This is the treat (Fruit Pizza) my teen daughter made for me as a welcome home from my trip to Waveland, Mississippi, relief.
The relief effort for those along the gulf coast has not finished and my trip last summer to help with the rebuild will continue to impact me for some time. I am truly glad I did go and I am sure those who went with me have the same feelings.

I sell my purses and other craft stuff at this amazing site called Etsy, see my shop at http://www.terryann.etsy.com/. And see these folk who are from that area and are trying to make a living and hang on to the life there. Help them out if you can.
AngleKisses
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5133426
jolieblonde
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5201767
midcitymosaic
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5186500
I put a few others in a couple of blogs ago….. scroll down and check those out too!

Well I have been doing some thinking about what I should write next and this is what I came up with…..I got this somewhere a while ago and it has stayed with me since……..….

Why Go To Church?

A Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. "I've gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all."This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:"I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this .! .. They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!" When you are DOWN to nothing.... God is UP to something! Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible! Thank God for our physical AND our spiritual nourishment!"When Satan is knocking at your door, simply say, "Jesus, could you get that for me?"

More things I learned last summer in Mississippi

Look at these ....
redmoonarts
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=49282
rustchic
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=84087
uniqueproducts
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5005881
betweenpietyandesire
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5182358
dismantled
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=541
cravelouisiana
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5137745
These are links to people in the Katrina/Rita area who are trying to make a living and hang on to the life there. Help them out if you can. I especially like the pralines. Who can resist a tote or check book cover from FEMA tarps?
I have been doing a lot of humming lately… when things are going pretty well, but you have all these little things humming around in your head. Thoughts and dreams wishes and hopes, just when you think things are bound to get better, some new challenge comes along.
Oh……humming = that adrenaline rushing feeling that is neither anger nor worry but sort of exciting ~ confusing ~ single-minded ~ intensity. It is all between; hubby’s work changing, 2nd daughter in summer/driving/new job, 1st daughter – acting, weird, the human condition, and me going thru menopause…. Humming is what I do all the time.
GOD is Good.
All the time.

Hot Spring Morning In Mississippi

I went to a small town called Waveland, MS. I was there for a week and we worked with a Mom of 3 small foster children plus two teens of her own, she is still in the FEMA trailer (all of them together). Got a lot done to her house, still not ready for move in, there was another team from French/Canada...who was going to be continuing our work. It was eye opening. Lot of other groups going there too, many had to camp on the site they were working at, good for us we had a "dorm" style situation and the Christian Life Center. They got started, in the K mart or Walmart (I forget) parking lot 24 hours after the storm and are still there today. So much I am still processing and thinking about. If you are interested in getting a group together from your community or chruch, there are links to the CLC here http://www.clcgulfcoast.com/

The sky can cry for me.

When I can't cry for me.

When others sigh for things unreachable.

Try to stay open and teachable.

To Cry is to be alive.

Embrace the Grace given when we realize we are.