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B-I-N-G-O

We live just outside of the town of High Shoals. High Shoals is a very small town with a population of about 700 people. It was formerly a mill town and had an elementary school, which closed in 1998. With no industry and no school the little town has managed to stay alive. For years, High Shoals has been the butt of many jokes and has been snubbed my people who think it’s just a “poor”  worthless mill town. I, on the other hand, happen to like High Shoals! I attended High Shoals Elementary from kindergarten to sixth grade and have many fond memories.

As my family and I were driving through the town yesterday, we noticed a sign at the corner of a street. It said, “MOTHER’S DAY BINGO at CITY PARK, SATURDAY 4-6.” When I saw the sign, I looked at Wayne and said, “we should totally come and play bingo!” How fun is that? I find it delightful that this little town is making an effort to keep it’s community alive despite what others have said and continue to say about them! We’re looking forward to playing some BINGO!

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Singing…

I am jamming out to Paul Wilbur! “Come let’s go up to the mountain, come let’s go up to the LORD!” 

I haven’t heard that song in long time and it made me want to dance. When I was pregnant with Hootie I was on the Hebrew Dance Team at our church. We did a dance to that song!

That’s all…

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My journey from pharmaceutical to natural

For the last 11 and half years I have taken a prescription medicine for anxiety. With that comes a few unwanted side effects and after all these years of dealing with those side effects, I finally let God take control and get me off of it. I had been doing fine after weaning myself off them, but one day I noticed myself being easily irritated by my boys and I didn’t like how I felt. I told my mom how I was feeling and she said she had an amino acid called L-theanine that is supposed to help with moodiness. So I rushed right over to her house to get it and also did a little research before I took it. 

I decided I would try it and within an hour or so I was feeling much better. Then, about three days later I started having horrible headaches! I never have headaches and I wondered what could be causing them. I went a few more days with the headaches before researching what was causing them. I looked up L-theanine again and discovered that because it is derived from green tea, it has caffeine! Duh! I rarely ever consume caffeine and I had been pumping it into my body! Praise God, for His revelation! So yesterday I decided to only take one and see how I did, well my headache wasn’t as severe, but by evening my back felt like I had a knife in it and my right leg was killing me. Today I haven’t taken any and I’m feeling better today as I have since I started taking the stuff. Lesson learned from this is, I don’t do well with CAFFEINE! 

Now, the next question is, “how do I get serotonin naturally?” Of course I have been trying to research and have found that I need to eat proteins like turkey, white fish, and other such meats. I happen to love those things but I don’t get enough I guess. Also, in my search 5-htp was mentioned, but when I looked further into it, I discovered that it has some of the same side effects as the prescription I had been taking! No wonder so many people are apprehensive about trying the natural way to solve their health problems! Gluten or gluten free? Red meat or white meat? Grains or grain free? I mean the questions could keep coming. I’m just continuing to trust the Lord that HE has a perfect health plan for me and will guide me in the direction I need to go.

Trusting in HIM,

Sarah

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New Life

Our back deck is surrounded by holly bushes that grow profusely. As I was trimming them I noticed a nest and within the well protected nest were three baby birds! More than likely they are mocking birds as they always seem to build their nests in holly bushes(at least that’s what they do around here.) I am intrigued though, as I noticed a pair of cardinals hanging around(very closely) as I was snapping the picture. They seemed very concerned that I was so close to this nest, so I will be excited to see if in fact they are cardinals.

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Here is another nest I found which is definitely a mocking bird nest

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Not only are birds being born but my flowers are too!

Here is a beautiful yellow water iris bloom

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And a spider wort bloom! The fuschia is so striking against the dark green of the leaf!

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I love being outside! How about you?

Loving God’s creation,

Sarah

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Did you know?

I have been reading “Begin” which is kind of like a New Testament format with a twist. It was compiled and edited by Ken Ham and Bodie Hodge. Instead of it being Psalms and the New Testament, it begins with Genesis 1-11, Exodus 20, John 1-21, Romans 1-16, and Revelation 21-22. Included with the scripture are little tidbits of information and questions to spur your thinking. The passage I read today was Genesis 6 talking about the corruption of the earth and God’s call on Noah. The “fact” for the passage was something that I’ve known, but never pondered longer than a second. It says, “One hundred twenty years was a countdown to the Flood, not longevity of life. Many people surpassed 120 years.”

