Worry, why?

      Im sitting in bed, on sunday night trying to unwind & get about 6-8 hrs of rest.  All the sudden the dread of "in 3 days my boy is having oral surgery" popped in my head.   My daughter had her wisdom teeth taken out a hand full of months ago. She had anistichia .  I never had anistigia before,  so my experiance is limited.  Krystal was very upset & confused after her procedure.  I had a two hour drive on the way home with her.  I do wish I had a responsable adult to drive us home.  I did not feel like a responsible  adult AT ALL.  I was so upset to see me girl like that.  I don't want to relive those feelings with my son on Wed.         I am so blessed that those feelings of anxiety went away seconds after they popped up. Yup holding onto worry IS a choice.  Letting go of worry Is something I  have learned how to do.   The old me would have held onto that worry for days.  I would have been impossible   to live with, snappy & short tempered.  Of course that would have lead to the stomach issues, yeah its not pretty, that goes along with me being an emotional mess.  Its great how my mental mumbo jumbo effects my body too.        All worring is going to do is make me missrsble for days.  Not just me but everyone around me.  Thank God I now know that worrying is not helpfull AT ALL.  I choose instead to lift my son in prayer, as I  do every day.  For me prayer is so much more benificial then worrying.  I'll let God take care of my son, he'll do a better job then I will, after all he is His child first.             -My boy, Brian, ( I call him Bud cause he's MY BUD) went through his procedure just fine.  He was laughing when he woke up. The first thing he said to me was that he met Bob Marley.  He has a few days of recovery. Now hopefully his teeth will no longer hurt, & they will stay straight. Brian does have beautiful teeth.  I don't know where he got them from. -       Don't get me wrong, I use to love to worry.  Worrying feed me, I lived to worry.  Not worrying takes a lot of practice,  kinda like learning to ride a bike.  I fell learning to ride my bike,  lots of skinned knees & band aids, but I wanted so badly to be able to ride that beautiful bike, so I stuck with it & kept trying, I did not give up.  I will not give up on handing over my worries. Psalm 55:22 Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken. On a side note, if you are not a "God person" turn your worries over to whoever your higher power is.  

Who ever said sticks and stones will break your bones, but words can never hurt you is a big fat LIER!!!!

     Have ya read the book " The Four agreements"?  The first agreement is;  Be Impeccable With Your Word Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.      Easier said then done. I often say stuff I don't mean because I suffer from sarcasm.  I also don't say what I mean because I don't want others to think I'm stupid, or I don't want to hurt someone.  I wonder how many people don't say what they want to because they are afraid they'll sound stupid?  Ok this is not where I had planned on going with this, but here goes;..........       Being the youngest of 4 girls, ya know how girls are, it was hard to get a word in, hard to express myself verbally. I think because of this I am loud & speak fast, no I speak very fast.  I felt like my opinion didn't matter, my thoughts didn't matter. -  I will now say this is just my feelings, it was more then likely not FACT. I've learned my feelings are not fact. -          My sister, who is 15 months older then me, & I use to argue, a lot, yup sisters do that.  It seemed as though I was always the one getting in trouble for being loud & fighting. Again, I'm loud because I feel I am not heard, I speak fast to say what I have to say before I am interrupted.       With the help Of some very amazing people ( you know who you are) I've learned that what I have to say is important, I can speak & not be interrupted.  I feel heard.  I have practiced speaking slowly, mainly because I hate repeating myself;-)      Now back to" be impeccable with your words" that is a very slow proccess for me. There are times I bite my tounge, because believe it or not,  I think some stuff occasionally that is not very nice.  I now, very often, think long & hard about how I am going to express myself verbally, especially when I need to talk about something that could create conflict.  I try very hard to express how I feel ( it hurts me when....), not you're an idiot, why did you do that.  I mean what I say, I try not to say it mean.       Gossip, this too I am working on. I check my motives when I talk about someone. Do I want to talk about them to help them, to ask for prayer for them. Or is my talk "can you believe she......" just to gossip.       Use your words in the direction of truth & love. When you call you child, husband,..........  Ugly, fat, stupid,........ that hurts, it scars, especially if it is someone who values your opinion, someone who looks up to you. I let things others say control who I was for a very long time. (I'll get into this later I'm sure). Sticks & stones can break my bones, words can scar me for life.  Proverbs 12:18  There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

Ya know you're a redneck...... What the heck is Mule Day?

