now have a toilet in my Saturn

After a nice dinner with C., who is visiting from Cyprus, T. and I went to Home Depot, and picked up a toilet for her condo. The Home Depot men were nice enough to load it, but it was heavy enough that we weren't interested in UNloading it. It's going to live in the car until T.'s brother comes next weekend. Should have taken a picture, actually!

No exercise happened yesterday - between visiting and toilet installation, I got home pretty late.

Woke up to no electricity this morning - though God woke me up 5 minutes before my alarm would have gone off, for which I was thankful.

I was thinking about Gideon. Israel was under control of the Midianites, and God intended for Gideon to lead them free. Where did God find him? He was threshing grain, in hiding, lest the Midianites steal it. God greeted him by calling him "a mighty man of valor". :) I'm thankful that God sees who He intends us to be, instead of what we are! To further demonstrate Gideon's valorious spirit, when God told him to destroy the town's idol, Gideon did it ... but did it at night, in hopes he wouldn't be seen. Yet God took him, fearful as he was, and used him as Israel's judge and deliverer.

OK - off to work for me.

I have an excellent excuse!

For some wacky reason, after creating a g-mail account, now every time I try and log into blogger from my home computer, it autofills with the g-mail account info. So I can't sign in. Weird. Going to try running ad-aware tonight and see if that helps!

But since I usually get to work 15-20 minutes early every morning (I DO love my job), I feel reasonably sure I can take a few minutes to type something from here!

I've been enjoying thinking about the Valley of Achor lately.

"Huh?" you might say ...

The Valley of Achor is where Israel's sin was discovered ... a man named Achan had stolen some things when they conquered Jericho, directly disobeying God's wishes for that city. As a consequence, Israel was routed when they attacked the next city - Ai ... and in the Valley of Achor, all was discovered, and Achan and his family lost their lives as a consequence of his behavior.

So, I'm thinking ... first of all ... our sin (MY sin) has consequences that will forever impact those dearest to me ... my family, my church, my friends ... I don't live in a vacuum.

The name "Achor" means "trouble" or "disturbance" ... and any time it was mentioned, it would have immediately brought to mind this terrible incident in Israel's history. When we hear "Oklahoma City" or "the World Trade Center" ... there is an immediate context of tragedy and loss ... so it would have been with Israel - with the added element of humiliation and sin.

What really blessed my heart was the other two times the Valley of Achor is mentioned.

In Isaiah 65:10
"Sharon will be a pasture land for flocks, And the valley of Achor a resting place for herds, For My people who seek Me."

The place where our sin is dealt with ... and all the nastiness is exposed ... one day that will be a place where we'll return for sustenance. Our of our shame will come a desire to seek Him, and a place of rest for ourself and others. He can take the worst ... and ...

Hoseah 2:15 "Then I will give her her vineyards from there, And the valley of Achor as a door of hope. And she will sing there as in the days of her youth, As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.

This is Hoseah talking about Gomer - his wife who was a prostitute (and a picture of God's people in their constant unfaithfulness to God) ...

After our constant following after other lovers ... God still seeks us ... still brings us home ... and the valley of Achor is a door of hope to us. When our wandering is dealt with, we'll return to the songs we sang when we first came to Him ... when we were first delivered from our bondage.

Isn't it amazing that God can take the worst, and somehow bring good from it?

OK ... boring exercise stuff ...

I had company for a long weekend, and exercise suffered somewhat, but we did a LOT of Dance Dance Revolution, so that probably compensated! :) I've gotten to the gym a couple times, though not as regularly as I need to.

Trinka

finally tackling this project

I have a very low tolerance for visual clutter (not to say that my house is neat ... I wish it were! ... but too much stuff around is definately a distraction to me).

So I'm only just recently started putting many pictures on the walls of the condo.

I've put up a few at a time, to make sure it doesn't go over the "clutter limit" ... than I add a few more later.

The last area to be tackled is - I've wanted to put up photos in the hallway. But of necessity it will mean a lot of frames on the wall, and I just haven't wanted to deal with it, lest it end up driving me nuts when I'm done.

But I started tackling it last night. All the pictures I'm considering are spread out on the floor, and I'm starting to lay out all my garage sale frames, and cut mats to fit.

The project-clutter is annoying me, but I have high hopes that once they're on the wall, they'll be pleasant and not clutter-ish!

Got in a good walk with a lady from church last night, and had a swim later when the pool-crowd got cold and went home. :) Thursday was a stressful day at work (two dead printers, an unexpected power outage, and a generally busy building). It was neat - towards the end of the day, I found myself equally daydreaming about going out to eat (not an uncommon daydream at the end of a hectic day) and going to the gym and having a good workout. I took the latter option ... but it was nice to have it attractive, instead of forced!

Haven't been reading much - projects are pulling me away. Though I have been enjoying J.O. Fraser's biography - Behind the Ranges - at night before bed. He was an amazing man. He died in his early 30's, but accomplished so much for God.

Psst ... for Carol ... to add a link to your blog (at least in blogger) all you have to do is highlight the text you want to make into a link, then click the button on the toolbar that looks like a chain over a greenish-gray globe (fourth from left - bold, italic, text-color, then link). It will give you a place where you can type in the url. :) Easy as pie! If you have trouble, send me an e-mail, and I'll send you some pictures of how to do it.

Trinka

meet Fred-Shep

A message board I'm on had the question posted ... "What's the rattiest old thing you can't bring yourself to get rid of."

Well ... here he is.

Fred-Shep ... a ratty stuffed dog I had when I was a little girl. He's made of plain cotton with dog-spots and a face printed on it. And he's patched in one place with blue flowered double-knit, and another place with tan nylon. He's got holes where you can see he's stuffed with old panty-hose. His panty-hose stuffing is so wadded up inside that his neck doens't stand up anymore. But for some weird reason I just can't throw the ratty old thing out. :)

Got in a good walk today, and lifted weights and swam last night.

mark this one down for the record books ...

I actually cooked a hot meal tonight.

A lady at church gave me some yellow squash, and someone else some zucchini ... so I fried it in olive oil, and added onion, garlic, tomato and mushroom, and made some rice.

This is NOT something that happens very often, but it was kinda fun. I might try it again one day. :)

If I don't mess with meat, I'm a LOT more likely to actually fix something. :) (But I still like eating out TONS better!)

Got to the gym tonight, and am trying something different. I decreased the weight slightly, added another 10 repititions.

Trinka

a relationship I need to sever

It’s been three years and two months now that I’ve ignored the problems (mostly).

But the shocking behavior just hasn’t stopped.

I’m constantly offended, and there are no apologies or attempts at reconciliation.

The world’s dirt is dragged into my home, and trapped here, and I find myself living with it for far too long.

Yet … if I stand up for change … will there be anything to fill the empty hole?

Will I live in darkness, and wish for the old unhealthiness to be restored?

Yet I’m ready, now, to take the risk.

This awful bathroom light fixture has GOT to go. It zaps me when I dust it, yet it persistently DRAWS dust to its ugly chains. It doesn't provide much light, yet exhudes ugliness.

It must go. I am resolved.

A friend with considerably more home-improvement experience is coming to visit in two weeks, and I'm prepared to throw myself on her mercy. :)

Trinka

better to just file the passport ...

Last night, while sleeping, I spent the entire 8 hours fighting dream-land beauraucracy.

I had my passport out for something, and before I went to bed, I put it in my "to be filed" pile. (I usually pay bills, and file, on Sunday nights.)

So ... last night while asleep, I found myself at a border ... somewhere ... and after having an interview with some nameless official, I left my passport and wallet behind in his office. I then spent the entire night trying to get them to let me back into the building to retrieve the passport, only to be repeatedly told that I couldn't enter the building without a passport.

Note to self: "File the bloomin' thing before you go to bed tonight!"

I've been reading in Ruth 3, which starts out with Naomi telling Ruth that she should "seek security" for her. Her plan to do this involved Ruth doing the Old Testament equvalent of proposing marriage to Boaz. (interesting precedent ... gotta keep that one in mind). :)

I found the connection between "security" and Ruth doing one of the most risky things imagineable very intriguing.

I've been swimming in the evenings, though last night there were rowdy folks there all night, and I never had opportunity. Hope to get to the gym after work today.