“The RoseBouquet”

I really did start to work on the photo story of the garden harvest last night. I managed to choose and re-size and prepare about 35 out of a 100 photos, but there are more on another disk. There wasn’t enough time to narrow those down and prepare the actual photo story pages. I’m afraid you’ll have to wait another week for that. But it should be several pages full when it’s ready.

There was a hearty frost last night, so now there are only the beets and a few carrots left to bring in. Then Dad will rotortill through the whole garden, and it will be ready for winter.

The Daily devotional Bible study blog, with ezine edition, is about set to roll out. On the blog site you can zero in on this category by bookmarking this URL. http://Blogs.Ruthes-SecretRoses.com/category/daily-devotional/ I write up my daily Bible studies as one page devotionals. I’m just finishing a long stretch in the book of Matthew. It’s all about the Kingdom of Jesus. It seems time to start sharing them.

If it’s easier for you if I come to your email box, you’ll want to subscribe to the ezine version. I don’t have a dedicated subscribe page for it yet, but to make sure I have at least some subscribers ready to start with the very first one, I want to announce that you can subscribe by going to this page, Subscribe HERE You’ll see “Kingdom of Jesus (Daily Devotional)” in the drop down menu. Simply put your email address in the other blank, and hit Submit.

To allow a few days for subscribers to get on the list, and to double-opt in (that is, reply that YES, they want to subscribe), and because of being busy this week with company interrupting my schedule, the first blog/issue of this daily devotional will be on Monday, September 25.

To make sure I can fit in this new daily posting item into my schedule, for now it will only be Monday through Friday. If it becomes feasible, and there is a demand, I may add Saturday and Sundays later on. We all should have a daily Bible study time every day of the week, but this is an extra responsibility for me that I have to squeeze in and make as regular as brushing my teeth.

BigDaddySearch - the one I’ve been telling you about recently, is giving away blogs to their members in a few days. If you’ve been thinking of starting one, here’s your chance. You can blog/publish your poems, articles, stories, your diary… whatever!

The difference about this one is that for every word you put down in your blogs, you get PPC credits, which is suppose to help you advertise what you’re promoting AND earn you money too! See, it will pay to be wordy there. I may have to re-print some of my blogs there.

Of course, I’d like to have you my little downline family, so if you’re inclined to try this, use this link please, SearchBigDaddy

But hey, if you’d prefer a blog more like mine at the RoseBouquet here, I can help you out too. Simply get yourself a domain name (they are cheap at GoDaddy.com) and contact me for my hosting service. For just $12/year, I can set you up with a a hosting package. I can even install the WordPress blogging softward for you - I’ll do that for free! Then you can create as many categories or topics for your blogs as you want. And no advertising unless YOU put it there.

Here are five questions to consider when a new friend comes into your life. This assumes you are willing to be an intentional agent of God’s love and wonderful friendship.

1. What are God’s purposes in this friend’s life? What responsibilities and opportunities has God given this person?

2. How far has that friend come? Has he or she achieved what’s on his or her horizon?

3. What, if anything, has hindered God? Things like bitterness, temporal values, or moral impurity can halt or turn aside God’s higher goals for a person.

4. How can I cooperate with God to help out this new friend? Can I visualize achievements and be of assistance in removing root problems?

5. What can I learn from this person?

Remember, God does not want us to be so fearful or in awe of another person that we are tied up in knots. Nor are we to think of ourselves above others, and to use them to our own selfish advantage. There is always something we can learn from everyone we meet and get to know.

Be intentional about your friendships. Make new friends because you might be in a position to help them along. Leave it up to God to work out how they will bless and help you.

If nothing works, consider that this is not the right season for your relationship, and just look for what you can learn. Maybe that will be a don’t-follow-this-example kind of lesson.

True friendships last a long, long time, not just the space of today’s date. So don’t file them away too quickly.

Ruthe, the heroine in my novel, is this kind of intentional friend! Reading the book would be like watching her in action.

……….

Read sample chapters of my first novel online, starting at the index

Order the e-book to download and read on your computer; Order Page (or if you email me, we can make a deal and I’ll send it to you on CD).

