Friday Coffee with the girls

Well today is Coffee for all the Company Girls. Everyone gets together and visits each other and we all share about our week.
If your not a Company Girl you need to be. Rachel over at Home Sanctuary has brought together all us through her wonderful blog and the Simple Things she suggests everyday to help us all make our homes a Sanctuary.

My week was filled with many things. My brain was filled with information. My heart and soul was filled with anxiety and emotion and peace.

Here's a quick recap.

Oh Monday I joined Sandra for Homemaker Monday and I met some new friends. I loved this and will keep doing it. My post is over at my other blog. Oh and I have some books to give away there too. Go here to enter my drawing.

On Monday Christ's Haven a childrens home near us came and took our 22 year old Paint horse. It was bitter sweet. We have had him since he was a 3 year old. But we are please that he will make a lot of little kids happy. We went to see him on Wednesday. He was happily munching hay. We took him apples and enjoyed that. We left a big bag to share with his friends.

It was easy and difficult to let him go. I know it is for the best. But when I look outside and he isn't there it hurts. Mainly because he is our last horse. This is the end of a 20 year chapter in our life. It's hard.

On the bright side we had lots of ministry going on this week. Meetings, dinners, luncheons. The girls at the halfway house where we volunteer are all beginning to really show that they like us coming. This changes as girls come and go. Some groups take weeks to be openly accepting of us and what we are trying to share with them. Yesterday 3/4 of them approached me first and offered hugs. Praise God.

I have been worried for over a month about one of the girls that I mentor. I have known her for 3 years. She lives about 4 hours away. I haven't talked to her in over a month because I don't have a cell anymore. And all she does is text mostly. Kids! I talked to her stepmom last night and found out some things. Basically confirmed my suspicions. Not good. Can ya'll pray for a girl named McKenzie. I have spoken to a lady here that has a transitional housing program and I hope I can get her to move here.

Don't you just hate it when you run out of dish soap. That happens to me way too often! I have spent the morning washing 2 days worth of dishs. Ugh. But the kitchen is shinny and clean again so now I can go and visit and have some coffee!

Oh before I go I did begin a routine of mopping my kitchen floor everyday. My floor is so clean now.

Thanks Rachel Anne for all your inspiration.

Oh I almost forgot my favorite simple thing this week was the laundry day. Did ya'll do that. I mean cha ching cha ching. I did 2 loads one day and 3 the next I still have two loads today. But don't worry I don't turn in my points so I won't be getting that great prize.

Off to coffee.

Company Girl Coffee

Well today I am having very sweet tea. So come in and join me and sit and rest awhile because I bet your week was just as busy as mine!

And, it is warmer here so the weather is o.k. for sweet tea.

My week was crazy. We are still looking for a house. I kept the grandbay on Monday which was the highlight of the week.

I did a few small things. I swept the floor. I put clothes away. And today I cleaned a pile of stuff of the dining room table. Files,books for ebay and stuff for Etsy. The dining rooom table is currently directly behind my computer table. .

I spent the week praying and asking God for direction.
I spent the week asking God 'Why?'. I spent the week attempting to be patient.

And then yesterday I had a yucky day. I won't go into detail but the yucky day and afternoon ended with this.



God gave me a rainbow and said every so softly. "It's all taken care of stop worrying."

I claimed that rainbow as my own. But today I share it with you in case you need something to make you smile or to remember that is its all taken care of. Because God is in control and he cares.

In case you've come by and haven't been to Rachel's you need to go there. Her blog is my inspiration. She will definately make you smile. And she is the organizer of the coffee run on over there and say 'hi'.

This is me . . .

Tuckered out. My body and my mind are flattened out. Whipped out. Wrung out.

This has been a crazy week of house hunting. I have lost count of the houses we have driven by and man the miles we put on our car.

We have a unique situation in our house search:

• We are in ministry. Our ministry doesn't show as a 'job' to most people. So they are concerned about our financial stability.
• We hoped for a property that we could take our horse and 2 donkeys
• We hoped for a property that would accomodate us and my mother if she chose to come and live with us.

We found a wonderful house yesterday afternoon that we LOVE yes I said LOVE.

Did I mention we LOVE it?

I won't go into all the reasons why this house is perfect for us. One is it is nice, really nice. The kitchen isn't updated. The bathrooms aren't updated. But that is o.k. with me. It has 2 living areas. An eating area in kitchen and a formal dining room. A pool and a hot tub.

Yes we LOVE this house!

And, it is minutes from our church so I could do ladies Bible study again. We could arrange our schedule to go on Wednesdays again and we could change our chapel service time a little and make it to at least part of Sunday School.

