I had my grandparents and parents over for a Christmas dinner 2 weeks before Christmas. We had a lovely time. I set the table with my Sunday pottery and my special red placemats and cloth napkins and goblets, both wine goblets and water goblets. I put candles on the table as well. I served spiral ham, cream cheese potatoes, kluski noodles, green & yellow beans, pickles, rolls & jelly & butter, peaches & pears, cake & cupcakes, and mint candies. I love hosting parties. It’s a lot of work and I don’t like the cleaning part to get ready and the food prep isn’t my favorite thing but once it’s all prepared and we are ready to roll, I’m having the time of my life! So the meal went smoothly and afterward we visited and I showed them around. I had the house all decked out for Christmas so they walked around and looked at things. I had put new wigs on some dolls that I had gotten for cheap at a re-usit shop so my one grandma had a lot of fun looking at them cause she likes dolls too. I have a gigantic curio full of dolls.
Then the day after I had my grandparents was a Sunday and I had Bible study at my house so I invited the girls for that to come early and help eat leftovers. I decorated for them too then, just because I love parties!
Then the next weekend which was the week before Christmas, I had an engaged friend of mine come over with her 2 kids and also another married friend whose husband didn’t come along so they helped eat more leftovers. (I froze the stuff in between so it wasn’t so old then). I didn’t decorate for them because of the kids and hopefully they didn’t mind. I just knew the kids would destroy things and I didn’t want my party things destroyed! We watched Chonda Pierce then. Did you ever hear of her? She is a Christian comedian. Usually I don’t take time for those kinds of things but I did that time and we really enjoyed her. The kids were still a mess, getting into the cupboards and so on. But, again, that’s life!
Christmas Eve I was with my family. We always get together to eat Papa John’s pizza and celebrate and exchange gifts. Christmas Day Mom had her side of the family over so I went and ate lunch there and then came back and I believe I was home the rest of the day.
New Year’s Eve, I went to see THE SOUND OF MUSIC at the Fulton Opera House. Oh, was it ever good! I have the movie. Everyone loves it. Well this was awesome to see it played out live. I had to go buy some of the songs off of i-tunes! After the play there was champagne and sparkling cider and a bunch of appetizers and tieras and hats and dancing and an orchestra. I wanted to see the dancing and hear the orchestra but the place was so full we kept bumping people so we left after trying some of the sparkling cider and the appetizers. Then we went to a friend’s house where the rest of the folks were and spent maybe 45 minutes there and came home
New Year’s Day a friend of mine is took me out to eat and I helped her print out some pictures at Walmart. In the evening we had a movie night here at my house with a few girls. And, we had Papa John’s pizza, which is the very best pizza in the whole world!
Well, Friday I was sick, and had off work. Thursday I was sick too, but I worked anyway. I woke up with an awful bellyache and managed to work but I had to stop between every little thing I did to lay on my belly. I am a nanny that takes care of 3 children, so they kept asking me what I’m doing when I would lay on the floor for awhile! I managed to get pretty much everything done and had just put the kids down for their naps when the boss walked in. I groaned inside because I thought, “Oh great, now if I lie around she will know I’m sick and yet I can hardly go on working nonstop.” But I didn’t feel like leaving early, I thought surely I can make it til the end of the day somehow. But, she told me she came home early because of a headache and that she’s gonna rest and that since the kids will sleep for awhile I could go home. It was 1:30pm. I was thrilled. So I told her I was sick anyway so that worked out good that she released me early. I took off Friday then because they told me to so I could recuperate. And, it was needed because I was still sick even though not as bad as the day before. I had diarrhea and terrible abdominal cramps and heat flashes where it felt as though I was burning up and achy muscles on Thursday. Friday was just some left over bellyache and none of the other symptoms.
We had a very good sermon in church this morning on Fear. Pastor Tim preached part 1 of a 2 part sermon on fear and today it was geared on fear of God. It was good, although when he said it was about fear I must admit that I was hoping it would be about fear of man. I needa be preached to about that. I never realized how much of a grip fear of man has on me til a few years ago and I can't seem to get out of the rut. I mean, I know it's an issue with me so I guess that's a step because for the first time in my life I am recognizing it but man, how do you get out of the rut. How do you get to the point that it only matters what God thinks about you and other issues of life? How I long to be there......but I see a LONG journey ahead til I get where I needa be on that! Oh, I've come a ways, don't get me wrong. I didn't just recognize it as a problem, I have had some victories. But when I compare the victories to where I needa be, you can barely see any progress. But hey with God's help I will prosper and grow. You know, what other people say and think can really shake me up and rock my world and make me change things, but when I stand before God someday I'm gonna be alone and it's not gonna help me to say, "Oh but so and so said I must do this..." So I should only be letting God shake and rock my world. Of course there is room to let God speak through pastors and mentors and truly godly people too.
I am still looking for a place to move to last week of April-May 1st. Everyone says they won't wait on me, they want someone before that. So I guess I am looking too soon. I gotta believe that God will provide in His time.
