Lessons from Lauraland

So I really have not blogged in a while.  I do a lot of blogging and letter writing in my work, so I think that kind of takes the edge off the need to write.  I would really like to do Nano this year though, so I need to find some motivation, stat! Which leads me to bucket list land because Lizz did one and I always copy her. :) As per  Lizzie's  instructions. 50 things I'd like to do before I die. In no particular order... 1. Visit Ireland 2. have no two pairs of socks that are alike and yet still have enough that I only have to wash them once a month 3. have a maid 4. Own a sports car 5. Invent window blinds that are inside the windows AND are programmable to open and shut throughout the day -- feel free to steal  this as long as you install them at my house :) 6. Own a house 7. Own a car that is less than 5 years old 8. Visit the Netherlands 9. Become fluent in sign language 10. Have health insurance (getting close!) 11. Raise a child (but may...

1. Favorite childhood book? hmmm... Too many really but the first book I read by myself was Snow Joe by Carol Greene . 2. What are you reading right now? A Wedding in December by Anita Shreve 3. What books do you have on request at the library? Have yet to get my library card since I moved.  I need to do that. 4. Bad book habit? Browsing the dollar shelves at Half Price Books and wanting to take them all home. 5. What do you currently have checked out at the library? Bishop and the Beggar Girl of St. Germain by Father Andrew Greeley 6. Do you have an e-reader? No 7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once? Usually I read a book straight through, but on occasion I will pick up something in the middle. 8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog? Yes, but not because of the blog 9. Least favorite book you read this year (so far?) I usually don't finish something I don't like 10. Favorite book you’ve read this year? Bi...

This was a post I swear I posted last night but I can't find it.  That may have been God or maybe it wasn't.  Regardless, I am posting it now... Everyone keeps talking about how good her color is, that she is laughing in her sleep, and just watch her smile.  Oh, and how cute is it when she calls her husband sweetheart? And it is all I can do not to scream. They don't realize she is on five different blood pressure medications and yet it's still not low enough.  Her pulse is ranging from ten to twenty-five points too high.  And no one is really sure if she is calling him sweetheart because she loves him or she just can't remember his name. Don't tell me to be positive until you've sat up most of the night listening to strange alarms and struggling to understand messages on the screen.  Don't try to placate me until you have looked into the nurse's eyes and seen the worry and uncertainty there.  And for God's sake don't mention her colo...

I have been trying to tweet for an hour.  Just one tweet, not even that witty of a tweet, but Twitter has been overloaded.  I blame the #WorldCup, whether that is fair or not.  I really don't care.  All I know is there is a storm rolling through Lima, Twitter is overloaded, I am out of pajama bottoms, and I am annoyed. I suppose an evening of annoyance makes sense considering that is how I spent my day.  I woke up late this morning, so of course my roommate was in the bathroom.  I realize that isn't her fault, but really it figures.  While I was in the shower I realized that I have been far less grateful lately than I normally am I.  Instead of pulling me out of my funk, this only annoyed me more.  Even while praying for forgiveness and praising God for all the blessings in my life, I was running through the house annoyed that I couldn't find the shoes I wanted to wear and trying to figure out what pants I had clean that didn't need ironing...

Though to be fair, I didn't take up residency on the couch until day 2 of being ill. So I am well into my nearly annual spring cold. I really thought I was going to beat it this year! I have been taking care to dress warmly, have stayed away from people who are sick, and have been trying to take my vitamins more regularly. I'm not sure what more I can do! This has meant a costly trip to Urgent Care. Thank God for the Walgreens W-Card program. I don't want to think how much my meds would have been without it! The cold medicine I am taking seems to put me asleep, though it has a bright yellow box and says non-drowsy. I'm so odd with medicine that way. I never really know how my body will react to something until I take it. When they change their formulas, we're off to the races again! So far this has just given me crazy dreams! I'll have to tell you about that later! -- Sent from my mobile device

There are some movies that I can just watch over and over again.   You've Got Mail  is one of those.  I am watching it right now and wondering why I do this to myself over and over again.  I get so involved in the shows I watch and the books I read.  I really feel like they are part of me, that their worries are my worries and their joys are mine as well.  It probably seems odd and I have trouble expressing exactly how it feels at times, but I do feel a connection with characters and situations that are purely fiction. Nabokov once wrote, "Imagination, the supreme delight of the immortal and the immature, should be limited.  In order to enjoy life, we should not enjoy it too much."  I think about this from time to time when my imagination gets the best of me.  Usually it is after a rather intense reaction to something I have seen or read (i.e. my previous two posts) or when I have imagined how a situation would turn out in my real life, onl...

