A Couple Favorites

A Christmas card that I love attached to old shutters that I also love and usually attach Christmas cards to

Also are grandchildren favorites!

Stay tuned for more Christmas decorations next week.  (Hopefully!)

How to Upload Multiple Pics to A Blog from A Mobile Device!!! Yay!!!

Excited!!!  That's what I am!  Excited about pictures!  Excited about blogging!  Excited that I finally can get blogging and pictures to go together!!!

Are you like me and prefer a blog with beautiful pictures as opposed to one with only words??? 

To me, pictures and blogging go together.  

I like to blog!  I love to read good blogs on home decorating ideas, missionary wives blogs and a couple others.  However, i also love my iPad that I got for my birthday which is considered a mobile device which is not so blogging friendly.   So far, I Have only been successful at a loading one picture at a time when when blogging from my iPad.

Now, a desktop computer sits  in a room upstairs in my house.  From a desk top computer it is no problem to  do a blog post and post as many pictures as you want.  However, another thing about me I guess, is that I am determined or could it be called stubborn??!! We will call it determined!  I have been determined to find out a way to post more than one picture at a time from my iPad!  

After trying, and trying and trying again and then failing, and even being told by a technician at the apple store that it couldn't be done, I found a way.

I know you're wanting me to hurry and tell you what.  Well, it's simple, and trust me, for me it has to be simple!!!   You simply have to set up a Google Plus account and just set it up for your pictures to load instantly from your iPad or iPhone. Here's the catch.... The photo upload has to be done from the "compose" mode, and the script or writing part needs to be done in the HTML mode. Don't ask me what that means, I just know it works for me! I'll take it!  

This way Blogger will allow you to access these photos, select them and post them to your blog!!!

Pictures are what really makes your blog post come alive.  I think it awakens your senses!

Taste the sweetness!

Smell the goodness!

Hear the fun!

See the beauty!

Well, I almost made it! For some reason it won't let me post another picture. I needed to do one more for the 5th sense! Oh well at least, I was able to do more than one picture. Hope you enjoy a little glimpse into our trip to the Deep South.

All from my iPad! Yay!!

A Taste of Southern Living

Can anyone guess where I have been this week by looking at these foods?

Here's a little hint........

It's Christmas time here, but it sure doesn't feel like Christmas time!

Southern Mississippi!  That's where all these wonderful foods are from.

My father-in-law

A tribute to a "fisher of men".

Two Close and Two far

These are the two closest ones now. Rebecca, the oldest, and Hannah, the youngest are 30 - to 60 minutes away.
Sarah is soon to be 5 hours away and Leah us 10 hours away. (Sniff sniff)

Dear D.O.E. (Daughters of Eve)

This is a lesson I had the opportunity to teach this past weekend at Franklin Road Baptist Church.


Part One

The Divine Design of Eve



My husband always says that if you are looking for an answer concerning something such as doctrine, or anything that is taught in the Bible, it's always good to go to the beginning.   We need to go to Genesis, the book of beginnings.   That's  exactly what we're doing today as we start a four part study on why woman was created.  Thus is a study, of course, on Eve.

 Now in my husband's book, The Divine Design of the Family,  he entitles this chapter, the Devine Design of  Eve.  I'm  going to change it up a little and entitle it, Daughters of Eve or in abbreviated form, D.O.E.  (Daughters of Eve), because  all we women are daughters of Eve .

  Eve was the  mother of all living.  She was the first mother and her name means mother of all who have life.  God designed her so perfectly and just the way He wanted her to be.  in Eve we have our Design.  When  God designed Eve, He showed a perfect picture of  just how he wanted every woman that was to be born after her and all her descendants to be.  So we can learn from this study what God wants us to be.  

Eve's Creation Was Decreed By God

First of all we will see how Eve was created by decree .   God decreed that Eve was to be created.   Genesis chapter 1 verse 27 the Bible says, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."   We were made in his image;  in the image of God.  We were made just the way he wants us.   In Psalm chapter 139 verse 14 the Bible says,  "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:....."

So often, however,  we women aren't happy with the way God made us. We want to look different. We may have blue eyes  and want brown,  even to the extent of changing them by using colored contacts it.   We might have a pear shaped body and want an apple shaped body or we might have an apple shaped body and wish we had a banana shaped body.  What 

we all wish for is a Coke bottled shaped body, but that's just not going to be the way it is  in most cases!   We  need to be happy with the way God made us and thankful that he designed is just the way He wanted us to be designed; by the decree ofGod, and that it is good!

