Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. American Idol is back for a 14th season. Are you watching? Have you ever watched? If you were to audition for the show (or were made to audition), what song would you sing?

I am not watching American Idol. Have never watched it. I would never willingly audition, but if made to I would probably panic and squeak out a jumble of words from a variety of songs, because I'm pretty sure I couldn't remember the words to any particular song at that moment.

2.  Mark Twain is quoted as saying, "If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first." 

So when did you last have to 'eat a frog'? Or two? How'd that work out? 

Hmmmm..... possibly doing paper work. It's not something I really enjoy doing, so the sooner I get it done, the sooner I can get on with my life doing things that don't irritate me as much.

3. If you were going on safari, what is the number one animal you'd want to see?

A giraffe.

4. January 21st is National Granola Bar Day. I know. Do you like granola bars? Chewy or crunchy? Your favorite flavor? How about regular granola? Let's exhaust this topic in honor of the holiday okay?

I don't really care for most granola bars, but chewy is certainly better than crunchy.

I do not like regular granola at all. It reminds me of something you should feed to a cow.

5. If only___________________________.

There were more hours in a day, or there was a way I could live without having to sleep. Sleeping feels like such a waste of time to me, life is so short, why sleep away almost a third of it?

6. You can add one item to your bedroom. What will it be? Keep it family friendly please.

One of those Victorian style benches at the foot of the bed.
 

7. What is one thing you've enjoyed about winter thus far? If it's not winter in your corner of the globe, what season is it, and what is something you've enjoyed about whatever season it happens to be?

We haven't had much of a winter so far. A little skiff of snow once in a while, but mostly freezing rain and ice which I don't care for at all.
 

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

Last night my poor desk chair died, if that's what chairs do. LV had some things to do at the computer while I was finishing up supper.  Hearing a horrible sound I hurried to see what happened only to find him sitting on the floor with the funniest expression on his face and the chair in pieces around him.

Where the Tree Falls

"Where the tree falls, there shall it be," was a phrase heard in many an Amish sermon. Usually followed by warnings of how important it is to live in a way that when you die you're not doing something you wouldn't want to be doing when you meet Jesus. Because what ever you were doing or thinking at that moment, that is how you, the tree, will have fallen, and that's how you will be resurrected.

I was reminded of this last evening when someone shared a picture of the tombstone of one of my uncles.

Photo by Mark Earnest Burr. Used by permission.

When he had died people were horrified. He had been helping one of his "English" neighbors and was driving a four wheeler, he had an accident and died at the scene.

"He drove right into Jesus with a four wheeler," people would comment and shake their heads sadly. What hope he had, had been dashed because of what he had been doing at the time of his death.

I still remember the awful horror we felt when we heard about what happened, but looking at that picture last night I realized how different we view things now, and how very thankful I am for that.

I no longer believe the little thing you are thinking or doing at the time of your death will determine where you spend eternity. But there is truth in that falling tree statement. You either die forgiven, a child of God, or not. There will be no changing that state afterwards.

2014 in Review

2014 was an interesting year for us on many different levels.

It was a year of learning, growing, a year of being reminded to trust and have faith, a year when I became even more aware of the joy that is my life even when less than happy things were happening.

We said good-bye to some very important people in our lives and clung to the hope of seeing them in heaven one day.

We experienced God's healing touch when He chose to heal the growth that had rendered me unable to speak for over a month.

We continued to enjoy the ordinary days of simply going about our day to day life.

We enjoyed time spent with friends and family.

A song that sums up our year quite nicely is one of my favorites from the Scripture Lullabies collection.



The underlying theme of the year was simply, joy.

2015 is only beginning, but I have hopes that the joy we had through last year will be here all year long, and I'm already claiming this song as our family's anthem for the year.