Playing with my Camera

This week's photo challenge was black and white, and bokeh (those blurred backgrounds). I love the look of glass in black and white photography so I decided to play around a bit. Here are my favorites.

 

This is a bowl that we received as a wedding gift. I have it sitting on our dining room table and I've been trying to keep it filled with something seasonal.

 

Like clementines.

 

Or kitties.
I'd also love to know why the first thing I have to do with any picture I take is go into GIMP and tell it to auto correct the white balance. I have the wb on my camera set to auto but apparently that's not what I'm looking for.

Family Prayers

Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: Keep A Quiet Heart
Scripture Reference:

Family Prayers
When I was a child my father and mother gathered the six of us in the living room after breakfast every morning for family prayers. First we sang a hymn, omitting none of the stanzas, accompanied on the piano by one of our parents. It was in this way that we learned a good bit of solid theology without any conscious effort. I must emphasize that it was hymns and old gospel songs we sang at home. There was not much place then for choruses or gospel ditties.
There are some young families who still do this today. Judy Palpant of Spokane, who had heard me tell about our family prayers, writes, "Our children know that you were the inspiration for our three-year-old tradition of singing a hymn with our family devotions. We sing the same one each morning for a month. Tonight was the first time we tabulated the number of hymns we had learned. The children were impressed! Let me assure you that many new words and truths have been impressed upon their hearts and minds as we have discussed the themes and words of our chosen hymn. Our many guests at breakfast (especially when we were in Africa) were often blessed by the singing of a hymn. My husband's parents were visiting us when we were singing 'Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us.' That hymn was sung at their wedding. During the Easter season one year we were learning 'When I Survey the Wondrous Cross on Which the Prince of Glory Died.' A missionary from Kenya underlined the words 'Prince of Glory' for us by sharing some insights with us. Thank you for this idea which has enriched our family as well as our guests."
A reader asks, "At what age were the children when your parents started family prayers? How long a passage was read?" I think they must have begun as soon as the first child was born. I am Number Two, and I can't remember a time when we did not have family prayers. All of us were included, the smaller ones sitting on laps. My father read from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible (wearing out three hardback copies!), just a page or so each morning. In the evening after dinner he read the evening portion of Daily Light, which is pure Scripture (King James Version). The hymn came first, then reading, then (in the mornings, because we were not around the table then} we knelt to pray, my father leading, all joining in the Lord's Prayer to close.
This question from another reader. "How can I encourage my husband as the spiritual leader of the family to have regular family devotions?" This is one I am often asked. If he is a Christian I would hope that he is willing at least to listen to his wife's suggestion. Many men believe their wives are "more spiritual" than they, and feel justified in leaving spiritual training of the children up to them. This is a mistake. The father is the priest in the home. He is the head of his wife. It is his God-given assignment to take spiritual leadership. No matter how brief and simple the devotional time may be, there is no calculating the power of its long-term effect on the children. They learn very early the place God has in their parents' lives.
My father was a very simple man--humble, honest about his faith, but reticent in the extreme about speaking of it. We had no such thing as "sharing times" in our family. It was rare for us to converse about spiritual things, especially personal experience. But we knew our parents prayed in private, read their Bibles, and prayed and read aloud with us. It was routine. But it mattered. It matters to me now. I hope perhaps these words of testimony may nudge some of those reticent Christian fathers to take courage, take the bull by the horns, and say, "I've learned something. It's important. More important, maybe, than anything else we do in this house. We're going to start today."

Recurring Dreams

I was in the mood to write with no real topic in mind, so I opened up my word document full of numbered writing prompts, and made a visit to a random number generator. My number was 285 and the prompt is, "Do you ever have recurring dreams?"
The answer, oddly enough, is yes. Most of the time I don't remember my dreams, but I've realized that I sometimes have dreams where the storyline continues from one night to the next. I don't remember any specific scenarios, but I know that it does happen to me periodically. I've had a few dreams that reoccur, or where a specific theme repeats itself. One semi-frequent one is a dream where somewhere in the course of events all of my teeth fall out. I'm serious. Apparently this is a major and deep-seated fear of mine or something. I also know that I have nightmares when I get really stressed. The worst time was several years ago when I literally woke up screaming at the top of my lungs. I think I dreamed that I got into my car and a vampire grabbed me around the neck to choke me from behind. That's when I started screaming. I scared Chris half to death, and that's when I knew it was time to start looking for another job. I also periodically talk in my sleep, or I guess in a semi-awake state, although Chris says I don't really make any sense. Something about a vacuum cleaner on the ceiling.
So how about you?

Another Battle

Sigh. I'm glad we all enjoyed our Show Low retreat because we're in for another EI fight yet again. I haven't been blogging about it here since I started my EI in AZ blog but I know not everyone reads over there (and truthfully I haven't updated it very much lately). The wonderful state of Arizona has decided that because they are more or less broke the families need to start paying a percentage of the cost of their services. Starting on March 1, '10 to be billed at the end of March. That's right. Less than 2 months. The letters went out to families last week, although we still haven't heard anything official as providers. Now I know in some states there is a co-pay or sliding scale system for EI services but up until now services in AZ have been provided free to families, which has meant that any child who needed services received whatever he or she needed. DDD (Department of Developmental Disabilities) picked up whatever costs weren't covered by insurance. Under this new plan the sliding scale will start at 200% of the federal poverty level (which is quite low), and has families paying 15% of the cost if they are above that line. The percentage that the family is expected to pay increases as the family's income goes up, all the way to families picking up 100% of the costs (for a family of 4 making more than $12,423/month). Unfortunately it doesn't make allowances for other debts or health-related expenses such as health insurance. The letter states that families are allowed to apply for a hardship waiver, but I don't know what the chances would be of them actually receiving one.
Unfortunately, this means that kids who need services will be forced to pick and choose or to go without services because their families can't afford to pay (sometimes due to other medical/insurance bills that the kids have). One of my friends whose child receives services is looking at nearly $1000/month in medical expenses between health insurance premiums and their portion of the cost participation.
You might or might not remember that it was around this time last year that the DDD moved to shut down the Early Intervention program entirely and stop nearly all services for families. An advocacy organization managed to get a court order to stop that from happening, but things have been shaky since then. I'm a bit worried that this cost participation plan might hold, since it IS legal. Part C of IDEA says that states are allowed to charge families for certain EI services such as therapies and evaluations. As usual though they are trying to do too much and start it way too soon.
Truly, if you live in Arizona and this issue matters to you, call or e-mail your state legislators and tell them to find other places to cut the budget instead of taking money from kids.

Self-Denial

Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: Keep A Quiet Heart
Scripture Reference:

