Be Still and Know...Then and Now

When events happen in the world that confound me. When I read something on facebook or see something on the news that makes me shake my head and wonder what is happening in the world. I ponder on how broken the world is. Then I am reminded of who has control over the world, the evil one. Scripture tells us that satan took Jesus to high place and offered him the whole world if only He would bow down and worship him. (Mat 4:8) Jesus was tired and hungry yet he stood on God's word and did what was right. We live in a broken world, there are so many people who live lives of dysfunction. Spread dysfunction from one generation to the next. Sacrificial gifts of life are squandered and I wonder why.     As I was going about my morning this heavy cloud of sadness was hovering over me, questions that will never be answered linger in my thoughts. Why do people do the horrible things that they do? Then I remember that I am a sinner as well. I struggle every day with overcoming the bad...

My glasses are broken, my car is in the shop and my DVR is broken! So…….for the next 24 hours I have decided that I am declaring an a moratorium on maturity!   My DVR in done for. My provider is sending us another one, however until then we are forced to watch television in real time! For real! It probably will not get here until Monday or Tuesday. That means we have to endure the WHOLE WEEKEND watching television in real time! What is this 1970! I’m think’n that a broken DVR rates at least an overnight FEDX delivery, cause this is important, right!   And since it went kaput it has not recorded any of my current programming. This in turn has forced me to watch a few shows on the computer. This means that I am forced to watch commercials. It also reminds me how much our internet totally blows as well. Our download speed is akin to something that resembles the speed of a snail. So Now I have to watch commercials, waiting while the show reloads for the millionth time all whi...

I would love to be able to share that I am out of my hormonal funk. Unfortunately this nasty cloud of toxic thinking still hovers. It feels as if it is stuck to me with super glue.  On the upside I do recognize that being the mature grown woman I am I do not have to let it invade all areas of my life. I may feel crappy emotionally as well as physically, this does not give license to make the others with in my sphere of influence miserable. I may want to inflict bodily harm and I am trying my best to keep it to myself. But I digress. I was looking for some relevant scripture to post over on the facebook page I set up for our pottery studio this morning. If you want to go over and take a look at our page here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/WildcatPottery . I try to keep it updated with all our current inventory. But I digress again… maintaining focus also seems to be influenced by hormonal deficiencies… Anyhoooo, I found this piece of scripture from Jeremiah. Jeremiah 1...

It started very early, before I even got out of bed. My thought life was going places it just did not need to go. As it does from time to time I woke with thoughts of doom and gloom. Thoughts that no mother ever wants to ponder upon. I lay there for several minutes allowing the thoughts to weigh heavy upon me, then I recognized it for what it was. Away from me Satan, it’s Sunday and I need to get ready for church. The evil one is persistent. It was a series of very small things, however it was just enough to shift my mood, my thoughts to a place where they should not have been. I got myself ready for church, I was ready to go, purse on my shoulder and the Girlchild points to my chin and announces “You have a GIANT white hair right there!” From the look on my face she then follows with “Well it’s better than waiting to point it out to you at church!” I concede to her logic and redeposit my purse and other things to the counter and go on a hair plucking mission. We managed to hit...

Confession time here! There are times when I just want to dig a mote and build a huge wall around my house. I want to just shut myself off from the world. The evening news, the things and people you come in contact with on a daily basis, well most of it just hurts my heart. I want one of those “Hide” buttons like I have on Facebook. There are some things I just don’t want to see, and LOTS of things out there that are just not supposed to be seen. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a real life hide button. Just think of the possibilities… However living in the real world I know that there is a HUGE difference between the things I should not see and the things I don’t want to see. There are times when I am just like Paul, the very thing I know I should not do is the very things I end up doing. Then the things I know I should do, or the things I know Jesus would do are the very thing I don’t do. Life is so very hard sometimes. Doing the right thing, or the Jesus things is almost always...

Who’s there….well it’s me!   After a very long break from blogging, well long break for me that is. I have decided that I will try to be a bit more proactive with my blog. Thanks Dana for the bit of encouragement, it is nice to know one is missed from time to time :) Sometime ya just don’t have anything ta say…and sometimes ya do… I have been spending a lot of time working on my pottery and I have started painting again so my time has been a bit divided by my creative pursuits. I am having more fun than should be allowed, however it can be a bit of a downer when the reality of life interrupts the fun. Having to stop and be a mom every now and again can be a real drag…those pesky parental duties such as collage visits and senior portraits. All I can tell you is that back in the dark ages we did not do things like college visits or senior pictures. We all got the same blue velvet off the shoulder drape and that was the end of it. Now they do multiple changes of clothing, diffe...

