041 ~ Achievements

Before I get to the pics let me explain...

This month has certainly not gone as I would have expected, nor as I planned.

It has prompted me to do some serious thinking on EVERYTHING!

Pretty much all my life I have taken care of others in one way or another.  Caring for others is something that comes to me no matter what I do to stop it or change it.  After so many years it has been my conclusion that I will always care for others, one way or another.  Therefore, I should work at developing myself and my resources in such a way as to provide that care in a way that fully feels right to me.  Doesn't that make sense?

That is what I'm working at as I grow my Melaleuca "business" and create a steady, reliable source of income that will eventually allow me to break away from being dependent upon government funds for sustenance (which is a good thing)!

To that effort:

 Melaleuca Marketing Executive II

earned June 30, 2010

Melaleuca "Circle of Influence Award"

earned October 31, 2010

Melaleuca Marketing Executive III

earned October 31, 2010

duplicate

Melaleuca Marketing Executive III

earned October 31, 2010

Again, the same camera settings were used but somehow the results were different.  The middle two pics are the truest colors.  All three awards are in the same type of frames.

Sometime in the next few days I will be getting them up on the wall where I can see them daily as reminders of my goals.  Each month I set goals and most months I miss the mark! :(  But I am not giving up!!!  I need this in so many ways it hurts to not meet my goals on time.  

However, after listening to a few different, successful people speak about goals and dreams I've decided to work on a few adjustments for this next month.  I do still want to find at least four families wanting or needing what Melaleuca has to offer.  But I'm going to work on my perspective.  What emotion do I come across with when I'm talking to people about this?  I do need this so badly but I don't want to sound desperate or anything.  I do, absolutely, believe in this company and it's products!  So far, out of all that we've tried, there is nothing, absolutely nothing we haven't liked!  But if there was I know, without a doubt, we could return it (even empty) and get our money back!  Try that with something you buy at Wal-Mart! 

Some people don't like that they "have to" buy a minimum amount each month.  Maybe those people don't keep close tabs on their expenses; but when I was asked how much I spent each month, on average, for household products such as laundry detergent, cleansers, soap, toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo and conditioner, etc. I knew right away without thinking... $150, sometimes more.  That minimum needed for Melaleuca was less than half what we usually spent every month!  Most people just don't realize this!

Most people don't think about it.  They just buy these things whenever they need them.  Melaleuca actually helps you to get better organized in your spending; to plan it better so you don't run out of any Melaleuca products before your next order gets delivered to your door.  But I'm getting sidetracked...

The whole BIG PICTURE thing here is this:

EVERYBODY

NEEDS

MELALEUCA

they just don't know it yet.

It will save money!

It will save time!

It will be safer!

It will be better!

Now, who wouldn't want that?

040 ~ Treats

Sunday, November 28, 2010

(almost made it...)

Saturday Becca made her first batch of....

Rice Krispies Treats!

And also on Saturday...

Jessi made her first batch...

and second batch of...

Good Old Fashioned Fudge!

Here are close-ups of the fudge, above - 

and the Rice Krispies Treats, below.

It was quite the day for both of them!

They both have been wanting to make some sort of simple dessert for quite some time now.  CJ however, has been doing lots of baking, so there have been more than enough treats around here lately!  For first-timers, on their own, more or less, the goodies turned out fairly well.  As the girls gain confidence I'm sure we'll see more of this.  Most of their experiences in the kitchen thus far have been related to meal-making rather than snacks and treats.  We had a few minor snafus... Becca's mixture was cooling faster than she could get it all mixed together - but we fixed that.  Jessi's first batch of fudge was burnt so we set it aside and started over.  Later she used the slightly burnt batch to create a very rich hot chocolate for everyone playing Monopoly - Then and Now version - that night. :)

I think I've had more than enough sweets for quite awhile now!  ;-)

It is quite a treat for me to see these two maturing more each day!  They are my babies!  The very last kids I gave birth to... identical girls from a set of quadruplets, the other two being identical boys of which only one survived.  As much as any of my surviving babies, these three owe their lives to Jehovah God.  So many things went wrong during the pregnancy that doctors were amazed we had any survivors at all!

