Laudable Linkage and Videos

Posted on February 5, 2011 by Barbara Harper

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!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Barbara Harper

Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share our favorite things from the last week. This has been a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

Here are a few favorites from the past week:

1. Fifth Sunday Fellowship. Our church had one of these last Sunday night. It’s kind of funny that I can approach these things with a first-day-of-school type anxiety (“Will I find anyone to talk to?”) But some people did sit with us and talk to us, and we had an enjoyable time.

2. Thoughtfulness. My husband had to eat dinner with a visitor at work but brought a piece of chocolate cake home for me. Very sweet. Both hubby and the cake. 🙂

3. The end of January! One month closer to spring! We had a few nice days in the 60s, but now it is back to the 30s. Thankfully the big “snowpocalypse” missed us. But my daughter-in-law’s mother lives in OK and was stranded at the hospital where she works for four days. That’s not a bad place to be stranded, but still, no one likes to be stranded anywhere.

4. Living room chairs. Finally. We had ordered them months ago, but first one problem after another came up — first the manufacturer ran out of the material we ordered, and then the store delivered the wrong chair –with several weeks of waiting for each problem to be resolved. We got two just alike which face each other. They’re very comfy, and it’s nice to have that room be more usable and closer to being finished — now I can figure out where to place the rest of the wall decorations.

5. An adorable commercial. I included this in my previous post — but I love it, and not every one who reads that post will read this one, and vice versa.

And a bonus: this sign, seen on Facebook:

Flashback Friday: Commercials and ads

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Barbara Harper

Mocha With Linda hosts a weekly meme called Flashback Friday. She’ll post a question every Thursday, and then Friday we can link our answers up on her site. You can visit her site for more Flashbacks.

The prompt for today is:

What commercials and advertisements–either TV/radio, magazine/newspaper, or even billboards (Burma Shave, anyone?!)–do you associate with growing up? Did you watch TV for the ads or for the programs? Can you still remember any of the songs, words or slogans from those ads? What were your favorites and least favorites? Were your parents influenced by ads when they bought things? Did you try to convince your parents to buy something as the result of a commercial? What is something you bought or did as a result of an advertisement that you later regretted (either as a child or an adult)? Feel free to share words, videos, or pictures of any ads!

Oh my — I did a whole Thursday Thirteen post a few years ago about commercials I remembered from childhood. There were regular characters — the Frito Bandito. Mr. Whipple protecting the Charmin (I always thought it strange that ladies would squeeze TP, especially in a store. But I liked Mr. Whipple better than those silly bears who advertise Charmin today.) Madge and Palmolive liquid. Juan Valdez. And the memorable repetitive slogans: “You’re soaking in it.” “Is it live, or is it Memorex?” “Takes a licking and keeps on ticking.” “A Little dab’ll do ya.” The jingles: “I’d love to be an Oscar Meyer wiener.” “My bologna has a first name…” “Rice-a-roni, the San Fransisco treat.” “Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce…” “Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.” “Trust your car to the man who wears the star.”

Two of my favorites:

Loved the drama!

I was a little older when they started playing serial commercials which ran a continuing story through them. I remember the product advertised was coffee, but I don’t remember which one. In the first one, a couple meets when he comes to his neighbor’s apartment to ask to borrow coffee. In another commercial, he comes over but sees a man there instead and leaves soon, but the man is the lady’s brother. I’d love to know of they ever brought that story to a resolution!

I don’t remember my parents ever being influenced by an ad, although I am sure they must’ve been. I know I was probably induced to covet an Easy Bake oven (which I never got!) and various other toys from ads.

I do remember an ad that was probably for aspirin with the serious advice to rest, take plenty of liquids, and take aspiring regular to fight off colds. I took that as near gospel truth for years. And I remember being very discouraged by an ad for Ivory Liquid, I think, which showed two ladies’ hands and asked viewers to guess which was older, proving the 40 year old’s hands looked as young as the 20 year old’s because of Ivory Liquid — discouraged because my hands looked “old” to me even then.

I don’t remember watching TV shows just for the commercials, but I do remember when one of my little sisters would come running when the heard a familiar one and would stay glued to the TV for the duration of it just like a favorite show — and then go running back to play when it was over.

I’m sure I must’ve been disappointed as a result of several commercials, but the only thing I can remember is that food in restaurants often didn’t look as good or taste as great as the commercials depicted.

