One morning last week, I was reading Colossians 3:12-17 in The Message, and was struck by the phrase, "Cultivate thankfulness". In God's perfect ways, Daniel and I actually had time to sit down and eat breakfast together that morning, and I read him those passages, taking a minute to talk about what it means to cultivate thankfulness. That same morning in my email, I had a link to a blog that was about the same theme, even to the extent of mentioning the same passage in Colossians and cultivating thankfulness! God is so awesome!
Well, I wanted to share this blog with you, because the writer has been sharing some great exercises to help us cultivate thankfulness. I hope that this week will be a time of thankfulness for you, whatever your circumstances are, and that we can all take time to remember what God has done for us in Christ.
Daniel and I are going to take a quick trip to East Tennessee today to see some friends, but I'll look forward to any comments you have when I get back.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Our funny family
Tonight our family had an impromptu dinner at Publix! It was Jeanette's idea and she invited us to come along to the holiday sampling night at our neighborhood Publix. Daniel and I wavered at first, but then we changed our minds and decided to join in the fun. When we got there, Jeanette and Russell were already there, along with Erica, who slept through most of it. We got in line for the "main meal": turkey, ham, dressing, spinach, sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes--all you can eat--on a small dessert plate. :-) Oh, and I forgot the dessert. Little tiny slivers (samples, mind you) of sweet potato pie or pumpkin pie (and also the other samples of cakes/pastries before you got to the "main meal" line.)
After we got our plates filled, we were standing around eating, and Jeanette said, "Since we're not going to be together on Thanksgiving, this is our Thanksgiving meal together!" I said we should all go around and say what we're thankful for. Like I said, we have a funny family.
Well, then we moved on to the produce section, where they had samples of veggies and dip and then apples and dip, followed by apple cider. We skipped the shrimp cocktail samples and "helped" Russell and Jeanette, who actually had some grocery shopping to do. There was more ham and some of those little cocktail weiners and sausage balls, then we got ice cream samples and egg nog down in the dairy foods. We finished out the night with a white chocolate pretzel and some cranberry 7-Up. Quite a smorgasboard!
Another funny thing was that we ran into some friends who were doing their weekly shopping. When we stopped to talk to Julie, she said that Wesley (her husband) had already reported to her that our whole family was out at Publix together for the holiday samples!
And before you wonder where Grandma and Grandpa were, they arrived just before the rest of us were leaving, so there actually were a few minutes that our whole family was at Publix together!
What a funny (and in my opinion, FUN) family we have! They're some of what I'm most thankful for at Thanksgiving and all year long!
After we got our plates filled, we were standing around eating, and Jeanette said, "Since we're not going to be together on Thanksgiving, this is our Thanksgiving meal together!" I said we should all go around and say what we're thankful for. Like I said, we have a funny family.
Well, then we moved on to the produce section, where they had samples of veggies and dip and then apples and dip, followed by apple cider. We skipped the shrimp cocktail samples and "helped" Russell and Jeanette, who actually had some grocery shopping to do. There was more ham and some of those little cocktail weiners and sausage balls, then we got ice cream samples and egg nog down in the dairy foods. We finished out the night with a white chocolate pretzel and some cranberry 7-Up. Quite a smorgasboard!
Another funny thing was that we ran into some friends who were doing their weekly shopping. When we stopped to talk to Julie, she said that Wesley (her husband) had already reported to her that our whole family was out at Publix together for the holiday samples!
And before you wonder where Grandma and Grandpa were, they arrived just before the rest of us were leaving, so there actually were a few minutes that our whole family was at Publix together!
What a funny (and in my opinion, FUN) family we have! They're some of what I'm most thankful for at Thanksgiving and all year long!
Monday, November 17, 2008
You know you're NOT a teenager when . . .
. . . the guy on the radio has to explain to his listeners who the group Journey is!
