Archive by Author

Janet Perez Eckles~ Finding Lasting Satisfaction

17 May

Walking by Faith, Not by Sight
Janet Perez Eckles

Have you ever been happy with yourself, totally satisfied? I felt that way a few weeks ago when I re-wrote the first chapter of the novel I had just completed. The story, engaging and the characters, sassy and insightful. The end product was, well, a masterpiece (pride aside, of course).

Then it happened. I got it back from the editor. I swallowed hard and my shoulders drooped with disbelief. The whole thing was riddled with corrections, questions, and endless suggestions for improvements. I cringed, but accepting the changes was imperative because the editor had in mind a great product and a better story. She outlined her plan for results that, no doubt, would shine.

Read the rest of the story at Janet’s blog. I promise you,it is worth the click! : http://www.janetperezeckles.com/finding-lasting-satisfaction/#sthash.Fv2yEtyg.dpuf

The book of our life has a happy ending when we leave the planning and the plot to the God of the universe because “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11-13)

Janet Eckles Perez

 

 

 

 

Grateful for the privilege of inspiring you…

My website in English

En Español

My story (video)

Inspirational video  just for you.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

The Joy of Encouragement

16 May

From My Heart

Louise Gibson

author of Window Wonders

 

 

Written applause carries a special

power all its own.

It is tangible evidence of appreciation

that can never be overthrown.

 

Penned praise can be savored.

It can bring joy to a heart.

Email may be a time saver –

But a handwritten note is set apart.

 

Has someone done you a favor,

even “gone the extra mile?”

Touch their heart with a letter

It makes their effort worthwhile.

 

We don’t do “good works” to be praised,

that is truly not our intention.

God created us to serve our fellow man.

It is heartfelt intervention.

 

“H-m-m-m Wait a minute, please!”

This lady has changed her mind –

While penning my thoughts I received 3 emails,

Each one of a kind.

 

One, especially, touched my heart.

Its words I want to savor.

I simply pushed the “print” button

And did myself a favor.

 

The lesson I just learned is so true.

It isn’t important “how” your communicate –

Just be sure you do!

 

Handwritten note copy

Tags: , , , , , , ,

I AM Breaking a Big Rule

15 May

Blackberry blooms copy

On the Porch 

Onisha Ellis

I am breaking a big rule of blogging today. I am going to ramble, go off topic, bounce around. I am NOT going to stay focused. Why oh why would I commit this crime? Because I can. Because that is what my brain is doing. So let’s rock and ramble!

 RAMBLE ONE

I enjoy eating boiled eggs. For seventy calories I can grab a God created protein snack. I do not enjoy boiling them and peeling them is even worse. So this Easter when Facebook was filled with posts about baking your eggs in the oven I joined the frenzy and tried. It worked!! They peel like a dream even a week after I baked them! My eggs had a slight brown spot on the egg white but it was very easy to flick off.

Here is the “recipe” and you can visit Unsophisticook! to read the complete story.

 

How to Bake Hard Boiled Eggs

 

Total Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

eggs

ice water

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
  2. Place desired number of eggs in a regular or mini muffin tin and bake for 30 minutes.

Remove eggs from oven and, using a pair of tongs (I like these tongs with rubber tips from OXO), immediately transfer the eggs to an ice water bath. Allow to cool down for at least 10 minutes.

RAMBLE TWO

I have been working my way through book blogger websites, looking for bloggers who would be willing to accept an ARC (advanced reader copy) of Rebekah Lyn’s (otherwise known as my daughter Beck) upcoming release, Jessie. I feel the same anxiety I felt when I left her with a babysitter, sent her off on her first sleepover and drove her to college. Do mothers EVER get over the instinct to protect their children? I am pretty sure I have spent more time praying over my children in their adult like than I did when they were little tykes.

If you happen to be a book blogger or just enjoy reading and reviewing, speak up in comments and I will email you an ARC.

