Put a Sock in it, Satan!

Satan lies.  No kidding, right?  We've all experienced it.  Only, sometimes we don't recognize it as him.  He's pretty sneaky about it.  I know Satan lies.  It's kind of a given.  But, too often, I don't recognize his lies for what they are.  And, lately, I feel like he's really been after me. 
I've never had the best self-esteem, so I'm sometimes an easy target.  The other night, I was lying in bed, talking to my husband and thinking about life.  I was thinking about how I have little to no talents, how I never do anything important, and just feeling generally worthless.  And then, it hit me.  That's a load of crap! To say that I am worthless is really an insult to God, my maker.  He doesn’t make junk.  Sure, sometimes I don’t live up to my full potential, but that in no way makes me worthless.  It just makes me human. Man, he fights dirty! Then, a few days later, I signed up to go to the upcoming Women’s Retreat put on by our church.  Later that day, I started wishing I hadn’t signed up, and thinking I didn’t want to go.  I then realized that this was probably another attack from Satan, and that if he wanted so much to discourage me, I should probably go.  Satan may be hounding me lately, but thankfully, the Holy Spirit has given me the insight to catch what he’s been doing.  This weekend, I’m going to the women’s retreat.  I’m going to fellowship with other women, with friends.  I’m going to soak up the word.  I’m going to bask in God’s presence. And, Satan is not invited. 

Open & Honest

I’m going to be very open and honest here.  I’m also going to try to be informative. 

I had a health class in college in which the topic of Parkinson’s disease came up.  The teacher asked if anybody knew what it was, and some girl raised her hand and said, “It’s where you shake a lot.”  It flew all over me.  She was misinformed.  Well, really, I suppose she was under informed.  Many Parkinson’s patients do shake, but that is just ONE of many symptoms, and not always the most prevalent.  I could tell you all about Parkinson’s, but I’ll leave it up to you to read for yourself.  For a brief overview, go here.  At first glance, it seems simple, but don’t be fooled.  It causes many, many problems in one’s body.  It can be treated, but only so much, and only for so long.  There is no cure.  And, in my personal opinion, is the most evil of diseases.  I honestly think I’d rather have cancer, not that I’m down-playing cancer here.  I definitely don’t want that either.  I’m just pointing out how bad it can be.  Luckily, it is a disease that affects mostly people over 50 or 60.  I think that’s why people know so little about it.  There are some people, however, who get it much earlier, and for those people it really has time to wreak havoc.  Unfortunately for him, Michael J. Fox is one of those people.  It is, however, fortunate for other Parkinson’s patients, because it means more media coverage, and more research.  You can check out his website for more information. 
More people you may know with Parkinson’s disease:

Janet Reno
Muhammad Ali
Billy Graham
Hitler (possibly)
My Dad

In the spirit of being open and honest, feel free to email me with questions/comments.

A Good Week

Today is brag on hubby day, just fair warning. 
It is my firm belief that I have pretty much the best husband ever.  Of course, he’s not perfect and he has been known to get on my nerves, and he doesn’t always do everything right.  But, sometimes he gets it just right and he’s always sincere.  Most importantly, he loves me, he’s honest, he’s thoughtful and he cares.  Oh, and he’s funny.  And he’s pretty hot…just saying.

Anyway, this week, he’s just hitting the nail on the head a lot.  Monday, it was a rough day at home with the baby.  She wasn’t feeling good, and was fussy, and wouldn’t sleep.  So by the end of the day, I was pretty frazzled.  Dean called on his way home to see if he needed to pick anything up before he came home, as is his custom.  He asked about supper, and I told him I hadn’t even had time to think about it.  He asked if I’d had a rough day, and said he’d pick up something for supper.  When he got home, he pulled steaks and sweet potatoes out of the grocery bags and announced that he was grilling me a steak, because I needed it after the day I’d had.  And, we all know how I feel about steak.  Have you ever read The Five Love Languages? I think steak may be one of my love languages.

Score 1 for the awesome hubby this week.

Also this week, I’d been looking at couches on craigslist.  You see, we gave our couch to my brother, because it was just too big for our house.  So we’ve been using lawn chairs ever since construction was completed enough and we moved in…which was last summer.  I really wanted a couch.  But, I was mostly just dreaming, because things have been pretty tight lately.    Yesterday, he came home from work and told me to put my shoes on and come outside.  He’d bought me a couch for my birthday (which is next week) that I’d seen on craigslist.  Apparently, he’d been saving a few dollars here and there since Christmas so he could afford to buy me a birthday present. 

Score 2 for the awesome hubby.

Am I a blessed woman, or what?

Little Miss Sunshine

My daughter, at 5 months old, is already a lot like me.  From the position in which we prefer to sleep, to the way Dean can make us smile when we feel like crying, to the tendency to randomly make weird noises.  One similarity in particular is becoming more and more evident: our love for sunshine and being outside on a warm day. 

I’m happy about this, because of all the benefits of sunlight.  Benefits like the mood boosting, sleep improvement, promotion of vitamin D production, the strengthening of the immune system, and increase of metabolism.  Oh, and because I love sunshine and being outside.

My sweet little sunshine loves to go for a stroller ride on a warm day, and she’s in a much better mood running errands around town when the sun is shining and we can roll the windows down.   

And, she LOVES her Daddy.  Yep, she’s a lot like her Mama. 

It's going to be a fun spring and summer.