Musings by Melissa

Don’t ya hate it when…

You’re in for the night.  You’re all comfy in sweats and slippers.  You’re enjoying a good ______.  (You fill in the blank… movie, book, bath, puzzle, game, etc.) 

And it hits…

You’ve got a craving.  It’s not something that can be ignored.  It’s big.  It’s sweet.  Or maybe it’s salty.  Or maybe it’s both. 

You go to the cupboard. 

Peanut butter… nope.

Canned tomatoes… nope.

Bread… nope.

Pasta… nope.

You try the refrigerator.

Dill pickles… nope.

Milk… nope.

Maple syrup… nope.

Cheese… nope.

Argh.  This is when a food delivery company would come in handy.

And this is when I remind myself that I have a 14 year old in the house who will soon be working toward getting his driver’s license.  Ah….  A built in food delivery company!

In a day and age when most mothers work, I feel blessed to be able to stay home and raise our children.  I agree with my husband when he says that the only thing the working women did for society was to raise the prices of everything.

For example, look at housing prices in the mid-60s.  Compare those prices to now.  Of course, we have to adjust for inflation, but still, housing prices have gone up considerably.  Why?  Because most families have more income to put toward a house payment.  Why?  Because the wife works.  Why?  Because if she doesn’t they couldn’t afford a house.

Do you see the vicious cycle we are in?

We are proof that it doesn’t have to be that way.  No, we don’t make a 6-figure income.  Not even close.  But we do have a nice home.  We do have two vehicles… nothing fancy, but they get us from point A to point B most of the time!  We enjoy traveling. 

But we do cut back on other things.  I can count on one finger the number of times we’ve eaten at a restaurant in the past year (not counting vacation, and even then, it’d be less than a half dozen).  Rarely do we attend sporting events and the like.  Movies?!?  For a family of five?!?  Forget it!  We’ll wait until the library gets the DVD! 

It all comes down to priorities.  What’s important to one person may or may not be important to another person.

But I like to encourage young mothers and fathers that they can indeed make life work on one paycheck.  They don’t have to moonlight every night at accounting finance jobs or delivering pizzas or whatever to make ends meet if they decide that they are not going to go into debt and that they are going to stick with their budget.

So, if you are a young parent.  You can do this.  You will likely have to scale back your lifestyle.  And you will need to prioritize.  We are willing to sacrifice dinner and a movie in order to go on a vacation.  But some people prefer their movies.  That’s fine.  As long as you know what your priorities are, and you don’t try to do it all.

Being home and raising our kids.  What a wonderful blessing!

The other day while we were driving to church I saw it again.  I’ve seen it many times in the past few years, but it doesn’t make it any easier.  What did I see?  I saw a house with a for sale sign in the front yard. 

No big deal, right?

Well, due to the lack of manufacturing jobs in Michigan, many people have lost their jobs and as a result have lost their homes.  I fear that this is what probably caused the empty home that I saw on Sunday.

These homes just have a strange look about them.  When people are trying to cell their home so they can move, they try to make their homes look more appealing.  Granted that’s a bit more difficult to do in the winter than in the summer, but there are still ways.  However, these forclosed homes don’t have that “loved” look.  There are no curtains at the windows.  Front walks are not shoveled.  Driveways are bare of tracks, which would have been a sign of life.  No smoke curls from the chimney.

As I drive along in my warm vehicle, I wonder where the people are who used to live there.  Are they warm?  Do they have food to eat?  Are they staying with family or friends?  Were they able to find an apartment somewhere?  Do they have children?  Were the children able to stay in the same school?

If you haven’t had to face such trying circumstances, take a minute to thank God for His countless blessings!

I know… that’s not exactly how the popular song goes.  It’s really, “Don’t worry.  Be happy.”  But Sunday morning our guest pastor spoke from the book of Philippians.  He was in chapter 4, and he cited verses 6-7 — “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and you minds in Christ Jesus.”

In other words, we are not to worry.  Rather we are to spend time praying, thanking God, and asking for what we need (or think we need at the moment!).  When we spend time alone with Him, an amazing thing happens, we no longer worry about how we’re going to pay for the latest car repair or finding cheap phenphedrine.  We don’t worry about what’s happening in Egypt or how our country is going to dig out from under its massive debt.  We turn those things over to Him, and He will share those burdens and give us peace.

That’s wonderful, but what really hit me this past Sunday was the very next verse– “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”

And the thought hit me: When I feed my mind on things that aren’t true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, etc., I tend to worry more.  When I don’t watch the violence on television, I don’t worry about it because it’s not on my mind.  So, rather than fill our minds with such things, we should focus on what is worthy of praise.  And Who is more worthy of our praise than our Creator, Jesus?

“Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might,k be to our God forever and ever. Amen”  – Revelation 7:12

I finally put my finger on one of the reasons I enjoy winter so much.  I love the sounds I hear when I go outside during the winter.  In the summer I hear lot of bugs, frogs, birds, and the like.  But in the winter I can go out and enjoy the quiet stillness.  It’s perfectly quiet, especially when it’s snowing. 

