Thursday, February 28, 2013

blog friends

So here we go:
The Liebster Award is meant to connect us even more and spotlight new bloggers who have less than 200 followers.

Here are the rules:

1. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Post the award on your blog.
4. Bask in the love from the most supportive people on the Internet – other writers.
5. And best of all – have fun and spread the karma!

I started this a long time ago and never finished.  Now it's mainly going to be a list of my 5 favorite blogs.  Hopefully you find some new ones to enjoy!

http://www.jonacuff.com/stuffchristianslike/  The comments may be funnier than the blog, but I think a lot of people have found that they aren't alone in their feelings or finding something funny.
http://bree1976.wordpress.com/ Lake Blackshear and Mackinac Island blog.  A couple has houses in both Georgia and Mackinac and lives half a year in each.  She started the blog to keep friends in the other home updated and the Mackinac tourism promoted it.  Now 300k read it each month.  She just has a way of making everyone feel like they know her friends and family.  I've never met her, but when we were on Mackinac Island this summer I kept an eye out for Bear and Maddie, their two dogs.
http://thesweetsimplethings.wordpress.com/  One of my very good Laura Ingalls Wilder friends blog about her life.
http://girlygirl.typepad.com/  One of my favorite authors.  You can be Christian and sarcastic and like reality TV.

The next three are ones that I like but not the I have to check daily or are big enough that my endorsement isn't important.
http://allthingslauraingallswilder.com/  and http://beyondlittlehouse.com/  Two Laura blogs - are you surprised?
http://learningmylines.blogspot.com/  A youth ministry and pop culture blog.  I've heard the author speak a few times and enjoyed it.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Veterans Day



This was a draft from 11/11/11.  It was listed as a draft, but I don't remember what I was going to do with it,  so here it is with what you can make of it.

Monday, February 25, 2013

Return of sermon commentary

Yes, it's one of those posts again.  I'm hoping it will make sense.  I had wanted to include a couple pictures, but that's not going to happen.
The sermon series is walking in his shoes.  I wanted to add a photo of my shoes for the day, but I couldn't figure out how to turn off the shutter sound during the sermon.  We got a rock as a take home.  Something about remembering Jesus being barefoot and stepping on rocks.  I guess this is why I need to blog the day I hear the sermon.  I remember more.
 
Life in my shoes 
Barefoot
 It's Lent - need to find an Easter outfit.
I know that's not really important, but it is something I need to start thinking about.
Have you been baptized? Three times Group think
The first time when I was 17 and joined the church.  Last time was during the charter celebration and it was there as we walked back to our seats.  The middle time - it was offered as a rededication during a service.  It ended up with the entire congregation being rebaptized but I'm not sure everyone felt called to do it but as if the were rejecting God if they stayed in their seat.
17. Guy in Bible study told me I wasn't really an adult at the time. 
My Bible study talked at one time about being baptized as an adult versus a child/infant and I shared my experience.  One man told me that since I was 17 I was a child.  While yes, I wasn't legally an adult I arrived at the decision on my own.  I really thought this man missed the point of everything.
Reformed Catholic - minister's husband. 
A joke from a few years ago since it seems there are so many people who were raised in the Catholic church that attended our Methodist church.
Mark 1:4-5
John baptizing people in the wilderness. 
Mark 1:7-8
Someone is coming who is greater  He should baptize me
Matthew 3:15
It should be done to complete what God desires. 
Jesus wanted to experience what we experience. 
Humility because when so we claim to do something wrong when we haven't?
Me- when we think people will look down on us for making the right choice. 
If we make the right decisions, people get look down at us because we are goody-goodies.  Think about it - do people get excited about the testimony of someone who grew up in the church, accepted Christ at age 8, and for the most part followed him ever after?  Or is it exciting to be the former drug user who cheated on their spouse before repenting at age 30?
Draw me close. St Louis Steve another business person. 
The Katinas have a great version of the song.  Steve, who was on the youth ministry team for awhile, drove back from St. Louis together.  We really enjoyed the CDs the other had brought.  I think that was the trip, we both had Verizon but he couldn't get service so he had to borrow my phone every time he wanted to call his wife.  He, also, works in the business world. I enjoyed talking to him because sometimes the mindset is so different that it feels others can't appreciate that you bring all your knowledge to the table.  They might not want to hear it all.
From water straight to the wilderness 
I guess Jesus got the changes that sometimes leave us feeling like we are playing Snap the Whip
Mark 1:11-13 desert not forest for 40 days like Lent
Wonder if that's where the idea came from?  Desert not forest is something I know intellectually, but I don't think it's something I understand on a practical level like how much less resources there would be.
Matthew 4:1-11 being tempted
Whispers not red tights and a pitchfork 
How the devil tempts us.  I think it is very true - we look for big and obvious versus a nudge on a slippery slope.

