Love never fails...

Here's a recap of our love passage from I Corinthians 13 from The Message:

Love never gives up.

Love cares more for others than for self.

Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.

Love doesn't strut,

Doesn't have a swelled head,

Doesn't force itself on others,

Isn't always "me first,"

Doesn't fly off the handle,

Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,

Doesn't revel when others grovel,

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,

Puts up with anything,

Trusts God always,

Always looks for the best,

Never looks back,

But keeps going to the end.

Love never dies.

I'm going to add the rest of the chapter from The Message because it is just so good!  I hope it encourages you today.

Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit.  We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete.  But when the Complete (Jesus) arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant.  When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

We don't yet see things clearly.  We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist.  But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright!  We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation:  Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly.  And the best of the three is love.

Fly Lady

Thursday is Errand Day.

Do you have your Morning Routine written down or typed?  It takes just a minute to do it.  Add empty the dishwasher (we tend to think it takes too much time to empty the dishwasher so we will do it later, when it only really takes a couple of minutes) and plan dinner.  You have to plan dinner anyway, so why not do it in the morning?  Get it over with!  But, be realistic.  If you have a hectic day and know that you will not have the energy to fix dinner, put something easy in the crock pot or let your hubby know you will be buying something for dinner.  My honey is always willing to stop and pick something up if I ask him.  If your honey is stressed out at the end of the day, it would probably be a good idea if you take care of this instead of adding one more thing to his day.

I said the other day that our Habit of the Month for March would be getting dressed down to shoes for the month of March.  Well, after reading the Flight Plan for today (daily emails from Fly Lady - highly recommended!), I decided we need to stay on track with the Fly Lady.  So, our Habit of the Month for March will be - Shine your sink!  Every night before you go to bed, take everything out of your kitchen sink and scrub it until it shines.  Yes, that means you don't have to do the dishes - stack them neatly beside the sink.  And yes, just shining my sink most days inspires me to go ahead and do the dishes.  But not always...just sayin'.

Household Tip

My Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book is 32 years old and showing its age!  Pages were beginning to fall out and the corners of the end pages on the covers were curling up.  

I love this cookbook because there are so many wonderful family memories associated with its recipes and information.  Plus, it's a great cookbook.  So, I got out some glue, packing tape and some reinforcement stickers and got to work repairing the wear and tear.  After I glued down the curled edges of the end papers on the inside of the covers, I started at the front and worked my way through the entire cookbook using the reinforcement stickers and tape to make repairs.  I put the reinforcement stickers on both sides of the pages that needed fixed.

The last thing I did was to scrub the outside of the cookbook.  It looks almost good as new and should last another thirty plus years!

Preparedness

With all the talk of war and spring storm season upon us, it would be a great idea to have some items stored so you and your family will be provided for in case of emergency.  I have been reading about preparedness for a couple of years now and my honey just kind of nodded his head when I talked to him about it.  That is until FEMA showed up at his work and emphasized the importance of being prepared for emergencies.  This is what he brought home:

Now he's a little more interested and we talked about buying supplies at our budget meeting in February.  I know we have looked at preparedness before, but I think it would be a good idea to go over the basics again.  I will be using the information in these FEMA booklets.

FEMA and the Red Cross recommend that you have enough supplies in your house for you and your family for at least three days at all times.  The first item that is recommended is an emergency supply kit which should contain:

water

food

first aid kit 

clothing 

bedding

tools 

specialty items

We will cover details on each of these items starting tomorrow, one item at a time per day.  

DON'T  BE SCARED - BE  PREPARED!