__________ is as____________ does.

 

This morning as I was making my husbands coffee I wasnt paying attention and over poured and hot water and coffee grounds went everywhere. I actually said "stupid is a stupid does" to myself. Do you remember that phrase from the movie Forest Gump? That reminded me of another saying "pretty is as pretty does" which led me to an internet search which led me to several fiction books by that title and even a song Pretty Is as Pretty does from 1989 by a band called Guadalcanal Diaries from their album Flip Flop. That got weird fast, didnt it?

Any word that you put in there will work. Today I wish to be productive so my motto is "productive is as productive does". Others words one might use are calm, happy or optimistic. I think you get the point. Am I going to be as productive as I like? Maybe or maybe not. You just read the first paragraph and see how easily distracted I get. Luckily I have learned to be kinder to myself and cut myself some slack. Every day is a fresh start. Which leads me to my bible verse of the day and l our motivational sticky note.

Psalm 51:10 God make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos in my life.

We normally think of a fresh start as the beginning of our day. For me my fresh start is as I go to bed. I pray and think about my day. The good, the bad, and the ugly. I let go of what I had no control over, like things other people have done. I think about what I could control like  my reactions to things and I think about that was good about my day and give thanks for that. I start thinking about how I can start my tomorrow on the right path. 

Have you ever had an argument with your spouse or anyone you love before you try to go sleep? Did you sleep well? I sure dont. I toss and turn and wake up feeling tired.  My husband and I are getting too old to properly function the next day if we tossed and turned over a disagreement all night. We do our darndest to get over whatever silly thing we argued about. Honestly it may not have seemed silly at the time but after a few days you realize it wasnt as big of a deal as you thought. 

How about eating a big heavy meal late in the evening? That usually leads to indigestion and tossing and turning as well. It only took me a few weeks of eating healthier to realize I didnt have indigestion anymore. I can even drink coffee again. The acid in coffee would upset my stomach every time I drank it. Even if I did decaf. I do still only drink decaf because I am very sensitive to caffeine. Its crazy how I get all jittery and feel anxioous for no reason.  In the mornings when I am making my tea I make a cup of decaf and make an iced coffee for later in the day. It has been wonderful. 

Its 12 oz of brewed coffee, 1 scoop pf MCT powder, or coconut milk or almond milk. I have to limit my dairy so I do not drink cows milk. Getting old is so weird. I like this sugar free carmel syrup I get at Sams club but there are so many good ones out there any will do. I just pour it into my travel mug and pop in the fridge. I use a travel mug in case I have an errand to run. I can grab my iced coffee and take it with me and am not tempted to stop anywhere to grab one. If it gets to be the end of the day and I have not drank it yet I grab it and have a sit down in a comfie chair, or outside with the chirpy birds or even at my computer while I go through recipes or Pinterest. 

I would encourage you to think about your fresh start as you lay your pretty little head on the pillow, preferably at a reasonable hour so you can wake up refreshed. I am so glad I dont have to have it all figured out to get started on a new path. I just have to take that first step and so do you. So your challenge today is to just take that first step to whatever it is you KNOW you need to do. It can be as easy as filling up a bag of things to get rid of or something hard like a phone call to mend a broken relationship or end a much needed one. Maybe its a fun step like finally starting a new project or business adventure, deciding on a paint color to paint a room. Seriously its just paint go buy it and guess what, if you decide you dont like the color when you are finished you can paint it another color later its really not that big of a deal. Can you tell I need to pick out a paint color for something? Thats a post for another day.

I love object lessons and crafting. I have been wanting to make a stepping stone forever using quickcrete and broken plates. I think I will be doing this soon and if you like crafts I would encourage you to as well. If you dont like crafts you can buy some really cute ones already made. So make or get a stepping stone and place it somewhere will you will at least step off it once a day. It will remind you to take that first step at whatever it is you need to do. Dont like stepping stones? Thats okay too. Make or buy a cute rug. Place it beside your bed or anywhere you wish. Waking up and stepping off onto it will remind you to start that first step as well. If you try either craft or purchase one I want to see your pictures and I will update you on mine as well.  So many crafts so little time!

