Missing the blogging muse

Part of this whole blogging project was to hopefully awaken the blogging muse - namely the intellectual artisan writer awaiting to emerge from my brain, having been lost through eight years of higher education, travel, and the tediousness that can sometime be life.

Alas, it seems the muse is sleeping, because I have been staring at my computer for sometime now.

*sigh*
Tonight Jon came home happily from soccer, sweaty and dirty. He also has a bump now over his eye, received from an presumably noble battle for the soccer ball, which due to his valiant effort to retrieve the ball, went out of bounds and away from the unworthy opponent. Unfortunately this resulted in him colliding his head with some other part of the foe. He's fine, but his newly wed wife was worried for a bit. I think these injuries are sustained in soccer sometimes, and they keep going back to play.

I spent the first part of the afternoon merrily cleaning the house and finishing up the picture project Emily had started. She had filed away 1/3 of our wedding pictures (!!!!!!) and I'm determined to finish the other 2/3rds. She set a good pattern that I can follow :o)

Yay marriage

As the evening was winding down, I was sitting at my desk going through the day's emails and Facebook updates after playing LearnedLeague (can you guess how many of the 13 colonies were named after an Englishman who was not a member of the nobility?), I realized that my dear Sara was on her computer too. So I unplugged my dear Claude (that's my MacBook) and picked up my wireless mouse to walk down the hallway and plop myself down on the living room floor. Like that I could be with my wife as we finish the day.

'Cause I love her very much like that.

That's all. I was thinking that and decided to share.

Monday Night :o)

today was quite busy, so tomorrow will have the blogs to come :o)

what a full day!

We had a tremendously relaxing and fully day today! Church in the morning, and then on to home fellowship group. Emily tagged along, and we really enjoyed having her there!

we then came home for a very very relaxing afternoon. somehow we ended up watching funny girl while putting pictures, with the intent of jon dozing off mid-movie. somehow that didn't happen, and he watched the whole thing! remarkable. we made nachos for snack, and then after the moving roasted a chicken for a late late dinner! jon went and got us some ice cream, and we watched "waiting for Bobby fisher" while working on MORE pictures.

emily has helped us organizing 600 pictures at this point!! I'm tremendously impressed by her fortitude, patience, and seeming endless energy to complete it all. We couldn't have done it with out her! Apparently she loves spending time with us! we don't know why, but we love spending time with her right back :o)

Productive Saturdays

Today:
Went to Reston Farmers Market
Rested at home
Emily came!
Lunch
Shopping
Planting plants
organizing photos...

whew. we're tired. more updates tomorrow!

Friday Thoughts

Tonight we were discussing how to correctly disagree with someone, due to some situations completely un-related to anyone reading this blog! Now most everything I know about disagreements comes from the book "Crucial Conversations" - which I highly recommend. Some internal rules I/we use for hard conversations:


1) No matter how much you disagree with the other person, you must acknowledge their right as a human being to their own opinions and perspectives. Their ability to form opinions is not something to be taken personally, and is something they have the ability and right to do. That seems to be a good starting ground.


2) If I am not open to changing my mind on a subject, or at least learning about and acknowledging a legitimately different perspective, it is not worth bringing up, especially if the other party feels the same way. We'll just dig in our trenches, have a verbal shooting match, and leave wounded and frustrated. And those caught in the cross fire won't fare well either.


3) If it is a situation that has to be handled, be sure to use "I" statements, such as "I feel" or "I believe" etc. Do whatever it takes to understand the perspective of the other person; as a wise boss of mine once said "You have to earn the right to speak." Once you have validated the perspective of the other person and are sure you understand it - then you can express your own thoughts, feelings and perspectives. Usually at this point the other person, now being heard and understood, might be more willing to hear your perspective. And then you can hopefully come to some sort of agreement. This takes a lot of emotional self-awareness, patience, and thought; it is not easy to do, however does have great rewards.


