This contains entries to Take up Your Cross, Space Blog, Blog City PF and BC of Friends |
November 19-23, 2019 "November 23, 2019" Prompt: “What is your favorite or most thought provoking quote from a book you ever read and why?” Matthew 6: 12 says “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”, This passage of scripture hung me up for years. I knew I was unwilling to forgive those who had harmed me in any way and yet I was asking God to use the same forgiveness I gave to others to forgive me? If I wasn’t willing to forgive, I knew God would not forgive me. I also knew Hell was a very real place! I shuddered every time I said the Lord’s Prayer. Finally I was able to do a thorough recovery program and learned how to forgive others. The Bible is Christianity taught. Early 12 step programs and many 12 step recovery programs today are Christianity practiced. I was fortunate. I found a sponsor who knew the 12 steps were applications of Christianity and he taught them to me as such. Now I am willing to teach anybody else who wants to learn. Hit me up on here about it. Marvinschrebe@writing.com or marvinschrebe@gmail.com or chrisbreva1@gmail.com November 17, 2019 Late Entry I haven’t blogged all week because I am working two jobs and finishing my bachelor’s degree at the same time. Saturday is really the only day I can blog. I hope nobody minds if I do all my blogs together and enter them on Saturday morning. This blog will contain November 17, 2019 through November 22, 2019 prompts and responses. I really have no alternative. Although I am working my butt off, I have no income yet. My Internet is shut off. The facility I live and work in has a computer room, so I plan to type my responses on my computer ,save them to a flash drive, take them to their computer room, and upload them there. I will label each entry according to its date and enter them as one entry. Prompt: “The most exciting things about the winter holidays are…Finish the sentence and tell us why.” The most exciting thing about the holiday this year is that I get to be a part of it for so many families. I am a peer support specialist at the Salvation Army Huntington Corps. As such I have taken part in the Angel Tree program, which locally signed up over 3200 children for Christmas presents. What angel tree does is help needy families provide Christmas for their children. The families come in during sign ups which usually take place in September. They sit with a specialist who takes their application. On the application it asks for clothing sizes, shoe sizes, etc. along with what the child wants for Christmas. Each child is allowed three items. These are then printed, and paper angels are made from them. The angels are hung on Christmas trees at Wal-Marts, malls, and other stores. Then customers can come into the store and choose (adopt) and angel from the tree, shop for that angel, and either take the items to the local Salvation Army or have the service desk in the store keep the items for later pick up. The angels who are not adopted will receive their gifts from the Salvation Army itself. If you see a tree in a store with papers hanging on it please consider adopting an angel! You will make a big difference in a child’s Christmas and help the Salvation Army in its mission of “Doing The Most Good”. Thank you! Christmas for me was never a good time but since I have started working for the Salvation Army as a volunteer, soon to be full time staff, I have found that I am looking forward to the holidays. Bah-humbug has gone from me and I am enjoying Christmas. Perhaps it was because I have never been able to give anything and this year I have been able to give something far more precious than material gifts: I have been able to give the love of Jesus Christ away to thousands of people. November 19, 2019 Late Entry As I said before I am just going to make all my entries for the week one long entry, and label each of them for their date. I apologize to my readers, but due to the type of disability I was on I lost my check. I used my check before to pay my bills while I devoted my time to writing. Then I moved to the West Virginia Veterans Home. It is a facility similar to domicile living with round the clock care. The facility pays for everything one could possibly need. Since they pay for everything, I no longer qualify for my check as my basic needs are met. Like anybody else I want some spending money, so I went to work. I am currently the floor leader here at the home, which pays enough to basically cover my Internet. I don’t get paid for the first two months however as it pays monthly, and they hold the first month back. I also volunteer 32 hours per week at the Salvation Army where I am a peer support specialist. That position is set to become a paid position soon, but again it takes time for the wheels of bureaucracy to turn so it could be sixty days before that happens. During the meantime I am working two hours per day as floor leader, spending 14 hours per week in class finishing the last semester of my Regents Bachelor of Arts degree with a minor in history, and working 32 hours per week at the Salvation Army. The only possible time for me to blog is Saturday, unless I get up early (0330) and blog. Like most people I like to sleep some. Saturday it is then! November 