So I did it.  I watched the first three out of the four episodes of The Vicar of Dibley Series Three.  The third one was the one I was really dreading.  Things in the first episode went pretty much how I expected they would.  She got her heart broken by this very attractive, charming jerk, but she recovered and went on.  The second episode was the Christmas episode and one I would recommend everyone watching.  It was great.  Then came the third episode... I absolutely loved the way he proposed in his own way and she explained why they would not be right for each other, all of them superficial reasons but the one; that she wanted romance and that wasn't him.  So, he proved her wrong and it was glorious!  ABSOLUTELY GLORIOUS!  And he seemed happy.  It wasn't that he was just changing for her, it was that he was happy to be who he was when he was with her.  It was just what I had hoped for and then reality came crashing in. Da...

I am in love with Dawn French.  There, I've said it and (short of a few presses of the backspace key) there's no taking it back.  I have always thought she was funny, but I had no idea how funny until I stumbled across The Vicar of Dibley.  It is a British comedy that aired between 1994 and 2007, though not straight through which I am learning is a British thing. ;) I love this show.  I have quite literally had to pause and run to the bathroom in order to keep from lizzing I was laughing so hard!  It has made me nearly pass out from giggles and this is from only the first two series. Which brings me to the reason I am blogging about the show.  I am afraid to continue on. From the first few episodes, I have been rooting for the Vicar (Geraldine) to get together with her greatest rival in the village, David Horton.  The two are hilarious together and I am convinced would make each other incredibly happy.  Think Elizabeth and Darcy. In the la...

Want to know how to make a slow start to your day even slower and infinitely sadder?  Spill the last half cup of your coffee all over your knitting bag.  Yep, just that easy.  Thankfully my current project wasn't in the bag at the time.  Today marks the first day of my new life.  Yes, I moved in last week, but I haven't  really been here.  I stayed with my nephews and sister-in-law at my grandparents Thursday night.  I left them Friday to pick up a couple youth and drive to camp for Youth Commission.  Slept in a very cold admin room Friday night.  Drove them home Saturday, only to go straight to a concert with more youth.  My exhaustion caught up with me there and I ended up leaving early.  I slept most of the day Sunday, which leads us to today. My goals for the day are simple.  Showering, running errands with Adam when he gets off work, sorting through my books and putting them away...  Nothing too time consumin...

I learned a lesson tonight that has been over six months in the making. You would think with all the subtle hints -- and sometimes flashing neon lights -- God has put in my way in that time, I would have seen it coming, but I didn't. It has come at a good time. I am in the midst of a great transition. New town. New job (though I am still hunting). New life. New Laura! In the learning of this lesson, I am getting even closer to breaking the rest of the ties still holding me down to my old self. I am evolving and learning to trust my instincts, even, and perhaps especially, when it hurts. I am hurt now, just as I was all those months ago when God first whispered to my heart, but I will grow from this. I want to get this lesson right this time. It's too painful to repeat.

I am having trouble writing.  Also painting, sketching, knitting, cooking, dancing, singing and even just doodling while I am on the phone.  When I told God I would take on doing something creative each day of Lent, I had no idea it would be like this.  I have always been somewhat creatively inclined.  It just has come naturally and been helped along by years of art, music, dance and drama each day at school.  The Fine Arts are as much a part of my upbringing and my mind as 1+1=2.  I just knew that adding this to my everyday would be easy in the act, that it would be the time set aside to using it to glorify God that would be the hard part.  Wow, was I wrong.  It is like all the creative power has been zapped from me.  It takes everything I have just to knit a few rows each day.  I used to sit and watch tv while not even watching myself knit!  The difference is troubling.  It is making me think all the more about my sacrifices ...