Category Archives: Stray thoughts

Progress

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I’ve felt like I’ve been in a bit of malaise or brain fog the last couple of weeks, and, interestingly, I was scrolling through old posts yesterday looking for something and noticed I had a post saying about the same thing the first few weeks of January almost every year. I think a lot of it is due to transitioning back into routine after the holidays, but that was disrupted a bit due to several snow days. But after getting a lot of sleep, I think I’m back on an even keel. Yesterday brought progress in several areas:

  • Temperatures in the 40s! I didn’t have anything to do with that, of course, but after days and days of sub-freezing weather, 40 felt pretty nice, and most of the ice and snow has finally melted. Winter’s not over yet, but this little break was heartening.
  • Lists. In spite of “brain fog,” some of my problem was just laziness. I’d think of things to work on but would veg out with solitaire on the computer instead. After confessing that to the Lord, I made a running list of various things that needed to be done and got started on it yesterday.
  • I’m still working on decorating the house. It’s going slowly both because it takes me a while to decide where to put things and because I need Jim’s help for some of the heavier items — plus the holidays put all of that on hold. I concentrated on our room yesterday and got several things up on the wall, several boxes put away, and a dust ruffle and dresser scarf ironed and in place. A bit of lace and decorativeness does my heart good. I do still plan to post pictures of the house, hopefully soon. We’re still waiting on those living room chairs…

  • I’ve been able to make headway on this cross stitch project here and there during the evenings. Jason commented that I’d been working on it a long time, and a variation of the song came to mind…”Little by little, stitch by stitch…” I don’t even remember when I started it, but it’s fun seeing it come together. I’m dreading the words in the hoop, though, and left them for later. They’re the most important segment but they don’t follow the lines and squares — I may write them on with a washable fabric marker and stitch over them.

  • Anger…which is actually a regression rather than a progression. I’m not in general an angry person every day, and some times, by God’s grace, I can take things in stride. But sometimes I can get blindingly white-hot angry in a flash, and often over some stupid little thing. And it’s worse when I’m in “the right” (or else believe I am) because it’s harder to let that anger go. Such an incident happened yesterday (no, not with anyone in my family), and after the emotion cooled down I was terribly ashamed and discouraged. I didn’t really say anything, though if the other person was alert they could have picked up on it. But the roiling under the surface was neither healthy nor honoring to the Lord. I confessed that to the Lord as well, and a couple of verses came to mind (“Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools” [Ecclesiastes 7:9] was one, as was “the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God” [James 1:20]), yet I still felt shrouded in defeat. So this morning I did a brief word study on “anger” and “wrath,” mainly in Proverbs and the epistles. Several helped, but one that realy jumped out at me was, “The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression” (Proverbs 19:11). Meditation on that and some of the others is helping.

So, though winter will still be here for a while and I’ll always have a list of things to do and an old nature to contend with…I am encouraged to see some progress.

Laudable Linkage & Videos

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Oddly, after a couple of weeks of not sharing interesting links I’ve seen, I only have a few. You’d think I’d have multitudes, but much of the blogosphere was fairly quiet over the holidays, and perhaps my reading was distracted enough that I didn’t think to save many. But here are a few:

8 Amazing Blogging Lessons from Albert Einstein, HT to Lisa Notes. The author takes quotes from Einstein and cleverly applies them to blogging.

52 Ways to Read and Study the Bible compiled by Semicolon. So many ways, and with all our electronic devices so many venues — it should be easier than ever.

A couple of years ago I compiled a list of resources and reasons for reading the Bible in Planning to read the Bible more this year?

Katrina at Callapiddar Days told of her first successful attempt at reading the Bible through in Part 1 dealing why she wanted to do so and finding a plan and Part 2 concerning how she succeeded this time, what she learned, and a few resources.

Lisa shares Why I am NOT reading the Bible through in a year, though she is still reading and shares tips for making it more effective.

One area where I’ve fallen short is memorizing. I did a lot in college and then in a children’s ministry we worked with, and those verses have pretty much stayed with me all these years (except I have trouble remembering the references) but not much at all since then. I’ve never memorized a whole book of the Bible. Some ladies at church are memorizing Ephesians, but they meet at a time that isn’t best for me and they are already a good ways into it. Lisa Notes shared a plan for memorizing Philippians by Easter: Partnering to Remember The 2011 Philippians Memory Moleskin.  Ann shares a plan for memorizing Colossians with 2 verses a week for a year with some more details and updates here. I am leaning toward the Colossians plan — 2 verses a week sounds very doable, and I have to admit the little booklet really appeals to me. They’ve set up a Facebook page as well.

