As In a Mirror

CoUrTnEy, The Christian Music Junkie, awarded me the One Lovely Blog Award! Isn’t it purdy? Thanks, Courtney.

Award Rules: 1) List 7 random things about yourself. 2) Award 15 other blogs. (yikes!)

Random facts about Yours Truly:

1) I love summer; yes, a generous 70-90 degree radius is what I like. That’s what temperature I will be in heaven. I love the weather, the plant and animal life, the birds, and the school vacation!

2) I hatehatehatehate cold weather. Yes. Seven-to-eight months out of twelve in New York State are covered in snow. Blah. I have to live here!

3) With seating and ladders, I get down on the left side and get up on the right. Not sure why that is.

4) I don’t really have close friends. Minus my two brothers. I don’t really know why; maybe it’s because I like work, and am always doing it. Either work, study, or listening. I really am not a recreational or social person. In addition, I’m as shy as a moonflower! I mean, I can be courteous or helpful, but don’t seem to be able to do this whole social and acquainting thing.

5) I don’t like meeting new people. Maybe that also explains Random Fact #4?

6) I LOVE hymns! I like their sound– the melodious, soulful music. But mostly I love the deep theological poetry of hymns. Music is not just a pretty sound, and lyrics are not just expressive or factual words that rhyme; both are artistic. Every artist has a style, but there are always certain critiques for what is good art. Hence, not every song is good art. I happen to like hymns and songs that are written in similar style.

7) I’ve been having memory issues. Don’t know why that is, either, but I know that it’s extremely frustrating and messes up a lot of stuff. (This is going to sound funny: my brothers recently told me what amnesia was. I’ve heard the word tons of times before, and I know I’ve looked it up… Problem is, every time I look it up… I forget what it means! Boy, did they laugh at that…)

Now, time to pass on the One Lovely Blog Award to 15 other bloggers… they’ll have to be ladies…

1) My Mom, Rebecca at Freaky Frugalite.
2) Rena at Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
3) Joy at The Stay-at-Home Missionary

Uhoh… I think that’s it! Yikes! Oh well, enjoy the award, ladies. Y’all have very lovely blogs.

Filed under : About the Blog, Querky

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I’m still here. For a little while, I wasn’t, when we finally took a short vacation in Virginia! That is worth a WHOLE post, not just for the trip itself, but the differences in so many aspects between it and the North that we picked up in our short time there. I loved it! I miss it! I was a bit sick during the beginning, but I think it really did us all a lot of good in many ways. My mind is fresher now, and I don’t have the difficulty studying that I was having for a few months.

We went at the time when here in New York, we were still waiting for the weather to warm up, the leaves on the trees to fully develop, and the flowers to bloom. In Virginia, the trees were fully developed, flowers bloomed, and even the haying done! The weather was beautifully balmy, a good 70-80 degrees every day without the drenching humidity. For the most part it was sunny, and there were almost no flies or mosquitoes! People’s houses and properties were kept up nicely, but weeds in public grass areas were the ones flourishing; it’s about the opposite up here! And the people were so cordial! For some reason it never occurred to me that the people would have Southern accents, but they did! Genuine, bone fide Southern accents! It was so cool! The people were very pleasant, not like the cheesy girls we saw on TBN as kids; just their hospitable friendliness made me start to cry! Yah, it’s a girl thing: respect that. They can talk forever, though; that’s the thing: I never saw anybody in a real hurry, except for waiters! There would be a maintenance guy next door, who would stop to chat with Dad and the boys for a whole hour! They had a good sense of humor, they were courteous… up until they got into their cars! Lol, I’ve heard before that Southern drivers are not the best, and I guess they’re not the worst, either.

So I know I’ve been seriously neglecting this blog; it’s not that I’ve not had plenty of ideas or deep thoughts, but lacked the attention span to do it, or thought of it while I was busy and forgot and grew tired later. But nobody’s been knocking on the virtual door hollering, “Alice, are you there? Did the rapture take you? Did you get arrested?” Nope. I’m a law-abiding citizen! Except for that time I talked in the library… ehem. But, the real reason I haven’t been around is sheer lack of motivation or enthusiasm. I have been processing and studying some deep topics, but I don’t know if I will be having the gumption to hunker down and write and properly organize them.

So… is Alice quitting? No! Alice does not quit! I’ve been considering just taking video of me talking. It won’t be boring stuff, like this post; it will be the deep stuff, but with me saying it I don’t think it will be so somber. Seriously, if I said the same stuff I speculate that the effect would be different, more engaging and possible more entertaining. Of course, I will have to have at least some kind of prepared outline for two reasons 1) so that you’re not waiting 20 seconds for me to try to organize my thoughts or think of “the word” 2) so that I don’t forget what I was talking about! What do you think? If I “talked” a post, and threw in some hand motions and facial expressions, would you listen to them? I am entitled to your opinion! Let me know in the comment list!

Also I wanted to share a handful of videos, because sharing makes you feel good inside, right? Actually, I really enjoyed them; and I found them at a time when I happened to have been studying and thinking about these very topics! If you’re leaving a comment, let me know what you think of these, too!

In this first one is a clip of a message from Paul Washer on Christians who struggle to be “good enough” for God. You’ll want to check it out!

This next one is from NYC Pastor/author Timothy Keller. I recently found one of his books in a bookstore and looked into it, called The Reason for God. And it looks really good! It’s an apoligetical book that seems to really get in to the philosophical end of things. It’s not just a resource for believers, but addressed to both believers and doubters, which I think is neat. Here he talks about The New Atheists.

