Gomer's Junk Yard.

Hello, friends of Gomer,

I missed blogging and renovating last week because I was with my momma. My sweet brother Mike went to be with Jesus six years ago and I make sure to always be there when his birthday rolls around. Denbigh was at the office so the Cherry girls and I packed up the family truckster and drove on up. We spent the day at the zoo, watching movies, and eating ice cream. Grand baby love is sweet healing to the soul.

I'm waiting on my man to finish some things in the bathroom so I came home and continued working on the floor in the guest room. I'm halfway done with filling the cracks as of this writing. It's tedious stuff. I can't wait for phase three. Pray me on through phases one and two. Filling and sanding. Then we get to the glorious stain. Yippee. 

My man sold our old Honda (the hog Honda) to a junk yard. We can use that money to fix our van and then sell it (and the other 3 cars we need to sell). Do any of you need an old car? Back on topic. Our yard looks a little better now. With our car collection, it was getting quite interesting out there. Now we are down to four. 

I've been on a massive decluttering mission. If you need some stuff, come get it. I've also been painting and making lots of crosses. My days are usually filled to the brim with child loving. Today, our sweet baby saw her daddy and Lulu giving each other a fist bump. She started squawking until they gave her one. This day, I have given approximately 413 fist bumps to tiny Chayah. These are the days of Gomer. Mom by day. Restoration specialist by night. 

Give to Gomer's House.

 Here's a fist bump for you. Love y'all. 

A Little Salty to Cut the Sweet by Sophie Hudson

I fell head over heels for this book, y'all. Sophie might be my new bff. I found myself wanting to reread the book once I had reached the end just so I could spend some more time basking in the Southern charm. I'm serious. If you live anywhere in the South, you can identify with Sophie. She tells the best stories about our family trees. I laughed out loud. I may have snorted. Her stories about her mother-in-law and her parents are hilariously endearing. 

Let me tell you the one thing I loved about the book more than any other thing. It's the way she talks about Jesus. As we peruse our Christian books, most are often preachy and dry, but she accomplished a rare feat for her readers. She talked about our Jesus in such a natural way that it catches you off guard. Her delight and enjoyment of Him flows easily in her stories. She has given us a unique gift. Grab a copy and enjoy. Delight.

Warning: This book will make you want to consume large quantities of bacon and copious amounts of butter. Amen. Bless the Lord.

Happy Valentine's to My Man

It's Valentine's Day and I am super excited. I think it's a Southern thing because we just love people a bit more than normal..and we love the idea of loving people. Every one always wants to tell you how hard marriage is and I would have to agree, but it is also a beautiful gift. Jesus has trusted us with someone to love. We think we are signing up for some grand need meeting romantic adventure. The truth is that if you are submitting your covenant to Christ daily, you signed up for gut wrenching emotional death through sanctification so that you might give true life to your spouse ( and yourself). That, my dear friends, is work. To stop complaining and jump in the spiritual fox hole to pray is our calling. If you want to evoke beauty, my advice is to simmer down and pray whole heartedly for God's idea of betterment for your spouse. Pray blessings. Speak blessings.

This year, I prayed through Praying For Your Husband From Head To Toe as part of my Valentine's gift to him. Loved it, y'all. I may have also purchased some Mr & Mrs mugs so we could sip coffee and talk about the weather.

Bless your man by the bucket. Amen.

Gomer: Buy A Bunsen Burner

Hello, friends of Gomer,

Last week we all packed up and went to visit our family. It made us miss a few few work days here, but I have found that grand baby love has special healing properties. Who am I to deny that? 

The last few days I have been working on stripping the moulding around the doors in our bathroom. The people who have lived here really loved to paint. This is evidenced by the layers and layers of color as I remove it. I found a hideous peachy pink layer. Oh lawdy. It made me think back to when our bath tub was sponge painted in pinks. Speaking of bathtubs, cast iron ones are cold in winter when the floor is cold. It makes the water get cold fast. Denbigh and I have been dreaming up ways to heat it. He says we should just put a bunsen burner under it. Hopefully one day when we have heat downstairs, it won't be so chilly because the floor won't be freezing. 

Dear Jesus, send spring. Amen. 

We have several groups coming here in the spring. Would you consider coming here and volunteering? We have a multitude of projects to accomplish. A multitude. Many of them are easy as pie and we just need help with man power (woman power would be amazing as well). Even playing with my kids so that I can work is a gift. Send help. If you want to buy Gomer a Valentine's, she loves Citri-Strip and steel wool. We use it by the buckets! 

I bought a $265 ticket to attend a Christian blogger conference at the request of a friend. As I inquired about us getting a hotel, I found out she had gotten another friend to go and had a room with her. I wasn't asked to join them. I was dumped like a back up date to the prom. Now, to decide if I go alone. Know what though, for a solid week before this, everywhere I went I kept seeing the verse that reminds us that God will never forsake us. Grace upon grace. Let me have it too, Abba. 

I'm Journible(ing) through Hebrews right now. Anyone else amazed that Christ took on flesh in order to have mercy on us?

Would anyone like to build some shelves for my bathroom? 

Love y'all.

Give to Gomer's House.

The Prodigal by Brennan Manning

I recently journeyed
 through Brennan Manning's last literary offering, The Prodigal. He had wanted to write a novel on grace. His desire was to place God's mercy center stage in story form. Though ailing at the end of his life, with the help of Greg Garrett, he was able to accomplish this.

