Sincerely 'Fro Me to You #3: Silly Fathers

Although different in many ways, my father and father-in-law had quite a bit in common. They were both definitely head of their households, really hard workers, and believed in making their children obey. Family was important to them. They were good sons and sons-in-law.


Later in life, they both began attending church. I'm not saying they were perfect. No way. They tried, though.


There was one other thing they had in common.

Jim's Dad, R.C.
Jerri's Dad, Jerry

They were willing to look ridiculous to make a grandchild smile!

For more embarassing photos, visit Kristen's Sincerely 'Fro Me to You carnival at We are THAT Family!

Wordless Wednesday #1 - There's Just No Words Why Someone Would Do This

For more great photos, please visit 5 minutes for mom.

Sincerely 'Fro Me to You: "Two Jerrys"

One of these pictures is of a little boy named Jerry. The other is a little girl named Jerri. Which is which?

Believe it or not, the picture on top is of my dad. The year was probably 1936 or maybe '37. What was Grandma thinking? It's one thing to dress him in a sissy top like that, but why the topknot? Looks like Dad was way overdue on his first haircut. Wasn't he precious?

The biker babe on the bottom is me, Jerri. It bothers me that he looks more feminine in his photo than I do!

For more photographic fun, head over to Kristen's Sincerely 'Fro Me to You carnival
at We Are That Family. You'll love it!

WFMW - Keepin' It Visual

If you're like me, you need to be reminded about things ... a lot! It's pretty sad when you have to drive with mail in your hand to remind yourself to go to the post office. [I wrote about this earlier here.]

Since I am a visual person, I write myself notes. Many many notes. However, it's easy to misplace notes so I came up with a perfect place to put them. I bought a deskpad calendar and write my notes on it. It has to have lines on it because my writing is atrocious and because I cannot write in a straight line without a ruler.

The beauty of this system is this: you can plan your week and write it all down in one place so that nothing is forgotten. The only thing you have to do is remember to look at it! And if it is someplace you are every day, you'll be sure to see it. My desk is somewhere I'm every day. [Ok, the fridge is somewhere I am every day, too, but that's another post.]

It's also a great tool to help you with deadlines. Do you do a monthly newsletter? Is it always due the last Thursday of the month? That day can be marked as a deadline on your calendar, then you can mark the day before to actually print it [just in case your printer breaks down, you have time to get it fixed]. Back up a couple weeks and mark different days to actually write the newsletter, deadlines for others to submit their articles to you, etc. You can't forget about your deadlines because they are ever before you in black and white.

Other uses: marking birthdays, due dates on bills, noting the date supplies were ordered, etc. Another benefit is the great feeling I get when I check off all the things I've done that day! I love to feel I've accomplished something.

There's one last thing I love to do with my deskpad calendar. At the end of the month, when the page is all crumpled, messy, and stained with coffee I rip it off. There's a beautiful clean page waiting for me to fill in the blanks ... a new month, a fresh start. It works for me!

For more ideas to help you organize your life, go see Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer.

Sincerely 'Fro Me to You: Wigged Out

I love it when I hear Beth Moore say on "Wednesdays With Beth" about being all wigged out. I think she means "goin' crazy" when uses that term.

Here I am all "wigged out" but not in the sense of being crazed, wigged out fashion-wise. Let's go over my sartorial spendor, shall we?

The year is 1972. Note the burnt orange flare leg pants. This material is brushed-denim, people! Do they make brushed denim anymore? It was my favorite pair of pants and I believe I kept them for at least 2 years.

Now I don't know how a person might describe the neckline on my navy stretch knit top. Choker-scoop? Anyway, I thought I was stylin', although now I realize navy isn't the best choice to go with burnt orange.

But, hey! What about my crowning glory? Don't you love it? You guessed it, a wig was covering my cranium. Why was I wearing a wig? Did I have some kind of problem with my hair? Was I bald under that mop?

Nope.

My grandmother thought and thought, "why can I get my granddaughters for Christmas that would be an unusual gift and really surprise them?"

She outdid herself.

Would you like to know what my other grandmother bought me that year? Yellow, blue and pink bras.

Enough said.

If you'd like to see other people's photographic memories, run over to Kristen's Sincerely 'Fro Me to You carnival at We are THAT Family.

WFMW: Totebag Queen

Let me just say, "I love totebags!" A really cool totebag is so awesome. Maybe I love them so much is because I like to have my stuff with me wherever I go. As a former girl scout, I love to be prepared for anything.

However, the reason that I am Queen of the totebags is that I have learned to use them to be organized. If you are like me, you have more than one area of your life that you need to be organized. For example, I am a working mom with two jobs, a Sunday School teacher, and for the time being, a worship leader. I have totebags for each of these areas.

