Flashback Friday: Easter

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Mocha With Linda has begun a new weekly meme called Flashback Friday. She’ll post a question every Thursday, and then Friday we can link our answers up on her site.

The flashback question this week is:

What was Easter like when you were little? For example, did you receive a basket with toys and candy? Was the Easter Bunny part of your family’s celebration? Did your family integrate both secular and spiritual aspects of the day? Did you dye Easter eggs. . . .and did your family eat them afterwards? Did you usually get a new outfit? (Post a picture if you have one!) Does any Easter stand out particularly? You might also share how your Easter today is similar or different to your childhood?

We did receive Easter baskets with candy, but no toys. We did dye eggs (and eat them!) and talk about the Easter Bunny. Mine was not a church-going family — I usually went with my grandfather and aunt — but we did usually get new clothes, and I have a vague memory of learning somewhere that new clothes represented or symbolized new life. I don’t have any particular outstanding Easter memories from childhood.

When my kids were little, I was much more wary of the secular side of things, so we didn’t do the Easter bunny or dye eggs or any of that. I kind of regret that now. Several years ago I decided there was really nothing wrong with Easter baskets, so I started putting those together — just small ones with a little candy, and when they were younger, a few small toys. I didn’t see a need to turn it into another Christmas. I did get them new clothes when they were younger, but they went through a phase where they didn’t really care about getting new clothes, so I stopped doing that unless they needed them. No one here likes hard-cooked eggs, so it didn’t make any sense to dye any, but one year Jim got little plastic eggs and put different amounts of money in them and hid them, and now that has unintentionally become a tradition.

But the main emphasis is still on Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. Our church has a special Sunday morning service and a special cantata in the evening service.

I think this is the only Easter photo I have from when i was little: my brother and I in our new Easter clothes:

image01

Our most memorable Easter in recent years was when Jason was in a Living Gallery production. It wasn’t Easter week but rather the week before, I think.

Another thing that has become a tradition is making Resurrection Rolls, which is basically bread dough wrapped around a marshmallow: the marshmallow melts into the bread, leaving it with a sweet taste and a hollow place which looks sort of like the empty tomb.

Resurrection Rolls

The recipe for that and some other Easter treats are here.

Netiquette Meme

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Edited to add: Please don’t take offense if you do one of the things I mentioned I don’t like. Maybe I should have ranked these from worst to not-that-bad. 🙂 I think things like profanity or spam comments are pretty universally disliked, but some of these other things are just matters of personal preferences. If I like chocolate and you don’t, I am not offended: if you like red and I like pink, we can still get along. Some of these are just that — personal preferences. But that’s what the meme was asking for: what we liked and didn’t like and why.

I saw at Quilly‘s that Nessa has begun a meme about blogging etiquette. The basic idea is to:

On your own blog do a post listing 5 things you like about blogs, 5 things you don’t like and 5 things you do blogging that you think are cool and why you do them. Try to give the reasons why, too, so people understand your way of thinking.

However, these aren’t ironclad rules and you can feel free to list more or less as desired.

Things I like about blogs:

1. Connection. I was amazed when people first began commenting on my blog and left genuine comments, and then showed genuine care, even praying me through some difficult situations.

2. Stimulation. Many blogs stimulate me imaginatively, creatively, intellectually, spiritually.

3. Fun.

4. Good writing. Most of us just write as things come to mind, and that’s fine, but there are a few who express themselves really well, whose writing style I like as much as their content.

Things I don’t like:

1. White or light words on dark backgrounds. They are hard on the eyes and make me see the “negative” (as in reverse image, not as in not positive) for a while.

2. When an everyday average friendly blog goes commercial. I know a lot of people do ads to support the cost of the blog, if they are paying for their own domain, or to justify the time spent, etc, and I am not talking about that.  But there are a few who, once they start to go that route, become more business than blog. There are two specifically (and no, I am not going to link to them) who used to be regular commenters here, and I am not even on their radar any more, even though I still commented there for a long time (I rarely do any more). But it is not just about return comments: it’s that the whole tone of their blog changed.

