickling water! I placed the pots where I want them to be. I have the art hung, the decorative pieces in place and the bird baths full. I put another round of seed in the feeders, too.

Red came to say hello.

Baby Robin stopped to say welcome back!

Lovely blooms!!!

This fun wind art makes me smile!

Each year, I get to enjoy this gift given to us for our work on Skatepark Plainview!!!

Fresh Find: Wow, I love this recycled skateboard art piece!!! Yowza, amazing!

Today, a group of ladies had a great discussion on what we do each day to create intentional happiness. What are your thoughts on this?

This steeple was shining this morning! Happy sight!

Fresh Find: What a fun friends gift idea!

As Believers, we have an audible alarm system within us. The closer our relationship is with God, the less likely we are to set it off.

Our alarm is the Spirit of God.

We may not see the Holy Spirit, but we can hear the warnings.

When we commune with the Triune, we will know God's love and express his love because he loves us.

When we are not being deceived by things that are not true, we free ourselves from setting the system off.

God in his infinite design of mankind knew what we needed. I never tire of his works.

Fresh Find: The cutest treats box!

As I looked through some vintage pictures, I stopped at this one. This was the crew, Jeanie's Genies. The best twirlers (minus Tandi Gant and a few others that came before and after this group)!!! All taught by Jeanie Pennell.

L to R: Back, Pepper Billington, Erica Estes, Jennifer Howard, Chrissa Wall, Katie Long. Front, Cerissa Wardlow, Kailey Wardlow, and Joanna Estes.

They had lots of fun together!

Fresh Find: A fun Hog Wild Minions popper.

They are good-good fathers because they follow the Father. TC and Clinton Wall.

Fresh Find: Love this cat lounger and scratch/play tree!

From the time I was born, there was the house, the little house, the shop, and the barrack that sat on the two lots known as 1006 Nassau Street in Plainview, Texas.

This week, at a DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) meeting, our program was given by John W. McCullough, of Texas Tech University about Clent Breedlove and his contract to train glider pilots for the U.S. Army Air Forces. One of his locations was Finney Field, just north of Plainview, Texas. 

I had always wanted to know where that big barrack came from. The timing was right. I visited with Mr. McCullough. It could be, but we have no proof.

I decided to visit with a relative that might remember or at least have a story to spin. I have nothing in my memory bank about where it came from. He remembered it came from Hereford.  We think that "our" barrack was one from the 800-acre prisoner of war camp that once housed approximately 4,000 Italian POW’s during World War II. My cousin remembered that they had to build a special truckbed to move it from Hereford to Plainview. When I showed him these two pictures, he said, definitely the first one. That's how he remembered it when he was little.

A picture of the barracks at the Hereford POW camp.

A picture of the barracks at Finney Field glider training camp.

It is Interesting to find out a little about the barrack where we played growing up. Here is a picture of our grandfather, Hugh Robert Etter, by his airplanes. He liked anything fast! He built speed bots and included the Evinrude motor dealership within his electrician business, Hugh R. Etter Electric.

Fresh Find: 

Look what a good seamstress I was! Mine was not sewn together. I guess I got distracted. I might have a book from those shelves somewhere? This is in the home of Faye & Joe Cox, my dad's sister. This is their daughter, Vicky. Faye was teaching us to sew. 

Isn't it interesting how big florals and fringe have come back around in fashion? We may have used towels as fabric here. I know we did on one project. This is some big boldness!

Fresh Find: I love these lumis from Mexico!

This evening I will write about how God connects.

A man was born on April 20, 1891. He lived his life in Washington State. He was an Army Private in World War 1. In 1953, November 21st, to be exact, he signed a book, Gasper Petta, Marblemount, Washington. Marblemount is located on the outskirts of the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forrest, just short of 2,000 miles from Plainview, Texas. He died July 8, 1972, and is buried in Union Cemetery in Sedro-Woolley Washington.

The only youth trip I took with my church was to the Northwest. We traveled this area. It is so majestic.

Gasper was a trapper. This tidbit from the Historic Resource Study North Cascades National Park Service Complex, Washington NORTH CASCADES

Gaspar Petta first came to Marblemount in 1912 to settle and make a life in the North Cascades. Both a rancher and logger in hard times, Petta spent many winter days trapping in the backcountry. In 1920 he bought a cabin four miles up Goodell Creek on the east side of the stream. The split cedar log cabin had been built the year before by another Marblemount trapper. Petta also had a cabin 12 miles up Goodell Creek at the foot of Jaspar Pass.  If not near one of his cabins, Petta simply camped beneath the trees of the forest. One of the few who made a decent living trapping, Petta ran lines along the Baker River, Goodell Creek, and probably countless other drainages in the North Cascades.  Old receipts spanning the years 1913 through 1949 reveal that Petta shipped his pelts all over the country. J.S. Lodewick Company of New York, "buyers and exporters of Raw Furs and Ginseng," paid Petta $18 for two large mink and one medium one; later that same year two large mink, one medium, two small, a marten, and a weasel (worth only two cents) brought Petta a check totalling $21.06. Other companies he dealt with were J.L. Prouty's Sons, New York; Montgomery Ward and Company, Portland, Oregon; Northern Fur Company, St. Louis; Olaf Swenson, Seattle; New York Auction Company; and Sol Rubin, Seattle.  Petta retired from trapping in 1956. 

