your childhood.
This photo was taken in 1955 and to tell you the truth, I have always had an affinity for Sally Brown, Charlie's little sister.... and now I know why.... I am her!!! ' I only want my fair share!" My mother made most of my clothes and I will never forget this stunning outfit... it was a navy blue faille blouse with rhinestones sewn in centered at the peter pan collar and a winter white wool skirt with appliqued strawberries... 2 on the front and 2 on the back with patent leather baby doll shoes and lace trimmed anklets. And not so naturally curly hair... momma always curled my hair for every picture!
2. What was on your blog this time last year? (Besides the Hodgepodge of course!) If you weren't blogging, what in the world were you doing with all that free time?
This time last year I really needed a diversion,..... My parents had both passed away the previous two Christmases and I wa s sort of in a funk... so we decided that now that our lives had changed so much and we had so much free time, it was time to proclaim a new era in our lives...
I do hereby proclaim that during the year of our Lord, 2015, I will organize our home and my life.....because this is really a spiritual exercise for me... getting my house in order..... our home and my physical home in which the spirit of God dwells.
The last several years of my life I have been necessarily caught up in caring for and interceding for my aging parents and their business.... as well as, various and sundry church activities that have basically drained the lifeblood from me..... in order to attend to business I had to let many things go.... myself.... my home,,,, primarily..... I have posted recently that my mom passed away right after Christmas, while My dad did right before Christmas of 2013... so this chapter of my life is closed and I intend a fresh start in 2015! My daughter and I spoke about these things quite a bit while she was here a few weeks ago, and since that time, I have made some changes already.... I am cutting back on obligations at church a bit.... I will follow through with my commitments I had already made, but there are areas which I have cut out entirely for a time. but the biggest change for me personally is the great satisfaction I am having regarding my decision to organize the house. I am committed to doing one project everyday.... great and small.
Vocabulary words relatively new to me are:
3. Ellen Goodman is quoted as saying, 'We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives...not looking for flaws, but for potential.'
Do you see more flaws or more potential in your life at the start of a new year? Have you done anything specific this month to address either one? Does the new year truly begin for you on January 1, or is there some other month of the year that feels like a fresh start and new beginning?
I am feeling sort of behind this year about getting into the groove...with the new year! Last mid December we drove up to Boston to be with our daughter who has about to have her second child... Our job was to help with her 2 year old and other household things..We had planned to stay about 2 weeks following the birth to really help her get established....when the baby came 2 weeks after we arrived... almost a week past her due date.. and we added on a couple more weeks.. we actually were they almost a full month. Which was wonderful...since we don't get to see them that much during the year... and I loved my supporting role of Grannie! But when we came home, being tired from our 2 day drive , my regular winter allergy, cold, sinus problems came upon me with a vengeance and I cant seem to shake them... I found out now that I am on glaucoma drops I cannot take allergy shots anymore.... so I'm rather in a quandary about how best to alleviate some of these symptoms... all that to say... I have felt yucky all month with no end in sight. Not much ambition....so I am taking things one day at a time... I get my most enjoyment out of blogging and reading now... one of my favorite books Ive been reading now for about 6 months is Jesus Calling, by Sarah Young. One of my flaws Ive been working on for some time is a stronghold that satan has been plaguing me with it seems for most of my life.... because of several events in my life, I developed a victim mentality...I wont go into the events but each of them had some physical attack associated with it...not terribly life threatening,, and I was an overcomer in each of them, but it cemented the idea in my mind that when I heard of something bad happening to someone anywhere, it would eventually seek me out and get me too.So with all these horrible terror attacks and publicized threats, I was the most cautious and tormented person..satan can put a lie in your heart and it can fester there for many years until it is dealt with by the blood of Jesus, but it takes a very conscientious effort to deal with it and I have been prayed over and done spiritual warfare over this demonic activity in my heart and I am better.... but just like Scripture says... once you have had your soul swept clean of the troubling tormenters, if you don't fill the void with things of god a hoard of the demons will overtake you again... that is where Jesus calling is helped me so much.... These devotions have a central theme...enjoying peace in His Presence...Where He is, nothing can rob you of His peace... and even though He is always there, we have to be purposeful to realizing it.... we do that by attending to Him and not the pressures, fears, troubles of the world..These daily devotions are the best way to fix my mind and heart each day to face what comes knowing that He is already there and that nothing takes Him by surprise!
