I have to say that this is ANOTHER good prompt for Sunday Scribblings, even if I am a bit late getting it done!

Courage….what is courage?  Courage, to me, is ALOT of different things, depending upon the circumstances.

Sometimes, every day, ordinary people show more courage than is expected by overcoming situations that would have otherwise paralyzed them.  Fear is a BIG paralyzer that makes some people freeze and NOT do alot of the things that they would normally do if they weren’t afraid.  What are people going to think of me if they know I use an acne treatment?  What if they find out I have cancer?  What if they find out that I’m not as great a person as they THINK I am?  What if they meet my parents?  Oh, that’s a BIG turn-off for some people!

This entry is to celebrate some of the every day heros that are often overlooked….single parents….that nurse who REALLY loves her job…..the cancer and other disease survivors….the people who overcome their fears to do what THEY want to do, except for what Satan (the king of fear) wants them to do…..the people behind the scenes who grow our food, make our electricity, pump our water, protect the public…..Pastors and Preachers who are anointed by God because they are where they are SUPPOSED to be.

Take time out from your day and see if you know an ordinary human being who is a hero of some sort….and then go over and tell them…”GOOD JOB!!”

God Bless!!!

It seems like it’s been a LONG week and should be at least Friday by now!!!  Of course, it doesn’t help that I’ve been running all week either!!  Not sure if I’m running tomorrow or not, job-wise, but have a couple of different engagements to attend,  so may decide to bow out on the job for tomorrow.  Will see what morning brings, I think.  Maybe I’ll be recuperated and ready to go again?

Haven’t had much time at home this week, but have gotten some things done here, as well.

I had hands on a little filly that’s about 18 months old (from what we are told) yesterday and the day before.  This is the FIRST time this filly, which we affectionately named Pheline, has had someone touch her, from what we’ve been told.  Pheline has JUST enough curiosity in her that she has gotten a bit of courage and just a TAD of trust towards humans over the last 6 months or so since we’ve lived here.  I have been watching her over the last few months, as she has been getting closer and closer when I have been out at their stall.  (She is still in the same “run” that she was born in with her Mother, H.B. Alice, though that “run” has increased dramatically in size over the last few weeks!!)  The day before yesterday, I was feeding Alice and Pheline a bit of grain, and Pheline came close enough to let me feel her breath on my hand.  I stretched my fingers out (of course, she is doing this from as far away as possible), and she sniffed my fingers and barely rubbed her nose against them.  LAST night, though, I was just standing out there talking to them from outside their gate, and both Alice and Pheline came up and was standing there.  Pheline stepped closer and was sniffing my arm.  When she pulled her head back slightly, I VERY slowly extended my hand out towards her.  She again sniffed my hand and bumped my fingertips with her nose.  She didn’t pull back any farther than she was already, so when she moved her head to the side slightly so that she wasn’t touching my hand anymore, I ever-so-slowly matched her movements with my hand.  I then intentionally touched her nostrils as she moved her head a bit more to the side.  She didn’t bolt…she didn’t back up…she didn’t even lay her ears back at me!!  This is a BIG step for this little filly!!!  A few more days of that, I think, in between rain storms, and I will have hands all over her and I SHOULD be able to move towards her to pet her, if only to her forehead to start!!!  It has been a LONG 6 months or so with these two horses…..such pretty girls and SOOOOO close, yet SOOOOOO far away right now because of their “history” which has seemed to have made them “untouchable”…at least until we moved here.  I didn’t get to go out this evening to see if I could touch her again because it started raining JUST as we hit the house after school.  I didn’t even get to the mailbox from the driveway before it started raining.  But there IS tomorrow!!!  As for H.B. Alice, well, she is going to take a bit more time and patience, but she, also, has come a LONG way since we moved in!!!  No longer does she lay her ears back whenever anyone comes near her or her “run”.  No longer does she try to grab hay out of our hands when we are trying to throw it in to her!!  No longer does she go to the other end of the “run” when people come near!!  And no longer does she try to “protect” Pheline from us!!!  It’s amazing what a difference of attitude towards a horse can produce sometimes!!!

