Strangers are friends waiting to be made. The unknown can be terrifying. Unfortunately some people never get past the unknown.  

Respect it. Keep it clean, enjoy the nature, and teach other's to do the same.

My husband's grandparents lived in this house before us. It was built here for them and was new when they moved in. His grandfather passed away about two years later when my husband was 2 years old. His Grandmother lived here by herself for about 32 years after her husband passed away. She was in her late 80's by then and had many great grandchildren. She was a sweet lady always making all visitors feel welcomed while they were here.

For young children, quite often a band aid, or even a kiss alone can heal almost anything!
        Emotional healing takes time and is different for each person. Each person is unique and so their healing process must fit their own special needs and circumstances. Sometimes, the best thing you can do to help someone out is to give them the time they need reguardless of how long that may be. Of course being a good listener, friendly, and respectful are all great ways to help as well. Other times, a person must be left alone to heal on their own, needing time to think and self reflect.
         Medical healing is different. Mostly I have learned from experience. Advice from other's who have learned from experience can quite often help, but isn't always best. Doctors know best of course.

Forgive, forget, and move on. It's not always easy and it can take time to accomplish, but any determined person who works at it can get there. The time that this was the most difficult journey for me was when my 3 year old daughter was molested. I didn't think that was something I could ever forgive. It took 5 years, but I finally advanced to the forgive, forget, and move on destination where I longed to be. I didn't even know that I longed to be there until it happened. It didn't happen all at once, but some times you don't notice the change until after it has already happened. It took many nights of being awake thinking instead of sleeping, many long letters, phone calls, and angry arguments, two court cases, a prison sentence, lots of time and many tears, but here I am. Don't get me wrong, some things you never forget. I won't forget what we have been through or that it happened, but the troubles are behind me as the stubbornness and hate were left behind in some forgotten place and time. When the anger and hate are left behind behind, it feels forgotten and makes life beautiful again. I no longer hate him. Of course, I would never seek him out as a friend in the future either. I just feel sorry for him. He has a screwed up life and doesn't know how to really truly live to have a full happy life. He may never know true happiness. It's sad to think of all the people in the world who don't know how to be happy in a healthy, loving, environment.

My oldest daughter has always been advanced for her age with an extremely large vocabulary. Sometimes you would forget how old she really was and days like these remind you how young and innocent she really still was! She was about 2 years old when she wanted her first pet. We were afraid of getting anything like a puppy or kitten for fear she would maul it and love it to death. We thought gold fish would be a safer pet to start with. She insisted on the feeding the fish herself and usually gave them too much food no matter how many times we tried to show her how to do it. The fish kept dying and we kept buying new ones. One day she caught my husband flushing one! She didn't say anything at the time so I didn't think much of it. A few weeks later, I found her staring into the toilet. I asked her what she was doing. She said, "When I flush the toilet, does my poopy go to heaven, too?" This brought on my explanation of how just our spirits go to heaven when we die and not our bodies. I also explained how a sewer system worked in as simple terms as I could think of. She listened patiently and I thought all was understood. A few months later, we were driving down the expressway and she asked my husband what all the big buildings out in the field were. He told her it was a sewer plant. She got so excited! She yelled, "Mommy, Mommy, Daddy found poopy heaven!" Needless to say, all I could do was laugh until it made me cry!

I felt very elderly at age 33. I ruined my spine being on bed rest throughout two of my pregnancies. My muscles deteriorated. When the babies were born I felt so good, I went right back to doing everything I used to do such as lifting children and taking care of my Mom when she had cancer. With very little muscle in my back, my bones compensated for what my muscles should have been doing. This caused all kinds of damage. I had 3 bulging herniated discs, a broken bone, degenerative disc disease, and narrowing of the bones in the spine. I eventually was in so much pain that some days I could not sit or stand, and just had to lay in bed. I was afraid to sit on the floor to play with my children for fear of not being able to get back up. I could only drive for 20 minutes at a time. Then I would have to pull over and walk around before I could drive again. I was on such heavy pain medications and muscle relaxers for a year and a half that I was knocked out and sound asleep much of the time. After many tests and seeing a few different doctors it was determined that just one of the discs was causing all the pain. Physical therapy didn't work. A back brace didn't work. Eventually the pain medications and muscle relaxers quit working. The doctors agreed that if I put off surgery much longer I would become an invalid for the rest of my life. As a last resort, I had the one disc that was causing all the pain completely removed. It was replaced with a donated bone. The only thing they needed to fix was the one disc causing all the pain. All the rest was left alone and will remain that way as long as I stay pain free. For 24 hours after the surgery I couldn't even roll over in bed without calling a nurse to help me. I also had my first experience using a bed pan during the first 24 hours. Then a physical therapist came to teach me how to get out of bed and walk with a walker. They told me to keep walking. A body builder who ruined his spine lifting weights had the same surgery the same day I did. The two of us had to keep making laps around the nurse's station with our walkers together. They would say "keep going, 27 laps equals a mile." I would do one or two laps and have to rest for a while, do another one or two laps, and so on. It took all day, but by bed time I had finally walked a mile! After 4 days, I no longer needed the walker, but still needed help getting up if I sat down for another week and a half. Now I am happy to say that I am pain free and can do most things I used to do as long as I am careful and don't lift over 30 pounds. After just 12 weeks I could walk a mile in 15 minutes. I now have insomnia instead. I can no longer sleep without all the heavy pain medications and muscle relaxers to knock me out at night, but that's so much easier to deal with.

