In God We Trust - Just Over 11 Years

I made my first post about "In God We Trust" just over 11 years ago this last month. Here is a link to that post!

I started picking up coins after having the realization that they have "God" on them and how we should respect HIS name by not allowing coins to stay on the ground. 

From that point on, I have always picked up coins off the ground and put them in a "FOUND MONEY" container and in those 11 years, I have just under $175 that I am saving to use for charity at some point in the future. 

I can go for months and not find any coins, and then I can find some daily. It usually has to do with what is going on in my life. After 11 years, I can safely say there is a pattern of coins showing up when I need a reminder that things are going to be OK and that I do need to trust in God when I am in those situations. 

It seems like I usually end up counting the found coins / money for the year towards the end of the year. Probably because I can't be out working in the yard as much once it is cold. 

I was getting out of the car and headed into a store today when I came around the car to head in, I saw coins on the ground. There were 2 dimes and a nickle on the ground just outside the passenger side of the car. 

I picked them up and then used sanitizer I have clipped on my purse. I then went to the grocery store and there were three coins on the ground at the self checkout. I picked them up and put them into the "penny give and take" sharing with the worker how I always pick up coins as I don't think they should be on the ground since they have God's name on them. He looked a bit shocked at first until it sunk in and then he kind of nodded his head in agreement. 

I came home with the few coins and knowing that the grandchildren are coming to my home soon, I thought I had better count them out. I had forgotten that when they came to visit last time, I put the coins in a baggie to put them up so they couldn't get to them and so I had that little bag to count and add as well.

I had over $12 in found money this past year. It amazes me that I could find so much money in those 11 years. That breaks down to over $15 a year in found money. Granted that $15 is a huge amount, but it is amazing to me the different places I have found money and how many times I found it just when I was under so much stress. God is amazing to have blessed me in so many times in my crazy life. I have been reminded over and over to trust in HIM. 

I feel very blessed to have that many reminders to trust Him. I hope you are so blessed and can find yourself LOTS of coins to remember to TRUST in HIM! 

Have a Blessed day!

Church Christmas Party Blessings

I was able to go to my church Christmas Party tonight. It was lovely having the teens sing carols while the primary age children did a nativity. 

I had a great visit with friends and their family members who came home for a visit and it was good to catch up with them. 

I met a few people I had not met yet who have moved in recently. It was nice to get out like before Covid. There were about half of what we used to have attending. I was able to make some plates for some who have health issues and didn't come. 

I ended up with 3/4 of a large pan of garlic mashed potatoes and 1/4 pan of roast beef and a bucket of gravy. I am going to freeze it for when the girls come home over the holiday. 

I returned the caterers pans and packaged up some smaller containers for me to eat this week.  

I also got to have a long visit with Princess One today, talked with Princess Three, four, and five on the phone today. It was a nice day! 

Have a blessed day! 

A BLACK Out - Really Black

I had a weird experience today. About 7 p.m. everything went BLACK. When I say BLACK, I mean, BLACK. 

Usually when the power goes out, there are some outside lights on in either direction. I live right on a line where power splits for one side of the neighborhood and another power line for the other side of the neighborhood. 

If the power goes out, I have little lights that go on the door knob and they come on with movement. I was in the kitchen and I have windows on both ends of that room and when the lights went out, it was black. I couldn't see anything in front of me. I used my phone to go into the front room and a neighbor came down the street and pulled into her home drive but the house was black and obviously the garage door wouldn't open. I took a picture of the car and showing how dark it is around it. 

I then went to the back door and the light on the knob came on as even with my phone it was black. I opened the back door and the only thing I could see was my back neighbors using their phone looking out their back door. ha ha. 

I took a photo of that as well and then decided to just sit down and wait it out as I have never seen it so dark. There were clouds low in the sky but with no light to reflect off them, it was just black. 

Thank heavens it didn't last for very long. It really made me think how grateful I am for light in my life! Of course, I am grateful that I had a phone so I could get around, but it really made me think how things would be if we didn't have electricity. Living in the middle of nowhere, it really could be an life situation to be without power for some time if there were a big earthquake or something. 

How blessed we are to live in a day where we have so many things to make our lives easier. 

Have a blessed day!

Funny Rusty Car Idea - Jurassic Car

I went on a road trip with my friend this weekend and I am super tired. I am going to share something I saw while we were stopping to pick something up at the grocery store. 

We parked next to a rusty older car and I laughed so hard when I looked over to see this dinosaur logo on the door. I then noticed they had a larger one on the hood and in the front and back fenders, they had "Jurassic Park" like the cars in the movies had on them. 

It was such a creative way to make a VERY rusted out car look "Cool" by just adding a few pieces of vinyl cut outs in a few spots. 

Someone has a good sense of humor and a creative thought process. 

It reminded me when we were younger and had a white boring van. My family made it into a joke by putting a bar code on it and painting "Generic van" on the sides as it was during the time that "no name" generic food came out as the people selling it didn't have to pay for printing and color ink on the boxes, so they just labeled everything in black on white boxes and slashed the prices super low. 

