Thanksgiving Thankful Thursday - my BFF

Thanksgiving is always such an exciting time for me, for so many reasons. Of course, there's the actual holiday and all the thankful reflection and good food. Then there's also the fact that, for me, it's the 'official' kick-off of the Christmas season (though this year I've gotten into the spirit a bit earlier than usual). But Thanksgiving also holds another sentimental element for me and that is my wedding anniversary. Yep, this year on Thanksgiving Day (technically yesterday since I'm writing this so late) my dear husband and I have been married for 16 years! I can hardly believe it...I mean, really - am I old enough to be married for 16 years?!?! (Apparently the answer to that is 'yes', though it doesn't feel like it!) We got married on 'Black Friday' evening, in a candelight ceremony, and left the church in a wintery snowfall. We spent our first night in our new home and headed off in the morning for a cozy, romantic honeymoon in Vermont. It was absolutely perfect.

In the past 16 years we've certainly experienced our shares of ups and downs, joys and sorrows. I've thought a lot about what I wanted to say to try and convey my thoughts and feelings about my husband, and my marriage, but I simply cannot find adequate words. Todd is my very best friend, as has been since 10th grade, before we ever began dating. I cannot imagine my life without him. (That's actually why we started dating...he was going to ask another girl out, and the thought of him with someone else was more than I could bear. I showed up in tears at his house and flat out told him I was in love with him. This was before we started dating, mind you!! What can I say...I just knew that I knew!! Crazy, looking back on it...) I've now been with him for more years than I was without.

I truly don't know where I stop and he starts, and vice-versa, because we are so meshed into one-flesh. We share everything from a home to children to ministry. I think we accentuate each others strengths and cover one anothers weaknesses. The other night someone said something to us that I felt was the ultimate compliment...he said, in reference to Todd & I leading Koinonia House, that we operated more like Adam and Eve did in the garden, pre-fall, flowing together in their mission.

We simply don't have a sense of 'him' and 'me' as much as we do 'us'.

It seems like a silly school-girlish thing to say, but I miss him when we are apart. I occasionally text or e-mail him during a work day just to tell him so. I look forward to time together, and can't seem to get enough. After all these years we can still sit for hours and just talk, or simply be together and say nothing, but still be connecting.

Of course, the most amazing product of our years together is our children. Occasionally, we sit at the supper table, look at the chaos and ask each other "where did they all come from???", as it seems like only yesterday we were newlyweds, just exploring the concept of Mr. & Mrs., and here we are "mom" and "dad" to 4 children (one almost a teenager!)!!!

In retrospect, time has flown by. (Of course, in the hard times it surely didn't seem so). God has brought us through more than I could ever recount here. We owe everything to His amazing grace in our lives. As I reflect on all of it, my heart feels like it could nearly burst. I am thankful beyond words for my precious husband and best friend.

Appropriately, just in time to celebrate our anniversary, I was able to make this addition to our bedroom wall. It's a great way to sum up how I feel:
And finally, I invite you to take a stroll down 'memory lane' with me. This is Us, through the years... (Please, keep your laughing and snorting to a minimum...I'm so totally showing my age here...be kind...)

listening

In the past few weeks I have experienced some breakthrough in areas of my life where I was feeling very frustrated. As I was having lunch with a dear friend, and spiritual mom, she asked me what, if anything in particular, that I thought made the difference. There were a few things that I could think of, but one of the biggest was just that we got to connect with some people who I felt like really listened - and heard - our hearts. They offered suggestions here and there, but mostly they just listened, and I think that made me feel validated, and allowed me to gain a fresh perspective on certain situations.

It reminded me how very important listening is. Something Todd & I have learned as a couple over the years is how important it is for emotional well-being for spouses to communicate, but also to listen. I often just want Todd to hear my thoughts, my ideas, my struggles and not necessarily that I want him to fix things, or even necessarily give input, but just to hear me. There's a big difference between asking someone how they're doing, and hoping for the "great!" response, and moving on and actually sitting down and hearing their heart and appreciating whatever it is that is going on in their life.

I'm both thankful to have people in my life to hear me, as well as glad for a fresh reminder to strive to be a listener (not always easy for a 'wordy' person such as myself!!)

shrankly, my dear...

This morning I sent all 3 boys in their room to clean up the mess that looked somewhat akin to the aftermath of a tornado. I instructed them to also make their beds. A bit later I came back to check out the progress. The floor was basically cleaned up, but all of Luke's covers, stuffed animals, etc. were on the floor by his bed. I said "Luke, what happened here?" - as the bed was obviously FAR from 'made'. With a somewhat dejected look on his face he replied "Well, shrankly (translated 'frankly') I tried to make my bed."

