The big picture

On several blogs I have seen ornament wreaths and it is something I have wanted to make for a couple of years but I really couldn't see shelling out even $10 bucks for the ornaments. Over Thanksgiving, Jennifer and I went to a Thrift store and I found a bag of ornaments for $1 and happily scooped them up with the wreath in mind...I pay a buck for anything. Really though, I have been thinking if I saved all those $1 spent here and there I really might be able to accumulate a stash to spend on something more substantial,...maybe even send to a mission...but I digress.
Last week when I put the balls on the hanger (possibly our only metal hanger) they only filled the hanger half way up. Didn't I know it would take a colossal bag to actually make a small wreath...and now what do I do?
I left it hanging on one of the spare chairs in my dining room not wanting to make a decision about it.
Last night Josh and I were out at a "dollar store" and I only had a few things to get but you have to spend $5 to use your debit so I got three tubes of balls and Viola, two problems solved in one.

Two years ago I took Elise and Emmett to see Santa and took a wonderful picture of them, last year I tried to do the same and again this year. This year's isn't bad, it just isn't as good as two years ago. I stood in the same spot as two years ago but I should have stood on the other side so that the tree would be in the picture instead of his side table and lamp. Sometimes I can't see the big picture.
I am hoping to see the big picture in the next 4 days and not go into pre-travel freak out mode.

Something old, something new

A week ago I dropped Elise off for ballet and decided to jog down Kernan from McCormick toward Atlantic. The weather was perfect, I had a my new mp3 player for the first time in a year I was in the zone. When I was 2/3 of the way to Atlantic, a dog shows up out of nowhere and starts jogging with me. I get to my turn around point and the dog turns around with me. As I pass several different joggers I asked them if the dog belonged to them? I asked the kids playing football outside of a subdivision if the dog belonged to them? The dog gets a sticker in her foot and stops so I stop and get the sticker out and she is so gentle and appreciative of effort. What do I do now, do I say go home cut adorable dog and hope she finds her way home and not get hit (it's dark now) or do I see if she'll go home with me and try to find her owner from the safety of my home? She jogged with me all the way back to McCormick and gladly hopped in my van. My mom made a sign and I took it up to Publix and I put an ad in the paper and posted it on Craigslist and called Animal Control. Animal Control gave me her name, Gretta and two phone numbers that don't work. So, it's not just my old Christmas decorations that beautifying my house this Christmas but a sweet dog that mostly gets a long with our Cocker Spaniel, Bayly. And if you can get a long with Bayly then that is a very good thing because she is a little neurotic. Right now, Bayly is on one end of the couch and Gretta is on the other...the side nearest to the tree.

Are we there yet?

Finished some projects and thought I would share them with you.
Last Thanksgiving I started my first hat...finished it last weekend.
The little bear was my first attempt at following directions and making I-cord. The I-cord needs some practice or someone to correct where ever I'm going wrong but I was mildly satisfied with crooked bear and decided to put a ribbon on it and hang it on the tree. The monster was a project that I saw in a kid's crafting book...I figured if a kid could make it, I bet I could too...and I did.
Today I need to start wrapping presents and making cookies.
Fortunately the weather has cooled slightly so the heat from the oven may actually be welcome.

Oh, and I have another Amen to shout out to ya'll,
On Facebook there is an application called Social Interview where you answer questions about your friends. At the beginning of the week it asked if I had ever had a dream about Brandon (one of Stephen's friends), I answered yes...."that he would have a passion for Christ and share that with his wife and baby"
Well Girlfriends, do ya know that he answered that my dream had come true?
My sister read that, and told him she was making her cry and they needed to talk.
If I could have some music playing right now it would be, Bringing in the Sheaves....actually that's the only part of the song I know so maybe the rest isn't applicable but it seems like it would. If I wasn't supposed to picking up my daughter from kindergarten right now I might look it up.

