You are currently browsing the monthly archive for April 2004.
BlogShares – looking to the Light K, now I’m scratchin my head here! Anyone heard of this virtual/fantasy blogshare market? This is weird, but in a kinda futurisitic cool way. Any thoughts you’d like to comment? How about you Doug? I’m sure you have heard of this, right? You are the virtual genius afterall! ; ) here is the home page that describes it for the techies…
Is this really a way that some people spend their time? How interesting!
My two and a half year old little boy, Alec, loves to go to bed with his “basket of cars.” His basket is an old white basket which is about four inches across and three inches, and we make sure it has his latest and greatest cars in it. I can’t say how much I love Matchbox and Johnny Lightening cars… they are inexpensive, and I really think that a child of any age (read: adults too!) can play with them.
So, Alec goes to bed with his basket of cars, and every night when I check on him before I finally go to sleep, he has all of his cars spread out on both sides of him. Last night though, the cars were surrounding his head like a halo, one inch either way and he would have been sleeping on the little metal replicas. I always fix his blankets and have to put all the cars back in the basket before I go to sleep, and not suprisingly, in the morning when he awakes, he immediatly starts getting them all out again.
We add to his collection everytime we go to the store, I mean, the matchbox cars only cost .87 cents…. how can I not? I usually have to get two of them, because Adair likes them too, but, they become Alec’s cars in the end. Thankfully Adair rarely puts up a struggle because she’d rather play with her stuffed animals.
*they melt me*
not that it’s that important, but I was wondering if it was possible to transfer my comments from my other blog over to this one? It would just be nice to have them all in one place, as I think I may stick with this blog, because it does load much faster. : )
I have 21 days left with my free trial of TypePad! I better figure it out soon what I want to do! Hey, if anyone reads this who does typepad, is there a way to put a quick-post link in my button bar so that I could easily click & post? Just curious!
smiles!
Condensation of My blessings on the walls of your heart,
cascading down into pools
of translucent love,
beginning and ending with Me.
Flowing
beyond listening
sensing beyond knowledge
reverberations in harmony to One (sound?).
I have a few thougts that I have recieved from the Spirit over the last while. I have found a path into His spacious place for me, and when my mind is clear from clutter, I can hear clearly His Spirit speak.
Innumerable desires
filing into thoughts traveling
through realities of My love and devotion for you.
Surrounding, floating on the wind
is My Spirit, in your heart,
delighting in your thoughts,
rustling through feelings
combining emotions into internal soliloquies.
Well, I’m taking a trial run of TypePad, and I have 24 days remaining to decide if I want to commit and just have my blog here. I like the ability to change things around, I hate things being static.
Leave a comment if you prefer one or the other, k? Thank you for stopping by!
*hugs*
We have been in the process of remodeling our kitchen for the last couple months. We’ve been going at it as we can afford, and my husband Mike has been making the cabinets from scratch. They are really beautiful with the maple hardwood in a natural finish that we chose. We demolished our bottom cabinets & tile counter top a couple weeks ago, and Mike installed the new bottom cabinets, sink base, and for the first time ever… we have a dishwasher! Oh my word, I can’t express to you how much I love it! We got the dishwasher as a gift from my Mother in Law for Christmas, but it’s been sitting in our living room since Dec. until just a couple weeks ago. We thought about doing a cement counter top, but instead because of the time factor that it takes for the cement to cure, then to be grinded, we went with tile.
We also got a new sink, with 8.5 in. deep bowls, and one of the bowls is big enough for my hugest canning pot, I am so thrilled! AND, we also now have a garbage disposal! I feel like we’ve totally propelled ourselves into the new age with all the new luxaries! Our 10 yr. wedding anniversary will be here in June, and we haven’t had a dishwasher or disposal for at least that amount of time, and I know I didn’t have either since I left home to go to college.