I think there's significantly more valuable advice out there, but those are some rumblings in my mind for the night. In other news - cousin Emily is coming tomorrow!!!!!! Oh the fun that shall be had :o)

Thoughtless Thursday v.9

After the answer to a learned league question got me looking up Rebecca Black, I thought the following quote from her lyrics is very appropriate:

It’s Friday, Friday
Gotta get down on Friday
Everybody’s lookin’ forward to the weekend, weekend
Friday, Friday
Gettin’ down on Friday
Everybody’s lookin’ forward to the weekend....


Well - it's almost Friday! yahoo pop culture. 

Learned League

Jon and I play a highly competitive trivia game. It is called "Learned League" and it is an invitation only trivia league. Odd, I know, but we learn alot from it! Today we learned the fully lyrics for Jack and Jill. Yay for Wikipedia!

Jack and Jill went up the hill

To fetch a pail of water.

Jack fell down and broke his crown,

And Jill came tumbling after.

Up Jack got, and home did trot,

As fast as he could caper,

To old Dame Dob, who patched his nob

With vinegar and brown paper.^[1

Apple Computers Continued...

Jon ran across this nice blog spot today - I'll copy and paste it here for the email-crowd:

Given the argument I make about the mall as temple in Desiring the Kingdom, several friends pointed out a recent study which purports to confirm the religious nature of "super brands," lending some MRI support for what The Persuadersshowed us already several years ago.

Scanning the brain activity of Apple devotees, the researchers found that the emotional experience associated with Apple stimulated the same regions of the brain that are stimulated by religious experience.

Always nice to have little reductionistic empiricism in the back pocket of my argument!:- Prof. Smith at Calvin College

Very interesting. Very interesting indeed. No wonder I'm missing the apple....

Monday Night - computer troubles...

Right now Jon and I are struggling to find a decent email solution! Since I decided to use the web for email now, Jon is struggling to find a suitable email program to manage mail. This is taking significantly more time than anticipated, which is frustrating. And I'm still getting used to the PC (missing the mac....) which comes with it's own odd quirks. Over all, we think we'll get there, but if you don't hear back from us, feel free to shoot us another email!

In the meantime, we're praying for all those in our country suffering from a tremendous amount of natural disasters. It is unbelievable, and we are so incredibly grateful for the security and safety we have experienced, and continue to seek how we can help those who suffer.

Our weekend

We had an absolutely marvelous time this past weekend! I watched a period mini-series, "Downton Abby," with the female members of my family, and Jon watched "Fight Club" with the guys. It was fun :) Good conversations had by all, including some late into the night, which were quite wonderful. The mini-series has not finished yet, so we anticipate following it for quite awhile. Which may mean for guy-movie-nights.

Saturday we finished the series, the guys played "Ingenious" and then Jon and I watched our niece and nephew, who are absolutely adorable. We were also able to swing in a hammock for over a hour, which we have never done together, so that was another 'newly married' treat.

We kept tabs on the children over night, meaning we slept nearby to be nearby when they awoke. I hope if we ever have kids I don't wake up early in the morning waiting for the kids to wake up to be sure they are okay (as happened this morning). A very odd logic to be sure, but logic is always odd at 4am. And of course the kids were fine. Heather and Sam were able to raise some remarkably cheery morning children.

We successfully handled the kids to church, then out to eat, and then back home again. It was quite pleasant. Good to see my family's church.

We came back home and have been able to settle back in for the work week. We intended to go to bed early, but I'm so stinking excited about getting things done fast on the internet... bedtime is quickly approaching!!

Lazy Friday

Today I had Friday off - good thing too, as it gave me a chance to rest my neck and spirit. It seems like whenever I start getting too busy or stressed, my body does something to force me to slow down - like getting sick or, in this case, a tremendously sore neck. My neck is feeling better, however the medication it takes to get the muscle to relax has me sleeping a lot. Which is quite pleasant, and I know kitchen floors can get mopped later!

In other news - the netbook is working out fine, although I miss the easy and sensibility of the Mac. Oh well.

The vermicomposter is still chugging along, and has found a nice new home outside. I still haven't harvested any compost off of it, and am waiting until its full to do so. Hopefully this will be less gross that it sounds, although I doubt it.

This weekend we're headed to Annapolis for a girls movie night weekend! We're both excited - Jon will be watching some guys flicks with the guys, and I'm looking forward to more relaxing! Yay rest.

Royal Weddings II - The Name

As was alluded to last week by Sara, I'd been wondering what royal families answer when asked for their last name (or "surname" as they say in the UK, which plays host to the royals we are focusing on right now). After all, they're always referred to by title and first name, but come on, who doesn't have a last name in modern Western societies?

Well, as I found out after some brief investigation, the British royal family didn't until 1917 (that's still less than a century ago, folks!). They were known by they name (first and middle(s)) and the name of their dynasty. I guess in a way that makes sense, since last names came into being to distinguish between all the Johns and Rachels out there, to make things more convenient than "John, the son of George."
- Is that George, the son of Henry?
- I'm actually not sure about his father's name. He's from London.
- Well, half the Georges I know have lived in London.
- Hmm, is he Mary's brother?
- John doesn't have a sister.
- No, I'm talking about George! Does George have a sister named Mary?
- Oh! I see, no, you're thinking of that other George, the blacksmith, right?
- Yea, I was. So he's not John's father?
- No, no, no. He has a nephew called Johan! And he only spent, like two years in London. He's originally from Exeter.
- So were you talking about George, the carpenter?
- Of course!
- That's right, I did meet his son John once!
- Cute kid, right?
- Certainly... Now, what about him?
- ... I don't remember.

You see, that's too complicated, so instead last names were instituted so that you can just say "John Smythe," and everyone's on the same page. But that's not necessary for the royals, 'cause titles were dead giveaways. For example if you say "the Duke of Edinburgh" or "Prince Harry" everyone knows who you're talking about, even if his name is actually Henry (true!). So the monarchy did not see it necessary to adorn their Christian names such.

But then the world caught up to them. And with the anti-German sentiments rising during the Great War, it grew uncouth for the King of the Britons to be of the house of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. So George V picked the name of Windsor (after the castle) to be from then on his family's name. Much more British, you know?

Yet Windsor is not the current last name of Buckingham Palace's inhabitants. The story goes on, because, as we all remember, in 1952 it was a daughter who inherited the throne. And she was married to Philip Mountbatten, aka His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (formerly Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark -- it gets complicated if you dig too deeply). The young couple decided in 1960 to hyphenate their names to keep the Windsor royal name while still distinguishing themselves from all the other relatives.

All this to explain that the new Duchess of Cambridge gave up the name Middleton to now be Catherine Elizabeth Mountbatten-Windsor.

Interestingly enough, the "Mountbatten" name also appeared in 1917 so that the Battenberg family could also distance itself from its German roots.

More details for those still following and interested available on the family's website and Wikipedia.

Just one of those days...

Today I have some thoughts, most likely because it was a less-than-favorable day, and you - our adoring blog followers - read whatever I write! and I need to vent.

My neck has increased movement, and although it hurts in some directions, I was still able to work.  So I went. Only to have a blurry day (muscle relaxers work...), have my car hit in the parking lot with no note (damage over the left wheel), and then came back home for a lovely nap. I needed it! Unfortunately the medication is doing it's job, so I'm stumbling around the house in a pleasant haze, frustrated by all the work I can see that needs to get done, that I don't have the energy to do. Oh well. Worse things have happened.

I've also instituted an internal policy for net-book - no downloading programs. I briefly dabbled in using the email program that comes with the computer, only to realize that this machine slows down incredibly when you download 3000 messages from your gmail folder. Instead I'll be using all the functionalities that Web 2.0 can provide, instead of relying on computer programs. I'm excited.

The rain is steadily pouring outside! It sounds beautiful.

Our first "take me to the doctors..."

