We first heard about the impending snowstorm on Monday. I remember talking about it to a few people at the store who said they had not heard anything and that they weren’t worried. I brushed it off and didn’t make a big deal about it because it was so far out and I wondered, “Do we really know, or is this a guess? There is no guarantee that we are going to get a foot of snow.”

As it came closer to Friday people began to panic and store shelves were cleared out, gas station lines were backed up. Everyone was preparing for the worse case scenario and praying for the best.

We did get a large amount of snow, 7-8 inches, but not the 12 inches that was being predicted. We were lucky and never lost power, had plenty of snacks, and stayed warm and cozy inside watching tv and scrolling on our phones.

I think back about how many people I talked to about the impending snow apocalypse and worried about people being safe and having enough twinkies in their house, but not once did I speak to a random cashier or anyone about Jesus.

I worried about people being able to stay warm, but not worried if they would spend eternity in hell, worried that everyone would have snacks to eat but not the bread of life. When did I start caring more about frozen pipes than people’s soul.

I have seen quotes from Penn Gillett, who is an atheist, that says, “How much a Christian must hate someone to not share their faith,” arguing that if one truly believes in eternal salvation, it is immoral not to try to convince others.

As someone who is socially awkward and much prefers to sit behind a computer screen and type I am also called, as everyone else is too, to interact with others and share Jesus’ love and introduce them to him.

Mark 16:15
He said to them,
“Go into all the world
and preach the gospel
to all creation. NIV

Yes, Tammy, that even means the cashier at the dollar store, the guy pumping gas at the next pump, or the person standing beside you picking out tomatoes at Walmart.
People thought I was crazy when I talked about getting a foot of snow last Monday, why would I be worried about people thinking I was crazy talking about Jesus?

I was making breakfast one day and as the kids were wondering around the kitchen, and I was asking them what they wanted to eat and how they wanted their eggs.  One of the kids said, “I want papaw pepper on my eggs!”  and then they all chimed in and agreed that is how they wanted their eggs.

Since my dad retired, he cooks breakfast every day and when the kids stayed over it was one of their favorite parts.  He would use pepper, a lot of pepper, and they loved it and they wanted the same at home.  The term papaw pepper became a normal saying in our house.  Eggs, or whatever food item, would be covered in pepper when it was asked for.

As I was standing at the stove scrambling eggs with “papaw pepper” it made me think about how the eggs resembled our lives and the pepper was Jesus.  Do we walk around with a little coating of Jesus, or do we want completely peppered in Jesus day in and day out?

A friend of mine recently talked about how when she prayed first thing in the morning, she did not say amen and end her prayer.  She said that she wasn’t done praying until she went to sleep at night and at her end of the day prayer, she would say amen.

I was intrigued by the idea that we have an open line to God all day long, why do we think we have to begin and stop conversations and make them formal prayers with our Lord. 

                16. Rejoice always,

                                17.  pray continually,

18.  Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for    

         you in Christ Jesus.

                1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

I asked myself this:

 When people look at me do they see Jesus peppered heavily over my life or just a little sprinkle? 

Over the everyday things I do, is it evident that I am a Christian? 

Over the way I act and talk, even when I am frustrated do people still see Jesus?

Over the years my dad has taught me many things:  a good work ethic, how to be respectful to others, how to be grateful for what you have, to not only love Jesus but to live to be like Jesus by having him completely peppered over your life.

Have you ever visited someone’s home and thought, ‘Man, their house is a mess even though you know your home is way messier?

Sometimes I clean houses as a side job and the last house I have been cleaning is way cleaner than my own home, which is a weird thing to say as a house cleaner.  Working this job has got me thinking about how we look at dirt.   When we look at someone’s home we look at their dirt differently than our own dirt. Their dirt looks dirtier than our dirt because it isn’t our dirt.  I then began thinking about how we look at our own sin verses how we look at other people’s sins.

Sometimes when we look at others it is easy to pick out their sin and just like other people’s dirt, it can seem way worse than our own sin.  But is it really? 

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brothers eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  Matthew 7:3

My spiteful self says that there are a lot of people I know that I would love to recite this verse to and then ask them if they would want ice for that burn.  Often, I am the one who needs an ice bath. 

