Argument closed

Hmmm. There is an intelligent cunning to sending a multiple recipient text.  If you decry a person in a public forum, their reply goes to all who saw the original accusation.  BUT if you do it in a multi-recipient text, the reply goes only to the person who sent the original message.  Argument closed.  Ingenious.

It has to be a good day

I woke again at 6 AM sharp.  My body is getting in a rut!  I got the black glue gunk cleaned off the concrete where the tile will be laid.  I'm going to try to get the plaster done and if there is time -probably not- I may lay some tile.  I have a washer and dryer in my sunroom and things piled on my trash sorter and sewing table.  But the mess is deserved.So was the late breakfast of strawberries piled high on a toasted homemade waffle with some whipped cream on top.  It's got to be a good day.  There's not room for a bad one now.  Be blessed.

I Shall Believe - Matt Brouwer

I shall Believehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvIz7Pvwt58

I've reposted. This one seems to play better.
Matt Brouwer adapted Sheryl Crowe's song to a different thought process. I find it a statement of pure faith and determination. Sunday was a hard day of processing much. When I got in the car to come home, this song came on. Made me cry. Not much of a feat, I know. But it did meet me where I was.

draggy morning

Got up at 6, but didn't do much until late morning.  Really draggy for some reason.  Mid morning I got out and cleaned my brick work on the front of the garage and leveled the area for my next brick trim at the gate.  I don't know if I'll get it today and tomorrow the forecast is rain.  I'm planning on tearing out the washer and dryer Tuesday after Louis gets home so I can finish the tile work in the laundry area.  So I may not be able to get the brick all finished this week.  I was really hoping to get that done.  Monday and Friday are my heavy studio days right now, so I hope to get the washer and dryer back in Thursday night.  Maybe Saturday, but I have stuff planned to do then, too.  We'll see.  I hope your day is blessed.

satisfying

late lunch. ancient grains tortilla filled with fresh spinach, cucumber, tomato, avacado with my lime/olive oil dressing.  mmm-mmm.  good stuff.  i shall have another before going back out.  this time, i'll add some red onion.  very satisfying.

wait time

Woke to freeze - temps.  It doesn't seem to have done serious damage, though I have not yet been up the hill.  The sun is bright if still chilly.  My house is clean, my laundry is done and put away and my face has been fed.  Shall I begin with stucco and brick or gardening????  I guess stucco and brick since there is 'wait' time when I can climb the hill and pull weeds and prepare a bed for my cold weather plants.  Have a blessed day my friends.

Impressive-not so much

I didn't accomplish much outside my studio today.  Tonight I watched the Mask of Zorro.  It's been a long time and though I knew all that would happen, it kept me edgy.  Tomorrow is a new day.  We will see what it provides.  I have much I'd like to accomplish before I see my sweetie tomorrow night.  When I list the things I've accomplished this week, it can look impressive.  When I compare them to the things I desired to accomplish, not so much.

Do not try this-not ever

My husband was given some Guatemalan coffee beans by a friend.  It was okay but he ground it all and then decided he likes my gourmet coffees better.  (He likes to think he's not a snob about anything -even coffee.)  It was okay at first, but really about like drinking Folger's or Maxwell House.  It's beginning to get a little stale though and I hate to throw things out, so this morning I decided I would discover a new and wonderful coffee.  I put in the right amount of the Guatemala for a pot and then chopped an equal amount of black walnuts and put over the top. . . . . . Do not try this.  No, not ever.  That was not a successful creation.  It was the color of sick poop only thinner.  It tasted awful.  I mean awful.  I tried to drink a cup.  After about 3 sips, I poured it all out and made with a good cup of Kauai.  I did end up with a totally clean chopper and coffee pot out of the deal.

tired and sore, but satisfied

the front of the garage now has all the stucco on -first coat.  I began the brick kneewall trim as well. some good weeding went on.  it's been a good day.  i'm tired and sore, but satisfied. yeah.

A dogs tale.

