how dramatic

i made the decision the other day to pick up my inductive study bible and go through it front to back. i have been needing a more in-depth, inductive study of the Word and this particular bible was designed to offer that. as i was reading in exodus this morning, those israelites cracked me up. case in point:

exodus 14:11-12 (this was after moses lead the people out of egypt so that they could go worship God, the celebration of Succoth; but before the red sea event. pharaoh took his army and went to find the israelites to take them back into captivity. the israelites saw the pharaohs army coming toward them, and this was their response)"they said to moses, 'was it because there were no graves in egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? what have you done to us bringing us out of egypt?didn't we say to you in egypt 'leave us alone, let us serve the egyptians?' it would have been better for us to serve the egyptians than to die in the desert!'"

OKAY smarty-pants israelites "were there no more graves in egypt" come on!! get over yourselves! what kind of a question is that anyway? they were sooo dramatic and sooo untrusting of the Lord. unfortunately this wasn't the first time or the last time that they would cop this attitude. can't say as though i don't either though. if i were to look through my prayer journals over the years there would be plenty of pleadings, questionings and snotty comments to God that quite closely resemble the israelites.

guess i have no ground to judge, but they were still way too melodramatic

no paper left behind

just because i left my green blog does not mean i am now a planet hater : ) i fully intend on posting green tips here on my new blog so that we can continue to exchange ideas on eco-friendly topics.

last night i was watching 'wasted' on planet green channel. if you haven't watched this program before i really recommend it. your eyes will be opened to the practical ways you can change your lifestyle and home to be mindful of your waste. one of the struggles that the subject family had was that they consumed almost 1 ton of paper per year in the form of catalogs. CATALOGS!! this made me think about the normal family and how much paper they must consume just with bills, newspapers, junk mail, etc. here are some tips i thought of (some of them i have already been doing out of convenience) and wanted to share:

• have your bank statements and credit card statements emailed to you


• get your bills emailed to you instead of paper copies ( i do this with my cell phone,cable, and N does it for our electric bill)


• sign up for e-coupons instead of getting a newspaper. also, this way you are only printing the ones you will need/use.


• get email alerts for sales at your fave stores instead of getting catalogs and postcards in the mail

there are other paper items that we love and really would be inconvenient to get rid of or do electronically. for these things, use your recycle bin and/or creativity. the age-old usage for newspaper: potty pads for the puppy or bird, wrap a gift with the comics, make paper airplanes or pirate hats to occupy your kiddos. one of my friends is a kindergarten teacher and she loves magazines so that she can do 'scavenger hunts' with the kids on rainy days when recess is not an option - do you know a teacher that you could donate your left over magazines to? also, for the sensitive items that you do continue to get by mail (credit card offers), shred them and put them in your compost pile. they will decompose and there will be no paper trail! : )

lessons learned from hollywood

last night my roomies, los animales,JVB and i watched 'vantage point'. the movie's subject is the attempted assassination of a US president who was speaking at an international peace summit in spain. the story is the assassination from the 'vantage point' of 6 different individuals.

webster's dictionary defines 'vantage point' as: a position or standpoint from which something is viewed or considered. this definition alludes to the 'point' being a physical or emotional place, not a principle as i once thought. throughout the film we witness the shooting as the different characters saw it with their eyes. we also see 23 minutes of their life before the shooting. i think this gives an interesting angle to the storytelling. what they were doing before the event shaped how they perceived it. it set up their vantage point.

we all have certain opinions of events, people, politics, religious principles, etc. these opinions shape emotions -hopefuly not the other way around!- and eventually become personally held truths (thank you psych 101) about 'the way things are' or 'ought to be'. there are some opinions that are wrong; those that go against blatant black and white scripture commandments for example, but there are others that are grey or have no 'color' because they are amoral. it is these opinions, feelings and thoughts that, if considered with grace, can offer great insight into other's lives. we can understand their childhood, relationships with family members; we can see who has encouraged them and who has torn them apart. bad choices. good choices. forgiveness and bitterness. all of these experiences color the glasses we see the world through - our emotional and physical vantage point.

