About Barbara Harper

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Catching up

Posted on November 1, 2008 by Barbara Harper

My word, you all are prolific! I had to discipline myself not to even open Google Reader yesterday til I finished my task. After dinner I finally got to “play” a while — and there were over 120 posts! I read some last night and some this morning. Saturdays are typically slow in Blogland, so it is a good day to catch up.

I also missed out on Friday’s Fave Five, Show and Tell Friday, Saturday Photo Hunt, but it is my own fault.

The last week of the month finds me working on a newsletter/booklet for our ladies’ group at church. I never know quite what to call it. It started out as about eight pages with news of our group, our missionaries, and other little bits of interest to women, based on a similar booklet my mother-in-law’s church published. I took some of those to my pastor and asked if we could do the same, and he said, “Go for it!” This month marks my eighth year of doing it, and it has grown to 16 pages and includes a section on devotions, a book summary of a missionary book or biography or an anecdote from a missionary’s life, an “around the house” section of tips or encouragement for homemakers, a “Christian womanhood” section where I rotate topics related to different to women in different situations — single, married, mom, older, widowed, etc. Some of it I write myself, some of it I compile from other sources. It is a blessing to me — sometimes I would love to lay aside other ministry tasks and just do this.

Oh, there is also a “funny pages” section at the back. That is probably what I get the most comments on. 🙂

It seems that most bloggers love to write to some degree — you might ask your pastor about a similar ministry, and he just might say, “Go for it!”

Some months I know what I am going to put in the booklet, and it is just a matter of getting it down. Other times I am not so sure until I get started. This month was about half and half. I usually work on it the last week of the month to have out the first Sunday of the next month. I keep telling myself I should work on it earlier then let it “sit” and incubate for a while and edit it the last week — I would probably catch more mistakes that way and find better ways to word things. But I somehow end up not doing that. This particular week I ended up not getting the bulk of it done until the last two days!

I don’t work best under pressure — but I do get more done under pressure.

But my point in saying all of this is to testify that God is faithful to guide and direct and give ideas even to such small endeavors as this. There was one section I was drawing a blank on until He reminded me of an idea I considered last month, but then went another direction. I hadn’t made note of it and had forgotten it. Sometimes putting the clip art in can be the most time-consuming part of it, but He reminded me of a file I had downloaded some type back under an obscure title. Time after time I see Him faithfully helping things to come together, giving me ideas, etc. And I have seen that in other areas of ministry as well. So I just wanted to encourage you not to refrain from certain types of ministry because you don’t think you’d know what to do. If it is something the Lord wants you to do, He will work through you and help you to do it.

“In other news”… last night was Halloween, and somehow our neighborhood gets flooded with many more people than I ever see on the streets here at any other time. I think people from other neighborhoods, or maybe a nearby apartment complex, bring their kids here. I even saw one truck that hauled a lot of people around. We always get some kids’ tracts printed up for just such a purpose (our local Christian bookstore has them but they can also be ordered at Good News Publishing) to give out with the candy. I bought 114 tracts — about all our bookstore had that I liked — and those were gone within about 45 minutes. I scrambled around between my purse and desk and a cabinet and found maybe 40 or so more. Then we just gave out handfuls of candy but got tired after a while and went ahead and closed the door and shut off the lights. We have much more candy left over than any of us needs — I may send some to the dorms with Jason’s girlfriend.

I used to be very anti-Halloween, and I still think there is a darker side to it. I feel almost oppressed sometimes at the types of things in the stores and on TV — I don’t watch horror movies, but I do see them listed and advertised a lot this time of year. And I think a lot of the really gruesome costumes and decorations go too far. But I can see how it can also be an innocent, fun time of dressing up and having fun.

When my older boys were little, a friend used to host a fall party on a week apart from Halloween. Each year it was a different theme: one year it was clowns, one it was fairy-tale characters, one it was what you want to be when you grow up. The kids just loved that, and I loved the creativity of getting a costume together to fit the theme. If I had time today I’d scan in some of their costumes, but I don’t — and this post is too long already. My friend also had games and goodies, and those parties were some of my favorite memories from my kids’ childhood.

Speaking of going on too long, I need to get going, but I wanted to share one last thing. A few days ago I mentioned I was chuckling over a mom in a store calling to her little son, “Walker, don’t run!” Well, this morning there was a related headline in the paper that made me chuckle again:

Have a good weekend!

