What Did I Do?: New Desk, Snow Head, and The Message

I've had a busy and eventful week. I feel like I've accomplished some things. This post is late because Thursday I found myself without a functional laptop, and then I had a really busy weekend. I'm hoping to get a new laptop this week, but I can't promise my next post will be on time. So my updates may go back a little ways.

February 5: I tried my first bottle of Vitamin Water. I'm not a fan of flavoured water, but this is a little different. I chose the lemonade flavour, which is the most popular flavour where I work. It was pretty good. I'm getting a good dose of vitamins in liquid form for my body to be able to absorb easily. It had a pretty good flavour, but that is because there's also 32 grams of sugar in a bottle. So...you're being healthy, but only kind of.

February 6: On Friday, I finally decided to get rid of the old office desk I was using and buy a new one. The desk I have been working on for the last year in a half was in really sad shape. I had to clean my room and office, and I figured getting rid of the old desk was a good start. One less thing to clean, right? So I took all of it apart, and took all the wood out to the garage. Then I headed to the store in search for the desk I had seen advertised in their flyer. It took awhile. There was one in stock and it was in a trailer, so I decided to buy the product without actually seeing it. As the employee loaded it into my car (the box just barely fitting into my back seat), I asked about how heavy it was. He gave me an estimate of about 60 pounds, maybe more. My next thought is, how am I going to get this big, awkward, heavy box into the house and up the stairs to my office? The box was a LOT heavier than 60 pounds, and after getting it into the house with help, I unpacked it on the kitchen floor and carried the pieces up to my office.

Late that afternoon, I began the task of figuring out all the pieces and getting the frame together. Anyone who has seen me try to use tools and do physical work that requires thinking of this sort would understand the significance of this. Luckily, all I needed for tools were two screw drivers and a hammer. I really wanted to finish it Friday night, but after 10pm and still quite a ways to go, I decided it was best to call it a night if I wanted to function the next day. And when I did that, I realized I had done something wrong with the drawer I had started assembling. Well, for my first time trying to put together a desk, I figured I was doing all right.

I finished it the next night, after working for a couple more hours and getting the drawers put together right. I must say I felt rather proud of myself. I could follow instructions after all...for the most part!

February 7: Aside from finishing my desk, I consulted Knowledge Nuts once again to learn something new. I learned that during the prohibition, the U.S. government ordered manufacturers to put poisons into alcohols, especially those commonly used to distill into other drinks. An estimated 10,000 people died from it and thousands more became seriously ill. That's bad. Just saying.

February 8: Sunday afternoon, I ventured outside into the cold and freezing rain intending to build my first upside down snowman. My determination wasn't as strong as I thought. I'm a wimp when it comes to cold. But hey, "Do you want to build a snowman?"

Well, I couldn't get the snow to pack together enough to build a body. And it was cold, and windy, and icy. So it ended up being a photo shoot with a snow head. Hmm.

"Strawberry lips, shining in the summer sun." It's more than just a song. Oh wait, it's winter.

Does anybody else look at these pictures and want to scream "Wilson!"

And anybody who thought perhaps I was crazy but wasn't quite sure is a little less doubtful now! There are days I'm amazed I don't die laughing at myself.

Oh, and I learned what a pangolin is, although I only learned how to spell it now while writing this. Looking at a picture of the animal, it reminds me of an armadillo. The meat is considered a delicacy in Vietnam and China and the pangolin can only be found in six zoos around the world.

February 9: Monday I braved icy conditions to go to my swim class again. The technique my instructor was determined to get me to master was learning to swim on my back, roll over to a front crawl, roll onto my back to breathe, and roll back to a front crawl. That was not the end goal of this exercise. I think I have to wait until my next lesson to get there.

In the evening, I enjoyed going to visit some friends for dinner and had Brazilian Cheese Buns. These are a unique, gluten free bun, with a nice cheesy flavour. They complimented the tasty soup well.

February 10: On Tuesday morning, I put aside my religiosity and read The Message for my devotions. My response to this is very lengthy and I shared it on Wednesday in my article "You're NOT Hopeless (Despite What The Message May Suggest)". I encourage you to read it if you haven't already done so.

I also had the opportunity on Tuesday to read Fifty Shades of Loved edited by Rachel Starr Thomson. It's a good, quick read that points to a true Love, as opposed to this world's counterfeits. One of the writers shared something that gave me a good laugh and I think it describes the mindset of a lot of single young women.

"I am in distress at all times and in a myriad of ways--I'm broke, I'm lonely, I'm fat, I'm hungry, I can't carry all the groceries, I can't lift my sofa to retrieve my remote, etc.--and I have been waiting for Mr. Save-My-Life to sweep me off my feet, solve all my problems, and make me feel good about myself. I try to put myself out there and let him know where I am and what I am doing based on my iPhone locator. When is that dude on FB I've been creepin' on going to get the hint from my damsel-in-distress status updates?" --Fifty Shades of Loved

Yep, that pretty much sums it up!

February 11: I tried a new recipe for Oatmeal Drop Cookies. They had quick oats, oat bran, raisins and walnuts. They're okay, but not on the definitely-have-to-make-these-again list.

Random note: Now I get excited when I see other people learning something new, or even aspiring to learn new things.

You're NOT Hopeless (Despite What The Message May Suggest)

Note: Prior to reading this, I want the reader to understand a few things. It has been a long time since I have written something like this. What follows is my perspective on a paraphrase of the Bible, but more than that, it's the truth I came to see through it. This is about so much more than The Message.  I make no efforts to be politically correct. I don't think I need to. Even if you don't agree with my perspective on The Message, or my faith, I ask you to consider the rest of what I have to say. Please, please, read down to the end.

As part of my New Year's Resolution, yesterday I decided to read The Message, Eugene Peterson's paraphrase of the Bible, for my devotions. I had never read The Message before, except for excerpts quoted in books. To say I don't think highly of Bible paraphrases is putting it lightly, but the opinion is not based on much personal experience. I currently read the ESV, and aside from that I most frequently go back to the KJV, although I have also read a few other translations.

