Friday, October 28, 2005

Who knew?

To continue the saga of wildlife around our place.... (see also turkeys, bugs and birds)

...have noticed lately that the squirrels are getting fat. (See?! ) They must be: they sound like people walking around on our roof. No kidding. They jump from the trees surrounding our place down to our (flat) roof, then race from one end of the house to the other... honest to goodness they really do sound like little kids running around.




The best funny on me was the first year I stayed home from work. I was sitting in the living room, engrossed in a book, when I heard the sound of someone tramping around on our roof. Assuming it was our landlord checking things out, I grabbed a jacket & headed out to the deck to holler up to him & see if he needed access to the house for anything.

Imagine my surprise when all I saw on the roof were two squirrels playing tag. *Sigh*

Back to the book... face a bit red... after all, it's not every day I think someone is tramping around on my roof... and find I've been rousted from said book by a squirrel!!!

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

There are no words...

...and as you well know by the length of my typical posts, this is a rare day. I think the Lord handed me this toddler-sitting job for the day to keep my mind off the "what-might-have-beens." ;-) To make a long story short, we heard from Connecticut yesterday. All the openings were filled by internal transfers.

Bleh.

Happy Anniversary to Us

Hard to believe that it's been 8 years..... but it's been a good 8 years.

Funny: in the midst of a "who shall we ask to baby-sit for our anniversary dinner?" conversation last night, the phone rang. 'Twas a friend, needing some kids watched today, wondering if I could sit for her today & maybe she could watch our little one for us "sometime." I said.. "Um... tomorrow's our anniversary... how about you pay me back for tomorrow morning tomorrow evening?!" Hee hee... well.... that's what we're doing.........

So here I am, enjoying wireless Internet access in the same room with two very "busy" toddlers....... earning free baby sitting for our anniversary evening. Good deal, I think!!

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Grace??

And to learn more of "this" kind of grace... perhaps I should dust off this book!!! *grins*

I'm done!

Well, I'm finished reading the book... not done digesting. Will try to put together a cohesive review sometime soon. Am also trying to get the hubby to read the book. =) At this point let me just say:

1. The church & educational circles in which I've swum (been swimming) know precious little of this kind of grace. That being said.....

2. Maybe my parents didn't screw up as badly as I have previously thought.

3. I need to learn more of this grace..... the grace that "is sufficient for thee"--2 Corinthians 12:9, the grace that encourages me to come BOLDLY to the Father's throne--Hebrews 4:12-16, this grace in which I am to stand--Romans 5:2...

So ... here I stand!! =) God is good... to meet us where we are... and to teach us....

Friday, October 7, 2005

Two Funerals and a Wedding

(sub-titled: Be careful what you pray for)

This has been an interesting week for our Pastor. The wedding is pretty straight-forward, well, hopefully it will be.. it's tomorrow. I'm getting over being aggravated b/c the gift I bought was broken, so I had to go trekking back (in the rain) to exchange it. But finally, I have a 10 pc box of CorningWare to give. Yeah!! ANYWAY... the two funerals.... this was weird. OK. Weird isn't the right word. Try sobering. See....

There was this guy at our church (call him Bob) who decided to cheat on his wife... not just cheat, but moved in with his "new love" (incidentally also from our church). The leadership of our church tried talking with Bob, but he blew everybody off... determined to do what "felt right" to him. Fast forward two years. Earlier this week I got a call... Bob died Monday. We all knew he had health issues (from before he left his wife) but they weren't necessarily life-threatening.... now he's gone. Bob's funeral was Thursday. During the service, his wife's father dropped dead... right there during his estranged son-in-law's funeral. Wow. So now Pastor has another funeral to preach....

