What is your favorite type of weather?
I love cold crisp weather without any rain or snow.
I love being able to walk briskly and freely with comfortable freedom.
I love the energy the cool air brings to me. It fills my lungs and heart with ambitious determination.
It makes me as happy as a pug in a blanket!
What do you wish you could do more every day?
Slow down and just relax. Life truly doesn’t have to be so stressful.
I am learning this and I find it extremely refreshing.
So what if the clothes don’t get washed every Wednesday. The dirty hamper will still be full on Friday or Saturday? Relax.
The line is long at the grocery store. Breathe and play a silly people guessing game instead of getting your underwear all in a bunch. Relax!
Let it go! Just relax more.
Oh, I hear my front porch swing calling me…..
When I was a struggling pregnant single mother worried and questioning “How can I possibly take care of two babies? I can’t barely care for one baby!” I knew I couldn’t. I knew their father would not be responsible or reliable.
I thought my only option was abortion. Why? I was focused on myself. What I could or could not do!
When I was growing up my momma always said “if you want anything done right, do it yourself!” She had engraved in me the theory “you can’t rely or trust anyone. You only have yourself!”
Now, especially at this point in my life I truly believed I had no one. I believed I was alone and abandoned. I scheduled the abortion.
I was working as a salesperson at a large car dealership at the time. My husband who worked in advertising for a huge corporation had developed an addiction to cocaine.
There was no room for repair. He had left us. Abandoned his job, his family. We lost our house, everything. I realized my mother was right. You can’t depend on anyone.
I moved back to my hometown. Close to my family. On the evening before I was scheduled to abort the child I was carrying I was driving home from work and passed the church I attended as child.
The service had already started so I slipped in quietly onto the back row. Even now 38 years later I can still remember what happened.
I had been saved as a young girl. I had memorized numerous scriptures. Yet, I did not know the power of God.
Something within me said “Stop, you need to go inside.” I hadn’t been in church in years, but the urgency within me was so strong I parked and went inside.
Follow tomorrow for conclusion.
Which animal would you compare yourself to and why?
I have always been a bear. So, I am not just the typical mother bear. Something within me longs to help others when I see them struggle.
I will put them on my back of prayer and will provide encouragement. I will fight to keep them safe and to provide what they need.
I give huge bear hugs and pats on the back.
BUT, yes there is always a but, I don’t tolerate an unwillingness by anyone to help themselves. There is only so much anyone can do for another person without it becoming an enabling of poor choices or destructive behavior.
I will love and encourage, but I will also call you out. Tough love some call it. I call it accountability.
Where would you go on a shopping spree?
Geesh! Unless you are independently wealthy we are all going to be heading to the local grocery store for a spending spree!!!
What is your middle name? Does it carry any special meaning/significance?
My mother named me Rita Elaine after my beautiful Aunt Rita from England. I went by my middle name all through my childhood and still am called Elaine by family and friends.
Thirteen months after I was born my mom and dad brought home a brother for me. His name was Dewayne Clyde appropriately named after my father Jesse Clyde.
Now bless my dad’s heart he was named after his grandfather Jesse so he went by his middle name also, Clyde. It’s almost as if names were meant to be completely confusing!
It really isn’t though. Think about it! Elaine Rita just doesn’t roll off the tongue as captive as Rita Elaine. Clyde Jesse sounds decent, but Jesse Clyde the sequence of names demands more attention.
So I understand why the position of names. It’s all in the way the names sound together in my family. Which explains Momma calling me and my only sibling rhyming names Elaine and DeWayne. Only in the South!
What is the last thing you learned?
I got a new iPhone this month! Lord, help me! I had my old iPhone for seven years so, to say I am having a hard time adjusting is mild!
Yesterday afternoon I was trying to make out my weekly grocery order on the Kroger mobile app. When I was choosing the items I wanted instead of adding them to my cart it added them to a list. I tried unsuccessfully several times to change it unsuccessfully.
Extremely frustrated I called my youngest daughter for help. She asked me to send her a screenshot of the page. “How am I supposed to do that I bellowed! I haven’t even learned how to turn this phone off yet!!!” Fortunately she talked me through the process and as my youngest grandson says “ta da behold the magic!”
How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?
Oh, I could write a whole book on this subject. I have had many failures in my life which led me to greater blessings.
In retrospect I don’t think I will tell you about just one incident. Instead, I want to tell you what I have learned through every failure.
Whether I recover and move forward from any failure no matter how big or small has been a choice. If you choose to roll in self pity or throw fiery darts of blame at others you will never recover! Each time I choose to do better and not be bitter rivers of refreshing change began to flow in my life.
As I began to sing the song “It is Well” and awoke each day with hope and faith I grew stronger. This my friend is the miracle of overcoming any failure. Keep learning and keep moving! It’s well!
You’re writing your autobiography. What’s your opening sentence?
I am the product of a hard working family who raised me on our farm named Looneyville.
For Real, Elaine?! 
