hula-hoop.

word of the day: hula-hoop: a plastic toy hoop that is twirled around the body

I bought a hula-hoop today. I have this new theory that if I hula-hoop for 15 minutes every day I'll get a good core workout whilst multitasking and watching tv at the same time. I'm all about multitasking these days.

If you want a symbolic twist on the matter, consider the hula-hoop my current train of thought. It's cyclical. It goes around and around, stops periodically, and has no clear end. Such is the nature of this post.

Ginny got groomed last week.

I was convinced that the experience was going to traumatize her, but luckily there seems to be no lasting damage to her psyche. Unfortunately her eyes are now wide open, which means she blinks every time a camera flashes.

I won a super fabulous gift bag from Barnes & Noble last week. I entered my name in a drawing while we were killing some time waiting for Ginny's groom session to be over. The bag was worth it in and of itself, but it was filled with posters, stickers, books, pencils, and other wonderful things that teachers ogle over.

Can you see the joy radiating from my face? I was pretty excited about the loot.

In other news, I read 8 chapters of a book last week, rediscovered my love of vanilla lattes, and have addicted myself to the show 'Lie to Me' with Jake.

If we have a conversation in the near future, you can be sure that I will be reading your face for lies based on your use of manipulators and/or distractors.

I listened to a sermon by Shane Hipps last week on the Mars Hill Church podcast. Hipps started by referencing a preposition and anytime a pastor or speaker references a grammatical and/or English related term, I'm basically hooked.

The preposition he was referring to came in the phrase 'with God'. He spoke about how so often we replace the preposition 'with' with words like 'for' and 'under'. The truth of the matter, though, is that we are called to live life with God.

with.

He struck me most, though, when he spoke about prayer.

It's generally hard for me to wrap my mind around the concept of prayer. Like, what do I have to say that God doesn't already know? Or if God already has this situation figured out, what does my input have to do with anything? God proves time and time again to know the path much better than I do, so sometimes my two cents worth seems futile.

Shane Hipps gave me a new perspective though. He says that prayer is less about accomplishing anything and more about abiding in the presence of God.

It's more about operating in a state with God. And I like that picture better.

I also like this picture. You're lookin' at the rest of my evening.