And The Answer Is...

Yes.  The answer is yes.  I prayed about it, I have peace about it, and I can move forward in confidence.  A new season is starting.  A busy one, but I believe a happy, healthy, and productive one.

Back on Tuesday I posted about a job offer I received out of the blue.  My daughter's bosses, who are friends of mine, offered me an office assistant position at their tutoring school.  It was so unexpected that it caught me unprepared, and I told JM and MM that I needed time to pray and be sure that this was God's will for me.  That's what I've been doing, and what others have been doing for me as well.
I talked it over with my kids, breaking down the pros and cons of going back to work, even if it is part time.  To be completely honest, I was having trouble coming up with cons.  After all, the hours are from 3:00 - 8:15 pm, and since the school is 10 minutes from my house, I could leave at 2:45 and be there early. This would allow me to continue homeschooling my son E without any interruption.  The work week is Monday - Thursday, with all school holidays off.  I'd be working with my daughter and with people I've known for years and have always been close to.  They are devout Christians who don't just talk the talk, they walk the walk.  And let's face it, a little extra money coming in always helps :-).

The cons?  1) Having to learn time management all over again.  That shouldn't be a problem.  Truthfully speaking, I've become very comfortable (read: lazy).  I get up later and start school later because I can, not because I have to.  There's no reason why I can't get my butt in gear and get organized. 2) Leaving my son E at home while I go to work for 5 hours.  Okay, even I laughed at that one.  I used to leave my two older kids alone when they were 13 years old and I was gone from 7:45 am to 5:20 pm.  E is 15 years old, and he'd be alone for far less time: not only because I'd only be gone for 5 hours, but also his brother is here part of the time, either before he goes to work or after he comes back.  And again, he's 15!!  I can't treat him like a baby just because he's the youngest.  We all need to get over that.  This is probably the best way.

What ultimately convinced me that this was coming from God was a conversation MM had with my daughter A.  She told A that for months she's been praying about needing an assistant, and each time God brought me to her mind.  She started hearing people call out my name in stores and restaurants, and let's face it, Arlene is not a common name.  She didn't say anything for a long time because, as she said to me, "I wanted a sign.  A big bright neon sign from God telling me this was what He wanted."  When she finally told her husband what she was considering and praying about, he immediately said, "Let's call her and see if she'll take the position!"  I knew God wouldn't dangle a dream job in front of me, and put this so plainly in MM's heart, if He didn't mean it.  He isn't going to play games with us.  I felt sure that God's hands were all over this, and He gave me peace about it, so I called MM today and told her yes, I wanted to give this a go.  She was so thrilled she couldn't stop talking, which is very unlike her!  She kept telling me how she'd prayed and prayed and this was an answer to prayer.  It brought joy to my heart.

A little while later I went to Winn Dixie to pick up some groceries, since this is grocery week.  I found some great deals on meats, and was picking up some canned goods, when who do I run into but MM!  I know she lives close by, but I've never, and I mean never run into her at the grocery store, even though I've lived in the neighborhood almost 15 years and they've been here even longer.  When she saw me she couldn't stop laughing, and we hugged because we both felt it was confirmation from the Lord.  She even looked up and said, "Okay, Lord, I get it, I hear you!"  We feel so blessed, and I'm looking forward to what else God has in store for me.  

Let's see, what else has been going on?  Oh, this weekend Bare Escentuals has free shipping on all orders, and 25% off their Last Chance products (items that are on clearance).  I took a quick look and about jumped out of my chair.  A skincare set I'd been eyeing for months was on the Last Chance section: a kit containing their Purifying Facial Cleanser (which I use and is phenomenal), the Purely Nourishing Moisturizer for combination skin (also a great product that doesn't cause me to break out or itch), and what I wanted most of all, their Active Cell Renewal Night Serum.  I've used this several times when I've received samples, and I could see the difference in the texture of my skin.  This product is the best I've tried, but 1 ounce of it costs $50.  Ouch!  I had seen the skincare kit and was tempted to buy it: all three products together for $58 is an incredible deal, since the facial cleanser alone is $20 and the moisturizer is $28.  I kept putting it off in favor of other deals, but today I couldn't say no anymore.  With the 25% off I was getting the kit for $43.50!  I'm so glad I waited and didn't pay the full price for the kit.