I have a post where I talk about it a little here and found this photo I put in that post talking about it. So, when I saw that car, it "spoke to me" bringing back some nostalgia for creative times with cars. 

Hope it brings a smile to your face as it did mine. Have a blessed day!

Catch 21 By Hi-Q Fun Puzzle for One

I collect vintage games. I found one the other day that I don't remember as a child. It seems like there is a hint of seeing it way back at some point, but I don't thing I ever played it as a child. It is called "Catch 21" by Gabriel HI-Q. 

It is a domino looking type puzzle, where you have to match tiles with holes to fit onto their puzzle board. I thought I would buy this game and give it a try as it was only $0.75 and most of the games that I buy are usually for more than one person, so I was really happy to find a game that I could do myself but that wouldn't take me hours to figure out. 

If I do a puzzle, I can't seem to stop until it is finished. I think it is that I like to finish projects or they are on my mental "list" so I just want it done so I can take it off the "list." It is a fun game / puzzle and it has 2 sides so you can flip it over and try a different puzzle all together. 

I had a funny experience thought. I was doing it in my recliner and dumped out all the puzzle pieces so I could do the other side. I started doing it and realized I was missing one piece. I got out of the chair, looked inside the chair, under the chair, around the chair, and couldn't find the piece anywhere. I shook out my lap blanket, checked the pockets on my sweatshirt and pants, and couldn't find it anywhere. After 10 minutes or so, I finally had the thought to look on the bottom puzzle and see if it was stuck inside the puzzle, which it was! 

I thought I would share that just in case you have the same situation. ha ha I think my grandchildren will really like this puzzle and they are younger, but they LOVE puzzles and have been doing 300 to 500 piece puzzles since age 3, so it will be great to see them take this on. It was fun for me to do, but wasn't something that took all night. 

It took maybe 30 minutes while I was watching a show, so something fun to do but not frustrating and hard. I think it is worth doing and perhaps you could make it into a game timing everyone doing it and give a prize to the person who was able to do it the fastest. Just a fun thing all around. 

Have a blessed day!

A Journey of Vintage Toys

I have been finally getting to listing some things I have had in the garage for years on eBay. Trying to clean out the garage has been a several year process that is still going on and won't probably be finished anytime soon. 

I at least now have shelving in the garage that I can stack the stuff for sale on shelves so I can get to each box. In the past, they were stacked in banana boxes six or seven high where I would have to take down all the boxes off to get into a specific box. 

I now have them all labeled on shelves so I can just pull a box out and get to the item that sells or that I want to list. I started with the larger items that are taking up the most space. I was able to sell a larger and heavy juicer, and decided to list some vintage toys that take up space as sets so that I can hopefully move the larger stuff out and then get to the smaller items. 

Today, I sold some vintage apothecary hand blown milk glass jars in a set of four sizes with 11 jars. It is also a larger box. It is wonderful that I am finally selling these items that have been in the garage for awhile now. Of course, the juicer and jars weren't out there as long as these vintage toys, but I am just happy to be selling things and cleaning out!

I was able to finally pull these toys out of the boxes and take some pictures and both sets had multiple "sets" in them.

The micro-machine set had the "tool box" city set with five extra world sets and about 30 cars as well as the micro-machine van city. I loved that it has two cars that the bottom snaps open and there are even smaller mini cars inside the micro machine cars. They all work as well! 

There were so many parts to the sets so I hope the buyer is happy with the set.  I also sold a vintage Christmas book today.

The Hot Wheels car set was a city set, with police station, garage / shop, and roads, along with a train set. I almost wanted to keep this set as I do have some vintage Hot Wheel tracks to go around the house and thought that the set is fun with the train included, but I would rather have the space and the cash, so I decided to let it go. 

I feel very blessed to be able to get these things out and also found some other not as vintage but still older toy sets that I listed locally as well hoping they would sell before Christmas. 

It is fun to remember these toys from my younger brother playing with them while growing up. Micro-Machines are a bit after my time but he enjoyed them. 

Have a blessed day!

Christmas Gardending - Helping My Neighbor

I told my neighbor a few weeks back that I would come help her prune her shrubs and cut down her flowers. 

I thought I would get to it when I was already outside working with the girls on cutting down the trees last week. However, if you see that post, you will know that we worked until dark on cleaning up those trees and a few pruned branches off the big tree. 

The next few days were holidays so I planned on getting to it this week but had the food bank luncheon yesterday, so I texted her and went down to her house and worked for a few hours pruning her shrubs and cutting her flowers down to the base. 

She had to leave while I worked and she came back just as I was finishing. I cleaned up except for sweeping the walks. I cleaned up the rest and headed home to shower before an appointment. 

I am glad I can be in a position to help her as the neighborhood has changed so much and there aren't many around that can help her at this point. 

Have a blessed day!