In the beginning when God  designed woman, He designed her for a specific purpose.  The main purpose he created woman was for the man.   There's a verse of scripture that you  don't hear very often.   It is Corinthians 11:9 "Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man".   This verse plainly says that the woman was created for the man.  I know there's many Liberal women's groups who would not believe that and would not be happy with me  saying such things.   It is in the Bible and it is true!

Woman was made for man  with  a  purpose.    God decreed the purpose of the creation of woman  for three main reasons.  

Woman was made to contrast man

The first one is for contrast.  The woman was made  to contrast the man In case you haven't noticed, men and women are different.  Some differences are very obvious, and some of the differences are not so obvious.  Of course, we know  the woman has a smaller bone structure, she has softer skin she is less aggressive  ( in most cases anyway).  One interesting fact,  and we really don't have to look too far to see,  and most of us know too well,  that women have more fat cells than men.   We all know that we store them in different places as well,  don't we?

  Another interesting thing is how different the brains of women and men are.  Studies have been done on the brain to compare  male and female brain activities.    In several test it is a proven fact that men use only one side of the brain and in fact it is a very minute part of the left side of the brain.  Women, on the other, hand use both sides of the brain.  Isn't  it wonderful how God designed that!  God knew that as a mother we would have to be able to do all the household duties and take care of small children at the same time never taking  our eyes off  them.   SonGod made us to be able to do this.   Now this doesn't make me think  less of the man or to make fun of the man.   It makes me know what a wonderful creator we have!  

Also Test were done in the area of how differently male and female view objects of beauty.     

When a man looks at a picture or a painting or some article or item that relates to beauty he sees it in relation to dimensions.   In other words he sees all the architectural elements.   He literally sees it in what we would think of as square boxes.   A woman views   it very differently.  She,  for some reason links it to language.  Real beauty is more to her than just  an object.  This is amazing to show how different we are and it is a very good evidence that homosexuality does not come from God.  He wanted us to be different.   For Adam there was a need For someone totally opposite from him to be his partner;  someone to contrast him but also someone to compliment him.

Woman was made to compliment man

Secondly the decree was given by God for woman to be created for the purpose of complimenting the man.  

As I was studying this I actually thought I had to look up the definition for the word compliment, only to find that I already what compliment meant.  It  simply means to praise;  to honor; to lift up.   One of the reasons woman was made for man is to compliment him.   Something that might make it easier for us to understand is to look at the color wheel.  Now on the color wheel there is such a thing as complementary colors; two colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel.   These two colors are made to complement each other.   They are made  to bring out the best color the opposite from them on the color wheel .   This is what we should do even though we are totally opposite from our husband .  It is our job as a wife to bring out the best in him; to make him look good; to honor; to lift him up; to praise him; "to make him known in the gates", as the Proverbs 31 woman did.  

I like to get advice from older women.  I love to glean wisdom from them.  One thing my aunt told me that I will never forget concerning her husband who had passed away.  They had a wonderful relationship,  and of course she missed him terribly.  She said to me, "tell him every day how much you love him"!    I might add to that, make ways to show him every day how much you love him.  We were made to compliment him and to honor him.  

Woman was made to complete man

Thirdly,  one of our purposes as it was Decreed by God in the beginning, was to complete the man.  Now  we all know that there are certain things that a man cannot do and cannot be without his wife.  Guess what!  The man knows this too!  He does not need to be reminded of this all the time.  In  our society today so many agendas and platforms are aimed at making him, the man,  look as if he is ignorant,  stupid or of less intelligence than the woman.  This is from Satan, not from God.  Yes,  God designed the woman to complete the man; to be the feminine side of him.  My husband often laughs and says the only feminine side of him is me!   That is true.  We are made to complete him.

We were made to be his ". help meet".   This word means to be the " helpful partner".  In verse 19 of chapter 2 we see that God saw that man needed and help meet.  He created the animals and yes, they were helpful to to man.   I'm sure  the dog was His best friend, and 

perhaps the horse or the donkey carried him from one end of the garden of Eden to the other.  The monkeys no doubt made him laugh and he enjoyed watching the squirrels scamper and the rabbit hop, but none of these were even close to what he really needed.  So God said, "I will create an helpmeet for him",  so he made woman and she became his encourager and his helpful partner.  She  was created to help him, to complete him;  not to discourage him or to bring him down but to build him up.  Proverbs 14:1 says, says, "Every wise woman buildeth her house, but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands."   We will be considered a wise woman if we do that for which we were created,  to complete our husbands.  

