In lue of a picture...

So, I guess a picture of Ransom does not constitute as a blog post, huh?
Ah well, you can't blame me though, life has been busy ( but what's new?) and I've been writing never-to-be-published blog posts in my head for weeks now...So, I'll take this Sunday Ransom Nap Time While Brett Is At Work time and write a real life honest to goodness post!

For Brett's birthday my parents sent him a box of goodies. It was totally and completely a wonderful gift because it was so very them and yet it also was perfect for Brett because he just so happens to like similar things ;-). Anyway, it was a combo of random household things that one can't live with out...and then books. ( We allllll love books) And since Brett works all the time and therefore has little chance to read, I decided that it wouldn't hurt anyones feelings if I read one of the books my parents sent.
Its called Son of Hamas and its the most incredible true story of Mosab Hassan Yousef "Joseph" the son of one of the seven founders of the Palestinian group Hamas that we, in the West, all know so well from its many terrorist attacks against Israel, it is his jaw-dropping tale of becoming a Spy for the Israelis to help bring down Hamas from the inside and how he step by step, piece by piece became a follower of Jesus.

I don't know what kind of books you like to read, dear readers...but I'm not even kidding, I could barely put this book down. I read it while Ransom was playing, I read it while he was eating, while he was napping, I read it while I was waiting for Brett to put on his PJs and get into bed, I read it while he went to the bathroom in the middle of watching a movie...basically any second of my day I could squeeze in a few seconds, I did. It was part spy thriller/ part biography of a modern day muslim/part love story to the Lord.... It was truly one of the clearest reminders of what Christ's Love can truly do and the Hope that it brings to this world that I have had in a long time. Read. This. Book.

I should really post...

January cookies

So, for the year of 2012 I am making Brett a new recipe of cookies every month. I'm pretty excited about the challenge of coming up with new and fun ( but also yummy) recipes every month!  This month I found a really great recipe for "S'more Cookies" and the picture above is when I took them out of the oven, before I'd cut them into squares. ( while you put them on the graham crackers in individual cookies, they kind of morph together into a bar...) 

I'm happy to say that after cooling and cutting they were still A-mazing. Now Brett just has to come back from the field before I eat them all myself :-) 

If you'd like the recipe you can find it here: S'more Cookies

Miracles

So, back in August we had new neighbors move down below us. They were mildly annoying to say the least. The guy had a bunch of his friends over for his lunch break most days and they always talked REALLY LOUDLY ( with one particular word that starts with F being their favorite) and would periodically wake Ransom up from his nap...
The wife was also super cool and bought this sign for outside...

What makes this EVEN better is that our house is next door to an Elementary School...so the sign was able to scar young children on a daily basis. 

Then Halloween time came and the guy spent days on end sawing and hacking outside their front door ( for some reason they didn't seem to realize they had a whole patio and garage BEHIND the house...) which was directly under our living room. We were puzzled at WHAT he could possibly be doing until one day he erected a large wooden witch outside their door...also for their children. *sigh* 

Now, one of the kind of cool (?) things about living on a "training" Army Post is that if you know what school a person is doing you know how long, give or take, they will be at Fort Benning. These people were here for the Infantry Basic Officers Course and therefore I had a pretty good idea of how long we would be graced with their amazing presence downstairs.....too long. 

And now to change scenes: 

Our good friend the Fones have been planning to come to Fort Benning for a while now for the Captains Career Course. Lindsay lived with me before she and Isaac where married and while Brett was deployed. Now, she's married and has a baby of her own and I was SO excited about living near her again in this new stage of both our lives...

I was excited about them being close by, but I was incredulous when I heard that Lindsay and Isaac were praying that they'd get to move into the same building ( each "house" has four different homes in each one, two upstairs, two down stairs. On each side, the upstairs and downstairs share a back door and the stairs leading down to the basement. Essentially you could both open your kitchen doors, lock the back door and you'd have one, very large house.).  I knew all of our surrounding neighbors and I knew that none of them were planning on moving any time soon. I was sad, especially since I was not such a big fan of our perviously described downstairs neighbors...But I felt sure that there was no way living that close to our friends was possible. I secretly felt that those prayers wouldn't be answered....

As the time for the Fones to arrive got closer I started to get excited and take multiple walks around the block to check for empty houses. There were several that were pretty close by and I thought that this must be the answer to our prayers about living near our friends. 

Then a month before they headed to Benning, I was on my way to the grocery store one morning and I noticed some workmen heading into our downstairs neighbor's house...and being the crazy stalker neighbor that I am, I looked closer and LOW AND BEHOLD they had MOVED OUT.  Oddly enough, we never saw them move and we're guessing it was some time when we were out of town. But all that really mattered is that what I thought was IMPOSSIBLE had happened! The home directly under ours, the one that shares our back door, that shares our patio, that shares our very roof...it was available!

But the Doubting-Thomas in me was still not sure...we still had a month to go before our friends arrived and I knew that there were quite a few schools starting at Benning in the intervening month and that there would be a lot of people moving in. The odds that this particular house would stay open a whole month, they were slim. However, by now my faith was rising a little bit ( thank goodness..) and I shot out a facebook status asking people to pray that the house would stay open for a month....

As each week passed and moving trucks came and went, filled up and poured out all over the neighborhood-we prayed hard for our downstairs house. Slowly weeks went by and it stayed empty! Finally Isaac arrived to being their moving in process. It took a few days ( whoa are they busy!) but he finally got an appointment with the housing office. As he made his appointment on the phone he mentioned that he was staying with some friends and that the house below us was free and that he'd really like to move in...The lady replied with, "Is that on M- street? Because those are the only keys I have and the only house I'll be able to show you...."

That's right. There are no other houses available. The only house? 

The one right below us. 

And so, as you can see I under estimated God's ability in a big way. I forgot the greatness of our God. I forgot that a little matter of having Close Fellowship with friends is but a small thing to Him. He delivered. 

Swears.

So, friends life has been jam packed with cool stories lately. But, since our house is currently occupied by four adults, a toddler and a baby there has been pretty much zero time for blogging.
But, as SOON as a get a second ( hopefully this weekend) I'll tell the incredibly cool story of WHY there are so many people in our house this weekend...

Until then a quick story:
Today is Brett's birthday. Which is great. What is NOT great is that his Texas Drivers License and the registration on both our cars expired on the same day.
Of course, this fact wasn't fully realized until two days ago ( cuz I guess we live by the seat of our pants around this joint), anyway, being the ultra Doer that I am, I jumped into ultra high gear and figured out a way to get all these things taken care of yesterday. The day before Brett's birthday.
First, I got everything together for Brett to get a Georgia License ( it takes 40 days for Texas to renew a license long distance...so that was out).
And I waited until my babysitter arrived and then I planned to head to the JAG office to pick up the proper paper work to get our registrations renewed and then head out to the random teeny-tiny town where the registration office is located.

And then the curve balls came....of COURSE Brett couldn't get out of work to get his new license...and *I* started searching the house high and low for our Power of Attorney ( so that I could do things for him)...and couldn't find it. Any.Where.
It was horrible. I literally looked through ALL our files. ALL our drawers. ALL our boxes of misc. papers...and I got more and more worked up...finally I decided to drive to Brett's office to check and see if it just might be in his car. And then when I got to his car, and searched it completely I got back in my car only to find that it was completely and utterly dead. As in deader than a door nail. As in so dead the automatic locks wouldn't work.
And that was the last straw.

All my plans failed. Completely and utterly.
But you know what didn't happen?! I didn't start driving out to a little town in the middle of no-where and have my car completely die on me. INSTEAD it died in front of Brett's company where I had my husband and 150 dudes there to help me. Talk about the perfect location for your car to die.

And then today, without any of my totally awesome planning involved at all-Brett got his new license, we got both cars re-registered, and our broken car got fixed.
A little bit humbling to realize my amazing management powers do not hold a candle to God's graciousness.

The Climb

And let us all pause and listen to the Miley Cyrus song, The Climb. I heard it on the radio twice this week. And I did NOT change the station. Cuz I rock to some Miley.

