GOD IS GOOD

Oh, oh, oh, oh,
What He's done for me!

Oh, oh, oh, oh,
What He's done for me!

Oh, oh, oh, oh,
What He's done for me!

I never shall forget
Just what He's done for me!

That's the song that burst from my lips this morning as I woke up. It's peppy and refreshing. God is good.

The next song that hit me was:

I woke up this morning
With my mind,
Just sta - ayed on Jesus,

I woke up this morning
With my mind,
Just sta - ayed on Him.

Well, I woke up this morning
With my mind,
Just sta - ayed on Jesus,

Halle - lu, halle - lu, halle - lu, halle - lu
Hallelujah!

I'm rejoicing. My songs are back!

Since we've been in a kids' crusade this week, while I've been out (away from my home office where I'm usually planted), I made some swing-bys at my favorite thrift stores. We have some great thrift stores with excellent prices. It's a hobby of mine, to see what I can find. And I've found some treasures.

Here are a few:

Two Monet prints, Lady with a Parasol Turned to the Right and Lady with a Parasol Turned to the Left, which now proudly hang over my living room sofa. I love Monets and Renoirs and have several of these great artists' masterpieces in my home. These two prints are printed on heavy duty stock paper, and I built frameless frames for them (after several trips to Home Depot--grrrrr--but that's a story for another day), then touched up the colors in them. Since my predominate decorating color is in the aqua/turquoise family, I touched up the skies in both prints with strokes of aqua. The grasses where the ladies are standing, I turned from orange to eggplant/purple tones. Striking, my guests say.

Four table lamps. Two are matching, and I display them in one of my guest bedrooms. I painted their dull bases with gold then antiqued them with a brown glaze. Then I bought new shades for them with tassels, and viola, they were transformed. Another lamp has a gold and crystal base and with a tall gold-colored fabric shade that's tube-narrow at the top and wider at the bottom, it makes a striking addition to the other guest bedroom.

I've bought pretty little side chairs and had them recovered to match rooms. And ottomans. I love ottomans and footstools. Let's see. What else have I bought? One of my things is decorating, so I'm always on the lookout for an addition to my decor. Milton says I have a lamp and chair fetish. He's seen me drag home lots of them. But I always transform them to things of beauty.

I also look for unusual costume jewelry. Yesterday, I bought some nifty earrings and a necklace, the kind that fits snuggly around your neck. It's in tones of brown and orange, and I'll wear it with a tangerine colored shirt.

Yesterday I also bought a stack of books. I rarely come away from thrift stores without a book. I found My Cousin Rachel by Daphne de Maurier, Peacehtree Road by Anne Rivers Siddons, Becoming Soul Mates by Parrott & Parrott, a condensed Bend in the Road by Nicholas Sparks, The Joyful Journey by Clairmont, Johnson, Meberg, and Swindoll, and a 2-in-1 Mrs. Mike and The Search for Joyful by Benedict and Nancy Freedman. I read a wide variety of books, from fiction, to self-helps, to how-tos, to biographies, to you-name-it.

I bless you in the name of the Lord, that your day will be blessed and fruitful. Amen.