Momma Bean in the Mountains

  Today I celebrate life, in that (By that grace and mercy of God) I am still ALIVE! Life is a precious and delicate GIFT from my Father in Heaven The life that I have been gifted with, I get to share with others        God has opened my eyes to the beauty of what life is, and how blessed I truly am in this life, in this body, in this marriage, in this house, in this community, in this town, in this time!      Looking back in retrospection, my "HELL" year of 2025 was an actual year of death and literal resurrection into NEWNESS of Life, that by God crashing down my defensive walls I had spent decades constructing (with each and every hurt of disappointment, betrayal or attack,) I cemented another brick into that (what I thought was protective) covering around my bruised and battered, oft broken and grieving heart!      BUT GOD rich in His tender loving kindness, care and mercy allowed my own personal earthquake of sorts in what bega...

So I used to be a rag-tag, vagabond, wanderer. Skirting on the fringe of society, quite angry, truth be told. But I was always for the outcast, the lost, the downtrodden, the rebels, the hippies, the gypsys, the crazies - the non-conformists, the colorers outside of the liners. The marching the beat of their own drum-mers. Then I had a radical heart conversion and found a new life with Jesus. I tr ied really really hard to be a good girl. To learn the rules and conform - in every way possible. Jump? how high! Sit? sure thing! Crucifying my questionings and reasonings and all the things that had kept me estranged from God to begin with! I just began to learn to submit and be the  very best me  who I thought I should be! Until another radical heart encounter where God basically showed me that I still was "THAT GIRL" but I had just locked part of her away in a backroom closet. Bound and gagged, she was denied her existance. So the vision I had was me standing at the s...

Mandala Tray Tutorial Finally ladies and gentlemen... only twelve days late...but better late than never, right? first choose your wood - i am using "reclaimed" pallet panels my husband broke down for me with a sawzall -- but you could also use fresh lumber from any hardware store! Then I used my miter saw and cut the pieces (two long ones for the bottom and two smaller pieces for the top) picture to follow you will also need a sander - I prefer a palm sander but this orbital works better for rough wood for me. Also I used a brad nailer and wood glue to attach the pieces together.  I chose an oil based stain - which I applied to each individual piece and let dry for at least 24 hours before working with again -- remember to wear gloves! i use a little bit of glue and 1" brad nails to secure the trays together I found the hardware at Home Depot but Lowe's has them also  cut your vinyl image, weed it I use oracal 651...

IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED, TRY, TRY AGAIN. FOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD....SO HAPPY TO HAVE SOME! So for the last (no joke) DECADE God has been bringing me to the place of seeing/knowing/discerning  that  I fare much much better on a gluten free diet. Well guess what peeps? That is not easy! And I tend to gravitate toward what is easy. Also I have dopamine 'issues'. And since having to go 'off' of my Attention Deficit Disorder Medication ... Let's just say I've been 'self medicating' with CHOCOLATE, CANDY AND COCA COLA! *insert - grouchy, feeling like crap and totally addictively 'out of freaking control!' *add a dash of three weeks of glutenous gluttony and we had one unhappy momma and a family of unhappy people and a creeping back up to an all time high weight FEAR. Lord have mercy when I stepped on the scale I earnestly looked at my life and I even more earnestly cried out to my God. Then by nothing other than what I c...

So this is more a 'keep track of' for me than anything.......but it is also a GOD is so Good, come let us magnify His name together post. Hilarity. A little over two years ago I was made aware of ADD as an actual 'thing' and came to understand that I responded magnanimously to ADD medication. Enter: SUPER-FREAKING-WOMAN! Productive doesn't even begin to describe this lady that emerged from my slug-like form. Tasks? ACCOMPLISHED! Dreams and plans? FORMULATED AND CARRIED THROUGH! I pulled so many all-nighters and got more done in two years time than I probably had to show for in the five previous years. No joke. and I loved.every.second.of.it. higher than a kite I tell you --- life by the gonads INSERT: THE GREAT FAST OF 2016 Our church always does a 21 day fast at the beginning of each year - usually a Daniel Fast - no meats, no treats, no sweets.  I always found it extremely difficile so I opted for a more for me doable liquid fast.  Slimfast, ...

checkpoint---t-minus 8 hours and counting and this ole gal enters a whole new decade of life. How do I feel? Fan-freaking-tastic. Honestly. I found out at 19 Jesus WAS the Christ, the son of the living God. At 36, after a catastrophic breakdown, found out JUST HOW MUCH I NEEDED HIM (for apart from Him I truly can do nothing) and at 39 I found out I was an ARTIST? Talk about a late bloomer! ---Went  to see an amazing CRNP today (Danny Moon w/ Garrett Medical Group to anyone in that practice...he works out of Deep Creek office) waited literally, no joke over 3 hours, but HE IS WORTH waiting for  smile emoticon  --- in fact I might even make him a keychain that says that  smile emoticon  (or an office sign out of pallet wood!) --- but we laughed and I told him I feel better (mentally and emotionally and even physically than I ever have in my entire life!) --- but because of a few physical reminders that I actually *AM* turning 40 -- I left with the receptionist ...