Yesterday I actually did see the dogs as human types.  That's a little wierd I know, but there they were: some despondent, some aggressively angry, some anxious to be noticed, all of them incarcerated for being simply what they are -dogs that no one cared about.  Frankly, I didn't really care about most of them either.  That's sad.  But I did have sympathy with their plight.  There are so many and I was determined to make a difference for one of them.  I stayed way longer than I had intended and came away empty.  It had an extreme effect on my thinking for the rest of the day and even this morning.
I consider myself a good pet owner.  My dad loved animals, but he knew and impressed us about the responsibility you have when you take on an animal.  You aren't just its owner, you are its guardian, its companion.  You are responsible for its well being not just its sustanence.  That little guy -or big guy- has to have reason and understanding.  I've recently learned that even a possum can find the food dish and a soft warm bed.  No we didn't encourage or permit that, but we did find it funny and informative.
So in considering emancipating one of those animals there is much to consider.  Has anyone mentioned that I'm a little OCD?  I must physically be able to handle the animal.  When I went back to look at the big dogs, I saw 3 that were not barking their heads off, snarling or frantically banging about in their cages as I walked about.  One was a very large chocolate lab.  The poor dog was quiet and attractive, and labs are one of my favorite.  I was concerned about whether I could control him, but really I was grossed out by the huge amount of poop in his kennel.  He had stepped in it and it stunk horribly.  I really didn't want to bring him out and have him jump on me or track it about and I knew I would not want to put him in my car.  I avoided the one dog that I had really planned to see.
There was a golden shepherd.  A beautiful dog.  A quiet dog.  I asked to see her.  When they brought her in, she was frantic.  She jumped and banged into the walls and whined and barked.  I couldn't keep the leash on her.  I couldn't get the leash on her.  She's young and big.  My body has limitations these days.  She didn't seem to like me in the least and I thought "We might be able to win her over in time, but how many fees will I pay to bring her back home before we get there if we ever do.  How much will she tear up in her terror?  I wasn't willing to risk it.  She just wasn't my dog and I knew it.
I thought about the lab again, but it was getting late and all the aforementioned misgivings remained.  I decided I'd look at a shih tzu.  He was the quietest of the little dogs - a year old silver.  I'm sure he's not okay.  He wasn't bouncy or pleased when we brought him out.  He wanted nothing to do with me; he just needed to pee - on everything.  It was a male thing, I know, but it was a turn off.  He would be an inside dog if I took him.  How long would I put up with him marking my house, my studio, my garage.  If I were going to put up with that, I'd have to have a good reason, a reasonable hope that it would become a good relationship.  He gave me none in that short span of time.  So I left.  Yeah, I left pee everywhere, gave them their dog back and departed.
Last night, Jimmy -a very well trained black lab- came to our fellowship.  I've been around Jimmy before.  He's gorgeous, super well behaved, incredibly intelligent and very playful.  He doesn't bark a lot.  When his person says 'sit down' he sits down.  If you want his attention, he's friendly.  If you recoil, he moves on.  He's not a jumper.  Yeah, I want Jimmy!  
Actually, I don't.  He is my friend's dog and my friend made him 'Jimmy'.  If I had a lab, it would surely be a different character, for I am a different person.  Yet I see the potential and like the thought.  My one drawback is that I have a pool.  I've been told he will get in the pool.  I'm considering pool gates.  So my mind goes back to the chocolate.  What if I express my concern?  What if I take a sheet along?  What if I just bring him out and visit with him a little -just to see?  Perhaps part of why I left without checking the chocolate out is because I didn't want to be disappointed.  I have a cat.  He's really a wierd cat.  No comfort pet, no companion there.  He's a cat, not a dog, I know.  Yet, it's not really a satisfying relationship.  I'm a cat person; it should be.  At the humane society yesterday, there was a free ranging tabby cat in the main lobby.  As I was talking to the woman the cat jumped up on the counter and started rubbing on me.  I began petting her.  She rolled over on her belly and then attacked my hand.  The lady said, "I guess she's feeling friskey today." But honestly, I bring that out in cats.  I'm not sure what I bring out in dogs.
When my daughter and her kids lived with us, they would say "Don't kick my dog!"  That dog was always attacking my little doggie.  I didn't kick her, but I wasn't above sticking my toe under her small body and tossing her away or out.  I guess to them I was kicking.  But to this day, that dog loves me.  When I'm around her, she's all over me.  When she lived in my house, she obeyed.  Yet Phizgig was stubborn.  I didn't beat her into subjection, though a couple of times I put the fear of G-ma in my grandkids when the dog made me mad.  I wasn't ever cruel and until we got another dog she adored me.  After that she became a dog's dog.  She still would sit for grooming, but she played with and showed affection to the other dog.  With dogs, frankly it's all about us.  We will have the center spot.  We cared for Phizgig until the day she died.  But she wasn't as much of a pet as we would have liked.
And so it's been a year since her passing.  I would like a dog to walk with, to travel with, to be a pet that needs and adores me.  I want a dog that thinks and communicates and can be trained to be a functional part of our world.  For that I will feed, groom, scratch, throw toys, buy toys, provide a soft warm place to lay, pay vet bills and administer restraints.  That's how I was raised.  So the search will continue.

