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Frister Rossmann vintage sewing machine By Malphi

We have St. Patrick’s Day coming up in a little over a month, so there’s plenty time to create gifts, cards and decorations for this fun holiday.  Whatever your passion, use it to brighten someone’s St. Pat’s Day this year.

1. Printable cards and decorations here
2. Crocheted Shamrock
3. Shamrock banner for crochet or cross stitch
4. Crocheted Itty Bitty Shamrock
5. Knit Skinny Scarf/Necklace
6. Paint a Shamrock Ivy Bowl
7. PomPom Shamrock fridge magnet
8. Pot of Gold favors
9. Foam Shamrocks
10. Rainbow magnet
11. Clipart and backgrounds
12. Tatted Four Leaf Clover
13. Beaded safety pin patterns
14. Irish Chain quilt
15. Wallpaper
16. St Pat Bear embroidery design
17. Shamrock Keychain needlepoint pattern

So there you have it.  A list of 17 things to make for your March 17th celebration of St Pat’s Day.  May you enjoy the making and the giving and the proverbial luck of the Irish.

The world’s greatest valentine:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

John 3:16 & 17

By powersjq

Is it pork with a dash of lipstick and lots of spending, or is it going to create lots and lots of jobs?  You decide what the stimulus appropriations package is.  You can read a brief summary at My Two Dollars.  Since the actual bill weighs in at 1071 pages, I’m sure you will appreciate the brevity of this recap.  The New York Times answers some readers’ questions and Yahoo gives us an article with the heading of Democrats muscle huge stimulus to brink of passage. 

It will take time and digging to really figure this one out.  I wonder how many of our elected officials actually read all this bill in record time so that they could understand just what it says before it was steamrollered in.  Is it good?  Is it bad?  Will it really do all that or is it just a sad situation that our grandchildren and great grandchildren will be paying for their entire lives?  Will they even be able to pay this debt off or just go on paying the interest forever?

Another installment from Leo Babauta’s Thriving on Less, the companion ebook to his The Power of Less.

Chapter 5 – Make Small Financial Changes First

“Whoever wants to reach a distant goal must take small steps.”    

– Saul Bellow

While it’s important, when scaling back, to try to eliminate non-essential expenses as much as possible, you can’t change everything all at once.

And even if you tried, you’d be less likely to be successful – drastic changes don’t stick as well as small ones do.

So start small when you start changing your financial habits. Want to save money? Cut back on eating out a bit –

if you currently eat out 5 times a week, for example, try doing it only 2-3 times and save the difference. That’s a great way to start.

Look for the things that are easy to change first: eating out, entertainment, non-essential purchases

(magazines, shoes you don’t really need, more clothes, gadgets, stuff like that), subscriptions you

don’t really use much, things like that. Change one at a time, maybe two at the most. Slowly start to

cut things out, and you’ll adjust to your new lifestyle each step of the way. In six months, you’ll have

a lifestyle that’s scaled back greatly, but you won’t feel it as much because it was small steps, one or

two at a time.

Some small changes you might consider:

Cable TV. This might be a drastic change for some. I cut it out and don’t miss it though.

Online website subscriptions you pay for. Various services charge $5, $10, $20 per month – if

you’re signed up to a few of them, they can add up.

Eating out. Reduce the number of times you eat out per week or month. Cook at home more.

Convenience food. Microwave or pre-cooked dinners or lunches are more expensive than buying

the ingredients and cooking them yourself.

Entertainment. Many people go to the movies a lot or other types of shows or entertainment. But

you don’t have to spend a lot of money to have fun.

Drinking. Do you go out with friends and drink a lot? That can really add up. Find healthier ways to

have fun.

Driving. Consider driving less in order to save gas (and maintenance) costs.

Online shopping. It’s easy to order something out of impulse. Put yourself on a 30-day freeze

and try to live without buying online.

