more bedroom renovations

Bedroom remodeling

Brannon's laying the flooring in the guest bedroom. The room still needs baseboards, window sills, and the closet framing and doors. Then it will be done!!!!

pole barn roof 2007

Perfectionism

Perfectionism
“We have the need to be accepted and to be loved by others, but
we cannot accept and love ourselves. The more self-love we have, the less we will experience self-abuse.

Self-abuse comes from self-rejection, and self-rejection comes from having an improper image of what it means to be perfect and never measuring up to that ideal. Our image of perfection is the reason we reject ourselves the way we are, and why we don't accept others the way they are.”-- Don Miguel Ruiz

“Nothing but perfection may be spelled “Paralysis.” -- Winston Churchill

”After enough mirror gazing, we all develop our cosmic sense of humor.” We no longer try to be perfect, or try to get all our work done in time. We become content with whatever life brings. Just to deal with what comes up without crucifying ourselves or others is enough of a challenge.” -- Paul Ferrini

Ok, so I've got a lot a work to do on the being content with what life brings part without beating myself up! That's why I'ma work in progress :)

Wisdom

Wisdom

"...we need to abandon the idea that wisdom is knowing everything” the whys, wherefores, the how-tos. Wisdom is often more subtle, both far simpler and exceedingly more complex. For wisdom requires the discerning, the listening to, the acknowledgement of nudges and notions, of senses and sensations, of the minute and what we often mistakenly assume is the mundane. Wisdom means listening to the still, small voice, the whisper that can be easily lost in the whirlwind of busyness, expectations, and conventions of the world..
-- Jean M. Blomquist

“Nine-tenths of wisdom is appreciation. Go find somebody’s hand and squeeze it, while there’s time.” -- Dale Dauten

“To finish the moment, to find the journey’s end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom.”-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

higherawareness.com

The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority

I ran across this link one day surfing. It touched my heart. So many lost. :< http://www.yadvashem.org/

Spring

Spring is tugging her first tendrils of tease,
The arrival of the seed catalogs taunt of warmer days,
Mrs. Robin has appeared only to shiver in the brisk, cold wind.

Enough, I say – enough!
Bring on the breezes of Spring,
Let me put away the winter’s wood,
The gloves, hats, scarves, and woolens.

Let me bring out the bulbs to plant,
The herbs to weed,
And the gardens to tend.

Oh, Spring, where for art thou?

Original by Diana Roof

Opening the heart

"Everything is made of light; everything is alive. The Great Mystery of life has little to do with intelligence. The universe is not an intellectual process. The intellect is helpful; but our hearts are the wiser part of ourselves." -- Mellen-Thomas Benedict

Heart is a word that refers to many different levels of our being. Essentially, it is the love aspect of soul, capable of making direct, intuitive contact. Soul love is not emotional; it is highly impersonal and intelligent, capable of grasping the essence of someone or something without any projection on our part. Appreciation significantly turns on the heart. Appreciation is not an emotion that arises spontaneously, but a soul quality we can choose. The more often we choose to be appreciative, the easier this choice becomes and the more frequently our heart opens to give and receive love.

"If you open your heart, love opens your mind." -- Charles John Quarto

higherawarenss.com

Choose to be appreciative. I like that! When I choose to appreciate a person, a kind act, a valid attempt, a flower, the sunset. The world opens up for me. I see the joy, the wonder, and the love that God already has here for me. I just have to appreciate it!

- for Mom's everywhere

I don't know the author - but she was a Mom!

Building Cathedrals

It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I'm thinking, "Can't you see I'm on thephone?" Obviously not. No one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all.

I'm invisible.

Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more: Can you fix this?? Can you tie this? Can you open this? Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being.? I'm a Clock to ask, "What time is it?" I'm a satellite guide to answer, "What number is the Disney Channel?" I'm a car to order, "Right around 5:30, please."

I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum laude - but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again.

She's going . she's going . she's gone!

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England. Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself as I looked down at my out-of-style dress; it was the only thing I could find that was clean. My unwashed hair was pulled up in a banana clip and I was afraid I could actually smell peanut butter in it. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned tome with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, "I brought you this."It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe.

I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription: "To Charlotte, with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees."

In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work: No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of their names. These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.

A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, "Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof? No one will ever see it." And the workman replied,"Because God sees."

I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, "I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become."

At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride. I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on. The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree. When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell the friend he's bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, "My mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table." That would mean I'd built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, to add,"You're gonna love it there."

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we're doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women.

Speak kindly to yourself

“What is this self inside us, this silent observer,

Severe and speechless critic, who can terrorize us,

And urge us on to futile activity,

And in the end, judge us still more severely,

For the errors into which his own reproaches drove us?”

-- T. S. Eliot


How do you talk to yourself? Would you talk that way to anyone else? Our thoughts create our reality. How do you typically think about yourself? Do you berate yourself for being stupid, sloppy, forgetful or insensitive? Do you watch yourself with interest, respect and compassion? Stay alert to your self-talk and let go of judgments that don’t serve you.

"Self-acceptance is my refusal to be in an adversarial relationship to myself."-- Nathaniel Branden

higherawareness.com

I really can relate to the self-talk. I work daily, sometimes minute by minute to still the poor self-talk. I really liked the quote by Nathaniel Branden. I will refuse to be my own worst enemy by accepting myself just the way I am - warts and all! The warts are just as much a part of who I am as the non-warty parts! Heck, the warty parts of some of the reasons I am who I am!