Welcome to day fourteen of A Day In My Life! Happy Sunday!
Something amazing happened in church today! Not that amazing things don’t happen on other Sundays, but today, the Lord confirmed that my word for the year is HOPE!
Kevin and Donna Jessip, friends from our church who’ve moved to Florida’s west coast, came back to visit and speak today. Kevin is the founder of The Return and Renewal, worldwide movements based on Biblical principles of repentance and a return to our covenant relationship with God. As a church, we prayed for him and with him as he and Rabbi Jonathan Cahn met with leaders in government over the course of five years preparing for this, and we watched as thousands gathered on September 26, 2020, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. to repent, pray, and worship the Lord together. Millions took part in live broadcasts around the world, and the Lord moved in powerful ways.
Are you familiar with Rabbi Jonathan Cahn? He’s the author of The Harbinger, The Paradigm, and other books comparing what happened in ancient Hebrew history to what’s going on today. He has partnered with Kevin Jessip. You can read all about it at www.TheReturn.org, if you’re interested.
So, in church, Kevin delivered a wonderful teaching on Joseph and ended with five prophetic principles for 2023, all of which point to God as the Hope of this world. He is the sustainer of hope and the Lord of hope, and because of Him, we have hope. My hope is that each of you will come to know His amazing, enduring, and extravagant love for you.
Here’s my to-do list for today:
Write my daily blog. (Check!)
Read the blogs of everyone participating in this challenge and comment. (Daily)
Welcome to day thirteen of A Day In My Life! Happy Saturday!
Why the adorable baby blue dragon? Because I love dragons at that age! And, just maybe, this one will show up in a story I’m working on.
One thing I enjoy about being an author is connecting with people over books. I’ve been privileged to speak about my books at a middle school, at book signings, and at book clubs. The most common two questions people ask me are: “How did you get the idea for your stories?” and “How did you come up with your characters?”
Today, I’ll answer question number two. I’ll share the answer to the first question in another post.
I don’t “come up with” any of my characters. I meet them. Here’s how I met my first character, Jewel Amaryllis Adams.
An exceptional piece of artwork caught my eye as I casually surfed the web one day. Concetta Antico is a tetrachromatic artist, a woman who sees a hundred million colors and whose art reflects her vision. Imagine that! What IS a tetrachromat?
Curiosity led me to websites like this one, Exploring Your Mind, and this one, Healthline, where I learned that tetrachromats have four color cones in their eyes, allowing them to see exponentially more colors than most humans, who have only three. Then I discovered that pentachromacy also exists. If a person with four color cones can see a hundred million colors, what would someone with five color cones see?
A picture began to emerge in my mind. A lovely young woman stepped out of the shadows. Her long black hair shimmered with dark rainbows in the sun, like the feathers of a raven. She gazed at me with large, aquamarine, almond-shaped eyes, smiled, and said, “Hi. I’m Jewel. Who are you?”
I learned that Jewel was seventeen and had just moved to Blue Mountain (fictitious name), NC, from Asheville, where she’d been homeschooled by her scientist parents. She was about to go to a real school for the first time as a high school senior, and she was angry about it. Since she saw people’s auras, in addition to a gazillion colors, her dad invented a pair of color-dampening glasses and made her promise to wear them at all times in school. Jewel was a pentachromat–a smart one, with a loving, supportive family. What’s the fun in that? As it turned out, she was not the only gifted one.
I met the others in much the same way. Curiosity about special abilities led me to more research down many fascinating rabbit holes. As I met each of the characters, I saw where they fit into the story and how they would grow through their experiences together.
The internet has opened doors to unimaginable amounts of information. Meeting my characters led me to learn about a different culture, discover the most fascinating places on planet Earth, read about mysteries galore, and craft a story using much of that information. I wanted to write a story I would have enjoyed reading back when we didn’t have a television in the house. That’s a good thing, considering how many times I’ve read it, edited it, and revised it.
If you’re an author, how do you come up with your characters?
It’s COLD today in Florida. We have winter until Monday. By next Thursday, we’ll be back in the high seventies, low eighties. I’ll take a few days of winter, thank you.
Since I’m not a winter person, I planned to stay home all day. It paid off! I packed one bin full of Christmas, and have a good start on a second one. Our house will look a mess until it’s all put away, but that gives me more incentive to complete the job. Maybe I’ll be done by the time summer rolls around again next Thursday.
Here’s my to-do list for today:
Write my daily blog. (Check!)
Read the blogs of everyone participating in this challenge and comment. (daily)
Balance our checkbooks. (Didn’t get done again.)