How To Learn to Love Yourself

A quick explanation of the above side by sides. The one on the left was at Christmas 2019, remember those times before we were hit with COVID? I had lost 62.2 pounds then. Fastward to the picutre on the right which was taken on a date night just last evening and I am down 43.4 more pounds for a total of 105.6. My hubby too the photo and I was even shocked that it was me. I almost look like I have my life together and know what I am doing. Maybe its the wine glass that makes me seem more sophisticated. Should I carry one around all the time? Is that allowed at the grocery? So many questions. 

I have been talking with a few people these days about what it means to love yourself. It sometimes seems we live in a world with selfish people who only think of themselves and not others but I am beginning to see thats not really the case at all. My past year, as I have mentioned before, has been  learning to love myself right where I am and working on becoming healthier and loving the person that I am to become. I believe you will never be finished and should always evolving. But you can be happy with yourself not matter where you are in your journey. 

I started thinking about any sermons or bible studies I have done or podcasts I have listened to that have stuck with me on what the bible says about self love. I came up empty. I am not saying that they are not out there I am just saying if I have heard one it didnt stick. I can remember lots of ones about loving others and loving them as you do yourself but I felt like I could easily love someone else way before I loved me. I also felt that if I did  love myself I was being self absorbed and that was wrong too. 

In the past year of focusing on getting myself physically healthy I have also became more loving to myself. Dare I say I actually like who I see in the mirror? Most days yes but I have to be honest, the lady I see in the mirror as she drives sometimes has road rage can be a handful. I guess you have to take the good with the bad. 

So this morning I did a search for bible verses on loving yourself and it was more of the love others like you love yourself. Still not bad advice but not what I was looking for. So I went to the beginning. Like in Genesis Chapter 2 beginning. God created this perfect wonderful world and then he created humans. Maybe or wanting more is why there arent many verses about loving yourself because when you love yourself too much you ruin the world for the rest of eternity? Thats just me thinking out loud dont quote me. 

Genesis 2

Adam and Eve

5-7 At the time God made Earth and Heaven, before any grasses or shrubs had sprouted from the ground—God hadn’t yet sent rain on Earth, nor was there anyone around to work the ground (the whole Earth was watered by underground springs)—God formed Man out of dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. The Man came alive—a living soul!

8-9 Then God planted a garden in Eden, in the east. He put the Man he had just made in it. God made all kinds of trees grow from the ground, trees beautiful to look at and good to eat. The Tree-of-Life was in the middle of the garden, also the Tree-of-Knowledge-of-Good-and-Evil.

10-14 A river flows out of Eden to water the garden and from there divides into four rivers. The first is named Pishon; it flows through Havilah where there is gold. The gold of this land is good. The land is also known for a sweet-scented resin and the onyx stone. The second river is named Gihon; it flows through the land of Cush. The third river is named Hiddekel and flows east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

15 God took the Man and set him down in the Garden of Eden to work the ground and keep it in order.

16-17 God commanded the Man, “You can eat from any tree in the garden, except from the Tree-of-Knowledge-of-Good-and-Evil. Don’t eat from it. The moment you eat from that tree, you’re dead.”

18-20 God said, “It’s not good for the Man to be alone; I’ll make him a helper, a companion.” So God formed from the dirt of the ground all the animals of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the Man to see what he would name them. Whatever the Man called each living creature, that was its name. The Man named the cattle, named the birds of the air, named the wild animals; but he didn’t find a suitable companion.

21-22 God put the Man into a deep sleep. As he slept he removed one of his ribs and replaced it with flesh. God then used the rib that he had taken from the Man to make Woman and presented her to the Man.

