Picnic

It has been a near perfect Saturday.

We slept late. 9:00!

And then sat by the fireplace, drank coffee with peppermint mocha creamer - mmmmm - and I made French toast with
powdered sugar and maple syrup for breakfast.

William worked burning off some dead weeds in the horse pen and repairing a porch screen door. I did dishes, made the bed and washed a couple loads of clothes.



Then this afternoon I threw a little picnic in a bag, made up 2 quarts of iced
tea - one sweet, one unsweet - betcha can't guess which one is mine :) '

William was easily convinced to take a break from the the screen repairing
and we drove down to the ranch.

We grabbed a grapevine wreath and a big red bow to tie on the main gate
for a "Merry Christmas" greeting to all who pass by.


Beautiful blue Texas sky. Only the sound of an occasional bird singing or fish jumping.

Lovely. Peaceful. Calm.

Thank you LORD for all our many blessings.



A whole day spent together.....definitely one of His blessings on us today.

Gwynie Pie

By the back door

At the back door of the house, I hung my Santa apron and hat.

And right below it in the corner....evidence that Santa decided to just take off his boots and
get comfy.

We're hoping this doesn't cause Lily Kate any distress. She's not a big fan of "Ho,ho,ho", as
she refers to Santa. She's already told her mama that he can leave presents on the porch,
but CAN NOT come in the house.

When I told Dana about the Santa clothes by the back door, she said "uh oh. Lily Kate may
decide that not only is Santa IN the house....but he's naked."




The back porch tree is another mesquite branch, set in an old bucket and strung
with white lights. It looks very festive at night.


Right as you walk in from the back door ---- the coffee/spiced tea/hot chocolate bar
and the peppermint tree.

Grab a cup and let's go sit by the fire,

Gwynie Pie

Welcome

Every year we "harvest" a couple of West Texas Christmas trees (bare mesquite trees). In years past, before we went artificial because of allergies to most real trees, our main tree in the living room would be one of these beauties. Usually spray painted white. And then decorated with tons of white lights and ornaments -- looks really nice.

This year we have one at the front door -- it sits in an old metal milk can wrapped with burlap. And then that all sits in my mother's old metal wagon.

I've had the scripture snowman sign for years. It always gets a special place.




Lovely old garden gate, given me by a sweet friend. Don't you love it?

Double grapevine wreath with a few real evergreen branches wired on and a big natural burlap bow.



















As is my "habit", I can't leave well enough alone.

So I "tweaked" the mantle just a bit and added two huge white serving platters. It added just that right something ????

Of course, the roaring fire pretty much says it all

"Welcome. Come on in here. Sit. What would you like to drink?
Coffee with eggnog creamer? or a cup of Sugar Cookie hot tea?
ummmmm --- okay, let's visit......................"

Gwynie Pie

A tree in every room

My Christmas decorating philosophy is this -- I don't want "over the top" decorating all over the place, in every nook and cranny and corner. But, when someone steps into a room I want them to know that it's Christmas. Therefore ........a tree in every room.


One guest bedroom has a simple lighted tree. The brand-new, yet old-looking little sign was purchased at Cheapo Depot for $2. It says "Season of Joy".

The folk Santa was made by William, probably 30 or more years ago, out of a 2 by 6 chunk of wood.

Lily Kate's little table all set for having a tea party with the teddy bears.
Adornments decorate the little tree, each one telling about a part of Christ's life, who He is, why He came to earth.
And our main tree in the living room. I used old pictures, along with our traditional ornaments -- one of the silver bells the "little angels" rang as my daughter walked down the aisle,
first ballet slippers,
my tiara from high school days,
an antique bookmark with the ten commandments, from my grandmother's Bible,
mine and William's first Christmas stockings, homemade by a mom or grandmom,
special glass ornaments from my grandparents tree,
there is even a cute little plastic cowboy hat bowl that was Williams when he was
a little guy -- it's so cute!,

at the top -- the cake topper from our wedding....two white doves inside a white heart.


I used yards of burlap this year. Everywhere. On the trees. Under the trees. I hope to finish the burlap stockings by Christmas. If not -- there's always next year.

Sooooo -- that's the tour of trees, part1. I think I showed you our bedroom tree a couple days ago. Then there's the peppermint tree in the kitchen. And the trees on the porches.

Oh, I'll be back later with those.

We are totally decked out and dolled up and enjoying every moment of this season.

Enjoy your CHRISTmas season day. Okay?

Gwynie Pie

.....and it goes on....

The armoire --- laden with evergreen boughs and twinkly white lights.

St. Francis and the basket of songbooks.







It's Never Too Late to Live Happily Ever After,

Gwynie Pie

Decorating continues......