But with all good things sometimes there's a downside.

We cannot take our horse and the two mini donkeys. This is a huge sadness for me. And, has been a burden to me to even consider it. We have had the horse since he was 3. He is 22 now. We are looking for a Good home for him. We are willing to give him away to the right family.

Dear sweet Company Girl friends would ya'll pray for us. And please pray that God brings the right family to us for 'Pal'. We want him to be happy and to be well cared for.

I know this post didn't mention any simple things done this week. Mostly because I really didn't do any. Although I have read all of Rachel Anne's posts.

My kitchen sink was already done because I took everything out when the grandbaby started walking. So, I didn't log those points so girlfriends some of you are ahead of me.

I do plan to do something today for me. And I am considering it to be baking some bread. I have been doing some baking the last couple of weeks. I love baking bread!

I hope you all have a wonderful day treating yourselves.

Thanks for coming by and thanks for your prayers!

Doors, doors and more doors

How I spent my week. Going through door after door and door. We looked at so many houses that my head is spinning. And, we are no where close to finding anything that suits us.

We looked at a horse property that had a pool and three stalls. They wanted an additional $500.00 per horse. Yes you heard me right. $500.00 per horse! That is crazy. On top of the $2,00.00 a month rent!

We looked at a property that would have been perfect. Enough room for us and my mother who is considering moving in with us. Which I have been praying and praying about.

That one leased before we could make an offer.

We looked at lake properties.

We looked at property after property after property and still nothing that would work for us and momma and our dog which is over 25 pounds. Our dog is over 50#'s.

Listing after listing says dog o.k. under 25 pounds.

Basically that was my week. I did get some boxes packed. I did get to play with the grandbaby on Monday.

I sort of stuck to the menu I planned for the week. Got sidetracked a couple of days.

I only did a couple of Rachel Anne's Simple Things. Although I read most of her posts. I was encouraging all of you guys that were better than I was this month.

Good luck for all you girls that logged points.

I hope next month I will do better. I don't think I have turned in points more than once or twice. So girls, I encourage you on. I am no competition to you. Rock on and log those points!

If you all would be kind enough to pray for us. We need to find a house!

I am praying for all you girls. Have a Blessed Weekend we Company Girls must unit!

As Rachel Anne said this morning where did the week go?
Actually in my case the last two weeks. The last time I posted seems like along time.
To speed things to the present. The house where I found the darling firetruck didn't work out.
So we have been spending our time looking again. At anything that is remotely possible. We drove today over an hour to see a house that was o.k. but we decided this area is just too far.
I guess it is ok because we are no where near packed. I did a bunch of boxes in the kitchen this week. And actually put some stuff in a sale or giveway pile. I didn't realize how many knives, mixing/wooden spoons I own. No wonder that drawer is always a pain to shut.
I have spent some time this week visiting a lot of blogs. I haven't had much to say and even on my other blog My Journey Back I have been at a loss for words. So I have visited a lot of places and found some wonderful decorating ideas and such; that I hope to use soon.
While visiting this wonderful blog I think it was called Home Town Girl I found a neat place called picnik.com. It is a place where you can make photo collages and do other stuff with your photos. I liked it except that I found with the free trial you can't do much. Here's what I did.

These are photo's from my 'white' folder. I love to decorate in white. I have seen so many houses that have the perfect rooms for white. But it is really, really hard to rent a house in our area. They are few and far between and apparently a lot of people trying for them.

I was going to put this photo in the collage but it wouldn't work. I just love this. It is dreamy to me. I would love to have a little place like this. Or at least a covered patio.

Basically my week has revolved around packing and looking for a house so rather borrowing. But hopefully next week I will take a few more photo's to share with you guys.

I did do some of Rachel's suggestions this week. It is so helpful to me to stay organized this way.

I loved her idea of cleaning the tub today and then taking a long bubble bath. But yesterday I filled our tub with boxes. So the bubbles will have to wait till the new house. Oh how I wish it has a squirt tub. AKA jetted tub!

May your weekend Be Blessed enjoy your bubble bathes

Company Girl Coffee

Good morning Company Girls come on in out of the rain! Yes it has been pouring all night. It began yesterday around noon and it is still coming down. Wow if it was really cats and dogs I would have a mangery! LOL.
It is warm and cozy . . .

here in my little house. This is the photo on my banner and I wanted to highlight it today as I tell you about my week.

