Tackling Tuesday… April 29, 2008

There are two days left in April - if you count today - and I’m FREEZING! It’s 45 degrees outside. I thought we left Minnesota 10 years ago??? My body does not like to work when it’s this cold outside! I want to stay in, curled up under blankets and drinking coffee!

But, I don’t have time for that. My days are filling quickly. Thankfully Tuesdays are one of only two days a week that we don’t have to be on the ballfield. I’m currently at home and finishing up giving baths to the littlest two. Kait is taking my place at the church this morning and helping set stuff up for the rummage sale. She’s loving it and loving the attention of all the wonderful grandmas and grandpas over there. I’m sure they’re loading her up with cookies and snacks and I’ll be the one to pay for it later, but at least my sneez-y allergies aren’t bothering me this morning.

Elijah and I have to sit down and figure out the best week for him to go to camp. I’ve got loads of design stuff to do for the church. I need to refigure the signage for the rummage sale this weekend, start working on baccalaureate, tweak some other signage and sermon graphics and CALL MY GRAM because her birthday was 2 days ago and I still haven’t talked to her!

OH! And my new books have finally arrived. What I really want to do is sit down, snuggle in and start to digest Pop Goes The Church by Tim Stevens. Or I Became A Christian And All I Got Was This Lousy TShirt by Vince Antonucci (although this one has already made it’s way to Chip’s office so it may be a while before I see it again).

OH! And everything I have to do today must be done before dinner. Because after dinner, we have to go find a pair of cleats that fit Elijah’s ever-growing feet! Which are now as big as mine!!!! And I should probably sort through the assortment of cleats in the closet to see if we have any for Kait and Noah. I don’t want to go cleat shopping more than once!

All that before I come home tonight to blog about American Idol. At least *that* I can do from the comforts of my snuggly blanket!

Not my fault… April 18, 2008

Apparently that fault belongs to New Madrid or something!

We were sleeping, rather soundly I might add, in our own bed for the first time all week last night. It was WONDERFUL. I didn’t even hear the train. But at about 4:30 this morning, our house started rocking and rolling. Our bedroom door started shaking and I got a bit dizzy laying in bed.

It was an EARTHQUAKE!  And here in Central Illinois, when your house is rolling like that, well it’s a pretty big deal. We don’t live on the West Coast. I tried finding it online in the middle of the night, but finally just checked Twitter.  Yep, earthquake. I didn’t think it was an explosion, but when the plant in Illiopolis blew a few years ago, we felt it AND heard it. This time I didn’t hear anything, so I figured it was an earthquake.

And it’s not the first one I’ve felt since we’ve lived here. But at 5.2 this was the biggest I’ve ever felt. Awesome! Noah was the only one who woke up. He thinks it’s a very cool thing and has been talking about it all morning!

For those of you who missed it - you can read about it here: 5.2 magnitude earthquake rocks midwest  The epicenter was only about 100 miles from us.

Not sure which I’m more excited about… March 3, 2008

The new Indiana Jones movies…

Or the new Get Smart movie…

 Pretty sure that we’ll see both.

Ask a silly question… February 21, 2008

I asked my husband what I should blog about. I’m in a blogging slump and I’m having a really hard time coming up with topics. So, here’s your chance, ask your silly question…

 Chip’s suggested that I express my thoughts on the impact of cow flatulance on global warming. Apparently there are people out there who say that cows produce too much methane gas and it’s a contributing factor to global warming (which you really would have a hard time convincing me of since it’s currently 20° outside).  Funny thing is that a lot of those same people are also enviromentalists and vegans/vegetarians. I find that ironic since we’d have less cows if they would eat more beef. So maybe we should blame THEM for not doing their part?! rofl Sometimes I say the craziest things!

(This of course was mostly tongue-in-cheek. I don’t eat much beef myself, although I do enjoy a good steak or a great burger from time to time).

Anyone else got something they want to hear my thoughts on?

Where would I be without Jesus? February 17, 2008

Our pastor asked that question this morning. Just happens that he’s the guy that I’m married to. I’ve often thought that I didn’t have much of a testimony because I can never remember a time that I didn’t know God. I’ve never been away from God. Sure, I had my times of rebellion (which most people would laugh at because I was so not the rebellious type).

But I remember being in college and having a real encounter with Jesus. One that wrecked me and made me see how wretched I would be without Him.

You see, I was raised in a fairly legalistic church. I remember being taught the rules and told to follow them and not ask any questions. If you broke the rules, you didn’t love God. And I loved God, so I tried my hardest to follow the rules. And I thought less of those who didn’t. There was no grace. There was no mercy. In a few words, I was self-righteous and stuck up. The me of yesteryear would not like the present me. And honestly, the present me, doesn’t like the me of yesteryear.

