26 miles across the sea, Santa Catalina is awaitin’ for me…..Santa Catalina, the Island of Romance! Well, this was our destination last week to share in the engagement celebration of our son J.J.! It was a surprise proposal that he planned for his sweetheart Tiffany, which also happened to be on his birthday (that way, he figured, she would not expect it). 
J.J. invited my hubby and I, one of his best friend’s, Brian,…..
…along with several of Tiffany’s girlfriends from College, her mom and dad, and aunt and uncle. We boarded the Islander Express and headed 26 miles across the sea to the charming Island of Catalina.
J.J. and Tiffany took an earlier boat over and we took the another about an hour later….(remember it was a surprise for Tiffany!).
Just before we arrived, J.J. had rented a golf cart to take Tiff on a scenic drive overlooking Avalon Bay….
He was searching for the perfect romantic spot to ask his sweetheart for her hand in Marriage….as he rounded the curve he came upon the Bell Tower landmark and lookout point….ahhh, perfect!
It was here that J.J. got down on one knee and ask Tiffany to be his wife…
The long awaited sweet moment made even sweeter when a very nice couple was driving by and took a picture just as J.J. was proposing and offered to email them the photo…that is so awesome!
She said YES!
Meanwhile, we arrived and walked toward town to meet them later at a restaurant. The view was breathtaking. The town is so charming and full of family memories of so many summer vacations spent right here….
It doesn’t seem that long ago that J.J. and his brother Dusty and sister Ashley, along with their cousins, played on this very beach, building sand castles, wiggling toes in the cool wet sand, and splashing at the water’s edge. My father-in-law, known as Boppa to my kids, owned a vacation home with Grammy Sue, right here in the hill above the beach…..a home that was previously owned by Mrs. See of Mrs. See’s Candy Company (no there weren’t stashes of chocolates in the cupboards…I looked!). We spent our 4th of July’s here for several years with my hubby’s extended family. We even participated in the Independence Day hometown parades each year. We always had a theme and decorated our golf cart accordingly…one year our theme was “Gilligan’s Island”, I was dressed up like “Maryann”, wearing gingham and carrying a pie…my hubby was the “Professor”. Those were the good old days for sure!
It seems so fitting that J.J. would choose this romantic place, that is so dear to our hearts, to ask his beloved to spend the rest of their lives together….a beautiful place to begin their love story.
This Victorian Cottage was built in 1889 by Peter Gano, it is the third oldest building in Avalon. Unfortunately, it took him two years to build it for his fiance’ and by the time he was finished she found another love. Poor Peter! The story is told that Peter felt so scorned that he vowed “no woman shall ever step foot in my cottage”. I heard this tale during a tour of this house many years ago….and there was a lot of women walking through the rooms…good thing Peter wasn’t there!
The Wrigley Mansion sits on top of the hill…the owners were the Wrigley Spearmint Gum family.
Back to the “Engagement Story”……Tiffany called her mom to tell her the exciting news “Mom! J.J. proposed! I’m engaged!”. Little did she know her mom and all of us were just minutes away from congratulating her in person…
Mama Rose did not let on that we were all there…..
This is the whole crew,on our way to the restaurant to surprise Tiffany and celebrate this wondrous occasion. In this photo we are saying “Show us your bling Tiffany!”.
We all gathered here at Antonio’s, our old hangout, and waited for J.J. and Tiffany to arrive….
There was a whirl of emotions as they walked in….
The happy couple! (Tiffany’s daddy smiling in the back ground)
Mama Rose swooning over the ring..
..
Mama Ruthie, so proud of her son! (you did good honey!)
Tiffany’s parents, Rose and Jim…I could not ask for more wonderful and loving in-laws for J.J., they love him like their own son, I’m so thankful for that!
Tiffany’s friends made these buttons for her and J.J……so cute!
Girlfriends admiring the bling!
Me and my future daughter!
After lunch we played our traditional round of miniature golf. Gary, JJ and I had an advantage since we’ve played this course so many times through the years!
We were ready for some refreshments and decided to stop at Jack’s Cafe’.
Ahhhh! Sweets for the sweet!
There were lots of nostalgic art pieces on the walls at Jack’s, this one summed up the day perfectly!
We are so thankful that the Lord brought Tiffany Rose into J.J.’s life! She is a dream come true and an answer to our prayers.
(Oh honey!)
