WHEN: This Sunday, December 11, 2011
TIME: 7:30 pm (7:15 if you can make it for the awesome organ prelude)
WHERE: In Glenside – at Carmel Presbyterian Church http://presbycarmel.org/ at Edge Hill and Mt. Carmel Aves.
It’s a beautiful stone church with awesome acoustics and lovely carved wood throughout.
WHAT: Christmas carols, sung by those in the pews, sung by four choirs, and played by the handbell ringers, including yours truly on the high Bflat, B, C and for two whole measures, the Eflat. 🙂 It has been fun and a little challenging becoming a bell ringer. 🙂
Hope to see you there!
National Novel Writing Month http://www.nanowrimo.org/– November of each year there is a challenge for new writers to finally put those ideas for a novel onto paper (or computer). The goal is to write 50,000 words in one month – a very big challenge since that is 1667 words per day! My daughters Julie and Amy did it! Hurray! I am still looking forward to the privilege of getting to read it at some point.
Special thanx to Cynthia Baumann who was the Municipal Liaison who organized several locations for “Wrimos” to get together and encourage one another. Julie and Amy went to the meetings at the Lower Providence Library http://lpc.mclinc.org/and to a few meetings at the Norristown Library http://mnl.mclinc.org/ also. Writers encouraged one another.
Hopefully the article that I wrote about NaNo will be printed in the Times Herald sometime this week. If so, I will link it.
from left to right: Michelle Therrien (Norristown), Nicole Forst (Lansdale), Stephen Kittel (King of Prussia), Patty Kline (Capaldo), Cynthia Baumann – Municipal Liason (Eagleville),
Linda Courtemanche (Royersford), Julie Chandler (Norristown), Amy Bratcher (Norristown)
I am thankful for my church, http://www.cornerstoneopc.com/ where we hear awesome sermons every week after singing our praise to God for all He has done. I am thankful for my friends, especially Cheryl and Linda, because we can share so many of our good and difficult times and show love to each other. Linda has written several books, and this year, in honor of the 400th anniversary of the King James Version of the Bible, she wrote Guarding the Treasure which is a book about how we got the Bible, who wrote it, who translated it, and all that they went through. It’s written for kids ages 8-15 but there’s a ton of info in there, presented in an exciting story manner, that most adults will find interesting also. Her book should be used by every Bible class and every family that is serious about knowing more about the Bible. Yes, it’s that good! http://www.amazon.com/Linda-Finlayson/e/B003VOA34U Not a bad deal for such a low price, that’s for sure!
I am thankful for the Bible and the strength and peace and joy that it brings to me. I am thankful to God for everything, really.
I am thankful to still have my mom and dad and 3 siblings also. My history is still mainly intact. I still have people I can call who care about me deeply.
more later…
I’ve never done it by blog before, but I’ve decided to share what I am thankful for.
I am thankful for a husband who loves me and puts up with me and does his best to provide financially as well as emotionally and spiritually. I love this man, and we’ve been married 33 years. We’ve had our ups and downs and sometimes my favorite song for us has been http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DM9D6c6Rss&feature=artist “I Still Believe” by Lee Greenwood.
I am thankful for four sons who are strong and healthy and responsible. Two of them have become dads and they are doing a good job of it. I’m thankful for two daughters-in-law who are both excellent moms – thankful that the Lord provided such wonderful wives for these two guys.
I am thankful for two daughters – both of them wrote 50,000 word novels in November for NaNoWriMo and I’m so happy that they met their goals. Thankful for my son-in-law as well – it’ll be five years soon since we had that first family wedding.
I am thankful for two awesome little people – Isaac, age 18 months, and Zoey, age 2 months, who delight us and provide comic relief at family gatherings. I pray that they will grow up to be godly people – because that’s the best way to wish for them to find true joy and peace.
I am thankful for my house – I really like my house. I feel very happy just looking around sometimes at the flowers in the blue vase, the cherry wood cabinet, the family pictures on the walls, the colors. I love my laz-y-boy armchairs and my bed and my new flannel sheets (that seemed to have an adhesive on them this morning, as I couldn’t quite pull myself away from them….)
more to come….
I heard on the radio this morning that an abortion clinic in Florida is offering a $50 discount for people to come in on Sunday. Apparently, “sales” are down and they need to generate more business. Gag.
“On Sunday” just seems to add insult to injury. Why go to church to learn how God can help you through your trials and difficulties when you could, at that same time, just go and have one of them ripped out of your uterus instead? Like that will really put an end to your problems (ever read about post-abortion GUILT?)
