Thankful Hearts

RETIRED!!

 You can enjoy my mix of photos....we finished our cabin with a complete wrap around porch....stained the whole cabin....worked from Spring until August....Put it on the market...sold at a Auction.....God's perfect timing.....traveled several times to and from SC farm....Kevin had his transplant with his older brother Steve giving him "new life" on November 14th, between 8:30 am to 12:30 pm God held our sons in His hands....Steve woke with joy and pain on his face....joy that Kev was doing so well with his new "kidney"  we have a tendency to call "steve"....amazing grace.......God has shown it over and over.....now we are finishing up our SC farm.....my hub is amazing....I am so in love with him after knowing him 50 years now and married 45 that it does "hurt"....his heart beats and the blood flows in my veins....God blessed us with 3 kids....all married many years now themselves...8 grandgals and 1 grandson...some in college now....one in Kindergarden.....it just goes "on and on"...blessing after blessing....mending down to our "family quilt" as needed with "love".....Joy!!!.....  God bless you if you are still reading...the pictures tell "some" of our story this past year.......grateful hearts in ALL  things......K&G......may your Christmas be blessed.......In Him........

NEW POND!

My View.......over 7000 miles total :) just sayin'

Work In Progress!!

Our Haven....Now married almost 45 years!!!

Gary The Builder!!

Indiana Pond Sunset

A Year BEFORE Transplant

Love House My House Quilt

Notice Golden's Posing!!

Fall Colors were Awesome this year

Peace and Joy.....a Gift....

Our Blue Ridge

 The Blue Ridge Parkway is  the most favorite place that my Gary and I love to go too....we even had our Honeymoon in the Smokies in December 1969....just after Christmas, it was perfect....babbling brooks with snow....crisp air.....and new love...

The Blue Ridge
 
Our love seems to keep its' freshness, and we are thankful!!  God has entered our life since we were first married through His precious Son; and we are His followers and we belong to Him.  We are grateful!!

  We are completing work on the outside of our cabin this summer and have been working
very hard. I am sharing a few older pics...we have added 2 side porches and so we have a great wrap around porch. He also added my great kitchen shelves last winter.
  So, with all the construction staining,  I think this is a getaway to the Blues' day for me....it is suppose to rain so I will be quilting and doing laundry and sorting......but my heart will be wandering to those great lookouts!!......hoping to hike them this fall......and my Gary?.....oh he wants to complete his pilots training and eventually fly us OVER them in the fall.
  What do you think about that!! ........ I say  cool!!  and enjoy the link and small picture video there.   I want to say  Quilted Blessings as I do on my quilt blog  In The Sewing Basket as I close; it is just who I am as much as Gary is a carpenter and fixer upper of anything!!......Love, Karen and Gary
  

Walking Out Trust

Walk your Trust Out!

Have you ever woken up at night and known you needed to just trust God and talk to Him.....that He was speaking to you in the middle of the night and that trust was the thing that He was after....listening to RZIM ministry tonight before going to bed put Trust front and center in our minds. Are we trusting God right now, even when our life looks to others a bit mixed?....  Gary and I have had the privilege of traveling and living all over the United States in our almost 44 years of marriage now.  We don't regret one bit of any decision we have made in our life together.  To others it may seem foolish at times, but not to us.  We have explored and we have tested our strength of tenacity and faith.  Faith that God leads, that He never lets you down and He is your very best friend.  Gods' Word is Truth and God can never forsake us; Never. We love Him and we only want to serve Him with our lives and our attitudes and our Spirit.  We pray for our family and our friends and others that come into our lives all the time..... God allowed us to even build our own cabin....that was an adventure all its' own....we have helped others by moving to help them.....we would do it again!!.....
God bless you as you are in your adventure with God....we have desires and things we would like to see God allow us to do in our retirement....reaching into lives more, helping them know God better, being real.....letting God love on them and us!!.....Travel well my friends.....Trust Him.....He won't let you down, He can Not.