A Child Learns Self-Denial
One of the countless blessings of my life is having a daughter who actually asks for my prayers and my advice (and heeds the latter). She phoned from California one morning, describing the difficulties of home-schooling three children in grades six, four, and one, when you also have a four-year-old who is doing nursery school and a two-year-old, Colleen, who wants to do everything. And since Evangeline Mary was born, a nursing baby now claims attention as well. How to give Colleen proper attention and teach her also to occupy herself quietly for what seemed to her long periods? Valerie was deeply concerned over whether she was doing all she should for that little one.
I reminded her of the women of Bible times--while probably not homeschooling her children, an ordinary village woman would have been working very hard most of the time, carrying heavy water jars, grinding grain, sweeping, planting and cooking while tending children. This was true also of the Indians with whom Val grew up. An Indian mother never interrupted her day's work to sit down with a small child and play or read a story, yet the children were more or less always with her, watching her work, imitating her, learning informally. They had a strong and secure home base, "and so have yours," I told her. "Don't worry! You are not doing Colleen an injustice. Quite the contrary. You are giving her wonderful things: a stable home, your presence in that home, a priceless education just in the things she observes."
The demands on Val, as on any mother of small children, are pretty relentless, of course. She does all the housework with the help of the children (a schedule of chores is posted on the refrigerator). People usually gasp when I tell them the number of my grandchildren. "Wow," said one, "it takes a special woman to have that many children." Special? Not really. Millions have done it. But it takes grace, it takes strength, it takes humility, and God stands ready to give all that is needed.
I suggested to Valerie that perhaps she could define the space which Colleen was allowed to play in during school time, and make it very clear to her that school time was quiet time for her brothers and sisters. When Valerie was Colleen's age she had to learn to play quietly alone because I was occupied for a good portion of every day in Bible translation work, or in teaching literacy and Bible classes in our house. She knew she was not to interrupt except for things I defined as "important." At that time there were seldom children of her age to play with, and she had neither siblings nor father, yet she was happy and, I think, well-adjusted. (For a certain period we had the added difficulty of living with a missionary family of six children under nine whose mother felt obliged to be more or less available for her children every minute--they were thought too young to learn not to interrupt. It was not an ordered home, and the mother herself was exhausted most of the time.)
Does this training seem hard on the child, impossible for the mother? I don't think it is. The earlier the parents begin to make the laws of order and beauty and quietness comprehensible to their children, the sooner they will acquire good, strong notions of what is so basic to real godliness: self-denial. A Christian home should be a place of peace, and there can be no peace where there is no self-denial.
Christian parents are seeking to fit their children for their inheritance in Christ. A sense of the presence of God in the home is instilled by the simple way He is spoken of, by prayer not only at meals but in family devotions and perhaps as each child is tucked into bed. The Bible has a prominent place, and it is a greatly blessed child who grows up, as I did, in a hymn-singing family. Sam and Judy Palpant of Spokane have such a home. "Each of our children has his or her own lullaby which I sing before prayer time and the final tucking into bed," Judy wrote. "That lullaby is a special part of our bedtime ritual. Whenever other children spend the night we sing 'Jesus Loves Me' as their lullaby. What a joy it was on the most recent overnighter to have the three Edminster children announce, `We have our own lullabies now!' Matt, who is twelve and who can be so swayed by the world, said, `Mine is "Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross."'"
The task of parents is to show by love and by the way they live that they belong to another Kingdom and another Master, and thus to turn their children's thoughts toward that Kingdom and that Master. The "raw material" with which they begin is thoroughly selfish. They must gently lay the yoke of respect and consideration for others on those little children, for it is their earnest desire to make of them good and faithful servants and, as Janet Erskine Stuart expressed it, "to give saints to God."
Surely it was not coincidence that my friend Ann Kiemel Anderson called just as I was finishing the above piece. She had just received little William Brandt, her fourth adopted son. The others were four and three years old and ten months. She was thrilled, and not nearly as exhausted as she expected to be, thankful for the gift of the child and for the gift of the needed grace and strength for one day (and one night) at a time.
"But oh, Elisabeth!" she said in her huskily soft voice, "when I had only one, I thought I knew all the answers. There is nothing so humbling as having two or three or four children."
I needed that reminder. Jim and I had hoped for at least four children. God gave us one, and that one gave me hardly any reason for serious worry, let alone despair. She was malleable. What "worked" for her may not work for another child, but I offer my suggestions anyway--gleaned not only from experience as the child of my parents and the parent of my child, but from observation of others. My second husband Add Leitch, whose first wife had died, had three daughters. "If I'd only had two, I could've written a book on child training," he once told me. One of them proved to him that he couldn't.

A Tomato is a Fruit!

In an attempt to improve my skill with the camera I joined a photography challenge group on facebook, and the first challenge was...fruit. Since we have a tomato plant outside that is just thrilled with the amount of rain that we've been getting lately I thought our little green tomatoes might make a good model. Here are my favorites out of the pictures that I took.

I think this first one might be my favorite. I love the water droplets on the tomatoes.

 

 

Show-Low EI Retreat

So last week I went on a work retreat- just the 5 of us EI's. The location was beautiful and slightly snowy Show Low, AZ. We were blessed to stay at the vacation home of one of our generous EI families. This meant that our only expenses for the 3 days we were there were food. We had a great time playing games, bonding, and just hanging out. Oh, and we got some work done too. I did my best to take lots of pictures, although many didn't quite come out like I'd hoped. I did some editing, some of them are on facebook, and I have a few that I think are worth posting here. Here are some of my favorites.

Like I said, this house was utterly gorgeous and fully decorated and decked out. We didn't get a chance to try out the fireplace, but it was a centerpiece of the main living room area.
The one on the right is the view from the upstairs balcony into the dining area. Almost the entire downstairs had wood flooring.

This was one of my favorite features of the house- wooden stairway and an octagonal window at the bottom. Unfortunately my pictures of it didn't turn out well. It doesn't look bad in black and white though.

This is a picture of our crew walking down the road. Its another reason I'm glad for digital photography- I took this shot 4-5 times before I got one I liked. This is with the color equalized and adjusted a bit from there- what do you think?

