Odds N Ends (Some Very Odd …)
It’s 5AM and I’m avoiding the complete, 100%, bad as it’s ever been, CHAOS of my office. (MUST clean it one of these days. It’s giving me the heebeejeebies.) AND I’m avoiding the mounting pile of “must respond to them one of these days” emails that also are starting to freak me out a little. (It’s really not like me to fail to respond to emails for MONTHS. Yeeps.)
So here is a little hodge-podge of topics for (hopefully) your reading pleasure (and to help me avoid work for a few more minutes).
(Oh. That reminds me … I’m accompanying our church’s choir again this year for the Christmas Eve service and I thought it might be helpful to make YouTube videos of me plucking out on the piano all of the parts for the tenors and basses, just in case they wanted to practice during the week. Seemed like a nice idea, until I had to TURN PAGES while holding a BABY and a VIDEOCAMERA and PLAYING the notes. I had it pretty well balanced until the page turns. Anyway … When I called to ask our choir director’s permission for this little project, I explained that it would help me to avoid my real duties for a an hour or so. To which she replied, “Tara. You have a strange way of avoiding work.” 😉 )
OK. Here is my random gathering of topics:
– Our church (including our little family trying too!) is doing more and more each year to help the men, women, and children affected by unplanned pregnancy in our community. Today, following a link from the woman formerly known as TULIPGirl in Refomed BlogLand (Hi Alexandra!), I learned about this organization:
I must be incredibly behind the times, but I didn’t even know this organization existed. Did you?
If you’re working in this area of ministry, or supporting people and organizations that do, I encourage you to check it out. Might not jive 100% with all of your convictions, but it sure seems to have some great (thoughtful, informed, documented, well-researched, professionally presented) resources.
– I hope she doesn’t mind, but I’m grabbing a tiny EXCERPT from KLV’s quote on fb and sharing it here because MAN! She is spot-on for any age, but particularly for someone only in her twenties. In response to someone’s post about “trying to figure out her life”, KLV replied: “After looking at the way things are on this earth, here’s what I’ve decided is the best way to live … make the most of whatever job you have for as long as God gives you life … make the most of what God gives, both the bounty and the capacity to enjoy it, accepting what’s given and delighting in the work. It’s God’s gift! God deals out joy in the present, the now. It’s useless to brood over how long we might live. Ecclesiastes 5:18-ish”
I think her words were particularly striking to me this morning because I am mindful of so many friends who DON’T have employment right now (or who are working multiple jobs in that “under-employed” way) just to barely squeak by financially. And yet, so many of us can have such a grouchy, grousy, ungrateful attitude toward our work even though (at least for this month!) we don’t have to be afraid of where cash is going to come from for the next rent or mortgage payment (or grocery trip or gas for the car).
Work is good. Work is a blessing. KLV is right (as is her mother who is one of the happiest and hardest workers I have ever met in my life, and whose words and attitude I see reflected in this, her eldest daughter’s quote). 1 Thess 4:11, “aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands …”
– I don’t know WHY I cringed even a little when I began to listen to this recording on the TrueWoman website: Should She Be A Doctor? Continuing to this very date, I have never read or heard anything from Carolyn McCulley that I don’t agree with (even on this VERY sensitive, important, and conflict-prone topic). If you are a young woman or are thinking about marrying a woman one day; if you are raising girls or if you KNOW any girls in your church … please listen. (And if you’re not familiar with Carolyn McCulley’s blog and books, get to know those too!)
Soph just came downstairs in her Christmas PJ’s and hair curlers (big night tonight! her first orchestra concert), so I must scoot.
Blessings on your day!
Yours,
Tara B.
PS
Just in case you don’t believe JUST how awful my office is. (“Not Tara! She loves FILE FOLDERS! She’s all about ORDER.”) Ummmmmm. Well. Yes, I am. Deep down, it’s true that my preference is a place for everything and everything in its place.
But let’s all just have a lil’ gander at what real life looks like when you RUN downstairs to (pack an order / wrap a present / find a tax form) with just enough time to RUN back upstairs before, you know, some teeny tiny little creatures needs more than one arm of her mother:
(Shiver!) Today surely MUST be the day that I tackle this beast. “Cleaning and scrubbing can wait ’til tomorrow” and “babies don’t keep”, sure. But this is getting pretty ridiculous! Plus, Fred’s home to help with the ol’ “rocking and keeping” of the baby. 🙂
(Oh, and these photos are the “very odd” part of my “Odds N Ends (Some Very Odd)” title for this post.)