Toys for Tots! 750 Toys!

Not long ago our Sunday School Superintendent, Tanya, had a grand idea of raising money for

Toys for Tots. 

Actually, she shared with our congregation the fact that she had been one of those kids who benefited from that program when she was a child. I think that meant a lot to everyone.

So, the plan was put into place.

First, we had a fundraiser. She asked the kids (and their families) to start by getting cookie jars and then filling them up with homemade cookies. After church that week-end, we held an auction. Each kid stood up when their cookies were to be auctioned off, sometimes talking a bit about their cookies. It was not the kind of auction where you try to get a good deal. It was a fundraiser, after all.

Mike doesn't really "do" auctions so it was up to me to do the bidding. It was pretty fun. Toward the end, though, I was bidding on some cookies. Sometimes I bid just to get it going. I'd set our limit before the auction so I knew my limit was $80 for that batch. I thought I was in good shape until some guy across the room started bidding. It was Mike! People thought it was pretty funny so we kept it up a bit, bidding against each other. I did go a bit over budget but it was worth it.

ANYWAY, our smallish Sunday School raised over $5,000 with those cookies!

Part two of the plan happened yesterday morning. Tanya had arranged for the kids and their parents to come on a grand shopping spree at KMart. Since Toys for Tots is a Marine program, there were a couple of Marines there in uniform to assist. I thought that made it even more exciting for the kids.

Cordy gave a salute to one of them. It was adorable! It looked more like she was checking her temperature, but it was very cute.

I couldn't imagine how this was all going to work. Luckily, I wasn't in charge. Tanya had it all worked out. Each child got a shopping basket and 30 minutes to spend $230 on toys! Yep, $230 EACH! I carried Elise while Maria and Eric helped Cordelia. She took her job quite seriously and thoughtfully, as did all the kids. There was a lot of JOY at our KMart today!

Cordelia was allowed to check out first. She put her share of the toys up on the counter herself.

Then posed for me, along with her family.

This sweet girl is one of the students in our high school class. She was so patient and won the honor of being last in line. I bet she waited 45 minutes to an hour!

When all was said and done, those kids had purchased more than 750 toys!

Yes, 750 toys!

Can you imagine?

The kids all had such fun and I am certain

they were proud to be a part of something

so special.

Great job, Tanya!

2nd Sunday of Advent

Sub Zero and Gray

 

"Somebody Needs the Light You Have"

References to light just keep popping up this week, or maybe I am just noticing them more. Last night I got into my car and KLOVE was playing Pushing Back the Dark by Josh Wilson. The first words I heard were, "Somebody needs the light you have."  I hope you will click below (click the arrow then the underlined words) to listen to it then let me know if you like it as well.



One million reasons why, you shouldn't even try
After all you're just one heart, a single candle in the dark
And there are shadows here, feeding on your fears
That you don't have what it takes
Who are you to make a change

But oh, oh, don't underestimate the God you follow

Whatever you do, just don't look back 
Somebody needs the light you have
Whatever you do, just don't lose heart
Keep on pushing back the dark
Keep on pushing back the dark

The city on a hill, it should be shining still
Every sinner saved by grace, has a purpose, has a place 
Inside the bigger plan, we might not understand
But if we just keep walking on, we will see the Kingdom come, yeah

Whatever you do, just don't look back
Oh somebody needs the light you have 
Whatever you do, just don't lose heart
Keep on pushing back the dark
Keep on pushing back the dark

(Let your lights so shine...) 
Oh, oh, don't underestimate the God you follow
He is the light that burns inside your soul
So keep on shining 'til the whole world knows

Whatever you do, just don't look back
Somebody needs the light you have
Whatever you do, just don't lose heart
Keep on pushing back the dark
Just keep on pushing back the dark, dark

Whatever you do, just don't look back
Cause somebody needs the light you have
Whatever you do, just don't lose heart 
Keep on pushing back the dark
Keep on pushing back the dark, yeah 

When you feel like you're too small 
To do any good at all 
Like a sunrise through the window 
Like a symphony crescendo 

We are waking up again, we are rising from the dead 
We are shining like the stars, we are pushing back the dark 
Yeah, we are pushing back, pushing back the dark 

Reflections on Reflecting

Wowza!

