Getting it together

Hello everyone,

My 'thank you's' are mailed and have probably been received days ago, I hope. It took me days of writing because I wanted to add something personal to each one. Probably a crazy thing to do but it adds a personal touch that I really wanted.

I especially want to thank our family for the time, money, and effort that they put into making this a wonderful party for us. Virginia and Sam were here for a week and we had a wonderful visit. We missed Bryan very much and hopefully he will be able to come on their next visit.

Who knew how God was going to guide and bless our life together fifty years ago? Except for God of course. We have had ups and downs, but the downs seem like nothing in comparison to the wonderful blessings He has bestowed upon us as a couple. To get frustrated with each other occasionally is so normal, but to still be in love is amazing to me. I pray for this kind of lasting love for my kids and my grand kids.

Soon we will be welcoming twins into our family and I am excited. Of course this means less sleep for Heather and TJ but they will get through it. They have family on both sides who will jump in to help when needed I'm sure. This includes Nana.

Our personal lives are taking a change. We are probably going to move in a few weeks and that is scary and exciting at the same time. But for now it means cleaning out nine years of stuff I have put into this little place.

I am looking into getting WHAT'S DONE IS DONE on kindle soon. We'll see. I'm kinda excited about this.

Until next time dear family and friends.

God Bless y'all with His love as you learn to know Him more each day.

50 years?

Can it possibly be fifty years of living and loving the same man?

The day started out hot and muggy, a heavy mist seemed to lie in the air. I had an idea that this wasn't going to improve as the day wore on. It didn't.

My first stop was the hairdressers and I wondered what miracle junk they might have that would keep my hairdo from wilting. I shouldn't have been surprised that I walked out of there with wonderfully stiff hair, makeup in place, and totally ready to hit the next stop on my way home. Now, if you really know me you will not be surprised to hear that this stop was at the nearest Dunkin Donuts. And it didn't matter that the temperature was nearing 90.

The next stop was back home to do my nails and get dressed. Well, we were suppose to be at the Harrison Lee Post 283 in Livonia Center at 4 which was the time is was to start. At about ten till four I was still trying to get into my dress without killing my hair and putting on my new high heals which I don't wear. Ever. Comfort before beauty is the motto the feet had decided on a few years ago. But come on, today was different, special. Surprisingly my feet didn't hurt until about 9. I had taken a spare pair of shoes but didn't need them.

We enjoyed the next five hours visiting with old, and new, friends and family. Sadly our date did conflict with a wedding in John's family, so we were missing some people that we would have loved to have seen.

Our kids hired a DJ. And we also had a lovely friend of ours, who just happens to be a professional photographer, and Korana's aunt came and did pictures.

It was a quite an important milestone for us. It wasn't that we thought our marriage wouldn't last this long, it was more of a surprise that it has been this many years already. God has truly blessed us. Now I need to get busy writing thank you notes.

Until next time,

God Bless y'all (getin use to it yet Shawn?)

Clutter

I've spent the last half hour thinking about the clutter in my life. Sound interesting? Probably not but I'd like to tell you about a little of it anyway.

In my house clutter comes in the form of books all around because I'm reading more than one at a time or because of my need to get organized. I want a neat and orderly home but never seem to achieve it. We have too many 'things' but I can't decide what to give up. You know as soon as you give something away you will want to use it. In my apartment, we have dust. Dust on shelves and dust under dressers and the bed. Dust everywhere. Now John is allergic to dust mites so I really need to keep at this stuff I call dust clutter but it's so easy to forget. This is just a taste of what I deal with on a daily basis and can't seem to get a handle on it. I usually blame this on lack of energy. But call and ask me to go to lunch or shopping and see how fast my energy level can pull it together.

Please don't get the wrong idea, I've watched some of those hoarding tv shows and it's not like that. I realize that people who do this can't stop themselves but for me, my kind clutter is frustrating also.