Scenery. The snow was a bit of a novelty for us desert rats. :)

Overall I enjoyed playing with my camera even though I'm still using auto mode more than I'd like just because I was wanting to take pictures quickly. I keep finding that when I edit my pictures I want them brighter than what's usually considered "good" photography, and I'm not sure why. Unless I do that all of the colors seem really dull and washed out. Or maybe its my monitor, I don't know. Advice? (other than take more pictures, which I'm planning on doing)

With All Your Mind

Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: Keep A Quiet Heart
Scripture Reference:

...with All Your Mind
How can parents encourage intellectual pursuits with their children?
A friend who has four boys, the oldest of whom is eight, prints a different hymn and several Scripture verses each week and posts them on a large, stiff cardboard in the breakfast nook. The whole family learns the hymn and verses. She has a chart showing each child's chores. This may not sound very intellectual, but the orderly doing of household chores forms habits of an orderly life, and orderly lives and orderly minds go together. This same mother bought a microphone and small public address system. She has each child stand up at one end of the living room while the others sit in a row like an audience and listen to him recite a verse, a hymn, a poem, or make a short speech. This teaches poise, articulation, the art of speaking up, standing still, keeping the hands relaxed, etc. The same thing could probably be accomplished with a pretend microphone--an ice cream dipper, for example.
Teach your children to memorize! Their ability to quickly pick up anything you repeat often enough is nearly miraculous. One week when I was with my grandchildren for four days, the seven-year-old and the five-year-old learned to repeat the Greek alphabet almost perfectly in that time. I didn't make a federal case out of it, but merely repeated it now and then at odd moments. The five-year-old was quickest to learn it, probably because she thought it was fun while her brother thought it was kind of crazy.
Ask questions at the table which will make children think. For example, God answers prayer--does that mean that God always gives us exactly what we ask for? Help the child to find the answers in Bible stories.
Read aloud to children. My father did this for us as long as we lived at home. He would bring a book to the table and read a paragraph, or share something in the evening as we all sat in the living room reading our own books.
Buy a microscope or a magnifying glass. Study a housefly's leg or the dust from a moth's wing, etc.
Have a globe on which they can find any country they hear named in the news or in conversation.
Teach them to see illustrations of abstract truth in concrete objects. This is how Jesus taught--by the use of parables.
James Boswell, biographer, tells how when Samuel Johnson was still a child in petticoats, his mother put a prayer book into his hands, pointed out the collect for the day, and said, "Sam, you must get this by heart." She went upstairs, leaving him to study it. By the time she had reached the second floor, she heard him following her. "What's the matter?" she said. "I can say it," he replied, and repeated it distinctly, though he could not have read it more than twice.
Was he a genius at that age? Perhaps. But I think it more likely that his intellectual powers owed much to his parents' expectations and patient instruction. Expect little and you'll surely get it.

Yup, I'm still busy and working on learning to manage my time better. The side job that I'm doing involves writing lots of articles quickly, so when those are finished more writing (ie blogging) isn't exactly high on my list of things to do. The writing isn't hard though, and with some consistent work it should help us finally get our finances more stable and pay off a few things. Any time I'm tired of writing more articles I just remind myself of the end goal.
I'm enjoying playing with my new camera but I need something besides the critters to practice taking pictures of. Either that or I actually need to sit down and read the manual. Sometime soon. I need to get a bigger memory card but my camera apparently takes xD and CF cards and I'm having trouble choosing between the two. More reasons to read my manual. I also want to get some sort of carrying case since I don't have anything that will fit it safely right now.
Thanks to everyone who has ordered something through my Amazon affiliate link. I really appreciate it.
Only one more work day, then the EI team is off to Show Low (I think). We're borrowing the vacation home that one of our families owns in order to do some teambuilding and blow off a bit of steam. I'll admit that everyone keeps rattling off the name of the place really fast so I'm not 100% sure that this is actually it, but its as close as I could come and it sounds about right. Regardless, I'm sure we'll have a great time and come back relaxed and refreshed (and cold). Since the place that we're staying doesn't have internet access I'll be offline from Thursday-Saturday. If you really need me you'd best call me, and if you call me you'll probably end up leaving a voice mail unless something is on fire.
I also need to sit down and read The Language of Love and Respect so that I can finally review it. I was hoping for Chris to read this one with me, but given that we're still working our way through the original Love and Respect I don't think it will happen anytime soon. The Thomas Nelson Book Review Bloggers (now booksneeze- way easier to say) have some interesting looking books available for review. Like I've said before, if you want to get books for free this is a great way to do it, so long as you're willing to write a short review of each book.

