Reflections of the Times - Archive: November 2006

November 30, 2006

And there you have it...

A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps. Proverbs 16:9

Do you honestly believe that? I sure do. All it takes is a quick glance over my life to see how true it really is. Not that subjective experience is the determining factor to prove Scripture, but that experience is the result of the truth of the written word.

I woke up earlier this morning than I usually do. I was glad for that, since I've been sleeping in later than I want to lately. So when I got up about an hour earlier today I thought "this is good, I can get some extra things done before breakfast/school".

Instead of getting the things done I wanted to get done, I received a bombshell bit of information that pretty much blew me out of the water. It's of a personal nature so I wont go into any details, and the person who delivered the information did so with only the best intentions at heart. It was good that I have this information, even though the content of the info isn't something I wanted at all. I hope that makes sense.

So while I had other plans for this morning, the Lord's plan was that I would get up early enough to receive this, and have time to deal with it before my day starts. Interesting how all that works out, eh?

It's going to be a very long day.

November 29, 2006

Kid 101

I've been saying for years now, that for grown ups to remember what it's like to be a kid, that we need to act like them, from time to time. For example:

When we're served something we don't particularly enjoy for dinner, make a really ugly face and say "I hate this, can I be done?" Then proceed to even more facial expressions & body language (much loud sighing is always good) of displeasure while pushing your food around on your plate.

If someone says something to you that upsets you or angers you, respond with "yeah well you're stupid and ugly!" Then stomp away feeling victorious.

When the electric bill (or phone bill, or any other bill) arrives, scribble on the section you remit with payment "it wasn't me" and send it back.

While in line at the bank, and it's taking forever to get to the teller window, simply throw yourself on the floor and start crying while shouting "I never get anything!"

These helpful hints may or may not refresh your memory of what it's like to be a child. There is something however, that will.

The next time one of the kids ask me what's for dinner...

The next time Kev asks who ate all the chips...

The next time someone says "mom, where's my _____(fill in the blank)?"

I'm just going to go upstairs, put on this shirt, and never say a word.

That should settle it.

November 28, 2006

Winter is coming

You'll have to click on this image to see it larger, but essentially it says "winter is on the way, Bub!"

We've had some really odd weather for this time of year. Tomorrow the high is around 63F, and that's just not normal for the end of November. Then a few days ago, it was snowing (but it didn't stick).

That little yellow line there on the graph under the white line means, it's going to get cold, AND it's going to snow. So, YAY for snow, and yay for the forecast saying it's going to snow on my birthday. (I'll do a Happy Snow Dance to commemorate the event).

I was going to take pics of our Christmas lights this evening, but it was so foggy outside they wouldn't have turned out.

I'd like to apologize to anyone that has emailed me in the last week and hasn't heard back from me yet. I feel like I'm juggling 90 billion things at once, and getting further and further behind on all of them.

In any case, I promise I will get back to you - it just might take a while.

Just a bit of rambling...

I've been so busy trying to get my computer back in order after the crash, that I just have no time to blog the way I enjoy doing. Pffft! I should ask someone to guest blog for me for a week or so. I should ask... hmmm... I dunno. I think my blog is too boring for anyone to really take much of an interest in guest blogging for a week. Oh well.

Something very cool I learned how to do last night, as I was repairing a page. I learned how to do this, which is pretty neat

Now, I know most of you pc geekazoids think this is silly, but for me it was cool.

Sooner or later I'll get things back to the way I prefer them, I hope. I still haven't downloaded my online Bible (which I simply cannot do without!) or several other programs, as it's taken this long to fix other stuff. Grrr.

In any event, just make sure you tune into Iron Sharpens Iron at 3pm eastern today.

His guest will be Dr. James White, discussing his just released book, Pulpit Crimes .

You need this book, and you need to listen to the interview today.

November 27, 2006

Other people's children

Way back in the stone age when I was about 17, I went to the Employment office to register for work. Having very little experience in anything except being a smart-mouthed teenager, basically the only kind of work I was qualified for was babysitting. That was okay with me, I'd been babysitting my niece since I was 11, and my nephew since 12. After that came the neighborhood kids - so I had quite a bit of experience with that. I just didn't think it would actually land me a job.

Well, I took the one job and for the first few weeks it went pretty well. Monday through Friday I went straight to my job after school, and when the parents got home around 6:30 I walked the 2 blocks home to my house. It was my job to be there when the 3 boys got home from their school, help them with their homework, make dinner & clean up. Not a problem. At first...

As it turns out, these kids had gone through several babysitters, for good reason. They were boneheads! Smart mouthed, disrespectful, disobedient little criminals. I think they were studying to become professional thugs.

The straw that broke the camel's back was the night I made ravioli for dinner. The parents left a list for me of what to make (it was up to me to choose from the list for the week), and ravioli, salad & garlic bread just sounded simple for that night. I made dinner and two of the boys sat down to eat just fine. The one boy, I think he was about 10, told me that he was NOT eating ravioli for dinner. He was going to make his own dinner. "No, you're not", I said. "Yes I am, and you can't stop me" he replied. "Try me" I retorted. The game was on, and you better believe I was going to win. It was practice for having 7 kids of my own later in life, even though I didn't know it.

Well, he dug his heels in and so did I, and he never did eat that night. Right before his parents got home he said "when my dad gets home I'm going to tell him you slapped me" and then he slapped himself to make sure there was a red mark on his face. I just stood there stunned. I sent him to his room and made sure I intercepted dear old dad when he arrived, so that Jr. Thug Boy couldn't speak to him first. I told him what happened (the boy's brothers confirmed it) and told him that the kids threatened to tell him that it was me that slapped him.

The dad believed me, and headed off to scold the boy. The mom arrived right as I was headed out the door and asked "how were things tonight?". I briefly told her what went on, but said "it's all taken care of, no worries". Turns out though, the kid's mom DIDN'T believe me (her son was an angel you see, and would never sink so low as that!) and she wanted the dad to fire me the next day. He didn't want to, didn't see any reason to, but it was tense for the next few nights when they arrived home. Finally I just told them I'd quit on my own as soon as they could find a replacement. They did (quickly - and doubtful she lasted much longer than I did) and I went back to the Employment office to find more work.

They found me another babysitting job. (Insert scary movie music right here, and play it really loud). There were two kids at this house. One was a baby and she was as sweet as could be. The other was THE toddler to end all toddlers. The brattiest, nastiest toddler to ever walk the planet. I think I lasted about 3 weeks there before I begged the parents to find someone else.

That was when I decided I would never have kids. I know, funny haha. But the thing was, these kids I babysat weren't mine, so there was very little I could do in the way of discipline (which they desperately needed). That part was very frustrating.

The one thing though that sticks in my mind to this day, is that you speak to other people's kids much differently than you speak to your own. At least I do. With OPK, you're more reserved and/or formal in the things you say to them and the way you say them. With your own kids, they know the rules and what's expected and when they blow it, you let them know without candy coating it. Besides, you're all familiar with each other and you know the things that get their attention & that sort of thing.

I've noticed lately that the way I talk to my kids (it's been a stressful few weeks) isn't on the same level as the way I talk to OPK. Almost as if I'm much kinder to OPK, while I'm just mean ole mom to my own kids. It's not fair and I don't like it. I doubt they like it very much either.

So while I certainly don't want my kids to act like OPK (not the bad ones anyway), I would like to be less "mean ole mom" when I speak to them, when they are disobedient.

I don't know if that makes sense to anyone but me, but that's where my thoughts are this morning. I've been a mom for almost 24 years now, and I'd like to hope that I'm getting better at it with each passing year - but often I feel like I'm just repeating the same stupid patterns (generally caused by frustration) that I know are not profitable for my kids.

Anyway, have a great Monday, whether you want to or not.

:o)

Oh, and would you mind remembering Kev and my own mom in prayer today? They're both sick & feeling miserable.

November 26, 2006

Aint that just the way it goes?

After this week filled with all kinds of things that didn't go so hot, I was really looking forward to just being in church this morning.

Which is why Kev and I both woke up sick & ended up staying home.

He's worse than me, and both of us look like those Nyquil commercial actors. However, I forced myself to do something around here today regardless of how rotten I feel, and this afternoon I put up some Christmas lights outside. We're only a month late putting them up, we usually do this Nov.1.

I'll take pics after the sun goes down, if my camera cooperates, and if my nose doesn't run completely off my face.

November 25, 2006

Happy Birthday to Kev, Derek & Nick

Oh my but it's been a busy few days.

I sat down here about 4 hours ago to write out a few things and all at once everyone showed up for dinner. Not only did we have Kevin's birthday today, we also had our American Thanksgiving dinner, and combined it with Derek's birthday and Nick's birthday. Regular readers know that Derek is Caryn's other, and Nick is Jen's other. So all our guys had their birthdays today, plus we had our holiday dinner.

