P.S. (pre-script) I am a little frustrated with blogger at the moment… for while I am not a perfectionist at most things, I hate when I can’t get a consistent look when I edit my posts. And I have tried and tried to get my formatting back to where I want it, I’ve looked at the HTML knowing just a little – and can’t figure out where blogger is going wrong. So, for those that share my love for editing – I apologize from the bottom of my heart for the inconsistencies in this post!
Yes, I easily went back to sleep after my last post – thank you for your concern. I am happy to report that it is a much more decent hour to write, that it is 9 am now. And that I made a really good cup of joe this morning (which I don’t always get for some reason?).
But the mind is ticking again and I owe some answers to some new kindred spirits – so here I am once again. Frankly, though – between you and me – this HAS to be the last post for a while. For I get my kids back tonight, and while my house would be tolerable for most – I haven’t been in my normal cleaning as I go mode, and thus have a good hour of work ahead of me. (Hey, that is why I live in a small 960 square foot house!) But honestly, I need to spend time with other parts of my life than here writing for you – whoever you are – all the time. I do thank you, though, for letting me hang out with you this week, for keeping me company – as while I am not with you, I can certainly IMAGINE you are with me as we talk about life.
But if I could shamelessly put this plug in here …it would be REALLY nice to hear back from you…as I can see my numbers of people coming are growing – but it saddens me that you are not interacting with me. As I tell my members when they spin with me, “The more energy you give me, the better workout you will get for yourselves.” And I think this wold apply to my writing as well. The more I know about what you like or don’t like about my writing – or if you have questions or comments to strike up a conversation – I know this will only improve my craft and give you more enjoyment in the end.
With that being said, let’s move on!
Now this post is NOT going to have some big point – and most likely nothing too spiritual about it. But even as I was contemplating about how I could swing this back around to something spiritual – I did find something…so let’s see how I do.
If you have been reading this week, you know that I have found a great friend in Anne Shirley. (Here is the link to that post if you missed it.) And if you are at all familiar with Anne, you know that she is always on the lookout for kindred spirits (ks from now on)…something I definitely am keen to. And just like Anne, I have discovered that there are a lot of ks all around me – if I get outside of my mind and strike up conversations at random – which I am quite good at. Here is just a sampling of the ks that I have met this week:
* First I have to totally plug this store and the owner – Vardy’s jewelry store. Mr. Vardy is the living picture of the American dream. He came here 31 years ago with only $500 in his pocket. With hard work and dedication to both his work and his children, he has built a successful business. He completely gets what so many of my generation of Americans seem to not get – that this country is built on hard work for yourself, your family and your community…and not on abdicating your responsibility as a citizen to the government. Okay, I will stop here before I turn political. But I just have to say – if you ever need any jewelry needs and live in the Bay Area – please support Mr. Vardy and his employees – they are the REAL thing….
Now on to the ks I met at his store. I met Mrs. F and Mrs. J, and of course Mr. V himself who is completely a ks! last week when I went in to have them help me design my new promise ring. (For those that don’t know, a promise ring is something us Christian gals wear before we are married to promise God and our future husbands that we will keep ourselves pure before the wedding…and since I find myself going to be single again – and essentially thinking of Jesus as my husband – it seems only appropriate that I have one again. I will definitely post a picture of it once it is done…so excited!) Back to the ladies…some how or other, the 3 of us started talking as ladies often do…and an hour later (much more time than it took to design the ring) I left the store excited to have met some dear friends.
* Next I met Miss T at a local cafe by my house. It was early last Wednesday morning when I went in for some coffee and breakfast…and once again we struck up a conversation. She is one of the ladies I owe and answer to…which is coming!
* Then there were M & m as I will call them, a mother and daughter I met at breakfast at the hotel the morning after the concert. m was asking her mom where pancakes were from, and I found myself rudely interjecting my thoughts…but it led to a great conversation! I later ran into them at the pool later that day, and M (mom) and I had another wonderful and inspiring conversation. But I still owe them an answer on where pancakes originated from…not that they couldn’t or didn’t already look it up themselves.
* And lastly, at least for this week, I reconnected with an ol’ high school buddy who gave me quite a compliment in calling me quirky. Never thought of myself that way, but his comment made me laugh and I found I didn’t mind it at all. Nonetheless Mr. C is fast becoming a ks, challenging me with some tough questions and thoughts that take me a while to respond to.
Without further ado – let’s get start getting as to the purpose of this post:
1) Pancakes – where did we get them from? Okay – well, I was partly right on this ladies – they definitely came from Europe area – and there are different variations in each country. But, they date back much later than I would have realized. Here is a direct quote from wiki on the subject of pancakes:
“Archaeological evidence suggests that varieties of pancakes are probably the earliest and most widespread types of cereal food eaten in prehistoric societies whereby dry carbohydrate-rich seed flours mixed with the available protein-rich liquids, usually milk and eggs, were baked on hot stones or in shallow earthenware pots over an open fire to form a nutritious and highly palatable foodstuff.”
There is MUCH info on the history of pancakes – who would have ever thought. So instead of repeating wiki – here is the link for your further education.
2) Definition of First generation for Miss T. at the cafe: Miss T and I got in a friendly debate about whether or not she was first generation or 2nd. And I am happy to report Miss T that…we were both right. There in fact is much ambiguity as to whether you would be considered first or second…see wiki for their thoughts and input!
