1. Sunday morning I woke up with what I like to call “a touch of the conjunctivitis.” My right eye had just completely revolted. It was blood red and itchy and watery and oozy.

Be sure to come back and read that last sentence right before you sit down for your Thanksgiving dinner, m’kay?

So the eye and I have been at odds for two days now. It’s better – still swollen and a little pink and very, very tender, and I have eye drops to help me fight the funk. Plus, it doesn’t feel like I have two thousand short needles residing underneath my eyelid anymore, so hey! PROGRESS!

2. Based on the Google searches that are popping up on my WordPress dashboard, there are a whole lot of folks looking for a congealed salad recipe right now. And by “a lot,” I mean 14.

TEENS of people.

I’m actually making a strawberry-pretzel salad (thanks, Marla!) for my Thanksgiving Day congealed salad contribution, and I’m ever-so-excited about it because if offers a near-perfect sweet-to-salty ratio. Granted, it’s not nearly as good as, say, pouring a box of M&Ms into a hot bag of salted popcorn, but it’s close.

3. Our DVR did not record the “24” movie Sunday night.

PEOPLE.

IT IS CLEARLY A VAST CABLE COMPANY CONSPIRACY.

If I knew Jack Bauer in real-life, and if he, you know, ACTUALLY EXISTED, I would totally put him on the case. Because if anyone can get to the bottom of why Charter Communications is trying to STEAL MY DVR JOY, Jack Bauer can.

Anyway, please don’t tell me what happened because the episode comes out on DVD soon and we’re going to rent it. AND SEND THE RECEIPT FOR THE RENTAL TO CHARTER, THANK YOU.

4. I am deeply embarrassed by what’s going on in my house with laundry.

At some point I think I’ll just have a wood frame built around the bed in the guest room and call it a “drawer.” That way at least everything will be technically “put away” when I throw the clean laundry on the bed and then leave it there for one or six days.

5. James Taylor’s (Live) CD? Is my favorite CD of my life, I think.

6. I’m about to go to the grocery store.

Pray for me.

Amen.

I never intended to go to Africa. Ever. In fact, after seeing some pictures of someone’s trip to Africa during a women’s conference back in 2005, I specifically begged and pleaded with God to keep me as far away from Africa as possible. Something in me thought that there was no way I’d be able to handle it. Something in me didn’t want to see what was there.

About a year later our pastor camped out in Matthew 28 for what felt like a sweet forever (BECAUSE IT WAS. OH I KID. ONLY I’M SORT OF DEAD SERIOUS), and I didn’t like it much (just to clarify: he was challenging our church as a whole about serving globally; he certainly wasn’t saying that every single person had to go overseas). I can laugh about it now, of course, but at the time, for whatever reason, it made me feel a little bit frustrated. In fact, one Sunday I was helping to set up for a dinner at church, and I looked at a friend of ours who was on staff and said, “SO. At some point does he expect that I’m going to, like, want to GO TO AFRICA or something? Because I’m not going to Africa. I HAVE A TODDLER. GAH.”

And God sat up on His throne and just laughed and laughed because He knew what was about fifteen months down the road for me. Cracks me up when I think about it.

What I didn’t know back during my “nope, not going” phase – because there was just no way I could have known – is that when I did go to Africa with Compassion International earlier this year, it would turn out to be one of the biggest gifts of my life. Everything about that place – the people, the homes, the landscape, the smells, the air – crawled up under my skin and took up residence in the deepest part of my heart. I’ll never get over it.

Today the folks at Mocha Club are starting a campaign with pretty profound slogan: “I need Africa more than Africa needs me.” And when I heard about it, I immediately wanted to write about it because I totally get what they’re saying. Yes, Africa needs our help – there’s no question about that. There’s a level of need there that will just blow your mind – things like clean water and food and medicine are in shockingly short supply. Combine that with the fact that lots of people in Africa don’t know Jesus, and you can understand why oftentimes in Africa there’s a short supply of hope. We can definitely do something to change that.

But I think what we miss sometimes is that we need Africa, too – oh my word do we ever. Because Africa reminds me – every single day – that I’m not called to be comfortable. Africa reminds me that I’m called to live sacrificially. Africa reminds me that it’s meaningless to say “Jesus loves the little children” if I’m not following His lead and helping to take care of them. Africa reminds me that my safe little suburban lifestyle brings with it a deeply skewed view of what’s “necessary.” Africa reminds me to feel grateful when I wake up, turn on my kitchen faucet and see clean, drinkable water pouring out of it.

Africa reminds me to take nothing – NOTHING – in my life for granted.

Yes, Africa needs us – beyond a shadow of a doubt. And you can check out the work Mocha Club is doing if you’re interested in reaching out to Africa; MC is doing some great stuff over there. Most of y’all know that I’m pretty deeply involved with Compassion, but that doesn’t mean I don’t recognize it when other organizations – like Mocha Club, for instance – are doing a phenomenal job.

