I like Halloween. I think it's fun dressing up in costume and I love seeing excited little kids coming to my door. It's fun to watch the children, too, particularly the smaller ones in the 3-6 age group. They seem to be the most excited about it.

I know that many Christians say this is a holiday rooted in evil traditions, but quite honestly, if you look at most holidays, they all have pagan traditions blended in with them, including Christmas and Easter.

Trick-or-treating in our town was last night so it wouldn't interfere with church night. This is our 2nd Halloween in this house, and I was totally excited that I actually have trick-or-treaters. For the past 9 years, we've lived in apartments in the business district where no trick-or-treaters ever came. This year, I ran out of candy. I bought way too much candy last year, so I only went with 4 bags of candy bars this year. John was hoping he could eat the leftovers, but there was only one, and that was because they were coming to the door in groups and I didn't want to stand there with only one piece of candy left. We still had half an hour to go before it was over, but I figured by the time I ran to the store and got back, it would be over, so we just turned off the porch light and finished watching NCIS uninterrupted.

Speaking of NCIS, did anyone else get the feeling that last night's episode ended with a "to be continued" effect to it? I don't recall seeing the words come up on the screen, but between the way last night's ended and the few snippets of next week's episode they showed, it seems to me that this one is going to be continued.

I don't know if I should love or hate how God is prodding me right now about my behavior. Seems like everywhere I turn lately, he is seriously convicting me. OUCH!!!

Case in point, this week's Sunday school lesson is about throwing off the old self and taking on a new one (Col. 3:1-17). The first set of things listed in v.5 are the easier ones for me: sexual immorality, lust, impurity, covetousness. It's the things in v.8 that kill me: anger, wrath, malice, slander, foul language. I do not like myself when these things escape my mouth, so why is it so hard for me to throw them off and take on the new me in Christ?

Our prayer time yesterday was good. It was just a little over a half hour at the start of a busy day, but it was good. My friend brought a prayer book with her that her husband had given her for Christmas a few years ago. It had lots of different prayer topics in it, and the one we chose for yesterday fit absolutely perfectly with holding to the fruits of the Spirit and purging the sins that keep us from it. We have agreed to keep a weekly meeting time for prayer and accountability. I felt a little weird taking a prayer break at work (I start my day much earlier), but it worked out ok.

The past few days my devotional time has been on being patient and waiting for God. The whole book is on "Stress-Free Living" (I actually bought this from my sister's church when I was on vacation this summer). This particular chapter is on patience. Three things it says you have to do is to:

1. Wait with expectation
2. Wait with motivation
3. Wait with donation (in other words, do something to get you toward that goal)

I need to work on all three. Patience is another virtue I do not possess much of. I guess that makes it sound like I don't possess many fruits of the Spirit, but I do, there are just a few that the sinful me seems to push out all the time.

The pastor on Sunday said when you get rid of a bad habit, you have to replace it with a good one or that bad habit will sneak back. If you purge yourself of foul language, you must consciously replace it with kind language. Eventually kind language will become the habit and you won't even have to think about it.

Now, here's a question for you, and I'd really like your honest opinion. If you replace a bad word in your vocabulary with a neutral word (like saying fudge or shoot instead of cuss words), is that still foul language because the intention is the same?

Now, I'm off to bake muffins for a staff meeting this morning.

It's cold - 35° out. Took a space heater over to my friend's house last night. She's elderly and her furnace is in need of repair. It will be two weeks before they can get the parts in. She's been huddled under several blankets for days and said she'd be fine when I offered the use of the space heater last week. Last night she called asking for it. Her living room was much warmer by the time I left.

This is the kind of weather I don't like, only because it's like winter early in the morning and spring/fall in the afternoon. I'll wear my coat to work this morning, but won't need it by afternoon. These are the kinds of days I used to get into trouble with in school because I'd forget my coat at school. Sometimes I still forget my coat at work. Now I have a husband to yell at me for that instead of the mother. Ha!

I can't actually say my spirit is bruised, it's actually more humbled. Our summer intern was back again this Sunday to preach, and he did an EXCELLENT job with his sermon. There were a few moist eyes in the house as he spoke on Galations 5, which describes how we will act if we are living in the Spirit, and how we act if we are NOT living in the Spirit. This is one of the places in the Bible where it discusses the fruits of the Spirit.

