IT’S BEEN A LANDSLIDE AROUND HERE THIS YEAR!

IT’S BEEN A LANDSLIDE AROUND HERE THIS YEAR!

 

Recently I had about a two-month bout with sickness. I guess with not being able to do what I want lately, it makes me reflect on “changes” in life. One thing I see is life changes daily and if I can’t change with it, I’ll become inflexible. I may become something or a type of person I don’t want to become or someone that no one wants to be around.

I’ve had to change some things and some dreams and even give some up. What worked years ago, won’t work now. Even Christmas celebrations.

With my health and Bill’s chronic pain even getting the house decorated hasn’t happened yet. Bill works so hard and I keep thinking there is a better way for him, that something is going to change; he cannot continually do the physical work of his business. Something can change in a moment with Jesus. The Lord wants us to fulfill the destiny that Christ had in mind for for all of us before the foundation of the earth.  For this I pray.

Change comes. Change hurts, sometimes. Change must occur for help to come. A phrase I use a lot it seems is “Nothing changes if nothing changes.”  It’s recovery related and can mean, if you keep doing the same old things expecting different results, it’s not going to happen. Change is essential to life. And life as we know it, will never be the same, it seems. But it can be better in Jesus name.

Even old traditions like the Grandkid’s Gathering, or my pre-Christmas celebration with them is changing. Years ago, when they were little it consisted of a sleepover, and a few times, a Christmas Scavenger hunt where we collected food for the needy. I think those things were more for me, than them, but we can still look back and rekindle those good memories. When it’s all been said and done memories may be the only things that don’t change.

This year instead of a night gathering for the grandkids, we will do brunch, as Aubrey works at night. (Give her a holler at Olive Garden Daytona). I’m storming my brain for something fun and Christmas related to do besides eat. We can’t go look at Christmas lights, that’s for sure, unless they want to stay until the evening to do that and I’m cool with that.

Having been sick for about eight weeks now, I find I have to pace myself. Even a little outing may take the energy out of me for a day afterward. Right now, I’m breathing in scented Frankincense oil in a diffuser, (even anointed myself with it again as Shiloh did recently) running a Himalayan Salt lamp to clean the air and praying that the Lord will cleanse my system of any residual infection of  the pneumonia /bronchitis. And I’m listening to a song about changes.

 

Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love
Can the child within my heart rise above
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides
Can I handle the seasons of my life~~~

Well, I've been afraid of changing
'Cause I've built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Even children get older

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6IA4U09qQo

The title of the song is LANDSLIDE and maybe that’s another word for this year. I relate to the lyrics of building my life around my children but children do get older and so do old moms.  Lord, be my mirror in the sky and show me how to maneuver the seasons of my life. Give us a season of grace this year and although not picture perfect, a semblance of family. A family dreamed of with love and covered continually with prayer regardless.

A verse to pray and hold on to. I don't remember ever seeing this version of the verse: Matthew 19:26 MSG

 [26] Jesus looked hard at them and said, "No chance at all if you think you can pull it off yourself. Every chance in the world if you trust God to do it."

Matthew 19:26 Amplified Bible (AMP)

 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With people [as far as it depends on them] it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Family forever

 

Family forever is a thought that's been running through my mind for some days. It especially got there with the holidays. Looking at parts of the family that are still fractured can be painful. One thing I thought as I visited my brother Dale and his wife Jayne is how much I treasure my brothers and sisters. We definitely don't qualify as a close family. We all pretty much scattered away as teenagers, me marrying young, (the first time) Charles, Dale and Jeannine all working very young and doing their own thing. Charles was very young to be a husband and father at age 18 but he's done it well, all and all. My thought is, that there could never be anything that my family does or doesn't do that I wouldn't at least say, "Hi, how are you doing? I love you."

That may not mean that we'll hang together or do much else, but at least they know that they are loved.

Family forever is really something you can't get away from because it's in the blood and DNA. Of course, we know since I had my DNA test that not everyone got everything that everybody else got. LOL! I am truly EVERYWOMAN! And that being said, one of my main prayers for myself is that I can live well, and be the very best me, that the Lord created me to be. And I have to come back to what Peggy always said, "You can pick your friends but not your family," and that's cool too. Because the Lord God Almighty gave us the family He intended for some strange reason, I guess. And for our destiny, I believe.

 I've picked some pretty awesome friends along the way and a few have even told me they chose me upon seeing me for the very first time. How cool is that? Truly I don't understand why but I have always felt very honored by that statement and you know who you are girlfriend.

I have all the hope in the world for all of my family. I may not live to see some of my prayers for them answered but every day, I pray, "Thy will be done, Thy kingdom come for the destiny of the ones I love." Bill and I were talking to Pastor John recently and he said, basically that in some cases, family comes together finally but it may be at someone's funeral, and why wait until then to make it right? He's a very wise man, I must say.

But it's out of my hands and into the Lord's. I'm praying very hard for a new start for many of us.

So to complete this blog and I hope the pictures post at some point, I took the night off last night as Ryan did such a great job taking Aryel and Isaiah for the day I gave him the night shift, too. Actually I was exhausted from the holidays and just needed to chill. At some point I heard hilarious laughter drifting up the stairs. Bill and I came down to find Ryan looking like a sick calf at the table, and everyone laughing their heads off. They were playing Bean Boozled with jelly beans that tasted like, among other things: stinky socks, barf, lawn clippings, dead fish, rotten eggs... and well you get the picture. They had jelly beans the same color and it would either be the good flavor, chocolate pudding or the bad like canned dog food and you pick one and eat it. Well Ryan always picked the bad ones and Aryel always picked the good ones. It was hilarious.

Christmas is officially over and we can get back to "normal" life. Oh yes, normal is just a setting on the dryer in our family. So, heading to a new year fills with the Love, and never-ending kindness of the Lord.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD1QMSYKL6Q

Since ancient times no one has heard,
    no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
    who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. Isaiah 64:4