Vikings

We've never seen a viking in real life, but if we could take a guess, we'd vote this guy is one. Dave couldn't get over it. He wanted to take his picture with Mr. Viking, but I wouldn't let him ask. This is the first person I've seen that made Dave look like a sissy. Mr. Viking's calf was the size of Dave's thigh. Can you see how tiny the cashier is compared to this guy?! Seriously. It was amazing. Thank you Lowe's for some Friday night entertainment.

Dave's first day on the job he got to drive this CAT around and help install those solar panels. He loves it.

Dave and I painted pottery last weekend and I picked it up on Friday. I love painting pottery, and I love my new mug!! I can't take credit for the idea though - a friend from high school made a mug with a similar pattern and I thought it was so cute I had to try it myself. Yipee!























I picked my first zucchini this week! It was delicious!! I love having a vegetable garden! It makes me excited for next year - I'm going to have to find a bigger spot for more plants!






















My spaghetti squash is coming along! I can't wait!






















jj

Worship

Yesterday I listened to Alistair Begg's 'Intro to Worship' at truthforlife.org. I would recommend listening to the sermon yourself, but in the meantime there are a few points he made that impacted me.


1) Worship is all about God's glorification and not at all about my satisfaction. He pointed out that this seems to be a pretty basic truth, but if you ask people after a church service what they thought of it, their responses almost always are about themselves and not God. "The worship really moved me." "I thought the service was too long" "I love the pastor's teaching style" "I really liked the song choices" "I was so blessed by the special music" etc etc etc. You get the point. All of those types of responses reflect a focus on personal satisfaction - not God's glorification. This convicts me. I would tell you my purpose for going to church is to corporately worship God, but I am often focusing on my personal satisfaction.


2) Worship is a choice. I cannot just wander around waiting to feel moved to worship. It is a cognitive decision to glorify God and ascribe His worth. Not only do I need to choose to worship Him on Sunday mornings, but I need to choose to worship Him throughout my week. If I don't, I won't.


3) Worship takes preparation. During my quiet-time throughout the week I need to prepare myself to worship Christ each day. Sunday mornings I need to prepare myself to worship God during the service. I need to focus, make a choice, remove distractions, read, pray, sing - whatever it takes to prepare. If I don't prepare, I will remain distracted and self-centered.


There were other great points he made. I'm not even sure if these three are in the order he said them, but this was what stood out to me. I'm trying to put it into practice - this morning as I continued reading in Romans, I made the choice to focus on worshiping God thru my reading and took some time to reflect on Christ's sacrifice on the cross and what that means for me. For some reason I have been struggling lately with wanting to relax and be entertained instead of putting God first on my priority list. I've been feeling like my mediocre commitment was good enough. Well it's not. And taking some time to remember the cross really changed my perspective. Turns out that if I'm focused on glorifying Christ, I come away feeling satisfied.

* * * *

Remember my little tomato plant?! It's huge now! I love eating these tomatoes!!

Last Thursday while I was getting ready for work, Dave called to tell me he would be driving a work van past our house on his way to a job site. I went to the front door to watch for him and wave, and as I was standing there Adi came up to wait by the door with me. I thought it was so funny because she was waiting there while I looked out the windows, but she couldn't see a thing. I guess those details don't matter when you're a cat. :)

jj

Excitement

I often wonder how others perceive me. Do they see Christ in me? When they think of me, can they tell I love Jesus and have given my life to Him? It has come to my attention that I am noticeably more excitable than the average person and I now find myself wishing excitement was one of the Fruits of the Spirit...you know...love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, excitement, goodness, faithfulness...right? I wish that me, being excitable, somehow reflected Christ.


Tomorrow is Grandma Horning's 80th birthday party. She is SO excited. She knows it's coming, doesn't know all the details but sure tries her hardest to find out. She talks about it all the time, tells my uncles what other parties have been like that she's been to, asks questions and tries to guess details, offers to make pizelles (no Grandma, you cannot make cookies for your own party), etc. Seriously excited.


I was telling Carol at work this morning about Grandma's party and how excited she was for it, and her reply was "you must get your excitement from your grandma. Last week when you were talking about your turkey sandwich with avocado, I didn't know a sandwich could be so exciting."


I chuckled and said "I guess I do get excited pretty easily" to which she replied "yes, you do!" and proceeded to give more examples of my over-excitement! She was laughing throughout and wasn't being critical, but it was certainly clear that my level of excitement is not normal. borderline weird.


I had no idea it was making such an impact. Doesn't everyone love avocado and turkey sandwiches? It all started with this Italian sandwich bread I found at Aldi. I'm sure it's all processed and artificial without a single ounce of healthy grains in it, but I didn't care - it was cheap and soft (soft bread is the best. I hate crusty bread). Unfortunately now I'm addicted - it's seriously the best bread ever. Italian bread with a little dijon mustard, some turkey and sliced avocado. You should try it. It's amazing. I love avocados. I could eat them every day. They were on sale at Aldi two weeks ago so I bought 4 of them and had a week and a half of avocado bliss. Happiness is turkey and avocado sandwiches.


I'm pretty sure this was how I explained my sandwich to Carol last week - maybe a few less details - and as I'm reading my paragraph...yes...my excitement does appear to be a bit over the top. Probably not a normal response to a sandwich.


What weird things make you really excited? Am I the only person so easily excitable?


(*Note* There are fair vendors downtown today for 'Celebrate Lancaster' and I LOVE fair food. This is where I'll be spending my lunch for the next hour. I'll spare you the details of my excitement...you can just imagine how I'm feeling...turkey and avocado sandwich x10. I'll be back with a full belly to finish posting.)


* * * *

I also have some not-so-trivial excitement. Dave has a new job! (Dave is done at UPS now - getting hired at UPS was also an answer to prayer, but turned out not to be as awesome as we thought it was going to be. Now he will be working for JK Mechanical installing solar panels.) This is the kind of "wow I can't believe God provided this wow wow wow thank you Lord!" kind of job. Could this be why he had to leave DaVita? Because He knew we wouldn't be looking for this otherwise? Wow. Provision better than I ever could have imagined. We don't deserve this blessing. That kind of "wow". And I found myself beginning to fear. For us, our "stretching steps of faith" have always been money related - trusting Him to provide when we need it through various job changes and such. Now that He has provided so far beyond my expectations, I found myself fearful of what our next trial will be. What will go wrong, now that it isn't some money/job issue? Will we have to deal with health issues? People issues? What's going to go wrong now that this is going so right? That was Tuesday - the same day we confirmed he got the job - by the end of the night I was fearful. Wednesday morning, I read this blog and the Lord just stopped me in my tracks. Of course there will always be trials, but how foolish of me not to just enjoy His goodness and respond with praise and generosity. God is good. Through trial and blessing. He is good. God enjoys blessing His children. So, Thank You Lord! Thanks for providing beyond what I could have imagined. Give us wisdom as we use it in ways that honor you - paying off debt, saving, giving, and fixing up our house. Thank you. Thank you. Amen.


* * * *

In May, David and I went to Phoenix for a long weekend to visit with his family and attend his brother Dan's graduation from Phoenix Seminary. It was a super fun trip - we love spending time with them (and I got to eat Mojo FroYo twice in one week, which was a secondary highlight). (FroYo = frozen yogurt. I've never used this slang term before, but I've heard others say it and thought I'd feel cool if I tried it out. If I will continue to refer to frozen yogurt as FroYo is still to be determined. Regardless, I love eating it.)

Hm.

I do get really excited about more than just food. Promise.


The graduation ceremony was very nice, and seminary grad is fun because there are a lot less people and it seems more meaningful. Here is David with Dan, the graduate:






















Dan is awesome and smart so they asked him to speak at his graduation. It was great. The other highlight was some time for praise and worship during the ceremony. Loved that! Congrats, Dan!

The Sunday we were there we were able to attend Dan and Anna's church. He has been pastoring there for some time now (my vague reference because I don't really know how long...more than one year but less than five.) Dave enjoyed getting to hear him preach to a congregation (which is more than how older brothers 'preach' to younger brothers :) ) Really though, his message was so encouraging and challenging and it's exciting to see how God is using them in Mayer, AZ.


Dan and Anna live in Phoenix, serve at their church in Mayer (about 45 minutes north), and the town of Prescott is just another 45-60 minutes north of Mayer so we headed up there after church. The town center has a big park. When we first arrived, there was a lady hula-hooping, a man juggling bowling pins and another lady swinging what looked like tennis balls at the end of long stockings. We thought this odd, and continued to walk around the various shops. As we were heading back to our car we passed the park again, which was now full of people doing all sorts of random art forms (if you can call it that).There were more people with tennis ball stockings - these were swung in the air in circles or crossing in front of the body - I kept waiting for a cool trick, but there wasn't one. There was the lady with a long stick who laid on the ground in various yoga-like poses and balanced the stick on her body. And our favorite - the sword lady (pictured below). She moved around with tai chi-like movements, swinging the sword and poking it in the air...we just stood and watched. I didn't know what to make of it. There was no music. Just individual dancing. Sort-of. More accurately - individual moving.


