Up On Eagle's Wings

2011-10-09T20:20:00.000-07:00

Well maybe the promise of exiting blog hibernation in one fell swoop was a bit premature, but so be it. I have plenty of ideas rolling around in my brain, but I'm not ready to put them out in public. Maybe a blog isn't the best idea then...
I'm running intervals once a week as suggested by a friend, and debating signing up for a 5 or 10K charity race in mid-November. The extremist in me (thanks Dad) wants to go for the 10K. I'm thinking I will try to cover 10K one day at the gym (with treadmill set to 1 incline to better mimic road conditions) and see how long it takes me. If I can finish the distance and still walk out of the gym under my own power then I'll figure I have 5 weeks to get down to a respectable time. I think at heart I'm a distance runner and 5K just doesn't seem like enough of a challenge right now, although it might be. Fortunately with the weather turning a bit cooler I'm finally getting outside to run more often. The dog is certainly enjoying the additional exercise. Oh, and I found out that there is a Grand Canyon marathon every year in November-ish. Obviously not a possibility this year, but someday...

Run run

2011-09-18T14:32:00.000-07:00

Chris and I joined the gym and I've been running regularly again and doing some light weights. Not sure why I've gained about 7 lbs since then, but oh well. I hope it's all muscle. My current goal is to improve my 3 mile time- Friday was my first attempt and I was at about 39 minutes. I'd like to get closer to 30 minutes and be running a 10 minute mile but that's probably a ways off. I keep struggling with whether to increase speed or distance or both. I've been listening to audiobooks when I run which really helps cut the boredom factor since the treadmill maintains the speed for me. Right now it's The Hiding Place by Cori Ten Boom. This one has been on my to-read list for a while and it is a fascinating story. Granted some parts of the story are sad and it is difficult to run while all choked up, but I manage.
I even took the dog out for a run yesterday evening. She was pretty well-behaved, all things considered. I think she was just happy to be outdoors since she's been in forced hibernation all summer. I really want it to be hiking season (should cool down enough in a month or so) so we can try hiking with her this year. Here's a picture of a happy Ava just for good measure. I wish I could run a few miles as easily as she does.

Coming Out of Hibernation

2011-09-06T08:20:00.002-07:00

Cautiously. I guess it is fitting since I live in Phoenix that my blog hibernated all summer. Granted it is still 100*+ so we aren't out of the heat yet, but I"m cautiously bringing my blog out of hibernation after a 6 month hiatus and several months before that of only posting book reviews.
I guess we'll see how it goes.

The Mountains Bow Down- Sibella Giorello

2011-03-30T22:35:00.000-07:00

The Mountains Bow Down is the second book in the Raleigh Harmon series that I've had the opportunity to review, and I have to say I enjoyed this one more than the first. I appreciated all of the minutiae of being on a high-class cruise ship- all of the things that go on in the background or under the radar of the guests. There was a bit of humor in the malaprops of her old boss, and of course the background stress of Raleigh's changing feelings for her fiance and for Jack, her partner in solving crime.

Here's the Amazon product description

Everything's going to work out. Time away always makes things better . . .
That's what FBI Special Agent Raleigh Harmon believes as she boards a cruise to Alaska. A land of mountains and gems and minerals, the Last Frontier is a dream destination for this forensic geologist who's hoping to leave behind a hectic work schedule and an engagement drained of romance.
But when a passenger goes missing and winds up dead, Raleigh's vacation suddenly gets lost at sea. The ship's security chief tries to rule the death a suicide, but Raleigh's forensics background points to a much darker conclusion: Somewhere onboard, a ruthless murderer walks free.
Engulfed by one of her toughest cases yet, Raleigh requests assistance from the FBI and receives her nemesis-handsome Special Agent Jack Stephanson. As the cruise ship sails through the Inside Passage, Raleigh has five days to solve a high-profile murder, provide consultation for a movie filming onboard, and figure out her increasingly complicated feelings for Jack-who might not be as arrogant as she originally thought.
And that's only her work life. Family offers even more challenges. Joined on the cruise by her mother and aunt, Raleigh watches helplessly as disturbing rifts splinter her family.
Like the scenery that surrounds the cruise ship, Raleigh discovers a mystery so daunting that even the mountains might bow down before it.

My one objection to this book was the ending. It felt like everything wrapped up a bit too quickly and too neatly. The plot device about having to get off of the cruise ship meant that the case had to be solved in under 5 days, but the ending did feel a bit contrived. Of course there are enough loose ends to make sure that the author has to continue the series, but it doesn't feel like she stretched things out there more than necessary.

I received a free copy of this book from Litfuse in exchange for my honest review. The links to the rest of the blog tour are here along with a chance to win a $500 gift certificate towards a cruise.

Mere Churchianity- Michael Spencer

2011-02-17T19:11:00.000-07:00

Admittedly, this book sat on my desk for a while before I decided to give it a go. As usual I received a free copy of Mere Churchianity from Waterbrook Multnomah in exchange for an honest review.
Before I dig into the review can I just say that I love all of these book programs? I'm an avid reader and I have as many books as I can handle just from these. They're the main reason that this blog has mostly turned into a place to house book reviews.
Anyways, Mere Churchianity. The Publisher's Weekly review says, "Spencer, who blogged as the Internet Monk until his untimely death earlier this year, offers a harsh assessment of institutional Christianity-"churchianity." He speaks to the millions who, according to surveys, have changed religions or left them altogether. He takes special aim at evangelical megachurches and prosperity gospel preachers, though he also doesn't spare those who link Jesus to the flag or sociopolitical causes. None of this, he insists, has anything to do with Jesus, who was Jewish (not American), hung out with people others rejected, and made disciples instead of buildings. He advocates "Jesus-shaped spirituality," which can be found in service and scripture and, most important, won't necessarily make you smile, because it can be hard to practice. Like so many critics of the current state of institutional Christianity, Spencer is a lot better at describing the problem than solving it; his indictment gets a little repetitious at times. But his tone is folksy and passionate without ranting. The book is his last word, and stands as the sincere testament of a Christian humble enough to admit and even embrace his flaws"

Given where Chris and I are (or aren't) with church right now, this one couldn’t have been more timely. Michael Spencer was the blogger behind internetmonk.com and he wrote to those who were leaving or had left (mostly) evangelical churches. He doesn't mince words in this book and he doesn't hold back about what he sees as the problems with evangelical churches. His contention is that yes, many of these churches have gone badly awry, yes, you can be a Christian without going to church, and yes there is another way. As someone who has been to those churches, including some of the "biggies" (Benny Hinn, Rod Parsley, etc) it was good to hear someone point out what non-Christians know and some Christians suspect but are afraid to face. For those of us who have defined our Christianity by our church, his premise of Jesus-shaped spirituality is, at least for me, liberating. The question, “how would I feel about ___ if I had spent 3 years with Jesus?” is dangerous, counter church-cultural (even though it shouldn't be), and powerful. The fact that so many churches have gotten so far away from Jesus that they don’t even think this question is worth considering is frightening, and yet I’ve seen it. I was afraid that this book was going to be all down on the church and nothing about what to do next, but fortunately that wasn’t the case. Spencer advocates reading the Bible to find out who Jesus is and what it looked like to be his disciple, spending time with Christians willing to be honest about themselves, and serving people.

Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal

2011-02-05T18:44:00.000-07:00

As another Nook book from Netgalley, Little Princes was one of the best books I've read so far this year (yes, I know we're only a month into the year but I really enjoyed this one). Here's Amazon's summary:

In search of adventure, 29-year-old Conor Grennan traded his day job for a year-long trip around the globe, a journey that began with a three-month stint volunteering at the Little Princes Children’s Home, an orphanage in war-torn Nepal.
Conor was initially reluctant to volunteer, unsure whether he had the proper skill, or enough passion, to get involved in a developing country in the middle of a civil war. But he was soon overcome by the herd of rambunctious, resilient children who would challenge and reward him in a way that he had never imagined. When Conor learned the unthinkable truth about their situation, he was stunned: The children were not orphans at all. Child traffickers were promising families in remote villages to protect their children from the civil war—for a huge fee—by taking them to safety. They would then abandon the children far from home, in the chaos of Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu.
For Conor, what began as a footloose adventure becomes a commitment to reunite the children he had grown to love with their families, but this would be no small task. He would risk his life on a journey through the legendary mountains of Nepal, facing the dangers of a bloody civil war and a debilitating injury. Waiting for Conor back in Kathmandu, and hopeful he would make it out before being trapped in by snow, was the woman who would eventually become his wife and share his life’s work.
Little Princes is a true story of families and children, and what one person is capable of when faced with seemingly insurmountable odds. At turns tragic, joyful, and hilarious, Little Princes is a testament to the power of faith and the ability of love to carry us beyond our wildest expectations.

I think that part of what I liked about this book was that I could see the legitimate transformation of the author during the story. He doesn't sugar-coat his initial selfishness, naivete, and inexperience. From a spoiled young adult who decides to go to Nepal for a few weeks in order to justify taking a year off of work to play and travel the world, to a person who spends everything he has (and asks other people for money) to get back to the country and keep his promises. I laughed at how naïve he was initially and how little he knew about Nepal or interacting with kids. This is the kind of true story that’s better than fiction- finding out that one of the supposed orphans that he knew actually wasn’t one, but that the other orphans were. This book is a reminder that the answers in real life aren’t always easy. Conor frequently has to wait for the slow wheels of bureaucracy to turn in order to rescue some of “his” kids. He misses a crucial helicopter ride by an hour after waiting through a fruitless week and making a grueling hike on a bum knee. Parents who feel they have no option other than to trade their children to traffickers are reluctant to bring them home because they can’t afford to feed another mouth and the children are well cared for at the orphanage. I learned a bit about a part of the world that I don’t know much about (Nepal) and about a topic that I’ve never researched (child trafficking). Oh, and there’s a love story too.

At this point I've read so many books about people who started charities or foundations (3 Cups of Tea, etc) that I feel like I should start donating to small charities every month and just rotate the ones that I donate to.

The Quest for Anna Klein

2011-01-25T19:32:00.000-07:00

As another free Netgalley review, I picked The Quest for Anna Klein by Thomas Cook as an alternative both to my habit of reading nonfiction and as a distraction once I finally ran out of Dresden books. As far as either of those things goes, it was a good read, if a bit more convoluted than I'm used to. The Amazon summary says,
"Thomas Danforth has lived a fortunate life. The son of a wealthy importer, he traveled the world in his youth, and now, in his twenties, he lives in New York City and runs the family business. It is 1939, and the world is on the brink of war, but Danforth’s life is untroubled, his future assured. Then, on a snowy evening walk along Gramercy Park, a friend poses a fateful question.

As it turns out, this friend has a dangerous idea that can change the world. Danforth is to provide a place where a “brilliant woman” can receive training in firearms and explosives. This is to be the beginning of an international plot carried out by the mysterious Anna Klein—a plot that will ensnare Danforth in more ways than one. When the plan goes wrong and Klein disappears, Danforth’s quest begins: it is a journey of ever-shifting alliances and betrayals that will lead him across a war-torn world in search of answers. Now in his ninety-first year, at the dawn of a troubled new era, he sits in luxury at the Century Club and tells his tale to the young man from Washington he has summoned, for reasons of his own, to hear it."

This book has the added twist of being set in New York City just a few months(?) after 9/11 when emotions and talk of revenge are running high. Of course, there is a final twist or two at the end, but now way would I share those. As a discussion of how lives can change based on a single fateful decision or event, this is a good one. It seems as though everyone, including Danforth and the reader knows that his quest is ultimately doomed, and yet even he appears powerless to stop it. Through the entire book the only certain thing is that the quest must go on- who is on which side and what the ultimate goal is shifts and changes.

If the final test of a book is whether or not I'd read another by the same author, then I think in this case the answer is a hesitant yes. There is enough shift to keep things interesting and Danforth's profound statements keep me thinking enough that I would probably read another book by Thomas Cook.

The Write Start: A Guide to Nurturing Writing at Every Stage

2011-01-10T22:18:00.000-07:00

Being involved in early education, I jump at the chance to review any book related to this area. That's part of the reason that I was so excited to get a free e-copy of The Write Start from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. When I found out that the book was written by an OT, my interest was piqued even further, and the book didn't disappoint.
Honestly, one of the first things that I liked about this book was that it wasn't too long. I know full well that parents don't have time to sit down and read a 300+ page textbook about early writing skills. Most of the parents that I work with are looking for solid facts and activities that are easy and can fit into their daily lives, and The Write Start manages to do both well. The author identifies and explains the four basic stages of writing development- she refers to children as scribblers, spellers, storytellers, and scholars. Even better, all of her activities feature modifications for each stage of writing proficiency.
This book is set up so that the first section is dedicated to explaining each stage of writing development and talking about how to encourage children to write or scribble. The second half of the book consists of activities designed to encourage writing. Most of the activities are relatively easy and do not require any elaborate materials. If I had one complaint it would be that the first section of the book was a bit simplistic for me, however it would be perfect for most people who don't have the background in education that I have. Overall, this is a book that will be a great resource for parents, teachers and therapists looking to encourage writing development.

Beyond Opinion: Living the Faith We Defend

2011-01-10T21:47:00.000-07:00

As usual, I received the book Beyond Opinion, Living the Faith We Defend for free in exchange for my honest review. I don't remember the last time I actually paid more than a dollar or two for a book. This particular book was from Booksneeze, and I've been reading it in small doses for quite some time. It's the sort of book that needs to be read in bits and pieces so that it all has time to sink in. This is a book on apologetics, or Christians logically defending their faith. The premise of the book supposedly comes from a Hindu who asked Ravi Zacharias (the author), "If this conversion is truly supernatural, why is it not more evident in the lives of so many Christians that I know?" Since that's a question I hear over and over from people, I enjoyed tackling it in this book.
This also happens to be the first book on apologetics that I've read in quite a while. As much as possible in 338 pages, this book is a thorough overview of several different areas of apologetics. It emphasizes building relationships over winning arguments and reminded me that the ultimate goal of debating with people is increased understanding. Anyone who has debated with me on Facebook lately will know that's a goal I'm still learning. :) At the same time, this book helped to build my understanding of some common faith-related arguments and helpful responses to those from a Christian perspective. I've heard and read many good things about Ravi Zacharias' writings and I was glad to finally get my hands on one of his books.
As far as format, this book is really a series of essays by various members of Zacharias' staff. Since the essays are all written by different authors, each has a slightly different feel to it. There is a set of essays on challenges from different faiths- the one on challenging Islam was probably my favorite since I learned a few things that I didn't know about that religion. The second section relates to "The Questions Behind the Questions" including the question of evil which Ravi Zacharias tackles himself. Sections three and four involve internalizing the questions and living out the answers, where Zacharias again steps in. Overall, Beyond Opinion makes a complex topic comprehensible and I thoroughly enjoyed stretching my brain to fit around this topic.

Book Review: The Complete IEP Guide

2011-01-05T19:05:00.001-07:00

The Complete IEP Guide is designed to be an IEP-101 guide, and it does that well. The guide tells parents about how to advocate for themselves and their child in getting needed special education services. As someone who works on the other end of special education I am always happy to see a book that tells parents how to better advocate for their children. The book lacks a bit in specifics- it would be nice to see examples of well written IEP objectives, or possibly an entire sample IEP. However, I would give one word of caution. The Complete IEP Guide frequently reminds parents that they should do their best to work with the school district, then provides advice that is likely to irritate the district officials. For example, while it would be nice to have a copy of a therapist's evaluation 2 months before the IEP, in the wonderful reality that we live in the evaluation is just as likely to be completed and scored a week or even a few days before the IEP meeting. Also, although the IEP is supposed to be a working document I know plenty of districts who present one at the meeting that is already written and the parent input and signature is more of a formality. While this isn't the way that it is supposed to be, it is what happens sometimes in some districts. In some of these areas you will want to proceed with tact since some parts of this book could be subtitled "How to Be a Nuisance to your School District".
Cautions aside, this book is a great introduction to the world of IEPs and special education. It includes blank copies of helpful information-gathering forms. These forms are designed to show parents how to compile and use data to guide the IEP process. There is also a section about law, attorneys, and due process in case the IEP process does not go as it should.

This is another book that I received for free from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana

2010-12-11T19:32:00.000-07:00

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana is another book that I received for review from Netgalley. First of all, if you have an e-reader I highly recommend Netgalley for new books. Technically you are only getting galley copies (the last stages of the proofed document), but they're pretty close to being final copies. In most cases the books that I've been reading won't even be released to the public for another few months. All you need is an e-reader and somewhere to post book reviews. Netgalley works whether you have a Kindle or an e-reader that can view epub files. I had to download Adobe Digital Editions to manage the files but it is easy to do. Theoretically the files will go inactive after a set number of days but I don't know if that's only in Adobe or on my Nook too. There is a slight glitch in their system where I sometimes get two copies of everything for each book that I request but I think they're working it out and I haven't had any other issues.