Pack ONE bin full of Christmas and put it away. (Making Progress! This stays on the list until it’s done.)
Spend an hour editing my friend’s book. (Maybe tomorrow)
Make dinner and watch a movie with Bill before turning in for the night.
STAY WARM!
Still seven items on the list. I need the extra padding in this frigid weather.
Welcome to day twelve of A Day In My Life! Happy Friday!
Patient Endurance. Two words I never wanted to see together, especially as they pertained to our lives. And yet, God gave that phrase to Bill in 2021 after he prayed for direction for the year.
Patience is one of the fruits of the spirit listed in Galatians 5:22 and pictured above, but I don’t see endurance there. Do you?
I had heard other people talk about their word for the year, and didn’t understand why the Lord would use only one word to guide His people. I know the Word, with a capital W, and I read it every day. It contains many words, as I recall from this morning’s reading. So what’s the story with one word or phrase?
Bill got his phrase, so I asked God for a word, too, hoping it would be something different, like Prosperity, or Healing, or Joy. He didn’t give me one. Instead, He reminded me that Bill and I are one in His eyes, and what’s good for the gander is good for the goose. We were about to get some training.
During 2021, we sold our house in Jupiter and bought a newer one where we are now. The process was certainly a great lesson in patience as we bid on house after house with no success. We stored all our worldly goods and rented a small condo near the beach while we searched. We had given away much of our furniture, and when we finally found our new home, we had to buy a lot of “new” stuff. We did get new mattresses and a new sofa bed, but the rest? Little by little, Bill brought home piece after piece of lovely old stuff he’d bought at thrift stores. Good solid furniture, well-built, and far, far from modern. And yet, as it came together, it became ours and it all worked. The house was undervalued by the owner and filled with upgrades including impact windows. Yay! No more storm shutters! Complete lawn and shrubs maintenance was included in the HOA fees, which were lower than most. No more backbreaking mowing and yard work. We literally traded a 30-year-old home needing some loving attention for a larger 3-year-old with attitude! For the same price! We learned that miracles can come with patient endurance.
As 2021 rolled over into 2022, we prayed and waited for a new word or phrase, maybe one with more pizzazz and less endurance. God wasn’t done with the lessons yet, and patient endurance remained. Medical challenges came along for both of us. We saw God heal, albeit slowly enough to warrant both patience and endurance, and we’re still waiting for other healing to be accomplished. Our income took a hit, but the Lord hasn’t let us down, yet.
Here we are in 2023. It occurred to me that I’d been seeing a lot of one word in my readings and through my devotionals since the New Year. Could it be? Might the Lord be giving me a word this time? I’m going to say it, and if it is what I think it is, then I’ll gladly remind the Lord that what’s good for the goose is also good for the gander.
That word is HOPE.
Here’s my to-do list for today:
Write my daily blog. (Check!)
Meet with my friend to discuss edits to her book.
Read the blogs of everyone participating in this challenge and comment. (Daily)
Balance our checkbooks. (Didn’t get done again. Numbers…)
Pack ONE bin full of Christmas and put it away, leaving only six more for another day. (Also didn’t get done yet.)
Put together tax information for one of our corporations. (Ugh)
Cover the plants for tonight’s frigid temps (our real winter comes in spurts).
Welcome to day twelve of A Day In My Life! Happy Thursday!
I discovered I was old when our three-year-old granddaughter paused in her hula hoop marathon to check me out as I sat and watched her. She gravely informed me, “Gramma. You’re old.”
When I was a kid, I noticed how little old ladies tinted their white hair blue. I thought it looked pretty. So when, at the ripe old age of sixty-something, I learned I’d become one of them, I decided to own it. The result was a tad more blue than I had imagined. The fact that I didn’t start with white hair might have contributed to the vibrancy of the color.
My blue hair phase lasted until Covid shut the world down. Since I wasn’t going anywhere, I lost the motivation to keep up appearances. No worries. It’s much easier being me when I leave my hair its natural color. Drawing on eyebrows is plenty of maintenance.
Want to know how we wound up with such a large family of kids and grandkids? Well, when a man and woman love each other… No, I am NOT going there.
When Bill and I discovered we loved each other, we each had our own families. I had three children and he had five. We met at a Wednesday Bible study, when our church offered a catered meal at a price we single parents could not ignore. We had nothing in common other than our love for God and our children, and that we enjoyed each other’s company. Our kids went to the same youth group. Their ages meshed, and they got along well.
Before the wedding, we attended a marriage seminar. The speaker, a Christian pastor, said this about second marriages. “If you have teenagers or an adult child living at home, you might reconsider getting married.” His facial expression and the gesture he added to his mild words indicated we should run away as fast as we can. We didn’t.