Jesus is teaching us in this verse that we often overlook what we have done and judge other people’s sin.  Their sin may look larger to us, but God doesn’t look at it that way.  Sorry, but sin is sin.

I once heard a preacher talk about a prostitute who came to church and was saved.  They welcomed her and then told her that now she had to make a drastic change in her life and change her occupation immediately.  Which is true, but she didn’t know how she was going to feed her children and desperation is what had driven her into that profession in the first place.  With her newfound faith she trusted God to provide and left the church to go home. 

As she walked across the parking lot, she noticed one gentleman was smoking a cigarette as he got into his car.  She questioned why she had to change drastically but it was understood that he needed time to wean from his addiction.  The next car over were two older ladies whispering and gossiping about a church member who was struggling in their marriage.   As she drove by the local buffet there was a family trying to convince the cashier that their child was only eleven when they were almost old enough to drive so they would pay less for their lunch.  There had been a man in leadership positions in the church that morning who she had seen at the bar a few nights ago with a woman that wasn’t his wife. 

I’m sure everyone in that church was aware of her profession and after the service many were texting each other ‘spilling the tea’ about what they had heard about her.  I would rather like to think that the church would have one member who could help her get a resume together, the food pantry would drop off food to help her out till she gets on her feet, the clothing ministry would help her find outfits to wear to an interview, another member would teach her how to look for jobs on the internet, and someone would offer to help with babysitting so she can go to a job interview.

As Christians we are representatives of Christ to the world.  What impression do you want to leave?

This week’s blog has been very difficult to produce. I have prayed and listened patiently (or maybe not so patiently when I passed my deadline to turn it in to my editor) but nothing was really laid on my heart to write about. I became frustrated and opened up and spoke to my husband that I was going to miss posting a blog this week and how upset I was. I then began to pour out my heart to him about how the enemy has attacked me so hard this week and has used my own insecurities against myself.

My husband then suggested that maybe the blog this week should be about not being able to write a blog. The idea was crazy enough that it made sense because I have struggled with self-esteem for most of my life. When negative things were said, I gave up or didn’t follow through with an idea, job application, career change or a number of other things.

When God calls you to do something you must have some stick-to-it-ness so that when the enemy attacks, you don’t give up. I really don’t like stepping out of my comfort zone but I promised God that He can use me how he wants and I will obey. Saying it is one thing but doing it is not always easy and that is when you need to pull your stick-to-it-ness out of your back pocket (that’s where you keep those nuggets) to follow through.

Maybe some of you have been like me where you are minding your own business and your brain starts replaying that wrong answer you blurted out in history class in fifth grade and how everyone laughed at you and you were embarrassed in front of the whole class?  

I have been fighting these thoughts and others like them for the last week! When I started this blog, I had one person ask me if I really thought that I could write a blog every single week. The enemy has taken that thought that has been laying around in the back of my brain and thrown it in my face saying, “You know you couldn’t do it; you should not have even tried!” 

After I wrote a few blogs, another person asked me what was going to happen when I ran out of personal stories to share… he threw that arrow at me as well. All week I felt as if the devil had constantly been attacking me and I began to feel like Swiss cheese after all those arrows.

This calling seems kind of minuscule compared to what God has called others to do. They had to overcome huge obstacles, kings, pharaohs, life and death and would have rather suffered from having writer’s block!  I’m sure Elijah was kind of nervous facing off against the prophets of Baal and calling down fire from Heaven to set the bull on fire and Moses went face to face and toe to toe against pharaoh and demanded his people to be set free… or else.  If that was me, I would probably be throwing up before, during, and after those encounters.

In 1 Peter 5:6-9 we are reminded of the following:

   Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.  Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.  Be self-controlled and alert.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of suffering.

So, I am taking all of these arrows the enemy is throwing, stacking them in a box, duct taping it shut and handing them over to God. I am viewing this as a test, no matter what man says, or the enemy says, I won’t quit. God has put me in this position for a purpose even if the purpose is never completely revealed to me. So by faith I am going to say, “Next week, God is going to do something amazing.”

When I was in high school, I hated taking notes. 

