What I did this Week: partying

  This week, I cannot think of a good introduction for this post. So I am just going to dive straight into it.

  Sunday, after an awesome weekend with our cousins, my brothers and I drove home from Dallas. And on the way home I wore this super awesome t-shirt I bought over the weekend.

 

  Then Monday I made breakfast pizza. And I was sadly disappointed by it, as were my brothers. Though it looks pretty fantastic, I do not think I will be making it again.

 

   Skipping ahead to Thursday, I made cheesecake for my little brother's birthday party, which we had today.

 

  Friday morning, I made cheesecake bars, also for my little brother's birthday party.

 

  In the evening, I got to help celebrate the beginning of a sweet friend's last year as a teenager.

 

  And today, after my little brother's birthday party, I walked to railroad tracks.

 

And so went my week!

Who I am Actually

 Labels

Do not actually

mean anything.

We

Humanity.

We like them.

Use them

To try to find

Our place

Here in the world.

And the labels come

From things we can touch.

What we can

Put our finger on.
What we make ourselves
Is not what matters.
It is what our Maker
Makes of us
That lasts beyond
The labels we make
For ourselves.

What I did this Week: Cousin Weekend

  This week started with Valentine's Day, and I got a Valentine from a special someone.

 

   I made French toast casserole for lunch because why not.

 

  And I finished a baby outfit.

 

  Then, Friday morning, a couple of my brothers and I set out to visit our cousins for the weekend. And I have a sad lack of pictures for this trip. So here are all the pictures from this trip worth showing.

 

  We got there around lunch time so we had a picnic in the park with pizza.

 

  In the evening, we watched the play my cousin Abby directed. Since my flash ran out of batteries, there are no pictures of the play. I did manage, though, to take one picture of my little cousin who I realize is not so little any more.

 



  The Saturday, we went shopping and had lunch and Ben and Jerry's.

 

All and all, it was a really great weekend. And now I leave you with this wonderful lip-sync video we made, that will only be funny to those who participated.

Love as a Commodity

  If anything has the remote possibility of turning a profit, there is a company somewhere that is going to market it. Every Christmas countless businesses have society paying up for peace on earth and goodwill towards men. Come February, every florist, jeweler, and chocolatier is working to convince people that their products will assure the buyer's loved ones of the validity of their affections.
  Saturday, as I walked through the store where America shops, I was struck by how commercial love becomes on Valentine's day. If you love someone, the obvious way to show them that is not to spend time with them and to listen to them and to serve them. It is to spend an inordinate amount of money buying them stuff. In America we live in this commercialized delusion that money is love; that love can be bought.
  Romantic love is wonderful, and it is not a bad thing that a holiday exists devoted to its celebration. Its commercialization makes it cheap though. Good things cannot be bought. Contentment and happiness come from choices people make as individuals, not from stuff people buy. Love is a gift to be given, not a thing to be purchased and sold. And while some show their love through gifts, the evidence of love ultimately shown through sacrifice and selflessness and kindness. Stuff is insufficient to express the depths of love. When love becomes a commodity, it is not really love anymore: it becomes a monster.

What I did this Week: its been awhile.

  Now that I have abandoned this particular brand of blog posts for over a month, it seems about time to do another 'What I did this Week' entry. So here are some pictures of this past week's activities in no particular order.

  I made my baby sister a birthday dress in the fabric of her choice.

 

   And then I made her a dress as a birthday present.

 

  When those were through, I started a yet another baby outfit.

 

  Friday, my family and I started out to the beach on a very impromptu trip, and then one of my brother's threw-up on the way, so we turned around and headed back home. The almost happened trip did end up with us eating pizza in the car, and that was fun.

 



  Since we were at home Friday night, I made a deep, dark chocolate cake for my Paw-Paw's birthday.

 

  Then for my baby sister, I made dark chocolate brownies.

 

  And since tomorrow is Valentine's day, I painted my nails this wonderfully appropriate color.

 

And so went my week!

Holy Cows

  A couple of days ago, I was reading my daily Psalm and I came across this short passage, "At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped an idol cast from metal. They exchanged their glory for the image of a bull, which eats grass. They forgot the God who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt, miracles in the land of Ham and awesome deeds by the Red Sea." (Psalm 106:19-22)
  I have read those verses countless times, but the other day, they struck me a way they never had before. The Israelites saw God's wonders in powerful ways. They watched the Lord pour down His might and wrath on the people of Egypt through the plagues. In the desert they saw Him tear the Red Sea apart and then they walked across it on dry ground. In their wanderings through the desert, the Lord had feed them with bread from heaven and quenched their thirst with water from a rock. When they built a golden calf to worship, the Israelites were within sight of Mount Sinai as it stood cloaked in clouds from the presence of God. And yet they turned aside to worship a cud-chewing cow. One of those docile meandering animals that begs to be domesticated.
  Humans are stupid like that. We like gods we can control rather than the God that controls the universe. The Israelites were tired of God. They wanted him to show up when they wanted Him to and do what they wanted Him to. Then, when He did not, they starting worshiping a cow.
  It would be funny if it were not so sad; the silly idols we establish for ourselves. If something exists, a body is bound to worship it. And ironically, it seems the more unworthy a thing is, the more likely we are to worship it. There is an insatiable thirst for God inside us. As long as we turn to other things it will remain so.
  The holy cows we build for ourselves are silly and sad and wrong. We not only break God's law, we deprive ourselves of the opportunity to worship the only God worthy of our adoration. Even if it hurts our pride, holy cows have to be knocked down so we can wholly worship our powerful and mighty Lord.