I've moved

Formerly BoutCrazy or Holy Camp

I've moved.  Blogger just was not working on my computer at home, so I had to switch over to WordPress.  Please visit me here.

http://holycamp09.wordpress.com/

Blog issues

Just so you know....I'm having some major problems with my blog right now.  It might look strange, but I'm working on it.  Please be patient.  I'm looking into changing over to WordPress and would love to hear from anyone that has made the switch.

In Case You Wanted to Know

Strange things happening with the computers in my home, so if I seem quiet, that's the reason.  My computer won't load my blog and my daughter's laptop shuts down unexpectedly if jarred too hard.  It's frustrating but also freeing.

Sometimes I believe that God fiddles with my computer to get my mind focused on the important stuff...you know....HIM!..my family...my responsiblities.

So I've done my homework in the study of Daniel, posted my first book review for Exemplify on-line magazine, cleaned my home and deocrated for Fall.  I haven't pulled out those decorations for years, I forgot that I had some cute things, unfortunately I can't show you...well, because of the computer issues.

I'm afraid to actually move for fear I'll lose this connection, so please scan my bloglist and find Janet O.  I received a free book from her yesterday and can't wait to read it.  Also, I believe there is a link for the magazine and their October issue is up and wonderful.  Sorry I can't add the links, even now the screen is flickering.

It's Fall in Tennessee and yet this morning I woke to find frost on the ground.  My mother called me yesterday from Gatlinburg and it was snowing.  She said it was beautiful to see the Fall colors with the snow.  It's been raining alot so the leaves are covering the ground here, a blanket of color.  I wonder if that is why quilters started doing scrap quilts...to lay all those colors on your bed like God lays on the ground.   I've picked up some fall colors and hope to start a quilt using them soon.  I haven't found a pattern yet, still in the searching process.

November 1st I begin a new job within the same company.  I will actually just be moving offices to the opposite side of hall, in the same area with the team I was working with before.  Right now I'm a customer service/sales rep.  I started the position over 3 years ago as just customer service and they've been adding the sales.  This past month, they added it pretty heavy.  I've never been comfortable doing sales, so I started praying.

I asked God for one of two things....either open a new door for me to work within the company or change my attitude and confidence about sales.  Within 2 days my manager approached me about a move that would only be customer serivce for some of the key accounts (like all LifeWay stores)...no sales involved.  I could have given her an answer right away because it felt like God standing there saying...here's the door you asked for.

I did wait and pray about it and talk with Ken.  While there is no salary difference, it really is a step down in position.  The next day I had lunch with the lady I would be working with and talked about the position a bit more, but by that afternoon I had given my manager my answer.  So I will begin the process of learning a new job and cleaning up my current job so that the next person can walk into it without too much confusion.

My writing process has slowed down a bit.  I finally was able to speak with the organization that I wanted to feature in my story, The Fleet & Family Center at NAS Pensacola.  I had my story thinking I knew how I wanted to work the center into the story but after talking with them, I'm having to make some changes, but I think it will all work out okay.

I was asked to write book reviews for Exemplify magazine and have been pondering over books I wanted to share.  I've posted my first review, but fear with the computer issues that I didn't do it completely correct.  I'm waiting axiously to hear back from them that all is well.  Once it is, I already have the next review ready to go and I finished reading the book for the 3rd review yesterday and oh, it was good!

I'm not sure if I've shared about going to a women's conference where Tammy Trent was speaking.  It was a last minute decision to go and I'm so glad that I did.  I went by myself but the ladies of the church greeted me so warmly that I never felt alone.  Tammy's testimony is wonderful.  She really does make you laugh and cry at the same time.  I got to met her for just a moment and told her that she is some of the inspiration for my book.  She gave me a free CD and signed the books I bought.  Yes...they are on my list now to read.

I gues that pretty much catches up with things going on in my life.  Now I've got to get ready for church and get this family on the move. 

I pray that anyone visiting here today will have a very blessed Sunday...a day to just rest in God, find some new insight in His Word, be moved to action...to love...to reach out...to love God differently which will overflow into loving your family differently and treating your neighbors with love.  I pray that God put someone in your path...and mine...that I will have the opportunity to share Him with them through word, deed, or expression.

My Grannie....My Legacy

I talk alot about my Grannie Carathers (mainly because she is still alive).  I will always treasure the talents that she has taught me through quiltmaking and art.  I use what I've learned from her every day, in some way.

However, my Grannie Lewis (who died 20 years ago last month and whose birthday would have been on the 21st of this month) had a huge influence on me too.

Iva Jane (don't you love the old names!?) Wiggs Lewis was my father's mother.  She would have been 105 next week.  She was a Bible scholar that never finished the 6th grade.  When I think of her, it is with a Bible (or two or three) in her hand, notes surrounding her and a red ink pen.  And she had violets in her windows.

I was watering my violets this morning and she came to mind.  I keep them in my window and on nightstands because she did.  I pinch a leaf off and put it in water and start a new plant...just like she showed me.  I start rooting from ivy's in jars and then move to this little bird pot...just like she did.  I'll even secure them in the dirt with bobbi-pins...you guessed it...just like she did.

