Found It!

So, awhile I go I lost my checkbook. I was really worried about it, and I had no idea where it was! I knew the last time I'd had it was at store I'd been too with Lizzy, but I was pretty sure I remembered having it in Lizzy's car. So I called the store just to double check, and they hadn't found it. Lizzy's mom searched their car for it and didn't find it. So I was pretty sure it was at home, but I couldn't find it. I searched my room thoroughly. It seemed like there was no way it could be in there! I looked everywhere.
I'd given up hope that I'd ever find it! I thought it was gone forever.
But I thought wrong.
I was washing my bedding, which I've done several times since losing my checkbook, but this time I realized it had been awhile since I flipped my mattress, so I decided to go ahead and do that before I made my bed.
Well, my checkbook was under my mattress. You know, I'd searched under my bed, but not under my mattress. How it got there I'll never know. It's a mystery to me!
I'm now really glad that I didn't pay $30 to cancel that check book. Especially since I was probably technically sitting on/over the checkbook as I called the bank about it...

Stop the Christmas Stuff!

My mom and I went to the store the other day, and she was going to pick up some Thanksgiving decorations. But instead we heard Christmas music playing, and nothing my Christmas merchandise! We couldn't find Thanksgiving/Autumn things! Well, I saw some napkins and paper plates, but that wasn't really what we wanted!
You can't play Christmas music until the day of or the day after Thanksgiving! It's just not right! I suppose I understand having a small selection of Christmas items. There's probably some people who are having a big Thanksgiving get-together and would like to buy their tree beforehand, but the amount of Christmas things out and the Christmas music is too much! ABC family always has their 25 days of Christmas. This year they have a countdown with special movies till the 25 days of Christmas. It's craziness!

"If you don't pray often, you won't gain a love for praying. Prayer is work, and therefore it is not very appealing to our natural sensibilities. But the simple rule for prayer is this: Begin praying and your taste for prayer will increase. The more you pray, the more you will acquire the desire for prayer, the energy for prayer, and the sense of purpose in prayer."
-Leslie Ludy "Wrestling Prayer"

Rita

Rita was laying on the couch relaxing. I walked up to her and made a fish face. She looked uncomfortable and turned the other way. I realized that if someone twice my size walked up to me and made a fish face I'd feel uncomfortable and look away too.

Sorry Rita.

I finally finished that order of 8 shirts (I finished and had them mailed last Tuesday). I have a few more projects, but I can actually see an end to all this sewing!

So, at Luke's Deli, all the employees seem to get along really well, and we like to do things together. We close at 8 on Sundays, and I was working last night until closing. Jeremy and Luke came to get something to eat and they ended up staying until closing. Matt and Chloe invited us over to their apartment to play card games, so we all three went and had lots of fun. But I advise all of you to never play Poker with Luke. He wins. I did beat him in Black Jack, though. Although in the end Jeremy won...
This Friday a bunch of us are planning on going to do the corn maze in the dark. I'm excited!
Matthew and I went to the "TractorFormers" corn maze a few weeks ago. There's another one: "The Impossible Maze". It's huge and it has trivia questions you have to answer. It gives you a few answers and you pick which one you think is right and then go the way it tells you. So if you're wrong you'll get yourself totally lost. I'm not sure which one we'll be doing, but I kind of want to see the impossible one!

Sewing...Sewing...SO MUCH SEWING!

I'm finally getting close to being done with this order of 8 shirts I have. I'm sooo close. I meant to be done on Wednesday, but that didn't work out. I work 9-3 today, but the weather is supposed to cruddy so I might get sent home early (apparently people don't eat out for lunch if the weather isn't nice). I'm going to start sewing as soon as possible, and I intend to have the last of the shirts in the mail for tomorrow. Finally! Then I have several other projects to work on for other people, but I can actually see an end to all this sewing! Then I can sew something for myself!

Autumn

I love autumn! The past few weeks the colors have been really nice! But they already seem to be coming to an end! When I walk to work there's one tree in particular that seems to have shed all of its leaves already (actually, there's a couple that are green...)! It's been rainy the past couple days so now some of the pretty colors are turning brown. Why does my favorite season come and go so quickly?

A Very Late and Very Small Update

Wow, this poor blog has been mostly ignored over the summer!

An update to my sewing: There's still lots of it to be done. Bristol is over. Now I have to finish the sewing for Bristol this year.... Plus, I want to finish some projects for myself. You can expect more things to be added to my Facebook album of things I've sewn (I only have one thing in that album even though I've sewn many things since then...).