A few days ago I went to Target with my daughter and picked up some nail polishes that were on clearance.  They're Revlon Perfumerie, and it claimed the nail polishes were scented.  I sniffed one in the store; to me it just smelled like nail polish, but the colors were so pretty, and they were $3.77 each, about half the regular price, so I got 3 of them, two for myself and a deep purple one for my daughter.  She did her nails the next day, and told me that once it started to dry it definitely had a really pretty scent.  I went ahead and gave myself a mani-pedi today using the color Moonlit Woods.  It's a purple with blue undertones, almost like a dark lavender blue.  Sure enough, as I was painting my nails I started to smell the perfume.  It's actually a lovely scent.  If you like perfume scents.  My nose doesn't.  I'm so upset, because I love the color, and I really do like the smell, but it's making my nose sore.  I hate that I have these stupid allergies to perfumes.  It's so not fair.

Wednesday night was movie night at Awana.  Pastor G brought the movie The Perfect Game, a true story set in the 1950's about racial discrimination.  Pastor said the movie was an hour and 17 minutes long, which was perfect.  We sat the kids down, gave them chips and Capri Suns, and sat down to watch the movie with them.  We were all getting into the story (once all the adults got over the fact that Cheech Marin plays a priest in the film), when parents started coming in to pick up the kids.  I was surprised; it was obvious the movie was not finishing any time soon.  Then we looked at the movie sleeve: the movie length was 117 minutes, not an hour and 17 minutes!  We all had a good laugh, even though we felt bad for the kids.  They didn't get to see the ending.  Sorry kids.  Just for reference: the Mexican kids won!

I want to say that yes, I kept away from my blog for the past few days as I meditated and prayed and waited on God's answer.  It was the right thing to do, but I do hope to continue updating my blog as this new adventure starts.  It's gonna be hectic at first, I'm sure, but I'm really looking forward to it.  And guess what?  My first day is Tuesday, because Monday is President's Day which is a school holiday!  It doesn't get much better than that!  Good night ya'll, and God bless.

Monday Musings

A new day, a new week.  A year ending and a new one beginning within days.  Change is in the air.  Some good, some not so pleasant...

I was so tired last night, I don't even remember what all I posted.  I'll probably go back and re-read it to see if there's any grammatical errors.  I'm somewhat of a grammar Nazi; I hate it when the English language gets butchered.  I want my blog to be as error free as possible.  I know that doesn't always happen - I've gone back and seen things misspelled and kicked myself for it.  But at least I try to do justice to my blog by writing properly.

One thing I didn't mention last night was my children's great-grandmother.  Great-grandma Maria is my children's great grandmother on their father's mother's side.  They have known her all their lives, and she babysat my two older kids when they were little tykes.  Despite health issues in the past, including colon cancer, she has rallied and come off her sickbed multiple times.  She is made of some sturdy material!  About a year and a half ago, her eldest daughter experienced complications during open heart surgery, and unexpectedly passed away.  She was in her mid 70's, not a young woman but to a mother she was still her child.  Grandma Maria's health began to steadily decline after that.  I think the heartache of losing her daughter was more devastating than any illness, including cancer.  Since April we have watched her deteriorate from an active, alert woman to a bed-ridden shadow of who she was.  I cannot express how sad it is to see her in this condition after knowing her for over 27 years as a strong, independent, caring human being.  She has always put the needs of others before her own, and she's been a loving wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and even great-great-grandmother.  Grandma Maria lives with her daughter and granddaughter, the cousin who came over to visit last night.  I asked how she was doing, and we were told that the priest had been called.  Grandma Maria has been a devout Catholic all her life, but it wasn't about religion with her.  She cares about people, and about serving.  What an awesome example of Christ she has been to her entire family!  At 94 years of age she is the family matriarch, having lost her husband 25 years ago.  We know the Lord will be taking her home soon, and it will be a bittersweet time for us.  She is so frail, so sick, that it pains everyone to see her suffer, but saying goodbye is a hard pill to swallow.  My prayer is simply that the Lord would take her in her sleep so she and her loved ones caring for her don't have to suffer further.  She has always tried to honor God with her life, and I know He will honor her integrity as well.

On to my day...I spent the morning cleaning the family room and dining room.  Our dog Molly spends a lot of time in the family room on the rug, or at the back door waiting to be let out, so that area gets filled with dog hair and drool.  I tried to get my Dyson vacuum cleaner fixed but I can't figure out what is wrong with it.  I'm gonna end up having to take it to get repaired.  I used our smaller vacuum but it takes longer because it isn't as powerful.  After cleaning up I started cooking for today:  baked ziti, french bread and a salad.  I have plenty of lettuce in the yard, so once the baked ziti was out of the oven I went out and cut off some lettuce leaves.  I brought them into the kitchen and threw them in the sink to wash.  As I was pulling the leaves apart, what should hop out of the sink (almost on my hand) but a little frog.  It was obviously hiding in the lettuce leaves looking for bugs.  I let out a scream, not because I'm afraid of frogs but because it caught me by surprise!  My boys jumped up to see what had caused the ruckus.  They just laughed, then R got a glass and picked it up off the kitchen back splash and took it outside.  I'm glad, because I didn't want it to stay inside the house.  Poor little critter would have died.

After lunch I took my son E to the bank to cash out his coin bank that he got from his dad for his birthday.  According to his dad there was about $180 that he had collected.  My son had a few coins that he added to it, and I gave him a few as well.  As we put them in the machine and watched the total go up, my son was getting more and more excited, hoping it would get up to $200.  Actually, the total came up to $223.45.  He said his face hurt from smiling so much.  This will be the money he uses to get the longboard he's been wanting.

Another gift my son got for his birthday was a new Nerf gun.  This one is a Zombie type, I guess for hunting them.  My son has a collection of Nerf guns, which he forgets he has until he gets a new one.  Then he and his brother start sneaking up on each other and everyone else, shooting them with Nerf guns.  Which is proof that men are just boys in big bodies.

I got some more floor cleaning done before it was time for dinner.  After I ate I proceeded to give myself a manicure with the new nail polishes my cousin gave me for my birthday.  The package says they're nail lacquers so they should last longer than regular polish.  We'll have to wait and see.  They are a set, one mauve/taupe kind of color called May Flowers, one vibrant baby pink called Gorgeous Gerbera and one rose gold top coat with glitter.  I used the mauve/taupe color on all but my ring fingers; on those I used the baby pink and put the glittery top coat on top.  It looks really cute and girly, maybe a bit too youthful but who cares?  They say you're as young as you feel, and I feel like I'm still in my 30's.  Most days.  Some of the time.  Okay maybe closer to my 40's but still, that's younger than I am now.

Other than that it's been a slow kinda day.  I watched a few videos on youtube, and I'm gonna take a shower now.  Maybe I'll watch a movie afterwards, now that my son has let the television alone for a while.  That poor TV is getting some usage now that there's a Wii U attached to it ;-).  God bless and good night.

364 More Days Till Next Christmas

Is it too early to start the countdown again?  I love Christmas, and it feels to me like this Christmas season was shorter than usual.  I guess it's because Thanksgiving was later.  Anyway, I still have my tree lit because it's too pretty to keep it in the dark.