Yeah, kiddo...I have days like that too!!

thankful for Koinonia House

I normally don't love Monday mornings, but this particular one I am still so warmed by the wonderful time that I had with my church family last night, that my mood isn't even diminished by the fact that my house is a disaster and I'm heading into a crazy busy week, and need to fly around like 'something in a mitten' (have no idea where that phrase came from!)to get everything ready. (Whew! Sorry for that run-on sentence! I'm out of breath just from typing it!)

Anyway, I wanted to take just a minute to share with you the beautiful time we had last night at our "Kids & Coffee" night at church. Our original goal with it was to try and have an 'interactive' service that focused more purposefully on integrating the large percentage of kids we have into our corporate Celebration service. However, over time it sort of dwindled into just a longer 'kids church' time, separate from the adults. But last night, we decided to make it a 'giving thanks' focus and keep everyone together. I had asked everyone in advance to come prepared to share something - be it simply something they were thankful for, a verse, a poem, a testimony - whatever. And we planned to intermix it with worship songs. I was a little nervous, not knowing if everyone really liked the idea or not, but I was so thrilled when so many people stepped up and contributed. It felt like a real 'family time', as people shared very heartfelt and emotional things that they were thankful for or that God had brought them through this year. Some people shared stories, songs and prayed over the whole group. The kids participated by reading a verse, reciting a poem, and generally sharing their thoughts about thankfulness.

My heart just swelled with joy as I looked over what was happening and felt fully revived in knowing that I was seeing a huge part of our vision of what we want Koinonia House to happening - finally happening - right before my eyes! I looked out and saw new faces, being included, embraced and participating. I saw people who had been gone for a while returning. I saw adults, kids, marrieds, singles, teens and toddlers together - all being part of what was going on. I can't even tell you how much I am filled with hope, and how this passage from Philippians 1 just rings within me today:

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

The snow kept coming yesterday, off and on, and in the late afternoon it actually started to lay. (It's still snowing today, by the way.) The kids were very excited to take Maggie out in her first snow, and she was cute to watch. She sniffs it and then sort of does this snort/half sneeze to remove that which is now stuck to her snout. Pretty comical.
Til last night there was enough snow on the ground to crunch under my feet when I took Mags out for her final 'potty' of the night. I love being out in the still darkness of a snowy night. It also makes me REALLY excited for the holidays. This is one of my most favorite times of the year...maybe the most favorite, although it's a definitely a toss-up between the holidays and summer (summer's longer, warmer, no school, vacation - and of course, baseball - so I'd be really torn to have to choose one or the other). But there's just something so peaceful about the holidays and winter and snow. Just makes me want to be very still and quiet and savor every moment.

Thankful Thursday - part 2

Yesterday we did some fun Thanksgiving activities. We started by reading a 'Treehouse Mystery' book called "Thanksgiving on Thursday". The story was about a brother and sister who get transported back in time to the first Thanksgiving and get to meet the Pilgrims (including Governor Bradford, Capt. Miles Standish and others), and Squanto and help prepare for that first Thanksgiving feast. It was just enough 'fiction' adventure mixed in with historical fact to keep all of them interested for the entire book, which was about 75 pages. (Well, Lukey fell asleep, but that's because he was tired out from crying over a boo-boo and it was almost nap time...).

Then we went at gathered a few branches to decorate our Thanksgiving Tree. We put the branches in a vase and filled it with sand to keep it upright. Then the kids took colorful leaves (that I had cut out of construction paper ahead of time) and wrote things they were thankful for, and we hung them on the branches. It was a lot of fun, and the kids had so many things they were thankful for I had to cut out more leaves! Of course, no project in our family goes completely smoothly, so there was a bit of bickering over who thought of it first to write thankful for 'brothers' and 'sister' - which made for quite an amusing irony - fighting over being thankful for each other! :)
Included on the leaves of our tree (in no particular order other than what I can see from where I'm sitting right now...) are grandparents, brothers, sister, cousins, aunts & uncles, God, electricity, toys, Glick's new house, mom, dad, Jesus, the cross, our dog, food, water, ice cream, house, the USA, Christmas, books, Pottstown & Stowe, clothes, Nanny, Kelsey, PS2, music and Elley. (While Luke was writing Elley, he was explaining how he loved her and was going to be nice to her now - which is actually why he didn't want to share his scissors with her...because he didn't want her to get hurt. Uh-huh. That one should probably win the award for 'most creativity of the day'!)

