Slice of Life: My Tough Dilemma!

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 

to the Tuesday Slice of Life (SOL) community.

Thanks to Stacey, Betsy, Dana, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Lisa, and Melanie

 for hosting this meeting place each Tuesday and nurturing our writing lives.

I hate to make this public, but sometimes I'm a rule breaker.  You see, my desire for books is always bigger than my capacity for reading. Right now I have an overdue book (just one day overdue) that I'm keeping for a bit longer even though there are 43 people waiting to read it.  Are you wondering what it is?  It's Ghost by Jason Reynolds.  I can't return it unfinished!  So I'm making this a short slice so I can get back to reading.  We have friends in town for a few days so it's tough to squeeze in reading time.

And then I have to get back to another book that I've neglected in the holiday rush, Present Over Perfect:  Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living by Shauna Niequist.   It's due tomorrow and there's no way I can finish it.  And 87 people are waiting for this book.  Decision time . . . I'll use my Christmas gift certificate to Island Books to purchase this one.  It's that good!

Since many slicers are using this week to write about their OLW for 2016, here's the link to my reflection on abide which I wrote earlier in the month.  The week between Christmas and NewYear's is one of my favorite weeks of the year.  I hope each of you find time to relax and recharge as 2016 draws to a close.   

Celebrate This Week: The Joys of the Season!

                            Join us each weekend for Celebrate This Week with Ruth Ayres. 

                                                      When we pause to celebrate, we find the joy.

 

A week filled with moments to celebrate and remember!

So much to celebrate!

Technology that keeps us connected to loved ones! 

Thanks to Instagram, FB, and FaceTime, we've stayed wonderfully

connected with Teddy and our son and his wife who are in UT for the holidays.  

(Come back later to see pics of Teddy and family.)

Christmas cards that bring pictures

and greetings from family and friends

 to my mailbox and into my home!

We attended Christmas services with our daughter.  

She and her husband sang in the choir.  

What a beautiful celebration of the season!

Family, games, friends, good food, cozy fire, 

children's nativity,  a gorgeous Christmas Eve sunset,

Christmas services, and new books! 

Christmas Eve sunset at Calkin's Landing

Modeling our Christmas Eve PJs

with daughter Sara and friend, Sara

Christmas Day pic with daughter Sara,

a beautiful mom-to-be!

Slice of Life: Three Latecomers to the Tree!

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 

to the Tuesday Slice of Life (SOL) community.

Thanks to Stacey, Betsy, Dana, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Lisa, and Melanie

 for hosting this meeting place each Tuesday and nurturing our writing lives.

Three latecomers to the Christmas tree:

One from the upstairs bulletin board, 

One from a the kitchen drawer

(after a Krazy glue repair), and

One from Stitch Buffalo and our poet friend, Amy.

  I love Christmas ornaments.  

Check out Amy Ludwig Vanderwater's post about the bird ornament from Stitch Buffalo's Refugee Women's Workshop.  You can read more about this organization at Amy's post, Birds, Hope, and A Way to Give. The ornament arrived yesterday along with Amy's poem, "Welcome" and a delightful list of ten beautiful words which I'll share on my weekend Celebrate post.  

The angel was a Christmas gift from my son the year he was serving as a missionary in the Nashville, TN mission.  The inscription is, "Mothers bring heaven closer to earth."  It resides year round on my bulletin board and some years I forget to put it on the tree.  

The little rocking horse ornament is special to our family.  We found it in the attic of our house in Houston, TX.  Our first Christmas in that house was thirty years ago when we had a two month old and a two year old!  This past year the horse's head fell off and so this ornament sat in a kitchen drawer waiting for a glue repair until I retrieved it today.  

If you love Christmas ornaments and the stories that go with them, I hope you're familiar with Aliki's picture book Christmas Tree Memories.   And this morning I discovered a new adult book in the NYT book section that I'm requesting from the library, Tree of Treasures by Bonnie Mackay.   Someday I'm going to write my own little book about the treasures on our tree and the stories behind each of them.    

Celebrate This Week: The Little Things

                            Join us each weekend for Celebrate This Week with Ruth Ayres. 

                                                      When we pause to celebrate, we find the joy.

