I Am Still Here!

Baptist General Association of Virginia Convention started this morning in Hampton. It was so nice to see friends from churches in other parts of Virginia. 

Ray and Barbara

I saw a former teacher of mine at Leland Theological Seminary today. It was so nice to see him. The problem is he moved to Appomattox VA and he had heard that I passed away. Imagine my surprise. He couldn't remember where he heard it. Someone told him I had breast cancer and I died. He was totally shocked to see me. 

Needless to say, I am still here. I have Rheumatoid Arthritis, Osteo-Arthritis, Fibromyalgia, Shingles, Peripheral Artery Disease, and a floater in my left eye. I have had 16 surgeries and Breast Cancer in my lifetime. What is next?

I could be the poster child for the Baby Boomer Generation. The problem for me, I do not look sick at all. Everything that is going on is considered an "invisible" illness. There are many people out there with similar problems. If someone looks fine, we assume they can do the things that we can do. Looks can be deceiving.

Stop Worrying About What You Can’t Control

On the other hand, just because someone is visibly handicapped, does not mean that they are unable to do most of the things that you can do, and they want to. Anyway, I guess that I am saying "Don't judge a book by it's cover."

Be kind to others, no matter what, you don't know what kind of trouble they are going through.

Look For The Silver Lining…In EVERYTHING

GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME!

ALL THE TIME, GOD IS GOOD!

Hats for the Homeless and Cancer Patients

Well, here I am again. I have been off the computer a lot lately. It can become very consuming.

I have been making Hats for the Homeless. This is so much fun. We have given out 12 baby hats and about 14 children's hats. Shirley told me tonight that she has collected about 150 hats. She has lots of people knitting and crocheting like fiends.

 I have  over 40 hats made, just waiting for the cold weather. And, after the weather report, that will probably be tomorrow. 

Just part of the hats I am working on. 

 I am making my hats on a loom or two. It seems more like crochet, but ends up looking like knitting. I taught myself how to do it by looking on You Tube and finding someone who had put up a video to teach how to do it. I ordered the looms on Amazon for a great price and have been able to find some good deals on yarn also. 

As of today, I have 53 Hats made. Everyone I know is getting a hat for Christmas, not just the homeless. With the cost of the yarn and the time involved, they make a pretty nice gift. 

We worked on Quilts on Thursday.

I am down to making one every Thursday. If I had more room here, I would sew at home. We have so much stuff, I have an EBay account that I am going to start using real soon to get rid of some things around here. I may even put our vacation house on sale on Craigslist. 


I have a real strong urge to get rid of some of this stuff. Sometimes, I feel like it is weighing me down. 

Keep on reading my blog. I am trying to up my game some. Don't tell anyone, but I am not selling anything. I just love writing to people and sometimes getting written to in turn. I love helping people, that is why I approve about 60 posts on Triberr each day. If there is something I can do to help, just let me know. And, Remember this.

GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME!

ALL THE TIME GOD IS GOOD!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN PINK

I was going to be a Witch this year, but my Mother-in-Law wouldn't loan me her dress.

So I am a Kitty Kat again this year. Isn't that cute?  

We are having salad topped with roasted chicken for dinner. It is just wonderful. Now if I can just stay away from the Halloween Candy. We don't usually have a lot of children on our street. I think they go to the housing areas where the houses are huge and the pockets are deep. 

My daughter's church is having a Halloween Party tonight. She has really neat costumes for the twins but then they told her Sunday that the costumes should be Biblical Characters. Do you think of ghosts and vampires, and Superman when you think of Biblical times? Not me. I told her to just to let them wear what they already have. 

Some churches think that you shouldn't celebrate Halloween (All Hallows Eve). It was originally a pagan holiday where they worshiped many gods. It is called Day of the Dead in some cultures. It is just another day in my world, but if children want to go around and collect candy in funny costumes, why not?

I think Jesus would want our children to have fun and Halloween is fun for them. 

I heard someone say that Halloween is the Devil's

birthday. Sorry, he doesn't have a birthday. He was created along with all the other angels at the beginning of time. He just happened to be a bad boy who wanted to be God. Oh, so then God threw him and his minions in the the bottomless pit of fire called Hell. 

