I live for summer! So I want to share all my favorite summer things...
So what are your favorite summer things?
Hey, friends. I know you've been very concerned over my dishwashing issues, what with my dishwasher being broken (that is, Rich's wrist is broken), but I want you to know that I have come up with a solution. And no, it's not to set the dishes out on the floor and let Dixie lick them clean or to go strictly to using paper plates.
When I tell you my solution, all of you can give me a collective DUH! in the comments. I figured out that the easiest thing to do is wash the dishes as I use them. That's it! So this morning I washed out my cereal bowl, my plate, my knife, fork and spoon, the pan I fried my egg in, and the little spatula. Voila! Dishes done. Sure it takes an extra five minutes I have to squeeze into my morning, but it's tremendously easier than doing the job in one big collection.
Are you proud of me or what?
Hey, guys. On a lighter note today, I just have to share this funny, little thing. I'm on Facebook, and I don't do a lot of those silly quizzes because 1) They clutter my page, and I so don't like clutter, and 2) Sometimes they're downright stupid. But I just came across one that will tell you which Anne of Green Gables character you are. Well, you know I'm the biggest Anne fan there is, so of course I'm going to take the quiz.
I must say I am very impressed that they nailed me exactly. I wish I would've been analyzed as Anne, but aside from that, the description of the character is so ME, it's uncanny. I have been classified as...
MARILLA CUTHBERT -
Like Marilla Cuthbert you are independent, stern and don’t care too much for showing emotion. You approach each situation with strength and sometimes even skepticism. You’re not very open, but when you do let someone in, you care for them completely. As much as you are loving and have a big heart, you strongly believe in strict morals, approaching situations with good judgment and appreciating everything that life has to offer.
Oh my goodness, that is SOOOOO me!
I've been back to the doctor today for a follow-up to learn of my test results. I have nothing to share, except that we waited a long time again to find out that the doctor didn't have the most important test results back from the lab yet. So I get to go back AGAIN on Saturday. And OH, THE TESTS THEY HAVE PLANNED FOR ME.
Dontcha think it's wonderful how I got to pay $20 to be weighed, have my blood pressure taken and to answer the same health history questions as last week? If you're sensing sarcasm, you're on the ball.
I'm soooo not happy right now.
Just for fun today, I want to post my 13 favorite Disney Movies. So here they are in no particular order.
I just wanted to share this Steven Curtis Chapman blog site with you. They have a place for you to express condolences and a video posted of him and Maria washing dishes together a few months ago, and it is adorable. I can imagine living in that house is a lot of fun. It makes their trial seem so vivid when you contrast the laughter with the grief they're experiencing today.
I'm posting the video here because it's so precious.
You know, as Christians we're just pilgrims wandering here, waiting for that glorious day when we'll fly. And sometimes we need a reminder to persevere until then.
So as I often do, I listen to my pretend BFF, Sara Groves. She sings a song that is a prayer about how if life's circumstances should cause someone to lose sight of the Lord, that He would stir their heart to renew their relationship. Take a listen by clicking on the player. The lyrics are printed below.
"Stir My Heart" - by Sara Groves
If time were ever to wear you away
If circumstance should bind me
If age should bring a dark night on my soul
If fear and doubt should blind mePlease stir my heart
Take me back to the fire
Bring to me a recollection of joy
Renew my first desireIf pains and trials come to me
And I cannot stand strong
If fools adjust my theories
To believe Your truth is wrongPlease stir my heart
Take me back to the fire
Bring to me a recollection of joy
Renew my first desireI swear it never will happen to me
But how can I know
For Peter swore the same to Thee
O, hear the cock crowPlease stir my heart
Take me back to the fire
Bring to me a recollection of joy
Renew my first desire
A few of my readers have commented that they are praying for me. That's hard to take in. You don't know me personally, but you're praying for me and about the circumstances we're facing.
I realize I need a rush of God's grace to get me through this stuff. I'm asking the why's, and I guess I shouldn't be when I believe in God's sovereignty. I'm weary, and I know I'm not acting on faith. I'm going on feelings.
So thank you for praying.
I'm going to be really honest right now. And when I say honest, I mean lay my heart out bare for you to know how I'm really feeling.
Life right now seems so unfair.
