Wednesday  August 26, 2015  DESIGNS OF INCREDIBLE WONDER

As my regular readers know, my husband and I have been given the gift of two wonderful days with our two grandsons (who find us quite boring at times).  Today was one of those wonderful days.  Our friends, Sherrie and David, brought their identical twin grandsons (mirror twins) to meet us at Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison.  Olbrich is truly a beautiful garden, a combination of God’s miraculous creation and man’s artistic eye.  Whoever designs the flower bed of this garden is very talented.  When walking through the gardens it’s as if you are in many different gardens.  I have a few pictures I plan to upload on the site before I publish the blog.  Some are pictures of leaves that I thought were exquisite, others to show off some of the flower bed arrangements and others to show off my grandkids.

Some of the photos I plan to share were taken with my Iphone camera lens up against a kaleidoscope viewer looking down into a bowl of a variety of plants on a turntable.  If the turntable was turning it looked like a moving living kaleidoscope in action.  I took some of the photos through the viewer with the bowl of plants still.  I will put a few of them on the blog.  I also took some photos with my phone video camera and caught some unbelievable moving kaleidoscope designs of incredible wonder.

DESIGNS OF INCREDIBLE WONDER

By Kathleen Martens

August 26, 2015

No design is greater

Than what God has created.

Beauty of such splendor

Keeps my soul elated.

A simple flower fashioned

By God’s spoken command,

Unduplicated by man’s effort,

Through all time withstands.

Only God’s magnificence

Can create perfect attire

Such as what grows in a garden,

Year after year untired.

One little blossom

Expands itself untold.

The mystery of a tiny seed,

A marvel God unfolds.

The earth so full of wonder

Exquisite, delicate, fine.

A plan so meticulous

That man can’t cross the line.

So when my eyes behold

A gorgeous little flower,

It’s as if I’ve seen a miracle

And my faith renewed with power.

No thing quite as wondrous

As to view God’s amazing art.

Not only pleasing to the eye,

But sustenance to my heart.

I love it when my poems just come like the one above.  I hope you enjoy my walk in the garden today through this poem.

My friends grandsons are Ali and Yusuph.  Yusuph looked up at his grandma while we were walking in the garden and said “it takes three things for a flower to live, WATER, SUNSHINE, AND LOVE”.  Only a five year old has such beautiful wisdom.

We had a beautiful wonderful day and a great big meltdown when we arrived home.  Xander fell asleep in the car.  It was dinnertime and we did not want him sleeping through dinner and then staying up until midnight, so we got him out of the car and “helped” him wake up.  He was not a happy camper.  He did finally calm down, ate a reasonable amount of dinner and has been his sweet little self since then.  This is the first time he has ever had a meltdown when he has been here, and we know most of it was our cause due to waking a tired baby (3 year old) up from a perfectly wonderful nap.  This is movie time and is always like the greatest treat that could ever be.  And…to top it off, they have the promise of a fruit smoothie for snack before going to bed!  It will be Banana, coconut water, small amount of yogurt, and strawberries.  They will also eat a big hunk of peanut butter (my Amish kind ground fresh from honey roasted peanuts) to go with the fruit smoothie.  It is Zach’s favorite!  It makes for good kids with a promise like that to look forward to.  OH THE POWER OF WORDS!

Again I will repeat what I wrote in one of my recent blogs, God is so wise in designing young women to be the mothers of young children.  When someone asks me if I have any children, I enjoy answering, “No, I have no children, just two adults”.  I love having adults!  It took a long time to get them there. (Actually I now have “middle aged” adults”.  Eee-gads)!

Dave is gone on his Wednesday night ministry meeting.  The boys are showered and settled in the living room enjoying the video, and I am here in the sun room writing my blog, half listening to what is going on in the adjacent room.  I can see both the T.V. and the boys from where I sit.  I do not want you to think I am being neglectful.  I may be older, but I still know the shenanigans of little kids.  And…the eyes in the back of my head are still in working order!

Tomorrow their mom and dad will pick them up!!!!!  I plan to have soup and salad and grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner.  Tomorrow is also food delivery day so I know it will be a busy Thursday.  And Friday…I, no make that we, COLLAPSE!  We’ve already decided not to attend what we thought we might go to tomorrow night.  What’s that old saying, that “when you get old your back goes out more than you do”!

I thank God for a perfectly delightful day.  I hope all of you took time out today  to do something you enjoy doing.  I absolutely love gardens and it made it extra fun to see it through the eyes of little people.  Zach wants to go back tomorrow.  Who knows, maybe we will.

Good night.

Tuesday August 25 2015  IF I THINK I CAN I CAN

My title today comes from Kayla, my new Mary Kay Consultant.  Last week I realized it was time for me to have some new moisturizer for my face because the product I have used for the last 20 years or so is no longer being made.  It was a lotion recommended by a dermatologist for sensitive skin.  My face is looking old and perhaps it is just because I am getting older each year or perhaps because I don’t spend hundreds of dollars cleansing, cleaning chemicals off my skin, defoliating, moisturizing, sun screening, basing with a makeup base and then applying makeup and whatever else ladies paste their faces with.  All I needed was some moisturizer.  My last bottle was down to the nothing zone and I had been praying like the lady in the Bible that used her oil and it just kept being refilled by God.  Last week I asked God to direct me to a good moisturizer and was remembering back when I used to use Mary Kay.  I didn’t have a consultant and did not really know about how to get someone I might enjoy as a consultant.