You can order the softcover paperback Booklocker.com

The Daily devotional Bible study blog, with ezine edition, is about set to roll out. On the blog site you can zero in on this category by bookmarking this URL. Daily Devotional I write up my daily Bible studies as one page devotionals. I’m just finishing a long stretch in the book of Matthew. It’s all about the Kingdom of Jesus. It seems time to start sharing them.

If it’s easier for you if I come to your email box, you’ll want to subscribe to the ezine version. I don’t have a dedicated subscribe page for it yet, but to make sure I have at least some subscribers ready to start with the very first one, I want to announce that you can subscribe by going to this page, Subscribe Now You’ll see “Kingdom of Jesus (Daily Devotional)” in the drop down menu. Simply put your email address in the other blank, and hit Submit.

To allow a few days for subscribers to get on the list, and to double-opt in (that is, reply that YES, they want to subscribe), and because of being busy this week with company interrupting my schedule, the first blog/issue of this daily devotional will be on Monday, September 25.

To make sure I can fit in this new daily posting item into my schedule, for now it will only be Monday through Friday. If it becomes feasible, and there is a demand, I may add Saturday and Sundays later on. We all should have a daily Bible study time every day of the week, but this is an extra responsiblity for me that I have to squeeze in and make as regular as brushing my teeth.

The seasons are changing. That’s a good thing, really. I feel sorry for people who live in parts of the world where they don’t see seasonal changes the way we do. We’ve had a very good summer with heat that required our air-conditioner to be on only during the hotest ones in July. Otherwise the temperature has been quite comfortable.

This August and September (so far) have been mostly dry, which is just right for a good harvest. I don’t hear people complaining in this area. Those that remember to be grateful are thanking God. On the radio I heard yesterday that the harvest of crops is well ahead of schedule.

But today is a rainy day, and I see the forecast is for several more days like this. There is a smell a taste of fall in the air. The trees are changing colour and I’ve even seen one or two that were totally bare already.

Dad has been harvesting our garden as I said last week, and was going to bring in the last of the tomatoes, cucumbers, etc., today, but now he’s having a rest in his recliner. Not much you can do but rest on a rainy day, if you’re a gardener.

Well, Monday, he sat patiently at the table and methodically cored and peeled and diced two pails full of apples for the freezer. They are sour green apples, but he knows they’ll make good pies.

The outside exercise has been good for him too. Dad mentioned the other day that he’s lost some weight, and I notice that the skin around his face is hanging loosely. There is no telling if he’ll feel up to this much gardening work next year, but I’m grateful he can still do it this year.

We’ve had such good produce from our garden that when we make a trip to the city, Dad usually goes out and picks a bag full of this, and an armload of that, and then we distribute them among friends there.

Now God is bringing us the fall or autumn and winter to rest from these projects, and focus on other things. In spring, we’ll be eager to get out there and work in the garden again! See? The seasons are meant to give us variety.

Hmm! Mainly this has been a week of re-doing the stuff I lost from the week before last. There are seasons, I guess, even in my business life. I’ve noticed that I’m getting impatient to finish my site renovations and move on to marketing and promotion of my novel, and sites, and affiliate products. I’d also like to do more creative writing, as in articles. How will I fit that in?

Well, I’ve been reading that posting articles on article collection/directory sites, including a short bio and links to a site as recommended, is a great way to do marketing and to position oneself as an expert in one’s key area. I know I could do that, it’s a question of fitting in the time.

So the other day I took an hour for brainstorming and looking at my renovational progress, and how to rearrange my schedule just a bit here and there, to make this possible. Sure enough! It looks like it might work! It will take a few more weeks to finish off the one sitemap, but I think I can phase into this new plan and do both promotional work and the creative writing on the same days.

This RoseBouquet will benefit in that I’ll have a batch of fresh articles to choose from each week,which will save time dashing them off on Wednesday mornings. For today I’ll share my review of a book I just finished and really enjoyed a lot.

Updating you on the SUSE system install…the man from whom I ordered the DVD that didn’t work has offered to send me the CD set instead. I’ve discovered that my new blank DVDs are not burning correctly. At least I know that now, and will not use those for a backup.

My former system, SUSE 9.3, has been working fine this past week, and aside from having to do some work over, that I had lost, I’m able to work my usual limber-fingered pace.

