The Blessing of Being Busy!

Busy is a blessing. Therefore I must be very blessed! I am grateful for this blessing indeed.



This week my husband has worked Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, all night. 12 hour shifts. Wednesday he had an 8 hour shift, again at night. Thursday he had no job to go to. Friday he has his 8 hour night shift. Then Saturdays starts four 12-hour shifts. Busy is indeed a good thing.



My children, God bless them, have been busy spreading joy and happiness through handmade cards wishing people well. Through their handy work they have managed to soothe some feathers that hubby and I did not realize we had ruffled!!



I have been busy making meals for people who needed them, this week. Therefore, our school schedule suffered a bit. But life lessons? Living the beatitudes. How can that be topped?



We were blessed with a bountiful apple season, as I posted last.



We have an income and all the goodness that comes from being able to provide for our family.



I still have two part-time jobs, but with my husband working, I have been able to cut back on hours, spend more time at home, and resume my classes. My schedule is brutal: Up between 5 and 7 a.m, whatever I can manage. School starts at 8:30 a.m. for the children. School, meals, laundry, cleaning, etc. Then I start my school work, classes from 9:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. Brutal, but I am not complaining. No idle hands. This craziness shall pass.



We are busy, we are happy. God is good.



Today I wish to pray for, and remember all those who want to be busy, employed according to their vocation, and are unable to do that work. For whatever reason, God puts us through trials and often times we do not know why that is. Sometimes God allows us to see the good which comes from our trials, other times, we just do not know. That is where the faith comes in.



For those who are unemployed, for those who cannot work at their profession, for those who are unable to fulfill their vocation in life, I pray for an ease to their suffering. I pray for God to accept their sacrifices and their offerings, showering His blessings upon their intentions.



I pray for my children and for yours. I pray for their faith to grow.



Please feel free to add your intentions in the comments section, or to send me an email at thorns dot lily at gmail dot com and I will be glad to pray for your intentions as well.

This post is linked to Fearless Friday over at Free Spirit Haven and Sweet P's.

Need some prayers!

Well, I'm surprised to realize I haven't been blogging since March. We have had much happening in our lives and it just has not been conducive to blogging.

In one of my last posts I discussed my daughter, the oldest, being accepted at Interlochen for their Summer Performing Arts Camp in ballet. This is a big thrill for us, but also a big, no HUGE expense. We have been running fundraisers to get her there, it is the sort of opportunity that a kid who is accepted just ought not to miss. It could really launch her career because the ballet intensive should vastly improve her technique in a way she just could not improve locally without many more classes. I do not usually put up photos of myself or my children, but in this instance, I will make an exception. This is my oldest child, my daughter, at a dress rehearsal for her pointe solo this year. This picture was taken while she was dancing by a very talented tenth grade photographer from her dance team.

My oldest daughter is technically in eleventh grade this year, homeschooling, so college is on the horizon for her. But, when I asked her what she would like to do for her senior year, she said she would like to go to right into college. Being a homeschool student, she has the opportunity to take the GED exam and go this fall. She has been signed up to take the GED and hopefully we will be packing her off to Sarah Lawrence (her first choice school) this fall. She was late applying because we had not planned to go this route at all. She missed many deadlines, she had a list of schools that was very long. We ended up only being able to apply to three schools, one is the local community college. Please pray for her to do well on the exam, and for her to be able to attend Sarah Lawrence this fall.

In other news, my husband will be laid off from work in June. This was not a surprise, my husband has been seeking other employment for the last year and a half. We've not had any success. There are likely many reasons for this, not the least of which is my husband does not have a bachelor's degree. The good thing is with this layoff being due to his company sending the manufacturing process overseas, he will qualify for job retraining. The bad news is that this will force him into unemployment and us onto benefits and even then, we may struggle financially. This may have me going into the workforce as a full time employee; if he works he will lose all his benefits. We also have an opportunity to open a restaurant here in town, but in this economy that is a bit risky, so we are weighing our options, trying to figure out what is best for our family and our future.

With all of this, and more stress, I've been unable to eat! Food will not stay with me. I'm losing a lot of weight, which I needed to lose, but this is not a good way to go about losing it. If I cannot start keeping food down, I will need to go to the doctor.

All of my trials, though significant this year, are nothing compared to those of my friend and fellow blogger, Mary, who has been diagnosed with stage four cancer. Please pray for all of these intentions, and I will try to get back to some positive posting very soon.

God bless, you are all in my prayers.

Voting Today

I have decided to vote today, and I will cast my vote for McCain/Palin.

I've decided that despite his position on ESCR, I must go with the lesser-of-two-evils.

Despite my nausea, I will cast this vote, in NYS where it doesn't really matter anyway, because even though my vote will not count in any meaningful way, my voice should hopefully be heard through canceling an Obama vote.

I have decided not to vote third party, lest it work in favor of Obama. Any vote not for McCain in this election is almost like voting for Obama by proxy. It is just putting your vote into a pool of votes for naught, which ultimately takes the votes away from McCain, who although imperfect, has not sworn to make FOCA a priority in his first 100 days.

The winner in this election will likely nominate Supreme Court Justices, and I cannot sanction giving this power away to Obama because I refused to vote or because I voted third party which resulted in McCain losing votes; I honestly believe that those voting third party are doing so because they detest Obama.

A vote for McCain in this election is a vote for the lesser-of-two-evils. And there you have it. I'm going to vote and I've been sick about it for weeks now.

I'm going to be grateful for my lack of television tonight, although I've traditionally enjoyed election night coverage more than any other day in the year...it is always so entertaining to watch the newscasters forget themselves in their excitement and react to the data where their personal feelings are worn on their sleeves and their professionalism (or the guise of it) is completely lost. It actually is news television at its best...pure entertainment, absolutely zero value.

Tonight I will be grateful for the inability to watch the fiasco, and I will find out in the morning. I've done all I can, and now I will fast, pray, and go help out at the local school this morning, after I visit the voting booth.

WOW!

Snoopy's Happy Dance!

I'm doing a happy dance...looks like that strange interview last week MIGHT pay off for my husband. He's been asked to interview at the other company next week. Mr. Thorns is at work now, so I won't know for sure when he is going or if it is going to work out at all, but Woohoo! There's something on the horizon, let's pray this is it.

Incidentally, did I mention that Mr. Thorn's international corporation empoyer is shutting its doors? The big announcement was made when we returned from Nashville. Gee, it sounds like intuition paid off this time, for once. Please pray to St. Joseph that we find acceptable employment opportunities for dh, enough salary to keep us going for a while, and acceptable housing as well. Oh it is so complicated and stressful.