Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday and as much as I love the food, it's not just because of that. :) I love the reflection that comes with this time of year. I enjoy looking back over the year and thinking about all that's happen, good and bad, and taking the time to find joy in it. Today my list will be longer than just five. I sure have a lot to be thankful for...
Other than the first eight, they are in no particular order.
1. My salvation- a God who knows my every thought and action and still loves me beyond my comprehension. He orders my steps and has a specific purpose for me. That's pretty big to me.
2. Todd and Grant- there really are no words to express my gratitude for them. They mean so much.
3. The incredible blessing of this unexpected, but long awaited pregnancy.
4. My parents- all they've done for me and all they mean to me
5. My grandmother
6. My in laws- mother and father in law and Granny and Pawpaw- it's pretty amazing to have in-laws that treat you like you are one of their own, that is no small gift
7. My brothers and sisters (by blood and marriage)
8. The friends I have in my life. People that are there to laugh, cry, and just be with.
9. Freedom to live the way I want, worship the way I want, say what I want, and the people who have fought for that- now and in the past.
10. A house that meets all of our needs and is warm in the winter and cool in the hot Alabama summers.
11. The opportunity to eat good, nutritious food, everyday.
12. coffee
13. Internet access
14. modern day appliances, especially washers, dryers, ovens, refrigerators, and dish washers
15. Our dog- he tries my patience, but he sure brings joy to my boy. He's nice to snuggle with on chilly nights, too.
16. Dunkin' donuts
17. books
18. Whole Foods
19. my temperdic pillow
20. A car that gets me where I want to go
21. A school that is provides a great education and great teachers for Grant
There is more. Today, as we drive, we will work on our family list. That's always fun. I'll post that later.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Today's Five
1. Candles- there is just something relaxing about lighting a candle, especially if it smells good.
2. Our comfy couch- it makes me tired just looking at.
3. The outlet I have in scrapbooking and blogging.
4. My "House Show" cd by Derek Webb
5. Sharpies, especially the colorful ones. I love those, they are so fun.
2. Our comfy couch- it makes me tired just looking at.
3. The outlet I have in scrapbooking and blogging.
4. My "House Show" cd by Derek Webb
5. Sharpies, especially the colorful ones. I love those, they are so fun.
My Favorite Grocery Store
I love Whole Foods! I started this post over a month ago and remembered it when I was at Whole Foods this past Monday. Amy, I promise I'm not copying you. I almost decided not to post it because I didn't want you to think I was stealing your idea (I know you wouldn't think that anyway), but after the conversation all the girls had at our cg tonight I decided to go ahead and finish this post. We are all looking for more information. So, here's part of my journey.
A few years ago, I made the decision to eliminate as many preservatives and chemicals from our family's diet as possible. It began when I started having trouble with my thyroid. The more research I did, the more I discovered the link between optimal health and diet. We ate pretty well and I had always been suspicious of all the chemicals in our foods, but I learned there were still lots of things to change.
I started small- it can be overwhelming otherwise. Our first change was organic dairy products and meat. That was a big place to start for the pocketbook, but it seemed to be the most important. I started there because there was research to show that the hormones in milk and meat could affect human hormones. I didn't need anything else affecting my hormones! Organic milk can be found just about everywhere now. If I can't find organic meat, I buy meat that is free from hormones and antibiotics. What a difference in taste- especially the chicken.
The next change I made was to eliminate these five ingredients-- MSG (or Mono sodium glutamate), partially hydrogenated oils, food dyes, high fructose corn syrup, and aspartame. This was much harder. Food dyes were easy since I avoided those anyway, but it was amazing to me how many things contained the high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated oils- even the foods marketed as "healthy" such as granola bars and whole wheat bread were not always free of these not so healthy ingredients.
In January, I stopped drinking diet coke because of the aspartame. I love Diet Coke- that was probably the hardest one so far. But, the benefits have been noticeable. My memory is better (really) and now that I haven't had it in months, I don't want it anymore. It took a while to get there. I craved it for a while.
The best way to avoid these five ingredients, of course, is to eat foods as whole as possible and cook everything from scratch. :) That is such a great ideal, but it just doesn't happen every day in our busy lives, so I just read labels and shop carefully.
My next jump was organic produce. This one I'm not as consistent with, but all of our canned and frozen vegetables are organic. Grant eats apples all of the time, so those are always organic.
I'm still working on going all the way with this one. The veggie co-op we are with saves us so much money, but I do struggle with the question of what's better -- eating these fruits and veggies with pesticides or just not eating as many fruits and veggies. So, we are at about 50% organic produce.