It was a busy time, but a good time. All my kids (and my grand-baby-muffin-dolly!) were here and that's the way it should be.

I was so busy I forgot to take pics until later, but as soon as I get the software installed for my flickr account (yet another thing to install - as I'm realizing there are snazillions of things to re-install) I'll upload the pics that were taken. There's even one of me getting busted sneaking into Kev's cashews that Jen bought him. I don't have a very convincing poker face, as you'll see.

The fudge I made disappeared so fast you'd think it was magic-disappearing-fudge. I've made fudge forever, but this holiday I tried an experiment and it was better than ever. If anyone is interested in the recipe for Magic Disappearing Fudge, just say the word. It's so easy you can make it in your sleep, more or less.

I'm exhausted, and I need a 4 day nap.

Oh, and I before I forget, GUMMBY! Kev said thank you and happy birthday to you too, a day late. :o)

BY THE WAY...

When I started reinstalling everything, one of the things that had to be updated was IE. The message I got was that I had to update to IE7. Fine, I was okay with that until I did it. It's a lot different than IE6, and the one big difference that I really do not like, is that my favorites list is buried under the tools menu.

So I wondered for any of you IE7 users, is there a way to add my favorites to my toolbar, without actually having them open in the left sidebar?

The tabbed browsing I do like, however. It's going to take some getting used to, but I think once I do I'll like it much better than having 80,000 windows open at once.

November 24, 2006

Pssst, wanna help me win a contest??

Well get a load of this...

The place that hosts my store is having a contest. Here's the way it works:

If the design that I submitted for the contest, is among the top 3 selling items this Christmas season (11/24 through 12/24) at cafepress, I win hugely. Largely. Big bucks, even.

It's that simple. The more people that buy this design, the higher my chances go to become one of the top merchants for holiday sales, plus one of the winners of the monumental prize. (Top prize is $500.00!).

I'm actually shocked they listed my t-shirt to begin with, but they did, right here. I had my expert fashion designer look over all my designs and pick the one she thought would sell the best. That expert would be my 16 year old daughter Jessica (so if I don't win, it's all her fault).

So here's where you come in. You buy this shirt (and one for everyone you've ever known in your whole life) and up up up go my rankings. Plus, you can feel free to tell everyone you know that they also need to buy this shirt for everyone they know (except you, since you'll already have one), so that I can win this contest. The bonus is, you get a cool Christmasy-green t-shirt with pretty cardinals on it for $16.99 (after coupon discount - don't forget to use the coupon code!!). If green isn't your color or you happen to hate birds, then just buy one for someone else. Surely there's someone on your Christmas list that likes green, AND birds?

So there ya go. And if I win, or even if I don't win but generate enough sales with this lovely green T, I plan to have a seriously cool giveaway at the first of the year where YOU get free stuff. So there's the deal. You help me win, you get a cool T in the process, and pretty soon I have another giveaway drawing for really neat stuff. That sounds good, eh?

Oh, and if you're wondering what other people have to say about the my stuff, go have a look for yourself at the customer comments page. I promise I did not coerce them in any way, to say this. Not even Frank. Or Campi. Scouts honor.

Let the contest begin! :o)

November 23, 2006

It's all gone

Well, just a quickie as I've got lots to do.

My hard drive crashed yesterday morning. Everything is gone. Everything.

Four book manuscripts I've been working on for several years combined.

Four years of photography & graphics stored on this computer.

Four years of documents & files.

All my favorites, everything.

It's hard not to be upset, and it's hard not to want to cry. I know it's just "stuff", but it's my stuff that I put a lot of hard work into. ~~~ POOF ~~~ all gone.

I don't have time to reset & re-install things as we're having our Thanksgiving dinner Saturday & I need to get busy cooking & cleaning.

I do hope you all had a very wonderful Thanksgiving today - I know I'm very thankful for the nice guy who re-installed a new hard drive for me. He was uber-helpful.

Back to blogging as soon as domestic type things are done around here...

November 21, 2006

Thankfulness

Well then, blogger has decided to remain stable long enough to let me load up this here dashboard screen, so let's see if it stays that way long enough for me to do a much needed unloading of a few thankful thoughts.

First, I'm thankful that someone found my two newest designs at the store enjoyable, and purchased one of each today. That was very cool. Coffee Lovers & Enlisted are now on the proverbial retail map. (I was surprised anything sold so quickly).

Second, I'm extremely thankful that the Holy Spirit is without fail, day in and day out, convicting the hearts of people over sin. Sinful words, sinful actions, sinful attitudes and sinful thoughts.

When Kev works the midnight shift it is so miserable for all of us. He's up all night fighting sleep & running a press - when everyone else is sleeping. Then, while he tries to sleep through the day it's my job to keep 5 kids quiet. It's impossible to keep them quiet the whole time he's upstairs sleeping, and it's incredibly stressful for me, and for them too. I feel like a drill sargent barking out orders over and over again to be quiet. Actual conversation in our home when Kev's on midnights:

Me to any one of the kids who just made noise: "where is Papa?"

Kid: "in bed"

Me: "and what does that mean?"

Kid: "be quiet so he can sleep"

Me: "is that what you are doing????"

Kid: "no"

Same conversation, multiple times a day, with 4 of the five kids, for two weeks solid. Today I felt like the Calgon bath beads lady who flipped out in that commercial years ago and hollered "take me away!" as she longed for peace and quiet in her bubble bath. Yeah, like that would ever happen in this house, the dog would jump in the tub and the kids would be pounding on the door looking to tattle on someone or ask for a banana, or piece of toast, or something.

In a nutshell, I had an extreme ME moment as a result of feeling so stressed about this shift Kev is on. It was all about me, you see. The kids weren't listening to ME and they were making ME scold them again and again for the same things. They weren't behaving ME, and it was ME who was responsible for keeping them quiet. Me me me me me me. What about me, what about MY needs?!

Yeah, what about them, and how hard it must be for a 3, 6, 7 and 9 year old to be quiet from the time school is over until Papa gets up (about 3 hours)? I'm pretty sure I was never quiet for longer than 5 minutes, at their ages (mom, you can verify this in the comments if you want, lol). So not only is it hard to be quiet for 3 hours, how much harder must it be to have Sargent Mom breathing down your neck every 10 minutes about it? You know, I don't want to make my kids nuerotic spazz-heads, so there has to be some balance with insisting they behave, but cutting them some amount of slack as well. Kev's midnight shift makes me all boneheaded and I usually miss locating that balance by a mile.

What about Kev? For years he's been on the day shift as his seniority finally earned him a place there, and suddenly new owners take over the plant & dump everyone's seniority down the drain. Back on rotating shifts for everyone, including the midnight shifts for the senior employees. Sleeping during the day & battling fatigue all night to run a press. The weekends off are just enough time to let Kev feel somewhat normal Sunday morning for church, but then he's right back to bed Sunday afternoon for a night shift that night.

I am incredibly thankful for Kev, that last week he struck a deal with another worker who actually hates working days and prefers the midnight shift. With the approval of head office, they switched shifts and after this stint of midnights that is over Friday morning, Kev will no longer be working at night and sleeping during the day. When we told the kids they were THRILLED that this was over. They never get used to it, any more than Kev did or I did.

So the Holy Spirit was working on me today for this reason. I'm very thankful for that. Tomorrow and the rest of the week we're going to find things to do around here after school that require them being active but not noisy. I hope.

Thirdly, and maybe even more importantly than all of that (or maybe just as important, I'm not sure), I'm thankful for friends who are honest. Yesterday I posted a comment at Kim's in regards to her "what's a guy to do" post, and I should have been a little more specific in the way I worded what I said. My response seemed very simplistic, and I didn't really mean for it to come across that way. A friend was honest enough to tell me that it did come off that way. I'm glad my friend told me this because it's going to give me the opportunity to clarify.

In family relationships, there is never any simple answers or solutions to conflict. Well, almost never.

In our family we have 7 people living in the same house. That means 7 different and distinct personalities with various levels of maturity & varying levels of communications skills. It can be a real gold-medal-mental-gymnastic-event to get through an entire day without their being some kind of conflict between at least 2 of the people in this house. That is to say, we have pride issues, temper issues, submission to authority issues, lack of maturity, lack of consideration, lack of this and lack of that. We all blow it from time to time.

Even us grown up folks.

In relation to Kim's question "what's a guy to do" - just yesterday I had a talk with my 16 yr old about how no matter what anyone else does or says, you're still the one responsible before God for how you react & respond. It doesn't matter if her siblings don't listen to her when she's in charge, she is still not allowed to lose her temper and discipline them. She IS allowed and expected to react by letting them know she'll be informing me or Kev of their behavior.

