Share Your World With Cee Cee Pt. 4

…or pt. 17 depending on where you’re counting from! Here are this week’s questions and answers.

1. At what time in your recent past have you felt most passionate and alive? I have been spending much time in prayer recently. I feel most alive when my spirit is connecting with God. We have had some powerful altar times at church and in worship I have felt an increase of His glory. I believe God is about to do something big!
2. What individual item of food would you not eat, even if it was served to you at the Queen/President’s dinner table? (Something ordinary.) There is nothing that I would not eat at such an event. I like most everything and honestly I’d probably be too star struck to taste anyway.
3. If you could choose between Wisdom and Luck, which one would you pick? Wisdom most definitely. Proverbs says wisdom is greater than rubies. Once obtained wisdom is under the control of the one who possesses it. Not so Luck, she will always be a capricious mistress.
4. What was the last time you went to a new place? I just got back from Maine and I had an opportunity to visit Port Clyde. You may remember the lighthouse from the running scenes in Forrest Gump.

Share Your World With Cee Cee Pt. 3

Here we are in week three for me (week 16 for some others) of sharing my world. This week’s questions are great!

1. If you had a choice, which would be your preference: salt water beaches, fresh water lakes, hot tub, or desert? My definite favorite is salt water beaches. Not because I like salty water but because there is something powerful about the ocean. I love to watch the waves from under a beach umbrella! 🙂
2. What book do you think everyone should read and why? Wow this is a long list but way up at the top far above all others is the Bible because it is the true revelation of God and His plan for redemption and the single authoritative rule for faith and conduct!
3. What’s your favorite way to wake up and what’s the first thing you do?  I like to wake up slowly. I love to push snooze for at least a half hour. Then I walk the dogs and pray and read the most important book which everyone should read (see question  number 2 if you skipped it as soon as you saw the “B” word)
4. What do you do to relax? I read a lot, I  pray, I go to the movies, and I absolutely love  getting my fingers into the earth and planting!

Here are this week’s photo offerings.                                                    French Rose

                                              Mountain Laurel

                                           Black Locust Flowers

Ahh! Yes I am looking forward to my yard this summer!

Award Sundays:The Readership Appreciation Award

I was speaking with a friend at the lunch table today about blogging.

The question at hand … “What is blogging really about?”

My simple answer to that was, “Blogging is about relationship and community.”

When I began “Reinventing the We’ll” I guess blogging was about writing and writing for an audience. A couple of years in, it has become about something else…people. Don’t get me wrong I still write because I love writing but it’s no longer just my voice that I am concerned with. When I write I want to hear the voices of my audience speak back to me in the comments section. Your comments have enriched me so much these last few years. Your voices have sustained me in some dark times. Thank you! 🙂

I have also been blessed to be able to read your work and to be given a voice on your blogs and that has been such an awesome privilege. Paulette http://pbus1.wordpress.com/ (sorry Paulette I just couldn’t let the opportunity pass) has nominated me for the Readership Appreciation Award. I am not sure I deserve a reward for doing something that was only a benefit to me but still I whole heartedly accept.

Here are the rules:

1. Award your top 6 bloggers who have commented the most.
2. Be thankful.
3. You cannot award someone who has already been awarded. And you cannot give the award back to me.
4. Don’t forget to tell the bloggers you’ve awarded.
5. If you don’t want to pass on this award, that’s okay too. Just admire it.

 

Now Paulette has already nominated some of my top commenters but here are six more who have added so much to my blogging life!

1.  Deb at http://twominutesofgrace.wordpress.com/

2. Rachel at http://stirringthedeep.com/

3.  Nicole at http://lovingsimplemoments.wordpress.com/

4.  Tom athttp://tomraines.wordpress.com/

And these are some new readers who have blessed me!

5.  Sarah at  http://theflyingonion.wordpress.com/

6. Paul at http://imagebreakers.wordpress.com/

To all of you who faithfully read “Reinventing the We’ll” Thank you! May you be abundantly blessed!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFrdJ2V3r7Y

Award Sundays: King of Kings!