So, I think the average age for getting your wisdom teeth is 18, right? I went to the dentist the day after my 18th birthday, and I complained about a specific tooth hurting. They did two bite wing x-rays on either side of my mouth, an x-ray of the specific tooth, a laser thing that's supposed to detect cavities that might not be visible, and an x-ray of my whole mouth. No cavities, but all four wisdom teeth, impacted! So, I had my appointment to get them out scheduled on a Monday morning. I was supposed to be knocked out, but the office failed to have that consultation and assumed that I wanted to be awake. So they gave me Novocaine, and that was it. For all for impacted and completely below the gum, they should knock you out! The left side of my mouth was plenty numb, but the right side was not and I could feel it. That side also bled more, causing lovely bruising on my face.
I think they should knock you out just because the noises of getting your wisdom teeth out are so awful! That's cracking and breaking and crushing....*shudders*
It was nasty! I'm mostly better now, but I still seem to have a hole on the right side of my mouth on the bottom. I noticed it when I get lemon in it. Ouch. So, my mom's calling the dentist today!

Well, I have more I could write, but I should probably do something productive before I head to work.

Holy cow, I've been busy! Bristol is taking up more time than usual due to all my sewing projects, and now that I have a job (which I'll have to write about later) I just don't have much time at home! I'm actually for once looking forward to autumn and winter when there's not much to do and I'm stuck at home (other than when I'm at work) and start to get bored. This house is still new to me, and I want to be stuck in it for awhile so I can actually have time to organize my room and sewing area!

Too Busy!

I have way too much to do! I have to finish these sewing projects by July 2nd (for Bristol dress rehearsal):
Two shirts
Two pairs of pants
One Doublet
And I have an entire set of female garb that I need to finish ASAP, it doesn't have to be done by July 2nd, but it would be nice! And It would be nice to finish Jeremy's garb too, but he may have to borrow some for the first weekend. It seems like I should have enough time for all that, but on Wednesday I'm going on a church trip to MN, and I'll be gone until Sunday, and then hopefully I'll be going down to Illinois the next day, the 28th, to see my grandma and to get our camping stuff out of storage!
Oy. I better get sewing...

Babysitting

Occasionally Lizzy Muetz and I have the honor of babysitting Timothy and Torie Schmitt. Timothy is 5, Torie is 17 months.
We babysat them on Tuesday. Now, Steven, their dad, was home, but he was working from home. He hoped to be done around noon so he could go mow the lawn and then head out early for a class he was teaching at church.
Lizzy and I took the kids to a local park. It wasn't a baby-friendly park, so I had to follow Torie around, and when she wanted to swing I had to sit her in my lap so we could swing together. So while I had her, Lizzy kept an eye on Timothy. At one point Torie and I were walking over to a tunnel thing that you crawl up to get to the slide. Timothy went running past, and he was running straight at the tunnel. He's taller than the tunnel, and he wasn't ducking down. It was kind of a George of the Jungle "Watch out for that tree!" moment, but I didn't have time to say anything, and Timothy hit his head on the tunnel and ricocheted back. Oops.
He was fine, so we played more and then went home. Now, this whole day Torie was very fussy. Her mom was out of town, so she was probably missing her, and she was tired, and I think she may have been teething, so she was fussy and mostly wanted to be held.
Steven came upstairs from his office to get something to drink, and he said he was having some difficult problem with work. So, he went back down to work on that. The phone rang, and the answering machine picked it up. A woman was saying something about being in the hospital, so Lizzy answered. Apparently Steven's mom had had tuna and went into anaphylactic shock and almost died, so she was in the hospital. This day wasn't going so great so far. We put Torie down for her nap, then Timothy. Torie woke up as Timothy was laying down, so we had about an hour of Torie-only time. It was very pleasant though. She was happy to sit on the couch with us and play with my hair and give us Torie kisses (she just learned to pucker her lips). We took her upstairs to change her diaper, and that's when Timothy got up. He was sitting in the rocking/spinning chair in Tories room while we changed her. He rubbed his eyes and complained that one hurt. We looked, and it was a little red, but we assumed it was from rubbing.
We went back downstairs and Timothy complained again. Now his eye was a little more red and it looked like he had a black eye. He said he hadn't hit his eye on anything. We asked about when he ran into the slide, but he said that was his forehead. I decided to go let Steven know.
I came back from Steven's office, and that quickly Timothy's eye had changed. Now the actual white of his eye was swollen, but not his iris, so it was like a dent in his eye. The outside edge of the white was turning yellow and looked very moist, white the inside edge was still red, and around his eye was like a black eye. So I ran downstairs and told Steven of the sudden change, and he immediately came up the stairs. He said it looked like something may have bit Timothy's eye, and that it was blistering, so they took a trip to Urgent Care. Lizzy and I waited, playing with Torie. When they finally got back, Timothy's eye looked much better. Apparently it was an allergic reaction to something (we don't know what). Timothy was proud to tell me his eye didn't glow (cornea scratch test). So, at this point, Steven obviously hadn't gotten his lawn mowed, and he wasn't leaving particularly early for his class.
Around bedtime, we discovered the that Timothy had hit his head harder than we thought: There was quite the lump on his head, hidden by his hair. So he went to bed with an ice pack, and he was going to be alternating between his forehead and his eye.
What a day!