I'm generally skeptical of most Christian novels because they seem to detach from reality and head straight into a processed cheese that is hard to digest. I went into this partially expecting something great from Brennan and perhaps a little bit of this over the top Christian fiction. 

In this story about a mega church pastor who fell from grace, we witness the depths of depravity. Jack got drunk and had an affair. The one person who he would have never expected to receive grace from is the only one offering. This act of kindness catapults Jack into the throes of God's radical healing mercy. 

All in all, I truly enjoyed the book. When I turned the last page, I cared about the characters in it. That's the mark of a good story. There were deep spiritual truths tucked inside the story that speak into the soul. There are beautiful, life-changing sentences to call the heart toward what matters most. The prodigal son come home.  Read more about the book and the authors on Amazon.

This book was graciously provided for review by Thomas Nelson Publishers.

Gomer: Never Stop Improving

Friends of Gomer, do y'all like my new wallpaper in my bedroom? It says, "Lowes: Never Stop Improving." Totally motivational and romantic. My man finished doing the house wrap around the exterior walls inside of our bedroom. Our walls are solid wood. People are always wanting us to keep that look. Those people are crazy. You can feel the wind from the outside through those cracks. Next up for our room is foam and sheetrock. It's pure glamour over here. Send help, Abba. Send windows. 

We took the guest bed out of the guest room so I can work on the floors. I started filling the cracks in with twine and putty. The bed went in to my girls room. If you remember, they (and some guests) broke their metal frame and had been sleeping on the mattresses on the floor. The bed looks beautiful in their room. It was given to my grandmother when she married my grandfather. It's close to a hundred years old. I stained and refinished it many moons ago. 

My man made a cross out of the antique wood from the ceiling. Let me know if you would like one. I can do multiple wood colors or all one color. We can paint on it or leave the beautiful wood as it is. I can also add a ribbon to hang it from. They are $25. All proceeds benefit Gomer's House.

We were blessed to give away some donated venison to our neighbors this week. 

Thank you for your prayer, love, and support. It is such gift to give away what we are given. 

Give to Gomer's House.

I'm looking for a  new bed for the guest room. If you see something like this, let me know. 

This Is the Day: A Planner

I absolutely love to plan. If I don't write things down, they simply don't happen. I love having a planner around, but I never found one that was perfect for me. I love Well Planned Day, but I needed a bit more for my daily goals. I also enjoyed Donald Miller's productivity planner, but as a mom I needed more. The same with Ann Voskamp's. Recently, I downloaded this from Etsy and customized it to fit the things I like. 

p

On Donald Miller's productivity plan, he has a cloud on the side that goes down in percent through the day. It is a reminder that we need to do the work that needs the most concentration first. He also had a line for rest and reward for accomplished goals! I don't really do that for myself. I keep going until I pass out (except Sunday afternoon. I love Sabbath!) He also had a line for Life Theme. What a great way to stay on track. From his, I also took the Projects. They are limited to three. Can I get an Amen? The questions about what we get to enjoy and what we would change also came from him. If you are not running a household from your planner, I would say his would be great. 

p

On Ann Voskamp's planner, she had a space for a relationship she wanted to invest in that day. I thought that was wonderful. Even if it is just prayer or a short message. To spread the love of Christ is a beautiful reminder.

p

I also added a fly line so I can write what zone I am in. That is from Flylady. I listed her morning and evening routines across the bottom just as a reminder. Sometimes with three children underfoot, I can forget everything. 

p

My favorite is the area where you count your blessings. It's a daily Doxology. Praise to our God. I delight in the fact that Thanksgiving can tune the heart to sing His grace. 

p
I use Cozi online to keep up with my calendar and art for sale.

You can print and bind this for about what you pay for a planner. You can also stick it in a frame and use it as a dry erase board. 

p

Here's the Etsy Link: https://www.etsy.com/transaction/175640623?ref=fb2_tnx_title

Return To Me by Lynn Austin

Several years ago I read a five book series entitled the Chronicles of the Kings. It told the story of several of the kings of Israel. The historical fiction helped the story come alive to me. I enjoyed those books so much. I had received this book in the mail before I realized that it was the same author that had written that series. I was truly excited to dive in.

p

I truly enjoy historical fiction because it helps me put some humanity with the biblical context. You can see the day to day struggle that the people went through. In this case, it was the Jewish people being freed from exile in Babylon and allowed to return and build the temple in Jerusalem. You can see families torn apart. Some left and some were comfortable in Babylon. Some had begun changing to be like their Babylonian neighbors and no longer cared about the things of God. As you read the Biblical narrative, you don't see the length of time of the hardship that accompanied this journey. 

p

I had a greater awareness of the danger they were in and the threats they were under from the surrounding Samaritans. The Samaritans wanted to come in and help build the temple. You can see that this would have led to idolatry and political control. This novel gave me a great awareness of how precious God's truth is to be able to hold and learn from. We have truly been entrusted with a precious gift.

p

One thing I appreciated greatly was watching the typical life of a boy who God eventually called to be a prophet. I think it's easy to see a prophet as a man who came out of the womb speaking God's truth, but they were very normal. They were often physically exhausted by the words they spoke. The prophesy spoken during this time gave me chills as I read it again from a fresh perspective. 

p

I deeply enjoyed this book. It was graciously provided by Bethany House Publishers fro review.