A Thanksgiving Memory

I remember celebrating Thanksgiving when I was in Kindergarten, and if I remember correctly, each of us was to bring in a vegetable to be used in a Thanksgiving stew we would get to eat at noon.  I remember as the stew cooked throughout the morning, the aroma of it wafted through the air.  I could hardly wait to eat it.  Whenever I smell stew, my mind goes to that memory.  Even when it isn't Thanksgiving.

For art class we made hats and tops out of construction paper and paper grocery bags to look like Pilgrim and Indian outfits.  I doubt this craft has gone out of style, even after 30 years.  Here I am modeling my pilgrim ensemble.  I also had an Indian ensemble, but I liked this one better. 

Don't you love the dress I'm wearing?  It was a long prairie-type skirt with an apron.  That wonderful applique at the bottom was classic for the time.  I was totally into Holly Hobbie, Little House on the Prairie, and anything having to do with that prairie look in those days.

Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving with family and friends, making memories of your own.  Try not to eat too much pie!

Busy, Busy

Hi, friends.  It's been a busy week.  Seemed like the longest week of my life, yet at the same time it flew by.  How exactly does that work?  Time sure is a puzzling element.

Tomorrow will be another full day.  After morning church service, I have another practice with the Children's Christmas Program.  They feed us lunch after service, then we start practice at 1:00.  That will run until 4:00.  Then adult choir practice runs 4:30-5:30.  Evening service starts at 6:00.  Last time I thought I could sneak a nap in there between 4:00 and 4:30, but it didn't work out because the director needed to go over some music with me.  Guess we'll see what happens tomorrow.

I'll be ready for a holiday next week.  So glad it's just a 3-day week for me.  I always take off Thanksgiving and the day after.

Have a good Sunday, all.

A Reminder

Don't forget that tomorrow is the Got Talent? blog carnival right here on my blog.  I sure hope you've captured your talent on video and are ready for your world debut. 

Okay, so maybe the whole world is not going to see your video.  My readership is not quite that vast, so just make it like I'm the only one who's going to see it.  And never-you-mind the other 3 readers who'll be viewing it, too.

If all goes as planned, you will be able to link up your post with Mr. Linky first thing on Friday morning.  Since this is my first time using Mr. Linky, please bear with me if it's not right the first time.  I heard rumors today on Twitter that Mr. Linky's website was experiencing some technical difficulties.  I sure hope that everything is okey-dokey on Friday.

I can't wait to see what you've created and to learn a little more about my blogging neighbors.

Oh...guess I better get my video finished too.  See you tomorrow.

30 Days to Freedom

Tuesday, November 18.  It may seem like just another Tuesday to you, but this day marks a very important milestone in my life.  I've been on a journey to freedom.  Freedom of the open road.

Let me take you back to September 4th, the day of my car accident.  There was one small detail I left out of the story, which unfolded into crisis.  I learned just minutes after my fender bender that our insurance had lapsed four days prior because we never received our bill.  Completely unawares, I was driving without car insurance, which is against the law.  And warrants a ticket.

Three weeks later when I went to the city building to pay the fine, much to my displeasure I was informed that my license would be suspended for 90 days.  I repeat... 90 DAYS!  That's 3 months.  I was stunned!  Of course, my mind started racing, thinking about all the places I needed to go and wouldn't be able to.  I was a mess.

But life goes on.

It's been a benefit to live within 5-10 minutes of parents, friends, the church, and the grocery store.  My loved ones have been taking turns driving me to where I need to be.  It's been interesting, and that's about all I'll say about that. 

I've been tempted on more than one occasion to just hop in my car and drive.  I wouldn't care where.  I just want to DRIVE.  But jail is a pretty hefty deterrent.  I would not fare well behind bars.  So I submit to remaining a passenger until the appointed date.

What makes today special is that it marks the countdown of my 30 Days to Freedom.  On December 18th, everyone better move out of the way.  Liz will be back on the road and ready to burn rubber!

