My Simple Daybook~May 6, 2018

Our lives pass swiftly by! 
We must find our quiet place to discover who we are.

Remembering and recording the everyday

 moments is a great gift to leave behind.

The big things are important, but it is in the details

that our story is born.

The telling of the ordinary moments

are the Threads from 

which the bigger stories emerge.

These things are important links to the 

outcome of what our posterity will inherit from us.

These Daybook posts are my attempt at it.

Just for today~Sunday, May 6, 2018

Outside my Window...It is bright and sunny and quite breezy this morning. It is 9:30 and I just got out of bed.  This is extremely rare for me, but I took a fall yesterday while watering some plants and flowers and the residuals are lots of soreness and more aches and pains than usual.  Although I am not at church today, also extremely rare, I am rejoicing in the Lord  that nothing was broken or cut and I can still get around and I did not hit my head. 

Spiritual Thoughts...Even in our weaknesses and trails and tribulations we can be blessed.  Better stated; we are blessed and it is our duty to God to recognize where those blessings come from and to thank him.  There are times when we feel tempted to just give up, give in or to quit trying to see the bright side of life.  This is dangerous territory for us.  We all know how much our mind and thoughts dictate to us the outcomes of various circumstances we experience.

Into every life pain, suffering and sadness will come.  It is during these times that we realize our deep dependence upon the Lord.  We suddenly know that without him we don't even have the breath of life.  We are dependent.  We need him.  He is there.  We just need to muster up the faith to recognize it.  If we find ourselves in favorable circumstances always, how will we ever know compassion, love for others or love for God.  In man's way, we would take the glory of the goodness of our perfect lives as a sign that we, somehow, have made all this goodness happen on our own.  When people do that they forgot about God and aggrandized themselves.   Not withstanding that, we also must recognize that our choices each day are very important to our happiness as well. 

Ironically, even the non-believers often find themselves asking God for help in a crisis.   I choose not to be that kind of person.  I choose to fill my lamp with oil with everyday study of God's word, prayers of supplication and of gratitude to my Father in Heaven and to believe in Jesus Christ and his gift of the atonement for us all.

The Lord allows us our agency to choose for ourselves.  What a blessing that is.  We are always loved by him.  We can always come back to him.  When we are on shaky ground he offers a firm foundation and forgiveness to all of his children.

Choosing that in my life just makes everything different and better.  He can make a better life experience for me then I ever could do on my own.  I can always feel a certain joy because I know he is with me, he loves me and he watches over me.  He has my best interest at heart even when I sometimes do not understand why things happen, I do know who is over all.

Praying For...increased faith regarding my knee replacement and when it will actually happen.  It was to have been on May 3, 2018 and after nearly a year of waiting and more than15 years of pain with every step.  I'm pretty dependent on my husband to help him do simple things now with the chronic pain of bone on bone in both knees everything is made harder.  The entire month of April was full of doctor appointments and a two hour class on the procedure and lots and lots of things I have never had to do in my life.  I never ever realized what older people go through like I have this past month.  I have had to practice with a walker, a cane, do pre-surgery exercise, etc.  When I went to my pre-op medical evaluation, through a series of unfortunate events, my blood pressure was high.  Long story short that created lots more appointments and monitoring 3 times a day and new meds and all the rest of it.  The Friday before my surgery I had to cancel it as they are still experimenting with my B/P meds.   I did not feel comfortable about the surgery until this is resolved. I want this surgery so badly, but I also want to wake up!  Jim also felt that and so I now need to reschedule.   With their schedule and ours we are looking at mid-September now.  How can this be turned into a good and faith promoting experience, when things did not turn out as we had planned?

What Shall I Do PersonallyTo Make A Difference...For one thing I need to realize that my mortal plans are not necessarily God's eternal plans for my life.  I looked for a good reason why this mattered to him and I can see it with 20/20 vision in hindsight.  Had I not scheduled the surgery and gone through all the steps necessary, who knows how long it would have been before this blood pressure problem was detected? 

