Parental Advisory

This blog post is to warn all parents what may happen to your child from allowing them to watch too much television. It is not a guarantee, but really, who wants their child to end up like this:



(Note: I am aware that this is only Monday; Matthew and I switched this week; you will be hearing from him on Wednesday!)

~Katie

Heading Home

In less than 3 hours I'll be heading home from 2 weeks of summer courses. Both classes were worth the time (though I didn't like being away from home for so long). I drank less than 15 glasses of chocolate milk, but that wasn't my fault (they didn't have any for almost 48 hours in the middle of the week).

Now I gotta get ready for Sunday!
- a sermon for lockport
- a ss lesson for hess rd.
- an evening service for hess rd.

And then I can start my papers for these classes!

Better Late than Never

I was going to post a pro/con list of being alone, since Matthew has been at Houghton these past two weeks, but at the risk of sounding sappy, I really couldn't come up with much of a list.

Pro- There haven't been any un-rinsed milk glasses sitting on the counter
Pro- Its been about 90 degrees in our apartment, and I get the whole bed to myself to spread out
Pro- No sports on the television!

Con- I miss Matthew.

I know that's three pros and only one con, but to me the con is MUCH worse.

Here's waiting for Friday!!

Ben Witherington

This week I am taking my second and final week-long summer course. This one is being taught by Dr. Ben Witherington on the subject of the Jesus of Film, Fantasy & Faith. But, more importantly, I need to set my goal for chocolate milk intake for the next five days (if you are new to this blog, you need only know that I love the chocolate milk at houghton college). But I need to drink in moderation.

So I am going to set my maximum at 20 glasses of chocolate milk.

Morning Prayer

I'm working on the idea of writing a 'morning prayer.' This will be a very brief prayer that I pray as soon as I wake up each day. I'm thinking something 3-5 lines that gets me off to the right start. Here's my working draft...

Father God. Thank you for the gift of today.
Help me to come further into your kingdom
Help me to come further out of the worlds' kingdoms
Change my heart today to change my life forever

Do any of you have a morning prayer you'd like to share?

Where I would be instead of here

I've continued to be sick from last week... so at the risk of using up too much brain power, I am going to give you a little list of my top 5 dream jobs. Mine, unlike Matthew's, are a little bit more realistic (I like to think so, anyways).

5) Dean of Students: This wasn't something I had thought about before, but a couple people have told me they thought I would be good at something like this... and it sounds pretty interesting for me.

4) Youth Worker: I do this somewhat on a part-time basis already, but I don't feel that I have enough time to do it the way I would like to and fully develop some things as I could if it was a full-time job. I wouldn't feel comfortable doing this though until I had gotten a little more formal training in some areas. I have always been a fan of higher education (which is also important for job #5).

3) Stay at Home Mom: This, of course, is only possible if you have children :-)

2) Owner & Manager of a Bed&Breakfast: Something like that has always interested me. I'm not sure why. I just know that if it was a feasible option, I would totally turn our barn and the surrounding property into a little get-a-way for people.

1) Author: I've always enjoyed writing stories, and I think I am quite good at it. I am a perfectionist, though, and I don't feel that anything I could produce right now would meet my personal standards because I don't have any time to dedicate to it. In a perfect world I might, but now I don't.

If I were independently wealthy and didn't have to work for money, I would definitely pursue numbers 4 through 1

Now, don't you feel closer to me for knowing all that?

~Katie

2 Weeks Notice

Today I'm giving my 2 weeks notice. The notice is for you to know that I will be at Houghton College for most of the next 2 weeks. I am taking back to back week-long intensive courses as part of my plan to become Master Pat (Instead of Pastor Matt) by 2011. This week my course is on the Christian Spiritual Life and next week my course is on the Jesus of Film, Fantasy & Faith.

But fear not! Regular (Whatever that means) blogging will continue.

Free Nuggets from class...

- Instead of asking 'where would you go if you died tonight, maybe we should ask what kind of person do you want to be in 50 years or, if God doesn't return from another 1000 years, what kind of world do you want him to find?

- Spirituality is in vogue, but probably b/c it is left vague

- Your spiritual formation system is perfectly designed to produce the results you are currently seeing

- In Evangelicalism, we're not only saved by grace... we're paralyzed by it. Grace is not opposed to effort, it's opposed to earning

- We try to separate 'Christian' and 'Disciple'... try to make Jesus 'Savior' w/o allowing Him to be 'Lord.' We are vampire Christians (just give us a little blood Jesus)

- In America, we've lost our home court advantage... but the truly great teams are the one's the learn to win on the road

10 Year Reunion

Tonight, I went to my 10 year reunion. In some ways it's hard to believe that I graduated from High School 10 years ago. In other ways, high school seems like lifetimes ago. Oddly enough, I talked to a few people more tonight than I did in 12 years of grade school. And that's not to say I talked to any of them for more than a few minutes. I was very quiet in school. And I was very quiet this evening at the reunion. Go figure that my profession involves tons of public speaking.

Speaking of public speaking, some people do indeed find it surprising that I'm comfortable speaking in public when they observe my quietness in more casual public settings. I don't think of speaking in the classic private/public dichotomy. It's more about order/disorder. I like to speak when I'm in charge. I'm quite content to let others speak (and frankly, am somewhat uncomfortable speaking) when I'm not in charge. Maybe that is a flaw in me. Katie says it's not (but she might just want me to end this post and go to bed).

Goodnight.

