Eternity

I stood at the time-beaten portals,
Where many a pilgrim had passed
Out into the infinite future,
To be with the pure and the blest;
And, musing in silent devotion,
Eternity seemed to draw near;
And strains from the choir of the faithful
I seemed in my fancy to hear.

Refrain:
Oh, eternity! Long eternity!
Hear the solemn footsteps of eternity.

I lingered, and silently listened
To the dull, heavy tread of the years,
And thought of the fate of the guilty,
When Christ in His glory appears;
A shudder came over my spirit,
As I thought what a moment might cost,
For eternity’s stillness was broken
By the groans and the sighs of the lost.

I saw then the Judge in His splendor,
As He stepped to His great judgment seat,
And thought of the crashing of ages,
When time and eternity meet;
For Time, who has laid many millions,
To slumber in death’s silent shade,
Shall reel at eternity’s presence,
And sleep in the tomb he has made.

Let us work while ’tis day, brother, sister,
For soon shall the Master return,
To garner the wheat that we harvest,
The chaff in His fury to burn;
Then in haste let us rush to the rescue,
But few can we save at the most:
Soon millions shall be at the judgment,
Forever, eternally lost.

Christ the swordless

I saw the Conquerors riding by
With cruel lip and face wan:
Musing on kingdoms sacked and burned
There rode the Mongol Genghis Khan;

And Alexander, like a God,
Who sought to weld the world in one:
And Caesar with his laurel wreath;
And like a thing from hell, the Hun;

And leading, like a star the van,
Heedless of upstretched arm and groan,
Inscrutable Napoleon went
Dreaming of Empire and alone…

Then all perished from the earth
As fleeting shadows from a glass,
And, conquering down the centuries,
Came Christ, the Swordless, on an ass.

— Harry Kemp

Okay. I'm ready for this to be over. Poor dogs nearly drown when I put them out to the potty yesterday. And it looks the same today. sigh**

off to a slow start

I hate it when I forget something and then have to hustle around to catch up. This morning after Rachael went to work, I got Michael's muffin and a napkin out and cleaned the counter off. Then I took my coffee and a muffin, let the dogs in and trucked on back to my sitting room. I had withstood the temptation of that muffin for a week, but I finally broke down and decided to have one after breakfast. All the excitement must be the reason I forgot to turn the coffee pot on for Michael's coffee. lol

At about 7:05 I woke up from a little snooze and suddenly couldn't remember if I'd pushed that stupid automatic button. Then I was pretty sure I hadn't. Michael's schedule is closely regimented and he cuts his timing to the minute, almost the second, so I had to hop up and hustle out to the kitchen and push the button. Phooey. I don't hustle well and it puts my day out of sorts. At least I don't have a schedule to keep other than getting to sit down with my book or my laptop. But for those few hours every morning I meet Rachael's and Michael's schedule. Luckily, I got the pot turned on just in time to get coffee started before he came down stairs. It wasn't completely finished dripping but enough so that he could get his cofffee and go on to work. Heh, heh, heh. I'll bet it was strong enough to straighten his hair.

The good news of the day is that the muffin didn't make my blood glucose spike! Two hours after I ate the muffin my reading was only 127. How great is that! My morning readings are seldom over 120 and usually around 110. I think that is good. I avoid the starchy high carb foods almost completely. Very rarely I have a sandwich with bread or a tortilla. Generally I have protein and vegetables and fruits. Not that I avoid carbohydrates completely, but I get them from the fruits and vegetables rather than from lots of starches. I have a doctor's appointment next Tuesday. We'll see what she says.

Yeah, yeah. I'm not real conscientious about doctor's appointments. I should have gone in March before I went to NM. But Rachael had her accident and couldn't take me. Then the next Saturday Kerra came and we left for Belen. I planned to be real good and go as soon as I got back in July, BUT... Famous last words.

In July the week after we got back, Rachael began her Lien Accounting training for Krogers and had long days with no breaks during the week so there was no time for her to take me. Finally she has a vacation scheduled and I'll go see Doctor Nickolson next week. Pat of the reason I began monitoring my blood sugar readings regularly was because I wanted to give her something as a record of what had been happening. Same thing with the blood pressure readings.