 I just have to tell you all about something! Remember yesterday's post about being the light and I said I was just hoping to be a reflector for the light of Jesus? Well, guess what happened.

I was working with my very first patient of the day yesterday. She noticed my cross necklace as I was starting her IV and she asked me if I was a Christian.

I said that I was a Christian and we talked a bit more. I told her, then, that I tried to always wear a cross necklace to work so that if someone wanted me to pray with them or something, they would know that I was a Christian. Then she said to me, "You wouldn't have to wear a cross. Your light shines."

I think I may have gasped or made some sort of funny sound! Given what I just posted that morning, I was so excited to hear her say that!

I almost fell of my little spinny stool!

I can guarantee that there were many moments this week when I did not do a very good job of being a reflector of Jesus' light. (I only tell you the good things, you know.) The timing of that particular comment, though, really made me smile. I kind of felt like it maybe made God smile as well.

Be a Reflector

Yesterday, before going to work, Mike and I were listening to Joyce Meyer on tv. She was talking about how we should NOT be trying to feel comfortable in this world. She gave examples. We should feel uncomfortable when we are around people using our God's name as a cuss word. We should feel uncomfortable when we are around people who are gossiping about someone else. You get the idea.

Joyce Meyer went on to say that someone asked her to pray for them to get a new job because he or she was the only believer at the current place of employment. She said she would not pray such a prayer. Why would she? If the person was the only Christian there, why would she pray for that light to be taken away from that place? Good point.

I thought about the song many of us learned when we were little. Did you learn "This Little Light of Mine"? Here it is...



What? You never learned it quite like that? Neither did I, but wasn't it pretty?

As I left for work Mike said, "Be a light!" I thought for a moment but said I'd likely just be a reflector. Apparently I wasn't feeling all that bright! No, really I was just trying to point out that the light doesn't come from me. I only hope that I can be a reflector of the light that comes from Jesus.

The thought of being a light, or a reflector, came to mind several times during the day. It is a process for me but I like the idea. AND, it is Biblical. The following verse pretty much sums up how we are to behave.

Matthew 5:16  

In the same way, let your light shine before others, that 

they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in 

heaven. (NIV)

Rambling

This is our busiest time of the year where I work. Everyone who has already met their yearly insurance deductible is eager to have other procedures now rather than waiting for the new year. Since I'm also learning a new position in the midst of all that busyness, I am POOPED! Sorry for the rough language. Rest assured, "pooped" is about as bad as my language gets.

Speaking of bad language, I sometimes worry what will happen if I get some sort of dementia. What if I start spouting out every bad word I've ever heard, all those words I've held in all these years? Does anyone else worry about such things?

Well, what weird things do you worry about? Mike thinks it is weird that I had an elbow phobia when I tried to be a golfer. Anyone else? I always felt that I might wind back and then swing hard but hit the ground instead of the ball, breaking my elbow. The funny thing is, I VERY often whiffed it. Is that the right word? I missed the ball for sure, but just caught air. That always feels nice to swing with all your might and then see that the ball was left undisturbed.

Are you wondering where this post is going?

Me, too.

I told you I was pooped. I often ramble on and on when I get tired.

I told you we decorated the interior of our house. We have lights on our tree and our tree is in front of the living room window and the curtains are open so I'm saying that counts as our outside decorations as well.

We are getting a cold front and snow with the wind chill expected to reach -30 degrees! I'm not too happy about that. Icy roads and wind gusts of 50 mph or so is not my favorite combination.

OK, this is just ridiculous. I think I will close with a joke.

What did the cobbler say when a cat wandered into his shop?

wait for it....