Ya know youre  a redneck if ...............Mule day, what the heck is mule day?       My daughter came home the other day & told me about something that happend in school. The teacher said they would start a new chapter on Tuesday.  One of the students, a senior, said oh yeah, there ain't no school on Monday it's mule day weekend.  Krystal said don't ya mean "Labor Day", the teacher rolled his eyes & said, yup down here the don't know what Labor day is  Krystal  said isnt it your job to teach them.  "Bless their hearts"      Last year on Labor Day I had only been in the south a month. I saw advertisements, about "Mule Day". I was told it was like a festival. I really wanted to check it out.  I was looking forward to exploring the ways of these southerners. It was raining so hard last Labor Day they cancled the mule day festivities. I was sad:-(      On my way home from church on Sunday I asked a young man, who went to church with us, what Mule Day was. He said something like "it's really redneck, I go EVERY YEAR....... They have mule pulls....."I thought whoooo hoooo, my kinda shindig;-) ( technically it's not a shindig)       Come Monday morning, I woke up early, threw on my cow girl boots, grabed my umbrella, saddled up my horse, & rode into the big bad city of Ider.   No I didn't, I don't have cow girl boots, or a horse, and Ider is defiantly not a city.  It has  only one flashing red light, & a population of 723 in 5.4 square miles. (yeah I just googled it).  I told al y'all I live I the middle of NO WHERE.        As Krystal and I headed to the mule day festivities I realize we are following a bunch of pick up trucks with people  pouring out of the beds, no I'm kidding, but it is legal to ride in the back of a truck down here. I parked the car, open the door, & hear the sounds of horses galiping, ahhh the pleasant aroma if horse manure fills the air.  I look around & feel very under dressed in my tshirt, jeans & sneakers.  Everyone has on country button up shirts, coveralls, boots & cowboy hats, well  not everyone but at first it appeared that way to me.       Krystal & I found a spot to stand to wait for the parade. I did not enjoy the guy standing next to us spitting every 30 seconds cause he had dip in his mouth.   It started raining, thank God I remembered my umbrella.   The parade was about 20 min to 1/2 hr long.  Ider high school marching band, horses, fire trucks, floats, ambulances, tow trucks, followed up by mules, your typical parade. They tossed candy at ya, I watched it land in the puddle that had formed next to where I was standing. Everyone looked a tad bit cranky & wet. The rain temporarily stopped.      As we were walking into the park there were 3 people with orange vests on collecting the $2.00 entry fee.  Walking down the paved area of the park we were dodging horse/mule poop. Oh never mind, I WILL be stepping in poo before the end of the day, why fight it. There were a few vendors,  wood crafts,  a very good pencil artist. I did stop & admire his art work. There were also a couple of church groups giving out necklaces & bibles, a couple people selling raffles for a gun & gator. Of course there were a few food vendors too.  No fried dough or blooming onions though, I found this to be a little odd.       We checked out the old cars show. I did enjoy looking at the dozen or so cars. Then we moseyed on over to the mule pull.  I was impressed. Teams of mules were pulling 2000 lbs of cement blocks. By the time I left they were up to 7500 lbs.       I decided to walk down to the stage & see what kind of music was there. YEAH, contemporary Christian, I enjoyed listening to that band for a couple of songs, then another band took the stage. Oh boy a banjo, base, & 2 guitars. They looked like a middle aged man & his teenage boys. This group sang country gospel. As I was listening to them perform I noticed past the stage, in the distance, there was a big ol' farm tractor pulling a hay covered wagon giving people hay rides.  The sky opened, the rain started coming down heavier. I'm outta here.  Mule day is just a simply good ol' fashioned  country fair, straw chewing folk & all.  Will I go back next year, maybe.  A mule is a hybrid equid, a cross of a female horse and a male donkey, often used for transport in rugged terrain.