Is that the easy answer? Of course not. The easy answer is to say "sure, go ahead take matters into your own hands". But is that the right answer? Nope, it's sure not. Her role, when she's in charge, is to supervise and instruct and see to it that no one burns the house down or carjacks a tractor or anything like that. That is the extent of her role. It is not her place to step outside the parameters of that role and assume the role of parent, and discipline the kids when they misbehave. Disciplinarian is not her role to assume, ever. Her stepping outside her given role is never allowed and never justified. It's disobedience.

This is hard for her, just as it was hard for her two older sisters. They have the idea in their heads that when their younger siblings step out of line, they have the right to take away their toy, or not let them watch tv, or what have you. Yet I've never given them that right because it's not theirs. They want it, because they want to be in control. It's a pride issue to be sure. They want immediate consquences for bad actions - for others. Funny how that line of thinking doesn't extend to themselves though, lol. Only for others, you see. If that's not pride rearing it's ugly head, I don't know what is.

We all have a role to fill and we have no business making excuses for not filling it. It's not always easy, because sometimes the right thing to do is the hardest thing to do! For Jessica, the hardest thing for her NOT to do, is yell at her sisters or brother when they've done something bad. She knows she's not allowed to do that, and she knows why, but it's still the hardest thing for her to hold her tongue and let me handle it. But it's the right thing to do.

Being a submissive wife. Easy? Not always, but always the right thing to do. Even when it's hard to do it. I am indeed blessed however by a godly husband that makes it easy for me 99.99% of the time, to submit to his authority & leadership. It's that .01% of the time I have issues with, and I know they're my issues that I need to repent of.

Being an obedient child. Easy? No way, it's impossible for kids to behave 100% of the time. Yet it's still the right thing to do and no amount of excuses will be sufficient before God when offered.

Being the head of your home, for the husband. I'm not a man so I have no idea how this must be in a home with a rebellious wife. I know some openly rebellious, pushy, demanding wives... I know how they make me feel as a woman, so I suppose it's pretty bad for their husbands. I know it can't be easy, and I pray I'm never like that with Kev. Regardless of the wife's obedience, the husband must do the right thing before God without making excuses for it. That doesn't mean it's always going to be easy, because I think we all know doing the right thing (no matter the circumstances) is often the hardest thing we can ever do.

Indeed this also is not an overnight solution. These are things that require much time in prayer on your knees, seeking God's guidance and wisdom, asking for prayer from others, responding to the conviction of the Holy Spirit when/where we've fallen short, and just making it our goal in this life to live according to what we know the Bible says. That's a lifelong process and a lifelong solution.

I could actually go into a lot more detail on these issues of family roles, but it's late and I'm pretty tired. I don't want to do this topic any kind of dis-service so I should just end this here. I just hope no one really thinks that I think of this as a simple solution. It's anything but simple.

And now I require much sleep.

November 20, 2006

The ice breaker questions

I mentioned how the other night our church had a social called "guess who's coming to dinner". It was a really fun thing to do. Since Kev and I signed up as guests, we arrived at the church and picked up the address of the home we'd be having dinner at.

In the envelope with the address and map, were small slips of paper, with questions on them. These were "ice breaker" questions in case anyone might have found themselves in an awkward moment with nothing to talk about. Oddly enough, all my awkward moments arrive by putting my foot in my mouth or saying something silly that no one else thought was very funny. In any case, the questions were pretty good ones.

Question #1 - If you could travel back in time and meet anyone, who would it be?

Kev said John Calvin (big shocker there). I'm torn on that one. When I think of people in history that have made such monumental contributions to the church, the world, to literature and science, it's just impossible to pick one person. I think I might start with John Bunyan, then Charles Spurgeon, and after lunch with both of them, probably Eve then Lydia. I have lots of questions for Eve. I know it only asked for one person but I'm cheating.

Question #2 - If you could travel back in time and witness any one event, which one would it be?

Kev answered: creation. He cheats. Witnessing creation would be impossible to describe with words, wouldn't it? I mean, no human being witnessed it!

Well, I picked the ascencion of Jesus into Heaven. I can't imagine what that must have been like to see Him ascend into the clouds, but I can guess it would have simply left me speechless and incredibly humbled.

Question #3 - What would you say is man's greatest accomplishment?

Kev and I both answered the same way: the printing press. No big surprise that two book junkies would pick that answer, eh?

Question #4 - What would you do with a million dollars?

Ohhhhhhhhhh I hate this question. Kev answered: not go to work tomorrow. Or the next day, or the one after that.

I hate this question, and the related "what would you do if you won the lottery?" question because the answer is so obvious. I'd spend it! Yeah I know, folks want to know what you'd spend it on.

Seriously? Come now, I'm a mother of 7 kids, what do you think I'd spend it on???

I'd begin with paying all our debts. Then I'd breathe a huge sigh of relief. After that, I'd go shopping (which I hate doing) for all sorts of things my kids need. Funny thing is, the first thing I thought of was "Samuel needs pants". I'm such a lofty dreamer, I know. Here I am with a million clams (minus the debts) and I'm at WalMart sticking 5 pairs of $6.99 blue jeans in my basket. Yep, I'd go to WalMart and buy my kids the clothes they need, pretty girlie hair stuff for the girls, and oodles of fluffy-soft toys for Jocelyn. Kev could go to Chapters and get books. He could even stop at the furniture store on the way home and buy shelves to hold them all.

So how would you answer these questions? Leave me a comment or blog it and let me know?

November 19, 2006

HEY, guess what!?

IT'S SNNNNOWING!!!

It's snowing, it's snowing!

It's snowing.

It's snowing.

Snowing snowing snowing.

It's snowing, it's snowing, it's snow snow snowing!

I love snow, can you tell? :o)

Oh, I also created a new shirt design. So there you have it.

Now go join the army.

:o)

November 18, 2006

Guess who went to dinner?

For those of you that use the latest version of Firefox and can't see my sidebar...

I have no idea what to tell you. I recently updated the sidebar but didn't do anything that would render it invisible in Firefox. I viewed my blog through both IE and Firefox and noticed with the latter, it wasn't even showing any posts past 5 days ago. It's gotta be Firefox, it's not me!

Now, on to more important things...

This evening we had a really nice "guess who's coming to dinner" among the church members. You might like to try something like this at your church, it was a lot of fun:

You either sign up as a host, or sign up as a guest. If you sign up as a host, you cook dinner for 3 couples (besides yourself and spouse). If you sign up as a guest, you bring dessert to the church and pick up the address of the dinner destination and head off to your host's home.

Everyone leaves to be back at the church at a set time to enjoy dessert together.

Whoever organizes this, pairs off 3 couples (or enough singles to even it out) with 1 host, and has your address waiting for you at the church. By the time dinner is over and you're all headed back to the church for dessert, there should be a rather large buffet table filled with all sorts of after dinner yummies.

Tonight at our church, several volunteers were on hand for all kids under 12. They were dropped off at the church along with dessert, and they had dinner there, then dessert when all the adults arrived after their own dinner.

It was fun, we met people that we've never even talked to at our church, and it seemed like everyone had a really nice time. Good food, good fellowship & good desserts! The kids were even well behaved, so that was a bonus too.

Now it's been a really long day and I'm officially wiped out, but, I wanted to remind folks in the northeastern US/Canada that if it's clear skies where you are, and you're actually awake at 11:30-ish tonight (I will not be, I'm toast as soon as I hit publish), pop outside and take a look upward to the November Leonid meteor showers. They ought to be pretty impressive this year.

That's all folks...

November 17, 2006

And you thought I was scatterbrained?

Oh I crack myself up.

You know how when you're sleepy, you might have a thought that leads to another thought, that leads to another and so on, and before you know it you're wondering how a piece of candy turned into thoughts of regeneration?

Here's how it went this afternoon as I layed down to nap:

Ate a piece of chocolate ->
thought about my dentist ->
considered that he's a buddhist or hindu but can't recall for sure ->
thought about Ghandi ->
considered how unbelievers often say warm fuzzy things to say about Jesus ->
thought about how unbelievers have no idea who Jesus really is ->
felt so small and humbled at the idea that God does reveal this to His people

So there you have it. Eating a raspberry truffle right before you lay down for a nap will produce thoughts of thankfulness to God for His grace in your life.

We should all eat more chocolate if this is the result.

Friday BlogFodder 11/17

taking a closer look

Well here we are again at the end of another week. Some good stuff for you:

• Kim finished Martha Peace's The Excellent Wife and offers some thoughts here.

• At Pulpit Live, John MacArthur (does John really post these? I'm guessing no, someone else does it for him) posts about how to glorify God in the gray areas. Very good stuff.

• Campi has a test for you to find out if you're really a Southern Baptist.

• Frank is dancing with the stars and he doesn't get it. Frankly (lame pun intended), neither do I.

• Jen made me laugh when she sent me this in email. This is one funny lady.

• Libbie asks some good questions & raises good points, on modesty.

November 16, 2006

I got a job?

Well then... to explain why I've been so busy. Not that anyone was phoning or beating on the door asking where I was or anything, but that's an aside.

