Jul 312009
Jul 312009
Submitted by Erin Nonaka, Fort Bragg, NC
I went to a leadership retreat that our new PWOC president planned for those of us in ministry together for the new year. It was an amazing time together. We went to one of those “Challenge Course” camps that have a variety of physical team challenges that put you in situations for problem solving and working together as a team. It was really neat to see all that we learned about each other’s personalities and how we relate to each other in different situations. It became very clear that the Lord had brought a beautiful combination of women together to serve our PWOC community this year! I am so excited I could just burst! I praise the Lord for giving us such a humble and gracious woman as our president, ready to lead us in the right direction to help meet the needs of our precious women, hold us accountable in love and press forward towards planning an amazing year.
I took my kids to church camp in North Carolina. The two teens were getting ready for their service as junior counselors, so I dropped them off a day early. The younger boys and I had an afternoon, evening, and the next morning before dropping of the 10-year-old for his first camp experience. We were able to swim at the camp pool that afternoon, and they wanted to try out their new goggles. When one set of cheap goggles broke, a squabble broke out over the remaining pair. ”Mine!” “No, mine!” So Mom stepped in: “Mine. I paid for it. It belongs to me.”
That made me think of these verses from the Bible. In 1 Corinthians, chapter 6, the Apostle Paul is teaching the people that their bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and they should take care of themselves. That’s when this part of the story came to mind: “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.”
You, too, can belong to Him. God’s requirement was that a price be paid. Jesus paid that price with His own life. Trust in the One Who paid for you and made you His own.
Are we living like we are His?
Jul 282009
(( Sorry Mac Girls, this week is for PC users although with minor adjustments, these tips can be applied to an Apple computer. ))
What does your PC Desktop look like? Is it sleek and clean or is it crowded with wall-to-wall shortcut icons? I’ve found that there are a full variety of preferences when it comes to how users utilize their desktop space and these users are quite passionate about their preferences. I, for one, lean to the sleek and clean side of the house. When my workspace is cluttered, my mind is cluttered. When my mind is cluttered, I am substantially less productive. Here are some tips to organizing your desktop that I hope will appeal to all users, regardless of preference.
The first step to organizing anything is to determine how it is used. In the case of desktop icons, what I hear most is that users need easy access to the programs and files they use most. Trouble walks in, however, when they end up with a desktop crowded with a hundred or more icons. That’s when it becomes the textbook page covered in yellow highlighter ink. When everything is highlighted, effectively nothing is highlighted!
This week we will talk about how to organize files and folders directly on your desktop. Next week, we’ll talk about how to move some of those shortcuts off your desktop but keep them a single click away.
There was a time when having too many files on your desktop slowed down your boot process but with today’s speedy processors, that’s not really a problem anymore. These tips are not so much for speeding up your computer as they are for speeding up the computer’s user…that’s you!
First off, there’s a rule in paper management among organization experts: touch it once. When you touch a piece of paper, go ahead and put it where it will ultimately belong so that you won’t have to come back to it. I’m going to morph that rule a little to work for computer file management. That is, have one copy of the file and work on it from that location…and that location should not be the desktop. Desktop locations are too vulnerable so I recommend avoiding that as a file’s resting place. Organize your ‘My Documents’ folder to your work style and file your work there. Not only will this make your files more secure, it will simplify finding files later. For ideas on organizing your ‘My Documents’ folder, mimic the categories I describe next.
Evaluate your computer time in terms of categories. My categories might be like this: PWOC-International, PWOC-Southeast, Homeschooling, Battalion, Kids, etc. These would be the categories that most of your computer time is spent in. Less frequently used categories, like Christmas Card List, would not need a desktop location since it’s only visited during one season. However, you could add a shortcut during that season if you find that you visit the list often to update it. At the end of the season, don’t forget to delete the shortcut to stay organized!
Once you’ve determined your key categories, go to your desktop and create a folder for each of your categories. In a ‘blank’ area of your desktop, right-click and select New > Folder.
Name each folder according to the categories you created above.
The next step is to determine which files you use the most and therefore need the most ready access to and create a Shortcut to each file. Remember, these files are in their respective folders in your ‘My Documents’ folder now, not your desktop.
