Anita’s blog

Kansas City is called the, "City of Fountains."  The only place that has more fountains than us is Rome, Italy.  These are my favorite 2 fountains here.  J.C. Nichols fountain on the Plaza, and the fountain in the Rose Garden at Loose Park which is also on the Plaza.

Fountains, as we all know, have a little pump that recirculates the same water over and over.  It receives only from itself. Occasionally, this has a comic effect when someone -and if you ask me who, I'll stay mum- puts a box of detergent in the fountain and it froths out into the street. 

I never get the urge to drink from one of the fountains.  Not even aglae grows.  Oh, but don't they LOOK good?

JCNICHOLSFOUNTAIN01

Loose Park Fountain

This fountain on the left is really special, because that's where Jeremy and I said our vows when we got married.

Indian_creek

This is Indian Creek.  It flows along a great bike path not too far from me in Overland Park.  Even on a sunny day, the trees keep us shady.

Creeks give away all they've got every day.  They can afford to be so generous, because they are always taking in new, fresh water from a source other than themselves.  All come and drink. The fish, the plants, the trees, the bugs and birds.

I've decided it's time to allow myself a mentor.  And it's time to get back into real study of the Word.

I don't believe in Karma.  If Karma worked, then everyone would respond like trained rats, and learn that it's unlucky to misbehave.  We would have a much more pleasant society than the one I'm familiar with.

I believe in something deeper, something that reaches much further.  I believe in the goodness of God.

I know that He has a plan that includes not only me, but everyone.  I am just one thread in a huge tapestry.  If I decide to do what's right, I may never enjoy the fruits of that decision.  The one who gets the benefit may not even be born yet!  Look at the hard times that some believers had to endure.  Yet it was worth it to them to retain a place of approval in the heart of God.

This week, someone was advertising their sinful life as something very pleasant and enjoyable.  It was an alluring message.  But I know that when God asks something of me that is difficult, He has my best interests at heart.  And not only does He have my best interests at heart, but those of every life I might touch.

When I choose to do something wrong, at the heart of it is a belief that I am either more important than God's big picture, or that He doesn't really want the best for all of us.  Jeremiah 29:11 is just a lie.

It's hard to believe in the goodness of God when things go bad.  Physical pain and unbroken stress are the ones that grind me down.   For me, it's worst of all when I don't see evidence of His intervention in our my life.   I've always felt like He has a "hands-off," approach to dealing with me.  That I just need to handle things on my own.  But as I'm writing this....hey... wait a minute.  It's been physical pain that has forced me to the gym every day and I have reaped the benefits of energy and focus from my involvement there.  Not to mention my new friends and business contacts, which has aleviated much of my stress. 

On my way to California this month, I was looking down from the airplane window, overwhelmed with just how many people live on this planet.  And does God intervene in their lives?  Well, the sun rises on them every day.  They have copies of ancient Scripture lying about.  I wasn't very impressed with that.  A couple of days later, I had a devotional time overlooking a valley that let me see both nature and a highly populated area.  An unusual breed of hawk landed quite close to me, and was joined by it's mate.  When they flew, they sang a single, beautiful note.  They were so perfect.  I felt like God met me there, and showed me that there are ten thousand ways every day that He intervenes and shows Himself real to us.

Here are some pictures of KC that I will show to my new friends in California. 

One day, I joined a gym.

The next day, I joined a new church.

The first time I walked into the new church, I knew 5 people out of the 75 or so people who were there.

Come to find out, 3 employees of the gym live across the street from the church, and they are social with the pastors.

The pastor's best friend knows about half of my best friends.

The gym hires me for about 90% of my work, so my new co-workers are these people who know my new pastors.

In big cities like Kansas City, people I meet don't know anything about my social circle or my family.  This is more like a smaller town where people know a little more about where I come from.

I have so much to do.  It's been like this forever.I don't remember how it feels to be peaceful.

I am thinking about just dropping out of all of my social and church engagements until my house is ready to go on the market.  I need to finish remodeling 2 rooms, touch up a third and paint the hall.  The exterior needs attention.  After that, a garage sale and we are ready to move.

I would still go to one Bible study every week.

We wouldn't have any debt after that except for house payments.  Sounds good.

I need some ideas for biographies.

