Stuff That Matters in Life

Katy’s Weblog

I was looking for what I would need to make soap. I searched on Shopwiki and found it to be pretty helpful. Not only does it search for the material for soap making, but it also gives some basic instructions. If you are looking to do a project and need to shop for all the components, Shopwiki simplifies the process.

If you are shopping for say, a stroller, Shopwiki shows you the types of strollers available, and the features of each kind, plus places where you can buy them. Of course it’ll try to sell you related products by giving you suggestions for diaper bags, baby carseats, etc. I think that is helpful when shopping for gifts. You might end up deciding to buy your friend a useful booster seat that you wouldn’t otherwise had thought of buying.

Traditional shopping sites will only show you stores that have PAID for placement, and ShopWiki will give you everything. That makes searching much easier.

Disclosure: I was paid to write this review.

TV is back

Filed under Generalby Joyful

In a previous post, I said we canceled TV.

Correction: We canceled cable TV. We still have a TV. Now we have Netflix.

What movies do you recommend? The parameters are – not rated R or above, not a sad ending, not a silly romance, no excessive violence or brutality, prefer humor and clever storyline (Sherlock Holmes), science fiction ok (Star Trek).

I know that limits things quite a bit. Well, that’s why I don’t watch TV or go to movies much. But I don’t think I’m missing out on anything.

So far, we’ve watched Mall Cop (brainless humor), The Princess and the Frog (5 stars, good morals), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (an old favorite, clever and funny), a Jackie Chan about race cars, forgot the name (only watched 1/2, Jackie Chan’s fight scenes are always entertaining).

I haven’t watched this much TV for a long time. Maybe it’s time to cancel Netflix.

My highlights of the past few days:

1. Spoke at my friend’s women’s group on Saturday.

2. God gave me the message to speak on.

3. I learned a lot from my own message.

4. The ladies, including my sister who came to hear me, really liked it.

5. I got a phone call from Vietnam.

6. It was my son!

7. I miss him, but had tears of joy when he told me he just came out of a Bible study and wanted to tell me about it.

8. Substituted at middle school today.

9. Got paid for watching the same video 4 times.

10. Got paid for the 2 prep periods that gave me free time to pray on this National Day of Prayer.

Yesterday the sermon in church was on knowing God, the foundation of the Christian life.

I heard a couple of comments that the content of the sermon didn’t fit the title. They were expecting a different type of sermon about knowing God.

In the sermon, our pastor talked about knowing God as holy, a prominent…

Read more of “Knowing God”

My weakness is meat. I prefer a thick prime rib over chocolate cake.  In fact, I am not tempted by chocolate at all. It may surprise you that I do not like chocolate.  I am not tempted by sweets, but I am tempted by a hunk of meat, medium rare.

But in an effort to eat healthier, each night I am cooking 2 side dishes of non-meat and one dish of a hunk of meat that I love. If I get full on the sides, than I will eat less meat.

Tonight I ate only one pork chop because I ate more lentils and melons in soup.

The other night I had one piece of chicken and ate more kaboche squash and grilled eggplant.

The one piece of meat was pretty satisfying, along with the sides.

I am proud of myself.  🙂

As of tomorrow, we will no longer have TV.

We got cable TV for my mother in law to watch the Chinese channels. Since she’s on vacation, we are saving money by canceling TV until she comes back.

No more Alton Brown, Cake Challenge, and Dirty Jobs…oh, and Jeopardy…that’s gonna hurt.

But I can definitely live without Hannah Montana…

Another sermon on the Lord’s prayer on Sunday, but it never gets old.

The sermon reminded me that acknowledging God as our Lord and to submit to him is the first step of prayer.

This week, I’ve been praying the words “God, be the Lord over…” when stating my concerns. It gives me the right perspective as I pray.

God, be the Lord over my daughter at school today. Be the Lord over her tests, her grades, her future. Be the Lord over her summer plans.

God, be the Lord over my day today. Be the Lord over everything I do and my circumstances.

God, be the Lord over my son in Vietnam. Be the Lord over his circumstances, wherever he goes. Be the Lord over his health; be the Lord over those bug bites that are bothering him.

Whenever life gets you down and you think life is not fair, just reread the life of Joseph in the Bible.

I met a boy at church today who got into some trouble at school. His mom brought him to church to do some “community service”. I learned a bit of the back story, and it seemed to me that, while he did do wrong, the circumstances were somewhat unfair against him. In a way, he was provoked, and the provoker (that is the right word, I checked dictionary.com) did not get in trouble.

Unfair as it might have been, it brought him to church.

There was another boy a while back who came to our church under similar circumstances. It was a court order that got him to church, and he became a Christian. God turned his life around.

I pray that this boy that I met today will benefit from his seemingly adverse circumstances in the same way. Perhaps he would not have stepped foot in a church, or otherwise hear the message of God’s love for him.

Joseph would not have been able to save his people if he wasn’t sold into slavery. God’s ways are really higher than our ways.