39 years ago today I said, “I do!”

Today is a gorgeous, warm, Autumn day, much like October 30, 1976, except it was less windy.

Thirty-nine years ago today! That is amazing to me.

Thirty-nine years ago I nervously walked that long aisle with my dad.

Thirty-nine years ago I started a new life with my new husband.

It hasn’t been easy, it hasn’t been problem-free, battle-free, sorrow-free.

There have been joys, frustrations, heartbreaks, good ideas, bad choices, losses, struggles, surprises, many laughs, fights … and so much love – sometimes hard to recognize, but strong enough to survive.

Thirty-nine years ago today I said “I do” –  and I did, and I would again with the man God prepared for me.

It’s been worth it.  (Thank You, Lord!)

our wedding cake topperThis is our original wedding cake topper.

Does this season mean anything special to you?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂

Another sad good-bye

It has been a stressful, sad time of late. 

My dearly loved father-in-law passed peacefully from this life in the wee hours of June 10 with many of us, his family, near. It was a special, quiet, reverent time, although very difficult until his pain could be brought to a manageable level again. Breakthrough cancer pain is horrible. The minister came to pray with him and us, which brought assurance to his soul, and a last broad smile to his face.

Preparations have been completed … the service and reception scheduled for Sunday afternoon, June 14.

I will miss my father-in-law tremendously. He was a constant in my life for 39 years, and has been a wonderful role model for my husband and children. (My beloved looks so much like his dad and is very similar to him – and that’s a good thing.)

Now you know why I have not posted much lately. My energy and focus have been mostly elsewhere. I will get back to some sort of posting schedule as soon as I can.

Thank you for understanding.

Please check out the following information. We had known about asbestosis but had never heard of mesothelioma until my dad-in-law’s diagnosis. It is, and will be, affecting far more people than even, as yet, realize it exists – until it surfaces.

http://www.medicinenet.com/mesothelioma/article.htm

http://www.mesothelioma.com/mesothelioma/

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂

Happy Valentine’s Day!

“Keep love in your heart. a life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.” – Oscar Wilde

cats love

“We are all a little weird and life’s a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.” – Dr. Seuss

Aren’t those fabulous quotes? And, on that note, I would like to wish you all a Happy Mutual Weirdness Day!  And much love to you.  🙂

