Random

Texas vs Utah observations

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2014-08-14 20.35.53Assorted observations about my first few weeks of living in Utah (in no particular order):

  • The sunrise illuminates the mountains from the top down (as the light crests over the facing mountain). Sunset is the opposite, with darkness going from bottom up.
  • You know you aren’t in Texas anymore when you feel a little chilly swimming in the outside pool … in August.
  • Cedar City, UT, is at a higher elevation than Denver, CO (5,800 ft vs 5,280 ft), and they aren’t joking when people say that the elevation saps your stamina.
  • So far, other drivers seldom respond to the steering wheel wave that comes second nature to me, but I’ve converted a few passers-by to my Texan ways.
  • Everyone has been very friendly and welcoming (even if they don’t wave from car to car). 😉
  • I don’t think anyone is as excited about football season as we are.

Finding a new church home

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In my humble opinion, visiting a new church is one of the most intimidating things to do when you move to a new town — not unlike a first date! You can get a general idea about a church by checking out their website and/or talking to others about it, but you don’t really have a feel for the place until you walk in the door.

Even for someone who grew up in church and has been a leader in church, going to a new place as an outsider can feel awkward. Thankfully, the two places we visited were warm and welcoming. There weren’t too many uneasy moments of standing around by myself, though those moments did feel awkward when they happened.

In a relatively small community that is predominantly Mormon, there aren’t a whole lot of evangelical Christian options, but we think we’ve found “the one.” The preaching is down-to-earth and very applicable. The younger guys enjoyed the kids’ class, and the older ones have made some friends in the youth group. The praise band is pretty good, too. It’s hard to compare any band to Crossroads, since they are so good, it’s like going to a concert every Sunday morning. No kidding; they are really that good. It was nice to hear some familiar songs during worship, as that helped me feel more at home.

I have a couple of more thoughts about church-hunting, but I think I will work them into an upcoming devotional, so you’ll just have to wait to hear. 🙂

Second half of 2014 goals

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I don’t usually make New Year resolutions, and besides, the main thing on my mind eight months ago was finishing my dissertation so that I could graduate. That goal is in the books — hallelujah! — so now, in my abundance of free time (<<that’s sarcasm, in case you missed it), I’ve decided that I have no more excuses to get my body back in shape.

Inspired by Amy at FitMommas and Andrea at I’mperfect Life, I have set 10 personal fitness goals for the second half of 2014:

  1. Plank for 40 secs (I have not done a baseline test to see how long I can do this right now, but I picked 40 seconds because of my milestone birthday coming up this fall.)
  2. 10 pushups (I make the boys do pushups for various infractions at home, so I figured I should be able to do a minimum amount, at least!)
  3. Walk a 5K (I participated in an event a few months after my knee surgery, and it was brutal. Some of the half-marathon runners finished their race before I finished walking 3 miles! Overachievers.)
  4. Swim 400yds (This should be the easiest goal to reach, and I wanted to include one that would motivate me positively.)
  5. 20 squats (I had to do these during physical therapy for my knee, ugh. I can do about 5 in a row right now (maybe 10 with a rest), so this will be a challenge.)
  6. Walk another 5K (If I don’t find an event to attend, then I’ll just aim for 3+ miles.)
  7. Bike 4 mi (My knees hate cycling, but I think I can work up to 4mi on a stationary bike, at least.)
  8. Walk stairs at work 30x by October 31 (I report to my new office on the 4th floor on Monday, Aug. 18, which gives me 11 weeks to reach this goal. That’s only 2-3 times per week to take the stairs, so I think I can make myself do it.)
  9. Walk around the block 50x by Thanksgiving (There are four months until Thanksgiving, so if I walk around the block 3-4 times a week, then the goal is achievable.)
  10. 10 burpees (This goal is a stretch, because I cannot even do ONE right now.  I have difficulty kicking my feet back (have to walk back one foot at a time) and then jumping back into a squatting position (though I could do it in two little pounces). I like the way this guy showed how to do them … not so much pressure on the knees.)

So, there you have it. I’m writing the goals down here for accountability’s sake. In addition to being more active, I know that I need to eat better. I think my new schedule (i.e., not having to be at my desk from 8-5 everyday) will be more conducive to eating prepared meals from home (rather than eating out at breakfast or lunch) and planning for my own meals throughout the day, instead of just thinking about what to fix for dinner. Not to mention, it will save money!

Parting gifts

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2014-06-24 14.24.05My sweet colleagues had a going-away lunch for me today. It’s a few weeks early, but several folks will be out of the office later in July, so it worked out best to do it now. The only downside is that now I have a month to think about how much I’ll miss these awesome people!

We met at Ninfa’s, which was scrumptious. Spinach enchiladas & creamy green salsa with chips … yum!!

Everyone signed a sweet farewell card, and I had to laugh at my next-door-office-neighbor’s comment: “Buy a coat!”

They also gave me some sweet presents: a devo book by Beth Moore, a commemorative Dr Pepper bottle of Baylor’s old Floyd Casey Stadium, and a Wonder Woman pen. 🙂

Packing surprise

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2014-06-18 07.18.11

Found my lost earring!

