MONDAY MUSINGS...HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

Hope you all had a wonderful week-end! We sure did. Friday night found us playing our weekly card game with my parents. How we all enjoy that time together, and it is SUCH good therapy for my mom that it just puts the icing on the cake. And the best part? We DID win (though barely)...YAY mom!! And that puts us up two to one for the new year....On Sat. Jeff and I just spent a lazy day. Long chat in the morning over coffee and tea, and then lunch out, a movie (nothing great, haha) and a long drive afterwards. Sun. we had my oldest son and his family and my youngest son's wife and family (Sun. is a LONG work day for James) over for Cody's second birthday. How I enjoyed all my little grandkids playing together. They don't get a whole lot of opportunities and their excitement is contagious. They had a GIANT fort going in the living room at one point. Remember how fun a fort was??  Leah made her delicious spaghetti and meat balls, and a wonderful salad and garlic bread finished it off. I actually did quite well with the meal and I am feeling soo good now that I did. Nothing tastes as good going down, as eating right feels!! I carefully followed Jenny Craig for breakfast and lunch, and then at dinner covered 3/4 of my plate in salad, and the rest in spaghetti, having no bread and only two tiny meatballs. Soo yummy, and it was just right. I did manage to have no cupcakes either, and my grandkids made quick work of them so there weren't any leftovers, haha. I am soo glad we were able to have this day. Joe brought his new guitar and it was good to "see" him as he played, haha.

This is how these two like to do movies....as close to Grandpa as they can get..We watched Toy Story 3 yesterday, soo cute!

Waiting for their mama's to fix their plates

Cody with his new Thomas the trains from Grandpa & Grandma

She enjoyed this...or can't ya tell?

Cody enjoyed his as well...

Lindsey too...she is gettting to be such a big girl!

My book has arrived!! I am actually quite happy with it with one small exception....the pictures are not very big...I have them extra large here on my blog (thus the "stretch" template) so that you can see them better, but they did not come off that way in the book. They are actually quite small. Which when you are my age and have my eyesight, is a definite issue. BUT!! I was happy enough with the rest of it that I will continue to do this in the future. My kids definitely enjoyed looking through it yesterday. Maybe in the future they will do it with bigger pics. In the meantime, it is good enough that you get the idea.

I couldn't get a real good pic as there was a glare on the glossy cover, but you get the idea.  This pic was taken of Jeff & I last yr. on our anniversary and is one of my fav's of us...it goes with the "feel" of that year I am thinking..

They give you a page for a dedication...you also get a table of contents

One post follows another in order of dates

It is a pretty big book..I am really glad I did this..

Tomorrow will mark my 36th wedding anniversary!! 36 years is a LONG time...I have spent 16 whole years of my life longer as a "Class" instead of a "Merrick", haha...In fact, it might as well have been several lifetimes ago that I was a Merrick. I was thinking that this might be a good opportunity to write out a few of our first few dates and our impressions of each other to have as a record for my kids and grandkids to read someday, so guess you will have to bear with me. = )

I was only 19 years old when I met Jeff but felt like I was A LOT older. I had been through soo much for as young as I was for one thing, and was the mother already to a 17 month old ACTIVE little boy. I was both going to Jr. college and working part time. I was still (thankfully) living at home, but my parents were in the midst of a divorce, which made the rest of my life quite difficult as well. When my girlfriend Sue told me she had someone she wanted me to meet, honestly I wasn't really very interested. This guy was just here to spend the summer in California and would be heading back to Sioux Falls, SD in the Fall. He had just finished school at Nebraska where he had played football on a full scholarship and wrestled, and I felt like he was probably used to being "fawned over" and was just looking for some summer fun. I was definitely not interested in that, haha...I ended up getting talked into going a blind date thinking to myself, "a single date is no big deal, I just won't let myself let my feelings get involved", which when you had been hurt as much as I had by that point in my life I had become an expert at doing. I had just recently given my heart to the Lord, and my first prayer as a new Christian had been that the Lord might bring a man into my life that would both love me and my son, and SURELY this guy from Nebraska couldn't be him. But I couldn't have been more wrong! I found out a few dates later that he too had just recently given his heart to the Lord and had prayed a very similar prayer, but I am getting ahead of myself, haha. That first date really didn't go so well, haha. He was VERY nice and friendly, super outgoing, funny, and much better looking than Sue had lead to me believe. However, all of these things made me feel very unsure of myself which resulted in my being kind of quiet. Now he tells the story that I got into the car and immediately brought up this guy I had been dating who was on the radio as a DJ for the first time that night (he was and I was soo excited but guess it was kind of dumb to go on about) and he figured right off that this is obviously NOT the girl the Lord had in mind since she was obviously still hung up on someone else, haha. The truth was my relationship with this other guy was definitely over and we had been nothing but friends for a while. The rest of the night went OK, but I think my guard was up, and he figured I wasn't interested. However as he walked me to the door that night and we had a few minutes to chat by ourselves I wondered if I had been too hasty. He was SUCH a nice guy. He gave me just a little tiny kiss at the door, and I felt my heart quicken, (which kind of surprised me) and I thought to myself, "You fool, you probably blew this chance" lol...But as it turned out we quickly fell in love that summer, and the rest is history. 36 years is a lifetime that is for sure. We have seen so much of life together that it is hard to remember a time when it wasn't the two of us. He quickly adopted my son and together we have raised four wonderful kids and have 8 glorious grandchildren together so far. We have been through soo many good times and I'll be forever grateful for them all, and have somehow managed to travel the bad times as well. And trust me in 36 years you see them both. He is my forever best friend, and I have felt many times in the course of our marriage that I didn't really deserve him. I can be quite high maintence I guess is a nice way to put it, haha. But I have leaned on him soo heavily in this last year, what with the breast cancer and the move and everything else, I can honestly say I don't know what I would have ever done without him. The Lord answered that first prayer for me in such an overwhelming way. I look forward to growing old with this man, (and the process has definitely begun, haha) and thank God for him every day. My prayer for each one of my children and grandchildren would be that they would know the love of a good marriage, and be as blessed as I was with their own.

