To Print or Not to Print

I was doing a little organizing today, and one task that has been on my to-do list forever has been to put a ton of printed pictures into photo albums. I then realized that I haven't printed digital pictures in about two years. I did plan, however, to do the iPhoto albums the next time around, and they're not as much work (but they are more money).

So here's my question. Does anyone even look at other people's photo albums anymore? WAY more people will have seen my Facebook pictures than will ever see my real photo albums. Do I really need to go through the trouble of creating and buying these albums that no one will ever look at? And if my kids want to look at them, then they can just look on the computer or the iPhone whenever they want.

And yeah, there's the nostalgia of a physical picture to look at, but who really cares? Isn't our culture changing enough that the nostalgia of physical pictures will be reserved for 20th century pictures? Can't I just pass on the files of my years of pictures to my kids? Then they don't even have to wait til I die! Anyone at all can have them - no fighting over them.

So what do you think? (Oh, and scrapbookers, y'all are your own breed, so I already know what you'll say. This is more of a question for non-scrapbookers. )

Premonition

I was listening to the Bible today in the car, and I heard the “plank in your eye” verses. As a reminder:

"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

Every time I hear or read this passage I think about this thing that happened years ago when I was in college. (By the way, this blog entry will mean nothing to you unless you know about the drama in my life in the last few years. Sorry! You can stop reading now if you wish.)

Anyway, I was 19 years old, and I was on this college retreat with the college group from my church. We were at this retreat center in the Hill Country, and there was this big open field that everyone was playing in (football, frisbee, etc.). So I was talking to my college pastor (who was later to become my pastor of 8 years), and he suddenly got this splinter in his eye. I ran and got him a bottle of water so that he could try to flush it out. It was really painful, and he couldn’t seem to get it out. Finally, he went back to his cabin, and he was able to get it out.

He mentioned how that would be a good sermon illustration (you know how pastors are always looking for real life stories to use in their sermons). So I was like, “Yeah, it would, with the whole ‘speck in your eye and how can get the plank out of someone else’s eye’ thing.”

And he was like, “No, I was thinking about how something so small could cause someone so much pain.”

‘Huh,’ I thought, ‘I like my idea better, but whatever,‘ and I dismissed it. So for years every time I heard or read that passage I would think about that story and how I thought he missed the poignancy of what happened to him that day in relation to the ‘plank’ verse.

So fast-forward 9 or 10 years, and the whole weird thing with us and him happened. And the same thing applies. He misses the point entirely (to me). He focuses on this small thing that caused him unbearable pain but misses the whole ‘plank in his eye’ thing.

Reagan Weighs in on Healthcare Debate

"Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachment of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." - James Madison speaking to the Virginia Convention in 1788

This is a 1961 LP recorded speech by Ronald Reagan that is just brilliant and makes me wonder why people can't see this in today's healthcare debate. It seems so obvious.

CONTEST

Hey, there's a contest over at Sarah's blog - Kingdom Twindom. It will help you out with some last minute shopping for Jesus' birthday. ;)

Hodgepodge Post

I was looking through my blog to try to find a link to this website that I used to love (not successful at finding it). And I remembered how much I love to blog. I guess Facebook eats up a lot of my thoughts that I used to put on my blog.

So my kids are sick right now, Levi's napping, my van is in the shop, and I'm stuck at home with no motivation to clean my house. So it's a good time to blog, but I don't have much to talk about. Rather, I do, I guess, but now that my blog is linked to Facebook, too many people can read it, so I sensor myself more than I used to. Hehehe.

Speaking of Facebook, let's talk about defriending people. Okay, so I've done it...a lot, but it doesn't feel good when I realize that I've been defriended. It's life, I guess, but I guess it's weird to "see" it happen. Before FB or My Space you didn't really "see" so clearly when people didn't like you anymore. When I've defriended people, I guess I thought that I wanted to be their friends, but then when I "saw" them all the time I remembered that I didn't like them in the first place. And the reasons that I didn't like them is because I realized that they really didn't like me to begin with, so why pretend, you know? I'm not in the business of begging people to be my friends.

So anyway, my Christmas tree is kaput. It has only drunk/drank (whichever word you're supposed to use here) about 1 or 2 inches of water the entire month. The branches are breaking off, and the ornaments (even the extremely lightweight ones) are weighing down the branches. It looks as if it spent a few hours in the sauna because it's so droopy. Needless to say, I'm never getting a real tree again. I love to leave the lights on all the time, but I haven't turned the lights on for this tree since the first day. I'm so afraid it will burn my house down. AND there's no room under the tree for presents because the branches have drooped all the way to the floor. Not cool.

