10 Things to cure holiday boredom

The holidays are here and it came faster than expected, the old saying "as slow as Christmas" is a thing of the past, things seem to be moving at a rapid pace these days. Well, if you're anything like me, I don't have much family around town to celebrate with, things tend to get boring and downright depressing IF you let it. Over the last month, I have endured storm after storm, and not to mention my mother has been down for the last couple of weeks. I've even dealt with ear/throat/flu, I mean I can't even put a name to it, all I know is it was horrible! In the midst of it all I am finally feeling good and so is my Mother(hard seeing your parents down). God is still on the throne and He is still good, there is a lesson in it all!
I refuse to be down during this season, or any season for that matter, there are plenty of things to be grateful for and plenty of reason why I should be grateful! If you're dealing with holiday boredom here are ten things you can do to occupy your time to bind that boredom:

Read a Book:
I have started 3 books this year and have yet to finish them. Why would I start 3 books at one time? Who knows! There are free books out there that you can download on your devices. Or, look in your own personal library and get out a book that you read over 5 years ago and reread it. Of course, there is always the Bible, I have come to love the books of 1st and 2nd Samuel.

Call your family and friends:
Pick up the phone and call some of your cousins that you haven't talked to all year. I know some people don't always like to talk on the phone, well text them! Text cousin Ray-Ray and let him know you're thinking about him.  I'm sure Great Aunt Ethel Mae would love to hear from you as well!

Watch funny videos:
The internet is loaded with hilarious videos, I watch them all the time and laugh. Here is one now that you can watch of my brother in law trying to ride a seated hoverboard that my nephew received for Christmas.

Make Something(hobby):
Get your creative juices flowing and create something, pull out your junk box and get creative. I've been working on a wig cap for months and have yet to finish it. Today may just be the day to put my finishing touches on it. Sidebar: My New Years resolution is to not to procrastinate!

Movie:
Get dress and go see a movie, I'm sure something good is out worth watching. Sorry, I don't really keep up with the latest movies. I can help you out with Netflix movies though, here are some titles:   You can't fight Christmas
Believe
Ozark
Fight
These are just a few things I've watched on Netflix over the last couple of days.

Clean:
This is something I'm not interested in doing, but I thought I'd share it anyway. One of my Facebook friends said this is what she will be doing to keep her mind off of being away from her family during this Christmas season. More power to you Sis, clean away!

Planning/Goals:
Sit down and write out a plan for next year, maybe a plan to be out of town with your family during the 2018 Christmas season. Make a vision board for 2018, think about goals you want to accomplish in the new year.

Music:
Get out your old CDs if you still have them and listen to some music. Gospel music is my absolute favorite, but I like all kinds of music. Often, I'll turn on my blue tooth speaker and look up all the music from the 90s and jam out! I'm sure something will get you on your feet dancing. Come on, you know if you hear the words "Cash money taking over for the '99 and the 2000" you are about to be up on your self-made dance floor! Lol, Ok, I know I'm being carnal.

Visit the sick:
Get on the phone and see whose within your congregation that's sick and shut in. I know within my congregation there are people who are hospitalized or at home and can't get out.  Not to mention whenever I go and visit the sick I always end up leaving encouraged and I sure you will too.

Accept that invite:
I am so guilty of not accepting invites, it's sad! That's another thing that I plan on changing within the New Year, I'm hitting up all the gatherings! Get up and get dressed, comb your hair, or do like me and throw on a scarf and go socialize. Stop finding excuses not to go.

Well, hopefully, you will take some of these things into consideration to bind your holiday boredom, be blessed and Merry CHRISTmas to you!!

....You will get Another

The Lord speaks to us through dreams and visions, of course, I dream all the time (not all are prophetic dreams)and I've had several visions. Just recently I had a dream, it was sort of strange because it seemed for a minute that I was awake but just laying there with my eyes closed. So I guess I was between the awake and dream state. I was dreaming of a news story/newspaper article or something like an analogy that a preacher would use after he/she finishes their sermon to prove their point or persuade the congregation. The dream even had a narrator, lol I can't explain it I just know what I felt, heard and saw during the dream.

 Here's the dream:

A little girl lost her Teddy Ruxbin teddy bear, she was walking in the grocery store upset that she lost it. The announcer or narrator says something to the effect of the little girl seeing something that would remind her of the lost Teddy Ruxbin and how she was feeling at that moment about the lost bear.  Then what came to my mind in the dream was that she was standing in line at the store and saw something like a headline on the front page of the National Enquirer. The narrator begins to read the headline but this time it wasn't the initial narrator's voice, the voice that I heard was stern and direct. The voice said:
"DON'T YOU DARE VISUALIZE IT, YOU WILL GET ANOTHER!"

In essence, he was telling the little girl that even though she's reading the headlines and it is a reminder of the lost bear, don't start thinking back on what she lost because another is coming.
The dream ended and I lay in bed completely awake. I lay there with the stern man's voice playing over and over in my mind. The voice was booming and it sort of resounded within my spirit. I used to be very fearful of lots of things and in my dream state I could feel fear starting to set in as the stern voice says, "Don't you dare visualize it" but when he got to the latter part of the statement, "you will get another" His voice softens with solicitude and the fear that tried to come in, quickly went away!
Now, by no means do I have the gift of dream interpretation but I do know and feel when my dreams are from The Lord.

After I lay there for a minute I thought of this picture that I saw on Facebook months ago,

I begin to think of my situation, being divorced. I thought about all the precious time, sleep and material things that I lost within the marriage. I will admit, recently it weighted on me more than it should have and sometimes it was hard to snap out of it. After having gone through every emotion and knowing full well that I shouldn't dwell or "visualize" what was lost because I know without a doubt that I would recover all and some! So this dream was a reminder for me to stop thinking of the past and move forward. I also thought of the story of Job, he lost way more than I could of imagine, but in the end, he recovered all. The Bible says that The Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends, and He gave Job twice as much as before(Job 42:10). Let me encourage us, You and I, let us do as Philippians 4:13 tells us, forget what we left behind and press on to higher callings. God will repay, and for the people that hurt us, let's pray for them and watch God work on our behalf. God is an awesome God, He cares about us. He wants to see us prosper in every area of our life! Don't make the mistake that I made, looking back at a DEAD situation. From now on I will write out my feature, that lost Teddy Ruxbin is a thing of the past and I know something bigger and better is coming, in Gods timing! God bless you and thanks for reading!

Welcome to Excerpts from Renee

                                     

Hello everyone and praise the Lord from whom all blessings flow!! Yep, I put the Lord in my greeting, after all, He is the head of my life. I am over 30 years of age and I’ve decided to start a blog. I am starting this blog because I journal all the time, and I thought to myself why not share with others! Yeah, I come up with millions of things to do in my mind and never act on them because of fear. Well, this is the year that fear has to fall back!! I’m choosing to step out of my comfort zone and do things that I would normally say NO to....because of fear!  I look forward to reading your comments or questions as time goes on. 

Here’s a little about me: 


1. I am a believer of JESUS CHRIST
2. I am the youngest of three siblings 
3. I am a Dental/Scaling Assistant by trade
4. I am single(newly divorced)
5. I don’t have any children(I’m getting old…..come on Lord!) 
6. I love to laugh
7. I love shopping: thrift, garage/yard sales, Torrid, Lane Bryant, Ashley Stewart and many other places.       

My blog topics will consist of the things I just spoke of.↟ My prayer is that I can encourage, inspire and possibly brighten your day through blogging.Follow along as I give this blogging thing a try. May God bless and keep ya!! Welcome to Excerpts from Renee.