what i did today

Oh boy, folks.  I think I’m in the throes of writing a political post.  My blog might break up with me.  But alas I can’t quit thinking about this and as you know, the only way to make it stop is to write about it.  So yay, you get another political post to read.  I promise not to be mean though, ok?  Promise.

Ok, so we’re Republicans.  I guess you probably guessed that but I just want to level-set here.  Fox News is playing in the background as I type this and it’s normally on every day.  It makes me insane.  I can’t stand how everyone argues and talks over each other and I’m always like, they’re so mean!  And that’s usually as close to politics as I go.

We watched the RNC speeches last week and just because I felt like I needed to be informed and fair, I watched Bill Clinton last night.  I have to say, he’s smooth.  I was just 17 when he was vying for his last term and honestly didn’t pay attention much but I so appreciated that Clinton actually spoke about issues and I could understand them.  And he was funny.   

Todd Heisler/The New York Times

So there was one part that he spoke about and other Democrats had alluded to that I really liked it and yet, it’s what is rubbing me the wrong way:

My fellow Americans, all of us in this grand hall and everybody watching at home, when we vote in this election, we’ll be deciding what kind of country we want to live in. If you want a winner-take- all, you’re-on-your-own society, you should support the Republican ticket. But if you want a country of shared opportunities and shared responsibility, a we’re-all-in-this-together society, you should vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

So that gets me pretty excited. All this sharing and all.  One of my favorite passages in Acts reflects just this:

Acts 4:32-35

³² All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. ³³ With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all ³⁴ that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales ³⁵ and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.

So yeah, it sounds like they’re singing the same song, right?  

I think the difference though is how it is being shared.

If you know me and have read here long, you might know that I’m more for an individual approach to this.  Listen.  I paid for medical care for someone yesterday for a procedure that wasn’t covered by Medicaid.  I’m putting my money where my mouth is.

I’ve been reading Bonhoeffer the past week and you don’t need to know anything except that he went as far as to die for his faith in Nazi Germany and before that, he was highly effective at helping people individually.  It’s quite inspiring.

I’m also for this idea of pooling resources together and then distributing.  I mean, that IS what the apostles did. They all laid their money at the apostles’ feet and distributed it. Even Romans suggests we pay taxes for this purpose.

Romans 13:6

New International Version (NIV)

⁶ This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing.

Here’s the problem, though.  Many Democrats (not ALL) don’t see the pooling of resources as a task or even responsibility from God.  In fact, many Democrats are pushing for God to be completely out of government as hard as they can.  Did you read where some actually booed God being kept in a section of platform?

So no, I’m not for pooling my resources with people who have no desire to do it under God’s authority and power.  Should it perhaps be the church that is responsible for taking care of the poor? (said with some sarcasm)  If we did have more money from less taxes we would have more money to individually and communally, as a church, help people.

So what’s a Christian who sometimes agrees with Republicans and sometimes likes what a Democrat has to say?

Here’s my only answer: I stick with God.  And for me, that means helping someone who doesn’t have coverage and selling my possessions and giving them to the poor and sponsoring Compassion kids and adopting little a little boy without a father.  In other words, to the best of my ability, I will pay my taxes as it is required and then do what I can to help the church be the church. As for my vote, I will vote for someone who helps me do that better and I truly believe that’s the Republican ticket.

But I guess I just want to say I hear you, Democrats and I like your ideas sometimes. But Republicans aren’t cold, heartless people that only care about building their wealth for themselves.  I’m not interested in leaving people high and dry as Clinton suggested.  Romney talked a lot about his charity last week.  I think we all want to help people but I think we have to realize why we do that and who gives us the authority and power to do so.  Without that, I’m truly afraid for the United States.

I’m not being melodramatic.  As I’m reading Bonhoeffer, I’m seeing so many parallels to Nazi Germany and ya’ll, it seriously scares me to death.

All I can say is I’m praying.  Neither candidate is our Messiah.  They’re not. None of us have it right really. It will only be under God’s authority that any good happens no matter who is President.   God bless the United States, indeed.

PS. I had to rewrite much of this post. As I was writing, Live Writer completely crashed on me, losing much of it.  I guess my blog does want to break up?  I hope you don’t.

