Hello Tuesday!

Hi everyone,

I hope all of you took a few minutes yesterday to remember 9/11.  It was a horrific  day for the United States, sixteen years ago. 

Even though it was 16 years ago, I still remember where I was and what I was doing when I first heard about what had happened in New York City.  I was at my part time job, which was handling the finances for a small book binding company.  When I went upstairs to the factory, one of the co-owners of the business, had her radio on and we heard the news broadcast about the plane hitting one of the twin tower in New York City. 

Soon after that, I left for the day and went home.  The afternoon and evening was spent in front of the television  I felt so much sadness and fear.  What was happening?  Why is there so much hatred in our world?  Will it ever stop? 

Then I started thinking about the families of all those folks who were innocently killed.  First of all, those who boarded that airplane, did so expecting to reach their destinations, safely.  Also, the employees of the airlines were just doing their job.  The families of everyone on that plane, had no idea that they'd never see or speak with their loved ones ever again.   

The same holds true for those who were on the job, at the pentagon, when it was struck by a plane.  They simply went to work that morning, as usual.  Their families kissed them goodbye, expecting to see them that evening.

I commend the passengers on the other plane.  They knew they were going to die and they decided to take matters into their own hands, by fighting back against their attackers.  Yes, they died, but they saved lives by causing that plane to crash where it couldn't kill anyone else.

Of course, there has been so many other attacks against the US since then, as well as in other countries.  When will it end?  And what about all the innocent folks who have been killed by the extreme weather, which the world has been experiencing! 

Many times I have sat and wondered about why this is all occurring.  I truly believe that God is trying to send us a message.  Not just here in the United States, but throughout the world.  We need to hear God's message and change our actions toward others. 

I hope you all have a safe and good day, today!  Please take a few minutes to stop and give praise and honor to God for all He's blessed you with today and every day.
Susan 

Do you want Jesus' Divine Mercy in your life?

Hi everyone,
In case you've never heard about Saint Faustina, I'd share with you that when she was very young, back in the twenties, she always knew she wanted to be a Nun when she was older.  She actually tried to get into the convent, and more than once, before she was old enough for them to accept her.

After she finally was old enough, she joined the convent and became a Nun.  She died in 1938 from a disease, which was incurable.  But, in a short period of time, as a Nun, she was blessed to have Jesus appear before her, asking her to write down everything He said to her.  She did and she eventually had a diary, filled with all the many things Jesus told her.

There is a book called, "Divine Mercy Minutes with Jesus", which contains daily excerpts from that diary.  I read each day's reading after I get up every morning.  Here was today's entry:

September 6:  And I will tell you one more thing....take these graces not only for yourself, but also for others; that is, encourage the souls with whom you come in contact to trust in my infinite mercy.  Oh, how I love those souls who have complete confidence in Me.  I will do everything for them!

The prayer response is:  Yes, Lord, I take Your graces, not only for myself, but for souls I meet, that they may trust in You even more.  May they grow to have complete confidence in You!  Amen.

You too can read these daily entries by going to:  www.marian.org/mmwj.php

I hope you have a wonderful evening and that each of you are safe and content.  If you're not content with your life, then you definitely need to read about Jesus' Divine Mercy!

Susan

Happy Sunday!

Hello, everyone,
I wish each of you a blessed Sunday, today.  As usual, I will be attending Mass in a little while and then I will try to keep God's Day, free of any manual work.  After all, even God rested on Sunday!

I hope you all had a good week and since this is a long holiday weekend, I hope you will have some time to rest and just kick back and do nothing.  Or, at least, whatever you choose to do.  I will continue working on my embroidery projects, which isn't work for me.  I do these projects as a way to "give back" for all my many blessings from God.

Since making seventy security blankets for young kids and giving them all away, I needed to think of another project I can do for children who are in hospitals.  So, now I'm working on Teddy Bears.  They're not real large, as children who are in hospitals really shouldn't have gigantic Teddy Bears in bed with them.  I just want to give them something to love, something to squeeze and something to help them not be so afraid.

Here's a few of them.

I do hope these little teddy bears will help make the children feel not so afraid, while in the hospital.

I wish each of you a very happy, carefree Sunday, as well as a good Monday off from work.  Remember to always give thanks to God for all your blessings and please remember to pray for all those folks in Texas who are now without homes, furniture, etc.  Be safe always!
Susan

Let's just pretend...