They are not unscathed: both girls had holes in their hearts at birth (fortunately they closed on their own without surgery) and both girls have congenital Arnold Chiari Malformations (an issue with how their brain stems and spinal cords are formed).  Their early childhood was filled with doctor visits, hospital stays, and numerous therapies!  For the first six years, right up until my injuries (related to domestic violence) left me unable to do so, I learned and applied many therapies upon both girls.  Without me doing that we would have had to travel an hour one way, daily, in order to do all that was needed for each of them.  With four other children and their special needs it just wasn't possible to spend 2 hours on the road and 2 hours in therapy sessions plus do all that was needed for the other four kids!  Even with homeschooling most of them, which I did for a number of years ~ until forced to put them in public school during and after our acrimonious custody battle in court ~ there were so many hours of therapies needed by all the kids it just wasn't practical to spend 4 hours away from home every single day!  Most of their therapists were very willing to teach me what they needed.  We would go in once a month to check on progress and make a few changes to what I was doing with them at home.  It worked quite well until things with their dad got way out of control. :(  To this day he still doesn't accept that any of our kids had or still have any special needs... even after the judge ordered full medical evaluations on each of them and the results not only proved they did have all that I had said they had, it found MORE issues for us to deal with (some of those really should have been caught long before this!).  I still remember the judge telling him that he needed to make time to get to know his kids' health conditions better if he was going to be a good parent to them.  Too bad it didn't make any difference as far as he was concerned. :(  But, you know, even with all they had to struggle with I'm very proud of how far these two girls have come!  They may start off slow but once they get going...

look out!!!

It is such a treat to see how far they've come...

and to watch how far they'll go!!!

039 ~ ICE

Saturday, November 27, 2010

(see day 037 if you want to know why it's late)

;-)

Sunset on the partially frozen lake.

Slightly different angle, still sunset on the lake.
(still need to change the time on the camera!)

Frozen ring - outside ring there's ice on the water,
inside the ring it's not frozen yet.

Looking north - icy glaze on lake.

Rocks near shore - iced over from waves washing upon them.

Closer look at Ring separating frozen & unfrozen.

More Ice Rings

More icy rocks on the shore

The ice looks thicker here,
both on the water,
and on the rocks. 

Varying degrees of ice

 Lake Tomah is beginning to freeze over!

We took these pics on Friday near sunset.

Our vantage point was the Lake Tomah Clinic Parking Lot.

In a few weeks it will all be frozen.

In another month the ice will be thick enough to walk on, 

maybe even drive on and people will begin

to go ice fishing on the frozen lake.

That is, IF it's ok to fish yet.

Not sure if it is because I don't go fishing, 

but since the DNR drained down the lake this past year

and did a fish kill to get rid of unwanted species that had "taken over"

and have only just begun to restock the lake with better fish, 

I know there was to be a set time to pass before

people could fish again.  So we might not see any 

ice fishing this year on Lake Tomah.

Something else to keep in mind related to ice,

and cell phones...

ICE stands for In Case of Emergency

My kids and I are using this code to enter the phone numbers

of people we each want contacted if something happens to us.  

By using ICE we aren't naming names, or giving away relationships,

which apparently some not-so-nice-people will use to steal private info

when they take someone's cell phone too.

You might want to do the same!

Getting back to ice related to this time of year...

I love winter for the freshly fallen snows before any steps or tracks are made.

I love the beauty of the sun glistening on snow crystals everywhere.

I love looking out the window of a warm and cozy room, 

sipping on hot chocolate or hot tea and breathing in it's soothing aroma.

I love how it's a time for all things in nature to take a rest.

It seems to say, "We've had a good & busy year; life has been great;

now it's time to relax, to rejuvenate, to rest until spring."

But for us humans, there is no rest.  Life goes on... and on.  We must keep doing

whatever it is we do each day.  We were not designed to hibernate.

Our time for rest comes each evening, or nighttime.

