In May I received a certificate in spiritual direction from HeartPaths DFW. What does a spiritual director do? For me, it means that I sit with directees and listen for where God is active in their lives and I lend my expertise to help people develop a better relationship with God through prayer.

We 21st century folks often fail to notice God’s activity simply because we don’t slow down long enough to focus on God’s actions. God doesn’t trumpet his actions or post them on social media, so if one isn’t quiet and still and looking for that action, he or she will often miss it.

One of the best ways to “train” for this is through prayer. There are a plethora of ways to pray, but unfortunately many of those traditions have been lost over the centuries. Thankfully, spiritual directors are “keepers” of those traditions. Thus, I have exciting news for you!

Note of Thanks: I’m so blessed to have the DSL as my webmaster. Recently, he, just out of the kindness of his heart, moved MIP to his server and added an SSL certificate to MIP to ensure that all who venture here can do so safely. He also changed the social media buttons so that they work better! Many, many thanks to him for his hard work, dedication and selflessness for helping me with all things MIP. He did the same for Compassion Counseling Center’s website and that, too, is so appreciated by all of us associated with my favorite nonprofit counseling center! 

Howdy, Word Lovers! The last WOW was somnolent. Somnolent means: sleepy or drowsy, so I was on the right track for this one! Wonders never cease.

This week’s WOW is uxorial. Here are my definition guesses for it:

uxorial (əkˈsôrēəl) 1. useful 2. janitorial services performed in a less than perfect tuxedo 3. some definition guess that will come to me in my sleep tonight

What are your guesses for uxorial? Comment below to let me know!

Next Post: Yes, YOU Are Invited!

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I am busy taking a nap today, so I’m going to let the Mom person have access to MY keyboard just this once. If I’m not satisfied with what she writes, I’m taking it away from her.

Dear Maizie Fans:

Our family has learned some sad news. Maizie has cancer.

She has had several benign growths removed recently, but the last one was malignant and she has other lumps on various parts of her body. We have elected to let nature take its course.

While we could pursue treatment for her, it’s costly and doesn’t have a great success rate. Maizie has handled the multiple surgeries well, but since she’s been such a great dog, we can’t bear to subject her to the difficulties that normally ensue from cancer treatment.

She is still a happy girl and often gives us her “cute puppy looks” when it’s playtime. She still jumps up and down when one of her favorite people arrives. She can’t wait to jump into the “big water bowls” when she gets a chance. She is eating pretty normally and still fond of chewing on bones.

Master Bedroom

If you have enjoyed the Log Rhythms part of my blog site, you’re about to be disappointed. There really aren’t too many other things to discuss about our journey to a fully-functional log cabin and so, this feature will end as of today.

But, have no fear! We own the lot across the lake from the Solitude cabin and one day, we will be building that log cabin, too. We already have some fun ideas in mind for the “Serenity cabin,” since this is where we will retire. For instance, we’re thinking about making some rather elaborate “tree houses” nestled around that cabin and I’m already leaning towards a “colonial” feel for that one. The hubby wants space for an elaborate outdoor kitchen as well.

Bathroom sandstone counter top

Greetings, Word Lovers! The last WOW was semelparous. According to Merriam-Webster online, semelparous means reproducing or breeding only once in a lifetime. If you know the hubby, then you’re probably wondering why I didn’t know this word. If he knew it, I don’t recall him telling me what it meant, either. However, as bad as my memory is getting, he probably did!

This week’s WOW is somnolent. Here are my guesses for somnolent:

somnolent: (ˈsäm-nə-lənt) 1. able to sleep 2. sleepy 3. the state of becoming violent when you don’t have Xanax at night

What’s your guess for somnolent? Comment below with your guess!

Next Post: Logging Off…

You Might Also Like: Word of the Week: semelparous and Word of the Week: phreaker

If you’ve been missing my posts, my apologies. I’m playing “corporate wife” this week and next week I’m off to a new adventure. Both of these require significant travel, planning, and rearranging the 18 things I stupidly choose to do. Okay, so it only feels stupid when they all demand my attention at once or I go out of town. That means this week it’s stupid!

