I’m really excited I woke up this morning and found I’d been chosen, I’m featured at my favorite scrapbook hangout. http://www.scrapbook-bytes.com and they have awarded me a special blinkie.
I like scraping making special memory pages for my three sons. It’s a way I can show them our lives through my eyes. I hope they get ‘it’ that I did my best as a mom. A mom who follows Jesus and tries hard to make Him the focus of our family. I think I did okay. One is studying to be a pastor the other two are believers as well. Someday I may get courage to scrap the not so good days.
Last night we had a speaker at our church. Debbie is walking across the US to raise money to build a library in Kenya. After listening to her describe her journey and watching the dvd of the states she has been through I started thinking. I know that can be dangerous for me!
Debbie walks with a pair of pj’s, one set of clothes, food for the day, fuel, a small burner, a lighter, her bible a tent and the clothes she is wearing. That’s pretty much it. I find that is amazing to know anyone could live with only that. On vacation I take tons of clothes and shoes and books! So how much is too much? Can I live with less than I have? I think so and that is my challenge in the next few months. I’m going to donate the things that are useful but I really can do without. Want to join the challenge?
If you’d like to learn more about Debbie’s walk you can find her web page here http://www.walkingwithfaith.com
I’ve had a weird week. I moved my desk. This is a huge job because it’s L shaped and huge! No, I couldn’t wait any longer for Ed to help before you ask! So I got it moved and had my wires all lined up ready to hook up, then somehow I tripped over something and crashed to the floor along with all my wires. Yep, mass confusion. I couldn’t tell what wire went where any longer. 🙁 It took me all day and still no internet connection. Then Ed came home and let me stew in my mess even longer and five minutes before we went to bed he came in and said, I think you have the phone wire in the wrong phone line. Yep, he saved the day. I was connected just like that. Meanwhile I’m nursing my aching bones and watching the bruises turn odd colors. 🙂 Hmm, I could be writing!
Thinking this through further I realize how often I take the hard route, doing things my way and ending up not meeting my goal because I wouldn’t ask for help or wait for it. AND it always seems that God will send someone along to help me out of that mess. Anyone else have this kind of stubborn personality?
I realize everyone has the same 24 hours I do but it seems that some have found the secret to using all 60 minutes in each hour. And many of those same people use those precious seconds to do something good for other people.
I am not one of them. It is January and it is cold. I want to be a bear. I want God to let me crawl in my own cave and sleep until spring. When I wake up I want all those busy ants (from the child’s tale) to have completed all my work for me or if not completed at least been working on what needed to be done.
I imagine God is laughing at my request. I just wonder in heaven do I get to sleep all winter if I wish to? Is there a winter in heaven? I wouldn’t want one but so many people seem to like snow, ice and freezing wind. Like my husband, he loves the cold weather and would love to live in Alaska or Michigan just mentioning Florida makes him sweat. So cold I will be–unless I find a way to never leave my house until spring.
This past week has been one of high anxiety for many in the area where I grew up. A child was kidnapped on his way home from school. I was watching tv and an amber alert came on, the boy looked so much like a boy I knew in high school and the name was the same. Sure enough the boy’s father was the one from my old neighborhood.
Every kidnapping is a heartache, for those of us who have children the pain brings fear for your own. When you realize you know the parent you feel as if someone has taken the oxygen out of the room.
This week had an incredible God ending. My old friend’s son was found and as if that wasn’t enough of a miracle, he was found with another child who had been missing since 2002. Thank you God for your awesome miracle.
I love this time of year, red and green, lights on houses, and advent. Nothing could be better than advent. The anticipation of Christ coming fills me with joy. I hope you too, are feeling the excitement.
I haven’t blogged in quite a few weeks? months? sorry about that! I did pass my insurance test and am now working at a great office. A writer really does need to leave her nest to discover what the rest of the world is doing. Oh the things I have heard! And some will be used in future writings and to think I would have missed them if I had stayed in my comfort zone at home.