23-25     The Man said,
“Finally! Bone of my bone,
    flesh of my flesh!
Name her Woman
    for she was made from Man.”
    Therefore a man leaves his father and mother and embraces his wife. They become one flesh.
    The two of them, the Man and his Wife, were naked, but they felt no shame.

These are my words and thoughts so take them as you wish. God thought the world needed a little something more and he created man or Adam and then they worked on all the animals and Adam named them. But then they thought the world needed a little something more and God created woman or Eve.  Its sort of like Adam was ice cream which is good but Eve added sprinkles which accompanies it very well. That thought you can quote me on. 

It all leads to if you are living and breathing you were created by a God who loves you very much and you are much needed to add something more to this crazy planet we live in. You can not be the much needed extra that is needed if you arent feeling it. Loving yourself if the fuel  that keeps you going and allows you to show that love to others. 

Loving yourself starts with finding out what you love. I love cooking, crafting, hiking, biking, gardening, urban farming and recently clothes and shoe shopping and many many more things. I make time for those things. I schedule dates with myself. I schedule dates with others to do these things. I schedule dates with my spouse to do some of those things. I make sure I do those things. 

I have a tiny desk i got from the curb. I found a great little spot for it, my hubby upgraded his computer so I got his old one, my boy set it all up for me and helps me whenever I mess something up and I have a spot I look at crafts, recipes, create recipes and crafts, make labels for things I sell on the urban farm and any thing else me and google get into. 

Its a pretty magical spot and it makes me smile whenever I set here and turn on my twinkle lights. I also say loudly to my guys that I am in my office and not to be disturbed. 

Can you read my little Post it? It says make yourself a priority! Thats your challenge for today. 

Make a Plan Monday, are quail a good investment and working on some new recipes.

I think one of the things that had thrown me off course during this Covid pandemic is that I didnt have a pandemic plan. I am a planner. I have meals planned, I have started Christmas shopping and planning the gifts I need to make, I plan my meals each week, I have lists of things I need but want to catch on sale. I think you get the picture.

Mondays have always been my favorite days for planning. I decide what we will eat for the week, I start my list for what we need at the grocery for the next week. I look at any appointments we have and any disruptions we have to our schedules so I can plan for them.

My hubby would go back to work and my son to class on Mondays and I would have a quiet, with the exception of our crazy dogs, house to myself. Then my hubbys hours were cut and the boys classes went to online and my Mondays were ruined. Okay I am being a bit dramatic there. Luckily my husband is back at his normal work hours and the jury is still out on whether my son will finish his last year of college online or in class. So I dont know when I will have those Just Me Mondays again and thats okay. I have learned to plan around them.

Proverbs 21:5 MSG Careful planning puts you ahead in the long run; hurry and scurry puts you farther behind.

Having much more time at home really makes one think about things and one of the things that we think about around here is our little urban farm. Like we live on 1/8 of an acre in a less than 11,000 sq ft house. Our garage is almost bigger than our house. You add those two things to the sq footage of 1/8 acre and you see its not that big at all. We already have designated garden area, a chicken coop and rabbit hutches and an empty pigeon loft. OMG we have an empty pigeon loft! Thanks to some very sly and hungry hawks we lost the few racing pigeon that we had.

We started reading, watching Youtube videos about raising quail. We found someone who had some for sale and was  willing to meet us somewhere to pick up all the while practicing social distancing. We ordered 32 but he said one kept jumping into the box so we bought 33.

Being the planners that we are we started keeping track of how much these birds cost us total. We paid $66 for the birds and then another $140 in feed and other supplies. So around $200 is what we have invested up to this point.

We got our chicks on March 29, 2020

We got out first egg on May 9. The quail were barely 6 weeks old when they started laying eggs. We have since gotten over 800 quail eggs. This is just from 19 hens.

These girls average 16 eggs each day. It takes 5 quail eggs to equal one chicken egg. I will post some of my favorite things to do with quail eggs besides sale them later.

