Touch O' Tangerine

My friends and family laugh at me when I tell them what the "color" of the year is! Actually I think, they think I'm a lil touched in the head!
It's just something I enjoy! I like to look up what the color of the year is going to be for the next year sometime in December. Then in January, when I don't have a clue what to replace all the Christmas decor with and the house looks so bare, I like to use whatever the color of the year is as a spring board on the direction the decoration is going. You all know I like to change it up a lot.
I don't know who made "the people", whoever "the people" are, the official "color of the year choosing people"; but they do exist. It Is Pantone. Neither do I know how they decide what is the color of the year, but they do! Last year's color was honeysuckle and the color for 2012 is Tangerine Tango! I promise it is! Tangerine tango is an orangish-redish color.  If you look around, you will see it everywhere this year.

You probably are like me thinking.....Tangerine? Are you serious? That was my first thought. I NEVER wear orange, it is not my "color"! I never wear orange or tangerine, nor do I hardly ever use orange in decorating. So, what am I supposed to do this year? Use what you have is my philosophy! You can see a little more about that here.
The following pictures show how I tried to incorporate tangerine (actually it's mostly orange) into the decorations by using what I have.




Throw pillows that I usually decorate with in the fall as well as the candles on the mantle.

 


Oranges in a basket - can't beat that for easy!

 


More pillows

 


More oranges ..... in a bowl in another room

 


More of the same

 

What do you think? You know what? I'm shocked at how much I like it. It will probably get old and come March green will take it's place, but for now ..... I like it! It adds such a bright and cheery and warm pop of color for the often drab days of January we have here in Kentucky. It kinda makes you think you're in Florida! Well, I won't go that far, but close!
So, what about you? Have you found a way to add a "touch o tangerine"? Try it! You might like it too!

Gail

The 14 Days of Valentines

The 14 Days of Valentines

This is the beginning of a series I decided to do for my husband and in honor of him for Valentines Day.  The plan is to do a post every day for 14 days about my wonderful husband, whom I consider a gift from God.  I love him so very much and hopefully it will show through these posts.  The posts will cover different aspects about him and what a great husband he is to me.  I can hear you now, "Oh please, spare us"!  I do hope that maybe it will be a blessing and and encouragement to someone.

Day one - I love the way my Valentine is so passionate about serving the Lord and preaching the gospel of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

In this post, I want to tell you a little about how that came to be.

It goes a long way back.  First of all, I prayed for him to be a preacher!  I know that may sound crazy, but from the time I was a young girl, I prayed that the Lord would let me marry a preacher.  At the same time, Lonnie was growing up clear across the county from me, and he says that pretty much all his life he knew that the Lord wanted him to  be a preacher!  He also says, that does not mean that he surrendered to that "call" early in life.    He actually says that he really didn't want to be a preacher.  He grew up in a preacher's home and his family went through a lot of hardships throughout the years.  He knew what it was like for his dad to have to be on duty  24/7.   Because of the crime in the area in which they lived, many times those "calls of duty" for his preacher-dad were very difficult circumstances to deal with.  Many times, due to situations beyond his dad's control, his family's safety was at risk.  So, you can understand how as a child, you would not necessarily want to have that as your everyday life.  So, he didn't answer the "call" of God on his life right away.

He actually did not answer the "call" until after we were married!

We were married at a young age.  I'm not going to say how young;  there may be young girls reading this and they don't need to know!  Things were just different back then!  Lol!

Anyway,   after we got married, I never thought that the Lord hadn't answered my prayer.  I knew that Lonnie was going to be a preacher someday.

We were married in August and in November of that same year during a missions conference at the church we attended during Bible College, my husband surrendered to be a preacher.  He says that as he knelt there and the pastor asked him why he had come, that he heard himself saying, " the Lord has called me to preach"!  He said it seemed as if someone besides himself was saying those words!  The preacher had him stand and announce to the church what he had just told him, and Lonnie says,  that since that day he has never looked back.



Victory Baptist Church in Rossville, GA, where my
husband anwered the call to preach.

 I knew that night that the Lord had answered my prayer and had given me my "preacher man"!
I'm so thankful for that and the fact that he never looked back but has, stayed true to this verse of scripture:  Php 3:13 "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus".

Please click here for "Day Two" of 14 Days of Valentines.

I linking this post to Dear Lily's Valentine Linky Party.

