Wednesday, January 19, 2011

My Newest Blog

I've been blogging all day! Whew! Got seven months worth of blogging done! That's half of what I need to do for this project. Ok, so it was 6 1/2 months worth. The first post will publish tomorrow and then every 5th and 20th of each month after that. Here is the link to check it out: http://fifthgradeconlineurriculum.com/

Friday, January 14, 2011

My Possible New Job!

I'm working on a major project! I've been given the opportunity to show what I've got with my writing! The company that produces the online curriculum that my kids use for school has offered me this chance. It involves me writing 24 articles, each 150-200 words within a week. They are to be posted within the blog they will assign me and be scheduled to be published every 2 weeks for a year.

If I do well and like the work, (that's a funny one! If I like the work!) then they will give me another blog and I'll start getting paid! Woohoo!!

This is especially exciting for me since I've always wanted to be a writer. Even when I was in High School it was my goal. I used to write stories in my notebooks all the time. I chose to study Journalism in college because I figured it would be a better "living" than writing in notebooks.

It was in my Junior year, I think, maybe it was my Senior year?...it's been WAY too long ago. Anyway, I realized I don't have the personality to be a journalist. It seemed too late at that point to change my major. So I graduated with a Bachelor's in Journalism. Then life happened, I found myself traveling and just working to make ends meet. I got married and had 3 kids and the dream of being a writer pretty much ended up on the back burner.

Now that my kids are getting a bit older and the Lord has led me to let go of some of the other things that have monopolized my time, I can pull that dream back to the forefront.

I've already got 6 of the 24 articles written and waiting in a special folder on my desktop. I'm just waiting for the details on how to log in to the blog they are assigning me. Once I have those details I'll also post the name of that blog on here so that my followers can follow that blog too.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

I'm officially FREAKED!

That was really weird!! I just tried to log into my blog, I was going to write about the fun time I had with RoboBoy at an Origami Workshop at our local library last night. However, when I tried to open my blog, I got a strange error message that said, "We're sorry but we are unable to locate that blog" WHAT???

I reported the error like a good little blogger should. Then I did a little research. That didn't help much. On a gut instinct I decided to check and see if I could log into my google account. Hmmm, the plot thickens! I got a message there telling me that my e-mail account had been terminated due to "suspicious activity" on it. I had to give them my phone # and then type in the code they called me with to verify my account. Once I was able to get back into it, I looked and didn't see any "suspicious" e-mails.

My friend Mrs. B suggested that it could be because of the pictures I included in yesterday's blog post which came from Wikipedia. If you'll notice I have now removed them. I wonder if it has anything to do with what I was saying about North Korea. Either way, it's pretty freaky!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Diliberately Oblivious?

Warning!! I'm about to get political on you!

My Hero and I watched a documentary on Streaming Netflix last night. It was made by a team that snuck into North Korea with a eye surgeon who had a goal of doing 1000 cataract surgeries in 10 days. It seems that North Korea has one of the highest incidents of blindness due to cataracts in the world. Because of their poor diet, even young people get them and go blind due to them.

This team had to have people follow them everywhere they went to keep an eye and make sure they didn't do anything wrong. It was really freaky to see how the North Koreans actually worship their "Dear Leader", Kim Jong-il. There are pictures of him all over the place which people bow to.
 There are concentration camps throughout the country where people can be sent for simply questioning the regime. Not only the person who dared to speak out against their dictatorship, but their entire family will be sent to a prison camp!

I think what was most chilling was at the end of the documentary when the surgery recipiants were having their bandages removed. As each realized they were able to see, some for the first time in years, they didn't thank the doctor who had performed the surgury. No, instead they went and worshipped and praised the image of Kim Jong-il! One after another they went forward to give the credit and praise to this absolute dictator for giving them their sight back. Both MyHero and I couldn't help but wonder how many of them were doing that simply out of fear. Then the narrator said that she realized that sincere worship and fear had become the same thing in North Korea.

