Memories Are A Funny Thing…

I set out to do some freezer meal cooking today. It’s always an adventure to embark on such a task around here, because I never really know what my family is going to like. For example… I made meatloaf for the first time ever a couple of months ago. I kind of hate meatloaf… a lot. Phil won’t touch meatloaf. But the kids loved it. So, of course, I made and froze a couple of meatloaves today… anything to get protein in them…

Then there’s quiche. I love quiche. No one else in this house shares the sentiment. In fact, it’s come to the point that if the kids are being particularly disobedient, all I have to say is, “You do (insert whatever it is I want them to do here), or I will make quiche for dinner!” The job is accomplished quickly and painlessly. I didn’t make quiche today. I really don’t need to eat a whole quiche by myself.

Other preferences really baffle me. My kids eat pasties like ravaging wolves (Before I go on; if you don’t know what a pasty is, please do not google it without the word “recipe” as well. I am totally not responsible for what you come up with if you don’t follow these directions)… but pot pies (which I make using virtually the same ingredients)… forget it. I didn’t make either today but plan to make a batch of pasties tomorrow.

But enough about my family’s food inclinations… Although this post (and this day) started with food, that’s not exactly where I ended up… rarely is…

I had the bread machine out for homemade pizza and breadsticks when it occurred to me that I hadn’t baked loaves of bread in a really long time (at least not the ones that don’t come in the freezer section at Kroger). So I dragged my long forgotten bread machine recipe book out and started mixing ingredients… for peanut butter bread… and cherry yogurt bread… and pizza bread… And I didn’t think about it too much, but once the smells started emanating from the oven, it took me back to another time and place…

A time where I had a little family of four who could never have devoured two loaves of bread in one meal… and a place where I baked about a zillion loaves in different flavors on more than one occasion as a fundraising effort…

And I kinda missed those days when the kids (all two of them) would run around the neverending circle of the downstairs of our house… when they would play at my feet in the kitchen… And I kinda missed the house… and I kinda missed my kitchen…

And I was thankful for the memories…

And thankful for a sense of smell, because I actually tie a lot of memories to the way things smell (that’s probably weird, I know)…

But really…

Who doesn’t love the smell of a newborn baby… or a bon fire… or homemade bread baking in the oven…

As an added bonus, I actually got to travel back to that time… just briefly… through a video that posted on facebook tonight. It was a nice, fitting ending to my day of memories…

Lisa

Laughing Out Loud…

As if there was any question about my serious “dorkdom”, I think I took it to a new level this afternoon…

I have this thing about losing my cell phone. Actually, I just have this thing about my cell phone in general. If you know me at all or have ever read anything about the beat up piece of light pink metal I carry around (sometimes… when I can find it), you know that it has taken multiple swims in the toilet and only has certain buttons that function, making it quite the show when most other people would just press “send”. And I literally can’t text, even if I knew how to, because with only so many working buttons, there are only so many letters, so when I do attempt to text, the person on the receiving end has to be pretty good at playing Wheel of Fortune… minus the prize money…

At any rate, I lost my phone this morning. I was searching for it as it continued to beep, signaling it’s certain battery death (it only holds a charge for about 15 minutes these days), when my amazing 10 year old son was kind enough to ask, “Mom, did you misplace your phone again?” He sounded polite enough, so I’m going to pretend he wasn’t laughing at me.

Usually, when we reach this point, my kids are pretty good about finding the phone… especially when it’s beeping (which is most of the time). In addition to my smirking pre-teen, the reasoning skills of my almost 7 year old kicked in, and as he began to search he informed me that if the beeping was getting louder, I was getting closer! But today we were just stumped. Couldn’t find it anywhere!

The funny thing was, it sounded like the beeping was coming from the kitchen counter. Now… my kids went to an Easter egg hunt at church on Sunday, and the counter happens to have quite a few gift bags filled with Easter eggs in the particular location where the beeping was originating. In a somewhat embarrassed attempt at locating the phone, I looked through the bags. My phone was not there… not that I really expected to find it in an Easter egg, but stranger things have happened!