Rich is disabled without use of his right hand, and even though he isn't completely helpless, he's been very uncomfortable with pain ever since they put the cast on. I'm tired of that. We're left to wonder until Thursday when he goes back to get an x-ray about whether or not his wrist got moved when they put the cast on and if there's a problem. That frustrates me.
I went to the doctor today because I've been having some stomach problems for over a month that I really don't want to talk about. Something is very wrong in there, and it's making life difficult for me because I can feel fine one minute and feel pain the next. And I don't want to be too far from the little girls' room, if you know what I mean. (That's as much as I'll say on the blog.) I didn't even want to go to the doctor, but sometimes a person just gets desperate. I got to sit and try to remain calm from the time of my appointment, which was 2:30, until I finally saw the doctor, which was at about 4:00. They were short-handed, and very behind. Then to be told by the doctor that...ANYTHING could cause this... It's probably something in your diet...I won't be able to tell you anything today... makes me want to cry. If you only knew the lengths I've gone to in the past to alter my diet to try to feel well, you'd understand why that thought brings such dread.
I go back in a week for blood work results and to see if he can figure anything out. I'm tired of this, and I don't want to live with it for one more day, let alone another week (or two or three or how long?).
Are you picking up that I'm tired? Yep, I'm TIRED. It's not a physical tired. It's just an I'm feeling oppressed kind of tired.
Rich was seen by an orthopaedic surgeon today, and he says his wrist should be fine. Six weeks in a cast should take care of it. Whew! Breathing a sigh of relief over that prospect of 12 weeks on the mend.
We're trying to get the dog and cats to understand that they are to avoid pawing at, jumping on, licking, or nudging at the injured arm. They don't quite get it. I thought animals were supposed to have a sixth sense about pain and injury.
By the way, I'm still waiting for that dish washing fairy. Anybody seen her?
It's funny how life and the day-to-day routine can change in a moment. That's what happened to us today.
Rich is a meat cutter at a superstore, and he was cleaning the cutting room floor this morning. We won't talk about how that's not actually part of his job description, nor how he's told management over and over that the cleaning agent is the wrong type for their floor and is very slippery. Nope. We're not talking about that. What we are talking about is how he slipped and fell on the slippery floor, breaking his radius bone. Which is like breaking your wrist but not exactly.
He has an appointment to see an orthopedic surgeon on Thursday to find out if he needs surgery or not. If the break doesn't heal properly, he's told he will have minimal movement in his wrist. Seeing as he broke his right wrist and he is right handed, you can see how that would make quite a difference in his day-to-day life. Especially his job, since he is a meat cutter and they cut meat by hand with a big knife and not a saw.
He's been told this could take up to 12 weeks to heal. 12 WEEKS! 12 weeks not working. 12 weeks hanging around the house. 12 weeks of not playing golf. Not mowing. Not washing dishes. (If you recall, he is my dishwasher.) You can see it's going to be a fun summer.
At this point I'm not thinking the worst. Until he sees the surgeon, we have no idea what we're talking about. So we'll wait and see what we might be looking forward to. God is sovereign and good, so He will supply grace for whatever is coming. I have no doubt that things are sure going to get interesting around here, no matter what.
If anyone knows of a good dishwashing fairy, would you please send her my way? Thank you.
I feel like I need to make some sort of contact here. I know I haven't written in days. I haven't looked to see exactly how long it's been, but I know it's been long enough. I'm still around, but I've been occupied with a project I'm trying to finish up by next week. I'm trying to use all my free time to work on that, rather than coming up with some funny and entertaining blog entries. The project will be complete soon.
Our church is in a men's softball league, and I have often enjoyed going to the games during the summer. Because I am soooo into softball and sports and things like that. It's not about the socializing AT ALL.
So last night was the first game of the season, and I picked up my friend Sherry to take her over there to... ya know... cheer on the softball team. She brought her camera and took a lot of pictures of the team and the fans.
See? I'm totally into the game.
In an effort to increase the meaningfulness in my life, I have joined Twitter. Because you know I need just one more thing to distract me on the internet, don't you? And because you truly want to discover everything you possibly can about me, you can follow the monotonous play-by-play of my oh-so-exciting life over there or here on my blog. Why else would you visit Discovering Liz?