I finally have my kitchen back. I’m very happy about that. Yesterday I made cinnamon rolls with my son and a friend. AND not the kind I ususally make(the ones that come in a pressurized tube!) It’s good to have Josh back home again, sorry Bri. I know how you miss him in Chicago. I love working in here with my family. Christmas is a great time to have everything back in working order. There are still a few things left to replace but for now I feel very special to have such a great place to prepare meals.
Earlier this month we experienced an epic proportion ice storm. I thought it was pretty and took photos. Others surrounding us feel differently. Many were without power for over a week. Lots of trees went through roofs, smashed cars and closed roads. Pine trees were stripped of their branches. Okay, it was pretty while they were covered in ice and the sun made the world look like an ice palace. Then after it melted and the reports of damage came it wasn’t so pretty any more. See I’m not heartless!
YES! I did it! I passed the test last week. I’m glad it is over and even more thankful that I won’t have to do it again. I started working for American Family Insurance the Doyne McGinthy agency and yes I can sing the song. 🙂 I worked here several years ago but so much has changed in the software so I’m relearning new ways to do old things.
So what is God teaching me these days? Patience and the skill of not talking but listening and (did you think He’d only teach ME one?_ and that it’s okay to ask questions I don’t have to fake my knowledge.
That is a phrase which is screaming in my head today. Normally, Friday signals good things to come, dinner with friends, a visit with one of my kids, shopping ahead, or just hanging out in my hobby room. But not this Friday, this Friday is test day for me. Once again I will struggle with ‘except’ questions as I attempt to get my license for insurance. I don’t remember having ‘except’ questions when I went to school. I feel I must apologize to my children, testing is hard. I’m sorry. In case you’ve been out of school for awhile let me tell you what is an ‘except’ question. They all start out with something like this, The following statements are true except for one: OR The following statements are all false except for: And what follows are statements that are long and twisted in their meanings and you think two of the four couldn’t possibly be correct but the two that are left are so similar you’re left wondering which was correct. Confused? Me too. So on Friday morning if you’d offer a prayer for the cloud of confusion to leave my mind I would be grateful.
Jen tagged me with this meme a few weeks ago. I’m a little slow or maybe I just ran fast and she just caught me? I’m supposed to answer one these three questions.
1. If you could write a novel about any subject, what would it be?
2. If just the thought of having to write anything gives you hives, what
would you like to read about in a novel that you№ve never seen done before?
3. If you hate reading fiction (you can get counseling for that, you know),
what subject might make you change your mind or try it anyway?
I could pick the first one, that would be so easy for me. I’d write about digital scapbooking, or a mystery, or cooking, or remodeling, or a childrens book about dragons, or…. yes the brain is very busy and giving me ideas at a rapid pace so… why aren’t I doing all of these books?
I don’t know. I think it has something to do with a lack of time. But I am going to particpate in NANOWIMO again this year. ( http://www.nanowrimo.org/ ) and I can’t wait. Every spare moment I have will be writing without a care or any worries about editing. If you like to write sign up, it’s free and at the end of the month maybe you’ll have a book about a dragon that scapbooks on her computer while cooking asparagus in the crookpot or some such silliness too.
Sunday afternoon is a wonderful time for a rainstorm. Ed and I sat on the porch swing enjoy the sound. I went in to get my camera and take a few shots trying to catch the rain, still need work on that! But when I went to sit down on the swing with Ed he’d stretched out for nap!
It was a good ‘mom’ day. I talked to all of my kids on the phone and for me that is a priceless face lift.
My writing is going slowly as my wrists are bothering me again. I have a friend Bert Latermore, freelance writer/photographer ComputerWorld Online Columnist, http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/latamore who uses the dragon naturally speaking program. He likes it. I’d like to know if anyone else is using it and what you think about it? I’m thinking it might be what I need to preven further injury to myself. I have so much in my head that needs to get on that computer screen! Locked up creativity is not a pretty sight!