Anyway, I suppose that's why the title of this post popped into my head, and because it describes so well how I've felt over the last 10 days. ( ten days!! since my last post!! crazy pills!!). I'd say the first half of this month was rough, as in bottom of the barrel rough....but even at the bottom there, where its lonely and you walk around your block on a Sunday afternoon and you think, "Geez, no one cares about me or Ransom here!"  even down at the bottom there was light. And there were surprise dinner dates, and phone calls and little things that proved that earlier thought was a lie.  And while things are not easy (as in it isn't being handed to me on a platter)  it doesn't mean I can't get out there and find some Community.

It helped that my oldest, dearest friend Amy came into town for a few days- it helped that I've seen Brett a little more. Its helped that I've started going to a Women's Bible Study ( PWOC! WOOP WOOP) on Thursday mornings. Its helped that I've started meeting with an older woman once a week. It helped that I've decided to take Ransom to story time at least once a week. Its helped basically that I not sit around at home alone. With only a one and half year old to talk to. Not. good. for. anyone.

But, I cannot promise that such walks around the block will not happen again. Because, let me tell you I bet they will....I don't even know if loneliness can really BE avoided.  But I will embrace the fact that I hope it has made me more gracious and loving towards others. Because I feel that everyone ( yup! I'm going to make a giant sweeping generalization because I think its just THAT true.) is lonely or struggling at some point. And who's to say that I'm not the one to help them in that?!

So, I mentioned before that I'm doing a "Best things" status update every day on Facebook this year. And its taught me to be a lot more aware of the little things that make a day good. And you know that I've noticed thus far that its often the little nice things that strangers do...like the guys in the fire truck that turned on their lights for Ransom when we passed them on our run the other day....or the little old lady in Chick-fil-a who went and asked one of the works if Ransom could have a balloon that was hanging from the ceiling because she'd seen him pointing at it....I'm telling you people:  Those things made my day!
I need to also be more intentional about being kind to strangers not just people I know. People in my inner circle, people in my outer circles...and people that aren't in my circles at all! Here's to kindness and here's to the great help it brings to climbing out from the bottom of the barrel.

"Thankful"

This morning Ransom and I got to see Brett for a few hours....most of which Brett spent sleeping.

And thus I fought hard against disappointment ( that we didn't get more time together), guilt ( that I wanted Brett to give up on sleep to spend time with us?!), anger ( stupid army!) and a whole lot of other unpleasant emotions. Buuuut, the whole experience reminded me yet again what a challenge being thankful can really be sometimes...I mean, what I wanted was to be genuinely happy to see my husband who I haven't laid eyes on in the flesh for over a week. What I wanted was to soak up the few hours we got ( even if it was watching him sleep) before he heads back into the field. But sometimes my ugly side gets the better of me.

Hopefully, however, I did rally enough to enjoy a little breakfast of scrambled eggs, apples and cinnamon toast with Brett and our growing little dude. Looking over the last few days of pictures reminds me just how he has transitioned out of the "baby" stage. *sigh*

Every time I come into a room and he's sitting proudly on some piece of furniture I get a little shock...luckily it hasn't been on, say, the top of the entertainment center...not yet anyway. ;-) 

 Let me just say that riding in one of these carts has made shopping a BREEZE yet again...of course when he gets tired of this, I'm not sure if they have anything cooler...heheh

 Is it just me or does eating cereal the proper way seem really grown up?! 

Little dude up and started blowing bubbles in the bathtub last night! I didn't even show him  how! He was so pleased with himself that he posed for this picture. ( seriously, he posed.) 

Drought.

So, while chatting with a friend on FB this morning I was reminded of an important verse for me...

"He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit." ( Jer 17:8) 

So much goodness there, a combo of exhorting- Am I planted by water? Am I not anxious no matter circumstances? Have I ceased to bear fruit? ...

...and encouragement: I do not have to fear when crunch times come, I do not have to be anxious in rough times when things are drier than a bone...for I have living Water! 

Yes, I would not hesitate when saying this is a "drought" season- being with out my Other Half is bad enough. But then, at the same time this verse is perfect, because I hesitate in saying this are Bad. They are definitely NOT bad. 

Getting to watch my son grow and learn every day. To see the big and small ways that the Lord provides for my mental wellbeing every day. To see the Lord working in the Lives all around...these are good things. These are the green leaves that keep me going. :-) 

35 minutes of free joy.

