The End of One Year and the Beginning of Another

Well, as I sit and type, 2011 is coming to an end and 2012 is knocking on the door...or is it exploding at the door (neighbors are blasting it in). I jest. I'm all for the fun and excitement that the changing of years seems to bring.

As many people seem to be stating about this past year, 2011, it was quite the rough year for us. We have had, through our almost 14 years of marriage, some highs and lows and 2011 was one of the lower years for us...though not quite as low as some of our other lows. We are definitely looking forward to some high waves we can ride...preferably on a sunny day and NOT in shark infested waters.

I am not referring to our marriage. I should point that out. Oh, sure, we have had highs and lows in that respect...but we persevere.

I remember, a couple years ago, we were in church and the Pastor was talking about something called a "recession". Now me, my naive self, leaned over to Matt inquisitively. What recession?? Matt gave me the cliffs note version of the status of the country and how bad things were getting. I asked if we were ok and he patted my knee reassuredly and said we were better than ok. I sighed in relief and got back safely in my bubble.

Over the last few years, I have heard story after story of job loss. I know people who have been out of work for years. Houses are foreclosed on. Families are splitting up. Every once in a while, my worry feathers rise and I inquire on Matt's stability. Thank God, he has been stable at his work.

But, 2011 became one of our hardest years. The economy has definitely taken it's toll on us...expenses go up but salaries don't. Often, I have worried that we would not make it. God, of course, always provides. We have yet to go without.

By the time I finishe this blog, I can safely say we survived another year. It was hard...but I know we are stronger for it. And there are promises for a new year with it's hopes and challenges. I have come to understand that while some financial security does provide you with less stress and, yes, happiness (I am not talking wealth, I am talking security), it is not everything. And security needs to be put in perspective. I have a house with central air and heat. I have appliances to cook my family dinners on and a bunch of other equipment that allows me to cook new and different things. I have my health and the health of my family. I live in a great state...and in the best part of this great state. I have my freedom.

I have never been one who cares much for the turning of a new year. January 1st is much the same as any other day. But, after a year that caused quite a bit of stress (and yes, equally or more good), I felt that 2012 should be allowed some possibilities. I do not tend to make resolutions, but decided to this year...and I have asked my family to, as well. Just 5 goals for the coming year. I plan on printing them and posting them on our fridge as a reminder. Daniel will likely say he wants to be crazier and play more. Sierra's will likely have to do with clothes and make-up. I won't even begin to wonder about Matt's.

As for my goals, they are simple: 1) To be a better wife. 2) To study my bible more. 3) To be better about our finances. 4) To lose 10-15 pounds and maintain it (isn't that a version of everyone's goals). and 5) To write...a book.

So, now it is 2012....fireworks are going crazy....cheers are ringing out...and I say "HOORAY" to the end of what was and to the beginning of what could be!

Merry Christmas, From Our House To Yours

We had a lot of fun with our Christmas cards this year. We decided last year to stray away from the serious, posed picture and to, instead, have fun. Here is the card I made:



And here are the poses we came up with...it was SO MUCH fun. We intended on using only 2 pictures, but loved them all so much we ended up using more...




And than there is the POPCORN battle!!

The End of the World

What is it with humans and our obsession with the end of the world? It seems to be a topic that is talked about like crazy on many levels. So many Christians are obsessed with the "end times"...science fiction fanatics are fixated on alien attacks...germaphobes fear some super bug...environmentalists and global warming with melting ice caps. Are we all so afraid of our own doom?? I suppose there is something there that can warrant this obsession...the loss of humanity.

I mention this because of some of the movies and shows I have watched recently. I started thinking about how many of these depict some sort of world tragedy on one level or another.


A couple months ago, Matt and I saw the movie "Contagion". Ok, not quite a world ending movie, but it was certainly an epidemic that was world altering with an incredibly contagious disease that killed millions and caused chaos world-wide. Yesterday, I watched the first episode in a British made television series calld "Survivors" which had a basic premise like Contagion...except this disease was more of a killer than the one in Contagion, leaving much of the population dead. By the end of the first episode, there were only, seemingly, around 6-10 survivors.

Then there are the movies and shows that millions of viewers watch about Zombies. This one is, for some reason, fascinating to so many. The premise is always the same...a disease that kills people and than causes them to come back to life as mindless beings that seek live flesh to eat....get bitten and you will get the disease as well. Utterly ridiculous....and yet loved by so many. Personally, for some unknown reason, this genre really gives me nightmares. I mean...come on. Zombies!?! You can't get much more fictional than this, but I still have problems. No "Resident Evil" for me, please!! Course, I did recently watch the entire first season of "The Walking Dead". I will admit to getting sucked into this series about the world having this disease and the living trying to survive. Upon completing season 1, I thought how much I would like to start season 2....and promptly had a nightmare than caused me to sleep with a light on.


