suziebeezieland

this & that

I've been sick for a couple weeks, but there has also been a lot of nice stuff.

Let's see . . . for music, I've been listening to Gillian Welch a lot lately.  (At first I typed Dave Rawlings, but actually, I have been listening to her rather than him.) I just have music fads where I listen to something until I'm sick to death of it, and then move to something else. (I usually come back to them later, after I'm unsick of them again.) I don't know why I do this.

For reading, I've got two separate books with the same title going: Humility by CJ Mahaney, and Humility by Andrew Murray. They're for a small group I'm in that meets once a month.  I recommend both. 

Mahaney's working definition of humility is "Honestly assessing ourselves in light of God's holiness and our sinfulness." That works for me, and jives with what God says in Isaiah 66:2: "This is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word."

Andrew Murray, who is from the nineteenth century and more flowery with his prose than Mahaney (who is our contemporary), is a bit more nuanced in his examination of humility, and I can't really give you a one-line definition of what he says it is.  He points out that we're humble because we're human, and we're humble because we're sinful, and we're humble because we're recipients of God's grace. He breaks it down into those three different categories, and then focuses in his book on the idea of our humility related to our "creatureness" . . . because Jesus, who did not sin, was also humble. Here is one of the very beautifully written bits. I do love Andrew Murray.

When we see that humility is something infinitely deeper than contrition, and accept it as our participation in the life of Jesus, we shall begin to learn that it is our true nobility, and that to prove it in being servants of all is the highest fulfillment of our destiny, as men created in the image of God.

So that's good stuff there, I tell ya.

I am also lazily and slowly reading the Percy Jackson books . . . I know, weird segue, huh? Monsters and Greek mythology.  I'm on number two. The one with the eyeball on the cover. Which one is that?  I'm not completely in love with these books yet, because I can't help but compare them to Harry Potter, and they're not as rich.  But several readers have said to me, keep going, so I'm keeping going, at least until I decide what I think.  I mean, they are fast-paced and fun, but I am a very critical reader and I am sorry about that.  (Actually, no, I'm not.) 

I did throw the first book right at Bob when I finished it, though, because I knew he'd love it, and yes, he gobbled it right up. (I'm not saying he's not a critical reader. I'm just saying I knew he'd just love that Greek mythology stuff. And he did! He told me to hurry up with the second book, or he'll steal it.)

Sea of Monsters! That is what it's called. 

As a family, we've been reading a chapter from the Narnia books out loud every night. (Bob and I take turns reading.) We haven't been doing it too long, so we're just about to finish up The Magician's Nephew. This has been really fun. Claire likes it when Bob does voices. I don't really do voices when I read, although I do try to have good inflection. :D

I finally (!) have gotten around to watching North and South (via Netflix) and am loving it. (Don't tell me what happens.) I used to have the three-discs-at-a-time Netflix plan, but that seemed excessive, and so now I have the one-disc-at-a-time, which simulates the olden days of watching a show on t.v. because there is a short time lapse when waiting on the next disc. :)  I think I shall need to follow it with a re-viewing of Cranford, and then a first viewing of Return to Cranford, which I haven't seen, but have heard tell is fabulous.

I started boycotting my local grocery store a couple weeks ago after I had a little discussion with the manager about the store's placement of the latest issue of S.I., right at kid-level and featuring a cover that has nothing to do with sports or illustrations, or swimsuits, either, for that matter. He agreed that it shouldn't be where kids could see it, but wouldn't take responsibility for moving it (he blamed it on "the magazine guy" . . . the cause of all pure evil in the world, that magazine guy, and so powerful, apparently, that the store manager is powerless to challenge his magazine placement) and so I said that I heard what he was saying, but he was the manager and needed to do something about it, and if he wouldn't, I was happy to be living in a country chock full of other grocery stores where I could shop.

And frankly, no great loss. That was the worst grocery store I've ever had to shop at, but pretty convenient. So! I've been shopping all over the place. Mostly Trader Joe's, because nowhere else is really convenient besides the store I'm boycotting, and if I'm going to be inconvenienced, might as well go where I can get some good Mediterranean Hummus. Oh, yummers.  