I am humbled and thankful that my BFF Pam has joined the Rebekah Lyn Books team as a marketing and Publicist assistant. Launching Jessie and planning Teas has so many elements to pull together, I was feeling totally overwhelmed.

RAMBLE THREE

My heart has been filled with prayers for a sweet thirteen year old, Kylie Myers who is receiving chemo for a rare cancer. You can visit her Facebook page Smiiey For Kylie. She has had a rough time adjusting to having cancer and the side effects of chemo.

Her dad is author Mark Myers who wrote Virgil Creech Takes a Swipe at Redemption.

When I think of Kylie, I wish she could meet my friend Wanda and her daughter, Allie who has been on a similar chemo schedule with Kylie. Allie shines with joy and confidence in Christ and my faith is made stronger when I see her on Facebook rocking the headscarf or sporting the smooth head style with her brother.

That’s the end of my ramble. There is a lot more in my brain such as why does the male cardinal insist on constantly banging his head on anything shiny, but that is for another day. Our blackberries are in full bloom and the locals say if we get a frost while they are blooming, our winter will be called a blackberry winter. Temps are expected to drop this weekend so we will see, I like blackberry blossoms because they remind me the flower of life is beautiful and even though there will be thorns, the fruit will be delicious.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

My Western Trip~Part 2

14 May

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Bill

 

 

After I got checked in at the hotel, I walked a couple of blocks over to the Mob Museum which is set up as a history of the “Mafia” and organized crime during the early days in the U.S. and especially in Las Vegas. The Museum is housed in the former Las Vegas Post Office and Courthouse, built in 1933, and has restored the second floor courtroom where many of the Kefauver Committee hearings to expose organized crime were held in 1950 and 1951. They even have a portion of the garage wall from the 1929 St. Valentine’s Day massacre that was relocated from its original location in Chicago’s North Side.

1

                                   

Next I strolled a few blocks to the “Fremont Street Experience” which is a 5-block covered pedestrian mall known for years as “Glitter Gulch.”  It reminded me of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II shopping mall in Milan, Italy, except for all the noise and flashing lights. It has open-air bars and shops, street barkers, male and female photo shops, all brightly lit with flashing colored lights and lots of loud music. The place was mobbed with people.

2

The next day I drove out toward Bolder City and took the very interesting Hoover Dam tour. The dam was built during the Great Depression, with what today we would consider fairly primitive equipment. Construction began in 1931, and at times, with as many as 5000 workers laboring 24 hours a day, for almost 5 years, they completed the project, and productive dam operations began in 1936. Just think about that! That massive structure was completed two years ahead of the projected completion date and under budget. There is so much interesting information about the actual building of Hoover Dam that there is not room to share it all with you here. If you are interested in the details, I think you will find it fascinating to Google “Hoover Dam” and read all about this massive project.

3

                                   

Hoover Dam spans the border between Nevada and Arizona at that point, so after the tour I drove across the “Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge” to the Arizona side of the river and then back across to Nevada side, just for fun. Then I headed Northeast into the Moapa River Indian Reservation to Overton, NV to visit The Lost City Museum. This unique museum traces the Anasazi Indians and their ancestors who have inhabited this area from as long ago as two millennia. Then in about 1150, evidence suggests that a severe drought hit the area and the Anasazi Indians disappeared, to be replaced by the Paiute Indians between then and about 1800. Evidence shows that the Paiute Indians then called this area home until around the1850s, when Anglo farmers moving west pushed them out of the area. The Lost City Museum was built in 1935, to house artifacts from the Pueblo Grande de Nevada, which was to be partially covered by the waters of Lake Mead as a result of building Hoover Dam. The museum now includes artifacts from many of the ancestral inhabitants of this area, the Mojave Desert and other archaeological sites in Southern Nevada.

4 png

                                   

                                                            —–To Be Continued—–

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Flowers and Gardens

14 May

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

One of our favorite things to do at Disney is go to EPCOT for the Flower and Garden Festival every year.  They do such wonderful things with flowers and topiary.  I have known what topiary is for quite a while now, but when our son-in-law asked what it was, I told him that I couldn’t describe it, but there it is, right in front of you!  The shapes and designs that Disney artists make with wire and vines is simply amazing!

