Last Week

Happy Sabbath

I am enjoying a comfortable sunny Sabbath day at home with my son...some where around the house but here nonetheless.  He's a bit too quiet, that's suspicious.  Let me check on him and I'll come back....

He was watching Superbook.  I don't trust a quiet house with children. Anyway, God is good.  I had a good and productive week.  I paid some bills, ordered some things on Amazon which should be on their way in the coming weeks and am enjoying my time home with my son.  I had a nice talk with him the other day when he got back and I am working to improve how things are around my home. We need more time together and when it is time for me to return to my former routine, I want the new agreements to stay in place. We had a lovely time out together yesterday morning/afternoon under the gazebo.  I was able to do some work and get on a webinar and he was able to do his class chat at a table by his plants.  The garden is growing wonderfully.  I saw something of the beginning of grape bunches forming and I have been delighted by many birds that fly into the yard. 

Last week, I had put out a plant drainage tray in one of my hanging basket frames and birds pulled up but when the squirrels rolled through, they pretty much took over and I watched as one licked the tray clean and the other finished up what may have fallen on the ground after they took the tray out.  I have no idea how they took the tray out but nothing was left when I came back over there.  I threw away the tray and purchased an inexpensive but nice looking bird feeder which had ports I thought would be difficult for squirrels to get into.  I had no idea that the squirrels had a way to shake it up and make the food pour out on the ground.  I go to work tonight so I will look around for a stronger bird feeder that IS IN FACT SQUIRREL PROOF and consider it for that spot.  I am not pouring in food every other day, that's nonsense. 

I do like watching the birds gather with the squirrels and eat together but I do also see what they are talking about the starlings being an invasive species.  The starling came and attacked a squirrel that was there.  They were actually my first customers and the first to recognize what the feeder was and how to get the food. It took a day or so for everyone else to catch on. The starlings found the feeder within the first hour I installed it.

There are other things I know I am forgetting to mention and hopefully they will come to my memory so I can share them in the next blog post or before the day is over.

God is good. I am fed. My son is fed. My home is clean and comfortable. My family is home and doing well and my friends/church family are doing good. Nothing I can complain about and I praise the Lord for the goodness He has given in my life and continues to give.

Happy Sabbath

The Rain

Today is a rainy Sabbath but I will still praise the Lord.  I thank Him that I am still in the land of the living.  I am thankful for the little joys He sends along my way.  I am home alone today.  This is because my parents and my son are over 10 hours away at my great aunt's funeral.  She passed away early Sunday morning. The infection continued spreading through her body even after the amputation and at her old age and with all her health challenges, it would have been to hard to keep going.  I am thankful that she has been permitted to rest. I just could not imagine her at 89 years of age having a good quality of life with no legs, such pain, and not much support around her.  The funeral is happening now, would have started at 1pm.  I wanted to go but I am scheduled for work tonight and I would not be able to return in time plus if I call out, I could get fired since Memorial day weekend is one of those special blocks of time that no one can call out for if they are scheduled. 

My church sis was not even able to be there in person for her father's funeral. He died last week and his funeral was on Thursday. She had to watch on zoom because he and other family are in Trinidad. 

I found out this morning that one of my friends had a masectomy yesterday.  She didn't tell me when it was scheduled but she did tell me she was going to get it done.  I am thankful for a chance to talk to her and that she is recovering at home.  We usually have Bible class in the afternoons but I suggested we hold off today because she always leads out and I am not the best with leading and she needs to rest and heal. 

So it is raining, but with the rain comes growth, flowers, herbs, and food.  It is raining outside. It was raining yesterday and I am thankful for the rain. It puts a halt to the busy-ness that we all have going, even on Sabbath. 

I stood by my window and watched a tiny black capped chickadee (the same that came first yesterday) swoop in and peck away at a bird food wheel I set up in a plant hanger on my patio. The rain loosened the wheel up so it was easier for the bird to do it's thang.  It was a delight to see and as I was about to walk away, I saw a male cardinal, his female companion, and one or two other darker birds come down for their meals as well.  I also saw three rabbits running about and at one point, all three of them sought shelter under my gazebo.

I will mow the lawn tomorrow and I'm glad I didn't mow it yesterday because I would not have been able to see all of these wildlife activities.  Everyone else mowed in time for the holiday weekend. I didn't have enough time to do so and besides, my son is not with me now so I cannot really enjoy the lawn without him being here. It will be ready in time for him to return tomorrow afternoon/evening. 

For now, I will enjoy being at peace in my beautiful home.  God permitted that I could purchase a new touch screen laptop which I am typing on with more ease than the other one next to it. I am using both as well as my phone to create things for the youtube channel I post for every week and was able to get another one out yesterday afternoon with more quality and precision.  I want to take some time this weekend to plan out two more videos so I am not rushing last minute to create something right before Sabbath.  All I'm missing now is one of those phone/camera stands and a nice microphone, I pretty much have an all out studio set up in my office space right now.  I'm testing things out and seeing what I can do and God directs and handles the rest.  I find the things I spend the least amount of time on and don't know what to do, God turns it into a masterpiece.  Some things I spend many many hours on, they turn into the shortest clips but they are not as amazing as what was done when I give it over to God. 