Can you see the green band on his leg? Thats how we tell the makes from the females. When they started crowing we took a few days and would pull out the ones that crowed and put them in a cage. Once the coop got really quiet we knew there were no males in there. If you have too many males with too few females they are too busy fighting over the females that you do not get fertile eggs. Fertile eggs is what one needs to raise chicks to eat. We only needed to keep 4 males so the extra 8 I sold along with 10 dozen eggs.

Since then I have sold lots of eggs and 37 chicks. I have met new people, some who were just wanting to try quail eggs for the first time, some would are trying to start their own quail raising and are hatching the eggs themselves and a few very experienced quail people who have helped us in learning more about these amazing birds. Last weekend we actually started turning a profit with our quail. We have sold $260 worth of quail and eggs so are $60 ahead. That does not include not having to purchase eggs from the store since we have such an abundance in the backyard. All of this in 3 1/2 months.

Even though the pandemic has thrown us for a loop it gave us the time to expand our farm. We have added a few more things towards being more self sustaining, met new people, made a little money and are still learning something new every day. Things like newly hatched baby chicks are very fast and when you open the incubator and just jump out and take off running like maniacs.

Tomorrow I will tell you a little about these guys and gals. They are called Delewares, they are super soft and sweet and we will not see any profits from them until next spring.

In my always have a plan bag I love a good deal. I was able to grab some sliced salami from the Walmart Deli markdown area. I divide it up into single servings and pop in the freezer until we need it. I got 5 serving from this $2.21 package. I also scores some Josephs Lavish Bread which I use alot for low carb wraps and crackers. With some onions, cucumber and tomatoes from the garden I was able to make my hubby a yummy healthy wrap for lunch for around $1.10. The only thing its missing is black olives which he does not like. 

When your cat wakes up the dogs because he wants them to go outside with him at 3:30 in the morning and you can not go back to sleep you get up and start experimenting with bread recipes and make your hubby a bacon egg and cheese sandwich. We both agreed this bread needs a little tweaking and I hope to have the perfect recipe for tomorrows sausage egg and cheese sandwich.

Happy One Year Healthy Anniversary and 100 Pounds Gone To Me

 On July 15, 2019 I decided to get healthy. I wanted to turn 50 in 2020 and wanted to look and feel fabulous. I really didnt know how much weight I could lose in a year but thought anything was better than nothing. I even shocked myself losing 100 pounds in a year. I may gave lost a lot of weight but I have gained so much more. 

I would not have been able to do as well as I have had I not had an amazing hubby who supports everything I do, remember he didnt want bees but did it for me and he gets stung all the time and still doesnt mind having them. I have supportive children who may roll their eyes but dont even mind when mom goes to the Mexican place to eat and pulls out her own low carb tortillas or chips to eat instead of the ones they bring you. I have my momma who is on her own get healthy journey and she nailed it too. She also will fix recipes in the microwave that I send her and let me know how they turn out since I dont have a microwave. I have an amazing sister who loves me no matter how hangry I may be on the phone. Then there are the too many friends to count. I even had a neighbor check on me because they were making sure I wasnt losing weight because I was sick and another told me to keep doing what I am doing and that I looked great. Talk about making a girl feel loved. 

This picture is hard to look at. I do not have a lot of pictures of me because I never wanted to be reminded of how I looked. Luckily in the past few years I had gotten comfortable in my skin and size 24/26 and knew my worth and that I was so much more than what that scale said. 

This picture makes me look like a ghost. Every 10 pounds I lost I rewarded myself with a new outfit. I hadnt decided what I was going to get for 100 pounds but this morning when I was trying t figure out how to get a full body shot of myself and had to go outside and use my reflection in the back door I decided a mirror is what I needed. Whenever I need to see how an outfit looks I have to go out my backdoor. 

The biggest difference in the before and after pics is the things that the healthier me can do. I can hike miles and not pray for death. I can jog if I want. I dont have to look that the weight limit on folding chairs and I can wrap a regular sized bath towel around me. That last one really excited me when it happened. 

