It's the Weekly Recap!

It's been a very eventful week here in Bekahland, so without further ado, I present to you the weekly recap!

* Last Sunday, I took my first turn ever (at this church) teaching junior high Sunday School. I'm on the committee that selects teachers, and those of you on such committees in your own church know...it's never easy to find teachers! I decided to be brave and volunteer to teach. We have four girls in our junior high class and I am thrilled to report - they are wonderful! We had a scavenger hunt around the church, ate some breakfast casserole, and talked about how Joseph (as in married to Mary) heard God's voice and obeyed His instructions. I really had a great time with them! (Gasp! I'm growing up!)

* Monday was my last day of break and I savored it with one final sleep-in and those few last talk shows/Little House episodes squeezed into the daytime hours. Then it was time to get back to the chores...which included (finally) taking down all the Christmas decorations. From start to finish it only took me about three hours to take everything apart and pack it away, which is pretty great, considering I had seven trees! My favorite part, though, was putting up the new.


I got to put up this beautiful frame that my best friend sent me. If you can't read the words, they say "Life is fragile. Handle it with prayer" and "If God brings you to it, He will see you through it." I thought it so perfectly described this season of my life. I put in a picture of me next to my Wisconsin stream and hung it in the living room.

Another new thing I put up...Christmas card pictures on my refrigerator! I've never done this before, but I decided I wanted to be reminded of the blessings I have in my friends. They are a huge part of the reason I am where I am today. I'm so thankful for them and I am looking forward to seeing their faces each day this year! (PS...if you sent me a picture - Where's Waldo yourself!)


* Re-entered the work force Tuesday after a blissful seven business days away from the office. I was petrified I'd miss the alarm entirely, but I did not, and once I got to work, I decorated the office with Mr. January:
No, I didn't buy it from his website. I made it using pictures I took at concerts. :) Yes, I know I'm pathetic.

And when I came home that evening, I tried a new recipe: brown sugar meat loaf. Threw in a baked potato while I was at it and had a real meal. Ate at the table and everything. What is this world COMING TO??


* Wednesday was super eventful. At work, we celebrated the birthday of our student worker extraordinaire, the lovely Miss Rachel. I love Rachel. She graduates in April and I do not know what I'll do without her. Seriously.

At lunch, I scurried into Meijer to pick up a tub of sour cream and left with one tub of sour cream, seven boxes of Christmas ornaments, and three canisters of garland (the red balls in the picture are really a garland) - and guess how much I paid for all of that!?!? $6.46!!!!
After work, my friends Greg and Angi came over to do some Habitat for Bekah work. I invited them for dinner (more of the fabulous brown sugar meat loaf plus I made some mac & cheese - Paula Deen style - and baked more potatoes). It was fun to entertain. Hadn't done that in a while! Of course I served dinner in my jammie pants. You know your friends are good friends when they'll eat your leftovers served in jammie pants. HA!

Anyway. Here's some of Greg's handiwork. He put up these three shelves in my guest room. I bought them on clearance two years ago. Clearly I wasn't in a rush. :)...

...and this white board in my office. I bought it last August. Thought maybe it was time to USE it...

...and these curtain tie backs for the office curtains...

...and these tie backs for the dining room curtains. I love the draped look of the curtains. I think this concludes all my minor Habitat projects at this time! Thanks, Greg and Angi, for giving up a whole evening to help me and hang out with me!

* Thursday evening, I had a first in Bekahland. I went to the Wal Mart return counter. I never return things. If they don't work out for me, I either throw them away or give them away. The whole idea of returning something makes me break out in cold sweats. But it's a great story...the Thursday night return adventure. Do come back tomorrow to read more about it.

* My weekend is best described as rescheduled. I planned to leave home Friday afternoon and drive up to Goshen for the Fire and Ice Festival. I wanted to go last year and got snowed out. So this year, a friend of mine (who lives up there) and I made plans to hang out Friday night and Saturday and enjoy the festival. I was excited to see her in her last month of pregnancy, too. But our plans were changed when...the baby came five weeks early! She was born this week and is fine and healthy (yay!!!) but that sort of made the festival NOT an option. So instead...

...I stayed home Friday evening, read part of a fiction draft a friend from back in college is working on (and really enjoyed it!) and....did a little baking. You know. Just some chocolate chip joy.


* Saturday I slept in late (love that), spent most of the day writing, and then in the evening, donned my Colts gear and headed to Greg and Angi's for dinner. Pot roast - YUM!!! And she made a great key lime dessert too. (You can see I'm pretty happy about it.)

