September 15 2017

Day of Birth

Have you ever thought about what day of the week you were born on? Most of us don’t even know what day of the week that monumental occasion occurred on. I came across something lately that led me to find the following info. It turns out, in case you are wondering, I was born on Thursday. Here is what the site had to say about me:

Day Of Birth
Your Day of Birth is Thursday
  • You are wise, optimistic and highly understanding; you are respected a lot and attract plenty of attention wherever you go. You have leadership qualities and are likely to end up in high positions wherever you work and in society as well.
  • You work hard and carve your own path towards success. You like to lead an independent life.
  • You are very stubborn and will have difficulty in having many true friends in life because of your inability to accept healthy criticism. Also, you are very straightforward and do not think much before speaking which may offend people.
  • You are easily bored and always require something or the other to keep you occupied. You also love to travel a lot and cannot sit at one place for long.
  • You are well behaved and treat people with respect, however, if someone annoys you or mistreats you, you hold grudges and also think of taking revenge.
  • Though you are intelligent and conscientious, you have a somewhat unusual character and an irritable temperament that makes you difficult for others to cope with.

Source: http://www.dayofbirth.net/

As I read through this, I was stunned just how accurate it was. Obviously, not every little detail applies to me, but for the most part, this was fairly accurate. Maybe, like me, you don’t really know what day you were born on. So, just for fun, go to the website above where you can enter your birthdate and see how accurately they describe you.

This reminds me of the poem we all learned as children. There were several versions, but this one is the most familiar from my childhood. The poem dates back to the 1700s if not earlier.

Monday’s child is fair of face,
Tuesday’s child is full of grace,
Wednesday’s child is full of woe,
Thursday’s child has far to go,
Friday’s child is loving and giving,
Saturday’s child works hard for a living,
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.

Now not to take any of this too seriously, but having checked what the poem and website have to say about several people we know pretty well, these seem to be about seventy-five percent accurate, give or take.

So, take a minute and have some fun with the day of the week you were born. Let us know in the comments how accurate these predictions were for you.

Let us know in the comments how accurate these predictions were for you.

Category: Learning | Comments Off on Day of Birth
September 8 2017

Work (Five Minute Friday)

When I think of work, I think of the job I have had for the past eleven years. It is probably the most difficult job I have ever had. This was not a job I asked for or applied for. I didn’t go looking for it, but it found me.

I had been a stay at home mother after graduating with my teaching degree and deciding the classroom was not the place for me. I had poured myself into running the house and doing so with as little money as we could get by on. Think clipping coupons, cooking meals at home and shopping for most clothing second hand. Eventually, hubby mentioned that it was time to cut way back on volunteer commitments and find some work that actually paid me instead. I gradually gave up most of my volunteer commitments. In December 2005, as I turned in the last issue of the quarterly genealogy journal I had been doing for the past five years in to be printed, I mentioned to the woman who owned the print shop that it was my last issue and that hubby wanted me to start working at a job that actually paid. She asked if I was good at computers. I told her I was decent and she told me that she would keep my phone number and keep me in mind if they ever needed someone to do some data entry. I told her that was fine and thought no more of it.

Fast forward to April 2006. I had just gotten home from taking my fourteen-year-old son to high school after he had been home for two weeks following his run in with a car, resulting in a broken leg which required surgery to insert a titanium plate to repair the damage. He couldn’t ride the bus, so I was driving him to and from school for the foreseeable future. When I sat down to figure out what to get accomplished around the house for the day, the phone rang. When I answered, it was the lady from the print shop asking if I could come in and help them out with some computer work. I told her I could and when she asked me when I could start, I hesitantly asked if the next day would work. She said it would and suddenly, I had a job and one last partial day of freedom from the working world. I needed that day.

I always figured it was God’s plan for me to have that time to nurse my son through his first two weeks with a broken leg and to be able to take my mother for her cancer treatments years earlier. I was glad hubby hadn’t pushed the finding a job thing earlier and had thus allowed me to do these things for my family. But God was clearly telling me that hubby was right and it was time to work for pay again. It isn’t my dream job, but I’m still not sure what I want to be when I grow up. I have gained confidence in my ability to learn new things, and I have learned loads in the time I have been there. I may fuss and fume some days wishing I could quit the job, but I can’t help but feel like this is still God’s plan for my life. He tells me my work here is still not done.