Nowadays we mute most commercials. I can’t stand that they are noisier than regular programs — and often just noisy in general. But I do like the Geico commercials with both the little gecko and the guy who draws parallels between Geico’s claims and other situations — even though we don’t have insurance with them.

We’ll watch commercials for upcoming programs and films and others occasionally that look interesting. This is one I’ve seen recently around Facebook and a few blogs but not on TV yet. It’s just adorable.

Booking Through Thursday: Real Life

Posted on February 3, 2011 by Barbara Harper

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly meme which poses a question or a thought for participants to discuss centering on the subject of books or reading. The question for this week is one that I submitted:

I am paraphrasing from a friend’s Facebook wall her question:

“How would a teen-age boy who is going to work with his hands ever use Literature of England in his work?”

The age-old “How am I going to use this in real life?” question. How would you answer it?

As a wanna-be English major (I minored in English) who has always loved reading, I can’t help but think, “How can you not want to study literature, just for the enjoyment?” But obviously someone wasn’t enjoying it (interesting the question was asked by a mom rather than a child. She may have been looking for reasons to share with him, but I think she was just frustrated herself). And, honestly, not all literature is enjoyable. Some answers to the question, “Why read anything?” would apply, but why read literature in particular if you’re not going to be an English teacher? I am very interested in other people’s answers to this question, but here are a few that came to my own mind:

1. For personal enjoyment. Obviously no one will enjoy every piece of literature and some will enjoy it more than others and some teachers wring the life out of it in the way they teach it, but surely there would be portions of it that would appeal to anyone.

2. To broaden one’s horizons beyond one’s own experience, to learn of other places, times, cultures.

3. To broaden one’s understanding of one’s own culture.

4. To understand cultural references so that when someone quotes Dickens or Frost or Shakespeare you have some idea who they’re talking about. If someone mentions “Two roads diverged….,” knowing the poem and its subject enriches your understanding of what the person is referring to.

5. To have a point of contact with one’s fellow man or woman. This particular mom is a missionary and felt that her son’s time and mental powers would be better employed just reading and studying the Bible. But even the apostle Paul quoted poets and took time to understand other people’s culture as a way understanding them as a people and having a point of reference from which to share the gospel (Titus 1:11-13, Acts 17:21-23).

6. To become a more well-rounded person. Few people have just one interest, and if they don’t, they can tend to come across as a little dull to others who don’t share that interest. I’ve always been so glad that my alma mater was a Christian liberal arts university which taught a Christian worldview of all the arts.

7. To become more creative.

8. Exercise in thinking about issues, points of view, behavior, etc.

9. Exercise in language use. Someone who might be having trouble with grammar or spelling or general language use can get a feel for it almost unconsciously by reading.

What are your thoughts? What are the benefits of studying literature?

Wednesday Hodgepodge

Posted on February 2, 2011 by Barbara Harper

Joyce From This Side of the Pond hosts a weekly Wednesday Hodgepodge of questions for fun and for getting to know each other.

1. Would you rather be seen as a person who did their duty or forged their own path?

Well…both are valuable. But I have known people who liked to forge their own path who perhaps were not going on the best path who would not listen to anyone, accept any counsel, etc. The “I did it my way” attitude is not that of a Christian in submission to God. Yet He does use brave people who aren’t afraid to step out for Him — which in a sense goes back to obedience and duty. So I think I’d have to say I’d rather be known as one who did her duty.

2. This week’s Wednesday Hodgepodge happens to fall on Groundhog’s Day. In keeping with that theme, if you could have a do-over of any one day out of the last seven, which day would it be and why. If you haven’t seen the movie Groundhog Day this question will make absolutely no sense but that’s okay….you can answer anyway.

It’s terrible that I can only remember details of the last four. I guess yesterday. I had given myself permission to have a pretty light day Monday after several days of being pretty solidly busy. Jesse was on a skiing trip Tuesday with his youth group, so I didn’t have to take him to school or pick him up — not that I mind doing so, but I was thinking without having to work around those usual events of the day, I’d be able to get a lot of errands run without having to watch the clock. But I didn’t.

3. Hot cocoa…yay or nay on the marshmallows?

Definitely yay!

4. Do you wear makeup every day? What are the top two must haves in your daily makeup routine?

I only wear a little mascara and do use it every day unless I’m sick.

5. Is it more important to you in a relationship to be loved or understood?

I don’t know how you can separate the two. It would be hard to feel loved if someone didn’t take the time to try understand you. On the other hand, probably no two people ever understand each other fully.