I got the final panel put up on what was going to be our “third run” which is now our “second run”.  I took the gate that was between the two runs down, such as it was, on Monday and let Pheline and Alice in there to munch what little grass there was.  That was Pheline’s first taste of grass that she didn’t have to push her nose under the fence to get too!  And Lord only knows when Alice had a taste of grass that she didn’t have to get through the fence!!  They BOTH seemed to enjoy the extra room!!  Now, my “round pen” is all set, except for a different gate between the two pens!!!  Now all I need to do is get the weather and the schedule to cooperate and I will have hands on Miss Alice!!!  One step at a time!!!  This next week, if I’m not working on a remodelling project, I SHOULD have a couple of days to work with Alice AND to ride at least one of the others that are in our pasture!!!  I’m kind of getting an itch to be back in the saddle, which is probably a GOOD thing, considering the number of horses I have lined up to work with throughout the Spring!!!  But, I have to get Alice and Pheline to where I can move them around in the pens, if need be, so I can have my “round corral” to work these other horses if I need it.  That, in itself, has kind of moved Alice and Pheline to the TOP of the list….at least to get halters and such on!!

Other than that, not much going on here….as if that’s not enough!!!  It’s about time for bed, me thinks, since it’s raining and windy outside again tonight.

You all have a BLESSED rest-of-the-week!!!

After a LONG day of earning money, I HAVE to say that I am GLAD that I’m just finishing things up here at home, for the most part, and it’s about bedtime!!  It wasn’t a bad day….just a LONG one, and tomorrow promises to be just about as long.

Read Luke 21-24 early this morning to try to get more morning off to a decent start.

About an hour after that, I started earning money, and looking at my other prospects for the end of the week.  All this while I was cooking dinner this afternoon, getting some of my stories found and into a format that will open on my newest computer, and playing with my son, too!!

But now I think it’s about time to say “God Bless” and ya’ll have a GOOD night!!!

Ahhhh, what a prompt for this week!!!  So many different directions I could go with this entry!!!

I guess the fact that a friend of mine is in the process of making some of MY “big dreams” come true is a good way to go today!!!

I have ALWAYS wanted to live out in the country and train horses.  I always imagined that they were mine, and we aren’t QUITE to that point yet, but I can see it happening in the next 2 or 3 years, at the MOST, if we so desire it.  Granted, I don’t think I ever imagined starting out like we are now….stalls and pens and buildings needing cleaned out….weeds needing pulled (like the ones that I was pulling last Fall that were taller than I am)….pasture in pretty sad shape, grass-wise….buildings needing lights and repairs and such….NASTY trees needing cut before they take over the rest of the pasture….  But you know what?  I wouldn’t trade ANY of the last 6 months or so for the world!!!  Even WITH all of the hard work that we’ve done…and are CONTINUING to do with the Spring-like weather coming!!!  Granted, it may get to a point, this Spring, where it’s going to be a question of whether we will EVER get the place cleaned up like we want it, but I think it will be worth it.  That’s kind of like the last two days of warm weather….I took it upon myself the day before yesterday when I was out screwing around in one of the pens to take down some hog panels (a fence separating two of our runs), and dump a water trough that Lord only knows when it was dumped and cleaned last.  Well, I got it done.  Yesterday, since I had already started taking down the hog panels, I figured I might as well take the rest of them down.  So I did that, and pulled one of the posts out of the ground and filled in the hole.  I was on a role…the weather was NICE….and Lord knows that there is ALOT to do outside, including cleaning out the runs/stalls, so I grabbed a shovel and started shovelling manure over the fence.  It’s too muddy to get the wheel barrow out into the back pasture when it’s loaded, so I just started throwing manure over the fence, deciding that I could move it further out into the pasture at a later date….at the least stalls/runs would have a START towards being cleaned out.  I was out there for probably 3 hours or so…..shovelling manure over the fence almost the entire time.  I didn’t think about how much there was to do….I just kept shovelling…thinking about one shovel-full at a time.  Today was just about the same way, though I ache JUST a little bit from yesterday.  I grabbed a shovel and started shovelling again….for about another 3 hours today.  Would you believe there is concrete down about 6 inches in places out there?  I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself.  I am HOPING that I can work on it some more tomorrow.  I actually got started in the stall area on one side today!!!!  Only 15,000,000 more shovel fulls to go in that one stall!!!  Shovelling sh*t is her “big dream”, you ask?  Well, let me put it THIS way….in a way…YES!!!  It gets me outside…and close to horses (which, with the two that are in our front run area, close is about all you are going to manage at THIS point), and it’s improving the living conditions for these two horses!!!  What can I say?  Achy muscles that aren’t used to being used….sore hands and joints….and a BIG pile of sh*t works for me!!!!

