Provoked to Good Works

And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:

Hebrews 10:24

I've been thinking about this verse a lot since our pastor read it on Wed night. And I've been provoked a lot this week, too. To good works. I love it when I get to watch the Word in action- in my own life! A beautiful and much rarer thing than I would like.

Provocation 1- This Blog

I love to read blogs but I have been rather negligent in posting to my own. I have several blogs that I follow and have found it a bit disappointing when I visit and it's the same post that I read yesterday- and the day before- and the week before- and the month before... you get the idea. Anyway, it occurred to me that that is exactly what my friends and family have been experiencing when they have visited my blog for the last months. So, I have been provoked to the good work of posting to my blog at least weekly and more often if at all possible.

Provocation 2- Walking

It has been brought ot my attention (again) that my health issues have a better chance of being resolved in a favorable manner if I will simply exercise on a REGULAR basis. So, I have actually donned my tennies and walked three- count them- THREE times this week. Twice outside and once inside to a walking tape. In this I have definitely been provoked but it is a good thing.

Provocation 3- Work

I interviewed for a job this week. The reviews on how it went are mixed. Right now I am in a waiting mode since the final decision won't be made for a week or two. In the process of the interview a number of questions were asked that have made me analyze my experience in the workforce and the things that I really enjoyed doing. I also was challenged to consider some skills that are not up to snuff. In the spirit of that provocation I am working on improving my typing skills. Whether I get this job or not the time saved in typing proficiency will be a blessing to me personally in the work that I do for our family and church.

Sometimes being provoked is a blessing. This week has been full of blessings for which I am most grateful.

Sole Journey- The Beginning

A while back I came across a photo blog/journal that really caught my eye. It was a young woman's chronicle of her weight loss journey. Every week she would post a photo of her progress in achieving a new body. I admired her courage, even when she began to regain the weight. (a concept that I could TOTALLY identify with!) Anyway, I tooled around and found other photo journals and thought, cool, maybe I should do something like this on my blog. Well, of course not the weight loss thing- get real! But maybe the photo journal thing. So, I started taking photos of different parts of my day- from a slightly different perspective. Now, I'm not likely to post daily (big surprise there) and maybe not even weekly (no small surprise there) but perhaps periodically.

So here is the beginning of my periodic photo journal of my life. A chance for you to follow in my footsteps, so to speak.

This is how I start my day- with prayer, Bible study and a green drink (affectionately known as Sludge or Swamp Water). Welcome to my world.

The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD:

and he delighteth in his way.

Psalm 37:23

What have you been doing... Part 2

These are for 2008.

The two June weddings were a week apart.

This was for a young couple who graduated high school two weeks before the wedding.

We helped them plan, set up & decorate for about 100 people.

The waterfall was fun & a big hit!

This wedding was for a young couple in their late 70's. We didn't have a plan, we just brought our stuff & helped the groom's daughter and grandaughter set up & decorate for about 40 people. It helped that we had just done this the week before!

What have you been doing all this time???

I've been trying to figure out just how I've spent the past 17 months and I found some pictures that show some of what I've been doing.

These are for 2007.

Helped set up & decorate for baby shower April 2007

Plan, set up, decorate and host bridal shower May 2007

Helped decorate for LoveBug Day at our church May 2007
(included making 15-20 large lovebugs and 10-12 large ladybugs)

Helped set up & decorate for wedding June 2007

(This one was an interesting challenge as we had a large empty industrial building to turn into a wedding venue. It worked out surprisingly well. We just set up some specific focal points and ignored the rest. Besides, all eyes were on the bride & groom anyway :)

Planned decor, set up & decorated for wedding June 2007 (approx 200 people)

(Acted as stand in wedding coordinator the day of the wedding as the actual wedding coordinator - DD4 - was a bridesmaid. She's learning early that you just cannot be in two places at once.)

Helped plan decor, set up & decorate for 25th wedding anniversary July 2007

Helped plan, set up & decorate for wedding Oct 2007

Cyberamnesia and Turning Forty

So, only 17 months since my last post. I wish I could say that life has been so boring that there was nothing to write about. But you know better. And of course in and amongst the busyness I lost my password. And forgot my username. *sigh* Some things just never change.