20, 2019 Prompt: “Black Friday. Are you going out to shop, or are you staying home with a good book and a plate full of left-overs?” I will not do either of the above. I will be working that day. I work from 0830 to 1630 (8:30AM to 4:30PM) Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. As well as 1300 to 1630 (1:00PM to 4:30PM) on Tuesday and Thursdays most weeks. This week I am off Tuesday for a dental appointment and work Thursday 0830 to 1630. It’s break week at Marshall University. Most weeks I attend class from 0830 until 1215 Tuesday and Thursday. The good news is that I graduate in three weeks. After 15 years of pursuing it off and on, I will finally have my bachelor degree. My bachelor will be a Regents Bachelor of Arts with an emphasis on Psychology and a minor in history. After this I plan to pursue a MSW degree and eventually a doctorate, possibly psychology. Anyway, I will be working Black Friday. My first job will begin at 0430 Friday morning and last until 0530. Then by 0830 I will be at my second job. No shopping for me unless my boss wants to go to Wal-Mart. I believe the plan is to avoid doing so though. November 21, 2019} Prompt: “Have you used any new writing tools or applications recently that have improved your work flow?” No I have not. As I said I have been working extended hours trying to get some income coming in. I was on disability but due to the type of disability it was (basically a check that I had not earned) it was taken away when I moved into a facility I could live in for free. I am very blessed to be where I am and if I did not want to work I would still have all my needs met. I like to have a little income and it had gotten to the point in my recovery and my Christian walk, where it was time for me to stand on my own two feet. Due to this I began looking for ways to generate some income or at least be a productive member of society. The floor leader position on my dorm became available so I took it. It pays a stipend but that is all. I only work about half an hour per day doing that. I also went to work as a part time volunteer at the Salvation Army locally. My commanding officer had told me back in the summer that she had me in mind for the position and was working to find funding to pay me. I am currently volunteering for the position 32 hours per week. I also attend Marshall University 14 hours per week. What it all boils down to is that I am so busy I don’t know whether to scratch my watch or wind my rear end most of the time. I haven’t had time to checkout any new writing apps. I doubt I would use them anyway. I find most apps are junk, especially for androids. Then I text so slowly that a writing app would be useless. November 22, 2019 Prompt: “What are you looking forward to in December, besides not trying to meet the NANO deadline?” December for me is a busy month. For one thing it is the month I graduate from Marshall University. I won’t get my actually diploma until sometime late in January but my transcript will show that I graduated once my final grades from the two classes I am in now post. One of those classes is Oceanography, because like anybody seeking a bachelor degree I am required to have a minimum of two science classes. Science is not my strong point and I was certain I was failing the class. I spoke to my Oceanography professor about it Thursday after class and my grade was higher than I thought it was. He said that if I can pull at least a D on the final exam that I will likely have a C in the class. An F on the final would still allow me to barely pass with a D. No matter which way I go I am going to graduate this December. Graduation is December 14, 2019. This is the biggest event in December for me. I am also looking forward to the arrival of a contract at work in December. The contract will be a contract between my employer and the agency that is providing a grant to give me a salary for on the job training. After the contract expires my employer (The Salvation Army) will pick up the tab. I knew the Salvation Army was a non-profit organization and that we operate on donations and grants. I also knew that I needed a job and that the local corps needed a peer support specialist, but was struggling to find the funding to pay the position in this budget. I went to the agency that will fund it, for which I was already a client, and asked them if they could fund it. Essentially, I raised the funds for my own salary. The contract should arrive at the corps sometime in late December. I look forward to that because I need the money coming in. I can live here at the veterans home for free since it is a state agency which, houses veterans and I am a veteran. However, I have no money on me, including money for my Internet, which I depend on. The cable here is free but Wi-Fi in the rooms is extra. I do not currently have Wi-Fi. This will all be transferred to a flash drive and taken to another building. Once there I will use the facility computers to upload it. Doing so is very inconvenient and inefficient, when I could have Wi-Fi here. I will have when I get an income back. Thank you if you have read all these entries. I wish there were another way, but currently see no alternative short of not blogging at all. Thank you for being my dedicated fans! Marvin Schrebe RBA |