Thankful Trumps Crabby

Missing terribly our two travelers today.

Haven't slept well for three consecutive nights (night 1: worry & prayer for Nicaragua team. night 2: tummy & chimichanga disagreement. night 3: 2 am shower for itching skin.)

Headache.

Lack of motivation to do the 47.34 tasks slated for the day which include: 5 loads of laundry, water plants, wash wall to ready for painting, go for a walk, do 5 lessons in my Bible study which are due tomorrow which I should have spread out through the whole week, painting Kristin's vanity.

My bed is calling out to me: "Napping is good! Napping would solve many of your ills!"

This is one of those mornings where I am tempted to look on the dark side....be a 'glass half-empty' girl.

I am reminded that being thankful is my one way ticket out of this land of lethargy and irritability. AND I am reminded that taking time to allow Jesus to show me His love is NEVER a bad thing. He reminds me that I am WAY too hard on myself and agreement w/Him is humilty and obedience.

YOU are my ANSWER, Lord!...not accomplishing more, sleeping more, feeling physically better. It REALLY IS all about You!!!

The Real Deal

Crazy day, Crazy week, Crazy life...
After 16 years with the same company, my hubby is officially laid off as of tomorrow. Today we cleaned out the company car for one final time. We will be loading up all of his home office supplies, electronics, files, etc. into the car. Tomorrow morning, he meets his bosses (who are driving in from 2 1/2 hours east of here) for breakfast at the Farmhouse (one of our favorite restaurants!). He will hand over the keys and that will be it. So weird. I will pick him up from the restaurant.
Will we laugh or will we cry? Maybe a bit of both. We know we will be taken care of. We know the Lord is taking care of us. This is where the rubber hits the road with our faith. Lord, we believe.....help our unbelief!

"You Promised Never to Grow Old"

This past year, through Facebook, I have 'reunited' with many friends from the past: from high school, from Bible school, from my high school/college youth group, from the early days of our married life. It has been so good. So healing. I am amazed at the Lord's timing in all of this. Last year we 'lost' many friends through some troubles at our church and it was so very painful. I am seeing this reconnection as His kindness to me. (Thank You, Lord!)

During some of these reunions, I've been reminded of this scene from "Hook" (one of the Reno family favorite movies...) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFNaqKZoYt0&feature=related

I've grown up - surprise, surprise. I guess no one can be more surprised than me about that. And sometimes I wonder if, when people find me on Facebook, they see my pics and wonder if it can really be me. I've wondered myself a couple times when finding a friend...thinking, "Do I have the wrong Joe Schmoe?...This Joe Schmoe doesn't look like the Joe Schmoe I remember!" When looking through someone's pictures this week - I did not recognize him - I had an "oh, there you are, peter" moment! For all of you who wonder the same about me, I want to put out a bulletin: I'm still in here...it is still me! I'm tempted to elaborate on that point, but I won't.

It's weird, when you 'leave' someone, it's like they are not allowed to grow up or grow old. Logically, it is a no-brainer: OF COURSE people grow-up and change and grow older. In our memories they don't do that, though. OF COURSE our only frame of reference is what we knew. Still, it seems I never expect people to look any different. Maybe it's because I have not had the great privilege of reuniting with many from my past and I'm not used to it.

So, I just so you know: My earthsuit is showing some wear and tear, but I'm still me.

Happy Landing?

Until lately I never realized the universality of 'thought war'. I thought it was just me battling every day to try to stay positive...to put down freaky thoughts. Thoughts that are critical of what I say or do (or don't say or don't do) seem to pop in there so readily. Not too often anymore, but I used to have a lot of destructive 'suggestions' pop into my mind. Seems there is always a battle of some sort going on up there. (I probably never admitted it in the past for fear of being locked up.)

Reminds me of the 'renewing your mind' verse in Romans 12 and the 'taking thoughts captive' verse in 2 Corinthians 10. Reminds me too of the illustration that compares my mind to an airport. I am the air traffic controller. I cannot control who flies over, but I do control who lands. Or the bird analogy...I have no say as to who flies over my head, but I DO have a say in who builds a nest in my hair!