In case you haven’t noticed, I’m against the killing of babies inside the woman’s body, or out. I’m against one person killing another because of inconvenience. I’m against men pressuring their women to do so because they don’t feel like manning-up and taking responsibility for their OWN child. I’m against a philosophy in society that says that children are a burden and not a blessing. Now, college, they say, that’s a blessing. And a career – that’s a blessing too, even if it’s a dull low-paying job. And travel – that’s a blessing too, right? And a big house in a good neighborhood and a great comfy high mpg car – those are blessings.
But children? They are so often presented as a drain, as the last thing you would want to have to spend money on. Yeah, better to spend it ALL on yourself.
Children! Your heritage, dude, literally down the drain. Your history.
Children! A little smile that makes your entire day. A soft, warm hug. A helpless person that you can take pride in nurturing. She needs you. She wants you. She appreciates you. Yeah, she screams too, and seems to only care for her own needs. That’s when she reminds you of you – that generally that’s been true of you your whole life, even though you tried to care about others, sometimes in an effort to look good, and often in an effort to not get yourself into trouble.
But here, for the first time, you have to climb out of yourself and put someone else first. Period. It’s hard to get used to at first. But most people rise to the occasion. They become more than they were before. And there are people who will help them to learn.
For the first time in life, someone else becomes more important than yourself. It’s awesome, being the person someone loves the most. It gets really tiring sometimes too, but it is never something that is regretted.
I’ve often joked that it’s a good thing babies are cute so that they can wiggle their way into our hearts before we realize what a pain they can be – then it’s too late – we’re in love and we’d give our kidney, our arm, or our life for that person.
This – having babies – is an education that is being avoided, just because it doesn’t offer M-O-N-E-Y.
Well, you know what? What do we want money for? Our comfort and our pleasure, to a great degree. Better to have the comfort of a hug from a little child and the pleasure of her laugh than a trip around the world or a huge house in Gwynedd.
Kids rule.
Sexual exploitation of boys in an AT RISK program (or was that why they were at risk???) This makes me sick.
Okay, I’m heading out on that limb again. Tell me if you think I’m wrong here.
What I don’t understand about this whole Penn State thing is this: WHY is the media focusing so much on 84 year old Joe Paterno and whether he should have overruled the administration’s decision to keep things quiet and called the police?
Why aren’t we hearing Sandusky’s name more? He’s the pervert. He’s the one who hurt those boys, and the one who ought to be, um, as my grandmother once suggested, “disarmed.”
I just think we should focus the blame exactly where it belongs and not get off on the side of the road so much. Papa Joe reported it, and fulfilled his legal responsibility and no doubt had a few words for the guy too. Does anyone know if Sandusky stopped after that? Yes, it would have been the moral and right thing to report it to the police since they didn’t. Live thru the scandal then and not try to bury it. But what does this have to do with football?
Say what?????
I’m not positive that the guy’s career has to go down the toilet because he made a bad decision. Now, the administrators – the people who made the REAL decision in the case, THEY need to be flushed out and brought to justice immediately.
Paterno is a long-term football coach, not a minister or a counselor.
Since he’s not the one who did the deed, his name ought to be dropped out of the news cycle and Sandusky’s splattered all over the place instead. Assuming, of course, that he is guilty (although the media always presumes guilt on these matters in the way they treat people.)
If Paterno wasn’t famous, this would never have happened. Weren’t there some secretaries or administrative assistants who also knew?
Personally, I don’t even care about football much or have any ties to Penn State. I just think we should be frying the right guy.
Ok, I’m going to crawl out on a limb here and say what I’m thinking and if you think I’m totally wrong, please let me know.
Sexual harassment charges. I wouldn’t want anyone harassing me or my daughters or my mother in this way in a job or anywhere else. It’s wrong. It’s awful. It’s a type of bullying. It shows men to be predators instead of protectors.
But what does this have to do with politics and being able to run for president?
Say, what?????
Well, if you take a good historical look, Ben Franklin was sleeping around, and so was John F. Kennedy. Nixon had a real potty mouth and I’m pretty sure that a lot of other politicians saw nothing wrong with breaking the commandment against adultery as long as the people didn’t find out.
It just seems more like it’s “par for the course” and therefore shouldn’t be a barometer as to whether the person can help run a country or not. We’re not voting a guy in as our pastor or counselor. IOW, I don’t think you can find too many politicians out there who haven’t messed around, so therefore, maybe it shouldn’t be an issue.