3. Long posts not broken up into paragraphs. I think probably most prefer short posts to long ones, but I don’t mind long ones occasionally if the subject and writing are good. But one long paragraph that could be broken up into smaller sections should be.

4. Nudity or s*xual (disguised not because I am prudish, but to avoid the wrong kind of Internet searches) jokes. If I come across anything like that on a blog, I shut it down immediately.

5. When a site gets stuck or is very slow in loading, especially when the culprit is ad-related.

6. When I comment on someone’s blog and they start sending me unsolicited e-mails urging me to come read their next post, especially when they don’t ever visit my blog. I keep up with blogs I read regularly via Google Reader. Self-promotional e-mails really irritate me. Again — I feel I need to keep balancing things out — I don’t mind an occasional thing like that. For instance, Quilly sends out an e-mail when her Punny Monday posts are ready, and that’s fine — sometimes it doesn’t show up in Google Reader for a while, sometimes she gives a bit of background, sometimes I’ve forgotten, etc.  Or e-mails that are just a personal note or a continuation of a discussion — those are all fine.

7. When a blog is overly cluttered. I don’t mind sidebars, but a great lot of distracting things is…distracting. Things that move or flash, in particular, usually lessen the likelihood that I’ll spend much time there.

8. When a blog doesn’t have a search button. It’s very tedious trying to look through the archives for a post you read previously (especially if you can’t remember when you saw it) without some kind of search function.

9. I dislike the format I’m starting to see around now where blog posts show up side by side instead of being in a list form down the page. Here is an example — this is from a site I love and I don’t mean to “slam” them, but this format is so busy it’s off-putting to me. But this is a site I usually read via a feed reader and only comment on specific posts occasionally, so I don’t run into it much. In fact, I was really surprised to go to the main page and see it like that, but if it had been my first visit I probably would not have gone back.

10. When the blog posts are set up on feed readers to only show part of the post, making me have to click over to see the whole thing. A couple are set up to only show the title of the post, and honestly, I don’t always click over to those every day. There are some blogs that I click over to comment on almost every post anyway, but it just bugs me to have to for every post. And it especially bugs me if the purpose for setting it up that way is ad-related: some time back one blogger did share that she gets “credit” for how many people read her blog by how many actually click over, but she didn’t get credit for those who read via rss feeds, and that was why she only put partial posts or “teasers” in the rss feed. As I said elsewhere, I do understand why some place ads, but I don’t like to be manipulated or “used.”

10. These are more about comments than blogging, but comments are in integral part of blogging (otherwise what you have is an online journal):

  • “Empty” comments that just say, “Good answers” and don’t really respond to anything said in the post.
  • Self-promotion in comments with multiple links back to the commentor’s blog. Just the link back that occurs when you fill out the info. when you comment is sufficient. (BTW, you should know that the Askimet spam blocker which WordPress uses auotomatically sends anything with more than two links to the spam queue.) There are exceptions, like when someone wants to share thoughts on the same subject in a previous post of theirs and they’re sharing the link.
  • Businesses who leave comments linking back to their business site. I am not here to provide free advertising for you.
  • Spam comments with links back to s*xual sites, pharmaceutical sites, etc.
  • When you repeatedly comment on someone’s blog but they never respond. Among the regulars with whom I interact, we don’t all comment on every post every day, and that’s fine. But some people never do.
  • The Open ID comment format. When I start to type in my url, a prompt comes up with my whole url, but if I click on the prompt, only what I had typed at the time shows up, so I have to go back and type the whole thing. Plus a good bit of the time, after I type in my url, I get a window that there’s an error, and I have to try it at least twice, sometimes more often, before it accepts my comment.
  • Blogger blogs that only accept comments from other Blogger blogs. I can understand not wanting to leave the “Anonymous” option open, but I don’t know if they realize that cuts them off from bloggers with other hosts. I set up a Blogger blog linking back to my main site just so I could comment on those blogs, but it bugs me that I had to do that.