6. Parsley sage rosemary or thyme… your favorite?

Of those, I’m only familiar with parsley and thyme. I may have had the other two in some dishes but not enough to connect a taste to them in my mind. And those aren’t my favorites of all the spices…but I guess I’d choose parsley.

7. What do you do when you feel angry?

Seethe inwardly until I can gain the right perspective. Not healthy, I know.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Recently I posted a video of various clips of our family sledding compiled by my son to the tune of “Winter Wonderland” by Bing Crosby. I would have thought that song was in the public domain years ago. Yet YouTube is not letting it be shown in the US due to copyright violations. How come my little video only seen by a handful of people gets blocked but there are multitudes of videos of TV shows, various performances, songs, etc. with thousands and millions of hits that aren’t blocked?

And here is a cheerier thought: 46 days until spring!

The Dinner Party That Wasn’t

Posted on February 1, 2011 by Barbara Harper

Our new church has a “Dinner For Six” program which I’ve mentioned before: people who want to participate sign up and the coordinators divide everyone into groups of three couples. Each couple hosts dinner for the other two once during a three-month period , with everyone dividing up the meal each time. The host family provides main course, one family brings salad and bread, the other brings dessert and a beverage, and they rotate with each meal. It’s a really neat way to get to know people beyond just chatting after services and to meet people from other Sunday School classes or the other side of the church.

We had our first dinner back in October with our pastor’s family and another couple. The second couple was supposed to host in November, but the wife’s mother became ill and she spent much of the month in the hospital with her or at her home afterward. Not only was there not an opportune time, but they were just under too much pressure. Throughout December we tried to find a time that would work for everyone, but we just never could get together. The new rotations for the Dinner For Six were to begin in January, but we attempted to get our last group together one last time and arranged to do so at our home this past Saturday.

Hospitality is not my strong suit, but I’ve come a long way, by God’s grace, since early married years when I felt I had to spring clean every nook and cranny, get every house project on the docket done, and then make some elaborate new dish when company came. It was nice to have only the main dish to prepare, and I put together a tried-and-true crock pot meal that serves a crowd. I planned a side dish “just in case.” I’m more on top of regular housekeeping than I used to be, but there was plenty to do (you can’t clean too far ahead, because then you’d have to do it all over again before the event). I learned a long time ago that I’ll probably not get everything done I’d like to and to prioritize what things had to get done vs. other things I could then get to if I had time. I was a little dismayed at not having help: Mittu was sick and Jason was ministering to her, and Jesse had an basketball game two hours away which Jim attended. I felt bad about not going, but I didn’t feel I could handle being in the car so much before having people over even if I’d gotten everything done ahead of time. Plus I felt I should be here in case something happened to delay them. So I actually looked forward to putting on some music and digging in.

Everything came together fairly well. But then a couple of hours before dinner time I got word that the pastor’s wife and daughter were sick and that he would be coming alone with their part of the meal. I was disappointed that his wife couldn’t make it and felt bad that she was sick.

The pastor arrived at 6, but the other couple was nowhere to be seen. We thought perhaps they had mistaken the time, so we waited until about 6:30, then decided we should call them. Not only had they forgotten all about it, but their refrigerator had broken down and they were right in the midst of cleaning everything out of it and putting a new one in. Even though we had enough food for them to go ahead and come without bringing their portion, it just was not a good time for them. If I had been thinking we could have offered to take dinner to them, but that just didn’t come to mind.

We enjoyed the time with the pastor, but I couldn’t even really enjoy feeling a little like the Shunammite woman who helped feed the man of God because I felt that, instead of ministering to someone who was out and about and needing refreshment, I was taking him away from his sick family who would rather have him home. And though the conversation around the table was pleasant, even fun, after everything was over, I felt profoundly disappointed.

Disappointed? Why?

Because I felt like I had gone to all that work for nothing.

Nothing? No, not if everything is done as unto the Lord. Hospitality does not depend on the number ministered to, and even if only my own family had shown up, are they not worthy of hospitality as well? I do cook and clean for them regularly, of course, and we have an occasional special night with tablecloth, special foods, etc. — this could have been a special celebration “just because.”

Because I wanted my new friends to see my home.

Ah, there is the crux of it. No, it’s not like we live in a mansion and I wanted to offer a museum tour. I enjoy visiting other people’s homes and seeing what other people have on their walls, how they arrange things, what they collect, what colors they like, etc. –it helps me get to know them better and see their personality reflected in their home. And I wanted them to get to know me in the same way. I don’t think that’s necessarily wrong. But hospitality is not about me. It’s not supposed to be, anyway. It’s supposed to be centered on ministering to others.

