United We Stand!!!!

I have been silent about things for a long time. I am not one to discuss my views or get into arguments when it comes to the subject of politics. I do try to keep somewhat informed, but the topic is so heated, that I'm not sure when the media is telling the truth or when it's swayed.

With that being said, what I saw in the news made me concerned - very concerned. I saw our former president in another country discuss what he considers problems here in the United States with our current president. Honestly, I was stunned and felt betrayed. Not betrayed because he is putting down a man that I may or may not have voted for, but because he has betrayed our country and put us at risk.  He showed the world that we are divided. With division comes weakness and makes us a target.

"And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand." Mark 3:25.  If we are divided, it causes strife in the home, and that marriage will fall apart if unity is not found. I can personally attest to that and what happened to my marriage a few years ago.

Mark 3:24 states,"And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand." From my own personal experience, you can see why I'm concerned. I see so much anger everywhere. I used to enjoy looking at posts from my friends and family on Facebook. Now, it's no longer enjoyable. I see anger and hate and everyone taking the us -vs- them mentality. That not only angers me but saddens me. It's not only Facebook and my family and friends, but it's all over. There really is no place I can go that I don't hear about it: online, TV, papers, magazines, even at the store!

I am amazed. I cannot believe what I'm seeing and hearing from everyone.

I don't care who the president is. He was ELECTED by the people just as other presidents in the past were. Agree with him or not, it is our job as Americans to be united. That is our strength. If we stay divided, we become weak and will allow our enemies to overtake us while our guard is down.

Pray for our President to make good choices. Democrats and Republicans should not be against each other but working as checks and balances as was originally intended. This should not be a competition and the hate and anger level is way out of hand. There have been leaders in the past that were not the best, but we stood united and the United States (notice the word UNITED) was always looked at as a powerful and strong nation. Not so much any more. Even our past president was in another country and ran our leadership down which is undermining our country to others! What is happening here?!!!

We are playing a dangerous game and the last thing we need to do is to break down and become weak and allow our enemies to take advantage of the situation. Pray for our leaders and make America UNITED and STRONG again!!!!

Goodbye 2017

It has been almost 2 years since my divorce was final. It's been a time of sadness, depression, forgiveness, growth and healing. I have been away for a long time learning about myself and learning to both forgive myself and even have learned to like who I am now.

I did not set any goals for the year. I just decided I would challenge myself to be the best I could be with what I had to work with. I went from middle aged housewife to being employed by an amazing university with great benefits and an amazing group of people to work with. The road was not easy. I had 3 part time jobs for awhile and then was blessed with a loving friend who talked me into applying at the university. It is difficult to get in. Some have applied for years. I put in 46 applications in over a 4 month period, had 11 interviews and was hired part time. The day before I started my part time job, I was called for another interview for full time. I went for the interview and started full time only 3 weeks after starting my part time at the university! That doesn't happen! Everyone I talked to says they've worked part time for at least a year. I was so very lucky!!!

Australia was lovely and someday I want to go back and see more of it. I really had considered staying there, but needed to be in a relationship to be able to work there. Not my thing at that time at all! I came home and went to work looking for jobs. I was turned down so many times because I was out of work for 26 years to raise a family. That was really hard. I finally found work as an Event Specialist then as a merchandiser, a produce associate and then a part time cashier at the college. I was putting a good 60 hours a week in and not bringing a lot home, but I was managing.

I found an apartment very close to work, so it made life a bit easier. I bought a car and was making it on my income, but with 3 part time jobs, I had no health insurance. Nothing major happened, thank heavens, but I did have to take a trip into the emergency room for a bloody nose. I had 14 nose bleeds in 24 hours and ended up having to go to the emergency room because the doctor said he couldn't do it in his office. All it took was what looked like a lit incense stick shoved up my nose, and I was fixed. That little procedure produced an $1800 bill. Amazing!

