From a Cluttered Desk

I am Tammy Cardwell, she of the cluttered desk. (Hey, you think I'm kidding?!) I'm having a blast here in Blogland and invite to you to peruse my ramblings. Like a buffet, they offer variety - essentially whatever makes it to the top of the piles that sometimes clutter my brain. We'll eventually cover it all - homeschooling, God, our church, the Eclectic Homeschool Online, books I'm writing and publishing, conferences I speak at, the joys of grandmotherhood, and hopefully chocolate. Of course, this is only what's near the top now. Who knows what's in those piles?

I’ve mentioned before…I think…that in another life I’d be an archeologist. So it shouldn’t surprise that this article caught my attention right away.

Do these mysterious stones mark the site of the Garden of Eden?

Now, I am not EVEN going to touch that speculation, but the article does raise some fascinating points, like their conclusion that this site predates settled human life. The stones show fantastic sophistication when you consider what scientists have always said about our ancestors that lived that long ago.

Here’s a snippet.

The first is its staggering age. Carbon-dating shows that the complex is at least 12,000 years old, maybe even 13,000 years old.

That means it was built around 10,000BC. By comparison, Stonehenge was built in 3,000 BC and the pyramids of Giza in 2,500 BC.

Gobekli is thus the oldest such site in the world, by a mind-numbing margin. It is so old that it predates settled human life. It is pre-pottery, pre-writing, pre-everything. Gobekli hails from a part of human history that is unimaginably distant, right back in our hunter-gatherer past.

How did cavemen build something so ambitious? Schmidt speculates that bands of hunters would have gathered sporadically at the site, through the decades of construction, living in animal-skin tents, slaughtering local game for food.

The many flint arrowheads found around Gobekli support this thesis; they also support the dating of the site.

This revelation, that Stone Age hunter-gatherers could have built something like Gobekli, is worldchanging, for it shows that the old hunter-gatherer life, in this region of Turkey, was far more advanced than we ever conceived - almost unbelievably sophisticated.

Read the article. It’s fascinating!

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

A friend recently forwarded a Flylady email about Lent and how it’s about self discipline in general, which is much more impactful than what little I knew about it (basically just giving things up for Lent). I’d already been thinking in terms of Ash Wednesday and almost wishing I could attend an Ash Wednesday service, so when I read what others were saying about having the self-discipline to declutter their lives during Lent they got my attention.

See, my house is a wreck…a disaster…a pig sty. My work schedule, and the exhaustion my work produced, over the past six months has meant that I had nothing left in me to clean/organize/etc. when I got home, but my husband (God love him, but he’s not a picker-upper and he is a packrat) has been home pretty much all day every day making things worse. So today we (Yep, WE - he took part willingly) began a new discipline. For at least the next 40 days we’re going to spend ten minutes a day tossing STUFF and doing some real cleaning.

I know. For most of you this probably sounds ridiculously simple, but when you’re as behind as we are it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Even so, assuming the time is in the schedule, we can do ANYthing (Well, almost) for ten minutes a day, so we’re starting there. The key, of course, is to also do it tomorrow…and the next day…and the next…

Which is why I’m posting about it here. I’m thinking about this thing called accountability, and now I know that every person who reads this knows what I’m supposed to be doing and I’ll have to answer, in a sense, if I fail to follow through. There’s nothing like making a public declaration to force yourself to do something.

Blessings!!!!

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Aren’t social tools wonderful? Several weeks ago, I set up a facebook account. Unlike the MySpace account, which I hardly ever used, this account has become a wonderful way to stay in at least token contact with people, to keep up with what they’re doing. While I was working as a CSL at Bath & Body Works, I missed so much church that a friend said, "I see you more on facebook than I do here!" This wasn’t a good thing, of course, but at least she WAS seeing me on facebook, and I was seeing her, her photos, and what she was up to.

Now that I’m working at the church full time, I’ll not need it so desperately to stay in touch with local friends, but I will have even more time to use it to contact and touch those who are further away. I’ve found a friend from high school on facebook. I’ve reunited with friends I used to know ten years or so ago on facebook. For never thinking I’d have any real use for such things, I’m discovering that it’s a rather helpful place to stop in on occasion.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Change is coming for ME.

A couple of weeks ago (Two weeks come Monday, actually), my pastor asked if I would consider taking a full-time position at our church. I didn’t have to consider the question; I’d been considering it for years. I jumped at the chance.

So today is my last official day as a "full-time" CSL at Bath and Body Works. I will work one more day as a CSL next week, to help out with the transition, but after that I go back to being a part time (VERY part time) sales associate. I get to keep my fun work-with-the-customers job there, but I also get to move into my dream job where I can work on things that are more eternal.

Yeppers. Tammy be very happy.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Remember an earlier post I made about Neil Diamond helping Oak Island? Well, my local paper (The Baytown Sun) has an update.

