Wonderful Weekend Activities

The Iron Roses took a road trip way up to the top of a mountain at Big Canoe yesterday to tour one of the most beautiful homes I’ve seen in a long time. This gorgeous home is Atlanta Magazine’s 2009 Mountain Dream home. Just the master suite alone is 1,500 sq. ft. of loveliness. I could have curled up by one of the five fireplaces in this house and been content for days. Now it is a long winding road up there but totally worth the drive. And admission is free! It runs Thursdays through Sundays from 10-4 now until November 15th. It’s a great way to spend an afternoon.

Tomorrow, Sunday, October 25th, afternoon if you’re looking for something fun to do, check out the

Food for Thought – A Tour of Kitchens
To benefit Teen Pregnancy Prevention, Inc.
1:00 – 5:00 p.m.

Six homes featuring their beautiful kitchens will be on the tour. Chefs from area restaurants will be preparing their specialties at each home. You know this is my kind of event – beautiful homes . . . food . . . I’m there.

It's Been a Week!

So sorry I haven’t been in touch lately but it has been a whirlwind of activity in my little world lately. I’ve hardly had time to sit down much less write about it. I literally have about five big projects going, three different studies, and a host of responsibilities that it seems only I can accomplish. Such is the life of a woman! Let’s hit the highpoints since the last time we talked.

· The Monday night girls and I had a great time together this past Monday. This night found us discussing the very serious subject of loving our husbands well, what it means to be a godly wife, respecting our men and the art of submission to God first and then our husbands. This was a great time of authentic and transparent sharing of our triumphs and struggles. Call it sheer relief, but we about laughed ourselves silly. I really don’t know what came over us except maybe it was the realization that we aren’t rowing alone in the marriage boat. Somehow knowing we’re all piled in there together brought us great joy!
· I am in the process of a fun decorating project for a client right now. This is a start-from-scratch, blank slate of a room. I’ve just started collecting fabrics and paint chips, making furniture choices and brainstorming rug, art and accessories needs. Put me in a furniture or fabric store and I might never come out. I am continually amazed at the creativity of folks that devote their lives to creating beautiful things, whether it be fabric, furniture, art, jewelry, clothing, whatever. Our God is a God of creativity to be sure. Think about all of the amazingly beautiful things He created. I am so thankful that the Creator allows us to share just a little glimpse of that.
· I was at the Mart all day yesterday with a friend on a buying trip for the hospital gift shop. Whoowee –a day at the mart is a day of mixed feelings. First, the nagging feeling that we aren’t spending our own money. This is money that is filtered through to go to the betterment of the hospital system. We must spend responsibly. Second, the overwhelming feeling from the vast amount of product choices available. We must make wise choices. And the exhausted feeling of hitting the high points of three, 18 floor buildings. We must wear our comfortable shoes. I, however, did find it necessary to make a personal stop at the jam-packed costume jewelry store. Now, I find this store fascinating. . My friend, however, gets the jitters at the overwhelmingness (that’s not really a word but it works for me here) of it all. But it is totally worth it when I came out with a multi-strand pearl necklace and bracelet, a brown necklace and two pair of earrings for $40. $40 for heaven’s sake. Totally worth it.
· After that long day, I treated myself to heart-to-heart talks with two fabulous friends. Both of these women are truly spirit lifters which I needed because the body was weak, believe me. Many thanks to both of them for listening to my words and my heart. They are prayer warriors of the serious kind and I’m just thankful they allow me to walk this journey with them.
· On top of everything else yesterday, my battery died on my car. Died . . . dead . . . at the Circle M while I was making a half sugar-free-french-vanilla-cappuccino-half-hot-chocolate stop. My poor husband had to come over and jump the car off while everyone in the parking lot getting gas and in the store getting who-knows-what, looked on. This nice young man, bless his heart, must have thought he was doing his good deed for the elderly as he came over to assist D with the procedure. I couldn’t help but smile as I was standing there as the center of attention sipping my above mentioned concoction. Oh the joy brought from life’s little annoyances.
· This morning I was deep into the book of Esther with a dozen ladies and Beth Moore. The session was on time and timing. And don’t you know I needed to hear that. While I could go on and on about that – I don’t have . . . time.

