Eb.....Where are you?

 I had a very faithful follower.

Then blogger, or Google or whatever wouldn't let ANY of my faithful followers comment any longer and I wound up blogging with only the sound of crickets echoing on my site here.

I fixed the glitch.

It's working now.

Took me half a minute to fix it.

Between my daughter's online learning, trying to keep my boys doing their homework and turning in tests(which I will say...I epically failed there but I did try...contacted the front office, the football coach(who never responded) the English teacher(who did respond) and numerous others. 

I can't MAKE them do the work...they live with dad. If they lived with me it would probably be a different story. I am not "blaming" dad. He's just more chill with all of this. We get along...I have nothing bad to say about the guy. We even had thanksgiving dinner at his house. Yeah...at first I was like "Meh,...don't think so." But the more I thought about it...and the fact that I couldn't find a spiral ham anywhere, was a sign from the good Lord above that maybe I should go.

So my daughter and I went.

And had so...much...fun.

Never laughed so hard in my life.

Anyway....this is just a post because I have several blogs and the one I am posting on the most is peaceful habitations link here on blogger.

I try to keep it humorous and uplifting....especially in this day and age. I focus on God and how he's gotten me through some rough stuff this past year. This past month alone....November is a blur(thank you Covid)...but he spared me and kept me with my family instead of taking me home just yet. He has plans for my life still.

For that I am grateful.

Anyway....going to call my mom now.

We are playing words with friends...maybe. If my dad didn't wear her out driving all over running errands together this afternoon. 

We shall see.

Have a great night/day wherever you are.

Until later....

A Rather Toasty Sunday

I am sitting here on this somewhat humid desert Sunday evening listening to Robert Jefress teach on the television while drinking a French Vanilla coffee I made in my Keurig. I don't know what happened to my Keurig. I popped the K-Cup into the slot, closed it and hit the large cup button. I went outside to place my laptop and reading glasses onto the table and ran back in to find my Keurig off and nothing in the mug I put there. Perplexed I started the process over and as I lifted the little silver handle on top to open and reshut it, all this water came pouring out. Needless to say, after several attempts I finally managed to get my coffee.

I think I may have to move my blog to more viewable waters.  Seems blogger here is a thing of the past. I will still blog here, as this really is more of an online journal for my kids to read when the good Lord calls me home. Memories of mine and their lives which only one of my children has the keys to open should anything happen to me.

That's a hard decision to make. Who gets the keys to the inheritance kingdom??

Is it the oldest? Or the youngest? Is it the child who lives closest or furthest away?  My mother already shared with me who gets the keys to the kingdom.  I told her when the time comes for the good Lord to call them home,  I would just like the Fiber Optic Christmas tree and It's a Wonderful Life set, I wil pay my respects and be on my way.  I am not going to fight over money, property or any material items.  If they wanna hash it out in court amongst themselves let them.They may not fight at all, but you think the most sane of families will never fight about a will/trust/estate only to find some of them lashing it out in probate court. for months or even years at a time.

 I will have a memory of my many Christmases at home that I can pass on to my daughter and whatever sons are left speaking to me at my time. 

I am blessed to not have those keys to the Estate Kingdom.
That is stress that I am not that blessed to tackle thank you.

I just saw my neighbor. The one who had the angry meltdown the other day. Prayer works wonders,she said hello to me. We made small talk and she went on her merry way with her cats I now refer to as thing one and thing two.

Getting back to estates, I miss going to estate sales with  my daughter.  She and I had a blast at those things. She found a piano instruction book from the1950's. And a turtle sitting on the toilet reading a paper knick knack. We laughed at that for days. I found a whole set of 2 mugs, 2 biscuit/cookie plates and dinner plates with a Christmas scenery on them for $4. I didn't use them this year, but i will use them this year I suppose.

I hear the hummingbird in the tree out here. I love the mornings on my patio the most.

I can hear the doves cooing, the hummingbirds humming with the robins and the sparrows and wrens. It's a variety of aviary friends I have here in the mornings.  I am heading back to work this week, so excited to see everyone, but I am going to miss watching and listening and talking to my feathered friends here.

