happy christmas

This Christmas season has so far included: decorating our silver tree, making a gingerbread house (which got attacked by ants), wrapping presents (Charis wanted to help for about 2 minutes), watching Charis perform in 3 Christmas concerts, teaching Charis to knit, playing lots of Lego Starwars on the Wii, decorating Xmas cookies with friends (and eating raw gingerbread cookies-yum!), admiring the huge lego Christmas tree with those same friends, getting unexpected (and much needed) checks in the mail (that still happens?!), lots of reading by the fire (thanks to whomever anonymously sent us firewood) and watching Jonas climb out of his bed and sneak into the living room (over and over again). I feel really aware of God's mercy this month. I feel Him taking care of us. And I know he's letting us and others be a big part of the process, but I also know He is the orchestrator of it all.





I re-read all the accounts of Jesus' birth this week (in my favorite version of the Bible The Message). And something struck me as cool, that never has before. It's the part where the wise men have been following the star (Star Appreciation Society anyone?) and they loose sight of it, only to see it again right over Jesus' house. It says...

Then the star appeared again, the same star they had seen in the eastern skies. It led them on until it hovered over the place of the child. They could hardly contain themselves: They were in the right place! They had arrived at the right time! (Matthew 2)

How cool is that! I never really thought about how relieved they must have been to finally be in the right place. I like the assurance of it...the right place and the right time. I feel like I am in the right place at the right time. Led by God. I think this is always true. We are always right where we are supposed to be at that moment. And God uses those places to teach us and change us. I want that phrase to run through my head when I am doubtful. "This is the right place and the right time!"

I do believe Jesus came at the right place and time. I believe that His birth and eventual death is what allows me access to God. These words that I have heard so many times, and are often stale, are also what give me hope and assurance and joy.

happy christmas.

Pray more?

Last week was not a good week. Tuesday and Wednesday in particular were real pissers. It's hard to know sometimes why certain days are harder than others. I've had lots of days like last week, and I am normally able to be patient, or see the joy in the situation, or feel hopeful about the next day. But this time, I was out of hope. I had that bad feeling you get deep in your stomach, that tells you everything sucks. Which is not true. But it feels that way. Tuesday I got to the point when I was so frustrated and sad at my kids that I ran into my bedroom, closed the door and literally fell on my knees to pray. It was a bit dramatic. And I'm not a dramatic person. It's not unusual for me to pray for help, but this was a desperate prayer. One minute later Charis barged in and said "what are you doing?" I told her I was praying and she wanted to know "what for?" So I said I was sad and frustrated at the way everyone was acting, and I was asking God to give me patience and wisdom. By this time Paxton and Jonas had come in too. Charis got really quite and Paxton gave me lots of hugs. A minute later Charis said, "I prayed too...that we would be more nice!" Amazingly, the rest of that day was much better. The kids were more aware of the way I was being affected by them. And I felt thankful.



I would have blogged about this the following day - God answering my prayer - but the next day was much worse than the one before. I even called Caleb and told him I was ready to trade in Jonas. He was interested, depending on what we were trading him in for. JoJo (as Charis calls him) is amazing and fun and brilliant, as well as strong willed, defiant, and hot-tempered. Sometime that afternoon I asked Charis what we could do to make our day better. (We all knew it was a bad day.)She said, "pray more?" We did. I guess God answered "no" because the day did not really improve.

Yet somehow in the midst of all that we did these amazing things that would make it apear we had a fabulous week. I could have just posted those, but I would feel like a fraud. So you get both : )





The above pictures are of this cool bubble art we did during our bad week. They turned out really cute.



And Charis can now make it to level 2 at the R.E.I climbing wall! She's awesome.