Moving My Blog

I am not one to start and stop endeavors on a whim. Taking up blogging was supposed to be a way for me to develop some discipline in writing; that's all. No big agenda here...no desire for blog fame and notoriety. And proof of that is how pitifully few people have ever visited this blog!

But, if you are a secret fan and have been lurking and reading and enjoying...please note that I will now be posting here.

Besides, after I started this blog a very lovely lady visited my blog...she has a blogspot with almost the very same name! Hers is A Well-Watered Garden with the only difference being that darn little hyphen. And she's had her blog much longer than I've had mine. She graciously assured me that there was room in blogland for two gardens.

Gracious as that is, I'm ready to start anew...take all I've learned and maybe do it better. Visit my new blog entitled Unveiled and let me know what you think.

Former Things, New Things

Isaiah 42:9 (NIV)
See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being, I announce them to you.

I, for one, am happy to see 2008 relegated to the category of former things. It was a rough, tough, humbling year for us. So much change and so great the challenges! I dare say, not one member of my family was untouched by challenging changes last year. All but two of us lost jobs...but praise and glory to God, each one of us who lost a job found a new job. This fact alone is a miracle during this miserable state of our economy.

Our home is still in short sale escrow...the buyer is waiting with a half million dollars in cash, but the mortgage company is dragging their feet. To be fair, we have no idea what kind of turmoil the mortgage company is in...we just know that we've been asked to supply the same information and documentation repeatedly and some days it seems like the process is back at square one. Our realtor has been a godsend--a godly man from our church with a seemingly endless supply of patience and a good measure of faith. "You know who I work for," (referring to the Lord) he told Tom and me when he listed our home for sale...and, God bless him, we are aware that a short sale is a nightmare deal for a realtor. We are grateful for his help and expertise with the sale of our house. Another blessing from God.

Our Army soldier son is being medically discharged with a service-connected disability. During his deployment to Afghanistan he suffered injuries to his back when his Humvee was hit by a roadside bomb. Thankfully, he survived his deployment with his life and all limbs intact. His back problems will prevent him from physically demanding work and activities, but God blessed this young man with intelligence and insight and academic success. With his GI Bill benefits, he will now pursue a degree in psychology and a career helping people. The terror of war in Afghanistan is a former thing (for my son at least)...and God is busy doing something new with him.

As this New Year begins, I am quieting myself to hear from Him and I am asking Him to sharpen my spiritual eyesight so I can continue to see glimpses of His work in my family, in the midst of the challenges we are still overcoming.

Happy New Year!

It's The Little Things

Tom and I work in very different career realms. He works for private industry and I work for a government agency. His company holiday dinner party was an elegant affair, held at a trendy local restaurant with the entire bill--dinner and drinks for all employees and spouses--generously paid by the owner of the company. We are in a recession so no bonuses were dispersed...this year. Tom works in the automotive industry.

I work for our county's Department of Social Services. The holidays are quite stressful for the poorest in our communities and we see an increase in applications for assistance around this time. Increased applications mean higher caseloads equals more work and more stress for our staff. But I really have to say, in my 16 years with the department, it is quite remarkable how joyous and festive our office becomes around the holidays. There is no generous big boss footing the bill for a company party, but individual units organize small celebrations, potlucks and posadas, lunches or dinners out (many supervisors here do pick up the tab for dinner for the employees they are assigned to supervise). There are cheerful decorations around every corner, and employees find small ways to show love and appreciation to their coworkers. This outpouring of good cheer, to me, is a direct blessing from God and His approval of the work we do, day in and day out, to care for the less fortunate. Yes, we are bound by bureaucratic red tape in the form of regulations, but make no mistake...miracles happen daily in the Social Services realm.

As a program analyst, I am assigned to a small unit with responsibility for writing program policy and providing staff support and guidance. I have a supervisor and four colleagues who do what I do--we all analyze and support different assistance programs. We are part of a larger division with three other small units--we are the people our executives turn to for research and program expertise, and we are the people staff turn to for regulation interpretation or clarification. I love what I do, even though I am not directly serving our clients on the line any more.

This past week, my unit gathered for a holiday gift exchange and dinner out (our supervisor's treat). For our gift exchange we agreed to each bring a wrapped $25 gift--we'd draw numbers and play the stealing game (some people refer to this as a white elephant gift exchange--but we had nice new gifts, not cast offs from the back of the closet!) We agreed to play like this: number 1 went first and opened a gift; number 2 could steal from number 1 or open a new gift--and so on. Once all gifts were opened, we'd go around again: number 1 could keep her gift or steal from someone else, and whoever she stole from got her original gift. A gift could only be stolen twice.