After we turned the show off, MyHero and I were talking about what we'd seen and relateing it to what is happening here in the U.S. with Obamacare. He brought up the "Death Panel" discussion, (I'm not sure where I stand yet on whether this is true or not, but it would NOT surprise me!). The thought for those of you who, like me, don't watch the news and therefore basically live under a rock, is that our government wants to set up a panel of people who will decide who gets to live and who doesn't in any given healthcare emergency. The point here is not whether this is true or not, but that Americans will actually go right along with things like this without hesitation.

So I was pondering this as I went to sleep and wondering why that is. My first thought was that Americans, just like the North Koreans are being brainwashed. The difference is that we are being brainwashed by the liberal media. But then it occured to me, that's not the whole truth. The other part of it is that we Americans are just too busy to care! We are deliberately oblivious! That's why we allow ourselves to be spoonfed our opinions by the liberal media.

If I didn't know WHO is actually in control of all the governments and leaders of this world, I would be terrified that America could end up looking just like North Korea! But praise God, for holding all of this in His hands!!!

Sunday, January 9, 2011

My Deliverer

I never had to worry about my weight until I got married and started having kids. In fact while MyHero and I were engaged, I kept LOSING weight. My mother-in-law who was sewing my wedding dress kept telling me at every fitting, "Stop loosing weight!"

Almost 18 years and 3 kids later, that is no longer an issue for me. Bummer! At one point a couple years or so ago I was up to 190. Ack!! For me at 5'5" that is just too much weight! Since then I've lost about 30 lbs through a program called, "The Lord's Table". If you are interested you can find out more at: http://www.settingcaptivesfree.com/

I haven't done anything with that for quite a while, however the principles have stuck with me. I kept thinking that I was gaining the weight back and may have gained a few pounds back. I had a hip injury that kept me from doing rigorous exercise for a while. Spent a lot of time at the chiropractor's. I still have the hip injury, but know how to deal with it now.

Anyway, I've been noticing that my clothes have been feeling looser on me. I was thinking about that and trying to figure out how that can be possible since I've not really been doing regular exercise although I am working to get back to a routine. Then it occurred to me that I've gotten better at having food without letting food have me!

So this morning at church my dear friend, who got me started with "The Lord's Table", was all excited about showing me this book that she's just started reading. It's called "Made to Crave". Wow!! I gotta read this book! Then she showed me the bookmark they sent along with the book, she said she requested two of them. The first one says, "_______ is my deliverer" with Chocolate written in the blank. Her other book mark said, "_________ is my shield and fortress" with the word FOOD written in the blank.  Not that I would ever consciously SAY either of those things, but how many times have I treated food and chocolate like that?? "Oh, I'm SOOO stressed!! I need chocolate!" I plead guilty as charged!

During worship one of the songs we sang was called, "My Deliverer"! Oh, my goodness! Didn't I JUST have a conversation about that??? Look at the words to the song:

Chris Tomlin: My Deliverer Lyrics

Songwriters: Carson, Daniel; Maher, Matt; Reeves, Jesse; Tomlin, Chris;

I will wait for You to move
For Your mighty hand to save
When the troubled waters rise,
You are my hiding place,
You are my hiding place

(Hmmm, not food???)

Your walls are salvation
Your gates are praise!
Your walls are salvation
Your gates are praise!

(this says to me that when I stay within the boundaries He has set for me, then I'll be safe and that makes me want to praise Him!)

My Deliverer, my Deliverer
My Deliverer is the Lord

(NOT chocolate!!!)

Who is like You, mighty God?
Who can take me from Your hand?
As I walk with You in freedom
You're the rock on which I stand
You're the rock on which I stand

(the ONLY way to find true freedom is through Jesus Christ!! HE is my Deliverer!!!!)

The last song we sang in worship this morning was "My Redeemer Lives". My Redeemer is not some lifeless hunk of food or chocolate that will only bring me death in the end! My Redeemer is very much alive and I will get to spend eternety with Him!!!

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Another Beautiful Day!

It was another beautiful day today! Our high today was only 66 degrees!! We had the windows open and the air turned off. If only our weather could be this nice all the time, with an occasional rain storm. After all, we have to have rain.

