Picture October

For the month of October I am challenging myself to post a picture each day.  A snapshot of life as I know it... my reality. 

If this goes well, I plan to continue the picture a day as my "30 Days of Gratitude" series for this November.  Each day posting a picture of something for which I am thankful. 

The Song In My Heart

Try A Smile

I've been trying this new thing... smiling at people. 

Not the family or friends.  (although I try to smile at them also)  Strangers.  People I pass in the store. 

Making eye contact and smiling.

photo credit: eofdreams.com

Funny thing is - this is much more difficult than you might think! 

Mostly because other people seem to be making an earnest effort not to make eye contact with everyone else!  They are all busy looking at their phones... or their lists... or their feet... or the ceiling.  Anything other than all the other people sharing a space with them.

I can report though ..

about 99% of the people I manage to make eye contact with and smile at will return the expression!

It's Fall, Y'all!

Fall is my very favorite season of them all! 

Football, changing leaves, cooler weather, the sweaters and boots are back, the Man of the House and I both celebrate birthdays, apples, pumpkins, and Halloween.  What's not to like?

 And decorating for autumn makes me happy!

 

Autumn Hanging Basket

Autumn table scape

Front entry dressed for fall

A Spirit of Gratitude: September 26

I AM THANKFUL FOR:

Baked potatoes

Cooler weather

Butterfly on the porch

A clean closet

Waking up before the sun

Homemade pizza

Prayer

Lunch with friends

The perfect neutral nail polish

My new home coffee station

An Open Letter to the Driver In the Car Behind Me

Dear driver in the car behind me;

As we both sit here in the long line of cars waiting at the road construction, I have to wonder:

Do you really believe that consistantly edging, inch by inch, closer to my bumper is somehow going to encourage the flag person to turn his stop/slow sign around and allow our lane to proceed?  Because I personally doubt it.  I believe he could care less if you end up sitting in my backseat, although it might add a bit of excitement to his otherwise monotonous routine. 

photo credit: waveweekly.ju.edu

Is being those few feet closer to me... and by default the beginning of the line... somehow going to get you to your destination faster once we are allowed to move forward? 

The only other possible explanation I can come with for this need you have to get your car as close as humanly possible to my car is that there is something wrong with both the rear view and vanity mirrors in your vehicle causing you to attempt to use my rear view mirror to apply a fresh coat of lipstick or check for leftover salad in your teeth.  Is that it?

Whatever your reasoning... you are invading my personal road space.  And it's making me uncomfortable.  So please... back off!

Sincerely;
Me

And Scarier Still...

I don't know what it is with all the spiders around here recently, but I am starting to get more than a little paranoid about it. 

Especially when I have this thing living on my back porch:

It is HUGE! And the web stretches literally all the way across the porch.

  

I feel pretty sure it's ultimate goal is to catch one of us.

And it seems to get bigger with each passing day.

Autumn List

Things I want to do this fall:

1. Go on a hike (or two, or three... or five)
2. Go on a hike by myself
3. Make pumpkin muffins (lots of them!)
4. Visit a corn maze
5. Learn to make risotto
6. Start (and finish) some homemade Christmas presents
7. Make pumpkin pancakes from scratch
8. Decorate the porch for autumn
9. Get a new family portrait 
10. Try out some of the cute fall outfit ideas I have on my Pinterest board
11. Give some old sweaters new life
12. Do some sewing projects
13. Schedule some date nights with the Man of the House
14. Crochet a beautiful new scarf - for myself!
15. Remodel the hall bathroom

What I Actually Did

Back on June 21, I made a list of things I wanted to accomplish during the summer.  Now that summer is wrapping up - let's take a look back and review...

*  Learn to make Risotto
No.  I don't know why I am letting this intimidate me so much.  I need to just do it already!

*  Spend more evenings out on the back porch, reading or just relaxing  
Nope.  But in my defense, it was one seriously rainy summer and most evenings were either wet or just too humid to be outside much.

*  Learn to make real pudding (not from a box)
Well, I looked at lots of recipes.  And technically I learned how to make it.  I just never actually got around to making it.


*  Use up stash of leftover yarn making baby hats.
Done!