like hunting for a husband in a jail

While griping about the whole humane society dog hunt thing, I ended up with the vision of them in their cages barking frantically and snarling and decided it might be somewhat like hunting for a husband in a jail.  If you bail him out you get to take him home.  If it doesn't work out, you can bring him back - if you can get him back.  I wish I hadn't gone there, now I can't get the pictures of hunting for a husband in the jail out of my head.  Oh that one isn't bad looking - but he's not the least bit interested in me; all he wants is out of his cage.  Oh that one is tall and muscly and - oh my gosh; what is that smell?  After my traumatic trip to the humane society, I could write a whole book on this scenario!!  My mind is still developing it. lol.

Creature of habit

When my mom was here in December, we made a small step so she could get down to the studio to work. Today I took it out and covered it all around with the flooring we put in my study area. . . . It's funny. I remember how hard I would hit that step when we first put it in and I was used to a deep step down. I thought I'd break my neck before I got used to it. So it was out of place for a time today. I dropped off that step and nearly fell a couple of times even though I knew the short step was gone. It's back in place now. I'm just hoping it feels right again when I get the junk that is holding the glue down off the step. Creature of habit. Yeah. But it's done. One more completion.

Doors

In our Sunday service, the speaker brought a message on Doors.  It was a good challenge, biblical and well spoken.  It made me think of the place in Santa Fe, NM called "Doors".  It's a salvage company that takes old stuff from international markets and uses it to design new pieces of furniture.  It's an awesome place to rummage through, but it's also awesome to see the pieces they create from the world's leavings.  I got to thinking about Doors in relation to today's message.  Very much to process.

In a week. . .

I watched a van pull away with my sweetie and a few friends.  This is the longest I will have stayed all by my me.  Louis used to be gone for a couple of weeks at a time with his job, but I had people in my world.  Today I enter an unknown realm.  It should be a productive time in the physical and spiritual, but that will be seen in a week.  I have no doubt that it will be productive for him and the others.
My life is one of self-designed challenge right now.  The hills I face are my own.  Very real, very grueling, very solitary.  The processing of why's and when's and what comes next are accompanied by a realization that the physical windows of life have a time span.  Change -a garden, a cart, a stand, cabinet doors, physical well being- belongs only to today.  I used to tell my daughter that she would never be what she was not becoming.  Now that axiom has turned about to face me head on.  For every action there truly is an equal and opposite reaction.  It's more than just a law of physics.  It is a law of life.  You want to indulge in that extra slice of bread or serving of pasta?  You want to suffer pain and disability?  You want to mindlessly consume a half pound of sugar heart mints with sayings on them?  You want to forfeit sleep to joint discomfort and kidney problems?  You want to work on concrete without gloves and a mask?  You want to have problems with breathing and sore fingers?  You want to just get it done without resting?  You want to be unable to work for a day or maybe two?  And so I search for the juste milieu.
I search for equilibrium in my inward quests as well.  Life certainly did not turn out the way I expected.  But there wasn't any real backing for what I expected.  The problem with books and movies and tv dramas is they can go however the person who created them wishes.  Wasn't that nice?  But life doesn't always give your child a heart transplant after you risk it all.  People don't always act like self centered-jerks, see the light and get 'happily ever after' for everyone involved.  We can receive grace and forgiveness, but we live with our choices in spite of the grace and forgiveness.  Sometimes we don't know to call on grace and forgiveness until years have passed and damage has accrued.  I am writing the story as I live it.  That knowledge is exciting, but scary.  It's not that I wish I could live it over, I just wish I had understood when I lived it the first time.
I have processed much of life in the past 6 months.  What will a week bring forth?  We shall see.  I'm supposing it will deliver according to my choices physically, emotionally and spiritually.  What will I miss?  What will I discover?  To what will I succomb?  A week is a short step in eternity; how much can I expect to change.  I guess it's not really 'how much' but 'can I expect to change' that will make the difference in a week.

stuff's happening.

