Nope! Not going There Today.

"See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no 'root of bitterness' springs up and causes trouble..." ... Hebrews 12:15


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So this morning I'd long-finished my coffee cake muffin and still sipped my (dreamy) coffee at the cafe--

... while reading my book --

--and thought, "This is soo relaxing, calm, but darn! It's time to walk home and do all that housework--again. Sigh."

Immediately my head squealed, "Debra! Tsk. Tsk. Do your housework with joy and it'll be as pleasant as sitting here. That's what you blog about, right?"

Yeah, yeah, yeah.  😐  Heh.

Sometimes (every day?) we must get tough with our summer doldrum attitudes and become all Barney Fife-ish. You know, all "Nip it! Nip it in the bud."

Go allowing ugly, grippy roots to grow deep, long, and we'll regret it. But pluck tiny weeds (or trouble-causing buds) upon discovery and oh! A cinch, really.

As I've written before, 90% of our lives is the oh-so-daily stuff and not the vacations, parties, girls-night-outs, graduations, concerts or gatherings where people are all, like, "I appreciate you!".

Uh, no.

Ninety percent of our lives is Reality. The working, errands, washing, driving, paying bills, cooking, helping, shopping and laundry part of our decades of this oh-so-quickly-it's-over Life God breathed into us. 

And oh, how vital that we not --


Complain nor
Dread nor
Wish 90% of our lives away.


So today, Debra, listen up! While you dust, vacuum and scrub the kitchen windowsill where the cats sit, you'll celebrate this huge, joy-giving God inside you. 

You'll water your garden while basking in gratitude and prayer. You'll empty the trash and clean the bathtub while listening to music and maybe even sing along.

You'll help others and count yourself fortunate to be able to do so.

And it'll be a brilliant, to-be-remembered day. Even though it's just a regular ol' 90% one, God will shine bright and warm within the center of it--and He makes all days worth celebrating.

All. Days. The obviously special ones--and otherwise.

What remains is that I, all of us, wake up and see that.

"So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love ...  and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving."   ... Ephesians 3:17, Colossians 2:7

Every single day brings the potential for wonder, creativity and surprises--good ones. Never forget.

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Well, this book came out in 2016--

--and oh, ol' Debra sooo wanted to read it! But not at its original $28 price.

Uh, no. She's too much of an online bottom-price feeder for that. 

So she waited for the price to drop. And waited--and finally was rewarded. 

She snatched one for $4.26.  😌  (Find it here, also.)

It arrived yesterday and wow. She can't read it fast enough. 

Excellent, smooth writing, 
adventurous 
and scary,
sad, poignant, inspiring, 
and fascinating-- 
all of the above.

She just thought she'd mention it.


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Oh! And my friend, Judy, shared at Facebook this upcoming movie trailer. Looks awesome.


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Fourteen Years, Chit Chat and A Giveaway

"Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him."  ... 1 Corinthians 7:17


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So! This week my blog turned 14 years old. 

Happy birthday to you, this journal of sorts, this teaching tool which teaches even its author, not being solely written by her (heaven forbid), but in great part, by Him, who, like, dictates parts to me (via thoughts, no spooky voices, er hem), sometimes using words I must consult in online dictionaries so to make certain they're even correct.

Seriously. It's kinda eerie, but in quite a pleasant way. (That's a thing, right?)


"... apart from me you can do nothing."   ... John 15:5  ( More seriously true in Debra's case. Really.)


Anyway.

Truly, I recommend that all my readers discover (and do) the thing(s) God created them, uniquely, to perform. God made this huge plan, but if your part is missing (or you're doing what someone else thought you should)? Uh-oh. 

Then our world spins like a scratched record album--

Skip, skip, music plays, skip, note repeats, repeats, skip, music plays, skip, note repeats, etc. Jarring. All nails-on-a-chalkboard like. When, actually, the rest of us could've been soothed and inspired, instead, by your part.

Put simply:  you are needed. Necessary. Yes, you.

Today? Love God with all your heart (oh, what that repairs!).
And do what only you, specifically, were designed to.

That's when Life changes, inside and out. For all of us.

Speaking of a spinning earth, don't you just love this Bible verse?


"He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers."   ... Isaiah 40:22


Good gracious! Hundreds of years ago people blue-face-argued whether the Earth was round or flat when they could've just read (and believed) the Bible. My, my, my. Sounds awfully familiar these days, also, right?