 

A week filled with moments to celebrate and remember!

I mailed a package to Utah where Teddy and folks will spend Christmas.

 I've almost finished mailing the Christmas cards. 

We had our church party on Saturday. 

I'm ready to start digging out gifts from their hiding places and begin wrapping.

I'm looking at a week that promises fewer commitments

and more quiet moments!

I'm celebrating that I might even find time to finish

The Inquisitor's Tale.

I'm celebrating the revival of our Spiritual Journey Thursday group

which has morphed into a Spiritual Journey First Thursday group.

Check out Irene Latham's post and plans for the new year. 

We'd love to have you join us!   

I'm celebrating this sky pic I captured on Thursday afternoon.  

Spiritual Journey Thursday: Reflections on My One Little Word for 2016!

I know it's Saturday, but I still wanted to participate in the invitation I received from my Spiritual Journey Thursday friends.  Between the demands of the week, trying to do some of my first Christmas shopping of the season, and attending a Christmas concert (Mark O'Connor and his family band),  I never got around to reflecting on my OLW on Thursday.  Each year, I set a goal to write about my OLW on  5th Tuesdays.  There are usually three or four fifth Tuesdays scattered throughout the year.  However, I only managed to write on one 5th Tuesday this past year.  It's been a tough year for me and ABIDE.  I wrote about abiding in my field in January, and then abiding in faith in March.  And then somehow I never got around to writing about abiding in the Savior's love.   But what better time than now?  Especially during the Christmas season?

Before I do that, I want to be honest about what kept me from writing more often about abide this past year.  I had this dream that this would be the year that I made my personal study and prayer time a priority.  I managed brief stretches, but ofttimes I found myself charging off into the day without the rejuvenating power that comes from sitting quietly, from studying the Word of the Lord, and then spending time with Him in prayer.  It's hard to admit that to this community, but that's where I am.

I serve in our women's ministry at my church, so why is my personal study time such a challenge for me?   I remember Ruth Ayres' words to me once, that reaching for her phone and reading the word of God is the first thing she does every morning.  Maybe it's hard for me because I always want it to be more, you know . . . more spiritual, more filled with inspiration, more light for my daily walk.  I'm always waiting for that perfect time to have a perfect appointment with the Lord..  It's why I toss my scriptures on my pillow if I charge off without this routine.   I commit then that I will spend some time reading and meditating and praying before bed.  However, being the lark that I am, night time is not the best time for me to spend quality time with the word of God.

Given my disappointment with the outcome of my hopeful year with ABIDE, I must admit that abiding in the Savior's love is a lifelong pursuit.  I plan to continue my quest to seek and long for, and to cherish daily time to abide in the Savior's love.  One of my favorite holiday traditions is reading a book of Advent readings, Christ, the Light of the World, by Thomas Kinkaide.  Early in the book, during Week One, is a reading about thwarted expectations, explaining that the Christmas story is full of disappointed expectations.  Mary and Joseph did not expect to give birth in a stable, they didn't expect a virgin birth, the shepherds didn't expect angelic visitations that urged them on a nighttime journey.  Perhaps the most important words can be found in the response of the shepherds:  "Let us NOW go . . ." and "they came with haste and FOUND . . . " " And the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God . . . "  Each day's devotion ends with a prayer and I love these words from Week One, Day 6 - " . . . And thank you for your love which always exceeds expectations."  And to the words of this prayer, I add my desire to always abide in this love, to continue my journey to go now, to find the joy the comes from daily devotional time, and to abide in His love which is everlasting.

Thank you, Holly, for starting this journey.  And thank, you, Irene, for continuing the journey.  Irene, I'm happy to take September and the topic will be my OLW (not chosen yet, but will let you know ASAP).

Slice of Life: Party Time!

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 

to the Tuesday Slice of Life (SOL) community.

Thanks to Stacey, Betsy, Dana, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Lisa, and Melanie

 for hosting this meeting place each Tuesday and nurturing our writing lives.

Friends gather

Yearly tradition

December evening

Steaming soup

Snacks galore

Game time

Laughter abounds

Farewell hugs

Cherished friendships!