So, enjoy your costumes, your candy, and your friends. Halloween is just another day!

GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME!

ALL THE TIME, GOD IS GOOD!

Good News - Bad News - Join me for MMEL

• Good News! I found out what was causing my dizzy spells and hot flashes. 
• Bad News! I have a high blood sugar and am pre-diabetic. Go figure.

I was watching Dr. Oz today and decided that I am going  to check out his new diet. It is supposed to increase muscle mass and lower fat around the internal organs. 

There is some resistance training and I think that will be really good for me. I told Ray the other day that between the Rheumatoid Arthritis and Fibromyalgia, I have very little strength. I feel like one good cold would take me down permanently. I have even gotten to the point that I don't want to leave the house. 

All of this is making me depressed and the only way I know out of it is to make a change. The change will to: Move More, Eat Less. I still believe in calorie counting. The one time that I lost the most weight and kept it off the longest was when I was a member of Take Off Pounds Sensibly (TOPS). I lost 30 lbs in three months and kept it off for over two years.

So, while I get my act together, gather the information and start some exercising, if there is any one who would like to share in this experience with me, leave me a comment. 

I have another blog that we can use to keep up with everything. You wouldn't have to use your real name if you didn't want to. We could discuss it all and see how we can get it going. How would you like to create a weight loss team that might possibly even become a large group that would share in whatever perks we could obtain?

Think about it and I will too. Go ahead and weigh in and measure yourself, and keep a calorie count of the food that you eat, or carbohydrate count, whichever you choose. You can email me at barbarapduke@yahoo.com with MMEL (Move More, Eat Less) in the subject line or I will send you a DM on Twitter with my phone number. 

I hope you have a wonderful week and feel great!

GOD IS GOOD - ALL THE TIMEALL THE TIME - GOD IS GOOD

The Amazing Bed - Comfort At Last

We received our EasyRest Adjustable Bed Adjustable Bed. It is wonderful, or should I say they are wonderful. We ordered the King-Size so we received two extra-long twin beds. Each bed has its own controller. The head goes up and down and the foot does too. You can set it to your special setting on two more buttons on the remote. 

You can also have massage that makes the whole bed shake in heavy massage or light massage. Then there is a setting where the massages goes from head to foot and back.

The massage feature lasts for about 15 minutes after you set it. That way you can go to sleep without worrying about vibrating all night. This seems to have helped me with my auto-immune diseases: Rheumatoid Arthritis and Fibromyalgia. Sleeping with my head raised has also helped with reflux. The foot raised helps with the PAD in my feet and they aren't feeling so numb.

There is an extra added benefit. I don't hear any snoring from Ray at night and it would take an explosion to wake me up anyway. I am sleeping better than I have in years.

The warming mattress covers came over the weekend. I cannot wait for it to get cold enough to put them on. I may put them on this week when the sheets are changed. I like a cold room with a warm bed. I will put pictures on the blog as soon as I finish decorating the bedroom.

Weeks later. I still love the new beds but I am having trouble finding extra-long twin sheets because they have to fit over two mattresses. I think this may be an expensive proposition. Right now, we are using full-sized sheets. They cover, but not beautifully.

We brought a comforter home from NC that we were given at Christmas. It has two pillow shams. Not sure it is the pattern I want in there, but will make a nice whole bed quilt. With the comforter, I am going to have to make a bed skirt. Not my favorite thing, but definitely something I can do.

So far, this has been a positive experience. The salesman did promise us another pillow. We got a free one when we ordered, but he said he would make sure we got another one since we bought two beds to make the King-size. By the way, the beds can be locked together, but that makes a problem with making the individual beds. It would be difficult for us to sleep in different settings if it was just one big bottom sheet. There is also an attachment if we decide we want a headboard

I will let you know about the sheets as soon as I find them. If you want me to send you a note as soon as I get them, subscribe to the blog and comment. You will get the information for sure.

GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME!

ALL THE TIME, GOD IS GOOD!

I have not been compensated in any way for this article. 

Opinions are my own.

(Oh, if you do contact them and purchase a bed, please let them know that you heard it from me. Their website is not set up to use links from affiliates, but it would be nice if maybe they found out that it was me who talked about their product. 

They might even compensate me [or you] in the future.)

Cleaning Service?

We took up the carpet and took down the drapes in our bedroom because we bought our new adjustable beds. The drapes had been up way too long and

the carpet went out of style 20 years ago.  I have never seen so much dust.

The windowsills looked like they had never been vacuumed, even though the maid service I hired, checked off that they had cleaned the windowsills and blinds. There were 4 generations of spiders.

Since I have been ill, I have had others cleaning my home and I cannot tell you how disappointed I have been.

I was so disappointed with the nationally recognized cleaning service. They charge a lot more for the first visit. They said that they would send 2 women for 3 hours and I only got one lady for 4 hours and she was pretty slow. I think she spent more time marking off her check list than she did cleaning. I would give you the name of the service but I don't want to get sued.

I called them because it is difficult to find small business cleaning people and I wanted someone that I would consider a friend and not just the "maid."
If you would like to know the name of the service, contact me and I will give you the name personally.

I am trying some new ladies, so we will see. I will follow up on a critique of them also.

GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME!

ALL THE TIME, GOD IS GOOD!

Back to Bed PINK

I have been sleeping in a recliner for almost a year. I chose the recliner because lying in bed made my hips hurt so bad.

I had a cleaning service come and the bed is back in play in the spare room. I cannot sleep with Ray, he snores so loud that sometimes I can hear him in the living room. We just have dates once in a while.

Three days later: Back in the recliner.

Five days later, salesman from Easy Rest Adjustable Beds comes and shows us what they have. So interesting, especially for someone who sleeps in a recliner.

We decided that we would purchase one of the nicer models. It is a King-size bed, consisting of two twins. Each has their own controllers and they have heat and massage. Since I am considered disabled because of my health problems, they said they would deliver in one week. Well, that is this Friday. Guess what, they called to see if we could accept delivery at 5 pm on Friday.

We are leaving town Friday morning to go to NC for the holiday. The man was so kind and said it would not be a problem, he will call me back next week about delivery then. I do not remember anyone being quite that kind and considerate working in customer service in a long time. We do have a neighbor that will be watching the house and a security service, but I wouldn't want him letting anyone in to set up the beds.

I guess we will find out if we will be sleeping in the same room - will I throw the recliner on the street, or will we have to separate the beds into separate rooms? As it is, I am so tired of this recliner, it does not matter. We also have a recliner in NC that I sleep in when we go there.

I heard the other day that you should not sleep on the same mattress and box springs for over nine years. Considering that all our cells in our bodies change over every seven years, I think nine years is a little long. Did you know you have a completely new body every seven years. Mine seems to have taken a turn for the worse about seven years ago. I wonder if I can improve it enough to get back the lost years?

It would be nice, I think, but I am not going to count on it.

I will let you know how the beds sleep when they get here and whether they are one big bed in one room or one bed in two rooms. Do you think the adjustable bed will help with snoring? And where do you find extra long Twin sheets to fit the beds. A friend says you have to have suspenders on the back to hold the sheets down when you sit up.

The only thing left to figure out is, where is Snowball going to sleep?

GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME!

ALL THE TIME GOD IS GOOD!

Linda Jean - My Sister with an Attitude.

Recently, my sister Linda put this amazing little story of a day in her life on Facebook. I never knew she was such a talented writer. I asked if I could use this, but have waited and no answer. I am assuming she does not mind. She really is a super person with a unique attitude about life. She is saying things in this that we usually voice only in our heads. Barbara

"As John was leaving this morning, he came into the office where I was sitting at the computer and kissed me goodbye saying, "I hope you have a fun day today." 

I detected a note of sarcasm in that

statement so I'm going to tell everyone how much fun I had today! 

First, the dogs get their early morning mile because it is too darn hot to walk them later. This takes at least a half hour since their walk consists of more stops than starts. There's a lot of sniffing to be done at every mailbox along the way not to mention Bowser's imaginary friends who have to be consulted at every stop regarding which leg to lift to get the proper trajectory. Home again and it is time for treats and food! But, first, we have to be sure the cat isn't outside his room because he eats the dog food and leaves disgusting overflow deposits in the most conspicuous places. Easier to clean with the carpet cleaner, but still....