I have felt guilty over the past year because I have really learned to focus on myself more. Maybe had I learned to do that earlier as an adult I would have been healthier sooner and longer. I still have a few more pounds to lose to reach my goal weight and  will get there even though the weight loss has slowed down. I have started putting my focus on maintaining my health and thats a new avenue for me as well. 

Just as I learned that my worth is not determined by what the scales say it works for how low the scale goes as well. I am a wife, a mother of adult children, a daughter, sister, friend, dog mom, chicken mom, guinea pig mom, urban farming, bee keeping, garden growing, soap making child of God.This morning as I woke up early to read my bible and pray I started singing that old hymn Have Thine Own Way. 

	Have Thine own way, Lord,   Have Thine own way; Thou art the Potter,   I am the clay. Mould me and make me   After Thy will, While I am waiting,   Yielded and still.

As I got to the last part of the first verse thats when it all made sense. I havent been selfish focusing on my health the past year. I have been waiting yielded and still while I am being molded. Maybe thats what this pandemic is meant to do as well. Make us think about whats important. Make us make time for things we werent in the past. To be better people and learn to love our neighbors. 

Bascially I am telling you to expect more blog posts. We have so many new things going on and are so excited how things are going. Tomorrow you will learn about raising quail and maybe I will find a mirror.

No Shoes or Masks Required

Most of us love coming home on most days.  I guess some of us  during this pandemic may be a little tired of being home so much but before this most of us enjoyed coming home. One of my favorite things about being at home is I dont have to wear shoes. My get home routine usually consists of hanging up keys at back door, hanging up purse, turning on the tea kettle and removing those shoes. When I opened my the Gateway Bible App this morning this was their verse of the day and my "at home" routine came to mind.

John 15:9-10 The Message

“I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you’ll remain intimately at home in my love. That’s what I’ve done—kept my Father’s commands and made myself at home in his love.

There is a peace of coming home after a day filled with errands, doctor appointments, taxi driving kids, working and the list goes on.  You walk through the door, let out a sigh of relief and enjoy but being yourself. Thats how Jesus wants us to feel about Him.

When I sit down to do my bible reading I have a very similar routine as I do when I come home. I take a deep breath and let it out. That letting out part is super important. My shoes are off and I can be myself. Maybe thats what bothers people about sitting down to read their bible and praying regularly. They feel they have to be or act a certain way and and its more of a chore.

This is how comfie I get when I talk to God. Lets say that I am thinking of an idea to write about for my next post. A little idea comes to mind. Next all day long I get these little ideas. Sometimes I get text messages or phone calls from friends who have no idea what I have been thinking about all day but they will mention the ideas I have been thinking about all day. This is sort of like when you are looking up things on the internet and the ads on your Facebook are for those things except your friends are not like spies. Anyway when this happens I will actually say "shut your face God you are amazing". Thats pretty dang comfie and since I have yet to be struck down by lightening and have yet to be chastised by a burning bush I am going to think that its okay with Him.

My get home routine that mentioned above helps me sort of deescalate. I am putting whatever the day out about behind me and ready to get comfortable in my home. Hanging up my purse and keys makes it much easier the next time I need to go out and not be frantically looking for them. We have three dogs so my coming in isnt as calming as it seems. When then hear me backing into the driveway they start howling. I am not even kidding I always look to see if my neighbors are anywhere outside to hear it so that I can apologize. I open the backdoor to lots of jumping and kisses.  I shut them outside go through my routine and then let them back in after I have poured my cup of tea. I was feeling a little convicted that I was painting this beautiful scene thats not exactly accurate. I honestly love their excitement to see us or anyone who comes into our home. I am not comparing God to my dogs but I am guessing Hes very excited to see us to when we sit down to talk to him.

As I get older I am all about my routines. I would encourage you if you do not have one for when you get home to think about it. Its so much easier when you have to go back out the next day if you know where keys, purses, backpacks, shoes.... are when are headed out the door and not running late looking for these things.

