Refractions and Reflections

---1--- Junk to Jewels! Okay, well, not junk exactly. But definitely a refurbishment! Today I took a couple of barstools we had and turned them into some sleek little end tables for the little house we will be moving into next month. Trying to save space, and I think these do the trick!   In the process of drying (the color is grey, and I made my own chalk paint by mixing 2 parts paint, 1 part powdered/dry plaster of paris, and 1/2 part water). Found some little "wood plugs" for 59 cents each at Sutherlands and painted them, too. Dry(ish) paint Had some molding adhesive lying around, and it is clear, so that's what I used to attach both the plugs and the glass tops (below). I had two glass tops lying around from a couple of old, cheap three-legged plywood stands that I don't even have anymore (just threw the last one out last week because the flimsy legs were skewed and it toppled over all the time). Side view: Ta-da! :)   ...

---1--- I skipped Quick Takes the last few weeks, due to general busyness ( and not feeling like posting, I guess)...so I'll begin by getting you all caught up and tell you now about my New Year's Eve. I grabbed a friend and went downtown for a little while. My city sponsored an event at various venues for a single $8 ticket. We caught a couple songs by a big band, then saw a stand-up comedy routine by the Skinny Improv. They would ask audience members for suggestions for the scenes. At one point they asked, "What is the most unexpected thing you've ever found?" A little girl chimes up, "A green-necked snake in my back yard!" The guy goes, "Oh, wow - you just knew what it was when you saw it? A green-necked snake?" She answered, "Yeah. I'm a horticologist."   After the comedy we walked over to the library where they were having a poetry slam. Apparently they have one here in town every month. I plan to go check it out at...

Since I got to work tonight I have been glued to CNN's coverage of the Moore, Oklahoma tornado. Sometimes it is easy to watch things like this and remain numb to the emotional component - after all, I don't personally know the people affected. But on another level, I do know these people - they are my fellow Americans. In fact, we live in the same region of the U.S. In fact...I experienced the Joplin, Missouri tornado two years ago, so I can very much empathize with the feelings of shock and devastation, fear and grief.... Two years ago, my house survived the storm (though it was damaged, and my car was totalled). I left a little while after the tornado to get some McDonald's across town (where the power wasn't out) for the family I lived with. Then I didn't leave the house again for several days. The destruction was simply too much to take in. (The power was out, too, so we didn't even have the luxury of news, and having a clue what was going on around us...

I may be touch-and-go for the rest of the month, but back to the Blog Every Day in May challenge! Today I am supposed to share a childhood memory and be as descriptive as possible. (Actually, this is yesterday 's prompt, but I already did today's prompt on Day 5 by accident.) The memory I am going to share came to my mind after I got home from work this morning. I came in and greeted my pets. Being oblivious as I am, I walked into the next room, and when my puppy didn't follow me as usual I went back to see why not. I hadn't even noticed (possibly because I didn't turn the light on when I came in), but he had picked a tag off the bottom of a rug - a large, sticky tag - and his right paw was stuck to his head and one of his eyes was covered. He had gotten himself into quite a mess! It was simultaneously humorous and sad - quite a funny sight, but at the same time painful for him because I had to hold him and painstakingly pull the sticker out of his long hair! ...

Today was Mother's Day. I am late getting this post up, but it fits, because the prompt is to tell about who/where/what I miss, and today I very much missed family. Most of the time, I love where I am (Missouri). I moved here from Ohio almost 11 years ago, and it has been long enough that most of the time homesickness is a thing of the past. Even on holidays - occasionally I get to be home for one, and many others I have spent with dear friends who are like family. A few have passed just like any other day, not really special, not really lonely...just another day in this interesting life. But then there are some holidays, like today, when I realize the years are ticking past and I think about how I will feel about all the holidays I "missed" when various family members are no longer around to spend them with. Today I missed being near family. Sometimes it is so easy to take for granted having those people you can just "pop in on" unannounced and walk in the...

I posted Quick Takes yesterday, so I'm counting that as my post for May 10...and I don't like the May 11th prompt, so I'm throwing it out and using the prompt for May 10th on May 11th. :) (Yeah, I like making up my own rules.) The prompt for May 10 is to "spill" about my most embarrassing moment(s). I can't really think of a particular embarrassing moment...well, I can think of a humiliating moment, but it is really more sad than funny...so I will instead share a sort of vague "collection" of embarrassing moments. I used to fall a lot . I was pretty much known for it. I'm pretty sure I used to fall every single day when I was a kid (okay, and maybe after that, too), and often more than once a day. Not exaggerating. If all my falls had been caught on tape, I am sure I would have no trouble filling up an entire episode (or two) of America's Funniest Home Videos with them. I seriously could be standing in the middle of a room not moving a...

This was yesterday morning. Since I work third shift, this means I was about to go to sleep...but Albie was just being his usual playful puppy self. Here I was struggling to get him to stop trying to gnaw on my fingers long enough for me to take our picture. His hair is in the state it always takes after he manages to work out his topknot ;).  

In a recent post , I mentioned that I watched a documentary on the White family of West Virginia. [This is not a recommendation that you watch it...it is simply a reflection.] The Whites are an appalachian "hillbilly" family...they seem to proudly epitomize the grand title of "poor white trash". Their generations are full of young deaths and lifelong incarcerations and broken families, due to drug use, violence, and ignorance (I do not say that condescendingly...I just don't know a better word for it). The members of the family speak vulgarity with every breath. Watching the film, the audience gets a sense of the "family pride" - I think most families have some sense of pride, or "belonging" maybe, that unites them and holds their sense of dignity in place, regardless whether others would ascribe to them the same level of honor. But the undercurrent of this documentary was one of pain and shame...and resignation. Some members of my own fam...

We've been prompted to write about the things we're most afraid of today. The most obvious answer for me is spiders! Those heinous things give me the creeps. By the way, did you hear Governor Christie is in trouble with PETA, as journalist Esther Lee reported , "after delivering a palm-faced smack-down on an itsy-bitsy spider before a group of fourth graders"? I have a feeling PETA and I would not get along well on this issue.... But, difficult as it is to believe, there are things that have caused me way more fear than spiders have. For a long time it was the dark. I am no longer afraid of the dark...unless of course there is the risk of a spider lurking in said dark, plotting my demise.... I also used to be afraid of walking in grass after dark...again, because of spiders. Oh, and don't even get me started on camping. So you see, it is no small thing to say I have feared something more than I have feared spiders. But I have. I guess you could call it mea...

"If you couldn't answer with your job, how would you answer the question, 'What do you do?'" I spend most of my time in my head. I read, write, lurk on social media sites and blogs, research, pray, watch tv, listen to music, consider my plans for the future, imagine, over-analyze my interactions with others.... I think . It's what I do probably more than anything else. My Myers-Briggs personality type is INTP (Introverted, iNtuitive, Thinking, Perceiving). ( Here is a link to a short online test - disclaimer: this is not the full test, but it will probably give you a decent idea of what your personality is like.) And here are a few motivational(?) posters to give you an idea what being an INTP means: I think many people misunderstand the definition of an INTP. Just because I think doesn't mean I am an emotionless robot. Just because I think doesn't mean I am a supergenius destined to rule the world (I am a supergenius destined to ...

Today I am supposed to publicly profess and talk a little about my love and devotion to one of my blogger friends. I don't know that I actually have any blogger friends at this point, though I have encountered a few people in the last month and we seem to be exchanging comments fairly regularly...so maybe these are blossoming blogging friendships - yay! So for now, I will just talk about the blogs I particularly love to read. In recent posts I have mentioned a couple of blogs I started reading through the A to Z Challenge, so I will skip them here and just talk about my "old faithful" ones. These are the ones listed on my sidebar under "Blogs I Follow". I will probably add a few more there soon, but for now I will just talk about the five that have been there for a little while (they may not appear in the following order - they appear with the most recent post on top in my sidebar). "Beware: the following blogs are liable to keep you hunched over your...

Note: I have been very busy the last few days, so I am still catching up with comments and blog visiting. Thank you to everyone who has stopped by - I love your comments! Today's writing prompt is to talk about our favorite quote, from a person or book or whatever, and why we love it. I'm not sure I have an overall favorite quote - I like some when I come across them, but not too many stick with me for some reason. I guess I will go with the famous quote from John F. Kennedy's inaugural speech, "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country," because I like an idea inherent in it.   Last night I was talking with a friend (female) who shared with me a conversation she had had recently with another friend (male). She told me he was discouraged and pretty down on the world and his optimism for it, and her response to him was, "How can you not see the good in the world? You've told me of several good things you have ...

1. Something that makes me physically uncomfortable: an apparent inability to hold a stable temperature! I get unusually hot and unusually cold...sometimes going back and forth between extremes pretty quickly...especially on days when the weather is temperamental/can't make up its mind. This has happened for years. When I am hot, I pour sweat - so much so that people frequently ask me if I am okay. When I am cold, I have to pile on layers of clothing and blankets. Then I get hot again.... I'm pretty sure it is a thyroid issue, but have avoided getting medical treatment for it because if the temperature regulation thing is my biggest problem, I can handle it without having to be on a medication for the rest of my life. But I'm sure it probably has a lot of other side effects, too.... One of these days I might get that looked at. But until then, I will continue to complain about being too hot and/or too cold. :) 2. Something that makes me emotionally uncomfortable: I am we...

---1---   Saturday night I went to a performance by the Springfield Symphony Orchestra called "A Whole New World," which featured cello soloist Wendy Warner. It was held at the Juanita K. Hammons Hall, and I have gone to other productions there sponsored by the Missouri State University music department, so I was not prepared for how formal it was! At least I wore khakis with a semi-dressy shirt...I think there might have been a person or two less dressed up than I was.... Oh well. Next time I'll know, this is the real deal!   The performance was terrific. I did not get a picture of the soloist, because they asked us to turn off phones, etc., but I did get a decent shot of the rest of the orchestra before the lights went down.   The thing that always catches my eye and my imagination at these things is the shiny black stage floor and all the scuff marks in the back from its past productions. ...It makes me remember my own experiences on ...

