I am such the sellout

 So, Leah, who got me into blogging in the first place, decided to go on Facebook and encouraged me to do the same.  I hadn't been even keeping up with this, so I brushed it off.  Then I find out over half the world as I know it is over there, so I took the plunge.  It is funny the way they work things.  Jeff also joined and when I went to put on there that I was married to him, they had to have him confirm the relationship.  Then it showed up on his site that "Jeffrey is now married."  Never mind he was married from the get go!

Anyway, if you are over there at Facebook look me up.  I am Mary Elizabeth Whitlow.

May be back

Currently Listening The Altar and the Door By Casting Crowns see related

Snowday

I woke up this morning all downset b/c I had a job and then didn't.  I was obviously not watching the right info for school closings, b/c I thought the school was open.  Consequently, I was all upset that the teacher arbitrarily decided not to have me sub.  So, I called and left a message at the school asking what was going on.  At that point even the school didn't have a closing message on their phone.  So, once I knew they were closed, I had to call back and leave a message apoligizing for my previous message.   (Not that I was too unprofessional in the message or anything, just clueless ).   So I'm sitting at home in my pajamas catching up with all your posts and thinking how I didn't keep my resolution to post more often.

In wedding news, we (Jeff and I) have officially started premarital counseling by filling out one of those annoying surveys that asks you the same questions 5 different times in slightly different ways and makes too many always/never blanket statements to make honesty easy.  I can see it being a useful tool despite that, as I already saw some areas come up that need quite a bit of further discussion, finances, for one. (hmm...does that need a semicolon or something to be clear and understandable?  The plague of the English major...)  We are still in the vague stages of actual planning for the event, since niether of us has the first clue how to begin or proceed; besides not really having the means to start making all sorts of purchases/payments on things like invitations and photographers.  I think we do have the music person figured out.  At choir last Wed., we mentioned the wedding date and our minister of music said, "Why didn't I know that?  Who is doing your music?!" in a tone that said, "It darn well better be me!!"  I am doing my best not to worry about how it is all going to come together b/c that has only gotten me in trouble.

On the entertainment (and financial) scene, I just watched "Groundhog Day" and "Breakfast at Tiffanys" for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed them both.  That is a good thing, since I bought them before watching them.  fye had some good specials going.  So also did Meijers and JC Penney, which lured me into a spending spree that garnered me three new videos, 4 pairs of pants, two new shirts and a rather smaller balance in my checkbook.  Which is not good, seeing as snow days and other slowdowns mean subbing is not so lucrative lately as could be hoped.  I also plunged myself into an epic rewatching of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, which has led directly into my annual re-reading of the books.

Health news has allergies holding pretty steady, combined with the usual seasonal afflictions.  I also seem to be having a difficulty with my arches.  Never very pronounced, they seem to have decided to fall to new lows.  This led to pain all the way up my back and into my skull.  I have bought and inserted arch supports into my shoes and, if yesterday is any indication, those may make a great deal of difference.  Usually when I go to the doctor I am told I am generally in good health for my age.  If nothing major is threatening to kill ya, all the little "minor" things just might make you miserable enough to wish you were dead.

Spiritually, I am beginning to grow into the new church.  I can really see God moving and working at Fellowship Reformed and I am beginning to discover my place there.  We are part of a small group that is starting to be a spiritual community for me in areas of growth, study, and accountability.  We are also part of a book study of "Bondage Breakers" that just blows me away on all levels, giving me new understanding of spiritual realities and holding forth the hope of powerful personal healing and freedom as well as future ministry.  It is very solid scripturally and experientially, drawing from the Bible and the writer's own counseling and ministry.  A lot of what it says clarifies and aligns with ideas I have struggled with for years.  I have always been leary of pyschological treatments that ignore or deny the spiritual components of the world and our psyches.  What I am learning brings that aspect into focus w/o going too far the other direction and saying everything is strictly a spiritual issue when obviously genetics, disease, and other factors play into the health and emotional wellness of people.

Well, all of that there could and may be a post in and of itself.  Now I am off to get dressed and eat some breakfast.  

the tufted titmouse of sanity has flown north for the winter

Well, now that I finally decided to post this post, I have another in the works that I'm even more excited about.

Anyway, when we were wandering the streets of downtown Holland (MI), scuffling through the leaves and laughing like crazy people, Leah, Jeff and I decided that the bluebird of happiness was only a starting point.  So, we watched the tufted titmouse of sanity flap of into the clouds and bid it a fond farewell.  We then invited the dodo of distraction, and the jaybird of joy (what do you think of that one, Leah?) to join us.  On the way home, the condor of confusion caught up with us as we tried to wade our way through the slough of commercial puke along the highway to find B&N's parking lot and retrieve my car. 

