I got to wondering whether that was an actual word — I tend to mean it as “wiped out, excessively tired” — “I was really zonked last night” — or I fell asleep in my tracks — “I zonked out on the couch at 8:30.” So I looked it up, and, according to dictionary.com, it is a word, and the second definition is “exhausted or asleep.” The first definition is “stupefied by or as if by alcohol or drugs; high.”

So there’s your new vocabulary word for the day.

I was wondering about that word because I was zonked last night (in the exhausted, sleepy way, not the drug-induced way) and did fall asleep on the couch at 8:30. I can’t even blame daylight savings time, because I inadvertently slept an hour later than I had intended. I changed the time on my alarm clock and set the alarm, but I had somehow flipped the switch from “buzzer” to “music.” The radio station I listen to is off the air every Sat. night for maintenance and comes back on Sun. mornings — an hour after my alarm was set for. Somehow, by the grace of God and the fact that I was startled out of my usual morning half-zombie state, everyone made it to church on time — except me.

I missed my usual Sunday afternoon nap because we were having deacon fellowships Sun. afternoon and I needed to make sandwiches for that, then there wasn’t enough time for a nap. A deacon fellowship, by the way, in our church, takes place a couple of Sundays a year and we meet in smaller groups headed up by the deacons at someone’s home in place of a Sunday evening service. There is always one group who meets at the church at the usual Sun. p.m. service time in case there are any visitors or someone didn’t get the word. It’s a nice time to get together in a smaller, more casual setting and…fellowship. 🙂

So, anyway, I was pretty wiped out. I had felt like I was going on about half-steam all Friday and Saturday and thought maybe I was coming down with something. But last night I fell aleep on the couch about 8:30, woke up about 10:30 and put Jesse to bed, then went on to bed, slept straight through to about 4 this morning, had to get up for a restroom break, then fell back asleep until my alarm went off at 5. And I feel wonderfully rested. So I guess maybe I just needed to catch up on some sleep.

My pastor has said he is about as spiritual as he is rested. Man, is that ever true. I was fighting off some less-than-spiritual attitudes this weekend (not that that’s always because of a need for sleep — if only!!)

But today I need to catch up on things I meant to do Friday or Saturday but didn’t because I was so zonked. Our ladies meeting is tonight and we’re doing care packages for our college students, so I need to go get gift bags and boxes and care package stuff and such for that.

I have several “real” posts simmering on the back burner. I finished Jane Eyre last week and want to talk a little about it; I finally finished Mere Christianity yesterday and want to talk about it, too. Catez in a recent post asked about positive examples of Christian community, and I want to share thoughts on that. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard people, after a crisis, say, “I don’t know how people survive these things without a church family.” Both Catez and Elle have had good posts about Christian criticism, and I’ve had some thoughts brewing on that topic that I want to explore. Plus, I was talking with another Internet friend who is a younger mom about her discouragement over discipline, so I’ve been pondering a post telling about how we “do discipline” — not that we’re perfect, nor are our kids, but we’ve found ways that seemed to work for us. And there are a couple of other thoughts swirling around. We’ll see how it goes.

That was some Ultimate Blog Party, wasn’t it?! I can’t believe how many people participated — over 900 the last time I checked. Even though I did a lot of “blog visiting,” about 5-10 at a time in snatches here and there, I feel like I hardly made a dent in the list. I think I may have visited between 150-200. I’d like to try to keep working through the list when there’s time. I’ll leave the blog party button in my side bar for a few days more in case there are still party-goers coming around — if so, my blog party post is here. Congratulations to all the prize-winners! And a special thanks to Susan and Janice for this event.

This was going to be just a drive-by posting, but I got carried away chatting. My son tells me there is a new Internet acronym going around: TLTR for “too long to read.” I fear that many of my posts fit that description. 😳 On the other hand, I don’t want to get too concise and end up with something like this. 🙂

I’m going to go take advantage of my unzonked state and get some things done.

(Photo is courtesy of ruperthenn at the stock.xchng)

This is my favorite sweater, and it is in great condition except for the edge of the sleeves.

I don’t knit or crochet — but I think a couple of ladies in our church do one or the other. Is this something that someone who knits or crochets would know how to fix? Or is it a lost cause?