I was listening to Wally on Total Axxess on WAY-FM tonight and happened to tune in just as he was feeling the need to explain that Journey was a band in the 70s and 80s blah, blah, blah. Let me tell you, it's not fun to suddenly realize that there has been a whole generation of kids born since that band was in its heydey! Yikes! My high school marching band had "Open Arms" in the repertoire for two seasons, for crying out loud! By the way, Wally was telling about Journey because the song "Don't Stop Believing" has become i-Tunes' most downloaded song of all pre-digital releases, or something like that. Blah, blah, blah. :-)
In other VERY exciting news . . . I just found out tonight that one of my bestest friends from college (and currently) is moving to the Nashville area with her family!!!!! Rhesa and her husband, Philip, and their girls, Rebekah and Rachel, are some dear friends who Daniel and I have enjoyed going to visit in KY. We've had some fun times out on the lake in their boat and we just all have a good time when we're together. Well, now we won't have to just get together once a year . . . they'll be so close! They don't know exactly where they'll land yet, but we can pray it's in the southern part of the Nashville area and that they will have a smooth transition to new housing, schools, church, etc. Yea!!!! I'm soooo excited!
I was listening to Wally on Total Axxess on WAY-FM tonight and happened to tune in just as he was feeling the need to explain that Journey was a band in the 70s and 80s blah, blah, blah. Let me tell you, it's not fun to suddenly realize that there has been a whole generation of kids born since that band was in its heydey! Yikes! My high school marching band had "Open Arms" in the repertoire for two seasons, for crying out loud! By the way, Wally was telling about Journey because the song "Don't Stop Believing" has become i-Tunes' most downloaded song of all pre-digital releases, or something like that. Blah, blah, blah. :-)
In other VERY exciting news . . . I just found out tonight that one of my bestest friends from college (and currently) is moving to the Nashville area with her family!!!!! Rhesa and her husband, Philip, and their girls, Rebekah and Rachel, are some dear friends who Daniel and I have enjoyed going to visit in KY. We've had some fun times out on the lake in their boat and we just all have a good time when we're together. Well, now we won't have to just get together once a year . . . they'll be so close! They don't know exactly where they'll land yet, but we can pray it's in the southern part of the Nashville area and that they will have a smooth transition to new housing, schools, church, etc. Yea!!!! I'm soooo excited!
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
You know you have a teenager when . . .
. . . you ask for his Christmas list and he texts it to you on your phone.
Me: Why can't you just write it down for me?
Him: I can just send it to everyone.
Me: Well, Grandma doesn't have texting on her plan, so please don't send it to her.
Me: Why can't you just write it down for me?
Him: I can just send it to everyone.
Me: Well, Grandma doesn't have texting on her plan, so please don't send it to her.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Word association quiz
What do you think of when you hear the word "Milwaukee" (as in Wisconsin)????
Brewers . . . breweries . . . Happy Days . . . Laverne & Shirley (and Lenny & Squiggy) . . . cold . . . snow.
Well, for most of my life, when I heard that word, I immediately associated it with some of my relatives on the Ryals side of the family. Uncle Dean, my dad's brother, moved there as a single man out of grad school, married his wife, Chris, and they raised five kids there (4 boys and a girl, with one of the boys and the girl being twins born on Christmas Day 1976). I can remember going to visit the Dean Ryals family at least twice during my growing up years. One time when I was probably three years old, it was Christmastime and there was a LOT of snow on the ground. I mainly remember seeing my mom fall off of a snow mobile and crying because I thought she was hurt (she wasn't and got up laughing). The other time was in August when I was twelve, and I remember going to the zoo and feeling so big because I could carry my one-year-old twin cousins (probably not at the same time) and do things to make them laugh. My uncle has now passed away, but Aunt Chris, and two of the "boys" are still in the Milwaukee area.
Fast-forward to June 2005, when I started my job at Northwestern Mutual Financial Network. Suddenly, I had a new association with Milwaukee, since that is where the "home office" for NMFN is located. Over the past three and a half years, I have had the opportunity to go to Milwaukee on business four times, and have been able to reconnect with my aunt and cousins while up there. This past week, during dinner with Aunt Chris, Keith and Dennis, my aunt brought out some yellowed, folded pages, that turned out to be a story I wrote when I was in third or fourth grade about a mom who gave birth to twins (a boy and a girl) on Chrismas Day. It just happened that I wrote the story for school in mid-December, and then Aunt Chris actually had twins, my cousins, Dennis and Cindy, on Christmas Day that year! My mom had sent the story to my aunt and she had kept it all of these years. We all had a laugh reading my story at the restaurant the other night.
