Do What You Can

My husband and I have lived in our home for over 40 years now.  Other than putting in a few new floor coverings, little has changed.  So never have I had to experience a remodel project. . .until now.  It has been an interesting and challenging project, one which is far from over.  It is exciting, but such a mess!

First of all, there is the 40+ years of "stuff" to contend with.  Suddenly rooms and closets are having to be emptied to make way for the changes.  I do believe once it gets out in the open, some kind of internal combustion takes place and it multiplies in size.  Or else we were just very good at "tucking things away!"

One day this week, I walked into my bedroom after breakfast and thought to myself, "Is there any sense in even fixing the bed?"  There are random boxes all over the house, and did I mention there is a mattress and dresser in the middle of my living room?  Yes, things are in disarray, and there is no hope of maintaining any sense of order.

In the end, I did fix the bed, and have been trying to make a point of doing so each morning.  It is the one small thing I can do every day to maintain a piece of "normal" in my crazy, mixed up world.  As I have been doing so, God seemed to whisper a little message to my inner spirit.

"I know how you're feeling," He said.  "I've got my own remodel project going on in the world, trying to make it a better place.  Sometimes it seems for every step of progress made, we're taking two steps back.  But the good thing is, in the end, it will be such a great new world!  So if things are in a mess, just do what you can each day, even if it's just making the bed, and before you know it, in My time, everything will be fresh and new."

It's amazing how beneficial a little conversation with God in your head can be!

Exposed!!

Most of us, at one time or another, have seen an episode or two of the show "Hoarders."  Watching it always makes me feel a little bit better about my own house.  It's certainly not THAT bad!  There have also been times when I have been witness to real life examples of a hoarder's home, and it makes me want to pat myself on the back.  I could never let things get to such extremes!

Having lived in the same house for some 40+ years now, I have often told my husband we should just pretend to move, without actually moving, so we could purge some of our accumulation of "stuff."  With a sunroom addition underway, we reached a point this past week where I was informed we would need to empty out some rooms prior to the point we tear into the existing house to connect it to the new part.  That's when the real truth was exposed. . .we ARE hoarders!

Although not quite yet worthy of an episode of the show, I am finding out there is an overabundance of, shall we say, "unnecessary items" in our home.  But when it comes to weeding through them, and making the hard decisions of whether to keep, throw, or sell, there are far too many things I want to keep.

In the past, I have often called myself a "sentimental saver."  Added to the challenge in our home is the fact my husband and son both fit the category, as well.  An item may have no current purpose, but "It used to be Grandma's" or "I remember when Dad used it," and the next thing you know it has been stashed away in one of the "save it piles." 

Yes, piles.  As in plural.  Lots of piles.  Some of them are orderly, and some not so orderly.  Every once in awhile we get inspired and decide to organize our "keeper places."  The main one is a room we call the "freezer/storage room."  It also houses our electrical box, the water heater, and the workings of our central vacuum system.  Over the years, it has become home to all those items we feel we can't live without, even though they haven't seen the light of day in decades.

It used to be we would store all of our Christmas décor in this room, under the basement stairs.  In later years, however, I learned it was much easier to store some of the totes and boxes in the guest bedroom closet, and leave the rest in a more accessible area of the "freezer/storage" room.  Over time, shelves have been added on all available parts of the walls, and now there are also rows of boxes in front of the filled shelves.

Did I tell you we still have most every toy our children had growing up?  Our daughter will turn 39 tomorrow, and her brother is 36.  But now there are four grandchildren, and it wouldn't be fair to break up the collections of Barbie dolls, GI Joe sets, and miscellaneous odd toys which fill the toy box, which happens to have been build by my carpenter husband.  (Who could part with that??)  There is also a "kitchen set" with stove, oven, sink and cupboard in one unit and refrigerator in another (also built by him).  These are treasures.  But more often than not, they are so buried under the rest of the "stuff" our grandkids don't get a chance to play with them.  Besides, the Lego collection seems to take first place at capturing their attention on most visits lately.

