Sunday Still Challenge.......(Sports)

This weeks Sunday Stills Challenge is sports. The thing that came to mind was a "family sport".

Here is my daughter bowling for the first time!

If you enjoy taking pics and want to join in the fun then join us at Sunday Stills! Check out the comments section for links to others that have also posted their Sunday Stills pics!
~ Mary

How it all began.....

You have heard me talking about this great new company I have joined. I thought it would be nice to share with you a bit about the owners and how it all began......




Michael Broyles (CEO)

If I asked Michael what he thought of the title 'CEO', he would probably say it was nothing more than a fancy title for a candle maker, but don't let that fool you - not only is he a great candle-maker, but he is also a very savvy business man.

Michael and his wife Rachel met over 17 years ago while he was working as a manager at Home Depot. During that time, they managed to get married and have 7 children, Brandon (16), Nathan (15), Brittany (14), Zachary (13), Quentin (12), Courtney (10), and Jonathan (9).

While working as a manager for a regional craft store, Michael was putting in many long hours, nights and weekends and started looking for a way to make a living without missing out on his family. The craft store sold items to make candles from parafin wax. The first candle he made was horrible and wouldn't even burn, however, with more practice and experimenting, he was able to make quality candles that he sold to friends, family, neighbors, and craft shows until he had two different 'potential customers' that he lost because they only bought soy candles.

After much research on Soy candles, he was able to see many advantages to soy wax from low soot, renewable resource grown by American farmers, and longer burning. During this same time, the children started bringing home fundraiser packets for overpriced, imported junk candles. Around the same time, Michael and his wife found out that their second oldest son Nathan, who was 9 at the time, had Type 1 diabetes. It was then that they decided to make this a full time business. Being a savvy business man, he started putting together fundraisers with high quality, affordable, clean burning soy candles and has since dealt with 10's of thousands of fundraisers.

'This is truly a family business', Michael says, 'Even today, when we have over 1000 candles to send out, all the kids will come straight in from school and start helping out!'

There is nothing better than knowing that you get to earn a living spending time with your family.For more information about SoyLicious.com products or Joining my team contact me (here). I will be more than happy to help you!

Quality Products and Customer Friendly Prices! With so much to choose from, you are sure to find something that Satisfy Your Senses!

~ Mary

Clay Balls........

This was shared with us on FB, by a really great person. It really does bring back the reminder of not judging a book by its cover.

Clay Balls

by: Jennifer Patterson

A man was exploring caves by the Seashore. In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay balls. It was like someone had rolled clay balls and left them out in the sun to bake. They didn't look like much, but they intrigued the man, so he took the bag out of the cave with him. As he strolled along the beach, he would throw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as he could.

He thought little about it, until he dropped one of the clay balls and it cracked open on a rock . Inside was a beautiful, precious stone!

Excited, the man started breaking open the remaining clay balls. Each contained a similar treasure.. He found thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the 20 or so clay balls he had left.

Then it struck him. He had been on the beach a long time. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of the clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have taken home tens of thousands, but he had just thrown it away!

It's like that with people. We look at someone, maybe even ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel. It doesn't look like much from the outside. It isn't always beautiful or sparkling, so we discount it.

We see that person as less important than someone more beautiful or stylish or well known or wealthy. But we have not taken the time to find the treasure hidden inside that person.

There is a treasure in each and every one of us. If we take the time to get to know that person, and if we ask God to show us that person the way He sees them, then the clay begins to peel away and the brilliant gem begins to shine forth.

May we not come to the end of our lives and find out that we have thrown away a fortune in friendships because the gems were hidden in bits of clay. May we see the people in our world as God sees them.

I am so blessed by the gems of friendship I have with you.. Thank you for looking beyond my clay vessel.

~ Mary