New lessons

I started thinking today about things that I had no control over and I began to feel overwhelmed.  I quickly put the thoughts and feelings into check with the serenity prayer… accept things I cannot change… and I am amazed at the power of prayer and meditation!

I thought about a verse in Romans, “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind”.  I used to believe that I could think whatever I wanted, as long as I didn’t say it.  But I think that even though I didn’t say what I was thinking, it came through in my attitude and my actions.  Today I didn’t let my mind dwell on negative thoughts.  Of course they popped into my thoughts but I didn’t give them the time of day, I just moved on to other things…and it worked!

The mind is such a powerful thing and it can be used for God’s will when I focus NOT on my actions and words but first focus on my thoughts. 

I think I learned an important lesson today!

Purty Pictures

 

Feeding the Geese

Over the weekend Margie asked if we could feed the geese at TJ Evans Park.  I grabbed my camera and some old bread and we headed off to the park.

We got there and there were 3 ducks beside a park bench, what a perfect afternoon!  What great fun!  Noah and Margie took turns trying to get the ducks to take bread from their hand. 

That lasted about 3 minutes.

 

 

 

I like to call these guys the Brooklyn Gang.  They were pushy and loud.  Their arrival marked the beginning of the end, apocolyptic end, indeed!

 

 

 

 

The rest of the gang arrived.

“Ah, we heard you had bread…”

 

 

 

 

Margie and Noah moved to the safety of the bench.  Margie was still okay with it all until the leader of the Brooklyn gang tried to get her attention from behind.  Margie stood up on the bench, stepped on the bread and lost her footing and fell down on the concrete in amongst the geese.  The scream heard round the world. 

 

Once I made sure she was okay the comedy of it all set in.  It is so difficult not to laugh when your child is screaming in pain and fear!

 

 

 

 

 

And Noah made it even harder!

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t think Margie will be asking to feed the geese again anytime soon…

The leader of the Brooklyn gang tried to aplogize but she wasn’t listening!

 

 

We ended the day on a good note… Margie found the swings and Noah caught a fish…

Humility

I used to think humility was something you strived for a character trait that you achieved by “acting” humble.  My meditation time for the last week has been about humility and I’ve learned a lot by meditating on the passage and then applying it throughout the day.

I don’t think humility is a trait I strive to achieve.  I think humility is a something that happens when I humble myself before God and set my will aside, praying that He will show me His will today.  It is achieved by doing the next right thing throughout the day.  Helping others when the opprotunity arises.  Choosing to stay silent when I want to correct someone who is wrong (as if I know all that anyway)  And in everything I do remember that it’s not my will but His.

The past 7 days have really changed the way I think about things.  It’s amazing how easy life becomes when I let go and let God.

Happy 13th

It’s official.  I am the mother of a teenager.  I’m looking forward to the years ahead but will always miss the younger years…

This is Noah’s 3rd birthday and his cousin’s 5th.  They were both born on July 13th. Isn’t he adorable!  And look at her little pig tails and blue eyes.

 

 

 

 

 

Here they are today, 10 years later.  (ok, forced smile on him this year but he’s still adorable!) 

 

 

 

 

Happy 13th Birthday Noah!

I still cannot believe he’s 13.  I pray that he grows into a honest, strong, and caring man.  I know if lives humbly and does God’s will he will be happy.  I pray that I will be a good example for him.

I’m improving some skills

Last night I learned how to play Amazing Grace on a guitar.  One string at a time but anyone listening could pick up on what song it was.  Assuming they’d heard the song before, which I think everyone has heard the song, then again, maybe not…let’s put it this way, I learned to play the song.  My index finger pad (is the the proper term???) still tingles from pressing the string so hard, I wonder how long that lasts? 

Noah wants to take guitar lessons and I might arrange them after football season.  Who knows, maybe I’ll learn with him.  I’ve always wanted to try to learn to play but never did…who knows…

Yesterday afternoon I wanted to take some pictures and decided to work on focusing.  Funny, eh?  While learning to focus on positive things in my life, my recovery and spirituality, I worked on focusing with a camera. 

I had been trying to learn how to focus on something far away or up close while keeping everything else out of focus.  I never took the time to learn but yesterday I did, and I think I did an okay job;

I couldn’t do this before b/c the camera would put everything into focus.  Taking it off auto focus I was able to put the berries into focus and the leaf in front of me out of focus.

