Sunset Rocky Mountain Style

I am blessed that son got me pictures of this gorgeous sunset. They say that it is like this cause we are at the gateway to the Rockies. Whatever, I love it. I am still having huge problems and exhaustion seems to be the name of the game, so am going to let son upload all the pics and post for me. Hope you enjoy.

Middle of The Night Ramblings

Woke up with horrible muscle contractions and am laying here waiting on meds to kick in. As I look around my room and out into the other part of the house, I am once again struck with a deep feeling of gratitude for our home. It is a small home but the amazing thing is that everyone says the same words when they come in our home. They look around and say “your home is so cozy and so filled with warmth and love”.  Now, it might not be a fancy mansion, might not have granite counter tops or high ceilings and wood beams, but they are right…this home is filled with warmth and love.

Another thing people say to son and I is that our home is so serene. I have for years worked hard at creating an environment in the home that is warm and loving and filled with serenity that when someone comments on it…to me that says they feel it. I have even helped others create at least one room of serenity for themselves for we all need it in this chaotic world.

As I read the news and the dire predictions for housing to still fall even more and the economy slowed, I am even more thankful that our house sold on the other side of the mountain and we were able to get this home. The sad part for me was that bad news for someone of losing their home brought us the good news of owning our home. That part made me sad and feel bad for the ones that lost the house a couple of years ago.

Son and I both would tell anyone that the selling of our house on the other side of the mountain and getting here was probably one of the hardest tests of faith that we have endured but we stuck with it. Did we ever have down times? Oh yes, I can remember after two years had passed and our house on the other side had not sold…crying to a friend that it was never going to sell. But, that did not change my resolve to keep working towards it.

Times were hard for the economy was really down. They keep saying it ended in 2009 but I think they failed to let the rest of the world know for things are still tough in the economy. Son and I spent two years getting the house ready to sell, doing things we could do without spending a lot of money. We sheet rocked walls in the unfinished room and put in a ceiling and if you don’t think that wasn’t hard with one able man and a disabled woman..his mother…think again. I was the “mudder” for the sheet rock and ceiling because son had never done it before and I had. It was quite a feat for me being on forearm crutches and especially the ceiling. Son made a platform for me to lay on and I laid on my back mudding the seam of the sheet rock we used to make the ceiling. But, you know what…we got it done. Yes, I had to crawl on all fours to get up and down the stairs to the basement and yes, many nights I could barely make it to bed and would be up with pain but the good news was….we made the house where someone bought it and we didn’t lose as much money as all the other people on our street were doing.

It was a test of faith to know that all bills would get paid, that all the materials we would need to get that house ready to sell in a bad market and that we would get here. But, you know what…I believe in the promise that God will take care of our needs and He did just that. Bills would come due and out of the blue we would get money in the mail..refunds from this or that and it would match the amount we needed to pay. Or, we would need materials and suddenly someone would have exactly what we needed on freecycle. That is how we got the sheet rock…and the man even brought it to our house and helped unload it. The things we needed always appeared.

Perhaps this was why it took two years to sell the house and then when it did, we got more than the other houses on our street. It was a test of faith and committment. Yes, we lost money on the house, but we still were able to get over the mountain and find our home. What more could we ask. For me, knowing God would provide our needs was something I had learned a long time ago. For son, it was an eye-opening experience and he learned the words “Thank you Lord” and spoke them often as God provided for us and for all the materials we needed to get the house sold.

Could we go out and buy things we wanted just for fun? No. But we had a roof over our heads, food, clothing, heat and the materials to keep working on the house.We were indeed blessed. God provided but we had to do our part. We had to do the physical labor to fix the house and we had to refrain from spending money unnecessarily. God provides for our needs but that does not mean we sit back on our laurels and just expect it all to be done for us. And my lips often say the words “Thank You Lord” not just for my home but for my life and my sons and the ones I love in my life.

I am blessed beyond means and it is not in money but in the kind of wealth that you can not buy…in love and warmth and comfort, in people who love me and care about me, in the medical care I am getting. God is good…..all the time. I learned to say Thank you Lord in bad times for if we stop and look…we will see someone much worse than we are..and that in itself is a gift.

