Of Puzzles & Boundaries

 I enjoy putting puzzles together. They have a way of sucking me in, especially when I should be doing housework. "Just one more piece" somehow becomes 30 minutes. I've done puzzle exchanges with various people for the variety. My aunt exchanged this one with me at Christmas and I was immediately drawn to it. Between Richard & I, we put it together in 5 days this week.   

Now I disciplining myself to not start another one right away -so that I get other things done. 

But there are 7 more tempting my will power... 

I'm currently reading "Good Boundaries and Goodbyes" by Lysa TerKeurst. It's a timely read with the situation our congregation is in. One sentence that really jumped out at me was Whole people gravitate toward whole people. Fractured people tend to attract other fractured people. All I'm gonna say about that is I want to move towards wholeness in areas in which I am fractured. 

God, grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change,

the courage to change the things I can,

and the wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time,

enjoying one moment at a time;

accepting hardship as a pathway to peace;

taking, as Jesus did,

this sinful world as it is,

not as I would have it;

trusting that You will make all things right

if I surrender to Your will;

so that I may be reasonably happy in this life

and supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

Better Late than Never...

With a busy, stressful week, I'm already late with my weekly post... 2nd week in. This does not bode well. 🙈

Photo of the week #1- our granddaughter's 5th birthday party. 

When I cut out the ponies for the center of her cake she informed me that I need to cut very carefully because it's going to go on her cake and everyone is going to look at it. Sheesh, no pressure. 

Photo #2- one reason my week was so busy was co-hosting a Diner en Blanc (French for Dinner in White) for the church ladies. It was a fun evening, but I'm relieved to have it behind me.  

At the Diner en Blanc, I had conversation cards under the plates. Everyone had to talk about the topic on their card with the ladies sitting next to them. Mine was "Before I die I hope that..." and my answer was "I get to go to the Holy Lands". That has been my dream for many years! I think it would be so amazing to walk where Jesus walked. I even have the money saved to pay for the trip. The stickler is I don't really want to go with a tour group of strangers; I would prefer to go with friends or family. I've tried to arrange a trip with various people but nothing has worked out so far. I was really hoping 2023 would be the year... 

 

Week 2

 I've been throwing around the idea of posting once a week during 2023. It feels like a lofty goal. And risky.

You see, I have this back & forth thing with blogging- there is the "itch" to write stuff and the pressure of 'what is the point of even having a blog if one rarely posts anything', not to mention the positive reinforcement from those who enjoy reading what I have to say... but then there is the vulnerable aspect that makes me ask myself why I even bother, the whole putting myself and my family "out there" in a culture that feels entitled to critique our life. I reserve the right to bow out if this doesn't go well. 😜 I don't anticipate linking my posts on FaceBook, so following my blog is the only way to get reminders to show up and read.

Well... here goes nothing. 

Random is going to be the key word here. Random subjects, random times... I may or may not settle into a routine as I go. But if you are here you probably know me well enough to know I'm a huge fan of photos so my intention is to include a photo of the week. 

Kicking that off- 

I love that our grandchildren are learning to ice skate.

Kicking off the random topics- 

   with Christmas recently behind us, I was thinking about how our family is pivoting with gift wrap. When our children were small we wrapped birthday and Christmas gifts in wrapping paper, but as they got older and weren't as excited about ripping open gifts, we evolved into using more & more gift bags. We hardly had any wrapping paper in the house. The ever-practical me felt like it was a waste of money, this thing that gets ripped up and thrown away, whereas a gift bag can be used multiple times. 

   Enter a DIL who loves unwrapping a present- it's all part of the experience! I mean "is it even a proper gift if one merely opens a bag?" Add grandchildren who are still young enough to enjoy tearing open presents... and you have the recipe for pivoting back to wrapping paper. We are accumulating quite a stash of it. It is a good thing to add new people to one's family that shove us out of our boring way of doing things.     

The Oxymoron of January 2

 Yesterday marked 29 years since my brother Steve went Home. There are no words to describe how you miss someone who has been gone that long.   

I'm grateful for the people who let me know they still remember after all these years. Most of whom never knew him personally but faithfully remember with me anyway. 

***    ***    ***

Yesterday we also celebrated Josh's birthday. 27 years ago, in the midst of a big snow storm, a son arrived -giving me reason to go on living in spite of deep grief. 

He smokes the best meat, and supplies me with grandchildren -giving me reason to go on living in spite of weariness of life here on earth, on the hard days.