Now onto The Dressmaker. This is a story that supposedly inspired the subject of the book Three Cups of Tea, which I've read and did love. The two stories share a lot of similarities. They're both about determination in the face of adversity. They're both about people who saw problems and started businesses or projects that grew into something much more. Both books are in the "as told to" style, which worked for Three Cups but in the case of Dressmaker makes it a bit less riveting of a story than it might be as an autobiography. For whatever reason, even though this was a great story about a really determined woman, it just didn't grab me like I wanted it to. For one thing, the story seemed short even though according to Amazon the hardcover version is 288 pages. Secondly, I think the author hit the "women are powerful and strong and awesome" bit just a little more than necessary. The story could have stood on its own without that. Thirdly, I still haven't figured out who "the woman who risked everything to keep them safe" is. It isn't Kamila herself, it wasn't one of her family members, and I hope that the author isn't thinking of herself since unless I missed something she didn't come to Afghanistan and start interviewing Kamila until after the Taliban occupation was over and the worst (but not all) of the danger had passed. Overall this was a good vacation read but not quite up to the caliber of Three Cups.

The Heart and the Fist

2010-12-07T20:39:00.000-07:00

Yet another of the books I read via Nook when we were in Michigan was The Heart and the Fist. This book is being released in April 2011 but I got a galley copy. This is an autobiography by Eric Greitens, who attempts to find the balance between working as a soldier and working as a humanitarian. The structure of this book is a little chaotic. He starts in the present day in a war zone, then jumps back to an initial humanitarian experience and works forward from there back to his present day work with veterans. For me the most interesting part of this book was the extensive descriptions of the process of becoming a Navy Seal. The description of the training and hard physical conditioning required was fascinating as was finding out just how many prospective Seal candidates don't make it through training. Other than that, I don't really feel like this book answered its initial question- how best to save the world? The author seems to conclude that we need both saints and soldiers, which I think is letting everyone off a bit too easily. Surely there is a balance somewhere between power and compassion, but I would guess that its different for every person. Overall this was a good vacation read but nothing that I'd consider inspiring. It wraps up just a bit too easily for that.

Chasing Aphrodite

2010-11-30T13:29:00.000-07:00

Again from netgalley, I got a free e-copy of Chasing Aphrodite. This book concerns the illicit antiquities trade and how the Getty Museum bought hundreds of smuggled artifacts over the course of several decades. It centers on the story of a statue of Aphrodite that was looted out of Italy and eventually wound up at the Getty. Despite convincing evidence the museum continued to deny that the statue (and other artifacts) had been looted and smuggled into the US. This book has a little bit of everything- tawdry affairs, arrogant CEO's, tax fraud, and good old gangsters. Although I found it difficult to keep track of the story and characters this was an enjoyable read about a topic that was unfamiliar to me.

Pearl in the Sand

2010-11-23T19:59:00.000-07:00

Since getting my Nook (yes, I finally gave in), I've discovered the wonderful world of Netgalley.com. Through them I can get galley copies of ebooks that are either new releases or soon to be released. The first book that I read this way was Pearl in the Sand.
Pearl in the Sand is a book that I received free from netgalley.com in exchange for my honest review. I actually read this one as an ebook. for free It is a fictionalized account of the story of Rahab and the fall of Jericho. It also includes the story of what might have happened after Jericho and how Rahab ended up as part of the lineage of Jesus. This story is based on Biblical fact, obviously with artistic license taken. Although I had guessed the ultimate ending partway into the book I still enjoyed the way that the story unfolded. There were many good lessons and the writing seemed genuine and true. I'll be on the lookout for more books by this author.

2010-11-09T21:13:00.000-07:00

Chris and I spent most of Sunday over his aunt's house canning. Mostly we canned pickles (48 lbs of cucumbers). She also did a few batches of beans for us. Since neither of us have ever canned before it was helpful to have someone who knew what they were doing helping us. Today we finally got it all home and packed into the pantry. Here's a pic of what our pantry looks like now.You can't even see the big containers of rice at the bottom.

I think we're going to be eating pickles for quite a while. Fortunately they're really good.
Oh, and here's a gratuitous Ava picture.

How can you not love a face like that?

2010-09-27T23:12:00.000-07:00

*Sigh* So I haven't been blogging much lately (again). I'm all out of devotionals to post and most of my writing time and effort lately is going towards paid gigs. Not exactly creative or anything but they're bringing in some much needed extra money. Its still hot out here in the desert- supposed to be over 100*F every day this week. Its hard to get into a fall mood when I'm still roasting in the car. With a little luck it will cool down eventually and we'll be able to start hiking on the weekends. Chris and I didn't hike as much as I wanted to last winter and we both missed it. Hopefully Ava has calmed down enough that we'll be able to take her out on the trails without her being too much of a terror. We'll see though.

I've been taking pictures sort of intermittently. We had a networking event at work and I snapped a few good shots that I put up on facebook.

Our dishwasher is still broken which means washing them by hand. I don't believe people who say washing by hand is faster and uses less water than the dishwasher. That's definitely not the case in our house. I can stand at the sink and do a whole sinkfull of dishes in a half hour or more, or I can take 5 minutes and put them all in the dishwasher then walk away. Oh, and in our house it has to be done every day. The way Chris cooks I can empty the sink while he's cooking and its nearly full again after dinner. I'm stalking Craigslist for a decent dishwasher but getting impatient enough that I'm ready to jump on the first one that even looks close to what we need.
Oh, and just because, here's a cute kitty picture.

The Eyes (Don't) Have It

2010-08-13T20:32:00.000-07:00

I have terrible vision. Considering that both my Mom and my Dad also have terrible vision there weren't too many options there. I started wearing glasses at age 7 when my vision tested at 20/200 and 20/300 and by the time I was 11 I was wearing contact lenses all the time. Since them I've continued wearing contacts pretty much full time without any issues. This includes college where I wasn't exactly sleeping a lot, and moving out here to the desert. They've become part of my daily routine. Putting my contacts in is the first thing I do when I get up in the morning, and the last thing I do before going to bed. I generally wear them 12-18 hours a day. I don't sleep in them unless I happen to lay down for a nap in the middle of the day (rare). I own glasses but seldom wear them and never outside of the house. My depth perception is fairly bad as it is and worse with glasses.When we moved out here I switched from gas permeable to soft contact lenses, and went like that for close to 5 years without any problems. I would put them in in the morning, take them out at night, and throw them away when they started to feel icky. Other than that few minutes in the morning and evening I hardly even thought about my contacts. Unfortunately, after about 17 years of wearing contact lenses full time with nothing more than an occasional minor issue, it seems that I'm due.
I've known for a while that my contact lens prescription needed to be updated. I called my previous eye doctor (the one who had switched me to soft contacts), and made TWO different appointments that the office canceled, in one case on the same day the appointment was scheduled. After that I decided it was time to find a different eye doctor with better customer service, so I opted for one that was recommended by a friend. They've been wonderful and very understanding, but I feel as though I'm back to square one when it comes to my contact lenses.
See, one of the first things that this new eye doctor told me was that I now have an astigmatism that needs to be corrected. Unfortunately this means that I can no longer wear the same kind of contacts that have served me so well for the past 5 years. I now need a torric contact lens instead. Not only are they more expensive, but so far they've been much less comfortable. In the past month I've tried every brand of torric lenses that is made, including a few that the optometrist special ordered in my prescription. I've had vision that suddenly went blurry (not good while driving), eyes that were dry as dust by 2pm even when using eye drops regularly, eyes that were STILL dry and tired after waking up from a good night's sleep, and headaches that start to pound in mid-afternoon while I'm still on the road and continue until I finally give up and take my contacts out in the evening.
I had three eye appointments in as many weeks, and the only reason I didn't have another one today is because they really thought these new lenses and a new cleaning regimen would be better and for some odd reason I believed them. I'm going to have to call the office Monday and make another appointment. Sometimes these trial pairs feel tolerable for the first few days, then by Thursday or Friday I'm back to having headaches and dry eyes again. They're supposed to last at least 2 weeks. I'm seeing better, but the comfort levels are not good at all. I'm tired of trying to decide if the frequent headaches are from the contact lenses or the heat/dehydration from being in the car all day. According to the optometrist they've tried every brand of torrics available, and non-torrics aren't an option (we tried that too). So far I haven't tried any contacts where I'm willing to commit to ordering an entire year's supply, or even a few months worth. Glasses aren't an option since I see even worse with them even when they are matched to my actual prescription. Switching back to gas permeable lenses isn't an option since the whole reason I stopped wearing those was because of all of the dust and dry air here. Honestly, I have no idea what the other options are at this point since laser surgery is out of our price range :p If forced I could probably pick the least uncomfortable lenses and just get into the habit of wearing glasses once I'm home for the night. That's not my idea of an optimal situation though I'm afraid that may be what it comes down to.

Baby Toys

2010-08-12T19:36:00.000-07:00

I've been making these for a few out of town friends who have recently had babies. Its hard to see, but this one is black and white with pink rings. I made another one that was blue with yellow rings. I found the pattern on Ravelry, and used a bunch of cotton yarn that I had. The idea of putting a bell in it was great but the sound is a bit muffled due to all of the stuffing. The spaces between the yarn are a bit larger than I like but I used the smallest crochet hook that I have. I'm thinking that if it gets washed the yarn should shrink enough to close up the gaps where you can see the stuffing. Until I got used to doing it, it was hard to keep the number of stitches the same all the way around. Some of the rings are bigger in some spots than in others! Overall these were a fun quick project to make. I keep debating selling them, but I think I'd have to have people up front who wanted to buy one.

Skirt Fix

2010-08-04T20:53:00.000-07:00

I've had this skirt for years. Probably since college, possibly since sometime in high school. I don't think I've worn it more than once, maybe twice, in all of that time. Why? Well, combination of not good design and not a good fit for me. See, the skirt is denim and was just as wide around the bottom as it was around the top. The fact that it hit a bit below mid-calf made it nearly impossible to walk in- I couldn't take anything resembling decent-sized steps without nearly tripping over the skirt. At various times I had considered hemming it to be shorter, or getting rid of it altogether, but I never could bring myself to do it, so it sat in my closet. Until Monday, that is. I took another look at the skirt and realized that there was a seam all the way up the back center. I undid the hem, opened up that seam, and sewed the edges back in. I also sewed across the top where I opened the seam in order to stop it from going up any higher. Voila! A skirt with a small slit in the back that I can actually walk in! I wore it to work on Monday, and it did pretty well, although after trying to sit on the floor in it I decided I actually could have made the slit a bit higher and it would have been even better. Overall, though, not bad for a half hour of work (and one broken sewing machine needle). Here are a few pictures of the results.

Sedona

2010-07-27T22:13:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Chris and I decided that we needed OUT of the valley. We figured the best option was a day trip somewhere since a hotel stay was out of the question. After contemplating Flagstaff we opted for Sedona instead. The weather report said there was a chance of rain, but we decided to pack a change of clothes and be prepared for the possibility of getting wet. We debated taking Ava with us but weren't sure how she'd do with a drive that long. Fortunately friends of ours volunteered to keep her for the day so we didn't have to feel bad about her being in her crate (thanks Joe and Steph!). We planned to get lunch, do a bit of hiking, and just generally relax and see the sights.
The drive to Sedona was just under 2 hours, and the sky was clear blue. We decided that the first order of business was lunch, and pulled into a cafe that looked popular. About 5 minutes later we changed our minds and walked out. There were flies buzzing around everywhere, a bug in my water glass, and Chris said their dry storage was mostly canned and processed food and that what they made wouldn't be that great (and was a bit pricey). Instead we went to look at an art show and ended up at a little Thai restaurant nearby. There was only one occupied table when we went in, but the couple there said they had read a review online and that the food was good. We both ordered curry (mine mild and his spicy), and found out that the other customers had been right. The food was amazing- easily the best Thai I've ever had, and not too spicy. It was worth the 2 hour drive just for that.
After lunch we decided that hiking and taking pictures was next on the list. Chris and I shared the DSLR and had a little photography competition going. We each got a few good ones in. Here are some of my favorites:

Ok, I have to say I still hate how blogger uploads pictures. For some reason I can only upload and insert one at a time. Anyways, these are my favorite pictures in addition to the ones I put on Facebook. I'm still learning how to use this camera but I think going places and taking pictures could be a fun hobby for Chris and I. We even had fun processing them together when we got back home. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of us. Handing a point and shoot camera to a stranger and asking them to take a picture is one thing. Handing over my DSLR is quite another.

Ezra

2010-07-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

The Book of Ezra

God says, as soon as My people were settled in the land of promise, they rebuilt the altar on the same site where the original altar had rested. The altar of sacrifice symbolizes "yieldedness" to Me. To return to the narrow road, you need only surrender your will to Mine.

And as my beloved and for so long troubled servant John Bunyan described in Pilgrim's Progress, you will take the broad, more comfortable road through "bypath meadow." But know this: I will not leave you there!

Draw courage from this history.

I will strengthen you to fight the good fight and to finish well. You will make it to the party. There is always a way back from sin. Tears of hope will flow every time you experience My loving mercy when you fail.

I still love you. I will not give up on you. I have a plan.

(from 66 Love Letters: A Conversation with God that Invites You into His Story by Dr. Larry Crabb, ©2009.)

Nehemiah

2010-07-14T08:59:00.000-07:00

The Book of Nehemiah

God says, whatever anyone does out of a sincere desire to know Me and draw others to me is a great work. And as you engage in that work, sometimes you will be energized as you catch a glimpse of My plan unfolding. More often you won't. Either way you are doing a great work.

Every father who repairs a leaky faucet and then prays with his kids before dinner is doing a great work. Every mother who prepares that dinner and joins in that prayer is doing a great work. Every single person who works hard to pay the rent and reads the Bible before bedtime is doing a great work.

I see it all. And I am pleased. Their reward is coming.

Whatever is done to know Me and make Me known, to advance My purposes, is a great work. And I will use every great work done by My people, no matter how small it seems, to further My great plan.

When you see the fullness of that plan and its end result, you will be plunged forever in a sea of joy.

(from 66 Love Letters: A Conversation with God that Invites You into His Story by Dr. Larry Crabb, ©2009.)

Shades of Morning- Marlo Schalesky

2010-07-12T07:25:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that I don't know quite what to think of this book. I received a review copy of Shades of Morning for free from KBK Public Relations, and in exchange I agreed to post my honest review. However, that will be hard to do without giving away how the story eventually finishes off. Here's the official synopsis:

Summary:
Marnie Wittier has life just where she wants it. Quiet. Peaceful. No drama. A long way away from her past. In the privacy of her home, she fills a box with slips of paper, scribbled with her regrets, sins, and sorrows. But that’s nobody else’s business. Her bookstore/coffee shop patrons, her employees, her friends from church—they all think she’s the very model of compassion and kindness.
Then Marnie’s past creeps into her present when her estranged sister dies and makes Marnie guardian of her fifteen-year-old son—a boy Marnie never knew existed. And when Emmit arrives, she discovers he has Down syndrome—and that she’s woefully unprepared to care for him. What’s worse, she has to deal with Taylor Cole, her sister’s attorney, a man Marnie once loved—and abandoned. As Emmit (and Taylor) work their way into her heart, Marnie begins to heal. But when pieces of her dismal past surface again, she must at last face the scripts of paper in her box, all the regrets and sorrows. Can she do it? Or will she run again?

Part of the reason that I wanted to read this book was because of the involvement of a main character with Down Syndrome. I wanted to see how the author would treat that character, and if the portrayal would be realistic or not. I was happy to see that the portrayal was definitely realistic. Most people think that kids and teenagers with Down Syndrome are simply cute and happy. The truth is that they can be stubborn, mischievous, nosy, and embarrassingly honest at the worst possible times. The author happily allows Emmit to be all of those things. However, it did irk me that the other characters kept referring to him as "the Down Syndrome boy" although I fully realize that this is likely what would happen in real life.
Had I stopped before the final chapter and simply had the resolution that I was expecting, I would have said that this was a very good book. The characters were realistic, the story held together, and the revelations were real and not contrived. However, there was one final twist that remained, and it just rubbed me the wrong way. For one thing, I didn't feel like it was necessary to the story. It was like the author threw it in there just as a "gotcha". Besides that, I don't feel like the author played fair with the ending. She created the world of the story with all of its rules, then broke them at the end with something that came totally out of left field.
As I said, though, other than the ending this was a very good book about loss, guilt, forgiveness, and ultimately Grace.

Song of Songs

2010-07-07T08:58:00.000-07:00

The Book of Song of Songs

God says, I love you. I delight in you. I will do whatever it takes for you to enter into the exquisite, life-defining pleasure of the communion My Son and I enjoy. I invite you into the feast of love.

I am arousing the desire I put in every human heart to experience satisfaction in an
undeserved relationship of love. To arouse desire without providing hope is cruel. To feel desire without hope of satisfaction is hell. Dante's words written over the door into Satan's world were apt: "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here."

But desire with hope is sweet. It is the abundant life...for now. I want you to nibble on the appetizers now. But to do so requires wisdom.

Relate authentically with Me.

Hurt and celebrate, lament and praise, weep and laugh.

Be all that you are without pretense, in My Presence.

