It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood,
A beautiful day for a neighbor,
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine? It’s a neighborly day in this beautywood,
A neighborly day for a beauty,
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you,
I’ve always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you.

 Reread the song and reflect and ask yourself these questions…. Could you be His? YES!! Would you Be HIS? Won’t you please, Won’t you please……..

We all start at the same place. All dumped into a pot together. Then shaken and tossed about. Fighting to get near the heat… changing positions. Moving forward. Needing the heat to encourage us to pop and be all that we can be.

The only problem I see is if you were to stay too close to the heat… you could get burned. So you must keep moving….

Too much shaking and tossing …. you never slow down enough feel the heat and get the encouragement to pop.

Once there is the proper amount of heat, the perfect amount of shaking and tossing… Along with the perfect Hand to guide the “popcorn pan” ……you have made it.

Add few friends.. butter and salt. What do you finally have… that perfect piece of popped popcorn.

Isn’t life Great?!?

Well, this was sent to me quite a while ago and always makes me laugh…. So, when it was sent to me again today, I knew in my heart I had to share this little piece of ‘trivia’!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxT5NwQUtVM

Enjoy…  ”because… I said so”!

In case you missed it….

 About This Video

Yesterday one of the boys found what looked to be our cat (I say that loosely) on the side of the road. He was … well, dead. So, the great dad Jeffrey is, he went to check it out and sure enough it was “our cat”. This poor cat didn’t even really have a name.

You see, about 2 years ago we had a cat that had kittens… oh joy! And we gave all those kittens away. Mostly to kids in our small neighborhood. And then the mama ran away and found a new home. I can’t say anyone here was too heart broken.

We had a few of these kittens that would keep showing up at the house. We lovingly called them “cat” or “the cool cat”. They we both black and no one could really tell them apart. Every once in a great while a third one would show up…”the not so nice cat”.

When we moved to our new home last month, we brought “cool cat” (at least we think that was the one) with us. He didn’t much like staying in the house…. never has, he was someone else’s cat! The poor guy was hit by a car and died like I had said.

The kids we pretty funny about this whole deal at this point. They have all been wanting a new pet. I had a great answer, “not until we get rid of the ones we have have.” It worked… and worked well, until, well, yesterday.

So, the moment Dad buried “cool cat”, and the younger kids asked if they could stomp the dirt on the grave down, the questions began…”Can I have a pet cat?”, “Can I get a dog?”… my favorite, “Can I have a small horse?”

I am finding a pattern here, my kids don’t seem to get too attached to pets. This would make a mom really wonder if trying it, yet again, would be a good idea. For as much as I really don’t like snakes, and other small creatures, they tend to stick around for a very short time and then are gone…. “they miss their families and need to be let go”.

The Sea Monkeys we have had for over a year now are doing well… Not real sure what a sea monkey really is, other then and easy to take care of and easy to not get too attached to “pet”.

I read this tonight and wanted to share it…. something to think about the next time you go to grab a  cup of Hot Chocolate ( or Coffee)

Life is Like Hot Chocolate

A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired.  During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups – porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite tell ing them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.
 
When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said: “Notice that all the nice looking expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you’re drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was the hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups… And then you began eyeing each other’s cups.
 
Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us.
 
God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups. The happiest people don’t have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything that they have.
 
Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.  And, enjoy your hot chocolate

(Thank you to who ever wrote this! )

“The human brain is insensitive to pain. The suffering of a headache doesn’t come from the organ itself but from the nerve and muscles lining it.”

Less the a week ago at a Ladies Nite Out at our church, I was asked how the unpacking was coming. Well, it was coming along… S-L-O-W-L-Y! But moving in a forward direction…. My kitchen “stuff” was no long in the backyard on the picnic table. Praise God for our long 12 foot table. Our dishes, food, cups, plastics, cooking utensils…. you get the idea, only spent about a week out there… wonder if it would have moved in quicker if I had it all stacked on the trampoline….. a pondering thought. Anyway, getting these items actually in the house was a big deal!

Once all these items were out of the weather, I started trying to put everything where it needed to be to make sense to me. Along with trying to sort and get rid of clutter. All that “thinking” did was overwhelm me. What was I thinking???? Then steps in Miss Diana…. She offered to help last week… and today we finished!! Less then a week after we first chatted about her helping me, many lessons have been learned and challenges overcome. 

These were not just lessons in helping me get ’organized’. The Lord had other plans…. But that is for another day!

Wishing everyone a blessed night with peaceful sleep and happy dreams!

I guess I could give a little update on the family. We are all doing well. Keeping busy with life. Unless you are one of the kids…. they get bored. Oh, so Very Bored! At that time I try to guide them in a direction…. my job as mom, right? I tell them they can do another math lesson, fold laundry, take out the trash, wash some dishes. The amazing thing…. these are all “too boring”. Too Boring!?!?! Now, that is a thought to ponder….. another day )

In our new house we have a nice BIG backyard… and it is FLAT! We now have the trampoline up that we were blessed with long ago. Keeps the kids from “being bored”! … but we now have the “so and so did such and such” thing going on. Along with ”it was MY turn and …..”. Gotta love ‘em! And That I do!!!

There have been many lessons learned since the Trampoline went up. The first one being, it doesn’t take long for mom to say “no more Trampoline if you can’t get along”.  And she is getting quicker to take it away! Yea Me! I have over heard many times in the last week…. “shhhh, she will hear us and we won’t be able to play any more”. Makes me chuckle a bit….

We really like the yard here. It is big with a nice fence. Which is no surprise… we prayed for it years and years ago. God is good to remember these things even when we don’t. Friends are good for remembering these things also. But, the best way to remember all these great prayers that the Lord has already said “yes and amen” to, would be to keep a prayer journal!  There’s a thought…. This is a challenge for me that I have overcome and will be seeing the fruit from that victory very soon.

Before I wrap this up for tonight, I must tell how beautiful that back yard looks tonight. We have gotten a  little bit of snow and with the bright flood lights we have out there for night time soccer with dad, it looks “way cool”! And so pretty… even with all the junk we are still sorting through and the silly 6 year old standing out there in a tank top and shorts for a picture at 10:00pm….. Only at the Schweizers!