Some Christmas Pictures and thoughts

When I read a blog, I feel like I am reading someone's journal and it always seems like it is a record of that very day.  Well, as I am trying to do this, I am realizing that (at least for myself) I am going to have to give myself grace and time to let things "develop."  Just like we once had to wait for film to be developed?  Well, downloading and editing and now in my case, decreasing the resolution so the computer will upload the pictures ALL takes time.  Also, writing and editing the words takes time.  So, in that mode, here are a few moments caught on "film" from our last month.



Me and my Honey in front of our 2010 Christmas tree.  The weather was a nippy 23 degrees with wind that dropped it to not much above bearable.  I was out of the car MAYBE five minutes before my fingers and toes were ice.



Here is my burley man looking cool in his down vest I bought him a few birthday's ago.  He is looking Fine.



All four of my boys dry and snug in their coats posing in front of our uncut Christmas tree.



Rex, my fourth boy after he jumped in the pond and soaked his nice fur coat and then did that three more times!!!  He has icicles all over and even on his whiskers.  I guess he really is a water hunting dog.  Turns out Middle son threw an apple in the little pond AND there was a duck decoy floating in the middle of the little icy pond.  It was inevitable.  But I was aghast sitting in the warm truck frozen merely from my five minute romp up the hill to take a quick look at the trees.

 

The decorated Christmas tree along with my new garland. 
Took me a while to find what I was looking for - garland, that is.  Something that would be simple to restring lights to, something that would not need a lot of attention each year when putting it up.  Something simple and yet festive.  And it didn't cost that much either!

  

Ah, the night before Christmas shot. 
Mom's elf work is finally done (at 1:30am). 
The last presents are jammed in Christmas bags with a little big of tissue on top and the basketballs that I didn't want to wrestle with were simply placed in front. 
Ahhhh, 366 more days before Christmas. 
And as I snap these photos before falling exhausted into bed I am making the same resolutions I did last year and many years before too:  Next year I am NOT going to buy so much.  Next year I will have the wrapping done EARLY.  Next year I will start all this in July. . . and probably next year I'll be saying all this all over again.

  

MY/OUR FIRST WHITE CHRISTMAS EVER!!  Yeah!!  I don't think any of us in Anderson really expected it to snow all week, but low and behold it did!!  This is Christmas evening 2010.

 

Took this picture same time and place as the one above, but I used my flash on this one. 
How about that - it was really snowing!!  Fun, Fun, Fun!!



Appreciating my "new" front door. 
(and photoshop that helped me take the pumpkin off the steps) 
I painted all our outside doors and door frames a few months ago.  This one really needed it.  It was looking AWFUL.  And I didn't know how expensive a new door handle and lock could be - over 100 dollars!!  After going to Lowe's 3 times, I found a brand that was really nice, but also 75 % off!  Got our new door handle for 30 bucks!

  

Love this.  Boys being boys.  The real snow pictures are from the day after Christmas.  This is enough for now.



Southern Snow



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The following is a post that I started but didn't complete after February 2010's snow.  Though a bit late, it still seems a little appropriate since we just had a WHITE CHRISTMAS!!!  I will work on a post about that soon, but until then, you can enjoy this one.  And I may post some on how to fix your pictures if your pictures turn out as these did.  Thanks to my photography teacher, I have corrected these pictures in Photoshop Elements.


This afternoon I thought about how special Southern Snow is.  We don't get it very often, and when we do it doesn't last very long.  A few years ago it started snowing in the evening and I finally lost the battle of trying to keep our three guys inside.  I kept thinking they could play the next morning, (but by the next morning it was gone - the snow had turned to rain.)  When they went out at 9pm we found that many of our neighbors were out building snowmen and sledding.  Then the next morning they had to go to school. 

Another interesting thing about Southern Snow is that the whole world stops.  We don't have all the equipment to clear the roads, and besides that, no one knows how to drive in snow anyway, so it is very dangerous to drive - even if you do know how to drive in snow - because no one else knows what they are doing. 

Today, though, I was thinking that if we had snow all the time it would get old fast and we wouldn't enjoy it as much as we do.  Let me set the scene for the next picture.  I have a rather large zoom lens on my camera, so I am not as close to these guys as it appears.  I really didn't think I was at risk.  I TOLD them to throw snowballs at me . . . and being obedient sons and neighbors . . . they did . . .

See that one on the right side of the picture.  With the blond hair.  The one that looks like he just pitched a baseball at his mom?  Yes, that's my middle son.

and it appears he has a future in baseball.  Possibly pitching.

  Yes, that is a close up of a snowball.  From the inside of the snowball.  I'm surprised it took at all.

Here he is very relieved that mom has a sense of humor and didn't get hurt by the camera smashing into her face.

This picture, though adorable, show cases what happens when you are still learning or not learning to adjust white balance.  Everything appears blueish.

And here is how we entertain on snow days.

