Category Archives: Musings

Musings

Blogs and Connecting People

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The world of blogging is extraordinary. Some people postulate there are just over 70 million blogs on the internet. Just pause and let that sink in for a minute. 70 million!

Joshua

Joshua has a blog he needs to post soon on Winter Camp.

Technorati, which describes itself as:”the recognized authority on what’s happening on the World Live Web, right now,” searches, surfaces, and organizes blogs and “the other forms of independent, user-generated content (photos, videos, voting, etc.) increasingly referred to as ‘citizen media.’” Basically a blog that tracks other blogs. So helpful! On the Technorati ‘about us’ page it said they are currently tracking 72 million blogs.

It is really unbelievable to me that so many people, companies, organizations, etc have created blogs. That is a lot of voices wanting to be heard. If I had time and a calculator I could figure out how long it would take you to cover all of them if you did nothing else but read blogs all day and covered about one blog every 5 minutes. The mind boggles. Where to start??? LOL!

daniel

Daniel could easily figure this out. He’s already wired to go!

I stumbled across this list stating 10 things necessary for a great blog:

* Credibility
* Authority
* Passion
* Personality
* Reliability
* Empathy
* Reality
* Unique
* Timeliness
* Membership

Gee, that’s not asking much, is it? Those are some pretty high standards for a blog. They sound more like things I want in a good friend, much less a little ole weblog. Already there are blog awards springing up all over. Best of Blogs, Blog Awards, Bloggy Awards, The Bloggies, International Weblog Awards, even SuperBlessed Christian Blog Awards. I guess with 72 million blogs (and growing) there is a desire to try to sort and classify them. The categories of the awards are as crazy and bizarre as the blog entries themselves. Search these at your own peril.

Here is another collection of qualifications I found online (notice the overlap):

* Personality
* Usefulness
* Quality of the Writing
* Usability and Design
* Frequency of Posts
* Relevance
* Interactivity (audio, video)
* Fulfillment of Purpose
* Appropriateness
* Would you revisit?

This weekend I skimmed through Blogging for Dummies (is there a Dummies book for EVERY topic out there?). It was an interesting book that had lots of tips for getting started on weblogging and creating a blog. One thing the author mentioned was the difference between topical blogs and personal ones.

rachel

Rachel doesn’t care whether this is a topical or personal blog as long as the topic isn’t too personal.

Topical blogs may include opinions, but mostly focus on a particular subject (or topic). I would imagine (although it is a bit scary to actually do so) there is literally a blog for every topic conceivable. Personal blogs are written in diary-style and relate to the happenings in the author’s immediate physical world as well as other thoughts and bits and pieces on things.

I find the whole subject of blogs fascinating. I am not a news junkie, political enthusiast, sports fan, or techno-geek. That rules out a majority of the popular blogs. Of course, with a busy household to run, some would argue I don’t really have time to read miles and miles of blog posts. It’s probably a good thing my interests are rather narrow.

david

This little guy is one of my major interests in life.

I did stumble across this fun blog, 5 Minutes for Mom, the other day. The site is run by twin sisters who are trying to connect other blogging moms. Their banner says “Bringing Moms the Best in Blogging, Shopping, Parenting, and Entertainment.” Hmmm. That sounds like a fun place to explore. I haven’t spent much time browsing around (after all there are 71, 999,999 other blogs out there that are calling my name) but I am intrigued to see what they have to offer in the blogosphere.

Anyone who has read Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card can’t help but marvel at the way his vision of the “net” is being realized in the world wide web of blogs.

I need to write those Great Blog Qualifications on sticky notes and post them on my monitor so I can evaluate my writing from time to time. Notice there wasn’t a single word in there about pictures (although one did mention audio/video). I personally think blogs without pictures (like this one nearly was) are rather boring. I will read them if I care about the person writing or if the topic is very interesting, but I am much more entertained by a blog that contains pictures.

sarah

After all, this girl is too cute to remain in obscurity – she needs a blog.

My very scattered, not so brief, thoughts on blogging.

Kathy

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Joshua, Musings, Project 365

P365 – Day 76 (Old Pictures)

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I have a box full of pictures pulled from the drawers of my grandmother’s house. I originally took the pictures (mostly black and white shots almost 30 years old) to make a photo calendar for Nana. Every once in a while I would pull the box off my shelf and look through it. With five children and a busy life, the project was routinely pushed to the bottom of my list of priorities. When the guilt of the failed gift would snipe at me, I would console myself with the lovely relationship I had with Nana. I didn’t need to make her a calendar full of old pictures from my childhood, I wrote to her weekly and visited her every summer. My children grew up making annual trips to her home in Texas. In her last years, she had baskets of pictures of the great-grandchildren on shelves and counters. Of course, now I’m left with pictures of my cousins as small children and some wonderful photos of my parents as newlyweds.

dad, mom and granddaddy

Dad, Mom and Grandaddy on the Mesa in 1965.