I hear the dove now.  She must know I am talking about her.  She says hello I suppose.

Devin Dawson is on the tv right now. I am listening to the country music on Youtube. I love this guy's music. My favorite is Dan and Shay.  I was so upset when this stupid covid garbage started and the whole country was shut down. Not only was the country shut down....but so were my chances of  my daughter and I seeing Dan and Shay in concert at T-Mobile arena this October. It was going to be an early sweet sixteen gift to my daughter(her birthday is a month after).

Well, I suppose I will go for now.

Need to start another blog elsewhere as well as maintain this one for the sake of my children.

Have a blessed week.

2 John 3: Beloved I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.

(I saw this verse on someone's license plate...love it!)

Quarantine....Stuck Inside The Same Old Scene

Well this has been a most entertaining ride to say the least these past two  months.

We've gone from "time to get up for work and school," to "What am I going to wear to church this morning??....My Christmas peguin night shirt or my leggings and a tee?"

This whole quarantine thing has been crazy. I am glad we are getting back to "somewhat normal" around these parts. I have always said normal is overrated, but in this case I will take some normal back for the sake of my sanity.


I am sitting out on my patio. I just went to Lowe's yesterday with my daughter and we picked up a few more arrangements to put out here. It looks really nice. Although I do wonder how long these plants will last considering the great oven is about to open, with temps reaching 107 next week.

I hate the heat.
I hate the desert.

It's okay though, this lovely apartment I have and the nice floral arrangement out here make me not hate it so much. It's bearable.  I like my neighbors. I like my job, I like most, if not all of the people I work with.  There are some who have some personality quirks or some differences of opinion, but who doesn't have some quirks that make them utterly unique? Right?

Let's see what has been going on.

First as you can tell, I finally got the internet.  After 6 years of not having it, I finally paid the 200 bucks I owed them(which I shouldn't have had to owe them to begin with, that's a blog for another day) to turn it on against my will. I lived fine without it, but I needed it not only for my daughter's schoolwork, but also for MY work, because while we were on quarantine over here we had home work to do. Literally. Work we did from home in the form of books on liberty, and freedom and rights. I loved reading them, except a pamphlet called "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine. And another book I cannot remember the title (that's how much I "loved" it) who had authors whom I could not get into their style of writing. No matter how hard I tried, or how hard I tried to reread each paragraph I just couldn't get into what they were saying.

But I managed to understand it enough to answer the questions in each study guide given to us every week and do the work that needed to be done, to earn the check they so graciously gave us during this time of uncertainty and chaos. I thank God for this job every day. I do. I thank God in conversation with my friends and family, and in prayer and reflection.

These have been trying times for many folks.
Including my neighbor.
I won't go into detail, but I can tell the stress has gotten to her, and I just continue to pray for her in the hopes that she gets her unemployment check soon. Because this poor woman is scared. She has anxiety.  And she is having some issues with the lack of funds and available opportunities to do what she likes to do like visit friends and go out to eat and just live her best life.

She just wants her normal back.  😊

I just figured out I have an emoji keyboard on this thing. i  found it on accident actually. Then had to Google how I got it to pop up.

HOW COOL IS THAT?!!!😎👍

During quarantine, pre-internet time that is, my daughter and I tried so hard to keep our sanity we did our best to entertain one another. We did pretty good, and the first 3 weeks we did fairly well actually and enjoyed this little work/school sabbatical. By week four though, it wasn't that much fun anymore. We played Uno, Battleship, Sorry and Mille Bornes(awesome game, Love it for game nights). We baked, we took walks to the mailbox and walks to the local grocery store down the street.

Our big field trip during quarantine was the trip to the grocery store and our favorite game was "Where's the toilet paper?" A more intriguing version of Where's Waldo? only with looking for the Cartoon Charmin Bear Family instead of Waldo. And then of course there is our major event....the trip of all trips.....to the Las Vegas Strip....an eerie, reality-inducing sight to see of what quarantine has really done to the economy.

I hate driving to the strip.  Tourists are not my friends. Signs with Scantily clad women on the sides of big trucks and taxi-cabs are not my friends and Strip Drivers, especially at night, most definitely are not my friends.