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Sunday Afternoon



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COpi6ditrSg

Here's the link.  The embed link isn't being accepted by Blogger.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

My Grandmother

My Grandmother died on Tuesday afternoon.  She had been in the hospital a couple weeks ago.  Last Monday, my Dad signed the paperwork for hospice.  She had wanted to die at home rather than in a hospital or nursing home.  Tuesday, she was moved home.
A few people have visited.  She's been on morphine, and of course sleeping most of the time.
She passed around 4:15 on Tuesday.  The funeral is Saturday.
I feel bad for my Dad who has so much paperwork to resolve now.  One of his sisters is mentally handicapped, and the other sister will get the guardianship.  It's just never as easy as it should be.
I don't know how I'm supposed to feel.  She lived about five miles from us.  We saw her and Grandpa on a regular basis.  However, they were never interested in attending my cousins' and my concerts and ballgames.  Peggy had to be taken care of.  We were told over and over that it wouldn't be right to take Peggy out of the house - people would stare.  I'm as self conscious as the next person, but at a certain point it's their problem and people deal with it every day.  Anyway when we went over there, I was the good little girl who sat with her hands folded in her lap and waited to be spoken to.  No one ever spoke to me.  So we weren't close.  In fact, I occasionally heard remarks that anyone who knows me would never say or rather I got cards addressed to me in ways I don't spell my name.  I try to be okay with it.  I know I was spoiled on my Mom's side.  OTOH and at the same time, really?  I mean really - how much can you expect to miss someone who never made an effort to be there?

Monday, February 18, 2013

Post Valentine's Day

I called Longhorn when I left work Thursday.  At that moment, it was a 90 minute wait.  I texted home.  I got a call asking where then I should meet them.  At 6pm on Valentine's Day, everything is going to be crazy.  I told them to go without me.  They weren't happy, but when do they think I'm going to keep everything the way they want if I spend all that time sitting in a restaurants lobby?  They got home at 7:15.  Imagine if they hadn't gotten to the restaurant for another 45 minutes when it would have been.  I just can't get why they seem to think this isn't a major change to what I hope to do in a day.
But then my mother was upset with me yesterday.  There's evidently a single man who has been coming to church.  Now as I'm not desperate, I'm not knocking people over to introduce myself to him.  As I've not met the man to be interested or in general, who would I rush over to meet, why would I?  That's not going to look crazy and desperate.  My mother doesn't see that whispering to me "Where is he?" every week is just going to make it look like I'm interested in him in a creepy stalkerish way.  Obviously, she doesn't see it that way.  It gets so frustrating.  They don't understand that people don't just randomly date people any more.  The serial monogamy concept that has happened over the past 10-15 years is just beyond their experience.  In their time, people just went on random dates with each other and going out with 6 different people in a month wasn't work commenting on.  It's not like that any longer - especially in the church.
Anyone have any ideas on how to show them I'm not making this up?

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Happy Valentine's Day

While I do find the Single Awareness Day acronym mildly amusing, I've made a conscious choice to not use it.  It's really very self-pitying.  Shouldn't we be happy that others are in love?  On the other hand, my Mom has decided it's Valentines Day and her hand is still bandaged from the surgery so we are going to Longhorn for dinner.  Do you know how many people are going to be going out to eat tonight?  And they are refusing to call ahead for seating more than 5 minutes in advance.  I said I wouldn't go on about how many things are on my to-do list, but really how would this seem to be a reasonable response to anyone?
Why would you want to spend the evening on the sidewalk of a restaurant when you don't have to do so?
Why can they not see what a horrible inconvenience this is to me?
Why would they think I want to spend the entire evening playing Angry Birds waiting for a table?
Do they not get that I have to have time to clean so that I can have the time to study so I can get some designations to make me more employable?

