Be Still and Know...Then and Now

It’s cold and very early and my family is all still snug in their beds! But I got up early to try to knock this post out before I wake the family and get myself off to church. Truth: I enjoy the peace of my house in the wee hours while everyone is still asleep! I knew it was going to be an off week but sadly I only got two days recorded this week. But for all my lack of photographic evidence it was a relatively productive start to the week. So here goes! Monday, January 23 In last weeks post I shared with you about the impact that the show the Big Waste had on me. I am still pondering several aspects of exactly how much food we toss in the trash as a nation. One of the things that I started doing several months ago was a very simple one. If your a foodie and you love to cook then you will know that celery, onion, carrot and garlic are a very common staple item. I began to save up all the ends of all the veggies that I cut up in zip lock freezer bags. Plus every time I cut up a c...

I read an article the other day that reinforced something that I really already knew. However it is so typical of human nature that we simply don’t like to think about the areas of our lives that need improvement. Out of sigh out of mind, that is until reality bites back and you have a shovel full of nasty heaped up in your life. However it really does not have to be that extreme. I know I can avoid dealing with the huge obstacles in my life with the best of of them. But what about the smaller issues, the stubbornness of my willful behaviors that I just chalk up to old age or even the more unpleasant label of lazy! I have to share with all y’all that for as much as I struggle with my aversion to all things historical I can feel God’s magnifying glass bringing certain things very clearly into focus for me. When I have a full grasp of exactly what the original hearers would have understood Jesus' words to mean they really do take on a whole different perspective. First some facts ...

So here’s what happen yesterday…….. We have to take separate cars to church on Sunday due to the DD having choir practice right after church. I usually take my bible study and get a head start of my prepping for my Wednesday class. So I have set myself up with my laptop and various books at a table and I am getting down to work. The hubs is in conversation with a friend and I see him across the family center. Love it when the men have the reputation of being bigger talkers than the women, but I digress. He concludes his conversation and comes into the cafe where I have set up shop, “Is there anything I can do for you when I get home?” The Hubs asks as he gets ready to leave church to head home. “Yes! Can you stop and pick up a gallon of milk on your way home?” I pass off a $5.00 bill as the hubs is out of cash and off he goes on his way home. So after nearly 30 years of marriage it still happens. My expectations and what really happens are two different things. Later that aftern...

It was a normal week around here, no drama although the weather has been a bit dreary, cold and wet. Good days to be inside snuggles up with my Kindle in front of the fire. So here is my week! Sunday, January 15 Since it was a three day weekend the DD had a sleepover. Combine two best friends, a sever case of boredom, more make up than you can shake a stick at and what to you get….some very colorful moments. The went Goth, they went Punk, they went…..well you name it they emerged from the bathroom sporting a multitude of new looks! Thankfully it all got washed off and they were returned to their normal natural radiance by the end of the evening.   No pictures on Monday, January 16 Tuesday, January 17 My crochet time has been greatly diminished. I think I started this project back in October. Under normal circumstance it does not take me four months to finish a project, however factor in the holidays, Christmas hat’s and scarves and other distractions I am just thankful ...

If you are a regular here then you will remember several weeks ago I won the new Kindle Fire ! So far I have thoroughly enjoyed it! I have discovered several websites that offer free books every day and my library is growing daily. I currently have about 50 books. I have read three and I am currently working my way through The Count of Monte Cristo. Pixel of Ink is a great site, if you join their Facebook page you receive daily updates of all the free books they are offere for the day. Another great site is Ereader News Today , they offer free books as well. Inspired Reads is a great site for Christian book for free also! So being link up through Facebook with all three sites give me a wealth of daily choices for tons of free books. Amazon.com also has a lot of free downloads as well. Most of the free offerings are all books that are under the public domain such as most of the classics. So far I have read Frankenstein and I have lots of other classics that I have always wanted t...

The hubs is out of town, thankfully the DD went back to school this morning and the dog is curled up sleeping in the crook of the sofa. It is a bit windy, chilly, rainy and dreary outside. I am thankful for a hot shower I just had and a nice good cup of coffee. I am almost finished with my bible study prep for tomorrow but needed to take a break as the word were beginning to blur together. I was surfing around the internet this morning and came up on all the latest news about my beloved Paula who has recently been diagnosed with type II diabetes. My heart goes out to her. I know that with this will come a lot of ridicule and nay saying about her. I will say I am not surprised given her love of all things southern, butter, mayonnaise, sour cream, potatoes, sweet tea and the like.  It certainly will be interesting to see how they handle this from the perspective of her television show. From my perspective I can only imagine the changes that are going on in her life. I do not have d...

