Hindsight is 20/20

I am convinced that this is the motto for the year of 2008.  This year especially has been filled with so many ups and downs and twists and turns that I don't know if I can cope with it all. At times I wish that I had hindsight before the event happened, but now looking back I don't know if I could have held on for the ride.  I am not going to go into detail of our yearly activity. I am, however, going to ask  you a question... looking back throughout the past 12 months how does your year rate overall? Was it too exciting for you?(is there such a thing), Was it fun? Did you learn a lot? Tell me what your year was like and what you got out of it the most. 

I wonder if the company of LL Bean would have answered my question this way: "We wish we had waited one week to do our outdoor sports festival this year; we would have saved so much money by not needing to produce our own snow." You may know what I am talking about if you went to Beans before Christmas. They had a huge pile of man made snow out in front of their store, and looking back I cannot help but wonder why they didn't wait just one week for the snow to come to Maine.  For as you all know, this year was a beautiful white Christmas with inches of wonderful fluffy snow.  White Christmas or not this festival got my family out to Beans to see their man made snow and try out their sleds. Here are some pics of what we did at the famous store: 

The boys loved the bubble inside the fish tank at LL Bean.

Elijah sitting in snow that had to be contained with hay. Does anyone else find it odd that we feel that we have to rush winter while living in Maine? Could you imagine living in Florida and rushing in summer? 

Tyler and Josiah sliding down the snow covered ramp. That ice chunky snow on a slope can really speed you along on a sled. 

I would like to close with simply this: Don't get too worked up over what you didn't know was going to happen this year. Instead learn to lean on the Lord in the good and bad times and know that you will be carried through this next year with Him by your side.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Preparing for Christmas is a very important task for me. It isn't because I want everything to be just right on Christmas, or that we host a lot of people (we don't). Rather it is because for me I love to know that it is Christmas. Really know. If, however, I don't try to prepare for the day then I find that Christmas just sort of shoots on by just like every other day and then I feel as though I have missed it. So every year I try to prepare for Christmas and continue to tell myself that it is Christmas so that when the day comes I am fully prepared to seize the moment and relish in the holiday. My mother made Christmas a huge deal, and I want to make a big deal too. After all it isn't everyday that we can take aside and muse over all that God has done for us by sending us Jesus. If nothing else, I want my children to understand why Christmas is so important to me. As a result, we talk and walk Christmas for almost a month so that when Christmas Eve comes and we can start our celebration we all know why.

Here are some of the things that we did to prepare this year:

Elijah, Josiah and Andrew were in their very first Christmas Pageant. Directed by the beautiful and talented Alison Gervais this production shared the birth story of our Lord from the point of view of the donkey whom the writer affectionately named Clopper. Elijah played an adorable Clopper, while Josiah and Andrew were the cutest little wandering sheep you have ever seen.

Alas, this is the first year that I wasn't able to drag Tyler to Portland to walk the mall and watch all of the crazy shoppers go nuts over some stupid toy. We did, however, manage to get to Freeport for the Winter Sports Festival with the boys. LL Bean had setup a sliding slope and had made snow with a machine so that you could test out the snowshoes. The boys had a great time seeing the lights, people, and "fake" snow. 

Pageants, and shopping aside, we of course decorated our house for the holiday. Our decorations are what some would consider scarce, but I prefer to call it classy. Our home is not packed full of those cheap blow up santas and blasphemous air filled nativity scenes. Rather we have a few select decorations handed to us from my mother, aunt, and grandmother. Making our home festive and perfectly garnished for the Christmas season. This year we went all out and even decorated Caleb. 

I pray that your Christmas season is a wonderful time worshiping Jesus with family and friends. God bless you all and Merry Christmas!

Birthday Bash

Perhaps I should say birthday smash, because that is just what we did. For my birthday this year Tyler bought me lobster and we had a delicious lobster dinner. I love lobster, but unfortunately I had not had any since 2004. Needless to say, I was very excited to sit down in my home with my husband and share a lobster dinner without the noise of kids.  

These pics are of us posing with our lobsters whom we forgot to name and unfortunately you cannot meet because they are no longer with us. It was a sad sad loss for our household, well not really, actually it was quite joyous and filled with laughter. I know, you are wondering what kind of sick demented freaks we are. Well just to give you a hint, Tyler's shirt says "animals taste good", so there you have it.  Until next time... if this is a birthday celebration what do we do for Christmas?

Elijah Dancing

Elijah has developed his technique in dancing.  He is always asking me to record him so that he can critique his movements and expound on his ideas. Here is one such recording...

A Place of Production

Look at that Radical Woman!

My good friend Amanda lent me this book called "Radical Womanhood" by Carolyn McCulley and I must say it is very good. I knew it would be a wonderful book because Amanda read it and we all know that whatever Amanda takes the time to read must be fantastic. Anyway, I am only about half-way through but I came across a statement that really struck me.  The chapter is describing the history of domesticity.  I love history and have thus greatly enjoyed reading this chapter; I find it fun to see the connection between what I know about history and what the author is teaching and expounding on.  All throughout the history of the United States one can see the evident change of perception. For example,  male roles shifting from working in their homes with their sons to working without family in large factories reveals the transition to predominantly female maintained households.  Mind you that is just one example that interestingly enough I learned about in US History by studying the techniques of evangelists during the second great awakening. 

Future Evangelist

Learning about other transitions or even what this sort of transition resulted in for the role of a lady in society has been very interesting.  The shift that really interested me in this chapter, however, was that of the home.  Throughout history something else has been evolving with the roles of men and women and that is how we view our homes.  The author of this book does a good job of sharing it throughout the history and shows that in the early 20th century the role of the home completed a long and drastic change. 

"Thus the shift from the home as a place of production to a place of consumption is completed"

Evidence: "Oreo consumption"

As I said, I knew this, but I had never really stopped to think about it. I yearn for my house to be a place of production. We have a garden, and are striving to turn our land into a fruit producing haven. This thought that every home is merely a place of consumption is truly something to mourn.  I am not a collector of "stuff", but that doesn't mean that I don't find myself wanting some of the luxuries of life. (I need a new computer... my birthday is in 1 week, go to apple.com to buy me one.) Yet I find that shift from producing goods to merely consuming them to be a sad occasion. The woman described in Proverbs 31 does not consume her neighbors produce, in fact I don't think there is even mention that she consumes her own produce. Rather, she produces enough food to provide for her family in the good times and the bad. I am sorry to say that I am not this woman, but I must admit that doesn't sadden me as much as the vacant homes I see from the hours of 9-5 everyday because we are now consumers and no longer producers from our homes. 

The Production Process: push one lego onto another

There is so much more that I can say on this, my mind is reviewing the subtle shift in history, and all of its effects.  The only thing that I can conclude is that the feminists have completely missed the point and without Jesus there is no hope for a better future.