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

End of a long day


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6mHSFZKoxE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I'm posting this from work again.  That means a link rather than embedding.  Hope you enjoy it.

Monday, February 11, 2013

Monday night TV and my Grandmother

Pretty much just what the title says

Sunday, February 10, 2013

TGIF

Do I always title Friday's blogs "TGIF"?  It feels like I do.  I guess I'm always happy for the weekend.
I'm hoping this weekend is slow at the tax center, and I can get mine done as well.  I want the refund!!!  It should put me very close to having my car paid off.  And I really want it paid off and the money going elsewhere!

Or it's Sunday, and I didn't get a chance to update this on Friday night.  I have a video that I'm uploading to finish this entry off.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Laura Ingalls Wilder's birthday

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Whirl of gaiety?

Recognize the title?  It's a chapter title from Little Town on the Prairie.  Laura uses it to describe how much social life there now is in DeSmet.  I've talked with people about how it's just such a fun title to use when describing your life.  I've run into the situation tonight.
My tennis lesson has moved to 6 on Wednesdays because of the EITC project.  yeah, today I'm going to have to leave work early to make it.  Then I'm going to leave the lesson at 6:50 to get to bookclub a little after 7.  After this week, I'll probably skip one or the other, but this week is the first week back on a regular schedule for both so I want to make it.
We read "Having Our Say" for book club tonight.  I love history so I enjoyed that part.  OTOH, I know Jim Crow was bad and that they were discriminated against.  But there was no new information perspective really.

Friday, February 1, 2013

TV Comments

It's not a day of the week as a title, right?  I thought I would give my reaction to Tuesday's Pretty Little Liars, since you've already gotten the impression I love the show.

Spencer - she is cracking but I hope she tells the other girls soon.  It's not fair for them to not know not to trust Toby.

Emily - yeah, it is wierd for the family of the guy you killed to send you stuff.  Maybe she's trying to prove she's not scared, but she's going overboard.

Hanna - loved her this week.  She looks like a flake, but she'll figure out what everyone's up to first.

Aria - ouch, where to turn?  I wish Noel or Jason would comfort her rather than Wes.

Toby - why was he wearing the do-rag?  Did he join a gang in juvie?  Toby became an A when he got out.  What else did Ali's posse do to annoy him?  Is he still ticked at Emily for rejecting him?

Ali - Girl gets around.  Is there a guy in Rosewood or the beach she hasn't hooked up with? I could see that the one the girls were friends with was dead, and the twin is A.

Ezra - well, he got a shock didn't he?  I feel so bad for him.  He did say he was doing life with Aria not Maggie - possibly a more mature point of view than the average high schooler can grasp.  He just needs to come back to Aria soon.  Maybe it's his father who really got Maggie pregnant.

Paige - I have never trusted her, and I still don't.  I'm sure Emily will though.

Caleb - Needs to wash his hair and consult with Hanna's Mom - in a way different than what Wilden would do.

Jason - Can he or Noel wander around shirtless rather than Toby?

Wilden - So he killed someone in the line of duty or Ali or Ali was involved in something that led to him killing her.  And maybe he got her pregnant.  So he likes mothers and young girls, classy.  Also, if he's supposed to be the same age as Jason, Ian and Garrett, he looks older.

Byron - I don't know.  His tone just sounds even more suspicious lately.

Hanna's Mom - she seems to be the mother most likely to figure something out before A tries to kill one of the girls.  But if Wilden is back, will the Pastor like it?

Emily's Mom - Was right to talk to the police.  It's not her fault that you can't trust the Rosewood PD.  Good parent award.

Cece - Don't trust her about anything though her story was interesting.

Maggie - She didn't throw Aria under a bus, but I can't help thinking that is part of a bigger plan.

Also, I have been really liking Castle.  Wait, it's two people who really care for each other, but are afraid to say anything because it might ruin the friendship.  Yeah, kinda relate to that.

What are your favorite tv shows?