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Don’t Undervalue Your Value

13 Dec

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

 

The whirlwind of activity I wrote about last week is over. The Christmas Tree Walk and Christmas Market was a success. The trees were beautifully decorated and some of them were purchased in the silent auction. The rest was given out to our community friends who come to our food pantry. Some of the decorations didn’t fare well as we moved them from the gym, but the trees themselves were fresh, fragrant and beautiful.

 

Last minute preparations began on Saturday with picking up 25 trees. We were met at the church by  strong guys who quickly unloaded them. Once the trees were unloaded it was non stop action to get these trees decorated. I had set out decorations that had been donated to be used on the trees that were sponsored but the sponsor did not choose to decorate.

 

 

To our heartfelt gratitude, when people finished their tree, they just kept decorating, moving from tree to tree. They hadn’t signed up for this, they simply saw the need and did it. And that was the spirit during the whole event. What can I do to help? Two teenage girls restored my faith in their generation. I had asked them to set out luminaries but due to the wind, they kept falling over. They solved the problem by taping them to poles. After the event, I was stressing over the need to collect the bags and lights but the girls had picked them up, disposed of the bags and collected the L.E.D lights and packaged them. As clean up continued, people saw what needed to be done and did it.

I’m having a hard time putting into words, what I want to express. I think I will go with the title, Don’t Undervalue Your Value whether you are creating a beautiful tree, doing the heavy lifting or packing up boxes, you are making someone’s job a lot easier and definitely more enjoyable. You are giving of yourself. You are appreciated. You are infinitely valuable.

 

 

 

I'm a winnerAfter my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother but hadn’t practiced for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience.  Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites,  Judy Wills, Louise Gibson, Janet Perez Eckles and Melody Hendrix

In addition to blogging, I work as the publicist/marketer/ amateur editor and general  “mom Friday” for my author daughter, Rebekah Lyn. I also manage her website, Rebekah Lyn Books  where we frequently host the best in up and coming authors.

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Light Wins

11 Dec

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

 

God is the Light and I long to be a moon that reflects him.

 

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Fun in the Whirlwind

6 Dec

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

 

This week is shaping into a whirlwind of a week. My daughter, Rebekah,  is the coordinator for a community outreach and fundraising event at our church this weekend and I volunteered to be her chief helper and errand runner. The event, Gateway to Christmas will feature a Christmas Tree Walk. We will have 25 freshly cut Christmas trees delivered on Saturday. Each tree has been sponsored and will be decorated, then auctioned at the event. Today we went to the church and sorted the items donated by local businesses for raffling and assessed the supplies we have for the children’s activities.

 

Rebekah counting boxes of stickers

 

It was also decision day on whether to continue with the plans for the event to be held outdoors or moved inside. You know how the weather forecast seems to change daily and sometimes hourly? Well not this week. Thunder showers have been in our forecast for a week! The tension was high as Rebekah struggled with the decision but she put on her thinking cap and found a compromise solution.

 

 

Rebekah’s long time friend is a professional photographer and volunteered to shoot green screen photos during the event. He drove over from Orlando today to scout out the location and while he was here, he took some photos like the ones above. He also took photos of some of the raffle items so that we can share them on the church Facebook page. The fundraising component of the event is to raise money to replace the roof  of our gym that was damaged in Hurricane Irma last year. The gym houses our totally free to use fitness center. Currently, approximately 100 people from the community exercise there.

This is one of my favorite. Rebekah won the bear when she was visiting us in North Carolina a few weeks ago.

 

 

It’s never too early to start thinking about beach days and tightening those abs!

 

 

The event is certainly a lot of work, but a lot of fun too. A lot of people are volunteering their time and resources. To take a line from one of my Children’s Christmas program, Angels, Lambs, Ladybugs, and Fireflies “When everyone works together a lot can be accomplished.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm a winnerAfter my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother but hadn’t practiced for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience.  Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites,  Judy Wills, Louise Gibson, Janet Perez Eckles and Melody Hendrix

In addition to blogging, I work as the publicist/marketer/ amateur editor and general  “mom Friday” for my author daughter, Rebekah Lyn. I also manage her website, Rebekah Lyn Books  where we frequently host the best in up and coming authors.

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Limitless

4 Dec

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

 

 

Today I Choose to Remember God

30 Nov

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

 

This is from the Jesus Always. I read from the Jesus Calling app and love that it allows me to share their branded content.

