In a Nutshell

The righteous detest the dishonest;
  the wicked detest the upright.

Thursday's Wisdom

Turn to me and have mercy on me
  as you always do to those who love your name.

Direct my footsteps according to your word;
  let no sin rule over me

Accountability 101

So I'm driving home from getting two new tires on the car.  Almost ready to make my turn.  I've been riding beside, behind, in front of (that should have been a clue) a Lee Country Sherriff's car.  Finally I see his lights go on and I pull over.

Normally, I'd be upset and shaking but this time was different. He came to the passengers side of the car,  reached in and played most of the time with Mitzee while he talked to me.  Was he trying to develop a relationship with her?  She wasn't driving?!?

Anyway, he said he saw the seatbelt not being worn and since I had just left the tire place, I chose not to wear it.  So I gave him the license, registration, and insurance cards and he goes away.

I take time to read in my book (multi-tasking).  He returns to play again with Mitzee and give me a ticket for not wearing the seatbelt.

I get home and throughout the day I'm just going about my business.  I'm not upset about the ticket or worried about telling Martin.  I don't understand how Meg and Martin can get stopped and get warnings and I have this cute dog that he played with and I get stuck.

But the truth of the matter is, that God was trying to stick me.  Trying to make me come up the plate and be accountable.  It's so easy to play the victim.

Truth is:  We're suppose to wear our seatbelts.  There are rules for our benefit and safety.  There are consequences to our choices and actions.

So, I wasn't upset because:
  1.  Wearing the seatbelt is the law--I didn't--ergo, I got the ticket.
  2.  I chose not to wear the seatbelt--to take the chance I wouldn't get caught--and I did.
  3.  It was time I became accountable.  How can I tell others the right thing to do when I'm not doing it.  What does that say about me?

So, I have the ticket, I thanked him quite enthusiastically and left.  I keep it in the visor so I can see it and it can be a constant reminder to me.  It's the law, Barbara, click it.

Sunday after church I was talking to the people next to me about it and he told me this joke:

A man was driving on the highway and he gets pulled over.  He can't understand it.  Everyone else was going as fast as he was and he got caught.  I was going with the flow of traffic he says.  The cop gave him a ticket. 

So the cop asks if he ever goes fishing.  Man says yes.  Cop says:  do you catch a lot?  The man says I catch one or two.    There you go.

I'm really glad that it happened.  I got caught, ticketed and now I won't do it again.  And if I ever think about not putting it on, I'll look at the visor, see the copy of the ticket and click it.

It really is quite liberating just to do what's right and not have to worry about being in the wrong or getting caught and constantly looking over your shoulder.

That's it for now.  Got to pay my $109 seatbelt ticket and get it in the mail.


p.s.  I do want to know why he asked me what I was doing in Florida though?????  I really had to bite my tongue on that one.  The mind was going off in so many directions with ideas.

Tuesday's Wisdom

 A fool gives full vent to his anger
  but a wise man keeps himself under control.


Discipline your son and he will give you peace
  he will bring delight to your soul.


Do you see a man who speaks in haste?
  There is more hope for a fool than for him!

A Letter to Mom

Dear Mom

Today is Mother's Day and another year without you.  So many things to say so here goes.

Mom, I'm sorry.  While growing up, we didn't make things easy for you.  You were trying to raise the last four kids on your own and work and keep a roof over our heads on one income. 

It is only NOW that I realize what you were going through and what you were feeling.  The desperation you must have felt when not having enough money to pay all the bills.  How tired you were after coming home from the third job.  How much pain you were in from all your medical problems.  I'm sorry I didn't understand back then.

I'm sorry that I said hurtful things to you. I'm sorry for the times I disappointed you because I thought of myself first instead of you.  I'm sorry that our relationship wasn't the best. 

I know now that when I acted up, it stressed you out even more.  How thoughtless of me. 
I know now that you did love us in your own way.  The extra hours of working so we could have skating lessons.
I know now that you worked hard for us, gave all that you could for us and I'm sorry I didn't appreciate it then, but I see better now.
I'm appreciative for the way you handled the car accident and you didn't yell at me.  Really grateful for that!!!

All in all, I see my childhood better and although a difficult one, I see and know more things that make me feel better.

I know now how you felt when we all got married and moved away.  Lonely.

I know now that you were a strong woman, working tirelessly for us.  Your determination and grit were passed on to us, thank you.

The kids are doing ok, more beautiful babies coming, Martin working lots and hard, everyone married now.

I'm doing good...carrying on with the medical issues.  Trying not to let them get me down or impact me when I'm around people.  The garden looks good.

Till next year Mom.

Love Barb

How Will You and I Finish?

Everyone has (maybe not) the story of the dash and how that little dash between the date you were born and the date you died represents your entire life and question yourself and ask:  What will my dash show of me when I am gone?

So today I was reading and came upon the statement:  Stop judging by mere appearances and make a right judgement.

Judements are so easy to do.  You're sometimes doing them without even realizing you are.  There's the obese person, the person sitting on the side of the road asking for money or work, there's the young person with spiked red or blue hair, there's the young lady with numerous piercings, or the young boy with really long hair.  Even getting out of bed can be a judgement as we look at the weather and comment.

Stopping this behavior isn't easy and takes constant effort just as waking up and going to a job you dislike.  It requires looking at ourselves internally and objectively and saying:  I'm not perfect so who am I to judge?

It  requires looking at our behavior and asking what can I do to be a better person?  It means being HONEST with ourselves and making right judgements about ourselves no matter how ugly it may be--the point is to turn it around.

In 1998, I realized I was an ugly person and needed to change.  I'm constantly evolving and trying to be the best person I can be.  Why? 

1.  Because I want to be a good person

2.  Because I want to role model for my children and grandchildren

3.  Because my husband deserves the very best person/wife

4.  Because our world is such an ugly place right now, it needs a few good people

5.  Because when doing something nice for someone, it can solicit a smile and that in turn brings warm fuzzies.........yummm

6.  Because people gravitate to good people, not bad.

7.  Because I want to!!!!!

As I slowly?????  turn the years over, and I'm praying there's a lot more, I'm hoping that what I'm doing will be seeded in others thereby causing an epidemic of good people.

I'm hoping that when I die, that I will finish strong, with no regrets, and a full heart. 

I'm hoping that when I die, that my family and friends will know that they have been loved by me, that I couldn't have asked for anything more in my life and that truly LOVE is the best gift of all.

So if you would like, please respond to this blog and let me know what I can do to improve on me which in turn will be passed to you.

Love to all

An Awesome and Orderly God

God's accuracy may be observed in the hatching of eggs.  For example:


-the eggs of the potato bug hatch in 7 days;
-those of the canary in 14 days;
-those of the barnyard hen in 21 days;
-the eggs of ducks and geese hatch in 28 days;
-those of the mallard in 35 days;
-the eggs of the parrot and the ostrich hatch in 42 days. (Note that they are all divisible by seven, the number of days in a week and God's perfect number!)


The lives of each of you may be ordered by the Lord in a beautiful way for His glory, if you will only entrust Him with your life. If you try to regulate your own life, it will only be a mess and a failure. Only the One Who made the brain and the heart can successfully guide them to a profitable end.


God's wisdom is seen in the making of an elephant.. The four legs of this great beast all bend forward in the same direction. No other quadruped is so made. God planned that this animal would have a huge body, too large to live on two legs. For this reason He gave it four fulcrums so that it can rise from the ground easily.

The horse rises from the ground on its two front legs first. A cow rises from the ground with its two hind legs first. How wise the Lord is in all His works of creation!


God's wisdom is revealed in His arrangement of sections and segments, as well as in the number of grains.


-Each watermelon has an even number of stripes on the rind.
-Each orange has an even number of segments.
-Each ear of corn has an even number of rows.
-Each stalk of wheat has an even number of grains.
-Every bunch of bananas has on its lowest row an even number of bananas, and each row decreases by one, so that one row has an even number and the next row an odd number.
-The waves of the sea roll in on shore twenty-six to the minute in all kinds of weather.


All grains are found in even numbers on the stalks, and the Lord specified thirty fold, sixty fold, and a hundredfold - all even numbers.


God has caused the flowers to blossom at certain specified times during the day, so that Linnaeus, the great botanist, once said that if he had a conservatory containing the right kind of soil, moisture and temperature, he could tell the time of day or night by the flowers that were open and those that were closed!


Thus the Lord in His wonderful grace can arrange the life that is entrusted to His care in such a way that it will carry out His purposes and plans, and will be fragrant with His presence.


Only the God-planned safe life is successful. Only the life given over to the care of the Lord is fulfilled.


I hope you learned something new and may God bless you in ways you never dreamed of today! 

Wisdom for Thursday

In John 6, Jesus asks Philip "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?"  Philip was being tested by Jesus.  He already had a plan.

Andrew spoke up, "here is a boy with 5 small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?"

Morale of the story:  We are never too old or too young to be used by Christ.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is May 9th and also my oldest daughters birthday. 

I've never been a big fan of mother's day, I'm thinking it had a lot to do with my relationship with my own mother.  Buying a card and perhaps a gift.  The cards all saying things like you've been so good to me, you were always there for me, you supported and encouraged me and gave me everything.  This wasn't my mother.

When I became a mom, I was terrified.  I didn't know what to do with Carrie--she couldn't tell me anything in the beginning but eventually she found her voice and now she tells me everything.

Mother's Day would come and the husband and kids would go out and buy a card.  Did they do it because they wanted to or because it was customary to do? 

I don't want people to do things just because it's customary, I want them to do things for me because they want to.  They know that there's no other reason but out of love and desire to please.

One year, I came home from church with Martin and found a plant and a small card from Shelli.  What a surprize as I didn't know she would do that for me.

Another year, Candice surprized me with a gardening book.

These are all things that were done freely on their part and I can't tell you how much they meant to me.  It showed their heart.  What we do for others is a clear indication of our heart and our feeling for others. 

So on Mother's Day this year, I'm thinking I'm going to be alone with Martin in Minnesota.  But I'm not going to be alone. 

As I was talking to Brenda and Jay at the dog park, they asked me what I was going to do for Mother's Day.  I told them I was going to go to Cracker Barrell and indulge in pecan pancakes.  Brenda said, I don't have a mom, can I come?  Jay said, I like Craker Barrell, can I come?  We can be your kids for the day.

Today, Sheila, Robin and Dylan asked if they could come.  I can't tell you how loved I felt by people coming around me and wanting to share time with me.

It's these actions that I most remember and keep stored.  The unselfish acts of kindness.  It doesn't get much better than that.

Love to everyone who has given unselfishly to me.  For loving me as I am, for being patient when I ask the same question twice or don't understand how to do something.  For understanding my health issues and being compassionate about them, for helping me when needed, for holding me when I cry, and most of all for praying for me.

To my daughters who are mothers, may you always cherish the time you spend as a mom.  It's a good job, not always rewarding, but always a good job. 

May you stand tall and tough as the little ones forge into their own person, testing the waters with actions and language.  May you stand united with your husband as the teen years come on you and you want to pull your hair out.  May you remember that through the years, God is constantly pulling and stretching the umblical cord so that when they graduate it tears.  May you remember when they find their way into the world on their own, that they are still going to need you and you them.

And as they grow older and make good decisions, you will become more and more proud of them as individuals.  As they step off the narrow path, may you take the time and pray for them. 

And lastly, may you always tell them you love them no matter what.  They can get mad at you, they can fight with you, they can sometimes say hurtful things, but you will always love them!!  And that, no one can take away.

Happy Mother's Day.