GREAT NEWS!!!

Things have been consistently busy for me for the last little while.  It has been warming up here for the last month or so, and I'm grateful.  I have been spending more time out in the sunshine that I waited most of the winter for.  Some of that time has been spent in what I have termed the 'Dandelion War'.  That's where you keep clobbering the little yellow rebels and they keep coming back for more.  They are so pretty though.  Too bad they get to be too much of a good thing so easy.

And I have been working on a vegetable garden.  We live in a small town, and we don't have all the room for that sort of thing that we had when we lived in the country, but we still put one in, a small one.  We will at least have some fresh veggies in the fall, some of our favorites.  Squash is one of my faves.  And I am trying Eggplant this year.  I have never grown Eggplant before.  Actually, I have never tasted Eggplant before.  I started four seeds indoors and 2 have sprouted.  I'm looking forward to seeing what happens.

Now with my limited strength, which by the way is increasing all the time (Thank You Lord) the house looks like a disaster struck.  But I think that's ok.  Well, maybe not ok.  Ok for now, considering that it's nice outside and I get to be out in the sunshine.  And considering that last year at this time I really wasn't well enough to do much of anything, much less gardening.  I did some, but not what I have already done this year.  So I am picking up, and I expect to get better and better all the time.

Also, last year at this time my Mom was going for radiation treatments for stage 4 lung cancer.  The prognosis was poor.  Not much time left.  Last year was sooooo hard.  I watched my strong mother hardly able to get around, and then they said the end had come.  Some of you may remember that I asked for lot's of prayers at that time.  Well, guess what ... ?

The Lord has had great mercy on me.  My Mom went to her routine Dr. appointment a couple of weeks ago and the x-ray came back clear.  No tumour.  No cancer.  God be Praised.  My mother was the recipient of a Miracle of God.  She came out of the Dr.'s office and came into the waiting room where I was and told me the great news, and I just went kind of numbish.  I couldn't laugh.  I couldn't cry.  I just sat there.  You know, I'm still kind of like that.  I know that God has touched her body, and she is ok.  I know that in my heart.  And yet, somehow, it hasn't really seemed to sink in yet.  I wonder how that works.  But anyway, to those of you who held my Mom and me up in your prayers I say a great big Thank You.  And, once again, an even bigger THANK YOU  to the Great Physician, Jesus.  She still has a touch of emphysema (sp?) and some muscle trouble from an accident she had a few years ago.  But I look forward to having Mom around for many, many, many years to come.  The Lord is soooooo gracious.

My friend situation is sort of starting to remind me of a Merry-Go-Round at a Carnival.  I wonder if I fail people or if they fail me.  I wonder if my expectations are too high, or are theirs.  I wonder if I'm the only one to blame.  I wonder if I'm just being selfish and making excuses to ease my conscience.  I wonder a lot of things ...  It makes me sad to think so, but I fear I have lost another friend that I valued.  I still smell a rat though ...

Anyway, I hope that your spring and summer is shaping up to be a beautiful time for you.  In spite of the hiccups that seem to pop up my own personal spiral upward is looking brighter.  And I am looking forward to visiting your Blogs more regularly once again.  I am always blessed by the things you say and by your perspective on things and I have missed it in this short time I have not been around.

God bless you, and much love to you ...

HARD KNOCKS OR STEPPING STONES?

I have taken a few hard knocks lately.  I got my feelings hurt and it seems like it overshadows everything anymore.  I just feel sad all the time no matter what I go to do.  I know there are some that believe that that is an indication that you have not truly forgiven.  Personally, I would respectfully disagree.  When you are wounded in your body it isn't always that the pain goes away instantly, so why would it be so when the wound is in your emotions?

I also believe that forgiveness is an action of faith.  It is in effect saying, ok God.  I believe that You can take care of me, and the other person, and this situation,  so I'm letting go of my right to be offended, and I'm handing it over to You.  Sometimes when we walk by faith we do not SEE immediate change.  I guess that is why it is called FAITH.  We believe something we don't see, feel, hear, etc. 

