I saw this at the Jungle Hut and decided to give it a try:
Your Hidden Talent |
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It’s people like you who serve as the catalysts to major cultural changes. You’re just a bit behind the scenes, so no one really notices. |
Category Archives: About me
A milestone birthday
I turn 50 today. 50! Wow. I can hardly believe it. Doesn’t seem like I’ve been around for 50 years!
I guess I’ll need to change the “40-something” designation in my profile. But I don’t want to say “50-something” since that sounds so much older than just barely 50. Maybe I’ll just say “middle-aged.” 😀
I had thought about doing something special here to celebrate this milestone, but it ended up being a busy week. So I’ll share something that brought me a few chuckles and eased me into the transition into a new decade:
Perks of Being Over 50
- No one expects you to run into a burning building.
- People call at 9 PM and ask, “Did I wake you?”
- People no longer view you as a hypochondriac.
- There is nothing left to learn the hard way.
- You can eat dinner at 4 PM.
- You have a party and the neighbors don’t even realize it.
- You no longer think of speed limits as a challenge.
- You quit trying to hold your stomach in, no matter who walks into the room.
- You sing along with elevator music.
- Your eyes won’t get much worse.
- Your investment in health insurance is finally beginning to pay off.
- Your joints are more accurate meteorologist than the national weather service.
- Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can’t remember them either.
~~~~~
When Sally discovered her first gray hair she immediately wrote to her parents: “Dear Dad and Mom, You saw my first steps. You might want to experience this with me too.” She taped the offending hair to the paper and mailed it. Her father’s response was in the form of a poem:
It’s a trustworthy observation
That nothing can compare
In the process of aging
With finding the first gray hair.
He signed off with this observation: “That gray hair you sent is not the first one you gave us!”
~~~~~
Finally, here are some quotes I saved especially for this birthday from a Thursday Thirteen I saw at Echoes of Grace when she was also facing a milestone birthday:
1. Happiness is inward, and not outward, and so, it does not depend on what we have, but on who we are. ~Henry Van Dyke
2. Regrets are the natural property of gray hairs. ~Charles Dickens
3. I suppose real old age begins when one looks backward rather than forward. ~May Sarton
4. There is no cure for the common birthday. ~John Glenn
5. It is not how old you are, but how you are old.~ Marie Dressler
6. The older the fiddler, the sweeter the tune.~ English Proverb
7. Old age is like flying through a storm. Once you’re aboard, there’s nothing you can do.~ Golda Meir
8. The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it. ~Jean Paul
9. You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair. ~Douglas MacArthur
10. Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter. ~Mark Twain
11. Age does not diminish the extreme disappointment of having a scoop of ice cream fall from the cone. ~Jim Fiebig
12. How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were? ~Satchel Paige
13. Do not regret growing older. It is a privilege denied to many ~Anonymous
My one year blogging anniversary!
I don’t remember quite when I started reading blogs. But after some time I began to think about starting my own. I wrestled through a lot of questions: Is it safe? Will some stalker find me or my children? Would anybody be interested in what I have to say? Would it be a wise use of time? After considering it for a long time, I felt that it would be a good use of time and it could be done safely. I had been wanting to do more writing and felt blogging would be good practice and discipline. Writing for an audience (hopefully!) would help me be thoughtful and careful with my words. And blogging would be an avenue to be a blessing to others, to share things the Lord had taught me, to encourage other women along the way.
And besides all that, it looked like a lot of fun!
So with the technical help of my son, I plunged in a year ago today.
Besides all of the the above reasons for blogging, I have found a wonderful blogging community out there! I am so glad to have “met” so many of you online!