 

 

 

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Edisto Island Get Away- The End

29 Nov

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

 

As Hurricane Michael made its way ashore in the Florida panhandle, we followed its projected path on the television. According to the forecast we would begin experiencing tropical force winds during the night. By the time we were ready to retire for the evening, the winds had begun to pick up. At some point during the night, I think around 3 am the electricity went off. I lay there waiting for the emergency power to come on. Nothing happened. Surely a resort would have back up generators! Apparently not.  As I went back to sleep, I wondered how long the condo would remain cool without air-conditioning. To my surprise, my room remained cool to the point it felt as though the air-conditioning was on.

We arose around 7:30 am and I looked around hopefully to see if the electricity was back on. It wasn’t. Which meant no coffee. As we shared our experiences during the night, it became clear that husband and I fared the best. Our room remained cool and we didn’t hear the wind howling. Not so for our daughter whose room faced the exterior walkway. The winds roared down the walkway and shook the windows. She ended up sleeping on the floor, just in case the windows blew out.

I was a trifle miffed that the resort did not reach out to any of the guests before or after the storm. There were no updates on the power outage or suggestions of what to do about check out. We were due to check out this morning. Were we supposed to venture out into the storm to avoid being charged for another day?

Around 9 am as we sat around, trying to figure out what to do, the electricity came on. Our first thought was COFFEE! Once we all had cups we gathered around the television to learn the status of the storm. Even with the restored power, still no phone call from the resort and they were not answering their phones.

We decided that if the bridge to the mainland was closed, the news would be reporting it. Gradually we began to see a few cars on the road outside our window. Rebekah and Pam were heading south to Florida and should be fine once they were off the island. Husband and I were kind of stuck. If we decided to abandon our plans and head back to our home in Western North Carolina, we would be crossing the path of the hurricane. If we continued with our plans, we would be driving north with tropical storm force winds. Having spent over 50 years in Florida, we had plenty of experience with tropical storms, so we felt confident that we should continue with our plans to spend two nights at a hotel on the North Carolina coast.

The previous evening, in between rain, we had loaded the majority of our luggage in our cars. This morning, we waited for a lull in the rain, then made a dash for our cars. We followed Rebekah and Pam’s car and were pleased to see that the bridge was open and the winds were not bad at all. Soon after, they turned south and we headed north.

 

Photo credit edistoscenicbyway.org

I’m glad we didn’t allow the less than ideal weather spoil our visit to Edisto Island. My favorite comment to my husband when we are meeting friends for a meal out and he isn’t fond of the restaurant is “it’s the fellowship, not the food.” In this case, it was the fellowship, not the weather and the fellowship was worth every rain drop.

 

For photos of Edisto Island visit edistoscenicbyway.org

Previous installments

Edisto Get Away Part One

Edisto Get Away Part Two

Edisto Get Away Part Three

 

I'm a winnerAfter my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother but hadn’t practiced for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience.  Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites,  Judy Wills, Louise Gibson, Janet Perez Eckles and Melody Hendrix

In addition to blogging, I work as the publicist/marketer/ amateur editor and general  “mom Friday” for my author daughter, Rebekah Lyn. I also manage her website, Rebekah Lyn Books  where we frequently host the best in up and coming authors.

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What Thanksgiving Meant To Me This Year

23 Nov

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

 

What did Thanksgiving mean to me this year? It meant I made it through a year of deep, personal pain and am far stronger in my faith The brief moments of dipping into past memories, were nostalgic rather than tragic. I took joy working in the kitchen, side by side with my daughter to prepare our Thanksgiving meal. It was a soul satisfying day. My life and relationships don’t have to be perfect for me to experience hope and joy.

Romans 15:13-May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

To all my friends on Facebook who shared pictures of their families , thank you for including me in your celebrations. I enjoyed them all. To my friends who shared pictures of food……well that is a different story! Just kidding.

I made my first cheesecake this year. Low carb pumpkin. It was amazing.

 

The recipe is from Cooking Keto with Kristi on You Tube. If you want to try it, click the show more button to get the recipe.

 

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Go Through His Gates and Give Thanks!

22 Nov

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

I decided to share a different  version of Psalm 100. This is from The Voice. Psalm 100 is one of my favorites.

4 Go through His gates, giving thanks

 walk through His courts, giving praise.

    Offer Him your gratitude and praise His holy name.

5 Because the Eternal is good,

His loyal love and mercy will never end,

and His truth will last throughout all generations.

 

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Today I Choose to Take Heart

16 Nov

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

 

 

I remember in my journalism class how the teacher drilled in elements of a news story:

 

Who-What-When-Where

 

I can’t remember if how many was part of it. The glorious truth that sets my heart to soar is that no matter who, what, when, where or even how many, God has overcome every-single-one. 

 

 

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Favorite Things

13 Nov

Onisha Ellis

On the Porch

 

This is one of my favorite paintings by DiVoran and  my favorite scripture of the week. They both make my heart sing.

 

 

 

 

 

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