Where She Came Home From The Doctor And Then ---

"As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance..."   --- 1 Peter 1:14

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All summer I said, "If this disgusting cyst on my head isn't miraculously gone by August's end, I'll (finally) seek to have it removed."

Well, summer left (heat-wise), but the cyst remained.

Tom sweetly volunteered to find someone to remove it. His own doctor emailed back that a plastic surgeon would be best(!), but ha! We thought that overkill. Was he imagining this thing huge and on my face?

So Tom found a local dermatologist in our network and you know? Surprisingly, I felt no dread about a consulation and eventual removal. None. Timing and Grace were all over this.

Monday morning there we sat in the dermatologist's office. When she and her assistant stepped over to peek beneath my hair, she said, "Oh my! That is a cyst, all right," fortunately without backing up in terror (or gagging). heh.

The dermatologist said if it was smaller, she'd recommend just watching it over time (made me happy because that's what I'd done), but now it was parting my hair and showing. So she explained how she'll remove it next week.

Twice she and her assistant asked if there was anything else they could do for me, probably while scrutinizing the two moles on my neck, and beneath my make-up the chicken pox and acne scars and crows' feet, wrinkles and --

--but I said, "No thanks. I just need that ugly thing removed. I'm tired of wearing hats."

So next week, after 15 years, this cyst will be history. Only this past year was it a visual nuisance (and it's never hurt), but still. Whew.

Anyway, we arrived home and you know how once you've been in a minimalistic place, your own house can appear so cluttered? Yeah, it was like that.

Oh, not all of it, but our office and pantry room majorly irked me. Too much stuff!

But here's the encouraging thing--and the point of my post today. Immediately I reminded myself that hey, 4 years ago God asked me to 'get my house in order' and since then I've released over 2,000 items.

With consistency and time, one can do huge things. She can! Especially when Grace is there helping as she always does while we're obeying God in His timing.

So the excuses we make for procrastinating? It's all just whining to God--again if He asked us to do the task.

And because of the easy calendar notes I've kept while decluttering, I know the numbers of what I released. So when it appears I still have much to toss, I can 'encourage myself in the Lord' by repeating those numbers--

--and knowing I'm moving forward, even though some days, oh Honey, it doesn't look that way.

Yet how important to remind ourselves that real truth is stronger than appearance. It's much deeper. Always.

And although I love my red and black knitted slouch caps, ones to cover that cyst when people knocked on the door, oh boy, they sure got hot this summer!  ツ

Lists! I highly recommend them. In fact, this year I'm using a spiral notebook for my weekly lists of things to do, as well as other lists:

Books to read

Foods for Tom so to avoid gout.

Movies to watch

Things to buy

Things to remember

Changes we made

Etc.

How terrific to have these all in one place, one notebook, usually beside me on the red couch. I find lists to be stress-reducers: they do my remembering for me.

Of course, if you have a smart phone, you can keep all those there, but as for this gal, she shall stick to paper.  heh.

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For fellow lovers of Autumn, this was achingly beautiful.

And oh wow, this Fall Home Tour inspired me more than I can say. Usually these days I lean toward more minimal decor, but when you pack in everything so perfectly? Well, I'll take it.  シ

And if you, like me, will probably never visit France or Italy, this was lovely. Oh, the sunlight and blue, blue water!

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... including when your calling is to get your house in order.  ツ

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It's often futile to wait for other people to encourage us. Why not encourage ourselves?

Please remember: My posts are always about more than they appear to be. 

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 "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." ... Matthew 6:14,15