Category Archives: Stray thoughts

Laudable Linkage and Fun Videos

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Here are a few things that stood out to me online this week:

Filling my home with the unseen, HT to Lizzie. Both the photos and the sentiments are lovely.

Pray to BLESS. I’ve heard and read a number of acronyms as a help to prayer, but I had never come across this one before. Very helpful.

The New Evangelical Virtues. Tim Challies masterfully discusses “characteristics that seem to pass as virtues today…doubt, opaqueness, and an emphasis on asking rather than answering questions.” “Humility is not found in doubting what is true, but in believing that what God says is true is true indeed.”

Spring Cleaning Your Facebook Account. No, not a discussion of purging your “Friends” list, but rather helpful questions to check our hearts. It’s not that the technology is bad, but what’s in our hearts is going to reveal itself even there.

Why Books Still Matter.

I almost labeled this “Luggage Inspectors,” but I didn’t want to be snarky. 🙂 Let’s just say don’t leave a parked car where there are monkeys:

This is amazing. I could never do this — not only because I can’t play music, but I’m sure I would knock over more than one glass.

Happy Saturday!

Flooding in Eastern TN

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I was surprised to find when we moved to eastern TN that there were a lot of rivers, streams, and creeks throughout the area. Both on the way to church and to Grandma’s we see a lot of waterways of varying sizes.

That combined with a lot of low spots I mentioned a few days back meant that the rainfall yesterday resulted in a lot of areas being flooded. It was a pretty harrowing drive to Grandma’s and then to Jesse’s school, with several roads having water across them, some having a lot of water across them.

I don’t know these folks and this is in Knoxville proper, which is not where we are, but I found this searching through YouTube to give you an idea what it looked like.

A news video here shows more. It wasn’t quite as high in our area as it shows there.

The worst was when we thought we were home free after getting Jesse from school. The end of the road just before our turn had a field next to it, and water from the field was cascading like a waterfall across the road and onto the other side of the street. Standing water was bad enough, but moving water was pretty scary. I knew one other way home had been badly flooded in places when I first went that direction to see Grandma an hour earlier, and there are a lot of little side roads, but I wasn’t sure if they would be any better — they all have dips in them that were going to collect water. Thankfully traffic both ways was letting one car through at a time, and we made it home safely — skipping the grocery store visit for the day! I was pretty unnerved for a while. Thankfully our home and neighborhood weren’t flooded at all. I am so grateful God saw us home safely.

It finally stopped raining in the late afternoon, and this morning the sun has been shining brightly. There was one spot on the way to school this morning where the water was pretty high, and traffic alternated one car at a time again. One road just outside our subdivision was still closed, and I’ve been hearing the steady hum of traffic being rerouted through our subdivision all through the night and morning, but it seems to have stopped now, so hopefully the water has receded or evaporated enough to reopen the road. One school is closed and one food bank lost a lost of its wares.

So March is coming in like a lamb after February went out like a lion!

Laudable Linkage

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It’s been a little while since I shared interesting links I’ve seen here and there. Hope you find something of interest!

Rejoice With Those Who Rejoice. Love Jeanne’s honesty here, and the last two paragraphs especially hit home with me. Quote: “Life has been a file in the hand of a loving God, and He has used it to smooth a lot of my rough edges.”

The Saddest Letter I’ve Ever Read was addressed to Cary Schmidt and has some sobering perspectives for parents, written by a young woman raised in Christian home, church, and school: “My point is that the problems that are supposed to be bad kid’s problems belong to us too. Unfortunately, our parents and youth workers don’t know that we struggle with these things and they don’t know what to do with us when they find out.” And then she shares how a parent’s focus on externals rather than the heart results in a child’s focus on externals without a heart relationship to Christ. Dr. Schmidt’s balanced, gracious first general response and second response to parents covered many of the thoughts that sprang to my own mind, and he’s planning a third response to the young woman and her generation. Though as parents we do need to concentrate on the heart and on a relationship with Christ and not just making sure our kids are in the right places, on the other hand, if God can take a child from an unsaved, alcoholic home (me) and show her His truth, I would think that young people surrounded by the truth would get it despite parents’ failings. Every parent will fail in some way because we’re sinners. That’s not an excuse and that doesn’t mean we don’t need to give serious heed to the problems the young lady addresses, but that was just one thought in my mind in addition to the many that Dr. Schmidt addressed.

How To Provoke Your Children to Anger, HT to Challies.

I Am About to Walk the Red Carpet. Love this!

Humble Leadership.

What Is Furlough? Not a vacation, that’s for sure.

13 Phrases to Keep Your Friendships Thriving.

Hat Box Favors. If you’re ever doing a theme for a shower or luncheon or banquet that has anything to do with hats, these are darling favors.

This Rose Cake is just gorgeous (HT to Lizzie). I don’t think I’d ever have the courage to try it. But it is so pretty.

Faux Fingerprint Pendants/Ornaments.

Internet Resources For Writers.

Interesting to watch, though it must have taken all kinds of time:

Happy Saturday!

Laudable Linkage and Videos

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It’s been a while since I’ve done this, but here are some things around the Web that I’ve found interesting — perhaps some will interest you as well.

Mercy in a Dustpan about practical ways of ministering to others in a crisis.

What If I’m Not a Gifted Evangelist? HT to Challies.

Someday Is a Liar and a Thief, good thoughts on not waiting to offer hospitality as a single person, but applicable to all of us who hope to be more hospitable “someday.”

The Vanity of Loveless Prophets.

Writing:

Novel Editing Tips.

A Showcase of Inspirational Writing Quotes.

Craftiness:

DIY Sweater Pillows, HT to Lizzie. I have an old sweater coming apart at the seams and sleeves, but the design is beautiful, and this would be a great way to preserve it.

DIY Photos on Canvas, HT to Lizzie again.

16 Crafty Bulletin and Memo Board Tutorials.

Kid’s Classroom Valentines. Cute, simple ideas for giving a different kind of Valentine.

I wouldn’t want things really to happen this way — because I’d be on the receiving end sometimes, I’m afraid — but it is funny.

And this is why I am glad I don’t live up North!

Have a great Saturday! I’m not sure yet what our plans are. If hubby doesn’t have any, I think I’m just going to putter around getting a few things done here and there. Love those kinds of days!

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.