I still am beat up.  I spent four full days painting that silly lizard's cage.  It is now almost complete.  It hasn't gone as quickly as I'd hoped.  Well, my part was done as quickly as possible.  It is the other men involved in the assembly that fell down on the job.  I'm not going into detail because I will start thinking thoughts that I shouldn't.

I'm not extremely artistic, but I have to say that the grass, trees, and leaves effect on the inside of the cage aren't too shabby.  I guarantee you that you wouldn't be fooled into thinking you were in a forest if you climbed in there (yes, it is big enough to climb into) but you would recognize it as being a painting of one.

When I try to draw or paint exactly what I am seeing something happens.  I think it is probably in the vicinity of my elbow that there is some kind of artistic leakage.  My eyes see it, my brain thinks it can duplicate it, and by the time it gets to my hand something definitely has happened.  Regular people turn into stick figures.  Nothing is three dimensional, either.  So, the only conclusion I can draw is that there is a hole in my elbow and everything realistic drops out as it turns that corner heading toward my hand!

You'll see what I mean.  As soon as the cage is complete (that better be today or someone is going to suffer, and it won't be me and it won't be the lizard!) then I will snap some pictures.  I don't have a digital camera so you will have to wait a bit to see them.

I was doing a lot of lifting of the different cage parts as I was painting them.  I was doing my best to be careful and not hurt myself.  I did wear myself out, though.  The last day I was painting the final coat of paint I had very little energy.

I had to fight against the wind that last day of painting.  If I had to duplicate that paint job on the outside of the cage it would be nearly impossible.  It is white with a light dusting of ash.  The wind was picking up ash left over from those fires we had in Southern California.  I wanted to hurry and get done so Elmo, the iguana, could get out of the temporary small cage he is in and get into his new home so I didn't take the day off because of the wind.

I actually did a little more painting after it was assembled in my son's room.  I had to caulk around the bottom on the inside so it can be washed without any water leaking out.  I painted the floor with deck paint which is supposed to be pretty good.  I was thinking about putting linoleum on the floor, but decided to try this first since it was cheaper and easier.

My back was telling me it was tired, but I was going slowly and carefully.  It was fine until yesterday.  All I did was turn my head and I felt something go wrong in my neck.  So, today I have a stiff neck.  At least I'm done crawling in and out of the cage.  I've got all the heat lamps, UV lamps, and all the other gizmos already in and wired.

I didn't get anything else done last week.  While I was busy my house dirtied itself and the dirty laundry multiplied.  So, don't come over to visit for at least another week!!

I've been struggling with a "woe is me" attitude the last couple of weeks.  Shame on me!!  Shame on me for overemphasizing the ME!  God keeps trying to teach me that it is not about me.  I have given myself to Him to use as He sees fit.  If I am to be a slave to my home and to my family then so be it.  I must look to Him for my strength.  I must look to Him for what to say and do.  I must be glad that He has given me a ministry to my family.  What I see and what He sees are not the same.

It is important that I stop living in the flesh and live in the Spirit.  I am grumbling because I have to do things that I don't feel I should have to do.  I feel that someone else should have done them.  So, who am I to decide what job belongs to what person?  I need to turn my eyes on Him.  I need to do everything for Him.  I need to replace my grumbling and mumbling with rejoicing.  Think I can?  In the flesh, I can't.  With God's help, I can and I will!!!

By the way, don't look know but it is December already!

Link to the 12/1/03 Bible study.

I've been having some computer difficulties.  All of a sudden it is saying it is out of virtual memory when I try to upload webpages to the Clarion.  I went to a place called tech-tips.com and found some suggested repairs.  I've tried the ones I understand.  They talk about some stuff that are too technical for me.  I'll have to ask my oldest son to go look and see if he can walk me through it.

In the meantime I can upload the pages one at a time through the server's tools.  It needs to get fixed.

I've been cleaning house off and on all week.  I even washed the windows on the front of the house.  My husband will be putting up Christmas lights this weekend and I hate to see the pretty lights reflecting off of dirty windows.

That reminds me of something I saw on TV on the news once.  Something happened in a house and the news reporter was interviewing the woman who lived next door.  She was standing in her kitchen and pointed out her window and said, "I saw it happen through this window."  Her window was so greasy and dirty that it looked like a dirty mirror reflecting in the TV camera lights!  It was awful!

There are a lot of houses in our neighborhood with windows that look like they've never been washed.  I wonder if those people ever look out their windows.  Maybe they'd prefer not to have them.

I often think of myself as a window.  When people look at me I want them to be able to look right through me and see God.  I have to make sure that the window stays clean.  Pride, personal opinion, selfishness, and other things dirty up the view and prevent people from seeing God in me.  God helps me to keep those things under control.... IF I LET HIM.

I bothered my lower back.  It has been warning me to be careful.  I've been trying to be careful, but I've been annoying it.  I've been stumbling over little rocks, tiny holes, and cracks in the sidewalk.  So, yesterday I was very very good.  I sat and wrapped the Christmas presents I've purchased so far.  The heaviest thing I picked up was one of my husband's presents.  (Can't tell you what it was just in case he reads this.)

I also worked on trying to fix this computer and I even took a nap.  I didn't feel one muscle spasm all day.  Yippee!

Today I'm going to take things slow again.  When I get in a hurry I have a tendency to hurt myself.  Two days ago I took a chunk of skin out of my little finger on my left hand.  Have you ever noticed that when you have a part of your body that hurts you end up smacking it against things or people come up and slap or grab you in the tender spot?  I kept bumping that finger against things.  It got so bad that my finger started swelling up.  I had to slow down and think before I made any moves with my left hand.

That reminds me of my spiritual walk.  In order to be walking in the path that God has chosen for me I need to slow down and think about what He wants before I make any moves.  I need to consult Him about what to say and what to do.

I'm not a slow-down kind of person.  When something needs to be done I jump in and do it as quickly and efficiently as possible so I can move on to the next thing that needs to be done.  That doesn't fit in with God's plan.  He wants me to wait on Him and not be hurrying all the time.

Link to the 12/11/03 Bible study.

I'm still having computer problems.  Being the thrifty person I am I've been trying to fix the problem myself.  I've disabled things that weren't necessary, removed programs I no longer needed, and unhooked accessories. 

For now I can deal with the problem.  In the meantime I just have to take the slow method of uploading files to the Clarion Call.  If I can't figure it out myself I will take my computer to the shop.

I started working on this yesterday but had a few difficulties.  The first difficulty is that my back is bothering me again.  I think I better go to the doctor and have it checked.  I think there may be more than just a pulled muscle.  It started hurting for no apparent reason again.  So, I was rotating between different things so I would keep from irritating my back any worse.

Secondly, I just had no inspiration.  I sat at the computer with my fingers on the keys and nothing was coming.  That told me that God didn't want me doing any more until He inspired me.  So, if you want to blame anyone for this not getting done Monday or Tuesday you will have to blame Him

My sons and now my husband have been sick.  Monday my husband got sick at work.  He stayed home from work yesterday.  He rarely takes sick days so I know he was feeling really bad.

I remember that at this time last year I was really sick.  I sure hope I stay healthy.  I couldn't even make Christmas cookies last year.  I've made Christmas cookies every year for the past 25 years or more!  Last year was the first year I didn't.

Speaking of which, I'm going to make a large batch of pumpkin cookies today.  Hopefully I will also be able to bake a different type today.  Tomorrow I may do one or two other batches.  Friday my husband will take cookies to school and give them to the office staff and others there at work. 

Next week I can make more so we have some to give our neighbors.  Sometimes I wonder how I got into this tradition.  I don't like to cook.  Go figure.  Oh, speaking of tradition, I need to go buy some bananas so they can go bad.  LOL!  I need mushy bananas to make banana nut bread.  We have banana nut bread while we open our presents Christmas morning.  I didn't realize it was a yearly tradition until I didn't make any one year.  My sons were flabbergasted as was I.  They were shocked that I broke my tradition and I was shocked that I didn't know it WAS a tradition!

Verrrrrry interesting!  A different computer problem I had is now fixed.  When I used to shut it down it would automatically boot itself back up.  I discovered, through research, that sometimes a program installed on the computer will cause that problem.  So, somewhere in my cleaning up unnecessary things on my computer, I must have gotten rid of the offending program.  Good!  Now I don't have to sit and twiddle my thumbs waiting for my computer to do it's shutting down routine because I don't have to manually turn it off any more!!

Now, I'd like to have the other problem fixed.... please, Lord!

I'm baking again today.  Now I'm making some pumpkin bread and banana nut bread to give to our neighbors and to take with us to my in-laws' on Christmas.  I'm just turning into Miss Suzie Homemaker, aren't I? 

My poor hands are turning into a desert, though.  I keep washing the dishes I dirty as I go along and my hands are drying up.  The good thing is that I use antibacterial detergent so I am keeping my hands free of my family's germs.  They are still coughing, hacking, and sneezing (my family, not my hands).  I've been blessed with good health.  Now I am looking forward to being blessed by God taking care of my back pain, too.

Every now and then I just have to shake my head in wonderment about how God uses the Internet to put geographically distant members of the Body of Christ together.

In the pre-Internet days those who were breaking out of the traditional teachings about God and finding out who God really is were usually alone.  Often they became outcasts because others weren't interested in hearing anything about God that didn't fit into what they had been taught.  Now those outcasts can reach out and contact other outcasts.  We can edify and strengthen each other.  We can assure each other that we are not crazy.

We can continue to seek God's will with renewed vigor.  We can be assured that we are not going to be committed to an asylum because we hear God speaking to us!  We can be strengthened in the knowledge that God is not the meek and mild God that so many churches portray!

Just think!  Soon many churches will be forced to re-think their doctrines.  The congregations will not settle for tradition and man-made things.  We will hear the glorious sound of churches breaking out of their boxes of understanding.  We will be able to walk into any church and actually come face to face with God!

Glory HALLELUIA!