tuesday reflections

woke up this morning to the sound of wind whipping around rather fiercely, and the remembrance that yesterday i drank the last drop of coffee in the house. let's just say i was glad to be able to linger in my down-filled bed for a moment longer.

i am still thinking about last night, when i helped my friend anne and some of her other friends make bunches and bunches and bunches of these strange little candy balls for a school fundraiser. i have to be honest. i did not really want to go help, i would rather have spent the evening snuggled in a quilt with a book. the day had been long, and my body was feeling the toll.

naturally, i was blessed to not be able to do what i wanted to do. the conversation of the women last night was something i was hungry for, the open admission of God working in our lives, wanting to fulfill plans for us, if we are able to accept and trust that His way is really the only way. it was so what i needed to hear, even though i have heard before. so, the women shared stories of how God directed their lives, once they put things in His hands. good stories. stories built as only He can build them! seriously, you cannot begin to manufacture the way God works. EVER. and yet, we always see the goodness, the 'rightness' in His doings. oh, how i want to hold and remember that truth, always, every day.

and so, for another day, i am filled. filled with the knowledge that even though the world assaults and throws curveballs and seems so exhausting to try and figure out, God is there. He does not miss a thing. He knows me better than i know myself. and i can admit to him that i am tired. that i am not sure what i want anymore. that i am feeling vulnerable, and that i want Him to bring me to a place, His place. that i don't have to wait until tomorrow, or someday in the future, but i can be there today. right now. and that everything will be okay. IS okay. and so that is how my tuesday will roll...:) and that's a good thing.


By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain . . .
1 Cor 15:10

fa la la la la

forgive me if i stay in christmas decorationland just a bit longer!! love. love. love.

a new season

sigh. well, thanksgiving has come. which means a 'flip' in thinking over here on the back forty. time to let fall go, and embrace the new season.

i am always a bit sad, because i hang onto the plants in the yard until the VERY end. then thanksgiving comes, and i realize the magic of the holidays. i love that we are more family focused, at least most of us. at least me.


and we eat pie. and talk about pie. and make more pie. and think about pie. or maybe just me!


and i go over the river and thru the woods to my old homestead. this year the day was a bit bleak, but just over yonder is my family. i have missed them. i don't go home nearly often enough.


and then, i come home to a new season. lights and warmth and a fuzzy cat on my lap while i read my book. sigh again. much to be thankful for, and much to gain by stopping for yet another moment to thank Him.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.

Let the redeemed of the LORD tell their story—
those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
those he gathered from the lands,
from east and west, from north and south.


Have a happy Thanksgiving, ya'll!

more fluff

well, i see i'm on a roll this week. from disney to shopping to keith urban. hmmmm. something tells me my brain is in 'holiday' mode.

ah. but keith comes up for discussion on this blog every so often, doesn't he? alas, i cannot help it. i would be happy if all the men in all the earth looked like keith urban. i guess he SOUNDS okay, too, if you like that kind of singing (which i do, thankfully). i admit, however, that the cuteness is why i buy the songs. look at those poses with the guitar. me oh my.

so, with keith crooning in my ears and turkey looming in my head, i plan to whiz through this day with ease. hope you are all feeling light and fluffy and good, as well!

i'm the cutest me i know.

dang Carey. she cursed me with her scheels bug today at lunch. and though i was helpful in nudging her into getting a pair of VERY cute black boots that will be adorable on her, why did she have to be not helpful at all in talking me out of the cute little furry eskimo boots that i saw?!! bad friend :)

seriously, i love them. i did try hard last year to buy a $30 pair and call that good enough. but, i always really wanted these. to feed the birds in, and go for walks in, and go snowshoeing in, and to scoop the walk in. see. i will wear them every day.

in fact, i think i shall wear them to class tomorrow! thanks, care.

tangled

does anyone want to go see 'tangled' with me?

rapunzel was always one of my favorite stories.

and can you tell i kind of like the graphic design, too?


:)

if you don't go and read

THIS


then you are so missing out.

i was so unprepared for how i would spend five minutes trying to get thru the longest, funniest, seriously BEST blog post i have ever read in my life. the pictures are possibly the best accompaniments to a blog post i have ever seen.

for the love of God, if you need a laugh or even if you don't think you do. you just have to.




oh ps. if you don't like dogs, you don't have to read it :)

i love this land

well, yale sd was interesting. (btw, it's between huron and brookings, right underneath the stalk of corn on the map :))) there is a great peace that falls on me the minute i leave the city limits.

however, i am probably not much of a country girl in reality. i was a bit fearful to see that yale had all gravel streets. NO convenience store. just the bar and a huge grain elevator and about 14 houses. and the building that i was going to visit, tucked behind the bar. there were however three wonderful women doing a VERY cool job inside that little building. and they love where they live. God knows what he's doing when he is placing us, i believe.


the best story i can get out of the whole experience is that when we were driving back (i was miss daisy to my friend/client lindsey's driver role) and we came upon a BUNCH of cows in someone's front yard. i was chatting away, and did not really think about the scenario.

lindsey, who lives with a farmer, immediately became alarmed, slowed and said 'i think those cows are out. they ARE out....oh, dear....'

i was like 'but they look happy, and they are in somebody's YARD, how bad can that be?'

to which she told me the horrors of cows being out. how easily it is for them to wander into the road and be hit. how hard they are to wrangle when it's dark out. how they get afraid and start to panic.

so, at that point, I START TO PANIC. i say 'lindsey, i don't want the cows to get hurt.'

and she, who has kept driving because there is no way we could do anything, because we don't have any idea who they belong to, says...