Mall shopping. Going to the mall or similar places is a guaranteed way to spend money. Stay

away from these places – have fun at home, at a park or beach or trail, at a free event, at a friend’s

house, and so on.

Coffee. Do you buy a $4 cup of coffee every weekday? That’s $80 a month or $260 a year. And

much more if you buy more than one cup, or buy a snack to go with it.

Magazines, newspapers or books. I’m a fan of reading, but you can read most magazines and

newspapers online. And you can check out a book at a library or buy a used one for cheap.

There are, of course, many other types of smaller expenses you can change, but this list should give

you some ideas. Again, don’t change them all at once – small changes every couple weeks should be

enough. Over time, you’ll have save thousands of dollars.

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old…or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

and the book:

A Lever Long Enough

Taegais Publishing, LLC (January 12, 2009)

Amy Deardon is a skeptic who came to faith through study of the historic circumstances surrounding the death of Jesus. This is her first book.

Visit the author’s website.

Product Details:

List Price: $15.95
Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Taegais Publishing, LLC (January 12, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0981899722
ISBN-13: 978-0981899725

This book is great.  Another one of those that I wanted to read in one sitting, but had to divide up into two as my day did not contain enough hours.  If I’d had a time machine I could have just gone back a few hours and finished the book.  But would it work that way?  Maybe I wouldn’t remember and would just read the same thing over.  Time machines are touchy things.  What if one was off by nine or ten years?  Would you still be able to figure out the information you cut across the time barrier to retrieve?  That’s what you’ll find out in this book.  You’ll also see a major struggle between traditional religion and The Way. 

AND NOW…THE FIRST CHAPTER:

—Archimedes of Syracuse

287-212 B.C.E.

The ancient Qumran Mountains were hard and dusty, fists of rock pushing upwards to strike the face of the sky. As the helicopter trailing the two paragliders banked to the left, Benjamin watched the lead figure closely. Sara soared between two peaks, smooth, so smooth, as she dodged a cliff and spun another turn in her ascent.

Benjamin shook his head. “She flies that thing like it was a part of her.” He saw his pilot, Caleb Mendel, glance over at him.

“They’re looking good,” Mendel said. The earphone in Benjamin’s helmet crackled, the voice tinny and mechanical from the transmitter.

“I’m pleased.”

The two paragliders dangled about twenty feet below the arched cloth wings, the fanned lines passing in a spread to their hands, but Sara flew far ahead—silhouetted against the next cliff now, too close to it. Even as he watched, she executed another sharp turn and dove down, circling out of it and up again as the giant fan strapped to her back pushed the wing’s edge forward. Benjamin let out his breath.

“She sure likes to cut it fine,” Mendel said. “That gust of wind almost knocked her against the rock.”

“She’s all right,” Benjamin replied.

There were three and a half days until FlashBack.

The pilot touched the controls, and Benjamin felt the slight dip as the helicopter rolled to the right on a longer trajectory to keep from staying ahead of the gliders. Thumpa thumpa thumpa…he felt the vibration as the rotors of the helicopter shook the pod. They were going around the turn now and the waters of the Dead Sea spread out before them, glinting red in the late sun. Several small boats floated near a trawler—Benjamin knew they were searching for the weak signal of a nuclear battery.

He was thinking of FlashBack, and the time machine.

Mendel glanced over at the trawler. “It doesn’t look like they’re wrapping up yet. Can they continue to search in the dark?”

“Not as well, but they will. If they find the data now, it will let some pressure off.”

He shifted in his seat. The men on the boats were searching for the data capsule that he wouldn’t deposit in the Dead Sea for another week, yet it may have been there since before the Roman conquest of Jerusalem. It was unclear how the time strands worked.

“If it’s there, it could have corroded through,” the pilot said.

Benjamin shook his head. “Unlikely.” The titanium capsule was sixteen inches in diameter with extraordinarily tight seals. More probable that it was masked from detection by a two-thousand-year-old coating of deposited salt.

