Not My Decision

We attended church with some friends this past weekend. It's always interesting to attend church at "not home" on occasion, because I get to see how other congregations (and other denominations) do things. One thing they had in the service was a "reception of people making a Decision" or something along that lines. At any rate, it was the bit in the service where you go forward if you "decide" to accept Christ as your Savior.
I've been taught that we don't "decide" any such thing. So I got to thinking about this. In the past, when I was growing up, occasionally a group would come to our neighborhood during the summer, and offer a program for a week or two in the mornings, and my mom would send us. (Now that I'm grown up, I can't say as I blame her! Those were her only "time off" during the summer - and I'm betting that's when she got stuff done. ) During those programs, they always had a "Decision Time" - same thing, really, as was in church. We'd all go real quiet and they'd explain what it was and "you should ask Jesus into your heart."
I always thought about it, and being a little kid and not really understanding the whole "I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in my Lord Jesus Christ, or come to Him", I'd sit there and ask. I never felt any different, though, and when you're 6 or 7 or 10, that's kind of a letdown. Here you've been told you'll feel a great peace, joy, love, whatever - and I never felt any different. So it was kind of disappointing.
Reflecting on that this week, though, I really thought about it. (Considering I haven't bothered with those memories in quite some time, I'm surprised I remembered it at ALL, actually, but that's neither here nor there.) And I realized that of course, the reason I never "felt" any different was because I wasn't any different. My parents had had me baptized and I've been a Child of Christ since I was an infant. NOT since I was seven, or eight, or twelve, or twenty-eight, or whatever. I absolutely did not Decide in any way, shape or form to accept Christ's salvation. And I realized something further.
There's an incredible comfort in knowing, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I am saved. That my salvation isn't based on my feeling saved, or my mood-of-the-moment, or my "opinion", or anything on my part. It's all been handled. Care-free, worry-free, and effort-free on my part. I don't have to do or say or feel ANY particular way, and it doesn't matter. I'm still saved.

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
I never really realized how comforting Romans 5:8 was before.

Help Save a Life

This weekend, I donated blood. The Red Cross comes to our hometown every 8 weeks, but it's always on a Tuesday. Since I'm in Indy for the week, I go to their main office in Fort Wayne over the weekend and donate.
I always try to do a "double-red" donation, where a machine takes 2 units of red blood cells by taking the whole blood, separating out the red cells, then returning the plasma in some citrine / saline solution. Everyone wins - the Red Cross gets two units of the most needed part of my blood, I can donate "twice" in a single visit (it does render me ineligible to donate for 16 weeks after a double-red donation, instead of the standard 8) and I know that my blood will go to help people who really need it.

Blood isn't exactly non-perishable; they need a constant supply. Modern Medical Science, for all its advances, discoveries, and substitutes, cannot duplicate blood. There is no substitute. And every two seconds, someone, somewhere in the United States, needs blood.
Only approximately 5% of the eligible donors currently give blood.

We decry the lack of "voter turnout" in election years. We speak about apathy when it gets highlighted in the newspaper, or when it affects a large event. But we need to remember the day-to-day, routine apathy as well.
Please. If you're eligible, please give blood. You never know who may need it. Please become one of the silent heroes that help people just by giving of an hour of your time, once every 2 months. Or, if you qualify for a double-red donation, you can give approximately 90 minutes of your time, once every 4 months.
Please give. Please donate. There's a lot more information at http://www.givelife.org. If you don't know if you're eligible, you can do an online quick-check here.

Thanks.

Group Inferiority

You know what I'm tired of? Group inferiority. The mindset that someone must be bad / inferior / insert-bad-thing-here because they're of a certain demographic. "Oh, but people don't do that anymore, do they? We're far more advanced and enlightened and better than that now! Look at how Politically Correct we are! Woo!"

Riiiiight. Sure, it's totally unacceptable to tell a woman she "can't" be a construction worker if she wants to. It's unacceptable to tell an African-American we aren't going to rent to him because of his skin color. It's not allowed to tell someone they didn't get a receptionist's job because they're in a wheelchair.
But there is still a lot of prejudice out there. It's taken the form of humor, but it's not detoxifying the stereotypes. It's reinforcing them - and that concerns me.

Take "blonde jokes", for example. Nobody believes them, they're harmless...right? Except that I still see people making unconscious assumptions about how ignorant, helpless, and downright moronic people -with-light-hair are! Sure, it seems funny, but it's separatist and ultimately destructive.
"But...OK, fine, but that's not really bad. Blonde people do it too! It's all in fun, anyway!"

How about sexism?

"We've done away with that. Women are equal now!"

Y'know, last time I checked, there were two sexes. And it's the male gender that's getting bashed now. And it's all in the name of "humor". Maybe my humor-detector needs recalibration, but I really have a hard time finding humor in things like "men are always wrong", and "men can't understand anything", and "men are ignorant pigs".
And, perhaps the saddest of all, is that I've heard these statements from men. And not in jest. These destructive and harmful statements are being internalized. Children are growing up believing this garbage. It's not just children, either - if you tell someone they're a useless, worthless, ignorant piece of trash long enough, they'll start believing it. Even if they're not. I've been told by adults that they are wrong, worthless, and ignorant - because they're men. The worst part about that is, of course, that if I try and deny their worthlessness, well obviously I'm just reinforcing their statement, since I'm telling them that once again, they are WRONG!
Sure, some of it may be said "in jest" but quite frankly, that's one of those "humorous" statements I don't see any humor in.