From here you have two options.
1. The first option is to open the desktop folder. From within the folder, right-click and choose New > Shortcut. You will get a dialog box that asks for the file for which you want to create a shortcut. Even if you know the name of the file, I suggest that you still click ‘Browse’ and find the file anyway. This process will eliminate potential trouble later. Once you’ve located the file, follow the prompts to add the shortcut. You will be given the opportunity to name the shortcut or to simply use the filename. This is an opportunity to give your file a more logical description than perhaps the filename gives it. Repeat this process for each file.
2. The second option is to navigate to the folder within ‘My Documents’ and Ctrl-click each file for which you want to create a shortcut. ( Control-click allows you to select multiple non-consecutive files, whereas Shift-click will select only consecutive files. ) Once you have all of the files selected, right-click and select Create Shortcuts Here. A list of shortcut icons will appear at the bottom of the folder’s list of files. From here, simply Shift-click this group of files, Right-click, select Cut. Then open your desktop folder, right-click, and select Paste. Once pasted, a slow double-click will give you the opportunity to rename your shortcut, if desired.
- How can I tell the difference between a file and a shortcut? A Shortcut has an arrow added to its file icon.
- Can I delete a shortcut without deleting the file it points to? The shortcut and the file are different files. Deleting the shortcut has no affect on the file it points to.
I keep using the term ‘files’ but this process also works for Folders. If, rather than creating a list of shortcuts to files, you would prefer a folder shortcut, then follow the same process selecting folders rather than files. You can also create shortcuts to programs but we’ll talk more about that next week.
One last tip, when looking through a folder for a file, do you find it difficult to scroll through a long list of icons? I’ve found that a lot of folks don’t know they can customize their file view. Here’s how you change it:
From within your folder, select the Folder View button in the toolbar. I like List View and Details View as both are alphabetical text lists and easy on the eyes. List View will give you just the filename while Details View will add file type, size and date information.
Next week, we’ll take this a step further and include shortcuts to the programs you use most often. Don’t miss it!
Has this week’s tip helped you? Please send your comments or suggestions for future Tech Tuesday topics to Tracy.
Get a printer-friendly download of today’s Tech Tuesday here.
Jul 272009
Tuesday Devotions
Like so many others in the PWOC world, I am on the move again, this time from Korea back to the states. Everybody in the military knows that moving can bring on stress. Currently I am having trouble sleeping. I often go to sleep easily but awaken about 3 or 4 a.m. and can’t go back to sleep. I’ve also been having those dreams that I have a final exam and haven’t been to class in weeks. This anxiety keeps me from getting a full night’s sleep and leaves me less than my best the next day. I need some help!
But where, oh Lord, does my help come from? It comes from You! Right away Philippians 4:6 comes to mind…be anxious for nothing. How can I apply this to my right now world, my anxious night time reality? Let’s read that verse and include some surrounding verses to get the context:
Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me–put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
Oh, man, it starts off with “Rejoice!” Not just ‘count your blessings’ but “Rejoice!” He wants me to really enjoy and appreciate all the fabulous things He has done for me here in Korea and what He is continually doing for me daily. Then He promises that He will be near me, thank goodness. I can use a guy like Him around. Next, He wants my gentleness evident to all around me, including and especially my family and my neighbors. He commands me not to be anxious, but to ask Him about all my needs and He wants me to be thankful when I ask. I keep in mind all the times He has answered my prayers in the past and be thankful that He knows me and has control of what is best for me. Sometimes I forget that I can ask for simple things like a good night’s sleep.
Used by permission.
Jul 242009
Submitted by Erin Nonaka, Fort Bragg, NC
Do you struggle with keeping your rhythm the same when your man is away? I sure do. Just the fact that it is 12:08 am and I am not in bed is one of them. I find that I try to fit too much into a day or don’t get anything done at all! Then – I stay up way to late, trying to get it all done. What happen to being in between those two things – getting things done and being well rested when he was here?
