Free, Just Because ...

It was my mistake.  I was the one at fault, not her.  But she made it right, not just good, but great.

You see, I had a free one coming.  I had finally made it to Starbucks and was ready to redeem my free beverage of choice that I had earned by buying their drinks over the last few months.  Ya, I don’t get out much.  I hadn’t much time left to redeem it either as I had just gotton an email saying I only had a few more days to get my free beverage before it was gone.  So I was happy!  Happy to be out and about, happy to get my hands on a Venti Caramel Ribbon Crunch Frappicino and happy to have remembered to tell her at the drive thru speaker that this was a freebie!  But that’s where my problem started.  Because when I got to the window and gave her my card I forgot to mention it again. 

She handed back my card and receipt and I noticed she charged me for it.  Oh no! I was going to have to confront her about it.  Now most people don’t enjoy confrontation, but I really hate it!  It goes against everything in my peace loving, get along with people, lets all be friends mentality.  Should I just not say anything? It was my fault after all.  And I can just come again some other day.  But my time is running out and I may not get back before it expires!  Oh what to do, what to do? 

She finally came back to the window and hands me my drink and that’s when I blurt out: “I forgot to tell you this was my freebie.” And I hand her back my card.  She graciously takes it back and apologizes, for MY mistake!  She’s busy and she confides that they are understaffed today.  I feel like a heel and apologize profusely for making her go thru the hassle of reimbursing my gold card.  Then she drops the bomb on me: This drink is free!  On her.  On the house.  She didn’t use the freebie on my card but tells me to come back and use it tomorrow. 

I thank her profusely and drive off in awe. 

You see I was expecting to get a free drink.  One that I had worked for, saved up my rewards for, one that I had earned.  But instead I got a FREE drink.  One that I didn’t do anything for.  That was just given to me, just because.  For no other reason, than the kindness of someone’s heart. 

And it made me think of that other free gift in my life.  The one I try to earn.  The one I think if I work a little harder or be a little more loving, might get me what I want.  Forgiveness of sin, the grace of the Father through the Son’s sacrifice.  I didn’t do any of the work.  He did it all on the cross.  I just get to receive.  Receive thru humbling myself and asking Him to forgive me and cleanse me and purify me.  Cause that’s what He does.  Because of the kindness of God, His love and compassion for men and women, He gives us the greatest gift of all! 

For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves,

It is a gift of God; not as a result of works so that no one may boast.  Ephesians 2:8-9

Busy Crazy Busy

 .... and yet ponderously slow at the same time.  That is the curse of having health issues.  When you are feeling good, there is so much to do, so much to catch up on.  You don't know where to start.  But then you feel cruddy again and are layiing in bed thinking of all those things you could be doing if you felt better.

That was my life from Christmas til now.  We finally dx'ed one of my problems: some terrible side effects of a medicine I was on.  I've been off it for a month now and some of my sypmtoms are gone, thankfully!  But I'm still having gut issues and other sypmptoms.  I have some ideas on what is going on, but am still trying to find out what to do about them and how to live with what my body is throwing at me.

I have hope that I will get my life back again, but at the same time feel like I lost the last six months of my life.

Til next time .... assuming I feel good!

Looked who came out of hibernation .... Mr. T-Rex! and u were thinking i was talking about the crocus'

via Instagram http://instagr.am/p/V5GlsusZDd/

The first sign of spring in our yard ... #springflowers

via Instagram http://instagr.am/p/V5GVV5sZDC/

Need a Lift?

Ever needed a lift? Sure you have, we all have. I recently found a ‘lift’ that I use over and over again. And it sure has been helping. What am I talking about? Why, only the coolest, greatest iPad app to come along called Lift.

Let me backtrack here a bit. I love New Year’s Resolutions. I love goals. I love dreaming up new things to do and accomplish. But, and this is a big but ….. I, like 96% of the rest of the population, haven’t been great at keeping those resolutions or accomplishing those goals. 

