Lots of rambling & a few thoughts about Jesus

August 2, 2017August 1, 2017 / kstrick7 / Leave a comment

Fried green tomatoes just like my Mama Boyce used to make us. Don’t tell me we wasn’t raised right.

Since the summer has decided to pass by, without any warning whatsoever, I thought it would be perhaps a good time to mention school starts back at the end of this week.

As in THE.END.OF.THIS.WEEK.

I will just leave that right there. Do with it what you will.

However, with my disbelief of why the kids should be starting back to school so soon, Miss Neenee is quite excited. Per her usual, she has pinned me down to every last detail. Such as, when we are getting the last bit of her school supplies (and when I say the last bit, I mean, we have a back pack & lunch box & the 8th grade supply list is RIDONKULOUS), and when we will shopping for school clothes. She is so much of the planner. Just like her sister. They LOVE to plan and have everything figured out. I’m the more of flying by the seat of my pants type gal. A fountain of forethought & follow through I am not. Which thoroughly irritates the fire out of them. I don’t mean to. But deadlines & plans & being prepared, just not me. That gene skipped me somehow, because low & behold my beloved mama was a planner, as well.

We have been talking about the sermon on the mount at church. Well, Bro. Brad has been talking about it & we have been listening. But y’all. I have been studying & reading on it this week. Some really good stuff in there. I love to study on real words that Jesus said. I know & believe the entire Bible is God breathed. I just feel comforted to listen to Jesus’s teachings, always.

One of the things Jesus talks about, in this sermon, is worry. With everything that goes on these days, it’s so easy to go down the rabbit hole of worry & being fearful. We worry about our kids, money, family, friends, our jobs, our health, our family’s health, our country, our country’s leadership, etc. and so on. My grandmother was a worrier to a fault. She would worry. Then, when there wasn’t anything to worry about, well, she’d worry about that! She was a wonderful person. She just lived a life of unfortunate circumstances & things happened to her, that was out of her control. (Just like the rest of us.) When you are dealt a crummy hand, it’s easy to lose heart & begin to doubt & worry.

However, Jesus reassures us that we never have a need to worry.

Matthew 6: 25-34

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

²⁶Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

²⁷And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?^[g] ²⁸And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

³¹Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³²For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. ³³But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

³⁴“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (ESV)

Y’all, let’s not let worry consume us. Let’s not look back & think of all the things we missed out on because of worry. Things like joy, happiness, and restful nights sleep are at the top of the list for me. Everybody has problems & things they wish they didn’t have to deal with. However, we need to be prayerful & let the Lord work in our lives. He will if you let him, ya know?

Thank you for stopping by to visit with me today. July is but a fleeting memory. I’ve always heard time goes quicker, as you get older. And by George, I am a firm believer of this. I am also a firm believer that Mississippi, dead of heat summer is comparable to the torments of hell. Thus, my firm belief of doing my best to live a life that keeps me from those type situations. I hope you have a blessed rest of the week. As for me, I have to be going because I should be washing clothes.

Made this dress for my grandbaby girl. She looked like an angel when she came walking into church Sunday!

photo creds: pinterest, topcovers4fb.com, curiano.com

Stop it with the voodoo doll & I serve a great God

February 11, 2016February 11, 2016 / kstrick7 / Leave a comment

So whoever has the voodoo doll of me, can give it a rest at anytime. I will publicly say I apologize for whatever I have done to upset you or cause you any grief. Seriously. Enough.

Normally, I don’t moan & whine on this blog. However, since I am president & CEO of I should be washing clothes.com, I will be putting some information out there to my peeps that love & care about me, THAT HAS HAPPENED SINCE I LAST BLOGGED.

On Monday last week, I was at watching Miss Neenee at basketball practice when my aunt called me & said I needed to go see about my dad. He was at a funeral home visitation, for a classmate, & started acting strange. To make a long story short, he was & is still having mini strokes. He also has a blood clot in his heart.
Some good information to know about Medicare is, unless you are actively in the midst of a major medical situation (having strokes is not considered major, go figure), you have a short 3 night stay in the hospital. Then you are, O-U-T spells out goes he, on your bum. No exceptions.
We found out this delightful Medicare will allow you to go to “rehab” & stay. Which “rehab” is a fancy word for nursing home. They could call it the “most wonderful & magical place on the planet”, it’s still a nursing home. So, Daddy is currently in “rehab” for therapy.
My daughter had her baby! Yay babies! He is just a little bundle of joy. He is as sweet as can be. His big sister LOVES to hold him. Hopefully, we won’t find him in the washing machine, per her usual of putting things she loves in there.
We got to keep my baby grandgirl whilst her mama went to have the baby. #funtimes, #canttelleverythingthathappened, #grandkidsarethebest, #grandshouseiswhereitsat
Got confirmation, someone at my house, is having surgery very soon. Not saying who it is, but he’s not looking forward to it. 😦
I have the BEST family in the world. They all have gone out of their way to help us out, with Daddy & my daughter. It’s a true blessing to have such a close knit family.
Much to my dismay, I have had to miss some work. I also have some of the BEST co-workers in the world. They took care of everything while I took care of my family. Didn’t have to worry about ne’er a thing. Insert GOOD FEELING here.
There was a bomb threat, in the school district, where my daughter goes to school. They got out early that day. Thank the Lord she got home safe & sound & no one was hurt. Nonsense. Pure nonsense.
Last night, in a whirlwind of getting ready for bed, I put some cream on my face. I thought it was some I had used before. However, I didn’t recall all the tingling it was doing. I finally got it all rubbed off & today, I look like I have chicken pox. (Or at least that’s what our custodian, at work, told me I looked like.) Painful & burning. All day today. While I am typing, it is burning. That cream was promptly thrown in the garbage. Not a fan of the “burn” cream.

