Coffee & Quiet Time

Dear God,

Hi, it's me. I know you and I haven't had the best relationship lately. I'm happy to talk at you all day long, and I sure give you lots of thanks for all the wonderful blessings you shower down. But I know our conversations have been remarkably one-sided lately, with me doing a whole lot of talking and not a whole lot of listening.

It's not that I didn't hear you. I just want to do things my own way.

But I'm ready to listen now, I think. I know you have only what's best for me on hand, whereas I only think I have all the answers.

Please help me grow up. Help me listen. Help me make time for you every day, so I'm talking with you, not just at you. Help me be humble. Help me want you. And thank you for being patient with me and not withdrawing your presence from my life.

Help me be still.

Love,
Your daughter

Exodus 14:14
The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still."

Psalm 37:7
Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.

Mark 4:39
He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

Psalm 46:10
"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."

What are your top 10 most-played songs currently?

Well, I don't have any kind of playlist I can update regularly--I need to get some kind of downloading service, any suggestions?--but if I did this is what would be on it, in no particular order:

1. Kaiser Chiefs, Ruby (Rubyrubyrubyruby! Doyadoyadoyadoya?!)
   
2. Plain White Ts, Hey There Delilah
3. The Fratellis, Flathead
4. The Kooks, Naive
5. Tool, Jambi
6. White Stripes, Icky Thump
7. Nine Inch Nails, Capitol G
8. Bloc Party, The Prayer
9. Cat Empire, Sly
10. and my Zumba CD. Gotta practice, y'know, if I wanna teach it.

So, after 3 and a half grueling months apart, my laptop and I are reunited.

Of course, the blogging-surfing-shopping-myspacing-IMing bliss was short-lived, as the girls got Webkinz for their birthdays and have not unglued their noses from my precious' screen since then.

But I managed to pry their little faces off my beloved computer with promises of craft time tomorrow so here I am and, oh! have I got fun stuff to tell.

But I won't gross you out with the details of my stomach-bug-infested house or how I have spent the last week cleaning up various baby effluent while my hubby luxuriates in LA on an all-expenses-paid business trip.

Instead, here are some random ideas for blogposts I've come up with between nasty diapers:

• This one is for the parents: do you ever find yourself saying something to your kids and then realizing that's how God feels about you? Like today I was getting milk for a very impatient baby and I said, "Don't cry. I love you, don't you think I'm getting you what you need?!" Guess what! God says that too! "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" (Matt 7:9)
• Here in MA we celebrated Free Iced Coffee Day, courtesy of Dunkin' Donuts (which, by the way, answers today's QotD as my sure sign of spring. And summer is here when Ben & Jerrys scoop shops give out free cones.). Is it a bad thing to go around from location to location, filling up every cupholder in your car with free little iced coffees?
• Don't you just love it when a person's talents, opportunities, and passions come together to form a truly excellent life? I just watched this news feature on a guy who went to school to be a doctor. He loved the mountains and wanted to live there but he couldn't find a job. There were no hospitals or anything where he lived so he started his own practice making housecalls. And when he realized a need to get to patients all around the mountain range, he learned how to fly a plane and now makes housecalls in his single-prop plane. How cool is that? This community had a need that only he could fill. I mean, not everyone is called to be a doctor, and not everyone wants to live in the mountains in the middle of nowhere without even a Target or an Old Navy or anything and not everyone can or wants to learn to fly and this guy had it all. I love that. I want a life like that, where I feel like I have been uniquely designed for what I am doing. Frankly, God wants that for us too. Each and every one of us!
• The store where I have my j-o-b got flooded last weekend, courtesy of a nasty nor'easter. Now, you would think that this multi-billion-dollar company that I am not allowed to name in my blaawwg would be able to maintain the roof so that kind of thing wouldn't happen but heck! I'm not complaining. The girls and I met my sister and nephew at Chuck E. Cheese's for some pizza and hepatitis games. It was SO nice.
• What do you think causes deja vu? Is there any kind of scientific study on this? I mean, can we take some of the tax dollars that have paid for studies on how there is porn online (because we didn't know) and figure this out? Because seriously, I want to know.

OK well that's all for now. It's so good to see you again, internets!

Who taught you how to cook?
Submitted by Donna.

(Oh my gosh, I swear one day soon I'll write a real entry...)

I like to say I taught myself to cook.

I mean, my mom taught me basic stuff like how to boil water. Make toast. Fry an egg. And I did learn how to make her incredible lasagna--just ask the hubby.

But I didn't learn how to cook--how to really cook and love it--until I was married, had a couple of kiddos, and needed to (gasp!) diet. That forced me to look up innovative recipies that went outside my lasagna-grilled-cheese-oatmeal repertoire.

And now? I love to cook! I make yummy stuff like Chicken Amandine and Chicken Cacciatore and baked ziti with spinach and chicken salad (um...I like chicken.) and soup from scratch and all kinds of stuff! And when something comes up at church and we need to bring a dish I look up a new recipe and make that instead of relying on something old.

I'll probably always be a by-the-book cook--you know, not like some people who can just know what flavors go so well together--but I love love love to do it. I love the feeling of cooking something healthy and delicious for my family or friends.

Who taught you how to ride a bike?

My dad, when I was 7 or 8. We went to the parking lot of the school across the street from our house and he ran beside me. Then he let go and I didn't realize it until way later, by which time I was already far away. It went pretty well until I hit a dirt patch and skidded over the big ol' ledge off the parking lot and into the sidewalk. ;) One of my best memories--I'm glad I learned to ride at an older age so I could actually remember it. :) Thanks dad.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,4-2007030603,00.html

How do you beat writer's block? 
Submitted by marvel is my pen name.

