Casting Your Cares

Cast your cares on him Wonderers!

“Give your worries to the Lord, and he will care for you. He will never let those who are good be defeated.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭55:22‬ ‭ERV‬‬

http://bible.com/406/psa.55.22.erv

Yesterday I landed myself into the hospital. Why? What happened you might ask? Fear. The same fear I said I was not feeling!

Well I thought I was not operating in fear. So let’s break it down.

Fear is defined in Dictionary.com as a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid.

For the past few days my oldest daughter had observed that my face was swollen on one side. I saw it but I was not overly concerned about it. Yesterday she asked why was I speaking out of one side of my mouth. Okay! I’m a little concerned now but I move on with my day. “Promise me you’ll call your doctor Mom.” The last words she said to me.

I went on to get some chores completed and true I wasn’t feeling good but nothing really not out of the normal for me except now, I’m feeling impending doom. (Really it could have just been the feeling of impending housework. I like a clean house but I don’t care to do the cleaning). Anyway, the feeling is overwhelming and I start to cry. I pray about it and I then decide to go to urgent care just to get checked out and keep my promise. One ambulance ride and several test later, I get invited to a sleepover at the local hospital.

This morning the mediation is about casting your cares on Jesus. Yesterday I missed the mediation and it was on the topic of fear. This situation comes to mind as being a test. Not that God is testing me but he is convicting me. He did bring it to my attention that regardless of the pending test results he is paying close attention and I have nothing to be afraid of. He is the author of my life and Yesterday I was operating in fear. Fear for my children not for myself. Did I take care of everything. Will they be okay? I even mentioned it in my prayer. I was prepared for his will but what about my children. It was one of them that set this fear in my mind. Maybe the past experience of losing a parent who did not seek medical help influenced her. I had to ask myself am I afraid to be the parent and take the lead and make the decisions for myself and my family? I wasn’t being told by my own intuition that I needed medical attention. I’m not so sure. I do know now fear played a big part of me sitting on this hospital bed.

Fear can come in so many forms. I am not in fear for my future, of being alone or taking care of all the responsibilities left to me to discern. As confident as I am in God’s plans for my life I realize that there are still things I have not surrendered to Him.

If I have anything to fear it will be the hospital bill that’s following this venture. Nope Wonderers, it is already covered. Thank you Jesus!

Thank you for perusing and have a wonderful joyous day.

Walk in Joy!

Denise

His Girls

He asked, “What are my girls gonna do when I’m gone?”

        Well:

The girl woke up and changed her mind about what’s important in life.

One girl quit her job and followed her dream.

Another one took a class so maybe she can get an office job.

The littlest of them all started reading and writing her own notes saying they came from you telling them all:  “You are loved bekus you love from the heart.  

Today without you the girls drove from South Carolina to Philadelphia.

Without you the girls leaned into Jesus Christ who strengthens them and gives them perfect love.

The girls got moxie.


<a href=”https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/moxie/”>Moxie</a&gt;

Into Every Life Rain Must Fall

Good morning Wonderers!

I hope you’ve got your coffee and are ready to hear a little of my madness. It’s been a while so please be patient with me. 

This summer being the great mom that I am, I purchased season passes to Carowinds, our local amusement park.  Let’s not stop there I also purchased the drink plan and meal plan.  Such a good mommy!  Like the mom who sprinkles flour on her face when she makes rice crispy treats. 😜 Really though I have loved saying several times a week I might add, “Let’s go the Carowinds for dinner!”   Every time-they react like it’s the first time I said it this season.   Mental note moms:  Children are so easy. 

Now let me inform you I am not the amusement park type. I am not really the wanna be outside in the heat type either. My idea of “Ruffin it” is continental breakfast at Holiday Inn Express. 😳 And I don’t do rides. I do eat all the snacks under the rides while I wait although I’m not supposed too.  Heck, if the lines are long enough, the world may never know!  It will be our secret.