I've read about Corrie Ten Boom, Hellen Keller, Frank McCourt of Angela's Ashes, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Joni Ericson, Elizabeth Elliot, Keith Green, Jay Leno.  Pretty short list.

Maybe Golda Meir, Condolisa Rice, Amelia Earhart, Billy Graham, John Wesley, Erma Bombeck, Marie Curie?

..... Because mammals get to hold hands.

Be sure and watch it to the end.

I tried hiring a guy from the day labor place.  I used him 2 years ago, only to discover that he was afraid of heights and had to take him back to the day labor pool.  But a lot of those guys aren't legal to work, and I knew he was.

He did okay taking apart the kitchen cupboards and sanding, but he just couldn't paint.  I figured anyone can run a paint roller.  He couldn't use the brush either.  He would dip the brush and then scrape all the paint back off into the bucket, trying to paint with a nearly dry brush.  All the color underneath was still showing.  Not everyone is good at everything.  I guess that other people can't figure out why waitressing, for example, came so hard to me.

So I'm back on my own.

It was so different when I was working with Frank.  Everything got done in lightening speed because we both had skills.  We competed with each other, and the work just flew.  Big jobs are tedious when I'm working them alone. 

It's tiresome to be alone all day.  Even if I'm not in the same room or talking to someone, it feels better to have someone in the building.

Toward a solution:

I called my friend, Tina.  Her adivice was simple.  "Cry out to God."  Then I went to church that night, and the message was, "Cry Out To God."  The pastor listed all the ways that our little congregation is being assaulted by life, and his word to us is, "Cry Out to God."  So I sat on the porch last night and asked God for help.

My plan is, pray, work really hard and charge normal prices.  When I have a safety cushion of savings, health insurance and business insurance, pray about who I should hire.  In my prayer time yesterday, I made the decision to keep ministry requirements first, and business requirements second.  I won't skip meetings or be late to things because I'm working.

Right now, I'm painting the interior of a 3 bedroom ranch house in Grandview.  It was in good shape to begin with, and it is just a pleasure to see it all freshened up.  I switched to the Cadilac of paints for the trim, and it's making the job so much easier and prettier.

I come alive in Spring.

Saturday, I putzed around, clearing clutter from the yard and hauling brush. So satisfying. The brush pile had a little menagerie in the bottom of it.  Garter snakes and a fat mouse.  Ewww!

Saturday night, went with Jeremy and Alex to Clyde's house.  Alex and I split a beer. One of the nicest beers I've tasted.  Listened to music, played with the computer, told long stories, picked each others' brains. Clyde has some sports equiptment right there in his living room, and we turned into 16-yr olds for a while playing around with it.  Horseplay was involved. 

Sunday, it was a nice lunch out with the gang from church a lots of conversation with my new friend, Melanie.  Frisbee golf.  It was the prettiest day of the year, but it turned windy when we got out on the course. Our neighborhood has the best course in town.  I came in 3rd place, beating one guy.  Our new friend Matt, the professional dancer, came in 1st.

What will I do next weekend?

My prospective employee got another job. I'm disappointed and relieved.

Disappointed because I wanted to hire a female, since I don't want to tell some guy what to do.  She had experience and she had her own tools.  Disappointed because I need the help.  And I could potentially make more money with the extra help. I could get jobs done faster and the clients would be happier.

Relieved because I was concerned that some elements and perspectives of her lifestyle would would rub off on me. 

The person I'm looking for seems like a needle in a haystack.  This is scary.  I will be spending all day with just this one person.  So much of my future would rest on their abilities.

In the past, I've hired unskilled people.  By the time I teach them the task, gather their tools, and check their work, I have very little time left to my own work.  None of them even had their own transportation, so I had to take time to pick them up.  Then they sometimes did such a bad job that I had to redo their work.  They also have a problem in that they do exactly what I say, even when they run into something that requires that they change tactics.  For example, I told a guy to sand all the woodwork on the windowsills, but there was one spot where the old paint had lifted completely off the wood.  It needed to be scraped, but he just sanded over the top of it.  The next day, I gave the job to a different guy.  He didn't inform me that the sandpaper on the power sander didn't have enough grit left.  It took him hours to do what should have taken minutes.  I just need to find someone with skills this time.