Our Traditional Touring the Christmas Lights

Son and I have a Christmas tradition. A couple of days before Christmas, we ride around town and view all the Christmas lights everyone puts out. We call it the “Touring the Christmas Lights” and we enjoy it so much. Last nite, we had to go in the jeep as the snow is so deep here and the roads are still not good. We love that people in this town really love to decorate.

Ok, first on the tour is our house. Notice, no snow on the Christmas balls yet. It had just started.

Across the street

Around the corner.

And on into town.

We got a lot more pictures but then I switched to video clips so am going to upload them to my youtube account and then post. Isn’t it amazing how the lights and snow can make everything so beautiful.

Sleep And Lots More Snow

I finally went back to sleep and slept without waking up with anymore nightmares. I think I may have gotten a child last night looking at lights and taking pictures cause I had to open the window to look as we were in the jeep and they have tinted windows.

Am laying here waiting on the smell of the coffee to let me know it is being made. I did go peek outside the front and back doors and we have gotten a lot of snow and it is still snowing a steady snow. It looks so pretty but poor son….all his work is covered back up. The good thing is that son did shovel all that snow earlier so will make this time easier.  Again we have no steps and again the poor bear is buried under snow.

I looked out the back door and saw that the birds are back and eating out of the feeders and eating on top of the snow.

And then I noticed that poor Jack’s potty place is again covered up in snow.

Yesterday, son had it looking like this:

This snow has been just a nice steady snow and still coming down hard.

When I opened the side door to the patio, I saw we again were rubbing the snow with the door.

And out front. If you look on top of the balls on the tree, you can see a lot of snow on top showing that it was a pretty steady down snow…not a lot of blowing so has been nicer than the blizzard was. LOL

And more front yard. Poor bear is buried again. Son will have to dig him out.

We got a lot of snow and are still getting it so can’t tell you how much total yet. But it is so pretty to watch as it is just coming down steady. Poor Jack will be burrowing deep in his covers as he will not want to be going out in it until son gets it shoveled again. He is an old man doggie and the snow hurts him now.

We did go out and look at lights last night and I got a video and got a bunch of pictures of the Christmas lights. I will put them on in a bit. I think I caught cold from going out as we had to go in the jeep and I had to roll the window down to take pictures and woke up with congestion and achy. Don’t need that right now.

Last nite, we had surprise visitors after our light trip. The guys from the rio stopped by and brought eggnog to share with us and I brought out the homemade cookies and we sat and talked for a couple of hours too. It was really nice.

Eleven Hints For Life

These are not my words but I loved them when I read them. Thought they were good with the holiday season on and reminders that life does not always work perfectly.

“Eleven Hints for Life”

1. It hurts to love someone and not be loved in return.
But what is more painful is to love someone and never
find the courage to let that person know how you feel.

2. A sad thing in life is when you meet someone who
means a lot to you, only to find out in the end that it was
never meant to be and you just have to let go.

3. The best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a
porch swing with, never say a word, and then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you’ve ever had.

4. It’s true that we don’t know what we’ve got until we lose it, but it’s also true that we don’t know what we’ve been missing until it arrives.

5. It takes only a minute to get a crush on someone, an
hour to like someone, and a day to love someone-but it
takes a lifetime to forget someone.

6. Don’t go for looks, they can deceive. Don’t go for wealth, even that fades away. Go for someone who makes you smile because it takes only a smile to make a dark day seem bright.

7. Dream what you want to dream, go where you want to go, be what you want to be. Because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do.

8. Always put yourself in the other’s shoes. If you feel that it hurts you, it probably hurts the person too.

9. A careless word may kindle strife. A cruel word may wreck a life. A timely word may level stress. But a loving word may heal and bless.

10. The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.

11. Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, ends with
a tear. When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so that when you die, you’re the one smiling and everyone around you is crying.

- Unknown

 

As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn’t supposed to ever let us down, probably will. You’ll have your heart broken and you’ll break others’ hearts. You’ll fight with your best friend or maybe even fall in love with them, and you’ll cry because time is flying by. So take too many pictures, laugh too much, forgive freely, and love like you’ve never been hurt. Life comes with no guarantees, no time outs, no second chances. you just have to live life to the fullest, tell someone what they mean to you and tell someone off, speak out, dance in the pouring rain, hold someone’s hand, comfort a friend, fall asleep watching the sun come up, stay up late, be a flirt, and smile until your face hurts. Don’t be afraid to take chances or fall in love and most of all, live in the moment because every second you spend angry or upset is a second of happiness you can never get back.