"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding."Proverbs 9:10



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My pal, Judy, shared this  at Facebook--

Oh, and for my friends who, like me, sometimes get teased for not bathing in Today's political news? Here's a page of Bible verses which may encourage you that it's ok to take baths in something different.   😃


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Oh! Found one of my favorite things at an estate sale last Saturday--

They'd been wrapped in plastic for years (oh, the dust!). But the exciting part? I discovered the perfect place for one of them (hang one-thing-too-many in this tiny house and the whole thing spins out of control)--

Just right. Ahh.

Now, I've had a few of these over the years, but does anyone know their official name? (Their faces were usually made of felt and the rest was fabric, trimmings, lace.) I believe they were popular in the 1950's. Really, I'd love to know what they were called back then.



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Oh! And could you please join me in praying for my family and friends (and all others) who live in Redding and Red Bluff, CA? The fires near there are way too close for comfort. Thanks so much.

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And lastly--in honor of this blog's 14th birthday, I'm offering $25 Amazon gift cards to 3 of my readers. Just something I enjoy doing, a tiny way of saying bless you for reading here.

There are 3 ways to enter the drawing:

1.) Leave a comment here after this post.

2.) Comment at Facebook if you're my friend there (more than a 'like' only this time, ok?).

3.) Or email me at GladOne4@yahoo.com    Please add 'blog' somewhere in the subject bar.


I'll draw names from one of Tom's old-fashioned felt hats tomorrow (7/28) at 12:00 p.m. eastern.

Thanks so much to all my readers who visit me here so faithfully year after year! I appreciate each of you way more than I tend to say (tsk, tsk on me).



*** The drawing's been held and the winners, notified. A special thanks to each of you who entered with your kind, encouraging comments!

Good Gracious

"A gracious woman gains honor ..." "The law of kindness is upon her tongue." ... Proverbs 11:16, 31:26


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This morning all bleary-eyed at 4:15 a.m., I saw at Facebook that a friend had posted her mother's obituary. She was 85.

Probably twice I'd spoken to her mom and you know? She had that old-fashioned graciousness which I love, and frankly, crave, for myself.


Gracious:  pleasantly kind and courteous. Graceful. Marked by tact and delicacy. Characterized by good taste and generosity.
Obsolete: godly. (But hey, Debra here--is it really obsolete? Or just Today's world saying so?)


Anyway, while I was growing-up, Gracious Women practically 'grew on trees'. You glimpsed them too, right? But now, well-- though they're still around--in some cities you must search for them. Maybe because ours is a 'let it all hang out' world and well, Gracious Women do not let it all hang out.

They just don't.  😉

What, to me, makes Gracious Women shine brightest? Before our weary eyes, they vibrantly live-out this Bible verse:


"Let your conversation always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone."   ... Colossians 4:6

When you're introduced to a Gracious Woman she'll make you feel comfortable, as though she's waited to meet you--and aren't you just the most interesting person!

Basically, she treats you as she'd appreciate being treated.

Or you invite your Gracious Woman friend to see your new orange and purple living room with the horizontal stripes? She never once wrinkles her nose. No, she exclaims, "Oh! You did a wonderful job of painting, and I love that beautiful tall, grey urn with the graceful branches in the corner."

A true Gracious Woman's eyes search any room/yard/song/social media post for what she admires (always there's something or we're just not looking hard enough). Then she speaks her admiration, rather like a blessing, instead of commenting upon the things she disliked.

And right there is where I'll lose some of you, for my modern-thinking readers believe we must be free. 

Free to speak.

Free to criticize. 

Free to spill every opinion: good, bad or awful.

But a Gracious Woman? She's humble and secure enough to keep her tongue, still. Peoples' feelings, to her, are more important than her right to blab speak and she does not feel deprived or repressed about it, either.

Instead, she'll lay her head upon her pillow and feel contentment. Why? She was careful with others feelings--and now happiness will sing her to sweet hours of sleep.

And you know, when you've experienced grace and you feel like you've been forgiven, you're a lot more forgiving of other people. You're a lot more gracious to others. 

--Rick Warren


"Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear."  ... Ephesians 4:29

(I could write more about a Gracious Woman, but hey. This is only a blog post, not a book.)  😃

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Speaking of sleep, a longtime reader emailed me, asking for a link to one of my posts about getting a good night's rest. Since I've made some changes of my own in this area, I sent an updated email, instead. Here, below, is most of it in case anyone else needs some hints (I keep reading that this is a common problem these days)--

A super dark room helps. And quiet. And no pets on the bed. heh.

