Spirit of Christmas

Happy New Year! I have a new hard drive! I’m online at home once again, and I have a LOT to catch up on in the blogosphere. We begin just prior to Christmas, since my hard drive crashed shortly before that wild & crazy holiday.

When we last saw our author, she was deep into the final planning stages of the largest event that she coordinates as part of her job – Give-A-Gift. The Give-A-Gift ministry program gives families-in-need the opportunity to “shop” for Christmas gifts for their children. Donated gifts are collected throughout November & December, the gifts are sorted by age & price, and then a festive “store” is set-up for one-day only. Each shopper makes an appointment to go through this “store” and choose gifts for each of their children and then “purchase” them at 10% retail (or less). Volunteers staff the store as well as gift-wrapping stations where the shoppers can have all their gifts wrapped and tagged for free. SOOO much fun!

In case you are wondering, the 10% “fee” is charged so that the shoppers are empowered by this small investment. For the shopper who finds even 10% a challenge, we gladly offer “gift certificates”. All proceeds go directly back into the program.

The final statistics for this year’s event were as follows:

90 shoppers selected an average of 4-5 gifts for almost 300 children.

83 Volunteers worked over 400 hours to prepare, staff, and clean-up the store.

Gift donations totaled over $10,000 retail.

Those are the kind of Christmas statistics I like to hear! If you’re interested in hearing how a family can be impacted by this program, click on the picture above.

Personal-Space Invader

Below is a link to a fav cartoon.  I can’t recommend all this guy’s stuff, but this one is good-for-a-giggle

via Space by kris-wilson on deviantART

living intentionally

I love the following verse that someone sent me, and find it challenging:

You are the type of woman that when you wake up the devil says “Oh Crap!  She’s up.”

Someday this memory MIGHT be funny!

OK, I had to follow a serious post with a funny one.  O-M-G!

via Butterfinger Comedy Network on Yahoo Video

Ten Days of Awe : Day 7

Laughter is the best medicine  or, as the bible says it ”A cheerful heart is good medicine” (Proverbs 17:22).  This passage was not in my daily bible reading, but this was the focus on the 7th Day of Awe.

I’ve been understandably “down” due to surgery & recovery.  Yesterday, I treasured a few good laughs, and I noticed something significant.  I felt better.  If you click on the photo to the right, you’ll find an article about “How Laughter Works”.  Apart from the science, true hilarious laughter simply makes you feel good.

Mike’s sister gave him a remote-controlled ”Fart Machine” for his birthday.  This created a great deal of snickering and guffawing, but my husband would occasionally just be “gone”.  When something strikes Mike’s funny bone, he will laugh uncontrollably, unable to speak, sometimes unable to breathe.  The more he tries to stop, the more he laughs.  I can get a good laugh just watching him, even when I’m not sure WHY he’s laughing!

As I thought about this, I also came to realize that there is good, healthy laughter, but there are other kinds as well.  The following kinds of laughter are NOT necessarily good medicine:

• Laughing at someone’s expense -  Personally, I do not like satire for just this reason.  The humor generally involves making fun of someone, and it’s hurtful.  Even if something about it is funny, there should be some part of us that realizes it’s not kind.  If we become numb to that, we’re nothing more than a bully.
• Laughter that covers up another emotion – Many famous comedians have tragic backgrounds.  Laughter can be used to cover up emotional pain.  Not everyone can become a comedian, most people end up in emotional upheaval.  In recent popular movies, some of the most disturbing evil characters are the ones that find their crimes funny.
• Fake Laughter – While this could be thought of as polite, most people can tell if laughter is genuine.  You may conjure up a smile at a bad joke, but you don’t have to offer the “fake laugh”.

Last night, I ended my day watching TV Bloopers (Abby sent me a You Tube link).  Some of my favorite TV shows and actors, making silly and stupid mistakes.  It was hilarious, and I slept well.

Ten Days of Awe : Day 5

So, Day 5 was interesting.  I’m recovering from surgery, some out-of-town family have come to visit, my chronic illness support group meets, and it’s my husband’s 55th birthday.  His one and only request was to go into Pittsburgh to see the Fireworks Celebration planned for the 250th anniversary of the city.  Whew!

I stuck to my reading plan (Psalm 4, Proverb 4, Romans 5), stayed off heavy pain meds for the day, and rested.  No one showed up for HopeKeepers, so we went down into the ‘Burgh.  Oh, the humanity!  Tons of traffic and people.  Big stuff for rural folk like us.  We found a perfect seat right along the river and enjoyed the most amazing fireworks display I’ve ever seen.

They had five barge launch-sites in the rivers surrounding the downtown area, each setting off perfectly coordinated “finale-type” displays one after the other for over 30 minutes.  Four of the tallest buildings launched fireworks from their roof tops.  The Point, a park where the three rivers meet, was also used for some special fireworks, and some other displays were launched from a bridge opposite The Point.  You couldn’t watch it all at once!  It was massive and definitely AWEsome!  An incredible way to celebrate my hubby’s birthday, and the halfway point through my Ten Days of Awe!

I honestly spent most of the day dreading this trip into the city.  I didn’t think I’d have the energy to deal with the people, the traffic, the lateness of the hour….but I’m so glad I persevered.  It was a memorable family moment.

print too small??

Not sure if it’s the theme of my blog or my monitor or what…but sometimes the print seems AWFULLY small!  I’ve noticed this on other websites too.  No, I do not need glasses and No, I’m not in denial (not yet).

I recently discovered a nifty trick, if you are like me, and you can practice it right now while you are reading!

Simultaneously hold down the CONTROL button and the SHIFT button directly above it (bottom left of your keyboard).  While you are holding these buttons press the plus (+) sign (at the right end of the top row of numbers).  Press it as many times as you need to to enlarge the screen as needed.  To adjust, you can press the “minus” sign (left of the plus) to decrease the size.

See, I don’t need glasses!

Wall of Sound

This is one of my favorite videos, and I finally learned how to share it with you!!  Life will be close to perfect when they finally put it on Itunes.

The group is “Naturally 7″ and the technique is called “vocal play” = no instruments.  It’s fun to listen to, but even more fun to watch.  Enjoy!

defying odds

My favorite part of the Olympics is not the competition, but the stories, the dedication, and the energy.  The 2008 Team Competition of Men’s Gymnastics is a perfect example.  They lost their “sure things” due to injuries, their “anchors”, those guys on the team that can be counted on to raise the bar and hold it.  The remaining team was young, first timers, unknowns.  ”Everyone” said they wouldn’t do well, they wouldn’t medal, it would take a miracle….

At one point there were three young men on the screen awaiting their turns in the competition.  They looked scared and nervous.  The commentators introduced them with the following descriptions:  “He’s on the team because of injury…He’s on the team because of injury…and He’s on the team because, well, because he’s a great gymnast.”  The final description was something of an after thought.  These guys were the weak links on an underdog team, but apparently (I couldn’t stay up any longer to watch), they and their team mates pulled it off and “surprised” everyone.

Don’t you love it??  I stayed up way too late watching them last night.  Their devotion to one another, their encouragement, support and over-the-top enthusiasm – it was so inspiring!   They did what no one thought they could.  They earned bronze medals in competition with top-rated veteran teams.  Throughout the competition, they were constantly reinforcing one another, and they had clearly adopted a motto:  ”No fear, no regrets!”  They didn’t accept what “everyone” was saying, they defied the odds.

I desire to live life that way.  I don’t want to get sidetracked by doomsday prophets:  economical, environmental, physical, medical.  There is always someone ready to give you a bad report.  When you hear that, you have a choice.  Will you accept it and live down to it?  Or will you focus higher and defy the odds?  Pay attention to the young men on this gymnastics team.  They didn’t blame anyone, they didn’t spend time wondering why life wasn’t fair, they didn’t try to change their circumstances.  They simply committed themselves to one another and focused on their goal = to do their best.  And they did.

Click on the photo above to see some inspiring photos.

Happy 4th of July!

Sorry, I’m going to cheat.  What follows are someone else’s research and thoughts, but they are well worth passing on as a reminder of some of the reasons that we celebrate today.

Mark Batterson’s Blog 7/4/08

May you enjoy good food and good company today!