Later that morning while at the gym I was talking with a young lady and she just happened to say what she did for a living.  You got it.  She was a Mary Kay consultant.  The kind that even has her own Mary Kay Car.  I told her my dilemma and we set an appointment.  She is a good sales lady because she also sold me something else.  I bought two little tubes for the lips.  One defoliates the old lip skin and the other oils the lips.  I like the feeling and the look.  It was clear and very soothing.

I asked Kayla if she had some wisdom that she likes.  She said it was not her original quote but would like to share it anyway.  I have even used this quote in one of my past blogs.  If I remember correctly I first read it in THE POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING by Norman Vincent Peale.  It is worth hearing again. Here is Kayla’s wisdom:

“If you think you can, you can.  If you think you can’t, you can’t.”

Thank you Kayla for spending time with me today and sharing your knowledge and expertise with me.  I look forward to seeing you again.  And I say to ladies out there who do all the above to just continue to do so as it helps the economy. Besides, you’ll probably end up looking a lot younger when you die.

Today has been one of those days when I was so busy that I could not get anything done.  Let me explain.  My entire day was set aside to work on wedding #2.  I have wedding #1 designed and ready for the client to view and make changes and then I will order!  Yeah!  Wedding #2 I still must start, but it is a simpler project.  I never did get into my office to even open up the computer.  It is so wonderful to have this laptop set up in the sun room so I don’t need to use my office PC.  All my wedding work is done on a MAC.  When I go into my office (such as to write this bog) I become quagmired in there and I don’t remember to come back up to upstairs life.  I try not to do that as Dave needs to eat on a schedule and I don’t do too well if I go much past eating time.  So I was busy, busy, busy, doing all the little things that takes up time to do and you don’t have anything to show for it.  I did talk to a friend who called today and that was worth it because she is coming to stay with me a few days next month and we needed to work on scheduling of some events and places while she is here.  I went to the gym and then remembered my Grandsons are arriving this evening and I needed to get some things from the library to help entertain them.  Then I needed to get home quickly, stir up a sauce that has to be refrigerated before I made a Chicken salad this afternoon, make and eat my lunch quickly because the Mary Kay lady was coming.  She came and went and I went back to the kitchen to continue making up all the food which I need to get out of the fridge before Thursday (Food Day).  I finished as much as I could and asked Dave if he could make the dinner salad for tonight and tomorrow.  The chicken salad is all finished, and turned out delicious!  It has coriander and nutmeg in it.  A great combination!

So here I am, writing about nothing important so I can be finished before my boys arrive about 8:00 p.m.  They had to go to karate tonight since Zach will miss his regular class on Wednesday night.  He has a test coming up next week.  He is very serious about karate and has several belts behind him.  Don’t ask me the colors because I have no clue.  I’ll ask him and can tell you tomorrow.

It is also poem time and I must sit and think to see what I come up with.  I started a study on the book of Isaiah today and there were a lot of comments about the book of Isaiah that gave me an idea for a poem. I think I shall need to do some research first in order to write the poem.  I often use scripture as a starting point and even use the scripture itself at times.  I call them my “Scripture Poems”.  This poem that is brewing is about the Holiness of God.  I think that will be an awesome subject to inspect.  I think that most people don’t really stop to think of the true Holiness of God.  Holy, consecrated, hallowed, sanctified, blessed, divine, sacred, righteous…that is who our God is!  That will be an awesome poem to write when the time is right.  Tonight is not that time, due to the fact that I must actually stop and think first.

STOP AND THINK?

By Kathleen Martens

August 25, 2015

Stop and think before I write?

What a novel thought that would be.

Sort of like keeping my mouth shut

Before my tongue wags free.

Stop and think before I speak?

I’m trying to master that plan.

It doesn’t often seem to work

But my mouth always can.

Perhaps I should always listen

To what the words in the Bible tell.

The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life,

So think on that a spell.

And the wise men store up knowledge,

The mouth of the fool invites ruin.

So run to the Word of God

And keep your heart attune.

When words are many sin is not absent.

Keeping your silence may be best.

The wise man will hold his tongue,

Keeping words close to the vest.

So whether you speak or whether you write,

Perhaps it is wise first to think.

Be certain what you say is fitting

So  you won’t dig a hole and sink.

The tongue has the power of life and death,

So be careful what you write or say.

Let your words be like apples of gold

To show others the righteous way.

Dinner is ready and time is ticking.  Oh, by the way, thanks to all of you who shot  off an email after reading last night’s blog.  It was fun to go through them and read your thoughts.  Writing my blog is something I enjoy so I’ll continue to write until life gets too hectic.   If you know anyone else who you think might like to read it please share my blog address with them.  I am thinking of opening it to the public now that I am not traveling.   www.visionsofpoetry.wordpress.com

Goodnight.