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My “Twirp” Date

7 Feb

From the Heart

Louise Gibson

author of Window Wonders

Before you jump to the wrong conclusion,
my date was not a twerp in any way.
The word, rightly interpreted, means
“The Woman Is Requested to Pay”

I had purchased a ’46 Chevy Convertible,
But had to wait ’til my ” BIG Day”-
When “21” my dad drove me to pick up my car-
SO special in every way!

I lived in Akron, Ohio at the time,
February brought snow and ice-
To make matters worse, there are many hills,
Driving conditions are far from nice.

I drove to the fraternity house to pick up my date,
But I insisted he “take the wheel”.
Little did I know that he would do so for
the next 57 years-
that my affection he would steal!

We drove to the “Spanish Inn”.
romantic by candlelight-
We were determined not to let the weather
ruin our special night.

“Thank you, God, for the memories
that remain in my heart-
They are all part of my history-
happenings set apart.”

Louise Car copy

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What to do When Fear Attacks

25 Jan

Walking by Faith, Not by Sight

Janet Eckles Peres

“I took my small dog for a walk one night,” my friend Ian said, “the area was dark except for a light near the big fountain in the courtyard of the apartment complex.

I heard my neighbor yell from her second-floor balcony. But the sound of the water in the nearby fountain drowned her words. So I returned the greeting. Since it was Christmas time, I assumed she had yelled out ‘merry Christmas’.

Then her shout became louder, ‘Look behind you, Ian’!

I turned. And my eyes caught the glimpse of a big, furious javelina charging at me and my small dog. Heart thumping, with one swoop I scooped my puppy. And I took off like a bullet. That’s when I had my Forest Gump moment. My neighbor shouted, ‘Run, Ian, run!”

Ian had his neighbor, but we have the Lord shouting to our soul,
run, run as fast as you can’. When would He say that? Each time we’re being attacked by the beast of fear.

You’re been there, haven’t you? During dark nights, out of nowhere, with no warning, fear charges at you. Fearful money will run out. Fearful our kids won’t grow up like we want them to. Afraid of losing our health. Fearful to be alone. Afraid to stay with the wrong person…afraid to leave them. Afraid we’ll never heal from the heartache.

Goodness gracious, God is shouting to you and me, “run, run from that spirit of fear.”

And with the same authority as David did, with the same assurance and assertion, we declare: “The LORD is my light and my salvation- whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life-of whom shall I be afraid?” Psalm 27:1-2

Father, how foolish to be afraid, knowing you’re the stronghold of my life, of my decisions, of circumstances, relationships and my future. With your power working in me, I have the strength, the courage and the authority to defeat any attack of fear. In Jesus name. Amen.

–What has you afraid today?
–Is your fear one that God cannot overcome?
–How will you display that new courage found in Christ?

Legacy

Janet Perez Eckles,

Grateful for the privilege of inspiring you…

My website in English

En Español

My story (video)

Inspirational video  just for you.

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Starting the New Year Face to Face

8 Jan

Last night the bloggers for Old Things R New met face to face for the first time in our history. It was an incredible and laughter filled evening.

photo

From left to right, Judy Wills, Divoran Lites, Onisha Ellis, Lynn Shepherd (web genius and daughter of Louise) Louise Gibson, Janet Peres Eckles. Back row, Bill Lites

I created the blog January 13, 2012 and my first post was to announce my daughter, Rebekah Lyn’s debut novel. I had no idea what I was doing, but knew I needed a platform to help promote her work.

In Febrauary 2012,  DiVoran Lites, my long time friend and mentor, brought her fun and inspiring wrting to our blog. She has now published three novels which you can find here.  Her husband Bill, loves travel and vintage WWII airplanes and we were pleased to add him on April 19,2012. In September of 2012  we welcomed Judy Wills, a talented pianist,  whose life as a military spouse brought us an inside look at family life both in and out of the military. In 2013 we were blessed with two new bloggers, Louise Gibson, whose poetry about nature, feline friends and life touches many hearts and brings smiles to the readers face, and last but certainly not least is Janet Perez Eckles, a dynamo of energy and faith, who shares her life experiences with us through weekly posts that encourage us to dig deep into our own faith and challenges.

Janet was recently interviewed on Emotional Mojo   a nationally syndicated show that  combines the best of Psychology, personal development, life coaching, and daily inspiration in a single Mojo brand.

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Angels, Lambs, Ladybugs and Fireflies

2 Jan

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

I'm a winner

When my daughter was in elementary school the second and third grade performed a Christmas program entitled “Angels, Lambs, Ladybugs and Fireflies.” She was a firefly and their job was to light the way to Bethlehem for Mary and Joseph. As they sang their song with dimmed lights, each child waved a lit flashlight and one child, I think, it was mine had this line “When everyone works together, a lot can be accomplished.” Isn’t that a great line?

This week I was notified I had won a month long  contest, a writing contest at that. It involved writing a story using only one hundred and forty characters. That is 140 letters people!  They even paid me money; fifty dollars and that is not the best part, the part that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. The only reason I won is that I have an incredibly supportive group of friends on Facebook and Twitter. Together they retweeted my story over sixty times, more than any other contestant.

