Category: Just do it

Posted on in Aging, Covid 19, Faith, Just do it, Social Distancing, Spiritual growth

Ankle Monitoring

I heard a radio program a while ago about prisoners and release and ankle monitoring. The comment that struck me was the decision about electronic monitoring is based upon the “readiness to change level” of the prisoner. I have no idea what the criteria is for that, but it struck a chord in me.

This pandemic has changed our lives. I think many aspects have been changed forever. What is YOUR readiness to change level?

There are so many things that we in America CAN live without. Are we ready to release those things? Think about it! If your gateway to peace and freedom was based on what you were ready to let go of, what would you be willing to do differently?

Yes, I miss wandering through a grocery store and hitting the mark down bins for deals. I miss going into a grocery store period. But could I live without that experience? Yes, perhaps not happily, but yes. Not even mentioning other shopping.

Then the hot topics of social distancing and wearing masks. I heard about a woman who threw a sheet over her daughter so she could hug her safely. Yes, I am about ready to do that, especially with those Grandgirls!

April 3, 2020; Blue Ash, OH, USA; Cheryl Norton, of Blue Ash, hugs her daughter, who is an ICU nurse working the front lines during the new coronavirus pandemic, Friday, April 3, 2020. Norton so much wanted to hug her, so she put a covering over her so she could hold her tight, just for a moment. After this hug, Cheryl dropped the covering in the garage. It will lie there for three days before she washes it in hot soapy water. And she, of course, washed her hands. An involved process for a hug. Mandatory Credit: Liz Dufour/The Enquirer via USA TODAY Network

“An involved process for a hug.” Not too hard for me! I get it. Yes, I am thinking I need to wash the sheets I used to cover the plants when killer frost came through and keep them folded on the porch for when I CANNOT stand it any longer and need to hug!! Are you with me?

I miss our church family. When I recently heard one of our Pastors on our church YouTube Sunday broadcast pray, “Dear Gracious and Heavenly Father,” I nearly burst into tears. Just miss our family so much. My husband and I are both older and both have health risk factors. We may very well be the LAST ones to attend church when it reopens. I do know, I will spend eternity with these folks. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NIV2011)  Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

Stay calm as we all discover just how very much we need to change!

Posted on in Humor, Just do it

Don’t Try This at Home!

Unless you are younger and smarter than me! Having technical difficulty with video. Maybe this link works?

My sister had given me a bottle of hand sanitizer, but at the rate we have been using it I thought I would try what everyone says is SO simple. With the simple ingredients of two parts alcohol and one part aloe vera gel this did NOT make hand sanitizer as it was advertised on the ever reputable internet!

Instead, as you can see, I got a lump of organic aloe vera in a cup of alcohol. The Aloe Vera Gel organic bottle reads Aloe Vera leaf (99.8%), Citric Acid, Ascorbic Acid, Potassium Sorbate, Xanthan. WHAT?!?!? @#$(*&)@!*#^IHWL What a mess! I tried the stick blender. Nope, that did not work either. Just got aloe vera strands wrapped around the blades. After straining the concoction I put it in the pump dispenser thinking that maybe it had to sit for a while. Nope. Just got squirts of mostly alcohol. Which is fine as long as you use it over the sink or out of doors! When Grandgirl #2 can over she got a good laugh at Grammy’s attempts. She could not make it work either!

My Grandgirl #2 made me batch #2 of hand sanitizer a few days later. Turns out she bought cheap stuff at the Dollar Store and it worked just fine. Then my daughter found a huge bottle of gel hand sanitizer at Sam’s Club! So we are all set to stay sanitized!

Posted on in Cooking, Just do it, Social Distancing

What Have You Been Doing?

When the bananas from Click List went too ripe too quickly because they sent large ripe ones (I always buy small and the greenest I can find) Bob made banana bread. No nuts, not with rum, but with oatmeal. I think it might have been Betty’s recipe. Quite tasty!

I have been figuring out what pattern I prefer for making face masks. The Clermont Sun local newspaper offered a pattern on the front page one week. It worked fairly well. I tried another one I found on You Tube from Sewing Seeds of Love with nose wire and insert pocket.

I find the pleats tricky, so I just started pleating them with my best guess.

These each have an opening in the back to hold a surgical mask or coffee filter or folded paper towel. The girl across the street works at Dunkin’ Donuts drive through and will be required to wear a mask this week. They do not sew, so she received two. My daughter’s family needed 6 or 7. My son’s family the same amount. Bob and I need a stack of clean ones so we can change them each time we wear them. I will be busy for a while.

