Thankful Thursday

Thank You God. Thank You for so many things. Thank You for...

1. A relaxing week after a whirlwind weekend.
2. Time.
3. Patience.
4. An entertaining dinner out with my children (all three of them).
5. Options (and I am NOT talking stock).
6. Glimpses of peace in a time of stress.
7. Christian artists who lift my soul.
8. Favor. (Though I won't complain if you give me some more with you know who)
9. Peace.
10. Hugs and kisses but most of all understanding from the family You gave me.

Thank you Lord. Thanks be to You.

Thankful Thursday

Lots to be thankful for as always!

1. That I reached my first weight goal. Wahoo!
2. That tomorrow is supposed to hit 70 degrees in these here parts!
3. That I ran OVER three miles today (and yes I'm bragging because I never used to run unless I was being chased or chasing someone else).
4. For short work days! (Yesterday and tomorrow for me)
5. For a great family.
6. For an awesome older child who hunted down black jelly beans Easter eve for me when I could find none.
7. For parents who provided for me as a child and showed me the value of a dollar and for values a dollar can't buy.
8. For patience enough to NOT go insane with all of the boisterous chatter and squealing that is going on around me right now.
9. That baby Gavin was able to spend his first Easter at home with his family and enjoy way cool traditions with them!!!
10. That baby Stellan is now in Boston receiving top notch care for his heart ailment. (and that his mom is so at peace)

Thank you God for the so many wonderful things you do. I praise you for them all.

Book Review - The Shack

I finally finished this book a few weeks ago. I know it took me a long time to read but it was deep and nothing something I could do while multi-tasking.

I took away four main points for me. Here they are in no particular order.

1) Love - As God loves us. Unconditionally.

2) Don't be judgmental - Who are we to make the rules? In most cases what another person does wrong is just our opinion or not our way of doing something. God gave us a pretty clear set of rules (the 10 commandments). What a person wears, says, likes, dislikes, how they worship etc. isn't for us to decide. This just sets up barriers that makes it impossible to see them as a person just like yourself.

3) Forgive - People hurt people. Sometimes intentionally. Sometimes not. Sometimes people do things that we feel are unforgivable. We need to work on this and be ready to forgive even when it is painful. Reminding yourself of that hurt just sucks the joy out of you and that takes away from God (and a peaceful life).

I have had a hard time with the forgiving part over the years. And the loving. Something the book reminds me though is that even if I do find a way to love and forgive it doesn't mean I have to subject myself with a relationship with someone who has been acted unlovable and unforgivable.

The way I see it, and this wasn't in the book, is that I have two cheeks. If you've slapped both I may just decide NOT to try and continue to cultivate a friendship any longer. To forgive someone means to let go of the personal anger against the wrongdoer (and in this case the character in the book did do something that was clearly wrong by the 10 commandments set by God) and begin to regain peace in your own life. At some point you may even be able to start praying for that person and for them to find that peace as well. You certainly will have an easier time cultivating a healthy, mature relationship with Christ.

Happy Easter everyone. May God bless you all.

Thankful Thursday

Happy blissful Thursday everyone!

Reasons to give thanks (in totally random order)...

1. Having today off!
2. Museums
3. For the beauty of springtime.
4. For one of the best days ever with the funniest, most entertaining, laid back little guy I know.
5. For Easter and the reminder of the greatest sacrifice ever.
6. For Hostess 100 calorie strawberry cupcakes.
7. For hand-me-downs. Thank you nice coworker who gifted my daughter with some totally awesome clothes.
8. For a GPS system! Totally helps this directionally challenged gal get around town.
9. For Ikea's veggie wrap--which totally saved me from what could have been some very poor food choices.
10. That in just 3 more days I can have beef again!!!!

Hodge Podge Lodge

I loved that show as a kid. I never told any of the kids in my neighborhood because it was geeky and weird to be so infatuated with nature but I loved learning about all the different seeds and trees and such. I thought it was very entertaining.

