Anita Renfroe - You Raise Me Up

Sometimes we have to find humor in our sagging bodies...a tribute to 'the girls' !

The Unrelenting Heat Wave

...caused me to see things from

a new perspective.

I generally don't spend a great deal

of time in our pool,

sad I know, but usually if I'm in it

I'm involved in cleaning it.

I tend to feel guilty spending time

swimming when I see weeding, watering

and yard work I should attend to.

I am blessed with a beautiful home

and while I enjoy living here,

maintaining this yard requires alot of work.

So, back to the heat wave we're having...

I have found that while doing yardwork

I have needed to jump in the pool on

occasion lest my family come home in the

 evening to find me passed out from heat stroke.

I found myself floating around and

looking upward towards the sky

 (I didn't want to look anywhere I might spot

a wayward weed beckoning me to pluck it).

This new vantage point was magical,

I had forgotten what it was like to lie on

my back and peek through the tree canopy.

This was something I had done frequently

 as a child,

I need to do it more often!

This new perspective gave me new eyes,

if I hadn't looked skyward

I might have missed the crepe myrtles

blooming. I had spent so much time

focused on the ground staring at the weeds

that I didn't see the beautiful blooms

above me.

How many other times in  my life have

I had my nose to 'the grindstone'

and missed a gift simply because I did

not lift my eyes towards the heavens?

What are your eyes fixated upon lately?

Have you dared to look away from

the duties of the day so that you might

catch a glimpse of heaven here on earth?

Problems?

"So you've got a problem? That's good!

Why?

Because repeated victories over your

problems

are the rungs on your ladder to success.

With each victory you grow in wisdom,

stature and experience.

You become a bigger, better, more successful

person each time you mend a problem

and tackle and conquer it with a positive

mental attitude."

(W.Clement Stone)

'With each victory you

come to trust in God's divine

plan for your life and that

He will see you through

each future challenge.'

(Diva Kreszl)

Our Time

The most precious gift we can give someone

 is our time.

It is the one commodity we cannot

replenish.

It is priceless, once it is spent

it cannot be recovered.

Giving of yourself whether through

volunteering, lending someone

a shoulder to cry on

or a willing ear to listen...

there is no greater gift.

"The world is not interested in what we

do for a living. What they are interested

in is what we have to offer freely -

hope, strength, love and

the power to make a difference."

(sasha azevedo)

MIssion Trip 2010

I spent the first day home doing 14 hours

 of laundry, Praise God for modern

conveniences!

We had record breaking heat in NH,

as did much of the nation, however

these folks haven't had temperatures

this high in over ten years so air conditioning

was not available at the middle school

where we stayed. Each day the temperature

rose to 95-99 degrees. That meant at least two

 changes of clothes daily hence

the huge pile of laundry.

We left on our trip a day early so that we could

visit Boston with our church group.

Fifty five of us, 45 teens and 10 adults

went on this mission trip.

We stolled through town admiring the architecture

old and new!

Our young people enjoyed the parks.

We even took a four hour boat ride to go whale

watching...and we saw alot of them!

After our little excursion it was off to NH...

The before pictures show that the owners

had made an attempt to paint their

home red (they used the wrong paint so we had to paint over it)

but were overwhelmed with

the task...this house was huge!

My crew and I spent the first day scraping, sanding

and replacing rotted clapboards.

By Tuesday we were on to priming.

I spent the entire week perched up on a forty foot

ladder, I quickly found out my crew had an intense fear

of heights! With a little encouragement I did manage

to get one young lady up on the 28 foot ladder.

The forty foot ladder was fiberglass and quite

heavy, very difficult to move, it required four of us

to move it around.

I had teens from all across the US and Canada

in my work crew.

This young man was from Prince Edward Island.

They came from Michigan, Massachussetts,

Syracuse, NY, NJ, CT, & PA.

As you can see they still found time

to get silly while working really hard!

There was another crew on site whose job it was

to tear down the old steps, build a small porch

and new stairs.

Here's the house almost finished.

Our crew's gift to the homeowner

was a new mailbox!

We did a pretty good job wouldn't

you say?

These are some of the children that

lived in that home.

This is my son's crew, they were on a different site.

They made a trip to Lowes for extra supplies.

Here he is making goofy faces :)

Here he is painting the deck and replacing shutters after

painting the house.

Looks like they are having fun!

Sorry that this is such a long post but it was a very

long week, hope you enjoyed the pics...

Now I have to get back to visiting all of you,

 I did miss my blogging friends :)

Hopefully I will get caught up soon!