Dawn's Early Light

Don't you love a fresh new day?  It's especially nice having a fresh new day at the beginning of a fresh new year!  I've been learning that what happens in my head and heart before I even get out of bed in the morning makes a big difference in my day-- even before dawn's early light at this time of year.

I used to wake up and lay in bed for a while thinking about everything that I needed to do that day-- and dreading it.

The grumbling in my head would continue while I'd stumble out of bed, hair spiking out every which way, patting the nightstand to find my glasses. "Why does it have to be dark when I wake up?"  "I'm gonna shoot that dog!  Does he really have to go out NOW?"  "Ugh. I don't waaannna get up yet."  "I don't even want to step on the scales this morning."  Charming, huh?  It didn't really matter how early or late it was, I'm just not a naturally happy riser.

For about a month now, I've been trying to change things a bit.  When I wake up, I try to remember to  "take my thoughts captive" right away.  You know that verse?  It's from 2 Corinthians 10:5.  Taking thoughts captive is no easy task.  They fight back and they often escape-- they are quite slippery and devious.  But if I can remember to corral them in the morning, it really helps.  I just stay in bed for a few minutes, praying, focusing on thanking God for the coming day and trusting Him with it, and then thinking about some good aspects of the day in front of me.  Although this practice does nothing to tame my crazy morning hair (or breath), it's refreshing to get up with a heart at peace.  Just so you know, this is also a good idea because the Bible tells me so.  Check out these verses:

Psalm 101:8  "Every morning I will put to silence all the wicked (thoughts) in the land."

Psalm 143:8  "Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you."

Psalm 90:14  "Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

Psalm 59:16  "But I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble."

Of course, the hard part is maintaining this joyful, peaceful heart after my feet hit the floor--just ask my  long-suffering husband!  But it's easier to return to a peaceful place when I've already been there earlier in the day.  I bet you're already out of bed now, but if you need some "early morning peace", why not visualize yourself back under those cozy covers and give what's left of your day to God, thank Him for something, and think of something good to look forward to yet today.

I can imagine how great it would be to do the same thing after I crawl back into bed for the night. 

I Chronicles 23:30"They were also to stand [or curl up in bed?] every morning to

 thank and praise the Lord.  They were to do the same in the evening."

Point taken. Too bad it had to reek.

"What is that STENCH!" I exclaimed as our dog, Ozzie, came trotting in the door this morning.  Ozzie is quite famous for getting into all kinds of trouble.  (You can read a classic involving a fish hook here).

When Ozzie drinks too much water, he pukes a little puddle of it onto our kitchen floor.  This morning it looked like that was about to happen again so I quickly hustled him outside.  I tried to avert a small inconvenience and ended up with a BIG inconvenience which reeked like scorched skunk. Seriously, it didn't smell like "regular" skunk.  Don't ask me why.

Doesn't he look so innocent and precious?

What to do, what to do??!  I scooped him up and plopped him right into the bathtub to scrub him down immediately with dog shampoo.  Dog shampoo didn't seem quite up to the job this time.   My daughter KM was home sick, poor thing, but I pressed her into service briefly as we concocted a mixture of hydrogen peroxide, Dawn dish detergent and baking soda.  Ozzie had been skunked before and scrubbing him with this combination seemed to work pretty well.

 I still wasn't sure this was actual skunk odor.  I just knew it was awful. After three washings and rinsings the dog was shivering like crazy, but he did smell more like wet dog and less like barbecued skunk.  The house still carries a bit of the unfortunate "fragrance," but it's not too bad.  And now I must admit, when I left the house and came back in, it does smell decidedly skunky.

A wet, miserable creature.

Is he begging for mercy holding his little paws so delicately?

Well, here's the funny thing.  I like to spend time first thing in the morning praying, reading the Bible, and generally trying to learn some things from God.  This morning I was reading Isaiah 55:8-9 which says, "'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord.  'As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.'"  Of course, it's not good to read God's words without applying them to your life somehow, so I was thinking and praying about how to put these wise words into action.

