Project 365: Day 3

Trevor made breakfast for Robert this morning, even pouring his coffee and arranging the newspaper. This boy has such a sweet heart!

Book Review - Confessions of a Teen Sleuth: A Parody by Chelsea Cain

So what if Nancy Drew had been a real person, not the fictional character Carolyn Keene made her out to be? This campy parody tells Nancy's life story from her point of view.

Was it Ned Nickerson or Frank Hardy who Nancy really loved? And which one did she marry? Whatever happened to Bess and George? Who was Hannah Gruen really, and what did she do? What's the truth behind Nancy's mom's early death? And who was Carolyn Keene anyway? This book also weaves in other serial teen sleuths, the Bobbsey Twins (with no mention of my favorite Bobbsey, Nan!), Trixie Belden, Encyclopedia Brown, and others, along with Nancy's nemesis Cherry Ames.

Longtime Nancy fans will recognize words like "sportster," "speakeasy," and "dirigible." Just as in the old books, Nancy continues to toss her titian hair, glance at her attractive reflection, wear her chic fitted suits, and have one harrowing encounter after another.

One word of caution: this is not a book for the younger Nancy fans. Let them enjoy Nancy as she was written. Although this is classified as a "young adult" book, there are too many adult themes making it inappropriate for my 13yodd.

It's goofy and spoofy, an easy read. I wouldn't be surprised if the author sat around brainstorming with a couple of close friends and then wrote the book the following day. It's not at all well written but definitely fun and funny. I laughed out loud several times at the absurdity. Recommended for any Nancy fan.

Book Review - Revolution in World Missions by K. P. Yohannan

Dorothy reviewed this book a while back, and it was discussed briefly on my hs loop. This book was first published in 1986; I'm surprised it hasn't garnered more attention. The main premise of the book is the harsh reality that the existing missionary force is ineffective at targeting the unreached.


It challenged my thinking on many levels, within different topics.

• It's tough to think how we, as Westerners, spend money with little regard to how that money can be eternally life changing to the millions in the 10/40 window who have never had the opportunity to hear the Gospel. I found myself wanting to protest many times, but, but, but . . . I had no argument.

• Truly focusing on the Great Commission and the importance of finding balance between meeting both physical AND spiritual needs on the missionary field. Too often the objectives are social rewards, i.e. material goods, hospitals, orphanages, schools, food. While these are all worthwhile, there is not enough spiritual teaching, and the programs fail their ultimate goal. Social action is not equal to evangelism.

• Consider the overwhelming advantages of native missionaries in the 21st century. They are already a part of the culture, already accepted by those they are trying to reach, and they are below government radar. Gospel for Asia now has more than 16,000 national missionaries in the 10/40 window, and operates 54 Bible colleges with more than 9,000 students, with this goal in mind.
  

Dorothy's review is extensive, and if you're interested in this book, I recommend her link.
I ordered a copy of the book free through the Gospel for Asia website. It's my intention to pass it on. It's a great message, with different perspective on world missions. I highly recommend reading this book.

Project 365: Day 2

Well, this is not something we see every day--the floor in Trevor's bedroom looking so very neat and tidy! Lol.

Resolutions

Res·o·lu·tion [rez-uh-loo-shuhn] –noun. A resolve or determination.

* * *

I'm looking over my Resolutions post from last year.

1. Read The Daily Bible by F. Lagard Smith.



I did about the same in 2007 as I did in 2006, slowing down on my daily reading over the summer, pretty much stopping by October. I read into September's writings. I continue to love this (intended) schedule. However, I really want to be reading the New Testament. Instead of starting over at the Jan. 1 reading, I plan to pick up where I left off. I should have no problems finishing the Daily Bible this year. (Of course, I haven't picked it up yet this year, so I can already consider myself behind.)


2. Spend more time with my kids.

A resolution last year that continues this year. I'm not sure how well I did; admittedly not as well as I'd wanted to. When I mentioned this as a goal to my kids the other day, they rolled their eyes and indicated they will NOT make this easy on me, lol.


3. Read more

This was an easy goal to reach, and one I'll continue this year. However, there's no need for it to remain on my "Resolutions" list. I'm glad that I'm again reading as much as I am. Looking briefly through my book reviews, I can guess that I read 80 books this year. It looks like I read 90 books in 2006, and I am surprised that 2007 wasn't closer to 100--but I'm still satisfied.


* * *

I have several other things I'd like to accomplish this year, but I'm not sure if they really count as "Resolutions." Besides, three seems like a manageable number.

