1,000 GIFTS, #11 to #23

February 15, 2011 2:14 AM 6

Multitude Monday is here again, bringing with it the wonderful joy of counting gifts as encouraged by Ann Voskamp in her wonderful blog, A Holy Experience. I am also reading her book One Thousand Gifts  and there is a Book Club that will bless you greatly with weekly video discussions from Ann herself! I am on my way to counting gifts, as the author says, the graces of daily living. This week, I am going to count my blessings in pictures…all taken this past week on my Blackberry phone.


11. Sunday dinner with these two sweet girls last week while in Birmingham for a worship pastor’s conference with my husband. Here are Robyn, Sophie, and me. DELIGHT!

12.  A wonderful light and fluffy snowfall while in Birmingham…good for writing in mine and my sweetheart’s initials…on the hood of his truck!
13.  A snowy night…the view from our room at the Conference Center.
14.  Homemade buttermilk biscuits…my maternal grandmother’s recipe.

15.  Green cabbages harvested from my garden this past Saturday, 2-12-11
16.  A fire in my outside fire pit (a Christmas gift from my husband) this weekend…with a good cup of coffee and precious conversation with that sweet man…

17.  The sweetness of fruit and a grandboy who peeled his first clementine…all by himself!
18.  Hens on our farm, now producing eggs daily!
19.  These Valentine’s Day flowers were on my desk this morning when I arrived at work. My sweet husband had delivered them on his way to the church where he serves as worship/executive pastor. Pale pink and highly scented…my favorite.
20. Grandboy Zeke opening his Valentine’s Day card from Pop & Gran Jan…
21. Granddaughter Madie opening her Valentine’s Day card from Pop & Gran Jan…
22.  Grandboy Jackson opening his Valentine’s Day card from Pop & Gran Jan…
23.  A Valentine’s Day card from my husband, full of promises made and kept…

Grace-filled week and I thank you Father for all of the above, and for all that is yet to come, because of Your sweet grace…

 
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February 15, 2011 2:14 AM 6

A Winter’s Walk Around the Farm

January 10, 2011 10:34 PM 15

What a peaceful Monday I’ve enjoyed today. It started off great with a call from my boss saying, “stay put, don’t come to work, you HAVE to stay home.” What a delight! After a late breakfast, my husband asked me if I would enjoy a long walk, so we bundled up and I grabbed my camera…and off we went! Come for a walk around the farm with us…

Unlatching the gate, here we go…
 We started back at the 12 acre woods…
 The trees were covered with ice from the freezing rain.
 The pine trees were bent over, heavy from the ice.
 Our donkeys, Ellie and Little Bit…
The sheep…
 Out of the woods, headed to the pastures.
 One look back at the beautiful woods.
 Headed up to the front of the farm, near the “road.” 🙂
 Our farm home in the country…I love this place!
 An icy lantern at the front gate.
 Willow Oak Lane
 We walked around the pond…
 Past the cows near the woods…
 Saw more sheep…
 My icy bird feeder that was covered with
birds before I took the picture…
 Our frozen patio…
 My vegetable garden…the collards survived!
 Home again…
These boots were made for walking…
If you were blessed enough to be snowed in (or “iced in” like we were), I hope you’ve enjoyed your day off.  Days like these are so welcome in our  fast-paced busy lives…
I’ve just heard from my boss again! Guess what?  I HAVE TO STAY HOME AGAIN TOMORROW!!! Yee-hah!
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January 10, 2011 10:34 PM 15

K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Sister!

January 2, 2011 3:38 AM 11

Good Evening Friends…
Today is almost over.  It’s been a good day with family and friends. Yes, being the Georgia girl that I am, I’ve had my collard greens and black-eyed peas twice today…both at lunch and then again at supper! And guess what? I grew the collard greens myself in my backyard garden.  What a simple pleasure!

Since this is the first day of a new year and the first day of a new decade as well (with a marvelous number pattern…1-1-11), I wanted to post a quick note.  I am getting older, thank you Jesus. I am loving this season of my life.  I’ve learned to pick my battles – to know the difference between the energy expended on events that amount to no more than an ant bite or serious enough to be considered a snake bite!  Wisdom comes with age and experience and it is oh so sweet. Tough, but sweet.

I’m not one to set unrealistic goals or make “new year’s resolutions.”  I’ve been there before and failed miserably and dealt with the self-imposed guilt that most always follows.  However, I do dearly love a fresh start and thank God for His mercies new every morning and His sweet amazing grace; so I am going to attempt to “KISS” this year which stands for Keep It Simple Sister! With the Good Lord’s help and in keeping His will for my life, I am going to filter requests for my time through my family’s needs and the women’s ministry I so dearly love.  Did you know that “no” is a complete sentence? I am going to slow down a bit and take better care of myself…so that I may take better care of my family.  This will mean regular exercise and smarter food choices.  I want to enjoy every single minute of my grandchildren and be able to keep up with them! (Zeke is not happy that he had to share his Gran Jan with the babies…)

Thank you for your love and support and for stopping by to visit my blog. One more very important thing…I’m going to do something wonderful for my soul this year, and that is to participate in Beth Moore’s Scripture Memory Team again.  What a JOY and DELIGHT!  If you haven’t heard about this, visit her web site here for instructions.  It is not too late to get involved and you will be blessed beyond measure for hiding God’s Word in your heart.

