CUTEness!

i went shopping (or more like "looking") around downtown harrisonburg today. in the midst, i tried on the absolute cutest dress that has been on my body in a long while! unfortunately the price tag was outrageous. super sad. oh well, at least i got to flaunt it in the dressing room for about 5 mins!

lukewarmness and risk

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.

been thinking about these verse a lot lately . . . how much i live in that state of lukewarmness. in a state of safety and comfort and mediocrity. it's sickening actually. and saddening. and flat-out ridiculous. from what i have been able to recall from scripture about how this life is to be lived, there is nothing about safety or comfort or mediocrtiy. in fact, it's quite the opposite.

seems as though "risk" has been a constant pop-up word in my reading lately. "the dangerous will of God." "a call for christian risk." matthew 16:25.

but the more i think of it, the more it makes sense. if my future - and by future i mean for all eternity - is secure, then why would i not risk everything in this life for the sake of "kingdom purposes"???

as piper wrote: "by removing eternal risk, Christ calls his people to continual temporal risk . . . It is risky to serve Christ in a war zone. You might get shot. You might not."

and for that, lukewarmness will not do.

i went strawberry picking for the first time!!!

tracie (one of my fellow speech therapists) went with me.

a little piper

from a piper devotional just recently read. written after the tsunami. applicable for any tragedy:

the point of every deadly calamity is this: repent. let our hearts be broken that God means so little to us. grieve that he is a whipping boy to be blamed for pain, but not praised for pleasure. lament that he makes headlines only when man mocks his power, but no headlines for ten thousand days of wrath withheld. let us rend our hearts that we love life more than we love Jesus Christ. let us cast ourselves on the mercy of our Maker. He offers it through the death and resurrection of his Son.

see luke 13:4-5 for a biblical reference.

lovely things



my girls at work know that recently i have been mentally compiling a list of things that i immensely enjoy or take particular delight in. i'm not sure how this list started . . . i think i've just been trying to be more aware of the creatively designed things that surround me, both by my God and by people . . .

i have taken a particularly interest in making myself aware of things that i love about this place that i live called the eastern shore. the eastern shore is a quaint little place. while it is growing by leaps and bounds, it still maintains much of its down-home goodness. i much enjoy that. this is particularly wonderful to me because, when i moved here, i never thought i would love anything about this place.

below you will find a partial list that has come up over the last week, some shore related, some not.

1. driving over the bay bridge and being at the same level with the birds.

2. strawberry picking

3. eating bananas divided into its 3 natural triangle-like parts (does anyone understand what i mean when i say this?)

4. hand-painted signs on the side of the road that advertize home-grown products sold right from the house (and especially when there's just a box where you leave your money - it is comforting to know that people are still trusting like that)

5. that the sky looks different every night as the sun sets

dissatisfying imbalance

Initially I was thrilled to figure out how to post pictures. Now, I’m not sure it’s not both a blessing and a curse. I’ll elaborate.

Since posting pics, yes, I agree that it has added a new dimension to my blog . . . maybe gained a few more viewers . . . certainly a few additional comments, but at what cost?

One thing that I liked about my blog pre-pictures was that it aired out my thoughts. It highlighted some cool things about life that I don’t always notice. It was a written explanation of how God let me see things differently or notice him in things or enjoy things i normally look right past.

There’s not much of that now. Just pictures with shallow narrative.

Color substituted for content.

I’m not sure how I feel about it.

Correction; I am sure how I feel about it. I don’t like it one little bit. Pictures – while delightfully fun to post and look at and preserve memories I otherwise wouldn’t – can’t replace musings.

I admit, this is my fault. Picture posting has made me lazy. I still have weighty thoughts; it's just easier and faster to post pics than try to hammer out ideas into words. There are plenty of people that have mastered the art of combining both pictures and thought for a more complete and well-balanced blog. I have not.

This is my new quest. Narrative that is depthy, yet not so long that I lose ½ my readers. Pictures that compliment, but don’t replace worthy words.

We’ll see how I do.

d.c. friends

i spent my weekend in the d.c. area visitng a few of my friends from college. these are some of my dearest friends from college. amy (who i always stay with when i go to d.c.) is married to pete. jessica (lives in gaithersburg) is married to kris and has a 1-month-old (april 10) named jack. below you can see a smattering of the events of the weekend, including our meeting of little jack!!!

the man of the hour - jack tyler

jessica (mommy) and jack

did you know that at 1-month, babies only can focus their gaze about 10-12 inches away?

amy and jack

sushi for dinner

pete taught me a new game this weekend: settlers of catan. well worth the time it takes to play.

need to bring this one to the shore.

peter predicting his next move (he played 2 hands). we needed 3 people to play, but amy didn't really want to, so pete played her hand.

ames and me
the happy couple at home
their cute townhouse; fresh knockout roses from amy's garden

baking cookies: amy and i share the same favorite - oatmeal chocolate chip. convenient!