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I don’t have any kids but I have dogs - 2 BIG dogs…and they both sort of have “issues.” Bubby is really sweet and well adjusted, but she was hit by a car two years ago and so she can only use her front 2 legs to walk. Bella is normal physically, but she was abused before we got her. She is also sweet as a peach, but she has fear aggression, so she barks (really loudly) at strangers and any guests we have at the house.

One day someone who has been around my dogs a little bit said to us, “Your dogs are disobedient.” I immediately took offense at this. “My dogs are not disobedient,” I thought to myself. Sure, they have issues, but if you realized how far they have come you would not say that about them. Bella was a shell when we first got her. She would not go on a leash, and she wouldn’t interact with anyone. Considering where she has come from, she is doing great. And Bubby is a miracle dog. She has overcome incredible odds and any disobedience is probably just the result of her frustration at the condition she has to live with.

This is the same way God looks at us. Satan is our accuser. He acts as an attorney pointing out our flaws, constantly accusing us and trying to get us in trouble for it. But to God we are family. He loves us like a good Dad. We are his kids. He sees where we have come from. He doesn’t judge us by comparing us to anyone else, and he doesn’t judge us unfairly. He’s rooting for us. He sees how far we have come. God loves you even more than you love yourself.

Zechariah 3:1-3
Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. The LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?” Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.” Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.”

Rev 12:10-11
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
“Now have come the salvation and the power
and the kingdom of our God,
and the authority of his Messiah.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters,
who accuses them before our God day and night,
has been hurled down.
They triumphed over him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
as to shrink from death.

Galatians 3: 26-29
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

1Cor 5:21
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

1 John 2:1
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

This is a story that I shared at my Tuesday night Bible study, and it was requested that I re-tell it two or three times, so I thought it might be a good one to write down.

John and I recently lost our kitty Figaro, who had been with us from the beginning of our relationship of over eleven years. He was very dear to us and we still ache over the loss. A few months after he passed, we decided to get another cat, both to keep Boo company, and to help soften the blow of the gaping hole left by Fig. No one could take his place, but if we could find a cat who would remind us of him, our hearts would be comforted.

We looked for online for weeks, and almost got a couple of kittens. Then John found a long-haired black and white cat and we decided to go have a look at her. It only took about 2 seconds for me to decide this was would be my cat. She purred and flirted and twirled around as soon as I started scratching her head. Done deal!

The very next day, as I carried her outside for a photo shoot, our 70 pound dog walked up to check her out. The cat wanted nothing to do with such an introduction. She bolted out of my arms and within seconds had disappeared into the woods. Instantly my heart sank to the floor. Animals get confused when they first move to a new place, and usually start heading “home” since they do not consider the new place to be home yet. They rarely come back. I felt like such a fool for taking her outside, and I knew I could never forgive myself. This was not acceptable. It felt like we were losing Fig all over again, and I just couldn’t take it. I gave up all hope of getting her back. I didn’t even want to look for her.

John had more faith, and while I was out doing errands, he kept looking and looking and went around to all the neighbors asking if they had seen her. He sat in the yard for hours waiting for her to come home. Later that night I went to my Bible study. We prayed for her, and feeling a little encouraged, I prayed on the way home. Let me re-phrase that. I prayed my GUTS out ALL the way home.

I basically had a heart-to-heart with God, reasoning with him and pleading with him. By the time I got home from my hour long commute, I had come to believe that God would bring her back, unless there was a really good reason not to. My faith took a 180, from knowing I WOULD NOT find her to knowing that I WOULD find her.

Those eyes. This cat has the most glowing eyes I have ever seen. That’s it! I would take a flashlight out and look around the yard until her eyes lit up. As soon as I got home, I raced out the door, flashlight, tuna and treats in hand, calling “Pwrrrttt, pwrrttt, here kitty, kitty, kitty” and believing every second that I would find her. It’s amazing how faith that something will happen changes your actions, and your whole attitude.

I searched the east side of yard first, then the front, down the creek and over to the woods. Then I went in the back, inside the fence, around the woods, and there she was. She let out a little, “Mew” when she saw me. “There you are sweetheart!,” I answered back.

But she ran from me.

What? You prefer the cold, dark, rainy woods, with no chance of eating, but a great chance of being eaten? You prefer that to the safety of my arms, where I will take you into a warm dry house, feed you good food and clean water, and give you all the attention you could ever want? If she only knew how much I loved her. She would have come running to me. But to her I was still a stranger.