God in His mercy has extended small ( very small - minuscule ) little drops of mercy to me to extend to others, as i am not a merciful person by nature. this mercy has allowed me to consider others' vantage points and understand how they are feeling/thinking. when we take the time to invest in another person we not only see the surface situation (the shooting, as it were) but also the background (the 23 minutes before the shooting) which can help us be a better friend and understand them in a new way.

deep principle from a 90 minute movie.

congratulations chris and cara!

today my two friends chris and cara were married at vancouver lake. the wedding was beautiful and perfectly captured their personalities and style. i was honored to be asked to make their wedding cake and it was so much fun! i was worried about the weather and how the heat/humidity would effect the frosting, but didn't have too much trouble.





i had fun with the flavors too. the bottom layer was chocolate ( which had been soaked with coffee ) with mocha filling, the middle was chocolate with cream cheese, the top of course was carrot with cream cheese. the two side cakes were vanilla with brown sugar filling and a lemon with blueberry/cream cheese cake. the mocha went FAST! :)
it was a great experience doing my first wedding cake, but i couldn't have done it without the help of my mom : ) thank you marmie!

blessing of peace

when i was a child we attended a few calvary chapel churches in california; if you are familiar with cc churches you are familiar with the symbol below


i have always had a special affinity for the symbol of the dove because of my upbringing and the frequency of it's appearance in my spiritual life. i accepted Christ as my savior at a calvary chapel church and as i said before, this icon was present there. my father's wedding ring has a dove on it. he also had a bible with the dove on the cover. the story of noah and the dove with the branch. at Christ's baptism we see the Holy Spirit descend from heaven in the form of a dove. more than the cross this symbol has been to me a promise of restoration, peace and fulfillment. the scripture promises us that when we surrender our lives to the Lord that we are filled with the Spirit. it is this Spirit that baptizes and seals us into God's kingdom and places us in His family forever. our gift of the great Counselor and constant peace. i know i am redeemed because of the indwelling of the Person the dove represents. i now choose to wear this icon around my neck as an outward testimony and reminder of the peace i have with my Creator.

sugar and flour, butter and eggs

some of you know that i make cakes 'on the side' as a quasi-hobby. last week my friend ronika asked if i would make a cake for her son's pirate themed birthday. i was so excited! i hadn't done a fun cake like that since my friend eric's spongebob squarepants birthday ( what other kind of birthday would you have if you were turning 21? : ). i also used this opportunity to get back in the groove of cakery as i will be doing my friends cara and chris' wedding cake later this week. upon request, here are pics of the pirate fun:


the volcano island was a mound of remnant cake, an inverted ice cream cone and fish tank flora :) i also had some silver and gold edible glitter that i sprinkled on the 'sand' to make it glisten
yep, i had to build that ship from a model kit. the first model i have ever built i think

great compassion

last night i went to dinner with my girlfriends sam and stacy. we were 'celebrating' and saying good bye to stacy as she is going back to south asia to work with a human rights agency there. stacy has long been an inspiration to me in her compassion she possesses for all people. i have a huge tendency to judge and think 'people brought this on themselves' and 'if they wanted out of their bad situation they could get out'. i know this isn't always an accurate assessment of people's life conditions, but it is just how my sinful attitude goes sometimes. stacy, on the other hand, has always defended the people she comes in contact with; trying to understand their situations and show them love rather than pass undue judgement. her heart is so big and the Lord has used her (and will continue to use her) to show me the hurting world around me. on the way home, me and sam were talking about places we would like to live or visit someday. sam loves africa and has a burden for the children there. i expressed that at one time i too had a burden for the people of that continent. she asked why i didn't anymore and it really caused me to think. i replied that i think it's rooted in fear. fear that if i went there and saw what conditions the people there live in that my heart would break and i'd never get over it. i feel like anything i ever did would never be enough and i could never solve the situation myself so i had better just stay out of it and 'save' my heart. 'what a backwards thought' i said. sam replied with ' you may not be able to change the lives of all the people, but you may be able to change the life of one person'. wow. this is something i have heard so many times, and have probably said it myself, but it really hit me just then. changing one life for the better is worth my broken heart. Jesus' body was beaten and bruised beyond recognition for my life. though He did it for all mankind, He would have done it just for me. no questions asked, no blaming me for getting my life screwed up, just heartbreaking compassion and an intense desire to see me restored.
i can't say that i am moving to uganda tomorrow to build an HIV clinic, or that i am going to move to india to save girls from prostitution or give every penny i make to humanitarian organizations; but i understand now what is expected of my heart and that if i am called to reach out to the hurting i have to do it without hesitation. my fear is not an excuse for another person not getting to experience God's great compassion.

