I Won...You Win... It's Time to Pick Another Winner

Robin at Be Still and Know... started the I Won...You Win- a book called Sisterchicks in Wooden Shoes gets passed from blogger to blogger. Each successive blogger reads the book, makes comments in the margins, has a contest on his/her blog to choose the next winner, then mails the book on to the next.

The current reader of the book is me and I'm almost finished. Cathy from Tales of the TCKK Family sent me this package when I won my turn to share in this round robin read. The Lucado devotional, chocolates and note were a bonus gift! Thanks Cathy!

I don't have a very good track record for getting prizes into the mail. I've only had one giveaway on my blog, since its inception and that was when I offered to send something from the bookstore, where I work, to whoever would become my 50th follower. At that time I was much too concerned with the numbers and I was trying to get 50 followers by my 46th birthday. I have no idea why.

Anyway...Moses became my 50th follower. Moses serves with YWAM and lives:

in Romania.

Which is really cool! I have a niece from Romania. But do you know what it costs to send a package to Romania? I didn't either.

I opened a savings account and started making weekly deposits.

Additionally, I had e-mailed Moses asking him if he had any special interests, so I would have a clue as to what I might get for him from the bookstore. He replied that his special interest was:

Leadership Gold by John Maxwell

That was pretty specific, but okay. I figured I could find that somewhere in our store. And I did. It came only in hardcover and retailed for $25.00.

I started thinking about which of Dave Ramsey's envelopes I might steal, I mean borrow, the needed cash from. I don't recall ever seeing one that contained a spare $25.00.

I thought about it for a long time, like about 5 months, long enough to see the book get moved to the Clearance shelf! Paired with my growing postage -to- Romania account, this was very good news.

Moses- if you're reading this- the book is packaged and in the trunk of my car, just one deposit away from being sent! Do you still live in Romania?!?

And NOW, I promise, that whoever wins the I Won...You Win next, as long as you live in the lower 48, I'm going to mail that prize out to you PRONTO! Very quickly. No dilly dallying around.

Sooooo, with that, if you are interested in winning the chance to read and comment in Robin's copy of Sisterchicks in Wooden Shoes that has been back and forth across this great land- just leave a comment on this post for one entry, follow me for two entries, tell others about coming over here to win and link that post back to me from your blog for three entries (and tell me you did that in a comment, so I can get your number of entries correct) and if you are already a follower of my blog- remind me and that will count just as becoming a new follower would.

That's three chances per person to become the next winner of the I Won...You Win.

Good luck everybody!

Thankful Thursday

God is so good.... Click over to Greg's and enjoy more thankfuls and thanks for sharing in mine.

I'm married to a hard working, devoted, God-honoring man, who is committed to our family and gives generously of his time, resources and love. And guess what?

He's a human being.

I've been trying to make a god out of this guy. I've been expecting him to meet my every need. And he's been trying to. But the harder he tries, the more vivid the inevitable failures. Misunderstandings. Confusion. Hurt. Almost complete breakdown in communication.

Here's what I learned yesterday- from a book I just finished reading, Counterfeit Gods by Timothy Keller:

"...No human relationship can bear the burden of godhood...However much we may idealize and idolize him (the love partner), he inevitably reflects earthly decay and imperfection.....After all, what is it that we want when we elevate the love partner to this position? We want to be rid of our faults, of our feeling of nothingness. We want to be justified, to know our existence has not been in vain. We want redemption- nothing less. Needless to say, human partners cannot give this."

So, what does Keller suggest we do? Love the spouse less? Not at all. We need to know and love God more. "We need to stop trying to make others into saviors, because we have a Savior."

Colossians 3:1-4 assures me that my life is now hidden with Christ in God and when Christ, who is my life, appears- I will appear with Him in glory. The thing is, God is ravished with me, approves of me, loves me to the full. He is my life. It is only Jesus Christ who saves me- redeems me and makes me whole.

