Song du Jour for 11/30

"Silver Bells"
Number of times heard: 7.
Length of Shift: 8 hours.

"Duh" quote for today

From my psychology textbook, a gem for your Thursday lunchtime:

Research has noted the lack of a clear relationship between moral reasoning and moral behavior. People at postconventional levels of reasoning do not necessarily act more morally than those at lower levels...A certain level of cognitive development is necessary but not sufficent for a comparable level of moral development. Thus, other processes besides cognition must be at work.

Papalia, Diane, Sally Wendkos Olds, and Ruth Duskin Feldman. A Child's World: Infancy Through Adolescence. 10th ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2006.

They get so close! They've almost hit it! There is more involved in people's functioning and development that just cognition! But...here's the answer they give for the 'something more:'

Moral activity, [critics of Kohlberg's theory] say, is motivated not only by abstract considerations of justice, but also by such emotions as empathy, guilt, and distress and the internalization of prosocial norms...Some theorists today seek to synthesize the cognitive-developmental approach to moral development with the role of emotion and the insights of socialization theory.

Papalia, Diane, Sally Wendkos Olds, and Ruth Duskin Feldman. A Child's World: Infancy Through Adolescence. 10th ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2006.

Sheesh, people. How blind do you have to be to fail to see that there is more than just human processes involved in our development?

But now, this is what the Lord says--he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine...I have revealed and saved and proclaimed--I, and not some foreign god among you. "You are my witnesses," declared the Lord, "that I am God."

Isaiah 44:1,12

Song du Jour for 11/28

"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"
Length of Shift: 8 hours
Number of Times Song was Heard: 8

Song du Jour for 11/27

"Jingle Bells"
Length of Shift: 4 hours
Number of Times I Heard it: only 2

From an email I just wrote (only slightly edited)

We ought to live on a knife's blade at all times, remembering the shock and amazement of God's mercy to us--that such a one as I should be called a child of God, that such a one as I am no longer a slave but a son! Gasp! And yet I would never seek to be stripped-down in order to learn this lesson deeply. Life has enough suffering that we don't need to go looking for it.

My teacher and elder in Harrisburg, Gordon, used to say that the Gospel pierces the heart of every culture. That is true for any one of us at any time. When I feel a little hardhearted toward someone because I just don't get her, the Gospel tells me that I am to love her as I am loved. When I feel a little prideful toward someone because he's a little ditzy and twitlike, the Gospel teaches me that I am not to boast in anything at all but that I know God, because His foolishness is wiser than our wisdom.

So the Gospel is piercing you, my friend. Jesus was/is incarnate...thus the Advent that we celebrate. He became enfleshed, and ministered to people in their fleshes too. Remember the woman that bled for 12 years? The boy who was infested with Legion and spasmed all the time? The daughter of the centurion who died and was raised to life? Jesus ministered to us in flesh, and to deny relationships their fleshliness and to reduce people to less than what they are is wrong. The Gospel has taught you that, and has stripped you down.

BUT NOW the Gospel is also teaching you that Jesus is faithful and just, and will forgive us of all unrighteousness (and cleanse us). It's that same fleshliness that will heal you, my friend, as we who love you minister to you and become (as Dr. K says) pipelines of God's grace to you. It's never a desert when God's people are around, friend--the Gospel says God decides to love you and you are loved--by God and by us, your friends and your family.

quote for today, 11/26

The death of pride is the beginning of obedience.

WonderGirl

Song du Jour for 11/26

"Let it Snow"
Number of times played: 4.

Song du Jour for 11/23

"The Christmas Song"
Number of times heard: 7.

Thanksgiving 2007

This year's meal and fellowship came off really well! The menu was as follows:

Breast of Turkey
Stove Top Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Sweet Potato Brulee
Steamed Peas
Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
Baked Potato Soup (Appetizer)
Martinelli's Sparkling Cider
Riesling
Apple Cider
Chocolate Pecan Pie

There were just three of us, and we had enough food for at least 8. Typical Krista-cooking.

So, last night, Amy came up from Atlanta and she assisted me in Thanksgiving Eve food prep. We bustled around the kitchen, me cooking and her mostly cleaning up after me. That was nice, haha, for a change. Yay for a sous chef! I roasted the turkey breast last night, doing exactly what Joy of Cooking said: salt and pepper inside and out, then baste with melted butter. I am my mother's daughter, though, and also onion-powdered it. I baked it in the turkey roaster for 15 minutes a pound, tested the temperature with the meat thermometer, and it was at the right temp, so I set it aside and let it rest while I did other things. When I did carve it up, I put it into a dish, covered the meat with chicken stock, and threw it into the fridge.

Today we woke up in time for the parade, which Ian loved watching, and munched on Mom Work's Monkey Bread, and Ian wanted to make scones--lots of carbs for breakfast! I puttered some more for the turkey dinner, and had things going well--and an hour before dinner I started really, really working.