I remember having a lot of notes and diagrams to copy off of the projector in biology class. A semester worth of notes was almost an entire single subject notebook, and we had to turn it in each six weeks for the teacher to review and then grade. 

I usually got a decent score but because I didn’t have the neatest handwriting and I didn’t take the time to go back and use colored pencils to make the diagrams look pretty (which I thought was pointless) or recopy the notes like some of the others did, I didn’t get the high grade that I felt I should have. I thought that since I had the same basic notes that it was good enough…but it wasn’t. I didn’t follow through and do the whole assignment for the notes.

As I have gotten older, I’ve realized the importance of notes and their details. I have become a great note taker and maker. I have notes for meal planning so that I have all the ingredients on hand and know what I am making for dinner, so the kids don’t have to eat cereal or order take out. I have notes/lesson plans for homeschool subjects, so the school day is efficient. I make notes for important meetings and appointments. At the urging of my kids, I even switched from paper notes to electronic notes.

I opened my Bible as I sat down to write this blog, and I noticed all the notes inside of it. I had sermon notes from last Wednesday’s service and prayer requests from my friends on our ‘Mopping up the Blessings’ group page. I also found the little cards that you get with flowers that my husband and kids have sent me. I also noticed how the pages in the front and back were worn and partially torn from when the kids were younger and would pick up my Bible by the cover and bring it to me. But the one thing that stuck out the most was the sticky notes of prayer requests from my friends.

These notes caught my eye because of the importance of these requests to the person who gave them to me. They have entrusted me to pray over their friends, themselves, and their families. I do take these seriously and Jesus does as well. I will admit that people posting ‘thoughts and prayers’ on social media really does irk me. It isn’t just a trendy thing to say and I feel you are better off not saying it if you don’t really mean it, because you are telling someone you are going to do this for them and if you don’t pray for them, you are not keeping your word to them. My daddy always said, “A person is only as good as his word.” 

James 5:16: Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.  The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

Just like in high school, it is important to follow through with the whole assignment. If you tell someone that you are praying for them, write down the request and make a note of it to remind yourself to actually do it.  Please follow through with your promise to pray and say those prayers from your heart.

Sometimes change is scary.

I feel like the Lord has been laying the words transition and posture on my heart lately.  At first, I was looking at it literally.  I know I have a child graduating in a few months and transitioning to college, but it didn’t seem like that was what he was meaning. 

We have family members who are going through some things and starting new adventures, but that didn’t seem quite it either.  Instead of trying to guess what the Lord was trying to say, I just asked him.

I was really hoping to wake up in the morning with a stone tablet or sticky note on the fridge outlining what transitions the Lord had planned out for the next six months or so, but there was no note.  I began to pray more and more about it, and I feel like he was showing me how much life has changed for me in the last year……but there is still more to come.

So, what do I do with that?  

I wasn’t sure, so I decided to prepare.  I dove deeper into prayer and studying my Bible.  I have seen so much growth in my faith and a deeper connection with God that I don’t want to stop there, I want more.

Isaiah 43:18-19

Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.  Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?  I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

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Now the other word he has been laying on my heart is posture… Which really didn’t make sense.  When I think of posture I think of slouching.   I thought, “Ok, maybe I need to stand proud as a Christian, not weak or cowardly,” but it didn’t feel like that was right. 

When I googled the definition of posture this is what the Oxford Dictionary says: 

Posture:  a particular way of dealing with or considering something; an approach or attitude.

Oh my, that kind of blew me away because I wasn’t correlating the two words together but that is exactly what he was meaning.  I don’t always have a positive attitude towards things, especially transitions and changes. So, taking the new information I have regarding transitions that are going to happen in my life, whether they are spiritual, physical, or geographical, I feel like the Lord is trying to tell me I need to have a good attitude toward the transitions coming up.  To be honest, that even scares me more because a when I give the kids a heads up that they need to have a good attitude about something it usually means they aren’t going to like what I have to say or have them do. 

What has the Lord been revealing to you?  If you would want to share here, or on our Mopping up the Blessings group, just send me a friend request on Facebook and we will get you added.