*  Donate them to pregnancy support group in town   
And Done!

*  Eat less meat and pasta  
Um... yeeeeeh... No.

*  Get to the gym more  
Ha! If anything, probably went less!

*  Put down the crochet hooks and knit something  
I've looked at some patterns, but I just have so many crochet projects in the works I couldn't bring myself to set them aside for some knitting.

*  Try out more of the stuff on my Pinterest boards  
Yes! Check out some of my Pinterest inspired projects at This IS My Day Job

*  Go for a hike by myself   
Hmm.. No I didn't do this. I'll add it to my autumn list

I Had Plans

I had plans that day.  Big plans.  There was all kinds of cleaning and sewing to be done.  It was going to be a productive day.  And I was going to look like Super Homemaker Woman by the time the man of the house got home from work.

Had...

Was...

It seems God had other plans for me.

First, as I posted my link to the Proverbs31 Ministries Online Bible Study weekly blog hop - the thought occurred to me "You should read all these".  Um... what?  I'm a busy woman!  Read all these?  Do you have any idea how many links are up there - with more being added every minute?  Maybe just some of them?  Nope... you should read them all.  (sigh)  Alrighty then.

Finally... I made it through almost all of the links posted.  (I confess - there were breaks in there to change the sheets, do some laundry, dishes, and watch the grand baby while his mommy ran an errand)

Now.  Now I could get back to my To-Do list, right?

And then the thought came... No.  Now you need to finish that painting project you've been dragging out for months.

Say... WHAT?

C'mon!!  That cabinet has been half painted for weeks and weeks.  What's a little longer going to hurt?  I could do it tomorrow.    No?  Today?  It has to be today?  (Another confession.  I tried my best to ignore this thought.  But it kept nagging at me until I gave it and dragged the cabinet outside to paint)

What was the point?  Who knows.  But now, as I type this, the cabinet sits outside with the primer drying - awaiting a coat of paint.  And I realize that even with the unplanned interruptions - I still got a LOT accomplished!  Maybe not the sewing I had planned.  But in the end, it was a pretty productive day!

Itchy

As I write this, I'm not doing so well...

Yesterday my hands suddenly became very itchy, turned red with some welt/hive things.  There was minor swelling and the itching was driving me insane.  There was some blistering in areas, many of which popped open. 

And of course I was trying to convince myself that I had some terrible flesh eating bacteria thing going on - because I'm crazy paranoid like that sometimes.  I took some benedryl and crashed early.

This morning, I awoke with a terrible headache, which I can't seem to shake.  And I have a dry itchy patch on my face.  The type of patch which usually means I've eaten something with peanuts in it.

After a little research, I found that the hand thing can also be a symptom of a food allergy.

I did have lunch yesterday at my favorite Asian buffet restaurant.  And all I can figure is that I must not have been paying careful attention to the signs, or something with peanuts or peanut butter wasn't marked - and I ate it.

Needless to say I am not happy about this development.  I have so much I need to get done today, but all I want to do is take some more benedryl, something for the headache, and snooze on the couch for the afternoon.

UPDATE: I can report that things have have improved.  I have no new redness, swelling or itching of the hands so far today.  But my poor hands look terrible from the sores left where the blisters popped.

Iris

We had my Grandmother Iris's funeral this week.  I'm still processing that. My grandmother is gone.

 http://www.transylvaniatimes.com/story/2013/09/05/obituaries/iris-l-lott/14504.html

Is it reasonable to say that I will miss someone I have seen very little of in the past several years?  Perhaps it is more accurate to say that I will miss the idea of her.  I will miss knowing she is there if and when I chose to go visit.  I miss the grandmother I knew as a little girl. 

