Which way to Connemara?
Amanda and I found this back road (and will probably never be able to find it again) on our recent trip to Ireland. I thought it would be perfect for Cee’s “Which Way Challenge”.
See more roads taken or not at:
http://ceenphotography.com/2014/11/19/cees-which-way-photo-challenge-2014-21/
Solomon tells us in Ecc. 3 that there is a time to every purpose under Heaven. I don’t see a time to pick up messes in his list. I suppose he had more than enough servants to pick up after him; So maybe it’s not that surprising that housecleaning never made the docket.
While we do have church janitors here at Cornerstone, their job is not to pick up our junk. The poor young lady assigned to vaccum my office couldn’t even get the machine in the door on Sunday.
I suppose one of the first orders of business for me during this “season of rest” is to finish putting away all the stuff I took out from my “season of harvest.”
Holy cow I think I could use another day off!
It is time to share a bit of my world again. To see how others responded to Cee’s sharing questions go to
Share Your World – 2014 Week 46
Here are my answers:
On a vacation what you would require in any place that you sleep?
I need a comfy bed, a clean room, and quiet. Nice views and a deep tub are an added bonus but not completely necessary.
Music or silence while working?
It seems I work faster or at least more focused when I have instrumental music playing.
If you were to move and your home came fully furnished with everything you ever wanted, list at least three things from your old house you wish to retain?
I think I would want my pictures, my wood stove and my book collection. I don’t have any family heirlooms or anything like that.
What’s your least favorite mode of transportation?
Camel?
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I was grateful to get a little rest last week. This week I am looking forward to settling down to writing the new book. Oh and I am looking forward to having lunch with Mr. and Mrs. James Franklin.
My daughter Melanie married the man of her dreams last Saturday
It is time once again for Friday Fictioneers! Here’s the place to find flash fiction a-go-go! Check it out!
http://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/2014/11/12/14-november-2014/
Chilly-Chilly-Col’-Cold and the Lucky Traveller
by JE Lillie
So, here I am in sunny Florida! It’s November, the “perfect time” to visit Vacationland. I brought my suntan lotion and my Bahama shorts. The one thing I did forget was my winter jacket.
Of course, that really shouldn’t surprise anybody out there. I forgot to pack my rain coat on that auspicious trip to New Orleans in ’05 and my Volcano gear on that equally exciting trip to Iceland in 2010. Then of course who can forget my trip to Los Angeles in 1994?
I think I am boarding the next plane back to New England. It might save some natives.
It’s that time again! Here we are sharing our world five questions at a time. Find out what the blogosphere is revealing about Cee’s other contributors at
Share Your World – 2014 Week 45
Meanwhile here are the questions and my answers:
What is your favorite color?
I really like the color green. My current house is green. My last house was green. My office is green. My bedroom is green. My favorite season is green (I mean spring) and I recently took a whole lot of green pictures in Ireland.
The bark at Torc
In what do you find the simplest of joys?
I really like to just sit with a cup of coffee in hand and watch the world go by. I don’t have a lot of time to do this but even a few minutes a day of just drinking coffee in silence as a bunch of strangers walk, drive, jog or bike past me totally unaware that I even exist is the greatest relaxation I can find.
Would you prefer a reading nook or an art, craft, photography studio?
Oh, a reading nook please, but it has to have insulated windows and a window seat with really comfy cushions.
What is at least one of your favorite quotes?
“Make time for the quiet moments as God whispers and the world is loud.” author unknown
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
It was a HUUUUGE week. My daughter Melanie got married and then our church hosted the band Cloverton all in the same weekend. It was awesome and wonderfully tiring. Now I am looking forward to a season of relative quiet. This week is about napping! 🙂
Through my long years of Christian service I have learned that God generally speaking works seasonally in our lives. Ecclesiastes chapter 3:1 says, “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.”
This has been a season of great harvest and as I sit back this morning on the last day of my harvesting I can see that God has given me abundance through this time.
In September I was honored to lead worship and do personal care-giving at the Special Touch New England Getaway. I was honored with the privilege of baptizing six new converts into the faith!
Besides that incredible week we held our regular C.cada meeting and hosted the monthly communion meeting at the Gardner Visiting Nurses Center for a congregation of nearly forty people. The month culminated with the Winchendon Enhancement Committee’s Toy Town Fall Fest where almost two thousand people came to examine the site for a potential makerspace.
The pie-baking contest
Four days after the Fall Fest my daughter Amanda and I departed for a two week stay in Ireland while our teams continued planning for the upcoming art show, Cloverton concert, Double service launch, oh yeah and Melanie’s wedding.
A Celtic Cross in the cemetery atop the Rock of Cashel
We touched down on American soil again on the 14th of October and were back in office on the 15th catching up with all the plans. Cornerstone launched its double services on the 19th and as of this date it looks like the church has grown by about forty people!
C.cada’s fourth annual art show was the largest ever. We hung over 250 pieces and almost every artist sold at least one piece. To top it off connections were made with another area art association for a possible project collaboration.
Three concerts later I stood at an altar giving away my youngest daughter as a bride to my new son-in-law James Franklin II.
Then last night just two days after my daughter’s wedding Cornerstone hosted Cloverton to a nearly packed house.
The band singing Patterns
God has given me a season of much fruit! Now the harvest has been brought in. It is time for the land and this laborer to rest a bit and get back to a quieter schedule. Cornerstone isn’t stopping but the next big projects are not mine; They belong to other harvesters. Aside from a carolling event and Christmas Eve I have nothing to prepare for outside of my ordinary duties between now and Easter. While I am sure something is bound to pop up I think I am going to take a month or so and just try to be quiet(er).
Maybe now is a good time to hide myself away a bit and finish the new book!
Normally these posts come out on Sunday but the weekend was so HUGE I didn’t have a moment to post.
The promise as seen from Galway bay.
“Sometimes it’s important to work for that pot of gold. But other times it’s essential to take time off and to make sure that your most important decision in the day simply consists of choosing which color to slide down on the rainbow.”
― Douglas Pagels, These Are the Gifts I’d Like to Give to You: A Sourcebook of Joy and Encouragement
My daughter is getting married this afternoon. So I am choosing my sliding color with great joy today!
It’s time once again for…
Check it all out at
Share Your World – 2014 Week 44
Here are this week’s questions from Cee and my answers:
What is your most vivid memory of the kitchen in your childhood?
The most vivid memory I have of our kitchen is the red and black indoor outdoor carpeting that covered the floor wall to wall when we first moved into the house. My mother decided to remove it herself and I remember it took us almost seven years to get all the glue scraped off those floors.
As a child, who was your favorite relative?
Oh gosh that’s a hard one! I am assuming we are talking extended family, so I would have to say my father’s mother. She was probably the one I felt closest too. I remember being by her bedside the night she died and singing her the old hymns of the faith as she prepared to meet Jesus. She was the first person to quote John 3:16 to me.
What did you or did not like about the first apartment you ever rented?
Now that’s much easier than the last question. Our first apartment was rented sight unseen from the Bible College I was attending. The walls were bright blue and the carpet was orange. You could literally sit on the toilet and put your feet in the shower because the bathroom was so small and we could not control the heat so it stayed around 85 all winter long (which is better than the alternative I suppose).
What kind of TV commercial would you like to make? Describe it.
TV commercial? Oh wait! I know! I know! It would be a commercial lauding the value of eating peanut butter and spaghetti sauce sandwiches!!!
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 last week is over….’nuff said. I am soooooooooo looking forward to my daughter’s wedding on Nov. 8th!
Lillie-Put 