Louder Than the Voices

I hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving. Ours was good, the guys worked at the farm, my mom made Thanksgiving dinner, and I headed up there about 11 and spent some time with her as she finished up. We all gathered at her house at noon, ate together, then the guys went back to work on Robert's house. And I went to my office to finish a project that I had slated to be done by Thanksgiving, happily, I got it finished and we were all home by 5pm. Yesterday, Andrew and I went Black Friday shopping. We set a new record for staying out, leaving the house at 3:30 am and pulling in the drive at 6 pm. It was a good day, I got lots of bargains and lots of Christmas shopping done. We headed to Evansville, and even though a main reason was they had all the stores I needed to get to, the most important reason to me was that when you go to Evansville, everyone is so KIND. Robert and I noticed this the first time we went down there, and it is truly my favorite place to Black Friday shop. ...

Psalm 100: 4-5  Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endures to all generations. We are less than a week away from Thanksgiving and into the homestretch of the year. I have heard several people say it just doesn't feel like Thanksgiving yet, but to me it does. Several years ago, a bunch of us started on November 1 to posting, first on my other blog, and then on facebook, something each day we are thankful for. Though I try never to take what has been given to me for granted, it does make me really realize all the things I have, and seriously puts me in my place when I want to think about feeling sorry for myself. I didn't do my thankful days last year because someone criticized it the year before. I regret that because I know my heart, and I knew where I was coming from but I let hurt...

As many of you know, I am currently getting to participate in the pit band for one of our local community college's production of Into the Woods. At first I just thought myself in way over my head, but I have settled down, learned to let it go when I make a mistake and move forward. I am to the point of really enjoying having the opportunity to do this. If you don't know the story, it is a mix of different fairy tales, look it up on Youtube, or someplace, I am not going through the whole thing here. There are a couple of things that happen in it that really make me think though and that is what today's devo is about. One of the main stories is Rapunzel. The witch has locked Rapunzel in a high, doorless tower. We learn through one of my favorite songs, that the witch is really trying to protect Rapunzel from the world. She sings that "Princes wait there in the world, it's true/Princes, yes, but wolves and humans, too/Stay at home, I am home/Stay a child whi...

So, History was made last Wednesday night as the Chicago Cubs won the World Series for the first time in 108 years. I was hoping, on that next morning, that all just seemed a little bit "righter" with the world, that maybe some miracle had happened and there would be something different happening on Tuesday.....I know, I know, that's not how it works. And then I remembered there really were Cleveland Indian fans that were disappointed with the results. Tuesday comes another day in History, and I have wrestled with this election like no other. I do not like either candidate, period. I am thinking we screwed up big time for allowing these two to be on the ballot, but the deal is, it is who was voted in on the Primary (and I can say in all honesty, I DIDN'T vote for either one of them in the Primary) so there it is. And I am scared, scared of what either person would say or do that would land us all in hot water. I keep hearing my own recently retired boss saying ...