Updates about basically nothing

Haven't been around the blogosphere much lately.  After my week-long sabbatical I've found myself drawn to other things...pumpkin spice coffee around the fire pit, reading a biography of Louisa May Alcott and catnapping to name a few!
Or perhaps it's just that my life has been pleasantly boring lately.  Work is busy as ever but really, who wants to recount that after spending eight hours living it every day?  I'm doing my usual trying to remember where I put all of my Autumn decorations.  Menu planning for lots of crockpot meals and recipes to get two dinners from one.  I have apple Scentsies around the house making everything smell loverly. 
The Mr. and I have rediscovered the little gem that is downtown Dearborn.  Practically within walking distance there are so many cute little restaurants and half the time we drive for thirty minutes to find somewhere new to eat.  Silly!  We went to see Trouble With The Curve.  Great movie. 
We got a new little high top kitchen table and chairs.  I have a relatively small kitchen with limited counter space so it provides more work surface at counter height; much easier on my back.  Speaking of my back (girl alert, guys read at your own peril!,) I made an appointment for a surgical consultation to have a breast reduction.  Hoping that is something that can happen in the near future. 
I have a reunion with my Scarf Sisters coming up, then a long weekend in Traverse City with the Mr.  Busy busy busy!  All kinds of happy busy :)
I'm on the hunt for a low heel, square toe cowboy boot.   Love the look of a boot and a pair of jeans.  Speaking of which, I need a new pair of jeans.  Oh Law, that's not a fun adventure at all!
My hair is rather on the long side and I kind of like it.   
And I do believe that gets everyone up to date with the happenings of the Smiths! 

Margie's verse...

10

1. Baby shower today!  I love it when other people have babies!
2. Tried a local restaurant last night,  Bistro 222...fabulous!
3. Raise your hand if you love Autumn!
4. My house is a mess, would you please come over and clean it while I'm at the baby shower?  Thanks.
5. Suddenly I feel that next year, I absolutely must build an outdoor fireplace. 
6. My baby will be 23 on Tuesday.  Good grief, I'm only 30!
7. I need new jeans.  Blech.
8. Counting down for the Sisters Reunion and then Traverse City for our anniversary.
9. My life is so sweet.
10. I got a new kitchen table.

One nation under God

A week ago, I went off line to devote my FB & blog time to praying for our country.  I presumed it would be kind of like fasting...can't wait for it to end!  Instead, I find myself having a hard time re-engaging in the cyber world.  I have had such a wonderful time with the Holy Spirit this week and a deepness of peace about President Obama and the United States that is so complete it almost feels like sleepiness.  Isn't it always the case that when we spend time with God, even when we are interceding for others, we benefit greatly? 
I have never been a fan of Barack Obama, but goodness, how quickly I was brought to repentance for my hardness of heart toward him.  The first order of business during my week of intercession was that I could go no further until my I humbled myself and sought forgiveness for my stick-necked pride.  Once that hurdle was cleared, God swept through my soul with waves of clarity and love for the president that could only be from the Lord (especially if you knew my prior attitude!)
Almost daily I would feel the prompt of the Holy Spirit for specific prayer...

That the president would be restless and that all false sense of peace would leave him.  You can see why God had to prepare me to pray this in a way that was not mean and spiteful.  It brought to mind the days of Joseph and God hardening Pharaoh's heart.  Sleepless nights and the full burden of the unsubmitted heart was what I found myself imagining for Mr. Obama.  No false peace, no false peace, no false peace.  When the real-ness of this reached the depth of my spirit, God revealed the next prayer...

That the president would be hungry.  That the false peace and confidence, once removed, would leave a vacuum in his spirit.  I could almost feel the desperation, the great need for God.  I was reminded of times in my life when I cried out begging God to cover me, when I felt like I was made of raw nerve endings.  Have you ever felt that kind of hunger for the Holy Spirit?  That was my prayer.  Make him hungry, desperately and achingly hungry.  And then...

