Thankful for the cool weather.
So happy my husband was given a new bike! He is elated! (Thanks Chris and Sabrina!)
Missing my girls.
In awe of the families I work with who are adopting children from Ethiopia.
Loving my pumpkin candles.
Feeling like baking!
Avoiding my closet because it needs to be organized.
Surrounded by lists.
Looking forward to my Jubilee weekend in 10 days!
Liking my hair - not liking my skin.
Reading 'Crazy Love.'
Wondering what you are up to today!
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Why Didn't I Think of That?
There's always more than one way to do something. Apparently creativity knows no bounds...
Is it just me or do those tires look disproportionate?
Now this we could have used in Africa!
No more losing those remotes!
Take that, computer repair store!
I'm sure the 'Bridge Out' sign is just out of the picture.
The new Crayola app
Two phobias in one!
Creative office space-saving
(I love that they made sure she had head room.)
No comment
A houseboat for any budget
Wouldn't this be fun? And comfortable!
And my favorite...
From the new 'Home Accent' line at a recycling bin near you!
There, I Fixed It
has provided our entertainment today here at 'Have A Cup.' Go there to see much, much
more of the same!
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
"Make Good Choices!"
Remember that line from Freaky Friday? The annoying mother shouts it to her daughter as she drops her off at school. Did you know that line was ad-libbed by Jamie Lee Curtis? She knew instinctively it was a natural, if sometimes unspoken, thing for her character to say because she was a mom! I often said it to my own three, joking - but not really. It is the impassioned hope of every good mom as she sees that once diaper-wearing, dependent little one drive away in the family car or head off to university.
It's college prep time in our house and the place is buzzing with back-to-school anticipation. No one is a first-time college student this year but our youngest will be in her first apartment so a trip to Ikea and multiple trips to Target and Ross have been successfully completed. My girls are spending their own money for most of their stuff and I'm so proud of all three for their thriftiness and creativity!
It isn't easy to figure out how to put things on a wall that you can't stick anything on or poke anything into. Plus they'll have multiple roommates whose personal styles and cleanliness vary greatly. Oh I remember those days!
My first college roommate and I started planning our dorm room when we were juniors in high school. Her sister went to the school we wanted to go to so we even had measurements of the room we wanted to live in! When we arrived that fall of 1974, we had a baby blue shag carpet remnant cut to fit the floor, matching bedspreads ordered from the Sears catalog and hand-made flannel quilts. You won't be surprised to know that we also typed our notes from classes at the end of each day. On our typewriters. (I did say it was 1974, right?) We were nerds. But nerds with a color-coordinated room! Back then I thought our room was probably the envy of all our peers - looking back on it now, people were probably laughing behind our backs at how 'prissy' we were. Whatever. I was too busy typing to notice.
My next roommate (sophomore year) was much like me in the neatness department and our apartment was as cute as a cheap, furnished apartment in a college/military town could be. I have fond memories of exchanging tiny Christmas gifts around our real little tree and of Nancy's homemade Swedish pancakes. Takk, Nanc!
Next I lived with two friends (Diane Degron and Welda Shocker) who shared a bedroom while I had my own. I don't know why I got the single (selfish, probably) but I do know they teased me mercilessly about walking and talking in my sleep. They have no proof of this, however. Video cameras hadn't been invented yet. We were a very unlikely threesome. I've lost touch with one (except for an acquaintance-ship on Facebook) and the other is my 'sister' who I talk to all the time and knows me thoroughly but loves me anyway.
College is such a wonderful, stressful, relationally-intense time of life. So much is changing. So much seems to be at stake. You're trying to figure out what to do with your life, how to act like an adult when you still feel like a kid, how not to act like the kid you are but the adult you should be. It's tough. And fun. And I'm reminded it's important to pray for my girls as much as I ever have. There are a TON of choices to be made!
Lord, fill them with a deep sense of Your love and presence. Surround them with friends and mentors who love You and will impact their decisions. Make them super aware that they're living their lives before You as their #1 audience and You're really the only one they have to please. Protect them! Show them the total emptiness of all the world has to offer and reveal to them the fulfillment and joy there is in life lived for You. Help them choose each day to serve their God.
It's college prep time in our house and the place is buzzing with back-to-school anticipation. No one is a first-time college student this year but our youngest will be in her first apartment so a trip to Ikea and multiple trips to Target and Ross have been successfully completed. My girls are spending their own money for most of their stuff and I'm so proud of all three for their thriftiness and creativity!
It isn't easy to figure out how to put things on a wall that you can't stick anything on or poke anything into. Plus they'll have multiple roommates whose personal styles and cleanliness vary greatly. Oh I remember those days!
My first college roommate and I started planning our dorm room when we were juniors in high school. Her sister went to the school we wanted to go to so we even had measurements of the room we wanted to live in! When we arrived that fall of 1974, we had a baby blue shag carpet remnant cut to fit the floor, matching bedspreads ordered from the Sears catalog and hand-made flannel quilts. You won't be surprised to know that we also typed our notes from classes at the end of each day. On our typewriters. (I did say it was 1974, right?) We were nerds. But nerds with a color-coordinated room! Back then I thought our room was probably the envy of all our peers - looking back on it now, people were probably laughing behind our backs at how 'prissy' we were. Whatever. I was too busy typing to notice.
