......for another time

I found myself praying in the spirit on my way into town today. It seems as though each time I get into the Suburban lately, I am prompted to pray. There are so many things that need attention. For whatever reason I just have one or two things on my heart at one time. That's good because I have a hard time keeping up with too many things, so it's good to stay on target with one or two things and then move on to the others.
I seem to be more and more comfortable with my surroundings; specifically the financial realm. I have always had a hard time "not" worrying over money. I guess its because we have  had so little money these past few years that it 's as though I have to struggle to make ends meet. I really appreciate Dianna in this area of our lives. She has always paid the bills and does a superb job of it. I can't recall the last time we were late paying a particular bill. Somehow she always has a "stash" and the bill gets taken care of as needed.
That leaves me free to think about the  tasks at hand; the books, the music projects and so forth.
I am about to begin the book from New Zealand. I am really looking forward to it. I pray that it is sound and well thought out. If I can bring out the "life" of the words it should do well. That's been the central thought in my mind these past two weeks as I downloaded the chapters from the client's emails. She sounds so sweet. I was drawn to her in our initial contact. She just seemed like the kind of person I like to help the most. She has Spastic Cerebral Palsy and is confined to a wheelchair but that doesn't hold her back for a second. I like her 'spunk' and energy.
I'll post more on this as time goes by I'm sure.
For now I better get back to the battle and save some of this for another time.

...peace comes in the morning.

It's amazing how God moves things around in people's lives. I have been watching of late and it's really amazing to see how God does things. I try to figure out what is going to happen but almost without fail, things turn out differently than I expect.
For instance, I tried to buy a video card but it didn't go the way I thought it would. The purchase was made online but the company failed to say in the ad that it was a "store only item", meaning that it had to be picked up at the store to get that price. The store in question is in Georgia.
After cancelling the order it took three days to get the money back into my account so I could buy from another source.... for about $100 more. That certainly didn't turn out in my favor, but that's life. There are going to be those times that things don't go our way. But is is interesting to see how it unfolded and how it turned out from an observer's perspective.
In the meantime I learned that a pastor I have been working with bought the wrong version of a software program from a company. Their policy is that once you buy a downloadable product there is no refund or exchange even though we couldn't use it. The choices were vague on the screen and you had to be watching very closely to see the options for each of the 4 listed versions.
I wonder how this will turn out in the end. I am mentioning it now so I can follow how things go in the blog, updating everyone as it transpires instead of after the fact. as a sort of "bird's eye view".
How often do we run into occurrences that don't go the way we think? For me it's pretty often.
I am learning to "roll with the punches" so to speak on these issues but it's not comfortable.
Di's Dad has a house in Joplin. We thought that it was going to sell at one point and get him out from under a financial burden. We made a special trip to fix things from a list prepared by the real estate agent and came home expecting the house to close the following week. Not so. The buyer sent another list with about 15 or more additional things to be done. It was very discouraging. Again, things turned out differently than we expected.
Why is it that some people have smooth sailing while others have choppy seas to navigate? God only knows the answer on that one, but I do know that he rewards those that diligently seek him. That's my intention. I'm going to be looking for his hand in things and turn in his direction where safety and peace abide in abundance. It won't always be choppy seas.... as they say... "peace comes in the morning"

.... I so want this to happen

I had the coolest conversation with a new client today. She is in Hamilton, New Zealand, halfway around the globe from here.
We had a bit of a time getting Skype to work for us at first but once that was out of the way we spent about an hour getting acquainted. She is writing a book called The Chrysalis, that I will be editing for her and I am really excited to do it. It will be the first work for the new company One Lord Media Group and I want it to shine for us as well as for her. I put up the One Lord Media Group site a few weeks back , intending to make good use of the design I had for Springboard, a company that never got off the ground. I didn't think much about it at the time but within a week I had our first client!
I'm not getting very much to do it, but that's alright for now. I'll get better as time goes by and I can increase the wages along with the knowledge.

Our talk covered a lot of bases and with each one we were in agreement so I felt well pleased when we finally said goodbye, looking forward to our next 'hook up'. It would be so nice to make a living at this. I can actually make a difference if I apply everything correctly and not take forever to do everything.
I'll begin to tackle it sometime this next week and get back to everyone with the progress. Pray for me. I so want this to happen.

... in the near future

I am tired today. Yesterday was spent driving to and from Joplin with a three and a half hour marathon work detail squeezed into the middle.
Dianna got a call from the Realtor that Dad had a bid on his house in Joplin. That was good news in and of itself, but what we didn't want to hear was "the rest of the story", as Paul Harvey says.
It seems that here were a few 'details' that needed attention. The outside deck needed a coat of paint, the Kitchen faucet had to be replaced and we needed to add a drain to the pop off valve on the hot water heater. No biggy, right?
And so, we piled into the Suburban and made a mad dash to Joplin. We completed the work in just over three hours including a trip to Home Depot for supplies and headed for home.
The hardest part about the whole thing was finding a place to eat. We hadn't taken into consideration that it was Valentines Day when we got hungry, we just wanted a good meal. After stopping at about three or four restaurants and discovering the wait times ranged from one hour to over two hours, we decided to go on to Tulsa and try our luck there. We would be past the dinner hour by that time and the crowds should be subsiding by then .... right? We even tried calling ahead but that didn't pan out so we decided to hit Restaurant Row on 71st Street and just see what happens. Bingo! On the third try we ended up at El Chico's Mexican Restaurant enjoying a great meal and great service.
We pulled into the driveway just before midnight. The end of the trip brought us to two separate detours, which cost us about a half hour to navigate, but we made it.
I hope we don't have to do this again soon. It was okay, but, very tiring. I'm just not up for another road trip like this in the near future anyway.

...but then again ...maybe not

The cold weather has been quite bitter here. People all over the country are effected.

When I heard the forecast late last year that we were in for a colder Winter than usual, I had no idea it would be so severe.

I had an outside paint job that ordinarily takes about four days last almost three weeks. I had to wait several times for temperatures to get over 40 degrees to be able to apply paint. Thankfully I had a good client that let me off the hook for the touch up until better weather or I would still be waiting to get paid.

I know that things can be difficult to say the least. Life has become unpredictable and sometimes even dangerous.

I don't know how others make it in today's world, especially those that don't have the Lord in their lives to oivercome the bad things that occur. 

We have a neighbor that typifies my last statement. They have several children and they both work. But for whatever reason they are always in the 'hole'. Their rent is always late. They have breakdowns and  "accidents" and chaos more or less rules. They are nice people. They work hard and they love their children dearly, but nothing seems to go right for them. 

I sold the husband a van. He was supposed to pay me every two weeks and did for the first few payments until the Ball-joint went out on the interstate and someone stole the van before he could get it off of the highway and to a shop. The old saying comes to mind about being "snakebit". Now they are separated because of a drinking issue and I'll probably never see the rest of the money for the van.

That's alright. God knows best. I'll leave it up to him and see what happens. I tried to be a good neighbor and help them out. And I won't hold it against him for getting into a fix he had no control over. Life just does things to some people that I don't understand. It probably won't matter in the long run anyway, but it sure would be nice to at least know a little more than I do about all of this. But then again.... maybe not