I definitely believe that there is a real devil and that he is my enemy and that his mission is to steal, kill and destroy. So much of the destruction we see in our world begins in people's minds. James 1:13-15 talks about the progression of rotten thoughts leading finally to death. Recognizing his evil whispers is sometimes so difficult for me. At times I find myself caught in a web of untruth or partial truth...and I think, "How long have I been fooled by this?"

I want the Truth. I want the Truth in all areas of my mind and my heart. I'm looking around at my life and wanting Truth in every part...I'm assuming that the bits of my life that are messed up or dissatisfying are areas where I am embracing untruth. This seems like a good time for a closet cleaning...so I'm asking God through this job-loss-craziness to help me to take stock and to show me where I am believing lies and to replace the lies with Himself. He is my Way, my Truth and my Life and my only real reason for continuing on.

I am daily doing battle with worry about David losing his job...about our security. Even though I am well acquainted with God's promises, I choose worry quite often. I don't choose it purposely. My intent is not to worry. But sometimes I find myself all in an uproar...all stressed...and then I realize that I have not taken my thoughts captive, that I am letting God-knows-what-kind of nasty birds make nests in my hair! YIKES! I am racking my brain for the verses in the Bible that talk about the progression of truthful thoughts.....just as the above-mentioned portion from James illustrates the natural path of evil thoughts, I know that somewhere is a passage that states the opposite evolution. Can anyone give me an assist?

Riding to School with Elly

As we drove to school this morning, a little baby squirrel came to the edge of our street as if to try to cross in front of us.

I yelled, "Don't do it!"

Elly shouted, "Life's worth living!"

Then she yelled, "It doesn't have to end this way!"

Little squirrel backed up...crisis averted.

(We had a good chuckle after that...) =)

Elly cracks me up!

Bike Bug

Since last Wednesday when school began, Kristin and I have ridden our bikes to and from her school most of the days. Ackerman is about 1/2 mile from our house. About a mile beyond the school is a lake (Zorinsky) with trails around it. The lake is divided in to two parts...one is 4.2 miles around and the other is around 3. I decided to ride the big side of the lake last week after Kristin locked up her bike and went into the school. It was great!!

David expressed concern that if we were going to make a habit of riding to school, that I should get a helmet. Kristin and I both got new helmets last Saturday morning. We rode around part of the small side of the lake that day together. Kristin LOVED the adventure of being somewhere new. She ditched her training wheels just this last summer and is loving the two-wheeled freedom! I had to remind her many times to stay close to the right side of the trail as we tootled around the lake...she was a little annoyed by my reminders! She was so cute when she'd come up behind someone walking in the same direction as we...she'd call, "Passing on your left!". People got a big kick out of her, as did I.

This week, I decided I'd try riding both sides of the lake. I have done it twice now. I try to go as fast as I can without killing myself or someone else. I can tell that if I keep this up I am going to have to explore more of the Omaha biking trails. I was already bored, just doing the same route twice. I need to keep myself interested, as our fam has begun a renewed conflict: the battle of the bulge. (David and Dan have been walking almost nightly for about a month!...since we returned from our vacation.) I believe the main reason I have not kept up with being active in the past (besides laziness!) has been boredom.

Before I do much more riding, though, I NEED a better seat. The bike I have belonged to my wonderful father-in-law. He probably bought it about 15-20 years ago. He gave it to us about 8 years ago, I think. It is in great shape still, but that seat......ouch.

Let the rain reign!

I awoke early this morn to the sound of gently rumbling thunder and a soothing shower. It has kept up pretty much all day now. Our new grass must be smiling.

The hostas I planted a couple of weekends ago are looking quite sturdy. Our sunflowers are over a yard high and seemingly growing by the hour! Even though I did not plant our tomatoes until WAY late, they seem to be growing a ton and there are a couple of teeny tiny tomatoes on one of the plants already.

Some of the branches on our maple tree that grows in the 'danger-grass', closest to our street had some limbs that have grown so much, they were hanging low over the sidewalk and may have been annoying the walkers and runners that pass by our home each day. It was satisfying yesterday to drag out the step ladder and a pruning saw and work up a bit of a sweat getting those sagging branches down and then cutting it all down to fit in our 'yard waste' trash can.

