Serious about blogging

Hello everyone. If there's anyone that even stops by anymore. Except for Ninjanun and my husband. Oh, and you, that person in Nebraska. You know who you are! You're faithful, my friends.

As of Thursday, I started a 7 week break from classes and clients. 7 WEEKS! This is the first time in 3 years that I've actually had some sort of break where I wasn't working 3 jobs, balancing grad school, wifehood, teaching, conducting therapy. I'm going to rock the heck out of this!

In light of this break and a fortuitous purchase of a laptop that arrives on Monday, I plan on blogging several events, past, present, and future. Such posts to look forward to are:

1.) A review of our mission trip to Hungary, and the (second annual) experience of being with Christian leaders in Europe, predominantly Eastern Europe. I always learn so much from them.

2.) A review of the long weekend we spent in Budapest after said mission trip, including what it's like to go to a bath and go out the exit when trying to go in the entrance when everyone who works there only speaks Hungarian. Stupid American!

3.) Some ideas I have about community building and what community is. This will include my recent ideas on narrative therapy, telling our stories, and how this all beautifully ties to the fact that God has given revelation through a narrative as well.

4.) My experience of a week of exploring and learning with some of my fellow grad students at camp in June.

5.) Impressions of Canada based on our upcoming trip to Niagra/Toronto/Buffalo.

6.) The hilarity of my brother's Tennessee wedding in a few weeks.

7.) My first ever Cubs game and trip to Wrigley Field.

Oh, and I'm sure I'll post tons about the two rooms a week organization frenzy I'm going to undertake. That started tonight when I bought my new desk at Ikea and started to put it together. Those FREAKING ANNOYING drawings! If they only labeled the top, then maybe I wouldn't have put it on the bottom and spent an hour fishing misplaced hardware out of impossible holes. And maybe one of my drawers wouldn't be crooked. The smiling man in the drawings only taunts me! Taunting, smiling man, you are the bane of my existence.

Grrr! But what is funny is that the hubby would only agree to let me buy the desk with a pre purchase agreement: he didn't have to help put it together! He's either a wise man or a jerk. Let me just say, there will be no stashing of his stuff on/in my new desk once assembled. Of course we sit maybe 2 feet apart in our little office, so his junk bothers me even if it's on his desk! Packrat! (He admits it.) BTW, his desk cleaning jaunt was inspired by my threat to throw things out with reckless abandon over the next several weeks.

Lastly, today el hubby and I rode our bikes to Blockbuster. You may think, "Oh no big deal." If you think that, you must live in some hippie shan-ri-la and not the Chicago suburbs. Riding the 6 mile round trip isn't a big deal, unless you focus on the big ass SUV's, tons of cars, and non functional cross walk signals. Oh, and there are no sidewalks in the parking lot. You've never felt truly alien until you've been an alien bicycle in the parking lot of Jewel.

All things considered, the bike rides to and fro weren't bad. We're going to try to do this more often, as we could go to Jewel, Subway, Blockbuster, Ace Hardware, Baskin Robbins, a bakery, a bank, or Burger King in this one shopping center. Bubble gum ice cream at Baskin Robbins might just motivate me to undertake a quick jaunt on the bike to pick up some brats instead of riding in the car.

Final note, I was forbidden by my spouse to buy anything plastic on Friday night..at IKEA! This is impossible, or near impossible. He mumbled something about living what I preach all the time about the environment. But it's so shiny, and only $1.99, and it has a cool Swedish name. Oh, except I was able to justify a plastic plate cover for the microwave. It was one item where a wooden substitute just wouldn't suffice. And while he may be a packrat, the hubby HATES a dirty microwave.

I'm 42% saved.

Thanks to Sarah, I came across this little quiz. According to it I am:
Emergent/Postmodern
71%
Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan
71%
Neo orthodox
61%
Roman Catholic
43%
Charismatic/Pentecostal
36%
Classical Liberal
32%
Reformed Evangelical
32%
Fundamentalist
32%
Modern Liberal
32%

I think this shows just how wrong this quiz is. I hated the questions, so I put myself in the middle a lot. Eh, what are you?