The last several years of my life I have been necessarily caught up in caring for and interceding for my aging parents and their business.... as well as, various and sundry church activities that have basically drained the lifeblood from me..... in order to attend to business I had to let many things go.... myself.... my home,,,, primarily..... I have posted recently that my mom passed away right after Christmas, while My dad did right before Christmas of 2013... so this chapter of my life is closed and I intend a fresh start in 2015! My daughter and I spoke about these things quite a bit while she was here a few weeks ago, and since that time, I have made some changes already.... I am cutting back on obligations at church a bit.... I will follow through with my commitments I had already made, but there are areas which I have cut out entirely for a time. but the biggest change for me personally is the great satisfaction I am having regarding my decision to organize the house. I am committed to doing one project everyday.... great and small.
Vocabulary words relatively new to me are:
Purge........... Donate............ Throw away...................Repurpose
It all started with the Christmas decorations.... I had about 4 plastic bins... after purging the worn out, tacky, and out of style/tired items I have room to bundle up all of my Christmas linens into bags and pack away in the bins as well... That made me so happy to find that empty space in my hutch and linen closet!
It seems that suddenly I found I enjoyed throwing away stuff... like Amanda told me, regarding books, If you cant imagine yourself reading it again... or ever..... donate! I have donated 4 bags so far and have another bag ready to go.
Now I can find bookshelf space for all the books I had lying all around the house!
I also found purging old Christmas cards fun! That was a very novel thing for me...I mean I retired from teaching 11 years ago... I hardly think I could ever really repurpose those any more!
Getting the house decluttered as we are deciding what else we need to do to put it on the market as we are downsizing.... I really needed to organize my paperwork....
Ikea helped me greatly with that.
Yesterday's project was clearing out all of my silk flowers from the basement storage room ... goodness they were stuffed away in various boxes, bags, a royal mess.... This project meant quite a bit of throwing out the sad and broken, donating flowers that do not match my home anymore.... ( I used to go Victorian with pinks and mauves about 15 years ago) does this qualify me as a hoarder.... aha... no more!!! Now they are assorted seasonally in labelled tubs ... that was part I. The storage room itself needs more decluttering and arranging to make space for new shelving.... that will come a bit later...
Today's project involved something Lynn inherited years ago from his brother...
he had been wanting to get these pennies in sleeves forever so long... because of the nasty weather and our desire for a low key project today... we did just that....
We rolled 126 rolls of pennies..... wow $63.00... and grimy fingers.... yuck! I guess you could say we re- purposed those pennies into hard earned cash!
I think my daughter is delighted with this resolution I am determined to keep... this proclamation to reinvent myself and my home!
Do you see more flaws or more potential in your life at the start of a new year? Have you done anything specific this month to address either one? Does the new year truly begin for you on January 1, or is there some other month of the year that feels like a fresh start and new beginning?
I am feeling sort of behind this year about getting into the groove...with the new year! Last mid December we drove up to Boston to be with our daughter who has about to have her second child... Our job was to help with her 2 year old and other household things..We had planned to stay about 2 weeks following the birth to really help her get established....when the baby came 2 weeks after we arrived... almost a week past her due date.. and we added on a couple more weeks.. we actually were they almost a full month. Which was wonderful...since we don't get to see them that much during the year... and I loved my supporting role of Grannie! But when we came home, being tired from our 2 day drive , my regular winter allergy, cold, sinus problems came upon me with a vengeance and I cant seem to shake them... I found out now that I am on glaucoma drops I cannot take allergy shots anymore.... so I'm rather in a quandary about how best to alleviate some of these symptoms... all that to say... I have felt yucky all month with no end in sight. Not much ambition....so I am taking things one day at a time... I get my most enjoyment out of blogging and reading now... one of my favorite books Ive been reading now for about 6 months is Jesus Calling, by Sarah Young. One of my flaws Ive been working on for some time is a stronghold that satan has been plaguing me with it seems for most of my life.... because of several events in my life, I developed a victim mentality...I wont go into the events but each of them had some physical attack associated with it...not terribly life threatening,, and I was an overcomer in each of them, but it cemented the idea in my mind that when I heard of something bad happening to someone anywhere, it would eventually seek me out and get me too.So with all these horrible terror attacks and publicized threats, I was the most cautious and tormented person..satan can put a lie in your heart and it can fester there for many years until it is dealt with by the blood of Jesus, but it takes a very conscientious effort to deal with it and I have been prayed over and done spiritual warfare over this demonic activity in my heart and I am better.... but just like Scripture says... once you have had your soul swept clean of the troubling tormenters, if you don't fill the void with things of god a hoard of the demons will overtake you again... that is where Jesus calling is helped me so much.... These devotions have a central theme...enjoying peace in His Presence...Where He is, nothing can rob you of His peace... and even though He is always there, we have to be purposeful to realizing it.... we do that by attending to Him and not the pressures, fears, troubles of the world..These daily devotions are the best way to fix my mind and heart each day to face what comes knowing that He is already there and that nothing takes Him by surprise!