On to why you’re here.   I decided there was a ride I wanted to try.  It’s a ride that goes to air traffic control height and it looks like a carousel in the sky.  My mission for the summer Wonderers!  I thought, I’ll have to ease my way into it.  J who is 6, wants to ride the swings. She just made the height chart and is super excited.   I thought this to be the first step to my victory.  She carefully selected her seat and waited for the ride to begin.  I just grabbed the first seat I came too.   I noticed she kept looking at me and I wondered if she was scared.  Maybe I should have sat next to her.  At lift off I was feeling a little panicky and when it started to swing I gripped the chains and started mumbling to Jesus.   I could hear J laughing. I tried to open my eyes to see if she was laughing at me but the roof of an adjacent building was coming at me so I shut my eyes again. I was whimpering like a baby.   I was really feeling anxious so I started praying for the Lord to stop the ride.   As the ride started to lower I gave up all claims to ride the big carousel in the sky.   My dream had been dashed and to make matters worst when the ride stopped and I opened my eyes my swing ramjacked the swing in front of me.   Only mines did that. Everyone else’s stopped on point. Maybe that was the insult of being on the kiddie ride. When it was time to get off J turned to me and said, “that’s why I get on the inside swing!   How humiliating!  She did see me shivering in the air.

At the next ride I stayed on the ground and got me a funnel cake with powder sugar, vanilla ice cream and strawberries.   I deserved it!  Just when I sat down to eat it, it started to rain.  Okay Derrick, okay God y’all got jokes.   I looked inside my healthy backpack and “ Shazam!”  Pulled out a ziplock bag!

Girl Scouts prepared me well.   If you can’t fly high at least be able to cover ground. Oh! I gonna have to put that on a flag or something.


Have a great Monday Wonderers and thanks for perusing.

A Simple Prayer Answered

It started with a question.  Can you please start emptying out those boxes in the closet? 

 

Well of course I can.  I’m just laying here in the bed doing nothing.  Those boxes have been there since we moved to this place almost two years ago. I guess today is as good as any other day.  While I was going through the boxes I came upon an old journal   I loved this journal’s cover.  I came upon it when diabetes starting showing itself in my thought process.  I was having problems with my short term memory and decided I would start writing everything down.  The woman reminded me of the me I used to know.  Strong, independent and quick witted. I could sense all of it in here eyes. She was going to help me disguise my new flaw and keep my secret.

 

I open the journal.  I’m always amazed when I read things that I wrote previously, especially the things I wrote when I was just a kid.  My mom sometimes sends me writings she runs across.  I was full of it back then, even more so than now, but what I ran across this time was different.  I ran across a prayer.  I tend to write these prayers when the need arises.  It’s how my grandmother taught me to pray.  I never verbally heard her in prayer but I knew she was a Godly woman and prayed for her family.  It’s just one of the blessings she gave me.  The ability to pray for my family.    The prayer started like this:

12-14-11

Thank you God for all you are doing on behalf my family.  Please help us provide a home for A so he can begin to heal mentally and emotionally.  Please assist D in his endeavors to provide for all of us.  He is trying so hard to provide us with a new home so there will be enough space to provide a room for every individual.  It is important for everyone to have their own space.  Please help N control her impulses and be able to advance in school.  Please help J and K come to a better understanding and begin the healing process.  Thank you for all the success that B had made.  I owe all the glory to you.  Thanking you in advance for all the miracles that are coming my way.  In Jesus name I thank you and pray.  D.

 

A simple prayer for some big issues.  A simple prayer I forgot I made.

 

We closed on our home on January 31. 2012.  It must have been ordained, It happen so fast.  We had put our house up for sale in the previous December.  We found our new home in the middle of January and closed on within 15 days.  We started moving in the week of Valentines.  We were moving things in slowing because we didn’t have to rush, the old house was still up for sale and we were debating on did we want to keep it or really sell it. 

 

I was taking my time because I hadn’t been feeling well.  I had a trip to the emergency room in December and again in January, but my blood glucose level was high.  When you’re a diabetic and your glucose is high that’s what they treat, they do not necessarily look for anything else.  I had a feeling of impending doom and I remember telling my boss, “By the time I get my family settled, I’ll be in the hospital somewhere.”   In less than a month, our old house sold.  We went to closing on a Friday.  I took off work for the occasion because we had to get the rest of the stuff out of the house.

 

That Sunday I had been unpacking, separating boxes, putting things I did not necessarily have to deal with in closets.  It was work and I was feeling overwhelmed and I had been complaining all weekend.  I was tired of this and I was tired of that.  I didn’t sign on for this.  I quit!  I will no longer take the responsibility of others, I quit!

