I love Hobby Lobby. I actually got to go to a store today...just didn't stay long enough. Not only did I find what I went for, but other stuff too.
The really nice surprise there is clickin' along, wanting everything I see...and suddenly realizing it's "He Leadeth Me" playing on the store speakers. Wow! I had forgotten that Hobby Lobby is owned and operated by radical Christian folks who don't mind a bit being obvious about it. Hooray!
At Christmas time, they publish a full-page ad in major newspapers that is totally Christ-centered. It's not "season" centered, not "holiday" centered, certainly not "santa" centered...just Jesus, all the way. Awesome ad.
So, go support your local Hobby Lobby. It will do your soul good even if your wallet feels a little bit of pain!
1.14.2009
Rainbow Life
Our Rainbow Life
We don’t need rain at our house to be talking about all the pretty colors. Colors are the only hope to sorting out a certain thorny issue. It’s a year-round issue too because our room is always cold. I live with Frosty the Snowman, remember?
You see, I truly hate the fuzzy blanket anywhere near my face in bed. Can’t stand it. I have always carefully folded the sheet over the top and kept it there all through the night. When we were first married, it was so romantic to realize in the middle of the night that Floyd was carefully folding that sheet over the top because I liked it that way.
Like a lot of early-newlywed events and practices, this one faded in the glare of real life and pretty soon that fuzzy blanket was back in my face. Then we had the phase of me folding my side of the sheet over the top and him not. (Go try this…it doesn’t work. Both sides have to be doing the same thing.) Stress and tension:
He: “How ridiculous…why does she insist on this silly, insignificant thing?”
She: “If he really cares, why can’t he do this one little, bitty thing for me?”
So we blanket-stressed our way down the marriage road. Until the night we bought a comforter and the duvet cover for it. That one was green and it's my favorite! But then we realized the green one was really too warm for lots of nights and never OK in the summer. So we bought a medium-weight comforter...and a blue duvet cover for it. So it's green and blue. But in the summer, when the a/c only gets our room down to sixty, both of those are too warm.
What to do? Buy a cheap ordinary quilt and put it in yet another duvet cover...white. Well it's really more like creamy vanilla, but Floyd just doesn't function with many color names beyond red, yellow, and blue!
So, at any given bedtime there's a discussion: "What color is it tonight?" "I don't know but I was too hot/cold last night so we have to change." Oh, but I was too cold/hot last night." And on we go. Laughing, by the way. Somebody picks a color and we settle in for the night, both hoping the temp works out right!!
But purple is our very favorite color! No purple duvet, mind you. This is my purple pillow cases.
To understand this, you need to know that Floyd can't count all his pillows on his fingers AND toes. This man is always trying to find the perfect combo of pillows. All night. And when he stirs in the night, trying to fine tune the pillows, he grabs any pillow he feels in the dark, regardless of WHO might be using that pillow at the time.
Purple has solved that one! I got purple pillow cases for my modest two or three pillows. They're pretty and NONE of his pillows are purple!!
All this leads to the middle of one particular toss-and-turn night. I was stirred from sleep by the great pillow grabber...snatching one of my PURPLE pillows. Well, I can grab pillows too, so I took it right back. The Snatcher, feeling the stress in the air, innocently muttered, "How was I supposed to know that one was yours?"
(You should know I'm a little steamed at this point...thinking "just leave it alone, OK?")
But the answer that ended all the stress and solved the pillow war that night was, "Because it FEELS purple, that's why!!" Then we both cracked up laughing at 2:43 a.m., resorted all the pillows and went back to sleep.
Now why did you need to know this? Marriage brings an (apparently) endless string of opportunities to work together, cooperate, and just be nice. I give us a B+ for handling this one, but just a B+, even though it got funny.
In the best marriage handbook of all there are several tips:
Treat others like you would like to be treated.
Don't think about your own problems, but rather the problems of others.
Give up all your rights and be a servant. (And give up my purple pillows???)
Give thanks in the middle of everything. (No whining??)
Choose what the other guy wants over what you want. (But....but....!!)
When I remember what the Handbook has to say, problems are all solved better and love and peace reign. When I solve it "my way" (thinking only about what I want, when I want it, the way I want it) peace and love are often absent. I need those two, so maybe I'll work on following the directions!
We don’t need rain at our house to be talking about all the pretty colors. Colors are the only hope to sorting out a certain thorny issue. It’s a year-round issue too because our room is always cold. I live with Frosty the Snowman, remember?
You see, I truly hate the fuzzy blanket anywhere near my face in bed. Can’t stand it. I have always carefully folded the sheet over the top and kept it there all through the night. When we were first married, it was so romantic to realize in the middle of the night that Floyd was carefully folding that sheet over the top because I liked it that way.
Like a lot of early-newlywed events and practices, this one faded in the glare of real life and pretty soon that fuzzy blanket was back in my face. Then we had the phase of me folding my side of the sheet over the top and him not. (Go try this…it doesn’t work. Both sides have to be doing the same thing.) Stress and tension:
He: “How ridiculous…why does she insist on this silly, insignificant thing?”
She: “If he really cares, why can’t he do this one little, bitty thing for me?”
So we blanket-stressed our way down the marriage road. Until the night we bought a comforter and the duvet cover for it. That one was green and it's my favorite! But then we realized the green one was really too warm for lots of nights and never OK in the summer. So we bought a medium-weight comforter...and a blue duvet cover for it. So it's green and blue. But in the summer, when the a/c only gets our room down to sixty, both of those are too warm.
What to do? Buy a cheap ordinary quilt and put it in yet another duvet cover...white. Well it's really more like creamy vanilla, but Floyd just doesn't function with many color names beyond red, yellow, and blue!
So, at any given bedtime there's a discussion: "What color is it tonight?" "I don't know but I was too hot/cold last night so we have to change." Oh, but I was too cold/hot last night." And on we go. Laughing, by the way. Somebody picks a color and we settle in for the night, both hoping the temp works out right!!
But purple is our very favorite color! No purple duvet, mind you. This is my purple pillow cases.
To understand this, you need to know that Floyd can't count all his pillows on his fingers AND toes. This man is always trying to find the perfect combo of pillows. All night. And when he stirs in the night, trying to fine tune the pillows, he grabs any pillow he feels in the dark, regardless of WHO might be using that pillow at the time.
Purple has solved that one! I got purple pillow cases for my modest two or three pillows. They're pretty and NONE of his pillows are purple!!
All this leads to the middle of one particular toss-and-turn night. I was stirred from sleep by the great pillow grabber...snatching one of my PURPLE pillows. Well, I can grab pillows too, so I took it right back. The Snatcher, feeling the stress in the air, innocently muttered, "How was I supposed to know that one was yours?"
(You should know I'm a little steamed at this point...thinking "just leave it alone, OK?")
But the answer that ended all the stress and solved the pillow war that night was, "Because it FEELS purple, that's why!!" Then we both cracked up laughing at 2:43 a.m., resorted all the pillows and went back to sleep.
Now why did you need to know this? Marriage brings an (apparently) endless string of opportunities to work together, cooperate, and just be nice. I give us a B+ for handling this one, but just a B+, even though it got funny.
In the best marriage handbook of all there are several tips:
Treat others like you would like to be treated.
Don't think about your own problems, but rather the problems of others.
Give up all your rights and be a servant. (And give up my purple pillows???)
Give thanks in the middle of everything. (No whining??)
Choose what the other guy wants over what you want. (But....but....!!)
When I remember what the Handbook has to say, problems are all solved better and love and peace reign. When I solve it "my way" (thinking only about what I want, when I want it, the way I want it) peace and love are often absent. I need those two, so maybe I'll work on following the directions!
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