MzEllen & Co.

What happens when huskies and a wild polar bear mix it up?  Not what you think...don’t worry, there’s no blood and it’s very cute.

I’m heading to Starbuck’s nearly every day this month.  You see, they’re giving away a free song (different song) every day on iTunes.  What this has done is expose me to artists that I would not have known or tried otherwise.

• Raul Midon
• Lisa Kelly “Now We Are Free” - I really like this one!
• Spanish Harlem Orchestra (the album is “Together We Swing”, the song is Sacalar Bailar- another good one!)
• Sonya Kitchell - the song, “I’m in Love With You”

And a few others.  The store I go to keeps the cards from the day before so I only have to stop every other day, but I’ve enjoyed this opportunity to try music that is new to me.

Also, Amazon.com has their new MP3 downloads store that gives away a different song every week and iTunes store has a new song every week for free (AND, if you want to there is also an iTunes Latino that gives away yet another song!)

I’m listening to a lot of music in Spanish, just to get in the habit of listening to that language (I struggle with languages…)

Other artists I have discovered through “people that bought this also bought…”

• Thalia (Latino)
• Mediaeval Baebes (from Loreena McKinnett) (Welsh Folk)
• Israel Kamakawiwo’ole (Hawaiian)

And from other people:

• Denez Prigent - OH MY GOODNESS!  Watch and listen on youtube.

No se porque te amo tanto, lo unico que se es que me gusta amarte.

Yes…I had to have patience. I thought I would have this up last night and it just didn’t work out…

Anyway! This week!

Sara at Stones of Remembrance reminds us that we can learn from Saul’s mistake to wait on the Lord and have patience in her post, Wait, My Soul, Upon the Lord.

Amanda (Following an Unknown Path) reflects on what it means to endure the wait.

Heather at Mumblings of A Mommy Monk looks at the cycle of life in the seasons, giving us hope to wait upon God in the darkness in “Wait Upon the Lord”.

And one more! Barbara from DownstownGirl studies how wisdom works patience…and how to get there in “Beauty of Patience.“

Ellen (MzEllen & Co. ) finally (sometimes) realizes that we most often get patience by being patient in Patience…

Indeed. My computer is running slow (not sure if it’s the router or the computer; I’m going to take it to an internet cafe later and see if it runs slowly there).

I’m late on the post, I’m late on the Carnival, I’m late on homework and studying. Go figure.

The beauty of patience is that God seems to give us lots of opportunities to practice! And when we fall with lack of patience, He seem to give us the perfect opportunity to repent!

My class has a young woman in a wheel chair (CP). I was trying to get her ready to swim (admittedly she was being lazy more so than incapable because I know what she’s capable of). After finally getting her suit on, she looked up at me and said, “Am I too much trouble for you?”…oh…melting heart…

I think that (as a rule), the more opportunities I have to be patient (read, the more trying life is), the better I get at patience.

(Another life lesson)

More and more professors are using the internet for classes - my Spanish professor posts grade, study guides and assignments on “blackboard”. In my other classes, when I take a test, I know that when I go into the class next week I’ll find out what my grade was. In Spanish, handed in an assignment on Thursday afternoon and here I am on Saturday morning, tapping my foot, ‘why isn’t my grade up yet!?!?!” In any other class, I’d be happily waiting until the next week. But the internet is instant and I’m impatiently waiting for my professor to be instant also.

Once I “got this”, it’s a lot easier to wait.

Patience is a fruit…waiting for fruit takes patience. If you try to force it (fruit) you end up with a mess. Think of the last time you bit into an apple that hadn’t had time to ripen.

This is sort of a catch-22. If you want patience, then you have to be patient. A long time ago I had a kid’s tape (it’s not even available on iTunes now). Rappin Rabbit’s Christian Habits.

“I have waited long enough…give me some of that patience stuff!”

god bless!

I WILL be posting Carnival this week (even though I’ve been mostly invisible on the web)…I’ll post it Friday night and my address in in a page on the sidebar…

It’s the “Beauty of Patience” - patience is both beautiful and a challenge…

I’m having a D&C on December 21 (that allows plenty of recovery time before work and school begins again).

I have a final exam on the 20th (stress time) and surgery on the 21st…fun.  My kids will help out and I’ll have additional support on the 23rd (school issues).

It should be pretty routine; two minor removals of stuff that shouldn’t be there, but isn’t life (or even health) threatening.  And we’ll go from there.

;-)

A foundation of an old barn

This is on South Manitou Island - they used what they had; in this case it was not stones, like you might expect.

Dr. Helen interviews Glenn Sacks (if you care about the bad rap that too many men get in today’s legal system…)

• Link to Dr. Helen’s blog
• Link to Glenn Sacks
• Link to the interview

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The “top 50″ dystopian movies of all time…

I think I may start from the bottom and work my way through…

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Mark Dever on complementarianism.

Of course there are issues more central to the gospel than gender issues.  However, there may be no way the authority of Scripture is being undermined more quickly or more thoroughly in our day than through the hermenuetics of egalitarian readings of the Bible.  And when the authority of Scripture is undermined, the gospel will not long be acknowledged.  Therefore, love for God, the gospel, and future generations, demands the careful presentation and pressing of the complementarian position.

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I don’t generally like war movies (a blast from the past), but this movie was striking. From the “other side”, regardless of which side was right or wrong, the scene when the beach was invaded made me think about what the soldiers must have felt.

Many of these men were drafted; they were not there by choice (thinking of the one who left behind his pregnant wife).

The futility that they must have felt when they saw the massive numbers of ships that were landing and the seemingly endless stream of troops on the beach.

The flip side is the Americans; landing, facing the machine guns in the caves. The need to face the mountain side, with spurts of gunfire.

As a Christian, I can imagine myself in the place of the Americans.

I know the outcome. Christ has already won the battle. There are other Christians all around me who are fighting the same battle that I am.

Like the fire from the caves, the flaming darts from the evil one are raining down. It is a battle - my temptations are not your temptations, yet there are no temptations that are not unknown.

I can feel like the Japanese; I can give in, I can cave. Or I can live to fight another day.

The soldier who the other thought was there to “tattle”, but was there because he was discharged from another service - I feel like that sometimes.

To me, this movie is less about war and more about humanity - the feelings of anger, futility, fear.

All of those are known to me.
This is a good movie; it made me think about humanity, about emotions, about fear and temptation. It is not about who was right and who was wrong. It’s about what the men went through to get to where it ended up.
4 out of 5 stars.

“A Greater Gift” -

A Greater Gift is a program of SERRV International, a nonprofit alternative trade and development organization. Our mission is to promote the social and economic progress of people in developing regions of the world by marketing their products in a just and direct manner.

I’m doing some of my Christmas shopping here…

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Okay…it’s been a slow week…

Here is some music…

Rodrigo y Gabriela - this is some of my favorite walking music…also to study by…and ride on an airplane…etc…

- The Bean…Chicago

(here we are with the bean)

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

It’s been a while since I’ve participated in the Carnival of Beauty…but I’m here.

This is taken outside of our public library.