CHRISTMAS!

Oh we had such a great day! Ina stayed over Christmas Eve and we stayed up til 2:30 working on last minute gifts and wrapping. When Noah woke up at 4 and 7 we were zombies! But, after the family showed up and our house was BOMBARDED by presents, we had so much fun! We let Noah go first and just kept piling presents on him. Poor guy got upset because every thing he saw had to be surgically removed from its package and took forever. He must have opened 40 presents! But then we saved our tricycle for last and he loved it so much. He just kept sitting on it and saying "ride it ride it" and we would push him around the house. sooo sweet!!! Then Noah took a nap and the adults exchanged gifts which was also so much fun! Paul got his banjo! I am so excited for him -- what a cool gift!! Eric got an infrared cooker and then we made our steak for dinner in it! Everyone was so happy and just glad to be together. I was still a little under the weather and tired but I enjoyed it all so much I didn't mind!

After everyone left, Eric and Crissy stayed and played the Wii and just relaxed with us. We feel so lucky to have them as friends as well as relatives!

sick

ugh. i am so sick. i had my bausman kids over for lunch friday and i was FINE. then i was just sitting here at about dinner time and my throat just swelled shut and it was awful! i spent the whole night crying and writhing. I went to the doctor saturday morning and laid on the floor in the waiting room because I couldn't sit upright. The nurse yelled at me because i couldn't open my mouth for the strep test, but it turns out that is what it was. a "severe case" -- 3 days before christmas! i had to cancel my super fun dinner with my camp friends and i didn't even make it to church on sunday. i held a steady 103 fever for a while but finally it broke last night. i'm praying i can go tonight but there are no promises. thank god paul is so awesome... he's spending his break cleaning and baking and watching noah. poor guy.

Taylor

Well, years ago when I was working at Bausman in Reading, I had a girl in my confirmation calass named Taylor Swift. She was 13 and had just started playing the guitar. It was about this time of year and she was writing stuff down during a sermon of mine about Christmas. Later that day her dad called me to tell me she wrote a song about my sermon. Then, on Christmas Eve she brought her guitar and rocked our pre-Christmas eve recital! I was so touched and held on to that song since then.

Then when she made the big time, I thought there was no way a s ong so clearly about Jesus would make it. But here it is! It is her most requested song right now.

A few weeks ago her dad called me and said "I didn't know if you heard, but Taylor is doing well." haa haa, how could I not hear! I'm so proud of her!!!

Praying

 

It doesn't have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

 

a few words together and don't try
to make them elaborate, this isn't
a contest but the doorway

 

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.

 

~ Mary Oliver ~

 

 

(Thirst)

 

hmmm.. i could say i have been reading poetry, but this one came from an oprah magazine i snagged from the gym.  oddly enough i have had the oddest conversations about oprah recently.  some people really hate her, but i have to admit that the magazine was awesome.  from very healthy looking models to oprah's letter about her inability to keep up with her own life, to the 20 page pull out about how to have a green christmas and recycle everything you give and get, not to mention some good coupons.  enjoy.

Saturday Morning

Since I've drastically cut back on work and therefore dramatically cut back on my stress levels, we have found a new time in our lives:  Saturday morning.  It is amazing to live in this time.  Cartoons, breakfast, coffee on the coach and no rush.  It is the best time ever.  Yesterday morning Noah slept til after seven (which is like 11:30 am in baby time) and we all woke up rested and happy.  Paul was still cold and sleepy and so he put a blanket over his head and played games with Noah.  How wonderful to watch our new favorite time with a Rock Church Mug and Starbucks Dark Italian Roast on the first of december.  bring it on advent.