Now. On to the kitchen which is in a mess from the salad I prepared the night before to take to dinner with friends. My fault, but it was bedtime when we got back and I just didn't want to deal with it because of all the "fun" I had the day before. I gave the pups their baths yesterday so that source of fun was off the table today but I did get to wash their towel in a load of laundry! Lucky girl, me.

As long as I was in the kitchen, I decided to clean and seal the granite! Now there's a job that just excites me to no end! It's 10:15 and I've already had so much fun that I'm hungry. Let's see, what's for breakfast? Oh! That lovely leftover salad! YUM! The fun just never stops around here! Now I can put that laundry in the dryer and go clean the shower. See what I mean about the fun never stopping? Seriously!

Since the dogs had their baths yesterday, the floors probably need dusting because they tend to drop a lot of fur when they get excited. Once that's done I can vacuum the rugs, carpets and furniture for the same reason. Yeah. We spoil them by letting them go wherever they want to sleep. For instance, Fritzie slept under my rib cage last night because there was a clap of thunder right around bedtime. Not the best night's sleep ever. But fun to have a cuddly bed buddy.

I noticed the window boxes are looking straggly so out I go to deadhead those poor flowers. Just trying to keep them from dying of heat prostration. Of course, I've been having so much fun that I've let time get away from me and it's really hot out there and the mosquitoes are so excited about this most recent blood feast that they're sending out telepathic messages to all their friends to come to the party. Now I see the columbines have finished seeding out so they need a good haircut too. I'm pretty well toasted and covered in itchy welts by now so why not keep going? Fun, right? That's what it's all about!

Okay then. Now it's time to pay some bills. I just love doing that. There's such a thrill in shredding the paid bills! Back to the computer.

That's done, now it's time to call the vet to get those pooches in for their shots. They love that trip so much that they cry all the way there. I do feel a little bad because I know they think they're going to the park and it must be such a disappointment to find themselves at the vet's office instead. Good news is they sleep all the way home. Probably a mild traumatic coma state but at least it's quiet. Oh GREAT! They can come in today! More fun for me!

Think about dinner on the way home but can't shop with the dogs so I drop them off and shop for dinner. Poor planning on my part but that's my specialty so no surprise there. 

I do love going to the store especially when I get to the self-checkouts and they're all occupied by people who have no idea how to use them. Aren't people fun to watch? I really enjoyed the man who was cursing, just barely under his breath because he was dealing with something that had no bar code and the machine kept telling him to wait for assistance but there was none to be had. I wanted to help but I wasn't sure I could do any better. I'm pretty sure those machines are programmed to keep cashiers employed. I have to hand it to him, he didn't give up but the scale may never be quite the same after the pounding he gave it. What fun!

Now home to prepare dinner. I have discovered something called freekeh and I'm going to substitute it for bulgar in a deliciously buhgar salad. I hope it doesn't taste like cardboard because you all know that's what I'll be having for breakfast tomorrow! Fun is my middle name! Signing off for now, hoping you all have a really fun day!" - Linda Burns Gillespie

I love my sister's humor. She can say the silliest things sometime deadpan. It is an unusually fun talent that she has. Barbara*

GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME!

ALL THE TIME GOD IS GOOD!

Time After Time

I got so upset this morning at the news on a local TV station. The newscaster kept saying, "Learn what caused the little boy to be missed during the search for his body."

This was a lead-in to a story coming up. I normally do not listen that closely to the news because I am usually doing something else. This morning, I was forced to listen to this station because it was the only one my husband likes in the morning and I was not feeling well.

I kept hearing, "Learn what caused the little boy to be missed during the search for his body" over and over. Then finally the mystery was solved. The "current" was responsible. Nothing else except a picture of the beach where he was found.
Finally, we learned the fate of the little boy. After that they went into repeat and kept saying what was said before and at the end of the hour, those people who woke a little later found out what happened to the little boy.

I was thinking how miserable this would make me if it had been my little boy. I would have been devastated by his death, but would really be hurt by the lead-in to the news being said every five minutes. His death seemed to be a lead-in to the news, nothing more. There were no interviews with witnesses, no information that would help any one, just the repetitive flashes of the news lady.

