30 Day Coloring Challenge and Spring photos

Hello Delightful friends and family!

Sharing this card at the Daily Marker for the 30 Day Coloring Challenge.  Oh and by the way happy Spring to you all!  I've added some pictures from my yard that tell me that Spring has arrived.  Funny that my card today is a Christmas one!!

This will be one we will be making in class in April to continue my "1 Christmas card a month in a class" promise to the gals who take my classes.  I fell in love with Kay Miller's card here  (thanks for the inspiration Kay!) I wish I had the same color of green c/s she used but anyway I added my own twist to it and CASE'd it.  The ingredients are listed below.

Ingredients:
Stamps - Penny Black Winter Joy, Rejoice with Joy; Hero Arts - Branches
Paper: Bazzill Green Apple card stock, Strathmore 140lb cold press watercolor paper; red & black card stock and the base is 80lb Neenah bright white.
Ink: Ranger Dye Ink Lily Pad; Distress Inks, Mowed Lawn, Iced Spruce, Antique Linen, Fired Brick; Tombow Marker #847 (red)
Dies: Lawn Fawn Fancy Scallop Rectangle
Versamark Ink; Ranger White Embossing Powder
Making Memories Spotlight acrylic paint; Micron Black Pen (to trace around holly and berries.
3M Dimensional Adhesive

Here are my Spring photos:

Flowering Cherry

Wisteria bud

Bee collecting  pollen

Thanks so much for visiting and have a blessed day!

You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Matthew 5:43-44

I am Truly Blessed

Look at this cutie with all his little naptime buddies!!

Talk about a good sport, Jake wasn't feeling very well,

a cold coming on and yet he was posing for Grammie!

Gotta love it!

We had a freezing day today with the wind doing it's best to knock me over! I managed to take a couple of pictures before the wind picked up this morning before heading to work. I love the backyard when the tree is in bloom, can't wait for it to warm up so I can go sit back there with my coffee first thing in the morning!

My wisteria!

This is new to my blog... my dwarf apple tree, just now blossoming!

Well I'm hoping to get to my craft table this weekend, I'm just really needing to get some of the creative juices flowing. But, I've got to clean house first that's my priority in the next couple of days so I can have a day off to "play."

We were blessed with some great news yesterday. Our oldest daughter, Amy got a new job. We've been praying she would get a job in her field (Health Science) since she graduated from Chico State in January. She put herself through school after moving away about 12 years ago. The funny thing is that she has said she would never move back to our area and live, NEVER! Of course you probably know where this is heading.... her interview was in Sacramento,

however the job is in Eureka which is close to where we live!!

You won't believe how many times I've said to her "never say never"

and I always got the response, "Oh mom, I'm not moving back"

Well, she knows this is a "God-thing" and for her to admit that, is answer to prayer, too!

All my kids are living back close and we have our grandbabies close by too!

How can life get any better??!!

Well, I've got homework to finish (Esther - "It's tough being a Woman" by Beth Moore) from the Ladies Bible Study that I'm facilitating. If you have the opportunity to do this Bible Study I encourage you to do so. The homework is so interesting (I hate to call it homework, I always hated homework!!) I'm having a great time with it! It may be tough being a woman but this woman (me) is truly blessed!!

Set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on the earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Col 3:2-3

"Let's respond out of our mind-set rather than our mood"

(I had the above quote written next to the above Scripture but I'm not sure who said it!)

I just love this time of year! We've had a beautiful spring day and I want to share the progression of my flowering plum or cherry tree (remember it doesn't bear fruit so I don't know what it is!)

Late February

Early March

Mid-March

End of March

Today April 10th

By next week the ground will white with petals, looks like snow without the cold!

Hope everyone has a blessed Resurrection Sunday! Not sure if I'll have a chance to blog anymore this weekend, the gal who cleans the church is out of town so guess who has to do it?? Moi! So that adds to my work load quite a bit. But that's what I do. I'm called to serve and if I'm called to clean the toilets and mop the floors then I want to do the best job that I can because it's for the LORD! I'm just grateful that I'm healthy and able to help. God is so good to me.

Embracing His grace,

Natalie

Fruitful? Or Needing Some Pruning?

Click to enlarge!

