Month: January 2013

Abundant Life

Audio Teaching: New Life in Christ: Foundations for Powerful Christian Living: Session Four

Karen

This class covers all the topics necessary to give a beginning student the tools needed to understand and apply biblical truth in everyday life. The class is a family collaboration of John Schoenheit and his sister, Sue Carlson. The blend of their two voices, manners, and teaching styles is an extremely logical and winning presentation that you can give to your friends and acquaintances who want to know why you are so jazzed about life and the Lord Jesus Christ.

This class is available online for free or for purchase on cassette tape or CD through the Truth or Tradition online store.

To view the PDF syllabus that comes with this audio class, click here.

If what you have just listened to has been a blessing to you, please consider sowing into our continued outreach of the Gospel, all over the globe.

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We trust you have enjoyed this free online class. God bless you!

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Life

My Youngest Son’s Fender Bender

Karen

HE’S OKAY! (Grandma!)

But yes, Jazz rear-ended someone yesterday. Yes. It was his fault.

I had no idea. nobody called me.

Hmm …

I came home from work yesterday, pulled into the garage (because I’m spoiled and get to park in the garage whereas all three of my guys have to park outside Heh), and noticed someone had thrown a Sonic cup out of their window and it was lying in our ditch. Since I’m a good neighbor *cough-as-opposed-to-our-slobs-for-neighbors-cough*, I took the time to pick it up. As I’m walking back into the house, I see it …

Brandon's Accident 2

What. The. Hell?!?

I walked over to his car and just sort of stared at it. I blinked, then blinked again.

Yep. Jazz’s car was munched up.

Brandon's Accident

I kept my cool mainly because I was in shock. You always think this is a possibility in the back of your mind, but you don’t really think it’ll happen to you … until it does.

I walked into the house and hunted Jazz down. He was on his bed, with his pillow pulled over his head. He wasn’t crying, but I could tell he was close.

“So. Tell me what happened.”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” came a muffled voice from under the pillow.

“Tough. Sit up and tell me what happened,” was my sympathetic answer. I’m like the most mean mom, ever.

Apparently, Jazz left school and was on his way to Kevin’s office to help out when he looked down, just for a second (that’s all it takes!) to make sure he had gotten his name badge. When he looked up, BAM, he hit the SUV in front of him.

And it was loaded down with other students, from his school. Awkward! (Though he didn’t know them).

Jazz called Kevin and when Kevin found out no one was hurt, told him to call the police. Kevin sort of had a work emergency and couldn’t leave so Jazz called the police, waited for him to show up, got his ticket (because it was his fault), then drove (because thankfully, the car still drives and the air bag didn’t deploy which leads me to believe he wasn’t driving that fast, thank God) to Kevin’s office.

Jazz will have to go to court February 25th – Kevin will be able to go with him.

That should be an experience.

I was a little miffed that no one called me, but at the same time, I was relieved. Because really, what could I do? No one was hurt. The police were called. All I would have done was make the situation worse by coddling him.

Welcome to the real world. (Though I did tell Jazz that if that EVER happens again and he IS hurt, CALL ME!)

Kevin called our insurance today and the insurance adjuster wants to talk to Jazz to hear his side of the story. I have no idea what will come of that. We only have liability on the car and there is no way it’s totalled so … ??

I just hope the guy he hit doesn’t cause us any problems. Jazz said that his car was only dented, but then again, that’s what he said about his car too.

As you can see from above, it’s a little more than a “dent.”

Insurance will go up, of course. But that’s par for the course, I suppose. Kevin has already told him that the money he would have been making helping him at the office will go toward repairing the car. I have no idea how long that will last, I’m leaving that part up to Kevin, but Jazz is pretty bummed – he was hoping to save for a new computer.

We have no intention of getting it fixed any time soon. One – we don’t have time to be without the car – Jazz needs it for school and no one has time to run him around town right now. And two – Kevin wants him to drive it around as a reminder to BE CAREFUL.

At least the air bag didn’t deploy – then we’d have to total it because the cost to replace an air bag would have cost more than the car is worth. We’ll see how much it’s going to cost us to replace the hood and grill .. that will be enough to hopefully resell it someday, I suppose.

Neither Kevin nor I freaked out about this – I mean, it’s a done deal, there’s not much left over to get freaked out about. As I told Jazz, “it’s only a car.” The most important thing is, he was wearing his seat belt, he wasn’t hurt, and no one was hurt in the other car, either.