And speaking of dark, I woke up to a gloomy day.  Looked like even the sky was sad that Christmas is over.  (But we don't need to stop celebrating Jesus.  We can celebrate His coming every single day of the year).  The day started in the mid 60's and cloudy, with a chance of rain in the air.  The cold weather we experienced in November has calmed, and our days have been pretty mild, though this week it's been warmer than usual. I sat down with my bowl of cereal and coffee, and my mountain of pills.  (Well, not really a mountain, more like a small hill.  There are no mountains in Florida ;-)). I take One A Day Vitamins for Women because they have iron, which I need because I tend to become anemic very easily.  I've tried taking just iron but it causes severe pains in my kidneys and legs.  I do eat pretty healthy and make sure I get iron from foods, but apparently it isn't enough, or my body doesn't absorb enough.  If I have too much iron it's bad, and if I don't have enough it's also bad.  My doctor recommended taking the iron with a vitamin supplement, and that seems to be working well for me.  I also take 2 Omega-3 pills per my eye doctor's instructions.  I suffer from dry eyes, which is why I wear glasses and not contact lenses.  I tried contacts for years but my eyes ended up burning by the end of the day and no amount of eye drops would sooth them.  Turns out it's because of the dry eyes.  I can take prescription meds, or I can take omega-3 fatty acids.  My eye doctor explained that dry eyes is caused by insufficient oil in the eyes.  Omega-3's replace the oils that are missing.  Taking Omega-3 has helped greatly, though I'm sure if I took more it would be even better.  Honestly, I forget to take one at night.  I also take additional vitamin C per my doctor's instructions.  The multi-vitamin I take contains vitamin C, but I take 500 mg more because I'm prone to bronchitis whenever I get a cold, which leads to asthma and could lead to pneumonia.  To help boost my immune system I take the extra vitamin C, and it really has helped me a lot.  The last pill I take is Allegra for my allergies.  I've tried other maintenance medicine but for me and my family Allegra works better than any of the others.  E was on prescription medication for his allergies, and it didn't work as well as Allegra which is an otc medication.  That's not to say the other medicines aren't good; each person's body and metabolism are different, and what works for me may not work for everyone.  I had tried Claritin, Zyrtec, and some others, with disappointing results.  A friend who has severe allergies recommended Allegra because it works so well for her.  I'm thankful to God that she did; it has worked wonders for my family.  My advise to anyone would be, find what works for you.  Your needs are not the same as everyone else's.  We are individuals.  No "one size fits all".

My kids all slept in today, giving me a chance to do some clean-up.  Blog clean-up.  I was "following" some 57 blogs, many of which were inactive for 2 or more years.  I decided I wanted to start fresh.  There are some blogs I follow and enjoy reading whenever there's a post to be read.  I've kept those, and stop following the rest.  No offense to anyone, but if you're not blogging then there's no reason to follow, right?    

The kids were on their own for lunch.  That's because my best friend IV invited me to Ruby Tuesdays to celebrate her getting a new job.  She's been working through an agency for the past year and a half while she looked for permanent work.  She's a pharmacist with plenty of experience, but thanks to Obamacare she lost her job at Walgreens and has been job hunting ever since.  Pharmacy costs have gone up because of the government healthcare and many have lost jobs; the entire department where she was working was either let go or relocated.  It has been really difficult for her, especially because she has health issues; IV suffers from multiple sclerosis and can't be on her feet for extended periods of time.  This new job calls for lots of phone work which she can do sitting down, and that's a great blessing.  I'm glad we were able to have some girl time, talking, thanking God for His goodness, brainstorming ways to help the youth in our church, and looking for ways in which we can serve our great and wonderful God.  I currently serve in children's ministry, but IV has served in youth ministry a few times.  She wants to be more involved now that financial woes have caused us to lose our youth pastor.  It takes a lot of work, but our kids are worth the effort.

When I got home I started munching on the chocolate cookies my neighbor dropped off yesterday.  Ya'll, I need to get a grip, otherwise I'm gonna gain back the 5 pounds I worked so hard to lose, and then some!

