The day begins with me reminding myself how many things I have to be thankful for.  Sometimes we let problems overwhelm us and don't think about how much worse some people have it.  We seem to dwell on what's wrong rather than what's right.

The Bible says, "In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."  That is pretty personal. "You."   It says concerning you, not everyone else.  I also remind myself that it says "in everything," not "for everything."

All I have to do is turn on the news which is constantly blaring with what went wrong today and last week.  Tornados, murder, school shootings, etc.

I opened my Bible last night when I went to bed and started reading the Psalms.  It's almost like David the king could look into the future and read my mind.  Know what I need, what I think, what I need to change, what I need to thank God for.

I am still basking in the after-glow of my birthday party.  It was so much fun.  Friends are the most wonderful thing in life.  And all of my friends are at the very top of the friends list.  They are awesome.

The next day, Tony came and hung a door to separate my house into two sections.  The back  part is three bedrooms and a bath. My part is master bedroom, living dining room, family room and kitchen.  

It's kinda like a mother in law suite.  Tony said he could put in a small kitchen in the smallest bedroom if I want to.  Then it would be like a duplex.  I'll see if I want to do that.  Tony has already torn everything out of both of the houses I bought down here in Edmond and redone them for me.  God gave him the talent to do things  perfectly with building materials.  He is awesome.  I'm not moving again.  I swear.  I just need to have a place ready if I need a helper to move in and help take care of me.  Not yes.  I'm still a spring chicken.

Yesterday was one--if not the--best days of my life.  It was definitely my best birthday ever.  My friend Kim Larmon drove Carolyn Brown and Kathy Davidson to Edmond to celebrate my 85th birthday.  It was awesome!! We, actually, THEY) told funny stories from the last fifty years.  They know every stupid thing I've ever done and made sure everyone who was there knew about every story.  It was just an awesome day.  

I told them I didn't want presents, PLEASE don't bring me stuff,  that my present was going to be to give them a present--for them to go through my house and take something they wanted.  It took them a while to believe me, but once they got into it they had a lot of fun.  And I had fun watching them do it.

One of their stories was about me stripping and changing clothes on a plane going to France. I don't know if it was true or not, but every time they tell it, it gets worse and worse. We all traveled overseas so many times together that none of us remember where we were when those incidents occurred.  

Becky catered dinner with awesome food for all of us and baked me a pineapple upside down cake.  How she got that done, I don't know because she has just worked 13 solid days in a row.  I didn't have to lift a finger.  Jeanette set the table.

God has blessed me with wonderful friends.  My heart is full of joy. 

When I had chemo, I lost a lot of hair.  This morning I read something funny about a woman who had gone through that and only had three hairs left.

"Since I only have three hairs," she said, "Today I am going to braid my hair.

The next day, she had only two hairs left.  "Today, I'm going to part my hair down the middle."

The next day, she had only one hair left and said, "I'm going to wear my hair in a pony-tail today."

The next day her last hair was gone.  She said, "Oh! Good.  I don't have to mess with fixing my hair anymore."

I guess it is all about attitude?

The publisher sent me edited copy from their point of view.  As soon as I get it back to them, they are ready to go.  So, I am going to use this week revising and reviewing.

Maybe I will blog, but I really want to get the revision back to them...so give me a week of grace????

I had such a problem with my first publisher, that I was uneasy with the publisher who has bought my second book.  But yesterday, I received copy...their copy.  Edited and ready for my revision.  This is really going to happen!!!

 

I will probably accept all of their changes unless they are so radical they mess up the scope of the book.  I called Bill to tell him he is about to be famous (ha-ha) and he is excited as well. I am excited beyond words.  I'm an author!

And....they said they would take the other two books I have finished.

Which means I can get all of it out of here and concentrate on a book I'm writing about my dad.  His father was murdered when dad was seven years old.  They never found the killer, or a motive.  He was reaching for his gun on his hip...too late.  Anyway, I can now concentrate on that story.

This week it is all about food.  My neighbor Jeanine shops for my groceries.  God put her here for me because He knew there would come a day when I truly needed someone with a gift for caring about others.  She takes care of everyone she knows--sometimes to her detriment.

She calls, asks what I need from the grocery store, and brings it to me.  I gave her a personal credit card that she carries everywhere to make my purchases.  It is such a blessing.

Then there is Jeanette, she calls and asks what she can cook for me.  Is there anything I am hungry for?  Sweet and sour chicken is my favorite.  She makes enough for me to freeze.

