warning: angels watching!

it’s the monday giggles!

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I love the monday giggles! This regular ‘feature’ post has become a favorite of mine to write and I do hope-ity-hope you love to monday giggle (with me) too!

This past weekend a very delightful surprise occurred when I stumbled upon a monday giggle mascot for my site.  And just wait until you hear how we found one another! (It was love at first giggle!)

Every year I look forward to attending an Annual Charity Event in our community which helps to kick-off the Holiday Season with a Ladies Only Luncheon, while supporting a life-changing organization.

The Gertrude Barber National Institute

Prior to 1952, community-based services for individuals with disabilities were virtually non-existent in Erie, Pennsylvania. Dr. Gertrude A. Barber, an administrator in the city’s school district, answered the calling. She saw a need for a more integrated approach to providing individualized care for those with special needs. And her vision would change the landscape of modern care-giving forever. Armed with little more than a smile and a prayer, she founded the Dr. Gertrude A. Barber Center’s non-profit organization dedicated solely to improving the lives of children and adults within the community.

Over the course of a half-century, the Barber Center staff would help make dreams come true for thousands of people with disabilities and their families. Today, the aptly renamed Barber National Institute continues to grow strong.

With the late Dr. Barber’s vision leading the way; they’re committed to combining the best research with training and education – resulting in the finest prescriptive programming.

The Barber National Institute was recently named Number One in the Nation for it’s care of those with intellectual disabilities.

Ever year at this event the students of the Barber Institute create a delightful “item” for purchase.  I have taken home with me, over the course of the past several years, priceless pieces! There have been handmade note-cards, ornaments, and the likes.  Each has produced wonderful heart-giggles for me but this year was the best yet because…there were Angels there! And each one had been hand-made & hand-named by the students, and that’s how I found her…

my monday giggles angel-gal-pal mascot named, “Hee-Hee!”

(You’re giggling already, right???)

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You never know as you meet someone
Just what might be their need.
Sometimes a warm smile or handshake
Is all it takes to plant a fruitful seed.
Other times you may need to speak a word
Of encouragement to a sister or brother,
Or share your faith along the way
As God gives opportunity with another.
When you meet with a hurting neighbor
Along side of your journey’s road,
Be sure to reach out with a loving hand
And help carry their heavy load;
For you never know on life’s pathway
Just who you might meet there…
Always take note of each precious soul,
For some have entertained Angels Unaware.

~Connie Campbell Bratcher

“Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers:
for thereby some have entertained angels unaware.”
(Heb.13:1-2)

And I do believe this is why I have enjoyed the blogging world so very muchly! There have been so many Angels Unaware (just like Hee-Hee,)  that I have met, who have the same shared heart-space as I, and have reached out with loving hands in my own life’s pathway.  Not to mention the kindly others who have been so appreciative of my own feeble efforts to carry their loads, by taking a sincere interest in their precious souls.

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So, Hee-Hee & I remind you with THIS Monday Giggle that hugs n’ blessings are all that will be found here in our blog-space-say-I, and they’re always freely given to anyone who wishes to receive them!!

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these hugs n’ blessings are yours today…

given by Angels that are watching, (not stalking,) over you!

looking up!

 

Bippity-boppity-blog thoughts to carry you through the weekend…

Look-up-to-Heaven

We see mountains,

God sees molehills.

We see problems,

God sees opportunities

We see challenges,

God sees a miracle

in the making!

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Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows!

~Walt Whitman

 

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Sunset over Lake Erie.

May I never miss a rainbow or a sunset because I’m looking down!

~ Sara June Parker

 

 

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hugs n’ weekend blessings worth looking up for!

bubble-gum surprises!

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We are mid-way into November and the normal “Brrrrrrr!” most of our local hometown residents should be exclaiming is no where in sight. (Yet!) But the traditional hustle-bustle of preparing for the Winter Season is everywhere!  Snow-stakes are being installed and Christmas lights hung (ready for the annual Thanksgiving Day  lighting,) and you can find bags of Snow Salt in every hardware store displayed proudly at the check-out counters.

November for me is an annual cleaning of closets, office-folders & such.  It is an opportunity to de-clutter and begin the preparation for starting a New Year with a clean slate!  So yesterday found me going through my office folder labeled “TO DO,” which contained scribbled messages of ‘this & that’ stuff I hoped TO DO during the course of this past year.  I was happy with the small amount of remaining projects needing completion before the hustle-bustle of the holidays rolled in:  one more crocheted wedding blanket to complete for a very special December Wedding, a shepherd & sheep yard project that’s been swirl-twirling through my creative mind, and organizing a….well, sshhhhh– I cannot say because…it’s a secret!

And there was one little note, scratchily-scribbled on a piece of bubble-gum pink paper reminding me to make a visit to our local Catholic Gift Shop for a gift Dan & I hoped to donate to a special organization.

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I hope they have what we wanted!

When I stopped in to the Catholic Shop today I had no idea that not only would I be able to toss the TO DO note in the waste-basket once I made the necessary purchase, but with the twinkling of a surprise I also happily discovered I could cross off an item from my Bucket List to boot!  Alas, God had heard a spoken desire I’d made many moons ago!

Lo & behold with every person I came upon within the shop they personally greeted me by name!  Who’d have thunk that this would be the place that “EVERYBODY KNOWS MY NAME…AND THEY’RE ALWAYS GLAD I CAME!”  winnie+the+pooh+ehs+ilustratorGod is so funny how he wraps up our wishes sometimes, isn’t he?  He knew I’d hoped for & needed a place that felt like a homecoming...and He delivered in a way I hadn’t quite expected but deliver it He did in a far better way! (I guess God was keeping a secret too!)

And so began my 3hugs&blessings for the Week:

  1.  Crossing off item #14 on my Bucket List,  Have a special place where “everybody knows my name. And they’re always glad I came!”
  2. Finding a delightful spot to host a special bridal shower for our daughter.
  3. The peace & strength that has enveloped me by focusing only on what lies ahead!Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philipines 3:13-14

(All that’s left now is to make a fresh new folder…TO DO it all!!)

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hugs n’ may you find 3 bubble-gum pink surprise blessings too!