Thankful Thursday

I'm feeling particularly thankful today for...

• warmth
• family
• holiday excitement
• my fridge working again!!
• our ministry overseers
• healthy kids (and my own health)
• music
• chocolate and salt (it's just that kind of day ok???)
  
• season changes - not just weather, but seasons of life
• and speaking of seasons...I'm thankful for this sight out my window this morning...in case you can't really see it...that's SNOW!!
  

she's growing!

what game are you?

You Are Scrabble

You are incredibly clever and witty. You can talk your way out of (and into) situations easily. You are an excellent decision maker. You are good at weighing the options in front of you. You're the type of person who can make something out of nothing. You are very resourceful. You know a lot of things. Most importantly, you know when people are wrong - even when they won't admit it.

What Board Game Are You?

missing you

My Dear, Dear Blog (and all my bloggy friends!) how I do miss thee...

Longing to return soon...

a garden treasure

Just wanted to quickly share a treasure I came across during school today. We've been reading Peter Rabbit for Seth's language arts, and so along the theme of animals and gardens, I pulled out a book that we've had for some time, but I don't remember reading with the kids before. It's called "How Groundhog's Garden Grew" and in addition to having the most wonderful illustrations, it tells through a delightful story about Squirrel & Groundhog, how to really grow a garden! The story explains in detail so much, including how plants grow from seeds, what animals do in the winter months, what perennials are and so much more. It also teaches concepts such as not stealing, sharing and thankfulness. It's one of the best children's books I've read in a while! And here it's been sitting on my shelf for who-knows-how long!?! Oh, well. It was a bright spot in my day, and I'm happy to recommend it to you!

thankful thursday

Today is Thursday, and while I've missed many a 'Thankful Thursday' post, it's not because I haven't been thankful, just felt like I've been taken out by a tidal wave called life! But I sort of feel like I'm having one of those "I-get-to-come-up-and-take-some-big-gulps-of-air" weeks, so I even realized this morning that today is Thursday!! (And that's no small thing, my friends, for me to actually know what day it is!!) So here goes...

1. SO thankful that I seem to be getting in somewhat of a 'groove' with the new charter school thing...not sure we'll do this same thing again next year, but I at least feel like I can make it thru this year.
2. Thrilled the elections are over and I can stop getting 5+ calls per day with recorded voices asking me to vote!!
3. Deeply thankful for the settled peace in my heart that no matter who is our president, Jesus is still King of Kings
4. Thankful for the wonderful fall season, which best of all means Christmas is just around the corner!! (And I LOVE Christmas!!)
5. Thankful for old friends and good memories
6. Really appreciating our local public library lately
7. Loving that 3 out of 4 Clemmer children can shower and dress themselves!!
8. Giving thanks for my cozy little house, even though there's many things I'd like to change, at least I have a home.
9. Thankful that my sis has a nice big house where we can now comfortably have family dinners without everyone being right on top of each other! (I'm getting into holiday mode now...can you tell?)
   
10. So thankful that I'm married to my best friend, who I love being with, talking with, and just can't seem to get enough time with!!
    

considering

In all the post-election reflecting I've been doing, and praying for God to realign my focus and heart (as I mentioned in my previous post recognizing how overly-vested in this all I've been), I've been challenged by a few videos we came across. Here's one of the clips I found very interesting, thought-provoking and challenging. I know that generally most of my readers aren't really big 'commenters' for some reason (I do so wish you folks would weigh in - I love comments!), but I'd love to hear any responses or thoughts you have after watching this clip. I have several thoughts/opinions, and though I won't share any of them at the moment, I will just say that I really like and respect all three of the men on this panel and find what each says worth consideration. If you like the discussion, there are more clips on youtube discussing various topics.


Also, for a good, challenging, Biblical perspective on what our response should be, as Christians, to the outcome of the election can be found here:

http://bobhyatt.typepad.com/bobblog/2008/11/why-im-thankful-for-obama.html

new recipe

I tried this new recipe tonight, and it went over well. I put a bit too much salsa & cheese on, so the tortilla chips got soggy, and the boys didn't love that, but overall, it was VERY yummy, and I'll definitely be making it again!!


Baked Taco Chicken

1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 1/2 - 2 tablespoons finely crushed tortilla chips
2 teaspoons taco seasoning mix
2 tablespoons shredded Cheddar cheese
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
Salsa


Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a small shallow baking pan with heavy foil. Spray with nonstick spray.
Place breasts on foil.