But in college, I was on my own. I didn’t have anyone to tell me the rules anymore. So, I started to question them. I figured that if I was going to believe something and have it stick, I better figure out what I believe and why. I can remember having long, theological debates with a friend name Justin who would interrupt my thoughts as I sat in the chapel in the skyway at North Central. I can remember him challenging my rational on why I believed what I believed.

But it was in those quiet moments in that chapel - sometimes with friends, sometimes without - that I had a real encounter with Jesus. One that led me to realize that I was a slave to legalism when what Jesus came and died for was to give me freedom in Christ.

Now that we’ve got some years under our belt in ministry, we’ve had all kind of encounters with people in the church. We have regular contact with pastors all over the country (it’s amazing how small the world wide web makes the world). And the horror stories we could share based on what we’ve heard or even experienced (though ours really do pale in comparison to most) would make your head spin. There are people in the church who are so filled with hate and judgement and anger and well… SIN, that they can’t even see the Cross. They cause pain. They inflict disease. They are the bane of the pastor’s existence. They are often referred to in the circles that we travel in as pastor killers. Some churches are full of them. Some have few or possibly just one.

This morning, in the quiet of the sermon, my husband asked, “Where would you be without Jesus?”

And I had a moment.

I had an encounter.

Because I knew in my heart, that while I had never been far from church or God even really, had I not had a real, life-changing encounter with Jesus, I would be one of those self-righteous, know-it-all, busybody, thorn-in-the-side, pastor killers. And that stark realization dropped my heart into my stomach and made me so thankful that God redeemed me. That Jesus died for MY freedom. That Jesus set me free from the law and let’s me walk in grace.

What a wonderful and powerful gift.

Bloggers go to Uganda… February 10, 2008

I’m more of a World Vision person, but Compassion International has caught my attention in recent days. How? With bloggers!

 CI is taking a group of well-known bloggers in Christian circles - people who have blogs that would be considered viral - and flying them to Uganda to bring awareness to the situation there. They are making the most of a movement and bringing several of the bloggers that I read with them.

We had Pastor Herman from Uganda with us last May. You hear a lot of different crises in Africa - the HIV pandemic in South Africa, the current crisis in Darfur, but you hear little about the crisis that has ravaged much of Uganda and left many children without their parents.

I’m praying that the bloggers will be forever changed, that hearts will be tugged and that children will find compassion from sponsors who want to make a difference.

I wonder… February 6, 2008

Ok, now that most of the people that I know are done voting (I do realize that there are still a few out there left to vote - but most of them don’t read my blog), I’ve got some thoughts.

I voted for Romney. I’ve got issues with Huckabee. Lots of them. But that’s not what I want to talk about today. And don’t even get me started on McCain.

As the race goes on, it is CLEAR that McCain is the front runner. Second place is a close tie between two people who are splitting the vote. And eventually one of them is going to drop out. My guess is that it will be Huckabee with his third place standing. And my guess is that he is going to throw his support (and delegates) behind McCain.

I guess my question is for those in particular out there who are one issue voters who voted for Huckabee simply because he is pro-life. I know a LOT of them. I wonder what they think about THEIR vote going to support a man who is pro-choice. I wonder what they are going to think about a man who throws his support to the man who has chosen to stick it to the Republican party at every chance he got. Because right now, that is exactly what it looks like is going to happen.

 The race isn’t over by a longshot. There is still a lot of ugliness to be seen and a lot of mud-slinging left to do. I’m already tired of hearing about how this country needs change, without any concrete ideas behind espousing change. George Bush won on the platform. He called out to America with a voice for change to win the first election. Everyone was sick of the Clintons in Washington and they didn’t want to see Gore in the Oval Office. Change for change sake is a mistake. What I want is to hear a candidate come out and say what he wants to change, how he plans to change it and why that change is necessary. If someone could give me something concrete like that, I’d be willing to vote for them regardless of party lines (as long as it was something I agreed with). But right now all I hear is a lot of empty promises about how we’re going to change this country without any substance behind it.

Good news, bad news, kinda foggy… February 5, 2008

Yesterday was a bad news/good news kind of day. We spent the entire day at doctor’s appointments - mostly for Chip. We left earlier than we’d originally planned because of the fog. Visibility was less than a block and while they said it should lift by noon, it never did. It was almost midnight before we were able to look out the window and actually see the grain elevator across the street. At one point it was so foggy, we couldn’t even see the church building or the neighbors on the other side. It was crazy!

