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Thanksgiving

So every year during the month of November, I have slips of paper and a cornucopia sitting on our table. Each night we gather for dinner, we write 1 thing we are thankful for. I've saved them for the past 4 years. Think I might make a table runner out of them one day. So here's a sample of this year's "I'm thankfuls".

Morgan: * My friends * My family * School to learn * Daisy * My sister * Soda

Sarah: * Pancakes * My Family * Tests * Drinks * Friends * Home * USA * Girl Scouts * Sisters

Mike: * Warm Fall Days * Indoor plumbing * Cathy, Morgan, Sarah * Food * Real Maple Syrup * Smiles * Dinner

Me: * Date night in 3 nights! * Northpoint Church & ImpACT! * My eyes that let me see the smiles and beauty all around me * Weekends spent with family - just being together and enjoying life! * Mike's arms that I can fall into at the end of a long day. * The little things my girls get excited about.

A Little Pencil

So I've been thinking a lot lately, what is my responsibility to the poor and broken in my community, as well as globally. Do I have a responsibility? And what does it look like? Do I have a responsibility with my time, emotions or finances? And does my sense of responsibility come from a sense of guilt or from a heart of love?

Our pastor prays this prayer often, and it's been becoming my prayer as well. It says, "May the things that break your heart, God, break my heart too." Oh, how I want to care about the things that God cares about! And not just care about them, but I want them to break me, to the point where I have no choice but to do something! However, I find that too often it's easy to stay busy with my life, to make excuses and to just continue on, without giving any thought, let alone any action, to the poor and hurting and do I even dare admit it, the dying.

Sometimes I think my lack of motivation comes from the fact that I often feel like just being one person, how can I really make a difference with things like poverty, disease, illiteracy and spiritual emptiness? So I do nothing. I love this quote from church today:

'I am a little pencil the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.' ~Mother Teresa

I am a little pencil...but God is using me (or at least wants to use me, when I take the time to put action to those thoughts that are deep within me) to send His love into the world. Oh, how I need to remember this!

And then I've also had this conviction...how am I teaching compassion to my own children? Am I giving them opportunity to love others in the community who are hurt and broken? Am I modeling a life like this for them? Well today, we did a small thing and went shopping for food and toys to give to a family for the holidays. It was a small deed, and yet, who am I to judge what a small pencil can do?

Halloween

Here are a few pictures that caputre our day today. We spent the afternoon raking leaves and jumping in them. We laughed a lot at the dog's first chance to play in the leaves. Then we had Spaghetti and eyeballs for dinner. And then our neighbors invited us to go trick or treating with them around the block and then had us over for a campfire and smores. It was a fun halloween day!

Profound and Beautiful

This morning our pastor prayed these words, "Lord, help us to rest in you who are both profound and beautiful." I have been reflecting on those words ever since he spoke them.

Here are some definitions:

• Rest: (a) Peace, ease, or refreshment resulting from sleep or the cessation of an activity (like worry). (b) Relief or freedom from disquiet or disturbance. (c) Mental or emotional tranquillity.
• Profound: (a) having intellectual depth and insight (b) difficult to fathom (c) characterized by intensity of feeling or quality (d) all encompassing, complete
• Beautiful: the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit:loveliness

So how would my day, the stress in my day, the worries that weigh me down look different if I truly rested in Him who was profound and beautiful? Why do I let worries and stress steal that sweet place of rest in Him who is both profound and beautiful and who calls me His child? I'm thankful he doesn't require perfection...He just asks for us to accept grace and to take a journey towards His heart to discover a sweet place of rest.

Ties That Bind Us

I like this quote I read on facebook. I know this is true in my life.

The ties that bind us are sometimes impossible to explain. They connect us even after it seems like the ties should be broken. Some bonds defy distance and time and logic; because some ties are simply...meant to be.