Getting back to the reason I am blogging about our accumulations, our sunroom project is requiring we clear out some areas to make room for the electrician and plumber to work.  This means the Christmas things can't be in either the guest room closet OR the "freezer room."  Because of this, it is currently taking up a huge corner of our TV room.  When it's all piled in one place, you realize how much of it there is! 

Then we move on to the "office" where photo albums and books need to be boxed up for the time being.  Lots of photos, and lots of books.  It was like the "Fibber McGee's Closet" of another era. . . layer after layer of things in need of a new place to hang out. 

It actually has been kind of fun.  I've discovered lots of things I haven't seen in a long time, and lots more I didn't even remember we had.  I've come to the conclusion we have so many memories stashed away, we could live another 40 years and still not get through them all!

Someone recently asked me why, after our kids are grown, we all of a sudden decided to add on to our house.  Truth be told, it was either add more space, or get rid of "stuff."  And you know how I feel about that!

Week-end Recap

It has been an exciting week-end for Vikings fans.  My husband has been one ever since I first starting dating him.  After so many unsuccessful years, it has been fun to follow the Vikings road to a last second victory tonight. 

This blog post, however, isn't really about the Vikings and their win.  It's about recapping an event I attended earlier this week-end at my daughter's church.  Every year the ladies of their church put together a fun night for women with fancy tables, a good speaker, and lots of fun fellowship.  I was especially proud of the two beautiful tables put together by my daughter and 8 year old granddaughter:

The first table utilized my daughter's beautiful white "wedding china" and had a "silver and gold" theme.  She borrowed placemats, napkins, and goblets from her mother-in-law, and the gold ornament tree from me.  She says she's not very good at this sort of thing, but I beg to differ!




 



 

The response from ladies wanting to attend led the organizers to ask if anyone would take on doing a second table.  This one was simpler, using paper plates and disposable utensils, but was every bit as appealing in a different sort of way!

 

Prior to eating a delicious meal of lettuce salad, lasagna, veggies, and garlic bread, my granddaughter and I made the rounds of the tables, "oo-ing" and "ah-ing" over the creativity displayed.  Here is a little peek at what we saw:

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The organizers were clever in serving the meal on clear, plastic plates so we would get the effect of eating off the pretty dishes without dirtying them.  Pretty lemon cupcakes finished off the meal as our dessert. 

The speaker for the evening was a young woman who recently returned from traveling around the world with an organization called YWAM (Youth With A Mission), and she gave a challenging message, along with sharing pictures from her journey.

Since the weather has been extremely cold, and we wouldn't be getting done until after 9:00pm, I opted to spend the night at my daughter's to avoid traveling after dark.  This gave added "Grandma Time" with my granddaughter and three grandsons.

So, there you have it.  I didn't enjoy the excitement of attending a Vikings game in Minneapolis, but still experienced a winning event!  Who knows?  Perhaps this could inspire some of us to do a similar event here in Crosby!  Let me know if you would enjoy helping organize one!

 

 

"Read Through the Bible" - UPDATE

Earlier this week I shared the beginnings of my challenge to read through the Bible this year.  I even created a Facebook Group and challenged others to join me.  Some have.  As part of my role as group moderator, I have felt led to share my own personal thoughts after reading the day's assignment.  Today was a longer assignment, and this was my commentary:

"So, how many of you made it through Isaiah 1-6?? Thankfully, I had the four hour drive home from Bismarck in which to tackle it!

It's a sad tale, but one which has been repeated often through the years. . .a rebellious nation, a need to seek, a promise from the Lord that He wants to reason with us and make our scarlet sins as white as snow. And that's just the first chapter!

It goes on to tell about a coming time when the Lord is coming to make things right. He asks us to stop trusting in man. He tells us there will be judgment, but His Branch will be beautiful and glorious, and bloodstains will be cleansed. His Branch will be a shelter and shade, a refuge and a hiding place from the storms of life.

