Holy Sunday

We had an awesome time at prayer on Tuesday night. It was just one of those times, you know, when the Holy Spirit is just RIGHT THERE? I can’t explain it, but I want to live there. I want to throw up a tent and camp out in His presence.

Anyway, this song played and the room came undone. I thought you might enjoy it.

Here are the lyrics:

Open our hearts,
To see the things
That make Your heart cry,
To be the church
The You would desire.
Light to be seen.

Break down our pride,
And all the walls
We’ve built up inside,
Our earthly crowns
And all our desires,
We lay at Your feet.

So let hope rise,
And darkness tremble
In Your holy light,
And every eye will see
Jesus, our God,
Great and mighty to be praised.

God of all days,
Glorious in all of Your ways.
Your majesty, the wonder and grace,
In the light of Your name.

With everything,
With everything,
We will shout for your glory.

With everything,
With everything,
We will shout forth your praise.

Our hearts will cry
Be glorified,
Be lifted high,
Above all names.
For You our King,
With everything,
We will shout forth your praise.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Guilty

Today I told my husband that this relationship wasn’t working and that I thought we should see other people. Then I remembered we were married and that whole break-up thing was no longer possible. Okay, NOT that I really wanted to be single, but I was making a point that people act differently during the courtship. And by “people”, I mean him.

Then I noticed my shoes.

No single woman would ever wear these. No single woman who had any interest in dating a MAN would wear these. I’m going to go shopping asap for a cuter pair, something a single girl would wear.

Here’s a cute pair, casual enough for the lake without looking like I work at the marina selling fish bait. I’m sure JD would be happier if I wore these. In fact, I feel like I OWE it to him to buy them. $264.00 is a small price to pay to keep the marriage fires burning.

My Sister is Spoiled

Tania the Mad called the other day. She’d spent the weekend on her yacht and was letting me know that she had skied, on ONE ski, even at the ripe old age of FIFTY. Skiing behind her boat is so easy. It’s one of those fancy kind with a big motor and a pole for your ski rope. ANYBODY can ski behind one of those.

Now, if you want a REAL challenge, you should do what I did today. Yes, I TOO skied on one. True, I’m much, much younger than my sister, but my boat has a tiny motor which means I had to hold on for approximately 22 seconds while my husband lay down on the throttle and I fought my way to the top of the water. My ski was made in 1982 and the rope was dragging in the water but still I managed! Cause I’m a winner.

On a side note, you know that muscle that runs up the back of your thigh and ends smack dab in the middle of your butt cheek? Mine fell out and is now laying on the bottom of Lake Allatoona.

Unfortunately, while I was skiing like a Cypress Garden’s professional, no one thought to take a picture. Whatever, I don’t do it for the glory. I do it for the children.

A lovely day was had by all. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go sit on a bag of ice. I wonder if Tania will loan me her masseuse.

Product Review

Because it’s late and Jeanette hasn’t sent me her photos from today (bad, BAD, Jeanette) I can’t show you any images from our awesome day on the lake. Or my flat abdomen. Bummer. And because the pool is not finished, I can’t show you Part TWO in the riveting series called, Pool Maintenance by Dummies.

But what I DO have for you is a Zolligirl first – a product recommendation. I would be happy to do these more, if anyone out there would like to SEND me products to review. Cars and stainless steel appliances would get first priority.

You may have noticed it’s 212 degrees outside. For the past few weeks I’ve been sleeping with a box fan beside the bed. The fan was from WalMart and cost about $10.00 dollars. It was fine, but then the MoonPie started taking it to HER room at bedtime. I would have to wait until she was asleep, then steal it back. What? I’ve got a husband and two dogs on my bed, I needed the fan! A few days ago, JD came home with a NEW fan.

Behold the Honeywell Fresh Breeze Tower Fan with REMOTE Control! It’s slim, it’s trim, and it produces a BREEZE. It actually fluctuates like a breeze! And when I wake up in the middle of the night and want to turn it up or down, I just use the remote control. No more getting out of bed and walking two feet!

It’s blowing it’s sweet, light breeze over me now as I write this. Wait, let me pick up my remote…ahhhh, perfection.

What can I say? Real Housewives of Cobb County is a bit low on drama.

Maiden Voyage

We decided to take a break from pool maintenance and do something relaxing. I’m not sure where I got the idea that boating was relaxing, but I blame my parents. It’s a common theme on this blog. When I was a girl, my mother loaded the truck, my dad towed the boat, I played in the water. It seemed to work well. But then my parents had to go and CHANGE the rules! Now I have to load the boat? That’s not nearly as much fun!