My daughter graciously ordered 1/8″ elastic on line as I used up all I had on hand. I did not bother to learn the tie one ones. Figured most folks would not use them. My oldest Grandgirl found yards of fabric in her closet and gave it to me for masks. She could not remember what she had bought it for. She works at a movie theater. On Tuesday and Friday nights they are giving away fresh popcorn. They have a bar there that is selling bottled alcohol and cans of 50 West beer curbside with the popcorn. Last Friday the line was really long. They promote it as date night. Watch a movie at home and have popcorn!

People with sewing machines have been kind to share with each other. Some with time on their hands are sewing like maniacs, then sharing with their work colleagues or trying to fill requests from others. One neighbor brought us a handful along with some surgical masks to use. She is aware of what we went through when Bob was so terribly ill.

In fact, I have found people overall to be kind during this pandemic. Neighbors are willing to pick up laundry soap when they are out and the Click List says they do not carry that – or are out of it. It would be even better if they said, “I am going to this store or that. Do you want anything?” We would not feel as if we were such an imposition that way. At this point, I am fighting the urge to just jump in the car and go get whatever I need. So, I will take all the help I can get.

 Therefore, God’s chosen ones, holy and loved, put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,  accepting one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a complaint against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive.  Above all, put on love—the perfect bond of unity.

Colossians 3:12-14 (HCSB)

And I have not heard any political comments among the common folk!

Posted on in Faith, Just do it

Every Thought

Indeed, we live as human beings, but we do not wage war according to human standards;  for the weapons of our warfare are not merely human, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments  and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NRSV)

War in your mind. War is waging all about us as this pandemic darkness floods the earth. There is nothing more the enemy of our soul would like better than to have us frozen in fear. I admit there have been a few times when I have been frozen. Just plain stuck in an ugly place. Not able to move. I wonder if that is how wildlife feels when hit by our headlights? Research says it because their eyes are wide open and our lights blind them. I am thinking more of being blinded by darkness.

Divine power to destroy strongholds. Where are your strongholds? Do worldly thought patterns have a strangle hold upon you? Are you willing to fight that off?

We have been given “divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God.” Trust. A cross at the beginning of the word. A cross at the end of the word. And in the middle are us. Can we trust God in this time of uncertainty? Will we? If fear of death has a stranglehold upon you, you will have to put it off with these divine weapons. Does the cross and all the benefits Jesus brings to us appeal to you? Are you willing to take up your cross and walk with Him?

Hebrews 2:11-15 (HCSB)  “For the One who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers,  saying: I will proclaim Your name to My brothers; I will sing hymns to You in the congregation.  Again, I will trust in Him. And again, Here I am with the children God gave Me.  Now since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these, so that through His death He might destroy the one holding the power of death—that is, the Devil—  and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death.”

Have you been held in slavery all of your life by the fear of death? The death and resurrection of Jesus have destroyed the one holding the power of death. We will pass from these bodies, but by faith in Jesus we will live forever with Him. Recently I have often been reminded of Paul’s writing in Philippians 1: 21 “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” What could possibly be better than to be with the Trinity for eternity? So what is there to fear?

Ah, but I digress. None of this is possible for me without taking every thought captive to Christ. That means the dark blips that come across my mind must go before Him and show their true nature. Brother Lawrence wrote, “Useless thoughts spoil everything and much mischief begins there.” Much mischief … oh goodness. This little dark thought can lead to one an hour from now and then build upon another to interlink and make a chain that is soon trapping me and hobbling my stride. If I allow that first little dark thought to abide in my brain I am soon crippled. Useless thoughts spoil everything.

I have taught 2 Corinthians 10:5b in various women’s Bible studies and without fail someone will voice the query “Every thought?” Well, many of our thoughts do not need to be taken captive. They are not a threat to our journey with Christ. If you watch your thoughts though, you will soon begin to recognize the ones that form patterns of darkness and ill will towards your soul. Your patterns of thinking will show themselves to you over time if you will pay attention to them. Who will win the battle between your own ears? The world, the enemy of your soul, or Christ?

When I take a thought captive to obey Christ I can tell almost immediately upon examination if it is something Jesus would approve of. Compare it to the beatitudes in Matthew 5 or Philippians 4:8-9 whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, etc. How does the captive thought compare? If it does not glorify God, send it packing in Jesus’ Name.

This weighty topic can actually bring you greater peace if you are willing to practice it. Why not try it out to experience for yourself if it is true or not? God will help you. All you have to do is ask.

Posted on in Humor, Just do it, Social Distancing

The Masks

So Dr. Acton of Ohio tells us we should expect to wear a mask here for at least a year. Wow. I understand the cloth mask does not keep me from getting Coronavirus or Covid-19 or whatever you choose to call it. It does keep others from getting ill if I am shedding the virus. It does keep me from touching my face, especially eyes, nose and mouth where contamination is most likely to enter my body. In Ohio Dr. Acton has taught us to call that the T-Zone. The first ones I made were flannel. Oh my! Too hot for me. Grandgirl #2 pointed out they would be good in winter when your nose gets cold on a walk!

