Water, Water... Water?

 
Monday marked the first week of summer school. *groan* *blech* *moan* *complain*  Actually, I should not really be complaining.  I am only taking one class and I have been really diligent about working every day and getting things posted super early.  What can I say, I like having a buffer -- a big buffer!  But, to be honest -- and I know you have heard this at least a dozen times -- I do not like school!  It is a means to an end, and I am so excited that the end is finally peeking over the horizon!

So, every morning this week, I have woken up and hit the books.  Lydia and I have to share my laptop for the classes we are both taking because she has an older version of Microsoft Office on her computer.  I take the morning shift and she takes the afternoon and evening shifts.  (Her class has waaaaaaaay more busy work than mine.)  It actually works out quite well, since it leaves my afternoons free for exercising, laundry, cleaning, and cooking.  Today, though, my daily schedule is all out of wack since we have no running water.  There is an external leak near one of our neighbors, so everyone's water had to be shut down to fix it.  It is amazing how much you cannot do without water.  My first thought was, "Okay, I'll delay my exercising till I can shower.  No big deal.  I can wait."  But as I wandered around the house preparing to do my usual regime, it hit me: no doing dishes, no washing laundry, can't clean the bathroom, cooking will dirty up the kitchen which I can't clean.  What can I do?!?!  I can vacuum!!!  Afternoon list: 1 - vacuum; 2 - pray for restored water!    To top things off, when I was making my meal-replacement shake, I did not check that the lid was properly snapped down.  Yes, it sprayed everywhere -- on me, the counters, the floor, and no water to help clean it up.  It really makes you appreciate the little things in life.  It also reminded me of all those who do not have access to clean water.

World Vision is one of my very favorite charitable organizations.  Their site states that they are "Building a better world for children."  One of their projects is bringing clean water to communities lacking in this precious commodity.  You can read about their Clean Water Fund and donate HERE!  So, while I sit here in my shake-splattered shirt and greasy hair, I think I'll make a donation, then pull out the vacuum cleaner and count my blessings.  Have an amazing and blessed day, everyone!!!

 

Where Did "Blog" Come From?

While sitting over cups of tea, and complaining about the gloomy grey weather, Lydia and I had this conversation.

Me: "I need to blog today."

Lydia: "Where did the word 'blog' come from anyway?"

Me: "I don't know!  It must have something to do with keeping a log, since it has the word in it."

(Silent puzzling followed by looking it up on the oh-so-useful internet.)

So here it is, straight from Wikipedia.  Now I know Wikipedia gets poo-pooed by the academic world, but I have always found it to be an excellent source of information.

          The term "weblog" was coined by Jorn Barger^[9] on 17 December 1997. The short form, "blog", was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word weblog into the phrase we blog in the sidebar of his blog Peterme.com in April or May 1999.^[10][11][12] Shortly thereafter, Evan Williams at Pyra Labs used "blog" as both a noun and verb ("to blog", meaning "to edit one's weblog or to post to one's weblog") and devised the term "blogger" in connection with Pyra Labs' Blogger product, leading to the popularization of the terms.^[13] 

Web log, weblog, we blog, blog, makes perfect sense!  There is an inner need in the human race to record and remember.  Museums all over the world are full of clay tablets and crumbling bits of parchment, the last remaining remnants of people now dead and buried.  One of my favorite rides in EPCOT Disneyworld is Spaceship Earth, the giant "golf ball" shaped thing.  It takes you through the history of communication.  You begin with simple cave paintings, travel through the papyrus fields of Egypt, join medieval monks as they painstakingly copy fancy manuscripts, and journey through the age of the machines where the printing press and telegraph come to life.  You end in the here and now, the "future."  The wireless era.  The blog era.      

Just Live

This is a post I wrote on April 11^th, but did not have the will to actually hit “publish.” 

Today, I pulled out my old laptop.  My 2007 Vista that is literally starting to fall apart but I can’t quite bear to part with.  The thing was/is a major pain, as my fellow Vista users can understand.  It was my graduating-from-high-school-get-me-through-college laptop.  This May will mark nine years since I graduated from high school; nine years!!!  I have moved on to another more reliable laptop, and have yet to graduate from college.        

            I was in one of my dearest friend’s wedding back in February, and today she sent me a link to the pictures.  They were gorgeous, it was truly one of the most beautiful weddings I have ever been to.  But, as I looked over the photos with me in them, I felt a weird sensation of not recognizing myself.  “The fancy, not-typical hairdo and dress probably has a lot to do with it,” I thought and shrugged it off.  But tonight, while perusing through my old laptop and a bunch of old picture from around four years ago, I saw the old me.  The happy me. 

            Six months ago, my mom had a stroke, and life changed.  Mom had the rare type of stroke, a wet stroke.  The 10%.  During those first few days in the hospital I passed multiple signs explaining the acronym FAST – face drooping, arms uneven, speech slurred, and time, call 911 fast.  That information doesn’t help when you don’t show any of those symptoms.  I came to hate those signs. 

Mom’s recovery has been astronomically fast.  She was home from the hospital in two weeks with no bells or whistles aside from a borrowed walker, and even that was discarded after a week.  Everyone who visits is amazed, and it is amazing.  But life is so different.  I’m so different.  I have always felt that if I just work harder, I could fix it.  Whatever the “it” may be.  But, this feels like my life was shoved in a blender and liquefied.  Things in the past have caused my life to crack and even crumble, but I could always reattach the pieces and patch the cracks.  But how do you fix what has been put through a blender?  How do you glue liquid back together? 

