Not-so-extreme budget home makeover

After almost 20 months of living in my house on the hill, I finally purchased curtains for the living/dining room and bought a couple of paintings. Here's the before and 2 afters.






I've been shopping the end-of-season clearances like a hawk and got these dual roman shades for $27.99 per window. If you've ever shopped for roman shades, you will appreciate this deal!! Even though you can't see them here, there's a light sheer pulled down (didn't come out quite as I was hoping in the photo). The paintings showed up at Kohl's 40% off. Not normally enough to tempt me, but as a Kohl's charge owner I got an additional 30% off that price during the 5 days of the sale. Now THAT'S waiting for the opportune moment!!

String Ensemble

So, one of the things I'm doing to keep centered is playing violin. Since I'm not really wired for improv, I've not had much opportunity to play in church. Occassionally, I get my Irish fiddle book out and start learning that jig, but I inevitably lose momentum and my instrument again collects dust.

Since at one time I was a halfway decent violinist, I figured I can step into most any orchestra and play 2nd violin without too much practice. SAU has a little string ensemble that I played in before I started in the MSFL, so I decided to start there. Last night was the first rehearsal.

Wow. I haven't played classical in a group in several years. And it's been several months since I played my violin at all. I pulled out my instrument and EVERY string was slack, and literally tuned EVERY TIME WE STOPPED. I was horribly short of rosin. My bow hand had a distracting ache in one of the primary working ligaments and my fingering hand was all...um, thumbs! To top it off, I was placed with a 2nd who probably hasn't played violin for more than 2 years, and the music was well beyond her ability level.

Yet, with all those cards stacked against me I still had a good time. I hit more notes than I missed (barely). I remembered what a beautiful instrument I have. I heard great words that I never hear in my every day life like: legato and spiccato and accelerando! I played Mozart and Williams and Tchaikovsky and Copland. And I get to go back and do it all over again next week - with a little scale work and fine tuning and spiccato in between.

Bravissimo!

Fall splendor

I took a lunch hour in October to capture the splendor of fall's colors. I finally took about an hour to tweak the images. Here's the good ones. Or, at least the above average ones. Or - okay, the ones I like anyway.

Calaphon: Responsible stewardship or irresponsible consumerism?

So, Nathan and I ended up at Kohl's tonight because he managed to destroy both remaining pairs of jeans last weekend. After a flurry of picking and trying on and picking and trying on, we wandered down to the kitchen section.

Enter temptation in the form of a Calaphon 10-piece cookware set. Suddenly images of my mangled kettle and my flaking sauteé pan float through my mind. The set we received for Christmas last year did NOT wear well, and I was hoping to at least find replacements for at least these two pieces.

Yet, here is the kitchen set of my dreams - $50 off and with a free 4-quart dutch oven to boot. Glass top, anodized aluminum, indestructible non-stick, and on a really good sale.

I walked away, thinking about the poor people in the world. If I buy a $300 cookware set, that is money I cannot use for a much better purpose. I think I represent the rich young ruler who is too married to her wealth to enter the Kingdom. I think I'm a spoiled American consumer who only sees what she wants in front of her face.

On the other hand, if I have to spend $100 every two years on a cheap set, I'm really not being responsible with my resources at all. If I continue to cook with my broken pieces, I am putting nasty chemicals into my system. If I buy something quality now, I will probably spend less in the long run. The set I'm eyeing is not the most expensive one in the store, and really is on a killer sale. And I really DON'T have a pot for making soup since I crushed mine in the cider press (ha, good story!).

Nathan and I wandered around for several more minutes to let it simmer (pun intended), and we decided if the stuff lives up to its reputation and we don't have to buy another set for 20 years, it's good stewardship.

But I'm still not sure if it wasn't irresponsible consumerism. I guess only time will tell.

I'm back

After self-hosting our blogs for a long while and then going without for a long while because of hardware failure, I'm back to blogspot. This blog is part of my commitment to Mike Hauser to be true to my artistic self - so watch for creativity coming here soon!

I've moved!

Come visit me at http://christy.cottonwoodcreek.net for a new theme, new posts, and a new attitude.

The Blog in Spiritual Formation

Spirituality books have comprised a large percentage of my reading of late. Don't get me wrong, I've spent time in fantasy with Temple of the Winds, social commentary with What our Mother's Didn't Tell Us, and even travel with Ireland: an Island Revealed. But I have many more titles like In the Name of Jesus, God's Original Intent for the Church, Awakening to Prayer, and The Ignatian Workout in the stack. Recently Spiritual Formation has held increasing sway in my literary pursuits. There's something feels so right about spending the best of myself pursuing God.

My spirtuality librarian, Reed Sheard, (recommends books, talks with me about them, but is not not quite a mentor) gave me a copy of the lesson he presented to the FM Sunday School class. I read it just as the Ambien kicked in one night this week, which means I had to read it again yesterday. The lesson was an introduction to the Spiritual Disciplines (enter Richard Foster stage right) and then a focus on journaling. Which brings me (finally!!) to my point. Can a blog be a journal?

There are certainly ways a blog is a completely valid journal. It allows the blogger to confront life issues and wrestle with spiritual realities. It opens the blogger to the community of believers who can assist in the confronting and wrestling. It's a very "stream of consciousness" expression, allowing the blogger to participate in his or her immediate feelings in a cathartic way.

But there are ways a blog is not a valid journal. I still keep a separate journal. When I was pleading with God for guidance on how to deal with a frustrating situation at work, I would not even consider posting that personal dialog on a blog. (See? I talk around it even when not hitting it head on!) On some issues I will in dive head first (see the Sabbath Attempt #4). Some issues I will not touch online with a 10-foot pole. Maybe that's just me, maybe it's my fear of rejection, my fear of failure, or my introverted side coming out. But maybe it's my respect for myself, respect for the intimate nature of my relationship with God, and respect for all of you out there who don't want to know details that gory.

So I guess the answer is both yes and no. (Let's give a hand for the Kevin Fayborg "Why can't it be both?" theory!) The public nature of the blog as a journal is both the blog's strength and weakness. Will I journal on my blog? You bet. Will I journal on paper where only God and I know the contents? I think I'll do that too. The blog's place in Spiritual Formation lies in the context of community of believers. Nouwen and Ignatias didn't have blogs, but I think they would have approved the spiritual thinking and community they foster. And I believe the Lord God looks on us disciples with love and pride whether we seek the Divine on paper, online, in the classroom, or over coffee. Long live the blog!

So, community...what do you think?