But this trip was something my daughter wanted to do, as did I.

I knew there would be minimal traffic, minimal people at best on a bike or two perhaps.  I wasn't prepared for this though. It really was an eerie sight.  Like something out of War oof the Worlds or some post-apocolyptic movie.

Strange.

This wasn't what I expected to see. My daughter took this picture. Because, as you obviously can figure out, one of us had to drive.

We also took a trip to a local park out here.

Let me tell you this story.

I am deathly afraid of heights. However, this local park nearby has a small mountain that people hike on from time to time. I have also seen coyotes and other wildlife at this park early in the morning and late at night. It's really beautiful here. I had tried to climb this mountain several years ago when my middle men graced us with their beautiful presence for 4 days. I had somewhat of a panic attack trying to climb this mountain and two weeks ago, I was determined to do my best to get to the top of that stupid thing.

Here is a view from how far I managed to get:

Breathtaking!

With my daughter at my side we trudged up the trail in the 95+ degree temps that day.  I had my bottle of water and my shades and I was feeling brave. My daughter grabbed my arm as we made it close to the top of the mountain when all of a sudden, ....out of nowhere.....my body began to shake...and then freeze. I felt like I was going to fall backwards on the steep incline of that mountain.  I couldn't move.

I tried.

I truly tried.

I wanted to do it.

My daughter told me to sit. So I sat. A couple passed us by going up and I smiled and took a drink of my water. My daughter stood nearby and I almost cried because I was so mad at myself. I saw the people at the top enjoying the scenery and I saw the people on bikes and walking on their way up to where I sat. My leggings and palms were now covered with sand and I was still mad at myself for not completing this huge task I had set out for myself.

She helped me off the ground and we went home.

I felt defeated.

We would try again another day. Preferably before the oven-like temps set in for the summer.
I will wait for the next "cold front" to hit and then....we'll conquer it again.

https://dl.glitter-graphics.com/pub/926/926601do9y3g7tff.gif -- go to www.glitter-graphics.com
I have been dealing with a cough that simply won't go away.

It was REALLY REALLY bad in the beginning. I was sick the Thursday before quarantine. I had some stomach issues(which I will not share at the moment) that Thursday and Friday. I asked to leave work early, I showed up thinking I could leave around lunchtime, but I was told I had to stay. If I didn't love my job so much I probably would complain about that, but I survived the day and lived to tell about it plus complaining does nothing for anyone but make them (and the others around them I am sure) more miserable than they already feel.

Anyway....slight tangent there....it started with that flu-like thingy, and a low-grade fever(99.9 ) with a slight cough. I managed to make it home and into bed. I popped some DAYQUIL and hoped for the best.  Saturday I felt a wee-bit better and my daughter and I headed out for a bit for breakfast. But by Sunday it got worse, with a hacking cough that I couldn't stop. I was on the phone with my mom and she yelled at me to get into the doctor and get this cough fixed. I was crying so hard, because in all honesty I was scared.

My doc started me on Zpack and a prescription expectorant....then the following week it was Doxy....and it still wasn't gone, and I would start coughing and start choking. I threw up several times during the course of this mystery cough thingy. I choked a couple times while I stood over the toilet or the trash can in the middle of the night. And I was really scared because I was alone and I couldn't catch my breath. I had this post nasal drip going on and coughing up clear to light phlegm which doc said was good it wasn't green.  She prescribed Fluticasone thinking it was allergies and Claritin-D. I had an X-ray and I had more meds....she gave me an inhaler and this time a cough suppresant with codeine. I got a humidifier and cough drops like Halls to clear my nasal passages and soothe my throat.

Still couldn't get rid of this thing.

I don't know what THIS is.  It still gives me a scare. My daughter panicked one night two weeks ago. I had fallen asleep on the couch while my daughter and I were binging on Netflix. I woke up around 1 a.m.and could.....not.....catch....my......breath. She stared at me, and I could see the fear in her eyes...."MOM...ARE YOU OKAY?!!!MOM! MOM!!" I could feel my eyes getting wider and I was trying not to frighten her. I put my index finger up motioning for her to just wait a minute. I tried to breathe in but couldn't. My airway was blocked. I was getting mad and scared all at the same time. Finally, I tried to just push air out as hard as I could and it cleared my airway. I coughed and coughed and then got some water.

