Katdish.net

This year has been amazing in so many ways. Last year at this time, this blog was read by literally tens of people. Extremely awesome people, but not exactly burning up the analytics with hits to my blog.

Hey Look a Chicken is not exactly a household name, but it has brought in its share of readers. I’ve been amazed at the writing talent out there and how my little circle of blogging buddies has expanded.

I’m not a complicated person. What you see is what you get. But one of the limits of communicating via the written word is that you can’t see me and I can’t see you.

Ladies and gentlemen, that’s all about to change. I posted this video in February of this year. It is the first video taken with my new Flip camera. The gift: American Idol for Wii (Simon loves my singing! My son? Not so much…) And yes, my family is this loud and obnoxious all the time, so I come by it naturally.

So this is me…nice to meet you.

Sorry/you’re welcome, and Merry Christmas!

This is a picture of my childhood friend, Karen and me at our 20th high school reunion. Do you want to know what I enjoyed about that night? That I was able to enjoy being there without being nervous about whether or not some wildly elaborate made up story about my life would hold up under scrutiny. I figured out a long time ago that I am a very square peg surrounded by round holes. Trying to fit into those holes simply wore me down and slowly chipped away at the person I was meant to be.

That is not to say that I am completely satisfied with every aspect of me. I am always striving to become the person God wants me to be. But God, not someone else’s ideal picture of what a 43 year old wife and mother of two is supposed to be.

That’s why I’m okay with being obnoxious. Some of you might be wondering if “katdish” is some sort of persona that has been created that allows me to say things that I might not otherwise have the guts to say as myself. Let me clear that up for you. This is me. Warts, monkey butts and all. Those of you who know me in real life can attest to this. Jon Acuff paid me a great left handed compliment at Catalyst One Day in Atlanta earlier this year. He said, “You’re not obnoxious, you’re just from Texas.” Thanks, Jon. I big red monkey butt heart you, too.

I’m not smart enough to keep up with more than one personality. Besides, I think doing that drains your soul and robs you of a valuable witness to the power of God’s grace – for the sinner and the saint. And for the record, you ain’t no saint! (Please, no theological arguments here, you know what I mean.)

Sometimes I say things that should probably have been left unsaid. But in the non-cyber world, I have my husband and friends who love me enough to tell me to shut up. In the blogosphere, I have a handful of good friends that will do the same. (You know who you are.)

I’m totally okay with someone not liking me. I think caring more about what people think and less about what God thinks is a horrible, wretched way to live. Now here’s a newsflash, if you don’t like me, there’s a pretty good chance I don’t like you either. But that’s okay. God calls us to love one another. He never said anything about like. Just as long as we’re not walking around with giant planks in our eyes, I’m cool with that.

This much I know is true. While I am a product of genetics and life experiences, the essence of me has remained much the same as it was when I was a silly, talkative, klutzy little girl who found herself in the spotlight more often for misbehaving than behaving. If you cannot fathom how that silly little girl might allow God to witness for Him, then you don’t get me. Which is okay. You don’t have to.

The following statement is intended for those who need to hear it. Clearly, some of you grasped this concept a long time ago. But I offer it anyway:

May I be so bold as to offer some advice? Stop trying so hard to keep up appearances. Accept that you are broken. Even if, like me, you have been smashed with a hammer. God’s light often shines brightest through the broken vessel. I for one, will love you for it.

God? He loves you, regardless. His love was poured out for you at Calvary. He doesn’t need you. But He desires your abiding love with all of His heart.

How cool is that?

This is a picture of my childhood friend, Karen and me at our 20th high school reunion. Do you want to know what I enjoyed about that night? That I was able to enjoy being there without being nervous about whether or not some wildly elaborate made up story about my life would hold up under scrutiny. I figured out a long time ago that I am a very square peg surrounded by round holes. Trying to fit into those holes simply wore me down and slowly chipped away at the person I was meant to be.

That is not to say that I am completely satisfied with every aspect of me. I am always striving to become the person God wants me to be. But God, not someone else’s ideal picture of what a 43 year old wife and mother of two is supposed to be.

That’s why I’m okay with being obnoxious. Some of you might be wondering if “katdish” is some sort of persona that has been created that allows me to say things that I might not otherwise have the guts to say as myself. Let me clear that up for you. This is me. Warts, monkey butts and all. Those of you who know me in real life can attest to this. Jon Acuff paid me a great left handed compliment at Catalyst One Day in Atlanta earlier this year. He said, “You’re not obnoxious, you’re just from Texas.” Thanks, Jon. I big red monkey butt heart you, too.

I’m not smart enough to keep up with more than one personality. Besides, I think doing that drains your soul and robs you of a valuable witness to the power of God’s grace – for the sinner and the saint. And for the record, you ain’t no saint! (Please, no theological arguments here, you know what I mean.)

Sometimes I say things that should probably have been left unsaid. But in the non-cyber world, I have my husband and friends who love me enough to tell me to shut up. In the blogosphere, I have a handful of good friends that will do the same. (You know who you are.)

I’m totally okay with someone not liking me. I think caring more about what people think and less about what God thinks is a horrible, wretched way to live. Now here’s a newsflash, if you don’t like me, there’s a pretty good chance I don’t like you either. But that’s okay. God calls us to love one another. He never said anything about like. Just as long as we’re not walking around with giant planks in our eyes, I’m cool with that.

This much I know is true. While I am a product of genetics and life experiences, the essence of me has remained much the same as it was when I was a silly, talkative, klutzy little girl who found herself in the spotlight more often for misbehaving than behaving. If you cannot fathom how that silly little girl might allow God to witness for Him, then you don’t get me. Which is okay. You don’t have to.

The following statement is intended for those who need to hear it. Clearly, some of you grasped this concept a long time ago. But I offer it anyway:

May I be so bold as to offer some advice? Stop trying so hard to keep up appearances. Accept that you are broken. Even if, like me, you have been smashed with a hammer. God’s light often shines brightest through the broken vessel. I for one, will love you for it.

God? He loves you, regardless. His love was poured out for you at Calvary. He doesn’t need you. But He desires your abiding love with all of His heart.

How cool is that?

First things first: Do you know what happened on this day in history, February 10, 1996? If you’re a big chess fan then
a) you probably wouldn’t be reading this blog, and
b) you would know that IBM’s Deep Blue defeated chess champion Gary Kasparov.

But another very important, life changing event happened on this date. I married the love of my life. I know people always say stuff like this, but I mean it when I say that I don’t know where I would be without him. Or maybe I do and I just don’t want to think about something so depressing. Without him, I doubt that I would have stepped through the doors of a church again. Can you imagine how completely unbearable I would be if I didn’t have a relationship with Jesus? For this reason and countless others, I am quite literally eternally grateful for my husband. I love you, dear. This is for you:Okay, so I realize that it’s almost Valentine’s Day and whatnot, but I just now figured out how to make a movie with my very favorite Christmas gift, my new flip video camera! I’d never even heard of it before I opened it on Christmas eve. Here are three movies I’ve just created. George Lucas, eat your heart out!

Here’s me opening another one of my favorite gifts. And yes, my family IS that loud and obnoxious all of the time, so I come by it naturally.

(My son can barely contain his excitement at the thought of his mom taking over the Wii. And yes, those are the infamous plumber’s crack jeans.)

Now, here’s a gift for my son from Grampa (thanks, Dad):

And because I’m a proud mama, here’s my son Cameron knocking the snot out of a golf ball:

Yeah, he’s 11 years old, and he’s a REALLY good golfer. How far does he drive the ball? Consistently over 200 yards. (I know, I know…I’m bragging.) But still, pretty cool, huh?