Under the divine design of woman, the second thing we see at is that she was designed by degree.

Woman Was Designed by Degree


When our girls were young, we sang the song, "He's Still Working on Me".  Eve could have surely sung this song.     The  Bible says in  Timothy 2:13, "For Adam was first formed, then Eve".  When God made Adam and when he designed Adam, He actually designed Eve.  The framework for her was made in the creation of Adam.  In fact, our design was in Adam.  When God  made Adam, he made us.  Every human being was designed  in Adam.  When God breathed life into Adam,  He breathed life into the whole human race.   Eve had her beginning in Adam.

In the design of Eve,  we see every area,  or season, of a woman's life.   we see her as a wife.   We see her as a mother and grandmother.   We know she didn't have a mother -in-law,  but she was a mother-in-law.   Even though she was never a daughter in he sense of being a young girl, she did have to learn like a daughter has to learn.  Adam taught her.   Adam was responsible to teach her just like every husband has the responsibility to teach their wife.  Every woman should have the opportunity to be taught by their husband.  The Bible says that if a woman  has questions concerning the church that she should learn at home that's God's plan and God's design is.   The woman is to be under the authority of the man, but we know, so often,that is not the case.  Sadly,  many men are not like they're supposed to be;  not like  Christ.  They do not fill the role that they were created to fill.  They fail to or are incapable of teaching their wife.   Non-the less women should always be under some authority.   A daughter should learn to be under the authority of her father just like Eve had to learn.   Then that daughter can be given away to her husband who is to take that role of teacher and the one to be her authority.   She should be under his authority until death parts  them.  If the husband goes first, the wife still needs to be under the authority of some godly man.  The  place that she can be sure to get this is through the church.   Church should be the place that teaches the word of God, the law of God.  This is what is we Christians should govern our lives by.   Therefore,  it's very Important to be under a pastor who follows the Word of God and lets the word of God lead him and direct him and then that woman can be under his authority, if she has no one else to be her authority figure.   My husband did a thorough study on this and found  a woman should never  be out from under the authority of the man.  A wise older woman made a very interesting statement to us concerning this.  She said that she liked to think  that a girl should marry young because if she has been brought up to obey and be submissive to her father,  she will have no problem being submissive to her husband.   If she goes directly from being a submissive daughter to being a submissive wife, without any lapse of time, it would be easier for her.   

At any rate we as women should always be learning.   As a young daughter, as a young girl Eve like Eve had to learn.  We as well in  every stage of our lives, should be constantly learning.   We should be under the authority of someone.  We  should recognize that as God divinely designed Eve by decree and then by degree,  so He designed us and that He's is still working on us!

Our Resurrection Sunday 2012

We had a great day!  It is a great day!  One that we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  How thankful I am for this fact.  Without that, there would not even be any of these pictures below. 

Lonnie, me, and Morrison grand kids, Eli, Abby, Eden

Hearn Family
Kevin, Rebecca, Anna, Olivia, Cas, Lonnie R.

Hannah and Jason Wheeler

We were honoured to also have Bro. Rob Morrison and Carol with us.  This is our son-in-law, Tim's parents. We had a wonderful time with them, and once again, only because Christ Arose!

The only thing missing was the Black family. We always miss them so much on Easter. They were in Mississippi spending the day with their precious church family.  The above is a picture of Jackob (black suit on end) with the children in the church.  When they went there about three years ago there was only a couple of children there.  Yes, we miss them on days like Easter, but this makes it all worth it.  All for Jesus' sake.  I'm thankful they are serving Him!

 

I hope you had a wonderful Resurrection Day as well.

Pure and Simple

Pure and Simple, oh, and FREE!

That's what the theme, as far as decorations go, of the Purity Banquet 2012 was for our church teens and their parents.

This is a banquet that we try to do yearly for our teens.  The purpose is to teach and encourage them to stay pure in all their behavior and morals; to protect that which is to be a gift for their life mate given at marriage. 

Naturally all the decorations we do for this particular banquet is white......standing for pure, of course.

Well, you know me and the "color" white!   I love it! 

We have had six or seven of these banquets, and I actually have never been the one to decorate for it.  We have WONDERFUL ladies who do that kind of stuff.  Believe me I'm glad to have them do it!
This year, however, I decided I wanted the challenge of decorating for the Purity Banquet!  I do want to thank two very sweet and helpful ladies, Misty Snyder and Michelle Minor, for coming out on Saturday and helping get all this set up.  Thanks so much, girls!