All our family minus one in SC at Reunion

HOT!! notice the wash cloth :)

Yes, we do live on the "edge", always will

 Recently, we had our walk with our son, his 5K for gaining support for his future kidney transplant.  His Dad wanted to be that donor but his age will probably stop that due to his age of 63 now.  Trust.  It comes in alot of forms.  We are building a needed porch on the west side of our cabin now...it is weathered....the porch will protect the logs more....Trust....God protects us....Trust.....
God Bless!!.....Kari

Creation

Family and Time

Just some pics of family time together, celebrating so much work by the Graduates and training them by their parents....time marches on...."I'll fly away"!! .... Thank you Mindy for the pics to share :).....

Yep!.....one day they are little and full of giggles and then you turn around and they are 16, then 19.....wow!!........a journey!!  A Flick Journey....blessed!!!   Kari

Graduates

Time does fly by.....two Grads this Spring....lots of life behind them and lost of living ahead too.....have a blessed life girls! is our prayer.....

The story goes for the record that these gals dad went to kindergarten and every day brought back a picture of a house....I asked him if he thought he might like to use his imagination and try drawing a new idea....he came home with the house on one side of the paper and a Indian Tepee on the other.....the rest of the year!!.....Kids are sweet and they all grow up so fast.....but then some of us never really grow up!!....and that is OK too!!  We pray these new graduates follow God with all their hearts, minds and souls.....for really, nothing else matters in life than that.....if we seek the kingdom of God first in our lives.....ALL other things will be added by God......and scripture is where life lies.....all truth....written by God....for us ......  How amazing is that!!......Journey on with God Graduates!!.....and your journey will be most blessed!!   Love...... to you both......Grams and Gramps

Spring Sightings!

Just enjoy.....imagine birds chirping!! We have tons of frogs "calling" this Spring....is that what you call it....but it is just fine, fine, fine that we have Spring.....long awaited.....do you trust the Ground Hog now?.....I don't think so!!.......Oh we were so so ready this year!!  Catch my Spring Quilt Surprise at In The Sewing Basket  Blessings!!  Karen

We have to move this....building a porch here....so pretty!!

opps! last Easter but still pretty!!

Blossoms caught in my hands!

Just gorgeous!!

Magnolia about to burst out!

You should smell these hyacinths!

Catch Me Up!! So pretty!!

Can I say again, Time Flys?

This Is the Cabin That My Gary Built!

ER Nursing with Grandgals and Son Watchin!

For the Love of Quilting!

Yes, time flys!! and we are having fun! Why not?.....we are blessed beyond what we deserve and I truly mean that.  When you look around and see the needs of others.....at times it seems like the world has lost its' Mind....but we know who holds us in His hands, now don't we~!....it is still a chilly winter here in Indiana.  I just put our resumes' in for a job with a company in Ft Wayne that does in home IV therapy.  That would be right up Garys' alley....mine would just be not so intense, but I am up for a new experience if we do seem to be the couple they could use in our area to start setting up that services. We will see!...  I have worked in Home Health and Hospice so I know what to expect going into a home to provide a service. Have technical skills? yes and so does Gary. He has tremendous seasoned ER skills..It is just such a different world when you are in a home and relying on your supply of things and the family is always watching! and that is good and it is the way it is now in nursing....some people are skeptical due to nurses that did not give their best care or doctors that may have "missed" something in treatment,.... the list goes on, for some. Not all.  But we would work just PRN or as we desire. We REALLY want to make our quilt shop a success and want to even start small retreats for quilters to come to the cabin for a night or two and just kick their shoes off and eat, fellowship and get a project done on their own time!.....but I can also squeeze in a few IV visits too as they come, if it is Gods' leading and blessing!!.....we just want to be in Gods' will....not make His will....but BE before Him....so that is what we are up too.  Gary is setting up his Oliver Intellicarver or Digital Wood Carver too. Our family in Utah that was working with us on the plane has had many health issues for the past year, so his plane has most of the fabric on it and is waiting for the next steps.....PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE!!!.....James (the whole book)...
So,  the wood carving is fun with  lots to learn and lots of tweaking!....He is busy with his ER job and his shift can run over too, but that is good too, he has a job and God is supplying our needs...You can catch me at my blog right now..In The Sewing Basket....I will try to add more pictures here too......I do love my Gary.....he is my all in all.....the best man ever!!!  Blessings to your day!...... Karen