Eating dinner as early as possible is good. I sleep best when I have dinner, like, 4 hours before bedtime, but that's not always possible.

I've learned which foods I must avoid eating for dinner (it's good to experiment and take notes). For me, personally, I avoid chicken for dinner, as well as rice, pasta, potatoes, apples and chocolate. If I have these for lunch, instead, I sleep better.

I take 300 mcg's of melatonin, which I believe is the smallest dosage. Higher dosages can mess up our own natural supply of melatonin. But if I had real coffee in the morning (or other trigger foods), I sometimes do take 2 of these melatonin pills.

Also before bed I take a magnesium pill (400 mg's) and a krill oil pill (1,000 mg's). Tom swears by Natural Calm, a powder you add to water, but it's pricey wherever you find it. Tastes good and helps, though.    (Go here.)

When I eat a couple bites of banana before bed, I sleep better. A spoon of peanut butter helps, also, but some proteins keep some people awake. That's another thing to personally experiment with. Beef protein helps me sleep, but it keeps other people awake, etc.

Going to bed roughly the same time each night really helps. If you watch tv before bed, it's good to watch something funny or comforting and nice.  

Oh, and as you've probably surmised, Tom and I do sleep in separate rooms. We both sleep so much better that way and it's just not worth the lack of sleep to be 'proper' in everybody's eyes. heh.  It used to make us so tense because we were keeping each other awake. Oh my.  

The noise of a fan helps me sleep and keeping one blowing on me during the summer, helps.

 ******


... and as I shared at Facebook yesterday--

Oh! The Brady Bunch house is for sale. Well, the one they used for exterior shots. From the listing, I peeked inside and could just see myself walking over plush carpet. serving drinks on a tray while 
wearing a chiffon apron over a polyester 70's dress. 

Anyone else?  Go here to check it out for yourself.

(Personally, I love the 70's elegance of the interior. Love. It.)

So How's Your Permanent Record Looking?

"Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes."   ... Ephesians 6:10,11

^“So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.” (Romans 14:12).

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So at Facebook I was messaging with a dear old friend and wrote this:


"When I feel like, 'I just wish the world would end already and Jesus would return,' I remind myself that my record here will count. What I do with my time here matters for all eternity--and well, I want to do it right. To make the choices and do the deeds I'll be able to live with forever and to know that He was pleased with the way I lived here, hopefully brave and strong in Him, only because of Him."  **


Later I sat here at my desk chair and smiled. I wondered if, looking back from Heaven, my Life on Earth Book will have cover art like this:

--- or this:

Oy! What a difference. What a choice.

And yes, it is a choice, a responsibility to, daily--as Christians-- make godly, courageous choices. Or, it's possible, instead, to only form boo hoo habits. You know about those, right?

"Boo hoo, Life is harder these days. Darker, scarier."
"Boo hoo, people are mean. Grouchier. Deceived."
"Boo hoo, I just wish this was all over." 
"Boo hoo, Jesus come back! I just can't stand this one more day."


Good grief. Those whiny Boo Hoo Habits. They royally get on my nerves, especially when I'm caught in one.  😉

Nope! I want the pages of my permanent record to be grace-written, full of brave adventures. Times that I spoke to people when my shyness exclaimed, "Are you kidding?"

Times when I cleaned my house while no one cheered and only laziness whispered,"Just let it go," or I took a walk even though my body groaned.

Times I refused to become bitter and complaining and consumed by politics or worry or criticism. Or when I gave money while Fear of Lack insisted, "No! You'll need that later."

Times I shared Jesus boldly online or wrote in this blog (as He'd asked that day) when I could've sat outside drinking lemonade.

It all matters. 

It all counts, all of it. The lessons, the obedience, the pliability within God's hands. The being remade, remolded. The enjoying God, the loving Him with all our hearts.

Somehow, some way--I believe--it will all matter when we reach Heaven. Rather like this--


"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'"   ... Matthew 25:23


A big baby? Or a lady with the heart of a mighty warrior? Today it's my choice to create the story I'll have to be satisfied with for all eternity. Every single day it is.

And may my thousands of days add up to the identical adventurous story God wanted my life to tell from the day He first imagined me.