So during my run this morning, I ran by the back of one of those non-discript Army buildings (WHAT do they DO inside all those buildings?!?)  where there is a dumpster. And next to said dumpster was a bookcase ( sadly destroyed by last nights rain). And  metal  industrial shelves ( not yet fully destroyed by rain!). And I immediately thought,  "Hmmmmm, what else do I have to do today but take those shelves off the hands of that dumpster!?"

And so after my run, and after talking to Brett on Facetime, Ransom and I piled into the car and I wedged the metal shelves into the back of my car....I even thought to bring a tarp so as not to ruin my car insides. This was smart since they shelves were wet, dirty and covered in leaves.

So I brought them home, waited for Ransom to go down for his nap ( which, P.S. He is STILL asleep!! He's been down for OVER 2 hours! WOO!) , then I cleaned up that bad boy and BOOM! I turned my back stairwell from this:

Into THIS:

And the whole process took less then an HOUR!! YAY!!

One day at a time...

This year I'm not counting the days Brett is gone. I'm consciously not figuring out just how long Brett's going to be out of the picture of our family. Instead we're taking it one day at a time....and out of that has come my favorite New Year's Resolution. It actually just happened rather than me "resolving it so"...and I suppose my hope is that I'll keep it up...

On facebook at the end of each day I am recording the best things about that day. Simple. Not anything new. But I've found, in the need to document the good things, I'm continually on the look out. And, since its not like our days are that jam packed around here, its a bit more tricky and you have to be on the look out for the special moments.

For instance, yesterday one of my favorite moments was when I was scrubbing the bathtub. Well, wait...let me re-phrase. I actually hate scrubbing the bathtub...I'm pretty sure that's what they'll be doing in Hell. So, instead let me quickly continue by saying that while I was scrubbing the bathtub Ransom came in and brought me one of his favorite books-one that had been strategically "hiding" at the bottom of the book pile after I got super tired of it-He had obviously found it and in his joy had brought it to me to read. "MO!" he said... "MO!" ( meaning "more"...which also translates into just about anything that he would like at any given time.)
So I stopped scrubbing ( really, any excuse there...) and read the book right there on the bathroom floor. And the after a few more minutes of scrubbing and Ransom investigating his bathtoys that were hanging out on the floor while I cleaned...once again he stuck the book back in my face "MO!"

And so I read that stupid Colors: Slide and Seek book about five times while trying to clean the tub, each time I'd stop cleaning and Ransom would position himself into my lap with a little satisfied sigh.
Honestly it was fun. And I loved that Ransom loves his books. And I also love that I don't love cleaning the tub so much that I don't mind "breaking the task up a bit". hahaha!

I also was stripping the guest bed and putting fresh sheets and after sticking the old sheets in the laundry I came back to see this....

These are the good moments. And I think that when I look carefully, they out weigh the bad moments by quite a lot.

Lashes

How totally adorable is my son today?

So, this is my "Mommy Date" time. I'm spending it at Starbucks working on a few Internet projects.

But I thought Id drop the ol' blog a line, because I wanted to follow up my yesterday post with what's happened since: I had one friend schedule a visit for later in the year ( much later, but during a time when I'm guessing I'm gonna be extra lonely), I had a blogging friend invite Ransom and I for a visit! Fun! And it's always good to have those kind of things stored away so that your mind always has things to look forward to- that's the most important thing for mental well being in my opinion. AND last but not least I've been scouring our neighborhood the last few weeks trying to find the closest empty house for my friends The Fones to move into when they move to Benning at the end of the month.....and what do you know?! Our downstairs neighbors must have moved overnight or something!! Good riddance crazy people!! And now I'm praying hard that Lindsay and I get to live together again ( or at least under the same roof...this time with our respective homes, husbands and children...)

All that being said, the Lord continues to remind me of his Goodness, His presence and above all His perfect timing.

My fav pictures from 2011....

In no particular order, my favorite pictures from 2011....There are so many it was hard to narrow them down, but here are a few to remind me of all the fun-especially in watching my little dude grow up-that this year has had to offer...

Red Letter Day

Ransom has a habit of sitting his fridge magnets around the house as though they are standing. It cracks me up to find an "A" on the arm of the chair, or an "I" next to the bathtub...

Today begins the New Year. I mean, sure its the 3rd, but that's a minor detail. For me it starts today....mostly because Brett went back to work today, and thus starts normal life. And "normal" life for 2012 means "single parent mode".