My husband has a rare afternoon off and of all things, has a wild hair, and is out there in the garage cleaning. I better go since I am, after all, his helpmate, the Bible tells me so. I’ve always thought that really sounds like something to do with a chess game (no disrespect to God’s Word intended). D may get carried away and starting throwing away my yard sale treasures. I better go check . . . mate.

Family Weekend at GSU

I only have just a minute to catch up you up on our weekend. We headed down below the gnat line on Friday afternoon to enjoy Family Weekend with our boy. G is in Statesboro but we waited too late to make our reservations so we were “forced” to stay in Savannah. While it goes without saying that the highlight of our weekend was the time we spent with our son, we so enjoyed being in the beautiful city of Savannah. While I didn’t see Ruby or Paula, don’t think for one minute I felt cheated. This town is so beautiful. Friday night we had dinner with our boy, his girl and her parents in a City Market cafe then took a leisurely stroll along River Street enjoying the brisk cool evening. It was delightful. I couldn’t help but wondering “if these walls and streets could talk” what great stories they would tell. The juxtaposition of the new with the old in this town is just fascinating.

Saturday we spent the day in Statesboro (“the boro” as the locals call it). We hadn’t seen G’s new apartment or met one of his roommates so we were thrilled to be able to do both. Then we did what every parent in this town was doing – took our child shopping. It was chaos. Now I love to shop but great goodness, we could hardly move in TJ Maxx. But we toughed it out and were successful in adding to G’s wardrobe. Then it was . . . drum roll please . . . game time. Let me set the stage: College – Football – Fraternity – Tailgating. You get the idea.

G was great about including us and introducing us to his friends. And hopefully we did nothing to embarrass him. Except maybe when my chicken sandwich flew off my plate and hit one of his buddies in the leg (it was windy, okay). We did go to the game – for about 30 minutes. Then it started to rain so that was that. We took a unanimous vote and decided to go meet some friends at a local restaurant and do what every die-hard fan does when such happens. . . watch it on tv in a warm, dry comfortable place that serves sweet tea, chicken nachos and key lime pie.

It was a great being in the midst of my boy’s home away from home; to see a snippet of what life is like for him there. We had a great time.

I Squealed with Delight!

I admit it. I confess. I am a magazine junkie. Honestly, I could read magazines all day. So imagine my delight yesterday when I was at the grocery store and spotted the new Southern Lady Holiday Issue. Oh. My. Goodness. I put that thing in my buggy so fast it would have made your head spin. I practically skipped out of the store. Now keep in mind I had company coming yesterday and I knew I wouldn’t have time to even look at it until late last night. But I had to have a quick fix. So I dug it out of my shopping bag as soon as I got in the car and at every stop light, I looked, oohed, aahed. It truly is a work of art.

I am a total Southern Lady magazine compulsive . . . and a Christmas compulsive. So you combine the two into one issue and my heart skips a beat. This magazine is pure eye candy. Even the advertisements are gorgeous. I don’t know the editor of Southern Lady, but I like her. In every issue on her editor’s page, there in big bold letters is printed Proverbs 31:10.

Now, I have not had time to leisurely devour each page but when I do, I’ll let you know. I can hardly wait.

Entertainment Tonight

I love to entertain. I love to have family and friends in my home on a regular basis. But that hasn’t always been the case. It used to make me really, really nervous – probably because of my perfectionist tendencies. You know, you want everything, and I mean everything to be perfect. But I eventually sat myself down and had myself a talkin to. I said, “listen, girlfriend, perfection is not going to happen around here so get over it.” Get over the fact that I don’t have that chair recovered in the great room, that I didn’t have time to run the vacuum, that I didn’t make a homemade dessert. That is totally not the point of entertaining. The point is to welcome people into your home, sit around the table together and enjoy some great fellowship – to build or enhance relationships.

Sounds like I’m in my comfort zone now right. I thought so too. Until today. D invited some friends over for dinner tonight. He knows them quite well as they have had a close business relationship over the past several months. I, however, did not know them as well and okay, I admit, my perfectionist tendencies were out of control! Not only were they coming for dinner but they were coming mid-afternoon to discuss some issues that are very important to our business. So that meant I had to have most of the meal prepared by 3 as well as have some hors devours out for us to snack on while we were talking. Now, don’t get me wrong, these folks are great. We love them. It was totally me, just me, who was putting the pressure on myself. So feeling totally overwhelmed I did what any good hostess would do – I sat down and put my feet up for a minute. I opened the laptop to an entertaining blog I read regularly. There in big bold letters was what I needed to see – “Hospitality is not about having the best, newest or most beautiful. It’s about sharing your heart and home with others.” Amen, sister. Got it.

So, all that to say, we had a fabulous time with these new friends. I took a deep breath and enjoyed every minute of it. I want them to come back next week. Just in case you were wondering, this is what was on the menu:
First - Shrimp Cocktails. I may be biased but our store has the absolute best shrimp in their seafood market. I even hung those babies on the side of my cute little bowls like a professional.
Main Course – filet mignon. Since D didn’t want to stand in the rain while these were on the grill, we cooked them on the stovetop in the grill pan. If you don’t have a grill pan, you should. It will change your life.
Baked sweet potatoes with cinnamon/honey butter. Here’s your tip for today. Soften a stick of butter; then mix it with about 2 tablespoons each of cinnamon and honey. Put it in one of those cute little glass butter jars they have at the Targets. (wish I knew how to post a picture – I would show you) and put it back in the refrigerator until you’re ready to serve. Yum! Baked asparagus. This is super good and super easy. Just drizzle asparagus with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic sea salt. Put on a cookie sheet and bake at 375 for about 12/15 minutes. I love it – I eat these like French fries! And a fabulous salad complete with the last of the home grown tomatoes.
Dessert - sad news. There was none. These folks are on a sugar strike so I did not want to tempt.

So, I challenge you today, step right out of your comfort zone and invite some folks over. Share your heart and home with others. I think you’ll be glad you did.

Love is in the Air

Please tell me y’all remember that 1977 disco song by John Paul Young. “Love is the air . . . everywhere where I look around . . . love is in the air . . . every sight and every sound.” Sound familiar? Yes, I did my fair share of dancing around the disco ball in my day, mostly to songs I really don’t care if I ever hear again. But this one I actually really like. I’ve been humming it all day. Maybe because it doesn’t have anything to do with being a brick house, igniting a disco inferno or going to the Copacabana where music and passion were always the fashion. Wow – sorry, how did I get off on that?

Love is in the air. In the past 24 hours, I have had the pleasure of sitting down and planning with two brides who are marrying within the next two months. Somehow, I just can’t help getting caught up in all the excitement of planning such a wonderful day. It just energizes me! Both of these couples are so special. Both are maybe, you might say, a little older than the average marrying age. Now I really didn’t know what the average marrying age is so I went to the trusty Wikipedia, where all random facts are found. It says the average marrying age in the United States is 27.7 for men and 25.6 for women. Interestingly enough, the oldest average marrying age is in Greece – 35.3 for men and 29.2 for women. Isn’t that fascinating? Don’t you wonder why that is? I bet I know - in Greece, they have that Grecian Hair Formula so nobody really knows how old they are because all of their gray is covered up!!

Obviously, I really cannot stay on topic today. I think I’ve had too much tea from Chick-fil-a.

I’m just going to take my random thoughts and go. I’m off to meet my accountability and prayer buddy. Surely, she can keep me on track. She certainly has her work cut out for her tonight.

Scripture Memory

A few weeks ago I gave my Monday night study group this challenge – to memorize a verse or passage of Scripture before we complete our 9-week study, which should be around the end of November. Really, this is as much a personal challenge as it is a group one. I need to memorize Scripture - that is all there is to it. I need to know it and speak it. So I am calling you all to be my accountability partners as well. I will be back to you by the end of November typing these verses from memory.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers (sisters), in view of God’s mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:1-2.

To my Monday night ladies – we can do this!
“As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” Proverbs 27:17