Silence is Golden

Well maybe. 

Shutting everything off around us is good. Turn off the music, the TV, the phones. Turn it all off and listen to what you hear. Personally the ringing in my ears gets louder, but I just have to live with that.

Closing off the outside world is sometimes a good and healthy step to take periodically. Doing it for long periods of time may not be so healthy if it starts back firing on you.

I have taken a year off from my blog and I miss it. There are several reasons I closed down for the last year, but the truth of the matter is I was disappointed in the lack of responses to my posts.


Yes, I was diagnosed with cancer and went through 6 months of chemo. Yes, it was hard and yes, it wore me out more than I wanted to admit. Yes, I am in complete remission. But, I could have mustered up the energy to do a blog post once a week. However, I didn’t. 

There were a few of you who kept encouraging me to go back and keep doing it. You said you enjoyed it. So I had to do some soul searching. If I came back, what was the reason for doing so. Why did I start my blog? The answer – because I had something to say. I wanted people to know me and what I believe in and what was the most important part of my life. How I can live life with God being the center of everything.

So, in realizing I was not fulfilling something in my life that I wanted to do, in 2018 I will begin my blog post weekly again. 

Do I hope more people will respond, comment and share? Of course I do. What is more important to me is I have a sincere desire to use technology and my love of words to share God’s plan for us. Hopefully with a little humor tucked in the corners here and there. 

Thanks all, see you in 2018.

Missing In Action

Are you missing in action? I’m not talking about the military kind of MIA but the life MIA. Are you really present in your life?

I know some days I’m not. It is easy to get caught up in the past. Especially with problems or concerns that weigh heavily on our minds. All the “what if’s” start going round in my head. What if I had made a different choice in life and went to college or went further in college. What if I had married someone else? What if I hadn’t smoked that first cigarette or the taken the first drink. We can spend a lot of time mulling over the “what if’s” in life if we aren’t careful.

Then there times in life we worry about the future so much that we become scared to take a chance on what might be. Should we take the new job, go on the date or make the move and uproot our family. The future is always unknown.

Some people are born risk takers and it appears that they move through life without much worry or confusion. Some take a very long time to make decisions using various methods of contemplating all possible angles and what the outcomes may be.

It doesn’t matter which type of person you may be, either way life changes and we need to be in the present to embrace it or at least hold on tight while it happens.

I think of the young mom’s in particular. There is so much to do daily with little ones and school age children that sometimes we just go through the motions of washing, cleaning, feeding, kissing boo boo’s, changing diapers, and keeping the house pulled together that at the end of the day we wonder what happened.

There was an article on Facebook not too long ago about you only get 18 summers with your child, how will you spend those summers? It was very interesting and made me think I had failed in a few areas. However, I told myself that we all are doing only what we can do with what we are given in life.

I urge you to really be present during your daily activities. Especially when they come to being with God and your family. Know that God is with you throughout your day in everything you do. He knows your heart and understands. Take time to enjoy your life, even the laundry and the dishes.

My dryer just beeped, I must go.

Praise God for my washer and dryer and the clothes in it. 

May God Bless.

Awards Day

This week I had the privilege of attending 5 award ceremonies for my grandchildren. I clapped the hardest and loudest when their names were announced as they walked across the stage to receive their awards. Each one of them deserved every award they were given, at least in my eyes.

I wondered if they had Awards Day when I was in elementary school. I don’t remember, but then that was a long time ago. My daughters really couldn’t remember if they had Awards Day either when they were that young.

Awards Day – a time set aside by all involved to gather and honor a child for doing something extraordinary. (My definition)

Let me tell you what I saw at Awards Day. Children that were excited to hear their names called and walk across the stage, receive a pin, certificate, and ribbon with a medallion and hug their teacher and principle. Parents scampering about to take numerous pictures of their prince or princes. Cute songs being sung and slide show presentations of the years activities. The shortest ceremony was 1 ½ hours and the longest was 2 ½ hours. The average was 20 children per class and nearly all had 6 classes. We clapped for each and every one of those precious children. 

Along with the angelic children were the teachers and principles that seemed to think they were on a live TV talent show. The jokes, the tears in the last goodbyes, and one principle even sang for the audience.

Not taking into consideration the fact that elementary schools don’t have seats in their auditoriums, you just sit on the floor that was built in amphitheater style.

Precious, just downright precious.

So now I have blisters on my hands from clapping for all these angels but my rear is now 2 inches wider from sitting on a hard floor for all those hours. My back aches and I will never get some of those songs out of my head.

This brings me to think about the awards I have gotten in the past. I have some ribbons for 2nd place in the Alaska State Fair for my jams and jellies and one for canned stuffed cabbage leaves. The woman that took first place stuffed her cabbage leaves with moose, I used plain ground beef. Show off! Some awards for working for 5 years at the same company and a few others along my career. Most of them are in a box somewhere in the attic.

Awards, accolades and trophies – oh my! The things we put our energy into to win that prize at the end. 

Speaking of the end. What is your reward going to be in the end? The end of your life here on earth. Are you going to be buried with those awards, accolades and trophies? Then what?

How about putting some effort into the end of our eternal life. How hard are we working towards that goal? Do I study my Bible so I can know all that God wants me to know about Him and His Son? Am I doing anything extraordinary to reach the goal of living eternity in Heaven?

I have nothing against awards even if they are kind of meaningless. I loved every moment of each of the ceremonies I attended. However, it did make me think about the real reward in life.

How about you?

Do You Sparkle?

