I bought a new pair of gloves. Soft and warm, with a beautiful snowflake pattern set just over the top of the hand. They were a great find, on sale even! I loved them so much I knit a cream colored scarf to match. That was two weeks ago. Last Friday I lost one of the gloves during a trip to the grocery store. I manage to do this every year. I buy the “perfect” pair of gloves or mittens and then lose one. Then all I am left with is a depressing reminder of what I once had. It sucks. I went to Target today to get new ones but they didn’t have the selection I was hoping for (I really wanted to find some to match the great scarf I made). But my hands were cold and I had to leave with something, so I bought a cheap pair of leather gloves. RED ones. I figure they will be easier to spot from a distance (say, from the produce aisle?).
Thanksgiving Dinners November 27, 2005
Yes, that’s plural. This year I was blessed enough to partake in two wonderfully delicious Thanksgiving dinners. It looks like this will become the norm. Mike and I host on Thanksgiving, Unkie Dave and Aunt Anne host on the Saturday after.
Thursday’s dinner at our house went very well. Although not everyone was able to be there, we still had a great time. The boys watched football, the girls watched movies (Mickey Blue Eyes, When Harry Met Sally, Willy Wonka…), all were well fed. Kari put together an amazing meal as always, and thanks to her, Claudia, Dad, and Heather, we had plenty of dessert! Check out this year’s spread:
Butternut squash pie
Cheesecake
Lemon Meringue Pie
Key Lime Pie & Banana Creme Pie
Derby Pie
Peanut Butter No-Bakes
Not so hypothetical ethics question November 23, 2005
An employee’s girlfriend is trying to get a mortgage. She is paid in cash and tips and her employer reluctantly gave her a handwritten checkstub, but the total wages earned on it did not include tips. So the employee goes to his HR person at work and asks if she could type up a “fake” paystub for his girlfriend to submit to the mortgage company. He has no hesitation in making this request – he does not even close the door first or whisper as he asks the question. He does not see the harm in this and is somewhat shocked when his request is so emphatically denied.
As the HR person, what would you do with this new knowledge? The new knowledge that one of your fellow employees is so unbelievably comfortable with dishonesty? Do you keep it to yourself, or do you tell your boss? What is the right thing to do here?
In honor of SNOW November 23, 2005
I have redesigned the blog. Isn’t it perty?
Yay! It’s snowing! Looks like we’re going to have another white Thanksgiving…
Did Dad write a book we don’t know about? November 22, 2005
I saw this in the store the other day and my jaw just about hit the floor. Which do you think is Dad’s pen name, Jeff Dunn or Adam Palmer?
Holy crap, I haven’t posted in 6 days! November 22, 2005
I bet you were all starting to worry, right? Of course you were.
I’ve been busy at work and trying not to be such a slacker (i.e. blogging when I should be crunching numbers and making phone calls), so my blog has suffered for it. It has not been for lack of things to talk about. I think of things and then forget them by the time I get home, so they manage to ooze out before I can document them for all of you to see. So the content of this post will basically be what I have managed to salvage from the ol’ memory bank (which looks like swiss cheese most days). And for the record, I am writing this on my lunch break. I’m doin’ the work! I’m not a slacker!
First thing: I am super excited about Thanksgiving. Every year Mike and I provide the space and Kari runs the kitchen show. We invite just about everybody, so it’s a collage of family members, bringing in some from just about every side. This year we’ve even invited Dan & Heather, but I’m hoping they can’t make it (because that will mean they are at the hospital having the baby!).
Second thing: I finally got the green light from leadership to bring Financial Peace University to our church! It’s a small group study on finances and handling money God’s way. It has been a passion of mine for many years to do something like this for the church and I am just giddy over it. I haven’t started promoting it yet and I have already heard from 3 people who want to join! This is a great program, so if you live in the Lansing area, I would highly recommend joining this class. The course is 13 weeks long and classes start January 24th. You can go here for more information.
Third thing: My lunch today is soup from a can and it’s not great. In fact, I am struggling to finish it all. It looks a lot like baby food. Yech.
That’s all I could salvage so far. Pathetic, I know. What’s more pathetic is I’ll probably get -0- comments about thing one and two, but 38 comments about the crappy soup I’m eating.