Who’s there? I am still pondering my lack of blog fodder, I think I have lost the capacity to come up with an original thought, or maybe I am just obsessed with the clay, it seems that's all I can think about…I wake up thinking about it and I go to sleep thinking about it! What I will make next, what I want to learn how to do next….. This is Angel #3….   My last angel bit the dust….literally!   Live and learn and keep practicing!!!!!!   I have to go wake the hubs up I a few minutes, and I was thinking about how quiet my house is this morning and how things change in life. My daughter and 160 of our youth at church are off to their annual Spring Break Retreat at PCB. They go to a Christian retreat facility in Laguna Beach every year. Confession time here: Where my daughter is concerned that nut did not fall to far from the maternal tree in sooooooo many ways. Last week when she was nearly driving me to distraction with all her preparations, double checking he...

My husband is out of town/really out of town as he is in Germany so we had frozen pizza for dinner last night. Since my husband is out of town I had not unloaded or reloaded the dishwasher in several days. It is now loaded and my kitchen sink is now full of very hot sudsy water trying to get the last bit of frosting residue off the decorating tips I used to make Muffinhead’s birthday cake. The aftermath….. The results, she really loved her cake y’all! I now re-remember why I stopped doing wedding cakes….the clean up is a killer. The lemon thyme that I cut back to nothing this past fall is now bursting up from the pruned stems in a dark green lushness that just makes me want to go out and run my fingers over. I love my herb garden. I have to make one last harvest of my swiss chard from the veggie patch and then I can get in there and turn over the dirt and amend it to get my spring veggie garden planted. My pottery buddy and I are trying to work up some inventory for a sprin...

I am working on my second cup, the laundry has been sorted and I making a plan for the rest of the day. Muffinhead is at home and the Girlchild is still sleeping because there is no school today…MLK holiday. I am feeling the need to wrap my hands around some clay today, I may see if the Girlchild wants to go with me…clay provides a wonderful creative distraction, because I am sooooooooooooooooo not interested in what Michelle Obama is going to wear nor the new bangs. Downton Abbey, have y’all seen this show. The Hubs was firmly fixed in front of the television watching a marathon on the American President’s yesterday so I pulled out my Kindle and watched the first episode on Netflix, aside from one scene of homosexuality I thought it was a good show. Have y’all been watching this show. I had to make the decision to several seasons ago to stop watching several of my favorite shows  when they began to glorify lifestyles that go against God’s standard. I am uncertain that I want to ...

Sometimes when my son is out of town on a job they call it quits on Thursday and then he has Friday off. His day off mean I have the morning off as well and Muffinhead is not here. I so enjoy my time with her but I also am enjoying the quiet and having a morning to myself. The Hubs comes home this afternoon from a business trip as well, so after I hit the post button I have a bit of pick up to do to get the house in order for his arrival. When the Hubs is away the wife will be….very lazy! I have my shopping list to make today and then a trip to the store. I am not having thanksgiving at my house this year. It has been many years since I have been able to actually have a thanksgiving at my house and sit at my table. All things in good time, yes I know but I will confess I am longing for a simple uncomplicated holiday time of being at home and doing what I want to do and not having to yield to the wishes of extended family. In years past I have opted for having my own Thanksgiving cel...

The Hubs left this morning for a short business trip. The DS work schedule has lightened up so he has a few days off so Muffinhead has not been filling up my mornings. I must admit that even thought I miss her terribly the time off has been a much needed rest. The dog is going through withdrawals as he looks for her every morning to no avail. With my bible study coming to and end I am enjoying the fact that I do not have to do any prep work during the week to get ready for my class. I defiantly do not miss having to lug my laptop to church with me on Sunday so I could preview the video segment for Wednesdays class. However now that the study is over I am faced with the decision of what to do next. Do I sign up to facilitate for another year or do I take a bit of time off. Knowing how weak I am I also know that I have to have some form of formal study to give me some accountability. I would love to be disciplined enough to maintain a daily study without the weekly accountability but, t...