Here’s a rundown of our day.

1:15 p.m. Finally got my work done, time to go to the lake!

1:16 p.m. Realize we don’t have a truck with a towing hitch. Drive to Marietta and borrow John’s truck.

1:45 p.m. Drive to Target. They don’t have any life vests.

2:15 p.m. Drive to WalMart. Purchase two life vests, and the last tow-able tube – $100.00 bucks.

2:45 p.m. Clean the cushions in the boat, fill the ice chest, gather 7 towels, slather MoonPie with sunscreen, get a bag of snacks, make sure we have directions, call Jeanette and tell her to meet us.

3:00 p.m. Fill the boat with gas.

3:30 p.m. Put the boat in the water! Tell Jeanette to take the girls to the swimming area while we take it on a test run.

3:40 p.m. Finally get out the pin that allows the motor to go into the water.

3:45 p.m. Boat starts on the 4th try – a record in first trip boating history!

3:46 p.m. Take the boat for an awesome spin around the lake. Twice! Become convinced it might actually run.

4:00 p.m. Yell for Jeanette to bring the girls. Put all snacks/drinks/towels in bow. Get everyone seated with life jackets.

4:01 p.m. Notice the sky is REALLY dark.

4:02 p.m. Realize it’s RAINING, jump out of the boat, and run for cover.

4:40 p.m. Give it up, the rain is NOT going away, send the girls home with Jeanette.

5:00 p.m. Load the boat in the pouring rain. Listen to husband vent the entire way home.

9:35 p.m. Think back to those few minutes when you were flying across the waves in your very own boat. Decide it was worth it. Check the weather for tomorrow.

30% chance of rain? 70% chance of FUN!

How to Install a Pool Liner. Part One

First of all, if you’re reading this because you actually NEED to put in a pool liner, my thoughts and prayers are with you. We did this the first time, six years ago.  It was so easy then, because by “we”, I mean my dad bought the liner, and had a crew of five men install it while my mother and I hit the yard sales looking for pool toys.

This time, they elected NOT to install the liner. And yes, I agree, my parents have gotten meaner in their old age. Now – to the pool.

First of all, you have to drain all of the water. We are lucky in that we have a friend who has not ONE, but TWO businesses dealing with water, and he let us borrow the Mack-Daddy of water pumps. JD says it pumps out 3600 gallons of water an hour. I THINK he said that. Anyway, it was a BUNCH of water and he had to run the hose down the drive so that the neighbor’s yard wouldn’t get washed away.

As the water drained, JD cut out the liner. Once we got down to about 18 inches of water/sludge/nastiness, the hose would turn over, CAVITATE (suck air) and JD would yell. So I got down in the slime, slid under the liner, and held the hose in place. It was AWESOME.

Granted, our pool was in bad shape. It’s been uncovered for awhile and had lots of leaves, tadpoles, and dead frogs floating around. Which made it even more fun when I had to stick my hand in the water, and clear the debris from the hose.

Once we got it down to a few inches, JD had to scoop out the gunk, put it in the bucket, and haul it out by hand. Oh, and it was about 95 degrees. I’m pretty sure he’s rethinking his life at this point.

Looking good! Have you ever seen what’s underneath a pool liner? Pretty exciting stuff – packed dirt/sand and sheets of metal. Obviously, there was a bit of rust, so the next step was to sand down the sharp places, then paint over them with Rustoleum.

This is when I decided that the MoonPie should learn a little something about hard work, after all, SHE enjoys the pool more than anyone. After about 30 seconds, we decided she’d learned all she needed to know, namely it STINKS, and I sent her back in to watch TV and pray for a rich husband with a gunite pool. Just kidding – I sent her in to study Latin, we don’t watch TV.

After a brief thundershower, we were back at it. When a pool leaks, the water washes away some of the sand, causing it to be uneven in places. JD went around the pool, putting sand BACK, watering it down, and smoothing out the rough spots. When he first started, I was really concerned. I wanted the bottom to be like GLASS. After about 10 minutes, I was over it. He could have left a dead opossum in the bottom and I would have said, “We’ll just swim over the hump.”

This was all we could do in one day, so we went inside, showered, and fell into bed exhausted. The next morning, we dressed, went to church, went out to eat, invited friends over, played games, and basically tried everything we could to NOT go back outside and continue. Maybe we’d get lucky and my dad would rethink HIS life, bring his crew down here and finish the job for us!

No such luck. Next step – install the new liner. Now, some instructions on the Internet, say put the box IN the pool and unfurl it there. But those same instructions say have THREE or FOUR men on each side as you pull it into the deep end. We had me and JD.