To celebrate my blogging anniversary, I want to do a few things. First, I finally wrote a “100 things about me” post. I had seen and enjoyed these on other blogs and decided to join in. I had wanted to post that here and then after a couple of days put it in the upper right hand corner. But WordPress calls this a “Post” and those things “Pages,” and after I post a post there is no way to change it into a page — I’d just have to copy and paste the text into a page, then I’d lose the comments here. So, I’ll just post it as a page under the “About me” section. You can click here to read it, but I won’t be offended if you don’t. 🙂
Secondly, I’d really like to see if some of the folks who read would leave me a comment here. 🙂 I am so thankful for those who comment regularly! You make my day! My blog stats tell me that on a “normal” day when there is not an interactive meme like the photo hunt or Works for Me Wednesday or that kind of thing, I have 100-150 or so readers. I’d love to hear from some of you so that I know someone besides spam bots are out there. 🙂
Thirdly, to say thank you to my readers, I want to have another give-away. I will draw from the names of those who leave comments on this post between now and Monday morning at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time and give one person a couple of prizes. One is something I have mentioned many times on my blog, a copy of the devotional book Daily Light on the Daily Path. It is composed totally of Scripture verses, usually centered around one topic for each day. I like to use it to begin my devotional times, but there are some days — Sundays and unusually busy days — when that day’s reading may be all I do. Yet so many times the Lord has given me just what I needed for the day, and something thinking through the list of verses and trying to figure out why the compiler grouped them together has shed light on what they mean. This book has been in publication for decades and had been a blessing to many. I first read of it in missionary biographies.
When I was reorganizing my CDs the other day, I discovered that I had two copies of one of my favorite CDs, A Quiet Heart by Soundforth. I think I have posted the words to most of the songs on it at various times! I would like to give the extra copy, though it has been opened and used, to someone else so it can bless them.
Again, I’ll be sending both of these to one person whose name I’ll draw from the comments on this post. I will be glad to ship them anywhere. If you are not interested in these — perhaps you already have them (though you could always pass these on to someone else) — please just let me know in the comments, but do stop in to say hi and help me celebrate!
Just for fun, few stats: my blog stats tell me that in the past year I have had 664 posts 😳 , 5,866 comments (most of those from the interactive memes) and 17,004 spam comments (thankfully WordPress has an excellent spam catcher!) My most-viewed posts, besides the Dog Days of Summer give-aways, are Chicken Tenderloins and More Chicken Tenderloin Recipes, One of THE best things to do with leftover ham, Encouragement for mothers of young children, and When there is no hunger for God’s Word. I think it’s funny that recipe posts are getting the most views when I don’t consider myself that great a cook, especially next to some of the others out there!
Besides continuing on with my other reasons for blogging, I do have two goals for the coming year: to try to write shorter posts (I know I am way too wordy), and to try to use “smilies” less and convey the sentiment through words instead.
Here’s to another great year!
Personal policies meme
Laura at My Quotidian Mysteries tagged me for a “Personal Policies Meme,” asking about “not moral rules, like ”Do Not Kill,’ I’m talking about the silly policies we impose on ourselves, like ‘Never eat anything you can’t identify,’ or ‘Don’t step on sidewalk cracks.'”
First of all, thanks for the tag, Laura! I think it is fun to be tagged.
I had to think about this for a while — I wasn’t sure I had any personal policies. I should probably ask my family what they think my policies are. 🙂
Before I read the “silly” part, my first thought was that two of my policies are to try to read some portion of the Bible every day and to go to church just about every time the doors are open. Both were instilled in me early in my Christian life and have done a lot to help me grow spiritually.
Beyond that, though, some everyday “silly” policies are:
1. I am kind of germophobic, so I am always asking everyone in the house if they have washed their hands (with soap!).
2. In public restrooms I always put a seat cover or toilet paper on the seat. I know it is probably not really protecting me from anything, but it makes me feel better.