When everyone works together a lot can be accomplished. I think that is my motto for 2014.

I know you have been dying to read my winning story, so here it is, don’t blink or you will miss it!

 Birthed in pain to a life of shame. Hooker by night, student by day, paying her way, trying to escape and change her fate.

Not my daughter’s performance but it’s a cute play. The wise fireflies speak around the 7 minute mark

PLUS, I wanted everyone to have the song stuck in their heads like I do right now.

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25 Dec

christmas05art deco

From all of us at Old Things R New

DiVoran Lites

Love Does Not Mean “Give it to Me Now!”

17 Dec

I decided to reblog this based on this paragraph. “Love understands a person well enough to know what is best for them. And usually that will require some waiting. But with some people, love might include encouraging or perhaps even prodding. We often do not know what we are capable of until we push ourselves. And that push, though often unwanted, is frequently an act of love” I am thankful for the friends in my life who have pushed and prodded me with love.

FINDLEY FAMILY VIDEO

pricey presents

Anyone who has ever had children, worked with children, been around children or seen children is very familiar with the expression “he won’t share with me.” Hence the equally familiar response: “Share does not mean, ‘Give it to me now.’”

That same sentiment is also applied to love. We are absolutely drowning in advertisements telling us to buy something for someone to show or prove that we love them. That something might be jewelry (for her), a vehicle (for him) or a toy (for anyone). It might be something as large as a house or as small and insignificant as a box of candy.

Debt does not matter. Just give it to me. Why wait for marriage? Just give it to me. Need or purpose does not matter. I want it and if you love me, then just give it to me.
But this has nothing to do with love…

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My Aunt Jessie~Part 2

24 Nov

Sunday Memories

Judy Wills

JUDY

My Aunt Jessie…..the only “auntie” that I was close to.  There was only her and my mother on that side of the family.  Of course, my dad was one of 13 children, so I had lots and lots of cousins.  But they were all in Texas or Louisiana….or SOMEwhere else.

Because Jessie never married, she became the breadwinner of the family after her father died, and

Grannie's Favorite Chair

Grannie’s Favorite Chair

Granny lived with her. And because she never married, her security became the things she owned.  She became an expert in antiques.  Her love of antiques started when my grandfather purchased – for $5.00 – a beat-up old chair frame for her.  She refinished and re-upholstered that chair, and it became the first of many antique items that filled her house and her life.  It became Granny’s favorite chair.

She had several love seats.  She had a coffee table that was magnificent – it was quite large and the top (covered with glass) was one solid piece of mahogany.  Beautiful.  (One family story goes that a large slab of wood fell off a train and someone – Grandpa? – found it, took it and made it into that coffee table.

She had an antique pump organ, and Victrola.  Mother said Granny always loved to have music around the house.

She had curio cabinets.  She had one piece of solid cherry wood that was a china cabinet.  The top had glass doors through which you could see the lovely antique tableware she had found.

She was always on the lookout for estate sales, and shopped at as many of them as she could.  She found wonderful sales, and was able to purchase many good things at great prices.  At one time, she was the president of the Albuquerque Antique Club.  Her house was large enough to accommodate all of her purchases, and she had a gift for placement of her pieces.  As we prepared to have an “auction” of her household items, the auctioneer looked around, and said, “This is some of the best Victorian furniture I’ve ever seen!”

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Unfortunately, Jessie never thought any of us wanted anything of hers.  Because none of us had expressed an interest in any of her things, some time before she died I suggested we should all make a list of her things we wanted, and give it to her.  If there was a duplication in “wishes” – hers was to be the final decision.  She was quite delighted to see how much we loved her things, after all.  And, I must admit that, after I had made my “list,” I finished it with the statement that we would rather have HER in our lives than anything of hers….but that we loved her and wanted to have keepsakes of her.

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Aunt Jessie

17 Nov

SUNDAY MEMORIES

 Judy Wills

JUDY

 My mother’s only sibling, a sister, was my Aunt Jessie.  She never married, and was what we might consider an “old maid.”  My Granny lived with her.

They lived in San Antonio, Texas for many years, and moved to Albuquerque in 1952.  They moved into

2a neat old house that I loved.  It had a sunken living room – with an even more sunken fireplace.  It had what is known as “cove” ceilings – where the wall joins the ceiling in a smooth curve – no sharp angles.  Makes for a really nice effect.

Because she never married, and was responsible for herself as well as her mother, she worked all her life.  She was an accountant/bookkeeper – and a very good one.

Interestingly enough, that’s not all she ever did.  While living in San 3Antonio, she owned and operated a small diner in downtown San Antonio, called The White House Lunch. She had a cook, but I know that Granny made the pies – I still have some of her recipes.  They were so good that people would come in just for a slice of pie – or to purchase the entire pie to take home!

