MM: Computer Man

I can understand now why Macs are so popular with commercials like this. 

Review of Words (Christian Fiction Book Club)

The Christian Fiction Book Club meets every six weeks at different book blogs. This month we read Words by Ginny Yttrup, and I answered a few of the discussion questions below.  This time it's hosted by Julie at My Only Vice.  Feel free to come join the conversation here and check out some of the other blogs as well!

Note: I’m not a book blogger/reviewer per se, but I am a book lover.  Hopefully it’s okay if I crash this Christian Fiction Book Club Party

I’ve not read anything by Ginny Yttrup before and I don’t read books like Words too often.  Not because they’re bad, but because they’re difficult.  The subject matter dealt with in this book caused me to read through it at a much slower pace than is normal for me.

The main characters deal with the loss of loved ones due to one’s own choices and the loss of innocence due to the choices of others.  There’s death and pain and abuse (both physical and emotional) and I could only read a few chapters before my heart was overwhelmed with all the emotions.

Through it all is woven the idea of forgiveness.  Forgiveness of ourselves, forgiving others, and forgiveness from God.  Also through this book was the mantra that the truth will set you free.

This book definitely had some edginess but a little less romance.  The romance that was there felt pretty natural and played a supporting role to the greater romance between God and His children.  This was interesting because normally in a story where there are extreme and intense circumstances, the romance feels the same, and it feels unreal.  Sometimes that’s what I’m looking for.  In this case, that would have taken away from the deeper meaning of the story.

Overall, although this book was a little hard to read, it was definitely worth it.  We all need a reminder of forgiveness and that the truth sets us free.

The questions I chose:

6. Sierra struggles to accept God’s forgiveness.  Many of us share that struggle.  How can we, as Christ’s followers, truly embrace God’s grace in those difficult areas of our lives? (see Matthew 11:28)

In order to embrace God’s grace we have to have a right understanding of how big and great God is and how tiny and bad we are.  A lot of people can’t accept grace because they think they can do it on their own.  We know in John 14:6 Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me.”  So doing it ourselves is out.  Or people think their sin is too big for God or He doesn’t love them.  Zephaniah 3:17 says, “The Lord your God is in your midst, A victorious warrior.  He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.”  So I’d say he loves you and is pretty powerful.  So all you have left is to accept God’s grace through forgiveness of sins.  Let the truth (aka Jesus) set you free.

11. What displays God’s power to you?

I’ve really seen God’s power in the storms we’ve been having recently.  I love hearing the thunder and seeing the lightning.  It reminds me of Job 37:2-3, “²Listen closely to the thunder of His voice, And the rumbling that goes out from His mouth. ³Under the whole heaven He lets it loose, And His lightning to the ends of the earth.”

I also really see God’s power when someone comes to faith in Jesus who I didn’t expect.  I saw that a lot in my short excursion overseas.  I would doubt, yet God would prove faithful.

The next book we'll read is Pompeii: City of Fire: A Novel by TL Higley.  The date for this book is on July 2 so you have plenty of time to read it and join in on the discussion. 

 Anything to help a poor college student out.  Kacie Woodmansee is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com

Halfway There

We gave Hero a haircut over the last few days.  I say the last few days because he did not enjoy it and wouldn’t sit still so we spread it out.  Let me say, he looked kind of funny with the back half of him cut short and the front half still had his “Farrah hair.”

Half of Hero's summer haircut (sorry, not the best picture)

That got me thinking as to how I live life like that sometimes.  Not half shaved, but half in it.  I don’t put my whole effort in to something, just enough to get by (and sometimes not even that much).  I do it with a lot of things, but I often do it in how I interact with God.

I often think I’ve had my quiet time today, why do I need to pray some more.

I think I’ve been at church twice already this week, why should I go again.

I think I like how this worship song sounds, but I don’t really need to mean what the words are saying.

I try to tell myself that I’ve done enough.  I do more than what most people do, and that should count for something right.  It reminds me of the story of the poor widow’s mite, except with my time and my heart, not just my money. 

I “put in out of [my] surplus” instead of “all [I] own.”  I give God my leftovers.  I get proud of what I do give when God really wants all of me.  All of me may not be that pretty, but God uses us, flaws and all.

P.S. Notice I changed the layout of my blog.  Feel free to take a look around.

If It's Free, It's For Me

Lee and I went to a free orchestral concert last night, and it had me thinking about the ways we try to save money in entertainment.  Everyone wants to have fun, but it’s sometimes tricky to do it cheaply. 

One way is to do what we did last night and find free local events.  These can be plays, concerts, whatever.  If you’re in the Fayetteville area, they’re having two more free concerts at the Walton Arts Center this week.  The Italian Soundscapes concert with the same orchestra is on Saturday at 8pm and on Sunday at 5pm finalists of a piano solo competition will play with the orchestra.

We don’t pay for cable so we’ve made some adjustments there.  We do have the internet so we can work from home (which I’ve had to do more often than I’d like) so we watch most of the shows online for free.  We also have Netflix which is a good way to watch entire seasons at a time.  You can get just watch instantly option without DVDs for pretty cheap. You can also use your Wii or Xbox 360 or many other devices to watch them directly on your tv.