Being a stay at home mom isn't so easy these days. Not because the kids make more noise than a neverending series of sonic booms, but because it's a struggle financially. For all sorts of reasons, our society doesn't bode well for 1 income families. Especially large, 1 income families. No matter, we (Kev and I) know that this is where I ought to be, so this is where I am. Being a stay at home mom affords me the opportunity to homeschool, to be with my kids while they're little and need a constant structure in the lives (that doesn't include unbelieving strangers), and allows me to cook & clean & sew & repair & remodel & all those other things that just wouldn't get done the way they get done, were I not at home during the day. Now here's a newsflash that will make every feminist hyperventilate all around the globe causing an atmospheric disturbance in the oxygen levels & jet stream flow:

I LIKE TO COOK & CLEAN

Wow, did you feel that? I wonder if the weather channel will comment on what that might have been? Oh I am such a digresser!

So, several weeks ago Kev came to me and said that things weren't so secure at the plant. That wasn't a newsflash, we knew it was coming. The very idea that we have bills to pay, kids to feed and all that good stuff with his job being insecure, is enough to make most people resort to Joel Osteen books. Not me Maynard, and not Kev. We had another plan.

Even though I've had various online stores open off & on over the years (and other things like that) Kev suggested to me that if I can locate a legitimate source of "work from home" opportunity, and if it didn't interfere with my duties as wife/mom/teacher/laundress/cook/gardener/nurse/financial planner/executive domestic engineer, that I should go ahead and follow up on those things. My answer to him was "okay".

And so I have, and that's why I've been so busy. I got a job.

I didn't really start anything new, I just spruced up what we already had, and hope that if it's the Lord's will, these things will help us out so I can continue to be the executive domestic engineer the Lord has called me to be. Besides, getting a job outside the home means the kids have to go to public school and I'd eat a 5 gallon bucket of large, live, hairy spiders before I'd ever let that happen. Since I'm a highly finicky diner, that will happen right around the same time I buy a Joel Osteen book.

My "job" has been to clean up a couple of affiliate accounts I have, to make them a bit more comprehensive for ease of shopping - and to really clean up my online store Reflections Apparel & Giftware. I say it's a job because a lot of what I've been doing for the past 2 weeks includes meticulous html coding from scratch, and creating new graphics to go along with the coding. I'm not an html coder, so much of this has been extremely time consuming. I've had to fit it all in between school, chores, dinner, devotions and bed time. Blogging pretty much took a back seat for this reason, and so has online chatting & responding to emails. I do apologize if anyone thought I was ignoring them, I really wasn't, just super busy & super focused.

I'd like to explain a bit (for those that don't know) how affiliate programs work.

It's pretty simple really - you locate an online merchant that YOU like, and if they have an affiliate program it means that anyone you refer to them for a sale, you get a small (very small) percentage of that sale. They don't pay any higher prices than they'd have paid anyway, were they to shop at that merchant's site, but you get a "finders fee" of sorts, for sending them there.

There are about 97 quaspillion affiliate programs out there, and in all the years I've been online, I've found a grand total of two, that I really like. Yes, I'm picky. I prefer to call it discerning, or circumspect. In any case, I'd like to 'splain my two affiliate accounts that I think YOU, will be blessed by (and yes, I do mean blessed).

Rolfes is our online portal to amazon.com. Here's why this is very cool: if you were going to shop at amazon anyway, BUT you went through our portal rather than went in through their homepage, anything you buy there after going through our portal, we'd get a small percentage of the sale. It gets better...

You pay the same thing you would have paid anyway, but you get a more conservative homepage to enter through (if you replace amazon's link in your favorites with ROLFES) that lists on the main page only family friendly items, gift ideas, etc. We have a smaller selection in the sidebar than amazon has at their page, but anything you want, you can find it by using the search function at ROLFES. If amazon carries it, you can locate it right from the main page at ROLFES. We've just weeded out the links to things that don't fall in line with what we consider "conservative". Yeah, we're snobs, lol.

As often as humanly possible, I'll update the main page with highlighted items that I think fit in well with "making life a little easier". We do hope that if you're a regular online shopper of amazon, you'll consider making ROLFES your amazon portal. There are monumental sales going on there right now with amazing shipping deals and all sorts of other bells and whistles. So if you were headed there anyway, why not give our portal a try, first?

SGBooks is another affiliate account I've had for a long time. I've turned it into a blog, with as many search tools as possible in the sidebar, plus listing all sorts of books there that I believe will be a great blessing to anyone. Family devotionals, commentary sets, books for men, women, character building books for children, homeschooling curriculum, dvds - all sorts of good stuff. These are the books that we either own, are on our own wish lists, or have had highly recommended to us by others.

This affiliate is through CBD, and just like with amazon, we only list what we believe is the best of the best of what they carry. However, at anytime you can use the search tools there and locate a book at CBD that we might not have listed. You get the book you wanted, and we get a small percentage of the sale. Plus, CBD has the best shipping rates & times of pretty much any online merchant we've ever used. If you normally shop at CBD, going through the SGBooks portal affords me to continue being a ~~full time blogger~~ ~~annoying pest~~ stay at home mom.

I try to update SGBooks once a month, with new titles, back in print selections, and/or whatever else I've come across that fits well there. (And if you notice the date of the last entry, you'll see it's due for an update - which is coming - time permitting - within the next few days).

So those are my two affiliate accounts. I don't earn much from either one, but anything I do earn, I'm sure grateful for.

Now about Reflections the store...

I also have a blog for updates & whatnot for that store, but I wanted to mention here as well that I've spent a good amount of time lately sprucing that up. I've added a search by price range option, as well as shipping deadlines, our Christmas e-flyer and more. We have all sorts of new products in store (colored T's!!) and new designs.

Plus... all sorts of sales & discounts & all that good stuff going on!

Starting today:

Now you just can't beat free shipping.

Right now and for the next 3 days, all Christmas ornaments and cards are 25% off.

Beginning Monday 11/20 through Dec. 3., all of our calendars are 20% off.

This means all of our yearly calendar prints at the already low price of only $6.99, and it also includes our Reflections - A Year in Proverbs 2007 calendar.

So there it is, that's what I've been up to for the last 2+weeks. It's been incredibly time consuming, and even though I'm sorta done, I'm not really done. Maintaining these sites now will take a proper amount of regular attention as well.

So, this is my job. It's been an initial investment of a lot of time. I've also been working on building my church's website and another site for a friend, but those are labors of love. The benefits of my new job are unbeatable, but my paycheck depends on others. Since I'm so awful at shameless self-promotion, I'm counting on word of mouth from all of my wonderful readers.

:o)

And now, I need advil and a nap. Whew...

November 15, 2006

Grandma's journal pt.2

It's funny you know, the less time I have to sit and write, the more things I think about that I could be writing about. On the flipside, the more time I have to write, the less time I have to think about things. How does that work? I have no idea...

In any event, I received a phone call from a friend this afternoon, that made me laugh. Kev actually answered the phone, and my friend had something funny to say to him first, so he got to laugh too. It's good to have friends who 1. love the Lord, 2. are very funny people and 3. call you for no real reason than to just say "hey, just touching base". Yes, it's good to have people like that in your life. Speaking of friends who make you laugh, go read Campi's goofy "you might be a SB if..." post. If it doesn't make you laugh, you oughta check your funny-meter. It may be low.

I see by the overwhelming response to Grandma's Journal, that it's a real hot ticket item. (Insert the audio file here of Carla snorting and guffawing). So in that regard, here's some more from Grandma's Journal:

Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment

One day after dinner, Kev and I went for a walk in the park. I know that sounds sappy but it's true. The park was right across the street from our townhouse and the older girls were all headed over there so we took Jordan and went for a walk. We played a little baseball with Caryn while everyone else did their own thing. On the way back Kev stopped me and asked me a question that no one had ever asked me before. He said "are you happy about your life?". We'd been married about a year, and I had to stop and think about it for a minute. I was more overwhelmed by the question than anything else, but my answer was definitely yes, I was happy about my life.

Watched wild whales

Back in the fall of 1997, Puget Sound had a visiting pod of whales that didn't seem to want to leave. I think in all there were about 30 whales in the pod, and they put on a daily show for anyone who wanted to watch. The docks were only about 5 minutes from my house, so we went down there many times to watch them. I didn't have a camera at the time, but if I would have, it would have been a most stunning photo op. They were show offs, and really seemed to enjoy the attention.

Gone to a drive-in theater

Now here's a sign of the by-gone times. Who doesn't remember the drive in? Well, probably anyone under the age of about 20? When I was growing up, we had two of them in our town and mom would take us kids on a pretty regular basis during the summer. The drive-in was SO cool, there were always two movies, and often a cartoon either before the first feature or during intermission. And the drive-in pizza! Oh man that was the best pizza in the universe. For the longest time, you pulled up to the speaker stand and hooked the big ole clunky metal speaker onto your window. That changed as the years went by and you could tune your AM radio to a certain station to get the movie's audio. The very last time I went to a drive in was in 1982. The feature? The Thing! It was gross, but the pizza was astounding.

Walked the Golden Gate Bridge

In the mid 80's my late husband and I had to travel down to so. Cal to take care of family business. It was pretty stressful, and his grandparents knew how hard it was on us, so as a treat, they gave us a few bucks to go to Disneyland. Just the two of us, no kids. His cousin Tommy and his wife were down there at the time too, and they decided to come along with us to Disneyland. We had so much fun together, we planned to make the drive back to WA together as well. They only lived about 30 minutes away from us in WA, and they were leaving on the same day we were, to head back home.

We knew SanFran had some pretty serious road construction going on at the time, so we warned them to stay right behind us on the highway to the bridge. Sure enough, we got seperated. The plan was, if we did get seperated we'd park on the north side of the bridge and wait for them. So, we parked. We waited and waited and finally decided to walk onto the bridge. We walked for a while, and it was just an amazing view, that we forgot we were supposed to be looking for Tommy and his wife! We did see them eventually and tried to flag them down but they never saw us and just kept on driving. So, we took our time and enjoyed the bridge before heading back to the car and getting back on the I-5.

Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking

Okay, everyone who does not do this on a regular basis, raise your hand. Mmmhmm, just as I suspected, you ALL think you're rock stars! :o) I do this all the time. I never bother to look and see if anyone is looking, because I don't really care. Its the only time I can turn the radio station to music I like, and enjoy it uninterrupted. Either that, or pop one of my cds in and sing along.

And there you have it. To be continued, Lord willing.

:o)

November 13, 2006

Grandma's journal

Before I ever started blogging on any kind of a regular basis, I read a blog post by a young man with a brand new baby boy, and he went into some of the reasons why he thought blogging was a good idea. One of those reasons he said, was that he wanted to leave his footprints on the internet for his son to see, when he grew up. I thought about that for a few minutes and really liked the idea that as parents, it just might be a way to leave a part of ourselves with our kids. I know that sounds sort of strange, but the more you think about it the more you realize that the things we (adult bloggers with kids) write about here on our blogs, are not exactly the things we discuss with our little ones - or at least not in the same way. When I sit here and write, I'm assuming my readers are other adults, so with that in mind that's the way I write. When I discuss things with my younger kids, I don't communicate my thoughts the same way at all. I wonder though... if in 20 years my youngest child will open up an archived file somewhere and read what mom wrote about in 2006? Or maybe my granddaughter Jocelyn? Or maybe her daughter? I have no idea, but if it's possible in 20 or 30 years to dig back into the internet from the "early days", my children and grandchildren will get to know me in a way they wouldn't have been able to, without it.

I guess you might call it the high-tech version of reading grandma's journals from 50 years ago. What made her laugh? What was important to her? Did she know how to sew? Could she juggle? Did she ever paint, or draw? It's the kind of thing we like to read, about the people that we love and care about. We want to know them a little better and if they'd ever kept a journal, it's the coolest thing in the world to discover it.

That's sort of what came to mind the other day when I read through that meme-type list of 150. I wondered if I might alter it a little bit and just highlight the things I have done, and write a small blurb about each one of them. It's sort of funny because my almost 8 year old Rachel always asks for details whenever she hears something that might have a story behind it. The other night after dinner we were all sitting at the table still, and the conversation turned to rats. I know, strange dinner topic, but you'd have to have been there. The first thing out of Rachel's mouth when she heard me say something about the rat that ran over me once when I was about 4, was "tell me ALL about it, I want to hear the whole story and everything that happened!". She does this all the time. She wants to know more, and more, and dont you dare leave out details or she'll notice it.

So when I looked over that list of 150, I thought of Rachel. If she knew that I highlighted even one thing on the list, she'd insist that I explain myself and tell the story behind it. So, that's what I've decided to do. Not with every one of the 62 things on the list that I affirmed, but some of them. If that sort of thing simply bores you to tears, go ahead and click away to the next blog. This is for Rachel, and Caryn, Jennifer, Jessica, Jordan, Samuel and Ruth - and Jocelyn, and any other grandkids I may have some day... maybe someday they'll read it and laugh, realizing these are things that their mom/grandma has long forgotten since they're only fractions of details of what make up the bigger picture of who I am.

Climbed a mountain

On my 17th birthday, 3 friends came and picked me up in the morning and told me that our destination was a secret and a surprise for my birthday. We headed out of town, and I had no idea where we were going & they wouldn't tell me. Out of town, past Tacoma, toward the mountains. It didn't take long for me to figure out we were headed to Mt. Rainier. They were taking me up to Paradise to play in the snow and go hiking. We had an absolute blast. It was probably one of the best birthday presents I've ever received and I remember it fondly. We didn't technically climb a mountain, but it's the closest I've ever come. Later we had hot chocolate, and literally ate ourselves silly with chili and doritos.

Seen the Northern Lights

When we first moved to Canada, the first few years we were here, Kev's dad had a cottage up near Bancroft that we'd spend at least one weekend at, every month. Going "up to the cabin" was a given, and it was something we all loved to do. The cabin has since been sold and they've got themselves another place up north, but all the kids (and Kev and I too) really miss the old place. It was the first place I'd ever heard a loon on the lake, seen shooting stars at night that were simply dazzling, and saw the northern lights during a freezing cold winter night. It's also the place I first laced up ice skates and went skating, in my late 30's. It was exactly what I had always thought of "living in Canada" would be like.

Grown and eaten your own vegetables

When the older girls were young, we had a place with a great big back yard. Part of the yard was flat and the other part was a slope of weeds that was unusable. It took me a lot of hard work and with the help of my friends Al & Kathy donating the old wood, I turned the slope into a giant stairway, with each "step" a row of garden. I used scrap rebar to hold the wood in place, then built the stairs around it. I planted tomatoes, strawberries, beans, beets, radishes, potatos, and pumpkins. The pumpkins took over the entire back yard, and we had more pumpkins than we knew what to do with. I was actually building this backyard stairway when the pastor of the local church came to visit for the first time. Literally covered in dirt, I shook his hand, and shook his wife's hand. A few weeks later, I was converted to Christ.

Watched a meteor shower

In 1992 I was working part time in the evenings at a local photography studio. On the way home from work one night, the radio announcer mentioned it was the peak night of the Perseid meteor showers and the local Seattle forecast was conducive to a great viewing. I'd never even heard of it before, but when I got home I parked the car and went out into the back yard. I stood there and was amazed at what I saw. What looked like falling stars, going in all different directions - some very bright, some barely visible, and a lot of inbetweeners. I ran inside and got the kids out of bed so they could see. It was school night, but we all camped out in the back yard until about 1 am, watching the meteor shower on the lounge chairs.

Gotten drunk on champagne

Mike & Sheli's wedding, and it was a complete accident. Not the wedding, the getting drunk part. I'd never had champagne before, and it was so tasty, I had more than I should have. I've never had it since, and don't plan to.

Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment

I've had more of these than most people should be allowed to have. Being married to Kevin, we tend to have these on a regular basis - as he's one of those people that once he starts laughing, it makes you laugh too, even if you don't want to. It's hopeless.

The one that really stands out in my mind though, was the 7 Dwarfs moment at Safeway, nearly 20 years ago. My late husband Ben and I along with our two oldest girls (we only had 2 at the time) stopped at the store to pick up something for dinner. On the way there, for some reason the topic of the 7 dwarfs came up, and Ben renamed them all. I can't even remember what he renamed them, but it was so funny I was in tears. He was going to wait in the car with the girls while I ran into the store, but I couldn't even shut the car door when I got out, I was still laughing so hard. All the way through the store, through the checkout, and through the parking lot back to the car. The worst part was, as I approached the car I saw Ben still laughing, and that made it all the worse. Yes, people did give us those looks and we didn't care. If they only knew what we were laughing about, they'd have been laughing too. I do wish I could remember what he renamed those dwarfs... it makes me laugh still, just thinking about it.

Screamed as loudly as you possibly can

When Samuel was about 2 months old, he developed colic. I know, most of you moms out there that have had babies with colic are thinking "well, 'nuff said!". Wait, do you spell that cholic, or colic? Who cares. At any rate, I'd never had a kid with it, and it was maddening. After about 3 months of it, one night after he'd been fed, changed, patted, burped, rocked, rubbed & walked, I finally layed him in his baby bed in the living room and layed down one the couch. He did what he always did, and was quiet for a few minutes (just long enough for me to almost fall asleep) then he'd start to cry. I must have been especially worn out that night, because instead of getting up and holding him, I turned my face into the pillow and screamed as loud as I could, several times. I immediately felt like an idiot for doing it, it didn't help in any way at all. After my little fit, I got up and rocked him for a while, kissed his little face and thanked God for my son. Even though he cried all the time and drove me nutty, I loved him with all my heart.

