Steals and Deals, revisited

I bought this nightstand on craigstlist for $30 dollars! Not that it is bragging or anything but I LOVE that site! It is big but beautiful and looks great with our bed. Now for the dresser....

Mission Accomplished

It is by His grace alone and in His strength alone that we are able to complete any work.--I can do all things who strengthens me. I am meditating on God's infinite wisdom and power this morning as I prepare for battle against anxiety, worry and fear as I think about many different circumstances.
There is an excellent chapter at the end of Providence that talks about the practical application of understanding what God is doing. It says :

"It is here supposed to be the Christian's great duty, under the
apprehensions of approaching troubles, to resign his will to God's and quietly commit the events and their outcome to Him, whatever they may prove. Thus did David in the like case and circumstances: 'Carry back the ark of God into the city;if I shall find favour int he eyes of the Lord, he will bring me back again, and show me both it and his habitation: But if he thus say, I have no delight in thee: behold here am I, let him do to me as seemeth good unto him' 2 Sam 15.25-26. O lovely and truly Christian attitude! As much as to say...Go return with the ark to its place; thought I have not the symbol, yet I hope I shall have the real presence of God with me in this sad journey. How He will dispose the events of this sad and doubtful providence I know not. Either I shall return again to Jerusalem or I shall not. If I do, then I shall see it again and enjoy the Lord in His ordinances there. If I do not, then I shall go to that place where there is no need or use of those things. And either way it will be well for me. I am content to refer all to the divine pleasure an dommit the issue, be it whatever it will, to the Lord. And until our hearts come to the like resolve, we can have no peace within. 'Commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established' Prov 16.3. By works he means not only every enterprise and business we undertake, but every puzzling, intricate and doubtful event we fear. These being once committed by an act of faith and our wills resigned to His, besides the comfort we shall have in the issue, we shall have the present advantages of a well-composed and peaceful spirit."

'When I am afraid, I put my trust in you O God'
There is so much in flux right now and so many needs. But as I have wrestled with a soul not at rest I realize that these circumstances and "puzzling" providences are a means by which God desires to reveal more of Himself to me. As I completed this quilt, I realize that it is not just the work I undertook, but the work of God in prayer. My hope is not in my work, no matter how good they are, but in the mercy of God. He is established His will and the goodness of His providences for me and others and will do all I cannot.

Sunday Reflections

Jon Payne preached an excellent sermon on Sunday asking us to consider the flip side of the previous week's message on "Don't Worry, Trust God" from Luke 12- Are we ready for the Master's return as His servants? If faithfulness is "doing the tasks God has called you to using the tools He has supplied", are you ready? Are you being faithful?
I wanted to ask myself these questions in regards to my marriage. I am not quite at the year mark and it acts as a good reminder to ask myself if I am ready and if I am am being faithful. There has been much grace and growth already in our marriage; but, the Scriptures are so good at getting at an ever-deeper layer to point to our need for more grace.
Since the greatest need for grace in my marriage is to help me learn to respect and revere my husband, taking on a perspective of grace towards our sanctification process, I thought I would list this quote my mom sent me. If we truly do want to emulate Christ, then we would act in a manner towards our husbands as Christ did to His Father. We would wait upon their return and be malleable to doing things that please and honor them.
John Chrysostom ("golden-mouthed"), bishop of Constantinople (from 398) and "Spurgeon" of the late fourth and early fifth century, known for his deep respect for Christian women (as witnessed, for instance, in his beautiful letter to Olympias) has this to say about Christian wives both loving and respecting their husbands in Ephesians 5:33 -

"How, one may say, is there to be love when there is respect? Love is most powerfully present when accompanied by respect. For what she loves she also reveres, and what she reveres she also loves. She reveres him as the head and loves him as a member of the whole body. God’s purpose in ordering marriage is peace. One takes the husband’s role, one takes the wife’s role, one in guiding, one in supporting. If both had the very same roles, there would be no peace. The house is not rightly governed when all have precisely the same roles. There must be a differentiation of roles under a single head." (Homily on Ephesians 20:5.33)

