on the lighter side....

Bradie was practicing her bike skills when some neigborhood boys came out with Nerf dart guns. She ran inside, got a fuzzy duck puppet that quacks "Old McDonald" and "Are you Sleeping?"

I asked her, "what are getting?"

holding up the duck puppet she says "This! This will stress them out!"

A friend of a friend is there:

http://apparentproject.blogspot.com/

They've been in Haiti for awhile doing what they can...and now...well, you must simply go and read about it. Amazing.

Oh, Lord we press into You.

Christmas 2009

Whew! Sorry....January's been a little busy so far! For those who are unaware we spent Christmas away from home at Seabrook. I was wary of being away from home (or my in laws home) for Christmas but this was SO lovely! Seabrook is about 40 minutes north of Ocean Shores and it is BEAUTIFUL unlike Ocean Shores. I love the ocean. Its humbling beauty is something I could stare at for hours. I feel small in its grandeur and I think that is a very good thing. One cannot help but be in awe of the Creator.

The kids did well and had a great time. Beau was pretty sick but on the mend by the time we arrived and I was doing better after contracting pink eye two nights before! But all was well and most notably there was NOT a cloud in the sky the entire time! ON the OCEAN! IN Washington State!!! It was butt cold though, as evidenced by my children actually wearing hats :)

I received a most outstanding gift as well from my mother in law. She made me a book.... of this blog!!! Every entry starting at the beginning, which I gathered is quite a feat. It is truly one of the most precious gifts I have ever received- Thank you, Janie! She told me I would cry as she handed me the package. Well, I did. And I have since then too :)

Being known and loved for who you are by your mother in law is a wonderful gift.

Thanks God :)

air guitar, anyone?

Sometimes I feel like taking those old records off the shelf.

This is our business tonight this last day of 2009. Whether it is risky or not...well, you must tune in next year to judge for yourself! :)

I will post about our fabulous Christmas soon!

Happy New Year to all!

HAPPY MERRY BESTEST CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!! Consider this an E-card. No a BlogCard. No a Bard....nope. How about a Clog? ;)

Cheers! Hoping that you may think upon the true wonder of this season and answer the call to

"let every heart prepare Him room"

or, as Bradie would have it

"Happy Birthday, Jesus!"

The truth is that life is quite rich and it is only because of complacency and fear that I can never settle down to write about it. Right before bedtime, I read an emailed link from my friend Lori entitled The Invisible Woman. Its by Nicole Johnson and you can google it if you want as I don't feel like putting a link in right now. I barely made it through my six lullabies to Bradie without my voice quivering. The story sums up the plight of the Invisible Woman that she is not invisible at all, but that God does indeed see ALL that she does in her life for her family.

There are days-boy, are there days- where I don't "hear" one nice thing said to me. At all. There are days when I find myself immersed in infuriating battles of logic (or non-logic) with a four year old who has no idea the rules she's breaking are actually for her good and, most of the time, for her happiness as well. Somedays there's never any bull-free time in this China shop!

So the metaphor from The Invisible Woman crushes me. Cathedrals. Apparently no one knows who really built those great cathedrals because they took so painstakingly long to complete.

Many builders died before they saw their work complete.

And the thing I can barely grasp is that my current life's work may be exactly the same. No one "sees" me, no one "knows" all the details of it except for Him. And that raises up in me these feelings that I cannot name or much less contain quickly enough to express.

The comfort in this is that God is real. Really real. That truth makes "those days" actually make sense, and I am encouraged to pick it up again tomorrow because His mercies really are new everyday. There is no way that I can be sitting here in sweats, hair unwashed, glitter all over my kitchen floor, after a day of very little respect and be so...filled that I feel like I will explode if I don't say that my God is real. And He is good.

Amen.

mini Daddy of course, but....

See any similarities?

Cleaning out the cedar chest and came across some baby pictures of yours truly.

Also, do the Antique Roadshow people take Zyrtec or Benadryl or SOMETHING because between the 1942 wedding gown that was Grandma's and the five mink stole, I am a sneezing mess.

Another gem: my CAT test scores from 1st grade. Oh, the good ol days! I listened to Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill while doing all this also :) It's a variety show around here today!