Things I am on the fence about (Yes, I made up this category):

1. Music that plays automatically on blogs. Normally I don’t like it, especially if it is loud, rockish, or jarring. Usually I don’t even have music playing in my home while I am blogging: my brain can’t seem to handle both at once (though I do like playing music if I am cleaning, cooking, etc.). So I usually turn off any music or hit the mute button (and one pet peeve is when the music widget is hard to find and therefore hard to turn off.) However, a few times I have found music I really liked and even ordered through hearing it on someone’s blog.

2. Awards. I do love when someone has thought of me and tagged me. But I feel awkward tagging some people and leaving others out, and the generic “All of you take this award” seems to take some of the meaning out of it. I put all my awards on a page in my sidebar with a thank-you to the giver,  but I don’t often follow the “rules” for them any more.

3. When I comment on someone’s blog, if they are going to respond, my preference would be that they visit my blog. I don’t mind an e-mail in response too much (and some responses call for that rather than a public response, and occasionally a friendly discussion will ensue via e-mail — that’s fine), but there are a few bloggers who never “return visit” someone who comments or who always respond via e-mail without ever visiting their visitors. Maybe I am wrong, but I seemed to pick up on the idea in early blogging days that it was common courtesy to try to return visit someone who commented on your blog. It’s not that I comment just to get visited — but when I repeatedly comment and that person never responds, I feel awkward and eventually stop. Then again, some people answer within their own comments, and that works really well for some, and if I know they do that I often check back after I have commented. But I have over 130 blogs in Google Reader. They don’t all post every day (I’d never be able to keep up with that many if they did), but I have a hard time some days keeping up with all the posts, much less making a return visit back to each one I have commented on.

4. I can understand the idea of having multiple blogs: I’ve thought about it myself. For instance, some of my readers are only interested in posts relating to books, and I’ve often thought of making a separate book blog. But I really don’t like visiting a blog that has frequent reminders to “Come see my post over here.” And when one blog I like splits into two or more, it makes it that much harder to keep up. I end up just reading the main blog I started with. It does work well for some people, but generally I prefer everything in one place.

5. I like devotional blogs that share thoughts from God’s Word. (Well…I like good ones, not ranting ones.) But I like them better if they show some aspect of the person’s whole personality — something funny here, something about the family there, etc. Getting some idea of the whole person makes me appreciate more what they have to say. Just a straight devotional blog can come across as just looking for an audience to preach to. That’s not necessarily wrong…just personal preference. I guess I like devotional posts that are more like sharing over a cup of coffee than a sermon outline, though I have done my share of outlines.

Things I do on my own blog:

1. I try to visit every one who comments on my blog at least once. I may miss some or not have time some days, but I try.

2. I like to change at least the picture header with the seasons. I used to change themes, but I like the features on this one the best.

3. I like to share links to other interesting things I’ve read.

4. I have a mixture of serious, devotional thoughts, fun or interesting things, “life in general” posts — a hodgepodge. But a good reflection of who I am, I think.

Wow — I’m sorry this got so long! I know that “long posts” are going to be on some people’s lists. But I guess once I got started, I wanted to get everything off my chest. I wrote most of this last night, and when I saw how long it was, decided to let it sit overnight and then come back and cut it down — but I ended up adding more, so I’d better stop!

I think some of these things would likely be on everyone’s lists, but others we would have different opinions on. That’s fine: we can disagree and still be friends. 🙂

Edited to add: Please don’t take offense if you do one of the things I mentioned I don’t like. Maybe I should have ranked these from worst to not-that-bad. 🙂 I think things like profanity or spam comments are pretty universally disliked, but some of these other things are just matters of personal preferences. If I like chocolate and you don’t, I am not offended: if you like red and I like pink, we can still get along. Some of these are just that — personal preferences. But that’s what the meme was asking for: what we liked and didn’t like and why.

