We're off to see the Wizard, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. You'll find he is a whiz of a Wiz! If ever a Wiz! there was. If ever oh ever a Wiz! there was The Wizard of Oz is one because, because, because, because, because, because… . . .. . .. because of the wonderful things he does. We're off to see the Wizard. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz . . . . ..
I’ve always been a huge fan of the 1939 classic movie “The Wizard of OZ!” with the endearing characters of Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin man, and of course my favourite the Lion. So when Krystle invited me to go and see “OZ the Great and Powerful” movie, to say I was exited was an understatement. Not only did I get to see a timeless classic in a movie theatre {which is something we haven’t done in years} but I got to spend time my best friend. OZ the Great and Powerful: From the IMDB {International Movie Data Base} ~ Oscar Diggs (James Franco), a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, is hurled away from dusty Kansas to the vibrant Land of Oz. At first he thinks he's hit the jackpot-fame and fortune are his for the taking. That all changes, however, when he meets three witches, Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz), and Glinda (Michelle Williams), who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyone's been expecting. Reluctantly drawn into the epic problems facing the Land of Oz and its inhabitants, Oscar must find out who is good and who is evil before it is too late. Putting his magical arts to use through illusion, ingenuity-and even a bit of wizardry-Oscar transforms himself not only into the great and powerful Wizard of Oz but into a better man as well. Written by Walt Disney Studios Motions Pictures.
This movie is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz and while you already have a basic idea of how the story will end, we still sat on the edge of our seat in anticipation wondering where the writers would take the classic story. I was not disappointed. They gave us insight into how the Wicked Witch of the West become green and full of envy, who the witch is that Dorothy’s house fell on and how OZ became the great and powerful. The writers tied in so many of the unique attributes of the 1939 edition movie and we were quite glad we saw it. It was a great movie one I would highly recommend. Thanks Krystle for a wonderful ‘date’ night.
but you know? It’s more than that ~ I am tired of being tired. There seems to be a downward spiral happening. The more I am tired, the less I seem to sleep. My tiredness itself is not an illness, but is rather a symptom of my condition ~ and while I know that in my head, there are days when my limitations are difficult to digest.
It’s tough being tired all day. I’ve had days like this, when I’m struggling through the day and don’t have the energy to tackle anything that matters. When you’re tired, not much seems appealing. Life is dulled, and you don’t get much accomplished. Worst, you don’t have the energy to change the situation.
To be honest, the last few years have been like this.
We have, however, gotten good at ignoring our body’s signals ~ much of our lives is training our minds to pretend our bodies aren’t tired, so we can be more productive.
Here are a few tips I've found to be helpful:
Rest Rest is the most obvious solution to coping with fatigue. When the body signals that it has reached a physical limit, a short nap or sleep period is the needed response. By responding with a rest period you give the body a chance to regain control.
Planning Ahead Planning ahead, scheduling activities, and pacing yourself can help minimize the intrusion of fatigue. Limiting the number of strenuous activities, allowing interspersed rest periods, and remaining flexible can favor preserving energy.
Prioritize Prioritizing activities helps curtail fatigue. Important activities should be done first before energy becomes depleted and less significant activities can be delayed if needed.
Organize Whenever possible reorganize to make things more convenient. Keeping things within reach or nearby can be energy saving mechanisms.
The key response to fatigue must be energy preservation.
And then I remind myself of this:
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt
The other day, I was telling my son about a decision that I had made and that knowing what I know now, I probably wouldn’t have made the decision they way I did. Which got us to talking about hindsight being 20/20 and that rabbit-trailed our discussion to my son asking, “have you seen the episode of South Park where the townsfolk meet the superhero Captain Hindsight?” Which of course I had not, so he goes on to tell me that in the episode, Captain Hindsight arrives at the scene of a burning fire in an apartment building, with firefighters trying to put it out, but instead of trying to resolve the crisis at hand, he explains to the crowd the precautions that should’ve been taken to prevent the disaster.
From Google: Jack "Captain Hindsight" Brollin based on the eponymous superhero character originally featured in an episode of the animated TV series South Park is a superhero who "helps" people in need by appearing at the scene to lecture them about what they did wrong to get into a certain accident and what methods they could have used to avoid it, instead of actually rescuing them. Inspired by the character, image captions generally present various types of predicaments and then lecture on what could’ve been done differently to avoid the situation altogether. Despite this, civilians still feel much better afterwards. Perfect 20/20 hindsight is the power that Captain Hindsight is most associated with. With his natural hindsight abilities raised to superhuman levels, due to an accident with a retroactive spider, Captain Hindsight can immediately know how an event could have been avoided just by looking at the scene.
We all know the famous saying that hindsight is 20/20 and that if you knew then what you know now, you'd likely not make that decision the way you did. However, we all tend to make our choices based on the facts that we have at hand and making our decisions as best we can with the information in front of us.
The point of this post? Well, knowing now what I know, I likely wouldn’t have made the decision that way I did {hence the title}. But had I not decided to do what I did, I would not have realized that I was unable to do what I thought I was able to do. The only way to understand where we’ve come from is to have actually have been there, and I could not have come up with the same conclusions had I not done what I had originally decided to do.
Ironically we are like Captain Hindsight, we all have the superpower of perfect 20/20 hindsight vision, and yet the greatest weakness to this power as Hindsight demonstrated, is the fact the ability only works after the action has occurred, which more often than not can make us regret doing the action in the first place and could make us second guess every action we do.
And yet, as I re-read about that decision that I made in this post I am again reminded of the words from scripture: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28 {New International Version (NIV)}
This came to my inbox the other day and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Read Thursday's post.
