A Dollop of Sour Cream

I'm not much into spicy food. I have recently discovered that if a meal is just a tad too spicy for me, I can put sour cream on top and make it not just palatable, but wonderful. This blog is devoted to doing the same for life.

www.flickr.com

4.28.2006

American Girl books

I just found out that my niece, who is 6 and a half, is reading the American Girl books, all by herself!

4.22.2006

So far so good.

So I went to http://ibw.dietitian.com/ibw.exe and discovered. 1. I do have a large frame for my height. 2. I am STILL overweight (not being able to get my jeans closed this morning kind of did that to me already.) But it had a list of exercises at the bottom that got me interested:

Things they recommend doing daily:
Swimming laps for 20 minutes
Walking 1.5 miles in 35 minutes
Fast social dancing for 30 minutes
Climbing stairs for 15 minutes (I know for a fact I can't do this for more than 5 minutes at a time. I tried)

So I decided, for a start, to try 3 times a week. I got 32-ish minutes of fast walking in today. (No idea how far. I'm not quite sure how to determine that.)

When it starts up again, I hope to go to the Messianic dancing classes at a nearby congregation.

I'd like to do swimming on Saturdays, but I'll have to find a place to do that...

4.21.2006

A Worldview Conference Speaker

I've got yet another speaker that I REALLY REALLY like. Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason spoke at the conference tonight on the "intolerance of Tolerance" and I really liked what he had to say. Two things that stood out: Classical tolerance said we were to treat people all the same, and be elitist about ideas. Tolerance today has been twisted (it occurs to me to be similar to the way Satan likes to twist everything of God's) to say that all ideas should be treated equally, and the people insulted if they don't agree to this. (except, of course, as he pointed out, that this means that all ideas are not actually treated equally!)

The other thing is the comment he made at the end, that Stand to Reason believes sharing our faith should be more about being a diplomat than going to war -- I'm not good at going to war. But I do know I have a peacemaker's manner (except, of course, when I don't) But if I could mold that to Not compromise... that would be great! So I'll be looking into it.

4.17.2006

Tipping for Christians

I don't remember where I saw the link.

But I saw an article today that really has changed how I will act in tipping (And I am trying to change my heart as I see my attitude here needs to change as well). Tipping as a Christian witness. It doesn't matter what my political ideas are as regards tipping at restaurants, I need to treat tipping as another part of my witness.

1. I did not earn my salvation, which is much more valuable than any money I might leave behind. So my tipping should not be based on service. But a measure of grace to the server reflective (in spirit) of the grace I have received.

2. The amount of my tip will make the human on the other end feel something. I need to make sure that my tip does not mar the name of Christ, or cause them to want to reject Christ because "Boy those Christians sure are stingy"

3. Even if I never say a word about Christ to the waiter, they will likely be able to guess I am Christian by the way we pray before our meals and by snippets of conversation that might be overheard. So my actions will reflect on Him. And if I can't afford to reflect Christ well to the waitress, it is better that I don't eat at the type of restaurant where tipping is expected.

4.14.2006

Reunion Musings

I went to my 10th year high school reunion at the same time my first nephew was born. And come to find out he's fast approaching his fifth birthday!

How time flies.

4.09.2006

Making Water Palatable

Well, I am trying to lose weight. So I walked to the store today to get my husband's cough drops. And I had him get me a second water bottle so I could take one in to work. The one he got is pretty cool. 20 oz, big enough opening to put ice in, but also a smaller opening to drink out of! It's got me addicted, a bit.

Friday night, I managed to drink some water. But I was not yet addicted. Saturday I read the linked post along with an idea about lemon water... I know for diets drinking lots of water is necessary. But I just don't like the taste. The idea of lemon and water only was.. not appealing. But I did a google search on it to find out what lemon water was, and found out that is not only exactly what it is, but it's evidently good for you! I thought, I have lemon juice, I'll try it. The first try, I put in 1/4 cup, as much as I'd put into an equivalent amount of lemonade. It was... lemony. But the thing was, even though it was puckery sour, it made the water more palatable! I could drink the entire container.

When that was done, I put a table spoon of Splenda into the container with the next bit of water. It added a faint tinge of sweetness to the water and, again, made it palatable enough to drink. (if not quite as fast as soda). So today, I alternated putting lemon and water in. And got my entire 64 oz of water drunk! (As well as 1 can of pop. But my reward to myself for finishing the 20 oz thing of water was a can of pop, and I didn't even choose to get another after finishing the second time!)

I can do this!

4.08.2006

Angelology

The two most fascinating things I learned in Theology 3 are:
1. The Angels don't understand the things of salvation. When someone earth is saved, there is cheering AROUND the angel. In the presence of the angels, but it isn't the angels jumping and cheering for joy!

2. What's more, the fallen angels (Satan and his cohorts) ALSO don't understand salvation. This is why Satan KEEPS going back to the presence of God, pointing out all of our failings. After all, he was thrown out irrevocably (He can't repent.) because of his own mistake in trying to take God's place. Surely, if he just finds enough bad things God's children have done, God will throw THEM out as well...

I had never thought of it like this. (probably partly because of songs with bad theology)

Great music

I found a great music find this week.

But I can't discuss it until after June because my husband sometimes reads my blog.

I know, I know. I'm one to speak about not hving posts.

Big news this week. I went to the Newcastle City Council meeting this week and actually enjoyed it! So I'll be going back (though it seems to be every other week, and 3 hours a night, so dunno if I'll go EVERY meeting or not)

4.01.2006

Veggietales and a quote

We're going to see Veggietales Live today!

I didn't even know it existed, but my husband saw the sale or tickets and got them for us. Cheer!

I am nearly instantly annoyed by conversations that came up about tolerance and accepting all religions, etc. (And generally going hand in hand with implications that anyone who isn't tolerant, accepting all religious beliefs as true, is a bad person.) Esp because I KNOW if I speak up I'll be considered "wrong" by the same people who extoll the virtues of "tolerance" -- the only religion not allowed is the true one (though I guess this makes sense. It is what Satan would want the attitude of the world to be. But it's still frustrating.)

But I found this quote on a mailing list I'm on, by "Pippin" that makes sense to me:

"If you've chosen your religion, or your moral philosophy, or your House, you probably do think it's better than the others. Otherwise you'd have chosen something else. A philosophy of tolerance must take this into account, or it's useless for the real world, IMO."

Being married

Sorry. I wanted to remember the anniversary as long as possible.

My anniversary was great, we spent a bit of money and did some fancy stuff. But I still think the day to day living being married is much better. Even when I'm upset at my husband, it has never been to the point I wish I wasn't married. (I know I keep saying that, but it is such a miracle to me. I'd think that, having lived by myself for so many years, taking the time to do what I want when I want to do it, that I'd resent having a husband when he caused extra work, prevented me doing what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it, or etc. But that just doesn't seem to be the case. Perhaps this is another reason God caused me to wait so long before finding Mr. Boaz. So that I appreciate him properly now that I am married.)