Monday, May 24, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Just Thinking...
You know how when you learn a new word that you've never heard before, you inevitably hear it 10 times in the next week? I've been doing a lot of reading lately and I feel like that has been happening not just with words but with entire ideas. Lately I can't stop thinking about these two quotes- I love that they say just about the same thing from two very different sources.
"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." --A. Einstein
"The first miracle by Jesus recorded in the New Testament was the turning of water into wine at the marriage at Cana... But poor, indeed, was the making of wine in the pots of stone, compared with its original making in the beauty of the vine and the abundance of the swelling grapes. No one could explain the onetime miracle at the wedding feat, but then neither could they explain the everyday miracle of the splendor of the vineyard itself.
It is most remarkable to witness one who is deaf made to hear again, but surely that great blessing is no more startling than the wondrous combination of bones and skin and nerves that let our ears receive the beautiful world of sound. Should we not stand in awe of the blessing of hearing and give glory to God for that miracle, even as we do when hearing is restored after it has been lost?
Is it not the same for the return of one's sight or the utterance of our speech, or even that greatest miracle of all- the restoration of life? The original creations of the Father constitute a truly wonder-filled world. Are not the greatest miracles the fact that we have life and limb and sight and speech in the first place? Yes, there will always be plenty of miracles if we have eyes to see and ears to hear." --Howard W. Hunter in "The God That Doest Wonders"
"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." --A. Einstein
"The first miracle by Jesus recorded in the New Testament was the turning of water into wine at the marriage at Cana... But poor, indeed, was the making of wine in the pots of stone, compared with its original making in the beauty of the vine and the abundance of the swelling grapes. No one could explain the onetime miracle at the wedding feat, but then neither could they explain the everyday miracle of the splendor of the vineyard itself.
It is most remarkable to witness one who is deaf made to hear again, but surely that great blessing is no more startling than the wondrous combination of bones and skin and nerves that let our ears receive the beautiful world of sound. Should we not stand in awe of the blessing of hearing and give glory to God for that miracle, even as we do when hearing is restored after it has been lost?
Is it not the same for the return of one's sight or the utterance of our speech, or even that greatest miracle of all- the restoration of life? The original creations of the Father constitute a truly wonder-filled world. Are not the greatest miracles the fact that we have life and limb and sight and speech in the first place? Yes, there will always be plenty of miracles if we have eyes to see and ears to hear." --Howard W. Hunter in "The God That Doest Wonders"
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Unsimplify
In the process of cutting every corner to simplify our lives, Doug and I not so accidentally got ourselves into a big project. I blame it on the bushes.
They were big. So big. And dead everywhere except the very outer layer of green making pruning an ugly task. But we were simplifying. 'We don't have time or energy for gardening this year,' we'd tell ourselves. So rather than think about how much we really really wanted to just take out the bushes and completely relandscape, Doug went out one day to tackle the pruning challenge.
He made one cut. And then another. We stared at the bush before us- slightly smaller yes, but looking oh so much more dead- and Doug promptly walked to the garage to get the saw. They were chopped down before either of us was able to reconsider and so our life of simplicity was slightly less simple for a couple weeks.
Less simple, but definitely more pretty. Here's a before and after-
Before.
Our personal favorite is the random sunflower growing on the side of the house.
Middle.
Ok, I don't have a middle picture but I wish I did. In addition to big, ugly bushes our front flower bed also had a big fat sprinkler leak and a really ugly drip system and some other sprinkler problems that I don't understand because, hey- I just learned that the big aisle in Home Depot with all the white pipes was the sprinkler aisle (oh to live where it rains...) so after Doug took out the bushes he took the opportunity to dig a HUGE hole to be able to fix all the sprinkler problems, then he mixed all the soil with compost before replacing it for planting. Probably the biggest part of the job.
After.
I'm so excited for the plants to get bigger- there are 2 hydrangea bushes, lots of hostas and a couple rhododendrons. We also included a bird bath and bird feeders which can be clearly seen from our living room couch- giving me something much more fun to stare at than a wall on my sick days. I'm really excited about that part.
Oh, and you might be thinking to yourself, wow- there's a LOT of room in that flower bed. They must have really added a lot of space to make room for that bench with a bunch of plants behind it. Nope. That was all bushes two weeks ago. Very very big bushes.
They were big. So big. And dead everywhere except the very outer layer of green making pruning an ugly task. But we were simplifying. 'We don't have time or energy for gardening this year,' we'd tell ourselves. So rather than think about how much we really really wanted to just take out the bushes and completely relandscape, Doug went out one day to tackle the pruning challenge.
He made one cut. And then another. We stared at the bush before us- slightly smaller yes, but looking oh so much more dead- and Doug promptly walked to the garage to get the saw. They were chopped down before either of us was able to reconsider and so our life of simplicity was slightly less simple for a couple weeks.
Less simple, but definitely more pretty. Here's a before and after-
Before.Our personal favorite is the random sunflower growing on the side of the house.
Middle.
Ok, I don't have a middle picture but I wish I did. In addition to big, ugly bushes our front flower bed also had a big fat sprinkler leak and a really ugly drip system and some other sprinkler problems that I don't understand because, hey- I just learned that the big aisle in Home Depot with all the white pipes was the sprinkler aisle (oh to live where it rains...) so after Doug took out the bushes he took the opportunity to dig a HUGE hole to be able to fix all the sprinkler problems, then he mixed all the soil with compost before replacing it for planting. Probably the biggest part of the job.
After.I'm so excited for the plants to get bigger- there are 2 hydrangea bushes, lots of hostas and a couple rhododendrons. We also included a bird bath and bird feeders which can be clearly seen from our living room couch- giving me something much more fun to stare at than a wall on my sick days. I'm really excited about that part.
Oh, and you might be thinking to yourself, wow- there's a LOT of room in that flower bed. They must have really added a lot of space to make room for that bench with a bunch of plants behind it. Nope. That was all bushes two weeks ago. Very very big bushes.Saturday, May 8, 2010
Simplify
Simplify, simplify, simplify.
I feel like that has been the basic thought process in our household this past month. We've both thought of a lot of great ideas to cut back on what we used to think were necessary tasks (like laundry- who needs to do that? Just kidding... kind of...) A lot of our ideas haven't stuck well, but a couple certainly have. Here is my favorite-
Our ceramic dishes now officially fit into the same category as our cloth napkins: Special Occasions Only. I know, I know- paper plates aren't exactly a new idea, which is exactly why I'm so surprised that we held off this long on the wonderful splendor that is a clean, empty sink after every meal. We did our Costco run for these guys two weeks ago and have done one load of dishes since. One. In two weeks!
I love paper plates.
I feel like that has been the basic thought process in our household this past month. We've both thought of a lot of great ideas to cut back on what we used to think were necessary tasks (like laundry- who needs to do that? Just kidding... kind of...) A lot of our ideas haven't stuck well, but a couple certainly have. Here is my favorite-
Our ceramic dishes now officially fit into the same category as our cloth napkins: Special Occasions Only. I know, I know- paper plates aren't exactly a new idea, which is exactly why I'm so surprised that we held off this long on the wonderful splendor that is a clean, empty sink after every meal. We did our Costco run for these guys two weeks ago and have done one load of dishes since. One. In two weeks! I love paper plates.
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