This Time...

Being Culturally relevant....kind of

2009-02-26T20:00:00.000-08:00

So here are my thoughts-feel free to agree or disagree,

I think it's really important to know God. This may seem really simplistic and unprofound (is that a word?) but here's my logic. We've been talking in class about cultural relevance. The theory they're proposing is that you cannnot really be culturally relevant until you understand your own culture. You can learn and learn about different cultures, but if you don't really understand your own culture (your own morals, values, norms, self-identifiers etc) then you can't pretend to know squat about someone else's culture. This is the problem with Americans. We think that because we're Americans we don't really have a culture. So we try to learn about all these other cultures. But I digress......

So I was thinking that I really needed to figure out myself, my own culture, my own beliefs and then maybe I'll feel more secure talking to people about them and learning about other people's beliefs. Well so I was thinking....How could I really get to know myself better? Thoughts of self-examination and exploration came to mind but that starts to get pretty new-agey. How can I know myself? Know who I am? Know what essentially defines me, makes me up, makes me tick? I sure don't define myself by the church I go to (sometimes I define myself as the opposite), the denomination I do (or don't) belong to or the legacy and history that most people immediately blame me for when they find out I'm a Christian.

I need to know God. He's the answer. He's the only one who knows why I'm here, who I really am and what I should be. He's the answer to all my questions. Why did I grow up in the kind of family i did? Why do I struggle with the things that I struggle with? Why do I fight with my husband? Why am I such a skeptic? Why is there death, war, hunger, poverty? Why do I feel helpless? Why why why? I don't think there's anywhere else to find the answers, including in my smarty pants Master's program. I need to know him better.

If I want to be culturally relevant to my world then I need to know my own culture better. I need to know God better.

I really should be studying...but....

2009-02-14T16:54:00.001-08:00

It's pouring down rain outside. Finally! It's been so dry here, it makes me miss Oregon. So I thought I should take a short break from not doing homework and blog a little cuz there's a lot on my mind...

I love being in school, it's great, I feel like I'm learning a lot, but it creates a lot of challenges for me spiritually. If you don't know I'm in a Master's program at Chico State University. I paused to realize the other day that this is the FIRST time I've been in a "non-Christian" based education environment since the 3rd grade! Kind of sad, really. I find my beliefs being challenged on a daily basis. If you also don't know, Social Work is one of the most liberal fields out there. Pretty much I'm the ultimate minority being brought up a conservative Christian. Am I still? A christian, absolutely, having my faith challenged on a daily basis has only made it stronger...a conservative? Not sure. I really was raised thinking Christians were supposed to think a certain way.

I already knew that I leaned toward more liberal values anyway, but now as I pursue a degree that is based largely on the ideals that we as a society need to help those that can't help themselves, i find myself aligning so much more with the left. As I read and hear in the news that conservative politicians want to cut cut cut social programs that are the only help some people get I'm angry! Can you imagine getting your source of income, what you use to feed your family and pay your rent withheld from you? They are actually sending people IOU's instead of welfare checks! I actually think that Jesus would agree with me. We as a society have ostracized and oppressed certain populations of people and this has put them at a disadvantage in life. This is not right! Should we work hard? yes! Are some people just lazy and leeching off the system? yes! but this isn't true of everyone. As white, middle-class, privileged, employed, healthy, able, mentally stable American people (whether one or all of those titles apply to you) we need to recognize our privilege and be cognizant of it.

I'm going to do my homework now, I have more to say on this but I'll save it for later.

Of Life and such

2009-01-24T07:09:00.000-08:00

Just an update with what life has brought our way.....

After just settling into a schedule of working all week again, it's time to go back to school! Actually I'm ecsatic to start my second semester of my Master's program at Chico State. I'm sick of working 5 days a week. School offers more change and variety. So I'm excited. Ben and I returned out second car (on loan from his mom) to her over Christmas so we've been car shopping for the past month...UNSUCCESSFULLY. It's very hard to find a decent car that we can afford in cash, which is what we wanted to do. So we decided to buy his sister Kayt's car which needs a little body work. It will save us several thousand dollars.

Speaking of the green stuff we recently started a class called Financial Peace University. It's a small group with a group from our church tought in Videos by Dave Ramsey-Financial whiz and genius. The basic premis of the group is, pay in cash and become debt free. It's a pretty radical change in our thinking. We've been paying cash for everything, budgeting like fiends and if we can't afford it in cash......Well we can't afford it. Here's a link to the website: www.daveramsey.com/fpu Good stuff.

Ben's is enjoying his job at the church as the Children's Director. Everyday brings new challenges, frustrations and learning experiences. We're attending the Childrens Pastor's conference in February. I get to go! Woohooo. It will be great to spend a few days in San Diego, hopefully see the Brother-in-law and relax a little. Also to learn some new things to help our kids.

I've giving piano lessons! Don't know if you knew that. It's my new love. It is so much fun. i have 6 students and might be starting 2 more soon. They range from 4-12. They're all little mozarts...welll maybe not yet, but soon I think.

So we're doing quite well, staying busy, trying not to let Life's Stresses get to us, enjoying our kitty and pup (they're so great and help us relax), keeping the house up, Rooting for our new president (Go Obama!), and praising God for every little blessing that comes our way.

Oregon Trip

2008-12-30T21:11:00.001-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Well, we had a great time visiting friends and family in Oregon. It was so nice to be back and made us miss the northwest more than ever. Best Memories of the trip:

1) Seeing my grandpa. When I was in junior high school he bought me the piano music to his favorite song "Missouri Waltz". I practiced it and played it for him this Christmas. He was very happy. On a bittersweet note this was a sad christmas as it was our first one without my grandma.