Writer's block? Who gets that?!

Oh...OK.

If we're talking about blogging I either skip it altogether or I post something like, oh I dunno, song lyrics (ahem...see last post). Or I answer the latest QotD. ;)

If we're talking about the Great American Novel I usually have some idea where I want to go so I just write a different section that I can think about and come back to the first part later.

I've had enough of living life for only me 
And reaching just for the things 
that keep destroying me 
So sick of envying the lives of so many I see 
somehow believing that they have what I need 

Chorus: 
My God's enough for me 
This world has nothing I need 
In this whole life i've seen 
My God's enough, enough for me 

I can't explain why i suffer though I live for you 
Those who deny you they have it better than I do 
Cover my eyes now so that my heart can finally see 
THat in the end only You mean anything 

Chorus 

Who I have in Heaven but you 
Nothing I desire but You 
My heart my fail but not You 
You are mine forever  

...because I LOVE my new design. What do you think? This is my first-ever custom, photoshopped-by-me banner that I made my very own self. :) Yay! And I'm loving vox for providing the perfect background (the stars on the black...just what I wanted!). Fun!

Last night I prayed that God would wake me up early so I could get some coffee and do some study and wouldn't you know it? At 4 o'clock my eyes popped open and wouldn't shut again.

"You know God, I didn't mean that early." :)

So I made some coffee--Starbucks Breakfast Blend with pumpkin-flavored creamer. Yes, I know. Why get good-quality coffee if you're just going to cheapen it with flavored, sweetened, creamer but I love it--and grabbed my Bible, my copy of Purpose Driven Life that I've started about a dozen times only to get as far as day 20 or so and one of my favorite pens.

[Hm? Oh. Yes, I have favorite pens. I'm a pen freak. No, scratch that. I'm an office-supply freak. Pretty pens, paper, notebooks...I spend too much money on them. You'd think it was fine jewelry or something, the way I pour over the stuff. Staples is my Tiffany's. ;) Moving on...]

Here are my notes from The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. Ooh, hey, here's an idea. Get yourself a copy! Follow along! Great book, in case you haven't read it. I can personally attest to the greatness of the first half of the book. ;)

OK so Warren says in the first chapter: "You exist only because God wills that you exist." Read Job 12:10 here in The Message and NIV. (I love Bible Gateway. Easy passage lookup, yay!)

So...what does that mean? How does the fact that I'm here only because God wills me to be here impact my life? I don't think you can read that--if you really think about it--without it changing how you life your life. If God used the same powerful will that put creation in place to put me here, now? That's incredible! How dare I throw that in His face by wasting my existence?

So I started thinking about how that should change how I do everything: how I parent, how I wife (is that a verb?), how I work, clean my house (or don't...), exercise (or don't...), how I eat, the things I watch on TV, the things I read, listen to, the company I keep, the things I say and do, the image I present, how I treat people. Everything--all of it!--changes when I approach them from the perspective that God put me in this time and place and my existence is due to God's will!

The next quote that made me think was: "Being successful and fulfilling your life's purpose are not at all the same issue!"

This idea always comes as such a relief. It's something I wish I'd remember more often...like when I'm moaning about when I'll ever be able to go back to school so I can get a real job, or when I'm at my dead-end, I-do-it-to-be-home-with-my-kids-during-the-day nothing job and someone I went to high school with--someone who is undoubtedly working in a high-visibility, cool, well-paying job they earned a degree to do and probably had to survive a series of stressful interviews to earn walks in--and recognizes me. I have to remind myself that I'm home with my kids during the day because that's where I truly believe I am meant to be right now...and that means more than being by-the-world successful.

OK, quickly cuz it's getting late and I have to get Jo off to school...

The last part of today's reading in the book says "You must build your life on eternal truths, not pop psychology, success-motivation, or inspirational stories." When I read that my mind immediately went to my current struggle with overeating and stuff, and how I'm all, OH! I'll cut out all the weight-loss success stories out of these magazines! Oh! I'll watch The Biggest Loser over and over because how inspirational! And while I don't think there is anything wrong with those things by themselves, I tend to get caught up in using them as my truth...rather than THE truth, y'know?!

Another verse from the reading was Matthew 16:25. It's here in NIV, one of the most memorized verses in Scripture, but here it is nearly unrecognizeable in The Message too (I like to look between the two--I feel like I get a more well-rounded look at things. I wish I could read Hebrew; I'd go right to the source! ;) ).

I look forward to uncovering more of my life's purpose and seeing where God leads me. I'm glad to be back in the study of God's word. Lately I've been distrustful of God. I'm not where I thought a year ago I would be now, and it doesn't look like I will be there next year either, and it's scaring me a little because I thought I knew for sure that the place I was expecting to be was where God wanted me and now it doesn't look that way. I don't really get it, but instead of doubting any more, I'm trying to just trust God and stop trying to direct my own path. Because, you know, that's never really worked for me. ;) I was taken by surprise when I picked up my Bible to look up a quote from PDL--it just felt so wonderful to have the Word back in my hands. I'm praying that I can keep this up--this getting up early thing. 

I'd appreciate any comments you have on my notes, and any prayers you can send my way. I can't stand when I get into a blog only to find the author drops out of sight for months so I hope I still have some readers. ;) Til tomorrow!

xo