Going Natural: Simple Woman's Daybook

If you would like to join in and post your own Daybook, please head on over to visit Peggy at The Simple Woman's Daybook

For Today:  Friday, June 30, 2017
 

Outside my window …  We've had several drought-busting rain showers this week...about four of them today!  Others have complained, but I've enjoyed the rain.  I've been wound up tighter than a Slingerland drumhead, and the rain has made me start to slow down and relax.

We really don't
want to go there
again!

I am thinking...  about cutting my hair and "starting it over."  I really don't want to do that.  I hated how I looked with short hair (like my Mom's youngest SON instead of her daughter).  I look and feel better with longer hair.  However, I used to have help with it because I couldn't do a thorough job with on my own.  I think if I could get one good relaxer, hot oil treatment, and style from a salon, it would set me up to better take care of it.  The problem is 1) it's really freakin' expensive and 2) it seems that hair salons that specialize in black hair want to keep everything secret so you have to keep coming back to them to have decent looking hair.  Sorry, but that ain't me (see #1).  And, no, I can't go "natural."  I don't have nice, soft African hair; if I let my hair grow natural, it takes on the consistency of an old Brillo Pad.  Try combing that!  In the words of Martin Lawrence, "ya' hair's so nappy, Wilson couldn't pick it."

 

I am thankful...  for my Mom.  Her 84th birthday was last weekend.  She is still healthy and strong all because, as she says, she refuses to hang out with "old people."

 

From the Workshop...

"Fear the Beak"
8x10 acrylic on canvas.
Read more about it here.



I am reading... For the first time this year I actually had a book I couldn't finish.  I reviewed what I did read here.  Yes, it was that bad.

Currently off the shelf (among the pile):

I also finished several books this month:

• The three remaining books in Janette Oke's Seasons of the Heart series I started last year.
• The Bluebird and the Sparrow by Janette Oke.
• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass.  Please see my review here.

I am learning...to let go of what really doesn't matter and grab hold and not let go of what does. 

Favorite quote(s) of the week: 
 

"God didn't save you for you to sit in church and be comfortable." - Pastor Rod Parsley

"Rejection isn't just an emotional feeling.  It's a message that alters what you believe about yourself.  And the minute you sense that happening is the minute you must stop the runaway thinking with truth." - Lysa TerKeurst
 

I am looking forward to... 

• Independence Day.  I'll have a much needed day off.
• August - God is setting me up for some big things.  More to come on that later.
• New challenges.  See below.

And now for something totally different...

Five Minute Friday word of the week:  Expect

 

NEW CHALLENGES: 

 

In my newest incarnation of the 101 in 1001 list, I have several 30 day challenges.  For the month of July, I'd like to tackle 30 days of 10,000 steps and 30 days of letter writing.  I'm going to take these challenges as a catalyst to learn to use the Instagram app as well.  If you want to join me and/or see my progress, my Instagram handle is sdmadd1.  See you there!



What Did Your Daddy Say?!: The Weekly Hodgepodge



Join the fun! 

Come on over to 

From This Side of the Pond 

for the Hodgepodge link-up!

The Hodgepodge lands on June 14th this week, Flag Day in the US of A. Do you fly your country's flag at home? Sometimes, often, or every single day? Have you ever visited the city of Brotherly Love (Philadelphia)? Did you make a point of seeing The Betsy Ross House? Have you ever made a trip to Baltimore? If so, was Fort McHenry on your itinerary? (where Francis Scott Key was inspired to write The Star Spangled Banner)

As far as flying the flag, when I've got my own place, getting a flag kit for the front porch is near the top of my "to do" list.

Red flag or white flag? Which have you encountered most recently? Explain.

Neither.  No retreat, no surrender.

Are you a stay in the car listen to the end of a song kind of person? What kind of person is that?

No, the song will roll around again.  No song is worth being late for work or church.

What are some of the traits or qualities you think a good dad possesses? In other words, what makes a good dad? What's an expression you associate with your father?

The same answer I gave to this question back in 2013 still holds true:

Good dads love God more than anyone else.  That way they know best how to love others.  Good dads provide for their children; not just financially, but emotionally as well.  Good dads laugh and cry in front of their children and are willing to say both “I was wrong” and “I love you.”  Good dads hug a lot.  Good dads defend their children when they need it, and tear up their children’s rear ends when they need it.  Good dads support their wives/baby’s mamas. Good dads don’t hit the mother of their children with a fist or with words.