And Norma, a nurse in my Bible class, who insists I call her when I have a medical need...she came and took care of me every day, the week I was so-so-so sick.  She drove me to eat lobster on Monday.  Friends.  What would we do without them.

Second hallelujah moment.  I decided that I would eat a full meal.  Something I hadn't done in three months.  I've been adding things to my diet--never knowing whether it would make me sick or not--one thing at a time.  

But yesterday, on the spur of the moment, I decided I would put some of them together that I knew I could eat because I had already tried them--broccoli, baked potato, a little butter, and some protein.

Next question...what protein?  The thing I've always loved was lobster.  Why not?  It was noon, a friend had just called and on the spur of the moment...Red Lobster!

I ate it all.  I will never take eating for granted again.  It is one of the God given joys of life.  I haven't had lobster in two years and may not eat it again for two more...but yesterday, it was awesome.  

I'm having a hallelujah morning.  Third day in a row with no nausea...Maybe this series of diverticulosis I've had is on the mend.  Could it be that I'm not done for after all?  I think I'll celebrate and go eat a lobster.  Last time I ate one, I spent more time cracking than I did eating.  And made a horrible mess everywhere.  The claw meat is the sweetest.  If you order a tail you miss the best part.

I dog-sat yesterday.  Becky and Craig had to be gone and brought Emmy-Lou over for the day.  She spent the whole time on my lap.  Side ways, long ways, up-side down ways and beside me in every position imaginable.  She was happy.  And I realized that (for sure) I can't get another dog.  Just getting up and down to let her in and out was more than I cared to do.  One day, yes.  A week, year, years...no.  I'd get a cat if it wasn't for the litter box.  My neighbor has a cat that has an in and out cat door and doesn't run away.  That kind of cat I could do.  But how would you find a cat like that???

    Sunday's lesson wass about the man who had been crippled for 38 years--lying by the pool at the gate near the temple.  If he could get in the water when it stirred, he believed that he would be healed. But he was too crippled to do that.  He just kept hoping someone would help him.  Year after year. 

    Jesus passed that way, and the Bible says there was a multitude of crippled, blind, and sick.  But Jesus saw that one man.  And said "Do you want to be healed?"  Why didn't Jesus say, "All of you, I'm here and can heal you.  Just stand up and it will happen."  No, he picked one man.

    I looked through the Bible and almost every time Jesus healed, it was specific.  One on one.  He didn't do group therapy.  And that's the way he deals with us.  One on one.  It is always--always--personal.  He calls your name.

    One of my members said, "He looks at a crowd and sees me...he loves me.  What an awesome God we serve.  He knows our name.  He knows where we are.  He knows what we need.  And He loves us.

    

Yesterday I hit bottom again.  Back to the doctor.  More antibiotics --which will put me into an "upset gut from killing all of my good bacteria" at the same time it kills my bad bacteria.  It is an ever circulating ongoing problem.  Normal is what I am aiming for, but don't even know what that is anymore.

The solution is: Don't get old!!.  Everything breaks down all at once.  But there is always hope...just when I give up and think "this is it" the next day, I feel better.

People like me probably shouldn't share what is going wrong---like I am now doing.  But maybe it will encourage you to be thankful for the good things in your life at the moment.  Yesterday I told Pat, "Thank you for taking me to the Pensacola beach four years ago."  I wanted to put my toes in the white sand and remember 1956, when I married Ken and moved to Pensacola.  A young girl who had never been anywhere.  Never seen an ocean, waves, sand, crabs or sea creatures.  And the food!!  Ah the food.  We ate our way across Louisiana and Florida beaches.  I would do it again right now if I could.  Maybe....

I went to the Apple store and a helper showed me how to permanently set my font and size of type.  I wrote it down.  It is lying next to my chair.  That was four years ago.

Did I do it.  No.  Why?  Because I am so afraid of messing something up, I don't even try.  Pat says, "Mom, if you do something on your Mac-Air, you can undo it."  I'm sure she can, but I don't have any confidence in that at all.  So for thousands of blogs, every time I sit down to write, I set the font and size.  

One day, I will put that on my three things to do "tomorrow" list and get it done.  But for now, no.  I'll have this typed before I could fix the font.