Be careful what you pray for. See, last Sunday night at the end of service, Pastor was praying that we as a church would have the opportunity to reach out to a number of young people who were raised in our church but have since "gone astray." Bob's 2 sons are among that group, and IMHO, some of the young ones who've strayed did so merrily following Bob's example. I say the whole two funeral thing is sobering b/c I can't help hoping that maybe *now* some of the young ones will be faced with the reality that God will not be mocked. A believer CANNOT sin continually & unrepentantly and expect God to sit back & not chastise. And to be honest, Bob was being chastised... he was said to have been miserable. (So miserable that his "new love" left him a few months ago.) Pastor had questioned if Bob ever knew the Lord at all... but you'd think that an unconverted man would have found happiness in his sin. Bob never did--he was miserable in his sin to the bitter end. And a premature end at that. So then....

We pray... that the young ones affected by Bob's death will turn to God in repentance for their own waywardness rather than turning away from God in bitterness.... that the last few miserable years of Bob's life will be an example to them of the consequences of "going ones own way" and that the suddenness of Bob's death will have a greater impact on them than his going astray did.... that the young ones will turn back to the Lord while there's still time.

And I wonder: what about me?? What am I holding on to that I *know* to be sin... presuming upon God's patience & love.... assuming that I'll have time to make things right "later"???

This week has just been a sobering reminder that none of us is promised tomorrow.. and it's wise to keep short accounts--with men & with God.

****************

Update on 'Bob'.... Pastor mentioned in church this morning that Bob had been turning back around over the last two weeks or so before his death... begun reading his Bible again, apologized to his family for the mess he'd caused, etc. He's reported to also have said: "If I had only done what I knew was the right thing to do." So we continue to pray for his family..... The Lord knows & loves them just the same -- meaning He desires us to be reaching out to them just as we should have been before their loss. Yea, sobering.

Tuesday, October 4, 2005

Milestones

Well... maybe I should just say Progress. In the last 8 days the kid:

Sat unassisted.

Chewed his toes.

Began eating "solid" foods.

Rolled over.

Cut his first tooth.

That's my big (6 month old) boy.

Sunday, October 2, 2005

Reading...

Well, "vacation" trip is over & clean-up/house recovery seems to be winding down also. Therefore, I am wading into the latest borrowed book--Tim Kimmel's Grace-Based Parenting.

Only one chapter in so far.... will have something intelligent to say after sleeping on it.... well, not literally sleeping on the book, but you knew that! If anyone's interested in learning more about the book sooner than waiting for me to get through it... the AMFM (Association of Marriage and Family Ministries) has an overview of the book on their site. From what I've read of the first chapter, I think the overview is a just representation of the book.

Ode to a Fan

First of all, praise God for air conditioning... and fall nights when a/c isn't necessary.

Last night, a dear friend of 21 years passed on....

I first met "him" the summer between 4th & 5th grades. We were living in the upstairs of my great-grandmothers old farmhouse for a while and it got HOT up there in the afternoons. Stifling is what we used to call it. Anyway, off we went to Jamesway one Saturday & came home with the cutest little fan. It only stood about 9 inches tall and didn't oscillate or anything fancy like that... but that little fan got me through Jr High and Sr High (when Dad refused to run a/c at all b/c it would "run up the electric bill too much").

Then it went with me to college (to drown out the sounds of snoring roommates). After college it got a several year-long break, but was called back up for duty when I got an office job with a dear bunch of chilly women. Really!! I've never met such a large number of always-cold women collected in one place before! The thermostat was ALWAYS set above my comfort range (yes, maybe I'm just cold-blooded).

Anyhow, I was pleasantly surprised that the fan still worked after 5 years in storage, but it did serve me well during my almost 5 years in that office... and then the little fan that could got to 'retire' from office life... and helped keep the kid cool for the first 6 months of his life. Actually the fan kept his little mobile bears mobile... which delighted him to no end.

Guess we'll be going out to buy another little fan soon.... Anyone know if the brand Tatung is still around?? I hadn't heard of it before or since.... =)

Good-bye little fan......

*****UPDATE*****
Went & found Tatung on-line. Chinese-owned company, based in Taiwan... still make fans & all kinds of other things... too funny.