OK. Here we go. I drew number 1. And imagine my delight when I opened the gift pictured here...a gorgeous nativity vignette music box that plays 'O Holy Night'! Perfect, perfect, perfect! Somehow, we got through round one without anyone stealing it. I breathed a sigh of relief.

Round two. Again, I'm number 1. I surveyed the gifts on the table--bath products, a cute purse, a bamboo cutting board and knife, a down cuddle blanket, Hickory Farms snack box. My ornament. This was a no-brainer...mesmerized by Baby Jesus and captivated by the scripture reference from 1 Corinthians and soothed by the melody of 'O Holy Night' I joyfully passed the opportunity to steal.

All went well until we got to number 4, who was the recipient of the Hickory Farms snack box. Number 4--a lovely colleague who is pregnant with her second baby. She looked longingly at my beautiful music box and sweetly into my eyes as she stated her intention to steal Baby Jesus from me. For good measure, she apologized profusely and explained that her little two year old daughter would absolutely love the music box. As I passed it to her (and collected my new gift--Hickory Farms) I laughed but reminded her that it's never too early to teach a little one about Jesus.

When I got home that evening my husband was quite pleased with the gift I ended up with and suggested that we open it up and share a snack while watching prime time TV. So we did and the summer sausage and pepper jack cheese and sweet/spicy mustard and crackers were really good. Until I was awakened in the middle of the night with the worst acid reflux and indigestion of my life. I thought of my sweet pregnant coworker and actually thanked the Lord that He saw fit to make sure she didn't take that gift home!

At work the next day my supervisor (she is a Christian sister) revealed that she was the one who'd purchased the nativity music box and was excited when I selected that gift to open because she knew I'd love it. We talked about how much fun we had exchanging gifts and then she told me where she'd purchased the music box. She said she thought there was one more left in the store. Call me impulsive. Call me covetous. Call me head over heels in love with Jesus. I high-tailed it over to that store...a florist and gift shop literally crammed with every gorgeous ornament in the world...and managed to find the nativity music box within a minute of entering the store. And it was marked 25% off. Of course I bought it...and I sent a funny email to my sweet coworker telling her about it. I think she felt a tiny bit guilty about stealing it and she needed to know that there's enough Jesus to go around!

Thank You Jesus for being MORE than enough!

Christmas Home Tour!

As a relatively new blogger, I am amazed at the creativity I see in BlogLand. I recently stumbled upon BooMama's blog--just in time to participate in the 2008 Christmas Tour of Homes!

Welcome to my central-coast-of-California home! Here is a shot, curbside at dusk. Wrapping the little tree in lights was a bit labor-intensive. Here is the front door...I bought this door decoration several years back and used to hang it on my office door at work because it didn't really match anything at my house. This year, the green front door of our new little house is the perfect backdrop. I love how it jingles when the door opens and closes!
The nativity scene is prominently displayed in a niche in the entryway of our home. I use a string of soft white lights around and behind the creche for dramatic effect.

Our Christmas tree is lit with lots of white lights and the majority of the ornaments are either glass, white, or silver. I have the beginnings of a Christmas village...I bought a few pieces at after-Christmas clearance sales in the past two years.

Look! The Christmas cactus is blooming!

This singing trio was a giveaway one year from Hallmark. We get a kick out of watching our dogs, confused but fascinated, when we activate the show.

On the mantle in the family room we have a collection of wooden ornaments and another nativity scene. These little wooden ornaments came from my husband's mother's collection.

Did you know that dogs love Christmas too?

Bella is camera-shy, but Shelby happily obliged with this Christmas pose.

There is much more I could share, but I know this is but ONE stop on the tour! Before you go, how about a hot cup of Tazo organic chai tea and a couple of peanut butter crunch bars? I got the recipe for the bars here!

Thank you for stopping by...and may Jesus our Christ be your light this holiday, and always!

One Blessed Family

We had a really fantastic Thanksgiving Day! The food was wonderful and we ate ourselves sick of course, and the mountain of dishes after dinner was daunting...but to have the family together was such a blessing.

I love to imagine holiday gatherings to come...when the kids are married and starting families (giving us grandchildren to spoil!), but I appreciate the energy and silliness of my adult kids as they are now. Tom set up a VCR player and we spent hours with the kids watching old home movies--lots of dance recitals and soccer games. Our son Thomas always seemed quite comfortable in the spotlight--Chuck E. CHEESE was his favorite exclamation to get the camera pointed his way. Jessica's little girl sweetness as a baby was captured beautifully along with her willingness to follow her big brother's lead. Her gawkiness in middle childhood caused her to cringe--ever critical of herself even now, she doesn't seem to realize that most girls go through this awkward stage, but it's something noticed later, in retrospect. When she has her own daughter and is completely smitten with her, she'll understand. Unfortunately, there isn't much video footage of Amy's young years. I do think that Oma and Opa took more still pictures of her though. Perhaps Jessica's accusatory screams of "how COULD YOU!" during excruciating close ups of her beautiful little 10 year old face and pre-braced teeth caused Amy to breathe a silent prayer of thanks at being third!

