Happy Easter Everyone!!

Incredible Literary Art

While I have never been very artistic or art savvy, all different kinds of art have always fascinated me at museums and art shows. I have often thought that art and literature go hand-in-hand. For what are books but documented creativity.

To support my hand-in-hand theory, I give you this:

There is an artist in California, Cheryl Sorg, who will take your thumbprint and about 50 book titles of your choice and create you an amazing, three foot high work of art that is completely specific to you! 

Such an amazing piece is not without a just as amazing price,  of course. Found it on Etsy for $400.

Some of her other incredible work:
    

Thanks to Vintage Books & Anchor Books for tipping me off about this!

Tables, Coins, And Animals, Oh My!

We visited Pittsgrove Baptist Church this week and heard an amazing sermon on John 2:13-25 This link will take you to those verses Courtesy of biblegateway.com. I know it was amazing because I filled up two pages of notes, front and back, and may have filled a third if I was a faster writer. 

Well, that and I didn't hear any snoring :)

So John 2 :13 tells us of a time near Passover when Jesus went to the temple and started yelling and driving out animals and overturning tables. 

If you're like me you think "Wow, that's great Jesus! Wa-Hoo! Don't let them turn your fathers temple into a marketplace. The nerve of them!"

The thing is, The temple probably didn't end up that way overnight. Nobody woke up one day and said "We can do this and this and this and we'll be rich and the temple will be big and awesome and that's what God wants" I mean, maybe they did, but it doesn't sound very realistic.

It was probably very gradual.

It makes more sense when you realize that at Passover everyone within a 15 mile radius was expected to come and bring a perfect lamb to sacrifice and to pay their temple tax. Well, what if someone didn't have a perfect lamb to bring. Maybe they could have a whole flock of perfect lambs there at the temple for people to buy. Now there is no personal responsibility for bringing an appropriate sacrifice. 

Now imagine that the Jewish leaders thought... Well, if they are going to provide these lambs, they should get a little extra money for the trouble. Then they decide that maybe they can find things wrong with people's lambs so that the people will have to pay extra for one of the 'pre-approved' ones sold there. 

Hello corruption. They got too wrapped up in the business of the temple and less dedicated to the business of worship. Now read that sentence over again and replace the word temple with church. That brings us to the present time and a very real problem in Christianity today. 

Question of the moment: If Jesus were to walk into your regular services what would his reaction be? Smiles and nodding or tables & coins everywhere?

Is there too much concern about how much money is being made? Has the business of keeping the building open and expanding it out-prioritized the reason it's there in the first place; the worship of God? 

I expect I've gone on long enough even though that's only halfway through the back of my first page of notes :) 

Thoughts?

Thanks to freebibleimages.org and Big Book Media for the use of their images

Just Another Day In Paradise- Easter Art

Spiritual Sunday- With Tissues

Concerning The Power Of Thoughts

If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until it gets so ugly you can hardly bear to look at it. A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely. ~Roald Dahl

One of the new things people began to find out in the last century was that thoughts--just mere thoughts--are as powerful as electric batteries--as good for one as sunlight is, or as bad for one as poison. ~Frances Hodgson Burnett

The mind is its own place, and in it self
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. ~John Milton

The dew seemed to sparkle more brightly on the green leaves; the air to rustle among them with a sweeter music; and the sky itself to look more blue and bright. Such is the influence which the condition of our own thoughts, exercise, even over the appearance of external objects. ~Charles Dickens

Just Another Day In Paradise- With A Newly Mulched Playground

Death By Audio

I want to share a dream of mine:

I have always wished for a book that will read itself to me when I am doing something I can't do while I'm reading. You know, dishes, diapers, driving, showering, etc... But the thought of a simple audio book never appealed to me. We have borrowed some kids ones from the library when we were going on trips and they were bearable

Not enjoyable though.

Audio books seem to have the same missing element that movies based on books have. I know it's going to sound odd when I say this, but the missing element is me.

I usually prefer the image of characters that I come up with better then the way Hollywood actors portray them. I give my own emphasis to what characters say and how they act. I love the way I picture the scenes playing out.

I recently tried my first adult audio book from Audible.com, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, and sadly, I have not even been able to finish it. I really think that it would be enjoyable to read, but listening to it is like listening to a movie without being able to see the pictures. The voices of the readers seem to squish the imagination. 

I am told that the new kindle has the ability to go back and forth from reading to listening IF you buy both the ebook and the audio book.

Raise your hands if you have so much money that you can buy all of your books twice.

Anyone?

Anyone?

Me either... Nor do I own the new Kindle.

What are your thoughts on audio vs. paper or ebook? 

Spiritual Sunday- Naturally

Every Natural Fact Is A Symbol Of Some Spiritual Fact 
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Just Another Day In Paradise- & Happy About It!

FAIL

I received this book one hour ago and I already know I have failed, not only in feeding myself, but also my child (and this just in: all the other kids that spend any time here!) healthy foods. 

I thought I was doing good, but no. We are now all at risk for being fat, having cancer and cardiovascular disease, and we are depleted of micro-nutrients. 

We are also full of pesticides.

And that's all just from Aisle 1: Dairy

I guess it's a 'glass is half empty' kind of day

Spiritual Sunday- Thoughts

The Demon Child Story Is True?!?!

Growing up my mom would occasionally tell me a story about when I was about three years old and we were at the shore. She gave me some kind of fruit loops or something similar for breakfast and she swears that I literally grew horns and turned an evil shade of red. She claims that she had to chase me down the street and when she spanked me (for the first time ever) I laughed in her face.

I would always look properly horrified and pretend to believe her, but I seriously thought she should be ashamed of exaggerating like that.

Until it happened to Gwen

 

I didn't even know my child had that kind of nasty in her!! It all started very innocently. I thought I would try to make something new for lunch called a Polka Dot Sandwich. Polka Dot sandwiches are strawberry cream cheese on bread with slices of banana and raisins.

Like this

Well, it just so happens that strawberry cream cheese contains red food coloring. A few hours after lunch she back-talked me, an hour later she was nasty to one of the kids, and by bedtime it was all I could do not to beat her with a wooden spoon. The next day was pretty bad too and the day after that wasn't perfect.

As you can guess, I am pretty ashamed that I never believed my mom.

The thing is, I've always tried to feed Gwen a lot of all natural and organic foods. Not saying I'm perfect about it, but she had never had that amount of chemical food coloring all at once.

Several times since then we have had near misses with Kool-Aid, cake icing, and go-gurt. The thing is, I have had quite a few people look at me like I have grown a third eye and turned purple... reminds me of the look I used to give my mom.

So I'm wondering if a lot of people are as ignorant of the effects of food coloring as I was. According to this article on the Happy Mothering website chemical dyes in food have increased by 500% in the past 50 years!

This article on the CNN website reports about a link between dyes and increased hyperactivity.

I also have stumbled across this book. Rich Food Poor Food is a guide to making healthier choices at the grocery store. It teaches us what to look for and what ingredients should be sending up red flags. I'll be able to tell you more when my copy arrives in a couple of weeks.

If these dyes have this much effect on how we (and especially our children!) think and act...

WHY DON'T WE ALL KNOW MORE ABOUT IT??