A New Day...

Well, folks...cookie day got skipped...again!  As often happens in life, a number of other things jumped in to my good intentions and stole away my time. Taking care of a dozen phone calls in regard to Mom's rental homes, contractors who have not met time constraints and arrival dates (by weeks!), and a number of other annoying little things.

One of those calls was  to a lab who did routine bloodwork in June. As always, I paid at the time of service , and I'm  now being billed for the same work. When I spoke to "Michelle", who was located in the billing office in another state,  she gave me a couple of excuses as to why the bill had been sent out.
"Payment hasn't yet been received."   My reply..."I paid the same day, as I do each time, at the front desk of the lab."  Michelle responded, "Oh, I see. Your check was no good, so it wasn't ever applied to your account."  Me: "Michelle, my check was perfectly fine. I had $700 plus in my checking account at the time, and there would be absolutely no reason for that check to be 'no good.'   Michelle: "Well, it was held to be put through a second time, and it wasn't any good."   Me, still politely: "I'm sorry, but that is not correct. I have never received a notice from the bank stating there was insufficient funds or a bounced check. I have not received a fee for such a check, and besides, I have overdraft protection at my bank. Something must be wrong on the billing end, because that check was good." Michelle: "Well, it's never gone through your bank, so you still owe this." 

After a few more minutes of this nonsense, I told her I'd check with my bank. I first checked my monthly statements. No check. I went to the bank and the teller tried to find my check there, but could not locate it. Therefore, I must assume that my payment was never put through the system.  Now I must make another call to that billing office. I will ask for my check to be returned or tell her to put it through, as it is still a good check. I KNOW she will tell me that the check has been destroyed. How do I know this?  Because I have been through this exact scenerio once before...last year.  I'm more than a little annoyed about this inefficiency, and I will begin to look for another lab. I do remember that day in June...the regular woman who works there at the desk was out to lunch, and my time with the 'fill in' was longer than necessary, as she couldn't figure out how to get into the computer without calling three people to get a password for access. From there, she couldn't figure out the billing program. I suspect that is where the trouble began. I wonder why they'd put a substitute at the desk, to receive payments who doesn't know how to operate their system?

So anyway,...the cookies didn't get made that day, but it's going to happen!  Yes, Ben...they will be homemade cookies. Yes, my husband will be happy...and yes, you're all still invited to stop in!

Cookie Day

It's 65 degrees in my living room right now. Some windows are open in the sun room and the bedroom, but everything else is closed up because it's down-right chilly outside.  I think it's a day for cookie baking...among other things.

The oven will warm out the house, so I think I'll do them fairly early.  As the day progresses, the temperatures will rise, and then I won't want to bake. Besides, there are outside things I want to get done today.

So, shall I make chocolate chip cookies or should it be brownies or oatmeal or lemon bars?  I must make one choice...I don't want to be in the kitchen all day!  If I eat breakfast first, which I must because I'm currently famished, I probably won't want to make the cookies anymore.

But I'll do it anyway...because I haven't baked anything in ages.  Mike will be pleased to wake up to the fragrance of something yummy, and he'll be happy to do some real damage to a batch of homemade treats!  I surely do not need them to add to my 'hippie' status, but if they're there, I can tell you truthfully that I'll be eating some (translataion, "too many")  of them.

Well, enough procrastination...here I go!  Breakfast first, then cookies. Come on over if you can smell them baking!  I'd gladly share the joy of adding to your  hips!

Beautiful Autumn....

Dear Autumn,

May  I say that you are very much appreciated this year?  Your gifts of comfortable days and cool nights are such a joy after being shut up in the house because of Summer's offerings of unbearable heat!  You've come with much-needed rain, and you're beginning to dress the trees in lovely attire.

I know that you're no where near finished with your presents...or your presence!  It is my hope that you will visit with us for many weeks to come, before Old Man Winter arrives with his frosty attitudes.  Oh! Don't get me wrong...I love him, but he can be a bit over-bearing in his personality traits. I'm blessed that he doesn't stick around for too long. I haven't got the patience for him that I once had.

Spring will be visiting in her due time, also. She's always welcome, though she can be a bit of a bluster at times.  I think she must be related to Mr. Winter, as she occaisionally brings too much of something, but never too many blossoms! 

