I totally feel like a underpaid Taiwanese child in a bamboo blind factory...
... let me explain...
My bedroom window in my house faces the street, and while our house is a generous ways back from the street, my windows are completely unprotected. In the rain, I get to hear every splitter-splatter of drops that hit my window, and in the summer, the scorching sun burns straight through whatever window covers are in place and turns my bedroom into a veritable oven. This much being said... I have had some window covering issues. Yes, yes... I know I have blogged about window coverings in the past. (and thank you, the new curtain rod is doing quite nicely) However, these particular venetian blinds were already in a sad state when I first laid claim on the room more than a year ago... and have since only proceeded to get worse. You know how when you break one of the blinds in a venetian blind, you might as well throw it away, because there is pretty much no salvaging it after that? Yeah, that would pretty much be the case here. I had lived with them for over a year though before my conscience and pocketbook and better judgement and frustration all agreed that I should replace them.
And I did.
What I wanted... (and you know that always starts a complicated story)... was wooden blinds. A beautiful dark red wood to go with my dark tones in my room and accent the burgundy curtains. Yeah, come to find out those are kinda expensive. Well, my conscience and pocketbook and better judgement and frustration would not agree to them, so I ended up with some bamboo blinds. Half the cost, same color, more "safari", and possibly the same amount of fun!
Wrong again.
I failed to realize that the bamboo was not tied close enough together to keep out much light, or keep in much sight... oops!! (remember my room faces the street)
Soooo yeeeeaaaah...
My mom graciously gave me some burlap fabric. Its heavy duty, and it'll get the job done. Now all that's left to do is painstakingly sew the burlap onto the back of the blinds. I have almost 1/2 of one blind done. And I feel sooooooo sorry for child laborers that have to do this kind of thing. I want to pull my hair out a little bit at the moment. But allow me to finish. Maybe I can have something on my windows by tonight.
Maybe, just maybe... in about 3 weeks, when I've forgot how hard this was to do... I'll think it was worth it. We'll see. At the moment, I am highly doubting.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
My Heroes
So I finally watched "Braveheart"...
Its kinda nice, I finally understand all the hype of Wallace and biblical analogies that pastors and one of my favorite authors are terribly fond of using.
... but I'm sorry, Aragorn still trumps Wallace any day of the week.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Quotes of the Day 1.1
Religion-- who needs it? A list of endless, dead rules. As ancient as the people that invented them. Give me a vibrant, real relationship with a God who loves me regardless of how unworthy I am when I come to Him, and how bad I continue to mess up in my life. Give me the freedom of choice, let me live a crazy all out life that looks silly to starched collars... yeah, that's my type of religion. Not to say that I am against organized religion... just those who think that going to church on Sunday is enough. If you don't have a real relationship with God, it aint worth squat!
Faith -- My Jesus is my everything! Seriously, He's what gets me up in the morning and why I can sleep at night. He's my lover and my best friend. I've tried life without Him, and let me tell you it wasn't worth it! Faith is what makes me smile in the hard times, cause I know He is still faithful. Faith is that fire that drives me to go do crazy things, to love completely, live openly, and share unconditionally.
Faith -- My Jesus is my everything! Seriously, He's what gets me up in the morning and why I can sleep at night. He's my lover and my best friend. I've tried life without Him, and let me tell you it wasn't worth it! Faith is what makes me smile in the hard times, cause I know He is still faithful. Faith is that fire that drives me to go do crazy things, to love completely, live openly, and share unconditionally.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Blogging
I have officially decided that I am not a blogger.
I am a wanna-be.
See real bloggers have causes, or are well read, or keep up on current events, or have deep thoughts.
I don't aggressively have any celebrity type causes that I support openly.
I am not currently well read. Though this may have been true at one point in time, esp in relation to my age and status, it is currently deplorably inaccurate. I wish it were true, but I cannot lie. I have not been well-read in many years.
I do not keep up on current events. Well, not entirely. It is true that I often catch a little of what is going on in the news while I am working and the TV is on. I also do sometimes read the random yahoo articles on my homepage, and yes, I do every week or so look a Ugandan newspaper up online and read the articles... but in general I care very little that the capital is under 5 feet of snow and freaking out like little girls, or that Obama is dropping percentage points in approval poles by the day, or what-have-you.
I do sometimes have deep thoughts it is true. But my memory these days I am afraid is closer to that of some of my 90 year old residents. By the time that I get home at night I have completely forgotten any and every good decent deep thought I had that day. Instead my mind will likely be consumed with whether or not it is acceptable to eat a cereal entitled "Blueberry Morning" anytime besides the morning...
