Posts Categorized: Self-Control

pie pops

| Gentleness, Patience, Self-Control

thA couple of years ago, I went to a Christmas gathering which included one of those gift exchanges where everybody brings a gift. Then everyone gets a number. When it’s your turn, you choose a gift and open it, and everyone admires it. Then, the next person has the option of taking the wonderful gift you just opened, or choosing another still-wrapped gift and opening it. And it goes on until everyone has a lovely/funny/really interesting gift to take home to use/enjoy/regift to someone else, maybe at another one of those parties, where you might actually end up with that lovely/funny/interesting gift all over again. I’ve been at parties like that where the popular gift just keeps on getting swiped away, but most of the ones I attend now have a “three swipe” limit. So, if you’re the lucky third person to say to someone who used to like you, “Hey, hand that over to me,” you actually will get to go home with something you really want.

» Keep Reading

Reuse! Recycle! Repeat!

| Faithfulness, Self-Control

A couple of weeks ago, I was cleaning up, and I gathered some things to toss in the blue recycle bin, which gets picked up every other Monday

Recyclables that I'm still reluctant to get rid of

Recyclables that I’m still reluctant to get rid of

(except, of course, for Monday holidays, when the alternate pickup day is Wednesday). There’s always the accumulated newspapers, junk mail, and the envelopes, etc. from the real mail. There was also a shoe box, a paper pulp egg carton, and some cardboard tubes from paper towels and wrapping paper and tape.

» Keep Reading

No Matter How Hard I Try, I’m Never Ready

| Patience, Self-Control

2002--sitting on the FDR, waiting for the July 4 fireworks to begiin

2002–sitting on the FDR, waiting for the July 4 fireworks to begiin

The first time JoAnne and I went to New York, I got up early for weeks before the trip. I walked seven blocks from my house (uphill) and then back the seven blocks (now downhill).

“I’m walking every morning,” I said to JoAnne. “I’m parking the car at the far edges of the parking spaces when I run errands, so I’ll have to walk farther. And I’m making a conscious effort to walk around stores faster, instead of sauntering. I’ll be ready for New York!”

I wasn’t ready.

» Keep Reading

Hanging…without a Thread

| Faithfulness, Love, Peace, Self-Control

I’m trying to be a good Earth citizen.


» Keep Reading

Habit? Schmabit!

| Faithfulness, Patience, Self-Control

Quite a few years ago, in articles in self-help magazines and books about changing your life and being more organized and getting things done, one recurring piece of advice about establishing new habits said that your could entrench new habits by doing the new habit activity for 21 days in a row.

If you do the things you want to institute as a habit (walking on the treadmill, eating a good breakfast every morning, going to bed at an appropriate hour to ensure you’ll get a good night’s sleep, etc.) for 21 days in a row, then you will have established a wonderful new habit in your life! That’s what the magazine articles said.

» Keep Reading

Look What I Found on My Front Porch!

| Gentleness, Patience, Self-Control

I’ve gotten in to the unfortunate habit, lately, of waiting until Thursday afternoon, or evening, to write up a new post. I’ll have had an idea and been thinking about it for a few days, but I haven’t put fingertips to keyboard until late. Then, I end up not getting to bed until 1:00 a.m. or later, because I write it, and I edit it, and I need photos and search for them, and then have to scan them and get them put in where I want them, and then edit again because I always miss something, and then send it off to Kevin to look at, but by then he’s gone to bed and won’t read it until morning, and I MUST STOP DOING THAT!!! It is not a good professional practice.

» Keep Reading

Happy Anniversary to Me!

| Faithfulness, Joy, Patience, Self-Control

Cup-cake-pink-candle-1

One year ago tomorrow, I wrote a Facebook post announcing my blog. It’s my one year anniversary! I said I would write new posts each week and put them up on Fridays. And I did.  At the beginning, four posts were already up, for Jeremy to work with as he got the website ready. So, if you visited the website that very first Friday, it had more than one lonely post that you could read.

This is a screen shot of the database-all full!

This is a screen shot of the database-all full!

I’ve made a database, to track the posts and what Bible verses I reference and which fruit of the Spirit I use. The program will only hold 54 entries, so it’s full and won’t let me add any more. I had to start a new one, for Year Two (plus the last two posts from the first year).

 

 

» Keep Reading

Throwback Thursday

| Self-Control

I’ve mentioned before that I volunteer at an elementary school near my church. I’m a “Reading Club” sponsor, which means I go every week at lunchtime and read with three girls. Lunch is only 30 minutes, and we chat a little bit too, so it’s slow going through Dear Mr. Henshaw, which was the Newberry award winning book in 1984. Also, I’m having to stop and do some explaining every now and then.

» Keep Reading

It. Was. Not. My. Fault.

| Patience, Self-Control

 

I’ve been doing this blog thing for eight months now, and I still make mistakes. I still have to call Kevin and/or Jeremy for help when things go amiss. But last week’s debacle was. not. my. fault. Truly. It wasn’t.

» Keep Reading

Fabulous Kidney-Friendly Hot Cocoa

| Joy, Self-Control

The fascinating Oxymoron craze crops up every now and then. It must be at a low point right now, otherwise I’d be seeing more lists of them on Facebook, like “10 Oxymorons That You Can Use at Work,” or “The Six Funniest Oxymorons Ever.” That sort of thing. I don’t know what those “10 Work-Related” or “Six Funniest,” might be, but now that I’ve brought it up, surely somebody will start working on them.

Anyway, if you missed one of the oxymoron surges in the past few years, oxymorons are common phrases that use words that are the opposite of each other. Like “Civil War,” because wars are anything but civil. And “Jumbo Shrimp,” because “jumbo” means “really big,” and “shrimp,” as slang, means “small.” You get the idea.

» Keep Reading