Monday, November 24, 2008

A little funny for your day...

I got this in an email and thought it was entertaining enough to share. I don't vouch for the validity of the actual court case but I enjoyed the idea behind it.

FLORIDA COURT SETS ATHEIST HOLY DAY

In Florida, an atheist created a case against the upcoming Easter & Passover holy days. He hired an attorney to bring a discrimination case against Christians, Jews & observances of their holy days. The argument was it was unfair that atheists had no such recognized day.

The case was brought before a judge. After listening to the passionate presentation by the lawyer, the judge banged his gavel declaring, "Case dismissed."

The lawyer immediately stood objecting to the ruling saying, "Your Honor, how can you possibly dismiss this case? The Christians have Christmas, Easter & others. The Jews have Passover, Yom Kippur & Hanukkah. Yet my client & all other atheists have no such holidays."

The judge leaned forward in his chair saying, "But you do, counsel, your client is woefully ignorant."

The lawyer said, "Your Honor, we are unaware of any special observance or holiday for atheists."

The judge said, "The calendar says April 1st is 'April Fools' Day. Psalm 14:1 states 'The fool says in his heart, there is no God.' Thus, it is the opinion of this court, that if your client says there is no God, then he is a fool. Therefore, April 1st is his day. Court is adjourned."

Thursday, November 20, 2008

35th Birthday Week

Hello all! Well, this week I celebrated my 35th birthday. It was a great day, nice weather in the middle of a week of very cold weather on either side. Everyone is so nice to you when it's your birthday, why can't we treat each other this good when it's not our birthdays??

To be honest, this is a bitter sweet milestone for me. When you are young and have your whole future in front of you, it feels like you could do anything! As you get older, you begin to realize there just isn't enough resources, energy or time off of work to do all the things you want to do in life. The life you end up living is far from the life you dreamed of, more times than not.

This is especially true if you have certain plans and hopes and dreams that require participation from other people outside of yourself. You can't *make* people do what you want or feel what you need them to feel or think that they should. You simply can't *make* these dreams into reality. People will always disappoint you in one way or another. The Lord is the only true rock to depend on. He will never leave nor forsake us. Things, life on the other hand, just doesn't always turn out like you thought it would, leaving you in a state of grief over your losses. There's nothing wrong with this mourning. In fact, I would argue that it's a necessary step in the process. If you don't take the time to mourn those losses and unfulfilled dreams, you will spend years waiting for them to happen when you could have moved on to dream new dreams! But you can't dream new dreams until your old dreams are in the past.

I will never be a young bride. My wedding photos, if I even have any, will all be of me in my mid to late 30's, wrinkles and all.

I will never be a young mom. My dreams of being young and spry with little ones under foot will never come to fruition. I may still have children either from me or by adoption but I will always be atleast 36 years older than them. I will never have the energy of a 20 something woman to keep up with their energetic needs.

I will never fly in outer space.
I will never be a filmmaker in Hollywood.
I will never be a professional photographer.
I will never be a chef.
I will never be a teacher.
I may never be wife or a mother.

So what then? Shall I lay down and sob for the rest of my days? No way!!!!! There are plenty of satisfying things I can do with my days here. This world is not my home anyway. I can get busy for the Lord and seek what He would have me to do. I enjoy so many things, I can do them and find that contentment abounds! The important thing for me to do is have a time of mourning for those old dreams and then move on to dream some new ones! For every 40 something person who wakes up and wonders where their life went and what happened to all the things they didn't do, is a 30 something person waisting their life waiting!

I'm 35. It's time for me to dream new dreams and get to it!

Friday, November 14, 2008

So much for this week...

Well, I had big hopes at the beginning of the week to utilize a new writing technique in a way of being creative with my 'To do' list and actually get excited to complete tasks and mark them off the list. Then the big kitchen construction project came up and frrrt! There goes that idea!

Clustering can be used to quickly and creatively drum up writing ideas and begin to "branch" out on a given topic expanding the areas with which you can write on that topic. When you begin to try these different writing techniques, you'll find you can use the ideas for other applications. Someone suggested using clustering as a 'to do' list in lieu of a boring straight list that has a less likely chance of being returned to mid week for reference or completion.

(Be nice, I'm no artist, but that's the beauty of it!)

So here's my first one. You'll notice me in the middle, hello BeccA! Then I have a few branches that will be the standard of areas I need to focus my attentions. Starting in the upper left and continuing clockwise: Home, New Ideas, Personal Spiritual growth, Church and finally Online life. It's important to date the page giving a point of reference for later when you have more than one of these to refer to. I highlight the items I get done, this gives me a sense of accomplishment and also allows me to see what I have already finished rather than just marking through it. You can see the clustering effect in the branches from each main area, and them sometimes there are other ideas branching from those, as in the prayer list.

Monday, November 3, 2008

I love Cato!


Ok, I know it's not *that* big of a deal but I went to Cato yesterday and bought 6 tops for like $18!!! Wooo hooo! Of course they are summer weight shirts but I can wear them under sweaters and jackets and be just fine. Heck, it will even be better considering how easily I get hot in layers, so it's better that the tops are thin and short sleeved or sleevless alltogether :) It's easy to get excited over a good bargain!

Oh, and I know it's because of the different styles and makers .... but it made me feel good yesterday, 2 of my tops were the next size down!!!!!!! Woo hoo!!