Finally, yesterday, we moved on to redo our flooring, and we chose vinyl flooring because of the price. It would have been nice to have tile, but it’s an old house and I could just picture how cold it would feel in the middle of winter… brr. So, we installed our vinyl flooring last night over our hideous aweful previous vinyl flooring that was the origional flooring from when the house was built in the mid 1930’s. The old flooring looked like it belonged in on a wharehouse or garage floor. Aweful… but, now it’s gone! *happy dance!*
All that’s left is to build the upper cabinets, tear out the existing upper cabinets, and install. Then we can finish our tile countertop on the backsplash, and then do an assembly line of making the cabinet doors. We have chosen a shaker style door, and we already have all of our lumber and hardware, so we’re ready! I can’t wait! I’ll post some pictures of the remodel & before and afters. It’s been not too bad, and since my husband is making everything himself, we can custimize everything to the sizes we need with our dinky corner set sink kitchen!
*smiles*
“writing is a tool with which we larn to see ourselves more clearly, a catalyst for which we can learn to see God…”
I get this daily “Slice of Infinity” and I’m always making sure that when I read it, I have nothing else interrupting me, because I always find some nugget of truth for myself to meditate on.
I read a fellow blogger’s blog, and in one entry she said that she is contemplating not blogging anymore, she keeps a journal, so I know she would still write, but I have found that when I peer into her blog, I am taken into a deeper level of my own thoughts… of things I know are there, but that I have yet to process. I guess I just haven’t quite figured out how to put the language to some thoughts that are floating around behind the static, whether it be on my thoughts of how I am living my faith in my own house (I’ll blog about that when I can figure out how…), or whether it be that I really go deeper with where Christ is working in my heart, and where maybe in my heart I’m not surrendering to Him. I usually try to put on the ‘I’m always happy & even-keel face,’ but I don’t know why I feel I need to uphold that here… except that that Monica is way more fun ; )
Anyway… I give warning, I think…
that I am going to open up some of the packages I’ve been carrying, and see if I can put language to them, and gain some insight from the scribble. It might not happen this week… but at some point.
I think it would give me an opportunity to see that they are small in the scheme of things. It’s funny… I think “oh, I’ve already prayed a bunch about that,” but why am I still holding onto it? I guess it’s because God is still providing me the time to work things out and really understand, instead of saying that I understand.
The book “The Purpose Driven Life” is something that I’ve been reading since Christmas. Although I changed the ratio from 40 days of reading to 40 weeks (with kids around, I have to do that if I intend for anything to sink in ; ) so, I’m somewhere on ch. 20, but I was flipping back in search of something (of course I couldn’t find it in particular) but I did find something that I put hearts and squiggely lines all the way around… it’s a quote by C.S. Lewis (whom by the way is someone that I’m just eager to read more of…)
C.S. Lewis said: “The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become- because He made us. He invented all the different poeple that you and I were intended to be… It is when I turn to Christ, that I give up myself to His personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own.”
*sigh* it’s late now… but I’m off to go jump into the Word… it’s awaiting me. smiles!
not Jerry Garcia, (*wink*) but the kind of deadheading that a gardener does… I’ll get to that later.
I’ve been thinking lately, about how I come and go into God’s presence. It fascinates me. At times I feel like I’m surrounded and basking in His warmest embrace, while at other times, I feel like I’m glimpsing at Him through a window. I always know where He is, and how to find Him, because He never changes that, but I think that what does change, is the timing and reasons why I am seeking Him.
Some days I am better at keeping a continual communication with Him through prayer, by me just sharing with Him the adventures of my day, and the discoveries I’ve made along the way. But, something I’ve noticed though, is that it’s entirely another thing to hear back from Him on the same continual basis that I seek Him. It’s not that He isn’t speaking to me in that same conversational flow, because I know He is, it’s that I am not attune to His station at all times. How can I be, when my kids fill up the radio channels of my mind with their constant chatter, or having the other background noise of the phone ringing, the cats meowing to go outside or scratching to come back in, the washer and dryer going, Raffi playing on the stereo *grins*, my husband sharing with me about his motorcycle, as well as all the other static of my own thoughts, that I’m simply trying to make sense of.
