Motives

Hi Everyone!  Blogging is so much fun.  It allows my friends and family inside my head and my world.  I am wide awake tonight so figured I would chat with ya'll a bit.  I just took the dogren out for a last "go" and nearly got eaten alive by chiggers and mosquitoes.  Yikes!!  We made a quick trip of it!!

I am still thinking about the little cat I saw that was sick and starving.  I wondered if she smelled the dog food I put out each morning for Sadie and Toby.  I take their food out and work in the garden while they munch away.  Toby is my "Velcro" dog and won't eat unless I am close.  I decided I would check with my across the street neighbor, Beverly, to see what I could do.  She works with a group that saves animals and said that she has a humane trap if I see the cat again and want to try catch it.  She'd seen the cat as well and hadn't been able to snare it.  So sad...

It's quiet here.  I can hear the sound of the fountain through the dining room window.  The sound of water always soothes me.  I have often times decided to sleep in the guest room because the fountain is just outside the window and it keeps me in a sweet slumber all night.  I think if I were rich, I would build a small screened in gazebo so I could sleep outside.  Without screens, the mosquitoes would eat me alive (like tonight)!!  I have all these ideas ... just takes time and money.  I have the time ... maybe I can figure out a way to make my ideas possible!

I'm so excited.  I ordered a white wicker table and chairs from Pier One to set on the back patio.  It's supposed to be in tomorrow.  They don't deliver BUT the lady at the desk said she would bring the set to me as she had a van.  Now...that's customer service!  I love eating outside and look forward to getting the grill set up and having some barbecues.  My goal is to put up some lights and have a festive place for friends and family to gather.  I always have to have a project going!!  There's something about putting together a plan and seeing it to completion that is so rewarding.

I finished reading the book of Proverbs for the second time this week.  In Chapter 21:2 it says, "We can justify our every deed but God looks at our motives."  There's a lot of meat in that statement.  In the childhood trauma therapy I had I looked at "motives" a great deal.  I don't think that my parents meant to hurt my spirit.  That way of thinking has gone a long way in my healing.  "Hurt people hurt people."  Ever heard that quote?  I think that it's true.  My therapist said that people react two ways when they are hurt repeatedly ... (1) you hurt me and I will get you back and (2) you hurt me, it must be my fault.  People who feel that their abuse was their fault usually have an easier time in therapy because since it was their fault not someone else's, they want to change.  When blame is spewed out and it's always someone else's fault, change is quite difficult.  Hearts harden and vengeance becomes a way of life.  I am fortunate ... In my life, my motives have been good even when things haven't turned out right.  I have peace there...

There are evil people in this world and I've met some with some pretty black hearts.  Ever meet anyone who smiled as they dug a barb into you?  Ever met someone who was unable to forgive and who held grudges?  What do you do when confronted with an evil soul?  Proverbs has helped me in this arena ... the first thing I began to realize was that most times my hunches and premonitions are right when I met someone and that I need to trust my instincts.  I now run when someone gives me the creeps!!!  I can't go back but I can go forward...  Let the evil ones lie about me or try to rock my world in a negative way ... my Lord has my back and protects me.  I rest in that!

Michael was here at the casa for the weekend.  This is his last week at work.  He's feeling pretty frazzled about not having a job lined up and has been working diligently on his resume'.  I've been praying for him daily that God would bless him with a job that would enable him to support our family.  I fixed him some meals that were his favorites and tried to be a good listener.  He said that when he walked in the back door, he felt so peaceful.  This place has a way of doing that to people!  Now, the decision needs to be made of whether we should rent the house in McKinney or sell it.

Let me share a funny (?) story with you.  In 1994, my husband and I decided to rent the house we had built to a woman who owned a limousine company.  She had two small daughters and a nanny who lived with her.  Karen (not her real name) had money for the first and last month's rent as well has another $1,000 for the deposit.  She seemed very nice and her references checked out.  One night about midnight, we got a call from our former neighbor.  She said that the swat team was outside our house ... she said there were men in bullet proof vests swarming the neighborhood...  Good grief!  I called the police station and told them what had been reported.  They said that yes they were after the woman who lived in the residence.  Later, I talked with the head of the swat unit ... the sweet young lady who moved into our home was deep into the world of prostitution and drugs.  When we were allowed back into the house, we were so glad that it hadn't been damaged in the raid.  Karen, her children and the nanny had surrendered without a fight.  After that incident, we decided to sell the house and it was purchased by a couple who fell in love with the house and gardens in the back.  It was a good ending to what could have been a mess ... I'm still a bit gun shy about renters!  Hmmmm...