God was watching out for him because it could have been so much worse.

In some ways, I’m sort of glad this happened. I’ve never had to worry about Dude’s driving, he’s a good driver and he’s very aware of his surroundings, but Jazz is cut from a different cloth. He’s sort of in his own world most of the time and yesterday, he got a healthy dose of reality.

I just wish his reality check hadn’t cost us so much money.

Politics, Sunday Scribblings

Sunday Scribblings: Paradise

Karen

scribblings

It never ceases to amaze me the number of people who think if we just pass this law, or take away this right, our country will magically transform into some sort of paradise on earth.

What a naïve outlook on life. Newsflash: IT AIN’T HAPPENING IN OUR LIFETIME.

It will never happen – not until Christ comes back, that is. And if you’re not a Christian, then I suppose you don’t even have that hope to look forward to.

How sad.

I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but folks – look – we live in a fallen world. It’s controlled by an evil entity, an entity that gets his kicks out of murder, chaos and hopelessness. It’s what he thrives on. And again, if you don’t believe in the whole God/Satan thing then just look around you: mankind is, and will continually become, more and more corrupt as time goes by.

I don’t mean to get all preachy on you, but let’s pause a moment for a reality check. It’s all about power and greed nowadays and humans are imperfect – our world will never get better, it will only get worse.

Hence the reason that many conservatives/Christians push to keep and/or change back, our laws. We KNOW things will only get worse and we’re desperately trying to stall the inevitable by maintaining the laws we have now (because erasing, or easing the current laws will only allow more chaos, less control, into our lives). Because the Left’s push for us to relinquish control over our lives, to willingly hand our lives, and our decisions concerning our lives, over the government on a silver platter, is a dangerous road to travel. Because if we allow the government to fund our lives, then that same government then has the final say over what we can, or can not do in our lives. They have a say in how we live our lives. They have a say over whether or not we need healthcare. They have a say over what we eat, how much we eat, where we eat. They have a say over what vehicles we drive, or how often we drive, or what sort of fuel we burn.

Handing control over to our government means they have a say over how many children we can have, or where they go to school, or what they learn.

How, exactly, is this paradise??

I don’t know about you, but I have no desire to become a puppet in my own life. I much prefer to be free to be allowed to make my own damn decisions, to live my life the way I choose (as long as I’m not denying someone their life, liberty or right to property) and be the mistress of my own destiny.

I honestly worry about people’s intelligence these days. People are so focused on short-term, Bandaid sort of solutions, that they either refuse, or deny, the reality of situations; how will this affect our lives ten years from now? It’s quite disturbing that people are so willing to swallow (or be injected) whatever is spoon fed them without stopping to QUESTION whether or not what is being forced on them is logical or even reasonable. There are way too many sheep in today’s society and not nearly enough Sheppards.

The moment, THE MOMENT, we allow the government to take a small sliver of control over us, we will never get it back. And the more that is relinquished, the more complacent people become. “Oh. What’s one more thing? What’s the big deal?” I hear people say.

The BIG DEAL, people, is that one day we will wake up and we’re not able to leave our houses without permission from “our government.”

Our freedoms have, little by little, been eroding away and it’s like we’re all sleep walking our way through life. It’s like we all have blinders on and only focus on what’s being spoon fed to us – we don’t have the balls, or the motivation (because it’s so much easier to just nod our heads yes and open our mouths), to tear those damn blinders off and look, REALLY LOOK, at the sh*t the government is trying to force on us.

Do you honestly think we’re on the path to paradise? If we ONLY give more control over the government, then we’ll find that non-existent utopia??

An authoritarian nation is defined not just by the use of authoritarian powers, but by the ability to use them. If a president can take away your freedom or your life on his own authority, all rights become little more than a discretionary grant subject to executive will.

The framers lived under autocratic rule and understood this danger better than we do. James Madison famously warned that we needed a system that did not depend on the good intentions or motivations of our rulers: “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”

Benjamin Franklin was more direct. In 1787, a Mrs. Powel confronted Franklin after the signing of the Constitution and asked, “Well, Doctor, what have we got — a republic or a monarchy?” His response was a bit chilling: “A republic, Madam, if you can keep it.”

Since 9/11, we have created the very government the framers feared: a government with sweeping and largely unchecked powers resting on the hope that they will be used wisely.

