Christmas in a Blizzard

This year, we went to the farm in Iowa for Christmas for 9 days. We arrived just before a blizzard hit and spent most of our vacation snowed in. Even though we probably only got about 18 inches of snow, every time the wind blew the little county gravel roads became impassible. While I did get good time with my parents and sister, I barely got to see my brother's family. I also didn't get much time to spend with my friends and extended family. There is just something about being snowed in that leaves me feeling claustrophobic. Overall, it was an okay trip, but I was so looking forward to it that I left feeling a little disappointed.

Make-Up Day

Yesterday I was paying bills and doing all my end of the year bookwork when I realized that Abigail was being too quiet. I thought she was playing in her room, so I decided to check on her only discover she was not there. I found her upstairs in my bathroom. She had gotten into my eye shadow and applied it to her face with my blush brush. She looked at me and said, "I so pretty, Mommy."

Samson's Christmas Letter

Here is our 2009 Christmas Letter.

Samson Dog's Christmas Letter

Choosing Thankfulness?

I hate time changes. It is one thing if you are travelling, but it is something completely different if you are at home and out of the blue your whole schedule changes. All this to say, for the second day in a row, I woke up at 4:30am, and there is no way I can go back to sleep. I finally just gave up and curled up in my chair with a cup of coffee.

I guess some good is coming out of my early morning wake up. I am actually taking some uninterrupted time to read and pray. Unfortunately, that seems like a rarity for me these days. Here's the Bible passage that caught my eye this morning.

Psalm 8 (NIV)

1. How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever?
   How long will you hide your face from me?


2. How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
   and every day have sorrow in my heart?
   How long will my enemy triumph over me?


3. Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
   Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;


4. my enemy will say, "I have overcome him,"
   and my foes will rejoice when I fall.


5. But I trust in your unfailing love;
   my heart rejoices in your salvation.


6. I will sing to the LORD,
   for he has been good to me.

(I'm going to share my personal thoughts on this passage and why I connect with it this morning. However, this is purely devotional and not by any means an exegetical study of this passage)

This is not one of the passages that most people talk about a lot, but somehow it seems to resonate with my heart this morning. Right now, I can relate to David in the first few verses. How long am I going to have to struggle? How long will I feel distant from the Lord? How long will I have to wrestle with my thoughts and deal with the sorrow in my heart?

I don't connect with the next couple of verses as much because I can't really think of any foes that are bothering me, unless you consider a particular sin a foe that is trying to overcome me.

I think the last two verses are why this passage really stood out to me this morning. Despite the fact that David felt far away from God and was wrestling with his thoughts, sorrows and enemies, he chose to trust in God's unfailing love and even came to the point of singing thankfully to the Lord for all of the good things things in his life.

Here are the questions that have been plaguing me this morning. How did David and his writing go from a place of complaining about feeling far away from the Lord and being overcome by enemies to a place of trusting and praising God in just a few verses? Was it just a mental decision? Did he just decide that despite his feelings he was just going to choose to trust God and be thankful for salvation and the good things in his life? Did his perspective, perception of God and feelings change just by choosing to trust God's love and choosing to be thankful?

I am not completely sure our struggle with distance from God and sorrow can completely change just by choosing trust and thankfulness, but I think it warrants some further consideration. This passage has caused me to want to try an experiment over the next few days. Each time I complain (in my heart and mind) about feeling far from God, overcome by sorrow or sorry for myself, I will try to choose to be thankful for the good things God has given me in my life. Maybe it is a bit of a simplistic application of this passage, but I am hoping that choosing to thankfulness and trust will change my current perspective on the nearness of God.

I'll keep you posted on the result.

Confession

Usually I'm not much of a TV watcher, but since Jason died, I've been watching it more often. However a month or two ago, my sister got me hooked on watching Korean TV dramas online. Since, I started watching them, I don't even want to admit how many hours I've wasted in front of the computer. I've fallen behind in my housework. I haven't started any new projects. I rarely leave my house in the evenings. I stay up way too late, way too often. I haven't read a book or wrote a meaningful email in a long time. I think it actually has become an addiction.

