CHAPTER 11, PAGE 30

The Stranger

A very weird thing has happened.

A strange old lady has moved into my house.

I have no idea who she is, where she came from,

or how she got in. I certainly didn't invite her.

All I know is that one day she wasn't there,

and the next day she was. She's very clever.

She manages to keep out of sight for the most part;

but whenever I pass a mirror,

I catch a glimpse of her there;

and when I look into a mirror directly

to check my appearance,

 suddenly she's hogging the whole thing,

completely obliterating my gorgeous face and body.

It's very disconcerting.

I've tried screaming at her to leave

but she just screams back, grimacing horribly.

She's really rather frightening.

If she's going to hang around,

the least she could do is offer to pay rent.

But no! Every once in a while

I do find a couple of dollar bills

on the kitchen counter, or some loose change

on my bureau or on the floor,

but that certainly isn't enough.

In fact, though I don't like to jump to conclusions,

I think she steals money from me

regularly I go to the ATM and withdraw

a hundred dollars, and a few days later, it's gone.

I certainly don't go through it that fast,

so I can only conclude that the old lady pilfers it.

You'd think she's spend some of it on wrinkle cream.

God knows, she needs it. And,

the money isn't the only thing she's taking.

Food seems to disappear at an alarming rate.

Especially the good stuff, ice cream, cookies, candy.

I just can't keep them in the house.

She really has a sweet tooth. She should watch it;

she's really putting on the pounds.

I think she realizes that, and to make herself feel better,

I know she is tampering with my scale

so I'll think that I'm gaining weight, too.

For an old lady, she's really quite childish.

She also gets into my closets when I'm not home

and alters all my clothes. They're getting tighter every day.

Another thing: I wish she'd stop messing with my files

and the papers on my desk. I can't find a thing any more.

This is particularly hard to deal with because

I'm extremely neat and organized;

but she manages to jumble everything up

Furthermore, when I program my VCR to tape

something important, she fiddles with it after

I leave the room so it records the wrong

channel or shuts off completely.

She finds innumerable, imaginative ways to irritate me.

She gets to my newspapers, magazines and mail

before me and blurs all the print;

and she's done something sinister with

the volume controls on my TV, radio, and phone.

Now all I hear are mumbles and whispers.

She's also made my stairs steeper,

my vacuum cleaner heavier, all my knobs and

faucets hard to turn and my bed higher

and a real challenge to climb into and out of.

Furthermore, she gets to my groceries as soon

as I shelve them and applies super glue to the tops

of every jar and bottle so they're just about impossible

to open. Is this any way to repay my hospitality?

I don't even get any respite at night.

More than once her snoring has awakened me.

I don't know why she can't do something about that.

It's very unattractive. As if all this isn't bad enough,

she is no longer confining her malevolence to the house.

She's now found a way to sneak into my car with me

and follow me wherever I go.

I see her reflection in store windows as I pass,

and she's taken all the fun out of clothes shopping

because her penchant for monopolizing mirrors

has extended to dressing rooms.

When I try something on, she dons an identical outfit,

which looks ridiculous on her and then stands

directly in front of me so I can't see how great

 it looks on me I thought she couldn't get any meaner

than that, but yesterday she proved me wrong.

She had the nerve to come with me when

I went to have some passport pictures taken,

and she actually stepped in front of the camera

just as the shutter clicked. Disaster!

I have never seen such a terrible picture.

 How can I go abroad now? No customs official is ever

 going to believe that old crone scowling from

my passport is me. She's walking on very thin ice.

If she keeps this up, I swear, I'll put her in a home.

On second thought, I shouldn't be too hasty.

First, I think I'll check with the IRS

and see if I can claim her as a dependent.

Author Unknown

Good Morning !

I don’t know if any of you have this stranger in your house, but I sure do. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked in the mirror and have seen her staring back at me.  :>)

To bring this month of THANKSGIVING to an end, I’ll just conclude by saying that I do thank God everyday for the many blessings that He sends my way. I’m grateful all the people, places and things in my life and can say truthfully that I really don’t have a thing in the world to complain about. There might be a few things that I don’t care for or don’t want, but there are no complaints only praises of thanksgiving.

Tomorrow we start a new chapter in my book and I’m so looking forward to turning each page. A new month, more blessings, more reasons to say ‘Thank you’ Lord !

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

It's true that we don't know what we've got until we lose it, but it's also true that we don't know what we've been missing until it arrives

Author Unknown

May your day be blessed with a few SMILES and lots of SUNSHINE to warm your heart !

MA

 

 

 

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CHAPTER 11, PAGE 29

YOU'D NEVER KNOW

You'd never know me,

if we passed within inches on the street.

