The Last Day of August, 2009

Oh, my.....just LOOK at all that water. Know where else you can find water?....In EVERY SINGLE FAUCET IN MY HOUSE!!!!! And the toilets. Oh my....it has happened. The city water is at my house as of about 6:30 this evening. And by "at my house" I mean every pipe is in the ground, every trench dug and covered, and water is flowing like manna from heaven RIGHT INTO MY HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!


Am I excited? (Oh yeah, you betcha). Finally, finally. Tonight I did the dishes, singing the whole time. It was so much less work than it has been that I actually enjoyed it. Paddy O'Kelley took a long hot shower after work. I filled dog and cat dishes. I washed my hands A LOT. I'm going to take a long hot shower too.

It wasn't that long ago in this country that showers and baths stopped being considered such a luxury. Now we take it all for granted.

As you can imagine, I am feeling particularly grateful today. I am blessed to be sober and alive. I am blessed to be blessed, and to KNOW that I am blessed.

I had a wonderful time at the Saturday night bbq and meeting up on the tip top of Pere Marquette State Park. It is incredibly beautiful up there, and was even more so this year. There lots of new "friends of Bill" to meet from across the river, one very nice couple from up Springfield way. When I got there, someone hollered "THERE she is!!!!" and I felt like the prom queen, lol. I was wearing my Expect A Miracle t-shirt too, just in case, lol It felt good to be there and see some people I don't get to see real often. The meeting topic was on humility, which seemed to fit perfectly. Lots of lovely honest shares, and it was good.

Sunday was a bit of a laid back day, after the morning meeting. We came home and just lay around reading and puttering. Very restful, just the way it should be. I was asked to come tell my story at an Alanon meeting, so I did. It was good.

One of the girls I sponsor drank again. It breaks my heart to watch her. She is so arrogant and so sure she is "strong" and in control. And there's no talking to her...she bobs her head up and down, I know, I know...until I want to scream. People die from this stuff. It's not a joke, and it's not a game. I want to shake some sense into her....and yet I know that all I can do is keep the doors open so that when she finally is finished (if she lives) she can walk again into the sunlight of the Spirit. So I go sit in the quiet and ask for some guidance about what to say to her this time. And once again, I am so grateful to be me with my life and my troubles and my blessings.

Here are the 12 steps, in plain English:

1. Alcohol will kill me.
2. There's a power that wants me to live.
3. Do I want to live or die? (If you want to die, stop here.)
4. Write about how I got where I am.
5. Tell another person all about me (Let God listen).
6. Want to change.
7. Ask a power greater than me to help me change.
8. Write down who I hurt.
9. Fix what I can without hurting anyone else.
10. Accept that I'm human and will screw up. Fix it immediately.
11. Ask a power greater than me to show me how to live.
12. Keep doing 1-11...and pass it on.


Blessed Be!!!!

Thursday Rocks!!

Just home from a womens meeting. A little late because I stopped to talk awhile...

It's been a good day, with me being lazy and a tiny bit productive and mostly just looking at the possibility of a nap. lol I slept later than usual, and it was overcast and cool all day today. I wore sweat pants and schlepped around all day with big socks on and a long sleeved shirt. Odd day, altogether...

Tired and have to be up early to take himself to work. I have the girls coming over at 10:30 tomorrow morning., and I have to drop by the DMV and get the tags renewed for my car. Also need to get more groceries...and the store I love to shop for all my produce doesn't open til 9. Sigh....so much to do, so little time.

One of my sponslings is cooking up a secret family recipe mostaccioli for a potluck tomorrow night, so I won't have to cook dinner at least. Then I'm speaking at my pal's birthday meeting at 8. It'll be a full day. And weekend. Another friend is speaking Saturday night, and we've been invited for an early supper Sunday up to another sponslings home. Life is good and full in this fellowship...

All the goggies are home and ready for bed, so I'm thinking I should follow suit. I came home, fed the baby kittens, made husbands lunch and scooped the litter boxes. All I need now is some sleep. *grin

Blessings abound. A short list would include:

*Being a useful member of society
*NOT being bitten by that snake (thanks PG!)
*Healthy wonderful pets
*Being able to ask for help today (Wasn't always so)
*Losing 15 pounds so far!!!!
*Having satellite access tonight
*The storms are finally over
*Hearing my dear (((Gabi)))'s beautiful voice on my voice mail
*A loving husband who will celebrate 17 years with me on the same day that I celebrate 19 years of being with Alcoholics Anonymous
*Getting to share that day with other people I love,too
*ALMOST sharing that date with another favorite blogger, the chicken joke lady
*Knowing, beyond all shadow of a doubt, that God has a plan for my life today, and that I don't HAVE to know what that plan is


Feeling especially blessed to have 12 Steps in my life.