Over the past 2 years I have grown up. I've learned many lessons about life. I've learned to conquer my fears of flying, being alone, getting lost, traveling to strange places, heights, and failure. Those things really limited me and what I did. But more than anything, I stopped hiding from God. I felt like I failed when the divorce was final, and I tried my best at ignoring anything about God. I stopped praying, reading the Bible, would avoid any conversations about Him, etc. I felt like I failed because I ended up breaking my vows by signing the divorce papers. That, too, has been conquered.

It has been a long journey, but a necessary one. I have come out a better person. One with much more patience, understanding, forgiveness and love for those around me. I have been blessed with many friends and acquaintances and have a job where I get treated with respect.  Life can really change in just 2 years. I am truly blessed!

Out With the Old

Happy New Year !!!

First I want to wish all a happy and prosperous new year. I hope that you have nothing but happiness and blessings as we look forward to a new beginning  :)

I cannot believe that 2011 is over and a new year has begun. I'm so happy for a new beginning and that the slate has been wiped clean. If you have been following this blog for any length of time, you will know that we've faced a few challenges - the last one being the loss of my husband's job. His last day was Friday and after 24 years of service, he is quite at a loss of where to turn next. One thing that is facing him is a career change and probable relocation. That both excites and terrifies him. He's not a spring chicken any more, and he's concerned what employment opportunities are out there, what he's qualified for, and what factor his age is going to have on everything.

With hubby home, we will be sharing the PC a lot as he/we look for work and other opportunities. So what does that mean for Just One More Paragraph? Hopefully, there won't be a change. This blog has been my sanity through the loss of family members and friends, illness, and "empty nest syndrome". It only seems natural it will continue through our next challenge of our lives.

So here we stand - jobless, 2 children in college, and facing a world of unknowns. Am I scared? To be completely honest... no. This is exciting! The sense of freedom is overwhelming. We can go anywhere and do anything. This time when we start over - there are no ties to keep us in this area. I've never known this type of freedom before. Mind you - I am looking at this whole mess with rose-colored glasses on and someday I'm bound to take them off. But until then, I am really looking forward to this change.

Things Are Becoming Even More Expensive

We are cursed blessed to be living in the marcellus shale region. With that comes an increase in traffic, increased demands in housing and businesses are booming. Cost of housing has gone up to insane prices, taxes are going up, water is becoming polluted and I've heard our area being called a "wasteland". Sigh.... Wells are springing up all around us, and living in a small town, we have no recourse but to put up with everything with nothing in return. Am I complaining? Not really - just stating the cold, hard facts.

We have been considering leaving for a long time, but hubby was looking for the perfect job. He could at that time - then the economy changed and his chance of getting that job got a whole lot slimmer. We thought we'd ride things out, but now with the crazy business here of the gas - we really want out. Now, just to find a job that will allow us to leave and be able to pay for a new home and college for 2 kids.

This year is going to be the time for severe cutbacks for us. All those little luxuries that we've enjoyed for years are going.... magazine subscriptions, television, newspapers, etc. - they are all getting canceled or won't be renewed. Both kids will need a cell phone next year for college, so we are going to have to find a cell phone company and we will finally give in to buying cell service. Sadly, reception is poor to none in our area making it about impossible to drop our land-line. Hopefully that will change in 8 months. Imagine, what we save in dropping all the above items will pay for the kids cell phones. :(

Food prices have gone up considerably and so has gas. We are now over $3.20 a gallon and it still continues to go up. Sadly, there were no raises because of company cutbacks. Our garden will just have to be increased in size and now that I have an Excalibur dehydrator, we'll be able to save both time, space and money by dehydrating instead of canning. It is amazing the things one can do with dehydrated foods, and more amazing that they retain most of their nutritional value and flavor!! My goal this year is to see how many groceries we can make ourselves and how much we really NEED from the store.

Speaking of saving money, I MUST share three wonderful new challenges I have joined. Retroredux is having some really fun but frugal reading challenges that really appealed to me.
 