There was quite a bit of footage that included Tom's parents and my parents at different family events. Thanks to Oma and Opa (grandparent names of Tom's folks) we have these precious videotaped memories, so it is especially sweet to have a permanent record of their interactions with their grandkids and to hear again their voices thick with the familiar German accent of their heritage. We used to find it a bit annoying when Tom's dad would seemingly forego actual interaction in order to capture moments on video (truthfully, due to age and cultural factors, he wasn't that great a communicator anyway!) but what a blessing it is now to have these captured memories.

We took a candid family picture yesterday (the one posted here)...our church likes to feature different families in the weekly bulletin and we were asked to be the featured family for the December 7th bulletin. As we posed for the picture (Thomas's girlfriend Jill took the picture) I realized that we'd better start doing a better job of capturing the moments. I think I'd better start saving for a video camera before my grandkids come!

The joy of sharing a festive meal with my loved ones reminded me of Revelations 3:20...

"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with Me."

Natalie Grant-Relentless

My good friend Tanja gave me Natalie Grant's CD entitled Relentless. Oh my goodness. This woman is a storyteller and she's telling MY story! At the moment I'm listening to the song Perfect People...and this is the chorus:

There's no such thing as perfect people,

There's no such thing as a perfect life

So come as you are...broken and scarred

Lift up your heart...and be amazed, and be changed

By a Perfect God

What more can be said? I am stunned by His perfect timing...and I am amazed at His perfect holiness. I am grateful for friends that allow His kindness to be demonstrated through them through the simplest acts. I feel so very loved by our God, and this alone is enough to endure anything life throws my way.

Again, in Natalie Grant's beautiful words in her song, Our Hope Endures...

But our Hope endures the worst of conditions

It's more than our optimism

Let the earth quake...our Hope is unchanged

How do we comprehend peace within pain?

Emmanuel, God is with us

El Shaddai, all sufficient

Thankful

Let us come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song. ~Psalm 95:2

Thanksgiving is on just about every one's mind this week--the kind of thanksgiving that makes the house smell amazing (and causes waistlines to expand), brings families together to share a meal, and gives many of us a day off (or two) from work. But thanksgiving is also on my heart--the kind that renders me speechless when I consider the magnitude of God in all His glory and power; when I think of the miracle of Jesus' life...and the miracle of His glorious return, yet to come; when I remember how very lost I was before He saved me.

I am not working this week--I am almost at the max vacation accrual balance which puts me in a nice "use-it-or-lose-it" position. It's been a hectic year with long work hours and it is truly a blessing to be able to take some time off. In 30 years of marriage I've probably cooked at least 30 Thanksgiving meals and I love it. I've not always had the luxury of several days to cook either, so I've heightened the enjoyment for myself by planning a large menu and spreading out the preparation over this week. Today I made homemade pie crusts (for Pecan Pie), pastry (for Apple Crostada), cornbread (for stuffing), and turkey gravy (elaborate--I roasted turkey wings and THEN made a homemade stock THEN made gravy!). You see, I have time to do these things...

Tomorrow I'm making side dishes--or at least prepping all ingredients. Glazed carrots. Creamy green beans with shallots and bacon. Roasted sweet potato and banana casserole. Buttery mashed potatoes. Cornbread Stuffing. Mandarin Orange Jello Salad. No-knead dough for homemade dinner rolls.

And Wednesday I'll brine the turkey and make desserts...Pumpkin cheesecake, Apple Crostada, Pecan Pie. Freshly whipped cream.

Like I said...I have TIME. By Wednesday night our son and his girlfriend will be here, and our youngest daughter will also drive home from Santa Barbara to spend the night. Our middle daughter and boyfriend live in our town so we will see them Thursday. Our youngest daughter's boyfriend won't be able to join us because he has to work, but I will pack up enough food to feed him for a week and send back with Amy.

Thanksgiving. The word brings to mind another scripture verse...

Philippians 4:6-7
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

This Thanksgiving, when we are all together around our table, my prayer and petition will be that He continue His good work in each of us. Each struggle He ordained for us has been (or will be) followed by a blessing--we must open our eyes to see the blessing!

Thank You Lord...
...for keeping my family safe...You never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5)

...for the difficult financial lessons...You cannot serve both God and Money (Matt. 6:24)

...for a wonderful church family...I rejoiced with those who said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD." (Ps. 122:1)

...for being The Foundation in our home...Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. (Ps. 127:1)

...for everything else that is on my heart, that only You know...would not God have discovered it, since He knows the secrets of the heart? (Ps. 44:21)

Amen.