(from 66 Love Letters: A Conversation with God that Invites You into His Story by Dr. Larry Crabb, ©2009.)

Jonah

2010-06-30T08:57:00.000-07:00

The Book of Jonah

God says, you are growing up. You can no longer celebrate My love the way a little boy celebrates the care he receives from a good mother, from a tender woman who provides her child with a nutritious meal and a sweet dessert and then, after an hour of play and reading, tucks him into a warm, comfortable bed with the promise of another fun day tomorrow.

Part of growing up, of seeing Me as I am, tempts My followers to run from Me, to establish a safe distance from the distinctly unsafe and inexplicably disagreeable ways I sometimes involve Myself in the lives of those I love.

You are growing up. Your days of naïve worship and shallow but exciting intimacy are
over. It is always difficult for a child to become an adult, to draw close to Me as I AM.

You are wrong to demand My cooperation with your understanding of life. Because I love you and because My plans for you are good, I demand your cooperation with Mine. There is no other way to enjoy My Presence.

I left Jonah with the same question I now ask you: when your life hits a bump that I could smooth but don't, will you continue to think I should surrender My wisdom to yours and do what you think best?

(from 66 Love Letters: A Conversation with God that Invites You into His Story by Dr. Larry Crabb, ©2009.)

Mystically Wired by Ken Wilson

2010-06-29T20:19:00.000-07:00

I've been on a reading kick lately (finally) as you might be able to tell from the number of reviews I've been posting. Fortunately for our budget, I'm getting most of these books for free in exchange for posting my honest reviews. Mystically Wired came from Thomas Nelson Books. The subtitle of this book is "Exploring New Realms in Prayer." I was a bit skeptical originally since that sounded a bit New Agey for my taste, but the book was pretty solidly Christian. Ken Wilson argues that our brains are "wired" to pray, that is to connect with God, and that our thinking about prayer is part of how we get in our own way. The beginning of the book is a bit rough to get through, the good part actually starts about halfway in. This is where the author starts detailing a wide variety of techniques that the average person can use to make their prayer time more effective and less discouraging. Interestingly, many of these were suggestions that I associate with a Catholic perspective- praying through the hours, meditating on verses of the Bible, etc. I've been trying a few of them, mostly while driving, and while I can't say yet if they're helpful or not they are definitely relaxing. The author focuses in on building a consistent prayer habit without trying to bite off too much all at once. Instead, he advocates for one short prayer time each day, then slowly building both in length and frequency. This is a refreshing approach to those of us who had come to feel like if we didn't spend hours each day in heavy prayer then we weren't doing enough. Overall, the second half of this book is a helpful guide to getting the most from your prayer time. The first half of the book is a bit more problematic, although there are some good points to be made.

Scars and Stilettos by Harmony Dust

2010-06-25T07:51:00.002-07:00

This book is subtitled "The Transformation of an Exotic Dancer." It is real, raw, painful, and graphic. It is also a story of hope and redemption.

ABOUT THE BOOK:
Fear of being abandoned keeps nineteen-year-old Harmony Dust trapped in an abusive and cruel relationship. She thinks she has hit bottom-tens of thousands of dollars in debt, struggling to get by, and so controlled by her boyfriend that she doesn't protest when he begins openly sleeping around. Things can't get worse . . . until someone tells her how much money she can make as an exotic dancer. For the next three years, Harmony lives a double life as Monique, a dancer in a fully-nude strip club.
Scars and Stilettos is Harmony's stark, honest, and ultimately hopeful story of how God found her in that dark, noisy place and led her out. She has since married, completed an MA in social welfare, and now leads Treasures, an organization helping women in the sex trade discover their true worth.

"Harmony wrote her story so that you and your friends may get help out of whatever dark tunnel you find yourself in. . . . once you start this book, you will not be able to put it down and you will want to get a copy for every person you know." -Holly Wagner, from the preface

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Harmony Dust is founder of Treasures, a nonprofit organization based in Los Angeles that reaches out to women in the sex industry to show them they are loved, valued, and purposed. Find out more about Treasures, Harmony, and her book at www.IAmATreasure.com or http://www.ScarsandStilettos.com. Check out Harmony's Press Page for magazine articles and videos about her work with women in the sex-trade industry.

I received this book for free as part of the litFUSE book tour, and I think I read it cover to cover in one day. I spent the first half of the book alternating between wanting to give the author a hug, or grab her by the shoulders and shake her. Harmony seems as though she hardly stood a chance- from the beginning she was abused, neglected, and taught that she was of value only for her body. I think part of what struck me was the path that she took to escape that life. It wasn't a straight path, and if I had my math right there were at least a few months where she was attending church some nights and stripping on other nights. There were a few people who simply decided to love her instead of judging her.
Like the preface states, it blows my mind that Harmony decided to willingly go back and minister to the girls who were in the same situation that she was. She created Treasures to help women in the adult entertainment industries get out.
This book is one of the better books that I've read all year. It definitely stands on its own.
To read other reviews of this book, visit the blog tour home page here.

Acts

2010-06-23T08:56:00.000-07:00

The Book of Acts

God says, what My Son began through His birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension, He now continues.

You are not alive in this world in order to experience Me or to enjoy the blessings of a comfortable life. If that were My purpose, I'd have brought you into My Presence in heaven the moment you were forgiven and adopted into My family.

Your purpose until you die is to reveal a new attitude toward suffering and a new agenda in prayer that flows out of your new purpose in life that makes sense only if you claim your new hope of resurrection.

You are now free from slavery to the demands of self: for recognition, for life to go as you want, for good health and prosperity, for freedom from emptiness, and for the experience of fullness.

You are now free to advance the only plan whose promise of joy will be kept.

You are now free to tell people the full message of this new life.

You are now free to really live!

(from 66 Love Letters: A Conversation with God that Invites You into His Story by Dr. Larry Crabb, ©2009.)

Romans

2010-06-16T08:54:00.000-07:00

The Book of Romans

God says, you still tend to approach My letters the way a chess player comes to his game board. G. K. Chesterton was right when he observed that people who play chess with My truth try to get the heavens into their heads, and it's their heads that crack.

Poets, on the other hand, fill their heads with truths that lift their imaginations into the heavens. They are the grown-ups who hear the music of truth and dance like children. Do you want to discover the truth that sings?

It's time for you to pass through the corridors where truth is carefully outlined on the walls, where people take notes and mistake the truth that is living water for the dry dust of mere facts.
These parched souls endlessly analyze the composition of the water I've provided but never seem to realize it was meant for drinking.

Keep moving, not beyond truth but into truth. The corridor opens onto fields where flowers bloom and birds sing. If you listen, you can catch the scent and hear the music while you're still in the corridor.

Let the fragrance and the melody awaken your desire to drink from cool springs and stir your longing to swim in refreshing lakes. Let your time in the corridor achieve its purpose, to increase your capacity to drink more and to strengthen you to swim further, further away from shore, in sight of home.

(from 66 Love Letters: A Conversation with God that Invites You into His Story by Dr. Larry Crabb, ©2009.)

1 Thessalonians

2010-06-09T08:52:00.000-07:00

The Book of 1 Thessalonians

God says, only in unplanned, unarranged, unwelcomed, unmanageable, and thoroughly unenjoyable dark nights will My plan for your maturity unfold.

Listen to what an offbeat follower of Mine, Tim Farrington, wrote in A Hell of Mercy:

"You will be graced with the disaster your soul requires to find its way home."

John of the Cross put it this way:

"No matter how much an individual does through his own efforts, he cannot actively purify himself enough to be disposed in the least degree for the divine union of the perfection of love."

Your frustration with everything, including yourself, makes it possible to turn in deeper dependence to Me. Your weariness requires the strength of supernatural love to continue serving Me. Your haunting sense of futility shuts you up to a kind of endurance that can be sustained only with hope in My Son's return.

You are in a good place.

(from 66 Love Letters: A Conversation with God that Invites You into His Story by Dr. Larry Crabb, ©2009.)

Overcoming Autism by Lynn Kern Koegel and Claire LaZebnik

2010-06-07T07:35:00.000-07:00

This is the first in what will be quite a few upcoming book reviews. I've finally been reminded of how much I like curling up with a good book and I'm determined to start working through the multitude of books that I have set aside waiting to be read. Some are books I bought used, some are books I borrowed from the library, and some are books that I received to review.
The first book is Overcoming Autism by Lynn Kern Koegel and Claire LaZebnik. This book is about...well...overcoming autism. This book is co-written. Lynn Koegel founded and runs the Autism Research Center in Santa Barbara, CA. Claire LaZebnik is a parent of a child with autism. The dual voices of this book provide a good balance between professional advice and been-there done-that parenting testimonials. I actually read this one on the airplane while we were flying to and from Michigan. In a way, this was a particularly good read for me because a lot of the techniques that they advise are things that I am already doing in therapy with my kiddos. However, this books isn't perfect- it has its good points and bad points. Here are some of the pros and cons.
Pros:
-Wide variety of techniques that can be used working with kids who have autism
-This is not a miracle cure book. The authors emphasize that the work is hard and the road is long, but worth it.
-Emphasizes the importance of early intervention and skilled therapists to help the parents learn to help their children.
-Focuses on Pivotal Response Training- encouraging and teaching behaviors in everyday life without the drill and kill approach of traditional ABA.
-Divided up into sections based on the behavior you are trying to encourage or discourage (stimming, communication, picky eating, daily living skills, etc).
-Testimonials from other Claire and other parents keep it real. If you read between the lines you can see that the kids they talk about are at a wide variety of functional levels.

Cons:
-I wish there had been more than one or two techniques given for each goal or situation
-Most of the tips and ideas are geared towards children who are more verbal. There is not as much here for children who are not talking yet.
-At times it seems as though the author lives in a fantasy world in which all kids make rapid, amazing progress as soon as the right techniques are applied. This could be a difficult read for parents of kids who take longer to make progress.

Overall, this one gets 4 out of 5 stars from me. It is a helpful book, and does give some encouragement for walking through that initial period immediately following diagnosis. It is also a hopeful book. The techniques are generally good and possible to implement, and the main downfalls are mostly those that I described above.

Cars

2010-06-05T19:18:00.000-07:00

So I have a very love-hate relationship with cars in general. My job would be literally impossible without one, since sans individual transportation there would be no possible way to cover the amount of ground that I do in a work day. At the same time, I often wish that we could be really frugal and have just one car between Chris and I. With him in school and me working, it just isn't do-able though. Public transportation here isn't the best. I would love to live in Europe or somewhere where public transportation was a viable option. When I was in Denmark, the family that I stayed with didn't even own a car. They got wherever they needed to go using the buses and trains (subway). And so did I. It was great- even without a car I could go wherever I wanted without having to bother anyone for a ride. I had a 45 or so minute commute into downtown Copenhagen in the morning and in the evening. But without actually having to be responsible for driving, I could do anything during that time. Usually it was my time to journal. Or read. Or study. Or sleep (not really- I was too afraid of missing my stop). When I'm responsible for driving the car, the most productive thing I can do is listen to books on tape. Which is better than nothing, but it is still a solitary experience.
And of course, with cars come car problems. Which are never good and always expensive. Which is why our Escort is in the shop again. The air conditioner is on the fritz, and of course it is supposed to be 110*F next week. They figured out that there are a few blown relays. Which aren't that expensive to fix. They also recommended flushing the system, which is a bit more expensive. And apparently there is also a wiring issue that is making the relays burn out, which we've known for years. Fortunately, they're trying to track that down free of charge. Hopefully we'll have the car back Monday. UNfortunately, I just realized that I forgot to get any of my toys out of the car before dropping it off. That could make Monday interesting.

The Book of Jude

2010-06-02T08:50:00.003-07:00

The Book of Jude

God says, My power is sufficient to keep you from falling off the narrow road. But on that road you will feel, more acutely sometimes than others, the unbearable ache of repeated failure to love, of always falling short of My glory.

Don't be surprised by your failure. Instead, be surprised, staggered by My response.

Only in worship will you keep yourself in My love.

Only in brokenness will you know My power to keep you from falling.

As you feel the unbearable ache of failing and being failed, I am able—if in brokenness you worship—to keep you persevering on the only road that will bring you into My Presence, full of joy and ready to dance.

Your failure provides you the opportunity to, once again, celebrate the love you taste from others but fully enjoy only from Me.

That's the gospel.

That's My story.

Contend for it with all your might.

(from 66 Love Letters: A Conversation with God that Invites You into His Story by Dr. Larry Crabb, ©2009.)

2010-05-29T13:58:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know I haven't been doing well at blogging lately. However, we went to Chris' sister's wedding yesterday, and I had some fun playing with my fancy camera. I had mixed luck. I wound up using the Aperture Priority mode since I tried manual mode during the rehearsal and a lot of the pictures were either under or overexposed since it was really sunny. At any rate, the ceremony was beautiful, the food at the reception was good, and they're married now. Here are a few pictures.

The groomsmen and the minister watching everyone else walk in.

First shot of the bride with her Dad.

Nicole stepping off of the podium after their vows. A decent full shot of her dress. I'm not sure how she could walk in it.

A picture of Chris and I that his cousin took.

His cousin's son was the main attention grabber on the reception dance floor. As soon as the music started he was unstoppable, even though it was way past his bedtime.
I had trouble taking pictures at the reception. I had lots of pictures that were either horribly blurred or weirdly lit. I finally settled on the action setting so as to get the fastest shutter speed possible and tried to shoot around the lights as best as I could.

Easter

2010-05-26T08:48:00.001-07:00

Easter: The Book of Revelation

God says, when My Son's kingdom breaks into yours, expect a collision. When His way of relating confronts the world's way of relating, all heaven and hell break loose. The battle is on, a battle to the death and to life.

The side that appears to be losing is winning and will soon win, visibly and decisively. And the side that seems now to have the edge loses forever.

You have been seeking Me for many years. You have heard Me speak to you and you are ready to read My final love letter to you.

Prepare to look at the reality of My kingdom as it's coming right now into your life and into this world.

Prepare to see My Son as you've never seen Him before.

Prepare to listen as the story I tell reveals the movement of history that continually brings you to a crossroad where life-altering choices are required.

I want you to do more than understand My story. I want you to be caught up in it, My truth taken up into your life. Picturing reality in graphic images penetrates through, not around, your mind and into your imagination where true facts become living truth, experienced doctrine. Only then will My truth be taken up into your life.

There is more to reality than meets the naked eye. Only when you are gripped by what is happening in the invisible world will you live well in the visible world.

(from 66 Love Letters: A Conversation with God that Invites You into His Story by Dr. Larry Crabb, ©2009.)

Hunger

2010-05-19T08:50:00.000-07:00

Love Letter Two: Exodus

God says, I can and I will detach you from everything that numbs your sacred hunger for Me and makes you feel hungrier for something other than Me.

You will never on this earth depend fully enough on My power to live exactly as I want you to live. When you see how particular I am about all the rules you should obey but never do, let the weight of My holiness draw you into the delights of My love. I still want to be with you.

Don't ever forget: I do have a plan, a plan to make you deliriously happy in the circle of My love. As you read Exodus 25-40 where I record all those architectural details about the tabernacle, realize the lengths I'm willing to go to be with you. Imagine Me, the God of the universe, clothed in splendor and arrayed in glory, living in, by My standards, a simple tent set up in a barren wilderness. Sure, it was fancy, but compare it to what you imagine heaven to be. But that's where I lived, just to be near people like you.

As you consider all the laws I gave that you've never kept, and as you see My willingness to go camping to be with My people, know this: I will do whatever it takes to fully restore My family and to be with them forever.

(from 66 Love Letters: A Conversation with God that Invites You into His Story by Dr. Larry Crabb, ©2009.)

Decorating on the Cheap

2010-05-15T23:06:00.000-07:00

I finally have an idea of what I want to do decorating-wise in our kitchen (after 5 years here). I've slowly been collecting things that seem to work. The plate racks were a great find and I really like them, especially since the plates had been in our closet for a year or so waiting to figure out how to display them. Here's what I managed to come up with today.

The fake ivy was my garage sale find for the day. $.50 for the three separate plants. I figured for that price if I didn't like them I'd just add them to my next Goodwill bag. But I think this turned out well.

The wine and olive oil containers were things that we've been saving for a while and planning to display. I'm debating filling the clear wine bottle with colored stones or sand, but haven't found anything that seemed to fit the bill yet. The next thing that I'll be looking out for is some sort of curtains that will match the Italian kitchen theme that I'm trying for. Some days I think that the main key to decorating on the cheap is to simply be willing to watch and wait until you find what you're looking for at a good price.

Problems

2010-05-12T08:49:00.000-07:00

Love Letter Three: Leviticus

God says, You want Me to solve your problems, but you don't know what your worst problem is, the one responsible for all the others. You don't yet realize that distance from Me is the most lethal problem you have.

You assume we're doing just fine together while you run off trying to make life work for you and you expect Me to cooperate. When you read Leviticus, notice that I never solve anyone's secondary problems. In all those verses about skin infection, for example, I never prescribed ointment or simply cured the disease, which I easily could have done. I simply told people they couldn't enter My Presence with an oozing sore. The issue was worship and intimacy with Me, not health, wealth, or personal comfort.