While Brett's 9 month deployment doesn't start until June, he's gone for most of January, parts of February and ALL of March. I am resigning myself to loneliness. And while last night when thinking about days upon days of just me and Ransom I wanted to cry, for the most part I'm curious to see what God is going to do with all this extra "free" time.  If there is ONE THING I've learned from the last few years its don't Doubt God. He comes through every single time....and time and time again when I've faced a future of emptiness and loneliness ( its a reoccurring Army Wife Theme) the Lord has always provide: reminders, letters, friends, projects, activities, trips....He provides.

And in fact, last night when I started to feel a little tear coming into my eye when thinking about this weekend alone ( why is it that weekends are the HARDEST to be alone?!)  I opened my Bible App on my phone and this was on the screen...and for some reason it was HIGHLIGHTED...I guess just so I wouldn't miss it...but its kind of a mystery of how it got highlighted or why it was on the screen ;-)

"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid..." ( John 14:27) 




And so this new year begins...how will it go? That just remains to be seen...but "little" miracles are expected daily. Happy New Year, everybody!

Advent Week #5

Wow, we've only got one more post to go! And that's the "bonus" post...which I'm assuming I'll be the only one doing it! Haha! It seems that every week more and more people have dropped off the blogging bible study radar! Ahhhh well, this is what we prepared for and why we're doing a "different" kind of study this go around. That being said, I would love to hear your thought-even if its just a quick line in the comments :-)

Alrighty so getting to the reading: Matt 2:1-12

The first thing that came to mind was another verse in Luke:
When Jesus said: "I tell you, if they ( being people calling out about Him) keep quiet, the stones will cry out."

When reading this section about the "Magi" ( another term for Magicians or philosophers) I was struck that they started traveling a super long distance to visit a supposed King of the World, because they saw it in the Stars!!
Wow.

Isn't that incredible? For one thing I love that even the very Heavens told of His coming. And that, just like we talked about last week, just as God was able to orchestrate His birthplace and circumstance-He was also able to orchestrate the very stars and where they were in the Heavens overhead at the time of Jesus' birth.

Its a small thing for God. To move the heavens.

I also love the fact that God doesn't hide the fact of His Son's Coming. He wants the World to know! Do you think it was an accident that these gentlemen from a far off land got to come and see the Lord of All?! Do you think that they really kept that information to themselves as they made the long trek back home and then once they got home? No, the Long Expected Savior was proclaimed in other places too!

Sidenote/Soap Box. I visited a churchy event recently where there was an "alter" call. Basically, the invitation for anyone who wanted to accept Jesus as their Savior to "come on down"and do so. But, along with the invitation, everyone in the room had to have their head down and their eyes closed. So that anyone who wanted to accept Jesus wouldn't have to be embarrassed.

Friends, as I sat there with my head down, and my eyes closed I thought about how sad I was that I couldn't look up to see if anyone was making the Greatest Most Glorious Decision of Their Lives. To invite Jesus into your life should be like setting off a Star into the Heavens. There are Angels in Heaven throwing a big ol' party because you've made the best decision you'll ever make...and yet, we're suppose to keep our heads down?!?!
From now on I'm peeking.

Prophetic.

So I'm currently working on a little project that will probably never see the light of day...but in the process I thought I'd share something cool with you that I found this evening...

First you'll need to go read this blog post: http://abigailsday.blogspot.com/2006/01/painful-happiness.html 
Yup.
Ok, now I'll give you a little back story. The person I got an email from was Brett. As in my husband. He wasn't my husband then. He was barely a friend. And that email communication, documented right there in this blog post, was the very beginning of our Relationship...the one that lead to us getting married. And having a kid named Ransom.

You'll also notice at the bottom of that blog post I inexplicably quoted the song "How Deep the Father's Love for us". The song that Brett and I chose for our Wedding Hymn. The song that helped us name our son.

And I'm pretty sure I never realized until now that I quoted it on my blog waaaay back when replying to an email was much more important than I realized.

Cool. Goosebumps cool.    