On Tuesday our landlord called and asked Cowboy to come by. (we live right next door to his office) I always hate that I can tell when he has something bad to tell us. Andon Tuesday he did. He has been forced to sell our little house and so we have to move. He gave us 90 days but he did offer for the horse and donkeys to say here as long as we need to in case we can't find a house with acreage.

To say the least we were shell shocked. We kind of expected at least Cowboy did they talk alot so Cowboy knew it was probably going to be happening. I was just praying it would be months away.

We already had some meetings scheduled on Wednesday for ministry but Cowboy took a few minutes and started looking on the computer for houses. We drove by 4 on Wednesday afternoon. We did find 3 we have appointments to see on Sunday. Two definately have room for all the animals.

Let's what else did I do. Oh I finished and photographed my Winter table scape. Did you come by and see it. I posted it here. I spent most of Wednesday morning setting up a table scape for Table Scape Thursday to post at Between Naps On The Porch. It was a mexican theme table. I got if finished and photographed but after two afternoon meetings and then house looking I was too tired to post it. So it is in my archives (LOL that sounded fancy) and ready for posting another day. Maybe next week. I did show one of the photo's on my Thankful Thursday post over here.

I did pack the pottery that I used in the table scape since it was already so and that is a start.

And I cleaned out our home filing cabinet that was filled with mostly ministry stuff. I managed to fill two kitchen size bags. I laughed when I found a 1993 Dallas Mapsco. It had slid down under the files. I am not that bad! And I am not a hoarder. Well maybe I do hoard dishes but they are collectibles. And I do hoard fabric but it is for quilts which are important because it is so cold and so I need lots of quilts. I do have 3 boxes already packed with fabric ready to give away. But I dumped them out of the boxes and into bags to delivery because now I need the boxes.

I did one more thing this week. I did a Valentine display on my entry way table. I'll be showing it sometime next week. You'll have to come back because I am also offering some giveways and putting up more things on Trade Day Tuesday. ( BTW the antiques are gone I made a trade. )

I am off now to pack some more but I wanted to share a fun photo I found. If you want to hang around awhile I am working on the kitchen and I really do need the help before my daughter comes to help because she has already told me I need to get rid of some stuff. Would you guys please tell her about the file cabinet and donated fabric please?

Off to see Rachel Anne I'll be over to visit soon.

May you day be Blessed

Company Girl Coffee

Are you guys sure it's Friday. LOL. All week I have been getting my days mixed up.

I had a busy and very productive week but still have lots on my list of things I want to accomplish.

I kept the grandbaby on Monday and then on Tuesday he started pre-school. We took lots of photo's before they left. He did great and loved playing with the other kids.

This week I haven't left the house much which is pretty helpful because I don't have to get too dressed up and I can get a lot done. I am in the process of moving some rooms around. It is confusing to explain but I'll try. My sewing room is becoming our t.v. family room. Moving the t.v. from the main living room and the love seat to the sewing room. My husband has his own room with a nice chair and ottoman and a pinball machine and game table. All that is going into what is now the sewing room. And, I am taking over his room for my sewing room. On Wednesday I moved a big antique wardrobe from the sewing room into the dining room half of our current living room. Then yesterday I moved the matching dresser. I'll have to do a virtual tour whens it's done. I am much happier with this arrangement. And I think Cowboy will be too once he gets used to it.

I am finishing up my furniture moving today then tonight I am going to participate in Friday Sew In and spend as long as I can stay awake sewing. I think I am just going to start a donation quilt with some strips already cut. It'll be quick and I can post a lot tomorrow!

Well that was my week except for all the Simple Things I did. I had to laugh a couple of days I was a day ahead of Rachel. Good thing I am not really logging points. Here's the run down

Man oh Man did I have some stragglers. I even found a couple more yesterday! I had Christmas decoration stragglers, socks (I tend to wear socks to bed then take them off in the middle of the night. I found a mound in my bed!), found toys the baby shooved under the couch, coats laying across this dumb window in our entry. Yes it is dumb. I'll share more another time.

Then I tackled crumbs. Girls I have done that toaster recently because Rachel said to but you wouldn't believe the crumbs. I shook it. I banged it. I opened the litte door and wiped it out. Got a pastry brush and wiped some more. I still couldn't get the ones inside. I was going to go get the hair dryer and tackle it again. And got distracted with something else. When I came back Cowboy had put it away. Miracles do happen girls! I left it in it's new place of honor crumbs and all!

I promise I did try to be nice to someone but there wasn't anyone around here on Wednesday. I think I did call my mother I usually call her everyday. Does that count? And I cooked Cowboys dinner.