Today has been a quiet, gentle day.  I woke early - about 4:45 and said "I'm not getting up yet."  I didn't really make it back to the land of dreams and after several more bleary eyed clock gazes sans glasses, I got up around 6 and began 'doing stuff.'  Nothing big or earthshaking, but it left me feeling good.  I had a make-up lesson from earlier in the week.  The girl just hung with her daughter and took a 'snow day' on monday.  I thought that was cool.
I had a reasonable devotion time with my mom.  I doubt highly that my mother will ever like me or value anything I say, but she does value me calling three times a week to read the Bible with her though she insists we read from the KJV so I won't contaminate her fagile mind with my NIV.  She's very like a young child in many ways.  Today we had an odd number of verses and she would be shorted in the natural event of things, so she read an extra one on her next to last turn so it would "come out right."  I really don't care who reads how many verses, but it always seems she's in the place of making sure I don't one up her.  I've really never tried to one up her in my life, but I guess I rub people that way.  It makes me laugh, but it makes me sigh.  I was my daddy's princess.  He would dance with me in the park.  That should be enough.
People at the party credited my husband with making the cart.  I didn't correct them.  Louis didn't correct them.  One of my FB friends said "Oh I thought you had actually built it."  I said "I actually did.  But he did put in two screws while I held the drop shelf in place."  You'd have thought I'd taken credit for building the city.  Why do people suppose that I come up with ideas and my husband finds a way to make it happen?  I really don't dream up projects for him to complete, though sometimes he is more involved.  I don't do plumbing or electric.  Nope.  So I get his agreement before starting those kind of projects.  There are times when I need 4 hands.  I kinda spring that on him at the moment.  On the fish tank stand, he helped me move the fishtank from one stand to the other and helped me check out the trim board I thought might need replacing.  Luckily it didn't need to be replaced.  He would have had to help with that.  It would require his saw and one of his handy dandy attachments that I bought him for Christmas.  He is a good man and rarely refuses to help me with anything I ask for help with.  Sometimes he will offer help whether I need it or not- but not so much.  It's a pet peeve, I guess, that people assume he must have to do it all.
After my lesson, I went outside for a bit.  It's a lovely day and I know it's trying to be spring in spite of the occasional freeze, because everything is giving an effort.  I trimmed up the plants and pulled weeds in my gardens by the front door and by my studio walkway.  I took the dead ends off the rose bushes -who are putting more folliage out already.  I snipped a few crepe twigs though I know it really is a little early and found they're greening.  The chrysanthemums are putting out new leaves.  The kale is beginning to bolt.  The Jane is putting on fuzzy buds.  The narcissus are sending up shoots along with the surprise lillies.  My heart said "SPRING!"  My mind knows caution.  I still wanted to skip and sing "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor; would you be mine?"
Next week I will plant peas and spinach on the hill.  So goes the 'stuff' in my little non-consequential world.  I hope yours is blessed.

revamping

I finished the cabinet that my 60 gallon fish tank will soon call home.  It's sitting on it and it fits well.  No water or fish yet, but the tank sits well.  I must get some repairs made to the mural wall before it gets put in place for good.  The fish are residing in a large cooler.  Not happy fish, not.  They are jumping a lot and I'm thinking I may have to lower the lid for the night so I don't get up to the whole 'fish out of water' thing. . . . . . . We thought we had some mold issues and that a board might have been damaged and need replaced, but when we got into it, the board is sound.  It's not mold, but a lichen type infestation.  Smells like spilt mushroom soup.  I got the soap stuff that kills mold and cleaned it twice.  The second time it had lost about all its smell.  I have it drying now.  I'm so glad we don't have to replace the board.  I will have to put some of the rocks back into place tomorrow and treat and seal it -including the slate.  I may have to move the fish into a larger cooler.  We'll see.  I also have some salt residue on my mural that must be stripped off.  It's not a salt tank, but the water is old and for a while the waterfall was splashing backward. . . . .  I'm ready to have it done and pretty again.  I will make a few other modifications besides just making a new stand.  I think it can be even better than it was.  The stand has a cabinet in the bottom for keeping supplies up off the floor.  Sliding panels will keep what I want hidden out of sight.  I like the way it came out and am anxious to complete the revamping.  It's been a hard, but good day.  Blessings.

Busy Snowy day.

