Archive for the ‘Photo / Video / Music’ Category

Wolf and I have a lot of funny conversations… It never ceases to amaze me how the Lord brought us together, across the country, in the midst of a culture that is so different from us!

It all started when he had worn down the heels on his favorite pair of cowboy boots, and also worn out the sole of his Redwing work boots.

I was shocked how hard it was to find a shoe-repair shop. Wasn’t there always one on every corner, one in every mall?

Wolf and I began to speculate on the decline of shoe repair as a symptom of the rise of consumerism and the disposable mentality. Can’t you just hear it now:

After all, if I’ve worn these flats for, say, a year, and they get to the point of needing new heels… They are hopelessly out of style, and I should just throw them away and buy myself a new pair! I deserve it, right?

We laughed when we asked our Facebook friends where to find a Shoe Repair shop, and someone said almost exactly that!

Needless to say, I did find one, and both pairs of boots were restored to their former glory. Both have years of use left in them, and would only have been replaced with identical (and costly!) new ones…

I got to thinking, later, that there are a lot of things around the house that we use longer than many people might. We don’t throw something away simply because it starts to look worn.

Some things can simply continue to be used until they wear out totally. Other things can be repurposed or converted, and then used until they wear out totally.

Here are a few diapers that we are still using, for instance, as they disintigrate…

Shortly after taking this photo, that top layer fell off entirely. As thin an scraggly as it was, I couldn’t think of a use for it, and it did get thrown out. But the diaper is still in use!

A friend made this diaper for me, and I had no idea it had a red layer underneath…

This diaper was a lovely, soft bamboo velour. Amazingly, once all the “fuzz” wears off it is a thin grid, and you can see the underlayers right through it!

This diaper was actually retired shortly after this photo was taken. After a certain number of layers wear away, and the elastic loses it’s spring, it just doesn’t do its job anymore.

The first step! The end of the elastic wore through the casing, and came loose.

This is a “diaper service quality” prefold. Heavy-duty. The top layer is disintigrating…

…and a close-up…

Yeah, that flat-in-patches fabric is terry cloth – the loops just plain wore off!

And I’ve already mentioned where worn-out socks go in our house!

It just doesn’t make sense to discard and replace things that have plenty of life left in them.

Whether we do it because of laziness, carelessness, pride and vanity, or some other reason… It’s neither “green,” nor good stewardship.

Here’s my darling princess, Jewel, age 5, climbing up the climbing wall at the Miami Children’s Museum.

She’s a brave climber, for sure.

But also, and more importantly here, it simply never occured to her to think that climbing a rock wall was something that you wouldn’t, couldn’t, or shouldn’t do in a dress.

Whyever would that stop you?

As proud mama watched from the shade…

Victory!

I want to say a huge Thank You to Interstate Batteries for helping share the Light with the world.

From their website:

Burdened with man’s inhumanity to man, Interstate Batteries Chairman Norm Miller created a commercial to promote God’s love. The commercial, which airs on Dish Network, shows the positive change in the lives of several people when touched by God’s love.

Interstate Chairman Norm Miller explains,

It just came in my heart and my mind that we need more of God’s love right now… the main purpose of the commercial is to inform people and remind people that God’s love is available for us and he wants to help us live a life where we love one another.

It makes me feel really glad that we have Interstat batteries for our RV! It’s a pleasure to support a company that’s wearing their faith on their sleeve.

If more people would be willing to stand up and be counted, we might all be able to look around and realize that we don’t have to quietly accept the negativity and persecution that is being dished out more and more these days…

…in an Awesome way!