He turned his attention back to the soldiers riding on the air currents. How different would it be when they went back?

“Let’s finish up,” he said. The sky was bruising dark as the sun fell, and the gliders still had a good ten minutes to go before they landed.

Rebecca Sharett, behind Sara, was having trouble keeping to a smooth course. Benjamin knew that she wasn’t confident in the air, but really, it wasn’t critical, since they would use the paraglider only as a desperate measure to deliver the information capsule so that it could be carbon-dated. It was treacherous, that was for sure.

Sara cornered another turn, and Benjamin smiled despite himself. She was so smooth. Not just this, but everything to which she touched her hand, or her mind. Lately she seemed to be in his awareness more and more—

Don’t think about her.

The helicopter turned course, following the gliders through the hard range. There were long shadows over the terrain.

“One more line of mountains,” Mendel said.

“Excellent time,” Benjamin replied. “Sara would be running under three and a half hours if she weren’t turning back all the time to wait for Rebecca.”

From the top of his helmet, the pilot pulled down infrared goggles against the growing dark. Full sunset now, deep shadows merged to black on the ground. Benjamin reached for his own set.

They flew on.

To the west the city lights of Jerusalem scattered the infrared image to a green shadow on the periphery of his vision. As they topped the last ring of mountains, he watched Sara glide several hundred feet farther, turn off the fan’s engine on her back, and begin her landing cone of intention. He shook his head. Despite the darkness, Sara barely slowed. She was going to get herself killed.

The new Israeli military complex loomed ahead: multiple buildings guarded by a wickedly sharp perimeter fence and towers. It had been locked down for the past week in preparation for FlashBack. He watched the pilot flip on the microphone to receive clearance for landing in the restricted airspace.

“We’re set,” Mendel said after a moment. “They’re putting on the lights now.”

The helicopter jostled in the air current, and Mendel pulled up on the controls. “Wind’s picking up.”

Benjamin glanced at the lights of the complex, then back at his soldiers. Sara touched down, the cloth wing collapsing behind her like a giant blanket. The two men on the transport vehicle ran forward and began pulling out the wing before she’d even unclipped the harness. Rebecca began to circle. The helicopter whipped through one last circuit as Mendel began their own landing sequence.

Then the pilot made a sudden move.

Benjamin looked over. “What is it?”

The pilot stared hard at the residential building through his infrared goggles, as if trying to see the afterimage of something fleeting. Benjamin hadn’t seen anything himself.

“I’m not sure,” Mendel said slowly.

A breaking news alert from The New York Times stated that a deal compromise has been reached by the House and Senate.  The package pared back Democrats’ proposed spending on education and health in favor of tax cuts needed to win over Republicans.  I’ve not had a chance to read the final wording, but there’s probably still a lot of pork and pay back in this bill.  Hopefully, they have enough in there to actually stimulate the economy.  There were a lot of good things in the bill as it was, but not a very large percentage that would provide jobs.  Mr. President, that’s where we thought you were going to go.

It’s been difficult for a lot of people to keep a good attitude during this recession/depression.  We give the the banks a bailout and they turn around and raise interest rates on credit cards, but not on savings of any kind.  Then they go back with hands out for more.  Banks are not showing us that they want to stimulate the economy.  And another thought. Are we still going to reward all the illegals with amnesty and then give them more on top of that?  Why doesn’t Washington consider giving U.S. citizens and legal aliens the same benefits?  We work, pay taxes, go to war and do a lot of things to support our country.  We don’t want a kick in the teeth for being upstanding citizens. 

You can also read about this agreement in the Washington Post.

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old…or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

and the book:

John’s Quest (Maryland Wedding Series #1)

Barbour Publishing, Inc (2008)

Cecelia Dowdy is a world traveler who has been an avid reader for as long as she can remember. When she first read Christian fiction, she felt called to write for the genre.She loves to read, write, and bake desserts in her spare time. Currently she resides with her husband and young son in Maryland.

