Random Blog Topic Generator

I'm sitting here at the coffee shop, feeling bored because Hannah is filling out job applications online, and I have checked, rechecked, and triple-checked my facebook.

In order to have a topic to write about, I had to use a random topic generator. I found it on this web site: http://www.blogtap.net/blogtopicgenerator/ . (Warning: the page has a horrible design.) Here is the topic I was given: "Favorite Type of Dog." Favorite type of dog? No way! That is the most boring topic ever! Let's try again.

Next topic: "Italian Art." OK, wasn't Michaelangelo Italian? And did he paint the Sistine Chapel? And that other Teenage Mutant Turtle, Leonardo, he painted a woman who people say is smiling, but she isn't smiling very much, in my opinion. That's all I know about Italian art. Let's try again.

"Making Up Lost Time" is the next random topic. How does one make up for lost time? Is that even possible? I try to make up for lost time fairly often, but I usually just get mad at myself and stop talking to myself for the rest of the day.

How do I waste time? It varies. Right now is a good example. The internet offers innumerable ways to waste time. Television is similar. In either case, I might not be very interested in what I am viewing, but I don't want to bother doing anything else.

In fact, I believe the main reason I waste time is that there is something I am supposed to be doing that I really really really^2 don't want to do. Things like cleaning the bathroom, flossing my teeth, and writing lesson plans fall into this category. These tasks are so unattractive to me that I would rather watch "Doc Hollywood" on TVGN, even with the commercials.

In conclusion, lost time can never be made up. A person can only make wiser decisions in the future. And don't skip the floss.

Christmas Vacation

Christmas vacation is the best vacation of the year, because it is too short to do anything really productive, but long enough to feel relaxing. And since it's in the dead of winter, I don't feel bad about sleeping late and doing nothing. Still, I managed to do a few things.

• I attended two family Christmases: one with my dad's family, and one with my mom's family.
• I participated in my church's Christmas program.
• I ALMOST finished the dress I started sewing before Thanksgiving.
• I paid one bill.
• I wrote one card.
• I taught the 3rd/4th grade class at my church's three-day Winter Bible School. (Yes, we are weird.)
• I made vegetable soup, butternut squash soup, and muddy buddies (aka puppy chow).
• I bought Christmas gifts for my dad (I drew his name this year), my grandmother, and my nieces and nephews.
• I bought a pair of boots for myself. (Isn't this what Christmas is about?)

Mainly, I tried to relax and enjoy the extra time I have to spend with my family. We don't have to actually be DOING something, we can just be together, right? That's what I think.

P.S. Butternut squash soup is not very good.

Life As I Know It

It's a rare moment when I am not feeling rushed, and now is one of those moments. I'm hiding in a coffee shop, where no one knows me. It's an hour and a half before I have to be anywhere. They're playing calm music. (Is it not strange that places whose main function is to sell a stimulant are usually quiet and calm?)

I'm currently working as a music teacher at the elementary school in my home town. Since I'm not certified to teach music, I am taking music classes at Harding University. So not only am I doing a new subject, at a new school, with new grades, but I am going to class two nights a week as well. It was a bit overwhelming at first, but I think I am getting used to it now.

I will post again next time I can string two thoughts together.

Update

Yeah, I haven't updated my blog in a while, and for good reason. I canceled my home internet services since I am moving (I hope) in a few weeks.

The place that I'm moving to, well, it doesn't have DSL, and internet is only available through satellite. (Doggone expensive, too.) I'm still debating whether I will get home internet, phone internet, or no internet. A lot depends on how much I am making when school starts again.

Which leads me to another update, which is not an update. I still don't have a teaching job for the next school year. It's not that I haven't tried, it's just that I've tried and failed. My back-up plan is to be a full-time substitute for the schools in the area. Maybe that will give me an edge on getting an actual position for the 2011-12 school year.

Still working on my house. The sewer's almost done, and I have primed almost all the walls and painted half the ceilings. It's slow, but it's moving.

After having no internet for a month now, I've realized something. I always blamed my time-wasting on my facebook/blog-reading addiction, but that was not completely fair. Technology of any kind is not necessary for me to waste time. In fact, I think that maybe I NEED to waste time in order to reset my brain. That's my current theory, anyway.

Perpetual Project

I've been out of school for over a week now, but I've been staying pretty busy working on my house. This project is going to eat me. Reminding myself that I'm getting it done bit by bit is the only way I can keep myself from being overwhelmed.

Here's a few things I've learned so far:

1. Don't pick out paint by looking for your favorite color amongst the 7 billion paint chips. Instead find something you like that's going in that room (a picture, a piece of furniture, etc.) and pick colors that jive with it. Also remember that what is bright and cheery on a tiny paint chip is going to be screaming at you when it's all over the walls. I still haven't got up the nerve to actually buy any paint other than primer.

2. Remodeling creates trash. It creates broken pieces of wood with nails sticking out everywhere. It creates packaging lying around. It creates parts of dismantled objects strewn across the room. It creates an old mattress in the back yard. Well, not really. We pushed that one out the door ourselves.

3. Everything I need to buy is expensive. Remodeling may be cheaper than buying new, but it still ain't cheap. I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy used appliances from newspaper ads just for this reason.

4. The best part so far is that I can work for a few hours, then sit back and see what I've done. It's slow, but I can SEE progress. That's good.

Maybe I will get some pictures up here eventually so all of you at home can see it too!

Growing

I've been waiting a lot lately. In my life, there are several things up in the air right now, and I'm not sure how they are going to work out. There is not much I can do to hurry them along, so I'm left wondering and waiting.

I don't like to wait. Unfinished business stresses me out. Uncertainty scares me. I want to know what is going to happen, and I want to know it now.

God doesn't give me what I want when I want it, though. He wants me to have faith in His work. He's not so much interested in keeping me happy as He is interested in making me holy, and holiness is not a character trait one can pick up at the grocery store. It's a life-long process.

I want to grow fast. I want to jump in and be a spiritual giant all at once. The Lord reminds me that growth occurs little by little. A sapling doesn't become a tree in an hour, a day, or a year, but over a lifetime. In the same way, my growth is occurring a little at a time. I'm extending my branches day by day.

But, oh, am I impatient to get there! And not only that, but I try to grow my own fruit. I nurse along little sucker branches that I know shouldn't be there. Somehow I think that if they grow big enough and strong enough, God will allow them to become part of the tree. I spend precious energy nourishing those branches, just to have the Gardener come along and SNIP them off. Oh, that hurts!

I'm encouraged, though, because I feel like my faith IS growing. Even if it's just baby steps, little by little, inch by inch, it's something. And whether or not my life issues get resolved to my liking or not, I have faith that they will be resolved in the way that is BEST for me.

Memorial Day Weekend

o0O 4 More Days of School O0o

Awesome.

It's been a great Memorial Day weekend. I have spent time with grandparents, aunts, uncles, great-aunts, cousins, and some people who I never have figured out the exact relational title. Spending time with relatives is a bit like looking in the mirror, although the image that stares back at you is not EXACTLY like you. It's interesting to see how genetics play out among the different members of the family.

My brother-in-law preached at my church this Sunday. He talked about how we as Christians have to look around us, see what's going on, and make a plan for what we're doing in our Christian walk. After all, the Devil has plans. If we are to be successful at what we do, first of all we need to know what we are attempting to do. Most of the time, and I speak for myself here, we just float along without considering the big picture.

That's it for deep thoughts today. I will have to be more imaginative next week.