Random Musings

Monday afternoon we had an absolutely delightful thunderstorm. I was actually caught up on housework so grabbed a book and stretched out to read. And then the ceiling shook. Badly. And our smoke detector that has not worked for several (umm...wow...years) started going off. And the lights flickered/popped. When all was said and done, we lost our answering machine and two landline phones, my external hard drive and part of my sanity. After spending 1.5 hours on the phone with AT&T, replacing a cord, spending an entire DAY copying files that I had not got around to backing up yet, and finalizing some design work that needed to be done soon, I made it to Best Buy today. Turns out AT&T was wrong. There was nothing wrong with our computer, nor the internet card. There was one setting that re-installed itself, and it worked fine. My hard drive...we were able to salvage its guts (and yes Richpo the Magnificent, if you're reading this, I realize that's not the techie term for ...

Have you ever noticed that when you want to do something, it happens the exact same weekend of something else you want to do? For example: the weekend of July 14-16, our first "free" weekend in a while Kids Exchange (a consignment sale) at the Fairgrounds Coin & Stamp Show Barrell Racing "This Day Forward" in Valdese It's as if someone makes up a list of all the things we might be interested in, and plops them down on the calendar for the same weekend. Realistically, everyone probably just looks at things the same way (it's the first available weekend after the holiday, it's the last weekend before year-round schools have totally kicked into gear for the new year, and well, it's summer). Does anyone else have a hard time planning a vacation around events, activities, work, and church?

It's not hard to make my blood boil. It's really not even that difficult to aggravate me. And unfortunately for me, we've officially entered the crazy season.  It starts small - people I don't know stopping and asking if they can hunt/fish and continuously badgering when I say no, but then it begins to escalate. Like this: You don't have church one Wed/Sun night (or stay home sick) and find people parking in your driveway or traipsing through your yard to the pond because they think you're away at church. People hide their cars behind houses up for sale and walk through the weeds in the nearby field, then cut across the dam, so they're not "on" your property. They're not going to fish at your pond, but are hiking to the other one.  And when you tell them they don't have permission to be at the other pond, they respond "The man who lives there gave us permission." (Um, news flash, Bobby's mom, who is a widow, doesn't gr...

Last night the first catfish large enough to spend time cleaning was caught. 3lbs, 14 oz. Congratulations, Jacob!

I'm a tad irate this morning. Reading the newspaper can sometimes do that for me. I understand that throughout life there will be things we change our minds about. Our opinions modify with maturity, experience, feelings, education, and sometimes even through stupidity. But just because I change my mind about an idea, or philosophy, or a political candidate, or belief, does not make me brainwashed, sick, brain-damaged or incompetent. It simply means I changed my mind. Perhaps I recognized I was wrong. And if that's the case, then I've learned something. It is so bizarre to me that people will call themselves "recovering Evangelicals" as if a belief system is an illness. Being an Evangelical simply means that you have a set system of beliefs that influence how you live. It's called a worldview. Everyone has a worldview, even atheists. Atheists who become a believer of any religion do not refer to themselves as "recovering atheists". You recover ...

For Christmas one of the books I asked for was Entertaining Angels: Stories and Ideas for Opening Your Heart and Home by Annie Chapman and Heidi Chapman Beall Some of the things I liked about this book: She addresses up front the cost of hospitality. It's not easy. It takes time. It uses up resources, both financial, emotional, and time. She uses a lot of different Scriptural passages to address all of these areas, from David's statement that he wouldn't offer anything to the Lord if it cost him nothing (II Sam. 24:24), as well as a quote from a preacher that "Some of you want to take authority over demons and devils and yet you haven't even taken authority over the dirty dishes in your sink or the piles of laundry waiting to be washed."  Diligence and perseverance in the little things enable us to serve in greater things. She includes a lot of simply recipes (and most of them we've had in our Apples of Gold meetings from church!) She addresses areas ...

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time! Many times when I over-commit to things, then regular life (laundry, housework, etc) gets thrown on the back burner. By the time I've fulfilled my obligations, I'm not only tired, but I'm also a tad overwhelmed with conquering the jungle that surrounds me. One of the local quilt shops has a quote they put on their monthly newsletter and weekly e-flyer: Quilt thirty minutes a day and you'll not only get your projects done, but you'll be healthier and happier! I don't know about the healthier part, but I am finding if I tackle things in small increments I am more willing to face them and seem to get a lot more accomplished. Sometimes I wind up working much longer than my allotted one hour or thirty minutes, but that's okay. It's nice to see things slowly coming together (or in the case of my ironing pile, slowly shrinking!) or becoming more organized.  And, I'm learning to take things one bite at a...

One of the benefits of selling medical equipment is that it benefits both parties. Bobby's old van with almost 181,000 miles had reached the point we never felt totally safe driving it to Alabama. (There were some days we were uncertain about him driving to Raleigh!) We got the main things fixed, but realized we were to the point we had to replace it, whether we were ready to or not. And for the first time ever, Van Products not only didn't sell our old van, they really didn't even want to try. We finally got around to advertising it on Craigslist and PAT this last week and almost immediately heard from several people. The first person we heard from was in South Carolina, and his injury level is the same as Bobby's. For the last fifteen years, he has not driven a vehicle, and his only form of transportation required people helping lift him in and out of a van. His son works for Ford and strongly encouraged him to get the van. His brother is a mechanic and has an old For...

On Sunday nights our church has been doing a study on The Way of the Master. It's basically an evangelism method that so far for me has been the most practical and the easiest thing to remember. It's not a whole lot different than the Netcasters program our church uses, just a little less intimidating and lengthy. One of the things I like the most about it is how it addresses up front the issues that "All have sinned." And it starts the demonstration by using the Ten Commandments. I'll use this method, but the first commandment they've used over and over and over in their examples is actually a modification of Scripture, and that bothers me greatly. Exodus 20:16 is NOT a commandment not to lie. It's a commandment against slander - lying about another person. And most of the Old Testament references that relate to that passage also deal with speaking false things ABOUT ANOTHER PERSON. There's a subtle difference there. Before you puff up like a bullfr...

Still at it! In the midst of visiting family, fishing trips, work, and Grandma's birthday, this weekend Sammy made it over to add in two windows on the chicken house (so we can see the birds without opening the doors). I think the last of the work is going to be done this weekend. Our older birds are very happy with the set-up, and our younger birds are NOT happy whenever we succeed in placing them inside with the older birds, but they do enjoy hanging out in the pen and house whenever the big birds leave the coop. It'll be interesting to see if we can get them back inside again tonight or if they'll fly back up on top of the dog pen to escape being locked up at night again. And on a brighter note: I can almost totally straighten my right arm! :) Now if my stupid leg muscle will behave all the time, I'll be back to normal!

About a year and a half ago a group of ladies decided we would make quilts for our church's graduating seniors. We started in March of 2010, and our goal was to have the one quilt finished by August. By August, we realized hand-quilting was not going to get the job done in time, especially when we took in to consideration we had FIVE graduates for 2011. So we kicked things into high gear, motivated each other when the task seemed unsurmountable, shared/learned new techniques, and thankfully all had panic moments ("what were we thinking this will NEVER get done") all at different times while finishing our one 2010 quilt by hand and machine quilting all the others. And somewhere along the way, I started to feel a little closer to the friends I already had. (Will I ever forget Mary Booth giving a cutting demonstration and throwing fabric over her shoulder ONTO MY FLOOR because that's what the quilter in her favorite quilting video does?) Yesterday our church recognize...