Category Archives: For Family & Fun

Share Your World 2015: Week 17

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Hey everyone! It’s time for another episode of

share your world. Click on the icon above to fly over to Cee-land and find out how the world has answered Cee’s queries.

Here are the weekly questions and my answers!

What is your most favorite smell/scent?

I have so many favorite smells. I love the scent of onions and garlic cooking in the kitchen. On a warm summer night the scent of Italian food fills the atmosphere of our small town from the local eateries. I love it. Cilantro is a very calming scent to me. It reminds me of my grandmother and the smell of cherry pipe tobacco always makes me feel smarter.

Do you prefer long hair or short hair for yourself? 

I prefer short hair but I am always struggling to find time to make it to the barbers so long hair is often a plague I must endure.

Do you plan out things usually or do you do them more spontaneous (for example if you are visiting a big city you don’t know?)

My whole world is planned sometimes to a fault. On the odd occasion I have even begun trying to schedule naps lately.

What is your favorite outdoor activity?

I love mowing the lawn and burning brush.

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I had a wonderful meal Sunday after church with my daughter and anew family from our church. This week Watoto African Children’s Choir is coming to minister at our church. I am really looking forward to this ministry.

Share Your World 2015 Week# 16 Or Ooo That’s Spicy!

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It’s that time again folks. Click the icon above to go to Cee’s site and read all her contributor’s sharing points.

Here are my answers to Cee’s questions. Enjoy the sharing!

What are your favorite spices?

I absolutely love Curry! I am also a big fan of cilantro. Guac just isn’t the same without it. But this question has reminded me of a dish my father use to make.It was this awesome beef and rice dish mixed with Cajun spices. I am going to have to look that recipe up!

What object do you always have with you when traveling and why?

I always carry my Bible and a journal on my travels. Travelling brings so many new insights out of the Word of God and I find those travels give birth to some of my best writing insights.

What is one thing you love about being an adult?

I love the opportunities that are available to me as an adult that were not available to me as a youngster. Many of these opportunities have come as a result of “paying my dues.” in my early days I had not earned the right to be part of so many things that are now open to me.

What item, that you don’t have already, would you most like to own?

I would really like a better camera. What would Cee suggest? I would also like a tent.

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am so grateful that we had a great day at C.cada. 28 artists showed up to ply their trades and we accomplished a lot of work. some of our artist’s are working on a playroom at a local hospital. Others are doing a Christian book review while still others are working on poetry and music for an upcoming show. It is a busy but wonderful time of year.  I am looking forward to making my reservations this week for my upcoming trip to PA!

Share Your World 2015 Week#11

Posted on by under For Family & Fun

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GREAT GUGGAMUGGA!  This week’s sharing questions 1 and 3 are really hard! You can find how other people responded at

http://ceenphotography.com/2015/03/16/share-your-world-2015-week-11/

Here are the questions and my answers

List 2 things you have to be happy about?

2 things I have to be happy about? Is it like I am forced to be happy about these things even though I really don’t want to be? Is the reason I have to be happy about them because everyone else is happy about them and I don’t want to be the odd man out? Or is the reason I have to be happy about them because I can’t do anything to change them. so being happy is just a way of moving on and not getting stuck in bitterness? Or is my forced happiness because what has happened is really a good thing but it makes me sad?

I’m sorry what was the question?

Do you prefer ketchup or mustard or mayonnaise?  

Deep breath of relief that question 1 is answered (or not)! Mayo all the way. I am not a big ketchup fan

If you were to paint a picture of your childhood, what colors would you use?

I had to stop and think what the picture would actually look like for this one. Is it a moment in time? Or is it a collage of events all smashed together on one canvas? I think it has to be a collage. The center is a brown wooden cross surrounded by smatterings of red and white. In the upper left hand corner is a portrait of a much younger me standing at a brown podium in a white polyester suit with one blue button, one orange button and one red button giving a Memorial Day Speech in fifth grade. The upper right hand corner is dark maybe pen and ink and shows me being bullied in gym class. The lower left hand has two scenes blended together One half is a room with brown pine paneling the other is stark white rustic camp walls. I am seated with my family in both pictures enjoying dinner. The lower right hand corner is me standing in the middle of a choir in a pink sanctuary singing.

