Lessons from Lauraland

I could say a lot of things about the way I feel right now, but I am getting tired of thinking and talking about this. Needless to say it is another sleepless, painful night and I am waiting and praying for the pain killers to kick back in. I have been thinking about Job a lot tonight. WBH and I taught the Job class at camp this summer. It is one of his favorite books of the Bible and one of my least favorite, though it contains my favorite verse: "though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him" or as the New Living Translation puts it, "God may kill me, but He's my only hope." Job 13:15 Here is my lesson moment, be careful what you ask for! Part of my problem with Job is that I could never understand his faith during it all. I mean when you read the story, you know what is going on from God's point of view. I think it is important to read the book from only Job's point of view too. He had no knowledge of God's deal with the Devil. He didn't kn...

Working with the parents of youth is as much a part of my job as working with the youth themselves. I often find myself in the middle of what are essentially "water-cooler" conversations with women and men that, while I nod and smile, I can't exactly relate with... or at least I couldn't until I got married. I am up past the time I wanted to be, with a huge headache, because my husband waited until about 2 hours ago to tell me he absolutely needed work clothes washed tonight. I had to smile because I was just with a group of parents today who were discussing the beginning of the new school year and some voiced comments about a return to their children doing nearly the same thing. "Mom, I have to have a dozen cookies for tomorrow," or new clothing, or have signed their parents up for something, or, my favorite, "Mom, I am supposed to bring a volcano tomorrow." lol The point is, in someways I don't think we ever grow up. :) But that isn't m...

I am a brand girl. That doesn't necessarily mean brand name, but when I find a brand I like of something, I stick with it and I am willing to try anything related. This is true in food, in products of all kinds, in curriculum for my Youth, and definitely in my internet life. I am a Google Girl. My homepage on my laptop, desktop, and work computer are all google. When I am on another computer, I will skip their search bars in favor of going to google to search there. Whenever I enter into some new addiction or area of interest on the internet, I tend to look to Google to make things easier. Google reader is my first stop each morning, even before I read my email. I glance through the top news, read my webcomics and glance through the updates from The Rachel Maddow Show and others. I also use Reader to follow my friends blogs, which I tend to read in marathons of blog reading as opposed to day by day.  Tonight, as I watch BBC World News on my local PBS seeing people...

When I was about 6 or 7, Granny told me I would get sick if I kept eating so many strawberries. To prove her wrong, I ate nearly an entire flat by myself. Pap was so proud of my orneriness (and so inclined to encourage it) that he made sure to have a flat of the berries each time I visited. Granny would always say I was going to turn into a strawberry one day(aka you are what you eat???). Well, here we are over 20 years later and Granny's prediction is finally proven right! And, while I am sweet, I don't mean the metamorphosis! I ate most of a quart of berries tonight before bed and now here I am, in the bathroom, on the floor, hoping I have seen an end to my stomach pain. For me, at least so far, this is the worst part of growing older. First it was dairy, especially glasses of milk, but now I am finding that lots of things (especially in excess) lead to issues. Maybe this is my body's way of reminding me to eat a balanced diet. Regardless, it is annoying! I would much rat...

Okay I may be completely wrong about this, but I am offended. I was wandering around the book section at Walmart tonight as Adam looked through the DVDs and blue-ray (season 3 of Breaking Bad!). I picked up a book, Saved and Single by Sheila Copeland and thought about buying it. As I was looking at it and the other Christian fiction, I noticed that all the covers featured African Americans. As I took a step back, I realized every book on the two 4-foot shelving units on the back wall were fiction and non-fiction written by or at least featuring black men and women on the cover. These shelves were along the back wall, next to the tvs. The rest of the books were in an aisle the ended at the section, but I still found the segregation of the books disturbing and unnecessary. I'll admit to having the same thoughts about cards geared toward African Americans at Hallmark, but at least they are all from one company. I just had to put this out there and see what you guys thought. Please...

I think my days and nights are getting flipped again, but more on that later. Do any of you remember the show Jem? I was just about to go to bed, when I hit the guide button as I picked up the remote and saw that Jem was on a channel over from where I was. JEM! I loved this show when I was little. Now I can't remember even the basic plot of the show, but I can still sing the theme song and remember wanting to wear my grandma's makeup like war paint (really, that was supposed to be attractive?). I was trying to find a good picture to share, something that did justice to my memories, when I ran across this link for a Jem Makeup Challenge . Thinking about it from an artist's POV as opposed to that of a child, the show really has an interesting color scheme and does interesting things with their backgrounds. I love the way they insert the songs! OooooOOOoooo Jem... :) I have no idea why I am staying up so late. I think I just enjoy sleeping in too much, which leads to me ...

Tomorrow is Father's Day. You know this year I was really hit with Mother's Day, although I have never been one to really celebrate the day with my mom. And now, after losing my dad nearly eighteen years ago, I am really spending a lot of time thinking about Father's Day. Growing up, we never really celebrated, even with Grandpa. I know the commercial idea of the day, with barbecues and such. I always found it odd that mom's day was all about her getting pampered, while dad's was about him cooking over a hot grill all day and maybe lawn work besides. Although I lost my father so early, it was always the lack of a relationship with my mom that bothered me. Now that they are both gone, I can see how wanting what still might (on some completely other plane of being) have been possible, made me hurt less for the loss of what was impossible. I think losing mom has somehow freed me up to really deal with the loss of my father and so I am working on it. It might take...