Wednesday, 10 January 2018

I made it!
Some days seem to be harder than others, but here I am...

My New Year 2018 theme of EXERCISE (Making a Plan I can live with!) has begun with a strange flow.  I am getting to a reasonable option for my situation, but it is a process.  I think I will need to recover tomorrow as well.  I did walk to the local market, but that was still more than I needed for this week.

Getting old is a challenge.
More of a challenge than I expected.

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Other than that, I am catching up and moving forward with my many lists of things to get done.

I still have four letters to write for December  :-)  -- slow to get done.  I sent my cards out as a December communication, but then started writing letters, so I have to finish the list.  January letters are also begun... so we will keep them going.  I found a great insert for January from one of the mission mailings I got.  February's "insert" will have to be on love, I suppose.  Who knows what I will find and share!

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I am so happy to finally have gone to a store I wanted to get to since moving here almost (about 4 years ago!)... and I finally was able to buy the heat gun I want for some of my crafting projects.  Getting my room fixed is helping.  Finding the right storage options is really helping.  I hope I live long enough to make it productive!!!  I'm starting this week, I think.

Money is always the main issue.  So getting things is slow, but I do what I can along the way.  It's all beginning to work out.  God willing, it will continue to work out.

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My Christmas lights are still in my window and they make me happy every time I look at them. 

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I hope to find the small fridge I want by next month.  It is really needed.

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How to reach our goals... I am thinking about that a lot these days... I have so many goals "in process" - with pieces done and more to get done.  I continue to pray for what I need, and look for GOD's answers.

I decided on two of my three main goals for 2018.  I may have my third one figured out, too.  I am working on the plans of how to do them first. 

1 ::  My exercise plan.
2 ::  Increase my income.   (This is a LOT harder than it seems!)
3 ::  is probably going to be catch up with my taxes and make sure it is all OK.  Money is such an issue in my life this is more of a difficult goal than it seems.  I don't owe much, but I need to get it taken care of.

After that... I have all my other goals to work on.   :-)  hahahaha

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We change in small pieces.

I have been trying to reduce "animal protein" in my diet... which is so hard, cheese has always been such a large part of what I eat, and milk, and eggs, and chicken, and fish, and meats of various kinds... going away from "processed foods" is another part of that process of change for me...and it is also hard.  I'm focusing on REDUCING how much of these things I eat, not totally eliminating them... but that is still a need to NOT eat them. 

I'm trying to use honey more than sugar, especially in my coffee.

I stopped making milk and then I bought dry cereal, which requires milk.  I still have some dry milk to use, so I am making it ONE cup at a time, when I really need to have milk for something.  I am trying to decide what I want to do about this issue.  I bought raisin bran cereals to eat because of my senior status and wanting to eat more bran for fiber.  I wanted a change from oatmeal.  I also bought some Cream of Wheat for the same reason :: variety.

I even bought more peanut butter !!!   I just gave my last container of peanut butter to a mission because I hardly eat it.  Now I am trying to eat it as a protein source.  I do eat enough (too much, really) of various kinds of nuts already, but I wanted some peanut butter one night and didn't have it for toast or something.  How we change.  (Note:  One time when I was homeless, living in my van, and without a lot of things, I would eat the 2T of peanut butter that makes a protein serving as part of my diet.  I think that is what makes it hard to eat regularly these days.  I guess I like to get that protein in other forms now.)

I am trying to make other changes as I can. 

I have read that it is good to focus on one change at a time.  I see the wisdom in that.  It makes it easier.  I don't know if I can do that, but being kind to myself helps me when I don't want to do the thing I am trying to change... like not eat dairy.  Getting my consumption down to a low level appeals to me, but how much is "low" in real food terms.

This is my ongoing process right now... CHANGING some of the things in my life that are not where I want them to be... one day at a time, one meal at a time, one walk at a time... slowly... but keeping on.

This is my best right now.
It's good enough for me.

I hope to hear from you about how you are doing with your goals.

In Christ,
Deborah Martin

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May GOD help all of us to grow into the best person we can be.
May our hearts trust in His goodness, His Plan, His love for us.
May we be wise about the tricks of our Enemy, and keep our focus on GOD.
May life bring us happiness.
May time keep us holy, devoted, and strong.
May our goals be GOD's goals.
Amen.

Tuesday, 2 January 2017

Another day! is done!  ... almost.  :-)

I spent a lot of time making my room better... moving things around... feeling like it was killing me (seriously!)  To rest, I watched TV... news, then a movie, then I had to rest and fell asleep for a little bit.  Getting use to being older is quite a learning curve! 

Now I am up to get this done.  :-)

If I can figure out how to sell enough of my crafting projects, I will be OK!  (Financially, goal-wise, craft-supplied, etc.)  Things are beginning to take shape. 

Wages through Working Together are also an option... been praying for that a long time.  Lots of associated issues with that quest, but I continue to trust that GOD is working in the midst of them. 

This is the year I focus on praying for my children's souls...  in earnest.  I hope to see changes before I die. 

I am remembering some of the foods I loved as a younger person... I made some sauteed mushroom slices today, and then ate them as a sandwich with lettuce.  I use to eat them with burgers.  I love mushrooms practically crisped in butter.  I can see more of these in my meal planning, even if they are lots of calories and fat because of the butter.  I may try to use less, but boiled mushrooms just don't have the flavor of sauteed mushrooms.  :-)

Oatmeal is becoming a breakfast staple, with dried fruit cooked in it.  I'm not sure yet what other options I want to try for breakfast.

Salads are coming back.  :-)  As long as I can keep myself in lettuce, I'll be fine.

Exercise... well, that is still a 2018 goal.  I did more than my fair share today, but I want to find a walking plan and get an exercycle.

I need to catch up with my monthly letter list... I have a few from December left, even though I sent out Christmas cards I decided to do letters, too.

These are the "TO DO" items on my lists... not quite goals, but parts of goals.  Trying to decide my top 3 goals for 2018 is still part of the goal challenge for me.  I'm working on a SMART Goal version, with deadlines, with details, with a finish line.  When I get it all organized into one notebook, my original plan, it will be easier to keep track of the process.  Making one big goal into all the small steps that lead up to achieving it is another challenge with goals. 

Project managers do this with their events and other bigger work goals.  I have read a little about them along the way.  The way to get to the goal is to work backward, to figure out the last step and then work backward to where you are now.  It all sounds easy, but it really is a big job.  Lots of details.

I practice on some of my smaller goals.

Exercise may have to be one of those top three goals.

Income may have to be another one of those top three goals... again.  More details of how to increase my income will have to be the goal.  Once you have enough saved, you can do any goal.

What to do for goal 3... I am still wondering.

Tomorrow I will work on getting these goals into words, with details, and deadlines... something to check off as I go through the year.  That really helped me with my food goal last January... I may have to try that again this year.  :-) 

I'll let you know how I did when I write tomorrow's post.

Until then, pray for my sons to find their happiness in GOD, be saved by Christ in their hearts, and dedicate their lives to the work GOD has planned for them to do.  Thanks.

In Christ,
Deborah Martin

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May we all be united by our salvation, find peace in our walk with GOD and Man, and live to make our world better. Amen.

Monday, 1 January 2018

A new year...
I saw a post on Facebook the other day... about the New Year.  It said something like ::

One year = 365 opportunities

Nice way to see the year...
We can start over every new day...
Begin again...

I have "exercise" as my theme this year...
I will probably be doing a lot of starting over !!!   :-)

I am still working on my goals for the next year.
I am trying to put them down on paper so I can look at them as time goes by.
One section on my goal sheet is for my top 3 goals.
I have been thinking about those since I reformatted my goal page.

Goals are not exactly like the list of things you want to get.
I have a long list of things I need to buy to do the things I have as goals...
for crafting, for business, for personal things like my bucket list...
but that is not the same as what is my bigger goal for the whole year.