So many people miss that. They identify their needs, then view Me as a God who wants them satisfied and happy before I deal with their unholiness. But because I love them--and you--I've made a way for you to revolve your life around Me as your first thing. Everything else--your marriage, your checkbook, your self-esteem, your cancer--is a second thing. When the first thing (namely, Me) is in first place in your life, every second thing will be yours to enjoy.

You've got a long way to go before that's true in your life, but I have a plan to get you there, to make you holy.

(from 66 Love Letters: A Conversation with God that Invites You into His Story by Dr. Larry Crabb, ©2009.)

Less Sick

2010-05-11T21:20:00.000-07:00

Also described as being back to square one. My voice has mostly returned after being gone from Wednesday night through Saturday. I can now breathe through my nose. Oh, and I'm still coughing. See what I mean about being back to square one? I gave in and went to a clinic on Thursday (yes, while I had no voice). Chris went with me to translate, but I still don't think the doc understood that the sinus infection that I had for three days most definitely did NOT cause the cough that I've had for three months. Seems something about that doesn't compute. Anyways, after several days of antibiotics and a prescription-strength cough suppressant I'm still coughing. Maybe not as badly as I was for a while, and I'm starting to think its a mind over matter issue. I've decided that if this is a cough suppressant than it WILL work. Surprisingly enough it seems to be helping. But at least I'm back at work. I can only take just so many days of being home recovering, especially when I can't talk.

So I'm sick

2010-05-06T19:15:00.000-07:00

And not enjoying it. The shelf above my desk looks like a pharmacy, since keeping medicine (and herbals) close by is the only way I can be sure and remember to take them. I have a script for antibiotics, and a heavy duty cough supressant. Oh, and orders to talk as little as possible so as to get my voice back before too long. This is obviously easier said than done. That's right, I lost my voice. I was just getting sufficiently fed up with this cough that I have had for a few months when it morphed into something even ickier. Doc said sinus infection, which I guess makes sense.
People keep asking me why it took me this long to go to a doctor for the cough. Thing is, even though I've had it for a few months, there were weeks in there when it sounded like it was getting better. This is a cough that I get every few years, and other than this year it has always gone away on its own after a month or two. My mom gets a similar one around this time every year as well, so I know I'm not the only one. It wasn't till I finally got tired of listening to myself cough (I think I have more patience with it than most people) that I decided to get myself to a doctor. Somewhere in that time my sinuses seem to have taken the day off.
For someone who very rarely gets sick (and I mean maybe 1 or 2 colds/year), it is rather unnerving to have had four sick days already in 2010. Hopefully once I get rid of this cough everything else will straighten itself out as well. Cause I'm not a good sick person.

Severe Love

2010-05-05T08:47:00.000-07:00

Love Letter Four: Numbers

God says, the road to life is rough. You will begin every new adventure in life with naïve hope and excitement. Every wedding will begin with passion then move into problems. Every decorated nursery will receive a baby that will present unanticipated challenges. Every church plant, every new ministry, every small group that starts with happy hopes-everything you do, no matter how well organized and well intentioned-will run into trouble.

The road to life will expose you to terrible failure and crushing conflict. But only that road leads to the life you want, the life I give you. Spiritual leaders who teach that I am here to solve your problems and make your lives comfortable and prosperous underestimate the energy (and badly misunderstand the nature) of unholiness in the human heart that I must severely deal with to get you to My party.

And that underestimation leads them to underestimate the severity of My love. My servant C. S. Lewis got it right: I'm not safe, but I am good. I will not coddle you any more than a good surgeon only hugs a cancer-stricken child. I will not coddle you, but I will purify you. And that takes more, not less, than a hug.

(from 66 Love Letters: A Conversation with God that Invites You into His Story by Dr. Larry Crabb, ©2009.)

More Thrift Store Finds

2010-04-28T09:45:00.000-07:00

I hit Savers about once each week, as much to drop off a bag of donations as to actually look for things to buy. We're slowly cleaning out closets and actually getting rid of things. I do have a running list of things I'm looking for though, and the past few weeks I've managed to knock a few things off of that list.

I'm slowly working on decorating our kitchen, and I've decided to go with an Italian kitchen type theme. We've had these plates for about a year now, while I thought about how I wanted to display them. I've been keeping an eye out for plate racks, but everything I saw in the store was at least $20 each. I got these two racks at Savers for $17, and I love them! My next project is some sort of curtains for the windows, but once again I'm just going to wait until I find something I like.

I'm still hunting summer shoes and while I haven't found any flats yet I did find this awesome pair of sandals. I had a pair of everyday type black sandals for a while, but they finally got ruined to the point where I had to throw them away. These are my replacement pair, and they'll be perfect for the summer.

Love

2010-04-28T08:45:00.000-07:00

Love Letter Seven: The Book of Judges

God says, I never heal superficially. Many of My people wish I did and think I do. I don't. My plan is to change you from the inside out, to change your motives—why you do what you do—and to change your impact on people so that how you relate to others will make them thirsty for Me and will draw them to dependence on Me.

When you love Me above all else, what you do will bring Me pleasure because your motives, though never pure, will be holy. And when you love others with an authenticity and passion that draws them toward Me, you will feel a little of the pleasure I feel.

Only when people look deeply into themselves will they truly repent. My people in Judges never repented. They remained in love with their own sense of well-being, with no understanding that love, real love, the love that defines Me, involves suffering the loss of well-being for the sake of another.

That lack of understanding is epidemic, not only in culture but in churches today. And it is in you. You and everyone else are inclined to depend on Me for the good life of blessings and to mistake that dependence for love. You're more afraid of losing the good life than of losing (or never gaining) a close relationship with Me. You do not yet see that being with Me is your greatest blessing, no matter what else may be happening in your life.

(from 66 Love Letters: A Conversation with God that Invites You into His Story by Dr. Larry Crabb, ©2009.)

Fun Day

2010-04-24T22:17:00.000-07:00

Well part of our plan was to hit some garage sales today, but we got up and moving too late for that to happen. Which I guess is okay since at this point I'd rather sleep in on Saturday mornings. We headed to Scottsdale, with an eventual destination of Benihanas since Chris had a birthday coupon for one free entree. While driving around aimlessly looking for garage sales that were still open at 1pm (we didn't find any), we passed a Whole Foods and decided to see what all of the fuss was about since we don't have one on our side of town. We walked in and looked around. Final verdict: not too much that was interesting, a bit overpriced, but good free samples (mostly various kinds of crackers and chips). Chris said they had a good selection of different cheeses.
After that we decided that we'd better head to Benihanas, only to find that they were closed between 3 and 5. We walked around a bit since we were in a pretty nice outdoor mall type area. As usual I was wishing for my camera since it was a beautiful day and there were flowers and grass planted in some little clearings. Walked into SteinMart, and we didn't see what the fuss was about (sorry Julie). I'm still in the hunt for some black flat shoes to go with capris, but it seems that I wear a size somewhere between a 6.5 and an 8, depending on the brand, and that very few shoes are actually wide enough for my feet, regardless of what size they are. Really, we just walked around and generally enjoyed the nice weather. Benihanas was good once it got to be 5, although there was a large group of high schoolers there who were all dressed up for prom. By the time we had dinner and made it back home, it was close to 7. Overall, a good day.

Ruth

2010-04-21T08:44:00.000-07:00

Love Letter Eight: The Book of Ruth

God says, no matter what happens in your life, I can reach into your heart with the power to form you into someone who values Me above everyone and everything else. I am determined to reverse your values.

My plan has a happy ending, a wonderful finale far better than you can imagine, but the happy ending is only for the holy. I am committed to your holiness at any cost to Me, required by My nature, and at any cost to you, required by yours, and on whatever timetable is necessary. There are intractable obstacles I must overcome to make you holy. I deal with three in Ruth: natural disadvantages that to you seem more important to overcome than an unholy value system, shattered dreams that bring so much pain into your life that it's difficult to welcome the opportunity they provide for new levels of trust, and material resources that make it easy to disguise narcissism behind non-sacrificial generosity.

Ruth's life is a they-all-lived-happily-ever-after story, but it is not a parable of My power to make life comfortable; it is a parable of My power to make people holy. Know this: holiness and only holiness brings joy. No problem in your life, whether difficult problems such as disadvantages and loss or agreeable problems such as wealth, can stop My plan. Faith and hope together release love. And love is holiness. Hear what I'm saying in this love letter: no matter how dark the world around you, no matter how difficult the world inside you, My plan overcomes all obstacles to holiness.

(from 66 Love Letters: A Conversation with God that Invites You into His Story by Dr. Larry Crabb, ©2009.)

Book Review- The Language of Love and Respect

2010-04-20T20:34:00.000-07:00

According to my e-mail, I've had the book The Language of Love and Respect on my desk and waiting to be reviewed since the end of October '09. Being a fan of the original Love and Respect, I thought for sure I would enjoy this book just as much. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be. While this book is useful and valuable, I was disappointed that it did not offer very many new insights into communication. Instead, it felt more like a rehash of the original Love and Respect, only with some different examples and testimonies thrown in.
Communication is arguably the most important aspect of a marriage. Marriages thrive or fail often based on how well spouses communicate with each other. Unfortunately, men and women see and hear things differently, and this often causes confusion and miscommunication. In short, men hear the language of "respect" while women hear the language of "love". Once men and women are aware of this, then they can get to work learning how to speak and listen in each others languages. This is the basic premise of the book, and people who have already read the original Love and Respect will recognize it well.
These are valuable concepts that have really helped our marriage, but I'd say you should either read the original Love and Respect, or this book, but most people won't need to read both.
*This book was provided for free by Thomas Nelson in exchange for my honest review.

Holiness

2010-04-14T08:42:00.002-07:00

Love Letter Nine: The Book of First Samuel

God says, I'm aware that things go wrong in your life, that family and friends don't always treat you well, that nothing goes exactly as you want it to. I grieve with you over the pain that life causes you. But our priorities differ. You ask what will work to make your life better, to correct the injustice you suffer, to see to it that more things go as they should in your life. I want you to ask what holiness would look like in your situation, whatever it is; holiness that might not right the wrongs you suffer but that would let us enjoy each other.

I tell Samuel's story to let you see how Israel's spiritual leaders, when they saw trouble brewing at the end of Samuel's life, forgot Me—no, they rejected Me—and honored their own agenda to make life work according to their own wisdom. They insisted Samuel appoint a human king, a king other than Me, to lead them. They wanted to fit in with the way other people ran their lives that seemed to be working for them. Israel had never had a king other than Me.

It hurts Me to see My people chase after a lesser good than knowing Me. It disturbs Me to watch them follow so-called proven methods to make good things happen and to value those managerial methods more than the holy and self-denying relating that pleases Me no matter what happens. You will understand My central message in this letter when you understand the tragedy of asking for a king other than Me. Following the ways of another may work for a season. It often leads to the shallow and short-lived laughter of pride in an accomplished agenda.

Following My ways will lead you through trouble and emptiness to real laughter, to the laughter that only persons in holy relationship can enjoy.

(from 66 Love Letters: A Conversation with God that Invites You into His Story by Dr. Larry Crabb, ©2009.)

Forget Me Not- Blog Tour!

2010-04-13T09:20:00.001-07:00

"Crossroads Crisis Center owner Benjamin Brandt was a content man—in his faith, his work, and his family. Then in a flash, everything he loved was snatched away. His wife and son were murdered, and grief-stricken Ben lost faith. Determination to find their killers keeps him going, but after three years of dead ends and torment, his hope is dying too. Why had he survived? He’d failed to protect his family.
Now, a mysterious woman appears at Crossroads seeking answers and help—a victim who eerily resembles Ben’s deceased wife, Susan. A woman robbed of her identity, her life, of everything except her faith—and Susan’s necklace."

Forget Me Not is a suspense/thriller of a novel by Vicki Hinze. I enjoyed this one enough that I read it from cover to cover in one night just to find out what happened (I'm a fast reader). At its heart, this is a story of mistaken and lost identities. The underlying theme is that while life can make us forget WHO we are, that is okay so long as we remember WHOSE we are. I will admit that I had trouble with the myriad of characters and plot lines in this book- the villains cross and double-cross each other frequently, but that's a common problem of mine. I did figure out several of the twists and turns before they actually happened, but that didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story. Overall I'd say that this is a good piece of escapist fiction and I'd be interested in reading more by Vicki Hinze.

*This book was provided for free by Waterbrook Multnomah in exchange for my honest review.

Crochet

2010-04-12T18:08:00.000-07:00

So my newest hobby (cause I need another hobby like I need another hole in my head), is crochet. Liz, one of my co-workers, taught me when we were up in Show-Low for our EI retreat. Thus far I'm enjoying it because it's portable (unlike sewing), and it helps me to keep my hands busy. I can keep a crochet hook and an ongoing project in my car and I have something to do if I end up stuck waiting somewhere. It is also easy to pick up and put down if I only have a few minutes here and there to do something. I watched a few youtube videos to figure out some new tricks (like how to work in a new ball of yarn).
Of course, after that I had to discover Ravelry and their wealth of free patterns. Even for a beginner like me there are more than enough patterns to keep me busy for a long time. I'm currently working on a shawl made from recycled yarn. Oh yeah, that's another thing. I decided to buy a sweater from Savers and see if I could take it apart and reuse the yarn. The answer is yes, but... As in yes, but I'm not sure it's worth it. I definitely saved the money I would have spent buying yarn (it's expensive), but with how much time it took me to unwind the sweater (I'm still only about 2/3 done), I think I would rather have just watched for a good sale and bought the yarn. Anyways, that yarn is bluish green and is currently being made into a prayer shawl that will hopefully be donated to charity. I may or may not remember to take a picture of it when it is finished, since this blog has had a distinct lack of pictures lately.
I also caught a good deal on some Sugar 'n Cream cotton on ebay from someone who was clearing out her stash. That should hold me for a while and I have plans for lots of little projects, including a few for friends who are currently pregnant. I also have a skein of bamboo yarn that is sort of an odd color (it is labeled coral), that I don't know what to do with. I'm half tempted to just curl up and pet it though- it's so soft.

Trust

2010-04-07T08:39:00.002-07:00

God says, only when you see the moral evil in the human heart will you surrender to the mystery of My plan.

In this world, I am destroying moral evil in My people. In the next, I will eliminate natural evil. You must trust that I permit terrible things, natural evil that grieves My heart far more than yours, as part of the process of destroying the moral evil that offends My heart. In ways you cannot understand, I have the power and wisdom needed to move My plan forward through the evil of bombs and the injustice of suffering.

No matter how great your pain or how confusing and intense your suffering, live in the mystery of My love. Struggle to trust Me.

Do not live with the priority of making your life in this world as good as you can make it. You will suffer, at times unfairly, but you will be given what you need to enter strongly and wisely with supernatural love into every circumstance you face.

Doing so will be your joy, your hope, and your deepest fulfillment now as you look forward to a world where every child runs and laughs.

(from 66 Love Letters: A Conversation with God that Invites You into His Story by Dr. Larry Crabb, ©2009.)

Strange Things that Run Through my Head

2010-04-05T22:44:00.000-07:00

Really, I think this could be an entire category, not just a title. If I could figure out a way to dictate blog posts while I was driving, this blog would get updated a.lot more often. Anyways, today's thought was a word.
Transmogrification. I had to come home and look it up, since I thought I knew what it meant but I wasn't sure. Turns out I was fairly close after all. "Transmogrification- the act of transmogrifying, or the state of being transmogrified." Yeah, very helpful. Makes me think politicians are now writing dictionaries. Fortunately, we also have this, "The process or result of changing from one appearance, state, or phase, to another, especially a fantastic or grotesque one." Ah hah. That's better.
Just in case you were wondering.
There's your new word for the day.
You're welcome.

Eating Healthy Without Going Broke Part 3- Plan and Preserve

2010-04-04T08:33:00.002-07:00

If your goal is to eat healthy without going broke, then you have probably already searched out the best prices on the big ticket items are in your budget. You might even have started shopping locally for produce or joined a co-op. Unfortunately, having a refrigerator full of fresh, healthy, produce won't do you any good if it doesn't get used up. In your quest to eat healthy, planning for and preserving your food is an absolute necessity.
Even though you are focusing on eating healthy and locally, don't neglect the idea of meal planning. It may look a little bit different, but you can still plan meals based around what is in season in your area. If you are a part of a produce co-op, plan your menu for the week AFTER you get your share of produce. This allows you to plan to use up your food and will tell you what else you may need in order to supplement the items that you receive. Do the same thing if you are going to the farmer's market. Get an idea of what is in season and then plan your menu based around what you buy. It may even help to wash and chop fruits and vegetables when you get home so that they will be easy to use when it is time to cook dinner.
Besides planning meals that use up the produce that you buy, it also helps to learn the best ways to preserve different types of foods. This allows you to purchase things in bulk when they are in season and store for when that season passes. For example, there are certain times of the year when our produce basket will include several pounds of apples and pears each week. Since there is no way that Chris and I can eat that many apples and pears, I collect them for a few weeks then make a large batch of applesauce. I divide it up and freeze it, then use it in baking (you can substitute it 1:1 for oil, up to using 2T of oil and the rest applesauce). This allows me to make sure that all of those apples and pears get used up, and lets me stock up on applesauce that I can use later. I do something similar whenever we get melons in our produce basket. Those get cut, frozen on cookie sheets, and loaded into gallon ziploc bags for use in my summer smoothies. If you're creative, many, many different types of fruits and vegetables can be frozen for later use. Many types of produce can also be canned or dehydrated, although I haven't ever done either of these. The key is to plan and preserve so that you can use what you have, either now, or at a later date.