  ** To clarify--in this post, I'm not speaking of sins and of God's forgetting them, etc. No, I'm talking about our character and how we'll live with what we became here for all eternity. And how we can be courageous now and at peace, even today, before Heaven.

"Only one life, ’twill soon be past, 

Only what’s done for Christ will last."   

---C.T. Studd

"Fight the good fight of faith."   ... 1 Timothy 6:12

"Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...
It's about learning how to dance in the rain."
- Vivian Greene


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Need a song to remind you to recall what God says about you rather than what you (or others) say about you?

This one does that for me. Oh my. Makes me want to stand up and act right, like, this very moment.

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Something I shared at Facebook last night--

"The simplistic beauty of a sunflower in my own backyard awes me. God, truly, is in the details."

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Nicole Curtis is back with her Rehab Addict show! 

Now, there's a lady who can nudge me back into 'straightening up and flying right." She makes me feel capable like no one else can. (Isn't it wonderful how God uses people in our lives to help us accomplish His purposes?)

You'll find Nicole on the DIY network--and here.


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Here With God? Then You Still Have Hope.

"And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever."  ...1 John 2:17

"Be the change you wish to see in this world."   ... Gandhi

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There's a street here which, 20+ years ago, Tom and I only sometimes visited (from our own town nearby) because, always, many cars and busy shoppers lined it. But it's on the way to a huge bookstore and library so we'd risk it.

Well, here at Hobbit Cottage we're nearer this street now and Saturday morning we slowly drove along it, looking for a possible breakfast diner. 

Oh dear.

I stared from the car window to boarded-up shops, some graffiti and nearly-empty sidewalks and kept hearing dire, dire, dire inside my head. Also, I recalled when we first moved to New York in 1993, I'd drive to the mall nearby even though the crowds jostled me in their hurried-ness. Across the street was a movie theater where we'd bring a young Naomi.

Well, the theater was torn down probably 15 years ago and the mall, ever since, wheezed toward slow death. The final store, Sears, (where, since our 30's, we'd often bought appliances ), closed last month.

Maybe you have similar depressing stories.

This morning at Facebook in three different instances regarding sad/bad worldly behavior, friends 'encouraged' other friends, "It's the way it is now. Get used to it."

Hmmm. That sounds too much like, "Just give up," to me. "Just face it: Life now can never feel terrific like it used to." "Soak in defeat. It's ok."

Yes, things are tough now. Granted. But the Bible does say--


" ...do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope."   ... 1 Thessalonians 4:13


 As Christians we do have God and with Him comes a ton of hope.

Hope that ---

--if there's a way to live in joy, He'll show us how.
--if there's mental/emotional peace still available, He'll lead us to it.
--if there's still hope for a good personal future, He'll lead us there, too.


"Just (hang your head and) get used to the bad stuff"? Uh, not me. I'll use these times to prove that, yes! God is still God, He's still good, and He makes ways when there appear to be none. 

He still shines through us so others will be drawn to His light. 

And it's still Him from whom, even in 2018, all blessings flow to those who, through undying hope, receive.

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."   ... Jeremiah 29:11


"Do not allow your heart to be troubled..."


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We did spy a diner on that bleak street, but it just felt too sad to stay there, so we postponed breakfast and drove to the visiting Vietnam War Memorial Wall in our War Memorial Park with grass so dry (seldom have I seen conditions like this) and air so hot and humid on that quiet, somber morning.

Wow, from the car I spied the wall at a distance and as I opened the door, a lump formed in my throat and remained, stinging my eyes, the entire time. 

Tom and I were so glad we went to pay our respects. It felt very, very right.

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We still attend the occasional yard or estate sale and I find that I must remind myself to believe for nice, older items. Sales in our Hobbit Cottage area tend to reflect these hard era times. They usually have very little and the items are often newer and cheaply made, as that's what people can afford these days.

But again, I use these trips to keep my believing up, not down.

Fire King custard cups. Only .25 cents each(!) (These were from a super old farmhouse in the country, a bit nearer our own old farmhouse from years ago.)

But this lovely old framed photo was from nearby, in a newer section of younger family homes, even, which reminded me never to assume those sales will have nothing for me.  

Never assume anything. My oh my, do I think of that phrase often!  😉

        Taken some days ago before our lawn dried up. People here, most of them, do not water their lawns. They just don't. They simply wait for rain.
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