My heart goes out to the family. Losing a child is one of the most difficult things we may ever go through.

I just wish that TV news people, especially local ones, could do a better job of reporting. Do you remember when the local channel used to report local news? Now they do local news of a town thousands of miles away. After the report of the little boy, they went into a story of how flooding of a basement in Detroit caused the death of a hundred year old woman. I am sorry, but our little part of the world is in Virginia and we seem to have enough distressing news here to fill in our news programs. If I want to know what is happening in Detroit or any where else, I can look on line or .

Oh, well, just me fussing. Have a great week. Love to all.

GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME!ALL THE TIME, GOD IS GOOD!

Anomia - What?

When I saw Dr. Cole the other day, he told me that forgetting words when I am talking is called:

• Anomia - Problem with word finding, impaired recall of words with no impairment of comprehension or the capacity to repeat the words.

I told him about being at a bylaws meeting. I was trying to explain something about
parliamentary procedures and was unable to find some of the words. At first, they helped me out and then they just started filling in the blanks, until I broke down and laughed so hard, I almost peed my pants. I felt like I was on a game show and everyone was throwing words at me. It really was funny. I am not sure the doc thought so.

I am trying so hard to keep a positive outlook. I did this about this time last year and the neurologist, and neurological psychologist put me through the wringer with numerous tests, and then after a couple of months, I was fine. My rheumatologist says it is Fibro Fog. Fibromyalgia and Rheumatoid Arthritis both cause inflammation. Inflammation seems to the the probable cause in most diseases, from what I have read. I have read so many medical articles, I am beginning to understand the big words.

This morning, I was watching Rachael Ray. They were talking about natural beauty enhancements that are chemical free. Actually, most come from the refrigerator. 

• If your skin on your elbows, knees, or feet are so dry they are noticeable to others or itch, you can use the skin from an avocado you are using for cooking.  (I guess it would work for other body parts also.) Rub it on the area for a minute, let it stay for a few minutes, wash off, and apply Olive Oil. 
• Rubbing the inside skin of a banana on acne spots for about 2 minutes, twice a day will help get rid of acne within a couple of weeks.
• San Tropez self-tanning oil seems to be the best way to disguise veins in your legs since childbirth, being overweight, standing on your feet a lot.

Just some nifty tidbits I picked up. I hope you are enjoying your summer? 

God is Good, All the Time!

All the Time, God is Good!

Ilium from the back garden, 5 ft tall

Moral Compass

Did you ever wonder why there are evil or immoral people who always seem to be getting everything they want for themselves and there are moral people who never get any breaks? I think it has more to do with the way you were raised. Did your parents encourage you to be all you could be? Did they set a good example for you? Or maybe their parents just let them run wild. Did they set such a bad example that every decision they made is predicated on being the exact opposite of what their parents would do?

I think that upbringing has a distinctive influence on who we turn out to be. But, even if our childhood was bad, we have the choice to go one way or the other. It is sad that there seems to be people who do not have a moral compass. They really do not have a sense of right and wrong. It is almost like some brain cells are missing. They go through life thinking that the world owes them a living. They have their hand out all the time.

Somehow, they got it into their heads that they are the "Center of the Universe " and everyone should revolve around their world. They think that it is alright to have sex with anyone they want, wherever they want, with no regard to other people. They are trying to destroy the sanctity of marriage.

They think that drugs or alcohol are okay, even good, and believe that they should just do whatever feels good, with no regard to other people.  They go through life blowing smoke on other people: cigarettes, marijuana, or now, electronic smoke. Just sliding through life taking and never giving.

I have seen smart people, who would put in hours or days into thinking of slick things to do to cheat others, the government, or even their own family. If they would put all that concentration into something positive, just imagine what a wonderful world this could be. Sometimes we think they are just lazy, but that is not the case. They spend so much time trying to circumvent the system, that they are continually holding out their hands for other people to financial support them all their lives.

Muslim countries seem to be condoning all kinds of atrocities. They want us to give up our freedoms and put ourselves back into the Middle Ages where women were hidden and abused, where only men ruled, where all were punished horribly for small transgressions. They offer no forgiveness, they undermine our values as Christians, Jews, etc. 

