Wherein she attempts to defeat Ecc. 5:3

"A fool's voice is known by many words" Ecc 5:3b

The last twelve months have been such a rich time in our lives. We've started homeschooling, moved into a house, had a baby, visited the NICU while said baby was healing, started unpacking, continued working on the house, continued homeschooling, continued working on the house, continued unpacking, finished homeschool, continued unpacking, continued working on the house, continued unpacking, continued working on the house...

It feels like there has been A LOT to process. And while I'm one who processes "verbally", as it were, it has seemed like a year to be silent here, for the most part, and reveal fool-ishness elsewhere.

But we are all doing well - growing in age and, hopefully, wisdom, too, and I find that I'd like a bit more of a record of who we are and what we are doing than I've had over the last year here. So maybe now is the time for more words. We'll see...

Swagbucks

Ok, if y'all are not using Swagbucks to search the internet, start now, and please click through on this widget.

Swagbucks is easy to use and one earns "bucks" for regular internet searches. These bucks can be traded for gift cards to Amazon or many, many other places.
I think it is one of the easiest ways to earn just a bit of extra money. In the month and a half that I've used Swagbucks, I've earned enough for $20 off of alice.com or $10 off of an Amazon order, and it has been almost painless. In fact, I've gotten so addicted to winning that I sometimes take an extra step or two in a search in order to win a buck.
Consider joining up through this widget or link, won't you, please? It's a very nice thing.

Anyone need a last minute Christmas photo card?

Last year, I thought I'd get into the Christmas photo card business, but I never got around to designing my own papers, etc. I do, however, have about five or six or so templates using free materials. If you'd like a free photo card you can take and have printed, I'd be honored to have my blog friends use one of these templates lest they sit around unused. Just send me a photo by next Wed, Dec. 16 and whether you'd like the card to be religious or secular, and any other verbage, along with whether you'd prefer a 4x6 or 5x7 and I'll get it to you asap. My email is mcclurestewart and it's a gmail dot com address.

Happy scrappy quilt giveaway

Marie-Madeleine has a great giveaway for a gorgeous quilt. More info here.

On internet access...or not

Recently, we ported our home phone number over to our cell phone company because it saves a bit of money. Consequently, our fomer phone provider automatically cancelled our internet service. We could have it reinstated, of course, or we could find another provider, but it's been so nice to not have the internet that we may just keep it unplugged.

Right now I am at our local coffeeshop enjoying my Mother's Sabbath. They have free wi-fi, as does the library. As do my parents, for that matter. I'm thinking that if I check in at least once a day, I should be able to keep on top of whatever I have to do with email and banking. And next year, I'm going to get out of whatever I have to do with email so that it's no longer necessary and I can just check in once a week or so.

It's nice to be unplugged at home. I forget how much mental energy the internet can suck from me if I let it. It's nice to be free.

On blog honesty

One of the things that has been holding me back from blogging is a struggle with what is and is not honest. Sometimes I feel as though I'm representing only part of myself when I blog. On the other hand, I am learning that not every thought that pops into my head, even those that stay there ruminating for a while, need to be shared with every. single. person. Where's the balance? I'm not sure I know.

What I do know is that I've felt as though I've only represented what-I've-wanted-y'all-to-think about me in the past. My great fear in life has always been disappointing people I love. I've made a lot of mistakes in life because of the need for approval from others. But transparency is becoming essential to me, I think. I don't want to present an air-brushed picture of myself taken through a Vaselined lens. What-I-want-you-to- think doesn't take into account the mercies God is showing me in revealing my brokenness. And that's probably pretty much all that's worth sharing on a blog at this point.

Anyway, in an attempt to clear up some misconceptions that I think I've perpetuated, judging by past comments or emails to me, I'll have a little out-ing here and post a list of 25 things about me, as inspired by a list I posted on facebook. There are not the 25 most important things about me, nor are they 25 things that will never change. But they are honest and that's why they are here, now.

25 Non-random things about the author of this blog

1. I love, love, love living in my hometown. I don't care if that is not cosmopolitan or evolved or sophisticated or anything else. I think this place is amazing and thank God every day that I live here again.

2. I'm really excited to have a house of my own, but I constantly fight a desire to make it bigger and better. When my husband lost his job recently, I realized that I could let go of the house very, very easily if it meant having him and the kids. That helps put Victorian-style fainting couches into perspective.

3. The fact that my parents are still married after almost 35 years of marriage is amazing and one of the most inspiring things I've ever experienced. They have not had an easy road, by a long shot, but their story is full of such grace and mercy and forgiveness and learning and growing that continues to unfold. I am so, so, SO thankful that they've made the difficult choice again and again throughout their lives.

4. I love that my husband knows how to do almost everything. I always thought that would annoy me in a spouse, but it doesn't. I love when he's more right that I am. Competency is so virile. And confidence and humility are a powerful combination in a husband.

5. We got together on Ash Wednesday, Mar. 5. I knew without a doubt by Sunday evening that I wanted to marry him. We got engaged on May 4 and married on July 4. It seemed like it took FOREVER.

