Remembering

It is raining.
A tad dreary for a summer day and I have three huge piles of clothes to transfer upstairs, yet my little one is still asleep. This is the first day she has slept in since returning from camp. She has many bruises and scrapes on her now 5'11" frame.
I am letting her sleep. Oh....to be a teenager and not have guilt from sleeping late. I'm happy to oblige this teenage luxury.

Hubby is visiting his parents next door, caught in this rain shower.
I found out this morning I am truly jealous of his body pillow. I awoke early around 7 AM and just watched him sleep. But to my surprise, I watched as he rolled over and physically put a bear hug on his pillow. Granted that pillow has helped him tremendously get a better nights sleep and snore less, but when I told him what I saw he laughed and said I was jealous. Speechless...I eventually agreed.

Hey, she is up!

Anyways...I must have subscribed to Beliefnet.com sometime back. Today in my inbox was "10 Inspiring Quotes for a Depressed Heart"

I usually don't opt in on much from that website, some content just doesn't agree with the me that is me today. But today, I enjoyed reading those quotes. Years back quotes like these made me even more depressed. I was so settled into a pattern of defeated thinking that it angered me to hear uplifting messages. Yet over the these past few years I see that messages of hope said to me years ago by family, mental health professionals, and those closest to me was truth. Early this morning, before hitting this e-mail, I was thinking back on a couple things that had a definite change in my heart and mind. Truly forming an attitude of gratitude, coincidentally one of the first books to begin a change in me and the methods I learned in the book "The Papa Prayer" by Crabb.

I haven't glanced at the second mentioned book in quite awhile but basically to me "PAPA" prayer time stays the same each day.

P-Present myself before the Lord...the Lord's Prayer helps me on days and nights when I am drained.

A-Acknowledge all the blessing and praise I can muster to Him. Telling God I know He is God...all-knowing...all-present!!!!

P-Praise...more lists of all I have to be thankful for. Sometimes I drift off to sleep after this part, I have come to realize that this is all that is asked of me.

A-Ask...ask for forgiveness, ask for others, then ask for myself.

Now this is pretty much my shortened and altered version of the book but isn't that what spending time with God is all about, making it personal. Taking seeds and planting.

Well this was a little seed of me today.
I once hated much, found joy in so little.
Depression is curable.
Never dismiss something that easily gives offense one day because someday it will make the most sense of all!


WooHooo!!!! The sun is out! The child is fed...I was up early and hit the store before anyone was awake...bought a couple pastries and fruit. She is happy!
Needs being met...not falling behind...got too much to be thankful for to dwell on our current financial situation!

Update:
hhh... I pulled "The Papa Prayer" by Larry Crabb from my shelf and I have altered his version quite.

Present
Attend
Purge
Approach

I must read this book again this summer...I have a feeling I will find something new!

Thankful for hard work!
Thankful for some unexpected bucks in our pocket today!

Not Me Monday

First time for everything...a blog carnival.

So what did I not do today...
hmmmm...

I didn't serve rice and chicken made with garlic and bean salsa I found in the fridge and forget to check for an expiration date.

I didn't empty the dishwasher just before dinner and use my hubby's 2X T-shirt to dry a fork.

I did clean my bathroom!!! But I didn't decorate using duct tape and a hot glue gun.

I did pick up some ice cream confections at the grocery but didn't eat the last cherry turnover!

I spent time entering contests tonight but didn't think I had a chance.

Thanks for the fun, MckMama!!!!

I do know how to blog...or do I?

Had fun!
Always hopeful!!!!

God uses dictionaries!

So...after a day of geocaching, then a full day of cleaning my basement, then a day of rain and shopping in preparation for our youngest's first trip away from home this weekend to volleyball camp...today I couldn't exactly get the physical fire going to tackle our cluttered attic.
Anyways, it's Thursday and this morning Lysa TerKeurst came up on one of my subscribed morning devotionals. Gossip and the junk that comes forth from us was the topic. She opened her daily devotional with Philippians 1:9. It worked.

Hubby is home, sleeping now after picket duty...we were up late playing board games and his early morning awakening at 5 AM has taken its' toll. So I felt the urge to stop my messing around from room to room and google the word melancholy. That led me to a whole list of words; pensive, optimistic, listless, quixotic and a few others to boot. The only one I didn't like was exanimate: meaning spiritless.

The succession of words up to that point had meaning. Ironically less than two hours after reading Lysa's devotional and her blog, something happened that usually sends our emotions flying in this household. But this time I didn't feel the offense or bitterness I usually feel. So to put this story in the short version: 1. All is well, we're disappointed but not troubled. 2. I had another reason to explain to my daughter the power of Holy Spirit. 3. This mood I am in led me to finding something in the Scripture.

Every Christmas I have this handmade plaque I did years ago with John 3:16 on it. It's one of my favorite objects to arrange around with greens and silk flowers. But today 1 John 3:16 popped into my head and there it was...the succession of God's love for us.
1 John 3:16
"Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."
That means laying down our thoughts before God and our tongues.

Thankful I felt a pulling to check something out and putting a quick fix on it!
Thankful I took the time to do something that seemed somewhat foolish.
Thankful my youngest daughter just called on her cell laughing joyously!
Thankful my hubby agreed with me not to go geocaching three days straight next week, so now I have breathing room of another day until the sale next weekend.
Thankful my eldest got to ride a Vespa through a Milan suburb with her wonderful host parent yesterday. How cool is that!

Very Early Start

Wow...I haven't posted in months.
It has been 6 months of testing and trials at work yet moments of pure joy.
I was placed at my school as a classroom aide in an autistic support class.
Enough said on that-God was there with us! Hallelujah!

So here are some pics....




There goes my little girl...off to Italy to teach for 5 weeks!
Did I cry? Yes, but not until Saturday while we waited to get word that she was in Italy and settled into her hotel...that didn't come until she was able to hit an internet cafe on Sunday. Now she has a cell, so grateful...talking to God, resting in trust and peace over this and a real eye-opener to His power.

Next...



An elk...where do you find an elk in Pennsylvania?...in Elk County! Actually they were roaming around this town like a tame herd of beef. This one was standing along the road feeding near a house. We happened along this geocaching and today we are off again, picnic lunch to boot!

No big vacation plans this summer...hubby is on strike. Crazy as it sounds...today's local paper has it's first letter to the editor on why these guys and gals should be so thankful to have a job that strike shouldn't be an option. Actually it isn't the money that has their union in an uproar and I don't know anyone my husband works with that isn't thankful for their job. Going to have to do some repair once he gets up and sees the paper, I just know others will take the pen up and defend. Thankful he is listening to me more about God supplying our needs, as a matter of fact, I am receiving my last paycheck today for the summer too. So... today we are going out into the Pa. forests and hamlets happy to just be getting by. There is a strange outlook of joy and laughter in this crazy household these past couple weeks. What's God up to? One thing is teaching us not to be slaves to our weekly income!

So that is all for now. Going to get myself together with some prayer,a bath, make us some egg salad sandwiches and then get the other two up for a day of geocaching. Next week we will be getting ready for a yard sale. Thankful this may finally break the spell of keeping things no longer in need of! I just got another "Amen" on that too!