Grumpy

Hello!
I'm still alive!
I wasn't scared of the surgery, just the recovery. Laura was miserable for the better part of a week after having her wisdom teeth taken out.

I was coherent and able to talk (except for the mouthful of gauze) as soon as I came out of anesthesia. Monday and Tuesday weren't so bad. I laid on the sofa with ice packs on my face, and my mommy took good care of me. I was in no pain, and I really enjoy mashed potatoes and gravy and television and sleep, so it wasn't so bad.

Today, however, I have been very grumpy. I can feel where my stitches are. The ice packs won't stay cold and won't stay put. My cheeks are starting to swell. I have things I need to do, and I keep feeling so very hindered. I forgot to take my medicine on time twice. I wanted to sleep, and couldn't. All day I lied on the sofa trying to fall asleep in vain. I managed a one hour nap. And I've been grumpy. I think I mentioned that already. And my poor, dear friends Sarah and Megan are over, and I'm just no fun.

And did I mention how annoying these stupid ice packs are?!
**sigh**
So, thank you to everyone who prayed for me. Your prayers have been working. As you can see, I'm perfectly fine. And I will be able to go to the prayer advance. We're leaving early in the morning.

Methinks a prayer advance is just what grumpy-face needs. :|
<3 Me

I Bid Thee Farewell

...
**solemn silence**
The time has come.
I am to have my wisdom teeth chiseled out of my skull in the morning.
(That's how I worded it for my prayer request in Sunday School. I love making people laugh.)

Actually, maybe they won't have to chisel so much. Hopefully they're not impacted in the bone. I'm thinking it will hurt a lot worse than otherwise if they are. But I'm not sure if they're impacted, or if they just haven't come out yet, so I'll let you know when I'm capable of doing so. In the meantime, just keep praying that it will be over quickly, and that I'll heal quickly.


Great news! I made 2 sales on Etsy recently! Both custom orders, and one a return customer. You know what this means, don't you? People like me!! (Okay, so that might have already been established, but... ) I've had 2 or 3 return customers. That's great! People coming back means they really really like my stuff! And people sticking around to ask for a custom order instead of wandering off to someone else's shop means the same thing, too. Yay!

And I have a cool new yellow background.

Also, Leslie tagged me. So, here goes:



The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 3 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person know when you've posted your answers...

1. Favorite ethnic
Favorite ethnic?? Ethnic what? Ethnicity? And after repeating that so many times, I can't help but think "ethnic" is an odd word. Anyways. Um... I like [american] Chinese food? But I don't know that I like Chinese culture so much... And I like Mexican food too. But beyond food, I really don't have a grasp of enough different cultures to tell you my favorite... The English seem sort of quaint...

2. something you've always wanted to do.
Ride the biggest, tallest, fastest roller coaster in the world. In the front car.

3. Favorite color
yellow

4. Something you collect
I have to force myself to not buy teddy bears because I already have like 13 and nowhere to put them. Does that count?

5. something you do to relax
self acupuncture.

No, I'm kidding. I usually just close my eyes, breathe deeply, and think "relax, you idiot!"
It doesn't always work.

7. bloggers i am going to tag:
Abby, um... Oh, man. I know it's totally not fair to only tag one person, but I can't think of anyone else. I'm sorry! Oh, wait, um.. how about Tiffany. And... maybe somebody from the Ant Farm over there.

There. It's over with. I always feel bad for tagging people. The same way I feel bad when I call people. Like I'm intruding on their lives or something.

I thought there was something else of interest I was going to say.... Oh! Laura and I spent most of yesterday at Mema's house, just hanging out and swimming and stuff. Pepa let us take out the jet skis for a while. That was fun. We hadn't seen them for a while, so I'm really glad we got to just go over and hang out.

Today we joined the choir. Practice was great. I'm really looking forward to being a choir member.

Aaaand, I'm not supposed to eat or drink tomorrow before I get my teeth out. That means no coffee! I think I may have a cup of decaf while I go pack up those Etsy orders.