Today was also laundry day.  I usually do a load on Thursdays, but not when Thursday is also Christmas Day.  We all need a break sometimes, and holidays are not for washing clothes.  Two large loads, one dark and one lights.  How do four people dirty so much clothing?!

One of the games the Wii U consoles the boys got for Christmas brought was NintendoLand.  My oldest son was showing it to me.  It's like a giant Nintendo amusement park, and every attraction is a game.  He asked if I wanted to play one of the games.  I gave him "the look".  He knows perfectly well I'm terrible at video games.  As a matter of fact, the only times my kids have asked me to play a video game is when they want a laugh, because that's how bad I play.  R insisted it would be easy enough that even I could play.  Hmm, yeah, okay.  He had me play Yoshi's Fruit Cart.  I actually did pretty good; I got 429 points.  Considering he got 445 on his first try, I would say that was a success.  I gotta say, I'm quite impressed with my new-found abilities.

I gotta be honest.  The rest of the day I pretty much vegged.  I wasn't feeling like my usual self today; the ladies will understand what I mean :P.  My daughter picked up Dominos pizza for dinner (yuck, one of my least favorites) and I watched some videos while soothing my back with a heating pad.  After my shower I tidied up the kitchen.  Once I'm done with this post I'm gonna put some clothes in the dryer, then just veg some more.  Tomorrow is a very important day:  my two youngest babies will be celebrating their birthdays, and I need to be feeling my best.  So, good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite.  God bless.

Thoughtful Thursday

Hey there!  Remember me?  I've been gone for a while, I know.  Life gets busy.

Let's see, what new things have been going on?  Well, for one, school is out.  My son E got good grades this year.  C in science, B's in all his other subjects.  His rest this summer is well deserved, though it won't last forever.  I'm letting him get some video game time in, but he'll be reading soon.

My daughter has 2 new guitar students.  She started giving guitar lessons to a 6 year old girl from church, and now she has a couple of sisters who had started taking lessons with a friend of ours who can't continue to give lessons because of her work schedule.  I'm glad my daughter is getting to do this.  I think it's a great opportunity for her to share what she's learned and make some money while she's at it.

My oldest is still working at the grocery store, but is looking for full-time work.  Publix has been great, but they only give him part-time hours, which isn't enough to pay his bills.  I'm praying he can find something soon.

Our pastor is doing a series called Momentum, that is excellent and convicting at the same time.  I've been taking lots of notes and going over them.  I'm doing a personal study on the book of Revelation and end-time prophesies, but that's on my own.  VBS is next week, and I'll be preparing for that starting this Saturday.

As for blogging?  I've been taking a break.  I was spending a lot of time on my blog, on other people's blogs, on blog hops, and I realized that time could be better used in other areas of my life.  Not that I don't enjoy blogging, because I do.  Not that I don't love reading other blogs, because I definitely do.  Just that there's a time for everything, and blogging was taking away too much of my time.  I will come back and update whenever I can, but I won't be here as often as before.  Check up on me once in a while.  I'll do the same for you.  God bless.

Monday Quiz About Me

Happy Monday!  This great blog hop is hosted by Heather at Acting Balanced.  There are 4 questions to answer, then the option to add a fifth question to be answered on my blog.  Won't you give it a try?


1.  When was the last time you tried something new?
I'm actually gonna try something new today!  I bought a Jennie-O frozen boneless turkey breast with gravy that I'm gonna make in the oven for lunch.  I hope this thing is good!

2.  What’s a belief that you hold with which many people disagree?
I believe in the Biblical model for marriage between one man and one woman.  I know this isn't the popular view in today's world, but then again, Jesus wasn't popular in His time either.

3.  What kind of music do you enjoy listening to?
I usually listen to contemporary Christian music.  I'm also a fan of oldies, which for me would be songs of the 80s.

4.  What piece of advice would you give to a beginning blogger?
Don't try to be like other bloggers or copy what everyone else is doing.  The beauty of your blog is that it's yours, and there is no rule about what it has to look like or what you can post.  If all you want to do on your blog is share recipes, go for it.  You decide.