On a more private note, we had one of our ducks eaten by…something….the day before yesterday.  We suspect it was a coyote, but we aren’t sure….the possibilities are endless as to the possible varmits out here…..We are exploring the possibilities as to “varmit” control.

God Bless!!!

I went to church last night and was looking around at the “literature” that they had put out since the LAST time I’d been there, and I found a little booklet FULL of poems and stories…so, of course, thinking that I might find some inspiration in it, I picked one up.  MUCH to my pleasant surprise, I found ALOT of encourage and inspiration in it.  The following is one of the stories in it, sent in by one of the readers.  I hope it makes you stop and think like it did me!!

I dreamt that I saw Jesus the other night!  As a crowd began to gather, Jesus singled out one particular man.

This fellow was nicely dressed in a blue golf shirt.  He stood in amazement before the Lord.

“Do you remember the toolbox I gave you years ago?” Jesus asked him.

The man nodded.  (Perhaps he was too stunned to speak.  I would have been.)

“Do you still have it?”

The man nodded again.

“May I see it?”  Jesus’ voice echoed with majesty, yet it was kind.

“I, I don’t have it with me,” the man said.  “It’s at home.”

“Would it be OK,” Jesus asked, “if I sent a messenger for it?”

“Sure,” the man said.

The Lord flicked His wrist and an angel appeared.

“In my closet,” the man said.  “Top shelf.”  With a beat of his wings, the angel sped off quick as a hummingbird.

Someone brought Jesus a chair.  He smiled and sat, then raised His gaze to someone standing near me at the back of the crowd.  He summoned that man.

That man looked shocked.  He ran his fingers through his hair then wiped his dirty hands on his gray-striped shirt and blue work pants.  I wondered if he was wiping off grease or nervous sweat.  Maybe both.

“I see you still have the toolbox I gave you,” Jesus said.

The man nodded.

“May I see it?” Jesus asked softly.

The man stooped down and picked up an old metal box, dented and scratched.  He moved to the front of the crowd, next to the first man in the blue golf shirt.  He held his toolbox out in both hands, trembling, offering it to the Lord.  Jesus motioned for him to set it down.

“Please open it,” Jesus said.

The man knelt, unhooked the toolbox latches, and flipped open the lid with the skill of fingers that had done so ten thousand times.  He lifted out the removable tray and set it next to the box.  He pulled open the bottom drawer.

Like others in the crowd, I stretched to see inside the box.  An assortment of ordinary looking tools lay there.  They appeared as beaten and battered as the box.

The Lord looked them over.  Pointing to a tool, He asked, “What happened to this one?”

“I use it alot,” the man replied.  “About wore it out, I guess.  But I’ve helped a lot of people with it.”

“And this one?” Jesus asked, pointing to another tool.

“It’s a good tool, found a lot of uses for it.  I guess You can tell,” he said a little sheepishly.  “Just this morning I used that tool to help a good ol’ boy get on his way again.  Didn’t take much.”

Jesus smiled.  His finger picked up greasy dirt as He ran it over the tools in the drawer, but He seemed to think nothing of it.  His gaze moved to the tools in the removable shelf.  “What happened to this one?” He asked.

