Trappings

I find myself gushing with tears often this time of year. It happens at the oddest of moments. From Santa at North Pole City telling the true story of Christmas to standing in line at some store hearing a sweet Christmas song come over the speaker system.

It's a bittersweet time for me and my family.

But what's causing most of the moisture, however, is the simple fact that God, Himself, came to Earth, put on the trappings of His creation and walked among us.

I've taken some time to study other religions on my own over the last few years. Mostly because I just felt a little shattered by life and because well, I really needed to do it. I should have done it long ago.

I still clung to my beliefs and felt inherently that I was a follower of Christ and that His works in me from the tender age of seven, were most definitely true.

However, I needed to see what all was offered and what those offerings entailed.

While my search or journey was not exhaustive, it was very valuable indeed. I firmly hold that every Believer should not follow blindly. I subscribe to the idea that for myself, a relationship with God unexamined is not a true relationship at all. All believers should know what they believe and why they believe it over everything else and all other choices.

Everyone should be schooled on what the world has to offer in alternatives so that they can defend the truth from a truly educated perspective. I think you see a lot of this in the New Testament as Paul does his best to speak to all peoples.

But I won't get on my soap box about that and I most certainly am no expert.

But nonetheless, no other religion claims what Christianity does nor does it offer what Christianity has to offer. None. Nada...zip and most certainly ZILCH.

I know that God is ever present, drawing every living breathing human being unto Him...but I also know the trappings of having been raised from a very young age to believe what I hold to.

I always wonder how it is that the miracle of He - can draw people out of darkness. The darkness that they themselves are immersed in culturally, socially and within the tight knit walls of their families.

Being raised Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist...they hold to their beliefs just as strongly as I do out of what they absorbed from the time they took their first breath. The conversions of others not raised in a predominantly Christian culture is a miracle I find most fascinating and mysterious!

But from what I learned in my search...no other religion or belief system offers a god that comes to the earth, that loves people so much that he (or even she in some cases), would become just as vulnerable as they are. There's a sort of an other worldliness about most religious systems with the human beings separate, the god being too good for them and the requirement that the human to aspire (most unsuccessfully) beyond what he or she is capable of in order to come into their presence.

Basically, the whole concept of GRACE is missing.

And without Grace, there's no hope whatsoever if you ask me.

But Christianity, has this spin against what they offer. It offers Jesus, who puts himself in the form of a tiny baby....the most fragile of all forms of humanity and lives life through our eyes. It's really and truly EARTH shattering news!

It causes me great and deep awe to think of Jesus being born to Mary who was more than likely around the age of 15. Not to mention the scandal Joseph may have had on his hands with a young wife, pregnant by another before their wedding day. Have you ever thought about what the punishment was for her being in that state? Most certainly it was death by stoning.

How strong they must have been and how ever-present the Spirit had to have been in their day to day lives in order for them to endure and triumph.

I think of all the circumstances from the government in rule at that time, to the mishaps that young parents find themselves in with their first born and how from the outside Jesus' arrival was by all appearances was a very complicated, controversial, and cataclysmic event.

Yet the Lord was hovering over every detail, protecting, providing and fulfilling His purpose.

All of this just deepens my tenderness towards Him. He was an artist putting Himself in His own painting I've heard it said. (Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew) It's unfathomable!

Whenever I hear, Mary Did You Know? or Silent Night. I can't help but feel the rush of emotions causing me to want to cry my eyes out. When I stop to think of my own sons and how tender the relationship is. I think of being in Mary's shoes and how priceless this time is as I watch them grow bit by bit into what will one day be grown men.

I cannot help but stop and think of Mary feeling the same about Jesus. Proud over his first tooth, his first words, his first steps, ready with hugs when he falls, helping him learn, seeing him grow into a strong young man...

All these thoughts come home to me this time of year and while the grandest fact of all is that He died to pay for my sins...you can't dissect the path and the journey that led Him there. The mere fact that He became nothing for my sake...

How could He do all this for me?

Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death-
even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of the Father.

Philippians 2:6-11

Have a very Merry Christmas this year....I know I will.

LOVE AFTER LOVE

Love After Love

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger that was your self,
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

-Derek Walcott

CJ is what she'll always be to me...

