Blessing Hunter

The other day (I'm trying to remember where) I saw the phrase, "beauty hunter."  Those two words really resonated with me because I feel it's important to look for beauty. There is so much ugliness in the world, it's a relief to feast my eyes and spirit on something beautiful.

The more I can incorporate beauty into my world, the better I feel.

As I thought more and more on the phrase, "beauty hunter," I realized I'm more drawn to being a "blessing hunter." 

Nobody's life is perfect; but I'm willing to bet there are more blessings than we all realize!

I decided to join forces today with some of the best blessing hunters I know, the Friday's Favorite Five gang. Each week, they find 5 blessings or highlights to their week and share them. Big or small, they give thanks for them all.

So, here's some of my recent 5:

Birthday season: Starting with my son-in-law, Daniel's, birthday on May 8, we run through July 15th celebrating birthdays (including Mother's Day and Father's Day). There is also one birthday in August, and two in September, and then we are done for the year. For a couple who once lived with ten long years of infertility, it is a delight to have daughters, sons-in-laws and grandchildren's birthdays to honor.

End of Rehab: May 26th was the last day for Jim to go to cardiac rehab. Although we enjoyed going together (I walked the track while he worked on machines and weights); we were glad to not have to make the drive and use up our afternoons two days a week. I also felt like celebrating because a couple times when Jim was in the hospital; it seemed almost impossible he'd be well enough to be done with therapy.

True Words!

Twins' Baptism: Just a few days before the twins' seventh birthday, they decided they wanted to be baptised. Baylee said, "MiMi, when I come up out of that water, I'm going to be a whole new person." What grandmother wouldn't cherish hearing such a thing? 

Note: I fully realize 7-year-olds have a lot to learn about their spiritual journey, accepting Christ and being baptized. But it's a great start! Jesus wanted little children to come to Him!

Good report: I'm not one to go to the doctor. Hardly ever. But I did go last week and have bloodwork. It came back good. Whew!

Late Spring Days: This is the time of year when it feels good to be from the midwest. Not too hot, not too cold, and the humidity is still being nice to us. We've enjoyed T-ball games and the first lake trip of the year.

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I just want you to know how highly I value those of you that make your way to the Journey to read my words! I believe encouraging others with the written word is a worthy calling. Thank you especially to those who respond. You make it worthwhile.

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#Tune In Thursday

Thanks be to God!

It's time to stop and take stock. My week was a fast blur filled with blessing.

I'm going to share 5 of them.

First and foremost: I'm always so thankful for the family God has given me. 

Here's some recent gems of wisdom from the grands:

Brody at the dinner table eating porkchops (cooked my city chicken method):

“Wow, this tastes awesome”

(My heart swelled with Suzy Home-maker pride)

“So glad you liked it!” I exclaimed.

He went on:

“Well, the meat tastes like nothing; but when you dip it into some Country Bob’s sauce, it is yummy.”

Bubble burst.

~~~

(Baylee talking to her aunt whom she calls TT)

Baylee: TT this milk tastes bad.

TT: What’s it taste like?

Baylee: Hair.

TT: How do you know what hair tastes like, have you been eating hair?

Baylee calmly: Yes

Brody: What does hair taste like?

Baylee: A burp.

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Me (getting into the car and saying to 3 yr. old Rory sitting in her car seat in the back): “Rory, Baylee and Brody said to tell you they love you and will miss you.”

Rory in a voice filled with wonder: “Why?”

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I became a blogger so I could record all the family stories and not forget. I wouldn't want you to miss out! You're welcome.

Secondly, I'm blessed with the ability to listen to some amazing podcasts while driving to and from work. I've been challenged and stretched in so many ways! Today, I was listening to She Reads Truth with special guest Jennie Allen. They were discussing Ephesians 1 and 2. I started my day off rejoicing!

Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ. Ephesians 1:3

As Hannah and Raechel say, "This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God!"

We already have every spiritual blessing in Christ. Dwell on that fact for a minute.

I'm blessed to work at a job I love. I don't take that lightly! I once worked at a job where I dreaded going every single day. That is no way to live.

I love having friends who are interested in having spiritual conversations. What a joy to share insights!

I also love it when I can download a book to my Kindle app. Although I love physical books where I can make notes and highlight, digital books are cheaper and I don't have to find room on my bookshelves. The kicker is, I can get it right away and start reading if I so choose.

The rain has started falling where I live. Seems like a good time to curl up with the Kindle and read.

How about you? What blessings can you recall from your week? I'd love to hear all about it.

Leave a comment and share, or you could link up your post with the community at Friday's Fave Five.

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Check out this week's top 5 posts at the Journey:

July Wrap-up

What is stopping my progress?

Praise Post #10

Thankful List

Praise Post #12

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I'm also sharing this post at

Grace & Truth

Inspire Me Monday

InstaEncouragements Link-up

Recharge Wednesday

#TuneInThursday

Let's Have Coffee

5 in the midst of Covid-19

Once again, Friday has rolled around. I try to wrap up each week on Friday by focusing on 5 blessings each week.

Just in case we forgot what Spring looks like!

Last week, I didn't get around to listing my blessings because it was a jam-packed day with no time to think, let alone write.

Although busy, the day did have its share of blessings, so today I want to begin my counting of blessings with last Friday.

1. A new computer: My desktop mother-board decided to die on me - and after only 9 years! :)

The blessing is the fact I do business with an awesome computer shop owner who was able to get me a great deal on a refurbished computer. It came in on Friday and it was pretty simple, though time-consuming, task to get everything loaded and back up to speed.

2. Also, Friday I scored some toilet paper! Enough said.

3. On Easter Sunday, I got my praise on because I came across this video on YouTube:



(Subscribers will need to click through to my blog.)

WayMaker, You never stop, You never stop working!

4. I got some things accomplished this week. My little Type A heart feels so much better!

5. My grands brighten my life. Here's an example from my daughter's Facebook post:

Baylee: mommy will you call me princess forever?

Me: Sure I will

Brody: call me SONIC forever bc I’m super fast!

When I'm down, I just recall the funny things they say!

And that wraps up my week. How did YOURS go? Leave a comment and share!

Or, you could link up a post of your own and share it with the Friday's Fave Five community.

I'm also linking up with Grace&Truth.

2019 Top Posts

It's long been a practice of mine to review at the end of each year to see what posts served the most people based on certain factors as pageviews and feedback.

Let's get right to it:

January: The First Faves of 2019

February: Friday's Fave Five

March: Five Things I Learned I Needed This Winter

April: Fearless Revisited: Coping Skills

May: Living Mary in a Martha World, tied with Influencing Your Culture

June: May Reflection Journal

July: Not now! I'm in the middle of something ...

August: I've Got Your Back, tied with August Reflections

September: Challenge Accepted: Finish the Journey (This post was also featured at Grace&Truth. Thank you, Maree Dee!)

October: The Word is Active

November: Step Into Your Unknown

December: Never In a Rush

I have discovered posts about reflection and thanksgiving seem to resonate more. Expect to see more of those types of posts in 2020!

(and pictures of grandkids, yes?)



I'm linking to the communities at #TuneInThursday and Grace&Truth

A Christmas Memory ...