The first appt was for Chip’s arm. He had an NCV and EMG almost two weeks ago and we were hoping for results. The doctores office still didn’t have the results in hand yet when we got there, but managed to track them down while we were talking to the dr. Preliminary reports says that the results are all normal. NOT the results we were hoping for because it puts us back to square one. And it doens’t help that the dr is stuck on the whole “You have arthritis in your shoulder” thing. Chip’s doctor and the radiologist said that it looks like a bit of arthritis in his shoulder, but when we saw a specialist months ago, he didn’t seem to think so. He’s trying a new medicine for nerve pain and a steroidal anti-inflammatory to see if that will help. It’s been a long 3 months of pain in his arm and we are back at square one in trying to figure it all out. *ugh*

From there, we went up to the chiropractor. I was having problems with my lower back as well and they gave me a workout! We missed our appointment last week Friday because 15 inches of snow dumped in our yard, so it had been almost a week since our last appointment. I think every bone/joint in my body popped! But it felt soooo good! Even my shoulder popped like we’ve been trying to get it to. As much as I hate having to go to the chiro 2-3 times a week, I’m very thankful that there is someone out there who can relieve my pain some! This whole car accident thing is realy a pain in the neck - literally!

After the chiro, we stopped at home for a few minutes. We came home to find that the dear lady we had watching the kids had not only watched the kids, but also done our dishes and folded the laundry! WHAT A SAINT!!! I made the kids some sweet tea and we were off again.

We met up with Chip’s parents and his grandma for lunch. Her birthday was just a week ago and we didn’t make it down this year. So, we went for lunch at Steak & Shake to celebrate! It’s been hard to watch her health deteriorate over the past couple years. We all seem to know that the time in coming soon that she will be forced from her home because she just can’t do it all on her own anymore. But it’s heart-warming to see how tenderly everyone is dealing with the situation. Granny really has a family that loves her!

After that, we ran and dropped off Chip’s prescriptions from dr #1 at the Target pharmacy and then hightailed it back to the hospital for appt #3. This was a routine checkup by the pulmonologist. Two years ago, we walked through a dark time where words like hospitalization, mass in your chest and biopsy just rocked our world! And while it was just a fungus and he actually had it a bit better off that others who have dealt with this (we had a lady in our church who went through the same thing this year - only it attacked her heart instead of her lungs), they still followed him through the clinic for 2 years. Yesterday, we got the ALL CLEAR!!!  He is being released from the clinic back to his primary MD.  While I wasn’t worried, there is always that lingering doubt in the back of your mind. I’m sooo thankful to be able to close that chapter and move on to the next! (If you go back to the end of March 2006 in the archives, you can read through it all).

We white-knuckled our way through the fog back to Target, did our grocery shopping at Kroger and then came home to relieve Chip’s dad, who had come to relieve our sitter for us after lunch. We had a quiet night at home and watched as the thunderstorms finally blew the fog out!

Today was a rather quiet day as well - which is how I like them. We went out and voted - I’d tell you who for, but then I’d have to kill you! My guy dropped out a couple weeks ago. I’m just not real thrilled with any of the candidates. Although I’ll be glued to the television tonight to watch the results roll in.

Y’all still with me? Not real exciting stuff, but I wanted to get it all down so that years from now I can look back and remember…

Politics, schmolitics… January 10, 2008

Anyone else absolutely sick to death of all the campaigning yet? I’m sick of listening to the front runners talk for an hour only to walk away and realize that I have absolutely no idea where they stand on ANYTHING! The big thing this election season seems to be to see how much you can say without actually saying anything at all. I think Hilary Clinton put it best in her victory speech in New Hampshire when she said, “I listened to you and I found my own voice…” What she was really saying was she listened to the people and was willing to say anything that anyone wanted to hear in order to get elected. And I’m not just placing the fault on her - they are ALL doing it. Obama, Clinton, Huckabee, Mitt, McCain… Take your pick.

And because I’m still undecided and unsure who I’ll vote for in the primary, I’ve been looking for a website that will show me where the candidates stand on the issues. Because they sure aren’te giving clear cut answers in any of the debates. The best that I’ve found so far is Electoral Compass USA and does a pretty good job of asking the important questions and graphing it all out for you.

Anyone care to guess who I was closest to?

You asked for it… January 8, 2008

And after months of promising, you can now FINALLY subscribe to my blog via email! There is a nifty little box over there ——->>> that says “My blog in your email - Subscribe to My Mundane Musings by Email”. Click it, fill in your email address, verify and you should start getting my blog posts in your inbox each evening between 7-9pm. Easy as pie…