FB disturbs me sometimes. Mainly because it'll throw an ad up that says I haven't chatted with Cindy (my roommate from OBU) lately...it asks me to post something on her wall. When the truth is, I can't talk to Cindy anymore...well, not in a two way conversation.

Cindy passed away this Summer unexplained. It could have been a number of things but so far it's "inconclusive". Whatever that means.

Cindy and I had just reconnected on FB. We'd gotten busy in our lives, in our marriages and with our children. We hadn't spoken on the phone since Ethan was born. Yet, I knew Cindy still.

Cindy and I did a lot of growing up together those 4 years at OBU. Went through broken hearts, happy times being free from a curfew and the woes and triumphs of college life. We liked being together and we hardly ever fought. I can only think of one occasion that we did and it resulted in no sleep because we stayed up in our dorm room until we had it worked out.

I'm sad now and then thinking of the hole she left behind when the good Lord took her up to Him this past Summer. But I also know, where Cindy is, she is whole, nothing can hurt her and she's happiest realizing her faith was true and her reward is seeing things with Him now.

But I do miss her. I know her family misses her even more. Cindy, if you can read this, I love you and I can't wait to see you again...have a Merry Christmas, your most favorite of holidays. What a way to spend it this year!

I broke my own rule...

Typically, I'm a stickler for not doing the Christmas thing until Thanksgiving has been properly celebrated. This year, I decided to bend the rule a bit and we put the trees up this week. And guess what? I'm going to even go further and set up my tree downstairs before THANKSGIVING. That's right, call the presses! I can't help it, with a living room and furniture and a place to celebrate Christmas this year and open presents just like we have a house...I'm all a twitter with delight and holiday cheer!

The house is really starting to come together...I'll have to blog some before photos soon when I have some time to hunt them out and sort them. It's been a long road but finally I have somewhere to let people sit and visit.

Next on my list for Santa, new dining room table and chairs....good thing I know Santa so very well! :)

Some Semblance of Normality

We finally have furniture in our house. Granted it won't be staying in this room once the den is finished and granted there's no TV in this room to view as you sit on the furniture...but hey, I'm very happy!

Also we need some decor and curtains and stuff but for the most part I can tell you, I'm just thrilled after 2 years to have my furniture in my house and have a place to set up the tree that isn't surrounded by tools, multiple paint spots and bare woodwork, all is well and Christmas came early for me as far as I'm concerned. Rick ROCKS!

The Results Are In

I am thankful to God that I have a husband that can do all sorts of things. I'm proud of the work he puts into our home and has put into our other homes. But everyday I do pray that God will convince him that just because he can, doesn't mean we should anymore! :)

Rick put a lot of work into these two rooms this weekend. We sanded, vacuumed, sanded some more, primed, painted and well, there were a whole lot of other steps...but I don't want to bore you.

Way to go, Rick!

Wet Paint

If' it's possible for me to have a woman-crush, I do. I am absolutely falling in love with The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond. http://thepioneerwoman.com/

I love her blogs, her recipes and her personality most of all. She lives on a ranch, so jealous. She rides, travels, cooks, has children and pets of all sorts and is the funniest thing ever.

When I grow up I want to be Ree Drummond. That's all I can say.


Ethan's endless pursuit of lab ownership is about to drive me crazy yet, I understand. I think I was much this way about hamsters just prior to graduating to horse ownership. My campaign was long and hard if I recall and ended successfully. I suspect Ethan's will too. After all, every little boy needs a puppy.

Never mind the insisting that Santa doesn't carry live animals for fear they will urinate on the presents, fight or fall out of the sleigh. Never mind the explanations that we have 2 perfectly good dogs.

My first mistake was rescuing the lab we found wandering aimlessly in our yard one morning. My second mistake was letting him play with it for the 24 hours we had her. I did my best to explain the golden rule and how we would want someone to take care of our dog had she gotten loose and lost. But nonetheless, this was inevitable.

Caleb on the other hand is full of all kinds of spunk these days. The kind that makes me realize I never knew stubbornness and sass until I met him toe to toe over something. He reminds me of myself a bit but a little to the extreme. Probably because he's male.

I swear I don't know what to do with him and it's keeping me and God pretty tight these days. I don't know if I've got a James Dean on my hands or the next President of the US, but he's got his own thoughts on just about everything. One minute he's the sweetest and most thoughtful three year old you ever met and the next he's instantaneously inspiring grey hairs.