Around the 4th of July we enjoyed a wonderful weekend with the DSL, the daughter, and that precious grandson of ours. He enjoyed our covered back porch, splashing around in his very own kiddie pool and watching bubbles sail across the porch. To watch the delight on his face as he surveyed all of this fun was a joy to watch.

His tired parents even got a ride in our new 2-person kayak, complete with places to put fishing poles. Our Canadian geese did not enjoy the kayak because they were being very protective of their rapidly-growing gosling.

I finally remembered to take pictures, but let me reiterate, I am not the photographer of the family, so if these are blurry, etc., you’ll have to forgive me.

This is the view from the lakeside bedroom. You can see my brother’s blue kayak under the trees and now, there’s a new 2-seater kayak close by!

Last week’s WOW was phreaker. No one seemed to have a guess for this one and honestly, that’s a relief to me. I was starting to think my vocabulary was quite limited since many have known the recent Words of the Week! Don’t get me wrong–I thoroughly enjoy it whenever you comment and do know it–it’s just a relief that occasionally we are both learning a new word!

Here’s what Merriam-Webster says about phreaker: one who gains illegal access to the telephone system. I guess that’s the phone version of hacker? If so, then I’m anti-phreak.

This week’s WOW is semelparous. Here are my guesses for it:

semelparous (se-ˈmel-pə-rəs) 1. half transparent 2. someone who is semi-enthusiastic about Paris 3. a state that occurs when your pores are only half clogged

What are your guesses for semelparous? Comment below to educate me!

Next Post: Pictures!

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My least favorite thing about my people is that they are very busy. They seldom have time to give me sufficient head scratches and belly rubs. This is just not cool.

Now they seem preoccupied with someone new…a little Dad person. At least that’s what he looks like to me. He’s very short, has blonde hair, and blue eyes. The last time I saw him he was unable to do much, except sit on the floor or crawl on his hands and knees very slowly. He sleeps almost as much as I do. I can’t understand the gibberish often emanating from his mouth. He often holds things in his hand. Is he a band conductor or something?

When he gets unhappy, he makes an awful racket. I don’t know what he’s doing, but his version of barking is very distasteful to my ears. And my whole group of people go running to him when he does this. Why would you run toward that??? 

The Mom person and Dad person will play with him all freaking day. Don’t ask me why. They’re just weird. What could be more fascinating than me?

With picking a maroon-colored metal roof and gray stain for our cabin, one would think I had already decided on the exterior door color for our cabin and that this job would have long been done by the time we had finished the inside work, right?!

Wrong.

Our exterior doors arrived in a light cream color. We were so eager to have lockable cabin doors that we didn’t paint them in the beginning. In fact the cream color almost became the color of the doors. I was beginning to think that the dark colors I had chosen for the outside were getting too dark and the cream color actually worked with the other exterior colors to my astonishment.

Even my daughter talked about how nice the existing color was and wondered if we needed to keep them a light color. Then reality happened.

With all of the traffic through these doors to work on inside projects, we had managed to put dirt all over these poor doors. I thought they would clean easily with some good old-fashioned elbow grease and cleaner, but I was wrong. I either lightened the existing color (and it was in patches!) or the dirt remained.

Good morning, Word Fans! Last week’s WOW was nescience. The Merriam-Webster definition for nescience is: lack of knowledge or awareness or ignorance. No one guessed the meaning to this work so I guess we’re all showing our nescience about nescience????

Today’s WOW is phreaker. Here are my definition guesses for phreaker:

phreaker (ˈfrē-kər) 1. a streaker carrying a phone 2. one who freaks about philosophy 3. a speaker who only speaks in phrases (In other words, a poet.)

What is your guess for phreaker? Comment below and let’s see who came closest.

Next Post: Painting Exterior Doors

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