Where Have You Been? What Have You Been Doing?

Yes, I did finally get my Christmas stuff packed up and moved to my rented storage area. I did it on Feb. 4th - and just to clear things up - I had taken down the outside decorations and lights quite awhile ago - but the manger scenes and indoor stuff was still up.

On Friday, Feb. 5th, my daughter, her husband and her friend and myself all left at 5:30 a.m. to drive to Washington-Crossing, PA. We were going so we could see my grandson perform the lead in the musical, You're A Good Man Charlie Brown on Saturday. We had so much fun watching his performance! His Dad had gone 2 hrs. early (with a good book) to make sure we got front row seats and we did!

Sunday was Superbowl day and we were crazy watching the game and seeing our favorite team, the Giants, win!!! Plus my daughters and Lindsay organized all the food - guacamole (sp?), pigs in a blanket, twice baked potatoes, and a great chili! It was one of the best played Superbowl games I ever watched.

Monday my daughter drove us all to Secaucus, NJ and we took the train to NYC!!!!! It was a perfect day - sunny - and brisk. Lindsay had never been to NYC so we got to do all the regular stuff - Rockefeller Center with the ice skaters, Tiffany's, seeing the Plaza Hotel and the Empire State Building - a glimpse of Central Park - then we headed downtown on the subway and walked around Greenwich Village/Soho area. We must have walked 10 miles! I loved being back in THE CITY!!! We headed back to Myrtle Beach on Tuesday - stopping at Arlington National Cemetery and then going to IKEA!!! Didn't get back until 11:30 p.m.

So today, Saturday, I basically stayed in all day - cleaning and reading. I've been re-reading the Narnia series and loving it - finished The Horse And His Boy today and it was just a fun read! My sister called me and asked if I wanted to go with her and my Mom to Cheeseburger Paradise for dinner and I of course said "yes!" Great hamburger - fun meal - though my Mom didn't like the music that was playing.

I'm also reading Abandoned To God - Oswald Chambers by David McCasland and it is excellent. It is a borrowed book so I can't make notes of favorite pages in the back of the book like I like to do - so I am filling a notebook with favorites - of course I am practically copying the whole book!!!!

It is late - so much for trying to have an early bedtime!

Psalm 4:8 "In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety."

Very Late

Made the mistake of turning my laptop on at 11 p.m. and here it is 2:15 a.m. after spending time checking emails, facebook, the Centurion Forum and a couple of favorite blogs.

My Christmas decorations are still up - mainly because I haven't gone to my storage place to get the needed empty containers to put everything in. Tomorrow - I promise tomorrow after church I'll go and get them and start! Really!

This morning I went to a training session for Freedom Readers - a reading/mentoring program in my area for school children and I love it!!! Every week the child gets to pick and take home a book of their own. Once a week for an 1 1/2 hours - how simple can that be? Everyone that has been doing this was so enthusiastic - had so many creative ideas for engaging the children. I love reading to children and getting them "hooked" on a story!

Okay - stopping now - have to be at church at 9:30 a.m. for the first service and then the second service I am a volunteer with the 3-5 yr. olds - everytime my turn rolls around I whine and grumble to myself and then when I acutally get there I love it - and I know the young moms need a break - they do not need to be working in the nursery - they need to be in the "big church" getting fed. I really do believe that things are really skewed wrong - the older women should be helping with the children so the moms are getting fed and strengthened. Climbing down off my soapbox and going to bed. Thanks for listening.

P.S I am sick of all the political phone calls here in SC!!!!!

Thoughts About the New Year

Today is January 18th and I am really just starting the new year now. All my daughters came for Christmas with their families and dogs and we all had a good time. Then the week after we received word that a dear friend, Arlene Schroer, died. There is no easy way to write that - my daughter Lauren, her husband, Jonathan, the five yr. old and the two yr old twins and the yellow Lab and myself all drove down to Melbourne, Fla. for the funeral and just to be with the family. I know being there helped me more than I am sure we helped the family.

Then this last week another friend, Mark McDandle, died of a heart attack. He was an award winning surfer. He was very special person and this was a real shock to our church and community. Saturday there was a "paddle-out" with about 100 surfers participating. This past weekend was the Your Next Step Retreat with wonderful speakers that encouraged and I would say inspired but really the word "challenge" would be a lot better.

So - my Christmas decorations are still up - I have to go to the storage place and get all the containers to put all the stuff back in. I have been putting the stuff on the dining room table.

I just finished a really good book, Surprised By Oxford by Carolyn Weber. Loved the book.

Quiet Sunday

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers,

for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Hebrews 13:2

Trying to catch up...

It is late and in the background an Alice Cooper documentary has been playing on my TV. The remote is on the coffee table and I hope my neighbors don't mind. Tried not to listen to the description of the chicken incident. This followed a great program on U2 and yes I am watching VH1 Classic. Hmmmm what a difference I just got up and switched the channel to HGTV.

I'm still unemployed but provided for by Social Security, a small pension and unemployment. I stay very busy it seems. Right now I'm reading Radical by David Platt and The Minister's Wooing by Harriet Beecher Stowe that I read about on someone's blog. I finished reading The Help and saw the movie which was really good.

In August my sister, 91 yr. old Mom, and myself drove to upstate NY for a family wedding and then drove over to Kennebunkport, Maine which was wonderful. Artists always talk about the light in different areas and I have to say that the light in Maine was so crisp and clean - clarity - I guess because we were without the humidity of the South? We visited family who live out in the country and have a horse, goats, chickens, rabbits, 3 rescued greyhounds and 2 chocolate labs. It was so much fun and had a wonderful lasagna dinner sitting around the dining room table talking and laughing and getting to know each other. I hadn't been to Maine in about 35 years. The ocean - rocky coast - fabulous homes - lobster meals (one dinner & 2 lobster roll lunches with clam chowder with one of the lunches) Thank you Mom!

We travelled back to Myrtle Beach as the hurricane was heading to the Carolinas amidst a lot of rain but arrived home safely in time for a lot of wind and rain here and missed the brunt of the hurricane in New England. I was able to see my grandchildren in PA and DC on our way home and that was great!

"Have peace now until the morning!
Heed no nightly noises!
For nothing passes door and window here
save moonlight and starlight
and the wind off the hill-top.
Good night!"
Goldberry - The Fellowship of the Ring

Out of Commission!!

Feb. 2nd after being sick for a few days - I eneded up in the hospital with emergency appendix surgery. Apparently it had been leaking for awhile and had migrated on top of my liver so I ended up with the full surgery and then was in the hospital for 12 days - some kidney failure and "illiesis" (sp?). My daughters came and stayed with me when I first came home for two weeks which was a big help. My sister,daughter, family and friends really helped me a lot in the hospital. A friend, who is a nurse in the hospital came one day and bathed me, another day she and another friend came and washed my hair and then my friend came back and shaved my legs!!!! What an angel!!!

Thank you all for your prayers - I'm still trying to build my strength back up - I am out and about - though my laptop motherboard died and I'm over at my sister's using her computer today.

Words for the New Year

I cut an ad for Outward Bound out of a magazine and put it on my refrigerator. I just might laminate it or put it in a plastic magnetic sleeve so it can spend the year on my refrigerator. Here are the words:

A Farewell to CAN'T
This goodbye does not make me sad. I will not miss you. I have discovered what it feels like to do the unthinkable. The hard. The long. The challenging. You have no business here anymore. From now on, difficult will seem doable. I will see the impossible as simply not-yet-conquered.
Farewell, Can't. You will haunt me never again.
Hello, Can. Welcome to my world.

Think maybe I'll write this verse out and put it underneath:
Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.