Category: More Slices of Life

♫ It’s the most wonderful time of the year…  ♪  It’s the happ–iest season of alllllll… ♪

I was baking cookies and making fudge last night while listening from time to time to the music in the background.  I think that song came on a half dozen times and I got to thinking about some of the words  to that song and then to another: I’ll be home for Christmas… You can count on me… I’ll be home for Christmas… if on-ly ♪ in my dreams.  My cynical side piped in: O, yes, you can *count on me!*  -if only in my dreams.   What a definite, sure: maybe.

As the night went on and I continued to make and bake and stir and pour, I thought of the different songs… the different sentiments… hundreds of memories and, O, yes… the job at hand.  I thought about that first song.  “It’s the most wonderful time of the year…” and thought, well, yes and the most dangerous one, too.  It’s the time of year we all read the ads and see not so much what we think we want, but all the glamour and abundance reminds us of our lack and then occasionally our “meet-my-wants, feed-my-(perceived)-needs” engine get revved up and our dissatisfaction mode takes over and it’s no longer the ♫ “hap-happiest time of the year!”   I’m re-reminded that we need to guard our minds (2Corinthians 10.5), guard our heart and thoughts.  This hap-piest time of the year can also be the most dangerous to the mind, dangerous to the eyes, and certainly most dangerous to the thighs.

I allowed myself a taste of each thing I was making—not each phase of the making and baking, but a taste of the product.  I knew that a taste could lead to a few and a few could lead to a dish and a dish could lead to a bowl and a bowl could lead to a few more.  So, a taste.  And then the items had to be double wrapped and put away.  Some mommy’s put stuff away so the children don’t sneak snatches of treats.  This mommy puts stuff away so the mommy doesn’t sneak snatches of treats.  Isn’t it funny how we think we’re “sneaking” a treat.  We think no one will know or notice.  But they have eyes!  And we have mirrors and scales.  Sneaking treats? No matter what it seems, it’s not possible to keep that hidden.  I think of 2Timothy3.6  Some indulgences in life cannot be hidden — even black dresses don’t hide overindulgence.

O, so… ♫ I’ll be home for Christmas…  I was thinking about that again this morning and am determined today to miss the days for the what was or what should have been’s.  I want to make home be home for Christmas.  I want to make sure everyone’s glad to be home and that the days, tastes, sights, sounds and thoughts will be sweet.  Especially mama’s.   Sort of the “Be here now” motto and not allow myself the sinful luxury of being somewhere else or doing things because other people do them or in ways I think might seem best to others.  Instead… I’ll be home for Christmas… really.

Each day there are tremendously encouraging or insightful blog entries that I wish I had time to link and share and, in addition, we receive emails each day from brothers and sisters in many different places and walks of life, along with an entry or two in our guestbook on our website each day and I wish I could share them all. From time to time I highlight a guest’s website so that others can also enjoy what we’re seeing and be blessed by other people’s efforts. Today was no exception. Two , in particular, stood out today. One, as always, Barbara links to the most pertinent or informative things!

I had seen this Dove piece a few weeks ago and thought how sad it is that ideals are less than skin deep. And it is because of these ideals that women come to a point of hating themselves because they never match up—never—and they never will because the ideals are a figment of someone’s imagination–the imagination at the end of an airbrush. Take a look at Barbara’s blog posting here.

The other link was one we received in the guestbook. Not only the modesty article, but also the weblog here. I must say, I was first intrigued by the name of the website alone: the Conservative Brunette. It’s name doesn’t correlate with a political group or fashion industry… quite the opposite, really. I love the fresh enthusiasm of younger sisters… I’ve much to learn from them as I walk along becoming too familiar with the path and forget to be eager and enthusiastic about the road ahead.
Time’s up… table linens await and are calling my name. And there’s that very important task of getting the Christmas letters and cards in the mail… yes, paper, envelopes and stamps! ~smile~ Old fashioned things are sweet!