Reading The Message for myself was about putting my religiosity aside. It was about actually reading something for myself instead of just forming opinions based on what I read from other sources. I basically picked up where I was reading and ended up reading Matthew 20 - 24, which I had to do online, since I don't have a print copy. I decided, that as much as I wanted to, I was not going to pick up my ESV Bible and compare while reading. Having said that, this morning I read through the same chapters in the ESV.

As I was reading through the passages, a lot of it, especially the parables, didn't surprise me too much. It reminded me of how a speaker might expound on a passage in his message to simplify it or help the reader understand what is being said. I felt that there was some inconsistency in the language used. Peterson seemed to randomly switch between staying close to the original text and using modern language and analogies.

There were several times I found myself going "Really?!" in disbelief at how Peterson said something. At other times, I admit I had ideas of how he could have said something better. Before I go any further and get to the real point of my article, I want to say this: What I'm not saying is that people shouldn't read The Message. I can see that it could be useful, and also allows the reader to understand what something might look like today, that we can't necessarily relate to in 2015 North America. However, I do not think it can be read as the Word of God for solid teaching and instruction. It could be a useful supplement, but I don't think it should be used as a primary source for teaching and searching for truth.

As I read, I think the chapter that unsettled me the most was Matthew 23. Here Peterson deviates a lot from Jesus actually said and replaces with modern analogies. Where Jesus pronounces woes on the scribes and Pharisees, Peterson writes "I've had it with you! You're hopeless, you religion scholars, you Pharisees! Frauds!" (Matthew 23:13) The ESV translation says "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" In the following verses, where the ESV uses "Woe to you", Peterson uses "You're hopeless".

This made me stop and think. Jesus would not say that. I really couldn't believe that Jesus would look at a group of people and call them hopeless. I couldn't believe that Jesus would write the scribes and Pharisees off as a hopeless case. Why would Peterson say that? I admit, there are times when I look at people and think they're hopeless, when I allow myself to believe they will never come to the light. But that is only when I forget about the great redeeming power of God. It's only when I look at them through my limited human perspective and forget the deep love and compassion God has for them. No, despite what Peterson said, the scribes and Pharisees were not hopeless.

Later last night, I lay in bed pondering this. And I got angry. Staring at the ceiling in the dark, in a whisper I shouted "No! No!" I was angry that someone would put those words in the mouth of Jesus. And slowly tears filled my eyes and began to slide down my face. To suggest that Jesus would look at someone and call them hopeless?! Yes, that was enough to make me cry.

As I continued to ponder this last night and today, I concluded it was simply impossible. If Jesus looked at the scribes and Pharisees and said "You're hopeless!", in essence what He was also saying is "I can't help you." Let me add some further context. At this time, Jesus is speaking in the temple just days before he is arrested, beaten, stripped naked, and crucified for ALL HUMANITY. It is mere days before He is to go to the cross, die a brutal death, be buried, resurrect, and thereby conquer sin and death. And He's telling the religious leaders they're hopeless? If Jesus  were to imply that they were a hopeless bunch, then He's also saying that the sacrifice He Himself is about to make, the greatest one this world has ever seen, is INSUFFICIENT.

No, the scribes and Pharisees were not hopeless, and I do not believe that Jesus ever would have wanted someone to think that. In fact, Jesus held ALL THE HOPE IN THE WORLD FOR THEM. Jesus said a lot of hard things in His ministry, and there are a lot that I cannot understand. But I cannot accept this idea. If you look back two chapters when Jesus is speaking in the temple, He shares a parable and asks a question of the religious leaders. After they answer, it says "Jesus said to them, 'Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.'" (Matthew 21:31b-32, ESV)

When I read those last couple verses, I can gather that the religious leaders were far from the kingdom of God. But there is absolutely no indication that they were beyond redemption. Just to make sure I wasn't totally in left field with my ideas, I checked Merriam-Webster's definition of "hopeless". Some of the definitions were "having or feeling no hope"; "unable to be changed"; and "incapable of redemption or improvement". If you serve Jesus, let me ask you this: Does that sound like something your Redeemer, THE Redeemer, would say? I also looked up "woe", as used in the ESV, just to make sure the word didn't mean hopeless or something. According to Merriam-Webster, "woe" as an interjection is "used to express grief, regret, or distress." I also looked up the word in Greek as used in Matthew 23, and it is indeed an interjection, "A primary exclamation of grief", according to Blue Letter Bible. From this evidence, I can certainly conclude that Jesus did not think the scribes and Pharisees were hopeless. However, He was deeply grieved over them. He extended the same invitation to them as to everyone else, but they weren't willing to receive it.

I want to take this further and relate it to my own life, and also speak into the lives of my readers. No one is hopeless. No one is beyond the redeeming power of Jesus. (The one case where I hold back is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, and I'm not going to involve that in this discussion due to my limited understanding.) God has carried me through a lot of pain and brokenness. I know the hope that is found in Jesus. I have experienced some intense battles. One truth I'm learning is that the Gospel is sufficient for all things, and I choose to believe it even when I'm not immediately changed the way I want to be. Even when my spirit and flesh are at war with each other, and I allow flesh to win, I still cry out to Jesus, because I know that Jesus is my ONLY HOPE!

Now I want to say to my reader that you are not hopeless. No human being is so sinful or so religious that God cannot save and redeem them.  His grace extends to everyone. And I want to say to everyone, no matter what you have done, or where you find yourself, you are NOT hopeless.

To the liar, the cheat, the thief, and the fraud. You are NOT hopeless.

To the the rapist, the molester, the trafficker, the brothel owner, the pimp, the prostitute, the hustler, the john, the exotic dancer, and the porn star. You are NOT hopeless.

To the slave owner, trader, and beater. You are NOT hopeless.

To the fornicator, adulterer, homosexual, and ashamed or unashamed sexual addict of any kind. You are NOT hopeless.

To the abusive, negligent, or absent parent or spouse. You are NOT hopeless.

To the murderer, the terrorist, or the drunk driver that left a trail of broken, bleeding hearts. You are NOT hopeless.

To the mother and father that left your unborn baby bloody, dismembered, and disemboweled in the garbage at the abortion clinic, and to the doctor that did it. You are NOT hopeless.

To the mentally unstable, the depressed, the alcoholic, and drug addict. You are NOT hopeless.

To the medicator, the one hurting yourself to cover up a deeper pain, the one who thinks this world would be better off without you, or the one who thinks you just can't face one more day. You are NOT hopeless.

To the politicians and courts who are corrupt, who allow unspeakable injustices in our world, who allow parents to murder their children, who allow doctors to help people kill themselves, and who try to educate our young children in immorality. You are NOT hopeless.

To the broken, bleeding, abused, orphaned, widowed, lonely, enslaved, and abandoned. You are NOT hopeless.

To the person bound to the letter of the law, to the self-righteous, the religious, and the scribes and Pharisees of today. You are NOT hopeless.

If I forgot or didn't mention you, I want you to know something too. You are NOT hopeless.

No matter who you are, where you've been, what you've done, or what's been done to you, you are NOT hopeless. Jesus is HOPE. Jesus is LOVE. Jesus is GRACE. Jesus is REDEMPTION. And that extends to EVERYONE.

You are NOT hopeless. Jesus wants YOU!

What Did I Do?: Tears, Hormones, and Hair Treatment

It's been another rather low-key week, picking out small things I learned or did differently through the course of my days, although I've had some other thoughts brewing. I'm excited to be registered for the Justice Conference this year in Chicago! I'm looking forward to my mini summer vacation and hearing some awesome speakers and artists. That trip will make for a lot of new things to share.  But for now, what about last week? I've got one month down now!

January 29: I tried brushing my teeth with baking soda. I can be rather picky about my toothpaste when I can afford to be and like to avoid fluoride. Since I was out of good toothpaste, I thought I'd try an alternative I already had. Although I like the idea, it would be hard for me to always brush with baking soda. Aside from it being distasteful, I found it was harsh on my gums. I may keep trying it occasionally, or I'll just find good toothpaste again.

January 30: After a long day, I found this intriguing article again on Knowledge Nuts entitled "The Different Types of Tears".  That's right! There are different kinds of tears for the different things that make you cry! Emotional tears flush out stress hormones, while reflex tears caused by irritants contain antibodies. Tears also have an effect on hormones. The smell of a woman's tears reduces testosterone levels in men. This fact reminded me of the time years ago when I learned that the smell of a man's sweat affects a woman's hormones. Crazy stuff!

January 31: When you don't have a funnel at work, use a slushie cup lid! I can't take credit for this idea because it wasn't mine, but it definitely helped me get more mustard in the bottle, than down the sides, like my initial attempt.

February 1: Sunday morning in church, a footnote in my Bible grabbed my attention. It explained that when LORD was spelled in all capital letters in my Bible, it means YHWH. This was according to a footnote pertaining to Exodus 3:15. I have so often wondered why LORD was often capitalized and had speculations, but never actually knew what it meant. Now I know. I also did a little further research later on and found out that YHWH is the most holy name for God. Jews even hesitate to use it because it is so holy.

February 2: Monday morning, my swim class was cancelled due to a winter storm, and so I ventured to try my hair treatment. I've wanted to try this for years, but never had, and I recently picked up the Bulk Herb Store treatment mix from a local retailer. It's an herbal mix that is to be combined with vinegar or lemon juice, eggs, and olive oil or mayonnaise. It's supposed to repair damage, make hair soft and shiny, and bring out natural highlights. You can use vinegar for red highlights, or lemon juice for blonde highlights. Since I haven't cut my hair since June, it was seriously in need of some help. I naturally have curly, frizzy, crunchy hair that is hard to manage and make it look good, especially without styling products.

I like the idea of red highlights, and although I have a little dark red tinge in my hair, I wanted more. My plan was to do the treatment with apple cider vinegar, although I can't stand the smell of it. But I hadn't gotten to buying some, and I really wanted to try the treatment Monday. I had lots of lemon juice though and I resigned to the idea of going for blonde highlights. In the end, I just wasn't sure I was ready for that and I settled for just using white vinegar instead.

If you ever decide to do a treatment like this, I will warn you: IT STINKS!! The smell of the herbs and vinegar mixture is certainly not tantalizing and it looks like manure. I was on my own to get it in my hair and it was interesting to figure out just how to do that and get it evenly in there. Unfortunately I don't think I had the mixture hot enough, and it dried pretty fast. By the time I was done, I was reminded of a "Little House on the Prairie" episode of what Nellie and Laura looked like when they were done fighting in the mud. That was me. And there were crumbs of mud-like gunk all over the bathroom floor and vanity. I wrapped around plastic bags and a warm towel and waited about an hour before rinsing it out, after which I had to rinse dirt out of the shower. I waited several hours and shampooed it before going to work to get the olive oil out. The smell didn't come out after shampooing it, but by the next day I didn't notice it, much to my relief.

In the end, I didn't get the highlights I was hoping for, although I do have more red shine than I did before. My ends could still handle a trim. Most people wouldn't notice a difference, unless they have been secretly studying my awful hair.  However, it is now incredibly soft, which I love! That crunchy feeling is no more. I haven't tried leaving it down yet and let it dry without product, but I love how soft it is on its own. People may not notice that though, and I can't walk around asking everybody "Ya wanna feel my hair?!!" Well, I could. But that could be weird. I still have enough herb mix for a couple more treatments, so next time I think I'll try the lemon juice and see if I can go brighter.

February 3: I tried a new recipe again. Anyone notice how I really like to bake? This time it was Oatmeal Raisin muffins. They turned out well, but not as great as the ones I baked last week.

February 4: I learned that the goblin shark is the world's rarest shark, according to this Yahoo article. However, I don't believe all the claims they make about this rare deep-water shark.

And I'm embarking on reading the entire Anne of Green Gables series this year, and I started the first couple chapters Tuesday night. It turns out the fiery Anne Shirley has some good insight that's relevant to my goal this year.

"Isn't it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me glad to be alive--it's such an interesting world. It wouldn't be half so interesting if we knew all about everything, would it? There'd be no scope for imagination then, would there?" --Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

What Did I Do?: Kitchen Experiments

Four weeks down! This past week was pretty low-key, and I'm not sure what happened to my plan to use categories to add variety. This was definitely primarily a food week.

January 22: I have a confession to make: I really like baking bread. It makes me feel "housewifey." And fresh-baked bread both smells and tastes amazing. I started my week by making a braided challah. I have made a New Year's Apple Challah, before, which was good, but not a braided bread.  The Taste of Home Baking Book I got the recipe from also had great illustrated instructions on how to braid bread. I followed the instructions. I started in the middle, brought the left rope under the centre, and the right rope under the new centre. I braided half of it, then I was supposed to turn it around and braid the rest. Except when I did that, I stood there totally confused for the longest time. What I had been doing no longer worked. Finally I figured out that when you turned it around, you had to bring the outside ropes over the centre. The instructions didn't tell me that part! (Can you tell I don't braid my hair?)

The hardest part of making challah is actually not the braiding part; for me, it's trying to get my ropes an even length and even thickness throughout. I was not successful at this, and you can tell. By the time I did the second loaf, it looked a little bit better.

Can you tell which one I made first?

The amount of sugar in the dough and the egg wash made the loaves brown really quick in the oven, but they weren't too dark. And yes, my afternoon consisted of enjoying a cup of coffee and fresh bread and butter. I used a couple of slices to make a sandwich for work, but as I packed it up I really wanted to eat it right away. I didn't.

January 23: I read the last verse of each book of the Bible. It was actually more difficult to take away something meaningful than it was by reading the first verse. Something I noticed though was how Paul and some of the other writers often focused on the grace of Jesus in their closing greetings.

January 24: Tired, almost forgot I had to learn something new, and was happy when my eye caught a link to an informative article on facebook pertaining to the health benefits of turmeric. I had known that turmeric fought cancer, but I didn't know some of the other things I learned. It heals cells and makes them more resistant, as well as kills cancer cells. It can heal inflammation and skin diseases. It can prevent and cure diabetes. Turmeric improves concentration and memory. It is also as effective as Prozac in treating depression symptoms. Turmeric has other benefits as well, but those are a handful.

January 25: Sunday, wanting to relax, I made a cup of hot chocolate out of peppermint tea. I had noticed recently that McDonald's had a peppermint hot chocolate, and although I haven't tried it, I wondered one day if I could make something similar by adding hot chocolate mix to a cup of peppermint tea. Honestly, I didn't expect it to taste good, but I wanted to know how it tasted. To my surprise, it was actually quite tasty. It had a good chocolate flavour with a subtle minty taste to it. However, I did find the aftertaste rather unpleasant.

January 26: In swim class, I was able to increase my distance on my back, and also do relatively well with my initial steps of the front crawl. I also went to knowledgenuts.com and found out that there is a common misconception that immigration officers changed the names of people coming into the U.S. through Ellis Island. I didn't know such a misconception existed. Although names changed, it didn't happen at Ellis Island.

January 27: Tuesday morning was a pretty intense recipe experiment day. I tried two new recipes, with some modifications. I made a Winter Vegetable Soup. It called for parsnips, and I had never had parsnip before. I didn't really know what these big beige carrot-like vegetables were. I learned while making it that they were parsley roots. They smell the part. Anyhow, I also noticed the recipe said to put the soup in the blender once it's done. I don't think pureed soups are very appealing, but I thought I would try it. Anyhow, I put the carrots, celery, onion, and parsnips in the pot with broth, some seasoning and a bay leaf for good measure, brought it to a boil, let it simmer and dumped it in the blender. End result: orange baby food with fresh dill added to it. Or that's what it looked like anyway.

I also baked chicken breasts in foil with olive oil, salt and pepper, lemon juice, dill and green onion, a modification of another recipe, and ended the meal with some challah. That was the really good part. The chicken is debatable, but I'm definitely not making the soup again.

January 28: Wednesday's recipe experiment was a little safer and a lot more successful. I took a Blueberry Orange Bread recipe and made it into muffins. Although not your typical combination for a muffin or bread, I thought it still sounded good. The recipe advised to begin draining the blueberries well in advance if using frozen blueberries, so I did this. Anyone who has worked with frozen blueberries may know that once they're fully thawed, you're pretty much left with shriveled mush and purple juice. Well, I mixed my batter, then added my soggy blueberries, leaving the juice behind. Some of you will know where this is going. I ended up with a purple marbled batter. I should have remembered my last purple fruit salad.

Nevertheless, the muffins turned out beautifully! They're half whole wheat, with orange juice and zest, and blueberries. They're nice and fluffy and it's real hard to just eat one at a time. Who cares that they're purple?

 

It may be hard to believe sometimes, but I do know how to cook. I really do.

In closing, I want to leave you with some words that blessed me from a Passion talk this week.

"It's not a process; it's finished. God's not doing away with sin; He did away with sin. God's not in the process of taking away our shame; He annihilated our shame." -- Louie Giglio

What Did I Do?: Granny Dresses, Empty Whipped Cream Cans, and Dutch Candy

Week 3 is over! Sigh of relief.  It's bad I feel that way already some days. Although I feel stuck some days, I did have a lot of fun this past week. I have a big list of great ideas, but I can't do them all at once. That would drain my idea bank too fast, and I'd be more broke. Besides, I have to wait for summer to do some of them.

January 15: I tried making dairy-free hot cocoa. Because I'm somewhat lactose-intolerant, I often take lactase tablets if I drink regular hot chocolate, unless it's diluted with coffee. Even if it's mixed with just water, the mix has milk ingredients in it. So I tried making stovetop cocoa using almond milk. I have made chocolate milk with it before, which was pretty good, but hadn't tried cooking it.

It had a quite a distinct almond taste to it, so if you don't mind that it's a good alternative. I curled up with a blanket, my mug of cocoa, and watched an adaptation of Great Expectations.

I also tried pomegranate juice. I've had a pomegranate before, but I find they're a lot of work to eat, and I don't like the bitter white seeds. But drinking the juice straight is also really strong. You would think it's a very healthy juice, but I was disappointed that it didn't even contain any Vitamin C.

January 16: On Friday I went on a shopping escapade. I had a couple potential ideas swirling in my mind, but I definitely settled on one when I looked at the dress section in the first thrift store I walked into. One of the items on my list was to try on granny dresses in a thrift store, and this place had some great finds! Sadly they were all a little too big, and the three other dresses I tried on that I would have bought all didn't fit quite right.

I wish I had had a hat and pair of binoculars. Safari!

This one is rather nightgown-ish.

This one might have looked alright if it wasn't so big.

And I'm sure this one was real classy in its day. 

I didn't buy any dresses, but I walked out with two pairs of jeans for $4.50!  I also took the opportunity to stop in and see The Grace Cafe.  As I was leaving town, I tried to ignore a man standing at an intersection with a sign. But I couldn't. I turned around and went back.

January 17: I had too much fun! I tried to deepen my voice by sucking the gas out of an empty whipped cream can. I think the idea is that it has the opposite effect of helium. I got it for a couple seconds, but it doesn't last long.

This is an afternote. I actually don't recommend anyone trying this. I did later on, but experienced dizziness and a headache. This can't be wise.

January 18: Remember those dutch candies I mentioned last week? Well, I tried one.

And this is what they do to you afterward.

Naw, that's actually just me being crazy and wanting a cross-eyed picture of myself.

I also started reading God's Gift to Women by Eric Ludy. Although written for men, I realized quickly my need for this book right now. Although I have been happier and freer in the last month and a half than I have been in a long time, my relationship with God has suffered, as I have filled my life with distractions and noise. As a Ludy book always does, this book points back to my relationship with Christ, and I've been realizing how much I need to refocus my life.

January 19: I made some improvements in my swim class. I got to use them giant flipper things to swim. I worked on my side swim, and then my back. I was pretty proud of myself when I figured out I could make it across the width of the pool on my back with flippers.  I had this moment where I was suddenly like "I feel like an otter!" I was even prouder of myself when I made it over half the width of the pool without the flippers. It felt great.

January 20: We recently got a new coffee/drink machine at work, which makes Coffee Crisp Cappuccino.  I tried one and it was like awesomeness in a cup! I just can't have sweet drinks like this often. I also went to a store for a glucosamine supplement, and was also introduced to collagen. I asked "What's collagen?" It's like the glue that holds us together.  We lose it as we get older and that's why we get wrinkles. That's about as much as I learned about it then.

January 21: I tried curling my hair with my straightening iron. TRIED being the key word. Because I have natural curls that frizz like crazy, I had to straighten it first. Then I tried curling it. I had next to no clue what I was doing, so I found a Youtube tutorial. I watched it, tried, watched it again, tried. I succeeded in getting a couple decent looking curls, but couldn't get the hang of the technique and there was no way I was going to spend my whole morning trying to do all my hair. Just not worth it. I lose a lot of hair when I straighten it, and I wanted to have a presentable amount left when I was done. And I knew the longer I tried, chances were I'd be accumulating burns on my fingers, ears, forehead, etc. I don't look like a diva, and people who know me know I'm next to clueless when it comes to fashion, hair, and makeup, but especially makeup. That's one of the reasons I don't wear it. But I also just don't have patience for spending a lot of time beautifying myself. So the morning did not result in a new awesome hairstyle. I'll stick to taming my natural curl with cremes and mousse. That's a lot easier.

Now I need to figure out what I all want to do in the next week. Hmm. 

Literary Mission 2015

So one of the things I would like to do in 2015 is read all my books I haven't read yet.  And that's a lot. I pulled them off the shelf and photographed them.

I have classics, biographies, novels, books on social justice, Christian living and more. A few of them I have read in the past, or I've started, but need to finish.  If I read one book a week, I have enough to get me through the summer, or most of it. I keep telling myself not to buy any more books until I've read all of mine, but that usually doesn't happen, especially when something new comes out, or I browse the book section in a thrift store and can get them for 50 cents.

Last week I finished reading The Locust Effect by Gary Haugen. Yesterday I started reading God's Gift to Women by Eric Ludy. Although I could argue the theology of men being God's gift to women, I won't. Yes, it's written for young men, but I'm reading it anyway. Two chapters in. It's great!

What are you reading in 2015?

What Did I Do?: Eyeballs, Hockey, Pizza, and New Recipes

Well, Week 2 is finished. It was a bit of a challenging one again. I'm finding I need to have a small pool of ideas to work with on any given day, because my plans and schedule can easily change. A friend suggested different categories and doing something from each category every week. I've been working with that and putting my ideas into categories (there's currently 10).  I'm hoping I can use this strategy to plan and add variety to my weeks. That way you're not seeing too much of the same thing all the time, and I can balance my ideas out.  But, without further ado . . .

January 8: I learned why your eyeballs don't freeze when it gets really cold.  I saw this link on Facebook and thought it would be cool. It was pretty interesting. You should read it too. So, yes, the weather has been freezing lately, but don't fear. As long as you're alive, your eyeballs will be okay!

January 9: I ate a slice of pizza upside down. Meaning, the pizza was upside down, not me. In my 23 years, I have eaten pizza many different ways. For a long time I ate it crust first and worked my way to the point. There was a time as a kid when I peeled off the toppings, ate those, licked off the sauce and then ate the rest. I think that grossed out some other kids at school. I have eaten it with a knife and fork. When in New York, I learned to fold it and eat it New York style. But, I had never turned over my pizza so my toppings faced my plate and tried it that way before. It was tricky figuring out how to hold it right. It wanted to fold over at first.

Starting out with eager anticipation!

I'm starting to lose it!

 And then I was taking pictures and texting while eating it, so that made it a little more interesting. Getting close to the end! I had to resist the urge not to turn it over and eat it the right way. Fun, but I'm not switching permanently to this new method. There were some casualties left on my plate afterward.

January 10: I went to watch a hockey game for the first time! I used to watch Hockey Night in Canada all the time, but that doesn't count. Now I work at an arena, and when I'm not busy, I'll watch games from my concession or from the lobby, but I had never paid to get in, sat in the bleachers and watched a game. So Saturday night, I went and watched our "Junior C" team play. Most of the time when they're playing at home, I'm home or working at the concession, scrambling through intermission rushes.

If I was going to go to a hockey game, I wanted to get the full experience. I froze through the first period, and at first intermission, I went to stand in line at the canteen like everyone else for a half coffee, half hot chocolate. This helped keep me warm. At the second intermission, I had to go get popcorn and put the dill pickle seasoning on it.  It was a good night.

January 11: Sunday was a little more low key. I went to visit a local church where I hadn't been to before for a service. It's good to get such experiences sometimes and worship with other believers. I also tried a new smoothie combination. Vanilla yogurt, frozen mangos, banana, strawberries, and orange juice makes for a good tropical flavour. I made another one the next day again for work.

January 12: Well, the cold, snowy Monday morning started again with my trip to the pool. It was a productive swim class, which I know because of how sore I was after. I learned that if you wipe the inside of your swim goggles with spit, they don't fog up! Who would've thunk?! Afterwards I headed to a music store . . . to shop! I've only ever been able to admire in one of those stores. Monday I let loose and got some new tools and music for my flute practice. I walked out with a music stand, metronome, maintenance kit, music and a whopping bill! Then I had to figure out how to put the music stand together. It required a little head scratching, but no tools were involved. As there were no "constructions" in the box, I had to figure it out on my own. It took about 10 or 15 minutes of fumbling with the parts, but in the end I had a functional stand!

I also tried a persimmon on Monday. You're probably like "What's a persimmon?" And I be like "Oh, I don't know!" They were on sale at No Frills, so I bought one over the weekend and checked online how to eat this fruit. After the first half, I figured out eating out the inside with a spoon worked best. What does it taste like? Oh, I don't know. There's nothing to accurately compare it to. It's kind of like a mango, and the flavour is sort of like an apricot. I know. That makes no sense. You pretty much have to try it to know.

January 13: I made oat biscuits for lunch. I have only made biscuits once before, so I'm a very amateur biscuit baker. The dough had rolled oats and oat bran in it. Mixing that up was easy. It was patting out the dough and cutting biscuits that proved to be a little more difficult. After assessing my sticky mess and knowing there was no way I was going to be able to cut out and transfer dough to a baking dish looking anything like a biscuit, I declared the first attempt a practice round, scraped my dough back into the bowl, and started over using a little more flour. The end result certainly didn't look impressive at all, but they tasted a lot better than they looked. They complimented the meatballs, mashed potatoes and broccoli reasonably well.

In the afternoon, I had to write an English exam, and then use up some time before going to work. So I headed to Slice of Aylmer Deli & Imports to search for a type of Dutch candies, and was successful in my search. I had never been in there before and needed some of these candies for one of my new things to do. But you will have to check back next week to see what that's all about. I'm hoping to do a video of that one, and I think it will likely be worth checking back for. Then I headed to a craft store in town to look at what they had available for another one of my plans. I can't do everything right away. I have to space my ideas and spending. And I can't have seven days of new food related things going on here. So you have to wait for some.

January 14: I made Huevos Rancheros! I had never had this before, but I had thought about making it a lot and just never done it. As I'm writing this, I'm having a cup of tea after enjoying this pretty awesome lunch. Huevos Rancheros is a Mexican breakfast dish made of tortillas, eggs, cheese, and a sauce similar to salsa. But breakfast is good any time of the day. I used a recipe, but also took some tips from my sister who makes this quite often.  Definitely going to have this again. The crunchy tortillas made me wish I had made some chips while I was at it.

Cooking the sauce:

And the end meal with refried beans and avocado. Fat and protein. Mmmm.

Another week down. Only 50 to go!

What Did I Do?: Learning From Just One Verse

As I mentioned in last week's post, on January 4, I read the first verse of every book of the Bible. I took notes as I went and it was too much to include in last week's post. So here they are and I will include a few further thoughts afterward. Although some verses were difficult to make full sense of without further context, it's definitely interesting what you notice when you take an approach like this.

Genesis: God is the creator; He was in the beginning.
Exodus: Israel's sons came to Egypt with Jacob.
Leviticus: God spoke to Moses from the tent of meeting.
Numbers:The Lord spoke to Moses in the tent of meeting in the wilderness.
Deuteronomy: The book of Deuteronomy is Moses speaking to the Israelites in the wilderness beyond the Jordan.
Joshua: Joshua was Moses' assistant, whom the Lord spoke to after Moses died.
Judges: After Joshua died, the people inquired of God regarding who would fight for them.
Ruth: There was a famine in Bethlehem during the time of the judges, so the man mentioned in this verse takes his family to Moab.
1 Samuel: Ramathaimzophim is a long name of a place in Ephraim.
2 Samuel: David struck down the Amalekites after Saul's death.
1 Kings: David couldn't stay warm when he was old.
2 Kings: Moab rebelled against Israel following the death of Ahab.
1 Chronicles: Genealogy from Adam to Japheth??
2 Chronicles: God made Solomon great when he established himself in his kingdom.
Ezra: Cyrus, king of Persia, makes a proclamation so that Jeremiah's prophecy would be fulfilled.
Nehemiah: Nehemiah is in Susa, the capital, which my footnote says was a fortified city.
Esther: King Ahasuerus reigned over 127 provinces stretching from India to Ethiopia.
Job: Job was a blameless and upright man who feared God and turned away from evil.
Psalms: A person who doesn't take counsel or keep company with the wicked, sinners, or scoffers is blessed.
Proverbs: The proverbs were written by Solomon.
Ecclesiastes: These are the words of the Preacher, also Solomon. Footnotes says Preacher could mean Convener or Collector.
Song of Solomon: The writer, Solomon, actually calls it the Song of Songs.
Isaiah: Isaiah begins by describing a vision.
Jeremiah: Jeremiah was the son of a priest.
Lamentations: A city that was once great has become like a widow and slave.
Ezekiel: Ezekiel saw visions while among exiles by the Chebar canal.
Daniel: Jehoiakim was king when Nebuchadnezzar seized Jerusalem.
Hosea: Hosea received the word of the Lord while Jeroboam was king.
Joel: Joel was the son of Pethuel.
Amos: Amos was a shepherd. An earthquake follows two years after this.
Obadiah: A messenger goes out declaring to nations to rise up against Edom.
Jonah: Jonah was the son of Amittai.
Micah: The word of the Lord that Micah received was concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
Nahum: This book concerns Nineveh.
Habakkuk: Habakkuk was a prophet who saw an oracle.
Zephaniah: The word of the Lord came to Zephaniah during king Josiah's reign.
Haggai: Haggai was a prophet to the governor of Judah and the high priest.
Zechariah: The word of the Lord came to Zechariah in the second year of Darius's reign.
Malachi: Malachi receives an oracle of the word of the Lord for Israel.

Matthew: Introduces the genealogy of Jesus; calls him the son of David, and David the son of Abraham.
Mark: Mark introduces his gospel as the gospel of Jesus Christ, not the gospel of Mark.
Luke: Many people wrote stories about what happened during the time of Jesus.
John: The Word was in the beginning, with God, and was God. God is the Word.
Acts: This is presumably the second book Luke is writing to Theophilus.
Romans: Paul was an apostle, set apart for the gospel.
1 Corinthians: Paul was called to be an apostle by the will of God. Paul was not the only writer of the book. Sosthenes helped him. Perhaps he wrote it for Paul?
2 Corinthians: Timothy helped write the second letter to the Corinthians.
Galatians: Paul makes it clear he wasn't made an apostle by men.
Ephesians: Paul considered the saints at Ephesus to be faithful in Christ.
Philippians: Timothy also assisted in the writing of this letter. It addresses not only the saints, but also the overseers and deacons.
Colossians: Timothy also helped write this letter. Paul calls himself an apostle, but refers to Timothy as a brother.
1 Thessalonians: Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy write this letter.
2 Thessalonians: Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy writing.
1 Timothy: Paul was an apostle by the command of God; Jesus is our hope.
2 Timothy: Paul was an apostle according to the promise of the life that is in Christ.
Titus: Paul was a servant and apostle for the sake of the church and their knowledge of the truth.
Philemon: Paul is a prisoner at this time. Timothy is also writing. They consider Philemon a fellow worker.
Hebrews: God used to speak through the prophets.
James: James is writing to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion.
1 Peter: Peter is an apostle and he is writing to the believing exiles in the dispersion.
2 Peter: Peter uses his first name, Simeon Peter. Peter considered the people he was writing to had an equal faith to himself.
1 John: The word of life was in the beginning and it has physical attributes, which the writer and others have experienced.
2 John: John calls himself an elder and he has a love for the woman he is writing to and her children.
3 John: John loved Gaius.
Jude: Jude was the brother of James, and a servant of Christ. We are beloved in God.
Revelation: This is the revelation of Christ, given to him by God. An angel gave it to John, to make it known.

What stuck out to me was a lot of details I often overlook, especially regarding what we often call Paul's letters. Paul didn't fail to make mention of others assisting him and it was interesting to note the reasons he gave for being an apostle. A few verses were hard to understand without further context, so I could be wrong in some of my notes.

Has anything new stuck out to you?

Learning to Fail

If there is one thing I often fail at, it's failing, or to be more accurate, accepting that I fail. In general, I have high expectations of myself and I can be a perfectionist. This doesn't translate to all areas of my life, but it's more evident in things I do for others. I want it done right, without a glitch. And I beat myself up when I get the slightest thing wrong.  Most people would never know how I get down on myself about my failures, because I'm often too embarrassed to let it show.  But it nags at my conscience and eats away at me. It can drive me to depression if I don't get over it.

I have learned that there are areas where I extend a lot more grace to other people than I do to myself. I allow other people to mess up a lot more than me. And this is wrong. It's not healthy. Not being able to accept failure and move on can have a seriously negative impact on one's life.

So as of late I've been learning to let stuff go. I'm trying to learn the balance between not being too careful and not being careless. I'm learning to stop, pray, forgive myself, and keep going. And with that I also need to learn to accept failure without excusing sin.

Recently, I was working on a high school English course, and for my final assignment I had to choose four pieces of work to submit that I felt best showed my improvement. I was supposed to show a balance of my best work, in addition to an essay assignment. As I reviewed work from the last few months, I settled on an assignment that was certainly not my best work. It was an assignment where I had to research people and terms related to existentialist philosophy and write about them. I hated it and found it depressing to just read about some of these people and their ideas. I procrastinated, did a little at a time, and pushed my way grudgingly through it. It took me entirely too long, and I wasn't sure what was going to be the end point of it all. It was not my best work, but I decided this would be one of my four assignments to submit. I wasn't expecting good grades, and I knew I could very well be hurting my mark, but I also couldn't pass it up and say I did all that work for nothing. I submitted it to show my persistence. To my surprise, with the other assignments and the essay, I received the highest grade I had so far in the course.

If you read my New Year's post and my mission for this year, you know I'm destined for failure.  Some people that I've shared this idea with in the past month have certainly not all shared my enthusiasm. They know it will be a huge flunk. They almost convinced me to back out or maybe reduce my goal a little. But no, I'm going to stick to it, even if I'm destined to fail. I know there will be days I will have nothing to write down. But I need to learn to pick myself up the next day and keep going.