In a small bowl, stir together mayonnaise and taco seasoning mix. Spread over chicken. Sprinkle chips over, pressing them in lightly. Sprinkle with cheese.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until cooked through.

Spoon salsa across the top. Serve with additional salsa.

now's the time to pray

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation.
~I Timothy 2:1-2 (The Message)

At first watching last nights' election coverage made me disappointed, then angry, and then even somewhat fearful. And then I realized what idolatry is in my own life that would dictate me allowing myself to indulge in such emotions. I had a choice to make, and that choice is to "walk my talk" and truly believe that God is in control, and He has purposes that will be accomplished. I also began to contemplate the many reasons God might have for bringing Barack Obama to the presidency at this historic moment, not the least of which might be to bring refinement to his Bride, the Church. It is certainly high time that we tear down our own idols, of which trusting in a political system is certainly one. It is time that we focus on the task at hand - the same one that has always been at hand, even when we might have been distracted by the election swirl around us - and that is to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost and hurting world. If only we (or maybe I should just personalize it and say "I") would show such fervor and passion about that as we do about the worldly political system!

Don't misunderstand, my heart is truly grieved for the millions of babies that we, as a country, will continue to kill. I dread the thought that over the next four years my educational choices for my children may be greatly changed/limited. I take no joy in looking at the possibilites of entering into an even greater healthcare mess, once the government is given more control of it. I have concerns about our national security, among other things...and figure that maybe, just maybe, this is the exact place God wants me to be. Absolutely no where to look but to him. Just a reminder of what I should have already been doing.

As I watched President-Elect Obama's speech last night my heart was softened as I watched him. I saw him through eyes of compassion for a man about to step up to take over quite possibly the hardest, most dangerous job in the world. This is a man who really needs to have a revelation from God, not just once, but daily. I have begun praying that he would come to know a real relationship with Jesus that would begin to guide him and strengthen him.

changes...

He's come a long way, baby...


And who said she could grow up?? (Kate wanted bangs, but I think they make her look older!!)

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!!!

Cuz I just love 'em that much... Nearly brings tears to my eyes (really!!)... Can't wait til next year!!!

updates from Clemmerville

Wow, the past week and a half has been just so event-filled that I have not had a free minute to post. I'll try to give you the quick run-down...

Last Friday was "Apple Day". We made 5 1/2 bushels of apples into applesauce...90 quarts of applesauce, in fact!! It was a 'hands-on' school day that included, in addition to the apple sauce making, a few fun lessons and crafts about apples, led by another homeschooling-mom friend of mine. It was wonderful to be able to do this in Betsy's BIG new kitchen!! Here's a few pics of that.

Then, last weekend, we had our first Koinonia House ladies' retreat. Eight of us headed out for dinner at the Olive Garden and a night at Heidi's Bed & Breakfast...a wonderfully relaxing (and oh-so-affordable!) B&B owned by a pastor & his wife of a church in our network. We played some games, watched a chick-flick, and then stayed up til an outrageous hour to watch the end of the Phillies game (the game had been in a rain delay for several hours, so didn't start til around 9:30 or 10!). Needless to say there was lots of laughter, and then we had a good time worshipping together and sharing our hearts in the morning before heading home.

Monday started my week with Seth having an asthma attack. This totally caught me off-guard since he has never had breathing issues of any kind before. So Monday we made a visit to the Emergency Care center, Tuesday to our family doc, who sent us for breathing tests and bloodwork on Thursday at the hospital. The conclusion of all that is that Seth is okay, and they are testing to see if maybe the problem was triggered by seasonal allergies. (I did ask about the possibility of the attack being related to our newest 'family member' - Maggie - but the doc said the chances were slim.) All this was happening while I, myself, was sick!

Finally, last night we hosted our 3rd Annual Light in the Night. It's an event we hold at our house for the community to come and play games, have free hot dogs, popcorn and drinks, and get LOTS of candy!! While it seemed to be a bit smaller than last year, there were still probably about 40 people or so that came that were in addition to our church gang, so if even one life is touched, I consider it all worth it. Of course, for some reason my camera wouldn't work, so I wasn't able to get pics of my little Zorro, Mr. Incredible, Eagles football player or '50's girl (or me, dressed as a little girl in my PJ's and pigtails), but if I can get some from a friend I'll share them when I can.

So...that was long, but I think you're all caught up. Oh, yes, one more thing - we all basked in the joyous thrill of the Phillies BIG WIN!!!!! Everything else aside, that made it a GREAT WEEK!!!