And so, dear friends, I leave you now. Whether for a couple days, or an entire week I know not. But I will be back.

:D
Oh! I just remembered I was supposed to post 6 Flags pictures. ... well, I didn't get many good ones, so it can wait.

I'm really leaving now.
Bye!

Summary

Since Wednesday night (the time of my last post), these are the goings-on that have ...um, goed on.

I went to bed much too late.
I got up early, got ready, and went to Six Flags with my family, after picking up some friends.

Oh, wait. I forgot something.
Getting ready includes getting a haircut.
...
Yes, I know! I know! I was finally getting some length back, and making progress in growing it out, and all that... But here's the deal:
I love my hair really short.
I love my hair really long.
In order to grow it back out, it's going to have to be in between forever, and I hate it in between. And I'm just not ready yet. Even though I thought I was. So, I promise I will grow it back out one day. I really will. But I just had to cut it again. And Mama can tell you, I was rejoicing. I think I said "Yay! I love my hair! it looks so great now!" at least 4 times.
So... confession over.

I was absolutely insanely excited to be back at Six Flags. I love that place.

Mama, Nicholas, Joey, Abby, Alicia, and I rode the Scorcher, the Cyclone, and the Goliath. We had a marvelous time.

We went out to the van and had lunch.
After lunch, Alicia, Nicholas, Joey, Abby, and I set out on our own, while Mama took Emmie and Ben and went to hang out with her other grown up friends and their little ones.

From 2:30 to ... 6:30 was pretty close to miserable. I was the leader, and a bad one at that. I had totally forgotten the layout of the park, my feet hurt, I kept leading us in indecisive circles unintentionally, and we didn't even do much. It was partly the fault of the increasing line lengths. The kids rode the swings, and we stood in line for ages upon end to ride the Batman (which I got a video of and will post on facebook eventually), and then stood in line for more ages to ride the Scream Machine. The line looked short, but it was deceptively slow. So, I did have fun on the Scream Machine, but the rest of the time was a major letdown.

We all met, left the park to go to the van and get some drinks, came back, and then we had fun.
We got to ride the Scorcher a couple times more. The front car is totally the best. ^.^ Laura and Alicia went to ride Acraphobia while the boys and I were stuck in line waiting for the Scorcher again, while they were fixing "technical difficulties." After that, we all met up and ended the night with Shake Rattle and Roll. Alicia and I had almost as much fun dancing in line as we did on the ride. LOL I love that ride. Only the cool slideshow of images from the 50s wasn't working! But the music and the ride were still great.

So, the middle of the day was torture, and I'm really glad we got to go back in and have a little more fun.

This morning I was supposed to have my wisdom teeth taken out, but now my appointment has been rescheduled for Monday. Which could be a big problem, because I'm going to the Prayer Advance Thursday. That doesn't leave me with a lot of healing time. I'm hoping I'll have a miraculous recovery. I'd appreciate your prayers that the surgery would go well, and I'd recover super-amazingly-fast. :)

I think I need to brew a little more coffee.
I'm tired.

I left the camera in the van, which I don't have access to right now, so I'll post pics when I can.

And! Leslie tagged me, so that will be my next post. ;-)

Happy Weekend, dear friends, and thank you for reading, as always. Knowing people read my little ramblings makes me feel kinda special. :P

Happy Random Things

Happy random things. That's what most of my blog is about.
... I guess that's just what I like to focus on. Yay for Happy Random Things!

I listed some new stuff on Etsy today. I also got the pics together for 4 other things that need to be listed. I made these hats at Aunt Cindy's. I can't stop making pleated berets like the orange one. They're my new favorite thing.


My cute ring was put in the mail today. And so was that great Kool-Aid yarn I ordered. And I ordered those spiffy orange buttons. Hooray for Etsy!

