Thanks for Everything, Even the Bad Stuff....

Happy Thanksgiving!

Oops, I am a little bit late, aren't I?

Anyway... I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We did. The Bug and Boo behaved (that almost sounds like a tongue twister), and no one ate so much that they got sick. Anytime it does not involve a trip to the emergency room, it is a good day.

What did YOU have to be thankful for this year?

We have many things in my family to be thankful for: people that needed jobs now have them, cancer has been fought, specialists for other ailments have been sought out, we have a loving family and church family that are very supportive of us, and our children are in good health.

But...

Come on, you knew there would be a big "but" coming sooner or later...

Sometimes it is hard for us to see and focus on the positive aspects of our lives, especially when there are still negative things going on. It is kind of like that old saying "the squeaky wheel gets the grease". In our lives sometimes negative things seem to far out squeak the positive, and what we focus on becomes our outlook and attitude.

But listen to this, I am not telling you to focus on the positive instead of the negative, although I do firmly believe sometimes that helps immensely. In fact, I am telling you to praise God and thank him through everything, including the dark times.

Let us turn to exhibit A, um, I think I have been watching too many cop shows on TV lately. Or you can just listen to "Blessed be your name" by Matt Redman, or Bug's favorite, Veggietales.

Job 1:21  "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart.   The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away, may the name of the LORD be praised."

In case you do not know the back story, Job had just been told over a matter of minutes that he had lost all of his animals (his lively hood, his source of income), his servants, and the last one, all of his children. At the same time.

After hearing all of this, Job had the courage and strength of character in that although he was grieving immensely, he was able to praise and thank God for what he had and the time he had it.

Do we possess this character? Let us put it all into perspective. I am not saying that we are not allowed to be sad or grieve, I just do not want us to take our eyes off of the eternal. God gives us everything. And sometimes, for whatever reasons, he takes them away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Happy Veteran's Day!

Happy Veteran's Day!

Today is a day that we try to set aside as a country to remember and honor those who have, and continue to, serve in our military to help make and keep this country what it has become today. No matter how many things our country does that are right or wrong, we must admit there are not many other places that we would have as many rights as we do here. We even have the right to complain when we do not like something, which is something many in other countries do not!

I would like to say a special thanks to anyone who served in active duty and was away from their homes and families. I do not think I could do it, but I do thank God that there are people out there who can, and do, for all of us. Words can not express the real thanks that we owe all of you.

I would also like to thank everyone else in the military. Whether you were called to serve in action or not, you were always trained to be ready, just in case, and ever vigilant. Thank you, as well.

Big thanks to both my Dad and Granddaddy, who both served in the military until they retired.

Let us all remember that today is not just about getting a day off of work, but remembering those who will fight for us, no matter what the cost.

I Love the 80s!

Does Veggie Tales singing the 80s mean that I can now listen to 80s music in the car with the girls, without having to skip or speed up past certain songs or lyrics?

I love the 80s!!

Well, the 80s music anyway. I'll have to be the first to admit that the 80s fashion, which I am sure made perfect sense to us all at the time, was a bit much. There is only so much neon that the world can take before it implodes on itself, and I believe that we almost exceeded our limit during that one decade. That is without even mentioning the parachute pants, t-shirt ties, rolling up our jeans (don't look so funny, if you are even close to 30 you know that you did it too), side pony-tails, leggings under long shirts and sweaters, and mix matching everything.

Oh, wait, am I still describing the 80s or am I talking about now?

Wow-- that is a scary thought!

Taterbug adores the "new" clothes and the look that goes with them. I figure it is better than bell bottoms and peasant shirts. She also loves the music. The poor child has to, though, because after riding with me for MANY hours back and forth while we lived away from here, she was subjected to more 80s music than someone her age should be. Add that to the fact that there was an AWESOME 80s station in the city we lived, and yeah, the poor bug did not stand a chance.

I think the only part of the 80s that she does not understand at all is the men's hair styles.

We were looking through some of my sister's cds one day to see which ones I wanted to *cough*borrow*cough* for maybe an extended period of time *cough*months*cough*years*cough* when we saw one for the Labyrinth soundtrack. It had a picture of David Bowie on the front as Jareth, with his long, full, tall?, very big 80s style hair.

What did she say?

"Hey, mom, who is this ugly woman on this CD?"

After we covered the fact that even if someone is, um, homely, we should never call anyone ugly because that would hurt their feelings and we wouldn't want someone to treat us like that, my sister and I then had to explain to her that in the 80s guys just had really big, really long hair. She told us she didn't get it, and asked how could we tell who was a girl and who was a boy.

Yeah, you answer that to a (then) 5 year old.

Kids, gotta love 'em.