3. I’m not really obsessive-compulsive and I don’t have “a place for everything” like I should, but one place I do like to keep everything in a certain place is the refrigerator. It helps avoid the opening the door and asking anyone in range, “Where’s the…….?” syndrome — though that sometimes still happens. 🙂 I also put the new milk or OJ behind the old — if I don’t, almost without fail someone will open the new one before the old one is finished, then the old one spoils. I’m afraid I can get quite carnal in my heart when I open the refrigerator and the jar of Miracle Whip is there on the center shelf instead of in the door shelf where it always goes. 😳
4. I can’t stand music with words playing in the background when people are talking. I don’t know, it’s something like sensory overload — my brain feels like it should be listening to both and can’t. I love listening to music while I am making dinner or cleaning, but if someone comes in and starts talking to me, I have to turn the music off. Instrumental music is a little better, but not much — I usually turn it off, too, unless I am alone or the room I’m in is quiet. I tend to turn music on blogs off, too, for the same reason.
5. When I was a teen, I tended to skip around in books. Then I began to make myself read from the introduction, forwards, etc., into the main part of the book. That’s usually pretty enlightening, but I’ve suspended it a couple of times recently when reading classics in which the forward gave away way too much of the story — I guess the ones writing the forwards figured everyone must already know the plot.
6. I have to sit where I can get out easily, whether it is at the end of a near-the-back row at church or by the doorway at a bridal shower at someone’s home. I just feel closed-in and trapped and panicky otherwise. I don’t know why. I think it stems from a time when I was having….ah…..digestive issues and needed to be able to get to a bathroom as soon as possible if needed. The source of the problem was found (a medication), but that feeling still remains.
7. I always call an older person by Mr., Miss, or Mrs. and their last name unless they tell me to do otherwise. That’s just what I was taught. Sometimes even if they tell me to call them by their first names, I have trouble doing it, especially an authority figure.
That’s all I can think of right now! If any other things come to mind, I’ll add them on.
(I did think of one more: I almost always take a Sunday afternoon nap!)
I’ll tag Alice, Jen, Janeen, and Joyful Days — and anyone else who would to to do this!
Two childhood/teen memes
I saw a “Childhood Memories Meme” over at Jen’s and a “7 Things That Happened To Me As a Teenager” meme at newly-discovered Mama Bear’s. I thought I’d combine them here.
Childhood memories meme:
1. What was your favorite childhood family vacation?
I don’t remember that we actually went on vacations except to my grandmother’s or uncle’s house. The thing I loved about that particular uncle was that, of his 5 kids, 3 were girls close to my age and all of our birthday were in August. One was a year older than me, one was the same age I was, and the other was a year younger. I remember once we celebrated all of our birthdays at once with a big party. Other than that, if we went anywhere it was to the beach. I grew up in Corpus Christi, TX, and we made multitudes of excursions to Padre Island. Camp-outs, cookouts, birthday parties — a lot of that kind of thing happened there, besides just regular Saturdays at the beach. We moved from there when I was 13, and I had forgotten how much I missed it until we want back for a family reunion when I was in my early 30s. Sadly, just wading into the water then left us with globs of oil on our legs. I hope that’s better now.
2. If you knew your grandparents, what do you remember most about them as a child? If you didn’t know them, what stories do you remember being told about them?
My father’s father died before I was born. I really don’t know much about him. My mother’s mother passed away when I was about 4. She had cancer the last few years of her life and had some kind of bag set-up — I don’t remember if she had had her colon removed or just what. My mom says I asked her about it, and my mom was horrified, but my grandmother just matter-of-factly explained what it was for, and I was satisfied.
My mother’s father was tall and thin, constantly teased us, and had a unique laugh.
My father’s mother was short and plump. She is the one I probably spent the most time with, at least that I can remember. Her grown kids were spread out in TX, LA, and AL, and she would drive to see them all — we called her the Galloping Grandma. 🙂 There were a couple of summers she took me with her, and I loved that. For a few years when we lived in the same town, I would spend the night with her. We shared a love of reading and would stay up late at night reading different books.