As I worked through my disappointments, I looked for several good things from the experience:

The house was all clean, earning me a bit of rest and time to do other things for a few days.
I got a few more decorating projects completed.
There was enough food left over to provide for Sunday dinner, making an easy meal of just warming things up.
I could rejoice in having a calm, productive day rather than whipping myself and my family into a frenzy as has happened previously when company was coming.
We got to spend time with the pastor and ask some questions we had.

And in church the next day, hearing some of the burdens and prayer requests and even victories as one new precious soul came to the Lord, I was reminded that there are much bigger things going on in the world than my little dinner, and I need to get over myself. 🙂

If you’re still reading, thanks for listening to my rambling as I tried to work out my thoughts and perspectives. 🙂

The Week In Words

Posted on January 31, 2011 by Barbara Harper

Welcome to The Week In Words, where we share quotes from the last week’s reading. If something you read this past week inspired you, caused you to laugh, cry, think, dream, or just resonated with you in some way, please share it with us, attributing it to its source, which can be a book, newspaper, blog, Facebook — anything that you read. More information is here.

It’s been a busy week since last time! But I did find a few gems along the way:

I forgot to note where I saw this one:

My complaint is not that I am in the world, but that the world is in me. I cannot get it out of my heart except as I let You in. —John Baird

I like the thought of crowding out the world by letting Christ in — instead of just combating worldliness, following Christ proactively and letting Him fill the space that worldliness would take.

On a friend’s Facebook page:

“A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.” ~Author unknown

From a post of Janet‘s:

Questions about God’s goodness or why He allows suffering are usually asked by comfortable people in comfortable houses with comfortable educations, but they’re answered by those who are walking through the most extreme trials.

Seen at Challies:

In public worship all should join. The little strings go to make up a concert, as well as the great. —Thomas Goodwin

If you’ve read anything that particularly spoke to you that you’d like to share, please either list it in the comments below or write a post on your blog and then put the link to that post (not your general blog link) in Mr. Linky below. I do ask that only family-friendly quotes be included. I hope you’ll visit some of the other participants as well and glean some great thoughts to ponder.

And please — feel free to comment even if you don’t have quotes to share!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on January 28, 2011 by Barbara Harper

Here are some standouts from this week:

1. We finally joined the church we’ve been attending since we moved here. We had been planning to for a while, but various things came up. Even though belonging to a church doesn’t “earn” you any merit before God, and even though people were very nice to us as it was, and even though we had had some good talks with the pastor, there is just something special about taking that step and having an official church home and being pastored. My heart was especially touched when our pastor got down on one knee beside Grandma’s wheelchair (we use that on Sunday’s rather than her walker) when we came forward to welcome her and tell her he wanted to be a good pastor to her.

2. Safety, especially when I do something stupid. I was talking on the cell phone while driving yesterday, which isn’t usually a problem on familiar, straight roads. I usually pull off to talk if I feel it is not safe, but for some reason I was on the phone while trying to turn into a busy store parking lot on a busy street. There was someone facing me in the turn lane whom I couldn’t see past, but after several cars passed and then there was a lull, I decided to go for it — but there was a black car, I think an SUV, coming at me who thankfully swerved — and thankfully had room to swerve — and I instinctively hit my horn, not because he did anything wrong, but just to warn him. He was probably horrifically angry at me — I wished I could apologize! Believe me, the lesson has been learned. I thank God for protecting me and the other driver from my own foolishness.

3. Heart pan and dish towels that Jason and Mittu saw and got for me:

4. New frame. I’d been wanting some sort of photos of my family on my desk. I saw something similar to this in gold at Hobby Lobby and almost got it, but I was glad I waited, because I saw this in a Lillian Vernon catalog. The lighter color helps show the photos better plus doesn’t get lost in the darkness of the desk.