We are getting closer to paint in our front two rooms So close I can smell the paint. So close it's almost time to think about what to hang on the walls once the paint dries. So close I can almost envision the furniture I don't own but wish to own to put in these rooms. That's what happens when you double your square footage...you got room but no stuff. I don't even know if I want more stuff but I do want the room. Especially the closet space if you've read my blog on 'totes'.

Time

I just returned home from a weekend away with girlfriends. I feel blessed beyond measure to have these women in my life. Women I can pour my heart out to, laugh with, and be myself with.

It was nice to get away with no demands on me to do anything other than what I wanted to. I slept, I watched girl movies, I read and read and I even took a run too in total silence. We gabbed and snacked, shopped and discussed life...it was the best of times.

On the ride home, I started to think about my life and where I've been and what I've done. The choices I've made and the people that now surround me and I was overwhelmed with just how good God has been to me. Although Texas will always be where I wish to be, Oklahoma is a good fit for now. I have two sets of wonderful girlfriends up here that I know would do anything for me and I for them. I have a beautiful home (although still in process), a beautiful family with an amazing man, and a wonderful life.

Not everything is perfect. I wouldn't want it that way and not everything is smooth sailing but for the most part this is a very sweet season in my life. I'm looking forward to the holidays this year. This year has been relatively quiet and peaceful and Caleb is starting to really get excited about Christmas. When the light comes on for the little ones, it reminds you what it's all about!

We plan to go to Graham for Thanksgiving and see everyone for the first time in a long time. I cannot wait to soak that up and be with everyone. I miss my cousins and my Aunt and my Mimi. This is a precious time of year to me and I feel that since this year has been quiet and easy for the most part...this holiday season will be especially meaningful for us.

Life is good.

Fahrfegnugen

I'm feeling lost without a trip to look forward to. I know this sounds odd but I have to be going somewhere...somewhere else nearly at all times. This will make sense to those closest to me and certify to those that know me only somewhat that I am insane, completely.

Rick and I have been back at the traveling drawing board. There's lots on the board these days. A simple ski trip (haven't been in a decade which is so wrong), Disney World, India (always in my mind) with the church, Vancouver with the church to work the 2010 Olympics...ENGLAND...or smaller trips. Then there's Cambodia which for some reason I don't feel called to so much anymore...

Personally I want to do all and for very different reasons. But when you have 2 small children and one that is in school, you have to really think this through.

I know it's silly and a great problem to have...but nonetheless, I need to be planning something. Rick keeps leaning towards Skiing this year and possibly England the next...I need England again, I can't explain.

Why I Stopped Serving the Poor

by Claudio Oliver

Those who know me may find the above title curious, to say the least. Being with the poor is part of my history: My grandfather and grandmother were founders of the Salvation Army here in Brazil, and their ministry is a central reference point for my family. Their life was dedicated to the homeless, prostitutes, and in a special way to the orphans, the hurting and the renegades.My teenage passion was consumed by the idea of fighting against poverty, hunger and injustice. Since I got married, 25 years ago, I have been involved in serving in slums, serving poor students, coming alongside needy populations, in peripheral neighborhoods, the beggars, the unemployed and other moneyless people.

I could report facts to support my pretensions over the years such as having helped “the poor” generate income, facilitated the restoration and organization of broken families, made bridges between rich and poor, fed the hungry, and facilitated the opportunity for some friends to discover professions, find their vocation and transform their own future. To “empower” people was once a key point in my practice in order to avoid creating dependency.

After all of this, or even because of all this, today I am called to question my whole life of “service” and to give up on serving the poor.Asking “Why?”Throughout my life I have kept the habit of always asking myself whether what I am doing makes sense, whether my heart is aligned with God’s will, and whether or not I am missing the point. This discipline, is essentially the Three “Whys?” Rule. It forces me to question each given answer with the kind of question that only children ask, and which helps me to generate a permanent transformation vector of self-criticism and of personal adjustments. Thus, in each step I take, for every thing I do, I ask: “why?” Whatever the answer might be, again I ask, “why?”. I feel I am in the right path when what I am doing surpasses the third “why”, and then and only then, will I move on.

For some time now I have reflected on Jesus’ life, on the principle of kenosis (emptying) based on the text of Philippians 2:1-11. I’ve thought about Jesus’ incarnation into our reality and into the numerous contacts and conversations he had with miserable people such as the lepers, and rich people such as the publicans, the synagogue chiefs and princes of his people; how he spent time with middle-class families, with proprietors and with servants and beggars.I have reflected on what Jesus saw and how he acted.

The “Rich” and the “Poor”And all of this started to grow in me and made me think about the text in Matthew 5:3 where Jesus tells the poor to march on with their lives and rejoice for being poor, because theirs was the possibility of having their lives driven and controlled by God. Little by little, over these last few years, along with biblical reflection, I have observed how many extremely sincere friends come and go, getting very excited about serving, but soon afterwards loose their passion for serving as they get busy with their errands and preoccupations. Frequently, I also see how others pay for someone else to fulfill God’s loving service. They engage with the poor vicariously through others during certain periods of time, moved by real sincerity, even if from a distance and without personal involvement.

From another perspective I see how poverty takes over the lives of those who are poor, and how much it reveals their unfulfilled desire to own things, and have access to modern consumption – the destroyer of everything. I see how their situation is built by the seduction of the same things that seduce and destroy the rich: the same individualism, the same selfishness, and the same tendency to feel comfortable and find their identity in being able to own things. I see their same absolute adhesion to a hoped for lifestyle and a way of thinking that imprisons them to the myth of modern needs, to the mythical desire to evolve and come under in complete and un questioned submission to the myth of modern development.Without exception, rich and poor have the same conviction that what they need is something that the market, money, the government or some other agency can offer them. They are all convinced that they will be happy with ownership, with a full stomach (some with bread, others with croissants) and with the constant flow of money that can seemingly do anything and solve everything. And among this massive majority, there are a few well-intentioned people who extend their hand to “include” others into the lifestyle or the platform they achieved.

The stretched-out hand from top down…that’s what we call service.

Giving Up on Serving the Poor
Over the years I’ve discovered that the very position of serving the poor from a commitment to “liberate” them, has been filled with a sense of superiority. A kind of superiority that is translated into giving others what I have, assuming through my actions that what I have or do is what he/she should have or do. This subtle translation is noticed in the subtle arrogance of the so-called politics of “inclusion”, always trying to put the other inside the box where I live, including them in the sameness of my lifestyle.All of this led me to give up on serving the poor. By making this kind of statement I am not taking sides with those who, from their positions of wealth, comfort and well being say, “See? That’s what I have always thought.” I’m sorry to inform these people that in no way do I believe in or embrace their lifestyle. A lifestyle that by design, separates them from contact with the poor, the sick, the hungry, the naked, the ugly, the smelly, and the “uncivilized” barbarians.I do not side with those who pay their taxes or contribute to charity saying in that way they are fulfilling their role. To these people I keep on retransmitting the message of Jesus that confronts their blind, insensitive and arrogant lifestyles, a message that calls madness what the worlds calls security. Seeing Ourselves in the Poorest of the PoorI have given up on serving the poor for another reason.Since 1993, when I regularly went to the streets with a bunch of kids to reach out to the homeless, I developed a spiritual discipline. On the cold nights when we would go out to the streets of my city, I made a point to the kids that we were not going out to meet the “homeless” or the “needy”. I would tell the kids that in all honesty, I never really ever felt excited about serving bread to a homeless beggar, or making him or her a bed, or clothing their nakedness. The spiritual discipline we instated was to constantly use the motto “we go to meet Jesus in the poorest of the poor”. Serving, feeding and clothing Jesus was our motivation. Now, that excited me.We discovered each time we went out, that in each of these encounters with a camouflaged Jesus, the so-called “Miserable” would be transformed into Masters - into those who denounced our personal misery, and who were transformed into unveiling agents of our manipulative mechanisms.

We suddenly saw ourselves mirrored in the very “poor” we were serving. We recognized that we were constantly using the same excuses and lies to get what we wanted - perhaps more successfully, and surely with more social acceptance and security mechanisms. But throughout this process we came to discover that we were “the poor”.

Those of us who experienced that spiritual perspective were freed of ourselves. We grew, and we changed. Confronted by Jesus and taught by him through the contact with his poverty and misery, many of us discovered what the Gospel (good news) really meant. During those days, many of us were transformed by Jesus’ touch and by the good news that he transmitted as we discovered ourselves as “the poor”.

An Alternative to “Serving” the Poor
However, this somewhat mystical sense of awareness was not always a constant burning flame. I would so often return to that worldly perspective to serving the poor, letting myself believe that I was the healthy, privileged helper, many times forgetting my own misery. As I have already mentioned, the alternative is not to stay away from the poor, judging their conditions, circumstances and attitudes from a top of my comfortable superior social position. Nor is it helping the poor, by raising their own awareness of their situation or “including” them in an unquestioning submission to the development politics of the last 60 years. The alternative I present here is different, discovered through encounter, recognition and identification.I’ve given up on helping the poor, given up on serving and saving them. I have rediscovered a hard truth: Jesus doesn’t have any good news for those who serve the poor. Jesus didn’t come to bring good news of the Kingdom to those who serve the poor; he brought Good News to the poor. He has nothing to say to other saviors who compete with him for the position of Messiah, or Redeemer.

God Shows Up in Our Need to Be Healed
Jesus’ agenda only brings a message for those who recognize themselves as poor, naked, hurt, tired, overburdened, needy and hopeless. As for the rest, his agenda has little or nothing to offer.

The only way to remain with the poor is if we discover that we are the miserable ones. We remain with the poor when we recognize ourselves, even if well disguised, in him/her who is right before our eyes. When we can see our own misery and poverty in them, when we realize our own needs and our desperate need to be saved and liberated, then and only then will we meet Jesus and live life according to His agenda.

God is not manifest in our ability to heal, but in our need to be healed. Finding out this weakness of ours leaves us in a position of having nothing to offer, serve, donate, but reveals our need to be loved, healed and restored.Herein lies the meaning that the power within us is not the power of our strengths, abilities and wealth, but rather, in the power that is present in our personal misery, so well hidden and disguised in our possessions and false securities. As Jean Vanier says in a book I recently read. “We are called to discover that God can bring peace, compassion, and love through our wounds.”

How much more sense does Isaiah’s text about the Messiah make now: “by his wounds we are healed”. The remaining messiahs of this world tend to avoid Jesus’ example of emptying himself (kenosis) to the point of becoming one of us, of dying with us and thus opening the door of resurrection for us.The power that Jesus used to heal us, and uses to keep on healing us, does not reside in his access to universal power, but in his identification with us on the cross; in opening himself in wounds, in becoming one of us, in living our life.I have given up on serving the poor. I’m going back to encountering the poor and finding myself in them. Again, I have discovered the misery that hides in the very-well structured lives of my own false security. Seeing things from this perspective helps me understand this Jesus who talks with lepers and wealthy businessmen, with tax collectors in their parties and with the sick and miserable on the streets. In his identification with each and everyone, Jesus saw what perhaps no one else did: the extreme misery and poverty of the human condition, apart from any status or social gown.Serving from the Bottom-UpI came to re-encounter my poverty, to see myself in each situation of misery, and to get in touch with my inner pain. From there, I pray for healing, freedom, community and love. I ask for mercy and restoration.Whoever serves out of the sense of having something to offer, serves from the top down. Jesus calls us to become incarnate and to see ourselves in the other and to place ourselves under him or her as powerless dependents. He calls us to give up in trusting our own capacity to impart goodness and to change our direction in order to encounter and recognize our own wounds, weakness and pain. From there, we discover the power that lies in being less and not more.I have given up serving on the poor. I have rediscovered my poverty. And with it I can cry out again: “Son of David, have mercy on me.”

About Claudio Oliver: Claudio is a pastor of Igreja do Caminho church in Curitiba, Brazil. He is also a Red del Camino Network connector, both in the Brazilian Network and the regional Latin American Network movement.

Sheer Joy!

A Few Observations

It's amazing to me that my head is so full of words sometimes that I feel like I'm going to pop. Seriously, I spend a lot of time writing in my mind...most of which never makes it to paper or the blog.

Lately, there are scenes in my mind and thoughts that are random at best and now is the time to spill.

I'm curious about this man that lives off of 152 in Mustang. He has a bit of a man cave in his garage. It's just about every night you'll find him in there. Garage door open. TV on. Piddling. I think to myself. What does his wife think? Where are his children? Some nights though, his kids are riding their bikes and he's still in there, watching TV and piddling. It's funny to me how many men need man caves. Men must have this wiring in their brains that causes them to have to have some space from time to time. I don't get it. Personally, I prefer company...unless it's early in the morning, then watch out!