Well, I guess I only thought I had just a few!

Just a couple more:

The worst gifts ever, HT to Challies. Though, I don’t know, that office chair looks good for a power nap. 🙂

How Critical Thinking Saves Faith HT again to Challies, on the need to talk with young people and wrestle through their questions with them rather than cutting them off for even asking.

I’ve shared this before, but here is some fun you can have with your Christmas tree when you’re done with it. My guys used to love shooting off model rockets, so this really appealed to them.

And I can’t remember if I shared this here or not, but it just makes me happy:

Retrospective Stray Thoughts

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At the end of December the first couple of years I blogged, I did a look back at the first post from each month. In the course of looking through old posts, I found several favorites that I wanted to note as well, so I began making a list of first posts of the month plus favorites. I think this year I’ll just list a couple or three favorites rather than the first post of each month. I don’t know if anyone gets anything out of this except me, but I enjoy it. 🙂

I hope you’ll forgive two retrospective posts in one day, with this and the look back at the top 10 books of 2010, but I wanted to get them both posted before the end of the year — which is tomorrow — and I already have the Friday’s Fave Five scheduled for tomorrow.

January:

Thankful in everything.

Finding God’s Will For Your Life.

February:

Spontaneity vs. scheduling.

Light Thoughts For a Dreary Day.

March:

God’s Help For God’s Assignment.

The Face of Jesus.

April:

Am I the only one who…?

May:

Wanting things to be “perfect.”

The blessing of hymns.

An original poem...

June:

Findings.

Big changes coming…

“Fret not thyself because of evildoers.”

July:

Spirit-lifters.

“What Keeps Us From Real Rest?”

A fond farewell from the ladies’ group.

August:

Do You Have the Son?

“David encouraged himself in the LORD his God”

September:

Exposing kids to evil.

In case he needs my prayers…

October:

Colorlessness.

Inner peace. (Not what you might think from the title. 🙂 )

98 books and book series that have enriched my life.

The Gospel and Christian Fiction.

November:

I guess it is time…

The ministry of showers.

December:

Christmas grief.

A Perfect Christmas.

“That’s just the way I am.“

I see I am woefully inconsistent in my capitalization…

I didn’t delve into Friday’s Fave Five posts — that has become kind of my round-up of what’s happened over the last week — or any other meme. I am sure I might have pulled a few favorites from there.

Sometimes it helps to go back and remind myself of things the Lord has taught me, and this look back through posts has been an exercise in that respect.

Ups and Downs

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UP: The list of things to do is steadily being chipped away:

Christmas letter finished and copied √
Christmas cards sent √
Most presents bought √
Decorations up √
House is cleaned. √
Watched “White Christmas.” 🙂 √

I still need to make one more trip to the mall and get one last package out in the mail, and then finish wrapping. Haven’t done any Christmas baking, but then we’ve had plenty of sweets around anyway.

UP: We had a great anniversary. A nice lunch at a local tea room and a great dinner, including the best salad I have had in my life. Then Mittu made a chocolate cake for us (pictures planned for the Friday’s Fave Five post.)

UP: Hubby is off work this week and next.

DOWN: The chair that was delivered yesterday was the wrong chair…only the latest in a series of mishaps in getting chairs for the living room! It would be too long and boring to give you a blow-by-blow account, but first it involved the manufacturer running out of the fabric we ordered — which they only told us after about three weeks of our wondering why our chairs weren’t in yet, so we had to go pick out a different fabric. Then the chairs arrived, but one was somehow damaged, and they said they could deliver one now and the other later — we said that was fine if they could guarantee the second one would be from the same dye lot and match the first one. They said no problem. But the chair they delivered was not the one we ordered, and what’s more, it smelled heavily of cigarette smoke. We’ve been waiting on these chairs for about 8 weeks and have only held out because they were so comfortable and we hadn’t found anything else like them. But I think we are on the verge of giving up and going chair shopping again.