Last night my neck and upper back seized up, rendering my neck near immobile and the pain very challenging to tolerate. Through the tears and complaining (on my end), we decided to wait it out the night and see if it improved. I spent the part of the night on the couch, and watched "To Sir, with love" with Sidney Portier. Brilliant. Very much enjoyed it, despite not being able to move!

This morning it wasn't much better, and even after a warm shower and rest, I realized without medical help the vice around my neck wouldn't go away. Dearest husband drove me to the doctors (not wise to drive when you can't turn your head!), who were able to get me in during the morning, and then accompanied me during the long waiting room wait, and then the long patient room wait (where we saw a magazine called "Garden & Gun" - only in the South), until I was seen by a PA. It's just a really bad neck-crick, however with the muscle relaxers I should be put right soon. I have almost the full range of motion back, and the pain is slowly but surely subsiding. I'll be more careful at work!

Medical issues, although tremendously unpleasant, are made much easier with a good support!!!

new technology in the Jerdan home!

Today we went and bought the newest member of our household - Toshiba Netbook (no nickname - yet). My old iBook still serves very well for programs - Excel and Word primarily. However I've been having significant difficulties loading the web - websites are different now than they were 7 years ago when the computer was built! This was causing some frustration, including making blogging particularly onerous.

We saved the funds, and decided to purchase a netbook for now, and then hopefully a desktop Mac in about 2 years. We researched it on Consumer Reports, and found this brand of Toshiba gets the highest ratings over all, and as it is under $300, definitely fits our price range! This computer will be primarily - if not solely- used for accessing the internet, while Mac can still handle our complex spread sheets. I'm very very grateful. Also very grateful for a husband who supports wise purchases :o) And is letting his wife enjoy her new toy :o)

NET NETBOOK!!!!!

I'm very very excited. Soon, very soon, we will be going to Best Buy and purchasing a net book. Currently My computer is really slow. In fact, I typed up to this point before the title of this blog fully loaded. Granted, I type fast as lightening (well, proverbially - i just type really fast.( But still, that's slow. took about 3 minutes to type in a facebook status. Frustrating to be sure.

I'd show you the netbook - but I can barely load the Best Buy webpage. And i'd post a link, but again, the page takes so long to load. Same with consumer reports, our bank, or basically any webpage you to go on the entire internet (again, hyperbole). And I'd search for coupon's for the netbook, but i took 5 minutes for the text for this blog to load, so I guess I'm going to have to borrow Jon's computer. again.

*sigh* typing is frustrating. so I'll post again tomorrow.

If I'm not moving - I'm not thinking

I (Sara) recently realized that if I'm not moving in some way - I'm not thinking. Or at least not thinking very well.

At work I play with Buckey Balls and just got a big ball to sit on instead of a desk chair. I find I'm actually more productive when I have fidget opportunities than when I don't. and it doesn't cause any problems for the co-workers!

Today I brought my knitting along on our car trip, which I think I will make a habit of doing. Did make me feel like we are an old couple though now. Jon reassured me we're not an old couple until I'm knitting in a rocking chair watching the neighbors. I'll have to agree.

Sunday Grocery Shopping

Looking for produce we're not used to buying at Wegmans-

Sara: Hey Jon! I found a leek!

Jon: Oh - is their water dripping out of it?

(haha)

Thoughtless Thursdays v.8

"You know you love someone when you let a stinker, and you fan their nose instead of your own." - Me (Sara)

An open letter to DOT

We just got home from a family weekend in Maryland. It started raining while the cousins crowd was enjoying a late night "family dinner" at Chik-fil-A after a truly impressive concert at Annapolis Area Christian School. And it kept on raining seriously until our exit from the toll road. The different Departments of Transportation around really need to figure out a paint to mark the lanes that is still visible at night when the roads are all wet and reflecting all the lights.
Also there are still drivers out there who didn't seem to notice that roads could get slippery and visibility was poor in the storm.
We made it home safe and sound, don't worry. My anticipation skills got some good workout. :-)

wednesday thoughts

tonight I am blogging because my dear husband is holding me to my word: to blog every day. And he's so dog-gone cute I can't resist the puppy-dog eyes. If ever we have children who look like him, they may easily get their way with me! aye-yiy-aye.

