The Gift of Time

Q: What do you give a friend whose most pressing need most 

days is for just a few more minutes now and again?

A: Time! 

In short, a certificate (or two) for a night out of the kitchen when nobody's sick and no funeral is pending and that doesn't involve food wrapped in paper!

I snagged the perfect gift bag at Wal-Mart for the book I couldn't wait to share with my friend Steph, then used a scanned image of it to make these little certificates.

You don't have to do that. Just use these. Or scribble the promise on the back of a torn envelope. It won't matter; if your friend's like mine, she'll love it!

Wondering why the "or someone else's family" addition? Because this particular friend once expressed to me that there were folks that SHE would like to offer a meal to, but because of her hectic four-kids-two-dogs-a-cat-and-a-horse life, she simply doesn't have time.

With these, I hope she feels free to ask me to do it FOR her! If you've ever taken food to someone, you know what a blessing that is for the giver. This way, she gets the giver's blessing without having to take time from her many tasks if she wants to!

Whatever it is...

It's in The Plan.

Even when my socks are blown clean off, God is NOT surprised.

And I'll confess, I've had a hard time with this. Some of the stuff in my life just hasn't made sense.

"Um, excuse me, God, but how could that have been on purpose?" I've asked more than once.

I'm fifty, and it was just a few years ago that I had my first really big take-my-breath-away "Aha!" moment. A moment when our faithful God allowed me just the slightest glimpse into a previously unfathomable situation. It was a peek "through a glass darkly" (and via yet another painful episode), but one day, while crying my heart out again on the porch swing, I realized with a start that all along His hands were all over this thing. Mind you, it's that kind of thing that makes non-believers muse, "How could a God of Love...?" And still, I saw His fingerprints.

Whoa.

And just like that, my bitterness and anger dissolved into gratitude. I still feel it.

Understand, of course, that seeing that glimmer of purpose doesn't diminish one whit how horrible that thing was. It was bad, and in some ways, it still is. But suddenly, gratitude was possible, and gratitude is freedom.

Even so...

I have my days. Or, my years. Years when it's one thing after another. Big things and small, it seems it's always something. We've had two or three of those years, back to back to back.

So, I made this sign for my kitchen, a touchstone if you will.

Not because I need to believe it, but because sometimes I need a nudge to remember that I do.

Maybe you could use the reminder yourself. It's free for your personal use, or to share.

All That and a Bag of Chips

It's teacher appreciation time around here!  I usually send a variety of tiny treats so there's not too much of any one thing. This year,  I decided to include a small jar of my homemade salsa and some tortilla chips in the goodie bag for the high school teachers and support staff this year.

Which, of course, led me on a mental scavenger hunt for something yippy skippy to put on the card. (That's the  name of my publisher's writing preferred writing style!)

And here you go.  Enlarge the photo to fit an 8.5" x 11" piece of cardstock. (Or go here and print the .pdf file.)

Don't forget to write that nice note inside. Speaking from experience, the BEST gift ever is for a parent or student to name something specific they'll always remember, so do that, ya hear?!

Free for personal use.

Hello, Sunshine Gift Tag

Tag for my skin soothing and super easy grapefruit-lemon hand scrub. 

Print, cut, fold, write a personal note inside. Sweet!

Need a bunch? I did, so I'll share.
Here you go!

Hello Sunshine Gift Card Set

Circumstance

The attitude the recent circumstances have woven for me....