Jingle and Mingle

As Ray builds the village and I create baskets, anticipation of our Jingle and Mingle mounts.
This is a special time when I invite family, friends and customers to an open house and we catch up with one another and do some shopping from my Mary Kay studio. I love company. Just that sitting down time and sharing with one another makes one realize how very rich we are in the things money cannot buy. I have customers who have become special friends and I am always eager to catch up with them. Invariably, I will hear answers to some of the prayers we prayed together whether for a job for a daughter or healing for a mother, it is always a time to rejoice.
Then there's the cookies. I love to have many kinds of cookies and just as many kinds of tea. Did you know tea tastes better in a cute cup.
I do hope you will join us this year. We are having on Saturday and Sunday, December 4-5 from 2-5 pm. Do drop in and mingle. I'll provide the jingle. Here's a preview of a few of things I have been working on. http://vimeo.com/16803270

Grandchildren by Proxy

One of the things that I miss the most by living here is my grandchildren. The closest are three and a half hours away. In fact, one of those granddaughters has blessed me with two precious great-grandchildren.
I love baking and doing crafts with elementary aged children who still see life with wonder and awe. So today I brought two precious ones home with me. They were so excited to come with me to make cookies and marshmallow snowmen.
We made M&M cookies from a mix my daughter, Carrin, sent me at Christmas. Maran really likes the cookie dough.
However, the most fun came from making igloos out of sugar cubes and then snowmen out of marshmallows. I had made the snowmen at Christmas with my grandchildren, Christopher and Emily, and they loved them. So I was sure that Ian and Maran would as well. In both cases, some of the chocolate never made it to the snowmen. But isn't that the fun of it?
The igloos were imploding, but Ray came home in time to act as the official igloo contractor. Not bad for a boy from New York City.
I was really impressed when Ian began bagging the cookies to take home. He equally divided the cookies and didn't try to take the biggest or the bestest. In fact, he told me he liked the darker cookies. Go figure. When he was through, I gave him half of our half. After all, his family is twice the size of ours.
I really believe the secret to staying young is to play. I had a ball today playing. Nothing was serious and there were no deadlines.
We made a mess and it was okay. The simplest antics brought lots of giggles. Where did we lose that? I guess that answer doesn't really matter.
What does matter is that when you give your heart and time to a child, you can regain hope and joy. Each day is a gift. Multiply that gift by making someone giggle. It will be good for both of you.

Love Does Not Insist Upon Its Own Way

A month ago I planned a Cookie Exchange. I knew Margie and her family were coming and I wanted to have lots of special cookies for them and I didn't want to bake them all.
Between my job and Mary Kay, I knew I couldn't do it. So I thought of the young mothers in my church who had even less time. This could bless them, too.
So I went online, found a site called Robin's Cookie Exchange. She has worked out all of the details. Looked like smooth sailing.
I created invitations and on the back side I printed Robin's rules. They were simple and straightforward. No store bought cookies. Cookies must use flour. Adults only. Bring six dozen. It sounded so simple.
As the Cookie exchange approached, I encountered questions like, "I don't want to bake. Can't I just come for the fellowship?" to "I work in a kitchen all day, I'm buying them from my girlfriend."
I was getting uptight and this was supposed to be fun.
Then my friend, Fran, said, "Diane, why are you having the Cookie Exchange?"
I told her I remembered having a house full of children and the frenzy of trying to get everything done for Christmas. I wanted to make it easier for young mothers especially and give them some girl time where they could unwind. AND I wanted beautiful cookies for Margie's visit.
She then said, "Why not trust God for that and relax. Let Him work out the details."
Wow! What a revelation!
I took my peace. Whatever God had planned I was good for it.
As I mulled it over in anticipation of what God had in store, I was reminded of 1 Corinthians 13, "Love does not get puffed up; does not insist on its on way."
I didn't have to insist on "doing it right" but I could leave the day to my Pappa God.
Candace made darling name tags and necklaces for games. Fran typed up other game cards. On Saturday Judi came and stuffed little bags with a little lagniappe for each guest. Mary came as a greeter and director. Marcia was our photographer.
We had a ball!
I am just a girl. My Father loves me right where I am. I don't have to strive to please Him. Just be love as He is love.