Sometimes people do things and they don't want it fixed.  That is not my decision to make.  Sometimes I have to respect the line they have drawn in the sand, as much as I wish it to be otherwise.  Sometimes people are in the habit of acting a certain way that brings turmoil into everyone's life.  I believe we stick with these people until the Lord says otherwise.  I have done that for years with some people and one day the Lord would say, That's enough.  You've done what you can do.  Then I have to leave that with Him.  He loves them and will do what is best for them.  I wonder if me hanging on to them against His better judgement would hinder His working in their lives?

But I said HURT feelings.  Not HARD feelings.  Those are two different things.  A hurt is a wound, like when I burn myself on the stove.  It hurts, it heals, it goes away like nothing was ever wrong.  Hard is like a stone.  It never gives way to anything else.  HURT feelings can turn to HARD feelings easily, but it doesn't HAVE to.  Just like a burn can become infected.  But it doesn't HAVE to.

I have also seen that my private time with the Lord is very important.  Being sad all the time can ruin an otherwise good day.  But somehow, in the quietness of His Word He seems to put a bubble around me.  I think one place in the Bible calls it 'the secret place of His pavillion'.  I am sad.  The day is hard.  But it's not a lost cause.  I can keep going.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters.  He restores my soul (my troubled emotions); He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.  Psalm 23: 2,3

Just one more step in my spiral upward.

Have a Blessed day.

Much love to you ...

NOT QUITE MYSELF LATELY?

The last month or so has been very difficult for me, contrary circumstances, some small (although they didn't feel small at the time), some big, some that don't appear to be fixable.  Amid all that, a broken relationship that I don't really understand myself completely.  Three fibro flares, one right after the other, each one  seeming to pick up where the last one left off, as well as the suffering of CFS - chronic fatigue syndrome.  Then there's the brain fog.  Sometimes I thought that if I could think right maybe these things wouldn't have been so difficult.  Maybe.  And then there is this strange restlessness.  Almost like a quandary.  Things I enjoyed I don't enjoy so much now.  I almost feel like I'm standing in a grey zone - there's no right or left, no backwards or forwards, no good, no bad.  I'm just not quite myself lately.

It is apparent that I am going to have to practice walking by faith and not by sight, because what I can see would drive me to the depths of despair if I didn't know that the Lord is the Answer to all the questions.  And I know that every believer has to live being conducted by what they cannot see.  I am not unique in this.  I'm just amazed that for as long as I've been walking with the Lord I'm not any better at it than I am yet.

A few days ago, the Lord let me get mixed up in order to straighten me out.  I was reading in my devotional Bible on the correct reading for that particular day.  I know I was.  I checked it.  But after I was through reading and praying and thinking, I noticed something peculiar - I was way off on some other day.  Too many days difference for it to have been an 'accident'.  This was the hand of the Lord, reaching out to me in His unconditional, never failing Love.  This was, in part, the Scripture verse I read that day:  When the earth and all it's people quake, it is I who hold it's pillars firm.  Psalm 75:3.  Naturally my thoughts went to the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and the broken nuclear reactors.  The Lord is promising to hold the planet together until that great day when He makes all things new.  And He will minister to those dear people and hold them steady in the midst of the devastation.  But then the Lord gently corrected me.  Can He hold a whole planet firm, but not my world?  When the flood waters rise high above my head, can He not hold me firm?  Will there not be a support under me when my world quakes?

The Father's love for me is not fickle and unpredictable.  He loves me as much today as He did yesterday and He will love me as much tomorrow as He did today.  And the nicest part of that is that I had nothing to do with it.  That's just the way He is.

Maybe being not quite myself lately is not such a bad thing.  Maybe it's just part of my spiral upward.  And I shall emerge from the darkness into marvelous light.

Much love to you ...

SHORT AND SWEET? ... NOT!!!

I'm not normally one to spread tales about people.  Usually I try to let things go in one ear and out the other when it comes to repeating unflattering things about people.  But there is something I'm wondering if I don't need to address, for one very specific reason.  I will try to keep it short and sweet.


