My dear husband’s sister and brother-in-law left yesterday after a week-long Christmas vacation here in Ohio. The cold Ohio Winter welcomed them as we ate and celebrated Christmas. It did not help that they came here in the dead of winter (2 degrees F) and was used to balmy Florida. She immediately invited us to come for a  Florida vacation this coming Summer. We interviewed her about their favorite dine-out place, their thrift stores (I need this information to live up to my nickname coined by my dear husband — frugal diva), their favorite thing about Florida and a whole list of questions. We were like in a game show where we ask all the questions and they try their best to describe Florida to us. I asked about alligators and nature tours and she said she heard of EcoQuest tours. My Husband and I made a mental list of the things we needed to bring for the tour. Wouldn’t it be fun to go kayaking this summer? What’s your favorite summer adventure? Ah, here I am dreaming of summer already. I need to work on diet resolutions first before planning for summer.

To a wannabe gardener like me and my dear, even if it is the dead of winter, we anticipate the time where we could spring into planting again. Year after year, we start to garden and we end up with either dead plants or a jungle of weeds. This year we are going to be wise about our gardening. We decided to plan. The only way we could get ahead of our gardening is to have a step by step plan of which plants go where and when they should be planted from seed on the right time. I went and got my stack of gardening books and magazines and sat down  for the executive planning committee meeting–my husband the CEO and I the janitor. There we were with our coffees and our pens leafing through Midwest Gardening and looking at the different plants and its schedule of planting.

There was a knock at the door. My dear husband’s mom and dad came and stopped by for a short visit. Well, short was a subjective word as my dear husband and his folks were in the living room chatting away the hours. Here I was, still leafing through my magazines waiting for him. When you patiently wait for a long time, it is funny how your mind wanders and gets so easily distracted. I went down on the computer and clicked on decorative planters. I was distracted by the many beautiful planters and garden accessories. I got my pen and decided that I am going to re-landscape my whole front yard and turn even the vegetable garden into paradise. I saw planters galore. I especially liked an antique black planter that would be a great focal point beside my hydrangeas.

Now that I was on a roll, I zipped up my jacket in the middle of winter and went outside. I envisioned how pretty a window box planter would look with my windows. I could ship to order a dozen of Jackman Clematis and get going with my spring landscaping plan. The only thing was, it was still winter. The ground frozen solid and I wouldn’t not even dream of taking out the rotatiller and digging up the ground. I called Naomi, a professional gardener, and she told me to start them up in indoor planters. “That way you can enjoy them for as long as you want–in the house. And when you get tired of them or when spring comes, you can replant them in your window boxes.”

I took that advice to heart. The only thing was, I think I need to get some practice with my green thumb. They are not so green right now. They are pale brown. I spread my fingers in front of me and told them, “This spring, you fingers need to turn green.” All the same time, my dear husband came out from the house and said, “Dear, are you talking to yourself again? I told you it’s still winter, no amount of talking to your fingers and your garden would make spring any sooner. Come in and let’s finish our landscape and vegetable garden planning.”

God has already triumphed. We must sing.

Have we not seen that God’s loving hand is faithful to be our shield and defender? Have we not witnessed the hand of God when we are in desperate need of Him? Have we not heard the sweet soft voice that speaks with Love in our hearts when we are down? Have we not seen the miracles of healing of our tattered soul begging for the mercies of God? If we look close enough, we will see. We will hear. We will feel. We will know. Because God is there constantly urging us to go to Him, constantly opening His loving arms, constantly cushioning us from the pain we deserve.

God has already offered His salvation. We must sing.

God’s plan for man is that man receives Jesus Christ. We may want to find our own way in this world but there is no other way but in Christ. We may want to try to do all the good works but they will be futile without Jesus as our Lord. We may try a million of ideas and ideologies, but man can not do it himself. He can not save himself even if he tried. When God extends that salvation to us, we have a choice. Are we going to say, no thanks. Or are we willing to accept that we are faulty, filthy human beings and there is a perfect man who gave up His life as a payment for my sins. All we need is the acceptance that Jesus stood before God and sacrificed His God-hood to conquer death and shed His blood for my sins. We can not truly sing to God without this salvation. When God reaches in our hearts to save us and we accept by faith that He has made us new creatures, with a new life, then we shall truly be able to sing.

