Category Archives: Saturday Short

Addictions, Attending or Focus, Conversations, Food & Drink, fresh start, Habits, Inspired, Language, New Year, Saturday Short

Saturday Short – Eating Healthy – Elastic Is Not So Much My Friend As a Close Acquaintance

January 14, 2017 admindeb Leave a comment

Photo Credit: Sweet Little Bluebird

Sitting at my desk, I’m sitting very straight with great posture thanks to the corseting effect of jeans that fit me better a few months back. Struggling into those button-top, zippered jeans was one of those New Year wake-up calls. Eating healthier is usually one of my top resolutions, but it didn’t make the list this time…well…yet.

I was going to write how elastic is my friend and then discovered a West Coaster named Aurea has a food blog by that name (Elastic Is My Friend). Then, given my wrestling on this pair of jeans, I’m thinking elastic is more a close acquaintance…not as close as these jeans feel right now, but much preferred over them.

A friend of mine and I talk a lot about language. Words are a great interest of mine, and it’s fascinating how their usage changes over time. Take the word “muffin tops“. In another “once upon a time”, muffin tops (that bulge over the top of our too-tight jeans) was called “love handles”. The latter is a much more affectionate or endearing phrase than the first. Both words are a bit of a tease, as in poking-fun-at-sort-of-thing, but Urban Dictionary gives us women, at least, a break. Its definition calls love handles cute, curvy, etc.

Photo Credit: Foodiggity

Anyway, I digress.

Eating healthier would definitely help me become friends with both elastic and these jeans, which are causing me to breathe more shallowly than is probably healthy right now.

What would help me eat more healthy? Not all the diets out there that are either trendy or costly…just not into all that focus on food.

In the not too distant past, I have turned my eating habits around and made jeans my friend using three actions.

Lay off the sugar. – Everything has sugar in it. Well, almost everything. I’m not into extreme food plans, but just getting sugar out of my diet for a few weeks or months has resulted in weight loss, a change in my appetite, and even my food preferences. Since everything has sugar in it, I’m not talking about everything, but the obvious concentrated sugar foods.
No Fast Food. – When I prepare food, I tend to make healthier food than when I drive-through or pick up something on the run. Not rocket science, but for me, it has to be something I resolve. Just too easy to pull in and pick up a fast lunch or beverage.
Eating Stops at 7:00pm. At some point, I have to determine to “Stop the Madness!” For me, if I exit the kitchen by 7:00pm (not carrying food) and just don’t go back in there…my habits and cravings will change. They have before…they can again.

So mid-way through January, in a pair of jeans I can still fit in…I’m resolved to begin moving in this direction. Not the strongest resolve I’ve had going into a new year, but stronger than I had this morning.

Elastic…aaaaaahhh. Looking forward to peeling out of these jeans and putting on my pajamas later…AND closing the door on the kitchen at 7:00pm.

I’m thinking there could be some sort of conspiracy in the fitness clothing industry how it’s all so stretchy and comfy, with elastic at the waist. Effective for work-outs but just as lovely lounging on the couch in front of the TV…with that enormous bowl of popcorn or dish of ice cream.Photo Credit: NYTimes, NPR, Pinterest

Sheesh!

Focus! Need to definitely keep wearing these jeans until bedtime.

How about you? Any helps in forming habits where we don’t need such close friendships with elastic? Please share in Comments.

YouTube Video – ActiveWear

YouTube Video – Fed Up – Official Trailer

All Good Gifts, Christmas, Community, Dad, Faithfulness, Family, God, Growing up, Heaven, Home, Saturday Short

Saturday Short – One Year Ending, Another Beginning – and Those We Love

December 31, 2016 admindeb 2 Comments

We close out this year – 2016 – with one missing. Dad, and Papa, died on Christmas Day. I have written about him many times…today I write about what he leaves behind.

Death is strange – even for those of us who have lives transformed by God and who trust His Word that we will be with Him forever in Heaven. Death feels final…and solitary… Dad is not with us, yet we gather because of him. We grieve together…we will miss him together.