I don’t usually wear a lot of jewelry. I have one watch that I received as a parting gift for my tenure as Chair of the Staff Council five years ago, and I wear it almost daily. I have a few of Lisa Leonard’s necklaces and her lovely silver bracelet with discs of each of the boy’s names that I wear often. My jewelry box also contains several pairs of earrings, though I tend to wear the same 3-5 more than any others.

One of my favorites is a pair of oblong silver hoops. The selfie photo doesn’t do them justice, because you can’t really see the etching/texture. Several months ago, I lost one of the hoops. I was disappointed, but I couldn’t bring myself to throw away the match. While I was cleaning out my closet to get the house ready to show, I found the lost hoop! It was a nice surprise during an otherwise arduous chore.

Speaking of cleaning and packing, whew! I haven’t gone to bed before midnight all this week, and I am zonked. The good news is that the house is tidier than it has been since we moved in five years ago, and although it may lack froufrou decor, at least it’s spacious and open for people to walk through without tripping over video game cables, laundry baskets or random things that kids leave out because they apparently lack the eyesight to see things right under their noses.

2014-06-18 12.39.10I’m not one to talk, honestly. Housekeeping has never been my strong suit, and I struggled to keep my small apartment tidy when I was young and single, much less nowadays. It’s a huge challenge for me. My bedroom looked like a unit from Storage Wars, with a bed in the middle and a chair in the corner. It wasn’t as bad as Hoarders, but six years of grad school materials, plus five kids’ pipe cleaner & bead bracelets, lost teeth that the Tooth Fairy stashed in zip baggies, old pictures and handmade keepsakes that I couldn’t throw away in front of them had really piled up over time. It felt so good to throw things away (discretely, in case someone noticed his knotted string bracelet that he made “just for me” in the garbage), box up things that were to keep, and give away bag after bag to Goodwill.

Between the Realtor, friends who came over to help sort & pack, handymen and a housekeeper, we’ve had a lot of people in and out of the house over the past couple of weeks. Bruiser and Sushi aren’t sure what to make of all the changes. They like discovering new boxes to sit in, and they’ve been sniffing around everything like a pair of puppies rather than cats, but mostly they just want to stay out of the way.

Case in point, I found Bruiser hiding in the bathroom when I went home for lunch today. See what I mean about no froufrou decor? I don’t even have a towel hanging on the towel bar. 🙂

Comfy couch

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I’m sleeping on the couch because I’m too tired to finish dealing with the piles that I sorted on top of my bed for the sole purpose of making myself finish it before bedtime! 🙂 If my couch wasn’t so comfy, I might be a little disappointed in myself.

On the plus side, I took four more bags to Goodwill today and have almost emptied my garage! I’m working half-days this week to try to get it all done. I’d rather be spending my vacation hours in a hammock with a good book and a glass of Malbec. 😉

The boys have made a lot of progress with their rooms, as well. They’ve been cleaning, sorting clothes, and packing & giving away toys. There’s a mountain of clean laundry on my couch that needs to be dealt with, but it’ll still be there in the morning. G’night!

Honest feedback?

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Hi guys & gals! As I begin tying up loose ends here and preparing for our cross-country move this summer, I am trying to manage my time and keep all the balls that I’m juggling from falling. I’m feeling torn, because I enjoy writing the devotionals, but it is a pretty big time commitment that I’m not sure I can handle over the next few months.

I talked to one of my pastors about it, and we brainstormed the possibility of having me write a monthly devo instead of weekly. That could be a way for me to stay in touch, and a lot of folks in the congregation have already asked about what will happen to the devos when I move away. Those comments really warm my heart, and I’m trying to figure out what to do.

What do you think, honestly? I’m not fishing for compliments; I really want to know what you think. Do you actually read the daily prompts? Would you really miss it if I cut back to monthly, instead of weekly entries?

It might even work out that I could write monthly posts through the summer, then go back to weekly in the fall, if it looks like I can handle the load. I just want to be conscientious of my time and not over-commit.

Thoughts?

Christians and their knickers

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I am looking forward to seeing the new Noah movie. I was going to wait until after I saw it to post something about it, but then I decided to go ahead and voice my initial opinion beforehand, so you’ll know why I even plan to see it. I am so sick & tired of fellow Christians getting their knickers in a wad over petty things. (That statement may tick off some people, but that just proves my point even further.)

The story of Noah spans roughly four chapters in the Bible (Genesis 6-9), not counting some genealogy mentioned in Chs. 5 & 10. Scarce little is known about the actual event, though Scripture is quite exacting when it comes to describing the ark and the timing of it all in relation to Noah’s age.

I have no doubt that the writers/producers took some poetic license with the screenplay. The movie includes extra-biblical characters and paints a morbid, violent picture of what The Creator did to the planet that he had handcrafted.