She slipped through a hole in our 4 foot high cattle fence, and I had no choice but to climb over after her. She continued to walk away from me. I dropped to the ground and started praying and pleading with God to tell her it was ok to come to me. As I prayed, she started to come towards me, and after a couple of tries, I was able to grab her.

She was in my arms now, but we were not out of the woods yet, literally! I was now on the OUTSIDE of our fence, holding onto a cat for dear life, and would have to walk all the way around the outside of the fence, in the dark, braving slippery rocks, spider webs, and thorn bushes before getting back to safety. But failure was not an option! I would get this cat home, even if it meant breaking a limb or losing blood. I loved her so much, that any sacrifice required of me seemed completely trivial. I was overjoyed that I had found her and nothing could stop me from bringing her home.

We made it back into the house, and she is still with us to this day. We are thankful every day for this small but meaningful gift God has placed in our lives.

As I was carrying her home that night, I was reminded of what God and Jesus went through for us. We were strangers when he called us, sinners, running from him, because we didn’t understand that what he offered was safety and warmth. We ran from him, but he went after us anyway, and he willingly, joyfully sacrificed himself, because of his great love for us. I cannot comprehend why the creator of the universe would take the time to go looking for me, chase me in out of the rain, and bring me into his house, all because he delighted in me. But it makes a little more sense now that I have felt a small fraction of this type of love in my own heart.

Since I mentioned recycling, and since my laundry room (where I keep my recyclables) is about as clean as it’s going to get (for the picture), I decided to go ahead and write about it.

Recycling has cut our trash in half. Yes, that’s right – HALF. We have trash pick up once a week, but John only has to take it out once every other week now. This makes me feel ashamed at all the milk bottles, laundry soap containers, water bottles, glass peanut butter and mayonnaise jars, metal soup cans, and oodles and oodles of paper and cardboard that is now sitting in a landfill somewhere because for 23 years of my adult life (that’s not counting when I lived at home with my parents) I was too lazy to recycle it.

My first big attempt at recycling was a couple of years ago. I gave it up because it seemed to messy, but started it up again about six months ago. I now have two kitty litter containers on my dryer which hold paper, cardboard and metal and a laundry hamper full of plastics. They sort of clutter up my very tiny laundry / utility room, but it’s worth it.

Why I recycle:

– It’s fun. The good feeling factor is huge.

– Like my mother, I’m incapable of throwing away glass. It’s too pretty. And I don’t have the counter space to keep them all.

– You always have a spare jar or plastic jug on hand when you need one.

– It makes sense. Why throw away something that can easily be used again?

–It’s responsible. If I’m not mistaken it’s pretty standard in other countries. Maybe the U.S. is just too young to realize the eventual consequences of our laziness.

– I do not know how long it will be before God says “Enough!” and brings this world to an end. In case he waits awhile, I don’t want to leave my trash lying around for the next generation.

Not in the environmental sense…though I am also passionate about recycling. That’s another blog. Right now I’m talking veggies.

Due to some nagging health problems, I’ve decided to get my act together and start eating right again. I’m on the ETL (Eat to Live) board for good, and I’m going to really stick with it this time. Health problems = I have not been digesting my food properly for about 4 months (IBS symptoms), I recently had a week long headache and I’ve put on 20 pounds that are just sitting there like a spare tire around my gut. I hide it well, but tires belong on cars, not people.

I’m always amazed at how quickly my body reacts to good food. Maybe because I’ve fallen off the wagon and gotten back on so many times, I’m starting to recognize the process. I’m not scared by the detox which usually lasts a couple of days. Within a week, I’m already starting to feel like a new person. Yipeeeee!

Kudos to all the folks on the ETL board. If you happened to click on my blog and found your way here, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!! Thanks for being willing to try something different, swim upstream, be the odd man out. Thanks for all your wisdom, determination, ideas, encouraging comments and compassion. I cannot continue to do this without you. I am resolved to never again try to be tough and go it alone, in this or anything else in life. We were created to live in community and help each other. People criticize the internet because they think it is impersonal, but isn’t it interesting that with all the technological things we could build, humans choose to create things that send them right back to connecting with each other.

If you are curious about the Eat to Live diet, visit Dr. Fuhrman’s website at drfuhrman.com .

I’m not a movie critic, or a comic fan, so what do I know, but it just didn’t do much for me personally. My apologies to those who loved it. You can reprimand me later, and try to change my mind. Maybe I just didn’t “get it.” Please do explain. I would love to know what I’m missing.

Part of the problem was all the hype and bowing down, especially to Heath Ledger’s performance, which created way too much expectation in my mind. It was a decent movie, and certainly not on my all time worst list. But I think the accolades are more about giving a tribute to Ledger’s career rather than anything that this particular film deserves.

I would rather watch A Knight’s Tale any day of the week than sit through The Dark Knight again. It didn’t get good reviews, but it was a million times more rewarding to watch. So, nothing against Ledger. I just think it’s unfortunate that such a mediocre movie is the one by which he will be remembered. Or maybe it is fair. He did carry the movie. Without his performance, it would have been a complete disaster.

The main problem I had was that I felt like they were all trying too hard. The Joker was interesting for sure, and well acted, but I could feel him acting at times, and I found myself worrying about him messing up. That, to me, was more creepy and disturbing than the character itself.

Also, the movie was too bent on being dark and gloomy and depressing. It crammed ugly down your throat to the point where you started vomiting it up.

Would it kill you to add some contrast to the evil? Guess what? That would have made it more effective! A wonderful example of this is Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. Sure, it was dark and did a great job of portraying the horribleness of evil, but there were also some very tender and beautiful scenes to balance it out. The thing that made it a tragedy was knowing and experiencing what Anakin had to give up. Without that, who cares? Star Wars makes you care about the characters, and as a result, tells a good story and leaves you thinking about the depth of human emotions, how vulnerable we all are, and how close we sometimes come to the dark side.

After watching Knight, all I was thinking was, “Yay, it’s finally over.”

To be fair, Ledger’s joker had some depth, and I did feel for him. But why did ALL of the other characters need to be flat – even the star and his leading lady? Could he not hesitate for one second on the decision of who to save first? Could he not shed one tear to mourn her loss?

There were fun moments, from Ledger’s character, and I think I did actually laugh out loud one time. The butler and Morgan Freeman’s character also provided a touch of desperately needed comic relief. The rest was mostly drudgery. Oh yeah, and I liked the way Batman’s suit wasn’t perfect and how he didn’t know how to use it, adding some brief moments of humanity. I needed more of that to keep me interested.

Call me weird, but one of the things I enjoy most about Batman movies is seeing where Bruce Wayne lives. He’s like an uber-billionaire, right? So he can afford nice stuff, and it’s fun to look at. Not this time. So as not to disturb the oh-so-evil tone of the movie, even Batman’s living quarters were stark, cold and institutional looking. (Incidentally, my husband just reminded me that he was living in his penthouse and warehouse because his mansion burned down in the last movie. Still, he couldn’t afford a nice couch or some drapes?)

I’m a girl, ok? I enjoy high-tech, sci-fi and even war movies, but I also need some fluff. I need breaks. I’m not saying you turn it into a chick flick, just give me something to hope for. Rachel’s red dress at the party was nice. Then you took us straight back to grey.

But, like I said, I’m no movie critic. I just call it like I see it. Maybe I slept through the good parts. If I just trampled all over your favorite move, please tell me. I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts.

I used to never understand when people would say “Don’t do it in your own strength.” That used to really baffle me. I still don’t like the saying, because it’s a cliché and doesn’t really make sense when you say it as a one liner, but I’m starting to understand where they were coming from. The phrase needs a little explanation though.

OK, so I know I’m supposed to trust God and lean not on my own understanding. But does that mean I can’t use my own strength too? Does God want me to disengage my brain? That doesn’t make sense.

We were talking about this at home church last week, and my friend Kay had an illustration that helped me understand it a littler better.

She told us about a time when she went hiking in the mountains and was supplied with hiking boots especially designed to help you go down steep hills without falling on your face. The tendency when you are going downhill is to lean backwards to keep from falling, but with the boots, you suddenly have superhuman power to lean forward while walking downhill. That must be really cool. I’d like to try it sometime! The funny thing is, these silly folks still wanted to lean backwards. The instructor had to keep reminding them to “trust the boots,” and lean forward. See where I’m going with this?

Unless we are willing to lean hard into God, we are missing the whole point of his power in our lives. Of course we continue to use all of our own strength, meager as it is, but the direction of our lives depends on which way we lean.

