Thank you all for your great ideas on getting my office organized. My friend Joanne is coming over today for lunch and I am looking forward to getting her two cents in person. When I get some of your suggestions implemented, I will post a new picture of my office. Doesn't that sound like a HGTV show? "Stay tuned for the big reveal of Wendy's new and improved office, where she can actually find things!"
Okay, so are you ready for organizational issue #2? The car. Out of respect for Pete and in order to not ruin my father's entire day, I am not posting a picture of the inside of our minivan. Instead, I'll give you a true story from last weekend which will illustrate the state of our car pretty well. Last Saturday after Sarah's soccer game we headed downtown to Elitch Gardens (an amusement park). On the way there, Sarah decided she did not like the outfit she had picked out. I said, "I'm sorry, that's too bad." Sarah replied, "Isn't great that our car is full of stuff, I'll just find another outfit." And she did - shirt, shorts, and even another pair of socks. Sarah was thrilled, I was horrified. Why is all this stuff in our car!
Twice this summer, when we have been out of town, my wonderful father has completely cleaned out our car. Within, days it is full of stuff again. My dad likes to tease the girls that they shouldn't bring anything they like out to our car because we must have the rule that once something goes in the car it can never return to the house. Ahh sometimes it feels that way.
So here are my questions; what does the inside of your car look like? If it doesn't look like mine, what family rules do you have in place to keep it cleaned up? Do you have any nifty car organizing tricks to share? Bring on the suggestions, I can't wait to read them.
The mobile playroom/kitchen/laundry room/garabe can
I have got to get organized!
Okay, I mean it. I have to get organized. Many of you who know me are laughing, and that's okay. I hope some of you are saying, "Amen, me too sister!" And, I hope a few more of you are saying, "I can help you with that." Praise you if you can, the good Lord knows that my parents tried for years. They still try. My poor mother-in-law who is a very clean and orderly lady, is frequently appalled by me. In her house, everything has a place, and she puts it back there. She has tried to create this system in my house, working herself ragged when she visited, but sadly it never sticks. Now don't get me wrong, my house is clean, it's just not organized. We waste so much time as a family looking for lost shoes, shin guards, library books, phone numbers – you get the picture. It drives me nuts.
For the next week or so I am going to talk about some organizational challenges I am having, and I hope you'll share your ideas and solutions with me. If you are a big mess like me and you have an organizational challenge you would like some help with, write to me and I will include it.
It's been awhile since I have had a monthly drawing, so I am going to host a drawing this month for a $10 gift card to Target. Use your gift card to buy file folders, labels, plastic tubs, whatever you may need to help get organized too! Every time you leave a comment between now and Oct 10th, you will be entered in the drawing.
So today's challenge – my office. I have wanted my own office for 10 years. In our new house, I finally have one. It has a great walk in closet, plenty of room and opportunities, yet as you see – it's a big mess. It seems to be the dumping ground for school, church and house paperwork. There are piles of the kids' artwork mixed in with books for writing projects, crafts and family photos. So how do you organize your home office or workspace? Start sending in those ideas, and get entered in the drawing.
A review of The Faith of Barack Obama by Stephen Mansfield
A few weeks ago, Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson, announced the release of The Faith of Barack Obama by Stephen Mansfield. He offered a copy of the book to bloggers who would read the book and post a review. Here is my review.
The book cover of The Faith of Barack Obama reads in part, "In this fair-minded but inspiring account of Obama's faith, New York Times best selling author Stephen Mansfield takes you inside the theology of Barack Obama, inside the church that has been his spiritual home , and inside the battles of faith that have shaped his politics." If Mansfield had written a book to fulfill that description, it would have been a useful and insightful tool for voters seeking to understand Obama's faith this election season. Yet, Mansfield's surprisingly brief book falls significantly short of this goal. The book is notable for what it lacks nearly as much as for what it contains. Namely, the book lacks any interviews with Barack Obama, his family, his former pastor or his current one. A void that is evident throughout the book.
While I applaud Thomas Nelson for publishing a book about the faith of a Democratic candidate, at times I wondered what the motive was behind publishing this book. The editing is clearly biased. One pullout quote reads, "Barack accompanied Lolo to a nearby mosque on Fridays and prayed at his side for the blessings of Allah." In the text, that sentence actually starts with the word "occasionally." It is an important word, as Mansfield asserts that Barack is not and never has been a Muslim. But a reader scanning the book would be left with a very different impression.
Mansfield spends an inordinate amount of time covering the black theology of the 1960's. If Obama's own faith statement was framed through the vocabulary of black theology than the time spent elaborating on the roots of this belief system would make sense. But since it does not, this section of the book can leave suspicious readers believing that Obama studies James Cone's Black Theology and Black Power instead of the Holy Bible.
In the fifth chapter, Mansfield compares the faiths' of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain and George W Bush. The comparisons are written along predictable Republican Party lines (Mansfield is very open about the fact that he's not voting for Obama.) McCain's lack of comments regarding his faith is painted as the stoic and gentlemanly demeanor of a man from a bygone era. There is no mention of the fact that he cheated on his first wife and applied for a license for his second marriage eight days before his divorce was final. McCain has never been baptized into nor joined the North Phoenix Baptist Church where he attends with his wife Cindy. Instead of using this information to take a critical look at McCain's faith, Mansfield instead endearingly calls him a "maverick." In the concluding paragraph of the chapter Mansfield says in referring to Obama,
"His face stands out among them all. It is black. It is under fifty in 2008. It is Christian in a nontraditional sense…. It is progressive and social justice and the most liberal face of all." (pg 127)
Any reader who had gotten through the first four chapters of the book thinking this was an unbiased look at Obama, should have no misconception about that by page 127.
In conclusion, if voters want to understand Barrack Obama's faith, they should go straight to the source. Either one of Obama's very well written books will shed light on who he is and what he believes. His website is also a good source of information. Although this was not a glowing review, I commend Thomas Nelson for even publishing this book. They have received an unbelievable amount of negative reactions from the Christian Right for publishing a book about a democrat. I was shocked to see the level of anger and hatred personally aimed at Michael Hyatt when he announced this book on his blog. It is vital to the democratic process that information is made available through all sorts of venues about the candidates our country is considering. When publishers are corporately and personally attacked for publishing a book about a candidate affiliated with the "wrong" party, our nation is in a very sad state. It is made even sadder yet that the attacks are done in the name of Jesus Christ, The Prince of Peace.
