picturingpositive

Answered Prayers 😇

Posted on April 24, 2024 by Beth W.

I have so much to be thankful for, and this last weekend I had some prayers answered. A few of the joys in my life include drawing and crafting, feeding the birds and critters and caring for my plants, both indoors and out. In the past few days, I have been blessed to be able to do all of these.

I have been waiting ~~patiently~~ to see the first bird at the bird feeding station Ted made for me. While I had seen robins, blackbirds and mourning doves, I had yet to see any visit the feeders. Last Friday, I got a picture from Ted of a little finch at the feeder. My heart leapt and during the course of the weekend, I was able to see a variety of birds enjoying the station.

While walking around the yard, I noticed that the peonies the former owners had are really popping out of the ground. The iris I transplanted last fall are coming up nicely, and to my surprise, a little hyacinth was transplanted with some of the iris.

I’ve been enjoying the Hallow app lately, currently listening to the “Easter Challenge”. Today’s message resonated with me. Sometimes when I look at the things going on in the world, I get discouraged and think that it will never get better. Thinking of today’s message about how God didn’t withhold his own Son, and so will not withhold everything else we need, gives me hope. As Saint Paul says, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 38-39)

If God is for us, who can be against us?
Romans 8:31

Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.
Jesus Christ

If you’d like to check out the Hallow app, there is info at: https://hallow.com/ I am attempting to share this QR code, but have never done it before, so if that doesn’t work, just click the link above 😉

I was able to get a free trial and I know our church recently paid for subscriptions for the parishoners, but I am finding it valuable, so may just subscribe when my trial is up.

Saturday I finally opened up a needle felting project I purchased about two months ago. I think I was a bit nervous that I wouldn’t be able to make it look anything like the photo on the front of the box. I really didn’t get it to look exactly like that photo, but I’m quite pleased with how my little bear turned out. I even had a bit of wool left over, so crafted a little sheep to keep him company. 🐑 I am looking forward to making more of these little cuties!

I hope your week is filled with answered prayers and wonderful surprises.

💗 Beth

Posted in anticipating good, Celebrate, drawing, gardening, looking forward, love, patience, spring, thankfulness | Tagged answered prayers, bird feeder, bird feeding station, finch, hyacinth, iris, Jesus Christ, Romans, St. Paul, zentangle | Leave a comment

Arizona Adventures

Posted on April 17, 2024 by Beth W.

Dad jumped into my selfie and it turned out pretty cute. 🥰

At the end of the day, if I can say I had fun, it was a good day.
Simone Biles

We had many good days during our recent visit to Arizona! We were able to catch up with friends and family alike and enjoyed fun times and funny moments. My Dad generously hosted Ted and I along with his dad and stepmom. At the end of the trip, Ted and I rode back to South Dakota with Dad. It was a wonderful trip! I think we all vote for a “do-over” soon!

The two day road trip home allowed me time to practice my drawing. I like this little guy. 🐵

***I will never pass up the opportunity to get up close and personal with local wildlife!***

***Luckily traffic was at a minimum going through Sidewinder, so I was able to get this awesome photo of the actual Route 66!***

***The little shop offered some great souvenirs and this awesome photo op! Dad survived Route 66!***

We left our mark in Oatman, AZ with a dollar bill stapled to the wall.

We entertained ourselves in the evenings with the card game Five Crowns. If the object of the game had been to have the highest score, I’d be a champion! 😅 As it was, though, Maxcine smoked us all!! 🌪😜🌪 There was one game, though, that my dad, Leo, was the big winner. He reminded us all a few times the morning after. 😄

Getting to share meals and catch up with great friends and relatives made the trip that much more fun!

Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.

Robert Frost

We all made some marvelous memories! 💖 It was a short, but incredibly fun trip! Thanks for sharing our adventure!

Love, Beth 💕

Posted in adventure, Carpe Diem, drawing, happiness, laughing, living life to the fullest, Relatives, travel, Vacation, zentangle | Tagged adventure, arizona, Chloride AZ, donkeys, family, Five Crowns, friends, fun times, funny moments, Oatman AZ, road trip, Route 66, sharing meals, Sidewinder AZ, Simone Biles, travel, zentangle | 9 Comments

Take Courage…

Posted on February 28, 2024 by Beth W.