Moving

So, here we are: Moving again! But this time we're staying in Janesville. I've never had a move where we can just slowly move things over to the new house: I'm used to the packing EVERYTHING into boxes, loading up a truck, and going far away. But this move is just a few miles over! We're in a great location now: We're about 1.5 miles from our church, within 10 minutes of Huntington Place (where my dad works), and Jeremy can walk to Luke's Deli (where he works) in 8 minutes! We can also walk to a grocery store, McDonald's, Wendy's, Big Lots, the Post Office, a cheese shop (much to Luke's excitement!) and Joann's! I find that particularly exciting. The house is kind of small, but it's so pretty! It's done in all light, neutral colors. The floors in the bedrooms, hallway, and living room are hardwood, and it's in really good condition. I took advantage of the fact that the house was empty yesterday, and I cleaned the wood floors and put a protector cleaner thing on them. My bedroom is a bit on the small side, but it's not bad! The walls are the color of walls of been wanting: They're kind of a gold color, and the trim is black. It's really pretty! I've always wanted a gold and purple room (the Egyptian royal colors, of course!), so I think I'll get a purple rug. Oh, and there's two windows in my room. I love windows, so that's a good thing! I have two little solar dancing flowers sitting on the windowsill already. My closet is a pretty good size, so that's nice. My parents bedroom is plenty large enough for the two of them, and they have a very nice closet. The basement is mostly finished, so Jeremy and Luke will be staying down there. One wall of the basement is made up entirely of cabinets! There's one that will make a perfect sewing station: I'll have to take pictures.
The kitchen is quite long and narrow, but there is so much cabinet space! I don't think we'll use it all. Especially because there's a pantry at the bottom of the basement stairs (located in the kitchen). There's no back door, but there's a perfect spot for one in the kitchen, so my dad is going to add one in as soon as he can! Doors are on sale at Menards, so probably pretty soon!
So, all in all, it's a great house. Small, but so pretty! And there is a lot of storage space. We are very excited! I'll take pictures soon.

"Blessings"

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home
It's not our home

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise

The Happening: Part Two

So, after saying I would write about the Happening, I never did!

It was a really great experience, and I'm glad I went. Jeremy and Luke are both glad they went, too.
The weekend was pretty much full of surprises. The staff is mostly made up of youth, and there were various positions. Each staff member was also given a topic and a guideline for talking about that topic, all from a Christian viewpoint, of course. So there was some serious stuff, but then there were some really fun surprises to balance it out.
On Saturday, at both breakfast and lunch we had place mats. They were hand drawn, and some had a picture, some gave you an activity to do, etc., You had to stand up and say what your place mat said or do what it told you to do. Jeremy had one that said "Tell the rector and observing a rector a knock-knock joke". Luke had a mad lib he had to fill in. I had to mime being stuck in a box and get the person next to me to let me out. Someone had to get up and do a dance. They were fun!
There was three buildings to this church: The old church, the new church, and the hall (where we spent most of our time). But we were in the new church for something Saturday night, and then they made all of us close our eyes, hold hands, and they started leading us somewhere. They led us around for ages! It was getting ridiculous. And finally, they said to open our eyes, and we were in the hall (so you know, 15 feet from the new church building we had been in), which was decorated with tons of streamers and balloons, and there was music, and punch and candy, and glowsticks and all sorts of little party toys. It was a surprise party! So, that was pretty fun.
Oh, and there's "candidates" which are the people who have never been to the Happening before. The candidates were split into three "families" and each family had a "gofer" (because they go for this and go for that...). My family consisted of: Mary, Owen, Levi, and Dee Dee (who is a really sweet girl who moved from Thailand last year). I wasn't so sure about my family at first, but they ended up being pretty cool.
My least favorite part of the weekend was bedtime: The room the girls were staying in was full of bugs, and we were sleeping on the floor (I have no idea why I didn't think to bring my camping cot). I woke up with a bug on my face! Gross!
Sunday the weather was really nice, so we spent a good portion of time outside. Which reminds me of Luke's incident...
They had yogurt and donuts for breakfast. The yogurt was specifically Gogurt, so it was in the plastic tube. I could not get mine open. I tried and I tried and I tried, but it would not open! Luke told me to squeeze it, but I thought that was a bad idea. He insisted though, so I passed it off to him. He folded it in half so he could squeeze it harder, and he was aiming it at the ground, but when it finally broke, it shot yogurt a good 20-30 feet, right onto one of the adult leader's cars. Oops. I was laughing really hart at Luke, but I was slightly concerned about what Jen- the car owner - would think. She was amused, thankfully!
Now, on both Saturday and Sunday (or was it Friday and Sunday?) we got "Caritas" bags. I believe that's Greek for love. The bags were filled with little gifts and notes from the staff members at the Happening, or from people from our churches. They were really nice!
Oh, and Sunday, they had a closing ceremony. Each family was asked to come up and talk about their poster (each family was required to design one based on something they had in common), and have someone from the family talk about their experience. After that, each candidate was given a cross necklace and a Bible. Oh, and earlier that day we had been give a Bible devotion book. I believe it's called the One Minute Bible, and it was one 1 minute devotion for each day of the year.

