From the Mountains to the City!

Saturday was an amazing day in the city. My nature is to "hideout in the hills", however, I have
children that insist we live in the "real world" from time to time.

The children played at the Rossini Fesitival in Knoxville on Saturday. They closed down Gay Street and over 150 vendors set up with any type of ware you could think of. Sooo many people! Yeepers!

While the younger children played on a stage on the street, Coy,our 19 year old, played inside the Bijou Theatre for the Don Giovonni Opera. (Not suitable for little ones!) Even though I prefer the mountains, I guess the city's not so bad...on occasion!

Mountain memories

Last week-end we stayed in Gatlinburg (our home for 14 years). We went and walked the Gatlinburg Trail that we used to walk every day and oh my...the memories were sweet. Along the way we made even more memories for future smiles. Ben and Anna used to love to play on this diansaur tree. It is amazing how it resembles a dinasaur. You can even see the "tail"! When we lived in Gatlinburg, the children were younger and we would have to hoist them up on the dinasaur and then sit and hold their hands for fear they might fall. Now, almost four years later, no hand holding needed. They climbed up quicker than I could get off the trail! It was a lovely day. All the wildflowers are blooming, the sun was shining and the mountain air was as sweet as could be. Ummmm.....makes me want to put all my work aside and head back to the hills!

Counting my blessings

Isn't it funny how we as humans will say, "God, I
pray that you'll give me this if it's your will." And then say we'll be fine if it's not His will, but when we don't get what we want, we pout and whine. I am really bad about doing that, but He is working on me every day. Growing me in His time. We won't be getting our dream spot anytime soon. Our smart guy said it just wouldn't be the smart thing to do. At first I thought, oh no!, I'm going to sulk and pout....wallow in misery for days. That would be my normal response. But it was interesting how God truly gave me a perfect peace. I'm OK!! No pouting, no whining! It's a feeling I can't explain. Maybe He was showing us the awsome possibilities! Who knows?, Maybe
when we do sell our home, something even better
will be out there for us! I have also been in awe
of the beauty in my city yard this spring. I went
outside to sweep the porch one day and this sweet mommy bird almost took my head off! I
had no idea she was there, but knew quickly why
she was there. Right at eye level she had built her
little nest and tucked inside were two tiny eggs.
She's gotten used to us coming and going by now.
She is such a good mommy, she never leaves. And how beautiful she is! My little birder says
she's a dove. All the flowers are coming back to life and "green up" is deffinitely here! I'm thankful for every bloom, every green leaf, every
tiny egg and every special birdie. Most of all, I am
so thankful for my awesome Savior on this Good
Friday. So thankful that there's hope for even me.

Irritation!!

Just don't know why my post sometimes turn out that way! They look fine in preview, but...oh well....still learning. (Wonder how long I can get away with saying that?) Tomorrow...our smart guy is coming by to tell us if and how it might be possible to go ahead with our dream spot even if we haven't sold our house yet. Hmmmm.....Still praying...still dreaming.

Praying and dreaming

For this! For the past 3&1/2 years we feel like we've been living out that old sitcom "Green Acres" in reverse. We have this beautiful, HUGE house in the city, but it just doesn't feel right! We are truly country type folks. We found our dream spot. Doesn't look like much, but with a little elbow grease and lots of TLC, we could make that little spot something special. So...we've been praying hard. As bad as we want the place, we only want it if God wants us to have it. If He doesn't want us to have it, we truly don't want it, but oh!!!!! I surly hope He does! BTW....Those shutters wouldn't be purple long!