Indecision

2010-03-31T09:27:00.000-07:00

Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: Keep A Quiet Heart
Scripture Reference: James 1:6-8

Indecision
It is painfully obvious that many young people today have an awful time making up their minds about anything. They're not "really sure" what college to go to, what to major in, whom to room with, what career to prepare for, whether or whom to marry, whether to bother with children if they do marry, when to bother with them, what to do with them if they get them, whether to attempt to instill any values in their children (not to make up your mind on this issue is, of course, already to have instilled a value in the mind of the child).
Garry Trudeau, author of the cartoon "Doonesbury," has noticed this prevalent indecisiveness. In one strip he has a young man appearing for an interview with the president of an advertising company.
"So you want to be an ad man, eh, son?" says the executive.
"Well, I think so, sir," says the youth. "I mean, I can't be certain, of course, but it seemed worth looking into, you know, to see if it worked out, if it felt right and... I... uh..."
I guess there's nothing new about indecision. James wrote about it in his epistle, and he shows that the remedy for it is trust. He tells us to ask for wisdom if we don't know what to do. "But when you ask him, be sure that you really expect him to tell you, for a doubtful mind will be as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind; and every decision you then make will be uncertain, as you turn first this way and then that. If you don't ask with faith, don't expect the Lord to give you any solid answer" (James 1:6-8, LB).

2010-03-30T20:41:00.000-07:00

Frequently during the day I have interesting thoughts, but I almost never have a chance to write them down since I'm always in the car. However, I did manage to jot one down today while listening to the radio.
The Third Day song "I Believe" came on (apparently it's a cover of a song that Rich Mullins wrote). Anyways, the lyric is, "I believe what I believe is what makes me who I am." The thought that came to me was, "with apologies to Third Day (and Rich Mullins), I believe that what I do about what I believe is what makes me who I am."
I spent the rest of the day mulling over the difference between those two ideas, if indeed there are any. Personally, I think there are. I can (and sometimes do) talk all day about what I believe. I'm rather opinionated in many cases, so a lot of times this comes pretty easily to me. Thing is, I can talk till I'm blue in the face without it meaning anything. I'm one of those people who doesn't trust what others say unless they back it up with some action. People who don't do what they say they will do aren't trustworthy in my book. This extends to the small things as much as the big things. I have to assume that if I think this way I can't possibly be the only one. Therefore, what I do matters just as much, if not more, than what I say. If I say one thing, but act differently, which one of those really shows what it is that I believe?

Eating Healthy Without Going Broke Part 2- Go Local

2010-03-28T09:13:00.000-07:00

In the first part of my series on eating healthy without going broke I talked about figuring out what the big ticket items were in your grocery budget, and working at saving money on those things. Looking for the best return for the lowest effort is a great way to trim your grocery bill.
Besides this, another way to trim your bill while drastically increasing the quality of what you're eating is to shop locally for produce as much as possible. As we get closer to summer, this will get easier and easier in most parts of the country. It actually gets more difficult in Phoenix though because there are some things that just can't survive the heat here.
Chris and I have talked about this for quite a few years, but we are just starting to really get good at shopping locally. One thing that we do is partake in a food co-op called Bountiful Baskets. I've blogged about it before here, but it is a really great way for us to get lots of fresh produce into our diets. Even better, Bountiful Baskets has expanded into parts of Utah, Idaho, Nevada, and Washington, in addition to Arizona. If you are interested in trying it but afraid that you won't be able to eat an entire basket of produce, find someone to split one with and take turns picking up the order. Besides the co-op, we've made a habit of going to the Phoenix Farmer's market most weekends and getting produce there. If you want to find the farmer's markets in your area, check out Local Harvest. Farmer's markets can be a great way to get local produce at a good price, and many also feature other locally made items. I've seen everything from cheese, to farm fresh eggs, to homemade jewelry.
Of course, you can't get much more local than your own backyard, and growing your own food is a great way to eat healthy without going broke. Every year we think about starting a garden, make some small efforts towards starting a garden, and then never actually go through with it. However this year we have managed to transplant and keep alive some mint, a basil plant, and exactly one tomato plant. Fortunately, the tomatoes on the plant are ripening nicely, and even growing the mint and basil is saving us money that we would normally spend buying herbs. If you have a greener thumb than we do, even a small garden can save you a bundle on produce.
To conclude, if you want to eat healthy without going broke, try going local. Look for a food co-op, visit a local farm, or frequent your farmer's market. You can even try growing your own fruits and vegetables. The closer to home your food is, the less you will be paying to transport and preserve it, and the fresher it will be when it gets to your table.

Broken Things

2010-03-24T09:26:00.000-07:00

Author: Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
Source: Streams in the Desert
Scripture Reference: Job 41:25

Broken Things
"By reason of breakings they purify themselves" (Job 41:25).

God uses most for His glory those people and things which are most perfectly broken. The sacrifices He accepts are broken and contrite hearts. It was the breaking down of Jacob's natural strength at Peniel that got him where God could clothe him with spiritual power. It was breaking the surface of the rock at Horeb, by the stroke of Moses' rod that let out the cool waters to thirsty people.

It was when the 300 elect soldiers under Gideon broke their pitchers, a type of breaking themselves, that the hidden lights shone forth to the consternation of their adversaries. It was when the poor widow broke the seal of the little pot of oil, and poured it forth, that God multiplied it to pay her debts and supply means of support.

It was when Esther risked her life and broke through the rigid etiquette of a heathen court, that she obtained favor to rescue her people from death. It was when Jesus took the five loaves and broke them, that the bread was multiplied in the very act of breaking, sufficient to feed five thousand. It was when Mary broke her beautiful alabaster box, rendering it henceforth useless, that the pent-up perfume filled the house. It was when Jesus allowed His precious body to be broken to pieces by thorns and nails and spear, that His inner life was poured out, like a crystal ocean, for thirsty sinners to drink and live.

It is when a beautiful grain of corn is broken up in the earth by DEATH, that its inner heart sprouts forth and bears hundreds of other grains. And thus, on and on, through all history, and all biography, and all vegetation, and all spiritual life, God must have BROKEN THINGS.

Those who are broken in wealth, and broken in self-will, and broken in their ambitions, and broken in their beautiful ideals, and broken in worldly reputation, and broken in their affections, and broken ofttimes in health; those who are despised and seem utterly forlorn and helpless, the Holy Ghost is seizing upon, and using for God's glory. "The lame take the prey," Isaiah tells us.

O break my heart; but break it as a field
Is by the plough up-broken for the corn;
O break it as the buds, by green leaf seated,
Are, to unloose the golden blossom, torn;
Love would I offer unto Love's great Master,
Set free the odor, break the alabaster.

O break my heart; break it victorious God,
That life's eternal well may flash abroad;
O let it break as when the captive trees,
Breaking cold bonds, regain their liberties;
And as thought's sacred grove to life is springing,
Be joys, like birds, their hope, Thy victory singing. --Thomas Toke Bunch

This classic devotional is the unabridged edition of Streams in the Desert. This first edition was published in 1925 and the wording is preserved as originally written. Connotations of words may have changed over the years and are not meant to be offensive.

Almost...

2010-03-22T22:52:00.000-07:00

I've been carrying my small camera in my purse for a few weeks (soon after I hit 99,000) so that I could be sure to catch a picture when it happened. My main worry was either that I would forget to notice, or that I would be on the freeway or somewhere else that would make it impossible to pull over and take a picture. Fortunately, it didn't happen that way.

I was on a nearly empty residential road, so I just pulled over quick and snapped a few pictures. This little car of mine has been through a lot in the 8(?) years that I've had it. Multiple trips between school and home (a 4 hour drive), including a few trips when it was snowing. Driving cross country with me, Chris, and everything we could stuff in the back seat and trunk (not much). Being relegated to a second car after we bought our Alero, then our Elantra. And of course, being my work car for the past 3 years, complete with a backseat that is overflowing with toys. Over 15,000 miles per year, just for work. That includes one very long and uncomfortable summer with no air conditioning. Thankfully that not so small issue is fixed and the AC seems to be working just fine. It also survived getting rear-ended by a pickup truck, which technically totaled the car, even though it still runs fine, despite the dent in the back end. Overall, this car has served us well.

Eating Healthy Without Going Broke Part 1- Focus

2010-03-21T22:12:00.000-07:00

Now I wouldn't say we're the experts on this, and there are only two of us in this house, so some of these may not apply to everyone. However, because Chris likes to cook and to experiment with different foods we eat pretty well. This includes more meat than we probably should, and on a lower grocery budget than many people use. Besides that, we eat healthy. Since everyone knows about cutting coupons and shopping the sales, this will be a series of posts about more unusual things that we do to keep our grocery budget under control while still eating well.
Tip 1. Focus on the bigger ticket items that will net you the most savings. For example, we cook almost exclusively with olive oil. To the tune of a liter or two of it each month. Because olive oil is such a large part of our grocery budget, we did some searching to find quality olive oil at a good price. For a long time we were buying it at a local bulk store that does not charge for memberships. This was a pretty good deal, and we would go several times per year and stock up on enough olive oil to last a few months.
However, recently I realized that Amazon actually stocks a really great olive oil at a lower price than anywhere else I've found. It is this Zoe olive oil. We do the Subscribe and Save option, which actually makes it about $17 for two liters. For us, this is about one months worth of olive oil, so I have the delivery set to that frequency. The olive oil arrives at our door automatically every month. Even better, I turn my Swagbucks in for $5 Amazon gift cards, which means that I rarely pay the full $17 for olive oil each month. Besides the fact that the price is great, this is some great-tasting olive oil. If we run out early and I buy a small bottle of oil from the store I can definitely taste the difference.
Along the same lines, we also usually make our own yogurt. Because Chris cooks a lot of Middle Eastern foods and I drink yogurt smoothies daily in the summer, we use a lot of yogurt. I'm picky and won't buy yogurt that has anything but cultured milk in it, which eliminates most of the less expensive brands that contain corn starch. We also particularly love Greek yogurt, which is even more expensive. Because of this, it makes sense for us to make our own yogurt, particularly when it is so easy. We use these instructions for crock pot yogurt. The times listed there are a bit off because we use a 6 quart crock pot and about a gallon and a half of milk. It takes us about 12-18 hours from start to finish, but the amount of actual effort involved is minimal, especially with a thermometer that has an alarm. The difference in cost between a gallon of milk and a quart of yogurt is enough that it is worth it for us to make our own yogurt.
In your house, the items with the biggest return might be different. Maybe your family doesn't do yogurt, but they eat a lot of bread. In that case it might be worth it for you to make bread from scratch and buy the yogurt. We rarely eat bread, so when we want some we buy a loaf of good whole wheat bread. If your family eats three boxes of cereal each week, it may be worth looking into making granola from scratch.
Everyone is different, and its no secret that cooking from scratch takes more time than buying a product. However, its generally less expensive for better quality. Figure out which things you use often enough to make it worth the time to make it instead of buying, then focus on those things. If you can find a better price on one of your big ticket items, this will free up your grocery money for other things.

2010-03-20T22:58:00.000-07:00

I'm back at the quilting again, although its all in pieces so I don't have any pictures. One of my goals this year is to finish ONE quilt. Since it took me a bit over 2 years to finish my sister's quilt, I figure that's a reasonable goal. I had the main fabric and now that's all cut out. Chris and I went to the fabric store today to get what I needed for the background, so once I get that cut I can start piecing things together (once we un-bury the sewing machine). Besides that, I also have four different ideas for scrap quilts, so I'm collecting bits and pieces for those as well. I sorted through my fabric collection yesterday and broke it down into some manageable boxes, and was setting aside scrap pieces as I went along. Today I spent some time cutting them to size and separating them into gallon Ziploc bags so that I can just add more fabric as I create scraps. I have pieces for one, and possibly two, ticker tape quilts although my scraps are larger than the ones they seem to be using. I'm also collecting long strips for a string quilt, but I can't find the picture that goes with the directions I remember. Besides all of that, I'm slowly collecting squares for an I Spy quilt, but that will be an ongoing project for a while I think since I want to make it out of 2" squares. All in all, I'd say I have more than enough projects to keep me busy for quite a while.

Lay it Aside

2010-03-17T09:24:00.000-07:00

Available for handheld devices through AvantGo!

Author: Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
Source: Streams in the Desert
Scripture Reference: Hebrews 12:1

Satan's Tools
"Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and, let us run with patience the race that is set before us" (Heb. 12:1).
There are weights which are not sins in themselves, but which become distractions and stumbling blocks in our Christian progress. One of the worst of these is despondency. The heavy heart is indeed a weight that will surely drag us down in our holiness and usefulness.
The failure of Israel to enter the land of promise began in murmuring, or, as the text in Numbers literally puts it, "as it were murmured." Just a faint desire to complain and be discontented. This led on until it blossomed and ripened into rebellion and ruin. Let us give ourselves no liberty ever to doubt God or His love and faithfulness to us in everything and forever.
We can set our will against doubt just as we do against any other sin; and as we stand firm and refuse to doubt, the Holy Spirit will come to our aid and give us the faith of God and crown us with victory.
It is very easy to fall into the habit of doubting, fretting, and wondering if God has forsaken us and if after all our hopes are to end in failure. Let us refuse to be discouraged. Let us refuse to be unhappy. Let us "count it all joy" when we cannot feel one emotion of happiness. Let us rejoice by faith, by resolution, by reckoning, and we shall surely find that God will make the reckoning real.--Selected
The devil has two master tricks. One is to get us discouraged; then for a time at least we can be of no service to others, and so are defeated. The other is to make us doubt, thus breaking the faith link by which we are bound to our Father. Lookout! Do not be tricked either way.--G.E.M.
Gladness! I like to cultivate the spirit of gladness! It puts the soul so in tune again, and keeps it in tune, so that Satan is shy of touching it--the chords of the soul become too warm, or too full of heavenly electricity, for his infernal fingers, and he goes off somewhere else! Satan is always very shy of meddling with me when my heart is full of gladness and joy in the Holy Ghost.
My plan is to shun the spirit of sadness as I would Satan; but, alas! I am not always successful. Like the devil himself it meets me on the highway of usefulness, looks me so fully in my face, till my poor soul changes color!
Sadness discolors everything; it leaves all objects charmless; it involves future prospects in darkness; it deprives the soul of all its aspirations, enchains all its powers, and produces a mental paralysis!
An old believer remarked, that cheerfulness in religion makes all its services come off with delight; and that we are never carried forward so swiftly in the ways of duty as when borne on the wings of delight; adding, that Melancholy clips such wings; or, to alter the figure, takes off our chariot wheels in duty, and makes them, like those of the Egyptians, drag heavily.

2010-03-15T22:15:00.000-07:00

I'm sure Murphy's Law states somewhere that good blogging ideas will ONLY come to me when I have NO chance at getting them written down or retained in any way. To be precise, they usually come to me when I'm in the car. Occasionally I'll try to jot one down in my handy dandy mileage notebook, but depending on exactly what sort of driving I'm doing that can be a chancy proposition and I try to avoid it. So most of the good ideas get relegated to the land of "I sure hope I remember this later" which of course I don't.
We have family in town. Chris' mom, 2 aunts, a cousin and her little boy. The boy is about 15 months and insanely cute. He also seems to adore me for some reason that I can't fathom. It's their annual spring break trip out here, although I do have to admit everyone seems to be taking it a bit easier than usual. Generally whenever we go over his aunt's house there are at least 3 sewing machines running at any given time and they all sew long into the night. It was actually during one of these so-called vacations that I learned to sew. That was the same year I broke my aunt's 1/4" foot. She was NOT happy about that. Anyways, it's usually a great time for me to get some work done on whatever my current project is but this year they seem to be spending more time visiting every quilting store in the valley. Their project this year is machine applique, which I think I'd like to learn once I finish what I'm working on. Only problem is finding a project that isn't flowers or homestead-y looking- yeah, Chris' aunts and I have different tastes. Granted, that is once I finish the quilt I'm currently working on. Judging from the fact that I'm still cutting pieces and haven't bought background fabric yet I'd say I have a while to go. One of my goals this year was to finish one quilt, so I guess I'd better actually work on it periodically. Granted, I have no idea what I'll actually do with it when I finish it, but I'm sure something will present itself.

My Life for Yours

2010-03-10T09:23:00.000-07:00

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

My Life for Yours
About ten years ago, a young Canadian woman sat in the assembly hall at the University of Illinois in Urbana, along with seventeen thousand other students attending InterVarsity's missionary convention. She thrilled to the singing of the great hymns, led by Bernie Smith. She heard the peakers. "I remember the incredible excitement and desire to know and serve God that I experienced at that time. Now I have walked through some deep waters, and I feel compelled to write to you," her letter to me said. She had read two of my books just before the convention, and I happened to have been among the speakers. Another was Helen Roseveare, author of Give Me This Mountain and other books. At the time, Barbara was especially moved by the thought of the cost of declaring God's glory. Her letter told me this story:
Three years after Urbana she married Gerry Fuller, "a wonderful man who demonstrated zeal for Christ, a passion for souls, a beautiful compassion for hurting, broken people who needed to know the healing love of Jesus Christ." Following seminary and student pastorates, he became a prison chaplain and an inner-city missionary. Then he married Barbara and together they worked in Saint John, New Brunswick, with street kids, ex-convicts, and glue-sniffers.
The time came when Barbara saw Gerry seeking the Lord with such great intensity it made her question her own commitment to Christ. Was she prepared to die to self as he was? What was it that drove him to pray as he did--at least once until four in the morning? Was her own love for the Lord as deep as his, or was it perhaps shadowed by her love for her husband?
Gerry had a nephew named Gary, "a quiet guy with an artistic nature and talents that had been squelched as a child, leaving him very insecure, undisciplined." He couldn't hold down a job, got in trouble with the law. When relatives consented to his using their vacation cottage, a neighboring cottage was broken into. The owner called Gerry to say that his gun had been taken; Gary was the prime suspect, but they didn't want to call the police until they'd called Gerry.
Gerry was "scared stiff," but knew what he had to do the next day; put his whole trust in God, go to the cottage, try to persuade his nephew to turn himself in. He and Barbara went to bed.
Next morning when they prayed together he asked the Holy Spirit especially to strengthen Barbara in raising little Josh and Ben. Should she go with him to see Gary? She was relieved that his answer was no--"If anything happens to him, the children will need me," was the thought that flashed into her mind.
Gerry said goodbye. Barbara fasted, prayed, cared for the little boys, worked in the garden, waited. All day she waited. He did not come. Oh well, Gerry was always late for everything. No doubt they were deep in conversation. He had tried so often to help Gary. Lord, may He help him now.
At last the sound of a car. Eagerly Barbara looked up from her weeding. It was the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. She froze, then fell to the ground sobbing. Gerry was dead. But looking up at the bewildered faces of her sons, four and two years old, she pulled herself together, took their little hands, and told them Daddy was with Jesus and they wouldn't see him again for a long time. "From that point on there was the sense of being carried through the whole dream-like event. God surrounded me with His presence and an overwhelming sense that 'It's all right.' I knew He was in charge."
The murder was a deliberate act. Gary is serving a life sentence in a penitentiary with some who were led to Christ through Gerry's witness. They loved Gerry, but for love of his Lord they have forgiven his killer. A number of lives have been changed as a result of his testimony, but "in spite of the good things that came of his death there is always the WHY," Barbara writes. "As you say, we must let God be God. It's hard to explain, though, to a tired three-year-old when he wails, 'I miss Daddy!'
"One of my greatest blessings and comforts came as a surprise about six weeks after my husband's death when I discovered that I was pregnant with a baby conceived the eve of his homegoing. And how like the Lord and His perfect timing to present me with a beautiful child on Easter Sunday--the girl I had prayed for. Her name is Marah Grace and it is by God's grace that she has made my bitter wafers sweet.
"People say I am brave, but I don't see any great bravery in walking through one of the difficult experiences of life. God is the One who strengthens us at the time for the things we must face. My greatest fear was the fear of losing Gerry, but when the time came God swooped under me as a great bird and carried me on eagle's wings above the storm.
"So that is my story. I wanted to share it with you--I feel somewhat akin to you. My husband went in obedience to God, well aware of the danger, and laid down his life for Christ's sake. My task is to follow that example and to instill in my children the values Gerry and I shared: the supreme value of knowing Jesus Christ and serving Him with our whole selves."
Thank you, dear Barbara, for being one more faithful witness to a wholly faithful and sovereign Lord. Like Jim Elliot, Gerry knew that "he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." He would have understood the motto of the Coast.

Writing Prompt: about writing

2010-03-07T22:17:00.000-07:00

Writing with pen or pencil, typewriter or computer. What is best for you?

Another prompt pulled from my list with the help of the Random Number Generator. Its been long enough that I don't even know where that list of writing prompts came from. There are over 600 of them on my list- I think I culled them from a lot of different sources. And that's still not nearly as bad as my collection of quotes. Probably 60 pages worth. I used to use them for typing practice.
Anyways, the prompt. Since I love to write, this one is appropriate. Between pen or pencil, my obvious choice is for pen. Pencil smudges all over my hand (I'm a lefty), and I don't like the way pencils squeak on paper. Although I am picky about my pens. I only like these ball point pens. They can be tough to find though- I tend to pick up a pack whenever I see them for a decent price. I write enough for work that I actually run them out of ink before I lose or break them. I don't like the gel ink ones- they always smudge, and I hate cheap BIC pens- they never write well for me.
Between typewriter and computer, the choice is also easy. Although I have used a typewriter (I think my mom may still have her electric one), I'm a child of the computer (albeit the first generation).
Now between pen and paper and the computer the choice is a bit more difficult. I love journalling on pen and paper, but it is a habit that I haven't managed to keep up. When I was in college I journaled voraciously. I filled about 13 spiral bound journals in 4 years of school. Unfortunately, I've managed to fill about one and a half in the 5 (almost 6) years since graduation. It isn't that I don't like to journal any more, I've just sort of fallen out of the habit. 'Course I used to take sermon notes in my journal too, but that's more difficult since we aren't going to church regularly at the moment. Another problem with journaling is that my hand gets tired quickly. It isn't from lack of practice writing- I hand-write my notes every day for work. Still the best way for me to think is with a pen in my hand. I used to find it difficult to think and type at the same time, but thankfully that has gotten better and I can compose my thoughts pretty well at the computer. There's just something about putting pen to paper that I miss though. Besides, actually finishing my spiral bound journals would give me an excuse to get new ones since I still have a few waiting to be used.

Fluxx...the game with changing rules

2010-03-05T08:56:00.000-07:00

In our never-ending quest for games that play well with two people, Chris and I have played a lot of games. However, Fluxx is one that we keep coming back to. We've played it on our own, and its also a great filler game at the hobby shop since its a fairly fast game. We've played nearly every version there is, including the standard version. We have tried Zombie Fluxx, Martian Fluxx,and Monty Python Fluxx. We own the standard version of Fluxx, and bought another copy as a birthday gift for a friend.
This game is very easy to learn and understand. It starts with one simple rule- draw one card, then play one card. The object of the game is to get a collection of "keepers" in front of you that matches the current goal. The trick is that the rules are constantly changing, or in flux. The number of cards that you can draw, play, or have in your hand changes, as does the number of keepers that you can have out at any time. Besides that, the goal also changes frequently. A game of Fluxx can be over in 5 minutes or go on for a half hour or more. There are a few other minor rules, but those are the basics. Each version of Fluxx has its own quirks- I think Zombie Fluxx is my personal favorite although there are a few too many Zombies to go around when there are only two players. Monty Python Fluxx was difficult because a card came out requiring everyone to speak in a phony French accent and that got old quickly. The original version of Fluxx is probably the best balanced for two people since there are only a few Creepers.
Overall, Fluxx is a funny game that is easy to learn and endlessly replayable. Serious gamers may not like the lack of strategy here, but it is nice when everyone is on a level playing field.

Nothing Too Hard

2010-03-03T09:21:00.000-07:00

Author: Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
Source: Streams in the Desert
Scripture Reference: Genesis 18:14

Nothing is Too Hard
"Is there anything too hard for Jehovah?" (Gen. 18:14).
Here is God's loving challenge to you and to me today. He wants us to think of the deepest, highest, worthiest desire and longing of our hearts, something which perhaps was our desire for ourselves or for someone dear to us, yet which has been so long unfulfilled that we have looked upon it as only a lost desire, that which might have been but now cannot be, and so have given up hope of seeing it fulfilled in this life.
That thing, if it is in line with what we know to be His expressed will (as a son to Abraham and Sarah was), God intends to do for us, even if we know that it is of such utter impossibility that we only laugh at the absurdity of anyone's supposing it could ever now come to pass. That thing God intends to do for us, if we will let Him.
"Is anything too hard for the Lord?" Not when we believe in Him enough to go forward and do His will, and let Him do the impossible for us. Even Abraham and Sarah could have blocked God's plan if they had continued to disbelieve.
The only thing too hard for Jehovah is deliberate, continued disbelief in His love and power, and our final rejection of His plans for us. Nothing is too hard for Jehovah to do for them that trust Him --Messages for the Morning Watch

Whew!

2010-02-28T23:53:00.000-07:00

After a crazy-busy week I finally feel human again- just in time to start another week! Last week had plenty going on though. Besides my normal work schedule the week also found us a large writing project- 45 500-word articles in 5 days. It more or less eliminated any free time last week, although the pay is worth it since the money from this ongoing article writing is going to help us finally pay off our air conditioner (one of our goals for the year). It isn't always that busy- this week was a last-minute project that needed to get done quickly because someone else bailed out. I don't really mind the work, it is just hard some weeks to fit it all in. And of course the last thing I feel like doing amidst a massive writing project is sitting down to blog.

We also found out late this past week that the Family Cost Participation (FCP) is going to be delayed until at least May '10. This is good news, good news, and yet irritating at the same time. Of course it is great news for our families who were going to have to reduce or eliminate their services because they couldn't afford to pay. It gets tricky, though, because we were already picking up new kids to replace the ones we were anticipating losing on March 1. That could leave us with very full schedules/caseloads for a few weeks until we get it all sorted out again. Leave it to the state to wait till the last minute to decide they couldn't pull it all off that quickly.

Thankfully after a busy week we had a good weekend. Friday was a birthday party for a friend. After all of the adults left we played Apples to Apples. Very random as far as who wins, but a good party game since you can play and socialize and its very quick to teach.

Whew!

2010-02-28T23:37:00.000-07:00

After a crazy-busy week I finally feel human again- just in time to start another week! Last week had plenty going on though. Besides my normal work schedule the week also found us a large writing project- 45 500-word articles in 5 days. It more or less eliminated any free time last week, although the pay is worth it since the money from this ongoing article writing is going to help us finally pay off our air conditioner (one of our goals for the year). It isn't always that busy- this week was a last-minute project that needed to get done quickly because someone else bailed out. I don't really mind the work, it is just hard some weeks to fit it all in. And of course the last thing I feel like doing amidst a massive writing project is sitting down to blog.

We also found out late this past week that the Family Cost Participation (FCP) is going to be delayed until at least May '10. This is good news, good news, and yet irritating at the same time. Of course it is great news for our families who were going to have to reduce or eliminate their services because they couldn't afford to pay. It gets tricky, though, because we were already picking up new kids to replace the ones we were anticipating losing on March 1. That could leave us with very full schedules/caseloads for a few weeks until we get it all sorted out again. Leave it to the state to wait till the last minute to decide they couldn't pull it all off that quickly.

Thankfully after a busy week we had a good weekend. Friday was a birthday party for a friend of ours. After all of the adults left we played Apples to Apples. Very random as far as who wins, but a good party game since its easy to teach and you can socialize at the same time. Saturday we spent mostly just relaxing and unwinding, then Sunday we hung out with a small group of friends from the game shop.

Of course, I have a million ideas for things I want to blog about. I need to keep a list somewhere. I have games I want to review, books I need to read and review, and just chattering to do.

Stillness

2010-02-24T09:21:00.001-07:00

Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: Keep A Quiet Heart
Scripture Reference: Lamentations 3:26 Isaiah 30:15 Job 34:29 Psalm 46:10

Stillness
Full moon on a silver sea, throwing into sharp relief the luminous rocks. I sat in the antique rocking chair by the window, a cup of hot Postum in my hand, fascinated by the undulation of great swaths of foam on the ocean, almost fluorescent in the moonlight.
Stillness. Perfect stillness. It is a very great gift, not always available to those who would most appreciate it and would find joy in it, and often not appreciated by those who have it but are uncomfortable with it. External noise is inescapable in many places--traffic on land and in the air, sirens, horns, chain saws, loud voices and, perhaps worst of all, screaming rock music with thundering amplification which makes the very ground shudder.
I think it is possible to learn stillness--but only if it is seriously sought. God tells us, "Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10, NIV). "In quietness and confidence shall be your strength" (Isaiah 30:15, KJV).
The stillness in which we find God is not superficial, a mere absence of fidgeting or talking. It is a deliberate and quiet attentiveness--receptive, alert, ready. I think of what Jim Elliot wrote in his Journal: "Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God."
This is not so difficult, perhaps, for a sports fan, eyes riveted on the game. For me, however, this quietness in the presence of God, this being "all there" for Him, though I treasure it and long for it, is not easy to maintain, even in the beautiful place where I live. I am easily distracted, more so, it seems, as soon as I try to focus on God Himself and nothing else. Why should this be? I think C.S. Lewis puts his finger right on it in The Screwtape Letters, which purports to be the correspondence between Screwtape, under-secretary to the devil, and his nephew, Wormwood, instructing him in the best ways to tempt the followers of the Enemy, God:
"My dear Wormwood: Music and silence--how I detest them both! How thankful we should be that ever since our Father entered Hell--though longer ago than humans, reckoning in light years, could express, no square inch of infernal space and no moment of infernal time has been surrendered to either of those abominable forces, but all has been occupied by Noise--Noise, the grand dynamism, the audible expression of all that is exultant, ruthless, and virile--Noise which alone defends us from silly qualms, despairing scruples, and impossible desires. We will make the whole universe a noise in the end. We have already made great strides in this direction as regards the Earth. The melodies and silences of Heaven will be shouted down in the end. But I admit we are not yet loud enough, or anything like it. Research is in progress."
C.S. Lewis died in 1963. Research in noise-making has made considerable progress since then, don't you think? To learn stillness we must resist our ancient foe, whose craft and power are great, and who is armed with cruel hate. There is One far greater who is on our side. His voice brought stillness to fierce winds and wild waves, and He will surely help us if we put ourselves firmly and determinedly in His presence--"I'm here, Lord. I'm listening." If no word seems to be forthcoming, remember "it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord," and "when He gives quietness, who then can make trouble?" (Lamentations 3:26, NIV; Job 34:29, KJV).
Silence is one form of worship. When the seventh seal was opened (in St. John's Revelation), there was silence in heaven for the space of half an hour. What would happen in our homes if we should try to prepare ourselves for those heavenly silences by having just one half-hour when there is no door slamming, no TV, no stereo or video, and a minimum of talk, in quiet voices? Wouldn't it also be a calming thing just to practice the stillness which is the absence of motion? My father used to have us try this every now and then. Why not try a Quiet Day or even a Quiet Week without the usual noises? It might open vistas of the spiritual life hitherto closed, a depth of communion with the Lord impossible where there is nothing but noise. Does God seem absent? Yes, for most of us He sometimes does. Even at such a time may we not simply be still before Him, trusting that He reads the perplexity we cannot put into words?

Shoes, shoes

2010-02-22T09:18:00.003-07:00

My friend Jessica has decided to buy all of her clothes secondhand this year, and has been posting great pictures of her Goodwill finds. I typically buy nearly all of my clothes secondhand (or off of clearance racks), so I've decided to start posting pictures of some recent finds. It might be a bit intermittent since even at Goodwill prices I try to be careful about what I buy, but I've still gotten some great deals. I tend to make a mental list of things I'm looking for, then stop in at secondhand shops when I have the time. Recently I've been looking for some flats to wear with jeans on work days. I generally wear tennis shoes with my jeans but realized that I feel more professional in nicer shoes, even though I'm down on the floor all day. I'm also on the lookout for shoes that will go well with capris since that's what I wear during the summer (I don't like wearing shorts).
Anyways, here are the shoes that I picked up the other day. I'm not usually one who cares about brand names (mostly because I don't know which ones are worth anything), but one of the things that Jessica does is figure out how much her purchases would have cost at retail price, compared to what she paid.

Black Enzo Angiolini shoes- $5. I couldn't find this exact one online but this brand retails for $50 and up at Zappos. Kitty, free.

Brown Hunt Club shoes- $7. More than I'd usually pay but we had a coupon from bringing in a bag of things to donate. And these shoes are seriously comfy. I couldn't find anything similar online for a price comparison though.

All told our shopping trip that day cost us $17. For 2 pairs of shoes for me and a pair of jeans and a polo shirt for Chris. Probably less than we would have spent on any single item at the store.

Double Touble Blog Tour with Review!

2010-02-20T08:01:00.024-07:00

I read the book Double Trouble by Susan May Warren, for the Litfuse blog tour. Here's a bit about the book and the author:
About Double Trouble:
With one solved case under her belt, PJ Sugar is ready to dive into her career as a private investigator. Or at least a PI's assistant until she can prove herself to Jeremy Kane, her new boss. Suddenly PJ's seeing crime everywhere. But is it just in her head, or can she trust her instincts? When she takes on her first official case-house-sitting for a witness in protective custody-Jeremy assures her there's no danger involved. But it soon becomes clear that there is someone after the witness . . . and now they're after PJ, too.

