What would I do without Pinterest? đ Happy Hump day everyone!
I believe in family meals so much. What better way to reconnect with everyone at the end of the day with a nice home-made meal. I say turn the TV and gadgets off for the sacred, intimate moments shared at the dinner table. That’s what we do around my home.
I also believe strongly in teaching kids responsibility and the value of work early on in their lives. They’ll thank you for it one day.
ALL NIGHT
I stayed up all night,
pondering and pacing,
with sweaty palms and heart racing;
what to do whatâs the next step?
You donât care, this I know.
All that concerns you,
is your one man show.
I stayed up all night,
pondering and pacing,
with sweaty palms and heart racing,
What are you gonna do girl?
You are here and heâs in another world.
I stayed up all night,
pondering and pacing,
with sweaty palms and heart racing,
4 young souls looking at me,
they all seek an answer.
I stayed up all night,
pondering and pacing,
with sweaty palms and heart racing,
Why are you so mean?
Wonât you ever come clean?
Alas, sleep came ever so sweetly,
I fought her I did,
sleep came ever so sweetly,
weighing down both my eye lids,
took my cares away and I left the scene quickly.
Eva Santiago © 2012
JUST ASK AND BELIEVE
I believe in the power of prayer. Do you? I have been praying over the years, for my uncle in whose home I grew up in. Praying for him lead me to forgive him for having failed me like he did during the years when I lived with him. Praying for him helped me see him as 100% human, thereby helping me see him as flawed and frail as me. Praying for him changed me and all I have left of him now are the few good memories of those years. Â A few years back I found out he had prostate cancer. Well, I kept praying for his healing and even though I never heard any news of him, I persisted in praying for him. Today I was talking to a good friend of mine and she told me she had recently heard that he was now a religious fanatic. Well at first I chuckled and then I remembered that when I found faith in Christ and started walking my faith journey, Â people said the same thing about me.. So I realized that my uncle has found faith in God and that my many years of praying for him DID indeed pay off!
If you have been praying for someone or some thing, NEVER stop. I tell you the truth, God DOES answer prayer and the petitions of the righteous avail MUCH!
BE GLAD!
Rejoice! Rejoice and be glad!
For you see,
being a nobody isnât so bad.
Weâve all been lied to,
conditioned and misinformed;
told us that in order to be loved,
we must get and acquire and do.
So they put us all on a treadmill.
We became a horde of scrambling rats,
scurrying at break neck speed.
The rat race was where it was all supposed to be.
Then one day you stop,
realizing you were made for a higher purpose;
for in all your getting and acquiring,
youâve become a bankrupt soul.
Thatâs when it all starts unraveling.
Suddenly you find yourself traveling-
down a long slippery slope.
You see what youâve known all along:
that rat race youâve been running,
takes you nowhere after all.
Thatâs when you meet The One,
He says to us all,
â Come follow me.
Stop all your senseless activity.
Iâll make you an original,
just what you always dreamed youâd be.â
So Rejoice! Rejoice and be glad,
Rest assured and hear me say,
â Stay on course. Donât deviate from the straight and narrow.â
If you do, youâll only be a misguided arrow.
Trust Him, abide and stay put.
Youâve come this far,
you donât want what others seek-
to be a fleeting shooting star.
All that He has is YOURS: The riches of His kingdom.
Eva Santiago © 2012
Today was fun! I went with my two oldest daughters prom dress shopping.  I have taught  my kids that the mall isn’t the best place to shop. Everything is high-priced and not even worth the amount on the price tag. Besides there is a cool thrift store where we live called Savers and you can find some very nice gently worn second-hand clothes there at great prices. Just a few weeks ago I found  a beautiful pair of Gucci high heels  at a crazy price! So were were in Savers and my girls were having a blast trying on dresses. Some were great, others left a lot to be desired. We didn’t find the “it” dress yet but we still have time. Did you enjoy your Sunday? I sure did mine!
FRAGILE by DESIGN
We are all fragile by design.
Some act tougher than what they are.
Some whip themselves into shape,
still others fall one step behind.
Then there are the “might oaks of righteousness”.
Don’t be fooled by such,
it’s all  a cover up,
a disguise for a great hoax.