One of my treasured memories of Christmas happened 44 years ago. I'd recently moved to my fiance's home state of Illinois after living for a decade in Florida. I hadn't really adjusted yet to my new surroundings which included a small church of a very different denomination than mine.

The church had a surprisingly large amount of young couples for such a small congregation and I was excited about being a part of it.

That year, the group decided to go Christmas caroling - something I had never done.

Our first stop of the evening was a dear little old lady's house not far from where Jim and I would live when we were married. She lived at the end of a lane surrounded by fields.

We all gathered in her front yard and then someone knocked on her door to let her know we were there. We could plainly see she was sound asleep sitting in a rocker in her front room because she had her drapes open wide.

We knocked and knocked, but she never awoke and came to the door.

Not knowing what to do, one of the girls said, "Let's sing anyway." 

And so we did. It was amazing, singing out in the open air in the countryside, not unlike fields where shepherds might have grazed their sheep long ago. We sang of Silent Night and the Little Town of Bethlehem and some more of the old favorites.

Finally we decided it was time to go elsewhere and left the little lady dreaming in her rocking chair.

The next day, someone called to check on her and told her about our caroling trip. She exclaimed, "That's why I heard angel voices singing! I thought maybe Jesus was coming to get me!"

Jesus did come to get her just a short time later. I never did get to meet her in person since she wasn't well enough to come to church; but I'll never forget that special night of Christmas carols sung in the purple twilight.

My prayer for my readers is that Christmas 2019 will contain special memories for each and every one of you.  

See you in 2020!



I'm sharing this post with the community at InstaEncouragements Link-Up, and
Grace&Truth

Praying Provision

God has provided for my needs time after time, but one incident in particular stands out in my memory.

Back when our first child was about eleven months old, my husband was out of work. We had been living in Terre Haute, Indiana, but our home was in another state. We still owned a house there, and we had been unable to sell it. We decided to go back home and live in the house since we were making payments on it anyway. Surely my husband could find a job back home, and truth to tell, he was homesick.

My husband was very nervous about finding a job. He had not had a good experience at his former job, and his confidence was at an all-time low. I felt led by the Holy Spirit to go with him on his job search, to stay in the car and pray for him as he went in and filled out applications. (Our baby stayed with grandma.) 

That day, we decided to start out first at the place he wanted to work for the most. I had copied down scriptures dealing with God's promises of provision onto a clipboard. While he went inside to ask for an application, I prayed claiming these promises. It was a long time before my husband returned to the car, but when he did, he had a big smile on his face. He was hired! The company hadn't even been advertising for help, but when they saw he had experience in their field, they hired him. His starting salary was much better than the salary he had received at his previous employer!

This memory ranks high as a highlight of my Christian experience when I look back on all the ways God has provided for me. Definitely, He is my Jehovah-Jireh: The Lord Who Provides.

And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.” Genesis 22:14

(See Genesis 22:1-18 to read the whole story of Abraham’s provision in context)

*adapted from earlier post

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Faith Journey

From time to time, I think it is important to re-visit our faith journeys. It’s always good to reflect on where God brought you from. Hopefully, in 2018, I have some different readers who might not have read my previous posts on the most important day of my life – the day I found Christ.

I was raised to always attend church. One of my earliest memories was being at children's church down in the basement of the church. We were singing the song, "Behold, Behold. I stand at the door and knock, knock, knock..." and we all turned around and pounded our fists on the metal chairs as we sang "knock, knock, knock."

So, from early on, I knew the Lord wanted to come into my heart. I just wasn't ready to let Him in.

It's funny, when you have been raised in church, people assume you are a Christian. But as I've heard it said, "Going to church doesn't make you a Christian anymore than sitting in my garage all day makes me a car."

Bold enough to ask:

When I was fourteen, my GA (Girls' Auxiliary) leader, Mrs. Bates, just came out point-blank and asked me if I have ever asked Jesus into my heart and made a public profession of faith. (You can read about Mrs. Bates here.) I told her no, I wasn't ready to do that yet. She told me that she hoped I wouldn't wait until it was too late.