Occassionally I will hear the roar of a snowmobile as they go past on the road, and it always reminds me of when we lived at our former home.  We had a large stone near the end of our driveway.  One winter morning when I went out to get the mail, I noticed lots of parts srewn across the yard.  I’m not sure if they were polaris atv parts or not, but someone had apparently come tearing along the side of the road in the middle of the night and crashed into our rock.  We never heard a thing.

Ah, the quiet stillness of winter.

I’ve never gotten into the whole baking scene at Christmas time.  Oh, every once in awhile, we’ll make a batch of cut-out cookies in December.  And I have a very good recipe for peanut butter fudge.  But aside from that, massive baking days are just not on our agenda.

However, that’s not to say that we don’t partake of our share of holiday treats.  At this time of year it seems like they are oozing out of the woodwork!  Oh, we enjoy them all right, but if we see many more sugar cookies, gingerbread men, or church glass windows, I may have to ask dear ol’ Santa to bring me some of the best diet pills that he’s got!

But isn’t that what new year’s resolutions are for?  Until then, pass the eggnog!

I am totally confused.  It seems like a month or so ago I had Wayne pick up a gallon of milk while he was at the gas station.  Normally I buy it at the grocery store, so the milk he bought was a different brand.  I’m not brand-loyal, so it was no big deal.  When I went to open it though, I noticed a sticker on the top that read something to the effect of, “The cows that produced this milk were not treated with growth hormones.”  (The paraphrase is mine.)

I thought that was pretty cool.  And we drank the milk.

Then the other day I ran across an ad for human growth hormone.  What?!?  If growth hormones are so bad for cows and the milk they produce, why would someone want to take human growth hormones on purpose?!?

Or is it all just a big hype to sell more hormone-free milk?!?

Like I said, confusion abounds.  And unfortunately, there’s no end in sight.  What one person says is bad for you, other people say is good for you. 

So, what are we left with?!?

Chocolate!

Ah, do you remember the words of that old song…  Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat…

Well, it’s not just the goose that’s getting fat.  ~sigh~  And yes, it’s beginning to seem like the same old song over and over again.  I’m not looking for the fastest way to lose weight.  What I’m looking for is a change that is something I can stick with the rest of  my life, not just something I can tolerate until I’ve lost the weight I want to loose.

No, I don’t want a bunch of gimics.  We all know how to loose weight.  It’s just like saving money.  To save money you have to take in more than you spend.  To loose weight you have to “spend” more than you take in.  It seems simple enough.  But then why do so many people struggle with it?

Simple…

Chocolate!

Usually when I take a bath I read to learn, but last night I had a bit of a headache, and I just wanted something light.  So, I reached for Barbara Johnson’s “Plant a Geranium in your Cranium: Sprouting Seeds of Joy in the Manure of Life.”  I figured with a title like that it wouldn’t get too “heavy,” and I was right.

One of the funny stories she relates is about a woman who liked to get her ironing done while she talked on the phone.  One day she had put the iron down to hang up the shirt she had just finished.  The phone rang.  Without looking, she reached for it and put it to her face.  Imagine her shocked horror when she realized that she had picked up her hot iron rather than the phone!  She burned the whole side of her face.

My thought was, “Aren’t there easier ways to deal with wrinkles than that?!?”  ~smile~  I mean visit www.olayregenerist.org or other sites that deal with skin care before doing something so drastic!

In telling these stories, Barbara Johnson is trying to get people to lighten up.  She’s trying to get them to see that even some of the terrible things that happen have a bit of humor in them.  We need to lighten up a bit and look for that humor, that lightheartedness, in even the darkest of situations.  If we do, our whole approach to life will improve dramatically.

Just a little food for thought this morning…

I haven’t decided if I’m a content person or not.  I’m not looking to become rich or famous.  I like our house and don’t feel pressured to upgrade to a neighborhood of elite Outer Banks homes.  Those of you who know me at all, know that would never be a dream of mine!

I like our lifestyle.  I like being able to camp in the backyard without fear of gawking neighbors.  I like having chickens that don’t bother anyway.  I like having the wind blow our leaves into the field without worrying about them blowing into a neighbors’ yard and upsetting the neighbor.

I’m content with the vehicles we drive.  Oh, of course, I wish car repairs never had to happen, but vehicles have never been a status symbol for me.  As long as it runs and it’s paid for, I really don’t care if it’s purple with orange stripes!  ~smile~

As far as “stuff” goes, I’m content with what we have.  Oh, every once in awhile a new book pops up that looks good.  Or I’ll hear about a new documentary that I’d like to watch.  But I hardly consider that discontentment.

I have good solid friendships with people who hold the same values and beliefs as I do.  That’s a tremendous blessing with which I am content.  (Even if those friends live thousands of miles away.)

I am able to stay home with my kids and raise them in the way they should go and teach them what we think they need to know to live godly lives.  Again, what a blessing!

Hmmm…  I guess now that I think about it, I am fairly content, and that, in and of itself, is a huge blessing!