The Neverfail

I took a shower today during a small, far-off thunder storm. Our electricity must have gone out for only 2 seconds about five or six times while I was in there! Each teasing occurrence jolted me into “hurry-up-and-get-the-soap-off!!!” mode, only to realize soon after that the black-out was really just a blink. Washing my hair was the most nerve-wracking. I lathered up and rinsed it out as fast as possible. Sure enough, as soon as I was done, the lights went off for keeps. “Thank GOODness,” I thought as I stepped onto the bath mat, laughing at the thought of myself walking around with a head half covered in suds. I opened the window to let some steam out, and noticed the difference between the brightness of our yard and the darkness of the bathroom. For a split second I thought, “Hey, the lights didn’t turn off out there!”

That’s when I started thinking… DUH! Of course the lights didn’t turn off outside! In fact, God’s creation never malfunctions. I can’t think of even one way the cycle of life on earth–vegetable, animal, or mineral–could fail. Sure, there are some rough edges in the weather pattern, but is that a flaw? No. It’s just part of how God designed the precipitation to fall. Sure, animals (and humans, or that matter) kill other animals, and devour plants, but is that a flaw? No, it’s part of the food chain, and it’s part of how God planned the synergy here on earth. When a snag happens, when a mistake is made, it’s because a human interfered.

Psalm 18:30 says, “As for God, His way is perfect: the word of the LORD is proven, He is a shield to all those that trust in Him.” Knowing this, shouldn’t it be easy to trust in Him?

Babysitting…

Last weekend I babysat overnight. I had such an awesome time!

The boys (Dalton, 10; and Joey, 9) are absolutely hilarious. They spend all day wrestling or chasing each other. I don’t usually mind, as long as they are smiling and not biting, but this time they were just too rowdy. So I locked them outside for 15 minutes! My goal was to get them interested in something out there so they could have fun out of my hair, but they decided it was more fun to spend that time trying to open windows and pick the lock on the front door to get inside. Not 2 minutes after I let them in, they went right back out and played in their fort for 2 hours! That’s what you get when you try to structure a little boy’s time!

I was also in charge of Alyssa, age 4. She is a real cutie, and happy to play “Princess Cards” all day! We usually have fun teaming up against the boys. Once, when the boys tied me to a rocking chair, Alyssa came to my rescue (I’m so glad she’s good with knots!) and we fled to our head quarters in the bathroom to plan our revenge. We couldn’t do much to them (a babysitter and a 4-year-old against two boys that are almost as tall as the babysitter? Yeah right!!!) but we still had fun.

The weekend provided some good experience. I figured out a lot about what discipline works for them, what drink they like with dinner, and how much time they should spend watching TV/playing gameboy/on the computer. I felt very honored that their parents would trust me to watch them for that long!

A more refined creature

Tess is our nice animal. Of course, I love all our pets, but there’s just something special about Tess.

When Tess was kitten, she was an absolute clean-freak. If you so much as touched a paw, she would have to lick it until it was, once again, untarnished. At a solid 10 years, she is still constantly immaculate. I mean perfect. We (the family and I) are fairly well convinced that she is quite aware of her perfectness, too.

She has always been the one to catch the nice-looking animals, like the birds or chipmunks. Something the family enjoys inspecting. In comparison, Kitty number 2, Alice, kills some gross rodent and then proceeds to eat it whole (I’ll never forget the star-nosed mole… ugh), right on the front step. Nowadays, Tess mostly window shops from her designated stool, with a clear view of the bird feeder, conveniently enough.

The picture just above is typical of our feline friend. Bright eyes, soft fur, and dripping with scratchableism.

Bo’s skull

Hee Hee. No, I’m not writing about our dog’s skull, just the one he found.

I’m telling you, Bo has RADAR for those things! Yesterday, Bo and I were enjoying a nice little jaunt in our woods. He was running all over the place, following a million different trails of a million different animals. All of a sudden, he stopped dead in his tracks, sniffed the air for a second, and shot off into the woods. “That was weird,” I thought, and stopped to photograph a new flower while I waited for him to return. Sure enough, a couple minutes later he comes marching back, bone in mouth. “Bo!” I called after him as he skipped back home, “You have about 50 of those in the yard already! Why do you need another?” My call went unheeded, I found him 20 minutes later, still chewing on the same bone!

