Want to Know Wednesday

1. What is your favorite holiday?
Thanksgiving. No one has screwed it up with gifts or holiday icons or other dumb holiday stuff that seems to accompany pretty much every other big day. This one is just about being thankful & spending time with family.

2. Do you have any fun holiday traditions? What are they?
Oh please. I could write 10 posts about those. If you really want to know, check the archives for holiday times. I post about what we're doing every year.

3. When do you start Christmas shopping?
As soon as I can, but for the past several years, it's closer to Christmas than 4th of July. We have to get a loan every year to buy our Christmas gifts & while that's perfectly OK, it just means that we want to wait as long as possible before getting that loan ('cuz then we have to start making payments).

4. What is your favorite holiday food?
That's hard. I like it all. The veggies, the meats, the desserts....everything!

5. Share a favorite childhood holiday memory.
My older sister, Cindy, would always come wake me up at like 4am to go see what Santa brought me. We'd quietly tip toe to the living room & shut the door & take a look, then got back in bed til the rest of the family woke up.

6. Have you ever actually tried fruitcake??
No.

Ten on Tuesday

1. What temperature do you keep your thermostat on during the day?
We are Eskimos at my house. Only 1 of the kids is cold natured. The rest of us sweat all the time, so that 1 kiddo has to throw on an extra layer most of the time. (She doesn't seem to mind, though.) During hot weather, we keep it on 74-76 during the day. Don't remember what we do during the winter.

2. What temperature do you keep your thermostat on at night?
I hate to be hot or to have it feel 'stuffy' at night. I must have some air flowing around me or I'll sweat & then I'm miserable & can't sleep. Fortunately, all of us like to sleep cold, so we set it to 69 at night.

3. In a canister of mixed nuts, do you pick out certain varieties and leave the others?
If they're salted, I'll eat any of them. However, cashews & almonds are my favorite. yum!

4. What is your favorite kind of M&M?
It used to be the plain ones, but now they've got so many yummy flavors that it's hard to choose. I like the peanut butter ones & the pretzel ones & the coconut ones. But the peanut ones have grown on me over the years, too. So umm....yeah, just give me an M&M & I'll be happy. (But please none of those weird strawberry-mixed ones that came out briefly a couple years ago.)

5. How do you buy books? (Amazon, bookstore, new, used, electronic, etc)
Most of mine come from half.com or Amazon.com. Savannah has an e-reader & uses it some. But all of my books are on paper.

6. How do you like your eggs cooked?
Any way you cook 'em. (Fried is my least favorite, though.)

7. Can you whistle?
Yes! Do it all the time & drive my husband crazy. ;)

8. What common word do you always misspell?
I only found out recently that I've been misspelling embarrass for years. Either that or all the online spell checkers are wrong & I've been right all this time. I always spelled it with only 1 R, but apparently there are 2.

9. Are you afraid of flying?
no

10. How often do you go shopping?
I grocery shop once a week. But if this is referring to shopping for things like clothes/shoes, etc, then only when necessary. I'd love to have loads of money to spare to spend on things like that all the time, but I don't. I usually replace jeans when they get so threadbare that they rip....and shirts when they go out of style....and shoes when I wear a hole through the sole. Seriously, it's not at the top of my priority list. :)

Lord, Save Us from Your Followers

I just finished watching a DVD called Lord Save Us From Your Followers. I've been wanting to see it for several years. I bought it nearly 2 years ago from our local video store when it was closing down. And let me tell you, folks...I HIGHLY recommend you watch it. Especially if you call yourself a Christian! The theme of the film is something I am passionate about & wish that more Christians could grasp. (But please understand, I am no saint. I've screwed up plenty!)

The basic idea is that people, in general, don't have a problem with Jesus. They have a problem with Christians. And ya know what? I can understand that. As a whole, we as Christians (especially us American Christians) have a habit of creating division, stirring up controversy, spewing nastiness and looking like hypocrites. If I was on the outside looking in, I'd run from us, too!

But let's look at the Bible instead. How would Jesus handle things? What did He do?