And my fifth question:

5.  What kind of adverse weather conditions do you have to deal with where you live?
South Florida is a wonderful and beautiful place to live.  I love my little town with the dairy farm behind us.  But we have to contend with hurricanes every now and then, and the tornadoes they can create.  Thankfully hurricanes can be monitored and we can prepare for them up to a point, but they can be quite destructive.  We are grateful Tropical Storm Isaac is gone, but as of yesterday 3 deaths in Florida were attributed to it.

I'm Still Alive

I know I've been gone from my blog for some time, but I have a good excuse. I've been in Central Florida for the past couple of weeks getting my older kids settled into their apartment. My daughter had been renting a townhouse with some friends, but they've either graduated or moved to other places. The townhouse was awful, filled with all kinds of maintenance problems that took forever to get taken care of. My oldest son R had also talked about moving up to Central Florida because there are many more job opportunities here and the cost of living is lower than in South Florida. So we found a nice apartment complex and I've been here with my daughter and youngest son E helping get them settled. We didn't get internet until yesterday, which is why I hadn't been able to post.

The townhouse where A had been living was fully furnished, so she had no furniture to speak of. R, living at home, didn't have anything to contribute either. So we found a couple of comfy couches at a furniture outlet store that are brand new for $600. These would easily have cost over $800 at the regular store, so it's a good deal. We also got mattresses for them, since their bedroom sets at home are small and it was time for them to upgrade to queen sized beds. I went to a few thrift stores but couldn't find anything they could use. Most of the furniture they had were china cabinets and hutches, things my kids don't need. So instead we went to Walmart and Target, and found a great table with 4 chairs at Target for $229. It's wood stained in an espresso color, very modern and comfortable. I also found a matching tv stand at Big Lots on sale. The regular price was $99.99, but they were having a 20% off everything in the store day and we were able to get it for $79.99. Considering the closest thing we saw at Walmart was over $150, I think we got a very good deal.

This move is bittersweet. I'm thankful they have a nice place, and that we have been able to help them get settled, but I know I'll be saying goodbye soon, and that is filling me with great sorrow. They are grown-ups, of course. R is 24 years old and A is 21. Both will be finishing up school soon and starting their work careers, Lord willing. This is what parents raise their children for, so that one day they can live independently and hopefully begin families of their own. It doesn't make it any easier for me, though. I'm going to miss them terribly. I'm thankful God saw fit to give me my youngest son to keep me from having that "empty nest" too soon. I don't think I'm ready for it.

There's still plenty to do around here, and E and I will most likely be here till Sunday or Monday. I need to get back to blogging again. It's my release when my feelings feel overly bottled up.

I Got An Award!

A big Thank You to Allegro Mama who kindly gave me the Stylish Blogger Award! I'm honored and humbled that someone thought so much about my little blog. Thanks Tricia! The rules for this award are:

1.Thank and link back to the person that has given you this award- Thanks, Allegro Mama!
2. Share 7 thing's about yourself
3. Award 10-15 blogs you feel deserve the award
4. Contact these bloggers and let them know about the award

Okay, here we go. Seven things about myself:

1. I'm an avid reader.
2. I've never learned how to ride a bike.
3. I love decorating.
4. My favorite color is green, especially autumn shades.
5. My favorite ice cream is Blue Bell homemade vanilla.
6. I was born and raised in NY, but I've lived so long in Florida I consider myself a Southerner.
7. I love Jesus Christ and am so thankful to Him for all He's done for me.

Now for my 10 winners:

A Gracious Home
Cheaper By the Half Dozen
Guiding Light Homeschool
In The Lord's Path
Life in a Shoe
Living in My Magic Garden
Mandy Mom
My Life As A Christian Wife and Mom
My Little Life
Yaya Yarns

Congratulations to all! And thanks again!