I couldn't get close enough to get a very clear shot with the camera on my phone, but at least you get an idea. I don't really know how to end this story - there isn't much of a point outside of me thinking it was odd and having pictures to commemorate the occasion that I wanted to share with you for your personal enjoyment. If you have some insight to the thought or purpose behind this, please enlighten me. I just can't get beyond my own questions: How did this get started? Who organizes something like this? Do they do it every Sunday? Do you bring your own 'art medium' or do you share? Are you all friends? Have you ever spoken to each other or do you just come and have some alone time with the group? ...? ...?































jj

Parenting

I think tomato plants must be a lot like parenting.

My tomato plant now has five little tomatoes on it!!

I got so excited (and shouted a little "Yea!!" in excitement. Hopefully if I keep cheering it on, it will keep growing.) and felt a little proud of myself for how it was coming along. Then I remembered that God created tomatoes to grow on their vines - that's what they are supposed to do. God makes them grow, and I don't. But, while God is the only one that can make my tomatoes grow, I could do a lot to kill them. (if I don't water it, or if I hadn't planted it in a sunny spot, etc.)


This seems like parenting because if I'm ever a mom I'll have lots of opportunity to have messed up children (they will have sinful natures, I have a sinful nature) and I'll be tempted to feel proud and take credit when they do something good, but really any good they do will only be because of God's grace.


I think it will be funny to read my thoughts on parenting after having children because I know that right now, I have no clue :) In my pre-baby life though, parenting seems a lot like tomato plants.


Speaking of parenting...I have a mental list of the 472 reasons I don't want to/am not ready to have children. I am particularly afraid of having boys. Reason 472 came last night while David and I were at Chipotle for dinner (we discovered one in York and it has made us so very happy!). We were looking out the window as this boy (maybe 8 years old?) ran out to his mom's SUV and proceeded to climb up on the back tire while holding on to the top of the car and shimmy himself in through the window instead of just opening the door and climbing in. As we watched (with a "wow, that kid is weird" look on my face), I turned to Dave and said, "That is another reason not to have kids!" To which he responded, "Yea, I used to do that when I was a kid." Case in point. That is normal little boy activity and I think it's weird. I just don't know if I could handle it.


After Chipotle we went to Best Buy to walk around (we had a gift card from Christmas we still wanted to use) and as we were going through the aisle of computer games we came upon an old favorite. I decided that since my list of reasons for not wanting kids is so long, I should probably start making a list of reasons to have kids or it might never happen (because I think deep down inside I probably want them, I just have too many fears for it to be a realized desire right now - hence the need for a list to begin the convincing). So today, I'm officially starting my list of reasons to have children.


1. Math Blaster.



David and I both love this game and if we have kids, we'll get to play it too.








2. Kids look cute in pictures.



Hm. Scratch that. Adi looks cute in pictures. I only have to clean her litter box once a week - not 20 million times a day. (All babies do is poop, right?)



Well, one's a start. Gotta love Math Blaster!



jj

My Petunias

A 'Frost Advisory'?!
I've never cared about a frost advisory before in my life.
That is, until last night.

It all started on Saturday. Dave, his friend Matt from school (not to be confused with cousin Matt) and I spent the early part of the afternoon pulling out all of our old bushes and plants. Well, I mostly pulled out weeds and stuff while the boys pulled out the bushes. I shouldn't take credit for the bushes.

The bushes needed to come out. I don't really like bushes, and everything was overgrown (probably because we didn't do anything with it since we moved in...in 2008) and too close together and we just decided we wanted a clean slate. Plus we had to finish what we started. Once everything was out, Matt went home and Matt and Amy came over (can I say how thankful and blessed we are to have friends and family that help us like this?!!) Cousin Matt and Dave took everything we pulled out to the compost pile and Amy and I went to the store.

You have to know, I don't know a thing about gardening. I didn't know I didn't know a thing until cousin Amy helped me work on mine and she kept explaining what to do next and I kept thinking...I didn't know that! or that! or that! or...you get the idea. I was oblivious to my novice-ness. I used to help my mom garden. When I had to. 15 years ago. And I guess I should've been taking notes because whatever I helped her do then, I did NOT remember when working on my garden this past weekend. So we went to the store for an hour and a half until we picked out all 3 types of plants we wanted. Seriously. It shouldn't have taken that long. Amy is knowledgeable, but we must be two of the most indecisive people alive.

