No words are really necessary for this post.  Just seeing Adam and Levi playing, loving one another and creating beautiful memories is enough to lift me to the heights!  These faces are filed with pure joy!   Love these boys!

                       Adam, please forgive me.  I didn’t ask you first, but this pic deserves to be seen!

This is the continuation of a story I started writing a week or so ago.  It sort of took on a life of its own and became waaaay too long for one post.  So…here’s the rest of the story.  As you remember, I have quite an affinity for handmade jewelry and I’m sharing some of my favorite pieces with you.

Just to show you what can be done with old jewelry, notice the chain on this bracelet.  This was a choker chain that I had several diamonds on.  I had designed it and had it made years ago and was tired of it.  So, we removed the diamonds, and doubled the chain.

Then I had this little charm that Mom and Pop bought on a trip they took around the world.  This blue stone is called ‘LAPIS LAZULI‘.  Have you ever heard of it?

(Sorry, it’s the teacher in me…I have to tell you about this stone…)

*****It is mentioned in the Bible, in the book of Exodus.  Before Moses went up into Mt Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments, the Lord instructed him to come to the mountain with several leaders and elders. . . . .  “⁹ Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up ¹⁰ and saw the God of Israel. Under His feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. ”  Exodus 24:9-10  *****

*****Strangely enough, the stone ‘lapis lazuli‘ was also referred to as a ‘sapphire’ in Biblical times.  This is not to be mistaken for the sapphire of our day, which is the corundum, a stone that was not known in ancient times.  So remember that when you read the word ‘sapphire’ in the Bible, you are actually reading about ‘lapis lazuli‘.

*****Theophrastos, a Greek scholar, in his book on stones, refers to Lapis Lazuli as ‘blue with gold-white specks.’

*****Sapir (“sapphire” Ex 28:18). In the OT this is referred to among the most precious stones (Job 28:16).  Ezekiel sees the firmament as resembling the sapphire and his vision of the Garden of Eden includes the sapir (Ezek 28:13).   “You were in Eden, the garden of God;  Every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz,and emerald, chrysolite, onyx, and jasper, sapphire (lapis lazuli),turquoise and beryl…”

LAPIS LAZULI Lapis Lazuli is a beautiful, rich ultramarine-blue stone consisting largely of lazurite and speckled with yellow pyrite. Lapis was one of the most sought after and prized stones of ancient times. It was used for jewelry, ornamentation, seals, and amulets. It was also used extensively for inlaying. Egyptian blue paint was made from finely ground lapis. This stone has been found in abundance in archaeological digs of ancient civilizations, including King Tut’s tomb which held many beautiful specimens of lapis jewelry dating to 1350 BC. Mines in Afghanistan have been producing gem lapis lazuli for nearly 5000 years and are still the worlds largest producer of the material. Most scholars agree that lapis lazuli is actually the stone meant for the term “sapphire” in the Bible. Sapphires were not known before the Roman empire and were initially considered to be jacinth. The Elder Pliny (AD 23-69) gives a description of sappir (translated by most as sapphire) as being like the night sky, spangled with stars, and Theophratus (372-287BC) describes “sappir spotted with gold.” These descriptions definitely indicate the lapis lazuli.

*****FROM- Answers.com

I am so enjoying wearing it!  I had it on an old charm bracelet, but for many years it has lain in an old jewelry box. And, to have a precious stone around my wrist that is the same as God had under His feet gives me an incredible feeling of gratitude for the beauty He created in His world.

This is one of my favorite pieces from Hawaii.  It is all hand braided and contains beautiful natural pearls and sterling silver pieces.  The clasp is a teeny bird on a branch with a birdcage.  This is such a beauty!

Can you tell how very tiny the work on the braiding is?  (Please ignore the red nail polish)

Next is a fun piece that I bought at one of my all time favorite boutiques in Birmingham, White Flowers.  This piece is all sterling silver and  handcrafted by an artist the shop represents.  I love the hammered heart and the tiny crown sitting atop it.  Even the chain is handmade, as well.

And here is merely gathered and strung.  Also from Hawaii, these little shells are gathered in a very hard to access area on the island of Maui.  These are so beautiful, nothing else is needed.  Each shell is different and full of color.  It’s true that the Master Designer makes things that are more beautiful than we can even imagine!

