A New Season

Oh man. What a weekend. I went to our annual women's retreat in the mountains of Beersheba Springs, Tennessee. There's not much in Beersheba Springs - mostly just beautiful fall foliage. It was a perfect setting for our retreat. This year, our theme was the fruit of the spirit ( love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control). I'm fairly certain that I can't articulate most of the amazing things that happened this weekend, but here are just a couple bullet points that I'm going to have to chew on for a while.

• Self control is an act of worship. This really hit home for me. I have been feeling the need to re-devote myself to spending quality time with the Lord every day - not just praying in the car on the way to work or quickly doing my Bible study homework right before our meeting. I need to set aside quiet time every day to worship Him and listen to what He has to say to me. If you talk to me, ask me if I am following through with this.
• Doing good is not an option for those who know Jesus. James 4:17 So then, if you know the good you ought to do and don't do it, you sin. Ouch. This one is hard for me. Most of the time, I know what the right thing to do is. But a lot of the time, I chose to ignore the right thing and do my own thing.
• Joy is a choice. We have to choose to experience joy everyday. The opposite of joy is discontent which produces feelings of selfishness, bitterness, and anger. Most of the time, I don't choose joy. Most of the time, I wait for things to bring me joy and I find myself feeling selfish, bitter, and angry more than joyful. This needs to change.
• There is unbelievable power in testimony. You have a story and you need to share it. Someone will be blessed by it.
• Sometimes we need to be absolutely drained in order to be filled up with something better. My heart was poured out this weekend only to be filled with something much much better. Hearts are leaky and I will need to keep seeking His spirit to top me off.
• Whether or not I like it, God will prune the branches of my heart that bear no fruit. Thank goodness for that.

On another note, a boy that lived across the street from me growing up died unexpectedly on Friday morning. I don't know if he knew the Lord. I hope he did. His funeral is this afternoon. If you would, can you please say a prayer for his family and friends. I know that God is good all the time. I pray that He is glorified even in situations like this.

I'm just not in a blogging mood right now. My family got some sad news about a friend this morning, so that's contributing to my mood a little. But even yesterday, I just didn't have much to say. Tonight, I am leaving to go on a women's retreat with my church for the weekend. It really couldn't come at a better time for me. I need to retreat a little (maybe a lot). I have way too much of me in my life right now and not nearly enough of Him. So... I will just post a picture of the kid for today. Please say a little prayer that she and her daddy get along ok without me (and that I don't miss her too much).

The Sun Also Rises

This is what my backyard looks like at about 6am. Pretty isn't in?

Harper has less appreciation for the sun than I do. When we're driving, she will often complain of the sun being in her eyes (complain is a nice way to put it). To remedy the situation, I've started handing her my sunglasses. I love this kid.

Yeah, I let my kid watch TV.

Last night, I was trying to video Harper saying Trick Or Treat (we've been practicing). But, she just wasn't in to it. All she wanted to do was watch her favorite TV show, Wow Wow Wubbzy. She loves this show. I don't know why. I mean, it's ok, but I'm not totaly convinced it's worth the deeply devoted love that she feels for it. Oh well. To each his own.

Hoax

I'm sure you've all heard about the balloon boy saga by now. I have to admit, when it first happened and the balloon was flying through the air, I really felt for the Heene family. Even when rumors of a hoax started to surface after the little boy, Falcon, made a slip of the tongue during an interview, I was still sympathetic. But now, I am thoroughly convinced that it was a scam. Here is a clip from when the Heene family was on Wife Swap.

I can't believe that adult people who have children would act this way. These people are definitely capable of staging a hoax.

Science Pictures

Here are a couple pictures I took at work this week. The first one is of a blood vessel running through some fat tissue. The vessel is green and the fat cells look like bubbles. The nuclei of all the cells are blue.

These are omentum cells that I took out of a mouse and cultured in a dish for a few days.

Once Bitten, Twice Shy

For about a week now, Harper has been telling us the same story over and over again. She holds up her finger and says "Sagie bite". Translation = Sagie, our cat, bit her finger. The first time she told me this was when I was getting her out of her crib one morning. I think she had a dream that the cat bit her and now she thinks it's real. We literally have the most gentle cat in the world. Sage puts up with a lot from Harper (as you can see in the video below). She's not a biter, even when provoked. But, who knows?

This is an everyday occurrence in our house. Sage likes to hang out under the piano and Harper likes to lay on her -- I mean, Harper likes to hug her.