So, so much has been happening lately that I've hardly had time to update everyone on what's been happening! So I guess it's about time I did...
Well, for anyone who doesn't know what our situation has been for the last 5 months, we've been living with my parents while we saved up money to get into our own place. I have been working out at the air force base, and Kyle has been working on his teaching credential. A few months ago, we were finally able to buy Kyle a car, a 2002 Mazda Protege named Rowdy (seen Scrubs?). He takes very good care of Rowdy, to the point that it wouldn't surprise me if the car out-lives the stuffed dog (see Scrubs). Anyway, lol, about a month ago, Kyle began substitute teaching on his not-so-full days. It's been an interesting experience for him, but he's been doing great, and has been asked for his 'sub number' so that he can be requested next time a substitute is needed:)
I suppose I should include some updates about me too. Well...hmm...I've hardly had time to do much worth updating about! lol. I've been on a pretty crazy schedule. My work hours vary from week to week, and sometimes even from day to day. I may have to get up at 2am, or I may get to sleep in as long as I like - problem is, the early mornings are far more frequent than the late ones, so there's little to no chance of me sleepng past 8am, even if I were allowed to sleep until 2pm! Unfortunately, my varying work schedule hasn't left me the option of being consistently involved in much of anything. Two out of three weeks I'm involved in the youth group at church. One Sunday a month I work in the nursery. Every couple of Sundays I sing on the worship team. And every once in a blue moon I hang out with people that I would really love to see far more often than I do! It often feels like I'm busy, busy, busy, yet don't get anything done. On the other hand, I have been thoroughly enjoying being involved in some longer term activities that don't require weekly attendance. For example, in early December I will be decorating and hosting a tea table at our church's ladies' Christmas Tea:) I am having way too much fun with that, and probably spending way too much money on it, but I am really enjoying it. It's also been great getting to know some of the other ladies in the church through all the random exchanges of ideas:) One bit of excitement I experienced lately was receiving my first real tea set:) It's not commonly known, but I've always loved teacups, and have wanted to collect them, but didn't know where to start or where to find them. Then my mom took me to Belladonna's to seek out some inspiration. If I weren't in love with teacups before, I still would be now, haha. I fell completely in love with a beautiful tea set. It was a warm white color, with cozy looking snowmen all over it, with bits of holly, and tiny red cardinals scattered amongst them. Gold edging, and slightly scalloped edges gave it a graceful elegance, while the snowmen gave it a bit of cutesy charm:) It simply begged to be taken home and used to share tea or cocoa in a cozy corner with a friend. But it costed a pretty penny...actually, several. So, on the shelf it stayed...I kept wanting to go back and look at it, like a little girl staring at a doll in a shop window, and felt silly. I kept trying to think of other ideas for my Christmas tea table - perhaps ones that would not cost so much. Then on Sunday my mom brought me a big gift bag, seemingly out of nowhere. My first thought was, "Whose birthday is it?" lol. She said it was for me! (moi? ^_^) In the gift bag was the snowman teapot and two teacups and saucers!:) I was super excited, and of course showed them to Kyle as if it were something that he would be terribly excited about too (silly me, hehe). I felt like a little girl, anxious to invite a friend over for tea with my new tea set, and yet felt very much grown up, having received my first REAL tea set. Then my mom said, "There's two more bags in your room." I was shocked, "You didn't buy the whole SET did you?!?" She said, "Well you need to sit six people at your tea table, right..?" :-o Like a little kid, I jumped up and raced to my room to find a sugar bowl, creamer pitcher, four more teacups and saucers, and six dessert plates. The whole set!!! It felt like Christmas, doubled. I'm not even kidding, it's like a $200+ tea set. My parents said that they were going to get it for me for Christmas, but knew that if I didn't have it for the Christmas Tea, then I would go out and buy a cheap set that I didn't actually want, just to decorate a table. So they thought about making it an early Christmas gift, but knew they would only find something else to get me for Christmas (my mom complains that I'm too easy to shop for, lol), so they've declared it a house-warming gift, lol. Thank you, Mom and Dad!!!
Speaking of house-warming...if you haven't noticed, we're finally moving into our own place!!! Tomorrow after I get off of work, we're going to sign the lease, and begin moving our stuff in:) We will probably spend Friday evening moving the big stuff, like our sofas (yay!), recliner (woot!), bed, and bookshelves. Then Saturday we'll begin moving boxes. That way, when we unpack the boxes, all the big stuff is already in place, so we can put the little stuff where it goes:) It should be a pretty smooth move:) We're very excited about finally having our own place. We will definitely post pictures of our new little home:)
Well, that's about it for now...lol, thanks for reading!
Showing posts with label tea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tea. Show all posts
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Thursday, March 6, 2008
My Cup of Tea
So...I have concluded that God likes tea...
Let me explain...
I'm sure most of you know that it is impossible to read any work of C.S. Lewis without finding some remarkable thought to marvel at, if not quote for years to come. I won't be quoting this one much after this blog, but only because it is far too long. This particular quote, from "The Screwtape Letters" is, of course, written from the perspective of Screwtape, a fairly experienced tempter in Satan's army. He is offering some constructive criticism to his nephew, who has slipped up, and allowed his 'patient' to have a moment alone with God... "And now for your blunders. On your own showing you first of all allowed the patient to read a book he really enjoyed, because he really enjoyed it and not in order to make clever remarks about it to his new friends. In the second place, you allowed him to walk down to the old mill and have tea there - a walk through the country he really likes, and taken alone. In other words you allowed him two real positive Pleasures! Were you so ignorant as not to see the danger of this? The characteristic of Pains and Pleasures is that they are unmistakable real, and therefore, as far as they go, give the man who feels them a touchstone of reality...Didn't you forsee that it would just kill by contrast all the trumpery which you have been so laboriously teaching him to value? And that the sort of pleasure which the book and the walk gave him was the most dangerous of all? That it would peel off from his sensibility the kind of crust you have been forming on it, and make him feel that he was coming home, recovering himself? As a preliminary to detaching him from the Enemy, you wanted to detach him from himself, and had made some progress in doing so. Now, all that is undone...Of course I know that the Enemy also wants to detach men from themselves, but in a different way. Remember always, that He really likes the little vermin, and sets an absurd value on the distinctness of every one of them. When He talks of their losing their selves, He only means abandoning the clamour of self-will; once they have done that, He really gives them back all their personality, and boasts (I am afraid, sincerely) that when they are wholly His they will be more themselves than ever!...I would make it a rule to eradicate from my patient any strong personal taste which is not actually a sin, even if it is something quite trivial such as a fondness for country cricket or collecting stamps or drinking cocoa. Such things, I grant you, have nothing of virtue in them; but there is a sort of innocence and humility and self-forgetfulness about them which I distrust. The man who truly and disinterestedly enjoys any one thing in the world, for its own sake, and without caring two-pence what other people say about it, is by that very fact forearmed against some of our subtlest modes of attack."
Now, "The Screwtape Letters" is certainly not scripture. But I doubt that anyone would claim that C.S. Lewis' writings lack real wisdom! I have noticed this phenomena before - that is, the affect of a "real Pleasure," as Screwtape calls them. When we do something simple that we simply enjoy simply for the reason that we enjoy it, there is peace...an unconcsious smile...an opportunity for God to enter our minds on a positive note! Previously in Screwtapes letters, he had encouraged Wormwood to nudge his patient toward fake pleasures - mingling in circles he did not truly enjoy being in, pretending to enjoy and know all about that circle's enjoyments, and in doing so forgetting the things that he, himself, truly enjoyed! His purpose being that we slowly become the thing that we pretend to be! On the other hand, and much to Screwtape's dismay, when we allow ourselves to experience a real Pleasure (the real kind, not perversions of the originals), and because we each prefer one or two kinds of Pleasure over others, we are then allowed to experience something we thought we never stopped experiencing: being ourselves. The real me is the me that God loves, bumps and blunders and blonde moments and all. If for just a moment I allow myself to feel like myself, it is at that moment that I allow myself to feel loved by God!
Now, this is not to say that we should indulge in anything that we define as "pleasure" and expect to feel loved by God. There are what Screwtape wisely calls (yes, a demon can speak wisely, and easier so when he is simply a voice of C.S. Lewis;)), *ahem* what Screwtape wisely calls "real Pleasures"... "You were trying to damn your patient by the World, that is by palming off vanity, bustle, irony and expensive tedium as pleasures. How can you have failed to see that a real Pleasure was the last thing you ought to have let him meet?" You see the difference? Real pleasures are enjoyable things as God intended them to be. The pleasures that Screwtape and Wormwood and the like would prefer us to "enjoy" are really distorted versions of real pleasures. It is important to understand the difference. For example, a cup of tea can be a real pleasure. It can offer a moment of escape from the busy-ness and to-do's of the day. These are the moments when it is easiest for me to stop all the bustling, retreat back to being myself, and pause to feel loved by God. This would not be the case if I were to sit on the toilet drinking tea all the time! An excess of this little Pleasure of mine would not be a real pleasure at all. It would truly be hard to even pretend it to be so. I'm sure you can see how big the difference can be. On the other hand, the difference can be quite small. I doubt that I need to go on to explain small differences. You all posess a bit of discernment. The point is, whatever real pleasures you know of in your life, whether it be a cup of tea, a good book, a nice walk, a cozy corner to relax in...whatever activity allows you to be you, without the influence of others, is an opportunity for you to realize reality - especially the reality that you are you, just the way you are, and God loves you.
As for my conclusion that God likes tea...what I really mean is, God enjoys the simple pleasures that help us to step away from the distractions around us, and enjoy Him. For you, it might not be tea...but whatever it is, do take the time to find out:)
Anywho...time for a cup of tea...
Let me explain...
I'm sure most of you know that it is impossible to read any work of C.S. Lewis without finding some remarkable thought to marvel at, if not quote for years to come. I won't be quoting this one much after this blog, but only because it is far too long. This particular quote, from "The Screwtape Letters" is, of course, written from the perspective of Screwtape, a fairly experienced tempter in Satan's army. He is offering some constructive criticism to his nephew, who has slipped up, and allowed his 'patient' to have a moment alone with God... "And now for your blunders. On your own showing you first of all allowed the patient to read a book he really enjoyed, because he really enjoyed it and not in order to make clever remarks about it to his new friends. In the second place, you allowed him to walk down to the old mill and have tea there - a walk through the country he really likes, and taken alone. In other words you allowed him two real positive Pleasures! Were you so ignorant as not to see the danger of this? The characteristic of Pains and Pleasures is that they are unmistakable real, and therefore, as far as they go, give the man who feels them a touchstone of reality...Didn't you forsee that it would just kill by contrast all the trumpery which you have been so laboriously teaching him to value? And that the sort of pleasure which the book and the walk gave him was the most dangerous of all? That it would peel off from his sensibility the kind of crust you have been forming on it, and make him feel that he was coming home, recovering himself? As a preliminary to detaching him from the Enemy, you wanted to detach him from himself, and had made some progress in doing so. Now, all that is undone...Of course I know that the Enemy also wants to detach men from themselves, but in a different way. Remember always, that He really likes the little vermin, and sets an absurd value on the distinctness of every one of them. When He talks of their losing their selves, He only means abandoning the clamour of self-will; once they have done that, He really gives them back all their personality, and boasts (I am afraid, sincerely) that when they are wholly His they will be more themselves than ever!...I would make it a rule to eradicate from my patient any strong personal taste which is not actually a sin, even if it is something quite trivial such as a fondness for country cricket or collecting stamps or drinking cocoa. Such things, I grant you, have nothing of virtue in them; but there is a sort of innocence and humility and self-forgetfulness about them which I distrust. The man who truly and disinterestedly enjoys any one thing in the world, for its own sake, and without caring two-pence what other people say about it, is by that very fact forearmed against some of our subtlest modes of attack."
Now, "The Screwtape Letters" is certainly not scripture. But I doubt that anyone would claim that C.S. Lewis' writings lack real wisdom! I have noticed this phenomena before - that is, the affect of a "real Pleasure," as Screwtape calls them. When we do something simple that we simply enjoy simply for the reason that we enjoy it, there is peace...an unconcsious smile...an opportunity for God to enter our minds on a positive note! Previously in Screwtapes letters, he had encouraged Wormwood to nudge his patient toward fake pleasures - mingling in circles he did not truly enjoy being in, pretending to enjoy and know all about that circle's enjoyments, and in doing so forgetting the things that he, himself, truly enjoyed! His purpose being that we slowly become the thing that we pretend to be! On the other hand, and much to Screwtape's dismay, when we allow ourselves to experience a real Pleasure (the real kind, not perversions of the originals), and because we each prefer one or two kinds of Pleasure over others, we are then allowed to experience something we thought we never stopped experiencing: being ourselves. The real me is the me that God loves, bumps and blunders and blonde moments and all. If for just a moment I allow myself to feel like myself, it is at that moment that I allow myself to feel loved by God!
Now, this is not to say that we should indulge in anything that we define as "pleasure" and expect to feel loved by God. There are what Screwtape wisely calls (yes, a demon can speak wisely, and easier so when he is simply a voice of C.S. Lewis;)), *ahem* what Screwtape wisely calls "real Pleasures"... "You were trying to damn your patient by the World, that is by palming off vanity, bustle, irony and expensive tedium as pleasures. How can you have failed to see that a real Pleasure was the last thing you ought to have let him meet?" You see the difference? Real pleasures are enjoyable things as God intended them to be. The pleasures that Screwtape and Wormwood and the like would prefer us to "enjoy" are really distorted versions of real pleasures. It is important to understand the difference. For example, a cup of tea can be a real pleasure. It can offer a moment of escape from the busy-ness and to-do's of the day. These are the moments when it is easiest for me to stop all the bustling, retreat back to being myself, and pause to feel loved by God. This would not be the case if I were to sit on the toilet drinking tea all the time! An excess of this little Pleasure of mine would not be a real pleasure at all. It would truly be hard to even pretend it to be so. I'm sure you can see how big the difference can be. On the other hand, the difference can be quite small. I doubt that I need to go on to explain small differences. You all posess a bit of discernment. The point is, whatever real pleasures you know of in your life, whether it be a cup of tea, a good book, a nice walk, a cozy corner to relax in...whatever activity allows you to be you, without the influence of others, is an opportunity for you to realize reality - especially the reality that you are you, just the way you are, and God loves you.
As for my conclusion that God likes tea...what I really mean is, God enjoys the simple pleasures that help us to step away from the distractions around us, and enjoy Him. For you, it might not be tea...but whatever it is, do take the time to find out:)
Anywho...time for a cup of tea...
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