Spring is coming! Hallelujah!

Thank you Lord, for helping me get through the winter. For keeping me warm and safe when cold wind blew furiously, and we endured two months of below-normal temperatures. You gave me strength when the days were shorter, and darker, and you helped me keep positive when everyday chores seemed harder,while fighting a cold.   I learned to trust that you would supply all my needs when heating bills were straining my budget, and my business was almost dead.

Thank you, for my car starting every frosty morning when I had to race to my grandchild's house before his mommy left for work.

Thank you for the beauty of winter snowfalls, crystallized trees, and comforts of home: savory soups simmering, and cookies baking.  For the many delights of the holiday season, and the peace and joy of a Christmas spirit that hopefully lingers all year long.
 For love and affection I felt, both given and received for Valentine's Day.

But thank you for the first glorious signs of spring, the snow disappearing, trees and flowers budding and the early robins searching for worms.  It makes me smile to see boisterous neighbor kids in T-shirts cruisin' on their bicycles, and playing  backyard ball games after school, for the first time in months.
 I look forward to Easter celebrations and warmer days spent gardening and walking with my baby grandson. I feel an exciting sense of my own spiritual growth and renewal with spring's approach!

With gratitude I watch the seasons come and go. ,

Vintage clip art, by http://vintagefeedsacks.blogspot.com/

Some of us have a little cabin-fever. As a late-winter outing, we braved strong seashore winds

 in Atlantic City last weekend, for the annual car auction and antiques  show. 

            I must say that not only men like cars!  Here's some of my favorites.



1961 Cadillac Convertible



1960 Cadillac Convertible



1955 Ford Thunderbird



1965 Pontiac GTO Convertible



1957  Ford Thunderbird



1923 Oldsmobile V8 Touring Car
This rare old car was exhibited in a museum in Kentucky for years.



I have a wonderful source for automotive literature . Please contact me with your requests.



I met an antique jewelry dealer with a gorgeous collection of cameos!

                           

Then I took a walk on the boardwalk and a look at the ocean, and I still feel small.

It was a nice weekend!

While cleaning a house yesterday, I saw this beautiful picture of a seashore cottage.



Cape May Cottage, by Thomas Kinkade



So now, I'm daydreaming about summertime "down the shore". I am very fortunate to have a

client in Cape May, who has me prepare his rental units each spring for the tourist season!   I look forward to staying there for a few days in May. 

All we need is love

 

                                    
Love is more than three words mumbled before bedtime.
Love is sustained by action, a pattern of devotion in the things we do for each other every day.     -Nicolaus Sparks 
                                                                                                     -                                                                

Love is a many splendored thing!

I am thinking that love is sometimes not doing something.
Maybe some things I do are unloving. I am still learning.  I can change,  with God's help. 
All I must do,  is remember to do all things with love!

Love is not criticizing your tweenage granddaughter's too-grown-up outfit, but telling her how pretty she is, because you know that good self-esteem will produce better behavior.
Love is not mentioning to your daughter-in-law that there are no vegetables on the dinner table, but telling her the boxed mac&cheese is tasty.
Love is not complaining to your husband that your house is run down, but trying to make it as nice a home as you can.
Love is not saying you're too busy, but listening to your family member, and making  adjustments  to your schedule even if you have to give up something occasionally.
Love is not sharing horror stories about medical procedures and childbirth, but listening, making empathetic comments, and sharing in their unique experience.
Love is not bursting their bubble, knowing when to keep it to yourself.
Love is not giving advice when it isn't asked for.

 Love is what's left in a relationship
 after all the selfishness has been removed.
- Gullen Hightower

All we need is love!



What a grand thing to be loved!
What a grander thing still to love!
                                  -Victor Hugo



                                                         

Perhaps love is like a resting place, a shelter from the storm

It exists to give you comfort, it is there to keep you warm

In those times of trouble when you are most alone

the memory of love will bring you home...

If I should live forever and all my dreams come true

My memory of love will be of you.

                                                      -John Denver

There is no remedy for love than to love more.
                                   -Henry David Thoreau

One word frees us of all the weight and pain in life, that word is love.

                                                               -Sophocles

"The Love Chapter"   My favorite scripture

If I speak in human and angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.

And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge, if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.

If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast,

 but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous, is not pompous, it is not inflated,

 it is not rude,it does not seek it's own interests,it is not quick tempered,

 it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.

It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.

So faith, hope, love remain, these three, but the greatest of these is love. 

                                     -  I Corinthians 13   NIV





Love is always bestowed as a gift-
freely, willingly, and without expectation..
we don't love to be loved, we love to love.



                               - Leo Buscaglia

Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your home.

 Give love to your children, to a wife or husband,

to a next door neighbor.-Mother Teresa


Happy Valentine's Day!