So, that's barely touching on everything. There's so many other things to talk about, but I don't want to right a ridiculously long post, so for now I'm going to leave it at that.

The Happening

Since moving to Janesville we've started attending Trinity Episcopal Church. We're really enjoying this church, and we're much happier with it than with any other church we've attended.
The youth group leader, Ed Schultz (Edward Shultz III, to be precise) was telling us about an event called "The Happening." Two other kids from the youth group are going: Ed's daughter, Maddie, and Levi Zuehlke. Ed convinced my brothers and I to go, and it starts this afternoon and goes until Sunday afternoon. This is what the website says about The Happening:

"HAPPENING is a weekend retreat run by high school students within the Diocese of Milwaukee with adult support. It is designed BY YOUTH, FOR YOUTH! It challenges youth to find their own spiritual realities based on the love of Jesus Christ. HAPPENING’s purpose is not only to have a fantastic weekend, but to build a foundation for a lifelong commitment to Christian living – a life based upon Christian values, beliefs and actions. HAPPENING is a weekend full of fun and fellowship, but it is also a weekend full of learning, sharing, growing, loving and experiencing the gifts of God."
(More information here)

I don't really know much about The Happening, and nobody will really say; apparently it's a secret until you actually go, but I got an inbox message from The Happening event page on Facebook, and it mentions some of the staff positions: There's Head Elf, Elves, Head Gnome, Gnomes, and more. I'm curious to see what that means...

A Play Date

So, I have a play date with a four year old.
I went to the park yesterday (it's just across the street and behind some houses from here).
I was by myself and I didn't want to do much, so I was sitting under a tree. A grandmother and her grandson came to the park. I could hear the little boy asking his grandma who I was, and she said she didn't know. So he walked over to me, and said, "who are you?"
I answered, "my name's Emily, what's yours?" I couldn't quite make out what he said, I did understand "Nicholas", but not the rest. His grandma served as translator though, and told me his name is Torson Nicholas Janson. He started to tell me something else. I think it was something about flipping his alphabet (I don't know what he meant), and that he was only four years old. Whatever it was, it must have been important because he put his hand under my chin to make sure I was looking up at him!
Torson went back to playing, and I sat under the tree for a bit, and then I decided I was going to go find Jeremy, so I stood up and started to leave. Torson said "Where are you going?" and I told him I was going to go find my brother. He asked me a few more questions, and then said "Well, come back tomorrow and play!" and I told him that I will if I can, so he said "bye, Emily!"
And that's how I got a play date with four year old Torson Nicholas Janson. If it's not raining or snowing later I'll go over and see if he's there.

Come on, spring!

I'm getting really, really impatient for spring! I'm very ready for it to warm up! Right now it's in the 30s, and I see a potential high of 60* this week! Unfortunately, it's supposed to be raining that day too...
Yesterday made it up to about 42, which was really nice. Jeremy, Lizzy and I went for a long walk, and we walked to Frosty Freeze for some ice cream. On the way there it was really sunny and not at all windy, so we actually were too warm in our coats! Unfortunately, after the ice cream the wind picked up, so the walk home was pretty chilly. But still, it was pleasant!
I love warm weather!

My 40s Dress!

I keep forgetting to post a picture of my finished dress!
I forgot to take one specifically for this purpose, but I have this one which shows the whole dress.
I'm standing with Travis, who is a fellow Duckling at Bristol.
Eventually I will get my dressmaker's dummy out of storage and take some more detailed pictures.

Sewing

I'm so close to finished with my dress. I haven't started the coat or the hat yet, but hopefully I'll get to that today. Now, I just need to put the second sleeve on the dress, finish the side opening (it will be hooks and eyes and snaps-no zipper), and hem it. It should be doable today. I thought I'd have it done several days ago, but there was more hand-sewing than I'd anticipated.
I'll be sure to post pictures later!

The Snow Shoveling Adventure

So yesterday we received an unexpected 6" of snow. Luke's been doing really good with his snow shoveling business, so he decided to take me with him so I could make some money too.
Unfortunately, Luke was running way behind, and we didn't leave until after noon: Meaning most people had already shoveled.
We managed to find one very small job: They guy just needed his steps and sidewalk done, but it looked like someone had already done the sidewalk and it just had a light dusting of snow, so Luke charged the man $5. The man was pretty funny: he told Luke that with wages like that he (the man, not Luke) was out of food money for the month, and he was stuck with wormy oatmeal and green wieners.
So, that was the only job we found. Then Luke decided what should go to Matt's Dog House for lunch. He ordered some chicken strips and french fries for us to split. It cost exactly $5. He turned to me and said "You couldn't have done anything with $2.50 anyway."
So, we made nothing! Luke said "At least we had a fancy lunch!"
Yes, so fancy. It was served in cardboard containers, we used napkins for plates, and didn't even have anything to drink!
But it was fun. And I had been wanting to take a walk, so I did get that accomplished! And it was quite the walk! We had to have walked well over a mile, and through hip deep snow a couple of times! And then we went up an incredibly steep hill to go to one of Luke's regular customer's, but she wasn't home.

February

Here it is February 1st. The year is already 1/12 finished.

It makes being impatient about anything seem rather silly, because time seems to pass very quickly!

February looks like a rather full month, fuller than January, so I'm sure it will pass even quicker. Although that'd be true no matter what since February just has less days than January (even if it was a leap year).

I'm really looking forward to spring. I'm tired of winter. The snow saddens me. Sure, it's pretty, but it really makes me miss doing things outside! I really want to go for a long walk or go to the park or something, but no. The snow won't allow me to.

Although I might help Luke with his snow shoveling business tomorrow. He was a bit under the weather, and though he's feeling better our mom would prefer he not spend too much time outside just yet. He still has a bit of a cough.

He has made enough for his Xbox 360, which he purchased Sunday. Now he wants to save up for more games.

What's in Your Oven?

I heard the oven beep tonight, and I assumed my dad was making pizza rolls. My mom didn't know what he was making, so she opened the oven door. You'll never guess what was inside.
His watch!
Wait-what? Watches don't go in the oven...
He came walking into the room just then, and I said "Daddy, is that your watch in the oven?!"
His reply? "Yes."

Huh?

I asked him why his watch was in the oven.
He said "Well, it's having some moisture problems. I'm hoping I can solve it without cooking the watch." (I didn't point out that he would be baking the watch)

A New Sewing Project!

I have a new sewing project (assuming I can figure out how to use the sewing machine the Schmitts gave me)!
There's an event in February-Military History Fest, previously known as Reenactor Fest, and we're planning on attending. They have a ball in the evening, and you can dress from any time period you want. I'll be doing my usual 16th century garb, but if I decide to go to the ball I really, really wanted to the 1940s. All my patterns for 40s clothes happen to be in a faraway storage unit in Illinois, but Rebecca Schmitt offered to loan me some patterns.
I'll be making this dress and coat, and the hat.
The dress pattern is from 1939, so obviously it would have been used in the 40s too, so it works perfectly for what I wanted. My color scheme is going to be rather patriotic, which works too!
I chose a red fabric with small white dots (I've always liked the fabric but never had anything to do with it) for the dress, and I'll be using a dark blue linen for the coat and the hat. So, hopefully I can get it all done in time!

"Crazy Love"

I wanted to share a chapter from the book I'm reading- "Crazy Love"
The chapter is chapter one, and it's called "Stop Praying."

Stop Praying

What if I said "Stop praying"? What if I told you to stop talking at God for a while, but instead to take a long, hard look at Him before you speak another word? Solomon warned us not to rush into God's presence with words. That's what fools do. And often, that's what we do.
We are a culture that relies on technology over community, a society in which spoken and written words are cheap, easy to come by, and excessive. Our culture says anything goes; fear of God is almost unheard of. We are slow to listen, quick to speak, and quick to become angry. The wise man comes to God without saying a word and stands in awe of Him. It may seem a hopeless endeavor, to gaze at the invisible God. But Romans 1:20 tells us that through creation, we see His "invisible qualities" and "divine nature."
Lets begin this book by gazing at God in silence. What I want you to do right now is to go online and look at the "Awe Factor" video at www.crazylovebook.com to get a taste of the awe factor of our God. Seriously - go do it.

Awe Factor Video.

Speechless? Amazed? Humbled?
When I first saw those images, I had to worship.I didn't want to speak to or share it with anyone. I just wanted to sit quietly and admire the Creator.
It's wild to think that most of these galaxies have been discovered only in the past few years, thanks to the Hubble telescope. They've been in the universe for thousands of years without humans even knowing about them.
Why would God create more that 350,000,000,000 galaxies (and this is a conservative estimate) that generations of people never saw or even knew existed? Do you think maybe it was to make us say, "Wow, God is unfathomably big"? Or perhaps God wanted us to see these pictures so that our response would be, "Who do I think I am?"
R.C. Sproul writes, "Men are never duly touched and impressed with a conviction of their insignificance, until they have contrasted themselves with the majesty of God."


That's just the beginning of the chapter. The rest gives you some more amazing things to ponder. As for the rest of the book, I don't really know. So far I've only read chapter one!

I thought the video was pretty cool. But you know what? You don't have to look at space to stand in awe of God. You can stand in awe of Him in many places. Mountains would probably be my personal favorite (but having been born in Colorado, that's a given), but I think any nature setting will do. Personally, I like sunny, open places. They just feel happy!

Bless You!

I was reading about the Monist philosopher Anaximenes. A Monist believes that the basic "stuff" of reality is one thing and one thing only. Air, water, fire, and so on (though Pythagoras thought it was just numbers).
Anaximenes thought it was air. He theorized that one's breath is linked to your soul.
This lead me to read about when people sneezed. Apparently people used to think you could sneeze your soul out. Yep- you sneeze and your soul comes flying out of you. This is why people would say, "Bless you" or some such. (This also makes my mom wonder if mucus was thought to be part of your soul. Eww!)
I've read about this before, but today it stuck me as more comical than usual. And then I realized that if I were with someone who believed this, I'd be considered awfully cruel. And people would probably think that I didn't care about my soul!
But I have to wonder something else: What did they think if they had a cold? Or if their allergies were acting up? Or if they sniffed something and it made them sneeze? Did they think to relate the sneeze to being ill or to scents? Or did they think that they were being punished by potentially losing their soul?
I also wonder if anyone ever got really sick. Maybe they spiked a really high fever, and without modern medicine it caused mental damage. Lets say they had sneezed a few times during this illness. Would people think their mental damage was from being sick, or would they say "Oh! Poor Billy here sneezed and lost his soul. Now something is wrong with him!"

It's things like these I always wonder about...

Times

"Times" is another Tenth Avenue North song, and possibly my favorite of theirs.
I wasn't going to post it tonight, but then I was playing around on SongMeanings (which can be a pretty cool site, just to see other people's views or interpretations of songs) and found a comment someone left about it, and I wanted to share that.
Here it is:

"I think we can feel both sides of this song. The verses belong to anyone who has ever believed in God, lost faith in Him, hid from Him, loved Him, yearned for Him, questioned Him...

But, the bridge, the rest of the song belongs to God. That's His love letter right there. That's Him telling us that nothing will separate us from His love. When we hate Him (God, I can barely type that) and when we're numb... bitter... unforgiving... ashamed... hurt... scared... rejoicing... loving... praising... singing... dancing... laughing... whenever, wherever He will always be with us."

And the lyrics:

"I know I need You

I need to love You
I love to see You, but it's been so long
I long to feel You
I feel this need for You
And I need to hear You, is that so wrong?

Oh, oh. Oh, oh. Oh, oh.
Oh, oh. Oh, oh. Oh, oh.

Now You pull me near You
When we're close, I fear You
Still I'm afraid to tell You, all that I've done
Are You done forgiving?
Oh can You look past my pretending?
Lord, I'm so tired of defending, what I've become
What have I become?

Oh, oh. Oh, oh. Oh, oh.
Oh, oh. Oh, oh. Oh, oh.
Oh, oh. Oh, oh. Oh, oh.
Oh, oh. Oh, oh. Oh, oh.

I hear You say,
"My love is over. It's underneath.
It's inside. It's in between.
The times you doubt Me, when you can't feel.
The times that you question, 'Is this for real? '
The times you're broken.
The times that you mend.
The times that you hate Me, and the times that you bend.
Well, My love is over, it's underneath.
It's inside, it's in between.
These times you're healing, and when your heart breaks.
The times that you feel like you're falling from grace.
The times you're hurting.
The times that you heal.
The times you go hungry, and are tempted to steal.
The times of confusion, in chaos and pain.
I'm there in your sorrow, under the weight of your shame.
I'm there through your heartache.
I'm there in the storm.
My love I will keep you, by My pow'r alone.
I don't care where you fall, where you have been.
I'll never forsake you, My love never ends.
It never ends."

Oh, oh. Oh, oh. Oh, oh.
Oh, oh. Oh, oh. Oh, oh."

You Are More

I really like most of Tenth Avenue North's music, but there's some songs that stand out more than others.
I really like "You Are More"

My mom and I were listening to a Tenth Avenue North CD in the car, and she thought a fun youth group activity could be trying to find the verses that inspired popular Christian songs. See if they line up theologically. That could be interesting.

"There's a girl in the corner
With tear stains on her eyes
From the places she's wandered
And the shame she can't hide

She says, "How did I get here?
I'm not who I once was.
And I'm crippled by the fear
That I've fallen too far to love"

But don't you know who you are,
What's been done for you?
Yeah don't you know who you are?

You are more than the choices that you've made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
You've been remade.

Well she tries to believe it
That she's been given new life
But she can't shake the feeling
That it's not true tonight

She knows all the answers
And she's rehearsed all the lines
And so she'll try to do better
But then she's too weak to try

But don't you know who you are?

You are more than the choices that you've made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,

You've been remade.

You are more than the choices that you've made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
You've been remade.

'Cause this is not about what you've done,
But what's been done for you.
This is not about where you've been,
But where your brokenness brings you to

This is not about what you feel,
But what He felt to forgive you,
And what He felt to make you loved.

You are more than the choices that you've made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
You've been remade.

You are more than the choices that you've made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
You've been remade.

You've been remade
You've been remade.
You've been remade.
You've been remade. "

So, Luke is saving up for an Xbox. He decided that the best method to earn money would to be go out and search for snow shoveling jobs. A pretty good idea with all the snow we've had lately. And he's doing really well, he's averaging a little over $10/hour. Yesterday he really overbooked himself, so he hired me to help him with a job. Even with my help he ended up not being able to do a job. But on the way home a neighbor saw us carrying our snowshovels and ice chipper and asked if we were looking for jobs, so we found another one that probably only took about 15 minutes, and the guy gave Luke some snow shoveling tips.
Luke shared some of the profit with me, and he is so close to being able to afford his Xbox. One more good snow and he'll have it.
He's hoping to grow his snow shoveling into a lawn care service too, for the summer. He's mentioned it to a few of his customers, who are interested.
He's been doing some work for a Dave Smiskey, who calls Luke to schedule his snow shoveling services. He even taught Luke how to use his snow blower.
Luke is quite proud of himself, and he should be! He's doing a great job.

Too cold!

My bedroom gets WAY too cold! The past several nights I've been freezing, and last night was particularly bad!

I ended up wearing flannel pajamas with a sweatshirt over my flannel pajama top, a regular pair of socks and a pair of fuzzy socks, and I had a fleece blanket that's two layers, plus my sheet, other blanket, and comforter, and I was still kind of cold! Unfortunately my head was really cold too, but I really don't like putting blankets over my head. I feel like I can't breathe! I sort of arranged the blankets over my head so that my face was still sticking out and I felt like I could breathe...mostly. But it wasn't ideal. I wonder if I should take to wearing a stocking cap in bed...

Maybe I should just ask if I can put a space heater in my room. That would probably help.

For tonight though, I have an empty 2 liter bottle to fill with hot water.