So you see I am not a real blogger. My uncle is a real blogger. Though I very seldom agree with his opinions on things, he is very passionate about his causes, well read on current events, and thinks things through deeply. And he can write a story that will leave you in stitches.
I am merely a wanna-be.
But I guess that is okay. I don't mind. And I very highly doubt that the 3 people that read my blog care very much either.
I write because I LIKE to write. And until that changes, I will remain, very respectfully yours... Jo-wanna-be-blogger!
I am a wanna-be.
See real bloggers have causes, or are well read, or keep up on current events, or have deep thoughts.
I don't aggressively have any celebrity type causes that I support openly.
I am not currently well read. Though this may have been true at one point in time, esp in relation to my age and status, it is currently deplorably inaccurate. I wish it were true, but I cannot lie. I have not been well-read in many years.
I do not keep up on current events. Well, not entirely. It is true that I often catch a little of what is going on in the news while I am working and the TV is on. I also do sometimes read the random yahoo articles on my homepage, and yes, I do every week or so look a Ugandan newspaper up online and read the articles... but in general I care very little that the capital is under 5 feet of snow and freaking out like little girls, or that Obama is dropping percentage points in approval poles by the day, or what-have-you.
I do sometimes have deep thoughts it is true. But my memory these days I am afraid is closer to that of some of my 90 year old residents. By the time that I get home at night I have completely forgotten any and every good decent deep thought I had that day. Instead my mind will likely be consumed with whether or not it is acceptable to eat a cereal entitled "Blueberry Morning" anytime besides the morning...
So you see I am not a real blogger. My uncle is a real blogger. Though I very seldom agree with his opinions on things, he is very passionate about his causes, well read on current events, and thinks things through deeply. And he can write a story that will leave you in stitches.
I am merely a wanna-be.
But I guess that is okay. I don't mind. And I very highly doubt that the 3 people that read my blog care very much either.
I write because I LIKE to write. And until that changes, I will remain, very respectfully yours... Jo-wanna-be-blogger!
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Chucky Cheese's and Lessons Learned
I keep seeing analogies recently. I don't know what that means about me... just that I keep seeing them. They keep popping up like those annoying games at chucky cheese's where you have to constantly hit them until no more pop up. (I'm thoroughly convinced that a parent invented that game based on the easy amusement of kids. What completely worthless, but utterly time consuming activity can we get kids to pay to play!!)
1. I put my dog in her kennel last night after yelling at her for some miscreant behavior. I however did not lock the kennel. She was free to come and go, but it took her a record 10min to figure this out and actually test the door to see if she could open it. I think that is similar to how we approach God sometimes. We sit looking out the door the we think He has locked, and we never once go push on it to see if perchance He's left it without lock and key. Obviously there are times you wouldn't want to push on doors that God has closed, so the analogy breaks down. But when you know its in an area of freedom in your life in Christ, or direction that you know He wants you to go eventually... why not at least nudge it a little with your nose and see if God has opened the way for you to be free?
2. I was cleaning dishes last night. Don't ask why, but I felt like doing dishes, which is entirely uncharacteristic for me, and so I thought I would take advantage of it! Anywho... I was going to drain the sink so I could clean it. (yeah, again, don't ask. I have no idea what got into me) However like any good unmaintained sink the draining on this sink was sluggish. And by sluggish I mean, like go scrub the entire bathtub and the toilet and then come back, it might be drained. I am sometimes however a resourceful person, and was able to pull from my extensive dish-washing knowledge (thank you, growing up in a large family!) and ascertain that it was not actually the sink inself that was deficient in its duties. See in our sink, (one of those old models) there is not an "in-sink-erator" (in other words, a garbage disposal). In fact, in our sink the garbage disposal consists of two things: a small seive that fits over the drain spout, and.... wait for it... YOU! I heard a quote once that I particularly liked. It was something to the effect of: what really seperates the boys from the men is the ability to bare-handedly clean out the stopper on the sink without holding it at arms length away from your body. Anyway, it was indeed the sink stopper that was the issue. Have you ever reached down through dirty soapy, now greasy, after-dishes-water that is slightly cooling, add in some floating spaghetti for snake-like effect, and a few other ambiguous chunks of disgarded food and MMMMMMmmmm! (don't you just feel like eating now??) only to pull up a seive that wow... should have been cleaned a log time ago. Pretty sure there are more gross things in life... but I haven't seen many of them! (and I'm a nurse and I've been to Africa!) Now the way a seive is supposed to work is that things are supposed to be filtered through the little hole and not allowed to go down the drain and clog it at some undisclosed juncture or bend in the pipe. However, water has these amazing corosive effects on almost any food substance and over time, what should have been caught in the seive and cleaned out had been permanently caked into the holes not allowing any of the water to flow down the drain as it should. While scrubbing out these nice little food cakes, I couldn't help but think of those things in life that we need filtered out of our lives. I think the seive is like our conscience, or to some extent like the Holy Spirit interceding in our lives. There are times in our lives when we allow the seive to be taken from its place, and we end up with clogged drains. However, when there is stuff that goes down in our lives and we merely catch it in our seive we can also impede the blessings that God would have for our lives. I know this was a really hard lesson for me. I felt like I had to stay in some sort of mourning period for a certain amount of time. Repentance for me seemed to convey that you not only rejected the old idea and wanted to move on and turn from it, but also that clung a little to that sin as a way of remembering what not to do next time. Pretty soon all those little leftover peices of sin are clumped together so thick and tight, that I can't see my way to Jesus' side anymore. My relationship with God becomes clogged. At some point we need to clean all the junk out of our lives. Really take it all before God and surrender it. Its then that He is free to pour out blessings on our lives, and we are open to receive them. Now obviously I am not comparing the blessings of God to dirty, greasy dishes water... but you get the general idea.
