The Diaries of a Fruitcake in a Half Baked World!

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”   Hebrews 10:24-25

For many years I have neglected meeting together with my brother and sisters in Christ.  It became my habit and one that I couldn’t seem to break. My family seemed to fall in this trap with me. I call it a trap because we seemed to not be able to escape what was in our minds that was keeping us from forgiving offenses in our life, which caused us not to want to be around other Christians.

It is so easy to be offended by others and let everyone know about it.  When I was hurt, I wouldn’t wait until the kids were out of the room, I would do it there. They would see me crying because I was hurt and ask what was wrong and I would tell them. Not in a vindictive way but in a pathetic way. I was hurt. By letting my kids see this and know who offended me, they drew their own conclusion and opinion of those in question.

As the years passed, the dust on the Bible accumulated. We went as a family to different churches but I couldn’t leave fast enough. I was still hurt. I didn’t want to open my heart to anyone again. It was so hard. The churches we visited were so open and welcoming but I was closed off. I didn’t want to get involved in any ministries, I just wanted to be…

The Lord saw my hurt and carried me through the years…

I thought for a moment that I might be one of the sisters that had fallen away and their heart becomes harden and can’t find her way back. I was so worried about not being close to the Lord but then a friend’s face entered my mind. I started calling her and meeting with her. Slowly the ice was melting away. I let someone in.  I started opening my Bible and went to a women’s conference that opened my heart to those sisters around me. I found the joy in the Lord and forgave the offenses that I had against others. It felt like a huge weight was taken off my shoulders.

Something like scales had fallen off my eyes and I could see again. I could see others and feel love for them. I wanted to be around other brothers and sisters in Christ, to meet with them and fellowship. I was reborn!

It feels so good to have sisters that meet with you and want to pray with and for you. To have a Pastor that cares about your soul and preaches what the Lord puts on his heart.  If feels indescribable to be able to have the freedom of worship, true freedom, where you don’t have to worry about someone else watching you, your focus is all on Jesus, not anything else. How the Spirit of the Lord moves throughout the worship and sermon. To be able to be in a service and not think about what things you have to do that day but think about the message and the Lord.

It is wonderful to have a Lighthouse to go to.

This is my daughter on her webcam.  She doesn’t wear make up, which is surprising to me. Neither of my girls wear make up.  I am amazed, coming from the generation that I am in and being around the make up I was around, that my girls didn’t feel the need to wear it.

When I was younger I would sit and watch my Momma put on her make up and wish I would be like her when I grew up.  She did the wigs and everything. I just loved it all.  I had the magazines that showed me how to put on makeup, etc… I did wear a lot of it.  I hid behind the make up.  I didn’t want people to see who I really was underneath.

I am so blessed that my girls don’t feel the need to put make up on. That they recognize their natural beauty without all the other stuff.  It is freeing. Why do we feel we have to wear make up?  I still wear it today but it’s a habit that I have had for over 20 years. It’s part of my life. Believe me, I don’t wear it like I use to.

I think the world of glamour and beauty is what caused me to want to do it. I wanted to look like those women in the magazines. I believe that is called envy, possibly. Plus we all know that men are visual. Women attract men by the way they look. I got my man. He likes me to wear make up when we go out to special events but loves me just as much without it. I do love the way my face feels when it is clean.

I asked my daughter why she doesn’t wear make up and she said that she knows that when she wears it, it clogs her pores and she wants her face clean. She doesn’t want to have big pores when she is older.  That is one thing that both my Mom and I have had a problem with, bigger pores. My Mom’s has shrunk some with age, as well as her height (Love you Momma) and I am using cleaning products to try and help with that issue.

Mally Beauty has a product that minimizes the pore appearance, which I bought and it does work: Perfect Prep Poreless Primer. It has a silky feeling and you don’t even know it is on.

If you haven’t thought about it, possibly wearing make up is second nature to you, think about it and let me know why you wear make up or don’t wear it. I would love to hear the different responses I will get.

Galatians 5:22,23

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Against such things there is no law.

This is the fruit that we need to renew in the Spirit. When you have the Spirit, which is the Holy Spirit, He will produce this fruit in you. It is up to you whether to share it or not.

Sometimes, when I have been hurt, talking from my experiences, I tend to hold certain things back. Like joy, peace, kindness and self control.  It is the best thing, even though it can be hard, to forgive immediately when you have been hurt. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger.  If you do it will start manifesting itself and become very ugly. read More >

Growing up, I saw the way people treated their animals. Some let them inside the home and some didn’t allow the animals inside but had them outside for guarding purposes. A close family member at one time mentioned that animals didn’t have feelings so they just treated them however they wanted to.

I have seen on the local news how pet owners treat their animals, whether it be chaining them to a tree or leaving them out in the winter months or having them trained to attack other animals, which is illegal. I’m here to tell you that animals do have feelings! Looking at those examples, humans treat other humans the same way. People have been chained to something to work or stand guard, people have been left outside in the winter months, people have been trained to do bad things to others. Are we really that much different? read More >

Well, I was raised Southern Baptist and accepted Jesus Christ as my savior on March 25, 1985. I was 14 and had my baptism that following month on Easter Sunday. I was baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. What is that name? What is the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit? When we are baptized “in the name” isn’t that singular? It doesn’t say “names”.

So, I was going through some of my journals and I came across one of my writings that I wanted to share. read More >

First of all this was one movie that I really didn’t know much about because I didn’t watch any previews or trailer clips. If you haven’t heard of it, click on the video above and watch the preview.

I must say that I think this is the best movie I have seen that can touch everyone, no matter what you like.  For instance, there are Star Trek fans but others won’t go watch it if they aren’t interested in Star Trek or never watched it as a kid or adult. You might be lost in that film if you don’t know who James T. Kirk is or Spock. But with this film, WOW!  The graphics and story line keep you from falling asleep even though it is a long movie.

It is in 3D and I was told from many on my Facebook when I asked about it, that 3D is the way to go! Well, some people might get motion sickness because of the action and movement that is in this film. If you don’t get motion sickness, then you should be fine and it would be one heck of a movie to watch in 3D!  In my family I have some that get motion sickness, so we didn’t watch it in 3D and we went to the 9 pm showing. We were in our car at 11:50 going home, so it is about a 2-1/2 hour movie.

I don’t want to say too much about the movie. The video above says all you need to know, to go and see it.  I have noticed that in previews, whatever you see is usually the only best parts of the movie but with this one, there is so much more that is good that isn’t in the preview.

Leaving last night I thought that James Cameron is smart! Who wouldn’t want to watch a film and be happy for the man, who is in the wheelchair, to be able to run again? This movie is perfect for everyone. There is hardly any cursing, that I can remember, and there isn’t any nudity scenes.

So, out of all the movies I have scene this year for 2009, Avatar is the best, hands down! Go see it!!

Merry Christmas from my family to yours! Enjoy your day with the ones you love or remembering them if they aren’t able to be with you.

I got up early this morning due to a cold I have been fighting. Early, as in 4:30 a.m. and everyone is still sleeping. There was a time when I would be in bed and little feet would run into the bedroom and jump on our bed, waking us up yelling, “Santa came!” That was when they were 4, 5, and 6 years old. Here they are 15, 16, 17 and sleeping all snug in their bed, away from the coldness I am feeling on my toes as I sit by the fire.

Now I am the one running in bedrooms and yelling, “Santa came!” How the roles change, huh?!

Have a Merry Christmas! Oh, and “SANTA CAME!!!!!”

I remember seeing the previews to this movie and thinking I want to see it! It just came out on rentals and last night while I was laying in bed feeling sick as a dog, I decided to watch this movie called, UP.

First, I have to say that the cartoon characters or would they even be called cartoon, maybe vector? Anyway, these characters are awesome! The facial expressions of Ellie makes you think you are really looking at a child and recognizing each thought as it comes across her face.

It is something how we are put together with the people in our life.  We don’t mistakenly come across someone’s site or bump into them.  I believe everything happens for a reason and if you are here reading this, it was meant for you to get to know me and my writings! If you comment, then it was meant for me to get to know you, otherwise I wouldn’t know who is reading. I couldn’t help but be reminded of, when little Carl met Ellie, how I met my husband.  I didn’t meet him in an old run down abadoned home like the beginning of their story but I did meet him at a gas station at 3 am on my Junior Prom night!  You don’t “just happen” to be somewhere and meet someone that will change the course of the rest of your life. I think it is a divine intervention! At least with my case it was.