I'd say being able to see Aunt Chris and my cousins after all these years is one of the best "perks" I've received from my job at NMFN! And next time I go to Milwaukee, I need to look for the famed "Bronze Fonz" statue my cousin told me about . . .
Brewers . . . breweries . . . Happy Days . . . Laverne & Shirley (and Lenny & Squiggy) . . . cold . . . snow.
Well, for most of my life, when I heard that word, I immediately associated it with some of my relatives on the Ryals side of the family. Uncle Dean, my dad's brother, moved there as a single man out of grad school, married his wife, Chris, and they raised five kids there (4 boys and a girl, with one of the boys and the girl being twins born on Christmas Day 1976). I can remember going to visit the Dean Ryals family at least twice during my growing up years. One time when I was probably three years old, it was Christmastime and there was a LOT of snow on the ground. I mainly remember seeing my mom fall off of a snow mobile and crying because I thought she was hurt (she wasn't and got up laughing). The other time was in August when I was twelve, and I remember going to the zoo and feeling so big because I could carry my one-year-old twin cousins (probably not at the same time) and do things to make them laugh. My uncle has now passed away, but Aunt Chris, and two of the "boys" are still in the Milwaukee area.
Fast-forward to June 2005, when I started my job at Northwestern Mutual Financial Network. Suddenly, I had a new association with Milwaukee, since that is where the "home office" for NMFN is located. Over the past three and a half years, I have had the opportunity to go to Milwaukee on business four times, and have been able to reconnect with my aunt and cousins while up there. This past week, during dinner with Aunt Chris, Keith and Dennis, my aunt brought out some yellowed, folded pages, that turned out to be a story I wrote when I was in third or fourth grade about a mom who gave birth to twins (a boy and a girl) on Chrismas Day. It just happened that I wrote the story for school in mid-December, and then Aunt Chris actually had twins, my cousins, Dennis and Cindy, on Christmas Day that year! My mom had sent the story to my aunt and she had kept it all of these years. We all had a laugh reading my story at the restaurant the other night.
I'd say being able to see Aunt Chris and my cousins after all these years is one of the best "perks" I've received from my job at NMFN! And next time I go to Milwaukee, I need to look for the famed "Bronze Fonz" statue my cousin told me about . . .
Monday, October 20, 2008
Happy Birthday, Dad!
Yesterday we celebrated my dad's 72nd birthday with lunch from Bar-b-Cutie and an ice cream cake (his special request). I love that my dad can live close to his two grandchildren, Daniel and Erica. I realize that we are blessed to be able to be living in the same city (even within two miles of each other) and that we all are happy about that! Our family spent many years living miles apart, so we don't take this for granted.
We took the traditional birthday pics (for our family, it's blowing out the candles and holding up the gifts after they're opened), but I also got some great shots of Dad, Jeanette and Erica. The blue and pink quilt has special meaning, because when Dad became a Grandpa for the first time, thirteen years ago, he brought this quilt back from his trip to Ridgecrest, NC, a favorite and memory-filled family vacation spot. Now, his new baby granddaughter can benefit from his gift. Only God knew back in 1995 that a quilt with both blue and pink squares would be appropriate for Dad's grandchildren!
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Highlights from a great weekend
We didn't have any huge plans going into the weekend, but it was fun and relaxing and we got to spend some time with family and friends and just hang out together at home. Here are some of the highlights:
- Visiting Erica during some "awake" time on Friday night and watching her play on her activity mat. She was six weeks old on Friday and is starting to smile and be aware of things around her.
- Going to the Celebration of Cultures in Centennial Park with Daniel, Grandpa, Jeanette, Russell and Erica (Grandma was at a conference at her church and we missed her being with us).
- Shopping and dinner with Daniel on Saturday night (white chocolate lava cake at Chili's is "to die for" and having Daniel actually let me play guitar while he played the drums on the Rock Band demo in the store was so fun!).
- Today's experience of communion, along with the sermon from Exodus and the Gospel Transformation lesson this afternoon, were all evidences that God is at work in all things to grow me closer to Him.
- Spending Sunday afternoon sitting out on the deck with a book while Daniel and his friend, Ryan, ran down the street yelling "Five and O, five and O, five and O" after the Titans beat the Ravens put a big smile on my face!
Well, nothing was really earth-shattering, but it added up to a good weekend for me and Daniel.
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