SHOE!

Decorating for Christmas 2013

The first year Maria left home we had to adjust to some new traditions. She wasn't going to be home for Christmas Break until Christmas Eve. I imagined having the house all decorated, cheery and festive, when she came home. You know, like they do on all the Christmas movies?

Well, the Ben and Sam would have none of it. They refused to decorate without Maria.

I thought it was so sweet that they wanted to wait for her. However, I'm a bit suspicious, even still, that they just didn't want to do much of the decorating themselves. It's always been the boys putting up a few decorations then watching Maria really get into it. Whatever their motive, it was a good thing we waited. Maria didn't want to miss out on the decorating.

Now, even though Maria and Eric have their own home to decorate, we still wait until they are at our house before we do it. If you are suspicious that I really just like to let Maria do most of the decorating, you are correct. Her daughters really get into it as well, and it all works out great. So, Mike put on John Denver and the Muppets (a bit too loud) and we got started.

Sam was soooo excited to get started.

You can see that Eric was also anxious to hop to it.

Elise was good to go!

After she hung up each ornament she kept saying,

"More?"

When shopping one day Cordy picked out two new ornaments for Mike and Me.

He received the red cardinal, for obvious reasons.

I received a blue whale because she couldn't find anything orange

and "blue goes so well with orange."

Maria works with the red finger weaving that she made in about third grade.

She is perched a bit precariously while wrapping it around the rail...

...while wearing high-heeled boots!

She managed to decorate without injury, though.

When we were satisfied with our work Mike turned out the 

overhead lights while

we all relaxed and enjoyed the tree.

The girls then did lots of dancing and 

twirling and

making us laugh.

Life is good.

Have you decorated yet?

Do you have any special holiday traditions?

First Sunday of Advent

Happy first day of Advent!

I know that Advent is not something everyone celebrates. That's ok. But if you are interested in what Advent is all about, check out this little video.

Advent is a happy, expectant season of the church and it begins today. It is a time to look forward with eagerness. It is a time to prepare, with JOY, for the coming of Christ the King.

Bitterness

Ephesians 4:31-32

English Standard Version (ESV)

31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

(In case you can't tell, I used this photo to represent BITTER cold.)

 If I said the word "bitterness" to you, what comes to mind?  A food? Maybe a person? Have you ever talked with someone and found yourself thinking they were very bitter? I've experienced that from time to time. Sometimes I meet someone and within minutes, their bitterness oozes out and sometimes a bit of it gets on me. It makes me want to go wash it off. It makes me want to get far away from that person.

When I went online to find a definition of that word I first found, as you would expect, a reference to taste. The second definition, though, referred to feelings. Words associated with bitterness were:

anger

disappointment

resentment

Those are not very positive words, are they? However, we all have those feelings from time to time I suppose. Does that mean we are bitter people? 

I'm not sure why but that word has come to my mind on several occasions lately. Something I've noticed is that most of us have trouble avoiding bitterness.  Do you think it is associated with a mentality of victimization? Do you know what I mean? We all have things in our past that we could latch onto to feel we were victimized in some way. We've all experienced times of being treated unfairly. I think it is our response to those experiences that determine whether or not we are going to become bitter.

I don't even know why I am writing about this. I don't have much of a psych background. Sure, we had to do some of that in nursing school but truthfully, I wasn't that good at the psych stuff. Also, I don't remember ever learning about bitterness and its effect on people during those class discussions. So, I hope you aren't looking for any insightful answers here. There you go. That is my little disclaimer.

The only thing I'm thinking is that there is a strong link between bitterness and the lack of forgiveness. Think about it and tell me if you agree. When I tried to examine things from my past that left me feeling angry or resentful, I noticed that there were a few feelings of bitterness that still popped up. There were maybe some people I needed to forgive. Ouch! I wanted to think about bitterness in others, not myself! 

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I have a few things to work on. I'm still nurturing several areas of bitterness. Did I say "nurturing"? Yep. I realized that I kind of wanted to keep those things on a nearby shelf, so to speak, so that I could pull them out and dwell on them when I wanted to have a pity party or just enjoy a good "mad". I may even want to pull them off the shelf to use as an excuse for my own behavior sometime. Oh come on! You do things like that, don't you? I'm not the only one, am I?

Here's what I know, though. Bitterness leaves a terrible taste in your mouth. Bitterness spreads to others. Bitterness can be neutralized when sprinkled with sugar. Maybe forgiveness is the sugar. Oh, hey, that sounds kind of insightful, doesn't it? I'm so proud of it, I will say it again...

Forgiveness is the sugar.

       

Jamberry Nails

Maria gave me a present recently... Jamberry Nails! Have any on you had these?

They come as a set, kind of like stickers, on a sheet. You warm them with a hairdryer, stick them on, trim and enjoy for days!

I think they are pretty fun! Thanks, Maria!

thank you

dear LORD

thank you for all you've given me

faithful family

comfortable home

delicious food

time of rest

time of play

useful work

freedom to worship

and

thank you for all I don't understand

thank you for the gift of faith

so that

i may always know you are in control

thank you for difficulties that make me stronger

illness that makes me appreciate health

storms that help me seek your protection

weakness that leads me to your strength

thank you

Learning a New Job - Again

Last Tuesday, as I told you, was a horrible day at the surgical center where I work. When we learned of the death of one of our nurses, we were all kind of a mess. Even now, it feels rather like a bad dream. I walk by her office every day, half expecting to see her working there.

I never thought her job as a health history nurse was something I would want to do. In fact, there was no one else wanting her position. We're all nurses who enjoy direct patient care rather than a desk job. But her work was important. She made the first contact with most of our patients. She did a lot of the behind-the-scenes tasks needed to determine if a patient was safe for surgery. I'm sure she also calmed many patients and gave them confidence in the care they would be receiving at our center.

Much to my surprise, I found myself thinking I should volunteer to take on her position. As I said, no one else wanted it. I took a few days but the thought lingered. Sometimes I get the feeling the Holy Spirit is directing me. This was one of those times. Instead of thinking of the reasons I would not like her job, I started thinking of some of the positive aspects of it.

So, today I worked in her office. It felt sad to me to be there. It was different. I didn't get time to dwell on the melancholy, though. There was an overwhelming amount of work to be done.

Thankfully, I am not alone! There are others filling in, others helping me figure out what I need to do and how I need to do it. Everyone was pulling together as a team today. We had work to do. We had people depending on us.

Peaceful Anticipation

I don't know why, but yarn just fills me with a peaceful anticipation. A new skein of yarn...so nice! I love to feel it, squeeze it and plan a future for it. A skein of yarn is just full of potential.

I really, really love planning new crochet projects. I am usually dreaming up things for Wyoming Rose Boutique but this next project is more important. It is for my sister, Tina. It is not a secret; she knows about it. That is, she knows I am going to make some sort of poncho for her. She also knows it will be purple. She loves purple! But, she doesn't really know what it will look like as I don't know yet myself.

Yesterday Lisa left a comment that she wants to learn to crochet like me. Well, Lisa, here's how it goes for me. I mess around for quite some time as I try different crochet stitches. I look online and/or through crochet magazines and books. I pretty much never actually use a pattern. Even when I do, I find I keep changing it up. Often I study pictures of things that I like and then I try to figure out how it was made. It involves a lot of guessing. I admit that I often waste a lot of time before I even get going. Then, halfway through a project I think of ways I want to change it up.

So, I'm going to touch this yarn, squeeze it a bit and see if I can figure out what this purple yarn wants to be. I'll let you know how it goes!

Discount Time!

We have some new listings at Wyoming Rose Boutique.

Here are a few...

Maria and I decided to offer a discount that is available only to the readers of our blogs.

