Quote of the Day: Success

"Sucuss is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life, as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed."

-Booker T. Washington

Home Emergency Supply-Kit

There are several moments in life where Ken and I will turn to each other, laugh, and say, "I guess this means we are adults." Picking out paint was one of the most recent moments, and then again when we decided to put together an Emergency Supply-kit for our home. We actually had fun trying to find the best bargains on items and checking them off one-by-one. We were ecstatic when we found cool water jugs that held more then just 1-gallon (maybe more nerdy then "just being responsible adults," or maybe it just means we are easily amused). We also read that less then 22% of Americans are prepared for a disaster, yikes! But look at us :) jk.

I did some research to try and find the most comprehensive list of items we would need. One emergency-kit checklist that I liked was on Real Simple's website. Another helpful website I found was through Ready.gov and they had many different resources; there big thing was have a kit, make a plan, and be informed. One resource I really liked was that if you had to text your family with emergency contact information, etc... you could fill out a quick form and hit send as a text through their website - click this link to check-it out. Another resource I liked that they mentioned was talking about having a family meeting and making a plan. They included a form for you to fill out and guide you - I always love filling in the blanks on those types of things :). A couple of other random resources I came across: Resources for helping your child through a disaster, what to do when you are in your car and an emergency happens, purifying your water, 7 steps to earthquake safety, and finally what to do when you are deciding to stay or evacuate.

One thing that I did not think of at first when I was making our kit, was all the financial fall out you could experience in an emergency. I found the Emergency Financial First Aid Kit, EFFAK and it was very helpful. The "kit" has a check-list of all the paperwork copies you should have in a waterproof container along with your emergency kit, or in a safety deposit box (Okay, safety deposit box is a little to "adult" for us at this stage, but you get the idea). It walks you through items you should have copies of such as your birth certificate, passport, last year's tax information, health insurance, etc... I also found that it is important to have quarters on-hand for a pay-phone in case cell phones don't work, and also enough cash on-hand to last about a week (preferably small bills).

We are taking baby-steps to complete our kit, but so far it has been fun! Check out our own check-list (our list from several different sources) to see prices, places to buy, and how we are doing so far! In our tight financial situation

we we are trying to build a budget-friendly emergency-kit. Needless to say, we still have a long ways to go. But we did find several of the items at places like the Dollar Tree, Walmart, and the Thrift store :) Hope this helps you get started with yours!

BBQ BBQ Chicken Pizza

This last month we decided to try and only eat food at home (yay for healthy and savings). Missing pizza, and inspired by our friends the Reiders, we made a BBQ Chicken pizza! Dough was only $1.30 at Trader Joes. Total meal: $7. We pre-barbecued the chicken, diced some chives and red-onions, shredded mozzarella, and doused in BBQ sauce... wa-la!

Reflections on Time... thoughts while waiting for a tow truck

I am sitting here waiting for a tow truck. Yesterday he said he would come in the afternoon; I was home all day, waiting. He did not end up coming. Today, he said he would arrive between 8-9am (earlier then I would of liked to get up, but hey it would be done early!) I hit snooze over and over thinking he would be here any minute. I got a call at 8:50am – "I will be there within the next two hours." 11:45am rolls around, with another call "I promise 10 more minutes" (granted this is 3 hours later). 12:45pm, I hand him the key to take the car. Waiting around for 4 hours! Not that I am super busy and I am even guilty as charged for being late most of the time, but come on! I felt that I had a “right” not to have wasted half my day and yesterday. I felt that it was my “right” to be told an accurate timeframe. With a bitter, frustrated heart, I politely said “No, problem. Thanks for coming.”

So this got me thinking about time. Time to say goodbye, on-time, if only I could push back time, time to go to bed, etc… We have so many words/phrases and associations with “time.” But where do we learn our ideas about time. Is it cultural? Religious? Philosophical? What makes up the norm? In my day-to-day world if you are not on time for work, you can get fired. If you are not on time to class, your grades can go down. There are consequences to missing time (interviews, anniversaries, birthdays, bills and deadlines). Time encompasses events that can come and go. Ken likes to say that weddings are social time capsules, seeing all the people you once knew. According to the dictionary, Time is “the system of those sequential relations that any event has to any other, as past, present, or future; in definite and continuous duration regarded as that in which events succeed one another.”

The Western world, often views time as linear. It is non-repetitive, advancing and directional. Several sources mentioned that this idea originated as a Judeo-Christian view where, “All human life was a ‘continuous linear redemptive process,’ and the history of the world was seen as ‘a divine drama enacted on a single stage, with no repeat performances.’” This resonates with me. This is a concept I understand and agree with. But the world I live in is primarily Western, Judeo-Christian.

In an article I read, a more recent idea of time came from an anthropologist named Edward T. Hall (1983). He expressed Western time as 'monochronic' where he combined the linear idea with a more ‘tangible' idea of time. He used the visual of a ribbon or road stretching from the past to the present and divided into sections of minutes, hours, days, years, etc…

Two ideas I really liked from this article were: 1 - “Time in the Western world is also seen as a form of currency or commodity, which can be 'spent', 'wasted', 'saved' or 'given'. It can be 'free', 'spare', 'extra' or 'overtime'.” And idea #2: "Many people live largely outside clock time, especially the young, elderly, unemployed, disabled, depressed or chronically ill. Clock time is also less important at times of leisure, sex, ritual or religious fervour, and there are often differences between the speeded-up time of the city and the slower time of the country side" (sorry not APA formatted, but you get the idea and here's the Article link). I deal with my time that way: was it wasted, free, or spare? The tow truck driver "wasted my time today." But why do I see time that way? When I have sat with friends who have been sick or had someone close die, time is not counted, not pressured, it just exists. When you are first dating or "in-love," conversations go on for hours and hours with no concept that much time has gone by at all. The nature of time differs with the realities of our individual experiences.