The other day I was trying to figure out why I've become addicted, and a sad realization hit me. It is way easier to watch other people living their lives than it is for me to live my own. Right now, my world is pretty small. Since I am fairly new to the community, I don't have very many good friends here. Yes, I know a fair amount of people, but I don't have very many people that I've opened up to and really gotten to know well. It takes so much effort to build new friendships, and I always feel like being a widow, there is an elephant that follows me around and everyone wonders what to say to me...afraid they might upset me or make me sad. It makes for awkward relationships, especially in the initial stages. Aside from not having many friends, I have mostly been working from home lately, so some days I don't even leave my house. I can go three or four days without seeing anyone but my two year old and maybe one of my two co-workers. Needless to say, my life is kind of lonely right now, and not filled with very many relationships of any kind.

Therefore, it is easy to crave the kind of relationships I see in these dramas. People surrounded by family and friends, and while their lives maybe kind of crazy, they are connected to each other and fun things are happening. Every time I finish watching a drama series, I feel a little bit bereft because all of a sudden these people I've spent hours watching are now gone from my life. Their stories are over, and I no longer have a connection to them. However, I still love to watch them, because I know that no matter how tough things look they always have a happy ending in the dramas. Couples fall in love and tough stuff usually comes to a resolution.

So where does that leave me....I'm feeling convicted about living my life vicariously instead authentically engaging other people. However, I'm also feeling, tired, lonely and not quite ready to put forth the effort to start pouring into people because I know it will be hard. It is far easier to watch other people struggle through the ups and downs of relationships than to struggle through them myself. Although, right now I feel like I am wasting my time and my life away. Whereas, if I was actually pouring into real people, I know I wouldn't feel that way at all.

For the most part, whenever I have a realization like this, I am tempted just to beat myself up for my mistakes and continue on in the same direction. I know if Jason were here, he would tell me, "That's great lesson, Honey, but what are you going to do about it?"

Here are my resolutions:
1. Invite someone new over to my house for dinner, or make a plan to meet someone for coffee or dinner
2. Call at least three friends I haven't talked to in a while.
3. Call my counselor tomorrow and make an schedule an appointment that I've been putting off for two months.
4. Limit my TV/drama intake to only the time I'm working out on my treadmill.
5. Plan some sort of outing or event this weekend.
6. Read at least one book in the next two weeks.

Okay, so my list isn't earth shattering, but hopefully it will get me moving in the direction of breaking my addiction and starting/continuing real relationships. If you are reading this, perhaps you can help keep my accountable.

Abigail's Birthday

I'm only about a month late with this, but for those of you not on Facebook, here is a little video we made on the day my baby girl turned two.

Writer's Block

I haven't written any blog posts for about six months. While I'm not much of a writer, I still have been suffering from writer's block. At first, I just blamed it on being busy, but the longer I didn't write the harder it became for me to sit down and write. After taking time off, it is kind of intimidating to start blogging again. So much has happened in the last six months, but I don't even know where to start.

Not only have I've been suffering from writer's block on my blog, I kind of feel like it is plaguing my entire life. I've found myself ignoring emails, avoiding writing prayer/support letters, struggling to find words to write on projects for work, and avoiding facebook chats and long messages. I'm not even journaling.

In addition to avoiding written words, I have also been avoiding verbal communication. For the most part, I've barely called anyone on the telephone. I've been blaming it on the spotty cell phone reception at my house and the fact that no one really calls me unless I call them first, but truthfully I think I'm just avoiding connecting with people. When I do talk to people, I keep it pretty light and short. Since I'm still relatively new to the community, I haven't developed many deep local friendships, so I don't even have that many face to face conversations. Sometimes the only people I talk to all day long are Abigail, and maybe one of my two co-workers.

Overall, there is has been a lack of words in my life the last couple of months. It is starting to wear on me a little bit, and I'm feeling lonely. I know I'm the only one to blame, since I haven't made an effort. So this is blog post is an attempt to break the silence and perhaps combat the plague of writer's block.

I kind of feel silly even posting this, but perhaps putting something out there it better than continuing in silence. Besides I doubt anyone even reads my blog anymore due to my silence.