Getting Ready in Exodus As Well As Life

 A rainy Saturday morning and nothing is on the schedule. Yay! We will both most probably be working on Sunday School lessons today. Both of us in the plagues, but I am a few plagues ahead of Roy. Our teaching styles are totally different but we do help each other with the things we've studied or quotes we like. 

GMoey is helping me write this morning and it looks like he is going to settle in for a nap on my lap. That will be very helpful. Looks like we got everyone on the healthy side of life. We are cutting back on the probiotic drops that calms down the stomach. Thus, I don't think we have had a clean up on Aisle 9 in the last several days. 

Thursday, we went to the visitation of a friend's brother. We usually go to the service but I have found the last three times I have been ill has comes a few days after attending a funeral service. The parking lot of the small church was filled to capacity. We paid our respects and left turning over our prime parking spot to an older lady. Heck, I am probably older than her but my mind just doesn't want to process this info. Roy took me out to lunch at Bonnie and Clyde's. He and our friend Cuman eat there but I have never been. The food was really good. I was going to order the country fried steak but it came with brown gravy. This is the closest thing to chicken friend steak here.

We finished up the plagues, well the first nine, yesterday. Throughout the study process last week I kept thinking about the Israelites. What were they doing during the plagues? Most probably they cleaned up dead fish and frogs, but after that, maybe they had time to ponder and think about all that Moses and Aaron were telling them. Maybe they were getting ready to leave and go to the promise land. I turned this question of what were they doing to, what am I doing? What are we doing? As the old report card said, grading you on using your time and materials wisely, am I doing that? I was surprised in FB memories today from the Monablog of the past, right before we decided to move to Katy. We were in the process of finding a lot and building a home in Rancho de Five. We felt that this was God's leading and in hindsight, I can confirm it was. 

"Today I did something that I did before we moved to where we live now.  Before we moved to our condo and when I found myself on this side of town, I would drive around and do a little stop and shop in the neighborhood.  Just kind of wanted to get the feel of it and did it feel right. The Play Neighborhood.  Did that today in what could be our new Play Neighborhood.  In fact I almost didn't take my exit on 99 for CBS and was going to go on a little further down the road like I was going home.  This was not a conscious decision, it just felt right.  Quickly I swerved for the exit and made it just in time to miss the devotion portion of the study.  I can miss devotional time but never an exit.  I always miss music and devotion and arrived just in time for core group.  After Bible study today, I found myself doing that very same thing playing in the neighborhood.  Since organizing for a probable/possible/surely it will happen move, I am trying to get things cleared out and put into modular plastic containers.  Yesterday I brought home four and a few other storage type things.  Ah, I am no professional when it comes to organizational terms.  Well, the four modular plastic storage drawers were filled in no time with t shirts and sweatshirts.  Here of late I like wearing work out togs, but just haven't had the desire to actually work out in them.  Besides the way to my heart besides journals and pens is a t-shirt.  Roy thinks I am high maintenance and maybe that is sometimes true, but when he goes on a trip, I just want a cute t-shirt from wherever he has been.  That is low maintenance any way you look at it.  It was serious clear out yesterday because I'm letting go of some t-shirts that have been in the collection for quite some time.  That's how serious I am about getting into the ready position.  So I went to the Katy Super Target hoping to pick up 4 more modular plastic containers and there were only 2!  Who else is getting organized?  Now I am going to have to make a trip to the dreaded San Felipe Target, it has not been my first choice of a Target in a long time but have heard it has improved since remodeling.  I thought about driving by the lot where we might build again to see what the neighborhood looks like during an early dismissal day, but decided just to head back into Houston. 


Buddy has been a bit feisty of late.  The other night, out of the blue she attacked my forehead.  Now I know side bangs may not be her favorite style for me, but I think the attacked stemmed from the fact that I had been laying on my left side and didn't turn over and change to the right side when she sat next to me and meowed into my ear.  I finally gave in because Buddy has me trained so well, and when I thought she was going to settle down on my arm, like she wants to do, she lashed out with one big old swipe of the paw.  My cry woke up Roy, who I call the enforcer when it comes to disciplining Buddy, he got me a Kleenex and he wanted to put a big honkin' band aid on the cut.  Yes, that will feel great ripping off the band aid the next morning and half my eye brow going along with it.  Hmmm...maybe that wasn't such a bad idea at all.  But he didn't act all enforcer like with Buddy and he decided he would rather go back to sleep than chase a cat in the middle of the night with a spray bottle.  Where is the love?"

So, kind of funny to read this getting ready post from a few years back. Really, the move to Cinco Ranch was a great decision for so many reasons. It also prepared us, but me mostly, in making the move from Texas to North Carolina. 

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We had snow this morning and several times those huge fluffy flakes fell. Most of it has melted because we are above freezing this afternoon. We cancelled the ASPCA appointments since we were worried about this morning being snowy or icy. Definitely snowy and having two, especially if they are females. recovering in the garage.  We will open the Inn on the Catmore Garage later this afternoon. The next two nights will be rather chilly, no I mean downright cold. We do not get above freezing tomorrow as temps hover in the 20's. 

