Blog no more....(for awhile anyway)

In this time of financial distress (for me) I have elected to have internet disconnected at home, and also my home phone.   It will be hard, but for me it was time for drastic measures financially.   Back to pen and paper for journaling.   That is not to say I will not be checking in on everyone from time to time --lunch hours, library or sometime when I have computer access somewhere with WIFI --- that is the good thing about having a laptop.  
It was a hard day yesterday with a lot of prayer and phone calls, but this is one way to cut back.  

Monday Musings

Ants, ants, ants and more ants!!!!

I know they are small, very small, but I hate them!!!

Last year (perhaps around this time)  I noticed some ants in my kitchen.  I have seen houses with much worse problems than mine, but these were in MY house.  
I filled a small spray bottle with some bleach and I went after the little things --- all around the edge of the floor all over my kitchen.  Done.   It worked,  well -- I would see one every now and then for a couple of days and I would shoot them with my bleach bottle!!!! No problems until . . . . . . .  .
NOW.  
First sighting was Friday night by the door.  Poured a little bleach, gone.   Then Saturday I went to put it/take out something from the storage room.  My white door was black on the inside with ants.  Ants, mind you!!! on the concrete flooring --fields of ants.   I grab my bottle of bleach and cannot find my little spray bottle. 
I am determined  so I just start pouring, splashing bleach everywhere. 
The ants are still winning!!!   I am out of bleach now..... okay what can I use.  Not this.  Not this.  I find an old spray bottle with a little Fantastick in it.  But it doesn't last long.  the ants are still winning !!! Okay,  got it --- I have some really cheap Pine Sol stuff.  I mean it is so strong it will clear your sinuses with one whiff across the room.    I mix about a 10:1 with water (guess which is 10) and go after the creepy things.  Between the bleach (which got a bunch of them until I ran out), Fantastick , just did not have enough. 
The cheap cleaner is working but there are just sooooo many of them. 

Sunday morning finds me again on the attack --- even pouring some of the cleaner around the edge of the patio.  Sorry environmentalist --- but we are talking tons of ants.  Sunday afternoon I go in for another battle -- inside the kitchen (only about ten in three days),  the patio, the door to storage, the inside of the strorage door and the floor of the storage unit.   YIKES!!!!  
Now tonight I will not get home until after ten,  but little things look out tomorrow morning --- I am back on duty!!! 
I hate any kind of crawling thing no matter the size.  (except babies of course)
You know it is like I can feel them crawling on me as we speak.  I have slapped my arm silly the last three days thinking there was an ant on it.  

Until next time . . . . .Someone has equated laughter with changing a baby's diaper.  "It doesn't change things permanently, but it makes everything OK for awhile. 

(but I want the ants gone forever!!!)

Wednesday Wisdom

Someone sent this to me this morning and it is soooo true.  What amazed me more was this someone --- I was not too sure how she felt about anything religious, but she like many has had her fair share of trials, heartache, sadness and good things, too.  This tells me how she feels....

Isn't it strange how a 20 dollar bill seems like such a large amount when you donate it to church, but such a
       small amount when you go shopping?
Isn't it strange how 2 hours see, so long when you are at church and how short they seem when you are
       watching a good movie?
Isn't it strange that you can't find a word to say when you are praying, but you have no trouble thinking what
       to talk about with a friend?
Isn't it strange how difficult and boring it is to read one chapter of the Bible, but how easy it is to read 100
      pages of a popular novel?
Isn't it strange how everyone wants front row tickets to concerts or games, but they do whatever is possible
     to sit at the last row in church?
Isn't it strange how we need to know about an event for church 2-3 weeks before the day so we can inclue it
     in our agenda, but we can adjust it for other events in the last minute?
Isn't it strange how difficult it is to lean a fact about God to share it with others, but how easy it is to learn,
     understand, extend and repeat gossip?
Isn't it strange how we believeeverything that magazines and newspapers say, but ....we question the words
     in the Bible?
Isn't it strange how everyone wants a place in heaven, but they do not want to believe, do or say anything
     to get there?
Isn't it strange how we send jokes in e-mails and they are forwarded right away, but when we are
     doing to send messages about God, we think about it twice before we share it with others?
Isn't it strange. ....