Over the last few months my sister has been being cyber-bullied relentlessly by 3 people, two women and 1 man.  They took some pictures of hers that she had posted on Face book and they have done everything from use foul language to describe her looks, her life, her family, everything about her they can think of.  I would be loathe to repeat here the vile words that seem to drop effortlessly from their lips.  They have gone so far as to post her personal information and threaten her including death threats and threats to send a hit man to her and her family.  They have told her many times that she should just go and kill herself because she is not fit to live, she is a waste of oxygen and the world would be a better place without her.  I had at one point thought that these 3 (I refer to them as the unholy trinity) are actually mentally ill.  And in my opinion only, I do believe that one of the women is a psychopath in the clinical sense of the word.  However, if they were not in some control of their minds they would not be accountable for their actions and they are accountable. Their minds are not that far gone.  I know some say ignore bullies and they will get bored and stop.  Actually, that has never been my experience, and I've experienced my fair share of bullies, as I am sure you have as well.  Sometimes fighting back does seem to help ... if you can find a bigger stick.  IF.  My sister has tried to stay silent and unresponsive to them, but she is starting to feel like it is time to fight back.  If you pray, please pray for her regarding her decision, that it will be the right one and not just amount to a bigger 'flame war' where no one wins.


This is just a short list of the things they have done to her over the last few months.  The other amazing thing about them is that they have done this to people before.  Many times.  One person says he has proof of at least 68 people they have put through this horror.  I confess that I do not understand the mind of a person that gets their kicks being mean to other people.  Not once in a while, but as a way of life.  It appears that it is literally 'what they do'.  I guess they must have lives beyond the computer.  It is hard to tell.  They spend so much effort on this 'hobby' of theirs that I don't know where they fit in a 'life'.  When I have been mean on purpose to someone it hurts my feelings so bad for days, I can hardly stand it.  I can not imagine getting my kicks this way.  And trying to understand someone that does is beyond me I guess.


Now, I am friends with my sister on Face book, and happy to be.  I subscribe to her YouTube channel and she to mine, although I don't spend much time there.  In fact, if she were not there I would not likely be there either.  I am not ashamed to call her my friend.  This is where my quandary comes in.


I am associated with her in cyber space and it will remain that way.  And they have seen me associating with her but not by my real name or my name here on Blogger.  I don't think they have made the connection between us as far as our family relationship goes.  If they do that is fine with me.  They can say what they like about me, I don't really care.  They are not 'with it' enough to behoove me to pay them any mind.  But, the deal is ...


They Are Here On Blogger.  Posting their blogs on what a wretched creature my sister is.


Now this brings me to the reason for posting this blog in the first place.


The fact that they know that I associate with her automatically puts me on their hit list.  If they find out I am her sister, well, just let your imagination take over and I won't even have to finish my sentence.  But the sad part is, if you are a friend on my friend list, here or on Face book, that could automatically implicate you as well.  Now please be assured that on Face book and here as well I keep my permissions closed up as tight as a drum.  The only people who can see who my friends are are my friends because I couldn't close it up any tighter than that.  But this brings me right to the point.  If you feel more comfortable 'unfriending' me because of what you now know I will completely understand.  And I will certainly not hold any hard feelings.  I will not think any less of you than I do now.  I have valued and treasured your friendship and will continue to hold you dear in my heart.  But I also understand that people like this are like a deadly virus.  No one wants to be exposed to it.  But I will continue to stand with my sister in whatever way I can.


If, on the other hand, you choose to stay on my Friend List I will do everything I can think of to make absolutely sure that these vermin do not have access to you.  They will not get it through me.


Now I don't think it is my place to tell people who they should be friends with and who they shouldn't be friends with, but I can tell you, it would be to your great disadvantage to associate with these people.  You will be the sorry one.  The name here on Blogger is  'DaTroot'.  But if it comforts you at all, I think my friends are too peace-loving to be of much interest to them.


My purpose in posting all this is only to inform you.  I felt it would be wrong if all hell broke loose all around you and you didn't even know you were in the middle of a hornet's nest.  I hope I didn't scare anyone.


Well, that wasn't very short or sweet was it??? 


God bless you.


Much love to you ...

Lift Up Your Face - Official Music Video

MERCY TRIUMPHS

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.  

Taken from Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
Scene 1.  Venice.  A Court of Justice.

Mercy triumphs over judgment!  James 2:13.