Remember how I said I didn't have any more Habitat for Bekah projects? I lied. I kind of jammed my shredder, so I took it over for Greg to work on. Know what finally unjammed it? A toothpick. Now why didn't I think of that?

We watched The Craigslist Killer movie that had been on Lifetime this week and then we watched another killer: the Colts playoff game. Sadness to lose by A POINT!!!!

Favorite God Moment of the Whole Week: Definitely last Sunday when I awakened from that dream and heard God's prompt to me to give up my dreams and drink deeply of HIS dreams. (I blogged about it earlier this week if you missed it.) Those are the kinds of whispers I heard from Him on a regular basis during my desert journey last year and I miss hearing them so frequently. A sweet, sweet moment.

Books I'm Reading This Week: Sparkling Gems from the Greek - my devo book; Believing God - the book I'm studying with Olivia; In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day - book I'm reading on a prompt from God; Girls Gone Wise in a World Gone Wild - book I was given as a gift a few weeks back. FINISHED reading Left to Tell! (More about that book in a later post.)

Goal Update from Last Sunday: I was very pleased at how I transitioned back into real life. I went to bed at a decent(ish) time each night, got up on(ish) time every morning, cooked real meals (but didn't overeat them), worked out five days, entertained friends, and spent a good chunk of time journaling and brainstorming some writing ideas.

Goals For the Coming Week: I want to be extra diligent about protecting my God-time this week, because our spring semester begins Tuesday and this week is certain to be extra stress-filled. If I don't have that time protected, it will definitely show in my work-life! I also need to make sure I give the house a good cleaning. All the Christmas stuff is out of the way, so I have no more excuses.

POP QUIZ!!

Remember how I told you I'm doing Beth Moore's Siesta Scripture Memory challenge this year? Well, I was chatting online the other night with my friend Ronda, and she told me she was taking the challenge. I said, "Hey, me too! What's your verse?" Guess what it is?

Same verse I chose.

How cool is that? Two good friends, neither knew the other was taking the challenge, and we both picked the same TWO verses in Isaiah! We had goose bumps.

Then my friend Kari saw my post about the challenge and she decided to take it too. And she picked out the very first verse that ever became significant to me in my desert journey. So I think that's pretty cool too!

Anyway. The night Kari texted to tell me the verse she'd picked, I responded by saying, "Oh I love that one. I will quiz you!"

Not a moment later she shot back, "Consider this quiz one for you and give me yours."

WHAT!!?!!?!?

So I stood in my kitchen and squinted my eyes shut as though this would somehow help me see the verse...and I texted it to her. Forgot one phrase, but it helped me learn the phrase I forgot!

The next day I sent an email to Ronda that said, "POP QUIZ! What's your verse??"

And the days since have been filled with emails back and forth - chatting about the happenings of the day, and sometimes, tucked inside, the words, "your verse...go!"

I love this practice. I hope the three of us offer frequent quizzes to each other all year long. It's true that retyping that verse over and over solidifies it in my mind.

The best learning tool of the week, hands down! This memorization-challenged girl might just learn a new trick yet!

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43:18-19 (Hope that was right! I just gave myself a quiz!)

Peanut Butter Bars

I haven't posted a recipe for a while, so I thought I'd throw one your way. I actually took the pictures for this MONTHS ago but never posted it. This week, though, we celebrated our student worker's birthday and I took this for the carry-in because I actually had all the ingredients on hand. I hoped to take home the leftovers for dinner, but there were about 2.1 servings plus some random crumbs left by the end of the day. It is THAT good.

One of the things I love most about this recipe is that I do almost always have everything I need to make it, and it can be made in ten minutes flat, start to finish (if you have the graham cracker crumbs and don't have to make your own). It's done totally in the microwave, so if you're making this in the summer, it doesn't heat up the house!

I think I first got this from a magazine, and I've taken it to committee meetings, parties with friends, work carry-ins, you name it. It's a great "little" dessert too, so when you don't want to mess with a huge pan of dessert that never ends...this is a great choice. Warning - it's awfully rich, especially if you use milk chocolate chips!

The Recipe:

1/2 cup melted butter
1 1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 package chocolate chips

Melt butter. Stir in graham cracker crumbs and powdered sugar. Once it is mixed well, stir in peanut butter. Pat into an 8X8 inch pan. Melt chocolate chips in microwave and pour over mixture. Refrigerate until hardened – about 15 minutes. Cut into bars.

