This Will Hurt a Lot of Families

adopting in China. When they travel they will not be able to Skype home. My parents just signed up to Skype with their out of town kids. Thankfully no one is in China. China is closing itself off. Wonder what they are gearing up to do? There has been speculation that war with the US is in the not to distant future. That came from comments made by the Chinese military this past year. Very interesting and very scary. Obviously they are afraid of freedom for one.

Too bad our American liberal/progressive movement wants to go more toward communism and away from freedom. That movement will hurt us much more than it has already.

Wow, Just Wow

I found this at this blog. She is right, it is beautiful.

By far my most favorite song that I truly believe should be sung year 'round.

Compassion of a Child

Today I awoke with a terrible sinus headache due I am sure to the snow with which the weathermen keep threatening us but will never come. G is staying with my parents this week while I work so after church we came to wait at their house for them to come back from out of town.

So G was changing from her Sunday clothes and wanted me to stay in Grammie's room with her while she changed. I told G that unless I went to take some medicine right then, I would throw up. She stopped a moment and said, "Mama, can I watch you throw up?"

A Most Treasured and Lasting Gift

Made by a Grandfather's hands with love. My dad made G a doll house totally unfinished in that she had to do all the decorating of it herself, well with a little help from mom that is. I used some of my mother's Southern Living mags (for indoor pictures) and Birds and Bloom mags (for outdoor pictures) and we went to town.

She is still working on it today with the roof. We glued some of the permanent stuff and used tape for the Christmas decorations. She received a doll , which is the perfect size for the house, for a gift from our cousins.

We love decorating it. Merry Christmas everybody!

Book Review: Bible Reference Book

Book description from Nelson publisher: "The beloved Biblical Cyclopedic Index from The Open Bible is now available as a stand-alone resource, for use with any Bible or translation.

With more listings than any other Bible resource available, Nelson’s Biblical Cyclopedic Index reference tool helps readers quickly pull together a thorough and comprehensive Bible study, lesson, or sermon.

Completely unique, Nelson’s Biblical Cyclopedic Index combines the features of a concordance, a topical Bible, and a Bible dictionary. It is a special kind of subject index that combines the best features of a concordance and a topical index. It’s an incomparable resource for Bible study, with more subjects detailed than any other publication. The Biblical Cyclopedic Index offers more listings than any other similar Bible resource available. With more than 8,000 subjects, names, places, things, concepts, events, and doctrines of the Bible, it is the one resource every church and personal library can’t do without."

I like this handy index. It is smallish, easy to handle and use. It gives the definition and the location used in the Bible but not just where it is used but how it is used. Example of "Happiness of the Saints" gives where it is derived from fear of God, trust in God etc; examples of Israel, Mary, Paul; in spite of Discipline, suffering etc; described as blessed, filled, in God alone; and then the other names like gladness and joy for reference.

Some definitions and locations aren't as detailed but it depends on the word and how many times it is used in the Bible. It will be very useful to me as I prepare every Saturday for Sunday's lesson. So if you need a good reference I couldn't recommend it more highly for ease of use and no intimidation factor.

I received a free copy in exchange for the review and the opinions are 100% mine.

A Little Pre-Christmas Recap

Yesterday, Mom, G and I took off to a local town nearby to see the display of nativity scenes from around the world. I felt like I had personally gone around the world. It was a very nice display. There was a very cool Orthodox display with the nesting dolls and a series of iconic plates. It really was awesome. One nativity had a pig in it which represented wealth in the culture from where it came but would not have obviously been in the original stable.

Irish nativity and Orthodox nativities





Part of a China triptych, and a nativity made of banana leaves.






Then we headed east a bit to see my aunt (mom's younger sis). We landed just in time for lunch and it was a good visit to boot. Speaking of boots, heh, G got a new pair of brown boots one size larger than the ones she wears All. the. Time.



Then after that visit we headed north a bit to a local "Old McDonald's" where G enjoyed the playland while Mom and I visited with a long lost 1st cousin of Mom's. Long lost in the sense that they basically lived their lives within 30 miles of each other but until their own parents died never really hung out together. That was very nice to visit and hear the differences in the families.