I've also been watching Claire do a lot of fancy jump-roping and hula-hooping tricks lately.  She is learning cool stuff at recess. I never, ever learned to hula-hoop. Did you? Claire and her cousin can do it around their knees, even. I'm astounded.  I tried it all last week in the kitchen when nobody was looking, and it just plunked straight down onto the ground every time.

What have you been listening to and reading and watching and boycotting and eating and trying out lately?

xxoo

curling

My friend Kristen cracked me up the other day by Facebooking, "We were all cheering the other night while watching curling, but we didn't know why!"

I think Kristen speaks for many of us who live in the United States and are completely mystified by this sport! My Canadian mother-in-law's father was a curler, so I knew that the sport involved (a) a big stone and (b) some brooms, but that was about it.

Our Nadine (of the formidable Canadian contingency here in suziebeezieland) recently took the time to explain the sport of curling to me, and is gracious enough to let me share this same information here in suziebeezieland. Nadine herself is a curler, and modestly says,

I started curling when I was in grade 6 or so. I'm not a very good curler, though it is still very fun. I have a hard time sliding out of the hack because I can't keep my balance, which makes it hard to decide how heavy or light to throw the rock.

The girls' curling team at the school where Nadine teaches are currently doing very well. Nadine writes,

I've attached a picture of my girls' team. (See above.) They had a 7 point end in their last match today, pretty phenomenal when you consider each team only has 8 rocks to throw to get possible points. All but one of their rocks remained in the house! Pretty amazing! We head to provincials next week, which is the highest level in high school athletics in Saskatchewan. If they win this they will be the best ranked team in the province, though just getting to provincials is an amazing feat too, becoming ranked as one of the top 16 teams in the province. I'm so excited. They play a round robin format, with a triple knockout (they have to lose three times). 45 games will be played over the course of three days of competition. It's a pretty huge deal!

Nadine also writes,

Did you know there's even a movie about curling? Made in Canada, by Canadians but it was a fantastic movie. It's called "Men With Brooms," and although it doesn't exactly describe the game of curling, it is a pretty fantastic movie about the passion people have for curling. I think my favorite part of the movie is when they describe the curling rock: "It's forty-two pounds of polished granite, beveled on the belly and a handle a human being can hold. And it may have no practical purpose in itself, but it is a repository of human possibility and if it's handled just right, it will exact the kind of poetry... "

If you're like me (and Kristen's family), you're perfectly willing to cheer for curling and get all excited about it, but you have no idea what the rules are. Here is Nadine's very thorough explanation. Take it with you next time you sit down to watch curling on t.v.! :) Thank you so much, Nadine, for enlightening those of us who are completely in the dark about this cool sport.

**********

Curling is a precision sport.

There are four members on a team, and each team gets to throw 8 rocks. There is a lead, second, third, and skip.

The skip is the boss of the team and stands at the opposite end of the ice. She holds her broom a certain way and the person throwing the rock points towards the broom and does an in-turn or an out-turn when she throws the rock. This turn determines which direction the rock will curl.

(At this point, I interjected to ask Nadine what it means when the rock "curls." You'll find out what "button" means later on.)

When a rock "curls," it spins like a top, only slower. Rocks don't normally go straight down the ice, so when a curler releases the rock they put a slight spin on it. When it spins it moves across the ice. The rock almost always has to curl towards a certain point. The skip might hold her broom to the left of the button, so when the curler throws their rock they aim at the broom, but they want their rock to curl towards the button on the right, so when they release their rock it is pointed at the broom, but the handle is pointed towards the button. Sometimes the skip holds out a hand or taps a spot on the ice. The spot she taps is where she wants the rock to end up.

When the rock is thrown, two sweepers help get the rock to the other end. The sweeping helps to clean the ice (a stray hair can cause a rock to totally veer off course), but it can also help control the line of the rock. 

When someone on the team shouts "line," they want the sweepers to help keep the rock going on the path it's following. When they shout "hurry" or "hard," they usually want the rock to get moving faster and for it to curl.

Without the sweepers, the rock can sometimes take too long to curl, missing the shot, or it can be thrown too light and without the sweepers it won't make it past the hog line.