Hi folks,

Let's just pretend, at least for a few minutes, that everyone in your town or city, your state, and in our country, decides to be kind, loving, friendly and caring to everyone they come in contact with, be it a family member, a neighbor, a co-worker, or a stranger,  Wow, wouldn't that make our lives amazing and our homes, cities and everywhere, great places to live? 

I never understood why people act the way they do.  Why is there so much hate, revenge and anger in the world today?  And why?  I truly wished I could understand why people choose to kill another person, either on purpose or because they won't do as they want, say during a robbery.  What gives them the right to take another person'

s life? 

Life is a gift given to us by God, through our Mother and Father.  What makes a person go from a nice, considerate youngster, into a hateful teen and then adult?  I wish someone could explain that to me, because I truly don't understand where all the hate in this world comes from.  Do you?

I know that my caring about this problem won't really change anything, not one bit, but I just don't understand why all this hate exist.  Oh, I realize that hatred has been a part of our world since the beginning of time.  Every day, as I pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet, I relive the crucifixion and death of Jesus.  So, this hatred started many, many centuries ago.  But, my question is why does it have to continue? 

I suppose no one has the answer to this question and never will.  Just something for all of us to ponder about for a while. 

I hope your week is going well and if not, the weekend is almost upon us.  So just relax!  Stay safe and always ask God for His love and mercy.
Susan

Happy Saturday evening, folks!

How's everyone doing this evening?  I hope you all are doing well.  I'm sure that many of you are spending your weekend running around or doing errands, but I hope that you will have some time for yourself and your family tomorrow, Sunday.

I have been trying to make time to finish my manuscript, but I haven't had as much time as I'd like to work on it.  Why?  You got me!  It just seems that my days pass so quickly.  I will say that I did manage to finish my cleaning this week.  It's getting harder for me to do my own cleaning, but I will continue do it, until I can't anymore.  I'm not really worried anymore, if my house is a bit dusty.  I just do the best I can and that's good enough for me.  Of course, if I didn't have a Roomba, I wouldn't be able to do it at all.  If you are wandering if the Roomba works, the answer is "yes" it does.  I love it!  This is our second one and they keep improving them all the time. 

I've finally given away all my small, security blankets for children in hospitals.  I decided to keep them local, if possible.. Of the seventy I made, 26 went to Hershey's Children's Hospital and the remainder of them, went to The York Hospital's Children's Ward.  I will make some more of them, but probably not until October and November.  I'm going to put either Santa or a snow man on those, since they'll be given out just before Christmas.

I was trying to decide what my next project should be, as my way of 'giving back' for all my blessings.  So, two days ago, I tried something new, a Teddy Bear, which turned out pretty good.  My husband said he thought it was cute.  So now I have two finished and have started on four more.  These are also for children.  I've never tried anything like this before, but I'm always willing to try to do something new.  I thank God for my creative talents every day.  He has truly blessed me in so many ways.

I hope the remainder of your weekend goes well for you all.  Please stay safe and pray, pray, pray.  It's the only way that this country and our world, will ever stay safe for our children and grand children. 
Susan

What is your passion?

Hi folks,
How's everyone doing this evening?  I hope all is well with you and your family.  As far as I know, my family is all doing well and I am so thankful for that fact. 

As for my title tonight, I've been thinking about how so many of us go through life never finding our true passion.  You know, what you'd really love to do with your life.  Of course, for many of us, we grow up,  get out on our own, get a job doing whatever we can to make money to live, and so often  stick with that job for many years.

Some years ago, I went to a seminar entitled:  "What are you passionate about?  I always assumed that what we choose as our profession, was our passion, but somehow I knew that couldn't be right, because all though I was really good working at finances, I knew I wasn't passionate about my work.  Oh, of course, I did the best I could, always, at my job.  But I have to admit that it wasn't what made me happy.  It just paid the bills. 

After attending that meeting, I realized that my passion was doing everything that was creative.  I've truly been blessed with many, many creative abilities and I'm so thankful for them.  But it was my beloved Mom who showed me how to do so many things in the creative field, that helped  make me the woman I am today.  I will always be thankful for all her help. 