We had five teenagers and one adult child at home. One daughter was already married, and another was in college. That does add up to eight, right? We ignored the man’s sage advice and spent the next few years in a constant state of drama, laughter, tears, growth, and bonding. Thankfully, Bill and I have a sense of humor and a healthy faith in God, and our union survived.
After a series of weddings, the grand babies came like popcorn: one after the other after the other. Each one precious and loved. Some were added when families broke up and combined with new spouses and their kids. To all of them, we’re Gramma and Grampa. At last count, there were twenty-five of them.
We don’t care how they came into the family. Once ours, ALWAYS ours! The same was true for those kids who came to stay for awhile and moved on to live their lives, related by love rather than blood. We acknowledge and love them all.
I miss the energy of a full house, but relish the peace when only Bill and I are here. We love it when they come to visit, as they do, in waves. If they all came at the same time, we’d have to rent a hotel, or a remote island. Come to think of it, that would be fun!
So now you know why I need spreadsheets to keep track of everyone and everything!
Here’s my to-do list for today:
Write my daily blog. (Check!)
Read the blogs of everyone participating in this challenge and comment.
Balance our checkbooks. (Didn’t get done yesterday.)
Pack ONE bin full of Christmas and put it away, leaving only six more for another day. (Also didn’t get done yesterday.)
Do laundry.
Make dinner and watch a movie with Bill before turning in for the night.
Welcome to day ten of A Day In My Life! Happy Wednesday! We’re a third of the way through our 30-day challenge.
Frankly, I’m surprised at how much I’m enjoying this. Not only am I getting to know my friends who are also part of this challenge, I’m loving your comments and responses. Yesterday, I realized some of my own responses could be expanded into another day’s post. Ideas can happen anywhere.
Together, we’re a wealth of experience and knowledge, and our lives are meaningful, even when we go through pain and disappointment. You are infinitely valuable, and I don’t mean that as hyperbole. It’s true. If you believe in God as I do, then you should know that.
I’m involved with a local group of writers who get together twice a month to read a chapter they’ve written so the rest of us can offer critiques and suggestions. Typically, five or six of us submit our chapter a few days before the meeting so everyone can follow along when we read it aloud. Those who have nothing ready to read, participate by listening and critiquing anyway. Lately, I’m one of the listeners, as I have no new chapters to offer. That will change. I am hereby challenging myself to doing nothing else but working on my own book(s) in February. I’ll let you know how that goes.
Here’s my to-do list for today:
I am writing, and you’re reading it now!
Read the chapters my local group submitted and critique them.
Read the blogs of everyone participating in this challenge, and a few others, and comment.
Balance our checkbooks.
Pack ONE bin full of Christmas and put it away, leaving only six more for another day.
Make dinner and watch a movie with Bill before turning in for the night.
Only six items on the list. It should be a breeze.
Welcome to day nine of A Day In My Life! Happy Tuesday!
Yesterday was day eight, not nine. I get the date confused with the day number. So what else is new? Numbers are like a foreign language to me, requiring translation. What year were we married? Uh, well, Bill! Help! And yet, I am the one who gathers all the financial info for our taxes. Thank the Lord for spreadsheets.
How do I use spreadsheets? Let me count the ways.
1. Names: We have eight children and twenty-five grandchildren. Oh, and one great-grand baby on the way. I used every grandchild’s name as a character in my Tetrasphere series. Now you know why there are so many characters! Of course, I changed the names slightly and assigned them to people, giants, aliens, and other creatures bearing absolutely no resemblance to said grandchild. Spreadsheets kept my characters in line and made sure I didn’t forget anyone.
2. Birthdays: I stopped transferring birthdays to new calendars years ago. Firstly, I pay little attention to actual calendars except to admire the photos and poems or Scriptures now and then. Secondly, my writing hand cramped. Thirdly, spreadsheets are easy to duplicate and update annually, and I can update everyone’s ages, too, so I don’t give teenagers cards meant for five-year-olds. I do miss sending those young child cards, though. Can’t wait for more great-grands.
3. Christmas Card lists and addresses: Ditto on the ease of updating. Making labels from a spreadsheet using Word is a skill I need to relearn every year, but it’s simple enough, and printing labels also saves the hand from cramping. I do write a message in each card and pray for everyone on my list. My handwriting confuses even me, so the cards have a better chance of reaching their destination when I print labels.
4. Accounts: Yes, I know the bank keeps records and we have access to monthly reports, but I transfer every transaction to a spreadsheet. It comes in handy when I have to crunch the numbers for taxes.
