Praise God, the wildfires here in Southern California are not as bad as they were last week!  There are some still burning, but they are no longer threatening homes, at least not at this time.

God stepped in to help the situation.  The mountains near us got rain and snow.  I don't remember the last time that they got snow in October.  Especially only one week after the temperatures had been 100 degrees!

We even had a couple of earthquakes last week.  My friend and I were assessing the fire, temperature fluctuations, snow, and earthquake situation.  We came to the conclusion that Steven Spielberg and Candid Camera have joined forces and are featuring Southern California in their production!

My friends have been allowed to go back to their home, which is in a community that the fire went around.  Why was their community spared and others ravaged?  I don't know.  Once again it brings to mind the question, "Why does God allow evil?"

Now that the ash has quit falling I can clean the house, garage, and yard.  I was able to keep the house fairly clean by making everyone go in and out through the garage.

When we were hearing that there were fires close to our house I boxed up important papers, home videos, my pictures, etc. and had them ready to grab and run if necessary.  Now I can put them away.  However, I am going to rethink where I will keep them.  Certain things should be kept together and handy.

If I do that then I won't ever have to think about it again because nothing will happen to cause me to need to grab them.  I'm applying what I call the "Bathtub Principle" to this situation.  A long time ago I discovered that there is a way to influence how things happen.  The reason I call it the Bathtub Principle is I discovered how to make my phone ring if I was waiting for a special phone call.  Can you guess what it was?  YUP!  I just took a bath and RING RING RING!  (This was prior to cordless phones, so I had to jump out of the tub to answer the phone.)

This principle also applies in other ways.  For example, by being prepared to evacuate in case of a wildfire, there won't ever be another fire threatening our home!  Get it?

LOL!!!!  Just kidding!  There really is no such thing as the Bathtub Principle.  I just made it up.

Remember when I told you I was walking and riding my bike regularly?  Well, once the fires started filling the air with toxic smoke I had to stay indoors.  Yesterday I took my dogs for a long walk.  The good news is that the weather has cooled off so I don't have to go first thing in the morning.  I was having to be very careful to dodge all the cars taking off to go to work since the sun was low in the sky and I wasn't sure if they could see me.

So, once again, I am working on getting into better shape.

Link to the 11/4/03 Bible study.

Well, my computer-sewing-craft-guest room is done.  How do you like it?  Oh, that's right, you can't see me.

Isn't it funny how we make friends on the Internet and usually never get the chance to go to breakfast together, have a cup of coffee together, go for a walk together, bring in each other's mail when they are on vacation, or even see each other?  Imagine how our great grandparents would have fallen out of their rocking chairs listening to us trying to explain this.

I spent three days at my mom's house last week.  I want to be able to go visit her more often, but it seems like something always comes up to stop me.  I would like to go once a month for a couple of days.  I went about six months without seeing her because every time I tried to schedule a visit I got sick.  I didn't want to share my germs.

Perhaps I should clone myself.  As a matter of fact, I should clone myself about four times and that way maybe I will get everything done that I want to get done.  I could have an outside Kay, an inside Kay, a cook/maid Kay, and I could have a help the other Kays Kay.  Wonder if they'd all get along.

I'm trying to think of why I didn't get this updated yesterday or Monday.  Oh, yes, I knew the scripture I was going to use for the Bible study, but the study itself was not coming together.  So, I couldn't very well give you just the scripture.... or could I?  Hmmm....

"Here's this week's Bible study.  It's a do-it-yourself!"  LOL!

Link to the 11/12/03 Bible study.

This is terrible.  I know what the Bible study is going to be, but I can't remember any of the things I was going to share with you in the welcome message.  I'm going to have to keep a list somewhere.  Then I will have to add the location of that list to my list of locations where I keep my lists.  Just kidding!  I know where I keep my lists.