Lebkuchen

So, John has to make lebkuchen for a school project. He invited his friend Justin over to help.
John is 15, and Justin is 14, so the two of them working on a baking project could get a bit messy. Laura Muetz asked Lizzy and I to supervise the two of them.
It was pretty interesting. John was freaking out at one point because he was convinced a saucepan was too big for boiling molasses and honey. He thought it would burn and ruin it, but Lizzy and I convinced him it would be okay.
I don't think there was a single silent moment the whole time. John and Justin were constantly yelling out worries, or singing, or making jokes, or asking questions. It was a very loud kitchen! John needed to zest a lemon, but he kept knocking around the dish he was zesting it into, so I held it still for him. I hadn't realized I'd cut my thumb, so I had a very unpleasant surprise when some of the lemon zest hit that. Ouch!
So, the whole process was pretty loud and messy, but John has the dough ready for tomorrow.
I'll help with rolling it out and slicing it up if he needs help, but I'm not helping with his next school project, which is pinning insects he's collected to a board. He can see if Luke wants to help with that.

Lucky Bear

Sometimes Lucky gets so spastic! I went upstairs to let Rita go outside this morning, and Lucky ran over to me very playfully. I was wearing my slippers, which have little pom-pom type things on the zipper, and Lucky bit one of them and tried to pull! Then he looked up and started biting my sleeves (he likes biting long sleeves!), and acting really playful. He makes this funny sound when he's playing. It's kind of like a growl, but he's also making this puffing sound because he blows air out his mouth when it's closed, and it sounds really funny.
He started biting at my hands too. It doesn't really hurt though. He used to play fetch with himself by throwing logs (yes, logs. Not sticks) or rocks into the air and catching them, and he managed to knock out quite a few teeth that way. I guess he isn't the brightest.
But he's really sweet. He has sort of an Eeyore disposition.

The Asian Adventure

The other day Lizzy and I decided we wanted an adventure (any combination of Gardner kids+Muetz kids=someone wanting an adventure). It was around lunch time, so Lizzy and I decided our adventure could be going to the Asian food store and getting some rice noodles and pad thai sauce. So, we set out with a GPS that wasn't working and delayed us by a few minutes, but we got the Asian food store and started browsing. Lizzy picked out a passion fruit juice, and I picked out a roasted coconut juice (highly recommended by the cashier). We got some chopstocks, and our pad thai supplies.
When we got home we set the water to boil, and then we decided, "hey, lets eat on the floor and act Japanese!"
We found a board and put it over a cooler to make a low table. We found a table cloth, then pillows to sit on. We looked up a traditional Japanese blessing to say before and after the meal. Then, we realized that I happen to have a Japanese Kimono, and Lizzy and some sort of Asian robe. We decided we should be dressed in them for the meal. So, I suppose while all Asian (other than the European bread), we were kind of diverse. We had Chinese, Japanese, and Thailand themes going on. All in all, it was a very worthwhile adventure.
For our next ethnic adventure, we'll probably go explore the Mexican grocery store.

I almost forgot to add this warning: If you happen to get some roasted coconut juice, be aware that it has chunks of coconut in it. You'll want to make sure you don't choke on your juice...

My first post in 2011!

Wow, 2011? I can't believe it! I remember New Year's of 2000. It doesn't seem like that was 11 years ago.
And this is my first post this year. I guess I've gotten bad about posting since we moved.
I'll have to try more often!

I know winter has barely started, but already I can't wait for spring! I want it to be warm (or at least not freezing) and the ground to be dry. I guess I have no choice but to wait a few months.
Yesterday Jeremy, Lizzy and I all really wanted to go the park and roll down the big hill. Just not in the snow. Although who knows, maybe that would be fun...

Yesterday the three of us decided to have a bit of an adventure. We realized none of us could remember when was the last time we did a somersault. I guessed that the last time I would have done one was probably in Texas, so over five years ago! Before we started, we decided to look it up on Youtube to avoid breaking our necks. We watched a gymnastics video, but we decided none of us ever did our somersaults that way when we were little. Apparently we always risked breaking our necks! We decided to stick with our old method anyway.
I went first. I did one and was quite happy. Then I decided to try doing several in a row. After the second one I crashed into the wall (it's not a very wide hallway...).
Jeremy couldn't do one. He was afraid of breaking his neck. Lizzy tried a few times, but always ended up with her legs going up the wall.
My dad came home at that point and wanted to try to outdo Jeremy. He soon changed his mind, though. He thought it might be awkward to call into work next week saying "Sorry, I can't come in. I broke my body trying to outdo my 19 year old son in somersaults."
I can see how that would be potentially awkward.
The whole thing was pretty humorous, though.

And in other news, many of us have or are getting over colds. I think my mom, Luke, and John had it the worst. Somehow I've managed to avoid catching it. Although I've lost some sleep from the others having it. From my room I can hear both John and Luke coughing in their rooms.

Oh, and I like Janesville. So much better than Custer Park.