Blessed...

There is this chapter in the book of Proverbs, it speaks of a woman of noble character.  As a woman of God, it is what I desire to be and constantly fall short of, but tonight I can't help but think of one verse in particular...

"Her children arise and call her blessed..." 

This line is found in Proverbs 31:28 and tonight I feel blessed.  I am in the midst of a changing season. I have worked with Junior High and High School students for the last fourteen years in some capacity or another, mostly volunteer. However, I have been blessed to have spent the last two and a half years working full time in the 11th and 12th grade high school ministry at my church.  This has been a season of immense growth and joy for me but tonight this season ended.

inside jokes...

I don't know about you but I LOVE inside jokes.  I love the humor that usually is associated with them and the way people look at you like you must have just landed on the earth.  The interesting thing is that inside jokes are not always that funny, especially to those who were not originally there when the joke was birthed.  I mean have you ever had one of those amazing jokes that literally causes you to laugh every time that you think about it?  Then you try to explain it to someone and they stare at you as if you are mad...not angry mad but "Mad Hatter" mad?

My family has a bazillion inside jokes and I am sure that during any given conversation at least one is used.  For example, in my house we call the T.V. remote a "gamote" (pronounced "guh-mote").  This word's origin dates back over 20 years ago, when my son was around one year old and had some problems pronouncing words as do most little kids and we found he could not pronounce remote.  It's a simple story and one that I imagine most people don't find funny or endearing, but it is a word that reminds me of a story that always brings a smile to my face.

My daughter and I have a nightly routine which includes prayers, conversations, jokes, singing, etc.  Tonight I realized that it is chock-full of inside jokes.  Every night my daughter says something that sounds like "schlafe gut" which I believe translates to "sleep well" in German, which is the language she has been taking since she was in 7th grade.  However, when she first learned it, I couldn't remember how to say it and one night said something like "shlaf snaff" and it has some how stuck.  Every night she says "schlafe gut" and I respond with "shlaf snaff".  Then there is the one time that I was texting something to Lo and I went to type "Love Mama" but instead I typed  "Llama" which to me looks like it would be an amazing abbreviation for "Love Mama".  That is now how I tend to sign texts to Lo. Seriously, look at it and tell me you don't see it!

I guess I love inside jokes so much because for me it is more about the shared experience and the laughter associated with it and laughter brings me so much joy.  As I reread what I have written, I realize these are incredibly not funny, but alas they make me laugh just the same.

So what are some of your "inside jokes"?

Facebook, Tolerance & Dr. Pepper

I interrupt my previously scheduled post to bring you...

tol·er·ance [tol-er-uhns] noun

1.  a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc., differ from one's own; freedom from bigotry.
2. a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward opinions and practices that differ from one's own.
3. interest in and concern for ideas, opinions, practices, etc., foreign to one's own; a liberal, undogmatic viewpoint.
4. the act or capacity of enduring; endurance: My tolerance of noise is limited.

---

Wonderfully Complex

I have been told on numerous occasions that I appear to have my own vocabulary or to some extent my own language. I think we all do in some form or another.   It was during one of these conversations that I realized I use a lot of "Obscure Reference Statements" or that I simply allow my "Inner Jukebox" to play on random.  Let's start with the "Obscure Reference Statement".  My family and I have this strange habit of picking up sayings from TV and movies then applying them to everyday conversations.  Here is an example of what I mean by this:

The movie is "Men in Black". It is the scene where the alien space ship has just landed in Edgar, the farmer's front yard. While heading out to see what has just happened the farmer's wife, Beatrice, says "What the heck is it, Edgar?" but she says his name in a sort of slow drawn out slur that sounds more like "eh-ggurr".