Ever since J.J. (Jason James) was just a wee little boy we began to pray for his future and the girl he would someday marry. We prayed that the Lord would bless her, protect her, and raise her up to be a loving, compassionate, and joyful girl.
(Oh honey again!)
We prayed that she would love the Lord with all of her heart. Of course we also prayed for our J.J., that he would become a man of honor, of strong character, responsible, loving, respectful, with a good sense of humor and a heart for the Lord. God has definately answered our prayers!
It’s a wonderful thing….they are so good for each other…their future home is going to be filled with lots of love and laughter!
The Island of Romance…..a place of wonderful memories…old and new!
A funny thing happened during my trip to California….I bumped into a dear blog friend! Maryjane from The Beehive Cottage! We had never met in person, only on line. I was at In ‘n’ Out Burger (the best hamburgers EV-AH!) and she recognised my hubby and thought I must be there too…sure enough! She came up to me and said “Ruthann! I’m Maryjane from Beehive Cottage!” Wow! how fun was that! She is a doll! Her blog is just as adorable as she is…please go say “Howdy” and tell her I sent ya!
I also got to spend some time chatting with my other dear friend Sara from Sweet Magnolia Farm. We used to chat at a nearby Antique Mall, this day it was Barnes and Noble. She is one creative gal, oh my goodness she creates the most adorable farm-inspired goods for the home! You know I LoVe anything farm-y! Please stop by her farm and have a look-see at all of her fabulous farm-girl goodies! Yee Haw!
Thanks Sugar Pies for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed my little tour of Catalina Island!
Blessings and Hugs!
Aunt Ruthie
With Spring right around the corner, I decided to start freshening-up around the old farmhouse starting with my pantry. It was really in need of a good de-cluttering, cleaning and re-organizing!
“The beauty of the house is order. The blessing of the house is contentment. The glory of the house is hospitality. The crown of the house is godliness.” ~Author Unknown
Let me tell you it was a mess! And that is not a good thing since my pantry is open for all to see.
When my husband and I designed our house, putting in a large pantry was a priority for me. Not only is there enough room to store food but also serving platters, extra dishes, small appliances, canning supplies, tablecloths, paper goods, lunch boxes,and bowls. But when these things get out of place it can get messy!
I get so many questions and comments on my pantry, I thought I would give y’all a closer look…
My baking center is attatched to the pantry with a pass through window so I can gather ingredients and pass them into the kitchen area.
The sheer white curtains were hung as a sweet reminder of the days when busy farm-wives would set a fresh baked pie on the window sill to cool….the curtains would flutter and dance around it in the fresh country air….
The pantry is an eight by eight square room that separates the living room/entry from the kitchen. The vintage farmhouse screen door comes with me to every house I move to.
The farm-y lantern actually flickers as if there’s a flame inside. I have the same ones hanging around my front porch too. You can even get them with sound effects. Near my front door I have one that plays cricket and frog sounds and another one that plays the steam whistle sound from a Choo-Choo train! These are the kind of lanterns you would find at an amusement park, and since I’m a Disneyland girl, who loves Knotts Berry Farm and Silver Dollar City, I knew they would be perfect! The company offers a variety of entertaining sounds such as cows mooing, chickens and roosters, and horses trotting! The company who makes them is called Somethin’ Different, you can click here to check them out.
The vintage apron hanging on the screen door reminds me that my job as a homemaker is vital to the well being of my family.
“A wise woman builds her house; a foolish woman tears hers down with her own hands.” Proverbs 14:1
Come on in and take a peek…(it’s clean now! lol)
The Flour, Sugar, Eggs,Milk, Bread, and Coffee signs, painted on tin, were found at Gordman’s for around 3 dollars each. They give my pantry an old General Store look.
I stock a lot of my canned goods for those times when the cold wind blows bringing with it snow and ice. It’s a good feeling to have food on hand ( like the makings for Chili or soups) to fill our tummies so we can stay home where it’s warm and safe. On most days though, we eat more fresh fruits and veggies rather than canned goods.
I keep a bowl of clothespins handy in my pantry to keep opened packages air-tight….plus it looks cute…cute is important!
I am serious about cute being important….tucking little bits of sweetness in the nooks and crannies of our home bring delight to the heart, adds comfort in the corners, makes things cozy. It’s the sweet little things placed in love, that help make our house a home.
My canning jars are ready for my summertime jam making!