Here are some of the thoughts that I thought:  I like to plan out my day before I dive into anything.  I like to have an idea of what needs to be done and when I'm going to do it.  Of course, very often those plans get blown to smithereens by interruptions and unexpected events of the day. This generally irks me.  I am often frustrated because I can't do what I plan to do when I plan to do it.  After reading that passage this morning, I thought, "I need to be more flexible with my plans.  God might have better plans for me today than I do.  I need to make my plans in pencil (literally and figuratively) so I'm available to 'allow' God to interrupt my carefully crafted schedule."  About 30 minutes later, cue the entrance of my stink-ridden dog.

Now I'm not saying God sent a skunk to spray Ozzie.  But He knew it was going to happen!  He knows everything. It's a good thing that  I had already decided that I needed to be more flexible when suddenly my day was interrupted by multiple dog baths, a load of laundry, a tub cleaning and taking a shower myself.  My original plans for this morning involved none of these.  But, for a change, those plans were altered and I didn't even feel the need to rant and rave about it. God didn't send a skunk, but He did use a skunk and a dog to quite powerfully highlight something He wants me to learn: flexibility and willingness to abandon my schedule for His.  Point taken!  His ways sure aren't my ways, but He knows best and I am content with that.

Ozzie, thanks (?) for the powerful  illustration!

Fairy Juice

Fairies are mystical magical creatures.  Juice is liquid.  Put them together and you have a mystical magical liquid to use for... cleaning!  It's the best thing for mineral build-up from hard water and for anything else that's got stubborn, yucky grime.  I found the recipe for this amazing nectar on Pinterest about a year ago.  I hardly ever get on Pinterest, but it was all worth it just for this one recipe.

We have issues with hard water at our house.  I've had an extremely hectic January, so my shower stall got sadly neglected.  See how sad it looked this week?

Ugh.  Nasty demoralizing minerals were firmly adhered to my chrome fixtures, glass doors and fiberglass shower stall.  I've tried so many different cleaners over the years with varying results, but this stuff is the cheapest and best.  And it's very easy to make.  You take an empty squirt bottle, fill it up halfway with plain old white vinegar and fill it the rest of the way with Dawn dish soap.  That's all there is to it.  The original recipe said to heat the vinegar in the microwave first, but I don't usually bother to do that.  If it makes you happy, go ahead.

 my Fairy Juice

You can just keep it in the spray bottle indefinitely and give it a good shake before you use it.  Sometimes I pour in some hydrogen peroxide for extra disinfecting properties.

Then you just spray it liberally on whatever you want to clean and let it sit for a few hours or overnight.

You see, vinegar dissolves the minerals, while the dish soap dissolves grease and also makes the vinegar stick to the offensive minerals long enough to dissolve them.  Make sure you let it soak for a good long time to let it work!  It will stink, so just close the door and ignore it.

After the Fairy Juice has done it's job, grab a rag or scrubby, dampen it and get to work.

Your results may not be absolutely perfect the first time if you have heavy build-up, but two or three go-rounds should do the trick.  Then once every week or two will maintain your sparkly clean surfaces.  This works great on and around sink faucets in your kitchen, grimy buildup on your stove... it has lots of uses.

Don't forget to rinse it off after you're done scrubbing, otherwise someone will slip in the shower and kill themselves, and you don't want that on your conscience.

See how much better it looks?

Now the only thing I didn't explain was why I call it Fairy Juice.  Well, last summer we were visiting our son and daughter-in-law where they live in England.  They have very hard water there too and my dear daughter-in-law was valiantly striving to keep her "toilets" clean (in England they call their bathrooms "toilets" instead of bathrooms.  It's very disconcerting and confusing.  Our kids still call their facilities bathrooms, but I wanted to use the British terminology for fun).

See?  I mean it, that's what they call them.  This is a sign along the street in Cambridge.

Anyway, I mentioned to E. that I had found an amazing cleaning solution that would help her out, so we set off to the local Waitrose grocery store to find white vinegar and Dawn.

They did have little bottles of white vinegar, but alas, no Dawn dish soap was available.  We decided to settle on a "washing up liquid" with the brand name of "Fairy."  Why not?  And thus, Fairy Juice was born.  I just wish Fairy household products were available in the U.S.  I would definitely buy them.