A quote too long for Twitter...and potentially too "out there" for facebook. So here it is.

I have been reading this book and loving it. I can see how it would certainly ruffle some feathers, but that is only if you are in love with being a white, consumeristic, western, capitalistic, self-loving Christian*. And even so, perhaps you should carefully consider this book.

Anyway, I liked this quote (which is mostly a quote from someone else).

"...the image of God means that 'we could search the world over, but we could not find a man so low, so degraded, or so far below the social, economic, and moral norms that we have established for ourselves that he had not ben created in the image of God.'" (page 82....the internal quote is quoting Thomas Maston, The Bible and Race)

In our eyes the person who is the lowest of the low, the scum of the earth....has still been created in the image of God. We need to remember this. I need to remember this.





*I'm not trying to imply that any one person who reads this blog fits this description exactly. Although I'm sure that most readers could identify with at least one of the descriptors. Myself included.

Deodorant is Made.

If you have the cooking skills of a hot day, you can make your own deodorant.

The hardest part was all the time spent trying to figure out what some of the ingredients were, and where on earth to find them.

The recipe and instructions and benefits of making your own deodorant can be found here.

And, though it took some looking, I was able to find all the ingredients without having to buy them online. Bonus. Lots of them I already had, either because of soap-making, or because they are pretty normal kitchen type things to have.

Here's the quick list of ingredients, and where I found them:
2 TBSP Arrowroot Powder (found this at Health Hut....apparently it is a sort of starch that you use to thicken fruit sauces...or you could make cookies with it. Glad to know I have options if the deodorant doesn't work out).
2 TBSP Baking Soda (already had)
2.5 TBSP Coconut Oil (already had for soap...you can find this almost any place that sells groceries, next to the other cooking oils and shortenings).
1 Heaping TBSP Beeswax (preferably pellets, for ease of measuring and melting, the recipe says. This was the hardest one to find...had to make some calls, but finally found it at Pat Catans).
8 Drops of Tea Tree Essential Oil (this and all other essential oils I got at Health Hut).
8 Drops of Lavender Essential Oil.
2 Drops of Castor Oil (also already had this for soap-making...you can find it in the pharmacy section of most stores...or at an actual pharmacy. It is a laxative for its day job).
8-10 Drops of any other essential oil for scent.


Anyway, as I type this, it is sitting for a couple hours (or, really, overnight). I have no idea if it will work or not, but am willing to try it. I may smell earthy from here on out, people.
Here are some pictures of the making of the deodorant.

Ingreds.

All of the ingreds before adding heat and stirring.

Stirring. I was afraid that it didn't have enough liquid.

But given some time, nearly everything melted. The beeswax pellets took the longest.

At the sudden time it reached the temperature where beeswax melts, everything looked like this.

Dumped it into a recently washed out deodorant container. I was worried about what to do in the event that it overflowed, but it turns out that it didn't even fill it up.

About 3/4 full. After it hardens up a bit (which it probably already has), I can twist the bottom and smooth out the top.

Trying it tomorrow! There are no other options in the apartment for me, so hopefully it doesn't suck (though apparently it takes the body a little bit of time to adjust to the lack of chemicals that you are putting on it). We shall see!

Done.

Just. Turned in. My last assignment for the semester. All that's left is a presentation on Monday (pending a snowstorm that's apparently looming), and attending the last few class sessions. But papers are written. Projects are complete. And if they are done well (or well enough), I will graduate on May 12th (consider yourself invited!). What will I do in the meantime? I mean, once I get over the shock of not having to be doing schoolwork every minute, I will need something to occupy my time between now and graduation.

Here's what I can think of so far:

1. Get a haircut. The last time I had a haircut was early January, which is actually still fairly recent, considering I can count the number of haircuts I've had in the last 5 years using only 7 fingers. But I feel like my hair has grown a mile since January, and summer is a-coming. I have a pinterest board dedicated to ideas.

2. Clean out the fridge. I am estimating that over half of the items in there are expired or no longer edible. If I'm feeling up to it, I will keep some statistics and let you know how it goes.

3. Clean up the guest room, to make it nice for graduation guests. Currently it looks like Monica's secret closet, so I have some work ahead of me. I would've posted it here so you could watch it right on the blog. But youtube won't let me. Instead, you have to click here.

4. Get more stars on Angry Birds, my latest addiction. I only need 23 more stars before I have them all (Easter levels included).

5. Utilize my free rental from Family Video.

6. Read these two books for fun (Steve just got them...early graduation gift!).

7. Make my own deodorant. That is, if I can find all the ingredients in Beaver County. So excited about this!

8. Make up an itinerary for graduation visitors. I have so many fun things in mind for when our parents come for graduation! Also, it will be nice to have both of our mothers here for Mother's Day!

9. Send a couple of care packages that I've been meaning to send.

10. Mail/Give out some graduation invitations. I was given 25 invitations for free...and while I can't think of 25 people that will be able to go out of their way to drive/fly to Pittsburgh for a weekend, I can probably think of 25 people that would like to at least put an invitation on their fridge. Plus it will be a nice time to catch up on my correspondence. 

Verse of the day, from Biblegateway.com. Emphasis mine.

“[The Resurrection of Christ] Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.” 1 Corinthians 15:1, 3-4 NLT

winnings

Just read this article, about the 3 teachers in Maryland who won the mega lottery, and are not only planning to keep their jobs, but also planning on remaining anonymous.

Without reading the comments (which are always the negative, squeaky wheel types), I came away from the article thinking:

1. Wow, how noble that they love their jobs so much that they still want to keep them after winning millions of dollars. Their schools and students are lucky to have people that love to teach so much. I think this is also a wise decision, because it will help them to keep some sort of normalcy in their lives (though if they hated their jobs, this is their chance to go do the job they felt they couldn't afford to do). Remaining anonymous will also help them to maintain normalcy as well. Of course they have plans to travel, buy houses, and put their kids through school, but nothing that will send them over the deep end.

2. My second thought was, how on earth are they going to remain anonymous? The article gave away so many details about them, they could have just as well said their names. The article gave genders, approximate ages, general job descriptions, and their plans for how they wanted to spend the money. If I were a student or other teacher at the school, I would probably have it figured out.

After reading the comments, I am going to maintain my thoughts, even though there were a lot of disparaging comments about how rich people don't want to help people get jobs, and that if these three would quit their jobs, they would be providing some young teachers with jobs. They are being selfish by keeping their jobs, is what a few people implied. Silly, foolish people. How are three people who each hold multiple jobs going to create many jobs by quitting theirs? At most, they will create a small handful of jobs (a couple of them had to work multiple jobs). But it seems that the young hopeful teacher that would pick up these jobs would also then have to have a second or third job. I'm not trying to say there isn't anything wrong with the situation of people not being able to find a job, but that three teachers who won the lottery giving up their jobs that they love is not the solution. Plus, they will be providing jobs in other ways, by buying new houses (and selling their old ones), putting their kids through college, and traveling. Think things through, people.

Anyway, squeaky-wheels aside, I think, off the top of my head, that I too would want to remain as anonymous as possible if I won the lottery. Of course, if CNN described me in the same way that they "anonymously" described these three teachers, I'm sure it would be hard to keep it a secret. And even though I don't really have a job right now, I would like to say that I would still want to be productive with my time.

Here is what I would do with my millions (sorry I'm so boring. But it is seriously what I would want to do)....Top Ten:

1. Pay off school loans (and any debts that our immediate family might have).
2. Repay the amount of the generous scholarship that I received in order to be able to go to seminary, so that the school can send someone else to seminary. Probably would give 2-3 times that amount, because why not?
3. Fund a couple of people to go and work or teach here for 5 years. Probably would send us too, after a few more years.
4. Fund Steve to get a PhD.
5. Donate some to this school, with specifications that they have to use it on student housing repairs.
6. Set up some sort of program where people who want to do some sort of year or two long mission commitments can give up their home to long-term missionaries who are home on furlough. Not sure how this would look. It just came to me.
7. Start a business that employs, trains, and treats well, single mothers (daycare provided as a benefit).
8. Oh man. It is so hard to spend this money. I guess "invest some of it" should go here (as if these other ones aren't investments!).
9. College funds for our kids (and a few others...perhaps set up some sort of scholarships for those who need it).
10. Cottage in Estonia (had to have one frivolous one in there).




Can you tell that Learning is my number one strength?  Ironically I'm sitting here spending money I don't have instead of doing the homework that so desperately needs to get done. Futuristic is my number two, so it keeps me dreaming. Nothing ever gets done though.

How would you spend your lottery winnings? (If lottery isn't your thing, pretend you are related to an old, rich benefactor).