Reading Again

seeing as how the public library is pretty much attached to my back  yard and i have sinfully ignored its proximity to my house, i have made it a new practice to start visiting the library.  I started with a nice Nicholas Sparks book that was all lovey and then read some things by the author of The Secret Life of Bees and I finally checked out Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott.  I've been meaning to read it my whole life and never have and it is wonderful....  i highly reccomend it. this particular book is about writing.  though i am not a writer, i do have to write every single week for my sermons and it can become very daunting to try desperately to stay interesting and fresh.  anne is also a protestant struggling wildly to understand her faith and i appreciate that.... some excerpts and things she quotes:

I heard a preacher say recently that hope is a revolutionary patience... Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come.  You wait and watch and work:  you don't give up.  xxiii

other days, my writing is like a person to me -- the person  who after all these years, still makes sense to me.  It reminds me of the Wild Rose by Wendell Berry, a poem he wrote for his wife. 

Sometimes hidden from me

in daily custom and in trust

so that i live by you unaware 

as by the beating of my heart

suddenly you flare in my sight, 

a wild rose blooming at the edge

of thicket, grace and light

where yesterday was only shade,

and once again I am blessed, choosing

again what I chose before.  

another poignant poem:

We Who Are Your Closest Friends
Phillip Lopate

We who are
your closest friends
feel the time
has come to tell you
that every Thursday
we have been meeting,
as a group,
to devise ways
to keep you
in perpetual uncertainty
frustration
discontent and
torture
by neither loving you
as much as you want
nor cutting you adrift.
Your analyst is
in on it,
plus your boyfriend
and your ex-husband;
and we have pledged
to disappoint you
as long as you need us.
In announcing our
association
we realize we have
placed in your hands
a possible antidote
against uncertainty
indeed against ourselves.
But since our Thursday nights
have brought us
to a community
of purpose
rare in itself
with you as
the natural center,
we feel hopeful you
will continue to make unreasonable
demands for affection
if not as a consequence
of your disastrous personality
then for the good of the collective.

Hope is the power of being cheerful in the circumstances we know are desperate (Chesterton), 19

I know some very great writers, writer you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down and routinely feeling wildly enthusiatic and confident.  Not one of them writes elegant first drafts.   All right, one of them does, but we do not like her very much.  We do not thinkt aht she has a rich inner life or that God likes her or can even stand her.  (Although when I mentioned this to my priest friend Tom, he said you can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.) 22

Turkey All Done

phew! i finally have my feet up after a long week of preparation and hard work. Thanksgiving was absolutely wonderful today. It was so nice to have our loved ones here. It was wonderful to have so many great foods. But the best part was that everyone stayed and just hung out ALL DAY! In years past we were sad when people would "eat and leave" but this year people just chatted and relaxed and I loved it. Noah only took a short nap and so he was cranky but we all went out and played in the yard because it was so warm.

mmm... lots of yummy food too. Filling, fried turkey, corn souffle, and peanut butter pie. oh it was so wonderful. Just a little sad that Len and Sandra weren't here but we did set up a video chat this afternoon.

God of goodness, bless our food,
Keep us in a cheerful mood.
Bless the cook and all who serve us.
From indigestion, Lord, preserve us.
(From an Anglican monastery kitchen at Brisbane, Australia)

no small project in my vocabulary

ok, so i hated the brown of hte dining room. and my plan was to just paint it lighter for thanksgiving. well, i painted it white and it was dull. i painted it cream and it looked yellow. i hated it more. so i thought more light would help and bought a new light. the windows looked drab so i took off the shutters and bought shades (4 different kinds) and then curtains too. i finally painted it "cake stand blue" and liked it. then we redid a lot of the woodwork, added another piece of crown moulding to give it some definition, and i found some great items to hang on the wall. hmmm... just paint, eh? i think that's my way of talking myself into a project. haa haa. but... I LOVE IT now and i can't wait for everyone to see it tomorrow. now, i just need a hutch to match.

hmmmm

ok, aj said i should start a blog. and i do whatever she says. so i did it. but, i am like her in that i can't ever remember to post. i think i have 50 blogs in the blogosphere that have forgotten about. another try...

at this moment in time, i am on the couch the day before thanksgiving, trying to think of things i may have forgotten. but i am really happy for the holidays. excited for my family to fill the house tomorrow. excited to decorate for christmas and smell the fresh greens. wonder what noah will be like this year... i'm sure he will want to pull EVERY ball off the tree. and want to dismount the train in his toddler-esque king kong manner. it will be wonderful!!!