On the Road Again...

Mr. Muffin and I are leaving for the summer mission trip Sunday morning and there are just a few more things that need to be done around the house before we leave. I look forward to a week of being outdoors, surrounded by nature, working, Phase 10, and getting to know other members of our church more personally. Pastor J. is going as the other adult female chaperone which I am really excited about since there have not been a lot of down time opportunities for us to hang out and get to know each other. The five gals that are going are active in MYF and also attend the girl's Bible study on Wednesday nights that I am a part of. Each girl is very conversational, silly, and best of all low maintenance! What I mean is that I won't have to worry about being woken up at 4a.m. by the sound of hairdryers or worry about someone blowing a fuse so that they can straighten their hair at camp! Last year I heard wonderful stories about the quality time spent rocking in chairs after a hard day's work overlooking the mountains on the porch at Hinton. I started a really good book a few days ago by Elizabeth Gilbert called "Eat Pray Love" that I hope to read some during our down time. My prayers are that we will be the hands and feet of God for those in need and that each individual will experience God in a new way. Also, I am praying that my back will not be a burden on my efforts of physical labor. For those of you who don't know I suffer from severe lower back tension that sends really intense pains and muscle cramps into my hips. As you will read in Mr. Muffin's blog, there will be a new blog dedicated to our progress and photos during our stay at Hinton! Have a great week and keep us in your prayers!

P.S. Ali Carrie will be enjoying her own vacation at Camp "Muffin-Laws."

Reunited

This past weekend I traveled to Nashville, TN. I have always heard that Nashville is so awesome I was really looking forward to going. The purpose of this trip was to visit one of my best friends that I had not seen in two years. For nick-names' sake I will call her "Ms. J". Personal and complicating circumstances are the reason for the separation, but the issues have been resolved and for that I am very thankful. We didn't do as much sight see-ing as I hope to do next time. We visited the Loveless Cafe, J. Alexanders, Borders Books, Green Hills Mall, and Broadway at night. The trip was devoted to what friends do best...talking, listening, catching up, and growing. I came away from the trip with a new appreciation for my self, her self, and the experiences that have shaped us since we left Tuscaloosa in 2004. Throughout our all night, and I do mean ALL NIGHT, conversations I gained a sense of motivation and excitement to live my life with a "fresher perspective?" I am really trying not to sound super cheesy but it is kind of hard not to. The best thing I learned on my trip was to stop battling the many things I battle internally on a daily basis. Foods, for example. (Guys may not understand this completely but to all of my ladies I know you will.) I can't remember a time in my life where every bite of food that I took was not apprehended or dreaded and every day that passed without exercise I didn't rehearse some negative self talk like "you should have gone on a walk or at least gone to the gym for thirty minutes...you have to go in the morning before you go to Wal-Mart because if you don't go in the morning you will skip working out all together....see you didn't go this morning and now it has been one week since you exercised! oh well in two days it will be Monday and you can start then..." It gets very tiresome and drains so much joy out of my daily life to worry as much as I am prone to do...not just about food but about bills, people dying, Ali getting run over or kidnapped, my boss making my cry, people thinking I am mean or shallow...all kinds of stuff that according to statistics...aren't likely to happen. You often hear people say "choose your battles wisely" and I think I am on my way to really understanding what that means. This is not an apology. It is a celebration! God Bless the people in my life that put up with me. And God Bless me too.

Thoughts on Getting Old

It has been so long since I posted. Here is a shot as interesting my peers. I received an email from a friend and I thought it had some thoughts worth mentioning. If you are sensitive to CHEESE you should step away from this post NOW. I especially like the list of "How to Stay Young." So here goes; enjoy!

"Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old
is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited
about aging that you think in fractions.

"How old are you?" "I'm four and a half!" You're never thirty-six and a
half. You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key

You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the
next number, or even a few ahead.

"How old are you?" "I'm gonna be 16!" You could be 13, but hey, you're
gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life . . you become 21.
Even the words sound like a ceremony . YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like
bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're
Just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the
brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 and
your dreams are gone.

But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would!

So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.

You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a
day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!

You get into your 80's and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch;
you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn't end there. Into the
90s, you start going backwards; "I Was JUST 92."

Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a
little kid again. "I'm 100 and a half!"
May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!

HOW TO STAY YOUNG
1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height.
Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay "them."

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening,
whatever. Never let the brain idle. "An idle mind is the devil's
workshop." And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who
is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets,
keepsakes, music, plants, and hobbies, whatever. Your home is your
refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable,
improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next
county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the
moments that take our breath away.

Not Sure This is Really by Ben Stein...but a good message nonetheless.

Written by Ben Stein

If they know of him at all, many folks think Ben Stein is just a quirky actor/comedian who talks in a monotone. He's also a very intelligent attorney who knows how to put ideas and words together in such a way as to sway juries and make people think clearly.

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

"Herewith a few confessions from my beating heart: I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they so important?

I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise's wife. Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if

I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. If this is what it means to be no longer young. It's not so bad.

Next confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me
in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution, and I don't like it being shoved down my throat. Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too.

But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like e this Happen?" (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.

Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school . the Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves. Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell.

Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.

Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.

Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it. Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

My Best Regards .. honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein