1,000 GIFTS, #171 to #188

Multitude Monday ~ May 30th, Memorial Day - Counting Gifts to 1,000

171. A bouquet of hydrangeas cut from my garden for a friend.

172. Fresh blueberries in my yogurt...from my garden...picked by my husband. Sweetness.

173. Some good conversation with my mother, in the car, uninterrupted.

174. A new sewing machine - makes quilting a dream.  Speaking of quilts...

175. My quilt - almost finished except for the binding.

176. A series of messages by our Interim Pastor on family living - so refreshingly practical, biblical, expository preaching at its best.  Thank you Rev. Joel Southerland!

177. Pecans toasting in the oven. I sent a box to Paige Greene for her birthday. Buttery, salty goodness!

178. A great time in the Word of God. Habakukk 3:17-19. Within the span of a few minutes, this passage came to me from two entirely different sources, I sat up and paid attention!

179. My son Jeremy, grandson Zeke, and husband Gary picked these blackberries on our farm and I made a blackberry cobbler for Memorial Day dessert today. 

180. Celebrating my youngest grandchild's birthday this past week. Jackson is the son of my youngest son and daughter-in-law. Here he is getting some birthday love from Daddy & Mommy!

181. A nest of Brown Thrasher eggs in the tea olive bush by my back door. This is the official state bird of Georgia. :) 

182. My oldest son and his wife celebrated 7 years of marriage on May 22.  They are a blessing to my heart. He is a pastor and they have two wonderful children who bring Gran Jan's Joy to life!

183.  Our pond at dusk. My favorite time of day.

184. My husband and his associate, Rev. Dawson Hull both wore bowties to church yesterday...Gary in honor of an Air Force Colonel who gave him the tie. (Dawson wears them all the time.)  Everyone had a lot of fun with the "Bowtie Brothers."

185. Our women's ministry team wanted to set up a Facebook page, so we did. (It is going to be a great communication tool, already has been.) This required me to get back on Facebook after a 6 month break away. I learned a lot during my time away, especially that just like everything, balance is the key. Priorities - Jesus first.

186. It is daylily season here in Georgia and I love to check my garden every morning to see what's blooming.  Some beauties are - that's for sure.

187. Today would have been the 87th birthday of our pastor of many, many years - Rev. Rastus Salter. We esteemed him greatly.  He was a great man of God. He served our church for almost 50 years. What a heritage of faith. Gary and I had the honor to serve with him for almost 20 years.

188.  Lastly I would like to share a picture I took early this morning here at the Farm. My Dad is a retired Marine and Vietnam War Veteran.  He proudly maintains these flags and they fly every day. I am so thankful to have been raised in a military family and we live in a military town today.  I thank God for all the women and men who gave the supreme sacrifice in service to our great country.  God Shed His Grace on Thee.

Much love to all!

God Bless America. 

1,000 GIFTS, #153 to #170

As I come to yet another Multitude Monday, my heart is overflowing with His goodness as I continue to count blessings, grace gifts. Including pictures makes this more than a simple list, but I pray you'll indulge me.  As you know, "a picture is worth a thousand words..."  I'm working to one thousand gifts...so one thousand words in pictures sounds joyful too.

153.  My dearest friend is named Lanie. We were talking in the car on the way to our quilt class last week and she quoted a line from her Mother's Day card from her husband...it sounded familiar. Can you say like-minded friends and husbands? Our husbands gave us the exact same Mother's Day Cards! What a gift to have life-long friends.

154.  Lunch at Longhorns with a like-minded same-season-sister, Patsy. We have so much in common. She raised 3 sons, I raised two. One of her boys is married, both of mine are. We love the Word, we love our church, we love each other. It was such a sweet time and it was her treat...making it all the sweeter!

155.  A wonderful meeting in my home with my church's Women's Ministry Leadership Team. We accomplished so much, and enjoyed some delicious chicken salad too. I made a homemade peach cobbler.  Here is my recipe! Complete with pictures. :)

156.  Zeke spent the night with me Friday and we had so much fun.  He is getting older and it is getting funner (great word).  We picked blueberries and worked in the garden.

157.  And of course blueberries on Saturday morning call for blueberry waffles:

158.  I just love this picture and had to share these sweet little hands with 4 blueberries.

159.  The Instrumental worship pastor from my church, Rev. Dawson Hull attended a conference and my friend, Rev. Travis Cottrell was there leading in some of the sessions. I got this picture on my cell phone with a "Travis says hi" message and it made my day! 

160.  This is a "Blushing Bride Hydrangea" from the Endless Summer Collection.  I planted it the spring my youngest son Jonathan married his blushing bride, Erin on 06-07-08!  It blooms a pale white/pink, then turns into a very pale blue.  I love it!

161.  This is the son of Jonathan & Erin, sweet baby Jackson. He knows so many words and understands just about everything they ask him to do...he will toddle off and do whatever it is they say or do...here he is "loving Curious George."  Sweet!  He has a first birthday coming up one week from tomorrow.

162. This past Friday my friend and co-worker Sharon and I attended the funeral for the brother of our mutual friend and co-worker, Brenda. It was one of the most inspirational funerals I have ever attended. Three preachers and a quartet!  It was a celebration homegoing and the quartet sang a song called "If You Knew Him," by The Perry's that is absolutely wonderful!

163. The drive to the funeral was all backroads country and it was good for the soul.  We came upon this old covered bridge.  It is in Upson County, GA and is called Auchumpkee Creek Bridge and of course is tied to the time when the Creek Indians lived in this part of Georgia. I could have stayed there all day.  Had a great time tweeting about it with my siestas!

164.  This is the first daylily of 2011 from my garden.  Daylilies are my favorite perennial. 

165.  All the songs we sang yesterday in our morning worship were about God's holiness. "Holy Holy Holy," then a beautiful duet by Julie and Megan entitled "No Word But Holy," and then "Lord, You're Holy."  The Spirit was strong and the LORD added to His church. 

166.  Big families! Our church hosts a monthly "visitors luncheon" where new and prospective members meet and have lunch with the pastors and their families. Three of the families there yesterday had lots of children! I mean lots!  Two of them had 5 children each, and the other had six children! Hope for the future of Christian families.

167.  Our church nominated a great group of folks last night to serve as our Pastor Search Team. As God calls them to your memory, will you just pray for His will to be done?  We are searching for a Senior Pastor to come shepherd us, love us, and lead us.  Exciting times ahead for our family of faith!

168.  This is sweet baby Madie Ruth, my granddaughter, in as her momma calls it, "her girliest outfit yet."  There's more to come baby girl and we can't wait!

169.  Lastly...as I sign off tonight, I just want to say it is going to be 49 degrees tonight and I am loving this gift of cooler weather.

170.  One more lastly, I planted green beans, squash and cucumbers in my garden this past weekend.  I harvested red potatoes and onions to make room for the above veggies. The tomatoes have been planted for about 3 weeks and are growing so well with the help of my farmhand, Zeke.  He was watering them for Gran Jan!

It's been a very good week and I thank you for sharing this journey of counting His gifts with me.  Oh to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be...

1,000 GIFTS, #130 to #152

I have not posted on "Multitude Mondays" in a multitude of Mondays, but I'm back and thankful to be here. Life is good but life is busy. I promise I've been counting all along the way...and really can affirm that this counting grace gifts has become a habit. A good habit. A way to bring perspective to my day, even to my "situation."  Blessed.

130. I had a great checkup from my new young doctor, "Dr. Young." I told him I wanted a young doc to get me to my senior years and his name was a plus! :)

131. Celebrating my youngest sister's birthday April 8th. Peggy Jo was born on Good Friday back in 1966 when I was 8 years old...she's a sweetheart.

132. Having all the pastors and their wives over to our home for a meal and sweet fellowship a couple of weekends ago...priceless, theraputic, and just plain FUN!

133. Celebrating my Dad's 77th birthday on April 29th.  "Captain Tom" is a Vietnam War Veteran, a retired Career Marine and one of the finest men I know. I love you Dad.

