Blessings

Too often we tend to overlook the little blessings that God gives to us. It's easy to remember to be thankful in November when we focus on Thanksgiving, but how about the other 364 days of the years?! So, today I am going to write about a little blessing that I received from the Lord.
On Monday, December 2nd, my family and I went to Bend, Oregon for a five day vacation. We love the area and thought we would be able to do more of the outdoor activities we enjoy, such as walking and sight-seeing. But the day we arrived it began to snow and it snowed and it got cold and it got colder. So, we couldn't do all the things that we had hoped to do. As a matter of fact by the forth day, we had run out of indoor things that we wanted to do and decided we might as well go back home.
So, we left Bend a day early. We had a beautiful and wonderful trip back home. The sky was clear and the Cascade mountains were out in all their glory. The Columbia river gorge was beautiful with ice covered waterfalls cascading down the rock faces.
It was good to be back home. This morning (Friday, December 6th), the news was telling about the snow and ice that had fallen from Chehalis and southward, causing several crashes on I-5. There was also news about the winter storm warnings that we going up for the eastern side of Oregon. If we had left Bend today, we have been caught in that horrible weather with wicked road conditions.
I am so thankful that God caused the weather to get so cold in Bend that we decided to come home a day early and miss all of the bad weather and awful driving. It made for a much better ending to a nice little vacation, and it made for a much better day for us today. Praise God for the little blessings.
And if you were wondering...it got down to -6 in Sunriver where we were staying, and there was a wind-chill of -25. Sunny? yes, but oh, so cold.

Thanksgiving alphabet

When I have a hard time getting to sleep, I like to take time to thank the Lord for certain things by going through the alphabet. I thought I might share what I am thankful for this year by doing the same thing in a post.
A: apples, artichokes, all my friends, aardvarks.
B: banana, berries, broccoli, babies, blue-birds, BBC, Bible.
C: cherries, carrots, church, cats, carpet.
D: dates, dates with Jerry, dogs.
E: everlasting life.
F: figs, funny things, fun times, family.
G: grapes, guava, garlic, fresh green beans, garbanzo beans turned into hummus, God.
H: horses, home, heaven.
I: ice cream, imaginations, iguanas.
J: Jesus, justice, juices, jams, Jerry.
K: kiwis, kindness, kangaroos.
L: lemonade, limeade, leeks, lettuce, lima beans, love, life-group.
M: mango, movies, mules, music.
N: nectarines, nuts.
O: oranges, October, Oregon, oak trees.
P: peaches, pears, plums, papaya, potatoes, pumpkin, pies, pesto.
Q: Quicken, quiet times.
R: rhubarb, raspberries, raisins, raccoons, reality.
S: stars, strawberries, salmonberries, steak, salvation, Seahawks
T: tomato paste, truffles, turtles, turkey.
U: umbrellas, uglifruit, underwear.
V: vanilla, vans, victory, voices, vines, villages.
W: watermelon, water chestnuts, work, working in my yard.
X: xylophones, Xerox, x-rays.
Y: yams, young adults, yellow, you.
Z: zebras, zucchini, zeal, zest.

I'm back

My beloved husband asked me yesterday when I was going to do another post on my blog. Well, I am posting this today. It will have to do for now, but I will get back on here soon and do a blog that I have been working on for over a year. Until then, just wait.

I'm still here

I know that it has been a while since I last posted. I just wish that I felt like posting more...but then life gets in the way. If it isn't my physical health, it is my mental health. If it isn't helping my parents, it is helping my husband. If it isn't going to one appointment, it will be going to another one.

I thought that when I resigned my beloved job at the school, that I would have so much more time to be able to do things like blogging. But that has not been the case at all. Which is also a good thing. Because I don't sit and around and stare at the walls thinking of something to do. (Well, okay, there have been a couple of days that that has happened, but I always found something to do.)

I guess I don't blog as much as I would like to because I just don't know what folks would like to read. So, if you have any ideas, please let me know. I have a feeling that I won't hear anything from anyone, because it has been so long since I have blogged, and most people don't seem to like to take the time to read anything more than a quick posting on FB. So, if you happen to be actually reading this, I would love to hear from you. If not hear, then contact me on FB or email.
Thanks, Alice

PS. I think I might change my name to Alcie, because it seems that I always type that name when I am in a hurry.

No pain, no gain

Our preacher preached a great message this morning on God loving you so much that He punishes you. The title of this post kept going through my head. No pain, no gain. If God didn't love us, He wouldn't care about us. Therefore, since He does love His children, He does care about them, and He does punish them when they need it. So, it is also true, that if you aren't a child of God, then He wouldn't punish you. That just made me so happy to hear that again.

It was those words that got me to realize when I was 16 years old that I was not a child of God. I was a brat and got away with doing all sorts of sinful things...and I never got punished for it by either my mom nor dad, but worse, I also didn't get punished by God. I wasn't His child. I belonged to satan and God doesn't punish other folk's kids. How did I become a child of the devil? It wasn't hard. I didn't have to do anything. I was born into sin and that's where I stayed until I accepted Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord.

There have been many, many times that I have felt the stinging punishment of the Lord. Why? Because He loves me and knows just what I deserve. Do you think that it makes God a big meany? You are so wrong. It makes God a loving and caring Father of His children.