 

RANDOM THOUGHTS ON A FRIDAY

Friday again? Can it possibly be? Time does whip by faster and faster it seems. I have had a hard week in some ways and it occurred to me last night how many times that seems to be the case following a "spiritual high"... The enemy does everything he can to rob us of His joy doesn't he? How I praise God that greater is He that is in us than he who is in the world!!


1 John 4:4 You are of God little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

My head has kind of been all over the place this week....I think I may have FINALLY gotten my head into a GOOD place though with this diet.  What a struggle this is for me.  Not just sticking to it without whining (though there is that too, haha) but in not beating myself up with what I have allowed to happen.  How I struggled and worked to get those 55 pounds off last year (and this did NOT even put me at goal) and to think I gained it ALL back and have to start all over again was not only overwhelming, but sooo defeating; made me feel like a failure in many different areas of my life.  But the Lord has worked and worked (thank you Jesus!) on my heart this week, and I am coming out of that dark feeling of defeat.  I am going to keep my eyes on Him, and not that scale, and simply do the best I can as He gives me the strength to do it.  I have lost 7 pounds which doesn't seem like much for 3 weeks considering how drastically my eating has changed, and yet I will definitely take it.  A good start anyway...right?

My oldest son has had a BIG answer to prayer this week and I am praising God for that as well.  He has 5 children, a HUGE dog (seriously the biggest I have ever seen) and a growing thriving karate studio/school, which keeps him soo busy and yet!! he is learning to play the guitar.  It is something he always wanted to do and yet was never able to work into his busy, busy schedule.  He bartered his lessons in trade for private karate lessons and he is on his way.  He plays Mr. mom from 7 till 4 Tues - Friday as his wife works in a busy orthodontist's office.  He has been calling me this last week from the park where he takes his 2 year old, after dropping off the other's at school, so he can run off some of his abundant energy, and playing me what he has learned over the phone, haha.  He is actually pretty good.  If he goes about this the way he has every new challenge in his life he will be playing well in no time at all. 

I spent Tues. as usual at my mom's and she had a busy day planned.  I drove her first to her therapy, and then we hit Target, the pharmacy and finally Trader Joe's...This was right after lunch of course which we do at Marie Calendars as she enjoys their vegetable soup and corn bread, and I make use of the salad bar.  I bring my little pack of dressing in my purse, along with one of Jenny's little lunches which I enjoy cold.  I dump it onto of my salad and it is really pretty good.  I love that veggies of ALL kinds are considered "free" foods, and I can eat them in abundance, which trust me I do, lol.  After all her errands we went back to her house and sat chatting in reclining chairs until she nodded off.  Seemed like a good idea so I decided to join her, haha...How I love those days with her.

My daughter is struggling with some female issues which she has struggled with since she was 13 years old.  I will not go into detail as it really isn't necessary in order for you to pray.   She had a surgery when she was 17 years old which DRAMATICALLY helped the problem and she has been on the pill ever since which has kept everything in complete control.  However she and her husband are ready to start their family so all the issues are right there to consider again.  I am praying that the Lord blesses them with a child as they want that soo badly.  She would definitely be considered a high risk pregnancy but I am not letting my head go there just yet.  Our God is a big God and I know He can do anything He wants to do.    She is to see her doc. next Thursday and I would ask that you might keep her in prayer if you get the chance.  I was reading this morning during my devotional time and I found myself reading these familiar verses...I am going to claim them for my Melly for this season in her life...

Psalm 37:3-5  Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.  Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.  Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass.

It's funny, I have been thinking alot this week on how "mothering" changes through the years as your children grow up.  Mothering when they are babies seems soo difficult at times (it certainly keeps you busy) that I can remember sometimes longing for the days when they would understand even the simplest of commands.  Then there are all the elementary school day years with school projects, sports, homework and busy, busy, schedules and I thought to myself, "Will life every slow down?"  I don't let my head go to those teenaged years real often (the boys anyway, haha) as life really did turn upside down sometimes then, but I have found that EVEN NOW with all of my children grown adults there are STILL those times when I find myself on my knees and wishing I could somehow make everything OK for all of them.  They still need that assurance from their mom once in a while, that advice (now that they are all smart enough to ask for it, haha) and that unconditional love that you get from your mom.  It made me think again how much more our Father in heaven loves us than we love our own kids, and how we can run to Him for all the same things.  How I praise Him for His unconditional love most of all. 