So, one may wonder, “What kind of mental state is a person in, after a week of unusual happenings?” All I can think is at the end of the day God is in control. Job 2:10 says Shall we indeed accept good from God & shall we not accept adversity? I have so many blessings in my life. Daily blessings. I can’t forget that, while I have these other unfortunate things happening. I am so thankful for our new grandson. I am thankful for the knowledgeable doctors & nurses that attend to my Daddy. I am thankful for all the friends & family that have called, texted, visited, messaged me, & just plain ol’ been there for us. When I think of those things I think of the amazing & remarkable love of the Lord. He has come right in & made things that seem bleak look hopeful. For all these things I am humbled & I so treasure the great God I serve.

I hope you all have had a good week. If not, remember, daylight’s coming. It can’t stay dark forever. Until next time, I have to be going because I should be washing clothes.

Learning to trust & can I get a marshmallow peep?

April 2, 2015April 2, 2015 / kstrick7 / 2 Comments

I can remember when I was little, if I was scared, I would run & hide behind my mama. This was mostly when I had maybe perhaps done something to my brother. He would chase me & I knew, if I could find mama, I would be ok. I can remember her saying to him,

” You have to be good to her. She’s the baby. You have to show her how a big brother acts.”

(This was promptly followed by me poking my head out from behind her sticking my tongue out at him.) And oh MY word ya’ll, if that hasn’t been a reality check for ME in life. Because, you know what? People aren’t always nice to me. And they really don’t care if I’m the baby or not. But my sweet mama used this tactic to try to get us to behave. I can remember her having to stand in between me & my brother & I would hold on to her just as tight as I could. I always trusted her & whatever I did, if I could get to mama, she would take care of me. No matter if I were right, wrong, or indifferent. I had that wonderful, special trust.

Do you ever have troubles? Sometimes problems arise from a wrong choice or decision that you’ve made. At other times, you don’t really have to be responsible for any of it & here it comes. Either way, problems in life are just plain unwanted. What makes an incredible difference in bad situations? How you handle it. We can be afraid, angry, disappointed, or have a multitude of emotions. We might start to ask God, “Why me? Why us? Why this?”However, we can trust, in the middle of all the heartache, that:

1. The Lord will not leave you. Hebrews 13:5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”(NKJV)

2. The Lord will take care of you. I Peter 5:7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Things may not be exactly like you think they ought to be. However, there are times the Lord takes care of us in a way we don’t understand. Matthew 11:28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. If we only go to Him & trust Him, He will help us, period. He will NOT leave us hanging out to dry.

3. The Lord will turn tragedy into blessings. One of the worst things that has ever happened to me is my mama’s sickness & untimely death. I will Never. Get. Over. It. But you know what? God has blessed our family with deeper love for each other. He sent people to help us through our hard times. We always had someone we could depend on, around us. He has caused me to appreciate life & to remember the wonderful example my mama left for us. I realize that for 30 years, I had a precious mama. Some people don’t have that. Some folks have never known their mother or don’t have a Christian mother. I was very fortunate to have had that. I can pass along those qualities to my children & family. I have a hope that I will be with her again one day. Until then, I have got to keep on keepin’ on.

John 16:22 Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.(NKJV)

The Lord is always working behind the scenes for us. We just have to trust in Him. We readily accept good from Him. As a part of life, sometimes we will have to accept bad, too.

Job 2:10 Shall we indeed accept good from God & shall we not accept adversity?(NKJV)

Life goes on. Even in awful circumstances. It’s ok to grieve the loss of a loved one, to get down & depressed about an erring child, or to feel like no one has any idea what you are going through. Those are human feelings. We just can’t unpack our bags & live in the land of desperation. There are times we get stuck going through the struggles of life. Just like a big ol’ tractor pullin’ a truck out of the ditch, the Lord can send people to help. Let them. I have said it once & will say it again & again. Folks, we are all in this big ol’ mess called LIFE together. We have to depend on each other. I hope you are at a point in your life you have finally relented to this fact. It makes things so much easier knowing you have people, who care about you. Isn’t it wonderful to know we don’t have to go through trials alone? We always have the Lord there with us. He can do things for us no one else can. We just have to simply trust. Is there a struggle in your life today? Pray about it. Seek others to help you. Look to the Lord for comfort.

The psalmist David said in Psalms 56:3 When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. (NKJV)

I’m not saying your problems will vanish overnight. I am saying you will be able to bear whatever it is, until things are better. You will find peace of mind. Only if you are willing to trust. God’s love never fails. We must give Him a chance to show us that. Whenever I am facing something hard in life, I have to remind myself, there’s someone out there who has a worse situation than I do. There’s always something to be thankful for. Maybe it’s that things aren’t as bad as they could be. No matter what, I have to be thankful for a loving God I can depend on. It’s hard to see the other side of trials sometimes. We just have to remember to slow down & take things day by day & trust the Lord to take care of us. In times like those, we don’t know what we need. We have to let the Lord handle our needs. He’s good at that. Just like the trust that my mama was going to make everything all better, God can do the same thing. Even bigger & better. Promise.

I am so glad you came by to visit me today. Goodness gracious, I about got too serious & heavy hearted with all of this. But sometimes it’s just that way, ya know? This Sunday is Easter. I sure hope you have your Easter frocks ready for church. My grandbaby girl is going to look so sweet. If you see her, you will be tempted to eat her with a spoon. I would discourage any of that. She has a tad of a mother hen for a mama. My Miss Neenee is ready all but the shoes. We will be getting those this week. Oh the fun! The kids & grandkids will be coming over after church. We will be dying eggs, hiding eggs, running around chasing kids, eating good food, & oh the Easter candy. There is nothing that suits me more than a marshmallow peep. Until then, I have to be going because I should be washing clothes.