I’m not going to write much about this event, but I do want to post some of those amazing and beautiful pictures – just in case you aren’t able to see them for yourselves while attending this Festival.  Each year Disney adds some topiary they have been working on, and the theme is new each year, as well.

So, with that in mind…………ENJOY!

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

                                       

                               

Tags: , , , ,

Buddhist Shrines and Crepes

13 May

It’s Tuesday and time for a peep into how Jacob is doing in Japan. Be sure to visit his blog to read the whole post!

jnightlight

20140427_160927 The creation of the lovely crepe

Sunday (April 27th) was pretty relaxing, with John, John and I visiting beautiful Buddhist Temples (after a trip through the mall), which were beautiful and relaxing. We skipped one and came back because there was either a funeral going on, or there were Yakuza hanging around the place. Either way, we didn’t want to interrupt. You can see a lot of the images here.

Dat Crepe tho Golden, Delicious Heaven

I’ll fill in what I did the rest of the week as well.

View original post 280 more words

Old Friends

11 May

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

 

We have been blessed to have been able to travel a lot of this earth. We’ve seen many places that I had only heard of while in school (elementary, Junior High, High). And everywhere we’ve traveled, we’ve made friends. Some have stayed near and dear to us, others have fallen by the wayside, and we’ll just see them when we all get to heaven, and renew our friendships there.

And some have just stayed so close to us that they feel almost like family. Like the young man that we met when we first arrived in Wiesbaden, Germany, in 1967. He was actually younger than Fred, but was Fred’s “superior” in rank. But then, Fred had those extra four years of schooling that Paul didn’t have, so………

He was an interesting young man, and we enjoyed his company a lot. After he left Germany, the Air Force transferred him to Minot, North Dakota, and from meteorology to “Missile Launch Officer.” Well, that didn’t last too long, and he got out of the military.

Next thing we know, he is attached to Wycliffe Bible Translators. We are pleased, because he has become a believer in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and wants to be a part of spreading the Good News to as much of the world as he can.

He married another Wycliffe member about 10 years later, and they had two children. They have traveled the world with Wycliffe, being missionaries everywhere they went.

We have had the wonderful privilege of meeting up with Paul and his family through the years, and supporting them spiritually and financially. Their children are grown now, and away from home, but Paul and Joyce continue to work with Wycliffe. He is in accounting, and Joyce has been a pre-school teacher – to missionaries children, and others wherever they have been.

We had a recent visit with them, and though it was a short visit, we renewed our friendship, and had a grand time just talking, and revisiting past times together. We talked about their time in Darwin, Australia, in Malaysia, and in Singapore. We also talked about what they are doing in Dallas, Texas at this time. We told them about our church here, our ministry there, our new pastor…all the things that we love and enjoy about the body of believers we are a part of here.

He reminded us that we had given him a “gift” before he left Germany – a copy of the “Good News for Modern Man: The New Testament in Today’s English.” It left such an impression on him – that he could read and understand the Bible in modern English – that he sought out salvation. We don’t even remember giving him the book.

It was a joyous and wonderful time together. We thank God for His wisdom in allowing us to have “forever” friends – those we enjoy here on this earth, and know that we will rejoice with them in heaven.

couple

 

 
I thank my God every time I remember you.

Philippians 1:3

Tags: , , ,

Laughter~An Oil Change for the Brain

9 May

From My Heart

Louise Gibson

Balderdash Mirth copy

 

 

LAUGHTER
{An Oil Change for the Brain)

Oh, what fun it was,
An evening of “Balderdash”-
A board game played by the “Gibson girls.”
Our reward was laughs, not cash

!I was reluctant to play, at first-
I felt intimidated by their knowledge.
I graduated from high school,
but I had never attended college.

The game, I found, was a stimulant.
It taxed my inner core-
We had to guess whose answer was true,
which made us laugh all the more.