I despise making crumbs out of cookies and crackers. So normally, if I find a recipe that calls for that - I move on to the next recipe. :) But since you can actually purchase graham cracker crumbs, I make an exception here. You can use milk chocolate or semi-sweet chips - whatever your preference.
I measure out the graham cracker crumbs over a paper towel so I don't have to clean up a huge mess when I'm done.

While the butter melts in the microwave, I stir together the powdered sugar and graham cracker crumbs. Then I'm ready to mix in the butter...

...which makes everything kind of crumbly.

Then it's time to add the peanut butter. I use creamy but if you're fond of crunchy, you could use that too.

I stir that for a while with a spoon, but I never feel like that really mixes it up properly.

So...I move to mixing with my hand. I never have plastic gloves on hand and I really don't want crumb goop under my nails, so I put my hand in a baggie to do this step. So cafeteria lady, I know.

Then I pat that part down in the bottom of the dish.

Sometimes I don't use the whole bag of chips because it makes the top part awfully thick and hard to cut.

I stir it every few seconds in the microwave just to make sure it's all melting evenly and not burning.

Then...spread it out and pop it in the fridge to harden! You do need at LEAST 15 minutes of cooling time - maybe more if you use milk chocolate chips. But don't leave it in there too long or the chocolate will crack when you try to cut it. Once it's done, cut into squares and serve. (Hint...if you start to cut it and the chocolate top is hard to cut through, put it back in the microwave for 20 seconds or so to soften it up enough to cut.) Tastes remarkably like a Reese cup!

Dreams I Dream for You

While on vacation, I was 100% successful in mixing up my days and nights. Happens to me every time I have more than just a weekend away from the office. LOVE IT. But please explain to me why they don't switch back with equal ease? I'm still trying to sort it out.
Sunday was actually my first day to be out of bed before 11 for most of the vacation. And though I had grand intentions of making it a trial "real day," my eyelids were heavy by 2 p.m. and I was out on the couch.
I don't mean a little naplet.
I mean I didn't even HEAR the movie that was playing (at normal volume) on my TV. (And it was a Lifetime movie, so you know there was excessive drama.) Occasionally I would stir on the couch but I couldn't even bring myself to open my eyes. Once I wasn't even sure I remembered how to open my eyes. It was that deep a sleep.
In fact, while asleep, I had a dream. A long, vivid dream with real people and real places. I won't go into the details, but it was one of those dreams I wished desperately to escape, but it was so real I didn't know it was a dream and I thought I was stuck in it.
When I did wake up, I was still trying to make sense of how to open my eyes...and shift...and tell time...and as I worked on those things, these words flashed through my mind: Let the old dreams die, like stars that fade from view. And take the cup I offer and drink deeply of the dreams I dream for you.
Those lyrics come from a vintage Avalon song that I'd not heard or even thought of in weeks. Months, even. I may not have had the presence of mind to tell time, but I did have the presence of mind to recognize God sending me a word.
The night before last, I had another dream that lasted the entire night. It had different people and circumstances but was no less vivid and no less frustrating to me as I found myself faced again, even in sleep, with things that I knew needed to be gone from my life. When I woke up, I said, "God, why did I have to dream that?" And again...the words to this song drifted through my mind and His gentle Voice prodded me to offer up my dreams in exchange for His.
These first few days of 2011 have been full of Him teaching me to reframe what's in front of me. And the people in both my dreams were people that need to fade from view. My literal and figurative dreams...are past now. Time to look forward. The dreams HE has...are going to blow my mind.

Re-Entry to the Real World

Don't hate me when I tell you that yesterday was my first day back to work. I admit to small (perhaps slightly smug-ish) smiles Sunday night when I saw all the lamenting on Facebook. No one wanted to go back to work, it seemed! I really was grateful for the extra day off work. Especially since I was SO LAZY over break that I still hadn't taken down my Christmas decorations! I think that is the first time in the history of my adult life that the decor has still been up when the new year hit. WOW.

This break was just that for me: a break. I didn't have plans. Honestly, other than Christmas day with the family and New Year's Eve with my friends, my calendar was blank when the vacation started. I threw in a few things along the way but for the most part, I just stayed home. Most days I didn't even get ready until late afternoon. I curled up on the couch in jammie pants with more cups of coffee than I dare to count, and just rested. I hadn't rested for months.

