Made it through the week!

 

I am amazed I made it through this week.  It's been a long week.  Getting better has helped.  Now I am looking toward September.  I need to see where posting every weekday will lead.  Just trying changes your future.

I have been watching some survival videos.  I end up seeing a lot from foreign countries.  It is strange to think of people in places so far away from us doing these things in their own lives.

Christians are everywhere.  We may all need to know how to do these things in the future.  Knowing how is half the battle.  It allows you to think about what you can do in any situation you find yourself in.  In the forest, in the snow, in cities, and things like that.

I watched a lot of snow survival videos awhile back, from a channel called The Outdoor Boys.  I would never have known how to dig a shelter in the snow to survive.  The Bible warns us to pray our escape will not be in winter.  There's a reason for that.

In survival videos you need to have a certain number of tools with you.  The bug-out bag may be the best thing you have prepped if it has basic tools.  Think about having to dig out the snow with your bare hands, or the ground for any reason.  A hatchet is essential for collecting firewood and building materials.  I am not that prepared... yet.  :-)  I am wondering how I would survive if I'm on my own.  I am old.  I can't do the things these young healthy men (and some women) can do.  

I was hoping to have Working Together communities built already, to deal with the needs of the elderly and the fragile and the alone.  

I don't think there is a simple answer to what is coming.  Each of us has to find a path where we are, and back-ups for if we aren't together when the time comes.  We don't know what will happen first, what we might need.  Prepping for the Antichrist is a serious challenge.

August is over tomorrow.

I have to finish up all my records for August and get my September pages ready.

I will make it through to September without going to the store, but my cupboards are kind of bare.  I guess fresh produce and my favorite foods are what I miss most.  :-)  I end up getting ill when I have them again.  I'm not sure how to change that yet.  

It's going to be an expensive food month.

I saw a video of an Asian man making large amounts of mung sprouts.  He made it different than the jars I use.  I assume they sell it for their income.  We could never produce it the way he did, and sell it.  But it is edible.  I like mung bean sprouts but am not able to grow them as good as this man did.  

Sprouts are like fresh produce in winter.  I am trying to make them and eat them more.  French green lentils are really good as sprouts.  I also like alfalfa sprouts.  I would like to grow more of them all.  I would be able to eat them as my salad food, especially in winter.

Maybe this winter I can find a way to do that.

This is one example of changing my food choices and changing my food budget.  It makes me healthier and will hopefully help me to age better.

I don't know what GOD has planned for my future, how long I still have to live, but I am praying for health enough to keep going every day, every month, every year.

Because my choices are getting more limited, I have been going through my papers/records to downsize even more.  It is the strangest part of aging.  So many dreams have to be let go.  You have to figure out what you might be able to keep doing.  Lots of projects will be let go.  I won't need those supplies anymore.

It's good and it's bad.  I will be able to do more art and clays and resins, but not the bigger projects I hoped to get to.  I may be able to do baby quilts still, maybe some of my recycling projects that I have been waiting to get to.  

I just don't know where this will end up.  I am trying to get to that answer by the end of this year.  It is one of the goals I made in January.  Downsizing what I can't do will make more room for what I can.  It may be the best thing for me.

In the end, we can't take anything with us to heaven.  That helps me to keep it all in perspective.  

What I discovered today.

News.  I find it's a mixed "blessing."  Since the Democratic Convention I haven't watched a lot.  I noticed the "headlines" at YouTube and haven't wanted to hear the liberal themes.

The media has been pushing Harris pretty hard.  One "poll" result I found said she was ahead by the margin of error percentage.  That is amusing.  I wondered if they used the margin amount for her and the non-margin amount for Trump.  

It is a very sad topic for me... the media and our information sources.    

I studied Journalism in college because I wanted to write.  Not writing you would do with an English major, which I would think was books.  I am really bad at grammar.  I have never been able to overcome this problem.  I didn't pass a required test the first time, and I lived in fear of taking it again.  You couldn't continue in Journalism if you didn't pass it in two tries.