Until next time  .. .. . .(enough said)

Monday Musings

Long time no blog --- so much going on in my head.  

May 1 and May 2 middle Tennesse hit by heavy rains and flooding -- flood of the century.  Loss of lives, homes, land. 

Yesterday was Mother's Day and I still miss my Mother after eight years.  I know so many that this was their first Mother's Day without their Mother and they were certainly in my prayers. 

I am now working two jobs --- not as easy as when I was in my twenties, thirties and even forties.  But we do what we have to do.  It won't happen overnight (the financial bind) but it will certainly help to get to that time when things will be right again.  No trip to NY as planned in December.  But hopefully a trip to Chicago in the spring.  Patience is not one of my virtures. 

It was good to be back at Southern Hills yesterday after attending Crieve Hall last week with Uncle Benton after his surgeries. 
Southern Hills, yes.  Going home. 
After attending Millview for so many years (even as a child) I used to think there could be no place like it.  It is still a great congregation.  But making the decision to change  almost four years ago was still the best thing I ever did for me.  Many times over I have thankful for this change. 

More to come later . . . . .

Until next time ... Life isn't always what we want, but it's what we got.  so, with God's help, choose to be joyful.

Wednesday Wisdom

My best friend just forwarded this to me today in an email.... and it is soooooo true!

I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter tummy.   As I've aged I have become kinder to myself and less critical of myself. I have become my own friend. . .I don't chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed, or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn't need but looks so avante garde on my patio.  I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant. 
I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging. 
Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 AM and sleep until noon? I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60 & 70's, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love... I will.
I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set.
They, too, will get old. 
I know I am sometimes forgetful, But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten.  And I eventually remember the important things. 
Sure, over the years my heart has been broken.  How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody's beloved pet gets hit by a car?  But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion.  A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.
I am so blessed to have lived long enout to have my hair turned gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my fact.  
So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver. 
As you get older, it is easier to be positive.  You care less about what other people think.  I don't question myself anymore . . .
I've even earned the right to be wrong.
So to answer your question, I like being old.  It has set me free.  I like the person I have become.  I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be.  And I shall eat desset every single day (if I feel like it). 
May our friendship never come apart especially when it is straight from the heart!!

Thanks Dianne for sending this. 

Beach Trip March 2010

Emily, sorry you had to be in meetings most of the time; but really all Susan and I did was relax and it was wonderful. 

(sorry you have to turn you head to look at this one)

Emily and Susan on the balcony of our room at the Wyndham. 

Awesome View!!!!

This was made from the car!  We were afraid we were going to miss the sunset before we got back to our room. 

Another view from the car.......

calm, relaxing, no worries for four days.......

We were back at the Wyndham and on the balcony for this.   We watched it slowly go "into" the water.

Rub-a-dub-dub --- three girls in a tub!!!

Oh yes, we were!!!

(we had been walking on the beach late that night and our feet were black!)

(the sand was white)

Another view from our balcony.

And, yes I did get off the balcony.  

We slept with the doors open at night to hear the ocean all night ---

but it got so cold, too!

This is the rough water on Sunday before we left.  Two red flags were out --- no one near the water!!

When you see the news of a hurricane coming in, that is what it looked like -- the palm trees were bending way over from the strong winds, it was cold.  EEERRRYYY feeling.  But just a storm blowing in, no hurricane. 

An 8 hour drive home became 12 hours because of traffic with spring breakers trying to leave at the same time. 

All in all --- the trip was worth it.   Time spent with two wonderful nieces who still amaze me. 

Almost time . . . .

In less than twenty-four hours I SHOULD be on the road to the beach.  Should being the key word here.   I will be ready, but will Emily and Susan?   Emily and I are ready to leave tonight, but poor Sissy Bug doesn't know what time she will get off work.  I hope the weather stays nice for the drive and while we are there.  If not,  I have three books to take with me.   Will I read or will I people watch?  
I just flipped my calendar over and below is the quote for today --- very appropriate for someone leaving on a beach trip with her much younger nieces!!!

Life is an adventure.   Hang on to your hat and scream for all you're worth.