Reading this book, plus a devotion from Jesus Calling by Sarah Young (the March 22 entry) and having a conversation with my bloggirlfriend, Frank, and another with my longtime neighbor KT, all came together this week at a very good time for me and I learned something that I should have already known- and maybe I did know it, but just wasn't doing it. I learned this:

I must set my heart securely on Jesus Christ as my peace and my life. I must replace the idol I have been making out of my husband, with El Olam- the God whose Son is called the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He is the God whose love endures forever.

How will I do it?

I will rejoice and be thankful! I've already begun to practice. Whenever I feel afraid, hurt, alone, misunderstood, wronged, or any other joy zapping emotion- I begin to silently, or audibly, thank the Lord for very specific things: my husband, his love for me, my kids, my health, the ability to ride my bike, birds singing and that I can hear them sing....on and on. On top of that- I'm trusting Him. When I am done thanking Him, I tell Him, "hey, I'm trusting you to work out every single detail of this life I'm living down here- just want you to know that." Then I believe it.

That's what the March 22 devotion taught me. Author, Sarah Young, said that if I replace all my planning, evaluating, calculating, agonizing and all that- with trusting and thanking God, continually- that I will be implementing a paradigm shift in behavior and thinking that will revolutionize my life.

Last night I took a bike ride with I.T. Everything was going along just fine with our new plan to do one activity together each day and have a minimum of 30 minutes of conversation together with not one hint of negativity from either party. Then he said something like: "the sky's blue" and I thought, "the sky is not blue, he is just trying to make me nuts again." (words changed to protect the innocent, but seriously the dumb things that irk me..geez) BUT then I remembered the paradigm shift and I began to silently thank the Lord. When I got done doing some thanking, I told the Lord I was trusting Him to work out every detail of every single thing in my life.

I.T. asked, "what are you doing?"

I told him all about Sarah Young's devotion and that I was implementing the paradigm shift.

He thought about it for a second, bobbed his head up and down a couple of times and replied, "sounds good."

I asked the Lord to help me and He showed me The Way. And for that- I am truly thankful.

Tellin' it on the mountain-

The Little Red Hen, My Version

Before the story, please pray for Kat, who will have surgery tomorrow- Thursday. Thank you!

Gut issues.

We have them here.

Various types.

A remedy for one type, that I have been reading about lately, is going gluten-free. I decided we'd try that. Harvest Health is about the only store we have around here that has semi-affordable (but still expensive), non-traditional foodstuffs, so I went there. The plan was to bake my own gluten-free bread. I didn't exactly write down exactly what I'd need- I went by memory from what the book had said.

Brown rice flour, tapioca flour, potato starch flour- these all rang a bell. I bought two bags of the first two and one box of the third. Garbanzo Bean flour. I whispered it out loud slowly with exaggerated lip movement and a little bend of my knee " Gar-BAHN-zoh" - it didn't ring a bell, but it had such a nice ring. I took one bag. Fourteen boxes and bags of gluten-free baking ingredients later, I was home stocking the pantry.

A couple weeks passed by. A few friends asked, "How was the gluten-free bread?"

I just smiled, "Haven't baked it yet." And I went on my way.

I opened the cupboard and looked at the special flours several times in those two, or maybe three, weeks and then I shut the door and cooked up some chicken and rice.

A week ago Sunday, I finally decided to bake the bread. I hauled out the fourteen bags and boxes of gluten-free ingredients, my biggest glass bowl, a plastic spoon and several measuring cups. I propped open the library book (with the big sticker on the inside cover that says, "Library Cookbooks DO NOT belong in the kitchen! Please copy the recipes before trying them.....") to the page with the gluten-free bread recipe and began to read.

First and main ingredient: White Rice Flour. I surveyed the boxes and bags on the counter: Brown Rice Flour, Tapioca Flour, Potato Starch Flour, Xanthum Gum......"Gar-BAHN- Zoh Bean Flour" (I lifted the bag and gave it a little Moroccan shake). Where's that White Rice Flour? I found none. Hmm. I flipped through the book. Could I substitute brown for white? No info. How about the internet- clicked around- couldn't find enough evidence that it would work with certainty in this particular recipe. I couldn't risk it on my first try.