If your picture was in the paper or on TV

I'd not have a clue it was you!

I don't know if you are a Jew or Christian,

Orthodox or Islam, Shinto or Atheist,

Black or White or Asian or Hispanic.

But I know something very important about you.

You have forwarded encouraging messages,

kind words, soft smiles, hard politics,

lovely pictures, laugh-aloud jokes,

sermons, lectures, newspaper clippings,

family photos of fat babies and fat cats,

scripture verses and love.......lots of love!

If you did know me,

you would know that these emails

have seen me through some

dark and heavy days and nights;

have lifted my spirits for a moment,

an hour, a day.

You never know how many times

your forwards have hit the mark

like an arrow to the bulls eye.

So thank you, all over the world,

whoever you are, dear sister or brother.

We know, you and I,

something about each other.

We know the important fact

that somewhere in the world...

someone will be glad they have received

a kind word from another human being today.

Author: Unknown

GOOD MORNING !

When I read the little poem above I thought of all my friends in J-land that give each other lots of much needed support. Kind words and prayers are written every day to someone – somewhere.

I’m thankful that the internet has given me a way to keep in touch each day with family and friends and will be saying a little prayer for you all today.

It’s Wednesday and Over the Hump Day…Another week almost half over. We’ve been enjoying weather in the mid 50’s-60’s here for the past 4days, but come Friday that ‘S’ word and colder weather are back in the forcast.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

Good old days start with good new days, like today.

 Denise Settle

May your day be blessed with a few SMILES and lots of SUNSHINE to warm your heart !

MA

 

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CHAPTER 11, PAGE 28

If the people we love are taken from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them. Buildings burn, people die but real love is forever.

Author Unknown

GOOD MORNING !

Today I’m thankful for all the wonderful memories that I have of the Love of my Life. This day in 1992 he went home to our Lord in Heaven

Not so many of us have the opportunity to live in love with our spouse. While all marital journeys have moments of difficulty, we did all that we were able to pour all of our positive energy into our relationship – so that the love which we had was fostered, treasured, and built up. I was so truly blessed.

Today I pray,for married couples to model to their children, and to the world that being married is a chance to create something amazing. Let them show that their spouses are special and so deserving of the love that they are offering to them.

 

 

Thought For Today

 Love Defined!

LOVE, a noun, as defined by the silly and the sentimental...is....

* man's grand delusion that one woman differs from another;

* a sea of emotions entirely surrounded by expenses;

* something they say is blind; it's marriage which is the real eye opener;

* that emotion which is not true until returned;

* what rich countries have in common with the residents of all third-world countries;

* is like measles; much worse when it comes late in life;

* the only fire for which there is no insurance;

* an emotion, even if unreturned, has its rainbow;

* the only game that two can play and both win;

* the last and most serious of the childhood diseases;

* what makes marriage possible; habit makes it last;

* is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise;

* a disease like measles, we all have to go through it;

* the tie that blinds; * consists of happiness, given back and forth;

* that which makes the world revolve;

* a situation which happens when you think almost as much of another as you do of yourself;

* is a fan club with only two members;

* the only virtue that can be divided endlessly and still not be diminished;;

* a strange feeling that comes over a man; when he keeps wanting to call a girl by his last name;

* is like the action similar to an hourglass: the heart fills as the brain empties;

* a situation; when it is true, does not mean gazing into each other's eyes, but looking outward together in the same direction as life beckons;

* something which combines the two greatest powers on earth; war and peace;

* the balm that heals the wounds that words make.

May your day be blessed with a few SMILES and lots of SUNSHINE to warm your heart !

MA

 

 

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CHAPTER 11, PAGE 27

A rich man once asked a friend, "Why am I criticized for being rich? Everyone knows I will leave everything to charity when I die."

"Well," said the friend, "Let me tell you about the pig and the cow.

The pig was lamenting to the cow one day about how unpopular he was."

"People are always talking about your gentleness and kind eyes," said the pig. "Sure you give milk and cream, but I give more. I give bacon, ham and bristles. They even pickle my feet. Still nobody likes me. Why is that?"

The cow thought a minute, then replied, "Well, maybe it's because I give while I'm still living."

GOOD MORNING !

After the hustle and bustle of the past week, today will seem like a vacation day, even though I’m going to work.

We think sometimes we just don’t have enough time to get things done, but then something unusual comes up and we still get it all done anyway.

Having my family home for a holiday reminds me of times past when I did all those things everyday-- now it’s done only on special occasions. Where did I ever get all that energy???

THOUGHT FOR T0DAY

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

James 1:17

May your day be blessed with a few SMILES and lots of SUNSHINE to warm your heart !

