New Years Resolutions

I've been thinking about what I want to do this year and there are a lot of things I want to accomplish. I want to get more organized, get back into pre-Chubbermunch shape, get involved in a service or church ministry that I can do with Zeke, and become better at keeping in touch with friends. I want to plant herbs on my balcony and finally frame some art. I want write more poetry and learn a host of new homemaking skills.

Sometimes its overwhelming thinking about all the things I want to do and I forget who I want to be.

I stumbled onto this via Passionate Homemaking:

"In her book, Keep A Quiet Heart, Elisabeth Elliot encourages us to focus on the most important of New Year’s hopes:

“Will the young woman find a mate? Will the couple have a child? Maybe this year will be the year of desire fulfilled. Perhaps, on the other hand, it will be the year of desire radically transformed, the year of finding, as we have perhaps not yet truly found, Christ to be the All-Sufficient One, Christ the ‘deep sweet well of Love’” (page 49, emphasis mine).

This year, let us ask God to dissolve all our hopes (however good they may be!) into a single hope: to know Christ and to be found in Him. May this be a year of desire radically transformed, a deeper, truer, knowing of Christ as our All-Sufficient One.

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:7-8a)." - Nicole Whitacre

So I'm cutting down my list.

Lord, let my heart be undivided. And my goals be one.

Thankful

Originally uploaded by Velachery Balu

"...the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come."

2 Corinthians 4:16-5:5



I'm thankful that any year, every year, even if I have nothing, I have everything.

He is Risen

One of my favorites:

Beneath the cross of Jesus I fain would take my stand,
The shadow of a mighty rock within a weary land;
A home within the wilderness, a rest upon the way,
From the burning of the noontide heat, and the burden of the day.

O safe and happy shelter, O refuge tried and sweet,
O trysting place where Heaven’s love and Heaven’s justice meet!
As to the holy patriarch that wondrous dream was given,
So seems my Savior’s cross to me, a ladder up to heaven.

There lies beneath its shadow but on the further side
The darkness of an awful grave that gapes both deep and wide
And there between us stands the cross two arms outstretched to save
A watchman set to guard the way from that eternal grave.

Upon that cross of Jesus mine eye at times can see
The very dying form of One Who suffered there for me;
And from my stricken heart with tears two wonders I confess;
The wonders of redeeming love and my unworthiness.

I take, O cross, thy shadow for my abiding place;
I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of His face;
Content to let the world go by to know no gain or loss,
My sinful self my only shame, my glory all the cross.

I used to think as a child that we really should celebrate Good Friday more than Easter, because isn't Jesus dying for us the whole Christian deal?

1 Corinthians 15 tells us why Easter is of the utmost importance to Christians:

"And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all"!!!

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

New Year!

New Year's is one of my favorite days of the year. You notice I say New Year's, NOT New Year's Eve. I'm not a fan of the whole staying up really late and watching the BORING ball drop and then being exhausted and sick the next day. I like the following day when everyone else is sleeping off the night before. Its a holiday when nobody does much, which is perfect for this homebody, especially after all the busyness that happens in the preceding month.

It just feels so NEW. And since I'm always making mistakes throughout the year, its nice to turn over a new leaf. New Year's resolution blog posts are lame so I'll just talk about... "things I hope to do/am looking forward to this year."

-My sister in laws wedding! Yay. Weddings are so awesome. And of course, gotta find stuff for it on Etsy! Here's one I LOVE.

-My other sister in law graduating and starting a bakery. And she wants me to experiment with her in the kitchen the summer/fall. So excited for this. Baking is fun, but even more fun with a friend.

-Along those lines, I really want to get in the habit of bread baking this year. I want to perfect a few basic bread recipes. Don't you love the holes in this one? Yum.

-Another kitchen goal I have is raising the number of vegetarian dinners we eat a month from 4-5 to 6-7. Cheaper, healthier, and oh so much fun to play around with. Hoping to draw a lot of from two of my most unique cookbooks: More with Less and The Brilliant Bean.

-I'm looking forward to moving this summer. Our lease will be up and I am so OVER this apartment.

-The BeefyGeek and I have decided that in order to prevent me from growing old before my time, I will be changing occupations this summer. Either cutting my hours, finding a new job, or going back to school. I will have been three years nannying in August, and as much as I love it, its getting to be time I moved on.

-Doing some yoga! Last January I started walking 5 days a week, and I've kept it up, with a few interruptions. Go me! This year I want to add more stretching/resistance training, partly in preparation for babies... the better shape I'm in beforehand, the easier pregnancy and labor will be.

