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End of April…and Grace and Truth Link Up

April 30, 2021 by Lauren 18 Comments

A month that starts with Easter has to be good, right?  Mostly.  I do want to acknowledge that the celebration of Jesus’ victory over death is a joyous day.  And it should be observed every day.  It is only through His death and resurrection that I am forgiven and saved to live in fellowship with God forever.

 

If you don’t know Jesus and the gift He offers us since the very first Easter, click the contact tab at the top if this page.  That link sends me a private email and we can arrange to visit by messaging or talking on the phone.  There is nothing more important that I could do.

 

On Good Friday a couple of friends came by for a visit.  And then we drove out to my Mama and Papa’s house to see them and my PawPaw for Easter.  We sat on the deck (the weather was perfect) talking and eating ice cream.  The day after Easter, my sister and I met in Dallas for lunch and shopping.  This is a good start to the month.  Fellowship – whether it be with sweet family or friends – feeds my soul like almost nothing else.

 

Circling back to the mall trip with my sister, I feel I must be authentic and not only mention the good things, but the hot mess things as well.  Upon leaving the mall, I found a Lexus SUV parked extremely close to my driver side door.  SUV doesn’t seem quite the right word as it was roughly the size of an elephant.  I did not dare try to squeeze in by the normal route for fear that my 2013 Toyota might graze the luxury vehicle and cost more to repaint than my entire car.

 

Yep, I had to crawl in from the passenger side.  Those that know me IRL might be giggling already.  For the rest of you, let me ‘splain.  I am a large person.  And I don’t mean in that “larger than life, center of attention” kind of way.  I’m over 5ft 9.  In college, a flirtatious co-worker measured me from hip to ankle to announce that I had 6 feet of legs.  And now I’m overweight to boot.  I also have an elevated center console between the front bucket seats, making this more challenging.

 

After assessing the situation, I decided I needed to go butt first over the center hurdle.  After removing the drinks from cup holders and everything occupying my front seat, I handed them to my sister.  I almost immediately ripped the shirt I was wearing, so I took it off.  It was dripping in fringe and I didn’t want to get further tangled in it.  I eased into the passenger seat and hoisted my behind up onto the console.

At this point, my head is caught between the rearview mirror and the glass.  My sweet sister is laughing so hard that I started laughing and peed my pants.

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At this moment my sister exclaims, “Why am I not filming this?!?”  I manage to duck my head and slide my backside off the console and into the driver’s seat.  My many years of yoga practice did not prepare me to tuck my knees up one at a time near my adam’s apple so I could get them from the passenger seat into the driver’s side floor board.  Once I did, panting and sweating and still laughing, my sister asks, “Are you alright?”  “I think I may have tweaked my back”, I answered.  “But mostly ok.”

 

Thankfully, I did have a tank top on under the shirt I removed so there was no arrest on the way home.  Just a weird cat call from a dude driving a food truck.  The end.

 

My Allie girl started work at her first job.  A little ice cream and candy shop on our town’s Main Street.  So proud of her initiative and pray it continues to be a good experience for her.  I had to take off a day of my work to go get my second vaccine.  Almost exactly 12 hours later I woke up shivering uncontrollably with a headache and body aches.  It lasted about 12 hours and then pretty well disappeared as quickly as it came.  Glad to have that behind me.

 

We finished up the month with Allie’s annual high school jazz show.  It was incredible.  So much fun to see my girl and her friends in their element.  And she had a large cheering section of family that came into town to see it.  That was fun too.

 

On a trip to the used book store, I picked up Eat Cake.  Be Brave by Melissa Radke.  Am I glad I did!  This author is hilarious.  I kept retelling parts of the book to my family (I was indifferent to their indifference).  That’s how you know you have a good book.  So I  subscribed to her podcast and now want to watch her reality show!

 

I checked out Good Vibrations:  My Life as a Beach Boy by Mike Love from the library.  Can’t say that I enjoyed it.  The author’s self-importance is off putting.  And the dark subject matter?  Depressing.  Destructive drug habits, infidelities, family betrayals and broken marriages made we wish it was over.  But I have a weird thing about not finishing books.  I can’t quit unless it is extremely profane or unbearably dull.  Some applaud the commitment and discipline.  Some call it insane to waste time on something neither enjoyable nor beneficial.  Whatever it is, this is me.

 

The hubs and I watched Genius:  Aretha.  So much tragedy in the life of the queen of soul.  We enjoyed this and the first season of Genius on Albert Einstein, but didn’t make it through season 2 on Pablo Picasso.  Well look at that?  I can quit something.  We did get through The Taking of Pelham 123, even though it took three tries since my sweet spouse kept falling asleep.  (He gets up early.  He works hard.  Whatcha gonna do?) As always, I love you, I thank you, and I pray May treats you well!

 

And now for this week’s featured post from the link up!

 

I just had to share Amy Jung’s article with you.  Will I Pilot Life By God’s Truth or By My Feelings? is just what we all need to be reminded of.  We live in a culture that is screaming at us that our feelings are our truth, and we are all suffering the consequences of it.  Amy reminds us that God’s truth is THE truth, no matter how we are anyone else feels about it.  And that’s good news.

 

Grace and Truth_Rules

1. Share 1 or 2 of your most recent CHRISTIAN LIVING posts. (No DIY, crafts, recipes, or inappropriate articles.) All links are randomly sorted.