Generally, I'm pretty casual about seeing the doctor. I'm sure I'm a frustrating patient because I cannot afford a lot of tests and blood work and the things that doctors today use to keep tabs on what's going on inside our bodies. I do the things the doctor tells me within the limits of my financial ability. And most of that is to keep my family from worrying. Beyond that I simply let the Lord take care of it. Until a couple years ago, He did that all the time anyway.

progress report

Talked to Notah this morning. He reports that Thain is back to his old self. You can only tell he was bitten by the rattle snake if you feel the two little bumps of scar tissue in his cheek. I'm glad. He's a nice pup and has a lot of potential to grow into a great dog.

On Saturday, Notah's birthday, they went for a family walk in the morning. Notah said he found a dead glossy snake along the road. When he picked it up and showed it to Thain the wise pup tooke off wider horizons. I guess he's learned his lesson.

I was a little worried he would have the opposite reaction to his encounter and feel it was his personal responsibility to rid the world of snakes. That could be dangerous if he atttacked every rattlesnake he ran across. Eventually one would bite him and he wouldn't get better. So it is good he has learned to respect not just rattlers but all snakes.

homesick for the desert

Okay, I'm homesick for New Mexico today. It is damp and gray here and the sky seems to be sitting on my head. The trees are leaning over and soaking up all the air. Sometimes I need the huge, wide sky and the distances of the southwest. Just imagine lying flat on your back and looking up into that sky. I've done it. Seems like you are going to fall straight up. It certainly makes you realize your puny human place in the eternal scheme of things.

These are photos of the mountains around the ghostown of Riley, NM. Kerra knows the names of all of them.... I just call them 'mountains.' I have to admire the early settlers, both Spanish and anglo, who ventured into this land not knowing anythng about it. The spaces alone would have been intimidating to someone on horseback or a covered wagon. Even more mind boggling is the thought that native people lived here very securely until the white man came. I believe this area was mostly Pueblo and Apache. Navajos were further west. But with only a little preparation they could travel confidently and hunt the area as well as grow crops. Later the Pueblo and Navajo took up sheep herding to supplement their livelihood... I don't think the Apaches were ever big sheep people. I don't know.

The ghost town of Riley is two plus hours across dirt roads to the river curve where it had been located. Most of the houses were mud adobe with plank door frames and windows. The church had been built of laid up gathered stone chipped into shape with a hammer. Originally it must have been mortared and plastered with mud, but within recent times it had been re-pointed and re-faced with cement. The church seems to have been maintained much longer than the houses. Not too far away there is a cement block stuccoed church building surrounded by an adobe wall. It is well maintained but didn't appear to be used very often. Notah said he thought it was a pilgrimage site that is only used at Easter or other special observances. There was also a shrine with three female figures on top of the hill a little ways off.

I don't know, there were maybe 20 houses in Riley, maybe more originally, but now they are all 'melted' back into the ground. There are planks and window frames leaning precariously against the misshapen walls. This is just one of the buildings. It is fairly typical. Some were in worse shape and a couple still appeared to have four walls, but none had much of a roof to notice. I did see an ocassional leaning wall and roof piecs of that corugated sheet metal that was rusted through in places. Even more than the distances the brevity of the work of men's hands lets us know how of how little consequence we really are in the stream of time.

Just look at the distances involved here. Much of this land is just plain empty of people. We traveled all afternoon across this area and did not see a single vehicle or person. The road was there and had been partly maintained by NM standards. I doubt if any tourist would have considered driving his vehicle across them. there were cows and from time to time there were other ranch road turn-offs--maybe two or three. But the people must have fallen off the face of the earth.

Riley was a mining town built in the curve of a river, but no Ohioian I know would ever have called it a river. The water was only about six or seven inches deep, if that, and spread across a ten or twelve foot river bed. We started to cross it and there was a good sized rock sticking up in the middle of the road ford. Notah sent Seth to go move it so it wouldn't scrape on the bottom of the truck. Seth just hopped out and walked through the water and flipped the stone a couple times until it was out of the road way. Then he got back in the truck. I don't even think he got his pant legs wet.

These are the peaks going back toward home. Want to take a horse and wagon to those mountains? Right now I'd give a lot to sit in the sun and smell the hot sand in the wind.

