A Whisper

Calm Before the Storm
On its way to
Blue Giraffe
Watercolor, FloridaCome in! I am so glad you dropped by. I really do look so forward to your visit. I can hardly believe the first week of school has come and gone. My favorite part of the day is getting to pick up my twins after school. Luke stays after school for football so I get the twins all to myself for about 25 minutes as I shuttle them to the tennis courts. As I am waiting on my twins I adore watching the children leave school and head to their cars. Girls walk in pairs or packs constantly chatting and laughing desperately hoping to be noticed by any boy. And the boys are walking by themselves directly to their car probably thinking about their after school snack. Anyway yesterday a group of girls were standing near my car and all of a sudden they all got very quiet and very still and their circle got a lot tighter. One girl in the pack had lowered her voice and completely captivated them with her words. A few seconds later they all broke out in laughter. Need I tell you I was dying to know what they were saying.
Last night my husband was in the den with Luke talking about something and I was in the kitchen with the twins. My den and kitchen are kind of right in there together, so as not to distract the boys in the den I lowered my voice to talk to the twins. Later that night Eddie could hardly wait to ask me what I was whispering to the twins. I laughed so hard thinking about him in the den with the TV going and in the middle of a conversation and he heard me whisper.
I remember when I was in the 8th grade my history teacher was frustrated with the class for talking and not paying attention and she lowered her voice and said whoever was listening she was giving a test the next day and all we had to do was sign our name and get a 100 and not to tell anyone. Ok yes I was listening and I am a total rule follower and a great keeper of secrets.
What is it about a whisper?  At night my husband has the TV on watching the news and I will be sound to sleep and never hear a word of it. But when he turns off the TV and whispers "I love you" I hear it loud and clear.
When someone whispers you get as close as you can, your body is completely still and you magically tune out the rest of the world and your ears come alive and hear only that one voice...that whisper.
In 1Kings 19 beginning in verse 11 God told Elijah to go stand on the mountain that He was passing by. And there was a fantastic wind and a fire and even an earthquake, but it said God was not in them. But in verse 12 it said He came in a gentle breeze.
Ahhhh, a gentle breeze, a whisper. That thought alone fills my heart with a calm like no other. Today lets be still and tune out the world for just a moment and hear Him whisper.

 

Love Lotes

Happy Days
Mixed Media
12x12 Gallery Wrapped CanvasCome on in! I am so glad you are here! How do you like my art work? I love all kinds of art,  but mixed media and collage are just so much fun. Really it is therapy for me to just glue stuff.  In fact, I have a precious group of friends who lovingly call me GG....Glue Girl. Anyway my collages make me happy and I hope they make your heart smile!
Speaking of making your heart smile, "Love Lotes" make my heart smile. Ever since I can remember my daddy, whom I call Paw Paw, has written me lotes. I call them lotes because I have always been his little rabbit and he is the Big Rabbit and we talk in this rabbit language. (I am 46 and we still speak rabbit) Anyway he helped me buy a pair of running shoes a while back and he sent me a lote and I wanted to share it with you.

Dear Little Rabbit,
It makes the Big Rabbit so happy when he can put something in the Little Rabbit's basket. It makes the fur around his ears stand up strong. Big Rabbits were made for helping little rabbits -especially when the garden gets a little thin and the carrots and the lettuce doesn't go real far. I love the Little Rabbit more than anything. We just need to play in Mr. Frank's garden...that's what I miss the most. Love and kisses on the nose. Mine is twitching right now because I love you.
P.P. Rabbit

I love love love lotes! I love receiving them and I love sending them. I absolutely love going to the mailbox and finding a lote with my name on it. You know exactly what I mean! You know a smile spreads across your face when there is a personal lote in the mailbox with your name hand written on the envelope. You know you can hardly wait to open it and see who it's from! You know the feeling! I love it! I also love that the most precious love lote of all is God's word.
I love in Isaiah 43 verse 1 that God says...Do not fear!
I have redeemed you!
I have called you by name!
You are mine!
What a love lote! He has redeemed you! How sweet is it that He, King if Kings, has called you by your name, and you belong to Him and you never have to fear! I love love love that! So go write someone a love lote today!   Love love love Ruthie

 

