Advent Day 19

There is room at the manger for everyone. Happy people, sad people, rich and poor, young ones, old ones, you and me.

Our community has had more than its usual share of deaths recently.  My church's "Pray for grieving families" prayer list increased by 6 names last week. Charlotte Smith, Oline Davis, Wayne Owens, Rosella Tahah, Chad Thompson, Bernice Eichling. The families of these people are grieving at Christmas time. There is room for them at the manger where they will find comfort.

We think we have to be happy and cheerful at Christmas. But really we can be whoever we are, feel whatever is appropriate, as long as we seek God and spend time at the manger.

Some of the new people on our prayer list do not attend church.  I don't know how a person survives grief without a connection to God and the support of people with that same connection. One good thing about a small community is that support is available. All of the churches are praying for these people.  Most community members, whether they go to church or not, take action to serve those in need. There will be visits, food, cards and all kinds of help offered.  In a way, they are bringing the manger to the people who need it the most.

Blessings to you throughout Advent and I'll see you at the manger.

A Wonderful Sunday

It started out like any Sunday, breakfast with Pa and Owen, Nick Jr. on TV while we got ready for church, drank coffee and checked email.

9:30 a.m., the day continued as expected, church began on time. It was a hot day in SW Oklahoma but cool and comfortable in the church. Singing, sharing, praying, a sermon about the prodigal son and worshiping the God we love.

There was a little snafu between church and Sunday school involving getting lunch ready but it was just enough to keep things interesting and unpredictable.

The Sunday school lesson was 2 Thessalonians 3:1-15 about God's Own Faithfulness. I liked the part about not being idle. "He who does not work should not eat." I can be a bit of a workaholic during the school year. But when your job is a mission for God, I'm sure that isn't a bad thing. Plus, I get to eat!

Lunch at Gran's was a little late because of the snafu, but it was worth the wait. This was Beth's Sunday birthday dinner (lunch). Her menu was meatloaf, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes and gravy, salad and green beans with peaches and cantaloupe for dessert. (There was birthday cake, but since Beth's birthday was actually on Thursday, the cake was all gone by Sunday).

After the lunch dishes were in the dish washer and the kitchen was cleaned, we sat down to wait for our company, cousins Don and Donna from Oregon along with Cousin LaRae from Texas were on their way. Pa went back to our house to take a nap, Owen fell asleep on his mat in the dining room, Beth curled up on the couch and Gran nodded off in her chair. I was the only one awake when Don knocked on the door.

The company came in and everyone woke up (well, not Pa - we had to give him a wake up call). We told stories and laughed, reminisced and consulted family history books, looked at pictures and caught up with news about people not present. When it was time for them to head on, Don said, "We should be going and let you all get back to your regular life activities." My response was, "Oh, you don't have to do that. This is way more fun than what we normally do." They left anyway.

Pa went to the farm, Beth & Owen went home, and I headed down the street to my house. We left Gran talking on the phone to her sister in Michigan.

I enjoy my Sunday evenings. I got my Bible Blog done and checked my email. Finally back to normal! Mari & Shawn are home from their honeymoon cruise and back online. Five emails and one blog post from Mari. That is more like it.

I'm almost done with my NaBloPoMo daily blog post and then I will watch a TV show (I like Leverage) and read a little (I'm trying to finish John Grisham's children's book THEODORE BOONE: KID LAWYER).

It's been a pretty spectacular Sunday, a great start to the last week in July.

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To Save or Not To Save

For me it is always "SAVE."

I always thought I was programmed to be a saver, having been raised by parents who survived the great depression. They saved everything.

My mom washed plastic sandwich bags, dried them on the dish drain and reused them. The backs of envelopes were our note paper. She used butter wrappers to grease cookie pans. She folded tissue paper and gift wrap from presents to reuse on a future gift that she would give. My mom darned socks over a light bulb. They make darning bulbs but she used a burned out light bulb to fix holes in our socks.

My dad saved broken things because he could usually fix them. Back then, a broken toaster could be fixed. He saved seeds from his vegetable and flowers to plant the following year. He saved and used anything in a bottle or jar (ketchup, salad dressing, shampoo, etc.) by adding water to get every last drop. He used a spatula to reach and clean out mayonnaise and peanut butter jars. Jars were washed and saved for reuse. He saved money in a savings account. He never bought a car on time. Instead he waited until he had saved enough money to buy a new (used) car and paid cash for it.