There is another kind of clutter that is much more damaging and for me that is spiritual clutter. I find myself distracted at the worst times. Sometimes I can't pull myself out of it and it can wreck the best worship time or get in the way of a good sermon. My mind will wander away form God to stupid things like what will I buy at the store for dinner or what do I need to do the next day. This might not be an issue for any of you but it's a big one for me.

Spiritual clutter can be things that we need to take care of with the Lord and haven't, so they get in the way with our relationship with Him. The first step is to admit we have a mess and then go to God with our clutter, and at times we might need prayer support by going to a trusted Christian friend to pray with us to help us over the slump of not wanting to move forward and allow our heavenly Father to deal with the clutter. After all He above anyone else wants to help us clear this junk up. I look forward to giving all my spiritual clutter to Him and be free from it once and for all.

So you ask, what happens when it slips back in? Be quicker this time to turn it over to Him. This is His will for us and I don't believe there is a number of times before we run out of forgiveness or repentance. God's word backs this up for us. Matt.18:22 states that we need and can keep forgiving others(and I believe this means forgiving ourselves too).

Is it a sin to have spiritual clutter? Only you can answer this? For me I need to go back and realize that God judges my heart. This goes for all Christians.

I hope you have enjoyed 'Clutter'.

Until next time.

God Bless y'all

Journal

Today I feel that I am so far behind with my blog that I just feel like throwing out my feelings for a few minutes. If I were to open my journal (which I used to do daily)it would read something like this.

Darn why can't I get up early instead of sleeping most of the beautiful morning away? I know it's because I can't go to sleep at night and this has been going on for years. But every year I tell myself that in the summer I want to get up early and totally enjoy the warm, sunny morning before it gets too hot out. But this almost never happens.

Now I walk up to the kitchen window, look out and hear a strange clicking sound coming from the air conditioner. No! We need this. Why does this have to happen in July when we need a little cool in the house? Then I look at the school across the street where they are doing a construction project. Neighborhood rumor has it that they are putting in a new bus loop and moving the playground to make room for it. Okay, I'm frustrated with the noise of the trucks and heavy equipment but maybe it won't take all summer. But the AC is something I don't want to do without. Please Lord.

I know, maybe John or Scott can take it apart and oil everything and it will be fine. We have done this with fans and other stuff.

I turn off the air conditioner and wait for the fan to stop turning. It seems to take forever. Now what! It's off and I still hear the clicking. How can this be? I lean my ear close to the window and can still hear the sound. This is more frustration than I can handle without my morning coffee, so I head out the front door and low and behold the clicking is coming from one of the big construction machines. I smile, turn around and head back to the kitchen for the long awaited cup of coffee that I deserve on this 'early' July morning. I ask God to forgive me for jumping to conclusions and thank Him for the glorious day ahead.

My new years resolution is early this year. I am planning on blogging much more often.

Until next time,

God Bless Y'all

Tidbits

Good afternoon everyone,

Right now I'm sitting in my favorite coffee shop getting ready to give you a couple tastes of WHAT'S DONE IS DONE. I have decided not to do a complete chapter but just some glimpses of a couple of chapters.

This is part of chapter one:

Beth stood on the front porch of her parents home. As she looked out across the the freshly plowed fields, tears trickled down her cheeks. Just then she heard a truck coming down the lengthly driveway. She recognized the low roar of Chad's truck before it was even visible. He and her brother Charles had been best friends since childhood. As he got out of his truck, Beth quickly wiped the tears from her face. "Hi Chad, what bring you out here today?"

Chad smiled at Beth, his blond hair blowing in the breeze.

"I'm going to help Charles with that '55 Chevy we're restoring. We should get a good price for it when it's finished."

Chad noticed that Beth's eyes were red as if she had been crying.

"Beth, is there anything wrong? You know if there is anything you want to talk about, I'm here for you kiddo?" Just hearing the word "kiddo" brought her back to reality. He always treated her like a kid sister. They had developed a bond of friendship over the years but she didn't think of him as a brother. She already had four brothers and a sister.