It is good for my soul to answer the question: "Am I ready to serve another master besides myself, being ready and faithful to serve and honor the Lord by serving my husband?"
Jon reminded us that this evaluation doesn't start with comparison to others. He also warned us to be wary of a proud response in either self-righteousness towards others or a self-pitying response that lacks hope that anyone can change. We have to start with the gospel truth-- Jesus Christ died for sinners like me and empowers them to be like Christ through his grace. We can do all things through Christ who strengthen us. There is always more grace than we can arrange or find in ourselves.

Reflections

Jon Payne preached an excellent sermon on Sunday asking us to consider the flip side of the previous week's message on "Don't Worry, Trust God" from Luke 12- Are we ready for the Master's return as His servants? If faithfulness is "doing the tasks God has called you to using the tools He has supplied", are you ready? Are you being faithful?
I wanted to ask myself these questions in regards to my marriage. I am not quite at the year mark and it acts as a good reminder to ask myself if I am ready and if I am am being faithful. There has been much grace and growth already in our marriage; but, the Scriptures are so good at getting at an ever-deeper layer to point to our need for more grace.
Since the greatest need for grace in my marriage is to help me learn to respect and revere my husband, taking on a perspective of grace towards our sanctification process, I thought I would list this quote my mom sent me. If we truly do want to emulate Christ, then we would act in a manner towards our husbands as Christ did to His Father. We would wait upon their return and be malleable to doing things that please and honor them.
John Chrysostom ("golden-mouthed"), bishop of Constantinople (from 398) and "Spurgeon" of the late fourth and early fifth century, known for his deep respect for Christian women (as witnessed, for instance, in his beautiful letter to Olympias) has this to say about Christian wives both loving and respecting their husbands in Ephesians 5:33 -

"How, one may say, is there to be love when there is respect? Love is most powerfully present when accompanied by respect. For what she loves she also reveres, and what she reveres she also loves. She reveres him as the head and loves him as a member of the whole body. God’s purpose in ordering marriage is peace. One takes the husband’s role, one takes the wife’s role, one in guiding, one in supporting. If both had the very same roles, there would be no peace. The house is not rightly governed when all have precisely the same roles. There must be a differentiation of roles under a single head." (Homily on Ephesians 20:5.33)

It is good for my soul to answer the question: "Am I ready to serve another master besides myself, being faithful and ready to serve and honor my Lord and my husband?"

Jon reminded us that our evaluation doesn't start with comparison to others or look like a response of pride in either self-righteousness towards others or in doubt that God can change us-- it starts with applying the gospel truth: Christ empowers us to do all things through him who gives us strength. And there is always more grace than we could ever anticipate.