What I didn't know, though, when I signed up, was that this event was left out of the yearly expense budge for the year for our church.  JOY!  So, I decided that I needed to accept this challenge, embrace it and just enjoy doing it.

It really wasn't too bad.   I had several positive things going for me!
One - the Lord was on my side answering prayer and giving me direction!
Two - He directed me to the back yard!
Three - He also gave me sources to draw from:  wonderful suggestions from family members and friends, and.........drum roll.........PINTEREST!  Oh. Yes! 

Now we know that Pinterest has become a household word in most homes with a computer.  So many have a pinterest account and so many get so many ideas off pinterest.  It's amazing to see all the different creative abilities of people out there.  I am not too "hooked" on pinterest; to the point of having to go and spend hours there everyday, (it is possible to do, you know).  I am glad, though, to be able to go there and get ideas.  I have said that I think every pastors wife or church event planner, decorator/coordinator should have a Pinterest account if for nothing else but to get ideas from.

Any way, back to my challenge.  I knew that if I tried I could pull this off (with lots of work, mind you), but it could be done. So I started with what I have.  This really has become my motto for decorating:  Use what you have! 

Here's what we had:  Cloth table cloths, clear vases, old white, crackled shutters, paper, twine, ribbon, and here's the best part.....white, blooming trees in the back yard!  So with all this and my friends, family, Pinterest, and the brain that the Lord gave me this is how the decorations for the Purity Banquet turned out:

The only "original" idea I had was to emphasize the word "Pure" by painting it on these huge pieces of poster board (a paper factory in the area donates these to the church for FREE), and putting it on the wall.  Amanda, a wonderful artist, at church painted them.  Thanks, Amanda
One of the reasons I wanted this done, was because our theme for the year is "Holding forth the word of life".  So, here with an emphasis on the "word" part, it is "pure".  Do you think they might have gotten the message?!
My wonderful decorator friend at church (we sometimes call ourselves "Two Women and some Tulle"!), Robbie Shumate, cut out the bunting or banner and simply placed the pieces  over a piece of jute string.  It gave these letters just the touch that was needed!  Thanks, Robbie

The flowers in the water are from a blooming cherry tree in the back yard.
The branches running along the table also from back yard.

White lights were used instead of candles.  You can see we just laid them down the center of the table then laid the white branches on top of them.  It was so pretty!

Another item from the back yard was these tree branches.  My husband cut them and also spray painted them white.  His idea was to leave a few of the dead flowery things on them, and it worked great!  The best part?  Yep, it was FREE! (except for spray paint)

This was the "backdrop" for the pictures.  It is two old shutters that have been in so many places in my house.  Yes, I borrow from my house to decorate for church functions!  I love these....you can do so much with them.  They have a "crackled" finish and add just the right amount of rustic to an other wise fancy setting. 
See the "bunting" or banner?
This is something we made to add a little teenage flair to the decorations.  These are so popular right now, and soooo simple to make.  Lots of people are making them from fabric, of course, but since we were going for free, we just used white paper!
You can't see it, but the letters say, "Purity Banquet".

We also made individual buntings with their names, and "Purity Banquet 2012" on them for the teens to take home as a keepsake.  You can see a little of this in the next two pictures.  They were used on the table at the place where they and their parents sat.

Cherry tree branches and blossoms

Hope you enjoyed!

Picture Spring in Kentucky

Spring has definitely sprung in Kentucky, and the pictures below taken in our back yard will prove it!

Now, I am not the photographer that took these pictures.  I wish I was, but it wasn't.

It was my husband!

I think he did a great job. 

He certainly doesn't claim to be a photographer, but he has taken quite a few pictures.  When our daughters were in high school and competing in different events, Photography was one of the events.  The girls and other students in the school always entered their photography.  Lonnie helped them with a lot of the pictures they took.  He just seems to have a knack for it.  Me?......I try.  Sometimes they turn out OK and other times not so good. 

I hope you enjoy looking at these pictures, and if you've never been to Kentucky.....well, you're just missing out!

Taken in the rain



Some of the beautiful flowering bushes Lonnie planted with his own two hands.  Read more about that here.http://gleaningsfromgail.blogspot.com/2012/02/flowers-flowers-and-more-flowers-for.html





Check out the rain drops....awww......so refreshing.





Notice the bird feeders?  Lonnie loves to feed the birds.



We have so many of these in our backyard.



Wonder if it's because the Cardinal is the Kentucky state bird?



So pretty!