On Sundays, I obviously need the Sunday School totebag. I keep my notes for my lesson, my prayer list, notebook, pencil, and my "going to church" bible in this bag. [I don't take my study bibles to church because they are large print and so heavy. I have a cute pocket edition of the bible that I take to church and squint as I read.] This is also useful to take special items in. Did I promise to bring Sister Church Member a copy of my fabulous taco dip? I copy it and drop it into the Sunday School tote. Was I going to loan the Pastor a book? Drop it in the bag. When Sunday comes, I don't have to search for things, I just grab the bag and go.

I have totebags I carry for each job. For my main job that I go to every day, I also include some stationary, stamps, and greeting cards in that bag so that during lunch hours and breaks I can go about "encouraging others." I also put in bills that I need to pay, which takes away from the good feeling of encouraging others but keeps others from having to write me at the debtor's prison.

On Wednesdays, I take my work totebag and my worship leader totebag to work with me. On my lunch hour, I break out the worship leader bag and go through my songs for Wednesday night and get organized for the night. Then I leave the bag in my car so that as I rush home to fix dinner, clean up the kitchen and then jump in the car to drive 35 minutes to church my mind can be free of worrying that I forgot something.

When I used to go to Curves [long story] I had my workout totebag with, you guessed it, work out clothes and tennis shoes.

When I tan, about a month every year, there is a special totebag with my tanning lotion, goggles, etc.

I'm just sayin', every area of my life has a totebag. It works for me!

For more ideas, visit Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer!

The Stabilizer of the Universe

"… He sustains the universe by the mighty power of his command …"
Hebrews 1:3 NLT

He came by the church asking for a Bible. He said he was a student of the Bible, yet did not own one. He mentioned that he often suffered from amnesia and that he lived in the same small town that I live in.

As Bro. Mark handed him a Bible, he gravely informed us "God is using me to be the stabilizer of the universe."

"Really," I murmured as I tried my best to keep from laughing.

"Well, I must go," he said, "my ride is waiting for me." Waving at us, he turned and went down the hallway. The Stabilizer had holes in his pants!

For next few days, we had lots of fun recalling this incident. We regretted not going to the door to see what his ride looked like – perhaps it was a limo!

 Occasionally, one of us would say, "but Jerralea won’t have to worry, the Stabilizer of the universe lives in her town!" Or, "there’s no need to fear, the stabilizer lives here!"

One day, it clicked. Wait a minute! The Stabilizer does live in my town – in fact, He lives in my house. He lives in me. Of course, God is the stabilizer of the universe. Hebrews 1:3 says He sustains the universe. Stabilize and sustain are similar. Stabilize means to make stable or steadfast; sustains gives support. Our God is more than capable to do both.

I can rest easy.  He's got this.


~~

I'm linking this post today to A Little R & R's linky party.  You can link up here.

Little Known Facts About Me

I saw this on another blog and thought it would be fun to do. Hey, I can't do devotions all the time, y'all!

A is for Age
Let’s just say that I’ve celebrated my 39th birthday a few times …
B is for Burger of choice
Right now, I’m really liking the Steakhouse Burger at Burger King – but it’s soooo big.
C is for what Car you drive
I drive a 2003 Mitsubishi Galant. It’s a creamy white color.
D is for Dog’s name
We don’t have dogs, but when I was a kid we had a dog named Gypsy
E is for Essential item you use every day
This is a toughie because there are several things I use everyday … in the summer, I’d have to say it’s the air conditioner. I hate to sweat!
F is for Favorite TV show at the moment
Extreme Home Makeover is my favorite but I don’t get to watch it much because it comes on during the time I’m at church.
G is for favorite Game
It’s a toss-up between Apples to Apples or Rummi-Kub
H is for Hometown
Dade City, FL
I is for Instruments you play
None – but I did take violin lessons when I was in grade school (My broken arms put a stop to that. See #X)
J is for favorite juice
I’m not a juice drinker, but I kind of like grape juice
K is for who you’d like to Kiss
Hubby, of course!
L is for Last restaurant you ate at
Red Lobster
M is for favorite Muppet
Cookie Monster! (I used to read Sesame Street books to my girls. I loved doing the voice of Cookie!)
N is for Number of piercings
Two – one in each ear
O is for Overnight hospital stays
Three – one for the birth of each of my babies
P is for People you were with today
My family and my co-workers
Q is for what you do with your quiet time
Read and on Sunday afternoons, nap!
R is for biggest Regret
I regret that we didn’t learn to save money when we were younger
S is for Status
Married for 32 years
T is for Time you woke up today
5:30 a.m.
U is for what you consider Unique
My hubby – there is no one like him!
V is for a vegetable you love
Hmm … another hard choice, I love them all! I guess I would say tomato for the one I eat the most
W is for Worst habit
Mindless snacking …
X is for the number of X-rays you’ve had
At least three – one for each time I’ve broken my arm. (Don’t ask!)
Y is for Yummy food you ate today
I made pina colada smoothies
Z is for Zodiac sign
Aquarius, even though I don’t believe in the Zodiac at all.

If you'd like to join in, post this on your blog with your information and then put a link to it in the comments.