5. Characteristics of my characters: Who are they? What do they like to do? Where are they from? How do they look? With as many characters as I have, I often refer to this list. Now I have one for dragon names, meanings, and who they’re connected to. Oops. Did I give you a hint about what I’m writing?
6. An Ornament Diary: When did we get the ornament? Did someone give it to us? Where am I storing it? Some ornaments are many years old, and I make a note of it when one breaks or we give it away. It saves me from frantically searching for it next year.
7. Decorations: What, When, and Where did I put it? Same as the ornament diary, but it’s more for noting which bins contain which decorations.
Spreadsheets are like buttresses for my brain, adding external structure to keep everything from falling out. They’re external hard drives where I store data I’d surely forget otherwise. I have more spreadsheets than I listed here, but I’m sure you have your own methods.
Now, why did I got into the subject of spreadsheets? Oh, yeah. The day/date confusion.
How do you keep your writing or activities organized?
Welcome to day nine of A Day In My Life! Happy Tuesday!
Look who came to visit us today! This is a young pair of Sandhill Cranes, possibly siblings, since they seem to be under the tutelage of two larger cranes. Bill discovered them when he opened the lanai doors this morning. The parents instructed them to stay away from the large, wingless aliens and stay close to them. The exchange could easily have been heard all the way to the ocean, a few miles to our east. If I post the video I took, be sure to keep your sound low.
The weather is perfect for keeping the house open, with temps in the mid-seventies, low humidity, and a soft, fragrant breeze. My orchids (some of which are pictured here) are between blooming phases. When they bloom, their flowers last for a month or three, but several months can go by without flowers.
I took the wreaths down and put them away today. Step one of the great Christmas break-down has been completed. That’s the easiest step. Now I’ll print the list of our bins and what goes in them. Some re-organizing will take place, and some unused decorations will go.
The beautiful cards we received will also be sorted. Instead of stickers on our wrapped presents, I use the faces of many of last year’s cards. They look pretty, they usually have a message for the receiver, and it’s a great way to repurpose the good vibes we felt when we opened them the first time.
I will save the tree for last. I have a bit of a stubborn streak.
This afternoon, five ladies met for lunch at a nearly empty Outback Steakhouse. We call ourselves the Misfits. Wonder why? What a wonderful server we had! She engaged in banter with us, and was quick with her comebacks. We laughed together and she treated us like family. Which we are. She asked what we’re celebrating and we told her we’re Princesses, rejoicing that we’re children of the King, the Living God. And so is she. She gave us complimentary ice cream with chocolate syrup for dessert. That’s called favor in Christian lingo.
Later this afternoon, I’ll catch up on some critiquing and some writing, although I’d really prefer to catch up on some napping. If you’re tempted to nap while you read this, then here is something to wake you up. Remember, keep the sound on low.
Welcome to day seven of A Day In My Life! Happy Sunday! We had a blessed time in church this morning!
Christmas in Germany was filled with music, the scents of pine and gingerbread, and the voices of many visitors, often gathered for meals or parties. German carols still fill me with joyful nostalgia; children’s choirs with their sweet, high voices, church bells ringing with abandon, mom singing along with her beautiful voice, the tunes interspersed with stern warnings to “stop that, or else!” as we tumbled and shouted through her living room or kitchen. We stayed clear of her rolling pin when she baked cookies, and couldn’t wait to help ice them with sugar frosting.
Until we moved here last year, German Christmas music brought me back to those times. I have several cds I played over and over. The cd player breathed its last just before I packed it to come here, and then I forgot to get another one. So, what I want for Christmas this year is a good cd player.
I never intended to collect Nativity scenes. It started with one, a cheap plastic set of characters, camels, and a donkey in a stable that we picked up sometime after my ex and I moved to New Jersey from Germany back in 1974. When I became a Christian, I wanted our celebration to focus on baby Jesus rather than Santa Claus, so I found another one on sale and bought it. After Bill and I married in 1994, his mother gave us the beautiful set pictured above.
When my mom went into a nursing home, she gave me the Nativity pictured here. She’d brought it over from Spain, where she had lived for more than 30 years.
Every time I saw a Nativity at a thrift shop or garage sale, I bought it. Eventually, it dawned on me that I had a collection. I was a collector of manger scenes.
Our friends and family noticed, and before long, they were sending them as gifts.
One of our daughters gave us Alleluia blocks with the Nativity characters on top. My aunt gave us the figures of Mary, Joseph and the baby with carved candles behind them when she went to her nursing home. A friend in Israel sent us a small carved manger scene. We received a Thomas Kincaid tree complete with manger scene from Bill’s mom. A son and his wife sent one encircled by wood with a star on top. So many wonderful memories are associated with each one.