I found the "Woes" in chapter 5 interesting. At some point I had underlined verse 8. . ."Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land." That's an interesting picture, but one that made me think of the big apartment complexes. Lots of people together in one place, but so many alone in each "house".

Other woes. . .to those who are up early and stay up late drinking; to those who live in deceit, to those who want to set God's timetable instead of letting Him do things in His time; to those who are "wise in their own eyes"; to those who deny justice.

After all this, in chapter 6 we find the Lord seated on a throne looking for someone to send with His message to the people. It is a challenging message to people who hear, but don't understand, see, but don't perceive, have calloused hearts, dull ears and blind eyes. Somehow I see this as a picture of our world today. God is still looking for messengers. Are you willing to be one?

Tomorrow we get to read from the NEW TESTAMENT! We start in Matthew, the first of four Gospels. Makes me think of a recent song with a good message. Have a listen!"

 
Ryan Stevenson - The Gospel (Official Lyric Video)

If you are interested in joining our Bible reading journey, contact me through Facebook, or my email, which is saturdayseeker828@gmail.com   Only when we spend time reading God's Word will we learn to recognize His voice in our everyday world!

COMMIT!

Last week, in a conversation with my sister-in-law, she talked about her granddaughter having a "word for the year."  I have heard of other people doing this in the past, and wondered what might be an appropriate word if I were to jump on the bandwagon.  In the days leading up to the new year, I found myself pondering the thought more, and decided on some form of the word, "COMMIT."  It might be extended to "COMMITTED" or "COMMITMENT,' but in any form it would be a good focus for the year 2018.

To start my journey, I created a Facebook Group entitled, "Read the Bible in a Year."  Over the course of six years, 2006-2011, I was able to accomplish this by using a guide published by Samaritan's Purse, called "Prayer Point."  Since then, I haven't been as committed to my Bible reading, and decided 2018 was the year to do it again.  Already several have indicated a desire to join me.  Hopefully, besides accomplishing the reading, we will be able to share insights and lessons learned in the process.

An old "Sunday School Song" was the source of another idea for my commitment journey.  The words which came to mind were, "Read your Bible, pray every day and you'll grow, grow, grow!" [An alternate verse to "I will make you fishers of men"]  Although my mind tends to turn often to prayer throughout the day, a more focused time of daily prayer is something I have been missing in my life.  I enjoy a weekly prayer time with a prayer partner over the phone, and feel I need to create a space of time each day to commune meaningfully with the Lord.

Another commitment I decided to tackle was reading more actual books, instead of mindlessly scrolling through Facebook.  Yesterday I completed Max Lucado's new book, "Anxious for Nothing," and today started on a book we received for Christmas.  It is written by Robert J. Morgan and entitled, "The Red Sea Rules."  The subtitle is "10 God-given Strategies for Difficult Times."  Having completed the first three rules today, I'm looking forward to seeing what the other seven have in store!

How else can I be committed in this new year?  After attending a presentation last week, my desire is to be more mindful of my general health.  The speaker was a native of Crosby who recently started a business venture called the "Brain Health Institute" in Birmingham, Alabama.  She is a neuropsychologist, and her partner is a functional doctor.  Together they are on a mission to point people to a healthier way of living, which in turn will promote better brain health. 

With my bipolar diagnosis, I have already learned it is beneficial to follow many of the suggestions she covered, (such as healthy eating, exercise, toxin removal, and proper sleep), but I realize there is always a deeper commitment which can be made.  I'm thankful for the friends I exercise with at the Prairie Tumbleweeds Fitness Center, and hope to maintain the M-W sessions of "Women on Weights," and add in T-Th Yoga workouts.  Now that the holidays are over, I also need to commit to less sugar!

Our pastor had an excellent sermon yesterday, and encouraged us to draw a line down the middle of a piece of paper.  At the top we were to put a plus sign on one side and a minus sign on the other.  This was to be a tool to evaluate the things you would like to eliminate and add into your life for the new year.  It looks like I've made a start. . .now to follow through and COMMIT to doing it!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!