Christmas Eve

Kinda feeling like I am having a bad dream and am waking up tomorrow to find it's Christmas. This year seems like it is closer than ever, maybe because we are leaving on the 14th to celebrate our 15th Anniversary and won't be back until the 18th and then leave the 19th to drive 13 hours to Indiana to spend Christmas with my sister Cathron and her family.
Oh my.
It will all get done...what needs to get done.
I will spend a lot of my precious time next weekend decorating. I don't know when the cookies the kids wanted to make for their teachers will get baked. I have never been good at making myself stay up past 9:30 let alone into the wee hours of the night to get the last ends of whatever worked on.
Why, you may ask, is she wasting time writing this drivel then?
Because
Maybe by telling myself again and again to not give in to the pressures and that success is not only subjective but illusionary I will waltz through the next 3 weeks with peace. Not the peace my society gives but everlasting peace....that everlasting peace that will be on my head, is on my head, has been on my head.
Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Mark 11 : 24

Which brings me to Advent, how are you preparing your heart to remember the first coming and anticipate the next?

paths

The first time we went camping I was very excited, and even though I look forward to it each year I am not rearing to go. This morning I am thinking about how excitement wears off when the firsts are over...you know first time to go camping, first time 4 wheeling...whatever. Sometimes those firsts get better over time and sometimes they aren't as good as you thought it would be in the first place.
I am thinking of pillars of remembrance and how God told the Israelites to make stone pillars as memorials to what He had done for them.
I am thinking of my sister and her first Thanksgiving without the son who made the crescent rolls for her. She has so many firsts in front of her...we all do...
What are we doing with them?
Thanksgiving is an excellent time to have all these thoughts.
Those Pilgrims of long ago recognizing our need to Thank God for all he had done for them, the good and the bad.

Happy Thanksgiving Ya'll

Maid Update

It's been a while since I gave you a maid update.
I know you've been wondering what she's cleaning lately or if she is even cleaning anymore?
Well, this morning she popped off the cover of the shower faucet with a screwdriver and bleached that and then unscrewed the plastic/crystal handle/knob and bleached that. The bathroom fan may very well be running all day because so much bleach was used on the tub and floor...is there a thing as too much bleach in a bathroom?
There is if there is only one bathroom and you pass out from bleach fumes every time you enter it.
Oh, well....it's done.
In the almost 15 years the maid has been cleaning bathrooms for me she has never taken that knobby thing apart to clean the gunk that builds up in there. She may get a raise. Oh wait, she's already getting to go out to lunch with one of her dearest friends today so that will be plenty. She's looking forward to that and is so glad the slight fever she had yesterday was just a passing virus, here one day and gone the next!
Is there anything unusual you have cleaned this week?

Beauty from Ashes

My nephew Stephen wasn't the poster boy for a church boy...and neither were most of his friends. That may be why I prayed for him so earnestly between June when I went up for his graduation and Oct. 31 when he died. I prayed for him like I have never prayed for my own children.
Nov. 2 when I woke up, I started praying for Stephen like usual but then I remembered.

During the viewing and funeral my sister Cathron and her husband Dave told everyone who shook their hand and gave them a hug that it was only through trusting in Jesus that Stephen was in heaven now and encouraged all of the well wishers to do the same.
So now instead of praying for Stephen the list has mulitplied into praying for his friends.
Cory, who was with Stephen four wheeling when he died and had to make all the emergency calls.
Ryan, who lived across the street from where he died and did CPR with his father until the ambulance arrived.
Jake, who wasn't there but practically lived at my sister's house.

Brandon and Megan who got married the week before and Stephen had bought a brand new suit to wear to their wedding. They have a 5 month old baby girl.

And today I got an email forward from Cathron that she had received from Cory's girlfriend:

"The first Sunday I don't have to work I'd like to come to church with you all and find what Stephen found."

Can I get an Amen?

Isaiah 61:3 (New International Version)

³ and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the LORD
for the display of his splendor.