i enjoyed my brief media fast.  if you’ve never

‘unplugged’ for a few days, you should try it.  it’s harder and easier than you think.

i kept a paper journal–which was kinda fun.

i wrote down 7 or 8 ideas for new blog posts.    you can take the girl away from her blog but you

can’t take the blogger outta the girl, i guess.

i was able to spend a litte more time in books…..

and a fair amount of the night hours on the sofa watching the olympics with a mighty handsome fella {who just so

happens to be a former hockey player}……

i planted a teeny little herb garden…..

and stood by watching while hank helped em play the piano and daddy taught el to play chess.

the girlies and i snuck away to the craft room and painted and sewed…..

we studied marco polo and made chinese farmer hats…..

i sat amazed as the littlest one got pretty darn good at chess—she even challenged taylor to a game….

i made 2 lemon pound cakes and shared one with a friend.  I used a plain pound cake recipe

and then added the zest and juice of one lemon—then made a lemon glaze using

the juice of one lemon, a little heavy cream and about 3/4 c of powdered sugar.   Mmmmm!

we were thrilled that this one came home and since she’s loves to cook, she and i made

thai food and homeade iced brownies.   she asked for a kitchen aid mixer for christmas.   now that’s

a 17 year old after my own heart!

we got to see all these lovely people {minus the santa hat and the christmas tree} for birthday gatherings

and guess who forgot her camera?   i’m slipping.   but i did spend a inordinate amount

of time reading the manual for my nikon.   and i used a highlighter

and made notes in the margin.  yes i did.  this may be further evidence

that blogging is good for me.

so there you have it.

i missed you all and will definitely not be able to catch up on everything in my reader.

if there’s a blog post I missed that you think i should read, let me know.

if you’ve ever made notes in the margin of an instruction manual, i’d like to know that as well :0

and if you’re a local blogger, my friend patty and i are having a blogger’s luncheon

this friday at timeless elegance tea room from 11-1 in their

upstairs private room.  this is a first for us so

if you plan on coming, let me know by comment or email.  we’d love to have you.

if you already rsvp’d on facebook, then we’ve got you counted.

today, i’m making this wonderful lengthy version of chicken and dumplings. should be fun!

‘He will hide the kingdom of God in earthly stories…and you won’t ‘get it’ until you get Jesus…..these parables are a crisis of faith and unbelief and you will not ‘get them’ until you get Jesus and who He is and why He came. “

“You should be a Good Samaritan too and help your neighbor.  So what kind of a neighbor are you?”

A lawyer (expert in the Torah) asks Jesus what he must DO to inherit eternal life. (Although we’re already in trouble because isn’t an inheritance a gift).  Then Jesus asks him what he thinks he must do.

He says, “Love God and love my neighbor”.

Jesus says “Yes, do this and you will live”.

Jesus knows the lawyer can’t DO that but Jesus is a gentleman and will let us live by ‘the law’ if we choose.

The lawyer ‘wanting to justify himself’ says  “Well who is my neighbor?”.

And then Jesus tells the parable:  A priest and a Levite,on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, pass a nearly dead man who has been robbed and beaten and left to die.  They pass him by for various reasons (per Jewish law they would have been rendered unclean for priestly duties) and he’s helped by a Samaritan (not bound by Jewish law) who puts him on his own donkey, bandages his wounds, takes him to an inn and pays his bill. (paraphrased from Luke 10:25)

Christ is our good Samaritan.  He has found us along the road of life, beaten and robbed and desperate.  He rescues us, bandages us, saves us and takes us to the inn (the church) and pays our debt.   Pastor Cwirla even takes the terms of the parable in an allegorical way to say:  Think of Jesus as our good Samaritan. He literally becomes our neighbor in the incarnation.  He takes on our flesh and is bloodied by our sin.  The punch line of the parable  is that he frees us from the law.  The hero of the parable is Jesus.  And because the Samaritan is not bound by the law,  {as are the lawyer and the priest and the Levite} he is free to serve others willingly.    In other words, Christ became my good Samaritan and died to save and ransom me—-to free me from the law—-so that I am now free to serve others.

**I also encourage you to occasionally post from your archives.  It gives you a chance to edit and correct previous work (this one was atrocious the first go-around) and gives your new readers a look at your archived material.  And while we’re on the subject of blogging, tell me whether you like the little side bar I added this weekend?  Or would you prefer one column and thus, larger pictures?   Your input is helpful as I work to make the new site helpful and easy to navigate!  Thanks.

This is Steve’s oldest son Malachi {with his girlfriend Alex}.  Today is Mal’s birthday.   We miss him so much and wish we could be with him today to celebrate!  We’ve found it gets harder and harder to spend time with your grown children when they have real jobs/responsibilities.    We were looking back at old pictures yesterday and growing nostalgic.   Mal is quite an artist and tech-y genius;   as a matter of fact,  he’s one of those gifted right and left brain people that make me envious.   I can’t help but see his dad in him.    And after looking at cute pictures of he and Emme holding up oranges for eyes,  I think we’re gonna have to call and beg him for a visit.

