I'm moving!

I've never been truly comfortable with blogging so that the whole world can read it. I prefer to write about how my life and feelings play into my opinions and beliefs and I don't feel safe doing so quite so publicly as on Blogger. I have a LiveJournal account for my most personal writings where I choose every single pair of eyes that reads each post, and now I'm moving my "public" posts to the blog on my page on the Wittenberg Trail community. If you'd like to keep up with me, that's where you can find me. I feel much more comfortable posting where the readers are all registered users, the men are (mostly) pastors and the kindred spirits are above average. ;)

I'm not saying that I'll never post here again, but, I am saying that I don't plan to post here in the future. So, come join me on the trail!

MIA

I guess I should post something. People on WT keep asking if I'm okay, and now I've received a comment or two here. Yes, as a matter of fact, I have fallen off the face of the earth. Just kidding.

I have no excuse. I just haven't posted anything. I have 3 blogs. My personal LiveJournal account, where all my entries are locked. Only a select few people can read it. I have my portraiture business blog, which I haven't updated since last fall. And I have this blog. When I blog I prefer to be very candid and transparent. I don't feel comfortable doing that here, and I don't think it's professional to do that on my biz blog. Thus, everything I have to say ends up behind locked doors on LJ. (Oh wait, I have the petition blog too, but that's kind of moot now that Issues, Etc. is back.)

I am alive and well. We've been very busy. My daughter has been in the hospital a couple of times, but she's doing fine. We tore up our carpeting and had the hardwood repaired and refinished. We painted. We got new baseboards. I've been stalking craigslist for furniture that can double as posing props for the studio. I got a neat chaise lounger (fainting sofa) off ebay for $61, but it needs to be reupholstered. I got a sweet purple wingback chair for $25, but it's out with Furniture Medic getting repaired. I scored a leather wingback chair with brass tacks for $25 bucks at the Salvation Army store. We sold our Ikea entertainment center, and got a new bookshelf and I painted a nifty cabinet from the Salvation Army for our TV and components. I got a couple of rugs for the floor to make it cozy.

We still need some drywall work but the contractor I wanted to hire flaked out on me. The other contractor I talked to gave me a lowball price and then offered to include 3 other drywall repairs in the price. That just seemed fishy to me. So, we have two incompleted walls with painted paneling that I DETEST.

We ripped out some overgrown bushes and put in some plants. I got a 3 piece wicker furniture set for the porch for $20. We even unloaded all our old lava rock by posting it on Craigslist.

My husband is running for.. something. I don't want to say here which office he's running for.

We changed churches. I loved where we were going, but we felt it didn't offer much more than a beautiful, reverent and historic liturgy. We wanted something with a school (other children), adult catechism and other classes, opportunities for fellowship, and places to serve. Now that we've found all that, it feels like we've also encountered compromise. I've decided that I don't like the 3 year lectionary. I don't like it when the liturgy changes every week, and I REALLY REALLY want weekly communion. I miss that the most. It doesn't feel like church without sacrament. The sermons are longer, but they seem lacking in the law AND gospel. It's like... minimal law and watered down gospel. I can get that elsewhere. Where is the Lutheran Faith (and practice) that I read about on WT, and hear about on Issues, Etc.? Do I have to drive to Hamel every Sunday to find it? I realize that no church is perfect, but I don't want modern mainstream Lutheranism. I want historical, confessional Lutheranism.

And, I must say, Lutheranism is a lonely, isolating faith. I feel out of touch with the American "evangelical" Christianity that was the only Christianity I knew for 19 years. I can't relate to much of it. CCM music and "contemporary" worship... the theology of glory... it's all become foreign to me. I feel like I converted on a much larger scale. Even though I've only converted from non-denominational to Lutheran, I feel like I just converted from Hindu to Islam. It seems that significantly different. I feel like I have little in common with most Christians. I used to be very anti-romanist, and now I feel more of a kinship with Catholics and Orthodox than I do with mainstream Christianity. I just can't seem to find a Lutheran church that fits my faith. Most of them seem too mainstream. Isn't that screwed up and sad? I want local fellowship and reverent liturgical worship with other Confessional Lutherans. Is that too much to ask for?

Okay, thanks for letting me vent.

News Story

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/religion/story/2AA6C162EE5AE3EA8625742C001087AA?OpenDocument

more photos: http://thewretch.blogspot.com/2008/04/why.html

Hostage situation

It never was my grandfather's church. It's Christ's church... now GIVE IT BACK!

Adding a graphic banner to your blogger header

When you’re logged in, go to the template tab, and the page elements link. It says “add a page element” for your sidebar, but it doesn’t offer you that at the top by your blog title. You have to edit the code to give yourself the ability to add an element.

To have an “Add a Page Element” option, under “Template”, click “Edit HTML”.Scroll down and towards the bottom, you will see these lines:-

<div id='header-wrapper'> <b:section class='header' id='header' maxwidgets='1' showaddelement='no'>

Change them to this:-

<div id='header-wrapper'> <b:section class='header' id='header' maxwidgets='3' showaddelement='yes'>

This will give you 2 more page elements that you can add to your Header.

Right after that are these lines:-

<div id='main-wrapper'> <b:section class='main' id='main' showaddelement='no'>

Change them to this:-

<div id='main-wrapper'> <b:section class='main' id='main' showaddelement='yes'>

You are now able to add Page Elements at both the top and bottom of your blog.

Once these are done, Save the Template. Click the “Page Elements” tab, and you will now see “Add a Page Element” option at the top of the Header and Blog Posts. Click Add a Page Element and select “Picture”. You should be able to click Edit on your Picture page element. You can upload your banner here.

Once you’ve got your banner showing, you’ll probably want to remove the old title. You’ve got to go back and edit the html once more.

Go to Template -> Edit HTML.Scroll to where you see this code where your blog title is shown in the part marked orange:-

<b:widget id='Header1' locked='true' title='YOUR BLOG TITLE (Header)' type='Header'/>

Change the locked='true' to locked='false'. Save and click the “Page Elements”tab. When you “Edit” your Header, you will now see a “Remove Page Element”option. Remove it if you want, and refresh the your home page. You should no longer see your title displayed.

Remove border around Header

When you go to Template -> Edit HTML, you will see somewhere near the top a style defined for the #header-wrapper and #header. There is a setting for the border. It may be at 1px width with a solid, dotted or whatever line, of a certain color. To remove the border, either delete this setting entirely or change the 1px to 0px width. Preview the template and if you like what you see,save it. There were two places that I changed from 1px to 0px. That’s it. Then you’re all done.

Mar 16:15 the Kieschnick translation

And He said to them, "Go into all the world and market the gospel to the whole creation.

*rolls eyes*

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Anyone reading this blog? I'm feeling kind of alone.