So we dumped it on the side of the pool and tried to remember which end was the shallow, and which was the deep. We heaved it inside the pool, and this is where things got a little difficult. See, there were NO instructions in the box. The instructions ON-LINE said to line up the corners. So we found a red, arrow sticker on the liner, stuck it in the corner, and began the install. Here’s how you do this step: JD pulled up the liner weighing approximately 250 pounds, while I lay on the ground and stuck it in the tiny gap, over the lip of the beading. Don’t ask me, it just works. We did 3/4 of the pool in about 30 minutes, then realized it was not right. It was at this point that my brother called and asked if we needed any help. So we sat down and waited for him to get there. Why deprive him of the fun?

Once Ellery arrived, we realized the little red arrow we’d been using, was supposed to be in the CENTER, not the corner. So we took it all out, repositioned it, and REDID it.

Redid it wrong! Turns out the arrow was off a bit. HAHAHAHAHAH. Isn’t that the best? So we pulled it out AGAIN. Nothing like putting in a liner THREE times.

Almost there boys!

Success! Tomorrow, we’ll move to Part Two which involves vacuuming out the wrinkles, and HOPEFULLY, filling it with water.

Not that we’ll actually let anyone swim in it. You know, when my PARENTS paid for this liner, I didn’t really think it was all that special. Now that we’ve paid for it, and spend an exhausting weekend, killing ourselves to install it, I’ve come to appreciate it more. There will be NO horseplay, NO pool toys, NO swimming – just floating, quietly on a very thin air mattress only.

Moral of the story – my parents have ruined swimming for everyone.

Holy Sunday

The next book I want to read – True Religion: Taking Pieces of Heaven to Places of Hell on Earth.

A rising voice in the mission movement, Palmer Chinchen challenges Christians to a new kind of spiritual formation – one focused on pouring out our lives for others and radical dependence upon God.

When we get out of our comfort zone, our souls are awakened – everything seems more alive and vibrant.  So why don’t we live our faith that way?  Why is it that our faith can easily become an old, tired routine instead of an exhilarating, God-honoring lifestyle?

Discover why true religion involves engaging the problems in our world as we go with the good news of the gospel.  And in the process of pouring ourselves out for others, we’ll see God radically transform our own hearts as well.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Great Needs

I went to an Estate Sale yesterday. On the way there, I decided that THIS time, under no circumstances would I buy anything I didn’t really, really need. For instance, I don’t need a couch. Or one of those things to hold firewood, since I have gas logs. I’m relieved to say that I was successful in my restraint. Here are the few things I lucked upon:

1. A blue mailbox. My old one is black, plastic and missing the door. All of my mail is getting wet. Price: $2.00

2. Spreaders. I don’t own ANY, so this was a definite NEED. Butter knives are for BUTTER. Price: $2.00

3. A game for the MoonPie. We’re trying to have more game nights than TV nights and this was only missing the timer. Price: $1.00

4. Adjustable pencil sharpener. Hello? Have you seen the list of supplies kids have to take to school? FOUR packs of pencils, SHARPENED! Nothing works better than the old-fashioned, metal kind. Price: $2.00

5. The Message Bible. I don’t have this version and everyone knows you NEED every bible you can get your hands on. Price: $1.00

6. Christmas Ornaments. VINTAGE Christmas ornaments, that are unusual. I don’t own anything like this, and thus, NEEDED them. Price: 4 for $2.00

7. An Ocean Drum by Remo. Here’s a picture and description from Amazon. It’s a DRUM and it sounds like the OCEAN. Amazon’s price – $86.00. My price $1.00!

How awesome is that?? It’s weird, but I didn’t even know I needed it until I saw it! I don’t have the mallet, but I don’t think it’s necessary. I can live without it. I don’t NEED everything to be happy. I’m capable of sacrifice.

I have to admit, I feel pretty good about myself. If you’d like me to come help YOU get rid of some unnecessary clutter, let me know. No need to be ashamed, not everyone has the self-control that I do.

My Day.

Today, I resolve to:

1. Get up early and have my quiet time with the Lord, with just a few interruptions where I use the Tivo to record GMA.

2. Work out with my twenty minute video – The 30 day shred – for 10 minutes.

3. Finish all my work so I can take MoonPie to the pool, then go anyway when I don’t get it all done.

4. Think negative things about my body when I’m putting on my bathing suit.

5. Put on sunscreen once, allowing my shoulders to burn.

6. Complain about how messy my house is, while doing nothing to change it.

Whew. I love a day that goes according to plan.