MyHero has been working hard for many weekends now on our house. We have, or should I say HAD a screened in porch at the back of our house. When we had a puppy several years ago, she discovered a small rip in one of the screens and that was pretty much the end of the screens! It was just as well because MyHero ended having to remove the roof from our porch, as well as the sofits and facia boards from where the roof was attached. Apparently the roof hadn't been installed properly and the sofits and facia boards were all rotted and there were carpenter ants infesting them. He's been working hard to replace all those things. Today we worked on reinstalling the facia boards.
MyHero and I working on the facia boards.

I also worked on some laundry. It was a perfect day to put my new clothes line to work!
I was on the phone talking with my dad, (my mom and dad live in another state, whaaaa!) when the clothes were dry and ready to take down. RoboBoy was complaining about being bored so I told him to go out and take down the laundry. He did a great job with that!

Oh, I also got in a great workout today! I decided to try the EA Active for Wii game to see what kind of a workout it gives. It wasn't bad. Much better than the Wii Fit, in my opinion. You just have to make sure that you have the controller pointed where they are looking for it to be pointed or they figure you are not actually doing the movement. Takes a little bit to get used to and figure out where they are wanting you to point those controllers. It was a pretty good workout though. Especially considering how out of shape I am! I followed that up with 15 mins on the eliptical.

So I think it's safe to say that we've had a pretty productive Saturday!

Friday, January 7, 2011

A Great Day

I needed to mail a letter certified mail today. We live close to the post office, had no vehicle and it was a beautiful day, so we walked to the post office. The library is right next to the post office so we went to the library too.

There was a flyer at the library for an Origami Workshop coming up next Tuesday. RoboBoy honed right in on it. We signed up to go. Maiden and ManBoy were on the computers, so RoboBoy got some Origami books from the shelf to look through. He had brought his origami paper and spent the time making different projects from the books.

That was pretty cool, but then school got out and the public school kids flooded the kids section of the library. They were fascinated by the game Maiden and ManBoy were both playing. Then they noticed RoboBoy and started asking him all about origami. It was really neat to see RoboBoy feels so special and important. As an Aspie (Aspergers Syndrome) Child he doesn't often get to feel that way. Those kids were so impressed by the things RoboBoy was making. RoboBoy even shared some of his origami paper with them so they could try making some of the things in the books.

RoboBoy holding an origami bat. That's a penguin and an apatosaurus in front of him. I would like to have shown the swallow, crane, pheonix and scull mask that he made too, but he gave those away at the library.
 On the way home all three kids told me several times what a great day they had. That makes their mom very happy!

Monday, January 3, 2011

My Times are in His Hands!

I spent the last couple of days mostly in bed due to a migraine that just wouldn't go away. Normally I have a prescription that I can take to deal with these migraines and it does what the over-the-counter meds can't. Our health insurance has decided however that I should only be allowed to have 2 migraines in a month. That would be great if only my body would cooperate!

I was feeling angry and cheated out of the first two days of my new year. Then I was reading through my friend's posts on Face Book and one of them had posted this verse: Psalm 31: 14 But I trust in you, LORD;
   I say, “You are my God.”
15 My times are in your hands;
   deliver me from the hands of my enemies,
   from those who pursue me.
16 Let your face shine on your servant;
   save me in your unfailing love.
17 Let me not be put to shame, LORD,
   for I have cried out to you;


She had posted it in a different version and not all these verses, but it really spoke to me. As hard as it is for me to understand, NONE of this was a surprise to God. His ways are higher than mine. He has a reason for allowing this in my life.

Lord, please help me to remember this. I cry out to You and put my trust in YOU. I pray that You will give me wisdom in how to deal with these migraines when they hit.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

A Blessed New Year to You!!

I took a little blog break yesterday. Want to see what I was doing instead??


 These are some of the things that I'm hoping to sell at an upcoming "craft fair". You can read about it on my other blog http://dee-lightfulcreations.blogspot.com/2011/01/preparing-for-ye-olde-history-faire.html