DELIGHT!!

Delight yourself in the Lord;

and He will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:4

What does it mean to delight in the Lord? What does it look like to delight in the Lord? What does it feel like to you...and to Him?

The dictionary says: to thrive in, thrilled, to please, to give joy, reap.

From our women's bible study this week (Cynthia Heald: Becoming a Woman of Prayer) I learned: To delight is to REVERE, MEDITATE UPON, be HAPPY TO DO GOD's WILL, HAVE THE WORD IN MY HEART, HAVE AN APPETITE TO STUDY THE WORD, and being ONE WHO IS CALLED BY GOD.

Matthew Henry wrote: What is the desire of the heart of a good (wo)man?

It is this, to know, and love, and live to God, to please him and to be pleased in him.

This past Monday Patti's daughter and family came over for a barbecue...One handsome husband, and four little ones under 7. It was nice to be around little ones who are so well-behaved and I watched them play all day without whining or fighting. Jacob and Michael had some adventures up on the hill in the trees for hours..coming and going. Owen, 8 months, let us do tricks for him to make him laugh. He is so dang sweet with the best duck hair ever! Clara is three and she is who I want to share about with regard to DELIGHT.

Clara loves her Pa 'best.' (GrandPa) He taught her that at a very early age...Who do you like best, Clara? PA is her only answer. She obviously does adore him. She delights in him..and I must say he in her as well.

They spent about an hour in the hammock....making faces, she holding her Pa's face, talking with him, saying she loved him, best even!! They chatted back and forth and we heard much laughter and saw the joy! She was totally in tune to him and no one else. She was looking at him and no one else. She was totally focused on him. It's really hard to explain without a video or even a picture of the two of them in the hammock, but when I did my bible study lesson on Monday I was reminded that I had seen DELIGHT between Clara and Pa.

I shared that with the ladies at the bible study on Tuesday morning..it really brought tears to my eyes. Oh, that I would delight in the Lord the way little Clara was with her Pa. A good lesson--up close and personal. May it be so.

Whom have I in heaven but You?

and I have no delight or desire on earth beside You.

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the rock

and firm strength of my heart, and my portion forever

Psalm 73:25-26

Pa & Clara in quieter times...

The Queen of England & Other Fans of mine...

Repost from August 2008--taking me a bit longer to do today's blog than I thot...so enjoy this one in the meantime. :) Thanks

Yes, my friend the Queen of England in a wonderful pose that she reserves only for her best friends! She writes to me quite often but for someone of her influence and stature, she somehow ends up in my SPAM folder!!!!! You would think she might have a technology servant who could somehow find a way to get right into my genuine email. I've written her to let her know I really appreciate her emails and have put her into my best buddy list.

Why the fellow in the UK can't get to my acceptable email recipients is beyond me as well; I am very open to cashing in on the lotteries I have won and would be happy to travel to England to negotiate with the attorneys for big businessmen who need my help by setting up an account here in the US. Best deal ever! They promise people will begin to send me large checks and all I have to do is deposit them, take my percentage cut, and then send the rest of the money back to the UK!

At 65 years of age I am receiving many opportunities to get my degree on line. I think I want to be a neurologist and hope they send me the online link soon so I can get my M.D. degree within 18 months! I have no interest in becoming a forensic specialist or a bookkeeper at this late date. I need to garner funds quickly and am pretty sure Kaiser Permanente would hire me with my 18-month degree in a fast minute!You can imagine my glee when my SPAM mail shocked me with the information that i could lose 6 inches in my thighs in just a week! Let me buy a gross of that as I have more than six inches to lose! And to think they haven't teamed up with the people who say I can trim my tummy in only one month if I would just buy their product with a 30-day money back guarantee!

Bank of America, Wells Fargo all want me to call them immediately because there are problems with my accounts!!! I dont bank at either bank!!! Wait, maybe that is the problem!

These scams must be working or we would not receive them daily, right? People are bilked everyday; we need to warn them! Some people are just getting started on the Internet and have no idea that people are out to scam them. Early on in terms of computer savvy, one friend told me this: "I got locked up in a box with someone I didn't know and I couldn't get out." (This was an IM on AOL). Today that friend locked in the IM Box can perform a function on comast email that alludes me to this day...cut and paste! She has come a long way!

I'm a sucker for things to buy at 3 am which appear on TV, however ...

“Laughter is the closest thing to

the grace of God”

Karl Barth ** Swiss Theologian

Happy 4th of July - My family were immigrants!

Granddaughter and daughter of immigrants in 1920 and 1926, settling in Ohio and San Francisco. My mother and her parents came from Scotland. My father was born in Philadelphia but his parents immigrated from Poland and Ireland.