"Who will help me bake this bread?" "Not I", said the cookbook. "Not I", said the internet. "Then I will have to bake it myself," said the Little Red Hen.

I hopped in the car, zoomed over to the nearest grocery, scanned the small section of health foods and found the White Rice Flour. It was $3.79 for a one pound bag. Right next to it was a bag of white flour for $3.39 for a one pound bag. Hey, I don't need the best stuff! I bought the cheaper brand.

Halfway home I was waiting at a stop sign and my eyes fell on the bag of flour. This is when I noticed the words "High Gluten". HIGH GLUTEN? Wait a minute- wa chu talkin' 'bout, Willis? High Gluten was definitely not going to help me make the gluten-free bread. Maybe I didn't need the "best" stuff, but I did need the "right" stuff. Sheesh! I turned around, went back, exchanged the flours and the cashier charged 40 cents to my debit card.

At 8:30 p.m., I assembled the bread. It refused to rise in my cold, Michigan kitchen. I turned the oven to 400 degrees, set the bowl of dough, covered with a towel, on the edge of the stove top, and opened the oven door, so the yeast could feel the heat. Warmed our kitchen right up too. About this time, I.T. sauntered through commenting that he now knew why loaves of gluten-free bread in the supermarket cost $6.75 each. (He only knew the half of it)

At 10:00 p.m. my Sunbeam hand mixer (yeah, no Kitchen-Aid here) started smokin', so I built some muscle in my right bicep beatin' the blubber out of that puffball of dough.

I must have done something right (or wrong), because the bread rose a second time, so high it lopped over itself onto the stove top. I made dinner rolls out of the spillage.

At 11:00 p.m. the timer buzzed. "Who will help me eat this bread?" asked the Little Red Hen. "I will!" said the I.T., "I will!" said the Fash.

By 11:15 p.m., the bread was almost- gone.

Speak Out

It's a short, swift ride on the current of culture into the sea of apathy.






Know and speak the Truth, in love.

(thanks, Bethany)

Thankful Thursday

It's a beautiful, sunshiny day made only more enjoyable by the fact that I found a few minutes to join Greg, from Greg's General Store, in the meme, that he now manages, Thankful Thursday!

First of all, happy birthday to Greg's wife. Life is a wonderful gift, as Avery, son of Melanie from BELLA~MELLA, recently shared in his Pi Poem. His school was celebrating Pi day and everyone wrote a poem where each word had the number of letters contained in any digit of the irrational number pi. His poem was of special blessing to me. Click on "Melanie from BELLA~MELLA" above to read Avery's poem in her wonderful post with amazing pictures of Avery displaying his talents, like doing a somersault through a rainbow. I will re-print the poem here, because I am thankful for it:

Pi Poem (by Avery)

Can we as mortals understand the
almighty power of the Creator?
I say we cannot, that it is something
greater.
Life is a meaningless rift?
I come, I go, I lie, I live.
Being alive a wonderful gift.

God's original gift was life itself. "God saw all that he had made and it was very good...." Gen. 1:31. Thank you Elohim- God, Mighty Creator.

Secondly, let's just say I'm driving myself nuts trying to figure out if my future and the future of my kids is going to turn out alright. Though I know better, I seem to be losing sleep over it. The biggest looming cloud casting shadows of uncertainty is the one representing my daughter and her preparations to trade this cozy dwelling for a dorm room. I've blogged about this before, and I apologize for the repeating theme, but it consumes me. Am I thankful for this unrest? No. I am not. Because it reminds me that I am not trusting God in the way that I know I am supposed to. This makes me mad and sorrowful. I'm also perturbed that my preoccupation with this predicament often prevents me from taking time to do the most obvious: pray about it.

