Making My Excuses

Oh hi.

So, its been over a month.

And not only have I not written on this blog in over a month, but also for the first time in years and years and years (How many years since I started blogging? Could it be 10 years?! Wow.) - I haven't even wanted to write.

Normally my writing dry spells are accompanied by guilt and hand-wringing and mental compositions.

But not this time.

This time I have just been too much involved in living and working and fretting and loving and distracting and enduring.

I haven't been taking many pictures either.

My life is in a weird space and I guess I just don't feel like documenting it.

I feel like I am in an in-between space, and its cramped and dark and narrow (and maybe a little cozy too), and I can't really breathe or think much until I make it out to the other side.

But things are on a good trajectory. For the first time in a while, I am hopeful.

2011 in Review

Coming out of hibernation to do my annual look back at the year. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU AND YOURS!! 

*Answers the same as last year.

1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before?
Served as a doula three times! Yeah babies!

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I made one last year, but I can't remember what it is because I didn't write it down. So I am thinking I didn't keep it. I do have three/four resolutions for this year: 1) to run a 5K, 2) to run a 10K, 3) to lose 20 pounds, OR 4) have another baby, in which case 1-3 will get put on hold. :o)

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Mah best friend Genie!!! And my niece Hannah and her husband Mike. And several friends at church.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
A dear friend from our old church - I wouldn't say we were close, but I was touched by her death as it was bittersweet.

5. What places did you visit?
Not anywhere I couldn't drive to in under an hour. :-/

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
A bit more money in savings.*

7. What dates from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
This sounds like a copout answer, but I am not a very sentimental person and I am rubbish with dates. Nothing springs to mind.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Starting out my practice as a doula. 

9. What was your biggest failure?
Lack of discipline in the areas of healthy eating, exercise, spending and house-cleaning.* (same answer 3rd year in a row! *sad face*)

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
A twisted ankle this summer. That's about it.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Camera+ for my iPhone. I stink at taking photographs, but this app allows me to take great looking pictures of Josiah.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My husband, who is an awesome father, supportive partner, and a wonderful budding teacher.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
If I hear another news story about a mother who murdered her baby...just can't handle it.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Food!!! (We have started trying to budget, and the first month we spent so much on food I about passed out.)

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Other people having babies and allowing me to be there to assist them. Watching Josiah grow. 

16. What song will always remind you of 2011?
The Wheels on the Bus (go round and round....round and round...round and round!)

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder?
happier*
b) thinner or fatter?
about 3-4 pounds fatter :(
c) richer or poorer?
poorer :( *

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Laughing, exercising, sleeping*

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Eating junk food, wasting time, worrying*

20. How did you spend Christmas?
Several parties with family and friends*

21. Did you fall in love in 2010?
not newly in love, but my love for my husband and son has deepened.

22. What was your favorite TV program?

DOWNTON ABBEY!


23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Nope. I don't hate people.*

24. What was the best book you read?
I really enjoyed The Hunger Games trilogy and The Dark Tower a whole lot.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I don't really pay as much attention to music as I once did. Probably 2 stations on Pandora - the Children's Folk station (so awesome) and the Ambient station (the kind of music you would hear when getting a massage). WOW, I'm a huge nerd.

26. What did you want and get?
A Vera Bradley hipster purse. (Thanks mommy!)

27. What did you want and not get?
A Kindle. So I am going to reward myself with one if I run the 10K.

28. What was your favorite film of this year?
Winters Bone - a 2010 film, but I watched it this year. So awful but so good.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Spent it with my immediate family, ate good food, opened early Christmas gifts, watched Batman Begins. Oh, and I turned 30. *choke*

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
ONE BILLION DOLLARS*

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?
Comfortable. Confused. Borderline Frumpy. That made me think of another resolution: figure out my personal style and fix my wardrobe accordingly.

32. What kept you sane?
naps, deep breaths, advice and support from other moms*

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? 
I don't really dwell on such things, honestly.*

34. What political issue stirred you the most?
Not sure, but my husband has watched ALL of the Republican Presidential debates, and so I watched some of them and they really got me fired up with opinions!

35. Who did you miss?
Friends who live out of town, My Grammy*

36. Who was the best new person you met?
Genie's baby Cora, and my great-nephew Zach!!

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011.
Baby Steps. When you want to accomplish something, it doesn't have to be all or nothing. My tendency is to want something to be completed NOW, and if I can't have it that way, then I will give up or not even start.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
It don't have a job
Don't pay your bills
Won't buy you a home
In Beverly Hills

Won't fix your life
In five easy steps
Ain't the law of the land
Or the government

But it's all you need..

Love, will, hold us together
Make us a shelter
to weather the storm

And I'll, be, my brothers keeper
So the whole world will know
That we're not alone
("Hold Us Together" - Matt Maher)


(See Previous Years 2010, 2009 & 2008)

Why the Incarnation? Summary

If anyone was even paying attention, you may have noticed that I stopped doing my daily Advent devotional.

My baby got the stomach flu. Then I got it. It was awful. And now I have a ton of sewing and cleaning to do before Christmas.

So...it was a great idea, but I know I won't get back to the daily posts.

My goal was to emphasize, for myself and anyone else listening, that we should contemplate the totality of why the Second person of the Trinity became a man. His life meant more than just His death.

Some of the other reasons for the Incarnation I would have mentioned:

• To Bring Healing

• To Seek the Lost

• To Show us the Father

• To be the Bread of Life

• To Intercede and Pray for Us

• To Restore All Creation

• To Be Like Us, to share in our human condition and understand experientially what it is to be human, to be tempted, to laugh with friends, to suffer loss, to be hungry, etc...  "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin." {Hebrews 4:15}

(baby picture courtesy of my sweet little Bird)

Why the Incarnation? To Forgive Sin

Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.” 


At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!” 


Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. So he said to the paralyzed man, "Get up, take your mat and go home.” Then the man got up and went home. When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to man.

Oh love wash over a multitude of things,
make us whole.

Why the Incarnation? To Fulfill the Law

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished." {Matthew 5:17-18}


Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.  {Galatians 3:23-25}


Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. {Isaiah 7:14}