Mini-Me-Momma

So Much News At Our House

Look who waddled in to our house on Easter Morning.

We will tell you her story soon.   




We are so excited to have her here with us...and 4 weeks early...doing great!

Baby Girl Has Arrived

Our G16 arrived...thank you for all your love, hugs, and prayers. She is doing well - Mom is recovering from a C-Section a month early and it is a good thing! Chunky Monkey was 8 lbs 3 oz.

Where Have I Been? Across the Sea to Ireland - where people say it's so!

Yes, I've been to all of the Western States - I've been to Narnia - I've been to Tuscany - I've been in The Shack - by the Seaside - and countless other places.   This month I again went for a visit to a wonderful B & B in Ireland. The visit took me to Stone House, the old home of the three beautiful Sheedy sisters, Beatrice, Jessica, and Miss Queenie. I just love a cozy B & B.

Stone House is in Stoneybridge, a small village on the coast of Ireland, a place fled in short order by Geraldine “Chicky” Ryan in order to follow a charismatic man to America, much to the great embarrassment  of her relatives. The man wanders off after a short while, and Chicky is thrown onto her own devices (“she’s got guts altogether,” one character says of her), working and saving money, and gradually being forgiven by her family back home (she can’t bear how smug they’d be at learning the truth; she tells them he died in a tragic accident).  Funny how no one ever learns the truth!

During a visit to Stoneybridge, Chicky is approached by the sole surviving Sheedy sister, Miss Queenie (“Two of the old Miss Sheedys had been carried away by pneumonia in the winter...I felt the pain of pneumonia also this winter! “The old person’s friend, it was called; it ended life peacefully for those who couldn’t catch their breath”.   The idea born for Chicky’s savings to turn Stone House into an inn and advertising it as a peaceful destination for a week’s vacation by the sea.  

Ms. Binchy presents a large cast of characters and manages them with mixed results. Indeed, there are many odd, complicated characters in this story. 

1. Among them are a bad boy trying to be good

2. Two women in a struggle over loving the same man

3.  A couple bereaved

4.  A disaffected spinster,

5. A man caught between duty and desire

6. Another hiding out from a life that no longer works for him. 

They, along with other characters, are people at crossroads in their lives. As varied as their issues might be they nearly all manage to find their peace during their week at Stone House. Oh, wouldn't it be loverly!    All I want is a room somewhere

Far away from the cold night air

With one enormous chair

Oh, wouldn't it be loverly?

Lots of chocolate for me to eat,

Lots of coal makin' lots of heat.

Warm face, warm hands, warm feet

Oh, wouldn't it be loverly?

Perhaps I'll be visiting London soon!

back to Ireland ....This novel is very different from her former books in that there is not a smooth narrative arc from beginning to end. Instead of a unified story, A Week in Winter is written almost as a series of short stories, each focusing on the backstory of one character or team of characters, leading up to the point at which they arrive at Stone House and reach their Aha…moment!

It is bittersweet that I won't be visiting Ireland again with Maeve Binchy in a new story...but I will continue to find time to relax and enjoy her stories for many years to come as they are all worth reading more than once!

Our fingerprints don't fade

from the lives we touch.

... Judy Blume

I'd be lying if I didn't tell

you that my stomach was

in knots and I almost felt

queasy when I learned the story! 

Have we been living a staged play with some of the characters who enter having very short roles to play, others, much larger....One seemed like/for sure he was/ a villain and others are good guys.  Are all of them necessary, I guess so otherwise it wouldn't be much of a play.

So as we have embraced them all, we are now ready to  move on to the next act.

The fingerprints they have left will be forever in our memory - but  we are now peaceful,  content, in love with what is in our future , and hopefully we will only attract to our family those who are in alignment with our highest ideals.   With lots of prayers we know we will heal!

Where Is Love OLIVER !

1 John 4:7-12King James Version (KJV)

⁷ Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.

⁸ He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

⁹ In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

¹⁰ Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

¹² No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

Tree-mendous

“I play because I love it.”

      Blood - Sweat  - Tears the many hours of hard work are paying off....this kid is a natural! The invite has been received....he will join the Mites at the age of 5!    How cool is that!

Love Heals

The healing that love brings might not always look like you think it should, but as you assign value to your experience, it will prove to be exactly what you need for your good and God's glory.
Start with Forgiveness-

Jesus said, if you are holding on to offense, hatred, or grudges, the devil will have a foothold in your life (Ephesians 4: 26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: 27 Neither give place to the devil), and you won't be able to experience the forgiveness and peace of God in your life.

Forgiveness is not an emotion, it is a choice. 

Today I pray that God will strengthen me to be able to forgive, because sometimes I don't know if I can or want to. 

Lesson learned - forgive people who have hurt you and sinned against you, you will feel a powerful sense of God's presence break through immediately. So I forgive you --- smiles are returning to our lives, we are relieved from the pressure, and we can travel on down our path with pleasure!

God Bless and miracles happen! xoxo

Shrimp, Sausage, Veggies and Noodles ~ Yum

.

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
  
• 1/2 cup chopped cherry tomatoes
  
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
  
• 1/2 cup chopped red onion
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Italian Seasoning
  
• 1/2 teaspoon Red Pepper, Crushed
  
• 1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper, Coarse Ground
  
• 1/2 pound smoked sausage
  
• 1/2 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
  
• 3 large handfuls baby spinach leaves
• Don’t forget the mushrooms! Generous Handful
• 4 cups chicken broth
  
• 8 ounces pasta or your choice, uncooked

,,,,,,veggies sautéed  ~ aroma from heaven!

• Heat oil in large skillet on medium-high heat. Add celery, onion, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, and spinach leaves; cook and stir 5 minutes or until softened. Stir in Italian seasoning and red and black pepper.
  
• Cut sausage in half lengthwise, then in 1/2-inch slices. Add sausage and shrimp to skillet. Cook 2 minutes or until shrimp begin to turn pink. Add chicken broth. Bring to boil.
  
• Break pasta in half – we used penna so it doesn’t have to be broken; add to skillet. Cook 5 to 7 minutes or until pasta is just tender, stirring occasionally.
• Pine- Nuts from Sacco’s ….just what this dish needed!

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

The best sign anybody can have that something is not quite right is her instinct....boom get off the track!