What’s On Your Nightstand: March

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What's On Your NightstandThe folks at 5 Minutes For Books host What’s On Your Nightstand? the fourth Tuesday of each month in which we can share about the books we have been reading and/or plan to read. You can learn more about it by clicking the link or the button.

It seems strange to be doing a “nightstand” post when there is still a week left in March, but these come up on the fourth Tuesday of the month rather than the last Tuesday. On months we have a fifth Tuesday, we have the Classics Bookclub.

Since the last nightstand post I have finished:

Parting the Waters:Finding Beauty in Brokenness by Jeanne Damoff about her teen-age son’s near-drowning and the aftermath, reviewed here. Excellent book: I highly recommend it.

Dr. Sa’eed of Iran: Kurdish Physician to Princes and Peasants Nobles and Nomads by Jay M. Rasooli and Cady H. Allen, reviewed here. Another good one, a true story about a young Islamic man who became a Christian. The persecution he faced put me to shame, but it was encouraging to know that the light of the gospel can penetrate even hearts determined to oppose it.

Carry On, Jeeves by P. D. Wodehouse, reviewed here. I was in the mood for a lighter read, and this definitely fit the bill.

I am currently reading:

Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross: Experiencing the Passion and Power of Easter, essays on various aspects of the death and resurrection of Christ from people such as Charles H. Spurgeon and Martin Luther to John MacArthur and Joni Eareckson Tada, compiled by Nancy Guthrie.

The Hidden Flame by Janette Oke and Davis Bunn, the second in the Acts of Faith series set just after the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.

I just began Where My Heart Belongs by Tracie Peterson, about a prodigal daughter who comes home and the older sister who stayed behind, and their conflicts.

I am sure that I’ll pick up next Take 3, the third in the Above the Line series about Christian filmmakers by Karen Kingsbury, as it is due out this week. After that, I’m not sure, but it will likely be something from my Spring Reading Thing Goals.

Happy Reading!

Carry On, Jeeves

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I don’t know how I first became aware of Jeeves and Wooster: I think possibly through a clip on someone’s blog of an old program of the pair starring a young Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry. But after searching around, I discovered that P. D. Wodehouse wrote a whole series of books based on the characters of English gentleman Bertram Wooster and his valet, Jeeves (or, as he calls himself, a gentleman’s personal gentleman) on which the programs were based.

After reading several very good but very serious books, I was in the mood for something lighter. I perused our little branch library and found Carry On, Jeeves. I don’t know if it was the first in the series, but the first chapter told how Jeeves came into Mr. Wooster’s employ, so that seemed a good place to start.

Bertram is a pleasant, but not overly bright gentleman. Jeeves is the quintessential English valet, the soul of decorum, who seems to just noiselessly appear when needed, never offends, always seems to have the right answer and knows what to do, but he is not above quiet, unobtrusive manipulation. Jeeves is particularly offended, however, when Bertram insists on fashion of which Jeeves disapproves.

This particular book seems a collection of stories of Wooster’s various friends who run into some kind of trouble. They appeal to Jeeves for help, and he comes up with some kind of ruse which usually has unintended consequences and is the base for the book’s comedy. Though the plot is a little formulaic, the characters are generally well-drawn. What I enjoyed most about Wodehouse’s writing, though, was his phraseology. For instance, this is one response when Bertram is expecting Jeeves to have a comeback or argue with him, but Jeeves only says, “As you say, sir.”

I felt as if I had stepped on the place where the last stair ought to have been, but it wasn’t. I felt defiant, if you know what I mean, and there didn’t seem anything to defy.

Both the above and this give that feeling of “I know just what you mean — what an imaginative way to say it.”

It was one of those still evening you get in the summer, when you can hear a snail clear its throat a mile away.

After one plan to help a friend went horribly and awkwardly wrong, Bertram says,

I hardly knew what to do. I wanted, of course, to rush down…and grip the poor blighter silently by the hand; and then, thinking it over, I hadn’t the nerve. Absent treatment seemed the touch. I gave it to him in waves.

