Migration

Well, this is it.  I'm finally migrating over to another site that lets me do a little more of the kind of stuff I want to on my blog.  It has been really fun to start off here for my very first blog!  (Plus I like the theme here better, hehe).

The new site is the same blog name, actually.  You can find me now (as of January 2012) at http://hellolifeadventures.wordpress.com

I daresay, after this things might get even crazier… I might actually post consistently!!

Stability Ball: Day 4

Know what I've noticed today? My office is a whole lot more spacious when I'm not in there, because my blue ball usually gets rolled under my desk. Then I have more space for all kinds of things! Exercise, dancing, working on my floor... what a great idea.

Still haven't sat on the ball a whole lot today either. Absolute crazy last day of camp today with Susan's kids. They're pretty great... gonna actually miss them. But I'm not leaving just yet; turns out my ride got detained, which = a whole extra hour at work tonight to try and get stuf done--and to sit on my blue stability ball. We'll see how that goes!

Here she is under my desk:

Stability Ball: Day 3

From Thursday...

Not a ton to say today – gotta run – but I did notice a couple of things. First of all, this bouncy ball is pretty fun. Second of all, at the end of crazy yesterday I was feeling a little bit of pain in my lower back… I wondered if it was from sitting up ‘straight’ any time I was in my office, but then I remembered how I’d spent almost my entire afternoon: sitting in meetings. And you know what? Back-to-back meetings in regular chairs was weird! I even remember in my first meeting, a SharePoint training in the IT training classroom, turning to Kathy P and saying, “Man, sitting in a regular chair is kinda weird! I miss mine!” (Of course, I hadn’t realized till later that, oh, yes, Kathy had no idea I was sitting on a stability ball so this probably made no sense to her!)

Back-to-back meetings meant sitting for 2+ hours, and I think my attention span maxed out yesterday at an hour and 40 mins; I was already beginning to wilt in my seat, but by then I wanted to lay my head down on the table and slouch my guts out. To compensate when I got back to work, I sat in the Gathering Room on my leg to prop my body up, and then I did a lot of standing… no wonder my back was hurting!

She still looks great in the office though, doesn't she?! :)

Stability Ball: Day 2

Day 2, and I have to say this baby is pretty fun. I didn't have a lot of chances to sit down on it for most of the day, as Josh was gone and I became Susan's go-to helper for her summer camp. The kids had a lot of fun today on their Comet mission, and even though it rained we were able to launch paper rockets!

Stacey came by my office and couldn't resist asking about the ball. It turned into a discussion about ergonomics and how funky our desks/chairs are, but we all agreed that this would be an interesting experiment with the ball. I told them it was a lot of fun to bounce on, which is true... but between you and me, I am starting to feel it a little in my back, having to sit up so straight all the time! I wish I could sit on my leg and slouch like I do in my office chair! Still, with a little luck, I could be like Susan's son who learned how to bounce all around the house on a big stability ball, just by bumping up and down and pushing the ball from behind as he moved. Ha!

Stability Ball: Day 1

Office Adventures Today... and with all that has been shuffled up in the whirlwind (named "summer camps") that hit us, I have hardly had time to write!

So I found this article last night (actually via @LeslieWalks on twitter) that listed the 'top ___ ways to increase fitness at the office' or something like that. One of the items on the list was to trade out your office chair for a stability ball, at least for an hour or so a day... and I really liked that idea. So this afternoon I finally got up the gumption to email one of our handsome campus neighbors (the FRC Guys) to ask if I could borrow a stability ball from anywhere on campus. Josh K. said I could actually check one out from the FRC for the whole week if I wanted! In fact, he was familiar with the idea and said replacing my chair might be a good way to keep a body sitting up straight instead of slouching. Either that or he thinks I'm crazy. But who cares? :-)

Anyway, crazy or not, at 2:15 today I hopped over to the Rec Center and then carried this huge, blue ball back to my office. I must say, the room seems quite a bit more spacious without that ugly and sometimes painful chair. Plus, the stability ball adds a splash of color and is helpful when I need to "get the wiggles out". My back doesn't hurt yet or anything, so we shall see how this week goes...

And just so you can see how purdy it is, here's a little peek at my buddy for the week:

Dear Mame B. in Africa... I know you're 6 1/2, but...

How are you today? I am feeling tired and worn out today, because we had 81 children come to the place where I work! It was a lot of kids! But, I remembered a Bible verse today about strength and I wanted to share it with you as well:

Psalm 127:1-2 says, "Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who
build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in
vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to eat the bread of painful
labors; for He gives to His beloved even in his sleep."

This verse tells me that if God is not involved in an activity (like building a house, or guarding a city, or in my case working with children!), then we're just wasting our time and we'll get tired. But, if God IS in the activity (even if it's sleeping!), it will work out for our good! Romans 8:28 tells us that "All things work together for the good of those who love God"... so even though I'm tired right now, I can be happy because my hope is in God. I came to work today so that I could please God, so I know that He will work everything out for good.

I want you to remember that, too! I am praying for you today that you would find hope and strength from God and the fact that Jesus saved you from sin... and I pray that you can use that hope and strength to do things like school, work, etc. and make God very happy!!

Forgiving

Day 8: Our God is Forgiving

"If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O LORD, who could stand? 4But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared." - Psalm 130:3-4

Sometimes, in my busy, "good little church girl" life, the tendency to think I'm not that bad/not as bad as so-and-so can creep in. Selfishness infiltrates my thoughts, poisons my affections, and diverts my actions.

But here, the Psalmist opens with a clear picture of his unworthy predicament - 'If You kept track of sins, who would survive?!'

That verse alone gives us an awful lot to think about in the form of God's terrifyingly brilliant purety, justice, and holiness. That is at the start of the Gospel - God's holiness and our complete inability to be anything but 100% opposite that purity. But the Psalmist goes on, and really connects to what is at the very heart of the Gospel: the forgiveness of our vile sins. "O Israel," the Psalmist says in v. 7, "hope in the LORD, for with Him there is mercy and abundant redemption." And again, v. 4:

"But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared."

Yeah, we're all miserable enemies. But are we left there? Absolutely not! We're forgiven! God must be pretty big - and pretty powerful - if He can forgive all of us.

The way He accomplished it was the payment of His Son Jesus's perfect life for humanity's sinful ones. The reason? It says here, "That You may be feared."

It would seem that God doesn't forgive us because He loves us more than anything, but because it is the most loving thing He can do for us. Do you see the subtle shift there? It takes the focus from us. It means He loves us because it's in keeping with HIS character (see 1 John 4:8 - God IS love!)...

And this translates to our forgiveness of others as well. Sometimes we (okay, *I*) use our dislike of a person to justify our not forgiving them ("Ugh! Why should I forgive her? She's not even a nice person! She doesn't deserve it!" Etc...). But we see here, with God as our example (and Jesus, both in parables and in deed), that we are to forgive others not because they're swell, but in spite of it - we are to forgive because it's the most loving thing, because forgiving points to God and makes us revere Him. It makes God look good, it makes us more like Him, it mends relationships, it helps us move on, it identifies us with the Father, it forces us to be humble, and all this ultimately results in a "win" for us as we find our complete satisfaction in the only One who can satisfy completely!

"But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared."

Chew on that. Think on that. Imitate it.

That God may be feared.