The man slowly reached for the tool and tenderly lifted it with both hands.  “Broke it,” he admitted.  “Came across a woman and children in distress.  I didn’t have the right tool for the job needin’ to be done, so I used what I had, tryin’ to make do with this.  I got the job done, but I broke it tryin’.  No matter.  Important thing is I helped her get back on track again.”

Jesus nodded, though he didn’t say anything.

“Too bad.  It was a useful tool,” the man said.  “Was my favorite.”

A commotion at the back of the crowd drew my attention.  The angel strode through the drowd carrying a bright, shiny red box which he placed in front of the man in the blue golf shirt at the feet of Jesus.

Jesus looked it over.  The man quickly unhooked the latches, opened the lid, lifted out the removable shelf and opened the lower drawer.  That’s when it hit me.  The other man’s beat-up box had been identical to this one when it was new.

The Lord looked over the tools.  Laying in neat rows they appeared to be in perfect condition.  Just like new.

Jesus glanced at the end of His finger–the one He had run over the well used tools belonging to the other man.  He reached down and ran it over the sparkling tools in the shiny box, leaving a greasy print on one tool.  When He had inspected them, His gaze met the eager eyes of the first man.  “They hardly look used,” He said.

“Oh, I didn’t want anything to happen to the beautiful gift Your gave me,” the man said.  “I kept mine nice.”

Jesus rested His elbows on His knees and nodded thoughtfully.  He reached down and put the tray of the first man’s shiny toolbox back in it’s place, pushed shut the drawer, and latched the lid.  Grasping the handle, He moved the like-new toolbox beside His chair close to His foot.

Jesus motioned an angel to His side then whispered some instructions.  In a flurry of wings, several angels scattered, flying off in different directions.  Within moments, the angels began bringing shiny new tools.  They presented them to the second man.  Worn, broken tools were replaced and several new ones were added.  Then an angel arrived with a new shiny toolbox–much bigger than the old one.  The man looked up like a little boy who had just received all he had ever dreamed of for Christmas.

When the flurry of activity subsided, Jesus looked at the man in the golf shirt.  He reached down, patted that man’s shiny box, and said gently, “I know someone else who might use these.”

Then He turned His attention to the second man.  I had been watching him.  He had not only inspected each beautiful new tool, he was also gathering every dirty tool from his old box that wasn’t broken or worn beyond use and was trying to make them all fit into the new box.

Jesus laid one forearm across His knees and leaned in close to the second man.  When the second man realized this, he paused in his work and peered up into the face of the Lord.

Jesus’ eyes glistened as He looked the second man directly in the eyes.  He leaned in closer still.  Then, barely above a whisper, He simply said, “Well done!”

Diane Butts writes from Pueblo, Colorado

And I think THAT is one story that I am going to HAVE to do another entry with MY thoughts on!!!

Hope you enjoyed it!!!

God Bless!!!

Okay, I’m not sure here, but there seems to be a trend forming for Sunday Scribblings.  This week, it is “When Pigs Fly” and last week was “Ethics”.

You’ve heard the joke that’s been going around about the President and the swine flu, haven’t you?  “When pigs fly, we’ll have a black President.”  That’s why we had a run of swine flu this year, or so the jokesters say.

When I read the prompt for this week and last week, I immediately thought about the political world.  Interesting, huh?

I think people need to be more careful about their words and how they say things.  People say “When hell freezes over” and such lines a little too often for my liking sometimes.  I’m sure there ARE things that will probably never happen, but then again, there ARE some things that will happen sometime in the future.  Back a few years when they were making science fiction movies like “Demolition Man” and such, people would say that “Hell will freeze over before we have voice activated lights” and such.  Guess what, people….that day is JUST about here.  They are getting the voice activated items more and more sensitive and more and more intricate.  A few more years, and voice activated lights and so forth will start becoming a “standard”, I think.

Have a GOOD weekend and God Bless!!!

Message…..BOY!!!  That’s a broad category in this day and age!!!  Give us something to write about why don’t you?