Well, duh. Starting in Genesis 6:5, we read that God was so disappointed in humankind that he regretted ever creating us. Ouch. There’s an age-old question that people still ask today: Why would a loving God punish us/allow bad things to happen/send people to hell/etc.? The answer is sin. We choose to turn our backs on God, to ignore or disdain the good plans that he has for us and trek off on our own selfish paths. My pastor is wont to say: “Every choice you make today affects every day for the rest of your life — and everyone else around you.”

Now, I’m not saying that every natural disaster is God’s punishment; don’t get me wrong. I’m just trying to explain that the story we read in Noah was the direct result of people defying God. Yes, it was tragic. It was awful. The story of Noah isn’t just a pastel nursery room decor theme. It’s a blight in human history. Yet, I also believed that it pained God and broke his heart to the core. It’s why God blessed Noah and created a new covenant with him in Genesis 9.

I don’t have a problem with a movie about Noah, even if it is more fiction than Bible-based. If one viewer decides to pick up a Bible – perhaps for the first time – and reads the story for him/herself, then that’s wonderful. Perhaps someone will leave the theater and think introspectively about their place in the world, and where they stand with the Lord.

Besides, people are talking about the Bible in mainstream conversations! How awesome is that?! I plan to take at least my older kids to see the movie, and I will spend time talking to them afterward to debrief and relate what we’ve seen to what’s in the Word. What are some important take-aways from the film? What parts were simply cinematography? What can we learn from it?

There are bigger battles to fight, brothers and sisters. Don’t get caught up in the hype and let irrational and misplaced “righteous anger” about a movie (or a book, or a TV program, or whatever happens to be the boycott-special of the month) serve as one more reason for nonbelievers to roll their eyes at us.

Working at home

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I’m thankful that occasionally, I’m allowed to work from home. I try not to push the limits and only do it at necessary times like today, when I’m waiting for the a/c repair folks to arrive and fix my condenser … again. Ugh, I’m hoping that they will just replace it, since I’ve had to call about it every season (literally, since Texas really only has two seasons a year, and I have had to call at least 2-3 times/year).

Since I’ve been saying for months (Ah, who am I kidding? Years!) that I don’t have time to clean my house, I thought I should make the most of my alone time at home this morning and went to work on the kitchen floor. It desperately needed scrubbing – not just mopping, and I’ve been putting it off far too long. I got as far as purchasing some new cleaning supplies last week, but they were still unopened. Although I usually don’t pay much attention to celebrity endorsements, I did a double-take when I saw the ruggedly handsome Mike Rowe (of Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe fame) on the packaging for a cleaning spray while I was at the store.

I thought about taking before & after pics to show you, but I didn’t really want to admit how icky my floor was to begin with, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. The stuff works, and it works really well. I will definitely be branching out and trying other products in the line. Besides, what better motivation could I have to clean than seeing Mike’s face when I open my cabinet door? His smirk creating those adorable laugh lines as I cup his whiskered face in the palm of my hand and … I’m sorry, what was I talking about?

😉

**Disclaimer: I did not receive any incentive for writing about Dirty Jobs cleaning products. If he felt so inclined, however, I could be talked into a date with Mike Rowe to show his appreciation for my review. 😉 heehee

A day away from the grid

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This post on Momastery spoke to my heart like a friend who gives you a bear hug when you haven’t even told them what’s the matter. I was unofficially a single parent long before my divorce was finalized. Three military deployments nested among years of sharing a home with someone who methodically trudged through the motions of day-to-day life meant that the decision-making, crisis-dealing, boo-boo-kissing, parent-teacher-conferencing and discipline-implementing duties usually fell to me (along with just about anything else that needed cleaned, fixed, cooked or paid).

I’m not bitter about love. I’m actually quite a romantic at heart and would thoroughly enjoy being swept off my feet by someone who is as smitten about me as I am about him. Do you know the last time I went on a date when I didn’t have to decide when and where to go? Me neither, come to think of it. I’m not a control freak; I’m just the only freaking person willing to be in control, historically speaking. I would like the opportunity to hand over the reins to someone someday and make cooperative decisions instead of bearing the burden single-handedly. I am a leader, but that doesn’t mean I should always have to lead. I want a partner, a sounding board, a teammate. I want to be challenged — not in a confrontational way, but in a way that spurs me on to become more like Christ. I want the type of love that says non-verbally, “I enjoy your company, no matter where we are or what we’re doing.” Heck, I don’t even need flowers or chocolate*; a simple text or email out of the blue is enough to put a sloppy grin on my face for hours. (*However, a bottle of wine wouldn’t hurt now & then.)

All that said, I also think it is wise to guard my heart from unnecessary aches & pains. For that reason, I’m planning to go off the grid tomorrow and avoid looking at Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest because I don’t need to be bombarded with mushy-gushy Valentine’s Day posts about everyone’s picture-perfect relationships with their doting husbands and boyfriends. Gag me with a spoon and drown me in chocolate; the last thing a single parent needs is to have her situation rubbed in her face. Anticipating all of the lovey-doviness tomorrow helps me to understand a little better now what a childless friend once told me she felt like on Mother’s Day.