There are several expressions I could attribute to my Dad.  Now, to find one fit to print:

• On the discipline of children causing tears - "The more they cry, the less they have to pee."
• On the willfully ignorant:  "He don't know sheep s&%t from Shinola."
• "Sammich" (noun) - sandwich.
• "Shawty" - ie, shorty, his nickname for my mother.  He called her that decades before it became fashionable to call you significant other your "shawty."
• "Drank" (noun) - any soft drink, as used in the phrase "Shawty, fix me some drank and a sammich."

What's one rule you always disagreed with while growing up? Is that rule somehow still part of your adult life? Is that a good or bad thing?

No singing at the table.  I guess my parents considered that to be along the lines of playing when we should have been eating.  However, if you've seen my childhood pictures, missing a few spoonfuls wouldn't have hurt me any.  It's not really an issue now; I have to make myself sit at the table long enough to eat, much less sing.  I guess I got my revenge when I was a preschool teacher and taught my class a prayer to sing before meals.  The other teachers thought I was crazy when I let the kids sing and clap a song at the table before eating.  Ask me if I cared...

Insert your own random thought here.

The summer is shaping to be wonderfully different.  The positive changes for which we've been praying are happening.  In the next few weeks, I'll be letting y'all know what's going on.

Please slide over to my sister blog to see the latest project from the Workshop. Thanks.

Five Minute Friday: "Expect"

Hebrews 11:1 - Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (KJV)

I once heard Pastor Creflo Dollar describe the hope in Hebrews 11:1 as "an earnest expectation with an outstretched neck."

I like that.

For me, the outstretched neck isn't just the giddy anticipation of the goodness yet to come, but also the willingness to "stick my neck out" and take the risks that bring those good things to us.

Earnest expectation is active, not passive.

God has been doing a lot lately to bump up my expectations.  He's had to help me become willing to receive the good He has in store.  I'd gotten so used to either expecting nothing or expecting everyone else's leftovers that I had to change.

I'm ready to stick my neck out.  How about you?

-----
Prompts provided by Mrs. Kate over at Five Minute Friday.

2017 Reading Quest 18

Book:  Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.
 

Author: Frederick Douglass

Info: No publisher or copyright information provided for the Kindle edition.  Originally published in 1845.

Rating (on a scale of 1-4 stars):  ✮✭✭✭ 

Where Acquired:  Free Kindle download.

What it's about:  Born around 1818, Douglass chronicles his early life from slavery to eventual escape and freedom.

Favorite Quotes: 

"My long crushed spirit rose, cowardice departed, bold defiance took its place; and I now resolved that, however long I might remain a slave in form, the day had passed forever when I could be a slave in face. - p. 71

On teaching at the Sabbath schools: "I taught them, because it was the delight of my soul to be doing something that looked like bettering the condition of my race." - p. 77

"I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one.  It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason.  He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery; he must be made to feel that slavery is right; and he can be brought to that only when he ceases to be a man." - p. 89

What I liked:

Frederick Douglass

The thing that stands out the most to me is that as a child, Douglass never attended school and had only a few lessons in letter recognition before one of his slave masters put an end to it.  Despite that, he found ways to glean learning experiences from anything and taught himself to read and write.  Despite no formal education, this former slave writes with better sentence structure and a more advanced vocabulary than many who have modern advantages, no government mandated restrictions on learning, and an abundance of available reading materials and teaching.  No joke, some of the complaints in reviews of the book were about the language.  No, not THAT kind of language; the reader felt that Douglass used words that were too hard to understand. 

Bless their hearts.

What I didn’t like: 

The chronology of events seemed to jump around and important details are left out.  For example, the mention of his wife and marriage seem to come out of nowhere.  I know that there are two other volumes in Douglass' autobiography that I've not read yet.  Quite possibly, they will fill in the gaps and put the events in better order.

I didn't quite understand Douglass' disdain for the Underground Railroad. 

Takeaway:

Last year, I had the privilege of reading Booker T. Washington's Up From Slavery. Though their experiences varied, both of their lives proved that the answer to slavery--both inward and outward-- was education.  Whether formal or self taught, education is key not only to changing the attitude of the mind, but building usable skills.  When I read stories like these, it irks the stew out of me that in modern society, individuals refuse to learn.  As I spoke about in my rant about critics of the Little Free Libraries, there are those who, once they are out of an academic environment, refuse to read or educate themselves any further.  That's unfortunate.  Yes, I graduated from high school and have two college degrees.  However, I've gained an even better education since leaving Jacksonville State University 17 years ago.  I've built skills and knowledge through reading, studying, taking free online seminars, plus experience from various jobs and volunteer positions.  There is learning to be had; one must simply want it.