And then yesterday I intended to attack shoes but we had a major frustration. I had just finished moving the dresser I was talking about and Cowboy called. The transmission went out in our truck. This is the vehicle we use for ministry. And I had to stop what I was doing get dressed with makeup and go pick him up at our office. Ended up staying there all afternoon working in the pantry storage and boxing up food for next week. (Please pray for us that we can raise the money we need to get it fixed. )

So that was my week. I'll be coming by today to visit you guys. Oh I am sorry I forgot I have some Coke Zero and Cowboy has some coffee brewed. Stay awhile and check out my Tuesday Trade Days. Wanna trade?

Company Girls Coffee

Welcome to My Home Sanctuary
I am glad you cam to visit for coffee it is brewing and ready for you.
Today I am joining here . . .

sitting next to my favorite chair with a glass of Pepsi. I took this photo a few weeks ago when Rachel mentioned straightening pillows.
I took the photo before they got all tidyed. The poor blanket is just tossed on the back of the chair. Guess I need to remove that silly tag.

The pillows are two of my favorites. The larger one a silk from Pottery Barn that I inherited from my daughter. The small one is a beaded pillow that I got from Target years ago. I love it. I used to only put it out at Christmas but it looks so good on the chair with the yellow walls that I leave it out all the time now.

This week I did join Rachel and began working on my schedule but I had a difficult time with it because my some big things are changing around here.

First I will only be keeping my grand baby on Mondays. I was keeping him 2-3 days a week. Man a baby takes up a lot of time! He is 20 months now and starting pre-school next Tues.

Secondly we made a decision on Wednesday about our ministry. We have been going to the Food Bank every Wednesday to purchase the food that we pass out. Wednesday is a loooooooooooong hard day for us. Just to give you an idea our truck is usually full when we return to the warehouse. Usually there are at least a dozen 40# boxes and there are usually 20 cases of milk boxes (you know the kind with the straw) they are so heavy. Anyway we are pretty much stocked up with cans of veggies right now so we are only going to be going every other week now. I think this will help alot on gas and our energy for sure. And right now we aren't going to work on Fridays because the prison units all over the state are on lock down the girls can't leave to come do community service for awhile until they make some policy changes.

So all that said I am not sure exactly how make a schedule.

So this week I have been enjoying doing minimal maintenance. The baby was my 'helper' yesterday as Rachel suggested. I know we're not supposed to enlist children under 16 but really all he did was play quietly in his bed where he is contained and I got a couple of things done. I posted photo's yesterday. He is so cute.

Another thing I got started was getting all my snowmen and women out. I usually do this the beginning of January but well I need to get that schedule done. LOL!

In my own defense it was a long hard week because we were just getting unthawed from the how many days of frigidness was it? Too many to think about. We were actually with out water for 5 days. A couple of days we had it for a couple of hours but that was all. So this week I have been catching up on laundry and dishes. Whew I am glad it is warmer!

Well that was pretty much my week. I do hope you'll come by again and visit. As I get myself organized I'll share some photo's of my home as it becomes a Sanctuary. Don't forget your invited to the other Company Girls too for coffee go by Rachel's and follow the links.
I hope your day is Blessed.

Company Girl Coffee and Shakin' It Up part 3

Thanks for coming over. I promised the other day that I would tell you today about my clean salt and pepper shakers so I am linking this post to Kellis Show and Tell go over and visit her today after you've had your coffee.



From right to left...The big set at the back was the hardest to clean the other day all those little crevices are all clean and shiny now. These are really old they were a wedding present. I have always loved them they are big and always sit by my stove or in the cabinet next to the stove. Of course there is the tupperware ones that are just so great. They were a wedding gift too. The cute little bears were a Christmas gift from my son in love the year before their wedding. The little daisy one is old too from our wedding dishes which are all broken and gone now as with the salt shaker. The yellow ones are Fiesta and one has a crack but I love it anyway. I couldn't afford one without the crack. I know they are originally because I bought them before they started making them again. So that is where a few come from.

Before I go I wanted to share with you about the piece of furniture they are sitting on. I was doing the same thing this week that Rachel Ann was. I moved some furniture out of my sewing room for a garage sale a couple of weeks ago. And that led to moving other things. This piece that you can't see is a chifarobe (sp) that was my sisters then mine when we were children. We used it for our babies and then our daughter (our youngest) always had it in her room. It is white not it was originally pine I love it. It is now in the end of my living room which is our dining room. Come back next week and I will reveal all my furniture moving.

Thanks for stopping in for coffee. I have to go to the local food bank know to volunteer so have a great day.