A quiz and a meme

Posted on August 19, 2008 by Barbara Harper

I saw this over at Joyful Days:

You Are Palatino

You consider yourself to be creative and artistic.

And you’d like everyone else to know it!

You take design and aesthetics seriously.

You like everything in your life to be unique and beautiful – but never gaudy!

What Font Are You?

I don’t think I had ever noticed this font — I had to go try it out just to see what it was like. I like it! The last couple of lines are true of me, but I don’t consider myself really artistic.

I saw this meme over at Brenda’s and Melli‘s and thought it looked like fun. I won’t tag anyone, but let me know if you do it — I’d enjoy reading your answers.

What kind of soap is in your bathtub right now? Dove unscented for sensitive skin.

Do you have any watermelon in your refrigerator? No. I’m not a big watermelon fan.

What would you change about your living room? I’d like to change it’s dimensions or size so as to be able to get a chair in there. We have a couch and a loveseat, which is ok when it’s just us, but that is usually where we have company, and then there aren’t enough seats to go around.

Are the dishes in your dishwasher clean or dirty? Clean — I forgot to have Jeremy unload it last night, and there are dirty dishes in the sink that need to go in.

What is in your fridge? The usual basic stuff — milk, OJ, condiments, etc. — plus diet Pepsi and leftover Mexican food from Jason’s birthday dinner out last night.

White or wheat bread? Wheat.

What is on top of your refrigerator? Water bottles and more diet Pepsi.

What color or design is on your shower curtain? A white and black striped lighthouse on a blue background.

How many plants are in your home? None, at least not real ones. I am guilty of negligent planticide. I do have some fake flower arrangements, though.

Is your bed made right now? Not yet.

Comet or Soft Scrub? Soft Scrub. I knew a lady once who had serious trouble with her eyes when the powdery Comet got into them as she was shaking the can.

Your closet organized? Pretty well.

Can you describe your flashlight? We have several. A couple of plain basic ones in yellow and red, a camouflage one (that I bought for Jesse for camp one year — probably not the greatest idea to take to camp in the woods, huh? But he didn’t lose it). Plus a big yellow industrial looking one that Jim likes to use.

Do you drink out of glass or plastic most of the time at home? Has to be glass.

Do you have iced tea made in a pitcher right now? Yes.

If you have a garage, is it cluttered? We don’t have a garage — I wish we did. We do have a very cluttered shed.

Curtains or blinds? Both.

How many pillows do you sleep with? One.

Do you sleep with any lights on at night? One nightlight in the bathroom that shines a little into our room.

How often do you vacuum? That’s one of my kids’ chores, so I don’t do it often myself.

Standard toothbrush or electric? Standard.

What color is your toothbrush? Pink. We have this odd thing — some of the family members can’t remember what their toothbrushes look like — they just remember where theirs is on the toothbrush rack. So I always get a girly color so there is no mistaking which one is mine.

Do you have a welcome mat on your front porch? Yes, though the design is kind of worn down.

What is in your oven right now? Nothing. It had birthday cake yesterday!

Is there anything under your bed? A flat storage box container flattened gift boxes, tissue paper, gift bags, and a few flat pieces of wrapping paper. And dust.

Chore you hate doing the most? Either cleaning toilets or dusting.

What retro items are in your home? I don’t think I have any — it would depend on how you define it.

Do you have a separate room that you use as an office? Sort of. This house has what the previous owners called a sunroom, and they kept a hot tub and some exercise equipment in it. We don’t have a hot tub, but we do have a treadmill in here — plus two desks and computers and bookshelves and a storage cabinet and some boxes and what’s supposed to be a project table that is covered with stuff I need to sort through. So I think of this as more of a hodgepodge room.

How many mirrors are in your home? 1 in each bathroom and in 3 bedrooms, so that makes 5. Plus there are 3 small decorative heart-shaped ones in the kitchen.

Do you have any hidden emergency money around your home? No, but if I did I wouldn’t tell the Internet!

What color are your walls? Living room: Wallpaper on top with beige background and pink roses, sage green on bottom. Kitchen: Rose wallpaper in pink and blue and white. Hallway: Beige-ish wallpaper. Family room: Just off-white. My bedroom: Pink. Jeremy’s bedroom: Wood paneling. Jason’s bedroom: Dark blue. Jesse’s bedroom: Light blue. Upstairs bathroom: Pecan Sandie (I just love the name of that paint). Downstairs bathroom: Southwest style wallpaper in beige, rust, and gray (NOT my style at all, but not high on the priority list of needed improvements). Office/sunroom/hodgepodge room: diagonal wood paneling (strange, huh?) And that’s probably much more than you ever wanted to know.