Jesus didn't hang out in a church. He didn't spend nearly as much time building up His believers as He did out serving. He went to where the poor were & ministered to them. He fed the hungry people and helped widows & orphans. He talked to "forbidden" people-- he hung out with tax collectors & prostitutes. He touched diseased people & offered them compassion (and sometimes, healing). He created relationships with the "bad" people & loved them. He forgave them when they screwed up and offered hope & benevolence. He was kind to them & peaceful.



What do we do these days? Well, mostly we stand in judgement of everyone who doesn't think, feel, act & believe just like us. I'm not saying that we should gloss over the differences between us & pretend they don't exist. But if you ever hope to draw someone in, you better stop pushing them away.







A couple of quotes I loved on this DVD:
*We paint the face of God to look however we want Him to look.
*You can tell that you have created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do. -Anne Lamott

On this documentary, Bill Maher was interviewed & he said something that I liked a lot. He said (and I can't find a direct quote so I'm summarizing) "If the people who call themselves Christians would start calling themselves 'Christ-likes', maybe that would help them think about the way they behave & treat people, because Jesus Christ would've never acted like most of them do."

You know folks, as much as I usually disagree with Bill Maher, he's got a strong point there.

I charge you, fellow Christians, to really think about one last thing. I know a guy that grew up in the Bible belt. As an adult, he epitomizes pretty much everything that is opposed to Christianity. His lifestyle exudes a lack of faith in anything...the choices he has made as an adult are totally anti-Scripture. I won't get into the details of his life because it's his story to tell & not mine, but I assure you, he would never "fit in" at most of our holier-than-thou Christian churches. I asked him once if he'd ever gone to church as a kid & he relayed a story about how his parents did when they were newlyweds, but they'd been treated badly & they never went back. And now, in the next generation after that, his life is where it is. Perhaps if he'd been raised in church & come to know God in a loving relationship, his life might be in a different place these days. I urge you to consider your actions because sometimes the ugliness, the judgement, the hurtful things you shove out onto others may create a generations-long division that can never be repaired. If you want someone to know Jesus & understand the love of God, you're not going to accomplish that by being a jerk.

If you want to be like Christ, consider your words & your actions. And like the old bracelets that we all wore in the 90s, ask yourself 'What would Jesus do?'. I am compelled to believe that most of the time, what WE choose & what HE would choose to not line up.

Five Question Friday

1. Shoes in the house - yay or nay?
Around here, all 5 of us spend 95% of our time barefoot. In my house, if you have on your shoes, it means you're about to go somewhere. But we're not barefoot because I'm worried about messing up the carpet or something. We all just prefer to be barefoot all the time!

2. What do you call them- flip flops, slippers, thongs, etc?
I assume this is referring to the sandal that it worn in summer time & has the strap that passes between the toes. Those were called thongs when I was a kid. But as a teen, that term became the name of something else & flip flops replaced that title. Slippers are another name for houseshoes....the things that you wear around your house before bedtime.

3. What song are you almost embarrassed to admit you know all the lyrics to?
Baby Got Back, the theme songs to nearly every TV show from the late 80s/early 90s

4. What is the best quality to have in a friend?
Honesty

5. Do you know what you want for Christmas?
A peaceful, calm season that my husband can enjoy. He stresses out so much at Christmastime that he has a hard time enjoying it. I want this year to be different.

Friday Phone Dump

It's that time of the week again! Follow me through my week in pictures from my cell phone! Join in on your blog. You can use my picture above (right click & save to your computer) or create your own. Then link back here & comment so I will know to check your blog too!

This first one is a follow up to last week's pic of the apple dumpling syrup that I was cooking. The finished product was A-MA-ZING! Can't wait for Fall so I can cook these again & have them actually fit the proper season. (Of course, I can come up with all sorts of excuses to cook these between now & then. Perhaps I should practice making them many times so that I can perfect them by the time that it really feels like Fall around here!)

Most weekday mornings, this is my early morning view. (Probably a good thing after eating the apple dumpling in the last picture!!)

I was super excited to get this package in the mail this week. Want to guess what was in it? A well known Christian musical artist who grew up right here in my little town & went to the same church as my family just put out a new CD. You can read about it HERE. I was so excited to get my CD in the mail this week!! Yahoo!!

Yeah. It's still hotter than the surface of the sun in Texas.

I went grocery shopping today. After 2 very hard months, seeing a full fridge makes me so very happy. Lowfat milk, eggs, lots of fruits & veggies, yogurt, cheese, chicken breasts, and juice (a treat for my kids!) and more.

And every time I close that door, I see these sweet faces. They're never too far from my heart.
The pic of Andrew on the 'Sarah' magnet is him with our school mascot at Christmas of 2006. The other two are their school pictures from 07-08 (or maybe 08-09?). I haven't gotten a new one from them since, so these are pretty sweet treasures.

And speaking of treasures...right beside my fridge door in the door that leads to my master bedroom. Kourtney drew/colored these pictures for me shortly before they moved out & hung them up. I've never moved them to another location.

On Monday, Sarah had a really tough morning, filled with anxiety & stress. I walked her into school & stayed with her until she was calm enough to stay without me. Her day got better, due in large part to the HUGE number of people praying for her. (I asked for prayers on my Facebook page and lots of people committed to praying for her to feel better.) The next day I went to eat lunch with her. She made me this cute foil heart from the foil I wrapped her quesadilla in.

I may have snuck Dr. Pepper into the school to share with my 5th grader. Yum!

Sarah took these pictures of me...


And I took this one of her...

On Thursday, Samuel came home from school mid-day with a low grade fever, headache & tummy ache. You can tell where he spent most of his day.

But by this morning, he was a whole new kid! He slept until 9:00am (late for him) and woke up feeling great. Unfortunately because he had fever yesterday, he could not return to school today so he was home again.

Sometimes sick (or recovering) boys need a special treat to share with their mama.

And of course, Sarah's weekly silly face pictures!! (I'm kinda surprised there were only 2 this week!)


And to close out the post, here is your weekly self portrait of me! Have a great week!

Funny Blog Stats

Every now & then I take a peek at the blog stats that Blogger keeps up with for me. I find them both really COOL and really WEIRD. Just check out some of the keywords people used in search engines to find my blog.

Justin Bieber after haircut Ok, so I suppose this was from the post where I talked about Samuel's haircut.
Bad Christian Advice I actually wrote a blog with that title...
Printable Menu Planner Yes, I use one of those & have mentioned it on the blog.
books about heaven Hmmm...yeah, I can see how that could've led a person to my blog
"How to make a handicap sign for the car" WHAT?????????????

And, umm....who do I know that lives in Slovenia, Denmark, Australia, India, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Russia & Germany? I'm honored that international guests repeatedly come to read my blog, but I'm curious how they found me.

Since we started school........

It occurred to me tonight that we've been back in school for almost 2 weeks and I don't think I've blogged about school stuff yet. Oops! Let's see if I can fill in some blanks.

Savannah is in 10th grade this year. She's still in band and loves it. She's not overly thrilled about the once a week evening practices or having to march & get sweaty during 1st period every day, but she loves it just the same. She is also on the high school newspaper staff. She's looking forward to the UIL events this Spring. She'll be the journalism team captain this year and she's super happy about that, already making plans about the little treats & goodies she will give to those on her team.

Samuel is the 6th grade this year. He spent most of the summer practicing with a combination lock for his new locker at school this Fall. But........... when we went to Meet the Teacher before school started, we found out that they had to remove locker privileges this year for safety's sake. Apparently all the lockers are in one hallway & with 200-300 kids all trying to get into & out of their lockers between classes, kids were getting trampled & it was just too congested. Sam was pretty bummed about that. He had planned to be in band, but decided after 1 week that it was not his 'thing' and he switched to choir. He's really enjoying that.

Sarah is in the 5th grade & has the same teachers that Samuel had last year. She has really been suffering with anxiety stuff since school start so today she took her first dose of an herbal/natural anxiety medicine. We're going to give it a week or two & see if it helps any. If not, we're going to take her to see the same doctor Savannah sees for her anxiety issues. I hate to see them suffer & try to cope with this yucky illness! Outside of the anxiety stuff, Sarah is doing great in her final year of elementary school. Her teacher has asked me to be the Room Mom this year, so I will start that soon. I'm looking forward to it!

Work has been great for me! Not much to say there....just grateful I have a job with so many layoffs happening nationwide!

I suppose that's about it. How is your new school year going??