And now, more than ever, I think – it’s important to remember that we all need Africa. Right here in the land of the free and the home of the brave. We need Africa to remind us of joy that supersedes our circumstances. We need Africa to remind us what really matters. We need Africa for perspective. Because Africa, sweet friends, is a gift. To all of us.

You know, if you’d asked me even two years ago if I needed Africa, I would’ve told you – in no uncertain terms – that I didn’t.

But now? Now I know better.

I’m forever grateful for the lesson.

(Edited to add: Be sure to check out Kate’s and Annie’s posts on this same topic; you’ll be so glad you did.)

– Tina at Antique Mommy is hosting a handmade and homemade holiday carnival today. Delightful craft and gift ideas await – so head on over.

– Mary at Owlhaven has some great tips for navigating Walmart on Black Friday. And if you want to see a run-down of all the Black Friday deals at all the different stores, you can check them out right here.

– You can win Beth Moore’s “Loving Well” retreat-kit-in-a-box over at AllAccess.

– Is the Wii sometimes a wee bit much? Kathryn’s talking about unplugging over at The Parenting Post.

Typically the episodes that center on Michael’s irrational dislike of Toby make me uncomfortable because, well, I DON’T CARE FOR RELATIONAL TENSION, but tonight’s episode wasn’t quite as hard to watch in the end since Michael couldn’t go through with the sabotage. Plus, it made me so happy to see Jim and Pam sitting in the conference room again. Why, you wonder? Well, because I have no life at all, thanks for asking!

And, as always, I enjoyed watching Dwight rock his mustard shirt.

A few favorites:

1) “So why’d you come in here?”
“To socialize. And inform.”

2) Michael’s reaction to Toby’s return? PRICELESS.

3) “Now people always return my calls because they think something horrible has happened.”

4) “…and a painting of some creepy clowns that is apparently important to the structural integrity of the building.”

5) “Get off your high horse, Richie.”

6) “Well, Mr. Kurt Russell, you’re about to be served.”

7) “I tried to be friends with him. But that is like trying to be friends with an evil snail. I feel like I die inside. I feel like Neve Campbell in Scream 2.”

8) “I love catching people in the act. That’s why I always whip open doors.”

9) “That seems awfully mean. But sometimes the ends justify the mean.”

10) Creed: “Just pretend like we’re talkin’ until the cops leave.”

11) “It’s Caprese salad.”

12) “You said you were leaving and you made liar out of all of us…and then you came back which makes you the biggest liar in the history.”

And Jim bought Pam a house.

Love them.

So much.

What did y’all think?

Today has gotten away from me, what with working this morning and then going to the little guy’s parent-teacher conference and then eating lunch and and then napping and then decorating a picture of a turkey with Skittles (don’t ask) and then perusing the Thanksgiving week grocery circulars and then calling my husband into the kitchen to announce the various stores’ prices on Land O’ Lakes butter because, you know, HE CARES.

(But Land O’ Lakes is TWO DOLLARS A POUND at Walmart this week.)

(And, as I’ve mentioned before, my mama has told me all my life that there is no substitute for Land O’ Lakes butter.)

(Which means that the low price makes me want to buy, oh, about fifty pounds of it.)

I have also done some in-depth analysis of cream cheese prices, and so far Walmart is the winner at $1.18 a block. Remember when it was 98 cents last year? Sweet, sweet memories.

And speaking of cream cheese, several people have emailed me to ask for the Captain Rodney’s Dip recipe, so I’m happy to direct you to the very best use of cream cheese that you ever did see. Or eat, as it were.

In conclusion comma I feel that I should tell you that Campbell’s cream of whatever soups are sixty cents a can at Walmart.

Somebody might need to perform a grocery circular intervention.

But it had better be quick – before I head to the store to load up on those sweet potatoes that are only twenty eight cents a pound.

See y’all tomorrow.

There were troubles a-plenty for all of our Office couples tonight. The Pam and Jim stuff was (initially) a bummer. The Andy and Angela stuff was painfully awkward. And it seems that Ryan only wants Kelly when he can’t have her. However, I did so enjoy seeing Andy return to his role as Michael’s wingman…not to mention that Andy and Oscar were oddly charming together and made me smile.

My favorites:

1) “I’m going on an international business trip.”

2) “To Cah-NAH-dah.”

3) “You wanna wear that puppy right up on the breastbone like a bra.”

4) “I know my way around a van. THAT is just a van.”

5) Michael and the beverage cart

6) Ryan’s one-armed push-ups (“That door is CLOSED.”)

7) “I think it’s better to die with people that you like, like Oscar and Andy and Concierge Marie.”

8) “How could anyone STAND that woman? What do you see in her? I’d like to know what is wrong with her!”

9) Darrell walking out to his truck, MY WORD.

10) “Wing Man For Life: WMFL.”

11) “I had to go all the way to Canada to meet a man who sits twenty feet away from me. And he’s DELIGHTFUL!”

12) “I could be making more money as a doctor or a professional athlete.”

And by the way, do you know what we said at the end of tonight’s episode?

“YAAAAAAAAAY!”

Made the whole thing worthwhile.

p.s. Are any of you watching “30 Rock,” too?