Our budgets make our goals, I guess.
I don't have much money to work with, so things take a lot longer.
When I have to start over again, it only takes longer...
I have to get to where I was and then try to keep going.
I watched some ROKU channel this weekend,
including part of a documentary on people who are homeless
and surviving in the drainage tunnels under big cities.
Every winter, everything gets "washed away" and then you have to start over.
Tent people suffer the same problem...
there is a "sweep" and all the efforts they have made to get ahead are taken to the dump.
I lost most of my things when they were in storage lockers.
One payment missed and they want to sell your life's belongings.
I remember hearing about a famous person owing a storage place thousands and thousands of dollars and they still had their possessions.  Why do the poor lose theirs after one month?
People need a place to build... a place they can make their own...
even poor people need that.

This year is a blank canvas.
I hope it becomes a great memory.

In Christ,
Deborah Martin

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May the GOD who owns it all decide to share some with me.  :-)  Amen.

Tuesday, 26 December 2017

Christmas is over... 

Some have already cleaned their house of decorations.  (One year I did that... but usually I just let it stay until it is a fire danger.  :-)  )  I like mine.  I also want to see if I can afford some of those Christmas storage containers this year... so I'm waiting to get to the store.

The weather here is ICE and COLD !!!!!   Now that I am getting older, I am not so excited to slip and fall.  I hear it can lead to a hospital stay!  Yuk!  I was given a pair of spikes to put on my shoes... some rubber things that are easy to put on and take off.  I tried them.  They are good.  But, also like tires with spikes... they ruin the floor.  Carpet would be OK, but not soft flooring.  So... the rules are, on and off by the door outside.  They should be great if I feel courageous enough to go anywhere.  I walk home up a long hill... right by the busy road most of the way.  I don't want to fall in front of a car, and I don't want a car sliding into me!  I may have to wait to go to those after-Christmas sales.

Maybe I can check online... but it just isn't the same.  Wednesday is my thrift store day.

I hope you got a lot of good stuff.  I got some great things... cash is always good to have... especially for all those sales!  haha...  and I got a Roku thing... I'm still trying it out, but it sure is better than the antennae reception!  I also got the tool I wanted... and I am working on getting that tried out.

Christmas was a lot of movies on TV.  It was my theme this year.  :-)  Next year, I don't know what I will plan...  it all depends on what GOD provides.  I have tons of things on my list, just have to save for them... and pray.

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My Working Together December Membership Drive is still going.  Not turning out as I would have liked, but I can see that a December event is going to be a big challenge.  I will be working on building my outreach for next December.

Only $100 per year per individual... which will become increasing benefits as you renew year to year...  In time, I will have all the options up online, including the installment plan of $10/month.  Right now, all I have available is the PayPal.Me/WorkingTogetherInc link, which will also take any donations you might like to offer.

Maybe this year, as I get the hang of video, I will be able to set up a crowdfunding site.  

PRAY for me and for WT... this is an important work for GOD's people... more important than they know.

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I have been eating way too much the past two months!  So, by default, by need, by desire, my 2018 goal is to work on my EXERCISE activities.  So sad...

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I have been trying the 4-3-2-1 plan from BIGGEST LOSER (the cookbook I found) and it is becoming workable.  I am slowly getting into the process of four fruit and veggies a day, three proteins, and 2 whole grains.  I have dubbed the one extra as anything I want outside of the healthy list.  Well... kind of.  I have been eating cookies and holiday goodies, and I always like to have popcorn.  I figured I would work on that part of the plan.  It's easier to keep track of.  And I am getting better at my portion controls.  I am also getting my fridge supplies down so I can shop once a week for the fresh food items I need for that week.  It may become the best thing that happened to me.  Maybe. 

January is the official start of this plan. And my exercise goal.  I am still working out the exercise plan details.  It is so easy to think of things to do, and so hard to actually DO them!  haha.

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I have been organizing my workspace for getting my stuff into listings and selling online... 2018 is a goal year.  Hope I can find a way to make it all work... finally.

Time to go.
Hope your holiday was great,
and that you are planning a better year for 2018...
We do our best, but GOD is always in charge of what it becomes.
Trust and Obey... it really is true... there is no other way.