Here is my modern day hodge podge just for you...

Sunday driving in my sister's beau's new car...
Signs of summer...
A moment in history...the future pilot eats! and likes!
A girl and her dog...
Celebrating 13 years of marriage...with the kids...cuz that's how we do it...
The school day is still going for this teacher and her pupil...
What I did NOT have for dinner.
No seriously. I gave up beef for Lent...even though I'm not Catholic besides I have negative points left after last night's anniversary dinner. For me? Grilled lowfat cheese sandwich and broccoli.

Do you need anything? Are you okay?

I've become a blogaholic. It's true. I spend more time perusing blogs than I have reaching out to my neighbors. Why is that? Is it because I can do it when it's convenient to me? Because I can backspace if something I say seems corny or not exactly eloquent? While multi-tasking the other evening (shoveling down a quick dinner and catching up with the news) I ran across this article. The most important statement I took away was this,

"We've lost the community," said the Rev. Neil Flowers, who plans to talk about Merchant on Sunday at Beulah United Methodist Church, a few miles from where Merchant died. "We do our own thing. We lead busy lives. We go and go and go ... and stay within our comfort zone."

This elderly woman was dead for 18 months in her home and no one even remembered to check on her. I'm certainly not chastizing them for this. It is true. We seem to be living busier lives. Something that has been mindboggling to me for quite a while. Why is it that with the speed and convenience of technology we have available to us today we seem more busy and less capable of being neighborly? Are we so inept at cultivating friendships that we would rather stay tucked beneath the shells of our interior worlds?

Take for instance my next door neighbors. They had been in their home for just about 4 months when a firetruck arrived at their house. The first thing I did was call my mom. She's my other neighbor. Neither of us went over to check on them because we were too concerned to violate their space. We weren't sure if we'd be considered nosy neighbors if we ran to their house. So we waited. My mom finally went over and found that the mom had cut her hand and everything was under control. It was after that incident that we all exchanged numbers just in case.

The firetruck appeared again in the wee hours of the night and this time my husband was home as well. The strobing lights of the firetruck woke him up but again, he counted cars, they were all home and there was no smoke. He thought we should leave them alone. ??? This isn't the way things used to be in a not so distance past. Neighbors reached out to one another. People worried about each other. But we chose to stay within the comfort of our own home and not get involved.

I guess what is so interesting to me is that if you come to the cyber world it seems as if people DO care about one another. In many cases folks they have never met and probably never will. They pour their hearts out to each other and seem to bare their souls. I have no doubt that many of the bloggers out there are genuine. And we reach out. We feel safe. Because we are not exposed in whole but reveal only what we want people to know about us.

I wouldn't give up the people I've met here but I do wonder how on earth I can go back to cultivating the relationships around me so that I can be there for those to whom I could lend more than just a prayer and a kind word.

Thankful Thursday

To give thanks...

1) The peace and quiet I am enjoying right now as the future pilot naps on the couch and my favorite little girl in the world visits with her grandma.
2) That two of my finicky eaters actually TRIED dinner tonight (and no one of them wasn't the FP unfortunately).
3) That the weekend looks to be "up" this weekend in temperature.
4) That my co-worker's mom is ok after a nasty fall today.
5) For a great music selection to listen to while I type (thanks Jennifer).
6) For beloved former coworkers who stopped by today for a visit and somehow made the day go lightning speed fast.
7) For the opportunity to work out after work--and the gumption to get up and go when I REALLY wasn't feeling it.
8) For folded laundry! Thank you laundry fairy!
9) For peepers. No really. I'm a frog lover and oh how exciting it is to be outdoors in early spring listening to them peep peep peeping.
10) For my big brother who came over two nights ago and sharpened all my knives! Who knew I wasn't supposed to HAVE to saw through butter?

Thank you Lord for all of the many blessings you bestow on me and my family every day.