Louder Than the Voices

 Happy last Saturday of 2025. I am actually quite happy to see this year come to an end. I am a firm believer that every day is a new beginning but sometimes we need the gift of a new calendar starting and to be able to close the door on the past. This has been an incredibly rough year in so many areas. There are years that things may be rough at work, but not so much at home or with friends, and vice versa, this year, the hard times seem to be coming from every direction. Last night, I was visiting with Robert about having joy. He made the statement that I always seem to have joy and I hadn't really thought about it but I realized he was right. I am definitely not always happy, but joy is not happiness. I feel joy is that ultimate peace and contentment that can only be found through that strong, stable relationship in Jesus.  Psalms 16:11 says, "You make know to me the path of life; in Your presence there is fullness of joy". I decided as this year ends and the new one b...

Happy Saturday before Christmas!     It always amazes me how fast this season goes. And as a child, it seemed to take forever for Christmas break, and Christmas day to get here. A friend of mine, Kim Buettemeyer explained one time that when we are a child, say, 5 years old, Christmas has happened 5 times in our lives, and there is a big likeliness that we didn't remember the first 2 so, it is something that seems almost once in a lifetimeish. By the time we have had 58 of them in our lives, it feels like it gets here before we know it.  I am so, so, excited about Christmas this year, my sis is coming home and she hasn't gotten to do that for a couple of years. My sister and I are opposites in so many ways, but I love her and miss her so much and we just don't communicate as well as we should. I am going to work on that again next year.  Robert is also leaving his job at Belle Tire this week. He moves his tools a week from today and then starts a new job at Charleston...

 Good morning! Happy Saturday. This week has been LOOOONNNGGG! I can't believe it has only been a week since I wrote my last blog post.  I wrote a blog post in 2016 that is truly one of two of my most read posts. I know this Christmas hits different for a lot of people this year. I have friends living without loved ones and other friends who feel this may be their last Christmas as the family they are now. Since none of us know tomorrow, this could be the last Christmas any of our families look like they do right now.  I have not hurt this bad at Christmas time for several years. Thanksgiving day, it hit me that one of my little traditions was usually a little text session between Cathy, Carol and myself, just wishing each other a Happy Thanksgiving. Last year, Cathy had been having some issues that you had to laugh or cry about and so we were joking around about it. This year, Carol and I talked on Thanksgiving, but we didn't send the normal "Happy Thanksgiving" roun...

 What a long week! It has been a good one though. We had our Christmas Revival at church and though I hate that I believe the cold whether kept many away, and I even had some work stuff that kept me away one night, I believe it better prepared our hearts for the celebration of Christ's birth. Today Andrew and I are celebrating our 34th Wedding anniversary, I joked around that yesterday we celebrated the 34th anniversary of being engaged. Yes, I was officially engaged for about 15 hours before we were married. We have big plans, we are heading to St. Louis today and then tomorrow morning, at 7:15, Andrew is going to cheer me on running the Hot Chocolate 5K. Then, we are planning on going to a church that I met the Pastor and his wife on a flight to Seattle. Life is definitely an adventure. Today, I wanted to continue my Christmas journey and I want to spend one more week in the Old Testament. We sing songs about Christ's birth being "foretold", I thought we would look ...

 Happy Saturday morning! I hope everyone has had a good Thanksgiving, and a good Black Friday, okay, if you "celebrate" Black Friday. I am enough of a diva, that I love a good Black Friday and this one was very good. I was very disheartened by the major stores bailing on Black Friday, and the main reason was violence. It is a sign to me that things get worse by the year, which we know is Biblical, but sad. That being said, my years working at Walmart pale in comparison to Andrew's and I have to tell you there were years in our marriage when Black Friday was a little scary to me because we knew what the hottest toy was and we knew the limited amount each Walmart was sent and we knew there were going to be fights. I know of two years that things got out of hand for Andrew, once was with Furbys and once was over a computer, but it still happened and I find it sad. I like the Black Friday experience where strangers stand in line and talk, open doors for each other and compare...

 Happy Saturday everyone! I was up way past my bedtime last night so it feels very early but lots to do today so I will get through my morning routine and hopefully get to bed early tonight and get a nap tomorrow. I am technically on vacation but there is work at the office that needs done and can't wait, so I will be there some today as well as in and out next week. I was pulled to stray away from James this week and maybe for the next few weeks as we prepare for Thanksgiving and then Christmas. I am one that gets very set in my routines and so when God tells me to do something else, I question it sometimes but He put this verse in my mind first thing this morning and said, "This". so "This" is what we are doing. I love Thanksgiving, it is my favorite holiday, I feel it is the one that because of all the commercialization of Christmas, has at least been left alone to remain what it is; a day to be thankful. That all being said, I have a love/ hate relationship ...

 Good morning everyone, Happy Saturday. I hope everyone has had a good week. This has been another very hard week as we buried my friend and boss, Cathy Feltner. There have been some definite ups though as Robert got his first paycheck at his new job and I got to spend the day with my momma yesterday celebrating her 86th birthday and then today, my sister is coming and we are celebrating today too (which is actually Mom's birthday). We are digging into the last chapter of James today and again, I am amazed at how practical James is for our lives today even though the book was written very close to 2000 years ago (most scholars estimate it was written between 45-62 AD). So let's dig in! James 5: 1-6 Look here, you rich people: Weep and groan with anguish because of all the terrible troubles ahead of you.   2  Your wealth is rotting away, and your fine clothes are moth-eaten rags.   3  Your gold and silver are corroded. The very wealth you were counting on will ea...

 Good Morning everyone. I hope your Saturday is starting off well. I am running on lack of sleep and lots of tears. My first thought was to just skip this day altogether but that is not an option and truth be told, digging into my Bible is the best thing for me so we are going to look at the last verse in James chapter 4 this morning. 16 words, but big ones. I lost one of my best friends yesterday, it has been a long hard struggle for her with scleroderma and the disease had ran its course in her body and I knew she was getting tired. I also knew she knew Heaven was waiting and I know she knew it was her time to go. She was not only one of my best friends but for the past 10 years, she had been my boss. She was the one who could talk sense into me, talk me off a ledge and cheer me on when I was feeling full of self-doubt. She was the one that I would walk in her office and ask her a question because I wanted to see the look on her face instead of hear her words, because she was one...