10 April 2023 Daffodils

by saymber, posted in animals, history, Home, Leading Life by Example, Nature, Spirituality and Religion, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

Hello to you. How are you? I’m doing pretty good. I got Link out just enough for him to do his business and then took him home and walked on my own. Its no good trying to force him to go all the way around if he doesn’t want to go. It’s sunny and windy today. I was a bit winded after the walk but it felt good to have the sunshine on my face. I was able to capture a couple flower pictures – remembered to bring the phone:

My neighbors daffodils – such a cheerful sign of spring!
My boy and some lovely little purple flowers

When I was growing up in Sioux Falls South Dakota the first flowers to bloom were tulips. I haven’t seen any of those here.

Lately I’m regretting quitting my pest control service. I have some ants that have decided to try and make a home inside mine. I have been killing them when I see them and that helps for a little while and then they come back! Ugh! Any suggestions?

What an experience this must have been:

Matthew 28:1-10New International Version

Jesus Has Risen28

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them.“Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

9 April 2023 He Is Risen Indeed (psalm 23)

by saymber, posted in history, Home, Leading Life by Example, Spirituality and Religion, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

Hello and happy Easter to those who are celebrating today. I am just home from church and having a nice meal with my family. The message today, in addition to Jesus rising from the dead, was psalm 23:

Psalm 23

A psalm of David.

1 The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
2     He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
3     he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
    for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk
    through the darkest valley,[a]
I will fear no evil,
    for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.

It’s a sunny warm day here – beautiful day for a celebration. it was so nice to see my family today.

The cross washed white now
Pastor Jason Boyd sharing message of Psalm 23

There was mention of a prayer group on Thursday that I’m considering attending. I believe in the power of prayer. I figured since Bible study has ended, this might be good for me!

8 April 2023 Red Ribbons

by saymber, posted in Bipolar life, history, Home, human rights, Leading Life by Example, Mental Health, Nature, photography, Spirituality and Religion, trust, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging
The sins of the congregation nailed to the cross to symbolize Christs sacrifice

Hello to you, how are you? I’m doing pretty good. Last night I went to our church’s Good Friday service and I’m glad I did. It was a somber service as can be expected. The most powerful part was when each of us wrote down a sin on a piece of red ribbon. They took the baskets of ribbons and nailed them to the cross. As I had mentioned previously my lack of fondness for crosses. Seeing this symbology helped me a little bit. If he hadn’t of gone to the cross for us, we’d still be making sacrifices to atone for our sins. As much as I don’t like it, that’s the truth of Christianity. Without his being crucified and rising again, which we celebrate tomorrow, there would be no Christian church. Our hope is wrapped up in this story.

People will be doing Easter egg hunts with their kids tomorrow which heralds back to the pagan roots of Easter. Easter is another holiday candy makers look forward to. It’s kind of what happens with most holidays. A lot of our holidays herald from pagan roots. It’s how they got pagans of the past into Christianity. I look forward to the uplifting message that will come tomorrow of Christs beating death!

Anyhew – when I got home I took Link for a walk. It’s so nice out! It’s 59 degrees today!

Leaf buds are starting to come out
I love Weeping Willow trees. We have like three of them in our neighborhood.

7 April 2023 Hyper Aware and Good Friday

by saymber, posted in Bipolar life, Health, human rights, Leading Life by Example, Mental Health, Spirituality and Religion, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

Hello to you. Hope this finds you well. This morning I am feeling hyper aware of my body. It’s uncomfortable but passing thank goodness. When this happens I feel uncomfortable in my body – it’s like all my senses are raw nerves. I took 10mg of Zyprexa and it seems to be helping.

Today is Good Friday – I plan on attending my church’s service this evening. I have never really understood why they call it Good Friday considering what is being celebrated. I don’t think it was a very good day to be Jesus Christ! To be beaten and crucified is a pretty horrible thing. It’s for this reason, and I know all the reasons, I hate crosses. I feel like crosses are as anti-Christ as it gets. Like I said I’ve heard all the justifications as to why he had to die like he did but I still think it’s horrible and cruel. I can remember seeing The Passion of The Christ in the theater with my first husband and we both had nightmares afterwards! It was worse than a horror flick to see that kind of brutality and bloodshed. I know I’m supposed to be grateful that Jesus went through what he did and I am. I just don’t agree on the “good” part. Even with what he went through, this world is full of brokenness and feels ungrateful. I have heard all the reasons for that too! Anyhew – I’m learning and hope there will be another Bible study at some point. I learned a lot during the one I just finished.

6 April 2023 Community

by saymber, posted in history, Home, human rights, In the News, Leading Life by Example, Money, Politics and Government, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

How would you improve your community?

Hello to you. The prompt for today is a good one. How would I improve my community would be mainly doing a better job with growth planning. Our state is experiencing extreme growth and is scrambling to keep up with it. There are so many new houses being built and the infrastructure is tough to keep up with it – primarily roads. Traffic at certain times of the day is horrendous! We have a lot of people who moved here from California and they left behind traffic jams hoping it would be different here and it’s not. Where you go there you are! You may have left California but you brought who you were when you lived there with you to Idaho.