This is when we rest, rejuvenate, and relax until morning.

Although today's lifestyles often say otherwise, I believe mankind was designed to be up and active from sunup to sundown and then it's time to sleep and allow our body's physiological processes to rejuvenate us, to repair where needed, to replenish microscopic resources so that we may rise the next morning and feel refreshed and ready to work again.

I think when we do not follow this pattern set forth for us since creation that we set ourselves up for various problems.  They may not manifest themselves right away.  It might even take years for these things to become manifest.  Still, more and more I find that if I can spend my time like this my health improves.  The more I follow this, the better I feel, day after day.  But in my case, it's not possible to follow this all the time and as soon as I stop going by this I feel worse.  My pain levels increase, my mobility decreases, my energy decreases, it's harder to find a positive mood even.  I don't like living this way but in today's world there is nothing to do about it!

Ecclesiastes tells us there is a reason for everything under the sun.  There is a reason we have nighttime.  There is a reason we have daytime.  If it didn't matter to us in some way there would be no reason to make the distinction - it could just be daytime all the time or nighttime all the time and it would never make any difference whatsoever to anyone!  THERE IS A REASON! For some of us - we need to respect that reason in order to be our best.

Oh, how I'd love to have the wisdom of Solomon (in his best years)!

(Ecclesiastes 3:1-22) . . .

For everything there is an appointed time, even a time for every affair under the heavens: 2 a time for birth and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot what was planted; 3 a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to break down and a time to build; 4 a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to wail and a time to skip about; 5 a time to throw stones away and a time to bring stones together; a time to embrace and a time to keep away from embracing; 6 a time to seek and a time to give up as lost; a time to keep and a time to throw away; 7 a time to rip apart and a time to sew together; a time to keep quiet and a time to speak; 8 a time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace. 9 What advantage is there for the doer in what he is working hard at? 

10 I have seen the occupation that God has given to the sons of mankind in which to be occupied. 11 Everything he has made pretty in its time. Even time indefinite he has put in their heart, that mankind may never find out the work that the [true] God has made from the start to the finish. 12 I have come to know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good during one’s life; 13 and also that every man should eat and indeed drink and see good for all his hard work. It is the gift of God. 

14 I have come to know that everything that the [true] God makes, it will prove to be to time indefinite. To it there is nothing to add and from it there is nothing to subtract; but the [true] God himself has made it, that people may be afraid on account of him. 

15 What has happened to be, it had already been, and what is to come to be has already proved to be; and the [true] God himself keeps seeking that which is pursued. 16 And I have further seen under the sun the place of justice where there was wickedness and the place of righteousness where wickedness was. 17 I myself have said in my heart: “The [true] God will judge both the righteous one and the wicked one, for there is a time for every affair and concerning every work there.” 

18 I, even I, have said in my heart with regard to the sons of mankind that the [true] God is going to select them, that they may see that they themselves are beasts. 19 For there is an eventuality as respects the sons of mankind and an eventuality as respects the beast, and they have the same eventuality. As the one dies, so the other dies; and they all have but one spirit, so that there is no superiority of the man over the beast, for everything is vanity. 20 All are going to one place. They have all come to be from the dust, and they are all returning to the dust. 21 Who is there knowing the spirit of the sons of mankind, whether it is ascending upward; and the spirit of the beast, whether it is descending downward to the earth? 22 And I have seen that there is nothing better than that the man should rejoice in his works, for that is his portion; because who will bring him in to look on what is going to be after him?

038 ~ Grasshoppers

Friday, November 26, 2010

(it's late - lol - see day 037 for an explanation)

Same cookies, different camera options.

If you don't recognize them, these are the 

Girl Scouts' Thin Mints Cookies.

They happen to be a favorite in our house. 

However they are also available year-round at most grocery stores (probably a little cheaper too) under the Keebler label with the name of Grasshoppers!

A few other Girl Scout cookies are out there too!

You can't get all of them anytime you want but several are available if you search them out.  You should be aware though, not all stores will carry all that could be available to you.  So it may take some tough tracking to find your favorite!