MA

 

 

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CHAPTER 11, PAGE 26

Two old friends bumped into one another on the street one day. One of them looked forlorn, almost on the verge of tears. His friend asked, "What has the world done to you, my old friend?"

The sad fellow said, "Let me tell you. Three weeks ago, an uncle died and left me forty thousand dollars."

"That's a lot of money."

"But you see, two weeks ago, a cousin I never even knew died, and left me eighty-five thousand free and clear."

 "Sounds like you've been blessed...."

"You don't understand!" he interrupted. "Last week my great-aunt passed away. I inherited almost a quarter of a million."

 Now he was really confused. "Then, why do you look so glum?"

"This week... nothing!"

It's the same way with the blessings God gives us every day. I don't deserve the comfortable home I live in, the beautiful scenery around me, the clean water that I drink. But after receiving these gifts (and a multitude of others) for years, I sometimes fail to be grateful.

I've come to expect these good things. And when one of them is removed for a short while (like the water being cut off), I get upset.

Focus on what you have rather than on what you don't have, and see if it doesn't improve your attitude.

From Alan Smith’s Thought for Today

GOOD MORNING !

For this morning only I still have DS#4 and his family and ‘the Newlyweds’ here. By this afternoon they’ll be headed for home too.

I’ll try to just be thankful that they all got to come home, but I’m thinking …this week nothing.

Thought For Today

No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one.

Elbert Hubbard

US author (1856 - 1915)

May your day be blessed with a few SMILES and lots of SUNSHINE to warm your heart !

MA

 

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CHAPTER 11, PAGE 25

 

You Are a Kxy Person

Xvxn though this typxwritxr is an old modxl, it works vxry wxll, xxcxpt for onx kxy. You'd think that with all thx othhxr kxys working, onx kxy would hardly bx noticxd. But just onx kxy out of whack sxxms to ruin thx wholx xffort. Havx you xvxr said to yoursxlf, "I'm only onx pxrson. No onx will noticx if I don't do my bxst." But it doxs makx a diffxrxncx, bxcausx to bx xffxctivx, a family, an organization, a church or a businxss nxxds complxtx participation by evxryonx to thx bxst of his or hxr ability. So if you'rx having onx of thosx days whxn you think you just arxn't vxry important, and you'rx txmptxd to slack off, rxmxmbxr this old typxwritxr. You arx a kxy pxrson, and whxn you don't do your bxst, nothing xlsx around you works out thx way it is supposxd to.2

For we are all members of one body.

Ephesians 4:25

GOOD MORNING !

The mixed up letter in the little story above was an ‘e’ just in case you didn’t figure it out. We are all ‘KEY’ persons.

Today is our ‘Family Feast’ Day. All my children except for DS#2 and his family will be here. He is the son in the military and we are hoping he’ll be home at Christmas this year. Everyone is bringing a dish to share and I’m providing that huge turkey I got from my boss and the stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, and a Waldorf salad. I’m sure we’ll have lots of leftovers to send home too ! Oh , and I can’t forget the ‘deviled eggs’. Our ‘Princess’ thinks that is a necessary item at any family gathering. I’ll have lots more pictures for you to see tomorrow.

The ‘Sunshine’ babes and the Newlyweds will be leaving tomorrow and of course everyone else will return home this evening, so my house will be back to being very quiet after today.

I’m going to continue with the ‘Thankful’ them til the end of the month and then I’ll be giving you lots of quotes, customs and stories about Christmas. I’ve already got lots lined up to share with you.

I’m thankful today for the gift of being a unique individual formed and molded by God. I’m praying for those that aren’t feeling very good about themselves that they find hope for today and realize they too have a very special place in the world.

When we are grateful

for the good we already have,

we attract more good into our life.

On the other hand, when we are ungrateful,

we tend to shut ourselves

 off from the good we might otherwise experience.

Margaret Stortz

 May your day be blessed with a few SMILES and lots of SUNSHINE to warm your heart !

MA

 

CHAPTER 11, PAGE 24

 

 

 

 

Matthew Henry, the famous Bible scholar, was robbed by thieves. He wrote in his diary:

"Let me be thankful

first because I was never robbed before;

second, although they took my wallet, they did not take my life;

third, because although they took my all, it was not much; and

fourth, because it was I who was robbed and not I who robbed."

Jerry Songer, "`Tis the Season to Be Thankful,"

GOOD MORNING !

We can be thankful for so much even when things don’t go the way we want. There is always a bright side of everything. We only have to look for it. It’s not always easy to see and it’s very difficult to keep the vision…but we can if we try.