With their many words, they give themselves away;
pretty soon you see their many words don’t line up,
with the way they walk.
Always making grandiose plans, dreaming away their lives,
always forgetting that planning is futile,
when they leave out the master planner.
They order their steps without Him;
from on high He looks down and laughs.
He knows without Him,
their chances in life are slim.
So then there are others who lead quiet lives,
only doing what they see the master do.
Eva Santiago copyright 2012
Yesterday I blogged about how a very dear friend of mine passed away this past Sunday. What caught me off guard were the strong emotions I felt when I heard the news. Then I realized that you don’t have to talk to a friend everyday or even see them to feel close; when a  dear friend passes away you’ll feel the loss just as strong . Then I remembered the letters I received from her and I took them out and re-read them to my kids. There was my healing balm. Re-reading them after all these years, I felt her love all over again.
I just received news that a wonderful woman I knew passed away today. She was the midwife who assisted me in delivering my 4th child in a lovely home birth. I wrote this poem a while back about her and I’m posting it here today in remembrance. R.I.P. Sweet Kaye…
I post no actual photo today but in its stead, I’ll paint you my word picture of this precious soul.
KAYE
Blue eyes that tell a story,
of loves’ loss,
tinged with perhaps a bit,
of yesterday’s glory.
Eyes of azure,
tinted with sadness;
azure,cerulean, lapis-lazuli,
oh why have they not seen their jubilee?
Hiding behind a curtain…
…seen way too much?
perhaps losing hope?
is it too much with which to cope?
Life and death situations abound all around,
one day up, the next, she’s low to the ground,
and still Kaye hearkens her ear to the sound….
…. phonic, sonic, supersonic faith sings her resounding song.
Not a faith based on what is seen,
but on trust and belief,
that only comes once,
from the secret place.
Kaye will dwell ,occupy and reside,
in the secret place of The Most High,
she’ll abide and remain under His shadow,
proclaiming Him always her refuge, her tower, her strength!
-Eva Santiago copyright 2012
I noticed something interesting. When I write my blog offline on my computer, I Â flow better than if I just go on WORDPRESS and write it from there. I donât know, do any of you fellow bloggers out there ever experience that?
Today I went and got rid of crap I have not used in forever. And by forever I mean more than 6 months to a year. A long time ago when I used to go to church a visiting preacher from South Africa was talking about storing up treasure in heaven. At the end of his lesson, he mentioned that he had a rule he lives by in order not to amass stuff. He said that if he looked around his closet and if he saw something he hadnât worn in at least a year, he would donate it to charity. Well I adopted the same rule and Iâve done that since then.
My family knows, if I have not worn it, touched it or even looked at something in at least a year, itâs GONE in 60 seconds đ Ok, ok, Iâm exaggerating there, but you get the point. I find it liberating. Anyway, this rule doesnât apply to some things like books and family heirlooms. For everything else though, thereâs the Goodwill!
So I leave you with this photo of the ocean taken when IÂ went to Malibu…BREATHE!
It’s Tuesday and I say we all need something to smile about these days. I hate hearing the news lately so I’ve shut the  idiot box off.  If I need to know about anything important I know I’ll hear about it on Facebook or someone I know will tell me. My husband is usually good for that; he’ll come home from work and tell me the latest news headline he heard while eating his lunch. In this age of information at our fingertips it’s hard not to keep informed, whether you like it or not.
So I challenge you today to focus on the GOOD that is happening and part of doing that is on purpose tuning out all the negative voices that try to drown out the good ones. Life goes on  in spite of high gas prices, high prices for everything in fact. Life goes on in an election year. Life goes on and bad news reports can do nothing to stop the marching of time. Take life and enjoy each day because  I ask you,  can anyone of us add a single day to our lives  by worrying? And isn’t it true that MOST of the stuff we waste our time fretting over never really happen?
Today’s picture took me several tries to shoot it the way I wanted it. The wind was blowing hard that day and I wanted to capture our flag waving in the wind to remind us all that though the winds of adversity are upon us we WILL come out of this because we are a people who’ve never quit no matter how hard things have gotten now and in the past. GOD BLESS AMERICA!
Eva Santiago 