I have seriously never thought about that! That is like new revelation for me! I just thought that was so cool!

Relishing in His Goodness,

Sarah

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Did you know?

I have been reading “Begin” which is kind of like a New Testament format with a twist. It was compiled and edited by Ken Ham and Bodie Hodge. Instead of it being Psalms and the New Testament, it begins with Genesis 1-11, Exodus 20, John 1-21, Romans 1-16, and Revelation 21-22. Included with the scripture are little tidbits of information and questions to spur your thinking. The passage I read today was Genesis 6 talking about the corruption of the earth and God’s call on Noah. The “fact” for the passage was something that I’ve known, but never pondered longer than a second. It says, “One hundred twenty years was a countdown to the Flood, not longevity of life. Many people surpassed 120 years.”

I have seriously never thought about that! That is like new revelation for me! I just thought that was so cool!

Relishing in His Goodness,

Sarah

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Of chicken houses and eggs

Our family loves to do things together and by family I mean my mom and dad and the five of us. We have been raising chickens for a few years now and all of us are certified bee keepers, even our boys. Anyway, my dad wanted to build a lean-to for the “girls” so  we could hang their food and water outside and still be able to keep it dry. In doing so, it also freed up some space inside their coop. Today was building day and we were successful in our endeavor, meaning we didn’t have to make any runs to Lowe’s and no one drew blood. Usually our construction projects result in the aforementioned things.

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The finished product!

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Sometimes when the “girls” are free-ranging they lay their eggs outside rather than in their nesting boxes. I found these five eggs today all piled together. Notice the ginormous egg on the left? The other four eggs are normal size eggs! I had a feeling this one was going to be a double yoker! We get them every now and then. Having not known when the eggs were laid, we had to throw them out, but not before cracking the huge one.

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Yep, a double yoker! Man I wish it had been laid in the nesting box! That would have made a nice sized omelet!

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Thanking God for HIS creation,

Sarah

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A trip to the Zoo

Wayne’s grandma bought our family a membership from the NC Zoological Park a couple weeks ago. With any membership to zoos, wildlife centers, and history/science museums they have a reciprocal program which means your card is good at over 240 places across the country!

Having been to the Asheboro Zoo, we decided to go to the Riverbank Zoo in Columbia, SC.  It was about a 2 hour ride for us and you would think  in that short of a drive you could avoid potty breaks! Not with my crew! No, my guys know where every rest stop, gas station, and restaurant bathroom is in the South East! So, we get to the zoo and notice that if you have a membership card you don’t have to wait in line and can go straight in the entrance. We get to the entrance and the lady says, “with this card you don’t get in free, but you do get 50% off admission.” I guess we should have called first to check.  Once we got in, my guys had to go to the bathroom AGAIN (notice, I haven’t said “I” had to go.)

We made our way to the bird exhibit where we saw lovely flamingos, penguins, and other brilliantly colored birds. We noticed that it would be feeding time in the aquarium soon, so we headed that way.

Here the diver is feeding the vegetarian fish some romaine lettuce. Now, I don’t live in the ocean, but I don’t think romaine lettuce is a natural thing that salt water fish eat. Can’t they get them some kelp or nori?  LOL!  It was neat to see the diver literally hand feed all the fish that were swarming around him.

 

Next, we went to see the apes. Siamang apes to be correct and they were a blast! They were about the only animals in the entire zoo that did something other than sit or lie down.

 

King of the Icee!

 

 

This was my FAVORITE exhibit! Those koalas were precious! I wanted to take them home with me!

I just wanted to hold this little sleeping one! It was so stinking cute!

 

Hootie loves these things!

 

There’s nothing in the world like milking a bucket of water!

 

They are so goofy! If I want a serious picture, I have to catch them off guard.

 

After we finished seeing all the animals and walking the mile and a half back to our van(at least that’s what it felt like) we had a picnic in this lovely nature area.

I’m not sure what river this is, but it was beautiful!

We had a blast together and will definitely go back!

 

~Delighting in God’s Creation,

Sarah