This has been a week where things just don’t go how I thought they might, or how I hoped they wouldn’t (yes, I thought about that wording ~wink~). Things are actually coming together so nicely. Wedding cakes are baked and frozen… ready and waiting for me to frost on Friday and assemble on Saturday. As the wedding day for our friends draws near and we’re making much ado about everything — it seems like just yesterday this wedding was a long, long way off.

In the midst of all the hustle and bustle, Wes and I made a quick run up to Canada today to see our new friend in the dental business and lavished him with spending money for Christmas had more dental work done — more stuff that can’t be seen but mattered a lot and bcz we drive so far, I make two appointments and sometimes more for the same day (yes, 6 fillings — I’m a glutton for punishment!). One phrase I don’t know if I like hearing… it goes something like this: “At your age, old fillings begin to fail and crowns, too.” They went on to tell me this is the best time to have them replaced. You know… I was thinking: You’re right. What was I thinking. This is exactly what I want to be doing right about now. So.. drill away! In the end… I was happy to know I could say: see you next year!

When we returned home, our children had lots of cleaning and decorating surprises for us. I’ll just say that it’s been many, many years since we’ve had traditional decorations—some years, very few decorations at all—well, by comparison, we sure do, now! It’s really quite fun and a neat change of pace. What’s most important, and the best part of all, is that *they* are sooo pleased and enthusiastic! So… nothing’s the same and everything’s better and the days are sweet around here. This is what I want them to remember and treasure in their hearts… that home is/was sweet.

This next bit came from Jenny… very funny and, like her, I laughed out loud at #9. I’m pretty sure I often fit in that category.

1. Schizophrenia — Do You Hear What I Hear?
2. Multiple Personality Disorder — We Three Kings Disoriented Are
3. Dementia — I Think I’ll be Home for Christmas
4. Narcissistic — Hark the Herald Angels Sing About Me
5. Manic — Deck the Halls and Walls and House and Lawn and Streets and Stores and Office and Town and Cars and Buses and Trucks and Trees and…..
6. Paranoid — Santa Claus is Coming to Town to Get Me
7. Borderline Personality Disorder — Thoughts of Roasting on an Open Fire
8. Personality Disorder — You Better Watch Out, I’m Gonna Cry, I’m Gonna Pout, Maybe I’ll Tell You Why
9. Attention Deficit Disorder — Silent night, Holy – oooh look at the kitty – can I have a chocolate – why is France so far away?
10. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder — Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle,Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells , Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells…

O, and one more neat thing…

The aprons we’ll be selling in our “soon to be launched” online store have come in and they are wonderful! We’re closer by the day to linking TheWelcomeHome.com store. Also… several women have signed up to receive the weekly online letters that I’ll begin sending in January… sort of like the Welcome Home letters I used to send. So… bizzy, bizzy, bizzy — and joyful, too!

We’re home again and it’s really incredibly sweet to be here tonight.  As I look out the window and see the reflection of lights—reflection of lights?!?!? my senses are jangled as we do not ordinarily have “lake front” property…  The flood waters are receding but will likely remain in the farmlands for quite a while.  We now see, in a whole new light, the merciful kindness of the LORD and praise Him for His tender mercies.  We are humbled at His protection and provision.  I’ll write more about it all later.  For now, I have posted a few pictures.  But this one is one of my favourites in a tender hearted sort of way.

more pics here.

I have to laugh at the number of Coincidences that have been happening lately.  By coincidences, I mean, when vertical meets the horizontal –or when the LORD meets us where we’re at.  These sorts of things are like punctuation marks to me.  Kind of an exclamation point to a study or a revelation or whatever… when we’re reading in a passage of Scripture and somewhere along the way we discover that a brother or sister in the LORD is reading or has been reading in exactly the same place and has come to the same conclusion we have about a matter or has come to a completely different conclusion and the LORD uses that situation to open our eyes to His Truth or something He wants to show us that we hadn’t been thinking about.  But the times that have been richest are the times where a brother will share a passage we’ve been mulling over and confirms God’s working.  Such was the case with that passage in 1 John that we’ve been studying over the last few weeks — the “love not the world, neither the Bling! things of the world…” passage.