But the best thing of all is SIX FLAGS!! I'm going to Six Flags tomorrow! So. Fun. If you've known me long at all, you should know my of my truly deep, heartfelt love for Six Flags. It's true.
My whole family is going, Alicia's coming with us, Kasey and one of her friends are riding with us, and Keith is going to be there, so I'll have no shortage of interesting people to yak at. (See, the problem with yakking at uninteresting people is that they usually don't have good responses)

I'm taking Mama's camera (even though she's going to be there too - I get to be the camera person, hopefully), and I should have a nice picture post sometime hereafter.

I probably won't be around for the next couple days though. Wisdom teeth, you know. But regular life (= blogging) should resume pretty quickly after that.

By the way, welcome home to Paul!

I'm having a nice cup of coffee. I only had one little sip this morning, which is totally unusual for me. I'm making up for it now.

And I had some of the best ginger ale in the world earlier today. Blenheim. Thanks, Katey!!

It's good to be home.

G'bye. :)

In Other News...

That's one of my favorite blogging phrases. In other news...

Laura and I are going home tomorrow. I'm ready to go. I didn't think I would be, actually, but I am. Especially since we were at home very little for the three weeks before we came. I miss my family, and my crazy bird.

So, yesterday Laura, Aunt Cindy, and I had our serious girl-time. We talked on our way to the mall, then we did some shopping, and then we had dinner at P.F. Chang's.

Shopping was great. I got two really cute shirts, and an amazing pair of pants at Old Navy. Only, they're way too long even when I wear my tallest shoes. But I think I've figured out how to fix that without botching them. And I got some great denim walking shorts at JC Penney's.

Dinner was SOO good. The best part. I love Chinese. We all tasted each other's food, and each liked what we chose best. And choosing was hard. Lo Mein with chicken, beef, pork, and shrimp. SO yummy. I ate my whole meal with chopsticks. Go me! I didn't know I was so talented. ;-) It's chopsticks for me whenever I have Asian food from now on. lol I had the leftovers for lunch today. But I used a fork.

We went to the beach again last week. And it was smelly and nasty, due to the weather having washed a bunch of seaweed ashore. We didn't stay long. On our way home, a friend of Aunt Cindy's invited us to come swimming at their community pool! So, we did, and it was a blast. It was the coolest pool ever. With a big, fun waterslide. Yay!

We've rented tons of movies the past week. We had a 3 in a row marathon last night. After watching a bunch of bittersweet/depressing movies, we finished with Martian Child. Aunt Cindy fell asleep and finally decided just to go to bed, so we watched it all by our lonely little awake selves. :D It was really good. Very heartwarming. Recommended.

After my post about my favorite things on Etsy, I was contacted by Helen of ShereDesigns on Etsy. Maker of the super-fabulous cute little bird ring that I so love. (She's ordered slippers from me before.) And guess what she did? She proposed a trade. That I send her this beret for that ring.

Is that cool or what? I am telling you, I was so excited I scared Anna and Sarah. I jumped up and down and clapped. And squealed "Yay! I'm so excited" more than a few times.
That's just pretty neat, if you ask me.

I also made a sale, and had 2 people message me to ask if I could make something specifically for them. So, Etsy wise, it's been a good week. Now I just need to make another sale so that I can buy supplies to please these nice people who want special orders. :D

Also, some dear, dear people have paid for Laura and Mama to go the prayer advance with me! So, we're all going! And I'm rooming with my Sarah-friend! YAY!!

Our youth group might be going to Six Flags on Thursday, and I really want to... so I hope that works out.

Friday, I'm having my wisdom teeth out. I hope I won't be useless for the rest of the weekend, but I'm sure I will be.

Next weekend is the Prayer Advancce. The Tuesday after that is my birthday! That's only two weeks away!

After that, I think the excitement will finally be over. At least until October, when we're going on vacation with the Looneys. I hope camping with the Looneys, and making at least one visit to the Fontenot's house can be managed sometime between there.

I just said ALL of that, but I really just wanted to tell you guys I thought it was cool that I used chopsticks close to effortlessly, and that I'm getting the ring I like so much. :)

Pray we'll have a safe trip home tomorrow, pretty please.
Love to all of my friends!