During Lent this year, I have been listening to the Hallow App and participating in the 40 day Lenten challenge. Each day brings a new reflection with an inspirational story, lesson or sermon and often a bible verse to reflect on.

Last week, this verse was presented in a talk by Mark Wahlburg. This verse resonated with me and I have reflected on it several times since then. The general theme of the challenge is to learn to surrender to God and to trust in Him. I struggle with this and am one that always feels there must be SOMETHING I can do to improve any given situation.

I am doing my very best to remember that God sees the entire picture and I only see a small part of it. Sometimes when challenges occur, it’s easy to lose hope and feel like God isn’t listening. My current challenge is trying to sell my childhood home. I want so much for a family to purchase it and to love it and to make memories like my family and I have. When I start to hear the voice in my head telling me that I should have waited until spring to list it, that no families are interested in it or that I should have left furniture in it to stage it, I try to let go and let God handle it. I do trust Him and I know that all is working for my good. ~~Perhaps~~ I definitely need to learn a lesson in patience!

God has always provided for me and sent the right people to me at the right time. Four years ago, I was despairing about the end of my marriage and I had no idea the happiness that was in store for me. I thank God every day for bringing Ted into my life and for being the loving, caring, generous person that he is. I also am grateful for his honesty. We have many things in common, but just as many that we do not. We are both willing to try new experiences, though, which bodes well for our future together.

I thought these made very clever wedding favors since Ted and I met on Match.com 😅

We were lucky enough to take a trip to Punta Cana a few weeks ago and we had a wonderful time. We went on two excursions, one a “jungle buggy” adventure and the other to “Monkeyland”. (You can probably guess which was my favorite!)🐒

Many times when I am in the woods or at a beach, I’ll ask my Mom to send me a heart shaped rock or twig. I did on this trip as well, and I think she came through with heart shaped coral as well as a cross and a letter “L”. (Her name was Linda). I might be stretching a bit, but I also found what I think looks like a little angel standing on a cloud. She loved angels as well as travelling and seeing new things. Finding these little symbols makes me feel like she still sees what’s going on in my life.

Taking time together to relax and to enjoy the moment was wonderful! Even though the vacation is over, I hope to carry forward the ability to relax, to trust in God and to enjoy the wonderful moments I’ve been given and to trust that He will take care of everything!

Have a wonderful week!

💕Beth

Posted in adventure, angels, creativity, drawing, happiness, living life to the fullest, love, patience, Vacation, zentangle | Tagged Andy Rooney, bunny, door, drawing, dune buggy, home sale, I have conquered the world, I know the plans I have for you., Jeremiah 29:11, John 16:33, monkey, Monkeyland, patience, Punta Cana, wedding favors, zentangle | 18 Comments

Hooray for Puxatony Phil!

Posted on February 2, 2024 by Beth W.

I heard that Puxatony Phil did NOT see his shadow this morning, which means we will see an early spring. Oh how happy I will be if this comes to pass! It hasn’t even been too bad a winter, but I am ready to see some new life in the ground and the trees!

For those curious, as I am, this marks the 21st time in the 138 year tradition of Groundhog Day that Phil has not seen his shadow. It is a rare and beautiful thing and is enough to give a little hope that brighter days will soon be here!

The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he created Spring.
Bernard Williams

Along the same theme of hope for the future, please send all of your positive thoughts and prayers that the right buyer will come along for my family home.Ted and I have put a lot of time into spiffing it up to make it a beautiful home for the next family. 💗🏡💗

In other news, I have a wedding date and am starting to get planning underway with the help of my beautiful neice Katelyn who is a wedding planner. I am looking forward to being able to do more of that (which can happen once the house is sold😉) The photo above is the centerpiece that I created as a model for what I want our guest table centerpieces to look like. I have decided that I enjoy flower arranging much more than I do scrubbing floors and painting!😄😄😄

I promise to try to be a little more disciplined in getting blog posts done. My tangle Tuesday got off track because I haven’t had time in the evenings to do my drawings. C’mon Spring & longer days!!

Happy Groundhog Day everyone!

💗 Beth

Posted in Celebrate, drawing, looking forward, spring, zentangle | Tagged hope, spring, wedding, Puxatony Phil, Groundhog Day, groundhog, Sarah Ban Breathnach, centerpiece, home sale | 12 Comments

Tangle Tuesday – Thank you Angels

Posted on October 31, 2023 by Beth W.