 

As the evening worn down, I was feeling good about what I had accomplished in the house.  Around midnight I went to bed.  As soon as I hit the pillow instantly I did not feel good.  I got up and went to the bathroom and out of nowhere vomited.  I did not feel sick, no pains or nausea so my first reaction is that it must have been something I ate.  Five hours later laying on the bathroom floor I was exhausted.  I literally could not get up.  I had been calling for someone, but no one heard my calls.  Finally I decided to call on God and I prayed, “If it’s your will God, please help me get off this floor.”  I heard him question, “Are you really tired and ready to quit?”  I had to think about it.  I had a chance to make my thoughts right and I said “No!”  I started crawling out of the bathroom.  Out of my bedroom and collapsed at the bedroom door.  About an hour later by daughter came out of her room and saw me on the floor and called her father.

 

He came home and took me to the emergency room.  Turns out the gallbladder had perforated, and gangrene had set in.  It had been dying probably since December and if I would have waited another hour, I would have died.  The shock to the body set off an underlying medical condition that I had under control.  I never went back to work.  They could not wait for me to get better.  They retired me five months later to fill my position.

 

Now looking at this prayer I realized the answers I have been looking for the last 20 months has been staring me in the face all this time. Stabbing at my heart every moment I have defied the inevitable.  It was his will for me to live to provide a home for A.  It was his will for me to help my family and to keep praying for them.   I’m home for the first time in my adult life.  A stay at home mom and wife. Anything else I get to do is gravy.

To answer your questions, Yes N did finish school.  All of the kids are doing fine.  After all, that’s what I’m here for.

 

I needed to close that chapter of my life.  I’m ready to get well now and move forward.  Thanks for listening wonders and

Thank you God, I owe you all the glory.  Thanking you in advance for all the miracles that are coming my way.

Girl Power

Hello Wonders:

“I’m off the friendship level”, he said. “I’m on the first level and I’m gonna keep changing levels until I’m on the girlfriend level. That will be when I’m in high school.” These are the words of my sixth grader first thing this morning. We had just sat down for breakfast. I hadn’t even had a chance to sip on my coffee and I must have had a look that made him feel I was perplexed because he said it again.

I asked the question of what is first level.

His response: I met a girl and I’m gonna get two passes for us to go to art class at lunch. We had lunch together and I like her and she likes to draw like me.

Okay, I understand.

Last semester he met a girl that liked music and played on the school orchestra. He joined the orchestra at the deadline and started playing the violin. Turns out he is pretty good at it. He is artistic but did not elect to have art as a class this year but he changed his roster to take art this semester for the new level interest.

Little does he know he has been on the first level for a while now. Last summer he learned to ride a bike from the little girl across the street. She is younger than he is but a girl just the same. At least six family members have been trying to teach him to ride for several years now but the little girl across the street gave him the confidence to let go of his fear.

While he was learning to swim, he held his breath, went under water and opened his eyes because the female life guard called him cute.

Dear Girls:

I thank you for encouraging my son to try new things. Please continue to use your girl powers for good and not evil. Be warned, if/when you start leading him unto a path of destruction, I will be there to thwart your efforts. Until that time, I love you.
Sincerely,
His Mom

I think I have about another three years before I have to worry about the high school girlfriend because when he came home I asked him how his lunch date went. He replied, “It was okay but you’re still my best girl.

Until next time, thanks for perusing and keep wondering.

Mundy Madness – Tapping Out on Christmas

Good morning my fellow wonderers.

Yesterday I was soaking in the bathtub questioning why I was feeling so defeated about Christmas. I had to admit to myself that my expectation and what I was actually achieving didn’t measure up . First off I haven’t been feeling well and had to address some health issues last week. I had gotten home from the hospital Friday and was resting when the hubby calls stating he had a viral infection and was coming home. Why is it whenever I have a down time someone else has to be down too? That sounds insensitive I know but can’t I be sick alone. I remember when I worked I never told anyone at the house I was sick until everyone got home from school or work. If they knew I was home I would get a phone call someone else was sick too and I would end up nursing everyone else back to health. I just went to bed. Tapped out after I washed all the sheets and blankets. Turns out he did not have a viral infection just a rash.

Saturday I still wanted to be all and everything for Christmas for my grands but it wasn’t working out. It all came to a head over the weekend when I decided we would make candy. We always made cookies but never candy before. We started with making caramels but of course it didn’t get hot enough and we ended up with Caramel sauce. Great taste and I think it will be good on waffles Christmas morning or Ice cream for dessert. After I cleaned the kitchen I announced we will make coconut macaroon later that evening. When I came back in the kitchen there was sugar all over the floor. Come to find out J had knocked the sugar over and they got up as much of it as they could. I still had about 5 pounds of sugar left for my candy making but when I realized they had gathered up the sugar from the floor and added it to the clean sugar — TAP OUT! I went back to bed. What kind of mess was this?

