Jul 31, 2009

My Dad is a Genius...Again



So, I think I must be growing up right along side my wife...



I am reading (er, rather listening) to my first ever non-fiction book.



I recently purchased the audiobook version of The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman (wiki bio here). I have found the book to be nothing short of extraordinary so far.



"Why," you might ask, "have you all of the sudden grown a strange and rather potent desire to read non-fiction, historical, and/or classic literature?" I will tell you why.



Because my Dad is a genius.



"What in the world do you mean by that, Chris?" You are now asking...It's honestly rather simple. Let me connect my seemingly disconnected thoughts.



For years, my father has been telling me to be careful about who I spend my time with, to be careful what movies I watch, to be careful what music I listen to, and to be careful with what I watch on tv.



Again, "why?" right? His favorite example of why I needed to be careful was the "like" phenomenon. We've all experienced this. The "Valley Girl" Syndrome, if you will. I got to college and all of the sudden people everywhere were using this 4-letter word to fill in for our collective lack of phonetic forethought.



"I, like, really, like, love, like, the like, beer, like, at the, like Dixie Chicken...Like, it's the best."

...or...

"I was like...and then she was like...and then he like butted in and was like..."

"But, Chris, my friends and I aren't nearly that bad. We aren't the blonde bimbos on tv who talk like that."

I dare you to count how many times your friends say, "like" the next time you talk on the phone. You will be sick to your stomach."

(I personally hate it when I use that word. That wretched, four-letter word. I swear my Dad thinks that I use it all of the time. The fact of the matter is that I know he counts how many times I use it in a sentence when we're talking, and so I start to like get nervous when we're like talking because I know he's like counting how many like times I say like. That's, however, neither here nor like there.)

The reason why it matters - the reason why my dad is a genius for counseling me to watch those things - is because we learn to speak, think, and write based on the examples that we are surrounded by. We are surrounded by our acquaintances and friends who watch "Real World", "The Bachelor", or a rambling Paula Abdul on "American Idol." Whether we realize it or not, the things that we watch, read, and listen to program our vocabulary, moral compass, and thought patterns. If you hang around people who say "like" all the time, you are going to say "like." Period.

So I have begun to listen to The Guns of August. I listen because I want to speak more intelligently. I listen because I want to be a more educated person. I listen because it was JFK's favorite book. I listen because it occasionally intimidates me with words that I have to go look up afterward.

I will read and listen to Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, John Adams, and Clive Lewis because they were truly great men and truly great writers.

In summary: I love to write, I love to encourage people, and I love to defend my world view. I am committed to doing all of these at a higher level than I am currently able to. I'm going to begin my quest by reading about and listening to people who are smarter than I am. (Feel free to insert the, "That shouldn't be hard to find." joke here...)

Love you, Dad. You're still teaching me whether you realize it or not.

The Younger Mr. Hill

Communicating

I was in 8th grade when I first really got into AOL instant messaging, but I had been first introduced to it in 6th grade.

7th grade is when I remember really coming to grips with grammar and punctuation. Please note this is after learning to read in America and then attending the rest of elementary ( or primary ) school in Scotland where many things are spelled differently. So, in 7th grade English class when my teacher was introducing us to the appositive something snapped in my head and suddenly I got it - punctuation and grammar.

Then in 8th grade I began talking to friends on Instant Messenger. One year after I truly began to understand and apply punctuation and grammar I realized that it was totally not cool to use grammar, punctuation of any sort, capital letters, or fully spelled out words on AIM. Thus began my demise into a world that discriminated against proper communication. I can even remember the first time someone typed "LOL," and I had to ask what that meant! I can even remember emailing friends and getting emails back that consisted of one sentence that was 6 lines long.

Please know that, even as I write this, I recognize the fact that I fall short of correctness in this area everyday. I believe it was the beginning of my Junior year in High School when my English teacher was again trying to show us how to write a proper and well structured sentence that I became totally and utterly confused regarding the matter. She completely stole away my rules that I had used to apply punctuation to my writing. Rules that had always worked for me and actually helped me get 100's on my TAAS English test - who cares? Anyways, I left totally defenseless and confused when it came to punctuation because of this one teacher. Since that time I have sought to regain my footing in this area, but I am still quite a bit behind.

I write this here blog not to show off my literary ability. It is obvious that I do not posses the proper skills required for bragging. I simply write this little blog to say my generation is at a loss when it comes to reading and writing. We have grown up in the social media world where the rules are stretched and changed leaving us at a disadvantage. This disadvantage - which affects us probably more than it affects other people - leaves us without the proper tools to communicate how we think and feel in the most powerful ways. Yes, we do have many more mediums available to us where we can post, text, tweet, blog, email, message our little hearts out. Those mediums are powerful in the sense that they reach large numbers of people and are easy to use. So my question is this: Are we communicating at such a high quantity on so many different mediums that we have lost the art of communication? Do we still remember how to write a well structured sentence?