He will put a song in our hearts.

If you listened to the song below, angels were not given the privilege to sing about God’s amazing Grace. Because God loves us, His creatures, He has given us grace. Much like a fines we have to pay in the library and the librarian one day decides to forgive our penalty. That is grace. We do not deserve it but it was given, all we have to do is receive. Have you ever been given a gift and threw it at the face of the giver? Most of us would thank the giver and graciously accept. God has a gift so powerful, so magnificent, so grand waiting for us to open it, receive it and accept it and yet many turn their face away. This grace is open to all. In this grace is an everlasting song. A song always ministering to our hearts, blessing God and walking with us  even through the darkest valleys of our lives.

Take that grace today. Take that song that God offers to soothe our spirits. Receive Jesus as Lord and our lives will never be the same again.

photo by: www.coolchaser.com

Here are some pictures of the last snow that hit as cold as 2 degrees F in the last few weeks.

How was everybody’s Christmas?

Did you mommies burn anything on the stove?

How much coins did our godmothers and godfathers give you?

Did you dads get you a fill of cookies and coffee?

The fence beside our garage.

It reminds me that no matter how separate and far apart our families are, we could always enjoy the Christmas time with each other in presence or in spirit. To my immigrant and OFW friends, did you get to call home and hear the merry noise of our homeland?

We are definitely frugal people. My dear husband calls me the frugal diva. We are willing to try a DIY (do it yourself) once and if it doesn’t work we’re willing to try something else.

With this philosophy in mind, my dear husband made me a table. We moved into a new home and I wanted a bigger dinning room table with matching chairs. He took out his tools. Bought some lumber. Pretended to measure here and there. He ran to the bookstore and checked online on how to make a nice table. He cut several pieces of wood and pounded a few nails, he painted and polyurethaned it and it was a sight. The end result was a nice looking table. Where’s the problem, you said. Well, here’s the problem. We decided to have friends over to inaugurate the table. I whipped up a batch of my famous noodles, a bowlful of spring rolls and bottomless fried rice. Then the unimaginable happened. My husband and I with our kids were all settled in our places, our friends with their kids on the other end of the table and a few neighbors sitting in between our children when it happened.

CRASH!

The table fell down just as we finished saying grace. The feet wobbled at first and my daughter leaned over  to get her drinks and there it was, flat on the floor, food splayed everywhere, the four legs spread out like a crushed spider legs and it was a sight. What a mess. What an embarrassment. We all had a momentary silence like we were about to start a roller coaster ride. There we were looking at this rubble that was once a table made by my ambitious husband.

CLANK!

The sound of the last piece of silverware hit the floor with the steps of our guest leaving our back door. And we left to clean out our mess and burn the table to forget the horrible incident. You see, somethings we can make do on our own, some things we should probably leave to the professionals to do a good and quality job.

PING!

Then the lightbulbs hit our heads like a  lightning bolts. We could have just bought our dining table from Concept Furniture. We have more than 89 dining room table and accessories  to look at and choose to our heart’s content. The matching chairs are out of this world. No more mix and match for me. It would also fit my design sense that I need not worry if it might look awkward or out of place.

CLICK.

That was the sound of my mouse, buying our new dining table. When I said I wanted some modern furnishing for my wardrobe, my husband went into a tizzy about getting the woodworking plans. When I hinted I wanted a new entertainment system with apple green doors, he was already looking at paint chips. Don’t get me wrong, I so love my DIY husband. He does things so good and so professional that no one can tell it’s done inside our workshop. But with the recent events of our table rumble, I don’t think we’d be wanting to make our own soon.

“Some things are better left to professionals, honey” This is my quick reminder to him. He agreed and he went and looked at the modern furniture with variety of style and thousand of products to choose from,  in my favorite Furniture site. Just before he logged out from our computer, there was a quick knock at our door.

DELIVERY!

There sitting on our sidewalk was the delivery truck with my new dining set. Oh, was I in heaven. I so love receiving new furnitures. The delivery was quick because we were just a few states away from Brooklyn, New York. Was I satisfied.

VERY.