Lent Progress

So far so good.

How are you doing?

Tomorrow will be one week since logging into Facebook. Before logging out I set my notification so my phone wouldn’t remind me of status updates. I must admit, I cheated the other day and posted a picture from my phone of our granddaughter. I did not officially log on and at the time felt it was harmless, but boy has it bugged me. So I will try extra hard not to be tempted again.

Then today in my email I receive this…

“Hi Elizabeth,

Here's some activity you may have missed on Facebook.”


27 notifications

Really!

Then it tempts you more…

“These friends have posted statuses, photos and more on Facebook.”

And they not only list who but a picture to coax you to click the link.

And below that…

“You have missed some popular stories:”

Again with intriguing temptations like so and so commented on so and so’s photo, so and so “like’s” this or that. So and so tagged you here and there, or so and so shared a link.

How private is Facebook?

Not very if they know in less then a week I haven’t logged on and want me back on!

This subject just clicked on a light bulb for a post: Social Networks and How Unsocial One Can Become!

By the time Our Saviors Resurrection will be celebrated, I will probably be tempted again with more emails, or like from my nephew last night, posting to my wall about the races, but now I know what they are and will not open them. I foresee probably 200+ notifications by then. Next year I will need to check out the setting more or deactivate it completely. I wonder, when you do that, do you lose all you stuff?

As for my Days of the Week:

Wednesday – Had my grandma day. Had a few talks with my kids. Meant to call a dear friend but time got away from me. (tomorrow definitely)
Thursday – I don’t get to sleep in. It’s just not in my body clock I guess. I did shut down and turned in an hour earlier then usual. Which makes me wake up an hour earlier. Maybe I should just fill that hour with extra pray!
Friday – A food of my choice…unfortunately me and food are not very happy with each other these day. (on a good note, I have lost over 60 lbs., much needed I might add) So when I have an appetite for something, it’s like a miracle. But I do crave, and it is not good for me AT ALL, chocolate or salt, So this Friday I ate no chocolate.
Saturday – Trimming tree’s is definitely physical activity and it took more then an hour. I of course had other ideas for this time, but my hubby and his new tool won.
Sunday – Of course I celebrated a day of worship, just not at our church. Hopefully I can remedy this next week. For me it’s not about Sunday since my body doesn’t really care what day of the week it is. Maybe I will switch up Saturday with another day this next week so the physical activity doesn’t interfere with it. We’ll see how I feel.
Monday – No shopping, not even browsing or searching for anything, to buy that is. Looking for Easter idea’s was another thing!
Tuesday – With a 16 month old hooked on Elmo, a hubby who has his “special” programs, I knew this one would need compromise. So I gave myself quite time a few hours throughout the day.
Even our grands are with it, offering a number of different things. I’ll wait for another time to share theirs.

A Bridge Over Time

I LOVE road construction!
I could analyze as to why, which is one of my OC habits, but the truth is my FIL was teamster and drove those BIG trucks which not only fascinated me, but my boys. Back when they were little, and during an off day where the park just wasn’t cutting it, we would watch the BIG trucks work.
Over time we would see bare land become highways.  So when we were in Las Vegas back in March of 2008, knowing we seem to get there often (no we don’t have a gambling problem, it’s a great place for conventions), we saw this going on, I just had to capture it.

It was such a large project that these signs were up at different sites. All had different company’s and expiration dates depending on the work or stage.











In the beginning there wasn’t a lot to see though. A road here and there with dirt approaches but the bridge is what amazed me.
Look up and you can see the men working!
Dec 2009


His dad drove a truck like this sometimes.






Feb 2012
Once again we headed to Vegas for a meeting. This time we drove up the 93 just so we could cross the new bridge. Knowing how high it is, I was kind a spooked. When you’re crossing it, you really can’t tell how high you are. At least going north you can’t. Or it might have been because I was clicking away. When I edited my photo’s, I thought I didn’t catch any on the bridge because you can’t tell from the pictures either that you are on a bridge this high.

   This is only the approach to the bridge. You can see Lake Mead from this smaller bridge.



This is starting to go across the bridge. None of my picture came out. Either blurred by going 65 mph. or a wall that doesn’t let you see down.