I was watching a program on TV tonight called Dateline.  It's a program about crimes that have been committed and the people that did them and the people they did them to.  Tonight they were showing about a pair of men that terrorized people throughout the Oklahoma, Texas, Mississippi area in the 1970's.  While in Oklahoma they brutally shot a Pastor, his wife and 2 children.  The Pastor and his wife died almost instantly, but the son and daughter survived and were faced with many years of court cases, having to re-live the whole thing again and again over a decade or so.  The daughter seemed to move on with her life at a fairly normal pace, but the son just couldn't seem to get his feet under him.  After many years and two failed marriages the son went to visit one of the fellows in prison, and on the spot forgave him.  He tried to get in to see the other guy too, but he wasn't allowed.  After that he seemed to cope much better and eventually wrote a screenplay about the incident and plays his father in the movie.  The movie is called 'Heaven's Rain', the title taken from this scene from The Merchant of Venice.

I've been thinking a lot about some things going on around me, and being pretty harsh.  When I saw Dateline tonight (funny what the Lord can use to jerk the slack out of me - a crime show.  blushing), I had to take it to heart.  This son and daughter were called upon to forgive much more than I have ever had to.  Hopefully, more than I will ever have to.  And I got to thinking about this quote from The Merchant of Venice.  Should I approach God on grounds of justice or mercy?  Knowing me as well as I do, I think I'll be better off with the mercy.  In the words of the great Apostle and brother of our Lord Jesus, mercy triumphs over judgement.  I believe I have learned my lesson tonight.  I will render the deeds of mercy, for I have been forgiven a huge debt.

Does that mean I have to be every one's doormat?  I'm still working on that one.  Who knows when and where the Lord will choose to get it across to me.  I've learned to stay alert, and take my lessons where He chooses to send them from. 

Have a most blessed weekend.

Much love to you ...



BABY

I thought I would post this picture of Baby to start off the New Year.

Baby pretty much runs the house, except of course for the other 10 assorted animals we have here.  Baby can talk fairly fluently.  I haven't really tried to teach him any words.  A lot of people think birds only repeat what they hear, but Baby is continually coming up with sentences that we really don't know where he has picked them up.

I roll his cage out of the way to vacuum and dust and he says that's because 'it's easier for Kaffy to clean the house'. 

When the phone rings he says hello.  When it stops ringing he says bye-bye.

When someone comes in the house he says hi.

He's quite the little showman.  He loves all the attention he can get as most living things do.  He likes music with a beat and when he hears any he dances.  He likes to hang upside down from the top of his cage and spin around in circles.  We call that 'the eggbeater' because he does that whenever you turn on an appliance like a mixer or the vacuum.  But when you vacuum you have to take his water away or he flings it all over the carpet.  I guess he knows you can't vacuum where it is wet.  I don't know how he knows that either.

This past June when Mom., me and the pets went to stay at Karen's house while mom was having her treatments Baby almost died of homesickness.  So my brother-in-law Ron and I brought the birds home a day early.  As we were wrestling the cage up the stairs (it's as heavy as can be), Baby perked up and started to talk and you could tell he was going to be all right.  That was before we even got him in the house.  I don't know how he knew what the outside of the house looks like for him to know he was home because we never have him outside.  There are harnesses you can get for doing that sort of thing, but I'm way too much of a jam tart.  If he ever got loose and flew away I would not be able to live with myself anymore, so they all stay in the house.  The only time they are out of their cage is when David comes.  That's my nephew.  Baby calls him 'Boy'.

Boy takes Baby out of the cage and they sit together and play for a while.  That's David's nose you can see in the picture.  So I don't know how Baby knew he was home but he did.  And when we got him back into his spot in the living room, and I fed them a whole bunch because we were supposed to come back the next day unless Mom was too sick to travel so I left enough food for a couple of days.  But when it was time for Ron and I to leave to head back to his house I said 'bye-bye' to Baby, and he was eating and he said 'bye-bye' like he really couldn't care less.  Like, ok. - go already.  Since then he has been putting together more complex sentences.

I hadn't really planned on blogging about Baby.  I was just going to post his picture and introduce him.  But I am truly impressed at the intelligence of the little bird, as I am with all animals.  And how they are as inclined to become attached with the familiar as are we humans.

I must go for now.  I took the Christmas tree down yesterday and my muscles are screaming at me today.  I will go take a hot shower and believe that will help. 

I hope your 2011 is over to a stellar beginning.  Mine is looking promising.  And I hope you have a great week.

Much love to you ...