Party of Five

Oh say it isn't so! But my days as a Facebook addict may be numbered. A few days ago, I did my usual morning log-in to Facebook, and was surprised to see the new layout. Odd, a little different, but I'm not one to question change, especially when in the grand scheme of things, it's not that big of a deal - the world will go on whether or not my Farmville application is bookmarked on the left or at the bottom of my screen. Now, a few days later - I'm ready to pull my hair out! As it turns out, I really do like having my applications bookmarked at the bottom of every screen that I can click on no matter where I am. As it stands now, I have to constantly return to my Home page. But again, thinking on a grander level...maybe this is my divine guidance to walk away from Farmville, Cafe World, Farkle, My Town, etc... I can accept that. Begrudgingly...but I can do it! But what about my live feed? The status updates and notifications, etc...right now my FB home page is ...

I'm being challenged today. I awoke this morning in my wonderfully warm bed, in my home, and was able to pull out the box of Fruit Loops and milk and eat breakfast at my dining room table. In a little while, I'll be able to go in and take a shower and put on clean clothes today. My children have done the same, and two of them have left for school. My husband also, and he is blessed to have a job to go to each day. I'm being challenged today because in Haiti, there is devastation after an earthquake hit yesterday. The city of Port-au-Prince is said to have been mostly destroyed, and the number of lives lost will be devastating. There are families hurting because homes were destroyed, and loved ones lost. Why do I care? Other than the fact that I'm a compassionate human being? Because the country of Haiti has always held a special place in my heart for many years. I can't even say when it began - but it was during a week at church camp (yes, THAT church camp!...

I've been slacking off on this blog - I know that all 3 of my followers are certainly suffering from Party of 5 Withdrawal. It's not for lack of trying. I log in at least every other day, sit here staring at my screen and wait for inspiration to hit me. Inspiration seems to be fleeting at the moment. I know better than to make a New Year's resolution to "blog more"...I don't do resolutions. I don't know if it's that I just don't have the commitment level, or if it's too much pressure...I have NEVER been able to keep a resolution. One that always creeps into my head at the beginning of the new year, is to pick up my bible more. Read that book! But after years of failed resolutions, the thought of looking at the book of Genesis...AGAIN...is just not very appealing. I've tried the chronological method too. But the book of Job and I have spent so much time together in past years, quite honestly I have no desire to start there either. A...

Upstairs in my attic there is a box that holds numerous old Christmas tree ornaments. These ornaments no longer get a place of honor on our tree. With a family of five, and new ornaments collected each year, eventually some must be weeded out. This particular box holds all of my ornaments that I cherished as a child. There is Miss Piggy dressed as an angel. She was given to me when I was in my (obviously) Miss Piggy phase. I had a Miss Piggy piggy bank, a Miss Piggy hand puppet, and at Christmas that year, Miss Piggy joined the other ornaments on our tree. She even made it onto the tree after I was married, until the one year her wing was discovered to be broken. She was then retired into "the box". There are also a plethora of the infamous Hallmark ornaments...ones that each year my grandmother would bestow on my brother and myself. "Grand Daughter" displayed on each one along with the appropriate year. As my daughter is now someone's grand-daughter, a...

11 years ago today, I sat at my doctor's office when he told me that I was probably going to lose the baby that I was carrying at that time. I remember very little about that day other than having to leave his office and go to my mother-in-law's for some reason or another, and try to keep my emotions in check while we were there. He didn't want to say anything because there was nothing to be said (yet), and I didn't want to say anything, because I couldn't even think about what was going on without bursting into tears, I couldn't imagine having to put it into words and tell someone. I remember thinking at the time "This is it...this is the time when God is going to work a miracle, and I'm going to be living proof of it! This baby will survive, despite what the doctor has told me, and despite what I saw on the ultrasound screen." I didn't get that miracle. At least not the one I thought I wanted. Not right then. My miracle is upstairs righ...

If ever there was a perfect example of this lesson, this was it. To Lead - travel in front of; go in advance of others or to take somebody somewhere. To Follow - to travel behind, go after, come after If you're not going to do either of these two things, then please...just stay out of the way - The OSU drum major was doing his job leading, the OSU Sousaphone player was doing his job and following...The cameraman? Not sure what he was doing, but he paid the price for it. So like I said "Lead, follow, or get out of the way" - or you're bound to get clocked on the head!

I sat here this morning and looked over at my bookshelf. It caught my eye for the first time in weeks. Shame on me, right? Oh immediately I started coming up with any number of excuses, such as - "I haven't needed my bible at church, I work in the preschool dept. every week, so I miss the sermon anyway, and don't need to take my bible to church." or "But I've been reading Christian books! Brennan Manning has really grabbed ahold of my attention lately, so I've been busy reading everything he has to say!" Blah, blah, blah...I could go on, but let's face it - it's just embarassing trying to justify why my Bible has been collecting dust on the shelf. So I pulled it out, and just held it for a moment. A scripture from Hebrews came to mind, 4:12 - "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword..." But since I love The Message Bible - I read it like this, "His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon...