Let there be water...

Pics. Of the "trickling" stream in my backyard, the "ditch" near my house that climbed a 12 foot concrete slope and almost covered the arched culvert that tried to contain it, and the parking lot at church (the stream broke over the banks for the first time since we moved into that building 13 years ago. You can't tell where the parking lot stops and the stream begins)!

Wait...What's a Cubit?!

By this time yesterday I was ready to take up Ark-building. If you're in northwest Indiana right now you were probably contemplating the same thing sometime this past weekend! I'll post pics in the next day or so, but to give you an example of how much rain was in my backyard: there's a drainage ditch that runs along the north side of my property that usually trickles pleasantly by, that the girls and I occasionally walk alongside in the summer time looking for tadpoles. Yesterday it was raging by our houses like the Amazon...to the point that my neighbor girlfriend's teenage boys put their BOAT in it. Dave came to pick up the girls for the afternoon and questioned, "Anyone see any animals marching two by two?" Apparently not; no one could figure out how to build the Ark after all and as a result, the kids don't even have school today. Can anyone remember northwest Indiana schools being shut down for FLOODING?!

Fallacies of Adultery

This was on Oprah today, so women all over America will be confronting their husbands at dinner tonight on those grounds alone!!! Having been through it though, I thought one particular segment on the show was particularly important. There was one couple on there who were best friends, had sex every day, had been married for decades, laughed and had hobbies together. He still had an affair. So that's the fallacy: they said on the show there is a misconception that affairs only happen in marriages where couples fight a lot or don't have sex anymore. THIS IS NOT TRUE. It's also a misconception that men who have affairs are bad guys, or that an affair is always premeditated. In fact a man may be a great guy with a great marriage and still cheat. There are hundreds of reasons for this, and hundreds of books explaining those reasons! I'm not here to talk about what the reasons are; I'm here to point out what the reasons AREN'T. I was in a good marriage with a good sex life; we were best friends, didn't fight, and not only did we just "never fight" but we held hands and laughed and tickled and all those things that are friends envied. He still cheated. So Oprah says this: no one is immune! That's a scary thought...but a true one.

Baseball, Apple Pie, and Offshore Drilling... ?

Guys. I was so excited to hear about the choice of Sara Palin, and wanted to listen to the speeches at the Republican convention last week hoping that the Christian in me who is basicly a pro-life Democrat would hear something NEW to cling to with the conservatives. N O P E. When Giulliani started the chant of "Drill Baby Drill" I had to turn the channel. More drilling, more money poured into nuclear power...these ARE NOT THE ANSWER. My sister, for example, has a natural gas pipeline running through her backyard right here in Kouts THAT IS A GOVERNMENT PIPE, and that IS NOT USED. It's for "an emergency." We have oil refineries all over this nation that already exist and do not drill...because we're "saving them for an emergency." THIS IS AN EMERGENCY! Let's take advantage of the resources we already have; not elect people who are gonna hurt our planet even more researching "new" ways to create independence. In a nutshell: Jenny is still a democrat! If only I could find a politician who is a democrat that doesn't kill babies. That'd be great.

WPF

World Pulse Festival is held in South Bend every year, and was a Christian festival I'd never heard of until a few weeks ago. Several people at our church had free tickets, and Toby Mac and Mandisa (in addition to Skillet who I LOVE and also Casting Crowns) were playing. I have children who are big enough to have their own CDs--and have music in their DNA anyway!--and they were VERY IMPRESSED that I trusted them in their big-girl-ness to embark on an adventure like this. 50,000 people descended on this Indiana town to mark the last weekend of summer before school started, and it was amazing!!! Sunny and hot and crowded, but we loved it! And all you girlfriends who know me know that a day of cutie tattooed musicians screaming onstage about how much they love Jesus is just about as good a Saturday as you can get:) The best parts: going through the World Vision tent called "The African Experience" and having my Hannah writing notes to these forgotten African babies about how Jesus hasn't forgotten them. And my Skylar, watching her dance and worship and sing these loud songs, just like the preteen she is, excited about being big and being at a concert. People may think I"m lame for just wanting to hang out with my kids all the time, but I know I'll look back on these days with them THANKFUL that the three of us have created so many good memories!

Home Sweet Home

Prayer Request Alert! I've been researching my options as far as selling my house and getting an apartment, or refinancing, etc to lower my monthly payments at home. Some serious financial changes are set to occur in November for me and the girls and I'm just trying to be wise about how to handle it all. Well...miraculously came across this mortgage guy who got me preapproved for a refi that I could afford, no out-of-pocket, nothing shady. Then he calls me this morning and says oops, maybe not, I need to have had my business for at least two years, etc. Now he's asking for a co-signer. This was not ever part of the discussion! So back to the drawing board as far as me asking for wisdom about my options, asking for my business to be successful enough quickly enough that I don't even have to worry about it, for the mortgage guy to find a lender who will take a chance on me after all, etc. The girls and I are fine for now, and of course my Father owns the cattle on a thousand hills so I now we will continue to be... I just want to make the right decisions!

Confrontation and Riding Offense

Or riding "a fence," whichever you prefer because both apply here. Between Danny Silk's Culture of Honor stuff we've been studying at church this last year, and learning to navigate the waters of really, really being hurt and how do I properly as a Christian deal with that, here's what I've decided. It's easier for me to be offended, and tell everyone in the world about who has hurt me... but never go to that person kindly and in love to tell them they've hurt me and we need to fix it. That's unfair in several unhealthy ways: unfair to the person who hurt me because they're now being gossiped about. Unfair to me because the person who hurt me won't stop hurting me if I never tell them they've hurt me. Unfair to the listeners of the "woe is me story" because there's no resolution so they're now in the middle of a story with no end.

I bring all this up because I had an instance this weekend where I was really hurt and offended by someone I love and who loves me. I had the choice between going to my mom and sister and friends first to say "Guess what so and so did to me", or going to that person as the source of the pain and saying "Hey you hurt me and I know you didn't mean to but it hurt anyway so can we please fix it." Well, I took the second option and BOY DID THAT PHONECALL SUCK. But you know what? Having come from a family of people with either tempers or passive-agressive silent treatments, I was so RELIEVED when the phonecall was over to have dealt with it. Now instead of things being weird with this cousin everything's fine, and Satan can't hold that spirit of offense over me anymore.

Small victory but big rewards!