Long Day, but Perfect Evening

Today was a long day. Really long. Today, my parents should have been arriving, but due to Influenza A (also known as Swine Flu) that has hit our family, they have postponed their trip (can't blame them, it's still disappointing!). Morgan went back to school today, Sarah is still down with a fever. I had to go back to work today and Mike got to stay home with her...I wish I was the one with all the sick leave (not him!) because I want to be home with my kids when they are sick. And yet I know Sarah enjoyed her day spent with her daddy. And I am glad he is so willing to be home with them, it is a blessing that he does have the time and he is willing to take it! It has not stopped raining all day...the kind of rain you can hear on the roof top kinda rain. That meant indoor recess at school. Several kids went home with fever at school today. I easily could have come home from school depressed and yet I decided to put on my pjs, turn on the fireplace (Ok, gas fireplaces are growing on me...although I still miss the smell of real fire!), bake some chocolate chip cookies, make some chicken noodle soup, and cuddle up on the sofa and listen to the rain fall and fall and fall...and I guess 6 more inches are still coming our way...

Dancing in the Rain

"Life's not about waiting for the storms to pass, but it's about learning to dance in the rain." I first heard this quote a little over a year ago and I love it. It's the kind of 'life perspective' that I want to have in life. It's the attitude I want to permeate from my core. It's about living in the moment 'and making it so beautiful it's worth remembering' despite the circumstances around me. And as much as I love it, it's not always easy to do. But yesterday I celebrated as I chose this attitude.

Our friends came to stay the weekend with us and go to Silver Dollar City (SDC) with us. We've been anticipating this for awhile. So Saturday arrives and just as we go to leave for SDC it starts raining. And it never stopped. Despite the weather forecast of 30% scattered rain, we spent the entire day at Silver Dollar City in the rain, sometimes misty sprinkles other times torrential downpour. And yet we laughed, we joked, we played in the rain! And what fun the water rides were! On top of that Sarah got sick yesterday...vomited in the car on the way there and the way back. She spent most of the day at SDC enjoying herself, but around 3pm her little tummy began to ache again. So while the others went and rode rides, I sat on the bench with her, held her, sang to her and she fell asleep in my arms. Oh what a precious few moments those were. She's starting to get so big and to have her fall asleep in my arms and give me a moment to just be thankful for her and to smell her hair and kiss her forehead, and thank God for the blessing she is in my life, well it was priceless!

And today, because she's still not feeling well, we didn't go to church. I miss the Sundays we don't go and yet I have been enjoying some time reading my bible, praying, listening to some online sermons from our old church. I've been appreciating this unexpected morning. Sometimes the best plans and routines are interrupted with stroms. So I might not always remember to dance in the rain...but this weekend I did...and it's been wonderful!

Grief

Tonight I'm thankful for Grief. It's not that I enjoy grief, and yet there is something healing when you pause to grieve. Today I'm grieving the tragedy of 9/11 once again. It still moves me to tears and I still ache for those who lost so many loved ones that day. I still can't even comprehend such evil acts and I still feel proud for such bravery we saw that day as the news unfolded. What deep tragedy. It still brings tears to my eyes. This year I attempted to explain this tragedy to the girls.

I'm also grieving 'cuz it's grandparents day at school. First, I miss living close to my parents, I miss my kids being able to celebrate fun days like this at school with them. It also makes me miss Mike's parents and I still wish they were here to share life with.

Lastly, this week, I was reminded that I once again need to grieve some disappointments from the past few years. Those disappointments are preventing me from moving forward in some areas of life. I'm hoping that in pausing to grieve, I will be able to step forward again.

I'm glad God gave us emotions, 'cuz I couldn't imagine living life without them.

End of Summer

Even though we've been in school a few weeks, Labor Day really feels like the end of summer. Our 'Fall' is filled with routine and work and commitments. But what things about this last summer did I love? I loved waking up slowly in the mornings, laying in bed with our new laptop. I loved having time to write the draft of my memoir. I loved the week the girls spent the mornings at horse camp and I had some time to myself. I loved that our trips to WI, MA and MI allowed the girls to play with all their cousins this summer. I loved celebrating our 15th anniversary. I loved watching the girls fly across the lake on the tube! I loved the cooler summer that reminded me more of a 'Michigan Summer'. I loved visiting Silver Dollar City all summer long with family and friends. I loved reading more books than I could count. I loved 1/2 price drinks at Sonic. I loved the sunshine.

And here comes Autumn...cooler temps, chili suppers, picking up walnuts, Sunday drives to see the world be painted beautiful, sweatshirts, football, bike rides, long walks. Ahhh, each season has reasons to celebrate!