We got home, ate dinner, and went out to plant. It was starting to get dark. Half the plants were in. I turned on the porch light. We were wearing our winter coats. This should've given me a clue, but I just didn't know and I was so excited to get it finished and Amy was there and she didn't mind and so we just kept working. I think we finished about 8:30 or 9:00pm on Saturday night.

Sunday. I watered my plants because Amy told me to. Turns out plants live better if you water them every day - especially at the beginning.

Monday. I watered my plants. Two days in a row. I find my consistency to be quite an accomplishment. While at work, I told my co-worker, Carol, about my weekend and how we got everything planted. I told her how the little sign at the store next to my petunias and tomato plant said that the plants were delicate and should be brought inside or covered at night and how I thought that was funny and was just going to pray that they survived on their own. She looked surprised that I planted everything already and proceeded to tell me that she has planters with lettuce in them and she covers them with old bath towels every night. I smiled. (and thought to myself - yeah right. I am never putting towels on my plants.)

Later in the afternoon she brought me a printout from wgal.com showing the frost advisory for Monday night and said I should probably cover the petunias and the tomato. I smiled. (and thought to myself - yeah right. I am never putting towels on my plants.)

So last night I told my mom the story and she said "hmmm. Petunias are really delicate. They will last all summer long, but frost will kill them in a day." My mama is always right. I couldn't risk it.

And so this is what my petunias looked like this morning:































Yes, those are my washcloths. And they protected my petunias all night.

You'll notice my shadow in the first picture - that's because I'm holding the camera right in front of my body trying to hide the fact that I'm taking a picture of this

Everything is so much more embarassing for me because we live on a main street that always has cars driving on it. Not only are there always cars driving, they frequently get stopped at the redlight and have the pleasure of sitting in front of our house for a minute or two. And when that happens...while they are sitting there in front of my house...I come outside to uncover my precious petnuias from their overnight blankets.

The good news is that they survived. Of course. Because they had blankets.

I'm praying there are no more frost advisories until October.

Here's my cherry tomato plant. It's out next to our back porch.
Don't make fun of me - I ran out of mulch.

I have high hopes for this tomato plant, and I tell it so every time I walk past it to go out to the car. I hope it's listening.





















* * * * *

We went to Fuddrucker's with the Harvey's over Easter weekend. Ryan dominated the 1 pounder, and since I discussed his previous defeat, I thought it only fair to promote his success as well. :)

Here he is about half-way through. Still smiling, although it looks like he's starting to get tired. Eating one of these things apparently wears you out.





















The finished plate...






















Victory!!!
























Congratulations, Ryan! :)


jj

Service Feedback Forms: Sing Hymns

Our church has a traditional-singing first service and a blended/contemporary-singing second service. Each month 10 people/couples are chosen from each service and asked to fill out a feedback form for every Sunday of that month. This feedback form asks for their opinion on every aspect of the service and leaves room for them to share areas of concern. For the most part, I am glad we do this. Dave is responsible for planning and leading worship in our second service, and sometimes when people are critical of him, it ruffles my wifely feathers a little bit. (Constructive criticism is good and Dave takes it well, but sometimes people think something is his fault when it’s not. Anyway...)

Let me make a few things clear from the start:
1) We sing hymns in our service. Both hymns that were written a long time ago and are found in hymnals, and new hymns that are in the musical style of a hymn but were written within the last few years. We also sing both older (written 15-20 yrs ago) and current praise choruses. We mix it up. If it’s theologically sound and congregationally friendly (ie: not arranged for a soloist) then we’ll sing it.
2) I think it is good to sing hymns.
3) I am not advocating we stop singing hymns.

Each week the feedback forms are given to our Music Ministry Director (not Dave, he’s the intern) and she compiles them and sends them out to the church staff in an email. The following is a quote from one such email:

General comments:
From an evaluator who was not present for this week’s service, but was appreciative of the opportunity to share some thoughts regarding the service in general:
Music – There is a real need for more hymns in the 2nd service. This would be according to Scripture – Ephesians 5:19 – “Speaking to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.”