What chance did I have? I'm just like them. What do I save? Bits of fleece material from projects to use as dust cloths. Rain water to water my plants (I got this one from my dad). I also have receptacles under my window air conditioner to catch the water and use it to give my plants a drink. I save reusable items for crafts that I might do with my kids at school. I never throw away paper. It can be printed on the back or used as note paper or coloring pages or at the very least, recycled.

I also have collections of things that I save. I have a giraffe room that I am filling with all things giraffe. I love coffee and started a coffee mug collection. If I see one I like, I buy it. I often get them as gifts. When I go on vacation I try to bring a mug home as a souvenir. I also have a postcard collection. I buy too many postcards but what a beautiful and inexpensive way to remember trips and places. I keep every postcard that people send me. I made a scrap book once of the cards that I'd received. It was like going around the world with my friends. But I kept getting more cards. So now I keep them sorted by location and subject matter. I have a collection of bookmarks started by my friends at the public library. Whenever we go on vacation, we try to buy bookmarks for each other. It's fun looking for bookmarks to get for friends and it is also fun to add bookmarks to my collection when friends get back from vacation.

I was stunned when I met my husband's parents who are from the same generation as my parents, only his parents were much poorer, and yet they did not save stuff. They throw out a jelly jar with enough jelly left to make a sandwich. One Sunday at my mother-in-law's house, she asked me to get her another roll of aluminum foil. She handed me the empty one. Only it wasn't empty. It had a foot or more left in it. You guessed it, I took it home with me.

It must not be the Great Depression after all. I guess it's just in my genes. And I've passed it on at least to one of my children. Beth told me today that she took a shower at my house and pumped what she thought was shampoo into her hand only to find out it was conditioner. She scooped it into a cup to use later and found the shampoo. Proof that she's related to me.

My house gets cluttered because I save everything. I admire people who live in a minimalist fashion and sometimes try to move towards that lifestyle but end up only rearranging.

Is there any hope for a person who saves?

Happy Birthday to Beth!

My baby is 28-years old.

They say it's your birthday
We're gonna have a good time
I'm glad it's your birthday
Happy Birthday to ya!
---The Beatles

Birthdays always make me sing that song. Another favorite is "Put Another Candle" from a childhood TV show called "Sheriff John." It's kind of long. If you'd like, you can read it here.

Another Sheriff John song that I love even more than the birthday song is "Laugh and be Happy."
Laugh and be happy with a merry melody.
A smile can make a hat rack look like a Christmas tree.
When you're in a hurry, don't you worry, chase those blues away.
Just laugh and be happy all the live long day.
Words to live by.

And of course, no birthday musical would be complete without the birthday song (Happy Birthday to You). We know it in German too (Zum Geburtstag viel Gluck).

It's Beth's birthday. She was a little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead... She didn't want to go to Kindergarten but then, 12 years later, graduated valedictorian of her class. She worked at McDonalds to help pay for college at Southwestern Oklahoma State University where she got a Bachelors Degree in Education and elementary/early childhood certification. She's the mom of my only grandchild, the joy of our lives. Beth is one of my amazing family members. I am so blessed by the people God chose to put in my family and glad my husband had the good sense to want to have kids.

Happy Birthday Beth, I love you!

Honeymoon

I miss my daughter. She lives in New York City and I live in Oklahoma. But that's not why I miss her. I miss her because she is gone on a honeymoon cruise in the Caribbean. Is the Caribbean farther from Oklahoma than New York City? I'd have to check a map. It isn't the distance that makes me lonely for her, it's the lack of technology.

On a normal day I get at least one email from her, usually more. She blogs most days and I subscribe to her blog so I get a dose of what she's doing that way too. She comments on my blog, posts pictures on her website, we both write about the books we are reading on GoodReads, and
there's an occasional phone call or text message. But Mari and Shawn declared a moratorium on technology and have shut down all digital communication while they enjoy a romantic adventure on the open seas.

That's great for them, but what about me? OK, I'm just kidding. I am happy beyond words that they found each other, are building a life together and are finally able to spend quality time together without distraction (AKA: honeymoon). I'm just having difficulty dealing with the online withdrawal symptoms.