On top of the tv armoire -- my favorite little stone angel sits watch. I made the red "This House Believes" sign a couple years ago. It moves around the house and is almost always on display. This house believes --- in Jesus.


Old!!! red toolbox lined with a scrap of burlap holds our collection of children's Christmas books. Some are mine, some are my kids. That Christmas Stories book was given as a gift to William's great-grandmother in 1903. So sweet.
The Santa is from my childhood -- he always stood on my folks mantle with his hand in a candy dish. I'm not a big Santa fan, ya know? but I do love him.


Stack of family bibles. Some are quite ancient. The nativity we've had since we were first married.
Part of the collection of Santa and Christmas pictures through the years. That black and white one is me and my Daddy, my first Christmas.


The house is looking like Christmas now. I'm ready to sit back, drink some hot tea and enjoy the season.

Enjoy!

Gwynie Pie

Christmas Decorating

Just wanted to show you some of what I've been up to lately.

Starting with the bedroom --

I used the colors in the comforter and pillows and pulled those
into the Christmas decorations for the room -- muted turquoise and chocolate brown.

The glass bottle in the Eiffel Tower shape was found years ago in a Bryan junk shop. It originally was a bottle of French dressing. Isn't that cute?
Cost a whole 25 cents. And I just love its uniqueness.


The set of books was found at the College Station Friends of Library sale for a couple dollars. I love the colors, especially of the title labels.



When all the decorating is finished, there are always areas I want to leave up for a while, even after Christmas.

This is one of those areas. I just love the textures and colors in this room so much.

It may all just stay "as is" for a good long while.

I'll be back later with the rest of the house.


Happy decorating,

Gwynie Pie

Wild Olive Tees

"Get your verse on"

That's the attitude over at Wild Olive Tees. I just found this store/blog and although I haven't ordered---yet ---I just love the spirit of these gals.

Check them out at http://www.wildolivetees.com . Or just click on their "Rejoice" button
over on the right side of this blog.

Cutest tees ever! And with a message.

Gwynie Pie

SNOW !!!!!

It snowed. Yes, it did.

And it was absolutely beautiful.

A winter wonderland.

For almost 6 hours. And then.......as quickly as it came, it was gone.

These pictures were taken at 6 a.m. as I was leaving for my recent 7-day job. I worked last week and part of this at the county elections office processing voters in early voting for a mayoral race run-off. Had a great time. Learned a LOT!!! Hung with some fun people and made new friends. Saw a lot of old friends. It was a good experience.

But can I just say --- I was absolutely exhausted. Daily. Of course the pace of the day was so different from my usual. We were busy almost non-stop. And meeting the public requires a happy face and sweet spirit and the ability to just let stuff "roll off" without comment. Takes a LOT of energy.

I have such respect for you gals who juggle it ALL - husband, kids, home, work - and do such a good job with it ALL. My hat is off to you!

I don't know that I could get in the groove -- guess I could. Glad I don't have to right now.

My house is a total wreck.

We ate fast food (or worse) the whole time.

My husband had to go searching for clean underwear. And found some. Stuffed in a laundry basket. Washed over a week ago.

Bed unmade. Bathrooms unscrubbed. Morning coffee cups crowding onto the countertop. Floors -- well, you get the picture.

Blog unattended. E-mails unanswered. Bills unpaid.

So, so glad to be home again.

SO glad in fact, that I am happily, joyously even, cleaning my house -- every nook and cranny. AND finishing the Christmas decorating.

I'll be posting Christmas pictures and some fun projects very soon.

But hey, enough about me ---- what are YOU doing? Tell me what fun holiday projects you have going ....

Love ya,

Gwynie Pie

Bless

Blessed beyond measure.

Blessed to be a blessing.

Bless this home and all who enter here.

Bless.
In decorating the house for Christmas I'm always torn.

Do I just decorate every nook and cranny and go completely over the top?
As I have some years.

OR do I low-key the entire thing. Go pseudo minimalist.

I never know until I get into it. And I'm usually not done decorating
until the day before or sometimes the day of Christmas.

BUT -- I do see a "theme" emerging.

Bless.

And I know that is my desire. To bless.

To bless my husband. To bless my family. To bless others. To bless His Holy Name....in ALL that I do.

So keeping that as my goal ---- here we go ---------

I'm looking forward to a wonderful month of Christmas planning, decorating and enjoying.

May your Christmas be exceedingly Blessed.

Gwynie Pie

Dreaming of a White Christmas

Cotton harvest is almost done.

Huge, mostly green, tractors with cotton strippers on board have roared through the fields, pulling the cotton off the stalks and depositing the bolls into a giant
basket.

The basket is then dumped into an enormous iron "loaf pan" that sits at the end of
the rows. You think I'm makin' this up???
There this loaf pan squeezes the cotton into a module -- a giant loaf of cotton.

