Category Archives: Faith

What I Wore on Sunday: July 13, 2014

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What I Wore on Sunday

I decided to be a good wife this morning and dragged myself out of bed to go to the early service at Christ Lutheran Church where Jon was supplying this morning. (He preached well.) It was good worship and I got to see some people that I don’t normally see unless I’m down here visiting family and head there for Sunday. (I’ve been sticking close to home the last few weeks and going to church in La Verne.) We used to be members at Christ so I do know a number of people there.

My usual photographer is currently celebrating the 10:30 service so my mother-in-law took the pictures this week. I chose to go with my standby church outfit — my Easter dress from 2 years ago (which also works for weddings, funerals, and Broadway shows) with a black camisole to make it church appropriate. I wish I had other versions of the same dress in different fabrics because it flatters me and makes me feel good about myself. (And yes, that’s my “palm-jousting” picture from Palm Sunday. My mother-in-law loved it so she had it printed as a “family picture”.)

Me with the Edda Puss.

Dress: Kohl’s
Camisole: Target
Shoes: Naturalizer
Cat: Edda the Puss

Here’s a mirror shot.

Me in the mirror.

Now go see Elizabeth and the other pretties at Fine Linen and Purple.

Wisdom from C.S. Lewis

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From my C.S. Lewis email this morning:

Those Divine demands which sound to our natural ears most like those of a despot and least like those of a lover, in fact marshal us where we should want to go if we knew what we wanted. He demands our worship, our obedience, our prostration. Do we suppose that they can do Him any good, or fear, like the chorus in Milton, that human irreverence can bring about ‘His glory’s diminution’? A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell. But God wills our good, and our good is to love Him (with that responsive love proper to creatures) and to love Him we must know Him: and if we know Him, we shall in fact fall on our faces. If we do not, that only shows that what we are trying to love is not yet God— though it may be the nearest approximation to God which our thought and fantasy can attain. Yet the call is not only to prostration and awe; it is to a reflection of the Divine life, a creaturely participation in the Divine attributes which is far beyond our present desires. We are bidden to ‘put on Christ’, to become like God. That is, whether we like it or not, God intends to give us what we need, not what we now think we want. Once more, we are embarrassed by the intolerable compliment, by too much love, not too little.

7 Quick Takes: Sunburns, the State of Affairs in Israel, and Getting Brett Funded

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Everything is fine. To those who emailed me about the strange comments on my last Quick Takes, everything is fine. Yes, fine. You might want to re-read my comment policy. (Hint.)

Also, thank you to everyone who emailed me and offered to go defend me on the other site. It would not have been appropriate (or needed) but I appreciate it nonetheless.

— 2 —

Get this kid fully funded! You know the precious boy on my sidebar? Yes, Brett.

Brett

He has a prospective mama and papa going to Eastern Europe to meet him. The problem: they need to be fully funded before they go. As I’m sitting here and typing this at 10:56 p.m. PDT on July 10th, they need $590 until his FSP reads $14,000 and they are fully funded. Can you help? Even $5 or $10 will do the trick. Click here to do so.

— 3 —

The O.C. Today, I headed down to Orange County to visit my sister-in-law and my incredibly cute nephew Patrick who is 13.5 months old. We met at the Beach Club and Lagoon by the lake in her town and it was pretty cool — the outer part was sandy like a beach but within a swimming pool. (Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures.) While she and my father-in-law talked, I took Patrick for a “walk”. He’s at the stage where he’s pulling himself up on furniture and coasting along so I had him standing up with his feet on the ground and my hands holding onto his. He was able to confidently take some steps and when his mom wasn’t praising him, she got to (hopefully) have a decent conversation with her dad. It was fitting, given that I was sorting papers from the last three years into treatment/therapy/IEP binders yesterday and I came across all the PT notes from three years ago when Daniel was learning how to walk.

Daniel and Jon had an incredible time in the lagoon. I think the cutest part was when Daniel started splashing Jon and Jon started splashing him back.

— 4 —

Oooooooh burn! Anyone who has seen pictures of me (or knows me in real life) will attest to the fact that I’m incredibly fair-skinned with freckles. Since I moved back down to the land of endless heat, the place where I part my hair has been getting fried if I spend any measurable amount of time (say, 20 minutes) outside. I was amazed that it didn’t turn red and blister today. It might be because a.) I finally have enough of a tan there that it isn’t burning or b.) I sprayed it well with sunscreen. I’m leaning toward B myself.

— 5 —

Prayer request. Things have been moving along with the special intention y’all have been praying about since the end of January. I can’t talk about it but all I’ll say is that it’s an unexpected place and I’d appreciate it if you’d keep praying.

— 6 —

The sitch in Israel. My friend Hevel of Kosher Kola has been blogging about the situation in Israel… in person. He’s posted a few pictures showing the alert for rocket attacks against Tel Aviv. Say a prayer for his safety and the safety of those on BOTH sides of the conflict who are in danger of being civilian casualties.