How did I miss National Chocolate Day

Posted on October 30, 2008 by Barbara Harper

…on October 28? My gastronomical first love! I’ll just have to have a belated celebration with something chocolate…besides the Halloween candy I bought this morning.

I was first alerted to this special day by The Common Room who linked to a recipe for Dangerous Chocolate Cake in a Mug at Life In a Shoe. As I said there, it sound perfect when you’re craving something chocolate but don’t want a whole panful of brownies to tempt you to have more. I need to try it!

(Photo courtesy of the stock xchng.)

Booking Through Thursday: Conditioning

Posted on October 30, 2008 by Barbara Harper

The weekly Booking Through Thursday question for today is:

Mariel suggested this week’s question.

Are you a spine breaker? Or a dog-earer? Do you expect to keep your books in pristine condition even after you have read them? Does watching other readers bend the cover all the way round make you flinch or squeal in pain?

I don’t break spines on purpose. I’ve gone back and forth on dog-earing — sometimes I haven’t had anything with me to mark a page I want to remember. But I don’t so that much these days.

A lot depends on the book. The classics that I hope to hand down to my children are kept in mint condition. If it is a paperback that I don’t think anyone else will read but me, I might dog-ear pages or underline lines a bit more.

I do hate to see books treated carelessly — tossed around, laid face-down while open, pages bent because another book was shoved on top of it in a backpack, etc. I do believe in a general respect of property — my own, someone else’s, or the library’s.

Texas Toast

Posted on October 29, 2008 by Barbara Harper

I mentioned a couple of times recently (here and here) Texas Toast, and Lynn asked me what it was.

It’s really just regular bread cut thicker than usual, called Texas Toast, I suppose, because of the cliche that everything is bigger in Texas. Ours is almost gone, as you can tell.

Here I laid it beside regular bread to compare. I’ve only seen it as white bread, never whole wheat or lite or any other of the myriad varieties of regular bread. It’s usually not on the racks with the other breads but either on a table near there or in the grocery bakery.

Melli said she had only seen it with garlic butter on it. I’ve seen it that way, too, but usually laid out on a tray. Zaxby’s serves it as toast (with just the right amount of butter and toasting. Scrumptious!) And I think Sonic’s serves it as the bread in their toaster sandwiches, but I’ve never tried one. Unfortunately we don’t have a Sonic’s near here (but I want one!!)

It makes for really good cinnamon toast!

The strayingest of thoughts…

Posted on October 28, 2008 by Barbara Harper

The other day I was in the grocery store and kept hearing a mother telling her little son, “Walker, don’t touch that,” “Walker, come here,” etc. Finally I heard her say, “Walker, don’t run!” I thought, “That must be why she named him Walker.” Heh, heh.

It’s cold this morning! I turned on the furnace for the first time this season.

If you want to see some really intriguing pictures, go see ivman. Some are probably “doctored,” but many just happened to catch the right angle at the right moment. Here are a couple of my favorites:

Jesse made the JV basketball teaming for the first time after trying out three years in a row. I guess I have to go to basketball games now. 🙂 We used to go all the time just for something to do — but I have plenty to do these days! I’m happy for him. He’s thrilled. We talked a little bit last night about expectations: soreness and hard work at practice (even though he’s skinny he’s not really in shape, and he knows that and knows to expect work on that) and the fact that, though athletics can teach a lot of good life lessons, they can also get people riled up and not to take it personally if someone seems harsh or even yells.

Cinnamon toast made with Texas toast is really good.

I woke up feeling not so great this morning — not good because I have a busy week ahead! After getting Jesse off to school I lazed around for a little while and just got up again to try and eat something a little while ago..

I go back tomorrow to get the root canal finished. I was thinking that since the dentist drilled everything out last time, all he’d have to do this time is fill it back in, so it should be pretty simple. But he put temporary filling in last time, so I guess he will have to drill all that back out. Augh! Well, anyway, after this is over with I shouldn’t have to see him for a long time. I hope.

I guess dentists probably need to feel pretty secure about themselves to go into a profession where no one really likes coming to see them! It’s not a good profession for anyone with an inferiority complex.

I’m off to read a few blogs and then dig in to my work for the day. Have a good day!

Book Review: Summer Breeze

Posted on October 25, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Summer Breeze by Catherine Palmer and Gary Chapman is the second in the Seasons of Marriage series based on Gary Chapman’s teachings on that subject. A lot of the same characters appear with a couple of new additions, but the focus is on Kim Finley. She divorced an abusive husband and has ten-year-old twins, one of whom was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in the last book. She is a believer but married an unsaved man, though he is far different from her first husband. Their financial situation won’t allow her to stay home while the twins are out of school for the summer, so her husband, Derek, calls his mother to come and help out.