So we had Christmas dinner at my mother-in-law's house on Saturday night, and it was so much fun. We had an awesome dinner, thanks to Ann. Then we did a Chinese gift exchange with the siblings and wives, and let me tell you, that's the way to go. It was so easy to shop for, no stress, no gift cards, no pressure. And everyone seemed like they had a good time. Then we sang karaoke with my brother-in-law Paul's machine hooked up to the TV afterward. That was so much fun. There's something about singing and making a fool out of yourself that brings everyone's defenses down and creates a really fun atmosphere. Also, you get to sing silly songs that you might not want to sing at a karaoke bar for fear of making a total fool of yourself. Case in point, 'Rock of Ages' by Def Leopard. Yeah, it's embarrassing that I know all the words and the ad libs, but it was so much fun to do the 80s screams. I'd say it was a pretty successful Christmas dinner. Thanks, Ann!

Oh, by the way, the weight loss contest that I joined to win $140 for the highest percentage of weight loss in December...yeah...harder than I thought it would be. I just gained two pounds last week. :( There are so many opportunities to eat sweets! If I can break even, I'll be satisfied.

Speaking of opportunities to eat, I surprised Michael for our anniversary (which is today) on Friday. I picked him up from work at lunchtime and took him to Lonesome Dove Bistro in Fort Worth before heading to a bed & breakfast in Granbury called the Inn on Lake Granbury. We had a great time and some REALLY good food at Lonesome Dove. Do yourself a favor and go there for lunch or dinner. It's really really good. Also, the inn that we stayed at was glorious. They had such attention to detail with their level of service, not to mention that the place was just beautiful. Breakfast was delicious, too. We are definitely going back there at some point, maybe in the summer when we can take advantage of the lake.

Alright, I guess that's all for my hodgepodge of thoughts. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Decorating Help

Okay, so I'm on the home stretch of redecorating my bedroom, but I need a little help. First of all, for those of you that don't know, I have a small house, built in 1955, and the rooms are all tiny. We're okay with this, though, because we don't keep a lot of clutter or junk. So here are some pictures of what we have so far. I forgot to take a picture of the rug, but this is it (sorry, I couldn't size it down).

Also, some of these are crappy iPhone pictures, but you get the general idea. These pictures were taken before I got a lamp on that nightstand, but this is the base I bought (the shade wasn't on the website).

EDITED TO ADD: I found a picture of the lamp on the nightstand.

And the curtains are actually red. So one of my problems is that I need something for the left of this window, but I don't know what. What about a candle sconce? Would that look stupid with a lamp there?Then there's the issue of above the bed. Do I need something there? I thought about making it an accent wall, a pretty, warm orange, but I really don't feel like going through the trouble of painting it (moving everything, taking the curtains down, etc.). But it's an awkward space because the bed isn't centered on that wall, so putting something above it would mean it would have to be centered on the bed, and I guess that wouldn't be so bad. I don't know.
And this is the dresser. I think that's pretty much finished; I just wanted you to get a better feel for the room.So what do you think? I need ideas. I don't really want to do a large, framed picture above the bed or anything like that, but I could be persuaded otherwise. Let me know!! TIA!!

EDITED TO ADD: There's also the issue of this opposite wall. It's got a narrow walkway, so I'm afraid to hang anything there.

Biggest Loser Words of Wisdom

I was watching The Biggest Loser today and heard Jillian say something so profound in terms of dieting. "Unless you've got a reason behind it, then it's torture." That really resonated with me. The purpose for your diet has to outweigh the desire to eat for the diet to work. It has to have purpose and meaning in the grand scheme of your life. And when you have that specific purpose in mind, that turtle cheesecake is a lot less attractive. Thank you, Jillian. That's good.

Jillian was training Julio one day who is a husband and father, and he kept stopping and falling down on the mat and not really trying very hard. So she gets in his face, in typical Jillian fashion, and tells him, "You know what I'm gonna think of every time I see you fall down - dead father!" I thought that was a good, albeit harsh and extreme, way to illustrate that point well. It's a big picture thing. All of those bad choices that we make are more than we think in the moment.

It's just like when you're pregnant or nursing and have all of those dietary restrictions. Alcohol or shellfish or whatever is a lot easier to refuse when you're pregnant or nursing because you have the purpose of not harming your baby. My sister always said it was no problem not smoking while she was pregnant because she didn't want to harm the baby. But once the baby was born, it was a lot harder. When I was breastfeeding Levi from about month 2 to 8 I had to give up ALL dairy, even if something was baked with milk or butter as an ingredient. It was SOOO hard because EVERYTHING has dairy in it. But every time I ate dairy Levi got so sick, so refusing it became a lot easier and eating that piece of cheesecake wasn't even an option for me. That's where I want to get with my day to day diet - that eating crap on a regular basis isn't even an option for me.