About Susan:
Susan May Warren is the RITA award-winning author of twenty-four novels with Tyndale, Barbour and Steeple Hill. A four-time Christy award finalist, a two-time RITA Finalist, she’s also a multi-winner of the Inspirational Readers Choice award, and the ACFW Book of the Year. Her larger than life characters and layered plots have won her acclaim with readers and reviewers alike. A seasoned women’s events and retreats speaker, she’s a popular writing teacher at conferences around the nation and the author of the beginning writer’s workbook: From the Inside-Out: discover, create and publish the novel in you!. She is also the founder of www.MyBookTherapy.com, a story-crafting service that helps authors discover their voice. Susan makes her home in northern Minnesota, where she is busy cheering on her two sons in football, and her daughter in local theater productions (and desperately missing her college-age son!) A full listing of her titles, reviews and awards can be found at: www.susanmaywarren.com

My Review:
Well, I can see from reading the other reviews on the tour page that I'm in a distinct minority here. I'll be honest. I spent the first three quarters of this book debating whether or not I even wanted to finish it. The character of PJ Sugar just didn't resonate with me. The whole thing came off as corny- she was always getting into trouble by following her "instincts" and she sort of reminded me of playing "detective" when I was a kid (learning about stakeouts from a book?). Her inlaws, outlaws, and other family members were more realistically drawn than she was. I like Christian fiction, but this felt more like Christian lite- its the reason I almost gave up on the genre altogether before discovering Francine Rivers. Now I'll admit that it might have been different if I had read the first PJ Sugar book since the back story was alluded to without really being explained. However, that doesn't change the fact that I spent half the book wanting to shake the main character and tell her to grow up. Granted, I did finish the story, and the last quarter of it felt much more honest and less cutesy than the beginning. I did wind up liking the softball team and the way things eventually turned out. Oh, and I did figure out whodunnit before the end.

If you disagree with my review or want to find out what some of the other readers thought, check out the rest of the tour here.
*I received a copy of this book for free from Litfuse in exchange for my honest review.

2010-02-17T09:20:00.002-07:00

Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: Keep A Quiet Heart
Scripture Reference: Joshua 13:14

The Childless Man or Woman
Children, God tells us, are a heritage from Him. Is the man or woman to whom He gives no children therefore disinherited? Surely not. The Lord gave portions of land to each tribe of Israel except one. "The tribe of Levi... received no holding; the Lord God of Israel is their portion, as he promised them" (Joshua 13:14, NEB). Withholding what He granted to the rest, He gave to Levi a higher privilege. May we not see childlessness in the same light? I believe there is a special gift for those to whom God does not give the gift of physical fatherhood or motherhood.
I have known many women (and a few men) who have sorrowed deeply over being childless. My brother-in-law Bert Elliot and his wife Colleen, missionaries in Peru for more than forty years, longed for children of their own. They asked the Lord for children if that would best glorify Him. His answer was no. They wondered about adoption, which would not have been nearly so difficult there as it is in the States. Again the answer seemed to be no, but God has given them the privilege of fathering and mothering hundreds of Peruvians, both white and Indian, in the jungle and in the high Andes, where they bear on their shoulders the care of dozens of little churches.
A woman of about fifty wrote, "Each Mother's Day became a little harder for me as I realized another year had gone by and after many years of marriage I am still childless--the only woman in my Sunday School class who is not a mother. The morning service started... I could not see the pastor for the tears in my eyes. Almost at the end of his message he said, 'I know there are some of you women here this morning who would like to be mothers, but for some reason God has chosen differently. Don't question Him. He has a reason."
Childlessness, for those who deeply desire children, is real suffering. Seen in the light of Calvary and accepted in the name of Christ, it becomes a chance to share in His sufferings. Acceptance of the will of the Father took Him to the Cross. We find our peace as we identify with Him in His death and resurrection.
Look around your church. If you are a parent, look for those who aren't. Might they not be ready to "father" or "mother" you or your children, to be adopted as a grandparent, for example, or an aunt or uncle? My life was enriched by unmarried aunts and friends who paid attention to us children, celebrated our birthdays and sometimes even helped us with homework. The love they would have poured out on their own children had God given them marriage, they poured out instead on us, and we were blessed as we could not have been had they had children. Their loss was our gain, and, as Ugo Bassi a young Italian preacher, said many years ago, we are to measure our lives "by loss and not by gain, not by the wine drunk but by the wine poured forth, for Love's strength standeth in Love's sacrifice, and he who suffereth most hath most to give."
What of the thousands who have not had the mothers and fathers they desperately longed for while they were growing up? Is not God calling all whose ears are open to Him to recognize the wounds of the world and to pour forth His love to the lonely young man whose relationship with his father seems to have destroyed his fitness for manhood? Or to the expectant mother whose own mother is far away, or indifferent, or dead, who longs for a mother to share her joy? Whose will be the strong shoulder of sympathy (the word means "to suffer with") ready to bear another's burdens?--not with the tepid sentimentality which only weakens, but with the burning love which gives hope and cheer and strength?
My correspondent says God has given her "several kids adopted in my heart to pray for, whose mothers say they haven't time to pray." Another girl asked her to be grandmother to her new baby. "Well, what a blessing and how this has changed my life!" she says. "If I had sat around and felt sorry for myself look at the above blessings I would have missed. What a thrill on Mother's Day this year to get a Grandmother card!"
And what of the young childless woman? Is she merely to mark time, hoping against hope that someday she will be given a child? There are always younger people who need a boost, some encouragement in their struggles against the pull of the world, a listening ear when they face hard decisions, someone who will simply take time out to pray with them, to walk with them the way of the cross with its tremendous demand--the difficult and powerful life of glad surrender and acceptance. As the branches of the wine pour out their sweetness, so young women may see their opportunity, as branches of the True Vine to pour out their lives for the world.

Love is....

2010-02-14T08:08:00.014-07:00

having time to just sit, talk, and spend time together, which unfortunately we don't do enough of.

working together toward a mutual goal of paying off some debt.

taking some time to review our recent accomplishments, goals, and plans.

dreaming together.

rewarding ourselves by going out to eat on a day when restaurants won't be jam-packed.

This will be the second year in a row that Chris and I have spent Valentine's Day delivering for Edible Arrangements. Instead of spending money for Valentine's day we will earn some money. Part of it will go towards a night out for us. The rest will be put towards paying off our air conditioner, which should happen this year. While we are in the car making deliveries there isn't much to do other than talk or listen to the radio, so we'll do a lot of those.
It may not be a traditional Valentine's Day, but it works for us!

Meals That Can Feed a Crowd

2010-02-12T10:21:00.000-07:00

Everyone like to spend time with friends. For some people that's another couple, for others it means 10 or more guests. In less economically-strapped times that might have meant going to a restaurant as a group. However, most people are probably trying to trim their budgets and spending $20 or more for a two person dinner isn't quite as easy as it used to be. Instead, try revisiting the long-lost art of hospitality. Yes, that means inviting people over to your house (or apartment). If its a large group of people then have everyone bring something to share. If its just another couple then prepare a main dish and ask them to bring something dessert or a side dish. If our recent lives are any indication, the potluck tradition might be making a comeback. Chris and I have participated in at least four potlucks since New Year's (several of them for work) with at least one more coming up soon. If you're having trouble coming up with potluck ideas here are a few ideas for potluck dishes or meals that can feed a crowd inexpensively.

Soup- This is one of my favorites, mostly because it is inexpensive and endlessly versatile. If you're hosting soup is a great dish because it can be made ahead of time and left to simmer. This allows you to spend time with your guests instead of in the kitchen. A large pot of soup can easily feed 6-10 people and if you ask someone to bring a loaf of bread it really doesn't get any better than that.

Chili- This one has most of the advantages of soup. You can make huge quantities for a relatively low cost, especially if you use dry beans instead of canned. If it isn't hearty enough for your taste then bake some russet potatoes and serve the chili over that or even in bread bowls.

Spaghetti- or really any pasta. We've done pasta salad, alfredo, ratatouille, and lasagna. These all have varying degrees of cost but overall any pasta dish is easy and reasonably inexpensive. Of course almost everyone loves spaghetti. Come up with a veggie side dish and have someone bring a loaf of garlic bread and you've got it made.

Roast or roasted chicken- this one is a bit more complex but you can definitely pull it off. Season it up and throw it in the oven. Then ask your friends to bring the side dishes. This is probably better suited to groups of 4-6 though since it can be a bit difficult to manage.

If you're into fancier meals most of these can be dressed up a bit. Truth is, though, if you're having people over everyone is probably more interested in the company than in the food. Some basic fare prepared well will make it easy for everyone to have a good time without stressing over the cost of eating out or keeping you in the kitchen all night.

Taking of Life

2010-02-10T09:18:00.001-07:00

Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: Keep A Quiet Heart
Scripture Reference: 2 Timothy 3:2-9 Romans 12:1-2

The Taking of Human Life
In the relentless effort to keep the world from squeezing me into fits own mold (see Romans 12:1-2, PHILLIPS) my mind is always making comparisons and connections and trying to test the world's reasoning by the straightedge of Scripture. When I read of the execution in Texas of Charles Brooks, Jr., by lethal injection, I made one of those connections. I remembered another news story a few months before about an unborn twin who was quietly dispatched, by means of a needle in its heart, while still in its mother's womb.
Medical science has advanced to the stage where it is possible to remove human beings from this world's scene cleanly and kindly (we tell ourselves) and without too much trauma to the executioners and the consenting public. Of the trauma to the victim we prefer not to let ourselves think too much.
One of the people I refer to, of course, was a full-grown man, convicted of murder. The other was far from full-grown. It was not even born. Nobody wanted it to be born because it happened to be not quite normal. A person, without question, but not quite a normal person. So, since the mother very much wanted the normal twin to be born, she was very glad to be able to get rid of the abnormal one in such a handy way.
In a Time (Dec. 20, 1982) essay about the Brooks execution, Roger Rosenblatt writes of the public's eagerness for a "gentle killing," yet its hunger also to know the details of the prisoner's last dinner and last words, his position on the stretcher, and how the tubes were hooked up which would carry the poison into his bloodstream. Strange that there should be this fascination at a time when there is strong protest, at least in the media, against the death penalty for criminals. There is no protest in major magazines against the death penalty for unborn children and no corresponding eagerness for pictures or descriptions of just how it is done. Few people are willing to scrutinize the details of what happens to the tiny bodies who are daily, at the request of their mothers, and with the consent of the Supreme Court, being disposed of by sophisticated chemical, pharmaceutical, and mechanical techniques.
The correction facility in Texas and the abortion facilities in hospitals are equally thorough in their efforts to make sure that the method works. Imagine the embarrassment if Charles Brooks had managed to slip out of the straps that bound him to the gurney, or if the silent fluid had somehow been obstructed in the tubes! Nobody wants that to happen. It is a major disaster, too, when an abortion produces a living child instead of a dead one. Some awful scenes have taken place in hospital nurseries when a baby has been taken there who had been intended for the garbage can. What is wanted in the cases of both the murderer and the undesirable fetus is death, pure death, the "spectacle of life removed."
Do not misunderstand me. I believe that capital punishment is both necessary and just. I believe that abortion is murder. Both are appalling to anyone human, it seems to me. Surely, no matter what our convictions and public declarations may be, we shrink inside at the hideousness of it all. But one is commanded by God--evil must be dealt with by public justice--and the other is forbidden. We cannot, without His express direction, take human life into our hands. Let us not imagine that we can somehow palliate the stark and shocking fact of death by making it private. Only a few people, including four reporters and Brook's girlfriend, were allowed to witness his death. An abortion is now called a private matter, to be decided solely by a woman and her physician. Let us not, by making it quick, easy, and clean, evade the truth that somebody is being killed.
Rosenblatt in his essay looks for the day when we may "drive out the barbarians." Is it barbaric, then, to mete out judgment in this form to a murderer, but somehow civilized to send a lethal poison into the heart of an as yet sinless child?
Paul wrote to the young minister Timothy to warn him of the sort of evil he must guard against. "Men will love nothing but money and self... men who put pleasure in the place of God, men who preserve the outward form of religion but are a standing denial of its reality. Keep clear of men like these.... These men defy the truth, they have lost the power to reason, and they cannot pass the tests of faith" (2 Timothy 3:2, 5-6, 8-9, NEB). God help us not only to stand for the truth, but to obey it scrupulously that we may not lose the power to think as Christians.

Double Trouble Contest!

2010-02-08T10:45:00.002-07:00

My review of Double Trouble by Susan May Warren will be up on Feb. 20th, but here's a quick teaser about the book:
"With one solved case under her belt, PJ Sugar is ready to dive into her career as a private investigator. Or at least a PI's assistant until she can prove herself to Jeremy Kane, her new boss. Suddenly PJ's seeing crime everywhere. But is it just in her head, or can she trust her instincts? When she takes on her first official case-house-sitting for a witness in protective custody-Jeremy assures her there's no danger involved. But it soon becomes clear that there is someone after the witness . . . and now they're after PJ, too."

While you're waiting for my review, here is an awesome contest to enter.

Be sure to enter the Double Trouble Prize Package Giveaway by clicking on the ‘Double the Sass” button (code for button is above)! Susan’s giving away an iPod prize package that is anything but troubling! Check it out!

Prize Details

Double Trouble, the brand new PJ Sugar novel by Susan May Warren, is in stores now! To celebrate the release, we’re running a HUMDINGER of a contest!!

One Grand Prize winner will receive a $150 SUPER SLEUTH prize package that includes:

* A brand new iPod Shuffle (perfect for those all-night stakeouts)

* A $10 iTunes gift card (we recommend the ALIAS soundtrack)

* A $10 Amazon gift card (why yes, they do sell spy pens)

* A $10 Starbucks gift card (for fuel, obviously)

* A pair of designer sunglasses (be stealthy AND super chic)

* A gorgeous scarf from World Market (can also be used as a blindfold, and/or for tying up bad guys)

* AND signed copies of both Nothing But Trouble & Double Trouble. (romance! danger! intrigue! sooo much better than Surveillance for Dummies!)

We’ll announce our super sleuth winner on March 1st.

How'd They Get Here??

2010-02-07T11:18:00.000-07:00

Like lots of other bloggers I use Google Analytics to track where people are coming from and how they get to my blog. This gives me lots of good information. When we were going through our Early Intervention drama last year I noticed a sudden spike in visitors from another EI-related blog that was keeping up with the news. This is when I decided to start my EI in AZ blog to keep up with all of the Early Intervention related news. And of course, looking at the search terms that bring people in is always interesting. Here are a few of the ones that make me say, "How did THAT bring them HERE?"
"americans who love hiking in england" Well I would love to GO hiking in England, but I don't think that's quite the same thing
"does max lucado have too many friends" Um...I don't know. I've never met the guy.
"retreat games for bible wings" So what did you want to know again?

Medical "Brekathrough"

2010-02-03T09:16:00.000-07:00

I love Elizabeth Elliot, but this one almost made me cry.

Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: Keep A Quiet Heart
Scripture Reference: Matthew 25:40

A New Medical Breakthrough
As I mentioned earlier, some time ago I read of a new medical triumph involving unborn twins. Amniocentesis had shown that one of them had Down's syndrome. The mother decided she did not want that child, so with the simple expedient of piercing the heart of the baby with a long needle, it was killed in the womb. She carried the twins to term and delivered one child alive--the one she wanted to keep--and one child dead--the one she didn't want to keep. This was hailed as a remarkable breakthrough. I would ask you to pause for a moment here and consider this question: what was it, exactly, that was killed? What was it that was not killed? The answer to both questions, of course, is--a child. They were both children. They were twins. I used plain, ordinary words to tell the story--the words the news report used. Nothing ambiguous. Nothing incendiary.
I read the following week in the same magazine about another medical breakthrough. This time doctors had used an instrument inserted into a womb not to kill a child but to save one. This child had a serious heart anomaly which they were able to correct with intrauterine surgery. Can any honest and reasonable person fail to make the comparison here? In the second case, the instrument in the surgeon's hand enabled the tiny heart to keep on working. In the first case, the needle in the surgeon's hand made the heart quit working. What, exactly, should we call that?
The intrauterine surgery was called lifesaving because they fixed a baby's defective heart. What language are we allowed to use when we speak of destroying a heart that's working perfectly! There is a simple and obvious word, but we are not allowed to use it. Well, what about life-destroying? Is that permissible for this neat and efficient technique? Well, not really. Because the word life is explosive. Life is not relevant here. It's the mother's life that we are supposed to consider, nobody else's. The other isn't a life--not one worth living anyway, not one worth the mother's suffering for. So we must not use the ordinary words. They're too emotional. They're loaded. The fact is they stopped the heart. That's all. Just made it quit beating.
I was glad that the writer of the article on the baby whose heart was corrected acknowledged the possibility that fetal surgery might raise an ethical question which the medical world thought it had laid to rest. Might it be necessary, in view of these advances, to ask all over again whether a fetus is a person?
This is the issue today. It is, in the final analysis, the only question that needs to be considered when we speak of the unborn. Is the thing disposable? Is it an object with no life of its own, a bit of tissue which belongs to a woman who has the right to do with it what she chooses? If she needs it and wants it, she keeps it. If she doesn't need it and doesn't want it, she throws it out. So what's all the shouting about?
Truthfulness is the willingness to accept facts. Truthtellers are always regarded as either ridiculous, or so dangerous as to deserve death. "No truth," wrote Hannah Arendt, "that crosses someone's profit, ambition, or lust, is permissible. Unwelcome facts possess an infuriating stubbornness that nothing can move except plain lies."
Here are the unwelcome facts. We were talking about children: the twin who was saved, the child with the defective heart who was also saved, and the twin whose heart was pierced with a needle. They were children. Choices were made regarding those children: deliberate, conscious choices. One, to allow a child to live. Another, to intervene surgically so that a child might live who would otherwise die. (Would the surgeon who performed that operation have dreamed of telling the mother that her baby was not a person? He saved its life, and the mother was grateful.) But in the other case, what was the choice? It was to kill a child. These are the unwelcome facts, but they are infuriatingly stubborn. They will not go away. It was a child. It was killed. Nothing will move those facts except lies.
I ask you earnestly to look at the little creature with eyes and hands and beating heart, held in that safest of places, the mother's womb. No woman who holds such a thing within her doubts that she holds a child. No doctor who extracts it by whatever swift and putatively safe means can deny that what he extracts is a human being, and that what he does is to kill it.
I ask you for God's sake to look at the truth. And I ask you, finally, to think about what Jesus said: "I tell you solemnly, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me" (Matthew 25:40, JB). Jesus will not forget.