WordPress blogs have a Dashboard with a link for “blog stats” where we can see how many “hits” our blog had on a given day, whether people clicked on a link to get to us (that sections is called “Referrers), what links on our site were clicked on, and what search words or phrases pulled up our blog.

I noticed yesterday a listing in the Referrers section for a link with Google translator in the url. Curious, I clicked on it, and found…my blog, same header, pictures and everything, only in Oriental characters. I don’t know if it is Chinese or Japanese or what.

My first thought was that someone ‘swiped” my blog. I had heard of that happening — I think it’s called “scraping” — where someone sets up a site and swipes posts from other blogs. But usually those things are surrounded by ads so the person can make money off of it. I showed it to my son and he said there was a way someone could use Google translator to read a site that is in a different language.

I think it is neat that someone found my blog and wanted to read it in Chinese (or Japanese or Korean or whatever). I’m wondering what they searched for that pulled my blog up.

I’m also wondering what Google translator does with words like “germophobe” and “grossed me out” which appeared in my last post. 😀

I’m also wondering if the e-mail with Oriental characters caught in the spam folder in my gmail account is Oriental spam or someone commenting.

I had a hankering for a burger today, so called my oldest son at work to see if he wanted to bring home some Wendy’s singles when he came home for lunch, which he readily agreed to.

We were eating, chatting, and passing parts of the newspaper back and forth to each other, and I wasn’t really looking at my food. When I had eaten about a third of it, I happened to notice the meat was red.

I don’t know if it is showing up as very red there — but as a confessed germophobe who likes every meat very well done, it kind of grossed me out. I probably should’ve taken it back to Wendy’s — but it’s raining and I didn’t want to go back out. They couldn’t do anything about the part I had already eaten, anyway. I took a picture for evidence. 😀 Then I zapped it in the microwave until there wasn’t the slightest hint of pink. I like pink, but not in my meat.

I’ve never had this problem with Wendy’s, though I have at other places.

I hope there’s no E coli lurking there!

(The Saturday Photo Hunt is below)

Here are some things I’ve seen “around” that I have enjoyed and thought you might, too.

• This quote from Sallie at A Gracious Home is so true:

A woman is complete in Christ – nothing more and nothing less. Marriage and/or motherhood may change her worldly status and role, but they do nothing to make her more complete in Christ. Salvation, wholeness, and meaning are found in Christ alone.

•  Are you familiar with Karla Dornacher? One of her books, Love in Every Room, is one of my favorites and stays out on the end table all the time. I love her style. Susan at By Grace mentioned a few days ago that Karla has a blog now. She’s even having a contest to give away some of her greeting cards!

• There are some gorgeous 4x4s at Everyday Is a Holiday that someone is using for a baking theme for their kitchen. A baking theme! How perfect for a kitchen. Why did I never think of that? I love Jenny’s quote here: it fits my world:

As artists, we’re not trying to make statements about war, or oppression, or poverty. We’re littler than that. What we think about when we create are the things that you don’t usually bother to think about…the little world that surrounds you when you  sleepily sip your morning coffee…the domestic sights your eyes gaze upon when you do the dishes after dinner…the backdrop of your everyday…the cake you bake on a random Tuesday…the color of the streamers at a kid’s birthday party.

•  Heather at HELLOmenameisHeather shared pictures of her studio this week. I am trying awfully hard not be covetous. 😀  Talk about the ultimate sewing and craft room. It’s beautiful, tranquil. inspiring. I would so love to have one room to devote to that (no, that’s not a hint to my sons. 🙂 ), but even if you don’t have a whole room, she shared many different little storage techniques.

• Mrs. Wilt at The Sparrow’s Nest is beginning a series on the woman of Proverbs 31. There is always much food for meditation there and I am looking forward to learning from the Proverbs 31 woman once again. But I always remember, and encourage others to remember, that this ultimate Biblical lady didn’t accomplish all of what is listed there in one day. Sometimes women can get discouraged at all of her accomplishments, but remember this is a picture of a lifetime, not “a day in the life.”

