Happy Birthday, Julie!

See you tonight! So glad you're a Whocaresian. Hope you are, too, haha. :)

(photo credit: D. & her magical camera)

lighter

it's almost the new year. off with the old, eh?

A Very Unseasonable & Random Question

Have any of you married Whocarsians had your wedding gowns preserved? I am in the process of purging my house of unnecessary stuff (a depressingly endless task unfortunately) and now that I have a daughter, it dawned on me that the white trash-bag preservation system I have jimmy-rigged for my dress might not be a quality and long-lasting choice for when Ella is older. I can't imagine the style will hold-out or the design will be something she likes, but there are layers of fabric to work with, a shawl, a nice slip and a garter at the bottom of the garbage bag that might give her some choices to alter or change the dress into something she does love... that is, if it makes it another 20+ years. So, suggestions friends?
Thanks.

merry christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS DEAR FRIENDS! I'M PASSING LOTS OF LOVE TO YOU RIGHT THIS MINUTE!

here are some pictures from christmas eve. have a great day. don't shoot your eye out.

love angel music caron

i was talking with caron just now and she told me that she's going to play an angel in her church's christmas service tonight. long white robe. halo. the works. she's doing the annunciation. which makes her gabriel, i think. and although i'm posting this to tease her a little, it's cool that she gets to re-enact a pivotal moment in the nativity story and gets to say words that reverberate through the hearts of believers celebrating christmas all over the world tonight.

"How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?"The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God."
"I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said."

On break!

This morning Linus heard me wishing Kyle a happy vacation (he gets 1 1/2 weeks off!!!) to which Linus said, "Mom, you have a vacation every day because you stay home with us." Almost, Linus. It is almost like a vacation.

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday break and great time with your families. Merry Christmas Eve!

check molly

i've been reading molly balint's blog, mommycoddle, for the past year.  it's the kind of blog that doesn't overwhelm but inspires.  motivates.  reminds.  

anyhow, she started posting a special column at babycenter called "a bushel and a peck".  her most recent post hit me square in the middle of my forehead and knocked me down.  well, actually, it slay all of my homeschool-mama-angst and replaced it with the tranquility that comes from remembering the WHY behind the WHAT.  READ IT.  her ideas are great. her manner is my cup o tea.  and her sugar cookie recipe is perfecto!  

This is so funny. I love it.

home sweet homaha

jenifer altman, of nectar and light, just wrote a lovely little design guide to omaha for design*sponge. i know most of you are regulars to both of those sites, but thought it might be happy news for any omahoneys who hadn't seen it.

A very happy (a bit late!) birthday, Brooke!

what's that black smoke rising?

some of my favorite memories during college days were spent at house-shows, watching musicians perform for friends, friends of friends, and their parents and neighbors--people sitting on floors, staircases, standing in hallways. the music is right there in front of you...the sound is so near that there's no need for an amplifier or microphone. the notes sung are near enough that they could almost be a whisper in your ear.

i saw this video and it reminded me of those cozy living room sets and how i'm always a little disappointed at big shows because there's no whisper. (oh, it wasn't all whispers & butterflies. once, at kaite's house [which was one block from our old house on 48th avenue], while son, ambulence was playing, monica & i were showered with busch light & later someone puked on my left tennis shoe on our way out).  but it's the different between seeing a photograph of a painting...and being close enough to touch the real thing.

The Lion of Judah

I particularly enjoy Dorothy Sayers' quote on the matter. I toss my hat in the ring for her as our next book club author (or authour depending on where you're from).


The Lion in the Manger
Jill Carattini

It is a strange story. There were shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel appeared to them, telling them not to be afraid. A baby had been born, and they could find him wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. To a peasant mother outside of Bethlehem, the Son of God was born.

If I take a step back from the familiar hum of Advent to consider the story we are really waiting for, I am thrown off my usual Christmas kilter. This is not really the innocuous historical narrative I imagine. This is not a tame story. The bright lights and colors of our Christmas pageants can easily paint over the stark scenery of a story that startles all of history. Who understands this God who comes as a child, who steps into our world through a dirty stable and the unlikely arms of an unwed mother?

Yet even long before these strange additions to the story of God among his people, the prophets were asking similar questions: "Who has understood the mind of the LORD?" (Isaiah 40:13). This God who moves among us, touching all of life and history is not the quiet and tame being we often imagine. God’s ways are not our ways. God’s stories are not the kind of stories we would write if the telling were up to us. But God’s thoughts are the kind of thoughts that expose deception and shine in darkness, that shatter hearts and rewrite stories.

It is the same with the child born in a stable two thousand years ago. The infant we remember lying peacefully in a manger with cattle lowing nearby did not take long to fulfill the words spoken to his young parents: "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too" (Luke 2:34-35). Is this the child we are anticipating this Advent?

British author Dorothy Sayers once lamented the manner in which Jesus is often remembered: he is the quiet sage full of wisdom, the safe and peaceful one of history. He is, for all practical purposes, somewhat dull, someone we might be interested in at a later time. Yet Sayers writes:

"The people who hanged Christ never, to do them justice, accused him of being a bore--on the contrary, they thought him too dynamic to be safe. It has been left for later generations to muffle up that shattering personality and surround him with an atmosphere of tedium. We have very efficiently pared the claws of the Lion of Judah, certified him 'meek and mild,' and recommended him as a fitting household pet for pale curates and pious old ladies."(1)



Advent is a time of anticipation not for the harmless baby surrounded by lights and presents, but for the dynamic savior who is born into our midst in a way that must forever change us. "Do you want to be delivered?" asked Dietrich Bonhoeffer in an Advent sermon more than 70 years ago. "That is the only really important and decisive question which Advent poses for us. Does there burn within us some lingering longing to know what deliverance really means? If not, what would Advent then mean to us? A bit of sentimentality. A little lifting of the spirit within us? A little kinder mood? But if there is something in this word Advent which we have not yet known, that strangely warms our heart; if we suspect that it could, once more, once more, mean a turning point in our life, a turning to God, to Christ--why then are we not simply obedient, listening and hearing in our ears the clear call: Your deliverance draws nigh!"(2)

In this season of Advent we remember a strange and drastic story. We anticipate nothing less than the Lion of Judah wrapped in swaddling cloths. We anticipate the coming of a Savior unhindered. Indeed, our deliverance draws nigh.

Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

(1) Dorothy Sayers, The Whimsical Christian, "The Greatest Drama Ever Staged," (New York: Collier Books, 1978), 14.

(2) Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Christmas Sermons Edwin Robertson Ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005), 93.

For Caron

a tradition: kind of.

it has become a tradition for my brother to bring a cake whenever my family gets together. not just any cake, though, a cake from dinkel's bakery in chicago, my mom's very favorite bakery ever. she boasts that they have the best buttercream frosting ever. and usually he brings the same cake, i think it has coconut, and pecans, and of course the buttercream frosting.

but this year, he took a different route. and thanksgiving will never be the same without a turkey made of cake and loads of frosting.

For Darby: the Perry mishap family photos

These are the photos that just don't quite make the cut. We look haggard. The kids look a little possessed. Just not exactly the "warm-fuzzy" family photos we were hoping for :-) Darby encouraged me to post the not-so-good photos just for fun.

I've always wanted to visit the White House at Christmas

If I can't go, at least I got to send a little piece of me! (I did the lettering...)

Javaluyah!

It's late. I thought this was funny. Maybe it's not. Cheers anyway!

breakfast anyone?

What: December Who Cares Breakfast

Where: Julie's house (email me if you need the address or directions)

When: Wednesday, December 3rd, 7:00 a.m. til whenever

Why: Because it is lovely to see you all monthly over coffee.....and Caron is in town and MAY be able to come (cross our collective fingers).


I will provide hot coffee, chai and cidar (and Christmas cheer) if you all will provide the food items! (It is the best I could do with a newborn and toddler). Kids welcome - lots of toys (and a Finley) to play with!

Sorry for the late invite... we just discussed it on Saturday and then I got violently ill with some sort of bug or food poisoning. Eeek! But I am on the mend now.