Turns out my cousin has had the same symptoms and she lives in Indiana and has had this thing since December. ENTs and Xrays and meds still can't cure her either. And she is coughing up green crap.

WHAT THE HECK?!!!

How can nobody fix this?

I stopped going to the doctor. I can't afford another Xray(or anymore meds for that matter)

I just pray that God heals this soon.  In His timing it will be better.

He gave me another day, to enjoy his beautiful blessings; the Robin's nest in the tree outside my patio, the cool winds I hear and feel each time they blow, the coffee I am drinking with a little bit of FALL inside it in the form of Pumpkin Spice, the company of my daughter who is healthy and makes me laugh....and most importantly....a cough that didn't killl me.

Some people didn't have that luxury thiese past few months.
So I truly DO count my blessings, every....single....day.

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God."-Phillipians 4:6

Found this Post Just Laying Around My Drafts

I am just sitting here waiting on my daughter to finish her homework.  Then we are going to play some pool.

And of course, I will probably not win, but that's okay.

Not much going on here these days. Just trying to get to the holidays. I can't wait to put up our tree. November 16 that glowing green piece of happiness will adorn my living room window.  I can't wait! It can't come soon enough.

Was hoping to have some special people here for the holidays, but God apparently has other plans instead.

Acceptance is hard.

Making plans for your future and having them blow up in your face is even harder.

You think life is going to go one way, you think that God has a specific plan for you and then out of nowhere he throws you a big curve ball.

It stinks, but it's reality.

There are lessons to learn, failures to overcome and faith to hang onto.

It...isn't....fun.

NOT...ONE...BIT!!!!

But I am hanging in there for the sake of my sanity.

And the welfare of my daughter. I need to be strong.

I cry when she isn't there. I cry in the shower, or in the car after I drop her off at school with her brothers.

This is just a season.

This will pass. It feels like it may never pass, but I know it will.

And when it does pass I will look back and see the hand of God in all of this.

Thank God for my faith.

Until next time.....

Psalm 37:4

All Things Randomly Written Here

I am happy to be back here.

It's been a while.

I am still waiting for my own internet, but for now it's when I have friends or opportunities at coffee shops to log on here.

It's been a week for me. It's been one heck of  a month.

Heck it's been one heck of a year for me.
Through it all, however, and by God's grace and strength, I am still standing.

I have managed to incur, in just one week a broken down car(thermostat gasket...pricey little bugger), the flu(or something like it), I smacked my head on the cabinet at work. I was washing paint brushes leaning over that preschool sized sink and when I stood up...forgot about those cabinets there above me....'SMACk!" went my head and I just wanted to go home at that point.

I broke my five-dollar reading glasses as I was talking to one of my student's parents at work. I spilled my coffee all over my kitchen counter on my way out the door to pick my kids up from their dad's and take them to school and me to work.  I had a 2 liter bottle of Coke explode on my counter and cabinet doors and floor.

Yay for the fun of  chaos to keep me on my toes and keep me awake throughout the day!


I have had much disappointment through the weeks and months here.

I have some things going on with my son and my grandbabies.  Things I cannot talk about right now, but I will say I have spoken to them on the phone and facetime and it's been a blessing despite the circumstances.

That is all I can share for now....until things are resolved regarding all of them.

But after many years I got to hear from all of them.

And it brought tears to my eyes to hear their precious voices and see their beautiful faces in photos and online.

God has been good regarding them and t heir welfare. Praise God for that.

My job is amazing.

I had a kid ask me on the playground if there was a baby in my belly, to which I replied, "Nope, I just like cake". *giggles*

I know I am a tad bit "fluffy " in the middle. I stress eat and with all the stress of late, I am surprised I am not 500 pounds. I will count my blessings here.

We have a Christmas program coming up soon. We have started to practice for that. I am so excited to be a part of that. It's fun. They make me cry every stinkin' year. No kidding.
Every spring program I need half a case of tissues for my nose an icepacks for my eyeballs they are swollen so badly from crying.

