The hardest part

So, two things that happened tonight:

First:  I was laying in bed and realized that I had hardly any Faith-time today.  I had a big list of To-Dos and we had friends over and I just didn’t do anything with her besides feed her and transfer her.  I didn’t look in her eyes or chase her around the floor or eat on her fingers (why are babies SO insistent on getting their fingers in your mouth while nursing?).  And I was contemplating, seriously, going in her room and looking at her.  MAYBE EVEN WAKING HER, just to be with her a little longer.  Because that bad baby is closing in on a year and I missed one whole day with her today. 

Second:  I was reading a friend’s (here’s her public/non-family blog) post, where she simply described her last few weeks.  In her last few weeks, she’s sent her last child to school for the whole day.  She talked about runs, and lunches with her husband, and starting her whole day at 9am, in which NO KIDS WILL STOP HER MID-PLAN AND DEMAND ATTENTION.  She is going to Institute and running errands and volunteering and crafting, in whatever quiet, undisturbed order she wants.  I left a comment about being green with envy.

And then I remembered my first thought.

Why is motherhood SUCH a contradiction?  Leave Me Alone/Like Me More Than Anything Else.  Please Be Quiet/Is There Anything Cuter Than What He Just Said.  How Embarrassing!/How Did I Get Such Awesome Kids.  Please Grow Up/Please Stay Little.

My chest feels all tight and hurt-y right now as I try to want what I have, but not so much that I can’t let it go when it’s time.

 

Hardest job in the world, right?

Lloyd-Jones: Focusing on What Really Matters

Lloyd-Jones: Focusing on What Really Matters: "D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, commenting on Phil. 1:10 ('that you may approve what is excellent,' or 'that you may have a sense of what is vital'):

The difficulty in life is to know on what we ought to concentrate. The whole art of life, I sometimes think, is the art of knowing what to leave out, what to ignore, what to put on one side. How prone we are to dissipate our energies and to waste our time by forgetting what is vital and giving ourselves to second and third rate issues. Now, says Paul, here you are in the Christian life, you are concerned about difficulties, about oppositions and about the contradictions of life. What you need is just this: the power to concentrate on that which is vital, to leave out everything else, and to keep steadily to the one thing that matters.

The Life of Joy: Philippians, vol. 1, pp. 54-55.

HT: David Sunday

"

Forgetting the Golden Rule

Forgetting the Golden Rule: "

I'm reviewing some of the principes of confession from chapter 6 of The Peacemaker, and I thought this was a great excerpt:

Perhaps the most common cause of conflict is our failure to follow the Golden Rule, which Jesus taught in Matthew 7:12: 'So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.' To see whether you have violated this teaching, ask yourself questions like these:

Would I want someone else to treat me the way I have been treating him?

How would I feel if I found out people were saying about me what I've said about her?

If our positions were reversed, how would I feel if he did what I have done?

If someone broke a contract for the same reasons I am using, would I feel that was right?

If I was an employee, how would I feel if I was treated the way I have treated her?

If I owned this business, woudl I want my employees to behave the way I am behaving?

Anytime you see that you would not want someone else to treat you the way you are presently treating others, you have fallen short of the standard Jesus established to govern all human relations. If you admit your failure to God and the person you have wronged, you can start moving down the road to forgiveness, agreement, and reconciliation.

Ken Sande, The Peacemaker, pages 124-125

"

Five Days And Counting

The college football countdown is on!

Explanation: The Virginia Tech football season starts in five days when #7 VT opens the season against #5 Alabama. The countdown is on!

Book Review: Everyday Greatness by Stephen R. Covey, compiled by David K. Hatch

Have you ever read a great story and thought, “wow”? Where you were transported into that story and everything around you faded away as if you lived the story? Well imagine a book that has hundreds of great stories in it, a book that not only has hundreds of stories but are all categorized and after each story several pages of quotes follow enforcing the story’s and chapter’s theme.

I was a little apprehensive about the book because of the reader’s digest logo on the front. I thought I did not want to have some book I have to plow through about grandma’s curlers or great grandpa’s trips to the woodshed or some rural dad walking a million miles to school in the snow and then 10 pages on the moral of the story. To be honest with you the only reason I gave this book a second look on the blogging review program was the author Stephen Covey. I have always enjoyed anything and everything by him so I put my trust in his reputation and felt he would not let me down and boy was I impressed! If you need inspiration and want to find meaning in life then read this book. If you do not get inspired after reading this book then check your pulse!

Jason Rigby

http://northwestpastorjason.blogspot.com/

the church’s very nature is to be God’s missionary people.

God is about a big purpose in and for the whole of creation. The church has been called into life to be both the means of this mission and a foretaste of where God is inviting all creation to go. Just as its Lord is a mission-shaped God, so the community of God’s people exists, not for themselves but for the sake of the work. Mission is therefore not a program or project some people in the church do from time to time (as in a ‘mission trip’, ‘mission budget’, and so on); the church’s very nature is to be God’s missionary people.