This is so HillBilly… I just had to show ya! My funny hubby, who does not have a “Mr. Fix-it” bone in his body (he is a financial genius instead) decided one day that he wanted the screen door to close on it’s own. So he rigged up this weight system by tying a ribbon (somehow he found my cute red and white gingham ribbon…thank goodness! LoL) to a metal basket. The weights consist of one can of peaches and one can of pumpkin. It works!!!! Oh HoNeY!
HiLaRiOuS!
Getting my pantry cleaned and organized gave me such a freeing feeling! Like a weight lifted off my back. Don’t y’all just love the feeling when you’ve cleaned out a closet or the garage? It was something that needed to be done for a while but for one reason or another I just couldn’t get to it….until one day I went in to get something and looked on the package to see the expiration date…well, that thing should have been thrown out a loooooong time ago! That was it! I grabbed my apron and rolled up my sleeves…this was gonna be war and it was not going to be pretty! I knew right then I needed to clean every shelf, and check every item for freshness…. I was not going to have a repeat of something that happened a year ago….
…this is what happened….one day last year little Summer stayed home from school with an upset tummy and a slight fever. Wanting to make her as comfortable as I could I made a little bed on the sofa by covering the bottom cushions with a fresh bed sheet, propped up her pillow at one end and covered her with a soft warm blanket and turned a video on for her. Then I got busy making some chicken soup. Around noon I lined a tray with a flour sack towel, placed the bowl of soup on it with a side of saltine crackers. Then I carried the tray of homemade goodness to Summer. Of course at this point I’m feeling like a happy little mother hen taking good care of her baby chickie……until Summer took a little nibble from the cracker. She grabbed the napkin and immediately spit it out with a loud “EW!”,I said ‘What’s wrong?” She answered, as she ran to the bathroom to rinse her mouth out and brush her teeth, “the cracker tastes yucky….like it’s rotten!” Well, I took a bite…”Ew!” she was right, the cracker was bitter, it had turned rancid. After I ran to brush my teeth, I went to check the expiration date and yes it was way old…not quite as old as Moses, but pretty old! Oh for goodness sake! My poor child! I felt TeRRiBLe! From then on I’ve become a freak at checking expiration dates on food.
I guess it made sense. We don’t eat a lot of saltine crackers except for when someone gets sick and no one had been sick in quite a while (thank the Lord). It didn’t seem like it had been that long since I bought them. Of course, they could have been sitting on the shelf at the store for a long time. So now I check the dates on the food before I put it in my grocery cart. No more yucky old food is gonna get passed these Mama’s eyes ever again!
Back to cleaning my pantry….as I was taking everything off the shelves, checking each item, throwing away any expired food and wiping everything down, I began to think about the similarities between the things we stock in our pantry and the things we store in our hearts and minds. It doesn’t do me or my family any good to have a pantry filled with rancid food nor does it do us any good to have our mind filled with rancid thoughts. Bitterness, anger, unforgiveness, self-pity, stagnant thinking, unrealistic expectations, disappointments, holding onto the past, bad attitudes, grumbling, complaining, self- destructive thinking, critical, unkind thoughts toward people, jealousy, hopelessness, dreading to do the things that need to be done, laziness, fear, worry, negativity (thoughts we all have have had at one time or another). These kinds of thoughts don’t just stay in our mind and heart they come out through our actions and the words we speak (“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he” Proverbs 23:7) causing those around us to experience the bitter taste of our negative attitudes. They also can make us sick physically, cause us to feel miserable emotionally, and steal our peace and joy.
Why do we keep these miserable thoughts on the shelves of our mind and heart, knowing they will only keep us from the kind of joyful life we all want? Is keeping that grudge on the top shelf worth more than having peace of mind? Uh. No.
What’s a gal to do?
We need to take stock and clean out the pantry of our mind and heart!
The fabulous news is we’ve got help from the Lord!
He has given us the tools to clean out, freshen, and sweeten our mind , through the Word of God. He has all of the tools that we need right there in the Bible. But we’ve got to roll up our sleeves, and take the time to renew and refresh our mind everyday by reading and meditating on His scriptures. We’ve got to take the time to pray! You may have heard this 1000 times but I am telling you if you aren’t prayerfully meditating on God’s Word everday your rancid thoughts will get the best of you. Now, don’t you want the best of you to be put to better use? I do!
