Jun 11

Moving the Furniture

The site remodel is still a work in progress.   I’m working on getting my categories updated and arranged.  I definitely plan to have a section on faith.  I’ve already posted some background information toward that end and I’m collecting material on my church history.  I may decide to make that a sub-category that will be ongoing.  I also plan to make divisions in the general health matters I had before:  one for interesting or important health news, one for exercise, one for recipes and diet info. Since I have a different blog now for my writing, I’m thinking the Creativity category will go away.

This site was in operation for several years as a family sharing site.  It still has photo galleries that belong to other family members.  I’m planning to try making those password protected so they can still get to them, but they will no longer be visible on the menu bar.  I have gallery features in many other places and don’t see this as a place where I want to store photos that don’t apply to the topics being discussed.

I’ve got a new plugin that should let me run several blog pages at once so that different categories post to individual pages instead of everything being lumped together.  I haven’t played with it yet, so I’m not sure exactly how it will work out, but it’s definitely a goal I’m working on setting up. I’m excited.  Broadening my horizons is always fun.

Check back every few days.  Things will be sporadic until the new schedule falls into place.   I’m working toward posting here at least twice and maybe three times a week.  I’ve postponed the church history piece because I’ve got more research materials on the way.  Tomorrow I’ll be doing a memoir piece.

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Jun 06

Readers Workouts Report ~ June 6, 2012

This past week has been disorganized to say the least.  Most of my exercise was organic.  Walking around the grocery store for an hour may not do much aerobically, but it does burn calories.  I did walk around the park trail last Wednesday.  Thursday’s routine was limited to shopping and packing for Friday’s roadtrip.  In other words, nothing measurable, but better than sitting at the keyboard all day.

Friday became an exercise in torture.  Part of our roadtrip plan was to drive to Louisville without using the Interstates.  That led to us finding Ft. Duffield, a civil war supply base near Fort Knox.  Where we parked, there was a sign that said the Fort was a half mile hike.  It was obvious that the beginning to the trail was a pretty steep hill but, we expected it to level out.  It never did.  The whole half mile was uphill!  The actual fort layout was a series of steep embankments.  We hiked around there for a half hour or so, then walked the half mile down hill.  It was definitely aerobic.

Saturday’s “workout” consisted of wandering around the Renaissance Faire at Eminence, Ky  for a couple of hours.  Not aerobic, but still a calorie burning exercise.

Sunday was spent visiting with family and driving back home, then going to a movie, but that’s normal workout-wise since Sunday isn’t usually an active day for me anyway.

Monday I went with my brother to Nashville.  He had an eye doctor appointment and they dilated his eyes so I drove back.  According to Livestrong, where I track my diet and exercise, driving a light vehicle counts as exercise.  Unfortunately, we stopped for Ice Cream along the way, so Monday was pretty much a wash.

Tuesday was another lost cause.  I slept late, didn’t get any writing done, went out to lunch with the photo club, and ran errands all afternoon. The only exercise I got was tearing down the family computer and helping carry it out to my brother’s vehicle so he could take it to be repaired.  (And no, I will not be letting them use mine while theirs is in the shop.)

So, the past week was not a success.  What with all the eating out over the weekend, I’ve even gained back three of the 12 pounds I had lost.  I will keep working at it though.  It isn’t just about losing weight.  It’s more about staying active and gaining strength.  I exercise to stave off a genetic tendency toward high blood pressure and diabetes, to help keep my arthritis at bay, and to improve my breathing.  It also provides socialization when I walk in the park and meditation time when I go about the neighborhood alone.  This morning I did almost a mile.  A new week has begun.

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May 29

The Second Great Awakening

The Great Awakenings were periods when Christians re-examined their religion and searched for better ways to reconnect with God on a personal basis.  The Second Great Awakening took place in the United States in the early nineteenth century and led to what became known as the Restoration Movement.

Barton Stone

The movement continued from around 1790 until 1870.  It gathered millions of worshipers and resulted in the formation of many new denominations.  Camp Meetings spread across the frontier and sometimes ran for weeks.  One of the largest gatherings was held at Cane Ridge in Kentucky during 1801.  Nearly 20,000 people gathered to hear Baptist, Presbyterian and Methodist ministers.  Featured prominently in this group were Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell.

Alexander Campbell

Stone and Campbell are known as the founders of the Disciples of Christ denomination.

Today’s Disciples Church works industriously toward the unity of all Christians.  It is active in mission work throughout the world with many organizational arms working toward this goal.

The First Christian church in Madisonville, KY that my family and I attend was established in the 1800s and has been actively serving our community ever since.  Next week’s post will discuss that history.

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May 29

We Interrupt this Program….for a health and exercise update.

Later today, I’ll be adding a post about the Campbell/Stone movement that was the foundation for my church denomination.  This post is in addition to the regular schedule and I expect this to be the case on a regular basis.

One of the new categories I’m working on adding is called “Health Matters.”  I expect it to mostly deal with senior health issues.  Today, as I was checking out my MNINB writing group, I found a Tweet by  Joy Weese Moll about a group she is starting over at Joy’s Book Blog.  I’ve registered for her exercise group and will be tracking and posting about it here fairly regularly.  I hope it will encourage me to stay with the program this time.  Usually I start off the year with determination and drop out when summer heat interferes.  This year I want to find ways to keep with a workout routine all year long.

 

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May 22

My Church Background

I was raised in the church.  When I say church, I don’t mean Protestant or Catholic, I mean Christian.  We attended the First Christian Church in my hometown, but my real religious education came from bible readings and devotionals at the dinner table every night.  In the beginning, it was just listening while Mom or Daddy read but, as soon as we were old enough,we shared the responsibility.  We’d take turns reading the scripture or the meditation.  Sometimes Mom would do the prayer, at others one of us would read from the Upper Room or Guidepost.  I didn’t even realize until years later that everyone else didn’t necessarily perform this ritual.

I was baptized when I was 10 or 11.  To be honest, I’m not sure exactly when because it wasn’t a big milestone at our house.  It was just part of the routine, like starting school when you were six.  My cousin, who was the same age and my best friend, went in at the same time.  It was expected…normal.  We didn’t even consider what it meant, at the time, we just did it because it was time.

My real conversion came much later in life, but that’s a story being told elsewhere.  In later years, I sometimes attended other churches with friends and it was a real shock to find out how restrictive some of them were.  Our church teaches that we have a responsibility to study the bible ourselves.  To pray and reach out to God and make our own decisions about the right and wrong of living a Christian life.  We have no creed to follow unless you consider taking communion every Sunday a creed.  As I learned more about our denomination, how it started, what it stood for, my pride in my church became almost sinful.  Finally, it just became my history.

Over the next few weeks, I plan to share that history with you.  I hope you will find it enlightening and inspirational.

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