p4e part 8

the decemberists

So, I realized that I never posted anything about The Decemberist's show. Such a great time. Daniel and I drove three hours north to Raleigh in intermittent rain stopping for dinner at Qdoba (great burritos), enjoyed the best gig ever, and then drove home 3 hours in pouring down rain to arrive home safe and sound at 2:00am. But it was totally worth it. First set the played straight through The Hazards of Love (which I absolutely love) and then after a short break played for another good hour plus. Amazing! The Hazards of Love

Becky Sharp as Margaret

Colin!

Shera Woden as The Queen

i know what it is!

You may remember that I couldn't figure out what song kept playing through my head. I wrote about my dilemma in May. Well, thanks to a random playlist of Lacy's I have discovered that the song is Wonderwall by Ryan Adams. What a relief!

p4e part 7

incidently this is my 200th post

So, I just finished packing up for my eventual move to Ireland. I'm heading to Florida to work for six weeks and I plan to move to Ireland at the end of the summer. I wanted to get the packing done before I head south so that I can enjoy the month of August and focus on spending time with people here. (And not go into panic if the last minute preparations take more time than expected, which they always seem to do.) I say the packing is for my eventual move, because I will not be taking all of these boxes when I go initially. Once I'm good and settled I will send for them. (And once I have enough money to pay for an international shipping company!) I labeled each box with a theme which gives the general idea of it's contents. Here's what the packing list looks like:

Hampers #1 and 2 ~ Both holding linens
Red Trunk ~ holding blankets and quilts
Black Trunk ~ childhood memorabilia
Drawing Board
Table Easel ~ holding oil painting supplies (even though it's been about 10 years since I painted.)
Poster Tube ~ holding my map of Europe and a family portrait in color pencil I began years ago and have yet to finish
Boxes #1 and 2 ~ both labeled Kitchen, both also contain a good amount of cookbooks
Box #3 ~ Fabric Crafts (holding, among other things, fabric remnants of dresses my Grandma made us when we were little)
Box #4 ~ Decor
Box #5 ~ Christmas
Box #6 ~ Memorabilia (mostly picture albums)
Boxes #7 and 8 ~ Books
Box #9 ~ Pottery Tools
Box #10 Books
Box #11 ~ Arts and Crafts
Box #12 ~ Books (this box holds only books about Ireland)
Box #13 ~ Books
Box #14 ~ Music (holds both my sheet music and the last few random books and things that didn't fit in any other boxes.)

(As those of you who know me can imagine, the real packing list is extremely detailed listing every item in every box, pretty much.)

So, with 14 boxes, 2 trunks, and 2 hampers, plus one more box of DVDs to be packed at the end of the summer (in consideration of my brother), I have a total of 19 boxes. (Not counting the loose, big art supplies.) My goal was to have no more than 20 boxes! So I still have one emergency box if I find that I have more things than expected at the end of the summer. (Which will most likely happen.) Considering that I started all of this with 11 boxes of books alone I think I did amazingly well! I feel very proud and totally and completely exhausted.

a bit of rambling

So today in my daily Bible reading I began the book of Matthew. It's been almost a year since I've read in the New Testament. Since our God Story readings on Transit ended I've been filling in all the places that we didn't read. I think I've said before how much I enjoy reading from The Message version of the Bible, how much I get out of it. That is still true, but I do want to say that I did not enjoy the poetry books (Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes) in The Message very much, for those books, especially the Psalms, I definitely prefer more traditionally worded translations. This was one quote from Ecclesiastes that I liked:

" A person who fears God deals responsibly with all of reality, not just a piece of it."

I also loved this from the Introduction to the New Testament:

"A striking feature in all this writing is that it was done in the street language of the day, the idiom of the playground and marketplace. In the Greek-speaking world of that day, there were two levels of language: formal and informal. ...If the writing was routine - shopping lists, family letters, bills, and receipts - it was written in the common, informal idiom of everyday speech, street language.
And this is the language used throughout the New Testament. Some people are taken aback by this, supposing that language dealing with a holy God and holy things should be elevated - stately and ceremonial. But one good look at Jesus - his preference for down-to-earth stories and easy association with common people - gets rid of that supposition. For Jesus is the descent of God to our lives, just as they are, not the ascent of our lives to God, hoping he might approve when he sees how hard we try.
And that is why the followers of Jesus in their witness and preaching, translating and teaching, have always done their best to get the Message - the "good news" - into the language of whatever streets they happen to be living on. In order understand the Message right, the language must be right - not a refined language that appeals to our aspirations after the best but a rough and earthy language that reveals God's presence and action where we least expect it, catching us when we are up to our elbows in the soiled ordinariness of our lives and God is the furthest thing from our mind." ~Eugene Peterson

The other thing I read recently that I wanted to share was this quote from Eleanor Roosevelt: "I know that we will be the sufferers if we let great wrongs occur without exerting ourselves to correct them."

That's all.

p4e part6

p4e part 5

p4e part 4

dear Jesus

I'm here, not to speak or ask, but to listen. Only to listen because I value what you have to say. But if you want to just come and listen too that's all right. That's all right because I value you.

pray for europe part 3

pray for europe part 2

pray for europe

it is finished

And I have the pictures to prove it. This is a blanket I started back in October maybe. I'm pretty sure I've posted now and then about it's progress. Well, today I finished it. Here it is full size: Getting smaller:

And smaller:

Until I packed it away in a trunk and added it to my packing list for Ireland.

That's all.