Already a father of five, our dad took on four more children when he married our mom. For decades now, nine children grew up and through adulthood under his influence. We and our children are linked because of this man…some loosely, some tightly.

Rend Collective’s album Campfire Christmas – Volume 1 was a gift this year, and the last song is a re-do of Auld Lang Syne. The song For All That You Have Done For Us is both a perfect benediction for this year…and for what we’ve lost and what we’ve gained. In our earthly father in part…and wholly in our Heavenly Father.

Listen (and sing along if you choose) to this prayer and battle-cry.

Verse 1:

Your grace will never be forgot

Your mercy all my life

Will be my soul’s forever song

My story and my light

Verse 2:

From mountaintop to valley low

Through laughter and through tears

Surely the goodness of my God

Will follow all the years

Chorus:

For all that You have done, for us

For every battle won

We’ll raise a song to bless Your heart

For all that You have done

Verse 3:

In all our failures and regrets

You’ve always led us home

Redemption’s arm has raised us up

Our triumph in the storm

Verse 4:

In unity we’ll stand as one

As family we’ll go

Shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand

Into the great unknown*

…..As we said goodbye (for now) to our father, grandfather, uncle, and friend…we were sobered by the reality of that generation gone from our lives. All the old ones on my side of the family have died…

What’s left?…our faith, our friends, and our family. What comfort…and what joy! I am so thankful to God that He doesn’t leave us alone…ever.

As you count down to the end of this year and look with hope to the next…may you find yourself surrounded by those who will love you, no matter what…and may you grow closer to a God who transcends suffering and death. In this week of parting…He has come close to us.

*Lyrics to For All That You Have Done – Rend Collective

YouTube Video – All Glory Be to Christ – King’s Kaleidoscope (another beautiful lyric to the tune Auld Lang Syne)

Books, Dad, Faithfulness, God, Grace, Grief and Loss, Pray, Saturday Short, Walk with God

Saturday Short – When Hard Gets Even Harder – God

December 3, 2016 admindeb 5 Comments

When you get an early morning text from your sister-in-law who is caring for your dad, and the message is “Call me”…you think the worst.

This morning…it was the worst…for her.

Not anything related to the dad she has cared for for weeks now, with the help of hospice and family…not our dad this time.

…but her dad.

Last night, her full-of-life, golfer dad – who had just dropped by for a visit earlier in the day – had a massive stroke.

This father of daughters…

…now surrounded by his daughters…in a hospital with nothing but bad news.

My sister-in-law and I have talked on and off through the morning…and we (and many others…thank you) have prayed since the news of his stroke.

Will God ever give us more than we can handle? How are we to manage when hard gets even harder? We know from God’s Word that His grace is sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9)…yet the temptation to despair can be overwhelming sometimes. Then we’re given 1 Corinthians 10:13 to comfort us through those temptations. John Piper writes kindly and plainly about that situation where God gives us more than we can handle (here).

I’m reminded of a saying: “God may give us more than we can handle, but He will not give us more than He can handle.”……I cling to that…the saying less so than the truth I know through His Word and experience of going through hard, with Him.

Then…an incredible coincidence happened as we reeled from the news of this gravely stricken father.

A dear friend messaged me on Facebook and said that I had come to mind when she was reading this morning…it was a passage from Streams in the Desert by Mrs. Charles E. (Lettie Burd) Cowman. This is one of my favorite devotional books (other favorites are linked below).

Christianity.com posts online the daily devotionals from Streams in the Desert. The December 3 devotional which my friend sent me follows in total. So led by the Holy Spirit of a completely good and wholly loving God.Photo Credit: Sharing Horizons

Is it well with thy husband? Is it well with the child? And she answered, It is well (2 Kings 4:26).

Be strong, my soul!
Thy loved ones go
Within the veil.
God’s thine, e’en so;
Be strong.
Be strong, my soul!
Death looms in view.
Lo, here thy God!
He’ll bear thee through;
Be strong.

