BACK TO NATURE

   With the cost of everything escalating at an alarming rate, you can still have an attractive lawn by transplanting wildflowers to fill your bedding areas.  Most thrive without watering, are perennial (come back on their own every year), and multiply quickly.  If you have access to any farm or woodland property, plan on transplanting plenty of wildflowers all season long for years of beautiful and easily maintained landscaping.  Many wild shrubs such as seven-bark (wild hydrangea) and beauty berry also transplant easily.  If you have no small children around, yuccas can be found growing wild and are virtually indestructible; but be aware that these bear very sharp spikes.

ARE YOU "WILLING?"

  It's amazing how many people die intestate - that is, leaving no written will.  No one likes to think about dying, but no one should ever stick their family with all the hassles that leaving no will can create.  Some people think it's just too expensive to have a will drawn up - not so!  Quicken's WillMaker Plus is a computer program that allows you to quickly and easily prepare your own will, durable power of attorney, advanced medical directive (living will), and all sorts of other legal documents in accordance with your state's laws.  Make sure you're using the most current version (2008), which can be purchased for under $50 - even less on www.eBay.com and many other websites.

 DO YOU RECALL?  THEY DO!

 FREE STUFF
    WWW.FreeCycle.org puts you in touch with people in your own area and elsewhere who want to give away items rather than let them add to our burgeoning landfills.  Also a great way for you to find takers for some of your discards.

CHUNKY APPLE CAKE 

CROP YOUR OWN! 

  Instead of spending your hard-earned dollars to buy cropped pants or shorts, crop your own!  Oftentimes, kids outgrow the length of their clothes while the waist and seat fit is still okay.  Lop off those too-short britches and create new summer duds in a jiffy.  Minimal sewing skills are needed, as you can hide your stitching by adding ribbon or other attractive and inexpensive decorative trim.  Dig through your own closet and see what you can recreate for yourself, too.  Thrift stores and yard sales are also good places to pick up inexpensive items to experiment on.

 C.D. CD'S?

    If you're like me, you may have collected quite a stack of old non-rewritable CD's.  Instead of tossing them, spray-paint and decorate them, then affix them to wooden dowels or small metal rods to use as garden decorations or markers.  Or join two pieces of wood or metal to form an X; tie the CD's on different lengths of heavy fishing line; drill holes in the metal or wood to attach the loose ends of the fishing line; and create a really cute mobile.  Add bells, beads, or glass, to make a wind chime.

 “That business is definitely on the rocks."  We hear this most often now as referring to a drink with ice, but before the use of ice became so common, the earlier use of "on the rocks" was to indicate something or someone in trouble, in danger, or otherwise in or on the brink of ruin or disaster.  The expression dates back to when the expression was the literal truth concerning a sailing vessel.  Oftentimes a ship would be blown or swept off course, or otherwise find itself having been crashed onto rocks that would tear into the hull of the ship or hold it fast while the waves pounded the vessel into smithereens.  To be "on the rocks" eventually became widely used to express any situation of almost certain peril.

“Fearing that we would be dashed against the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight."
(Acts 27:29, NIV)

  The apostle Paul knew firsthand what rocks could do to the hull of a vessel.  As a prisoner on a storm-tossed ship, Paul prayed to the Lord for deliverance.  The ship continued to be dragged toward shallower and shallower water, and the soldiers and sailors were terrified that they would end up on the rocks and dashed to pieces.  So they lowered a lifeboat into the sea, intending to desert the prisoners and escape from the ship.  But Paul stopped them with a warning:

  You may be going through a very rough sea of your own right now.  You may be wondering how you could possibly be in God's hands and things get so rocky.  Sure, not every trial is necessary - there are certainly some problems in life we can avoid through righteous living.  But there are also those trials that come no matter how close to Jesus we try to keep walking.  Child of God, no matter how dark the storm, KNOW that He loves you and He is with you.  Never give up on God.  Never forsake Him, because He will never give up on you.  Jesus Christ, the Old Ship of Zion, is still our only hope for eternal security.

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