Random quote from a random blog...

I suppose the blogger may not think his blog is all that "random"...maybe I should say "random quote from a randomly discovered blog". There. That feels better. Even though I have an uneasy feeling that may not be grammatically correct, or maybe it's just awkward, but it's late and I'm tired and really don't care. Except that it sounds weird. Anyway...this is from http://www.goodwordediting.com/ . The writer is the editor of Faith in the Workplace magazine. This is about his 3 year-old son. I laughed. Maybe you will, too.

Last night before we took the Christmas pictures, during our dinner prayer, my son acted like a three-year-old.

That’s okay, I guess. He is three after all. But here’s what that looks like during a prayer.
We all hold hands around the table, my wife, my daughter, me, and my son, in that order. We bow our heads. I usually pray:

Me: Dear God, thank you for this day and this food.
[At the mention of food, Lyle plants his nose in the mashed potatoes and makes a hog noise: “churff, churff, churff.” I try to ignore these noises.]

Me: Thank you for Mommy and the hard work she does every day. Especially thank you right now for the food that she prepared.
[Lyle lifts his head and looks at me. I know this because I can’t pray with my eyes closed at dinner for fear that something horrible will end up on the rug or the ceiling. Lyle has mashed potatoes on his chin like a beard. He laughs about this.]

Me: Thank you for CJ… and, um, Lyle. I pray that you will fill them with your Spirit and help them to glorify you in all that they do.
[That’s my standard prayer for the family. All of life is ministry. It’s an important thought to me. To Lyle, not so much. He blows a loud raspberry, and I can feel bits of mashed potato spittle land on my arm.]

Me: Please help us to stay healthy and strong.
[Lyle let’s go of my wife’s hand and sticks his finger in the mashed potatoes. His finger works fairly well as a utensil. Unfortunately, I know where that finger has been.]

Me: Um. Um. Um.
Amy: In Jesus’ name, Amen.
[Lyle says an enthusiastic “Amen” and sticks the potato covered finger in his mouth.]

What's better than pumpkin pie?

PURPLE PIE!!

Check out the missing chunk of purple pie in my debt reduction chart. Pretty exciting stuff for me...if all goes as planned, this time next year, I will have made the last payment on my house and will be entirely debt free--what an amazing thought!!

This is certainly a lesson in patience and wisdom and planning and frugality for me...but I could have made it crazy-tough on myself and chose not to do that. I want to be out of debt, but I stopped and thought about the times I've gone on "crash" diets and then ended up bingeing at some point because I couldn't take it any longer. I don't want to set myself up for failure by not giving myself a little "play" budget.

I'm pretty excited, though--I went to Hobby Lobby tonight for cardstock and ended up in the yarn department, where I discovered a vast amount of beautiful yarn (some of it regularly priced at about $7.00/skein) on sale for 99 cents!! My knitting's still not too hot (it's terrible, really), but I can crochet...and I can crank out scarves pretty quickly. Hmm...sounds like Christmas scarves for all my loved ones this year. :-)

The surprising blessedness of numbness...

These are days when I'm grateful for the fog of numbness that's been surrounding me lately. I wonder sometimes if I would even be able to stand underneath the weight of grief pressing down on me if I could actually feel it.

The pastor of our church has resigned--for the second time. And he won't be coming back this time. Which is a good thing. Because he "committed inappropriate acts with a female church member" (somewhat accurate quotation from his letter of resignation).

I am SO SICK of this shit. I know my heart's broken, but I just can't feel it right now. And that's a good thing. I don't want to feel anything for awhile...I just want to be numb.

Mississippi...it's my favorite!!

READ IT.

From my friend Nate...

McDonald's Christianity.

'Nuff said.