(My new number) 3. Get involved at church

We've stumbled upon an awesome church, I'll post more later. But I definitely want to get to know these wonderful people better, become involved on at least some level. The biggest challenge will be the drive, which (of course) is an hour away. But it's a definitely a priority.

* * *

A new year, a natural time for reassessing . . . "forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead . . ."

Project 365: Day 1

Several of my loopy friends participated in Project 365 last year, and there's a link on the right to scroll through the ring. Basically, it's a challenge to post one photo per day for the entire year. I know I can do it, although I'm not going to feel like I have to post (at least) one photo a day. Coming close won't take much effort. The hard part will be that I don't go somewhere every day to get those new shots, so I'll have to settle for the view from my window--which is not too bad.
:)

Happy New Year!

Myspace Codes: MyNiceSpace.com

I am having troubles getting my graphic loaded before my post. Oh well!

New Year's Eve rundown.

Dress: Casual extraordinaire. Holly and Trevor both had colds, took showers and got back into their pajamas.

Food: Robert and I planned cheese fondue. After buying just the cheese and bread, it was already up to $20, and we still didn't have wine. It seemed ridiculous for just the two of us, so we changed the plans and had cheeseburgers, onion rings and vegetables for dinner. We had snacks later on, "ham cubes" (an hors doerve from my childhood of a cream cheese/horseradish spread between thin layers of ham, cut into small squares); chocolate covered strawberries and 'Nilla wafers and pretzels; champagne.

Entertainment: Trevor played several rounds of Parcheesi with me early on. Despite Rob's and my continued pleadings offerings to do something, Holly and Trev were happy to watch Nick and similar cable most of the night. In a moment of weakness, they agreed to play a few minutes of PS2 with us.

Did we make it to midnight? You betcha. This was Trevor's first time, and he wasn't going to let a cold stop him. (I didn't expect him to last.) We watched the ball drop--it's pretty cool being on this end of the U.S. when the year changes! We opened our door and were surprised to hear NO neighbors making noise. So we didn't either!

Weekly menu

cheeseburgers, onion rings, vegetables

western sandwiches

ham, twice baked potatoes, ________

beef stroganoff with egg noodles, fried okra

pizza

black beans and rice (box) with mango chipotle chicken sausage

YOYO



Lunch (with or for):
smoothies
grilled PB&J

On the back burner:
Grilled Fusion Pork Chops, couscous, peas
reuben sandwiches, pasta salad, chips
grilled flank steak
taco salad
chicken

2007

Wow. I can look back on this year and be totally amazed. I continue to be in awe of how God has worked in our lives in such a very visible way. We would not have believed it a year ago if we'd known we'd be here now. This was a year of huge turmoil and change in many ways, and yet we were given an incredible peace about it every step of the way.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

I am so humbled by His ever-present grace surrounding us.

C'mon get happy

I have an easy way to get what I want for Christmas. It never fails--I buy that gift for someone else. It's only effective if I buy it for someone in my house.

Robert's tried this in the past. Many years ago, I bought him fancy little drink glasses that he wanted for Valentine's Day. I think they're called cordial glasses; however, we don't drink, and I am not sure if we ever used them. But he bought me a hot air popcorn popper. It took me awhile to realize he's the one that liked to eat popcorn all the time. I never used to eat it--until he bought me the popper, and then I felt guilty not eating it.

I wanted Third Day's Christmas CD this year. I could have bought it for myself, but I feel guilty spending money on me, especially at Christmas. So I bought the CD for Robert. I waited and waited until Christmas Day for him to open it. He likes Third Day just fine, but he has a lot of favorite Christmas CDs. I don't think he listened to it once. But I played it several times. :)

There were the couple of years that Holly and I bought each other the Brady Bunch DVDs. I've always wanted to be a Brady. She's also enjoyed the Little House and Full House DVDs. But I've been wanting her to want The Partridge Family. No such luck.

For whatever reason, the Partridges were way cooler than the Bradys. When my sister and I were little, we were big Partridge Family fans. Too young to care about David Cassidy, we would play "Partridge Family" with the neighbor girls. Our biggest problem was that there were four of us girls, but only three females on the show. One of us would get stuck being a boy. That was the only time it wasn't fun.

So I bought Holly Season 2 for Christmas. Only Seasons 1 and 2 are out, and Season 2 is definitely better. The new Chris is there to stay, Danny is quite witty; the family has come into its own by Season 2. Holly's enjoying it enough that she's planning to buy Season 1 with her own money. She couldn't believe that I am older than Shirley Jones was back then (just like I am older than Mike and Carol Brady). She made my day, my week, maybe my year. I think my favorite episode is balding Rob Reiner, already 35 in real life, playing (high schooler) Laurie's biker boyfriend.

