Order

I’ve been saying this about myself for years, but never so poetically…I like how this describes one of my leading issues.

Nostalgia

It's been two years since we were here...I miss this kind of Christmas...

Happy Holidays Ethiopia!

might have to make some of this...

Last Chance Fall Hike at Devil's Head

My favorite fall hike in Colorado (thanks to Amanda).

Five fabulous bovine

***I stand corrected: Since mule deer have antlers, not horns, they are considered cervine, not bovine like their antelope cousins.**** (admit it, some of you really wanted to know that)

No doubt that the bucks in these pictures won't be as friendly in the coming month, but they have been running around our neighborhood together for the last six months and are always a sight to behold... I love my life!

What's Thanksgiving?

Listening to my kids' conversation regarding Thanksgiving...I wish I'd grabbed the video:

Will - "What's Thanksgiving?

Lilly - "Thanksgiving is a special day when people get together and you eat really yummy food like they make pie and cook chicken and rolls, like bread rolls, and some people bring potatoes and you put gravy on them, gravy makes them taste really good, and they might bring cookies or whatever they want like maybe sweet potatoes with marshmallows and there are special drinks and they might invite other friends who have a baby and then they all come too...and it's usually at our house."

...yeah, something like that :-)

Lilly - "Will, do you know what my favorite special day is?  My most favorite is Christmas, and then Thanksgiving, and Easter, and Valentines, and Halloween, and well, I guess I like them all, but my most favorite special day of all has to be Valentine's."

Thomas' First Soccer Practice

Via: Medical Billing And Coding

Seasons

For Good

I've heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason

Bringing something we must learn and we are led to those Who help us most to grow if we let them And we help them in return Now I don't know if I believe that's true But I know I'm who I am today because I knew you... Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes the sun Like a stream that meets a boulder halfway through the wood Who can say if I've been changed for the better But because I knew you, I have been changed for good 

It well may be that we will never meet again in this lifetime 

So let me say before we part So much of me is what I have learned from you You'll be with me, like a handprint on my heart Now whatever way our stories may end I know you have rewritten mine by being my friend... Like a ship blown from its mooring by a wind off the sea Like a seed dropped by a skybird in a distant wood Who can say if I've been changed for the better  But because I knew you, I have been changed for good

-Wicked, For Good lyrics

Grace for the Gray

alternately titled Making the Food Behave

It must have been a decade ago….seems like last week…that my friend and I were sitting in her apartment discussing the idea of gluttony, particularly in regard to food.  I can’t say if we read it somewhere or if we were just geniuses in our own right…I do recall we were reading about a program called Weigh Down, but regardless…we were aiding each other in owning the truth that you can’t “Make the Food Behave.” 

Westerners, it seems, have this idea that as long as we remove the calories, eat non-food chemicals, and strip the fats from foods replacing them with sugar, or worse yet, artificial sweeteners and fillers (whatever those are ???), that somehow our bodies will shed pounds and snap into shape all while we indulge as much as we’d like…and it’s not the truth. Plain and simple, you cannot make the food behave…that’s our job, so to speak…it’s called moderation.

Still open to learning, I’ve come to believe if you give your body exactly what it needs and nourish it (and I don't always), a moderate amount of most things will not cause harm.  The injury comes when we have a set of external ‘rules’ we try to apply in order to combat an internal problem.  Do you follow?

So it occurs to me today, while making my bed of all things, that the most recent years of my life have been overshadowed by people who, for one reason or another, have challenged my beliefs, my paradigms, my existence…and it hits me…the very thing I KNOW I am supposed to be learning and applying is that you can’t "make the people behave.”  The complexity and diversity of mankind and the historical dealings of the Creator with his creation demand that there be grace for the gray areas;  that there are and will always be people, circumstances, lives and stories that I do not, will not and cannot control, orchestrate, moderate or subdue.  I simply don’t have the understanding….what I understand, in very small part, is me … and that’s about it. 

The stories of the people that cross my path are not my story…and to try to make them so is a form of gluttony.  As C.S. Lewis penned through the voice of Aslan in The Horse and His Boy, (my favorite of the Narnia tales), “That is not your story.  Gathering all the unique lives that cross my path to fit them onto my plate of relevance and understanding doesn’t work any better than shoveling non-food items onto my plate in order to feel better about my indulgence.  It doesn’t satisfy…at the end, there’s a bloated, nutrient-stripped soul wondering what went wrong.

I am not called to change anyone….or even to understand or explain them.  God asks me to love him and love others as myself…that’s pretty much the sum of it.  I don’t get to ‘fill-up’ on people that make me feel better about my own way of life.  I get to rub up against people who feel a lot like eating beets to me (if you know me, that’s a sacrifice).  Hearing them, seeing them, loving them is a lot like a trip to the salad bar some days….maybe not my first choice, but I’m better for it.  Living life among other messy lives…because mine is certainly messy…is UNCOMFORTABLE…but necessary to effect change in me.  I am healthier, more dynamic, vibrant and relevant when I choose to love rather than to fix. 

It’s tough…most days, I’d rather grab the nearest clone and hunker down…but at the end, I’m left malnourished and weak.  Whether I’m trying to understand the lives of the impoverished, the wealthy, the addicted, the abused, it’s all a lot like choosing nutrient-dense foods over my sugar-free frenzy…it’s more effort, more preparation, more forethought…it’s also more satisfying.  In a gluttonous season, I can collect a whole pantry of friends and acquaintances who are stroking the ego of all the idols I’ve erected and making me feel that the “people are behaving” and “look how good life is”…but it isn’t real.  What I need are authentic lives sharpening my life and making me think and feel and grow.  I need grace for the gray.  The people, like the food, won’t behave…that’s my job…

“Treat others just as you want to be treated.”  --Luke 6:31

Its about the body

"Christianity is essentially a social religion and that to turn it into a solitary religion is indeed to destroy it." John Wesley

…and Wendi turned…

ha! we’re not all about the numbers now are we?

well, thanks to my fabulous four kids, my remarkable man and some sweet neighbor-friends, I had a fantastic surprise celebration that was scrumptious to boot.

first, I woke up to this: the kids had taken their valentine balloons and flowers, decorated the table, made breakfast and assembled a gift (something of mine that they swiped) and made a card.

yes, those are carrots (with some cinnamon love sprinkled on top) and the terrifically burnt cheese eggs that I choked down with a smile

after a little schooling, we went for a hike on Barr trail, which was far too windy to feel safe, so we opted for an early lunch of GF pizza at Hell’s Kitchen in Manitou Springs mmmmmmm……

Sam surprised me with a sitter and dinner out…and friends showing up to say ‘hey!’…to use one of my favorite coined terms, the meal was yumiferous! and we made it into family style (of course…is there any other way??)

we also decided when the server brought out the leftovers that his handwriting was a font!

Sam ordered this scrumptious custom gluten-free coconut cake by Tasha from our church

…although everyone was fighting over this tiny nugget sweetness instead…

in the end, we all settled for some birthday cake…

and a smidge of this yummy complimentary kahlua ice cream.

finis!