Totally Random Musings

It's been over a week since I logged on to share.  We've been fighting illnesses again.  I was down last week, finally feeling a little better by Sunday evening.  But then Jim started feeling bad on Sunday afternoon.  He's still home with a low grade fever and just overall tired feeling.  If you think of him in the next few days, please say a little prayer for his healing.  He has been running on fumes for months and I think it has all just caught up with him.

I was wondering what to post today, even whether to post today, and then I remembered a 'note' I started on my phone last week of just random quotes and things that piqued my interest.  I thought I would share some of those here in this space.

We were talking around the dinner table last weekend about shopping at Big Box Stores and which were our favorites.  We were specifically talking about our preferences for Lowe's or Home Depot.  Jim and I both prefer Lowe's.  Derrick and Josh both looked at us baffled and said they preferred Home Depot.  On Monday I saw an online article titled "When Do You Outgrow IKEA?"  On a whim, I clicked over to read it.  One reason is that Jim and I just replaced our Ikea bedroom (purchased in 2007) with a 'real bed' from Rooms To Go.  In that article they reported the peak customer age for several Big Box Stores including Home Depot (age 48) and Lowe's (age 54).  Now we know why they prefer the one we stay out of if at all possible!    It was an interesting read, and I found that Jim and I should have bought our bedroom suit from Ashley Furniture (age 54) instead of Rooms to Go (age 47).  Wait, I'm not 54 yet so we are still good!  [By the way, we were way past the IKEA age of 24 when we purchased our last bedroom set -- but I attribute it to the fact that we were also buying three other beds for the kids rooms.]

Kelli, Matt, Bri, Josh and their families came over last Friday to celebrate the February birthdays.  This birthday boy turned 8 the next day.

Maddux enjoying the last bite of his mostly melted by then ice cream cake! Silly boy!

Kelli brought Meagan a delicious 'no added sugar' strawberry cheesecake.  Yum. 

I heard an interesting little 'blurb' on the Happier podcast (#103) last week that perked up my ears and made me think.  Mostly because I am highly susceptible to this in my own life.  They were answering a question from a listener who wanted to know how to avoid the pang she feels when she is around babies or pregnant women while she is battling fertility issues.  One of them referred to the 'compare and despair cycle.'  This struck a chord with me as I realized that so often my comparing myself to others really does lead me to despair.  Yes, I sometimes compare to feel better about myself (not proud of that admission, just keeping it real) but 85% of the time it is a comparison that I am going to lose.  There are always people who are better at things than I am.  I especially struggle with women who are thinner than I am, who are better educated, who are better at keeping a home/decorating/making meals than I am, or who never seem to struggle with keeping balance in their lives like I do.  Compare & despair are certainly a cycle with me.  Now that it's been named, I need the Lord to do some healing in this area. 

I was catching up on podcasts last week and came across this quote from Revive Our Hearts dated January 25.  Karen Loritts shared this while talking about forgiveness among girlfriends.  "Forgiveness takes one, reconciliation takes two."  I often have people ask me how they can forgive and let others back into their lives after some real hurts.  This was such a succinct way of remembering that there is a difference between forgiveness and reconciliation.  We are commanded to forgive.  Believe me, I've struggled with this often in my life but the truth is that Jesus commands it (Luke 17, Mark 11 and others).  And yes, 'as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.' (Romans 12:18)  But sometimes it doesn't just depend on us.  We can forgive, but the reconciliation doesn't always come.

In light of a New Members Class that I'm involved in, I saw a short poem on Pinterest that led me to investigate whether or not it is true that a group of alligators is called a congregation.  It was!  I find it kind of funny in light of that class which we will repeat once a quarter.  I may use this for our opening session in April as an icebreaker.  "A congregation of alligators - a congregation refers to a group of alligators, where the smaller alligators are compliant to the biggest, most dominant alligator."  That just makes me smile a little bit.

And finally, just a sweet reminder from another Revive Our Hearts podcast:
We, as women, need heart connections. 
I need you.  I enjoy hearing from you.  I am thankful for your friendships.

Thanks for listening to my ramblings today!