- Unknown

 

 

Mornin Coffee and Amazing Snow

Coffee and a sweet roll anyone?  Oh yum. I had to go look at the snow first and then got my coffee to enjoy from this side of the window.   Oh yea!! I hear the snow plow.

First, from last nite. The wreath on our front door and the snow on the door glass. I love it.

And looking out our front door, last nite the steps were totally gone. The door was touching the snow. This morning, son had to push the door open because of the snow. He is going to try to shovel us a path and dig out the van today.

During the night and at first sun, Jack had to go potty twice…cause he would not go during the worse part of the storm. Son has shoveled a path from the door and a potty area three times. Here he is with snow back on the steps and down on his potty area..not too deep but still bothering him.Son piled it up on the fence to try to keep blowing snow from getting too deep on the potty area. Didn’t save the patio area though.

And this was my first view this morning when I got up. Poor son has to shovel again. This is standing at the side door..that son had all scraped and cleaned a path and then turn to left of picture and down to potty section (which does not show in pic).

Look hanging off our roof. OMG  I could not believe it.

And out my front door. Is it not beautiful.   I love it. My brick retainer wall has disappeared and the poor polar bear is under all this snow.

And Jack has decided that he likes the snow from this side of the window.  Poor baby…he is just too old and arthritic for the bitter col (16 degrees) and all this snow.

♫♫I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas♫♫  and looks like we got it.

I Am So Blessed

Today has been one of those struggling days. Not feeling the best, still on shaky ground from the flu stuff that evidentially is hard to get over.  And yet, people have blessed me beyond words. It isn’t just that people send me gifts, it is they send me things with my health in mind. It shows they really stop to think about me and to find something that will really help me heal.

I received a couple of packages today. A friend sent me this angel with moldavite crystal on it. Moldavite is supposed to have healing qualities. It is so pretty and I cried when I opened it.  Some have sent me things for healing and it always touches me in a way I can not explain.

Another friend sent me a box with several things in it, but for healing, there was Holy Water, blessed at the shrine where the Blessed Katrina is and little saint plaques like the one blow. Also, the stone heart was blessed. I am so touched that my health and my healing are important to people. It brings tears even now.

With all the medical, Christmas is a little tight for us, but it is not upsetting us. Son and I are just so thankful to have our home and our family and family of choice. What more could we want for Christmas?  Well, seems Mama wanted to make sure we had Christmas dinner, so a box arrived today with a spiral ham, a green bean casserole  and a sweet potato casserole all frozen and ready to go in the oven Christmas day. Plus, two bags of bean soup mix to use with the ham leftovers.

And then to top it off, son loves my braids. I love my hair long but it is so hard to take care of. So, I had the top and sides layered and am taking the part around my neck..and letting it grow long. I can keep it braided when I don’t feel like fooling with it, or leave it down when I want long long hair. So, son brought me out two feather extension things to put on my braids. He said he was going to put it under the tree but just wanted to give it to me today.

Now, how can I not feel blessed.   God is good all the time and I have terrific people who love me and who want to see me get through all the surgeries and stuff. So many of you are praying for me daily and let me know and that means so much to me. I believe in prayer. Thank you all…for your prayers and your love and your thoughts of and gifts for healing.

All I can say is that operating room is going to get mighty crowded cause I will be carrying all of you with me in there. And they better know that I am going to be asking to have my family bracelet, stone heart, crooked cross, moldavite angel  and all  with me.Those doctors just better move over because with all of you, all the prayers and all the healing things….it is gonna be a tight fit.

The greatest thing you can give someone….is love and caring.

Life is a Rainbow…..Use All the Colors in the Box

Remember growing up and being told you had to color in the lines?  Or that you could not color a dog purple?  Or that the sun was not green?  I used to think Why not?  And never got an answer until I was older. I think the world if full of what I like to call personalities on viagra….rigid in their outlook on life.  Every thing must be so so and there can not be any change. You must eat turkey at thanksgiving and Ham at Christmas. You can’t wear white shoes after labor day and the list goes on.