A Straight Answer

Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: All That Was Ever Ours
Scripture Reference:

Thinking
Question-and-answer is a vanishing art. We are so drowned and smothered and deafened by panels, dialogues, rap sessions, discussions, talk shows, and other such exercises in the pooling of ignorance that, far from developing the art of asking questions and giving answers, we have very nearly lost it altogether. The time allotted for a program must, it seems, be filled--it doesn't much matter with what.
When is the last time you heard a clear, short question asked and a straight answer given? My heart sinks when it is announced that, following the lecture, there will be time for discussion. People put up their hands, but it turns out that it is not information they are after at all. They want the floor. They go on and on.
I was one of the panel of experts (i.e., married women) discussing the subject of marriage in a college women's dormitory a few years ago. Afterward there were lots of questions. But it was hard to figure out just what the questions were. Here is one of them (verbatim--I did not make this up. It was taped and then transcribed):
Um--like--um--I have a couple questions. Do you think--like--that--uh--do you think a woman could have a call just to be--like--a wife, but not--like--not just to be a wife--like, say, you know--if you're gonna be personal--like--my own engagement--like--I have a gift of--you know--a talent in music, you know--like--I mean, I know you're not saying--like--you know, especially in that case, I mean, you're saying more like--you have--like--I think our greatest thing in common probably is--um--is that--you know--is the dedication to serve God--you know--in the desire to, to follow--you know--to do his leading and--like--neither of us, you know, and especially in this kind of life you don't have a blueprint of what you--what he's gonna be doing necessarily, you know--and I'm just kinda concerned because like--you know--I've even thought about that cause I've kinda had a conflict--you know--growing up that way--you know--I'm talented musically--you know--so therefore I should probably look for somebody that's talented musically but he--he likes it--you know--I mean, he doesn't understand it totally but I'm sure we could live happily together with it, you know, but I don't expect him to have a--you know--yearning to go to all the Beethoven concerts or anything--you know--but I mean--I've heard of very happy marriages where--you know--there's quite different--you know--interests--you know--there.
(I apologize for not knowing the rules of punctuation for this kind of English.) Nobody on the panel knew what the girl was asking. She was confused--that came through loud and clear, but she might have seen through some of the fog simply by making the effort to clarify and shorten her question.
Sometimes I have been tempted to tell the audience that only questions of twenty-five words or less will be entertained. But I don't want to put people off any more than I can help.
William Strunk, Jr., in his wonderful little book, The Elements of Style, gives this advice:
To air one's views at an improper time may be in bad taste. If you have received a letter inviting you to speak at the dedication of a new cat hospital, and you hate cats, your reply, declining the invitation, does not necessarily have to cover the full range of your emotions. You must make it clear that you will not attend, but you do not have to let fly at cats... Bear in mind that your opinion of cats was not sought, only your services as a speaker. Try to keep things straight.
Americans dearly love to be polled for opinion. They feel that they ought to have opinions, to "hold views," on everything, and polls give them a chance to let fly. It is interesting to note how small a percentage of those polled admit to having "No opinion."
If the answer is Yes, say Yes. If it's No, say No. (The Bible will back me up here.) If it's I don't know, say that--if you possibly can. My daughter had a classmate in the seventh grade who, when asked a question by the teacher, never raised his chin off his hand, but looking into space said glumly, "I don't know." To a second question he replied, in the same laconic tone, "I don't know that either." I couldn't help wanting to know which boy that was. I liked him. It was discouraging for the teacher, I'm sure, that he didn't know, but it was not nearly so discouraging to hear him say so in three words as it would have been to hear three hundred words which came to the same thing. Every day in the mass media we have to listen to palaver, twaddle, and balderdash which, when interpreted, means "I don't know."
Some people are constitutionally incapable of admitting they don't know. "Well, let's just say I don't know the answer to that one," a woman once said to me.
Great people, however, can often disarm us completely with a candid acknowledgment such as Samuel Johnson's when asked by an indignant woman whatever made him define pastern as he did in his lexicon. "Ignorance, madam, pure ignorance!"
The Quechua Indians of Ecuador have a way of dropping the corners of their mouths, thrusting out their chins, and gazing off across the treetops, saying "Hmm hmm?" which is supposed to convey the impression that the matter is a mysterious one which they are in on but which would really be beyond you. At other times they come up with ineluctable answers like the one a missionary got when he wanted to know the name of a tree with yellow flowers on it. The Indian studied the tree for a little while, shading his eyes with his hand, and then said earnestly, "Well, I'll tell you, Senor Eduardo. That tree over there, the one you point to, the tree with the yellow flowers on it--that tree, Senor Eduardo...we call The Yellow Flower Tree."
The late W. H. Auden once appeared on a television interview and it was delicious to see his interviewers thrown completely off balance by the clarity and the brevity of his answers. They had their questions carefully worked out and the timing approximated, but long before the show was over they were casting about for new questions. When they asked if he thought of poetry as a means of self-expression, he said, "No, not at all. You write a poem because you have seen something which seems worth sharing with others." The ideal reaction from the reader is, 'I knew that all along, but I never realized it.' He could, I am sure, have lectured for an hour on that one subject, but he didn't. He had a sense of occasion.
"You will be living in Oxford, England, Mr. Auden. Do you expect to be teaching there?"
"No."
"You won't be teaching. (Pause.) Well, Mr. Auden, as you move into the more--shall we say--mellow years, would you say that you have any unfulfilled ambitions?"
"No."
One of my unfulfilled ambitions was to hear a simple answer on a TV talk show. Thank you, Mr. Auden.