Hmmm.....cops are on the premises....this is a fairly nice neighborhood I live in now. I feel like
 a roving reporter with the latest news feed.

Not much of a reporter though.

Not sure what happened. I saw 2 squads on our way down here(my daughter and I) and the motor was running on one squad with no cop in the car and she says "why would they leave it running?"
I said "someone would be dumb to steal a squad" and she said "It's still dumb to leave it running".

I digress.

Your thoughts?

I really like the apartment. Been here a year and one month now.  Signed a 13 month lease I love it here so much.  It's quiet, the neighbors are absolutely the nicest.  If you stroll back to past posts say, oh, 18 months to 2 years ago from my previous residence, with the rats and roaches and the loud music and the smell of weed permeating 24/7 and cops and ICE outside in the neighborhood, this is definitely  Beverly Hills by far. (*giggles to self) Maybe not Beverly Hills but a lot nicer and homier than the last place I resided for 6 lonnnnnnng, intense years of mine and my kids lives.

Speaking of my kids lives, my boys are now sophomores and my daughter a freshman.

Where the heck did the time go?

My boys are on the varsity football team and yes, they DO play.
They are pretty darn good. The team is awesome too.

My daughter is she is proud to be a Science and Math geek. She wears that label loud and proud. She is reading some book by a guy named Bill Bryson. I think that's his  name.

My 19 year old is still obsessed with tornadoes and roller coasters. I love that kid. I enjoy our phone conversations a lot. He cracks me up.

My 20 year old is in a band. He plays drums. He is pretty good. The band is good too, but I love watching him on video playing those drums.

My 24 year old is really doing well with his music. He raps. I am not a fan of rap, but his is amazing. I had friends and coworkers listen and they all agree, he's got a gift.

And lastly, my 27 year old, I pray for him the most out of all my kids and grandkids.  He is such a blessing but right now is finding his way home.  I have faith and know that one day, he will be a God story and will share his life with someone to help them too.

All of us have had a mess we can turn into a message.  Some messes are bigger some are smaller, but not one soul on this earth is exempt from messes.
Period.

So that's it for now.

Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

It's my therapy.

Oh and I'm writing a book.

I'll keep you posted.  I'm not a famous blogger but I hope to be semi-famous as a book author some day.

Have a great day!!!

Psalm 41:10

Random Ramblings Post ....Because I Can

I am so happy that I can blog again.

Although it isn't as often as I would like, I will take what I can get where blogging is concerned.

This past month has been a nightmare.  All I know is I am so happy that the good Lord got me through it all.

We had some interesting moments though, my daughter and I.

It started when we were at Target.
We were admiring the St . Patty's Day outfits they were selling; one in particular caught our eyes. It was a top of a leprechaun shirt, beneath the shirt was a pair of long pants with clovers all over them.
We were laughing hysterically at the outfit when all of a sudden some random guy comes, literally out of nowhere from behind the racks, and says "You should buy the pants and she should get the top!"

We were cracking up at this guy.

We left the men's department and headed to the make-up aisle, then to electronics and toys and we walked back past the men's department where the leprechaun outfits were and I kid you not that man, once again, pops out of nowhere and says to us, "Last chance!"

My daughter and I looked at each other and just burst...out...laughing.
Non-stop laughter, the kind that makes ya pee your pants(almost for me anyway).
I then asked my daughter, "Wasn't he wearing a different shirt before?"  We both burst into laughter as my daughter is nodding at me in agreement.

Yeah, it's a "You had to be there Moment".

There was just a weird vibe these past few weeks; at work, at home, on the road, at church.
Weird.

I remember asking a coworker of mine if anyone in our admin office seemed different.  I told her it was weird asking her that but I felt like I was talking to these people I knew and loved the past 3-6 years of my employment there and they were taken over by aliens or something.

Or maybe I was overtaken by an alien. Perhaps my brain was anyway.

*shrugs*

I got sick as a dog last week while volunteering at church. I only went in because the poor woman who runs the kids ministry has a low turnout of volunteers so I went in, looking and feeling like death. I got home from work that day, took a 40 minute nap, hoping whatever was making my stupid body feel like death would vanish.