I was on my way home from church this morning. My tank was dead on empty. I pull into the Quick Trip to get some gas. I circle round once, circle around a second time, still not a free pump. I finally pulled to the side and waited for several minutes. What I noticed was that almost everyone who was pumping their gas just left there car and leisurely walked into the store to get additional purchases. Is it only me or have the rules of common courtesy changed. I sat in my car and waited for several minutes for a pump to free up. I was amazed at how many people simply without a thought to those waiting to pull into a spot just left their cars in front of the pump and went into the store. Am I placing my expectations to high? Is it an unwritten rule that only apples to me? Secondly, am I the only person who understands that if you pull into a gas station and there are two pumps and you are the only car there you need to pull up to the furthers pump so that someone can pull up behin...

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...

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…...

I don’t have Muffinhead today, it’s only been a few weeks since I started watching her in the mornings, but already I miss seeing that little head pop around the corner when she wakes up. The hubs left for a business trip the morning and the DD is off to school. It’s just me and the dog cuddled up on the sofa enjoying the lights on tree and the peace and quiet of my house. The random thoughts that are passing through my head this morning….. Planning my Christmas brunch menu and a Christmas dinner menu, thinking about going shopping for a new sweater for the hubs company Christmas party on Friday, mentally putting together the last Christmas gift I have to make, wishing I had a new phone but dreading the weeding out process as I research which phone out of the thousand on the market will best suit my need, why oh why can’t things be made to last! I saw one of our church youth on FB today posting about her “Tacky Christmas Sweater Day” and realize that I have the very same sweater han...

The DD had a sleepover last night so even the dog is sacked out upstairs, the hubs is off to his Men’s Small Group that meets every Saturday and I am sitting on the sofa listening to the oven pre-heat. My insulated thermal coffee carafe mysteriously has water sloshing around in it and for the life of me I can not figure out how it got in here, life is full of the unexplainable. My day is full of my favorite things, I am having and after thanksgiving Thanksgiving, only abbreviated. Since I did no cooking beyond tossing a pie in the oven to take to my SIL for the actual day ofTthanksgiving I am suffering the aftereffect of Thanksgiving withdraw….no leftovers! We feasted on imaginary turkey peanut butter and jelly sandwiches yesterday. I have an abbreviated menu planned for this evening. Pork Roast with Apricot Glaze Sausage & Cranberry Dressing Honey & Orange Glazed Sweet Potatoes Homemade Applesauce Spiced Cranberry Sauce Steamed Asparagus I will get the pork roast on ...

I could be shredding the ten pounds of junk mail that I said I would not let pile up AGAIN! I could be sorting laundry. I could be getting a head start on my bible study for next week. I could be working on some more handmade Christmas gift’s. What am I doing? Drinking coffee, wasting time on the internet, dreaming about how to better organize my kitchen pots and pans, thinking about what I will cook for thanksgiving, begin irritated that I am out of cinnamon and have to go back to the store. I was there yesterday and forgot to pick some up. I need cinnamon for the new sweet potato pie recipe I want to try. I am not a huge fan of pumpkin pie so I thought I would give sweet potato pie a try. They had a five pound bag on sale at the grocery store so I bought a bag. In a perfect world what would you do all day? I think I would just bake bread, make homemade jams and jellies, bake pies and cookies and formulate new recipes. Baking and cooking just makes me happy! So in a perfect...

It feels like my life may implode like in a science fiction movie. You all know when a black hole develops and a planet gets sucked in. There is a massive explosion followed by a brilliant celestial event. Well with all the activity over the last few days it feels like there is a black hole hovering just above my house and is about to reach critical mass any minute now…..I have had bad weather, vacation planning, shoe shopping, cloth shopping, grocery shopping, birthday party shopping, birthday party planning… Y’all all I have done over that last few days it seems is whip out the old debit card….more money please. Not to mention my Disciple closing and all with in a few days of each other. Y’all it was not intentional but it seems that all these things have sort of piled up in a heap and all need to be done all at the same time. Tuesday ~ 4/26/2011 begin to assemble things to begin packing do internet search for homemade facial recipes do internet search for scavenger hunt list ...

I need to be working on my Disciple, my mind is a bit unfocused, random thoughts keep going through my head. In the span of a few minutes on the news this morning I heard a report about a woman in Florida who shot and killed both her children because they were mouthy and rude to her and then they ease into a report on the upcoming academy awards, doesn't this sound a bit incongruent to you? The unrest in Egypt, things seems so very bad in the world all the time and I just have to wonder what in the world in happening. Then there are moments during Sunday worship when you feel so filled up with how great God really is and all the harshness of the secular environment we live in is pushed aside for a few moments. So how do you balance your own personal life against the world view. How do you balance defining your area of service against trying to maintain a household and live with in your means? How do you sleep though the night without waking ever few minute drenched in sweat? ...