I talked with my daughter, Jane, this weekend.  Tim got home from Minnesota safety.  She and Katrina had written a welcome message to him on the driveway using chalk and they enjoyed a relaxing evening of the family being back together.  Granddaughter Madison will be going on a mission trip in July so she will remain in Minnesota until then.  They've had a wild ride this summer ... first deciding to move back to Minnesota then having a job pop up unexpectedly for Tim in Tampa.  Life is such an adventure!  We will be visiting them sometime this summer which, I know, will be really fun!!

My Aunt Helen's Celebration of Life Service will be held August 6th in my home town in Minnesota.  I have wanted to go back for a visit for such a long while and just decided that I was just going to go.  My cousins Nancy and Jim are hosting a lunch for us all at a resort.  Golly!  It will be so much fun to visit with cousins I haven't seen in 40+ years.  My brother and his wife have graciously offered me a place to stay.  It will be good to catch up with them as well.  I am trying to convince them to make a trip to Texas when the snow flies this upcoming Winter.  Since I haven't been at the past couple high school reunions, I am hoping to gather some friends for lunch or dinner.  There's something special about my high school friends ... good people!!  I still remember us all as young men and women ready to take on the world!!

Melchor was here to check on the leveling of the foundation.  One thing I have learned is that the Hispanic workers around here are really jacks of all trades.  I really need to take a crash course in Spanish.  Many of them can speak broken English but so much gets lost in the translation.  We are needing to have the back patio removed and new cement poured ... Melchor said he is now doing remodeling and cement work and gave me a bid.  Workers are hungry here and eager to work.  Problem is, sometimes they think they can do something when they really can't.  They all call me the nice little lady...  Is it because i am so trusting and gullible??  Probably...  I wish I had jobs for all of them in one way or another...  The older I get the more I want to help as many people as possible.

My allergies are giving me fits today.  My eyes are itchy and red, my nose is running and I look like I've been on a two day toot.  There's something in my garden that is causing me to be quite miserable!  Last year about this time, I got picked to be on a jury deciding the fate of a driver given a DUI.  I found out later that I was picked because my eyes were red.  Good move because when we were deliberating, I knew that red eyes didn't necessarily mean that he was inebriated.  We did find the man guilty but I've kicked myself because I was the last hold out and just didn't feel that he was guilty.  I finally gave in to peer pressure and changed my vote mainly because he had refused a blood test.  I talked with both attorneys after the case was over and both said that it was going to be a maybe yes and maybe no case.  If the man would have submitted to a blood test, they wouldn't have been having the trial as he really was telling the truth about the amount of alcohol he had consumed.  Pride went before a fall.  I learned something though -- next time, I need to follow my own convictions even though everyone else has a different view.

Life is full of stories and experiences.  You just never know what is going to happen around the corner.  I love to listen to older folks talk about their lives.  When I can get Mom S to talk about her childhood, I get a kick out of her stories.  Yesterday, she told me a story about throwing a salt shaker at her mother when she was eating watermelon.  The shaker cut her mother's forehead and, to this day, Mom is afraid to eat watermelon because it reminds her of a time when, as a little girl, she thought she had killed her mother.

I hope that my stories have reminded you of some of your own stories.  Take some time and share your stories with your family and friends.  It's been that kind of a day ... a lazy, hazy day of Summer ... a day to relax in the hammock, sip on some iced tea and listen to the sounds of the stories of life!!

HAVE A MOST WONDERFUL DAY ... RUN IN A SPRINKLER ... LAUGH TIL YOUR TUMMY HURTS AND LET SOMEONE CLOSE TO YOU KNOW HOW VERY SPECIAL THEY ARE!!  TIL NEXT TIME, KNOW YOU ARE LOVED AND PRAYED FOR ... YA YOU!!