3) Updates on Anne – as I continue to read Anne, I actually did find there are some differences among us – what a shame. But I think this is really just a sign of the times rather than a character flaw in her. She mentions that she doesn’t think humor is appropriate from the pulpit…and I couldn’t disagree more. For, quoting another of my favorite heroines, Elizabeth Bennet from Pride & Prejudice, “I dearly love to laugh,” especially at church. And I think God is delighted to hear His children laugh, for he created laughter to be good medicine for us.
Another difference, yet similarity between Anne and I…she mentions that she would quite like to be a minister’s wife – but that would require being rather a good person all of the time which she would fail miserably at. While I won’t answer this one directly considering I have no idea if I am ever meant to be married again – I do think of myself as a priest’s wife, our high priest and Lord – Jesus. And He loves me just the way I am, flaws and all.
4) It “did not end in sickness” – if you read my first post about MPPC’s main sanctuary you will recall I started last week feeling the oncoming of a flu bug or something of that sort. Well, why I haven’t been myself physically this week by any means – I am happy to report that I did hear God correctly on this one laying on my bed last Sunday and it “did not end in sickness”! Praise be to the Lord!
5) Okay, now I know you are shaking your head along with me on this last one. I hear you asking yourself , “What in the world does she mean by ‘frust’?” Let me give you a little back story on this one.
So one of our beloved pastors at MPPC has quite a sense of humor as I have alluded to. Well, all of them really – but this guy in particular. Which is my constant delight in listening to their sermons for, you know this one, “I dearly love to laugh.” But Scottie has a way with brining to light things I thought I was the only one in the world that dealt with certain things about myself or my actions – a deception that I am sure most of us fall into sometimes if not regularly. Any who, his confessions have taught me once again not to take myself quite so seriously on top of helping me to realize I am not alone in my challenges. Thank you Scottie!
His latest one I remembered I did hear last night in all of my craziness of the service. He mentioned that there is ACTUALLY a word for that small line of dirt that, no matter how hard you try, you never seem to be able to get into the dust pan! I completely thought he had created this one on his own, so being the investigator that I am…I googled the word. And wouldn’t you know – he wasn’t just making it up:
Definition of frust :.
(frust)
- 1. (n.) The small line of debris that refuses to be swept onto the dust pan and keeps backing a person across the room until he/she finally decides to give up and sweep it under the rug.
(Just a moment, I need more of this most excellent coffee..be right back.)(Darn, the pasting has ruined my format…sorry about that. I’ve tried to fix it to no avail.)Ok – back. So my story of “frust”- that I am hoping I get some sympathy from some of you on! I have to admit I have never liked doing the sweeping for the most part of my life. Before we remolded our old house over in Mtn. View – I had one of those sweeper vacs that I would run…especially when we had Chase our dog (oh how I loathe dog hair and he had plenty of it). Once we remolded, I was asked not to do anything to scrape our new hardwood floors – so I got a broom and dustpan. But it wasn’t until a good friend of mine, who is self-admittingly OCD about cleaning and cleanliness, swept my floor for me after a birthday party for Jesus we had one year – that it hit me I needed to chuck my disdain of sweeping and get on it. I was horrified at how much dirt and crumbs she swept up after I had just cleaned a day before. From that time forward, I think I did become more and more OCD about my floors…especially as the kids got older and refused to be seated to eat most of the time, and as I spent more and more time cooking (which I love to do, but am not the most clean cook). Towards the end of living in that house with ALL hardwood floors or tile, I had to literally force myself to not sweep until the end of the day…otherwise I think I could have swept all day long trying to get all the dust and dirt. No matter how hard I tried, whether there were kids around or not walking thru my piles – I would sweep up my piles only to turn around and find more of the darn stuff on my floors. I felt like I was caught in a horrible movie, frantically trying to get every last crumb. I thought it was perhaps just my cheap Wal*Mart dustpan and that once I moved I would buy another one. I thought it was just me and my incapable abilities to do something as simple as sweep up a pile of dirt – part of the lack of my proper upbrining. So, you can imagine my relief last night to realize I am not, as I said before, alone in this area of life…and that some poor frustrated soul actually took his/her time to come up with the word for the frustration this little phenomena causes us. I also have to admit, though, that I never thought about sweeping it under the rug…nor why didn’t I just get a damp paper towel and finish the job? Perhaps because I am truly lazy at heart (a confession I have never made to anyone!) and will always seek the quickest and easiest way to complete a job – and by no means am a perfectionist at this area in my life…OCD maybe but not a perfectionist.Alright, now to tie all this back into my spiritual journey. For me, as I have said a couple of times before, I dearly love to laugh, to smile and have a good time. God delights in good clean humor and wants us to have not so serious moments in our life…and thus I know that He has given me some of these highlights this week in order to lighten my load – and give me some well needed comic relief.“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”Proverbs 17:22On that note I will depart from you for a while, so that I can go get my house in order, fold the laundry, get to the grocery store and prepare my mind for my precious kids once again. “Parting is such sweet sorrow,” but I will look forward to seeing y’all back here in a week’s time, if not before, when I will try to conquer some of my other ideas for posts.As for my “frust” – I am happy to report I have very little flooring at my new place and am therefore successfully getting rid of my OCD tendency on this issue!