The downside to such a break is that I get terribly accustomed to all the free time. For me, it means extra hours to sit with my journal and Bible...extra time in prayer...extra time to read or take naps...and then when reality hits, I find myself scrambling. I fall back into the bad habits of rushing through my devotions, praying on the fly, staying up way too late to scratch everything off my to-do list, and then of course oversleeping the next morning (and consequently applying my makeup at work while my computer awakens). It's a vicious cycle.

So this year...I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a resolution or even a goal, but it's my hope that I will be careful to protect my time enough to continue what I've started in these first few days of the year. During the desert of 2010, I learned firsthand that moments (or hours) spent alone with the Lord are worth it. And while I have made a goal to re-enter life and embrace it with joy after months of solitude, I want to be sure I don't lose those sweet moments with my Abba.

So far, so good. I'm one for one on getting up on time and reading a bit in my Bible and devo book before I go to work. I'm one for one on a cup of coffee BEFORE the travel mug of it that gets me through the morning...and for putting on my makeup at home...and being early enough to the office that my computer has its full required 10 minutes to boot up BEFORE the work day actually begins. But the year is young. I'm sure I will oversleep. And lug the makeup to work again. And leave the bed a mess....

...so I'm not entirely sure how I plan to put this new plan into practice when the moments of chaos actually hit. If protecting your time is something you've become an expert at...please do share your secrets with me. I am open to suggestions!

30 Days of You and Me: Day Eleven

Phats is going to kill me for this.

But then he's going to remember what a great friend I am, and how if it weren't for me, he'd be sorely lacking yummy desserts at every game night. And furthermore, he'd be sorely lacking someone to annihilate in every game we play...especially Dutch Blitz. And who else would he text every time a tornado warning shows up? Yes, he's going to rethink that decision to kill me.

In all the Christmas and new year posts, I took a few days off from the "30 days" list, but I'm back to it! Today's topic: "A Story from My Childhood."

There are so many. Like the time I cut up my sister's bedspread and explained to my mother (who had the gall to question why I would do such a thing) that I was merely cutting wood to be like my Dad. Or the time I forgot to tell Mom it was game day at school and she sent me dressed in the frilliest dress and shiny patent leather shoes I owned. Or the time I threw up in the middle of my second-grade classroom because I was too shy to raise my hand to say I wasn't feeling well and needed to go to the restroom. Oh yes. There are many stories.

But the one I choose to tell you is one of my mother's favorites. I actually don't remember it at all, but she declares it happened, and my mother is not a liar, so I'll believe her. This alleged story took place in first grade, I think. Phats and I were in the same class. And the same reading group. (The highest reading group. We got to read chapter books like The Boxcar Children while everyone else still worked on d-o-g and See Spot run. But we wouldn't dream of bragging about that.)

Apparently at some point during our literary-filled first grade career, Phats said to me "Do you want to go with me?"

And I said, "Sure! Where are we going?"

I'm not going to go so far as to say that my ignorance toward the romantic led to still being single at 32, but I suppose it should be entertained as a possibility.

So I guess you could say Phats was my first boyfriend. (Okay he's REALLY going to kill me for saying that.) Our relationship must have been short lived, since I don't remember it and chances are good he doesn't either. But Mom (who is akin to Sylvia Fine in this respect) has not forgotten!

How about you? Any great childhood memories floating across the front of your mind today?

Verse of the Year

I started this tradition in high school. So, you know...a couple of years ago. :)

I picked out a verse to concentrate on throughout the course of the year. As I've gotten older (not old, but older) I've tried to ask God more about what verse HE wants me to choose as the year's guidance. Often I get the verse on one of the very last days of the year. So it was this year.

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. - Isaiah 43:18-19.

This year, I'm joining Beth Moore's "Siesta Scripture Memory Team" in an effort to memorize 24 verses throughout the year. Do keep in mind that memorization is NOT one of the gifts bestowed upon me. Remember the church Christmas play? So this is a challenge for me.

Since we're allowed to pick whatever verses best fit our journey, I thought I would start with the verse God has prompted me to focus on over the entire year.
Just like Beth said to do, I've written it in my own handwriting in my spiral bound verse index, but you can (barely) see in that picture that it's also highlighted in my Bible. I try to write the date beside a highlighted verse...so I can go back to see when it became meaningful to me. According to this - October 11, 2010.


That was, of course, my Dad's birthday, but it was also a week before I left on my impromptu vacation to Wisconsin. And I had no idea when I highlighted the verse, that just a little over a week later, I would be standing beside an actual stream that bubbled forth from the ground.

A stream God would use so purposefully to begin healing work in my broken heart.

This is the year of the word studies, remember? Well let me tell you what I learned about this verse!

