IWSG August 2012

August is Awesome! It just is. It's my birthday month and my anniversary month. Plus, it's actual summertime here in the Northwest United States . . .it's just getting into the 80s this week. I know that much of the states are sweltering, but here we are just getting warm.

So what in the world does that have to do with IWSG?

 I'm in an unstoppable, amazing mood so I can't really get into insecurities right now. I have them. They suck. I'm not interested in giving them the time of day. I'm just too happy to let them pull me down right now.

So, my advice and encouragement today is:

Be Happy.

Write and Be Happy. Live and Be Happy. Just Be Happy.
Love every word you write. Love your life. Love yourself.
Know Joy.

Then go by Alex J. Cavanaugh's site and give him a giant virtual hug!
And go hug other writers and their blogs!


"Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say, Rejoice!" Philippians 4:4

Never Surrender 2

On Wednesday I posted my first post for this blogfest here
 but that was before Wednesday morning really got going . . .before all this:


By 9a.m. on Wednesday, I had learned that my Aunt Linda has passed away the night before, my youngest daughter came to me with a rash that looked like chicken pox, a cement truck had gone down on it's side in the low ditch-like space between our neighbor's driveway and ours, and a humor-filled party type atmosphere had taken up residence in the driveway area, with work crews laughing and snapping pictures, four tow trucks, coffee, folding stools to sit on, my parents watching the whole thing like a four ring circus, and my dogs keeping an eye on everyone.

I felt like someone had taken my normal life and tipped it on it's side, shaken it, and then set it back down again.

I had grief for my Aunt, while at the same time the joy knowing that she loved the Lord, and is far happier now in heaven than she has been feeling ill for the last few months.

I had worry for my daughter, with a fever and a bubbly red rash that popped and oozed.

I had this odd and somewhat funny spectacle in my driveway.

Neighbor's driveway, work crew with cameras, one of the tow trucks attempting to lift the cement truck is dug into their front yard with its front wheels off the ground.

This pic shows my parents with their camera, coffee, folding stools and the really big tow truck in the background in our shared driveway. The white blob in the trees on the right is the concrete truck on it's side. (And yes, these are my parents age 74 and nearly 71 who took a major motor scooter trip a month ago - oh and my Dad's hat is a "joke-fake-hair" hat.)

Life just kind of blew up in my face on Wednesday . . .and I had to keep moving to keep up with it.

My daughters and I had a goal of finishing our main homeschool lessons by Thursday, and despite chicken pox, fever, family loss, and a strange cement truck, we finished! (well, except for those pesky math exercises and journal entries I expect them to do over the summer)

Thoughts and emotions, words and prayers have swirled through me these last few days, but I just keep moving on. I hug my hubby. I cuddle my kids, have conversations, pray, write.

 I will never surrender to any kind of sorrow, grief, or worry that acts like a stop sign or a bottomless cliff. The joys of faith, life, and family are too full and fierce.

A to Z Challenge: Joy

A to Z Challenge

Theme: Creativity Toolbox

J = Joy


Creativity brings joy, and joy creates life-giving creations. Joy and creativity build each other up, again and again.

What brings you joy?

Creativity/Writing Challenge: Write or create something that brings you joy!

(by hersley)

 

The Sensational Haiku Wednesdaytheme this week is happiness:

Happiness smiles wide

Laughter bubbles up inside

until joy resides

365 Days of Blessings, Day 191

Giving Thanks and Praise for these Blessings today:

1. Dancing in the streets of Seattle! I didn't do this, but a wonderful young woman from our dance studio did, and it is so much fun, I thought I would share:
Umbrella

2. Finding this poem in my archives.
A Sonnet of Praise
So great my mind can’t hold you or conceive
Of your vast, amazing, grace-filled being
It takes my soul a moment to believe
To surrender my notions of knowing
To the great I Am, the One who is three
singing the Word in perfect harmony.
Created, directed, redeemed by love
that lights our ways like the wings of a dove
whose feathers shimmer in the morning rays,
shining for the truth, the life and the way.

3. Reading through my poetry, I've realized that I write a lot about my dogs and this strikes me as both funny, and fitting. I grew up reading Snoopy comics, and watching the Underdog and Scooby Doo. Now, I write about my Rhodesian Ridgeback and my Beagle.

4. Christmas lights.

5. Sleeping in on a home-school morning. We are so thankful for being able to sleep in when it's needed (like when someone is sick).

6. A girl with three pony tails at dance classes.

7. My oldest daughter loves glitter and sequins. She is wearing gold sequined boots, a gold sequined scarf-belt and a silver sequined neck scarf over her dance clothes tonight.

8. The Nutcracker Coloring contest at our dance studio.

9. Giggling dancers.

10. The Lord provides us with joy.

Scripture Blessings:
"Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me."
Psalm 51:12

365 Days of Blessings, Days 188 and 189

Another double dose of blessings in one post. Tonight I'm giving God Thanks and Praise for these wonderful blessings, both big and small.