3. Do you have siblings or not? What do you remember about growing up with or without them?
I have 5, 1 brother and 4 sisters. I’m the oldest. We’re quite spread apart — the first four of us are 4 years apart from each other; the youngest was born when I was 17. After my parents were divorced and my brother lived with my father for a while, I felt more like an assistant mom than a big sister. They were still pretty young when I married and left home at 22. I’ve enjoyed getting to know them as adults when we get together, which isn’t often enough.
4. What did you like best about summer vacation from school?
Just being off. 🙂 We roamed a lot more then than I let my children roam now, riding bikes, swimming in the creek, hanging out.
5. Did you like school or dislike school? What is your most memorable school moment?
Loved it. I’ve always loved learning, and except for 7th-9th grades (what is it about jr. high?) had friends. I was always more inclined to have 1 close friend than “group.”
7 Things That Happened to Me As a Teen-ager:Â
1. My parents divorced when I was about 15.
2. We moved from a very small town (less than 200) to Houston, Texas, with a population then of over 1 million. It was a culture shock.
3. I was saved.
4. I started dating a guy that I ended up dating for 4 years and got engaged to, but it was all wrong. Thankfully the Lord showed me that before we actually got married.
5. I got into a good-Bible teaching church and was taught to read the Bible through.
6. I heard about the college I would eventually go to. College was “the impossible dream,” or so it seemed, but God provided.
7. I made another big move from TX to SC to go to college, not knowing that SC would become “home” and I would live there 27 years, including college years.
This wasn’t part of the meme, but I thought it would be fun to look at 7 historical things that happened during my teens , which happened to be from 1970-1979:
1. Four student protestors were shot by the National Guard at Kent State University.
2. Elvis Presley died.
3. Cult leader Jim Jones led followers in a mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana.
4. The “energy crisis” occurred. I remember looooong gas lines and Jimmy Carter regulating our thermostats.
5. American troops pulled out of Viet Nam.
6. In the 1976 Summer Olympics, Nadia Comaneci of Romania was the first gymnast to receive perfect scores.
7. Modern computing was born with the Intel 4004
If you’d like to do any or all of these memes, let me know! Or you can answer in the comments section.
(Historical details courtesy of Wikipedia)Â
Personal meme
I’ve seen 3 different interesting-looking memes on friends’ blogs today. I don’t want to do them all at once, so I’ll spread them out this week.
I saw this one at Diane’s of Candid Reflections.
1. Three words to describe you?
Honest, careful, detailed.
2. Your favorite color?
Blues & pinks, some greens.
3. Describe your style?
Feminine, somewhere between country and Victorian.
4. Favorite recreational activity?
Reading, blogging, playing games.
5. Pets?
Suzie, half collie, half German Shepherd.We’ve had her about 11 years.
6. Favorite Hymn?
There are too many great ones to have just one favorite, but on top of the list would be “I Could Not Do Without Thee” and “Before the Throne of God Above.” And “In My Weakness.” And “To Behold Thee“……
7. Favorite Scripture?
Again, way too many to have just one, but two of my favorites that I keep coming back to over and over again in my life are Isaiah 41:10: “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness,” and Psalm 16:11: “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”
8. Favorite Quotation?
I love good quotes and have many of them. One I come to often is “God does not waste suffering, nor does He discipline out of caprice. If He plough, it is because He purposes a crop” from J. Oswald Sanders.
9. Dress/Skirt?
Dresses, but they are hard to find.
11. Favorite CD?
One of my first posts was about favorite CDs. Probably highest on the list are A Quiet Heart and Anthems.
12. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go?
Ireland.
13. Lake, Ocean, River?
I like them all but probably ocean would top the list. I love the vastness, the waves, the sound of the surf.
14. Diamonds or Pearls? ?
Hmm… I like them both depending on the setting. Probably pearls, I guess.
I won’t tag anyone, but let me know in the comments if you do this and I’ll come read yours.