There IS A KINK in my hose

Funny how God reminds of us of things when we are quiet enough to hear him.   When I started watering my garden,  I squeezed the handle, trigger, whatever it's called, no water came out of the hose. I had already stretched the hose out all the way to the far garden, it's got to be a couple hundred feet, or more.  Great now I  have to walk the length of the hose & look for the kink. I didn't want to do that,  I just wanted to water my gardens!!!!!!!!  As I was walking, to find the kink, I was reminded of a few things;  First, if there is a problem in my life & my life is not working the way I want it to I NEED to take a few steps back, to find the problem. Yup I dont like back tracking either, but sometimes I have no other choice if I want to move forward.  Usually if a problem comes up over & over & over it's an old issue. I need to find out where it came from. Do I always need to be perfect, does it bother me when my kids ............  How about when my best friend always....... Some times I need to go all the way back to my childhood to understand why I "do that", why that bothers me so much.  Sometimes I only need to go back a few years. Either way, I need to face it (accept there is a problem) trace it,(understand where the problem comes from) & erase it. (ask for help from God) yup finding the kink in your hose, the root of your discomfort, is painful, trust me it's worth it to be happy, joyful, & free.  I have learned not to search to hard to figure out why I'm so insecure, jelouse, controlling, manipulative, mothering, sarcastic,..........  When I am ready to learn that lesson, God will show me the answers as long as my mind is open enough to see the answers.  I do not rush my journey, if I do I am sure to miss some amazing views.  I started my journey to a better me 6 years ago.  I've worked a program, done 12 steps, done some steps what feels like 12 times.  My growth will never be done, I will never be done exploring what makes me who I am. As long as I can still take a breath of air painful issues will keep coming up, I will continue to dig deeper to find the root of my issue.  Turns out the hose was kinked all the way by the spigot.   I unkinked it. Great now I can enjoy providing my flowers with some of what they need to grow.   As I was walking back to the other end of the garden hose, to water my flowers, I noticed the feeling of the grass under my bare feet. Perhaps if I wore shoes a little more often I wouldn't keep stubbing my toes.  1 Peter 5:10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

What, may I ask, is a hot water bath??

Many years ago (about 13) I had a garden, in the village of Catskill, yup the village. I planted zucchini  & tomatoes.  I grew a beautiful zucchini. Tomorrow I'll pick that perfect crop. Yeah right. The deer thought it was ready for pickin' that night. I never had a vegetable garden again, until now. The growing season is much longer in AL then it is in NY. I put most of my garden in in April. I have plenty of produce for my family, & extra to give away. There is one problem with that,EVERY ONE down here has a garden. I decided to freeze some veggies. My husband, he's the pratical one, said " if the power goes out, we lose everything". I had a bright idea (yup every so often I amaze myself) I'll start canning. I never caned before. I remember my mother making jelly.  I do wish I had payed attention back then. (I still don't pay attention, now there's something else to blog about) Anyway, I did some research, asked some questions, bought some books, jars, vinegar......  & started canning. I do not have a pressure cooker, so all the canning I do is "hot water bath", as if there is any other kind of bath;-).  A hot water bath is really just boiling your jars of stuff in water.  Perhaps someone will buy me a pressure cooker for Christmas, or my birthday;-)   I've canned tomatoes, pickles, relish, hot peppers, corn salsa.  I've made watermelon jelly, mint jelly, rosemary jelly & hot pepper jelly. My son loves the sweet pickles & corn salsa. He also likes the watermelon jelly, almost too much. Who am I kidding, he's 15, he just likes to eat. I love the sound of the jars popping as they are cooling. (it's the little things in life I enjoy)   I like giving away my creations, so my loved ones can enjoy, or critic,the creations too. Some, ok almost all, my cooking is done by trial & error.  I am not good at following directions, just ask my husband. I know what is going into the jars,I am trying to feed my family, & myself healthy foods, sometimes.  I'm  delighted that I can safely store my home grown produce to enjoy for months, years to come.  The squirrels  store food for winter, I think they have something here.  FYI, if ya have a banana that's about to go bad, peal it, wrap it in foil, & stick it in the freezer. It will make a great smoothy. I'm telling ya this because I have some bananas I WILL NOT throw out.