In today's devotional from My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers excerpted from Isaiah 52:12, which reads:But you will not leave in haste or go in flight;for the LORD will go before you,the God of Israel will be your rear guard.Chambers assures us that as we go forth into the coming year, "let it not be in the haste of impetuous, unremembering delight, nor with the … [Read more...]
The Mother Letter Project
By now you've surely heard of The Mother Letter Project?In case you haven't, here's the skinny:Inspired by the Advent Conspiracy, husband and wife agree to create presents for each other instead of buying gifts, and donate the difference to help others. The husband, God bless his creative, thoughtful soul, decides to collect a series of “open letters” from mothers, to … [Read more...]
Just Fifteen Minutes a Day: Ready…Set…Read!
Jennifer at Scraps and Snippets posted about Lifelong Learning at her blog, citing a 2006 article by Harvey Mackay packed with statistics to make an autodidact sprint to her bookcase and grab anything within reach: Only 14 percent of adults with a grade-school education read literature in 2002. 51 percent of the American population never reads a book more than 400 … [Read more...]
Tightwad on Tuesday, Pt. 2
Already there have been some great comments and links to the Tightwad on Tuesday post.Apparently we're not the only ones who have made changes after all, contrary to what my informal local survey revealed.Nor are we the only ones who have been more on the tightwad end of the spectrum for some time. We've always been pretty cheap thrifty, but I can see right away that many … [Read more...]
Tightwad on Tuesday
Not long after the national -- now global -- financial upheaval dominated the news, I conducted an informal interview of friends and neighbors.While chatting with someone at the soccer field or church, I would sometimes inquire, "Have you made any changes as a result of this whole big economic scare?"They all answered, "No."I was surprised, because in these days of … [Read more...]
A TCK Election
This is certainly an election of "firsts."There are, of course, the obvious ones that have been explored in every magazine, news show and newspaper in America.But there's another that I didn't realize until, during one of the last soccer games, I was leafing through a copy of World magazine and stopped on a little sidebar (September 20/27, 2008 edition, p. 43) entitled, … [Read more...]
Mega Memory Month–Time to Prepare!
It's the last Monday in September, and October arrives mid-week.Mega Memory Month is just about to arrive.Here's the visual reminder:As so much news about the economic and political challenges swirls around us, it feels like we're caught in a tornado of change.It might seem kind of trite, simplistic or disconnected to commit to a month of memory work in the midst of all of … [Read more...]
Monday's Meme-ish Musings
Having been tagged for a meme a while back by L.L. Barkat, I thought I'd tackle it today.Although I don't always jump at memes, I thought this might produce an interesting post. Maybe. She invented this particular meme, and that seems more "real" than the ones that get passed and passed around until they aren't really "fresh" anymore.So here are L.L. Barkat's rules for 5 … [Read more...]
The Parable of the Lost Nickel
As I was leaving the post office, I heard the jingling of loose change hitting the sidewalk. The lady in front of me--from whose hand or purse it must have dropped--glanced down, but didn't stop. She kept walking. I stopped.I saw a nickel and picked it up.I looked around, because it sounded like more than one had fallen, but only found the nickel.I thought about my … [Read more...]
Wordless Wednesday
From Chaos to Controversy to Gratitude to the Fonz
All of your responses to the original post about chaos and the follow-up post about being humbled have been helpful and insightful. Thank you for pondering and exploring this with me.One time I was explaining blogs and blogging (and my blog itself) to my sister-in-law. At the time, I had been following a couple of bloggers who seemed to generate tons of traffic and … [Read more...]
Chaos-O-Meter
Today's Chaos-O-Meter indicates a high level of chaos in the Kroeker house.The kids determined the possible levels of chaos, beginning with: "Complete peace." Next is "Mildly Messy." After that, midway on the Chaos-O-Meter, reads "Minor Mishaps." The next degree of chaos is "Dust Everywhere," which apparently the children have determined adds a lot to the chaos. I'm … [Read more...]
How to Invite Chaos into Your Life in Four Easy Steps
It's easy to introduce mass chaos into your home, if you know how.Step One: Ignore various design flaws in your home for at least eight years. Thanks to the Law of Entropy, ignoring these issues is sure to complicate things immensely down the road.Step Two: Imagine you might be able to do the repairs yourself. Actually attempt a few of them yourself, but leave them … [Read more...]
Eco-Friendly Experiments: Bicycling to Church (and thoughts on patience)
This past week we've only had one van. The other one is in the shop for repairs. As a result, we've been creative with transportation solutions, running errands by bicycle or simply staying home some afternoons.Inspired by this forced experiment (and with this post from Anne Jackson still affecting me a little every time we fire up the van on a Sunday), we decided to ride … [Read more...]
Hey, I'm a 41-year-old Mom, Too! Dana Torres and I Have Sooo Much in Common!
Surely you've read about Olympic swimmer Dana Torres?If you haven't, here's the skinny (if I've cobbled together the details correctly):This former Olympian, now a 41-year-old mother of three (the most recent of the three kids was born only two years ago), came back from a six-year retirement to earn a spot on the team in the 100m freestyle.The 100m freestyle, people! … [Read more...]