The indefinite-detention provision in the defense authorization bill seemed to many civil libertarians like a betrayal by Obama. While the president had promised to veto the law over that provision, Levin, a sponsor of the bill, disclosed on the Senate floor that it was in fact the White House that approved the removal of any exception for citizens from indefinite detention.

Dishonesty from politicians is nothing new for Americans. The real question is whether we are lying to ourselves when we call this country the land of the free.
Source: 10 Reasons the U.S is No Longer the Land of the Free

(And I challenge you to follow the above link and read precisely what freedoms have changed and/or have been lost since 9/11. Go on, read it for yourself).

Why, exactly, do people think Paradise is even attainable when our world proves, time and time again, that it can’t, or won’t, exist without Big Brother to hold its hand?

Abundant Life

Teaching: Parts 1 and 2 of 5 Love: Love is tough. Our challenge is to be loving.

Karen

Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.

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Day-By-Day

All Aboard the Crazy Train

Karen

I’m mentioned, a few times (okay, more than a few times), that my job is stressful.

It was stressful with two doctors … now I’m responsible for three doctors and there are days I’m quite convinced my head is going to explode.

We lost a girl this past week.

I walked into a mini-pow-wow on Wednesday. Three of us were there, one was not.

My stomach dropped. Because I had suspected, for quite some time, that my co-worker, let’s call her “Jane”, had been skating on thin ice.

Apparently, I was right.

Jane had been making all sorts of mistakes, little ones, but big enough to cause a ripple, or two, or (eleven). And then, she really dropped the ball on a patient – it was serious enough that this patient could have died.

And shortly after that fiasco came to light, she made the mistake of scheduling a patient to have a brain MRI the same day of her appointment with the doctor. And this particular doctor? Does. Not. Like. That.

In fact, he was so upset, that he ended up throwing a temper tantrum, along with his mouse and several papers. It was not pretty.

The next day, Wednesday? I walked into a mini-pow-wow and found out that “she had chosen to pursue other career choices.” That, “this, in no way, was a reflection on her job performance.”

Jane’s desk hadn’t even been cleaned out yet – excuse me, we’re not idiots.

But to be fair, this girl had been making way too many mistakes and she didn’t appear to take her reprimands too seriously, so either she was completely clueless, or didn’t care – maybe she wanted to be fired to collect the unemployment. I don’t know. I really don’t care, quite frankly. It’s a done deal now – I’m more concerned with surviving and keeping my job so I can continue to provide insurance for my family and pay for groceries.

But now that Jane is gone, we had to take on extra doctors to compensate, at least until they hire someone new. That means, I now have three doctors I’m responsible to schedule for. And I have the doctor that threw the temper tantrum. Which means, I’m walking around with pretty much all of my nerve endings raw and exposed and these past few days have been insane while we scramble to compensate, re-adjust and re-group.

And did I mention we also switched cubicles and I’m now “in the hot seat??” I.E. the first cubicle, the cubicle everyone stops at instinctively and by default, I now help the most patients on a given day.

It’s a good thing I’m pretty freaking awesome at multi-tasking.

Seriously.

So. We’re down to three schedulers. And when word got around the clinic of what happened, a few girls, from different areas of the clinic, who were interested in possibly applying for the position, picked me, ME, to sit with and “job shadow.” Well. Okay. I’m flattered. But also out of my mind with worry and new things to do … but I kept my cool and I took the time, I pretty much talked through everything I was doing, while they watched, so they would get a better understanding of what, and why, we did things.

I scared one girl off.

The other girl applied for the job.

I just hope, that whomever they choose, has the intelligence to do the job and the mental stamina to keep up with the job.

AND – related to this story, but sort of not – since I work the 8:30 to 5:00 shift and hear things I probably shouldn’t hear my boss talking about in her office when it’s quiet and she has forgotten I’m out there all by my lonesome, I think the hospital administration is looking at re-evaluating our job description. Which NEEDS TO BE DONE because OMG, we do waaaaaaay more than our “official” job description states. And if they determine that we’re doing several duties from several different job descriptions, maybe, maybe, we’ll get a pay raise.

And if that happens, even though I’m not expecting anything huge, then all of this stress will somehow be a little more tolerable.

(Notice I didn’t say worth it).

Kevin has been working non-stop; He hasn’t had a day off in two weeks.

He’s been busy training to be an Intuit Turbo Tax help guy.

So who knows? If you do your taxes through Turbo Tax, and you need help and call the help line, you might end up talking to my husband!