The best part is that my sister bought me the Come On Get Happy CD several years ago. (I'm thinking she wanted it, but she bought it for me instead.) Even Trevor knows the songs, as I played it several times on the drive out here--Jeremy Camp, Daughtry, and the Partridge Family--that pretty much says it all about my trip. I love the Bradys, but they didn't make the musical cut.

Hmm. I wonder if Robert would like a colander or salad spinner for Valentine's Day . . .

Pardon me

...while I post a few more practice shots.

Friday

Yippee, my camera is up and running, and I even installed the software onto my computer! I was planning on a nice morning, getting out early to try out some pictures, taking advantage of the earlier light, but it rained here all day.

Instead, I dragged Robert to a nearby park and took several shot out my car window.



That was on the way to Walmart, where I picked up a card reader. I didn't get it to work tonight, but I think it might work tomorrow.

I later took Holly to her riding lesson. It wasn't raining there (yet) but the fog had settled into the valley. She rode for a short time before the rain came through, and then she hung out and cleaned tack.



I headed into Roanoke, intending to check out a library. I wasn't sure where it was and ended up at the mall instead. Usually I dislike clothes shopping, but I found a few things yesterday and again today, and at prices that didn't kill me. Robert will be happy, and that makes me happy. I prefer very comfortable and casual clothes, but I bought nicer items that he will appreciate. I shopped so long that I was rushing to pick up Holly on time.

We have considerably less main living space in the new house, and even without a lot of the Christmas decorations, we've been feeling overdone and claustrophobic. Everything has already been put away, the exceptions are the Christmas tree (I'll put the ornaments away tomorrow) and the Christmas dishes (easy to switch). I am so happy when everything is tidy and uncluttered!

Looking forward to tomorrow, which should be much warmer than today. Holly's instructor called, asking if she could come back tomorrow since she didn't get to ride much today. How nice is that?!

We're all enjoying the break from school. I think this is the slowest year we've had (and that's not in a good way). We've typically bulked up the first half of the year, so we can relax when we hit that end of January slump--and stay more relaxed for the rest of the year. But we never seemed to really get going this year, at least not in the way that I would have liked. And it's not making the return to school anything to look forward to. Eeek!

Weekly menu

PW's Chex mix (but not for dinner)

Mount Evans Short Ribs, egg noodles

Christmas dinner: ham, cheesey mashed potatoes, spinach Madeline, orange jello salad, rolls, German chocolate cake

YOYO (You're On Your Own)

French dip, Caesar salad, orange jello salad

scalloped ham and potatoes, vegetable

tortilla soup

mango chipotle chicken sausage (don't ask yet; it was on sale)


Lunch (with or for):
smoothies
grilled PB&J
fish tacos

On the back burner:
beef stroganoff
reuben sandwiches, pasta salad, chips
grilled flank steak
fondue
taco salad
chicken
okra

Book Review - Clapton: The Autobiography by Eric Clapton

Well. I just looked at some of the amazon reviews of this book. What one thinks might depend on what one expects to find. If you're waiting to read that Clapton was a really awesome man with wonderful moral character, a musical genius who devoted his life to his career, you'd be hugely disappointed. He's an extremely shallow and boring guy--but it must be difficult to spend your entire life in the spotlight and maintain any semblance of "normalcy."

I was interested in reading what he had to say about his life. I wasn't expecting it to be pretty, but it was definitely an interesting book. It was certainly better written than Pattie Boyd's Wonderful Tonight, and it was fascinating to read their very different perspectives of identical events. Clapton tells the story of his life from his early childhood, the beginnings of his musical career, his personal life, and many details of his various addictions. (And I'm surprised he could remember as much as he did.) He was emotionless throughout the book, vaguely apologetic, passing all blame for his behavior onto drugs. Most of his life seemed to ride on his reputation. The last several chapters of the book portray him as a recovering alcoholic, devoted to his wife and children. That portion must have been written under a time deadline, or without the help of a ghostwriter, because they were noticeably different from the rest of the book, very hurried, flying through one vague topic after another, "I did this, I flew here, I met this person, I have so much money, blah, blah, blah."

Again, an interesting read. Not a happy life.

Update on the camera

...and answering a bunch of the comments from the last posts.