For sixty-two years and five months I had a beloved wife, and now, in my ninety-second year I am left alone. But I turn to the ever present Jesus, as I walk up and down in my room, and say, “Lord Jesus, I am alone, and yet not alone–Thou art with me, Thou art my Friend. Now, Lord, comfort me, strengthen me, give to Thy poor servant everything Thou seest he needs.”

And we should not be satisfied till we are brought to this, that we know the Lord Jesus Christ experimentally, habitually to be our Friend: at all times, and under all circumstances, ready to prove Himself to be our Friend.
–George Mueller

Afflictions cannot injure when blended with submission.

Ice breaks many a branch, and so I see a great many persons bowed down and crushed by their afflictions. But now and then I meet one that sings in affliction, and then I thank God for my own sake as well as his. There is no such sweet singing as a song in the night. You recollect the story of the woman who, when her only child died, in rapture looking up, as with the face of an angel, said, “I give you joy, my darling.” That single sentence has gone with me years and years down through my life, quickening and comforting me.
–Henry Ward Beecher

E’en for the dead I will not bind my soul to grief;
Death cannot long divide.
For is it not as though the rose that climbed my garden wall
Has blossomed on the other, side?
Death doth hide,
But not divide;
Thou art but on Christ’s other side!
Thou art with Christ, and Christ with me;
In Christ united still are we.

Thanks for reading…hopefully you are also encouraged by the words above…they were a balm to my own soul. Appreciate your prayers for these I’ve mentioned. God is with us…through every joy and every sorrow.

My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers

Morning & Evening with Oswald Chambers – Devotions for Morning and Evening With Oswald Chambers Complete Daily Devotions of My Utmost for His Highest and Daily Thoughts for Disciples

The Christian in Complete Armour by William Gurnall

Joy and Strength for the Pilgrim’s Day by Mary Tileston

Daily Strength for Daily Needs by Mary Tileston

America, Attitude, Character, Conversations, Inspired, Leadership, Redeeming & Restoring, Saturday Short

Saturday Short – The Tuskegee Airmen

November 19, 2016 admindeb Leave a comment

Photo Credit: Tuskegee Airmen

Last night I watched a 1995 HBO film about the Tuskegee Airmen. They were the very first African-American military pilots. What an incredible story of how they had the opportunity to train as pilots (in 1941) and then how they entered the air battles of World War II (in 1943). As much as they confronted America’s enemy (Germany), they also faced the segregation and racism of that day.

Photo Credit: Tuskegee Airmen

The HBO film was based on the true stories of these men, but it’s hard to know, not having studied the Tuskegee Airmen before, what is true and what is Hollywood.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

There is one scene that was especially timely then…and today.

It was some sort of hearing (some congressional committee) about the fitness of these pilots and whether the training program should be shut down. The African-American colonel who led this fighter squadron was able to speak for the men under his command. Below is his appeal and defense of these courageous fighter pilots…and of African-Americans. {Watch the clip below, as well. Moving.]

All we asked for was a chance to prove ourselves. A fair and impartial opportunity. 
We thought we had that chance.
But you invite us to a poker game,
hand us a fixed deck...
...and then wonder why we can't win?
Every colored pilot in the 99th...
...went through his own private hell

to wear those wings.
Each of those men carry...
...not only the dream
of becoming American Military Aviators...but the hopes of an entire people as well.

Am I the only one in this room
that understands what that means?
I was brought up to believe
that beneath it all...
...Americans are a decent people...
...with an abiding sense of integrity and fair play. The cheers I heard across this country
when Joe Louis and Jesse Owens...
...humiliated Hitler's "Master Race"...didn't just come from proud colored folks.

They came from everyone.
How are we to interpret that?

As a United States Army Officer...
...who gladly puts his life
on the line everyday...

...there's no greater conflict within me.

How do I feel about my country?
And how does my country...
...feel about me?

Are we only to be Americans
when the mood suits you?

A fair and impartial opportunity
is all we ask.

Nothing that you yourselves
wouldn't demand.*

Whether those words were spoken by that colonel or they were the words of a marvelous, insightful script writer…they resonate today.

“A fair and impartial opportunity is all we ask. Nothing that you yourselves wouldn’t demand.”

*The Tuskegee Airmen – Script

Red Tails (2012) – Lucasfilm Official Trailer

Attending or Focus, Bible, Church, Community, Conversations, God, Gospel, Growing up, Jesus, Lessons Learned, Love Your Neighbor, Saturday Short

Saturday Short – Explore God – Tackling the Hard Questions

September 10, 2016 admindeb Leave a comment

Who is God? …Really. What difference does it make for me to believe in God or not? Isn’t my path set anyway? In the religion of my parents?

We have so many questions as we go through life. I have had my share…and yet still come back to the profound difference God has made in my life… Even in a world that is broken, we see glimpses of beauty, and order, and love outside ourselves. Glimpses of God’s touch and movement in our lives and throughout the world.

Wisdom is to seek answers to our questions. To wrestle with them with friends and family we love and are sure of their love for us. Or strangers even who appreciate an opportunity to sort out these questions together…respectfully and decently.

Photo Credit: Facebook

Over the next seven weeks in the Richmond, Virginia metropolitan area, a large group of churches (of various denominations and leanings) are cooperating in tackling some of our questions.

The Explore God website will help you find a Richmond area church or discussion group focusing on these questions. Also the same website has videos, articles, and resources by topic if you want to explore on your own a bit. Explore God can also be followed on Facebook.

My plan is to join the discussion at Movement Church tomorrow (Sunday morning) and then gather with a small group during the week continuing to sort out answers to these questions. No pressure kind of experience. Very stranger-friendly…meaning, no in-your-face weirdness.

**Please note – Movement now has 2 gatherings on Sunday mornings – one at 9:00am and one at 11:00am.**

If you’re like me, you have questions…even if you think you’ve already sorted out the answers yourself. For me, as the world and culture change…and as I get older, my questions have changed. The God I’ve come to know can handle our questions and meets us in the answers, too.

Arts, Babies & Children, Birthdays, Bookmarked Summer, Books, Children's Books, Christmas, Community, Conversations, creativity, Decluttering, Guitar, Inspired, Marketing, Music, Saturday Short

Saturday Short – 2nd & Charles – Geeky Nerdy Marketplace

September 3, 2016 admindeb 2 Comments

Photo Credit: Wikimedia

In a different era, the words “geek” and “nerd” were derogatory terms of a sort. These days, they are a certain subset of “cool”. When we tune into Krue.tv to watch Nathan live-stream, these superlatives pop up often as he or his fan community describe each other.

Yesterday, at our youngest son Daniel’s request, we stopped in to check out 2nd & Charles. I had heard it was some sort of used book store, but what we found was way more fun and exciting. This enormous marketplace is a brilliant combination of new and used, and the inventory includes books, music, movies, gaming accessories, memorabilia – for all ages and every possible nerdy or geeky bent.

Even their quotes around the store and on their website made me want to hug the clerks when leaving the store…seriously. Embarrassing, but true.

It’s not old. It’s vintage.

It’s not used. It’s pre-loved.

Daniel and I stayed awhile scoping out the books and memorabilia (me) and music (him). He was so enthralled that we’re heading back there today with a box of his books, DVDs, and CDs to see how the trade/sell system works and to shop some more.

To be honest…I was also enthralled. This takes Christmas shopping to a whole new level.

The following disclaimer from another blogger‘s review also works for me:

** I’m in no way affiliated with 2nd & Charles. All opinions are my own. I’m way too opinionated to have it any other way.

Postscript: Nathan, you’re going to love this store. Save your tips.

