The Final Countdown

 Happy Sabbath

I was not able to go to church today. My son started feeling sick yesterday morning and I had hoped he would stay in school until the hour I would have to go get him out early for his and my vision appointments.  The school nurse called about an hour into the school session and asked for me to come pick him up.  Thankfully I was incorrect with planning my second visit for one of my clients because it allowed me to head back to town earlier and get him.  After I brought him home and finished my service notes for work, we went to our vision appointments. We had not done this since 2018 (shame on me).  He lost his two pairs of glasses and only recently started complaining that he couldn't see at school. I have kept my pair since we first got them and they are so old and run down, we both desperately need new pairs.  We did the exam and both of us had worse vision and were provided with new scripts.  I decided to stick around and check out their optical shop and purchased two pairs of glasses for him and one for myself. There was a pair of kate spade sun glasses that would have been fantastic but I was not willing to spend $600 that day in total for everything so I just settled the one pair that is half rimless.  I was surprised that my doctor's vision was worse than mine.  She was wearing contacts and was able to do a good job on both of us.  I brought my son home after the vision session and he went in to eat and rest while I cut the lawn, raked leaves, and pulled up the gazebo cover.  The only thing left I really need to do is get a tarp for the bikes (I'm not storing them in the house any more) and to look for something to protect my magnolia tree.  

Thursday was my birthday.  I am 39 now.  That means I have one more year before I reach the hill and then everything falls down and sags from there.  I want to make the most out of this year before I hit that number and I am making some big changes financially, with my health, time, and focus.  By the time I hit 40, I want to be a ninja capable of being an extra in the Woman King, hair flowing and defined, successful, strong, waist snatched, and quadra-lingual, running another business, mortgage 25-50% paid off, thriving youtube channels, winning the best mom awards left and right, and having completed my secret garden in my back yard and redone my home interior to feel like a palace around the corner from Versailles.  This list is not complete of course.  I am trying some new things and hopefully by 40 I will be pleased with the end result...and my son will not be embarrassed.  He knows I'm good for it.  

I am thankful for another year of life.  I am thankful for my family and even though I try to keep special things under the radar such as my birthday, I am thankful that they cared enough to try to celebrate with me.  I am used to being forgotten  and putting everyone else first.  I don't want to take the time to have people get into my business and present all this kindness towards me only for them to instantly forget me and not come with the same energy the next year.  That has happened too many times to me.  It is not hard to remember other people.  People just choose not to and I have stopped allowing people to do that to me. People do it because they expect something in return and once they get what they want, their minds only stay on themselves. I am content being able to celebrate myself in secret and still celebrate others. I'm not giving people a chance to disappoint or hurt me by keeping certain things to myself.  The only one who will not do this is Jesus and I thank Him for being who He is.  

I had a wonderful birthday.  I had a mini celebration at my parents' home.  I left to bake myself some fancy mini square cakes (banana with pudding filling).  I decided to save money and make up a burrito bowl dinner instead of go to Chipotle and pay that premium.  I prepared my sofritas, corn salsa, and other things from scratch and ate biscoff cookies before going off to the movie theatre and enjoying a film with popcorn and slushie.  I picked up my son, ordered him KFC and went home to have my cake and my delicious Chipotle inspired meal.  I started planning my 39th year in my new journal and enjoyed the rest of the evening.  

I had a good week.  It is 3:15pm right now so I am going to go check on my son.  He is feeling better and playing in his room.  I am thankful for an extra period where I could rest.  I'm always running some where, be it church or work and I was able to sleep in longer.  My son was not doing well this morning but thanks be to God he is pretty much back to his normal self this afternoon.  

God is good.  Happy Sabbath :)

In Less Than a Week

 Happy Sabbath

My birthday is coming up.  It will be my final year in my 30's and then I will be...middle aged. An official old lady.  Everybody's auntie.  

I am trying to hold that off as long as I can.  On a more positive note, I had a good week.  I was able to attend my cousin's funeral yesterday and speak during the first part of it.  It was so good to see the people who came in support of her. She was such a wonderful person and her joy, her love and kindness really touched so many.  I learned that I have a cousin from DC who is a pastor and he gave such a touching eulogy.  And then I listened to my church brother today give another perfect message.  God is using people today and I am happy to see all these things in motion.  My mom had another procedure done to check on her GI condition and so far, results came back ok. There was a part of her duodenum they could not examine thoroughly but for now, there is no bad news.  

I have no complaints.  God is good.  I will prepare for a healthy final week of my 38th year and for my birthday, may go to see a movie or relax at home? Mow the lawn? I dunno.  I will see what it is when and if I reach that day.  