I'm not going to recap my 2010 for you. If you've been here very long, you know what transpired. And if you're new - you can browse back through and see the various lessons God had for me. But one thing I struggled with - clear up to (and including) the end of 2010 was the conviction that I had heard (and heard correctly) God's plan for the journey I took. And when it did not end the way I heard it should and would, I had the hardest time understanding what that meant for my faith. I chose to trust that God was still faithful to His Word, but His words to me were not unfolding as He said...and I wrestled with that. He was so kind to comfort my heart with explanations that are too personal to share in this forum, but I accepted them...and yet still had nagging questions.

And then, on New Year's Day, I did a word study on this verse. "Forget the former things." Yeah, yeah, we know what former means. But the word study said - specifically regarding this verse - that it means "things which had been foretold." I read it twice just to make sure I hadn't mixed it up with another verse.

Forget what had been foretold.

"Do not dwell on the past." Do not pay attention to...attend to your past. God had said to me a couple of months ago on a prayer-path drive, "You may remember your desert for the purposes of using it in writing and ministry. You may not pine for it or anything regarding it."

"See, I am doing a new thing!" The word "doing" means to create or prepare, and sometimes even goes so far as to convey the idea of creation or to describe God's creative activity. I love that! He is doing a new thing right now. Not "He did it." He is doing it. And the writer in me loves the exclamation point at the end. He's excited about it! Whatever it is He's creating or preparing for me is new...it's creative...it's personal...and I will love it.

"Now it springs up. Do you not perceive it?" I love the idea that whatever new thing He has is going to show up in beauty...And I want to recognize it when it appears. When I was in Wisconsin at the farm where I encountered the spring, my friend Allison told me that as her ancestors traveled west in the covered wagons, they happened upon this spring and knew it would sustain the land, so they settled there. We looked around at the rolling hills of land and marveled that they would stumble upon that tiny stream out of all that land. They perceived it.

"I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland." The word making means to set, put, establish, plant, set down, appoint. It essentially means to put something somewhere. And you know...He'd have to do just that to put water in a desert. It would have to be established and appointed, because it sure wouldn't be natural.

I don't know what or where or when, but God is establishing and appointing something in this girl's life. Oh how I love that. And I can't wait to see it unfold.

It's a New Day

I was thinking up a title for this post, and this song popped in my head. LOVE this song. (Yes, this is from a Gaither taping, but please make note it doesn't feature David. I know. Shocks to the soul.)






It is, indeed, a new day, and I am grateful. New day, new week, new year. Yes, please!

One of my favorite things about a new year...reorganizing the house! Oh I love it. Thought I'd show you my favorite new purchase for the reorganization of 2011. Well, first - please take note of the fabulous new coffee pot on the left. My sister Julie gave that to me this Christmas, and it has a timer, so my mornings are about to be so much happier. To celebrate the new coffee pot...I bought some new drink cannisters. One for coffee, one for sugar, one for chai mix, and one for hot chocolate. I'm also going to order some vinyl labels for them.

And now...something I want to try, at least for a while, to see how it works...a recap of the highlights of the week:
* Made it through the Christmas play at church last Sunday without completely messing up my lines.

* Spent all day Monday and Wednesday writing furiously in preparation for some upcoming projects God has laid on my heart. Both days were emotionally exhausting, but I'm thankful I had the time away from the office to work on it (and through it!).
* Received a h-e-a-v-e-n-l-y massage Wednesday night. Oh my goodness. Words cannot express.

* Spent three hours in the salon chair Tuesday treating myself to a professional color job. I haven't had that done in about two years (can't afford it on a regular basis!) but wanted to start out the new year with the non-bathroom-color-job. I even got highlights! Like with the foil and everything. Never ever had that done before. (Please ignore the piece of wood in my hair in this picture. NO idea where that came from.)

* Had my first experience with the self-checkout lane. This happened when I went grocery shopping far too late one night and apparently the store shut down all its regular lanes at some point in the night. I was very unamused by this. I don't believe in self-checkout lanes and had successfully avoided them entirely until this week.

* DID feel and did NOT recognize the great Hoosier earthquake of 2010. It happened Thursday morning at 7:55 and started out labeled as a 4.2 and was later downgraded to a 3.8. I was dead to the world (DEAD to the world, I tell you) at that hour and it woke me up. I remember grabbing onto the bed, because it was shaking badly, and thinking man, what kind of truck is THAT outside? As soon as it stopped shaking, I flopped over and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. About an hour and a half later, my Mom called, (I was still DEAD to the world) and said "Aren't you even going to ask if I'm okay?" Once she managed to get me to comprehend that there had been an EARTHQUAKE and told me the epicenter was near their house, I said, "Ohhhhhh! Is THAT what that was??"

