Saturday, June 11, 2005

E-mails

Who ever thought e-mails could brighten up your day! They do though. I know when I heard from Holly, it really brightened my day. Just knowing someone else cared enough to spend some time reading what you have written and then to respond. That means a lot to me, anyway. Thank you, Holly. I hope to write to you periodically and become better acquainted.

I also received an e-mail from my daughter's boyfriend's mother! Get that?!? Anyway, I am looking forward to getting to know her through e-mails, since they live several states away. And when you are in the armpit of Texas it takes a while to get across this state, much less other states! So.....it will be fun to have new acquaintances.

Saturday has become a real down day for us. It seems to be the day where we can just enjoy doing what we enjoy doing. For me, it may mean sitting and watching some old movies and cross stitching, especially during the heat of the day. Tollie enjoys working on his computer and learning his new programs. We have learned to try to get the "have to" things done during the week and then have this down day. I think it started when he was doing the power point for Sunday and it would take most of the day, so we had to get things done during the week for him to have that time. Now that he doesn't have to do that anymore, since our merge, we have this day for ourselves. We plan to enjoy today and hope you have a great "down" day.

Friday, June 10, 2005

Ready for Vacation

I am ready for our vacation. It is not until July, but I realize I am ready today. We had thought some great friends of ours was coming today for several days but they had to postpone. Family was coming next weekend, but I don't see them coming. If T is feeling better, they will not want to chance him getting sick again, but if he is still so sick, they will not be able to come. So.....I don't see them coming.

Maybe I am just ready for a change. I have decided that I like change. I do better with change. There are some things that I like to stay the same every day, but for the most part, I like change. It is a good thing, because life seems to be ever changing.

I have the g-girls with me today. Mom and dad are working, mom on Sunday class stuff and dad at the youth stuff. They are suppose to be taking a nap while I am typing this, but I can hear them in their talking. Guess I will need to go and get them to be quiet.

They are so cute! As I tell them to be quiet, they just smile, knowing that their Piggy loves them and will not get on them too much! I have gotten on them more lately, because my patience has been waning lately. Not sure why, but I have about decided it is a new medication I started not long ago. It is the only thing that is different. I do love having them here. They are great to have hugs and play. They love to play and they love to be here. What more could I ask?

Not much to say today, but I feel compelled to type something and stay with this blogging. I have such bad discipline in so many areas of my life, I would like to think I could stay with something!

I did read a quote from Leory Garrett or some other person who wrote in to the editor at Christian Chronicle. We are united in Christ, not by agreement on opinions or methods. It is a Person that unites us, not theories or theology about the Person. I thought it summed up my thinking in the last few weeks.

There is a lot of great stuff to be found on the blogs and the internet. Good Stuff!

Thursday, June 09, 2005

Interesting Stuff!

I start my day by reading other blogs. It is interesting to me that today there seems to a thread in several of them of faith versus culture.

I responded to one blog and will be interested to see how others respond. That is what I like about this blogging, it gives me an opportunity to respond and then see how others respond and even sometimes respond to me. Like I said before, it helps me feel connected.

I have not felt connected to much in the past. After our struggle through a church split, finding our way to a new church, merging with another church......wow, no wonder I have been disconnected! But I feel better these days and I want to continue my search to find that peace that comes from believing that what you are doing is making a difference in other people's lives and that difference is Jesus!

Back to the faith versus culture, it is being questioned on one blog as to how we have been so lucky to be in the right place at the right time to have the right interpretation of the scriptures. And if that is so, why me? I certainly don't deserve this. So, why me?

This was my response to the Cope blog:

How can I condemn someone who is only doing what I have done? That is they are only going by what they know ~ what they were brought up to believe. And even when I told my kids they must make their faith their own, they have stayed within the bounds of what we taught. So......I am like you, were we just really lucky or what?

To go along with that, then you can only be a Christian if you live in the Bible belt states?!? At least that would be the conclusion, huh? I know, in the past, I have wondered how people in other countries, who have not been as lucky as me, go to heaven? Afterall, if they have not had the correct interpretation of the scriptures, like me, then how in the world are they going to get there?

My conclusion has come for me to do the best I can in my daily walk, taking Christ to others as I go and telling them what Jesus has done for me. (Notice I didn't say what Jesus can do for them!) It is then up to them to see what Jesus can do for them. This allows God to determine who is in or out, not me. The only struggle that leaves me with is am I becoming too accepting of anything!?!

And that is my biggest question of the day ~ am I becoming too accepting?


I want to make an apology to my Mindy. I am learning about this blogging and I never mean to hurt or say something to hurt.

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Today Another Day

I am still thinking of Eddie and how lonely he will be in the next few days, months and even years. But today is another day and life goes on. I was impressed by Eddie at the service last night. He is so upbeat in the midst of his pain. He says that Steph would want him to go on. That she loved life and would want him to live it to the full.

Speaking of the service......it was a sweet service, but I realize how un-catholic I really am. There was so much rote and ritual. Yet, how can I be critical of them when I am so rote and ritualistic about my religion. Tollie and I were talking last night and we decided so many of us get lost in our religion. We are so absorped by the religion that we lose sight of Jesus. I have been there, but I am trying so hard to come out of that and just speak of Jesus and let others see Jesus in my life. I have to ask myself the question often, am I focusing on something in the religion other than Jesus? If the answer is even maybe, then I need to repent and put my focus back on Jesus.