Do you keep any kind of protection weapons in your home? Do you think I’d tell the whole world? 🙂

What does your home smell like right now? Um…I don’t detect any smells right now.

Candle scent? I can’t do candles — they give me a headache and the really heavily scented ones make me feel like I can’t breathe.

What kind of pickles (if any) in your fridge? Sweet pickle relish, which we mainly only use for potato salad and tuna salad. We’re not really into pickles — I usually pick them off hamburgers

What color is your favorite Bible? Maroon.

Ever been on your roof? Not me! I get dizzy just thinking about it.

Do you own a stereo? Yes.

How many TVs do you have? 3.

How many house phones? 4.

Do you have a housekeeper? Ha!

What style do you decorate in? I’m somewhere between country and Victorian.

Do you like solid colors in furniture or prints? Prints, depending on what’s on the walls. Prints don’t show stains as much. 🙂

Is there a smoke detector in your home? At least 4.

What are the items in your house which you’d grab if you only could make one quick trip?
Hmmm…it would be between the computer and old photo albums.

It might be a clue…

Posted on August 18, 2008 by Barbara Harper

…that I spend too much time on the computer when I am trying to apply mascara to lashes that don’t show up well no matter what I use, and I find myself wishing I could highlight them and click “bold.”

The Simple Woman’s Daybook

Posted on August 18, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Special note: MSNBC has a poll up concerning the motto “In God We Trust” on our currency, here. Really, God is God whether our money affirms it or not, but I would hate to see this country take a further step away from acknowledging Him or the people who want every vestige of God removed from public life awarded another victory. If you read anything of the founding fathers’ official documents you see that they did not deem that mentioning God was akin to establishing a national religion. But that’s another post. If you have opinions on the issue you might want to let it be known there. I don’t know how long the poll will be up.

Outside My Window...looks like a nice day — not too bright or hot.

I am thinking… about plans for the day.

I am thankful… that Jason got home from his summer in CA safely last night.

From the kitchen …besides a birthday cake, not much today. I mentioned last week we’re celebrating my two older boys’ birthdays this week since they both wanted to wait til Jason got back. We took Jeremy out for dinner (at Fuddruckers) on his actual birthday and will tonight take Jason out to the restaurant of his choice.

I am wearing… my nightgown and robe still….with everyone home and one shower, I’ve been waiting for my turn.

I am creating… a birthday cake…though cakes are not my best thing.

I am going… out to eat. 🙂

I am reading… To Kill a Mockingbird still and Simple Gifts by Lori Copeland. I volunteered to do a book review for the latter on anther site and didn’t get to it…so I wanted to reread it and work on that review.

I am hoping… that a friend is able to get back into school this semester…either that the Lord will provide the finances or the business office will be merciful

I am hearing… my neighbor hammering.

Around the house…I got some clutter taken care of last week but have more to tackle, plus I hope to work on family room curtains soon.

One of my favorite things… is when the family is all together enjoying each other.

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: the aforementioned decluttering and curtains, plus Jesse’s school orientation Friday night.

Here is picture thought I am sharing…of the birthday boys.

More daybook participants are here.

Book Review: Children of the Storm

Posted on August 17, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Some of you may remember the name of Georgi Vins. He was a Ukrainian pastor in prison for his “religious activities” in the Soviet Union several years ago. I was a BJU student praying for him in the Slavic Mission Prayer Band in the late 70s, and it was with great joy I heard years later that he had been exiled to the USA in exchange for Soviet spies. Children of the Storm, written by his daughter, Natasha, and published by BJU Press, tells of her perspective during those years of persecution.

Natasha was about nine years old when persecution began in her school (though ridicule of Christianity had begun years before), and it seemed to increase as the years went by. Teachers would hold her up for ridicule in front of her classmates and blame her for her class’s not making it into certain competitions. She was assigned to write a report on a boy held up as a Soviet hero who turned his father in to the KGB for keeping back a little of his grain for his starving family. The other children began to taunt and threaten her or just avoid her. She was threatened with being removed from her home and “re-educated.” These things struck a chord with me when I first read this book because my youngest was at the age Natasha was when some of this was happening, and I just could not imagine him going through these things. Yet as it all struck me as so sad, the Lord reminded me that He marvelously kept her through that time. And she was not even saved yet!