Friends are Friends Forever

Over 20 years ago Sally and I worked for a business newspaper in Jacksonville. I wrote and she did layout and design. Today we came full circle as I write and she created my glorious new header. Isn't it awesome!
I can remember 25 years ago sitting at a small oak table in her dining area talking to her as she did layout and design for a small newspaper. That was the day of light boxes, x-acto knives and rub-on transfer letters. She did this in addition to other work and raising three beautiful daughters as a single mom. We often did crafts together. She is a real artist. I am an artisan. lol
Later, I moved to Texas and then Africa and back. A series of circumstances brought me back to Jacksonville. As I began again, I met Sally at a garage sale. She was always looking for vintage buttons and fabrics and lace.
We picked up as if we had been separated for days, not years.
Again we created gifts and crafts together. She taught me scrapbooking and created her own scrapbooking patterns. They were so detailed, fresh and original. She gives the Lord the credit for her creative ideas and they are kissed by His love I am sure.
I have been living in Georgia almost seven years now. Each year when I visited my mom, I would take time for Sally. I got much more out of our visits I am sure. I always left with bags of goodies, new craft ideas and a heart bursting with gratitude.
When I wrote Sally and told her I was finally blogging as she had encouraged me to do, she immediately offered to design the header. I was astonished. Sally and I were almost snobs about everything being handmade. Now in her 70's, Sally is a digital artist!
I am so proud of her! When we worked late into the night to create beautiful things, I left tired, but exhilarated. That is what I am feeling tonight. I am tired with just work, Christmas shopping and the fast approaching Cookie Exchange BUT I am exhilarated with creative juices flowing. I feel like I am standing at yet another threshold and I can't wait to see where it leads.
No matter where we are in our walk in life, there is more.
Hugs,
Diane

A Cookie Exchange

Next Saturday I am hosting a Cookie Exchange. Today a precious friend gave me beautiful linens. Now I am old school and whether it is hot tea or hot chocolate with decadent cookies, it just taste better with real dishes and linens. It doesn't have to be fancy, but there something that makes you immediately feel like a lady when you put a damask napkin across your lap.
This is especially important if you had little ones spitting up on you all week and have barely gotten out of your sweats. It is good for our spirits to relax with friends and be pampered with those little touches.
The older I get, the more I recognize the importance of taking some "me" time so I can better a better woman in the "we" time. Admittedly when raising children, those moments may have to be arranged or even stolen from your to do list, but it is important.

A merry heart doeth good like a medicine. But a broken spirit drieth up the bones. Proverbs 17:22

If your spirit is broken, perhaps it is time to make your heart merry.
When I was a single mom with three children, we used to play "HaHa."
Everyone laid on the floor with their head on someone else's stomach. The first person said, "Ha." The second one said, "Ha, ha."
Each person would add a ha until we were giggling together. Yes, it was absolutely fake in the beginning, but the more ha's we added, the more our defenses dissolved and we began to laugh together.
How did I get so caught up in surviving that I forgot how to laugh? Perhaps the key is surviving isn't really living. Surviving is a desperate attempt to do the mechanics. It doesn't rely on the Lord and usually doesn't trust anyone else either.
I remember I was once told, "You can't count on anyone but yourself and you can't count on her all of the time either."
What a lie! What a breeding ground for fear and doubt!

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine understanding. Proverbs 3:5

I so understand trials. Looking back now I can see that is through some of those trials that He has given me many heart "surgeries." Some of those trials were caused by my willful disobedience, insisting on doing it my way. As I repent for the mess, confess, He is so faithful to create a new heart within me. I want to know Him more. I want my heart to be like His. My present trial may not end on MY timetable, but when I release it to Him, He can calm the raging seas of life.
I think that "Peace, be still" is a good word not only for the storm, but my heart.
Diane