Two Days in the life of......

Yesterday I had a rocky start. Four in the morning I woke up to feel the onset of asthma problems. Thankfully we were able to get in touch with my doctor at home and all was well within a few hours.

Later in the day one of my sisters ran me over to Peoria to pick up some things from my lung doctor. Then we shopped, and we dropped. We ate lunch at McCallisters, had never been there before. And we shopped at the Naturally Yours Grocery Store.

Then today, that same sister and I went to Washington and hit the Goodwill, had lunch and ended up in East Peoria to do even more shopping. I squeezed money out of a $20 bill over two days. It went farther than it should have, and I have change to spare! That's God!

I am looking forward to Saturday as the Sara Ministry team will be a part of the Dream Center's Backpack Giveaway. It will be a busy day. But a productive day.

Sunday I will be in charge of communion at church. I used to do this in the past with a dear lady named Grace. I used to do a lot of things at church, bet you didn't know that did you? ;-) Wonder what is next for me? :-)

Have You Ever.........

Have you ever thought about getting yourself a relationship with the Lord? Is your life a mess and the worries mounting? Do you not have anything positive to look forward to? If you go to the Lord, you'll find something worth living for.

Everywhere you look in the Bible, God is up to something positive. In the world you look around and your job stinks, your family is in trouble, the economy is rotten and the politicians are worse. But if you look it up in the Bible, the Lord overcomes all of that and in the end you, me and God wins!

Did you know that the Bible, God's word, says, "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." Only he that believes Jesus Christ is the Lord, will overcome the world". What better promise is there at this time in life?

"My job stinks, I hate it. My children are giving me problems. I can't get any sleep. I'm in such debt it's horrible. Nothing good ever happens" Any of those sound familiar?

First of all, I often think there should have been an eleventh commandment, "Thou shall not whine".

If you look around, ask God to open your eyes to the good things in your life. You HAVE a job. Think of all those that don't and need one. Learn to like what you have or ask Him to give you something new. ( that's another thing the Bible says, His mercies are NEW every morning) God loves doing new things in our lives. We just have to be open to receive them.

Are your children healthy? Think of all those that aren't. Do they play, laugh, talk to you? Then what are you griping about?

Is the sun shining? Is there enough rain? Do the stars shine at night? Do you have food on the table? Then, there is your something positive.

Are you doing anything to help you get some sleep at night? Instead of counting sheep are you talking to the Shepherd? Are you drinking a cup of good for you herbal tea to help you get some zzzz's? Matthew 11:28 says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Call out to God, get to know Him. Talk to him, he's a good conversationalist. He may not get right back to you, he may want to see that you are serious about getting to know him. But he is there, and he has great plans for you and me.

I don't know about you but I want what He has for me instead of what I have for myself. That's why I, like so many other people have taken Jeremiah 29:11 as their life verse. "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Ask God to reveal His plans for your life to you, in the end you'll be glad you did.

When I got serious about my relationship with God I cried out to him, Lord, I want what you have for my life instead of what this world is offering me. And He answered me. He changed my outlook, my attitude and the course my life was taking. I couldn't be living my dreams without Him. No reason for you not to either.

Something I Never Do...or....Get That Squirrel Away From Me!!

I did something today I never do. I fixed myself a sandwich, went to the park, bought a soda and some chips, spread out a tablecloth on a table and ate my lunch next to the pavilion with the gorgeous view of the water and boats and ducks and geese and squirrels.

The weather is gorgeous, not to hot, not to humid. I killed two teeny tiny spiders, one on my arm. I looked up and had two ducks sitting next to me napping. After I was done eating I had a squirrel jump up on the bench next to me, all I could think of was 'oh no, crazy rabid squirrel is going to jump on me and there isn't a Funny Home Video camera in sight!' I quietly talked it down with a piece of bread I tossed aside. Some women and their children set up shop at a table nearby, there went my quiet space. Silly kids, don't they know they are supposed to be quiet in a park??

I was there for an hour, reading a couple of magazines, writing in my journal. The Methodist church across the road began their noon time fake chime of "How Great Thou Art" and it brought a tear to my eye and a lump in my throat. Because of the song, not the tin sound of it.

I came home a little over an hour later, only because I had to use the facilities and this woman will hold it forever before she uses a park bathroom. At home, I needed to put a load of laundry in the dryer, only to discover I forgot to wash the main thing I wanted to wash.

I feel as though I have creepy crawly little things meandering all over my body. Nature was not invented with me in mind. I prefer wondering how clean the establishment I'm eating in is over actually seeing what nature drops on my table.

But as I sat there talking to the animals that were near, I admit I did say 'Hello' to the squirrel and I asked the ducks, 'where did you guys come from?" I knew I was supposed to be where I was because I was out of my territory, comfort zone if you will and it gave me something to write about.