So what's to be thankful for then? I'm going to say: patience. Not mine, but my Father's. Like the father who prayed fervently and waited patiently for his prodigal's return, I know my Father in heaven calls gently and persistently, while he patiently waits for me to turn to Him. Thank you, Yahweh Yireh- The Lord will Provide. Thank you, Abba- Father.

Finally, March in Michigan is typically cold, rainy, snowy, dark, dreary with a quick tease of sunshine for an hour and then a snowstorm following- BUT this March of 2010 has been almost 100% sunshine with a quick, light, warmish rain one day. Robins are hopping around in the yard. My one single daffodil is budding. We grilled hamburgers and ate outside on Monday night.

I seriously love working at the bookstore- Kregel/Parable and I love the people I work with and the mission we all share- to share Hope for today and every tomorrow...

My husband still loves me, even with all my neurosis (thank you, honey- I'm sure I'll get over it all eventually).

I'm looking forward to a night out with friends as we laugh with comedian, Anita Renfroe...coming up soon.

I won the 'I Win...You Win' book that is going round robin- thanks to Robin at Be Still and Know... and will soon be receiving it in the mail and adding my 2 Thinks in the margins of its pages before passing it on to one of you.

So, there is much to be thankful for, actually. And I'm thankful for the opportunity to share it all here. Thanks for reading.

Good idea to keep this going, Greg.

Flashback Friday #1

"Life- please pause, I need to spend some time with my blog!"

I close the door behind me. I turn the key in the lock.

Finally! in my Hobbit hole- just me and my old Sony Vaio, my Random House college dictionary, my fat Synonym Finder, my Concordia study Bible, a stack of books I'm currently reading, a notebook, a plastic jar of pens and pencils (all with broken lead) sipping hot coffee with a hundred friends from around the world sharing what makes our hearts beat....

what's that?

A knock.

"Nobody home!"

Today is the kick-off for a new meme called Flashback Friday hosted by Linda at Mocha with Linda. She posts the questions on her blog and if you want to participate, you bring the Q's to your blog and answer them there. Here are the first set of Q's for this new meme.

"How and when did you learn to drive? Do you have any particular memories associated with getting your driver license? How old were you when you got your first car and what was it? Who paid for it?"

A while back, Krippled Warrior from Some Things I Have Learned said this in his post entitled Name Your Fear...: "So tell me what thing or things puts fear in your heart."

Ever since I read that post, I've been pondering all the things that put fear in my heart. Ridiculously, there are many, not the least of which is driving.

Several years ago our first child turned 15 and someone informed him that he was old enough to take driver's ed. Suddenly, whenever I looked at him all I could see was my helpless little boy, who needed me for every ounce of sustenance, behind the wheel of an automobile moving through actual, real live traffic. He was sitting on top of a stack of phone books, so he could see out the window.

I decided then, I had to try as hard as I could to get to the root of my driving fear, so I could deal with it and kill it. Otherwise I would never live through what was about to occur.

The first step was: recall when you learned to drive, where you were and who was instructing you. So, I tried that. I thought and I thought and I thought some more. But I could not bring up one memory of learning to drive. I asked my mother. Zippo. She couldn't remember either, though she was certain that I did take driver's ed. at my high school, in 1979, in the state of Michigan where the course was required for teenagers seeking a license.

That's when I knew.

I have actually blocked from memory this entire terrifying experience. I wonder if the instructor who was assigned to my 'Student Driver' car on the day I had to practice highway driving is still living. I would really like to know how that went.

So, I have no idea how old I was when I got my license, but I'm going to guess 16 , because I remember I had a job in a clothing store on main street in Farmtown, where I lived in those days, and I distinctly remember driving myself to work.

I believe the car was light blue, automatic and a Ford- a hatchback maybe- an Escort maybe. I know for sure my dad bought it, so I could use it to get to work. I drove it a couple of miles to school, a couple of miles to work and eventually I drove it about two hours worth of miles each way, to college.