The hog line is that first black line that you see when the rock is coming to the other end towards the rings, which is also known as the "house." If a rock doesn't make it past the hog line, it cannot be left in play and must be removed from the ice. There is also a "T line" which is the black line that runs across the house.

The three rings make up the house. The middle circle is called the "button." The closer a rock is to the button, the better. If two rocks are in play, the team that has the rock closer to the button will win the point.

Sometimes curlers will put their rocks between the house and the hog line. These act as guards and can protect the rocks behind them in the house. They are kind of like the front door. If enough guard rocks are in place it becomes difficult to shoot around them to get your rock in the house.

A "take out" is also necessary when the competition's rock is closer to the button than your own. A takeout rock is usually thrown hard and swept hard to increase speed. When it hits the other team's rock, it transfers its speed to the other rock, sending it shooting out of the house, usually.

When the curlers throw their rocks they stand in something called the "hack." This is a little black treaded area that you put your foot in to throw from. Curlers also wear special curling shoes that have a smooth surface on one foot that allows them to slide out when they throw their rock.

Games are played to ten ends, and an eleventh if there is a tie. An end is when all 8 rocks for each team have been thrown to the other end of the ice.

Nadine, keep us posted and let us know how your girls do! We will be cheering them on! :) Yay!

daffodils

Claire and I have been sick, but daffodils help. They have been on sale at Trader Joe's all week for $1.29 a bunch. I bought several bunches. I cannot resist daffodils. :)

the cupcake trick

Bob's fortieth birthday is this coming Thursday, and Claire and I made cupcakes for him this afternoon to take to his game tonight with his friends. And this reminded me that I've been wanting to show you a cupcake trick I learned from our Danielle.

She came over this past Monday and brought some delicious Valentine's Day cupcakes with her, and told me something she'd seen a clever mom of small children doing at Disneyland as she gave cupcakes to her kids. 

1. Remove the cupcake from its paper liner.

2. Remove the crown of the cupcake.

3. Replace the crown of the cupcake upside-down.

Your hands might get messy doing this, but your kids -- and you! -- will remain clean as you eat it. (One wet wipe versus fifteen. Ha!)

Plus, to me, it tastes better because you get more bites with frosting.

I do not think I will ever eat another cupcake without inverting the top first. :D Thanks, Danielle!

i love trader joe's tissue boxes

hellooooooooo, scrapbooking

I feel excited. I've decided to start scrapbooking again (it's been a couple or a few years) and so wandered on over to Two Peas in a Bucket to buy a bit of new product to inspire me. 

Well! When you haven't scrapbook-shopped in a couple years, there is a lot of catching up to do.

New-to-me companies I've never heard of before . . . where have you been all my life, October Afternoon and My Little Shoebox? (I'm telling you, I'm really out of the loop.)  

  

  

 
 
  
Tons of awesome journaling tags and patterned paper! So much whimsical stuff available now! And color! Fresh and cheerful! Farmhousey and springy!

 
Cute new-to-me stuff by old favorites like Cosmo Cricket, Sassafras Lass, Doodlebug Designs, and KI Memories.  Right up my scrapbooking-style alley! (Please feel free to recommend any companies, lines, or specific products you think I'd like, new or within the past couple of years! I'll check them out!)

  

  

 
 
I feel so excited. Did I mention that? :)  Now I'm off to order some photos. Because they are also an important element of scrapbooking. :D

shopping for time, part 5 of 6

Here is the fourth tip in Shopping for Time:

Consider People (Evaluating Relationships Carefully)

When I first read this, I thought it was an odd thing to think about in relation to time management. But as I read further, I realized it is a very necessary thing to think about in relation to time management!

The authors of the book also call this tip "Sit and Plan 2," because it is related to the previous tip about taking a personal retreat to identify your life's biggest priorities in light of God's biggest priorities.  "Sit and Plan 2" entails looking at our people priorities. The authors write,

. . . we are often more passive and receptive than we are intentional and purposeful in our relationships. We may allow people to drift in and out of our lives. We don't usually pause to consider why we pursue a certain friendship or neglect another. Emotions and feelings often dictate the way we go about relationships.