1. The Living Nativity. Praise the Lord for His Son, Jesus!

2. All the amazing volunteers who make the Living Nativity possible.

3. The Kraft Family of GoMissions. They are amazing.

4. Worship with the Kraft Family.

5. The Kids Message and the Sermon with the Kraft Family.

6. The Global Market, our church's way of having Christmas shopping and giving to people in need at the same time.

7. Making big plans, dreaming big dreams, and praying deep prayers for our faith family.

8. My husband and my kids putting up the basic Christmas tree.

9. The Mary Bridge Festival of Trees.

10. All the performers who share their talents at the Mary Bridge Festival of Trees.

11. The Jazz Swing Choir who sang and danced at the Festival of Trees this year - they took me back to high school, and wowed me.

12. "Operator, Give me Information" - an awesome jazz choir song.

13. Seeing my girls tap dance.

14. Standing on stage in front of hundreds of people, holding a bike and three jump ropes. (People actually thought I was going to do some kind of tricks with them - LOL.)

15. Wonderful good friends.

16. Sharing tears with someone who cares.

17. Trusting the Lord with our lives, and our faith.

18. A faith-filled, Christ-centered, mission-minded Pastor with a heart for families, and youth, whom we have been priveledge to know as our Pastor and our friend.

19. Teaching my youngest daughter that she can get up and move forward after making a mistake, or even two or three. (This was actually really painful today, but we made it through to the other side after a lot of tears.)

20. God leads us forth in joy.

Scripture Blessings:

"Hear, LORD, and be merciful to me;
LORD, be my help.”

You turned my wailing into dancing;
you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent.
LORD my God, I will praise you forever."
Psalm 30:10-12

"Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his[a];
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture."
Psalm 100:1-3

365 Days of Blessings, Days 182 and 183

So, yesterday I had a really blessed morning, and early afternoon, and then the sore throat kicked in. I tried to ignore it. Today I feel like my head is in a vise, and I have knives in my throat. So, I should just wait another day to count blessings and give thanks, right?
Wrong. I think I need to give thanks today.
So here goes:

1. Kids practicing for the Christmas program, re-telling the Nativity story with songs and fun.

2. A great worship service.

3. Lighting the first advent candle, and starting to prepare for Christ's birthday.

4. Seeing a feisty little girl get baptized yesterday . . . her eyes when she got wet, and then the wide reaching hands when she saw the baptismal candle. She just glowed, and it was sweet.

5. I am able to count, even with a head ache - I had to throw that one in here because I almost labeled this as number six. Whew.

6. Singing joyful praises to God.

7. Hearing a great sermon, packed with a wake up call for the season of advent, the beginning of a new church year. Wake up, Happy New Year! (It's a Lutheran church thing)

8. Hearing the choir, combined with the bell choir, a trumpet player, and a pianist. Wow.

9. Looking forward to celebrating next Sunday with the Kraft family, a missionary family that focuses their work in Bolivia, and includes the whole family from age 7ish and up.

10. My youngest daughter made three angel crafts in the last 24 hours. She is ready for the Christmas tree to be up, so she can hang her new ornaments.

11. My husband brought home a wreath.

12. My classes at the homeschool co-op are wonderful.

13. My mom is a huge help when I'm sick.

14. My youngest daughter watched a movie with me today - a kind of "get well" tradition involving humor, and laughter. Over the Hedge was our pick today.

15. We saw Tangled yesterday and really enjoyed the antics of the chameleon and the puppy-like horse.

16. Tea in large amounts.

17. Soft couches with big pillows.

18. A second Turkey, bought on sale, and roasted today, will feed my family for a week, and I won't have to cook for a little bit. Besides, roasting is easy. I just had to get up every half hour and baste. Not so hard with a kitchen timer, and thankfully my family doesn't do stuffing, so that takes out the work part of turkeys.

19. The bicycle made it into the van for tap company. The new tap trio routine for my girls and a friend of theirs includes a bicycle, three jumpropes and three energetic girls in tap shoes.

20. My husband took the girls to dance class, bicycle included.

21. The Lord gives me shelter, so I can rest.

Scripture Blessings:"Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty." Psalm 91:1

Thanksgiving for 179 of 365 Days of Blessings!

Yesterday I focused in on my novel for National Novel Writing Month, played with my daughters, baked a pie and some cookies, and went to a wonderful Thanksgiving Eve worship service. Today I celebrate the blessings I received yesterday, day 178, and today, day 179, of this journey of Thanksgiving for the many blessings the Lord has bestowed on me and my family.

Our Pastor has this wonderful exercise in Thanksgiving that he gives each year to the kids in our church: Giving Thanks from A to Z. We gave thanks as a congregation last night, my youngest daughter and I filled out our lists, and as a family we talked about it again at our late breakfast.