That little diner was even written up in the newspaper 4as the place to go for some of the “best beef stew what am.” While working the diner, Jessie met an Army Nurse, stationed at Fort Sam Houston, and they became very close friends.  This nurse would work the counter at the diner in her off-times.  This same nurse was stationed in Korea and was the one who brought a pearl ring back for me.  They remained life-long friends.

Also while in San Antonio, Jessie, Granny, and my mother all worked at the Rochester Handkerchief Factory.  The owner of the company found that she could make more profit if she purchased the fabric in Ireland, and had the “cut work” done in China, than if she did it all in the U.S.  In order to do that, she traveled to those countries to set up all she needed.  She brought back Chinese mementoes for Jessie – a China doll (which I was NOT allowed to play with!),and three camphor chests.

5Two of the chests are what we would call “foot locker” size, and the larger one is “steamer trunk” size.  All are ornately hand-carved with Chinese scenes on them.  And the inside wood is camphor wood, which is deliciously aromatic, and guaranteed to keep critters away from woolens and other fabrics.

I was always intrigued by those chests, but never had the nerve to look in them – until after Jessie died.  But when we opened them up – we were in for quite a surprise!

 

 

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Serve as Well as Honor

12 Nov

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

Onisha

The country spent the weekend and Monday, Veterans Day celebrating those who serve our country. There were parades, restaurants offered free meals and stores offered discounts.  Yet we have many veterans who are struggling, even homeless. My friend Tricia, shared this video on Facebook. We need to be honoring and supporting our veterans every day.

When we sold our home, we bought new furniture. Our wonderful realtor, Candace, knew a gracious woman who had a storage unit where she collected furniture people did not want and gave it to those in need. God’s timing is so perfect. A homeless veteran had just gotten into a apartment but he had no furniture. We were able to supply him with a comfortable sofa bed, a love seat, chairs and a desk. Three years later, I am still grateful for the opportunity to serve a vet.

If you would like to help a vet, you can simply do a websearch “how do I donate furniture to veterans” or you can go to  Donation Town . 

Today is my father’s birthday. He and my uncles all served in WWII. In July he will have been gone 20 years.  I miss him-Onisha

Dad 523 Fighter Bomber Group

Dad
523 Fighter Bomber Group

Working Together

11 Nov

My Take

DiVoran Lites

IAuthor, Poet and Artistt’s so great to work with other people. It’s one of my favorite things in the whole world. I’ll always remember when a friend came over and we made candles in paper milk cartons out of ice, paraffin, and crayons for Christmas. There was another time when a different friend and I made jelly together, and then there was that time when Bill’s sister, Judy, showed me how to make her special yeast dinner roles from scratch.

It sounds like most of my together times have been in the kitchen. I guess you could say the one today was in the kitchen as my office is part of the family room which is part of the kitchen. But it didn’t really have anything to do with cooking, except that Rebekah Lyn and I were cooking up ways to connect with friends on the Internet and find the best recipes to get our books out there where they can be appreciated.

Rebekah Lyn is a lot younger than I am. In fact, I knew her mother and dad before they were married, and we are certainly still good friends. Rebekah Lyn has a degree in Communications and she works for a big company, so she is one sharp woman. We even wrote novels together one year. That was great fun.

Today she came over because we had several matters to discuss. I’m going to get some business cards like hers to show our website address: Rebekah Lyn Books. We talked that over. We are both in several places on the Internet. She is on Rebekah Lyn’s kitchen, Twitter, Face Book, and of course Amazon. Who isn’t on Amazon? I’m on Old Things R New, Christian Poets and Writers, and Face Book, too. I also write a  weekly post  Writing Life for Rebekah Lyn Books.

R. L. taught me how to put a Face Book post on all my venues so I don’t have to do them separately. That will save time! She showed me her iPad. I want one. I was thrilled with what it can do, but I haven’t got to the place where I can justify buying one for myself, because I’m more of a stay at home body that an out and about person.

We tried to put a gravatar on the website for my replies to comments. In case you’re ignorant about what a gravatar is, as I was: it is a picture of me that will go where my name goes. We were stymied on that, but I know with her competence, she will figure it out and get back to me. Of course, she already has a gravatar for her posts, so it won’t take her long.

The most fun was discussing the new book she’s working on, Jessie. It’s about a young man growing up running wild in the area of Kennedy Space Center in the sixties. We talked about what Jessie might be up to next, and called Bill in because he was a working man at the Space Center in those days, has a passion for space, and was actually a young man once. It was like a party and we all had a wonderful time putting our thoughts together and tending to Jessie. Rebekah Lyn is a thorough researcher and interviewer and she has a great dad who ran around in the Florida woods himself from an early age. I can’t wait to read Jessie, and neither can Bill.

Then of course, as all things do, our work/play session came to an end. No matter. Rebekah Lyn lives within walking distance from us. We have worked together for years on our writing and technology and God willing, we’ll have many more years of good times to come.

Guests of Honor
Launching Our New Books

In place of a list of links, visit Rebekah Lyn Books to learn more about  DiVoran and Rebekah- Onisha

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