This has opened my eyes to the power of online relationships. The Internet gets a lot of bad press about people choosing to spend time online instead of with actual people. But what about the times you can't be with the actual people? The Internet rocks! It keeps friends and families connected all around the world. And have you ever been on a virtual vacation with someone? They email daily with the tales of their travel or maybe even create a web site to host their pictures and stories. It may not be as good as a real vacation, but it is enjoyable in its own way.

And let's not forget social networks. Facebook is about as common as the telephone for communication. I feel like I'm staying connected with everyone I ever knew via facebook, but I would never call all those people. Another great thing about social networks is meeting new people. Scary!?! Not really. For example, NaBloPoMo provides a place for bloggers to meet, an online coffee house where people read, write, comment and get to know each other. I've met some fascinating people at NaBloPoMo. It may be that bloggers are just naturally fabulous. But I imagine people on other social networks are meeting interesting people too.

Email, facebook, blogging, Google, Flickr, YouTube...our lives are enriched by technology and yet it is probably a good idea to occasionally take time off. Play a board game, take a walk, sit on the porch, enjoy conversation. Even so, I can't wait until Saturday when Mari and Shawn will be back at their computers!

Blogging

I've been writing all of my life. I kept a diary in elementary school recording the important daily events for posterity. I continued diary writing through high school when I also wrote dark and dreary poems and bad song lyrics. In college I found out I liked to write papers. Research was fun. During grad school I was also an intern at the church I attended. I learned from the youth pastor to keep a thank diary. I highly recommend this. Being consciously aware of and purposefully looking for the good things in your life is the best mental health medicine there is.

Meeting people and moving around gave me opportunity to become a good letter writer. That's what people did before email. I read about a poet who had correspondence with hundreds of people. I thought that was the most amazing thing. I tried to be like him but never even came close to my first 100 pen pals. When I got married I kept a file of the letters I received and prayed daily for the people to whom I owed letters. I told my friends about the file, letting them know that the sooner they wrote back, the sooner they'd be on my prayer list again. My mom and I wrote to each other every week for decades. I miss those letters.

Then somehow, sometime, technology hit. I learned to send email. My first account was with Juno. What fun! Then again, somehow I learned to make web pages with Dreamweaver. Writing on the Internet. I was hooked on technology and I'm still a bit of a junkie. Somewhere along the line I became a newsletter mogul, first doing a weekly school newsletter during the school year only, then adding a monthly year round newsletter at the public library and finally a weekly newsletter for my church. The writing I do for all of these newsletters is primarily dispensing information. I love it. I get paid to write and everyone appreciates what I do because they're glad they don't have to do it. Works for me.

Then another stroke of technology genius, the blog. My daughter created a blog for her nephew and invited me (his grandma) and her sister (his mom) to contribute to the blog. We've kept it private, an adoring history of his life. He loves to look at his blog and has even helped create part of it. He's five-years-old. It hooked me on blogging. I started a school library blog that lays dormant during the summer. I blog with my students on classblogmeister.com. They don't enjoy writing, unless it's in a text message. I was sure I could impart my passion for writing, but so far they are just humoring me.

Then I created my own personal blog. I didn't know what I was doing or where I was going with it. It's somewhat of an online diary, but not nearly as disclosing as the old diary with a lock and key. I like to share funny episodes and be inspiring when I can. This month I am blogging daily and reposting on NaBloPoMo. It's a wonderful site for bloggers. I have met some fabulous people there. The first person I met on Nablo is a school librarian who lives in Oklahoma. We have a few things in common. On the other side of that coin is my new friend from Ireland who lives with her husband in India. We share a surname, "Perry." Last but not least is Heather who writes the funniest comments. My life is richer because of all of you.

I've been mulling over blogging lately and wondering what more I could do with it. Max Lucado wrote that God gives us talents and He wants us to use those talents to do His work. We usually enjoy the things we are good at, or get good at the things we enjoy. So working for God shouldn't be treacherous work, it should be fun. How could I blog for God? I write a couple of times a week on our church blog, created by my daughter and mostly maintained by me. I wanted to do a blog with a more specific focus and I wanted to see what wordpress is like so I created "A Walk Through the Bible" on wordpress in which we will read the whole Bible in four years. What else are you going to be doing for the next four years? I've only posted three times. Take a look if you want to. I'd like to journey through the Bible together.