'bobbi, we can do a lot of things, but we really cannot help those cows.'






doh. sad, but true. i did pray that God would keep them safe. and realized i do not have even one farmer gene in me, even though i love the thought of it.




happy friday!

a special day

in honor of karen's birthday, i am going to yale today. i could not think of a better way to celebrate.

i have a meeting there next to the biker bar. looking for all kinds of thrilling details to come from that... not sure if there is a convenience store, but i may even buy a momento of the occasion if there is...

happy day karen! i hope it's as thrilling as mine!

mitford update

started book #2 last night. i'm actually trying to read kind of slow, because i only have 9 in the series, and i will not want them to end...!

so, every night i give myself a little dessert of father tim and co. very filling ;)

well, there's an idea.

i can actually see my grandma whipping a few of these up for the grandchildren. wow. takes the snuggie to a whole new level, eh?

feeling a bit cantankerous today. that's a good word. hope that nobody important comes too close around me, or i may display some disrespect. often, mondays leave me feeling cantankerous. i wish there were some kind of intermediary period between sunday and monday, where work was encouraged, yet not required.

in other news, siesta woke up from her deep sleep from the $%^&* shots she had on friday. i'm glad, because i missed her.

also, the sun is shining here. take that, you people with snow on the ground! we win!




see what i mean? cantankerous.

freaky friday

today has not been the most peaceful of days. i am still feeling the remnants of a couple days ago, when i got my feelers hurt by a client, and have not fully learned how to not rely on feelings for all things. God is helping me with that, although i sometimes take things into my own hands and form resentments that should not exist.

i also have a small guilt trip going over Carey, whose email i ruined several weeks ago, and although she doesn't seem to blame me, it's my fault. she is right now trying to be an IT support person for HERSELF, which frightens me. pray that it gets fixed somehow.

i also have to take the cat to the vet in just a bit. more frightened of this than all the other things put together. getting her fat little body into the door of that pet carrier may require more protective clothing than i own. schwew.

i also am feeling the need for an escape to mitford. that will come soon enough, because tonite i am going there :))

happy weekend bloggers!

excited!

oh my gosh. excited about this.

i love bobby flay!

pw makes me laugh so hard!

this is going to be fabulous!

watch it with me!

Can you raed this?

I cdnuolt blveiee that I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd what I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in what oerdr the ltteres in a word are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is that the frsit and last ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can still raed it whotuit a pboerlm. This is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the word as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

so true

so this doesn't happen to me very often. but as i was driving across town today to a client meeting, this song came on, and something, SOMETHING hit me so hard, i swear i could almost not drive. i wanted to shout! i wanted to raise my hands! i could hear the chorus of angels singing!!!! i know with every fiber of my being that every word of this song is TRUE, and all we need to know, really!!!!

TMI part two

woke up early this morning. i am enjoying morning more, now that DST is gone. nights are a different story :)

anyway, still feeling overwhelmingly busy. i know it is going to be this way for awhile, and i know that God opened some of these doors for me, so i am trying, TRYING to stay calm. not doing very well with that, truthfully.

lately, i've been reading some henry blackaby, he's the guy who wrote the very FIRST bible study i ever did in my life, back when Jesus was a new concept to me. i still laugh when i remember that study. i was so enamoured, so drawn in, but so completely incredulous that God had actual RELATIONSHIPS with people. i remember henry saying "watch what God is doing, and jump in." hhhhhhhhuuuuhhhh? watch what God is doing? i didn't KNOW that God was doing anything! i had not seen him looming around in my life, and certainly had NO idea what i was supposed to jump into with Him.

he he. NOW i laugh at the me back then. i suppose later on, i will laugh at the me right now. that is the way it is with God's revealing things to us. i love that part.



okay, anyway. relevant devo for today, talks about 'new strength' which is what i need. the best part is the last paragraph, which really struck me as quite true:

Jesus carried more responsibility than you do. More people needed Him than will ever need you. Yet He was never overwhelmed or inadequate for the task. Now Christ offers to guide you so that you will fulfill your heavenly Father’s will and gain the strength necessary for each day (Matt. 11:28).

and with that thought and prayer for ya'll and myself included, let's carry on as best we can this tuesday, wait on the Lord, and see what He is going to do! have a great one!

escaping to mitford

thanks to karen, i am reading fiction again, after a crazy 2 month reprieve. i missed reading fiction. somehow, i always feel guilty though! i should be DOING something! not that my normal weekends are all that productive, but still.