Don’t miss the second book in the Maryland Wedding Series, Milk Money!

Visit the author’s website and blog.

Product Details:

Mass Market Paperback: 170 pages
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc (2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1602600066
ISBN-13: 978-1602600065

This is another one of those books I had to read in one sitting.  I just couldn’t put it down.  This is not your typical boy meets girl, hurdle an obstacle and live happily ever after.  This couple had multiple obstacles from beginning to end.  Do they manage to hurdle all the obstacles and live happily ever after?  I’m not telling.  You’re going to have to read the book and find out for yourself.

AND NOW…THE FIRST CHAPTER:

“I’m coming!”

She ran to the door. Looking through the peephole, Monica saw her little sister Gina smiling at her.

Her heart pounded as she opened the door, gripping the knob. “What are you doing here?” Playing an internal game of tug-of-war, she wondered if she should hug her sister or slam the door in her face. Humid heat rushed into the air-conditioned living room. She stared at Gina, still awaiting her response.

“It’s nice to see you too, sister.” Gina pursed her full, red-painted lips and motioned at the child standing beside her. “Go on in, Scotty.”

Gina had brought her seven-year-old son with her. Dark shades hid his sightless eyes. “Aunt Monica!” he called.

Monica released a small cry as she dropped to her knees and embraced him. “I’m here, Scotty.” Tears slid down her cheeks as she hugged the child. Since Gina had cut herself off from immediate family for the last two years, Monica had wondered when she would see Scotty again. “You remember me?” Her heart continued to pound as she stared at her nephew. His light, coffee-colored skin glowed.

“Yeah, I remember you. When mom said I was going to live here, I wanted to come so we could go to the beach in Ocean City.”

Shocked, Monica stared at Gina who was rummaging through her purse. Gina pulled out a cigarette and lighter. Seconds later she was puffing away, gazing into the living room. “You got an ashtray?”

Monica silently prayed, hoping she wouldn’t lose her temper. “Gina, you know I don’t allow smoking in this house.”

Gina shrugged. After a bit of coaxing, she dropped the cigarette on the top step and ground it beneath the heel of her shoe. “I need to talk to you about something.”

Scotty entered the house and wandered through the room, ignoring the adults as he touched objects with his fingers. After Monica fed Scotty a snack and let him fall asleep in the guest bedroom, she confronted Gina.

“Where have you been for the last two years?”

Gina strutted around the living room in her tight jeans, her high heels making small imprints in the plush carpet. “I’ve been around. I was mad because Mom and Dad tried to get custody of Scotty, tried to take me to court and say I was an unfit mother.”

Groaning, Monica plopped onto the couch, holding her head in her hands. “That’s why you haven’t been speaking to me or Mom and Dad for two years?” When Gina sat beside her, Monica took her sister’s chin into her hand and looked into her eyes. “You know you were wrong. Mom and Dad tried to find you. They were worried about Scotty.”

Jerking away, Gina placed a few inches between herself and Monica. “They might have cared about Scotty, but they didn’t care about me.” Gina swore under her breath and rummaged in her purse. Removing a mint, she popped it into her mouth.

“They were worried about you and Scotty,” Monica explained. “You were living with that terrible man. He didn’t work, and he was high on drugs. We didn’t want anything to happen to the two of you.”

Gina’s lips curled into a bitter smirk. “Humph. Me and Scotty are just fine.” She glanced up the stairs. “You saw him. Does he look neglected to you?”

She continued to stare at Gina, still not believing she was here to visit in the middle of the night. “What do you want? What did Scottymean when he said he was coming here to live?”

Gina frowned as she toyed with the strap of her purse. “I want you to keep Scotty for me. Will you?”

Monica jerked back. “What? Why can’t you take care of your own son? Did that crackhead you were living with finally go off the deep end?”

