Gravel Road Musings

When I think of Christmas, I think of family times, togetherness, gifts, Jesus, and just good happy things.  But think about it:  the first Christmas was anything but that. I read an email today from someone who is serving the Lord in a less than receptive country across the ocean somewhere.  And he was talking about a cozy Christmas.  This year was looking good, then the school shooting in Connecticut stopped us in our tracks and we wondered where the coziness was going to be.  But he brought out that the first Christmas and the first few years of Jesus' life were anything but cozy.  A manger?  Really, not likely a clean manger like all the nativity scenes have.  Instead of a crazed youth killing people, it was a crazed king killing babies.  And yet why do we think it was cozy?  Because God was in control. Think of that popular picture of the bird in the nest safe and secure while the wind and storm and lightning rage all around. ...

Now is that long (or maybe it won't be long) depressing post that was scheduled for a few days ago and never happened.  If you don't feel like listening to something of a small rant, I suggest you click the little x box up in the upper right corner of your screen and ignore me. I am not depressed--let me say that straight out.  I may tend to frustration and discouragement, but not depression.  This all started 7 days ago exactly when I talked to 4 different people with 4 different kinds of problems.  It all came down to 2 categories--two very, very familiar categories. The first category is this: family problems and depression.  I lump the two together because I think that family issues tend to lead to depression at some point whether people admit it or not.  Think about it:  if you don't have a good family relationship to fall back on, life is going to be so much tougher to face.  It's sad how many good "plain" homes are corrupted with family...

I had my Thanksgiving post somewhat formulated in my head.  It was the post in which the Eeyore in me was going to come out in a very depressing post purposely posted on Thanksgiving day.  That post is still in my head, but the day has passed and I didn't take the time to get it out on the computer screen. So instead, I will focus on a little happier things in life.  I am happy because my mom came down yesterday and we shot off to town on a lark and bought material and came home and made 4 purses.  They are quite cute if I must say so myself.  She left around 10 this morning; I finished the purses and then went hunting with D.  That was many hours in a tree stand, but I looked at the Black Friday ads, read, and we played some Rook, so it was some quality and quiet together time. Tonight, I finished up some Birthday gifts; I'd go into more detail, but one never knows who reads this anymore and I can't risk my secrets being discovered by the wrong person....

It's melancholy me returning to my blog.  I have another happy post--a picture of the last completed project. I finished it last week, took a picture of it and life has moved on at a crazy pace since then. Death seems to come in groups.  Four more people that I knew of have passed away; only one in what you could call a timely death.  (Meaning he was old enough that it doesn't surprise you) The one that has touched me most deeply has been D's first cousin, Ruth Leatherman.  She was 31 years old and died in her sleep.  How do you reconcile that?  People that young do NOT die in their sleep.  She was athletic, had just run a marathon 2 weeks before that.  How does your heart just not keep doing its normal thing?  Why does it choose to stop functioning correctly?  She left behind a husband and 3 small children.  You want to cry out and say, God, why?  But as her mother said, "God must have needed her more."  That's the on...

After the last sad and more dreary post, I decided it was time to post some happy things in life:  Going on dates with D.  I think it can be as nice now as when we were dating because going on a date now means I don't have to cook.  And yes, I like D for other reasons than that too, but I don't do gush and mush on the world wide web.  My very tiny fall decor.  And I have no idea what those darkish spots are on the green.  I didn't realize there were any there in real life, but there could be.  My washer has a tendency to make things dirty when washing with just such spots.  I think I might have helped the situation some, but don't know.  Coffee and Pull-Apart Pumpkin Bread (not pictured) with friends.  It was a lovely day that day.  Coffee with friends in the morning and a girls' club staff meeting in the evening.  A very abnormal Saturday for me in that I pretty much did nothing, but wait--that's kind of what I d...

Now there's a somber title, but it kind of describes how I'm feeling about life right now.  Now there's an oxymoron too. Death vs Life: we take life so much for granted until something happens and death stalks our door.  Then we are extremely grateful for the life we have been given and well we should be.  But how do you prepare yourself for the inevitability of death or can you?  Must it always come as a surprise and wallop you on the side of the head and while you are groping and grasping for meaning to this untimely death, another one comes and wallops you on the other side. That's a little of how I have been feeling these last two and a half weeks: a little walloped on all sides.  Since Tuesday, August 28, 2012, six people have died.  The last two are not people I have known real well, but they were patients at the clinic.  All six of these people died an untimely death--it doesn't seem fair, it doesn't seem right, but yet I know God has a plan...

Has anyone noticed that I am very generic on my titles?  Very generic!!!!  I can never come up with a cute little title that begs for the article to be read.  There are probably several reasons for this: a. the article isn't begging to be read or not even worth the time required to read it b. naming things isn't my forte (our poor kids, if we ever have any) c. I tend to ramble on posts so that a title would have to be long-winded and an article in and of itself to capture the full essence of the post. Some days, I long to sit down and write long, sophisticated posts that are full of mental wanderings and ponderings and leave everyone walking away or clicking away going--Wow!!  She really made me think. Other days, I want to sit down and type out a post that will leave your sides aching from laughter. Most days, I manage to skip blogging altogether. A few days, I sit down and just blog about whatever I think about that is appropriate to put on a computer sc...