When I woke up, my son had the girls mop the kitchen floor and he went to get some clean sugar for me. J and I made coconut macaroon dots. Do you remember that candy? The candy that you ate off of paper! I just gave up.

I told my husband I was going to take a bath, roll up my hair and just wait for Christmas. It’s just to late to get candy in the mail and I was just going to accept it as it is. What was done was done and it was going to be okay. The bathtub was going to be an attitude adjustment. While I was in the bath, J my two year old granddaughter comes in and I say, ” Its my quiet time!” She replied, “You want some help?” and starts taking her clothes off. I tap out and put my hands up and help her into the tub. We watch Netflix and Polish our toe nails when it becomes apparent to me this is what Christmas is about and I vow to just spend time with my family be it doing chores, baking cookies or just playing a game. Whatever the days bring the rest of the holiday belongs to them.

This morning I check the second batch of caramel which turned out perfect. We had even made some caramel popcorn. The macaroons have loosened off the papers and I still have time to get one box of candy in the mail for my dad.

Christmas is going to be alright after all! Thank you my little two year old!

Until next time, thanks for perusing and Merry Christmas Everyone!

Artful Oven Mitts

Hello wonderers!

You guys know I have been searching for a craft to make for the middle schoolers. Well, thanks to stitchinggrandma for blogging about this site. I have found the coolest oven mitts at http://talesofastitcher.com/2013/11/10/artful-oven-mitts/

You have to go over and take a peek! They are gorgeous. You know how I love colorful things.
Thanks Maria for sharing.

I know you remember I am a little challenged on the sewing machine but Prettyladybaby is coming to visit her mommy soon and you guys know how she loves to guilt. She can get me started and I’ll have plenty of time to get enough for atleast a class. What, I’ve got until the end of May. ;-). And I can make them feminine or masculine. How cool is that!

And there’s a bonus to all of this. Kerrie will be elated I’m sewing!

I’m accepting my own challenge. A new year. A new project. I’m so excited!!!!

Wanted: Domestic Engineer

Hello fellow wonderers and welcome new wonders. As usual, thank you for perusing my blog.

I met a young woman today and we got into a conversation about our children. At some point of the conversation I must of asked her what her profession was. I don’t remember asking but that doesn’t say much because I do tend to drift when people talk to me. But somewhere in the conversation, she announced she was a domestic engineer. Is that a new term? I hadn’t heard it before so I asked her what it was. She got offended and said again, “Domestic Engineer!” Call me stupid because I asked her where she worked. Again, but a little condescending, ” I’m a domestic engineer.”

This time it clicked. Oh, stay at home mom, housewife, unemployed. Gotcha!!

I’m socially sensitive so speaking from years of experience over her I had to tell her that being a mom is the most important job in the world. It is the hardest job in the world and I wished I could have just been that for my family. This time around just being a “MOM” is enough.

I gave her my phone number in case she wanted to have lunch sometime or arrange a play date. I wrote in out in her language. I put Denise, CEO. She laughed.

Following instructions

Good Morning Wonderers.

Fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree is an expression my mother likes to use often. I realize the possibility is true more than I care to admit.

The fruit:

The other day I told you I was at an audition with Alex for a visual arts program. Before the audition, I spoke to him about NOT drawing cartoon characters for the observation piece. Realism I said, realism. The instructor gave them a statue to draw. They were to create a scene using the statue. He drew a museum display. Paintings on walls, guide ropes around the statue, a fully realistic museum with what? Cartoon people. Not just cartoons. His superhero cartoon characters. The instructor said he had a great imagination. I hope the judges are looking for that!

The tree:

I really planned on doing a portrait on my next installment for art class. I had my model poised. (I took a picture of J sleeping.). I drew out the picture but before I started, I got to thinking I would not be able to see the guide. So what did I use? Permanent marker of course! Funny how after finishing the drawing I remembered Mr. S telling us NOT to use permanent marker. I’ve spent the last five days trying to cover over the lines. This painting went from a realistic approach to something totaling different from what I wanted to do. But my instructor also says there are no accidents in art. So I finished it. I’m proud of it. It’s the level I’m on.

It went from J’s poise

20131114-085423.jpg
To

20131114-085620.jpg

So Mom your saying may hold some truth but as far as following directions goes, I like Mr. S’s statement. Remember that Alex.

THERE ARE NO ACCIDENTS IN ART!

Thanks for perusing and have a great day.