Derek’s mother is critical and vocal and into a conglomerate of Eastern and New Age religions. She and Kim clash on various levels and Derek is caught in the middle. But instead of talking through the problems, Derek would rather ignore it all and hope it will all go away.

With differing communication styles and love languages and the pressure of Derek’s mother and Kim’s son’s diabetes, tensions continue to build until Derek and Kim’s marriage is in serious trouble.

Once again I enjoyed the back-and-forth points of view, seeing how the same situation can look totally different to two different people. And I appreciated the advice they were given and how they applied it, especially the need to truly listen to the other person rather than just promoting one’s own agenda. All in all this was a valuable book, and I enjoyed it even more than the first one. I am looking forward to the next two.

This review will be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday book reviews.

Saturday Scavenger Photo Hunt: Scary

Posted on October 25, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Theme: Scary| Become a Photo Hunter

This little guy is trying his best to look scary.

This is an old picture. We discovered several years ago that a possum family was using a rubber drainage tube from our patio down to a lower part of the back yard as their subway. This baby got separated from his family, and, if I remember correctly, was roaming around the patio. My husband and boys caught him in a bucket to try to take him where we thought the others were, but he wasn’t very happy about it…probably because we looked pretty scary to him!

You can find more photo interpretations of “scary” at TN Chick‘s on Saturday.

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on October 24, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Susanne at Living to Tell the Story hosts a “Friday Fave Five” in which we share our five favorite things from the past week. Click on the button to read more of the details.

So here are a few favorite things from my week:

1. 50% off coupons and gifts cards — in general! — but especially when with them I got:

2. These clear stamps for free:

You just peel them off and put them on the clear block, stamp, wash it off and put it back. I love the idea of being able to see exactly where you are putting the stamp — the old ones were on wooden blocks and sometimes it would take several tries to get it straight and exactly where I wanted it. I haven’t tried these yet but I am itching to.

The gift card was to Michael’s from Jesse for my birthday — can you believe I’d had it since August and hadn’t used it yet? But I am glad I saved it for now.

3. This stuff:

My two older sons love the Sticky Fingers restaurant in the town where they commute to school, but the rest of us had never been there — there is not one in our town. We finally did go over there and eat a few weeks ago, and I LOVED this sauce. And they sell it in some grocery stores!

I have a couple of baked dishes with barbecue sauce, and it didn’t really work well for that — we liked our regular Kraft BBQ sauce better. But as a condiment it is out of this world.

I made a new recipe (to me) called Saucy Pork Chops in the crock pot last Sunday, and it was just ok to me. It seemed to be missing something, though the rest of the family liked it. But we had more pork chops than I had thought were in the package, so I pulled the meat off the bones of the rest of it and Monday got some onion rolls for sandwiches, and with the Sticky Fingers Carolina Sweet sauce — oh my — mouth bliss!!!

4. Texas Toast. I had seen this in the stores for ages but just had never gotten any. But I got some this week because in the store I couldn’t decide between the onion rolls or Texas Toast for the BBQ sandwiches. Then I made French toast with them one morning for breakfast. I haven’t made French toast in ages, but now I am planning on making it for the family this weekend. More mouth bliss!!

5. One of my favorite moments this past week occurred last night. Often the messages from the BJU chapel service come on the radio around the time I am cleaning up the kitchen, and I enjoy listening to it while I am working there, but usually when I am done I turn off the radio and leave the room. Last night, though, the message was on a passage I had just read that morning (from Eph. 4 about grieving the Holy Spirit), and it was really speaking to my heart, so I stayed in the kitchen while it was on. While I was listening I decided to do some of those “extra” kitchen jobs like cleaning out the microwave and cleaning the crumbs from the bottom of the toaster oven, etc. Cleaning is not my favorite thing, but I do enjoy the results, and listening to something profitable while my hands are busy enhances the time. In fact…in some ways I listen better when my hands are busy. If I am just sitting I tend to get drowsy or distracted or fidgety. I know of mission churches in primitive areas where the people had no concept of any kind of public meeting with one speaker, much less church, and the idea of sitting still and listening when they had so much to do was preposterous to them, so they brought their basket-making or rope-making or net-mending or carving or whatever along with them to church. I’ve thought that’s really not a bad idea! But I can’t see our American churches going that way, and I don’t think I would really be ready for them to.