2. Comment on 1 or 2 other links. Grace & Truth linkup encourages community.

3. Every host features one entry from the previous week. To be featured, include this button or link back here on your post (mandatory to be featured, but not to participate).

Grace Truth_Button

We encourage you to follow our hosts on their blogs or social media.

MAREE DEE – Embracing the Unexpected
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

HEATHER HART & VALERIE RIESE – Candidly Christian
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

LAUREN SPARKS
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

LISA BURGESS – Lisa notes
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

Now Let’s Link Up!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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Marching Out of This Month…and Grace and Truth Link Up

March 26, 2021 by Lauren 30 Comments

Bottom o’ the month to ya!  I hope everyone is starting to thaw a bit.  Spring has pretty much sprung here in Texas.  We never really know how to dress this time of year.  The morning chill begs a sweater, but the afternoon sun cooks you in it.  75 degrees feels warm and glorious in the sunshine but rather frigid with clouds and wind.  I will long for it all, though, in a couple of months when it’s 100 degrees all…the…time.

 

Allie started this Women’s History Month by treating us to a school choir concert themed Pop Music of the 80’s, 90’s and 00’s.  If I closed my eyes I could swear I sat in MY high school auditorium instead of hers!  Spiral perm, gravity defying bangs and all.  She sang a fun and peppy rendition of Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves.  I love to watch her perform – especially accompanied by Chuck, Shelby, my parents and twin sister.  That’s  her  in  front  in  the  green  shirt!

 

My girl left the concert to go straight to our church’s version of Disciple Now weekend.  The next week she competed in a classical solo and ensemble contest.  We still await results.  Shelby started back to school that week as well.  I hear the angels singing the Hallelujah chorus now.  Her recovery progressed remarkably.  However, mom and dad worked hard to care for and entertain her lo those long weeks.

 

My niece Olivia turned 10 on the 11th and treated family and friends to a private screening of the new Tom and Jerry movie.  We enjoyed the company more than the show.  That kicked off a week’s Spring Break from school for my kids.  Since my husband took off work two weeks previously to help with Shelby’s post op care, we stayed home and kept it low key.  He did take one vacation day to take us to the Dallas Zoo with a few thousand other people.

 

The last weekend of their school holiday, Allie went on a mini-mission trip.  Shelby went to stay with my mom, dad and PawPaw.  The earth has traveled around the sun quite a few times since Chuck and I have had two nights alone in our house.  A good time was had by all.

 

This week I had a rather frustrating start back to work after nearly two months off.  I confess I’ve complained too much.  But I also gave thanks on March 23 for 4 years of cancer freedom.

 

I’ve done a little more reading and a little less TV watching in March.  Probably a good thing.  After hearing several people I follow talk about Open Book by Jessica Simpson, I gave it a look see.  Celebrity memoir isn’t usually my go-to, but I wanted to learn about her transition from Baptist preacher’s kid to Hollywood sexpot alcoholic.  Very interesting to see how she weaves her faith in God – even if it’s very different from mine – throughout her life.

 

Waiting for Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey helped me escape tougher things with a romantic comedy obsessed heroine’s quest for love AND the job of her dreams.  I used Prayer:  Approaching the Throne of Grace ($3.69 on Kindle as of this post) for my daily time with God and my prayer life did receive a much needed boost!  (Full disclosure:  I’m a contributing author.)  And speaking of being an author, Steal Like an Artist:  10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon gave me good ideas in a quick and easy read.

 

Eating Mindfully:  How to End Mindless Eating and Enjoy a Balanced Relationship with Food by Susan Albers contained no real new information for me.  But my latest read, If I Were You by Lynn Austin, may just be the best novel I’ve devoured in a long time.

 

My husband and I did watch the short series Defending Jacob on Apple+.  I had to limit us to 1 episode a night – and it had to be pretty early – for me to be able to sleep.  This peek inside the criminal mind was dark, twisted and pretty fascinating.  We also started the new Superman and Lois. If you have recommendations for reading or watching, please do us the favor of leaving them in the comments!

 

Well, I pray as time is ticking closer to Easter that you take more of that time to turn your mind and heart to Jesus.  And as always, I love you, I thank you, and I pray April treats you well.

 

Now for this week’s featured link up post!

 

Laurie from Meditations in Motion managed to entertain me, lead me to empathize with her, encourage me and mention one of my favorite authors all in one post!  Check out Guilt, Shame, and a Little Grass Skirt!

Grace and Truth_Rules

1. Share 1 or 2 of your most recent CHRISTIAN LIVING posts. (No DIY, crafts, recipes, or inappropriate articles.) All links are randomly sorted.

2. Comment on 1 or 2 other links. Grace & Truth linkup encourages community.

3. Every host features one entry from the previous week. To be featured, include this button or link back here on your post (mandatory to be featured, but not to participate)Grace and Truth_Meet Hosts

We encourage you to follow our hosts on their blogs or social media.

MAREE DEE – Embracing the Unexpected
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

HEATHER HART & VALERIE RIESE – Candidly Christian
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

LAUREN SPARKS
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

LISA BURGESS – Lisa notes
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

Now Let’s Link Up!

 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

 

 

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About Me

I love Jesus, my husband and caffeine. The order of these can change depending on how tired I am. When my two daughters, stepson, and 4 grandchildren get to be too much, I practice yoga. God graciously allows me to share our adventures, victories and flub-ups from my laptop. May He be glorified here.
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