It scares me to make it my aim to accept failure. It doesn't seem very appealing, and I think I may be inviting more failure. I need to learn it's okay not to be perfect, it's okay to take off the masks, it's okay to mess up. With that I need to look to the Lord for grace, for forgiveness, for cleansing from my sin, for His Spirit to live in and through me, because I can't do it. And my God's okay with that.

What Did I Do?: Selfies, Swim Class, and My First Flute

So my first week of trying to learn, try, or do something new every day has been quite adventurous so far. It's been a challenge already, but also a lot of fun.  Here's the recap of my first week.

January 1
I learned where New Year's resolutions started and shared about that in my introductory post. Later in the evening, I was reading The Locust Effect by Gary Haugen. It's a pretty research intense book dealing with a lot of global issues, particularly the issue of violence against the poor. I came across a number of words I didn't know and looked them up: counterinsurgency, ad hoc, and opacity. Mind you, even though I wrote down the definitions, the next day all I could remember about counterinsurgency was guerrilla warfare. Ad hoc didn't stick. Opacity did. It's when something is opaque. I guess you can't say "opaquity".

January 2
On this day, I was going to go sock shopping, and I thought it would be awesome to get toe socks. They were such a fad when I was a kid, but I've never had a pair. So I headed to Ardene, thinking that would be the sure store to find them. But they didn't have any. Neither did Marks or Wal-Mart. I learned that Wal-Mart continues to disappoint when I couldn't find some of the products I was looking for. I also wanted a beach towel for my swim class and was really hoping for an Olaf or minion one.  Yes, I think Olaf is like the cutest snowman ever and I'm also partial to minions for their cuteness. I'm convinced big eyes, over-sized heads, and cute voices and giggles sell, and not just to kids.  The closest thing Wal-Mart had was an Angry Birds towel. I'm not a Star Wars fan. The Angry Birds one made it into my basket, but I ended up settling for a blue and green crocodile print one that was more adult sized instead.

But I still had to do something new, and Day 2 was coming to an end. As I headed back into the mall and looked at Ardene passing by, my eye caught something. One of the things I wanted to try this year was going to a mall and trying on a bunch of fashions I despise. Go in and search out ugly. And now my eye caught it. (Please don't take offense at my fashion opinions. I'm rather conservative.) I picked up the article of clothing and headed for the fitting room. I chose to consider this my first fitting room selfie, since I still want to indulge in more of this activity.

The tag said "THIS IS FOR YOU". No, it's really not.

Afternote: This photo was not the first one I took, but it was my favourite. It took me a few shots to figure out how to get the one I wanted, and I had to play with facial expressions. :)

January 3
I tried a pomelo, which I bought the day before. I had never had one of these giant citrus fruits before. It's similar to a grapefruit and it's so big, I ate from it for days, with help. The hardest part is peeling the really thick skin. But they're good. I would get one again.

  
January 4
This day was already a challenge with my schedule. I want to sleep a little later, go to church, then I had to go work right after church and only got home from work at 9:45pm. So what I did was, instead of reading my Bible as I usually would, I read the first verse of every book of the Bible and wrote down notes about what I learned. I did the Old Testament in the morning, and the New in the evening after work. I had to check the Table of Contents to make sure I didn't miss any, which was good, or else I would have missed Ruth. My notes are pretty long, so I will share them in a separate blog post later on. I also plan to do the same thing with the last verse of each book.

January 5
It was a freezing, windy, blustery winter morning and I packed my beach bag. Oh yes, that was one cool thing I got at Wal-Mart, on sale for a buck! I started my first swim class on Monday. Swimming was an activity not encouraged when I was a child, but I've really wanted to learn for years. I can't swim yet, but I'm working on that. Since I'm the only one that registered for this class, I have one-on-one instruction. My instructor told me that your eyes don't actually burn from the chlorine in the pool water, but from the difference in pH.

 January 6
Tuesday was an unbelievable highlight and I was able to take a big one off my list, in a different way than I had anticipated. I turned 23 a week earlier and spent the day with an awesome friend. We've exchanged gifts for our birthdays for years. She told me I had take a rain check on my present, since it hadn't come yet. Hmm, what could she possibly be ordering that she was waiting to ship? Well, it arrived Monday and she wanted to get together as soon as possible to give it to me. She came over for supper and I made one of my favourite soups (see recipe here), and made cornbread for the first time. I'd had cornbread before, but never made it myself and had a recipe from a health book I wanted to try, which called for cornmeal and whole wheat flour, as opposed to white flour. A successful new recipe.

It was good, but that isn't what I want you to get all excited about.  This is what I want you to get excited about!

This shiny silver instrument is my very own Andreas Eastman flute! I had this feeling for a couple days that this was what my friend was getting me, but I wanted to be realistic and not be too hopeful. One look at the package wrapped in pretty pink paper told me I was right! I used to play the flute when I was in school, but was never able to get my own and I forgot how to play. It was amazing to put it together that night and play it for the first time. I kept a lot of my music from school, and I was surprised how quickly it came back, although I have a lot of practicing and re-learning to do before I can play like I once did.

January 7
I took it a little more chill this day. I sat down for over half an hour in the morning and worked on learning to shuffle a deck of cards properly, which I could never do before. I'm still no pro at it, but I certainly improved. And I learned that after shuffling cards for half an hour straight, your fingers get sore, especially when you have dry winter skin to begin with.

I also picked up my book The Locust Effect again. This time I learned about how corrupt the New York City police were in the 1890s, and the meaning of the word "pogrom," which is the organized murder of a lot of helpless people, typically for ethnic or religious reasons.


Hopefully this gives you some inspiration and new ideas. If you ever want recipes for anything I post on here, just leave a comment and I'll post it. Try to do something new this week, eat, play music, or whatever. Or just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming . . . .  Now you'll be thinking about Nemo. Hehe. :)