So I HAVE to give a shout out to just HOW AMAZING and REAL God is. Okay -- I know that I am nothing without Him and apart from Him I can do nothing! -- having said that ---- Christ IN ME is the hope of glory. --- OKAY, so this past weekend I got to visit a fellowship of believers in another geographical region and I had never been to this place before so I literally knew nobody! (except my friend who I RECENTLY met, who took me) Well this non-denominational gathering of believers had a team of pastors during worship/music time in front say "we believe in calling the elders, anointing with oil and that the prayer of faith can heal the sick" so they called anyone sick in mind/heart/body to come up. I kind of fell in line behind, because I really like to lay my hands on the sick and pray for them (because in the bible we are told to? and I have seen miracles...it's cool... but anyway ...) this one couple went up and I wasn't sure who was sick? the dude or the chic...

So, many many years ago a young couple got saved. They loved Jesus and tried to the best of their ability to serve Him. They saw him perform great and mighty miracles. HE called them. HE chose them. HE blessed them. HE used them. Tests and trails came and many failures -- and finally it seemed the earth cracked open and swallowed them whole... and "Great was the fall of the house." 30 years later two women stand side by side worshipping God together --- both redeemed from the pit both having made HIM their LORD and SAVIOR both desiring to give HIM DOMINION in their lives. God showed me that my cousin Jennifer was the "first" and that I was the "last" (grandchild, that is) - from the "great fallen legacy" (I was like, wait, no! there are two other later grandchildren, but God was like "No, you are the first and last from the living years of this legacy" and here we stood hearts raised in praise like TWO BOOKENDS...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuxhXA42mcw  ------ Great song by Jason Upton There's a part in this song where he cries out "Teach us how to love! Teach me how to love! Teach us how to love!" Yesterday in service Pastor  preached about the "one anothers" in the bible and how in order to do the "one anothers" which aren't suggestions, but commands---- we need to TALK TO EACH OTHER- we need to be actively invested in one another's life!  He talked about the mathematical term "PERMUTATIONS" -- (being generically defined as how many different combinations/interactions that can occur between a set number of items --- for example how many variations can occur between the numbers {1,2,3} --- you can have 123, 132, 213, 231, 312, 321 ------so in a congregation of 100 people there are 5,000 different permutations that can occur! 5,000 different combinations of opportunities for people to interact~! (and do the "one anothers" t...

O Taste and See that the Lord is Good! - Psalm 34:8 O that You would rend the heavens and come down that the mountain may quake at Your Presence!  - Isaiah 64:1 I think after Elijah SAW the fire fall from heaven... I think after Moses SAW the red sea part and the people SAW the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night... I think after ANYONE WITNESSES a genuine MOVE OF GOD -- a legitimate MIRACULOUS event---------------you are WRECKED FOR THE ORDINARY! I'm finding it hard in my spirit to got to "nice" church events, when saints are gathered together where God isn't having DOMINION and wrecking lives?? and I've just been thinking about this again and again and that was the phrase that came to me, "Wrecked for the Ordinary" and again, hallelujah, the Holy Spirit reminded me of a moment, hands raised, heart crying out, "O GOD! WRECK ME FOR THE ORDINARY!!!" Oh what a loving God with an extraordinary, impecc...

And Jesus said to  the m, “ I   am   the   bread   of   life . He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes  i n Me shall never thirst. - John 6:35 I  am   the  living  bread  which came down from heaven.  I f anyone eats  of  this  bread , he will live forever; and  the bread  that  I  shall give  i s My flesh, which  I  shall give for  the   life   of   the  world.” - John 6:51 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘ Man   shall   not   live   by   bread   alone , but  by  every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” - Matthew 4:4 It's funny the things we sometimes forget? I was typing out these scriptures and was taken back 8, 9 years ago to a conference I went to in Hagerstown, MD. I think it was called "Four Days of Glory." and as always, God met me there! But the 'flashba...

Thus says the LORD, "Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, Where the good way is, and walk in it; And you will find rest for your souls.  But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'   - Jeremiah 6:16 I stumbled upon this while reading online tonight: It spoke of a woman's story, recounting how she had been morbidly obese at 430 lbs and at a family picnic, collapsed a metal lawn chair. How had she let herself get there? and this was the part that really stuck out to me---after finally calling her respectible "sin" of gluttony what it was "Sin," God was able to help her walk a path of obedience and she has lost over 260lbs.  "There also was not a question as to whether this was God's direction. As I looked back through my journals, I saw the same plan.    God had given it to me at least five times in three decades. I had heard God. I just hadn't followed Him.  When I began to walk out what I knew was His p...