Holiday Blog Hop--Blog Hop of Goodies



Susie at Susie QT Pies Scraps of Life is hosting a Holiday Blog Hop that I'm participating in.  The problem is, I'm not a big holiday decorator or baker or shopper until well into the season. So in order to participate in the blog hop, I'm linking to several of my past holiday posts, just to get us in the spirit of things.

First is my post on "Whatever Happened to the Twelve Days of Christmas?" 

Second is a tutorial on one my favorite easy Christmas crafts, Candy Cane Reindeer

One from a Doors of Welcome post I did a couple of years ago that highlights some easy dollar store decorating I did when I was in an apartment two states away from all of my holiday decorations

 One of my favorits dollar store decorating posts on four different versions of a thrifty centerpiece

  

And last but certainly not least, three posts on why this gentile Christian gal celebrates Hanukkah

So click around on some of the links below and hop from blog to blog to your heart's content!

Is That a Zebra Beside the Road?

• She looketh well..

Do these stripes make my hips look too big?

I live in the country, outside a small town, in a mostly rural area. I put a lot of highway miles on my vehicle, with mostly the same old scenery--pine trees, oak trees, tallow trees, pastures, hay fields--you get the picture. So imagine my surprise one day last year when I was driving past an otherwise ordinary piece of land that just happened to have an extraordinary (for here) tall fence, and glanced over and saw a zebra. Not only that, I saw what was apparently a momma zebra with two baby zebras. Two.

Did I have my camera with me?? Of course not!

Not too long after that, I was driving past and saw them again.  I had a phone with a built-in camera, but it was brand new and I couldn't figure out how to use it.  I pointed to toward them and pushed every button I could find, but couldn't get it work.  Drat!

So I made myself get back in the habit of keeping my camera with me everywhere I went.  No zebras, of course... 

Although I did see these kind of weird looking ducks one day...

...you really need to click on the picture to enlarge it to get the full effect of the red circle around the eye.

But finally I caught them close enough to the fence to get a decent picture!

Unfortunately for the sake of the pictures, they aren't babies anymore!

I know this sounds weird, but when I see an unusual, brightly colored or patterned animal up close, I'm fascinated by how "real" they look! (As in "That zebra looks almost real!")

There's just something about seeing zebras in the piney woods that makes me do a double-take!

What have you seen that's caused you to do a double-take lately?

This post is linked to:

Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Daydreamer

Mountain or Molehill?

• She looketh well to the ways of her household... 

(The mountain pictured above is a "real" mountain, Mt Shasta, in northern Cailifornia)

Have you ever had one of those tasks on your "to-do" list that you dread doing so much that you just keep putting it off over and over?  You transfer it from one "to-do" list to another because you know you need to do it, but you just really don't want to do it--I mean, you want it done, but you don't want to have to actually do it to get it done?

Cleaning out my freezer has been one of those for me.  My parents raise their own beef, and they generously share with us when they have a butchering done, so we usually get a fairly large quantity of it all at one time.  Last time they had meat done, my son and I went with them to the processing plant to pick it all up, then helped them sort and store in freezers at their house.  When we brought ours home, instead of unpacking the bags, we just shoved them into the freezer to be unpacked and sorted later. 

Well, as you can guess, "later" never got here, so I have been digging through bags of frozen meat for months, trying to find what I was looking for, until the whole thing was just a mess.  I knew I needed to pull everything out, sort it, and organize it so I would know what I had on hand.  But who wants to do all that??

Then this past week, as I was digging through the freezer for something to thaw to cook for dinner, I decided to pull out just the packs of hamburger and put them in the door of the up right freezer.  Then I pulled out the frozen vegetables and sorted them.  Then I started emptying the bags and sorting the rest into their types.  And literally in a matter of minutes, it was done.

I wonder how many other molehills we have in our lives that we make into mountains in our minds?  I was reminded of the 10 spies from the children of Israel who went into the promised land to spy out the land, and when they came out, they told about how great the land was, but the people, they said, are giants.  "And we were as grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in theirs." 

Maybe my mountains aren't mountains after all, maybe I'm just too small in my own sight.

I hate to admit, at least publicly, how many things I have on my "to-do" list that I've been putting off and putting off until they've become like mountains, always looming in the back of my mind.

Blogging has become one of those.  I love blogging, I really do.  But I don't have internet at home, so the logistics seem insurmountable.  And every so often I do one of those "I haven't been blogging for awhile, but from now on, things are gonna be different" kind of posts.  And then if I don't get right back on, the silence looms larger and larger, until it seems I have to have some wonderful, larger-than-life, perfect post to break the ice with.  Again.

But I've decided that if I can take one mountainous job and whittle it down to a do-able molehill, I can do it with others.

Like I stated, I have way too many of those on my "to-do" list. 

But I have one two less than I used to. 

Until next time...

Hallelujah!

• 
  
  Who can find a virtuous woman? her price is far above rubies


• 
  
  She openeth her mouth....

Giving the Lord magnificent praise is never out of season.

Until next time...

Flooded In

• Who can find a virtuous woman? her price is far above rubies...

