I love Flylady

Worked hard on my office today. It's looking good. You can at least see the floor now. Instead of my own blog tonight, I decided to use an email from flylady. I just love her!!!

Dear Friends,Love is a word that is very deceptive maybe even illusive if we lookat it as a noun. It is not something that we can buy and hold in ourhands, it is a word that is filled with action. Love is a verb. Thisword is not just a feeling it is a doing. For years all I ever wantedwas to feel loved. That did not happen because I was looking for lovein all the wrong places; as the song says. I was not going to findthis love coming at me and surrounding me as a fog. I was not going tofeel this love from other people. I was searching so hard for thislove that I never dreamed that it was hiding right inside of me. Thereason we have a hard time finding this love is that the clutter wehave in our heads is standing in the way. When we can address thismost personal of our Body Clutter we will begin finding what we arelooking for.Men and women equate love much differently. For a man to show love heoften reveals it in actions; checking our tires, changing the oil, heis doing something. He may not be good at sentimental cards andflowers which is how we women equate love. This is why we need to lookat the various ways that love is done. How do you love your children?You feed them, dress them, bathe them, and do things for them. We dothe same thing for the critters in our lives. We scratch their earsand rub their bellies. Robert explained this to me this morning. Lastyear our hound dog Lucy died and we got another sweet hound dog.He said that he could sit in his chair and think about how much heloves this new dog or he could get up and go over and pet her. Then hewould be loving on her and she would feel his love for her. It wouldnot be a passive experience just for him but a shared event for bothof them.Then he turned this around. He said when we are loving ourselves weare the giver and the recipient at the same time. That is when heheaded out the door to play in the woods. This is one thing that heloves to do. When you are doing things that you love; you are lovingyourself. With our FLYing way of life we only surround ourselves withthings we love. We turn chores into blessings and release the stressfrom our lives by using routines to put us on autopilot. These are allforms of love but in our female definition of love this is just stuffwe have to do.We have to find ways to show ourselves love the way we understand itand will recognize it as love. But since we are doing it for ourselveswe just don't accept it in the same way we would if it came fromsomeone else. This is why we have a Pampering habit. These are littlethings that we can do each day to pamper ourselves. They can beanything that you can think of to do something nice for you. You cansnuggle with a cup of warmth or curl up with a favorite book ormagazine. Settle into a tub of bubbles or put on some of your favoritemusic. Pick up a flower at the grocery store so that every time youlook at it you will smile. Light candles in your home or put crystalsin the window so that rainbows dance across your room. These alwaysmake me smile.I was taught many years ago by Rita Davenport to fake it till you makeit. I didn't really know what that meant till recently; I just didlike she said. Fake it till you make it, is nothing but practicingtill a habit becomes automatic. Imagine that, practicing lovingourselves with little habits that tell us we are loved by the personwho does those little things that make us feel the love we so deserve.The martyr goes away and you are surrounded by the loving feeling thatyou have been searching for.So practice loving yourself first by simple actions and eventually youwill not do things that you don't love and you will not have items inyour home that do not put a smile on your face. This act of love is ascontagious as your shining sink. You are just shining your heart.

Lazy evening

It is a real lazy evening around here. ARK is in playing video games, and I am doing a whole lot of nothing. Just a typical hump day afternoon. I think I might suggest to ARK that we go to DQ tonight!! Her parents don't pick her up until 9 so it won't be an early bed time like I had hoped. But I will definitely be hitting the sheets early tomorrow night. Another nice day, the neighbors daffodils have bloomed. Mine have another day or so before they show themselves.

Quote of the Week

I think I'm late on this but here it is ---

"Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy."
Ben Franklin

Oh Yea!!! With my new budget, I haven't had a good glass of wine in a while. On the 14th I get paid and I will be buying at least one bottle of Summer Fling. Not only is it a good wine, but I love the name. I hope to also get another bottle of White Merlot. I really liked the last bottle I got. I am going to also try the new Rachel Ray recipe for Linguine with Onions. Yum-O!

I should be working

I should be working right now, but I really need a bit of a break. If I have one more day like the past few my head will explode. I am processing 200+ invoices a day. I have to say, my 10 key input is getting a real workout. I should test myself at home to see what my entry speed is up to. How lame is that. Can we all say LOOSER!!!!!

Tried to play fetch with Jenny last night. All she knows is pick up and run. For some reason she kept hiding her bone in the root vegetable garden bed. Not sure what that was all about. I am going to give her another new bone tonight. This one has two tennis balls on it. We'll play a little tug of war. She has spring fever, running around like crazy.