Alright, Lord. I’m not crazy about the idea, but I understand. I tell Him to please let me know loud and clear when he has a different assignment for me. I also ask that it be a job I can wake up each day looking forward to and love and that it be one that will take me through until retirement. I also mention to Him that it would be great at this stage in life if the next job hubby or I get just happened to come with health insurance, because we all know that eventually, not having it will catch up to us, and hubby and I aren’t getting any younger. Affordable care coverage isn’t affordable yet either, so we have no choice but to save some back each month to cover what we must and pay the fines when we file our taxes. I don’t mind working but that doesn’t mean I am not eagerly awaiting the day when I can retire and get back to all the things that having to work full-time keeps me from doing now.

Has God ever found you a job? Tell us about it in the comments below, please.

This post is part of the weekly Five Minute Friday link-up!
The prompt this week is: Work
The assignment: Write for five minutes on the word of the week. This is meant to be a free write, which means: no editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation. Just write.

Category: Five Minute Friday | 1 Comment on Work (Five Minute Friday)
September 7 2017

Library Lovers Tag

Today I thought I would do something kind of fun. I’ve never used a tag to do a post before and saw this one on one of my favorite YouTube channels.

1. How often do you visit your local library?
Only when I have a hold to pick up.

2. Are you the type of person who checks out more books than you know you can read or are you someone who only checks out the exact amount of books you intend on reading before they are due?
More than I can probably read, but I just keep renewing them if they are paper books.

3. How old were you when you got your first library card?
Probably fifth grade when the research talks started.

4. Do you go to your library looking for a particular book or do you check out anything that peaks your interest?
Neither actually. I usually use the website and search for books and then request them on hold and only go to the actual library when I have a hold to pickup or a meeting in the building.

5. Do you use your library to check out just books or do you also check out DVDs, audio books etc.?
I have checked out DVDs, CDs, and even audiobooks on cassette or CD in the past but right now I mostly choose audio books or ebooks and only do the paper books if neither of the other options is available.

6. From what section of your library do you check out a majority of your books? ( YA, middle grade, adult, nonfiction.)
Adult, Inspirational Fiction mostly, but writing craft books or self-help books would be a close second.

7. What is your favorite part of using your local library?
The price. You can’t beat FREE!

Found on Tamara Woods’ Vlog: https://youtu.be/zQb1UuVjTyY (Published on Aug 21, 2017)

This tag was created by PiandBooks: https://youtu.be/VtkytAnbsoE

If you have a tag that you’d like me to do, leave a comment below and I will seriously consider it. This was kind of fun.

Category: Reading | Comments Off on Library Lovers Tag
September 1 2017

Neighbor (Five Minute Friday)

Your neighbor may be the anchor in your neighborhood. When we lived in our little house, our first house as a married couple, we had neighbors who we considered an anchor. This couple was in their eighties and could tell us about when the big church across the street was built and what a mess the cutting of the stones made in the form of excess dust in their homes. This couple took excellent care of their home and yard. They cared about what happened to the neighborhood. When the house we ended up buying went on the market, they made sure their new next door neighbors would be a good fit for the neighborhood by introducing themselves to anyone who came to see the house. We thought they were so friendly and just an adorable old couple. He was tall and thin, she was less than five foot tall and not thin, but not fat either. They made such a cute couple. They had been married for over sixty years and were obviously completely devoted to each other.

They made us want to do a good job taking care of our yard so it would look good next to theirs. We loved chatting over the fence with them. They had friends over all the time and spent a lot of time on their screened-in carport. When it snowed, Orville would get out his snow blower and clear his driveway. Then he would do the one on the other side of us because she was an older single lady, her parents had been friends of theirs. If he still had enough energy when he was done with both those driveways, he would often clear ours too because he knew we were busy working and raising the kids. He was just that kind of neighbor. His wife, Opal, would share starts of her plants and freely give advice if asked on how to take care of various garden plants. It seemed they had lived in their home well over fifty years and had watched with interest as many of the houses nearby were built. Some might call them nosy neighbors, but we thought of them as protective of their home and those nearby. We felt safe knowing they were on duty watching over the goings on around their home. When they grew older, Opal was the first to go. Orville was never quite the same after she died. He seemed sadder and moved slower. Not long after, Orville also passed away and the house went on the market. The new owners planned to rent it out, what a shame. The neighborhood was never the same once these wonderful anchors were gone.

Are you an anchor in your neighborhood?

This post is part of the weekly Five Minute Friday link-up!
The prompt this week is: Neighbor
The assignment: Write for five minutes on the word of the week. This is meant to be a free write, which means: no editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation. Just write.

Category: Five Minute Friday | 4 Comments on Neighbor (Five Minute Friday)