This one is also from Tim Keller, who emphasizes differentiating between religion and the gospel, a topic very important to Yours Truly.

So please! Let me know you’re still there! That you haven’t abandoned this lonely tranquil pond of musings, randomness, observations, and lame excuses for humor! ……….. He-llo?

Filed under : About the Blog, Books, Querky

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Well, one week after the surgery, the doctor says, “Wow! She’s healing right up! Looks like we pulled them out a month ago!” Thanks so much to y’all for your prayers; they touched us deeply! I’m sorry I haven’t given y’all an update sooner, but now I hope to set your hearts at ease. What the doc said is really cool considering that he sounded a bit concerned in our first visit, because I have such a small mouth. :S Also, I had to stop taking the antibiotics the day after surgery, but still healed up quickly! Actually, I lost weight that same week; now, I know that’s not always a good thing but I’m just gonna say that it is this time. I have to lose some anyway. The week of recovery was rather painful, but I didn’t feel especially sick or anything. My jaw is still pretty sore; chewing and even walking is a tad painful, but nothing debilitating, certainly not compared to how I felt before the surgery! The pressure in my cranium is gone; I used to have intense muscle pain all over my head and the bones would crack all the time, but it’s gone! SOOO glad it’s over. :S And the chipmunk cheeks are over

On the bloggy side of things, I know I haven’t been very chatsy for a while. I did manage to write a few fun things and even a few deep things, but haven’t been keeping up with the memes! They’re great memes, but I either haven’t found the chance or been too plain wiped. It’s the long-term kinda wiped; like Mom says, we need a vacation!

I’ve been thinking about spicing the blog up, a little. I’ve wanted to change the font, and even gave it a try, but my techy-incohesivity got the best of me. When it didn’t work the first time, I didn’t try again for fear of destroying my blog! I’ve had it in the back of my mind to ask my Mom, but have either had other priorities or she’s been BUSY. Yah, she’s been pretty busy a lot; and with me stuck in bed last week that was one less household helper! I’m better now, though I was thinking to myself, “Yunno, if you wanted to blog for young people, you need to make it somewhat appealing to young people; you need more pictures! Even I am more apt to read something if it’s got a picture!” But editing and uploading and posting pictures is tedious! It’s why I haven’t done it, and somehow I still write some things in hopes that young people will find them and read them. The rest I write to you, my faithful followers. Both of you. Ha! Joke!

Ugh! You know what I just did? I copied a large selection, backspaced it, forgot to paste it, then copied something else! Ga! Such is my life…

Well, I hope y’all have a good time this week, enjoy spring at last! And remember that Jesus LIVES! He lives to make intercession for us! The best news in the world is that justice and mercy collide at the cross, and you’ve been offered eternal life! Remember that He’s with you, and promises to be enough for you. Take time to remember the sufferings of Christ, and the great mystery that it has been granted to us to partake in those sufferings. But we have as an anchor for the soul our hope of righteousness by faith. We come before God not presenting our righteousness but Jesus’ righteousness! Remember the wonder of the cross; it’s not just an icon, but very, very real. It should be before us every day, because the death and Resurrection of Jesus is the basis of our faith, the foundation of our hope. It reminds us that we are TOTALLY dependent on God’s grace, His wonderful grace!

I’d like to share an awesome rendition of an old hymn, And Can It Be, sung by Jason Roy. Such a creative take on a powerful work! Have a blessed Resurrection Sunday! Love y’all!

Filed under : About the Blog, Uncategorized

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What is the Tommy Toe award, you ask? Well, it was given to me by Chuck at Secondary Roads! He hosted a caption contest a few weeks ago (ugh! I am late for this post…) for a picture of a duck who apparently crash-landed in the snow, poor thing! Now I’m not typically good with captions, but this picture was just too comical, so I gave it a try (don’t ask me why suffering ducks strikes us as funny). Now, my first thought looking at this picture was, “What’s a duck doing in the snow? Aren’t they supposed to be south in the winter? Must’ve got wrong directions! Hey, that’s it!” Thus was birthed the caption: ” ‘South’ he said. Never asking for directions again!” Of course, it was a male duck. I also submitted “Uh… It looked cool on TV!” Again, we see the characteristics of a male duck. No offense, guys. Girls just aren’t as risky. That’s why God said it wasn’t good for man to be alone! Of course, it’s not good for girls to be alone, either. I sure am glad for my Dad who fixes stuff and my brothers who reach stuff for me and lift big stuff! Girls just can’t do that stuff by themselves!

Okay, back to the award. My first caption, about directions, won, along with Chuck’s very own granddaughter’s caption, “Everything was going perfectly until the landing gear failed.” Now, if you see the picture of that duck in the snow, and imagine the previous few seconds, you get a pretty hilarious picture of a duck’s landing gear failing!

It’s always exciting winning awards, so thanks to Chuck, and his band of judges, for the illustrious award, and congratulations to Brianna for receiving the same! Chuck says of my caption, “For a young lady, she seems to understand the male psyche.” Ooooo. Yunno what they say, with great knowledge comes great responsibility!

Filed under : About the Blog, Querky

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I have discovered it. For ages, this blog has suffered from inactivity and ghost-town traffic. Ladies and gentlemen, the key to success: post pictures of cute doggies and a video about World War II. Worked for me.

Filed under : About the Blog, Querky

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