I wanted to do more magazine style writing, so that made Journalism as a major the best option for me.  Then LIFE happened, again.

I think the integrity of Journalism has always been an issue.  We depend on our information sources.  It use to be the media was our watchdog, protecting us from the government and from criminals.

I grew up with news personas that had large reputations.  It's hard to remember names.  I was more interested in the news when I wanted to watch it.

I wasn't political or discerning about truth and media issues when I was young.  I formed my current opinions over the years of my life by seeing how topics I knew about were handled.  

We all know that our world has changed.  We are not the same people or nation we once were.  Our media sources have also changed.

I don't think I have missed a lot.  I check the descriptions of some of the YouTube news channels to avoid the bias.  I haven't chosen to watch too many of the stories listed.

I have found other videos to view.  One I discovered today was about a private corporation using Eminent Domain to legally take the land of farmers from Missouri eastward.  It seems they want to build power lines.

Later I watched a "Yanasa TV" YouTube channel video about Eminent Domain being used by the government to take more small farm lands for water issues.

I think it is a warning bell for all of us.

This week I have been discovering clay and pottery videos.  I never realized the small and the big of making pottery - globally.  It is so amazing what we can discover at YouTube.  Food channels, art channels, pottery channels, from people everywhere.  I wish I could do all these things right now, but I am not young enough anymore.  I also need my own property to do both personal and business goals.  If I won a BIG lottery prize, I would try to finish all the things I have wanted to do over my life.  It's a very long list.

Lots of food issues today.  I am going to try to make it to September using what I have right now -- my back-up foods, my garden foods, my regular foods.  Figuring out what to make has been quite a challenge.  The side-effect of being ill and recovering, too weak to walk to the store or even get a ride, then the challenge to make it through... this is what I am doing this month.  It has been helping me with making menus.

I tend to start each day asking myself what I have to eat first, so I don't have to waste any food.  I still do that, but I am more focused with my challenge.  I am using up foods I need to go through and replace, getting more organized, and trying to make a list of what I will need to buy in September to get my pantry back in shape.  It's a good thing if you look at it that way.

I find that aging is changing a lot of my food options.  It's hard to change.  This will let me rethink my food choices.  

The last time I did this, I ended up spending way too much the next month.  I MUST NOT DO THAT AGAIN!  This is why my shopping list is so important.

I am beginning to feel better.  September may be a great month for me.  I hope so.

America.

 

This seemed like a good graphic to post today.  I hope it inspires you to think deeply about America's past and future.  We are heading into a very difficult time spiritually, something we never expected to see, maybe forgot was coming.

I am scared.  I hope you are, too.

I don't know how much we can affect what prophecy has already warned us is coming, but I hope to try.  I am praying that you will also want to do all you can to save the best things we have known, in a godly way, in a way that will honor GOD.

I am trying to post more, maybe every weekday.  I was actually in bed already and was reminded I forgot to post, again.  :-)   I am also praying and deciding about where to focus my income efforts.  Probably here, but I am not sure yet.  

Online has so many options, but it also has a real link to crime.  We have no way to know what isn't on our screens, how tech works, if we get real activity on our screens.  It's getting to be a digital world and we have less and less alternatives.  If China can control their nation's internet, I imagine there are people already controlling ours.  What can we do about it?  Nothing.

I finally left it in GOD's Hands.  Whatever is coming is beyond our ability to control.  I trust that GOD is able to protect, help, provide for, and uncover whatever we need to survive.

This is what happens when I write late at night.  ha ha  

Is this part of GOD's Hand?  I think the Bible tells us it is.  

Pray for all of us.

Planning for next month. Planning for a better future. Seeking GOD for the right path.

Thinking about everything this month has been a difficult process.  I tend to seek GOD until I get a clear answer.  That can be once or it can be years, many years.  I can almost see the path clearly now.  

Almost.

This change probably has a lot to do with beginning to feel better and starting to do more things now.  Today I am very sore from doing more than I have been.  By September I may be more flexible.