My lovely wisteria bush that is beginning to really blossom. Can't wait for a couple more days to see the changes.

The above picture is our flowering plum (or cherry) I can never remember, I would remember if it had fruit but all it has is blossoms then leaves, no fruit :-(

After typing that I thought about the spiritual application in that!! Oh the analogies I could go into but it's late! So,I'll try to put it in a nutshell....

It is of utmost importance that our Christian walk is not just for "show" there needs to be substance, which would be the fruitfulness in our lives.

(Read Galatians 5:13-26)

Is there fruit in our lives available for others to pick?? Are our branches heavy with fruit to share? Good questions to ask ourselves. Or do we need a little pruning?

I'm so grateful that the Lord gives us the privilege to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith or not. The best and only way to examine ourselves is in the light of God's Word. I encourage you to read His Word and meditate on it daily. Cultivate your relationship!

Have a super excellent and fruitful Monday,

Natalie

But also for this very reason giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowlege of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 1:5-8

Welcome Spring....or Not!

There were dark menacing clouds this morning, as I looked out my front door. However, that didn't dampen my spirit! I'm still feeling revived and refreshed from the Ministers' Wives Event!!! It was fun reliving the conference with some of our ladies this morning as I was sharing a little bit of the teaching I heard and the encouragement I received! I brought back a real nice canvas book bag for the ladies that are so faithful in teaching the kids in Sunday School and Kids Church. Thanks Annette, Stephanie, Sharon and Susie for your faithfulness every week!!! (and they loved the bag!)

I can't believe the turn in weather! How fickle spring weather can be! Snow level is down to 2,000 feet.

We are a little above sea level but we still feel the effects of it. Brrrrr with a capital "B" we even had a hail shower as I was getting ready to walk over to the church. I don't know why I'm surprised I can remember when I was in high school that it snowed the last week in March at sea level, it was a memorable day, I was getting my braces off! It's rare to snow in Eureka (where my orthodontist's office was located) which is right on the coast but it actually snowed at the beach, it was a strange sight!

My camera's not the greatest but you can see the hail leaving it's mark here in my backyard.

Well, this afternoon the hail is all melted but the cold remains! I think I'm going to snuggle under a blanket with a magazine and just rest a bit before the evening service. It would be nice not to have to go out in the cold but... I'm the pastors' wife! I'm called and I've been encouraged! I guess I will sneak over there and turn up the thermostat :-) I know the ladies won't mind that at all!

This is certainly not the most exciting post and if you've managed to read to the end, I just want to say "bless your heart!" Keep me in your prayers, I've got to get my part of the "tax stuff" together for our appointment on April 3rd. But if I hurry and get it together then I can get back into my scrapbooking mode and create!!! I'm missing that a lot. Have a wonderful day and stay warm and dry!!!

Embracing His Grace,

Natalie

And the peace of God which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7

Welcome Spring!

Welcome....to you and to Spring!

Yes! Spring is popping out all over my yard! That means there is major work to be done!! Speaking of which, my son just got here, he's been laid off from his work (he just got his building contracting license last month) for a week so he's going to help us out by doing some of the yardwork and clean out the gutters (bless his heart, I think I'll sneak and get a picture or two of him working - I'm sure he'll be thrilled about that one!!)

Here are a couple of pictures I took this morning. It's an overcast day, I'm waiting for the sun to spring out some of that warmth we had for the last two days.

This first picture is of our flowering plum tree. You can barely see the pink buds but by next week this will be covered with darker pink buds then it will turn to light pink blossoms, it is gorgeous. So my plan is to do a weekly or perhaps daily journal and share with you all the beauty of this spring season here in northern California! Since yesterday there have already been changes!!

This is the wisteria that surrounds my back porch. There will be purple and white flowers and it is beautiful. Can't wait for another month before it's in full bloom. The thermometer says 50 degrees out. Brrr still a bit too cold to sit on the back porch with my coffee.

Well, that's all for now. I hear the lawn mower (my son, Sean!) in the front yard doing his thing! I'd best get my self dressed and sneak out there with my camera!

Have a super blessed day!

Natalie

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men the Lord is at hand. Philipians 4;4-5 (my scripture to memorize )