It's a Canon Power Shot S5 IS.

I'm not sure what Kathleen has; I'm sure she blogged about it way back when, but I can't find her post about it. She recommended I buy a clear filter to protect my lens, and a card reader. I am absolutely going to listen to her advice. They were on my shopping list today but I didn't make it to Walmart. I'd like to get a plug in thing too, because I stress too much about batteries when I should just be enjoying the camera at the kitchen table.

Robert is making fun of my "expensive hobby." But *I* haven't bought any of this stuff. And we won't talk about *his* hobbies (gardening and shooting). Debbie, if you put it off long enough, maybe Brian will get you a new one for Mother's Day and you won't feel guilty for buying it yourself.

In that same note, I replaced the little 12 card in the new camera with the 512 card from the old camera (whatever exactly those numbers mean), so I don't see myself using my little camera much anymore. But I don't have to buy another card either. DeEtta uses both of her cameras, but I can barely remember to wear both of my shoes, so that won't work for me. (D--I've been around too long--::snort::)

Dorothy, lol, I will come to grips lugging this thing around. (You're wickedly punny.) And I've already turned the camera on a few times and had the lens cover pop off. How in the world am I supposed to remember to take it off? And where am I going to stick this big thing in the car?

Cindy, if you take that $$$ online photography class, maybe you can teach it at co-op? Or on SHS? Or on your blog?

Thank you for your encouragement, all of you!

Cameras

I'm really not a camera person. I don't really like them. Sure, I enjoy taking photos, but I don't want to have to think about it. We bought our first digital camera in 1999. I know that because all of our photo albums stop there. Over the years, I've had my share of digital cameras.

The first one lasted for several years, until I accidentally broke the flash. I forgot the camera was in my lap, jumped out of the car, and watched the camera hit the pavement. It still took great pictures. Outside anyway.

Robert bought me a new camera a few months later for Christmas. I appreciated that it was another HP; there wasn't much for me to learn.

As I began to take more pictures, Rob quickly realized that I should probably have more pixels (or whatever it is that makes the camera take better shots). He bought me another one a year later. I liked it just fine too--it used two batteries instead of four, and it was a lot lighter.

Two years ago, I'm not sure what he was thinking, but he bought me yet another camera. I didn't need another camera; I didn't want another camera, and I didn't even want to think about opening the box. So I didn't. It sat, unopened, for 13 months. For more reasons unknown to me, and despite my protestations, he found a deal he couldn't pass up and bought me a second new camera last January. That's the camera I've been using for the past year. It also came with a fancy little printer, but I don't know much about that. I've never opened that box.

(And I bought Photoshop at an incredible price last May, but I've been too chicken to open that up too. It's still in the original plastic wrapper.)

Meanwhile, Holly got the other boxed-for-a-year camera and used it in her spring semester photography class. She received many compliments from the teacher; I hope she catches the picture bug again.

I didn't think I needed a new camera for Christmas this year. But I consider how many photographs I've taken. My date stamp broke last August, no matter how many times I reset, all of my pictures are dated 8/2007. It drives me nuts to turn off my flash every time I turn on my camera. I've not been as happy with my photos lately. For months, I've looked longingly at Kathleen's, Dorothy's and Ginger's blog pics. I've read through DeEtta's comparisons between her fancy camera and her pocket camera.



I'm thrilled to get this new camera. But I'm a little intimidated too. For starters, it's too big to fit into my purse. It has a lens cap cover that *I* have to remember to take off and put on. (If you think that shouldn't be a problem, you'd be wrong.) It has 3,451 buttons on it, and I hope to figure out a dozen or so sometime soon. On the plus side, it has auto features, so I don't have to know much before shooting. Robert told me that I'd have to use some brain power. I don't have that much to spare. But I did put the strap on by myself yesterday and popped in the batteries. And I'm off to a great start, I've already opened the box.

Ghosts of Christmas Present (or something like that)

In the past 11 months, my little camera has taken over 3800 pictures. That's a lot of photos, and the math mom in me has it figured to average over ten pictures a day. (Which makes me really pity my family.)

It was a bit of a relief to have the video camera going yesterday morning. I felt like I was on vacation. At one point, I whipped out my digital, but it seemed to be on vacation too. None of these would be worthy of posting usually, but they're here to make my point.


I rarely use my flash. The pictures always look washed out, too white. Because my flash can't be turned off permanently, I have to turn it off manually every time I turn on my camera.