Well, let's not focus on that right now. YOU are here...and oh, so welcome! I will leave all others out of sight and out of mind for the time-being, and I'll focus completely upon your being here!  The time we spend together in the out of doors is precious to me. Those gentle breezes are so refreshing, even on the warmest of sunny days. I will treasure every moment of your visit, drinking in the clear air, the sound of crisp leaves, and the taste of every harvest fruit and vegetable that came along with you.  Please know that I don't like to play favorites, but for now, that's exactly what I'm doing!

I look forward to the reminder of your time here, so please don't hurry away! We've much to do together, so stay around awhile, if you will. There's plenty of time later for the others.

Autumn, I LOVE you!!

~Me

Monday, Monday...

My goodness~ I don't know where the time has gone!  It's been a few days now since I've done any blogging. What's been keeping me from this little spot?  Read on, and I'll let you know.

I've been doing  a little Fall decorating.....rummaging through the garage for my berry vines, gourds, pumpkins, leaves and Autumn flowers. There are touches in the living room, the kitchen, the sunroom and the half-bath.  Somehow, even though the weather is still hovering in the upper 80's, it feels cozier in the house. I took part in a primitive decorating site's Fall ornament exchange, and was blessed with some bowl fillers (now in my wooden bowl), a couple of fabric crows, a large calico acorn and a little black cat. It was fun making, sending and receiving these little Fall touches to put around the house. 

We'll be doing a Christmas 'ornie' exchange too....as well as a secret Santa exchange.  What a fun group this bunch of ladies is!  I've already started my ornaments for Christmas. I'll share photos of them after they've been received by the girls. I don't want to ruin the surprise!

Aside from making some of the ornaments, I've been working on a lot of cards. My friend loves them and asked me if I'd share her table at her church's craft sale in early Dec. So, I'm working hard to do those. Since I'm trying to make some of my Christmas gifts too, I've got to keep at it.

At the beginning of the weekend, after four mornings of rain, I got the shutters out of the garage. Those babies have been standing around for years, awaiting a bolt of some sort of creative lightening to strike me. Well, without having that bolt hit me, I've decided to clean,sand and paint them in a 'distressed' manner, and I'll hang them on the wall, each side of the two windows in the kitchen. (The windows look into the sunroom)  I think I'll paint them black, and scuff 'em up really well....so that they look as old and used as they really are.  "Why don't I put them up as they are?" you might ask. Well, I would, because they are perfect the way they are except  they are white, and so are my kitchen walls. Therefore they must be painted. Knowing me, they will be painted red over the black, and then scuffed up.... let's see how well I know myself~

I've been whining to myself that I should have gone back to my home town this month...only 900 miles from here...one way.  My daughter had surgery the other day for removal of a pilonidal cyst.  These are nasty buggers that attach and grow on the tailbone. The are quite painful, as are the 'boil like eruptions' on the buttock that signifies that there might be a cyst inside.  Anyway, I knew from my son's surgery for the same ailment many years ago, that it's really not a big deal surgery, and that her sister was planning to care for her. So, I didn't go. Then I got the 'guilts', thinking, 'What kind of Mom doesn't go to her daughter when she's having surgery?"  One who's been socked with extra expenses this year, and who is living on limited budget...that's who.  Still, the guilts.

As it turns out, it was probably a good thing we didn't head for New York. The van decided, out of the blue, that it didn't want to start on Friday afternoon. Our beloved friend and mechanic came by after work to look at it, and after an hour and a half of dismantling the panels under the dashboard inside the van, he was finally able to get to the faulty part.  Since he had to work on Saturday, he towed it to his shop, and we've been carless ever since. Well...until said friend/mechanic came by last night with his own car for a loaner. We are blessed with great friends!

I had better get back to my stitching or I'll still be making Christmas ornaments in April! 

Facebook...

Why is it that when something is working well they have to mess around with things?  Facebook members, including myself, are in an uproar over the new changes.  There are things that can be done to change a few things back, but it's often more complicated than learning the new stuff, which is very complicated. 

I'm rather bewildered when they do these things...and apparently, I'm not alone in that.  I guess they've never heard, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."    Ah well...I'll either muddle my way through changing back, or learn to live with the new things.  There's not much sense in complaining about it, although I did send FB a nice note in their feedback box.  I believe they are getting a lot of those notes, some not so nice, considering what I saw on our recent news program. Until Facebook understands that people are fed up with all this change they do continually, they will lose some large numbers of members, I'm hearing.

Well, it is what it is....and sometimes we make our own problems.

My Cup Runneth Over...

Yesterday I went to Sunday School and Church, as usual, but it wasn't a usual day there.  Our preacher and his wife are away on vacation and a young man from our congregation filled the pulpit. Let me back up a bit...
First, Bob was at the podium to open the service with a song, "I've Got So Much To Thank You For." It was the perfect message, and meant so much to all of us, because Bob had suffered a stroke early this year. The man we had known as full of life and energy, had been laid low in  a long period of weakness and recuperation. There he stood, with his vibrant personality slowed just a bit, but singing and sharing how he'd been brought back to his new self.  This is where the tears filled my eyes.

We went on to sing a hymn..."Marvelous Grace of Jesus". I'd been singing it all day the day before. It's a hymn that speaks loudly to my soul. I am so grateful for God's gracious gifts to me, things undeserved and so abundant. Again, my eyes filled as my heart felt the appreciation for this God who loves me so much, and proves it moment by moment.  The next hymn was "I Need Thee Every Hour". Oh yes,  I do! He doesn't need me....but without God, I would be lost. I would be stumbling through the darkness, making wrong decisions, turning in wrong directions. How do I know this?  Because, in my younger years, I did just that.
Then the choir sang their medley, "Sheltered in the Arms of God/Leaning on the Everlasting Arms."  Comfort...knowing that God Almighty shelters me....like a mother hen shelters her chicks beneath her wing, and knowing that I don't have to struggle through life without protection and strength. I can lean on Him through everything that life brings.  Special music from two soloists brought, "I Can't Even Walk Without You Holding My Hand"  and "God's Grace". By this time, my cup was running over!

But God was not finished blessing me. The sermon was special and spoke directly to me. The altar call was given, and during the last hymn, "Just As I Am" , I prayed...right where I stood, once again aware that I didn't need to do anything to have this fantastic relationship with God. All I had to do was to open myself to the work He'd already done at the Cross. 'Gratitude' doesn't begin to  describe what I knew at that moment. Suddenly I found myself lifting the names of those I love before God, and asking Him pour His grace out upon them, whereever they were at that very moment.

Since I believe God hears our prayers and answers them, I knew He wouldn't fail. He has proved over and over in my life, that He cannot fail.  Later in the day, I found out just how He'd been answering.
I will share that with you, but... that will have to wait for another day. In the meantime, let me just say that my cup runneth over....

A Change In the Weather?

Hallelujah!  It actually feels like Fall today! I awoke to 62deg, and it's not to rise above 68 today. Quite a change from the 87 deg humidity yesterday. We won't see much sun today, according to the weather channel, but that's ok.  There's a cloud cover, no rain, and a nice, soft, cool wind. It's all fine with me!

I wonder, though, how long this will last. It could be a long Fall where we enjoy the colored leaves, which are only just beginning here and there.  We might be lucky and go into December in shirt sleeves, as we did one year since I've lived here.  (Actually, at that time, I remember being disappointed because the weather wasn't helping me to feel like Christmas!)  I rather like Fall, so if she wants to stick around awhile, I'd be very happy. The gardens are in need of settling before Winter comes, I'd like to see them get done. And there are lots of other projects too!  One of the first I'd like to see tackled is the clean out of the garage. That, however, might be wishful thinking!

My husband has some work to do in the Preacher's yard.  Since they are away right now, it would be a good time for him to go. He doesn't get much work done when people are around because they always talk to him while he could be working. He was raised to stop and look at people when they are speaking to him, so he cannot work and talk at the same time.  Today would be a great day for his tasks there. This is comfortable weather for him.

Whether we see a long Autumn or a short one, whether we see this change as the real beginning of Fall or a tease, it is delightful to feel the drop in temperatures! We must take what we are given, and that is what we'll do.  It is so easy to accept this with gratitude!