This is where Lift comes in (and no, I’m not a paid spokesman for the company), you set up your account, add the habits you want to start incorporating; say like flossing at night. And when you do remember to floss, you check it off on the list. It gives you a spot to make a comment if you like, and others can give you props for accomplishing your goal or even make a friendly comment on your list. Unlike other to-do apps tho, these will stay there day after day. The ones checked off showing up in green with a big neon sign that says: look at me, I made progress. No, not really, but that’s what it feels like. And the others just waiting to be crossed off. The app also sends you a daily email tracking your progress and giving you kudos and an inspiring quote to help keep you tracking. I love it. I look at it often during the day, since I’m an iPad fiend anyway, might as well. And by looking at it, it reminds me of the habits I want to tackle. I have one for taking my multi vitamin, something I was always forgetting to do. Now its almost second nature. I have another for memorizing scripture. Another goal is to write for 30 minutes and I have several that have to do with walking and fitness goals. I even have a goal for spending time outside. I don’t mark every goal off each day, but since starting to use Lift I have become much more consistant in several areas of my life. As I said, I use it on my iPad. Not sure if its available for other tablets/phones or on the web, but if you’re interested you could google it and see. If you already use Lift or start, you can follow me or see my Lift goals. 

So how ‘bout you? Do you set goals for yourself? Habits you want to incorporate? And how do you track your progress? I’d love to hear.

Proverbs 2:1-2

I LOVE this pic with the verse. Til next time ....

Help! I was kidnapped by little green martians ....

....oh, so you don't believe that. Well, the truth is alot more boring and mundane. Sure you don't want to go with the little green men story? No? ok, but I warned you. The more boring reason the blog has been quiet is life got busy, and blogging kept sinking lower and lower on the to-do list. There were times when I thought about posting but had trouble even figuring out what to talk about. But I used my blogroll to keep up with reading others blogs. Then even that trickled away to nothing. I think I got bored with blogging and reading blogs or maybe I simply lost interest in that way of communicating on the web. Weird, huh?

Of course, part of it might have been the fact that my mom gave me her old iPad when she upgraded. Now I had a bright shiny toy to play around with. I fell in love with all the apps out there and exploring all that you can do with them. An iPad isn't the best way to surf the web, so I never got on my blog or others with my iPad and it became practicallly all I used. We also found that my son who has Angelman's syndrome took to the iPad like any fish in or out of water. He LOVED it, and was able to utilize it. He found youtube videos about dinosaurs faster than the speed of light. So with the extra money I had been saving up for a new laptop I bought myself a new iPad instead and gave Josiah the hand me down. So now we are 2 peas in a pod hunkered down over our iPads enjoying apple technology. One thing I've really enjoyed doing is taking photos with my iPad. It has a great camera and I love how I can immediately see in full screen mode what I'm shooting. I have found a half dozen apps besides instagram to tweak said photos and post on facebook and twitter. I had let my picture taking days slide as it was such a hassle to upload the photos onto my computer and then mess around with them. Now its a breeze.

To be fair tho, there were other factors. Pinterest comes to mind. Boy, is that an addictive sight. I love it! And I don't just pin items, I go back and use those pins. I've made some great recipes from it, tried some cleaning and organizing tips, found a few new hairstyles to experiment with along with new nail polish colors and tricks. Everything a girl could want. At the beginning of the year, I also quit playing a silly online game that had taken up alot of my time and made it a priority to get into the Word daily. That was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I found a rhythm that works for me: reading a passage and writing down my thoughts about what it is saying to me, then writing out my prayer requests for family and friends and finishing with prayer. I got so hooked on it that I was even able to continue with it thru the summer when the Joe-boy was home. I just made sure I got up before he did and had my time of quiet then. The goal of having a consistent quiet time had been on my heart for quite some time. I'm glad I finally gave it priority in my life. If you have been pondering the idea of pursuing a more deliberate time in the Word and prayer, I would wholeheartedly encourage you to go for it! You'll be so glad you did. Just in the last couple weeks I've added praying for countries around the world. I'm using the book "Operation World" to guide me as I pray. The book is split up into 365 days for the year to pray over a different country. It gives you an overview of the country as well as specific prayer needs for the people and the pastors and workers in the country.

And lastly, I've been doing more walking. My doc wants me to walk daily, but I usually get in a 30 min walk 3x a week. We had a lovely fall this year and walking gave me an opportunity for some great photo shoots.

So that's my boring life. How has your year gone? Been abducted by aliens? Til next time ....

Think About Such Things

What Are You Thinking About These Days?



Til next time ....