It has been quite a busy time around our household. My honey and I had talked about combining households so we could eliminate the travel back and forth between our respective homes and have “our home” instead of “his home” or “my home”. We had been casually looking at homes that came on the market for a while, but not seriously looking.

After he proposed this summer, we started talking a bit more earnestly about our future plans and talking about our wish lists for our home. He wanted a three car garage, and I wanted a nice yard with the potential for adding my own flowers and plants. We both wanted a master bedroom with an attached bathroom, something I didn’t have in my house, but he did in his. We wanted at least three bedrooms since his youngest daughter is still with us, and we wanted a room for guests to stay when they visit.

We first found a house that had an amazing “man-cave” garage and a very nice yard, but no master bath and a very dated interior. For the remodeling we would have to do, it was too expensive for us. The second house we looked at was beautiful, checked all the boxes, but was above what we wanted to spend. We agreed that it helped us to know what we were looking for at least. After that, we looked at several other homes but didn’t find one that had everything we wanted.

We considered maybe finding a lot and building and kept looking through listings. After a weekend of perusing open houses, I said that I wished we could find one like the second house we looked at, but with a lower price. Lo and behold, the following week, the price of the second home was reduced by 25,000.00. We decided to take a closer look than we had gotten at the Open House. We liked it as much or maybe even more than we had at the first viewing. 😊

We started the process of getting pre-approved for a loan. It was a little more complicated since we wanted to do a short-term loan until our two houses sold. After a long process of submitting document after document and bank statements, pay stubs, and all the good stuff that goes along with taking out a mortgage, we received our pre-approval. We were able to officially make an offer on the home we hoped would be ours. After talking through what we were both comfortable with, we decided to put in an offer that was 19,000.00 below the current asking price. We hoped for the best, but expected that we would most likely receive a counter offer.

We put our offer in on Friday afternoon and gave 24 hours for their response. We waited and talked about what we would do with a counter offer and how high we might be willing to go. The next day, around 11:30 in the morning, our real estate agent called and said they accepted the offer, with no counter! We had our home! I credit our Guardian Angels for helping to make it such a smooth transition. 😇💕😇

We closed on our new home October 20th. Ted listed his house on the 16th and received a full price offer on the 17th! I give Saint Joseph credit for that one because I prayed for his intercession to help sell that house. Once that one closes, we will get mine ready to list and will ask for heavenly help again that it also sells and closes quickly.

There is no place like home.
L. Frank Baum

My puppy Romeo and Ted’s cat Pretzel tolerate each other.

The dog and cat seem to be making a little progress getting along now that they are together much more. Last night, I saw a sight that I credit our angels for. Romeo and Pretzel were settled in together on the sofa without being coerced. One of these days, they might even be buddies. ♥️🐱♥️🐕

Romeo and Pretzel are getting more comfortable with each other. 😊

Things here are still not all in place, but day by day, it is becoming our “Home Sweet Home”. ♥️🏡♥️

Thanks for reading! ♥️ Beth

Posted in accomplishment, adventure, angels, home, looking forward, Tangle Tuesday, zentangle | Tagged angels, home sweet home, L. Frank Baum, moving, new adventures, new home, no place like home, pets, Tangle Tuesday | 16 Comments

Tangle Tuesday – 9/26/23 – Take the Risk!

Posted on September 26, 2023 by Beth W.

Last Friday, my sweetheart and I did something big! We have been talking for a while that eventually we want to be in the same household so we can spend more time together and less time driving across town to each other’s respective homes. We have gone to quite a few Open Houses, but hadn’t found a house that had everything, or at least enough of what we each wanted that we could agree on it.

Ted wanted a three stall garage so we can fit both our vehicles in and still allow him to have space for his tool chests and to give him space to work on projects. I wanted a yard where I can enjoy flowers and trees and can feed the birds and squirrels. We both wanted a master bath and a kitchen with lots of storage. We found a beautiful home, actually one of the first ones we saw, but the asking price was too far above our price point. It was absolutely gorgeous and so very well maintained. We agreed that something like this house would be perfect for us. As a Catholic who loves asking the saints for their intercession, I asked St. Anthony to help us find a home like this one, but with a bit lower price. He has never failed to help me when I need to find something, so I had faith that he would come through.