In later years she had a teacher who had similar interests, befriended her, was kind to her, and then began to undermine her Christian beliefs. This time Natasha listened, thought some of what her teacher said made sense, and began to question. When her father came home from a prison camp and she had an opportunity, she talked with him. Imagine coming home from being in prison for your faith to have your own daughter question your faith. Yet he did not express anger or disappointment: he just answered her questions as best he could. Not long afterward Natasha was saved.

At this time and place one truly had to count the cost of following Christ. Natasha was denied finishing her studies in her field of choice because of her Christianity. Her father had had to go “underground” by this time and sent word that he would like her to join him in the printing ministry. She helped for many years in vital ways, and even got to see her father here and there. Once they were to meet with someone who at the last minute had to postpone meeting with them for a couple of hours. Natasha and her father used the time to walk around the city and talk. He thought it highly likely that he would be arrested again, and his talks with her that day helped her to make it through the time when he was indeed arrested. Imagine having to prepare your child not for the remote possibility but for the very real likelihood of your imprisonment…and to do so in a way that does not leave her mourning or sad or bitter or feeling sorry for you or herself, but leaves her strengthened and resting in the Lord.

Natasha’s grandmother was also arrested when she was in her sixties and thought she would die in prison, yet the Lord delivered her.

The book tells also of Natasha’s mother and siblings, of visits to her father and grandmother in prison, of the persecuted church, of struggling to maintain a Christian attitude toward persecutors, of their reaction when her father was suddenly and unexpectedly exiled, of the family’s preparing to join him, of their impressions of America: one of the younger siblings was astounded that everyone carried Bibles to church. Natasha wept upon seeing a Christian bookstore. They left Russia with sorrow because it was their homeland, but before too long they began to see how the Lord could use them in the USA.

The epilogue of the book tells of the Lord’s help through their adjustments to the US, and then opportunities for ministry by publishing newsletters and several books and establishing a mission. After 11 years of exile, in 1990, Pastor Vins was able to make several return trips to the former Soviet Union, visiting and preaching openly, discussing with church leaders how the mission in America could best help them. He passed away Jan. 11, 1998, leaving not only a continuing ministry, but a legacy of godly man and his family.

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt: Colorful

Posted on August 16, 2008 by Barbara Harper

PhotoHunt

Theme: Colorful| Become a Photo Hunter

I was at a loss as to what to post today…I had a couple of ideas, but none that seemed very interesting to me. Then on my way to bed last night I spied this picture on the wall and realized it fir the bill in two ways. I almost came right back down and scanned it, but it was already pretty late.

This picture was taken more than 20 years ago to be in an ad for the company my husband worked for. As I recall he wasn’t originally supposed to be in the ad, but when they got ready to take the photo they needed someone, and he was there.

He makes a right handsome model, dontcha think? 🙂

He is with one of the main tools of his trade from that job, a scanning electron microscope (and all I know about it is what to call it! Though I was tickled once when on the TV show “Quincy” someone mentioned running something through the SEM and I knew what it was.) The photographer set up the colors to make the photo look science fictionish.

The picture fits the theme in another way because the bulk of my husband’s career in textiles has been in color matching. He makes sure that the color of the fiber his customer wants matches in fluorescent, incandescent, and natural lighting (that is it’s metamerism), running weather-related tests to make sure it doesn’t fade easily, tensile tests to make sure it is strong enough, etc. I told a little more about his job on an earlier photo hunt where the topic was plastic.

You can find more photo hunters’ entries at our hostess’s, TN Chick.

Book Review: It Happens Every Spring

Posted on August 16, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Gary Chapman and Catherine Palmer coauthored It Happens Every Spring, the first of a series, in order to illustrate through fiction some of Chapman’s teachings about dealing with seasons of marriage. I don’t think I have read any of Chapman’s books, but I have enjoyed several of Palmer’s.

The group of ladies in different stages of marriage meet in the “Just As I Am” beauty salon (though I love the truth of the song by the same name, I thought it was kind of ironic for the name of a place where people go to change something about themselves) which also has a tea room where the ladies chat while waiting for their appointments. Though we see glimpses into all of the marriages, the main focus of this book is on Brenda and Steve, a middle-aged couple whose children are grown and gone, one to the mission field and two to college. Brenda’s dreams of spending their empty nest years doing things together are dimmed when Steve finds a second wind in a new career and is gone from the house most of the time, even taking clients out to eat most evenings a week. They both know that they have problems, but they both withdraw and inwardly blame the other, until the resulting vulnerability of Brenda brings the marriage to a crisis.

