Updates

By now it must be obvious that blogging isn’t at the top of my list of priorities. Part of the time I can’t figure out what would be worthwhile to write about on here, and part of the time I don’t feel (or just don’t have the time) like spending time on my computer and thus writing a blog post, and the other part of the time I figure if I’m going to take the time to write something it should be something more worthwhile than a blog post – which means it will take awhile to get finished. But yet when I do spend a little time on the internet and see other people’s faithfully updated blogs and all the comments they get, I wistfully remember that I have a blog too! Only mine’s neglected. Maybe I’ll be more disciplined and that will change, and maybe not. I’m not making any promises. 🙂 I think for today I will give a quick update on life and my latest ideas about writing.

Life: Has been crazy lately. We had quite the storm last week and are just barely getting back to normal from it. A limb fell on the crossbar of the telephone pole outside our house, knocking the main electrical wire onto the wire that connects to our house, sending 40,000 volts of electricity straight to our breakers. No wonder we heard explosions and popping noises and saw two electrical flashes near the ceiling in our house….both breakers in our house and shed were blackened and the wood behind the breaker in the shed was charred. God protected us greatly in many ways! Everyone who has seen the pictures has furrowed their brow and said “Oooo.” Our power was out for about 3 days and we lost a big chest freezer, a light bulb, a power strip (go figure) and also our dishwasher :/ (we’re looking at one on craigslist now) from the surge but everything else seems to be okay and our breakers are now updated and safer than what they were before, so that’s good. God has been protecting and providing for us (and will continue to provide) and we are very thankful for that! I could go on and on about this whole thing- it’s quite the story -but a brief recount is all that I have time for giving right now.

A big wonderful part of life this year has been the start of a new church right in town. We have had such blessings of fellowship and wonderful messages, I just wish every believer could have the same kind of blessing from church every week!

I’m starting a summer job next week, Lord willing! I’ll be working at a vegetable stand selling vegetables (most notably sweet corn later in the summer, yum yum!). I would appreciate prayer to 1) be a good testimony and 2) be disciplined and organized in going to bed and getting up on time so I can be  faithful in my devotions and on time for work. It will be quite an adjustment being gone from home for several hours a day and I hope I don’t miss out on too many fun things, but the money will certainly be nice and I’ll be glad to knock off some items on my list of needs (like glasses since mine snapped in half last month 😛 ).

Writing: It’s funny how life falls into a pattern, with a certain goals and priorities taking precedence over others, and then a hiccup (like a 20 minute storm and its aftermath) comes along and interrupts things and then you have to find a “new normal”. It might not be a huge life-changing event, but it kind of changes life all the same, although perhaps not as noticeably. Before last week I was trying to focus on being consistent in at least three things: piano, sewing, and writing. Those are areas that I would really like to see steady improvement and/or accomplishment in. I need to get back into working at that (I’m trying to sew for a while today!), but I’m also hoping to have writing be a higher priority and make some definite strides in it. I would love to get some things “out there” – a play submitted for publishing, stories finished and at least posted here in installments, tract ideas (my mom gives me loads) written up and sent in, a children’s missionary story transferred from my mind to paper -anything. I need to get better at finishing what I start. If I don’t even get finished with the first draft of something, I’ll never get any practice in the refining process. I’m also really hoping to get started in a writing course (maybe something from Writer’s Digest) in a few weeks. I’ve got the itch to learn – it only took a year for me to feel like doing school again. 😉 But there are so many interesting things to explore and learn about in this world and I want to keep stretching my brain.  Also, another thing I have been praying about a lot lately is what kind of writing to go in – I’m open to anything the Lord calls me to, but in addition to hundreds of other thoughts swirling around in my brain I keep thinking that it would be neat to tell people’s stories. I have always liked biographies/autobiographies and real-life stories- life is so much more surprising than fiction.

I think those are all my ramblings for now.  I will leave you with some pictures from the storm damage, since pictures make any blog post more interesting. 🙂

 Breaker box in the shed – the breaker switches and different wires on it were melted (sorry the pic is sideways)