I have to confess that I am intimated by the challenge of writing a properly structured sentence. Sometimes I am afraid that there is this punctuation Czar out there ready to smite me because I used a comma incorrectly. I hate that! I mean I hope there is a punctuation Czar out there, we desperately need one. I just hate that I have to be intimidated of him or her because I feel that I fall short of their expectations.

I know that I've made many spelling, punctuation, and grammar mistakes on this blog and have probably made many on this particular post. I am just simply saying that my generation and the generations after us all need to pay particular attention to how we write, because we do not want to the lose the power of our words!

Right?

Jul 30, 2009

God answers prayer!

Two weeks ago Chris and I were able to pray for this awesome young mama at church.

It was extremely emotional and God definitely did some work. We were very thankful for the opportunity to pray for such a hungry soul.

Well yesterday I received an email from this young mama letting me know that God had healed her heart and answered her prayers. She wanted to let us to know so she could give God glory for what He has done in her life. He has radically transformed her heart and made it new!


I just wanted to share this because I know WE ALL need our hearts and lives touched by Jesus at many times of our life. If you are anything like me you might sometime go a little too long before casting everything at Jesus's feet and letting Him know you cannot handle it all. Sometimes we all just need a little reminder that JESUS HEALS and HEARS OUR PRAYER!

Just a little shout out - God wants to hear from me and you and he wants our heart!

Jul 29, 2009

Everything but the kitchen sink

Life happens.

I have been contemplating recently how life can just happen if you are not thoughtful on how you live each day and how you spend your time. I am sure this is a result of growing up and becoming more mature - recognizing the need to live each day to its fullest and thinking about all those little things. Lately I have been really thinking about how to be a good wife, good cook, good housekeeper, good friend, and all the while staying fit and healthy. All the while submitting myself to the dreams and destinies God has for me while staying sane and not going crazy.

This is what a regular day looks like for me:

5:40 - get up and make Chris breakfast and lunch
6:00 - walk Chris out to the car with his breakfast and lunch, kiss him, pray for him, send him on
his way
6:05 - 6:35 - Coffee and Quiet time
6:40 - Make up, Hair, get Dressed - usually i will listen to a sermon while i am doing this
7:10 - Make lunch and breakfast for myself
7;25 - Gather all the bags I have to take to work
7:30 - Drive to work
8:00 - Begin my work day and all that it consists of
11:30 - Eat lunch with my mom :)
12:00 - Usually I try to take 15 to 20 minutes to plan errands, groceries, and all that other stuff
5:15 - Go home and call people on my drive home
5:45 - Get home and begin dinner
6:00 - Try to squeeze a workout in - which lately I have been successful in doing 3-4 times a week
7:00 - Eat dinner
7:30 - Sit on the couch with my hubby totally exhausted still having TONS of other things to do
8:45 - Clean kitchen / house / any other activities that I need or want to do
9:30 - 10:00 - Bed time :)

Pretty busy huh? Probably not as busy as you, but yes I am still pretty busy.

So in the last week or so I have found myself growing up a bit and doing things that I used to really resist doing. For example: keeping the kitchen clean daily, working out as often as possible, calling all the people I need to call, keeping the house clean and tidy, doing all the errands and grocery shopping, and on and on. This past Monday as I was unloading the dishwasher thinking about everything I realized that I have started to get a grasp on my schedule and my business. Finally I have started to feel like I can handle all this and maybe a little more! Maybe I am not going to go crazy :) Maybe I am going to live life to the fullest and do all sorts of things (hopefully with excellence) ....

Ok - So that was one topic, and since I have not blogged in awhile I thought I would leave ya'll with some more random thoughts.

I am a pretty avid blog reader. I love other people's blogs. I love to read about how other people approach life in any way shape or form. Recently I realized that I am much more comfortable discussing deep issues on this here blog of mine that I am telling you all what Chris and I did this past weekend! I have no idea why? Maybe it is because I do not feel like telling everyone what we did this past weekend will actually help or encourage anybody, YET I love to read what everyone else did on their weekends - makes me feel like I know whats going on with them. Yet to tell the blogosphere what we did makes me feel like I am divulging too much personal information to the world, and again YET I am totally comfortable telling the world my most deep thoughts and feelings! Someone please explain that to me!!!!!

On to another topic - just to keep you all interested and maybe moderately confused!

As a young married woman I talk to a lot of people about marriage. I talk to a lot of other young married women about marriage. Last fall on this blog Chris and I committed to ya'll that we would discuss marriage topics and things we have learned and applied to our marriage. Simply for the benefit of you all to just know how and what we do. In the simple hope that maybe our stories and advice will encourage you on a hard day, or give you some ammunition when you do have a hard day.

So - I wanted to share with you all the best piece of marriage advice I have EVER gotten. I got it from an incredibly wise woman named Martha who goes to the church my parents go to, and she gave it to me as my wedding shower. Now the shower Houston Worship Centre threw for me was incredible because all the women there were asked to write me a card telling me the best piece of advice they could give about marriage. It was awesome because most of the women there had been married 15 plus years. Now Ms. Martha has been married for a very long time and it is very obvious that she respects her husband and he respects her and it is obvious they are still very much in love. At my wedding shower she shared with me this verse:
" Wives, be subject (be submissive and adapt yourselves) to your own husbands as a [service] to the Lord." Ephesians 5:22
Now do not tune me out and think I am being all legalistic. I am NOT. I am sharing with you one of my best kept secrets where the Lord really revealed something cool to me through Ms. Martha. This particular verse is out of the amplified Bible and uses the word adapt - unlike many other versions. Ms. Martha explained to me that I must expect to adapt myself to my husband so that we can be joined together as one person. She explained that I must not bring all these crazy expectations into my marriage about how I want my husband to be, but that I must enter marriage with the expectation of adapting and becoming like my husband. That means that instead of wanting to come in and change him, that I needed to come into marriage and change for him. Now again - do not get all upset and tune me out. I brought a lot of good things to mine and Chris's marriage. I am not a carbon copy of Chris and I never will be, but I came in with that expectation Chris and I would be able to create something new for ourselves and our family. So Chris was able to mold and shape our family with out feeling like I was out to control his every move. And - do you know what happened??? I ended up getting exactly what I wanted because I gave up control and was willing to go with the flow and adapt myself to my husband. Sounds crazy huh? It totally worked and I can honestly tell you being joined with another human being was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be because I entered expecting to be joined instead of expecting to mold him to look like me! :)


Ok - ready for another topic change?

Last night I made chicken pastina by Giada and man was it yummy! I highly recommend adding this to your repertoire of recipes. I did make a few changes (like I always do):
  • I marinated the chicken in Italian dressing and soy sauce and grilled it
  • I used about a cup of bread crumbs and 1/2 cup of Parmesan (instead of 1/4 cup of each
Also the night before I made BBQ salmon and man was it yummy! Another recipe that I highly recommend! I found this recipe on faithful provisions. com (see on my blog for link).

Just click the links to find the recipe


ONE more topic change!

So I thought it would be appropriate to tell ya'll what we did last weekend, since I feel I need to be better about updating you all on our lives.

Friday: Chris and I went down to the Heights in Houston and ate dinner with Silva and she let us spend the night with her. We ate at this awesome Mexican / Cuban restaurant called El Rey which was really yummy! After that we went back to her apartment and hung out with some friends and made these drinks called Cable Cars.
Saturday: Chris went home and Silva and I had lunch with Liz - which was fun :)
Saturday night: Chris and I had dinner with a couple from his work at Good Co BBQ (really yummy)
Sunday: My dad had this business man from Pakistan come for lunch, so we did not get to go to church. Instead the entire family had to quickly clean the house and make a super gourmet meal, and then entertain this new business man. I made this incredible Texas sheet cake that was literally out of this world! After that I went to the HEB to do the grocery shopping and then we had dinner and watched The Next Foodnetwork star!

So that is what we did last weekend!

Now that I have talked about 15 different subjects I will leave it at that. Hope all is well in your world! If you feel like sharing any good stories with us please do!

Jul 14, 2009

Am I Dead Yet? (Update)

Made it through Level 1 on Sunday night.

I only cheated on 4-5 pushups...during the pushup session that lasted for over a minute straight.

Why does body weight stuff have to be so hard for us oversized folk?

This workout is seriously hard but really fun, and (best of all) it can be accomplished in very little time.

It's worth the time and money for the DVD. Check it out.

Mr. Hill

Jul 6, 2009

Am I dead yet???


So, it's time for another installment of Shameless Hill Family Promotion. (For those of you new comers to our little blog, here's what we mean by SHFP.)


I have to admit...when my little wifey told me that she had ordered the 30 Day Shred Workout video by Jillian Michaels, I was undoubtedly dubious.


I probably thought something like, "A workout DVD...are you kidding me?" Needless to say, I didn't have too many expectataions for the difficulty or long term viability of this little DVD. After all, how hard could some workout video be that only lasted 20 minutes anyway?


...Fast forward to a week ago, as I do the work out video with Jess for the second time, on only level 2 out of 3....


"DEAR, GOD, HOW DOES THIS CRAZY WOMAN EXPECT ME TO DO THAT??? DON'T PASS OUT, DON'T PASS OUT...YOU CAN'T DIE, JESS WOULD NEVER LET YOU LIVE THAT DOWN. KEEP GOING."


Needless to say, I now stand, a little more sore, a little more humble, and very impressed with this cheap and fast workout. Thus, the 30 Day Shred earns the SHFP banner.


Tonight I think we'll see if I can make it the whole way through level 1 without cheating. (It's harder when you have the arms of an albatross and weigh 230 lbs, ok?)


Soon to follow...Chris's new man tires :)


Mr. Hill