Archive for December, 2006
December 31, 2006 @ 4:11 pm | Filed under: Uncategorized
December 31, 2006 @ 4:10 pm | Filed under: Family
I’m excited as I sit and type this post. New things are almost always at least a little bit exciting, aren’t they?
A new year is no exception. I don’t feel that deep-gut tug toward any specific word this year. Instead, it’s more of a pull toward just maximizing the most of what I’ve been given. Whether that be family, skills, friends, or just simple abilities, I need to make sure that I am giving them all the appreciation and time they deserve.
So as this year comes to a quiet close, please know that YOU – my friends, family, and readers – are in my thoughts and prayers. May this coming year be all we could ever hope or imagine but, more importantly, may WE be all we could ever hope or imagine in 2007!
In thinking back over this year, I realize it’s been a year of firsts, a year of new beginnings, new joys. But it’s also been a renewing and reaffirming of loves, joys, and commitments that will forever and ever hold a place of prominence in my heart and in my life.
This time of reflection only makes the coming year seem all the more adventurous and exciting. I look forward to what God has waiting just around the corner for me.
Have a very safe and very happy New Year’s Eve!
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?
And here’s a hand, my trusty friend
And gie’s a hand o’ thine
We’ll tak’ a cup o’ kindness yet
For auld lang syne.
December 30, 2006 @ 6:24 pm | Filed under: Uncategorized
December 29, 2006 @ 10:33 pm | Filed under: Uncategorized
Today it rained cats and dogs. I sat in the waiting room of our dentist office, listening to the thunder bolts and the steady drum of rain as it beat against the building as Jorge endured the dental chair. Afterwards, we sprouted our umbrellas and puddle-hopped to the Suburban. Despite the rain, neither of us was quite ready to go home. So what better place to go and browse during a rainstorm, but Barnes & Noble and then sit and chat over the last Starbucks pumpkin spice latte of the holiday season?
I walked up and down the various aisles, browsing clearance racks, and basically just relishing being back in a store for pure enjoyment and not merely in search of the next perfect gift. And then I found it – the one thing that made the whole trip to B & N worthwhile. The 2007 edition of The Writer’s Desk. It’s a calendar that is loaded with black & white photos of both well-known and up-and-coming writers and their writing spaces. Amy bought one for me back several years ago, but I haven’t been able to get my hands on the past couple of years’ editions.
I was reading some of the commentary in it last night and came across this from Allegra Goodman. She says, "My favorite part of novel writing is the middle. There is the floundering at the beginning, the excitement and honeymoon of it all. There is the speed and urgency of getting to the end. But nothing beats the middle, when you are inside the book, within the world you have created, dwelling with characters who have come to life. That’s the best feeling – the underwater feeling, the slow calm clarity of the story."
My heart pounded just a bit harder as I read her words. It took a few seconds for me to realize what was happening, but excitement – deep and rich – surged through me as it hit me. I had the urge to write again! Really write. Where I’m not merely trying to get in a weekly or daily word count or trying to put words down on a page just for the sake of writing. But I was finally feeling that tingly, ohmygoodnessilovemylifeandmustwritetobreath type of sensation. It has been a while since I’ve felt this and I know it’s because it took most of last semester to adjust to being back in school. But last night, sitting here at my desk, it was back.
And with it came characters, already alive and vibrant in my mind. And their voices, their lives and their loves, their dilemmas, and their faith. It was all there, like a giant neon sign beckoning me to plop down at my keyboard and. just. begin.
Thank you, God.
I like to write, no matter what. But I LOVE to write when His inspiration is the driving force behind the words. I’ve learned to take it slow and being willing to wait on Him. And now He’s gone and done it again…
He’s prepared my heart for another story.
December 27, 2006 @ 1:48 pm | Filed under: Food and Drink
Here I sit – at the computer - with a mind [that I thought was ready] to work on my Wintermester school project and a heart just aching to get started on that "Who Am I, Really?" speech [if you buy THAT, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn...]that I present at 1:00 this next Tuesday.
Instead, what am I doing? I’m thinking about that last piece of pumpkin pie that I ate for breakfast this morning and I’m wondering just how difficult it’s going to be to get back to my little-or-no-real-sugar way of life. Probably not so easy, I’m just saying…
So when I came across these holiday eating tips, I was amused. Wouldn’t it be a crazy kind of wonderful to be able to enjoy guilt-free indulgence in chocolate cake like Madie and Kenzie in this photo?
Oh, to remember the simple joys in life…
Enjoy!