(I guess you could say that I was suffering from Cyberamnesia.)

I've been reading some other blogs lately and was inspired to figure out who I was (again) and so have been restored to cyber health. In honor of one of my favorite inspirers I offer a belated 40th birthday post .



Welcome to the other side of the hill!

As you can see, it’s not as bad as all the hype may lead you to believe. I have found that while some things do decline – glasses are almost a given and gravity is NOT your friend – other things improve.

For instance, once I hit forty I made the executive decision that from then on I would choose what was fashionable for me – not the “fashion moguls”. I wanted to be comfortable and still look decidedly female, so I opted not to purchase any of the mud colored, ugly clothes in the stores. I also passed up purchases of the hooker-wear that is so thoughtfully provided in sizes from toddler to XXXXL. I refuse to wear a standard cut t-shirt, stiletto heels, advertising for designers or big name corporations and sleazy feeling fabrics. I love dresses, bright colors, ruffles, shirts that are long enough to cover my seat when I wear pants and silk. I figured I had lived in this body for forty years, I could wear what I like.

Another benefit to being forty was that I could choose what color I wanted for my hair. For the first half of the decade I opted for the natural look, flaunting my new silver tresses. In the second half I listened to the wishes of some family members and went dark, since forty is still so very young. I liked both looks but I kept finding that I liked the color of the roots better than the color from the bottle so now I’m going back natural- white in the front and silver streaked in the back. I figure hey, I’ve earned these puppies, why not let them shine! I can always add a colorful rinse if I’m in the mood.
Maybe I’ll try a flaming red.

The best thing for me about turning forty was that it gave me an excuse to let go of a lot of baggage from my “youth”. After all, I was a grown-up now and not the same person that I was in my teens, twenties or even early thirties. I could finally let go of a lot of old stuff and be the woman that God created me to be. I like her.

I enjoyed my forties. I loosened up, laughed more and stressed less. I tried to focus more on the truly important things and less on the transient stuff that I couldn’t change anyway. Now that I’m over fifty (hang on, the ride is a hoot!), I keep doing the same thing- letting go of the past (I can’t change it), letting go of stress (I'm not in control here so why waste my energies stressing?), laughing more (this is my favorite exercise!) and focusing on what is really important (when I leave this earth, what will I take with me and what kind of legacy will I leave behind?). Yeah, forty was great, but fifty?

Fifty ROCKS!

I hope you enjoy every minute of your forties! See you over the next hill!!

All Thumbs

My mother had the greenest thumb of anyone I’ve ever known. Seeds, cuttings, dry dead twigs, it didn’t matter, if she planted it, it grew. I have inherited a lot of things from my mother. My straight, thinning hair, my pixie face, my small wrists and ankles, a strong streak of creativity and an affinity for needlework of almost any kind. What I did not inherit was her green thumb. If I had no fingers at all and just had ten thumbs, none of them would be green. I have the ability to kill a fern in less than two weeks and, while it takes a while to accomplish, I can even kill a Snake Plant, (also affectionately known as a Mother-In-Law’s Tongue) which are supposed to be virtually indestructible. The only green growing things that survive in my care are those which thrive on neglect. I have a few Christmas cacti inside that have not succumbed to my loving ministrations- yet.
I bought a couple of mums the end of last summer (I am ever the optimist) to spruce up Beloved’s house when we had it up for sale. His question was, get this now, “Who is going to water them every day?” My thought was, well, the rain, of course. However I did not take into account that they would be located on the porch by the front door- far away from the rain. So, sure enough, they died. Actually one of them died. The other brave little thing made a comeback in the late fall and made it almost to the end of the year.

So what has prompted these musings?
I killed a papaya today.
Even the fruit of a green growing thing is not safe with me.

