Newsday Tuesday it's up to you-day.

Good morning. Or afternoon. Or middle of the night. Whenever  you're reading this. It's Newsday Tuesday... the day I comment on news from my nest and beyond.

First item of business: It's payday. We survived another pay period without starving. God is good. We have eaten good. Austin loves yellow rice, it's super easy to cook in my rice cooker... all we need is a little side serving of  meat - any meat - and he's happy. For me... give me a bowl of cereal and I'm happy. I love how our wants lately have been matching up with our means.

My computer is super slow today and it's driving me nuts. No telling what Austin has downloaded over the past week. I need to take it to the nice computer guy in town and let him give it a tune up, however, it seems self indulgent to place a computer tune up ahead of a car tune up.

The Lord just keeps us chugging along inspite of ourselves.

The cats are fighting this morning. Stubby had been strictly a front room cat... balancing his time between the living room furniture and the litter box and num num trays. Trouble prefers to stick to me like he's my siamese twin... he sleeps on my bed... perches in my window... hangs out in the bathroom with me whatever I'm doing. If I'm putting on makeup he starts to whimper, he knows that's a good sign that I'm leaving. For whatever reason, Stubby has decided to stake a claim on one of the bathmats in the bathroom. Trouble is troubled by this invasion of his territory and they've been having a growling match all morning.

Austin went back to school yesterday and was absolutely wiped out at the end of the day. He was sound asleep when I got home at 6. If he woke up later, I missed him because I was wiped out and sound asleep before 8.

I'm still wiped out but it's pathetic how I can't put together a blog entry that doesn't include some mention of pain, exhaustion, frustration or the like. I'm tired of hearing myself complain. I don't feel good and it doesn't matter. I still have to do all the things I have to do. I loaded the dishwasher at 4am today because that's when I have the most energy. It wore me out. And we're out of coffee.

Three years ago today my friend Misty died. She left behind three little kids... who are now 12, 6 and 3. I pray for them (almost) every day. I know that what happened between Michael and I happened for a reason ... our marriage was more doomed than Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries' ... but I still wish we could have had the kind of strength to have been there for Misty's kids, to have offered them a sane, safe, stable family. Ditto for when Tim passed away. I believe Tim's daughter Charity is raising her little brother, Elijah and I pray every day for her strength and wisdom and resources with him. She's an amazing girl with incredible strength and resolve and although she is young, she will do a good job with Elijah. I wish we were in a place to help her. I grieve the loss of these two people: Misty and Tim - but I also grieve not being able to be in a place to minister to their children.

I think Satan is like that... he destroys families because in the destruction of families, he accomplishes the destruction of society. That's how we end up with a gimme gimme generation... husbands who turn from their wives... wives who are unfaithful... children who are spoiled... we have somewhere lost the value of being steadfast in  relationships and the beautiful benefits that are reaped through time and patience with one another. You fall in love with the wife of your youth because of her beauty... you continue to fall in love with her as she bears your children and your respect for her grows... later in life you fall in love with her strength and ability to raise children, keep a home and maybe even earn a living... and then when you are old, you are so in love with the diverse roles you've seen this woman play that you can't imagine trading her for another. That's how it should work. Instead... we have men who are falling in love with that first version and not sticking around for the next versions to come. And vice versa. Always after more and more... persevering with each other less and less. And we have a generation of people who don't understand what it means to provide unconditional love.

And sadly... more people than every who are in need of unconditional love and can't imagine truly being loved because they haven't experienced it in their life. You have a world of walking wounded... people who struggle to give because they've never received...

I don't mean for this to be a sad post... I just believe we need to forbear with those who are in need of love... or prayer... or help... there is collateral damage all around us, people who have been discarded for one reason or another... and I think we have a duty to lift them up, through prayer, through friendship, through encouragement. My life has been preserved by those who saw my need and met me in my place of need and MET my needs.

What's in the news today? Pick any story... you'll find at the very root of it... or at the result of it... people who are in need... and while none of us can fix everything... all of us can fix something. Make a difference in your world today... whether you're in Singapore (Beth) or Australia (Wendy) or far off the beaten path Cleveland (Cyndi)... you're only arms reach away from somebody you can be a blessing to today.

Happy Tuesday, love and hugs!