I think I might work on the veggie beds tonight. Its not terribly muddy over there and it will soon be time to get the cucumbers in the beds. Too late now for peas. I need to either build some dedicated pea beds, or give up on the idea. I just don't have enough room for them. That's a good idea, I might ask JMC to get me scrap wood and work on them this summer, then I will have fresh peas next summer. I can just get some cheap slating and twine to make my own trellis, or maybe erect some sort of tripod over the beds. I'll be checking out http://www.squarefootgardening.com/ this weekend to get some ideas. I think I have enough soil less mix left from last year. If not it wouldn't take much compost to mix up a new batch.

Well that was a nice break.....I think I will take a little walk around and then start back on the invoices again.

Skipped a few days

So I skipped a few days of blogging. I just didn't get to it. Wonderful weekend. The weather has been great. It is supposed to start raining soon, so I am enjoying it while I can. It gives one hope that summer is going to return again this year, just like it has been doing for the past million years or so. I don't know why, but every year I wonder if this is the year my worst nightmare comes true and the earth stops tilting back and forth, and we are stuck in winter forever. I never worry that we will be stuck in summer forever, it seems to good to ever be true. But if we had summer forever, I would never get to see the daffodils and crocus come up in the spring. I would miss that. I just can't wait to see the leaves on the trees again. I should start taking pictures of my trees, and repeat it in the same spot once a week so I have a record of what they looked like. I will have to pick a couple of trees for this. Definitely my favorite tree in the yard, I don't know what type it is, but I call it the Old Lady. It is an older tree with gorgeous white blossoms in early summer. And of course one of the many maples. Maybe I will include the tree that I don't know what kind it is, I can have BK look at it and tell me what it is. Its time to do my housework and get supper. I am thinking though, I should name all my big trees. I'll ask ARK and EAK to help me out. They have great imaginations. We will first have to decide if they are boys or girls. I might even make name tags for them.

Who's in charge here?

It is time for me to admit, I am not in charge of my household. Today I realized that the pets have taken over. The only reason I go to work everyday is so that I can continue to feed their addictions. For Jenny its rope bones, Garra only wants cat candy and tops to pop bottles and for The Fluffster, hand over the catnip and no one will get hurt. After they are satisfied, then it is fine that I take care of other minor incidentals, like the mortgage, electric and heat. I am only their servant around the house. When I even begin an activity that doesn't completely revolve around them, they are quick to make sure to walk on it, under it, or in front of it, so my attention has to go back to them. It's unbelievable. Garra and Fluffer even insist on taking up at least 3/4 of the bed, including most of the pillows. Garra doesn't care so much for the basket I gave her for her toys, instead she would much rather use my shoes!!! And Jenny has claimed the couch I got for Christmas as hers. I can sit in the rocking chair, that's fine with her. She's just a little beagle, but she has a way of stretching out and only leaving about 1/2 a cushion for me. I've been thinking maybe I should add a room on as my servants quarters so I can have some space to call my own.

Finally

It was a crazy day at work. We have been so busy with the weather starting to get nice. I am pretty overwhelmed right now, but hopefully I can get caught up next week. This week is my Friday off, so I only have tomorrow to try and just keep my head above the piles of invoices. However, it was great to come home and see these little beauties in my yard. I love the crocuses. These ones are growing right in the middle of the yard where there once was a flower bed, but I have gotten rid of most of the other flowers already. I have also taken some pictures of the current state of the garage and tree line. I will post them on Picasa so I can link them to my blog.

Thinking about my shade garden

I have always wanted a shade garden, but have never had a good place for one. I have had to choose plants that do well in full blown sun. So with the prospect of finally getting to plant one at my house; I went to http://www.bluestoneperennials.com/ and checked out the deer resistant plants. I want it all!! As usual I made a list of all the stuff I like at first glance, now I will go through and take a better look to make sure they will work in my spot, then I will look at what I can afford. I am starting with deer resistant because my herd is growing. Last year I consistently saw 4 does in my yard in the evenings. Now this year I have twice seen a group of 8. Most of them are older, but two of them look to be yearlings. They have never bothered my vegetable garden before, so I hope the newcomers will stay away also. But back to the plants, I will post some pictures of what I like when I figure out how to do that.

Baby, that's the beauty of GRACE

I am embarrassed by yesterday's post. Not the quote, I love the quote, but my rant after the quote.

Life is not fair!!!!

Thank God, life is not fair, because I don't deserve most of what I have. And I am not just talking about my stuff. I am mostly talking about the love and friendship I have. I have not come even close to earning that.

It only took a few hours after I wrote that post for God to humble me, to bring me right back down where I belong. It is only through his amazing GRACE that I woke up this morning. And I had a warm bed, a nice house to keep out the rain. And two fluffy cats snuggled under the covers with me. How can I even ask for more. I am blessed far beyond what I can imagine. I have done some horrible things in my life, but through his mercy they are forgotten, and I am allowed a second chance.

But anywhere you are
Is never too far away
There’s freedom from your scars
The mistakes that you've made
Forgiven
The memories erased
Baby, that's the beauty of GRACE