Same goes for your quiet time. Before I sit down to read my bible, write or pray I let my dogs out, fix a cup of tea, let the dogs back in because if I leave them out they will start barking at nothing and I will have to get up, they come in and lay down and behave. If my bed was made I would take a picture to show you how sweet they look right now. I take a deep breath and get started. I speak honestly and openly because why bother if your are not? Thats what it means to be at home in his love. You can be you, you can say you dont understand why things are going on, you can say shut your face and not catch on fire, you can be the perfectly imperfect you and know you are still loved.

This is also why its so important for us to show this "at home kind of love" to others we encounter throughout our day. They may not know Jesus or only know him through someones strict guidelines impossible rules to follow. Remember to love others the way He loves you.

His Love Never Quits and Neither Should Ours

His Love Never Quits And Neither Should Ours

This morning I was counting my blessings. I had a great weekend with my family, got lots of little things done around the urban farm, had a movie night with my hubby and we had great food.

I am a list maker and I was going over a list I made a couple of weeks ago and was surprised by how most of the things on it I got to mark off. It wasnt a crazy difficult list just a few things that I felt I needed or needed to do. You can easily see how easy it was to be thankful. Psalm 136 came to mind so I pulled it up to read it all the way through.

Psalm 136 The Message (MSG)

1-3 Thank God! He deserves your thanks.

    His love never quits.

Thank the God of all gods,

    His love never quits.

Thank the Lord of all lords.

    His love never quits.

4-22 Thank the miracle-working God,

    His love never quits.

The God whose skill formed the cosmos,

    His love never quits.

The God who laid out earth on ocean foundations,

    His love never quits.

The God who filled the skies with light,

    His love never quits.

The sun to watch over the day,

    His love never quits.

Moon and stars as guardians of the night,

    His love never quits.

The God who struck down the Egyptian firstborn,

    His love never quits.

And rescued Israel from Egypt’s oppression,

    His love never quits.

Took Israel in hand with his powerful hand,

    His love never quits.

Split the Red Sea right in half,

    His love never quits.

Led Israel right through the middle,

    His love never quits.

Dumped Pharaoh and his army in the sea,

    His love never quits.

The God who marched his people through the desert,

    His love never quits.

Smashed huge kingdoms right and left,

    His love never quits.

Struck down the famous kings,

    His love never quits.

Struck Sihon the Amorite king,

    His love never quits.

Struck Og the Bashanite king,

    His love never quits.

Then distributed their land as booty,

    His love never quits.

Handed the land over to Israel.

    His love never quits.

23-26 God remembered us when we were down,

    His love never quits.

Rescued us from the trampling boot,

    His love never quits.

Takes care of everyone in time of need.

    His love never quits.

Thank God, who did it all!

    His love never quits!

Sometimes I am so busy with life I forget how blessed and dare I say privileged I am. I forget how not everyone has a family they love and are loved by or surrounded by amazing friends who support you but also hold you accountable. So many people on your side who want to see you succeed and then of course theres the God whose love never quits.

Most of us know the story of how the Isrealites got out of Egypt and if you dont know the story just shoot me a message and we will find a study to do together. Its a pretty wild ride. They did some pretty stupid and self centered things yet His love never quit. They also had Moses whose love never quit as well. He fought and sometimes even pleaded for them and they did not deserve it.

I guess Moses knew so passionately how loved He was by God and he wanted everyone he cared about to know that love as well. One of the estimates I saw on the amount of Isrealites who Moses lead out of Egypt was 2.4 million so I think its safe to assume he loved them as a whole but didnt know each one individually.

My ending thoughts on this are if you are a believer and you know His love never quits neither should yours. Both Moses and God would get very angry with the Isrealites and let me tell you if I had been there I would have probably walked off and those people would still be wondering in that wilderness today. They were terrible just like I am prone to be on occasion sometimes for days and even weeks on end. When I get brave enough to read my social media feeds and catch up on local and world wide news all I see are what we are against. Not much on love and definitely not much love that never quits.