The Missional Leader -Alan Roxborough, Fred Romanuk

Bing + Flash

So, I was making some experiments on Flashsites on Bing, the result I have is nothing. Bing is obviously not indexing Flash content on its searches.

I tend to think that this is another political issue: Silverlight vs. Flash, but I don´t know if Bing ins indexing Silverlight content. Anyway if we are hand to hand to Google we won´t haver problems.

If you want to register a site freely in Bing, just go here. You can upload your sitemap or apply for an appID, etc. (I have the strange feeling of having seen this anywhere else haha). I saw the banner on hotmail not in any other site.

HEDİYE KURABİYE BUKETLERİ

Yoğun geçen haftanın ardından sıra resimleri yayınlamaya geldi:)

Şeyma hanım için hazırladığım kurabiye buketi

Fatoş hanım için hazırladığım kurabiye buketi

Veee buda neşe hanım için hazırladığım kurabiye buketi

Total Eclipse of the Heart (Flowchart)

Total Eclipse of the Heart (Flowchart): "

Jeannie Harrell takes Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler, and puts it in flowchart form. Yes, you guessed it. It's Friday. And what better way to start the weekend with the music video in all its 1980s glory:

[Thanks, Sushmita & Fernando]

"

5 Dimensions of Sin

5 Dimensions of Sin: "

Tedd Tripp on the 5 Dimensions of Sin:

1. Sin is Vertical – Sin is self-worship. When we sin, we are saying, “I want to be God.”


2. Sin is Relational – We sin in community (first homicide, Cain killing Abel, sprung from jealousy).


3. Sin is Environmental – Everything outside of my heart is affected by sin as well.


4. Sin is Psychological – There is chaos and dysfunction at the deepest levels.


5. Sin is Historical – Your history gives tracks for your sin nature to run on.

Read the rest here.

"

Finally!

After MONTHS of “is my buh-day after this day?” or “Mom, is my buh-day in three days?” or “is my buh-day after Cal-i-fohnia?” or “after your buh-day, Mom, is it my buh-day?”…

We are BEYOND pleased to announce:

TODAY IS SETH’S BIRTHDAY.

We walked into the house after our run and this is what greeted us:

“Hey Mom.  Now, I’m Four today, you know!”

AMERICA!

Fear not Americans, for tonight we dine in VIRGINIA!!!

Source: Today's post is just an excuse to run the following Robot Chicken clip. One of their best ever, in my humble opinion.

Random Task

From the archives:

Ow! That really hurt... Who throws a shoe?

Source: I'm quoting Austin Powers today after Random Task threw a shoe at him. He then went on to tell Random Task that he fought like a woman. Good stuff. Now let's get to the exciting stuff.

Special Blog Bonus: Did you know you can get news on your computer? Check it out!

Today He gave (by Ryan)

The Old Testament prophet Job said:

"... the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." (Job 1:21)

Today I signed an offer to work for a very strong company. I have had this verse on my mind a lot because the more I experience life the more I know that the seemingly "good" blessings and the seemingly "bad" setbacks that we encounter in life are all ultimately blessings to us that flow from a loving God.

This job offer is a blessing because:

• My brother Grant's offer to be his "personal assistant" is no longer a necessary option.
• I will get to see my newly planted fruit trees and berry bushes grow and produce.
• My kids got to see another example of how prayers are answered.

The previous job loss was a blessing because:

• I got to enjoy the kindness of good friends and neighbors. (Thank you)
• It gave me pause to evaluate where I am and plan for where I want to be.

I am still working on not fearing the setbacks. But in the safe light of today's blessings I am able to see a little bit better where Job was coming from.

Will Sony Beat Amazon Where It Counts?

Will Sony Beat Amazon Where It Counts?: "

If you haven’t heard the news… Sony is releasing a new e-book reader, its answer to Amazon’s Kindle. Retailing at $399, the Sony reader will feature a touch screen (something the Kindle doesn’t have) and the ability to download books wirelessly (something the Kindle does have). It will also provide access to thousands of free (public domain) books & documents provided by Google Book Search. A nice touch.

But I’m wondering whether the Sony reader will beat the Kindle in the one category that really counts? Will it have a truly readable screen? The Sony and Amazon screens each use “e-ink” technology, which doesn’t cut the mustard. As Nicholson Baker recently wrote in The New Yorker, “The problem was not that the screen was in black-and-white; if it had really been black-and-white, that would have been fine. The problem was that the screen was gray. And it wasn’t just gray; it was a greenish, sickly gray. A postmortem gray. The resizable typeface, Monotype Caecilia, appeared as a darker gray. Dark gray on paler greenish gray was the palette of the Amazon Kindle.”

Hopefully Sony figures this piece out. If not, Apple may. According to The Wall Street Journal, Steve Jobs is back at Apple, just months after his liver transplant, working hard and raising the blood pressure of Apple employees, as they prepare to roll out a multimedia tablet that’s rumored to include, yes, an e-book reader.