Another time when Bertram was suddenly challenged about something that had gone wrong and tried unsuccessfully to think of a response, he thinks to himself:

I strained the old bean til it creaked, but between the collar and the hair parting, nothing stirred.

Of course, this is not a Christian book, and there are a few objectionable elements: a handful of instances of the word “damn,” a good bit of alcohol usage, and an abundance of lying.

I don’t now that I’ll visit another volume of Jeeves and Wooster any time soon, but I enjoyed getting a little better acquainted with them.

(This review will be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books and the 5 Minutes For Books Classic Bookclub)

We have a winner!

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The winner of my giveaway of Inspirational Home: Simple Ideas for Uplifting Decor and Craft by Jeanne Winters is……..

Need a Nap2!!!

Congratulations! I’ll be contacting you shortly. And thanks to everyone who entered! I wish I could give you each one!

The Week In Words

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http://breathoflifeministries.blogspot.com/2010/01/announcing-week-in-words.html Melissa at Breath of Life hosts a weekly carnival called The Week In Words,which involves sharing something from your reading that inspires you, causes you to laugh, cry, or dream, or just resonates with you in some way.

I read these first few this week — in a file I had of spring quotes! I’m sorry I did not note where I first saw them. I’d like to know where the Dickens quote is from.

“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.”
– Charles Dickens

March is a tomboy with tousled hair, a mischievous smile, mud on her shoes and a laugh in her voice.”
– Hal Borland

“Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn.” — Unkown

The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month. ~Henry Van Dyke

This is an excerpt from the March 19 reading from the Our Daily Walk devotional by F. B. Meyer

“If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God.”– Col 3:1 (R.V.).

If some one will say, “There’s the rub! I’m afraid that is not true of me; my life is sinful and sorrowful; there are no Easter chimes in my soul, no glad fellowship with the Risen Lord; no victory over dark and hostile powers.” But if you are Christ’s disciple, you may affirm that you are risen in Him! With Christ you lay in the grave, and with Christ you have gone forth, according to the thought and purpose of God, if not in your feelings and experience. This is distinctly taught in Eph 2:1-10 and Rom. 6. The whole Church (including all who believe in our Lord Jesus) has passed into the light of the Easter dawn; and the one thing for you and me, and all of us, is to begin from this moment to act as if it were a conscious experience, and as we dare to do so we shall have the experience.

Notice how the Apostle insists on this: “You died, you were raised with Christ, your life is hid with Christ.” Give yourself time to think about it and realize it.

The Cross of Jesus stands between you and the constant appeal of the world, as when the neighbours of Christian tried to induce him to return to the City of Destruction. This does not mean that we are to be indifferent to all that is fair and lovely in the life which God has given us, but that the Cross is to separate us from all that is selfish, sensual, and savouring of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1Jo 2:15-17).

There were three I kept aside from the e-mail Elisabeth Elliot devotionals as well — but, believe it or not, I really do try to keep these things from being too long! I encourage you to sign up for those.

I also marked a couple from Carry On, Jeeves, but I’ll share that when I review it, probably tomorrow.

Happy Monday!

The King of Love

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One of my favorite hymns:

The King of love my Shepherd is,
Whose goodness faileth never,
I nothing lack if I am His
And He is mine forever.

Where streams of living water flow
My ransomed soul He leadeth,
And where the verdant pastures grow,
With food celestial feedeth.

Perverse and foolish oft I strayed,
But yet in love He sought me,
And on His shoulder gently laid,
And home, rejoicing, brought me.

In death’s dark vale I fear no ill
With Thee, dear Lord, beside me;
Thy rod and staff my comfort still,
Thy cross before to guide me.

Thou spread’st a table in my sight;
Thy unction grace bestoweth;
And O what transport of delight
From Thy pure chalice floweth!

And so through all the length of days
Thy goodness faileth never;
Good Shepherd, may I sing Thy praise
Within Thy house forever.