6. One of my favorite memories from our wedding was when my friends and family, including my 80-year old grandmother, surrounded us and swayed back and forth while holding up candles while we danced to the KISS song, "Forever", which is one of Dennis' faves. My Grammy rocked that song.

7. I think my grandfather is one of the greatest human beings ever born and I miss my Grammy almost every day.

8. I've learned to be a better parent thanks to Keith Lehman, Scott Turansky and JoAnne Miller, Gary Chapman and James Dobson. And Elizabeth Kreuger and maybe even Michael Pearl. Yes, you read that list right.

9. Watching Annalivia being born was probably the most profound and amazing moment of my life. When Daniel was born, I was too exhausted from the 43 hours of labor to properly appreciate the profundity.

10. I think God is breaking me open through my children. This is one reason, among many, that Dennis and I are loathe to limit our family size to what I can conceive physically, emotionally, spiritually, intellectually, etc.

11. I wonder when I share some particular parenting triumph whether I should also disclose the approximately 4.8 billion parenting failures that occurred in the days, hours, minutes and seconds previous to that.

12. My sisters are seriously the coolest human beings on the planet and are my absolute best friends. I adore them.

13. One of my favorite programs ever was "Sir Norbert Smith: A Life!" shown on Masterpiece Theatre here when I was in high school. That and Black Adder pretty much made my sophomore year of high school and began a long, constant and current love affair with English comedies. And dramas. And movies. And books.

14. I can still quote Sir Norbert.

15. I was a pastor for 7 years to a congregation I really loved. But I do not miss being a pastor. Now I am in my hometown as a lay person, of sorts, trying to figure out how to worship in my home church, or not, without wounding people I really love and destroying the vocation God provided me.

16. I love liturgy. I love the pipe organ. I love high church trappings. I love a rockin' band. I love slightly awkward worship-leading praise music. I love spontaneous prayer. I love a humble man leading a congregation in worship, prayer, and teaching. I love a humble woman leading worship, prayer, and teaching. It's when worship, music, pastoring, praying, preaching etc. becomes something to prove or anything other than real and authentic and honest and true that I feel sort of sickened when I encounter it.

17. When I was in seminary, I won an award for constructing a very tight, terribly consistent theology. I now believe that well-constructed, tight and terribly consistent theologies are generally not based in any real God experiences.

18. I have found myself at a point where I can listen to a wide, broad, divergent spectrum of theology -- almost anything, in fact -- and find something of meaning and help to me.

19. I totally love Jesus now. It only took 5 years of ministry for me to have my "kitchen conversion." Before that, I loved people and the church more than Jesus. But people fail, and I realized that I wasn't going to be able to go on in ministry or life without loving, seeking, and knowing the Spirit of the Living God above all else.

20. I've finally learned that there is absolutely no substitute for the presence and power of Christ found in reading, studying, sharing, preaching, teaching and listening to the Bible. Living Water, Bread of Life... I understand those labels now. Finally.

21. My life completely and totally changed due to the events of Sept. 19, 2006 when Dennis and I, and Daniel who was at 18 weeks gestation, survived a major car accident.

22. I became sort of rabidly pro-life after the accident after being sort of rabidly pro-choice before it. Almost everything, politically, changed for me from there. I once was a self-described "flaming liberal." I also hadn't done much thinking. I now consider myself conservative in almost every way, except when it comes tothe gays. I love me some gays.

23. I spend approximately 90% of my time thinking about faith, spiritual disciplines, the church, practical theology, Christian parenting and what to eat next.

24. I have a problem with sarcasm and really am trying not to be ascerbic or condescending or vicious, both in thought and in deed. It's hard.

25. I also struggle with anger, gluttony, sloth, greed, and pride. Oh, and envy. But not so much with lust. So I guess there's hope for me yet. :)

There's something to say

I may be returning to blogging regularly. I have some things to say, finally, which may be of value to someone beyond myself or beyond the people who see me all the time and are subjected to my miscellaneous ponderings far too often already.

I've struggled with how to say what I feel I want/ need to say and realized the other day that the answer is in the title of this blog which was inspired by the quotes from the Bible way, way down there at the bottom of the page. Especially, there's this Colossians quote ~ "Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone" (Col. 4:6).

I'm reminded that what I say here (and everywhere, for that matter) should be carefully-seasoned, full of grace, and desiring to enhance how we serve and love together by Christ's Spirit. I hope that's what anyone reading my words will find. That's what I'll strive to do in the days ahead.

Until tomorrow...

About blogging...

When I started this blog, I lived away from family and friends. My little girl was growing and changing and I wanted to tell everyone about her. I was also pastoring a church and emerging from what, at the time, felt like a 25-year spiritual drought. I had lots to say and not many, other than a longsuffering husband, to listen to it all.

Things have changed since then. I have three kiddos now, and while the transition to three children from two did not seem as overwhelming as the transition to two children from one, what I find is that I no longer have much actual time to record my thinking about cabbages and kings. When the end of the day comes, or a child actually naps, it seems much more pressing and, frankly, more fulfilling to do a load of laundry or read to another kid or talk to my husband or... any number of things, really, rather than blogging.

I am not sure what will happen in this space. Historically, whenever I decide to step back from blogging, just the thought of stepping back, or the announcement of it -- whichever -- seems to be all I need to spur me forth into a blogging frenzy. Lord knows I have enough pics to fill up an entire summer and some of the fall! So I may appear tomorrow with brand new daily posts.

Or I might not. I find my brain processing lots of thoughts about faith and family right now, but I also don't feel very compelled to spew them all out onto the internet. I've been grateful for the space to process aloud, especially as an extrovert without much people-time that was tank-filling. And to have people interact and give input here and on your own blogs was really great. I've found that lots of people I know read this blog -- which I appreciate. Really. But I've also found that processing things in the open can lead to hurt feelings. And that's my last intention. Really.

So. Here's to the blog and to you who read and have read. I have "met" some amazing and truly-inspiring folks because of blogdom. Thank you. And in case I don't get back to say it any time soon -- serving and loving, together, with you, has been a life-changing experience for me. Thanks again.

December Photo Project: Virus edition

So, no photo today. A virus on my computer has taken my already-snapped photos out of commission for a bit. We're taking my laptop to Nerds on Call (isn't that a great name?) tomorrow or Monday. So I'll be online much less, which is probably good for all of us. More crocheting can get done! Right now, I'm posting from Dennis' laptop. I'll see if I can load from my camera onto here tomorrow. In the meantime head over to Rebecca's for a list of other DPP participants and get your photo-fix elsewhere!

And if I've sent you an email since last night, don't open it. :)

Ok, seriously

If you are not reading "Et Tu?" you should start now. It's just brilliance all over the place. Jen's latest column about her transformation from being pro-choice to pro-life is stunning, I think. She articulates wrestling with faith as a reasoned individual in such eloquent and readable ways! I'll recommend her to everyone from any background. Fabulous stuff.

A little giveaway

I've decided to give away a very, very, very lightly used copy of the book, Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld. It's a nice book, but I'm downsizing and think now that I've read it, I can use the concepts pretty easily without the book taking up space.

If you want in, leave me a comment confessing how you pull one over on your children on this post by Friday, April 11 at 5 p.m. central time. I'll choose by random selection. Feel free to pass along the news. International entries welcome, too.

My confession: I cut things in half and say, "See... now you have two!" in the happiest voice I can manufacture. I think #1 is starting to figure it out though.

News bulletin -- tech-impaired moron learns how to read blogs

I am probably the last person in the blogosphere to figure this out, but I have just learned about Google Reader and I think it will change my blog-reading life.

Memes galore

I've been tagged by Angela and Mrs. Wibbs to do two memes. Since Angela tagged me first -- a long, long time ago -- sorry, Angela -- here is this one.

Book Meme
1. One book that changed your life.
Traveling Mercies -- I read it in seminary when everything was shifting. I was just so darn grateful to Anne Lamott for being just completely real.

2. One book that you have read more than once.
All of the Madeleine L'Engle juvenile books, Little House on the Prairie (except Farmer Boy), all of the Harry Potters, all of the Narnia books, The Witch of Blackbird Pond -- pretty much any book I love, I've read more than twice because I never read them well enough the first time to catch everything.

3. One book that you would want on a desert island.
The Bible

4. One book that made you laugh.
Any Dave Barry book.

9. One book you have been meaning to read.
Oh my goodness, this list could be interminable. How about Unbinding the Gospel?


I'm tagging Roo and Amy who loves books and Jill-who-seldom-blogs-anymore. That's right, Jill! Hah!

Love/ Hate Meme
I love to eat: tiramisu, Mom's corned beef, Grammy's pretty-much-anything
I hate to eat: well-done steak, most canned vegetables
I love to go: driving at dusk in the summer
I hate to go: to Super Wal-Mart during the day
I love it when: Daniel and Annalivia laugh at each other
I hate it when: I know that I've screwed something up
I love to see: a straightened up house
I hate to see: messes everywhere
I love to hear: my loves laugh
I hate to hear: the Harleys ruin a lovely day or the moron in the next block revving his hot rod engine during naptime

I'm tagging Donna (have you already done this, Donna?) and Liz.

Of course, y'all who have been tagged can just ignore me. Or do it in a few months. :)

I love this woman's blog

Amalee turned me on to Tongue in Cheek, a gorgeous look at a woman's life in France. Today her post was just amazing. Go look and browse the archives for some real beauty.

There you go, Lil and Jake

More sodium chloride. Just for you.

Oh, and a pig with wings.

Just messin'

Having some fun with the fonts and colors for a bit. It may be completely different in a few hours...

Backing up blogger

So I decided to answer my own question about backing up blogger and looked for info on how to do it. It seemed way too complicated, so I just did these things.

1. Went under Settings to Formatting and changed the number of posts displayed to 500. This displayed all of the posts on the main page.
2. Went to the Page settings in Explorer to View Source.
3. Saved the Source in a Word Perfect file.
4. Opened it in Word Perfect.

It's not a perfect representation of the blog, but certainly good enough that if it were lost, we would have a backup. It imported all the pictures, too. Hope it helps someone else, too!