It just occurred to me...

...that Christmas is in four days.
...that we are leaving day after tomorrow (technically, tomorrow, since I am writing this on Monday, even though it feels like Sunday cause I haven't gone to bed yet).
...that I'm starting to feel better.

...that the shepherds weren't the first to find out about the Saviour, Immanuel. Mary was, when the angel told her.

A List of Short Posts all Rolled Into One Post

For my birthday, I received a Lodge Reversible Grill/Griddle. Last night, I made pancakes on it. Love it. It cooks so well!!

I want these biscuits. Right NOW.

The last few days around my house have been like a sewing sweatshop. I'm sewing, sewing, sewing! BUT last night I sewed fleece for the first time, and sewed a zipper for the first time...I sewed a zipper onto fleece. Something cozy is on it's way!

I recently got a promotion at work. Now I teach art lessons, science demos, and story time. It's been good so far.

Road Trips

Here is a map of all the states I've visited. I've also visited Hawaii, even though it's not shown on this map.

I like road trips. I might have to plan one to fill in those sad, white states that need to be colored in. (There are so few of them. A couple summer trips would fill this map right up!)

Elemental Sacraments

God used such mundane, everyday things to be the elements of our sacraments.

Bread. Wine. Water.

Did he invent water for baptism and then let us use it for washing and drinking and for 96% of our body's blood volume and other vital things? Or did he use something that was already mundane and sanctify it so that it would become special?

By the same token, did he make bread and wine staples of so many meals for so many people, and then elevate them by making them part of Communion, or did he make them with Communion in mind, then let us use them in all sorts sorts of workaday ways?

LInkage: 7 December

I want to listen to all the accents! I love accents!

This is awesome. But the book is much, much better. (Much. I might also say, real life is much, much better than the FB.)

You can be assured I'll be checking this for a good forecast just as soon as I can! (10 days before Christmas, it says! 10 Days Before is coming right up!)

The school principal from my junior-high days (who also, ironically, turned out to be my husband's first boss...in a totally different region of the country) used to talk about the pitfalls of an instant culture. That was almost 20 years ago. It's still true now, and Intellectuelle has posted an excellent essay on that very same subject.

I like to read 6YearMed. She recently posted about the discomfort of not quite 'fitting in' in your town. Not that my town is snooty (hah! far from it), but every now and then the 'Southern gentility' fits just a teensy bit too tightly on this Coloradan.

Christmas Gifts

Steph, your gift is coming together! I'm excited to see it coming together. I hope you will like it.

Ian, your gift is wending its way here. I can't wait to see you open it. I hope you will like it, too!

Double Digits Tomorrow?

This month is flying by. Whenever the month's date becomes a double digit number, I'm always surprised, because time is flying by.

October always surprises me, too, because that's when the month's number becomes double-digits. Here we are in the last single-digit date of this year. (I was going to write "of 2008," but that's too rhyme-y and syllabic.)

Seriously, where is the time going??

Just wait till this time next year, when we'll be in the countdown to the last single-digit YEAR. Yikes, and double yikes.

Two funnies...

Some of you may know that my husband and some of his siblings say "Oh, gravy!" to express frustration instead of other phrases that may or may not include God's name.

Well, last Thursday, I was looking at my list of things to do before 2pm, and I had forgotten one thing. "Oh, gravy!" I said. I meant it literally.

It was pretty funny!

---

I got on the elevator with a colleague yesterday. (Let's call her...Bianca.) The thing about working at a children's museum is...sometimes educators let the immaturity out and just have a good time.

This is what Bianca and I do. Do you know what we do when we're on the elevator together? We (this is embarrassing)...we make loud, obnoxious...we make fart sounds...and laugh ourselves silly.

Yesterday, I was on my cell phone, and Bianca stepped on the elevator. She got a gleam in her eye, and made the loudest fart sound ever.

You know who was on the phone? My mother-in-law. I heard her pause in what she was telling me, and hesitantly go forward with her talking. I know she heard. I was in the elevator. And Bianca ripped a loud one!

Then, I got the giggles. I had to explain, but how do you explain that it was a fake fart sound? That sounds like blaming, like I didn't want her to know that I passed a good, loud bit of gas. But I didn't! I mean, I didn't fart! I only happened to be in the elevator when Bianca faked a superloud fart!

Well, MIL giggled when I told her, paused again, and went on with her story. (What else do you do in a situation like that! There's no section of etiquette training that says 'Here's what you do when your daughter-in-law gets in a situation that involves fart sounds.')

I'm sure it'll never be mentioned again.

It was pretty funny.

I Wish I Had a Scanner

So, our little local library has a box with free magazines that you can take. Anytime. Usually it has lame-o magazines like Sailing and Boating Quarterly, but sometimes you hit the jackpot.

Last night, I hit the jackpot. I found a Highlights for Children magazine. (I read a lot of them in the doctor's office when I was little. I was at the doctor's a lot. Between all my colds, my strep throat scares, and three-times-a-week visits to the allergist for two years...yes, I was there.)

But I digress. I found a Highlights for Children magazine from 1969.

I'll find a scanner and post some nuggets. There's a "New Technology" section that's a delight to read ... a "What We Hope to Find on the Moon" because this particular issue is from before the moon landing (that's actually hard to imagine for such a young'un as I) ... and a profile of "Our New President, Richard Milhous Nixon."

!

Shame on Us

This Black Friday death is tragic. Why should someone die for our culture's desire to consume more and more and more.

It's all the more tragic because the article (and, apparently, the local authorities) blame the store for inaproppriate security measures. Perhaps the problem goes deeper...maybe we shouldn't have a shopping day that is so intense that we need security fences and stuff like that? Maybe enough is enough, and more stuff is not the solution.