1. I put my dog in her kennel last night after yelling at her for some miscreant behavior. I however did not lock the kennel. She was free to come and go, but it took her a record 10min to figure this out and actually test the door to see if she could open it. I think that is similar to how we approach God sometimes. We sit looking out the door the we think He has locked, and we never once go push on it to see if perchance He's left it without lock and key. Obviously there are times you wouldn't want to push on doors that God has closed, so the analogy breaks down. But when you know its in an area of freedom in your life in Christ, or direction that you know He wants you to go eventually... why not at least nudge it a little with your nose and see if God has opened the way for you to be free?
2. I was cleaning dishes last night. Don't ask why, but I felt like doing dishes, which is entirely uncharacteristic for me, and so I thought I would take advantage of it! Anywho... I was going to drain the sink so I could clean it. (yeah, again, don't ask. I have no idea what got into me) However like any good unmaintained sink the draining on this sink was sluggish. And by sluggish I mean, like go scrub the entire bathtub and the toilet and then come back, it might be drained. I am sometimes however a resourceful person, and was able to pull from my extensive dish-washing knowledge (thank you, growing up in a large family!) and ascertain that it was not actually the sink inself that was deficient in its duties. See in our sink, (one of those old models) there is not an "in-sink-erator" (in other words, a garbage disposal). In fact, in our sink the garbage disposal consists of two things: a small seive that fits over the drain spout, and.... wait for it... YOU! I heard a quote once that I particularly liked. It was something to the effect of: what really seperates the boys from the men is the ability to bare-handedly clean out the stopper on the sink without holding it at arms length away from your body. Anyway, it was indeed the sink stopper that was the issue. Have you ever reached down through dirty soapy, now greasy, after-dishes-water that is slightly cooling, add in some floating spaghetti for snake-like effect, and a few other ambiguous chunks of disgarded food and MMMMMMmmmm! (don't you just feel like eating now??) only to pull up a seive that wow... should have been cleaned a log time ago. Pretty sure there are more gross things in life... but I haven't seen many of them! (and I'm a nurse and I've been to Africa!) Now the way a seive is supposed to work is that things are supposed to be filtered through the little hole and not allowed to go down the drain and clog it at some undisclosed juncture or bend in the pipe. However, water has these amazing corosive effects on almost any food substance and over time, what should have been caught in the seive and cleaned out had been permanently caked into the holes not allowing any of the water to flow down the drain as it should. While scrubbing out these nice little food cakes, I couldn't help but think of those things in life that we need filtered out of our lives. I think the seive is like our conscience, or to some extent like the Holy Spirit interceding in our lives. There are times in our lives when we allow the seive to be taken from its place, and we end up with clogged drains. However, when there is stuff that goes down in our lives and we merely catch it in our seive we can also impede the blessings that God would have for our lives. I know this was a really hard lesson for me. I felt like I had to stay in some sort of mourning period for a certain amount of time. Repentance for me seemed to convey that you not only rejected the old idea and wanted to move on and turn from it, but also that clung a little to that sin as a way of remembering what not to do next time. Pretty soon all those little leftover peices of sin are clumped together so thick and tight, that I can't see my way to Jesus' side anymore. My relationship with God becomes clogged. At some point we need to clean all the junk out of our lives. Really take it all before God and surrender it. Its then that He is free to pour out blessings on our lives, and we are open to receive them. Now obviously I am not comparing the blessings of God to dirty, greasy dishes water... but you get the general idea.
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