Another important definition was 'polychromic' time; this time idea is less linear and less tangible then the 'monochronic' time. Polychronic time is experienced as a 'point' at which relationships, events, or social interactions converge. Flexible and fluid, not necessarily a road or a ribbon, but you can come back to things, pick up tasks where you left off, etc... But there is a greater focus on the people involved, the conversations, transactions, or "waiting for the right time," versus the strict pre-set schedules or clock time. People I have known like this, I have liked, but also been annoyed with. I wish I was more like this; I enjoy both ideas, but tend to think in more of 'monochronic' terms.

My last thought on 'time,' is that it is also a burden; self-imposed, culturally imposed, imposed by other’s expectations. I for one hate sitting in traffic when you have to be somewhere, trying to get from point A, to point B. As a student, I always hated the stress that came with finals week and would just want to escape it (pull the all-nighters/get it done as quickly as possible). Yet, during this last year, I have been diligently job searching, but so far it has taken 8 months and still no light at the end of the tunnel (which is equivalent to lots of time on my hands). During this "time," I have not got involved in different things I have wanted to do (church, volunteer work, etc...), because I assumed I would be getting a job just around the corner. I feel that this last year has almost been wasted by my "Parenthetical living" as one of my professors used to say. We live in these parenthesis, where we say, when I graduate, I will... when I get married, I will..., and in my case, when I get a job, I will.... We are always looking to the next step, we forget about the present and miss out on the opportunities and what God has in store for us in the now, in the present. I like to say that during these waiting times when it feels like there is no movement, that is where the "real work" gets done.

The visual of a large oak tree comes to mind. If the roots are not growing deep in the calm, then when the storm hits/winds come, it will blow over. When we don't think we are growing, sometimes its just below the surface. So that is my encouragement to you however you define time. Whether you are burdened by it, or just plain want to escape it's constraints; look for the here-and-now, slow down, and look at the beauty around you, and the work that is getting done.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace."

SeaWorld & Sisters

At the end of July we went to SeaWorld! We had some much needed sister-time (including Kate, our "adopted" sister :). We went to some of the shows, touched dolphins, and sweated out the hot San Diego summer day together. My little girl dreams of wanting to be a whale or dolphin trainer always seem to faintly re-visit my memory and whisper in my ear, what if that was you down there! I am reminded of the beauty, and power of God's creation.

"Shamu" Show

Huge Walrus!

Dolphin Encounter - we got to touch so many!

Being Silly...

Shark Tank - The exit sign reflection kept showing up on the sharks lol

Beluga Whales

Kelsey and Hillary in a "polar bear den!"

One of my favorite parts of SeaWorld is the Orca Observation tank - you can sit and watch them swim, interact, etc... this one was swimming upside down!

The black blob behind us is actually a killer whale - hard to tell huh?

Group Shot!

Gorgeous San Diego sunset...

Can't wait to go back!

Reflection on Images and Suffering

Recently my part-time job has been all about creating PowerPoints. As I search for images to spark emotion, capture attention, and speak louder then words or text, I come across random pictures. For example, a search for trauma brings up blood and gore, first responders, cartoon sketches, popular T.V. shows, and images of people mourning. A search for disasters can bring up wrestlers, tornados, or even horses - really random. As certain images I searched through sparked emotion in me, I wanted a platform to journal about them, ask deep questions and contemplate beauty, life, people, etc... and thus another reason to start blogging :) The following picture is one that fits the description. Stop and think about this image. Look at the lines, the shadows, the artistic capture of a moment in time. What does it make you feel?

As I think about our world, so numb, so hard hearted to the things we see in the media, the T.V. shows that we watch, the news we hear: Death, sex, communication, relationships, heroism all are dictated to us, desensitizing us to the realities of real suffering. This image for me calls to my heart the suffering our world is facing even today with news in Somalia, riots in London, or the Norway massacre to name a few. We take in so much suffering that we hear in the news, that our response becomes "thats so sad," and then turn and continue on with our day. When will the suffering stop? What can we do? When will people realize the suffering that we inflict on each other (pain, systemic racial inequalities, financial injustice)? I just finished reading a book set in WorldWar II, and was reminded of the atrocities that happened with the Holocaust. And this is why the picture above stood out to me: Was she a young Jewish girl that just lost her mother? What image did she see that caused the pain her eyes? In a world of terror, her beauty and plight were captured for a moment. Hopelessness surrounds me, surrounds us in this fallen world. For me my only hope for relieved suffering is that we hope in something greater, something not on this side of heaven. Romans 12:12 "Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer." Lord Jesus help me to be sensitive to the suffering around me, to seek justice and goodness, to trust in you and your plan when I do not understand.

Karma?

Last night we went on a double date with some friends of ours (yeah, we got out of the house :) thanks Tim and Meredith! We ended up going to the Karma Cafe -Mediterranean food and hookah lounge. It was fun to get out of our rut and try something new. The food was great, the wait was long, and the belly dancing was awkward. But with good conversation and fun "ambiance," it turned out to be a good night. As the evening came to an end, our waitress surprised us with some "hidden fees." We ended up spending $7 on water - Ken said he should of get a beer at that rate :) and they did not take credit cards. Have you ever been struck by that fear that you can not pay your bill? You imagine yourself washing dishes in the back or making a run for it? Well that momentarily fluttered by... was it the "karma" from not enjoying our hookah smoking neighbors, or complaining about the price of water these days? We will never no... but there was an ATM near by and all worked out well.