Deep in it

-
Christmas music. There's nothing like it to get you in the mood. From "All I want for Christmas is you" to "Silent Night", when December begins it starts pumping through the house. Certain of my favorites has been known to play in October! I started dragging decorations up yesterday. A couple of days before that Hunter brought up the manger scene. It's always the first thing that goes up. I love my decorations. When we were first married I started collecting Christmas balls. For .10 I could buy a bunch of them at Save-n-Serve. Now they are two and three dollars each there! Insert sad/ticked face here. There are alot of people that still don't have money and need those ten cent balls. You can buy new ornaments at Wal-Mart for that price.

Hunter and Selena put lights up outside for me yesterday after school. Hunter climbed up on the ladder and strung lights around my big red star -- ever the perfectionist, he had to make it just so. Selena strung the bushes, and with George's expert cord-running abilities our house started smiling for Christmas last night. I will post a pic soon.

I have a new blog post up on Amish Country Living as of this morning. It's a "Grinchy" little post, but it gives me and others heart that there are still deals to be had out there in this economy. Positivity strengthens the heart! Go here to read it. :)

Remember to take the time not to stress, not to think we need so many presents, not to run around with your head cut off. Christmas is for enjoying each other and taking in the season. The beautiful lights we rush right by without noticing. The frosty air that hangs low in the mornings turning the sky that beautiful midnight blue. Let's notice all that God has given us! I'm sure people would feel panic knowing that I haven't even started Christmas shopping. Not me. I'll go when I can, and when we open presents Christmas morning it will be more about being together than what we are receiving.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Grace in the madness of mothering

-
The Bargain Hunter , where my column appears, is undergoing website changes. For now, my columns will be posted here:  There’s grace somewhere in the octaves between high-pitched and emergency, where I could hear the timbre of my voice and know that I was one step away from madness. This chaos lies in the line of crooked bangs cut with a dull hair scissors, no longer able to brush them away from the brown eyes of a child you love with such fierceness and agony. She would look at me, taunting, hugging me before she ran from me to do the things that would make my throat quiver. She would get up from her bed twenty-nine times in an evening, her Aladdin nightgown swinging as she descended from the stairs, and nothing I did would make her stay. There’s grace allowed somewhere in that madness. I remember rocking my baby in a rocker that several of our family had bought us for our wedding. The curves of it embraced us, and the nursery was warm with forced air from the furnace. I
Read more

We are Ghosts

-
"We are ghosts to you. We don't exist until you want our sympathy or help. You don't think your vote will really count, because you want to see what "happens." It's a vote against us and you don't see that. It's a vote against me. We are ghosts until you want us, but we were never there if you didn't see us until it counted." - quoted by someone I love, 9/24 I am lost.  Awash. Drifting in a sea of distractions. Fraught and edgy. Simple and deep. My thoughts betray me and I cannot sleep. We the people. No longer are we the people we say we are.  We are washed in the blood of Jesus and drowning in our own hypocrisy. We cry out for the blood to flow from the bodies of our brothers and sisters in lands far away - those who cry for our help - as well as turn a blind eye to the ones dying in our streets at alarming levels, shouting, "He should have listened."  We cry "Save the babies!" while we kill those in priso
Read more