However, people are so important and consume such a big chunk of our time that in order to be prudent time shoppers, we should give them special attention. We must prayerfully evaluate our relational priorities in the light of God's priorities . . . . Do our relationships -- the time we spend with our family and the friends we pursue -- bring glory to God?

Have you thought in this way about your relationships before? Have you been purposeful about who you spend time with, and why? This past year has been the first year in my own life that I have really given much thought to this.  It has been interesting to me to start thinking very purposefully about the friendships in my life. The authors go on to say,

Of course, following our relationship with God, family should hold top billing. Our husband, our children, our parents, and our siblings should be the recipients of our most ardent affection and sacrificial service.

Because most of us know and do this instinctively, the chapter focuses primarily on friendships, and gives me much to consider.  First of all, the authors discuss "friends to choose."  

Scripture gives us good guidelines for this.

Friends to Choose

1. Friends Who Sharpen

The authors point out Proverbs 27:17, which tells us that "iron sharpens iron, as one man sharpens another." Hebrews 10:24 skips the metaphor and says more directly, "And let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works."

Believers need to have friends in our lives who "inspire us to serve, provoke us to love, help us grow in godliness, correct us, strengthen our faith, and spur us on to passion for the Savior." 

You may already have a friend who would assume this role in your life if you asked. 

You might not have anybody in your life right now who is or would be a good "sharpening" influence in your life and faith, and you might have to branch out and go find a woman who will be this friend for you.  

Pray for a Godly woman in your life who can help "sharpen" you. :)

2. Friends Who Mentor

If you are a young woman, you need to have a Godly older woman (both more spiritually mature and also older in age, with more life experience) as a friend.  

If you are an older woman, you need to make sure you have at least one younger woman in your life whom you're teaching about life with God.

This doesn't need to be "teaching" with a blackboard and chalk and lots of bossiness and too much talking without any listening. :) 

This needs to be a relationship where a woman farther along in life can offer Godly wisdom and the benefit of her life experience to a younger woman, and can listen to and pray for and encourage this younger woman.  The younger woman can, in turn, grow and mature in Christ and then share what she has learned with a younger woman later on.  

Titus 2 tells us that the older women in the church help teach the younger women in the church what is good.

If you are like me, you might feel like it's presumptuous to assume that you have anything to offer a younger woman.  Last spring as our church emphasized the importance of these discipling relationships between older women and younger women, I was really wrestling with how to implement an idea I agreed with!

It wasn't hard for me to approach an older woman and ask her to spend time with me, but I wasn't sure how to come alongside any of the younger women in our church to help.  I didn't see myself going up to any college-aged girl in our church and saying 'Wow, I can see that you're really messed up, and would benefit from my superior wisdom and guidance." Ha ha ha.  And of course that's not the idea at all.

But I prayed about it, and I also switched Sunday school classes so that instead of being with my peer group, I would be around some women in their twenties very naturally.  

God has blessed this area of my life greatly since that time, and I should add that I myself learn very much, and am very blessed, by the younger friends in my life. 

It might take some time for you to find these mentoring friends in your own life, but I really encourage you to pursue these relationships.  You will enrich each other's lives greatly.  

3. Friends Who Need Friends

Growing up, my sister and I were always the new kids, because we were Air Force brats.  When I got to college, the longest I had ever lived in one place was three years.  And I was very shy and introverted! So I really appreciated this friend category, because I grew up being the friend who needed a friend! :) 

Hebrews 13:1-2 reminds us "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers." 

Find a friend who needs a friend.  This may be a new person in your life, or it may be someone "difficult" whom no one else has befriended.  I put "difficult" in quotes because I really think "difficult" is relative. Granted, true sociopaths do exist, but for the most part "difficult" people are just people who need more grace shown to them.  And chances are, you are "difficult" to somebody. :) Think about how much grace God shows to us.

Making a friend who needs a friend means we have to bust out of our comfortable, laughing, fun group of friends and go talk to somebody who is alone or lonely. No one on earth likes to be lonely. Nobody. Some people like to be alone more than other people, but no one wants to be lonely, and everyone needs friends.

