A lemon is a lemon, no matter how you got it

 

All of my post are about a something that I have experienced. However, this one is about someone that I love very dearly.

 

I have found that talking about homelessness can strike a cord just like religion and politics can. There are some that I’ve learned to just stay away from the subject. I feel that most people are so close minded about it. They should “just get a job” or “they chose to smoke the crack that put them there”.

 

Everyone has a story in life. All of us have a beginning and a middle that led us to where we are now. And not every ones story is as rosy as most. There are definitely people who were handed the lemon that landed them on the streets. Many are mentally ill, abused women or war veterans that just never found their place back in society.

 

 

Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

 

Several years ago I started something called Operation Homeless Bags. A group of my friends, instead of exchanging Christmas gifts, put our money into stuffing these huge ziploc bags with things like gloves, water, chapstick, paper and envelopes with stamps, crackers, prayer cards, etc., and gave to the home less shelter.

 

I have continued this tradition with help from donators and volunteers. 

 

 

 

 

 

Last winter I was meeting my son, who was homeless at that time, to give him food, water and blankets. When I got the blanket from my backseat I saw the corner of one of those ziploc bags. My work I was doing for total strangers had come full circle and I gave that last bag to my son. Talk about having your heart ripped from your chest.

 

When you see these people you don’t have to give them money. Give them food or carry a bag of snacks in your car for them. But most importantly just give them a smile and remind them that God loves them. They are just as important in His eyes as we are. I now try to give them something, even if it’s my lunch I brought.

 

^{Matthew 25:40} “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

 

HOW MANY OF US ARE 1 OR 2 PAYCHECKS AWAY FROM BEING THERE WITH THEM?

 

If you would like to donate by cash or by giving items to Operation Homeless Bags please email  me at tompatam@gmail.com

 

Thanks so much to all the wonderful people who have donated already and are helping me grow my little grass roots project.

 

Until next time- Safe picking

 

Tammy

 

 

 

 

So you were handed a lemon…..

By now your probably getting the jest of figuring out the difference between being handed a lemon or picking a lemon yourself. But the thing to learn is when you are handed a lemon to put into perspective just how big your lemon is.

I know I’m the worst for dealing with things like my son going to prison or my brother dying of cancer and almost being mad at the rest of the world for it. “How can everyone just go about their day? Do they not understand my world is crashing down. They shouldn’t be laughing”. I admit, some days I felt like that.

But then one day this horrific tragedy happened. I did not know the lady personally but did remember her from high school. For the blogs purpose we’ll call her Queen Chiquita. I was just stunned by all the details that came out about how this woman lost her husband in this fiery crash, due to someone who was high on drugs. I just could not stop thinking about it. I sent her an email and tried to come up with any kind of words, as a lot of us did. In the following weeks, the emails exchanged with this amazing lady were truly a blessing to me. Every time I started to feel sorry for myself, I always thought of her. Not only in the sense of the level of her tragedy but how she handled it. I’ve learned so much from this woman, who is truly after God’s own heart, and I haven’t even met her yet.

She says she is a mess, but what a beautiful mess she is. No one expects her to be anything other for right now and a long time to come. But, in a sense, she has become a huge fan of mine and loves the blogs. Most days when I write, it’s because I have her in mind and know that for the few minutes she is reading, maybe I can take her somewhere other than this nightmare she’s in.

With my son, he’s alive and someday will be coming home. I have an awesome husband, even though there are days I want to stab him. My brother is dying, but I’ve been given notice so I can make the most of my time with him. There are issues at work, but I have a job.

Thank you Queen Chiquita for just how much you have blessed so many around you just by being open with your story. I look forward to meeting you in person someday soon.

Thanks for reading

Until next time- safe picking

Tammy

Oh, by the way. On the right side of the blog you can become one of my followers. I now have 12 countries reading but would love to know who some of you are.

This crow sure tastes a lot like a bitter lemon

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eating crow is a U.S. colloquial idiom,^[1] meaning humiliation by admitting wrongness or having been proved wrong after taking a strong position

 

Today is all about having to say you’re sorry to someone. In our minds, the perfect situation would go as follows; You call/text/email/mail/sky write your apology to the person and the immediately accept it and you hold hands and skip your way into happily ever after.