Romans 12:2 says “… do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
God and His Word is our only hope, because things happen everyday that can cause us to become disappointed, fearful, angry, offended and worried. If the pantry of our heart and mind are not stocked fresh with His promises then our rancid thoughts will soon take over, leaving a bitter taste in our mouth, causing us to forget about His tender mercies, grace, and love. Our spirit gets weak because we aren’t feeding it nourishing soul food. We forget God’s blessings. If we forget His blessings we fail to be thankful. It’s like boarding up all the windows in the house, shutting out the fresh air and sunshine. Our thoughts become dark and stale. Rancid thinking is faith contaminated.
But Glory Be! Oh mY! His Word will bring light and a fresh breeze of sweetness into our mind so we can clearly see the thoughts we need to discard and replace them with God’s sparkling goodness!
Sugar Pies here’s what to do:
Start with asking for forgiveness. Ask for God to change your heart. Then whatever negative thoughts are in your mind find a scripture that relates to it. Highlight it in your Bible, write it down, read it and pray it over your situation each time this thought bothers you….that could mean you’ll be reading it several times a day! That’s a good thing! Write it on sticky notes and place them around your house to remind you. Write it on your cute chalkboard! I’m telling you this will bring freedom! That same feeling you get when you clean out your pantry, scrubbing the shelves with a bucket of hot soapy water and throwing away the outdated stuff that’s just been sitting there rotting. ( We don’t want to serve our rancid thinking to our family!!) Pretty soon things will start to feel bright and cheery again! But remember you have to keep it up, or things will go back to how they were. Fill the pantry of your mind and heart with God’s goodness. Here are just a few samples of scriptures to get you started.
Need to be more loving?
Read: 1 Corinthians 13
“Love never gives up…love cares more for others than for self…Love doesn’t fly off the handle…Love doesn’t keep score….Trusts God always…always looks for the best…never looks back but keeps going to the end.” ~The Message Bible
Need to forgive someone?
Read: Matthew 6:14-15
“In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can’t get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God’s part.” ~ The Message Bible
Been critical?
Read Luke 6:37
“Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults–unless, of course, you want the same treatment. Don’t condemn those who are down; that hardness can boomerang. Be easy on people; you’ll find life a lot easier.” ~ The Message Bible
Read Proverbs 18:21
“Words kill, words give life: they’re either poison or fruit—you choose.” The Message Bible
Read Ephesians 4:9
“Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. say only what helps, each word a gift.” ~ The Message Bible
Want to change?
Read Acts 3:19
“It’s time to change your ways! Turn to face God so he can wipe away your sins, pour out showers of blessing to refresh you.” The Message Bible
Angry?
Read Romans 12:19
Don’t insist on getting even: that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,” says God. “I’ll take care of it.” ~The Message Bible
Want joy?
Read Psalm 16: 8-9
“Day and night I’ll stick with God. I’ve got a good thing going and I’m not letting go. I’m happy from the inside out–and from the outside in, I’m firmly formed.” ~The Message Bible
Read Philippians 4:4
“Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in Him!” The Message Bible
Dissappointed?
Read Psalm 121:1,2
“I will lift up my eyes to the hills; from whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”
Read 2 Corinthians 1:4
“God comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, He brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us.” The Message Bible
Read 2 Corinthians 4:16
“Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without His unfolding grace.” ~The Message Bible
Need direction?
Read Psalm 19:13
“Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh! Keep me from stupid sins, from thinking I can take over your work.” ~ The Message Bible
Read Proverbs 3:5-7
“Trust God from the bottom of your heart. Don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go. He’s the one who will keep you on track. Don’t assume that you know it all. Run to God! Run from evil!” ~The Message Bible
Well, Sugar Pies, isn’t it wonderful that the Lord can use our everyday moments…like cleaning out a pantry….to shine the light on the joy-giving path so we can see the best way to go and the best thoughts to think? I want God’s best for me and I know you do to! Get ready to roll up your sleeves sistas and let God throw away any rancid-cracker thinking and scrub your heart and mind sparkling clean through the cleansing power of His Word
Be faithful Sugars, to read it, pray it, and obey it and He will set you free and fill your heart up with the brightness of His love! Tell your family to get their sunglasses ready because you are going to be RADIANT with the sweetness and goodness of the Lord! (I can see you’re glowing already!)
Blessings and hugs honey’s!
Aunt Ruthie
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