I love this challenge! Unusual Portrait faces is this week’s topic from Nancy Merril.
Take a gander at some of her other contributors faces at
Here are my additions to the collection:
If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.
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This post is written in response to Cee’s challenge : Winter/ Water
My offerings are below, but when you have finished here take a trip over to Cee’s photo shop to see what her other contributors have put up.
http://ceenphotography.com/2014/08/12/cees-fun-foto-challenge-water-or-the-season-of-winter/
Every week (or almost every week) for the last three years I have been skipping over to Cee’s place in Oregon to answer four questions she poses to all her readers. In the process I have gotten to know Cee and her readers and they have gotten to know me.
This little exercise is a great way to make connections here in the blogosphere; So let me encourage you, when you are done here why don’t you skip over to Cee’s place too and read some of her other contributors and then take the plunge and answer her four questions for yourself.
http://ceenphotography.com/2014/08/11/share-your-world-2014-week-32
Do you prefer ketchup or mustard?
I am not a ketchup or mustard fan. I prefer to mix them together with a little brown sugar and soy sauce to make BBQ
If someone made a movie of your life would it be a drama, a comedy, a romantic-comedy, action film, or science fiction?
I think my life would make a great comedy/drama. I have had plenty of both but I like to focus on the laughter. We do tend to take ourselves a bit too seriously most days.
If you could be given any gift what would it be?
I would be a trip around the world because then I could travel with someone! 🙂
For potlucks or parties do you cook it yourself, buy from a grocery store, or pay for catering?
Oh I wish I always had time to cook it myself but most times I am the guy buying potato salad from the deli on the way to church potlucks (I buy a lot of potato salad)
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 my sister made it to my home from her home in the Netherlands. I am looking forward to getting her State-side cell hooked back up tomorrow with no problems (fingers crossed)!
I am not sure how I got ahead of my friend Nicole at Just Live It, but somehow I am about 20 days up on her!
Maybe I just got going so fast in life I managed to cram a couple of days at a time into 24 hour periods.
Anyway today I am making up for lost time and am showing all my happiness for the last four days.
I am happy for the relaxed contented attitude the Lord has been helping me to maintain this summer.
I am happy for all the good work The Winchendon Enhancement Committee has been able to accomplish this summer from this building.
I am happy to live in a picturesque community.
And I am happy that moving my daughter to Medford MA went off without a hitch giving me some time to sit and take these pictures from her back porch.
Remember happiness and contentment are found on the inside not the outside. All clouds have silver-linings and gold stands out best on a black background
Once again it is time to answer Cee’s questions and to share a little bit of my world. When you are done here take a jaunt over to Cee’s place and see what her other contributors have to say about this great wide world we all live in.
Share Your World – 2014 Week 30
Now on to…
THE QUESTIONS!
List 2 things you have to be happy about.
Oh, I have so many things to be happy about! I am blessed that God found me some thirty years ago when I was lost and on a very dark path, And I am blessed that He placed me in a wonderful church family with whom I get to share life! I could go on about the wonderful family he has put me in or the adventures he has sent me on but since that entails more than two happinesses and since I am trying to keep this post under 1,000 words I will stop there.
List at least 2 things in nature do you find most beautiful.
I will limit myself ,again, to two things for the sake of brevity…
I love the ever-changing sky
And the running of water
Show us a 2 of your favorites photographs. Explain why they are your favorite. If you are not a photographer (serious or otherwise), think of a two favorite scenes in your life and tell us about them.
This is a really hard one. I am tossed between choosing a photo for artistic value or for the memory it inspires. I guess I will choose one of each though I have lots of both.
I am still playing with the incense photos I took at my son’s home on my last trip to PA but I am pretty pleased with this one and might even hang it at our upcoming art show.
These are my three wonderful children. From left to right: Melanie (gets married this fall she and her future husband are children’s ministers soon to be credentialed), Joe (planning to teach English over seas when he is finished with his masters) and Amanda (just graduated from Bible College and plans to become a credentialed minister serving the disabled population of the U.S.)
List 2 of your best personality traits.
I think two of my best personality traits are patience and contentment. I consider neither of these to be personal attainments but gifts from God!
