Pilgrim musings

I was just realizing today that the Reunion is less than a month away - wow, can you believe it?!?

I'm especially excited that the Reunion Enteprenuer's Exposition is going to be featured again this year. It was one of my favorite parts of last year's Reunion - just a great way to get to know what other HSAers are doing with their talents and to swap home business ideas. Hope the rest of you enteprenuers are also planning to participate.

Like last year, I'm planning to have a booth showcasing my tatted bookmarks and used books. But...since I'm planning to carpool with others, I'll only be able to bring a small selection of my book inventory.

So this is just a heads-up for all you fellow bibliophiles: if you'd like to check out my online listings now, you can let me know which books you'd like to order. It'll save you shipping costs, and it'll save me the frustration of asking myself, "Why didn't I bring THAT book?" Just drop me a pm with the titles you're interested in and I'll be sure to pack them.

Thanks! Can't wait to see everyone there!!

[  Mood: Amused ]

Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

Do vegetarians eat animal crackers?

Don't put all your pigs in one basket. It'll get really heavy.

What I need is a list of specific unknown problems we will encounter.

What goes around usually gets dizzy and falls over.

My phone number is 17. We got one of the early ones.

Never forget that 2 + 2 = 5 for extremely large values of 2.

Join the Army, meet interesting people, kill them.

Do Lipton employees take coffee breaks?

If you lost your left arm, your right arm would be left.

If you live for the next world, you get this one in the deal;
but if you live only for this world, you lose them both.
-C.S. Lewis

To have a right to do a thing
is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.
-G.K. Chesterton

A man begins cutting his wisdom teeth
the first time he bites off more than he can chew.
-Herb Caen

That we are a live today is proof positive that God has something for us to do today.
-Lindsay

God made you as you are
in order to use you as He planned.
-S.C. McAuley

Don't be humble.
You're not that great.
-Golda Meir

I have found the perfect antidote for fear. Whenever it sticks up its ugly face, I clobber it with prayer.
-Dale Evans Rogers

When you say a situation or person is hopeless, you are slamming the door in the face of God
-Charles L. Allen

You cannot put a great hope into a small soul.
-J.L. Jones

We must accept finite disappoitnment, but we must never lose infinite hope.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

If I only had a little humility, I would be perfect.
-Ted Turner

Heads I win, tails you lose.
-Anon

Some things have to be believed to be seen.
-Ralph Hodgson

All unbelief is the belief of a lie.
-Horatius Bonar

Married men live a lot longer than single men, but married men are a lot more willing to die.
-Johnny Carson

If you want your children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders.
-Abigail Van Buren

Where is home? Home is where the heart can laugh without shyness. Home is where the heart's tears can dry at their own pace.
-Vernon G. Baker

Do not use a hatchet to remove a fly from your friend's forehead
-Chinese proverb

There are two types of people -- those who come into a room and say, "Well, here I am!" and those who come in and say, "Ah, there you are."
-Frederick L. Collins

Tact is the art of making your guests feel at home when that's really where you wish they were.
-George E Bergman

As we must account for every idle word, so we must for every idle silence.
-Benjamin Franklin

If it's free, it's advice; if you pay for it, it's counseling; if you can use either one, it's a miracle.
-Jack Adams

Sometimes when we ask God our Why questions, instead of giving us answers He gives us Himself.
-Mary Jane Worden

A good sermon helps people in two ways. Some rise from it greatly strengthened, others wake from it refreshed.
-E.C. McKenzie

Do not stay away from church because there are so many hypocrites. There's always room for one more.
-Arthur R. Adams

Common-looking people are the best in the world. That is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.
-Abraham Lincoln

If you are going through hell, keep going.
-- Sir Winston Churchill

Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.
-Jonathan Swift

It's true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure why take the chance?
-Ronald Reagan

I found this article by John Piper to be very clear and insightful - a sobering reminder that I needed tonight:

~~~

“Covetousness” means desiring something other than God in the wrong way. But what does that mean—“in the wrong way”?

The reason this matters is both vertical and horizontal. Idolatry will destroy our relationship with God. And it will destroy our relationships with people.

All human relational problems—from marriage and family to friendship to neighbors to classmates to colleagues—all of them are rooted in various forms of idolatry, that is, wanting things other than God in wrong ways.

So here is my effort to think biblically about what those wrong ways are. What makes an enjoyment idolatrous? What turns a desire into covetousness, which is idolatry?

Continue reading...

Quote:

I want to be married. [...] Shouldn't that have happened by now? At first I ask, How do I change this? Then, as resignation sets in, I wonder, How do I survive singleness? In particularly painful moments, I want to know more: Why should I be contented? Why should I stay the course? Does God see me? Does He even care? Turns out I've been asking the wrong questions.

Read the rest of Elisabeth's excellent, encouraging article here.

[  Mood: Amused ]

A friend just posted this on her [non-HSA] blog...gave me a good laugh. I've seen it before, but it's worth a rerun.

'Scuse me while I reboot here...

All single ladies are invited to join us for the fourth annual Valentine's evening chat. We've always had a great time of encouragement, so I hope many of you are able to come!

Today I awoke to a world shrouded in misty whiteness, an unusual winter fog combining with last weekend's snowfall to create a pale and chilly monochrome universe. I pulled the rough warmth of my sweater closer and shivered a bit as I peered through the icy glass; yet a smile could not be restrained as one word tiptoed into my consciousness, then danced its way through my thoughts like a long-enduring autumn leaf skittering across fresh-fallen snow.

Immanuel.

Throughout the pages of Scriptures, God reveals His presence in the visible form of a cloud: the cloud which led the children of Israel through their daytime wilderness wanderings; the cloud from which God spoke on Mount Sinai, enveloping Moses during those mysterious days of face-to-face communion; the cloud which descended upon the tabernacle and temple when they had been finished to perfection and prepared for the indwelling of the Most Holy; the glorious cloud which surrounded Jesus on the mount of transfiguration and dazzled Peter into stammering foolishness; and the cloud upon which Jesus will magnificently return to earth with trumpet sound as conquering King.

With this beautifully-woven backdrop of truth, I choose to accept this day -- this moment of nebulous uncertainty, this place where all seems to fade into indistinct confusion -- as a tangible reminder of the Almighty's presence in my life. My Father is here in this cloud, completely surrounding me with His love. The color and warmth may be drained out of my world, and I may not be able to see more than an arm's length into the future. But -- O truth incomprehensible! -- Jesus has come. He that is Wonderful, my Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace -- He is here.

God with us.


This poignantly beautiful song moves me to grateful tears (hear it on YouTube here):

A sign shall be given
A virgin will conceive
A human baby bearing
Undiminished deity
The glory of the nations
A light for all to see
That hope for all who will embrace
His warm reality

Immanuel
Our God is with us
And if God is with us
Who could stand against us
Our God is with us
Immanuel

For all those who live in the shadow of death
A glorious light has dawned
For all those who stumble in the darkness
Behold your light has come

Immanuel
Our God is with us
And if God is with us
Who could stand against us
Our God is with us
Immanuel

So what will be your answer?
Will you hear the call?
Of Him who did not spare His son
But gave Him for us all
On earth there is no power
There is no depth or height
That could ever separate us
From the love of God in Christ

Immanuel
Our God is with us
And if God is with us
Who could stand against us
Our God is with us
Immanuel
~Michael Card

Here's a reminder God sent my way yesterday; I thought it was worth passing along. Change the wording around a bit, and it'd be applicable for guys as well:

Quote:

To expect another person to make you feel happy, secure, and fulfilled will leave you disappointed at best and disillusioned at worst. Even a great husband makes a very poor God. Only God can settle those deep heart-needs. A man can never do this. If a husband could meet every need his wife had, we'd have no need for God. Therefore, instead of just focusing on finding the right partner, let God work on your heart to help you become the right partner. The time to start working on becoming a wife is now. Before the white dress, delicate bouquets, unity candle, bacon wrapped shrimp, and reception punch, there is some heart stuff to consider: Getting married doesn't instantly make you selfless... it makes you realize how very selfish you can be at times. Getting married doesn't make you feel loved... it makes you realize love is more of a decision you make than a feeling you feel. Getting married doesn't take away loneliness... it makes you realize true companionship comes not when you demand it but rather when you give it to another person.

Read the rest of Lysa's excellent post here. Thanks to YLCF for pointing me to this post!

"For the LORD is a great God,
and a great King above all gods."
~Psalm 95:3~



We live in uncertain times. 2008 has held much that I never would have anticipated, and I'm sure you all can say the same. We're not where we were a year ago, nor where we thought we'd be by now. For some of us, the unendurable has occured; dearest dreams have been birthed and died, precious blessings have been given and taken. Some of us have empty seats at the table and great hollows of loneliness in our hearts.

Yet, through it all, God has been abundantly faithful.

As I was praying about the theme for this year's thankfulness challenge, I kept coming back to this central truth: God is great. Our unspeakably generous Father gives us countless blessings each day, and we do well to receive them gratefully. But these are not gifts to be clutched in sweaty palms, buried under ground, or fearfully weighed as a measurement of how much God loves us at the moment. We must not begin to value the gift more than the Giver, the creation more than the Creator, or the love-token more than the Lover.

Instead, we joyfully receive the gifts with open hands, lifting our eyes in thanksgiving to the One from whom all blessings flow. He is great, good, merciful, loving, and all-wise - therefore He gives, therefore He withholds, therefore He takes away. Our gratitude, joy, peace, and security rest not in the gifts, but in our confidence in the Giver - a confidence founded securely on the unshakable reality of the cross. When we were yet sinners, Jesus died for us! He who loved us that much will continue to be faithful.

Will you join me through the week leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday, as I praise God's greatness? Starting on Thursday, November 20, I'll be writing daily blog posts, each touching on one of God's attributes that has been especially meaningful to me this year. If you aren't able to write that much, consider participating through your Facebook status, by initiating family discussion around the dinner table - or whatever methods work best for you. The point is to purposefully focus on God's greatness...and to publicly praise Him together. He IS worthy!

If you plan to participate, please leave a note here to let me know...also, anyone is welcome to hotlink to these graphics and include them in your postings.



"Wherefore Thou art great, O LORD God:
for there is none like Thee,
neither is there any God beside Thee,
according to all that we have heard with our ears."
~2 Sam. 7:22~

I've had fun reading the other highlight/lowlight Reunion recaps, so - follower that I am sometimes - I decided to write up my own. Here goes...


Highlight: Finishing redecorating our music room at midnight Tuesday. It's lovely!

Lowlight: Having to head east at 5:30 a.m., on less than 3 hours sleep. ::yawn:: I didn't fully wake up and feel excited about the trip until mid-afternoon.

Highlight: Sharing the trip (and driving/navigation responsibilities) with Lindsey, Susanna and Lydia. Couldn't have asked for better travel companions!

Highlight: Catching several hours of sleep through the boring stretches of IL while Susanna drove.

Highlight: Finding Joshua and Tammy's place without any problems, and spending a completely delightful evening/night/morning with their family.

Lowlight: Having to say goodbye the next morning, not knowing how much bigger the children will be before we see them again.

Highlight: Reaching the Reunion without getting lost (seems like we were in the minority in this regard).

Lowlight: Getting there 3 hours after registration started.

Highlight: Feeling like celebrities as we walked in to the building, being greeted enthusiastically at every turn.

Lowlight: Hearing that the autograph books weren't there yet, despite all our rushing earlier in the week to get the design finalized and to the printers in time.

