Christmas Eve

Well, today both of Monty's kids and grandkids plus my kids and 1 grandkid were to spend Christmas Eve with us. A huge and unexpected snowstorm hit Texas and we woke up to a snowy Christmas Eve. My youngest son lives in Abilene and it hit there first and I figured out about 9:30am that he wouldn't be with us today, bummer! Then as the day progressed, my oldest son who lives not far from us called and asked if the roads were getting worse where we lived and yes, they were, then Monty's son who was to come with his girlfriend called and they decided the roads were too bad also, so that left his daughter and her 2 girls who live in the same town as we do and they came on over and ate Monty's special green chile enchiladas, guacamole and green chile cheese sauce, fruit and of course Christmas cookies. The girls were excited to open presents and then they went back home to make cookies for Santa. This is the first Christmas his daughter has spent alone, since she divorced this year and she cried all the time she was here. Very sad. The Christmas Eve services were cancelled all over the area, people are stranded in weird places, some together some alone, but it certainly doesn't seem like Christmas Eve. I am very thankful Monty got home last night before all this mess hit and I did not have to be alone on this holiday. Like I said in my lesson on Sunday, we don't have to like the hustle and bustle the gift buying, and the awkwardness of blended family get togethers, but the one thing we need to remember is that our gracious, merciful heavenly Father sent his son to be born and that is why we have Christmas in the first place. We give gifts as a reminder of his gift to us. If we hate all that Christmas has been made into, we still need to reverently stop and thank God and Jesus for their provision for redemption that began with Christmas.

As I grow older it seems sillier and sillier to me to wear ourselves out with the materialistic side of this holiday but I grow more and more thankful for all he has done for me through Jesus' birth and death on the cross and the daily indwelling of the Holy Spirit in me, as insignificant as I am. I get so weary of the daily trials that bring me closer to Him but each time I get a small glimpse of His presence or a message from Him my soul thrills to be even closer to my Lord and Saviour. One day I will be a joint heir with Him in Heaven. Praise the Lord and Hallelujah!

Waiting

Well, waiting is certainly not my virtue. Why couldn't I be one of those laid back types of people that don't worry about anything. Instead I am constantly worrying about worrying. Sometimes I just get so tired of it. Anyway, today Monty is trying to get home for Christmas. I am so aggravated about him not being home, when he gets home I am going to be in a bad mood. He is all into flying in a private plane which would probably be okay if you had one paid for and had your instrument flight rating, but if you don't have those things then you are just a sitting duck. You may be able to fly somewhere but no guarantee you can get home because of a little cloud here and there. Hell-oooo planes fly in the sky and clouds frequent the sky, in fact that is about the only place you see them unless of course there is heavy fog on the ground. Anyway, I am aggravated about him not being home and worrying about being in a bad mood when he does finally get here.

My youngest son texts me last night, said his ear was red and hurting, what did I think it was? I told him ear infection, he says, how do you fix it? Really? So I get online because he says it feels like it is going to explode, find a ton of home remedies, which I am sure he didn't pick up last night when he got off work, then this morning he says, it isn't so bad. Men, I guess when he goes deaf in that ear he will want a cure for that also.

Hey, Merry Christmas!

My Horoscope

I woke up in a pretty crappy mood this morning. I feel pretty crappy about feeling crappy too because I am a most blessed person. Anyway, I came in to check my e-mail and my mouse ran over the horoscope header (which I never, ever read) and it was just so true that it struck me as pretty funny. I called my best friend and read it to her. She just laughed and said that sounds just like you, so I am posting it now for all to read or just to remind me when I forget what I am like that this is me.

Just when you thought you were done righteously instructing the world about exactly how it should be run, you've discovered you still have plenty left to say. Sure, you're up for a couple of days of well-earned rest, but you'll rally if it means convincing just one more person to toss their colors aside and wear yours. You can rest tomorrow. Maybe. For now, do what you do best: Win them over to your side with pure logic.

I think this is hilarious, but so like me. Bossy and in total denial most of the time. Always trying to fix it. Thank you Lord in this weird message that I need to just chill.

