The Howell Blessings

Today's word for Five-Minute Friday is ...Ordinary  She looked in the mirror turning her face this way, then the other way, inspecting every detail of her countenance. "Humpf", she huffed disgustedly. "There's nothing to see here people, move on" she said aloud to no one as she walked out of the bathroom flicking off the light. Once she got into her car to start her drive to work, Lisa, looking into the rear view mirror, ran her fingers from her chin down to her neck. She never liked the way her chin disappeared into her neck. She sighed and thought to herself, "nothing special to look at, just an ordinary plain Jane." When she arrived in her classroom that morning, she noticed right away that one of her students had left a note on her chair.  The note read: "Dear Mrs. Rinehart, you are the best teacher I've ever had." Lisa smiled and tucked the note away in her desk drawer and began writing on the chalkboard. At lunch time,...

It's  Five Minute Friday . Where everyone writes for five, unedited minutes all on the same prompt. This week, that prompt is the challenge itself, the dare if you will.  Lisa Jo has been encouraging honest writing and yeah baby...that is scary stuff.  This week’s prompt is “WRITE.” Here Goes. I’ve been writing since I was a little girl. I had a diary, as most young girls do, and faithfully wrote in it whenever I felt I had something I wanted to share with myself. I used it as a sounding board. Sometimes I would go back to change my thoughts to what seemed more appropriate even though the first draft was the most honest. As I grew up I graduated from a diary to a journal.  A journal sounded more mature than a diary, yet it functioned the same way. The writing it contained certainly had more mature themes though. I started the journal in my early twenties. The first few pages began with the dating of my husband then moved on to having o...

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true , whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.   Philippians 4:8  As women most of us are good about pointing out these thought-worthy things about other people yet we fail miserably at applying this truth to ourselves. As an adverb TRUE means:  in accordance with fact or reality, and  accurate or exact.  How many of us have stood in front of a mirror and whipped ourselves verbally for what we see?   Statistics say that an  average size woman in the US stands 5 foot 4 1/2 inches tall (or slightly more than  1.6459m) .  The high end of a healthy BMI (24.9) for this height is about 145 pounds (or about  65.77 kg). Why is it then that we (me included) look at ourselves in the mirror and focus on "that" jiggle, or "that" bulge? Even if you are someone who doe...

Today's word is She GO As soon as I see her, I smile and she smiles back at me. I love those times we get together and (sigh) they never seem to be long enough. She can make me smile just by going about her daily activities. She gives a little laugh or looks at me intently and I can't help myself, and break out in a grin. By the time we finish our visit my cheeks are hurting from smiling and laughing so much. A year and a half ago, I didn't even know her, yet today I can't stand to be away from her.  She is such a joy in my life. I wish everyone could experience the love and joy I feel at just the thought of being with her. Our time spent together is rarely in person but we manage to connect through technology. We chat about silly things and even though she seems to understand everything I say, I have to admit, I can hardly understand what she is saying, yet this relationship seems to work.  She has this way of cheering me up when I am down, of making m...

So many of us go through life not even noticing what we are doing. We don't realize what is going on around us, or the affect we have on others. We just "do" life.  We wake up, go to work, come home, eat dinner, watch some TV then go to bed, just to wake up and do it all over again the next day. We count the days until the weekend when we can sleep in for one or two days, socialize with friends or catch up on chores or just "chill". Then Monday rolls around again and the routine of the week begins again. But some of us get interrupted right in the middle of our routine. Accidents happen, a loved one passes away, or a job is lost.  It's in those moments that we look up from our numb existence to look around us and wonder what just happened. We often think of these times as being tragic, one we never want to live through again, but if we really think about these times in our lives, these are the times we are really aware of what is going on around us. ...

It's 5 Minute Friday and today's word is SMALL Go! They say good things come in small packages.  As a child I had a hard time believing that because I liked big things!  Bring me a bicycle and a horse, forget that small stuff  I wanted something big, and I wanted to be BIG! As I matured a little, I began to think maybe there was something to this small stuff. I liked perfume, which came in small bottles and books. Even later I thought I had it all figured out. Of course I know what they mean now....a diamond ring!  How perfectly small and good that was. Now that I am older, I realize that it's not always things you can buy.  I appreciate small things now, like a small squeeze of my hand by my sweetie, a small thank you note from my nephews and nieces or friends.  I appreciate a small act of calling just to say hi. But I think my favorite small things are the little packages that are coming along now.   ...

                        Lonely The invitations were sent and yet no one picked up the phone when the follow up calls were made.  A text or two come in at the last minute with "sorry, no".   Excitement had built all week as she planned the appetizers, what plates they'll go best on and what to serve to drink.  But now, she goes into the kitchen to prepare the small delights with a somewhat less than enthusiastic step, not knowing how much to make, if any. One would think that with hundreds of Facebook "friends" invited and invitations sent to many more who do not frequent this social media hot spot, that the house would be filling up by now. Yet she keeps herself busy while anxiously looking at the clock, watching the time grow nearer to the party hour and the doorbell has yet to ring. It's such a lonely feeling having friends who seem to be so busy that they can't commit to spending two to three hours o...