Highlight: Hearing that the autograph books would be there yet that evening - and they were. Yay!

Lowlight: Discovering that our trek a-l-l the way up that huge hill for the opening ceremonies would have to be repeated for every session. I'm too old and lazy to enjoy that kind of mountain climbing.

Highlight: Laughing at Daniel Gardner's introduction as the Mystery Guest, in the opening ceremonies. Even though I already knew 'twas he, I thought it quite creative.

Lowlight: Riley and Mac's on-stage map overview, which completely befuddled my poor sensible mind and left me feeling more lost than ever. It *was* pretty funny, though.

Highlight: A hilarious supper, observing Daniel Gardner and my cousin Josiah interacting. Quite a pair, hehe. And yes, guys, I still think we should start that HSA introvert club. Too bad no one is assertive enough to actually do so...

Highlight: Having Lindsey help me set up my booth for the expo. In a guesture of true friendship she carried my heavy box of books all the way up a steep hill. (Everyone say, "awwww!")

Highlight: Some strong young gentleman (didn't catch his name) gallantly saved me from dragging two heavy chairs from the storage room to my booth. Yes, I like being treated like a lady.

Lowlight: Not being able to find the bonfire for quite a while...though it was pretty funny to watch the guy who was supposed to start the fire - he was dashing around lost, too.

Lowlight: Finally finding the fire, only to realize that we'd left our instruments (including my Banjo of Great Weight) in our room - at the bottom of that dreadfully steep hill.

Highlight: Lindsey and my sisters volunteering to run back and get the instruments while I stayed to enjoy the fire. Wow, are they thoughtful or what?

Highlight: Singing and playing for several hours - we had a great group turn out, and it was lots of fun. Our bluegrass segment towards the end was better yet and we played right up to curfew time.

Highlight: Getting settled into my room...we had a great group of gals! Lights out by 1:00.

Highlight: Friday morning jam time outside the girls' dorm/cafeteria. Had a bunch of violinists so did the lineup again, which is always fun.

Lowlight: Stopping the jam to go to the session, just to have to wait 20-30 minutes before it started.

Highlight: The interactive audience response technology used in all the sessions - so fun, and completely fascinating for a stats fan like myself.

Highlight: Being able to get in on both the Panel discussion and roundtable discussions this year. They really epitomize what the Reunion is all about in my mind - being able to share experiences and ideas and to learn and grow together. The discussions went really, really well and spawned a lot of further talks through the weekend and beyond.

Highlight: The Entreprenuer's Exposition was a wonderful addition to this year's Reunion! Traffic was a little slow on Friday, but that gave me time for good conversation with Pamela. Sales weren't huge, but it was definitely enough to make it worth the setup work and I thoroughly enjoyed the chance to connect with other bookworms.

Highlight: Getting some good introvert recharge time during the ECD. I made use of the camp wireless, sorted pictures, talked more with Pamela, and finished off the evening with a few rounds of Dutch Blitz. Very enjoyable.

Highlight: Saturday morning jam time, with even more people joining in. We had such a grand time that we played over two hours and nearly forgot to get to the 11:00 session on time.

Lowlight: Having to wait for the session to start...again.

Highlight: Woody Robertson's infectious enthusiasm conveyed during his presentation. It's such a pleasure to see people who are so clearly doing exactly what God created them to do!

Lowlight: Having the end of my lunch interrupted by shouts for the medical team to come help a guy who fell off the balcony.

Highlight: Seeing how efficiently and skillfully everyone responded to the emergency, and how everyone else banded together for prayer support and encouragement. Thankfully he ended up only having a broken wrist - a miracle, really!

Lowlight: Seeing how worn out the Reunion committee was by this time (not by the accident so much as other stuff going on), but not really knowing how to help them.

Highlight: The HSAIR Live program was so much fun!! Everything was done very well and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Highlight: A hilarious evening of cookies and Catch Phrase with my sisters, Lindsey, Angie, Holly, Vincent, and Adam. You all are the best! ::high five to my fellow frogs:: (okay, to you pigs, too)