I got this picture of these roses with the St. Theresa prayer in an email from a friend. It just lifted my heart.. Aren’t they just gorgeous. I used to cross pollinate roses to create different colors. I had some of the most beautiful roses around. I even had a red and white one that looked like a candy cane. I had a green rose before I saw them in the stores. So, why are we supposed to be so schedule oriented, so stuck in this belief system on things that do not even really matter?  Why can’t we use all the crayons in the box and color our world like these roses?  I think it is cause people are afraid. If they can’t control, they are afraid.

Saint Theresa’s Prayer
May today there be peace within.
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.
May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be confident knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.
It is there for each and every one of us.

Saint Theresa is known as the Saint of the Little Ways, meaning she believed in doing the little things in life well and with great love.She is represented by roses. Doing little things well. We have this misconception that unless a person does really great things they are not important. Unless they have these super jobs, then the work they do is not important and nothing could be further from the truth. The people who do the little jobs are just as important.

Do you remember being told that you MUST know what you wanted to be in life before you got out of school?  I hate to tell people but I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up and I am 62. I want to taste all of life. I have done many jobs, including driving a semi. Just because I wanted to experience it. I think some things should be spontaneous and not planned out.

“Some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. LIfe is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next…delicious ambiguity. ”

Gilda radner

We tend to take all the mores and beliefs as the Bible of life and never ask any questions. I remember being told when little that I asked too many questions. I think we should all ask and question. That is how great scientific discoveries were formed and how laws were changed. Life should not be set in stone.

“Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding, find out what you already know, and you’ll see the way to fly. Richard Back

I call understanding that inner eye and ear…to listen with your heart and not just what you see or hear. Remember the days of radio. I can remember laying on my grandmother’s tall bed and listening to “The Shadow Knows” and other radio shows. Television was not the end all at that time and usually only the wealthy had it. Oh what visions within our heads came to life when we had no special effects on a movie or television screen to rely on.  We had to make our own special effects and the plot in our mind’s eye.

Sometimes I wonder if this is why people no longer dream. They have lost the ability to “see” within and so they are only looking with their eyes and they see all the reasons why the dream will NOT work instead of all the reasons why it might. One of my favorite quotes is:

“live life as if you’ll die tomorrow. Dream as if you’ll live forever.”

And while you are at it, use the whole box of crayons to color your life and color purple dinosaurs and green suns or whatever your heart desires. Fill your life with as much joy as possible, be spontaneous and close your eyes and see all the possibilities instead of all the reasons why your dreams will not work. When one thing does not work, don’t stop…..keep dreaming and working the dream.

“everyone thinks of changing the world but no one thinks of changing himself.” 

Leo Tolstoy

Often it is not the dreams that are wrong but our perception of life that is. Often we need to change how we view the world and our dreams…the change needs to come in us instead of in the dream. Let the child in you go and feel the excitement of life. Wake up and look around at all the presents life has given you instead of all the things life has not given you. We are not rich and live in this small house but if joy and home and family/friends love were dollar bills, we would be billionaires.

“You decide every moment of every day who you are and what you believe in. You get a second chance…every second.”

And dream people..dream.  They may not all come true but just dreaming about them is joy in itself. Don’t tie yourself in with all these restrictions and rules that you can not even tell yourself why you do them. COLOR…..color…color and use all the colors in the box.

Congested Monsters and Strange Critters in the Vehicle

Today was one of those strange days that started off with me waking up hearing this strange noise outside my bedroom door. It sort of sounded like a monster with bad nasal congestion and I laid here trying to figure out what in the world was outside my door.

It took me about five long minutes of listening to this horrible wheezing moaning and groaning before I got up the nerve to go peek outside my door. You will never believe what it was…..it was the coffee machine. We have one of those pot-less coffee machines and son had left the top up and so as it was heating and blowing the water up to the top to drip over the coffee, it was dong it straight out into the room.

I stood there a minute in my red robe with the hood up, wiping sleep from my eyes thinking my coffee machine had been possessed by some alien. I could not get awake enough to realize what was happening and I was dang sure not going any closer.  Finally I eased up close enough to see what was spitting from my coffee machine and popped the lid down.

That started my day off with a bang and it just seemed to go wackier as the day went on. Mama called and said for me to sit down. I would not believe this story. She had to take the car in because it was acting funny and she was hearing funny noises like something was under the hood.  And the windshield washer fluid would not come out. It was a long day for her as she sat there for a couple of hours before they came and got her and said..”we need you to come with us and see this”.