Truly, I don’t have a complete answer to this. One thing I do know is, that it is a matter of discipline. If it means I need to set a timer for myself or set my alarm in the room to tell me when I need to GO to bed – no matter how much I still need to get done, I need to do it. God has called me to be the best wife and mother I can be. And especially when my husband is gone, I need my rest in order to be those things. I can draw on the Lord’s strength even in this small discipline. I can pray to Him about this because He cares about all things in my life. Praise the Lord for that fact!
Sound off!! Do you have stories or comments about deployment in your life? Send them to the Blog Manager
My husband and I married 10 months after we met. I was 28, he was 32. We had been single, and living alone, for a long time when we combined our households. He likes to say that I combined our households by getting rid of his but that’s not true. I kept…hm, what did I keep? I’m sure there was something. Oh well, moving on.
When you live alone for seven years, you grow accustomed to the control you have over your space. Granted, loneliness is a factor, but the control is nice. Adding someone into that space so late can be a tall mountain to climb, at least for a control freak like me.
It didn’t take long to learn that my husband has a peculiar habit. If he’s watching TV, he has a blanket on his lap. It doesn’t matter if it’s January 1st or August 1st, the blanket is there. Therefore, I keep an antique box near the sofa to hold the necessary blanket stash. The trouble is, he can find the box to collect a blanket, but not to return it! AUGH!
It sounds funny now, but it didn’t then. My husband had the habit of standing up from the recliner, allowing the blanket to fall to his feet in a semi-circle, and stepping out of the blanket to walk away. It didn’t matter if he was going to the refrigerator or to Germany, the blanket remained on the floor. Anyone that has known me for more than five minutes knows that this was enough to make me go ‘postal.’
So what did I learn from this blanket?
On December 23, 2001, less than a year into our marriage, my husband left for Afghanistan. I was in my 11th week of my first pregnancy. Welcome to the Army! While the four months was a short deployment, all things considered, the timing and circumstances made it the longest separation in the history of marriage and mankind, as far as I was concerned. New to military life and fully hormonal, it took nothing to start the water works. Those days were tough.
Sitting on the sofa one day (probably crying), I looked over at the recliner and realized that there was little I wouldn’t give to see that dumb blanket lying on the floor in its annoying semi-circle, and with that I learned, keep the little things little because the big things in this life are going to be Big.
So eight years later, I’m happy to say that the little things are still little and the big things don’t seem so big either. You see, when you give each other permission to be imperfect and you learn that being together is mountains above being apart, you can find true unity in marriage. My husband is my very best friend no matter how many miles separate us, and no matter how many miles separate us we’re always together.
You may reach Tracy here with comments.
Jul 222009
In twenty-one years of being married to a soldier, I have been blessed with many great experiences on military bases in the U.S., in Europe and in Asia. One of those great experiences is that I have known some of the best people in the world and have called them friends. Another blessing, which is connected to the first, is the chapel ministry that we know and love, PWOC. When the call comes to move to another installation, we often feel that a division has taken place. There are emotions that occur, and they are normal. They are! They happen! I’d like to propose that changes like moving or expanding or any change in direction is not a division, but instead, a multiplication of sorts. This means that while a new board is selected for the Pacific Region during the conference, a new regional board will be selected for Asia Region simultaneously. Please be in prayer for these ladies who will hear the call of God on their lives and step forward to lead two strategic regions in God’s greater work for His Kingdom. Think about how twice the number of regional leaders, chaplains and funds can be used in the fulfillment of PWOC’s Aims! Multiplication for Jesus, not division!
In the fall of 2009, the Pacific Region (Hawaii, Guam, Japan, Korea) will “multiply,” and a new region will be birthed at the regional conference in Hawaii. The new Asia Region will consist of Japan and Korea, while Guam and Hawaii will remain in the Pacific Region.
Jul 182009
The PWOCI Communications Team is looking for a few good women. If you have some formal training in graphic design, web design, video production or publishing and would like to contribute your time and talent to this ministry, please contact the Communications Team with a description of your skills and resources.
Please note: PWOC is unable to purchase software for use on a personal computer, per army regulation. The Communications Team uses the Adobe Creative Suite. If you do not already own one or more of these applications, you must be willing to purchase them, if necessary.
