y'all! I hope you are all doing well. There is so much going on in the world right now.
The news is full of sad, scary, heartbreaking, and violent stories. I try to keep my
stories uplifting because we all need to hear about good and positive things too.
I will begin with some Happy Fall Y'all pictures!
I know that I've shared this one before but.....Snoopy and Woodstock playing in the
leaves is definitely a fun, fall for all, y'all!
I looked at the stat section of my blog right before I started writing this post. It is very
humbling for me to see the colors light up on the map and list the countries where
people live who read my stories. It never ceases to amaze me when I see that people
who don't even know me take the time to read my stories. Once again, as I do each time
I see this, I placed my hand over the map on my computer screen and as tears ran down
my face I prayed -
Dear God, please give me the words that I need to say to touch their hearts in what
ever way is needed today. And then I prayed the words I've prayed so many times
before:
"Lead me, Lord, lead me, Lord,
by the light of truth to seek and to find the narrow way.
Be my way; be my truth; be my life, my Lord
and lead me, Lord, today."
The above verse is the Refrain from the hymn "Lead Me, Lord" and is my constant prayer.
I am going to list the countries that lit up in my stat section for this week - please know
how much it means to me that you read my stories - wherever you are, near or far, you
and your families are in my prayers and in my hearts. My dreams are full of people I have
never seen, different races, and children - oh the children who reach out to me. Last night
I dreamed I was with a family and one of the little girls reached out and touched my cheek.
I don't know these people but I am so blessed by these dreams.
To the people in Armenia, France, Germany, India, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Poland,
Russia, United Kingdom, and the United States - God bless you all and thank you, thank
you for making me want to keep writing during those time I wonder if it my stories make
a difference at all. I think I will begin listing the countries of my readers each week - I
am always thankful and amazed.
I want to share the following scripture with all of you:
That is why I kneel before the Father from whom every family
in heaven and on earth takes its name; and I pray that He will
bestow on you gifts in keeping with the riches of His glory.
May He strengthen you inwardly
through the working of His Spirit.
May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith, and may
charity be the root and foundation of your life.
Thus you will be able to grasp fully, with all the holy ones,
the breadth and length and height and depth of
Christ's love, and experience this love which surpasses
all knowledge, so that you may attain to the fullness of God himself.
To Him whose power now at work in us can do immeasurably more
than we ask or imagine -
to Him be glory in the church and in
Christ Jesus through all generations, world without end. Amen.
Ephesians 3:14-21
(Saint Joseph Edition of the New American Bible)
Yesterday was a busy day at the Ynostrosa home. It had rained hard all during the night
and we were thankful that we didn't have any of the rain water flow into our home. We
did receive several alerts on my phone about a Tornado Warning - we were still asleep
and I told Jim what was going on - I said a prayer and dozed back off, Jim did too.
When we woke up - I immediately began mixing up banana nut muffins for the youth
bake sale at our parish (Fall Craft Fair). Jim made the coffee and we headed out the door
as soon as the muffins were cool enough to wrap up. We parked in front of the church and
as soon as we got out of the Explorer (I still want to say truck) we saw our daughter,
son-in-law, and their three girls. The oldest one is in the youth group and she was helping
out. We all went inside and quickly (because Jim was with me) looked at all the neat
items at the booths. We purchased some goodies and went on our way. We stopped at
the bridge on Irving Street and watched the water from the Concho River as it flowed
over the flood gate. We visited with some other people who were taking pictures and
watching the water also (this kind of thing doesn't happen very often in San Angelo).
We are always praying for rain because it is usually so dry. We left there and headed in
a different direction to pick up some metal that Jim needed for a job, and then we were
going home. We had bought a couple of cinnamon rolls at the Craft Fair and that was
going to be our breakfast. As we turned the corner, I saw a man who comes to get a
sack lunch. I told Jim and he found a place he could turn around. I remembered that
I had an unopened bottle of water and I grabbed it, smoothed out a paper napkin, and
Jim handed me the cinnamon rolls - the man was very thankful. Jim took me out to eat
breakfast and then we went to pick up the metal he needed and then we came home.
He went outside to work and I decided to bake a couple of loaves of beer bread.
The craft fair was going to be open to the parishioners after each Mass so I wanted to
contribute some more baked goods for the youth. Beer bread is really simple to make
and it smells wonderful while it is baking. Our daughter and her family came over
right before the bread came out of the oven. Their oldest daughter, grandchild #3, said,
"Nana, it smells like Christmas." That comment really warmed my heart. I pulled the
bread out of the oven and it was still hot when another granddaughter, grandchild #7,
told me that she needed to eat some of that bread because it smelled so good. Yes,
it does have a can of beer in each loaf of bread, but the alcohol evaporates while it is
cooking. I decided that I would donate one loaf of bread and we would snack on the
second loaf. While it was still too hot to cut - I cut it anyway - butter and jelly and
exclamations of "this is hot, this tastes good" filled my cozy little kitchen. And then,
our son and daughter-in-law and their children arrived (five more of our grandchildren).
More bread was sliced and slathered with butter and jam. The kids were eating the candy
and chips that Pa/Jim had bought for them the day before. He bought brown paper bags
and wrote each of their names on a bag and then filled them with chips, candy,
Ritz Cheese and Crackers, and mini Moon Pies. The grandkids loved it.
The adults were in the kitchen laughing and eating warm bread and talking about
"Confession" of all things - Saint Padre Pio had been the subject and so confession
came up. Lots of laughing, all of us crowded in my cozy little kitchen, and my heart
just grew and grew.
Blessings to you and yours!
Bye for now, Sharla
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