It's giggle time...

I thought we all might need a good laugh today. Some of these are just too cute.

Fall is not far away

The days can still get warm and some times a little humid but the evenings sometimes get a little cool. That tells me fall is not far away. I love all the changes of the seasons, but there is just something about feeling fall in the air. 

Time for gathering some apples for homemade apple butter.

Time to make some sorghum the old fashion way.

Football time in Tennessee at Neyland Stadium.

Fall foliage in the Great Smoky Mountains.

Oktoberfest at Dollywood

I love fall in East Tennessee.

You just gotta love a great bag....

I love a great tote bag, purse, wallet, you name it. If I can carry something in it I am going to love it. I just got my new Thirty-One order yesterday with some of the new fall products. I love hosting parties because you can earn so much for free. I saw this tote at National Conference and fell in love with it. It is reversible. One side is black pebble the other side is gray charcoal snake. Very versatile. It even came with a matching wallet in the gray charcoal and a wristlet strap.

The other one I liked so much at conference was the Go To Tote. I fell in love with this bag and the coordinating products. 

It is a very soft fabric but has the durability to stand on its own.

And look how much room inside. I wanted it to take back and forth to work for those times I have to have my files with me to work on. I just love how much room it has. 

You just gotta love a great bag.

Weekend wrap up

It was a great weekend. Two of my grandchildren spent the whole weekend with me. We had a ton of fun. Lots of laughter and a whole lot of hugs and kisses. Saturday, we went to a place call Esau's Vendor Market in Knoxville. Turns out it is a huge building that sets up once a month with vendor booths. There were vintage items, antiques, crafts and just a hodge podge of fun finds. Here are some of my bargains. 

I found a hobnail milk glass vase, which is my favorite milk glass pattern.

One lady had these cute little kittens for sale. I just love the middle one. 

I picked up a new dresser scarf that had been hand embroidered.

A new little Pyrex vintage mug.

And a pink Pyrex 024. I love this. It is the regular pink, not pink flamingo. Very excited about this.

My first piece of pink milk glass. 

Since my nick name is B, I like getting things with bees on it. So when I saw this for just $5 I had to have it.

As she was wrapping it, I noticed this for $2 each so I had to get me the black one and my sister the white one for her birthday. I am using mine on the stove as a spoon rest.

Then while I was waiting on her to wrap that I found this little creamer that I knew my sister just had to  have...another birthday present for her.

And since this was only $2, I just added it to my pile for Valentine's Day decor.

All of that for just $36.00. I thought that was an amazing day. What do you think?

Sunday's Songs

A young boy with a guitar and a dream. Destined for greatness and fame. His music will live on forever. Thirty-eight years have passed since he has been gone, yet his music lives on forever. Whether you like him or not, you have to admit he achieved his dream.

This saddens my heart....

This broke my heart when I saw it. 

It just spoke so much to my heart. How many lost loved ones in our family and circle of friends pass away without the promise of a better place to go? How many of them watch us go to church week after week and know that we have great faith in our God? How many know we are a Christian from the way we act and the works we do for the Lord?

Now for the really hard questions:

How many of those lost souls in our life have we sat down with and talked with them about the Lord? How many have we fallen on our face with tears streaming down praying to God to show them the light? 

Do we dedicate as much of our Christian walk trying to save our family and friends as we do worrying about the souls we don't even know? Are we so busy doing what we call "the Lord's work" for complete strangers that we don't even take the time to worry about the souls of the very people who mean the world to us and who we cannot imagine our world without them in it?

Picture if you will a young mother struggling with raising her children, working two jobs to make ends meet and facing endless stress day to day just to keep her head above water. Picture her life as she comes home exhausted and feeds the children and has very little time to spend with them because of her long hours. Picture her falling into bed exhausted but she cannot sleep because she is so worried about the bills, the kids, her life. 

Now picture that young mother living in the same home with her husband who is a Christian and goes to church every time the doors are open. She can't go with him because she works two jobs and one of them is on a Sunday. Picture him active in community events to bring the word of God to lost souls, raise money for the homeless and give his time to mission work in his community.

Picture his wife who sees him doing all this wonderful stuff for others and she is so proud of him because he is such a good man and she loves him so much. He helps with the children when he can, but he isn't home much in the evenings because he is so involved in his walk with the Lord. 

Now picture this young mother getting sick. Picture her not going to the doctor because she is so busy and then one day, before anyone even realizes how sick she is, she is gone. Imagine her as her spirit floats away to eternity, unsaved. Picture the tears she sheds as she realizes where she is and she thinks of her husband, a good Christian man. And she wonders, with his love of God and his good Christian values, why did he never talk to her about the Lord? Why did he spend so much time working with others to help them and not once did he tell her about the beautiful thing called Salvation. 

I am sure she would cry out "Why, oh, why did you not even try to save me." 

This picture really packs a powerful message if you just stop and think about it. 

She's growing up....

There are moments in our life when we look at our grandchildren and wonder where the years have gone. That moment occurred when I saw this picture of my soon to be 11 year old granddaughter, Alexis. She was the flower girl in her cousin's wedding this past weekend,

And she was on the arm of a boy. Now THAT gave me a moment of pause. 

Born less than 2 pounds, she held my heart from the first moment I saw her. 

This is probably my all time favorite picture of her. She is forever smiling. This picture captures her sweet personality.

I just can't believe how much she is growing up.