Happy Birthday Mal!  We love you!

p.s. the first picture stolen from Mal’s (or was it Alex’s?) facebook

This is the sunrise that greeted me on my fortieth birthday. I have a good feeling about this decade. But if ’40 is the new 30′, 40’s gonna need a little help. 40’s gonna need a healthy amount of beautiful sunrises…….

and a lot of 5 hour energy drinks. 40’s gonna need a few more anti-wrinkle creams and plenty of visine or maybe a little more sleep. 40 may, in fact, need comfortable shoes. I’m not saying that 40 isn’t the new 30—I’m just saying that 40 needs a little help.

Gina, JamieKnoxville and I had lots of fun this weekend. We started out in this cab trying to go to Anthropologie—only to be taken half way to some museum. NO NO NO. This is not a trip for museums. This is a trip to see what 40’s made of.

Finally, we made it. We tried on hats and marvelled at how wonderfully EVERYTHING is embellished at Anthro. I bought the hat, wore it around in the hotel room and decided that I looked a little too Minnie Pearl. Which reminds me that some day we should talk about Hee-Haw. But not today. Today, 40 has some things to prove.

But first let me say that I could haul a cot into Anthropologie and live there. It’s the perfect combination of artsy/homey/fortyisthenewthirty. I love it there.

Then we made our way to Atlantic City (very near Jamie and Mark’s place) for dinner at Bobby Flay’s steakhouse. It was great ambiance, there were no apple martini’s involved, and the food was divine. Take note of the rose head band and the wonderful Anthro hat—which looks amazingly lovely on JamieKnoxville.

Then we made our way to Caesar’s Hotel in AC. Very chic. Right on the ocean. Beautiful upholstered headboards and a handy Starbucks. We spent $20 on slots and the rest of our fun money on a very wonderful pair of jeans. 40 needs the help of good jeans. It’s just a fact.

The next day we had a wondeful day at JK’s and Mark’s place. We got to snuggle this furball (a habanese/szhitsu mix named Rocco). I know. Stop. The. World.

And then we spent the better part of the afternoon watching the wild man in the kitchen. Mark made homeade mixed berry pie (with a homeade crust—which I will share with you soon) and homeade fettucine and meatballs. WITH HOMEADE PASTA. He was a little leary to let me near the pasta maker—–did I say he gets a little wild in the kitchen? But now I’m hooked. 40 definitely needs a pasta maker.

We drove back to Philly to catch our flight home and did a quick drive by of the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. I was so lonesome for Stevie and the girls and couldn’t wait to nestle back into my wonderful life. I did manage to make a good start on my ’40 list’. I’m almost finished the book ‘Till We Have Faces’—which will need a post all its’ own. I spent an afternoon (okay at least a good hour and a half) in Anthropologie. I slept til 6:50 (which I’m gonna go ahead and count as 7) and I started the ‘read the Bible in 90 days’ schedule.

I’m sitting in my lounge pants, drinking the world’s best coffee, in my very quiet house (all kids are somehow briefly gone), desperately trying to figure out how to use my new Christmas present (photoshop cs4). It’s kinda complicated—with a very steep learning curve. Any suggestions?

So far, with Cindy’s help, I can make a simple collage, resize it, posterize it, and fiddle with the saturation and exposure. I was able to add text an hour ago and can’t seem to make that work at the present moment. Maybe by next Christmas I’ll have the hang of it. Hope you get to spend lots of time in your lounge pants today! Stevie was kinda disappointed that he didn’t get a new pair so I may have to venture out later. We decided we either need a new exercise and diet regimen or some new lounge pants. I vote for lounge pants.

I’m still decking the halls in preparation for Christmas Eve Brunch (I’m hosting my extended family), which includes a little cleaning, a little table setting, and a lot of snipping from my magnolia, holly and pine trees. It took all morning to clean the gum drops and toothpicks off my kitchen floor from crafting day (yesterday). You can visit here to see the crafts we made and I’ll post about it soon. I’m collecting recipes for the brunch (which shall include the lightest fluffiest angel wing biscuits and my blueberry coffee cake among others yummies) and wondering if I should add homeade waffles to the already bulging menu?! I’m gathering my hodge podge of dishes and adding festive touches with Christmas napkins and mugs.

And then there’s the wrapping. Did I mention we have eight kids? And every year, we purpose to scale down the commercialism and focus our attention on the blessed work of Christ on our behalf. But we also want to use this opportunity to give with a cheerful heart to our kids and to our family. So, there’s a certain amount of commercialism that creeps in, despite our best efforts. If all goes well, most of the ‘work’ will be done this weekend, which will leave plenty of time for movies and board games and ‘rocking around the Christmas tree’. We’re looking forward to ‘time off’, Christmas and Advent services, time to knit and read and enjoying the company of those we love most.