I had to laugh as I was leaving when it dawned on me yet again in my life how God loves it when we do something out of our ordinary, daily routine. It not only charges us up, it allows Him to be more open with us. We are shown new possibilities, new ideas, new encouragement. Isn't that something we all need?

I was alone with God, that's where things begin to happen. Did I need a man there with me? Heck no, he would have distracted me from God, the lover of my soul.

Just another meaningful Monday

I'm still hopped up on yesterdays message from Andy King on dreams and making them a reality. He showed us the Susan Boyle video and clips from the movie, "Freedom Writers". So I sat outside with the laptop earlier and tried to write in natures surroundings. However I don't think nature meant for me to be inhaling the neighbor ladies ciggarette smoke. So I had to come in. How dare she invade my space with her bad habit. But I got a start and I'm on the road to grabbing that dream and making it a reality. And more importantly I'm looking forward to the even BIGGER part of it that God has for me.

Here's a few pointers on how to achieve your dreams, something that you've had deep down inside of you since you were a kid perhaps. Susan Boyle had the dream of singing in front of an audience since she was 12 and at the age of what, 47, it came to pass. And even went beyond what she imagined.

It's a God given dream if you know it's much bigger than you are.
A dream is always going to be to big for you to achieve on your own.
If it is God given, it will always be on your mind.
You will always be willing to give something up for your dream.
It will seem crazy.
You will get opposition.

Get alone with God and discover your dream and don't waste time on worldly unimportant things. Those include pining over movie stars, rock bands, diets, foods, cleaning, etc. etc.

Dream Big!!

Something I Miss

I just returned from a wonderful 90 minutes at Starbucks. Ok, I prefer my hometown cafe over the world renowned Starbucks, but I needed a change of scenery. Actually all the men that came in had wedding rings on so there wasn't much change in that scenery! :-) But I digress.

I do so miss letter writing. Taking the pen in hand and putting words down on some paper, then neatly folding it to put it into an envelope. A stamp in the corner an address on the front and stick it in a little slot and anxiously await a return! Those were the days. I blame the computer for my declining penmanship.

A pen pal of about 30 years broke my heart a few years ago when she said she wanted to stop writing but would still enjoy keeping touch via e-mail. That's ok but she didn't really keep up her end of the bargain. Now it's down to Christmas cards and birthday cards. And if I want to get an e-mail from her I have to send one off where I inquire, "are you still alive"?

Yes I am going to keep referring to myself as a phenominon.....I'm single, no responsibility except to that of my cat and I can go here, go there, do this, do that and yes....even set down and write a letter and not have to use the phrase....."I just don't have the time". People should envy me instead of the other way around!

I'm sure I'll step on toes with that phrase, but then again, I may be quiet, but I can tell it like it is with the written word. I love it. :-)

Lighten up

As I was reading through some of my older posts I came to the conclusion it's time to ....LIGHTEN UP! They say laughter is the best medicine and most times 'they' are right. It's time to laugh. Laugh at the rough situations because they are only temporaray. Laugh when someone hurts you because in the end they will get what's coming to them! Is it bad of me to feel that way? I don't want bad things to happen to someone just because they did something bad to me.

I'm going to laugh in the face of adversity, maybe if I laugh hard enough spit will fly from my mouth and land on adversity's face!

Do You Ever???

Do you ever get to the point where you feel like you've gotten pulled away from everyone you know and suddenly you don't hear from them anymore or they are to busy with THEIR family and life to give you the time of day? Do you send off e-mails and get no returns? We all do, that's where I am now, again. And quite frankly I'm sick of it. I don't want to hear any more excuses, especially the one that goes, "just because you don't hear from me doesn't mean I'm not thinking about you". BOLOGNA. That might be the case, but if you've got the time to write that line, you've got the time to write something a bit more meaningful.

Even Facebook is getting boring. I can't take one more quiz. I'd come up with a worldwide solution to this problem but someone already has....it's called, Communication. Go figure.

Cambiare....revamp

When was the last time you changed? I'm not talking about a diaper or a light bulb, I'm talking about real change. And not the kind you find between the couch cushions. If life is still going the same for you today as it was five years ago, something is wrong. The truth is you really are never to old to change. You really can teach an old dog new tricks. If life is boring, if you are unhappy, then the only one that can fix that is you. And there's no reason not to. If you choose to believe the negative, then the positive will never come along. Happiness is a choice. Being stress free is a choice. Attitude is everything.

Several years ago when my best friend told me she would rather spend time with her new husband than me, I was crushed. After all it was I who was there for her during her first two marriages to the same man, during her pregnancies and births. Suddenly one day she began to make changes in her life, got out of a bad marriage, started seeing someone new. Her changes did not include me. And that gave me the opportunity to make my own.

Of course I put God first instead of my own needs and look what He did!!!