• Finally, you may have seen this one before as an nominee to the Hidden Treasure Awards that Everyday Mommy sponsored, but this post on Honoring My Covenant at A Dusty Frame has stayed with me for days. In my reading this morning I came to that passage about Joshua and the Gibeonites and the covenant they made, which Joshua needed to keep even though the Gibeonites weren’t totally honest. Then when Joshua and the children of Israel had to battle to defend Gibeon, the Lord marvelously enabled them. I never thought of this passage in regard to marriage, but marriage is a covenant. Something may change in one or both parties of a covenant, but the covenant is still in effect, and God will give grace when we honor our covenants. This and the rest of the post were just so profound and thought-provoking, I wanted to share it with you.

I finished Jane Eyre this week and want to talk about that a little, but I need to get to Wal-Mart and then get some chores done, so it will have to wait. Have a great Saturday!

You can get one of these at Snap Shirts — they’ll search your blog, make the word cloud, and send you the jpg file.

I wish I could drill a hole in each cheekbone to relieve the pressure. But it would probably be a little off-putting to anyone who saw me to see four nostrils — two of them in cheekbones — no matter how much relief it would afford me.

Jesse gave me his cold. I told him it was quite generous, but, really, he could keep it to himself. I just hope I don’t get his pink eye, too.

Last night at church my pastor asked for testimonies about people who had shown love to us in a way that influenced and impacted our lives. Most of us could tell about many such people. I rarely work up the nerve to say anything publicly in church, but my mind immediately went to Mrs. C. — I don’t know if she would want her name mentioned on the Internet, so I’ll just call her by that moniker.

I had become a Christian as a teen-ager, and my family was mostly unsaved. On Sunday mornings I would take my younger sisters to Sunday School and church with me, but otherwise I went by myself. My church was my second home, and I think of that time as my childhood in the Lord. The church folks were wonderful to me.

During my sophomore year of college, a new family moved to our area and began attending our church. I met them when I came home for the summer. On Father’s Day several of us were asked to give testimonies about our fathers. I don’t remember what I said except that, with my father being unsaved, there was something missing from our relationship, and I began to give testimony instead to God as my heavenly Father. (If I were to give a similar testimony today I would emphasize that the Lord had taught me to respect my parents, even when they did things that did not invite respect [my father was an alcoholic with a very short temper], and more than that, to love them, and that godly love is the greatest testimony and influence to them. My father did not make himself an easy person to love, yet I do have pleasant memories, especially from early childhood, and there were life lessons he taught me that I appreciate. My testimony of him would be completely different now than what it was then. But maybe that’s another post for another time.)

Afterward this new family, the C. family, spoke to me. They told me if I ever needed someone to talk to, I should feel free to call them. I warned them that I would take them up on that offer. 🙂 At some point they invited me to their home for dinner, and our relationship just grew from there until I began to think of them as my spiritual family.

I don’t think they took me “under their wing” with a view to teach, to instruct, to be an example — I don’t think they saw me as a ministry or a project. I think they were just extending love. But just seeing the example of a godly Christian home was such a tremendous influence on me. I had always, in all my childhood imaginings of what I wanted to be when I grew up and alongside those other aspirations, wanted to be a wife and mother. After I became a Christian I wanted to have a distinctively Christian home. And in the C. household I saw that lived out. I saw the father’s firmness and headship of his family. I saw the children, though normal and not perfect, sinless children, love and respect their parents. I saw a loving cheery atmosphere. But most of all I saw Mrs. C. — her merry heart, her loving submission to her husband, her gentleness with her children, her creativity and industriousness in her home, her servant’s heart at church, and her interest and care for me. She was the same sweet, cheery, helpful, outreaching person in every venue. I began calling her “Mom” (not to replace my mom — I loved my mom dearly — but in a way different from my mom) and her daughter, who was a few years younger and who happened to look like me, and who later was my maid of honor, my sister. To this day she is “Mom C.” Though Mr. C. passed away several years ago, I still keep in touch with Mrs. C. She remembers all of my family’s birthdays and our anniversary.

I don’t know what I would be and what my home would be without her example and influence. I love her dearly.

I’d like to hear your stories of how someone’s love influenced you. I wish my blog host supported “Mr. Linky” if it did I would really do this up big. 🙂 But as it is, if you just want to leave a comment, or write a post on your blog and leave a link to it here, I’d love to read it.