"What's for breakfast?", said Pooh

“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”

“What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh.  “What do you say, Piglet?” 

“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully.   “It’s the same thing,” he said.  

  – A.A. Milne

This is the breakfast Doug made for his Integrity Group a few weeks ago.

Lightening the LOAD

Trinity's  annual yard sale is happening this Saturday.  This event has mushroomed into a mega-sale over the years.  It's a wonderful chance to lighten my load of stuff. 

 Gone, gone, gone are all my dusty artificial trees, unworn ties and jackets, 

pictures, packs of notebook paper.....

Here's the stack that Doug took over on Monday.

No, the book case isn't going, but see that empty shelf?  That held our 20 year old World Book Encyclopedias. (Sent to us, free from the World Book Company when we lived in China.)

As Doug said last night when bagging then up, "It's the end of an era."  Guess that could mean a lot of things.  It got me wondering if anyone even sells encyclopedias any more?

It feels good to lighten the load.

"Don't store up treasures here on earth,

where they can be eaten by moths and get rusty, and where thieves break in and steal.

Store your treasures in heaven....

Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will be also."

Signs that made me laugh

Funky signs and notices always make me smile.

Saw this sign hanging in a coffee shop in Duluth a year ago .

It was hanging here at Dunn Brothers Coffee, Duluth, MN.

Isn't this cute?  LOG, inside and out.

And this struck us really funny when we lived in China in the 80s.  It was a good idea, though, to help prevent a slip on the sidewalk in the mornings, especially.

This is probably just humorous to a nurse.  This was at Buca de Beppo in Mesa.  Saw it in December when out with the Ladies Book Club ladies.

Symmetry

I pretty much like things in symmetry much of the time, so it kinda tickled me to see how hubs had arranged the furniture in preparation for the carpet to be cleaned a couple weeks ago.

And when I saw this it got me thinking about how exciting it would be to pack everything up and be free of the "stuff" of life, which is the way I felt every time we have packed up and moved somewhere new.

But, alas, a day later it was all back where it was prior to  Oxyclean Man's work.

Not to say that I don't really like where I live.

It's just exciting to be on a new adventure sometimes.

Lesson from a hospice patient this week

My job with Hospice of the Valley as an RN  case manager takes me to elderly patients who live in group homes or assisted living facilities.  

My boss asked me last week if I would take over the management of Evelyn.   I did not want to do it because I had met Evelyn on a triage visit 6 weeks ago and I did not like her very much.  She was:
1) very irritable,
 2) lived in a dirty apartment 
3) she had a jumpy yappy little dog that I didn't much like. 
(Some people tell me I have a character flaw for not being an animal-lover.  This may stem back to a traumatic experience when I was a teenager.  I went for a bike ride on the highway by the farm and our St Bernard followed me, only to get hit and killed by a car the dog was chasing.)  


Back to Evelyn.  So when my boss asked me I really fussed about it, telling her my reasons for not wanting to take her on.  
However, I have such a great boss and I really could not say no to her.  
So Friday was my day to visit Evelyn.  I told Doug I was dreading it.  But I prayed as I headed for her place and made a decision to think of her from God's perspective.  
Knock-knock.  'Yap, yap, yap!"  I entered to the jumpy dog 
and walked across the dirty carpet to her bedroom.  I introduced myself and asked if she wanted to stay in bed or get up.  She wanted to get up.  She weighs 74# and is very cachectic but she insisted on getting herself up out of the bed and into the wheelchair.  We visited a little.  Then I asked her how she was feeling.  (After all, I have to chart her pain level.)  
O boy, wrong question to ask Evelyn.  "How would you feel if you couldn't breathe 
and could not walk and had lived too long?"  


Yikes.  Back off. Take a deep breath. 
 Decided to comment on her beautiful paintings and ask her about how she became a painter.  That led to her telling me about her painting and then her career as a court reporter in some very famous cases.  I even pet the dog a bit.  Pretty soon I realized I was actually enjoying myself.  And I could tell she was appreciating the conversation.  I was able to gently remind her that God loves her and she thanked me "for the very enjoyable visit." 
  I could not have been more surprised.
Thank you, God, for grace.

Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work. 

Mother Theresa

Oranges and Sunday night ramblings

1) One of Doug's dreams when we came to Arizona was to have his own citrus trees, and lo and behold, it has happened.  Our lot is tiny but he has managed to squeeze a naval and tangelo in the backyard and a trovita and a royal mandarin in the front.  What fun for a Minnesota boy! 

2) I don't understand how or why prayer works, but God gives us the privilege of seeking Him and of joining Him in His work as we pray for others.  We are having a week of prayer emphasis at our church and I am excited to be with like-minded people seeking the Lord.

3) Friends make a big difference in my life.  I spent time with a really fun friend yesterday.  She always makes me laugh.  We had lunch today with some people that have known Doug and me since we were first married - 35 years ago.  We all seem so the same.  How could 35 years have intervened?  

4) I don't like to give a "hard" word to anyone.  

5) People have a great capacity to disappoint one another.  Many times people disappoint unintentionally.

5) I have gotten slightly addicted to Sudoku since Doug gave me a puzzle book for Christmas.

6) I wish I could recall people's names better.