A Friend of God

It's such a busy world-so much to do and so many places to be. It seems lik ewith all of our 'modern' conveniences we still don't have enough time. With ever task that has ben made easier and quicker, we have added another two that we can also do 'easier and quicker. So instead of having time at the end of our day, we still have two tasks that we can do easily and quickly... And ultimately we end up with less time than our grandparents had.

The reason I'm thinking about all this is that I've been dwelling on the idea of being a Friend of God. James 2:22 tells us that Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness and he was called the Friend of God. What a wonderful thing to be called, "A Friend of God!" The problem is that today we hardly have time to breathe, never mind be a friend of God. Being a friend of God requires that we spend time with Him and today, unless we make time, He slips through the cracks. He ends up being a close acquaintence instead of a friend.

When we look at Abraham's life, he must have spent many hours alone with his flocks. Today we have all sorts of modern methods of managing livestock, but Abraham had basically only one: to take them out to graze and sit and watch them while they did it. He had hours to sit and commune with God. We turn our sheep into a huge pasture and feed them from mechanized machines while then we can go our way and do other things... We don't have all those long silent hours to sit and talk to God. I think we have cheated ourselves.

Being friends with God means simply talking with Him, reading His Word. I'm amazed, as I said before, how few Christians don't spend time in reading their bible and praying every day! How can we be a friend when we never talk with our friend? How can we know 'the mind of God' when we don't spend any time sharing thoughts with Him? There is no other way to develop a friendship, either a human one or a godly one.

We are so busy, we have so much to do--many times legitimate things--that we don't have time to spend with God. With all of our conveniences, we've only been able to add more jobs to the days agenda instead of giving ourselver free time. We may squeeze in some 'devotions' and a 'prayer' but we don't spend time with Him. Our devotions and prayer are a matter of hurry and get it over with. He has to be a friend not the recipient of a token nod.

We have to spend enough time with Him that He becomes like the close friend we visit back and forth with every day who is with us constantly. We've all had friends like that, when they visit if there is a task to be done, they are right there with us washing windows or peeling potatoes or just sitting and sharing coffee with us.

we hav spent so much time together that there is almost no need for speaking. We know one another so well we work as one. If we have a problem they all spills out during those times. If we need help she hardly needs to volunteer, we just know she will help. If one cries we both cry; if one laughs the other does too. If we need told to shape up, she'll do that too.

The point is she is with us all the time and we've spent so much time together we know one another's thoughts. God needs to be that near and that constant. We need to read the Word and carry it around the course of our day, thinking on it and getting it buried in our hearts. When we've done that for a while. we find that the Lord is not a Master sitting on a throne somewhere, Jesus is not hanging on a cross or sitting high up on God's right hand, They are with us constantly totally involved in what we do and say.

What a blessing to have God consider us His Friend.

no more Peter, Paul and Mary

Mary Travers died today from the side effects of chemotherapy after her three year struggle with leukemia. It saddens me to know her beautiful voice is gone from the music scene. I enjoyed Peter, Paul and Mary's singing throughout their career, from the early sixties when I was college to the more recent concerts played on PBS. I've just spent a few minutes listening to youtube recordings: Puff-the Magic Dragon, Go Tell It on the Mountain, 500 miles, If I had a Hammer, and Blowing in the Wind.... They will never sound the same from any other group.

I guess one of the things that grieves me most is the thought that such a beautiful voice with such great compassion and sincerity and warmth is gone and I have no assurance that Mary ever met Christ. In fact, from all I've read and heard of her she was pretty much an agnostic. Knowing the folk/hippie background she came from and pretty much lived throughout her life I feel pretty sure she was never born again. It would be great to get to heaven and find her voice there, but I'm very afraid that I won't.

How do we get men and women to understand that a loving, generous personality and humanitarian beliefs do not compensate for a heart and life committed to the Lord?

Jesue saith unto him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me." John 14:6

poor baby

Thain is still improving. Notah posted what seems to be an on-going progress last night on his photo bucket. He is looking better and better. Now his head is only lopsided instead of being football shaped.

Some of the earlier ones show his tongue hanging out. I thought of the feeling you get when the dentist numbs your jaw to fix a tooth. I always keep touching my mouth to make sure I'm not drooling and that my tongue is still inside my lips. Thain obviously didn't do that. Of course he has a lot more tongue than I have.