I have to confess, I was a pretty good liar-
My answer was often chosen as “true”.
The game called for a great imagination,
based on our “point of view”.

The memories I treasure on Mother’s Day
are preserved in my heart-
I carry them with me at all times-
they are “riches” set apart!

Laughter in the Bible:

Genesis 18:13 “And the Lord said unto Abraham,
Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, “Shall I of a surety
bear a child, who am old?”

Eccl. 2:2 “I said of laughter, it is mad: and of mirth.
What doeth it?”

Psalm 126:2 “Then was our mouth full of laughter,
our tongue with singing”

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

What Makes God Anxious

8 May

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

I'm a winner

What makes God anxious?  The word anxious tends to make one think of anxiety but I never thought to  link the words anxious and God together.

This morning, I read a devotional by David Wilkerson titled “The Blessings of Goodness” The scripture that really stood out for me was Isaiah 65:24

It shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will “hear”.

David Wilkerson explained “This verse provides us with an incredible picture of our Lord’s love for us. Evidently He is so anxious to bless us, so ready to fulfill His loving-kindness in our lives, that He cannot wait for us to tell him our needs. He jumps in and performs acts of mercy, grace and love toward us before we even ask-and that is a supreme pleasure to Him”

Imagine, God  can hardly wait to  provide for us! Can you recall a time when God had already placed someone or something in your life before you even knew you had a need? I have and it thrills my heart, every time.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

My Western Trip~Part 1

7 May

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Bill Lites

Bill Lites

Being an airplane enthusiast, one of the places I had always wanted to visit, was the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona. My friends all told me it was a magnificent place to see, and the aerial photos I had seen on the internet proved it. The museum itself is on 80 acres, and then there is what is called “The Bone Yard” which is another 300 acres of U.S. Airplane storage. Wow! I couldn’t miss seeing that.

1

                                               

So, I started looking in my Aviation Museum Guide for what other aviation museums I could manage to see in the Southwest, and that’s how I came up with “My Western Trip” route. Now you might think that makes for a long trip, but the way I look at it, once I’m in an area, I like to see as many different kinds of museums (not just aviation museums) as possible. In addition, I really enjoy the planning of a trip, and as a result of my research, my list of museums began to grow. Since my initial plans were to start and end my trip in Los Angeles, I wanted to include a visit with DiVoran’s brother and his wife Susan, in Vista, CA and our high school friends Jim and Charlene in San Diego. Then, while in California, there was the Edwards AFB museum tour I wanted to take. That tour was only given two days each month and had to be scheduled 30 day in advance. Once I selected a date, I had to work my travel days (from my initial point) around that date. So, you can see some of the many factors I had to deal with to make this trip work.

2

                                               

When researching rental car prices, I discovered that the same car rented in Las Vegas was $300 cheaper than that same class of car I had planned to rent in L.A. or San Diego. That savings would pay for most of my gas on this trip, so now my trip was going to start and end in Las Vegas. See how fast these kinds of trip plans can change. Knowing how hot it could get in the Southwest desert at times, I had planned this trip for the first part of April in hopes the weather would not be too hot. After much fine tuning of my travel itinerary, I was finally ready to go. I had never been to Las Vegas, and when we landed, my first surprise was that the Airport was actually landscaped with Saguaro cactus, Mesquite trees and Tumbleweeds. That made for a very unusual landscape theme.         

3 

Then, on my way to Baggage Claim, I passed thru several areas filled with gaming machines, many of which were pinging away like pinball machines. The Baggage Claim area was surrounded with gaming machines and huge screens loudly advertising what was currently being feathered at each of the showplaces on the “Strip” that week.

 The rental car process went as smooth as a breeze, but then at the Downtown Grand Hotel, where I was to stay the first two nights, I had to thread my way thru a large Casino filled with all manner of gaming machines to get to the Check-in desk. I was overwhelmed by the whole commercial scene.

4

 

                                                                        —–To Be Continued—–

 

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →