make the right choice

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust." Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. (Psalms 91:1-4)

Fear...

Synonyms) alarm, anxiety, apprehension, consternation, dread, fearfulness, fright, horror, panic, terror, trepidation

Related Words) phobia; creeps, jitters, nervousness, willies; pang, qualm, twinge; agitation, discomposure, disquiet

Our pastor has spoken about fear, or rather why we don't have to fear, for several weeks now. It reminds me how grateful I am that God freed me from that strangle-hold years back. I can still remember how AMAZING it was to be free from it. Honestly, it still is!

I was afraid of most things. Not my parents, or later my husband, but just "things." From driving, to the dark, of being alone to all the "what ifs" I could imagine. Believe me, I could imagine lots of what ifs. I lived in a state of nervousness and fear. I realize there are many things we can fear in the natural. But we have a God who is in control of our lives. Are we going to trust Him and His faithfulness or are we going to dwell on our imaginations? Most of our what ifs don't even happen so we've wasted all that time and energy and worry over nothing. What if we take those times and dwell on God and His promises??

I love the way The Message says...

Isaiah 41:10 "Don't panic. I'm with you. There's no need to fear for I'm your God. I'll give you strength. I'll help you. I'll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you. "

Isaiah 41:13 "That's right. Because I, your God, have a firm grip on you and I'm not letting go. I'm telling you, 'Don't panic. I'm right here to help you.'

no news is not always good news

I just saw a headline of a news story on msn. It was asking why we never ran out of turkeys. Now while I didn't read the article to find out, I have a hunch I know the answer. We don't eat the traditional turkey for Thanksgiving. Maybe one Thanksgiving I have baked one, but it was left for chicken, er, turkey salad. I'm pretty sure it was a free deal also, you know...buy a ham and get a free turkey. We had much rather have brisket or spiral sliced ham. In fact I am going shopping this afternoon to purchase the items needed for our Thanksgiving meal. Bring on the brisket for our family. I have a really good recipe for brisket. You marinate it overnight and everyone who has ever eaten it likes it. Back to the turkey, maybe there is a good use for one. I also read another story that tells how someone tried stopping a man who was trying to steal a lady's car by clubbing him with a frozen turkey. Hurrah for her attempted rescuer.

Thursday Hannah will be 16. Sweet sixteen. We went to Frisco Saturday (Hannah, Danielle, Bethany, Rebekah, and myself) to eat at The Cheesecake Factory. It was fun watching Danielle and Hannah take pictures of everything. Each entree, each appetizer, each piece of cheesecake. I mentioned we were celebrating a birthday so they decorated a piece of cheesecake and several of them sang Happy Birthday to Hannah. I figured I was really in for it, but she took it all good naturedly. I really didn't know they did that there.

We spent tons of time at Barnes and Noble and Old Navy and Sam's Club. We looked at books and movies and Cd's there. Danielle made a purchase and Hannah got a bag of Skittles. I just settled for my usual cinnamon and sugar pretzel and was quite content. If you haven't had one at Sam's you are missing a treat!

I also need to finish getting ready for Hannah's birthday. It seems I am always running around like crazy at the last minute for birthdays. I used to be much more organized. Now I have most of her present, just a few last minute details to attend to. I was whispering to Bethany the other day and Hannah wanted to know what was being said. I told her there were lots of secrets in the air this time of year and not to worry herself about it.

I also have to rant a bit about customer service. Now I can't tell you the "whole story" until after secrets are exposed, but I do have a rant about Dell. Bethany ordered a laptop in August. They kept putting her off and rescheduling the shipment of it for over THREE months. Everyone she talked to had a different spill on why it wasn't shipped. She was told it was the color, no, it wasn't the color it was something else, and so on for three months. She has spent hours on the phone talking to people. The supervisor she spoke with last was rude. She cancelled her order and ordered a Mac last Thursday. This morning it is sitting in her bedroom waiting to be opened. Lets see...over three months and no computer from Dell versus five days and it being signed, sealed, and delivered from Apple. Kudos for Apple and Down with Dell. Actually we have a better logo that rhymes with Dell, but I'll leave that to your imagination.

the time is now

This week we are "catching up" all the things that should already have been caught up in school. We haven't had a knock down drag out yet, but there's still a while to go before this week is over. I know Hannah and Daniel just adore me when I get in this mood. I want to take some time off for Thanksgiving so I'm in the "get it ALL done" mode. All our kids can tell you that they'd much rather me NOT be in that mood. :o)

I even stayed home on Tuesday night and missed Celebrate Recovery because I was so much in that mode. We are accomplishing lots though, so that is a good thing. Every time I fall behind I say I won't let it happen again. Then life happens and we're behind. This week my typical "oh well" attitude hasn't shown up. It's more like a "get 'er done type attitude.....or else you will be working through your Thanksgiving holiday." Now I've not always had that relaxed attitude; just ask my older children.

Not only do we have Thanksgiving next week but Hannah's 16th birthday is the same day. So we will be celebrating Hannah, Thanksgiving, and the beginning of the Christmas season. We always put our tree up on Thanksgiving night. There is always the talk over every body's special ornaments and who/when they got them. There's always the traditional Christmas music playing in the background and Bright getting excited because he always senses the mood of our family. All together it is a very good time.

As Jane Howard says in "Families"..."Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one."

I think our daughter, Bethany, said it better in her blog entry, "What do people do without big families? I’d be lost without mine." http://pinktealetters.wordpress.com/

Amen and Amen.

food for thought from facebook

I found this piece of flair on Facebook this morning. It caught my attention and made me desire for my life to be different. Not different as in my family, friends, home, church, circumstances, where I live...but different as in my walk with the Lord. It would be so incredible to be so focused on God that it shows so much that people take notice. Really take notice.

Now if I could only remember it's called "Facebook" and not "myface." Rebekah set me up an account and I am totally having fun with it. Okay, all my friends who don't have Facebook; get it! And all my friends who do I'll see you there.

80 years

Mickey Mouse first appeared in 1928. Happy Birthday, Mickey~!

describing words

Adjectives that described me today...

tenacious
determined
grateful
honest

did i just do that?

I went with Bethany to Sherman today. It was a lot of fun. Well, at least for a while it was. We went to Chick-fil-A for lunch. I had several ideas on where to eat and Bethany didn't like those: she had several ideas that I didn't like so we ended up there. It's a good place to eat and wasn't fast fast food so in we went. We ordered our meals and I went to get straws, napkins, and ketchup while Bethany got us a booth. I came back, sat down, and pushed the table which almost went flying across the floor. Well, maybe I'm being a little dramatic, but the tray slid across the table at breakneck speed and Bethany's lemonade fell over, the lid came off, and like a great wave splashed all over the table, seat, floor, and on her. She made a valiant effort to retrieve it before it fell, but I was just too fast for her.

Jeez, this reminds me of having little kids and here I am the one making the mess. A very nice lady came and cleaned up the floor and Bethany got another lemonade. She wouldn't let me touch the table after that. I promise you...that table had a problem. If you touched it, it rocked. So I ate the rest of my meal trying not to touch the table. I was even very careful when I dipped my waffle fries in the ketchup. You just can't be too cautious after an accident like that.

Our feet even stuck to the floor when we got up to leave. Anyone care to go to lunch with me tomorrow?