Namaste.

Tuesday near the end of May...

I've been hard at work in my gardens and on my yard. Everything is looking really grand and I couldn't be happier. The weather has been atrocious the past few days...tornado warnings and horrific thunderstorms that dumped over 5 inches of rain on us in a few hours. The creeks are flooding and the whole 3 county area is under flash flood watch. We took a walk down the road after supper tonight to see how things were looking. Water, water everywhere...none of too close to us, thankfully, though there is standing water in the yard and driveway. Checked to make sure none of the last of the seeds we planted had washed out. Thank God for raised beds. Today it was alternately muggy and hot or raining furiously. Have had the computer unplugged about 3/4 of the day....

2 days ago I was cleaning the chicken coop and putting fresh straw in when something caught my eye, and I jumped back instinctively. Patrick walked over and said, what? I pointed to the floor of the coop at a baby snake wriggling around. He whistled and said--watch it, it's a copperhead. It was apparently in the chunk of straw I grabbed [with my bare hands] from under the coop where we always keep 3-4 bales. And if there is one, there are probably many more and an adult or two. So I guess I'm back to wearing my leather gloves when I clean that coop and keeping my eyes peeled for company! Yikes!!

Today I planted my Egyptian onions. I googled them, and they're also known as winter onions or walking onions. I like the sound of Egyptian onions. lol I took some pictures of them today and will download and post them tomorrow. They are absolutely the coolest looking things I've ever seen.


It's been a long day, and I'm getting ready to lay my head down for a good sleep. My blessings list for today goes something like this:

*Another day sober
*The place and ability to plant a garden and grow my own food
*Good friends and neighbors
*Egyptian Onions *grin
*Sponsees who are coming to help me spring clean my house and touch up paint
*12 Steps that help me live in an imperfect world
*A relationship with a Power Greater Than Myself
*A rock solid, happy marriage
*Good AA meetings within half an hour of my house
* Love, Patience and Tolerance
*Being asked to speak at the birthday meeting of a good friend of mine
*Enough. Enough food, enough money, enough love
*An end to the torrential rains


Namaste.

'Fraidy Friday

[Cats in the windows, cats on the bed, cats everywhere you look]

A low key kind of day today...the kind of boring day that would have sent this alcoholic out in search of some real "FUuuun!!!!" back in the day. I did some housekeeping and some cooking. Baked a chicken and rice casserole for supper, the kind that you put in the oven at 250 degrees and leave there for about 3 hours. The kind that smells up your house to the point that you never want to go out again. The kind that makes you think of when you were a kid and used to go to granny's place and she'd be cooking up all that wonderful old fashioned real food. THAT chicken and rice casserole.

Was supposed to have guests, but at the last minute there was a shift in plans and so they're coming tomorrow instead. She was worried I'd done all kinds of stuff, and she was going to cause a real problem by not coming. I said no, honey child, you're family now. I don't do extras for family. And I am absolutely flexible.. not a problem. I just wanted her to make it easy on herself-that is the whole point of the little getaway.

Talked to a neighbor. Bad news, his 401k has lost over a hundred thousand dollars, which is putting the kibosh on his retirement plan. He thinks he will have to go back to work. We are thinking about taking our IRA out as well, and just pay the taxes and penalties and put it into a savings or CD. We've already lost a lot of it, and Alan Greenspan says this economic tsunami is just beginning.

It's a hard call to make...I am feeling just a little pessimistic about the nature of investment banking these days.

At any rate, again....my pantries are stocked. We have the means to survive....although I am, nearly out of toilet paper. *grin

Lots to be thankful for as we round the corners into November. I am grateful to have family close by, something I did without for years. I am blessed to have a loving home to live in, not like the war zones of years past. I'm grateful that there are 12 steps to help me live my life one day at a time. I'm grateful that, at least in my little family, the chain of alcoholism and addiction has been broken. I'm blessed to have a fuzzy little puppy asleep at my feet. I'm grateful that there are meetings close by, that I can attend AA almost any time I want/need to. I'm blessed by the spirit of sharing and giving that I find everywhere I look.

Time for a nice hot shower and off to see the Sandman....