Years ago, I had a very disturbing dream that I still remember vividly twenty years later.  I was walking down a street at night and came across an alley where a man had just killed a woman.  I ran to get help and he was apprehended and arrested.  During the trial the man would sit and stare at me when I was sitting in the back and also on the witness stand with a smug smirk on his face. To say it was disturbing was an understatement.  I was the key witness and testified that I witnessed him murder the victim and he was convicted and sentenced to death. 

When it was time for his execution, they brought him to the electric chair.  I was there as a witness along with the victim’s family.  While the people conducting the execution were reading his charges and sentence, he sat in the chair staring me in the eyes the whole entire time with the same smug smirk on his face.

When the execution began and his body began to thrash, he never stopped staring at me with that creepy smile.  When it was over, they drew the curtain, and we were escorted from the building.  I remember feeling such a sigh of relief knowing this nightmare was over and I would never have to see him again.

A few weeks later, I was walking down the street and a man dressed in dark clothes and a hooded jacket came walking toward me.  He seemed to have an eerie presence about him but it was in the middle of the day so I just kept walking.  As he passed me, I turned and looked at him and he had stopped right behind me.  He kept his head down so I couldn’t see his face and then he spoke and asked me if I knew who he was.  I shook my head no but I could feel a familiar dread. 

He lifted his head and pulled back his hood and it was the man who I had witnessed being executed.  The only difference this time was his eyes were solid black.  I stepped back in horror and the only word I could muster was “How?” 

He laughed and said that he had murdered so many people, but everyone just turned a blind eye and never dared to say anything or report him because they were all scared of him until I came along.

I looked around the neighborhood and I could see people out mowing their lawns and children running and playing and no one seemed to notice the creepy dude with black eyes.  He then said, “They can’t see me, only you can.”  I asked him what he wanted from me, and he laughed and answered, “Your soul!  I will drive you to the brink of insanity so you take your own life and I will collect your soul and carry it to the pits of hell so I can torture you for eternity.”

I remember being frozen with fear as what he just said sunk into my brain, but I was stubborn enough to not let him get me.  The only thing I could think of was to go on my daily routine and try to ignore him so he would get bored and go away.  For the next few days, I got up and went to work, out with friends, and did laundry the same as I always have.  I didn’t say anything to him over the next few days, and I would avoid looking at him or acknowledging his existence, but he still followed me everywhere and whispering such things that ‘I couldn’t handle the stress’ or ‘I might as well give up’ all day and all night. 

When Wednesday came around, I came home from work, made dinner and went to church.  I looked in the backseat and he was still there but as I pulled up to the church he sat up and looked around and started cursing.  I parked the car and got out and he did also but as I started walking up to the church he stopped.  I turned and looked at him as he was still cursing and it dawned on me that he would not follow me into the church.

At that point in the dream, I began to smile, I had found his weakness, and I was going to exploit it.   I went home and I began to play worship music at the house.    I began reading my Bible out loud as well as praying out loud as I walked around my house.  At first, he responded with vulgar cursing and ranting and raving.  For days he cursed at me and told me I was too weak and stupid and that I could never get rid of him and that I was doomed, but I didn’t give up and eventually he did.  He became weaker and weaker and started disappearing for longer periods of time until he was gone.

I would continue reading my Bible, praising and worshiping Jesus but once in a while I would slip or fall back into my old ways and in a matter of days, I could hear him trying to manifest again but I refused to let him and dove back into prayer and even into my Bible study and worship.  He would curse and say horrible things, but he left.

At the time I had the dream I really didn’t understand what God was trying to say to me.  At the time I had the dream I thought it was just a normal nightmare, but it was so vivid and seemed to be more important than that.   As I have grown in my faith, I came to understand that sometimes we don’t mean to open the door for those “demons” to step in.  It can be as innocent as being in the wrong place at the right time.  Taking pain killers to recover from an injury is innocent enough but can unknowingly lead to addiction and cause you to lose everything you have.  Going out for “drinks”  with your friends all the time becomes too much and you stay up later and later each night and end up calling off work and eventually losing your job.

These things can seem to “haunt” you even if no one else can see them.  You will drag them everywhere you go, and the weight will become unbearable.  When you walk into church and give your life to Jesus and begin to focus on him those things will go away and keeping our focus on Jesus keeps them away.