Monday Laughs

What could be better than to start off the week with a chuckle at our expense?
Here's the recent report on our combined blondness.
A few months back, Travis was called over to a customer's home who was concerned that his new grill wasn't working. This elderly gentleman could get his grill to work. Travis, who tries to provide excellent customer service, told him he would come over and look at it.
Now the truth is that Travis doesn't know any more about the grill's operations he installs than the homeowners themselves. But Travis did his homework and called the BBQ sales guy and got instructions that the battery can sometimes misfunction in the starter. When Travis got there, he turned on all the burners and tried to start up the grill; but....click,click,click,click,click...it didn't work for him either. So he took out his AA battery and reinstalled it into the starter box. Then he proceeded to press the starter button again. He leans over the grill to see if the burners light up...Click,click,click...BOOM
The way Travis describes it was that his hair immediately flattened against his scalp towards the sky as the cloud of gas exploded around him.
All of this while the homeowner was watching him.
Travis said to the man, "Well, I think it works now." he said with confidence.
Now my story is slightly more embarresing: on Saturday I went shopping at a large collection of "offbrand" stores like Nordstrom Rack, Marshalls, etc. On the way in, I saw an Einsteins Bagel place and stopped for coffee first which was in a strip mall in front of all the anchor stores in the same parking lot.. Vanilla Hazelnut coffee from Einsteins is my favorite coffee. Travis and I talked on the phone while I drank my coffee. We got into this serious discussion which lasted almost an hour. Then three hours later after I had shopped all the stores, I went to return to my car. I headed in the direction I thought I had parked in. I headed to Ross, which was the first store I went to. But as I went up and down the aisles, I couldn't find my car. So I backtracked and thought I had just missed it. I started to walk up and down every aisle, hoping I had just forgotten which store I had started at. But I couldn't find it.
You know how when you start to panic, you get less and less reasonable? It was 2:30, I hadn't eaten lunch after spinning class, it was 98 degrees in the parking lot, and my legs were starting to really hurt. I walked the entire parking lot once. Then again. And my cell phone was dead. But I powered it up for one more call and called Travis in a panic. He said, "What do you want me to do honey? Do you want me to come and get you?" I said "I don't know. I can't find it! I don't know what to do"
I saw middle-aged women exit some store and I approached her and started to tell her my story and appeal for help. Then I saw a security car pass by right at that moment, so I excused myself and flagged him down. He was kind enough to drive me again through the parking lot, telling me that they do see cars stolen from that lot pretty often. He gave me some water and he said we would have to look through all the lots before we called the police. That wasn't very comforting. Then as the water started to rehydrate my brain cells, when the car didn't appear, I said, "You know, the last resort is that I left my car at the coffee shop and don't even remember walking over here". We turned the corner and there it was, right in the front door parking spot in front of Einsteins....
We think our combined brilliance is really going to benfit our children.

Progress

After a failed attempt at fabric selection for the backing and borders, I found one I like! Alivia, I hope you like soft flannel. I didn't know anything about what fabrics are "read" as "lights" and "darks"... all these new terms that make sense when you are a novice trying your hand at a project.
We now have a fully assembled, but unfinished quilt on our couch.

Chicken anyone?

When I came home on Friday, another tragedy had occured. Almost all the chickens had been slaughtered by the dogs again. We irrigated and the ground got soft enough for them to dig under the fence. None that I could see survived. But then Saturday morning, I get up and look outside and who do I see being chased around the backyard by the dogs again? Tina. The survivor. I was so upset by the carnage in the yard, I made my dear manly man clean it up. The owner of the dogs is going to pay us something. Travis told him we'd invested $300 dollars. I don't know about that, but the pain and suffering alone is worth it. They've killed 20 chickens in 8 months. That's alot of chicken. I called Becky and she asked if we wanted to come over for dinner. Matt said in the background, "We're having chicken!" That made me laugh despite my despair.
This morning Tina was still alive and well. Obviously she performs well under pressure because she laid 2 eggs overnight. Crazy hen. And then 5 of her offspring must have inherited some wherewithall from their mother, because they showed up in the coop. Let's put it this way: when Matt told me last night he tried to get me a chick, I told him I have no desire to get more chickens until I can control the perimeter and the sex of every chicken I raise. Small scale production from now on.

