Last September on this date I wrote a post about four people connected to me who were battling against cancer. In these last 15 months, three of them have went to be with the Lord. The fourth person unfortunately is in the hospital as I write this.
Cancer sucks. I hate that it takes away people from this earth too soon with such a physical assault on the body. Brittney was so young barely able to live any type of adult life, Gary wasn't able to see his first grandchild and Stef has left three young children with his wife to mourn him every Christmas. For each of these people, I was not close enough to be on the day to day details and progress of the disease. With Lisa, I have the privilege of being one of the many people to help serve her family. This Christmas will be really rough for them as well and who knows how many more will bring back these memories.
Our hope is in the Lord. I am comforted in knowing that all of these people did profess that Jesus was their savior and I will meet them in heaven one day! We can celebrate Christmas because He is the reason for the season! Jesus came to earth to be our savior for those who believe in him.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
The end is here!
Yippee! The semester is concluding tomorrow and my husband will be finished with his degree. Congratulations to my budding civil engineer! I'm very proud of you in how hard you have worked on your studies as well as how hard you have worked to balance family time into the mix.
Your family has very much enjoyed the adventure that you have taken them on for the last year and a half. We are looking forward to where you take us next and also being very patient as you try and figure that out.
No, there isn't a great job offer waiting on the table. I appreciate that you spent time with us and serving your church family and finding the perfect job didn't fit into all of that. You made very wise choices for us a decade ago that puts us in a place where we don't need to stress about how the bills will be paid right now.
I'm so very proud of you! You went out on a limb and pursued something that you weren't able to accomplish 15 years ago. You are now here with a full-fledged engineering degree and on your way to being a professional engineer! Think of all of those experiences that you have under your belt now to take into your next career! We're with you all the way.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
To write a Christmas Letter or not to write one
It's that time of the year for Christmas cards! I really like to receive them and enjoy reading the letters that people write about their year. I'm not a snob about the impersonality of these at all, I can't imagine writing or pretending to write a personal letter to everyone. It's fun to revisit the highlights of the year and figure out how to creatively put it together in print.
Last year we didn't send out Christmas cards. I did write a letter but it never made it beyond some e-mail forwards. (Maybe to a grandparent if they were lucky.) This year, I want to send out cards with a letter, but I feel like we have so much unknown in our lives that maybe I should wait before sending news to all of our friends and relatives.
Any thoughts? Do you want a review of our last 12 or 24 months with a paragraph about where we don't know we are going or should I just wait until we know more about where we may be living past January?
Last year we didn't send out Christmas cards. I did write a letter but it never made it beyond some e-mail forwards. (Maybe to a grandparent if they were lucky.) This year, I want to send out cards with a letter, but I feel like we have so much unknown in our lives that maybe I should wait before sending news to all of our friends and relatives.
Any thoughts? Do you want a review of our last 12 or 24 months with a paragraph about where we don't know we are going or should I just wait until we know more about where we may be living past January?
Monday, December 1, 2008
My son's lovely creation...
Many of my friends blog about the beautiful food that they create and I love to read those posts. This is not beautiful food in my opinion, but wanted to share my son's creation for breakfast no less from a few days ago...
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Let me dissect this for you. It's the bottom half of a whole wheat hot dog bun (made by mom). On top is left-over cold cheese ravioli, Parmesan cheese and dill pickle relish.
Let me dissect this for you. It's the bottom half of a whole wheat hot dog bun (made by mom). On top is left-over cold cheese ravioli, Parmesan cheese and dill pickle relish. The good thing about his creations is that he actually does eat them!
This creation was reproduced the following day for lunch with an additional ingredient - cold pinto beans! Yummy...aren't we all ready for this guy to be a chef? The boy can spot an onion a mile away and won't touch it, but he'll eat this!
Child number 1 had a sensible breakfast of cereal and toast.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Blessings in a storm
Our new neighbors are now moved in next door! What a blessing to have four kids move in and not four big dogs! We are beyond the storm of the previous neighbor, and we have been allowed to see a blessing that has come from it based on a conversation between dad and second son. Dad was reading Ecclesiastes one recent morning and discussion ensued with the inclusion of the the song lyric "I don't want to gain the whole world, but lose my soul" (Toby Mac).
Like a good dad, they had a discussion about what the song lyric meant to gain the whole world. Dad asked son if he thought that it would be cool to have everything he wanted. The surprising answer was, "No." Follow-up question was about dad getting a great job where he could buy him anything he wanted and would he like that. Again the answer was, "No." Dads response was, "Why not?" Little guy says because of "Mike".