* Managed to get my days and nights COMPLETELY mixed up. That is a perk of vacation. Also managed to squeeze in tons of talk shows. I didn't even care if I liked the topic. I watched them because I was home and I could. (I did, however, enjoy Oprah's Monday show that reunited the cast of The Sound of Music. That was cool.)

* Friday morning, I enjoyed a belated Christmas/birthday celebration with my sweet friend Olivia.

We camped out at Starbucks to catch up and open our gifts. Can you guess which drink was hers and which was mine? (Venti vs. kid size. Not kidding.)

* Had fun at the New Year's Eve party with my friends, the Hancocks. They have invited me to be part of their new year's fun for the past several years, and I so appreciate it. While I enjoy moments of solitude and reflection at the change of the year, I do love being able to spend that time with my friends, making memories and sharing smiles and laughs.
*Never would have fathomed this to be a possibility but it was warm enough to walk outside on New Year's Day for my exercise! (Granted it was far from warm. But it was warm enough.) Oh how I've missed that walking path and the great times of prayer I have there!
Favorite God Moment of the Whole Week: New Year's Eve, after spending time with Olivia, I went out on a "last drive of 2010" on my driving prayer path that came to be so dear to me this year. God met me in a special way during that drive - even breaking through the rain with a bit of sun for me!




Books I'm Reading This Week: Sparkling Gems from the Greek - my devo book; Left to Tell - reading this to review it for a reading course; In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day - started reading this last November on a prompt from the Lord; Believing God - studying this with Olivia
Goals for the Coming Week: To begin to settle into a healthy routine of eating, sleeping, exercising, writing, working, and socializing after so many months of - well, NOT healthy.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A year ago yesterday, as I prepared to leave for the party I'd been invited to, I packed up my car (nervously) with the food I'd made, drove to the party, and then drove away from the party, circled Marion for 45 minutes trying to work up the courage to go back...and then I proceeded to have the most miserable New Year's Eve of my life. When I arrived back home after midnight, I sat on the rug in my bedroom, crying out to the Lord...Is THIS the new start?

Yesterday as I prepared to leave for the party I'd been invited to, I paced slowly back and forth in the bedroom, vividly remembering the year before. And my heart felt hope. 2010 had its place in my life. It was a year God Himself consecrated. But almost like a scene from some Lifetime movie, I felt like I was being given that moment a second time. A chance to restart. A chance to choose hope and joy instead of fear and uncertainty. A chance for God to show off His mercy.

So.

I donned this cuteness:

...and packed up this deliciousness...

...and drove confidently to my party. No hesitation this time. No second-guessing. I am a child of God who has the blessing of friends...and I determined to enjoy. And when I arrived, I was showered with all sorts of love...

...from a sweet thing who no longer fits neatly on my lap but declared every time she got up to get another snack that I needed to keep my lap open so she could return to it...

...and the littlest man who is just learning to say my name and has a rather significant affinity for Wii remotes...

...and the resident ham who said over and over tonight, "Let's take another picture of me!!!!"

...my good friend Joy, who (whom? who?) I only ever get to see at occasions such as this...

...and we had FUN. Chris made some (uh-mazing) Godiva chocolate coffee, which, when paired with a spoonful of sugar and some hazelnut creamer, had this girl going in the happy coffee dance!

Brothers playing together quietly on the floor is something that deserves to be recorded because it happens so rarely!

And just when you think you can't eat another bite, you find there might be room for one more "cheese and salami cracker sandwich."

And there's never too little time to snuggle on the couch.

Or make plastic cup hats.

And finally...after a round of Despicable Me and The Pacifier and getting TOTALLY whipped (by kids!) in Wii bowling...it was time for the moment of honor!

...properly celebrated by a choice of wild berry, peach, or grape. (Grape, please!!) (And just in case you can't read the fine print - this is the NON-alcoholic kind, thankyouverymuch.)

Ringing in the new year with good friends who have loved me into their family for a full thirteen years (I think!) now.

This one is serious about his new year. (This is why the non-alcoholic disclaimer earlier was extra important.)

This one...well...he will be. Maybe next year.

Abba, You have cared for me so tenderly in my desert year. Thank You for the stream of hope in this new year. And this one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14) I do love You so. Bring my morning.