I ordered some cotton fabric for curbside pick up as most of my fabric scraps were ideal for women, but not so much for guys! So now I own stars and stripes, solid red and solid brown. I make them with a piece of wire (pipe cleaner) sewn into the seam above the nose. There is also a pocket to put a coffee filter cut to size or a piece of paper towel to help filter things out. Now I’ve learned putting some light interfacing into the mask also makes it less permeable.

Elastic in 1/8″ size is hard to come all by. They are all sold out of the elastic at the local fabric stores. A theater supply place did fill an order for me for 30 yards. I ordered that much thinking I would have plenty left over. I use about 16″ per mask. Now I am thinking, maybe not enough! Now to just keep cutting, sewing, pressing and distributing!

Once people find out I make masks, it is sort of like the nylon scrubbers I used to make for my mother-in-law … they ask for some. “Oh, and so-and-so needs one, too.” So I am making masks. I think when I get the ones on my sewing table finished I will take a break and get back to some of my other projects for a week or two.

Until then, I am learning the pluses and minuses of Roku TV while I sew in the basement. MINUS – cannot record and fast forward through commercials! Cannot put sound through the speakers we have down there. Speakers were nice to project sound over hot water heater, washing machine and dryer. Pluses, can tune in online accounts like Pandora, Amazon music, and some movie channels with my older TV!

Bob needed to get something out of the safety deposit box at the bank. He left home wondering if they would let him in with a mask on! The bank door has had a sign about not wearing sunglasses, hoodies or hats. The manager met him at the door for his appointment and said yes, only under these circumstances was his mask allowed. Whew!!

And so, wash your hands and wear your mask! Throw away the liner after one use. Change the mask daily. Launder in the washing machine and if you want throw it into the dryer. Repeat. The masks I am making now are cotton and come out of dryer all wrinkly. I just reposition the folds and hit them with a hot iron. Presto! Good as new! A nurse friend told me to keep a stack by the door. Okay. Got it. After this batch I will eventually be back at it. Dare I say, let me know if you need one?? and please be patient while I fill the requests! Blessings!

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Faith, Humor, Just do it, Nature

Neighborhood

For me serendipity is just like snatching rubies out of thin air. Serendipity: “the faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident.”

I was out walking and overheard two little girls playing in a yard.

“Where are you, Susie?”

“I’m over here at my favorite tree,” she replied, standing at the base of a pink magnolia in bloom. “I am sad. This is my favorite tree. I come here when I am sad.” There was a pause with no response from the other child. Then in a lilting voice Susie answered, “Do you want to see me climb my favorite tree?”

Can we become childlike during this pandemic? Recognize our sad feelings, but then go on to delight in the life we own at this moment? It has long been said that the waiting is the hardest part. Give me something definitive and I will find a way to cope. Leave me without a decision and I flounder and flop around. Perspective of that child? I am sad, but there is a tree right in front of me waiting to be climbed.

“Do you want to see me climb my favorite tree?”

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a child, whom he put among them, and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

Matthew 18:1-5 NRSV

Come, Lord, help me climb this tree! Help me to humble myself and change. Help me become like a child.

Help me to be less fearful of the measure of time, and more fully alive in the time that simply is. Help me to live time, not just to simply use it; to breathe it in, and return it in acts of love and presence.

Avis Crowe

We were advised that in this worldwide crisis we would experience the famous stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. Allow yourself to feel those emotions as they arise, then release them and let them go. They may overlap. You will go in and out of those various feelings.

Always look for your favorite tree. Climb it and be restored.

Posted on in Faith, Just do it

You Will Benefit From This!

If you have not heard John Eldredge speak or read his teaching you will be glad to have heard this. I pray for his ministry often and came upon this talk. It lifted my spirit for days and I have listened to it more than that one time. He understands spiritual warfare in a way that not many other preachers bring forth. I pray this ministers to you in many,many ways.

He has posted other talks at Ransomed Heart Ministries on line, on Facebook, and You Tube. Even if you do not agree with all of his theology, I think you can agree that the prayer in this episode is powerful on many levels.

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Faith, Just do it

Ebb and Flow and Stillness

Recently I read the quote below and was blessed. We all know the many ways life can surge and churn about us. And then there is Christ, our Rock.

Trust God’s Word and His power more than you trust your own feelings and experiences. Remember, your Rock is Christ, and it is the sea that ebbs and flows with the tides, not Him.

Samuel Rutherford
The sea ebbs and flows with the tides.

