Category Archives: blogging

Not Blogging Since October, 2010

I decided my blogging hiatus was getting old, so I am giving the old blog another go.

I have been thinking a lot of why I quit blogging for a while.  Yes.  It is true that working full-time has carved a big chunk out of my “spare time.”  But, ultimately, I think it has been because I haven’t felt like I have anything much to say.  Most of my old family posts are now covered with Facebook in much smaller bits–better for everyone.  But I really feel like I want to have something to say.  So I will give a try to finding this and that in the news, books, or other common cultural element to comment on here and there.  If I get too busy or tired, the few who might stop by will forgive me, right?

So I’ll start blogging again by sharing a Psalm that has been meaningful to me.  No commentary.  Just God’s word:

Psalm 34–ESV

 

I will bless the Lord at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul makes its boast in the Lord;
let the humble hear and be glad.
Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt his name together!

I sought the Lord, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
Those who look to him are radiant,
and their faces shall never be ashamed.
This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him
and saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the Lord encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints,
for those who fear him have no lack!
10 The young lions suffer want and hunger;
but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

11 Come, O children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
12 What man is there who desires life
and loves many days, that he may see good?
13 Keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from speaking deceit.
14 Turn away from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.

15 The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous
and his ears toward their cry.
16 The face of the Lord is against those who do evil,
to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
17 When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears
and delivers them out of all their troubles.
18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.

19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
but the Lord delivers him out of them all.
20 He keeps all his bones;
not one of them is broken.
21 Affliction will slay the wicked,
and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.
22 The Lord redeems the life of his servants;
none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

A Funny Thing Happened on the way to my Blog

So I was doing pretty well there at the end of September . . . on a roll with blog posts.  I was thinking I might get back to regular posting.  But then realities of life got in the way.  And I have lapsed again.

Then tonight I thought, “Oh.  I think I had better post something on my blog.”  So I meander over to “manage the site,” and I notice that there are 12 comments in the “comment moderation” box.  I used to get little e-mail reminders about comments that need approval, but I haven’t received any of those in a while.  I sort of forgot about the approving of comments thing.  So I was happy to see that others had commented on posts.  I was also sorry that I hadn’t approved the comments right away.  I confess to being motivated by comments, so this little happenstance could get me back on the blog horse again.

That’s all for now . . . thanks for stopping by to the commenters who were lately approved.

Wasup Wednesdays 4

It’s 11:38 pm on Wednesday night, and I haven’t posted to tell you wasup . . . .

So, here goes:

School :  Got done on schedule today.  This is big,  folks.  When will it happen again?  I don’t know.  But let’s just glory in the moment 🙂

Diet: Still keeping up the lo-carb eating.  It is going well for the most part, but I find it challenging to keep the menu interesting.  Right now I am on a ginger/garlic stir-fry kick.  It is also challenging to keep food on hand for the kids that I really don’t want to eat.  So far, Mark and I have resisted pretty well–other than a couple of times we have consciously decided to partake of something off the plan.  I think Mark is losing a good bit.  I am losing, but I am the only one who can tell.  It may take a long time for this to work for me.  I think this will motivate me to get the exercise thing going.

Kids:  As my facebook status updates and my blog posts indicate, football is our life.  It is time consuming, and I love to complain about it, but ultimately, it is really great for the boys.  They are getting more exercise than they ever have in their lives, and for Calvin especially, it is a good way to channel all his extra energy.  He is also really into it mentally.

Oh, yeah, we do have 2 girls, too.  The girls are busy with drama class that is part of their school program this year, and they are back in Awana at their old school.  This is good since it gives them a chance to keep up with some of last year’s school friends a bit.  Evangeline has started rehearsals again with Kirkwood Children’s Chorale, too.

Let’s not forget the dog:  We are about to have our second anniversary of Simon ownership.  He is a great dog, and we really love him.  He has had a few tummy issues in the last couple of months that have concerned us a bit, but the vet hasn’t had much insight.  We have been trying to walk him more regularly, and that seems to have helped with increasing his appetite and giving him more energy.  We keep watching him to see if we need to visit the vet again.