I love Burt's Bees' Pomegranate lip balm. No, seriously. I have a love relationship with this stuff. I smear it on my lips at least 3 times a day if not more. It sleeps in my ash tray in the VW and is the best stuff ever. Well, Chicken Poop lip balm has a close 2nd but the fragrance of the Burt's Bees well, is the bees knees!

I'm feeling rather excited about how God is moving in our Women's Ministry. The like-mindedness that is coming out in our leadership group is blowing my mind. When it first started, I had to sort of hold my breath. I was hearing all the words and dreams that I had held for the last 2 years...but I was feeling that odd sensation you get when you run your finger over a scar. I didn't want to hear the words or the dreams because I remember the pain I felt when things didn't come to fruition over the last 2 years. Yet, now I see what God needed from me then. I needed to see a lot of things that He was only able to convey and teach in the desert. I'm pumped though! Now, it's just having the courage to step forward and ask permission to proceed...but I'm sure God's got that handled.

Well, it's official. Both of my parents are married and happily so. I'm happy for both of them...yet, I still lament what was lost when the divorce came to be. Every night I glance at picture of them on their wedding day that I have propped up on a picture frame on my bedside table. I look at their young faces so full of hope and dreams. I think on what they must have been dreaming and know that they never wished this upon themselves. Time can be cruel.

Recently, we started a study called iMarriage by Andy Stanley. It could not have come at a better time...it's really stretching Rick and I. It talks about how we all come into our marriages with a box full of desires that then become expectations...desires as to who does what and so on in the marriage. Unfortunately, having expectations leads to a sense of entitlement. When your spouse fulfills your expectations, they've merely come up to par or broken even. There's no sense of gratitude at that point...because they're just doing what they're supposed to do in your eyes. I've done this. Rick goes to work each day and takes care of the cars, etc. So what? That's what my Dad did and that's what you do....not so. This study calls us to get rid of the expectations and see that actually your spouse doesn't OWE you a thing...what they do is a gift. Life changing stuff here...and that's just the tip of the iceberg, week 1 of the study.

Yesterday I was listening to Willie Nelson...one of his older songs, probably from the 50s? It sounded like something from the 50s, is he that old? I mean he's looked old forever but is he? Anyway, I was in Rick's car which explains Willie and my mind drifted off to how life could have been different. What if I had been born a man? I know it sounds crazy but just roll with it. I pictured myself a man and as I caught sight of a man in a big old truck with his hand dangling out the side...I suddenly was transported to a dusty back road in Graham or Young County, just outside city limits. I pictured that if I were a man, I would like to have been a rancher driving a big truck that was always dusty from driving on gravel and dirt roads. I would wear dusty boots and have a really nasty cowboy hat. I'd listen to old country songs and constantly drive in my big truck with my hand dangling. My hands would be rough and I'd wear crusty old jeans. I'd be all about taking life slowly and enjoying the moments as they pass. And I'd have a horse to wrangle my cattle with. Life would be good. Just a thought that passed through my mind on its way to nowhere.

VWs have a very distinctive smell when you turn on the heater. It's the same no matter the age of the car or the model. Last night, the boys wanted the windows down and I was cold. It's really turning out we're going to have a Fall season this year. So I switched on the heat and that sweet smell hit me like a ton of bricks. It was awesome! It reminds me of OBU and chilly nights in the car making a late night Bell run or just sitting and talking in the car. Good music and friends.

Remember when good music was your best friend in the car? I really miss those days. Now, I have to play 20 questions when I get in the car. Not the official version, the Ethan version. I know I'm just paying for my raisin' but sometimes I have to tell him specifically, I cannot do the 20 question thing today Ethan...no questions. But he always ignores it after a few moments of silence. Oh well.

Thanksgiving

I feel the need to spill some thanksgiving today....

I am thankful for.....