Hey there y’all! Some folks get a spurt of energy at the beginning of spring. Mine usually comes at the first of the year. That trend to make an assessment of the things that did not get done last year and the things that I want to get done this year. The things I have been putting off because I  just don’t want to do them. Well it was a week filled with some small projects, I tackled two of them and still have two pending. Sunday, January 8 I am still loving my new Kindle. Each day they offer an app for free. Some days it is some silly game, mostly I just pass those over. I am not a huge game player. However this app was intriguing. It shows you the phases of the moon for your location. Kind of cool I thought! You can even take your finger and drag it across the moon on the screen and change the phases. Monday, January 9 The hubs is so sweet. This was under the Christmas tree this year! I have been wanting a second mixing bowl for my Kitchen-aid for a long time. I always re...

It was 6:20 A.M. I am warm and snug in my bed and I feel a light touch on my shoulder. “Mom, It really thundering a and lightening outside, Can you give me a ride to the bus stop?” I stumble out of bed and get dresses. I am thankful for my coffee. We hop in the car a few minutes later. It was coming down really hard and there was some pretty nasty thunder and lightening lighting up the skies. The bus rounds the corner and comes down the street. The DD hops out of the car and makes her way to the bus stop. I could have put the car in drive and made my way back home but I stayed for a few minutes and watched her standing there in the dark. The rain had lessened just a bit and there were two more teenagers approaching the bus stop. I sat in my warm dry car sipping my coffee and I had one of those memory flashes. How many times did I stand watch over the bus stop when my children were little. Sometimes chatting it up with the other mom's in the neighborhood. Other times just watc...

Well I swept up the sugar that was all over my kitchen floor. I was thankful that my water crisis was only a crisis in my over worked hormonal imagination. I ended the day on an up note! I saw Ann Burrell on Secrets of a Restaurant Chef the other day. She was making a pot of chicken noodle soup and she made a big pan of Focaccia Bread. For the spelling challenged which is me I have missed spelled focaccia almost ever time I type it out…. Y’all know me and bread. It looked simple enough and well the next thing you know I was asking my favorite question…. How Hard Could It Be? Y’all check out the recipe here ! It was super easy and if I do say so myself it was awesome! Every time I try a new recipe I have learned to follow the recipe to the letter the first time and then once I have it figure out then I can begin any tweaking I might feel necessary The bread was awesome……but I think any recipe that calls for one full cup of olive oil stands a really good chance of being really...

I pulled up in my drive way after a marathon grocery shopping excursion. I notice a county water truck across the street. I think to myself “Self have you paid the water bill this month?” Given the less than reliable state of my memory during this time of my life it is entirely possible that I have forgotten an odd household utility bill. I have an irrational fear that due to my forgetfulness I will at any moment have all my household necessary function shut off. I have a basis for this fear due to the reality of having my gas cut off a few years ago simply because I forgot to pay the bill. I had the money to pay it, it just did not get done. Ever since that shameful occurrence I have had this lingering fear that I am forgetting some odd bill that has fallen down behind my computer desk. I saw the utility truck parked on my street and I immediately think…..”Did I pay the water bill????” I hop out of the car and grab a few bags of groceries and head to the kitchen. I check the faucet…...

Hey there y’all! It’s the first official week of the new year! The fact that day one of the new year actually lands on a Sunday fulfills some need in me to keep things in order. Now if I could just expand that need for order to the rest of my life I’d have it made…sadly I still lack the gene that enables me to stack my post concentrically or attend to the mail in a timely fashion. Goals I am planning to work on the year…… Sunday, January 1 Every year the church placed poinsettias in the sanctuary. The congregation has the opportunity to purchase the poinsettia in either memory of in honor of some.This year one of the members of the bible study I facilitate purchased a poinsettia for me. She told me to make sure I took it home with me on Christmas eve….did I remember….that would be a big no! I was fearful that by the time I did make it back over to the church it would have wilted or all the unclaimed Poinsettias would have been dispersed to the various hospital and nursing homes in ...