Gail

--
Gail

Fwd: To Top It All

Gail

Begin forwarded message:

From: Gail Moore <mrslonmoore@gmail.com>
Date: January 28, 2012 6:53:28 PM EST
To: Gail Moore <mrslonmoore@gmail.com>

This is my Christmas present!  I'm so excited about it!  It is a top for the kitchen island.  It was made from walnut trees cut down on our property.  This was my husband's idea to do this for me for Christmas.  I love it!  I plan to do a longer post about it later, but thought I'd go ahead and do this much for now.    

Sent from my iPhone

The Slow Cooker - Slow as Christmas!

"The Slow Cooker", that's what I'm calling our kitchen re-do!   It has been a S-L-O-W process!

It actually surprises me to think how long its been if you count when I almost lost my mind or something and took the doors off the top cabinets in October of 2010! WOWZER! You can read about that here.

Then, it's been almost a year ago (April 2011) when we started updating appliances. One.at.a.time. The fridge was first. I was so happy with it that I had to make myself quit standing in front of it and hugging it!

Then, a couple months later, maybe three, a "wave" of change came in the form of a new micro wave oven. The old one was pretty pathetic as you can see. Well, it doesn't look that bad I guess here, but when it was taken all the way out it looked BAD. My husband isn't one to get rid of things quickly, but that went straight into the trash!  Sorry I didn't get a picture of that.  I have it embedded in my brain, though!  Here's the "after" picture!

Then right before Christmas, I kinda started dropping some hints about the stove needing to be updated too.  I did it  in a sweet, suthin kinda way of course, that went something like this, "ya know what, it sho would look good if all the appliances wuh stainless steel, doncha think?", to my honey!
Now, don't tell me ya'll have never done that! Nothing works like that sweet suthin whine drawl, y'all! (I hear my daughters cracking up when they read this)!
That wasn't nagging was it? I don't think so, cause not long after we wuz in Lowes and my sweetie starts looking and asking questions about the stainless steel gas ranges! I started feeling like a kid at Christmas! The next thing I knew........this was setting in here!


Yep, that's a great big cheesy smile you see on my face!

Ok, we have made it from April to December! We are doing GREAT! I'm excited! Excited because shortly after the stove has been put in my sweetie said, "I know what I'm gonna get you for Christmas"! I started trying to remind him that I already had my Christmas present - the stove. "But I have to have you something else for Christmas", he says!  So, in my sweet little suthin voice, I said, "OK, Shua, my Honey Blossom!"  Then he says,  "I'm going to fix the island"! I didn't really know what to think, to be honest. This island has really had it's own set of problems recently. I won't bore you with the details.

Anyoleway, I was a little shocked when I heard this announcement because it was like the week before Christmas,.... ahhh,...... actually the Friday before Christmas when he got serious about this. Let me insert here that this is my husband's idea this time, ok?
So, he decided to take some walnut wood that came from trees cut down on our property and had been "curing" for y.e.a.r.s now, and have it "plained" and use it for the top for the island.
My husband is wonderful! One of our son-in-laws says that he could make something out of toothpicks! He can, but it usually doesn't happen overnight! That could be due to a couple of things: one, he is a perfectionist, or two, he is a very BUSY man. So, I'm OK, really I am! This was his idea, remember?!

Fast forward to January 18, 2011!   Island?   What island?   Where! Oh, that island!!! It's still at the wood working shop!
Something went wrong ( fan me, cause I think I'm gonna faint!)
 It was being worked on in a building that was not heated, and the wood SPLIT!
I know, isn't that terrible!
 I'm OK, though!
 I did get to see some pictures of it. I'll share with you, a couple of blurry ones,  if you're interested !




Where they are pointing to is the split.





Looks like a team of surgeons around it, doesn't it?  SERIOUS!

 Sooooo, hopefully, this week we will be able to go pick it up and then the island will look something like this island top.  (I know.....I'm dreaming)!

Then all we will have left to do is:    New Counter Tops, New Sink, Subway Tile above counters (have had that picked out for some time now), and decide what we will do with the cabinets....leave the doors off? get new ones doors?  get new cabinets ? (probably not!) do cafe' shelves?  There' still a lot before it's finished.
It might be done in time for Christmas! But I'm Ok with that!

Seriously, I am very thankful for what the Lord has given me. I have so much to be thankful for! I'm thankful for the way the Lord uses my husband. He is such a faithful minister and so wants to be used in the Lords work; and that he is!  He not only pastors a growing church, listens to my southern whining, drawling, but he also travels nationally as well as internationally, preaching, teaching and singing in conferences and meetings. He has so many opportunities and open doors to be used and I certainly don't ever want to hinder that. He also is known for his patience, and sometimes, I'll admit I need him to teach some of that to me!  When I think about it, I guess he has!  I'm patiently waiting here!
Gail

Touching The Hem



Is Life Becoming Unraveled? Is it too perplexed? Do you have issues that you can't deal with; questions that you don't know the answer to. The solution is within reach! Look at this wonderful passage of Scripture. It is one of my favorites!

