For various reasons, I didn't get to have my yard sale Saturday. I postponed a week and am hoping to have it this Saturday instead. :) Still committed to simplifying by weeding out things we don't need.

We watched The Truman Show (Jim Carrey) tonight for the first time since it came out in 1998. Ironically the movie was a good reminder for me that someone is up there orchestrating my life, even though I know for certain it's an almighty God and not a megalomaniac TV producer.

Sometimes life spins out of control and it seems like we'll surely all be sucked into the whirling vortex. But I'm realizing that, in the great scheme of things, most of our problems are really just little dust devils on the side of the road. Have you ever seen those evil-looking miniature tornadoes? They swirl around looking for some havoc to wreak, but before they can cause much trouble the wind changes direction and the monster dies back into a harmless pile of dirt. A hundred years from now what difference will it make? Ten years from now? A year from now? Amazingly, even a month from now??? Like I heard my oldest daughter tell my youngest the other day - Get over yourself! Even though (luckily for her) she wasn't talking to me, I'm taking her words to heart.

New project - write down our expenditures (even the minor ones) in a ledger book. I think it will empower us to know where our money goes. (especially next April 15th) Today we spent $29.45. Guess what for? Food. From the 14.18 at the grocery store to the 7.00 at the dollar store to the 8.00 at KFC/Taco Bell (lunch and supper - and I did cook veggies I already had to go with it.) it was all for our tummies. Weird. Wonder what we'll spend tomorrow. :)

I finally found time to read One Tuesday Morning and Beyond Tuesday Morning by Karen Kingsbury. I tell you what. That woman can write. Her books rip my heart out and I hate that, but I do love her messages and her stories. Next time you feel like crying, I recommend both of these. :)

Verse for the day - Colossians 3:1,2 - IF ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth.

Look up.

Spring cleaning. Those words fill me with hope at the same time they strike fear in my heart. Wow. Two cliches in one sentence. :) Seriously, I'm determined to simplify our lives this week. And for us, this means getting rid of about half of what we have. I've never been one to turn down a box of hand-me-downs or a good deal. So our house often looks like someone ate a bad batch of clothes and stayed too long on the Tilt-a-Whirl. Yet we never have anything to wear. And I'm sick of it. (No pun intended.)

Against my better judgment, I've decided to have a yard sale Saturday. It was just a moment of insanity, but now I'm stuck with it. So, here's my plan. Price everything cheap and donate whatever is left to one of the local thrift stores. I think that should work, don't you? Prayers are welcome.

It's funny--the more I know I need to be sorting through stuff for the sale, the stronger my burning desire to work on my story. I've finally found a good writing motivator. Unfortunately I can't give into the temptation to write. I have a Saturday a.m. deadline.

Hmm. . .maybe if I make a to do list. . .

Remember - living an abundant life is sometimes easier to do with less stuff. :)

Our office staff certified in CPR this week. Funny, even though the fire department set up a private class just for us, none of us really wanted to do it. We sweated through the written test, which we ended up passing with flying colors. And we all felt a little silly when we first started doing the practical part of our test. Shaking a dummy and screaming, "Are you okay? Are you okay?" But when the instructor brought out the child dummy and then the infant, the importance of what we were doing sank in. Jennifer said, "It ought to be a law for everyone to know this."

We'll get little cards to put in our wallet, but I said I'd get us a certificate for our office wall, so patients will know we're all six certified in CPR. Of course, then we worried that people would come to our office to keel over. Hopefully not. But it's nice to have a small clue what to do if it happens. The fireman told us that the life most people end up saving with their CPR skills is a loved one's.

One of the things we discussed in class was a defibrillator. We're hoping to get one for our office. It's a machine that when your heart goes into fibrillations (just quivering like crazy out of sync) it delivers a jolt to stop the heart and then on its own, the heart starts pumping in rhythm again. I know a lot of time my life goes into fibrillations and I'm paralyzed by the chaos. I need a jolt to stop my running in circles (See Tracey Bateman's blog entry "To Be Still and Know..." about fifteen minutes well-spent) and then I can start back working in rhythm with God again.

Call your fire department or the American Heart Association and find a CPR class near you. Love for the sake of loving, give for the sake of giving, and serve for the sake of serving. You'll be SO glad you did.

Spend some quiet time with God. Stop the madness and restart your heavenly rhythm. The life you save may be your own.