My subscriber and friend, Robin from South Africa wrote yesterday, “I think you’re amazing. The epitome of perseverance with your Suze problems. You’ll come right, I know you will. Perseverance like that brings its own rewards - enjoy them when they arrive.”

Yep! The epitome of perseverance - that’s me!

Updating you on the daily devotional blog/ezine… progress has been slow, but at present I’m still aiming for it. I have a feeling that there is a force out there that wants to hinder or prevent me from starting this. To give up would give the victory to that enemy. Until I know for a fact that it is not the right thing to do, I will proceed.

Some have thought of spring as the time to go into a new job, but that’s because students become available then. Many other have job changes or new jobs starting in September. If you’re of a mind to hunt for a job tailored for you, you might want to look at some of these job listing sites;

Workopolis describes itself as Canada’a Biggest Job site
CareerBuilder.com (international)
CareerBuilder.ca (Canadian)
CareerBuilder.com (USA)
JobListings.net

Yahoo Hot Jobs is a directory to even more such sites; Yahoo Hot Jobs
So does this one: Library Internet Index

If you want a job in Astronomy check - AAS.org (Who knows, maybe they have some non-technical jobs too, Charlie).

I can create more jobs for myself than I can handle, so I’m not hunting for a new one, but it looks to me as if all these site have the tools you need to learn to create a great resume, guidance for your interviews, and to land a nearly perfect job for you.

written by Philip Yancey
Reviewed by Ruth Marlene Friesen
Yancey says that grace is the last good word that has not had its meaning perverted to become a word of derision, such as charity has. Dissecting a word seems to spoil it for many, so instead of trying to take it apart, he honours and displays grace in stories that show it off to best advantage.

Good move! I can hardly recall when a book got me this excited. Of course I’ve heard of grace all my life, growing up in church, just as he did, from babyhood on, and I know I have leaned - no, thrown myself utterly on the grace of our Lord many times, but this treatment in this book really opened my eyes to understand better what a marvelous and priceless gift God’s grace is to us.

The stories he tells illustrate grace beautifully. The four parts each begin with an outstanding story. Those alone teach a great deal about grace. The story of Babette’s Feast lingered long after my mind was on other things again. I’m still pondering Big Harold’s life story.

I have never before seen the sharp contrast; that yes, the world can do most of the things the church does, but the one thing no other religion, secular government, organization or person can do is show this kind of grace - unmerited love and forgiveness. This is what is unique about our God and how we live if we truly are followers and believers in Christ Jesus.

Yancey shows God to be a Lovesick Father. God is waiting eagerly for our decision to rise up and return to Him. He has gifts and membership in His family, and a big celebration all in the waiting for us. Yancey says, “There is nothing we can do to make God love us more. There is nothing we can do to make God love us less.”

In the story, A Home for Bastards, Will Campbell is quoted in his reply to a journalist who wanted the Christian message in ten words or less; “We are all bastards but God loves us anyway.”

[To read the rest so this book review and to see it, go to; AmazingGrace]

Ph-e-e=hew! The smells coming from the kitchen right now! Dad has been hinting for several days that he’s going to make his own liniment. That’s what he’s doing right now. I’m not sure he knows what he’s doing, but around here, we both try things out and learn as we go.

Not sure that there should be a raw egg in this mixture; it’s going to go bad in the bottle, isn’t it? But I checked for some recipes online, and sure enough - they call for a raw egg. Together with things like turpentine, and camphor! Those are the high-smell ingredients.

Me, I’d rather stick with herbs. But if I want Dad to give me space for my experiments, I guess I have to allow him room to do his.

He managed to dig up all our potatoes in the garden last week over three days. (The second day was rainy, so he sat inside). In the past we’ve been happy if we had one wheelbarrow full of potatoes. That lasts us through the winter and allows for some to plant in spring again. This year he got two wheelbarrows full.

We started brainstorming for people to offer them to, but I decided to call my friend Kathy first. Turns out they didn’t have a garden this year, and they’d be happy to buy them from us. We sold them 152 lbs.

How did you spend the long weekend?

I feel like I’m just back from a very intense four day weekend. I don’t want to be overly dramatic, but Saturday through yesterday were quite an experience for me.