Matthew 9:20 -26 And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment: 21 For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. 22 But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.

What a wonderful account of faith and dedication here in this passage. This could be so applicable to we as women today. Think about it. It appears that this woman is hurrying along with a crowd of people who were also trying to see this One called Jesus. It spoke of the multitudes and of a whole city coming out to see Him just a few verses earlier.
Aren't so many seemingly caught up in the "rat race" of life; lost among the crowds; and constantly going to and fro looking for peace.
So many are blindly looking, searching, grasping for something that they can hold onto to have a sense of security, happiness, and well being.
We can learn so much from this humble woman. She was looking at the perfect Source. She knew she needed help and she knew it was not within herself to help herself. She knew she could not "pull herself up by her boot straps". Furthermore she knew no one else around her could help her except Jesus. She believed He had the power to heal her.
She had faith that if she could but just touch the hem of His garment, she would be healed. This sounds very close to the " grain of mustard seed ". Illustration Jesus used, doesn't it?
She, by faith, reached out and simply touched the hem of His garment.
The wonderful thing is, Jesus knew that she was desperate. He knew she was desiring to be healed by Him. He knew her dedication to following Him. He turned in the crowd of people and spoke directly to her. I love that part about this story! He summed it up by saying to her "thy faith hath made thee whole".
She reached out and touched Him!
Have you reached out to touch Him today? Do you have some difficulty, some problem, some burden? Maybe it just seems that "life" is getting out of control or just passing you by and you feel like you are having to "keep up"? You can still reach out to Him, and by faith believe He can help, and He will! He cares!
Oh how we need to touch or get in touch with Him every day! I know I do!

Word for the Year

My Word of the Year - SEE what it is -

I've been hearing a lot about the "word" of the year. The idea is that you sum up all of the goals, ambitions, dreams, plans, intentions, etc that you are thinking about for the year 2012 in one word and you focus on this one word throughout the year.

For several years now, I have done something similar in my Bible reading. As I try to read the Bible through, I try to get a phrase, a word or an idea and look for it in the Bible as I read through it.

Also for the past few years, our church has had a theme for the year. This has made it easy for me to just take whatever the theme of the church is for the year to be what I look for as I read. For instance, last year our theme was "We would see Jesus". So as I read the Bible through, I looked for, you guessed it, JESUS! I didn't have to look far to see Him in His very own Word! By the way, it was a special blessing since it was the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible!

This year our theme is "Holding Forth the Word of Life", taken from Phil. 2:16. I want to be counted with those who are "holding forth the Word of life". There are so many directions you could take this theme. I love it!

For my own personal life, I like to think about the Word, being a light, and being able to hold forth the light in this dark and sinful world.

There is so much that can be said about light. Of course the main thing that it does is to brighten or illuminate. I pray that as I try do my part in "holding forth the word of life", that through me, the Lord will illuminate the darkness for those in sin and darkness.

Before we can illumine anyone else's path, we must have our own path illuminated; before we can teach others the truths in Gods's Word, we must have the Holy Spirit to illumine our hearts with the truth of Gods Word.

It is my prayer that He will do this for me. Do what for me? Illumine me! So do you have any idea what my word of the year is? ILLUMINE! That's it! ILLUMINE!


Here it is in an old song! It is my prayer!

1.    Open my eyes, that I may see
   glimpses of truth thou hast for me;
   place in my hands the wonderful key
   that shall unclasp and set me free.
   Silently now I wait for thee,
   ready, my God, thy will to see.
   Open my eyes, illumine me, Spirit divine!

2.    Open my ears, that I may hear
   voices of truth thou sendest clear;
   and while the wavenotes fall on my ear,
   everything false will disappear.
   Silently now I wait for thee,
   ready, my God, thy will to see.
   Open my ears, illumine me, Spirit divine!

3.    Open my mouth, and let me bear
   gladly the warm truth everywhere;
   open my heart and let me prepare
   love with thy children thus to share.
   Silently now I wait for thee,
   ready, my God, thy will to see.
   Open my heart, illumine me, Spirit divine!

Do you have a "word" for the year? I would love to hear it!