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Showing posts from 2017

Trust and Obey

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Trust and Obey When we walk with the Lord, In the light of His word, What a glory He sheds on our way! Let us do His good will; He abides with us still, And with all who will trust and obey. Trust and obey, for there’s no other way To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. Not a burden we bear, Not a sorrow we share, But our toil He doth richly repay; Not a grief or a loss, Not a frown or a cross, But is blest if we trust and obey. Trust and obey, for there’s no other way To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. But we never can prove, The delights of His love, Until all on the altar we lay; For the favor He shows, And the joy He bestows, Are for them who will trust and obey. Trust and obey, for there’s no other way To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. Then in fellowship sweet, We will sit at His feet, Or we’ll walk by His side in the way; What He says we will do, Where He sends we will go, Never fe

Gather all the blankets

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On one side, the week between Christmas and New Year's is the time to catch up and get things done because a lot of people are out for the week. It's quiet, so you can get can things done. On the flip side, no one is in the office, except for the few who are. The few who are expect me to get them books by early next week, and there's not a chance of that happening because I don't actually send them out. There some people who expect me to answer at weird times of the day and night, but they won't answer me during the down time. The requests are right there in the inboxes of those returning to work on Tuesday. They have a ton of emails to process, and when everyone starts answering, it's going to be nuts. I only took Christmas Day and will take New Year's Day, but it will be torturous next week when I was in the office doing work. I didn't come down from work until late last night. I was trying to catch up on reports that are long overdue. To unwind, I

A look ahead at Arie's season on #thebachelor

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Photo credit:  http://abc.go.com/shows/the-bachelor  A few weeks ago, ABC aired a preview episode of The Bachelor and a recap of who Arie is for those that forgot him. A few random comments to start this off... I wasn't motivated to watch and blog on this preview for three weeks. That doesn't bode well for blogging the season. I go through this mental tug-of-war about blogging on The Bachelor or The Bachelorette each season because it is an actual waste of time, but if I chose a word for 2018, it's going to be BETTER. My blogging has to be BETTER than it has been lately, and I can only talk about my robo vac so much. As far as I recall, without reading through the archives of my blog, Arie was ok, but nothing special in my mind during Emily Maynard's season. I should really be cleaning my bathrooms instead of doing this blog right now. As usual, I'm behind and back posting because tonight I have to blog about the real thing. Happy New Year's to me!

Did Bathsheba have a #MeToo story?

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Team of Bible scholars helps readers gain a greater understanding of gender in the Bible Bathsheba, Tamar, Rahab, Hagar, and the Samaritan woman at the well—were they really the bad girls of the Bible or simply women whose situations were greatly misunderstood? In Vindicating the Vixens: Revisiting Sexualized, Vilified, and Marginalized Women of the Bible (Kregel Academic/December 8, 2017/ISBN: 978-0825444135/$22.99) , sixteen writers, alongside general editor Sandra Glahn , take a closer look at the stories of these and other prominent women to help readers gain a better understanding of these women’s God-given roles in the biblical narrative. The church has a long history of viewing notable women of the Bible through a skewed interpretive lens. For example, Eve is best known for causing the fall, Sarah is blamed for tensions in the Middle East, Ruth acted scandalously on the threshing floor, and Mary Magdalene is infamous for a life of prostitution. However, do these c

My robo vac reminds me of the reasons why I don't have a pet

Maybe I ought to rename this blog "The Adventures of the Robo Vac" because that's the excitement in my life currently. In case you missed it, I got a robo vac for Christmas. It was something I really wanted because I'm a lazy housekeeper. I posted about my first experience with it yesterday. I set it free again tonight to see if it would finish making its way around the house. Could completely be my imagination, but it followed me into the laundry room and got under my feet while trying to put clothes in the washer. At least it went around the halls and made more sense in it's route there than the wandering around it did yesterday. Once in the laundry room, I opened the door so it could find the craft room. There it proceeded to do donuts in middle of the floor. I had seen it go in circles around a chair leg, but instead it was just making itself dizzy in middle of the floor. I was worried it would find all the little screws Dad always drops out there, but t