1 John 3: 1  Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!

The week-end stretches out in front of us without a single commitment.  YAY!!  We will play our usual Friday night cards with my parents and I hope the guys bring their game, because I am feeling lucky, lol.  May you all have a wonderful, restful week-end!

MOMENT IN TIME

I have found that sometimes in life as a mother and grandmother, you experience that “moment in time” where you just KNOW it will be forever etched in the pages of your heart and memory.  Those moments that somehow stand out from all the rest, and enable you to pull the pictures of them from your mind and linger over them and dwell on them to your heart’s content for years to come.  I experienced one of those moments on Sunday and I hoping that I can “somehow” describe it to all of you in such a way that you can experience it with me.  It is one of those times when I wish I had the ability that I have seen in so many of you to express myself in such a way that you are living it with me.  I am trying (though not very successfully) not to be upset that I just took the better part of two hours typing all of these thoughts out, only to SOMEHOW lose it.  I could have just cried.  But I am NOT going to let that stop me from trying again.  It is just too precious of a moment not to share, though I know this one will be MUCH shorter, haha.    I have experienced many of “those moments” over the course of my life as a mother.  The moment each one of those babies was born for sure.  Watching them take their first steps.  The first time I watched my oldest child go off to school, or the day my youngest graduated from college.  Watching my oldest throw his first touchdown pass as the varsity quarterback, or the karate tournament where he won overall best, or the day my middle son stood in front of a large audience and did his first standup comedy performance, or the day my daughter came around the corner sitting on the back end of the convertible Mercedes in her wedding dress and veil looking soo beautiful, or was it simply the look on her face that day when she saw her husband to be for the first time?  All those moments in time….I am afraid I could go on and on as I have been blessed with so many of them.  I am sure all of you mom’s know just the “moments” I am talking about.  The moments that make all those OTHER moments unimportant, haha…All the sacrifice and hard work and time spent on your knees worthwhile. 

 As I have already told you, we traveled down to San Diego yesterday to hear my son James deliver the message to a church where he will most likely be the senior pastor to come next summer.  Now I have heard him teach many times before, and have already experienced “the moment” the first time I ever got to hear him do so.   This was somehow VERY different.  Maybe it was just the overall feel of the church.  It is a much smaller church (around 200 people) than the one he has been serving at for the last 6 years, so the “feel” would be very different to begin with I guess.  The people were warm and friendly and greeted us with enthusiasm as obvious newcomers.  The worship team was wonderful, and very quickly drew us all into a time of worship and praise.  But I think for me it really began in earnest as my son began to pray and teach.   I believe the Holy Spirit anointed him in such a way as he spoke, that it was soon very obvious that the words we were hearing were God’s words for this precious church of believers.  His love for these people is strong and flowed through the church in almost a tangible way.  I watched my son being only the vessel the Lord used to encourage and bring comfort and hope to these people.  It doesn’t really matter who the new pastor of this church is, as long he is chosen by God to do so, for the Lord will protect His people.    I am proud of my son (and all of my children) and for what he is able to do to serve the Lord and make his living at the same time, but that was NOT what this was about.  It was the witnessing of the power of God and the moving of the Holy Spirit among His people.  I have not explained this as well as I would like to, but I think you get the idea.  It was a VERY special moment in time.  How grateful I am that I was able to be there to experience it.    The rest of the day was also very enjoyable, but WAY too long to type out and now I have been at this WAY too long so I will tell it another time.  How blessed we all are by the moments that make our lives special and unique and unforgettable.  May we always be grateful to the one who makes it all possible

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKE!

Today is my SIL’s 25th birthday!! My daughter Melody just called to tell me that as she was opening her pantry door this morning to get out the ingredients to make his birthday cake, she saw a quick glimpse of a tiny little mouse! She quickly shut the door of course somewhat hysterical. I think I would have been more than a little hysterical, haha…Why such a tiny creature can have that affect on me, I am really not sure, but apparently Melody has inherited this from her mother. Her little dog has remained pacing at the pantry door barking and alerting her (a little late in my opinion, haha) that the mouse is indeed still inside. Living in the country where she does, this sort of event has become much more common place than she would have ever thought, (or wanted, haha) so everything in her pantry is in sealed plastic containers. She of course immediately called her hubby to “come get it” and I am sure he has probably already done so even as I type this. One thing nice about living right on the dairy is he is always around. But then again, maybe if they didn’t live right ON the dairy, there would be less of those unwelcomed little creatures, lol. Anyway, today I am grateful for this man who loves my daughter and brings her such happiness, and is there to protect her from mice as well! haha HAPPY BIRTHDAY Mike, and may the Lord bless you and strengthen you, and make His face shine upon you always.