Look back

Sometimes its good to look back. Tonight I've been reading old blog posts and reminiscing. ( its been SEVEN YEARS since I left New Zealand?!?! Craziness! )

Anyway, I came across this little gem from 2006 and it encouraged me...its been so long, I can start quoting myself now, right?! hahaha! :

Christmas Time 2006:

So, this afternoon, I was feeling a tad on the overwhelmed side....I think I have this weird combo of my parents two personalities...I live in happy optimistic denial for a long while and then once life builds up I then switch into hard core stress mode. 
meh. 

Anyway, long story short...I was hating it. I was hating the fact that there are fewer and fewer days until Christmas-one of the two most wonderful holiday celebrations of the whole year! And here I am stressing....So, I came home, washed dishes listened to some praise music and then once my kitchen was relatively presentable I sat down with a Christmas cookie and my Bible... and let me tell you it was like a breath of fresh air. 

So, this week I've been trying to bring a little of the meaning of Christmas into each day...but what I could honestly do and be totally happy myself is to just type out Is. 9:6 every day and just leave it at that...because it honestly gives me goosebumps every single time. 

But, I'm saving that...hehehe. 
Nope, today I was struck by the opening verses of that chapter particularly the second...

The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.

It reminded me of the Christmas Story that I had read outloud ( sometimes its good to read out loud even if no one is around to listen) to myself earlier in the week from "Corrie's Christmas Memories" ( as you know, its my favorite favorite favorite Christmas book of all time), I got to the Shepherd's account of the events that happened to them in the fields: 

Yes, it was as if God had opened a little corner of the veil that we could see and hear a little bit of heaven. But then...they were gone, and it was dark," the boy went on, "so dark...darker than it ever was before. After that heavenly light the earth was so dark-so terribly dark." 

I loved that. And wouldnt that be true? Just imagine you've looked straight into a bright light and then its gone...
It made me think what a glorious gift we were given through the Lord Jesus. We were given the Light. 
Not, just in tiny little pieces as had been the way up until then...through the prophets and the law, the light would shine with promises for a brief and glorious moment and then it would be gone...

But, then the Light came. 

And we have the priviledge to look back and see Isaiah's prophecy fulfilled....we know that that Light came to bring light to the darkness. I am able to sit in my kitchen and meet with Him even now. Because not only did He come. He died. And not only did He die, but He lives. And His light shines on permenently... 

So, sure, I just went on a little tangent just now, but can you blame me?

Advent Week #4

Whaaaat?! Week Four?! Seriously! Only 16 more days until Christmas and that brings us to today's advent reading.
Luke 2: 1-16

Once again there is just SO much in this little passage that I don't know what to focus on, but I think this first bit is most relevant to me right now...

"So it came to pass..." This is you basic "story telling" phrase and since I've grown up with the "Luke 2 Christmas Story" my whole life I've always blown over these little details...but lets break it down now:

1. The ruler of the Roman Empire decides to do a census of EVERYONE in the Roman empire ( tons-o-people).
2. Israel is part of this empire.
3. This is the first time anyone's ever done such a thing ( a census of this magnitude.)
4. A little guy name Joseph lives in Nazareth but just so happens to belong to the family of David.
5. So even though he doesn't live there he heads to Bethlehem  to be counted.
6. His super pregnant fiancé goes with him.
7. She gives birth in Bethlehem. ( because I now know that this is nothing quite like riding on a donkey for hundreds of miles to induce labor.)
8. She's giving birth to Jesus.


Boom. The perfect example of how God controls things down to the DETAIL. Am I the only one that thinks it's mind blowing that God orchestrated Jesus' birth like that?

You see, if you read in the book of Micah ( in the Old Testament of the Bible) in chapter 5 verse 2, Micah the prophet, prophecies the following:
' But you, Bethlehem, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient times."


And so, of course, Jesus needed to be born in Bethlehem and yet his mother-to-be was in Nazareth. People were not big travelers in those days, and pregnant woman were really not big travels. Yet, that was not a big deal for God. He just put some ideas into the current ruler of the World ( We're calling Roman that right now...) and things worked out perfectly.

You see, that's what I've been reminded of lately. My friend Miranda and her husband are moving to Hawaii and last minute all kinds of craziness came up, the week they were moving!! "How could this BE?!?!"
But then I was comforted by the knowledge that there is no small detail that is outside God's hands. He cares about us as much-or more so than his own son ( He loved us so much that He sacrificed His son for us.) 