I don't know if my robo vac is prepared for my house

If you read my blog yesterday, you know that I got a robo vacuum for Christmas. If you didn't read my blog yesterday, congratulations for having actual Christmas activities and better things to do than read my whiny blog. I envy you. Anyway, my robo vac. It had to charge for four and a half hours last night, so I didn't send it off on its maiden voyage around my house until this morning. I thought I had it programmed to start at 10 AM this morning. About 10:15, I realized it didn't start, so I manually powered it up and set it off. I watched it zig zag around the kitchen table and through the area of my house I don't know what to call. It's possibly a dining room, maybe a den, just the middle of the house really. The open area. It zig zagged around the room. Within two minutes the front of it was coated in a nice layer of cobwebs. I was strangely mesmerized as I watched it do its thing. Deciding I could probably waste too much time watching it, I went on upsta

Merry Christmas!

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I hope your Christmas has been merry and as eventful or peaceful as you desire it to be. Mine has been uneventful, relatively peaceful, and I desire to do it differently next year. I have 365 days to make a determination on what that is going to be. Originally, I was going to make this a short and sweet post, but true to my bad nature, I'm going to come off as ranting. I know I have issues that I need to work on. I have a bad attitude in need of adjusting. I confess. That's the first step, right? Our festivities were yesterday. After church, Mom and I spent some time in the kitchen. I rotated through cooking those five pans of ribs I posted about on Saturday. It was hassle not worth the time, let me tell you. Way too much food for seven people and trouble keeping or getting it warm by the time we ate since we started them too soon. Peyton had spent the night with me, so she was over at my parents' with me from lunch on. A little while later Paige arrived, and while

Good Old Noah Built an Ark

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Good Old Noah Built an Ark To the tune of “Old MacDonald” Change animals and sounds each time through Good old Noah built an ark, Like God told him to! And on that ark he took two lions Like God told him to! With a roar, roar here and a roar, roar there. Here a roar! There a roar! Everywhere a roar, roar! Good old Noah built an ark Like God told him to!

Planning on leftovers until St. Patrick's Day

How great it is to sleep late on a Saturday and not have the neighbor's yard people making a lot of noise! If my phone wasn't on silent, I would have been awaken by Peyton's, "Whatsup?" text. That usually means we'll end up running around together. She didn't make it over in time to make peanut butter balls which I have decided may not be worth the trouble or in time to bag up the treats which Mom actually helped me with. I prepped enough pork ribs to feed 25 people. I'm not sure why Dad thought we needed so many for 9 people tops. Actually, he might have had enough for 50. He bought a bunch at HEB in Waco, then decided they weren't the kind I usually fix. Since they didn't have much meat on them, he froze those and bought some more that still weren't the cut I usually do. There's 5 big pans. No one is going to eat that much, and there's enough ribs to last for weeks. I honestly don't know what he was thinking. He'll be

The one Christmasy thing I've done

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In case you were wondering, no, I never got my Christmas tree up. As I posted yesterday, I have been finishing orders up until this week. Plus I've been super dooper Grinchy Bah Humbug. It's been really bad Grinchy this year, even for me. The only thing I've done remotely Christmas-like is make Christmas candy. Honestly, if I hadn't been trying to bribe half the children at church to stop running, I would have likely skipped it too. Seriously. I told a bunch of kids I would be making goodie bags, but I wasn't giving any treats to anyone I caught running in the halls. Yes, I'm that old lady. However, I do at times get hugs while giving my no running speech. I love the kids, but they need a little structure and tough love in the form of threatening with Christmas chocolate. I had to follow through on my promise/threat/proclamation. Side rant: Back when I was a kid, my parents, and the parents of my contemporaries, would have "skinned us alive" for ru