Look at the top of the bridge. You can see people walking across it. Yep! I so wanted to do it. The pictures of the dam alone would be awesome. However, when we checked out how, there were to many steps to climb from the side we were on. Luck has it we are going back next week for the actual convention and plan to check out the other side. Is there a pedestrian crossing on both sides or just one? I didn’t notice. We’ll soon find out.

Hope you enjoyed seeing the building of this great bridge.

Our path has a few bridges just  like this one. Big, strong,  bridges spanning deep or wide gaps, whose route otherwise would zig-zagged up and down the mountain's in our life. In order for us to go back to places or people in our lives, we just needed a better route. Those bridges are the ones that took the most time to build. It took many people, from start to finish. There might have been delays for one reason or another. But in the end, you have a better way of getting from one place to another, through one thing or another.

No more steep winding roads to travel, at least not across those mountains.

Now we have a better route in Our Journey Through LIFE!

A Man and His New Tool

Our tree’s needed trimmed.

Yay know, not just the whopper kind of trim but down to the bone kind.

Time to bring out the big guy. You know the chain saw on a pole thing. Only after 15 years, it had cut it’s last limb. So off the Lowes we go.

Seems there are new tools on the market now a days. After some on the spot education he picked this guy…



And of course you need the extension pool to get up in the tree’s. His only complaint was it didn’t reach as high as his original one. But boy, can this guy cut.



Now to clean up the mess!

You Capture-Looking In

 

Looking in on our granddaughter being baptized.

Looking in the bottom of the basket!

Looking in a hole being filed with cement.

Brought to you by….

Lent

For the last few years I have been doing more and more Bible Study groups. It has been our glue. Unfortunately I had not been able to get to them physically this last year, but I have continued doing a number of them online.

The last one I attended, Me, Myself & Lies, I love Jennifer Rothschild, I was unable to complete. However, I will not give up. The lessons to clean ones closet, trunk, yard, where ever one has stored these thoughts or issues takes a lot of work when one has been through as much as I have, but giving up is not an option. There is just a better time to tackle it.

In the meantime I searched and found what my souls needs as it needs it on line and in my daily readings. I also follow some awesome blogger who fill this need. During Christmas I did a Jesse Tree but had a hard time finding a devotional that fit my needs, meaning no cost. I wanted to incorporate my ornaments that span almost 75 years. Unfortunately blogging about it never happened. I did take some pictures, and I packed away the ornaments separately, so next year it might just be bit more organized.

Now Lent is upon us. Like tomorrow as I write, or today as you read, or yesterday, or last week, depending on when you stopped by. I decided in order to focus on this time, I needed some help and Stephani who has this great blog A Defined Life, gave me some inspiration.

For the next 40 days I will not sign on to Facebook, my addiction so you must know. No, I am not a farmer, well not anymore. I am not on the Oregon Trail, my party has probably perished by now. I LOVE Words with Friends and will have a dozen games going at one time. I also play a number of card games and such. It is just how I keep in touch with family and friends, like how many other million people. But for 40 days, there will be no status updates. No pictures uploaded of egg coloring or hunting.  As Bob the Builder says, “Can we do it?’ “Yes we can!”

Along with Facebook, I plan to incorporate some of Stephani’s days of the week
.
Mondays - Make No Purchases – Fast purchases of all kinds including lunch out, gasoline, etc. Great idea! Since we did the Crown Financial study group, with the tools we learned from that, it will make this day kind of easy. Does that defeat the purpose of giving up something. I mean I am not a daily shopper to begin with.
Tuesdays - Fast Noise – In our house it is the T.V. that makes the noise. I don’t really watch what is on it, during the day, it is just a voice in the room. Hubby has his favorite shows and Punky loves her Elmo, so I foresee some compromise with this one.
Wednesdays - Make a Personal Contact – Here is where Facebook comes in. Instead of using Facebook I will make phone calls, write letters, (sorry it can’t be by hand or no one would be able to read them), and of course have my Grandma Wednesdays.
Thursdays - Add an Extra Hour of Sleep –After a Grandma Wednesday that won’t be hard.
Fridays - Fast a Food of Your Choice -  Good day to cut out my coke. Oh, that’s a drink not a food. Okay so maybe each Friday will just have to be something different. I’ll let you know.
Saturdays - Add an Hour of Physical Activity –Bella will surely enjoy this time. While I walk her, I can try out this Pray Walking I have been reading about. I wish my hubby had gotten me the goBible. Sure would come in handy for this.
Sundays - Celebrate in Worship