Of course, one must not forget the apocalyptic movies like "The Book of Eli" or "The Postman". This ending seems more logical...a nuclear attack that causes many to die and those who live to have to learn to live in a much different, harder world. If there is any that I would fear, it would be this. I would rather not live through a nuclear winter that would last years (decades).

And what about those natural disasters like "The Day After Tomorrow" where we get another ice age or "2012" where the Mayans predict our end?? The instability of our planet which has survived so well for many thousands of years would all of the sudden...without warning, turn on itself and, once again, only the hero plus a few more survive .... maybe even evolving with the changes ("Waterworld" -- Kevin Costner and his gills). Yeah, I don't think so either.

Of course, those of us....in the know...know how it will all end. God has laid it out. That, of course, leads to movies like "The Seventh Sign" or any of the many anti-christ movies. Of course, these are laughable...much like the recent doomsday predictions. No one can truly know when the day of judgement, tribulation, armageddon will really take place. That's the point, right??

So, just some thoughts rolling around in my head this Tuesday afternoon. Odd?? Yeah, I guess. It's weird that I have been watching this type of movie or show recently...and I have not done it on purpose. I am not seeking dooomsday genres, they are just what I am unwittingly watching. Am I entertained? Sometimes. I view it as I would any fiction work...entertaining for entertainment purposes. I just find it odd how much we watch this type of genre. What is so fascinating about humanity's demise?? I'm not sure....but I think I might have to stay away from Zombies. That is just one facet of the end of humanity that I just cannot do.

Now, to see if Middle Earth can avoid doomsday...time for another Lord of the Rings Marathon.

Catching Up!

It has been a while since I have last posted anything. A lot has been going on, but not much that is really worth mentioning. We are a typical American family with busy schedules. Well, that is not entirely true. For the first time in a long time, our schedule has not been so busy with too many things like sports or school activities and more with just family time activities. It has really been wonderful.

I thought, though, that I would share a couple things that have been a part of my last several weeks.

Books!

It has been a while since I told you about some books that I have read, so I thought I would now.


These are a few of the books I have read in the last couple weeks. I have enjoyed reading books that have made me think, made my heart race, and made me cry. I would easily recommend any of these books to my friends.

If you are looking for a book series that will have your heart pumping almost from beginning of book one to end of book three, than the Hunger Games series is for you. I would not even begin to try to tell you about the story...it is best left to the surprises within. I will, however, forewarn you that the third book is a pretty bad disappointment. It is definitely worth reading, but I question the author's direction with her characters. Definitely fell short of the first two books.

If you are looking for a book that makes you maybe pause and think that maybe your viewpoint on some of the world you would rather forget should not be overlooked, than The Santa Shop is for you. It is written from the perspective of a homeless man. It brought tears to my eyes on a couple of occassions. I do have to say, though, that I was disappointed in the end. It just abruptly ended....and was a fairly short book. Still worth the read.

Over the Edge was a good book based on a medical condition that the author herself has suffered through. Brandilyn Collins, the author, is one of my favorite authors and it was exciting to find out about this new book. It was unlike most of her books, though. It was a mystery both in medicine and crime and it had a bit of a surprise ending.

Where Mercy Flows is a good book I received as a gift. It was such a good book about a woman who was lost....much like the prodigal son. It was not a preachy book as many Christian fiction books can be. It had a slight cheese factor, but I really enjoyed the book. It was easy to relate to the main character of the book as she dealt with familial issues as well as some health issues. You could not help but love the family.

I am currently reading a book that is a free download currently on Kindle... I have not gotten very far into it, but am enjoying it. It takes place in the 50s or 60s. It is interesting, but I do not tend to read Christmas books at Christmas time, but this is my third this season. Of course, this is the first Christmas I have had my Kindle, which makes it so much easier to read books!! It truly was a favorite among Christmas presents EVER!!

I have read a couple other books here and there in these past few weeks...in between these...but these have had the best impact on me.

Other than reading, life has been normal. We are finishing up homeschooling for 2011 and will begin gearing up for 2012 soon. Christmas is going along smoothly this year with the joy of Amazon (and the ease). Should be finishing up Christmas shopping this week.

Our church is pushing for a "Simple Christmas" for all of it's members and we have had a rather simple one. I decided this year to hide the presents until Christmas Eve night...so the kids won't focus on what's under the tree and will focus elsewhere. No counting daily to see who has more or whose weighs more. It has been quite nice, actually.

I promised to post my dad's bean recipe...and I will, soon. I was going to attach it to this blog, but I think it deserves it's own post. So, I guess this post is more geared towards books and less towards other things. But, it's Chritmas. Put on some Christmas music, brew some tea, curl up in your favorite spot....and read a book. That's what I find myself doing lately and it has been wonderful!!