Next is a series of bangles that I bought in Maui.  The black stones are lava rock from the volcanoes that formed the islands.  They are cut into chunks and rounded and polished into these lovely beads.  The white are tiny shells with a natural hole formed from the ocean waves, and the green ones are sea glass found on the beach.  The bangles are hand hammered and the stones are all found by the artist personally.

And, the final one is a beautiful hand hammered simple cross bangle.  The cross is integrated into the design, not just added on.  Love this!

And that winds it up for Part 2 of this post.  I love this beautiful jewelry.  But they are all just things.  My worth and value in this world is not tied to these.  They are fun to wear and pretty to look at, but not extremely valuable, other than the enjoyment they bring me.

I love jewelry and enjoy wearing it, but it is not my treasure.  No, my treasure is my relationshop with my Heavenly Father.  My treasure is the knowledge that I will live in Heaven with Him one day.  That is the only thing I can leave this world with.  Praise the Lord!

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matt. 6:19-21

This post is not going to be nice!  This post is not going to be kind!  It is not going to be mean…but it will be honest.

I am writing this on my IPad, sitting in a doctor’s office in Birmingham, waiting on Pop to see the eye doctor.  (All is well with him.)  It is not easy to write this on the IPad, but I am so mad, that if I don’t write it right now…I am going to go over to that women sitting behind me and yank her hair out…piece by piece!  She is driving me crazy…and it’s not that long of a trip!

GUM SMACKING!!!!!  I hate it!  GUM POPPING!!! I hate it!  GUM CRACKING!!!  I hate it!  The sound of it just jumps in my ear and slides right on down to my next-to-the-last nerve and starts dancing right on top of it!  And, it is not the kind of dancing that make me happy, either.  It GRINDS!  It GRATES!  It POUNDS!  It then jumps from my next-to-the-last nerve to my VERY LAST NERVE!  And there it begins to pulverize that nerve until it totally disintegrates into spasms of severe and utter DELIRIOUS PAIN!  This, my friends, is a very, very unhappy place to be.  It makes my eye twitch.  It makes my hair start to curl.  It makes my right leg start jumping uncontrollably!

All this because someone chooses to smack, blow, pop, crack, bang and snap their gum directly into the ear of those of us who believe in the theory that such ‘obvious enjoyment’ should take place in the privacy of one’s own home or car…..or at the very least in the company of another smacker!  Is that too much to ask?

Since when have doctor’s office waiting rooms become such places of bad behavior?  Is there no decorum anymore?  If there is not a gum smacker in the room, you can be sure there is someone there with young children they are letting run wildly around the room, tearing magazines and shouting across the room with abandon to his brother and picking a fight with his sister which Mom has no intentions of refereeing.  She’s reading a magazine, don’t ya know?   If not this young family, you can be sure there will be a cell phone user who thinks this is the perfect place to catch up on the weeks news with Mama…complete with ‘who did what, to whom and why they should/should not have done it and what needs to be done about it and by whom and exactly when it needs to be done!’  Because I can tell you some very interesting conversations I have heard lately.  But, I won’t.  Because that’s not what is yanking my chain at the moment.  It’s that woman over there with her hair in a braid down her back…chewing, gnawing, masticating, ruminating, chomping on her gum.  It is green.  I know this because SHE HAS HER MOUTH OPEN…and ALL the sound escapes!

I moved away from her.  As kindly as I knew how.  I went as far away from her as I could and put my books on the seat next to me and pretended I needed the extra space to balance my IPad on my knee.  I didn’t want her to think I had moved away from her.  It might hurt her feelings.  It might make her feel bad.  So, I went through the charade to spare her feelings.  HAH!  Because I care about offending or bothering others when we are forced to share close quarters.  I do not want to intrude upon their space nor do I want them to intrude upon mine.  GUM CHOMPING  is an INTRUSION!

I just saw her get up and go to the magazine rack….it is very close to where I am sitting.

Am I being punished for something?  Have I done something to deserve this?

She is standing there now…back against the magazine rack which is on the wall…her mouth again close enough for me to hear what’s going on inside.  And, she is casually flipping the pages of the magazines waiting for something to catch her attention.  First one magazine…then another…and another.  All the while working on that gum for all she’s worth.  Would it be rude if I stick my fingers in my ears?  Can I just scream now and get it over with?

There she goes…back to her seat.  I didn’t glare.  I didn’t tell her to ‘zip it!’  I didn’t act unkindly in any way.

But, if she and I happen to get in the elevator together…just the two of us…all bets are off!