stinky no more

My husband just replaced our garbage disposal. I am proud of him.

Our old one was intermittently stinky, and recently it had started to leak.

It was time.

Good job, husband. Your handiwork saves us hundreds of dollars every year, and I'm thankful that you know how to do these things (or if you don't, that you figure it out). You rock.

Hello?

Does anyone read this blog anymore? I fear I may have lost my readers with all the blog address/identity changes over the years, like how one loses a pursuer by making sharp turns down alleys and jumping fences. (You know, like in the movies. Think Bourne Identity.)

 

I never meant to lose you, readers! My blog-dentity has just been wandering aimlessly and trying to find its way, not trying to shake anyone following it. I hope some of you are still out there.

Wha? Where'd this decade go?

I turn 30 today.

 

Holy crap.

 

That's all I have to say about that right now.

pretty bird

Yesterday I was driving home from the grocery store and a guy in a black Jeep flipped me off. I truly think he was in the wrong (however, I won't tell you what I did to get flipped off because you might take his side, and I am enjoying feeling right).

The whole experience was kind of funny to me, and the part that surprises me is that I didn't get too upset when I saw his big, knuckly finger in my rear-view mirror. I got a little fired up/indignant, but not the "I'm gonna cry" kind of feeling that a friend once described after her first birdy experience. When I got home and told Craig what had happened, he said (with sarcasm) "That's gotta make you feel good." and I said, "Actually, it kind of did. I felt self-righteously good."

I don't know. Maybe that doesn't make sense to you without knowing the series of traffic events, but I guess in a nutshell I will say that the guy was driving like a punk bully, and I stuck up for myself (in a vehicular fashion) and it pissed the guy off. So maybe I felt proud of myself. Maybe I felt safe and anonymous in the car and therefore more prone to confrontation than I am in "real" life.

And maybe this is a dumb story, now that I think about it, but I think I'm going to post it anyway. Because it feels good to stick up for yourself, even if it's just against jackass drivers in black Jeeps.

the Giver eternally

"It is a grief to the heart of God when we try to provide things for him. He is so very, very rich. It gives him true joy when we just let him give and give and give again to us. It is a grief to him, too, when we try to do things for him, for he is so very, very able. He longs that we will just let him do and do and do. He wants to be the Giver eternally, and he wants to be the Doer eternally. If only we saw how rich and how great he is, we would leave all the giving and all the doing to him."

-Watchman Nee, Sit, Walk, Stand

Day 16--a song that makes you cry (or nearly)

I don't know if I'll do anywhere near all of these "Day X" posts, but we are having technical difficulties at work right now, and I literally have nothing else to do while I wait for things to get back up and running.
 
Okay, I initially was going to talk about "You're My Home" by Billy Joel, and how it makes me think of my husband, but then I started typing out the lyrics and realized some of the lines are a bit PG-rated and might be interpreted as TMI (not what I was going for). So, here's another song that gets me teary-eyed and also makes me think of my marriage. I think it's a beautiful picture of a relationship where you know someone completely and are fully known by them. I love the way she redefines "happy" in the context of a marriage in which two people have gone through some hard things together, yet there is a depth there now that is so much better than the superficial "happy" that some people settle for. The type of transparancy she describes here can be scary, so I find this song both challenging and inspiring, and it makes me thankful for my husband and the marriage we have fought for over the past seven years.
 
Different Kinds of Happy (by Sara Groves)

 

Go on and ask me anything. What do you need to know?

I'm not holding on to anything I'm not willing to let go of To be free, to be free
 
I've got to ask you something, but please don't be afraid

There's a promise here thats heavier than your answer might weigh

Baby it's me, it's me
 
It's a sweet, sweet thing

Standing here with you and nothing to hide

Light shining down to our very insides

Sharing our secrets, baring our souls,
Helping each other come clean
 
Secrets and cyphers, there's no good way to hide

There's redemption in confession and freedom in the light

I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid
 
It's a sweet, sweet thing

Standing here with you and nothing to hide

Light shining down to our very insides

Sharing our secrets, baring our souls,
Helping each other come clean 

Better than our promises

Is the day we got to keep them

I wish those two could see us now,

They never would believe how there are different kinds of happy

Different kinds of happy

There are different kinds of happy

Different kinds of happy
 
It's a sweet, sweet thing

Standing here with you and nothing to hide

Light shining down to our very insides

Sharing our secrets, baring our souls,
Helping each other come clean

restless

"In the way of righteousness there is life..." - Proverbs 12:28

 

God's way is the way of life and good things. That was the topic of discussion at last night's women's Bible study (we are studying the book of Proverbs).

 

Fitting, considering lately I have been struggling with some discontentment.

 

One of the verses we read last night had a marginal note in our study book (wish I could remember the actual verse and note--sorry) that expounded on the idea that pursuing God and God's best in our lives leads to joy, satisfaction, fulfillment, etc.

 

Like Saint Augustine prayed, I want to look to God alone for the satisfaction my heart desires. I am free to look elsewhere, but I won't find it anywhere else.

 

"Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee." - Augustine