I love how this amazing story of Jesus, the Son of God being born starts with the manipulation of a world leader and continues right on down to some Shepherds seeing right into Heaven and getting a direct invite to the Event that started the One Event that changed the World forever! Wow.
So, the next time I'm shaking my head over the current political climate ( WHO do we vote for come next November, huh?!?)  or wondering what in the WORLD the Army is going to next....then I'm going to remember the order that God found important. Shepherds first, then the wise men. ;-)

Which is coming up next week, if I'm not mistaken ;-)

Advent Week #3

To stay with my theme from last week, and since I've been literally listening to Christmas music NON-STOP around here lately ( something about filling the silence...and also, who am I kidding, Ransom is super cute when he tries to dance...)-I thought of this song when reading the passage for this week:



As a kid I never thought of Mary much. She was a grown-up ( or so my kid brain thought) and therefore she must have known what to do/dealt well with the whole "having a baby that's also the Son of God thing"....but as I've grown older a few things have come into my thought process about her:
For one thing, she was probably MUCH younger than I thought....as young as 13 or 14 and probably no older than 19 ( ancient of days). Also, the whole having a baby before you were married. Did. Not. Happen. You would have been ostracized or worse

And so here's this girl who's told by an angel that she is going to have a baby...right now. No waiting to get married and save some face, nope. She's pregnant starting today. Do you think she had Morning sickness? Fatigue? Heart burn? Ligament pains? Difficulty sleeping? Do you think she dealt with all the normal pregnancy symptoms? I mean, I'm sure her labor hurt as much as the next girls and I tend to think she had a normal pregnancy. And even if it was great ( I hear some people have these...) it is still a sacrifice to carry a child. A great sacrifice of love.

And now to the reading specifically:

verses 28 and 29:
The angel greeted Mary and said, "You are truly blessed! The Lord is with you." 
Mary was confused by the angel's words and wondered what they meant."

Now forget my tangent here, but don't you think that's an odd reaction "confused"?!  I mean, if an angel showed up and told me I was blessed I'd be excited, amazed, wonderstruck...but I don't know if confused is the first descriptor that comes to mind. But I think its perfect. Its a reminder that this is just a plain little girl, with probably the most basic "Spiritual upbringing".  From the outside she had no outstanding characteristics...

but God chose the foolish things of the world, that he might be put to shame them that are wise; and God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong.." ( ICor 1:27)


When I start looking down on others, or even myself thinking we're not cool enough/smart enough/people-skilled enough...I need to remember that the Mother of Jesus himself was just a humble little girl...the important thing about her was what comes later...


<sup>verse 38: Mary said, "I am the Lord's servant! Let it happen as you have said." And the angel left her. 


She was obedient and she had faith that what the Lord said He would do. This is H-U-G-E. 
I've been reading through Kings in my Quiet time and since I don't have all the time in the world, just take my word for it that there are tons and tons of examples in the Bible of Kings, Princes, Captains of Armies and other fancy fancy people questioning God, not following what He asks of them, wanting more, whining, complaining, twisting His words and doing something different...the list goes on. 


The contrast is striking. And so this Holiday season I'm focusing on the Humbleness of Mary. I'm thinking of her as the simple little girl that she was. As a girl who was told the Will of God and who went with it. And in return she  was truly blessed. She got to be the one who brought the most precious baby in the whole world into the world. THAT is incredible to think about...</sup>

  

Craftiness explotes.

I have recently been feeling rather crafty. I always do around the holidays. It has something to do with Christmas cookies. Probably one of my fondest memories of my girlfriends from high school would have to be our epic cookie decorating:

Notice the ginger bread man with his arm ripped off...or the "christmas" duck...

What we lacked in skill we made up for in spades and spades of irony....

Anyway, not much has changed in the past (ten years(!!!)) and I still enjoy myself some powdered sugar food coloring combo-the only thing is that now I try my hardest to make my cookies look good...sadly, I learned recently that one should never attempt craftiness while in a really bad mood. This year I did not have a good birthday. I mean, by now I should know that adults don't get birthdays in the traditional sense...but when your birthday is all but ignored and crowned off by a trip to the pediatrician...well, pouty Abigail enters. But, I tried to rally and around 9:30pm I decided to make Thanksgiving cookies for Brett's men. Something about me being a cookie martyr or something. Anyway....

