Discovering God's Vision

I have no problem admitting I struggle with this. More specifically, I struggle with "hearing" God and what He wants little old me to do with my life to truly glorify Him. I hear bits and pieces...but it's fitting them all together that gives me issues. The common roadblocks certainly contribute to my inability to "hear" Him - complacency, criticism and fear.

I know different things I would like to do, but are those thoughts and desires from Him to put me on the desired path? I like to think that the things that really interest me are things that would glorify Him and give me more ability to reach out to more people.

I am pretty certain that what I'm doing now isn't really part of His vision for me...but I'm trying like crazy to do it to the best of my ability to honor and glorify Him in the meantime!

Blogging Blank

I seem to be going through a blank. In fact, judging by other people's blogs...they must be, too.

Hmmm...

I'll have to make a list of interesting topics and start blogging on those!

So, I guess I'm responding to Liz's "global post" tag and let everyone in on my quirks. As if you didn't know anyway or have your own opinions formed.

So the rules are: (1) Link to the person that tagged you. (2) Post the rules on your blog. (3) Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself. (4) Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs. (5) Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

I am breaking the rules already, because I don't have six people to tag. Teresa, if you read this, TAG! Michael, I'm sure you've done it already. Oh...wait...maybe not...you don't like fun things like playing tag and blowing bubbles...

Six Quirky Things about me....

1) Stepping on manhole covers and drainage grates and things of that nature scare me. I've always been somewhat paranoid about it, but after I talked to a client (when I worked for an attorney) who actually fell through one (only one leg and went down all the way to her hip - not pretty), I'm REALLY paranoid now. There is a REALLY big service one on the other side of my south-side neighbors and it terrifies me when Evan stands on it. Must get him down almost immediately without showing my fear.

2.) People smacking drives me insane. Mouth noises (weird sounds, clicks, pops, etc.) in general drive me nuts, but people smacking when they eat makes me ridiculously angry. Mad (as in irrational angry) is a better term. And the sound makes me lose my appetite! One time at a place where I used to work, they had pizza delivered so no one had to get out in the weather. I was sitting at the table in the kitchen and this woman sat down next to me and this man sat down across from me. BOTH ARE HORRIBLE SMACKERS. Neither of them, however, knew my peeve. Well, they started eating (and, as you know, pizza is kind of a noisy food anyway) and almost immediately I wanted to vomit. About that time two of my friends walked in, saw what was happening and immediately busted out laughing. I just had to leave my pizza and depart the room...

3.) When I read a book, I see a movie in my head.

4.) When I read something that is grammatically incorrect, I automatically correct it as I read it. It is physically impossible for me to read something aloud the way it was written - if it is incorrect. If something is written...well, as I sit here and try to think of something to write incorrectly, I can't. It's as though my brain won't process things that way. I can tell you that I have heard the following "sentence" numerous times and it has almost made me lose my mind, "That's done been tooken care of." Tooken??? I am NOT exaggerating, either.

5.) When I take a shower, I must follow a particular order for washing. I have tried and tried to deviate from it and while I might manage to wash one body part out of order, I fall right back into the same pattern. OCD, perhaps?

6.) And for the final quirk, I, too, will list the issue with cabinet doors and drawers. It absolutely freaks me out. Many, many, many, many, many, many years ago, Mikel's dad and roommate (pre-marriage and Mikel, obviously) purposely left EVERY SINGLE DOOR AND DRAWER in their apartment open. EVERYTHING except the refrigerator. I have no doubt that if they could have figured out how to do that without wasting food, they would have. My first thought was that they had been burglarized. Then I saw that EVERYTHING was open and it dawned on me. I turned around, shut the door and waited outside until they got home and went in and shut everything.

The Park

This weather this past weekend was awesome - especially for being the beginning of February. Since it was so nice, Evan got to go to the park on both Saturday and Sunday. He LOVES the park. That kid can climb up the stairs, crawl through the tunnels and slide millions of times. He has also started being a little more adventurous in that he's testing his limits to see how far he can go without me following him. He'll tell me, "I'm gonna go get drink. Be back in just a minute," and then head to the water fountain, which is 30 or so yards from the playground where I am. (Fortunately, the water fountain isn't operational at the moment!) Then he'll need to go sit on the bench at the picnic table. Or go check out some trees. He never strays too far, but he's working on his independence. It's pretty neat to observe!

We typically go to the park in the neighborhood across the main street, but we went to another one on Sunday that has a different set up. Let me tell you, it was a fight to get him to go to a different park. When I didn't go the direction he thought I should (I turned right instead of going straight ahead where he knew the park was), he raised all kinds of cane. When I got to the "other" park (which is how he now refers to this one), he was very impressed. When we pulled up, I turned around and looked at him and he said, "Ohhhh, Mommy...Look at that slide! I wanna go down slide! I'm gonna climb up stairs and go over bridge and go down slide!" And then he was off! He talked non stop while he climbed and slid (is that a correct grammatical usage?)...

Yesterday was even nicer, so I left my office early to take advantage of the perfect day. When we talked about going to the park, he said, "Mom, I wanna go to the 'other' park." (Yes, my two-year-old calls me "Mom"...)

And did I mention that the first thing he has to do when we get to the park - any park, not just the "other" park - is say hello to the trash cans????

Maybe I should do a post on six quirky things about my child!

Bubbles

Have you ever really stood back and witnessed what kind of joy something as simple as bubbles brings to a small child? Evan LOVES bubbles. Now, granted, he can't really blow them yet (he basically just spits through the wand), but he loves to try and he loves to play with them when I blow them for him.

Just watching his joy and fascination mesmerizes me...and quite frankly, it makes me feel like a little kid myself. Blowing bubbles can be kind of addictive. I catch myself saying, "Okay...last time," and then blowing them a dozen more times...