I thought the subject was handled well and the changes in point of view illustrated how each other’s behavior looked and was interpreted by the other. The conflicts and feelings were realistically expressed and handled. The other ladies show a great range in ages and personalities as well as seasons in relationships. Even though in some places it seemed obvious that the plot was fitted around Chapman’s teaching points, overall if flowed well and the book was a good read. I am looking forward to the next in the series.

This book review is being linked to Semicolon’s Saturday Review of Books.

Poetry Friday: Richard Armour

Posted on August 15, 2008 by Barbara Harper

This is almost a repost: I wrote about Richard Armour about a year and a half ago, but I wanted to share these for Poetry Friday.

Some years ago I came across a poem by Richard Armour in a book that was a collection of quotes and poems about home and family. I just loved his poem — it was both sweet and funny. I began to research to try to find out more about Amour and to find the book this poem came from. It turns out he was a prolific writer who used to have a newspaper column called “Armour’s Armory.” He’s written about home and family, history, Shakespeare, and a lot of other topics. Unfortunately most of his books appear to be out of print, but fortunately you can find many at amazon.com for a dollar or two plus shipping.

I did finally find the poem I was seeking in The Spouse in the House. The book jacket calls his verse “playful” and “human as well as humorous.”

Here’s the poem that first intrigued me and started my search:

Teamwork

A splendid team, my wife and I:
She washes dishes, and I dry.
I sometimes pass her back a dish
To give another cleansing swish.
She sometimes holds up to the light
A glass I haven’t dried just right.
But mostly there is no complaint,
Or it is courteous and faint,
For I would never care to see
The washing job consigned to me,
And though the things I dry still drip,
She keeps me for companionship.

Here’s another:

Down the Tube

I’ve seen my wife with anger burn
At something that I never learn:
The toothpaste tube I squeeze and bend
At top and middle, not the end.

She scolds me, pointing out my error,
Makes use of scorn and taunts and terror,
But I forget and go on squeezing
The toothpaste tube in ways displeasing.

In larger things we are convivial:
What causes trouble is the trivial.

And here is a third relating to marriage:

Well, Come In

You can have your Welcome mats.
I ask for just a little more
When I come home from work, and that’s
A Welcome mate inside my door.

Big A Little a for the Poetry Friday roundup today.

Seen today…

Posted on August 15, 2008 by Barbara Harper

I just saw a headline for an article titled, “Your bag is boring.”

My immediate thought was, “My bag is not here to entertain you.”

🙂

Show and Tell and a decorating question for you

Posted on August 15, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Kelli at There’s No Place Like Home hosts “Show and Tell Friday” asking “Do you have a something special to share with us? It could be a trinket from grade school, a piece of jewelry, an antique find. Your show and tell can be old or new. Use your imagination and dig through those old boxes in your closet if you have to! Feel free to share pictures and if there’s a story behind your special something, that’s even better! If you would like to join in, all you have to do is post your “Show and Tell” on your blog, copy the post link, come over here and add it to Mr. Linky. Guidelines are here.

I wanted to show this cute little shelf set actually on the wall…and I was going to hang them up myself, but the places that are supposed to catch on the nail were in odd places (different heights on the back), and I thought I’d better wait for my husband.

These were on sale at My Rose Retreat in connection with Pink Friday a couple of weeks ago. I can’t wait to get them up!

I also wanted to show the progress on my cross stitch piece:

The area that comprises the shine in the window was 1 thread in only a half cross stitch. That certainly goes a lot faster! But I have never done that and wasn’t sure I’d like it –but I do.

I also wanted to ask for some opinions. I found fabric for my family room curtains months ago, but I’ve been held up starting them because I couldn’t find any trim here in town. Then just a few weeks ago I got some at a place going out of business, but I am not quite sure about it and haven’t had a chance yet to go to another town and explore. I am almost of a mind to skip the trim altogether.