I was a middle child and I don't know if you believe that many middle children have a drive that just doesn't stop them from doing what they love.  I can remember so many times, as a teenager, when my Mom showed me how to sew, that my attitude always was:  I can do it, unless I prove to myself that I positively can't do it.  I still feel that way today.

I also learned from Mom that anything you do you should do it to the best of your ability.  This is the way I've tried to live my life and taught my daughters.  I never understood how someone could just stand there and say that they can't do something, if they've never even tried to do it. 

Whenever I show someone else how to do something in the creative line, I always tell them to just do the best they can and that will always be good enough.  Also I tell them that when you're doing anything by hand, it never will be absolutely perfect.  For heavens sake, even machines don't always produce perfect items, now do they. 

So, if you've been wandering where your passion lays, look deep inside yourself.  What is it that you would have always loved to be able to do, but never tried?  Well, now's the time, just try it!  You'll never know if you will be good at it, if you never try.  Don't forget this:  Practice makes perfect, or at least gets you closer to perfect each day.  Don't give up on your dreams.  If someone my age can take on line classes, you certainly can do it also.

My advice to you today:  Don't ever give up on yourself and always find out what you are passionate about and then learn how to do it.  Don't put it off because the day to start may never come.

Have a wonderful week and be safe always.
Susan

Here's one of my creations:  It's a table runner I made for my Grandson and his partner, who both love dogs..

Is it true?

Hi everyone,

My title refers to the fact that it's now August already.  The summer months are flying by, but then every month, be it winter, fall, summer or spring, flies by to me.  Time in general goes so quickly the older you become. 

Oh there is a day here and there, that moves along very slowly for me, but they are the rarity in my life.  Generally, that kind of day would be one that I spend entirely alone, especially if it's a weekend day. 

My generation, when we were young, were taught that Saturdays and Sundays, were considered 'family' time.  I can't really remember a time when my Dad worked, even in garden, on a Sunday.  He did on Saturdays, because he worked full time at The York Barbell Company.  It was the only full time job my Dad ever had.  The company itself, wasn't well known when he started.  Some of the other employees were hired at the same time as my Dad.  To me, that's dedication, when a person stays at the same job all of their adult life.  Even when they could probably make more money elsewhere.  Dad was so good at his job as Traffic Manager.  I suppose it was from him that I learned good work ethics.  So, thanks Dad for teaching me how to be a hard worker at a job  Of course, I haven't worked for many years now, because I have been medically disabled since 2006. 

To change the subject a bit, I have to say that there is so much about how things are done today and the way people are so unkind to one another, that I'm almost glad that I am old now.  I fear for how this world will be in another twenty-five or so years.  Whatever happened to all the rules we were taught as children, from our parents and in school every day?  Sometimes I think that parents today must be too tired to teach their kids how to be polite to others, how to say 'thank you' and 'no thank you', 'May I please have...,' and so many other things that I taught my kids.  It's called being polite.  Perhaps that word isn't even in the dictionary today.  Oh, I forgot, who uses a dictionary today???
Well, I occasionally still do.  I'm not sure that proper spelling even matters today, what with all the short cuts in spelling that are used today.  I'm sorry, but I'm old school and I like it that way!

Another thing that bothers me today is when you're speaking with someone, mostly the younger generations than me, they can't even look directly at you and answer you.  They are looking at their cell phones and barely paying any attention to you, or whoever is speaking to them.  Personally, I don't put up with that behavior from my family members.  Of course, they already know that about me, so they are pretty careful how much attention they pay to their phones when they're in my presence.  I'm sorry, but I just think that it's rude!  What do you think?

How's the weather where you are?  We had one bad storm pass through this afternoon that did some considerable damage in parts, in this area.  Once again, the end of our street, where it intersects with a major road, was flooded.  What surprised me was how the cars just kept flying through the intersection.  They didn't even slow up.  The water was up over the curbs on all four sides of the road.  Why is everyone always in such a hurry these days?  Half the time they don't even pay any attention to yellow lights or even sometimes red ones. 

Okay, I'm done complaining for the evening.  Besides, it doesn't make any difference anyways, now does it?  I hope the rest of your week goes well.  May God bless you and keep you and your families safe.
Susan

This is one of the Christmas Table runners I made.  Sorry, it's not a great photo of it.