When Did I Sign on for This?

Ask me about the counter top project…go ahead, ask me how is going.

Well, let me tell you…today I was once again reminded why I have very little that is worth owning.

I have spent days working my way up from little formica sample chips to a kitchen cart that had been headed for the Goodwill. Didn’t it look great?

I was starting to get really excited about doing the counters. I left the kitchen to give the cart time to dry.

When I went in a short while later disaster had struck. Coder (did I ever mention he is 14!) had decided to help me. He got a hold of my paint brush, sprayed it with an appliance cleaning/shining product that I use, till it was dripping, and painted it on the top of the cart, leaving it a sloppy mess with a deep 18 inch scratch! Of course he lied to me for 1/2 and hour before finally admitting what he had done. After all these years I am supposed to believe that these things occur spontaneously.

Loml thinks we can fix it, but I am so discouraged that I do not know if I even want to risk trying it with the counters now.

Once I cool off a little I may feel better about it but right now I am ready to give up on any home improvement projects.

Sunsets

I have been lucky enough to see some spectacular sunsets this year, and luckier still to have photographed them.

So with out futher ado, a few of the great sunsets of 2006!

Sorry about the line in the above photo, I took these with the camera on my Treo and once in while it leave that stupid line, I have no idea why.

This and one above were both taken in June on the way to the drive in to see cars, I was not driving.

Isn’t this an amazing sunset? They explained the “why” of it on the news and I, sadly, can’t find a link to the explanation.

It has something to do with the sun shining through clouds, which we can not see, below the horizon. Oh yeah, I admit I was driving on these two, I promise I will never do that again, but it was so amazing I wanted to save it!

Getting My Motivation Back

Lots of cleaning being done here this week.

I deep cleaned and rearanged the foyer and deep cleaned the kitchen. I am so proud of me!

I always plan to post before and after pictures but never remember until I am at the after point. Maybe it is because I am so deeply mortified by how awful my house gets, subconciously, I have no desire to publicly shame myself with pictortorial evidence.

I am planning on redoing my kitchen counters, (currently a very beat up formica butcher block,)  and because I am amazingly creative and frugle, *cough-cheap-cough* I plan to paint them. I have been reading where some others have done it successfully.

Here is a picture of of one of the samples I have been practicing with.

Not a great photo, but you get the idea.

I will post before and after of the counters if they turn out, and how to if anyone else is brave, or cheap, enough to give it a try.

An Letter, Unsent

This is an edited version of the letter I was going to send my friend this summer. Loml asked me not to send it, so I did not, it was catharthic just to have written it.

Dearest Friend,

For nearly 30 years I have thought of you as my best friend. I valued your opinions and enjoyed your company. You have been kind and generious to both me and my family. We have appreciated the things you have given us, your time and your hospitality.

For most of my adult life you were the person I could talk to no matter what happened. You were always the first person I could share good news with and the first person I would call when I was feeling down. I was closer to you than my own sister.

Then you just would not answer the phone anymore. If I did manage to get a hold of you did not want to get together or visit. When I found out the reason why, because you would rather spend time with people you had met on the Internet, my feeling were so hurt. I finally gave up calling, there seemed to be no point, you would not answer the phone, and were unlikely to return my call.

When you described the man you have met as your best friend, I realized how little the term must mean to you, if it can be given so easily to a man that you had met only once.

You are risking everything for an imaginary friend, if you were here I am sure you would assure me that you know him, and I know you believe you do, but factually you do not. It is impossible to know a person based on one meeting, emails and phone calls.

However none of these things are really important. What really matters is that you are hurting your own family! These are the people who love you most and your actions must be causing them incredible pain.

Have you prayed about this? Do can you truly believe that Christ would want you to do what you are doing, or are you listening to the whisperings of the adversary? Satan loves to see these things happen, he will lead you down the garden path, trying to convince you that your own needs are all that matter, and he is there to support and justify all your decisions, but when all is said and done he will desert you and ultimaly you will stand alone.

What I most want you to know is that I do love you and I value our friendship, however I can not support what you are doing. It would be much easier if our husbands were not friends and if I did not care about what your husband and children are going through. I care very much but you are the only one who can control the out come of this situation.

I will always pray for God to bless you and you family.

My Wayward Friend

I have actually had contact with my wayward friend (See Here and here) twice this week. Once by phone, to see if she would be attending my DIL’s baby shower (not able to make it) and again tonight when we were at the same place for dinner. She sat with us, (my folks and Coder and Sissy,) and visited for about an hour.

It was like she had never been gone. I did not ask her what she has been up to, I do not want to discuss personal things with her at this point, (especially not in front of the kids and my folks.) and we have covered all that territory too many times, she know where I stand, and I, sadly know where she does.

I miss her so much!

Rosie, Rosie, Rosie…

Like many others I was initially upset, though not shocked, by Rosie O’Donnell’s opinion, expressed on the View, that radical Christianity is more dangerous then radical Islam.

After giving it some thought however, I think the matter rests on how we define the word radical. If a radical of either faith is one who is willing to kill others, for perceived insults, to gain glory or power, to gain territory, or compel conversion, then they are equally dangerous.

I would make the point, that a person who would do such a thing is not exhibiting Christ like qualities, and would not fit most definitions of a Christian. I can not speak on whether something similar would be true of a Muslim, as I am not well versed enough in Islamic beliefs to know.

If, however, a radical Christian is one who is trying to follow the teachings of Christ in all aspects of their life, I would not see them as a danger at all.

Christianity is, at it’s core, about love, forgiveness, redemption and salvation.

With this in mind I have revisited my original plan of writing a post critical of Ms. O’Donnall’s opinion. It is her’s and while my gut reaction to it was negative, I do not have enough information to understand what she was trying to say.

So I will simply close with an admonition given by Christ, which, when I was straying, has often put me back on the correct path, Matt. 5:44-45.

“44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”

If that is radical, so, joyfully, am I.

You May Have Lived in…

I was sending these to my sister today, about places we have lived. Italy was hard. I had to come a lot up of them myself so, they may apply mostly to us, but I thought I would share.You may have lived in Italy Pasta, pasta, pasta everyday. You know what a rice ball really tastes like. It is impossible for you to talk with your hands in your pockets. You ask “How much for cash?” when buying but will accept ‘gifts’ in exchange for cash when selling. If everyone over the age of 55 was under 5′ 5″ and wore nothing but black Your cheeks were always rosy from being pinched by little old ladies, “Que bella bambina” When you were growing up, you thought that all wine was red and that it only came in gallon jugs (or really huge bottles in wicker baskets) You considered the Volkswagen Beetle to be a medium-sized car. You knew someone who wore a gold chain,cross and horn You knew there were prizes in the chocolate Easter eggs You knew that presents come from la Buffana too Your mother had a big chunk of parmesan on top of the frige You have ever met a shepherd You learned to ride your bike on the veranda You threw food off the veranda for the dog downstairs …and the little old lady down there whacked him with a stick for eating food that the chickens should have. You spent your vacation camping in the crater of an active volcano …or throwing up on the ferry to Capri. …or in a gondola …or riding piggyback up the Tower of Pisa. …or left in the car, sound asleep from taking Dramamine There were angels looking down at you everywhere you went. You so get this Italian Cartoon