Me

Introspective Reflection

I've been thinking a lot lately about whether or not I'll be going back to teach preschool this fall. I feel like I won't be. Or at least, I'm not anticipating it. I'm just waiting rather calmly to see what happens, but still... I feel like it's pretty much settled that I'll be staying home, even though nobody's said so for sure. Maybe that unfounded uncertainty is actually God preparing me? I don't know. But I was hit with a realization the other day - I only want to go back for selfish reasons.

Not because "God told me to" or "I feel it's my calling." No. I want to go back because:

I like being needed.

like I'm not needed at home, right?

I like being with the kids. It's fun.

I need to be with my own brothers and sisters.
I need to work on our relationships.
I want to be like Brittany Antonion in the way that she is so sweet and so motherly and so best-friendsy with her siblings- and I know they have fun together.

I like being in charge.

I'm in charge at home, too. sort of.

Only it's so much easier to be in charge in a nice way when it's not your family.
why is that?

I like being with the other adults. Even though I'm the kid out of the bunch. It makes me feel like a "big kid"... Like I'm important.

As if helping and loving my own family isn't important.

I like having a reason to be up and at 'em early in the morning.

Like I don't have a reason at home.
I just don't make myself get up and attend to those reasons.

I like getting a paycheck.

... okay, so I can't counter that one with a different source of money, but looking at the big picture, being home is so much more worth it, right?
"My God will supply all thy needs..."

And it was somewhat of a breakthrough when I realized this next one - This is the clincher.

I really like the security of being able to tell people that I have a job.

"So, you're going to college, right?"
"no..."
"Oh?! Well, then. What are you doing?"

"Oh, I work at a preschool" is SO much more "socially acceptable" than
"I stay at home. But I know I'm doing what God wants me to do right now."
It's so much safer when you can tell people you have a job.

And there are just a few people that I really love, and have really missed this summer. But I guess nobody's to say I can't visit them.

So, it sounds to me like I need to learn to love my family deeper.
That's sad. That I would rather give my mornings to a bunch of preschoolers I'll only know for a year than my family. That makes me really disappointed in myself.

This post started as a journal entry probably two weeks ago. I was just thinking and writing. And my little ramble about wanting to go back turned into a realization - and a discovery of my selfish motives.

It's true. They're all selfish. And knowing that they're selfish reasons, and that staying home is the "Godly Womanhood" way to go doesn't make me any happier about it. Not that I feel I'm resigned to doom and misery. I'm not really upset or anything. I know if I don't work, and stay home, I will grow and learn. I will honestly try to become the godliest little me that I can be. But I like working. And I like getting a paycheck. And I like the security. I feel like people will automatically assume that I must be a lazy, pointless, drop-out type, or like I "haven't got my act together yet" when I tell them I stay at home.
I know for certain that a LOT of people think things along those lines about stay at home moms.
And I admit it. I'm scared of what people think of me.
And yes, I know there's no reason to be.

But maybe it's just time for me to be as insecure as I've ever been. Maybe I'm supposed to be afraid and insecure, and learn to get over it. Or, more aptly, learn to realize that my ever-present Father is the only security I need, and the only True security I'll ever have. Not just know. There's something deeper to that word, realize.

I'm selfish, and I guess that's all there is to it. But I really do want what God wants, so we'll see what He's got in mind, won't we?

It's like a battle, and I'm standing on the wrong side of the field. I'm not actively fighting. I'm just standing, looking over to the side I ought to be on. But even though I know it's safer over there, and even though I know I'll be fighting for the right things over there, I'm scared to cross over.

These are a Few of my Favorite Things

I've been browsing Etsy this morning, as I do most mornings, and I thought it would be fun to put together a little treasury of my own, featuring items from my favorites.



I added these to my favorites the other day.
They're not the only set of yellow vintage mugs in my favorites.
I love yellow. I love coffee mugs. I love vintage. How can I help it?


Now are these earrings cool or what? Permanent origami butterflies.
They're beautiful, unique, and colorful. So cool.

Do you know what I would make with this amazing wool?
Neither do I.
Probably a beret. They're my new "thing." I've made 6 the past 3 weeks.
But get this- it's dyed with Kool-Aid.



GreyBrocket is easily my favorite seller on Etsy. Which is really sad, because as of yet, I haven't bought anything from her. But I haunt her shop continually. She recently added a whole collection of neat screenprinted stuff to her assortment of amazing vintage goodies.
I think this bag is my absolute favorite out of everything I've ever seen in her shop.
It's yellow, and it has a bird.
Happiness in the shape of a bag.




I don't think I even need to say anything about this pair of earrings.
A (good) picture is worth a thousand words.


Orange vintage hoodie!! YAY!


Okay, so this is actually one thing in my favorites that I will never buy.
I just couldn't justify buying a cute pillow.
But I can't help loving it.

These mugs were feeling left out, so I decided to include them, too.
They're also from GreyBrocket.



I'm in love with this ring. Really.



Okay, I stumbled across these one day and had to add them.
I just realized they would be perfect for embellishing my kool-aid yarn berets!

And so, there you have a ton of my favorites in no particular order. I'm pretty sure my favorite colors and animals are reflected quite clearly in this lovely little list.
Please do not buy any of these things unless you're buying them for me.

Just kidding.

Trial Run

This is me, trying out this email posting thing.
I wonder if it will work?
It's awfully nifty if it does.
--
This message was from Miss Caitlin Butler.
If you would like to get to know her better, you may visit her web log, www.xanga.com/rainbogirl.
If you would like to observe her handiwork and craftiness, you may browse her online shop at www.CaitiJo.Etsy.com
If you wish to see other random (probably outdated) weirdness of hers, I recommend www.freewebs.com/undoubtedlyme .

Highlights

Speaking of highlights, my hair has lightened up rather a lot since I dyed it. Which sort of disappoints me, but oh well.

But that was just an aside thought. I'm actually here to
tell you about the highlights of the past few days.

Let's see. Well. Today Laura and I went to Publix. On our way, we were talking about how we forgot to tip the pizza guy Saturday night. He was a nice pizza guy, and he had way awesome dreads, and he deserved his tip. But I called in the payment on the phone, and completely forgot to tip him. Which made me feel absolutely dreadful. The pizza place is next to Publix, so we were saying wouldn't it be nice of us to go in and leave him a couple dollars. But I decided I didn't feel bad enough about it to just walk into a store and say, "here's some tip money for the guy with the dreadlocks... I forgot to tip him the other day... so, could you give it to him?" (What were the chances of him actually being there, right?)

So, we went to Publix, remembered everything on the list but the cream of chicken soup we needed for dinner, and headed home. I drove around the back of the store to leave. It's faster that way. Some guy putting boxes in a dumpster looked at me like I was crazy. And as we passed the back of the pizza place, lo and behold! "Hey, stop!" Laura and I said simultaneously. "It's the pizza guy!" "Quick, do you have money?" I stopped the car, and Laura frantically dug out some money. I snatched it from her, saying "quick, I think he's leaving!" and hopped out of the car. "Hey, wait!" I yelled to the startled pizza guy, who was getting is his car. He turned around. "Hi. You delivered our pizza the other night, and I forgot to tip you. So, here you go." He grinned and said thanks, and we left.

And I really don't care if you think it's silly - I believe God put that pizza guy in the right place at the right time so that we could give him his tip. I felt bad about forgetting it, and so God helped me out. Hopefully it brightened that guy's day. And I sure wish I knew his name just so I wouldn't've had to write "pizza guy" so many times.

I know pretty well how to make a short story long, don't I?

Saturday morning we all went to the park. Uncle Guy pushed Alli in the stroller, the girls had their roller blades, and Laura, Aunt Cindy, and I just walked. It was a nice, enjoyable walk. We got to the mile marker, and knew it was time to turn around. The girls were getting tired, and a storm was rolling in. After unsuccessful attempts at placing a bet on who could get to the car first, Uncle Guy declared that whoever ran the mile back fastest would win 50 dollars. Laura dropped out quickly, because she'd already been running. So it was just me and Aunt Cindy. And it didn't take long for my legs to start burning. We jogged, by the way. There's no way we could have full out run the mile.

We got close to the end, and the finish was in sigh. I seriously thought my legs were just going to stop. Aunt Cindy's a good coach, though. Very encouraging. We weren't too far from the water station that marked the end of the mile when she yelled "Now I'm gonna beat your booty! woo hoo!" and went into high gear. And then I realized, there's no way I was going to put my poor dear legs and lungs through that torture and not win. So I ran ahead and won. Yay me! Now I have 50 dollars. And I know that I'm capable of jogging a mile without stopping. That's something I haven't done before...

It was pretty neat though, because I honestly didn't think I *could* run anymore. And somehow I did. Hooray!

See? Another really short story dragged out into 3 paragraphs.

What else? ... We went swimming in a big fancy shcmancy, really nice hotel pool Sunday. That was cool.

...Um... Laura and I made sure to be online for Daniel Gardner's live broadcast today. Funny stuff there. If you're not familiar with Daniel Gardner, check out some of his videos on youtube or the website : www.thinkgardner.com. You don't have to like them, but I rather enjoy his random sense of humor.

In other news... I'm suffering from perpetual hunger. I think I'm going to have to get a bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats before I go to sleep or something. I always have weird dreams, so it doesn't matter if I eat before bed or not.

I registered for the Prayer Advance this week. That's happy. Except for having to pay the late registration fee. :)

I thought I would share with my dear sisters these wise tips from my uncle.

"When you have a husband, your main purpose in life is to NOT move his stuff. And don't try to change him."
"Once you get married, don't try to kill your husband."

*nods head sagely*

And so, I leave you now.
Have a good week.

A Lovely Day

Once upon a time, Caitlin got up on a Tuesday morning.
She took a shower. It was enjoyable. She had a cup of coffee. It, too, was enjoyable. She got ready to go to the beach.
And that is exactly what she proceeded to do, along with her sister, her aunt, and two of her 3 little cousins.

They arrived at the beach, rented chairs with an umbrella, and applied sunscreen.
Then Laura, whose sunglasses had been regrettably left behind, ventured back across the street, accompanied by Caitlin, to the Dollar Tree. To purchase sunglasses, of course.
After standing in line, and checking out 3 items, none of which were sunglasses, they went next door to Publix.
Dollar Tree has unreasonably ugly sunglasses, and Publix has unreasonably priced sunglasses. But Laura found a pair that would do, and they finally headed back toward the beach.

The water was warm, and the waves were calm, so the cousins all had a lovely time swimming while the aunt sat in the shade and read a book.
A valuable lesson was learned this day - shade at the beach means nothing. Ample amounts of sunscreen are required wherever you may happen to be, due to the unfortunate reflection of the sun's rays on the sand. All members of the little party came away a much brighter shade of pink than when they had arrived. A much more painful pink shade of pink, I might add.

Caitlin was enjoying herself quite well, swimming in the sea, when Laura called her forth. "I have something to tell you!" she said. "We're going parasailing! Aunt Cindy has gone now to sign us up!" Something in Caitlin's stomach lurched a little. But it's not every day one gets to go parasailing. Moments later, a boat pulled up, and they were helped on by a friendly red man with a mustache and a long, long ponytail. And to make what could be a very long ramble into a much shorter ramble, a few more moments later, Caitlin and Laura were all harnessed up and ready to sail.

And so they did. Caitlin squealed with glee as the wind pulled them away from the boat, and then with terror, as she imagined horrible things happening if the cable should chance to snap. Once all of the rope was let out, and they were at least at eye level with the city skyline, she relaxed, and let go her death hold on the straps. It was silent and beautiful. Sadly, excepting the seagulls below them, the most interesting thing they spotted was a plastic bag. But it didn't matter, as the ride itself was amazing.