Max Lucado writes:
Peter, Andrew, James, Nathanael. Never traveled farther than a week's walk from home. Haven't studied the ways of Asia or the culture of Greece. Their passports aren't worn; their ways aren't sophisticated. Do they have any formal education?
In fact, what do they have? Humility? They jockeyed for cabinet positions. Sound theology? Peter told Jesus to forget the cross. Sensitivity? John wanted to torch the Gentiles. Loyalty? When Jesus needed prayers, they snoozed. When Jesus was arrested, they ran.
Thanks to their cowardice, Christ had more enemies than friends at his execution.
Yet look at them six weeks later, crammed into the second floor of a Jerusalem house, abuzz as if they'd just won tickets to the World Cup Finals. High fives and wide eyes. Wondering what in the world Jesus had in mind with his final commission: "You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8 NIV).
You hillbillies will be my witnesses. You uneducated and simple folk will be my witnesses. You who once called me crazy, who shouted at me in the boat and doubted me in the Upper Room. You temperamental, parochial net casters and tax collectors. You will be my witnesses. You will spearhead a movement that will explode like a just-opened fire hydrant out of Jerusalem and spill into the ends of the earth: into the streets of Paris, the districts of Rome, and the ports of Athens, Istanbul, Shanghai, and Buenos Aires. You will be a part of something so mighty, controversial, and head spinning that two millennia from now a middle-aged, redheaded author riding in the exit row of a flight from Boston to Dallas will type this question on his laptop:
Does Jesus still do it? Does he still use simple folks like us to change the world?
God doesn't call the qualified. He qualifies the called.
Don't let Satan convince you otherwise. He will try. He will tell you that God has an IQ requirement or an entry fee. That he employs only specialists and experts, governments and high-powered personalities. When Satan whispers such lies, dismiss him with this truth: God stampeded the first-century society with swaybacks, not thoroughbreds. Before Jesus came along, the disciples were loading trucks, coaching soccer, and selling Slurpee drinks at the convenience store. Their collars were blue, and their hands were calloused, and there is no evidence that Jesus chose them because they were smarter or nicer than the guy next door. The one thing they had going for them was a willingness to take a step when Jesus said, "Follow me."
Are you more dinghy than cruise ship? More stand-in than movie star? More plumber than executive? More blue jeans than blue blood? Congratulations. God changes the world with folks like you.
What an awesome reminder for me and perhaps you too?
Hi God,
So, um, what’s the plan?
Where to next?
What steps to take?
What things do I need to do?
God,
don’t you see
that if I know the plan
I can start?
I can start making lists
I can start fixing problems
I can start moving mountains
I can start doing…
Oh.
I see.
You want me to rest in you.
You want me to hand it over to you.
Wait,
you don’t need me to plan?
you don’t need me to fix?
You’ve got it handled?
You sure you don’t need my help?
But
I have some great ideas…
Oh, well, Ok.
I will wait.
I will be right here
and
I will let you
do your thing
i find it hard to bare my heart, my soul, out loud.
this is a constant point of contention as i like to think that i am good with words and often end up thinking that that should translate to the spoken word.
however, it does not.
my fingers do most of the work. sometimes, there’s a lot of deleting involved. ctrl+delete is my favorite short cut.
there is however, no delete in speaking.
what’s said is said and cannot be undone.
it’s final.
typing can always be undone. it can always be edited, adapted, changed, transformed. older editions are forgotten, and the new is cemented in the mind of the readers, or forgotten along with the old.
my preference is to type, to think through my fingers, the keyboard, the screen. i need this mechanism to fully understand me, this is how i operate. how i function. how i process.
conversation does not come easy for me ~ especially when the heart is at the center of it. my mouth gets in the way. my emotions sneak into the conversation and i say things i don’t mean or things that shouldn’t be said, or that i thought i meant but i don’t mean and i need to take them back, but i can’t because they were said and now they’re out there and their damage is done for better or for worse and i am stuck, wide-eyed, holding the ball, waiting to get sacked.
ultimately it's up to me to see to control what is said, because then there would be no need to delete.
I'm addicted to cookbooks, cooking magazines, recipes blogs and probably would be addicted to Pinterest if I understood how it worked. And I’m thinking I still would to like to add more books to my collection. Yep, I think I've got an addiction.
There is a whole drawer in the kitchen that holds my cookbooks, oops well not quite. Remember when I did this? This binder is filled with recipes I've cut out from of my Kraft Canada What’s Cooking Magazine {speaking of What’s Cooking I get a bit excited when a new issue arrives. I can't wait to dive into it!} that book’s too big to store in the drawer so, it’s up in the cupboard above the fridge.
{making more room in the drawer for more books ^.^}
Now, if I were making all any of these recipes, it might be one thing. But mainly I read them like a book of fiction and then try to incorporate some of their ideas or tips into my cooking/baking. Or, I try a recipe and end up tweaking it as I go along.
I'd like to tell you that I've examined my cookbook drawer and have decided I have enough recipes housed in there and that I don't need any more. But, alas, that would be a lie. One of my favourite cooking blogs would probably be Mennonite Girls Can Cook and of course I have their cookbook. Which may make you wonder why I need to have a hard copy of their recipes when I can easily find what I like on line. Well I did say I was addicted,. Didn’t I?
I could try to tell you that that would be the last of my new cookbooks for a while, but instead, I'll show you the newest one I just got.
It’s from this blog and there was a contest to win - all you had to do was enter a comment saying which book you’d like to win and hope they drew your name. I was super surprised when the e-mail came that I won.