Are you going to lean forward into the supernatural plans God has for your life, or are you too scared to take that risk of falling on your face?

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. “ (Proverbs 3:4-7)

“Commit your way to the Lord [roll and repose each care of your load on Him]; trust (lean on, rely on, and be confident) also in Him and He will bring it to pass.” (Psalm 37:5)

At the end of every great weekend is another Monday. At five minutes until the start of my two hour commute, this Monday morning was about to tick-tock me out the door.

We had been blessed with a rare visit with my niece, her husband, and their three young boys. Our property is a kid’s paradise, and they used it all, even down to the forgotten pool toys at the bottom of the bin. I had no idea you could have so much fun with batman goggles.

While the two older boys, Brandon and Conner, were busy devouring the outdoors, Zach, the two year old, stayed inside and kept the adults entertained.

As I savored the last few minutes before I had to leave, Zach looked up at me and decided I looked like someone fun to help with his blocks. This is what amazes me about kids. He had known me for less than twenty-four hours, yet he trusted me enough to build a house in my hands. There was something so precious about that moment.

My heart was heavy as I said goodbye and loaded myself into the car. Being with my nephews reminded of how much I would still like to have children, and I was also thinking about the new challenge that God had recently put in our path –  helping to plant a new church.

I should have know better than to turn on the radio. Music has a power that should not be taken lightly. It has a way of hooking itself around your heart. Meanwhile, the words take advantage of a captive audience. This particular morning, it was the familiar crooning of the Newsboys that reeled me in.

“Stay strong
You are not lost.
Come on and fix your eyes ahead.
There’s a new dawn to light our day.

Stay strong. You and I run
For the prize that lies ahead.
We’ve come too far to lose our way.”

God knew that I felt lost, and that I needed to stop worrying and trust Him to lead us safely into our next assignment. Zach had it figured out. Just look up at someone bigger and start putting your blocks in their hands.

“Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain.” (Psalm 127:1)

I absolutely love where we live. We own an acre of land which is surrounded by several more acres of woods. You can barely see our house from the road when the leaves are on the trees. We have a bubbling brook running through our front yard that was flowing even during the worst part of the drought last year. Our grass was green when our friends’ yards in the next town were brown and prickly. We have a pool, a pond, and two decks. It’s been beautiful with the spring colors on the dogwood, and the little pink azaleas. (This was written a few months ago.) On our drive home we see gorgeous mountain foothills, horses, happy Holstein cows and beautiful sunsets.

But there is this one little thing that might make some people turn up their noses at our lovely little farm – We live in a mobile home. I like to call it a manufactured home because it sounds better, and also because it’s more accurate. There is nothing “mobile” about our home. It is on a permanent foundation and has been here for 20 years.

Many people do not understand the difference between manufactured, mobile, modular and stick built houses. Hang onto your hat because you are about to learn. The difference is simply this – Modular and stick built homes are made according to both national and local codes, and both kinds appreciate in value. Manufactured is just another term for a mobile home, and these only need to follow national codes. Historically, they have had a tendency to depreciate in value.

Stick built homes are built from scratch on site, with sticks (a.k.a. two by fours), thus the name. This is the traditional type of home that most people look for. They tend to always appreciate in value and there is no stigma attached to them like there tends to be with other types.

Modulars do not deserve the bad rap they have gotten. From what I understand, they are made to the exact same quality and standards as a stick built. The only difference is that some of the parts, like the walls or the dormers, are put together in a factory, then transported to the site. They come in kits or models, thus the name “modular”, and because they are factory produced, in part, they are cheaper to build.

Mobile homes (a.k.a. manufactured) are built entirely in the factory, then put together, usually from two or three large pieces, on site. They are also called double-wides, single-wides or triple-wides, depending on how many pieces are used. These are the homes you see coming down the road on semi trucks, taking up both sides of a two lane highway. In the 80’s they started building these “trailors” to higher standards, put them on permanent foundations and started calling them manufactured homes.

The manufactured homes they are building these days are looking better and better. You would be hard pressed to tell the difference between some of the new ones and a regular old stick built. This is encouraging to me. I hope that one day they lose their bad reputation and begin to appreciate in value, as they should, when well cared for.

Before we purchased our manufactured home, I did a lot of research to figure out why they tend to depreciate. This puzzled me, and still does. I found that it boils down to two things. One, they are built with cheaper materials. For example, the sticks that hold the walls up are usually thinner. Two, they are harder to maintain because it is harder to find supplies. If you want to replace the tub in an older manufactured home, you can’t just run down to Lowe’s and pick one out. They don’t carry them in the correct size.

Still, I don’t think these are the real reasons they tend to depreciate. I think it is more of a complex social issue. Mobile homes have for years littered the countryside in “trailor parks”. Though I’ve seen some in Arizona which are amazingly lovely, these tend to be places that are not well kept, and this has led many to believe that all mobile homes are junky.

That they are harder to maintain is somewhat true, because it is harder to find parts that fit. But when you do find the parts, you can keep your home in good shape, which of course helps tremendously to keep the value up. We are fortunate to have a mobile home supply store nearby, so we can buy all the tubs and doors we need - made especially to fit our little hobbit hole home with it’s low ceilings and miniature bathing units.

People also tend to believe that mobile homes are tornado magnets and will crumble at the first puff of wind. I’m sorry, but if a tornado were flying overhead, I would not feel safe in any kind of home. On the contrary, these babies are designed to survive while trucking down the highway at 65 miles per hour. I read somewhere that there was a hurricane that hit a section of a town and while some of the stick built homes were flattened, the manufactured ones were still standing.

“Those who live in manufactured homes built and installed since 1994 are as well protected as their neighbors who live in site built homes constructed according to the Florida Building Code. They should be afforded comparable insurance coverage at comparably calculated premiums. Many older site built and manufactured homes can be strengthened in order to be safer and insurable.” http://www.myfloridainsurancereform.com/docs/relatedResources/Manufactured%20homes%20hurricane%20performance.pdf

 “In 1994, HUD amended the Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards to provide for greater protection for mobile/manufactured homes from wind damage. During the severe hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005, no mobile/manufactured home that was built after these new standards went into effect sustained any significant structural damage from the storms.” http://www.flhsmv.gov/mobilehome/MHConstructionandSafetyStandards.pdf

All this to say that even if you still think mobile homes are cheap, they can’t be that bad since that’s what God has chosen to live in. His temple is not built with wood or bricks or human hands. He has chosen instead to live in us, frail and weak as we are.

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” (1 Cor. 6:19)

I take comfort in this. As my wise friend Kay once said, “God did not put us on this earth to be home owners.” My goals are set much higher than brick and wood.

“Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling.” (2 Cor 5:1 -2)

John and I celebrated our 9 year anniversary in June. Every year he gets me the traditional gift. For example, the first year is paper, so he created a newsletter for our family with stories and pictures. Last year was pottery, so he took me to a place where you can create your own. I made a plate and he made a mug.

This year was willow. He usually doesn’t tell me, and I’m not allowed to ask or look it up. But he was stumped. He couldn’t think of anything, so he asked if it would be ok if we went to visit the largest willow tree in North Carolina. Yep. I’m a cheap date. That sounded fun. It was in the mountains, so I got to combine this with traipsing around looking at antique shops to see if I could find an appropriate gift for myself. I thought about getting a Blue Willow plate or one of those Willow figurines, but after looking at them I realized I already have enough decorations in my house. Pictures of us next to a huge willow tree sounded perfect.

The location was unimpressive for such a grand tree. It was next to a small school which I’m sure is a very nice school, but it was not much to look at – a bunch of gray single-wide trailers. Still, we got some nice pictures and created a memory. And the dogs got to come.

My sister Joyce has been talking about geocaching for awhile. I didn’t get all the hype, but this summer she took me with her. Our brother Harley went too. We were in Indiana for a reunion and she came prepared with her little yellow geocaching GPS and print outs of several “hunts.” I like how it gives you an excuse to go wandering around in the woods, off the trail. And you get to pick up trash!

In case you are not familiar with geocaching and are too lazy to google it – Geocaching is a fairly new sport where you use a GPS to find small containers that others have hidden in the woods and filled with little trinkets. Once you find the containers, you sign in, date it and if you want you can take a trinket and leave something for the next person. You will find things like key chains, buttons and magnets. It is also customary to bring a trash bag and gloves so you can pick up any trash that you find.

We had fun and got a little exercise and fresh air. It sure beats sitting around watching re-runs of the Brady Bunch.