Then G and I brought Grammie back home and headed to dinner with a friend to a Japanese restaurant where G ate cucumber sushi, sans the cucumber, and actually really liked it. I think it surprised her a bit.



But before all of these activities G and I opened all the wrapped gifts to her from me, Grammie and Grandad at my parents house.
I thought that was a great idea so that today she could focus on the Santa gifts. G didn't really like that though but couldn't really verbalize why.

We were so busy we didn't even go to the candle light Christmas service at church. I tried really hard to make that a tradition but we were just too busy this year.

Now the parents are off to my sisters and G and I have obligations at church tomorrow so we stayed home. We are playing at their house for a bit before we go home and watch a Christmas movie or three.

It's Christmas Day at Our House

I would say G had a wonderful Christmas. And that Christmas might not have started so early except I forgot to turn off the alarm.

I wish I could say that pic with the blankets was the "first" look but she sneaked and saw before I was ready. That pic is the I am excited and embarrassed for being excited all at once.

Views of a Christmas Play

About half way through the program I told my mom that I thought G was intentionally hiding behind the little girl in front and Mom said, "You are just now figuring that out?"

So after it was over I asked and sure enough G said she was hiding because there were a lot of people that came to watch, heh.

Imagine...

Husky Tools, a new line of hand tools for under $20 at Home Depot. Need a last minute gift for someone? High school graduation is just a short 5 months or so away. Don 't forget this is not just a guys gift, girls need tools too.

One year for Christmas I asked for a tool box of my very own, never mind that half the stuff I don't know how to use yet. That is not a problem though with Husky Tools since their website has demonstration videos explaining them.

The tools are:

If there is ever a problem just call the number provided or return to the store for free replacement. In our throw away culture, when items are made to break, these tools stand apart and should last a lifetime or longer (can you say generational gift?).

So guess what I am giving my nephew, who is graduating high school this year and turns 18 in February, for Christmas? That's right he is getting his very own set of Husky Tools, specifically the 20-piece T-handle set, pictured above that I received in exchange for this post. All opinions are 100% mine.

Okay so I can post on the blog from the phone but can't figure out how to post photos. Still trying to find out. Stay tuned because I have some cute ones of G

Visiting Santa and Snow in the Fall

We visited Santa Saturday afternoon after the Yogi Bear birthday party of our cousin. Cute movie BTW. Anyway the Santa made a comment about G being another year older and in the car G got really excited because Santa remembered her age, heh.

Oh and Saturday morning we woke up to "a centipedes" worth of snow on the ground. At 5:30am there was a lot more of the white stuff than when I took this picture at 8am. Sunshine makes a difference. It is very unusual for us to get snow this early or rather late in the fall since Dec 21st is the first day of winter. Rarely do we ever get snow in December but maybe this year, ya know with that whole climate change thing happening and the whole Gore effect.

Guess Who Lost a Tooth?

This makes her third tooth gone. It was really really loose and the one beside it is pretty loose too. She had to go to the nurses office yesterday before the Christmas party at school because "it was bloodin'."


She said this morning, "Look mama, I got my blink back." When I brushed her teeth last night I new it was ready to come out. I offered to pull it for her but she wanted to do it herself. She tried and apparently it made a sound or hurt a bit because she didn't do it. So I got a floss stick and played with it until it popped out. I am not sure who was more surprised. She didn't realize it came out until I told her to spit it out before she swallowed it.

And wouldn't you know the tooth fairy was cash-poor. So we wrote a note and said if a trinket would be better then G was okay with that. We had seen "Jane and the Dragon" (excellent cartoon by the way) where the Princess lost a tooth with the tooth fairy bringing her a trinket not money. G decided that children in Africa really don't have a lot of store to buy things so the tooth fairy must leave trinkets for them as well so why not her too. So the trinket was a magnetic hangman game. G was so shocked that the tooth fairy knew she loved hangman.

Oh and yesterday Santa told her he had seen her sing at the program (which I will need to blog about with pictures this weekend) and it blew G's mind. "How did he see me, mama?"