This has been a good week. I am completely over my cold and I am grateful that it never got very bad. Maybe all the extra vitamin C I have been taking recently has done me some good after-all. The diet is going MUCH better. I imagine it is a combination of things. First of all I know prayer has helped my attitude and frame of mind, and I am grateful to anyone who said a prayer or two for me. Also, it took a while I think to get all of the sugar I was consuming out of my system. I REALLY do already feel better. Not so sluggish and slow for one. It honestly makes me wonder “WHY” I do that to myself in the first place, but I am grateful that I have managed to cut it WAY back again. Jenny Craig does have a few SMALL little treats which satisfy my sweet tooth just fine, so guess it’s not like I am consuming NO sugar, but just in the right quantities. I have lost an official 6 pounds according to the weigh in on last Wed. morning, so guess that is pretty good for two weeks. I will NOT dwell on the fact that this is not even really a drop in the bucket that needs to go, as it is WAY better than nothing at all or worse yet..still gaining! I have also purchased the book (it will take a couple of weeks to get it I guess) Made to Crave by Lysa Terkeurst, which many of you have suggested. I also got the work book to go with it. I am excited to get it as it does sound just wonderful, and thank you to those who suggested it for me. In the meantime, I am trying to get my head focused on this as I need to, and yet not let it become TOO mind consuming if you know what I mean.

I spent Wed. afternoon with my mom which is the first I have been able to do this since right before Christmas. She had guests for a while over the holiday, and then she was sick, and then I was sick, and so now we are finally able to get back on our weekly schedule I am thinking. We had a good day. How I enjoy her. She is doing sooo much better and is just about finished with her various therapies. She is reading again (though slower) and writing is coming right along. She is keeping a daily journal which she both enjoys and does help her. We are going to play cards with them tonight which every one of us is looking forward to. It is played with 7 decks of cards and requires much thinking and adding etc., and is REALLY good therapy for my mom as well, so I am glad she enjoys it as she does.

We have a busy week-end coming up. We hope to spend time with Annabel as we haven’t had the opportunity in a while, and we have her 14th birthday to address yet. And Sun. morning my son James is the guest speaker at another Calvary Chapel down in San Diego for their Sun. morning services. There is a VERY good chance that he is to be the new senior pastor at this church, so we are anxious to go and see the church for ourselves and met some of the people etc. We have all been praying about this for a while as they approached him about this several weeks ago. Obviously James wants to be as sure as he can that this is what the Lord has for him to do. It is all very exciting of course, but no matter what ends up happening I love that he is able serve the Lord, no matter where he does it, and we should know soon. In the meantime, if you get the chance, a prayer or two that the Lord accomplishes just what it is that He wants would be soo appreciated. After the service we could either stay and lunch with them and spend a little time, or travel quickly back to Upland to attend my niece’s 3rd birthday party. My other set of grandkids will be at this party so I am really kind of torn. We THEN have a retirement dinner that evening out in Seal Beach for a wonderful man who worked for my husband for many years. It is A LOT of driving and hurrying around, so I think I am going to let my hubby make the decisions as to what we do.

Just one more quick little story….We were without electricity ALL day yesterday as they were working on it in the park. This is the third time in the six months we have lived here that they have done that! Seems kind of weird to me, but guess it is what it is….But you know it’s funny how much we depend on such a thing and don’t realize it until we don’t have it. Like soo many other things in our lives. I want to appreciate more the things I have and spend a lot less time whining about the things I don’t!

Hope you all have a wonderful week-end.  I will leave you with this verse which I have sinking my spirit into this week..

 1 Cor. 15:10  But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

The grace that saves us also changes us. You can’t receive the grace of God without being changed by it. The changes don’t come all at once, and the changes are not complete until we pass to the next life, but we are indeed changed.  I need to wrap my head around this truth.  More on this later as the Lord works this all out in my heart.

MY "BLOGGING" BOOK

Hope everyone had a good week-end...Mine was pretty different for me as we hung pretty close to home and didn't "do" much of anything at all. I came down with a cold last Wed. and haven't felt like doing much. Really wasn't too bad as far as colds go, but I always feel like if you rest more it will go away quicker, so I have been doing a lot of that. I'll admit I was kind of paranoid too after my last one developed into pneumonia, (SUCH a nightmare) but didn’t even really get a cough with this one so I was grateful ~ now if my ears would just unplug, haha…

However, one of the things I did do I am VERY excited about. I have been thinking for quite a while now how I would LOVE to collect all of these blogs I have written and put them in a book. Seemed like such a perfect way to not only have a journal of it all, but pictures to go with it etc. I thought how I would LOVE to have such a thing that my mother wrote, or my grandmother etc., so I imagined my kids might someday too. (not that any of them read this very regularly NOW though, haha) Now my original plan was to do it through Blurb which I have used before. I put together a family cookbook for Melody when she was engaged. It had recipes from both our side of the family and Mike’s. It had personal messages from family members to both of them, favorite Bible scriptures and prayers, and lots of pictures. It is a hard back book with over 100 pages. It took me months!

I had a book printed for me, my mother, Mike's mother and Mike's grandmother.  I should have made a paperback copy for Mel and I to use, and had this hardback one to "save"...I am soo messy when I cook...live and learn  = )

This is the inside of the cover flap.