I have glitter in my hair. It’s mostly around the sides on the temple area. I don’t know when it started but it is definitely there now. You know what; it doesn’t bother me too much. Oh occasionally I get caught up in the fact that it makes me feel old and I buy a box of color and put it on. For the most part I’m pretty accepting of it.


How about the sagging, yes I’m still talking about the face, let’s not even think about the rest of the body. Actually the sagging bothers me more than the wrinkles. When did I get jowls and a turkey neck? Growing older is not for sissies I can tell you that. The aches and pains – oh my.

I understand I’m not that old, still on this side of 65, but still how did I get here? I remember being in my early 20’s worrying about never getting married. That foolish young girl. Little did I know 40 some years later I would look back and laugh about that.

So what is so wrong about growing old anyway? Besides some of the obvious issues, it really isn’t so bad. I plan on living well into my 80’s, maybe even 90’s; I’ve got another 30 years to go. I can do anything I want. I can go back to school and become a doctor if I wanted to. I have a clean slate ahead of me. 

Just because the TV tells me I don’t look like a model doesn’t mean I am not a viable member of society. I’m a woman, a mom, a wife, a sister and a friend. I’m healthy enough to take care of my home, go places and contribute to society. I’m not done living yet.

Why are so many of us chasing perpetual youth? Getting tucks, injections and whatever else we can do to remain youthful. Don’t get me wrong, looking your best is wonderful, but we have all seen the nips and tucks that have gone bad. Whoa baby, I would rather look old.

God talks about old people. The Bible tells us that Sarah was “very old” when she had Isaac.

Proverbs 16:31
The silver-haired head is a crown of glory, if it is found in the way of righteousness.

You see those sparkles in my hair – I earned them. That means I have survived what this old world has sent my way. Life is challenging, even hard are times, but living it is the reward we get.

Psalms 139:14
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

God made us. He made your hair color and designed it to “sparkle”. So sparkle ladies and hold your head high.

May God Bless.

Don't Panic!

Okay, so sometimes I get into a tether about things, normally things I can’t control. My mind takes off like a stampede of whild horses.  My husband just looks at me sometimes and says “where do you come up with these thoughts”. Basically I’m just a little strange.

We have been dealing with some issues with his mom who is 93 years old. God bless her. Out weeding her flower bed and fell, hit her neck and fractured her T-2. She is now in rehab for the next few weeks. We all think she should live in an assisted living home but she won’t hear of it. She can’t see out of one eye and is blind in the other, but still climbs in the attic, rakes leaves and takes care of herself. Her son’s can’t get her to understand she would be safer and happier in a home where she can visit with others and there is always someone there to help her. Nobody wants to be the bad guy and make her do it.

I don’t understand her objection to this concept. Live in a cute little room, somebody else is cooking and cleaning for you. You can visit with somebody any time of the day and do activities. Watch TV whenever you want. Sounds good to me. Lord willing when my time comes I will go willingly. 

Then I started thinking about myself (there lies the problem). What if I need to go into a home, will we have the money. I started panicking about how much it would cost, we don’t have insurance to cover that right now. What is going to happen to me? I’m going to end up in one of those horrible nursing homes where they don’t take care of you. I’m going to lie in bed all day and get bedsores. No one will visit me because they can’t stand to go into one of those places because it is so depressing. Those who can walk around just meander through the halls muttering to themselves with drool running out of their mouth.

See how fast I went downhill on this train of thought? I mean I was just running down that scary hill straight to the bottom. Full speed ahead like a train out of control. That is exactly what was happening, I was out of control.

Needless to say it was a somewhat sleepless night for me.

When I woke the next morning things did look brighter. The sun was shining and I had a better attitude. But it did get me thinking. I can do some things to avoid that scenario that I had created in my mind. Save more money, look into better insurance coverage and pray. 

Why is it I always have to go through all the human emotions before I get to the one thing that should be the first thought? Pray. Only God can control all of this. No, He will not send money down from heaven like manna, but he has given me abilities and talents that I can use to make the money to help myself. The rest is up to God. How I die, when I die – that is all His.

Mark 5:33
But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth.

Isn’t this what we should be doing? When things get out of control, either real or imagined, the first thing we should do is bow down before our God and pray for His will to be done in the situation.

I’m going to try and do this more. Pray first. How about you?

May God Bless!

Table Talk

We just finished months of holidays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah and New Years Day. Let’s not forget about all the football games in between. During all these activities, I bet your kitchen/dining room table got a lot of use. I know mine did.

My table, as I am sure most of yours is the center of your home. This also means it is the center of my life. I have fed friends and family, created sewing master pieces, folded laundry, decorated Christmas cookies and prayed at my table. My table has had laughter and tears spilled on it. Happiness and disagreements have happened at my table. All my grandchildren have set at my table with me and given me great pleasure and entertainment.

I had a tea party on this table that lasted almost 8 hours. Friends who had so much to share and held our friendships so dear, we didn’t want to stop visiting.

My Table

When I purchased this table it was new, shinny and had no marks on it. This same table has lived with me in four different homes in two different states. Today my table has marks, scratches, nicks and dents. There are places on it that I can see writing. Where my grand children were working hard on their homework and pushed down on their pencils with such intensity that it left the letters they were practicing.

It really doesn’t matter what kind of table you have, it matters what you do with your table. I love my scared up table because it tells the story of my life for the last 20 years that I have had it. It is just like me, worn and scared.

There are many times the Bible talks about breaking bread with others. Sometimes it is referring to the Lord’s Supper and other simply sharing a meal. 

Acts 2:46

So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart.

What kind of story does your table tell? Are you creating memories around your table at home?

May God Bless