Living At Wit's End

When are we officially grown up?   When exactly does it happen?   After highs school?   After college?   After we get married?   After we buy a house and have a job?  What happens if you never accomplish any of those things?   What exactly is the definition of grown-up?   Dictionary.com says grown-up:   adjective 1.   having reached the age of maturity.   2.   characteristic of or suitable for adults: grown-up behavior; grown-up fiction.   Honestly, what does that mean?   What is the age of maturity and who decides when one has reached this age? Aren’t we continually growing up?   I think the day we die is the day we stop growing up.   If we are realistic about things aren’t we always growing, physically, emotionally, spiritually and mentally?   Do we really stop learning new things, connecting with others, aging, or making a spiritual connection at a certain point in life?   Isn’t life about c...

I found this wonderful prayer that I absolutely need to pray daily!  Maybe you need it to.  I started reading 1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp awhile ago, this prayer reminds me that I truly need to get back to it, and back to my gratitude journal.   Gratitude for all of our blessings can change your attitude and perspective so much. Lord, thank you for this sink of dirty dishes; we have plenty of good food to eat. Thank you for this pile of dirty, stinky laundry; we have plenty of nice clothes to wear. And I would like to thank you, Lord, for those unmade beds; they were so warm and comfortable last night.   I know that many have no bed. My thanks to you, Lord, for this bathroom, complete with all the splattered mirrors, soggy, grimy towels and dirty lavatory; they are so convenient. Thank you for this finger-smudged refrigerator that needs cleaning.  It has served us faithfully for many years.   It is full of cold drinks and enough leftov...

Life has been very crazy at our house lately.  We have had some challenges pop up and getting back in the swing of things with school has kept me very busy.  To be honest, I've been pretty tired at the end of the day and this has led to writers block.  While searching for something to post this evening, I came across a prayer I had saved.  I'm not sure where I got it from and a quick search of the internet, lists it on several sites, but no where is it sited who wrote it or where it came from originally.  I felt that it was the perfect prayer for me right now.  I wanted to share it with you, it is not my intent, to not give credit to the author, I just haven't found who the author is.  I hope it speaks to you that way it spoke to me. Prayer of Mothers Father in heaven; grant me the grace to appreciate the dignity which you have conferred on me.   Let me realize that not even the Angels have been blessed with such a privilege— to share in ...

I was recently on a writing hiatus because I had two projects that I absolutely had to finish.   The first a garage sale, the second a video project I agreed to do. At the beginning of the year I talked the Director into taking Dave Ramsey’s’ Financial Peace University class.   We had taken a Crown Ministries class in the past.   In fact we took a couple and led a few.   So it’s not like we were completely clueless when it came to money.   But, I had heard great things about FPU ( Financial Peace University ) and felt we could always use a refresher when it comes to money.   He agreed. We have had very little debt since taking Crown Ministries, but recently we had been thrown a few curve balls and accumulated a small amount.   In class we learned about Gazelle intensity at paying off everything.   Dave suggests that you do everything from sell off your stuff in a garage sale, to getting another job, in order to live like no one else, so th...

Growing up I was not in the “IN” crowd, nor was I popular.   The majority of my grade-school years were spent at a Catholic school.   I remember classmates as far back as first grade but a best friend or even good friends I had very few.   My first memory of a best friend was in fourth grade.   I had one for fourth, and fifth.   Then I had a couple of friends in sixth, and seventh but no best friend.   Actually I wasn’t really liked much at all, in sixth and seventh grade.   Thinking back on it, seventh was my hardest, I was what would be considered today, bullied.   Some of the girls put my school shoes in the toilet while I was at P. E.   I was made fun of, and a whole host of other things, I don’t care to remember, throughout all of seventh grade.   Eighth grade was a bit better, the two queen bees that led the girls the years before, had left the school and I bonded with someone.   We were like Laverne & Shirley  (we ev...

Everyone in our house, except the Director is sick.   I don’t know what’s worse, everyone including mom, being sick at the same time or having one person at a time get sick.   I mean if we did the one person at a time thing, our household could potentially be sick for two months!   Then again having everyone sick at the same time is really hard too.   Especially when the little ones won’t succumb and just rest, and all of the older ones, me included just want to sleep. So what do we do when we’re all sick?   Well, I try to use natural remedies as well as conventional western medicine, but in the end sometimes it just takes time.   In the mean time I always make the following as part of our healing process. From my absolute favorite cookbook and one of my favorite authors, More Home Cooking, A writer Returns to the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin.   As Laurie states, “There is nothing like roast chicken.   It is helpful and agreeable, the perfect dish ...

When I wrote about the killer organisms, I was half joking.   Seriously, they totally gross me out and give me the willies when I think about them.   However, I never REALLY thought about them and what they can do to you! The other night I wasn’t feeling real great and when I lay down, I felt worse.   So, I decided to get up, not being in the mood to do much of anything, I turned on the TV.   All the stupid cable channels we have, and there was nothing of any value, worth watching, on!   As I was guide surfing, trying to find something, I came across the title Monsters Inside Me on the Animal Channel.   Now I’m thinking to myself “what in the world can this be about, especially on the animal channel!”   So I decide to check it out, in the words of Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman “Big mistake. Big. Huge!” This show is about all the disgusting, nasty, critters that we can get!   Honestly!   The stories that were told and the pictures they show...