So, I really left this blog in an annoying and disturbed state of mind.  I am healthy again and have been for nearly a month.  Wow, I never realized how good it is to feel good.  I guess it's clear proof that sometimes you never know what you had until it's missing. So, for the last several weeks, I have been studying the Proverbs 31 woman, using the course outlined here . I have really been enjoying it.  I don't know if all the descriptions is really how it was for this lady, but I do know it has really helped me to feel like I could maybe attain to some form of virtue.  I did tell D this morning though, that sometimes I feel like the only thing I have in common with this lady is the fact of hunting for good deals.  (She gathers her food from afar was given to mean, she went the distance to buy good, wholesome, and cheaper food than buying it at the corner store.)  But as I sit here on the couch, there are dishes piled on the counter that didn't get...

So, I whined a lot yesterday about being sick and about all the things that never happen to me are happening to me, well guess what?  One more thing has happened!!!!!!!  I have pretty much officially lost my voice.  As in I didn't work today, because I really can barely talk, even worse than the last few days.  Now, with enough effort, I can get audible sentences at all times, but in no way would I be having a shouting contest with anyone.  So, I just want to know if I have been humbled enough by all this that I can soon start to feel better again. And I keep reading about this virtuous woman.  I'm doing this study from GoodMorningGirls blog and it has really helped the Proverbs 31 woman to not be so lofty and out of reach.  I don't know if it's all accurate in the details, but the lady who wrote the e-book to go with it takes the verses and brings them down to our times.  "Bringeth her food from afar,"  equals scrupulous and frugal shoppin...

This third decade things isn't working out so well for me.  I told my co-worker today that I think I will have to skip the 30's and go straight to the 40's.  She thought maybe old age would be easier to handle than sickness?  I don't know, but being sick has sure not blossomed into anything wonderful. I don't get sick and I certainly don't get the "flu", and I don't run fevers either.  All of these high-falutin' statements have crumbled around my feet in the last 5 days.  I have been sick, I have run fevers up to 101.5, and I think I got the icky nasty "flu".  Sick enough, that the flu shot is sounding very tempting for next year and I am one that laughs at that shot.  But since Saturday afternoon, all that has gotten done around this joint was the dishes one time (and then not even put away yet).  And now, I did manage to get a load of laundry in the washer and dryer and need to dredge up the courage to get off the couch and go put...

It's a slow day in the life of the little country clinic.  Everybody must be working frantically to get all their hay in before possible rain.  It's funny, really, how we always have a reason for a slow day.  Either it's too nice to go to the doctor, or it's too rainy or whatever.  Always a reason.  :):) A slow day every now and then is nice though, really.  Nobody wants to answer the phone either, it seems, because my inbox is full of people who don't answer their phones.. I hope nobody minds my small rants on here about life and how you should behave at the doctor's office.  Unfortunately, I don't go through the list each time I go on here to see what has been ranted about previously, so if I repeat myself, just bear with me and chalk up to early-onset dementia. Speaking of dementia, I bet you were all expecting a big rant to come up.  Well, it would have, but right now I can't think what I wanted to rant about anymore.  Sad, isn't it? ...

From this: just plain and dirty tannish pots To This: Supposed to look old-fashioned, expensive, granite pots.  I am quite happy with how they turned out and now they are filled with geraniums, petunias, and allysum.  I guess I was going to post a picture of the filled pots, but I don't have one and they aren't very nice yet, so we will have to wait and see.   I finally finished it.  It's name?  "Kiss me Kate"  I like it quite a lot.  It is all scrap material, with no rhyme or reason.  Now, I want to go sew some more.  

It really is hard to come up with names for a blog, especially when I have full intentions of touching on numerous subjects within one blog post. As we all know, I don't blog too often, so I have to cover a lot of subjects when I do. I always have good intentions of blogging, but too many other things come in my way and I get easily sidetracked. So to all you young moms out there who use cloth diapers. Kudos to you. I applaud you and appreciate you, but I have just one thing to say. When you go away and take cloth diapers and your child requires a diaper change, go ahead and change the diaper, but PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE take the dirty cloth diaper with you. It is most disagreeable to the nurse to walk out into the waiting room and find a suspicious diaper laying half on a little chair, half on the floor. A glove is gotten and the object gingerly picked up, (all the while, the nurse is thinking, surely not, surely not. Surely no one actually left their dirty diaper here did ...

And yes, I am quite well aware of the fact that these two subject titles have nothing in common with each other. And I hope I don't offend anyone my mixing humor and serious all in one post. We will start with the latter. Our church had ordination this past weekend and it was a really good weekend. But what has stuck out in my mind since then was the sermon we heard on Saturday night, entittled: "Surrendered to the Will of God." It felt like a revival sermon. Just a really good emphasis on being surrendered to God, willing to take up your cross and sacrifice and follow the call that God has given you in your life. The story was told of Frances Havergal and her change from nominal Christianity to solid devotion and how she asked God to save the 10 people in the house that she was staying in and how through her prayers and God working, all 10 people were saved. It was the kind of sermon where you left and you were almost jealous of the two ministers being ordained. Not that...

I believe it is safe to say that it has been a long time since I have posted here. Beware, this may be a long, lengthy post. But I may also run out of time as I will soon need to get ready for church. I suppose you are wondering why I chose the title. I was reading the SS lesson this morning and the phrase that jumped out to me was when Jesus reached out and touched the man with leprosy. That just wasn't done in those days. You didn't touch unclean people; you didn't touch people with leprosy for sure, because maybe you would get the disease from them. I am not real sure what leprosy was in today's vernacular-if it truly was a contagious disease or just a dreaded disease because there was no cure. Obviously, it was awful if it made your fingers and toes fall off. But Jesus took the risk, (well, for Him it was no risk) and He reached out and touched him. Which do you think had the greatest effect on the man: the touch of Jesus or the healing. Obviously, the healing allow...