I would like to say that I posted this last picture of this red bird in honor of my Aunt Sophia Webb who passed away this week.  Her funeral will be in two days from now. 
The reason I want to post it in honor of her is because she absolutely loved the Cardinal.
She collected them and they were all over her house in the form of pictures and collectibles.
You see, Aunt Sophia lived in Florida all her adult life pretty much; from the time she was married until she passed away at 85 years of age.  She loved it there, but she never forgot her roots.....Kentucky, and she never forgot her red Cardinals.
I loved Aunt Sophia (my only aunt except for those by marriage), and I also love Kentucky and the Cardinal!



Gleanings....Inspiration......God's Provision

Leviticus 23:22 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the Lord your God.

I love these vereses! It is actually the inspiration for this blog.

God told his children when they reaped the harvest to leave leave the gleanings for the pour and strangers.

I'm glad gleanings have been left for me by former gleaners (more in number than I could ever tell, by special friends I have met along the way, and also by so many new friends even in blogland that I have gleaned so much from.

It is my desire that I too will leave the gleanings from what the Lord gives me daily for, of course the poor, (could be poor as in need of encouragement), and for strangers. Think about that; the first time someone visits a blog, they could be counted a stranger, I guess. I would hope they would glean so much at my blog that they wouldn't be a stranger any more! My mom has a sign in her kitchen that says "He who enters is a stranger only once". I love that, and hope it's true of my blog!

G and J's Handmades

Look what I got in the mail!  From my sweet sister!   My sister and her husband have opened up a small craft business.  They are doing wonderful at it.  It all started last summer when we wanted to get our mom a barn quilt for Christmas.  You see them on a lot of barns around this area.  My mom loves them!  We really thought it would be a great gift for her , but when we saw the price, we didn't think  we could swing that.  ($400 -500).

My sister's husband is a carpenter and after looking at the barn quilts, they decided they would try their hand at making one.  My husband and I helped them purchase the material (basically a large piece of plywood and some paint!).  My sister snagged a good deal on a projector that was being thrown away at her work, chose a quilt pattern, projected it onto the plywood and she and her husband painted it on.   It turned out great!  My mom loved it!  It looks beautiful on her barn.
So, after putting a few pictures on face book, they started having requests for them from different friends and relatives.  I guess it got my sister's wheels turning and she began to try making and selling other crafts.  She started making all kinds of different wreaths, ( beautiful ones!), and the response has been tremendous!    "Hello" " why didn't I think of that!   I'm happy for them!   As a matter of fact, I want to help them out, so I want to spread the word about G and J's Crafts.

You can see some more of their beautiful handmade crafts here:   Give them a visit!

Chalking it Up to "Spring is in the Air"!

This week, today, March 1, 2012,  I'm saying "goodbye" to these fellas:

I'm saying "Hello" to this:

I said "hello"  (a few days early, I know), to Spring on my "new" chalkboard!

This little project had been going on in my head for some time now.  I just love all the chalk boards I've been seeing, and thought one would fit really well in my kitchen.  Since my motto of using what you have seems to be coming more and more to fruition these days, I started thinking of a way I could make a chalk board out of something I already had.

This is what I came up with:

A picture frame that I got at Goodwill several years ago.  I had actually painted the back of the picture white and had some black and white pictues cut out of an old book on it.  You can see a picture of that here.

I had long since taken it down, (I'm known for that), and it was just stashed in the garage.

This was actually the "lovely"  picture that was in the frame when I first got it. 



Sorry, this is only a small portion of the picture.  Trust me, you are not missing much my not seeing the entire picture.  I mainly took this to show the name of the artist.  If someone recognizes this as a famous artist whose art is very valuable, please just don't tell me, because this "lovely" picture is now painted over with chalkboard paint!





Now it looks like the pictures below, and I don't know about you, but I like it much better!  I still have some tweaking that I want to do; like putting a shelf under it.  I'm excited about the endless possibilities that come with having a chalkboard.  You know, like changing it up every day season!

Everyone seems to always be so ready to embrace the Spring season.  I know I am. When I was younger, Fall was my favorite season, but as I get older I like Spring.  I love the warm weather it brings, the sunshine and all the signs of new life.  Of course, I'm reminded of the new life which we can have in Christ.  I'm reminded of His death, burial and resurrection.  I'm also thankful for this.  I hope you are thankful for this as well.  If not, and you would like to know more, you can read about that in detail here.

So here's a before and after picture of my DIY chalkboard:



Before



After

Linking up to this DIY party.