Netflix is also obviously very good for watching cheap movies.  We try not to go to the theater too much so we rent the movies.  We also use Redbox, but usually only when we get the rental for free (although $1 isn’t much).  How do you get free Redbox?  Well you can get one free movie a month by signing up for the Redbox Text Club.  On the first Monday of each month they’ll text you a code good for a free rental.  Bad news, it’s only for that day.  Sometimes they’ll text you free rental codes just because.  You should also be a fan of Redbox on facebook because they’ll have codes there every now and then.  Also, everyday from now until May 25, text DEALS to 727272 to get a code for anywhere between $0.10 and $1.50 off a rental for that day.  Plus, occasionally Groupon will have a deal to pay for one rental and get 2 free.

As for books, the obvious answer is to check them out from the library (whether the public library or maybe your church library).  I usually do this more over the summer when I have more time.  Another option is there are a number of free e-books available if you’re not opposed to them.  I follow Family Fiction on twitter and get their weekly newsletter as well (the newsletter is also good for entering giveaways like the one where I received a copy of the Voyage of the Dawn Treader DVD which I’m currently watching).  All their books show up on Amazon, but they’re usually free for the Nook as well.  And if you don’t have an e-reader, you can always download an app for your computer.  You can also just look around Amazon for many different kinds of free books.  Another great option is sharing with friends.  Feel free to come over and look at what all I have sometime.

As you can see, there are plenty of options for free or cheap entertainment and I’m always open to more suggestions.  Game nights are always good or just hanging out with friends is a good option.  What do you do to have fun and save money?

Scripture Memory: Family Ties

So I walked at commencement on Saturday.  For those of you who don't know, I won't actually be done until August when I defend and turn in my thesis.  This delay has caused a good deal of frustration, but God is teaching me to trust in His timing (He made time after all).  I felt a sense of accomplishment on Saturday and I was reminded that the end is indeed near.  I couldn't have done the last 7 years (and specifically the last 2) without the love and support of so many friends and family members.  Thank you everyone who put up with my stress and frustration over the years.

While I'm very thankful for the love and support of my earthly parents, the idea of my heavenly Father brings us to my memory verse for the second half of this month.

"See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him."- 1 John 3:1 (NASB)

John is telling us to look at the love of God for us.  We don't even come close to deserving it.  Lee may be the one studying Greek this summer, but one of my favorite definitions of the word "bestow" (didōmi) in the Greek lexicon is "to supply, furnish, necessary things."  It is necessary for us to have God's love to have life, but it is not necessary for Him to give us that love.  That's what He chose to do.

Because of this love, we are called children of God.  How crazy is that?  He didn't just do us a favor by forgiving our sins, but he adopted us into His family.  Because of this, we should resemble a family member of Christ and live our lives accordingly.  This means being obedient to the Father and loving our brothers and sisters.

Because of this relationship with God, we are strangers to the world (or should be).  If we model our lives like Christ then we should expect to be rejected by this world because He was rejected by the world.  We are here on earth to further God's kingdom, not to look like everyone else.  We should stand apart, and it's the love of God that should make us so different.

I'm really looking forward to memorizing this passage.  I need the daily reminders that it gives.  And ask yourself: Are you a stranger to this world or do you just look like everyone else?

Manic Monday: Mad Skillz #2

I know it's cute kids two weeks in a row, but this kid is awesome.  I like to just ignore the older brother because I think he's holding this kid back.  (And I'm a little delayed on my memory verse post, but hopefully that will come later today.)

Daily Deals

So we finally got our canvas wedding picture. I know, it's been almost two years.  Better late than never right?  So doesn't this wonderful picture taken by the Beaty's look fantastic over our mantel?  Much better than a tomahawk I think.

One reason we put off getting the canvas for so long is because they can be expensive.  One day, I found a deal on the site Groupon that was for 65% off the purchase of a canvas.  Well, I snapped up that deal pretty quick.  Since then I've bought a few things from Groupon because they were such great deals.

There's a plethora of daily deal sites out there.  A daily deal site is a website where you pay some percentage of the retail price on a good or service.  These deals usually change daily and sometimes there's multiple in a day.  Some of these sites broad and for many locations, some are for specific types of items and some are for specific places.  Groupon is one of the broad and for many locations sites, but there are others like Living Social as well.  Don't be afraid to look at cities near yours if yours is not listed.  They don't have Fayetteville for either Living Social or Groupon, but they have Little Rock and sometimes Fayetteville (or my hometown of Benton) are on there.  Plus a lot of times there are internet deals  like the canvas or Redbox that you can use wherever you are.  

Heartsy is a site just for handmade items (I talked about it here) and Homesav is mostly furniture and decor.  These are internet deals so good no matter where you are.  Heartsy has some very cute stuff and I'm waiting to spend my $5 credit on something awesome.

There are also those sites that deal with a specific location.  NWA DealPiggy is that site for Northwest Arkansas.  They do a lot of restaurants and local shops which is great for the local economy.  Lee and I got $5 off a very yummy breakfast from the Rolling Pin Cafe from this.

Take a look at the daily deal sites for your area and online.  These can make for some wonderful deals for yourself or gifts to friends.  Saving money is always a good thing.

Just a note, some of these links are referral links. That usually means I'll get a few dollars credit if you sign up for the first time and purchase something.