Once again on shore, Caitlin took another dip, had some snacks, then rested on the unoccupied chair under the umbrella. She feigned to be napping, but she was really straining to hear the party beside them. There was an adorable little boy, speaking in the cutest accent. Perhaps British? Caitlin was uncertain, and knew that it was silly to be intrigued... people are just people... but their accent was cool, so there.

Around 3 o'clock, they packed up and headed home, driving through quite a storm the last part of the way.
They arrived home, had dinner, showers, tidied up and such, and the little ones were put to bed.

Then Caitlin and her aunt proceeded to watch the last 3/4 of North and South. And for those curious minds who happen to recall that this was currently Caitlin's favorite film, you may or may not recollect that this was now her 5th time having watched it. Happy for her, she watched the lovely ending twice through, due to her aunt's premature slumber. The movie had ended, the credits were rolling, and Caitlin looked over, smiling to ask if the ending was satisfactory. Aunt Cindy's eyes were shut. "You've just slept through the ending, haven't you!?" Caitlin asked incredulously. Aunt Cindy rolled her head in partial recognition, but still asleep. Caitlin nudged her. "You've slept through the ending" she said. Poor, dear Aunt. She'd tried so hard to stay awake. And so, after many minutes of wrestling with the unwilling remote control, a satisfactory re-starting place was found, and the dear Aunt commenced watching the last 5 minutes. She was well pleased.

Of course, the Uncle would have to walk in and say something to the effect of, "oh, it was quite wonderful. All it needed was a Mr. Darcy." Objections were made to this mockery, but what are grown men for, but to tease poor women out of their minds when they simply want to enjoy a happy ending?

Nevertheless, all's well that ends well. Even with aloe-covered shoulders, quite a lovely day this turned out to be.

From the Mind of a Double-Anti-Contemporarian

So, after my last blog post, I waited for a comment. I thought surely it was worthy of at least one, from someone, somewhere.

And then Zach posted this note in reply. He was going to leave a comment, but it got a little long-winded. I liked it rather a lot, so here it is.

It's worth the read, but if you don't like big words, don't bother trying. :) lol
_____________________________________________________________

I think I'm becoming re-addicted to this stupid venting thing they call 'blogging'...anyway, this started out as a comment on Caiti Butler's blog about going to a contemporary-worship service. Miss Butler grew up in a traditionalist environment, as did I. In fact, my mind was so unused to feeling syncopation that it fought back while listening to Charlotte Church and received an ache...yes, the 'classical' music of Charlotte Church used to give me headaches! Ah, and at the age of 13 I did a 'wild' thing of smuggling an Enya CD into my bedroom and listening to it from start-to-finish. Though I now listen to a smattering of hardcore and bang my head against some heavy metal, I still can't stand the ear-damaging noise-level of rock concerts...

Yes, very applicable blog to our divisionistic human natures. Perhaps this anti-traditionalist (or, better put, nor really anti-traditionalist as anti-anti-contemporary...h

mm, double-anti-contemporary, I like that...) blog should've been entitled 'Praise the Lord, yo!' instead of your Shakespearean form? Hehe...jp.

When was the last time anti-contemporary-ists checked the context before quoting John 4:23?

"But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him."

They use this passage to 'prove' that our worship should be in the 'truth' of classical structures. Yet this passage is of 'the woman at the well', and it immediately follows their conversation about Jews worshiping in Jerusalem but Samaritans in their little hills. I.e., this verse is saying that Jesus came to put an end to the formalities and forms of worship. Our body is the New Temple, and as such we may worship God in our 21st-century Jerusalems, as well as our Samaritan hills. Which antagonizes another point brought up by anti-contemporary-ists, that the Old Testament proves that God desires a specific kind of worship. Amen to that, but the specific type of music we use to express our loyalty and love is no longer given to our American equivalent of Levite musicians at the Jerusalem Temple. Yes, God desires a specific kind of worship--as this passage says, in 'spirit' and 'truth'--but neither imply the avoidance of pulse-heightening songs. But still anti-contemporary-ists insist upon using this passage to 'prove' that our worship should be in their traditionalist 'Jerusalem'.

