What Is That Thing In The Sky?

Sometimes you want to go, where everybody knows your name.... So you can probably guess where I am if you know me at all. I am so excited today, the sun is shining! After many, many bleak and dreary days of rain and wind and just plain ickiness, the sky is blue and the sun is shining! Granted it's not quite as warm as I would like it to be, but that's ok I suppose. I'm not really sure what the day will bring but upon coming here this morning I asked the Lord to make me a light to shine on this normally dark day....Halloween that is. Halloween, it's yet another controversial subject these days, what isn't? You should see some of the houses here where I live, one in particular. The decorations must have cost more than a house payment these days. And I wonder what I would have done with all that money if it was given to me. Decorate my home to promote death and gore, or give it to a local food pantry or a family that really needs some help.? Oh well, the sun is shining and tonight is the October Extravaganza at Trinity Church in Morton! I'd love to win that Grand Prize!

Today's Mishap

Ok folks, have you ever dropped an egg on to the floor? It's a horrible mess to clean up isn't it? Well let's go a messier step further. I'm carrying in a Dollar General sack with a bottle of laundry detergent and two packages of paper plates in it. First of all, would businesses please teach their employees how to sack things properly?? So as not to digress, I'll move on.
I have my hands full of countless other things, including the Dollar General bag. I walk into my house and sit the infamous yellow bag in the chair, it immediately falls to the floor. I walk away to unload the rest of my belongings elsewhere and come back to the legendary afore mentioned yellow bag that lay on my linoleum floor under my desk. As I bend to pick it up I notice a very large pool of detergent spreading like wildfire.
My first words were mumbled under my breath and to myself and should not be repeated because I am after all a highly favored woman of God. What came out of my mouth was, "oh man"! The person that I live with knows me pretty well and decided to just stay out of my way while I cleaned it up, which I might add took about 45 minutes to do. I did manage to ask rather impatiently if the said person could find me a mop and some towels.....like maybe RIGHT NOW.
I went through countless towels, a full roll of paper towels and several uses of the mop and bucket. And it took about 45 minutes. A five dollar bottle of soap down the drain, literally.
After the mess was cleared up I went to the store for some paper towels and a much needed snack. I'm sure I'll laugh about it soon enough. For now, that's my soap opera for the day, no pun intended.

Last Night

I'm getting kind of used to this going and doing things by myself. Last night I went to the Pekin Library to hear author Michael Perry speak and sign books. It was great. I sat down, pretty soon some people sat next to me and we started a conversation. There were close to a hundred people there along with the press. I really enjoyed listening to him speak and read from his books, and tell some stories. I laughed out loud many times and was very moved when he read the prologue from his new book, "Coop". I have been socially active quite a bit these last few weeks and I've been doing most of it alone. I am really enjoying it. Yes, sometimes it would be nice if someone joined me but that doesn't seem to be happening for one reason or another, which is ok. This alone time might just be what I'm supposed to be into at the moment. Who knows what might come of it. I've spent lots of time over the past couple of years asking people to meet for coffee, or meet at a movie etc. and no one ever took me up on the offer. They were/are usually to busy to spare a few minutes on me so I stopped asking and started doing without them. It opens up many new possibilities. However I wont pass up the chance to actually go out and do something with someone if the opportunity arises. My prayer is that God would continue to open up opportunites!

Come On Get Happy....

Hello world there's a song that we're signing, come on get happy. ( I can see David Cassidy singing that song now ) . One of my favorite quotes is by Abe Lincoln, "most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." So.............

Are you happy? Are situations around you bleak and looking bleaker? ( not sure if bleaker is a word but it sounds fun so I'll use it )

Why aren't you happy? Because this person did something and that person didn't do something? Because there's to much debt? Because the job stinks? What is on your list of excuses?

Here are a few things that make me happy. Sunshine, rain, cloudy days, lazy days, shopping with my sisters, going to bookstores, reading, writing, not arithmetic, putting on aprons, looking at postcards, studying the word of God, kids in general, my cat, other cats, watching people, eavesdropping on conversations, going to my favorite cafe, being single, being loved by God, going out to eat, going to movies.

Here are a few of my situations, I barely have an income at the moment, my house needs repaires, my yard needs attention, I might soon need a new car, I lost my best friend to a man, my health is not perfect yet.

And yet, I'm full of joy and happiness because I choose to not let life get the better of me.

So what would make you happy? What does make you happy?

Once and For All

Let's just settle this once and for all, God is good! I love to listen to Joel Osteen and something he said the other night made me excited in my spirit. So the next morning I put it to use. Joel said that we should get up in the morning and look in the mirror and say "good morning you sweet, favored woman of God, blessings, get ready to follow me all day long". So that's what I did. Sunday morning I posted that on my Facebook page and took it to heart. ( that's the key, I took it to heart ). I am not going to live my life thinking, "Oh one day God will decide to bless me, one day I'll be happy, one day I'll see my dreams come to pass". Oh no, that day is today. And that's not just me saying that, that's the promise made to me in the Bible. So anyway, I posted that statement on my Facebook page and went about my morning. I sat down in my chair at church shortly after worship and put my arm around my little girl and someone put a check in my hand. I didn't look at it right away but said thank you to the person and put it in my purse. I knew what it was, and I knew why I was getting it. And I just started to cry because that was a blessing that followed me just as I told it to! Through out the day I was perky. We took the kids to lunch with us and had a nice afternoon. I came home and didn't even feel the need for that typical Sunday afternoon nap. Something was definitely different about the whole day. Life is just very exciting and very interesting these days. You can always tell when God is up to something.

Taking the Plunge!

Saturday mornings I'm usually at CJ's by sevenish. This morning I was running a little behind. The toilet decided not to flush properly and my cat had taken up residence on laptop bag. In my heart I was more concerned about taking away her safe napping spot than I was the toilet not flushing. But with the hair towel wrapped around my head and wearing my bright green sweatpants and my nightshirt over them, I stood and plunged the daylights out of the throne. Flush, plunge plunge plunge....wait. Flush, plunge, plunge, plunge....GO DOWN YOU STINKING THING!! Ok, be that way, I'll just do my hair and put on my makeup while you decide what you want to do. Meanwhile the sister paces. "Did it go down yet"? "Go take a look and tell me what you think" I reply under my breath. So I sat down on the couch to reflect on how blessed we were to get that toilet a few years ago, free!! Brand new and free! So I thanked the Lord for it, and took authority over it and told it that it needed to just listen to me in the name of Jesus and go down where it needs to be! I got up a minute or two later, went in, flushed, plunged, plunged......and down it went! If I can command a toilet to flush in the name of Jesus, just think of what else I can do!! Thank God for moments like these when you can trust Him to do the little things and not just the big ones!

Friday Night Reminiscing

I have a frozen pizza in the oven, hopefully it will warm up the house a bit. I was just writing in my journal a bit ago and I got to thinking about how ever since I got on the national "do not call" list, my phone hardly ever rings anymore. Friends don't call much either. Is that true for you too? I remember just a few years ago I used to sit and talk on the phone with friends for sometimes an hour or more. People are busy. I once called someone I knew and asked, "are you busy"? She said yes she was and we never talked again. I guess the Internet is to blame for some of it. E-mail is nice, but human contact is even better. I ran across a quote today that goes, "Let's face it, you will always be busy forever, so don't allow your friends to be at the bottom of your 'to do' list".