A friend gave DD4 a HUGE papaya to try. It came all the way from Belize. It was lovely! I like dried papaya, so I thought fresh would be even better. I went online to find out how to use papaya and gather some recipes. I was ready for this football sized fruit to ripen. Today I gathered my supplies to make Papaya Muffins and began to prepare the fruit. The color was beautiful and the seeds looked great as I set them aside to use later. About halfway through, I noticed a strange odor. Kind of like barf. This is NOT an odor that should be in my kitchen- ever. With a sinking feeling in my heart I sniffed the beautiful papaya. WHOA!

I went to the papers that I had printed out and re-read them. “Ripe papaya should have a sweet smell.” This was NOT sweet! Here is where logic and rational thinking left me completely. I thought, maybe it’s not really the papaya FRUIT, maybe it’s the seeds or the skin. Maybe if I finish processing the fruit it will have that sweet smell it is supposed to have. Right. Because wishful thinking always works on stuff like this.

So, I finished peeling, scraping and cutting the fruit. Guess what?! It still smelled bad. I gathered it up and sadly tossed it away, bemoaning its loss all the while. Re-reading the papers AGAIN, I realized that I should have put the poor thing in the refrigerator to ripen rather than leave it on the counter.

So, the fruit that survived heat and disease and bugs, grew big enough to make it to market, traveled all the way from BELIZE to the US, survived the shipping and inspections and packing and trucking and displays in a BIG grocery, was hand picked and delivered to our home, could not survive my kitchen counter.

Apparently the only way I’m going to get a green thumb is to use paint.
As long as it’s not vegetable based.

It's just the beginning

First the bad news:
The ceiling moved to the floor
The tree is still up
The house looks like we’re moving
I have the flu


Now the good news:
No one was in the room when the ceiling fell and nothing was under it to be ruined
I am FINALLY starting to feel better
The fridge works great
God is still in control

The news that has not yet been categorized:
The insurance adjuster is coming today


I refuse to accept that this is the way 2007 is going to go. This is simply an anomaly. A blip in the calmness that is my life. In a few days all this will be over and everything will get back to normal.

Did I mention that I’ve been running a fever?

Welcome to a new year!

New House Rule

OK. New house rule.
Only one room of the house may regurgitate its contents at a time.

A friend got a new fridge and Beloved agreed to take the old one off their hands. Great plan. So a really nice fridge was delivered yesterday. Beloved and our neighbor wrestled it inside and this morning we began the process of transferring all our cold edibles from the old large box to the new pretty one. However, in order to have room to accomplish this grand feat, the kitchen had to relinquish a good portion of its contents to the dining room and the living room. No problem. It’s just for a day or so at most, right?

Almost bedtime last night and DD4 calls out, “Mom, can you come look at this?” I answer the summons and she points to the ceiling in her room. “I don’t think it’s supposed to look like that,” she says. I look up and have to agree. Ceilings should be white and flat, not bulging and discolored. She summons her dad, who agrees that no, it should not look like that. However, there is nothing that any of us can do at the moment so we all go off to bed.

This morning I woke up thinking we should probably move her out of her room since there is no way to know how big this ceiling problem could be or how soon it may cave in. Well, as it turns out DD4 decided to move some of her stuff into another room last night - just in case. This seems particularly prudent since there is now a large crack in the ceiling that wasn’t there when I saw it last night. So, room # 2 is now tossing its contents all over the house. Into the office, the spare room, the main bathroom, the living room. Oh, my. And who knows how long this repair project will take.

Now the Christmas tree must come down early to make room for her computer so it's not ruined in the demolition process. Which is the equivalent of a third room ejecting its contents into the livingroom/dining room area.

I’m barricading my bedroom door.

Number seven for 2006

We will be attending our last funeral of the year before the week is out. This will be the seventh dear one that we have lost this year. I realize that death is not anyone's favorite topic, mine included. The problem is that it keeps inserting itself into my life. I could write a lot of stuff on this topic including some really great rants. But for today I will simply mourn with those who mourn.
In memory of some really special people.

James Jones
Bill Bubb
Jess Henson
Hank Hinton
Diane Henderson
Charles Ponder
Lavon Ratcliffe

They are all greatly loved, sorely missed and not forgotten.