I want somebody who is going to help the United States to be a great place to live for everyone. Somebody who will make life more, not less, tolerable by making the taxation low and helping businesses thrive by not taxing them to death. I want somebody who will cherish human life and improve conditions for the poorest. I want protection from threats from other countries, but I don’t want to go bullying everybody in the world to pretend they come around to how we supposedly think. Maybe they were better off without Coke and women’s rights and video games and pizza. “That government is best that governs least.”
Make the tax system simple. Stop fighting in the middle east. Make an army of construction soldiers who will go out and build houses and schools in Appalachia and Detroit. Encourage people to work and save instead of charging everything. Encourage people to walk, to volunteer, to work, and to learn to cherish worthwhile activity over worthless leisure.
Just a few thoughts….
Sometimes I don’t look forward to the holidays, because our initial 8 person family (read: 8 opinions) has grown to where there are now 13, with larger variations of view on leisure time and politics and religion and a few other topics. Some don’t fully know others and some don’t fully understand the others (the two are connected, I’m convinced.) Sometimes there’s a bit of tension in the air, and I don’t like that part.
My role for so many years was “peace-keeper” in the home, stopping one from taking the other one’s truck, punishing another for smacking his brother, telling them to “say you are sorry.” I must have thought that once everyone was over 18 there wouldn’t be any differences of opinion. Just goes to show you it has nothing to do with maturity of age and everything to do with “people.”
I pray that people will learn to get past their differences. People are different; so what? – we’re still family and we need to show love to one another. We still have a lot in common. I hope to hear people asking each other what they’ve read or watched or cooked lately, or how their job is going. No one should be ignored. Everyone can make an effort to find a common thread.
I expect there to be changes, especially when a child gets married and establishes a new home.
One change seems to be that while I prefer that we all exchange inexpensive gifts, some of the kids would prefer not to exchange gifts, for financial reasons. Since I’ve always done something for over 50 years, it’s hard to think of doing it differently. It just takes getting used to doing something a different way. When in Rome….do as the Romans, as the saying goes.
To me, one shows thoughtfulness and love by giving a small gift (even 4 cookies in a tin counts.) But does that mean that there is no thoughtfulness or no love if there is no small gift? No, it doesn’t.
So I’ll exchange with those who want to, and give some money to the poor kids in Haiti and Columbia who need it more than we do anyway. If a majority wants a change, then I either have to go that direction or sit and stew about it.
And that kind of stew isn’t very tasty.
The funny thing about such changes: after the initial emotional ruckus, I started thinking of the benefits of the change instead. Like….I have almost no shopping to do for Christmas, and even better – no wrapping. (I hate wrapping.) My obligation list has shrunk. Maybe I’ll get used to it. 🙂
Last time I talked about how sometimes I would just wish that I could curl up and be a kid again, with Mom taking care of the responsibilities and me not having them anymore.
But in reality: I couldn’t wait to move out and make my own decisions. I love choosing what to eat, where to go, what to do. I appreciated the challenge of learning what each person’s needs and desires were and then doing my best to meet them. I was born to be a wife and mother and help run a home. I just get tired sometimes and wistfully think it would be great to go back – but actually all I really want is my present reality without any problems. 🙂
Dennis wasn’t really into Christmas trees. He didn’t want a tree at all at first, but after the second child was born, I convinced him that we should have a small one. It grew, via yard sales, from a 2′ to a 4′ to a 7′ tree, and it was my job to decorate it with the kids’ assistance. The first few years we didn’t have any money for ornaments so we wrapped blocks and then hung them on the tree with some underneath. On New Year’s Day we would pretend they were gifts and open them excitedly, “Wow, I got a red one!” The kids made a few ornaments in school and then we bought some eventually, so the tree was a conglomeration of homemade and nostalgic and pretty.
It was a fun party doing it all, and I didn’t mind. The kids’ excitement always, always injects adrenalin into me and I could walk a mile in a snowdrift, jump a thousand waves, or stay up till 3 a.m. if they are laughing together with me.
Then they got older, and nobody wanted to help put the tree up anymore. They still liked it, but it was a bother.
I can’t put up a tree by myself. I can’t care unless someone else cares. Maybe I became too attached to having someone to do it with and it just wasn’t the same to do it alone. I wasn’t ready for them to grow up and move on yet.
So last year I bought a tiny tree in a thrift store and put it on a table in the corner. It was pretty, no work, and we piled gifts around it. It suffices.
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