I think I might drive to Walmart.

A Day at the Office: Edition #3

A Day at the Office: Edition #3 from Liz on Vimeo.

Some Link Love

Hey, if you are a book lover, you might want to visit Mocha With Linda tomorrow for her Booked for the Holidays.  She's doing a giveaway of some of her favorite Christian fiction that she's recently read.  It all starts tomorrow (Nov. 17) and will continue over the next 4 weeks. 

I'm going to check it out.  I'm not a regular reader of Linda's blog, so I'll be a newbie there as well.

 

Pray?

This morning I was challenged by the Internet Cafe Devotions to pray for everything.  I do spend time in prayer every morning, and I'm in process of learning to lay everything at the Lord's feet.  It's still a struggle, though.  I know I'm not surrendering everything because often after the amen I carry it with me out of my room, off to fix breakfast, and then out the door to work.  Stuff is always on my mind it seems, which tells me I never surrendered it at all.

Rather than having a continual dialog with the Lord, I mull things and fret.  I work those things over and over in my head from every angle.  Pray?  Not always my first thought. 

For instance, last night I heard the weather forecast for Monday.  It's not looking good, folks.  They're talking snow for northern Indiana, and plenty of it.  Six inches by Monday night?  That's untypical for November around here, so it caught me a little off guard.  What really started my fretting is that Judy is flying into Indianapolis on Monday and will be driving home late...in the snow...if Mr. Meteorologist is correct. 

I started mulling that over...

What if the roads are bad?  I hope she's safe.  What if there's just too much snow, and she has to stay in Indy overnight?  She has to teach Bible study on Tuesday morning.  What about that?  I love Tuesday mornings and Bible study.  It's my favorite morning of the week.  Stupid snow!  Why snow now?  Stupid meteorologist! 

...And there you have it.  Mulling and fretting, even a bit hostile toward the weatherman, but not praying. 

I was reminded how a few weeks ago I had determined I was going to talk to the Lord about everything.  We were going to have these great conversations about what was going on in my life, and I had great intentions of sharing it all with Him, knowing His great love for me.  I haven't done very well in that.  It seems like I need to renew that commitment again.

Philippians 4:6 - Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;

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If you'd like to see what other people have on their minds concerning this devotional, go on over to Internet Cafe Devotions: Café Chat November 15th.

New Neighbors

We aren't the type of folks who get all in our neighbors' business.  We're more of the observant type.  So we haven't been exactly sure about what's been going on next door.  All we know is that the man who used to live there moved out months ago and then began doing repairs around the house a few weeks ago.  We never saw a "For Sale" or "For Rent" sign, but in the past week we've seen different vehicles out front and a couple we didn't recognize coming and going from the house.  Thus, we came to the conclusion that we have new neighbors.

It's always a tricky thing when you get new neighbors.  Will they be noisy?  Will they treat their backyard like a dump?  Will they be the type to throw parties and play loud music into the wee hours of the morning?  Yeah, it's always a wait-and-see game when new neighbors move in.

So?  Our new neighbors?  They have a dog.  Rumor has it (and that means Rich looked out the window and reported back to me) that it's a Boxer.  A Boxer who barks.  {sigh}

That's bad news.  Bad. Bad. News.

On the west side of us lives a wiry, little yipper.  Some sort of mini pinscher?  Dixie can hear that little guy the nano-second he steps out his back door and starts barking in our living room, which of course, sets the yipper to barking back in reply from outside.  Now on the east side we have the Boxer, who started barking in its backyard last night while the little yipper was on the other side barking back.  Which then set Dixie to barking because that's just what a dog does when it hears other neighbor-dogs barking.

Have I mentioned that we don't like the barking so much?  {sigh}

Love: An Action, Not a Feeling

I've been thinking a lot about relationships, about both my successes and failures in them.  I've been asking myself what has made successful relationships and what have I done that's made a mess of them.  I can never get very far from these questions.  I think it's because God won't let me ignore them.  He is very much about communication and relationships.