On August 29th, the listing price was reduced by 25,000.00 which put it closer into the range we were looking for. After looking at a couple more Open Houses where we found ourselves saying, “We need to fix this.” and “This would have to be changed/updated, we both kept coming back to the house that had almost everything we both wanted. We set up a time to go back and look a bit more closely at it on Sep. 18th. When we saw it again, we were in agreement that it was a home we could both see ourselves being happy in.

We decided that we would like to put an offer in, but first we had to get pre-approval, so we started the process that evening of getting all of our financial information submitted to a mortgage broker. After a couple days of submitting paperwork and clarifying income, assets and the like, we were approved! Because we both have substantial equity in our homes, we are able to get a loan without immediately selling either of our other homes. Late Friday afternoon, after hearing we were approved, we put in an offer that was 19,000.00 below the lowered asking price. The sellers had 24 hours to consider our offer. We were hopeful that it would be accepted, but also prepared for a counter offer.

Home interprets heaven. Home is heaven for beginners.
Charles Henry Parkhurst

Late Saturday morning, we were discussing what our next move should be. Would we counter again if they countered? How much were we willing to increase our bid if we needed to? Should we look at other properties before we put another offer in? We hadn’t been talking very long when Ted’s phone rang. It was the realtor saying that our offer had been accepted with no counter offer! Wow! We are so excited!! Now the work begins to get our homes ready to list. Being able to move things from both of our houses will help them to show better. Now I will ask St. Joseph to help find a family to purchase my home and one to purchase Ted’s home. It makes me happy to think of a family enjoying the house that I love so much. In the next months, we will dedicate ourselves to spiffing up our properties and making them the perfect home for other families who will be as happy to get them as we were to get our new home.

While we have a lot of work ahead of us, I believe it was worth taking the risk and getting our new chapter started!

Beautiful curb appeal and a three stall garage. Who could ask for anything more? 😊

Home is the nicest word there is!
Laura Ingalls Wilder

We will need to find a dining room table, but we have time. The seller’s looks great, though! 😉

Posted in accomplishment, adventure, Embrace Life, happiness, looking forward, Tangle Tuesday, zentangle | Tagged Charles Henry Parkhurst, home buying, Laura Ingalls Wilder, new chapter, new home, open house, Risk, St. Anthony, St. Joseph, T.S. Eliot, Tangle Tuesday, zentangle | 15 Comments

Tangle Tuesday -Exhausted- 8/29/23

Posted on August 29, 2023 by Beth W.

Some days, I definitely relate to this little kitty. 😄🐱😄

Posted in drawing, Tangle Tuesday, zentangle | Tagged drawing, exhausted, Nayeon, Tangle Tuesday, zentangle | 7 Comments

Tangle Tuesday – Happiness (8/8/23)

Posted on August 8, 2023 by Beth W.

Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn’t stop to enjoy it.
William Feather

Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.
Guillaume Apollinaire

I got to share a happy adventure with my fiancé, Ted, this past weekend! It was a wild and muddy ride, but oh, what fun!

I hope you’re having a wonderful week! Love, Beth 💕

Posted in adventure, drawing, happiness, Tangle Tuesday, zentangle | Tagged CF MOTO ZForce, drawing, John Harrigan, Tangle Tuesday | 7 Comments

Tangle Tuesday 8/1-Dance

Posted on August 1, 2023 by Beth W.

The dance is a poem of which each movement is a word.
Mata Hari

Be aware of wonder. Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
Robert Fulghum

Posted in Celebrate, Dance, drawing, Tangle Tuesday, zentangle | Tagged Dance, H.Jackson Brown Jr., Mata Hari, Robert Fulghum, Tangle Tuesday, zentangle | Leave a comment

Throwback Thursday – Joy! (7/27)

Posted on July 27, 2023 by Beth W.

A photo taken by my Aunt Nora many years ago. It’s sometimes the simplest things that bring the most happiness.😊

To be more childlike, you don’t have to give up being an adult. The fully integrated person is capable of being both an adult and a child simultaneously. Recapture the childlike feelings of wide-eyed excitement, spontaneous appreciation, cutting loose, and being full of awe and wonder at this magnificent universe.
Wayne Dyer

Posted in Embrace Life, happiness, living life to the fullest, Nostalgia, Throwback Thursday | Tagged childlike, happiness, joy, swing, Throwback Thursday, Wayne Dyer | 9 Comments

Wowza!!😍

Posted on July 24, 2023 by Beth W.