Anniversaries

9/11. Today marks the five-year anniversary of that day filled with disaster and death. Five years ago. We all knew where we were. Five years ago I was a sophomore in college, waiting to leave for class when the planes hit the Twin Towers. Five years ago; blocks of time that make me think about the time in our life. The moments, the days and the years are speeding up and flying past.
Job 7:7 says, "Remember that my life is but a breath..." When I think over five years, they seem like a breath. Birthdays are similar to anniversaries. Anniversaries commemorate events where birthdays are supposed to commemorate time. When I realize that my upcoming birthday is closer to 30 than it was to 20, I know time is gone and youth is on its way out. It produces a smaller, personal terror when your birthday reminds you that your time is a breath.
Today I am grateful that five years nor twenty-six years it isn't the span of my days or the number of them. God knows them them all. More importantly, I am overwhelmed at gratitude that this memorable date for our country has more life in it than death. This date is another anniversary for me--the anniversary of my conversion. Today isn't about five years since 9/11/01, but twenty years since 9/11/86. This week I want to recount not just five years of safety from terrorism, but twenty years of God's saving grace.
Each day this week I am meditating on a different aspect of God's Providence: today I am grateful for my health. All the illnesses, all the colds, the injuries--they have all been temporary. My body is breaking down slowly, but I have my health. In light of those around me with leukemia, I am particularly undone by God's mercy. I spent this morning thanking God for my health while praying for the healing of my friend's daughter, Alivia and for my friend Amy who is in relapse. A woman in our church Melinda also has leukemia and we are praying for her healing as well; she has four children and a wonderful husband Sam.
My project has been prayer. And a quilt for Alivia. Here's the progress Emily!
I finished resizing all the pieces to be the same (all except one worked) and have stitched them together for the top. I don't know how to sew a quilt, but I am learning. As I pray for patience as I sew, I also pray that God would use all our prayers together to provide a comforting, peaceful covering over our dear friends.

Dietitians Taste Reality

A "fitting" title my husband says. For those of you trying to still "fit" into your bathing suits, guess what? It's FALL! No more bathing suits. No more shorts. Like ESPN's great ad, "Think about what best... Who's going to win the Heisman, or legumes and zucchini?" This dietitian returned from a long day at work and was craving something...but as I catalogued the inventory of my fridge, I was not satisfied. I could not create any thing close to tempting. Over the thirty minutes between my car and my couch, there was an empty stomach. And an active mind. And The Native NewYorker. Let's get real here: dietitians don't go to places who are known for their homemade potato chips. I also dislike beef; the smell makes me nauseated.If you know me though, there is a crack in the legume and zucchini facade: potato chips. Over the weekend, I was also craving beef. I made burgers and pie, true to the holiday weekend. But the beef smelled horrible once cooked. So I ate pie. The reality was that tonight I was just craving something hot and easy. So I said to myself, "I'll eat 1/2 a burger and save the rest for Travis". But once it was cut in half, half was gone. I wasn't full. Wasn't even close. So I finished it. All of it. I bit into the reality of real 100% Angus beef burger and ate it. This dietitian loves reality.

Checking off the list

Ever get to a point when you're older but still really want to try something new or get better at something? Such was my Thursday evening spent: trying to perfect something I never got in my childhoood. Now at 25, it was slightly more daring.
We're house-sitting at the Zieglers and they have a pool. And they have a diving board. It's been tempting me since I got here. It's short and low, not so springy. It is a bold reminder of my childhood, my previous failures and now a test: Age vs. remaining athleticism. I may have conquered the fear to learn new things, but do I still have the strength and agility? Do I still have enough will to throw myself into the air? I know I will leap off into a body of water that will catch me. But it has caught me before in failure, which only adds to the sting of defeat.

Up, up, up. Test the spring. Step, down, up. Step, down, up. Hands are swinging. Pulse is racing. Back to the end. Now what do those dives look like? Rehearse in your mind every Olympic diving motion you can remember. Hesistate forward. Back up again. Step, step, down, UP... splash. Not so bad. Pull yourself out on the edge. Swim around again. This is like summers at Flower Hill pool with the Ward's or even that incident at five going off the high dive at Hillandale with Dad. Try again. Back up. Step, down, UP. Down. Surface. The feet came apart. How old am I??

Twenty times. Looking up helps. Looking down at the last moment works too. Throwing your bottom up in the air also helps. My attempts say more about me than my performance. At least now in the privacy of someone else's home at age 25 I can say I tried and succeeded. And it motivates me to try the rest of those new things. Two of them are off the adult list: ballet, check. Pike dive, check.