My next roommate (sophomore year) was much like me in the neatness department and our apartment was as cute as a cheap, furnished apartment in a college/military town could be. I have fond memories of exchanging tiny Christmas gifts around our real little tree and of Nancy's homemade Swedish pancakes. Takk, Nanc!
Next I lived with two friends (Diane Degron and Welda Shocker) who shared a bedroom while I had my own. I don't know why I got the single (selfish, probably) but I do know they teased me mercilessly about walking and talking in my sleep. They have no proof of this, however. Video cameras hadn't been invented yet. We were a very unlikely threesome. I've lost touch with one (except for an acquaintance-ship on Facebook) and the other is my 'sister' who I talk to all the time and knows me thoroughly but loves me anyway.
College is such a wonderful, stressful, relationally-intense time of life. So much is changing. So much seems to be at stake. You're trying to figure out what to do with your life, how to act like an adult when you still feel like a kid, how not to act like the kid you are but the adult you should be. It's tough. And fun. And I'm reminded it's important to pray for my girls as much as I ever have. There are a TON of choices to be made!
Lord, fill them with a deep sense of Your love and presence. Surround them with friends and mentors who love You and will impact their decisions. Make them super aware that they're living their lives before You as their #1 audience and You're really the only one they have to please. Protect them! Show them the total emptiness of all the world has to offer and reveal to them the fulfillment and joy there is in life lived for You. Help them choose each day to serve their God.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Great Are You Lord
Great Are You Lord
words and music by Tony Wood/James Rueger
The beauty of Your majesty
Displayed for all the world to see
Is it any wonder?
Is it any wonder?
The glory of Your holiness
The glory of Your holiness
The mercy of Your faithfulness
Is it any wonder?
Is it any wonder we sing
Great are You Lord
For we adore You
Lift up Your name
And fall before You
We stand in awe
And sing great are You Lord
We lift up our voice
We sing holy, holy
Hallelujah
To the One and only
Forevermore
We’ll sing great are You Lord
Through endless ages You will reign
Yet every season You’re the same
Is it any wonder?
Is it any wonder?
The power of Your redeeming plan
The grace that offers life to man
Is it any wonder?
Is it any wonder we sing?
Friday, September 18, 2009
Beautiful jewelry!
Lisa Leonard designs some of the most gorgeous silver jewelry you'll ever find!
Am I right? I'm right!
And today over at The Inspired Room, Melissa is having a giveaway - 3 $50 gift certificates for Lisa Leonard Designs! I just love Melissa's blog and her 'Beautiful Life Friday' posts. She is all about authentic living - in homemaking, parenting and outreach to neighbors and friends. She and her husband have a new church in the Silverdale, Washington area. Be sure to check out her blog - you'll love it too!
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Sunday Grace
Teach me Your way, O Lord, and
I will walk in Your truth.
Give me an undivided heart that I may
fear Your name.
Psalm 86:11
Friday, September 11, 2009
Make $$$ Working at Home!!!
Okay, so the title of this post might attract all the wrong kinds of attention here but I was trying to be clever and original.
A little while ago on this blog I recorded some of my thoughts about temp work. (As I recall, I also came up with a clever and original title for that post! Hey, this is not as easy as it looks!)
Along with my occasional temp jobs, I also work from home. I work for an international adoption agency - Adoption Ministry of YWAM Ethiopia (shameless plug). I help families through the adoption process, maintain the website and another blog (shameless plug #2). So while temping in an office environment presents all of the unique opportunities I so cleverly wrote about, working at home provides its own set of challenges for me - the biggest one being my home-office attire.
Here's the deal: If I don't have a real, live go-to-an-office job in the morning, I tend to sit down at the computer in my jammies and the next thing I know, it's eleven o'clock and I look like I just got up. It makes me feel awful. I may have completed a TON of work but my hair is unwashed and I have coffee breath.
When my girls were little, I remember going through something similar. It we weren't hustling out the door before noon, I'd find myself cleaning, playing, doing laundry or cooking - still in my pajamas. And I was embarrassed more than once when the doorbell rang and a friend stopped by or a package was being delivered. You've never seen anyone get dressed so fast! It motivated me to begin showering and dressing before the girls got up.
So that is once again my goal. I'm going to pretend that I have people to see and places to go. I'm serious - make-up, earrings, something on my feet - the works!! I'll think of some punishment for myself if I'm not clothed and in my right mind by 8:00 am. Maybe I'd have to describe the bathrobe I'm wearing to someone on the phone.
Please ask me in a few weeks how this new resolution is going because I really do want to change. Can you meet me in the break room for a cup of coffee at 9:30?
A little while ago on this blog I recorded some of my thoughts about temp work. (As I recall, I also came up with a clever and original title for that post! Hey, this is not as easy as it looks!)