Do you prefer a bath or shower?

Another deep sigh of relief. Question 3 took a lot of thinking muscle. I like a shower. However when I travel I always take a really hot bath and if the place I am staying has one a hot tub!

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am so grateful that I got to preach twice last week. The titles of the messages I shared were: Whose Vision Are You and Complete Worship. This week I have the opportunity to bring communion out to our local Visiting Nurses Dayhab and on Saturday we have C.cada!

Share Your World Week#10

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Wow! What a perfectly massive weekend it was! I had hoped to get a few extra posts written this weekend in between events and well that just didn’t happen. I am glad to be here at the start of week#10 sharing my world with Cee once again and of course all of you readers!

You can see how others chose to share their worlds or learn how to share your own world  at

Share Your World – 2015 Week #10

Now here are the five sharing questions for the week and my answers

When you lose electricity in a storm, do you light the candles or turn on the flashlight? How many of each do you own?

We have flashlights on each floor and candles in just about every room as well as hurricane lamps in the living room filled with oil. But we do not generally lose power in our neck of the woods.

You are given $5,000 and the chance to exchange it for one of two envelopes. One envelope contains $50,000 and one contains $500. Do you make the trade? Why or why not?

Sure I would make the trade. A fifty-fifty chance at $50,000.00 would be enough for me to risk trading $5,000.00 for $500.00 And 500.00 is nothing to sneeze at.

What’s your first memory?

I have lots of early memories. I remember one-armed Joe who helped my father in the kitchen at the college in Vermont where dad worked. He used to play soccer with me. I remember my first nightmare of a giant man in a Hawaiian shirt falling out of the wall into my bed to squash me. I remember staring into the blue gazing ball on my grandmother’s front lawn while gramma hung clothes on the green clothes line. I remember my cousin’s parents owned this old school bus. I remember my sister and I locked ourselves inside the bathroom on the bus and could not get out.Uncle Tom had to rescue us.

What do you do if you can’t sleep at night? Do you count sheep, toss and turn, or get up and try to do something?

I generally pray. It puts me in a peaceful mind and I can fall back to sleep.

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am glad I was able to get everything done through this last weekend. Even one of my projects is off to the publisher. I am looking forward to preaching in church this Sunday!

Share Your World 2015- Week 9

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All righty then! It’s week 9 of sharing our worlds. It never gets old. Check out how others in the blogosphere share their worlds with our hostess Cee at

Share Your World – 2015 Week #9

Here are this week’s questions and my answers…

How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are? 

I would be somewhere around 100. People tell me I am a little old man. Maybe it’s the job that projects that image or maybe it’s because I consider naps a form of entertainment, beats me.

Are you left or right-handed? 

Right handed, Left brained.

If you HAD to change your name, what would you change it to?

Matthias. I think Matthias is a cool name.

Where do you hide junk when people come over?

In the upstairs bedrooms, which reminds me I have to clean from Christmas.

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I was very grateful to be able to attend the service in which my daughter was presented with her first set of ministerial credentials. She is now, Pastor Melanie Franklin!

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This week I am looking forward to getting a lot of the projects my editor has assigned me finished.

Share Your World 2015 Week 8

Posted on by under For Family & Fun

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Hey all! We have been sharing our worlds for the first 7 weeks of 2015. Now it is time for an eighth share. My answers to Cee’s 5 questions are below and you can either answer the questions yourself in the comments section below or in a blog post of your own. Come on it fun! The most fun part is reading what others have shared at

http://ceenphotography.com/2015/02/23/share-your-world-2015-week-8/

My answers:

Your favorite blog post that you have written? (add link)

This is a tough one. At this point I have written over 2300 posts on two blogs. I do a lot of series writing; so it’s really hard to narrow it down to one post, but one of the series of posts I recall the best, is the “Ferocious” series. I have reblogged it a few times now and developed into a thirteen week Bible study since I first wrote it. Those posts can be found on my “Ferocious” page under the “Pastor Wrinkles” heading or by clicking on

https://josephelonlillie.com/pastor-wrinkles/sermons/ferocious/

What do you feel is the most enjoyable way to spend $500? Why?

