Welcome to Fresh Mercy Every Morning

Category: At Home in Florida

Weather brings the announcement of new seasons, even here in Florida.

  • The Good and Bad of Labels We Use

    We should listen to ourselves and think about how the words we use make us feel.
    Case in point. “Year end.” I first started here this term maybe 10 years ago. At first, I strongly disliked it. I wanted to ignore it. Then I disliked it a little less and started reading about the ideas behind this term. I still didn’t like it. I still deleted more emails than I read, because of what they talked about year-end wise. Today, I still don’t like the term. It makes me feel we are going to dig a deep hole, chop the head off this beast of the current year and bury it deep. To be forgotten.

    My goodness, is your life really that bad? Can you glean no amount, no matter how small, of goodness out of your year? How about the fact that you woke up every morning of that year? How about the delicious coffee, tea, or milk you started each day with? How about that gratitude habit you worked on last month? No matter where we are in life, there is something good to glean. Glean it! Treasure it in your heart! Look for more of it in the new year! Begin a collection!

    This year I started remembering my own parents. They worked for themselves all but 4 years of my childhood. And they talked about closing a year out. Beginning mid-November, they would compile receipts and records to close out that year of business. Isn’t that a much gentler term? Close the year. It’s not going anywhere, It will be right back there in the bottom drawer. Handy to pull out and compare should the desire or need arise. So, this year let’s be kind to ourselves, gentler to our self-conscious. Let’s start checking in to learn how certain terms make us feel. When every label hits us in the throat, it becomes tiresome. Let’s scale back to gentler terms. In my home and business, I will be closing out 2024 with joy and beginning 2025 with peace.

  • Are you waiting for a normal week?

    Are you waiting for a normal week?

    I’m picking up this word in podcasts & emails – Normal, as in a normal week when I can get it all done. Or a normal week when life slows down. Sorry! Say what?? I am far away from my school days, but we learned this is euphoria and it is not real life.

    So, have we labeled normal incorrectly? Let’s go back to the beginning and think again.

    Normal means

    (from the online webster dictionary):

    as an adjective – that’s a descriptive word – it means to conform to a standard (sounds scary), the usual, typical or expected

    as a noun – that’s a person, place or thing – it means the usual, average, or typical state of condition.

    But are you picking up a theme here? I am! Normal is what we expect to happen. It is the typical state of our week, the day in, day out of living. At any rate, our dream of a “perfect week” is often far from the normal week.

    For me, consequently, the perfect day or week would be a large absence of my ADHD family, they would appear in small, controlled amounts of time. They would behave perfectly with no outburst of any type. I would have large swaths of time in which to accomplish great endeavors of creativity in my chosen talent. This is not my life, it’s a dream, it’s not normal!

    For me the perfect day or week would be a large absence of my ADHD family, lol! Then it wouldn’t be my life!

    I love my normal life

    Undoubtedly, my normal week is being tossed from one activity, to the next; to the next; to the next; until I fall down from exhaustion. Quiet is a lost commodity in my normal days. Another key point, as a newlywed 21-year-old I was very happy with my normal, a quiet week filled with work, quiet evening activities, and sleep. To say the least, marrying a man with ADHD was eye opening. I fought hard to keep my “Normal”, much to my husband’s chagrin.

    It was a very hard fight to give up a little of my “Normal” for a little bit of his “Normal”. Additionally, being an introvert added to my misery. Then we had children. The first was a dream; slept all the time. And the second was fussy; always cold. And then the third one we lost; so, all the sadness. Finally, the fourth; was the baby in every sense of the word. In our busy, fast-moving world, I found myself, often without enough down time to process even a little of life as we knew it

    But through all the upheaval, excitement, learning and growing I began to piece together some anchors in my day. They were like islands of sanity, with space to breathe, and time to collect my thoughts. Early on it was lunch & naptime. Lunch provided the slowdown before naptime. Naptime was a part of our day for 20 years. After all, even my teenage children needed the break in their day, just as much as I did!

    Action!

    What does your normal look like? Are you good with it? Or do you need to tweak it?

    Take a long minute to think about what’s bugging you, what you can change, what you would love to do differently.

    Pray about it! Avail yourself of Jesus’ comfort and love. Ask Him to help and He will change your life.

  • Happy Thanksgiving from Florida

    Happy Thanksgiving from Florida

    Hello Readers, it’s late November as I write. It’s cooling off in Florida! Our high today is 66 F degrees. One thing we know, if it gets chilly in Florida, the rest of the country as very likely cooled off too. Welcome to Fall! We have heard it will be a warm winter, yuck. But then we heard December is going to cool off. That’s the weather men for you. Here in our locale, we are at the tip of everyone’s weather radar. On a good day they have 75% accuracy in forecasting our weather. Right now, somebody’s radar is down, so accuracy is down to 45%. This is nothing new for my home county. I was born here. And grew up here. I learned to read the sky, just as my children did. The good news is that it looks like the 2024 Hurricane Season is going to close quietly! That is good news for the Southeast and the Northeast too! Remember to keep those still working to recover from the recent storms in your prayers.

    Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

    2 favorite verses about thanksgiving

    2 Corinthians 4:15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

    1 Corinthians 15:57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

  • Hello world!

    Welcome to our Florida Fall! The sun is not as intense as it has been, grasses are blooming with feathery plumps, leaves of the Raintrees are turning yellow and flittering to the ground. Some mornings start out foggy. But that is soon burned off by the sun. The best part of Fall in Florida is that the nights cool off, down into the 60’s. Here are the days of every Florida child’s delight and chagrin; chilly mornings require a sweater to be comfortable; every afternoon is too warm for such gear. So, we are in the days of wear the sweater out but carry it home. And most importantly, try hard not to forget it! This year we are having a classic fall. The daytime temps have dropped into the 80’s. Some years we don’t cool off. Some years we soar straight into Christmas with hot slightly humid days. I have celebrated more than one Christmas with a high of 94 F. What’s with all this weather talk? Weather effects our lives! That’s easy to see when the storms roll in and life is put on hold until the storm passes. But even the pleasant days, full of sunshine days, cool breezy days effect our moods and activities. So, why wouldn’t we talk about the weather?

    The day is Yours, the night is also Yours. You have established the light and the sun. You have fixed the boundaries of the earth; You have formed the summer and winter.

    Psalms 74:16-17

    As a child I remember with fondness listening to my father talk about the weather with his brothers. They were raised as farmers. Weather is important to farmers. I grew up on a small farm too. Weather brings the announcement of new seasons, even here in Florida. I love the cooler days of fall. Every day is a race to see how long I can postpone closing windows and putting the a.c. back on. I draw the line at sweating while sitting, 😂 I lived in Ontario, Canada as a young adult. Fall is completely different there. Grey days & cold rain. When we get rainy days they remind me of those days up north. Only they were so much colder!

    What’s your favorite season and why?