He still doesn't look very happy, but he is eating... ( Thain is kinda like Seth. He'll eat anytime, any place as long as he can open his mouth and put chow in it)

If anyone is interested you can check Notah's photobucket album. http://s113photobucket.com/albums/n240/nhherp/

Thank the Lord!

 This is his normal face and head. Pretty German Shepherd.
He rides like one of the kids.
These are his pictures at the vet's office.

On his way home the next day. 
Looks a little drunk still from the pain meds, but his head is getting back to normal

So. Thain is home safe. Thank the Lord!

how much we love our dogs

I'm worrying today. Kerra called a while ago and said Thain had been bitten by a rattlesnake on their Sunday afternoon hike. Kerra called for me to pray for him (and them) as they were hiking back to the car. You have tounderstand that our 'hikes' have never been the typical afternoon stroll through the countryside. Even when the kids were young, a 'hike' involved several hours of wild country walking and climbing. It seems Thain and a rattlesnake were trying to share the same shade under the same rock.

Getting back to the car involved quite a ways, probably with Notah carrying Thain. Kerra called a while later to say they were at the vet's, the only one in the area with antivenin. The good news was that he had been bitten through the lip which has fewer veins and blood vessels. And it had gone all the way through so hopefully much of the venom was discharged on the otherside of his skin.

Kerra just called again. They got Thain to the vet in time it seems. He got quite a lot of vet treatment, expensive vet treatment, but it appears he will be Okay.

His head is swollen. She said he looks like a 'spuds mackenzie' dog--the bullterrier with the wedge shaped head. They will keep him over night and hopefully bring him home tomorrow.

How much we love our dogs.

with the temptations

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. I Corinthians 10:13

A very powerful word lies within that scripture. It is the little word with. The way to escape comes with the temptation it's not something we have to wait on Him to receive.

Somewhere in my surfing and studying, I picked up this tiny comment that has been growing and growing in my heart and mind. So many times we want the Lord to keep us safe from all temptation and hardship. We don’t want the hard times and the times of tears and heartache. We want to have all the blessings but we don’t want the trials that bring the blessings with the ensuing victories.

Peter explains the process to us. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

There is a purpose behind the trials we must go through. There is a reason for the temptations we must face and struggle to overcome. Behind those times is the Lord’s ultimate goal of teaching us that God does have control of our lives and He will provide the power and the means for us to over come, not just a few of them, but all of them.

And look at the glorious outcome! He is making us perfect! He is establishing us in His Truth! He is strengthening us spiritually! He is settling us in the Way we should go!

Is that fabulous or what!

Zee had dinner

When we came back from NM we brought with us a little black headed desert kingsnake. His name is bi'tsee'tsee clizhiin--Navajo for "his head is black." I may have talked about it before. Michael can't get his tongue around the Navajo so we call him 'Zee.' He is a very slender little snake and his head is only about as big as the tip of my little finger. And he is a very picky eater!

We had gotten him some mice fuzzies when he wouldn't eat one of the half grown mice we already had from Michael's snake who had died. When that batch of fuzzies was gone, Notah insisted that he could take a hopper--the half grown mouse. Well, I've got news for him. Zee absolutely refused to even try to eat that hopper. I told him it was too big and Zee confirmed it. Fuzzy mice are only about the size of the first joint on my thumb and Zee was adamant that those were the biggest he could possibly swallow. lol

It took us several days to get over the Captive Born Reptiles and buy him a supply of fuzzies. He faithfully hunted every night just after dusk and every morning just before sunrise... He checked out every corner of his tank and even the top corners. Over under and around the rocks and under the papers, he went every where. Then last night there was a mouse right on top of the rock! He checked it out pretty carefuly before he took it. But he didn't mess around with the second one. That baby went right down!

He has eight more to eat by the end of this month or the first of next when he goes into hibernation for the winter.

There you go. More than you ever wanted to know about our pet snake.

tribute to a coffee mug

We had a funeral at our house this morning.

As part of the Kroger lien accounting roll out, Rachael had to go in at 4:30 this morning to walk one of the assistant managers through the first day of the week opening procedures. I started her coffee and made a toaster strudel and then sat at the counter reading a book until she came down.