Change

I am truly impressed with all the folks who managed to blog in December. Actually I am impressed with everyone who manages to blog on a regular basis in ANY month. When I got online this morning to se if my blog was even still here, I found a draft that I had written on Nov 30. I submit it now while I try to catch a thought before the year ends.

Ever feel like you're on a runaway train? Or a passenger on the bus in the Speed movie? October just ended yesterday and before I could recover from the insanity it brought, November is gone. How does this happen? Is the universe on fast forward? Maybe it's just me. In perpetual high speed and the constant state of transition, or confusion, or both.I don't react well to change. Or quickly. Give me some time to think things over and I can come around to convincing myself that change can be a good thing. Just not right now. Maybe in a few minutes, or a couple of hours. Perhaps in a few days or sometime next week. How about after the first of the year? Yes, we can discuss change then. You say it's only February? Well, so much the better.
Problem is, I live in the wrong century to avoid change. It is relentless in it's continual flood of our world. As soon as I buy a product it is obsolete. The news that I heard this morning is irrelevant by evening. Even scienftific studies and medical breakthroughs are old news in an unbelievably short span of time. Change has conquered and the old is banished while the new is celebrated. For about 10 minutes. Then it becomes old too.
Change is not all bad and even some that looks bad initially can eventually be shown to have some redeeming qualities. The issue isn't really whether it is good or bad but simply that it must be dealt with. C0nstantly. And dealing with change is tiring. The worst part is that the time that it takes to deal with change is time taken away from other, more important things. Things like spending time with people you care about or helping others who need it. Perhaps just taking time to enjoy God's creation and marvel at the works of His hands.
I am so grateful that in all of this change one thing stands steady:

" Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. "

Hebrews 13:8

Big Oct Event 3- Net loss of 30 lbs

For the last few months folks have been asking, "have you lost weight?" and I usually reply, "a little". Well, since I've hit -30 lbs no one will let me get by with that answer any more. Everyone keeps asking if I'm on a diet or if I've been sick or how exactly am I losing the weight. Here, finally, are the answers you've been looking for.
The story all begins last fall and winter when I kept getting sick with one thing after another. I missed so many family gatherings that my sister-in-law was wondering if I was mad at the family and avoiding them. By January I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I had no energy and I couldn't seem to fight off the simplest cold. I didn't know what to do since I had tried everything I knew and nothing was working.
Now, for years our pastor has been teaching that everything has a spiritual root cause. I've had trouble with that, a lot. I mean, my headache is in my body and not some spiritual thing, right. Well, maybe not so much.
Pastor had been teaching a series on prayer on Sunday nights since the previous November and I had managed to catch some of them. The night of Jan 15 I was well enough to make it to church on Sun night and he was teaching on the importance of confessing our sins to the Lord so that our prayers could be heard. He taught that there were 4 different categories of sin and that most of us don't ususally deal with all four. Sin that is not dealt with continues to hang around and hinder our prayers, our spiritual growth and our relationship with God in general. Made sense.
I went home that night and took that list of categories and just prayed through them one by one, asking the Lord to show me my sin and forgive me. I would love to say that I had some amazing spiritual experience with lights and visions and tears and great life-changing emotion. Wouldn't we all like to have some great experience that we could point to and say- "Look! this is the day that God changed my life and I instantly became the wonderful person that I always knew I could be. From now on you may call me Saint (Insert name here)." Well, I didn't get that either.
What I did get was peace. And a sense of being set free. I didn't have tears and I didn't even know exactly what I had been set free from, but I knew I was free. I didn't have any more energy and wasn't any more well but I had this peace.
Three days later I was again crying out to God because I felt so lousy. I didn't know what to do but I knew I had to do SOMETHING because I couldn't function like I was. The Lord is so faithful. He sat me down and told me what my health situation was and that I needed to remove three things from my diet for the next six months. OK. Wow. I wasn't expecting that. Now, I still didn't have any visions and I wasn't hearing "voices", this was just something in my spirit that I heard in my heart but it was very specific and I knew that it was the Lord. I also knew that if God was going to take the time to communicate with me then I had better pay attention. So, I removed those things from my diet, immediately. And, you know, it wasn't hard. I didn't feel "deprived" and I didn't go hungry. I wasn't truly "dieting" I was just eating in obedience to the Lord, the weight began to just slowly and steadily go away. Way cool.

