I have a special friend who has been hit with more than her fair share of troubles lately. Although, as I write that knowing that God will not give us more than we can bear, I wonder if there really is such a thing as "more than her fair share of troubles"? Anyway, as a mere human not able to see the big picture, it seems like she's just had one thing after another lately, and my job as her friend is to be an encouragement. So made her a book of notes! I got the idea from here. Of course, my strengths are not this lady's strengths, and vice versa, so I looked around to see what I could put in my book. In one of the books the other lady made, she included a bow tie. Obviously my girl friend does not want a bow tie, and I like to crochet, so I surfed the net on the lookout for little things I could make. I found this idea and made this one for her:
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Tonight my husband and I kept the visitation nursery. There were six kids aged 2 to 8 plus a baby boy who is on the verge of walking. We were all in the gym, and the older kids were playing with the various balls. The baby crawled halfway across the gym, then he turned and sat. A few minutes later, he crawled another direction about 10 feet, then stopped and just sat. A few minutes later, he took off in yet another direction, but only for 10 feet or so. The entire hour we were in the gym, this poor lonely baby crawled 10 feet, stopped, sat, and repeated in a different direction.
As I was watching him blissfully go back and forth across the gym floor, I realized that I feel just like him sometimes. When I have several days in a row that I don't have busy things planned, my life feels like it has no direction. I do one thing for a little bit, like work on one of my scrapbooks, but very soon I wonder if there isn't a more important thing I should be doing. But nothing comes to mind. So I'll pick up one of my crochet projects. After a little bit of crocheting, I will again feel like what I'm doing is pointless. I'll read a book, and by chapter 4 I will be bored out of my head. I will grab a rag and spray bottle and attack the bathroom (since that is my favorite room in the house to clean). An hour later, my bathroom will be sparkly, but my heart will still feel lonely. Unlike the baby crawling around in the gym tonight, I will be fully aware that I'm going in unproductive circles. My insides feel like they are going to explode. Or implode, I'm not sure which. My brain is misfiring left and right, well, left in my brain and right in my body. My hand won't stop shaking and my knee won't stop bouncing. I can't get a deep enough breath. Then, as if by magic, I am all better. A switch flipped, and I'm perfectly fine.
So what happened? Tonight was Children's Night at church, and I was nervous for my son, who preached and played the piano. As you can see by the schedule, I had a long time of being nervous before it was his turn. The following story was inspired by stuffed bears my sister and I had growing up. I named my bear Sarah, after my best friend from 3rd grade, and my sister named hers Tina after the daughter of the lady who gave us the bears. Kellie was my nickname as a child, and Corrie was my sister's. Our brother was nicknamed Mike. He's not in this story, but he does make an appearance in other adventures of Tina and Sarah. The Adventures of Tina and Sarah:
Exploring the Bathroom written September 26, 2011 Sometimes I get a song stuck in my head. Does that ever happen to you? I will wake up with a song in my head, go to bed with the same song in my head, and it will be three or four days (and nights) before I can dislodge that one song. If it's a really good song, like You Abide by West Coast, or Be unto Your Name by the Galkins, I don't really mind. I'll play these songs on a loop on my computer and enjoy the pretty pictures when I sit down to watch and listen. When your husband walks in the house an hour late bearing news that he has to work on his day off, and then he asks you to bake something for him, you don't exactly say no. Which is why, for the third day in a row, I actually made supper. Tonight's feast was pizza balls and grapes. Yes, together. Well, not together-together, but served at the same time. I got the idea for the pizza balls from pinterest. The recipe from pinterest had, like, 127 ingredients. I was only going to use four, but I forgot the seasoning, so I just used Pillsbury rolls (the Aldi off-brand), pepperoni slices, and a block of mozzarella cheese (cut up into pieces). [Smoosh out the rolls and wrap the roll around a pepperoni slice and small chunk of cheese. Sprinkle a small amount of pizza seasoning over each roll. Bake according to the roll package directions.] Mine came out like this (please ignore my splattered fridge):
Normally, I would just post these pictures on Facebook, but I think because of the subject matter, I need to make a whole post about it. While my son washed the rice, I called my mother, because I had carrots and didn't know how to make them. She said to peel them, slice them, and boil them.
Everybody leaves. That is the life motto for one of the characters on a show I watched last year, because every bad thing that happened in the community happened to her, and everyone that moved away (you know, every actor who quit the show) they were all her best friend, and everyone that died was somehow related to her. Eventually, she concluded that everyone was just going to leave her anyway, so she gave up trying to form lasting relationships.
I have always had a hard time making friends, and especially making close friends. When I was in third grade, my "best friend" wouldn't let me sit with her at our class Christmas party because she had a different best friend she wanted to sit with. In ninth grade, instead of sadly telling me goodbye when we moved away, my best friend yelled all kinds of horrible things at me and refused to be nice anymore. My best friend from high school went completely bridezilla on me at her wedding at no fault of my own. In college, my best friend quite abruptly ended our friendship when I got engaged. Anyone notice a common theme here? We moved to a new city 3 years ago, and immediately I made a good friend. She just left a couple months ago because of her husband's job. Another good friend left TODAY to live in another state for her job. And finally, my last "good friend" (you know, more than just "hi, how you doing? Good? Me too.") is leaving in a month for an extended (very extended) vacation to another continent! We just finished our second week of school, and already we've gone on two field trips. I think this year is shaping up to be quite fun! This week we went rock climbing. Well, I say we. I supervised, my monkey climbed. Did you know I had a monkey?! I was completely surprised!
In his second grade Animal Science PACE, there was a craft to go along with what he had been learning. The PACE is about sheep and lambs, and how Jesus is our Good Shepherd. I have learned that shepherd is spelled with two e's and no a's, and my second grader has learned that shepherd is spelled with a ph, not an hp. So, bring on the craft! and yes, we were having snack also. We were supposed to use a paper grocery sack, but who has those anymore? I cut a mailing envelope in half and taped down the corners and it worked just fine. And here he is, my little lost sheep, telling the story from Luke 15.
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Who am I, you ask?
In 2006 I had a stroke, and every day my husband encourages me to use my remaining brain cells to the best of my ability. I love to organize, make crafts, and go on adventures (safe ones). I hope that through my blog posts, you will be encouraged to accept and make the best of challenges God throws at your life. Categories
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April 2022
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