Boring Post:  This has turned into a more boring than normal post, but I guess that means life is moving along at a nice click, and there’s nothing big to share.   Perhaps I just feel pressured to hit that publish button before midnight . . . .

Early to bed,

night owl, or burning the candle at both ends?  I tend to be option #3 because I enjoy having time to myself, and “both ends” seems to be the only time to get that precious commodity.

I got to thinking about how some people are early risers, others are night owls, and some of us are both ends people when I noted the times of people’s comments on blogs or facebook. Truth be told,  I guess I am really am a night owl who wants to be an early riser, too.  So I pretend I do both.  Really, I drag myself out of be in the morning on most days after staying up too late the night before.

Right now, it is 12:45 am, and I intended to be asleep by midnight, but I am waiting for some nasty stomach symptoms to subside.  Two doses of the pink stuff have improved things, but I can’t sleep just yet.  So what else is there to do but blog about some mundane thoughts running through my mind?

So, which are you?  An early to bed early riser?  A night  owl who seems to have a daily hangover?  A “I only need 4 hours of sleep a night, and I am still Mary Sunshine who runs 4 miles every day?”

Talk amongst yourselves.

Wasup Wednesdays?

So some of my fellow bloggers are doing “cool” regular blog posts each week, so I decided I could do that too.  Maybe I will stick with it, unlike the now defunct “Tuesday Tunes” of my blog’s ancient history.  Having “Wasup Wednesdays?” also does not limit my subject  matter.  This is good because it allows anything to be included in my post.  This is bad because it allows anything to be included in my post!

This Wednesday at Chez Horne:

School is on the agenda.  Hopefully, it will be a better day than Tuesday in terms of student motivation. The boys need to work on a demonstration presentation for their drama class tomorrow.  There is also a need to work on monologues for drama by all four.  They like drama–but it is less fun when there is actual work involved.

Football is also a part of the plan for today.  (I know, you think, isn’t it always on the agenda in some fashion or another?)  Only Calvin practices tonight, so we only need to go to one location.  It’s a relatively easy night on the football schedule.

Wednesday Update:

Last personal post (2 posts and practically a month ago), I reported my weight loss and exercise plan.  The dieting part has gone great.  I can’t report on poundage lost because, as you may or may not remember, I am not getting on the scale at this point.  But I can see a change in my face and feel a change in the waistline of my pants, so something is working.  I have stayed pretty close to the plan for most of the past 4+weeks, and I am finding it pretty doable.  I also really like keeping my bloodsugar level stable because I haven’t had one of those in hypoglycemic-like episodes since I started.  I am still struggling with the exercise bit, but I will make it work.  I am determined.

Books:

I finished a little contemporary novel called Jemima J.  I enjoyed it as brain candy.  I don’t recommend it because there are parts that weren’t very edifying.  But if you are someone who appreciates the humor of Bridget Jones’s Diary, you might enjoy this.  I bought it at the Salvation Army for 25 cents, so I can definitely say it was worth what I paid for it!

I, at long last, am nearly finished with the first Harry Potter book.  I restarted it about 3 weeks ago, and I would be finished if it weren’t for reading the above “mind candy” book and that pesky little school year having to start.  I love Harry Potter, and I have listened to almost all the books on cd over the years when the kids weren’t old enough to read the books.  I just hadn’t made time to read them myself.  Book 2 is waiting patiently on my bedstand for me to finish book 1, and that I shall do.

I also picked up something new to me at  the library–books by Alexander McCall Smith. One begins a series called the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, and the other begins a series called 44 Scotland Street.  I have just dipped into both of these, so I am curious is anyone else has read them or has an opinion about them.

Now I must forge ahead into my Wednesday, or nothing will happen . . .

No Longer on a Roll

So I was doing pretty well there with regular blog posts.  What happened?  What always does–life.

Mark has been crazy busy with work projects.  One has a quick turnaround deadline, and it is sort of speculative.  So pray he gets it done, and pray the $$ comes through.

