A Reason for Joy

Birthdays? Weddings? Showers?
Flowers!

On my birthday, I was blessed abundantly. Two of the special blessings came in the form of wonderful flowers.

The tulips make for a floral welcome to our home. I see them and am happy every time I enter.

The roses give me another burst of joy as I see them first thing in the morning and stop to sniff them several times during the day.

Our family is anticipating a wedding soon. My stepdaughter, Kathi and Joe will be married next month. The maid of honor, Lisa, and the bride's Aunt Les and I gave a bridal shower on Sunday. My responsibility was primarily to host the shower in our home, to decorate and plan a game.

Most of the food was prepared by others. My only food responsibilities were cheese and petit fours. I am so sorry that I forgot to take a picture of the food table after everyone else added their contributions.

The homemade petit fours were fun to try.

I wanted the decorations to say,"Kathi, you are loved. We are rejoicing and bursting with happiness for you!" It gave me pleasure to share my flower gifts and have a garden theme.

Half of the roses were used on the tables in little individual vases. Kathi's Aunt Les, my sister-in-law, helped attach branches and Alstroemeria to the backs of the chairs. (We would have used gladiolas if they were available in our price range.)

I need to give credit to where credit is due. This idea was not original. I had planned to go with an all white theme from an idea that I got from Pinterest.

That probably would have looked more elegant but when the roses and tulips arrived a few days before, I happily changed my plans to a colorful garden.

The rest of the roses graced the welcome table hosted by my two lovely granddaughters, Jessica and Morgan.

Some of Kathi's closest friends are her group of seven friends (eight including Kathi) from high school youth group. Four of those friends attended her shower.

Kathy's friend, Sharon (on the far right) provided a devotional and followed a garden flower theme. She shared the meaning of several flowers and a Bible verse with that characteristic and related it to Joe and Kathi's marriage. She also told the importance of the soil and a foundation in Christ.

The picture shows the flowers and the pot of soil used in Sharon's devotional. I was so involved in the shower once people started arriving that I forgot to take pictures and so I do not have a picture of Sharon giving her devotional.

The guests included friends and family of Kathi and family of Joe. Joe has six sisters and no brothers. We played a Jeopardy type of game relating to both Joe and Kathi. I only have this blurry picture of the game board, but you can still get the idea of it. We had already done two of the columns.

Kathi and her fiancé, Joe, do not need many household items and requested recipes or "Date Night" ideas. As people responded to the shower, we encouraged them to consider giving a "Date Night." Gifts that were given included movie tickets, restaurant gift cards, White Sox tickets, concert tickets, a Chicago food tour as well as a host of other creative ideas of things to do and places to go. Kathi also received many delicious sounding recipes as well as supplies to make the dishes or help to prepare them.

The picture below shows Kathi opening a gift and her maid-of-honor, Lisa, recording the gifts.

We invited Joe to join us for the last part of the shower. He and Kathi shared that they were attracted to each other because of the other's commitment to God and compassion towards others. "Of course," Joe added "and her gorgeous looks (soooo hot!)"

Joe shared, "The Lord Jesus Christ is the cornerstone that our lives are built on. We believe that with Him at our sides as we take this journey together, and our commitment to each other and family, we have a recipe for success, not only for our marriage but for life in general."

Now you know why we are rejoicing.

It is Good

Today is Amy's birthday.

About two weeks ago was her wedding day.

The wedding of Eric and Amy was beautiful, romantic, simple, and worshipful. It was a family affair.

Amy's sister, Dawn, was the matron of honor. Niece Tanyale was Amy's personal assistant. Eric's brother, Mark, was the best man. Sorry Eric and Mark but I could not find a photo of the two of you.

Eric's sister, Kelly sang a sweet love song in her lovely clear voice.

A little later, we were blessed as Amy's brother, Brian and
sister-in-law, Sharice, sang a beautiful and moving duet.

Amy's Uncle Lowell officiated the wedding. He reminded Amy and Eric and all of their guests of the importance of keeping Christ first in marriage.

Eric’s beautiful daughters Loren and Mackenzie brought such joy.

There were delightful, excited, and helpful.

Here is the groom’s cake that they made for their daddy.

How appropriate it was to have the girls participate in the sand ceremony.

They are an integral part of the family and had a part in the engagement. Eric took his two daughters with him. Neither Loren or Mackenzie or Eric could hold their excitement for long so almost as soon as Amy got out of the house, going towards the car, Eric knelt down and asked, “Will you marry us?”

Amy responded, “Yes!” at which point the youngest daughter danced around shouting, “She said, ‘Yes!’ She will marry us!”