Obviously, it's not too bright in this room (uh, don't laugh!). I can hardly ask the kids to FREEZE for their picture. No flash gives them quite a Casper like quality, but that's not the effect I want.



A little blurry or too white (and this had additional color pumped into it from the computer).



Look at those hands fly!



Completing the family is the ghost cat.


With her ghost girl.



Here's a nice little present that Robert got me. It even glows in the dark. Woo-hoo! It will be a perfect nightshirt.



At the end of present opening, I stumbled upon this lovely new gift. It's not really a ghost camera, it just looks that way.



Goodbye, little old ghost camera!

Merry Christmas

A Christmas Creed

I believe in Jesus Christ and in the beauty of the gospel begun in Bethlehem.

I believe in the one whose spirit glorified a little town; and whose spirit still brings music to persons all over the world, in towns both large and small.

I believe in the one for whom the crowded inn could find no room, and I confess that my heart still sometimes wants to exclude Christ from my life today.

I believe in the one who the rulers of the earth ignored and the proud could never understand; whose life was among common people, whose welcome came from persons of hungry hearts.

I believe in the one who proclaimed the love of God to be invincible.

I believe in the one whose cradle was a mother's arms, whose modest home in Nazareth had love for its only wealth, who looked at persons and made them see what God's love saw in them, who by love brought sinners back to purity, and lifted human weakness up to meet the strength of God.

I confess my ever-lasting need of God: The need of forgiveness for our selfishness and greed, the need of new life for empty souls, the need of love for hearts grown cold.

I believe in God who gives us the best of himself. I believe in Jesus, the son of the living God, born in Bethlehem this night, for me and for the world.

Walter Russell Bowie

Christmas photo

More Christmas habits

I ended a recent post mentioning the sign in our Christmas tree indicating what year it it. It comes in handy when everyone's looking at pictures a few years later--no one can ever disagree what year it was when there's a paper sign in the photo!

We usually videotape our Christmases now, and after going a little batty holding the camera, Robert will set it on a chair and point it generally toward the middle of the room. Every year, we talk about how we'll make copies and send it to our families, but we've never actually done that.

Holly and Trevor are the only two grandkids on either side of the family. With lots of grandparents and aunts and uncles, the kids can get a little overloaded on Christmas and birthdays. Of course, they would never admit to that!

So the videos always show me in a bit of hysteria. I will repeatedly shout, "SLOW DOWN! Who's that from? WHAT was in it?" as I try desperately to keep up a list of what they open and who's sent it to them. "WAIT! Don't open anything else yet!!" I tend to get a little shrill. And hoarse. No one ever seems to listen, but I always manage to get my list done.

(Because we usually know ahead of time what most of their presents are from our relatives, Rob asked me this year if I just wanted to write it down ahead of time. Brilliant idea. But I was in the midst of my favorite thing--not--, wrapping, and I gave him one of those you-want-me-to-do-what-else? looks. He incorrectly of course interpreted it as my withering stare look, and he quickly decided this was a tradition we needed to again maintain this year. I haven't had to write anything down yet. But I'll be ready.)

I have always been responsible for wrapping the kids' gifts. Usually that includes gifts that others have sent but weren't able to wrap for various reasons. I don't mind wrapping; in fact, I like to use ribbon and bows and be creative. I like to make the presents look pretty. But I procrastinate with Christmas presents. Many years ago, I was once up until 2 a.m. on Christmas Day still wrapping. (Holly was probably 2; I doubt she would have noticed.) Since then, Robert has gently encouraged me to start early; he's even wrapped a few things. (Before you start thinking that HE could be doing a lot more to help, you have to know that he's been there, done that, and doesn't want to risk offending me. I don't take to this kind of help well. At all.)

The other night, he practically dragged me enticed me into our bedroom and locked the door. He had that look (whatever that is) in his eye and began pulling out boxes, wrapping paper, scissors, tape, ribbons, bows and tags. The two of us, together, spent what seemed like a few hours getting everything wrapped for the kids. It was great, it was fun, and it was not rushed. It was almost romantic. It was like another great date.

These aren't all from us.

Last year, while visiting friends on Christmas Eve, they shared one of their own Christmas, er, habits. They played us this this song. I will never forget their two year old, laughing and slapping his knees--imitating everyone else he'd seen as they listened.

You can see that these don't really fall under the category of "traditions." They are quirky little habits, the silly things we do year after year--the silly things that I joke about.

* * *

But of course the Truth is that all of this happens as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, who came to earth so that He could die for us--we prepare to celebrate the wonder of the gift we have received, His gift of everlasting life.