Things at home are a bit difficult, but in a way that is forcing me to grow as a spiritual being. We finally got internet access on Tuesday. Yay! And we finally have a kickass electrician who is resolving the problems from the previous one. By all accounts we are progressing through the chaos. But Nick is working a lot. And it’s wearing on us both.

I struggle to work on the house that’s a construction zone, right the ship at the cafe in the wake of my manager’s departure, and take care of our six dogs by myself. Not to mention, I am chronically ill, and all of my possessions are in four different houses currently as I’ve had to stash things all over since my house is, well…a construction zone.

I appreciate how much Nick is working to take care of us, but at a certain point his absence is a bigger burden than having lower cash flow.

I have been cranky, overwhelmed, stressed, and on edge. I’ve been responding to him out of annoyance and frustration. I haven’t been thinking before I speak, and I have been selfish with my deeds, thoughts, and words.

While I am a strong and independent woman — a business owner, no less — and while I don’t subscribe to the Protestant view of the wife being inferior to the husband, I do find myself deferring to him, submitting to him, quite a bit. (Perhaps far more in my own mind than in reality.)

Submitting to my husband isn’t about deferring on all things to him. It’s not about letting him run my life, but rather it’s about surrendering control. I need to remember I do not control his emotions and his mood. It’s surrendering myself to his wholeness instead of trying to change him. Submitting is about holding space for him spiritually, and allowing the room for us to grow together.

When I am snapping, short tempered, overwhelmed, and ungrateful, it is all a rather unquakerly way to be with him. It is not a Christian way to be with him. And while yes, I am human and I do not have as much control over my emotions as I would like, I do find myself striving to be better. It is my most fervent wish that we can grow together as one. In holding space within myself for him to exist without fearing my reactions, I pray there is room for me within his heart where I can grow and exist as well.

Anyway…onto the links…

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My iPhone decided it dislikes me. Last night the screen stopped working and it wouldn’t charge past 50%. I was too tired to do anything about it. I could barely hold my head up, so I just fell asleep and decided to deal with it today. When I woke up my phone was down to 21%.

I tried all sorts of things from all of the blogs, and none of them helped. What finally did the trick was plugging it in while doing a forced reset. I have a feeling it has to do with the iOS 17 update I did the other day. I usually wait to do these sorts of things so some bugs are worked out first. But I was finally ready, so I took the plunge. I wish I could undo it, to be honest. But happily Apple figured out there’s problems and they’ve paused further development of iOS 18.

My Dad reminded me of this Bernie Sanders quote from back in the day. I somehow forgot all about this.

My friend mentioned he was listening to Depeche Mode while he was working at my cafe yesterday in the kitchen. A customer came over and said, “Baby Shark?? Really??” Stunning cultural ignorance aside, the comment about Depeche Mode reminded me of my favourite clip from Idiot Abroad, a British travel show produced by Ricky Gervais.

Orthodox Links

The folks at Pew Research seemed surprised that the majority of people in Orthodox Christian countries have conservative views.

This was an interesting thread on Reddit about an Orthodox being told they’re going to hell by some Protestants.

And here’s a PDF download of Brenton’s Septuagint with Apocrypha in ENGLISH! Woohoo!