You don’t.

I always try to be positive on my blog and in my public life.  My private home life is where the venting happens.  But, there is a fine balance between being positive and being real.  While I don’t plan on airing all my complaints and life’s boring details here, I do think being a bit more real wouldn’t be such a bad thing.  So, being real, some days are hard, some days are frustrating, some days are great, and some days are just okay.  But, the key is to get up every day and just live.  Just live.  Live.        

Beautiful Day

          Sitting and relaxing, I have missed this.  My life has gotten so busy the last couple of months, I failed to take any time to stop and smell the roses.  More accurately, failed to notice there were any roses at all as I whooshed passed them.  Between tests, papers, reading (tons of reading!), working, and house-sitting, I have let one of my very favorite months nearly slip away.  The trees are all changing into their amazing array of reds and golds, the days are cooler, the nights are cold, and much needed rain has started to make an appearance.  *Sigh* so beautiful.  I have reached the halfway point in the semester, and I know there will be many moments of stress and craziness over the next eight weeks, but I do not want to let life slip by in a stressed frenzy.  Life is too short not to have fun.   

And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.  Genesis 2:2

Monday Musings

          Today I went out to the farm!  Due to being sick, rain, visitors, and other appointments it has been seven weeks since I had been out there.  It felt so good to visit and work in the garden.  All the recent rain has refilled their pond.  It was at an all-time low before I left for Disneyworld.  A pair of Canadian geese slipped along its surface while half-a-dozen turtles sunned themselves on a floating board.  All around, signs of spring keep popping up, and I realized with astonishment that the calendar is about to concur!  Is winter really over?  I know the rest of the nation is more than ready for spring to arrive, but this year has been one of the mildest winters I can recall.  Amidst all the chaos of the world, the injustice and frustrations, it is comforting to know that spring will come regardless of who rules the world.  Leaders and governments rise and fall, but God rules over all.     

What To Say

          After being away from the blog so long (yet again!), I am stumped about where to begin.  For now I have made my blog private, whether this is permanent or temporary remains to be seen.  I feel a need to draw back and reorganize.  I have been doing a ton of cleaning and sorting, it is truly amazing how much stuff we tend to acquire.  A lot of stuff has gone into the trash bin, I seriously need to revamp my wardrobe, at least I got rid of the ancient, misshapen, and stained clothing.  Lots of things have also made it into the donation boxes or recycle bin; why did I save these magazines again?  Anyway, tomorrow begins a new week with new opportunities in it!  Maybe I will even get some pictures of Disneyworld up!  We had a wonderful time, and I am still dealing with my souvenir sniffles I got at the end of the trip; *sigh* happy memories.

 

21 Days

           They say it takes twenty-one days to break a bad habit, or to form a new one.  I doubled that amount in my facebook sabbatical, and since reactivating that virtual world I find I have little desire to spend much time there.  Tonight marks the end of Christmas in the Unruh household; the twelfth day of Christmas was finished with the film The Nativity Story.  Tomorrow begins a twenty-one day countdown till our trip to Disneyworld!  Life is so full of counting up, counting down, and counting past.  But, I do not mind.  With every ending comes a new beginning, and as one of my favorite literary characters so aptly put it . . . "isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?" - Anne, Anne of Green Gables 

    

A Long Week

           I am so thankful for Friday.  Friday means the week is coming to a close, and I am ready to shove this week far back into the recesses of my memory where it can wither away into oblivion.  A hawk killed my beautiful rooster yesterday.  I think I failed to mention that the fancy Golden Polish turned out to be a boy, not super surprising considering his fancy plume and pathetic attempts at crowing.  Unfortunately that fancy headdress impeded Mr. Makutsi’s vision considerably and I warned the family if a predator ever attacked he would be a likely target, sometimes I hate being right.  This is the second hawk attack this week; the first attempt was at dusk and unsuccessful.  Dad and I were working hard to build and ship out an order of mounts, one of the great frustrations of this week since we received a batch of bad parts which need a lot of reworking to be usable, when we got the call. Rachel had chased off the predator by the time we arrived, but the stiff decapitated Mr. Makutsi was a sad reminder of the hawk’s attack. 
          I cannot blame the hawk.  It was only doing what God designed it to do, hunt and eat.  We have seen hawks many times flying overhead with a rodent or snake clasped in its talons, the fact it is hunting such large prey shows how hungry it must be.  Up till now I have not been at all concerned for my large chickens’ safety from birds of prey, but now I know better.  Life is full of challenges, heartache, and loss.  Sometimes it feels so overwhelming I just want to crawl under my covers and sleep a few years away.  But, without sadness would we be able to understand and value happiness?  I always appreciate the rain more after experiencing months of hot sunshine, and again I appreciate the sun after the clouds and rain have paid a lengthy visit.  Last night in accounting, our tiny class of four all groaned that the last week had been challenging or hard in some form.  The teacher responded with the sentiment that so many things bad happening at once means that a lot of good must be on its way.  I hope that is true, because I am tired of sitting on the low end of the see-saw.  I am ready to spend some time on the high side.