She exits the bathroom refreshed from her nighttime shower and teeth cleaning, ready to do some stretching and reading and get to sleep… and she freezes. A wall of… What on Earth???? Uuggghh!… potent gas hits her in the face. Not the kind that is dangerous to one’s health, of course, but the kind dangerous for one’s constitution, for one’s keeping down cookies.
“Golly,” she says, “Sometimes one can be too comfortable spending the night at a friend’s house!” And she promptly turns on all the fans and lights a match and candle to disperse and destroy the smell as fast as possible, before she gags or passes out from the dense, noxious gas… and not for the first time…
I absolutely love having something to do on a Saturday. For sure, yes. But having a lot to do on a Saturday is just rather overwhelming for me. I want one to three things… gym first thing, then one or two other things to happen throughout the rest of the day before a normal bedtime for me. Tomorrow, we had three things on the list after the gym, and it was all quite doable, because the third thing was so late. However, something came up that filled Sunday. So, now we also have to go to church Saturday evening, since we don’t want to have to get up super early Sunday, when we know we likely will be getting back to town and getting to sleep late Saturday night. So, four things. And then a call came up today that has to happen tomorrow… and prep work that has to happen before that call. We’re at six things now. And then, I get a message from my sister about my niece’s final softball game… tomorrow. (She hadn’t said anything about any previous games, and I hadn’t even known about the softball at all, but for a comment from my dad the other week. So, I figured her mentioning it meant it was important and would make a difference for me to attend.)
And there we have what was once a three-activity Saturday now turned into a seven-activity Saturday. Talk about stress and strain… I like buffer time. If I end up doing seven things, that’s great. It’s because I had so much open time and energy. But planning ahead of time for seven things… that’s just too much for my level of comfort.
But I am trusting God in this whole thing, and I ask for His guidance in fulfilling His will tomorrow and always. Dear God, hear this prayer, please. In Your name, I pray. Amen.
Tomorrow, I aim to clean up and clear out a lot. Tomorrow and Wednesday, really… I have much to do, yes, but I have much time in which to do it in these next two days. Dear God, please, help me to sleep well and to work effectively and efficiently with this work this week. Help me to make a home that welcomes both of us living here and all those we invite into it. Help me to express your love even through my home. And, please, give me the needed rest to heal my body this week and to give me full energy to accomplish the unpacking and tidying and cleaning I want to make happen this week. Thank you for this life and these challenges he’s and this support I have. In your name, I pray. Amen.
Tonight, my mom and I continued our tradition of going to Shake Russell concerts. It was amazing, wonderful, so many good words and feelings. The venue was an adorable old barn-type place in town that we had never before noticed but that has apparently been a music venue for small events since 1969. Lyle Lovett and Shake Russell and many other known names apparently played there all throughout the years. And it was palpable in the space. Also, the sound system was awesome – the kind where you don’t even notice there’s a sound system, because it just works so beautifully and effectively.
Uh… it was just wonderful, y’all…
God blessed this night.
God, thank you for such an amazing and wonderful and heart-filling night tonight. Thank you for the absolute blessing that is Shake Russell and his music. And thank you for my family and all of the love that surrounded me tonight. I love you. Thank you. Please, guide me to fulfill your will in all things through my life. In your name, I pray. Amen.
Man, some days, it just feels like the world crushes you like a bug, and then you end up thinking of that final fight scene in Men in Black, and you get totally grossed out at the idea of all those bugs being squashed and eeeewwwww-ickk-gross!
Ugh… God, please, don’t make me figure this one out – just do as you wish, and I will follow suit wholeheartedly. Your will be done fully and forever. In your name I pray. Amen.
It is 7:20am, and I am only just climbing into bed for the night. And, of course, “for the night” now means “for not quite an hour,” because I want to see the llama and alpaca show at the livestock show this morning, and they start around 8am… yikes.
But, you know what? This was a fantastic night, followed by a great workout this morning, a hot, cleansing shower, and a long-awaited teeth-brushing.
Thank you, God, for this crazy day that was today (Thursday). Wow… thank you. May I give it all back to you through expressing your love in the world around me. In your name, I pray. Amen.
Gwen Stefani is another one of those artists who played an important role in my childhood. I remember singing the choruses to two of No Doubt’s songs while dancing around in the living room at our original house when I was only about four years old. They were “Spiderwebs” and “Don’t Speak”. I didn’t know what most of the lines meant, and I even had a few words wrong (“I gotta scream my phone calls,” instead of screening them, because had no idea that screening a call was something that existed), but I loved those two songs. To this day, I can still see the image I had in my mind of this woman climbing around and walking inside this massive spider web, while her landline phone was ringing in the distance. The phone was yellow, by the way. I genuinely thought she was telling a story of how she was doing crazy stuff, like walking in an actual spider web – she was out living life – instead of sitting around, waiting for the phone to ring, waiting for calls. I’ve related to it that way ever since it came out almost 27 years ago, and I have no expectation of that changing at his point – if it hasn’t changed already, I think it won’t at all.
So, all that being said, Gwen Stefani is kind of on par with Ricky Martin in terms of how it played a role in my early childhood. Naturally, when she sang “Don’t Speak”, therefore, I cried a bit.
And then, for Spiderwebs a coupe songs or so later, I went nuts jumping around and dancing.
I did that on several songs, of course, many of which I had either forgotten had been Gwen Stefani’s songs or that I had never known were Gwen Stefani’s songs.
Of course, she ended the concert with “Hollaback Girl“, and I then discovered that it wasn’t, “Mmm this much. Mmm this much,” but “Mmm this my sh**. Mmm this my sh**.” Rather different lyrics, yes, and the real ones don’t actually fit musically as well as my version of them. So, I’m sticking to my original understanding of the lyrics on this one.
All in all, it was a great and fun concert. And she even declared, “Praise Jesus!” at one point, which was baller in a whole new way. And no, Blake Shelton did not show up. She said early on that he was “babysitting” her kids… and my friend said, ‘I believe that is just called ‘parenting’.’ 😛 But the concert was filled with songs, and she even went over by about ten minutes, she had packed so much music into it. It was great.
Thank you, God, for the absolute blessing that was tonight and today on all levels. Please, especially, bless those who showed love to me today in particular, that they feel your love more fully tomorrow. Please, guide us all to be your love through our lives. Help us to be who you made us to be. And thank you for this opportunity of life. In your name, I pray. Amen.
Well, I’m on my bed, in the new apartment, getting ready to go to sleep. I am a tad nervous. I am still here, doing it, though. I can do this. I can have an amazing time living here comfortably.
But I just get to sleep now, as it is getting far too close to midnight for me still to be awake. Good thing I have the highway to keep me company, or else I might have felt lonely in the new place in quiet darkness.
God, please, keep us safe and well living here, that we may best fulfill your will in the world. I love you. Thank you for this life and its infinite blessings. In your name, I pray. Amen.
hannah ananas 