We smile as we see the LORD is leading brothers and sisters all over the world and is ministering through His Word to bring us all to a deeper understanding or sincere walk with Him.  We enjoyed listening to different men share in an “open meeting” this past weekend.  It was no surprise after the first shared (from 1J2.15) that another shared and another from parallel passages.  The first brother talked of several things that are drawing young people to “the things of the world” (MySpace, movies, music, internet) and I would add: clothing/styles.  He talked of the importance of guiding or being aware of the dangers or trappings of those things.  We whole heartedly agreed (This is what got us started with our website many years ago—the desire to set up a safe place to search out lots of good things and resources for families).  So anyway,  as men shared, the theme continued and was expanded as each elaborated on different points.  Open meetings are often like that—they sort of become to me like a patchwork quilt; each piece fitting together with the previous piece and eventually through the evening a full blanket of truth is seen.  We gathered with believers for an annual Cider press in the morning and on through the day and into an evening of sharing a meal, singing and hearing the Word.  It was a delightful time —and as a family tradition, we always look forward to gathering with those friends and sharing what the LORD is doing/has done.  The apple cider was delicious, too!

We smiled as the LORD continued to show us His Word as we came to our family table this morning and continued reading on in 1Corinthians.  We happened to be at chapter 11 this morning.  This, too, was significant as we’ve lately been discussing the gathering of the saints and the priority of coming together to celebrate the LORD’s day/supper and considered the importance of fellowship and structure of meetings.  We also, of course, talked about the matter of headship and God’s order.  We didn’t go through the meaning of the covering this morning as time didn’t permit that study, but will tomorrow as we gather again at the table.  (We tend to do this fairly often – latch on to a particular thought in a passage that might not necessarily be at the first of the chapter and then spend an hour or two talking it over and have to go back three or four days in a row to discuss the rest of the chapter or the different points that seem to be whole books in themselves!)  So we talked around the perimeter of the chapter and set aside the several verses pertaining to headship, hair and headcovering.

That matter (headcovering) has come up many, many times over the years – more in some groups than in others and more with some friends than with others.  Probably every three or four years of our marriage, this matter comes up either as a result of a talk we’ve heard, a book or an article we’ve read or through someone we’ve spent time with.  It’s a hot topic in some circles and yet needn’t lead to a volatile conversation or condemnation for those who do or those who do not choose the covering.  I believe it’s a step of faith –not as in degrees of faith or obedience, but a step of conviction of the LORD and yet always seems to stir up quite a bit of controversy and seems to have quite a bit of debate surrounding it.  It often becomes a dividing point or a distraction –but it needn’t be that way.  So… we’ll be looking into that a bit more tomorrow.

I so appreciate our friend’s approach with us regarding nutrition and healthful foods. She’s patiently helping us (well, me–really) see some areas I need to alter regarding the foods we eat (and don’t eat) and how to make some adjustments. I like this manner of addressing food issues bcz I am dealing with more than simply what and when to eat.

It’s sort of a bizarre thing… it probably *seems* like people who eat whatever there is to eat, a SADiet or whatever, do not care about nutrition or anything else very much. But it’s really not that at all… it’s simply life long programming. And, for that matter, taste acquired over decades. And then simply a lack of motivation to do anything different.

Most people I know don’t make any dietary changes at all until a big bang goes off in their head. The big bang usually follows a conversation at a Doc’s office. The conversation usually contains the “c-word” Cancer or fatal________ or cardio_______ or something else (probably containing the word *high*). That, or suddenly, they land in the hospital in a diabetic coma or someone else does and they realize *they* need to do some reevaluating of the menus and shopping and dining out or whatever.