She pulled her favorite coffee mug from the cupboard and filled it; but when she picked it up to slurp from it there was an ominous Drip. It had a crack! Ooooh.

We have six or eight travel mugs on the top shelf so it wasn't like an earth shattering event, but the mug was history. Rachael sorted through the choices and found her second favorite. After she poured the coffee into that mug she stood reverently over the trash can and held up the cracked one.

"You were my favorite for six years, but now you gotta go. You were a good mug." and she dropped it in the trash. (insert a reverent moment here)

I make a joke of it but I can understand her feeling. I have a favorite mug too. My friend Dianne brought me a mug back from one of her trips to Kentucky seven/eight years ago (wow. How fast time goes!) It is shaped like a cone with a collar instead of a pointy top. There's a little plastic lid that fits in the opening. And there's a foam pad on the bottom to keep it from sliping on a sloped dash. My favorite thing about it though is that it is ceramic. I don't like to drink coffee from those thermal plastic things or even the stainless steel mugs either.
I used this mug for several years to take my coffee along while I was driving to work every morning. The clingy foam on the bottom let me set it on the inclined dash or on the passenger seat or even on my lap without tipping. The narrow mouth with the plastic insert lid kept splashes redirected back down in the mug. I used regular cups at home. Lots of times my coffee cup sat on the end table or the window seat while I did something else and drank coffee as I did it. The problem was that Gable always stole my coffee if I walked a way for two seconds!

All of the literature on dogs says that coffee isn't good for them. Some even offer dire threats of death! I have news for them. Gable has probably stolen quarts of coffee and it has never seemed to impair him one little bit. BUT after I found out it was supposed to I worried about it. My skinny-mouth travel mug was the solution. It was so narrow that it is difficult for him to get his nose in and the lid stops his pilfering completely! Now I use it all the time--even when I'm sitting at a table or counter where he can't hope to reach.

It went all the way to NM with me and I live in dread of its getting broken. Eight years is a l-o-n-g lifetime for a coffee cup in my house! But I could never find another one. There were plenty of ceramic coffee mugs, but they were all wide-topped and skinny-bottomed. They were made to fit in one of those coffee wells car manufacturers think are so handy. Oh yeah, like that would keep a nibby terrier nose out while it was sitting on an end table!

Yesterday when I was surfing the web I found one on sale!!! I was so

excited I ordered a white replacement and a blue back up!

being a disciple or merely 'saved'

I read a study this morning in which the author made a couple statements that started me wondering over something I had never considered before. He said, in many more words than mine here, that there was a difference between being merely saved and being a disciple. A short quote: “We may prefer to belong to our mother, or to our wife, or to ourself; then, says Jesus, you can't be My disciple. This doesn't mean we won't be saved, but it does mean that we cannot be "His." Our Lord makes a disciple His own possession’

So, I’ve been considering the thought of whether a man can be ‘saved” and yet not be fully dedicated to, committed to and controlled by the Holy Spirit in whatever stage of life they may be in. Is being a disciple separate from being a mere follower or simply ‘born again?

In my mind and in all my memory of men of God preaching the word, we have all been called ‘disciples of Christ.” If we begin separating out those things spoken only in the presence the Twelve as being applicable only to the Twelve Disciples, we must discount much of the New Testament accounts of Christ’s life. Many of Christ's most beautiful promises were spoken while only in the company of the Twelve. Just to mention a few: “ I go to prepare a place for you…” “If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it”…” because I live, ye shall live also’…[the Holy Ghost] shall teach you all things” …”that my joy might remain in you”…” in me ye might have peace”...”that thou shouldest keep them from the evil …” “Sanctify them through thy truth” I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly!"

When Jesus was teaching in the temple (John 8:31), we find, Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed. Here he was talking to “those Jews which believed” not just his Twelve Disciples. And yet he calls all those who continue in His Word "disciples." We cannot separate the commitment required of ‘disciples’ from the commitment required of a ‘ordinary’ child of God. We are all to be His Disciples. We must all have exactly the same full hearted commitment.
Too often we find men and women wanting to be “Christians” but they don’t want to make that full commitment to the Lord. They want enough Salvation to avoid hell, but not enough that they will be required to forsake houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands. They don't want to be required to put themselves out to live for Christ. That is a bit too much. And yet, as long as those things take precedence over Him we cannot truly cast all our cares upon Him. We cannot truly step into his yoke and allow Him to bear our burdens. We cannot truly take on the likeness of Christ.