Youtube Video – Epic Rap Battle – Nerd vs. Geek – Rhett & Link

Beauty of God's Creation, Birthdays, Cancer, Conversations, Food & Drink, Friends, Holidays, Mothers, Saturday Short

Saturday Short – Sweet Plans for a Day in River City – #RVA – To Celebrate That Lovely in Your Life

August 27, 2016 admindeb 1 Comment

Photo Credit: Rich Terrell, flickr

It’s Saturday, late summer, in Richmond, Virginia, and you want to celebrate a special friend. No plans for a hike in the mountains, no movie wooing you to the theater, and no special outdoors event on the calendar (rare in Richmond). So what do you do? Here are some possibles.

McLeans for Breakfast – Best in town. Great diner food and the servers keep your coffee mugs full and never rush you. Yum!

Pedis – Richmond probably has as many nail salons as restaurants and they are a real draw for pampering that special lady. Photo Credit: Organic Authority

Even better to do it together…. you men might enjoy a foot soak and massage as well. Artizen Nails & Spa is one that won’t disappoint. At $25-35 plus tip, it’s definitely a splurge, but today is one of those days, right?

Mama J’s – If you didn’t start your Saturday at McLeans, then you are ready for some of the best southern food in town. Mama J’s slogan is “Welcome home.” The food is definitely worth the wait which is actually part of the whole experience. You will meet others preparing to celebrate and new acquaintances they meet during the wait. Such good food…fascinating people…and their rides….through beautiful historic Jackson Ward neighborhood.

Stoplight Gelato Cafe – Just an easy walk from Mama J’s is this shop with an incredible back story. 81 y/o Barbara Given, a retired university teacher of teachers, and her son Bryce had a dream of opening their own business together. They wanted to do a homemade gelato shop.Photo Credit: RVA Mag

Since 2010, they had worked on restoring the building and working out their building plan. Then, sadly…Bryce died. Cancer. On Easter 2015. Mrs. Given continued with their dream and opened this summer. This tiny shop has so much character, and service has expanded to breakfast and lunch items along with the sweet treats.

Even after the gelato is gone, you want to linger there…to talk to Mrs. Given…or to catch some Pokemon.

Class and Trash – If you have any energy left, there’s still plenty of daylight to stroll through another new business. This antigue/vintage decor store just opened in Scott’s Addition. Class and Trash has something for anyone looking to add an unusual piece to their home. Just wandering through this warehouse takes you back to a very different era. All kinds of eclectic.

Wegmans – At this point, your budget might be busted, and the day could end just perfectly with a bowl of cereal or popcorn and a movie on TV. However, if you have hearty appetites and decide on one more food destination before you catch the sun setting in Richmond…try Wegmans.

It’s the biggest grocery store I’ve ever seen. Their prepared foods are perfect to box up and then head down to the River or atop one of the scenic overlooks of the city.

A great day. Good night, Friends. Nice job celebrating!Photo Credit: Angela Bauman

Attending or Focus, Community, Conversations, Global Leadership Summit, Habits, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Life Skills, Saturday Short, Team, work, Work Culture, Workplace or Marketplace

Saturday Short – A Space and a Place on the Team

August 20, 2016 admindeb Leave a comment

Photo Credit: Gtrinity

Work space is always a premium in companies. Whether you work in a cubicle or a full-fledged office with a door, a space of some sort that belongs to you (shared or not) is vital. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to pour over a department’s new office space design. It was a fascinating experience.

Some of the team members work remotely, and I noticed there wasn’t a space designated for those who are not regularly in the office. Showing this to the person on point for working out the space assignments yielded an “Aha!” moment. She was kind to listen to a relative outsider, initially explaining how that probably happened because they are rarely in the office. Could it be that they are rarely there because there is no space for them? Something to think about if you want to rub shoulders and share ideas with team members that could prove very valuable…if space is made for them.