Praying is hard to do when GOD doesn't answer quickly, or the way you want Him to.  I have had sermons playing in the background for days.  When I hear certain parts of them, it makes me think about all the issues in our current life.  I am looking for our place in GOD's Plan, in our world, in this life.

This month has me thinking about my health.  How much longer do I have to even try?  What do I need to keep going?  When will I not be able to live fully on my own?  

What are the things we need to be independent as senior citizens?  In the place I am it is too hard to survive alone.  I can't get around easily on my own.  A change in location would change my life.  I am seeing all these details in my own life and wondering how many others have already passed through this learning curve.

In watching a lot of YouTube videos, I see a lot of people with no real help to deal with their issues surviving.  The loss of a home because of increased rents or mortgages has a consequence of homelessness for people of all ages, including seniors.  The unnoticed reality is that there is no one to help.  No family.  Pride.  No savings.  No one to turn to.  I don't know if it is just an economic problem.  Our society has become isolated, families are now separated by miles, states, lifestyles, and more.

I look at my life and there are many different issues that created it.  I have always said that GOD could have blessed my efforts at any moment on the path, but He didn't.  I have never understood why.

I know GOD put my special dreams in me for a reason.  

I know He accomplishes His Will.  

I know nothing can stop GOD from finishing what He starts.  

Now, I am not sure what my part in His Plan is.  That is the problem.

Writing down all the details I have so far, about Working Together, has been one of my thoughts.  It may be my most important goal right now.  I guess I wonder if it's too late.  Our world is quickly becoming a place where critical prophecies about the Antichrist are coming true.  Global rule seems imminent.  

To build anything as big as Working Together would take years.  I have been struggling to create Working Together, officially, since 1987.  That seems like a lot of lost years.  I was willing, but GOD seems not to be.

For now, I can only worry about surviving September.  It is all the money I have.

Getting Better.

Here I am again.

Almost forgot, again.

I decided to share my newest design.  I signed up for Canva Pro before I got sick and this is the first design I tried out.

I plan to do a lot more.

I am just not sure what sizes I will focus on.  This is my small art concept.  I am also working on t-shirt sizes.  I may do some poster sizes, but I am not sure yet.  It depends on what I create.

My faith in GOD and His plan for my life has been a major thought in my days and nights for some years.  We can't really tell GOD what to do.  We follow Him.  He is the Boss.  I just keep thinking that He is doing something, I just don't understand it.

I hope it means my sons will be OK and meet me in heaven one day.

I have been watching some serious videos at YouTube.  Water issues and housing and food supplies and politics.  More than that, but that is all I can think of right now.  I don't do so well when I wait until the end of the day to enter my posts.  I am trying to do something about that bad habit.

I hope to be back to normal by September.

I have been living on my emergency supplies.  It's a good practice run but will be very costly to replace.  I'm working on my September budget and shopping list this week.

Winter is getting near.  I harvested my tomatoes already, today I dug out my potatoes.  I got more useable potatoes this year.  I will be eating them this week.  I had the biggest one right after harvesting it.  Micro-baked.  Really good.  I may make oven fries with some, maybe fried potatoes with the rest.  The chickens will get some too. 

I am trying to find a good way to share my concerns about our Christian dangers in the world right now.  There really isn't a good way to say things that are frightening.  I will try.

May GOD help us all to prepare for what is coming.  In every city.  As one Body of Christ.

Deborah Martin

work2gather.us

Trying to get back on track. Update.

It's been a long month.

I'm not sure when I will get back to normal.

I have been thinking a lot during all these days of getting better.

Aging seems to have its own agenda, different for each of us.

America is struggling to survive.

I don't know what this election will do to us.

I can't imagine what will happen if the Democrats win.

I wonder how much longer we can survive without some financial changes.  Even the Republicans can't save us alone.  Our debt is is too high.