4. Who's an athlete you admire or respect and why?
That is easy.... definitely it is Tim Tebow.... a great athlete and Heisman trophy winner who is now a free agent... because he doesn't compromise his faith and his desire to give the Lord all the glory in his life... Though his praise the prayer in everything he does, caused him to lose his standing in professional football, yet he was not deterred and stood by his principles... in a world where so many athletes are terrible role models to our youth.... it is a sad day when those athletes get the glory and fame while a man of God is cast aside.
5. Do you like cream in your coffee? Whipped cream on your pumpkin pie? Cream cheese on a bagel? Sour cream on a baked potato? Cream of wheat for breakfast? Have you ever had a scone with clotted cream? Of all the creamy foods mentioned, which one sounds most appealing to you right this very minute? Cream of everything... indeed!!! And a scone with clotted cream sounds delicious right this moment...
6. Where were you last kept waiting for 'hours on end'? Or for what felt like hours on end? How well did you cope? OH my I remember well last April we had about an 8 hour layover in PHilly on our return trip from Ireland... it seemed even longer.... because my dear hubby had contracted a hideous head cold and I was kept running around the terminal seeking to purchase all of those time tissue packs that he would go through so quickly... we were both completely miserable.
7. Believe it or not, when next week's Hodgepodge rolls around it will be February.Huh?!? Bid adieu here to January in seven words or less.
8. Insert your own random thought here.
5. Do you like cream in your coffee? Whipped cream on your pumpkin pie? Cream cheese on a bagel? Sour cream on a baked potato? Cream of wheat for breakfast? Have you ever had a scone with clotted cream? Of all the creamy foods mentioned, which one sounds most appealing to you right this very minute? Cream of everything... indeed!!! And a scone with clotted cream sounds delicious right this moment...
source online
7. Believe it or not, when next week's Hodgepodge rolls around it will be February.Huh?!? Bid adieu here to January in seven words or less.
January, I feel like a barely knew ye!
Last night we had our first prayer event of the new year... Four ladies and myself had been meeting for prayer every week for about 3-4 years at church and we had the habit of going on spiritual retreat every year to build ourselves up through fasting and reflection and on one trip we came away with what we knew was the commission to begin an interdenominational prayer group in our city... We knew it was of God because without much work really on our part things just fell together because there was and continues to be such a huge need for prayer in our communities because around here anyway, the church doesn't focus much on corporate prayer. we have about 150 people on our contact list and average about 50-60 folks coming to our bimonthly events for the past 3 years. We have many denominations represented but only one pastor involved... which we find rather unfortunate, but we have also discovered that actually there are very few committed what we might call prayer warriors in any given church.... even the largest First Baptist church in town only has about half a dozen committed attendees... Well, over time crime, sex trade, and drugs has continued to rise in our inner city and last night we were co completely thrilled to look out the window and see a bus pull into the parking lot. Six fantastic men from an inner city ministry had heard about our group and were there to join us.... it was so wonderful to finally break across racial lines and share our hearts before God together...but this is how God works... a few weeks ago we had heard from the man who does child evangelism that there was an elderly lady who had had a vision for Roanoke who wanted to share it with our prayer group... We were unaware that they even knew about us... when i found out I knew the woman and she had been a spiritual mom to me back in the 70's I was elated and was given the privilege to introduce her last night... She is 92 and still does children's ministry and teaches Bible Study...but here is the thing... her vision touched the heart of our visiting ministering team.. it hit upon the very heartbeat of their work.... Everyone attending last night even though we were a small group because of the weather.... yesterday schools were closed but our church parking lot was clear...we only had about 40 there but no doubt they were the 40 god set aside to be there.. and I am so privileged to be counted among them.. Help me Lord to crucify my flesh and be a willing servant in how ever you deem us to be involved in your work this year, in Jesus name!!
such a great post.
ReplyDelete