Along with space comes the idea of a place on the team. Do you know your place on your work team? What you bring to the table? What unique role you play in the mission of your organization? C-suite leaders and department heads, of course, define some of that through a title, vision, and job description. They made a place for you on the team organizationally. Your role is to carve that place out…to add value to the work of the team through your own applied competencies, but also to add value to the team members by your care for them – by being “the rising tide that lifts all boats” – Adam Grant.

Photo Credit: The Brand Bank

How exhilarating it is when our bosses communicate to us and the larger team how relevant we are to them and the work! However, that can’t be our motivation. We must set in our own minds, that if we’re employed, we have that grand opportunity to make a difference. Whether obvious to leadership or not, we can apply our best selves to the vision, to the outcome, and to the people we work with and for. Business leader John Maxwell spoke recently at the Global Leadership Summit on this very topic.

Maxwell’s book Intentional Living: Choosing a Life that Matters focuses on this idea of “adding value” to others. At first, I thought that an odd idea because people have value. Period. Then, the more I listened to him and the more I read about healthy teams, there is wisdom in this. We can get absorbed in the task and the goals, and miss the people within the tasks. It is part of the whole “space and place” component of team. Give a listen to Maxwell in this brief but packed 3:40 minute video on “adding value to people”.

In the course of busy work and personal lives, we are not even thinking sometimes of the need for “space and place”. On this Saturday, during gardening, and errands, and family outings, spend a quiet minute maybe on the people you call team and what space and place you’ve made for them to thrive and grow. It will always come back, like Adam Grant says, to benefit you as well.

Addictions, Attending or Focus, Babies & Children, Conversations, Family, Growing up, Home, Inspired, Lessons Learned, Memories, Mom and Dad, Mothers, Saturday Short

Saturday Short – Parenting and Growing Up on TV

August 13, 2016 admindeb Leave a comment

Photo Credit: Telegraph

I missed the bus once because, as a first-grader, I got completely immersed in a TV show. It wasn’t pretty. Both my parents worked, and my younger brothers were already squared away at a sitter’s house. Freewheeling it, a mostly responsible 6 y/o, I spent the day alone because of the power of screens in my life from an early age.

[Sidebar: No shaming of parents follows. You have a hard and important job…especially those who are the primary caregivers, Mom’s usually.]

Spring forward a few decades to my own raising children. I still loved TV. It was then and is now an entertaining diversion from the day’s work, providing a break from thinking, studying, decision-making.

However, my own filter for “not appropriate for children” in terms of content and how much was not very reliable. Finally, one day when our oldest child was maybe 18 months old, my husband made the unpopular decision of recommending we cancel our cable subscription. He came in, when I was taking a break, and watching something (detective show or romantic comedy, can’t remember), and our little one was watching right along with me.

Sigh…I was really o.k. with the intervention.

[Be kind in your judgment of my husband. I could have appealed that decision, but it was the right one, for us at the time. Truly I wanted our children to be able to engage in conversation with adults, and to have varied interests and skills, and to serve others. When my go-to down-time diversion was TV, it was easy for me to disengage from other more substantive uses of our time.]

Josh Squires, pastoral counselor and father of 5, posted a blog today on binge watching and on-demand entertainment. I’d love to hear what his wife says as well, but the piece is fair, reasoned, and compassionate. He talks about what affects our decisions for our children’s screentime – content, time, and (heart) attachment. For you caregivers (Mom’s), there are still times to just curl up with the kids and watch something on TV…or to let them relax with a favorite film while you get something done. Totally.Photo Credit: Desiring God

I’d rather you read his words than my own, so I’ll close with this. Being a grandmother now, I’m sure there will be opportunities for me to babysit, and already I can see using some sort of screen time as a good diversion when the littles are older… However, having said that, I hope their parents will be able to trust me to model drawing them into thoughtful service of others, talent- and skill-building, and the practice of conversation. That’s my hope for myself for sure.

These days my best naps are when the TV is glowing in the background. Still could miss a bus today…

Parenting in the Age of Binge-Watching – Josh Squires – Desiring God

Monday Morning Moment – Screentime – Give It a Rest – DebMillsWriter