I washed every sheet in the house today.  Six loads.  I was thinking of my grandmother while I was doing it and how she had to get wood, light a fire, hang the old iron kettle, scrub everything on a washboard, dump out the water and fill it again to rinse everything--then wring it all out as best she could and hang it on the line to dry.

And we complain.  What a blessing a washing machine and dryer are.  When I got married, I didn't have a washer or dryer so I did the wash in the bathtub and hung it on a line outside.  But even at that, I didn't have to build a fire to heat water and I could do everything inside where the weather was good.

Sometimes our lives need a good scrubbing.  We get into a habit of doing things like we have always done them, when we need to make a change or two.  Like finding a convenient time to read our Bible.  Like forming a habit of talking to God.

I have been going through the "Drawers" that I told you about and am amazed how much needs to be thrown away.  But for eleven years, I have been stuffing things in those three drawers that I didn't know what to do with, and never looking at any of it again.

I am putting things away in the cabinets.  I have to develop a new pattern.  I have to figure out where I have put things.  It is all strange.  But it has been wonderful asking myself, "Do I really need that?"  As a result, I have filled up boxes with things I don't really want.  Or need.  Or ever use.

My grandmother told me, "Honey, I didn't have it so hard.  When I got through with the wash water, I just threw it on the floors.  There were so many cracks between the boards that the water ran through to the dirt under the house.  But the floors got a scrubbing.  You girls have such nice houses, you have to wax your floors.  We didn't have anything, so there wasn't anything to take care of but the animals.

Well, it finally happened.  I had a meltdown.  AT&T is the most awful carrier.  I spent two hours on the phone. They dropped my calls--so you know the drill, I had to go back through the "punch 1, punch 2"..... rigamarole.  And then I got someone who was impossible to understand.  And then, and then, you know the deal.  I finally gave up out of frustration.  I have no internet.  I have to go to Becky's to post.

I will try to get internet service again tomorrow.

Whoever said it was going to be easy.  I am always amazed at the number of people who say that if there was a God that He wouldn't let anything bad happen to us.  I've never understood where they are coming from.  We are all born into the same world, and we all have to learn to deal with our individual problems.  I'm not dealing with AT&T very well right now.

And when I went through the "to go" line this morn to get pancakes and sausage, I got home with no sausage.  I paid for it, I just didn't get it.

But.  A good thing happened.  I found my Bible.  I found my check book.  I found the box with the lamps in it so I can see to read. Things are looking up.

Carolyn calls me every day.  She is such a good friend.  She knows I didn't want to move, don't want to be here and miss everyone back in Pryor.  But I am smiling.  And there are good things about it.  I have a lot of family here.  I will adjust.  I always have.

Matthew 14: 1  "Let not your heart be troubled...."  I get it.  I'm just having to keep reminding myself that God loves me and he won't give me anything more than I can bear.
,

I guess you didn't leave me the week that I was moving and didn't write.  The blog shows unusual activity.  Super.  I love knowing you are out there.

Pat's husband Tom took me to Pryor and cleaned the garage.  I wish I could say it was done, but there are probably two more days of work left.  When I wasn't looking, he threw a bunch of stuff out.  That was good.  I couldn't do it.  So I tried not to watch him.  We stopped in Tulsa and my granddaughter, Beth, went through everything we had piled in the back of the pickup and took a ton of stuff.  She and Tony are newlyweds and need everything.  Good.  I don't need it.  And don't have time to deal with it.

I'm not going to get a garden in.  Makes me sad.  But the flower beds are in need of major attention.
That will keep me busy.

God intended for us to work.  When he gave the garden to Adam, he, "...took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it." Gen. 2:15  I feel like I'm not doing the will of God if I don't plant tomatoes and okra.  I want something to cultivate and "keep."  I will build raised beds as soon as the house is put together.  That way I will be ready for next year.

I like to work.  I never work straight through a project, however.  I start something, sit and read, start something else etc..., and by the end of the day I have five or six projects going on.  I always go back to what I am working on.  I always finish what I start.  Just not all at once.  I told you once that I get the best and most work done when there is a project that I don't want to do.  I put it off by doing something else.  Procrastination works really well for me.

Proverbs 21:2 "Every man's way is  right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts."  I think my heart is okay.

Today, I went through all the stuff that came out of "The Drawer."  You know the one I mean.  The one that catches all the finger nail clippers, paper clips, odd keys, pieces of things you found lying around that you are sure you will need--so you can't throw any of it away.  I had three drawers like that.

I dumped all of them into a couple of grocery bags and did a Scarlett O'Hara.  "I'll think about that tomorrow."  Well tomorrow came.  I turned the bags upside down on the dining room table and dug in.  There were strange things in there.  A toggle, a square screw, etc...and on and on.  If I didn't know where it came from, I tossed it.  It felt great.