If you are making a purchase at Wyoming Rose Boutique use the coupon code:

ROSIE

This code will automatically give you a 15% discount on any of our items, 

including the brand new ones.  

Maybe you will find some good ideas for Christmas Gifts!

Francis Chan interviewed by Kirk Cameron

This is worth the few minutes it takes to listen.

Tree Monkey Guy

Remember this....

 and this...

\

 and this?

That was early October, the result of a LOT of snow arriving before our leaves had fallen. The limbs were too heavy and trees all over town were broken. It was one of the strangest things I've ever seen. Everywhere, limbs down. It looked a bit like a tornado had come through. 

This morning I went out and looked up toward one of our broken beauties.

The shattered limbs still looked sad.

We also had several large limbs that were kind of like wishbones.

They were stuck up there with some dangerous potential.

So, this afternoon we had tree surgeons (arborists) come to complete the amputations.

I heard a lot of thunks and booms as some of the limbs hit our house.

I don't think they were hurting anything but I decided it

was a good time to go to clean the basement about then.

I heard one guy on the ground call this other guy a tree monkey.

You probably can't really tell but he has a chainsaw up there.  He also had a long pole thing with a curved saw on the end. That looked wicked! I've climbed many a tree in my life. I've climbed them carrying things like dolls and later, bologna sandwiches, but never a chainsaw. 

Just so you know, climbing a tree with a bologna sandwich did not turn out well for me. I was a 5th grader and I'd ridden my bike about a mile down a country road to meet a friend by Little Lake Alice. We had brought our lunches and decided to eat them in a tree. I'm not sure how far I got into the bologna sandwich before the limb my feet were resting on gave way, plunging me to my fate. I hurt my wrist.

I may have been kind of a tough kid. I stayed and played for about an hour after injuring my wrist. Then, I rode my bike home. I did realize my wrist wasn't working quite right but it was a sandy road so I needed both hands. I ended up kind of hanging it over the handle bar and trying to steer with my forearm. When I got home I was still doing ok until my Dad turned to my Mom and said, "Grace, I think Susie may have broken her arm." Then do you know what I did, more than an hour after my injury? I cried. I guess the idea of a broken arm (wrist) was worse for me than the actual pain of it. And, yes, it was broken.

Huh... I didn't realize this was going to be a post about the first time I broke my wrist. I meant for it to be about the tree monkey guy.

Reading

Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.
Maya Angelou 

Cordy in Black and White

A Dark Day at Work

She's not in her office

Have you seen her? No?

Has anyone heard from her?

Nurse, friend to all.

Was she sick today?

One sent to check on her.

The waiting.

More waiting.

We don't know for sure, but we start to feel it.

Remember once before when she lost hope?

They helped her before.

They will help her again, right?

Too late?!

No, it couldn't be true! 

Reality.

The shock.

The gasps.

The denial.

The tears.

This doesn't feel like reality.

Strained smiles for the patients.

We can't make our eyes smile.

Do they see the pain?

Can the patients feel the darkness of our day?

Too much silence.

Too much.

Prayers for her family.

Prayers for her friends.

Prayers through tears.

Why?

Why?

Didn't she know we would want to help her?

That's our business.

We are the helpers.

We were right here all along.

Did she feel alone?

Just last week, what was she saying  about depression?

She said it takes over your mind and you just shut down.

I thought she referred to her past.

Did she know she was referring to her future?

Should we have known?

Could we have known?

Could anyone have known?

She said she was doing better.

Suicide.

Ugly word.

Grief and guilt, tangled up with anger and confusion.

We lost her to despair.

We lost her to pain.

We lost one of our own.

She was kind.

She wouldn't have hurt any one of us.

She hurt all of us.

She hurt herself.

How to understand this?

How to explain this?

Lord bring peace.

Only your peace can heal.

Only you bring lasting hope.

Lord bring peace

  and hope

     and healing.

Lord in your mercy,

    hear our prayer.