Another challenge was to get the focus on something up close, again manual focus let me do this.  Now… is that poison ivy??? 

Meet Ricky

I finally caught the critter who steals Bunny’s food dish.  He’s got the dish in front of him in this picture.  The funny thing was how he ate the dry food, he picked it up with his hands.  It was pretty cute, however, Bunny’s bowl will be brought in at night from now on.

A goal…

I heard this prayer again tonight and felt as if I’d never read it before.  To truly live this prayer is my goal… 

Lord, make me a channel of thy peace;

that where there is hatred, I may bring love;

that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness;

that where there is discord, I may bring harmony;

that where there is error, I may bring truth;

that where there is doubt, I may bring faith;

that where there is despair, I may bring hope;

that where there are shadows, I may bring light;

that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.

Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted;

to understand, than to be understood;

to love, than to be loved.

For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.

It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.

It is by dying that one awakens to eternal life.

Amen.

My first Jelly making documentary

First you take the berries and ya pick ‘em, ya pick ‘em….then ya boil ‘em, ya boil ‘em…ahem.  That’s just not workin’ for me…let’s try it another way. 

After the berries have been picked, give them to your cousin who will boil and strain them overnight to make berry juice.  If you want to do this yourself, she said that she added 4 cups of water to the berries then boiled them.  Then she put them in cheesecloth to drain overnight.

 

 

    

Put the jar lids in a sauce pan of water then set to low heat.  This step is done so that the jars seal correctly.  The water, although on a low heat setting, will be hot, so use a fork to get them from the water (voice of experience talking here).

 

 

 

While your cousin adds the Sure-Jell (or any generic berry juice thickening agent) and stirs the mixture to a boil, measure 5.5 cups of sugar.  Then add sugar to the boiling mixture.

 

 

Stir constantly until the mixture boils again.  You can choose to talk during this step, however, one must continue to stir.  Notice I have a clamped mouth, first time stirrers should refrain from talking in order to focus on stirring.  Seriously, it can be dangerous.  The liquid is hot and sticky, if you stir wrong it can splash onto your arm and that hurts (voice of experience again)

 

 Once the liquid is boiling again, time it for 2 minutes then pour it into the jars.  In this picture on the left there is a blue funnel thing that makes pouring easier, I highly recommend this gadget.  On the far right side the jars are upside down, after pouring they stay upside down for 5 minutes to help with the seal.

 

 

Once all the jars have been set upright they are cooled.  During the cooling process the jars seal, this is indicated by a quiet and cute little popping sound.  Once completely cooled you can write the type of berry and year on the lid.

 

That’s it.  The next step is to enjoy the jelly.  My Aunt said that we had to wait for the first snow fall to open the first jar.  This is an urban legend and can be ignored, it in no way affects the taste of the jelly.

What is not an urban legend is that this jelly taste best on a Sunday afternoon, spread on a warm biscuit, while sitting at a table surronded by people you love.  The joy is greatly increased if it’s after church and the biscuits are a side for a dinner of roast with carrots, potatos and butter – sweet iced tea is optional.

It’s makin da Jelly Time!

I have confirmed the rumors, Jelly is easy to make as long as you have 6 hands that work together as one.  It was not only easy it was fun.    It was also a personal accomplishment because last week I said that I wanted to make jelly and I did it!  After so many years of “good intentions” I followed through with something and that brings a smile to my face and an attitude of gratitude for so many things! 

I’ve been a character actress in many jelly making scenes from my past.  I’ve played the role of the child who is under the main character’s feet, I’ve played the villian who stayed in the shadows only to appear long enough to steal a handful of berries, I’ve had a supporting role as the jar lip wiper, and my largest role was a supporting one in which I played the jar handler (moving jars from dishwasher to oven to counter top).  Today, I was finally a main character.  I was one of the two berry pickers and was in charge of some of the props for the final scene.  I stirred, measured, poured, wiped, twisted lids, and handled jars. 

Maybe someday I’ll get to play the leading role of director.  The director has a very important role in the final scene and is the most memorable character.  The director has played all the roles many times in the past and has the script memorized.  She maintains a strict schedule and pushes the characters for speed and accuracy, and she is the ultimate time keeper.  She is also the child wrangler, cheering section, comic relief, and subject matter expert.  It’s a pretty big role and maybe someday I’ll have the honor of that role…maybe someday.