DOWN: The dryer went out yesterday. I always hate to tell my hubby things like that. He undid everything he could and vacuumed out all the excess lint, the first step in seeing what might be wrong (not an easy feat in the cramped quarters behind the dryer). Everything else is working, it’s just not heating. Called someone and they’ll be out Thursday. I’m hoping it won’t take a long time for a part to be ordered. Thankfully I had finished the laundry except the not-quite dry towels in the dryer and the bath mats in the washer, and it air-dried enough to finish the towels and then get the bath mats dry enough to hang from pants hangers or drape over things to dry out for the morning.

UP: Jeremy comes home tonight!

I was thinking, in light of our anniversary yesterday, how much of the above is the stuff of life, the stuff of marriage — the fun times, celebrations, expressions of love on the same day as disappointments and appliance breakdowns. I am thankful for the one who shares these ups and downs with me.

Angels in odd places…

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No, that’s not the title to a new made-for-TV Christmas movie — though it woud make a good one! 🙂

It refers to this, hanging on someone’s door at my mother-in-law’s assisted living place:

I don’t know if she is doing chin-ups or practicing the flying trapeze…but it makes my arms tired just to look at her.

Laudable Linkage

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Here’s my weekly round-up of riveting recommendations from ’round the Web. 😀

How to Encourage Missionaries During the Holiday Season.

From It was the best of NaNo; it was the worst of NaNo by Johnnie at Kindred Heart Writers I saw a link to the 100 Best First Lines from Novels as listed by the American Book Review. It was pretty interesting — I wonder how long some of these writers had to work to craft a compelling first sentence. Some of them, though, weren’t so compelling to me. Johnnie notes that eight of them start out with “It was…” — considered a major no-no these days because of its passivity, but to me, if what comes just after “It was…” captures your interest and attention, it’s fine. Most of the “It was..” openers were intensely more interesting than the first line to Robinson Crusoe and a few of the others.

Another on writing from Kindred Heart Writers: Self-Editing Tips from Jerry Jenkins.

I must try Chewy Peanut Butter Brownies, recommended by a friend on Facebook. Sounds right up my ally.

How to transfer an image to fabric with gel medium from How About Orange.

Some fall decorating ideas:

How to make leaf trivets from Martha Stewart

Leaf motifs for table linens from Martha Stewart

Maple leaf coasters by the long thread.

And for Christmas, awesomely cute Festive Felt Christmas Trees from allsorts.

And this was sent to me by my oldest son and made me smile for a long time. You can only use a play like this once, though!

Have a great Saturday! I have some mending and cleaning to do.

Laudable Linkage

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If you are at all crafty, whether you like to make things or enjoy looking at them, Amy Powers’ Inspired Ideas Christmas Online Magazine is a must see. It’s a feast for the eyes and imagination.

I saw this going around Facebook — it’s good for a smile:

1. Go to Google maps.
2. Go to “Get Directions.”
3. Type Japan as the start location.
4. Type China as the end location.
5. Go to direction#43.
6. Laugh

Also this video is cute — someone set it up so that people in a bathroom mirror saw anime characters mirroring their movements instead of their reflection. I don’t know if you’ll be able to see it if you are not on Facebook — they don’t seem to have this on You Tube.

Candy Coated Peanut Butter Cracker Sandwiches might be a fun thing to take to a Christmas party — or any get-together.

How to Make a Pilgrim Bonnet Out of Paper might come in handy later this month.

The Best Marriage Advice Ever (I am using his subtitle rather than the actual title): Funny and sweet post about the awkwardness when a couple’s marriage counselor, who also happened to be the bride’s father, came to the sexual part of the counseling sessions. “But the advice was well worth the awkward.”

This is inspiring, from Random Acts of Culture:

Hope you have a great Saturday! I have various little odd jobs to do but nothing major, at least not that I know of at this point!

“A” Random Dozen But Not “The” Random Dozen

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Linda at 2nd Cup of Coffee is discontinuing her weekly Random Dozen meme for now, maybe forever, possibly bringing it back some time as a monthly rather than weekly meme.

I was poking around my saved drafts yesterday looking for a post I thought I had started but never finished. I did find the post in question, but I also found, at the bottom of the “Recent Drafts” section of my blog dashboard, a “View All” button. I clicked it, and, voila, there were about 18 post drafts when I thought I only had about 5. I rummaged through them and found this meme that I had seen somewhere, partially answered, and left to sit there since last May.

