Oh how it shines

Ever been so proud that it just shines?
My son made me feel that way today.
It may seem simple to you, but it was one of those check-off-the-list moments today.
He drove to Fresno (30min.) and then to Madera(another 20 min.) and then home (another 25 min.).
Altogether, a few hours of driving and some shopping with my eldest teenage son, was bliss.

It seem that having happy moments where all are having a good time with mom are fleeting these days whether because of time, or stress of school work or just teen-grump syndrome. We laughed. We talked. We shopped. We had lunch together.!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh how I wish I could hold these moments forever, never letting go. It really was just yesterday that he was cooing and we were leaning over the bed giggling in delight over his cute movements and dirty diapers. Oh where has that gone.
16 1/2 years forward. Now we are just Mom and Dad.

Can I love him more? I don't know.
How much more does my Savior love him. It makes me cry to think someone could ever love him more, but I know that Jesus does and always will.
Thank you Jesus for that. Because I can let him down and I can fall short, but you will ALWAYS be the never-ending love that carries him.

DON'T MISS THIS GIVEAWAY

I have been blogging about a wonderful book, One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp. Well go here
and get it free!!!! Plus a cute notebook to go with it. Thanks Denise.

When you try to slow...

the world, life as a rushing river, takes you canoe and dumps you into a cold water.
As I try to slow the rushing river of time yesterday, the torrent carried me off with it.

I made an errand run into the city to get some much needed groceries and supplies, while my Young-at-Heart son stayed behind with bronchitis. I made my trip swift from place to place so I could return home to teach a small troupe of 4-Her's how to make bread in the afternoon. Just as we were mixing ingredients, a call breaks the merry atmosphere. My daughter, 1/2 years into high school, cries in pain. Her ankle. She thinks it broken.
Again I find myself flinging past another moment to admire, off to rush to another I want to forget.

Where to find blessings and gifts? I don't have time....

But as it turns out, today shows yesterday's blessing. Though swollen and tender and not holding her weight, it is not a broken ankle. We were spared hours of waiting in room with the sick and injured. I tenderly ice massaged her ankle and with the morning, came a relief in some pain.

Though yesterday I was not able to wade in the torrential river of time to slow it, today I am.
I sit with my legs under me on a long couch, dog snoring under my feet.
Today, I wade in the water and slow it current, to use the weight of each significant blessing to stop time.
...Bird choruses
...sunshine warming my back in morning drench
...quiet ticking of clock
...clickity-clack of the keyboard of Young-at-Heart hard at math

I breathe deep. Holding on to these moments and knowing that the restoration of soul is taking place after such upheaval from the day prior.

1000 gifts...or so I hope

Ok, I'm reading it...again.
Yes, I read it.
Yes, If you read it, it will make you want to re-read it.
No, you won't be able to stop yourself from voicing your gratitude. Not to me. To God.
Isn't that what this life is about? What it should be about?

We can't truly know salvation, or at least know it's fullness in this life, unless we express our gratitude and recognize the gifts God has bestowed on us. Life change comes when we receive life with thanks and ask for nothing to change...I wish I had said that, but that was Ann Voskamp's words, the author.
Like Ann, I crave more time to manage just the life I already have. To savor the joy that comes from slowing the world to pick out the greatest to the tiniest gifts, now, here.

But aren't we flowing at a neck-breaking, heart-breaking speed? I am. I never see the blessings I have and because of it, I complain, and complain and complain.

I have started a list of my 1000 gifts. I started writing down those things that stop my motion and call out in their small voice to be noticed. I hope to bring so of those to light here. To capture them in sight and written prose so that on the days when I am caught up in the river of rush, that I can look at them, refresh the love for the savior and the saved, and bring the joy back.

The end of a very long year....goodbye 2010

Some people say this year has flown by.

I still think it was a long one.

But, I am trying to look back with a heart of thankfulness.

This year brought God's provision, even in uncertain time:

my husband still has a job

we still have each other and he loves me

my kids are wonderful, funny, loving children who want more than ever to please me and their dad.

I have been quick to find fault this year, but I want to set that aside this new year and find joy....joy in friends, joy in family, joy in wherever my feet land and in whatever my hand sows.

Psalm 67: 1-2
May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face
shine upon us, that your ways be known on earth, your salvation among the
nations.

Welcome To Our World

When they walked into town, ready any moment for their baby to be born, who noticed?
Who knew that the single most important event on earth was taking place?
Who recognized that the answer to their prayers and fulfiller of the prophecies came from God's side to their world?
Thank you Lord that your gave him to us!!! Nothing else compares to your gift.

Is God Spontaneous?

To me, God is ever changing, methodical, a real pre-planner. But do you think he ever institutes something last minute?

Probably not.

But, I have endured some times in my life where it felt like a 'let's-fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants' event. Life, at least on my end, is so up in the air. This uncertainty in the near past has caused great anxiety. Today, I put uncertainty behind and decided to view it like a surprise party...with great anticipation. I think all the advent scriptures have made me turn my attention to the anticipation of Christ, how the people of Jesus' time must have felt. Where is the messiah? When will he be here? Will he save us from this Roman oppression?

My questions don't fall along with that thinking exactly, but the anticipation of where will we live next after our house sells and will we have a future in CA. are real questions that I look forward to seeing answered. Not with pain and anxiety, but with great anticipation. What new, exciting things does he have planned for me? Where is he moving our hearts to?

I hope that I can keep the same enthusiasm for what God has in store for me as SUE has.