I can’t really complain too much as I moved here from Texas. Texas was experiencing a lot of growth before I left and that continues since I’ve been gone. People can’t afford to retire in places like California or Colorado so they move to places with lower cost of living. The sad thing is like for here all those people coming here have priced out natives trying to retire or get their first home. The new transplants have made it almost impossible for people to afford a home here with current wages not keeping up with the cost of living. So they are building lots of apartments that the average Idahoan can barely afford to live in. I was looking for a place to rent but couldn’t afford it so I was fortunate to find the tiny home I’ve got.

5 April 2023 Adaption and Covid-19

by saymber, posted in Health, history, human rights, In the News, Leading Life by Example, Nature, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

How have you adapted to the changes brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic?

Hello to you how are you doing? This day finds me well. It’s a beautiful sunny day. The trees have started budding and flowers are beginning to push up. Definitely feeling like spring!

The prompt today is kind of interesting. I went to the grocery store today and it felt normal. No one wearing masks like before. I think, speaking for myself, unless I’m going to a medical appt, I have adapted back to nearly pre-pandemic behavior. I don’t even really think about Covid or catching it. To me it’s become like the flu – another variation of the flu.

I feel like I have adapted to the changes easily because, like I said, the only place I have to go that reminds me of the pandemic is hospitals. When I go to the VA, for example, they require you to wear a mask. Which makes sense because you can get exposed to people with Covid or other stuff like the flu. When I’ve been to the VA there have been some really sick people there.

4 April 2023 Energy

by saymber, posted in Health, Home, Leading Life by Example, Mental Health, Science (Keshe Foundation and other innovations), Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

Hello to you. How are you doing in your day? My thoughts turn to one word today – energy. As I get older and am much more sedentary than I used to be energy seems to be in short supply. I look back at my life and wonder if I just burned my candle on both ends. I was an athlete for much of my early years and now it’s a trial to get around the block! Welcome to middle age!

The Steve Harvey L’Evate you stuff didn’t do much for me and neither has taking extra vitamins. My ex use to talk about something regarding energy that I wonder if it’s true – that each of us has s certain amount of energy allotted to us. Drinking energy drinks etc. doesn’t give us extra energy but makes us use up our allotment faster.

Hopefully we can figure out what’s going on in my head with the dizziness and swaying. Then I will know if this is something I’ll just have to live with. If it ends up being Mal de barque syndrome I will have to.

2 April 2023 Namesake

by saymber, posted in history, Home, Leading Life by Example, Nature, Spirituality and Religion, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

If you could have something named after you, what would it be?

If I could have something named after me it would be a park that people could access for free. When I lived in Colorado I used to love to visit Garden of the Gods – it was a beautiful free park. I have always said that if I ever came into a lot of money I would buy a plot of land and make it a park.

Today was Palm Sunday. I got out of bed late but still made it on time. I almost went back to sleep but something inside me decided to rise up and go. I think it was partially because the people at my church are so nice! I love to see their smiles and feel so welcome. I miss them when I don’t go to church.

1 April 2023 Laughter

by saymber, posted in Bipolar life, history, Mental Health, Short stories, Television, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

What makes you laugh?

Todays prompt is pretty simple for me to answer. I love stand up comedy. My favorite comedienne is Gabriel Iglesias. I can watch him do his thing, even the same thing, over and over and it still makes me laugh. A quick laugh for me comes from what’s called potty humor like farts and stuff. When I get to scrolling my phone that kind of thing will get my attention! I love funny pet videos too.

As I’ve gotten older and have been through some tough spells I feel like I don’t laugh as much as I used to. I’m not as quick to laugh as I once was. If you asked me to tell you a joke I wouldn’t be able to. I could tell you a funny routine from one of Gabriel Iglesias shows but that’s about it!

https://youtu.be/sqAx7Xba7AM – I’m not fat I’m fluffy full show 2009

31 March 2023 What I wanted to be growing up

by saymber, posted in Art and Poetry, Bipolar life, Health, history, Home, Leading Life by Example, Mental Health, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

When you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up?

When I was five or so I wanted to be famous. I used to sing to the neighbor kids using a jump rope handle. I wrote stories to include one about vampires when I was in kindergarten. I also wrote stuff you might see in the Bible at a very young age. It was so good people didn’t believe I wrote it. I had that dream for many years beyond being five! I liked to draw, write, sing and dance. My Mom used to read my stories and something she said always stuck with me, “You don’t have to be famous to be somebody.” Her saying that truly helped me keep things in perspective! She was so right!

I grew up in the late 60’s and early 70’s. We didn’t have The Voice or America’s Got Talent. We had stuff like Solid Gold – I loved the dancing and would try those moves in our living room when I had the house to myself which was quite often as my parents both worked a lot. The other thing I spent a lot of time doing was drawing my favorite musicians like David Bowie for example. I can remember spending hours on just one drawing.

My dream to become famous never happened. I’m glad about it as I don’t think I would have survived to the age I am now! I see what fame does to a lot of people and it’s not pretty most times! With how sensitive I’ve always been I would have been a wreck. I look at people like Michael Jackson, Prince and Chris Cornell to name just a few. Their fame was a source of severe anxiety and public scrutiny.