If I had been allowed to have all of the children that I wanted to have, I would have been so full of pride about what a great mom I was. If the one child that I do have was allowed to be "normal", I wouldn't have her with me every day (a very special blessing). If I had been allowed to make a career of being a para-educator, I would not be able to serve the Lord and others like I can. If I had been allowed to have perfect health and never had to deal with fibromyalgia nor arthritis nor mental illness, I would be so full of myself that I would choke. I wouldn't have any empathy nor sympathy for anyone.

I have to admit that when I went through God's "spanking machine" I hated it. I thought that God was punishing me for some wicked thing that I had done. I believed that God hated me and wanted to remove all joy from my life. I thought He wanted to ruin me. I was mad and there were times when I yelled at the LORD. However, I needed to be reminded today that God punishes me because He loves me and cares so much about me. He knows all about me from before I was conceived to all eternity. As I look back on the last thirty years, I can see His love and care in every situation. He has changed me and made me into a woman that I never could have imaged that I could become.

The truth and the blessing are the fact that there is no gain in the life of a Christian without going through the pain.

Please don't misunderstand. There are times and I believe that many of those times, the pain that we endure is caused by our own actions. You know the old saying, "If you play with fire, you will get burned." And one of my mom's favorites, "If you lie down with dogs, you'll get up with fleas."
Don't think that God punished you when you did it to yourself. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the extra pain I am experiencing in my knees is my fault because I have been overeating again. That pain is my doing and if I don't lose some weight, I will have to bear the consequences.

So, if I was you, the first thing I would do is to take inventory and find out if your pain is coming from punishment from God or is it of your own doing. If it is of God, then rejoice that He loves you and cares so much about you. If it is of yourself, then take steps to make things right. If you aren't receiving any punishment of the Lord, then you need to right now pray and ask the Lord Jesus Christ to be your saviour and to cleanse you of your sins. God bless!

Rainbow ramblings

I just felt like doing something different in this post. I don't know why I chose gray as the background color, especially since I hate the color gray. I chose a dark red color for the type and guess I thought it would look good against a gray background.

So, now I have decided to do a different color scheme. This one reminds me of springtime and sunshine and new life and Easter...which is coming really soon. I love this time of year and I love yellow. It is my favorite color.

Okay, let's see how this one looks. This is maroon with pink. I also love dark pink, not hot pink, just a deep pink. Whenever I wear pink, I think I look healthier. It is one of those colors that just looks good on me. Yes, I am a girly girl and love girly girl colors.

I had a massage this afternoon and my therapist and I were talking about how much we enjoyed ourselves on our separate vacations to Arizona. She was talking about how blue the sky is down there and I was remembering the blue of the Arizona sky when I picked this color scheme. I wish I was back in AZ sitting by the pool and looking up into that blue, blue sky. Paradise.

I didn't think the color scheme would change, but it did. Another season that I love is Autumn. I love the deep earth tones that Fall represents. Dark reds, shades of orange, browns, yellows, and deep green. The only bad thing about Autumn is that is signals the coming of colder and wetter weather especially here in western Washington.

Let's get back to Easter time colors. They are the happiest of colors to me. Easter represents new life and overwhelming love...from God to all of us. Easter, the Resurrection Day. Jesus Christ died on the cross, shedding his blood and giving his life to pay for our sins. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. That whosoever believes in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life. Easter Sunday, way back in 1976, was when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Will you accept Him this Easter?

I hope you have enjoyed my rainbow blog. God loves you and there is nothing that can ever change that fact. Do you love him? Do you seek to please him? Jesus said that if we love him, we will keep his commandments. His commandments: to love the Lord our God with all our heart and our neighbor as ourselves.

"Homework"

My darling daughter told me again today that I hadn't posted on my blog in a looooong time. She's right. I just haven't felt like it, or I have been too busy, or too tired because I had been too busy. But now that the house is almost completely back to normal, and because I am on a guilt trip, I will post on my blog.

We went to Arizona for a month and loved it. I truly did not want to come home. And then I had a really hard time once we did come home because all I wanted to do was to go back to the warm sunshine of Arizona. So, instead of going back, we got busy doing house work. We pulled up all the rugs and carpets. I had so much fun pulling out staples from the floor. We painted the three bedrooms, the family room, the kitchen, the hallway, and one wall in the dining room. We would have painted the living room and the rest of the dining room, but we were just sick and tired of it. (The main bathroom will still need to be done during the summer.) 

Because of all the work we did to the house, we basically moved everything into the garage for six weeks. It was kind of nice to have an empty house. Made it much easier to clean.

Once we got the painting done, we had the new carpet installed. (We love it.) We decided that it was also time for new trim in the bedrooms since the old stuff had been there since the house was built in 1979. So, we got the wood and stained and varnished it ourselves. That was fun. I love working with real wood.
We cleaned everywhere and everything. And then it was time to bring the junk back in the house. I have gone through all of it and am getting rid of so much stuff. But there still seems to be a ton of junk. Oh well, I thank God for all of it. He is the One who allowed us to earn the money in the first place so that we could purchase what we own.

What is the Truth and Blessing? Well, first off, I have a wonderful husband and daughter. They did so much to help me around here. Second, that everything we have comes from and belongs to God. Thirdly, this world is not my home. Even though I love so much that which is here on the earth, it is nothing compared to the love that I have for the Lord and the home He is preparing for me. Can't wait to get there...in His time.