"I'm fine, Chad, there's nothing for you to worry about." Beth turned quickly, her long dark hair swinging from side to side as she rushed into the house with the screen door banging closed behind her.

Chad thought about her all afternoon as he and Charles worked on the old vehicle. He finally asked Charles if anything was wrong with Beth.

"Now that you mention it, she has been pretty moody lately. It's probably nothing to worry about. You know how females can get."

Chad was hoping to see Beth before he left. He looked around as he walked to his truck but he didn't see her. As Chad drove home, he continued to wonder what was going on with Beth.

The following is from chapter four:

On the way home from work Chad stopped at the grocery store for some milk. As he was approaching the front entrance, he saw Beth walking toward him.

"Oh, hi, Chad. I haven't seen you around much lately. You're probably getting ready for the big day."

"Yeah we are, but I still can't believe you got married before I did."

Why, Chad, because you're older?" she asked with irritation in her voice.

"No, it's just because I didn't know you were that serious about anyone."

"Well, that makes two of us," she said with bitterness in her voice. Then without saying another word, she turned and walked to her car. Quickly she got in, started it and drove away. When she reached a small park down the road, she pulled in and shut off the car. She sat there shaking. Tears were pooling in her eyes but Beth fought to keep them from falling. She wiped at them with the back of her hand. Beth remembered that when she was much younger she had a crush on Chad. Her father had pitched a fit about it because he was so much older. Over the last few years she thought she and Chad had become good friends until she saw him today. The feelings she felt when she looked at him weren't the feelings of friendship. They were much deeper than that.

There you go folks, it only gets better from here. More exciting and more people to meet.

Until next time,

God Bless you richly

THAT WAS PRETTY QUICK

Hi,

That last posting was awfully short. Something happened and I had to stop and put it in a draft quickly, and well... never mind, we'll just go on from here.

Last Tues. I went to a book signing for WHAT'S DONE IS DONE and met up with a lady I knew years ago. She has just published her third book. We went to dinner at the American Hotel during the two hour break and really enjoyed getting re-acquainted. If you enjoy historical novels you will love hers. I would like to share this information with you: THE IRISH DRESSER by Cynthia Neale is a Story of Hope during the The Great Hunger between (1845-1850), and HOPE IN NEW YORK CITY is The Continuing Story of The Irish Dresser. These are both young adult novels and I have just finished the first and am going to start HOPE IN NEW YORK CITY soon. Her newest, an adult novel just came out in April or early May. The last one is published by Lucky Press. The title is NORAH.

Cynthia can be contacted at: E-Mail: neale@metro2000.net Phone at (603) 329-4249 . She is available for educational events in schools, libraries, bookstores, and other venues.

www.CynthiaNeale.com

She can inspire and challenge adults and kids to learn about hunger relief, immigration and to create their own American Dream. Check her books out.

Before I close today I would like to thank everyone who prayed for the prayer requests of a few weeks ago. All prayers were answered.

I am going to write one chapter of WHAT'S DONE IS DONE to wet the appetite of those who haven't read it yet. Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble are still offering it and of course you can purchase copies from me.

Family news: Shawn, Lesley, and kids are moving to a new house very soon. I am so excited for them. The will be living very close to Wayne, Korana, and kids. Congrats. to all. Especially the kids who are similar in age and will be living near their cousins.

Until next time,

God Bless Y'all

P.S. Be watching for the sample chapter within a week or so.

Beautiful Rain

Good afternoon,

Have you ever noticed the fresh smell just after a rain shower? The clean feeling to the air? I know most of us are sick of the rain but just take a minute and look around. The grass is lush and green. The trees have budded and the flowers don't seem to mind too much about the daily soaking they have been getting. I'm sitting inside but with my window open I can see the sun is shining today and the birds have been singing all day.