What a wonderful season of growing and changing and trimming.

Mercies....addendum

WOW. The National Weather Service has determined that we were narrowly missed by TWO tornadoes last Sunday morning! We are amazed again. And very thankful to the Lord...and prayerful for those recovering from the damage. (Link to map: http://omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10355041 Our home is near 156th & Q Streets.)

His Mercies....new every morning!

A tornado touched down only 1.7 miles from our home early yesterday morning. David and I were awakened at 2:21am by a noise I will never forget: it sounded like an approaching train. I peeked out our window and the trees seemed like they were roiling around. It was raining heavily. Dave turned the tv on and we saw a SCARY radar on the weather. Moments later, we lost power.

We lit a couple of candles and grabbed Dan and Kristin and headed to our basement (Bree and Elly and our dogs sleep downstairs.) When we got down there, the tornado sirens went off...

We have a tiny battery-powered radio that we took downstairs with us. As we tuned in KFAB, we were stunned that no local radio stations were live...they were airing pre-recorded programming! We thought we would be tuning into weather coverage. They finally started covering the storm live at around 3 am.

Our local paper today called the storm the 'Stealth Tornado'...turns out that by the time the weather service issued a tornado warning and sounded the sirens, the tornado had passed us.(It touched down in our area around 2:25, we think.) The storm became severe so quickly that no one knew it was coming. See the following link for further stories, scary photos, etc. http://www.omahaworldherald.com/ If you view some of these photos, you will be completely amazed that not only did no one lose their life during this storm, there were not even any reports of any injuries. Truly a miracle. God is soooooo good.

As we have seen photos and video of the damage, the reality of the danger that narrowly missed us has begun to sink in and our thankfulness has been growing. I drove through nearby Walnut Grove Park this afternoon and was stunned to see 100 year old trees ripped up by their roots - huge trees. The power of these storms is amazing.

We are thankful to be in the hands of the One Who is all powerful and who loves us so much. And we pray that those who suffered any loss from this storm will receive comfort and be drawn close to Jesus. We pray that all their needs will be met.

Hail to G'ma Curtis!

Today is my mom, Judi's birthday!!! She is newly transplanted in Southern California. She'll be living her fabulous, retiree-lifestyle in Alta Loma (Ontario area). =) For those of you who have not yet had the pleasure of knowing her, Mom is a Jesus-loving, grandkid-enjoying, card-playing, quilt-sewing, book/magazine-reading, cookie-baking, ever-learning machine! I know God's got great things for you there, Mommy! You are greatly missed here, though. We can't wait to see you this summer. Have a happy, happy birthday. I know Jesus is so pleased with your life.

A Wild Idea

On Monday night I decided to paint our kitchen. Bree's graduation party (a Tea Party! - please come, we'd love to have you!) is next Thursday, the 22nd and I am looking around our home with a critical eye.

I painted our kitchen some years ago to match the vinyl floor our home came with. I'd LOVE to replace that floor...but it is not tops on the priority list at the moment. Anyway, I painted the walls of the kitchen a sort of beige- kind of the color of untanned caucasian skin...not a peachy color...maybe something akin to the original color of Silly Putty. WHY? Ew. I don't think I gave a thought to whether it was a pretty color or not, or whether I actually liked the color. I just thought that since I was 'stuck' with the floor for a while, the walls should match. I am SO over that.

Also, I found these adorable rubber stamps-big ones - at Hobby Lobby (yes, the real name of a store here...) a couple of years ago that I thought would make a cute stamped border up near the ceiling of the kitchen. It was one of those projects that I regretted as I began - it did not turn out nearly as cute as it was in my mind! Darn it. I have despised it ever since. I felt like it was tacky and have felt embarassed by it. (just not embarassed enough to do anything about it.)