It’s awful to know that I don’t hear and listen to what the Spirit is sharing with me, but, there’s something that erases that inner grief. It’s the times when out of the clear blue, He whisks me away, and vacuums me into His presence, to share with me the switching on of a lightbulb in my heart and mind! Where I am witness to the dawning of His awesome Light into my vision. He opens the scope of my sight to see a glimpse of the broader picture that He has. Those times of instant transportation, are the hardest to beat, as well as the hardest to describe, and explain to others in a way to do them justice. I hunger repeatedly for Him to give me those moments in my everyday, but I know that there is purpose in the way that He reveals Himself, as well as in the way that He desires for my seeking and hungering for Him. In the quiet moments when my kids are in bed for the night, and the house is still, I can once again center on Him… and in those times, I find the hints He leaves for me, to delve deeper, into His love, grace, and Word.
Today, He revealed to me in the smallest whisper and subtle way, how He is transforming me. He is being the gardener in my life. In order for a gardener to help a plant grow to it’s potential, they need to deadhead the spent blooms, pinch the plant back in certain areas, fertilize and water, and provide maintenance. The deadheading coaxes the plant to rebloom, the pinching back promotes a fuller stem and thicker plant, while the rest, fertilizing, water, and maintenance, all ensure survival. God deadheads my spent blooms to coax rebloom, by the way that sometimes He is a little more distant, particularly after a time where I have just felt His close presence (bloom). The reason this coaxes rebloom, is that I dive into the Word with a refreshed desire for deeper understanding, and seek Him in prayer more throughout the day when I feel that I haven’t “heard” anything from His Spirit. He is waiting for me in these times to pull myself into Him! Throughout His maintenance of me, His in deadheading or pinching back little growths, to give me the opportunities to find and seek His heart for me, and not to go at things with my own tiny view. Pinching back is His way of scrutinizing my path, because only He knows my every thought, even if I try to hide it from Him. All of it, is His way of reminding me to live in surrender to Him… to look through the clutter of the day to find His glory and provisions. He supplies me with all the fertilizer, water, and maintenance I need through His Word, through Christ, and through the Holy Spirit who keeps me focused and growing.
I am mirroring His glory and illumination. He is transforming me, so that His works can be displayed through me, as by-products of Christ’s control of my heart, visable through love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Everyday I find new challanges, within me, and in my relationships to those around me. But He is constant, always there to guide me, accept me, and embrace me… even when, and especially when, I fail.
I have so many thoughts to express… but the time for my travel through them is limited until the kids are in bed tonight… I am eager to have the quiet time to sit down and reflect on where my heart is…
A friend passed this along to me, well worth meditation.
Am I doing all I can? Are you?
John 13:14
Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.
John 13:34
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
Romans 12:10
Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.
Romans 12:16
Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.
Romans 14:13
Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way.
Romans 15:7
Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.
Galatians 5:13
You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.
Galatians 6:2
Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
Ephes. 4:2
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
Ephes. 4:32
Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Ephes. 5:19
Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord,
Ephes. 5:21
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Ephes. 6:18
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
Ephes. 6:18
Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all Christians everywhere.
Philip. 2:3
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself;
Philip. 2:4
Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Col. 3:9
Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices.
Col. 3:13
Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
Col. 3:16
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
1 Thes. 4:9
Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.
1 Thes. 4:18
Therefore comfort one another with these words.
1 Thes. 5:11
Therefore encourage one another, and build up one another, just as you also are doing.
1 Thes. 5:13
and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Live in peace with one another.
1 Thes. 5:15
See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all men.
Hebrews 3:13
But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
Hebrews 10:24
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.
Hebrews 10:25
Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Hebrews 13:1
Keep on loving each other as brothers.
James 4:11
Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it.
James 5:9
Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!
James 5:16
Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
1 Peter 1:22
Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.
1 Peter 4:9
Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.
1 Peter 4:10
As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
1 Peter 5:5
Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,
“God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble.”
Greg Adkins (aka: emerging minister)
has a really cool site to visit! Plus, he is doing 52 songs in 52 weeks, with his songs available to listen in windows media, and the lyrics to read/sing along. Songs are both his own and some are his renderings of his favorite praise songs that he wants to do professionally.
Worth checking him out!
*smiles*
The Preacher’s Story in 4 Parts in part 4 he writes: “People who doubt can have great faith because faith is something you do, not something you think. In fact, the greater your doubt the more heroic your faith.”