So here's a sample of Giving Thanks from A to Z:

A - Anna, animals, aardvarks, antelopes, apples, and applie pie

B - Bible, bees, beans, buses, buds, blooms, blossoms, belugas, blue, and butterflies

C - Cats, Constitution, Charity, Candles, crotcheting, Christmas and colors

D - Dads, dogs

E - Elephants, eagles, Easter, Eeyore, and Emily our cat

F - Faith, Family, Friendship, food, fireworks, feasts, forgiveness and forests

G - God, girls, giraffes, goodness, Grandparents, and grace

H - Hands, hats, hope, harvest, hallelujahs, home

I - icicles, ice cream, ice, islands, interpreters,

J - Jesus, Joy, John, Jessica, Jacob, jumping, and Jumper our Beagle

K - Kites, kangaroos, kids, koalas

L - Love, life, languages, learning, Latin, lace, and Lady our dog

M - Moon, Maps, Marriage

N - Newness, newspapers, noon,

O - Outdoors, Octopi, oranges, orange

P - Peace, people, pie, purple, pink, pillows, Pooh, and Piglet

Q - Quilts, Quiet

R - righteousness, Rhino, Rachel, roses, reindeer, right

S - Sun, stars, sky, skiiing, snowboarding, snow, Snoopy

T - Trisha, Tigger, Tigers, trees, tea, tables, and Thankgsiving

U - Umbrellas

V - Videos, Valentine's Day, voices, and vows

W - Water, wisdom, writing

X - xylophones, and xylems

Y - Yellow, yaks, Yellowstone, yoga, and you

Z - Zebras, zoos, and zippers


Now it's your turn. Grab your family and Give Thanks from A to Z!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Scripture Blessings:
"Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come into his presence with sining. Know that the Lord is God. It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name. For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations." Psalm 100

and

"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things." Philippians 4:4-8

365 Days of Blessings, Day 158 and Thanksgiving!

Blessings and Thanksgiving! It's all good:

1. Walking in the bright sunshine of a warm November morning. It feels like we are having an extremely late summer.

2. Watching my daughters circle on their bicycles in the driveway.

3. The Trojan War by Olivia Coolidge - a shortened, slightly cleaned up version of The Iliad that we are reading for homeschooling.

4. Hearing the praises and prayers of our Joyful Giving class tonight.

5. Excitement for the next movie night . . . coming this Friday.

6. Peppermint sticks made with sugar and not corn syrup. Yay! Sweet tooth indulgence!

7. My Rhodesian Ridgeback gives hugs, and my Beagle leans in affection.

8. Over 5,000 words written for NaNoWriMO.

9. Characters living in my head for short periods of time . . . I love my plot outline, but they are having some arguments. A snotty character showed up on the page today when I was writing quickly and started an argument with my MC. Whoa, where did that come from?

10. My poem, "Black Diamonds" was accepted by Every Day Poets!!! Woohoo! And two other poems came back with requests for changes - they could still make the grade, with a bit of tweaking.

11. God is large and in charge.

Scripture Blessings:"I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned for me, but had no opportunity to show it. Not that I am referring to being in need; for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me." Philippians 4:10-13 NRSV

365 Days of Blessings, Day 157 and Thanksgiving

Many more blessings, and almost too many to count:

1. The Giving Thanks Project, and the very act of Thanks Giving!!! It's more than just a holiday, it's an action, an attitude, and a lifestyle. Let's give thanks!

2. Walking out of my driveway at 6:30 a.m., lit up like a Christmas tree with flashing lights and a safety vest, and looking up through the trees that line our driveway to see the clearest Big Dipper I've seen in years.

3. Dawn's early light. That time of morning, when the sun is just a line of brightness on the horizon, and every star seems to stand out in stark contrast to the blue-black sky.

4. Joy in the morning. Literally. I felt like God just handed me the best present in the world. The stars, the moon, the dawn . . . wow!

5. Orion, and his bow, standing out clearly on the night sky directly in front of us for nearly half of our walk.

6. My mom is good company in the morning when we walk. We talk about our faith, our politics, and our family . . . and how it all rests in God's hands.

7. The freedom and responsibility of voting.

8. My husband's way of tackling problems straight on without holding back, and with open arms to those who have wronged him. He forgives, holds people up to his expectations, and makes peace all at the same time. (Unless he's playing softball . .. that's a whole different ball game)

9. My Dad's willingness to just be present, and to help whenever he's needed. Some mornings we have a chance to talk, and other mornings like this one, he comes to our house, and sits while the girls sleep and my mom and I walk. Then we are all off and running in different directions, and I hope I'll have a better chance to chat with him tomorrow.

10. My father-in-law's birthday was a few days ago, and I am thankful for his life, for his faith, for his love that he gives so generously to his family, his friends, his church, and his community. He is a wonderful man, a really fun Grandpa to tickle, and really good ski instructor.

11. God gives us joy when we seek him, when we give him praise, and take time to open our eyes to the blessings he's given us.

Scripture Blessings:

"Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 'Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?'
Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.'"
Matthew 22:34-40