Playing with my Camera

2010-01-30T13:17:00.000-07:00

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

2010-01-27T09:03:00.000-07:00

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

2010-01-26T22:49:00.000-07:00

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

2010-01-23T22:25:00.000-07:00

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

2010-01-20T09:02:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-01-20T08:47:00.000-07:00

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

2010-01-18T21:27:00.001-07:00

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

2010-01-13T09:01:00.001-07:00

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.

2010-01-12T20:10:00.000-07:00

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

2010-01-06T09:59:00.002-07:00

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

2010-01-04T20:41:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-01-02T11:38:00.053-07:00

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

2010-01-01T23:34:00.000-07:00

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.

Finally Did It

2009-12-31T08:20:00.000-07:00

After gathering all of our pennies, and counting our Christmas money, I finally bit the bullet and bought a DSLR. I've wanted one for a while since my camera is about 7 years old and I really want to work on my photography skills (or lack thereof). I read reviews and asked many people for their opinions before I decided. That doesn't necessarily mean that I listened. The majority said to go with a Canon or Nikon camera, but I decided on an Olympus e-620 instead. My brother has an Olympus DSLR that he really likes, and I've had several Olympus cameras before. Many of the reviews I read said that Olympus tended to produce the best shots right out of the camera, with a minimum of editing. Honestly, with my (lack of) skill right now, I'm not sure I would notice the difference between any of the big 3 brands, so I went with what I'd feel most comfortable learning with. I really, really liked the idea of having the image stabilization in the camera, instead of needing it to be in each individual lens, and I'm thinking the live view option will also be helpful. Now I just have to wait for it to arrive!

Don't Forfeit your Peace

2009-12-30T10:18:00.001-07:00

More Elizabeth Elliot

Don't Forfeit Your Peace
It would not be possible to exaggerate the importance hymns and spiritual songs have played in my spiritual growth. One of the latter, familiar to most of you, has this line: "O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer" (Joseph Scriven). Prayerlessness is one of many ways by which we can easily forfeit the peace God wants us to have. I've been thinking of some other ways. Here's a sampling:

Resent God's ways.

Worry as much as possible.

Pray only about things you can't manage by yourself.

Refuse to accept what God gives.

Look for peace elsewhere than in Him.

Try to rule your own life.

Doubt God's word.

Carry all your cares.

If you'd rather not forfeit your peace, here are eight ways to find it (antidotes to the above eight):

"Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them" (Psalm 119:165 KJV). "Circumstances are the expression of God's will," wrote Bishop Handley Moule.

"Don't worry about anything whatever" (Philippians 4:6, PHILLIPS).

"In everything make your requests known to God in prayer and petition with thanksgiving. Then the peace of God... will guard your hearts" (Philippians 4:6,7, NEB).

"Take my yoke upon you and learn from me... and you will find rest" (Matthew 11:29, NIV).

"Peace is my parting gift to you, my own peace, such as the world cannot give" (John 14 27, NEB).

"Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts" (Colossians 3:15, NIV).

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing" (Romans 15:13, KJV).

"Cast all your cares on him for you are his charge" (1 Peter 5:7, NEB).

"Grant, O Lord my God, that I may never fall away in success or in failure; that I may not be prideful in prosperity nor dejected in adversity. Let me rejoice only in what unites us and sorrow only in what separates us. May I strive to please no one or fear to displease anyone except Yourself. May I seek always the things that are eternal and never those that are only temporal. May I shun any joy that is without You and never seek any that is beside You. O Lord, may I delight in any work I do for You and tire of any rest that is apart from You. My God, let me direct my heart towards You, and in my failings, always repent with a purpose of amendment."
--St. Thomas Aquinas

Lesson Learned

2009-12-19T20:11:00.003-07:00

This one made me laugh, so I just had to post it. Its a good reminder anyways.
My mom bought Chris and I a GPS unit for Christmas/Chanukkah. Thanks Mom! Because of my job I've been debating buying one for quite a while, but could never quite justify the expense when I can print Yahoo maps for almost free. I have a file folder full of them and I usually just pull the ones I need for any given day. In my test runs the Garmin has found addresses even in the middle of nowhere, which should just about eliminate my need for the Yahoo maps. Hooray for saving trees!
Anyways, in reading the Amazon info I discovered that there is an option for googling an address, then using a usb connection to upload it straight to the GPS. That sounded like a neat function, but the problem was that the Garmin didn't come with a USB cord. I went to their website, and the cord was $14.99. Seemed pretty steep for a simple cord. I checked ebay, since I've found that you can often get cords there for a much better price. (Lesson learned when the dog chewed through the cord to my cell phone charger).
On ebay, the same cord costs about $3 with free shipping. Much better than $15. Then I noticed that the ebay link showed a close-up picture of the necessary USB cord. And, that it looked familiar. On a whim, I pulled the usb cord for my camera out of my desk drawer. Lo and behold, it was the same type of cord that I needed for the GPS. In all of the time I've been using USB hookups for things it never dawned on me that there was a standard size for them. And I'd bet just about everyone has a few USB cords laying around. So next time you're thinking of buying a cord to hook up to your new widget, check your old cords first.

The Gift of Work

2009-12-16T08:51:00.000-07:00

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

The Gift of Work

The principal cause of boredom is the hatred of work. People are trained from childhood to hate it. Parents often feel guilty about making children do anything but the merest gestures toward work. Perhaps the children are required to make their beds and, in a feeble and half-hearted fashion, tidy up their rooms once a month or so. But take full responsibility to clear the table, load the dishwasher, scrub the pots, wipe the counters? How many have the courage to ask this of a ten-year-old? It would be too much to ask of many ten-year-olds because parents have seriously asked nothing of them when they were two or three. Children quickly pick up the parents' negative attitudes toward work and think of it as something most sedulously to be avoided.
Our Lord and Savior worked. There is little doubt that He served in the carpenter shop under the instruction of His earthly father Joseph, putting in long hours, learning skill, care, responsibility, and above all, the glory of work as a gift to glorify His heavenly Father. He did always those things that please the Father. Later He chose almost all His disciples from those who labored with their hands. Even the apostle Paul, a man of brilliant intellect, made tents.
Booker T. Washington, an African-American who grew up in the South when members of his race were expected to do the hardest and dirtiest jobs, learned his greatest lesson from the example of a Christian woman. A New Englander, the founder of the Hampton Institute, she herself washed the windows the day before school started, so it would be nice for those children who had been born slaves.
Is work a necessary evil, even a curse? A Christian who spent many years in Soviet work camps, learning to know work at its most brutal, its most degrading and dehumanizing, testified that he took pride in it, did the best he could, worked to the limit of his strength each day. Why? Because he saw it as a gift from God, coming to him from the hand of God, the very will of God for him. He remembered that Jesus did not make benches and roofbeams and plow handles by means of miracles, but by means of saw, axe, and adze.
Wouldn't it make an astounding difference, not only in the quality of the work we do (in office, schoolroom, factory, kitchen, or backyard), but also in our satisfaction, even our joy, if we recognized God's gracious gift in every single task, from making a bed or bathing a baby to drawing a blueprint or selling a computer? If our children saw us doing "heartily as unto the Lord" all the work we do, they would learn true happiness. Instead of feeling that they must be allowed to do what they like, they would learn to like what they do.
St. Ignatius Loyola prayed, "Teach us, Good Lord, to labor and to ask for no reward save that of knowing that we do Thy will." As I learn to pray that prayer, I find that there are many more rewards that come along as fringe benefits. As we make an offering of our work, we find the truth of a principle Jesus taught: Fulfillment is not a goal to achieve, but always the by-product of sacrifice.

Keeping it Local in Phoenix- Bookmans

2009-12-15T09:49:00.000-07:00

I've been blogging about ways to avoid the big-box stores and do your holiday shopping locally here in Phoenix, and I just may have saved one of the best for last. That is, unless I come up with other local businesses to review. As a certifiable bibliophile (go look it up), Bookmans is hands down one of my favorite places ever. Other than the library. Because they let me borrow books for free. But the library wants them back. Which makes it difficult to give them as gifts. Um...anyways.
As I was saying, Bookmans is the place to shop for any of the readers on your Christmas list. They have been in the Phoenix area for over 30 years, and they currently have six locations. The store sells used books, movies, video games and systems, toys, music, electronics, and almost anything else that could be sold used. People bring in their used items and exchange them for either store credit or (a lesser amount of) cash, which also makes it a great way for you to clear out some unwanted household clutter.
As the name suggests, Bookmans specializes in books. By the thousands. And their staff is helpful and can find almost anything, whether it be the next book in the Twilight series, or a classic first edition. In general their popular books are priced around 30%-50% less than the cover price, which makes them a great deal. And don't worry about the etiquette of buying used books as gifts- most of the book lovers I know have no problem with used books, and many of the books at Bookmans are in very good condition.
So as I've been saying all along- wherever you live, give local a try. I've posted about 4 of my favorite Phoenix businesses, but there are hundreds more in this area, and thousands more across the country.
By the way, I'm not being compensated in any way for these reviews. These are purely my opinions.

EI Food Drive

2009-12-13T09:22:00.000-07:00

This year my Early Intervention team did our second annual holday food drive. Last year we were able to give boxes to about 13 of our families in need. This year, having learned from our prior mis-steps, we made a few adjustments to our system. We collected mostly donations of nonperishable food from families, day cares, former clients, and classrooms. We will be distributing the food boxes this week to families in need who are receiving services. Yesterday was our big day to sort through everything and divide it up into boxes. Here are some of my pictures from the day.We spent about a month collecting food, and storing it almost anywhere that we could. We kept some in offices, some in a co-worker's garage, and some in the trunks of our cars.
This is just part of what was donated, after we finished sorting it all out.
This is what it looked like once we had everything sorted into boxes for distribution.We had enough food to put together over 20 boxes, plus so much left over that we were able to donate two large boxes to other causes. One box of baby items went to a nurse who visits discharged NICU babies, and works with many families in need. Another HUGE box will be given to a family with school-aged children who otherwise would not have a Christmas this year.
Needless to say I am incredibly proud of our team, and SO thankful to everyone who donated food and helped out. Our EI food drive will continue to be an annual tradition.

"Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap." -Luke 6:38

This is how I felt today. People gave so generously to us that it overflowed into our laps and we were able to give to others.

Just had to post this...

2009-12-11T23:59:00.004-07:00

Chris snapped this picture out the car window as we were driving to the hobby shop yesterday.Just in case you were wondering, that is indeed a huge golf ball in the back of that truck. No, I'm not sure what it was doing there. I don't think there are any major golf tournaments happening here in the near future (not that I'd know if there were). I have to wonder what would happen if that golf ball had fallen off of the truck somehow and gone rolling down the road.

Keeping it Local in Phoenix- Butcher Bob's

2009-12-10T09:57:00.001-07:00

This is number three in my Keeping it Local in Phoenix series of places you might consider doing some of your Christmas shopping. While loose leaf tea and board games are relatively easy to ship out of town, this one would be a bit trickier. A cut of meat bought from Butcher Bob's could easily be the star of your Christmas dinner though.
As someone who has eaten meat from both Butcher Bob's, and from a grocery store, I can tell you that there is no comparison. Butcher Bob's meat is of much better quality, and the flavor is excellent. They get either choice or prime beef from the Midwest, pork from Iowa, and all natural chicken. The meat is a bit more expensive than what you would get in a grocery store, but the taste is second to none. Personally, although we would love to, we cannot afford to eat this meat all of the time. We splurge for it maybe once or twice each year for noteworthy occasions. If you are planning a special holiday dinner, consider meat from Butcher Bob's as a way of making it really memorable.

Butcher Bob's is located at:
11663 W. Bell Rd. Suite 2
Surprise, Arizona 85374
623-933-1518
Their hours are:
Tuesday thru Friday: 9-5
Saturday: 9-4
Closed Sunday and Monday

By the way, I am not being paid or otherwise compensated in any way for any of these reviews. These are solely my unsolicited opinions.

Peace

2009-12-09T08:47:00.000-07:00

Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: Keep A Quiet Heart
Scripture Reference: Psalm 119:23-32 Genesis 48:5

God's Curriculum

One day recently something lit a fuse of anger in someone who then burned me with hot words. I felt sure I didn't deserve this response, but when I ran to God about it, He reminded me of part of a prayer I'd been using lately: "Teach me to treat all that comes to me with peace of soul and with firm conviction that Your will governs all."

Where could that kind of peace come from? Only from God, who gives "not as the world gives."

His will that I should be burned? Here we must tread softly. His will governs all. In a wrong-filled world we suffer (and cause) many a wrong. God is there to heal and comfort and forgive. He who brought blessing to many out of the sin of the jealous brothers against Joseph means this hurt for my ultimate blessing and, I think, for an increase of love between me and the one who hurt me. Love is very patient, very kind. Love never seeks its own. Love looks to God for his grace to help.

"It was not you who sent me here but God," Joseph said to his brothers. "You meant to do me harm; but God meant to bring good out of it" (Genesis 45:8, 50:20, NEB).

There is a philosophy of secular education which holds that the student ought to be allowed to assemble his own curriculum according to his preferences. Few students have a strong basis for making these choices, not knowing how little they know. Ideas of what they need to learn are not only greatly limited but greatly distorted. What they need is help from those who know more than they do.

Mercifully, God does not leave us to choose our own curriculum. His wisdom is perfect, His knowledge embraces not only all worlds but the individual hearts and minds of each of His loved children. With intimate understanding of our deepest needs and individual capacities, He chooses our curriculum. We need only ask, "Give us this day our daily bread, our daily lessons, our homework." An angry retort from someone may be just the occasion we need in which to learn not only longsuffering and forgiveness, but meekness and gentleness; fruits not born in us but borne only by the Spirit. As Amy Carmichael wrote, "A cup brimful of sweetness cannot spill even one drop of bitter water, no matter how suddenly jarred" (From her book IF published by Christian Literature Crusade).

God's curriculum for all who sincerely want to know Him and do His will will always include lessons we wish we could skip. But the more we apply ourselves, the more honestly we can say what the psalmist said: "I, thy servant, will study thy statutes. / Thy instruction is my continual delight; / I turn to it for counsel. / I will run the course set out in thy commandments, / for they gladden my heart" (Psalm 119:23, 24, 32, NEB).

Keeping it Local in Phoenix- Imperial Outpost

2009-12-08T09:54:00.001-07:00

Do you have a family member who likes board games but is tired of Monopoly and Scrabble? How about a young niece or nephew who is into "geeky" things like Warhammer or Dungeons and Dragons? For that matter, do YOU like board or card games that are just a little bit outside of the mainstream? If so, you might want to check out Imperial Outpost. They have a great selection of Eurogames like Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, and Dominion. (I'm only linking to the Amazon pages so you can read and see what these games are actually about). If you click on the games tag at the bottom of this post, you can also read my reviews of some of these games.
At its heart, Imperial Outpost is a game shop. They deal mainly in things like Warhammer, Dungeons and Dragons, and Eurogames. Like most small businesses, the owner is in the shop frequently, and is very friendly. Because Imperial Outpost encourages people to stay and play games, many of the customers in the store at any given time are regulars. In general they're friendly, harmless, and happy to talk with "newbies" about different games.

Imperial Outpost is located at 4920 W Thunderbird Rd # 121; Glendale, AZ

By the way, I am not being paid or otherwise compensated in any way for any of these reviews. These are solely my unsolicited opinions.