iPod Nano

I am super excited to be the proud new owner of a latest gen. 16GB iPod nano.  In pink, of course.  Lest you think that I now own 5 iPods, here is the deal.  I have a big, old-school 60 GB iPod classic that houses all my music.  It is great to take on trips, and just to have one place that contains all my music.  But I rarely use this iPod - it's just too big to lug around.  I had an old iPod mini (also pink) that I received as a present when I graduated from college.  It's super outdated and I never use it anymore either, but I couldn't sell it because it was engraved on the back.  I have an iPod touch that I got for free when I purchased my MacBook Air.  Never really use this either, because I'm too lazy to keep it charged.  Since none of these is ideal for running, I have been using Cy's older-model iPod nano along with a Nike+ kit to track my running. 

All of that to say...I decided it was time to consolidate.  While in the Apple Store several times the week of Christmas having my broken laptop repaired (a whole different story), I had some time to browse and pretty much fell in love with the new iPod nanos.  They are small, sleek...and they are totally awesome!  They come with built-in FM radio and a built-in pedometer.  Perfect for running!

So in the end, I was able to get one...and at a discount!  Turns out Apple has a recycling program for old computers and iPods - if you bring an old iPod into the store to recycle, you can get 10% off the purchase of a new one.  So I traded in my old pink iPod mini and left with a brand new pink iPod nano.  I am putting the iPod touch up for sale (if anyone reading this is interested, let me know!).  And now that I have a Nano to use for running, Cy's Nano will most likely be sold too.  So really, I was helping us out by getting rid of several iPods, right?

Either way, I am really enjoying the new iPod!

A New Shelf and a Smiley Girl

I was strolling through Target a couple weeks ago and spotted this super cute stackable cube organizer. Gemma already had a plain white bookshelf in her room, but I just HAD to have this cute pink shelf for her room instead. We put it together yesterday and moved the white bookshelf upstairs (I'm always in need of more shelf space for books!). I LOVE the new shelf - it matches Gemma's room perfectly and it looks awesome!


Also, just wanted to post a recent picture of Gemma's sweet little smile. She is such a happy girl!

Being a Living Sacrifice

Romans 12:1 - “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

I read about sacrifice in My Utmost for His Highest several days ago, and I've been ruminating on different ideas about sacrifice ever since then. I decided to write up my conclusions to focus them better for myself. Since I was writing them up anyway, why not post them on the blog? These are just a few thoughts I had on sacrifice, a sort of combination of my paraphrasing of Oswald Chambers as well as a few insights I received from reading the about Abraham's intended sacrifice of Isaac in Genesis.

Sacrifice simply for the sake of sacrifice is pointless. God never demands that we sacrifice just to sacrifice. Our sacrifices need to have a purpose; they need to be useful to God. It took me a while to grasp fully what Chambers was getting at in this entry (and the above is my paraphrase of what he wrote), but I found myself thinking about Lent, and this really worked as a good illustration for me to understand this concept. Fasting or abstinence from something during Lent was designed to prepare the believer to focus more deeply on the death and resurrection of Christ, to clear out worldly distractions and leave only Christ. But it has become a meaningless ritual for a lot of people. A lot of people give something up at Lent simply because it's a custom. And a lot of people choose to give up something that they won't even really miss. Such a sacrifice is pointless. It is neither holy nor acceptable, and it is useless to God.

Being a living sacrifice means sacrificing our lives to God's purpose. Our talents, our skills, our assets, our plans. Being a living sacrifice means giving up these things not so that we can never use them again at all, but so that God can use them in a way different from the selfish way in which we would use them, so that He can use them to accomplish His divine purpose.

God requires unquestioning obedience from us. And this in itself is a type of sacrifice.

Genesis 22:9-12 - “When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

God told Abraham to sacrifice his son, the son he had waited for for so many long years. And Abraham was not only willing, he never even questioned God. To follow God with such unquestioning obedience, Abraham had to sacrifice all of his own personal thoughts, feelings, questions, and plans. And in spirit, he did sacrifice his own son, for the willingness and intention were there.

But then God stayed Abraham's hand, allowing Isaac to live. Because God had plans to work through Isaac to establish His people. He needed Isaac alive to complete His work, needed Isaac to be a living sacrifice.

A Prayer of Confession

This morning while cleaning out some stuff in my bedroom, I found this prayer of confession that I had clipped from a bulletin quite a while back. It's a very good prayer, so I typed it up so that I wouldn't lose it and I could have it on hand to refer to in the future. I wanted to share it here:

O my Savior, help me
I am slow to learn, prone to forget and weak to climb.
I am in the foothills when I should be on the heights.
I am pained by my graceless heart,
my prayerless days,
my poverty of love,
my sloth in the heavenly race,
my sullied conscience,
my wasted hours,
my unspent opportunities.
I am blind while the light shines around me:
take the scales from my eyes,
grind to dust my heart of unbelief.
Make it my highest joy to study you,
meditate on you,
gaze on you,
sit, like Mary, at your feet,
lean, like John, on your breast,
appeal, like Peter, to your love,
count, like Paul, all things as loss for Jesus' sake.
I believe, help my unbelief.

One More Great Read

I can't believe I forgot to put this one on my list: Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder. It's a YA sci-fi novel, and it's sooooo good. This is one of the few books this year that I plowed through cover to cover and couldn't put down. I'm even trying to get Cy to read it because I think he would like it too. Anyway...this definitely should have made my list - I highly recommend this book. There is a sequel, titled Outside In, coming out in the next few months. I can't wait - the ending of Inside Out was a real cliff-hanger!

Imperial Flagship

Over the weekend, I finally finished building the LEGO Pirates Imperial Flagship that I received for Christmas. It was a pretty epic undertaking, with over 1600 pieces.

The imperial flagship is ginormous. When I brought out my Brickbeard's Bounty pirate ship and placed it alongside the imperial flagship, it quickly became clear that the imperial flagship would destroy Brickbeard's Bounty in a battle. Instantly.

On the back of the imperial flagship, the top level comes off to reveal the galley and allows easy access to the cannons (which actually shoot).

Hidden away in the captain's cabin in the front of the ship is a super sweet pipe organ. It's very Davy Jones.

I really enjoyed building this giant awesome ship. Now LEGO just needs to make more pirate things because I've already built all of the ones they currently have.

8 Months Old!

Gemma is officially 8 months old today! She is doing great. It seems like her cute, sweet little personality develops more every day. We are really enjoying watching her grow and getting to meet this sweet little person who is developing.

She is almost crawling - not quite there yet. She gets up on all fours and teeters then falls back onto her tummy. She can actually crawl backwards - she is quite good at that, so hopefully she will get the hang of the forward movement soon. (I am dreading having to chase her around and keep her from getting into stuff, but I can tell that she wants to get moving so badly and I hate watching her get frustrated when she can't!)

She is getting so big too! Whenever I look at older pictures of her, I am amazed at how small she used to be. And, as usual...can't wait to see what the next month will bring!