This post is really more about my story than giving advice, but if I were going to give any I would say-- start small, read labels, do some research, and then do what you can.
Whole Foods has made this all so much easier for me. It's not the perfect store, but I sure do love it.
A few years ago, I made the decision to eliminate as many preservatives and chemicals from our family's diet as possible. It began when I started having trouble with my thyroid. The more research I did, the more I discovered the link between optimal health and diet. We ate pretty well and I had always been suspicious of all the chemicals in our foods, but I learned there were still lots of things to change.
I started small- it can be overwhelming otherwise. Our first change was organic dairy products and meat. That was a big place to start for the pocketbook, but it seemed to be the most important. I started there because there was research to show that the hormones in milk and meat could affect human hormones. I didn't need anything else affecting my hormones! Organic milk can be found just about everywhere now. If I can't find organic meat, I buy meat that is free from hormones and antibiotics. What a difference in taste- especially the chicken.
The next change I made was to eliminate these five ingredients-- MSG (or Mono sodium glutamate), partially hydrogenated oils, food dyes, high fructose corn syrup, and aspartame. This was much harder. Food dyes were easy since I avoided those anyway, but it was amazing to me how many things contained the high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated oils- even the foods marketed as "healthy" such as granola bars and whole wheat bread were not always free of these not so healthy ingredients.
In January, I stopped drinking diet coke because of the aspartame. I love Diet Coke- that was probably the hardest one so far. But, the benefits have been noticeable. My memory is better (really) and now that I haven't had it in months, I don't want it anymore. It took a while to get there. I craved it for a while.
The best way to avoid these five ingredients, of course, is to eat foods as whole as possible and cook everything from scratch. :) That is such a great ideal, but it just doesn't happen every day in our busy lives, so I just read labels and shop carefully.
My next jump was organic produce. This one I'm not as consistent with, but all of our canned and frozen vegetables are organic. Grant eats apples all of the time, so those are always organic.
I'm still working on going all the way with this one. The veggie co-op we are with saves us so much money, but I do struggle with the question of what's better -- eating these fruits and veggies with pesticides or just not eating as many fruits and veggies. So, we are at about 50% organic produce.
This post is really more about my story than giving advice, but if I were going to give any I would say-- start small, read labels, do some research, and then do what you can.
Whole Foods has made this all so much easier for me. It's not the perfect store, but I sure do love it.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Not Safe
At the Derek Webb concert the other night, I bought his "House Show" cd. I've been listening to it pretty much non stop since then. There is one track that has stayed with me. I've listened to it over and over. In it, Derek is introducing his song "The Wedding Dress". What he says, just grabs me. It's something God has been convicting me of lately- through studying the youth Life group lessons, through a novel I read, and through a few other ways.
The questions that have been stirring in my heart are "What am I doing to really share the gospel?" "Do I live like I believe that Jesus is the way to life, true everlasting life?" "Who do I tell?" "What am I going to do to about it?"
So, I typed out the whole thing. I know I could have just down loaded it, but I needed to have it in print. Maybe someone else needs to read it, too.
Introduction of the "Wedding Dress"
"This song is my own confessing that because of my unbelief, because I don't believe the gospel. I don't believe that Christ is really sufficient for me. I don't believe that he will really meet all my needs. I don't. I struggle to believe that. You can see it by the way I live. And because I don't believe that, I all too often, give in, am convinced or wooed by what some theologians have called "lovers less wild" than Jesus the great lover of our souls. Other lovers as Scripture calls them as well, that would seek to convince us that they can satisfy us. Convince us that they can safely bear our sin. That we will be safe and secure. That they can satisfy us in ways that, in fact, only our Savior can. I think that so often we try to make it our job to make the gospel easier for us to preach and easier for other people to hear. In order to not get into trouble, in order to not be confrontational. But see, here is the truth, you just can't preach the gospel and not get into trouble. You just can't do it. Hard as you might try. You can dress it up anyway you might want, but if you are really preaching the gospel, you're going to get yourself into trouble....
Because, again, the cross is both beautiful and offensive and it must be both. It is both. There is no other gospel for you to preach. So in ways that we seek to dress it up or as Tony Campollo puts it, if we seek to neuter the gospel, just to rob it of it's great offense and therefore it's great beauty, then it's no longer the gospel we are preaching to people. We are not doing anyone any favors by making the gospel easier to hear, because it ceases to be the gospel. It's not safe to boldly preach the gospel. It's not. You might as well get to preaching it and get into trouble. Our same gospel that we are told will literally set mother against daughter, son against father, not bringing peace but a sword. Dangerous work that we are in as believers. Perilous work that we have before us to preach the gospel. Not only to each other but to the outside world, the unbelieving world. Not safe work.