That the president's wife would experience a revelation, an insight of God borne from her love for her husband and her compassion for his aching soul.  That she would quietly know that Jesus loves him and wants to redeem and anoint him.  I prayed that Mrs. Obama would not experience a panic of hellfire and brimstone but turn her face toward God to receive his sweet caress and that she would love her husband with the love of Christ.  I felt that the president would humble himself if she reached out to him with Jesus to relieve his hunger.  I prayed also...

For someone to bring the Lord into their midst.  To come with wisdom and gentleness to speak life into the counterfeit existence that the enemy calls success.  Remember Saul, who, in his torment begged for David to soothe him with music.  Where is our David?  Equip and send him Lord. 

I continue to pray these things for our president.  My heart is lighter as I have confessed and repented of my anger and God has drawn so close to me that I'm not sure when I'll post again.  Something has changed, perhaps I'm like Pavlov's dog?  Now when I consider opening my laptop, I am distracted.  I just want to talk to Jesus for a while. 

I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.  This is good, and pleases God our Savior...

1 Timothy 2:1-3

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

2 Chronicles 7:14

This will be my last post until next Sunday.  I've been inspired by a post I read on
To Love, Honor & Vacuum. 
The idea is to choose a prompt that will remind you to stop and pray for your husband, like a siren or a car horn.  With this in mind, I have committed to stopping to pray for America every time I reach to check in to FB or to blog.  Have a blessed week and please, in your own way, find time to take our country before throne every day. 

Loving the changing seasons

1. Hoodies.
2. Cowboy boots
3. Fires: back yard, fireplace
4. Apples
5. Soup on the stove
6. Windows open, cool nights
7. Sisters Reunion
8. Anniversary trip, Traverse City this year!
9. Crisp mornings
10. Changing leaves

My wickedness

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

2 Chronicles 7:14

If a person lives long enough on this earth, they will live through times like we are now experiencing.  Times when, if you are a Christian, you see clearly that the way has been cleared for The End.  The Rapture.  The Tribulation.  Times when it seems this must surely be the historic moment when it will all change.  Times that make us feel fragile and vulnerable, enraged and vengeful. 

These are times that drive us to FB posts, blogs and lunch room arguments about who is right and what America was, and is and what we fear or hope to become.

Today, I have a safe and lovely home.  The skies are bright, morning rains having cleared and breezes blow through the trees in my large back yard.  My dog lays on the back porch soaking in the warm sunlight, my husband will buy groceries from our well-stocked local Kroger and my boys have good jobs.  Today, then, is a day of prayer. I am not the one placed in the physical battle, oh how I thank God for the peace of my surroundings right now. 

As for those times like these, first you must understand that I am one of those Christians from paragraph one.  So I know that I know that I know that one day everything will indeed change as the world finally turns her face toward her final defiance of God.  This defiance ebbs and flows like the ocean's tide but is forever creeping closer and closer until it will become the tidal wave that destroys itself.  Or, for the Christian, it will be the spiritual flood that finally washes away all that is so corrupt in mankind.

These are serious moments in history.  There is an election pending, there is the mystical 2012 theology, there is the Middle East tension, the 9/11 anniversary...again the stage is set.  Is this the moment?  I don't know.  It has never really mattered, we are still praying and standing on the same word that David took into battle. 

As I meditate on the scripture above, it feels both global and personal.  I am guilty of the flag waving rhetoric that is anything but humble.  It isn't about Regan or Bush or the red, white and blue.  Forgive me Lord for waging my own war on behalf of America.  My attitude has been that we are the U.S.A. and we are coming to kick someone's head in.  There is no humility in that.  Should we rise or fall, it is by God's grace and his will alone.

I have been political instead of prayerful.

My wickedness has been absolute refusal to consider forgiveness of the 9/11 attackers and of the Bengazi strikes and of everyone who has raised a hand against our troops.  Forgive me God, and help me to forgive. 

And now, may God hear from heaven and heal our land.



Disgusting and rreprehensible

In remarks Thursday, Clinton called the provocative video "disgusting and reprehensible." "It appears to have a deeply cynical purpose, to denigrate a great religion and to provoke rage," Clinton said in Washington, D.C.

This in response to the Bengazi attack this week.
I haven't seen the film in question but I'm quite sure it is potentially "disgusting and reprehensible." 
The implication I hear is that it's really bad to murder people but then again, we are, after all, disgusting and reprehensible.  Some of us at least. 
So, if someone murders a  gay man because they think he is disgusting and reprehensible?  Will Mrs. Clinton say,  "The man's lifestyle denigrated the great religion of Christianity (or Islam) and provoked rage. But still, they shouldn't have murdered him"?
Are we really going to say that the United States of America shouldn't rock anybody's boat?  When did we become such a bunch of wimps? 
The world is full of idiots.  Everyone one of them, according to the constitution, has the right to express their stupidity. 
Mrs. Clinton is proof of that. 

9/11

Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord.

Psalm 144:15

Marshall, MI (home tour)

Whatsoever things...the back porch

This my my back porch, right outside my back door.  One of my favorite places in the world is right here, sitting at the table with a cup of coffee.  Every Spring I wait day by day until that first morning when it is warm enough to sit outside first thing, before the sun is completely up.  Sometimes I take my laptop out but usually, it's just me, my cup and often; my Bible. 
Do you have a back porch?  Or a favorite spot to greet the day?

The week in review



The Mr. & his mom

 Home! Technically, home on Sunday evening.  Spent much of Monday being very tired and lazy although we were blessed to have dinner with my parents and Donna!  This morning the Mr. is back to work and I'm dragging myself around getting organized, grocery shopping, ironing and attempting to work up some enthusiasm to return to work tomorrow.  Oh, and I really should clean my floors, blah.
Currently, the only enthusiasm I'm exhibiting is to crawl back into bed!

We had a wonderful time away together, with so much to do and so many people to visit it seemed to fly by.  Maybe that's why we're so worn out after our "vacation!"  We drove halfway to Alabama and spent a night in Elizabethtown, Kentucky on Wednesday.  On Thursday we completed the trip and arrived in Alabama in the afternoon.  We spent Thursday evening with the Mr.'s mom On Friday morning Dean took his mom to a doctor's appointment and then we went to the cemetery to visit his dad's grave site.  His headstone had been placed since we were there last year.  He's buried in the churchyard where he grew up along with his parents and generations before.  Then in the evening we went out to dinner with our precious friends, Jerry & Heather.  Heather has been through breast cancer treatment since we were there in 2011 and is now cancer-free!  Needless to say, this was an extra-special time with them.  So special that between the laughing and crying and hugging, we didn't take a single picture!  Drat!  On Saturday we had breakfast with Dean's family and in the afternoon, we attended the Smith family reunion.  After the reunion, back on the road.  Saturday night back in Elizabethtown and home Sunday evening.  Shew! For a homebody like me, that's pretty impressive :)

We are actually quite the exciting couple as we are going to Marshall, MI with my mom and sister this weekend for the home tour, I have the Scarf Sister's Reunion coming up and then a little get-away to Traverse City with the Mr. for our anniversary.  I'm becoming skilled at packing.  The unpacking is not as much fun.

It seems the floors are not going to scrub themselves so I'd best take advantage of this last day off.  I'm not promising there won't be a catnap somewhere in the hours ahead. 

Hope all is well in your world!

Road trip!

1. McDonald's coffee.
2. Watching the sunrise.
3. Hotels!
4. Being off the grid.
5. Talking about everything and nothing.
6. Wearing a fabulous hat and leather gloves.
7. Scenery.
8. Breakfast at Cracker Barrel.
9. Driving down empty highways early in the morning.
10. Listening to the Mr. sing with the radio.