Last Sunday before Christmas!

Here we are the Sunday before Christmas. I taught our SS class today. It was the last lesson before Christmas on Zacharias' news about John being the forerunner for Christ. The praise that Zacharias spoke was the main topic. I really prayed, as always about what God would have me say to those that He knew would be there, but I felt like it was kind of slow. I can only do what I can do. He has promised to empower me to do what he has called me to do and I can only trust that what he wanted said was said and heard by the ears and hearts he wanted to hear it.

Slow day at home, like I have said before Sundays are the longest days especially during the holidays and winter when it gets dark so early and is too cold for me to be outside anyway.

BUT I did get my best and most wanted Christmas gift Friday afternoon about 5pm. Talk about last minute relief, my youngest son got a regular day job! Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord!!!! What a blessing for this mom. I have worried about him not being able to get by for so long and now just a little longer and he should be able to make it. I am so thankful for this blessing, I know he is also. So many were praying for him and I know the Lord was merciful to us and blessed him with this job.

All the kids will be here Christmas Eve and Monty will make enchiladas for everyone along with guacamole and his special green chile cheese sauce that my daughter-in-law is craving right now. Christmas day we will get to spend with Cole and I will just make a regular meal for the 3 of us. I am looking forward to it. Saturday or Sunday Monty and I will head out to Bovina TX to visit his grandfather. He hasn't seen him in awhile so we need to make the trip and stop by and see his mom and dad on the way home if they are home by then.

Tomorrow some of my friends from church and I are going to see the movie "Have you Heard About the Morgans?" Should be fun, looking forward to it.

I kept my grandson Friday night. He got in bed with me about 6am because he woke up and was cold so I put him in bed with me. It is amazing how a little one snuggled up to you can melt the coldest of hearts. He is so precious to me. What a wonderful blessing he is.

Praise God for all he has poured out on me. Thank you Lord for this time of year and the opportunity to reflect on why we celebrate this holiday in the first place.
Your selfless act to come to this earth to live like us and die for us so that we can live one day as joint heirs with Christ in Heaven defies our logic. Heaven sounds sweeter all the time.

Got to get Going!

Well, here it is 3:48pm and I really haven't accomplished much today. It is my sweet husband's birthday and he is out of town. He works so hard and I appreciate all he does for me. He deserves a great day.

I thought I might get a long awaited Christmas gift today. My youngest son drove from Abilene to Lubbock for a final job interview but they still had 3 other applicants to talk to and told him he would know by Friday. Waiting is so hard! Jobs are so hard to come by. You would think he was applying for the CEO of some multi-million dollar company instead of one that pays 30k a year. He has been interviewing with these people for a month now. I have all my friends praying and I am wearing God out asking for this job for him. I know God is sovereign and has known from the foundation of the world what will happen and I have to trust him that he knows what is best for all of us.

We had a scare with Ian's baby brother who is due in Feb 2010. My daughter-in-law was having contractions and his heart rate was going up and down yesterday. Well, the nurses discovered the low heart rate and then realized it was from contractions. It is too early baby boy, you have to wait a little longer. His mom can't feel the contractions at all so they checked it all out and as far as we know he is okay and so is she. She is just run down and tired. They prescribed some medicine for the cold she has had for 2 weeks and told her to rest.

I am thinking of making cookies. I am in desperate need for SUGAR! I actually cooked myself breakfast and made some white chicken chili this afternoon. It was too cold to get out. BRRRRR! We had 2 wonderful days in the upper 60s but today back in the 30s. Too cold for me and I know other places have it much worse than that but that is why I live here and not there.

Meeting at church tonight and I am still not done with Christmas shopping! Yikes! See why I need to get busy. What is wrong with me???????????? Teaching SS on Sunday. I only have my introduction done, but planning to write more tonight on my lesson. I absolutely love teaching and this is such a precious story, the last Sunday before Christmas! Happy Birthday Jesus!