These are all pictures of my Dad's family....great grandparents, grandparents, parents, and brothers and sisters....as young kids and all grown up. They all could play the harmonica! There were six children...John, Francis (Barney/my dad), Eileen, Maureen, Dorothy and Mike.

I can't believe I don't have any pictures of my mother's side of the family on my computer and all my photos are in storage so I can't add any but they were a fine looking bunch from Scotland. My grandfather came over first in 1920 to San Francisco and almost went back to Scotland due to the lack of jobs and while there was some government assistance available he would have no part of it being the proud independent man he was. My grandmother heard he was coming back to Scotland and wrote him immediately and told him she was on her way. She got her papers, all the legal things needed, and packed up her house and the four children, Hugh, Bill, James and Sarah (my mother), ages 14 to six.

She even packed up her set of china which was a huge 12 piece place setting with rather grand vegetable bowls. It is white with blue and gold around the edges. My mother used it for years and I have it now. My Aunt Mary gave me a darling little vase that was my Grandmother's also.

I asked all four (mother and uncles) to write their memories down for me and I typed them up and added some graphics including their immigration papers, the family shortbread mold, and other assorted memorabelia. I gave them each a copy for Christmas that year and they loved it! It is one of my treasures too.

If my memory serves me right, I have 33 cousins. We were all living in the Bay Area during my youth and had quite a nice life, seeing each other quite often. I have great memories of all the family time spent.

I am so glad that they immigrated to America!

I love my heritage as well!

God Bless America

This is a great song for the 4th of July

by Billy Madden & Vinnie Rhodes.

Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydSNAEnurto&feature=related

When in Transition...raw fish, buffalo burgers and who knows else is ahead!?

I'm having so much fun in California, as you well know from my postings on Facebook and here in my blog.

I'm moving to another friend's home on the 4th of July. I've been in a beautiful situation at Kim's (she makes the best ever cupcakes!!) with my own upper floor but the bedroom just gets too hot for me! Even with the air on it doesn't seem to want to cool off this room enough for this ole gal.

Patti and Mike graciously offered their home to me so I would stay in California longer. I was told I had to eat with them and enjoy plain Midwestern cooking! Okay!! Then Patti said: You will love buffalo burgers. EXCUSE ME? I know that is Idaho food..and I never tried it, but this is NOT plain old Midwestern food either! I guess I will...Patti can be persuasive.

Speaking of plain...years ago Patti and I were up in the Wine Country and stopped in for lunch. I ordered the tuna..so she did too. HOWEVER, she thot it was a tunafish sandwich, and it was a raw tuna totally California cuisine...Patti ate her salad. LOL Maybe thats' what I'll have to do if the buffalo burger doesn't tickle my palate.

Patti is my real-in-person funniest friend ever. On line its Martha; they both think so fast with a quick witty comeback you can't help laughing. Its a gift for sure! One day they can amuse me for all eternity while we hang out on the clouds. I bet Patti and Martha will bond over not liking raw tuna too!!!!!

I'll be celebrating my transition

on the 4th of July!

God Bless America and all my friends.

I am blessed.

ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Love ole Alfred!!

I enjoyed a marathon of Alfred Hitchcock Presents today! It was so fun. Rose Marie has an entire collection!! We watched four...its hard to watch more when you are snacking and laughing. Alfred wasn't the best looking man on the planet, but his droll sense of humor is right up my alley. He said the funniest things before, during and after the shows

One of the things we found funniest was the commercials - in every instance we realized that none of these products are still around! They were all cartoons too. Silly jingles and so retro (now). We've come a long way in advertising, that's for sure. Another thing was seeing some very famous movie stars over the years since who were so young in these TV shows. We had a bit of trouble remember them until the credits rolled, but we were able to name a couple.

Alfred's PSYCHO came out when I was a senior in high school, 1960. My folks were gone on vacation with my little brothers for two weeks and my best friend Irene was going to spend that time at my house. The fridge was stocked by my mother before they all left. Great. Our boyfriends, Jud and Matt took us to see Psycho .... oh my gosh..talk about scary! That was one of the best ever real suspenseful thrillers! After we got back to my house, the guys were in the kitchen and Irene and I were in the living room. You could exit our kitchen from two sides and end up back in the living room...which those bad boys did with big knives in their hands acting like Tony Perkins! We screamed so loud..and both took off down the hall...I locked myself in the bathroom and Irene locked herself in my parents bedroom. It took a long time for those boys to get us to come out again. We were so scared we went home to Irene's house and the safety of her parents being home for the two weeks. I think poor Irene made her mother sit in the bathroom while she took a shower for months on end.

