The Life of Mrs. Miles

SWIRLY OVERLAY ELEMENT

download

Pack, pack, pack, clean, clean, clean! Throw in the fact that I have to pack for the weekend... we are going to spend the weekend with our family at the coast. I'm figuring out which clothes move, which ones stay...

Our landlords (and dear friends - like Mom and Dad to us) have arrived home from the south - like the birds returning (tho the Canada Geese live here year-round, cuz its usually so mild!) Now begins the process of shifting things from this home to the next. It would have been easier with them gone - I feel all soft hearted when I see them, and I KNOW that both Linda and I had tears in our eyes the whole time and a big lump in our throats.

MELANIE - I WILL CATCH HER SMILING - NEXT TIME!

Had to test out that overlay...

I can tell its going to be an emotional day, already. I think everything is catching up with me... and I want to take a moment to warn you - if you've given me permission to publish a layout, and I've forgotten, or you told me something recently, and I forgot, or I promised to post something... and I forgot, well please bear with me as I have 'blender brain' It's list time for this girl. I've held so much in my brain that I'm forgetting things. Please be my reminder?

I want to thank Pillowgirl for your beautiful thought for me... E. posted a blog entry with a beautiful song on it. Now I have to admit its a country song, and I'm totally not into country - I did grow up with it tho... my Mom and Dad, well that's ALL they listened to. So, though this is not my listen of choice, it was perfect for how I've been feeling, and it uplifted me at a place I really needed it. Thank you so very much E. *hugs*

YELLOW JASMINE OVER LAKE OSOYOOS

I need to take a moment here to talk about something that's been on my heart this past little while too. Now, if you're not a Christian, this may go over your head. Even if you are a Christian, you might not be at this place yet, either. And truly I might not FULLY be at this place either... but it's something that is SO exciting to me.

It's about a subject that used to make me freeze up, and that must be difficult for Pastors have to present, as its not a totally 'popular' subject... its' about tithing and offerings.

If you're not a Christian at all, and don't know what this term means, it's basically a giving of a portion of your wages and monies to the Church - usually the tithing is 10% and offerings beyond that. It used to scare the pants off me when I first became a Christian and I have to tell you in all honesty it took quite some time for us to come to the place where we are at today.

At one point in our lives we experienced a financially devastating time in our life and we had next to nothing (in this country... I know in other countries people don't even get enough to eat, and we would be considered rich when we are at what we consider to be our very poorest) It was really hard to give then. For me. It took me a long time to lean FULLY on Jesus, I'm afraid.

I need to say thank you to those Pastors who spoke firmly and openly on the subject even when I really didn't want to hear it. Because over time as our faith grew, our tithes increased... and with that increase we moved closer to Jesus. We've seen AMAZING things happen in our life over time which I KNOW, THAT I KNOW, THAT I KNOW, came about through our faith, and faithfullness, including in the area of finances.

As our Pastor Ed pointed out (you can read his Sword and Trowel series HERE) -that in the following scripture, it's the ONLY scripture in the entire bible that says what will ''open the floodgates of heaven" Not only this... He asks you to TEST Him on this!

MALACHI 3:10

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.

Wow, thats powerful stuff... thing is folks, I'm grateful we had it all taken away from us, I'm grateful we decided to lean on Him as we grew financially... and tho you can't BUY His love, we've seen the evidence of what leaning on Him has done in our life.

I was sharing with a friend yesterday, and I am so EXCITED to see what the Lord is going to do in your life... I know you're on the journey too... and I already KNOW He has His blessings READY to pour out on you! TEST HIM TODAY! You cannot 'outgive' God. It's impossible... and you may not see it returned in finances... sometimes that won't come back... but in the way God saw fit for your life what you should have.

And here comes the controversial area, which might get me in trouble with some... lottery tickets. Miles and I made a choice some years ago not to buy them anymore. Who needs the lottery when we've got God providing. He MADE the money. If we go out and buy tickets and win, how can we know what HE had in store for us. Hey, it boils down to trusting in Him. If I buy tickets then I am trying to control... but if Idon't then I KNOW what He's provided for me...

And I personally find this exciting. At every turn God surprizes me ... and He always knows EXACTLY WHAT I NEED!

BEST WESTERN REFLECTIONS, OSOYOOS

Ok, time for some lightening up... LOL! I'll leave the preaching to Pastor Ed...

Some original Air Traffic Controller quotes:

Tower: "Delta 351, you have traffic at 10 o'clock, 6 miles!" Delta 351: "Give us another hint! We have digital watches!"

"TWA 2341, for noise abatement turn right 45 Degrees." "Centre, we are at 35,000 feet. How much noise can we make up here?" "Sir, have you ever heard the noise a 747 makes when it hits a 727?"

A DC-10 had come in a little hot and thus had an exceedingly long roll out after touching down. San Jose Tower noted: "American 751, make a hard right turn at the end of the runway, if you are able. If you are not able, take the Guadalupe exit off Highway 101, make a right at the lights and return to the airport."

One day the pilot of a Cherokee 180 was told by the tower to hold short of the active runway while a DC-8 landed. The DC-8 landed, rolled out, turned around, and taxied back past the Cherokee. Some quick-witted comedian in the DC-8 crew got on the radio and said, "What a cute little plane. Did you make it all by yourself?" The Cherokee pilot, not about to let the insult go by, came back with a real zinger: "I made it out of DC-8 parts. Another landing like yours and I'll have enough for another one."

Today in History (not much, haha!):

1848 - Thomas Douglas becomes 1st San Francisco public teacher.

BARB'S HANDY TIP

Free Vector Program

That's right... some of you have been asking me about vector programs and so I've done some research for you. I personally use a free microsoft program I got waayyyy long ago for free, but they don't offer it for free any more... - not a surprize, right? Anyways, on my hunt I found the following program for you. I've downloaded it and had a look around and it offers all the tools I have in my other programs, and with practice could be powerful way for you to create your own vector graphics. They provide some tutorials as well. Let me know what you think of this... and hooray for Open Source, I say!!!

Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. Supported SVG features include shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending, transforms, gradients, patterns, and grouping. Inkscape also supports Creative Commons meta-data, node editing, layers, complex path operations, bitmap tracing, text-on-path, flowed text, direct XML editing, and more. It imports formats such as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and others and exports PNG as well as multiple vector-based formats.

Inkscape's main goal is to create a powerful and convenient drawing tool fully compliant with XML, SVG, and CSS standards. We also aim to maintain a thriving user and developer community by using open, community-oriented development

INKSCAPE VECTOR PROGRAM