on day's thought dash-board:
we are beginning to solve the mystery of the moving hall-way rug. It always scootches into our bedroom, however never in the other direction towards the living room! It has been bewildering to us. Tonight we figured it might be how we put pressure on the rug while turning into the office from the hallway, and not exerting the same amount of pressure exiting the hallway into the living room. Maybe we are more excited to go into the office than out of it, which doesn't quite make sense. We will monitor the situation and see!

tried gluten free pasta tonight. not bad. did accidentally pour moldy spaghetti sauce into the pan tough - note to self: no matter how new you think a jar is - always check. I was able to fish it all out thought. Lesson learned. Glad we didn't have guests though.

royal weddings

Tonight Jon and I were chatting about the royals (we had been curious if they had a last name. Jon found that they do! anyone else know it?) and pondering why the wedding had been such a hit over here as well.

My current theory is this: We are all waiting for the Prince to come and rescue us - for Christ to return and make all things well. I think in the eternity that is set in our hearts, human beings have an innate sense we are waiting for the One to come to make all things right. We somehow know we are ultimately a bride.

I think this is why so many cultures and times have the stories of the damsel being rescued, the prince coming to rescue the fair lady and make her his princess, the hero rescuing the heroine and marrying her. And I wonder if this is why the world (or at least a good part of it) goes topsy-turvey when there is a "real-life" prince marrying and a young woman becoming a princess. We somehow know it is a foreshadowing of what is to come, or are somehow wishing that is what will be, both on a personal and global level.

That said, naturally much of the attention was about the dress, the ceremony, the pomp-and-circumstance, the "heart throb" being taken, and the opportunity to gawk openly at people. still part of me hopes that the real reaction was the longing for our King, our Messiah, our Rescuer to return.

731 days

Today marks 2 whole years that I have not been in France! Hmm... Time to save up for a big trip to show my wife my childhood stomping grounds. Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait!

Also, congratulations to Mom Jerdan on buying a house in record time. Have you tried contacting Guinness?

Sunday night

The problem with waiting until 10:30pm to blog, is pre-"Mondays" begins to slowly dawn and the joy of the wonderful day past begins to fade. Before that happens, let me capture some of today:

Church and talking to friends, forgetting that Sunday school was canceled and missing our opportunity to sleep in. Oh well.

Waiting in line for a long time at the car wash, only to have to go through again due to car wash malfunction, then to realize we had let the mud cake on for too long and the car wash had little effect on it. Oh well.

Taco Bell for lunch, first experience trying to be gluten-free through fast food. May have eaten more gluten than I wanted. Oh well.

NAP - missed part of a beautiful day, but feel very well rested. Yay!

Cooking a delicious meal with Jon, complete with roasted chicken and roasted vegetables. Yay!

Got a hold of Mom J. and chatted with her for awhile. Yay!

Ate aforementioned deliciousness, watched Scrubs, ate dessert, watched more Scrubs. Totally relaxing. Yay!

Now we're trying to figure out details for a trip for some friends' wedding, realizing there is a long list of other such items that we need to take care of and only realizing late into the evening that we need to do so. Oh well.

Between the "oh wells" and "yay!" - they have four points each, however I'll weight the "yays" higher, so now they basically double the "oh well"s. Hurray for wonderful yay days! Yay!

Saturday!

Today was wonderful.

Beginning: Sleeping in! Jon then went to play socceer, and I took a long walk in the sunshine, of course passing by the field so I could admire his soceer-skills. Very handsome, indeed.

Middle: Lunch, then went to our board-gamer friends and learned about Board-Game theory. Very interesting indeed, and we "test played" a game that someone had invented. It was fun! The only bummer being that we can't go out and buy it now.