I think I've seen most his films now. He did a few silent movies in the late 20s. in 1955 he produced: The Trouble With Harry. John Forsythe is one of the stars. Mr. Handsome himself always! I didn't see this film until about 10 years ago and it is soooooo funny. They refer to it as a black comedy.

When I first was married in 1964, Alfred Hitchcock Presents was on TV Sunday nights at 10 pm. It was an hour show. My husband worked graveyard at the time and had to leave at 10:30..Nevertheless, we watched the show..it was always so scary that when he went to work, I could not watch the last half-hour. How stupid is that? Such a wuss! And...why did we even bother with the first half?

Other favorites movies I can watch over and over are: Rear Window, Vertigo, Spellbound, North by Northwest, The Birds (my son was married in Bodega Bay in the church that was in the movie.) and Charade! I remember who I went to see Charade with (Jerry) ...and what I wore (This classic coat dress in black leather) yikes lol ...isn't that something...well they say the elderly have good long term memory...its just the short term that is the problem.

I know today's marathon is just making me want to see his full-length movies again..and I understand you can view them on hulu.com. The Trouble With Harry is there!

Alfred was brilliant!

Lassie! Lassie!!! Come Home!

Did you ever watch Lassie? You know they just had to call that dog and she came running! Now I'm a Sassy Lass as you can see by the name of my blog. When I was in college I had to take some math class that was tedious and stupid because I am so lame in math...I finally quit going to class. One of my friends said that the teacher called my name every day as he did everyone else's and then marked me as not in attendance. One day he said my name and then remarked..it's kind of like calling for Lassie but this one never comes running. I thot that was pretty funny.

Now how does that link up to what I am going to blog about you might ask! Well a couple of people have said they check my blog from time to time but haven't found much ...even a very long absence and it's true. I loved blogging and realized once I stopped that it was really because I had used the blog like journaling the majority of time as I processed my grief over Jeff's death.

Oh, yes, I did write humorous blogs, cuz you know, I am humorous! I just can't help it. What is interesting to me is that I still had a sense of humor after that huge loss in my life. I am so grateful that it never disappeared along with my Son. Humor can be a coping mechanism so perhaps thats why ... I don't know. I'm not a sociologist. I'm just me...a Sassy Lass..and only Sassy really when I need to be or think it's fun to be.

Yesterday I had lunch with a fellow friend and blogger...i look hers up every day because I take such delight in them...That Reckless Quilter writes a great blog! During our lunch the blogging came up and she encouraged me to keep on blogging. So that's why I am here. Maybe now that I dont seem to need to process my grief, it will be interesting to see what I write about.

KCP and I had lunch at Havana in Walnut Creek or as she calls it Brookside (LOL - private joke). She loves to eat adventurously (is that a word?) I have been to ChaChaCha in SF so I knew I loved Cuban..done deal.

We hadn't seen each other in a very long time and really hadn't had a chance to catch up ever..we had such a blast. we are very much alike in so many ways..all good of course!! :) We had tons of fun making fun of Olive Garden in particular as far as cuisine goes. We just had a lot of laughs..some at our own expense too! She is just a wonderful down to earth Christian sister who I love and thank God for bringing her into my life and keeping here there no matter where I live..its just like we have seen each other yesterday! (Yes, that is one run-on sentence; bad syntax and guess what? IT'S OKAY!)

Our next adventure is going to an Asian Market where she told me they can cook up a whole fish! That's what I am going to say: FRY ME A WHOLE FISH,PLEASE! I'm hoping I don't have to wait too long to do that...(can ya hear me KCP?)

What else is new with me? My transitioning continues...I'm in CA on an extended vacation and considering staying, but feeling a pull to be with my brother and family in ID as well...hard to say where i'll end up. The Lord knows! So His will...fine with me.

I joined a terrific bible study at my church on Tuesday mornings. Cynthia Heald's study on prayer. Nce nice ladies ..only knew one from living here before.

Taking an online culinary arts class from TopChefUniversity LOL..this is so hilarious I laugh every time I think of it...you can laugh too...especially those of you who know my turkey story or my lifelong condition of problems cooking....what a hoot...but i love the food shows and top chef is one of my favs..hopefully they can teach me something! Its so affordable and payable month by month so its doable too!!!!

I keep threatening to appear on FOOD NETWORK TV...who know's what the future holds for Sassy Lass?

Nice to be back!

You

You

Miss you,Jeff...the tear in the heart is huge....