God is good.  Let the Lord use you and go with Him today and all of next week. 

Computer

Happy Sabbath,

I don't want to make a habit of saying let's keep this short.

God is good and I am thankful for another good week and for this beautiful weekend that I am able to experience.  I am thankful for this part time job.  There are a lot of unknowns ahead of me but I know the Lord will help me through them.

First I want to ask for prayer in support of my great aunt.  I found out this week that my great aunt had to have her last leg amputated.  Her other one was cut off because of an infection that went untreated.  This time around for her remaining leg, she was going to a wound care specialist and despite going for several months, for some reason they were not able to figure out (or cared to bother with necessary testing) that she had an infection and it was not the other thing they thought it was.  COVID happened and she stopped going to her wound care appointments and it got worse.  For one day it got so bad they considered amputating it on Mother's day but then she was getting better and her white blood cell count started to drop. Unfortunately, later this week the count went back up and my cousin made the decision to go through with the amputation.  She is going to be full dependent care now and I just don't see how she can remain in her home.  Please pray for her. 

I was going through the week and occasionally I go on my macbook pro to watch youtube.  Just recently I discovered the decrease sound key stopped working and my computer no longer wants to go into sleep mode or shut down easily.  I have to hold the power button to turn it off.  One day this week, I was watching youtube and suddenly my computer decided it was going to shut down without warning.  I've had Imovie shut me out at least twice with no warning so I know this computer is on its last leg.  It is a late edition 2011 mac I purchased at the end of January 2012 during a troubling time in my life.  It was my dream computer, the one I had wanted for many years and I have so much on here by way of videos, photos of my son, and music, art, etc...  So I started looking around for a new computer and told myself I would stay with mac (all my computers mac and phones android so I would say). I was upset to see that apple does not have a touch screen macbook that has a dvd drive and all the other ports I need. If I am going to spend 1300 plus, I need it to have everything I am looking for.  I looked online and in store and came across an HP touch screen that seemed to have everything I wanted. Only thing was,  didn't want to pay over 500 dollars for one and the one I spied in store was over the price point.  Thursday morning I determined to purchase something and when I was not certain the one I liked in store was not in stock I went to Amazon and ordered the computer and ended up paying 50-70 bucks less by doing so.  I expect to get it next week along with a case and some other goodies.  I am thankful that I have the extra cash to spend on a purchase like this because I really need a reliable computer to do my work and allows me to do so much more.  I will keep using my mac so long as it wants to run. I need the imovie software and I like watching youtube with it connected to the mirroring tv monitor.  I need to get my son's photos printed so they are not lost forever. My first laptop was a HP which I still have and it is 6 feet away from where I am sitting.  I need to order a charge cord to get that one started back up. Nothing was wrong with it, it just was outdated, clunky and heavy to me and in the shadow of my mac, I lost all interest in it. 

So I am thankful for the funds, the new computer on the way, food on my table, clothes on my feet.  I enjoyed a lovely couple hours out in my back yard yesterday and watched my son dig a deep hole in the area I plan to start another garden.  The asparagus is extremely tall. I will not harvest it this year, I want more to come out for next year so I don't kill off the plant.  My son ate young onions out of the garden.  Parsley and carrot tops, cabbage, bean stalks, garlic, thyme, and that mystery crop I'm still trying to figure out what it is are all coming up among others.  I saw a gorgeous male peacock strolling towards my front yard. My mother sent me a photo of a male peacock over across the street from her house in her neck of the woods.  Never did I imagine seeing these things, but I guess with COVID, they are feeling braver, are spreading out and taking over our town which I have no problem with.  I even had a perfect view of a blue jay, absolutely gorgeous this Sabbath morning.  So much beauty that God creates.  I plan on stopping by Whole foods to do a haul and spending a good portion of my afternoon out in my gazebo tomorrow.  I am thankful for this beautiful weekend and that it is not going to rain as I thought it would. 

Enjoy the sunshine, warmth and start of summer (I hope you have it).  I'm loving this stay at home order.  It really is doing my family and I good.

Antibiotic

Happy Sabbath and good afternoon,

Such a beautiful day and week. I have nothing to complain about.  I will keep this post short and sweet today.  Last night, my mother texted me about my great aunt.  She has a number of health conditions and is either 87 or 89 years old, I forget but we share a birthday month (she is three days before me).  Anyway, my aunt had her leg amputated several years ago because a cut got infected and she is diabetic.  Despite having all this, dialysis, and all these other issues, she is still feisty ad pushing forward and was even getting adaptive equipment to help her to learn to walk again but she has faced some recent set backs that put her back in the hospital this week.  Last night the talk was that amputating her remaining leg was imminent.  I don’t know how much it is, but it is something I am praying about.  Her one remaining daughter has been doing everything she could to provide for her and even in this time of COVID, she is not permitted to even be in the hospital with her.  My aunt is alone there and it is heart breaking what she is going through.  Last night, they said her white blood cell count was too high and continued to climb.  But praise God, those numbers dropped and they said the antibiotic is working.  Perhaps she won’t have to have an amputation after all.  I pray that what ever happens, she comes out closer to Jesus than when she went in.  She is a praying woman and a believer and if she is in God’s hands, then its alright.  I pray that she is able to return to her home and for what is happening to her to serve as a wake up call for those around her and close to her. 