Near-the-end: Went to Best Buy to look at a netbook we're thinking of buying. Currently my computer is tremendously slow, making anything I do on the computer relatively onerous and frustrating. The netbook would allow faster access to the internet, significant mobility around the house, and hopefully keep this computer alive enough for Word Processing, etc. It's also the quarter of the price of any regular computer!

Evening: Watched an French movie from Jon's childhood, compared the sub-titles with the english-dubbing (which were strangely different....) and ate tapioca and drank wine. Additionally I made some pretty fancy fried-rice with gluten-free soy sauce, and of course we ate that too. Twas delicious.

Night: Jon is now doing the dishes. I'm blogging. And then we'll turn things in and go to sleep! Married life rocks.

Wegmans

Today I went grocery shopping at Wegmans - turns out that they are the #2 cheapest grocery story after super Wal-mart.

It. was. amazing.

Now, granted, took me forever to get oriented, but the food selection they have is amazing! And a whole section on gluten-free stuff as well. I'm glad we "found" it - we'll see how long this grocery trip lasts us, and then maybe return.

Gluten-free is going fairly well - I feel less "bloated" which is a good thing. Additionally we are learning to read labels, and in the process discovered that our spaghetti had zero ingredients in it that we recognized. Yuck. So, if nothing else, we'll get a good idea of how much processed food we eat, and learn how much of it we can take out!

Thoughtless Thursdays v.7

Today is "Cinco de Mayo" - the Mexican Fourth of July, the day they celebrate independence from Spain.

Took me 29 years to learn that. Yeesh.

Information Organizer

Today I was cleaning out our hard drive (apparently Jon needs to back up his computer too...) and came across my old folders from undergraduate and graduate school. Know what? They were beautifully organized! It was amazing.

And then came the school of life, devoid of semesters and common themes (classes, ministries, etc.) and chaos reigns in the file systems of Sara. And that's okay. We're backing it up anyway.

In other news - tonight I cut Jon's hair, and it's nice to see my husband with his normal trim visage, which was being overcome by a shaggy head of hair (which was handsome in its own right).

Pursuit of glutenless diet pursues, although i'll be glad for our first grocery store trip, where we can grab some more "glutenless" items.

Gluten Free - for a month

In the pursuit of a happier and healthier Sara, Jonathan has bravely agreed to support her trial of a gluten-free diet.

This marks day 2 of trying a gluten free diet. Why? Every time someone would talk about their symptoms with gluten in their diet, I (sara) would always thinking "Hm, that sounds like me." Finally, I thought I'd at least give it a try, and Jon has nobly agreed!

So far, pretty okay. Turns out I was naturally not cooking with a lot of gluten, and I'm curious if that was me intuitively knowing it didn't make me feel well. For instance, I haven't cooked pasta in a long time, particularly once I discovered the rice cooker.

Also, it is forcing me (aka. us) to eat more un-processed foods, which is ultimately more healthy for us anyway.

More pictures!

Here are the promised pictures!

Jon: (definitively) So now we add the flour to for the pizza!
Liam: (quizzically) We put flowers in the pizza?
Jon: (laughingly) No (chuckle)... flour.....

Just to dog-gone cute. Wish I had a better camera! I put Liam in the apron, mostly cause I thought it'd be cute...

We let Liam "help" cook the meat. And he got tired of the apron.

Spreading the dough! After this he enjoyed snacking on all the pizza toppings.

Earlier that day the men-folk put up the swing set. Here's dad giving his sons the rallying cry: Build this swing set safely, because someday it will be your kids on it! Wish I had a picture of the finished deal.

Me and Eva had a blast hanging out on the deck while Liam was taking his nap. It was so beautiful outside!

So - it is definitely more motivating to put up pictures of kids than of us!! We came home that night after playing a rousing game of Dixit with our family (they are such good sports!) and then are relaxing this evening. Thanks Heather for letting us watch y'alls kiddos!

Making Pizza

Go liam go! A little chef in the making :) More pictures to come later!