Random Dozen!

One of my favorite bloggy friends is hosting a meme so I'ma gonna participate! Here goes:


1. How do you feel about "Gladiator" sandals, also called "Roman" or "Jesus" sandals? A fashion yea or nay? Weeeeelll, for this second, I have to say "not so much", HOWEVER, I'm nothing if not *swayed* when it comes to fashion trends, so I'm sure I'll be sportin' a pair if they hit the big time. I'm a sheeple like that. I think I'll go gag now...

2. What is your favorite pizza? I'm a weirdo (SHOCK!) in that I don't like meat on my pizza at all. I really prefer it loaded down with veggies and tons of cheese. There is a Tuscan pizza that our local market... oh who am I kidding, it's Walmart.... sells, and it's muy bien!

3. There are plans in the works to sell roughly 1,000 items from Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas. This means you could buy Picard's chair for your family room. If not a Star Trek item, what prop, background, set, etc. from what TV or movie would you buy if you could? [Ex: Hurley's "I Love my Shih tzu" shirt from LOST, the plantation home "Tara" from Gone With the Wind, or Tracy's tambourine from the Partridge Family.] I'd buy Mr. Rogers' trolley and then I'd let it whisk me away daily to the Land of Make Believe where I'd fix all the problems of the day and dance and twirl and sing like Lady Elaine Fairchild. ~sigh~ ;)

4. Name a local food or restaurant that your area is famous for. Ummmm, Dreamland BBQ? I think?

5. What is your current favorite snack? Smoked Almonds have my heart right at the moment. That, and Dove Dark Chocolate together is the thing making my world spin on it's axis. YUMMY!

6. Hypothetical: You are required to be a reality show contestant. Which show would you choose based on your probability of success? (You cannot choose "none.") A. Dancing with the Stars B. Biggest Loser C. Survivor I'll have to go with Survivor on this one given that I have 2 left feet and that Jillian Michaels makes me want to put my head into a bucket of bleach and inhale. I have some deep-seated bitterness over my encounter with The Shred last year. I'll probably never get over it.

7. On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being uninhabitable and 10 being cleanliness that meets the standards of OCD, how clean is your vehicle's interior? Heh-heh.. can we go into the negatives on this one? I do have 4 children.

8. It doesn't feel like Spring until _________. Well, THIS year it wasn't until the temps got above Ever-Lovin-Frigid! Dern, that was a miserable winter! Usually, it's the flowers blooming, though... and Easter.

9. Something that made you laugh really hard recently is ____. We watch America's Funniest Home Videos ALOT as a family and I howl every single time over something on that show. It's quality programming if there ever was any. :)

10. Tell me about a goal you're working toward. Summer. The end.

11. Share a thought-provoking or inspiring quote this week. "The idea that motherhood, fatherhood, and family are not as honorable as high-income careers or highly visible ministry positions is biblically uninformed at best and grossly heretical at worst." Voddie Baucham from the book Family Driven Faith. I'm loving this book and I really respect it's author for his drive to recapture the biblical role of family. God's been opening my eyes alot for several months about this, but that's a whole other post.

12. Name one thing that you do as a parent that you absolutely know will make your kids happy. Going to the drive thru for a chocolate, creamy, dreamy, Chick-Fil-A milkshake. It's aaaaaaaall good then, even for Mama. ;)

Click icon at the top of this post to write your own answers! I'd love to read 'em!

Thoughts About the Last Few Days

Have you ever had a period of time that hits you like a tornado with it's ferocity and leaves you feeling wind-whipped and disheveled after it's over? Well, that was my last week. It was such a hard one on so many levels.

It started with the sudden and tragic death of my precious sister-friend's Dad on the eve of Easter Sunday. It was a car accident that was caused by someone who was probably abusing some substance which makes it all the more difficult. He was such a Godly, wonderful man and it was proven by the sheer number of people who came to pay their respects. If only we could all leave a legacy like that.

The hardest part of it all, though, is watching my friend and her family suffer. As I type, I have her precious children all sound asleep in various places around the house because they spent the night with us last night. They have been through so much in such a short period of time. It's hard to see it on their sweet, innocent faces.

I have several other friends and family members that are dealing with incredibly difficult things that erupted last week, too. Out of respect for their collective privacy, I won't share, but it's some seriously TOUGH stuff, folks, and all I can do is be there for them and pray my head off. I hate it when my loved ones are hurting. The only comfort I take is that I know God will use it for their good in ways that only He can orchestrate. What a blessing it is to be His child because we can rest assured that even the really, really hard places are never in vain.

On a personal note...and I must tread lightly here... I had a "critic" make their voice known behind my back last week in the midst of everything else. Things like that always punch me in the gut especially when it's not meant for any kind of constructiveness, but pure maliciousness. My skin is definitely tougher than it used to be, but I'm human and I certainly have to deal with the hurt and even anger that I inevitably face afterward.

I'm trying to let it serve as a reminder to ME that when we are image-bearers of Christ, we are called to love in His name. Part of that love is kindness and protection (1 Cor. 13:7), which I believe means protecting the name and certainly the confidences of others. Why are we, as Christians, so easily loose with their tongues when it comes to other brothers and sisters? Do we not know the destruction it causes? James 3 tells us that for such a little part of the body, it has the ability to corrupt the whole thing!

We've all been the recipient of the hurt from a person's careless words, so why do we not realize that this is exactly the way it makes others feel when we are tempted to do it ourselves? Are we that harsh that we don't care? If that's the case, it's so NOT ok... that's a major heart problem.

We're supposed to love others the way we love ourselves. So I ask, would we hurt ourselves the way we hurt others with our judgement and criticism? Probably not. We usually wind up giving more grace and understanding to ourselves than to anybody else.

Finally, how does our gossip or maliciousness or backbiting make us look any different from the world? How does this bring honor and glory to the Lord at all? Of course, it doesn't. It has the opposite affect. It causes people not to trust us. Not to trust the Church. There is no telling how many people have walked away from a Christian whose words crossed the explicit boundaries that the Bible gives us with a skewed view of the Father. How incredibly, horribly tragic.

Please don't take this as a post from someone who's been jaded and then went on to rant. It's something God has been showing me for a long time. It's something He knows I've failed at many, many times myself. Yet, it's something that I absolutely had to get out this time. I hope God will bring it to mind every single time I'm tempted to not protect in Christ's love.

Redeem the time, friends,