Even our tree holds many Nativity ornaments. This year, I received a lovely star with a manger scene from my Secret Santa, a member of the RRBC book club I belong to. What a joyful surprise that was! It felt right at home.
These Christmas decorations will soon be carefully packed away for next year.
Although the visible reminders of that long ago Christmas morning will be hiding, the reality of the gift we received that day can’t be packed away. The baby who came to live among us, who grew up as one of us, who gave his life for us, was both the gift and the giver that day. His love, his light, is forever.
The only thing I wanted for Christmas in 2022 was a nine-foot Christmas tree to fill the corner of our living room, next to the sliding door to our lanai (a fancy Floridian term for screened-in porch). Since some members of our family are allergic to real pines, we found one we could use over and over again, hopefully with lights that will continue to work. Ten-foot ceilings are nice, but we still had to bend the top branch to fit our angel on top. Our son had time to put it up before Halloween, so there it sat, bare and forlorn, for about three days before I broke down and covered it with ornaments. A Christmas tree, resplendent and lit every night since before Halloween. I loved it.
Our tree is loaded with memories. Taking it down involves many whispers of endearment to times and loves past, and a few stray tears. It takes days to pack up Christmas for that reason. I’m reluctant to say goodbye again.
Allow me to share a few of those memories with you. In the photo above, The tiny wooden ornaments on top came from Germany, back in the nineteen hundreds. The clothespin doll dressed in white leather with black yarn hair was a gift from Dyana, from a mother-daughter trip we took to Cherokee, NC, to see how accurate my descriptions were in Terra’s Call. Research after the fact. The dove with the rainbow and Nativity scene came from Arizona, a trip Bill and I earned with our company years ago.
Our moms grace the tree, and even though we know they’re having a blast in Heaven, we like to think they have a good view of the family from their perches. My mom is on the left, Bill’s mom in the middle, and my mom’s sister, Melitta, on the right. Photo ornaments our kids made in pre-school and grade school remind us of those sweet bygone years, and their children get a kick out of seeing them at that age. When we travel, we buy ornaments, and I spot some from Costa Maya, Mt. Vernon (Washington’s home in Virginia), and the Flagler museum in Palm Beach.
I took pictures of every angle today. I’ll share one more set, and then let you off the hook, so to speak.
Travels, Nativity scenes, tennis, writing, the Gators…it’s all there, in our tree. Who we are, who we love, what we love to do, where we’ve been, and Who we believe in are all represented. Our lives lit up, on display at random, pretty much the way we live.
I’m taking it down, carefully wrapping each piece and organizing it in a bin for next year as I savor each memory. Only not today.
Today, we’re going to a delayed New Year’s Eve party with some friends who have a ginormous RV and spend months on the road. This should be fun! Tomorrow, I’ll share a little about our Christmases in Germany, and what I want for Christmas this year. And more photos.
Welcome to day five of A Day In My Life! Happy Epiphany, or Three Kings Day!
I love living in Florida in January. Today, January 6, is the Epiphany, a Christian festival commemorating the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles in the persons of the Magi (from dictionary.com). It’s also known as Three Kings Day, or the day before I take my inside Christmas decorations down. The photo is our young magnolia tree, which blooms whenever it feels like it, even in January.
As I looked up the official definition of Epiphany, I came across the word of the day, which is germinant. It means beginning to grow or develop, like the single bloom on the young tree. Or the beginning of a new year, where resolutions are being made, annual words are chosen, and writers take up a new challenge to write every day. Aren’t we all germinant in some respects?
Bill and I spent all afternoon today with a couple from church we absolutely love. Heidi and Antoine fill the atmosphere around them with joy. They’ve been married nearly nine years, and their laughter together is both contagious and delightful to hear! I feel energized every time I’m around them.
Antoine has a wonderful singing voice and sings on our praise team. Heidi joins me and a few other ladies for a rousing lunch once a month, where we discuss anything and everything and lift each other up. We are Princesses, daughters of the KING. We know who we are and Whose we are, and when we get together, everyone around us knows it, too. Rowdy only begins to describe our lunches together. Speaking of which, we have a lunch date next week!
I posted another book review today. The book moved me, and I loved the glimpses into a remarkable woman’s life. Even better, I’m enjoying getting to know the author through these daily blogs.
How time works, how it bends and stretches, contracts and sometimes seems to stop, is a mystery to me. Even more mysterious is how I manage to get anything done in the span of a single day. We’re closing in on the end of it and there are still chores to do, so hasta mañana, my friends! Have a good night!
PTL Perrin Writes... 