Charging My Batteries

I left my house in a hurry last Friday afternoon. I was headed home to visit my parents (well, my Mom...I forgot that Dad was on a hunting trip and was bummed that I didn't get to see him). Anyway, I returned from an appointment around mid-day on Friday, picked up my son from school, ran home to pack for the weekend, and off we went.

When we were just far enough from home that we couldn't turn back, I realized that I left my Blackberry charger at the house. Bummer. I was going to have to watch my usage like a hawk, especially since roaming kills your battery.

As I drove, I thought I might listen to my iPod, but when I pulled it out of my purse, the battery was just about dead and I had to resort to doing things the old fashioned way and actually put a CD in the player.

The reason I was going home was to attend a baby shower for my cousin's third baby, who was born a couple months ago. Even in my rush to leave home, I remembered to toss in my digital camera, but again, as I was driving, realized I hadn't charged the battery in awhile and began to pray that it would hold out until I got home (where I had left the charger). As it turned out, in my stupidity, I left the camera in my suitcase at Mom's house anyway and didn't get one picture all weekend.

Hmmm, although I was unwilling to admit it was my fault, I was definitely noticing a pattern here.

This morning at 5:30 I sat in my home office staring at my open Bible in my lap. I felt spiritually tired and like most of my technology gadgets, I realized I had not charged my batteries in awhile. In the same way that I had remembered to bring my devices, but not the chargers, I was paying some attention to God, but I certainly hadn't allowed myself enough quality time with him to let him recharge my soul. In the 30 minutes that followed, I put my heart on the "charger" and God graciously refreshed me.

If your batteries are feeling drained these days, remember to spend some time letting God refresh you. He's in the battery charging business, if we'll just plug in and give him the opportunity.

Technology Test

Occasionally, we geek-type people need to do a short technology test.

Unfortunately, this post is one of those times. Sorry for the false alarm.

A Father / Son Baptism

I'm not really sure what to say about this post other than I couldn't be more proud of my son. (With the exception of when he told me, "Mom! I need to pray right now and ask Jesus into my heart!"). I think he was nervous because he didn't take his eyes off his Dad, and when it was all said and done, there wasn't a dry eye in the house.

Blessings,

Curveballs

As little girls, we all dream of growing up and marrying prince charming. (see Exhibit A) We dream of living in freshly painted houses with a manicured lawn and stone paved driveway.


Exhibit A - Prince Charming


God has a way of teaching us things by throwing us curveballs in life. It doesn't always turn out like we plan. God has his own plan for us and part of growing is realizing we're not in control.


I saw my husband, The Pastor, come out of the garage the other day and I was quickly reminded that life doesn't always turn out exactly the way I have planned it. Most days I consider The Pastor to be my prince charming, but that day was not necessarily one of them. (see Exhibit B)


Exhibit B - Farmer Pig Pants

Some days those lessons are hard to learn.....

Blondie - Part 2

Woohoo! I got him!

(Okay, so not my most spiritual post ever, but hey, we all live in the real world, right?)

Blondie

When my eyes flitted open this morning, one of the first thoughts I had was, Boy, I need to blog! I get going in several directions, time slips by, and I realize it's been a week or two. As much as I hope not do disappoint my readers, the biggest part of why I blog is for me. It's my purest form of joy in my writing. I do it completely for fun and when too much time goes by, I start to miss it.

I got up on time and stumbled down the hallway to the kitchen to get a cup o' joe (Definitely can't blog without coffee) and I heard my little dog, Bogey, crunching on his dog food. No problems there except Bogey was sitting at my feet. Just then I saw the mouse dart behind the china cabinet. What is it with me and mice??!! I've just got to get me a cat!

I remembered that there's a mouse trap under the kitchen sink, but it's the "old" style and not those new ones that you just squeeze together like a big clamp. I decided I better push past my freak out point, get that trap, and set it. (My OCD gets really unhappy when I have to touch things like mouse traps with my actual hands. How gross!) Then, by good fortune, I found another trap and managed to get it set as well.

By now, I'm getting a little cranky because not only have I not got to the coffee pot, but I've spent the first 15 minutes of my precious blogging time setting (and touching) mouse traps. As I lined the traps along the pathway between where the mouse is hiding and Bogey's dog food, a song comes to mind.

"One way, or another...I'm gunna get ya, get ya, I'll get ya, get ya get ya, get ya,....

The Food Chain

Every now and then I delude myself into thinking that I actually have some sort of knack for growing things. Last year, I had this beautiful pot of petunias that had me on my high horse for awhile. Read this previous post and you'll see that I got bucked off that horse pretty quickly.

Following that, I managed to grow a few tomatoes and they even tasted remarkably good. Although in thinking that through a bit, my Dad was visiting on the weekend I was planting, and technically, he was the one who actually planted the tomato plant. Hmmm, not such a great track record.


This year, I've been shamed once again. Here is a picture of The Pastor's garden. (OK, that's not actually his, but it's a good representation of it. The only difference is that his has an eight foot fence around it. Yes, I said EIGHT. I'll have to write about the Taj Mahal of garden fences at another time).



Here are a couple pictures of the grand sum total of what I've grown this year. In case you can't recognize it, the first one is spinach. I know it looks like a strawberry plant springing up (in September), but trust me....it's Spinach. Well, it's supposed to be spinach. It didn't really grow and instead the left over strawberry plant from last year popped up last week. (I'm no plant expert, but I think the other green things are weeds.)

Here is my tomato plant this year--the one I grew without my Daddy's help. Look hard...that little green thing, Yes, I do believe that's a tomato. Good thing I don't rely on the work of my hand to feed myself!

Praise the Lord for farmer's markets and grocery stores!

Justice

It's a fact of life that things aren't always as they seem. Last week when The Pastor and I went to court, the outcome was absolutely nothing that we imagined it would be. You might have noticed from my last post that I was a little skeptical of going to court in the first place. Unfortunately, just about every one of my preconceived notions came true. It wasn't a pleasant experience in any way, shape, or form.

First, because the summons was very vague, we only knew in generalities what it was we were defending. It's tough to be prepared to argue your point when you don't know exactly what you're arguing.

Second, the other party involved got very nasty and mean. We're not really sure why, but they came out with guns-a-blazin'. Not fun. At any rate, we lost the case and came home not really knowing what hit us.

It's hard not to be angry when things like this happen, but I still stick to the verses I quoted before and also with the rhetorical question, "Shall not the Lord of all the earth do right?"

If you happen to be struggling with something that is or feels like injustice, then be comforted by this...

Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay" says the LORD. On the contrary,

If your enemy is hungry, feed him;

If he is thirsty, give him something to drink.

In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Blessings in the midst of the storm,