Next.....a big truck comes lumbering into the field and by some means of magic, loads the loaf of cotton into the truck and carries it to the cotton gin.

There the loaf disappears into the gin and moments later---- all very mysterious..... it reappears at the other end in small bales of shiny white cotton all in a row.

The bales go away on a big truck. Next time we see them, they are hanging on the rack in a store, looking all cute and colorful and sporting a price tag totally not in line with what the farmer got paid for his part in planting, tending and harvesting said cotton.

And there you have it. For being a farmer's daughter, I sure don't have a very good grasp of the technological aspects of the process,huh?. You may have noticed that?

I may not know "the how". But, I do know this -- my Daddy loved it. I love it too. It's harvest. It's Fall. It's home. Mmmmmmmm

Even the roaring of the cotton gin, now round the clock, until all the "loafs" are baled......comforting, familiar, home.


Gwynie Pie

She followed me home. Can I keep her?

A few Sundays ago we became first time EVER horse owners.

I won't go into the crazy circumstances that brought this about.

And I won't tell you how not happy I was about this turn of events.

I WILL, however, tell you ------ she was without a name. Can you imagine?

A Horse With No Name ????? (wow -- flashback)

Lily Kate promptly named her Ladybird.



Ladybird was bony and hungry and her spirits were sagging. You can see her ribs. Her mane was tangled. Her eyes were matted. She had not been cared for, much less loved.


And NOW 4 weeks later, she is getting her groove back.

She is quite happy to see us when we arrive back home.....she comes over to the fence and nickers at us. Probably because of the delicious apples and carrots and sweet feed we give her. BUT, I prefer to think that she knows us. She loves us.

She is a wonderfully sweet horse.

I'm glad she followed him home.


Happy Trails ~~~

Gwynie Pie

DREAMS 2009 -- revisited

Last January, when I wrote my very first (technically my second) blog ever...I bared my soul and actually stated my Dreams for the year.

At the time I remember thinking -- THIS may be your craziest hour, Gwyn....you are gonna have to answer for this later at the end of the year.

And sure enough.........................here I am................answering...............

Here we are 6 weeks away from the last day of this year and I figured it was time to face the music and revisit those goals. Time to reassess.

And time to start thinking about the new goals for 2010.

Bad news is -- I have not accomplished ALL of my goals for the year. Not even half of them. Oh heck, who am I kiddin' -- not even a fourth of them.

Good news is -- hmmmm.....I'm thinking.........

I must admit that to fall short of a goal is a great disappointment to me.
My tendency is to feel like a failure. The original point of writing down my goals, however, was to keep them out there in front of me, knowing that is a very effective way to actually achieve goals. Write them down. Read them every day. AHHHH HA!!!!

Here's the TRUTH --- I have NOT kept those goals out there in front of me. I have not read them every day. I have
pretty much ignored them, all the while knowing they were still there....just mocking me.

I have not lost a significant amount of weight. I am not in good enough shape to do the Jingle Bell Run in Fort Worth in 4 weeks.
I still haven't had the guitar out of the case ......ALL YEAR LONG! Still can't back a trailer. Didn't float a river or kayak one this past summer.

Have not ridden a horse. Although we do now own a horse, so I guess I'm just sneakin' up on that goal. HOWEVER ---
riding a horse is closely tied to that first goal I didn't reach this year (the one about losing weight).

Here's what I HAVE ACCOMPLISHED from the "Dreams" post -----

I have done two meaty Bible studies. And I have read much of my Bible, with the goal of reading it through this year. This goal WILL BE accomplished by Dec. 31. It WILL!!!

I'm also reading through the Bible in 2010. Again. This has been one of the most exciting, profound, challenging, frustrating, satisfying things I've ever done.

All in all - now that I've written this down -- I guess I really should feel like a failure. But, I don't. I just feel more challenged to keep going. To keep setting goals. To keep desiring to be better, do more, achieve more. To keep reaching.

I'm re-thinking many of those goals (not achieved) from this year. Praying. I really want to desire the things for myself that the LORD desires for me. In praying and thinking about this, I believe this is a goal for 2010 :

I am setting a goal to read 20 books during the year. Not the fluffy mysterys that I can devour in a day. But 20 books with a lot heft to them -- a lot a weight and significance.

I'm listing them over on the sidebar so they are "In My Face" all year long. I'm very excited about this goal. I need to stretch my mind. To challenge my thinking. To fill my mind with good, challenging things.

What about you??? Are you a reader? Do you NEED to be a reader? I invite you to share my list of books. We can read together and then discuss. :) Think about it..............

Gwynie Pie

Sweet Giveaway

Just learned of a super fun giveaway at Peanut Petunia http://www.peanutpetunia.blogspot.com .

Go over and check it out.

Gwynie Pie