Tuesday weigh-in
I know I told you I started a separate weight-loss blog because I didn’t want this blog taken over by posts about it, but I may report progress from time to time. This is the first weigh-in day at Tales From the Scales, and I lost 2 lbs.! Still a long way to go, both on the journey and in learning how to get there, but I am glad the first week there were results from the efforts I did make.
7 random facts
I was tagged by Janeen to do a 7 random facts meme. You wouldn’t think it would be that hard to come up with 7 facts about oneself, but I had to think about it a while! Thankfully it’s not the six weird things meme — though you might think some of these weird. 🙂
Here are the rules: Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their seven things, as well as these rules. You need to choose 7 people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them that they have been tagged and to read your blog!
1. I’ve lived in TX and SC for most of my life, with a brief 4-year stint in GA.
2. I don’t really enjoy cooking even though I was a Home Ec. Ed. major. 😳
3. I’m hot-natured (my husband says our house is like a meat locker. 
)
4. I cannot stand repetitive noises. I don’t know why. It just makes me feel like I’m going to come out of my skin. One of my sons used to continually be tapping or drumming fingers or something, and I’d try to be patient, but then blurt out, “Would you please stop that?!” Poor guy. You can imagine I am therefore not fond of the guy beside me in traffic whose base is throbbing through my windows.
5. I am a pastel person — I love pinks, softs blues and greens. I don’t care for red, orange, or yellow. The only time I liked bright colors was when my children were small — I liked brighter colors on their clothes and in their room.
6. Even though I know someone else has locked up, I feel compelled to check the doors before I go to bed.
7. Though I don’t consider myself obsessive/compulsive in general, I lean a little that way with my refrigerator. I like having things always in the same place so no one has to open the door and ask “Where’s the….” whatever (though some do no matter what 🙂 ).
Now I am supposed to tag 7 more people. I have seen this meme here and there but don’t remember where, so, if you haven’t done this yet, I tag:
Bet (Grades are turned in and you can come out and play now. 😀 )
Jen
Karla
Addie
Jungle Mom (when you recover from your surgery)
Kim (when you get back from your break)
Susan (when you recover from moving)
Dear Me in 1973
Dear Me in 1973,
I see you lying on your bed that summer day, between your sophomore and junior years of high school, at what you feel is the lowest point in your life. Your parents have separated and your mom has moved you and your brother and sisters from the tiny town you lived in to the big metropolis of Houston. You’re grieving over the break-up of your family, the move away from all your friends and all that is familiar, the seemingly impossible situation with your father’s anger and alcoholism, the rift in the close relationship you’ve always had with your mother, and the awkwardness of trying to figure out how to relate to the man who will become your step-father. You’re lying on your bed clinging to Roman’s 8:28 for dear life. If I could encourage you in only one thing, it would be to always do that, always cling to God and His Word, to anchor your soul there when the waves of life come crashing over you. You don’t even really fully know what Romans 8:28 means just yet, but you don’t realize it: you do know that you love God in the best way you know how at this time and that He promised to somehow work out all things together for good for those who love Him. He will. There has “not failed one word of all his good promise” (I Kings 8:56).
Don’t resent the loneliness of this time and the responsibilities of being “the oldest” and the “built-in baby-sitter.” God has a purpose in this as well. You’re learning character that will stand you in good stead for years to come. You’re vulnerable and would possibly get into all kinds of trouble if you were allowed to run loose. You proved that possibility by some of the really dumb things you did this year, the only year you were tempted to walk on the wild side. What were you thinking? That just because the rest of your world seemed to be going crazy that you could, too? You’ll realize later that God protected you from so much that could have happened this past year, and His “hemming you in” now is not only keeping you from harm and from major life disasters, but it is giving you time to contemplate, to think, to seek, to pray, time that you might not have spent that way if you had the distractions of friends and amusements that most consider normal for that age.