A sample of the personal messages section...

This is a sample of a recipe from the dessert section.  There were 5 sections of foods...all of the pages (or most of them anyway) had a picture of whose recipe it was, and a scripture at the bottom of the page.  This one was of me...look at how dark and short my hair was, haha

Now I am not the speediest person in the world, and it might have been that I was also making her aprons for every holiday I could possibly think of, and was knee deep in wedding plans as well, but whatever it was it was QUITE the undertaking. Sooo, I have not exactly been in a rush to get to it. And meanwhile of course I have been blogging since Feb. of 09. BUT THEN!! I read on Genn’s blog @ Life at  the Hass House about how she had done a book of her blogs through Blog2print! It was soo easy. They do everything for you by simply copying your blog page by page etc. Now I chose to do mine as a simple copy so that the pictures would be with the corresponding post the way I originally did it which does make it more expensive. You have the option of picking and choosing what you want, changing pictures etc., but seemed like WAY too much work to me. And for what I wanted, it did seem like the better option. It was not exactly inexpensive, but felt like I couldn’t put much of a price on such a keepsake. I did choose my picture for the front and back of the book. I should have it in a couple of weeks and I will of course take pictures to show it to you then. I guess I could have waited until then to share this whole thing with you, but I was too excited. Now this one is for 2010 and covers from Jan. to Dec. I will do one for 2009 next month so I won’t have the expense of two books in one month. I really don’t see the need to print out all of my pictures anymore either with these books. When you have been married as long as I have (almost 36 years) and have as many kids and grandkids (16 altogether so far ~ counting my sil and dil’s) there are WAY too many pictures to really store and keep track of. This just seems like the perfect alternative. Now I still have individual wedding albums for all of my kid’s weddings, and a LARGE picture collage that displays recent pictures of them all in my home, (and a couple of special pictures of course) but I have decided that I am not going to print out pictures anymore and keep tons of albums. I have boxes and boxes of pictures both in albums and just loose. I was always going to keep it all organized but somehow life got in the way and it all got away from me. I am not sure WHAT to do about them all. When we moved recently it made me take a GOOD look at just how many I have. I might divide them all into piles of each child, but even that would be a MASSIVE undertaking, so for now they are stored in my giant walk in closet and even some in our shed. For some reason it bothers me and I will have to eventually address it, but for now these neat little books with a journal of our life in both my thoughts and pictures seems just perfect. THANK YOU SOOO MUCH Genn for the suggestion!! I have also decided to start writing (maybe one day a week or so I don’t know yet) about my past. How I met my husband, old family memories, etc. so that it will all be chronicled in the book for my kids and grandkids to have should they ever be interested.

So there you have it.  Guess maybe I should start praying that it all comes out as well as I am hoping.   Hope you are all having a WONDERFUL Monday!

PRESSING ON....

Well, I have completed week one of Jenny Craig...I'd love to say I have morphed into a new woman and all is going WONDERFULLY....but it just isn't the case.... I struggled, whined, felt sorry for myself, nursed rebellious feelings, and was generally just a baby about the whole thing. Some of the days I whipped through wondering why on earth I had been fighting it, only to turn right around the next day and wonder if I'd make it through the day without cheating. The food is REALLY good, honest it is, and MOST of the time I am actually OK in the "literal" hunger department. And when I am not, there are things I can eat that are both tasty and VERY LOW in calories. I KNOW good and well what to eat and what not to eat. What is healthy and what is not. What is downright indulgent, and what is OK as a very occasional treat. I have felt both convicted and downright bad about how this all works in with my life as a Christian as well. Shouldn't I be able to get this all into control? Shouldn't I be able to let the Lord "handle" this for me? Am I nothing but a poor witness? As I laid in bed last night, praying and truly seeking the Lord for answers on this issue, and several others as well, I again felt He ministered to me, comforted me, gave me His peace, and all while KNOWING how little I deserve it. And yet, that is what is sooo wonderful about being a Christian. I don't have to whip (somehow) myself into this "perfect" person who struggles with nothing, and always does the right thing. He loves me period.....just the way I am. It makes me want to tell as many people as I can just how wonderful He is, and what having a relationship with a living God does for you. It makes me WANT to live my life for Him, and makes me WANT to get these areas (and others) of my life into better order. I appreciate His gift of grace and mercy, and yet at the same time don't want to take them for granted or use them as an excuse to live my life any old way I chose. And so I will press on. I will go in a little while and weigh in and see what (if any) progress I may have made this week. I will thank Him and praise Him that I have even the opportunity to do a diet in such an easy way. That I have any food at all to eat when sooo many millions of people don't. To let Him explore and dig deeper into my heart seeking as to why this is such an issue for me anyway. Trusting Him to lead and direct me in the right way to put this problem behind me once and for all...The Lord directed me to these verses this morning, and how they ministered to me.
Phil 3:13-14 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. I press for the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

I will not let myself dwell on what is done…on what is in the past…on what I do right, or what I do wrong, but press on doing as best as I can towards my goal of “being” in Christ Jesus.