Have you got goosebumps like I do right now? Humor me, 'kay?
I hadn't mentioned this to you before, but I finally finished War of Words. I am so thankful I read that book. So far in the few years that I've really been into reading Christian non-fiction, there are only a handful of books that I would consider to be life-changing. This is one of them. It deals so much with seeing God's work in relationships and knowing that even the most difficult conversations are ordained by Him in order to show us what's in our hearts, as well as to cause us to help one another become more like Christ.
I feel like it's been more far reaching than that for me. It extends into the everyday circumstances of life that don't even involve conversation. I believe the Lord has taught me to look for His work in all things. I see His work in other people's lives so much more readily now, whenever someone explains something difficult they're going through. I have been able to see God in the midst of their struggles when all they see is the awfulness. I desire to turn inward and look at my life in the same way, to investigate exactly where the Lord is working His good purposes in my life. I believe that when we look for Him to work and even anticipate it, we see His hand more quickly in the trial. I want that to cause me to trust Him more than I have in the past.
That's what He's been teaching me lately.
Alright, I honestly have not been ambitious, but I have a few pictures from our ladies luncheon Saturday.
This is me and Kathy. She was portraying the Proverbs 31 woman in a brief Bible character dialogue. We are very silly together, aren't we?
This is the welcome sign I made with fabric and some clip art.
And these are the cupcakes that one of the ladies made for each table. She made sewing notions out of chocolate and placed one on each cupcake. Aren't they cute? Unfortunately, I did not partake of them. I just admired them very closely.
There's not much I can say tonight. It's been a long day, and I have been tired ever since I got up this morning. It's pretty much been go-go-go all day, up until about 8:00 tonight. I'm zonked!
If I get really ambitious, there might be pictures later. But that's only if I get really ambitious.
Would you believe my car has already been repaired? It was finished within a couple hours of dropping it off at the mechanic. Turns out it needed a fuse replaced, and it was a pretty simple procedure and not too expensive. We still need the suspension repaired, but we don't need it fixed right away.
Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. We're having a luncheon at church, and it's going to be the biggest turnout we've ever had. Over 100 ladies and their girls have signed up to attend. The theme is based on sewing and patterns, so they're decorating with dress forms, an old sewing machine, scrap fabric, and various sewing notions. I was in charge of making the welcome sign. I glued some calico fabric to a poster board and then printed out the words for the sign off of the computer, along with a couple clip art photos.
We're supposed to take a salad to the luncheon, and I was really glad that yesterday when I started thumbing through my cookbook I happened across a recipe I've made before. It's a healthy version of creamy coleslaw. I decided that I might try adding a little horseradish to give it a zing, just for fun. I've already mixed it up and think it tastes pretty good. I know once it's chilled awhile those flavors are going to mingle and intensify. I can't wait to see what the horseradish does to the taste.
I've got First Place Bible study first thing in the morning, the luncheon at 11:30, and then I'm going to a friend's open house for her college graduation. I know the weekend is going to fly. I'll be sitting at my desk on Monday morning, wondering what happened to the weekend.
I feel like my car is on its last legs...or should that be tires? No, the tires are fine.
I was out running a couple errands this afternoon, and my car starting dinging at me. DING. DING. DING. DING. Hmmm...why is it doing that? The Neon is quirky, so I didn't think too much of it. The oil light has been on for a year, and it means nothing. I drove a little farther then... DING. DING. DING. DING. Uh, what's going on? I finally noticed that the little guage that reads H or C was on the H. From what I know about cars, that's not really where the little arrow thingy should be pointing. H = bad. C = good.
I called Rich, and he said I could try to drive it home. I did, but the thing was sure goofy. It cooled down as I drove, but then it heated up when I idled. Again, I don't know anything about cars, but that doesn't make sense to me. Seems like it would be the other way around.
I made it home, but he's just taken the car over a couple blocks to a mechanic. Since we haven't had a car repair yet in this new town, I sure hope the mechanic is a good one.
This overheating incident is not the only problem. I think we need a new suspension and possibly the brakes need work, too. It's kind of starting to look like I won't be buying that new refrigerator we were planning for.
In the meantime, it appears I might be stranded here without a car. I can't drive Rich's because it's a manual transmission, and I don't know how to drive it.