Camera

My new camera came today. I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that I didn't realize you couldn't use a DSLR without any lens at all on it. I guess its a good thing I got the kit that came with one lens. I opened up the manual and tried to figure out a few basics. So far, not too terrible although I have a lot of learning and practicing to do before I'll feel like I can justify such a nice camera.
In the meantime though, I'm afraid that the dog will get tired of having her picture taken all the time.

 

And here's an artsy one that Chris took of me.

I have to say, I like it. I need to learn to keep track of which settings I'm changing and what they do.  I'm already glad that I went with a camera that has a live view mode. I spent too much time with a digital point and shoot to give that up, and I can see the picture actually change when I adjust the settings.

Goals or Resolutions?

I don't usually do resolutions at the beginning of a new year. I used to write a new year's journal entry where I outlined significant events from the previous year and made predictions for the following year. I don't think I even managed that last year though. When it hadn't gotten done by February I think I gave up the idea. Maybe I'll start it again this year. Then again, maybe not.
However, I am a goal-setter by nature. Anyone who knows me can tell you my usual method is to decide what I want then figure out how to make it happen and pursue it until it does. Of course half the time I get distracted along the way and figure out that what I REALLY wanted was something else, but that's neither here nor there. Since its a new year and all, I've been trying to figure out some goals for 2010. I know some people who have made really neat resolutions. Jessica has resolved to buy almost all of her clothes secondhand this year. I think with a few clearance-rack exceptions I did that last year, but she is a way better dresser than I am, and I love seeing pictures of her finds. Kingdom First Mom has resolved to read through the entire Bible in 90 days. I'm tempted to take on this challenge, and yet afraid to commit to it for fear that I won't get there.
I do have some other, definite goals this year.
Financial- Chris and I are committed to paying off two of our loans this year. We don't have any credit card debt, but we have a few loans that I really want to get taken care of. With me working for a nonprofit agency (in a field that seems to have a bullseye on it), and Chris in school our finances are always tight. This year, though, we have an opportunity to earn some extra money and we've decided that every penny we can pinch will go to paying off the loans on our car and our air conditioning unit. Once those are gone we'll be down to just a student loan and our mortgage, which will be awesome.
Personal- I want to learn more about photography and learn to take better pictures. I also want to take MORE pictures, since I'm well aware that the two go together. My new DSLR should be here sometime next week, and I'm looking forward to seeing what it can do.
I also want to read more books. I love reviewing books for Thomas Nelson, but I also have a bookshelf full of books that are waiting to be read.
Faith- Well, like I said I'm considering the 90 Day Bible challenge. I also want to pray and journal more. I have a few specific issues that I'm committing to prayer, and journaling on paper is a habit that has fallen by the wayside and I really miss it.

I'm sure I'll adjust some of these as I see what 2010 brings, and I'll probably end the year in a different place than where I started it, but these are at least some guiding ideas for this year.

RIP Carl Tomlinson

I'll admit that this isn't how I expected to start 2010. Chris woke to a call this morning that his grandfather had passed away. He had been in the hospital with gall bladder problems and after (or while) doing gall bladder surgery they found something on his kidney that they said could be cancer. He was talking and joking with people yesterday after the surgery. Today he was supposed to have a CAT scan to check out the kidney, and apparently he had a reaction to the dye that was being used. His heart stopped, and they couldn't get it started again.

We're dealing in our own way. The rest of Chris' family is in Michigan, including his aunt who flew out this afternoon with his mom. The funeral will be in Nashville, so our thoughts and prayers will be with family there next weekend.

These are a few of the pictures that I took when he was in Arizona last Christmas. He received an ipod and a remote control helicopter as Christmas gifts, and at 85 years young he used them both. Chris had it spot on when he said that his grandpa was one of those people who seemed to get younger as he got older, and that he just seemed like he'd live forever somehow. The original report we got was that his heart had given out, even though the initial testing at the hospital showed that his heart was in great shape.