Muppet Suprise

Suprisingly accurate!

You Are Oscar the Grouch

Grumpy and grouchy, you aren't just pessimistic. You revel in your pessimism. You are usually feeling: Unhappy. Unless it's rainy outside, and even then you know the foul weather won't last. You are famous for: Being mean yet loveable. And you hate the loveable part. How you life your life: As a slob. But it's not repelling as many people as you'd like!

The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

Reconciliation...

I know that I've been horrible at updating this thing. I basically have so much to say and talk about that I get overwhelmed when I sit down to type. So, I just don't do it. Also, there has been a hard set of circumstances taking up a lot of my time and energy lately. I'll try to talk about it here.

Although on the web, you'll find the Promise Keepers taking credit for the tenets of reconciliation listed below, they actually belong to a psychologist who wrote a book on reconciliation whose name I'm too lazy to look up right now. However, I don't think that these tenets refer only to reconciliation, but for building any meaningful community.

I will intentionally be vague, but right now I and a few others in my life are desperately attempting to both reconcile and build community with a group of people in our lives. And they aren't having it. There have been accusations, failures on both sides, and a lot of hurt. There is also a good chance that a small subset of us may end up in a position where we end up being the outgroup of two larger, quite powerful ingroups. And we're all Christians...

So, pray. Pray that my actions and those of all involved will be God directed. That we will sharpen one another while finding ways to connect that are healthy and God honoring. Pray that some big changes that need to happen will in fact take place. That we will all be drawn toward holiness. Pray that those involved can hear the intentions of the feelings spoken and work through our own interpretations to truly hear what others are saying.

I believe in God. I believe in His Love and Truth, and that in the end, I will see a purpose to why all that is going down is going down.

Also pray that I can actually leave this with God enough that I can get over my constant anxiety to do my presentation and 20 page annotated bibliography for this class that I'm in, too.


The Call:­ Reconciliation is Mandatory. 2 Corinthians 5:17-21

Commitment to Relationship: Ruth 1:16, 17

Intentionality: Intentionality is the purposeful, positive and planned activity that facilitates reconciliation. Ephesians 2:14, 15

Sincerity: Sincerity is the willingness to be vulnerable, including self- disclosure of feelings, attitudes, differences and perceptions, with the goal of resolution and building trust. Reconciliation involves Trust and Transparency John 15:15

Sensitivity: Sensitivity is the intentional acquisition of knowledge in order to relate empathetically to any diverse situation, person, place or organization.
Key issue ­ Reconciliation involves Knowledge and Understanding. Ephesians 4:15, 16

Sacrifice: Sacrifice is the willingness to relinquish an established status or position to genuinely adopt a lesser position in order to facilitate diverse relationships. Key issue ­ Reconciliation will Cost Philippians 2:3, 4

Empowerment: Empowerment is the use of repentance and forgiveness to create complete freedom in diverse relationships. Key issue ­ Reconciliation involves Repentance and Forgiveness. 2 Corinthians 8:9

Interdependence: Interdependence recognizes differences but realizes that each offers something that the other needs, resulting in equality in the relationship.
Key issue ­ Reconciliation involves Equality 2 Corinthians 8:13, 14

That's not mine, it's urine.

Today, I uncovered one of the most disgusting discoveries known to man. *Cue wavy flashback lines*

On Sunday, we do laundry. Well, my husband does the laundry (and cleans the house on occasion...that was a 3 year battle worth fighting ;) ). One of my shirts had gotten grease on it when we put together our new elliptical machine. The grease didn't come out in the wash, so he soaked it with bleach in the sink of the spare 1/2 bath. The one where the cat litter boxes are kept.

So tonight, I come home and it smells so distinctly like cat urine in our house, that I'm almost gagging. I start to step into the bath to spritz our ineffective oust sprayer, and there's my shirt in the sink. I think, "Oh yeah, my shirt that had the grease stain." Then I notice my white shirt is YELLOW. Cat Pee yellow, to be exact. I think, "Maybe it's just bleach that yellowed it. Let me do a very wary preliminary sniff."

It wasn't the bleach. Most. disgusting. moment. of. the. year.