I voted.  Do you remember when they told us beer would help the state.  Liquor in grocery stores, then, gambling. Our Schools would be the best in the nation!  Okies fell for those lies and we spend a fortune on the clean up.  But finally...we got one right.  How could anyone think that the entry level drug for most addicts could help children?  And "recreational?"  What ever happened to "Take me out to the Ball Game" for recreation?

Carolyn told me she has answers to questions...but nobody asks the questions she has answers for.  I feel the same way.  I think that is called "Over the Hill?"

I'm still going through paper.  And I am making headway.  This morning I broke out a file that Ken kept--of dozens of things.  I have no idea if they are relevant or if I need to shred them, or keep them???  

That is when I call Craig.  He is a master-mind of minutia pertaining to things like that...and he always helps me.  I'm glad Becky married him into the family!!  He is the best member that I have when it comes to questions beyond my scope.

Jon called this morning to wish me a happy birthday.  I said, "My birthday is 20 days away."  He told me that he just saw his first red-bud blooming and that they always bloom on my birthday.  That's true, they do, but this year they are a little early.  One year, he called me in February.  He was living in Houston and they were blooming there.  I'm just glad he gets close!!!                  

A man came to my door yesterday and asked if I would like my number painted on the concrete curb.  "How much?" I asked him.

"Twenty," he replied.  For me and my wife.  She was painting a number on Jeanine's curb across the street.

"Done," I answered. 

I went in the house and got a couple of peanut butter cookies Jeanine had brought me and two Dr. Peppers and took them to the man and his wife and asked, "Are you a Christian?"  He replied yes with joy.  "I know where I am going."

My philosophy is to always speak first.  I thought about that Sunday when the lesson was on the woman at the well.  Jesus broke two rules.  He (1) spoke to a woman...and (2) to a Samaritan.  And he spoke first.  As a result, when she discovered who he was, she ran to the village, told them about Jesus and many believed and more listened when Jesus stayed there two days at their request.  He spoke first...to the woman at the well and she spoke to her town, and many were saved.

My method of telling myself (when I go to bed) that I am going to do three things the next day is working like a charm.  Sunday, I decided that I would "start" hemming a pair of pants I've needed to do for three or four years.

The steps involved getting the scissors, needles, thread, pins, measuring tape, etc. together in one place--ready to do the job.  The next day, I ripped out the factory hemming thread--a huge job. Then I turned the hem up, tried the pants on and cut off the excess--twice.  All of those things, one step at a time took three days. And finally yesterday I got one leg hemmed, this morning I finished the job and am going to put them on and get dressed. Then, I'm going to put all of the pins, needles etc. back where they go.  Ta-da!!

I've found that when I divide a job into pieces, I'm always reaching my goal for the day.  If I try to do it all in one whack, I get overwhelmed.  As I have aged, I've slowed down.  I can't do 50 things a day like I used to.  Or do ten things at the same time while I'm raising four kids.  I like this time of life in many ways.  It's peaceful.

    We had ten commandments--which nobody could keep.  But people tried.  Then Jesus came and narrowed it down to two. Surely we could keep two?

1. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul.

2. Love your neighbor as yourself.  

    Notice that we are not asked to love others in the same way we love God. If you don't love yourself, you won't be able to fulfill this second commandment.  We take care of ourselves and are to love and care for others in the same way.

But just when you think you can do those two--you've got it down, you can be what God wants you to be--Jesus messes it up and says, "A new commandment I give...that you love others as I have loved you."  As I Have Loved You!  Think about what all that entails!  And once again, we realize that by ourselves, we can never live up to the expectation of God--we are to be like Jesus. Impossible...but He gave us his Spirit that prompts us, reminds us, encourages us, changes us...and I don't have to carry a list around in my pocket anymore.  I have Him. 

I had once decided to get a Master's in Chemistry, which required that I take Organic  Chemistry--which mainly involves the study of carbon--the building block of all life.  I learned a lot, which has always fascinated me and helped me understand the CO-2 heat dome smothering the earth now and trapping heat and changing our weather.

I have been shocked at the number of people who discount the science involved in this phenom and what caused it. The general response is that we are in a heat age or ice age--which is something that doesn't occur quickly like this change has been.  Our weather has gone crazy.

I have no answers as to how to stop it.  It's become political. Democrats say one thing, Republicans another.  All I know is that I don't like it.  One day our weather is below freezing, the next day it is 75 degrees. Which is killing our crops.  If there is a solution, we have probably missed the opportunity to do something about it---but Pray.