 

But, what happens when you do offer you apology and things go awry instead. Uh oh! This happened to me recently. Things did not go as planned. At this point I’m left trying to figure out what plan B is. Do I go with

 

A. I really didn’t mean the apology and they call them every name in the book

B. Do I try the apology again but maybe take a different approach

C. I did my part and it wasn’t received so life goes on

 

I’ll be honest, other than A. I’m really sure between B and C what the correct answer is. This may be a topic for Linda from Coffee Talk to address but the Bible says this about the subject; 

 

Mat 6:14-15 (NIV) “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But, if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

I am a total people pleaser so I would rather pull my toenails out with pliers than have someone be upset with me. So, please chime in with any words of wisdom that you can offer.

So, I guess if the crow your eating is bitter, you chose a lemon by whatever your actions were that led you there. Learn your lesson and go in peace.

Until next time- safe picking

Tammy

 

You gotta squeeze a few lemons…

When I was married the first time, right out of high school, we were together for 100+ years before it ended. So, for the first time, as an  adult, I found myself out in the dating world. I thought this is great, I can go find my prince charming and live “happy, happy happy” (sorry I’m a it obsessed with the Robertsons right now).

Like every other female on the planet I had my list of all the things I wanted in my dream guy. He had to be tall, dark, handsome and make me laugh. A good job, stable lifestyle and love of the country would be an added bonus.

After dating several guys, I began to see, that after about the age of 25 we all start to have baggage that we are toting around. I found a tall dark handsome guy, but his love of recreational drugs was more than his love for me. I found another not so tall handsome guy, but his obsessive and childlike ways soon took over the handsome part. My nephew stayed with me a lot back then and would screen anyone I was going out with. I will never forget the night a blind date showed up wearing a short sleeve dress shirt and a pocket protector for his pens. My nephew just looked and me and shook his head as to say “just move along buddy”.

After about a year I started to realize that I did not need a list of what I was looking for but rather a list of what I did not want. Looking for those things was more important.

It’s kinda a quirky list, but here was my “DO NOT WANT” list.

No smoking- no explanation needed

Non EL Camino driving and Thousand Island dressing eater guy- think about it, every creepy guy you see does one or the other of these. I’m not kidding about this one.

No one named Tim or Timmy- bad memories from 3rd grade

No one with hair on the backs of their arms

No one who talked to their mom for than 3 times a day

No mock turtle neckers

No one who grew up with a lot more money than my family had- just makes it hard to relate to each other

No one who had served anything other than Thanksgiving at the homeless shelter (no time)

Absolutely no male who had a cat, especially if that was their only animal. Real single men don’t have cats

No one who cried within the first six months (ok if your dog got ran over, but not for your cat)

oh, and no pocket protectors……

I finally found by weeding out because they had a quality that was on my no no list I seemed to get farther than looking for dream guy list. We all have our line in the sand of things we will not tolerate. But sometimes there are things that are a positive feature in someone and we don’t even know it until we give them a chance.

I did finally find my prince charming and he doesn’t do anything from the list. However, one day out of the blue, he did order Thousand Island dressing eating dinner and I had to have a come to Jesus meeting with him. Things have been just peachy since.

Sometimes you gotta squeeze a few lemons to keep yourself from picking one.

Until next time- safe picking

Tammy

But wait, I thought I was a Leo not a lemon

 

Let’s see how honest you can be about yourself with a little test

 

#1- what is your age?

#2 what is your weight?

#3 are you a good singer?

#4 do you look good for your age?

#5 have you ever been someone’s lemon?

 

You’re probably starting to catch on to what things in life that we are handed and what things we choose for ourselves. But are you to the the point that you can admit, that no matter how amazing we are, that we could be bad news for someone else? That one kinda stung didn’t it?

 

Say if you are the kind of indiviual that is emotionally high maintenence trying to make it with someone whose idea of PDA is riding in the car with you, you might be getting that “you’re a great person, but I’m not right for you” speech in the future. Even though they aren’t meeting your needs this pendulum of love swings both directions.

 

How about if you are a highly social person who like to party and partake in a lot of adult beverages, you probably aren’t very healthy for someone who is a recovering alcoholic.

 

But, these things can change. If you haven’t read my post “lemonade wine….a love story”, you should check it out. It’s about someone who realized just how sour they had been to their spouse and are working on changing their ways.

 

We are put on this earth to worship God, love one another and take care of one another. But you need to get to that deep down honesty level within yourself where you can identify when, possibly,  you may not be the best choice for something. I know we live in a world of me, me, me. We are so programmed to think is this right for me, or are they right for me, and if not, we automatically put them in the “thanks for coming but you’re flawed” pile and move on.

 

 

 

Just try for a week using the logic in whatever you do, “am I right for this?” if not, save that person year and thousands of dollars of therapy and just move on.

 

Until next time-safe picking

 

Tammy

 

Just for fun take this personality quiz http://kisa.ca/personality/