SO, Bree took all the art & clock & calendar (& the name plaque Miss Joanie Ogg gave me at the end of my senior year in 1980!) & other stuff off the walls and started the cleaning process while I was at work yesterday morning. (What a diligent worker she is.) After noon we moved the fridge and cleaned under and behind it. Nasty. We washed the walls and ceiling.



We bought two gallons of paint at the nearby store we affectionately call 'He Home Depot' because the light in the 'T' at the beginning of 'The' (in the sign on the front of the store) was out for a while, came home and started painting behind the fridge - always a good place to start in case something happens that you need to hide. =)

Uh-oh. Wrong color. I wanted a sagey-grey-green. I got wedding-mint green. Sigh. Back to He Home Depot. Kathy, the paint-lady, was a DOLL. She fixed it for me with just a few squirts from her magical computerized color dispenser-machine.



During this time, Bree reminded me that Elly had a play performance for her drama class at 3:30 that I was to attend (thank you, Bree...I had forgotten!) and as I was picking up Dan and Kristin from their school, I remembered that Dan was having a couple of friends over to the house after school to practice a skit for an upcoming variety show! Bree stayed home with the skit practicers and I went and watched Elly's most excellent performance as 'Sister Toomey' in "Living with Mother Superior". Way to go, Els! ("Louder, Ramona!!")



Okay, so to make a long story short (view the play, supervise skit practice, make tacos for dinner, put Kristin to bed), I actually began painting the correct color around 8:15...Bree joined me around 9:45. We finished just before 1 this morning. It looks AMAZING! We did a really good job. Behr paint is sooooo nice. One coat did the trick. (I should get compesated for this plug.) Ahhhh. As I look in at the kitchen as I come home from work today, I am so happy! (and sleepy!)



Now all we have to do is stain & install the base boards, repaint the railings on the front steps, plant the pansies and geraniums....but first a short nap.

Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

When I was in 6th grade (1973), we lived in a tiny home in Pico Rivera, California. We were surrounded by the rich culture of Mexico! I got a very valuable taste of what it is like to be a minority: I was one of two caucasians in my 6th grade class. (We had an amazing teacher, Miss Harper, whom I'll write about another time. What a woman! I am still in touch with her. She is a dear, dear lady who influences me to this day.)

Probably weekly, our family would exchange a plate of our very American, white-bread-type of cuisine (Delicious, Mom! Thank you!) for a plate from our spicy neighbors across the street: Reuben & Angela Garcia, their adorable 2 y/o son, Reuben, Jr. and Angela's adult siblings, Luis & Hilda. We went into previously unknown culinary territory for our family, sampling beef brain, beef tongue, tripe (the first and second divisions of the stomach of a ruminant, esp. oxen, sheep, or goats,...dictionary.com), chorizo and other more common delights: tacos, burritos, beans & rice. I cannot say I enjoyed it all, but it was good to branch out.

When I met David here in Nebraska in 1983, I was stunned to hear that he did not think he liked Mexican food! I don't recall how we ended up at El Bee's restaurant (Waterloo, NE) early in our courtship, eating chimichangas....hallelujah! He DOES like it! Our favorite Mexican restaurant these days is Hector's (156 & Pacific St., Omaha) - AMAZING guacamole. And we recently tried Rivera's (122 & Blondo, Omaha), a little place run by the parents of one of the preschoolers I teach. Yum. Authentico. Delicioso!

So ends my Cinco de Mayo homage to my affectionate affiliation with Mexican culture and cuisine! Viva la Mexico!!!!! I raise my Baked Tostitos & Pace Picante Sauce (yellow lid) to you.

genesis

Writing used to be a staple in my life...I used to grieve the days and weeks that I did not journal, thinking that all that was not recorded of my life was lost! I'd like to make blogging a part of life nowadays for a few reasons. One, I LOVE to write! Two, it has been a toughie of a year, complete with the onset of some scary anxiety attacks (who, me?...yup!); I'm hoping that blogging will be one type of therapy for me. Three, I'm hoping to be less of a private person...to share more, maybe learn more, maybe be a better friend. I'm thankful for this very convenient outlet and looking forward to dividing and hopefully conquering some of the battles in my mind, with the Lord's help, of course. When I am weak, He is strong!