Journey Out of Pink

It was an overcast day and we were bored, so we got in the car and started driving. Where to go? What to do? We were on an adventure!  Our first stop was to a new little coffee shop in a nearby town. It was quaint and tucked in an out of the way place. We went in and ordered coffee along with a pastry for each of us, then got cozy in some nice chairs toward the back of the shop. After chatting a bit, we headed out still unsure of where we were headed.  Clouds were building and we wondered if it was going to rain. As we passed beautiful farm land, we decided to try for Callaway Gardens. This time of year it would be lush and green. Flowers would be in bloom and it would probably have many tourists, but we wanted to go anyway.  The more we thought about it, the more we realized we wanted to spend the entire day there, but we'd failed to pack a lunch. No problem, Dollar General to the rescue! Though not our typical preference for picking up lunch items, we knew we'd only nee...

These past few days it's been rainy and dreary here. Those gray days can cause people to become depressed and I've found, if I'm not careful, I can fall into that trap easily. That's why I make sure to turn on more lights and find something to do to keep my mind busy. Instead of looking at those rainy days as bothersome or in a negative light, I'm trying to shift my focus so that I see things like that as blessings. My new motto for this year has become "Look for the positive in the negative."  Adopting that motto hasn't been easy, in fact, it's been quite difficult. I've been dealing with a lot of health challenges this year and if I'm honest, there's been a lot of negativity with those. I have to choose to look for positive things each day. Doing that helps. If I didn't look for good things to focus on, I'd be a mess! I'm thankful I have a strong faith. God has given me the strength to endure so much over the past 12 years...

We've just returned from a week away and boy do we feel good! Every year we try to visit our favorite beaches. Being able to unwind from all the world's stressors is good for the body, mind, and soul. By the time we arrive each year, we realize it's the best medicine we could ever get.  We've been going to these same areas for over 31 years. During that time, others have discovered the "Forgotten Coast" and it's grown immensely. It's sad to us to see so many new houses, hotels, and other developments because they destroy the wilderness areas we've enjoyed for so long, but I guess that's the price of loose lips. If people had kept the areas secret, the long time residents and visitors would have been able to have kept the pristine beaches quiet.  We used to spend our summers in Destin years ago but when it became so busy, we moved to a quieter beach in Port St. Joe, Florida - Cape San Blas. It became our favorite until after Hurricane Michael. W...

I'm so blessed! I was thinking about it today and realized, I have a husband who's just like my Daddy. I never dreamed I'd get one, you see, the first two husbands were completely the opposite. I guess that's why those marriages didn't work out, among other reasons. If I'd known what to look for in a mate to begin with, I'd probably have picked a good one, but I was young and hadn't a clue. Thankfully, after a couple of bad apples, I've got the solid gold one.  My Daddy was a hard worker. Most of my childhood he worked two jobs. And they weren't easy jobs, they were very physically demanding jobs. He'd be so exhausted when he came home from work that he'd collapse in his favorite chair and sit there trying to unwind before time to go to bed and do it all again the next day.  He never was concerned with material possessions for himself but wanted to provide whatever his family needed. That meant he often went with holes in his shoes or soc...

Last night, I was taken to the ER with possible AFib. I didn't want to go in an ambulance because they cost so much but knew if we drove ourselves, we'd sit in the waiting room more than 6 hours before being seen. (Been there done that!) So I let them take me.  Without going into all the details of ineptitude I experienced from hospital staff, I'll just say it was a very bad experience. I was at the ER until almost 2 AM (over 8 hours)! It was freezing cold in there and I'm so glad I know how to unhook the machinery to get up and go to the bathroom, otherwise I'd have wet the bed. No one came to check on me regularly and I finally told them, at the 7 hour mark, that they could either discharge me or I was going to leave AMA. When I said that, through the call button to the nurse's station, I was told if I left AMA that Medicare wouldn't cover my ER visit. I checked on that and found it to be untrue so I called back and said if the doc wasn't there in the ...

I used to wonder why the Bible says do not fear over 365 times. Pastors usually mention this in their sermons at some point during their career. Today, as I was experiencing some heart rhythm abnormalities, I started to become very fearful. The more fearful I became, the higher my blood pressure went.  There are a lot of things you can control in your body, but you can't control your heart. Over the past few months, I've been dealing with possible AFib. If you don't know what that means, imagine having your heart beat really slow for a few minutes and then be really really fast and then start the same process over again. The rhythm is completely out of whack. It's extremely scary and can make you feel very light-headed and weak. Now can you see why I get scared?  No matter what I tried to do, fear seems to overtake me. I do my best to remain calm. I'm a believer and I know that God is in control, but I don't want to die a heart attack.  We have a huge history of...