The Koran, which has been rewritten hundreds of times to reflect what any influential Muslim says that Allah told them. Allah is a very vengeful god, which should not mean anything because there is no god but our God, Jehovah. Mohammed was not even a good  Prophet. He has to ask his wife's advice before he did anything. 

The Center of the Universe. (Isn't that how we felt when we were six?)  

GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME!

Dear Email Friends and others.

Have you ever opened up your email program and discovered that you had over a thousand emails? I have. Not to mention, I have #Gmail, which means that to sort emails, I have to guess who they are from if there is no company listed. I tend to delete emails when I don't recognize the name. 

This started the wheels turning and I remembered when I was working for the Air Force as an Executive Assistant. I was there when we transitioned to computers from word processors. I was actually the first secretary to have a computer on my desk in our division, possible our command. After a few months, with more and more people coming on line, we realized that some changes had to be made. 

 It was a little easier there, because the office symbol was included with email from others on base. Then there were emails that involved specific tasks, so we learned to put a suspense date in the subject. When I went to the audit agency, we would enter the project number and subject for each audit. Everything became so organized, which we all know makes our lives better.

In the past 5 years since I retired, I have become increasing prolific on my computer. I do newsletters and blog posts. I also am a member of my church, the Women's Club, the Lions Club, the National Association of Parliamentarians, etc. Each one of these organizations and all the other things that I have joined on line come into my #Gmail box. Most of the time, I recognize the person's name, but sometimes I do not.  This means I might have to open it up. It does fall under the category of "UNKNOWN" like phone calls from telemarketers (which I never answer).

Then there are the sneaky marketers that squeeze under the SPAM controls with what looks like a personal email. I make sure their next email is entered under SPAM where I will never have to see it.

I am asking a favor for myself, but it may help you also, especially for those of us who get hundreds of emails a day. Could you please enter "Descriptions" for your email in the subject line? 

Examples: 
Church:

                FBC - Prayer Concerns

                FBC - Deacon​s

                FBC  - Staff

Women's Club:

                GFWC - National

                NNWC - Social 

Lions Clubs:

                NNlions - Projects

                Lions District 

                Lions International 

I would be able to organize my email easier, and so would you, not to mention, send an answer quicker. You could even "flag" the email if it is time-sensitive.

I have been known to delete emails that I didn't recognize who it was from because of SPAM, Viruses, etc.

Thanks for your consideration, 

Barbara Duke

Professional Encourager

#BoomerMom

GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME!

ALL THE TIME, GOD IS GOOD!

HELP! HAMPTON ROADS VA - Bring your Family to Spirit Night

We really need your HELP 

HAMPTON ROADS

Come out and join the Newport News Host Lions Club on Thursday, July 24th from 5 pm to 8 pm for the Lions Chick Fil A "Spirit Night!!" Dine at Chick fil A of Yoder Plaza & Victory Blvd (near Patrick Henry Mall), and 10% of all the proceeds from that night goes to helping the Lions Club to continue to provide many great services for children and the local community. .

. Bring your kids, family, co-workers, team mates, anyone you want, and help support a great organization and valuable services. Feel free to share/print this post!! Hope to see all of you there....Wink! 

#WeServe

#PayItForward — with Lions Rose Mary, Katrina, Earl, Ray, Barbara Kevin, Jimmy, Joseph & Linda at 

Chick-fil-A of Yoder Plaza & Victory Blvd, 

Newport News VA!

COME BY AND SAY HI!

Who Buys Followers?

This is a no-brainer for me. Do not waste your time. You should never purchase followers. 

Followers that are purchased are bots and if someone checks your account for a job, there are ways to tell if your followers are real people or bots. 

If they find that your 5K followers are mostly paid for, why should they hire you to tweet for them. Bots do not buy goods, go to movies, eat gourmet food, etc. 

I have almost 98K followers and I would be willing to bet that at least 94 percent are real.

I actually unfollow people who have not been online in a couple of months. If they stay away from the Internet two months, then it was a flash in the pan to them. Unless someone turns them on to it again, they probably decided to live their real life, not their online life. 