Just keep it tax related, please. *wink*

He’s been going in to his office at 6:30 and coming home after 5:00. He has to be online and ready to learn from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and then he stays after a bit to catch up on his regular clients.

In short, he’s been working like a dog – all of us have, actually. Kevin, me, Dude and now Jazz. Because Kevin has hired Jazz to come in and work about an hour and a half after school because yes, he’s been busy enough to keep both Dude and now Jazz busy with stuff.

The boys are really getting some pretty cool experience in bookkeeping and general accounting tasks.

It’s hard to imagine Dude working at a fast-food restaurant now after doing data entry, cutting checks, filing and whatever else Kevin has him doing on a daily basis.

Kevin is still thrilled to death with Dude’s work performance. He is impressed that Dude gets in there, gets it done and then asks for more work. He doesn’t goof off and he makes good use of his time. In the meantime, Dude is making money and learning how to spend his money wisely. (That costs $10.00?!? Um. No thanks). Now. To make him save some of that money because living on your own ain’t cheap.

When Kevin gets more clients, he’ll be able to afford Dude full time, granted Dude is out of school and WANTS to keep working with his dad. Who knows how that will pan out.

In the meantime, Jazz wants to work for enough money, at least for now, to build himself a new computer. Dude just upgraded his computer, (again), and Jazz is feeling a bit left out. Dude is going to give him his old parts (Dude is generous like that), so Jazz needs to buy a new, bigger case and a new video card, (which are not cheap, by the way).

Kevin is also thinking of adding his logo to the huge sign above his office. Which will look cool, no doubt, but it cost a small fortune. Maybe if he gets another client, he might go ahead with that plan. I’m trying to talk him into moving into a little bigger (nicer?) office closer to home, but he seems pretty attached to his current location (it IS easy to get to – just right off a busy thoroughfare) and he gets along with his landlord, so there’s that.

We can’t even think of going anywhere for vacation until after tax season is over. Which is fine because given my rocky work situation, that probably wouldn’t have worked out that great anyway.

Dude starts back to class on Monday. He’s only taking three classes this semester and one of them is online. I’m glad his work load will be a little lighter – he’s starting to get burned out.

We had to take his car to the garage this past week. Dude said it was acting funny and would accelerate, and then hesitate, leaving him with very little power. He also said the check engine light was on.

But the garage had it for a week, ran it through their machine thingy and said they couldn’t find anything wrong with it.

???????

I think Dude was embarrassed. But honestly, how many times has that sort of thing happened to us? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to the doctor only to be looked at like I was crazy because they couldn’t find anything wrong with me.

Hence the reason I don’t go to the doctor unless I’m dying … or need three feet of my guts cut out.

We think his car troubles may have something to do with the chip in his key. We had to take the car in about a year ago to have the ignition switch replaced and, I don’t know, maybe there is some incompatibility issue with the new switch and the key. Kevin gave Dude one of his spare keys, it doesn’t have a chip, and we’ll see if that helps.

In the meantime, the guy at the garage gave Dude his card and told him if it ever happened again, to just drive to his garage and he would take a look at it. I thought that was awfully nice of the guy – that and he didn’t charge us anything because he couldn’t find anything.

In some ways, I’m sort of glad this happened. It will teach Dude that he needs to have a plan B and that when life throws you a curve ball, you better know how to duck out of the way.

Jazz continues to do well in school. This is it – THE LAST SEMESTER OF HIGH SCHOOL!!!! His last semester grades were good and we’re on the right track this semester. If the kid can keep this up, he’ll have gone through high school without one C on his grade card. Which means, his GPA is pretty decent and with his music experience, he might be eligible for a scholarship/grant.

Which reminds me, I need to start looking into that. Jazz told me he didn’t want to go to college right away. He wants to take the summer off (which, in fairness, we allowed Dude to do before starting college) and that he’s not even sure he wants to go to college. He really wants to find a job right away and start making money.

I will not discourage that route. Make that money. Get a taste of real life, by all means.

I just learned that his jazz band is not going to the Jazz festival in Pittsburgh Kansas this year. I’m TERRIBLY disappointed as I was looking forward to going. In fact, the kids aren’t doing much of anything this year. I wonder why? Jazz did tell me they are having some overnight trip somewhere shortly after he graduates and OF COURSE he wants to go … so I don’t know if I’ll have very much to report on with jazz band this year.

*sniff*