Jesus is the only answer and the only way to God. So it really doesn't matter how I worship, as long as I worship through Jesus. It doesn't matter where I work as long as I work through Jesus. It doesn't matter what my vocation, my hobbies, my interests lie.......as long as I do it all through Jesus, taking Jesus with me to others through everything I do. So long have I boxed Jesus up in the hour long service on Sunday morning. Well.......no more! I want to do everything through Jesus and in Jesus. That is where my loyalities lie and that is where my salvation comes.

God I do ask for guidance in my life through Jesus. I want others to see Jesus in everything I do, no matter how large or small, how important or insignificant. Help me find my path to the best way to accomplish this. It is new territory for me, yet I believe it with all my heart. So give me patience, strength, and wisdom.

Monday, June 06, 2005

Life is so uncertain!

I went to work this morning......not as usual. I don't usually go to work on Mondays but since Tollie was in Tyler and I had a special project going, I made the decision to go in and work. Besides it would give us some extra vacation money to spend.

But when I got to work, it was very heavy and I came in to find that a co-worker had lost his wife the night before. Just like that, in a split second. She was here one minute and gone the next. Truely. Steph had been ill for some time with some intestinal problems but had been doing real well lately. They were so encouraged. They had recently returned from a vacation, the first in many years. They had gone to Bermuda. It was a surprise to Steph and they had such a good time. She actually did well on the trip. But they both came home with a cold. Last night Steph was not feeling well and was taken to the ER. Eddie stated she was sitting there one minute and said she was not feeling well and went to lie back.....and her eyes glazed over and she was gone.

You would have suspected that Steph would have died from all the pain, the surgeries, the trouble she had with her stomach. All she had was a cold! They will know more later, but for now they think she might have had a blood clot.

I have cried a lot today. Partly for Eddie, his lonliness, sadness and complete inability to comprehend. They didn't have a church family. Eddie came to work because he knew he had family there. I have cried for the heartache the family is feeling. She was a wife, mother, sister and neice to somebody. I have cried knowing how devestated I would be if I lost Tollie. I have cried thinking of my brother who died from a blood clot. I have cried thinking of the all the wasted time I have spent in being depressed and not enjoying life. I have just cried.

Lord, please help Eddie. Give him the comfort that only you can supply. Give Tollie and me the ability and compassion to be there for Eddie, to help him in the ways he needs help. Thank you for being the God of peace and love and may we all grow closer to knowing you every day.

Vacation Plans and All Alone!

Well, we didn't get to plan the vacation as I had planned. (Too much planning, I think!) Anyway, when we got to the house after lunch, everyone was tired so we all laid down. I tried to get them to do the vacation planning first, but there was a teacher's meeting at 3:00 and not much time for a nap.

I relented and said after the meeting. Of course, after the meeting, it was then discovered another youth time for Paul and so there was no time to plan. We did talk a little and decided to go the week of July 4th, leaving the Friday before. We will only spend one night on the road before getting to grandparents. Stay there for three to four days and then to Nashville.

If anyway knows of great things to do in Nashville, let me know. I think we will try to go to Otter Creek for church. That would be a neat experience. Anyway, will then come home by way of Memphis and Arkansas. We will make one big circle. Wish Mindy could join us!

I am alone because Tollie left for Tyler today. He will be gone for three days. I always miss him. He is my strength and I feel sad when he is gone. I suggested that I go with him this morning and even said he would wait on me. But......I have too many things to do. I have laundry that is piled high. I have to clean to get ready for my company coming the end of the week and I have to finish the project for Fred at work and then finish the pictorial directory. Good thing I did not go to Tyler. It would have been hot and I would have just sat on my rear and watched movies and cross stitched. Good think I didn't go. I need to move, and get the rest of the cross stitch supplies for the next project.

Speaking of the next project.......I can't wait to get started on it. Can't say here what it is because someone might read it, (I doubt it) and would then know what I was working it. I know it will be beautiful and I am ready to have it done. My eyes are not what they use to be.

Life is full, good and God is gracious.

Sunday, June 05, 2005

Vacation Plans

We are planning our vacation today. We are wanting to take a vacation with the kids, at least J & P and the piglets. We are going to sit down , decide dates, times, places to stop, when to leave and when to come home. We know we will be going to Kentucky for a few days and seeing Grandmother and Granddaddy. But other than that, we need to plan everything out. I think we will be spending some time in Nashville, at least that is what Paul wants to do. I have no problem with that, especially if they let me stop in Tusculoosa on the way and do some genealogy work. So.....we will plan later this afternoon.

We have had a great weekend with the girls. I get frustrated with myself as I tend to get impatient with them easily. I don't mean to get that way, but I find myself impatient with their demands. I am trying to remember if my girls were that demanding. Maybe they were and I just don't remember it. But I do think my piglets are too demanding sometimes. And the crying when things don't go their way! I am afraid that is becoming a habit. I am trying to break it real fast.

I am sleepy and will lie down for a few minutes.