First is the Public Domain E-book Challenge. This challenge deals with public domain books from places like Project Gutenburg, Manybooks, etc. If you are like me, you've been there and have found that there are no descriptions of the books that are offered. This challenge has you reading and reviewing these books. You can pick the level you want to participate in (all are easily obtainable), then read and review the number of books you signed up for. What a fantastic idea!! Not only are you setting a fun goal, but helping other readers at the same time :)

The second challenge she has that I signed up for is called The Buck Stops Here Challenge. In this challenge you read books from your own personal library. The only rules are: 1. They must cost from FREE to up to ONE DOLLAR - nothing more expensive and 2. no loaned books. You MUST own these books. This also includes e-books (and we know how many cheap and free e-books are out there!)

The last challenge is called the Forgotten Treasures Challenge. In this challenge, one must read books that are at least 25 years old. Man, my budget over the last 20 years of marriage has only allowed me to purchase books from yard sales and the Goodwill, plus those that were obtained from FreeCycle, so, I have a TON of these babies sitting on my shelf!!

All of these challenges seem to go hand-in-hand with our cutbacks, so here's to living cheaper without really sacrificing anything at all! :)

Happy New Year!!! Let's Welcome 2011 With Some Change.....

Each New Year always brings such hope and promise of a year better than the last. It brings not only hope of new things, but also allows us to reflect on the past year and thank God for the blessings he bestowed upon us, as well as the grace and love he gave us to get through the rough spots.

This year brings change in our lives here as well as a bit of a change to this blog. When I started blogging about my reads, it was an outlet to voice my thoughts about what I was reading to a journal that would listen much better than my husband. Instead, this blog became something I never expected - a review blog with more offers of books to review than I could ever possibly read. This opportunity was amazing and beyond my wildest dreams and a huge blessing. It occupied my time after the passing of my father and saw me through many difficult times over the past year. I was able to escape reality through the pages of a book and all I needed to do was write a review.

At first reviewing was very easy, as all the material was new and unusual to me. I was pretty much a non-fiction reader that didn't splurge much in fiction for myself. I was thrilled to be able to read all the new books and dive into genre that I wasn't familiar with. Then the reviews became harder as I struggled with trying to write about books that were once exciting but soon came to feel like many of the genres were all using the same template. It's strange writing this, because I'm not saying that the quality of the books were different than the first one that I read, it's more that they just became alike. The thrill seemed to be gone and as I read, I would find myself thinking this is just like.... That made it harder to write and original review and I starting feeling stale and not enjoying certain genres as much. I really didn't want my love of reading to become a chore, but it seemed that was the road I was heading down.

I needed to step back a bit and look at what I really wanted. This blog is my hobby - not a paid job, and all my time here is volunteered. It has taken down some interesting roads... I've met some of the most awesome authors and PR professionals. I've made some amazing friends through this blog, and it has been with their suggestions and input that I've come to the conclusion that this blog needs to change. Goodbye stale and hello something different....

No, the book discussions and reviews will not disappear - but I have decided to follow the suggestion to add a little of my life content here. I have had many ask about me personally, but I thought a straight review blog was the way to go. Yet, here I am, feeling inadequate, stale and boring. I guess it's time to take advice from those who have more experience and insight.

So, in the coming months, you'll see a little bit about my life, my loves and hobbies along with our changing life here. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Wishing you all a fantastic new year and may you find yourself richly blessed beyond your wildest dreams...

Changes - Some You'll Notice, Some You Won't.

Changes you will see...

I am very pleased to announce that we have a new reviewer that will show up from time to time. My son is home from college this summer, and he will be posting reviews for things that interest him. It will be nice to have a fresh point of view and will make things much more interesting!

More exciting news... My husband gave me a Nook for my birthday over the weekend, so I'm now capable of reading e-books!! This will mean that not only will I be able to read and review e-books, but I may be posting information that will interest other e-book readers.

Changes you won't see...

As you may have noticed, I have been offline for the last few days. We have been going through some computer performance upgrades that should be making things a lot smoother on my end.

We had some computer issues a bit ago, so my husband got a new laptop. I really didn't like it - actually I was almost hating it. My dislike for it was making my posting a chore instead of something I enjoyed. So, hubby was so sweet to upgrade this old machine, giving it more memory, a new disk drive, and a bunch of tweaking here and there. It still needs a few more things like a new fan, but it is purring and making life so much better for me already :)