7 Quick Takes Friday–February 28, 2014

 

After two weeks of neglecting my blog, I’m sure I have more than seven things I could share, but I’ll limit this post to just seven.

1. Wild Man is getting all of his stuff ready for Solo and Ensemble tomorrow. He is performing in seven (yes, SEVEN!) musical pieces tomorrow: 2 pieces with Show Choir, Stars from Les Mis for Musical Theater Solo, Vocal Solo, Vocal Duet, Percussion Ensemble, and Marimba Solo. He’s going to be a busy boy tomorrow!

2. Between migraines, I’ve actually gotten some cleaning and organizing done around the house. Goodwill and St. Vincent’s are the recipients of our efforts. I even gave away some school books this time around; PWM is thrilled!

3. It is officially the second coldest winter in our area since records have been kept. We don’t even blink an eye when the temperatures are below zero anymore. Spring could come anytime. Really.

4. Due to the depressing winter, one of the pipes going from the house to the shop has frozen. It probably hasn’t burst the pipe because it froze because the frost line in the ground has gone low enough to freeze pipes that are usually low enough to not freeze. (Did that make any sense?) In fact, our town has us all running water so the town pipes don’t freeze. When people taking knitting classes need to use the bathroom, we have to escort them into the house, which I guess is a good incentive to keep the bathroom clean.

5. We’re still working on eating more healthy, particularly because of PWM’s elevated blood sugars. He tried making pizza with cauliflower crust today which he said wasn’t too bad, but was pretty labor-intensive. I eat pretty poorly when I have a migraine because I have little appetite and because I have no interest in actually cooking anything. So, I pretty much have a few graham crackers and some milk. But, when my head feels better, I’ve been eating veggies and some fruit, too. Someone, be proud of me!

6. I decided to try a yoga video the other day and got through 30 minutes of it. I figured I’d do the other 30 minutes yesterday – until I got up. Oh. My. Goodness. I was really sore and I’m still feeling it today. (Actually, I have a migraine, so I hurt everywhere today.) I ended up just doing treadmill yesterday. I guess I’ll try yoga when this headache calms down (tomorrow?). It did seem like it could be a relaxing form of exercise when I get used to it.

7. This has been the first winter in several years that I didn’t end up calling my doctor for more meds for depression. That has to be partly due to the fact that I’m pretty maxed out on my depression meds. Otherwise, it’s something of a miracle since it’s been so cold and I’ve been indoors and I’ve had lots of headaches. But, I think it’s notable. And it allows me to do useful things between headache instead of sit and stare at a wall.

And, on that optimistic note, I’ll remind you that comments are most welcome and suggest that you check out 7 Quick Takes at Jen’s blog!

Life–February 13, 2014

• I’ve been 3 1/2 days without significant headache!! Now I’m nervous about how long this can actually continue!
• Because of my headache reprieve, I’ve been trying to get some stuff done around the house. PWM and I cleaned out our upstairs closet and moved clothes around. In the end, we had three good-sized boxes of stuff to go to St. Vincent’s or Goodwill.
• Yesterday, we cleaned out the coat closet and filled another box with stuff to give away.
• I also made a couple of pound cakes yesterday – one to give away and one to have here at home. I needed to make one to keep here at home because Wild Man heard I was making a pound cake and felt very strongly that I needed to make one that he could eat.
• Have you been watching the Olympics? We’ve been watching them pretty much every night. I’ve actually been enjoying skiing and snowboarding, although I keep wanting to yell at them, “Don’t die, don’t die!!”
• I’ve got four books out from the library to read. My eyes are too big for my reading ability again. We’ll see which ones actually get read!

That’s a little bit of what’s going on around here.

Romans 12:15–February 13, 2014

In Romans 12, Paul is giving the Romans some practical ways to show love. In verse 15, he writes, “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.” This has been the week for it.

One of my college friends is on hospice and not expected to live out the week. Unfortunately, she lives down South and I won’t make it to the funeral. Thankfully, I’m in touch with friends through social media. Last night I found out that one of my previous co-workers died from ALS. His death wasn’t unexpected; he quit practicing medicine soon after I did because of the diagnosis. But, it’s sad. He was only 63. And I found that another former co-worker, this time a back office employee, has breast cancer. That’s a lot of mourning for one week, if you ask me.

But, there are blessings. I’ve had three non-migraine days in a row. That must count for something. But, more substantially, two women (much younger than I) who happen to live in different states than I have given birth to precious babies this week. I am thanking God for Facebook! I can’t get enough pictures of these darling sweeties. And, another friend made it to the 36 week mark without having her baby! So, of course, we’re all on pins and needles for that one to be born. (Especially me, because that baby is here in town and I’ll get to hold and snuggle him occasionally. Well, I’ll have to get in line, but eventually, I’ll get so see him in person.)

And through all of this, God is in control. Death is a part of the cycle of life and death that we all must face. Yes, my college friend is too young to die. As was my co-worker. The way that we can love those around us best right now is to just “mourn with those who mourn”. These people have touched a lot of lives and I know that they will be very missed and there will be much mourning. But, we are also to love by “rejoic(ing) with those who rejoice”. And I know, under all the sleeplessness, there is much rejoicing for new life brought into the world.

Abide 2/9/2014

This is one of my words for this year. So far, I’ve been focusing on reading and meditating on John 15. Later, I’ll work on 1 John. Then, I’ll work on more in-depth study.

First, here’s the text of the first part of John 15:

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes^[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. ³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴ Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

⁹ “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. ¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other.

The take-home message from this passage of scripture is that we abide (or remain) in Christ through obedience. And his command to us is LOVE. It sounds pretty easy, right? Just love. Since I don’t interact too much with the world these days because of my headaches, maybe it is a little bit easier for me. I’ve got two people in the house all day long that I have to focus on loving. That could take some work.

So, LOVE. I’ll work on it. Next time, I’ll try to have some more thoughts on abiding in Christ.

The Debate

So, the Ken Ham-Bill Nye debate was tonight. Did you get to watch it? I did.

Ham had his usual talking points of the bible being the only source of truth and having evidence that points to “thousands of years” instead of “millions of years”. He also had video clips of scientists who espouse YEC beliefs. What was new to me was that he made a difference between experimental science (things we can hypothesize and test) and observational science (things that happened in the past).

Nye was a little slower getting started. His five minute opening wasn’t all that great, but he improved quickly. In the thirty minute segment, he finally got to what was important; he showed that evolutionary theory could be predictive. That is, observational science is no different from experimental science. I wish he would have been a little more overt about it, though. Anyway, he showed how scientists predicted that there should be a certain fossil in the record and how they eventually found it. Real science.

What I would really like to see debated, though, is the theology of young-earth creationism. There are a lot of Christians who are really confused because they hear that science supports things like and old earth and evolution, but the bible doesn’t. What they need to hear is that there are other interpretations of the book of Genesis that “real” Christians believe. You don’t have to give up your faith to believe something besides young earth creationism.

Did you see the debate? What did you think?