We missed some of our regulars (one was in Hawaii,
one was ill, and one couldn't make it).  Not pictured is
daughter, Sara, who joins us for this event each year.
She likes my friends too, and they like her!
We tried a new game this year recommended by
Blake & Stefi when they were home at Thanksgiving.
If you're looking for a new game for holiday gatherings,
we give "Cover Your A$$ets" six thumbs up.

Celebrate This Week: My Week in Numbers

                             Join us each weekend for Celebrate This Week with Ruth Ayres. 

                                                      When we pause to celebrate, we find the joy.

 

A week filled with moments to celebrate and remember!

8 - loaves of banana bread baked this afternoon by hubby

7 - days I read for pleasure this past week

6 - number of egg yolks in the press cookies

5  - trays and plates of goodies ready to deliver

4 am - the time I got up this morning to decorate the tree

3 - number of helpers in the kitchen tonight (hubby, daughter, sil)

2 - items we'll have for dinner tonight (toast and scrambled eggs)

1- coyote glimpsed on the way to the Nativity last Sunday evening

(and just so we know, we live in a very urban area)

Molasses cookies, Hello Dollies, Toffee bars, Rocky Road, Press cookies

Slice of Life: Books, Brownies, and Beyond - Fourteen Weeks In!

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 

to the Tuesday Slice of Life (SOL) community.

Thanks to Stacey, Betsy, Dana, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Lisa, and Melanie

                    for hosting this meeting place each Tuesday and nurturing our writing lives.

Tuesday afternoons

readers gather to share books,

thoughts, cookies, and joy!

Our after school book club, Books, Brownies, and Beyond, has been meeting together for fourteen weeks now.   Here are a few highlights of our year together so far.  (I've finally received all the parental permissions so I can share these pics.)  

 Special book club session with Irene Latham, visiting poet!

 Free books for Halloween treats!

Books for December book club discussions!

We share our favorite genres, authors, books, favorite places to read, and even our favorite foods to eat while reading.  Our numbers continue to grow (two new members last week and one new member this week).  We'll meet two times this week because on Friday we get to participate in a google hangout sponsored by King County Library System with John Anderson, author of Ms. Bixby's Last Day.  

Next week we have book discussions for the following Newbery possibilities:

Pax, Wolf Hollow, The Inquisitor's Tale, Ms. Bixby's Last Day, Some Kind of Courage, and The Girl Who Drank the Moon.  

And then we hope to read two more books (one over winter break and one in January) before the 2017 Newbery winner is announced.

Please leave a comment and let our book club members know which book you're hoping will win the Newbery this year.    

Celebrate This Week

                              Join us each weekend for Celebrate This Week with Ruth Ayres. 

                                                      When we pause to celebrate, we find the joy.

 

A week filled with moments to celebrate and remember.

A very late, quick post . . . 

but so many small and simple things to celebrate this week.  

On Saturday, two fine gentlemen (my husband and sil) set up the Christmas tree.

It's not decorated yet, but the colored lights warm my heart and make me remember that Christmas is coming (even if that is the only thing done so far in our household.)  Oh, I forgot, I put up the Christmas lights on the deck early in the week.  And on Friday, I hosted a shift at the

Bellevue Festival of the Nativity.  Here are a few favorites from the 500+ nativity sets 

exhibited at the Festival from around the world.  

 A simple wooden creche at the entrance

 I love the way that every character is looking to  

heaven and praising God in this clay nativity from

New Mexico.  

 A simple depiction of a heavenly event . . . 

I love the colors in this scene from Haiti carved 

from a recycled oil drum. 

These felted sheep's wool figures are from Kyrgyzstan.

A tiny Eskimo nativity with a puffin & polar bears

 The expression on the sheep standing guard over baby Jesus - priceless!

 This Raku pottery from South Africa is my favorite set.
I love the variety of animals native to that part of the world!

 The children's room with hands-on nativities,

puppets, coloring pages, and puzzles... 

In the room next door are costumes for

dressing up as characters in the nativity.  

I'm celebrating two beautiful scenes captured at my former school this week.

 This gorgeous sky as I left book club on Tuesday afternoon,

 and this late display of fall color captured when I subbed

on Friday morning.  Thanks, Patty, for telling me about it.