Mike is the guy who lived next door that had all of the toys and dogs...but he ended up losing his toys and his home and pretty much everything. We were so thankful that we able to make it through the situation without our children hurt, but had no idea that such a huge lesson would be learned by such a little guy. That lesson was not something that could be taught nearly as easily by words or a brief glimpse into someone else's life!
Thanks God for showing us this blessing as a result of a storm!
Like a good dad, they had a discussion about what the song lyric meant to gain the whole world. Dad asked son if he thought that it would be cool to have everything he wanted. The surprising answer was, "No." Follow-up question was about dad getting a great job where he could buy him anything he wanted and would he like that. Again the answer was, "No." Dads response was, "Why not?" Little guy says because of "Mike".
Mike is the guy who lived next door that had all of the toys and dogs...but he ended up losing his toys and his home and pretty much everything. We were so thankful that we able to make it through the situation without our children hurt, but had no idea that such a huge lesson would be learned by such a little guy. That lesson was not something that could be taught nearly as easily by words or a brief glimpse into someone else's life!
Thanks God for showing us this blessing as a result of a storm!
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Fall Homeschooling Fun
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Monday, November 10, 2008
When did I not become the "typical" American?
My weekend realization was that we not a typical middle class American family. Until now, I kind of considered our family a pretty typical middle class family like most people consider themselves an above average driver. I now understand that we are atypical.
What makes us NOT typical Americans:
- We go to church almost every Sunday.
- We home school.
- We have no debt.
- We only own one motorized vehicle.
- Most meals are eaten at home and prepared here.
- We compost.
- We are ready to get rid of cable because we don't watch it!
I think there are lots of typical things about our family that still put us in middle class American and not an aberration of society. Like most people, I don't know that we are doing anything that would be considered outside of the "normal" or acceptable range of American life -- just a combination of all of these things does not make us typical anymore. The items on the list are a progression over the years and about half of these have sprouted or changed within the last two years. The list may continue to get longer as I look at the grain mill and whole wheat berries that are a new addition to our household as of yesterday!
So, what does this realization mean? I'm having a hard time putting those words together. But I do believe there is some significance. Mostly I think it means that I have probably projected my thoughts and perceptions on other people's situations too much in the past. Therefore, I need to listen more to other people and understand them for who they are and what motivates them!
You may be wondering what provoked this thought or then again, you may have become bored and not made it this far! Two different influences this weekend helped to provide perspective. One was a TLC show (for that 20 minutes that the TV was on this weekend) about a family with 17 kids and the other was watching Ben Stein's movie, "Expelled". The TLC show wasn't anything fantastic but I realized that I could relate to that family much better than to the shows that I have seen advertised on the major networks. (I have to say that I haven't watched any of the major network shows either, but the advertising of them didn't compel me to turn it on.) "Expelled" was extremely thought provoking. I really feel like my head has been buried in the sand about how American science has shaped our society. Now what I do about that now that I understand, I don't know yet.
What makes us NOT typical Americans:
- We go to church almost every Sunday.
- We home school.
- We have no debt.
- We only own one motorized vehicle.
- Most meals are eaten at home and prepared here.
- We compost.
- We are ready to get rid of cable because we don't watch it!
I think there are lots of typical things about our family that still put us in middle class American and not an aberration of society. Like most people, I don't know that we are doing anything that would be considered outside of the "normal" or acceptable range of American life -- just a combination of all of these things does not make us typical anymore. The items on the list are a progression over the years and about half of these have sprouted or changed within the last two years. The list may continue to get longer as I look at the grain mill and whole wheat berries that are a new addition to our household as of yesterday!
So, what does this realization mean? I'm having a hard time putting those words together. But I do believe there is some significance. Mostly I think it means that I have probably projected my thoughts and perceptions on other people's situations too much in the past. Therefore, I need to listen more to other people and understand them for who they are and what motivates them!
You may be wondering what provoked this thought or then again, you may have become bored and not made it this far! Two different influences this weekend helped to provide perspective. One was a TLC show (for that 20 minutes that the TV was on this weekend) about a family with 17 kids and the other was watching Ben Stein's movie, "Expelled". The TLC show wasn't anything fantastic but I realized that I could relate to that family much better than to the shows that I have seen advertised on the major networks. (I have to say that I haven't watched any of the major network shows either, but the advertising of them didn't compel me to turn it on.) "Expelled" was extremely thought provoking. I really feel like my head has been buried in the sand about how American science has shaped our society. Now what I do about that now that I understand, I don't know yet.
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