Safe is not a word that I believe characterizes Christians or Jesus or the gospel. It shouldn't. If it is, than it might not be the gospel we are preaching. It makes me think about the great work by C.S. Lewis The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Where there are these children who find their way through this wardrobe, or closet and they find themselves in this other world. A magical world where all these incredible things begin to happen. They meet this great Lion, Aslan is his name. He is the Christ figure in this story. These children, as you can imagine, when they see this huge lion, they are terribly frightened. They are scared to death. They know that he is King, but they have all these questions. They go to some that live there, who know more of Aslan then they do and they say...'Can you tell us is he safe?' The response that the children receive is not 'yes, he's safe, in fact, he's safe for the whole family.' That's not the response. But the response is 'NO, no he is not safe, but he is good and he is the King.'
Jesus, folks, He is not safe. He is not manageable. He is a wild lion. You cannot tame Him. He is not safe, but He is good. He is King. You can trust him. You can trust that He will provide for you as you go out and you seek to tell people about Him. The gospel that we carry is not safe. It is not. It is not manageable. Not efficient. Loving people is not efficient. But the gospel is good, it is true, but it's not safe."
The questions that have been stirring in my heart are "What am I doing to really share the gospel?" "Do I live like I believe that Jesus is the way to life, true everlasting life?" "Who do I tell?" "What am I going to do to about it?"
So, I typed out the whole thing. I know I could have just down loaded it, but I needed to have it in print. Maybe someone else needs to read it, too.
Introduction of the "Wedding Dress"
"This song is my own confessing that because of my unbelief, because I don't believe the gospel. I don't believe that Christ is really sufficient for me. I don't believe that he will really meet all my needs. I don't. I struggle to believe that. You can see it by the way I live. And because I don't believe that, I all too often, give in, am convinced or wooed by what some theologians have called "lovers less wild" than Jesus the great lover of our souls. Other lovers as Scripture calls them as well, that would seek to convince us that they can satisfy us. Convince us that they can safely bear our sin. That we will be safe and secure. That they can satisfy us in ways that, in fact, only our Savior can. I think that so often we try to make it our job to make the gospel easier for us to preach and easier for other people to hear. In order to not get into trouble, in order to not be confrontational. But see, here is the truth, you just can't preach the gospel and not get into trouble. You just can't do it. Hard as you might try. You can dress it up anyway you might want, but if you are really preaching the gospel, you're going to get yourself into trouble....
Because, again, the cross is both beautiful and offensive and it must be both. It is both. There is no other gospel for you to preach. So in ways that we seek to dress it up or as Tony Campollo puts it, if we seek to neuter the gospel, just to rob it of it's great offense and therefore it's great beauty, then it's no longer the gospel we are preaching to people. We are not doing anyone any favors by making the gospel easier to hear, because it ceases to be the gospel. It's not safe to boldly preach the gospel. It's not. You might as well get to preaching it and get into trouble. Our same gospel that we are told will literally set mother against daughter, son against father, not bringing peace but a sword. Dangerous work that we are in as believers. Perilous work that we have before us to preach the gospel. Not only to each other but to the outside world, the unbelieving world. Not safe work.
Safe is not a word that I believe characterizes Christians or Jesus or the gospel. It shouldn't. If it is, than it might not be the gospel we are preaching. It makes me think about the great work by C.S. Lewis The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Where there are these children who find their way through this wardrobe, or closet and they find themselves in this other world. A magical world where all these incredible things begin to happen. They meet this great Lion, Aslan is his name. He is the Christ figure in this story. These children, as you can imagine, when they see this huge lion, they are terribly frightened. They are scared to death. They know that he is King, but they have all these questions. They go to some that live there, who know more of Aslan then they do and they say...'Can you tell us is he safe?' The response that the children receive is not 'yes, he's safe, in fact, he's safe for the whole family.' That's not the response. But the response is 'NO, no he is not safe, but he is good and he is the King.'
Jesus, folks, He is not safe. He is not manageable. He is a wild lion. You cannot tame Him. He is not safe, but He is good. He is King. You can trust him. You can trust that He will provide for you as you go out and you seek to tell people about Him. The gospel that we carry is not safe. It is not. It is not manageable. Not efficient. Loving people is not efficient. But the gospel is good, it is true, but it's not safe."