We also caught a glimse of the yellow-bellied sapsucker of sympathy and a few others whose names and forms are not yet entirely clear.  I thought it might be fun to write a children's book about all these birds, but Jeff says we would be sued by some kid's parents b/c his fear of birds would cause him to think the tufted titmouse of sanity never came around him and he would go insane.  The book could also be a chapter book with every chapter named after some sort of bird.  I'm still thinking on it... someday it may appear, and when it is a huge success, you can say you knew me when....

On beyond the bluebird of happiness

My Holiday

I had a rather good holiday weekend.  Thanksgiving itself was a bit odd and fragmented. 

Chapter 1: a rather unsatisfactory breakfast at Perkins with my fiancee's family.   Chapter 2: the end of the Macy's parade and then "Stop or my mom will shoot" and a game of Zuma over at Jeff's house  

Chapter 3: Thanksgiving dinner at Jeff's sister's house, with all the traditional elements, including the ubiquitous green bean casserole. 

Chapter 4: work at Oakcrest for 2 and 1/2 hours.  I was suffering from a cold that had my head stuffed with more snot than I ever imagined anyone's sinuses could hold.  I told a co-worker that the little guy who was jamming an ice pick into the space behind my eyebrow had called his friend over to stick a javelin into my ear canal.  She beat a hasty retreat from the kitchen before I could pass any of my "friends on to her.  Side note:  I put in my 2 week's notice last Sunday.  So far I have heard no reaction. Hmm...

Chapter 5: Games and such at my sister's house where Jeff and I were finagled into playing a rather distracted and discombobulated game of Mille Bourne by my mother, who did not want to watch "The Birds" and, therefore, somehow decided we should not go to her house and watch it even though she likely would have still been at Tina's until after it was finished. 

Friday Jeff came over and we watched 6 hours worth of Scarlett, coming to the consensus that it was nowhere as good as either the book of the same name or the movie version of "Gone with the Wind."  We then immensely enjoyed my Christmas present; a one night only presentation of "The Nutcracker" at our own Fruenthal Theatre by the Moscow Ballet. 

On the way home Jeff broached a subject with me that had been on his heart for some time; the fact that the bluebird of happiness had been rather absent from my shoulder for some time.  He and God both seem to be urging me to let go and relax, instead of carrying so many real and imagined burdens and expectations that keep me from joy and contentment in who God made me to be.

Saturday was spent in Holland (Michigan) with Jeff, Leah, and a great deal of fun, happiness, and spontaneous silliness, marked by the departure of the tufted titmouse of sanity, a highly over-rated fellow.

Today was church, nap, and grilled cheese with tomato soup. 

Tomorrow will hopefully be a subbing job and back to business as usual...with more joy and less worry, more freedom to be me and less self-imposed stricture, and more of bringing the kingdom of God near to all the places where I set my foot and people whose lives intersect mine.

My thankfuls

I am so thankful for Jeff.  Just when I begin to take our relationship for granted, he does or says something that reminds me that God put us into each other's lives to grow each other closer to Him and enable us to serve better together than separately.

My best friend Leah, a friend for life who never fails to encourage me and maximize my joy.  It's so awesome that my two greatest friends like each other so much!

My car.  Yes, I have a love/hate relationship with that darn collection of scrap metal.  My dad and I have decided that it is a minor miracle that it still runs, having cost very little money, if a great deal of aggravation, to keep going. 

The ability I have to make fairly good money subbing.  Yes, I would still love to have a full-time teaching job, but I have been able to sub just about every day I have wanted to and am making enough to pay my bills and put some money aside nearly every week.  A lot of other subs I have talked to are struggling to get jobs with the new on-line system we have.

Most important, my ever-growing relationship with God, who shows Himself so faithful to speak into my need despite my own failure to consistently seek Him.  I have been so distracted and downhearted lately.  Yet God has been speaking a season of joy and blessing into my life from multiple sources.  And it would seem that all my striving to succeed and make things happen is what I need to let go of if I truly want what God has for me.  Hmm...Seems so counterintuitive, which is another reason to think its the truth.

More about the tufted titmouse of sanity and her fine feathered friends later.  Hopefully, more posts from me from now on, since writing is one of those joys I have been neglecting shamefully lately.