I can tell you that things do turn a corner in just a few months. God miraculously leads you to a Christian school and provides for you to attend even though your parents can’t afford it. Through the school you’ll attend the church it is affiliated with. You’ve sporadically attended different churches here and there, but now you’ll get under regular Biblical instruction. Your new pastor will encourage his congregation to read the Bible through, you start what will become a habit that will change your life. You get grounded. You’ve struggled with whether the profession of faith you expressed when you were 8 was real and thorough and, though you probably struggle with it much longer than you need to, you will finally come to full assurance from God’s Word that He has saved you and brought you into His family when you asked His forgiveness and believed on His Son.
Your relationship with your mother is restored and you become closer than ever. You learn from the Bible that respect can be based on obedience to God and a person’s God-appointed position in your life even when their actions don’t invite respect, and what’s more, you’ll learn (or begin to — it’s a life-long lesson) to love and have compassion on other people in spite of faults and failings, just as God does you. Years later that father whom you thought would be the hardest to reach and the last one to be saved does come to finally know the Lord. Your mom, though there is not one obvious moment that you can point to as a conversion, experiences a change of heart that causes you to believe and hope that she truly did come to faith in the quietness of her own heart. You will lose her much sooner that you’ll be ready to: stay in touch, call often, treasure each moment. Don’t be so ready to begin the grand adventure of your adult life that you forget to keep close contact with those at home.
I wish I could forewarn you away from that four-year attachment to that young man. I think the Lord may have had a purpose in in the beginning — you start working at a grocery store a few months after you moved where there are all kinds of teen-age guys, unsaved guys, and you had little instruction and not much sense about dating. You always were too boy-crazy. Even when you were two your parents said you were “in love” with your cousin. 🙄 It may be that having a boyfriend kept you from getting into a worse situation with some of those guys. But it is not healthy and it goes on way too long. You’re still afflicted with the “cave-man” view of love, that love comes and bops you on the head and drags you off and whoever you “fall in love with” is the one for you despite all kinds of warning signs. Thankfully you’ll feel the Lord wants you in college, which delays a right-out-of-high school wedding (what a disaster that would have been!) And later when you have had some instruction and you’re a little more mature and you begin to seek the Lord’s will in this area of your life, you’ll see this relationship is all wrong. There will be another lonely spell, but be patient! You’ll still have a lot to learn and a lot of growing to do. In this area, as in others, you come to a point of trusting God’s leadership rather than striving after fulfillment your own way.
You want to go to college, but you don’t see how it will possibly work. There’s no money at all — your folks are doing all they can do to take care of you and your five siblings. But God will lead and provide in miraculous ways. You’ll love it: meeting new people, being stimulated in your faith, your thinking, your imagination. There will be some painful spots as you continue to develop the character you need and as you grow. When you are unable to get a job first semester and are advised to try the library second semester, as you sit down to take the entrance test, you really don’t know how you will handle a job in addition to your classes, and you pray for the Lord’s will to be done in whether you get the job or not. Years later you learn that they don’t really have a need for another student worker right at that time, but the man who interviews you feels sorry for you and hires you. The Lord works in mysterious ways, for that’s where you first meet Jim and become friends. Friendship leads to interest and interest lead to…well, I’ll let you be surprised. 🙂
Throughout your childhood when you dreamed of what you wanted to be when you grew up, the possibilities of writer, teacher, and psychiatrist all were considered (as well as being a movie star, which idea was wisely tossed aside). Even amidst all the other possibilities, you always wanted to be a wife and mother, and the Lord fulfills that desire, with a bit of the others mixed in (all mothers are to some degree teachers and psychiatrists. 🙂 ).
When health issues come up later on, the lessons of faith and dependence on God that you learn along the way will stand you in good stead, and you find yourself once again clinging to Him in faith when another of life’s waves rolls over you.
You will know by experience as well as by faith that God keeps His promises and has a purpose in everything He allows. Keep clinging, in good times and bad.
Love,
Me in 2007.
(To be part of the Dear Me project, go here. Thanks to Shannon and Mary for their stories and for alerting us to it.)
