I’m always behind on Friday.  But it’s good.  Eating breakfast with Ann East Nelson is fun.  We are full of stories that nobody else remembers about our mothers--who were sisters as well as best friends.

They were never totally satisfied with either of us.  They were always pushing us to be better, do better, try better...better was the operative word.

Over-achievement was our fate.  

And we both feel guilty all the time that we aren’t doing “More" now that our mothers are gone.  We were raised on guilt by two women who were awesome.  We were lucky to have mothers like ours who expected us to do our best and never accepted anything less.

We lived within a block of each other and had two mothers--not one.  Whoever got to us first told us what to do and expected immediate compliance.  I just thought everyone had two moms.

Ann is the closest thing I had to a sister, and although I am a few years older, we were raised in the same time frame and in the same way.  She understands what I am thinking and knows what I am going to say before I get it said.  I am blessed to have a cousin and friend who loves me.

  

It’s raining cats and dogs here.  But something good happened in the last few months concerning the rain.  Squig has decided that he can go out in the rain to do his business without it killing him.

It was a fight at first.  I had to pick him up and toss him out into the back yard.  He would run back to me and I would toss him out again--until he finally gave up.  Now, I open the back door and out he goes. On his own.

For thirteen years he has been terrified of rain.  Not thunder.  Not lightening.  Just rain.  Now, when he is ready to come back in, I wrap him in a towel and dry him off and he struts around like he is a super hero.

He has conquered his fear.  Or I have forced him to conquer it.  Whichever it is, I don’t dread the rain anymore.  Always before, I knew I was going to have a fight on my hands.  He would shiver until I thought he would faint.

It is the only thing we have ever had a disagreement over.

He is the most wonderful companion.  When I have to go somewhere, I tell him, “I’ll be back in a minute.”  He sits quietly.  But if I just head to the door without saying those words, he comes unglued.  He knows he is going to get to go with me.  It is his favorite thing--going in the car somewhere with me.  If I could clone him, I would make a dozen Squigs.

Every now and then there are days when we are stressed.  We know we are to trust in God.  We know we are supposed to be still and know that he is God.  We know.

But our nature is to trust ourselves.  Giving control of anything in our lives is difficult.  Which is stupid, because we don’t have control of anything anyway.  But we think we do.

I’ve had a couple of days like that lately.  And I just had to take a deep breath and say, “Okay.”  It’s not like I have any control in the first place. 

But it feels like--if we say to God, “I want your will to be done,” we are giving up on what we want.

There is a dichotomy.  He says to ask for what we want.  Which is sometimes contrary to saying, “Thy will be done.”

Jesus faced a situation like that when he was facing death.  He asked God if there was some other way to go about what he was facing.  Did God have a plan B?  But finally he prayed, “Not my will, but thine be done.”

God’s will is always the right thing...we just can’t see what he is going to do and we want to know ahead of time.  It’s a control issue on our part.  Give up.  That’s what God wants.  Give in to his will.  It’s always better.

My huge oak trees in my front yard survived the freeze.  Justin, my tree guy, spent 8 days climbing and trimming out the dead branches and both of us wondered if they would live.  They aren’t pretty, but they are alive and turning green.

They look like a bald head starting to grow hair after chemo.  Scraggly.

I have been vindicated about my statements that the north and south poles move and aren’t where they were in the past.  The Oklahoma City paper posted an article about it today.  

Seems that warming is melting the ice at the poles, water levels are rising and the poles have shifted to the east since the mid-nineties.

I had mentioned that magnetism changes in rocks indicated the poles had shifted.  But people have a hard time imagining that.  But true is true.

A number of island nations and villages have vanished and are now under water due to rising sea levels.  And the ice at the poles continues to melt.

We need more trees.  If everyone in the world would plant a tree, oxygen levels would increase.  That’s something you and I can do when we feel helpless in the face of a changing earth.

I asked my class yesterday what they would do first if they knew it was the last day of their lives.  

Answers varied, but most centered around family and making sure their loved ones were in the right place with God.

Jesus knew he was at his last or next to last day when he had the Passover meal with his twelve disciples.  He had observed the Passover every year of his life, but this one was different.

This was his last Passover.  A meal to remember God’s rescue of the Israelites from Pharaoh.  God required that they put the blood of a lamb on the door so that the angel of death would pass over them.

Jesus told his disciples that this would be the last passover meal he would have until the “Kingdom of God” came.  And instead of remembering Egypt and the meal of the lamb and unleavened bread....that this was no longer about that passover. He said, this is my body.  This is my blood.

In other words...it wasn’t about the passover any more.  It was his way of saying that he was the ultimate sacrificial lamb.  It was His blood that would save them from sin.  Jesus was the true “Lamb” of God.  His blood and body would be their salvation.  And ours.

 Every Friday, Ann and I go to the Waffle house at 8:00 AM and have pecan waffles, or to I-Hop and have crepes with strawberries and whipped cream.  Then we go look for junk at garage sales.

I rarely buy anything.  I’m trying to get rid of every thing.

But today, I bought a huge bag of colored pencils for the girls that are marking words in their Bibles.  For a dollar.  That’s my price to be remotely tempted to buy something

I had spent 25 dollars at Mardel for 6 colored pens.  Wish I had waited.  That would have paid for two breakfasts on Fridays.

After we rummage, I go get my hair done. I didn’t do that last year.  It was a mistake.  I can’t do it myself anymore 

So on Friday, I am always late posting.

My friend Rebecca Perkins has given me a name of a publisher to try.  Next week that is on my agenda.

I just sent the book I wrote about my brother to him to edit.  He hasn’t seen it yet.  Carolyn is going to get a copy as well to edit.  Maybe I will get their approval.......?

I can’t believe it was freezing yesterday in Oklahoma.  But, then again, it’s Oklahoma.  I covered my tomatoes.  They made it.  That makes three times it’s been at 32 or below this month.  Freezing in April !!!

Every time, I put the plastic covers in the shed, I would think, “That’s it.  Now the tomatoes will start growing.”  Nope.

Just when I think it’s safe to remove the covers again, it freezes.  I hope this is over soon.

All last year I kept thinking, “I hope this is over soon.”  What a year.  I think we all were wishing our lives away.  It’s like a year went missing.

The worst part was for school children.  Who ever thought social connections were such an important part of a child’s life.  I’m a hermit, so it didn’t really occur to me.  But after watching stories of the world of children crashing on TV, I feel most sorry for them.  They lost a year of childhood.

We will see the result of that for years to come.  You can’t reclaim those years.  I think of the friends I made in school that I am still in contact with. I was in the same homeroom with them only once.  If I had missed that year, I might not ever have known them.  Friends are sometimes even more important than family.  Especially when you need to reminisce.