Thanksgiving Dinner

It is time to admit it....it's taken 37 years, but I have to just say it.......I do NOT like Thanksgiving food!! I know, I know...it is un-american of me to say, but it is what it is!!

Every year I have a turkey, convinced that this is the year it will taste good....and every year I end up throwing most of it away. I do not like the way it tastes. I was discussing this dilemma with Matt yesterday (on Thanksgiving day) and he had a brilliant idea.

From Thanksgiving 2012 on, we will be doing an international Thanksgiving meal. The idea: We put different nationalities on pieces of paper, put the names in a bag, and pull out a name and that will be our dinner. In fact, we will plan out the next several Thanksgivings this way....put them in my phone calendar.

So, here it is:

Thanksgiving 2012: Greek
Thanksgiving 2013: Mexican
Thanksgiving 2014: English (not American)
Thanksgiving 2015: Italian
Thanksgiving 2016: Chinese
Thanksgiving 2017: Irish
Thanksgiving 2018: German
Thanksgiving 2019: French
Thanksgiving 2020: Russian

I am REALLY excited and a bit bummed. I wish we had thought of this a couple weeks ago!! How fun it would have been to start now!! Oh well, it's something to look forward to.

No changes will be done for Christmas dinner. We do a southern style meal that I LOVE (as does Matt): honey glazed ham, homemade southern style green beans, homemade macaroni and cheese, rolls and a homemade cheesecake!! YUM-O!!

So, no more turkey for me, thank you very much (well, I must admit, I love the turkey legs at Disney World....and the yummy turkey sold at bbq restaurants.....).

It's been a YEAR!!

Well, to be honest, it's been a bit over a year. What can I say, life gets nuts and the next thing you know, you realize that the year mark passed and you missed it. Recently, I realized that it had been a year and a half since we got our dog, Rocky. A couple days ago, I realized it had been a little over a year since Sierra decided that she wanted to be homeschooled. I will not rehash the whole story behind her desire to be homeschooled...you can read about it here.

So, here we are now, a year later. Sierra is now in Jr. High....at home....safe. In this year, there has not even been one moment of thought with either of us that this was a wrong decision. Matt would, at times, ask if we should put her back in school...we had some ups and downs in our adjustment period. But, even in the lowest lows, I never questioned whether or not this was the best choice for her.

I would not, in any way, call her 6th grade year a successful year. It was rather crazy as we learned the ins and outs of curriculum that works and curriculum that doesn't. Much of the curriculum I bought did not suit her...which I understand is an advantage to homeschooling, you can tailor make their education to one that suits their needs. It was a hard lesson because as great as that sounds, the wallet may argue with it.

Time management was another hurdle to be jumped. She had gone to school for so many years and was used to an order that was given to her without her input...and now she was able to tailor her schedule to fit her needs and it threw her off. She would take advantage of the freedom and make poor choices in her schooling. She learned, though, that this was NOT going to go over well with her new principal. :-D

The other big issue we had to deal with was socialization. It wasn't too long after she left school that she decided she wanted to have a clean break from her friends from public school...I had nothing to do with that decision. She felt that they were dragging her down and she wanted to be with like-minded friends...finding such friends would prove difficult.

First off, we could not join any support groups until a couple months later because of the holidays and such. Once we joined, we found the resoures limiting. We signed up for a couple field trips, but never was there one that provided a possible friend for her. One of the groups we joined had a tween group, but the meetings were at an impossible time. AND, Sierra did not like the way her age group at church was handled and stopped going to it...opting, instead, to go with us. That #2 on our list of homeschooling rules was quickly not being fulfilled. I felt strongly that something must change.

Lucky for us, something did change. We went to one of our support group's ice skating party and a girl came forward and started talking to Sierra...a girl Sierra's exact age and this girl was a lot like Sierra. Sierra was feeling so awkward that day as she had just gotten her braces as well as an expander in her mouth and could not talk well...but this girl didn't mind (why would she). In that last hour of the party, I saw my daughter come to life and I LITERALLY had tears of JOY and was silently praising Jesus for this girl...though I had NO idea if anything would happen beyond that day. Well, here we are at the beginning of November, and Sierra and that girl are the best of friends...they are currently having a double sleepover (tonight her house, tomorrow night ours) and Sierra is H-A-P-P-Y!!

Added to that, Sierra moved on to the bigger age group at church (Student Ministries) where she has found a place she LOVES and belongs. She has also gained a couple other girlfriends.

This school year marked her 7th grade year. It is a much more organized and regimented year than her previous year. She is doing Bible, Social Studies, Texas History, Language Arts, Science and French with Switched On Schoolhouse which is a computer based curriculum that keeps all her records as well as schedules out her work for her. She LOVES it. She completed 6th grade math with Teaching Textbooks halfway through 6th grade and began 7th grade math after that. She is on track to finish 7th grade Math in Teaching Textbooks and start Pre-Algebra at the beginning of 2012.