Highlight: Fast and furious Dutch Blitz for over an hour, with an ever-changing group of players and onlookers. Whew! Whoever said homeschoolers haven't learned how to be competitive?! I still think I'd have won if we were playing with absolute value scores...

Highlight: Getting to bed by 1:00 again. Yes, I'm a responsible firstborn, ha.

Lowlight: Having to pack up all our stuff instead of jamming this morning. How can the Reunion be almost over already?

Highlight: Dr. Brian Ray's session was packed full of good stuff. He's a very wise man. Wish I could hear it again because my mind could only grasp a small portion of it all.

Highlight: Seeing the Reunion planning committee honored with much applause and tokens of appreciation. Having just a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes stuff myself, I know how much these guys really deserve a huge thank you.

Lowlight: Everything running so late that our last meal (and my first/only at a table with Sony!) had to be cut short for the group photo taking.

Highlight: The group photo session always makes me laugh. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder for 10 minutes brings out interesting personality quirks in some people. Brown shirts, anyone?

Highlight: We didn't have to be completely off the grounds by 1:00 after all, so we got to squeeze in quite a few more goodbyes and pictures!

Lowlight: Being so wiped out by the time we left that I hardly had mental capacity to drive to a grocery store in Frankfort, much less make good decisions on picnic food. Lindsey and my sisters helped out a lot.

Highlight: Easily finding a delightful little park in Frankfort, where we could eat and catch a couple hours of desperately needed quiet time. This made a huge difference for me.

Highlight: Finding our friends' place near Bagdad without any problems. Though we'd only had a little online contact previously, we got along famously and thoroughly enjoyed our time there. They truly have the gift of hospitality.

Lowlight: Discovering that we'd left some of our stuff at the Reunion, and feeling really stupid. Oooops.

Highlight: Hearing from Elysse the next morning that she had our stuff in her trunk, and we could get it from her at the Creation Museum. Yay!

Highlight: Getting to the Creation Museum without any problems, and only 5 minutes before our cousins from VA. Using their free passes to get into the Museum was great, and we had fun spending time with them, too.

Highlight: Being way more impressed with the Museum than I anticipated - my expectations were high, and they were completely surpassed. Everything is huge and top-notch quality (the graphic design standards are incredible!), and though I was already quite familiar with the messages presented, they impacted me deeply. Simply amazing.

Lowlight: Not having time to see everything there before it was closing time.

Highlight: Finding our hotel and checking in without incident, then finding the Golden Corral restaurant easily. Maybe we're actually getting good at this city navigation stuff??

Highlight: A delicious and enjoyable meal with some great HSA folk, followed by a hilarious evening at the hotel: 11 girls, 1 guy, 4 laptops, plenty of sugar...yeah.

Lowlight: Staying up until 3:00 to get photo CDs burned for Lindsey. I was too tired to be efficient and should have just decided to mail them later.

Lowlight: Waking up at 6:00 and feeling quite robotic because I was so tired. Amazingly found the airport without too much trouble, though that's all still a blur to me.

Lowlight: Saying goodbye to Lindsey...after 2 weeks together she was just like another sister and we sure miss her.

Lowlight: Running into a lot of heavy rain east of Cincy. Missing our exit and having to go back. Pulling over several times because of low visibility.

Highlight: Safety in spite of all the rain, and two sisters in the car to be an invaluable help with navigation, window de-fogging, sign-watching, and general assurances of well-being.

Highlight: Good conversation all the way home, reflecting on all that was said and done, and impressions of everyone we met. These sisterly conclaves are half the fun of each Reunion, IMO.

Highlight: Reaching home safe and sound by late afternoon. PTL!!

Highlight: Having time to catch a much-needed hour-long nap before the Perrines got here.

Highlight: Getting to know the Mr. Perrine, Sarah, Carrie, and Catherine better during their overnight stay - they're a neat family and I'm thankful we had the extra time together.

Lowlight: Saying goodbye the next morning and realizing that the Reunion really was finally completely over.

Highlight: Realizing the 2009 Reunion is only a year away!