February Music Notes

Has winter ever hit in Minnesota!  This is the most snow and super cold we have experienced yet since we moved here!  Wow!  Who is ready for Spring?
The roads have been so bad that we had to cancel our weekly WOW ladies meet at Liquid Assets.
So if you would like to attend but haven't made it to one yet, please message me via my Facebook Page or email me.  For your convenience you can use the links below:

PERSONALLY:
So since it's been snowing like winter got mad or something, hubby has been plowing for his accounts like crazy.  There's been so much!  School has been cancelled a few times already, so on those days he could really focus on getting it done and I've been able to come along on his plowing routes.  It's really interesting how he does it. Here's a little video I took

I get to spend time with the hubs and at the church we get to be physically active and snowblow/shovel the walkways, entryways and stairs.  As long as the wind isn't blowing too bad, I've actually been enjoying this.  I know right?  Hard to believe, because I'm such a summer/flip-flops person, haha.  However.....there are NO mosquitos right now!  :D
Below a few wintery pictures I've taken on our plowing outings.....

UPCOMING EVENTS:
During the winter months, and especially this winter with the harsh temperatures and the amounts of snow we have been getting, I have to avoid travel this time of year, especially long distances.  So my schedule has been very light.  Keep track with me via the "TRACK" button up top on my website or check in on my Facebook Page.

Date:  2/12, 2/19, 2/26  (watch for weather cancellations)
Time:  12:30-2:30
Event:  WOW Bible Meet
Place:  Liquid Assets
1091  2nd Street South
Town:  Sartell, MN

A group of us ladies (all from different churches) meet every Tuesday at Liquid Assets Coffeehouse in Sartell.  The synonym for WOW means Women Of The Word.  We are there at the same time from 12:30 until 2:30.  Occasionally we schedule an activity such as singing at Quiet Oaks Hospice house (see January 22nd), or we may plan some other community outreach/service on a Tuesday.
We start with my guitar and singing or we may end that way.  Currently I'm teaching on "Dividing Of Soul & Spirit", which has been such a good and interesting study for me....and it has been refreshing for all of us.  We will be on that subject for a little while, it's so good.
You are welcome to join us.  We have fun, we sing, we learn, we study, we look up scriptures to stay grounded and we grow as we love the Lord and He loves on us.

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Date: 3/2/19  {NotesNBling)
Time: 9a-1p
Event:  Sartell Winter Market/Sartell Business Expo
Place:  Sartell Community Center
850 19th Street S.  (GPS will say St. Cloud)
Town:  Sartell, MN

This little Winter Market has been such a fun time for me and we only have two more Winter Markets left - March and April) It is always on the first Saturday each month and is indoors in Sartell's Community Center.  
This time it will be a bigger event, because our little market will be part of a Community Business Expo held the same day.  So we won't be in the small room where we usually are, but among all the other vendors. 
Warren is also going to be there with his BBQ sauce jars in three flavors:  mild, famous and throatwarmer.   So come out and see us!

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IN ENDING:
This past Sunday our pastor shared a great illustration with us, which explains Hebrews 12:1 perfectly!
*In Jules Verne's novel 'The Mysterious Island', he tells of five men who escape a Civil War prison camp by hijacking a hot-air balloon.  As they rise into the air, they realize the wind is carrying them over the ocean.  Watching their homeland disappear on the horizon, they wonder how much longer the balloon can stay aloft.
  As the hours pass and the surface of the ocean draws closer, the men decide they must cast overboard some of the weight, for they had no way to heat the air in the balloon.  Shoes, overcoats and weapons are reluctantly discarded, and the uncomfortable aviators feel their balloon rise.  But only temporarily.  Soon they find themselves dangerously close to the waves again, so they toss their food.  Better to be high and hungry than drown on a full belly!
  Unfortunately, this too, is only a temporary solution, and the craft again threatens to lower the men into the sea.  One man has an idea: they can tie the ropes that hold the passenger car and sit on those ropes.  Then they can cut away the basket beneath them.  As they sever the very thing they had been standing on it drops into the ocean and the balloon rises.
  Not a minute too soon, they spot land.  Eager to stand on terra firma again, the five jump into the water and swim to the island.  They live, spared because they were able to discern the difference between what REALLY was NEEDED and what was not.  The "necessities" they once thought they couldn't live without were the very weights that almost cost them their lives.
The writer to the Hebrews says, "Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles"   (Heb. 12:1  NIV)          -  writer:  Ed Haynes, Edwardsville, IL.

Doesn't that make you think?  What might be hindering us from achieving our dreams?  What might be hindering us from loving Jesus freely?  What might be the burden and weight we hold on to because we blew it too many times or think it's necessary to our life, only to continue being discouraged, disillusioned and unhappy when the Bible says in Psalm 16:11 - You will make known to be the path of life; In Your presence there is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever. (NASB)
Do we love Jesus above all else?  Do we want to be in His presence? Is He in Whom we find joy despite of the circumstances?  Do we seek Him?  It's in discerning what truly is needed (which is Christ) and what is not (which is a lot of stuff that takes our energy, thoughts, worries and fears).  Are we going to truly live, or will the very weights we carry cost us the abundant life?

Stay focused my friends.......
Sam