Paul told us in Corinthians, "...ye are not your own, you are bought with a price there for glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. He wsn't speaking just to the disciples, but to a congregation of nominal 'christians.' He expected te same thing of them that Christ had--a full committment.

We have a religious world today wants to apply all the hard things of the Word to the Twelve Disciple. This way they are playing at following Christ. They have no sure faith, no righteousness, no power with God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. If we are to be followers, we must be fully committed to being a follower of Christ in every sense of the word, not separating out what parts apply to us and which parts apply just to the ministry, the missionaries—the Disciples--only those who "choose" the Church as a profession.

And we wonder why the world is in the shape it's in. As for me, I want to be His Own Possession.

they woke up rested

Guess what! Rachael and my friend Damaris, who started the whole sleep thing when she had to get up earlier to take her husband to work, BOTH tried the sleep cycle deal the same night and BOTH got up refreshed and not all dopy and groggy.

Rachael did the 10:30 til 6:00 pattern. Damaris didn't have to get up till later and she did the 11:30 to 7:00. Damaris was thrilled because she got up earlier than usual but felt like a different person. She even got to work early!

sleeping

I was talking this afternoon to a friend who was saying she was having trouble getting up in the morning recently because she was getting up two hours earlier to take her husband to work. While we were on the subject I remembered a study I'd read several years ago about the natural rhythms of sleep. I went and looked it up so I could tell her the straight account.

Studies show that the length of sleep is not what causes us to feel refreshed upon waking. the key factor is the number of complete sleep cycles we enjoy.

Each sleep cycle contains five distinct phases, which exhibit different brain-wave patterns. For our purposes, it suffices to say that one sleep cycle lasts an average of 90 minutes: 65 minutes of normal, or non-REM (rapid eye movement) sleep; 20 minutes of REM sleep (in which we dream); and a final 5 minutes of non-REM sleep. The REM sleep phases are shorter during earlier cycles (less than 20 minutes) and longer during the later ones (more than 20 minutes)

If we were to sleep completely naturally, with no alarm clocks or other sleep disturbances, we would wake up, on the average, after a multiple of 90 minutes--for example, after 4 1/2 hours, 6 hours, 7 1/2 hours, or 9 hours, but not after 7 or 8 hours which are not multiples of 90 minutes.

In the short period between cycles we are not actually sleeping; it is sort of twilight zone from which, if we are not disturbed (by light, cold, a full bladder) we move back into another 90 minute cycle.

A person who sleeps only four cycles (6 hours) will feel more rested than someone who has slept for 8 or 10 hours, but had not been allowed to complete the last cycle because of being awakened before it was completed....."

When I first read this I did a conscious trial of the theory and surprisingly, it worked. I would plan to be in bed at 10:30 if I needed to wake up at 6:00. This gave me a full five sleep cycles and I woke up naturally. For a while I did it consciously but then I guess it got to be a habit and I forgot about it.

Now that it all came back to mind I started reviewing my present sleep habit. And guess what! Even though I don't have to wake up at any special time and I can sleep when I want to, I'm naturally following that cycle pattern.

I've noted on here a lot of times that I'm frequently awake very early in the morning and I'm bright eyed and bushy tailed. Even though I go to bed a midnight I wake up at close to 4:30. That is only 4 1/5 hours but exactly 3 sleep cycles. And I'm awake.

Now I can put myself back to sleep at 4:30 if I try--get up and use the toilet wash my face with warm water, turn on the fan so it is chilly and I have to snuggle under a blanket to be warm--and I'll fall asleep for another 90 minutes. And when I wake up then I'm up for the day.

If you are getting up exhausted in the morning, try counting backward from your necessary wake-up time so that you will have a specific number of full sleep cycles. Plan your bed time 3, 4 1/2, 6, 71/2 or 9 hours earlier than your rising time. If you do that, I'll bet you wake up more rested...

Try it. it is kind of neat how it works.