Saturday, February 28, 2009

do you ever just want to scrap your current life and start over?

sometimes i just get so frustrated with the way things are playing out.... i wish i had some sort of control over it, but of course i don't.
i mean, don't get me wrong... on the whole, life is actually pretty good right now
(well, apart from the whole money thing--namely being that i don't have any)
but all it takes is one little hiccup. actually, just one little GLIMMER of the POSSIBILITY of a hiccup, and suddenly that's all i can think about.
i hate that.

but i'm gonna try to look at the upside and ignore that possibly-crummy part.
cause i really just shouldn't care.
maybe that's what's bothering me--the fact that i care at all.
i'm completely dedicated to not caring about that particular aspect of life.
and yet, here i am, going against everything i've been adamantly against and WANTING something i shouldn't want.
that i DON'T want.

what am i doing?
gosh i'm such a fool...


in other wholly unrelated news,
i'm going gluten free for lent
HA!
no but seriously, i am.
a friend of mine already cant have gluten, so we're used to taking that into consideration when we have parties and whatnot
and now my mom's bein' told by her doc to cut it out of her diet too
so i figure...what better time to give it a whirl and see what that life would be like?

granted, with my job i have a feeling its going to be STINKIN' HARD.
but its only 40 days (less now, actually, since i had a wedding to go to first), and i've been through worse.

so... yeah.
gluten deprivation begins NOW!!


oh yes, and for the first time ever
i get to play Beulah (my guitar, for those of you not keeping up) tomorrow at church.
just for one song that i'm leading, but still.
its thrilling.
and frankly, overwhelmingly terrifying.


yep.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed,
but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.

- Philippians 1:20 -

Friday, February 20, 2009

yesterday had all the makings of being a very bad day:
3 hours of sleep, a phone call from work at 3:38am assigning me a check-in at 7:12am,
a 4 hour flight out to Denver with a really long delay before we even took off...which made our day feel exceptionally long before it ever even started,
..and then we mis-connected (which was actually the fun part) due to the delay.

awesome.

so typically on such days my attitude would be less than "peachy"
but before it all began--before i even set foot in the airport, actually--i prayed.
i prayed that grace and love would pour out in every action and word , and that HIS name would be glorified through it all.
and i smiled--one big determined grin that declared "i AM going to be happy today. JOY IS NOT CONTINGENT ON MY CIRCUMSTANCES!"

and you know what?
it turned out to be a pretty great day.
i mean, nothing about the day itself stood out as particularly fantastic
but my ATTITUDE....well, my attitude was pretty stinkin' grand.
when i smiled and said "good morning", "how are you?", "thank you" and "have a nice day", i meant it.
i CARED.
i had JOY.


God is so stupendously sweet.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Sunday, February 01, 2009

watch this

and read this (directly quoted from my pal Parker's blog):

GOOD GRIEF // Anyone paying attention to what is going on in Washington ? Massive spending and government expansion
in the name of stimulating the economy, to the depressing tune of $825 BILLION. Do we have that money available? Will it work? This is a
spending bill, not a stimulus bill.
Broken down, only t
welve cents of ever dollar maybe could be argued is going towards something with stimulative effect. It's chock-full of non-solution spending.
For instance, for every $1 in tax relief spent for small businesses, the current plan will spend over $12 buying new alternative-energy cars for the federal government.
This is is more of the same, but worse. Can we stop royally screwing things up for our kids and grandkids?


ECONOMIC BASICS // Ok, so the government tires to pump money in to the economy to stimulate it. (basically from a liberal philosophy, but Bush did it too.)
Ok, where does this money come from?
Congress does not have a vault of trillions waiting to be distributed. Therefore, every dollar Congress "injects" into the economy
must first be taxed or borrowed out of the economy. No new wealth is created, its just moved around by the government. The government can create new spending power
by printing more money, HOWEVER, this causes inflation and disastrous damage to the value of our dollar and we've done plenty of that. PLEASE, NO MORE.


The economy is revved up by the creation of new wealth -- AMERICANS WORKING AND EARNING NEW MONEY i.e. JOBS. Good lasting American jobs are best created
by the free enterprises of American businessmen and women, not the government. Relieving tax burden helps businesses afford to make new ventures, expand, and hire new employees,
instead of laying them off. How can the government best contribute to creating and sustaining jobs and therefore stimulate the economy? CUT TAXES.
Please, President Obama,
that would be real and effective change. Yesterday,
Obama actually sounded like Reagan:

"
In the end, the answer to our economic troubles rests less in my hands or in the hands of our legislators than it does with America's workers and the businesses that employ them.
They are the ones whose efforts and ideas will determine our economic destiny just as they always have, for in the end it's businesses -- large and small -- that generate the jobs,
provide the salaries, and serve as the foundation on which the American people's lives and dreams depend. All we can do, those of us here in Washington,
is to help create a favorable climate in which workers can prosper, businesses can thrive, and our economy can grow."


YES!! BUT THE PROBLEM IS THIS: THE BILL HE'S PUSHING DOES NOT WALK-THE-WALK OF THAT STATEMENT!
THIS on the other hand, makes brilliant sense, and it is truly "bi-partisan" as President Obama claims to care about.
[CONTRIBUTING LINKS: Heritage Foundation // Congressman Eric Cantor video + blog post, thanks, Candace, for the GB video link]