Ever since my blog about the cousins I’ve been thinking about those pictures. My mother grew up in a big family but didn’t have any first cousins. Her mother was an only child and her father had one sibling, a younger brother who never married. How sad not to have any cousins.

uncle tom

This picture is a bit grey and fuzzy but I love that smile on Great Uncle Tom’s face.

Thankfully I didn’t have to face life as a poor, pathetic, cousin-less girl as my parents’ siblings were kind enough to have children and provide me with a passel of cousins. How do you classify a group of relatives? Is it a pack, a peck, a brood, or maybe a pride? I guess it depends on what type of animals they are. On my mother’s side, however, there was one tragic flaw; a serious lack of girls. I was the only granddaughter out of nine grandchildren. Talk about being outnumbered.

cousins

What an awesome family shot. Phil, in the front row, looks like he is having a GREAT time.

To make matters worse, I was not particularly tomboyish. I did my best to join in on the rough and tumble fun but every time we would visit I secretly searched for the dolls and dress up clothes. I knew they had to be hiding somewhere. It was bad enough not to have a sister, to not have any girl cousins on one whole side of the family was a true tragedy.

Fortunately, my mother’s older sister, who didn’t have any children herself, took special interest in me and made each of my annual visits memorable. We would have lunches out, talk about travel and books, and just enjoy each other. Almost every year she would give me some piece of beautiful jewelry. And then there was my mom’s twin sister, raising three very active boys, who loved me like a daughter. So, I guess saying I suffered is a bit of a stretch. Not to mention the fact that my grandparents could honestly say I was their favorite granddaughter, the one they loved best. :)

trying to keep up

Honestly, how’s a girl supposed to keep up with the boys in a dress that length?

I brought the box of pictures down to my computer two weeks ago. They’ve been sitting here patiently while I ignored them. I wasn’t exactly sure what to do with them. What do you do with a pile of memories? I guess in our house you get them on to the computer and into a blog as soon as possible. Silly me, what was I thinking?

Today I came up with a brilliant idea. Joshua had already played some computer games, read a bit of his book and watched a movie. He was clearly idle and in need of a project. It was rainy and grey and the flu was casting a rather lethargic pall on the household. I thought, if Joshua had some time on his hands, he might be willing to work on my box of pictures. I asked him to try taking pictures of the pictures with the digital camera.

box of pictures

I set him up in the dining room where there is a good source of natural light. It took him a long time to get clear pictures of each photo (and some of the originals were blurry or faded so he was definitely working with raw materials) but in the end he had over 250 digital images for me. Deleting and sorting through brought the number closer to 175. I was thrilled to have copies of the old photos on the computer.

kathy as a young girl

Joshua and the boys say I look just like Rachel in this picture. Hmmm.

Tim wasn’t sure taking pictures of pictures would result in the clearest image. He thought we might have better results using the scanner. I need to try it out and see. I guess it depends on the quality of our scanner. I’m not sure I can convince Joshua to work with this big stack of pictures again.

How long before I pull out the next box of photos? Don’t tell Joshua how many hundreds of photos are tucked away on shelves here and there.

Kathy

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Bible Study, Musings

A Living Sacrifice

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We’re studying Romans in Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) this year.

sarah smiles

Sarah comes with me to BSF.

This week the entire lesson was on the first two verses in Romans 12 (I know, it’s a heady pace but I’m trying to keep up). I’ve been thinking a great deal about the passage – I can do this because it’s only two verses, anything longer and my brain crumbles under the weight of my multi-tasking life.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Romans 12:1

sarah's sad

Someone doesn’t feel well.

One question from the lesson particularly stood out:

How do people offer their bodies as living sacrifices to God today?

Tim and I discussed this question at length this evening. We talked about the idea of sacrifice and how the Bible says that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Hebrews 9:22). Christ came down and lived as a sacrifice for us. At first I wasn’t sure how I could offer my body as a sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. The verse in Romans says it is my spiritual act of worship.

david's push ups

David hurt Sarah’s arm and did push ups as part of his punishment.

sarah's arm

Sarah watched the Punishment Push-ups closely, being sure to point out her wounded arm.