The art of photography escapes me it seems.  I know I pushed different buttons to effect the differences in these two pictures but it's not something I really took note of, so I've no idea what it was that made each result come out like it did.  My photographer friends would think me silly for not knowing.  Oh well, not my sort of expertise!  ;-)

I do however love the difference in two things that I know, since I arranged the cookies and took the pictures, are exactly the same things!  In an abstract way it shows how two people might see the same thing completely differently!  Or it could show how two identical twins could be so completely different in so many ways from one another!

So much of what we observe in our lives is unique to our perspective!  If we have the belief that our dead loved ones will be one day resurrected with all their ailments and imperfections removed, then the death of our loved ones is not a sad nor painful thing but it is joyful because the next time we see them we shall all be totally healthy and happy and ready to fully enjoy living!

Not everyone agrees with me.

Friends of mine who also believe in this resurrection are deeply saddened when a loved one dies.  They can be inconsolable at times.  They spend a lot of time mourning.  They have a hard time focusing on living.  They feel like a part of them is lost and gone forever and they don't know how to move on, to move ahead with their lives because this person is no longer a regular part of it.

I am truly empathetic of all they are experiencing.

I have been all these things; many times; too many times.  But I have come to see that there is no benefit to me, nor to the one who died, in all my sorrow and mourning.  I will cry still each time it happens.  I mourn the loss of their company.  I mourn the loss of their friendship.  I mourn the loss of their smile, their laugh, the way they made me laugh.  Yes, I mourn too.

But I will still be filled with joy because I know their suffering is over.  They will now not have to struggle to survive these difficult times we live in.  They won't have to live in pain all the time anymore.  They won't have to have someone always around to care for them or just help them do things they used to do but can't anymore.  They will be whole again the next time we meet.  They will be in paradise, where Jehovah will satisfy their every desire.  Who wouldn't be happy, even overjoyed to know that their loved one's next moment in life would be like this?

037 ~ Topsy-Turvy

Thursday, November 25, 2010

(yes, I know it's late - very late - but I'll explain that...)  ;-)

TOPSY ~ TURVY

or

WELCOME TO MY UPSIDE-DOWN LIFE!

This picture is taken with the camera upside-down while my niece is also upside-down over the side of her couch reaching for something on the floor.

:)

We took several shots that day, but this one stands out to me.

It seems to show a lot of effort going into the reach.

That's how I feel in my life right now; that there's a lot of effort going into it. While there may be lots of effort, there doesn't seem to be much to show for it yet.  I expect that will change and eventually there will be something to see for all the hard work.

Which brings me to the reason for the delay in posting this.

For 36 posts I've put out pics of various things that have in some way related to our life - the life of all those who are regulars in my life.  But I got to thinking about the whole 365 thing - maybe too much, but here goes. lol

Many people I know doing a 365 type blog are in it for the pictures.  Quite a few of them are photographers, as in building a business taking pictures of people they are not related to. :)  Some are doing one just because they love to take pictures. :)  Either way is fine, makes no real difference to me, but neither is a real part of my reason for doing this.  Sure, the picture part of this is fun and it will be cool to see what a year's worth of pictures say about my life, or this life of my family & friends.  But what I expect or expected to do with this venue is more journal-like than that.  Don't get me wrong, I do love to take pictures.  But I love writing more.  I'm a writer and always have been. What would a year's worth of pictures be to me without written words of commentary?  What benefit would they have without some analyzing of life and how we reach our goals in life?  And why not throw in some history behind the picture or the people & places in the picture?  It might not be a thousand words each day, but it will certainly be a lot more than it has been!

As I contemplated these thoughts, I held off posting anything new here.  So I will catch up now... posting for Thursday, Friday, Saturday and today all in one day... bringing us up to 40 days... but look for the format to change up some. 

;-)

036 ~ Purples

If I had to pick a favorite color,

it would be...

