Be Careful What You Pray For...

A few months ago an idle thought passed through my mind. I wondered if I was becoming complacent about my faith. Life was good, I was cruising. Yet I was beginning to feel a distance in my relationship with Jesus. My prayer time was spent on petitions for others, people I know who were struggling with major hardship in their lives. Did I, somewhere in that lazy, idyllic time, tacitly ask God to strengthen my faith?

My friend, Tim, had a post awhile back about a worship song, Blessed Be Your Name. I thanked him for posting on a subject that I thought about often and told him I hoped I would always be surrounded by the kind of people who would help me when I stumbled. And I am.

Now, less than a month since that post, the bottom has dropped out and the assault is from multiple directions. I asked my boss a few days ago "...how much does God think I can take?" Never never never ask that question!! It's like praying for patience; "So, you want patience, do you? Ok, I'll teach you patience..." and you end up in a traffic jam or in the longest line at the store and in any and every other situation that frustrates you, over and over again until the lesson is learned.

Experience has taught me that I will be stronger for this pain. I'll learn new facets of my Father that I didn't know before. I know that when everything else is stripped away He will still be there, always, holding me. I know He's teaching me and loving me. A few years ago I might have been asking "Why is this happening?" Now I'm just asking "What's next?" and choosing to say Lord, Blessed be Your Name .

Naughty or Nice?

Don't hit Santa!

Can You Fly?

This could keep you busy for awhile!

Black Friday

Yes, I am one of the lunatic throng who set the alarm for 3:30 a.m. to navigate Debtors Alley (aka; Grape Road) in the middle of the night when most sane people are still in bed digesting turkey and stuffing.

Every year I say "never again" and yet I always find an excuse from among the reams of ads in the Thanksgiving Day paper to enter the fray one more time. This year it was the Kohls ad that got me. They advertised the Tonka Mighty Motorized Fire Engine, regular price $69.95, at 50% off! What's a grandma to do? Especially when the 3rd intelligible word her grandson said was "truck", right after "mama" and "baba".
It'll be worth the hassle just to see his face when he opens this on Christmas morning!

Match the Toes to the Girl

My friends and I spent an indulgent few hours one afternoon having pedicures.

See the lovely results below:

The challenge? Whose toes are whose?

Starting Over

I accidently deleted my blog!

This post is an attempt to re-create at least a portion of what has been relegated to cyberspace.

This is a photo of two of my favorite guys in the whole world: My husband of 26 years, Jim and our grandson who'll be 2 in January, Aidan.

Two more of my favorites: Our son, Tony, and our daughter, Lily.