Now… I’m in the former rather than the latter — I just go along most of the time doing whatever we do, eating whatever we eat and haven’t had a knock-down-drag-out wake up call. Yet. But… I am not stupid. This path I’ve been on has that “wake-up call” somewhere along the way. Or I bypass the wake-up call and say: Good Morning, LORD. (In heaven)

So, I’ve been having a tremendous week of thinking, rethinking, evaluating, reevaluating and working to make some alterations to the food schema around here. And it takes a lot of evaluation — and I mean honest evaluation — to accurately assess the overall food schema of one’s life or in one’s home. Too many of us think we’re not so bad — I mean, we did have a balanced dinner, after all, and we do eat fairly healthful foods… we only had sweets a few times this week today. And then we take stock of what’s in the fridge… and then the freezer. Wow, uh-oh. Then the cabinets: mixes, grocery canned foods, cream-of-whatever soups, hot-chocolate mix, peanut butter, oils, fats, sweet-cereal, and ah, well looky here: chocolate chips, walnuts, crushed Heath bars, white flour, butter, Crisco, white sugar, brown sugar… hey, wait… that’s all important stuff for my deeeelicious cookies. And then you say: okay, okay: What do I have to give up in order to eat whatever I want? Or, okay, I’ll give up all that stuff for 6 weeks… or 6 days or whatever. I’ll do whatever I have to do in order to be able to eat what I want to eat. Sorry. It won’t work that way.

We don’t really have a strong desire to give up anything or to have our delightful diets encroached upon. And we don’t want anyone to tell us we can’t have something. Well, at least not until that doc mentions one of the C words: Cancer or Cardio_______ or something else. Unless… unless we simply stop and take a good look at our life and ask: LORD, is there anything in my life You want me to change? Am I placing a higher priority on food than I am placing to have a genuinely, fully submitted walk with You?

Unless we do this, we’ll probably wake up (sooner than later) saying, Good morning, LORD. How would You have used me had my whole life been totally yielded to You?

More later.

I think I must have reverse anorexia. By this, I mean, I think when I look in the mirror I see less than what I see. I also seem less than what I am. And, by this, I mean: when I walk by a space, or see the size of a chair, I think I am small enough to fit through it or sit on it. And then I see photographs. And then I say: omygoodness, is that the size I am? Most viewings become one of those: “O-wow” moments.

So… continuing on the umpteenth and one diet — which I so name bcz it’s the diet I repeat, stop, repeat, stop, repeat, stop… until I’m sick to death of saying or thinking I really ought to go on a diet lose weight.

I had to make a dramatic assault and just “fast” a bit. It’s sort of the: “desperate times call for desperate measures” sort of dieting or eating (or not eating) pursuit. It’s the sort of resolve that comes along once in a very great while — the resolve to walk right on by the cookies and not eat a broken one. I mean, who are we kidding when we break off a piece of a cookie and think we’re going to just have that much? It’s the kind of resolve that made me pass the plate of pecan bars right on by last night. Had it been a “normal” day, I’d have taken one — well, you know: they were made by my neighbor and she did bring them over specially for us and she is seven months pregnant and she doesn’t bake that often and we were having Bible study and it was a nice evening and the squares were small and… and… and. And I passed them on by.

Many women battle weight. Or, really we think we do. But the reality is we don’t battle weight it’s that we don’t battle self. Self is the ugly glutton that only wants what self wants and doesn’t care what lies it has to tell or to what lengths it has to go to accommodate self. So, yes, we don’t have a weight or weightloss problem anymore than we have a speeding problem. We have a problem with eating too much, too often. And about speeding, that’s self just wanting to do what self wants to do no matter what the law says. But I’m thinking that the glutton self is harder to tame than the speeding self. There’s no policeman to curb the glutton or slap a ticket into the hand of the overeater and require the obese one to appear in court and be judged by a jury of peers. No… but self does play a very naughty trick. Self says: go ahead… you deserve it, you’re not so fat, you’ll lose weight, you’re not as bad as so-n-so, you’ve been “good” today (whatever that means!), yada yada yada. You da woman! And then… you give in and eat. Then self mercilessly mocks you and says you’re such a loser, such a poser, what kind of woman are you, anyway… such an incompetent bimbo — can’t you learn to control yourself?