I do remember parking illegally about $60 worth of tickets and that my father got the bill. I remember the letter I wrote to the Chief of Police begging him for mercy to forgive my debt of parking tickets. And I remember the phone call from his secretary telling me that my letter amused him so much he had decided to dismiss the debt, but "just don't do it again."

To this day, being honked at, flipped off and cursed out (I can see the words they are mouthing at me in my rear view mirror) is just a part of my everyday driving experience. I'm used to it.

Once, an impatient driver, who unfortunately ended up behind me at a stop sign, put his car in park, got out of his vehicle, came up to my van and tapped on the window. I rolled 'er down and tried not to let my countenance show too much emotion when he asked: "Do you think you might be making this left turn today?!?"

Even though I know better than to fear anything, I live with a nagging fear that merging may not work out for me, that I will not end up in the correct lane when it is time to enter or exit, that someone won't feel like letting me in and that I will come to the end of the disappearing lane without a gap, parked there in that point of no return- cars passing on both sides at 70 miles per hour.

My children have grown up listening to me audibly talk my way through lane changes, passing, getting on, exiting- in an attempt to get them to millions of destinations miles from our home that have required driving on highways. (If it wasn't for the kids wanting to go here and there, I'd never drive on the highway) I'm not talking about just directional words, but pep talks to myself: "You can do this, Heidi, you can do this, stay in your lane, keep your speed at the speed of the other traffic, look, use your mirrors, steady, steady and MERGE!" Not too many things cause me to sweat like merging does.

When our kids were in elementary school, moms would tell their children: "Remember Johnny, when you go on the field trip today, don't ride with Mrs. I.T.?" I tried not to volunteer, but somebody had to get all those kids to the zoo.

I figure God has some things left for us to do, because 31 years later I'm still here and all our kids are driving.

And for that I am truly thankful.

Manic Monday

Coffee, coffee, coffee.....

Iron shirt for I.T. Make lunch and dinner for I.T.; pack it up.

Finish editing Fash's application for the scholarship offered by a local philanthropist. Give to I.T. who will deliver it this morning.

Throw a load in the laundry.

Breakfast.
Catch the 9:45 a.m. radio broadcast on NPR, promoting Homeschool Performing Arts' upcoming show of "Annie". Fash was on the panel of cast members being interviewed- way to go, girl! (Guess who the volunteer mom is, who worked on publicity for the show)

Make lunch and dinner for Fash; pack it up.

Run to Walgreens for a pack of nylons to complete a Lily St. Regis costume. Remember to buy toilet paper! Not for the show.

Pick up Rooster (remember Whippersnapper? the young man, who came to ask I.T.'s permission to "date" Fash? Well- in "Annie", the final show of our theater-loving daughter's high school career, he plays Rooster and Fash plays Lily St. Regis. Anybody gettin' what I'm sayin' here?).

Drive the two of them 45 minutes east on Highway 6 for scene run-throughs the rest of the day and into the night. Drive 45 minutes back home. Try not to let the fear of "merging onto the highway" attack. The semi will let you in. Trust. Increase your speed. Trust. Merge. Merge. Merge!

Back home.

Get ready for work.

Clean up the kitchen.

It's crazy week for the cast of "Annie"- rehearsals all day, every day, up to opening night on Thursday. I.T. will work 8 hours at his real job, then go to the auditorium to pound the sets together for another five. I'll be sharing Hope (and maybe selling books) at the bookstore- that's what we do there.

All the while, my mind is racing- she'll be gone soon, off to college. How did we get here? Time stood still, but the kids grew up. When? How? What's next? Is Everything going to be alright?

When I drive, I play WJQ99, my favorite Christian radio station. This is the song that is stickin' today. Crank it up and let it bless your day!

"It doesn't matter what you've heard. Impossible is not a word. It's just a reason for someone not to try. Everybody's scared to death. When they decide to take that step. ...It'll be alright....Life is so much more, than what your eyes are seeing...."






Everything will be alright.