Six months passed and 20 lbs went with it. The Lord then directed me to go on a 30 day juice fast for my health. OK. I could do this. I would love to tell you that this was as easy as the previous six months but it wasn't. It was hard. I discovered that I don't care much for most vegetable juices and I really don't like apple juice. Not fresh, not bottled, not even organic. I was about half way through and counting the days when the Lord asked me to extend the fast by 10 days as a spiritual fast. OHHHH! I was already doing 30 days for my health and it was tough. But another 10 days? Well, I was on a roll and He had already done so much for me, how could I not do this? Besides, the only way I was going to successfully complete any of it was by His help. So, after 40 days of juice fasting I was 40 lbs lighter than when I began this journey in January.
Eating again has been a joy and has put back about 10 lbs but I'm ok with that since my goal was never to lose weight in the first place.
From the first day that I changed my eating habits I have had more energy and no sickness. It has been amazing to me the things that I have been able to do this year without getting sick and without having to take days to recouperate. I have been so blessed. The weight loss has been VERY nice (Beloved really likes it, too) but it has really just been the "icing on the cake" for me. Having peace, being free and having the energy to do what the Lord has assigned me to do- these are the best gifts I could ask for.

Big Oct Event 2- The "Baby" got her license

There are not many places today where 22 is considered "old". Apparently the DMV is one of them. Particularly if you are just getting your license and your learner's permit is only a year away from expiring.
When our youngest got her permit at 16 we commented on the 7 year expiration date, laughing that she should be able to get her license in that time frame. Little did we know what the years ahead would hold and how close she would come to using all that time that stretched before her "way back then". Finally, though, the milestone has been reached and overcome. The "baby" is driving.
I've decided that this is a good thing. I've passed most of the "go" errands off to her and retired my chauffeur's hat. Yes, this is a very good thing!

Big Oct Event 1- The House is Sold!

See the House
See the House that Beloved bought
Big House
Old, yucky, dirty house
Half burned out house
Mammoth first restoration job

See Beloved work
See Beloved work hard
See Beloved shake head
See Beloved spend money
See the calendar change months
See the calendar change years
Again

Poor Beloved

But wait!
Look, the house is almost finished!
Yeah!
See the realtor
Nice realtor
See the realtor market the house
See the contract
See the lovely contract
Again
And Again
And Again
See the contract go away
Sad realtor
Sad Beloved

See the same people with a new contract
Again
And Again
See the contract go away, again

See the realtor wait
See Beloved wait
See the money go away
Sad
Scary

See the new contract
See Beloved say "no negotiations"
See the contract stay
See the SAME people buy the house!
Yeah!!

See the lovely check!
See Beloved breathe relief!
See the happy banker!
See the happy creditors!

See Beloved and I praise God!
See our prayer army praise God!

God is Good and His mercy endures forever!
His plan is perfect and His timing is perfect and His love is overwhelming!


Our unending gratitude goes out to everyone who has been involved with this project ( I think that includes almost everyone we know in some way or another). We are so grateful for your help and support. We could not have done this without you!

Blogger Spotting

I'm here, I'm here!!! This month has been... I don't even have an adequate adjective to describe it at the moment. But it has finally ended and it is time to pick up the threads that remain and attempt to weave them back into something that resembles useful. I'll post some catch-up things in the next few days to get back up to speed. In the meantime- Happy November!

Present

I am still alive. Life is good. That is all for now.

What I love today

I love fall in Florida. I love living in the country. I love walking in the morning and feeling the warm sun on my face while the cool breeze flows around me. I love listening to the sounds of nature- the birds and the bugs and the leaves in the trees. I love knowing that my heart is right with God, that Jesus will never leave me or forsake me and that His Holy Spirit dwells within me. I love knowing that I am right where I am supposed to be at this moment in time.