My favorite things
Kimberly, at the appropriately titled Kimberly’s Cup, whom I met through the Ultimate Blog Party, made a meme about “favorite things.” Since I tagged a bunch of people last time, I won’t tag anyone officially for this one, but if you do it, please let me know in the comments, and I’ll come read your list (or you can answer in the comments if you like). And please do credit Kimberly if you do this on your blog.
I have a hard time narrowing favorites down to just one, but I’ll do my best.
A Authors
Classic: Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, L. M. Montgomery
Contemporary: Terri Blackstock, Dee Henderson, Lori Wick, Beverly Lewis
B Books
Classic Childrens’ Books: Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery; Little Women by Louisa May Alcott; Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Classics for Adults: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens; Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Non-fiction: Climbing and Goforth of China by Rosalind Goforth; By Searching and In the Arena by Isobel Kuhn
Other favorite non-fiction books are listed here and fiction books here.
C Coffee
Plain decaf. Not exciting, I know. 🙂
D Dessert
Devil’s food cake with chocolate fudge icing.
E Elegant Object You Own
A few brooches seen here
F Flowers
Pink roses, white carnations, lavender hydrangeas
G Guests for Tea
My good friends Valorie and Carol. I’d love for them to meet each other, and I always enjoy time with each of them.
H Home
I like homes with a Southern style or maybe even a Victorian style if not too fussy. I’d love a big front porch and lots of room.
I Inspirational Authors
Elisabeth Elliot, Isobel Kuhn, Rosalind Goforth
J Jane Austen book
I’ve only read Pride and Prejudice so far: I’ve just started Sense and Sensibility and want to also read Persuasion. I‘ll tell you my favorite after I’ve done that. 🙂
K Kitchen Gadget
My Salad Shooter or my multi-measure measuring spoons
L Laundry Help
Stain Stick
M Musical
Phantom of the Opera
N Naptime
Sunday afternoons. I don’t take naps every day, but Sunday afternoon is one time my body just craves it. It’s a nice break and refreshes me for the Sunday evening services.
O Organizing Tip
The OHIO principle, when possible to use it: Only Handle It Once. Putting things away while in hand rather than setting them out of place “just for now” saves so much clutter.
P Pride & Prejudice Character
Kimberly’s answer was based on the films, so I’ll answer in like fashion — I’m not sure. This is a hard one. 🙂 I liked Mr. Bennet in the 2005 one even though it wasn’t true to the book. But I am a stickler for movies being true to the book. I liked Jane better in the A&E version than the 2005 one, and Mr. Darcy better in the 2005 one than the A&E one. Didn’t like Mrs. Bennet in either. 🙂 I liked Elizabeth better in the book than in either film.
Q Quote
“God does not waste suffering, nor does He discipline out of caprice. If He plough, it is because He purposes a crop.” — J. Oswald Sanders
I have a whole category of favorite quotes here. 🙂
R Recipe
For dinner, Chicken Enchilada Bake is one. A favorite seasonal dessert is Harvest Loaf Cake. Cookies — one favorite is Pudding Chip Cookies.
S Scent
Cookies baking. Rain. Carnations. Artificial scents give me a headache.
T Tea
Lipton’s decaf
U Underwater Creature
Sea horses
V Voyage You’ve Taken
I’ve never taken one.
W Water Feature; Lake, Creek, Ocean, etc.
Padre Island, Texas. At least it was when I lived near it — I don’t know what it’s like today. Then there were beach and sand dunes as far as the eye could see and not a lot of commercialization.
X X-tra Special Treat for Yourself
Curling up on the couch with a throw blanket and a good book. Eating out. 😀
Y Thing About YOU!
That I am a saved child of God, that I love to read, that I am quiet. Actually I had a love/hate relationship with being quiet. It can keep me out of trouble and help me learn a lot. 🙂 But it can also cause me to miss opportunities to say things I should say.
Z Zoo Animal
Zebras!
Stray Thoughts 