Digital Camera Dilema

My camera has been dying a slow death ever since Christmas. The shutter speed gradually slowed to the point that unless I was talking pictures of still life bowls of fruit, it was basically useless. Last weekend, it refused to turn on at all and I was forced to admit that my trusty Vivitar Vivicam (with a whopping 5.1 mega pixels!) is not coming back to me.

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So, as I do with any large (read:minuscule) decision, I obsess. I've been poring over endless reviews, window shopping online (or would that be windows shopping?) narrowing down the options, and trying to decide what features I really want. So far, I've decided that I want a camera that will make all of my photographs look like Ansel Adams, The Pioneer Woman and Anne Geddes rolled into one. Perfectly reasonable, no?

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Here are the contenders thus far:

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Nikon Coolpix - Good reviews. In my price range. Lots of bells and whistles.

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Canon Powershot - Slightly better reviews than the Nikon. In my price range (but some models hover on the edge). Again, lots of bells and whistles.

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Casio Exilim - Good reviews. In my price range (but the high speed one is not). Lots of different models with various options.

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Hopefully, I'll have a decision made by Friday and I can wow everyone with my professional grade photos (I could barely even type that with a straight face) by this weekend!

Of Teenagers and Locusts

This morning it was a struggle to get out of bed.
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Dark and rainy and chilly. Good sleeping weather. Really bad Monday morning weather.

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For the record, the perfect weather for a Monday morning would look like something out of an early Disney feature film. Sun streaming through gracefully floating fluffy white clouds, gentle flute music wafting over green meadows full of technicolor wild flowers punctuated by the perpetually cheerful chirps of bluebirds sitting on my windowsill.

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Not too much to ask for, right?

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I didn't think so.

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This morning was definitely a stereotypical Monday morning. I hit snooze A LOT. Stumbled out of bed and drowsily picked out clothes for the day. I went downstairs to find that my kids were ready for school and had prepared the "sign this" gauntlet for me. I often wonder what their teachers think of those signatures, most times I sign them without even turning the light on. The bus comes early, so after talking with them a bit, they got their things together (we are considering renting my daughter a pack mule for Monday mornings.) The bus came, goodbyes were bid, and I headed for the kitchen to get something for breakfast.

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This verse came to mind as I surveyed the damage:

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And the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over Egypt so that locusts will swarm over the land and devour everything growing in the fields, everything left by the hail."

Exodus 10:12 NIV

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I'm kidding. Kind of.

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I think there may have been one wee surviving Oat O (yes, we buy store brands) in the bottom of the box. I think maybe the grocery store has been bumped up a bit in my list of priorities.

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Have a Happy Monday!

Free to Be TV Free

As of this evening, our family is undergoing an experiment for spring and summer. Our television is now a free agent - no cables or dishes attached.

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This was a decision that we had considered on and off for the past year. Two other friends took the plunge before us and had nothing but good things to say about the decision, so we consulted the kids and took a few days to consider it. Surprisingly, we were all in agreement.

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I have to admit, I've been a bit nervous about the whole thing. While I'm definitely not a TV junkie, I've become quite accustomed to the constant chatter and passive entertainment and even if we were not watching anything in particular, the television was usually on in the background.

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We are all hoping to accomplish more reading and spend more time outdoors, and just generally have less "junk" in our lives. I will try to keep you posted as the experiment goes on.

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Here's hoping for a successful withdrawal from the television!

Oh, the Wonders of the Internet

While doing a bit of family tree research a few years ago, I managed to find some poetry written years ago by my great aunt. I thought that perhaps I would share one of her poems here. Enjoy!

On Trusting
How small, this heart of mine
How little does it trust
My God has said He made us all
And cares for us each day

My eyes can only see the ashes
Of all my golden dreams
My God can see beyond all his
For He has planned my way

And when my foolish tears are dry
And my soul again will look
I'll see my Loving Lord has been
building what He planned for me

And Oh! My heart leaps high with joy
For far more wonderful it is
Than any earth-bound dream I had
or even hoped to see

by Arlene Hearn Price

Outstanding Opportunity

You all know I've been dreaming big lately.
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Looking forward to what God has in store for my life.
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Exploring promises He has for me and all of His children.
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This weekend, an opportunity have appeared on the horizon that I'm really excited about. There is simply nothing as exciting as possibilities. And everything is possible with God!

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A few months ago, while searching for a new ladies' Bible study, I found Proverbs 31 Ministries. As I perused the wonderful resources on their website and subscribed to their daily devotional, I continued to click around on the site and discovered the She Speaks Conference quite by accident. This event is specifically for women in writing, speaking or leadership ministries - and it sounded thrilling. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think anything like this existed. My attending this conference will hinge on my ability to obtain a scholarship, however, as it is a few states away and would strain the family resources. It would be a tremendous opportunity to explore the Lord's plan for me and learn more about women's' writing and speaking ministries. That said, as I wrote earlier this weekend, I am working hard and being content to wait on God. While I certainly hope that I might be able to receive a scholarship, if I don't I will accept that it was simply not a part of the plan.

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All in all, God's waiting room is a pretty awesome place to be, I think!

Happy Birthday!

Fourteen years ago today, at the ripe old age of 22, my husband and I welcomed our daughter into the world. A full week and a half overdue, she gave us several clues to her personality even before she was born. We found out that we were expecting a girl a month before she was born. Excitedly, we gave her the name we had picked out and our doctor and his staff were pleased to use it during tests and exams. Following her unofficial naming, our precious daughter commenced a prenatal noncompliance campaign - leading one ultrasound technician to comment that perhaps she did not like her name. A few more similar incidents led my husband and I back to the baby name book. She kicked so hard when we came to her name that we knew we had the right one.

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She protested her surroundings loudly and with gusto from the moment she was born. She slept little and screamed much. Our baby was an intimidating little mite, but fortunately we were young enough to survive the sleep deprivation and assault on our hearing.

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Fourteen years have flown by. I cannot believe that the precious little bundle that was handed to me then, now has her own income from babysitting, flew across the country by herself and has a terrific talent for music. Apparently all of that screaming as an infant made for a powerful set of lungs.

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Happy birthday! (And good luck at your band competition today!)

Success vs. Failure

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Please hit play and then read this post.

Bossy, aren't I?

I continue to consider and dream about what God's plans might be for the future, and one nagging thought continues to bother me. What if I fail? What if I go out on faith and end up flat on my face? What if I? Hold on a second, just who is this about anyway? Not me, that's for sure! It's about Him, not about me. If I write to glorify Him and not a single soul reads it, that's not failure. If I'm never asked to speak publicly, but am willing to share my faith to even a few, that's a success!

God's definition of success and failure is different than our definition of success and failure. We want to succeed because it makes us feel good. We avoid failure because it feels bad. Success equals greater and failure equals less. God sees it much differently.

"What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost. Matthew 18:12-14 NIV

A human shepherd would probably march home with 99 sheep and look at it as a successful grazing trip. Sure, he lost one, but he brought home 99, because his focus is on his personal success. I'm so thankful that our Heavenly Father doesn't gauge success and failure in the same way we do.

Anything we do wholeheartedly for the Lord is a success, even if the results seem modest to our eyes, the trick is we need to make sure that our focus is clearly on Him and not on us!