Gods not asking me to lead the over 350,000 people in my city out into a wilderness to the promise land and everyone should be most grateful because this girl is directionaly challenged and we would get lost. He is asking me to love them. All of them. The ones I do not agree with, the ones who I do not like, the ones who I feel dont deserve love. Because sometimes I am one of them too. Thanfuly His love never quits for them or for me.

Thank God He deserves my thanks,

His love never quits.

The God who let me wake up this morning,

His love never quits.

Who put put this psalm in my heart,

His love never quits.

Who blesses me beyond my imagination and needs,

His love never quits.

Who has placed it in my heart to love everyone,

His love never quits and neither should mine.

Today I choose __________.

As I said in a previous post the week or so I was very sick with whatever I had I was a bit dramatic. I was so tired and had gotten into the habit of taking little naps which now I know was from the ever and I had eaten popsicles which I guess made me happy from childhood memories. I even told a few friends and my sister that when I started feeling better I was not going to give up my naps or my popsicles. All week I have had my energy back and happy to report no naps or popsicles. Every day I feel so energized and am very thankful for feeling so well. I actually said maybe its good to get sick every once in awhile to appreciate every day tasks once again.

I was looking up a bible verse this morning and came across this little gem. That was sarcasm by the way.

 1 Peter 4;1-2 MSG  Since Jesus went through everything you're going through and more, learn to think like him. Think of your sufferings as weaning from that old sinful habit of always expecting to get your own way. Then you'll be able to live out your days free to pursue what God wants instead of being tyrannized by what you want.

Well they didnt beat around the bush with getting to the point in that did they? I never made the connection that when  something goes not as planned and it throws me off and I start thinking "its always something" that thats me being upset things arent going my way. Heres a good example. A few weeks ago when my hubby and son were trying to get the kids car fixed they were having a time getting the tire off, It was very frustrating for them. Nothing was getting that tire off. This seems to be an issue with some cars and people online and even a few youtube videos said you are going to have to take a sledgehammer to it. Which is what they ended up doing. They had to break something off to get to the part they needed to fix and then had to replace two parts. All the while I was their best cheerleader. I was like you are doing great, dont worry you will get it, its okay I dont mind us all carpooling. I meant every word. They fixed the car it saved us money and all is well with the world.

Then I had planned  some hospitality with others, I had planned on doing some house cleaning and decluttering so hospitality would run smoother. These plans were for the good and then I got sick and couldnt get anything accomplished. I whined and acted like a baby, refused to admit I was sick until I was really sick and my plans were put on the back burner. I on several occasions thought this isnt fair, why is this happening? I am trying to do good things and this is what happens? I was like a toddler who didnt get what they wanted.

Things usually have a way of working out. When I look back over my almost 50 years of life I see lots of little and sometimes big bumps in the road that I had no idea how they would get fixed but they did. I think most of us would agree thats how it works out in their lives as well. How we CHOOSE to react to them in on us. We may have no control over the situation that arises but we have so much control over how we react.

This is where the hospitality wiggles its way into this post. I could name at least 10 people right now who are having some little to some pretty big bumpy roads. One of the easiest things you can do is reach out and ask if there is anything they need? How can you help. May I suggest that you do not give advice unless you are asked. I have friends that I can say anything to and they know its out of love and they may not agree even if its exactly what they need to hear but they will think about what I say and either say thanks for the great advice or you have no clue and mind your business. Either way we are all good and they can do the same to me. There people are special and not everyone you know wants or needs your advice.  No one wants to hear that they put themselves in this situation because they already know that. Mind your business, if you arent going to help them please dont hurt them.

I feel like I need to insert a cute story or something to make you laugh because thats sort of a mean way to end my post. So I will end it with a great idea a hospitality day if you like spa themed dates. You can think my sister for finding this one. She and I have the most fun sending each other the strangest things we find on Pinterest.

https://hungryhappenings.com/spa-party-appetizer-clever-way-to-serve/