I think there are a lot of nooks and cranny’s in this blog that are beckoning me…
Remebering Anita…
…missing you…
…my little boy running into the bathroom while I am drying my hair just to say “PHHHHHHBPT!” and then running away smiling and giggling.
…on garbage pick-up days when I tell my kids that I can hear the garbage truck on our street that they run eagerly to the window and yell, “THE GARBAGE TRUCK, THE GARBAGE TRUCK!”
…having coffee in my favorite coffee cup, it just tastes better in my favorite cup.
…that everytime my little girl is done drawing on her magnadoodle she has to leave it with a picture of a heart with a line under it. “The line is so that the heart won’t fall down,” she says.
…remembering the words to new praise songs so that I can sing them while I’m meandering through my daily routine.
…my little boy announcing to me out of the blue “dis is my tum,” as is raises his hand in the air with his thumb sticking up.
…that my neighbor Ron is home from Iraq for a month so that he can be here to strengthen his family upon the death of Anita.
…that although it’s cool and cloudy out, that all my tulips are eager to present themselves to remind me that they’ve waited all winter to reveal their beauty.
…that my daughter says “wook Mommy, wook!!” when she want’s me to look at something she’s doing or drawing.
…there are so many more things… but those are the ones that just now popped into my mind.
My Virtual Faith This was something I stumbled upon… wonderful message and description… especially James 1:12 at the end…
Are You A Pencil?
Contributed by: Mr. Nath
I have probably said this before but I just love analogies. Sometimes they can be limited when referring to God as nothing on earth can accurately and fully relate back to everything that our heavenly Father is. Sometimes though, a simple story can spark a cord or set off a light bulb with someone and then suddenly our God will make sense to them. I feel this story is one of those analogies, I couldn’t help but remembering the times I felt like that pencil and I am sure we all can remember times as well. I really wish at those times I had known about our Lord, as I resembled how that pencil felt the most during my school years.
The Pencil Maker took the pencil aside, just before putting him into the box. “There are 5 things you need to know,” he told the pencil, “Before I send you out into the world. Always remember them and never forget, and you will become the best pencil you can be.”
#1 — You will be able to do many great things, but only if you allow yourself to be held in Someone’s hand.#2 — You will experience a painful sharpening from time to time, but you’ll need it to become a better pencil.
#3 — You will be able to correct any mistakes you might make.
#4 — The most important part of you will always be what’s inside.
#5 — On every surface you are used on, you must leave your mark. No matter what the condition you must continue to write.
The pencil understood and promised to remember, and went into the box with purpose in his heart.
But now the pencil lay on the dark wood table, feeling insignificant and rather sad. Beside him on the desk was a colorful tin can, filled with every kind of beautiful pen to be had. There were silver fountain pens and a neon felt tip marker. There was also a classy ballpoint whom everyone called Parker.
“What a loser,” they said of the pencil, as they observed his wooden frame. “Don’t bother with him, he’s a nobody,” said Parker, “He doesn’t even have a name.”
Now the world was at war and their owner was a Soldier who was tasked to bring peace to the land.
“What we need is a map,” the Soldier had said, at the desk across from his Officer the other night. “If someone can fly me over the city unseen, I can draw a map from the sky. The map will tell you where to go and how to win, and soon we’ll put an end to this fight.”
The Officer had agreed and now the Soldier would fly, but first he discussed with his wife. “I’ll need something to draw with, something dependable . . . something that won’t fail me mid-flight.”
The Soldier looked at his dark wood desk, and observed all the pens in the can. He studied each one, their bodies all shimmering, and he weighed them all in his hand. “This one won’t work,” he said of a pen, “the ink might blot on the map. This one needs to be refilled every few hours, and this one will dry out without a cap.”
He looked at each one and always found something wrong, or anticipated problems if he used it in the sky. “I need something that would work whatever the conditions, and I need it soon my dear wife.” “Then take this pencil.” his wife finally said, handing him the frail and battered yellow thing. “It will write no matter what, it will write on a plane — it’s the best writing tool you can bring.”