Thank you Jesus and thank you Jonathan at 237 Blessed http://237blessed.wordpress.com/  for nominating me for The King of Kings Friendship Blogger Award! As the creators of this award at http://freedomborn.wordpress.com/2011/12/15/the-king-of-kings-friendship-award/ say this is more of a personal blessing than an award. I choose to receive it as both! 🙂

In my prayer and planning times God has impressed on me that this will be a “year of doubling”. One of the goals God has placed in my heart is to double the readership of “Reinventing the We’ll”. I believe that these nominations are a blessing God will use to open doors towards that goal of greater ministry in the blogosphere!

Many years ago God impressed on me the need to focus on building connections between people in the body of Christ. I never dreamed when I began blogging that I would “meet” so many wonderful brothers and sister. I am most blessed at this occasion to nominate a few of you wonderful co-laborers for this award!

http://drusillamott.wordpress.com/ One of my new reads. Her Inspirational fiction is great!

http://iftodaywehear.wordpress.com/ You probably already know her. She is quite famous and quite deserving of this honor!

And of course

http://tonirand.wordpress.com/ Thanks Ann for all you do!

Be blessed dear readers. See you tomorrow! 🙂

C.cada Museum Trip

C.cada , our church’s artist group, has been meeting monthly since last June. We have more than thirty artists across the various disciplines who have committed to come together to encourage, improve and train.

 

This month twenty-two of us took a field trip to the Worcester Art Museum for a guided tour.The weather was unseasonably warm. The sun was high in the sky when we arrived. So our artists didn’t mind standing out for a photo-op. Once inside though we were all business.

 

 

 

 

 

Our docent, Joe, explained that WAM has the largest display of ancient mosaics in America. This one comes from 6th century Antioch, the city where men and women first took the name “Christian”.

 

 

 

 

The museum also sports a fully reconstructed monastic chapter house from the 12th century. I could have just sat under the vaulted arches all day. Something about them is very soothing.

El Greco’s,  The Weeping Magdalene hangs in one of the center galleries. What I didn’t know was that my daughter was his model for the piece!After the tour and some private time milling through the various galleries we all finished off with a traditional Irish meal at O’Connor’s Pub in West Boylston.

Tell me about groups you belong to. What do you do for fun?

Pastor Wrinkles: The Perfect Christmas

Christmas 2011 is now upon us, dear reader. Therefore, I thought it appropriate to take a few moments to share some pastoral points about how to have the perfect Christmas tomorrow.

1. Give yourself grace: As a culture we put too much pressure on ourselves to get it right. We expect that we are going to be able to produce the Norman Rockwell Christmas that even Norman Rockwell couldn’t create. It’s time to realize, the “perfect” Christmas doesn’t exist. You can not create it; So relax and receive Christmas as it comes. It can be wonderful without being “perfect”.

2. Give others grace: If you can’t create the perfect Christmas neither can your spouse or your kids. Release them from impossible expectations and let them be themselves.

3. Thank God Tomorrow: By releasing unrealistic expectations you will be able to stop looking at what Christmas is not and praise God for what it is. So many of us are in less than perfect situations this year. That doesn’t mean there aren’t blessings to be found in the day. Take some time to thank God for every good thing in your life.

4. Make the day about Christ: We talk a lot about how commercialized Christmas has become. Let’s stop talking about it and do something about it. Take some time to make Christ the focus.

5. Take a Break: For God’s sake (and I really mean that) sit down sometime during the day. Take a load off. Shut up and rest!

6. Take Heart: In the end it is only one day…twenty four hours. Even if the sucker totally tanks anyone can make it through twenty-four hours! So rejoice the twenty-sixth is boxing day. You can bag up any bad memories and just return them to the store. Next year will be better.

7. Remember Pastor Wrinkles loves you. That alone should make for a perfect holiday 🙂

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Christmas Joy Mondays

Now that Thanksgiving and Black Friday are past, the time has come to enjoy the season of Christmas! For the next Four Mondays I will post some Christmas cheer for all of you to ruminate upon! Enjoy!