Gina shook her head. “No, we’re not even together anymore. It’s just that. . .” She paused, staring at the crystal vase of red roses adorning the coffee table. “I’m getting married.”

Monica’s heart skipped a beat. “Married?”

Gina nodded, her long minibraids moving with the motion of her head. “Yeah, his name is Randy, and he’s outside now, waiting for me in the car.”

Monica raised her eyebrows, suddenly suspicious. “Why didn’t you bring him inside? Are you ashamed of him?”

Gina shook her head. “No. But we’re in a hurry tonight, and I didn’t want to waste time with formalities.”

“You still haven’t told me why you can’t keep Scotty. Does your fiancé have a problem with having a blind child in his house?”

Gina scowled as she clutched her purse, her dark eyes darting around the room. “No, that’s not it at all.”

“Uh-huh, whatever you say.” She could always sense when Gina was lying. Her body language said it all.

“Really, it’s not Scotty’s blindness that bothers Randy. It’s just that—he’s a trapeze artist in the National African-American Circus and they’re traveling around constantly.” Her dark eyes lit up as she talked about her fiancé. “This year they’ll be going international. Can you imagine me traveling around the globe with Randy? We’ll be going to Paris, London, Rome—all those fancy European places!” She grabbed Monica’s arm. “We’d love to take Scotty, but we can’t afford to hire a tutor for him to travel with us.”

“You’re going to marry some man and travel with a circus?!” Monica shook her head, wondering when her sister would grow up. At twenty-seven, she acted as if she were still a teenager. Since Monica was ten years older, she’d always been the responsible sibling, making sure Gina behaved herself.

Gina grabbed Monica’s shoulder. “But I’m in love with him!” Her eyes slid over Monica as if assessing her. “You’ve never been in love? I think it’s odd that you’re thirty-seven and you never got married.”

Monica closed her eyes for a brief second as thoughts of her single life filled her mind. Since her breakup with her serious boyfriend two years ago, she’d accepted that God wanted her to remain single, and she spent her free time at church in various ministries. She filled her time praising God and serving Him, and she had no regrets for the life she led. But whenever one of the church sisters announced an engagement, she couldn’t stop the pang of envy that sliced through her.

Forcing the thoughts from her mind, she focused on Gina again. “This discussion is not about me. It’s about you. You can’t abandon Scotty. He loves you.”

Gina turned away, as if ashamed of her actions. “I know he does, and I love him, too. But I really want things to work out with Randy, and it won’t work with Scotty on the road with us. He needs special education since he’s blind.”

Her heart immediately went out to Scotty. She touched Gina’s shoulder. “Scotty knows you’re getting married?”

Gina nodded. “I didn’t tell him how long I would be gone, but I told him I’d call and visit. Please do this for me.” Her sister touched her arm, and her dark eyes pleaded with her. She opened her purse and gave Monica some papers. “I’ve already had the power of attorney papers signed and notarized so that you can take care of him.” She pressed the papers into Monica’s hand.

“How long will you be gone?” asked Monica.

“The power of attorney lasts for six months. Hopefully by then me and Randy will be more settled. I’m hoping after the world tour he’ll leave the circus and find a regular job.”
Monica frowned, still clutching the legal documents.

“Please do this for me, Monica,” she pleaded again.

She reluctantly nodded. If she didn’t take care of Scotty, she didn’t know who would.

Rick Rycroft

The fires burning in Australia have taken 173 lives and the toll is expected to top 200.  Two towns have been nearly obliterated.  Both Kinglake, above, and Marysville have few buildings which survived the fires.  It is now thought that some of the fires were started by an arsonist or arsonists.  The entire town of Marysville, where 12 are confirmed dead, has been deemed a crime scene. The crime now is that of mass murder.  You can read more about these fires in The Australian.

Read about the “Last Buccaneer”, Jose Gaspar here.

Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”  He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.”  But Jesus said to them, “”Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you.  But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.  For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.  So they are no longer two, but one flesh.  Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

Mark 10:2-9