The Maxwell House

As I typed an site into the address bar today I made a mistake that I have made before, and will make again. Instead of typing in “bloglines.com”, I accidentally typed in “bloglines.ocm”. I bet you’ve made this same mistake. Then it hit me, that’s how I’ll make my millions!! All I have to do is convince the internet registration authorities to create this new “.ocm” domain, buy up all the good addresses, and then cleverly market some product or service. Get ready world, here I come. Ever wondered what .com stands for? Well, it’s not “communication” or even “computer”. Check out this page for the answer…  

Back in November I wrote a post about finishing up two books that I have been reading (or not reading) for the past two years. Well, I finally finished up one of those books, Fresh Faith, and I have decided to let my lease on Maestro expire (a person should try only so hard to finish a book).

When I finally got down to reading Fresh Faith diligently, the pages flew by. This has further convinced me that there is a time and place for each book, and although two years ago wasn’t the time for Fresh Faith, this last month most certainly was. I feel more free now to be “ok” with starting a book, not Loving it, and putting it back on the shelf for review at a later date.

Today I started in on Money, Possessions, and Eternity by Randy Alcorn. We’ve had this book several years (won it off of a KAFC contest), and it just never looked appealing. After reading the intro, I am excited and realizing that this book has a lot of appeal for me. A favorite blurb from the intro:

“What we do with our money loudly affirms which kingdom we belong to. Whenever we give of our resources to further God’s kingdom, we cast a ballot for Christ and against Satan, for heaven and against hell. Whenever we use our resources selfishly and indifferently we further Satan’s goals.”

I’ve now been blogging since Dec. 2005 and feel like this blog is sort of graduating from its infancy into toddlerhood. No longer so unsure of itself, Maxwell Family is starting to flex it’s independence and experiment with the outside world. No longer just about family going-on’s, we’ve also delved into the world of finance and politics. In honor of this graduation, I’ve changed the skin for the site. I’m still messing with the header, so expect some more changes in the future. I hope you like the new look. I picked it because in it’s description was the word “classy”. Oh yeah, baby. 

I was tagged by Pam over at Tracking the Tremains a couple weeks ago, and just today realized it. So, here you go:
4 Jobs I’ve had:

• paper boy (paper girl just doesn’t have the same ring to it)
• mountain biking and hiking guide
• Port Agent
• receptionist/book keeper

4 movies that I watch over and over:

• Star Wars (the original trilogy)
• The Hunt For Red October
• Few movies are worth watching repeatedly, I can’t think of any others

4 Places I have been:

• Alaska
• Canada
• Arizona
• The Eiffel Tower (via Google Earth. What, that doesn’t count?!)

4 Places I have lived:

• Oakridge, Oregon
• Sitka, Alaska
• Anchorage, Alaska
• Wasilla, Alaska

4 TV shows I watch(ed):

• Lost
• The Office
• Battlestar Galactica
• American Idol

4 People who email me regularly:

• Mom
• most of the rest of my emails are not from real people 🙂

4 Favorite foods:

• black coffee (not a food, I know)
• frozen yogurt
• salsa con queso
• bagels w/cream cheese

4 places I’d rather be:

• In Bed
• Iceland
• Hanging out with Kevin
• Watching the sun rise at Hatcher’s Pass

4 people I tag:

• Sal
• Carly
• Jen
• Lee

Do I have friends with short names, or what?

Well, baby Maxwell is content to hang around for a while longer. I’m very okay with that. I like the idea of him fattening up a bit. However, I learned at my appointment this morning that things are still “progressing”, so we’ll see what happens. My next appointment is Tuesday, when the kiddo will be 38 weeks. I am loving the lesson that God is teaching me right now: Stop planning so much Janeen, I’ve got it all figured out!!

As I checked my RSS feeds this morning I was delighted to see several new posts from friends (many fellow stay-at-home moms). I love checking out their posts, and today was no different. However, today I did feel a twinge of something… jealousy? Discontent? I think this is a common side effect of too much blog reading. You see, most bloggers (including myself) put all the “best” part of our lives on our blogs. It makes sense, we want people to know what’s going on in our lives, and generally the things we feel like talking about are those items that make us feel good about ourselves. However, this for the reader can lead to a false sense of “blogger family perfection” when viewing a friend’s site. This isn’t the fault of the blogger, just the fault of the reader, so I’m not telling anyone to change what they write! I do feel convicted though to try to balance my posts more in my own blog, because I would HATE to think that any reader would pick up a false sense of “perfect family” from my blog. This is a two part process for me: 1) making sure my posts tell the whole story, and 2) praying about that discontent in my own heart as soon as it surfaces. You don’t need to do anything, just hang out. I’ll chat with you soon.