Everything came out well at the same time--dinner was at 2:05 and the potatoes were creamy, the peas were firm and yummy (not overcooked! yay), the turkey was moist, the Crescent Rolls were warm and tender...aaaah.

And a note about the Sweet Potato Brulee...I was trying to make Sweet Potato Casserole but without the marshmallows (marshmallows on sweet potatoes are a little creepy to me and non-yummy) and the butter-pecan-brown sugar crust was not cooking and I was out of time...so I turned on the broiler and let it go, checking it frequently to make sure it didn't burn. I took it out when it looked toasty, and by the time it got served on the table, the sugary top became caramelized like creme brulee--it was Sweet Potato Brulee and it was not on purpose! Yay!

Well, sisters and brothers-in-law and parents and friends...I missed you. But we had a nice day.

Song du Jour for 11/19

"Winter Wonderland"
Number of times played during today's shift: 5.

Song du Jour for 11/16

Welcome to a new feature of Work in Progress--the Song du Jour.

Since background music is a large feature of retail stores, and since it is the Holiday Shopping Season, we at the store partake of Holiday Music constantly. Often it is the same songs, carols, and hymns that are played so very, very often during the course of an 8-hour shift.

To manage the glut of familiar music remixed and overexposed to my mind, I choose one song each shift and keep a tally of the number of times I heard that song.

So--here we go!

Song du Jour: "Little Drummer Boy."
Number of times I heard it today: 11.

Word of the Day 11/15 -- Goin' out to Bob

Here's a word with French etymology. I could tell right away by the crazy Frenchy spelling.

flaneur \flah-NUR\, noun:
One who strolls about aimlessly; a lounger; a loafer.
Flaneur comes from French, from flâner, "to saunter; to stroll; to lounge
about."

Am I the only one obsessed with words, etymologies, and spelling? Anybody else love spelling bees?

Helping the Needy

Dr. Fikkert, a Covenant College professor and the head of the Chalmers Center for Economic and Community Development, says this about working with the poor:

But the most important thing is to reach out and love the people around you. Friends don't lecture one another or throw programs at one another. Friends join hands, laugh together, cry together, and learn together. In the process, both you and your newfound friend become more like the people God intended, and that is what economic development and spiritual transformation are all about.

Isn't this true about more than just "ministry to people with less money than me"? It's also true about anyone that's needy.

Say someone needs help moving. We are people who can lift and drive and unload boxes--or we know people who can help.

Say someone needs a place to come over for Thanksgiving. We are people who will have food and an extra place at the table--or we know someone who has room to spare.

Say someone needs a friend. We are people who have extra love to share. Right?

So do what Fikkert says -- don't throw a program at someone. Needy people can see through us when we have any sort of agenda. Instead, join hands, laugh together, cry together, and learn together. Be real, and be the hands and feet of Jesus.

---
Read Dr. Fikkert's whole article here.

Perfectionism/Legalism

Read this article about marriage and how marriages survive (or don't) in super-controlling/cultic church cultures.

---

It's easier to live in a world governed by rules and regulations. Then you know when you are pleasing God--and the pleasing of God is dependent on you and your performance.

It's easier to live in that world when we are so performance-oriented.

But that's not what grace is. Grace is what happens when our efforts, our moods, our feelings, our self-motivated self-salvation efforts are subordinated by the supremacy of Christ and his death and resurrection.

AND I am so good at reciting these definitions, but my life reveals that I don't live it. I'm no perfectionist (that much is made obvious, at least to me, because I'm married to a perfectionist), but I want my own status to be dependent on me just as much as the best of y'all perfectionists might!

---

I have a cheat sheet that lists The Four Pairs of Preferences from the Myers-Briggs Temperament Sorter. Here are some words that I feel describe me:

I want sociability, interaction, multiplicity of relationships, and external happenings.
I work from hunches; depend on inspiration; like fantasy, the fantastic, fiction, and imaginative.
I think based on values, extenuating circimstances, intimacy, humane choices, harmony, sympathy, and feelings.
I judge as I go and adapt as I go, let life happen, believe that something will turn up and that there's plenty of time, and I wait and see.

Most of the time I like these things about myself. But one thing you perfectionists don't get is that it's stressful, when deadlines and due dates come, to live loosey-goosey like this.

But there's still grace, even for a non-perfectionist like me. And I need the people who love me to keep reminding me of this--and that only by grace will I succeed.

Funny Tees

Here are funny t-shirts. Chuckle, now.

Mourning

I read somewhere that the holiday season has the highest incidences of suicide. While I am happy and cared for during this time, someone very near you may be suffering loneliness, depression, discouragement. Look for them, and pray for the Lord to open your eyes to them. Be comforting and comfortable. Pray for them.