So, Carl always wanted adventure!  Don’t we all remember a time when we wanted an adventure?  To watch this movie and see Carl grow old and not achieving his adventure with the love of his life beside him brought tears to my eyes.  Then life knocks at the door introducing Russell, the little over weight boy scout, who was trying to earn his last badge by helping a Senior Citizen.  How many of us help Seniors out today without something in return?  One day we will be a senior citizen and I hope that I am approached by someone young for their help.  It will make me feel like I am still here to do something in my life. Even though I am old and can’t get around a room without a cane that has tennis balls on the bottom legs.  These days it seems like they are treated with an air of “You don’t know what your talking about” kind of like how it was for us as parents when our children are becoming the age that everything we say or do is wrong and they are right. Seniors might be completely gray and look like q-tips as you are driving behind them but they are still young at heart, not ready to give in to being old or treated that way.  They still want to feel important, not feel as if they are a burden to society.  Especially in this fast paced one we live in now.

I would encourage everyone to sit down with their family or just by yourself like I was last night and watch this movie.  It will make you laugh, cry and want to call your Grandparents to tell them you love them or make you cry harder cause you miss them and can only say it to yourself! Then again, it might help you to learn to have patience with the elderly when you see them walking slowly across the pedestrian walk way in front of Wal-Mart or when you are behind them on the road and they are going slowly!  They aren’t going slow to get on your nerves. They might be having a hard time seeing or they might just be nervous in the fast pace race we are all running.  We could probably learn a few things from our elderly, like to slow down and enjoy life.  There are so many of our senior citizens that are like toddlers, spending most of their time in daycare, which is retirement homes.

This movie will also remind you of what your dreams were and if you are still young, go for it because you aren’t getting any younger. Time goes by and it seems it is going by faster every year. If you are thinking you are too old, help someone else achieve it. Or better yet, still try if the desire is there to achieve your dreams.  UP shows you that you are never too old and it is wonderful having someone beside you to share it, no matter who it is.

Life is still going on and there are people out there that are going through what you went through and it would be nice to have a mentor to help them get through the hard times. That mentor could be you! No matter what your age! So if you “run into someone” or if someone knocks on your door like our boy scout Russell did, give them the time of day. You wanted it at one time, remember that?

So many life lessons. Rent UP today!

What a wonderful movie!  I am by no means a cook and my husband would waste no time admitting that fact but one thing I learned from this movie, is that I am much like Julia Child.  Watching her trying to find something to do with her life while her husband worked was exactly what I have done.  Her passion was right in front of her and it didn’t click until after trying to become a hat maker, a bridge player and I am sure much more that we don’t know about.  The one thing she loved was eating French food.  She wanted to learn how to cook french style but there wasn’t any cook book teaching in english.  So, she took french language classes thinking she would be able to read the cook book and eat french cuisine. After a time, she decided to go to a french cooking school.

Some movies make you wish you never watched them and wasted the 2 hours of your life on nonsense.  This movie was a definite joy and made me look back on my life and see where I am now.  We all have a passion for something and it could be staring us right in the face. Mine is writing.  I don’t have a problem putting words on paper. It comes fairly easy and I love coming up with ideas that would possibly get the attention of the reader.

Watching Julie write every day for a year was inspiring.  To actually follow through on something that took a year, especially cooking recipes that don’t look easy to make, that was awesome.  She was faithful in her posting on her blog and it took months but she started to get readers and comments, which are hard to get.  That is what I plan on doing, being faithful to my Diaries of a Fruitcake and to my readers.

This movie is one to see.  I watched it off of Netflix.  The name, Julie & Julia.

I don’t know about you but I am thinking about doing the black friday shopping for the first time in my life.  I have been reading the articles in the local paper here and it is starting to kind of scare me.  Hearing about people who are crazy enough to snatch a little elmo doll out of a child’s hand and then that same man being beaten in the parking lot for his actions.  It sounds like crazy animals and long lines.  Are you brave to shop early?  If so, let me hear of your experiences with Black Friday!

I will be updating if I decide to venture out.