Then there’s been all the kids’ stuff.  The girls are taking swimming lessons; Nevin is taking wrestling; and Calvin only made it on the waiting list for fencing, but he’ll get in the next session in a month or so.  Awana started for the the 3 younger ones three weeks ago, too.  And, Evangeline has been to the dentist twice in the past 2 weeks.  She had a toothache that turned out to be an abcessed tooth.  She had to have it pulled, and she was very brave about it all.  Then we took her back the following week for a cleaning and x-rays.  It turns out she has 2 more cavities that will need to be filled.  Oh, and the dentist informed me that we need to see an orthodontist.  Yay!  We have expected this with Nevin, but we were crossing our fingers that he would be the only one.

So in the midst of the nation’s economic crisis, life goes on.  Nevin asked me today what we would do if the economic system collapsed.  I told him we would be ok because we have practice with economic crisis.  He laughed at my little joke, which I guess is a good thing since he understood what I was getting at, and yet it didn’t make him unhappy.  (I also added that we would trust God and work for a solution, btw. )

New Blog Added to the Roll

I just wanted to note that I just added our young friend Justin Donathan to my blogroll.

Justin is a student at Covenant Seminary who we met briefly in Oklahoma before we moved to St Louis.  Even though we barely knew him, he helped Mark drive our moving van from OK to STL.  That alone earns him a spot in my blogroll.  Since he has been in St Louis, we have shamelessly asked him to help us with a variety of things at our house, and he has almost always said yes.

His blog is pleasant to look at and filled with much more erudite content than a lot of blogs out there.  If you like to read and think, his is a good place to visit.  If you like to pretend that you are a reader and a thinker like I do, you’ll enjoy visiting his blog, too.

Angie’s Tag Game

My friend Angie over at bloggindasz tagged me earlier this week, and since the first questions is about the Super Bowl, I thought I should post my answers before the game:

1. Are you rooting for the Patriots or Giants?
a. Go Giants!
b. Go Patriots!
c. No strong feelings either way, but should be a good game
d. The what?

I really didn’t think about it being Super Bowl time until last week when I heard something about the Patriots playing. So I am really rooting for neither.

I grew up as a big Steelers fan and even trading football cards with boys at school. But the NFL has not been a part of my life much as an adult. Of course, if there is ever another SB with the Steelers, I’ll be watching. If there is one where the Steelers are playing Dallas or Miami, I will be hosting a SB party requiring all attendants to wear black and gold.

2. Seven choices of vacation. Pick one:

a. Beach house, white sand, great waves
b. Condo in the mountains; view of snowy peaks
c. Nice hotel in New York City with tickets to the latest Broadway show
d. Tour of historic sites and museums in Greece and Italy
e. Bed and breakfast with time for antiquing
f. Home–sleeping in, hanging out, and doing stuff you don’t usually have time to do
g. I prefer not to take vacations.

Vacation, what’s a vacation.

Seriously though, of the choices above, C appeals to me most. I would love to spend a week in NYC in a great hotel with tickets to more than one Broadway show. What would be really fun would be to have a week there with my husband, and then have a second week with my kids there to see all the great sites there.

3. Coffee drinker? If no, why? If yes, sugar, cream, or neither?

Definitely a coffee drinker. I used to drink it black, but a few years back when I was on the Atkins diet that allowed half-n-half in coffee, I started using it to give the coffee a little substance. Now, I drink one cup a day with half-n-half. If I have more, I drink it black.

4. What’s the last book you read (or are you in the middle of reading)?

I just finished Lady’s Maid by Ellen Forster. I reviewed it a few posts ago, so I’ll mention that I am in the middle of Girl Meets God, a memoir by Lauren Winner, which I am enjoying immensely. I plan to share my thoughts on it here soon.

5. You’re at the grocery store, waiting in the check-out line with a cart full of stuff. You glance over your shoulder for a moment, wondering whether you should have picked up an extra package of waffles. When you turn around, you notice that a lady has cut in line in front of you. Your eyes meet. She glowers and starts to put her items on the belt. You:

a. Grumble to yourself but don’t say anything out loud. You dislike scenes.
b. Say, “Excuse me, ma’am, but I was next in line.” That’s about as far as you’d take it, though.
c. March over to the belt, push her items onto the floor, and tell her that she and her cream of mushroom soup can go get in line like everybody else.
d. Grab your cell phone and snap a picture of the lady, thinking “Yes! I’ve got something good to blog about!”