I have a terrible time with wrath and a foul tongue. The language has gotten much better since I returned to the fold, but it still gets away from me sometimes, particularly in fits of wrath. Longsuffering and slow to anger are two fruits of the Spirit that I have trouble holding to, and I walked that aisle during the alter call on Sunday and asked there in front of the entire congregation for God to purge me of the sinful natures that keep me from enjoying these fruits.

Afterwards, a couple of the ladies in church came and prayed with me, too, telling me that they felt the nudge to go forward but didn't. I am meeting with one of them this morning for prayer and accountability. Together, we will hold tight to God's promise to cleanse us through and through.

I am praying for our Xanga friends living in Southern California. Folks like Pixelpusher who may be at risk of losing their homes. They just built their beautiful home in the past couple of years. I pray that God spares it, and most of all protects them.

A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in  Chicago.  They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night's dinner.

Well, as such things go, one thing led to another.

The sales manager went longer than anticipated and the meeting ran overtime.  Their flights were scheduled to leave out of Chicago's O'Hare Airport, and they had to race frantically to the airport.  With tickets in hand, they barged through the terminal to catch their flight back home.

In their rush, with tickets and brief cases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of baskets of apples.

Apples flew everywhere.

Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly-missed boarding.

All but one.

He paused, took a deep breath, got in touch with his feelings, and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned.

He told his buddies to go on without him, waved goodbye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight.  Then he returned to the terminal where the  apples were all over the terminal floor.

He was glad he did.  The 16 year old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her; no one stopping, and no one to care for her plight.

The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them into the baskets, and helped set the display up once more.

As he did this he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket.

When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, "Here, please take this $20 for the damage we did.  Are you okay?"  She nodded through her tears.  He continued on with, "I hope we didn't spoil your day too badly."

As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, "Mister...."

He  paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes.

She continued, "Are you Jesus?"

He stopped in mid-stride, and he wondered.  Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul:

"Are you Jesus?"

Do people mistake you for Jesus? That's our destiny, is it not? To be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a world that is blind to His love, life and grace.

If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as He would.  Knowing Him is more than simply quoting Scripture and going to church.  It's Actually living the Word as life unfolds day to day.

You are the apple of His eye even though we, too, have been bruised by a fall.  He stopped what He was doing and picked you and me up on a hill called Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit.

Let's start living like we are worth the price He paid.

Had an interesting discussion at Bible study last night about forgiveness. We started the discussion with a question about "Do you think Christians want to live changed lives?" or something like that, which led to one lady sharing how she is having a very difficult time forgiving her ex-husband for leaving her. The bottom line came to this: whether we are ready to forgive someone or not, God already has forgiven them and Jesus paid the price for those sins against you. We need to remember that when we are trying to get over the hurt someone has caused us.

I have not fallen off the face of the earth. My time has been extremely short the past three months.

Immediately after we returned home from our vacation to Texas, where we had a wonderful time playing with our two granddaughters, I had to fire someone who didn't show up for work while we were gone and didn't bother to call in. On top of that, she was two hours late for work on her next scheduled day.

I entered into a slew of activity, trying to catch up on work that got behind while we were on vacation (I'm STILL not caught up). We implemented some procedures to hold people accountable for the tasks they are supposed to be doing and one of my full-time employees quit. Apparently I expected too much of this person and was a major bitch because I asked them to do their job.

Since, I've hired two more part-timers and had to take the time to train them. I promoted one of my full-timers to assistant manager. I'm still looking for more employees (at least three part-timers). Business has been good, and it's tough to run two busy stores (well, only one is REALLY busy) with short help. It's very hard to find people in this area who actually will work for what they are paid, or who have half a brain in their head.

I have also visited the doctor to adjust my diabetes medicine. Trying to control it on my own without medication wasn't working. The medicine I was on didn't agree with me and the glucometer I had hurt too much. My doctor gave me a new glucometer that doesn't require as much blood (and I LOVE it) and put me on some different medication. We had to try a couple of things before we got something I was tolerating well. The stuff I'm on now has virtually no side effects for me, but it is expensive - over $200 a month just for one of the four pills I take daily. Luckily, the doctor has plenty of samples for now.

This past week, I had a 3-month check-up with the doctor's office. The numbers are looking GREAT! There are a couple more that need to come down (like my A1C, which is almost within the range she'd like) and she's confident that sticking to the meds for another 3 months will help with that.

