Hope!

Have you ever thought about the word "hope"? We casually may say, "I hope the team wins!" or "We hope that the house sells soon." But the word means so much more! I recall after my job was deleted, I'd locate job ads that seemed really promising. The hope would just rise in me! I could imagine a new commute, new workmates, new responsibilities. My whole look on life was temporarily boosted while I waited to know more. But that hope was always short-lived. No interview, so no new job.

Thankfully, real hope is not in possible jobs,, team wins, or real estate transactions. Real hope is in Jesus Christ! Romans 15:13 says "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in Him." The apostle Paul wrote that Christ Jesus is our hope (1 Tim. 1:1). The next time you use the word "hope," think about what it really signifies. Do you have that hope? Do you know Him? Let the joy of knowing Christ rise in you! See you next time!

A Fun Day

Wow, isn't it amazing to have a great day when you least expect it? The Lord is so good and gives us so much more than we deserve! This morning our church orchestra had its annual Christmas workshop/rehearsal. We're three months away from the presentation and got our first look at the music we'll play. I love that first introduction. We get to learn the "personality" of each piece, and begin a relationship with them, whether it is fun, difficult, or boring! This music seems to be fairly challenging, which is always good, yet not impossible. This afternoon David and I had talked about going to our city's monthly flea market. Every month I want to go, but something comes up or I forget to plan it. The only issue with going today was that we'd be going in the afternoon, which I've heard isn't as much fun for some reason. Plus, I was torn about taking up David's time that he'd needed to use mowing or doing something else. We wound up going antiquing in Goodlettsville, Nashville's antique capital and my hometown during the last half of my school years. There are several "malls" one can visit. We chose the one I thought might be the largest and most productive. And it was lovely, though hot. The building was a car dealership in the 60s and 70s. This mall had several settings of living arrangements in the "showroom" area, then the back "repair shop" of the building was the bulk of dealer booths. I was surprised to see a decent variety of items for sale. I'm always drawn to my favorites: blueware and chairs. And I'm on the hunt for a coffee table to distress for our den. There was a great amount of cobalt and Delftware, my two primary collector items. I found a couple of unique pieces of Delft and purchased, plus a cute, solitary blueware saucer in a pattern unlike the usual Blue Willow or Currier & Ives. I'll try to post photos soon. We also did a little Christmas shopping, which is always gratifying! We dodged raindrops and came home to an afternoon of watching the Little League World Series playoff with the team from Goodlettsville! So exciting! One of the boys goes to David's school and others have family connections to both our church and my work church. One positive that transpired today was the decision to finally make business cards for myself. While I wait for God to provide my "happily ever after" job after my downsizing 4 years ago, I will continue to use my skills for additional income. So I created two business cards for those two lines of work. One is for my writing and editing work. That's my bread-and-butter work and I need cards to promote that with folks I meet. Then the other work is chair caning. Today I found a chair with a broken cane seat that I hoped to buy at a reduced price, knowing I could repair the seat. But the chair wound up being part of a set of 4 and I didn't want the whole set. Besides thinking that I'd offer the mall owner my information about caning chairs, if a customer needed me, it dawned on me that if I had a chair budget, I could buy the set, fix the seat, then resell them myself. Might need to think about it! Oh, and still found no coffee table! Anyway, I ordered two sets of cards! See what you think:

These cards only cost the shipping and I'm happy with the formats. The editing business card photo reminds me of the glaciers we saw on our Alaskan cruise a couple of years ago--my favorite scene! And the chair caning card photo seemed inviting and suggested thoughts of chairs. Guess what I named my caning business: "Have a Seat." Seems kind of welcoming and Southern! I'm sorry if there are no paragraphs in this posting. The preview shows none and I know that makes reading tedious. I've rambled enough for now. Time for sleep before church tomorrow! Blessings!

Revive!

Well, I think I've had a long enough break from writing this blog! I really should revive it and continue this endeavor. After everything that has colored my life in the last four years, I understand now how blogging was not the best thing to do. I'd need to share some of my heart, and I've been working so hard to heal it. In finding new adventures and ventures in which to fill my mind and heart, I've discovered that I'm in love with home decor. I usually have to avoid Home Goods and Kirkland's stores since I love so much there. But my house has been in flux forever. Hopefully things can began to come together. Maybe writing about home decor, among other things, will help me accomplish things. More to come!