P~U~R~P~L~E

With all the work going on in my very small kitchen lately

(pipes clogged, resulting in 2 floods, and multiple delays

in doing laundry and dishes over the last 3 days now)

I've been considering what I would like to do if 

I could ever design my own kitchen.

Do you realize that purple is NOT a popular color for kitchens?  I don't know why. But it took a lot of looking to find purple or purplish glass tiles for a backsplash!  I'm putting 3 top choices here to see if anyone cares to express an opinion.

The backsplash will set the tone for the whole color scheme of my custom designed kitchen.  And I definitely want the main color to be some kind of purple; something with deep purple tones but not dark and gloomy. :)

Someday I will design my own kitchen!  It seems so far off right now.  Then again...

Six months to Senior Director.

Twelve months to Executive Director.

Hmmmm...

About a year from now I should be ready to do it!

It could be sooner!

It would be nice if it were sooner!

035 ~ Moonset

Have you ever seen a moonset?

I stopped to take this picture the other morning after 

dropping my son off at work at 5:30 in the morning. 

 The moon was setting over Lake Tomah

 with a few bands of clouds around it. 

It was such an awesome sight!

(note to self: change time on camera today - 

daylight savings time has ended)


The last two days we've been fighting with stopped up pipes!
My kitchen has flooded - TWICE!!
We've had to move all the appliances - too many times.
And by all I mean washer, dryer, stove & refrigerator!
My kitchen floor is REALLY, REALLY CLEAN!
Everything is draining better but not totally normal.
Tomorrow we will work on it some more.
UGH!
(I should be a plumber!)

034 ~ Blues

B-L-U-E-S

B
L
U
E
S

Blues are the theme of today.
Peace be with you all.

033 ~ Stars

Bet you were thinking heavenly stars, 

weren't you?

LOL

from a true chocoholic

;-)

032 ~ Heavenly

Heavenly Moon

I love this snapshot of the moon so perfectly framed in the bare branches of this tree.

This was a totally random shot taken in an attempt to capture the iridescent ring around the moon last night.  The colors didn't come out as well as we would have liked but it's still pretty.

Gazing up at the moon I often think of my Heavenly Father and all of his many creations.  How thankful I am for His many gifts each day, and each night.  Tonight especially I pray to my Heavenly Father to give whatever it is that my very dear sister Carolyn is in need of to get her through the night and into the day tomorrow until we can manage to visit her.  She is recovering from surgery, with complications now, and suffering from a terminal lung disease now compromised by all the stress of this surgery and it's complications.

Jehovah God cares for His People so lovingly and so tenderly, I find it hard to comprehend how some people can think He does not exist or does not care about us.  One has only to learn what it is that God wants them to do with their lives in order to see all that He does for them and gives to them each and every moment they are alive.  My friend Carolyn is certainly one that Jehovah God shall not forget and shall reward her for her love and faithfulness.

Rev. 21:4

031 ~ Wheels

Vehicles are a necessary evil in the life of one so poor, but...

why do they have to ALWAYS need repairs?!

In the many years that I've owned vehicles, borrowed vehicles, known others who own vehicles I've noticed one particularly common thread:

Vehicles more than two years old or with anything over about 50,000 miles seem to REQUIRE MORE FREQUENT REPAIR!

The older said vehicle is, the more frequent such repairs are,

and the more costly it is to complete such repairs!

There also seems to be a direct correlation to the expense of the needed repairs

and the lack of money to manage those repairs in a timely manner!

UGH!!!

In case you can't tell, the muffler has fallen on this particular vehicle

effectively leaving me "wheel-less" for now.

The little "twist" in this event that happened last Sunday is that on Friday, exactly one week ago today, my son bought his first car!

We'll get a better shot of it tomorrow sometime...

before, during or after we fix the leak in the cooling system!!!

GRRR!!!

Old, rundown, in need of frequent repair, but running

VEHICLES ARE A NECESSARY EVIL

IN THE LIFE OF ONE SO POOR.

~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~

All the more reason for me, or us, to continue building our Melaleuca income!

The day will come when all of our vehicles shall be less than two years old!

It's coming soon!

Very Soon!