5. I forgot to mention last week that we were privileged to have the Galkin team visiting our church then. They weren’t there for meetings — they were taking a week off to get some much needed work done on several projects — but they did sing a few times on Sunday night and Wednesday. I got their new CD, Consider Him, and have been just about wearing it out. The title song as well as “More and More Like You” (very convicting, especially the line “Do whatever you must do”) and “There Is a Higher Throne” have stood out to me, but my favorite is “Does Jesus Care.” It is an old hymn, but the new melody brings out the meaning and makes it new again. You can listen to a portion of it or any of the songs here.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Flashback Friday: Olympic Memories

Posted on January 28, 2011 by Barbara Harper

The prompt for today is:

Did you and your family watch the Olympics when you were growing up? Which was your overall favorite – summer or winter? Which individual events were your favorites? Since blogging is international, which country did you cheer for? Have you ever been to an Olympics or known anyone who competed? What are some of the hallmark memories of the Olympics that you remember? Did the Olympics ever inspire you to take a certain sport (or practice more!)? Do you prefer watching them the old way when everything was delayed in the days before 24-hour cable and internet? Do you watch them more or less today than you did when you were growing up? What about the Special Olympics? Have you ever had any involvement with them?

Yes, we did watch them, or at least parts of them. I loved gymnastics, both men’s and women’s, in the summer and all the different kinds of ice skating in the winter, so it’s hard to say which I liked more.

I rooted for the USA, of course, but some times I cheered for personal favorites from other countries as well.

We lived just outside of Atlanta when the summer Olympics were held there in 1996, but we figured the traffic, lines, and throngs of people would be horrendous, so we didn’t go. I do kind of regret that now — it would have been nice to have been a part of a historic moment and to have taken the boys. But some dear friends of ours came up from SC to attend a couple of events (fairly obscure ones, from what I remember, that weren’t sold out and were a little more affordable), and we had a nice time with them. That was the year a bomb went off fairly early in the week, making us even more glad at the time that we hadn’t gone.

No, the Olympics never inspired me to take a sport — I am about as nonathletic as a body can be.

I like being able to watch events in real time. I do watch more now than I did as a child.

I’ve never personally had any involvement in the Special Olympics, but a coach in college was heavily involved and recruited many students to help as well. That was the first I had ever even heard of them.

My earliest Olympic memories are of gymnast Cathy Rigby and later Mary Lou Retton during the summer Olympics and Scott Hamilton in the winter. I remember watching Peggy Fleming and Dorothy Hamill skate, but I can’t remember if it was during the Olympics. One of my all time favorite events was from 1984 when Torville and Dean ice-danced to Bolero. I thought this was one of the most beautiful, graceful things I had ever seen:

And the Three Musketeers by Phillipe Candeloro in 1998 was such fun, especially the sword fighting at about 3:27 in:

I also remember the year Katarina Witt and Debi Thomas were top contenders in skating, the “battle of the Brians,” Dan Janssen’s sad skate after learning his sister had died, Mark Spitz’s swimming, Greg Louganis bonking his head while diving, Kerri Strug’s beautiful vault while injured, Jackie Joyner Kersee’s track races, the “Miracle on Ice” Hockey Game (I liked it much better when it was just “amateur” athletes), and of course Micheal Phelps’s achievements at the last summer Olympics. So inspiring. I’m not much of a sports fan, but there is just something about the Olympics.

Lucy Maud Montgomery Reading Challenge Wrap-up

Posted on January 28, 2011 by Barbara Harper

Carrie’s Lucy Maud Montgomery Reading Challenge“officially” ends today.

Last year I just read the first Anne book, Anne of Green Gables. This year I’ve read Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island and Anne of Windy Poplars for this challenge, and watched Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel (all linked to my reviews) because it covers all three books.

I’ve started Looking for Anne of Green Gables: The Story of L. M. Montgomery and Her Literary Classic, a sort-of biography of LMM by Irene Gammel, but I am only a third of the way through it. I’ll finish it because I wanted to do so while the books were still fresh in my mind and because I’d rather finish it now than pick it up again next year. I am having mixed emotions about it so far — I’ll tell you more when I finish it. 🙂

I had originally wanted to get to Anne’s House of Dreams, as it was my second favorite of the series after the first book, but I had thought it was the fourth book — I had forgotten about Windy Poplars. I thought about going ahead and reading it, but I think I will probably keep it for next year’s challenge and really give myself something to look foreword to! Plus, as much as I love Anne, I’m ready to read some other things.

I’ve really enjoyed the challenge. I had read the books several years ago after the films first came out on PBS — somehow I had never heard of them before. I’ve wanted to read them again, but it was a bit daunting to think of going through the six Anne books plus the two about her children. But this challenge has been just perfect to read a few at a time with the added bonus of doing so when others are reading them, too, and being able to share and discuss them.

So, thank you, Carrie! I am already looking forward to next year!