I like the statement that Charles Stanley created ::

Obey God, and leave all the consequences to Him.

(I'm pretty sure that is it... check at intouch.org )
Anyway... until next time.

In Christ,
Deborah Martin

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May GOD bless all those who love Him.
May we all be able to share GOD's love with others.
May our loved ones all meet us in heaven.
May we find our purpose in the Body of Christ.
May our hearts be filled with love and joy and kindness... and every good thing.
May next year be our best year.
Amen.

Thursday, 21 December 2017

Today has been a difficult day.  The cat that lives here has been visibly ill this week, and today she died.  It is hard to watch a living thing die, whether an animal or a person.  I was told she was at least 15 years old.  Her sister died a short while back... we assume... she just disappeared.  She was ill like this... not able to walk, visibly in pain, not eating, etc.  I thought it might be caused by something in this neighborhood, but I wouldn't know for sure.  There's little you can do after something happens, for the victim, but you try to keep it from happening again.  Her name was Dottie.  Her sister was called Lucky.

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As for me, I am still recovering from my shopping "exercise" yesterday.  I wasn't able to stay up a bit longer.  Sorry about that.  No one else can do my writing for me.

I became one of those community charity recipients yesterday.  :-)   I was on my way to the Salvation Army Sale Day and a police car stopped by me on the street... I think it said it was a Sheriff's car.  Some man got out and started talking to me... I tried to think of what I could have done to warrant the police stopping me!  A local news station vehicle stopped, too... across the driveway from where I was.  I was so busy trying to figure out what was going on I can't even remember what was said.  The purpose turned out to be some anonymous Christmas cheer... they gave me a crisp, new, green, wonderful, amazing $100 bill !!!  I was shocked!  I remember I kept looking at it... later I said something about wondering what I was going to do with it... It was quite an experience.  :-)  Nice Christmas gift!  Totally unexpected!  The TV people asked me some questions for a follow-up, but I don't know if they did anything with it.  I probably wasn't as visibly excited as I might have been.  :-) 

FYI ::  I still haven't decided what to do with it, so I'm saving it until I do.  :-)

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It was a long day... and I didn't get to eat anything until I got home... about 6am to 3pm...

I did stop to buy some grocery food... that worked out good.  :-)  I bought my second container of eggnog for this season.  Today I tried it in my coffee... so good!

The new gifted money let me buy some things I might not have bought otherwise... especially craft supplies.  I decided to spend some money on gold (leaf?) sheets and some gold and silver paint pens for some experimenting.  This should be fun!  I still have a long list of things I want to get over time, but this will really help.

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Not too many days left to get anything done...

I will feel better by tomorrow, I think.  I will be able to start using the supplies I have collected to try some projects. 

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The sale at the Salvation Army Thrift Store was great for me.  I finally found one of those asparagus pans... the tall ones with the basket inside.  I told the cashier it was my Christmas gift for the year... I had been wanting one for such a long time.

I found a BIGGEST LOSER cookbook that shared something interesting to me.  Their menu planning goes 4-3-2-1, which means 4 fruit and veggies a day, 3 proteins a day, 2 whole grains a day, and 1 extras (200 calorie limit).  I am now trying to think of daily options for my healthy food quest.  With portion control, my food bill should really improve!  :-)  Shopping will be even more important... weekly, limits on what I buy, etc... maybe I can buy more organic now.

I also found an old book on being frugal, but I haven't browsed through it yet.

I actually was surprised to find Bibles... they seem to be extinct in the thrift stores these days.  I discovered a MESSAGE Bible so I grabbed it.  I have never really seen one before.  I hope to explore it soon.  I also noticed a Devotional Bible for Women.  I decided to get it as a companion to the one I found for Dads.  :-)  I have always tried to collect Bibles so I can compare the versions... but I lost them because of poverty issues.  I will keep looking for more.  I can never replace some of the things I had.

I looked for more Christmas music and wound up finding great CDs by Kenny G and Michael Bolton.  I have a Celine Dion already.  There are some songs I want to find and keep around.  :-)  I did also get a Christian music CD (and a VHS tape of worship music), and then a CD on How to Make Your Point in 30 Seconds.  I have it in the player already, but not listened to it yet.  I hope it has some great ideas for my marketing efforts... maybe for when I start doing commercials.  :-)  I also found a Joyce Meyer DVD on Confrontation.  That should be helpful.  haha

I love thrift store shopping!  :-)   I look for treasures that only matter to me.  Old things that are still good to use.  Things you will never find anywhere else.  It is my fun!  :-)

I saw a video on Facebook a long time back about someone putting one of those xylephones up for their chickens, and they all had a time pecking at it.  I thought it would be fun to get one for my son's chickens... and mine, later on, if I get that far.  So, I remembered to look for one yesterday and there was something like it there so I bought it. ($2)  I still have to get it put up.  I decided to put some cup hooks in the back that will fit on the fence wire to hold it up and move it easily.  I hope that will work out good.  I still need to clean it and do the hooks.  Maybe by the New Year... or next week.

Shopping is fun.

I got a lot of the things on my continuous list, and that always makes me feel like it was worth the time and money and energy it takes to shop now.  I am trying to save some money for the after Christmas sales.

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Have you figured out any goals for 2018?

I am still trying to decide on my one main goal for the year.  I have lots of goals on my lists, with lots of different categories to think about (self, home, work, income, debts, health, education, crafting, etc.)...  Last year was the food hours... which evolved over the months, and died somewhere in November, maybe October!  :-)  I try to figure out how to do things better the next time.

I did answer two goal questions on Facebook... one for Christy Wright (Business Boutique), one for Daymond John (Shark Tank).  I am thinking about those submissions... but not sure I want to make them my main goal.  Separating my personal and my work lives is a stage that is increasingly important, but I haven't found an answer I can do.

It really is true about goals... you need to be clear about them, and write them down, and keep them in view every day.  Life seems to do battle with our goals.  It's so easy to get distracted by the "urgent" and forget what really matters.  (The "tyranny of the urgent" I think it's called.)   My constant work at my goals is an effort to keep them in view.  It is another reason I always look for those books, DVDs, CDs, VHS tapes, etc., that have to do with learning new things.  I tend to get lost in Facebook and Pinterest posts for the same reason.  I suppose that is a big weakness for me.  :-)

I still have some time to decide...

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Hope this update is enough for two days of posting...  I'm done for now.  God willing, I will return on Monday.  Happy getting ready for Christmas!  This is the last shopping weekend... I hear it is one of the biggest shopping days of the year... probably all those men who wait until the last minute... what do you think?  Am I right?  :-)

In Christ,
Deborah Martin

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May GOD help us to make it through this year and plan for next year.
May GOD help our nation's leaders to put America first, really put her first, so we can make the decisions that need to be made to survive our current problems and become stronger for the future.
May GOD be good to those who love Him... bless them in special ways... and provide for their deepest needs.
May our loved ones all meet us in heaven.
May life become worthy of our devotion to it.
May all the poor be blessed, may the homeless find shelter, may the aged be cared for and loved, may we all find someone to love that we haven't met and will never see again... love with and open heart and hand and wallet, as much as we can.
May Christmas become the season when searching hearts find Jesus as their Saviour... bringing those unexpected blessings to every day... helping us to see the meaning of our lives.
May we all trust GOD to guide us.
Amen.

Monday, 18 December 2017

My... one more week!
Christmas is almost here... and then a brand new year to plan and make goals for and continue toward our dreams.

The end of the year is always a time of evaluation and planning.

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I went to turn on the TV to some Christmas music this morning and discovered a terrible train wreck had happened, on my favorite train system, the Cascade run.  I started crying every time I sat to watch it.  Christmas is such a hard time for tragedies to happen.

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I think I have watched almost all of the Christmas movies at Hallmark's stations.  I tried to watch a few of the offerings at other stations, but they get so raunchy I have to turn them off.  Some of the Hallmark movies are objectionable these days, so I am nearing the point of not watching them anymore.  Not sure what I will do.  I like to buy the ones I can deal with, but they are getting to be a pretty short list.  Morality shows up in so many ways... we often get it packaged in more "digestible" ways when you compare SNL and Hallmark, but the issues are still being presented to us.

The loss of a godly influence is more impacting than most believe.  I think some of the "good" people who don't want GOD in this world think that having everyone just like them is not going to make the world bad.  Christians are people who are learning how to be better than they use to be, good people have only their own moral ideas to guide them.  If everyone has their own idea of what is moral, it could be a very wide boundary.

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I continue to post at my Working Together Inc page at Facebook.  I am learning about daily posting, PayPal.Me/WorkingTogetherInc , and what I need to do better for next December.  It has been decided that the way to achieve a yearly income budget (foundation) is to have the Membership Drive for the next year in December.  (I finally decided that was the way to stay dependent on GOD for His provision and His boundaries.)  This year I am trying to post every day about it.  I decided to share some of my goals and plans for WT as part of this process.  Membership is the main goal of Working Together.  It will give us the connections to Christians and other interested people, and it will limit our activities to our members needs, with eventual outreach to those outside our membership in the local communities we are established into.

I suppose it would be too much to go into here.  I discovered again that I had created a PayPal.Me account for WT so I started using it as a payment method.  It isn't perfect, but it is an option.  I can take donations from people who want to help me get this effort better established, and I can apply a membership to those who pay $100 for an individual one-year membership.  It will automatically be registered as a PUBLIC Membership, with email delivery of the monthly newsletter and other digital deliveries.

I am not able to offer the installment plan via PayPal yet.  By next year I will be offering that.  The installment plan is for those who want to pay monthly instead of in one payment.  It is $10/month.  As it is now, I can only offer a "subscription" option through PayPal, and I need to figure out the benefit structure better with that option.  My plans are all dependent on the full payment of a membership fee, so I need to break the benefits down into monthly parts... that will accrue as payments are completed.  The installment plan works better after more than one year has passed as some benefits increase as each year of renewed membership passes.

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My PayPal.Me account registers me in Portland, Oregon, but I want to set up the offices for Working Together in Eugene, Oregon.  It is a complicated process for me because I don't have the money to do all these things myself.  I was able to update the presentation for those who go to the link for payments.  I added a photo of my logo-type thing.  I reworked the statement about what we are doing.  It took a lot of tries, but I hope it finally stays the way I wanted it to present.

My logo-type photo is a design I also want to make into stickers for various uses.  I like to put the Operation Christmas Child shoebox sticker on my letters (envelopes) as seals, so one day I will create a sticker for Working Together.

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I think I know how Abraham and Sarah felt after waiting on GOD for all those years.  We expect GOD to do something right away.  When He doesn't, it is a challenge to keep believing.  I decided to use this blog for my posts because faith and prayer are my life. 

GOD doesn't tell us all the details of what He is busy doing, He just works out His Will.  I thought about at one point in my search for answers and decided it is because Satan would know what He is doing and try to mess it up.  Prophecies are a challenge for us to understand, but they are also a challenge for Satan.  That is why Satan thought he won the battle when he killed Jesus... but, actually, he was achieving GOD's Will, making it possible for us to be saved, making it unnecessary for us to have to sacrifice animals at the temple to forgive our sins.

GOD doesn't work the way we think He should.  We have to trust Him, to believe that the end will show us why things happen the way they do.

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Well, I need to go write my Facebook post.
I will be back tomorrow, GOD willing.

In Christ,
Deborah Martin

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May GOD help us all to trust Him through the hard times,
through the things we don't understand,
through the questions and the doubts and the dreams.
May GOD be kind to those who are suffering tonight.
May the angels be sent to comfort those who are hurting because of tragedies that have come into their lives unwanted, and unexpected, and undeserved.
May our lives be filled with hope and love and peace and joy and goodness.
May we all give more than we get, and share our bounties with those who have nothing.
Amen.