And I love Bibles...just like she did.

Oh, Grannie had lots of talents.  I have quilts of her's hanging in my house, over banisters, still using them on my beds.  She sewed (working in a shirt factory for many years), she quilted, she crocheted and loved the Lord.  That was her legacy and that was what she passed down to me.

She would read through a Bible every year, sometimes more than one in a year, and make notes in the margins, with that red pin.  She would offer her interpration of the Scripture, references to other verses...underlining those verses that stood out to her.  Grannie would add personal notes about how she had read certain verses while she was rocking my daddy when he was a baby sick all night.  Or her own personal testimony or something about her mother preaching at funerals.

Oh...the Bibles that she read in each year...she gave them away after she was done with them to her children and grandchildren.  This one is mine, just a sample of what the pages look like.  It's hard to read, but a cherished treasure for me.  She actually wrote in mine in 1972 and I found a personal note to me about marriage...after she had passed away and I was going through the Bible again.

When she passed away and the children were dividing up her things, my mother asked for her rocking chair that was falling apart and held together with wire.  It was the chair she would sit in while doing her studying.  No one else wanted it, it was falling apart anyway.  My mother took and did some minor repair and it's good as new.

When I go to my mother's house, I usually find her doing one of two things....quilting or sitting in that chair...studying her Bible.  I think my mother has taken the best from her mother and her mother-in-law and woven them together to make a perfect example for me to live by.  My prayer now is that I will do the same for my children...that I will be able to speak bodly and proclaim like my Grannie did this testimony:

I love God and I love him with all my heart because I know that he loves me. I am his child, he is my heavenly father. When I have a need, I go before him. Ask for it in Jesus’ name and he gives it to me. He opens up the window of Heaven and pours out good blessings on me. He is my strength and my health. He is water for my thirst and food     when I’m hungry. He is everything I could ever hope him to be and                                 he has never failed me.

Grannie & her Quilts

Today was a very neat day for our family.  My grandmother was interviewed by the State of Tennessee Folklife Program Assistant for a book that is being written about folk art in Tennessee.  They took about 1000 pictures of quilts from my grandmother's cedar chests, some which belonged to my great-great-grandmothers. 

I decided to take the day off and be there to hear her talk about the quilts.  Sally got out of class early and came over.  I brought quilts that my mother, Sally, & I have been working on or finished to take pictures of with my great-great-grandmother's quilts.  We ended up being in the story with Grannie since 4 generations of quilters were there, along with my anut (her daughter-in-law) that has been so great about keeping Grannie's stories of her quilts alive and heads up quilt shows in our county.

Here are some shots of the day.

Here's Grannie, Mildred Walldean McPeak Carathers, 96 years old in May.  The star quilt was done by my grandfather's grandmother, Rebecca Angel.

This is some of the pillow cases she's done, still as beautiful as the day she did them.  (Don't ask me why my computer turned the pictures....they weren't like that before I posted them.)

Here's the photographer trying to get a picture of Grannie as she stitches.  She was teaching him what a timble was and how a quilter rocks the needle back and forth.  The Rainbow Log Cabin is what she's been working on lately.  In the next picture she is surrounded by a few of her quilts. 

She made the Catheral Window for my grandfather. It's so heavy that she can't pick it up anymore. The Blue Log Cabin at her feet was pieced by her grandmother who died when she was 6. She later quilted it. It was featured in our local quilt show this past weekend.  The golden Aster behind her head is my favorite.  It's won ribbons in state fairs in Tennessee & Texas.  Museums have also requested it to be put on display with the ribbons.  She's not giving up either.

So what do I do with all that inspiration from today?  I came home and finished quilting my Log Cabin.  I didn't realize I had so little left.  I still have to put the binding on, but the hand quilting on this king size quilt is finished.  It only took over 10 years!  I plan on putting it in a quilt show next year.

 

My Oatmeal Got Cold, but My Cabinets Got Clean

It happens, just like that (hear me snapping my fingers), I go one direction and God starts speaking and words start filling my head and suddenly I've changed direction.

I went downstairs to get something to drink, see some fruit and decide on the banana, then I think I'll add oatmeal (trying to eat healthy).  In the minute that my oatmeal cooks and I fix some Crystal Light Cranberry Apple (obviously wonderful!), I decide to straighten up the kitchen, clean the few crumbs that I missed yesterday.  Then I see the sink.

When we built our log house, I knew one thing for certain....I wanted a cast iron sink.  We found one at the 2nd hand store where we bought our cabinets.  It was from a church that was being remolded, with a small chip on the side.  I snatched it up for $30, well Ken and my dad snatched it up since it was so heavy.

I didn't research these sinks, other than to see how pretty they looked in the magazines and went well with our setting and budget.  I didn't know how much trouble they are to keep clean.  This morning I was reminded.

The  low-fat butter and small amount of sugar (please...I've got to have some sugar!) are now melting in my oatmeal, as well as the ice in my drink.  But I can see the bottom of my sink (the first in a long time).