RealSimple has an article about mourning the loss of your loved one. It's got a useful list for what to do when you need to mourn.

What To Do When You Need to Mourn:
1. Be true to your convictions. We all believed--and still do--that we never really lost Jay, that the love we shared with him could never be taken away. That was our conviction. We said it out loud and lived it every day.

2. Shift your attention to others whenever possible. My mother helped us live up to what we felt were Jay's high expectations by constantly reminding us that he wouldn't want the corners of our mouths to turn down. That was how she coped: by focusing on us.

3. Talk about the person you miss every chance you get. Stay close--not just now but from now on--to the other people who loved him or her. Remember the good times as well as the poignant moments. Celebrate the person's life and his or her role in your life.

4. Write to him or her. Or write about him or her. Writing helps you honor the person and honor your relationship. It gives you a change to say the things your always wanted to express what went unsaid. Now you have that chance again. Try it. Pick up a pen...and...get started. I promise that, as you write, you'll realize, as I did, that nothing is ever lost and that the love you shared will hold you together.

At a loss for words? Here are some things to think about before you begin.
I'll never forget the time we...
I wish I'd told you...
I really miss the way you...
You'll never believe this, but...
If you were still here, I imagine right now you'd be...
If you were still here, I imagine I might be...

Blanke, Gail. "Remembering a Lost Loved One." Real Simple November 2007.

Word of the Day, 11.9.07

Did you see it? Did you see it?

polyglot \POL-ee-glot\, adjective:
1. Containing or made up of several languages.
2. Writing, speaking, or versed in many languages.

noun:1. One who speaks several languages.

Polyglot derives from Greek polyglottos, from poly-, "many" + glotta, "tongue, language."

Aaah. I feel another wrinkle developing on my corpus collosum. I love words. I love words!

Spelling

I am a Spelling Master. (Like a Zen Master.)

But I have trouble spelling 'biscuit.'
And 'community.'
And, of all words, 'school.' Spelling this one correctly is especially difficult when I type.

I used to have trouble spelling 'parallel' until a friend turned me on to this mnemonic: there are two parallel L's in the middle of the word. Sweet!

Duh, thanks for the advice

Another enlightening quote from the textbook:

How do parents motivate children to achieve? Some use extrinsic (external) means -- giving money or treats for good grades or punishment for bad ones. Others encourage intrinsic (internal) motivation by praising ability and hard work. Intrinsic motivation seems more effective. In a study of 77 third and fourth graders, those who were interested in the work itself did better in school than those who mainly sought grades or parents' approval (Miserandino, 1996).

Papalia, Diane, Sally Wendkos Olds, and Ruth Duskin Feldman. A Child's World: Infancy Through Adolescence. 10th ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2006.

Don't get me wrong! I'm enjoying this class and the learning that I'm accomplishing. I just can't help but share the inanity with you all.

I Mean It! Procrastinate with Me!

Enlightening Reading from my Studies

I'm so glad this recommendation includes an exhaustive list.

Protective headgear also is vital for baseball and softball, football, roller skating, rollerblading, skateboarding, scooter riding, horseback riding, hockey, speed sledding, and tobogganing. For soccer, pretective goggles and mouthguards may help reduce head and facial injuries.

Papalia, Diane, Sally Wendkos Olds, and Ruth Duskin Feldman. A Child's World: Infancy Through Adolescence. 10th ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2006.

Yes, That's True, but it's Still Tough!

I, the LORD, sanctify you. --Exodus 31:13

I, the LORD, who sanctify you, am holy. --Leviticus 21:8

For when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst, they will sanctify my name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob and will stand in awe of the God of Israel. --Isaiah 29:23

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. --John 17:17

For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. --Romans 6:19

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. --Romans 6:22

And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." --1 Corinthians 1:30-31

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: --1 Thessalonians 4:3

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. --1 Thessalonians 5:23

God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. --2 Thessalonians 2:13

Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. --Hebrews 13:12

To those who are elect exiles...according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you. --1 Peter 1:1-2

(This post goes out to you if you are in the throes of sanctification.)

I Guess I'll Have to Crochet that Blanket I Promised Her

We met in kindergarten. We were classmates from kindergarten through college-senior-year (except for second grade when she was in Mrs. Nusbaum's class and a couple more years when her family moved to California).

We took part in each other's weddings.

Now, look at what she's got:



I'll have to crochet that baby blanket I promised her so many years ago.

Congratulations, Heather. I'm so very happy for you.

Insecurity

It's amazing to me that an otherwise capable and intelligent person who seems to be mature is so controlled by insecurity. (And I'm not talking about any of my friends. I'm not necessarily talking about anyone in particular! I'm just talking.) How is it that we can travel through our lives and be effective and powerful, yet become so terribly petty when that nasty demon, Insecurity, strikes?

Comments, please. What are you insecure about, and how does it control your life? Or are you freed from that nasty demon?