In talking with Tim, I began to see how denying myself is a part of this sacrifice. Death to self. I say no to my desire to overeat, to ignore my children, to sleep all day. I lay down my selfish desires in order to serve God and my family. Every day there are choices that I make that require sacrifice. The Bible says these choices are holy and pleasing to God. When I deny myself and obey God’s Word, I am worshipping Him.

Acts of spiritual worship. When I go through the mundane tasks of my day (and there are many days full of repetitive, unexceptional chores) with a thankful heart, my hands are offered up as a sacrifice that is pleasing to God. He sees the small (and not so small) yielding and surrendering of my heart and life. It is convicting. My body – the actions I take, thoughts I dwell upon, words I speak – should bring glory to God.

As I finished this paragraph a song came on that I didn’t recognize. There was a long musical interlude between verses that was a bit cacophonous so I decided to switch to something else. Just before I did the phrase, “living sacrifice,” caught my attention. Sure enough, the song was Romans 12:1, by Todd Agnew from his Grace Like Rain cd. I’ve listened to this album dozens of times and never noticed this song before. I still don’t like the melody around the verses, but the words of the chorus struck me so powerfully I played it over several times:

“Jesus, we come to worship you. Jesus, we come to lift You high. Jesus, we come to honor You. With our lives. Father we come to You humbly, recognizing Your infinite glory.”

Isn’t that just like the living, all-knowing God to order this song around my blogging. He is so worthy of my praise and sacrifice. I am humbled that He loves me and notices and cares for someone as wretched as I.

I’ll have to leave verse 2 of Romans 12 for tomorrow as it’s late and I’m sacrificing sleep to blog. :)

Kathy

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Musings

Date Night Fun

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Date Night Choices:

1) Dinner and a movie out
2) DVD and popcorn at home
3) Theater tickets
4) Romantic walk through the park
5) Budget discussion complete w/Excel Spreadsheets

Oooo, ooo, raising hand for number five! I mean, it’s got everything.

  • Intrigue – What was this bill for again?
  • Romance – Ah, honey look, it’s the charge for my Valentine’s Day present
  • Comedy – How much money do we need each month? What a bunch of kidders!
  • Action – If we move the money around here and squeeze tight there we might be able to pay this bill.
  • Drama – Will the family survive the stresses and struggles of these financial difficulties? (insert emotional soundtrack here)

And so on. So really, two hours spent going over high finances is actually a very thrilling, date night appropriate activity. There wasn’t any popcorn served during the Budgetary Talks of March 2007 (although the children had some while enjoying a movie in the other room) but there was definitely laughter and the potential for some serious tears. Unlike other date nights, this one ended in prayer time. See how God redeems even the strangest of dates.

Maybe tomorrow night we can watch a movie and let the children work on finances.

Kathy

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David, Musings, Project 365

P365 – Day 70 (Comfort Food)

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What says comfort food to you?

Macaroni and Cheese
Chocolate cake with hot fudge sauce
Fried Chicken
Oatmeal
Chicken noodle soup
Cheeseburger and fries

In our house pancakes ranks up at the top of the list for cozy, settle in and watch a movie, sugary goodness, comfort food.

Warning – these pictures may shock and dismay!

david's pancakes

This boy can’t even wait to cut his food.

I found an article interviewing chefs and food writers on their favorite comfort foods. Their choices were a bit more elegant than our typical fare but sounded delicious. It was interesting to see how much food and family were interconnected.

We had fried eggs with our pancakes this evening. I was afraid the ravenous looks on the children’s faces would be too much for this sedate crowd so I didn’t take any pictures. I have to protect the gluttonous.

these are good!

No doubt he’s checking to see if there is room for more pancakes.

Since my change in eating the past few years, typical comfort foods are no longer part of my menu. When I have a bad day or the children (darling though they are) are testing my patience, chocolate and bowls of chips are not available to me as snack foods. I have to find other ways of dealing with my frustrations. It’s been rather eye-opening (and humbling / embarrassing) to see the patterns I have of turning to food in times of stress.

For the most part I am much happier to be off sugar and other ‘trigger’ foods, but occasionally I miss some of those good old comfort foods. Look at this face.

smiling boy

Nothing like white flour, white sugar, buttery goodness for dinner. Yum.

Tim reminded me of the words that Jesus spoke when he was hungry (and he was TRULY hungry after 40 days of fasting):

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Matthew 4:4

Ah, the ultimate comfort food. During trying moments in life, when I feel overwhelmed and want to dive into the cookie jar, I do have something available to me that offers real solace, help, and peace – God’s Word. No calories or fat grams to worry about.

Kathy

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