~ Henry W. Baker

Spring Reading Thing 2010

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It’s time once again for the annual Spring Reading Thing sponsored by Katrina at Callapidder Days! The idea is to post some reading goals, whether a few pages a day or a list of books to read, just for yourself or with children, not to beat yourself up with if you don’t fulfill every single one in the time frame, but just as a guideline for more purposeful reading. It’s also fun to read other people’s goals and to get some ideas for more good books to read (though my to-be-read list is pretty long now…) Plus there are prizes! You can find the basics and guidelines at Katrina’s as well as a Mr. Linky to post goals now and a wrap-up post at the end.

I have no shortage of books on my shelves waiting to be read plus more I’d like to get to. It’s just a matter of choosing which ones to list!

Non-fiction:

I am currently reading:

Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross: Experiencing the Passion and Power of Easter, essays on various aspects of the death and resurrection of Christ from people such as Charles H. Spurgeon and Martin Luther to John MacArthur and Joni Eareckson Tada, compiled by Nancy Guthrie.

I’d also like to read:

Detour, a non-fiction sequel to Dr. Frau: A Woman Doctor Among the Amish by Grace H. Kaiser.
Port of Two Brothers by Paul Schlener, the name of a village along the Amazon in Brazil named for two brother missionaries and their families who worked there.
Beyond Prison Walls by Marian Bomm, about her interment in a Japanese prison camp in WWII.
My Heart Restored, a Bible study by June Kimmel.
Hoping for Something Better: Refusing to Settle for Life as Usual, a Bible study by Nancy Guthrie.

Classics:

I’d like to reread Emma by Jane Austen. I read it over 30 years ago in college and would liek to revisit it again after recently seeing the newest PBS production.  I’m also thinking about The Great Gatsby after seeing someone mention it this morning.

I don’t know if you’d call it a classic exactly, but I am currently reading Carry On, Jeeves by P. D. Wodehouse.

Christian Fiction:

I am currently reading The Hidden Flame by Janette Oke and Davis Bunn, the second in the Acts of Faith series set just after the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.

I’d also like to read:

A Touch of Grace by Lauraine Snelling.
Take 3, the next in the Above the Line series about Christian filmmakers by Karen Kingsbury, due out next week.
The Telling, next in the Seasons of Grace series by Beverly Lewis, due out in April.
Where My Heart Belongs by Tracie Peterson.

That should keep me busy for a while, and if I happen to get through all these, I’ll get to some more that have been waiting for me.

Friday’s Fave Five

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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, and you can visit Susanne to see the list of others’ favorites or to join in.

1. Pink doilies!

2. The generosity of the folks from my church and the way the Lord provided through them for care packages for our college students. I miscalculated and got the announcements for them out later than I should have, but everything came together, and all the boxes and bags were stuffed.

3. A very nice lady at the post office who told me my packages would be cheaper with the flat rate boxes and helped me empty the boxes I had  into flat rate boxes, tape them, and make out new address labels right there in the post office. This was at a little old post office a little ways past the one I usually go to, but I think I am going there from now on! I had checked the first couple of packages against the flat rates, and it was the same, so I assumed they would all be, but the flat rates made a big difference. For her not only to tell me that, and not only to let me take the time there to change boxes, but to actually pitch in and help was way above and beyond the call of duty, and I so appreciated it.

4. Jeremy, my oldest son, helped me take a few of the bags to a college about 45 minutes away from here, not far enough to justify sending through the mail. He delivered the ones to the guys’ dorms and I did the same for the girls. Then we ate lunch at a Sticky Fingers barbecue restaurant there, which we don’t have in our town. That is some good stuff, lemmee tell ya.

5. Having not one, but two good Christian radio stations that I switch back and forth between. Being able to have spiritual edification at the touch of a button is something I tend to take for granted, but I enjoy listening especially when I am in the car or working in the kitchen.

Hope you have a great Friday! We’ve been having wonderful springy weather — just the right temperature, not too hot or cold, and I’ve seen a few blossoms and some green growth here and there around town — enough to brighten the landscape but not enough for allergies to kick in yet. 🙂