~~"Bless the LORD, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits; Who pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases; Who redeems your life from the pit, Who crowns you with loving kindness and compassion; Who satisfies your years with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle." Psalm 103:1-5

Peace starts with daily forgivenss. Forgive someone and hope they learn from your example to do same for others in their own lives. It's small and simple, but extremely important.

Back to school!!! Summer is great. I love my kids dearly and enjoy spending good quality time with them. After the first 4 weeks, they start to get on each other's nerves which of course gets on my nerves. They get bored and intentially annoy each other for something to do. A vacation taken the beginning of July is always much more enjoyable than a vacation taken the end of August. When they become rude and disrespectful to each other I take away privlidges. They think of me as the mean ugly troll who won't let them have any fun. I think the vacation is just too long. They should divide up the time off and distribute it throughout the year. This would make time off from school much more enjoyable. When September arrives, the first day of school is so peaceful and refrshing. I love the colored leaves, the pumkins growing in the garden, and the fresh apple cider, but the first day of school, tops it all!

This past weekend at a Girl Scout cabin camping event. We had a mother daughter spa day and also played "Deal or No Deal." We had a blast! Some local businesses and parents donated prizes. Most of the prizes were things like body sprays, scented candles, lip gloss, nail polish, etc. Then we had our million dollar packages like the Rapunzel package (a free haircut at a local salon, a comb and brush set, and pearl beaded barrettes), a sleeping beauty special (a sleep mask, a sleepy-time aromatherapy bath ball, a cuddly stuffed animal, and soft aloe infused socks), etc. We also had what we called our penny and dollar prizes (book labels, a travel size Kleenex pack, etc.). We wrote all the prizes on index cards and put them in paper bags. The bags were our suit cases. We had enough prizes that all Mom and daughters had a turn being contestants. We also each had a turns acting as  Howie Mandel and the banker. We had a prize table where all the prizes were displayed. As the bags were opened, prizes were revealed, and a model would hold up the prize that was not won. The banker had prizes to offer in-between rounds. My name was the first one drawn to play the part Howie. About half way through, I told everyone that they would find out what was inside this bag right after these messages! Like the real game, no one was expecting that! It was a lot of fun. We even added Vanna White to our virtual game show. Vanna's job was to post the index cards with sticky tack so everyone could see the list of items not won as they were drawn out of the bags. One of the favorite banker offers was a tooth fairy special. It was a tube of tooth paste, dental floss, an electric tooth brush, and breath mints because you won't ever find prince charming with yucky green stuff stuck between your teeth!  Both the girls and the Moms were having so much fun that we didn't stop playing until 1:30 am! Then the rest of the prizes left over were won by playing other games like scavenger hunts and Bingo.

The questions make you think deeply within yourself. Most of the time I answer them without readin what others wrote first. I don't answer all of them, but I answer most. I enjoy reading what others answer. It broadens your perception to see their point of view.

Online relationships lack the first impressions based on appearance. It cuts out discrimnation. Your mind and heart are automatically open to people you might not approach in person.

Many different ways depending on what they are being negative about. Sometimes it's best to ignore them. Other times I try to help them look at the situation in a more positive way (this only works if the person being negative really wants to work something out and can keep an open mind).  When someone is directly being negative you, it can change how you handle it. Sometimes just apologizing even though you may not have done anything wrong will get them to move on with their life so you don't have to hear continuous negativity. However, if it's something you really feel strongly about, you must say I don't agree, but I can forgive, forget, and move on. You hope they can follow your example and do the same. If not, then let them know that you have nothing more to say and if they someday decide to grow up and and give the forgive and forget method a try to let you know. Being negative will hold you back from all that's important to you so you shouldn't spend more time than necessary around negative people. If you live with a negative person, it can be a constant battle to try to stay positive, but never give up hope that someday they'll find better things to do in their life than to be negative.

I really have no idea. Both my parents are gone, so I can't ask.

You must experience failure to be successful. If you have your priorities in proper order putting God first, then just trust in him and everything else will fall into place. That's the only way to have true success.

I would complete everything I ever started and didn't have time to finsih. I would organize everything and still have as musch time as I want to just enjoy the people around me.

There are so many ways to say thank you. I like to help others in return whenever I can. I create my own greeting cards; sending homemade thank yous. I have given gifts such as candy, flowers, and gift cards. I have an Aunt who helped me take care of my Mom and later my Dad when they were dying of cancer. I was able to thank her later by giving her my van when I bought a new car. She really needed a vehical and my old one was in much better shape than hers. I didn't have anything to trade in, but I didn't mind.

Being a saint means you believe in Jesus and asks him to forgive you for your sins. Then all you have to do is to is your best to serve him doing what good you can for others each day.