the intersection of life and grace

continue to try to update my Windows machine?? Thus far today I’ve spent 3 hours uninstalling the older version of our virus and internet security software, loading the MS “critical updates” that were balking at sharing space with the aforementioned security application, and – since the opportunity presented itself – upgrading the security suite.

The upside, thus far, is that the computer is running with SP2 on board… a feat which was previously unaccomplished. It seems to be crawling along in the internet security installation, but it is a 200MB application, so that could be the explanation there.

My mac laptop, upon which I type this post, never requires this amount of maintainence time… even when I upgraded the OS to Tiger, it barely hiccupped (though I have needed to repair permissions more frquently and am waiting for some third party applications to learn to cooperate).

Computers… I love them, but they make me sigh…

UPDATE: After several days of machinations, installs and reinstalls, followed by another crash, we bought a mac mini. It works beautifully! In less than 5 minutes out of the box it was set up for the family to use, and 10 minutes after that our household was on it’s own encrypted wireless network.

My friend from ST100 and CH100, Payton, offered these words of wisdom:

In response to your current post, I think I’ve figured out this computer thing. I’m pretty sure God allowed us to “create” computers just so we could see how screwed up the world would be if we were really in charge!

I think that just about says it all.

You scored as Sacrament model. Your model of the church is Sacrament. The church is the effective sign of the revelation that is the person of Jesus Christ. Christians are transformed by Christ and then become a beacon of Christ wherever they go. This model has a remarkable capacity for integrating other models of the church.

What is your model of the church? [Dulles]
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I caught this meme on Andy’s blog, and thought I’d give it a try. Life has been so hectic, and so many thoughts are running through my brain, I figured it can’t hurt to focus on something, rather than stay blogging paralyzed, and with my birthday coming, it seemed a useful way to spend some time. So, here goes…

10 years ago
I was a full time mom with a make-ends-meet nights-and-weekends job at Wal-Mart in the fabric department. Married for almost 8 years at that point, we were about 18 mos out of the Air Force and hubby was working for NYS Dept of Labor’s inspector general’s office while still waiting to become an Albany Police officer (which would start about a month later). I was still pretty unsure about moving back here to Albany and everything seemed to be in transition from temporary to more temporary. Our kids were little, at not-quite 6 and 3 years old. We were living in a flat on the lower floor of a two-family house. Had started attending St. Paul’s by geography, didn’t suspect at all what was to come for us there…

5 years ago
Was just a few months into my partnership position with Christ Church and Capital District Youth For Christ, which started April 1, 2000. As huge as that was, it was peaceful calm compared to the months previous which involved a serious car accident (10/99), the painful recovery and realization that the pain wasn’t going away, getting back to work at YFC a teeeeeeny bit at a time, painfully separating from St. Paul’s after 5 years for a number of reasons (to include serious theological differences), finding Christ Church and trying to recover from all that had gone on before launching back into ministry. In the meantime, we’d bought a house in Albany, Tom was gaining seniority on the APD (though still on midnights), and the kids were growing like crazy in all the right ways.

1 year ago
Was living through a summer of discontent in ministry, not feeling effective and too tired from (mainly) a lack of volunteers to help with ministry and a local mission project; not to mention being over committed by my uncanny ability to take on too much at all the wrong times. Still living with daily pain from the accident, searching for a new doctor who might be able to help with that and decrease the amount of medication needed to do so (I did find one!). Transitioning from child-rearing to parenting teenagers (and being their youth pastor, too). Hubby was now a seargeant with APD, and was even working on the day shift.

Yesterday
Felt released to go for prayer ministry after communion for the first time in a long time; left the team with a sense of peace and reminded of Lord’s love for me (not what I do)… it’s been a rough, busy and draining few weeks and that assurance was perfectly timed. Wrapped up a weekend visit with the parents of the young woman who has come to live with our family; found out a young couple who tragically lost their baby son to anencephaly in February is expecting another child; squeezed in an hour’s nap, and topped off the day with a youth ministry meeting that was pretty well attended for a warm summer evening. Played kick ball, talked through some future plans with some of the kids, had significant conversation with several pretty quiet kids, and talked up the locations and agendas for the rest of our summer meetings. Got home in time to kiss hubby goodnight, hung out with our son for a bit before heading for bed myself. Daughter was spending the night at a friend’s house.

Today
Is my day off. I got up early to wake my son to go to work, had some prayer time, and have lazed around since watching cable news, crusing the ‘net, and trying to decide whether to read or blog. Son just came home early, hubby’s at the grocery store, and I’m still writing this (having taken a couple of hours to eat lunch, read the mail, solve the mystery of the missing nail clippers by searching under my daughter’s bed). No regular Monday night Bible study tonight, so I may get to stay lazy for the rest of the day. Really should do some laundry and have a shower though…

Tomorrow
Is my other day off… have to find us a new bank, do the laundry I don’t get done today, pick up our daughter, pay some bills, and try to get a hold of a friend who needs chasing.

Five snacks I enjoy:
Potato chips, crisp apples, Myra’s homemade chex mix, those Korean chocolate-filled puffs Somi brought to youth last night, and caramel-filled chocolate.

Five bands that I know the lyrics of most of their songs:
U2, Delirious, Jackson Browne, Relient K, and The Beatles (because of my hubby & Sean, lol)

Five things I’d do with $100,000,000:
Pay off our house/debts & tuition (kids’ college educations and my grad school), help our parents, give away a lot (especially to build a youth center at our church and help finish the Spiritual Life Center in Greenwich), finally take that pilgrimmage to the Holy Land, and maybe even buy a pony.

Five locations I’d like to run away to:
Sudan, Northern Ireland, Captiva, Israel, the SLC.

Five bad habits I have:
Busy-ness, coffee, overdoing, procrastination of certain tasks, failing to communicate with friends.

Five things I like doing:
Sleeping, worshipping, spending time with my fam, seeing kids ‘get it’ about God, talking with friends about real life & faith.

Five things I would never wear:
A bikini, low-rise jeans, hawaiian shirt, short shorts/micro-mini skirt, tatoos

Five TV shows I like:
24, West Wing, Amazing Race, ummmm… FNC, and… channel 10 news? (I don’t watch much tv…)

Five movies I like:
Braveheart, The Lord of the Rings (all), Shrek (both), Patch Adams, (a Kevin Costner tie) Field of Dreams and Robin Hood

Five famous people I would like to meet:
I’d like to sit and have a good conversation with Bono, Nelson Mandela, Rowan Williams, Mike Yaconelli, and Rob Bell.

Five biggest joys at the moment:
My children and who they are becoming, intergenerational friendships, yesterday’s prayer ministry time, seeing the Lord at work in the students he’s given me, seeing some former students stay connected with Christ and live great lives.

Five favorite toys:
My U2 iPod, my PowerBook G4, and the last three spots go to my pony (someday, it will be mine, if I’m very good… maybe).

Wasn’t that fun??