They led her back to her vehicle and said “we found your problem.”  When Mama looked where they were pointing, she saw under the windshield washer thing was a nest of a squirrel with a dead squirrel in it and evidence of rats. I think Mama was ready to run away cause she did not understand how she did not know a squirrel had taken up residence under the hood of her car.

So, when Mama called me and started telling me about her critter experience, I had to tell her of mine. She said I was definitely her child. LOL  And like Mama told me, if you wake up in the middle of the night hearing a congested monster that sounds like he is spitting  in your kitchen, check your coffee pot first.

She asked the mechanics how that happened for the squirrel had to dig into an insulated area to get where they found it.

Joy Lies At The End Of The Yellow Brick Road

Joy…such a simple thing and yet when you ask someone when they last felt joyous about something in life or last felt joy….. they can’t seem to give you an answer.  Maybe the problem lies in not understanding what joy is.

JOY-n.  A feeling of great pleasure and happiness.

                   JOYOUS-adj.  Full of happiness and joy.

video by andrewvankerckhoven

That sounds pretty simple…great pleasure and happiness but many find this hard to accomplish. I have watched people who used expressions like  “if I just had this I would be happy” and yet when they got it, it was not long until they were discontent again and saying “if I just had this or could do this…I could be happy”

Well some older than dirt advice….happiness does not lie outside of your heart. It is a state of mind where you feel happiness in spite of things that happen. Ever seen a person go through trauma after trauma…lose their job, their home, a loved one and yet they still manage to find joy in their lives in little things?  That is because in their hearts they are happy.

If we rely on “things” or “people” to make us happy, we will always be disappointed for those things can and do disappear. What is in our hearts can not.  Happiness is a state of mind and how we view the world. I learned through many hard times that even when things are really bad, there is always something to find joy in. The whole world is not dark.  For example, I have gotten the greatest joy out of that Christmas tree I can see through my door.

video by dustalkia123

Have you noticed though, how there are always some people who refuse to allow joy in. If they are miserable or sad, they want the whole world to be sad. And if you try to laugh or find something beautiful to talk about, they will cut you off or try to make you feel like you are doing something wrong. These people have denied happiness and joy in their lives but does not mean we have to.

I have people in my life that lift me up when things are tough and that try to bring joy to my life when they know I am facing a lot. When we have joy in our lives….sharing it with others is a way to increase our joy. I am basically a positive person and happy person in spite of the things I am dealing with health wise. I love to do for others. And I have people in my life who share their joy with me and that just makes life so much easier.

 

video by LifeofBlue24

Just letting others know you love them is a way to spread the joy. Just a call or a letter or a message can brighten their day. It does not take a lot of money to spread joy to someone….just some time.  We live in a  Rush..RUSH…RUSH…society and what we are losing is time with those we love. I think sometimes people think they can not slow down or are afraid to. In this day and time, we need to lift each other up.

And pick up the phone and tell our loved ones how much we love them. Tell those you know and care about that are not as close as a loved one how much you care. It is free and it means so much.

 

video by HomieG2000

And let your loved ones know that you will be there for them. ….that you will stand by them. Share your joy when you see theirs falling down and let them share theirs with you. Allow yourself to feel joy over even the most simple of things. Find the joy in a beautiful sunset or sunrise, or in watching a child play, or in putting up holiday decorations, or in cooking cookies with your children….and I could go on. The joy is there….yours for the taking.  Open your heart and allow it in.

video by Bennediict

Holiday blues getting you down. Go do something for someone less fortunate. Son and I made Christmas bags and delivered them to the porches of families who had very little and then hid and watched to see their faces. Go visit a nursing home and talk with those that have no family coming to visit. Get off the computer, off the cell phone and DO something.  We are in a world of high-tech and it takes away our actually getting out and being part of life. Perhaps being poor is not so bad after all for we enjoy life and the little things in life. Quit basing your happiness on the next car or dress or date or party and look for those things inside your heart that make you smile. Stand in silence and look around you at life…and when something makes you smile…like that baby’s first steps..store it in your heart for that is where your happiness lies. The yellow brick road leads home..to your heart.

 

video by AGPGPGP