ah, the fair

yesterday N, JVB and i went to the clark county fair. oh, how i love the fair. i don't like rides, and the prices are outrageous for food/drinks, but i love it anyway. if nothing else it provides boundless sociological wonderment.

our tall, dark, handsome (?) man
ready to rope and ride
awwwww....

we had a good time walking around to see all the animals and various artisan booths. we also took in an american classic...the dirt track road course. we commented on how this event probably did not exist in other cultures, and that only an american could appreciate the beauty of a run down piece of junk car going around an obstacle course and barely making out in one piece. i have included a video for your enjoyment.

elephant ears :$4.50, dairy maids milkshakes :$4.95, fair entrance :$9.00 = fair experience: PRICELESS

lingua non-conforma

i am reading a book called "the mother tongue: english and how it got that way" by bill bryson. i have been a fan of bill's since partially reading " a short history of nearly everything" a few years ago. this book caught my eye just as i was leaving borders the other day...empty handed i might add. i love learning about language, and especially since now i live with N who studied linguistics in college i hear a lot about the subject. it fascinates me how we can form thoughts, turn them into words that actually have value in our culture, say them, have them be understood ( most of the time ) by the listener and communicate a message. incredible. this book is about how english came to be and how it is such an amalgamation of german, celtic, gaelic, french and latin. history of language and people movement is covered starting at the beginning of time with 'cro-magnon man'. today i learned about how we have made up words as well as how we effectively destroy some of them with lazy speech patterns. here are some of the interesting things i have learned over the past few days in reading:
* shakespeare made up over 1,700 words...bump being one of them
* the city of paris' name is not french, it is celtic. (take that D :)
* english is the only language that needs/has a thesaurus. we have over 60k synonyms.
* in 1290, 'nice' meant foolish and stupid. in 1350 it meant wanton and lascivious. over the next 400 years it also meant extravagant, unmanly, modest, slight, shy, and dainty. in 1769 it finally made it to something of it's current meaning: pleasant and agreeable.
*in the language pekignese, the sound for 'yi' stands for 215 separate words.
you may thing it was an odd pick for leisurely reading, but i really recommend it. there is no heroine to fall in love with and no action packed pages, but it's so very interesting that i can hardly put it down.
i'm off to read more now!

falling apart

i didn't go to church this morning, mainly because i didn't feel like going. i have been dealing with some issues lately that nag at my heart. i kind of took my time getting ready for the day and got on to the church website looking for who knows what. i decided to watch a video sermon ( since i wasn't going to church i had better 'redeem' myself, right? ) from living hope, and came across one that danny clinton had preached a while back. i love listening to danny so i decided to play it. i didn't really know what i was in for. the sermon touched on every point that is sour in my heart right now. bitterness. selfishness. pride. noise. these are not things i like to admit, but i figure we all deal with them at some point so why not own up to it? why am i so dead-set on ME? i love others, so why do i really only want to see my will accomplished? and now that i know and see these things, how is God going to make something good out of it? my answer will be different than yours, but i encourage you to watch the video and see for yourself what this message is all about. i guarantee this message is for everyone.
http://livinghopechurch.com/group/lhc/media_video/player/352

blueberry picking!

today D, N and i headed out to ridgefield to pick blueberries. a gal at work had told me there was a place that had u-pick berries for about $1 and that they were ripe for the picking. i couldn't resist! my friend sam and her toddlers little man and princessa came along too...princessa liked to eat the berries instead of put them in the bucket : ) i don't blame her though!

N took them directly from the branch : )

D picked the most of all of us at 9.5 pounds

princess and little man picking 'only the blue ones'

sam managed to pick as much as i did even though she had toddlers distracting her!

me out in the 'bush'

welcome!

as some of you know, i used to host a green blog on blogger. let's just say i got tired of it. not the blogging itself but the research i was doing to be able to post an intelligent article. this experience did allow me to realize that i love blogging and sharing my life with others. this is why i am now creating a personal blog. i will still post green tips on here so don't worry - cause i know you were going to worry : )
this blog will feature daily events in the kingmaulmeland residence, special outings, random thoughts about life, etc. when i was considering what my web address was going to be for this blog i thought of a few. one that stood out was: bloggingmakesmefeellikedoogiehowser. remember doogie? how he journaled on his computer every night before going to bed? that's how blogging makes me feel, but it's good. doogie had to process his thoughts regularly and so do i. here is my forum.