Some relatives who were to come this Labour Day weekend had a change of plans,so I decided to install the new system over my SUSE 9.3 of a year ago. I had no idea it was going to be such a rough weekend! I did have to re-install my Suse 9.3 several times last fall, until I’d learned to do the partitioning right, and make sure I set all the mount points. I thought I’d covered everything in that very steep learning curve. Turns out - there are other things that can go wrong.

Saturday morning I made a complete backup of all my own files on a new DVD. I read some chapters in the e-books I’d downloaded from you, and prepared to write a journal of my steps for my niece’s sake. Ready, set, go.

But my computer did not find the Suse 10.1 DVD bootable!

While I waited for it to come in the mail, I had downloaded and burned the 6 iso CDs from OpenSuse, and that seemed to go quite well, so I was going to send that to my niece. When the DVD wouldn’t work I tried the CDs. The first one went fine, but when I had to switch to CD2 it kept asking for it, even though it was in the drive. (and all the mdsums had checked for those CDs).

I tried the DVD again. No go.

I had also downloaded and burned a mini-iso CD and tried that but was stumped when it asked for the IP address of the ftp site I wanted to use. Eventually I gave up and re-installed my Suse 9.3 I spent Sat. night online looking for helps, and found some helpful stuff.

So Sunday morning I decided to try again with the online ftp install. When I got back from church I was able to continue, so I was in high spirits. But later in the afternoon I discovered that it had been stalled for 3 and half hours, and wasn’t going anywhere.

I tried my Suse 9.3 again, feeling quite discouraged, only to discover that I had no KDE Desktop! Just a very basic x-terminal - and with my limited abilities at commandline work, it was a deadend. After trying this and that, I ended up doing it all over again - another 3 hour job.

Monday morning I woke with new ideas. I’d start with the mini-iso and instead of giving an ftp IP address, I’d indicate I had another source CD, and I’d put in the DVD I bought. I’d also be bold enough to wipe both hard drives clean, before I did the partitioning. That worked quite well, and I cheered up. It wouldn’t connect to my high speed internet connection so I couldn’t do the update, but I thought I’d figure it out later.

Well, no. It would not. I spent the afternoon fine-tuning my settings in my new SUSE 10.1, but by the evening every click slowed down so that it took 2-3, even 5 minutes for a program or window to open. Exasperating!

Finally I figured I’d reboot, and then all would be well. My settings for networking would take hold. Nope. I couldn’t get back in!

So, for the 12th time, I did an install - this time my Suse 9.3 again. Yast(the installer program which is quite intuitive) suggested an install on the 12 GB unused from the 10.1 install. I decided to go with that for now. About 12:20 am. I was done, and rejoiced to see a familiar KDE desktop, but knew I had a lot of fine tuning to do on Tuesday.

In the morning I discovered that my great DVD backup disc had all my files saved as binary files. None of them would open up without a warning, and then displaying only long lines of dots. That means I’ve lost all of last week’s files and emails because I had to go to loading my backups on CDs from 8/26/06.

Do you wonder at the fact that I got upset? I am normally a woman of positive outlook, and a dogged perserverance, but yesterday - I’ve had to cry, with tears, out to God for grace!

I would still like to install 10.1 but I’m going to put it off a few weeks, so I can be fully prepared for all the issues I’ve encountered, and I’ve written the man from whom I bought the DVD to send me another that actually boots. If not, I’d like a refund please, so I can order one from another site.

When I realize how much of 2005 had days like this, I am extra grateful for the good year from last fall until now, that I’ve had in Suse 9.3. It is a good operating system. I don’t have to fret about viruses, and I’ve learned to be productive and busy in all my favourite programs or applications. But sometimes we do have to step out on the edge and be willing to dare something new.

Proverbs chapter 3 talks about seeking after wisdom and even pursuing knowledge, and it will reward you in the end. My mind and spirit knows that to be true, but yesterday my soul brimmed over with emotion. It’s time to step back into a comfortable routine again for a while.

Last night I got my emails set up again, but have lost some. If you are one of the few friends whose email I had not answered by Friday, you should really write again and remind me of what you asked or wanted to discuss. (I think there were only two like that). Anything that was sent after my last check on Friday night has come through now, so those are okay.