My mom always said, love never runs out. There is enough to go around, and you can always widen your circle and love more people and pull them in.  Yes, yes, yes, I believe this with my whole heart.

4.  Friends Who Need Salvation

I've mentioned before that my dear husband, Bob, is an atheist. Over the years, I've watched different Christian men approach him with the purpose of sharing Christ with him.  Let me give you two specific examples of what I think of as "friendship evangelism done wrong" and "friendship evangelism done right."

A few years ago, a believing man with good intentions started inviting Bob out for the occasional lunch. He was immediately very zealous in his efforts to share the Gospel with Bob.  Bob was friendly but unreceptive, and was very blunt about his unreceptiveness. (Is "unreceptiveness" a word? "Unreceptivity"?) After the fourth or fifth lunch, Bob told this man, "Listen, I'm never going to believe what you believe. But I'm happy to eat lunch with you."  

Bob never heard from this man again.

"What, are you kidding me?" I thought to myself when Bob told me this.  I don't mind telling you that my defensive wife instinct kicked in, and I wanted to have some words with that man!  "You're just going to give up on Bob, like that?" 

I wanted to tell him, you can't swoop in like that, and then swoop back out again. None of this swooping. We are not hawks going after mice.

Bob felt like he had been this guy's "project" (it amused rather than angered him), because that is exactly what he had been.  I'm not saying that there is never a place for speedy and assertive sharing of the Gospel.  Nope, I'm not saying that.  But when possible, I think it's better to invest in people's lives for the long haul, as we see so many folks in the Bible doing.  

About a year later, another man entered Bob's life who also desired to share the Gospel with him.  He has met with similar resistance, but because Bob was never just his "project," they continue to have a dear friendship.  This man shares the Gospel purposefully, through the Word.  But he also shows Christ to Bob by being a very good friend to him. As a result, he has become very dear to Bob, and has gained Bob's respect.  

This friend of Bob's understands that when we share the Gospel with our unbelieving friends, we are relying on God to reach that person's heart. It's not our own anythingness that will do it.  

It may seem strangely calculating to you to consciously say, "I need a friend who needs Christ," or "I need a friend who encourages me in my Christian walk."  But what other criteria do you use to choose your friends? Is saying "I need a friend who gets my lame jokes" or "I need a friend who likes the same movies I like" any more valid?  

Friendship is one of God's good gifts, and He desires it for our pleasure and joy.  As the authors note, "laughter, pleasure, and companionship" actually "flow from [God's] gracious character." James 1:17 says,

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

Friends to Leave

As you might expect, the authors also discuss "friends to leave."  I want to give my own bit of commentary on this topic (not from the book) before I discuss what they have to say.  For what it's worth, here's my two cent on relationships. :)

If we look at the Biblical model for relationships, God did not create us to have broken friendships.  The Godly model is that friendships would last for life.  Break-ups and divorces and friendship blow-ups make us feel bad because they're not how we were intended to live. 

The Biblical model is that we are either (1) in a friendship with a Godly person, encouraging each other to live Godly lives, or that (2) we are sharing Christ with our friends who do not know Him, or that (3) if we have enemies, we are seeking reconciliation with them.  

We live in a fallen world, where death and conflict hold sway.  There are circumstances in life where we may not be able to have a relationship with someone for some reason (one example might be that someone refuses to be reconciled to us, or another might be that someone is dangerous and/or evil and we must not be around them), but we can still pray that this person be reconciled to Christ, and through Christ we can forgive people who have wronged us.

Some of you may immediately think of impossible relationships in your life, where you are certain there is no hope for reconciliation.  One of my favorite Bible verses is Genesis 18:14.  God is speaking of Himself, and says, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?"  

Another translation of the verse is, "Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?" 

God is the God of relationships and reconciliation! :) Nothing is too wonderful for Him.  (In the context of that verse, He is promising to make Abraham a "great and mighty nation," even though Abraham and Sarah are old and without children, and Sarah is laughing because it's ridiculous to her that she would bear a child in her old age.  But of course, she later has Isaac, just as God promised.)

