Roses peeking in the window!

15 Friday May 2015

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, encouragement, flowers, gardening, God, Inspirational, nature

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All Sparkled Up, allsparkledup, encouragement, flowers, gardening, God, inspiration, nature, New Dawn, roses, window

I can’t count the number of friends whose lives are really complicated right now. I’m included in that number. So many troubles are weighing heavy on our hearts. But through it all, God is still there and still in charge.

This year, he gave me a little surprise again. Several weeks ago, I noticed New Dawn rose buds in the window!

The New Dawn rose has grown all the way up to my second story kitchen window again.

New Dawn rose buds peek in the kitchen window.

My kitchen window is on the second floor and I don’t have planters in the windows. The patio isn’t finished, the paint is peeling, lots of things are falling apart.

The patio is still unfinished.

Due to disability, I had to let a lot of things go, such as pruning and training the New Dawn rose bush. Just when it was getting to a good age to work with, my spine was collapsing so there were a half dozen years that disappeared.

The New Dawn rose bush is an untrained mess, tangled up with the honeysuckle bush.

Those were the thorn years. Lots of tangles and brambles.

We have to be careful walking down the stairs because the railing is lined with large, sharp thorns.

Even then, good things keep growing. Never forget that… GOOD THINGS KEEP GROWING.

Look how far that rose has grown! All the way to the window!

All the way up to my kitchen window, the rose bush reached.

The roses didn’t care that the paint was peeling.

Does God know where we are? Does he know our dark space? Can he see our need for beauty and goodness?

Yes, God is aware. He knows what we need. And all those little buds lined up in my window to say Good Things Keep Growing.

The roses are blooming now. But the weight of them is pulling the vine over.

I put three nails and a loose wire up to hold the roses up so I can see them from the kitchen again.

Roses in the window!

And how fitting that the rose is called New Dawn. Even without a window box of nourishing dirt, 20 feet from the ground, never stopping, the roses are peeking in my window to remind me Good Things Keep Growing.

Good things keep growing.

And the Lord shall guide thee continually and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. Is 58:11

Snowflake in the window

03 Friday Jan 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, art, crafts, nature, photography, sparkling, sunlight, water

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All Sparkled Up, condensation, crafts, drops, paper snowflakes, photography, snow, snowflakes, sparkling, sunlight, water, window

We’re hoping for real snow. But snowflakes cut from rice paper will do for now.

And this is my 200th blog post!

Flickering Light

16 Monday Jan 2012

Posted by Julia Monroe in sparkling, sunlight

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disco ball, mirror ball, reflecting the sky, sunlight, window

Usually around this time of year I start missing moving light. During spring, summer and fall the sunlight splashes off leaves outside and they are constantly moving light around. Even if I’m not looking outside, my eye catches those dancing specks, like sparks of a warm fire. In winter the light outside is so still that it makes the house seem cold and dark. I miss the flickering!

So that’s when I get out the mirror ball. It is five inches in diameter, covered with mirrors like a mini disco ball. I hang it with a thin cord from the curtain rod in the sunny window. The ball is always gently moving and sometimes I give it a good spin. The squares of light dash all the way across the dining room to the living room walls, filling my space with movement and light.

Even when there isn’t much light, such as the overcast sky today, the ball still spins merrily in the window, reflecting the sky. The room is all sparkled up now.