blogging

Ya know when you want to blog, but then you don't because you think what you said in the previous post deserves a little more "top billing" and perhaps people just haven't read it yet, yes, I'm sure that's why no one has commented on how cool it is that you can listen to a song on our blog (thank you Alan) and it's not often that blog entries come complete with a "soundtrack." And perhaps no one has commented because they are too busy playing on Facebook...Thanks AJ for getting me hooked!  Or perhaps what you've written about only has merit or thought provoking ideas for yourself... 

It's really not nice to beg for commentary.  But dang it, Gregg writes about a trip to Les Schwab and it's like a madhouse of comments on his blog.  No, I'm not jealous.  That would be selfish and silly.  

I'm a slightly selfish and silly girl. 

Things that I would blog about if I wasn't so tired:

How fun it is to be a mommy of four-temporarily :)

How grateful I am for WBF and the amazing women I get to learn from each week.

How much I love laughing with my husband.

Everyday I look forward to turning on Safari and seeing what my friends have written to entertain and teach me while I have breakfast or lunch.  It's rare that no one has a new post or at least few new comments to share.  I really appreciate that.  Then I think about what does duckfamily.net have to offer... sometimes nothing new for days-or gasp, weeks!  How boring.

So, I'm not making any promises-but I'll try to do better at putting something out here a little more often.  

Tonight Alan and I discussed the following: turning off our T.V. (as in shutting off Digital Cable)...but what about LOST. Selling helicopter parts on eBay, painting street addresses on curbs as a part time job, refinancing the house (again) and not paying for me to get my hair colored at the salon. Yeah, we talked about finances.  It stinks.  The more we have the more we spend.  We have never lived well below our means.  It's something we are bad at.  Somethings we do well.  This is not one of them.  We like stuff.  -See Alan's blog about stuff.  We like to eat out with family and friends, to spend money on vacations and birthday presents and all sorts of stuff that just seems to add up.  Arrrggg.  So tonight Alan said, "when can we just move to Kenya and get over all of this."   Hmmm, so we want to move to Kenya -where we could worry about being KILLED instead of wondering how we could reduce our monthly spending habits a little-I'm not sure that's the answer.  I know he meant that it would be better to worry about how we can further the Kingdom of God than just pondering whether or not we "need" HDTV.  And I agree.  So many people have a lot "deeper" thoughts than we seem to have sometimes.  I really admire their courage and character.  

I know that Alan and I want to live for Christ and for our children to be instilled with those morals and values.  What will it take?  I pray that all that we have will be used to the glory of God.  That we don't ever take for granted Alan's good job and the luxuries we have (a nice home, working vehicles, enough money for food, water, clothing, heat and A/C).  I pray that I can keep using these gifts for the Lord.   I pray that where I don't need to spend, I won't. I pray that I will honor God by being generous with all that I have and that when He calls us we will be quick to listen and obey.

The subject of fasting has come up at our meeting more than once, and as recently as January 21st (text and audio). I've been thinking some on various things to fast from since then. While I acted on nothing at first (and nothing appeared to act upon me), I have found as the weeks go by that I am slowly, almost unconsciously, moving towards removing some old bad habits and starting new, better ones. (Does replacing count as fasting? Hmmm... I think it's a step in the right direction at least.)

With my chosen career path, the internet, email and computers are a pretty integrated part of my life. And the same with many friends and family around me. I check email and blogs of friends and aquiantances before 6am most days. I love to see the new article count for RSS feeds go up, meaning there's more good stuff to read from Gregg, Aj, Jason, Robin, Liz, Andy, Sherry... Folks under Places to Visit and more. If you're up on the 'net stuff, there's been plenty of articles to read about how the thirtysomethings and younger are addicted to email, blogs, surfing, etc. The Wall Street Journal ran an article from Jennifer Saranow yesterday (Valentine's Day) about email junkies. AOL has a copy of it available to read titled Deleting the Habit: How Email Junkies Do in Withdrawal.

I don't think email is "like cocaine" for me, but I do hear that voice in my head wondering if there's a note waiting for me. Or if a blog post or comment has been (re-)commented on. It is a bit like getting hooked on a drug. Neural pathways like being reused. It's a comfort, regardless of whether the action itself is good, bad or evil.

Going cold-turkey is too drastic for me. I don't think it's the answer, and it certainly would not be sustainable. But a day of rest? A day away from click of the mouse, the sound of hard drives and fans with the high-pitch of a battery backup in the background? I think that's doable. And I think it will be a good thing. I imagine I'll have a good deal of time to take care of things left undone (sometimes called permanent delay), spend time with family, and time to spend in silence.

How better to spend a Monday night ... err, Tuesday morning, than listening to the rhythmic, repetetive mechanics of an Epson printer busily churning out 100 printed audio CDs for a recent memorial service? Glancing to the bedroom, it appears an infomercial is touting some housewares. I know the dog is probably pretty desperate for 1) food, and 2) elimination. Lucky for me, he doesn't have the problem the cat did, termed ...

<take out printed CD, insert blank one>

... inappropriate elimination. We don't have a cat any longer.

Hmmm... 1:08 a.m...

<take out printed CD, insert blank one>

And the last two weeks should have been a great time to write something meaningful; today was my first day back to work since November 17. I even had "Write a blog or two" on my Alan's End of November To-Do list.

<take out printed CD, insert blank one>

The list got about 50% completed. It also started about 50% smaller early on in the week. I'm quite guilty for adding things to it. I thought I had plenty of time. Things not done? Install last windowsill and casing in the girls' room, Burn and label all new instrumental CDs for NFC, Update online photo album, run new ethernet cable to living room, and more.

Well, my CD drying spot is full of 12 freshly printed discs. It's now time to wipe off the small excess ink which gets sprayed beyond the printable surface. Just one of ...

<take out printed CD, insert blank one>

... the small quirks of printing directly to the CD instead of using a label.

Wow, that's some randomosity up there... 1:20 a.m.

So today I thought I'd write a little about me by putting together a list of the stuff I love. Then I got caught up in trying to organize the list in a heirarchy of love, then realized I couldn't do that, then I put a disclaimer at the top of the list, "in no particular order," and now I've just deleted the entire thing. Hmm...perhaps this is God's way of showing me that I am so blessed I can't even make a simple list. Or perhaps I'm way too scattered to get my thoughts on the screen. In any case I do have a full day of packing for Girl Scout camp that begins tonight. I'm sure you'll hear more from me later about the joy of decaf mochas (oh that paper cup and plastic lid is so addicting), and how I'm coping with spending an entire summer without LOST. I also have some "higher" loves that include an amazing husband and two beautiful daughters.

Alan has really been pushing this whole blog thing on me...ok, ok, so it really only took him creating a fun new website that's easy to post on to make me want to do this...but for all of those who I told (Marta) that I wouldn't and couldn't start this thing...ahhh, I've given in. :)

And, by the way I love reading other people's blogs as well (Marta, Aj, Gregg) So I hope you'll let me into the "community."