Adversity/Stress

In our home church on Sunday nights, we are doing a study on stress that is based on the book of Philippians and Paul's letters that were written during his time of adversity. Even when things went wrong for Paul, he still continued to praise God in every situation.

From our discussion tonight, one thing really stuck out to me. Your perspective is really what determines your stress level. If you react to every situation like it is the end of the world, your stress level is probably going to be high.

So my thoughts for the coming weeks are as follows: If something in my life seems out of control or like bad things are continually happening I will ask the following question: Has anybody died?

If no one has died, then the situation, while serious, does not merit me having a panic attack about it. If no one has died, situations can be dealt with and we will persevere no matter what life throws at us. Satan will not distract me with petty arguments or critical comments from others. I will not waste time passing the blame on to others or trying to be defensive about anything.

I will live my life by having faith in God and constant prayer and by not worrying about things that I cannot control in my life or in the lives of others.

Tradition: Saturday Morning Breakfast

We have company this weekend and I am waiting for everyone to get out of bed. As I sit here writing, I can smell the fresh blueberry muffins that are sitting on the counter as well as the smell of fresh coffee. I hope they all get up soon... these smells are making me hungry.

While I am sitting here, one of my friends wrote on my wall saying that he was eating chocolate chip muffins for breakfast this morning and that his wife has made chocolate chip muffins every Saturday morning for the past 7 or 8 years. That reminded me of growing up and my own family's Saturday morning breakfast tradition.

Every Saturday, my Mom and Dad would be in the kitchen making breakfast long before me and my sister and brother woke up. We always got up and had waffles or pancakes as a family. I believe that my Dad did the Saturday morning breakfast cooking, but I know that the two of them were always in the kitchen together on Saturday's getting ready for the day.

Those are precious memories - waking up to breakfast smells and then spending my first awake moments on Saturdays with my family.

Voting

Today as I was driving, I noticed a sign that said "Stop the Trains. Vote to Repeal." This got me to thinking. I can honestly say that I do not pay enough attention to local news to know that this sign is really talking about. I barely pay attention to National or World news. Don't get me wrong, I am not completely ignorant. I just choose what things I want to know about.

As my thoughts continued to wander around in my brain I began thinking about the dissonance in our culture when it comes to voting. We are a fast food culture. We want things now. We don't give most things the time of day if they are not presented quickly and in an interesting manner. We skip commercials. We TiVo our shows. We barely listen to radio. There are some of us whose only source of news may come from blogs or the limited amount of websits that we have patience for. The process of voting seems stuck in the past, world's away from our current world.

We are busier than ever. Who has time to run somewhere to vote? I am relatively young, so my experiences in voting are rather limited. But they haven't been good experiences. In order to vote, I most likely have to take off from work. I have to figure out where I am supposed to vote. I have to wait in long lines. And then I am supposed to vote for people and issues I may have limited knowledge about.

Sure I should be a good citizen and do the research myself so I am knowlegdable enough to vote. But this seems so counterintuitive to the rest of my life. Voting should be easier (maybe it is and I just am uninformed). Why can't we vote online or via text message? Why can't we have a website where ALL of the issues and candidates are spelled out for us. It should be easier for the general public and it should fit into our current culture.

Am I just totally off base? What are your thoughts?

Haven't written in a few days...

I know, some of you were probably worried... what happened to Cheree and her addiction to FB and writing all of the notes... Mostly there has not been a whole lot to write about.

It is so hard, to be waiting. Day in and day out. Not knowing what the future holds. You keep hoping and praying and doing your best to make things happen and they don't. Eventually it all works out and you are ecstatic and thankful that you held in there, even when you really wanted to give up.

Anyways, that is what I have been doing lately... waiting. Yesterday I got a call about an interview for Friday. I am really excited about this one, but will continue to wait and pray and hope that it works out. Interviews are exciting and terrifying all at once. A strange place to be.

We had a really good visit with Daniel's mom and grandmother last weekend. We have had a lot of weekend distractions lately... distractions in a good way. It is always good to reconnect and take the time for people. This weekend our friends, Marshall & Hillary, are coming to visit (sans their baby), so we are excited about that as well. Minus the fact that the house is not getting finished, but we will live and eventually it will be finished.

The tree is finally gone! I am thrilled and the best part is that I didn't have to help haul it to the curb. Daniel worked with our neighbor on Monday night and got it taken care of - D on the chainsaw and neighbor hauling limbs... I am so thankful that is done with and I will pray that no more trees fall on our property.

We need rain. We are making a record right now for lack of rain - it has been too long... Everything is dried up. The rivers and lakes are down significantly. Charlotte is on water restrictions... no watering yards. I am ready for a hard rain... you know, the kind that feels soul cleansing. I think that when it rains I will just go stand in the yard and let the water pour over me.

Affectionate Cat

Last night Daniel and I took Daniel's mom & grandmother to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. I think we have taken almost all of our visiting friends and family to try the fabulous cheesecake there. If you have visited us and we have not gone there, I apologize. You will just have to come and visit again and we will take you.

Anyways we had a good meal and then split a slice of Adams Peanut Butter Fudge Ripple Cheesecake - one of our favorites. You cannot go wrong with Peanut Butter, Fudge and Cheesecake!

After dinner we wandered through SouthPark Mall and found our way to our favorite book store: Joseph Beth's where we spent some time browsing.

When we came home, one of the neighborhood cats was in our yard. This is not that odd as there are about 5 cats that seem to believe that our front porch is their personal domain. They are quite territorial and will scare off other cats at times.

Anyways, this particular cat has not been around as often and she actually had a collar and name tag. She came up and rubbed on our legs and I made the mistake of petting her. Then we all went inside. This poor cat tried to follow us in, which we promptly shooed her out. Then as we sat in our living room, talking, we could hear this pitiful meowing that lasted for well over an hour. At one point, Daniel went outside to see what her collar said so that he could call someone about her. However when we opened the door he thought she was acting strange so he shut the door again.

Daniel then brought up his concern that there have been 7 cases of rabies reported in Charlotte since July and he was concerned that this cat was acting too weird - she wanted to be petted, she wanted to come in, and she wouldn't quit whining outside of our door. I don't know, maybe she was just starved for attention.

I Googled rabies symptoms for cats and one form was that they act really aggressive and mean and another form they act overly affectionate and needy... so I have no idea. Maybe there is a rabid cat wondering our neighborhood. I do know that we got home around 8:30 and the poor cat was still meowing on our porch after 11 p.m. when I went to bed!

Be With Me, Lord

This one of my favorite hymns
(words by T.O. Chisholm, (c) 1963 by L.O. Sanderson):

Be with me, Lord--I cannot live without Thee,
I dare not try to take one step alone,
I cannot bear the loads of life unaided,
I need Thy strength to lean myself upon.

Be with me, Lord, and then if dangers threaten,
If storms of trial burst above my head,
If lashing seas leap everywhere about me,
They cannot harm, or make my heart afraid.

Be with me, Lord! No other gift or blessing
Thou couldst bestow could with this one compare--
A constant sense of Thy abiding presence,
Where e'er I am, to feel that Thou art near.

Be with me, Lord, when lonliness o'er takes me,
When I must weep amid the fires of pain,
And when shall come the hour of my departure
For worlds unknown, O Lord, be with me then.

Power Outage

Yesterday around 4:30 p.m. the power in our neighborhood went out. I gave Daniel a call and he called Duke Power and they told him it would be out until 7:30 p.m.

So we decided we would have to eat out for dinner... Daniel came home to pick me up and we headed for Brixx where we shared our favorite pizza: Chicken Florentine. The weather was perfect so we enjoyed sitting outside.

I think that 90% of the people eating dinner there were families with children under the age of 4. It was quite a zoo. The little kids were funny to watch. It made me remember how easily kids make friends with other kids that they don't know. Why is it so hard for adults to make friends like that? Anyways, we enjoyed eating out unexpectedly!