Destructive, insulting humor isn't funny. We need to stop and listen to ourselves, and realize that words cannot be unsaid. If something is said long enough, and loud enough, people will start to believe it, regardless of how stupid or patently untrue it really is. Let's stop "humorously" degrading each other. Humor and good feeling isn't a teeter-totter. We shouldn't need to put someone else down to feel better about ourselves. We should be able to lift one another up, instead of putting each other down.

Men are not bad. Women are not stupid. We're not from different planets, we're all from THIS ONE. I think it's high time we stopped trying to get each other to go back to Mars and Venus, and started trying to get along on Earth.

New Commitment?

Well, not really. I just weighed myself is all.

I've gotta do something. I can't keep doing what I have been, which is pretty much "eat whatever I want, whenever I want, in the quantities I want." So...I'm going to keep with a "modified" WeightWatchers' program.
I'll still keep Points in mind, and I'll probably start logging all my eating again, just so I can track what I eat. I'm not going to do so with the mindset of "ooohhh, I can't eat anything except celery for lunch if I want to have for dinner", though. Not sure exactly what I'm going to do, or how I'm going to use those numbers yet. But right now, I need to start paying attention again.

And I'm not gonna eat unless I am hungry. See how long that works out.

OUT with the old, IN with the new

Or, Kev gets a new blanket.
I decided that I was tired of getting comforters and blankets for him that weren't what he wanted, and that self-disassembled in a short period of time, necessitating a replacement.
So...
I made one.
I've been cutting, sewing, adding, figuring, tying and calculating since October, getting this comforter assembled.
The Old:

THIS particular disassembly started happening almost right away. This is AFTER I've tried to fix it 3 times. You can see why I don't particularly want to purchase another one.

Kai, however, loves the old blanket and is here claiming it as his.

Aaaand heres' the new blanket. All the denim pieces are from old pairs of jeans, shorts, and jackets that we either found at yard sales or we already owned and donated to "the cause". The rest is random pieces of heavy-duty twill and camouflage material that we'd acquired already, for other projects.


I'd forgotten how much of a PROJECT doing one of these things is. Whoof.
But it's done! Yay! And Kev has a new blanket.

New Pants

What the heck is up with the sizing of clothing lately? I've noticed this before, and it still makes no sense. I just got 2 new pairs of pants and they both are labeled "24W - Petite" (the "Petite" being the height). I'm 5'7" in just feet - no shoes on.
These "petite" pants are almost too long for me! These are the shortest ones they make in "full length" size, and they're almost too long! Were I even an inch shorter, these things would need alterations - or I'd be walking on them. This is crazy. These could probably be comfortably worn by someone at least 2 to 3 inches taller than I without looking like floods. Let's say 2 inches. So if the "Petite" pants are to be worn by people 5' 7" - 5' 9", then...the "Normal" ones are for 5' 9" to 5' 11"? And the "tall" pants are for who, the WNBA candidates?

Come on, clothiers! This is nuts! What are the "average" people supposed to wear - shorts? Capris? Oh wait, that was last years' styles. God forbid they need clothes this year. Make your pants to fit your customers! I can't believe that there are really a large number of WNBA candidates shopping at WalMart, and that nobody shorter than I am is needing pants. Stupid.

I'd also like to know why, if I buy the same design and cut in two different colors, one fits and one doesn't. Or worse yet, one is almost too big and the other one feels like I bought something two sizes too small. I know, I know, it's my fault for buying cheapo clothes, but in my experience, no matter how much I pay for a pair of pants or a skirt, it's going to last me about a year. I'm not paying $100 per skirt to have to replace them all next year, when I can get the same longetivity from a $10 skirt or pair of pants.

Back to reality, and into the freezer

Yesterday marked the first day "back to reality-land": Back to work, normal schedules (well, sort of), and back to Indianapolis.
Sigh.
I miss home. I miss having my sweetie around when I get off work. I miss my dog. (No offense, Reg, but you're just not mine...)
I'm glad I'm staying where I am. They're really good people, great friends, and I'm helping them at least a little bit. That's good to know. God has me here, doing what I'm doing, being where I am, for a reason. It's just that...I still miss the things I want to have when I want them.
God provides what we need. He always does. Right now he's providing the support, encouragement and endurance we need because I am away from home part of the time.

And sometimes we are what he provides, rather than just receiving what he provides. I have to remember that, too.

On to more mundane items: what the heck is going on with the weather? It's single-digit temperatures out there! It's warmer - by far - in Fort Wayne, 150 miles north, thank you very much, than it is here! Sure, 12 or 14 isn't all that warm, but when OUR temperatures in Indy are "1 degree...4 degrees...area heat wave is 6 degrees" it sounds a heck of a lot better. And in 2 days it's supposed to be up in the forties? Eeeeeesh. Enough already! Bring back spring and summer! I want to go swimming, I'm tired of snow, I'm tired of being cold, and I'm tired of things looking dead.

More Stick Pix

Lilies

Pawprints

Strap & Charm

Name

Stick of the Baskervilles

..."Mr. Holmes, they were the prints of a giant hound!"
That phrase ends one chapter of the enduring story of The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. So, of course, I immediately thought of it when I saw glowing paw prints in the mail.

A dear friend did me an incredible honor: she hand-carved a hiking stick for me. She carved a dog's head on the top of it, carved and painted paw prints down the side (in glow-in-the-dark paint, of course :D) and carved and painted my geocaching handle down the stick.
Lilies of the valley adorn the stick, as does her avatar, a cute little mouse.

It is an incredibly gorgeous stick, and I just can't say enough nice things about it. I can't thank her enough for going to all this work, and for shipping it out to me.
Here are pictures of the stick.



Stick in a box!



Opening the box...





Outside with the Stick of the Baskervilles