Food

Well, I’ve been a naughty blogger, haven’t I? I could make a bunch of excuses as to why I haven’t posted in so long, but I believe that honesty is the best policy, so I’ll tell you the truth. I was abducted by aliens and tortured until I gave away the password to my blog account. The aliens proceeded to break into Joyful Noise and change the password. I’ve spent all this time trying to figure out what the password was changed to, trying every possible combination of letters and numbers. Anyway, back to my post.

When Patrick and I were younger, Mom and Dad made us breakfast as often as they could. Waking up to the smell of Cream of Wheat heating or a pancake frying are amongst my favorite memories of growing up. There’s something comforting knowing your parents are a couple rooms down, spending time together and waiting eagerly to spend time you. I’ve alway hoped that when I have my own little family, I can have breakfast with my family every morning, talking about what we are going to do that day over a glass of orange juice and an egg on toast. Fortunately, I’ve picked up on my parent’s love of cooking.

Above, I’m feverishly chopping garlic to add to my vegetable lasagna. It turned out great, by the way, despite the fact that our dog stole one of the noodles off the top before it was slipped into the oven.

New Candidate

Elliot Penson has announced his bid for the presidency!
If you missed the memo, or you just want to learn more about this amazing candidate, you can simply visit:

Penson for President

Thanks to my buddy Tai who blogged this info on her site.

Spring!

Well, I’m still trying to work out some kinks with how my page looks, but I figured I better get back to some writing. Right now I’m sitting on my bed typing this into Patrick’s laptop (aren’t laptops fantastic?) and thinking I better thank Mom for all those Mavis Beacon typing lessons. (I can now type without looking, so I can multi-task and look out the window at the same time.)

Dozens of birds are flitting from tree to tree. A blue jay is scolding the rowdy chickadees. A few sparrows pick through the leaves under our hornbeam. A woodpecker is pecking up the trunk as a nuthatch hangs nearly upside down checking out our bird house. A cardinal flies by, reminding me of my hope to have him nest here.

There is a pair of cardinals that has been flying around our house for a few days now. The first time we saw one, he was attacking that nasty self-reflection in Mom and Dad’s bedroom window. Upon further investigation, I discovered the female cardinal in a tree near by. Perhaps they’ll stick around and we’ll find a little nest somewhere.

Even More Cards

Three weeks of waiting for flowers to dry in a press. Meticulous ripping the edges of thick card-stock. Fussily deciding which petals go where and what colors are best. Half an hour of gluing and sticking, carefully using tweezers and wishing my fingers were even slimmer than they already are.

If you happen to know anything about me, you would be seriously pondering if the above activities were actually preformed by me. I’ve always found it difficult to sit down and make something look precise (have you seen my room?). I often lack the patience and there is nearly always something more interesting in which to engage my hands. Somehow this card made it off my work table without even one thought of “I could be doing *so and so*”. In case you’re wondering, my prodding motivation was the superb vision of my much-loved aunt in California opening the envelope, seeing the card, and thinking “Hey, that’s kind of neat.” And it still turned out a little sloppy.

Unfortunately, by the time the flowered dispatch reached it’s destination across the country, several petals had been lost into the bottom of the envelope and others were cracked. If I ever decided to make such a card again, several changes would be made: 1. I’d make a hole for the bracket before I paste the petals on, and 2. I’d spread paste on the entire petal instead of just enough so it sticks.

More Cards

Here’s one to make when you’re in a rush. Rip a straight edge on one side of a blue paper and one side of a green paper, paste on your cardstock (ripped sides together) and trim around the edges to make them flush with the card. Add any flower-like papers you happen to have on hand. Nice and springy, huh?

Sheet Music… second to last sequel! (I hope)

Some of you may remember my whining and complaining about a piece of sheet music I ordered. If you don't, read "Sheet Music" and "Sheet Music.... 4 weeks later" and "Sheet Music... the sequel's sequel".

Finally, after 2 1/2 months, I got this message through email:

The following items have been shipped to you by Amazon.com: ------------------------------------------Qty      Item                        ------------------------------------------Amazon.com items (Sold by Amazon.com, LLC):   1     Jane Austen's World 

Shipped via USPS (estimated arrival date: 24-March-2008).

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Yippee! My music! All I can say is... I better like the book....