To be continued... Lord willing.

:o)

No time...

Going to be another very busy week... no post here this morning but I was on deck at Frank's place, so I did post there.

I also updated the store's blog very late last night with what's new in store. Now, go read my post at Frank's blog, then go shopping. You know you want to.

:o)

November 11, 2006

Friday BlogFodder 11/10 (but wait... it's Saturday!)

Can I do a Friday BlogFodder on a Saturday afternoon? Well of course I can, it's my blog and I can do whatever I want here. Why, I could even post one letter from the alphabet each day for 26 days, if I wanted to. Although I can't imagine why anyone would want to do that.

what being good BlogFodder is really all about...

I really wanted to do a BlogFodder post yesterday, but I've been so busy all week that I really haven't had time to spend on reading online this week, that I normally do. Recently though I created a t-shirt graphic that made several people go "yes!" that encapsulates what BlogFodder really is. While this isn't a post advertising this design, it's important to point it out for a very good reason.

BlogFodder isn't just about the other cool blog or web posts out there, it's about putting quality information up that is going to be of use to someone. So this week I'm going to BlogFodder this:

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)

That verse in Romans is one of the verses that we hear all the time - even from unbelievers who take the verse completely out of context. For believers though, the truth found in that verse is often hard to receive. How can all things work together for good, when so many things (circumstances) are so painful, or difficult? We know it's true though, and we know that no matter how hard the circumstances that all things really do work together for good, to them that love God. They may not work immediately, or they may not even work the way we'd expected, but as they say hindsight is 20/20 and we can often look back at a difficult situation and see God's hand all over it, working it out for our good.

As my readers here know, our family was recently inconvenienced with a dead dryer. Now I realize in the grand scheme of things, being without a clothes dryer is hardly anything to get your bloomers in a bunch over. However when you have 5 kids and you're accustomed to having a clothes dryer, suddenly being without one changes things. You spend much more time on laundry (since you have to carefully sort smaller loads to fit onto lines), and the time you spend doing that, takes away from time you'd have spent doing other things.

Not only did we find ourselves without a dryer, but we found ourselves in debt to Dryer Guy after he made three seperate trips out here to try and fix it for us. As it turned out, it wasn't cost-effective to fix it so Dryer Guy's bill was cut off at $240 bucks. So there we were, without a dryer and in the red to DG for the just a little under the same amount of money I spend every 2 weeks to buy groceries. Quite a pickle we found ourselves in.

Enter the second verse from above.

Last week at the girl's weekly club they attend, that was the memory verse. As a family, we had been working our way through Ephesians, but we decided to put that on hold until summer and just memorize the verse that the girls have each week for their club. This verse couldn't have come up at a more adequate time.

For me personally, it confirmed for me how little faith I really have. It's an 'undone' feeling somewhere deep in my heart to know that I can memorize a verse, share it with others, and even while I know it to be true, my own actions and reactions often betray what I say I believe. Do I really believe that my God shall supply all my needs? Well, yes I do. Does my attitude however, prove that out? Not always.

So the last week I've been working hard on having the attitude that matches what I believe. I know that God shall supply all my needs - He always has. Always, without fail, always on time. For the last 41 years and 11 months, God has supplied ALL my needs. Every last one of them. I know this verse to be true, not only because the Bible says it is, but because I've been living it my whole life.

So all week I've been trying to push away the thoughts that cause me to worry (how will we dry our heavy clothes in the winter? how are we going to pay Dryer Guy? is there some way we can get a super-cheap dryer? is there any way we can afford payments on a new dryer? - all of these sorts of thoughts only cause me to worry, since none of them had a positive answer). I had to just remind myself that I don't have any answers - but He does. I had to remind myself to be at peace with His timing, and His answers - no matter what those answers were. I confess it's been a battle to keep those thoughts that cause me worry pushed far away. Meditating on His word and His truths was the most important thing for me this week.

So imagine my surprise when Kevin came home yesterday with a brand new, free dryer in the van.

A few days ago, Kev was talking to a family member on the phone and mentioned in passing something about me hanging laundry on the line. The conversation then included how our dryer died and that we'd strung up lines in the house to dry our clothes. Not a big deal, just a mention in passing.

This particular family member then decided to buy us an early Christmas present. I wasn't really surprised when Kevin came home with the dryer, since I got an email on Tuesday about it, then a call on Wednesday telling us it was coming. That's where my surprise really was. And my gratitude, and my thankfulness. It should come as no surprise that my first thought was:

But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory, by Christ Jesus.

I have never memorized a verse faster in my life - but this one, this week, I nailed it. I should have memorized it sooner.

Now, we still haven't been able to come up with the money to pay Dryer Guy, and I've spent the last 18 hours or so catching up on all the laundry that backed up. After dinner last night I hooked the dryer up, reversed the door to swing away from the washer, and got started. I had 12 loads. I think I have 4-5 left, plus pillows.

As I've taken each load out and folded it, I keep reminding myself how good our God really is. Yes it's just a dryer, but Kev had clean clothes to wear to the men's breakfast at church today, and we'll all have clean clothes to wear to church tomorrow.

Which is where I hope you'll be also. Giving Him all thanks, and glory and honor.

November 09, 2006

150?

(I cheated, I did this yesterday when I had a few minutes to spare)

I've seen this at a few different blogs, the most recent one being Kim's. It's long, but as you read over it you can't help but look at your life in a bit of a broader perspective, ya know? Anyway, here's my version of the very long meme-ish type blog post.

Things I've done - in bold black, things I've never done and want to do, in bold red. Everything else... pfft, no interest. For those of you that actually read through it to the end, there's a prize!

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside outside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk.
42. Had Have amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe.
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised/ing children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life

Now for those of you still reading (there's really no prize, I just made that up), here's why I found this list challenging. I'm of the tribe of people that say we're thankful for God's providential hand in our lives, but the moment the electric bill arives and it's double what I expected, my first reaction is to fret and worry. Oh, you're from my tribe too, eh? Okay, so you do speak my language afterall. (For the record, I don't like being from this tribe, I'd rather be from the one that never worries at all).

Well, as I looked over this list, I noticed all the things I've done (and if you're dying to know details about any of them, go ahead and ask - I may or may not answer, lol) in my life at almost 42. If my math is correct, I've done 62 out of the 150, and there are only 25 on the list that I'd like to do, if I had the chance. To me, that's telling me that I've had a pretty diverse life over the last 42 years, full of experiences and opportunities. Yes I know it's just a dumb list, but tell me you didn't think of your own life as you read over it??? Come on, you know you did. Especially that Rocky Horror question. :o)

If I live another 42 years, maybe I'll have the opportunities to highlight the other 25 in black bold.

Just some of what I've been up to...

Yes I know I created a blog specifically for this, but this was way too much fun to keep to one place. Here are some of my newest creations & new products in the store (click any image for a larger view):

November 07, 2006

A whole lotta useless info :o)

Okay, so when you have dialup, and a pitiful amount of memory on your 'puter, it makes working online realllly slow. Folks always say "how do you do anything online with dialup!" (said like they might say "how can you eat and enjoy live, hairy bugs!?"). In any event... I have dialup, I manage, but everything takes 406,238,522 times as long to do, as with high speed access. I know this, I did the math (on a dollar store calculator, no less). So having dialup (James White likes to tease me and ask how my fatal DaiLup condition is doing - he says it's a progressively slow affliction - hardy har Mister Funny Man), and working with graphics for my online store is a very long, very time consuming process.

That's where I've been since Saturday and that's where I'll continue to be as time permits, until I get all the updates done. Our cafepress supplier just gave us some super-cool new products (colored T's in long and short sleeves, YES!!), so I'm adding those to existing product lines, and creating a few new graphics as well. It's like having a brain explosion of creativity, then being forced to crawl on your hands & knees through cold molasses, to get to your artistic medium of choice. Oh you'd do it allright, but it's a time eater for certain.

Anyhoo, I have a gross story to tell you that has no redeeming value whatsoever. I blame Even So..., since he's the one who made me think of this story. Besides, he laughed at me when I posted this, so he deserves some blame, right? (Notice please that I didn't blame his dear wife Margie, it's never the wife's fault and I think we all know that *wink,wink*).

To gain a further appreciation for the story, you'd have to go wayyyy back to the spring of 2005 and read about Peasel - first here, then here. In a nutshell, Peasel was a dead weasel we found in the garage who ended up with a name, a background, and a whole host of stories told about him in my now defunct chat room. Peasel became quite the celebrity. He even had a poem written about him by my friend Nina (who is coincidentally instrumental in my upcoming dead-mouse-rat-monster story, and also a friend of James White's. Mmmhmmm, can you say conspiracy theory?) There was never a weasel as cool as poor ole Peas. Nor as cute, even though he was dead. I know, I'm sick.