Well, I got interrupted and had to leave to go weigh in and now I am back....WOO HOO....is all I can say. I lost 4 and half pounds. So I must have stuck to it all a little better than I thought....BUT the most important part of all to report is that the councilor that I was assigned for this journey was just WONDERFUL. And trust me, I have been assigned some in the past who just don’t “get it”…She is going to be just what I need I think to help me through this. Thank you Jesus! OK, I will put this away in my mind for now and get on with the rest of my day. Meanwhile though, I would appreciate a prayer or two for my attitude and perseverance; for the remembering that I can only do the best I can do through the power I get from Him.

To switch topics altogether I just have to make a quick (hopefully) little comment about last night’s Bunco game. A sweeter bunch of ladies would be hard to find. I DID enjoy myself. BUT!! It was a very watered down version of Bunco…The next closest person to my age had me beat by 15 years and most of these dear souls were in their late 70’s and 80’s...it was AT LEAST 80 degrees in the house and yet they all wore sweaters, jackets, scarves and I imagine considered even gloves…with my “hot flashes” this was MOST difficult…it was quite the procedure to switch tables as many had walkers and canes…there was almost no other talking or getting to know any of them as they had to concentrate on rolling the dice WAY TOO HARD…One sweet woman had NO IDEA rather she was winning or losing and kept asking repeatedly, “Did I win honey? Did I win?” I finally just started telling her, “Why yes, you did!” as she wasn’t marking it right anyway, haha It was a VERY LONG 2 and half hours of rolling dice. I KNOW there is a reason that the Lord has placed me in a senior citizens park at my age, but it is NOT to play Bunco I am very sure, lol = )

A DAY BOOK....

Outside my window…the sun is starting to set on what has been such a nice day. A sunny day around 65 degrees. I love looking out my window as I can see the flowers and sega palms on my front porch. Soo pretty.

I am thinking….Of soo many things as always. Seems my head is always all over the place. I am thinking about the fact right now though that I am going to get to meet a lot of my neighborhood ladies tomorrow night as I have been asked to sub in their Bunco group. I haven’t played in YEARS…Looking forward to meeting them all, and hope I don’t embarrass myself. I don’t add numbers quickly, haha

I am thankful for....my beautiful granddaughter Annabel who is actually 14 years old today! I can hardly believe she is this old already. How I love her. I wish I had more time with her than I do, but I do the best I can with what I am given. I am hoping to spend time with her this week-end while she is at her dad’s and go for sushi and a little shopping. We both love it, and I am needing a good long talk with her.

I am wearing....jeans, and a long sleeved dark blue tee-shirt. Quite comfy…

I am remembering...I am always looking back and remembering “something”…Recently I have been thinking about when we were kids and my mom would make these wonderful HUGE family dinners, complete with potatoes and gravy etc. Not exactly diet friendly meals, but I remember sitting down together as a family. Not many people do that much anymore.

I am going...I have already went, haha…I have been going to the same gals for almost 4 years now to get my nails done. How I love them. I went there today and enjoyed a nice long chat with them both. They are sisters and Vietnamese but they speak REALLY good English. They follow along on my life perfectly and never forget a thing. I have shared my faith a couple of times with them, and they really do seem to listen. They are finally asking more questions. They care for me with such compassion, and I appreciate them both soo much,

I am reading....Elaine’s book Peace for the Journey. I am LOVING it. There is a lot of truly good material in this book, and I am taking my time and slowly going through it. I have been enjoying her blog for a few months now, and this book is just sooo her. It’s wonderful.

I am hoping....that I work into this diet better with a little more time. I am HUNGRY, haha. Hopefully, it will show on the scale this week when I weigh in on Wed.

On my mind...sooo many things…..sooo many directions. At this moment I am thinking about the message I left on the recorder of a woman whose name Nina gave to me this afternoon. She called to see how the cleaning “service” went….not soo well….sigh….they (there were 2 of them) did everything in two hours. Not nearly long enough for what I paid, and didn’t touch a few things. Just the surface things quickly (I can do that) Anyway this woman is a friend of hers with similar cleaning habits, but she is younger and pretty booked. Might be too busy to get her, but it is worth a try.

From the kitchen...Not much out there but some Jenny Craig and some veggies….I am grateful for this (really I am) but I am wanting some bread, or some pasta, or something….I am hungry, haha,

Around the house....I am planning on starting some embroidery projects this week. I got the stuff around Thanksgiving time, but haven’t got to it. I am hoping to change that soon.

Plans for the week...my hair (root time again), Bunco with neighbor ladies, visit with my mom, day with Annabel, birthday party for my niece Sarah, and church Sunday morning where my son will be the guest speaker

One of my favorite things....A day spent with a grandchild.

A picture to share…

My pretty girl and her dog Baxter....Miss her...

MISSING NINA...

I honestly can’t believe it is already Friday. January usually goes by slowly for me for some reason, but this one is already hurrying by.