Along with my occasional temp jobs, I also work from home. I work for an international adoption agency - Adoption Ministry of YWAM Ethiopia (shameless plug). I help families through the adoption process, maintain the website and another blog (shameless plug #2). So while temping in an office environment presents all of the unique opportunities I so cleverly wrote about, working at home provides its own set of challenges for me - the biggest one being my home-office attire.
Here's the deal: If I don't have a real, live go-to-an-office job in the morning, I tend to sit down at the computer in my jammies and the next thing I know, it's eleven o'clock and I look like I just got up. It makes me feel awful. I may have completed a TON of work but my hair is unwashed and I have coffee breath.
When my girls were little, I remember going through something similar. It we weren't hustling out the door before noon, I'd find myself cleaning, playing, doing laundry or cooking - still in my pajamas. And I was embarrassed more than once when the doorbell rang and a friend stopped by or a package was being delivered. You've never seen anyone get dressed so fast! It motivated me to begin showering and dressing before the girls got up.
So that is once again my goal. I'm going to pretend that I have people to see and places to go. I'm serious - make-up, earrings, something on my feet - the works!! I'll think of some punishment for myself if I'm not clothed and in my right mind by 8:00 am. Maybe I'd have to describe the bathrobe I'm wearing to someone on the phone.
Please ask me in a few weeks how this new resolution is going because I really do want to change. Can you meet me in the break room for a cup of coffee at 9:30?
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Sunday Grace
O how strong the power of Jesus’ Name
It is stronger than any other name
How sweet the victory that bore my shame
Took the burden of my sin away
Hallelujah, what a Savior!
I owe everything to Him
Hallelujah, what a Savior!
Hallelujah to my King.
O how great the kindness our God has shown
We were strangers now we’re called His own
His grace has welcomed the sinner home
Tender mercies lead us to the throne
Hallelujah
Hallelujah to my King
Hallelujah
Hallelujah to my King
O what peace the Spirit of Jesus brings
Through the trials He will carry me
One day in Heaven our eyes will meet
Filled with wonder all the saints will sing
words and music by Paul Baloche
It is stronger than any other name
How sweet the victory that bore my shame
Took the burden of my sin away
Hallelujah, what a Savior!
I owe everything to Him
Hallelujah, what a Savior!
Hallelujah to my King.
O how great the kindness our God has shown
We were strangers now we’re called His own
His grace has welcomed the sinner home
Tender mercies lead us to the throne
Hallelujah
Hallelujah to my King
Hallelujah
Hallelujah to my King
O what peace the Spirit of Jesus brings
Through the trials He will carry me
One day in Heaven our eyes will meet
Filled with wonder all the saints will sing
words and music by Paul Baloche
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Recipes
I remember so well when, for my 21st birthday, my mom gave me 21 gifts. All of them were beautifully wrapped and all were kitchen items I'd need for my own apartment - now that I was an adult! There was cutlery, dish towels and, among other things, a beautiful set of Farberware stainless steel pots and pans. But my favorite to this day was The New Pillsbury Family Cookbook!
The picture is very small so you probably didn't notice the exciting new addition splashed across the bottom right corner: a MICROWAVE COOKING CHAPTER!! Yes, I was definitely entering an exciting new time in my life. (Does anyone actually do anything in a microwave other than warm or melt things? Oh yes, popcorn.) Then my roommate 'borrowed' my new cookbook and spilled some unknown dark liquid that leaked through pages 1-47. So sad.
All that rambling to say that this summer, one of my projects has been to collect many of my favorite recipes and print them onto cards for my girls so they'll each have a recipe file that will get them started in their culinary pursuits but which they can add to as well.
It's been fun to go through all my old recipes - I'm typing them into a recipe card program so I can print them right onto the index cards. I use 4 x 6 cards because they're so much easier to read and to include more recipe info. The picture above shows the start of their boxes, with more recipes to be added soon!
I am not Julie or Julia but isn't cooking such a great way to pass down traditions in a family? We don't have any truly ethnic recipes that have been handed down our family line but we have a few family favorites that I hope my girls will enjoy making for their families and friends.
What are some of your family's favorite foods that bring back memories for you??
Fall Nesting Week
It's the MOST wonderful time of the year! Fall! To me, it means cozy, warm atmosphere inside, days with a chill in the air, the beautiful colors of autumn and the scent of baking. I've always loved fall. It's speaks of gathering in, family and traditions. It speaks to every one of my senses!
It's our first fall back in the NW and I want to transform our living room, below, into something warm and cozy and autumnal! (Is that a word?)
I'm joining Melissa at The Inspired Room for her Fall Nesting 2009. Click over to see what all the buzz is about. You'll love her blog! And she's offering $200 Home Goods gift cards to three lucky winners! I would buy an area rug and some new pillows. How about you??
It's our first fall back in the NW and I want to transform our living room, below, into something warm and cozy and autumnal! (Is that a word?)
I'm joining Melissa at The Inspired Room for her Fall Nesting 2009. Click over to see what all the buzz is about. You'll love her blog! And she's offering $200 Home Goods gift cards to three lucky winners! I would buy an area rug and some new pillows. How about you??
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