This is the road from our house to the highway--looks like a good shot of "the road less traveled" doesn't it?

But if you back it up a bit, you see why it's "not traveled"--for today at least!

Somewhere under here is our little bridge

At least it's a change from the drought of last two years. Kind of makes me wish I was...

Until next time...

This post is linked to:

Tuesday Garden Party at An Oregon Cottage
Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Daydreamer
Garden Tuesday at Sidewalk Shoes

Just for Fun--States I've Visited

• Who can find a virtuous woman? her price is far above rubies

I like to travel and see new things--other parts of the country that are often so different from the piney woods of Louisiana where I was born and raised and have lived most of my life. I was privileged to move around with my husband's job a little after our son graduated from high school, and so had the opportunity to live, at least temporarily, in some areas that were unusual for me (like Alaska) and some that were very similar to what I was used to (like Georgia). I found this fun map you can make by clicking on the names of the states you've lived in or visited or at least driven through, and was shocked to see how way Southern it turned out. I think my next road trip needs to head north east!

Click on the link and see what kind of map you can make, just for fun!

Until next time...

The UN-virtuous Woman

• Who can find a virtuous woman?

Hello? Anybody out there? Any Proverbs 31 wannabes left? I think the Virtuous Woman has left the building. At least, she ain't at my house any more.

You ever feel that way?

There used to be a funny cartoon that stated "the hurrier I go, the behinder I get". Lately, I'm so behinder, it isn't even funny anymore.

I found an old organizer of mine a while back. I was amazed--A-MAZE-D--at how much I used to do. So very involved in so much. And so ambitious to do more--to be more.

And I know I'm older now, and fatter, and have less energy--blobbity blobbity blah blah--but I just haven't been cuttin' it lately.

My house is a wreck--both of them. Not that the second one is that bad, but that's only because it's practically empty--just a minimum of stuff, but I have a tendency on my trips back and forth to just dump stuff with the promise that "I'll have time to take care of that next time". And sometimes I do have the time next time, but I don't always take the time.

Awhile back, my son told me that he thought we were about to be going through a time of testing. Like on a personal basis. And we have been. Nothing major, just little things. Lots and lots of little things. And medium things, too. No biggies, thankfully. Just seems like lots of lots of small and medium things.

And I've been wanting and meaning to get back into my blogging--I enjoyed it so much when I was posting regularly. But then the days and weeks stretch out, and you've been silent for so long, you feel like you can't just pick back up and start again. Not to mention when your blog is called "The Virtuous Woman" and you haven't been feeling or behaving very virtuously.

But I am.

Starting back again.

So--any other UN-virtuous women trying your best to Get It All Together out there?

Who can find a virtuous woman?

We'll just have to wait and see.

Again.

Until next time...

Prayer of Favor

• Who can find a virtuous woman? her price is far above rubies

Hey everybody! I absolutely can't believe how long it's been since I posted. I had such plans, too, for December and even January, but alas! life intervenes and before you know it it's been weeks and weeks since you posted, and you can't just dive right back in after that long of an absence, can you?? But I am, anyway. Diving right back in, that is!

I was given a copy of this at church yesterday, and enjoyed it so much that I wanted to share it with you. It's called "Prayer of Favor", and it's much more effective if you read it aloud in a good, strong voice. So find yourself someplace private, and read this like you mean it. You might be surprised at how much better it will make you feel.

Prayer of Favor

Heavenly Father,

I declare that I have your favor today.

I declare that I am strong and well able to fulfill my God given destiny; I know you are fighting my battles for me.

I declare that I am a victor and not a victim. I may have been defeated in the past but the past is past, this is a new day. Your word says that "I am the head and not the tail" "I will lend and not borrow". Everything I touch will prosper and succeed according to your perfect will because of your favor, my Father.

I declare that by your stripes I am healed today. I will live and not die. I declare that you are restoring health unto me, and with long life you satisfy me.

Father, today, I declare your favor in my relationship with you, favor in my relationship with my spouse and my family; favor in relationships with my friends, and favor in relationships in my business. I want to thank you for causing me to be at the right place at the right time. I want to thank your for causing people to want to help me.

Today, Father, I want to thank you for blessing me with creativity. I want to thank you for causing me to make good decisions with a clear mind.

I declare that you are smiling down on me today and that your favor will be in everything I do because I am pleasing to you.

I declare that I will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country, blessed going in and blessed going out.

I claim right now Psalm 84:11 that you are blessing me with favor and honor and no good thing will you withhold from me because my walk is blameless, through Christ.

I claim Habakkuk 2:3 that my vision is for an appointed time. Though it may tarry, I will wait for it, for it will surely come.

I declare today that I am filled with your can do power my Father. Between you and me, we are the majority and I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.

I know that your Word says that no man has seen, heard, or even imagined the wonderful things that you have in store for those that love you, and I want to tell you this morning that I love you and I want to thank you for loving me.

God, I want to thank you for your favor today, not because of who I am, but because of whose I am. I am a child of the most high God, the creator of the whole universe.

I commit this day to you, in Jesus name,

Amen

Kind of makes me want to sit up straighter and hold my head up higher, doesn't it you?

Until next time...