Amy set the tone for the wedding. She was inclusive, bringing all of her family and friends into their circle of happiness.

Amy’s family is glad for Eric. He has won their hearts.

Eric’s family expressed over and over their love for and appreciation of Amy and their happiness for Eric.

Many friends and family witnessed the creation of this union.

Here is what God says about the things that He creates; "It is good!"

The Sisterhood of Morning Glories Cheer for Amy

Last week, I attended a Bridal Party for my niece Amy. It was given by the Morning Glories, a group of women that are very dear friends and meet together regularly for breakfast. The group was aptly named some years ago. Sister Lou is part of their group. Amy is her daughter.

The Morning Glories have an enviable relationship and history. During introductions, each woman told how she knew Amy. Many had known Amy since her birth. Betty said, “I was on the couch the night you were born because I was babysitting your two brothers and sister.”

Carolyn said, “I remember when your mom announced that she was pregnant with you at Au Sable.”

The daughters of the Morning Glories, though they may fondly chuckle over their mother’s friends, have a genuine appreciation and affection for the friends of their mothers just as the breakfast group has for each of the daughters represented. The generations pleasantly merge together. Sweet Rachel gushed, “I think Amy is most beautiful and I just love her.” Amy responded “And I think the same of you!”

Amy shared her love story from the beginning when she was heartbroken and hopeless, using the verses from Psalm 40:2.

He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

The women sorrowed for her pain. They treasure Amy and had grieved and prayed for her.

God is gracious and He tenderly and lovingly lifted Amy up. The Morning Glories are thrilled to celebrate her present happiness.

Amy and Eric resonate with a verse that she shared from
Psalm 126:3:

The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.

The Morning Glories wanted to convey their love for Amy with a money tree. It was no ordinary money tree but an especially creative expression. They teased about choosing a Christian money tree—note the tiny cross.

Each of those curls holds a twenty or fifty dollar bill.

Amy’s future mother-in-law and sister-in-law expressed their support and love for her as well. Both had hoped to have Amy in their family almost twenty years ago when Eric and Amy went to the Senior Prom together.

Before going home, the women gathered around Amy and prayed for Amy and Eric.

It truly is a new beginning, a glorious morning in the lives of this dear couple.

For the first time, Mr. and Mrs. . . .

The rule is simple: if you don’t write it down, it never happened.

Okay, so whatever that is . . . an overstatement or just a disclaimer, I am going to post . . . hopefully over the next couple of days . . . some less than current photos still waiting to be downloaded or uploaded from my camera’s appropriately called memory card.

I was thinking of these lines from the movie Princess Bride? Remember? I think of them too often when I think about weddings. The lines always make me chuckle.

Clergyman: Mawage. Mawage is wot bwings us togeder tooday. Mawage, that bwessed awangment, that dweam wifin a dweam...
And wuv, tru wuv, will fowow you foweva...
So tweasure your wuv.

Prince Humperdinck: Skip to the end.

Clergyman: Have you the wing?...and do you, Pwincess Buwwercup...

Prince Humperdinck: Man and wife. Say man and wife.

Clergyman: Man an' wife.

We were privileged to attend two beautiful weddings this fall.

Catherine and Brandon were married in Huntsville, Alabama.

. . . well known for NASA and the space exploration.

A highlight of Catherine and Brandon’s wedding was when the bride’s father sang The Lord’s Prayer at the wedding. It was also fun to watch the daddy/daughter heartfelt dance. Daddy Mike could not help but enthusiastically join in singing the song, My Gal.


While in Huntsville, Hubby and I enjoyed a delightful personal tour of the Botanical Gardens.

The girl scouts had decorated scarecrows like cartoon characters.

There were also hay bale creations all around the gardens.

Watching the turtles made me think of Blogger friend, Wanda.

This particular turtle had a lot of determination and finally made it onto the log after flipping over backwards at least five times while trying.

We each drank a most delicious glass of ice tea while looking out at the beautiful gardens.

Katie & Rich were married in Rockford, IL.

They are a sweet and sincere couple. I loved that Rich cried while Katie walked down the aisle and both struggled with tears during the vows. Something unusual about their wedding was that they incorporated Rich’s hobby/interest of ninjas into the program and the wedding favors.

The reception was at the beautiful Anderson Japanese Gardens.

It was fun to spend a few hours walking around and enjoying a beautiful fall day with friends.

Here are a few of us with Susan, the mother of the bride, in the blue coat. It was a little chilly outside. We are about finished marrying off our children. It is scary to think that it won't be too many years when we will go through another wedding cycle but then it will be grandchildren!