It becomes necessary for me to write down more and more information as my storage compartments in my brain seem to be getting full.  Actually, it is no wonder.  There is an awful lot more to remember each year that goes by.  For example, I'm in charge of programming all our electronic devices and each one works differently.  That takes up a lot of space in my brain.  Just remembering where I keep all the "how to" books takes up valuable space, too!  It's not going to get any better, either!

Hmmmm.... I wonder if I pull hard on my ears if it will make my head bigger which will give my brain more room.  LOL!

Our friend came over to help my son build a new home for his iguana.  It will look  nice when it is done.  Our friend is a woodworker and does really nice work.  He's the one who orchestrated the building of our barn.  What is really neat is he is creative.  When he and my husband get their heads together to build something, watch out!

The good thing about the iguana habitat is that I drew up blueprints with actual measurements.  So, even if he gets creative with my blueprints I know it will still fit in my son's room.  As a matter of fact, they are having to build it in parts that can be assembled in my son's room since it won't fit through the door.

I'll try to remember to take a picture of it when it is done so you can see it.  I will take a picture of our barn, too, when I get it all painted.

Link to the 11/18/03 Bible study.

I beat myself up on Saturday.  I sanded the new cage for my son's iguana.  It isn't really a cage, it's more like a WALK-IN CLOSET!  It is HUGE!  His poor iguana has outgrown his previous home.  This one has 2x4's running through it so he can climb around.  It has windows.  It will have warming areas.  I'm going to paint the inside with tree-like colors.  It's really going to be something.

Our friend came over to help us build it.  I sent him the "blueprints" that I had made and asked if he'd like to help us build it.  It took four days for my son and him to build it.  So far we didn't have to buy anything to build it except more screws.  They were able to use left over wood from building our barn.

On Saturday the wind was blowing very hard and I was sanding the "iguana habitat."  My right shoulder is worn out and my hands took a beating.  Refilling the sandpaper in the little sander took skin off my fingers.  The wind kept blowing sawdust in my eyes.  My eyes are still recovering.

Today my son is going to help me finish taking it apart so I can start painting it.  We need to hurry and get it done because the poor iguana's old home has been partially disassembled to make the new one.  Hopefully we will have him in there by Friday.

If you email me and I don't answer for a few days, think of me kindly as I am slaving away over a LIZARD habitat!  It's only mother's love that motivates me at this moment.

When I'm done with that I need to give my house another cleaning.  The winds blew a lot of ash from last month's fires.  I have a coating of black all over the place.  I really should do that first... but I feel sorry for the lizard.

Hmmm.... maybe I will let him finish this and I can get started now.

I added more names to the list I made of the Names of God.  I skimmed over all the Psalms.  That's where the most names and attributes are.

I'm going back through and reading the Psalms more slowly.  They are so beautiful.  That was the first thing I did after I had my "Big Wow," read the Psalms.  (The day God sat me down and let me know that I could hear His voice is the short description of what my Big Wow was.)

After God and I had a long long conversation (for the first time in my life He did most of the talking and I just listened rather than the other way around) I immediately thought of King David.  He had a very special relationship with God and many of the Psalms are conversations that David had with God.  I wanted to compare what David knew about God to what God had shown me.  I wanted to learn more about having conversations with God.  I wanted to learn from David's experiences.

I'm looking forward to gleaning more goodies out of the Psalms.  You may find the next few week's Bible studies come out of there. 

My in-laws ended up not coming this weekend.  My mother-in-law's sister died and she went back east to the funeral. 

So, there is now something else I need to do.  I need to go out to the barn and diagram the inside of it and send my father-in-law the specs of where we want electrical plugs, switches, etc.  That way he can tell my husband what supplies to have on hand when he is finally able to come wire it.  Then, if he can only spend one day, they can finish it.

The reason there is a slight urgency to the wiring of the barn is because my in-laws are moving farther away at the beginning of the year.  It may end up being too difficult for my father-in-law to come help once they are far away and concentrating on their new home.

Link to the 11/24/03 Bible study.