I am not really sure what to post about. I am constantly amazed at the amount of different topics, information, thoughts, dreams, and happenings you can find going on in Blogsville. At any given time I can come on this computer and be carried away to something interesting and different. I am NEVER bored with it. It sure doesn’t seem like the rest of you share my dilemma of lack of topics, haha. I have had a quiet week, and truthfully I have REALLY enjoyed it. No where I HAD to go, nothing much I really HAD to do. I have spent my days organizing a few things around the house, doing my regular household chores (dishes, laundry, etc.) and just generally taking it easy. I have spent some time catching up with some of my kids on the phone. It’s funny…you would think that it would be something I really do a lot of, and yet I really don’t. How I have enjoyed it. I haven’t talked with my middle son since Christmas Day however, and I will correct that this week-end. His business hours and LONG commute, make talking with him a little more challenging. My mom and step dad are STILL not feeling at all well, and I would appreciate a prayer or two for them if you get the chance. They just can’t seem to shake the colds they got shortly before Christmas; in fact my step dad has ended up developing pneumonia. And considering he was diagnosed over two year ago with terminal lung cancer this is especially concerning. It seems almost a miracle that he has done as well as he has. They told us at the time that he had 4 – 6 months at the most; and yet here we are OVER two years later, and he hasn’t had ANY signs at all that he is sick in any way. Never even coughs. He chose not to do the chemo treatments they wanted to do as he was 84 years old and they told him the chemo would NOT cure him, but MIGHT give him more time. Why, it seemed, would he want to make himself desperately sick with chemo treatments when it wouldn’t cure him anyway, and the chemo itself could in fact kill him?? It has turned into being such a good decision as he has led a very active, quality filled life these last two years. How I thank God for this.

On a completely different note….I had to do something today I have never had to do before, and I felt myself practically in a panic as it was about to happen. I felt like Lucy in that old episode where she had to fire her housekeeper, and it got out of control, haha. I will tell you the story. First I guess I have to go back almost 20 years ago when I was a MUCH younger woman and had 4 VERY active kids and a GIANT house, worked part time, and was ALWAYS behind, haha. My hubby had told me that (“for a while” as he said ~ though it lasted over 20 years) I could hire someone to help me clean the house a couple of times a month. I was giddy. Cleaning the house was something I could just never seem to get completely done. When you are cooking, feeding, doing the laundry for, driving them everywhere etc. for 4 kids in completely different stages of life, AND working part time, ALWAYS at someone’s sporting event, it just was almost impossible and really stressing me out. Now truthfully, I have been called a fanatic more than once when it comes to my house. I do like things cleaned, organized and straight. I can’t help it. Just seems to be in my nature. But I was driving myself and everyone else crazy trying to keep up and thus my husband’s offer. I went through a few women who either charged WAY too much or didn’t do half of what I wanted them to do, before I FINALLY stumbled upon Nina. She thoroughly cleaned my house twice a month for the next 20 years! She became like one of the family truly. I have laughed with, cried with, and loved that woman forever it seems. Every one of us got the rough side of her tongue on occasion, but her heart was HUGE! She cleaned things in a fashion that had never even occurred to this fanatic, haha. I was under NO illusions however. I knew she was a one of a kind, and I appreciated her more than you can ever imagine. She would arrive at my house at 9 am and rarely left before 6. Everything fairly glistened. In all the years she worked for me she took one vacation (where she missed one of her days) and was sick bad enough only ONCE where she wasn’t able to work. She could be counted on like the sun comes up every morning. If I needed her for anything special she ALWAYS accommodated me. Now I did much for Nina too. I always remembered her birthdays, her anniversary, and Christmas, with gifts that she would cry over. She was unable to have any children of her own and loved mine to death. She got ALL of my items I might have sold or given to good will, including nice pieces of furniture. She would collect things from many of the women she worked for and I helped her get it together in crates to ship to Portugal where she was from. I made her MANY things to wear over the years, and she wore them with pride. She rejoiced with me when I got new carpet, and as the kids began to leave home she missed them as much as I did. Oh, and I don’t think I mentioned, she did ALL of this for a very reasonable price. Nina and I were employer and employee, but we were friends. She went WAY beyond the call of duty for me. Now Nina was 3 years older than I was and the cleaning was starting to become a problem for her. She had quit some of her regulars and was only doing 4 of us anymore when we decided to move. She told me that she wasn’t going to be able to come to my new house EVEN if I went to pick her up and take her home etc. (she has never liked to drive freeways) It was just getting to be too much for her. I totally understood of course, but it has been an adjustment like you can’t imagine. Now we still regularly talk on the phone. Nina will be a part of my life until the day the good Lord calls one of us home. But in the meantime, with the arthritis in my knees, I NEED some help with my house. A couple times a month is more than adequate, and I could really get along with only once I imagine as well. I do all of the laundry, dishes and daily chores, but getting down on my knees to scrub toilets, or showers or floors, or even really pushing the vacuum around is out of the question for me for right now. My hubby can do this of course (and does quite well I will add when he needs too) but I can’t bear for him to have to do this after he has worked all day long. Sooo, all of this to say I began to look for “someone” to clean my house. NEVER did I think it would be quite the chore or challenge it has been. I had to fire the women who have been coming for the last 3 months this morning. The other women I went through before I found Nina, my hubby got rid of for me, haha. But these women are never here when he is, and rarely answered their phones. Sooo, the job fell to me. I wasn’t even sure when (or if) they would show up again, but knew when (or if ) they did I would have to tell them. They were supposed to be here yesterday and never showed (the third time they have done this) and came knocking on the door at 9:30 this morning. I felt my heart literally start pounding. They are nice ladies but just can’t be counted on. And worse yet, don’t really clean to suit me even with me pointing things out and offering suggestions etc. Nina told me WEEKS ago to get rid of them, haha. Said she come and do it for me if I was too chicken. Well, they really took it very well. I don’t think they were even surprised. I have hired a cleaning service (which I don’t really like the idea of) which will be here on Monday, so we will see. I honestly wished I was just able to do it all myself. I feel guilty sometimes to tell you the truth that I have cleaning people when I don’t work outside of my home, and I don’t have a bunch of kids keeping me busy besides. But Nina told me the other day that she felt the Lord put me in her life as much as I felt He had put her in mine. She had sooo many nice things to say and it blessed me more than you could know. Bottom line of this LONG story? I miss Nina!! Have a wonderful week-end!