I would probably choose b. I hate to be cut off, whether it be in the grocery store line or on the highway. I have been known to be a little more in your face than choice b indicates, but I am trying to be more charitable toward people in these kinds of situations.

6. Please share two or three links of things that made you laugh. Out loud. A blog post, a cartoon, a YouTube clip–whatever.

Lots of the posts on bloggindasz make me laugh, and I always get a chuckle from Annie’s stories about her crazy boys. My link takes you to a page of her blog where you need to scroll down to the entry called, “Speaking of Gifts.” “Adventures in Grocery Shopping” from Because I Said So was another great one I laughed at last fall.

Now, I tag: Angie D., Jennifer C., and Brandy.

This, That, and the Other Thing; Baedekers Included

First, this:

Procrastination–I have a big project to complete, so I am finding every manner of activity to do instead of working on the project–blogging included.

Second, that:

The project I am completing involves a lot of data entry. Arrgh. So I am sitting with my laptop on the sofa and watching a movie while I enter the data. When I come to a stopping point, I do a little web surfing. This is not the most time-effective way to complete a project, but it makes me feel less like I am working on a Saturday. I won’t do all the work like this; I’ll buckle down and get it done on time.

I am watching a movie that I love, so I don’t have to really concentrate on it. I can hear it in the background, and enjoy the familiarity, the comfort of it. It is A Room With A View by EM Forster. Say what you may about EM Forster, but I enjoy his books. I can overlook his opinions that I don’t agree with to just enjoy the plot. I’ve read this book multiple times, and I enjoy the movie from time to time. I received it on DVD as a gift for my birthday last year, so now I can just put it in whenever I please.

I recommend this movie highly if you enjoy British period films. Helena Bonhomme Carter plays the principle female role, and there are other British actors that you’ll recognize. My only disclaimer is that it has some brief male nudity that is shot distantly, so it isn’t horribly scandalous. However, once I forgot to mention this to someone when I recommended this movie, and I lived to regret that mistake. Never again.

The Other Thing

The other thing I did today was shop for pants for my eldest son. At the beginning of the school year, a mere 4 months ago, we bought him several pair of school pants and a few pair of jeans. Now, at the halfway point of the school year, he has grown 3 inches! His pants are what we affectionately referred to as “flood pants” in the old days. When he is standing, they rest about a half inch above his high-tops. At his current height, size 18 in boys’ sizes are too short. So, today I went to Old Navy to purchase the smallest waist men’s pants available–28. I am expecting them to be a tad loose at the waist, but hopefully we will no longer have a view of his ankles. He is camping with scouts this weekend, so I have to wait until tomorrow to see if my pants errand was successful. If it was, I will be a devotee of clearance racks at Old Navy. I hardly ever set foot in the store because I can’t really afford clothes from there, but there sale prices were reasonable and the clearance rack was an excellent place for the budget conscious to shop. Mark even scored a pair of pants from the clearance rack and a pair of jeans from the sale selections!

Baedekers included . . . I just threw this in because chapter 2 of A Room with a View is entitled, “In Santa Croce with No Baedeker,” which begs the question, what is a baedeker? If you really want to know, go here.

Are Blogs Dying?

As a veteran blogger of nearly 6 years, I understand the sentiment of this article.  I have never blogged for anything more than my personal entertainment and a desire to somehow connect with other adults.  I started blogging in the first place as a sort of personal coping mechanism for the various difficult circumstances I was facing at the time.  I have kept blogging for that reason and also to keep a sketchy record of our family’s life and my thoughts about it.  Occasionally, I throw in something else.  But I never expected to earn money or gain fame by blogging.  I just thought it was cool technology that wasn’t too difficult for me to play around with in a way that might be fun and helpful.

Alas, we all know that real “bloggers” do much more than that.

The article in CT makes me wonder about the whole future of blogging though.  Any thoughts?