I’m digressing, but that whole time was a blessing not only in getting some things done that aren’t part of my daily routine (I so enjoyed using my gleaming microwave this morning!), but even more than that I enjoyed a message that really spoke it my heart in a way that it hadn’t been spoken to in a long time and opened up the passage a little more for me. I have still been thinking about it this morning.

Then earlier I caught a brief clip of a message while in the kitchen for a few minutes that has also stayed with me, about the fact that King Darius’s eyes were opened to see that “the God of Daniel…is the living God, and stedfast for ever, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be even unto the end” (Daniel 5:26) primarily through an unfair situation — the “set-up” that landed Daniel in the lion’s den. It really gives a new perspective that the Lord may have us in situations like that not only to teach us something, but to manifest something of Himself through us. Paul and Silas singing while in jail would be another example — an unfair situation that led to the salvation of the jailer and others. And Joseph’s life. I wonder how many opportunities like that I miss because I am inwardly grousing over the unfairness and injustice of it all instead of trusting the Lord to work in the situation.

So…it looks like it was a good week for being fed — spiritually, creatively, mentally, and spiritually.

Paper Crafting Thursday: Thank you cards

Posted on October 23, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Kelli at There’s No Place Like Home hosts Paper-Crafting Thursday where we can show cards, bookmarks, etc. that we have worked on. She has some really cute caramel apple cards up this week!

I needed to write some thank you notes and wanted to make the cards for them. A few weeks ago I had found these neat raised stickers at Michael’s in their sales bin for a dollar or two.

I used one on this card:

Many places that sell card crafting supplies sell what a friend of mine calls “cheater cards” — cards with a decorative background so all you have to do is add embellishments. That’s what the one above started from.

I had wanted to use some new stamps to stamp a “Thank you” that I could then cut out and use, but I was in a bit of a time crunch. So I typed “Thank you” in a couple of different fonts on the computer and cut out a piece of card stock 4″ x 6″ and placed it in the photo tray of our printer and printed the “thank yous” out on that — worked just fine! You could also write them out by hand if you have nice writing or printing — I’m sorry to say I don’t.

Then, to get them into a shape, you could either cut or punch the shape out first and write in the center or try to arrange a stamp centrally. Or you could take a paper punch like this…

…and then turn it upside down and center the words in the opening like this:

It takes a bit more pressure to punch it out upside down, but I like being able to center words or a design like that. You could also cut them out freehand…but I don’t really have a good eye or a steady hand for that, so I rely on tools.

I used that paper punched thank you here:

I apologize for the blurriness! I thought it came out clearer, but I have already sent it out, so I can’t retake the picture.

And finally this one uses already cut-out leaves with a thank you glued in the center along with a couple of stickers from the above package.

I enjoyed making these! I hope the recipients enjoy them, too.

You can find more card ideas at Kelli’s.

Booking Through Thursday: Coupling

Posted on October 23, 2008 by Barbara Harper

The weekly Booking Through Thursday question for today is:

Monica suggested this one:

Got this idea from Literary Feline during her recent contest:

“Name a favorite literary couple and tell me why they are a favorite. If you cannot choose just one, that is okay too. Name as many as you like–sometimes narrowing down a list can be extremely difficult and painful. Or maybe that’s just me.”

I have a feeling this question is going to keep bringing possibilities to mind all through the day. But probably at the top of the list would be Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester. Though they got together in rather an odd way, there is much I admire about their relationship. One of my favorite quotes about marriage comes near the end of the book:

To be together is for us to be at once as free as solitude, as gay as in company. We talk, I believe, all day long: to talk to each other is but a more animated and an audible thinking.

Other favorite couples would be:

Emma and Mr. Knightly from Jane Austen’s Emma.

Ma and Pa Ingalls from the Little House series.

David Copperfield and Agnes Wickfield.

Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe in the Anne of Green Gables series.

Sydney Carton and Lucie Manette from A Tale of Two Cities — even though they were not an actual couple, his demonstration of love is one of the greatest in literature.

Father Tim and Cynthia in Jan Karon’s Mitford series.

In all of these relationships there is depth and maturity. Their romances are not just starry-eyed infatuation. They’ve come out on the other end of serious struggles with a greater, deeper love than what they started with.

You can find more answers or link to your own at Booking Through Thursday.