My grandfather was a trapper, although, not for money. He trapped animals that threatened the livestock of farmers and ranchers in Hale and surrounding counties.

Back to the book that Gasper signed. The book is titled, Christ and the Scriptures by Dr. Adolph Saphir. Why do I have this book? I honestly don't know, but God does. I have a few favorite early books on Christianity (this book is not dated). They are some of my favorite readings.

From the first paragraph of Chapter IV, Five Characteristics of the Bible-Evidences of Its Divine Origin, 1. Sublime Doctrine...

Take the idea of God, such as the Bible gives us. So spiritual, and yet, so simple. God is infinite and incomprehensible; dwelling in light inaccessible, and full of glory; high above all that is created and finite; whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, and before whom even the angels veil their faces as they adore Him. And yet He is presented as being near unto us, even unto all that are of a broken and contrite heart; as listening unto the sighing of every humble child, and condescending to reveal Himself unto babes. How spiritual and sublime is the Scripture teaching of God! How homely and simple its revelation of the Father! Scripture reveals to us God as the great Creator of the universe, the Governor and Upholder of the world, the adorable King of angels, who obey his commandments; and at the same time we are assured, that not even a sparrow can fall to the ground without his will, and that the very hairs of our head are numbered; we are taught that we may commend to his guidance the minutest duties of our life, and expect his answer to our prayers on behalf of our daily troubles and difficulties. Scripture reveals Him as a God of holiness, justice, and truth, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and whose throne is established in verity and righteousness; and Scripture unfolds to us the mercy, the compassion, the tenderness of God-his delight in blessing, his glory in his wonderful grace. Whence this idea of God, so sublime and yet so simple, so spiritual and yet so tangible, so pure and holy, and yet so gracious and loving. Do we find anything to be compared with it among the Greeks and Romans? It has come down from above. God revealed Himself.

As I on occasion read from this book that once belonged to the World War I veteran, Gasper Petta, I am reminded of how God connects me to the people I can learn from. Gasper underlined many thoughts that impacted his life as he read this book some sixty-five years ago. What we do in this world may not seem like it amounts to much, but we don't know God's ways. He connects. Maybe, when we have been gone forty-five years like Gasper, a learning woman or man will pick up a book on Christianity and connect with you or me in some small way.

For if I have Christ, I have more than his Word, I have Himself; He dwelleth in me, and I with Him. A. Saphir

 God connects, and isn't it amazing how he determines it?

Fresh Find: How about a Wee Baby Stella Fella from Hello Baby Boutique? A-DORABLE!

I've known these ladies since Spudnuts were about 5 cents each.

I ran into them at Artisan's Jewelry. We had a nice visit. I was leaving and then, a nudge, I remembered! 

I loathe having my picture made. It is a place where Satan plays a number on me. I do not take pictures well. I never like them, but I do love to take pictures. 

A few months back, the Holy Spirit nudged me, and God shared that I need to stop and take pictures of those I care about with me in the picture. It is a gift.

I have included myself several times since then. Today, I remembered and went back and grabbed a quick shot of Jacqueline and Jerry Johnston. Jacque and I worked together at Gabriel's. Fun times.

I'm so thankful to be able to stay in touch through Facebook, but it was sure nice to see her in person...and her sweet momma!

Sure could use some 5 cent Spudnuts tonight. I'd even pay upwards of a dollar!

God is good. Blessed to know this sweet family!!!

Fresh Find: A 'take us back' Spudnuts refrigerator magnet.

An egg must be broken before it can be used. We are like that. We must be broken to be used effectively. As a follower of Jesus Christ, I can remember at the age of six that I was broken in that I was not perfect. I was led to understand, through the stirring within me, that God loves me, and my journey of complete adoration, respect, and awe for the one who created me began. 

But, I am human. I sin. Choices cracked me; mine and others.

I have been cracked open many times in my 62 years. Every time the Holy Spirit has been with me 24/7 to guide me and comfort me through. It is my choice that allows the sunshine to rise from my cracked self.

To be cracked allows us to rely fully on God. God, in turn, allows us a ministry song that brings the sunshine into another's cracked life. He uses our weaknesses to benefit His Kingdom, his people.

Maybe you feel you have been cracked too much or maybe you have not experienced cracking yet. It isn't the number of cracked opens, but the rays of hope we give from the sunshine given us.

I commissioned this painting from my long-time artist friend, Sally Gubser.

Job 6:6 Don't people complain about unsalted food? Does anyone want the tasteless white of an egg?

When we find ourselves cracked open with our innermost feelings raw in front of a world that easily judges, we must remember that we are His sunshine! It is our choice to rise above and be used for good. We are the salt that adds the flavor to His world.

Fresh Find: Love these Boxy Lady socks!