So the story goes like this:

Some months back, I was out mowing the lawn. It was a beautiful sunny day and when I mow the lawn it allows me ample time to be alone with my thoughts. It's good hard work, coupled with quality time to meditate on important things. So that's what I was doing.

Quite often when I mow the lawn, I have to stop and pick up toys or trash left there by the kids. So when I came close to the base of my apple tree and noticed something by the tree in the grass, I turned off the mower and walked over to pick it up. I bent down with my hand outstretched, and then nearly lost all sense of composure. It was huge, maybe 6-8 inches long. It was furry, and it was definitely dead. It wasn't a scary mouse-rat-monster, it was the back HALF of a scary mouse-rat-monster! Cut clean in two with what appeared to be surgical precision. And I almost touched it with my bare hand! EWWWWWWWWW! (There was much ewwing at the time, I assure you. I ewwed so loud the kids all came running to see what was wrong - and when they saw him - they responded with much more ewwing. Then the dog tried to pick him up which resulted in even more ewwing. When Kev came home and we told him, he did not eww, he said "oh how sick!". Kev is a rebel).

I have no idea why he was cut in two, but he was. Had he been a full compliment mouse-rat-monster, he would have been the biggest one I've ever seen. I know I didn't cut him with the mower, since I hadn't been that far with it yet - so it wasn't my fault. I felt bad for the poor nasty ugly evil looking thing. That had to have hurt, eh?

So later that night I saw my friend Nina in chat, and I told her about my lawn mowing adventures that day. Nina, remembering poor ole Peasel, recalled that I had a habit of naming dead things (I don't really, I promise) and she asked me if I named him. To which I responded "no, he was gross, you don't name gross dead things!" Nina insisted this dead-mouse-rat-monster needed a name. Bearing in mind this is the same Nina that penned such heartwarming poetry for Peasel. Nina named him:

Burt Half-a-Rat

In the chat room that night, only the folks over the age of 40 got it, but we did have a good laugh at Nina's mental instability.

There is no moral to this story, it's just a peek into my world. Spooky, eh? Now, here's a peek into what I've been doing for the last few days:

I finished this over the weekend, and just finished this tonight. (My screen shows two of the thumbnails missing - but they're there. It's a cafepress software glitch to be fixed up, but in the mean time you'll just hva to click the shop name to go see what you're not seeing!) I still have a lot more behind the scenes work to do that you're probably not the least bit interested in, but it will be just as time consuming as the other has been. So, I likely wont be blogging a whole lot over this next week.

:o)

November 06, 2006

Out to Lunch - will return with a full brain capacity soon, Lord willing

Ever have one of those days where you find yourself hollering "where are my glasses!?" and you're wearing them? Mmmhhhmmm... it's one of those days.

The morning started off with discovering my 3 year old had washed her own hair. She didn't take a bath, she just dumped shampoo on her head and combed it. It did smell nice, I'll give her that.

No real post of any value here today, but I was on deck over here, so that's where I let out a few thoughts for the day.

You know you're a cultural guinea pig when you quote an animation from 1969...

In the words of the greedy, washed up stage magician from Frosty the Snowman:

"busy busy BUSY!"

Yes, that's what I've been lately. Monumentally busy. Part of that (a small part - it's taken me forever to get this done) is a brand new re-design/remodel of our most popular shop at Reflections Giftware & Apparel. I know these posts here bore my readers to tears, so I posted all the gory details (you're gonna LOVE this new shop!!) over at the store's blog.

There ya have it - now get yours! The more you buy, the sooner we can have another giveaway and send out free stuff. :o)

November 05, 2006

The following takes place...

Between 5:21am, and 6:28am...

- 5:21am: I stumble into the kitchen, half-starved, looking for food. I settle for the last 10 or so cheddar cheese rice crackers in the cupboard & turn on the coffee pot.

- 5:46am: rice crackers devoured, I sort through some school supplies and get a cup of coffee.

- 5:58am: sit at my desk with coffee, and notice movement on the floor to the right of me, out of the corner of my eye. Immediately go into denial and chalk it up to "I'm not really awake yet".

- 6:02am: hear a brief rustling in the bag on the floor to the left of my desk. Immediately put feet up on the pedestal thingie on my chair.

- 6:03am: see movement again out of the corner of my eye on the floor to the right of me. Chose to ignore it.

- 6:10am: hear the unmistakable "squeak..squeeeeak" of a mouse & remember why we have cats.

- 6:15am: Agent Pyro and agent DJ of the CMS (Counter Mouse Squad) are called to the scene.

- 6:28am: I settle back at my desk to enjoy my coffee knowing our finest CMS agents are on the job. I try hard to get these lyrics out of my mind...

"Ben, the two of us need look no more... we've both found what we were looking for..."

Only those over 40ish will get the meaning of that line.

November 04, 2006

I got no time!

What do you do when you have so much to say, so many thoughts on your mind about several completely unrelated topics, and not enough time to say it all?

Well, you could just eat a chocolate cupcake and make a mental note to blog on these things later in the week...

Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Anyone else need anything while I'm in the kitchen?

November 03, 2006

Friday BlogFodder 11/03

BlogFodder, because it's good for you

If it's Friday, it must be time for Blog Fodder :o)

I wonder though, how does Friday get here so fast every week? I was unprepared this week, so I spent part of the day rounding up a few links that really mattered to me. Maybe they'll matter to you, too.

• How ironic is it, that on the very day Dr. James White is debating Bishop John Shelby Spong on "I S HOMOSEXUALITY COMPATIBLE WITH AUTHENTIC, BIBLICAL, ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY? that the news is brimming with scandal & controversy about Ted Haggard & his alleged connection with a male prostitute/meth dealer? Good grief, we can be thankful for brothers like Dr. White and his firm stand on the Scripture's truths. We can also be thankful that the fine folks attending the debate & conference down in Florida are live blogging the event, for those of us that can't be there. Thanks guys & gals, we do appreciate it.

• As my regular readers here know, our family was without a home church for several months this year. A very gracious Dr. Michael Haykin was a blessing to our family when he recommended a church for us. We've been going to this church now for just a little over three months, and it feels like home in all the best ways. Now, Pastor Paul Martin (whom I had the pleasure of meeting last month) has shared a fantastic resource of Dr. Haykin's, that you do not want to miss:

No Other Foundation (1): History of Christianity, 100 - 500AD

No Other Foundation (2): History of Christianity, 500 - 1500AD

No Other Foundation (3): History of Christianity, 1500 - 1700AD

No Other Foundation (4): History of Christianity, 1700 - Present

• Rebecca is at it again with some fantastic Blog Fodder of her own, with November's Thankfulness. You really need to make Rebecca's blog a daily visit, especially this month as she fills it with thanksgiving - her own - and yours too!

• Over at Kim's place, you can read about Mama's Boys. It's a great read, one of those kind of blog posts that makes you think about your own kids.

• I have no idea if Brother Dan "Booyah" Phillips was ever a mama's boy, but I seriously doubt it (at least not in the bad sense of the word). This week at TeamPyro, Dan posted a link to his sermon from last Sunday: Five "Alone's" that Changed Everything.

• One of the pleasures of blogging, is meeting other bloggers that share the same interests as yourself. Jen at joythruChrist is one such blogger. She's got a great sense of humor that I appreciate. Life is funny, and if you can't laugh, you need help. Recently Jen had a graphic on her blog that made me lol for real. Not only did I enjoy the message on the graphic, I needed one for myself. Not being one to violate any copyright laws, I had to create a new graphic only based on the one Jen had on her site. Go here and see what Jen made me do!

I hope these links have been a benefit to you in some way. If I missed anything that my readers ought to know about, leave a link in the comments for crying out loud! Just no junk links or we'll have to ban you & all that stuff and we'd rather not have to do anything like that. MmmK? :o)

Fridays are fun again

When you have toddlers in the house that aren't old enough to be in school (public or homeschool), and your husband works a weird rotating shift that sometimes includes weekends off, sometimes doesn't, Fridays just become another day with the same schedule as any other day. Fridays become collateral damage in the battle of life.

Fridays should be spared this horrific end. Fridays should set aside for special honor and celebratory events.

Like Pizza/Movie Night!

Now that the kids are older, and Kev's back on a M-F schedule, Fridays are once again fun, and a day we all look forward to. Even though we do have spelling tests at Rolfe Academy on Fridays. :o)

Every other Friday here in RolfeLand, we have pizza/movie night. We've been doing this since the doors to RolfeLand first opened, many moons ago. The way it works is pretty simple - one of us picks up a kid movie, and a grown up movie (sometimes 2 grown up movies if we have a free rental or the extra $ for 2 movies). Right around 4:30, the first pizza goes in the oven and Movie Night begins.