— 7 —

Quiet weekend. I have no plans for the weekend other than hearing Jon supply-preach on Sunday. I’m kind of liking not having any plans – it makes things easier down here.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: July 6, 2014

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Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY July 6, 2014

Outside my window… cooler. It was 96F in Claremont today. I hate July in the desert…

I am thinking… about the organizing of all of Daniel’s therapy notes, IEP’s, goal paperwork, ABA reports, etc. that starts tomorrow for me.

I am thankful… that I have a really good relationship with my in-laws, especially my mother-in-law. People have commented upon meeting us that they’re kind of shocked that we’re not mother and daughter. (She’s been my “other mother” for 14 years now — we’d better be getting along well.)

In the kitchen… just cleaned it. My mother-in-law made a peach/raspberry cobbler today with the peaches off of her tree. I’m not a fan of cobbler but it smelled pretty good.

I am wearing… my preeclampsia survivor shirt and black running shorts.

I am praying for… discernment, some special intentions, Daniel’s school time to go well this week, for another call for Jon, and for healing for various people.

I am going… to Target tomorrow to pick up the scripts they couldn’t fill today because of computer problems.

I am reading… A New Song by Jan Karon. I finished Out to Canaan yesterday.

I am hoping… the weather is much much cooler tomorrow.

I am looking forward to… finding out where God wants us next.

I am hearing my mother-in-law’s Mints and Roomba running. It sounds (and looks) like “Robot Wars” going down in this house.

Around the house… laundry to fold once I get Daniel to sleep.

I am pondering… aspects of the human condition.

A favorite quote for today… “There are two kinds of love: we love wise and kind and beautiful people because we need them, but we love (or try to love) stupid and disagreeable people because they need us. This second kind is the more divine because that is how God loves us: not because we are lovable but because He is love, not because He needs to receive but He delights to give.” — C.S. Lewis (from today’s email — I’m on a mailing list in which a piece of his works appears in my inbox every morning)

One of my favorite things… Daniel asleep.

A few plans for the rest of the week: “school” for Daniel Monday – Friday, speech on Tuesday, and various errands sprinkled throughout the week.

A peek into my day… Felicity (one of my in-laws’ cats) asleep in the laundry I have to fold.

Felicity *helping* with laundry

Hosted by The Simple Woman’s Daybook

7 Quick Takes: Independence Day, GetRather.Com, and The News from Here

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

A better way. Someone decided to send me Elena’s post on the recent Supreme Court decisions. (To those who are doing this: cut it out. I’ve got better things to do with my time and my energy than block you on here for trying to start a flame war.) Rather than expressing my true feelings on what she has to say (which I will just say are not complimentary to her), I thought I’d tell y’all about a better way that removes the issue entirely: go to GetRather.Com and download the version for your browser of choice. You can put in the terms you want to not see in your Facebook/Twitter feed (for example: Hobby Lobby, Tea Party, Abby Johnson, Matt Walsh, and Obamacare) and the app/add-on will either mute those specific statuses/tweets or replace them with something pleasant like pictures of cats. You’re welcome.

— 2 —

Orphans. Do you see this precious sweetling on my sidebar? Brett (the little boy on my sidebar) needs a mama. If you think you might be his mama, click on his picture with all possible speed. Currently, I’m crocheting a baby blanket to raffle off to raise money for his grant.

— 3 —

Read this. Hevel posted some pretty poignant Quick Takes related to the kidnap and murder of 3 Israeli teenagers by Hamas. I highly recommend reading them.

— 4 —

And while we’re at it… Can I just say to those who have published screeds on how Bowe Bergdahl is un-American because he *might* have deserted (it has not been definitively proven) that y’all suck? I mean, seriously, people are acting like they would have preferred that he shot himself which truthfully, he could have easily done given the level of depression and mental illness he was suffering. I’ve read accounts from both sides of the coin (both “right-leaning” and “left-leaning”) and the behavior described leading up to his disappearance was clearly suicidal behavior.

As tomorrow is Independence Day, I will definitely say that I’m glad to have a commander-in-chief who doesn’t leave anyone behind, regardless of how much crap people will give him for it.

— 5 —

Independence Day plans. There’s a festival and parade in the town where I’m living but it’s supposed to be 97F here so I’ll probably stay indoors until things cool down significantly in the evening. There are a number of civic fireworks displays visible from my in-laws’ porch so I’ll probably watch those. (I live in a tinderbox so setting off my own is soooooo not happening.)

— 6 —

Update on Freya. The day after her return, the little deviant jumped onto my father-in-law’s bed, chased his obese orange tabby patch cat Alyssa off the bed, chased her around the room and under the bed, and finally into the closet. Freya then cuddled up to my father-in-law, offered to help him eat his torta (as he was telling me this, her tail was on the dirty plate), and spent the day kissing up to him. She helped him nap, helped him with setting up some speech-to-text software (which now has commands for “Freya” and “meow”), and tried to supplant Alyssa at every turn. We are hypothesizing that her time away was for “plotting and conniving” rather than the “mental health day” suggested by my mother-in-law.

— 7 —

Show Kelsey some love. Jon’s cousin Kelsey is headed to Lithuania for a year as a missionary. She’ll be working at LCC International University as a residential director. If you’d like to show her some love, here is one of her fundraising updates.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.