‘Ink Re-Cap 107 and Good Words for Your Weekend

This week’s ‘Ink Re-cap (107)
AND
the giving of gifts of great value,
expecting nothing in return.

This Saturday post is purely indulgent on our part.

We get to sit down, relax, and think about the past week.

Evaluate what happened, remember good stuff, and work on erasing the memory of bad stuff.

It’s a Saturday morning time of meditation, and I’m beginning to love it.

The pondering of all things, some deep, some merely puddles with little ripple effect, slowly build up the bricks of courage in me again.

Pile one upon another, and soon I’m excited and ready to face another week.

So here’s the re-cap of our week on Kim & Ink…

Kim started the week anticipating going back to her job training, which was on hold because of the pandemic. So Monday they told her she was good to go, and by 7:00 a.m. Tuesday morning she’s ready and waiting for her ride.

The ride doesn’t show up.

Finally we call her coordinator, and she discovers the ride hasn’t been set up. So she had to switch gears. Instead of school 2 days this week, she worked on scrapbook pages. And wrote a letter to some Amish friends she made when she was in Pennsylvania a few years ago. Plus she got her doggie treats made, and Andy is set up for another while. She spoils her doggy!

That’s partially what my introduction introduces. Being able to shift gears. Leaving the ripples to roll away, because it was just a puddle. The puddle dries up, and life moves on. She could drag the hose over and keep the puddle wet. Churn it up into a slough of mud. Let the flies and mosquitos do their thing in the muck.

Nope. Better to let the puddle dry up and go away. Then you can travel over that spot again and again without bad memories.

So let’s talk about weddings, babies, and crafts.

Everyone loves hearing wedding/falling in love stories, so last Monday we shared the love stories of some of The Presidents and Their Wives. Did you know there’s only one president’s wife ever to have known Chinese? Yeah, we found all kinds of obscure history. So much fun.

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We all love babies and baby showers and giving gifts to the new family.

However, our budget is kind of slim at times, and we looked for inexpensive yet valuable gifts. We found some for baby, but also for mom, because mom deserves some personal relief after baby. While life is all about baby when she arrives, mom does better with the life changes and lack of sleep if she knows someone’s looking out for her. Let’s have their backs! Check out our gift choices that won’t cost you too much.

We know people in this world who make their living wearing rubber gloves and hauling cleaning buckets around. Marie Kondo. The Fly Lady. We’re not sure if God intended fixations on cleanliness. Contrary to what many people think, “cleanliness is next to Godliness” is not in the Bible. However, I do like to have a clean house/kitchen. While my husband hasn’t been on any Clean Team trained by the army, his standards are about on a level with a drill sergeant. So we shared a few tricks we incorporate to have a kitchen that cleans itself. Or almost. It is possible to have a kitchen nosy Aunt Nellie could walk through and approve on any surprise visit.

So what to do with all our time if we don’t have to clean??? We paint. This week it was a classroom project involving a white crayon, leaves, watercolors and printer paper. So simple, with amazing results. Wax resist painting. Check it out.

And yesterday was another post for the littles. A Bible Lesson on three Hebrew friends who survived a fiery furnace. Without even a hair on their body singed. Kings in those days employed extreme forms of punishment, and when these three guys wouldn’t bow down to an idol, they were thrown into the hottest fire man could make. The children can build a fiery furnace for the craft that comes with the now free download. Later you can buy the lesson in our Inspirational shop.

Gathering words of wisdom for our weekend and the week ahead…

Does your community use the Next Door app?

One of the neighborhoods near us has acquired “fame” because of Ty Shaw. You don’t know him? I don’t either. Never met him. Except on the app. He’s always the one to comment on every post, usually starting a scrap. Just for fun. In fact, the people love him so much by now that when he went to the hospital for a few days, it made app news. Many well-wishes and concerns for his recovery were posted. Two ladies especially loved to keep everyone posted on how he was doing and when he’d come home. I think they’re all single and lonesome. And loving and giving. It’s real life drama, right next door. I love it.

And so the clean up begins in the aftermath of another hurricane.

This one changed paths and caught many people unprepared. But how can you really prepare for a hurricane? We’re praying for all the people, and some we know personally, who suffered physical and/or property damage in this storm. It was so bad again.

Yet it was heartwarming to see how help swarmed into the area to begin recovery. Convoys of power company vehicles. Posts offering help where needed. That giving-ness is truly awesome. And the courage to rise above the storm once again…

A principal finds a way to give back.

This principal acts as a barber to boys in his school as a way to connect with them. This is how the conversation goes as he wields the clippers in the room in his school he transformed into a barbershop:

“Where do you see yourself in 10 years?” Newton asks, clippers buzzing away at Brandon’s head.

“The NBA,” Jihad Turner replies, waiting for his spin on the chair.

“And if you don’t make it to the NBA, what’s plan B?”

“I want to be the president.”

“What kind of president would you be?”

“I want to treat everybody how they want to be treated,” the fifth-grader says. “Everybody should be treated the same.”

Giving at it’s best!

And one more story about giving:

This one happened to us.

The pandemic has made drive-through eating a big thing. We spend time in long lines, waiting to pick up food. The restaurants have innovated ways to expedite the ordering and food pickup. The lines are civil, and the people friendly. Yet in all this time, we haven’t been in a line yet where anyone has “gotten out of line.”

And Thursday, the line was the best ever. We got to the window to pay for our order, and the clerk said, “Melissa?”

“No, it’s Dorothy.” “Oh,” she said, “the car just ahead of you paid for your order.”

Whaaaat?

I’ve heard of this happening, but never to us.

It’s quite a feeling. A good feeling. A feeling of what can I do for someone now?

I want to try this.

This giving without expecting anything in return.

In fact, it’s the sort of giving the Queen of Sheba did when she visited King Solomon.

She was awed with the splendor and wisdom and beauty of all God gave King Solomon.

It made her happy she gave her best, and it made her bless God.  1 Kings 9. It’s in our Sunday Study Lesson this week.

I want to give from abundance of the heart, and bless God for the opportunity to give.

May you have a most blessed and giving weekend.