This is Happy Bird. She is Mom's Amazon Parrot, and the first exotic bird we acquired. Since then we have gotten 3 more exotic birds, but not Amazons.
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Well, Christmas 2010 is now a memory, and soon so will be 2010. Amazing how fast it went. Amazing how slow it went. Christmas Day was a little warmer than it has been lately, although I wouldn't call it warm - not by a long ways. But it was still a lovely day. My sister and her husband live about 200 miles from here, and they come for Christmas dinner on Boxing Day. Karen brings a couple of salads, Mom makes the deserts and I do the turkey and what-not. And most importantly, we get to be together at some point for such a wonderful Celebration. They won't be back until after the New Year. New Year's is pretty boring if you ask me. There isn't really anything going on around here that I want to get involved in. I guess I'll be staying home and watching Back to the Future re-runs. This was a challenging year for me in some ways. My mother was diagnosed with a tumor on her lung, I was fighting aches and pains and chronic fatigue, and trying to keep up to everything and falling behind in everything. But everything turned out all right. That's the main thing. Mom is getting stronger all the time, and she has gained 10 pounds since her treatments in June. That puts her all the way up to 90 pounds now. I tease her that pretty soon I'll be having to put her on a diet. Not...... And I'm feeling better in many ways. Just finding out what was wrong with me took a lot of pressure off and I was able to start doing things to help myself. Now I have quite a ways to go, but I can see myself getting there. Maybe 2011 will see me completely back up to full speed once again. But I never did get the carpet shampooed. Only a small portion. The brushes quit turning and they were making this awful screeching sound, and I never really got to figure out what was wrong with it. I think maybe I have the bar snapped in crooked or something. At any rate, I guess shampooing the whole carpet is a 2011 job. Perhaps it was unrealistic of me to think I could get the whole thing done in a week, given my circumstances. They say if you are going to dream, dream big. Maybe I slipped out of 'dream mode' and entered the land of fairy tales. Oh well. No harm done. Mainly I think about how much I have changed this year. In some ways for the better; in some ways I'm thinking for the worse. I do know that I am not the same girl I was this time last year. I don't know if I should be glad about that or not. But for the end of this year, and the beginning of the New, the mess of me is still in tact and I'm sure the Lord is not surprised by the changes that have surprised me. And the best part is, He's big enough to complete the work He began in me so long ago when I first put my trust in Him. So I won't lose hope. ~~ It came to my attention that some of the pictures I had posted on Facebook were being borrowed by relatives that were not asking me first. They know me well enough to know that if they had only asked they could have freely taken them. So, they just took them. What's the deal with that? Now I know that I am not the greatest photographer in the world, and my pictures are not the best pictures that have ever been taken, and there is nothing special about them that anyone but me would want, but they were mine, taken by me, and posted on my feed. I feel that I should have at least been asked. And the answer would have been, yes, certainly. Take all you want. No respect is what it boils down too. They aren't public domain just because I put them up there. I didn't offer them in an app to be used by whomever. So I became somewhat upset - to put it extremely mildly - and took all my pictures down. I won't be posting anymore - there. Do I sound like a baby crying because it's bottle is too warm? I think so. But I'm tired of having to be the one to always move over and make room for people to do whatever they want. Run into a bully? Act like you don't notice and they will get bored and quit. But they never do. Run into someone that is haughty and arrogant and treats me like they are better than me? Don't take it to heart - they're the one with the problem. No they aren't. I'm the one being treat like dirt, not them. Somebody stealing your pictures? If you don't want your pictures stolen take them down. Maybe if I hide in my house and never stick my nose out from under my bed people will be happy then, or will they just think up something else to pull. How much moving over is ever going to be enough? Or should I just start acting like everybody else? Get them before they get me! Become the bully with the biggest stick! Katherine the Doormat doesn't live here anymore. May I introduce you to Katherine the Hun - a lean, mean people eating machine. I can't do that. It would hurt my feelings too much. Isn't there someplace in the sand where a proper line can be drawn? Maybe that's what I need to do. I need to learn how to set boundaries - loving boundaries, but still, boundaries. Might be better than stewing and getting all stressed out about it. And thinking and saying things I have to repent of, and having fibro flares. I wonder if it's a mindset. The way I carry myself or something that screams 'treat me like crap - I like it that way'. Since I seem to draw these people like manure draws blow flies on a hot July afternoon, there must be something about me that tells people they can get away with it. Well, I'll get it figured out and dealt with the right way - in the Lord. I hope it doesn't take me until 2012. I think I'm done venting - for now. I doubt that I will get the chance to blog again before the New Year, so if I don't, have a very fun and safe New Years Celebration and may 2011 be a year of wonder and amazement at the goodness that God showers down on you. Much love to you ... |