We have no dishwasher and dishes get stacked in the sink during the day(s) before I get them all washed and finally put away...that happened yesterday.  Ken's morning ritual of coffee has had an affect on my sink.  One side of my double sink stays creamy white, while the other stays stained and scartched.  It takes bleach to get the stains out, which I bought yesterday.

So in-between that minute my oatmeal was cooking and the butter was melting, I fill both sides of the sink up with water & bleach, do just a bit of scrubbing and suddenly I'm washing down all my cabinets.

My oatmeal got cold.

As I was cleaning, I was reminded that in the past 8 years, I have not finished painting my kitchen cabinets.  I had wanted some color in my kitchen since everything was wood in the house, so I painted them green.  However, that was too plain so I hand painted sunflowers on them.  I have not gotten sunflowers on about 4 doors.

I was half done and walked away.

This morning God started speaking to me.

How many projects have you walked away from? 
How stained are you? 
How much cleaning do you need? 
What if I had walked away from you?

Thank goodness He does not walk away from me, I wouldn't be able to go on.  But, I wondered....have I walked away from anyone?  Have I not seen their faith through to completion?  Did I give up because they weren't getting "it"?  Were they too stained, in my opinion, to ever change?

Philippians 1:6 (ESV)  And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

I've got some household projects that I need to make a list of and then check them off as I finish them.  Set prorities and goals to get them done.  Stand firm in the my conviction that I want my cabinets finished!

I'm thinking I need to make a list...let's say a prayer list...of those souls that aren't walking with God yet or anymore.  Start praying for them and checking their names off as they come to Christ, praying for those that seemed to have wondered off, help them find the way back.  I need to stand firm in my conviction that, like Christ, I want ALL to come to know Him.

I finally ate breakfast.  My oatmeal was cold, my hands smelled like bleach...but I got my cabinets clean and I'm pretty sure God did a little cleaning on my while I was on my knees.

The Fill Up

I have found a place to share some of my longer pieces that I've written, at Scribd.  I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I had ideas for 2 plays while driving into work.  This is one of them.

I'm hoping that our church can use it during VBS this upcoming year.  Maybe someone else can use it to.
The Fill Up

Boutcrazy...where did it go? 

As I mentioned, this blog is transforming.  When I started journaling here in 2006, it was basically to have a place to keep up with my friends that I moved away from, to share family stories and pictures.  Honestly, during that time, I named the blog based on how I was feeling and a twist to my name (Boutwell)....I was "about crazy" then.

Now I'm not saying that I've gotten any saner since then.  However, the blog has transformed over the years.  As I've journaled, God has allowed me to use this space as a place to share devotions, insights, and stories that He has given me.

So who/what is Holy Camp?

It's me too. 

Deut. 23:14 (HCSB).....For the Lord your God walks throughout your camp to protect you and deliver your enemies to you; so your encampments must be holy. He must not see anything improper among you or He will turn away from you.

I found this verse many years ago and since then, I've strived to make my "camp" holy, so when God walks through it, He will not turn away.  My "camp" is (spiritually) my life, my body, my spirit, my thoughts & desires.  My "camp" is (literally) my home, my family, our activities.

This blog reflects a little of both of my camps.  I want this place to reflect my journey to become a piece of clay that God is molding into something that He can work with and through.

Under Construction

Yea....you're in the right place....this is still Boutcrazy....although...there is some maintenance and changes going on....stay with me to see my blog's transformation.

Talk to Me

Please, oh please, click here and listen to this song. It is absolutely beautiful. Once you get there, scroll down a bit and it's on the right hand side. Here are the words. Now go hear those words....but come back...I have a surprise.

Talk to Me
words by Randy Moomaw
music by Scott Dotta
v.1
Talk to me, take your time
Tell me all that’s on your mind
Share your heart, bare your soul
Don't hold back, just let it go
Deserts bloom each time you talk to me
v.2
Lean on me and take my hand
Hang on ‘til I understand
Don't you worry, have no fear
You're the reason I'm right here
Mountains move each time you talk to me
c.
Talk to me like you're all I desire
I will take your words and lift them higher
They'll be refined like diamonds in a fire
I see gold each time you talk to me
v.3
Cry your eyes out, scream and shout
Drown your sorrows, drain your doubt
I'm no judge or jury, friend
Just your witness ‘til the end
Oceans part each time you talk to me…
© 2006 r.moomaw

If you joined PrayerGates while you were over there, find me (Deborah, I posted a prayer on the prayer wall for my nephew going into drug rehab).....become my friend over there....then come back here and leave a comment letting me know you did.

I'll give you until Monday night, then Tuesday I will draw 2 names and they will receive the book, Feathers From My Nest, A Mother's Reflection, by Beth Moore. (Be sure and leave a way to contact you.)

For more great songs, check out Amy's place for Then Sings My Soul Saturday.

Kari Noble - Talk to Me

I really like the sound of her voice.

PrayerGates

The great thing about working for a Christian group is that they are concerned about people, not just their products. That's why this website was developed, PrayerGates. A place for women to gather for prayer, using Beth Moore's, Praying God's Word, as the resource for focus.

The "gates" were opened this week, so check it out and tell others about it.