I don’t know how to talk about this week.  I decided to jump in–really jump in—and invest in someone. 

I don’t know how to talk about that kind of journey without telling a story that’s not mine to tell and I don’t know how not to say anything as it’s impacting me in great ways.  It’s also hard to write when you’re too busy on the phone and Internet trying to make things happen.

I will share a few things I’m convinced of (again) after just the past few days:

• For those of us that have been blessed with great parents, we ought to be thankful for their influence and all the resources they throw at us.  Please let us not feel entitled to them because they did and do have a choice.
• For those of us that are blessed financially, we need to get to enough and then STOP IT and help someone else with the excess.
• For those of us that are blessed in talents, we need to use them for good when we have the chance.
• We need serious health reform in this country.
• We need to quit making it so darn hard for people in poverty to get help.  It’s easy to sit back and say they just need to get a job and while true in some cases, it’s just not in others.  I know it’s messy but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.
• We can’t assume someone else is going to help that person.  Some people truly do not have a support system around them and you might be their only hope.
• You can’t help rescue someone from the mud and mire without getting smeared with a little mud.
• We all need to floss more.
• Just kidding on that last one but not really.

So I’m sorry for the lack of posting and the vagueness but I’m here.  Looking forward to a weekend of rest and hope you have a lovely one yourself.

I love self-analysis.  I can’t help it.  I truly believe I can always be improving and part of improving is knowing what you’re starting with and what tools you have available.  You think you should know yourself because you know, you are you, but you’d be surprised what you can find out by a few automated questions.

Scott took the StrengthsFinder 2.0 test a few months ago as part of our Journey Group training at church and I was a little bummed I didn’t do it as well. 

I was psyched when just a few weeks later my manager at work forwarded out an email saying he’d just completed the StrengthsFinder 2.0 test and recommended it for my team as well.

My Strengths

image credit

The test comes out with five “Signature Themes” and then gives you action items to build upon those strengths.  Here are my top five themes:

Intellection: You like to think. You like mental activity. You like exercising the “muscles” of your brain, stretching them in multiple directions.

Input: You are inquisitive. You collect things. You might collect information [YES!]—words, facts, books, and quotations—or you might collect tangible objects [NO!} such as butterflies, baseball cards, porcelain dolls, or sepia photographs. Whatever you collect, you collect it because it interests you. And yours is the kind of mind that finds so many things interesting. The world is exciting precisely because of its infinite variety and complexity.

Responsibility: Your Responsibility theme forces you to take psychological ownership for anything you commit to, and whether large or small, you feel emotionally bound to follow it through to completion.

Restorative: You love to solve problems. Whereas some are dismayed when they encounter yet another breakdown, you can be energized by it. You enjoy the challenge of analyzing the symptoms, identifying what is wrong, and finding the solution.

Achiever: Achiever describes a constant need for achievement. You feel as if every day starts at zero. By the end of the day you must achieve something tangible in order to feel good about yourself [YES!]. And by “every day” you mean every single day—workdays, weekends, vacations. No matter how much you may feel you deserve a day of rest, if the day passes without some form of achievement, no matter how small, you will feel dissatisfied.

The Meaning

Well, I’m no coach (and they are out there), but the simple fact that I like taking these tests proves the Input theme.  I want more, more, more information.  And why?  So I CAN THINK ABOUT IT.  This amuses me to no end.  All the questions, all the reading, all the listening—it all is Input for me.  And why do I want to think about it?  Because I’m Restorative and I want to FIX THINGS and HELP PEOPLE.  And by the way?  Can we put that on a checklist and do that today? 

The Action

As for the action plan attached to each theme, I found that I’m actually doing many items it suggests and the test actually nailed a few key points.

For Intellection, it suggests I should “list your ideas in a log or diary.”  Or another one, “take time to write". Does a blog count?   Or how about this one, “Find people who like to to talk about the same things you do.”  How about I join Facebook or Twitter and find like-minded people?

For Input, it suggests that all my information I collect should be turned into action and shared.  While I think I do this quite a bit here and through social media, I think I can do an even better job at this, particularly in my work environment. 

Another action item suggests I should “Deliberately increase your vocabulary.  Collect new words, and learn the meaning of each of them.”  HA!  HAHAHAHA!  I hope people that know me are laughing.   It has been a family joke that I had new words emailed to me everyday.  Plus, do you remember this post?  Loved it.

The Restorative action plan suggests I might be a good computer programmer.  Um, ding, ding, ding!!  It also says that “Constant improvement is one of your hallmarks.  See opportunities to enhance your abilities through a demanding field, activity, or endeavor that requires exceptional skill and/or knowledge.”  Reading through the Bible? Summer of 7?  The Daniel Fast?  Couch to 5K? Did you read that first paragraph up there?  I love challenging myself and honestly sometimes I wondered it I was just being silly.

As for things that I need to work on, a few things that stood out:

1. Two of the themes suggest I partner with someone with Focus and Discipline.  Anyone?  Bueller? 
2. I need to be careful not to take on too many projects and feel overly responsible.
3. I need to let other people solve their own problems.
4. I need to put more metrics on my goals and reward myself at milestones.

Shaun Groves just wrote a post earlier today on his themes and how he has seen it impact different areas of his life.  I’m eager to see what comes out of the class I take at work later next month based on this and see how it may impact my personal relationships as well. 

For now, I’m going to read the results, think about them, maybe share them in a blog post and hopefully help someone discover their own strengths, like today. 

Three days have passed since we cut off DirecTV.  Lexi has mentioned missing one show on two occasions.  Scott hasn’t cried over Megan Kelly yet.  I haven’t turned on the TV except to watch the Olympics.  Basically, what I’m saying is, we don’t miss cable. 

That’s not to say that we’ve cut out TV from our lives because oh my goodness, my kids love Netflix.  We rented Redbox this week.  Scott has listened to FOX News on XM Radio every evening.  “I can’t see Shep,” he pined last night as Shepard Smith’s show came over the XM Radio base in the living room.

I’m so in love with the idea we don’t have that bill this month that even if the Gator Boys and Turtle Man joined forces, they couldn’t convince me to turn cable back on.

In fact, my attention has turned to our phone landline. 

The main problem with getting rid of our landline is I am just on too many conference calls for work anymore.  Just last week, I counted 800 minutes dedicated to phone calls.  Unless I move to an unlimited cell plan, there’s no way that’s working.  Also, cell phones are known to drop calls and carry too much static.

I tried a VoIP phone a few years back but we really couldn’t make a go of it.  The cost of the service just wasn’t low enough to make it worth it at the time.

However, a lot of progression has been made in the last few years.  One thing external to the VoIP technology itself is a lot of people have been dropping landlines as more and more people have been getting cell phones and relying on texting.   It’s normal to not be in the phone book.  It’s normal to have to call a long distance number for someone’s cell phone.  It’s normal to make play dates through Facebook and email.  It’s normal for people to call your cell phone first and home second.

I wanted to get rid of our landline but still needed an option for my conference calls.  Last week I found out about this OBi device and immediately knew it was going to be our answer.  Haha.  Answer.  Get it?

  Pin Me!

The OBi device hooks to your router and then sits in between that and your regular telephone.  You sign up for a Google Voice account with a new telephone number and register it with OBi.  When people call you on your new Google Voice number, it comes through your OBi device and rings to all your regular phones.

The best part?  After the initial cost of the OBi device for $50, your phone service is FREE as long as Google Voice keeps it that way!

The only downside I can find is people calling us locally will have to pay long distance since Google Voice did not have a local number for us.  However, like I said, many folks have switched to using cell phones with long-distance to call and we still have our local cell numbers for people like Scott’s grandmother that don’t have a cell phone.  Oh, and of course, if your Internet goes down, your phones go down.  Again, though, cell phones to the rescue.

I’ve gone through one work day with the device and so far, so good.  No one commented on the change except my manager who knew I had switched and he said the sound was good.  He does all of his calls this way and I’ve never known him to have trouble.  Oh, and my mom did notice my caller ID is showing up as a different city but with a simple explanation, I think that can be overcome as an issue.

I think this is an awesome option for those of us without unlimited cell phone plans and yet need to be on the phone for many hours.

I haven’t made the call yet but if this keeps up, we’re saying goodbye to our phone bill!

Updated to add: If you want this box to work for the entire house, you need to put the line from the wall into the Phone plug on OBi instead of the Line plug.  We then had to get a splitter for the Line plug that so we could also hook up our office phone to the same place so that phone would get service.  The Line plug will then be empty.

This is what about 3:00 looks like on a work day in the Summer when Scott is not home to run interference.

Mail, trash, candy, random papers all over my desk.

Kids are plopped in front of the TV (although they didn’t turn it on today until 3).

Table still has traces of lunch and the game they played earlier.

Dirty dishes are piled up, clean dishes haven’t been put away.  I used Express Lane to order and pick up groceries but only the refrigerates were put away.  (But there is dinner in the crockpot way back there!)

Clean towels are piled up to be folded.  (But they’re clean and more are in the washing machine!)

Suitcases have not been emptied and are randomly in the hallway.

My bed didn’t get made and you can’t see them but the girls set up some sort of play area in front of the couch for the paper dolls they made this morning.  Oh and that yellow cup beside my bed has a smoothie in it from last week.

The kids room is well, the kids room.  Wet towels on the floor included.

Now this is what I call giving you Permission to Peruse.  We all have days like this and we just have to take a deep breath, set a timer for 15 minutes at the end of the day and fake it.

These are my clothes. 

That I don’t want.

Are you as nauseous about it as I was?  That is more clothes than some people can even fit in their closet.  I cleaned out my clothes as the last task of my week of possessions.  I knew it needed it but didn’t expect it to be painful.  Since we just built on our addition last year, I had already gone through my closet last Spring so I figured it couldn’t be too bad.  I was wrong.

Before I even started going through my closet, I thought about the fact that we are doing a clothing week where we wear just seven things for a whole week.  Why did I need hundreds of items in my closet?  I usually end up wearing the same thing over and over anyway.  I decided before I even started that I would be cut-throat and only keep the things I absolutely LOVED.  Another blogger referred to them as “tier 1 clothing”.  You only go to tier 2 when all your favorites are in the wash.  Tier 1 was the only thing staying.  I ran into things that I liked, things that I once loved, things I wondered why I bought and things that had been hanging in there for 10 years.  No lie.  I found the dress I was wearing when Scott graduated from police academy.  In 2003. 

I kept taking stack after stack to the garage, getting more and more disgusted with myself for keeping these clothes around.  Who else could have used them better when they were more in style?  Or better yet, where else could I have funneled the money in the first place? 

A few of my items were beyond repair and I decided to take them out to the fire pit where Scott burned some scrap wood earlier.  I couldn’t use them as rags because guess what?  I had found a stack of about 20 of those when I cleaned out one of my kitchen drawers.   After reading this article someone posted in the Summer of 7 Facebook page, I just couldn’t bear to add a single other thing to any trash pile.  Burning them felt right.

As I was watching them burn, God just said, “That’s all those are.  Ashes.”  I had been investing in dust.  Things that would pass away.  I kept asking God why?  Why do I hold on to these things?  It was the same the other day with my books.  I can’t let go.  And I think he may have given me a glimpse. 

I don’t know this for fact but could I suggest that it’s spiritual warfare?  That these clenched fists around books and clothes is straight from Satan’s playbook?  Yes, we have pride and selfishness that we all deal with and that’s part of the problem but I think something bigger is going on too. 

I started thinking about my books and how they’re full of words and Jesus is THE WORD and how books bring me happiness and in some cases, have changed my life, even if in small ways.  I think about my clothes and how happy they make me at times.  And I just thought, wouldn’t it just be like Satan to convince me to hoard the very things that could help someone else?  Wouldn’t he just hate it if someone else felt beautiful in that dress that made me feel beautiful ten years ago?  Wouldn’t he just hate it if God spoke through Love Does or Crazy Love like He did to me?  If he could just keep one more book on a shelf and one more piece of clothing in a closet, he could stop a blessing straight in its tracks.

See, I think God really, really wants us to enjoy what we have.  I don’t think he wants us me to give everything away.  I’ve struggled with that.  I really have.  But I’m convinced that he’s gracious and he blesses us with things that we love and are grateful for and give him glory for.  But there comes a time when a blessing becomes a burden.  Some blessings are not meant to be kept but to be given to another when the time is right.  And when God blesses us with something and then we’re not enjoying any more and aren’t grateful for it anymore, it’s time for it to go.  Seriously, if you can’t look at that book on your shelf and say God, I know you have this book in my life for just a special time and I’m SO GRATEFUL that it’s in my house, it should go.  And if we can’t see it as a blessing from God in the first place, we’re missing the boat altogether. 

And God in his very ironic, funny, HILARIOUS timing made the girls’ devotion tonight about guess what? POSSESSIONS.  When I opened up the devotion book I literally laughed out loud and yelled at God “YOU’RE SO FUNNY”.  I think the girls thought I’d lost my mind. 

The title was “God Wants You to Share”.  Ha.  Hahaha.  The short devotion was explaining what possessions are and simply saying we shouldn’t be stingy and share.  But the verses.  The WORD.  I want to finish this post by sharing the verses that accompanied the devotion because by the end of those, I was crying.  If these don’t confirm all that I just spewed up there, I just don’t know what else will.

Genesis 12:2-3
“I will make you into a great nation,
    and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
    and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
    and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
    will be blessed through you. ”

Acts 20:35
In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

Proverbs 11:25
A generous person will prosper;
    whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.

1 Timothy 6:17-18
Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.

Read more posts about possessions from The Summer of 7…

OK it’s Wednesday and I’d really like to give you a super insightful post but let me tell you what life was like today. 

This morning I had to not only do the get-ready-for-school deal by myself which is pretty normal but I also had to be at work first thing so I had to get up early since going to work in my snowflake pajama pants just wasn’t going to fly.  Normally I go in the office the days Scott is off so he can help with the kids while I do my thing. I did have the foresight to make the girls’ lunches last night and pick out my clothes so I did have that going for me.

At work, I had to have my yearly goals meeting which really, I’d rather stick a fork in my eye than talk about what leadership goals I have in the workplace.

While I was off goal-ing, I was worried about Lexi who I had expected to have a minor meltdown at school at any minute.  Since I was stuck at work and both my parents and Scott are out of town and the girls had a half day at school, I had to arrange for the girls to ride the bus home with a set of sisters they are both friends with.  Normally I think this would be great.  They’ve never ridden a bus aside from field trips and honestly I wouldn’t hate it if they decided they really liked the bus so I wouldn’t have to sit in the carpool line for 30 minutes every day.  Well, Lexi had a major breakdown last night about riding the bus.  She was scared to death and I just thought for sure she’d lose it.  Not to mention an email from the teacher suggested I should have planned a wee bit more ahead of time and she hoped they had room on the bus for them.  I ended up hightailing it home after my meeting and basically met the bus at their friends’ house and Lexi was totally fine except she said she hated the bus which means I’ll be sitting in a car line every 180 days of the school year for the next 10 years.  ANYWAY.

When we got home we found a dead frog in the pond that I know I’m going to have to get out eventually because Scott is gone.  Then we realized the cleaning ladies (bless their hearts) had locked us out of our house.  I had to lift and push Lexi through an unlocked window to get us in.  And THEN I found a dead BIRD in our pool (THAT IS STILL NOT CLEAR).  That’ll clog a skimmer, folks.

In the meantime, I’m juggling calls from people I really want and NEED to talk to and in the back of my mind planning this:

Katrina from The Poorganic Life has invited bloggers to blog their way through Jen Hatmaker’s 7 book, taking 7 weeks of the summer to do each of the 7 challenges from the book.  And I promise to have a detailed post up tomorrow about what I’m doing starting this weekend but in the meantime, you may want to sneak a peek at what’s going on because it’s coming and you’re going to want to get the book and be involved. 

Oh and I’m WORKING in between all this because I have GOALS, people.  So.  Today was crazy and you’re not going to get a wonderfully insightful post except to say, dear single parents, I am in awe.  It’s a good kind of crazy though and I’m not stressed, not worried.  I love my kids and my life and so thankful I have something to be busy over.  But crazy is crazy.