So, being in the habit of feeling random and memey on Wednesdays, I decided to pull it out and finish it for today.

1. What time do you usually wake up in the morning? 5 a.m. weekdays, “whenever” on Saturdays, 5:30 on Sundays.

2. What do you do for the first hour of your day? Go to the bathroom, shower, get something to drink and take my Synthroid with, have some quiet time with my Bible, get Jesse’s breakfast and make his lunch, start getting ready to take him to school.

3. Where did or will you have lunch today? Home.

4. What did you or will you be eating lunch? My favorite lunch is leftovers — depending on what we have left over — or going out with family or friends. Today there is leftover creamed chicken and biscuits from last night plus a ham and chicken dish Jason invented on Monday. Don’t know yet which I’ll have.

5. What is your best high school memory? Graduation? 😀 I did enjoy the latter two years of high school but can’t think of a standout memory just now.

6. Tell us about your favorite pair of shoes. I have little black flats I wear every day.

7. What does a perfect Sunday afternoon include for you? Dinner with all the family, then a nap.

8. Was there one book that you read as a child that you still cherish? A Child’s Garden of Verses.

9. How would the people that know you personally describe you? I’m not sure. Probably quiet. My kids would say I’m a good cook. My Home Ec. teacher did not say so. But I think I’ve learned since then.

10. How would the people who only know you online describe you? I don’t know — how would you describe me?

11. How will you be treating yourself today? I usually treat myself to too many sweets or seconds.

12. What is your definition of being spiritual? Are you spiritual? This is one of the questions that had been left unanswered, and I was probably going to mull it over before answering and then just forgot all about the meme. To me the word “spiritual” connotes some kind of belief in a higher being outside ourselves, some kind of need to nurture soul and spirit, but is not necessarily Christian in its belief system. So by that definition I would say, yes, I do believe there is a “higher power” or Being and that I need to be rightly related to Him, but not in a vague, nebulous way. I do believe it matters what one believes in and I do not believe all spiritual paths lead to peace here or heaven hereafter. I believe in the God of the Bible, His Son and my Savior Jesus Christ, and I believe He communicates with us through His Word. On the other hand, “religious” has the connotation to many as being the system by which we work out what we believe, and in that sense I would say I am religious because we are supposed to work out our lofty ideals and bedrock doctrine into everyday life, but for some the emphasis is more on the works or the system rather than the belief. So while both words apply to some extent, neither one hits the nail exactly on the head. I usually just say I am a Christian, though some say “Christ-follower” these days.

If you’d like to do this same meme, feel free, and let me know if you do so I can come and see your answers, or feel free to answer in the comments if you’d like.

Laudable Linkage

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Here are some things I found interesting this last week that I thought you might, too:

I love this idea for etching your initial on a glass pan so that when you take it somewhere, it’s marked as yours and you don’t have to scribble your name on masking tape and stick it on. The article is based on using the Cricut to make a stencil, but you could use a pre-made stencil just as easily.

50 All-Time Favorite New Uses For Old Things.

20 5-Minute Centerpieces For Every Occasion.

My biggest parenting challenge.

The Church: Don’t Give Up On God’s Plan.

Food Ministry at Church.

Insignificant Is Beautiful, HT to Washing the Feet of the Saints. Quote: “The search for significance, especially if it requires changing the world, can blind us to the everyday tasks, the mundane duties, and the dirty work that is part and parcel of the life of discipleship.”

The Myth of Mother Teresa.

Hope you have a great Saturday!

Laudable Linkage and Wonderful Video

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Interesting things seen ’round the Web this week:

Do It Anyway from Lisa — just what I needed on the day I read it.

Billy Coffey versus the grocery store. Funny post of a man in unfamiliar territory.

Tin Eye, a reverse image source — a way to tell if any of your photos are being used on the Web.

Why a cake fails.

Cute fabric pumpkins and acorns and paper leaves.

I haven’t watched any of the coverage of the Chilean miners rescue except what people have posted on blogs or Facebook. I get most of my news via the radio and kept up with the updates. But I was blessed by 5 Lessons From Chilean Miners by Lisa and this video posted by Nannykim: