Sunday Night Musings

We've come around to Sunday again. It's been a full week (and weekend). I am now finally done with most of the reorganizing/redecorating for my room for the near future. And as I sit and have a chance to finally catch my breath and think in the stillness with nothing from work crowding in, I think this week will need to be different from last week in more ways than one.

I know we all have bad weeks, but I think this past one was just particularly bad because I felt so tired that I decided to let routine/discipline slip a bit. Either way, lesson learned. That just led to me feeling more exhausted and it was a rather awful positive feedback loop. This week, I will be more deliberate about spending some quiet time in the Word, making an effort to be still and just listen. Funny how it takes effort to slow down and be still. Newton's first law, anyone? That is, until we just break down and can't do it anymore. Anyway, misplaced priorities lead to misplaced attitudes and general misery all around, I'm starting to think.

Sunday School class on making disciples is going well - I'm learning. And being stretched. It is so nice to be able to practice (and work on being less quiet) in a safe environment. So thankful for that. I'd like to learn all that I can over these next few months. And while I'm learning, I'd like to share what I'm learning with others. So, to anyone who's willing to listen/interested, I'd love to pass along what I'm learning... thanks in advance for being patient. Last week was learning about the four general stages of discipleship. This week was about sharing our faith, so today we learned about the Bridge Illustration and associated verses. More on that soon.

 

Steps Challenge

You know how some companies have these "exercise" incentive programs? Well, my company decided to try doing it. Let's just say, since we're doing it in teams, it leads to some pretty hilarious conversations. It's because of the conversion factors, I promise. For example. The conversion factor for golfing? We're pretty sure it's wayyy overcalculating how many steps we're taking. One of my coworkers got 70 k steps for 3 golfing sessions (with one of them using a cart). I don't even know what to say to that. I mean, I barely get 2 k for walking a mile! Clearly, we just all need to plot a team golf outing to up our steps. In all seriousness, though. One thing I've realized is how few steps I take as a working adult in a suburban area, and now I'm consciously trying to up my steps for the day. Walking in place, anyone?

Grocery Shopping

Today I was up early and decided that while I was out, I might as well get some grocery shopping done. And so around 8AM I found myself in a Wegmans. If you ever have the opportunity to get groceries at Wegmans, I highly recommend it... Anyway, it was quiet because at 8AM on a Saturday morning, most people are still at home. There's just something that's so nice about walking into a bright, clean store where there are pretty much all the types of veggies you'll contemplate buying (and the price isn't outrageous). Anyway, I was walking around and thoroughly enjoying the super cold AC and thought back to college. You might have noticed that I still have not quite gotten over the Boston bug. I love that city. (And that's a statement coming from mountains and rolling hills, open-fields-with-two-lane-roads-winding-through-loving me) It's possible that if and when I return, things will be different because the people will be different. But the memories that I have of that city are so overwhelmingly positive despite the lack of AC, despite the long hours of studying, despite all the hard things that I learned and went through. And during the summers, I used to go grocery shopping. Quite often actually. Spoiled by the fact that Shaws was a 5 minute walk in one direction, and Trader Joe's a 10 min walk in the other. Spoiled by the free air conditioning (!) and the freedom that you have when you know you can buy things in small quantities and still not have to worry about making a long trek to buy more food. Grocery shopping to me at that time felt like such a grown-up thing to do. I'd come home from work, change, and walk over to pick up groceries, make dinner, and then do a few things on my computer before calling it an early night.

Fast forward to today. As I wandered around picking up items and putting them in my cart, I was so happy that I could shop without having to worry about carrying it all home. Particularly glad that I didn't have to worry about accidentally cracking 2 dozen eggs. As I decided to try cooking yellow zucchini for the first time, I was thankful that at least for now, I don't have to worry about watching every dollar. I'm fully aware that at some point in the future, I may be counting every last penny, especially if I go back to school. But for today, I was thankful that I could drive to a nearby store, pick up everything from eggs to yellow zucchini to my college staple of frozen broccoli, and come home with enough food for the week.