Just in the St. Nick of time

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Last night, I delivered the messy bun hats my customer probably thought I wasn't going to pull off. I met someone to hand off my last order earlier this afternoon. With finishing off this big sign for my uncle and his granddaughter, I am officially caught up on craft projects with four days to spare. I have been known to crochet something until the literal last minute. (One year, I finished the border around a blanket as the recipient arrived in the driveway. Two years ago, my own Christmas stocking was a mere ankle sock.) However, because of lack of good communication with Dad, I did the sign the wrong direction. It was supposed to be tall, not wide. Didn't realize it until Mom picked it up at my house. I don't plan to re-do it before Christmas because it just can't/won't happen at this point, but I sure hope it works anyway.

A Christmas trip to the movies? Probably not.

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The other day, I don't recall what day, Dad mentioned something about whether or not we would do a trip to the movies this year. What had been a Christmas Eve tradition for me, Mom and Dad hasn't happened the past couple of years. We rarely go to the movies because there isn't much we really want to see. Then, we need to generally agree. I don't know if we will or we won't. One thing for sure: We won't be seeing The Last Jedi . None of us care about anything Star Wars . We don't do superhero movies either, so that rules out Justice League . I refuse to watch what I deem "stupid movies," so I cross Father Figures off the list. Given we haven't seen the first two, Pitch Perfect 3 seems off the list. The only reason I would watch Downsizing is because I have a thing for Matt Damon. I'm conflicted. I like him, but it seems kind of stupid. It can't be as bad as Contagion  which I ONLY saw because he was in it (and I was trying to ent

The grass is not greener on the other side

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Nancy C. Anderson helps readers build  hedges of protection around their marriages It’s human nature for people to want something bigger and better than what they currently have. When problems arise in a marriage, the grass can look greener in every other yard in the neighborhood, luring them to believe they will find true joy and fulfillment on the other side of the marital fence. In Avoiding the Greener Grass Syndrome: How to Grow Affair-Proof Hedges Around Your Marriage (2 nd edition) (Kregel Publications/November 27, 2017/ISBN: 9780825444968/$12.99), Nancy C. Anderson assures readers the greener grass is only a mirage and shares how to grow the greenest grass of all in their own backyard. Extramarital affairs are not the social taboo they once were and might be more prevalent now than ever thanks to the anonymity of the Internet and ease of connection via smartphones. Living in a culture that pushes the belief that “life is short and you deserve to be happy” doesn’t

I know you miss the crafty posts

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I know you miss the crafty posts with my latest projects, so here are my latest projects. A custom D painted like the Texas flag instead of the American flag. I'm in middle of making 5 messy bun hats that someone asked for 6 weeks ago. Good thing I still have a week until Christmas! I have actually made 2 per night the past couple of nights. I'm just an hour and a half away from being finished.

We Will Glorify

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Another throwback to a couple of years ago. We Will Glorify By Twila Paris Used by permission. CCLI # 1132191 We will glorify the King of kings, We will glorify the Lamb; We will glorify the Lord of lords, Who is the great I Am. Lord Jehovah reigns in majesty, We will bow before His throne; We will worship Him in righteousness, We will worship Him alone. He is Lord of Heaven, Lord of earth, He is Lord of all who live; He is Lord of all the universe, All praise to Him we give. Hallelujah to the King of kings, Hallelujah to the Lamb; Hallelujah to the Lord of lords, Who is the great I Am.

I forgot about the neighbor's yard people

I am pleased to announce I was able to abide by the Saturday morning rule. I didn't get out of bed until 9:30 AM after being up before the sun thought about rising for 9 out of the last 11 Saturdays. However, I forgot that the neighbor's yard people come out at 8 something every other Saturday morning. For the love of sanity, I have no idea what on earth they possibly were doing outside my bedroom window. I stayed in bed while they were buzzing around. I don't care what time of the year it is, yard people should not being doing any yard work before 10 AM on any Saturday of the year out of respect for the rest of the neighborhood. What I did accomplish today was putting Christmas gifts in bags, work on two of my last orders for Christmas and do a little Christmas shopping. Oh, and I have a jumbo project to work on in the coming week, I find out. As my brother joked last week, guess Santa's elves will be busy up until Christmas.