Here are the two fabrics:

The pattern has long straight curtains panels topped by a valance which is done in such a way that you see a little bit of the lining. I was going to use the checked fabric as the main fabric for the curtains and valance and the toile as the lining of the valance that will show in places. But I thought it was too pretty to have so much of it hidden. But I don’t like using it as the main fabric for the valance (I am positioning these according to what I am trying to describe, though of course it would be gathered and cut to a pattern):

I thought about making a double valance instead, one with the toile, and a shorter one with the checked fabric over the checked panels, so that more of the toile could be seen all the way across:

And then I have thought about just using the checked fabric for the valance and panels and saving the toile for pillows. The place I bought the toile from had just enough for the valance and I was going to need more for the pillows anyway: this would solve that problem.

The trim shown is what I bought at the going-out-of-business place. It’s about the color of the couches in that room. If I don’t use it on the valance I can use it on pillows.

So — if any of my descriptions have made sense — what do you think? Trim, no trim, a different trim? Toile lining, toile valance, no toile?

And thanks for sharing. It is these kinds of (in)decisions that hold me up in getting projects done.

Booking Through Thursday: Gold Medal Reading

Posted on August 14, 2008 by Barbara Harper

I haven’t done a Booking Through Thursday for a while, but today’s question intrigued me:

First:

Do you or have you ever read books about the Olympics? About sports in general?
Fictional ones? Or non-fiction? Or both?

And, Second:

Do you consider yourself a sports fan?
Because, of course, if you’re a rabid fan and read about sports constantly, there’s a logic there; if you hate sports and never read anything sports-related, that, too … but you don’t have to love sports to enjoy a good sports story.
(Or a good sports movie, for that matter. Feel free to expand this into a discussion about “Friday Night Lights” or “The Natural” or whatever…)

To answer the second question first, I am not a sports fan in general. In fact, I have had to wrestle through some negative feelings about sports. I don’t have an athletic bone in my body and P.E. was always my valley of humiliation in school. Even in friendly church games I didn’t miss the rolling of eyes, sighs of exasperation, or the nearly knocking over of people (myself and others) by the more competitive who were trying to get the shot they were sure we’d miss (and then they’d wonder why I decided to just sit on the sidelines and watch…) And in small schools, sometimes the athletes and their fans form the “in crowd” and everyone else is just “out.” And any involvement in sports these days just seems to take over a family’s time and life.

But I did come to see that there could be many benefits to sports. There are the obvious physical benefits, of course, and the learning to work together in team dynamics, learning to win or lose with grace, learning to stretch yourself in various ways. My oldest son’s very first baseball coach was a teddy bear of a man with an encouraging style who always brought home spiritual illustrations: I can remember his giving out team trophies and reminding them that, as special as those trophies were now, someday they would gather dust in the attic, and encouraging them to “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).

And there is just something about the Olympics that draws me, particularly the gymnastics and swimming at the summer games and the ice skating at the winter ones.

And, as the question indicated, I can enjoy a good sports story even though I am not generally a sports fan. One of the first I specifically sought out was the story of Pete Maravich after seeing clips of an interview with him on 20/20 that were being replayed after his death. I had heard several celebrities who professed to some kind of faith but whose lives didn’t reflect it, and my first impression of Pete was that he seemed thoroughly genuine. I found his auto-biography, Heir to a Dream, published about a year before he died. It told how he was groomed to be a basketball player (with a basketball tucked into his childhood bed at night rather than a teddy bear), his rise to fame, the realization that sports and glory don’t satisfy, and how he came to know the Lord.

Another favorite sports-related book was the biography of Eric Liddell, the runner made famous in the film Chariots of Fire. He was a believer and refused to run on Sunday during the 1924 Olympics in Paris. Because of that he missed the race he trained for and he was put into another — and won the gold medal and broke a world record. Just before the race, a masseur has passed to him a piece of paper on which was written 1 Samuel 2:30, “Those who honor me I will honor.” Eric later became a missionary to China. The Japanese took over the mission where he was stationed during WWII and he and other missionaries as well as children from the China Inland Mission Chefoo school were held at the Weihsien Internment Camp, where he later died of an inoperable brain tumor. The particular biography I read was not very well written, so I won’t mention it here as there are others which I am sure are better, but another book which tells of Eric in the prison camp is called A Boy’s War by David Michell, who was a child in the Chefoo school during this internment.

Other favorites were Comeback and When You Can’t Come Back by Dave Dravecky, the baseball player whose career came back but then ended after a tumor in his shoulder. I had seen an interview with him on 20/20 as well and was inspired to read more.

When it comes to sports films, one of my favorites is The Rookie with David Quaid based on the true story of pitcher Jim Morris.