A Messsage and a Messenger

Many months ago, my oldest son and I decided we would pray for my youngest son. My oldest son said, "We should pray and thank God for his life and his health, then we should pray for God to send a message and a messenger to him." Later I added to that prayer that he would receive the message and the messenger. I started praying it also for my oldest son and myself from time to time. As I had mentioned in a previous blog my oldest son's child, Ian, has had some health issues. He has 2 dermoid cysts in his head. These are harmless cysts if they lie under the skin's surface and one of them is on the bridge of his nose, under the skin. No problem there, the other one however is embedded in the bone of his skull. The cyst could grow, wearing away the bone and growing into the brain. Therefore they have been directed to a children's neurosurgeon to show them the next step. I think my son is more concerned about all this than he lets on and was seeking God in prayer as he was getting ready for work a few days ago. He was wondering if God was listening, did he care and why did he seem so far away? My son is in sales. His first appointment was in an area he is never assigned to however, he goes to the house, makes the sale, and as he is writing up the paperwork, the homeowner asks him, "Do you have a young son?" My son answers, "Yes." The man says, "Did you recently get bad news about him? Does he have a cyst or tumor?" My son explained to him what was wrong and he (the homeowner) said, "Do you believe that Jesus Christ has all power over all things?" My son says, "Of course." The man says, "Do you believe that Jesus can heal your son?" My son says, "Yes." He then tells my son, "I am going to pray for complete healing for your son. You join with me in believing he will totally heal him and surgery won't be necessary." No one had told this gentleman about my grandson or anything my son had recently been through, he was in an area my son does not service, but God had a message and a messenger for him that morning, letting him know beyond a doubt that yes, he was there, yes, he did care and yes, he was listening. That is so amazing to me. God reveals himself to us when we truly seek him. What could be more amazing than that?

Christmas is Coming!

I haven't written on my blog in a few days, but with Christmas coming I have been a little busier than usual. I am keeping my granddaughters one night a week while their mom works. I know why God gives babies and children to you when you are young. It is extremely tiring and hard work. I resisted keeping the girls for that very reason but with nothing much going on in my world, especially when Monty is away, I really had no excuse. They love coming over and I love dressing them up and doing girly things with them. Every year I take them to get their Christmas picture and Mallory's birthday picture made. Her birthday is on Jan 2nd. Anyway, Emily the youngest is a mess as you can probably tell by the picture but coming into her own little sassy personality and Mallory is the sweet big sister. They get so excited about little things so it is a pleasure to keep them just a lot of work when you are not used to having little ones around much. Last year all three grandkids went to have the Christmas pictures made for our Christmas cards but Ian couldn't make it this year. Thank you Lord for these special blessings.

A Better Day

Praise the Lord the sun came out this afternoon. It amazes me how much difference sunshine makes in everyone's mood. How do people live where it rains all the time and is cloudy 90% of the time?

We had our Christmas party for our Sunday School Class tonight. Monty wasn't in town so I went with two other ladies from our class. There were 103 people there and it was a great time of fellowship. That is the best group of people I think I have ever known. They are so loving and truly care about one another and what is going on in each one's life. My grandson has had some health issues and they are praying for him and ask about him all the time. I have grown to love them each and everyone and I truly enjoy all of them. I had a great time visiting this evening.

How blessed I feel tonight to have the friends I have made there. Friendship is such an important part of our lives.

Wow, it is so cold outside. I am not a winter person. I like the sun and the sunshine. If it is 75 degrees outside it is cool to me. I hope all the people who hated the warm weather this summer are enjoying the freezing cold. : ) Oh well, I guess we would be unappreciative of the warm weather if we never had the cold to compare it to. I am having a hard time believing it is only 18 days until Christmas. I have bought 1 gift to date. Oh me! I hope it warms up soon. Now I am thinking this blog wasn't such a great idea. I can't really say all the things on my mind in case someone did happen to read it and knew me. I have been really down in the dumps and feel guilty because I am feeling that way. There is no good reason, I know I am so blessed but still just feeling sad. It is hard to be alone during the holidays. I have friends but it is not the same as having the ones you love being home with you. Hopefully tomorrow the sun will be shining and I will feel cheerier.

My Christmas List:

A regular 8-5 job for my youngest son
Good health for my grandson
A local job for my husband
Home stability for my granddaughters

That's all, I don't think that is too much to ask for do you? : )

Almost Done

It has taken me so long to get the house decorated for Christmas this year. I am in the process of decorating the tree. That used to be my least favorite part of decorating but now I think it is the prettiest thing in the house. I am not done with it yet but I will be in a little while. I still have the cowboy tree to put up in my husband's man cave and then I will be done until we start the outside stuff. It is way too cold today though. I went to church this morning, then went to eat with some friends, came home and took my Sunday afternoon nap. Nothing much going on, I can remember my mom saying that Sunday was the longest day of the week after Daddy died. I tried to be company to her but I know now looking back I wasn't. Now I wonder why. So quiet.

Everybody's Fine

I went to see this movie this afternoon. I went by myself because I hadn't heard a lot about it. I am still trying to decide if I liked it or not. It was totally the truth about life and I cried because parts of it struck so close to home. I have never really liked the word fine. To me it just means something is mediocre. I know the word fine got a facelift so to speak in the 90s, ex: She is fine! as in really hot, but most of the time when you ask someone how they are they say, "I'm fine", which doesn't mean great or wonderful or they would have said those words. It means lets don't discuss it, its not worth my time or yours and you don't really want to know anyway in most cases. The movie was about telling parents what they want to hear when they ask how are you, not the truth about how you really are, because the chilren couldn't tell their dad he had worked so hard in his life that they had just turned out to be ordinary children. As parents we have such high aspirations for our children we give them a burden to overachieve and not be satisfied with a life that is good, but ordinary, even though most of us just have an ordinary life also. What you don't know as a parent about your children doesn't hurt so much, but in truth you usually can't do much for grown children anyway, they have to find their own way eventually. Heartbreaking movie, but so full of truth about how life really is for most of us. Not wonderful, not astounding, but fine. Something about that makes me a little sad.

My Blog

This is so fun, to have a place to type my thoughts (writing takes too long), I have been trying to get my house decorated for Christmas. I can tell I am aging because it really has seemed a struggle this year. I am doing it for my grandchildren and because my children will be here at least one day to celebrate our Lord's birthday, and because of just that reason, it is Christ's Day. When I woke up on Thursday to start decorating, I just didn't want to, but the more I thought about it I knew I needed to decorate because of what Christ did for me and all of mankind the day he left heaven to come to earth in the form of a man to experience the heartache, pain, loneliness and rejection we all go through at times. When I prayed that morning I asked him if he wanted to help me decorate my house for His birthday. The first day went pretty well, but by yesterday one of us was getting tired of it. : ) I am not sure but I think it may have been me. : ) We are not through yet but getting there, LOL. Christmas is His day, when we take him out of the day we tend to be overwhelmed with all the commercialism and materialism that we have allowed Satan to make it. We give gifts because He first gave His son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins and to make a way for us to spend eternity in Heaven with them. Praise the Lord and Merry Christmas!

I don't understand!

There are so many things in this world that don't seem fair, but most of them we shrug off. I believe we were created to bring honor and glory to God with our lives but I have noticed that we expect when people do that, they should have an especially blessed and trouble free life. I have also noticed that is rarely the case. In the book of James we are told to count it joy when we fall into diverse trials. I have only recently come to understand that is the time when we draw closer to the Lord, therefore we should be joyful knowing that if we have the proper attitude toward him even during the hard times we can experience a supernatural peace and joy that may not have been present in our life before the trial. Still, as human beings we find it hard to swallow when terrible things happen to those we love and/or admire. The only thing I know for certain is that God loved me enough to send his only son to die for me, but I can't even begin to understand why he created us knowing he would have to do that to redeem us. It makes no sense to me, but then if it did I would be God. I am glad I can't figure Him out because that would make us on the same level and we would all be in big time trouble.