Sorta Productive Saturday!

My fibro was acting up today, so I didn't do much physical stuff. GeekBoy took a bunch of stuff to the DI today, so that was good.

I redesigned a course that I haven't taught in five years today. Wow, that makes it seem like I've been teaching for a long time. I'm really excited about getting to teach it. It's on the presidency, and what an interesting time it's going to be teaching that course right now.

I also synched all the music that I have purchased on three separate computers onto my laptop, so now I have all my happy music in one place.

And, I bought these earrings a few years ago, but I never wore them because the ear wires were super long and dangly and they just bothered me. So today I swapped out the ear wires with ones that I like, so it's like having a brand new pair of earrings.

Photodump Friday

I spent several hours working on my syllabi for the Fall Semester this afternoon. I think I have one of the three just about whipped into shape. I wonder if there will ever come a semester where I don't redesign at least one major aspect of a syllabus.

I also downloaded all the photos off of my phone onto my laptop, and then uploaded lots of them to my flickr account.

A few favorites:

What I did on Thursday

Lots and lots of laundry.

And this.

It's supposed to be for a six month old, but it came out sized for a two year old. Oh well, kids grow.

My poor summer

I had a huge list of things I was going to do on summer break, but now it has turned into strep throat central and I have to have my tonsils out and meetings for "new" faculty start three weeks before the semester so my summer break is kind of in disarray.

So, now I'm just kind of wondering what I should do with the bits and pieces of my summer break. I could just stay in bed and do nothing, but to keep me from doing that, I hereby pledge to post one thing I did each day, beyond, you know, eat cold cereal and shower. Just to keep me from totally wasting the parts of summer that I do have.

14th Article of Faith

If you complain about something at church, you will get called to fix it.

Did you think to pray?

I suck at praying. I'm sure one of the early saints would have come up with a more eloquent way of saying that, like, "Lo, behold my soul shrinketh in comparison to the mercy and grace that thou has shown me, O Lord, and it is because of thy great goodness O Lord, that I am reluctant to come to thee in my daily trials, because what could someone like me be of interest to thy great Goodness and Mercy and Perfection. When I have gotten my act together, then O Lord, I will be willing to let you into my life. But not now, O Lord, for I have not figured out how to do this all on my own, and only once I have figured out how to do this without You, will I come unto You and say, look Lord, I have done it all on my own. Aren't you proud of me?"

And in that day, which will never come, for it is impossible for me be perfected under my own efforts, He will look at me and say, "O Child, for one so smart, you sure are stupid."

Okay, maybe He wouldn't actually say that, but He might be thinking it loudly. I am thinking it loudly at myself lately.

I know prayer works. When I pray I get answers, but I only pray when things are going really badly. It is difficult for me to keep myself constantly aware of my own reliance on God, without feeling like I am somehow failing at being an independent adult. And there we go, that's the root of the problem. (Writing is amazing. It's how I figure things out.)

I want to be an independent adult. I can do it all by myself. But I can't. My insistence on doing it by myself has brought on me additional trials. I've had people who I trust spiritually tell me that I go through difficult trials because I refuse to ask for help in prayer, and because I'm talented enough to get through most things without having to ask for help. That is why I get the big complicated ones, because only then will I humble myself enough to rely on the Lord for assistance. I kind of think that is one of the reasons why I am dealing with the health issues that I have, to make me more reliant on the Lord and on others for help.

The question that I am struggling with is how do I maintain the humility in good times that I am forced to have when times are rough? I'm not good at that at all, and I feel a strong need to improve in this area of my life recently.

This I Believe

I believe in love.

I believe that there is a quote from Steel Magnolias that is appropriate for any situation.


I believe that any meal can be improved by the addition of one of the five magic ingredients: butter, cheese, bacon, chocolate or avocado.

I believe that most things in the world can be explained using Star Wars, Battlestar Gallactica, Harry Potter, Dune or Charlie the Unicorn references.

I believe in justice.

I believe in mercy.

I believe in high threadcount bed linens.

I believe in the color purple, the number 42, and that my life has a personal soundtrack that no one else can hear.

I believe in proofreading.

I believe that proofreading and spell checking are two different activities.

I believe in the abolition of the Oxford comma.

I believe in Stephen Fry.

I believe that any problem in the world can be solved by the proper application of office supplies.

I believe that if you can't fix something with vice grips, duct tape and a can of WD-40, you probably shouldn't be messing with it.

I believe that you should take only photographs and leave only footprints.

I believe in poetry.

I believe in homemade bread, warm out of the oven, with jam.

I believe in the power of human goodness.

I believe in hard work.

I believe in singing along with musicals.

I believe in women in general, and the women in my family in particular.

I believe in afternoon naps in the sunshine.

I believe snorgling a baby belly - human or canine - is a cheap anti-depressant.

I believe in laughter.

I believe in myself.

I believe.

Research

I have a 6,000ish word zero draft of an article. It felt clunky, and was missing something to pull it all together. I read an article today and realized what I was missing. I think I have something important and new to say. Now to just get it out on paper the way it looks in my head.