The most enjoyable way to spend $500.00 is to spend it on someone else or to give it away. Giving carries one of the greatest emotional blessings of happiness known to man. It is hard at first for me to commit sums of money to other people (it’s against my nature) but I have learned that once committed to, the gift brings with it an incredible peace and joy that settles over my soul

If you could know the answer to any question, besides “What is the meaning of life?”, what would it be?

“How in the world did I end up here?”

Where do you eat breakfast?

I eat breakfast most days at home while watching the morning news or reading at the breakfast table. It is usually two pieces of toast with peanut butter a half a banana and two cups of coffee.

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am grateful for an incredibly productive day on Saturday with our C.cada artists.

https://josephelonlillie.com/2015/02/24/whats-a-maker-space/

This week I am looking forward to leading worship at our Network office in Charlton MA

Share Your World 2015 Week 7

Posted on by under For Family & Fun

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Every week Cee from Portland asks us five questions about our world. We her contributors answer those questions and so we share our worlds. You can see how folks across the globe answered Cee’s questions this week by going to

http://ceenphotography.com/2015/02/16/share-your-world-2015-week-7/

Here are the questions and my answers

Is the paper money in your possession right now organized sequentially according to denomination and with the bills right side up and facing the same way?

Absolutely not. The money is stuffed in every which way. Some is folded and some is just crumpled in with the receipts

What is your favorite type of dog?  (can be anything from a specific breed, a stuffed animal or character in a movie)

I really love my Maltese puppies. There coats are a labor of love but they are so sweet-tempered I hardly mind.

If money was not an issue, would you go on a cruise?  If so where would you go?

I would really love to take a Viking River Cruise up the rivers of Europe some day.

Would you dare to sleep in haunted house overnight?

I probably wouldn’t but if I did it would be to exorcise the ghosts and demons out of the place.

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am grateful to have the drives and walks cleaned out once again. I am really grateful for the help my neighbors gave in cleaning out the ends of my drive. I am excited to begin the chapter treatments on my next book this week. It is called, I Wasn’t Really Dead, and Other Lies I’ve Told.

Share Your World 2015 Week 6

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It’s that time of the week again!

See what others shared from their worlds at

Share Your World – 2015 Week #6

And the questions of the week from Cee are…

What was the last time you went to a new place?

The last time I went somewhere I had never been before was in October when I went to Ireland.

Me at the Rock of Cashel

Me at the Rock of Cashel

If you were or are a writer do you prefer writing short stories, poems or novels, other?  And what type of genre would you prefer?

I love writing all of the above. One of my favorite exercises here in the blogosphere is to write a complete story in a hundred words or so. I haven’t been able to practice in a bit but I love to take the Friday Fictioneers challenge at Rochelle’s blog here

https://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/

 I am not currently in a poetry phase but I do have books of the stuff. Right now I am working on a novel I hope to have published soon.

Out of your five senses (touch, taste, sight, smell, hearing) which is your favorite?

I think hearing is my favorite sense. I would be very sad if I could no longer hear the whisper of the winds through the trees or the rush of the waves along the shore. The world is full of music I would miss dearly if I could not hear it. There is something powerful and even life changing in the beat of the drum and the cry of the whistle.

If 100 people your age were chosen at random, how many do you think you’d find leading a more satisfying life than yours?

Not many. I am growing more and more content everyday as I see the purposes of God coming to their fulfillment in my life.

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am really glad I got up through chapter 19 sent off to the editors/publishers last week. Hopefully this week I will finish the book.