"

Coolio, Where Are Youio?

Does anyone know what ever happened to Coolio?

Explanation: For some reason, Gangster's Paradise popped into my head the other day and I wondered what ever happened to Coolio. What do you think? Is he a Senator from Minnesota? Did he ride his big wheel into the Pacific Ocean, never to be heard from again? Did Biggie (R.I.P.) sit on him? I want to know!

Special Blog Bonus: Some people have too much time on their hands. But, without these people, we couldn't waste our own time watching clever videos made with LEGOs about 8-bit video games.

DEMLİK PASTA

Chosen, holy, loved

Chosen, holy, loved: "

“The gospel of Christ’s painful death on our behalf has a way of breaking our pride and our sense of rightful demands and our frustration at not getting our way. It works lowliness into our souls. Then we treat each other with meekness flowing out of that lowliness. The battle is with our own proud, self-centered inner person. Fight that battle by faith, through the gospel, in prayer. Be stunned and broken and built up and made glad and humble because you are chosen, holy, loved.”

- John Piper, This Momentary Marriage (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2009), 56.

"

Wireless Ebook Readers: Which One'll Burn Down the Bookstore? [Battlemodo]

Wireless Ebook Readers: Which One'll Burn Down the Bookstore? [Battlemodo]: "

With the Sony Reader Daily Edition, the 3G-enabled ebook reader battle is pitched. At the end of this year, it'll fight Amazon's Kindle 2 and DX and Plastic Logic's eReader to the death. Here's how they all stack up now:

Aaaand we can't not do a proper sizemodo, naturally:

"

"Moral Fervor is Our Deepest Evil"

"Moral Fervor is Our Deepest Evil": "

Moral fervor is our deepest evil. When we intend to serve God, but forget to crucify Self moment by moment, we are capable of acting cruelly while feeling virtuous about it.

Let's always beware that delicious feeling that we are the defenders of the holy. Christ is the only Defender of the holy. He defends us from persecutors. He defends us from becoming persecutors. We can take refuge in him. But that esteem of him also means we regard ourselves with suspicion, especially when judging another.

-- Ray Ortlund

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
-- 1 John 2:1

Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
-- Hebrews 7:25

This is why the message of the gospel is not 'Behave!' but 'Believe!'

"

What Gabe would like you to know on the occasion of his 9th birthday

1. I have a great family.
2. I've had a fun birthday--


crepes, swimming, lunch at Olive Garden (pictured) and I don't know what to say because we haven't done the rest.
3. I'm looking forward to having a wonderful dessert and having my cousins sleepover.
4. This year I know how to do the breast stroke.
5. When I'm 9, I plan to learn more things in school and scouts.
6. I have a broken toe on my birthday.
7. I have nothing funny to say Mom. Goodbye.

-- Post From My iPhone

Adobe MAX 2009 [widget]

Why Discipleship Is our only hope

Why Discipleship Is our only hope: "

The reason the Christian faith has not transformed American culture is that it has not significantly transformed the majority of Christians. The American church has taught a gospel that most often has been unaccompanied by discipleship.When the gospel loses discipleship, it loses the permission and the ability to teach people deeply. This eliminates the process Jesus commanded, “ teach them to obey everything I have commanded you.” The teaching Jesus commanded is applied in three ways in local ministry, philosophy, program and curriculum. Philosophy is the biblical understanding, program is the infrastructure , and curriculum is the content of what is taught.

read more

"

Save Dollars and Calories with DIY Microwave Popcorn [DIY]

Save Dollars and Calories with DIY Microwave Popcorn [DIY]: "

We've shown you how to get movie theater popcorn for pennies on the dollar, but this DIY microwave popcorn trick is perfect for lazy nights at home. Prepare a batch now and then to enjoy a healthy, cheap snack.

Instructables user Hoopajoo had a major issue with store-bought microwave popcorn:

Go to the supermarket and look at the boxes of microwave popping corn. $1.99 to $3.00 a box and the odds are you won't find one seasoned to your individual taste. You just have to settle for what they offer.

So he did what any true DIYer would: found a way to make it at home. Now he's shared his recipe with us.

What you'll need:

• 1/4 cup of popping corn (Generally $0.99 for a pound bag. This is enough to make at least 50 bags of microwave corn.)
• 1 Teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
• To taste - popcorn salt (It has finer granules than table salt with the same taste.)

And these tools:

• A stapler
• A teaspoon
• A measuring cup
• A brown paper bag
• A microwave

We would suggest skipping the stapler and using this trick, though, because somehow we're wary about sticking staples into our microwaves, even if there are no sparks in the video:

Check out the full instructions for this DIY recipe at Instructables, but before you go, tell us: Have you ever made a DIY version of microwave popcorn before? How'd it taste? (And did the staples spark up?) What other snacks do you prefer to make at home?

Microwave Popcorn: Homemade, cheap, and easy [Instructables]

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