Today has been a busy day. Last night I had a troubled night and woke a little late - 7ish - to a beautiful white world. Actually, I'd been up around 5 to see it in the dark. Dawn was grey and cold with snow flying about. I kept a fire much of the day. I'm making a new stand for my 60 gallon aquarium in the sunroom. It's about 2/3 done now. After it's finished, I must remove the fish and water to a large cooler, clean the tank and move it out away from the wall. A little repair work to my mural wall must be completed and then I will set the new stand in place. When my sweetie gets home, we will put the aquarium -too heavy for me to lift alone- onto the new stand and I will fill, arrange and put stuff back including the fish. I hope it will be an improvement after all this work. 
I started a new student today. He's almost 7 and a real cutie. I was amazed at how hard he worked and how closely he watched and followed me. He will be fun to work with. I enjoy teaching his older brother, but they are very different personalities.
We are buying the stuff to redo the hall bathroom a little at a time. I have a few projects that must be completed first, so maybe by the time everything is bought, everything will be ready to go. I need to finish the tile work and doors in my laundry room/pantry. We are going to use part of the closet in a very small spare bedroom to move the linen closet from the end of the bathroom to across the hall. That space will then be used to enlarge the bathroom slightly. Eventually we hope to do away with that bedroom anyway and use the other half of the closet space for a new coat closet. But the back of the house must be finished first. We'll see how soon that happens.
We've bought some variegated green slate style porcelain for the tub area and a green glass vessel sink and a tall chrome faucet. Design ideas are crowding about in my head. I'm getting excited to get on it. We will buy a new toilet - hopefully one like we put in the other bathroom and a new tub with fixtures. I want a drop in and would like a jetted tub, but the jetted feature isn't a deal breaker.
I finished the day off by making home made cream of chicken soup with mushrooms and noodles and a focaccia. It was good if I do say so. Then we watched Soul Surfer.
In all, it was a full and fine day. Blessings.

Butler's cart

So, since the kitchen was finished 3 years ago, I have said I was going to make a butler's cart with an electric outlet and casters.  I wanted something that would accommodate my waffle iron or griddle for those awesome fruit and waffle brunches.  That way, I can sit at the table and visit while I cook them. . . . .  A year ago Christmas, my husband got me a wonderful 3 crock buffet server.  Enter new design ideas for the cart.  As a whole, the possibilities just kept coming and the cart became more and more versatile in my mind. . . .  There were limitations, I have a place to park it, but there is a cabinet door and the french doors and I didn't want to impede traffic in the dining room/kitchen area.  I measured and decided it should not be wider than 26 inches, so I planned into it a short drop leaf that would allow the buffet server room to sit on top, but would fold away for normal use. . . . . . . A few weeks ago, I started actually buying the supplies and beginning the process of readying the lumber.  This week, I built it.  It took much longer than I supposed as is par for my efforts, but I really do like the end result.  I had to buy new casters, because I couldn't ever locate the ones I had before.  In all, it cost me about $40 to make.  At this point, it is a feel good experience.  Now I hope it does all those things I imagined for me and my future guests.

chaotic blessings

I've been in a crazy, chaotic mood these past few days.  I'm actually getting stuff accomplished - though at a much slower rate than I would desire or expect - so the mental chaos is kind of unexpected.  I will move out of this place into another.  I wish I could promise it will be better, more encouraging and more entertaining, but I'm clueless these days.  The coffee was good.  The devotion time was inspiring.  The sun is shining; that should have a positive effect.  Blessings.

Or Else......