The next week, I went with my parents on vacation. We traveled by car up north to visit relatives. While near Chicago, my dad had the brilliant idea to buy a used car he saw up there and bring it back home with him and sell it to make a profit. He said in Chicago you could buy cheap, but sell it high in Florida. Then he had another flash of brilliance; why not pull his car behind the used car back to Florida, thereby putting all the wear and tear on the car he was going to sell anyway?

What he didn't know was that the used car did not have a good exhaust system...

Riding in a death trap:

As we traveled down the highway, dangerous carbon monoxide gas was backing up into the back seat where I was sleeping. Deciding to stop for lunch in Nashville, he pulled into a parking lot and everyone tumbled out of the car -- everyone but me. When he was unable to wake me, he pulled me out onto the ground and frantically tried to get me awake. My eyes rolled back into my head and I moaned a few times but would not wake up. A kind stranger offered to take me and dad to the hospital. 

The next thing I know a large nurse was trying to hold me down after she had waved something (smelling salts, maybe?) under my nose. After examining me, the doctor on call told dad it was a blessing he stopped when he did. If I had breathed much more of the carbon monoxide, I'd be dead!

I had one goal after that, just let me get home and back to my church. I was definitely going to go to the altar. I had almost waited until it was too late!

(Of course, now I realize I can ask Jesus in my heart at any time, but I wanted to do that important part, “confess Him before men” at my church.)

The next Sunday I made a beeline to the front when the invitation to accept Christ was given. I'm so thankful I didn't have to earn my salvation. I just admitted that I was a sinner (that was not hard to do!), I told the Lord that I believed that Jesus went to the cross for our sins and that I believed He arose after three days in the grave. I wanted to make a new start and turn from my old ways and become a new creation in Christ.

And that is how my faith journey began. I would like to say that I have served Him perfectly ever since, but that wouldn't be true. I have made mistakes, messed up, and even had times when I felt cold to the Lord and didn't respond to His Holy Spirit like I should have done. The great thing is whenever I would confess my failures, He forgave me!

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9

How did YOUR faith journey begin? Or, are you unsure how to get on the path? Read my post, A Ticket Home, to help you find a new beginning.

[adapted from an earlier post] 

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I’m honored you stopped by the Journey today!

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Today, I'm linking with the community at Trekking Through the Week.

Six Quirky Things

I may or may not have mentioned I’ve been blogging for ten years. Ten years of baring my soul and still ideas pop up!

Every once in awhile, I like to go back and read old posts. Some are cringe-worthy, some make me chuckle as I re-read, and others, I greet like long-lost friends.

Today, for kicks, I’m sharing one of the chuckly ones. I joined in once at a blog party where we were encouraged to share six quirky things about ourselves.

I am totally quirky so I quickly jotted down my list. My only problem was narrowing them down to six. It was also fun to realize these things are still pretty much true about me – well, except for number 3.

1. I can't hear without my glasses on. I know it sounds crazy but the minute I take my glasses off, conversations become muffled and I have no idea what is being said.

2. However, this DOES not mean that I am a lip reader. Far from it. When my granny was alive, she used to mouth words at me from across the church. I would have no clue what she was saying. I'd think she was saying, "this is a really hot summer!" I would nod my head in agreement, all the while wondering why that was so important to tell me during church. Turns out she was asking if I wanted to come to dinner.

3. If I really get tickled at something, my laugh will turn into a wheeze. The funnier I think the situation is, the more asthmatic I sound. (Ten years later, I’m noticing this is not as true as it was. Can I breathe better? Or, is it I’m not having as many belly laughs???)

4. I embarrass myself at funerals because random thoughts will appear in my brain and I get tickled. I am a "full-body laugher", so even though I am trying to squelch the laughter inside, my whole person will shake with trying to keep the giggles inside. I inherited this malady from my aunt; therefore, I have forbidden myself to sit anywhere near her at funerals -- or weddings. It's just ridiculous to see two women shaking and turning red during a solemn occasion.

5. I love to randomly belt out a line from this song: "Love is a many splendored thing" as I do things around the house. I also like to pretend to be the Everly Brothers and sing, "You say you're going to leave me, you know it's a lie, so tell me why, baby, why, baby, why baby why-y-y!" 