Sick Day :-(

I am spending today stuck at home. I hate being sick, so on top of just being miserable from feeling lousy, there is a whole new level of miserable because I can't do anything. Sometimes, I try to get stuff done anyways, because lets face it, there is never enough time to get all the stuff at home done. Byt afterwards, I feel worse,which makes me even more miserable (ugh!). Since my month-long illness a couple years ago, colds and the like hit me a lot harder than they used to, so I have been getting better about doing nothing when I'm sick so I can recover faster and get ack to business.

Hopefully I can get back to work tomorrow (finger's crossed!). Till then, since I'm stuck on the couch, I am working on cleaning off the 50 episodes of "how clean is your house" that are saved on the DVR as an early birthday present to Matthew (which is Saturday, bu the way- since he won't tell anyone till after its over!)

At the risk of no comments, I'll ask a question: what do you do when you're stuck at home sick?

~Katie

The A-Bomb as Plan-A

Unfortunately, this post is not directed at any 1 person, but at a broad mindset amongst evangelical Christians within my scope of observation. Many seem to support the use of violence to eliminate violence. Here are a couple of quotes I found in Shane Claiborne's "Jesus for President"

"We have the ability to take Hugo Chavez out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability." (Pat Robertson on the 700 Club in 2005).

"You've got to kill the terrorists before the killing stops. And I'm for the President to chase them all over the world. If it takes ten years, blow them all away in the name of the Lord." (Jerry Falwell)

These would not be surprising statements from people who have pledged undivided allegiance to the United States of America, but should they not be considered shocking in that they come from two men who have pledged undivided allegiance to Jesus Christ? And what is, perhaps, more shocking is the fact that so many evangelicals resonate with this mindset.

I think what we have here is the failure of our Evangelical imagination (among other failures). Yes, worldly nation will fight against worldly nation. No, it isn't surprising that Presidents will eliminate enemies with bombs and guns. But the Christian response to evil is different. We love our enemies. We're not war-mongers. We're not pacifists. We are called to the underground work of creating a world in which people don't become violent dictators or terrorists.

Granted, once a Hitler character emerges, the world will defend itself. I don't blame it! But Christians must come to realize that our calling is not to this last second defense, but to the first work of transforming cultures. Yes, this is more difficult. Yes, this requires great patience. Yes, future dictators and terrorists will slip through the cracks and emerge yet again. But we need to be at work at this anyway. Otherwise we are just playing whack-a-mole with the rest of the world.

3 Quick Reviews

I just finished the 3rd of 3 required texts for my upcoming course "The Christian Spiritual Life." The texts were Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard, Spiritual Theology by Simon Chan, and Shaped by the Word by Robert Mulholland.

I enjoyed all three books. I would recommend for all Christians to read chapter first two and last two chapters of Willard's book (this is where he is most passionate and expresses his overall theme best). Chan's book is most impressive in regards to Chan himself. He is one of the most well-read and well-rounded Christians I've ever read. It's hard to believe he has such a grasp on so many different contexts. I just finished Mullholland's book and found it very energizing. I have to admit that I come to the Scriptures most-often in search of information, not formation. His challenge is well received.

Now, even though Mulholland would be upset, I must soon turn to the 6 texts-books for my other summer course!

Show and tell

Today I am going to share with you my top 5 favorite websites. This list doesn’t include the obvious, like Yahoo Mail, Netflix and Facebook. Those need no explanation for their greatness. Also, The Matthew Never Knew (or, The Matthew ‘N’ Katie) is exempt, since I don’t want to show favoritism. And the posting went down.

5) MentalFloss.com: I have to confess that I haven’t had much time to cruise around this website, but it’s pretty interesting. Matthew and I get the bi-monthly magazine that they publish… it has lists and stories around random people places and things… sort of one of those “things you never knew that you didn’t know you wanted to” magazines. Plus, I owe mental floss for introducing me to my current #1 website!

4) Evanovich.com: I read… a lot. There was a time in my life (pre-Matthew) when I read approximately a book a day... and I’m not talking about a little 100 page book.. I mean 200 – 400 pages. Janet Evanovich is my favorite author because of her Stephanie Plum novels.. from “One for the Money” all the way to “Finger-lickin Fifteen” (which comes out on June 23!) These books make you laugh out loud while your reading them.. and.. I really can’t explain it just that if you like humor, mystery and a little bit of on-again, off-again romance, these books are for you!

3) Pogo.com: A couple co-workers got me hooked on this web site by leaving it on their computers. Every day I have to relieve another secretary for her lunch break by staying at her desk. A lot of times, I can’t do my work there because she has a different set up.. so I explored pogo.com, which is a game website. I’m hooked on electronic Sodoku and some game called Zuma which involved a stone frog getting rid of similar-colored balls. Again, I can’t explain it, but it’s fun.

2) Remax.com: I believe Matthew has previously mentioned that we like to look at houses for sale and floor plans. Remax has what I will scientifically refer to as a bubble map, so we can look at the map of our surrounding area and see all the houses for sale around us. It’s fun to look at pictures and locations and prices.

1) Cakewrecks.com: You might have heard of this site before, since Cakewrecks has won several bloggies for humor and food categories. This is the only site, along with my email, that I check EVERY DAY. The creator (Jen) has a sarcastic geekish humor that I enjoy, and the cakes are always funny!

So there you have it, folks! A Day in the internet life of
Katie Rose!

Also.. don't hate me for not having the links on here.... maybe if Matthew reads this he will add them in for you :-) Edit: Done