The Pizza: Kraft Delissio Harvest Wheat Rising Crust Pepperoni

It's the best! It's almost as good as that greasy drive-in pizza we used to get when I was a kid. Now if these Canadians would realize that black olives are a co-partner with pepperoni on a pizza (they just go together, like PB & J), then we'd be laughin'.

This pizza is just about the only frozen/prepared dinner item I ever buy. I usually get three of them, and cost-wise it comes out to just a few dollars more than a usual dinner around here. It's a splurge-item that we'd really miss if we had to give it up! (We're so spoiled).

The Movies = Rogers Video - No late fees, and no restocking fees

Depending on Kev's shift (days, afternoons or graveyard) one of us will stop at Rogers every other Friday and pick out the movies, then drop them off Sunday after church, or Monday on Kev's way to or home from work.

After the kids watch their movie (last movie night was Over the Hedge which Ruth insists was Of the Edge), we do our family devotions then they're off to sleepyland & it's Movie Night for me, Kev and Jessica. It's very hard to find or pick good movies, since most of what comes out of Hollyweird is just awful trash - but we manage to find pretty good ones most of the time (even if they're older movies that we've never seen before). It's Kev's turn to pick up movies today, and I have no idea what he's getting, we didn't even talk about it this week.

So that's what we do around here on Pizza/Movie Night. Required junk/snack food items are a range from tropical fruit trail mix (bulk food store = uber-cheap), nacho cheese tortilla chips with salsa (generic brand of both), plain potato chips, cookies, chocolate covered pretzels or banana chips (hand made by me, and OH MAN are they good!), or once in a very blue moon, Orville Reddenbacher's Cheddar Butter Cheesy Popcorn. Very blue moon item on that last one, I think one bowl of it turns into something like a 12 pound weight gain.

So... that's what we do around here on Fridays. How about you? Do you have a Friday tradition around your house?

(Oh, and my ever-popular-never-linked-to-knock-off-version-of-blogspotting-"BlogFodder" will be appearing here later today - I've been SUPER busy and haven't even kept track of the cool links this week, so I'll be putting those together after school, for your reading enjoyment!)

November 02, 2006

Only in a dream

For the last couple of weeks I keep looking at Isaiah 6:5 and telling myself "I'm going to write something on Isaiah being undone". Well, I just did but that doesn't really convey the message I was hoping for.

The only thing stopping me from doing that is that I've been SO busy with school, housework, mending things, laundry & whatever else it is that I do around here... that blogging time is in short supply. Well, shorter than usual anyway. That's okay though, as there are 97 zillion other blogs out there that have really great stuff to read.

So, instead of writing about Isaiah being undone, I think I'll just tell you about my dream last night:

Either we were all in Washington, or my entire extended family moved to Ontario - but either way we were all together. Grandma & Grandpa, all the uncles & their wives & kids, my mom, brother & sister & their spouses & kids, all my kids, & the oldest two girl's boyfriends, all of us. The whole goofy crew of us.

We'd decided to have all the November birthdays in one celebration, but we had to check with Gpa first to make sure that was okay. Gpa's birthday is November 3rd. (Kev's is the 24th, and both of the older girl's boyfriends are also in November). Gpa was perfectly okay with that plan, so we had a HUGE celebration. We all made our special dishes (mom made her deviled eggs, gma made her potato salad & baked beans, and I have no idea what I made), so there was a ton of food, and plenty of pies, cakes, & snacks. It was the kind of family get-together where everyone comes, everyone gets along, and everyone remembers as "the best family get together I think we've ever had".

Then I woke up.

My Gpa went home to the Lord, November 9th, 1993 (I think it was '93). I miss him a lot, as he was the only "dad" my brother, sister and I had growing up. So having that dream last night where he was present (and healthy and happy) was a real treat.

I guess you can say I'm thankful today for visiting with my gpa, even if it was only in a dream.

Giving Thanks, Day 1

Over the last several months, things haven't been to swell here in RolfeLand. To be sure we've had some monumentally wonderful blessings, like the birth of Baby Jocelyn and quite likely several other things I can't think of right this minute.

On the flip side of that, there have also been some pretty serious unfortunate things that have gone on, and are currently going on - which I will not list here.

When these kinds of things happen - and they seem to come in cycles; such as several months of really bad things happening, one right after the other - one thing I try very hard to do is find the silver lining in these black clouds. If I think about it long enough, and if I look hard enough, I almost always find a silver lining, or good life-lesson, or something useful.

So because I'm a copycat (or maybe because by God's providence I read this post while I was ending my day today thinking about this), I'm going to not only link to Rebecca's latest post, I'm going to do my best to blog through November the same way she's planning on doing.

With thankfulness - over something, anything, big or little.

So here's today's Thankful Gem:

Being without a dryer is honestly a huge pain. Doesn't that sound thankful? Keep reading, I promise it gets better.

With five kids in the house, who are very messy kids that live on a very messy farm, laundry in my house is at least a 2 load a day chore. Gathering, sorting, washing, drying, folding and putting away. During a normal day, these two loads are dealt with throughout the day (such as folding while lunch is being prepared, or getting another load started while dinner is cooking, and putting away after devotion when everyone's headed upstairs). During a normal day, with a dryer, we can get away with two loads and all the laundry is done (usually). Once a week we change the sheets and also wash blankets, pillows and anything extra like coats or jackets - so on those days it's a bit more than two loads.

Now that I don't have a dryer, things are working a bit differently. I've only had 4 days in the last few weeks where I could hang a load on the outside lines - and that's good, because it's very sturdy and holds a full load. Otherwise, I have to hang the laundry on the inside lines, which only holds about half of a normal load. This means what used to be two loads in a day is now four, and we have a perpetual stack of sorted laundry in there that is constantly being done in shifts, and never seems to all get done. Anyway...

Here's the set up in my laundry room...

This room is what used to be a walk-in pantry, so it's pretty good sized. When our second oldest daughter lived at home still, this room also doubled as her bedroom. She had a double bed in there, along with a full sized dresser, shelves and a desk - plus the washer and dryer. Plenty big enough.

Now that she's moved out, there's lots of room in there even with a table, shelves and a tv stand. So, I decided to run some laundry lines from one end of the room to the other. So far I only have three lines, since adding more than that would make it hard to get around in there. I also brought in a patio end table, and on top of that set up our strongest oscillating fan. The table stands directly above the heating vent, and since the room itself is directly above the furnace, it gets the most heat out of the whole house. Once I get all my laundry on the line, I turn on the fan full speed, and close the door on my way out. Voila! Instant "warm summer day with a strong breeze" conditions, in the laundry room. When a decent fire is going in the furnace, the laundry is dry in about 2 hours.

Aside from all of that being a huge pain in the neck, I am thankful for several things:

1. I tend to think a bit deeper on important things, when I'm working (such as mowing the lawn or hanging laundry) with my hands. The more I think on those things, the more likely I am to recall things I need to pray about.

2. There hasn't been 1 load of unfolded laundry in this house in the last 2 weeks. Sometimes when it's a heavy laundry day some loads don't get folded right away and sit around until one of us gets to it. The way things work now though, is that the laundry has to be folded as soon as it's taken down off the lines, because there is just nowhere else to put it but in neat little stacks on the little table in the laundry room.

3. Doing that, I have discovered a few things about my family's laundry that I hadn't really noticed lately. Such as, who needs new underthings, and how many truly revolting washclothes I had. Past tense, as they are all now in the trash. Some were so thin you could have read the newspaper through them. Others were so torn up they would have been rejected by any self-respecting rag in a rag-bag. It's been a good thing to take an inventory of my family's clothes this way - now I just need to win the lottery so I can go on a undergarment shopping spree for all five kids.

Of course if I won the lottery, those lines would be down in a heartbeat and my shiney new dryer would be humming along quite nicely.

I'm still thankful for these things, even though it's taken hardship for me to find them.

November 01, 2006

On being entreprenurial...

This just in from the This Is Where I Am Right Now (TIWIARN) files...

A few days ago, Kevin says to me:

"If you come across any kind of income generating idea in the next 18 months or so, you feel free to persue it if that's something you want to do". He was referring to any sort of passive income plan, like my store.

The reason he said this, is because according to people who know these things, there are certain aspects of the paperboard packaging industry that are going to see a significant slowdown over the next 18 months. Kev's a diecutter. He's the guy that runs that machine that makes those boxes that contain your cereal, pudding, frozen fried chicken, and that sort of thing. One of the most ironic things is that almost all of the food product boxes that he makes are for things we either can't afford to buy, or things we all prefer made from scratch anyway.

In any event, on a whim I decided to experiment with WordPress again. Those people who know what they're talking about (the same people mentioned above) say that one of the best ways to generate a successful online business, is to get your products "out there". Marketing is not something I'm very good at, or comfortable with. In any case - It's in the rough stage, but I create a new blog for my store and I wanted to let my readers here know about it. Go have a look and let me know what you think?

See the blog here.