CHANGES

While I was cooking dinner the other night my husband and I were watching our 6:30 news of choice: World News Tonight with Diane Sawyer and she was reporting on Delaware's Republican candidate, Christine O'Donnell, and how she is being raked over the coals for things she said in her teen years. I began laughing and told my husband I'd better never run for national office then because in my teen years, as a member of our local high school newspaper staff, I wrote an article supporting the SDS! Ah, we were so young and militant, wanted to change the world! We wanted an end to the horrors of the VietNam War and we wanted to end dress codes in schools. I remember walking to school on that first Earth Day in 1970. My parents thought I was crazy.

As I write about it it brings to mind the song THOSE WERE THE DAYS, "Those were the days, my friend, we thought they'd never end, we'd sing and dance forever and a day. We'd live the life we choose, we'd fight and never lose, those were the days, oh yes, those were the days."
Well, those days did end, and I grew up. Suprisingly enough, my views on the world grew up as well. I might note here that I re-read that article (yes, I still have a copy) a while back and I wondered what I was thinking as I penned it and I could read the wide-eyed innocence in my words. So pie-in-the-sky. I think any politician should receive complete immunity on their own pie-in-the-sky stupidity in high school.

Now, I'm extremely conservative. Politically, I've done a complete 180 over the last since I first voted. Let's face it, we don't see the world as it really is when we're young. It takes time, experience, years of wisdom, and some grace to see the truth of politics. I think that's why the Tea Party and similar grass roots campaigns are picking up so much support of late, and why candidates like Christine O'Donnell, who are advocates of no more "business as usual" in Washington D.C. are doing so well. The American people are tired of the government digging into our pockets so deeply they've ripped off our pockets completely.

I still say if the government had given the bail-out money to the registered voters instead of the banks, car makers, Wall Street, etc., the economy would be completely stable by now. We would have bought new homes, cars, goods, and services. Instead, some CEO has a new $4000 shower curtain in his bathroom and his wife's dog has a matching fur coat. There's simply something wrong with this picture. Well, maybe I haven't changed so much after all.

TEETH

Everyone loves a beautiful smile. Nothing can win the heart faster than a heartfelt smile. Beauty queens win because of their smile. Politicians are charismatic because of their smile. Movie stars spend a fortune on having the most beautiful teeth. We put a lot of importance on having perfect teeth.
Unfortunately, mine aren't so perfect anymore. Aging takes its toll on our teeth, so today I must take the first step and go visit my dentist to have two molars extracted. I'm doing my level best to be brave and to not have a panic attack, to simply breathe deep and know that I am in God's hands and nothing can happen to me that He does not allow. Part of my problem is I have never had novacaine before...nope, not for one single filling, cleaning...sans novacaine! You'd think I'd be thrilled, I won't feel anything, but I fear that needle. Silly, I know.
My plan, close my eyes, open my mouth and sing over and over in my head the words to Voice of Truth from Casting Crowns, Completely from Ana Leigh, and Redeemer from Nicole C Mullen. God promises to keep me in perfect peace if I keep my mind stayed on Him and also promises that His perfect love casts out fear. I'm counting on it!

A Beautiful Poem

Roses
by Joyce Kilmer, 1917

I went to gather roses and twine them in a ring,
For I would make a posy, a posy for the King.
I got an hundred roses, the loveliest there be,
From the white rose vine and the pink rose bush and from the red rose tree.

But when I took my posy and laid it at His feet
I found He had His roses a million times more sweet.
There was a scarlet blossom upon each foot and hand,
And a great pink rose bloomed from His side for the healing of the land.

Now of this fair and awful King there is this marvel told,
That He wears a crown of linked thorns instead of one of gold.
Where there are thorns are roses, and I saw a line of red,
A little wreath of roses around His radiant head.

A red rose is His Sacred Heart, a white rose is His face,
And His breath has turned the barren world to a rich and flowery place.
He is the Rose of Sharon, His gardener am I,
And I shall drink His fragrance in Heaven when I die.

The Waning Days of Summer

August is half over, school starts next week and summer is waving good-bye as it retires until next year. This has been the hottest summer on record here in Florida, and the humidity has been horrendous. There's been times it's been so hot and humid it's been hard to breathe and I've lived inside as much as possible this year. One good thing about that, I've read a lot of books I had on my shelf and even gone back and re-read some golden oldies.

I'm looking forward to fall, it's my favorite time of year. I'm looking forward to putting away the Americana decor from my home and bringing out the fall colors. They're so relaxing and comforting. It'll be time to put away the summer fruity candles and bring out my favorites, Autumm Wreath and Home Sweet Home...there's nothing like a Yankee Candle for bringing the scents of fall inside.

I'm ready for fall...are you?

ASK A SMART ALECK QUESTION, GET A SERIOUS ANSWER!