If you have things that haunt you, please feel free to reach out for help at your local church or email me at:  moppinguptheblessings@gmail.com or friend request me on Facebook to be added to our group so we can pray for you.

Through the years, feeding five children something they all liked seemed like an impossible task.  If I would have let them, I truly believe they would have eaten a diet of only chicken nuggets, french fries, and pizza.  I tried to introduce them to different things and would get a lot of “feedback” from them that wasn’t always positive.  My go to saying was, “You get what you get, and you won’t throw a fit!”  Didn’t always work out that way but they eventually learned to be grateful for having food on the table.

As adults we aren’t always grateful for what God has done for us.  He can deliver us from situations, relationships, hurt and more but we don’t always see it as a blessing but rather as a loss.

A few years back, I started reading the Bible from cover to cover and at the same time I was boxing up all of our belongings to move to our current home.  I was excited to begin this new adventure but also very melancholy about selling our home.  I was the third generation to live on this land and even though we loved it there, life was difficult with a barely functioning water well and needing to haul water several times a week along with a difficult-to-maneuver driveway in the winter.  I remember being iced in for a few weeks and needing to get groceries so we hiked up the hill to the car and ventured to town to get the groceries and then when we got back, we used a little kid swimming pool to slide the food down the hill to the house.  I was frustrated but the kids loved it.

I had been praying for two years for a specific thing to happen for us to be able to move.  When we began moving to the new house, I started feeling sorry for myself.  Instead of seeing the things that I had been praying about for two years coming to fruition, all I was focusing on was the negativity of what I was losing. 

As I had mentioned before, I was reading through the Bible, and I was at the part where Moses had led the Hebrews out of Egypt and slavery.  The Lord was answering their prayers. Then as I was reading about them in the wilderness, I got fed up with them whining all the time.  This was one section of the Bible that I struggled with reading because it seemed like they were so ungrateful to God and constantly found fault when they should have been rejoicing.  They constantly wanted this, and they wanted that……they complained continuously and even had the nerve to ask Moses why he brought them out of Egypt; at least they knew what to expect there.  Really?  He had just stood in front of Pharaoh and threatened that God was going bring horrible plagues on all of Egypt if he didn’t let them go free, but you know, it wasn’t enough.

                        Then it hit me like a ton of bricks…

I wasn’t any better than the whiney Hebrews I was complaining about wandering around the wilderness pining away for the good old days in Egypt when they were literally slaves.  They had prayed for generations for God to deliver them from captivity and when he did, it still wasn’t good enough.

I took a long, slow breath and exhaled.  I had been praying for this for two years and just received exactly what I asked for but instead of opening my arms out to accept the blessing I kept dragging the past with me.  You can’t receive the full blessing if your arms are full of the old stuff you insist on bringing with you.  I felt like God was saying, “Finally!  She gets it!”  As I dropped all that extra baggage and I put on my big girl pants and decided that I was going to feel blessed and not depressed.  We can’t progress in God’s plan if we keep staying in the same position. I have learned that growing and maturing as a Christian has made me uncomfortable at times… ok, maybe a lot of times, but each time it was worth it.

Have you ever looked at your kids and seen a gift or a lot of potential but they need that little nudge to help them get started?  I feel that way with me and God, but sometimes with me he needs to use a 2×4 to nudge me because I have my feet dug into the ground and don’t want to move because I’m comfortable.

If you have never been made to feel uncomfortable by God, I urge you to pray and ask him what his plan is for your life and tell him that you are here to do his will.  I will warn you that typically what he has planned and what you have planned are two different things and even though it may look scary, feel scary, or smell scary, and you may be petrified, just remember if he brings you to it, he will see you through it.   

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We would love for you to share a time God has answered your prayers.  Look me up on Facebook under our group:  Mopping up the blessings or email me at:  moppinguptheblessings@gmail.com

Since this past fall, I have attended a weekly prayer meeting.  It is a small intimate group that has had a tremendous impact on my life.  Praying for others and having them also praying for you can change your life. 