Hmmmmmmmmm….*thinking*….message….

When I think of “message”, the first thing that comes to mind is ALL of the different kinds of messages that are in our lives these days.  We, as the general public, have been bombarded by them in EVERY form imagineable.  There are text messages, e-mail messages, voice messages….messages on billboards, in newspapers and on television and radio….messages in our mailbox…on our bills….on our bank website….and that is just the TIP of the iceberg on the sources of these messages.  These messages have advertising, business news, job news, jokes, bills and pictures…..we receive “nasty-grams” from the bill collectors if we’re late…we receive invitations to birthdays and weddings and anniversaries, as well as funerals….My, my, my….SOOOOOOO many messages to talk about!!!  Maybe I’ll do some more later!!!

Have a blessed weekend!!!

Ahhhhh, what a prompt this week…..milestone!!!  ALL of us have ALOT of milestones in our lives, so it’s difficult to talk about just one.  Forgive me if I talk about NUMEROUS ones!!!

I guess the biggest milestone I can think of right now is that I am working on some important personal issues, and I have come further than I ever figured that I would….with the help of a couple of VERY important people in my life!!  THANK YOU to both of you, for taking a chance to be friends with me…..AND for being there when I need you!!!

Another milestone that we are working on is being COMPLETELY debt free!!!  It will take a couple of months, and it will require some sacrifices on our parts, but it WILL be worth it in the long run!!  I have never really experienced being debt free, except for before I got married and incurred debt, but I am SOOOOOOO looking forward to seeing how it feels!!!  Needless to say, it means working more hours, and another job or two, more than likely, but in a few months, we will actually SEE our progress!!!

One of my other personal milestones is going to be accomplished over the next few months, as well, and that would be the fact that I can actually get PAID to work with horses!!!  I’ve always figured I MIGHT be able too, but didn’t have the connections to.  Now, though, I DO have the connections, and WILL be taking advantage of them as SOON as the weather will cooperate just a little bit better!!!

Ahhhhhh, sooooo many to list!!!!  Sooooo many possibilities!!!  I might just have to do another entry to list some more!!!

God Bless!!!

Ahhhh, WHAT a prompt to write about!!!  The good, ol’ days, without internet….without television…without telephones, fax machines, and e-mail.  The good, ol’ days of being snowed in, and not worrying about being snowed in for a week, ’cause you knew all your neighbors were snowed in too.  The good, ol’ days of kids being outside playing whenever it was daylight and they weren’t in school, instead of sitting in front of the television or game system or computer for the national average of SEVERAL hours a day.  The good, ol’ days when families actually ate dinner together and played together and prayed together.  The good, ol’ days when husbands and wives actually spoke to each other instead of being on separate computers doing separate things.  The good, ol’ days when wives and/or mom’s actually COOKED dinner and their “goodies” from scratch.  The good, ol’ days when “thank you” wasn’t a foreign word in our vocabulary.

What a wonderful prompt!!
God Bless!!!

This could be an interesting prompt to write about…..adventures.  It seems that EVERY day is an adventure around our house.  That’s probably because, even though we have a loose “plan” for the day, they rarely seem to follow that plan for the WHOLE day.  Seems like there is ALWAYS something that’s not on the agenda, whether it be a horse getting out or getting hurt, or the weather, or maybe just people stopping by.

One of the BIGGEST “adventures” out here in our new house is probably learning WHICH critters are running around out here and how close.  We’ve been smelling skunk off and on for about the last couple of weeks.  At our other house, I can’t really say we had too many skunk visitors, but we SURE had possums and racoons!!  We have those out here too, I’m sure.  We have yet to see them, though.  Wouldn’t be surprised if we find a fox or two at some point either, and we KNOW we have coyotes in the neighborhood.  The other night, it sounded like they were howling from the middle of the dirt road that goes in front of our house!!!

The adventure that comes our way is God’s way, I guess, of keeping us from getting bored with life.  I CAN say one thing…..it’s NEVER boring around our house!!!

Blessings to all on this rainy Kansas morning!!!