 My primary physician knows I have "White Coat Syndrome" and so even though my B/P registers a little high when I go in, she talks with me about my visit and after a little while it will go back down.  It took a team of doctors to get to the bottom of the problem and ironically it had to be a team doctors who didn't know me that well.  B/P conditions change from time to time and they discovered it. I needed different meds and continual monitoring until it all stabilized.  It now has, so I am keeping a log and will have a good record when I am rescheduled.  I see the Lord's hand in all of the disturbing  experiences.  They were blessings in disguise and could have saved my life during a routine surgery.  The regular monitoring will most likely lengthen my life in the long run. Especially since we have a family history of vascular problems, strokes and heart attacks.  I now know I must monitor my B/P every day and keep on top of it.  How can I see the cancellation of my surgery as a huge blessing?  Simple...I just can! It was for my good.  Always what he knows trumps what I may simply want. 

Quoting Pinterest...Jeffery R. Holland

The Most Beautiful Photo on Pinterest Today...

Spring and Life is beautiful!

Thinking About...being blessed as an individual and as a family. Spring is the time of renewal and blooming and our family has such good things going on right now. Jim and I are are healing from our physical ailments, Laura's broken leg may finally be receiving a walking cast after many weeks, Hazel had a successful surgery this past week, her 20th at age 10. She is such an example of courage and strength and bravery. 

Hazel Jo sleeps peacefully while recovering from her surgery.

Our son is off on a wonderful three week trip to South America with his engineering students.  He and Missy have just completed an 18 month final phase of a remodel on their home while doing many other things.  Their kids are just amazing, each and every one of them. Connor is graduating this month and honing in on where he will go to college.  He has four awesome choices. 

Jen and Lowell are about to begin their remodel adding two bedrooms, a bath new kitchen and a utility room with a lift for Hazel's wheelchair. Piper is almost done with her first year of college and has loved it. All the girls are a delight.  Julia has a wonderful new beau and we all like him.  He's such a gentleman and treats her so nicely.  They loved prom. Chloe and her friend, Eva, are having fun together in junior high and we enjoyed all of them including Eva who came with them to our house at Easter.  We missed Lowell who was in Scotland on business. 

Laura and Robert always have many irons in their fire as well. Right now they are teaching Ross to drive and following all his high school activities, and preparing for some trips this summer.  They have also been using Uber a lot since Laura still cannot drive with her cast. This has helped Ross learn to drive faster even it she has gotten a few gray hairs in the process!  She is doing some wonderful things from Spencer's letters and theirs to him that will be a great keepsake for him when he returns from his mission.  All the grandkids are doing well and looking forward to summer.  It is all good for our family right now.  We will get to see most of them this summer when they come for a visit.  And the one's we won't see, we just saw at Easter time. 

I'm So Pleased...that every day is a new day.  A new beginnings and new hope for a bright future.

Feeling Emotional About...our 50th Anniversary coming up in one month and nine days.  I cannot imagine my life without my James!  I know no other way.  A perfect life is being with the one you love through thick and thin.  And there is plenty of that in 50 years.  Good and bad...and it is all good.  You grow, you learn you change and you make your own happiness together.

I Must Be Getting Old Because...I didn't recognize a single song played at a wedding reception we attended last night.  Sheesh!

My Near Future Holds...more relaxation, eliminating stress and getting healthier. A quiet Mother's Day for us with Jim's mom.

Movies We've Seen Lately...nothing new in a long time.  We have been watching Downton Abbey again.  It gets better every time we watch it. We remain faithful to PBS, Masterpiece Theater and I've recently enjoyed Hallmark streaming as well.  They have to be uplifting and good.  No crime or downers.  Hard to find sometimes but worth the search.

Loves and Passions...I love spring and the flowers that blooms and the crisp morning air and the new life all around us. We have fawns in the yard, the birds are chirping the frogs are croaking and summer is around the corner.  I am getting the urge to plant a bunch of flowers...we'll see though after yesterday's tumble! 

Some photos I'm sharing this week...

Some photos I took yesterday!

That's a wrap for this time!  Take care and be awesome!  Bonnie