134. Surprising my sweet Mother-in-law with a visit! She was so excited and apologized for not having her "face fixed." (Meaning no makeup...she is 88 years old - I love that!)

135. I have finished my quilt top! My bff Lanie and I are taking a quilting class on Tuesday evenings. We have so enjoyed our class, but the fellowship in the car during our commute to and from the quilt shop is an added bonus (we drive for over an hour to our class site).  There's nothing like good conversation with a trusted friend.  We always get Starbucks on the way home!

136. On Easter Sunday our choir did the most beautiful music and at the end of the song, a HUGE banner was unfurled...it simply said JESUS. I got to "pull the cord" to unfurl it from the choirloft...it was WAY overhead...very high. I have never been so excited in my life as I anticipated letting it go at just the right time...and I am thankful to say it was right on time!

137. Purple Martin birds coming to live in the big birdhouses we have up for them! They are migratory and they found us! :)
138. Speaking of birds...the hummingbirds are back...I so love them!

139. A great harvest of snow peas from my garden - delicious.

140. Beautiful tomato plants in the garden now...pictures soon!

141. This visitor on my patio the night before Easter...I am serious.

142. This is my youngest grandson, Jackson. He loves being outside and this picture has brought me a multitude of smiles...that is his momma, my sweet daughter-in-law Erin holding the hose for him.

143. A letter from my Compassion son, Iduar. He was thanking me for his birthday money. He bought tennis shoes. Remember the perspective I told you that this counting grace gifts brings? A little boy that lives in Colombia bought tennis shoes and he was so grateful. Speak LORD.

144. Coffee on the front porch with my grandson Zeke. It was a cool morning and we had our "blankies" and our coffee. I love when he spends the night with me and Pop!

145. Beautiful roses in my garden. My favorite of all is "Mr. Lincoln." Smells divine.

146. The joy of praying for my dear friend in the fellowship of pastor's wives, Lisa McKay, who weathered a tornado in the crawl space of her new home with her husband and four children. They are well and are ministering to their community in northeast Alabama. Go here to keep up with her. She is a treasure.

147. The joy of babysitting my little grandgirl recently, Miss Madie Ruth. She will be ONE YEAR OLD tomorrow and we had her birthday party this past Friday evening with a big family BBQ planned by my son and his wife...her parents. The weather was perfect and it was so much fun to be together to celebrate her life!

148. Rocks! Yes, rocks! Rocks to line my flowerbeds. Nice big beautiful rocks from "the Stone Mart" in town. They are beautiful and I plan to do a post soon about my garden because it is a work in progress and it is my happy place.

149. My husband and I took Dr. Robert Smith of Beeson Divinity School (Birmingham, AL - Samford University) and his wife Dr. Wanda Smith out to lunch last Sunday. It was pure JOY to sit with them and receive the wisdom they spoke into our lives. We are on "this side" of a rough season in ministry, but God is faithfully teaching us, and we are receiving all He has for us.

150. We have blueberries on our farm and the earliest varieties are bearing now. They are HUGE (that is a quarter next to the blueberry I picked this evening). I had the best time teaching Zeke which ones to pick! He kept saying, "don't pick the green ones Gran Jan...they will hurt your belly."  :)

151. Celebrating Mother's Day this past weekend with my boys and sweet daughters-in-law and grandblessings and then having my Mom and sister and her family for Sunday dinner yesterday. Besides knowing JESUS, being a Mom & Gran Jan has brought me more JOY than anything I've ever done!

152. The joy of singing a solo in church yesterday with the most wonderful choir in the universe! The song is "Saving Grace." The second verse always *blesses* me so:

In this life before me, there are trials I must face.

But God has given all I need to finish out this race.

So when the earth's foundations crumble,

there is refuge in His Hand,

and I will rest in this assurance,

that by His grace alone I'll stand... 

Yes indeed, by His grace alone I'll stand!

For ALL is GRACE - to Him alone be ALL glory!