I just wanted to mention this, because I really believe that "friends to leave" should be the exception rather than the rule in our lives.  If we are careful with our friend selection to begin with, and if we're diligent to work through conflict and take things to God in prayer, "friends to leave" shouldn't be a list in our lives.

That said, just as you'd tell your beloved kids to stay away from certain bad influences at school, you need to do the same in your own life if you're trying to walk with the Lord.  You know how blunt Proverbs always is about human nature, right? :D Proverbs 13:20 tells us,

Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.

That's pretty straightforward.  And 1 Corinthians 15:33 says,

Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”

I'm not going to belabor this topic, but I'm going to be blunt myself.  If you are a follower of Christ, you need to make sure you don't have friends in your life who are leading you away from Him.  If, instead of sharing Christ with these friends and living a holy life before them, you are instead being pulled into unGodly behavior, you need to extricate yourselves from these relationships.  And pronto.  As the authors write,

. . . the reality is that we don't hang out with the foolish and become more wise. We don't consort with the rebellious and become more obedient.  We don't associate with the worldly and become more Godly.

Finally, the authors of Shopping for Time note that the changing seasons in our life will mean that our relationship priorities may also change.  New friends will come into our lives, and we may need to spend more time with one person than another for any number of reasons.  They encourage us to ask ourselves in each new season,

What specific practical changes do we need to make so that we are investing in the right people for the right amount of time?

I know this is a difficult topic, and might seem engineered if you are used to just floating in and out of friendships.  But we have the model of Jesus, who was very purposeful with the friends He chose (if you have never thought of the disciples as Jesus' "friends," that's what they were).  He loved them dearly and they gave Him great joy and pleasure and laughter, but He thought about who He invested His time in. 

So I hope this topic is convicting and helpful to some of you sisters in Christ. 

three things i'm enjoying lately

1.  I like Mrs. Meyers cleaning products. They smell good and they are eco-friendly.  But usually they are too expensive for me to buy. However, our local TJ Maxx stocks a (random) assortment of their stuff, and so I've been checking in every couple weeks and stocking up.  Last time, they had the dishwashing detergent. I bought a jug of Lemon Verbena and one of Geranium. They do seem to be getting the dishes just as clean as Cascade.  It was $5 per jug.

2.  Claire bought my mom a "page a day" cute-little-animals calendar for Christmas, and my mom has been sending the used pages back to Claire in the mail. And then Claire has been sticking them on her wall next to her bed. My mom's mom used to make little scrapbooks for me full of animal photos she cut out of magazines and the newspaper, and this reminds me of those. I love this. ♥

3.  One of the things we got Claire for her birthday was this book called Scribbles: A Really Giant Drawing and Coloring Book by Taro Gomi.  Claire and I are both enjoying it. :) It has partial drawings in it, and then you complete them.  (It also has some mazes, masks to color, etc.) Some "complete this drawings" are very basic, and some are more complicated.  Some are very concrete ("Draw a few more astronauts") and some leave room for imagination ("Make sure the wolf doesn't eat the pigs" . . . I thought we should draw a cage around the wolf, but Claire wanted to disguise the pigs as vegetables, since wolves are carnivores.)

The only page I didn't like said "draw a dead person," so I just tore that page out. :)

seven

Now.

Then. :)

this & that

Ladies, I'm so sorry for the lack of posts this week. We've been so busy around here, and I've had a cold and have been going to bed early, what with the early mornings and all. :D 

I'll finish up our discussion of Shopping for Time this coming week, and we'll have a fun giveaway related to it when we're done. :)

I know some of you are experiencing pretty severe weather right now, and I know our Emily S. had a very difficult week.  And our resident dude had surprise surgery on his arm, which he broke in half last year (the x-ray makes me feel woozy, or I'd show it to you here), and we're all happy to hear that the radial nerve appears to have survived the surgery okay, which was a worry. 

How are the rest of you, dearhearts?

