Hiatus

I apologize for the unannounced break in blog posting.  It was unintentional and unexpected.  I appreciate your patience and the lack of negative comments about it.

No, a major disaster did not occur.  No, I was not in the hospital or out of commission in any way.  Nor was I on vacation (sigh).  Life did get a little crazy, though.  There were several (figurative) fires at work that took all hands on deck to put out.  Plus, my personal life was going a little haywire. 

Things have settled down at work and the smoldering embers have moved on to someone else.  My personal life is starting to straighten out because God has been working on my attitude.  Amazing how much that word comes up in my blogs.  I recently saw a picture on Facebook with the caption ‘apparently I have an attitude; who knew’.  So me.

I’ve been listening to some excellent teaching by Keith Moore, reading How to Worship a King by Zach Neese and Pastor Rayburn has been preaching some awesome messages at New Heights.  Needless to say, the Holy Spirit has been tapping me on the shoulder a lot. 

So, I’ve had so much stuff going around in my head I couldn’t settle on one thing.  I would start something and think no, I’m not ready to discuss that yet.  Or, I don’t understand that enough to tell someone else about it.  I couldn’t even come up with anything amusing from my past.  A sad state for a writer.  My novel has also suffered because of it.

A biggie has been Keith Moore’s ‘The Trial of Peter’s Faith’.  It’s about not becoming offended.  All Bible students know that when you study a subject in depth, you get plenty of opportunity to put it into practice.  By the time I got to church last night, I was mentally exhausted and a bit on the touchy side (no comment from the peanut gallery). 

I can’t tell you exactly what happened last night; I just know God set me up.  Amber asked me if I wanted her to do the overheads.  I jumped on it.  That left me free to sing with the worship team and sit in the congregation for the sermon.  I love what I do but it was a very nice change.  By the time I left, I was on a much more even keel.

I know those around me were very happy.

Hard Firsts

Today was the annual back to school shopping trip.  Most of you know my sisters were and are teachers.  We always get together to go shopping for back to school clothes, shoes and miscellaneous.  It's like the annual Christmas shopping trip.  I usually go to laugh and eat lunch.

Anola's sudden passing will move us through many 1st.  This was the beginning of those; the first shopping trip without her.  Soon it will be the first day of school.  Then it will be Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Anola was a seasonal decorator and Halloween was one of her favorites.  She had salt and pepper shakers, cookie jars, candy dishes, lights, stuff to hang in the windows, things to put outside.  Yeah, all out. She did most things that way.

I must admit, I was a little leery.  I asked a friend to pray for us today and he did.  I know, because I could feel them.  We had a choice.  We could be all weepy and sad-sack or we could laugh and enjoy ourselves like we usually do.  I know which one Anola would choose for us.  We decided to laugh.  

Normally, we don’t come home with that many items.  The last few years, it’s been mostly baby stuff.  Since the kiddos are all healthy and clothed, we didn’t even wander that way.  Plus, Amanda didn’t get to go with this year and she is the baby shopper extraordinaire.  She is also Brenda's and Ada's personal shopper.  She picks stuff out and they decide to buy it our not.   

This necessitated Brenda and Ada actually shopping for themselves.  Wonder of wonders, they both bought items in the first three stores we went to.  That made it a full day already.  What made it even more ‘not normal’ was that I bought things, too.

Did we get teary-eyed?  Yes, but only a little.  We are women; we are tough.  We love, we laugh, we cry.  Anyone remember ‘Steel Magnolias’? 

All in all, it’s been a good day.