God is good. He is providing for me and my family. The bills are being paid. The lights are on.  So again, I have no complaints.  God is good all the time and all the time, God is definitely good.  Praise God no matter what your circumstance is and Happy Sabbath/week to you all.

God is Good

Good afternoon and Happy Sabbath,

I am thankful to be in the land of the living and able to see another beautiful Sabbath, another sunny day, another day to breathe, walk, leap, to enjoy. 

God is good.

This week was a good one.  I am so happy about a video that I put up yesterday for my church's channel and that everything worked out.  I was sent pictures from my sis and there were only a handful. Sometimes I'm not sure what I am going to do and I don't have a plan but God has a plan and He worked it all out.  I was able to download the images, adjust, fix them up to be video ready and decided to narrate the video (I am still trying to remain anonymous so I definitely will not have myself in video on youtube or another channel).  I got to the end of the video and was about to put in the final slide saying "Thanks for Watching" when imovie suddenly shut down. 

I thought I had lost the four to five hours of work I just sat and did. Then a friend tried calling as I'm starting to freak out but she ended the call before we could connect.  I kept praying and waiting for imovie to open back up.  Some fanagaling and all of the work was still there, praise God.  I added that last slide and took no more chances and uploaded it to youtube as fast as I could. 

I want to keep posting something every week so I need to really put more thought and prep into videos earlier in the week instead of waiting until the very last minute. 

I am thankful for it being May.  I'm not getting that fence, I am deciding to hold off.  I know it will make my taxes go up and I don't need that right now.  I heard a bunch of commotion next door and peeped through the tiny holes in my blinds so not to be obvious in spying and saw my new wealthy neighbors (the ones with the BMW's) were having a company do stone work around their garden beds.  My garden bed in the front looks like absolute trash and I have been meaning to go to home depot to load up on bricks, to sit up and do better but I have not.  I will be honest, it had me feeling some kind of way.  I have to rebuke that, jealousy, that's what it is.  They have the means to do it and their home is beautiful inside and out.  I went on out in the evening to take my son to my parent's home before going to my part time.  When I parked in front of their house I noticed three teens further up the street being rowdy and coming in my direction.  Something made me want to stand and watch them walk by but I decided that I couldn't see that well (I can't, I have no night vision) and I pulled away from the window and focused on my son and parents getting settled for the night.  I then got in my car and headed off to work. 

It wasn't until I was about to pull into my store's parkinglot spot that the low tire pressure symbol went off.  I knew that it was about that time for me to get two tires replaced so I chalked it up to that. 

In the morning, I took my car with a plan to go to my house, get my computer and my son's things to bring to my parent's house to start some work before taking my car to pep boys.  When I was in my driveway, that's when I saw the cut or slash in my tire. 

So I believe one of those teens slashed my tire the night before.  I do not pull up to curbs and at my parent's house, they have a sloped curb if that's what you would call it.  There is no ridge to rub tires up against plus when I park, I pull up carefully, I drive the opposite side so the very tire in question is not even running up on that side.  At my house there is a standard curb but I have an oversized driveway apron.  I am not able to hit any curb when coming in or going out because it is an oversized apron.  I have never ever had a cut or slash in my tire and my driving has been reduced to just back and forth from my part time job to my parents and back home again, not all over the other state multiple times a week that I would ordinarily drive if it were not for COVID. 

So they cut my tire. I drove to pepboys and ended up replacing all four of my tires. I thank the Lord for the thoughts of preparation because I had set aside a decent amount of money for car repairs and I knew I would have to spend quite a bit.  I do have a pepboys card but I decided to pay from my savings because I have been working on paying all my credit cards off.  So I am thankful that I had the money to handle that expense.  I am thankful that the tire did not explode when I was going down the road.  I am thankful that they even prorated the tire because I'm all about warranty and road hazard packages. I drive alot and don't have time to be stranded out here in these streets.

God is good.  God is working with the young people at my church, with my son.  I am thankful for a new ministry that I can take part in.  I am able to use my art and music skills for Christ and am discovering new things about myself that I didn't even know I could do.  I am thankful for the impact that the Lord is using me to make with my clients.  I am thankful for an awesome phone conference I led out yesterday with what I would consider an arch enemy.  The conference was great, God gave me clarity of mind and a sharpness that I wish I could carry into all meetings I have with my teams.  What I needed, God provided. 

So I am thankful.  I am going to prepare for Bible class for my son this afternoon before getting ready for my afternoon nap prior to work tonight. 

God is good.  God is good.  God is so good.