No such luck.
I cried.
And I prayed...that I would be able to go home early. No babies, no need for me to be there.
I got to church and the pastor wanted to give me a hug, the director wanted to hug me and I held my ginger ale in the pocket of my coat, hands inside there as well and flinched as I said to them both, "I'm sick, please don't come near me."

The pastor then mouths in my direction, "Why are you here? Go home."
I stayed.
I barely made it.
I was white as a ghost and felt just as cold.

I was on my way out the door when I knew I wasn't going to make it home.
Made a pit stop to the bathroom.
Tinkled.
Washed my hands.
Saw an older woman who is a very dear acquaintance/friend of mine and she says to me "You don't look so good. You look pale."
I said to her, "I'm sick."
She proceeds to tell me all about her hubby's sickness and before she could finish, I say "I am so sorry but I am about to be sick," and quick as I could I ran to the stall.

You can figure the rest.
No need to go there.
As  I was up and exit the bathroom I start to walk towards the lobby and there, standing staring at me is the church secretary, my friend, and the husband of another friend of mine.  He says to me, "Are  you okay?"
(I am embarrassed at this point, but touched by all of their concern)
I respond with a smile and a nod and say "I just got sick, but I will be fine."

I was shaking and probably more pale than I was when I entered the bathroom. To be honest, I just wanted a warm bed and some Gatorade.

I touched my friend's arm and thanked her for her concern.  I  told my friend's hubby that I would be okay.

Apparently nobody believed me because as I unlocked my car door, he comes out and says to me, "Hey Barb! I can arrange for someone to drive your car home and I will drive you home."(I live like literally ten minutes away)

"NO thank you, I just want to go home. Thanks anyway."
Again he asks just to make sure; I nod, smile and thank him again.

God bless my brothers and sisters in Christ.

I love my church family.

I should go.

Have a few other blogs to work on.

I want to post a song I really love first though.

If I remember how to do this.

Until next time.....(oh, big news coming soon btw) ;)

Psalm 91

I MADE IT!!!!!!!

Hello World!!!

I am back....if only for a moment.
I had a really weird week.  For starters, I have been having really weird dreams lately.

They involve...of all things...…

BABIES!!!!

Everyday this week I have dreamt of babies:

-Holding a baby

-Soothing a baby

...and the scariest of all(not the actual dream just the notion of this happening)...me being pregnant and feeling the baby moving.  No joke I actually FELT this "baby" move in my "stomach" in my dream. It was so weird I "felt" an elbow or something moving....

….then I woke up.

Oh my goodness!!! I hit some button on this chromebook and yes I spelled that wrong but if I go back to correct it I will be here for four hours typing two paragraphs of blogging.  So anyway, I hit that stupid button and it scared the crap out of me because it highlighted my words in yellow and blue and some "computer man voice"  was reading my blog.

My daughter is here with me and I have two little friends who are coloring with us here. I did a sketch.  I would share it with you however, I am afraid if I tried to take a pic with this and post it I would send it to someone in Poland or the arctic.

I accidentally spit on my screen here and my daughter was laughing at me because I went to wipe the tiny spittle off my screen with my thumb and I moved the whole page to the left and was like "whoa cowgirl! where'd it go?"

I figured it out.

Back to the baby dreams....
probably due to the meds I am on...
because last week....
I fell....
BAM!!!!
FLAT!!!!
FLOOR MEET BARB!!!

Yes....
I fell at work.
In front of five students, my co-teacher and a parent.

Missed a day of work.
Barely made my ladies bible study on Friday...she had no stairs so I made it work.
Made church on Sunday.

And tried to work the rest of this week from Monday on without being a big baby about it.
My neighbor teacher next door yelling at me to be a baby and stay off my leg another few days.

I didn't listen.

I survived!!!

I am a child of  God!!!!(my favorite song)

Anyway....I am gonna go before I throw this Chromebook through the window and scare the children.  Who puts the mouse thingy right where you are supposed to rest your wrists???

Insanity  I tell you.

Anyway....thanks for reading.

Be back in two weeks.....

Psalm 27