WARNING. . . . Opinionated religious rant.  You may wish to mosey on down the list.
So. . . .
I got a lead on the ticker on FB that interested me.  It concerned a group I grew up in and while I do have certain misgivings, it was my cradle, so I went.  The visit, which involved an oppositional group,  left me feeling wary and sick. 
When I was a kid, we were subjected to many "Tribulation" movies designed and produced to scare the sin out of us and send us on a serious quest for heaven.  They scared me, but my spiritual quest was to come much later when, in a whole different setting, I had exhaused my 'self'.  That is not the subject of this blog.  But per the movies.  Frequently the believers -always few, because the ones who got it right in the first place were gone- would be cowering in catacombs for fear of death and torture.  Eventually they were caught, lined up and made to renounce their faith in God and embrace a new world system.  Those who failed to comply were brutally, sometimes graphically killed.  It inspired many nightmares, but not much true repentance or redemption.  I have my opinions why.
A few years ago, we got a new governor.  When he came into office, there was a specific topic that he said he would never support.  After his election some of his supporters cried foul because he explained that the state did not have the money to win that battle and though he sympathized with those who wanted to go there, he would not sanction such a move.  We had problems we could solve and were advised to put the money where it could do good for our state.  I felt sad to admit that he was right and I admired his leadership.  He's been a good governor who has stuck by some pretty gutsy decisions that I believe were right and has made people hold the integrity of other decisions he didn't support.  So the first mentioned issue was swept under the rug in our state legislature.  To this date neither side of that argument has had it's say.
This seems to be a theme.  I watched a national news person interview a mega pastor and the main topic addressed by the news personality was one he refused to address.  He would divert.  The interviewer would return.  He would give a non answer and the interviewer would press on.  Finally, after being taunted with "You really aren't going to answer my question are you?" he replied, "Neither side of that argument has anything to do with my mission or my ministry.  It isn't my issue."  And then he changed the subject again.  I felt a little sad that he didn't make some kind of stand on one side or the other.  After the online visit the other day, I realized he really had no ability to go anywhere with that.  It's noone's victory in either case.  He was shrewd and wise to avoid an answer regardless where he stands.  There are many who agree with that tactic.  If they are forced to make a stand, they will put a weak statement of belief out, but they really don't want to go there.  Its just not what their mission and ministry needs.
But I also saw -as an infiltrator in a group I don't agree with- that this group will not be satisfied with silence for long.  Their desire is to send those with firm belief into the catacombs to hide.  They want people who believe as I do to be ashamed of themselves and of their stand.  They deride and accuse with great sarcasm and enthusiasm.  All of the things they accuse others of are in their arsenal waiting to be leveled at 'the enemy' when they have gained enough ground and strength.  In true form, I realize that they will not be satisfied with those who oppose them hiding in the catacombs for long.  These will be pulled out, lined up and forced to recant . . . or else.
Thankfully, and not so thankfully, I have read the book.  Though this issue may very well end as I have decribed, it is not how the story concludes.  It is not the issue addressed all those years ago.  That is an issue that will be dealt with by someone, someday.  But our true enemy may very well use this as a training run.  I hope I know where I will stand in the day of 'or else.'  It doesn't scare me as much as it saddens me.  Sometimes those who cry 'freedom' the loudest do not have 'freedom' in their hearts.

the difference in glasses

so the real difference in our cleaning style is probably attached to the difference in our glasses.  I have to wear mine all the time.

I'm not crazy; I'm dyslexic.

I was laughing hilariously.  Then with great embarrassment, I read what it really said.  I'm not crazy; I'm dyslexic.

awake awake

Woke around 5AM and said "Shucks, I missed the bulk of that show I was trying to watch at 10."

I tried to go back to sleep, but I was awake awake and much to do was running through my brain with vigor.  So I got up and got sucked into a mess in the kitchen. . . . . .  The coffee was good this morning.  The air felt like winter, not cold but like winter anyway, this morning as I climbed my hill.  The faint white of swelling buds on the fruit trees is evident and I encouraged them all to go back to sleep for awhile.  I hope I remember to wake them back up at the appropriate time, LOL. . . .  . .  Hanging out with Zephaniah this morning I came to some interesting conclusions.  I've never paid enough attention to him before, I think.  In a kind of "Eli, meet Frodo" sort of way. . . . Getting ready to be in my studio all day.  It's probably a good thing since I way over extended myself yesterday.  The butcher block for my butlers cart is almost finished and the legs of same have been cleaned up.  The memorial project is near completion and the gate has its hardware.  Now I have a clean kitchen.  I am blessed.

The waiting well

An hour and a half later, I have the first piece setting up.  I have two such jobs that I will work on today:  long processes that require much patience between short intense segments of attention to detail.  The waiting well is my nemesis.  I'm a piddler by nature and some things must not be piddled with until it is time and you can't rush perfection.  Luckily, I have other things that need attended to while I wait. .......... The coffee is good this morning.  My heart has been encouraged and stricken (but not destroyed) all together.  Greater is he that is in us. . . . . . .  Another day of sunshine is in the offing for this second day of February.  My own sweet groundhog is 22.  And she will probably see her shadow this day.  Blessings all.

differently

This past 24 hours have been crammed with thought.  Yesterday was an unusual day that left me with so much to consider.  I love my family, I love my church and my church family -two things there, yeah.  Neither group is perfect by some standards, but they are pretty good to my heart and mind.  Six months ago I just wanted them all to behave - grrrrrrrh.  What I really meant was I wanted them to behave differently.  But the last couple of months, I've begun to look differently.  I'm realizing that the sight from the inside is something I can influence by simple decisions.  I'm still me, they are still who they are.  But I'm seeing it differently and a lot of that is by choice.  So what if I'm a fool and an old fool at that?  What if I'm not?  Be blessed.