After quite a bit of searching, I gave up. At some point I turned off the baby monitor and went and got Miah from her nap… made lunch… checked my mail… and realized that the phone had stopped beeping, so it was undeniably dead, and I would probably never find it!

And then it hit me (well, I mean… not literally, that would have been too easy). I jumped up from where I was and said, “I know where it is! It’s in my bedroom!” And my kids all looked at me now, as if I’d totally lost it, because the kitchen is a long way from the bedroom, and we all had clearly heard it beeping… for a couple of hours… from the kitchen counter…

Where the baby monitor sits…

Well… at least the beeping didn’t bother Miah during her nap!

Lisa

PS This was almost as funny as the day when I nearly called the police because I couldn't find Caleb (he was maybe 3 months old). I looked all over the house that day... in a panic... when Seth and Grace (ages 2 and 3 at the time) finally brought it to my attention that I was holding the baby...

I Used To Love...

Blogging… and Social Networking…

I have always been a little streaky with the blogging, but there were many periods of time in which I logged on at least a couple of times every week to share reviews, funny life stories, theological insights, song lyrics, and quotes from my kids. I’ve never had a lot of readers, but I’ve had a few, and the interaction has been fun.

The advent of social networking added a new dimension to my virtual life, and since becoming fully obsessed with facebook, in particular, I have often had a chance to reconnect with long lost friends, send up a prayer for needs I would not have otherwise known existed, offer a birthday wish, and share some pictures.

Lately, though, both blogging and social networking have lost their luster for me…

And the reasoning is kind of sad…

Let me start with a shocking revelation I had today…

If one more person so much as hints at the idea that I’m going to Hell in a handbasket because I don’t fall into the Calvinist/Reformed branch of Western Industrialized Christianity, let me tell ya… I might just give them a very good reason to believe it!

For a long time now, I’ve been planning to write a book (OK… another book). This one was to have its premise in the relationships I’ve had over the years. It was to be a narrative on why I believe what I believe. It was going to be a really fun project. I hope… I really hope… that it still is. But I cannot begin this work without willing participants. I want to interact with other people in this book. I want to challenge those with opposing viewpoints, and I want them to challenge me. And at the end of the day, I want to share a few laughs over coffee… or ice cream… reminisce about the years of friendship we’ve shared… embrace… and walk away still friends rather than hardened enemies who cannot see eye to eye on anything at all. I am afraid to start the project, because I fear that I don’t actually have a relationship with many people who can engage in heated debate and thoughtful discussion without spitting in my face and cursing the ground I walk on. And these are my friends…

But what do I really have to lose, right?

And so it begins…

I am looking for about 12-15 friends to share in a literary journey with me. I want to discuss hot topics. I think I kind of want to fight a little bit. But I want it all to happen very respectfully. I want to interact with people who have actually formed and shaped my life and beliefs as well as with people whose lives and beliefs I have played a part in forming and shaping (if any of these such people exist). I need to interact with people from differing worldviews and belief systems in order to make this an authentic work. And everybody has to be completely respectful, both to me and to the others involved in the project, no matter how much we disagree.

I am going to send “invitations” to this project to some specific people, but I also want to just put it out there for those who read my ramblings and might wish to join in this adventure. I am going to limit this to 12-15 people, as I said, because I want to share a somewhat in depth look into my relationship with each person and how it has affected my worldview. Please don’t feel offended or anything if you’re not “selected”. It may be that I already have somebody on board who fits your particular profile pretty well, and I am definitely striving for diversity here. Still… if you’re interested… let me know.

Here we go…

Again…

Lisa

I Corinthians 3 (NIV, 2011)…

"Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?

What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.

By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.

Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God." (NIV)

My thoughts:

One of the great plights of my life is my fiery temper. But I will not react today. By the grace of God, I will hold my tongue and I will pray for those who persecute me. I am not wise by the standards of this age. I am not better than anyone else. I do not have a corner on the truth.

I do love Jesus, and I pray that every day His light would shine through me. I pray that He would use my hands and my feet to bless “the least of these”. And one day I pray that as I fall on my face before Him, He will have mercy on this broken piece of clay.

Lisa