There are things I want to share with you about my grandmother:

• She was 93 years old at the time of her passing.  She lived a long and full life.
• She was a Navy wife, who had to move her family of 5 a lot.
• She had so many grandchildren, step-grandchildren, and great-grandchildren I don't know how she ever kept track of us all.
• I called her on 9/11 to see if she had heard anything from my cousin who was working in the Pentagon at the time - and ended up listening as she talked about her memories of Pearl Harbor as a young wife. 
• She is the only person who ever called me by my full name.  Always - not just when I was in trouble.
• She always smelled like Johnson's Baby Cream.  And always had a tub of it on her bathroom counter.
• She would ask you what you wanted to drink with lunch or dinner, but was going to give you milk anyway.
• She always put butter on sandwiches
• She always seemed to have ice cream in her freezer
• She loved to watch baseball games
• I loved having her scratch my back.  When I was recovering from chicken pox, she took one finger and traced around the scabs so she could scratch my back for me without risking scars from the pox.
• When my cousin and I told her how much we wanted to ride in an airplane - she found a deal on tickets, took us by plane to Charlotte where we had lunch and flew back on the same day.
• She introduced me to my life long friend, Teresa
• She had an organ (not a piano, an organ) in her living room and would let little girls sit and play at it.
• When it had rained hard, she would take us to a place where the creek always flowed over the road to drive through the water.  And would let us roll down the windows so we could get splashed.
• When I was in middle school she took me shopping and bought me a beautiful green cable-knit sweater that made me feel like I was queen of the preppies.
• She gave me books about the saints to read, which led to a fascination with St. Kateri Tekawitha for a year or two  
• She always sent greeting cards she had bought to support Boy's Town or some other charitable cause.

Interrupted

"We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.....We must not.....assume that our schedule is our own to manage, but allow it to be arranged by God.”~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

 

You know me... I am a list maker. I've got a plan, and I like to see things marked off.  

But it doesn't always work that way - does it?  

Sometimes there are interruptions.  Disruptions.  Changes in plans.

 I have two choices...

I can get frustrated, angry, or discouraged. 

Or I can go along with it. 

Look at it as a lesson on how life isn't lived according to my plan, but according to God's plan.   

A new opportunity to say "Yes" to God and see what exciting opportunity He has for me rather than what I had planned.

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Something Even Scarier

Last week I shared about my new found appreciation fear of teeny tiny little spiders.

I have found something possibly even scarier...

Shower spiders.

Ok, ours are not that big - but still...

Those spiders (which always seem to have the longest, creepiest, skinny legs ever) that manage to hide themselves in the corner of the shower.  Not revealing themselves until you are in full suds condition.  It sits there in the upper corner of the shower - watching you - as if just waiting the right moment to pounce up on you in your weak, helpless showering state.

Ugh...

A Spirit of Gratitude:

I AM THANKFUL FOR:

Meeting my new nephew

Visiting with my sisters

The grand baby hugging his new second cousin

The grand baby cuddling up next to his bigger second cousin

Laughing with my sister

Sharing memories of our grandparents

That One Thing

In our women's Bible study this past week, we focused on Eve. Her creation.  Her role as companion, partner, and helper.  The fall.

Many of us (especially we women) love to focus on her role in the first sin.  That temptation and the forbidden fruit. We blame Eve for our monthly cycles, hormonal rages, and pains.  We blame her for sin, pain, and evil in the world.  We find ourselves feeling a bit superior to that weak woman in the garden who took the forbidden fruit and shared it with her mate.

Eve was able to be tempted into sin because she allowed her focus to be turned to the one thing God had denied her, rather than focusing on everything He had given to her.  She was surrounded by a garden full of delicious fruits.  But the center of attention and desire became the one she was not allowed to have.

And here's the thing... haven't we all been there at some point?

We focus on what we think we need or are missing out on rather than on all the blessings constantly being bestowed on us.

The answer to this stumbling block?

Gratitude!

Taking constant inventory of everything good and wonderful which has been showered on us. Learning to be content with what we have rather than always looking for what we don't.  Learning to find the blessing and the joy in any circumstance. 

Trouble

"I have told you these things, so that you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." ~ John 16:33 (NIV)

"In this world you will have trouble"

There it is.  Right there.  In Scripture.  "You will have trouble." No promise of a trouble-free life.  Not even 'you might have trouble'.  Nope.  You WILL have. 

Sounds discouraging. Doesn't it?

"But take heart!" There's good news along with that trouble.  Jesus overcame the world. 

And because of that, we can experience peace - even through the troubles!

The Song in My Heart...