We accumulate junk in our spiritual life as well.  I am rereading "The Saving Life of Christ" by Ian Thomas.  It was the book that changed my life.  Everyone has a book like that.  I equated with him when he said, "I was exhausted by the Christian life.  I was doing everything possible to be an exemplary Christian and was worn out with all the "doing good."  He told his own account of the day he got on his knees and said to God, "I can't do this anymore."

And he said that he heard a voice in his soul that said, "You've been doing for me for seven years all the things that I have been waiting to do through you."

"Faithful is he who calls you who also will do it."  1 Thessalonians 5:24  You don't have to grunt and groan to be what God wants.  He just wants you to be willing to be his servant.

My daughter Pat came over this morning and opened boxes of books.  We got them all on the bookcases, but not in any order.  I bet there were twenty or more Bibles.  Ken's, mine, my mom's, my dad's, Ken's mom and dad's--and that was just the King James versions.  I gave a bunch of them away--so I was surprised that there were so many of them left.

All I need is two.  I am addicted to King James because of the poetic language, and I have to have the Living Bible to make everyday sense of it all.  Some very close "Marine Friends" of ours got us started in the Thompson's Chain Bible in 1962.  When our friend retired, he went to work as Billy Graham's personal assistant for the next forty-five years.   Henry and Betty Holly.  Great friends from our past.

My Bible looks like a rat's nest.  Coffee spills on the pages, tears in the edges, missing leather where Squig tried to chew a little Holy Scripture, and pencil notes on most of the pages--some pages are so worn out I can't even read the notes that I wrote.  Forty-five years is a long time.

I like to write in my Bible.  If I hear something I want to remember, I write it in the margins.  Otherwise I forget it.  There is too much to remember and my memory has gone South.  And when I teach that particular part of Scripture again, I don't have to do as much research.

I told you that Genesis is the book I have spent many hours in.  The first and second chapters of Genesis in my Bible look like a mess.  Very stained.  Six or seven chapters later, the pages are white because I didn't spend as much time there.

I haven't found my Bible yet.  I thought I put it in the car.  I didn't.  I feel rather lost without it.  The words are the same in all the Bibles on the book shelf, but they just doesn't "feel" right.

I unloaded half of my car today.  It looked like Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath."  I still have to go back and do the garage.  I will never use brake fluid, steering power fluid, engine oil, motor oil, and several thousand other things that Ken left.  I'll just call someone to come and get it all.

And tools.  Saws, hammers, nails, screws, tire pump, battery charger, etc...I will never use any of that.  I am captive to paying for service on the cars and house from now on.  I will keep a hammer and screw driver.  I can use those.  And all the garden stuff.

As a single person, you have horrible expenses.  And taxes.  My friends who have lost their husbands tried to warn me about the hike there would be in taxes.  Seems stupid.  Your income drops, and your taxes go up.  Why?  I don't get it.  And every time something breaks, you have to call someone.

Oh well, God is in control of it all.  "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's."  It will all come out in the wash.  I have to find a new church to render to.

My grandson Steven drove to Pryor from Dallas, helped me do a load of stuff.  We loaded his car, and my car, and then he drove to Edmond and unloaded both of them.  Grandsons are wonderful things.  My son-in-law Craig has been the greatest blessing.  He has installed lights, lined up contractors and supervised their work, and a million other things.

My wonderful realtor, Jeff, called today to see how I was doing.  Aren't people a blessing.  We are social creatures.  Made in God's image so he must be a social God.  I'm sure he would love to hear your voice.  Why don't you say, "Hello, God" today.  "I've been thinking about you, and just wanted to say thank you."  I work at remembering to say hello.

Well, I didn't make it and write on Monday.  But I'm back.  Nightmare city.  My advice:  Don't ever move.  I still don't have WiFi, or a TV, or my Apple Cord.  Who knows where anything is.  My IPad is gone.  And none of the lamps have shades.  But.....All is well.  I am opening one box at a time.  The kitchen is functional.  And last night I found my special pillow, and slept in my new home and there were sheets on the bed.  Praise God.

I stayed all night with my brother while things were crazy last week, and he told me a story about our dad that I had never heard.  Dad always wore a suit and tie to church.  Always.  And when he went visiting the sick, or lost, he put on his suit and tie.  There came a day when he could no longer go to church.  So he would watch a sermon on the TV.  But before the program started, he would go put on his suit and tie.  When the program was over, he would go change back into his regular clothes.  I guess he felt he wasn't ready to worship without the proper attire.

I am a very orderly person.  I keep a clean house.  Very clean.  But when they moved the buffet, the chest of drawers and the other big pieces that hadn't been moved in eleven years, I was horrified.

I wonder if our lives are like that.  Clean on the outside and dirty underneath.  I hope not.  I like to keep short accounts with God.