HOLIDAY
EATING TIPS TO LIVE BY
1. Avoid carrot sticks. Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet has no Christmas spirit. In fact, if you see carrots, leave immediately. Go next door, where they’re probably serving chocolate peanut-butter balls.
2. Drink as much eggnog as you can. And quickly, it’s rare. You can only find it for, like, three weeks out of the entire year! So drink up while you can. Who cares that it has 10,000 calories in every 6 oz cup…
3. As for mashed potatoes, always ask if they’re made with skim milk or whole. If they’re made with skim, then pass. Why bother? That’s like buying a fancy sports car with an automatic transmission.
4. Do not have a snack before going to a party in an effort to eat less once there. The whole point of going to a holiday party is to eat other people’s food for free. Lots of it! Hello?
5. Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New Year’s. Wait until January when you have nothing better to do. This is the time for long naps, which you’ll need after circling the buffet table while carrying a 10 pound plate of food.
6. If you come across something really good at the buffet table, like a wonderfully frosted cookie, position yourself close to that platter and don’t budge. They’re like a beautiful pair of shoes. If you leave them behind, you’ll never see them again!
7. Did someone mention fruitcake? Granted, it’s loaded with obligatory holiday calories, but avoid it at all costs. I mean, I have SOME standards!
"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming, "Woohoo! What a ride!"
December 26, 2006 @ 6:17 pm | Filed under: Family
Christmas weekend was a whirlwind of activity – family dinners, the Wilder (the whole bunch of ‘em) Chinese gift exchange, last-minute wrapping, and lots of hugs all the way around.
One of my favorite moments, though, was during the Christmas Eve church service. For a few minutes, all the flurry of activity and all the busyness of the season came to a total stand-still in my heart. I grew still and allowed His peace to flood my soul.
As I think back over this year and all the events that have culminated to form 2006, I am very much aware of how blessed I am. In highs and lows, in sickness and in health — it’s all good. God’s handiwork is written all across my life and I feel very much indebted to Him tonight as I write these words. The people that criss-cross my world and the love and laughter they bring to me are gifts that keep giving all year long, and not just during this hectic holiday season.
I just went back and reviewed the word (or in this case, the phrase) that I chose for myself for 2006. Immediately my mind went to many occasions when I could have done so much better in utilizing that phrase. I fell sadly short but, oddly enough, as I read that post my heart did a little jump as it does every year about this time.
The new year is not really a time of new beginnings. Life can’t really be started with a clean slate, complete with erased mistakes and peppered with forgotten wrongs. But the evaluation that pulses through me is vital to me – this I know for sure. Every resolution kept, every goal attained, every dream reached – they all begin with the power of positive thought. That and prayer.
It’s an unbeatable combination.
So as I ponder what my word for 2007 will be, I’ll try to capture more of those quiet moments. I’ll grow still and let Him whisper His plans for me and I’ll do my best to let my own inadequacies and my own shortcomings move to the backburner of my mind.
In Elisabeth Elliott’s words, this prayer is reverberating through me tonight with sweetness and with longing:
May I offer to Him my feeling of the dislocation of reality and my ideals–that great chasm which separates the person I long to be, the work I long to do for Him, the family I struggle to perfect for His glory–from the actuality?
December 12, 2006 @ 11:08 pm | Filed under: School Stuff
Semesters, that is.
After fourteen papers, two research papers, and three major exams, my first semester is behind me! As I walked out of my history exam today, I experienced the most amazing feeling – sort of a strange combo of wrung-out sponge and high-flying kite.
Tonight was Mike’s Baylor EMBA Christmas dinner so it was a perfect opportunity to dress up, go out, and relax after so many hours of studying and working.
The annual event was held at the Hilton Lincoln Center and was lovely on every conceivable level. Festive holiday decorations, a chamber orchestra, and food like you would not believe.
It was a real treat for me to watch Mike interact with other MBAers. Some were from prior classes, like Mike, and still others are immersed in the program right now. I ‘bluffed’ my way through a few conversations and was able to hold my own in conversations on theories of constraint (thankfully I’ve read the Eli Goldratt book The Goal!). But when our table started to discuss ‘brokering great deals’, I just sat back, listened politely, and enjoyed my cheesecake. For me, brokering a great deal is shopping the clearance aisles at Target and finding an arm full of stuff that I just can’t go home without. Somehow I had a feeling these guys weren’t talking retail therapy deals. On the drive home, Mike seemed genuinely surprised when I asked if I had managed to fake my way through. He’d had no clue that I was feigning intelligence I didn’t really feel.