1.  Plant a container garden. Oh, yes, I am an expert. This is the first year I have ever attempted to grow anything. The closest I ever came before was trying to keep a cactus alive when I was a kid and got one from a teacher at school who went on vacation and that's what she brought back for all her students. I failed (at keeping the cactus alive, not in school). But for some reason I had the hair-brained idea that I could keep a garden alive. On a little tiny balcony of a little tiny apartment in the middle of town. In water-proofed boxes. In the Midwest in April. 2.  Worry about the weather all the time. Because, you know, when you live in the Midwest, MAY 2 AND 3RD can get down to 34 degrees (F) at night!!! (For the record, this is the first time in close to 70 years it has gotten that cold in May where I live.) So AGAIN I had to move my container garden into my apartment. 3.  Think about investing in a full-size scarecrow. Because when you bring your containe...

Okay, so call me crazy, but I decided to do another blog challenge, this one being to blog every day in May ! I'm a couple hours late getting this first post up, but here it is! "The Story of My Life in 250 Words or Less" (mine is exactly 250 words, thank you): I’m a 31-year-old Buckeye who has lived in Missouri for 10 years (it will be 11 in August). My undergraduate school, Messenger College, was in Joplin when I attended (the school is now in Dallas, TX), and then I moved on to my master’s studies in Springfield, MO, where I live now. I’ll be finished with my master’s this year, and I’m not quite sure what to do next. I’ve thought about studying history. Eventually I will get a doctorate and become a professor, very likely of some sort of subject like theology, or maybe Church history. Until I decide, I’m thinking about becoming a truck driver for a few years, getting paid to travel, and taking the opportunity to pay down some of my student loans. (How cool woul...

The inspiration for a couple of my A-to-Z posts came from Twitter. This is the second. On March 18 Zach Hoag tweeted the following: " In tense places of transition the temptation is to run to a seemingly bigger & better opportunity. But incarnation calls us to deeper roots."   I talked in my M post about the advice someone gave me to "Bloom where you're planted" and said I would talk about it a little further in my Z post. So here it is! In the Spring of 2011 I took a course on the Mission of God in the world. At some point during that class someone mentioned Jeremiah 29 - it may have been the professor, or it may have been one of my classmates. Everybody knows verse 11; but for the first time my attention was drawn to verses 4-7: 4 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and...

I completed the 7-Day Green Smoothie Challenge yesterday! Saturday's was probably the best one, though next time I will try to thicken it a little bit.... Below is the recipe. Orange Kiwi Green Smoothie 1 kiwi 1 orange 1 banana 1 large handful of kale 1 tbsp flax seed 1/2 cup oats 1 cup (or so) red seedless grapes 1/2 cup almond milk I also tried one with coconut and musk melon along the way. The taste was good, but coconut doesn't puree very well! (At least, it didn't for me.) A pina colada one was great, too, but I didn't get that one thick enough either. This challenge has given me a lot of smoothie-making experience! I loved taking part - I did feel more energetic, and I think I ate a lot more healthy and a lot "less" in general while doing it. I plan to continue (I don't know if I will do it every day, but I will do it often!).

Many moons ago, while I was a student at Messenger College in Joplin, I bought this book from the college library for less than a buck - it was one of the old titles they were getting rid of as they updated their collection. The copyright date in the front of the book is 1900. And yes, that is scotch tape I employed to hold the binding together :). I thought it looked interesting (the book, not the tape), since it is about DL Moody and by his son. I had heard his name many times but never actually read about him for myself. This antique 590-page book fixed that! Reading this I learned a lot of interesting things. For instance, it was in this book that I first heard about Henry Moorhouse, who preached for Moody once while he was away from his church in Chicago on business. Moorhouse preached seven nights in a row from the same text: John 3:16, using examples from Genesis through Revelation in each sermon, to demonstrate how God loves sinners and wants to save them. Th...

In case some of you don't know, I am and have always been Pentecostal. Pentecostals are the ones that speak in tongues. I believe in speaking in tongues, and in fact do it on occasion. The fancy term for speaking in tongues is glossolalia . It usually refers to speaking in an unknown, or heavenly language through the power of the Holy Spirit. But did you know that is not the only kind of tongue-talking early (and some current) Pentecostals believed in? There is another kind, called xenolalia , which means speaking in an earthly language one has never personally learned. Experiences with xenolalia have not been well documented in an academically reputable way, so that causes some people to doubt it really ever happens/happened. But here is an excerpt from a book by Roberts Liardon called God's Generals that will give you an example of what I am talking about. This story reputedly took place in the Tabernacle of Indianapolis built by Maria Woodworth-Etter in 1918...