Homesick November 16, 2005
Anyone who knows me well knows that I am somewhat obsessed with self-help books, self-analysis, self-improvement, etc. etc. I am constantly trying to be a “better person.” Upon finishing the book, “Addiction and Grace” (yes, finally) I realize that this is a sort of addiction. And what I have learned is that all addictions stem from not wanting to feel that deep emptiness we all have inside. You know the feeling. The lack of fulfillment, the discontent, sadness, etc. What God showed me at Chrysalis was that I am terrified of that emptiness, that sadness. Any sadness really. I hate being sad. When Mike and I are approaching a time apart from each other I often find myself picking a fight with him. I believe I do that subconsciously because I would rather be angry than sad. At least if I’m angry I can cry and pour my frustrations out through cleaning. Sad crying is different than angry crying. It produces a sharp pain deep in my chest that I just can’t deal with.
But back to the obsession with becoming a “better person.” It’s futile. The satisfaction is very short-lived (Not to mention it’s meaningless if I do not have love in my heart – 1 Corinthians 13:3). The emptiness is still there underneath it all, the longing for something more. The longing for my Creator. In the last pages of that book the author pointed out that we need to accept and love that longing. That longing is a constant reminder of the fact that we were created for relationship with God. It will be there as long as we are here on earth, because we are not home yet. Call it homesickness if you will, it feels much the same. But what Scripture tells me is that I can turn that into hope:
Romans 8:18-25
18Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will give us later. 19For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 20Against its will, everything on earth was subjected to God’s curse. 21All creation anticipates the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. 22For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23And even we Christians, although we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, also groan to be released from pain and suffering. We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as his children,[a] including the new bodies he has promised us. 24Now that we are saved, we eagerly look forward to this freedom. For if you already have something, you don’t need to hope for it. 25But if we look forward to something we don’t have yet, we must wait patiently and confidently.
I was on the phone earlier today with my friend, Heather, who without knowing it has helped me to understand this passage and make it even more real to me. She is very pregnant, only days away from her due date. She is in lots of pain and she is quite bored (her house is super clean, her bags are packed… she is more than ready). She is a bundle of excitement and nerves because she just wants to hurry up and meet this baby! She has such a positive attitude and she is counting the pain and anxiety as joy because she has hope for what is to come. The pains of pregnancy and childbirth are signs of the coming miracle, the miracle that’s been in the works for 9 months (or more if you believe Jeremiah 1:5). In the same way, the longing and emptiness we feel is a sign of the miracle that is to come (and has been in the works for 2000 years) when God takes us home!! As Josh Espn would say… Hallelujah!
We have earned this day of rest… November 13, 2005
Yesterday Mike and I worked together to bag the leaves that he had gathered in the back yard with the leaf blower. Mike’s dad showed up just after we started. Mike had told him we would be bagging leaves that day, so we thought he came to smirk and tease, but then he brought out his work gloves and helped us out! Two hours and 44 bags later we were done! With the 15 we bagged a few weeks ago, that makes for a total of 59 bags of leaves, significantly less than in years past. Mike believes the tree is dying and that’s why we have less leaves. Even so, there were a lot of leaves. We dread this every year, but this year wasn’t as bad as we anticipated. HALLELUJAH! It’s done! Next we work on the front yard…
Other fun Saturday activities:
Yesterday was a good day.
Laudable God November 10, 2005
Dictionary.com’s word of the day is laudable. It means praiseworthy, commendable. That describes God, for sure.
This morning I was all ready to post a sad story about how I’ve been feeling lately. Pain, fatigue, the usual. It’s been wearing on me and all my responsibilities have fallen to the wayside as a result. So I was ready to go on about that, but then I got to work and read my devotion for today (The ideal would be to get up on time or early and do this first, before everything). Today’s devotion was about thankfulness. 1 Thess. 5:18 – “Give thanks in all circumstances.” Mother Teresa – “The best way to show my gratitude to God is to accept everything, even my problems, with joy.” So today I am asking God to help me accept this pain and fatigue with joy. Sounds ridiculous, but I see no other option. I’ve done the mopey depression thing. It drags on too long and really offers no comfort. Hannah Whitall Smith – “The soul that gives thanks can find comfort in everything; the soul that complains can find comfort in nothing.”
I keep stressing about all the things that I’m not getting done, but maybe God does not care about those things like I do. Maybe right now he just wants me to come to him for comfort and thank him for all he has given me. Because he has given me much. It’s not that I forget that, it’s just that I have a hard time remembering 
Thank you God, for all you have given me. You are laudable.