Update on the Challenge
Well, I made it to 100 and I haven't even started on the closets yet. It sure felt good to get rid of some stuff and the piles are gone!
Yea!
Yea!
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Taking the Challenge
I went up in our bedroom today to find Todd de-cluttering something. For those of you who know my husband well, you know that he does not clutter. Everything has a place and he always puts it there, even his dirty socks. So, he was cleaning my clutter. He didn't complain or ask me to do it, he was just doing it and that made me feel guilty.
So, I have decided while he and Grant are at the car show today, I'm going to jump into -J's de-cluttering challenge. I'm going to set a goal to get rid of 100 things today. Sounds high, but if you could see the piles that have begun to accumulate you would see that it was doable. I'll let you know how it goes.
So, I have decided while he and Grant are at the car show today, I'm going to jump into -J's de-cluttering challenge. I'm going to set a goal to get rid of 100 things today. Sounds high, but if you could see the piles that have begun to accumulate you would see that it was doable. I'll let you know how it goes.
Friday, November 2, 2007
Concert
Tonight is the Derek Webb concert. I'm so excited! We get to hear great music, it's a date night, we are meeting with good friends, and Grant gets to sleep over at Grandma's house. Everyone's happy!
Thursday, November 1, 2007
The Chase
Here's how our Halloween night began. I went out on the front porch to sweep leaves off the steps so it looked nice for the "trick or treaters" and so we could avoid a law suit from someone tripping on them as they came to the door for candy. Gordon, the dog, was in the house. Grant came out on the porch to tell me something and left the door open. The dog escaped.
Since this was Gordon's first taste of freedom, he ran at top speed to appreciate it fully. So for the next half hour I drove, ran, hiked, and fumed through our neighborhood trying to grab that stubborn beagle. We finally caught him by cornering him in someone's back yard. He was standing by their fence howling at their dogs. I snuck up behind him and grabbed him.
I drove home, got out of the car, picked him up to carry him in, and he jumped out of my arms and ran off again. At that moment it took all of the self-control I possess to keep my "lips from speaking guile."
So, for the next hour we tromped through many more backyards, up very large hills, and through some heavily wooded areas so we would not lose sight of him. Grant was very concerned for his safety.
I'm sure if you had been watching it, it would have been hilarious, but at that moment it really wasn't.
By the time we captured him the second time, I had a headache, scuffed up feet since I was wearing flip flops, and Grant has a bruise on his knee from a spill he took as he tried to grab Gordon. All I really wanted to do was lay down, but our night was just beginning.
Thankfully the rest of it went off without a hitch. Grant was an Auburn football player, complete with shin guards that even though they couldn't be seen under his sweat pants he wore because they "just made him feel more realistic." We made the shoulder pads from bubble wrap and foam sheets. He looked great. (pictures coming soon)
We visited with a few of our neighbors and met some new ones. Then we went to a big fall festival at a local church. Grant had fun, saw some friends from school, and got lots of candy.
And Gordon still has a home- which was in question during that very long 90 minutes.
Since this was Gordon's first taste of freedom, he ran at top speed to appreciate it fully. So for the next half hour I drove, ran, hiked, and fumed through our neighborhood trying to grab that stubborn beagle. We finally caught him by cornering him in someone's back yard. He was standing by their fence howling at their dogs. I snuck up behind him and grabbed him.
I drove home, got out of the car, picked him up to carry him in, and he jumped out of my arms and ran off again. At that moment it took all of the self-control I possess to keep my "lips from speaking guile."
So, for the next hour we tromped through many more backyards, up very large hills, and through some heavily wooded areas so we would not lose sight of him. Grant was very concerned for his safety.
I'm sure if you had been watching it, it would have been hilarious, but at that moment it really wasn't.
By the time we captured him the second time, I had a headache, scuffed up feet since I was wearing flip flops, and Grant has a bruise on his knee from a spill he took as he tried to grab Gordon. All I really wanted to do was lay down, but our night was just beginning.
Thankfully the rest of it went off without a hitch. Grant was an Auburn football player, complete with shin guards that even though they couldn't be seen under his sweat pants he wore because they "just made him feel more realistic." We made the shoulder pads from bubble wrap and foam sheets. He looked great. (pictures coming soon)
We visited with a few of our neighbors and met some new ones. Then we went to a big fall festival at a local church. Grant had fun, saw some friends from school, and got lots of candy.
And Gordon still has a home- which was in question during that very long 90 minutes.
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