The other night my sweet husband was telling me how since he's been reading his Bible every day he's noticed it has all the answers to life's questions. Being the smart-aleck I can be at times, I asked, "do you suppose there's a diet in there that would really work?" (We'd also been talking about our need to eat healthier and for both of us to lose some pounds.)

I didn't give it anymore thought until I was surfing the television channels as I played with Kyle and noticed a man reading Isaiah 55: 1-2. What caught my ears was the phrase, "let your soul delight itself in fatness." That brought to mind one of my husband's favorite phrases, "oh forget the diet, eat what you want and die fat and happy." I don't think that's what this scripture really means. What it really means is that we work and struggle to try and find happiness. Instead we find depression, anger, tiredness, or _____ ( fill in your personal blank here) and then we eat to try and medicate that feeling. Instead of eating to live, we live to eat. We plan our next meal before we digest the one we just ate. If you're anything like me, if there's a piece of pie in the refrigerator it calls my name until I go eat it. We eat when we're really not even hungry, we eat because the clock tells us it's time to eat.

Anyway, I recalled Daniel in Babylon and how he didn't want to eat the King's rich foods and instead asked for pulse and water. Pulse? what's that? Basically it's seeds, whole grains, fruits and nuts. Hmmm that sounds more delicious than pulse! Then I remembered Ezekiel being in the wilderness and God giving him a specific recipe for bread...that's in Ezekiel 4:9. Then I read Ezekiel 4:10 and found out God even says how much meat to eat...."20 shekels a day". Okay, what's a shekel? I looked it up and 20 shekels of meat is 8 ounces. And there we have it....God's perfect diet! Whole grains, nuts, seeds, fruits and 8 ounces of meat a day, water to drink. How easy is that?

So I'm giving it a try.....I'll let you know how my progress goes as time goes along.

A GREAT SUMMER READ

I recently began participating in the Tyndale House bloggers tour. They send you a book, you read it and write a blog about it. Easy enough? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Once in a while you get a book you find difficult to finish and write something constructive about. HOWEVER, and I want to strongly stress that word, HURRICANES IN PARADISE is one of my all-time top-ten summer reads!
DENISE HILDRETH shares the tale of four women from different walks of life but with something in common: deep, dark secrets that keep them from being the women they ought to be. In the midst of the book one of the characters is sitting in a little church and the congregation begins to sing the old hymn, Amazing Grace. Up to that point I'd had a hard time warming up to a couple of the characters, but suddenly I realized that God's amazing grace isn't just the saving kind of grace, although I'm very thankful for that grace, but it's also the kind of grace that helps us through the deepest, darkest valleys in our lives. For Riley, Winnie, Laine, and Tamyra it is especially true. HURRICANES IN PARADISE is also a story of friendship, built around a storm in the Atlantic Ocean, certainly, but more importantly a friendship built around the love they all share for the Lord, even though a few of them had forgetten about that love.
Normally I donate any book I read for review to our new church library, we're struggling so to get it off to a good start. HURRICANES IN PARADISE is firmly at home on my keeper shelf, it's a book I'll want to read again and again, anytime I need reminding that God's Grace is all-sufficient for any problem, any trial, any situation.
This book was provided for review by Tyndale House Publishing Company and is available for purchase at Amazon.com as well as your local bookseller.

SHADES OF MORNING

Marnie Wittier has life just where she wants it. Quiet. Peaceful. No drama. A long way away from her past. In the privacy of her home, she fills a box with slips of paper, scribbled with her regrets, sins, and sorrows. But that’s nobody else’s business. Her bookstore/coffee shop patrons, her employees, her friends from church—they all think she’s the very model of compassion and kindness.

Then Marnie’s past creeps into her present when her estranged sister dies and makes Marnie guardian of her fifteen-year-old son—a boy Marnie never knew existed. And when Emmit arrives, she discovers he has Down syndrome—and that she’s woefully unprepared to care for him. What’s worse, she has to deal with Taylor Cole, her sister’s attorney, a man Marnie once loved—and abandoned. As Emmit (and Taylor) work their way into her heart, Marnie begins to heal. But when pieces of her dismal past surface again, she must at last face the scripts of paper in her box, all the regrets and sorrows. Can she do it? Or will she run again?

I was prepared to enjoy SHADES OF MORNING, and I really dislike writing negative things about books, simply because an author works so hard to produce a novel for people to enjoy. However, I can honestly say there were a few parts of SHADES OF MORNING I didn't enjoy at all, from the confusing and disorienting beginning to the disturbing surprise ending. The middle, I DID enjoy! It was a heartwarming story of coming to grips with what is in life and learning that God allows us hurdles to overcome in order to learn to lean more on Him. It's also a story of learning to love who you are, who God made you, and of letting go of the past; a story of healing and miracles.

SHADES OF MORNING is available at Amazon.com and is a worthwhile summer read. This book was provided for review by Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing Group.