I have had a few experiences during this prayer time and last week I had a vision of some sorts.  They are not always very clear in the meaning of them at the time but eventually they always make sense.  In this one I was either on land or on a boat looking through a spy glass like you see pirates using in the movies.  I could see a warship which was huge and very intimidating.  I could feel the dread building inside of me not knowing what I was supposed to do about this ship.  Then as I took the spy glass away from my face, I could see the enormous expanse of the ocean and that warship looked like a tiny speck on the horizon.  I was taken back by how quickly my feelings changed.  Suddenly I did not feel the dread and knew that it wasn’t a big deal anymore.

I shared it with the group thinking maybe it meant about looking at the bigger picture and would mean something to someone else but really wasn’t sure about its meaning for me or even if it was for me, at all……but God knew what was coming.

Later that day we had what is called a critical juncture meeting for my adult daughter who has severe autism at a center that provides programs for her.  Her behaviors have been escalating over the past few months, and changes needed to be made.  Unfortunately, due to limited staff able to work with her and her property destruction, they completely removed a day of her being able to go to the center and cut her other days shorter by two hours. 

As upset as I was, I understood the logic and reasoning behind it and also knew that when behaviors would get back to the way they were before, that she could go back to her regular schedule, but the actual sting and seriousness of the situation hurt, nevertheless. 

I came home and did the usual things that evening: making dinner, doing laundry, trying to wrangle kids to do their chores and still trying to figure out what medical, psychological, and environmental impacts on her could be causing the change in behavior and what we could control and what we couldn’t.

The next morning as I was driving home from dropping her off, I told myself that I wasn’t going to let this hold me down and we would figure this out and get back to the way life has been.  As I said this the vision of the warship on the horizon came flooding back to me.

When they gave me that news, I felt like a bomb had dropped on me and was feeling overwhelmed by the monstrosity of the situation.  But when I stopped focusing on the one thing and looked around at the bigger picture, it didn’t seem so overwhelming after all.  They didn’t completely stop her from coming and were making changes on their part to try and help her also.  God was trying to tell me not to hyper-focus on that one detail and not to be filled with anxiety and dread.  So, I turned on some praise and worship music and began to worship instead of worrying about the warships.

We tend to hyperfocus on the issue that seems unconquerable, but God sees the whole picture and instead of saying, “God, this is how big my problem is,” we should be saying, “Problem, this is how big my God is.”  He’s got your back!  Always!

We would love to hear from you about times God has shown you things or prepared you for things.  You can comment here or reach out to me at:  moppinguptheblessings@gmail.com or on our facebook group:  Mopping up the Blessings.

This morning, I was giving the kids a science test.  It was a unit test that involved three chapters on plants, fungus, and bacteria.  Since it was difficult, I allowed it to be an open note test.  Yesterday we spent the class time reviewing the material and studying.  I encouraged them to study on their own that evening and if they needed help just to let me know.  Neither one had come and asked for help, so I assumed that they were ready to take their test the next day.

As I sat here watching them as they were taking the test, they had not pulled out their notes to help them.  I found it odd that even though they knew the material there were some pretty difficult questions and I told them at the beginning that it was open notes.  They had decided to rush through and not use the reference material supplied and rely on their own understanding.  As time went on and they began to struggle, I reminded them they were allowed to use their notes and BAM!  It was a game changer and they perked up and used the tools available and both did well on the test.

In life we try to rely on our own understanding way too much.   We forget to pull out our life manual, the Bible, with all the answers.  Just like with the science test, it is helpful to study before you are in the middle of the test, so you at least know where to look to find the answers.  You can go to church and learn (just like studying in a class) but you cannot look up the answers in the book if you’ve never opened the book yourself to study. 

If you remember when I was talking about the night before the test, I was ready to help the kids study or help them understand the vocabulary better, but they chose not to ask.  I imagine this is how God feels when I forget to pray about situations and try to figure them out myself.  Just last week I was upset over a situation that seemed hopeless and confided in a friend and when I said there were no other options, she corrected me and told me not to say that.  She was right because with God, all things are possible, even if we can’t see it, He can.  Trust me, his plan is always better even when I forget to trust him and decide that I am going to try and figure out life’s problems on my own and make a huge mess of everything.

Too many times in life, I have tried to rely on my own thinking and my own feelings which was a really bad idea…..like really bad.  Let me tell ya, your feelings will lie to you every single time.  But God and his word are the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow……and that’s a fact!