1. Will, he makes me smile and laugh and I love him immeasurably

2. Rick...he loves me in ways I can't seem to wrap my mind around

3. The boys, they're happy, healthy and normal

4. Coffee is a God send and I will never abandon my addiction

5. My little VW, she's not snazzy but she's mine and she's a VW so that makes her wonderful

6. Fall, we're actually having Fall this year and I love it...need to transplant some mums

7. My house...although it's a major project...it's gonna be great and I'm blessed to have it

8. Libby and that she lives so close...it's wonderful that our children will grow up together

9. That my parents are both alive and healthy and happy

10. For the prospect of another trip to Europe...Prague or Paris, still debating!

11. Kindergarten, it's saving my life in the afternoons

12. Friends, I have so many and they are all wonderful

13. Sleep and books, my two favorite past times

First Day and Death by Light Saber

Caleb is becoming quite cautious these days!

I was so proud of Ethan...no tears today from Mommy.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Libs handed me a book. It's been a great read. Here's some snippets to whet your appetite:

"The reason death sticks so closely to life isn't biological necessity - it's envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing or two of no importance, and gloom is but the passing shadow of cloud."

Now, granted this more than likely a thought birthed from the speaker's (Pi Patel) Hinduism but for the Christian it is more than true.

"There are always those who take it upon themselves to defend God, as if Ultimate Reality, as if the sustaining frame of existence, were something weak and helpless."

"...people fail to realize that it is on the inside that God must be defended, not on the outside. They should direct their anger at themselves. For evil in the open is but evil from within that has been let out. The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of the heart."

This book is an interesting twist of story and theory. The man, Pi Patel, whose story it is confesses, he is a Hindu, a Muslim and a Christian as a child. I have yet to see if that theme continues in his adulthood. However, I cannot argue with his response when his parents insist that he must choose. He simply says, "I want to love God."

Et tu'?

Folders, Pencils and Markers, Oh My!

I'm headed out the door to do my first bout of school supply shopping since I was a Mom. It's official. I keep trying to focus on the positives rather than the negatives. After all, this means we have to stick to a schedule and I'm not much for that - much to Rick's dismay!

I'm excited though. School supplies are always a wonderful thing to be acquiring. I can remember even the glory of buying spiral notebooks, pens and my books for college. Granted you paid through the teeth but still...it was always fun!

We just returned home from the lake where I neglected to get any pics. Lib has some and when I finally get them, I'll post. We had a good time! I got some serious Willie P time and the kids had a blast riding their scooters, fishing, taking the boat out, swimming and playing in the volley ball court's sand! We had a wonderfully relaxing time with the Poseys.

Ethan's party went off without a hitch and he was very pleased! Everyone had a good time with cake, ice cream and swimming. I'll post those pics when I find the camera.

I started my running regime. I'm on day 3 of the couch to 5k plan and so far mostly hurt shins but bearable. I'm just going to run through the pain, what else can I do? I have to admit. I see where the addiction comes from, as I time my bursts of running, I find that I look forward to those jaunts moreso than the walking part! I'm hoping I will be able to run the entire 5k I'm training for in October...we'll see!

Reading

I have been silent not by choice. My computer is dying and I have resorted to having it looked at. The result is my suspicions are correct. I'm too cheap and lazy to truly want a new one. Yet, getting it repaired is a pain as well.

Summer is coming to a close and I cannot believe I will be sending my first little one out of the nest into the realm of the school system where he'll be influenced by others in a way never before. I trust he'll do well and I trust I'll get over it.

I've been reading books like nobody's business lately. This summer I've been a reading fiend. Finished the entire Twilight series, disappointed. Did 2 Donald Miller Books. Reading James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small as well as Lisa See's Snow Flower and the Secret Fan which is currently holding my attention more steadily than the former book. I'm just about done with it. I picked up all my Barbara Kingsolver books from their tote and yet, cannot seem to get back into her books. I've read them at least twice and well, twice is enough.

So I found a new site called www.whatshouldIreadnext.com and I think that'll be my compass from here on out.

Not much else is new in our world.

Branson or Bust

Helicopter Ride: The Highlight of the Trip

The End Result

Marvel Cave at Silver Dollar City

Caleb's Reactuion when we told him we were going home today

A Bridge

Go Karts

Mommy sticking it to the Man

Determined

Daddy and E Bumper Boats

E on the Trampoline Jump

The Flooded Mine

Shoot Out

Believe or Not: We just Arrived

They Just Took Off

Hangin' by the '55 Chevrolet

Cakes and Cream

Helicopter Ride: Caleb's First Time Up

White Water

Splash A Torium at Our Hotel

I'm Ready, See!

Just Jump!

We're Ready for the Pool