See, my family gets free entertainment, but do they appreciate it?

6. I love to read -- not just interesting books and magazines but important things like labels, the backs of cereal boxes, all the print on shampoo bottles whilst in the shower, road signs, license plates, etc. In fact, I am usually so busy reading license plates that I never see the drivers of vehicles. Which is why I am known for passing my relatives on the road and never noticing them.

What about YOU? Do you have any quirks you’d like to share with the world-wide web? Inquiring minds want to know! Leave a comment and we will commiserate together.

*adapted from an earlier post

I’m honored you stopped by the Journey today!

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Linking up at Char's Trekking Through the Week because laughter makes the trek easier!

What if this is the last time I see you?

Which is worse - fear or regrets?

Most fears never happen. Most regrets could have been avoided.

It's been about 23 years since Granny's last words to me. 

With a worried look, she sighed, "I'm just afraid this is the last time I'll ever see you! What if I don't come back from this trip to Florida?"

I hope I didn't roll my eyes, but if I didn't on the outside, I certainly did on the inside. I'm sure it showed when I said, "Granny! Of course, you'll see me again. Where's your faith? If not here, you'll see me again in Heaven."

All these years later, I wish I had taken extra time to love on her and reassure her gently instead of so impatiently.

I'd had a lifetime of hearing what all the worst-case scenarios could be. I didn’t think one of them would actually happen.

She did get sick during those months in Florida and never came home, despite the fact 99% of what she had feared during her life never happened.

100% of my regrets did happen.

I wanted her to have more faith. She probably wanted me to have more compassion.

There are no do-overs on this journey. But there can be learning experiences to make the travel more rewarding. I'm hoping to see each encounter with a traveler as important, realizing there is no guarantee they will ever pass my way again.

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What about you? Do you regret any last words? Take time NOW to let every traveler you meet hear only the best from you.

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I'm linking this post at Brenda's Chasing Community Link-Up and at Crystal's #FreshMarketFriday.

Love Is ...

As the hubs and I celebrate 42 years of marriage, I thought I'd share with you part of a list I made showing all the things my husband does to prove he loves me. (Part of the list is private!) 

Love is not just roses and chocolates and expensive dinners out! In the long run, this list means way more!

Love Is …

• ·        Showing up every day for 42 years, hanging tough through good times and bad
• ·        Unloading the dishwasher after midnight so your wife doesn’t have to take time out of her morning schedule to do it
• ·        Making your wife laugh. Every. Day.
• ·        Seeing when your wife is overwhelmed and pitching in to wash the dishes so the kitchen gets cleaned up faster.
• ·        Watching a tape of Jeopardy together every night before bed.
• ·        Disposing (or killing!) any mice your wife might see.
• ·        Keeping her vehicle maintained.
• ·        Being willing to measure, cut, rearrange and drive nails in order to achieve her decorating dreams.
• ·        Carrying in the groceries.
• ·        Driving your wife to the lake as often as possible to keep her from working all the time.
• ·        Taking care of all insurance claims for the family even though it drives you crazy.
• ·        Never yelling.
• ·        Getting up to go somewhere even though you really want to stay in bed.
• ·        Helping adult children get their things fixed.
• ·        Mowing. All. The. Lawns.
• ·        Babysitting whenever asked.
• ·        Not bringing up past mistakes.
• ·        Being willing to eat take-out when your wife is too tired to cook.
• ·        Being my #1 fan
• ·        Always saying I love you.
• ·        Watching Gilmore Girls with me.
• ·        Going to Popeye’s when you really want to go to Grecian.
• ·        Doing the towels to lighten your wife’s load.
• ·        Vacuuming.
• ·        Always willing to turn crockpots on or off.
• ·        Always willing to pop chicken in the oven.
• ·        Being considerate – you are!
• ·        Being kind – you are!
• ·        Making the bed because you know it makes your wife happy
• ·        Willing to do what it takes to fix things around the house; think septic tank, think heater!
• ·        Never giving up.
• ·        Never saying the “D” word.
• ·        Wrapping all the Christmas presents
• ·        Stringing up lights every year in the cold to decorate for Christmas
• ·        Always being willing to do what it takes to keep the family going!

He is a keeper, don't you think?

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I'm linking this post to the community at Trekking Through the Week.