Revolt Leader Identified

The leader of the revolt has been identified. Her name is Pride. She runs with a couple of other roughians- Criticism and Self-Righteousness. They’re a mean bunch and masters of disguise. I’ve dealt with them before and thought they were banished but somehow they managed to slip back in. Looks like I’ve got some evicting to do and then I’m gonna work on shoring up the border patrol.


"Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts."
Proverbs 21:2

Mutiny

Sometimes I want to do the right thing but I don’t actually want to DO the right thing. I can see what I’m supposed to do, my head and my heart both agree that yes, that is the right thing to do. However, there seems to be mutiny in the ranks because I can’t get my body to follow through. Hands, feet, mouth (especially mouth- a major ringleader in the rebellion) simply won’t budge. AARRGH! If I can’t get these rogues in line soon we may discuss plank walking. Perhaps that will make doing the right thing look more appealing.

Thanks, Soldier

I frequently receive forwards from friends and relatives reminding me to pray for the soldiers who are defending our freedoms in foreign lands. I am so grateful for them because it DOES remind me to pray and not to take those freedoms for granted.

We have a young friend in the Army who is on his third deployment to the Middle East. He was in both Afghanistan and Iraq and at present is not allowed to divulge exactly where he is because that would be dangerous for him and his fellow soldiers. He has a lovely wife and 2 beautiful young children here in the states as well as his parents and sister. The phone service where he is is limited so the soldiers must stand in line to use the phone. Last time he called his parents he stood in line for 6 hours to be able to use the phone for just a few minutes, since the line behind him was still long. How he must have agonized in trying to decide who to call during those six hours.

I can't imagine what he must go through on a day to day basis but I know that it is hot and dirty and without most of the conveniences that I take for granted. I know that he must be terribly lonely for his family and that their faces and voices must haunt him in the quiet hours of the night. I know that this particular young man is depending completely on the Lord for both himself and his family while he is away. He knows how important his work is for their sakes and ours and he believes that it is exactly what God would have him do with his life at this time.

I am grateful that he does.


(Note: Actually posted on Nov 18, 2006 - I wrote this back at the beginning of Oct and saved it as a draft. For some reason I never went back and posted it. Since it was written, this particular soldier has completed his deployment and has been sent back to the states- much to the delight of his family. There are many others who continue to need our prayers and encouragement.)

Going Public- Big Wave..Big Wave...

It took me a while but I finally went "public" with my blog. Talk about a big wave! At first I wanted to see if I had both the discipline to keep at this and something, anything, worth saying. The answers came back- somewhat and maybe. The act of thinking about what I'm thinking about and then ACTUALLY writing it down instead of just letting it run around in my head has been challenging. My thoughts seem to enjoy running around in all that empty space and it's really hard to corral them - rather like my grandsons.
Those who know me well know that I'm very good about writing letters- in my head. The problem is that they rarely make it onto paper and if they do, then the big hurdle becomes to actually make it into the mailbox. There's the whole proofreading, copy it over on the good stationary (ok, clean paper), find an envelope, find the address book, find the address - no the current address, find a stamp, remember to take the letter to the mailbox. If they make it this far they may ride around in my purse for a week or two, in which case, by the time I find it the whole thing may be outdated. Sheesh!
We were all excited when I got email, thinking this would be the answer. Fast, easy, no stamps, envelopes or addresses to keep up with. The computer wouldn't fit in my purse so that wasn't going to be an issue. Things looked promising. Unfortunately no one took the thinking thing into consideration. Email is fast. Instant Messaging is faster. I'm not fast, much less faster. I need time to consider, to reflect, to ponder, to rewrite if need be. While I'm doing all this thinking, life is moving on. By the time I'm ready to answer an email no one remembers what I'm talking about. Instant messaging is worse- everyone has signed off and I'm talking to some AOL guy who's going -HUH?
So far, blogging is better. I can take my time. I can rewrite to my heart's content. I can even edit if I need to. Yes, it's not as personal but, hey, at least it's something. Another way my kids can see that I'm still alive. (the answering machine wasn't quite cutting it- seems I don't change to message often enough- who knew?)