EARLY JANUARY MUSINGS...

Well after doing some visiting this morning I find that many of you are looking ahead to this new year as a wonderful opportunity to accomplish MANY things…from shedding some extra weight and getting serious about exercise, (a fairly common theme this time of year) to setting some goals to begin to accomplish things your hearts have dreamed about for some time. I love reading of all of your hopes and dreams for 2011 as it inspires me to do the same.

My wonderful hubby and I spent ALMOST the entire 3 day week-end taking down “Christmas” and storing it away for another year. Now truthfully this took a little longer than usual for a few reasons. I needed to sort through my MANY boxes and items and eliminate those that I didn’t use this year due to lack of space, and then separate them into a couple of piles. Those I would pass down to some of my kids, and those that I might be able to sell, and some that I will deliver to good will. Most of it I have passed down. There was a little more than I thought; truthfully there were some items in there I haven’t put out in a few years, but just kept storing away every year. We also reorganized the storage shed a little bit (which was a chore we have been putting off since we moved in and had carelessly tossed boxes in there). We also took more breaks than we might have needed, aren’t getting any younger and therefore moved slower, and took turns moaning and groaning over how much we have managed to accumulate in our almost 36 years of marriage. But the job is FINALLY done and as I sit this morning in my freshly vacuumed living room, I am enjoying the neatness and lack of clutter. Unlike other years (where I wanted to push it all out the door on the 26th of December) I wasn’t really in a hurry to take it down. But now that it is, I appreciate it. New Years Eve was really pretty quiet for us. We made a DELICIOUS dinner and enjoyed a movie (it even got to be a romantic comedy ~ my favorite kind) together and decided rather than waiting for midnight we’d simply pray together before we went to bed asking the Lord to bless this new year and crawled in around 10:30. We were both rudely woke from deep slumbers at 12:03 a.m. by fireworks however. It sounded like it was right out our bedroom window coming from the sweet couple who are both in their late 80’s next door! I am sure they were probably both fast asleep too, but it was a VERY unexpected occurrence considering our new surroundings, haha. Yesterday, after morning service, we decided to take in a movie. We had lunch at our favorite restaurant (Market Broiler ~ which our son Joe and his family gave us a gift certificate to for Christmas), first, and then saw True Grit, with gift certificates that we got from my youngest son and his family. This made the whole experience a “free” one which doesn’t get much better, haha. We both THOROUGHLY enjoyed it. It would not have been the movie I would have picked to see, but felt like after New Year’s Eve, it should be his choice. After that we headed down to San Diego to both drop off all of the Christmas decs I am giving to that family, have a DELICIOUS soup that Larissa had prepared, ENJOY our grandkids, and then went to church to hear our son teach. He is going through the book of First Corinthians, and we are both learning some new things, and enjoying it so.

Unlike many of you I don’t have many ACTUAL plans for 2011! I have already set my appointment for Jenny Craig though for this Wed., and I will begin that AGAIN, and do it AGAIN, (with the Lord’s help) as it simply must be done. I refuse to dwell on the fact that I am doing it AGAIN (anyone believe me?) and just move along (as I tell my kids) doing the best I can. I want to dig deeper and deeper into the Word and get closer to Him in 2011 as well. I am hoping this is the year I can fix these knees and therefore become MUCH more active. I am looking forward to enjoying my time with my grandkids and will watch my middle son marry in Sept., and will welcome yet another dil to my life. I hope to spend many days enjoying my mom and watching her regain what she lost with her stroke. I just intend to live my life as best I can in 2011, one day at a time, enjoying all the Lord has blessed me with, and by hopefully using the time wisely and doing everything I can to bring the knowledge of Him to those who don’t know Him, and encouraging those I come in contact with as well.

We had MORE rain this week-end, and I am happy to report that I looked at the 7 day forecast and the rest of the week should be clear and in the mid 60’s! Sounds perfect to me. ENJOY these first few days of this new year