Sneezing and Bless yous

I have been wanting to blog more, and just now went to a blog that has always inspired me.  She said to do it.  Blog.  A lot.  Regularly.  About what is happening in your life.  In your words.  

Then I sneezed. 

Nobody is here but me and the dog, so I sneezed like nobody was here.  No holding back.

Will, my little guy, sneezes big.  And he always sneezes twice.  Always. 

My man sneezes when he looks into a light, and so do my other two boys.

I, on the other hand, sneeze when I breathe in cold air.

When I was a Senior in college I lived in the upstairs of a lady professor's house.  There were three of us that lived up there.  One was a friend that told me about the place, Tami.  The other was a girl I never saw.  Seriously.  I lived there for a full semester.  I know what her car looked like, but I never saw her.  We shared a bathroom and a kitchen but somehow she avoided us all together.  Very strange.

Tami and I started realizing that not only did we have a strange up-stairs house mate, we also had an odd down-stairs house mate - the professor.  She sneezed at night.  Big sneezes.  Now realize, we lived upstairs.  She lived downstairs.  It was an old house with very tall ceilings.  Tami and I would here the sneezes begin, and we would have to stifle our laughter.  In my mind I pictured the roof coming off the house when she sneezed.  WAAAAACCHHHOOOOO!!!!  

Turns out we had to ask the professor something one evening, and we found out the answer to the huge sneezes.  When we signed the rental contract she specified that she wanted her privacy in the evenings and we weren't to disturb her after a certain time.  Accidentally we found out why.  The poor lady was tipsy.  I guess she was drowning her loneliness.  Kinda sad, but we appreciated the break from our studies to have a little chuckle.

In high school one of the cool dudes in school thought it was funny to say "Curse you" if someone sneezed twice and would then say "Bless you" if they sneezed the third time.  It was silly, but it also made me think about this cultural nicety that we pass on to complete strangers on a daily basis really without thinking about why we do it.

Here is wikipedia's explanation of the origin of the "Bless you.":

Several possible origins are commonly given. The practice of blessing a sneeze, dating as far back as at least AD 77, however, is far older than most specific explanations can account for.[1]



One explanation holds that the custom originally began as an actual blessing. Gregory I became Pope in AD 590 as an outbreak of the bubonic plague was reaching Rome. In hopes of fighting off the disease, he ordered unending prayer and parades of chanters through the streets. At the time, sneezing was thought to be an early symptom of the plague. The blessing ("God bless you!") became a common effort to halt the disease.[2]


A variant of the Pope Gregory I story places it with Pope Gregory VII, then tells the common story of "Ring Around the Rosey" being connected to the same plague.[3]

A legend holds that it was believed that the heart stops beating and the phrase "bless you" is meant to ensure the return of life or to encourage your heart to continue beating.[1][2][4]


Another version says that people used to believe that your soul can be thrown from your body when you sneeze,[1] that sneezing otherwise opened your body to invasion by the Devil[2] or evil spirits,[4] or that sneezing was your body's effort to force out an invading evil spirit.[1] Thus, "bless you" or "God bless you" is used as a sort of shield against evil.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bless_you


So, for 1500 or more years, we have been able to bless other people we don't know just because they sneezed.  What a neat opportunity to regularly pray for the strangers around us.  Don't just say, "God bless you."  Mean it.  Pray for their soul, their heart, their life.  And when it's not a stranger, even better.  Pray for their soul, their heart, their life. 

"God bless you."  Meant it.

Back on Target

When I started this blog, my goal was for it to be a ministry to others who either suffer with depression or know someone who does.  Actually, even if you think you don't know someone who suffers with it, you probably do.  So, as I semi-ly change my target audience, you are all still welcome.  I am more reminding myself of my calling.  If you want to, feel free to read back to the first entry from several years ago. 

For now, I have perused through my journals for the last few years and will be trying to post a little more frequently by re-writing some of my thoughts from my previous struggles over the years.  I would love for others to be encouraged by these as well as encourage one another.  My goal is not to pull anyone down, but rather to relate to those that are or have also been there.  Praise God, I am having a fantastic year - in comparison to where I have been.  May these bless your soul.

Hope is
a spark of what could be
a twinkle
a quick breath
a seed buried in dirt and rot
yet alive
the first hint of spring
the first light of dawn
the first bit of good news

Hope
doesn't happen on good days
isn't surrounded by joy
instead is flanked by sorrow,
fear, darkness and pain.

Hope is a simple small
most beautiful treasure to those
in sorrow, fear, darkness and pain -
to them, joy would be
scoffable because of their wounds
disrespectful to their pain and
unbelievable in their darkness.

Hope
is strong enough to endure
is weak enough to cry
is humble
brings broth to the weary,
not a feast
holds a hand without words
prays instead of singing
is a candle that can
spark life into a soul

Hope is
a believable dream.

01-01-2009 ach