Did you ever have a regular, ordinary day turn into a day that you’ll never forget? That happened to me Wednesday night. I got home from work, filled up my bird feeders and Ted arrived shortly afterward because we were going to have dinner together. Once we were in his pickup, he asked what I felt like for dinner. I said maybe Qdoba or something simple. He said he would prefer something nicer like Longhorn Steakhouse. We don’t often splurge, so I told him that I certainly wouldn’t say no to that. 😉

We got there and I got ready to hop out and grab his crutches from the back seat when he said, “Before we go in…” and he reached in the console, brought out a little brown box, opened it to show me the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen and asked if I would marry him. I think I was so surprised that I must have said, “Oh my gosh, how beautiful” three or four times before he finally said that I hadn’t answered him. I quickly remedied that by saying “Yes!” and kissing him.

Nearly all the best things that came to me in life have been unexpected, unplanned by me.
Carl Sandburg

I was very surprised, but pleasantly so. I knew this was the direction we were heading, but hadn’t started “planning” anything yet. I was very happy to discover that we both share the picture of a future together. There is no urgency to our timeline, but I think we both agree that life will be much easier when we can share in caring for one household as well as sharing utility and maintenance bills instead of each having our own.

Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I know I am ready to start planning our future together. I believe it is true that life really is a wonderful fairy tale. Like a story, bad comes along with good, but with the right person, challenges can be overcome and true happiness and contentment can be found. ❤😍❤

Posted in happiness, looking forward, love, Marriage, relationships, zentangle | Tagged Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Carl Sandburg, drawing, engagement, engagement ring, fairy tale, Hans Christian Andersen, surprise, Wow!, zentangle | 32 Comments

Tangle Tuesday 6/27 – No Bad Days

Posted on June 27, 2023 by Beth W.

Sunday might have been considered a “bad day” for me and my honey, but I think Paul Henderson has the right idea in the above quote. Sunday after church, I came home and filled up my bird feeders and was relaxing in my room when my sweetheart gave me a call. The conversation began in a normal way, but I soon found out that he had an accident and was going to be heading to the ER. I had something planned with my daughter, but thankfully my sister was able to fill in for me so I could be with Ted. He was on crutches when I got to his house. We headed to the ER where we were actually able to get in right away.

Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.
Willie Nelson

The more than three hour visit brought dismaying news. His ACL was torn and in addition he had broken his tibial plateau, the bone at the top of the tibia, often known as the shin bone. Through the use of an X-ray and CT scan, the ER doctor determined that a visit to an Orthopedic specialist was in order as soon as possible. In the meantime, he was given a brace and instructed that no pressure should be placed on the left leg at all, not even resting his toes on the floor.

We are planning to leave on a trip to North Carolina where I will finally get the chance to meet Ted’s dad and stepmom. Hopefully the Orthopedic doctor will give us the green light to continue on the trip. Ted is a wee bit stubborn and says that we are going no matter what. We shall see. 😉

Your attitude is like a box of crayons that color your world. Constantly color your picture gray, and your picture will always be bleak. Try adding some bright colors to the picture by including humor, and your picture begins to lighten up.
Allen Klein

While bad things certainly happened on Sunday, it didn’t make it a bad day. I believe guardian angels were watching over him and prevented what happened from being even worse. If he had wrenched his back or hit his head, it could have been an injury that was impossible to bounce back from. Thankfully, he does have very good insurance and a considerable amount of sick time accrued. While this is definitely inconvenient and most certainly painful for him, maybe it will offer him an opportunity to sit back for a bit and let others do for him the way he does for everyone else.

Tomorrow morning we visit the Orthopedic specialist where we will find out more about recommended treatment and recovery. I pray that all goes well and he is cleared for travel. Whatever the outcome, however, I will (try to) remember that while we can’t control the circumstances, we can control our attitude. In the meantime, I will keep thinking positive thoughts! 💕

If you have a positive attitude and constantly strive to give your best effort, eventually you will overcome your immediate problems and find you are ready for greater challenges.
Pat Riley