Birthday Surprise!

I don't know if I posted this last year...but it's worth a re-post even if I did!

When I came home from work on my birthday last year (2016) I found HAPPY NOTES and FLOWERS by my bedroom door! It lifted my spirits and made me smile! Thanks for the love, people!
How do you like to show love?
How do you like to receive it?

Lost A Limb

Since I would be gone two days at a book selling convention, I thought, "Why not work on writing while I sit at the table?" So I slid several folders of working book ideas, PLUS my big fat folder of random collected story ideas in a canvas bag and left home with high hopes.
I returned without the bag.
I searched everywhere.
I called everywhere.
No bag.
It took me years to write and file those story ideas. I felt like I'd lost a limb. Yeah, it hurt that bad.
But then... oh joy! It struck me that Father in Heaven loves me more than I love my own boys... that is SCARY MUCH! So much, it could smother a person. With that much love, Father in Heaven would never hurt me, only help. So what if all those story ideas were, dare I say, junk? He obviously has better ideas to shower down on my brain?
Ah.
That's better.
I'm open for new ideas, and they're a comin'. I've actually started two new folders to hold them all.
How have you dealt with a numbing blow to your life?

Miss America Pageant

by Shirley Bahlmann
Well, we're home from the Miss America pageant, which was fun, putting aside the fact that Miss Utah didn't win. Still, the winner, Katie Stam of Indiana, sang a song about Jesus for her talent and also shows dairy cows at her county fair, so I'd say she's a decent pick for second place in my ranks.
It was so nice to have a week where nothing was expected except to go watch a show, take notes, turn down an invitation to have a cocktail, and hang out with three grandchildren. I never realized how down time can rejuvenate a person. I'm not talking down time as in feeling down because my publisher already signed all their Christmas books for this year even though January isn't over yet, or that another of my publishers has gone out of business, leaving some orphaned books behind. No, I mean down time without multiple demands crowding out my sanity. My life has gotten so busy that I have to look back and wonder how it got this way. Do I really need to do all that I'm doing? I don't think so.
I think I'll go put my feet up and eat some cinnamon lips (chewy candy with no fat and an intriguing shape). You'll just have to go get your own.