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 thankful that my sister’s car is finally registered (in preparation for her return from Holland for her year of intineration) and I am looking forward to our mechanic being able to fix all the car’s little issues so that it will be ready for Brenda when she arrives.
I have been trailing a week behind my happiness for about two weeks now. That isn’t a bad thing. Breathing in happiness fumes is good for the soul! Still I thought I would catch up today by sharing some of the really good news coming out of C.cada (our artist’s collaborative).
“Wonders happen either way. With you or without you.”
― Sergey Vedenyo
Because that is true I have chosen to be part of the wonder that God is creatingthrough this incredible group of people called C.cada
Our artists recently lent their aid to Special Touch REACH New England’s disability awareness day. A number of our prayer shawlers and crafters came together to help our guests create a “paper quilt”
Clayton Phelps lent his guitar to the Special Touch cause as well!
“Happy is what I feel; Joy is what I experience.”
― Todd Stocker, Refined: Turning Pain Into Purpose
This is Lisa Johnson, one of our artists. At our most recent gathering she got a little stuck. It happens.
Joy comes in working through the sticking points however big or small they might be. Some call this suffering for your art. I call it creative discipline.
One of the reasons C.cada exists is so that we can encourage one another in our giftings and spur one another on to love and good works. To that end we all work on projects together throughout the year. Our monthly gatherings are about pushing each other through the dry spots so that we actually get artwork done and then together we get that artwork out into the community.
C.cada in conjunction with Winchendon’s 250th Anniversary Committee recently held its first annual summer art show.
“Joy is a gift given not an emotion earned.”
― Todd Stocker, Refined: Turning Pain Into Purpose
One of God’s gifts to me is having children who use their gifts for the Lord. Here is my daughter Melanie at our recent C,cada gathering.
And here is my other daughter, Amanda, helping Melanie with her current art project.
“Don’t look to others to give you happiness. Grow it within yourself and share it with the world around you. Bets are, if you give a bit of your happiness to the world, it will begin a ripple effect, and who knows how many other people you can help. It’s never too late to decide that your happiness (or whatever it is that you want) is yours to create and not the other way around.”
― Leigh Hershkovich
C.cada is about sharing the joy God has to given us with the world!
To that end we have started a testimonial newsletter of how God is working in people’s lives
One Desire has cut its first album of all original worship music and is preparing to share that in a night of worship at a local auditorium.
Our artists just began their splatter painting which will be used to promote the Cloverton concert coming to our church this fall.
For all these kingdom advances coming through our artist’s collaborative I am extremely grateful and happy!
The prayer shawl ministry has created over forty new shawls to be given as gifts to those in need of healing.
“He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.”
― Socrates
This has been a summer of simple pleasures: good weather and music in the park.
“The summit of happiness is reached when a person is ready to be what he is.”
― Desiderius Erasmus
I am ready to go to the heights God has called me too. Are you ready?
It is God who arms me with strength
and keeps my way secure.
33He makes my feet like the feet of a deer;
he causes me to stand on the heights.Psalm 18:32, 33
The more we express our gratitude to God for our blessings,
the more he will bring to our mind other blessings. The more
we are aware of to be grateful for, the happier we become.
– Ezra Taft Benson
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This post was created for Cee’s Share Your World Challenge. So when you finish here please take a hop, skip or jump over to her page and check out her answers and those of her contributors.
Share Your World – 2014 Week 29
Have you ever been in a submarine? If you haven’t, would you want to?
I have never been in a submarine. I might consider touring one if it was above water and if all hands promised that it would stay above water for the duration of my visit.
Are you a listener or talker?
I can be both depending on the situation. I do a lot of listening, though, and I have tried hard to train myself not to insinuate my two cents into a session where someone is pouring their heart out to me.
Do you prefer crunchy peanut butter or smooth peanut butter? Anything with your peanut butter?
I like crunchy peanut butter and I really like spaghetti sauce with with my peanut butter. If the spaghetti has hamburg in it the peanut butter does not need to be crunchy. I see those looks.Don’t be a hater! 🙂
Have you ever been drunk?
I have never been drunk and for that I am very thankful.
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 for a great weekend with C.cada, our artists collaborative. Here are some photos of current projects we are working on.
I am really looking forward to bringing communion out to the people at the GVNA this week. These are such heart-warming services!
Lillie-Put 