In public school, she pulled in a couple As and some good, strong Bs. This year, 7th Grade, she is pulling in straight As. It is not a weak curriculum...it is quite advanced from what I can tell. She has had to write about 7 reports and has several projects to do. She has an upcoming astronomy project involving charting constellations. To say I am proud of my daughter would be a severe understatement. I am an UBERproud mama. She is more confident in herself and her abilities. She went from shaking in terror at the thought of a test, to easily sitting and taking tests without fear.....and making high As every time. She is excelling in every way and tells me ALL the time how HAPPY she is being homeschooled.

And at the end of that original blog highlighted above, "A Cry for Help", I mentioned Daniel's love of school and his excelling at school.....and how, for now, he would stay in school. Well, he finished Kindergarten and started 1st grade....but I am pleased beyond pleased that he is now being homeschooled and LOVING it. He asked for it because school was just too slow for him. He was not interested in coloring. He was interested in learning. He loves to write and he loves geography...and he loves to now be home.

I lost my "me time", but I gained multiple hugs from my kids...and the sound of laughter all day long....the shouts of joy when a quiz is complete with a score of 98 or above....the thumping of excitement as my son runs into his sister's room to share what he just learned. It has been a bit over a year and the only, ONLY regret I have about any of this homeschooling stuff is........I wish I had started earlier with Sierra. But, it is not the past, but the present and future that we look to, and the present and future are goooooooooooooooooood!!

Homosexuality in TV and Movies

Hate the sin, love the sinner. If you are a Christian, you have likely heard this phrase uttered repeatedly from the pulpit, in Sunday School class and in simple conversation with other Christians. I think this is an important statement as I do believe that that is what we are called to do. God obviously loves all people and longs for all to come to Him. He also obviously hates sin in all forms and considers homosexuality a sin.

There are so many movies and tv shows that glorify the homosexual lifestyle. To name a prominent one, Glee is one of those shows that has homosexuality strewn throughout it. It is one of the most popular shows on tv (though, I understand it has "jumped the shark")...viewed by all ranges of people including many Christians. How can we as Christians hate the sin and enjoy a show like this? I don't know. I think the enemy can put the sin in a pretty package making it seem "not so bad" to the Christian eye.

Tonight Matt and I watched a show...it is a BBC production of Sherlock Holmes...Matt says it stuck pretty close to the book series except it is set in today's time. He wasn't sure that he would like it. Sherlock Holmes is one of those things that he has enjoyed throughout the years and he is a bit of a purest when it comes to how it is made. He was surprised to enjoy the show...and I thought it was great (though I do not know anything about the history of the characters).

HOWEVER, there was a scene that has us quite uncomfortable. Dr. Watson, who just met Sherlock, was asking him about any girlfriends. Sherlock replied, matter of factly, that this was of no interest to him (or something like that). Dr. Watson raises his eyebrows and says...a boyfriend, then. Sherlock simply says no...but then clarifies that he is married to his work. The exchange left Matt and I confused...is Sherlock GAY?? Research is forthcoming.

But, what if he is? Is this grounds to stop wathing the show?? I think the answers by many Christians would be split...some would say YES, stop watching immediately...others would say NO, it's just a show. But that's just it. As a Christian society we are becoming too accepting of bad behavior. We watch shows that have strong immoral beliefs and say we can look past it. But, can we?? Or do we become numb to it?? I do not want to become numb to it. I won't watch Dexter because the main character is a serial killer. Oh, well he only kills bad guys "who deserve what is coming to them"...but it is wrong. I won't watch Glee because there is a large level of acceptance of homosexual behavior in, of all things, our youth. The list could go on.

If I, or Matt, find out that the Sherlock Holmes character is meant to be gay would we stop watching it?? YES, we would!! I do not want to become desensitized to this behavior. We hear that term being used with children watching violent movies, but what about Christians being desensitized to homesexual behavior, or any other sexual immorality? I heard a LOT about the show Grey's Anatomy from friends who are Christian and so I decided to try it and was appalled at the sexual immorality that ran rampant on the show. When did this become "ok"?

On a lighter note, we have done the research on good ole Sherlock and discovered that it is kind of poked fun at a lot in the show, but it is not the intent of the producers to make Sherlock gay. Apparently, this is a running gag among many Sherlock enthusiasts. So..... *whew*

This is the opinion of one. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe God would see me watching a show that has outrageous sinful behavior and think it ok. I am not sure I want to take that chance. I am not perfect in what I watch. Some of my favorite movies and tv shows have their moments of uncomfortable lewdness...and I often decide later that this was not a good idea to watch and will cease and dissist. BUT, if the main theme or character shows this behavior, I must put a stop to it!!