If you were the CEO of a company trying to get your message out, why would you hire someone that only had about 20 percent real followers. It is better to have 10K real followers than 1M bought followers. 

There are programs that can check your followers to see your percentages. I was hired for a social media advocate job a couple of years ago because even though I had a good reference, they checked my Twitter account. I had 90 percent active followers, 6 percent inactive followers, and 4 percent bots.

I did not know they could check this, but I wanted to follow each one of those people myself. I did not want to have a bunch of sex-crazed perverts following me. I check each one and if there is any sexual innuendo, profanity, or hate speech, I block them. I do not want to see that, and do not want my name associated with them. 

I like nice, kind, positive people and most of my followers are nice, kind, positive people. If they are not, I engage and see if I can help to change their attitude about how Social Media should be handled. If they continue to cause me a problem, I block them. I do not tolerate rudeness. Would you?

One thing I never do is argue with people online. I do not tell them what I think lots of times, I just bow out of the conversation. Life is just too short to be at odds with other people. 

The message is this: Put in the effort to get your own quality followers, you will thank me in the end.

Barbara Duke 

Brand Advocate

Professional Encourager

Thoughts of Pink

GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME!

ALL THE TIME, GOD IS GOOD!

Jimmy Fallon Makes me Laugh

Tonite, Tom Cruise is on the Tonite Show. He is such a handsome man. Jimmy and Tom are talking about his new movie, Edge of Tomorrow, with Emily Blount. Looks like and interesting movie, but just a little violent for my taste. I really liked him most in Top Gun and I love Jimmy Fallon because he makes me laugh. 

I heard that laughter can make you feel better and even in some cases really make you heal better. It is exercise for the internal organs. It is also such a positive thing for your brain. I try to watch things that will make me laugh. Jimmy Fallon makes me laugh. Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmell, David Letterman - Not so much.

My favorite!

I saw a new program the other night "Last Comic Standing." It was so good. Rosanne Barr is one of the judges and I was surprised at how good she looked. She may be older, but looks younger than she did 20 years ago. I laughed and laughed. It was on prime time and not unnecessarily profane. I never could understand why dirty words are considered so funny. Most jokes would be just as funny without the profanity. It is really not necessary. Profanity kind of gives me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I used to swear when I was younger. I had a girlfriend that swore with every other breath. My husband at the time mentioned it to me and said that maybe I should stay away from her because I was picking up her barroom language. I do not think that she had ever been in a barroom, but she was from the mountains in West Virginia and not only did she swear, she did it in the most hideous Southern accent.

GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME!

ALL THE TIME, GOD IS GOOD!

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Here I Sit

Here I sit in front of my computer wondering what to write, even though my right hand and arm are in so much pain, I had to double my pain medications this morning. Rheumatoid Arthritis is the pits. 

You wake up, and before you can even get up to go to the bathroom, you lie there and think of all the things you want to do today. Do not think too fast, check out what is going on with your body. Can you get up? Wiggle your toes. Can you walk? Flex your feet. Are they numb? You have so many questions in your head before you can even lift it off the pillow.

I sit up and turn to get up; I feel the pain in my feet and hands. This morning, there is also that awful pain in my back and shoulders. I raise myself up and the headache hits. Ouch! I make my way to the bathroom and wash my face and take care of other things, then on to the kitchen and coffee.  I am so glad we have a one-cup at a time machine. I couldn't lift a whole pot of coffee. I find my protein bar and go to the recliner.

Mitzee - Shipoo

My husband is sitting down and reading the paper. Mitzee decides she wants to go out, so I walk out with her. She decides to wander around the yard and I end up going after her in my socks. She runs to the back door, leaving me to make it back up the steps. Oh, well, she doesn't know how I feel. We are having trouble training her to poop outside. I guess that when our granddaughter sent her, we should have considered giving her to someone else. She was so tiny then, and I just loved her from the minute I set eyes on her.  

SnowBall (MaltyPoo) w/Mitzee

I know what you are thinking. What is wrong with Barbara today? She is just boring. Well, I guess I feel boring.