This past week, both John and I went to the eye doctor for our annual check-ups there. We will both be receiving new glasses next week. Both of ours are very old and beat up. While trying on frames before my appointment, I put on a pair of horn-rimmed style. I quickly decided that made me look too much like my grandmother. I am told horn-rimmed spectacles are coming back into style. It wouldn't be the first time I wasn't up to date with the latest style.

Church is going well. I joined the choir. Not singing any solos as yet. I was informed this church "isn't much on canned music," so not doing anything as yet. I prefer practicing with the CD backup at home A LOT before actually getting in front of the congregation to sing.

Don't know how often I'll be back for a little while. Hopefully, I can check in at least once a week, but we'll see. Time is terribly precious at the moment.

John and I did manage to take TWO Saturdays off in a row - COUNT THEM, TWO!!! Last Saturday we slept in and then went to the AAUW book sale at the mall. Saturday is the last day of their sale and you can buy books for $3 a paper grocery sack full. We got two sacks. Mine wasn't quite full, but John had no problem filling it up the rest of the way.

Today, we drove to Ottumwa to buy programmable thermostats for the stores. We need four all together and they were on sale for $20 each at a store there. Even the cheapest of them are usually $40 each, and these are 7-day programs, so we can have it set at a different time and temp every day of the week. We then had lunch at a great little cafe we like to visit. We ate breakfast food (I was hungry for a pancake). These guys also make the BEST hash browns, so it was a heavy carb meal, but nice to spend alone-time with the hubby without talking about work. Then we came home and put a bunch of old furniture and stuff out on the curb for the city-wide clean up days that start next week. They city will come by and pick up bulky items like furniture and appliances that the garbage man won't haul away. There are a few rules like no construction materials and no leaves.

I also bought a couple of bicycles at a garage sale. I got them for $10 each. They need a few minor adjustments, but I am looking forward to riding bikes around with my husband and getting in a little exercise. Not much time left this season to do that, but I'm sure we'll get at least one ride in before winter hits.

Having a great time visiting with kids and grandkids. So far we haven't really done anything except eat and visit. The oldest granddaughter warmed up to us much faster than we anticipated, which is great. I think grandpa (or goompa, as she calls him) won her heart with fun size M&M's and quarters. John's mom sent down some stuff for the girls, including a couple of little purses, which work out great for all the money she's getting from "Goompa". Between what he's given her and what she found under the couch cushions when we were looking for a quarter she dropped, she's gove over $2 already. She's already giving grandma and grandpa kisses and letting grandma carry her everywhere ("up, up").

The younger granddaughter also gets lots of "grandma kisses" but she doesn't really know what they are. They do make her smile and she loves to snuggle. I've got a great picture of her sleeping on grandpa's chest, but I forgot my data cable so it will have to wait until we get back home (unless D1 has a bluetooth connection on her PC, which I doubt).

Today is a barbecue at SIL's parent's house. They were kind enough to invite all of my kids. The kids are talking about going out to Fort Hood this evening to watch their big fireworks display. The Army puts on a huge one every year. I think we might be able to see them from the poolside here, though, so maybe I'll suggest that instead of fighting the traffic. It will be fun, either way, to see how the 2-year-old granddaughter reacts to the "sparkles" (that's what she's been calling the little ones she's been seeing the past few days).

Anyway, have a safe and happy Independence Day. I'll be spending it like most red-blooded Americans: a family barbecue and fireworks.

We are in Texas. We just checked into the motel about half an hour ago. We've called the kids to let them know we made it ok. Now we are going to take a short nap and go see them. D1 says to me, "You can come over here and take a nap." Yeah, right. Like we'd actually rest over there.

I'm torn because I want to go see them now, but I was so tired I drove off the road near Temple and almost had a wreck. I'll blog more about mine and John's driving travel patterns later.

And just for the record, the computer got hooked up first thing so we could check in at the office. I figured I'd blog while John was in the bathroom.

Short nap time.

We made it to Oklahoma. There is a LOT of water down here. Even I-35 had a lane closed each way at a small section in southern Kansas where a stock pond had flooded out onto the outside lanes. It was still passable, thankfully. It's raining again this morning. We could use a little of this up north, where we are really DRY compared to this time most years.

We had fun playing with my nephew's wii last night. We honestly got a workout playing wii Sports. John and I want to get one for our house now. We can have fun with each other while being physically active at the same time. (That didn't exactly sound right, but you know what I mean.)