anyway, she loves jan karon and the mitford series. i've been thinking about getting some of these books for YEARS. finally, this weekend, i found 2 at the thrift store, so i bought them. started on book #4, which bothers me slightly. i am a 'start at the beginning' kind of person. still, for 99 cents, i will compromise.

then, this morning, i went to my friend amazon, and got the first 3 books in the series, used, for under $9 total. that's $11 bucks for 5 books. which makes me seriously happy. i don't really know why anyone would buy a new book, when used ones are perfectly fine. then again, why do people buy new cars, for that matter? i know, i digress.

most of all, i like the town of mitford. book #4 started out with the folks of mitford looking for spring and putting their houseplants out. hooked me in right away :)) ha. i hope the rest of my hobbies are clearly illustrated as time goes on.

and of course, the underlying thread is God. nothing is for naught when that is the case. i am anxious to see Him through the eyes of father tim.

thanks for the tip, karen :)







on an unrelated note, i also bought 75# of bird seed this weekend. look for fat birds to start showing up on the back forty this winter ;)

just this once

i don't ever remember another november day that i:

sat out in the soft green grass in my jammies

let the sun soak in deep

listened to the ducks overhead as they continue south

and loved on a big yellow kitty

who seems to love me back.



and to be honest, i don't care if i never do it again.

thank you Lord, for just this once.

TMI

once again, i find myself drowning in TMI. i am not sleeping well at night, and not waking well in the morning. head is swimming with multiple projects, commitments and goals, and the occasional shout out to Jesus to throw me a life line. aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh, heeeeeeeeellllllllllllp me!!! i hope He hears that.

on the plus side, it is still sunny here, even with a crisp 20 degree morning. the house plants are keeping me moderately happy, and i am doing the same for them. siesta naps about 20 hrs. a day now, and sleeps at night on top of me. ohhhhhh, the comfort of that.




and mostly, i am thinking about christmas decorations. lots and lots of christmas decorations. hmmmmmmmm. that's about it, i think.


:) happy friday!

ftw

i admit i'm a little tired today because i stayed up too late last night watching election results. you do realize you are older when things like elections seem to MATTER.

i did feel really bad for the little girl that came to my door asking for my vote for state representative. she seemed really sweet, her values and mine were similar, and i told her i would vote for her. nevermind that i have been voting in the wrong district for about 15 years. doh. apparently, i have not been too good at picking representatives that represent me because i never thought about it before. i changed my address, finally, yesterday, and voted for the people in the district a few blocks over.

anyway, she won, so i suppose she is not too concerned.

otherwise, i find myself ambivalent about our politicians. the system seems so broken, no matter who 'wins.' i wish that we all were nicer to each other, no matter whether people agreed with our views or not. i wish we all knew that Jesus is the real solution to our troubles, not our particular candidate for office. i wish that Christians were just as loving in defeat as victory....because our victory is defined by God, not by party association. i wish a lot of things.

sigh. and i'm kind of glad it's all over for another while.

yumminess in theory

i think they look really yummy. and they were super fun to make! i am wondering why i never tried it sooner. but finally, this weekend, i made homemade bagels.

pumpkin spice with pecans. how can that be bad, right? and the dough was very easy to shape. i guess you can tell from the photo that i was not too exacting with that part.

boiling them was fun! it reminded me of making donuts, but with water instead of oil. they puffed right up and looked cool.

unfortunately, the texture was off. not sure, but they were kind of soft and dough-ey. not in a good way. i suppose i would either bake them longer, or boil them longer next time. i'm kind of an instant grat girl, however, not sure there will be a next time.

i decided to leave em on the counter overnite, because i have a hard time throwing food away. low and behold, the next morning, they were drier and more 'bagel-like.' hmmm. i had one for lunch. it was okay.

such is the life of a not-so-gourmet girl. i am pretty sure my local bagel boy should not worry too much about me :)

crazy relatives

wow. mondays happen very very quickly. i guess one cannot sum up the weekend without talking about halloween. to be honest, i'm sick of looking at people's kids on facebook. after you've seen one cute costume, you've sort of seen them all.

so, in the spirit of moving on, let me introduce you to my advertising 'family.' a bunch of good people over at paulsen marketing. i always kind of knew them, even back in the day when i worked for the 'other' agency in town. i always thought they did great stuff. i knew there was a super talented guy over there who could draw. and a couple of other, quieter people who made pretty stuff. okay, i kind of stalked them.

anyway, after i became a free bird, i did a couple of projects over there - nothing too exciting - but got to know a few people better. especially the ONE girl, who became my friend. in the years since, i get invited to parties and company events quite often, and really love that they have taken me in. what a nice bunch! even the CEO hugged me the last time he saw me. i wonder if he thinks i work there, and somehow he just forgot?!

ha. anyway, these guys DO halloween. on friday, we all went to lunch - them in their crazy outfits and me tagging along - and it was fun. reminds me of the old days, when i had co-workers....not always a bad thing.


and it's also good to know i'm not the only crazy bird-lady in town anymore ;))