Thursday night I told Bob I was sleeping in until seven on Friday morning because of my cold, which was a good decision, it turned out, because at two in the morning one of the smoke alarms started beeping because the battery was dying. Bob got up (bless him) and replaced the battery in two of the alarms -- including the one under the house, which involves climbing down a ladder into a spider-infested dungeon -- before we realized the one that was beeping was in our bedroom, about three feet from our bed. It's hard to think clearly at two a.m.  Claire slept through the whole thing, but I couldn't get back to sleep afterwards until about three-thirty. I think it was guilt because I told Bob I thought it was the alarm in the basement. 

We're getting ready to take off here in a minute to go to Disneyland to celebrate Claire's birthday, Bob's birthday, my sister's birthday, and my sister's sister-in-law's birthday (all of these birthdays are in February . . . my sister's is today . . . happy birthday, Christy!) but I'm waiting for a load to come out of the dryer, so I thought I'd just post something quick.

One thing that happened this week is that a plumber was here for two days taking out our big huge old water heater that resided in our scary dirt California basement (a space under the house just tall enough to stand up in the middle) and replacing it with a new tankless heater that hangs on a wall outside.

Bob decided to go with a tankless heater because there is a great tax credit available right now if you get one, and it supplies endless hot water. :)  I don't know that we need endless hot water, but it's good to know that that is an option.

We've had rain again, and my backyard is such a horrid mess that there is nothing pretty to show you except this camellia bush, which peeks through the kitchen door. I'm looking forward to spending time in the garden in a few weeks.  The garden catalogs are starting to come in the mail, which is always exciting to me.

Oh, these guys are cute today, too. They're BFFs.

so far, so good: the 5 AM club

Let me give you an honest update on my entry into the 5AM club so far. :)

Monday through Thursday last week, I awoke at 5 AM and really, it was okay. (I know. I was also shocked.)  I expected the actual getting out of bed to be traumatic, but it wasn't.

I just went to the coffee pot right away. We have been setting it up at night to start brewing at 4:50, so it's done when I trudge over to it. Ha. 

Friday, I slept until 6. The key is getting to bed by 10, which didn't happen Thursday night. 

Saturday, which is our family day to sleep in, I was the last one up, and slept until 8:30. It was awesome. :D

On Sunday I got up at 6:30.  I wanted to get up at 6, but the pillow beckoned.

This morning, Monday, I was back to 5.

So I think 5 will be my new default wakeup time, unless I have to be up past 10 for some reason. I would guess that I need to legitimately be up past ten on a Sunday through Thursday night maybe one night a month? Really, not that often.

For weekends, I plan to sleep in on Saturday morning with the rest of the family, and then shoot for 6 or 6:30 on Sundays.

That hour to read my Bible before anybody else gets up has been awesome, seriously.  

And the morning routine has been much calmer.  Something I didn't anticipate is that Claire has been ready for school sooner, so we're not having the "Get in the car! Hurry!" scramble that is always so stressful.

I thought I'd really miss my alone-at-night time, but honestly, I haven't.  And I'm truly shocked at how quickly I am no longer a "night owl". Staying up late does not sound fun anymore because I am TIRED when it is bedtime. 

I should note that historically, I am a strong starter of projects/plans, but a weak continuer/finisher, so while I am optimistic about this right now, I'll be able to tell you more for sure when I've done it for a few more weeks. :)  But so far, so good.

One other thing I should mention is that I'm rethinking my relationship to caffeine. I am sensitive to it (which just means my body metabolizes it very slowly) and have always tried not to have any after ten in the morning unless I can stay up late at night, because it will keep me awake for a long time. I've noticed this week that even when I was EXHAUSTED and ready to wipe out at ten, I was being affected by my morning caffeine. So I think I'll have to cut it out after my nine a.m. I'm going to experiment a bit this coming week and see. (No way am I giving up my morning coffee, so don't worry about that.)

If you have been thinking about it and have joined or would like to join the 5 AM club, and want to tell people you are doing it to give yourself some more accountability, sign up here on this post right here. :) I will pray for you, and I am cheering for you.

(Note: If you want to go for even more accountability, the girls over at Girltalk who authored Shopping for Time, which we've been discussing, started signups today for the 5 AM Club, too! Which they invented . . . I mean the name, not the idea . . . I'm sure people have been getting up at 5 to worship God for many, many years.  But I wouldn't be, if not for their 5 AM Club!)