Remember, KISS 2011 by “Keeping It Simple Sister.”

*Gran Jan*

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January 2, 2011 3:38 AM 11

10-10-10

October 10, 2010 2:33 PM 1

Good Morning Friends.  I am writing this Sunday morning from the balcony of a beautiful condo in Sandestin, Florida.  My husband and I are here for an extra long weekend, a time of rest and renewal.  As my sweet daughter-in-law Carrie told me before we left, “this will be a vacation, when the whole family comes, it’s a trip!”  There are times for both, but she is right…this has been a vacation, long awaited.

I am on Day Eight of one of Beth Moore’s devotionals entitled 90 Days With JESUS The One & Only. I should complete this one around Christmas. This morning’s reflection was from one of my favorite passages in scripture, the verse from Luke 2:19, “But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart.”

As I was writing in my journal and took note of today’s date 10-10-10; and since I have time and haven’t posted in a while, I wanted to do a “Ten” List. Very unorginal, but I’m inspired with the whole Ten-Ten-Ten date today.  This list is not a Top Ten, but rather ten things I have often pondered in my heart.

Ten Ponderings
1.  The amazing grace of God and why He loves me like He does…
2.  The blessed gift of a long and faithful marriage with the love of my life…
3.  How absolutely right all my friends were about the sheer joy of being a grandmother…the inspiration for Gran Jan’s Joy
4.  The great delight it is to be friends with my boys, now grown men…and the thankfulness that their wives are taking such good care of them…
5.  How I absolutely love to garden and wonder if those things are truly inherited and if so, then it came from my maternal grandmother…
6.  Sometimes at night when I slip outside I marvel that God really gave names to all the stars and that He knows my name too… Psalm 147:4 “He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name.”
7.  After my trip to South Africa last year, I think of the beauty there, but also the devastating poverty in the shanty towns, and I especially ponder a little boy that used a plastic bread bag as his hat. My South Africa journal for that day is here...
8.  How some songs are so anointed and touch me every single time, and how thankful I am to have my own music man for a husband and that I know I am and have always been his favorite choir member…
9.  When God allows me to serve other women even with all my flaws, His mercy overwhelms me…
10. The older I get the more I understand the peace of being quiet and listening more…and often wonder why I didn’t glean this truth earlier in my life, but the ways of God are a mystery…

Well, 10-10-10 is here and I’m getting up to enjoy my last day on the glorious Gulf Coast of Florida!

Blessings,
Gran Jan

P.S.  10-10-10 is also some mighty good garden fertilizer.  I’m just saying…

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October 10, 2010 2:33 PM 1

Sunflowers!

July 16, 2009 11:39 PM 10

Psalm 113:3

This field of sunflowers is near my home…
what a delight!
(These pictures were taken by my friend, Carmen)

From the rising of the sun
unto the going down of the same
the LORD’s name is to be praised.


Love, Jan

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July 16, 2009 11:39 PM 10

Beauty For A Day

June 13, 2009 3:50 AM 7

You can tell from my blog pictures that I love gardening! I especially love hydrangeas, but I love daylilies just as much. They are such a unique flower. The Latin name is Hemerocallis. The name comes from two Greek words meaning “beauty” and “day,” because of the fact that each flower lasts only one day. They are absolutely beautiful this year and are at their peak right now! I have early, mid, and late blooming types, so the season extends to about 3 months. Each flower sends up a “scape,” with lots of buds, so even though each bloom only lasts a day, there are more the next morning to bring joy and delight! (New every morning, like the mercies of God.)

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June 13, 2009 3:50 AM 7

Resurrection Ferns

April 6, 2009 5:07 PM 9
John 11:25
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.
He who believes in me will live, even though he dies.”
I first learned about resurrection ferns while reading the historical novels of one of my favorite authors, Eugenia Price. Most of her books are set on or around my beloved Georgia coast, St. Simons Island. Her books on the beautiful city of Savannah are marvelous. When we built our home and moved to “farm country” almost 2 years ago, I noticed that some of our pecan trees have these resurrection ferns on the main trunks and large branches. They appear dead but after the rain they revive. What an analogy of this great verse from John 11:25 and especially as we prepare to celebrate the GLORIOUS resurrection of Jesus Christ this coming weekend. Resurrection ferns feed off the air and may curl up and look dead, but they aren’t. They’re just surviving… They bloom when they receive lots of water! The resurrection fern gets its name because it can appear dead, but when just a little water is present, the fern will uncurl and reopen, and “resurrect.” Sometimes I too may “curl up and look dead” but thankfully, I am not! (I may be in survival mode myself!) But Hallelujah and Praise His Name when the Living Water of Jesus is poured out on me, I will uncurl and open and be alive to Him, and hopefully will remain dead to sin.

Springtime abounds here in Georgia! The hope and power and promise of the Resurrection can be seen, even in the ferns on my pecan trees.
BECAUSE HE LIVES I CAN FACE TOMORROW!
Love, Jan

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April 6, 2009 5:07 PM 9
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