Yesterday, was a huge win in the declutter project. In September while changing out summer to fall to winter clothes, I got sick. I was out of commission for over a month. Missing out on all of October in autumnal wear was difficult but it also put me behind in getting clothes out to Goodwill. Then the storm stopped all that kind of thing and when I was finally organized, no one wanted to take donations of clothes. This is also the year that I let go of sentimental clothes cause it ain't doing anyone any good in drawers and storage cubes. Got shoes as well. Now, that it will soon be March and that month can go a lot of ways temperature wise, I'll just be in the ready position to get winter put up and spring and fall out. Last week we took four small boxes of books to the Resale store of Habitat and we have two large boxes of books and other items to go. Guess we will do that next week if the weather cooperates. I also cleaned out a couple of dresser drawers, so this afternoon I am feeling uncluttered and free. 

A Catch Up For Now

 It has been some time since the last blog post. I have one written but now not current so, not posting. I find that if I want good study time most days there really isn't any quiet time for blogging. With Roy resuming his workouts there is a tad more quiet but The Trio and The Boys can be loud. Looks like most have decided on a nap which is just wonderful for peaceful moments to think. They two groups are blending together a little bit more. Roy has five out of the six eating together and they hang out together in the morning.

Speaking of The Trio and The Boys, we were dealing with some sickness with five of the six. We ordered some gentle food and probiotic and this Monday morning they are all feeling well. One gets creative to take care of these little ones without breaking the bank and five to the vet at one time, oh yes, that is a bank breaker. I missed our ladies brunch at church because someone needed to stay with the little ones and since Roy has gone above and beyond duty taking care of me and the long recovery since October, I thought his getting out and doing what he loves was the right decision. 

Sunday's service kind of held some nostalgic feelings. We sang Just A Closer Walk which of course harkened back to an Inspire Women Conference with the Mass Choir that wasn't so massive. Friends in the mass choir got tickled with the line, If I falter Lord Who Cares? Well, that set off our row in attendance cause we were friends with the mass choir all in about twelve in number. Then, I got to do a skit with Hannah to inspire....think I am going with inspire for the paragraph Alec, people to sign up to work in VBS. That was a lot of fun and now I know I can't do more than one page of a script, cause I can't memorize like I used to. We sang Jesus Paid it All for the closing hymn and I remember that hymn with anthem emphasis as we sang it long ago in the HFBC choir. Then, just one more nostalgic feeling, our pastor has been called to a new church that is closer to where he and his wife grew up here in North Carolina. In two weeks we begin the "interim" period which of course totally reminds me of those days of long ago when we went five years looking for a pastor at First Baptist. So, the morning filled with inspiring moments turned into lunch afterwards for a VBS planning meeting. I cannot participate due to health issues but Roy is the VBS photographer and he wanted to attend in order to have knowledge of where he needs to be to catch those timely and wonderful VBS moments. They did make a recommendation of no more Kool-Ade and then discussed snack items. I tells ya, some kind of off brand Kool-Ade and butter cookies that had holes in the center, thus eating them while wearing cookies as a ring, was good enough for generations why not now? I'm joking of course and we do have kids that attend from around the area who experience food insecurity. Thus healthy snacks are to be considered as well. 

Since rediscovering my love of reading I battle with reading for fun and reading for lessons. I just finished a book on Bunny Mellon. She was a Capote swan as well as a fashion/gardening trend setter of her day. My interest is not so much in her but that the book is written by the same author as Mrs. Astor Sends Regrets. Her style of writing and my style of reading are muy simpatico. I got into a few chapters in the book and I was hooked. You get a foundation, briefly of her early life and the early influences that defined her later in life. As part of the foundational knowledge, there is a fast forward of her estate sale. Sotheby's handled the sale and it took a week with her treasures divided into sections. One night paintings and art work and the next night furniture...etc.... She amassed an impressive amount of things or stuff. When she died, her service although planned out, held a few surprises as loved ones didn't give a kind word for her life. What they said according to the book was true. Her favor and attention was at her discernment and whim. She would drop friends so quickly, it was expected...it could be a friend of a few years or fifty or more. Bunny was buried in her cap and gown from the Rhode Island Art Institute. She was honored with an honorary degree from there. She had always wanted to go to college but she was pushed into that debutante life of searching for a husband. The jewelery she took to the grave was a small pinkie horse shoe ring that was of sentimental worth, not expensive at all. From her first husband of whom she truly loved and although he was wealthy, it wasn't enough for all she wanted to do in life. I also finished up The Devil at His Elbow, Alex Murdaugh. Very well done and probably the best book I have read in his life's genera. Put the Queen Mother book on hold and started The Woman Who Knew Everybody. Until now, I had never heard of her but that doesn't mean much. I don't get out too often.  

We got two more of The Feral Fam into the ASPCA this morning. They were not happy with their first road trip. But we were happy when we picked them up because we took in two females. We will be trapping again next Monday. Ah yes, next Monday when the temps are supposed to drop significantly. 

Just a quick catch up, for now.