On the issue of the healthiness of Rock, many cite early deaths of rock stars. To counter that evidence, all one needs to do is consider for a moment all the other factors possibly involved in the poor health of such persons. Still, I cede the fact that living in the non-ending presence of deafening noise could be adverse to one's health. But does that mean a little is bad? We know too much work can kill you...but does that mean we should avoid it completely? Also, a heightened pulse is a natural effect of emotion...so, should we have no emotion in our worship?

Concordance definition of 'spirit':

2) the spirit, i.e. the vital principal by which the body is animated

a) the rational spirit, the power by which the human being feels, thinks, decides

b) the soul

4) the disposition or influence which fills and governs the soul of any one

a) the efficient source of any power, affection, emotion, desire, etc.

Concordance definition of 'truth':

truth as a personal excellence

1) that candour of mind which is free from affection, pretence, simulation, falsehood, deceit

If anything, 'truth' is double-anti-contemporary, free of biased affection for old hymns (and thus disaffection with contemporary worship), free of the pretense and simulation of ritualized worship, free of the falsehood and deceit which says that we must worship in Jerusalem. Having said all this, bleurgh on the awful mimic-quality of most contemporary musicians, and bleurgh on their awfully repetitive and shallow choruses--CCM artists are often like boys seeing how many times they can make a rock skip across a pond, without acknowledging that treasures lie in the depths of dark waters. But are hymns' depth worth anything more than this, if our mind dips its big toe in just enough to flick some droplets of words up into our mouths? Let us now worship our Lord in spirit and in truth, without the dumbingly-stupid and repetitively-redundant shallowness of most CCM, but neither chained by the Pharisaical belief that non-syncopated songs--or anything other than Grace--leads to holiness.

Praise Ye The Lord

Praise the Lord, O my soul.
While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.
(Ps. 146:1&2)

Sunday morning, Laura and I went to church with Aunt Cindy, Uncle Guy, and Alli. I'm so glad we did. My visit there was like a little revelation of sorts. The message was a tremendous blessing, but the spirit of worship is what really ministered to me.

I've grown up in more "traditional" style Independent Baptist type churches all my life. Being so, I expected it to be totally awkward and hard to focus on actually worshiping. It's been that way most of the other times I've visited churches that weren't what I've been used to.

I've been brought up around people who sometimes tend to judge others by whether or not they wear skirts, or use a specific version of the Bible, or hold different opinions on music. Sometimes the assumption is made that if others are worshiping differently, it must not be true worship. Like if they do such and such, they must not be as sincere as we folk with stricter standards, and more old fashioned beliefs. Not that I believed those things, but visiting Bridgeway was such a contradiction to those assumptions and judgements. I could really feel the presence of God Sunday morning, and it was so sweet to see how everyone was bent on worshiping Him, and giving Him glory. It was plain to see that the main goal there is to serve God.

And all of that mad me think how sometimes we "traditionalists" miss out on the joy of worship. So many times people will just stand there, mechanically singing their saintly old- time hymns with their orchestra, letting the "contemporary" people do all the real, sincere, joyful worshipping. I've seen a room full of people singing hymns of joy and thanksgiving, and their faces looked as if they were at a funeral. Of course, you could sing the popular praise songs just as mechanically...

This isn't a debate on music or styles, and I still prefer hymns to most modern praise choruses, but I guess my point is that true worship comes from the heart. It should be sincere and joyful. Thankful. And it should cause you to reflect on how small you are, and how great God is. All of our being should be consumed with praising the One who deserves more praise and love than we could ever give.

It was really nice Sunday to experience that joyful, humble, sincere worship in a different setting.

That's all. :)