2) Going to our church! It was so fun to go back to Albany First on Sunday. We visited and saw so many familiar faces. Yay!

3)Fun road trip home. Savoring the last moments of freedom before returning to work. (See following pics)

I think this first picture is a pretty good indicator that you're in the Wilamette Valley.

Max rides in the car with us a lot. He actually loves it. You can usually find him in the back window, stretched out on the front dash board or curled up in my lap.
On the way home we stopped at Hillcrest vineyard which we've been meaning to do for a while. Great wine. You should check out their website at http://www.hillcrestvineyard.com/. It was beautiful~ and worth the stop. On the way back to Redding Ben and I stopped off at one of our favorite places, Castle Lake. It was frozen solid. And I'm wearing my new favorite stocking cap.

Merry "More of Christ" Day

2008-12-25T18:59:00.000-08:00

Since I speak Spanish, I see Spanish words everywhere. Is Spanish "mas" means "more". Therefore Christmas is to me "More of Christ" day.

Ahhh...Christmas with the family. It's a good time, full of talking and laughing, stressing and fighting, eating and game playing. I honestly don't know what it would be like to live near our family. I haven't lived in the same state as my family (for more than a summer) since I was 18! Now that I'm 25, would it be different? Would be all instantly get along? I have my doubts...

I was looking at my year book from my senior year of high school today. These are the things I do when I'm at home. Look at pictures, reminisce, catch up with old friends, long for days gone by....well maybe not so much the last part. I don't think you could pay me to relive junior high and high school. What a terrible time of insecurity, jealousy, revenge, drama and learning the hard way. But I just have to remember I am who i am because of that time in my live...like it or not.

Well I just want to say Merry Christmas to Everyone. May joy and learning and loving be yours in the new year. I myself have several new year's resolutions. Here is my rough draft. It may change...I still have 6 days!!

1) To compete in 3 triathlons in 2009.

2) To ride a Century bike ride

3) To cultivate and strengthen at least 3 friendships.

4) To study my Bible more.

5) To paint the inside of my house.

I know i know i need to probably scale them down, but maybe not. We'll see, it's MY list anyways...

Conversation and donating platelets

2008-12-21T19:59:00.000-08:00

Okay so I've decided that entertaining people is way harder than it should be. I've been reading these books lately, The Song of Albion Series by Stephen Lawhead. They were kind of "splurge reading" because I have absolutely no time to read so I would stay up into the wee hours of the night/morning and read them and then wake up feeling like i had a hangover. It was great fun....anyway, the books are kind of set back in "the day" like the no electricity, kind of day with knights and "great halls" maybe kind of like the Lord of the Rings time period. but...in the books when a visitor or guest came to the "hall". It was simple. Entertainment was not a burden, not a chore. The king would share a welcome cup of "mead"-I love that-with the guest and then they'd "sit around the hearth and catch up on the news of the land".

For special entertainment they'd listen to a harp, sing songs that were more like stories and have wood chopping/hunting competitions.

Now if you want to have someone over to entertain them it's like "what movie should we watch?" "what fancy, complicated board game could be play?". We cannot just sit around a talk anymore. I recently had a little shin-dig and it was so much work trying to think up what to do after dinner!! What couldn't we just share some mead and talk?!?!?!

Okay switching subjects. So Ben and I decided (a few months ago) to start donating platelets. We've always donated whole blood, but platelets is different because there's a lot less waste, they take the blood out, sift the platelets out and put back the good red blood cells. You can also do it more often and they give the MORE MOVIE BUCKS (the big incentive for us, obviously).

Well the first time went great. It takes 1-2 hours and you get to watch a movie. I got cold and nauseous but nothing serious. The second time, however....no go so well. The technician accidently poked through my vein when she 'stuck me' and when the blood came back in it went into my arm. -uh yeah...ouch. it left the nastiest, most gigantic bruise ever on my arm. That was a few months ago and I've avoided the whole conversation since, (though Ben continued to give). So....(GETTING TO THE POINT)...today I gave platelets again! I was so freaking nervous. I obsessively watched my arm to make sure it went okay. and guess what? it did. So I'm back on the schedule. Just a few pointers 1) DRINK LOTS OF WATER THE DAY BEFORE AND THE DAY THAT YOU GIVE. 2) DO LOTS OF PUSHUPS ALL MORNING LONG BEFORE YOU GIVE. I don't know if it helped or not but that's what I did.

A couple random thoughts:
1) I love free itunes downloads.
2)I love how kids are so excited about getting a candy cane as a gift. Even though they're all psyched up about Wii's and fancy gift they still appreciate a simple candy cane.
hmmm.........

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE GURCY........ FAMILY!!!

A place to start

2008-12-18T21:53:00.000-08:00

So I got this great inspiration to blog like a month or so ago and then guess what?? I forgot about it. Today I was reading a friend's blog and I said to myself....don't I have a blog? So I had to search for it! ha ha!! I had to search for my own blog. I started by googling my name. It's so weird that I can google myself and I'm like...wow there's my name. Mostly there came up stats from races I've run. That's funny, if someone googled my name they'd think I was a major runner. Then they'd see my time and laugh. Oh well.

Well, I found my blog and I saved it to my favorites so i won't lose it again.

This week is finals week. tomorrow is friday which means it will be the very last day of my first term of graduate school. I feel excited to finish my first term. i did pretty well. It was new, excited, challenging and has already given me a new perspective on life. The people in my cohort and diverse and different and they're all pretty wonderful. I've enjoyed learning from them. It's stretching my thinking to think outside of myself.

I've also decided I'm going to write a book about how Jesus could have been a social worker and how he preached social work values. More to come on that...

I hope someone reads this blog...if not oh well...i wrote it. :0)