Maybe I appear quite congenial on my blog, but I have blown lots of relationships.  Some have been mended.  Some are in process.  Others need attention.  And unfortunately, others may be lost until Heaven.  I've had to face personal responsibility for what I've lacked, which was love.

What is love?  For me, love is an affectionate feeling I have for somebody, a tenderness, a compassion.  The Bible defines love as an action and not a feeling, and I've had a difficult time embracing that.  I want it to be a feeling, yet at the same time, I know my feelings fail me.  Or rather, my feelings fail others.

I've had to face that reality in the last month.  My feelings have failed.  I've found myself grasping onto something, demanding my own way in my heart, only to find it conflicting with what someone else needed.  Someone precious to me.  I can't have my own way and still try to promote what's best for them at the same time.  Why?  Because my love is fleshly and not godly.  My love is more often about what I get from the person, than what I am giving to them.

As I opened my Bible a couple weeks ago to 1 Corinthians 13 to be reminded what godly love is, I saw how I have failed at all of these attributes.  I decided it would help if I wrote out each quality with my name inserted because I am to demonstrate each of them in my relationships.  This is how it looks:

• Liz suffers long
• Liz is kind
• Liz does not envy (others)
• Liz does not parade herself (before others)
• Liz is not puffed up (about who she is or what she does)
• Liz does not behave rudely (toward others)
• Liz does not seek her own (way)
• Liz is not provoked (by others)
• Liz thinks no evil (of others)
• Liz does not rejoice in iniquity
• Liz rejoices in the truth
• Liz bears all things
• Liz believes all things (in others)
• Liz hopes all things (for others)
• Liz endures all things (for others)

Those are not feelings.  Those are choices of my will.  My natural man is unkind, envies, seeks its own way, and is very easily provoked....because of feelings.  The spiritual man ignores feelings and chooses to do what God says.

As I've read over my list the last few mornings, my prayer has been that God will create this love in my life because I haven't got it.  I imagine how much freedom would come to a person who loves like that.

Don't forget the Got Talent? carnival is November 21, a week from today.  Can't wait to see if anyone has got talent out there.

My Hero

I'm sending a SHOUT-OUT to my husband because he is my hero of the week.  He rescued my bathroom floor.  Let me explain.

We're having company over on Saturday night for the first time since we've moved into our house 2 1/2 years ago.  I've been concerned over my bathroom floor looking so dingy, and I really wanted to give it a hefty cleaning before company arrives. 

I purchased some cleaner and large sponges on Monday. Then I filled my bucket, got on my hands and knees, and began to scrub away at the grunge.  Much to my dismay, the grunge wouldn't budge.  Really.  It wouldn't BUDGE!  That's when my husband told me that he has already attempted to clean that floor numerous times since moving in, and he couldn't make any headway either.

Hence began my temper tantrum.  My adult-like temper tantrum.  I did not throw myself on the floor, kicking and screaming.  Sure would've like to, though.  Hubby assured me he would look for some wax stripper and see if he couldn't get that grunge up in a different fashion.

So while I was out sipping on a latte at Starbucks yesterday afternoon, unbeknownst to me, Rich was on his hands and knees in the bathroom cleaning the floor with pure ammonia.  (Someone at work had suggested this method, and he decided to give it a try.)  When I got home he took me directly to the bathroom and asked, What do you think?  The floor was SHINING.  Absolutely shining!  I could not believe it. 

And would you know that when I got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, the floor was even shining by the glow of our little nightlight?  I smiled in my sleepiness.

So thanks, Rich.  You're my hero.

Got Talent?

If you've hung around here long enough, you know I love creating videos and viewing other bloggers' videos.  I think videos are a fabulous way to get a sense of the person behind the written words.  Well, I've been thinking the last few weeks that it would fun to get my readers involved with a little video participation and maybe get to know you a little better.  You'd enjoy that too, wouldn't you?

So... do you have a talent?  Sure you do.  Everyone has at least one.  Maybe you sing, play an instrument, do celebrity imitations, or know how to whip up something special in the kitchen.  I don't know what your "thing" is, but I sure would love to see it.  That's why I'm hosting the Got Talent? blog carnival on Friday, November 21st.

All you have to do is create a video of you, your spouse, your kids... goodness, it could even be your dog, if you're that desperate... performing a special talent.  Just be sure to keep it clean.  You can make it as simple or as elaborate as you like.  Then on November 21 I'll put up a Mr. Linky, and you can link your blog post up to the carnival.  (I sure hope I can figure out how to do a Mr. Linky, or we're going to be in big trouble.) 

Please don't be shy.  Really.  We'll love whatever you do.  Just relax and have fun with it. 

I'm giving you about 10 days to put it together, so do some brainstorming and then get recording.  I'm still mulling what my video is going to be, but I've got a pretty good idea.

Do me a favor?  Spread the word about Got Talent? by grabbing the button for your blog sidebar and linking to my blog.  Feel free to blog about it, too.  I'd be ever so appreciative. 

I'm so excited!  I can hardly wait!

 

<a href="http://discoveringliz.blogspot.com/2008/11/got-talent.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="Got Talent? Button" src="http://i461.photobucket.com/albums/qq339/discoveringliz/Blog%20pics/GotTalentButton.jpg"/></a>

 

 

 

 

P.S.  If you don't have a blog but would like to make a video anyway, you could always provide the link to your video on Vimeo, YouTube or wherever yours is hosted. 

Dizzy

I woke up dizzy this morning.  Actually, I felt it coming on last night when I went to bed and hoped a good night's sleep would knock it out.  It did not.  I took half of a Bonine tablet, in hopes it would not make me drowsy like Dramamine does, but it seems both meds have the very same effect on me.

I forced myself to go to work because there is no rest for the dizzy church secretary on Fridays when the bulletin must be made.  I could function well enough for that, but forget about multi-tasking, conversing with real people, or doing anything else that requires math or thinking of any sort.  I have zero concentration ability when my head is like this.  Well, it turned out to be a multi-tasking morning, and I almost had a meltdown before 9:00.  But soon thereafter all the peripheral tasks were finished, and I moved on to the bulletin and a smoother morning.

I came home at noon, ate lunch, and then went to bed.  I slept until 3:00, which is when my husband got home from work and opened the bedroom door.  It's very possible he woke me from a near coma because I didn't know what time it was, what day it was, or just what was going on.  He says the dog was barking like mad when he came in the house, but I didn't hear a thing.  When I got up my head felt worse, and I was grouchy.  I am UGLY when I'm groggy and on that medication.  Just take my word for it.  No one should see that.

Once I really awaken I can shake off the mood, so I've been pretty okay all evening.  Rich graciously took care of dinner by running out for fast food.  I must say if being dizzy all day so that I cannot get to the grocery store means I must eat a Burrito Supreme from Taco Bell, well then I am willing to suffer.

It's almost time for bed now, and my head still doesn't feel great.  I sure hope this thing is knocked out by morning, or I'm gonna lose Saturday, too.  And that would really bum me out.

The Comments Form Is Now Fixed

If you have tried to leave comments on my blog in the last week or so, I just discovered that the links weren't working.  How unfortunate!  I changed a comments setting, so it appears to be working now. 

I had been wondering why I wasn't getting any comments lately, although I attributed it to lousy topics and sparse entries.  I was beginning to think everyone had fallen off the face of the earth, though.

So comment away...

A Day at the Office: Edition #2

Now back by popular demand, I give you A Day at the Office: Edition #2.

A Day at the Office: Edition #2 from Liz on Vimeo.

Video

Did you miss the previous edition of A Day at the Office?  Click here.