OAK ISLAND — Entertainer Neil Diamond is building homes in Oak Island. And soon.

Eddie Shauberger, Oak Island Baptist Church pastor, said the first phase of the project will begin later this month when representatives of the so-called “Jewish Elvis” arrive in the Chambers County community to begin signing up people whose homes were destroyed last fall by Hurricane Ike.

“Everybody keeps asking about Neil Diamond. ‘Is that a hoax? Is that really real?’” said Shauberger, who, with his wife Cindy, has headed up hurricane relief efforts in the town of 500 south of Anahuac.

“It’s really real. Neil Diamond is coming through with his promise. We’re in the implementing stage and, obviously, everybody is excited.”

Surely you want to read the whole thing!

Diamond’s Oak Island relief gets Grammy boost

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

It’s no secret that the Word has been the big "thing" in my life for the past two plus years. First, I set out to read it through in a year, and did; then I determiend to read it through more quickly, and I did. Having read it a second time, I began again… I believe the least amount of time I took to read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation was 86 days…or was it 68 days? Whichever.

I’ve shared here and in workshops that this concentration on the Word (which really only takes an average of 30 minutes a day) has made changes in me - big changes. The first was that I developed a genuine hunger for more Word, for more God. I also found certain convictions growing stronger while other things dropped away as the Holy Spirit used the Word to teach me about living as God’s child and ambasador.

That’s the thing that has impacted me most…the changes the Word has made in me. Yes, I”ve learned even more about wielding it as the Sword of the Spirit, but more amazing is the greater confidence I’ve gained in doing so. Yes, my feet are better shod wih the preparation of the Gospel, but I am truly blessed by the greater freedom I feel to share it.

I could go on and on about how I trust God more, walk in confidence more, am more alert and more discerning… The bottom line is that these months spent reading and rereading the Bible have resulted in me gaining ground I’ve been striving to reach for years. I’ve known it was the Bible, the never-changing Word, that made the difference. Today, while reading Acts 20 in The Message translation, I found a verse (32) that specifically addresses this truth.

Now I’m turning you over to God, our marvelous God whose gracious Word can make you into what he wants you to be and give you everything you could possibly need in this community of holy friends. (emphasis mine)

Do you sincerely desire to be what God wants you to be? Then get into the Bible and learn, as I have, that when you submit yourself to God’s Word those changes will come!

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Here’s a verse I’ve been carrying around with me. I think it’s The Message translation.

"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes." Matthew 6:34

Anyone who knows me well knows that for most of my life I’ve battled the tendency to "borrow trouble." As a result, I’ve put myself into near collapses before over things that ended up not even coming to pass. This is completely illogical and I know it, but still…

That’s why God pointed out this verse, of course.

I’ve been carrying it around with me for weeks now, reminding me not to worry over possibilities, and I’ve been seeing God’s hand in this matter like never before. It’s as if, now that I’ve determined in my heart that I will NOT worry about certain things, He’s making sure that those things play out better than I’d ever dared dream.

God rocks!

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

"Armorbearer"

It’s a word I’ve been hearing for years.

In fact, it’s a position in which I’ve been serving for years.

Unfortunately, it’s a position few people understand. Truly, even after serving as an armorbearer for over a decade, I have a great deal to learn about the position. Being a minister’s armorbearer isnt’ merely carrying their Bible into church, standing in a position of honor beside them, or even running their errands (I don’t always do these things). It is more…much more.

Terry Nance’s two-part book, God’s ArmorBearer Volumes 1 & 2, does an outstanding job of sharing foundational facts about Old Testament armorbearers and building upon that history to train modern Christians to fill this God-given role. Nance even talks to ministers about how to work with the armorbearers that serve beside them.

The leadership in our church is working through this book, and so I find myself studying it yet again…learning from it once more. Today’s reading brought me to the story of Jonathan and his armorbearer from 1 Samuel 14:1-23. Jonathon decided to go against the Philistines on his own, with only his armorbearer to accompany him. Did the other man counsel him against such (apparently) rash action? No. Did he turn away? Not even. He followed his leader no matter what.

How many of us would do the same today? Oh…we say we’d follow, but…

I like to believe that I follow the minister I serve unswervingly - never questioning or doubting her, but always trusting that she has heard from God; never grumbling when a decision is not to my liking, but submitting to her authority graciously; standing ready to defend her against any and all attack no matter the danger. Do I?

Do I even pray for her as often, as fervently as I should?

Do I?

Truly, for all that I’ve been doing this for many years, I see Jonathan’s armorbearer putting me to shame. I guess it’s a good thing I’m reading this book again; I need the refresher.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

hehehe….

Confidence: The feeling you experience…before you fully understand the situation.

I can think of a specific situation where this applied to me recently. LOLOL!

Ah, and today’s desktop decoration is courtesy of I Has a Hotdog.

see more puppies

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C