I hope that you are having a happy Sabbath and that you too will have a blessed and wonderful week. :)

In a New Place

 Happy Sabbath,

I had a great day today with my church family and hope that you are enjoying this day as well, no matter what time it is.  We had to worship in a different area of the building due to two other events occurring at the same time. It was good to see new faces and familiar ones who I have not seen in a while.  I am thankful for the items I had to bring and set up for service as it helped things to go pretty well by having them.  Next week, we should be back in the sanctuary as we have done since starting at this new building.  I am making connections with other church members who are musicians so I am able to get more people on board with supporting the service in song/music.  My week for my primary job went well. I was able to get repairs done to both vehicles and I am feeling more confident being on the road.  My suv was said to have some issues but I'll deal with that later on. I am happy so far with the new mechanic my parents put me on to. They get the work done in good time, seem honest and have good pricing for major repairs.  

I had to go to a meeting yesterday for one of my clients and happened to tell my mom the town I was going to.  My mom then told me that my aunt, one I stopped dealing with lived in that town. Then she told me the address and I laughed because not only do I see another client in the same apartment complex but the meeting that was scheduled for yesterday was in a building that is directly next to that very complex.  I decided to drive over to her home first and attempted to drop off a gift for her but she was not home so she directed me to drop it off at my cousin's house which is a block over from the church I used to attend. 

The church that I ran away from because of poor decisions I made in my past.  I didn't go down that street because I'm almost certain someone I probably might know would be outside and see me.  I loved that church and I hope that they are doing well, but I cannot return.  If it were not for the decisions I made, I'd probably still be there and living in that community.  The past is the past and I have to let that go.  I am in a new place and thankful to be here and serving the Lord in this capacity.  

God is good, loving and forgiving.  We are in a messed up polluted world and we may have even been the people messing it up and polluting it, but it is good to know that there is a God in heaven and Jesus who wants us to be saved.  If you are dealing with a similar situation where you made some bad choices, mistakes even, go to God and He will help you.  He will make you new and set you in a new place.  Once He puts you there, Stay there!  

Happy Sabbath and may you have a blessed weekend :)

Attitude of Thankfulness

Happy Sabbath,

Keeping this brief. I had a good week and am blessed to have gotten through unscathed. My cousin passed away yesterday so that adds another negative note to a month I don't care much for. She was the baby of my aunt's daughters and passed away from stage 4 cancer that had spread all throughout her body. I am thankful that she no longer has to suffer and that we had an opportunity to say goodbye to her..I don't know how hard my mother's side of the family is taking it but my prayers are with them.

I was able to get a new windshield and starter my dad purchased installed on my suv..They gave me new wiper blades and I was able to get that back yesterday. I have to get a new tire for it and will turn in my other vehicle to get the transmission worked on. I am thankful I have the means to do these things. I have several pet peeves. My first is bikers riding dangerously and without care in the roadway, slowing my car down. The second is when people waste my time. My dad wasted my time taking me to Sam's club saying he would purchase a new tire but then he backed out and told me not to go there with no good reason. I would probably still be waiting on him to get things taken care of and both vehicles would be out of commission by next week. Same for the windshield and much more. I decided to use ride shares to get to and from the auto repair shops to handle business. I don't want to inconvenience them asking for help and I don't want them to inconvenience me waiting on them to come through with things they are not even. sure about themselves. My mom said to call them..I am no longer doing that. They are elderly and need to rest and not worry about my problems. So please pray for me for the transmission charges that will come. I will have to cut back spending. I do not want credit card debt and am doing my best to keep all of that at bay.

I am going to take my nap earlier today so I'll get off of here, but I am thankful for the funds to handle business, my family,  and for the Lord's blessings in my life.

God is good. 

5pm

 Happy Sabbath,

I am getting to this blog a bit late.  I was able to worship with my church family in person for the second time since the pandemic started and it was a good experience.  I had thought I would be annoyed by things not going as planned but today was not a bad day.  My son sang a song for the service and I brought everything we needed to make sure the children's parts went well, that people in my class were connected and able to participate and that I could do what I needed to for the musical portion of the service.  I'm not crazy about their piano.  It's much quieter than ones I've used in other churches.  I will fine tune things by next week but I am thankful that I was able to come out and use my gifts for the Lord.  I took a look at a youtube channel I started at the start of the pandemic and was surprised to see that people are still going on and viewing videos.  One video had 3.4k views.  That was completely unexpected.  I look forward to trying some new things musically with the children now that I have them in the same space and hope that we can put out content that will not only keep them in a mind of reverence for the Lord during the Sabbath but also touch the hearts of new viewers so that they will worship the Lord and be encouraged to follow Him more closely.  I have to take my nap for work tonight.  Good week, good Sabbath, great day!