-Getting more organized. No joke. Every time I have even a little feeling of "I may be pregnant," one of the first things I do is check my bathroom closet. Somewhere in my mind there is a voice that says, "if you can't keep this is order now, you won't after a baby's in the picture." I recently got rid of a lot of stuff, but I know there is more to cleanse. I also want to figure out a better system for bill paying/paper organization. Here's an inspiration photo of some nicely stacked sheets from a beautiful website, well worth checking out if you've never seen it.

-I want to do more art this year. I haven't really made time to create lately. I miss it. Such as... basket weaving? I love these baskets. I'd love to be able to make them for myself. Or maybe just buy one. I love the bassinet.

-Read through the Bible with BeefyGeek. This is our year! Hopefully posting updates on our progress here will keep me motivated.

Probably more, but that's it for now. I hope this post is too horrible. I'm super sleepy and my fingers are cold. Not a good writing combo. Plus BeefyGeek is playing Arkham Asylum and its so cool its distracting...

so many blogs, so little time.

I've been so busy reading everyone else's blogs I've neglected my own.

I'm trying to decide whether to put out the Christmas decorations yet. Usually I wait a while, but last year I wait to long and felt jipped. Also a little bummed that I don't think we're going to have the cash to get a real tree again this year. We were doing really well until that whole car-getting-towed-and-twice-repaired-thing.

Aren't you glad that Christmas is more than a pretty tree?

O Come O Come Emmanuel :Lyrics

O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny
From depths of Hell Thy people save
And give them victory o'er the grave
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, O come, Thou Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai's height,
In ancient times did'st give the Law,
In cloud, and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

But I do love a tree!

Friday Night

Fridays nights with Jon and Amy are either really lame or really awesome depending on your taste. We usually turn on the xbox and watch The Office. Sometimes we will go out... no we don't. we watch a ton of Office.

So... whats been on my mind lately... Halloween.

The boys that I nanny love Halloween. Monster Mash, Frankenstein, black cats... the whole nine yards. I took them to Party City to see all the costumes... Its so creepy. Like super, super creepy. Severed heads.... smoke.... I dreamt last night about some really scary looking dragons and I think its from all the Halloween stuff. It was actually a pretty cool dream... Bean and Ender were there... we were tight. Bean was dying and I gave a truly wonderful my-friend-is-dying speech. But I digress....

My original point was about Halloween. Now... since knowing some people that have been terribly hurt by Satanism... and knowing that Halloween is their biggest day... and knowing that they do horrible things on that day... my family doesn't do Halloween. I think that's the main reason why I get so creeped out by it. I remember enjoying it as a kid.

I've been thinking about the purpose of Halloween... lots of cultures have holidays like it. Day of the dead and such. The psycologists tell us that we have to mock our fears and so we dress up like demons to scare away the ghosts, or like ghosts to scare away the demons... or whatever. I think this is semi-legit. It makes sense to me, and it would explain why children get so into it. They have very little control over their world. Life happens to them. It makes sense that they would feel empowered as the scary guy for one night.

Halloween is just one example of this fear fettish that we have... horror movies and books, haunted houses, ghost stories...What is it that draws people, grown people to revel in these things? Especially since they know that some of it at least, is real. We tell kids... there is such thing as monsters. And some of them believe us... some of the time. But we know that there are real monsters. Real witches. Real demons. Maybe not red ones, with pitchforks and horns... but there is scary stuff in the world. People who kill people. People who do things much worse than kill people. I'm listening to Paralandra on my walks this week and am once again shivering at Lewis' depiction of Satan. If you haven't already, read both that one and Screwtape Letters to get a vision that will get you on your knees fighting off these powers of darkness... until human apathy sets back in... soon enough.

Okay... I'm home alone and I'm kinda giving myself the heeby geebies... so I'll get to the point. My point is this: human beings are starved for awesomeness. We have this need to break out of the common place into something huge and terrifying and totally unlike us. A spine-tingling otherness. Something powerful and overwhemling.

In the end I guess it comes down to what it always comes down to... people trying to replace God, in all of His glory and wonder and magnificence, with something else... anything else. There is nothing so great and awesome, but nothing so frightening to we mortals as the Immortal. We try to fill that need with anything and everything... as long as it isn't the real thing. What a twisted way to replace God only wise, who dwells in unapproachable light!

Thanks be to God that we can have this spine tingling awesome experience which we hunger for with Hannibal Lector or mucus covered creatures ever coming into play.

Okay... thats it for now... cause this keeps not getting published...