Santa Visit 2010

Thanks to my parents, who were able to go to G's Christmas party at school, I have a photo of her with Santa. Needless to say, we haven't been this year. We have an opportunity this weekend and I hope we can go.

Do You Know What Today Is?

Do you know what today is? Go here to see for yourself. It really is a pretty important day, then as now.

Another great link.

Gift vs. Payment

After a very terrible weekend in behavior (both mine and G's) I was strongly convicted about what gift giving really means, especially if Santa plays a part in the giving at Christmas. Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Christ, Who was Himself a gift given to an undeserving people to save us from our sins. He didn't come because we were good, actually it was the very opposite, we weren't/aren't good (to our very core we are evil continually).

So here we are at a celebration of that gift given not based on how we act other than rottenly (is that a word) and yet we use Santa to control our kids using the same concept of gift. Santa won't come bring gifts if you aren't good or well behaved. Well if that is the game we play, then the child doesn't receive a gift, s/he receives payment earned on his/her behavior. I was convicted in that how can I tell G that she will only get gifts if she is being good but then tell her that her being good isn't needed when it comes to the gift of eternal life in Jesus. I do not want to tie her behavior to the word gift.

Now, I am not knocking Santa because the history of St. Nicholas is based on an Orthodox Priest who was loved greatly by the people. He himself was a priest to the Gift that we celebrate on Christmas. St. Nicholas spread the gospel (good news) giving people a gift of life through introducing and celebrating the Babe in the manger (not necessarily the way we do today). So Santa (though his image has been changed to fit our culture) is not necessarily a bad concept (and he visits us on Christmas) in giving gifts that represent the greatest gift of all, but maybe the tying good behavior to it could be rethought.

Well, like I said, bad behavior fit us both this weekend, her instigation and my poor response, such that I took all her presents away from under the tree. Then I was sorely convicted. I gave them back and explained that her gifts weren't based upon her or anything she does or doesn't do but are solely based on me, the giver. I explained that Jesus didn't give us the gift of eternal life based on us but on Himself only. And that Santa gives based on a heart to show Jesus to the world through giving gifts to children.

I explained that some children get things to meet their basic needs rather than things that would be useless for survival and that we get to be to those children like Santa through giving money to the church or shoe boxes through Samaritan's purse.

I am really this close (pinching fingers tight) to telling G about Santa being a historical person (with all the history) and now being more of a thought or idea to make surprises at Christmas special. But I do really like the idea of Santa in context and so G will not be earning her gifts. They will come and forget the elf on the shelf or coal in stockings; G will be given gifts because I love her, she is mine and I claim her. I want to show her what a gift is so that she will eventually see Christ's gift being only based on Him and His love for her. He has claimed her as His own and showers her with His gift of love and life.

Merry Christmas!

This Is Why We Don't Put Up a Christmas Tree

at least not where the cats can get it. Ours is painted (done last year) and hanging on a wall in the LR.

Attacks on Christmas Carried Out in the Name of Tolerance

"Make no mistake about it, those who rip Christmas out of public life are duplicitous and exploitative, no matter what they claim their victim status to be, and no matter how noble their motives. It is duplicitous to attack the majority culture under the pretense of tolerance, when the outcome of the ostensible tolerance is to be intolerant of the majority culture. It is exploitative to use privileged victim status to enforce personal preferences at the expense of a profoundly important cultural and, yes, religious observance. There are few things more self-centered than using privileged victim status to erase part of the culture one finds themselves in. If Westerners went to non-western nations and tried this ungrateful, petty behavior, they would be rightly condemned or worse, depending on the locale."

Read the whole thing.

Look What G Learned to Do

Sort of...

She was so tired after learning to skate and being in the cold. She really did enjoy it even though her face told a different story. Then in the afternoon she attended a roller skating bday party so she skated practically all day yesterday.

This is a temporary ice rink so we will probably only get to go one more time before it ends. But maybe this will be a once learned never forgotten type of thing.

Oh Hahahahahahahahaha

This Is Sad Really

Found