Here are a few more ideas I found that you could incorporate as part of your Lenten practice: (Bummer, I forgot to copy the link)

1.       Memorizing a new Scripture verse every week.
2.       Reading a book on spiritual discipline.
3.       Meditation for one hour each day.
4.       Picking one Gospel to study.
5.       A daily Prayer walk.
6.       Praying for an opportunity to meet a specific financial need of an individual, a ministry or your local church.
7.       Finding one new person a day to demonstrate what “I love you” looks like.
8.       Using a social media outlet to open a discussion about the importance of Lent and Easter.(Since I gave up Facebook, some else will have to pickup the ball here)
9.       Start a running list of how The Lord has blessed you and your family.
10.   Committing to pray every day during Lent for one person in particular.

How will you be observing Lent?

Ka-Ching...I Mean Ka-Change!

Oh my have things changed!

Some for the better, and some, well not so good, but that's not to say they won't get better too.

I am sorry I don't blog like I use to. It's just that other things have been more important. I hope to get back to sharing our journey on a more regular basis, but am happy that for now I am at least getting some of the milestones covered.

I could sum it up with some quotes like...

"That which does not kill us makes us stronger,"

It will be a year in April that our son began his journey and he is so much stronger. Also a year ago, I was reading, "Before You Throw in the Towel: 12 Things You Should Consider Before Filing for Divorce", and am happy to say our marriage is continually getting stronger. While growing through "Love and Respect", we have also been able to help our children in their own relationships.

How about, "rise like a phoenix from the ashes".

From our financial problems, yes, we too have been effected by this economy, to no medical insurance and having medical problems isn't enough, add in helping our children and grandchildren grow through their own journey, I am kind of happy to see some of it burn. At times it felt like a house of cards was about to crumble. One more thing could have caused it all to fall down. Fortunately, while we were building our house, and after it wouldn't stand by itself, we learned glueing the first layers created a strong foundation. When things happen, that would, could or even should, cause the whole thing to fall, we only lose part, basically the upper layers. Sure it hurts to see some things go, but nothing here on earth is forever. Since the top layer was more like an attic, tearing it down was easy. Besides, people our age downsize all the time, right. I will trust in God that the choices we made, we did for the better of the family. What will rise is still growing, and we're just waiting to see how, or what direction it goes. Slowly we are all beginning to rise from the ashes.

And one of my favorite, "Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies." by Mother Teresa.

Just this last year, keeping faith in the small things, definitely made the big things manageable. When you're faced with life changing situations, those small things matter the most. God took the brunt of our burdens. His direction allowed me to turn over the big things to those that knew more about them then I. I didn't need to learn their job to do mine. I freed myself so to see all that God wanted us to see...

A childs smile is the best medicine...

God's little creatures around us...

To God's country.

When ever I look back, I see all the good, wonderful, precious moments. Harsh words or actions are forgotten. It doesn't mean they didn't exist, we just choose to leave them in their place. Ya know, let bygones be bygones. 

Unfortunately while going through such times I did have to find the strength rise above comments such as, I sugarcoat life...get down off my soapbox...it's not about you...to, I am the problem! Seriously! People can be mean. It caused me to write, rewrite, delete, write, and rewrite again and again a post responding to them, defending myself to them. Then I realized, in their eyes, they may think they are right, but what about in God's eyes. Is that how he sees me? I did what I learned that day last April as I walked through the healing gardens path....I Paused, Reflected, Healed! Deleted forever! Who I was, how I acted, or dealt with things during some really rough times, only matters to one. He knows all, sees all, and takes all into account.

I do not claim to be a fine piece of china on a shelf, only to be admired and never used. I wish I would have never fallen off due to some unforeseen circumstance or even my own doing. I am happy that someone thought I was worth picking up the pieces. Each time this darn plate fell, there was that special someone who was right there picking up the pieces and helping me glue it back together. I still have some chips and crack that can't be repaired, however, I refuse to be thrown out because I have been glued back together a number of times and am not a collectors first choice. However, I am God's first choice.

There you have it...admitting Ka-Change is hard. It just how we get through "Our Journey"!