I think about prophecies in the Bible.  About what they mean to us as a nation, as Christians, as a world.  The Antichrist is the main problem we face, and what leads up to the world asking him to save us.  A global government isn't going to honor freedom.  And the entire North American continent is one region in the future plan.  Everything we think is going to happen is not.  

I know it is already known to GOD, but it is hard to deal with as a Christian American.

My life is meaningless in the larger realities.  I suppose all of our lives are meaningless at the individual level.  I wonder how much we can do to affect what is coming.  I have nothing to even try with.  

Have you considered what GOD has warned us about?

Right now, I am still trying to recover from my sudden illness.  I will do what I can to find a path I can do in my life and health.

I just wanted to check in again.  I may enter more posts as I go through all the thoughts I am having about us and America and how evil will overcome good.  I'm trying to find GOD's path for me right now.

May GOD help us all to see His Will for us in this time of history and prophecy.

Another day.

Still recovering.

Still recovering from a sudden illness... sorry.

It has been a long week.

I couldn't have rallied last Monday, but let last Thursday go by.

Not much to say.

I hope to be better by next week.

Starting my 90-minutes-a-day challenge this month

 

Some days are harder than others.

I don't know why that is, but it is the reality of our lives.  In faith we have to trust that GOD has a part in all that happens to us.

The Bible tells us He puts a hedge of protection around His people.  It also shows us GOD allows Satan to test us.  We also know there is Free Will in the formula.  This means GOD does not stop us from sinning.  We are promised the ability to choose our path in this life, and those choices lead us to our eternal home.

I have shared before that I believe our suffering comes from other people's choice to sin.  We don't know the far-reaching impact of those choices, but GOD does.  We have to keep our eyes on Him and let the rest go.

We also cause the suffering of others because of our sins.  It isn't something we can blame on others, or GOD.  No one likes to suffer.

I started my 90 minutes a day challenge today.  I have listened to some of the newer people offering advice to succeed.  This was one of the tips.  It's taken me awhile to reach this point.  After today, I don't know how much help it will be.  I have been trying to start since last month some time, maybe before that.  I decided this month has to be the time to try it.

I have a yearly goal to use up my collected supplies, so I am working on my art options right now.  I need ten thousand hours to improve.  It takes me awhile to get back in the flow of creating art.  :-)   This month may help that process.

When I was homeless in my van in the desert in 2002, I started painting again.  It took many days to finally get into a style I liked.  I am now wondering if that is the style I want to keep.

I also want to work on my resin designs, and some polymer clays. 

I may put some of these items at my ETSY shop, or my PATREON page.  Selling is the goal.  I need money!  Increasing my income what the goal of being online in all these spaces.

It's been a long journey.

I am finally going to try out CANVA pro, too.  I need to be able to make vector designs and I understand they have that ability.  They are also supposed to have transparent backgrounds for making t-shirt designs.  So, I will be trying those this month as well.

I have been listening to a Brian Tracy recording at YouTube recently.  I have one of his old CD recordings called CHANGE YOUR THINKING, CHANGE YOUR LIFE.  I love it.  It is a treasure for me, among several other special books, VHFs, CDs, and DVDs.  The recording I have been listening to is called NO EXCUSES.  I just catch parts of it as I play it in the background, but it is reminding me of things I have forgotten from all the years I have been listening to this kind of materials, or reading books like it.

Today I noticed a portion of the recording about investing in yourself, your personal development.  The suggestion is to spend 3% of your income on things that will improve your abilities.  It isn't much, but it is still a part of your income.  That can be a challenge for low-income people.  

Personal development would be going to seminars, taking classes, buying books about the work I am doing or want to do.  For me, it is using YouTube to learn.  The videos I find at YouTube and other places online are the classes I take.

I already spend over my 3% of income for improving my life.  I am still waiting for my return on investment.

Everything in a struggling budget gets moved around, every month.  It is a matter of surviving... this month.  Next month is a dream, a hope, a different goal that doesn't exist yet.

I am wondering if this is what the government is doing.