I don't even think the picture does my icing disaster justice.

Yes, I did take a picture...I knew I'd want to blog about this...

The best part, however, is that once the bad icing was finished and I'd completely given up. I packed all the cookies into a tupperware container and placed it on the kitchen counter ( out of sight, out of mind). The next morning ( and yes, I didn't see Brett at all on my birthday, and he left before I could get up the next day...) Brett took said cookies to work without knowing that they were "duds". When asked about it later ( Abigail: Did the guys comment on how ugly the cookies where?! Brett: Ummm....no?! What are you talking about?! They looked fine! They were eaten really fast, I don't think anyone looked at them...) my icing skills were both appreciated and unappreciated all at the same time.

So, lessons were learned: Don't do crafts with upset. Don't do crafts if you want them appreciated by hungry dudes. Maybe move forward from cookies for a while...

And so I decided to do a new project last night ( have you noticed I'm left alone a lot with a ton of time on my hands?! hahaha!)

I made this little Count Down to Christmas platter/sign last night using:
One IKEA tray that cost $3 ( seriously! Why can't I live near an IKEA!?!?), some chalk board paint ( whoever invented this stuff deserves some sort of Craft Crown), some leftover white paint from when I made Ransom's mobile  way back in the day, and a little red nail polish ( yup! That's how I roll.)

Anyway, the green numbers are in chalk and I think it turned out relatively cute considering I'm the one who made it. Luckily I have a kid now and in a few years people will just assume that he made it and will think that its adorable.

Orchids

On Thanksgiving morning I woke up all stressed about my day....I was counting guests ( the surprise ones and the ones planned on...), game planning my food making schedule ( start potatoes at 11:30, put casserole in over at 11:45...) and I headed into the kitchen to make Ransom a sippy cup when I noticed something that made me stop:

This orchid my friend Amy gave me months ago when she moved to Fort Campbell...side note: the only positive thing about being the friend who stays behind when everyone else moves ( which is the awful side effect of being stationed at a Army post that is usually where people go just for schools...) is that you collect a lot of condiments ( I have at least half used ketchups in my fridge at any given point) and dry goods ( rice anyone?!)...and every so often you get an Orchid!! Anyway, Amy gave me this orchid months ago...and I put it on my kitchen ledge. Watered it a few times. And promptly forgot about it.

And then, Thanksgiving Day, it bloomed. And now its kept on blooming!! I've got two and it looks like at least two more to go buds coming out!! What a nice surprise! Something I wasn't even looking for that brought me such joy was the reminder that I needed that sometimes special things DO happen.
Which has inspired a message:

Army. Most of the time I really despise you. You're like the family member I can't stand ( I'm assuming, I don't have any such family members myself). Most of the time all I see is your flaws. But, I'm going to throw you a bone and point out one of the greatest things about you. Thank you for the friendships. I have meet friends who I never ever would have met otherwise and I am SO grateful for them.
Yes, in just a few weeks you are taking away my friend Miranda to exotic Hawaii ( why didn't we get stationed there?!?) and honestly this blog may get a bit morose after she's gone, but I'll focus on the positive here and say that I am so grateful that I at least got these last six months with her! She has been a kindred spirit in a time when a kindred spirit was most needed. We're alike enough to like all the same TV shows ( Gilmore Girls! Castle! New Girl!) and recipes ( Guinness Brownies! Butternut Squash Lasagna!)  and have equally nerdy husbands- but different enough to be able to see into each others lives and encourage and cheer each other on in just the right way. I, who have never ever liked running, have looked forward to walking/ huffing and puffing the news of the past day with Miranda. At risk of being a bit too poetic, she was my Orchid during a particularly stressful time. And Army,  I am thankful.

Oh. And obviously God gets the serious credit here. Why do I doubt that He will provide when He always always does? I am grateful for Melissa, Keri, Rolinda, Deb and Robin and other ladies who He has given me during this time and season, as well....yes, I am currently sitting alone at home at 9pm-not expecting my husband any time soon...but I am provided for nonetheless. Little Orchid reminders that there is beauty just waiting to bloom.