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂

Happy Valentine’s Day! Something for you

~~~~HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!~~~~

IMG_0048Aren’t these lovely? Every Valentine’s day I can count on a dozen roses from my beloved husband. What he likes is candy … chocolates or cinnamon hot hearts.

Today I have a blogging gift for you. There is a new blog on WordPress that I thought you might enjoy. It’s called Sokarsweet. (or click here to see it.)

Sokarsweet is my daughter’s photo blog. She and her family live in a lovely house on a beautiful lake with a gorgeous view. Her largest windows face west so she gets to see the amazing sunsets. I hope you will visit her blog and check out her photo posts. 

Another thing I have done for you is to update my blog and fix a few broken links. My apologies for the bad links; I was dismayed when I discovered them. Now when you click on each book title listed under Book Reviews you are taken directly to the review here on my blog. I also posted them on some or all of the following sites, according to whether the book is listed or sold there: Library Thing, Shelfari, BookLook (if I got the book from them to review; BookLook used to be BookSneeze), Goodreads, Chapters.Indigo, Amazon.ca, and Amazon.com. I have many more reviews to do, and some author interviews are coming up, too.

Now I have a question for you.  Do you have a favourite quote or verse or Scripture for Valentine’s Day? Anything about love.

Here are a few good ones, including one verse of a catchy old song some of us will remember.

  • I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear. – Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love. – Mother Teresa
  • Beloved, if God so loves us, we ought also to love one another. – 1 John 4:11
  • We love Him, because He first loved us. – 1 John 4:19
  • Lord, grant that I might not so much seek to be loved as to love. – Francis of Assisi
  • I love you a bushel and a peck
    A bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck
    A hug around the neck and a barrel and a heap
    A barrel and a heap and I’m talkin’ in my sleep
    About you, about you
    ‘Cause I love you a bushel and a peck
    You bet your purdy neck I do

What can you add to this list?

Happy Valentine’s Day, thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Happy New Year!

How can it be? Another new year is soon to begin!

new_year_icon_554642012 has been a mix of many things in my little world. This blog has captured much of it and has been a source of relief for me, a way of venting, sharing, seeking, growing. Through blogging and writing I have been blessed to meet some very special people who have become my long distance friends.

As my dad’s condition steadily worsens, and my husband’s healing is continuing, our hope is for the strength needed as this new year brings whatever surprises and challenges it holds for us as a family.

In looking back over 2012 I wonder what I accomplished.

  • I blogged, and yet never enough;
  • read books .. again never enough;
  • introduced books and their authors to you on my “Have Read” pages;
  • wrote book reviews for you – with more waiting in queue with their authors; (I’m sorry family things had to take priority)
  • offered exciting book giveaways;
  • offered some writers’ helps on my page of the same name;
  • wrote several drafts for children’s books, thanks to 12×12 in 2012, but not as many as I had hoped to, and I missed out on the community there that so many writers found helpful;
  • added more to my novel in National Novel Writing Month in November, and have almost completed the story;
  • had thought to take on Picture Book Ideas Month that I so enjoyed in November 2011, but had to sacrifice that one this year;
  • realized today that I missed out on signing up for the inspiring Month of Poetry for January 2013 as the closing date was December 29!  [Sorry, Catherine; 😦  I had intended to, but it’s too late now.]

So what will the new year bring to this blog?

  • more book reviews;
  • more author interviews;
  • more book giveaways;
  • hopefully less whining.

9920817-on-a-black-white-background-with-floral-pattern-is-abstract-writing-pen

For me this blog is not only about writing, it is about living. Perhaps that is not the way to do it, but with the way things are in my life now I struggle with keeping up and keeping going through all the stress. If you are faithful to stay the course with me I will continue to try to deliver. You can’t possibly know how much I love and appreciate you and the encouragement of knowing you are reading my words. My goal still is to write for children, and my hope is to keep on keeping on.

Now I wish you all a very happy and healthy 2013. May it be a year of fulfillment and accomplishments, pleasant surprises and inner joys, depth of growth and flourishing of creativity. Above all may you find Love in all the right places. 🙂

Psalm 67: 1,2 – May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face to shine upon us, that Thy way may be known upon earth, Thy saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise Thee, O God; let all the peoples praise Thee!

Psalm 91 (the whole of it)

What wonderful things did 2012 bring to you? Is there anything you plan to do differently in 2013?

happy-new-year-stars

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂

My special birthday

I realize that not all who read this will understand the depth of what I’m saying, nor will all agree with me, and that’s okay. It is important to me, and is the life under-girding my own life.

Today, February 28th, is a special day for me, an anniversary of sorts. Even more it is a special birthday.

On this day – thirty years ago – I began life as a new creation. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.” – 2 Corinthians 5:17

I was brought up knowing about God, praying, believing in Him, experiencing His touch in my life, going to church and doing all those things, but I believe that it wasn’t until I was in a place of deep spiritual searching that I truly became a follower of Christ. Before then He was wooing me. When I understood my personal need of forgiveness and His saving grace, and when I reached out and asked Jesus to come into my life as my own Lord and Saviour, that is when my life really began. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” – 1 John 1:9

It hasn’t been easy. Everything didn’t magically become sweet and problem free. People still hurt me. I still struggled with anger. Some things went from bad to worse. Some circumstances had to change, had to be let go. The many years of pain took many more years to heal, but they did heal. I am a better person now than I was then.

I had to relearn much since religion had trained me into false beliefs. It deeply troubles me when I hear it still preached and believed that God lays pain and suffering and death on us to teach us things. What?! What then of Jesus’ sacrifice? Was that not enough? Does His death become meaningless for those times? How foolish! “Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the expiation for our sins.” – 1 John 4:7-10

Suffering and pain happen in this sin-ridden world, and we will experience them until we leave here. To continually blame God for the things we don’t like and that are hard to accept is a dangerous thing to do. That is not faith. That is sin.

Now, if there is anyone left still reading this … “Cast all your anxieties on Him, for He cares about you.” – 1 Peter 5:7

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