So much for going to bed early

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"This is the week I will stop staying up until 2 AM." That's what I kept telling myself. I lie to myself a lot. Now that we are done with craft shows for the year, we're putting book letters back in the shop that didn't close after all. We had pulled stock out thinking they were going out of business, but when the shop got new owners, we were too busy to get stuff right back in. This means I needed to sort through what we had and get a variety of options together to take back down there. I'm super dooper OCD with keeping inventory, but a part of the reason I do that is so that I don't end up with all one color of a certain letter. For example, I don't want 6 green Fs. I did end up with some issues like that. That's what happened when we made a second set for that week we had two events. As I went through and stickered the ones to go in the shop, I actually stickered all of the books and coordinated them with my inventory lists. It took thr

Kids know the value of a promise.

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Our good and all-powerful God always keeps his word, and the way he fulfills his promises is better than anyone could have imagined! In The Beginner’s Gospel Story Bible (New Growth Press), Jared Kennedy traces God’s perfect promises for toddlers and preschoolers through fifty-two Old and New Testament stories. Even the youngest kids will come to now that God’s promises are especially for them and that all of them are “yes” and “amen” in Jesus. Each gospel-centered story highlights God’s tale of redemption through Jesus and the unexpected and surprising ways that God’s grace and mercy are revealed throughout the Bible. Children will hear the good news of God’s love for them clearly expressed in ways that will speak to their young hearts. Brightly colored illustrations by Trish Mahoney highlight the stories and add fun teaching elements of counting, opposites, patterns, and object recognition to keep even the youngest child’s attention. Every story also ends with a question that p

Nine years ago today...

Thanks to Facebook memories, I was reminded I started this blog on December 14, 2008. Some things never change as I have about as much direction now as I did then. I'll share my post from that day, nine years ago: Let's see how long I keep this up... I've been saying for months that I was going to start a blog. One of my major tasks at work is to get blogs to talk about books that I am working on. So I'm always looking at blogs, but don't have one myself. I should create one, I tell myself. Well, I'm finally doing it. We'll see how long it lasts and how often it gets updated. One of my "jobs" outside of work is updating my church's website. I admit to sometimes being less than enthusiastic about that task at times. After working all day, I just can't bring myself to getting on the computer and working on it What makes me think updating this is going to be updated any better I ask myself. What would really make this blog awesome i

ABC is advertising Janu-Arie... Know what that means?

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In looking at my recordings list on my DVR, I saw that I've missed an episode of The Bachelor. A tease episode of the upcoming season, starting in Janu-Arie. I don't think I cared much about Arie years ago, much less now. Oh, what do I do? Do I watch? Do I blog? HELP! Comment now and tell me what I should do.

Catherine Marshall’s best-selling Christy celebrates milestone anniversary

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Part 2 of an interview with Nancy LeSourd, Publisher of Gilead Publishing’s Evergreen Farm imprint about Catherine Marshall’s Christy Catherine Marshall’s Christy landed on the New York Times list on November 5, 1967. Since then, more than 10 million copies have been sold worldwide, and the book blazed a trail for the new Christian fiction genre. In 1994, more families were introduced to the beloved character, Christy, and to the works of Marshall when the story inspired a CBS television movie pilot starring Kellie Martin that was so well received, it became a TV series. In conjunction with the bestselling book’s Golden Anniversary, the e-book will be available for the first time. Readers can purchase the digital edition through online retailers, and libraries can now include the digital book in their OverDrive collection. Its re-release will introduce a new generation of readers to the story that has delighted millions and inspired many authors in the Christian genre