My Chair

Red Flowers
Oil on Gallery Wrapped Canvas
24x30
Available in my studio

I am so glad you stopped by! Please come on in! I am sitting in my favorite chair  in my little room. It is an amazing oversized chair covered in a yummy vintage floral fabric. I spend a lot of time here reading, praying, writing, thinking and always creating. I tell people my brain clicks about 100 miles an hour all day, but when I am in my chair the clicking seems less rushed somehow, maybe more organized. My thoughts are quieter, orderly and yet more vivid. When I am in my chair colors are brighter and ideas are clearer. I love my chair. I have three baskets of books at my feet and as we speak  I actually have six books in the chair with me.
I must admit as I am sitting in my chair this morning I am a little weepy. My nest is very quiet this morning as two of my little birds are off at college and the other three are in high school. It is unusually still. I have sent a couple of notes to friends who are taking children to college for the first time and to one sweet friend in particular who took her son today and he is the last to leave home. She and I have talked about empty nest at great length, but I can only imagine how her heart will feel tonight when she sets the table for two.
I have to say my Luke is a senior this year and I have lost my breath more than a couple of times thinking about this year. I know it will fly by. But I am going to do my best to savor every minute! Last night we were hanging out in the kitchen and Luke was in the middle of a story and for the life of me I cannot remember a single word. As he spoke I felt like I was in  slow motion watching his mouth move but I heard nothing because as I looked in his eyes my mind traveled back to his kindergarten class and my eyes welled up with tears and I had a lump in my throat the size of a watermelon. If this is any indication of how I am planning to "savor" every moment, I won't make to september.
My sweet husband and I have worked hard to prepare Luke for his senior year and college. It is just that it got here sooner than I expected! As we begin to "push" him out of the nest, I was thinking about how I might pray for him. Crazy, but I thought about my children's camp application. It asks the question "What do you hope your child gains from camp?" Think about that for a minute. What do you hope your child gains from high school? I feel like we could make list a mile long... good friends , good grades, good study habits...etc.
Okay, radical but what if we changed the question from gain to give? What do you hope your child gives in high school? With our self absorbed culture do we even think it is possible to give rather than get? So what if our prayers for our children were for them first and foremost to love God with all their heart, with all their soul, and with all their mind and then their neighbor and then put themselves last. What if we prayed our children to be mighty men and women of God and to glorify Him. To reflect Him in the classroom and on the field. What if we prayed for them to praise God rather than seeking praise from man? Crazy? Impossible?  With God, nothing is impossible. So as our children grow and prepare to leave home, what's your desire for them? To gain or to give?
love love love Ruthie

 

Personalities

The birds in the tree tops sing their song
The angels watch over us while we play;

The flowers they bloom all day long
so why shouldn't we praise God all day!I am so glad you stopped by! I have missed talking with you. My summer has been fabulous so far! It's been busy! A good busy. I love summer! I am such the summer girl! I love the hot weather and the afternoon showers. It's my favorite! I don't know that these photos really do this art work justice, but I love these things. I design, cut , sand , and screw these cool things together. I absolutely love doing it. I guess the colors the creativity and the elbow that go into making them gives me the hugest amount of satisfaction. These pieces live in Mentone, AL at Camp Desoto. I love it! I've also been sewing for my daughter's dorm room and painting fun things to go on the very unattractive wall. I will definitely get pics of that and share with y'all. I am also redoing my other daughter's room at home. It's been so much fun to do dorms and redo rooms because my three girls have shared a room with each other their whole lives. Even though they each added their own little personal touches like flowers intertwined around the iron headboard or glow in the dark stickers on the ceiling,  they have never really had the opportunity to do their own thing. So helping them do a dorm room or redo the bedroom has been so fun for me because they have such different likes and dislikes. I love seeing their personalities come out in little things like light up flowers or bulletin boards or furry pillows. How could three girls grow up in the same home and be so different? I love it! I really do. It helps me to see the world three different ways. I love that. I love when you ask a question you get three different answers. There is something very creative about that. When my middle daughter was interviewing for a job that my oldest daughter had had the summer before, they asked Towns if she and MaryCam were a lot alike. She laughed and said complete opposites. When they asked for an example I thought her answer was perfect. She said that their standards and goals were very much alike but the process in which they reached those goals was completely different.
In John chapter 21 the disciples were out fishing. They hadn't caught a thing all night. They heard a voice from the shore call out to cast from the right hand side of the boat ,and I know you remember the story, they pulled up more fish than the nets could hold. But my favorite part of the story comes in verse 7. When Peter realized it was Jesus on the shore who had called to them, he immediately jumped out of the boat and swam to shore. I love love love that! He could not get there fast enough! I love his personality. I think some people would frown and say he was impulsive and quick to act. Maybe not think things through. Maybe. When was the last time you jumped out of the boat without thinking and what made you jump? Wow! It's a lot to think about. What makes you jump out of the boat? ... I want to be like Peter and jump with full abandonment into the Saviors arms. Do you love that word? Full abandonment. There is such freedom in that word and yet for some maybe fear. But for Peter that day, he jumped with all of his heart to be with Jesus. When did you jump with all your heart and what made you jump?
I have missed being with y'all. I hope you are encouraged by Peter's story. I love all your comments so much! But most of you comment on my face book and others don't get the benefit of   reading your thoughts like I do. Y'all have so many precious stories and so much wisdom. If you comment please leave it in my blog so others can be encouraged by you.
Love Love Love Ruthie