It’s going to be great fun in a few years to watch him at my Master’s program in Literature Studies (see? I didn’t let the semester get to me – I still have lofty goals!). Knowing his keen sense of humor and his way with conversation and with people, I have no doubt that he’ll ‘bluff’ his way through a conversation on the critical analysis of Ernest Hemingway’s "Hills Like White Elephants" with ease!
December 10, 2006 @ 4:25 pm | Filed under: Family
We knew from the get-go that it was going to be a one-of-a-kind design. No doubt. As I worked the Royal icing, trying to make it more pliable, Carter and Kendall excitedly tore into the candy bits that would very soon grace the roof, walls, and windows of our…um…very tasty home.
Armed with all the tools of the trade, the four of us set to work. It took careful precision and much discussion before we were all in agreement on the lifting of the walls. The GC (Carter) and crew foreman (Kendall), of course, had the final say.
If you take into careful consideration the quantity of candy that was eaten on the sly, the tiny morsels that managed to make a hasty escape by rolling from the table to the floor, and the amount of ‘glue’ (Carter’s word for icing) that was licked from sticky fingers, then I think you’ll have to agree that this house is one kind of special miracle!
Pops and Nana did their best to live up to the management’s demands. We couldn’t seem to make the supply and demand of sugared gumdrops jive and, at times, we ran dangerously low on peppermints and Skittles. But, being the entrepreneur that he is, Pops found creative ways of keeping the project on schedule and under budget.
Funny thing, but the finished version does not look at all like the blueprints or the model, but we think it’s perfect just as it is! I guess that just goes to prove that – when built with love – a house will stand. Er…lean. Aw…you know what I mean!
Enjoy the photos of our very fun, very special, weekend building project. And – if you’d like to tackle just such a project in your own home, then we have just the General Contractor and crew foreman for you!
December 9, 2006 @ 9:58 pm | Filed under: Family
It’s a funny thing how we seem to calculate the passage of time by the photos we come across. They alternately represent times of bliss, times of struggle, times of triumph and – sadly – times we’d much rather just forget.
Maybe it’s those times we’d like to forget that need to be remembered most of all. Not memorialized, and not camped out on…just remembered.
This photo of Jorge (and Carter) was taken in early Spring of 2005, and is one of the last pictures snapped before Jordan’s appearance began to dramatically change. I cannot see this picture without being swept back in time and, when I emerge back into the reality that is today, I always do so with an overflowing heart and tear-filled eyes. I thank my God that He placed a healing hand on Jordan.
Jorge (Jordan to everyone else) is my quiet child. Though very much the intellectual (and a voracious reader), a little-known fact about Jorge is that he does amazing pencil and charcoal drawings and is currently immersed in learning pottery. While his brother is more outspoken, opinionated, and very vocal about his likes and dislikes, Jorge is the voice of peace. He’d much rather endure a bit of discomfort rather than cause a scene or bring someone a moment of displeasure. He hates having attention aimed his way and has been known to go to greath lengths to make sure that it’s NOT.
For these reasons, I am very hesitant to hang out blog posts about him. I want to always respect both of my kids’ privacy and never do anything that will bring them any undue embarassment. While Nathan will most likely never have an interest in reading my blog, I know that Jorge occasionally does tune in.
However, as I spent time this weekend uploading the pictures of Jorge’s college hunt over this past year, I couldn’t help being struck by the dramatic changes I glimpsed as I scrolled from picture to picture. Grief, deep and unrelenting, gripped this mother’s heart as my mind traveled back over the past twelve months and relived the scary moments as we watched Jorge seem to wither away before our very helpless eyes. And then I felt the wave of enormous relief that followed on the heels of grief as I realized that we were one of the fortunate families. Our story has a happy ending and, today, Jorge is a healthy young man again…
In the coming days I will share bits and pieces of this journey. Not to capitalize on an emotional experience and certainly not to draw attention to Jorge. If I could tell what we’ve learned and if I could share God’s healing power without tagging it all with Jordan’s name, then I would do so. But for the first time since we’ve come through this experience I’m feeling a responsibility to other mothers out there who may be seeing for the first time little hints that something might not be just right in their teen’s eating habits.
And I want them to know that there is hope.
But as I struggle to make sure that I handle what I choose to share with care and great consideration, please just rejoice with this mom at the sheer joy of having her son back to normal – body, mind, and soul. Please visit Jorge’s College Hunt photo album located in the left-hand column. So far he’s received acceptance letters from two of the three universities he’s applied to, but – like his Type A Mom – of course he’s holding out for that elusive third one! More on his final choice and what that will entail will follow as he begins to make these decisions.
Happy Sunday…I know I have much to be grateful for today…