This morning we are off for our annual trip to the ‘Christmas in the Colonies’ craft show and visit to the Candle factory. DS#4 and his wife want to get up early and do some EARLY BIRD sale shopping before that—we’ll see… They want to find some good bargains, I want to enjoy the 'old time feeling' of the season. I can’t handle the crowds in the stores so I’ve never wanted to do that.

Today I’mthankful for the beautiful weather we’ve been having and I’m praying for those traveling and shopping today.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

So much has been given to me, I have no time to ponder over that which has been denied.

Helen Adams Keller

May your day be blessed with a few SMILES and lots of SUNSHINE to warm your heart !

 MA

 

 

 

 

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CHAPTER 11, PAGE 23

THANKSGIVING PRAYER

Author unknown

Lord, We humbly ask

Thy blessing on the turkey and the dressing,

on the yams and cranberry jelly,

and the pickles from the deli.

Bless the apple pie and tea,

bless each and every calorie.

Let us enjoy Thanksgiving dinner.

Tomorrow we can all get thinner.

For all Thy help along the way

we're thankful this Thanksgiving Day.

We're thankful too,

for all our dear ones,

for all the far away and near ones.

Although we may be far apart,

we're together in my heart.

 Keep us in Thy loving care,

This is my Thanksgiving prayer.

P.S. Anyone who wishes may help with the dishes.

I am certain that we created memories this Thanksgiving for part of our family. However much more time the Almighty grants us I hope we always will have a place which will conjure up those good feelings in our grandchildren long after we are gone.

Thank you, Dear Lord, for making this Thanksgiving Day possible.

 Good Morning !

I hope you are enjoying this Thanksgiving Day . We have plans to watch the Christmas Parade along with a good big homemade breakfast this morning. DDIL#4 is making French Toast. It’s been a tradition to see the parade on the TV and welcome Santa once more.

My children always hated to give up their belief in Santa and I always told them that as long as they kept the Spirit of Christmas in their hearts there would always be a Santa. I’m 62 and I still believe!

 Most of my Thanksgiving Days have been quiet ones as I usually do the Holiday the Saturday before so that all the babes can visit their in laws on the day and not have to worry about sharing the time …it gets hard to make all the rounds. But this Thanksgiving due to my Sunshine Babes visit it won’t be a quiet one –that’s for sure. The only time they get quiest is when they are sleeping.

Our family feast day will be on this Saturday and then my little home will be bursting at it’s seams.

Today I’m thankful for all the many blessings I have received and am praying especially today for all of you today !

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

The joy of enjoying

And the fullness of living

Are found in the heart

That is filled with thanksgiving.

Helen Steiner Rice

May your day be blessed with a few SMILES and lots of SUNSHINE to warm your heart !

MA

 

CHAPTER 11, PAGE 22

Thanksgiving

By Edgar A. Guest

Give me the end of the year an' its fun

When most of the plannin' an' toilin' is done;

Bring all the wanderers home to the nest,

Let me sit down with the ones I love best,

Hear the old voices still ringin' with song,

See the old faces unblemished by wrong,

See the old table with all of its chairs

An' I'll put soul in my Thanksgivin' prayers.

Good Morning !

I’m am looking forward to spending time with family and friends this weekend. Tomorrow begins a nice four day celebration. I am so thankful for their joy and their laughter. Remembering old times and rejoicing in new ones.

Last night I had a few free hours after work as my son and his family went visiting. I decided to wash a load of towels ( of which there were many ) So I went in the bathroom and boy did it smell good.

I thought maybe DDIL#4 had sprayed some cologne on before leaving…but when I gathered up the towels and went to basement to put the wash in, the fragrance went with me. I’m thinking now that maybe someone (???) had an accident and spilt some instead then mopped it up with the towel.

Isuppose sooner or later-- I’ll find out. It did smell like one of my favorites. I think it must have been Sunflowers…maybe it was my shower gel that got dumped. Oh well …my bath did smell beautiful , if only for a little while.

I found this in an article from the Women of Faith Newsletter Not everyone has the traditional parent-siblings-spouse-kids kind of family – but that doesn’t mean they don’t have one at all. A quick search of the Random House Unabridged Dictionary found 15 different definitions of “family”. Friends, co-workers, Bible study group members, and others . . . any or all of them can make up your family. Connection with another person (or group of people) is not something to be taken lightly. In the hustle and bustle of daily living, it can be easy to take our families for granted. Don’t. Those people are a gift from God to you.

Today I’m thankful for all the families in my life. With the dreary days of winter approaching, we pray for those that bring God's light and hope into our lives.

Thought for Today

Help us to remember

That the key to life and living

Is to make each prayer a prayer of thanks

And every day "Thanksgiving."

Helen Steiner Rice

May your day be blessed with a few SMILES and lots of SUNSHINE to warm your heart !

MA

 

 

 

 

 

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