God’s gifts
put man’s best dreams
to shame.

-Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Blessed is
The season which
Engages the whole
World in a
Conspiracy of love.

-Hamilton Wright Mabie

How many observe
Christ’s birthday!
How few, his precepts!
O!  ’tis easier to keep
Holidays than
Commandments.

-Benjamin Franklin

What is your favorite Christmas quote?

 

How To Make Crab-Apple Jelly Err…Sauce

      Muddy’s property has some wonderful crab apples.

 

So this year I decided it would be fun to make some wonderful crab apple jelly sauce for Christmas presents.

Below are step by step instructions for crab apple jelly sauce!

Step one: Pick the apples and put them in a pot. Contrary to popular opinion these suckers don’t hop off the tree into a basket. If you wait for them to fall they get really nasty!

 

Step two:  Put the pot on a stove and cook them to mush.

 

Don’t forget to stir. Burnt mush could ruin the flavor of your jelly sauce.

Step three: Strain the mush!

 

 

Jelly sauce is great with little chunks of apple in it but leaves and stems sort of ruin the experience.

 

Step five: Totally disregard the instructions on the pectin box and add all the sugar (9 cups to 7 cups of apple mush) before you add the pectin. Bring to a rolling boil.

Step six: Add your pectin and boil for one more minute making the pectin totally ineffective.

Step seven: Ladle  the mush into jars. Close the tops and put in your hot water bath for 10 minutes.

AND TADAHHHH! YOU HAVE PERFECT APPLE JELLY SAUCE! 🙂

Ho! Ho! Boo!

My sister is moving to Amsterdam before Christmas. Since this may be our last opportunity to have a family Christmas for a few years, we thought we would celebrate on Halloween.

I think God loves her a lot. Because this weekend we had a HISTORIC  Halloween snow storm.

I shoveled a foot of snow Saturday night. Then Sunday morning I had another foot to shovel!

 

So today is Christmas and Halloween. We have decided to greet all our trick-or-treaters with a mixed greeting “Ho! Ho! Boo!”

Have you been effected by our HISTORIC world weather? What do you think it is?

Autumn Trek Pt. 4: Let’s Get There Already!

Yesterday I left you all at the border of Pennsylvania.

I may have mentioned it took me ten hours to get there. Still, I am sure you are wondering how come I could make it in ten hours and it has taken you three days. Well you can only do so much in four hundred words. Besides we have to take some time for the sycamores.

I had to ask an artist on the street what kind of trees they were because I really liked them. He gave me an “Are you entirely stupid?” look. Followed by a “How dare you disturb the heir of Van Gough!” look.  Then an eye roll… a loud sigh…Then he shrugged and turned his back on me like I had disturbed his nap! I think I broke Mr. Crankypants’ concentration.

He was standing right outside of this shop painting the trees. So honestly I thought he would be the best one to ask! How wroooong I was. Still I liked the trees. I finally found out what they were from a shop keeper who didn’t have anger issues.

I shook it off and bought myself a pumpkin coffee at Dunkin Donuts for comfort and went back to the road.

 In a little over an hour I was close to finishing my drive. I still had plenty of daylight so I opted to stop at Mill Grove, the John J. Audubon estate, just ten minutes from my son’s home in Phoenixville.

It was a great little road trip, and only a tank away! I learned that when you are living the slow, constant, and intentional life it’s your moment. Most people aren’t living the experience with you. So when an artist (or a non-artist) gets cranky with you don’t sweat it. He’s just having a moment among the sycamores. So just keep slow. Keep constant. Keep intentional. Maybe someday the rest of the world will join your joy! 

Oh by the way here’s the reason for my trip!

I know, I know he kind of looks like he’s been hanging out with my tree-artist friend. But I was embarrassing him in front of his boss, going all paparazzi on him…sorry Joe! 🙂