Christmas morning/Family pics

Merry Christmas Merry Christmas Merry Christmas Merry Christmas

I was inspired to share this story because well…(gulp to self):

The day before Christmas had been full of incidents, some of them unpleasant.

Father seemed to be burdened with worries as well as bundles.

Mother's anxiety had reached the breaking point on many occasions throughout the day.

Wherever the little girl went, she seemed to be in the way.

Finally she was hustled off to bed. The feverish excitement of the Christmas planning had completely unnerved her.

As she knelt by her bed to pray the Lord's Prayer, she got all mixed up and prayed,

"Forgive us our Christmases, as we forgive those who Christmas against us."

So I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity, and apologize to anyone I might have unintentionally “Chrismassed” against.

I really do love you, dearly!

This has been a beautiful month of…juggling, to put it mildly.




…and getting to know the little Grinch that lives within each one of us, and lies mostly dormant throughout the rest of the year.

This happy Christmas Eve concludes many flying-by memorable days, filled with non-stop activity…

Meeting all sorts of wonderful people, endless conversations on all of my favorite topics : ) dresses, high-heels (worn in graceful surrender to Christ), joyful singing in bustling restaurants and intimate homes, and hours and hours of Christmas music that got us through hours of Christmas traffic...I also discovered that I’m helplessly old-fashioned.

Yes, it’s true, of all the many carols that were with us this month, I found none as thoroughly entertaining as the old and very out-dated "classics", as far back as even the 50’s and beyond…just SO much fun! (With all due respect to Jewel, Celene Dion, Mariah Carey…and the fellow Divas)

I was just meant for another era.

I think I could’ve made a killer Charleston dancer too.


It's in my soul.

I pray that this Christmas is special for you.

Share love and laughter...and eat good food!

I learned something new today...

I was just studying triolet writing with the kids and it’s incredibly fun and catchy.


And this one’s for my man because he’s such a little Mr.


(yes, yes, I know he's like, this cute x100000000000000000000000, but I’m posting this ancient picture because I don’t have any recent ones…ahem, and I thought that maybe you'd be horrified enough to send me a new one, since I'm such an adoring aunt...and I write triolet's for him...and...yes, that)

He’s darling and charming and two
Not a care in the world
When “problems” are mended with glue
He’s darling and charming and two
When all that you’re told must be true
Innocent bliss just unfurled
He’s darling and charming and two
Not a care in the world!

Here's another one that I really liked. It was inspired by this quote:

Who loves not women, wine, and song, remains a fool his whole life long.—Martin Luther

Why should the Devil get all the good tunes?
The booze and the neon, and Saturday night
The swaying in darkness, the lovers like spoons
Why should the Devil get all the good tunes?
And then hum them to us on the sad afternoons
On the long lonesome Sundays, he sings them for spite
Why should the Devil get all the good tunes?
The booze and the neon, and Saturday night!
--A.E.Stallings

Come on! Don't tell me you're not at least tempted to try. They're so much fun! The kids wrote some really cute ones that they absolutely would not let me post. (sigh)

I love you all, and Merry Christmas!

Life is a challenge—meet it
Life is a gift—accept it
Life is an adventure—dare it
Life is a sorrow—overcome it
Life is a tragedy—face it
Life is a duty—perform it
Life is a game—play it
Life is a mystery—unfold it
Life is a song—sing it
Life is an opportunity—take it
Life is a journey—complete it
Life is a promise—fulfill it
Life is a struggle—fight it
Life is a goal—achieve it
Life is a puzzle—solve it
Life is Love—love it

My Confession

I just have to comment on this article…

(Please pay careful attention to the highlighted portion)

Cover story: The Post-Truth Era?
Compiled from articles by Albert Mohler and Kelly Boggs, Baptist Press, and G. Jeffrey MacDonald, The Christian Science Monitor

(ladidadidadida…) and most of us are unaware of the pervasive dishonesty around us. In 1998, a USA Today survey indicated that a majority of Americans make dishonesty a routine practice. While not a daily activity, most that participated in the poll said they lied two to three times a week…

And all I can say is…liars! All of them!...well, either they’re lying, or I’m a very terrible person (gasp!).

I squirmed most uncomfortably when I read about that survey. If I myself could keep my lying down to two or three times a week, I would definitely gloat about it, AND, I’d probably feel like I deserved some kind of a halo.

I am really trying to cut back, but I have to honestly say that dishonesty is, shamefully, well…I mean, it is more often than not, in my case, a daily activity.

There’s really no easy way to say this, but…yes, I lie.

It’s just so easy.

I get out of bed in the morning, and before I know it…

Did you sleep well?
- “Yes, thank you!” (Awful night!)
I made your eggs for you
- “Wow! Look at that! I love sunny-side up!” (eww!!!)
Are you drinking coffee?
- “Oh, this? In my cup? Decaf…” (uhh…God in Heaven, who’s eye is in every place…I…I)
…so do you understand?
- “Yes, I think that’s brilliant!” (I have no idea what you are talking about!)
Surprise! I hung your laundry for you!
- “Oh! You’re an angel!” (mental cringe; arg…my clothes!)
Have you been crying?
- “Allergy”
…

And I could go on.

That’s the awful, awful truth.

I’m afraid to count, but in light of this "survey", I think I will.

I will start today on the road to recovery.

I will count my lies, and I promise that I will try my best to stop.

The day I can keep them down to two or three a week, I’ll buy myself a shiner-prize, and this world will be a better place.

Just love life
Enjoy the taste
A relished life
Won’t go to waste
Time will teach
And you will gain
It hurts at times
But through the pain
You learn to give
And to refrain
You learn that love
Must play the game
With sympathetic
Knowing glance
You want to shrink
But up and prance
The swallowed word
The listening ear
Just smile and trust
It will be clear
For at life’s end
When you are built
The truth will stand
And pretense wilt

And it suddenly starts to make sense...

"Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of trouble, and attempts what is above its strength. It is therefore able to undertake all things. It completes impossible things, and warrants them to take effect where, he who does not love, would faint and lie down."

Thomas à Kempis

…for the love of Christ constraineth me. (2CO.5:14)

to my most unlikely friend...

Everything about you should drive me insane, and instead—you just make me laugh; instead, we get along.

You go through my closet like you belong there, discarding “junk” you feel no one should own. You confiscate my favorite old jeans and replace them with questionable mini-things. You borrow my favorite pajamas and wear them outside in the yard.

Sometimes I just want to grab handfuls of your hair...and maybe tear it out.

But I never do—because you’re Anna, and that means so many wonderful things. You’re everything that a good friend should be, and this is for you, because I know that a post on a blog is the way to your heart:

how often you wander ahead in your mind
preparing the way and pretending a find
how often you wander in thinking to plan
for the moments you can’t in a world where you can
how you love to escape from the notion of time
and drift to a place that is purely sublime
and how many times do you wander to feel
what, except in your mind, was not meant to be real
and though it’s convincing, and true it may seem
those moments you savor—but only in dream

and when you return to the world of real things
it never knows how to live up to your dreams
and nothing you do now will quite compensate
so don’t wander away—for reality’s sake
to that place where you weave lovely fanciful notions
and ride on the wave of unbridled emotions
because just when your dream-castle reaches the sky
it will shatter and leave you to revel in why
when you’re beckoned to flight now, hold fast to the ground
it’s not such a thrill, but it’s solid and sound

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go where there is no path. Leave a trail.

The Florida situation...

So, I'm almost home and Noel shows up on the weather channel...a pesky little hurricane threatening my tomorrow flight!

He’s making his way up from the Bahamas and is supposed to hit tonight.

There is definitely at least an “N” here this afternoon. We were all blowing around in the parking lot while trying to do some “hurricane shopping”.

Pray it blows over soon, or doesn’t hit at all!

LY!

And once you truly understand...

Imagine life is a game in which you are juggling five balls. The balls are: work, health, family, friends and integrity. You're trying to keep all of them in the air, but one thing you must come to understand is that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will always bounce back. The other four--health, family, friends, integrity--are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, perhaps even shattered. (Suzanne's Diary for Nicolas--James Patterson)

I miss you!

He’s not my boy, but when his hand
Is held in mine, I understand
The problems that he has to face
I glimpse his goal in life’s long race
And then a thrill akin to joy
Sweeps over me—he is my boy

on a lighter note...

I feel bad posting these happy pictures while California’s burning to the ground, but I might as well post some pictures while we're "sitting ducks" : )

Nate and Gina and I are all packed up now, playing some odd Napoleon Dinamite Pictionary game, and listening to the radio. There’s a dim and dusty look in the air, but I think we’re pretty much safe.

At FCF, just before evacuation:

Sunday BBQ:

enough hats for everyone to look ridiculous without taking turns:

Out with Nate:

San Diego

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/22/wildfire.ca/index.html#cnnSTCOther1

GN #1218

Don't just drift through each day, analyze your experiences‚ get something out of them, ask questions, look for answers; persevere in learning something new every day.

I can use you no matter how little education you have, but I can use you in a greater way if you have learned to apply yourself.

So, yes, I do use "unlearned and ignorant men," but I also use learned and intelligent men and women, and I am sometimes able to use them in a very specialized way, because they are able to reach all classes of people.

Studying is an exercise which is strengthening and preparing you for intelligence in other realms of life. Apply yourself if for no other reason than to develop your mind
Instill in your kids‚ through your example and teaching and prayers, the desire to be all that they can be.

The more you learn, the more you are capable of learning.

yey for me!

I finished testing today, and I don’t know how I did because they don’t release the results for another 6-8 weeks. I thought that was terribly cruel of them. It’s just not right to keep people in suspenseful agony that long!

The class usually celebrates when the test results come in, but since I won’t be in the country when that happens, I got to have an early graduation : )

So, I’d better have passed, because I even got (in advance) a terrible quality red-faced picture in a dorky robe...like so:

Isn't his face just so lovable?

"Cure yourself of the affliction of caring how you appear to others. Concern yourself only with how you appear before God." -Miguel De Unamuno

Worldly Christians look to God primarily for personal fulfillment. They're saved, but self-centered. They want to use God for their purposes instead of being used for His purposes.

World-class Christians know they were saved to serve and were made for a mission.

They're eager to receive a personal assignment and excited about the privilege of being used by God.

They wake up each morning expecting God to work through them in fresh ways.

Jesus: “It's your turn to give your lives now—not by losing them, but by setting aside everything but your desire to be professionals, to win this battle.” (GN #1215)

Tennis player's prayer

Oh Lord, please let me hit the ball
So well that even I
When telling of it afterwards
Will never need to lie
And make my groundstroke straight and true
My backhand swift and firm
And help me with a serve that makes
My opposition squirm
Protect me from the double fault
Assist me at the net
Endow me with an overhead
That travels like a jet
Above all, Lord, this pleasure
Is a thing I’d like to share
So when you grant my wish, be sure
That all my friends are there

Feeling enthusiastic

“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm,” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Enthusiasm first appeared in English in 1603 with the meaning “possession by God.” The source of the word is the Greek enthousiasmos, which ultimately comes from the adjective entheos, “having God within,” formed from en, “in, within,” and theos, “god.” Over time the meaning of enthusiasm became extended to “rapturous inspiration” (like that caused by a god), and eventually to the familiar sense “craze, excitement, strong liking for something.”

More pictures

Extremely windy Sunday at the beach. I love Eric's crazy looking hair.