“Rock of my salvation” includes the Hebrew word tsur. Tsur is the most common Hebrew word used in the names of God that describe Him as a rock. Tsur speaks of a rock that is massive, very safe, and virtually impenetrable”, says https://namesforgod.net/rock-of-my-salvation

In the quote there is that word, TRUST, again. I need to practice it and understand it more each time it comes up!

Jesus is my steady, unwavering, unchangeable rock. God’s Word and power are higher than anything I can know or understand. I choose to trust. I will be still in His Presence. If I understand correctly, the pronunciation for Tsur is like Sir. That will help me. As a soldier refers to it’s commander as “sir”, so I will refer to my Lord as “Sir, Tsur.”

 He will call out to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, the Rock, my Savior.’

Psalm 89:26 NIV

Posted on in Faith, Just do it, Memories, Poetry

Words and Blog and Death

I am planning to close one of my blog sites and thinking about getting the blog printed so I do not lose the hard work and thought I have put into that. Perhaps one day my grandchildren would want to read it to learn more about me? Discovering entire worlds of on-line services to pay for to get ready to publish and then to actually print. Yikes. Decisions, decisions.

Then I am face-to-face with the reminder that no one will get out of this world alive unless the Lord comes soon. From my journal:

“Judy has died from cancer. Homer dead of cancer. Betty dead of old age and cancer form. Sonia’s mom dead from cancer. Surrounded by death of folks older and younger than me. Disposing of trapped chipmunks, killed on purpose by us.

1 Corinthians Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed,  in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality.  When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”  “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”

1 Corinthians 15:51-55 (NRSV)

“Death and life, intertwined. There are just sometimes that the death is more clear than other times when we try to forget it, put it out of our minds, pretend it is not always near. No wonder the men in the NT Bible story did not want to help the man beaten, robbed and left for dead on the side of the road. It brought home the fact it could happen to any one of us and death is always near.

Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.  Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.  So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

Luke 10:30-32 (NRSV)

“I fertilized new shoots I should not have fertilized. I too kill things. And I will die someday, the day the Lord has appointed for me. “

So perhaps it is important to preserve the blog writings for the next generation to read after my death? Or is it all words? Would I have liked a record of where my parents went in Michigan when they went fishing there years before I was born? Heck yes! All I have is a postcard they sent my uncle which I did not see until his daughters sent it to me after his death.

Is this the best way to spend my saved money? Perhaps it will be valued by my offspring in the future? Maybe not saving it is like killing those new shoots in the garden. The killing was accidental, yet still they are dead. Do I let those words and thoughts that have come out of me go – just perish in the dust of on-line words? Perhaps that is not a good use of my funds or talent.

Oh my, conundrum after conundrum. Would Judy’s boys cherish a memoir from their mother now that she is gone? Perhaps my adult children might cherish one?

I wrote this several years after my mother died suddenly.

Oh the ache
The wrenching tear at your heart
When you want to share joy
With one who has passed over.

Oh the void
When those too familiar arms
Are no longer there
To embrace you.

Tonight I shared an experience
With my daughter
That I once shared
With my mother
“Ice Capades,” with this wondrous four year old!

If my granddaughter ever delights
In the swirling spangles
And enchanted wonderland on ice,
I pray both she and my daughter be spared
The anguish I feel tonight.

Perhaps the future generations of our family might know the joys and challenges of my life by reading what a wrote about this past year. Guess I will pursue publishing. Scary.

Posted on in Aging, Faith, Just do it, Poetry, Spiritual growth

A Prompt in Plain Sight

Found this a year or so ago on the sidewalk. I have kept it ever since. It is a writing prompt and in some ways a prod. How so? you ask.

If you have a broken pencil you cannot write much unless you sharpen it and determine to use it. And that is the prod part. Was I willing to use it and sharpen it? This was before I started writing the blog. For years I had been putting off actually writing with regularity and purpose. Once again, I was being given the choice of just keeping a broken pencil, throwing it away, or putting it to work.

And the prompt? Even the stub of a pencil can be used to write. What is to stop the finder from using it? Yes, some kid is missing a green pencil from their colored pencil set, but what about the senior citizen who found and kept it. Will she make use of it, even in old age and gray hair? Will she step out in faith and just do it?

You can scroll through my posts and see if you agree. I think I am onto the discipline of using it and helping the last years of the pencil produce a harvest! Not to mention, the older woman holding said pencil.

Steve Green summed it up nicely with the song “You Want To, Now Will You”


You’ve heard the words
And know they’re true
And now they ring inside of you
They’re calling you to come away
Now will you come or stay.

You want to, now will you
You want to, now will you
The truth that burns within you
Like a bed of fiery coals
Contains that power to liberate
A thousand captive souls
But if the truth will ever set you free
Depends on you
You want to, now will you
You want to…now will you