Ok. This does not ruffle my wifely feathers (because although Dave picks the songs a majority of the time, he picks a good variety and you cannot make everyone happy every week) this ruffles my ... um ... theology feathers? I don’t even know what you call this state of “really, are you serious?” that I feel right now. And since I don’t know who said this, and I can’t go and talk to them directly, I decided to blog my thoughts.

I understand that whether to sing hymns or not, or how many are sung in a service is very controversial – especially in conservative churches – especially in places like Lancaster, PA. And I am happy for you to express your preference for hymns, but do not bust out Ephesians 5:19 (or Colossians 3:16) and tell me we NEED to sing them. The hymns in our hymnal (written within the last three hundred years or so) were not around when Paul was writing his letter to the believers in Ephesus. It’s just not possible for Paul to be referring to our hymnal (and only our hymnal) when he said whatever Greek word is translated as “hymn”.

Our hymns are not scripture (yes, some of them do contain scripture, but they aren’t part of the cannon). It isn’t sinful not to sing them. Our hymns are not international – churches in rural Africa are not singing all stanzas and the refrain of Great Is Thy Faithfulness. Do they “have a real need for more hymns” too?

If you want to sing more hymns, tell me it’s your personal preference. Tell me why you like them. Do you like the words? All the harmonies? Using a hymnal? The tradition of singing them? The familiarity? Tell me which ones are your favorites. Let’s sing them. I appreciate a good hymn with some great theology and a nice melody line. But don’t tell me we NEED more hymns because the Bible says so.

I'd like to note Revelation 4:8:
And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”

Did you catch that? A glimpse of heaven and the creatures are repeating one sentence over and over and over. They never cease. One sentence. No four stanzas of theologically profound words in KJV English. We get tired and distracted if we repeat the chorus of Chris Tomlin's "How Great is Our God" too much. I was at an urban church service last month and after the speaker was done and we had been dismissed some folks went up to the front to encourage the speaker and give testimony of what God was doing in their life. And then to praise God for all He had been doing, they began to sing. And they sang the same song – the same few lines – over and over. After 20-30 minutes of this repeat praise we left because it was getting late, we wanted to get home, and there was no sign of them stopping. I wonder if this isn’t a bit more like what heaven will be like. Of course, I don’t know...maybe the angels pass out hymnals at the pearly gates? I’m just sayin’...

I think there is a place for hymns and praise choruses and for making up songs on the spot and really, for anything that praises our God for his incomprehensible awesomeness, anything that helps us to “sing and make melody with our heart to the Lord”. Isn’t that the point of Ephesians 5:19? So today, do that. Worship Him. On your own, or with a friend, or with your spouse. In your heart, or out loud. Don’t wait for church on Sunday. Sing to Him today.

jj

I hope you don't find this offensive,

because I think it's hilarious. I come from a family of rednecks, so I use the term lovingly and hope that justifies me passing along some funny pictures. :) My mom forwarded this in an email to me, so I'm not sure where the pictures come from, but I think they need to be shared.

The words in italics are from the email - anything else is my reaction.


Redneck Bass Boat
























Redneck Doghouse
























Redneck Doorbell
I would have to knock - this grosses me out.

























You might be a Redneck if you wear a shirt like this for your engagement picture...
How old is she...12?!

Reminds me of the "best friend pictures" we had taken at the mall in Jr. High (I think I was sitting and Laura was standing...) - I bet if that was a color picture the swirls in the background would be teal.
































You might be a Redneck if you need some fashion tips from someone...

I cringe just looking at this.
Maybe she doesn't own a mirror?






























You might be a Redneck if a little rain doesn't spoil the fishing...























Redneck Grill






















Redneck Gingerbread House
This is one of my favorites. So funny.

















Redneck Guest Bedrooms
hahaha

Redneck Horseshoes
HAHAHAHAHA.

Uncle Rick, is that you?
I'm kidding. I don't think he's ever done that.
I'll ask him Sunday.
Seriously though, if he put a cowboy hat on, he would look like this guy.

Redneck Pet Carrier
Don't worry, Adi, I'm not getting any ideas.























Redneck Powerball Winner
Of course you would build a car port so you can park your brand new limo next to your trailer.
Where else are you going to park it?!




















Redneck Powerball Winner on Vacation
Do they make limos like this or is it custom-made to fit the camper on the back?





















Redneck Wedding Cake






























And finally: You might be a Redneck if your wife is quoted in the local newspaper saying...
This is my favorite. So funny.




I just keep reading it and laughing.

And reading it.

And laughing.























jj