I have been watching TV all morning and one thing that really bothered me was the women on #TheTalk. They are trying to ruin Justin Beiber's career again. Someone put out a video where he sang about the N-Word and the KKK. It was obvious that it was made when he was around 14 or 15, when he was still living at home in Canada. Hopefully, he has a little more Moxey now, and isn't intentionally degrading any people or race. The thing that really bothers me, is that #theTalk and  #theView are getting more and more picky, raunchy, and racist. They are looking for things like this to stir up controversial subjects.

It almost seems like they are just doing it for shock value and ratings. 

I used to love the programs because they discussed pertinent women's topics, not just gossip. I have always had tremendous respect for Julie Chen, but today when she was talking about Justin Bieber, she looked almost evil.

Now, there is my soapbox issue for the day. Who cares about pain when there are so many issues around that people do not give a hoot about.

GOD IS GOOD! ALL THE TIME!

ALL THE TIME! GOD IS GOOD!

Religion in School?

A good friend sent the following to me. If, in fact, it is true, I wouldn't like it either. You can paste the link to a friend. I just don't want to put this email; I think it would considered unseemly.


"Did you know that Hilliard, Ohio, has a special room for Muslims to pray? In the High School........................YES, call the school if you aren't believing....

Sorry NO CHRISTIAN, Jewish, or any other religion available..........

This was checked out on Politi facts and Ask and both confirmed.

I can't begin to tell you how livid I am over this. Our children are not allowed to recite The Lord's Prayer, not allowed to bring a Bible to school, not allowed to wear a Christian themed T-Shirt, not allowed to have Bible study classes at school, not allowed to display a picture of Jesus, and now this Peace of Crap President, is going to use federal tax dollars to promote Islam to our children.

Enough is ENOUGH ! Where are all these "Christian-hating, separation of church and state" athiests? Why aren't they lining up the to sue the federal government over the use of federal tax dollars to promote a religion in our public schools? I would be willing to bet that nobody will hear a peep out of the "Freedom From Religion" organization.

Obama Administration Announces Nationwide Muslim Outreach Program For Children Grades K-12.

American children gathered around a Muslim learning about the Quran... For school credit.

Washington DC: At a press conference Friday afternoon, President Obama announced plans for the first ever federally funded Muslim outreach program.

The program will be available nationwide for all elementary school students grade K-12 beginning February 1st, 2014.

• The program is designed to educate children about the fundamentals of the Muslim religion and Islamic belief. President Obama spoke with reporters to explain why it is so important that these outreach programs exist. The Muslim community deserves our full understanding and respect, Obama said. We have killed millions of Muslims overseas since the September 11th attacks.
• These folks are not all bad. In fact, most of them are hardworking citizens just like you and me. I encourage every student in America to participate in your schools Muslim outreach program. Learn about the Muslim community, the beauty of the Sunnah and the magic of the Quran.
• 35-year-old Paul Horner, a teacher at Starks Elementary School in Louisiana, told MSNBC he is excited about the new programs. I think anything a child can learn is good. We need more learning in this country. And, these classes are not mandatory but children can use them as extra credit towards other classes.
• For example, if Becky has a D+ in math she can simply take a three week after school class on the Quran and now Sally has an A in Math. How great is that?
• The Muslim youth outreach program is designed to help young people from different cultures work together to break down ethnic barriers. Their goal is to help promote a greater respect for other cultures, understanding while at the same time learning about all that culture has to offer.
• Khaled Matei, who is a member of the Muslim Brotherhoods Freedom and Justice Party, told CNN he is pleased with Obama and his actions. I spoke with President Obama by telephone yesterday and personally thanked him for what he is doing for the Muslim community, Matei said. This is definitely a step in the right direction I explained to him. 

1. Do we do this for other cultures and religions? NO
2. Do we federally fund religion for other religions? NO"

(Just another way to mess with our freedoms. If we cannot have Bible Studies at Public Schools, we should not be having Muslim training at them either. Muslims are a minority in this country and if they want their children to be trained in their religion, they should train them in their own temple or at home. Barbara Duke) 

GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME!

ALL THE TIME, GOD IS GOOD!

John 14:6-7

5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

BTW, if Sally gets an "A" because she took a Muslim training class, it is a real pity that she still won't understand math. I know because I took classes to avoid math.