The Soldier smiled, kept the pencil in his pocket, and took it with him on the plane. He finished the map and the map helped bring them peace … and the pencil has never been the same. “ The pencil was now nothing more than a stub; what was left of his lead was now broken. His eraser was gone, his wood frame had split, and some time ago his metal ring had been stolen.
Now he stood before the Pencil Maker, and waited for him to say those five words. “”Well done, my faithful pencil,” the Pencil Maker said, “You have written what you were meant to write in the world.”
“Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.” – James 1:12
Author Unknown
“I wanted to give them ample opportunity to spell out their reasoning and evidence in detail so that, in the end, I could evaluate whether their positions made sense.”
From The Case for Faith by Lee Strobel.
Follow the herd:
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
via Robert
I recieved an email like this, (this site is from symantec, so it’s safe) and the email said that I had THIS virus which I know that I don’t because our Norton Antivirus ran yesterday with zero detected files. Anyway, just wanted to pass along to update your virus definitons and protect your computer. Also, don’t don’t don’t open any email that is from someone you don’t know, and/or if you do know them, don’t open the funky attachments. Read the second url link I on this blog entry and scroll down to see the possible bogus attachments, or subject lines that it may have.
Mean people suck, and so do the people who create computer viruses. However, regardless of the ways that I think they suck, I find that I respect their intelligance, despite it’s devious nature, because they can create something that appears complicted.
With the news continuing to show the casulties that our troops are suffering and the continued suicide bombs over there… I just keep wondering “how is this getting better, or how is this going to get better?” What needs to happen? How long will this go on? How are our troops feeling? It’s been one year already and it’s hard to measure from my little living room what progress is really occuring, and my heart just goes out to the troops and all the families supporting them.
With the money that I recieved as gifts for my birthday a little while ago, I bought a new Bible. I love it, it’s so beautiful, and NEW! It’s almost scary new… it’s like I don’t want to “ruin” it! I have spent many a careful thought considering what color highlighter I want to use to transfer over favorite scriptures from my old Bible to my new one. I don’t want to ruin it by picking the wrong color. Isn’t that insane?
I know, I know, Bibles just get better with the more use and wear that they get, but somehow, I still treat it with a little more “care” than my 14 yr. old Bible (NAS), that has been with me since I moved from Calif. to Utah (where I really need it ; ) , and then it also traveled with me along the way from the Teton’s to Taiwan. I’ve brought it along various places, marked it up, spilled drinks on it here or there, tainted it with every color highlighter possible, scribbled in it with ball point pens of every color, darted pages with various shaped and bright post it notes, and there are smudges of pencil scribbles from one end to the other. Somehow though, I am looking at my new Bible (NIV Life Application) and hold it with a little more reverance. It has a beautiful navy blue leather cover, my name on it, and pretty sliver edged pages… the margins are so roomy that if I think about transfering my notes, it’s like I’ll have so much room to write everything out, that I am beside myself. Plus, the frugal stay at home Mom in me who gets to balance the checkbook remembers that it was $80! (Now, now… I know $80 dollars isn’t a lot to some people, but to me it is! Plus, come on, it’s just a Bible, right?). It’s just a treat for me, a new luxary, especially when I know I could have spent my birthday money on other less meaningful things, like jeans, save up for another Canon lens, or a bike bag, etc.
Now, when I sit down to read my Bible, I get both of them out, and double deck them and read from one, then the other… making notes in my old one, while just leaving my new one all pretty. To share the extent of this new neurosis… I am feeling regret already over using a blue highlighter to highlight a few favorite verses… and I am questioning if I have already ruined it, and that maybe I should have used a different color, or, not used any highlighter at all. *sigh* : D
I’m just somehow not quite able to “move into” it yet… I don’t even bring my new one with me to church! I still bring my old one, while my new one sits at home, safe on my desk.
TypePad: Hosted Weblog Service I have seen a many blogs using TypePad & I really like them. I think what I’d like to be able to do is on a side bar be able to link to titles of posts, instead of having to look at a long list of ‘here ye, here ye, yadda yadda yadda.’
The only thing that lures me to stay at blogger is that it’s free, which is attractive to a stay at home Mom like myself.
I do like the possibilities though!
