How can I summarize???

I'm not very good at summarizing, condensing, pulling out the main thoughts and shaving off the excess. So, how can I sum up our amazing weekend? First of all, I could refer you to a few different places. Nugget does a good summary of our beautiful thanksgiving weekend at the Kelly Kamp. My Sista pays wonderful tribute to my husband since he had a milestone bday over the weekend. And, in his own words, Timm reflects on turning 40.

As I suspected, this holiday gathering had a whole different feel. I appreciated each moment more, every interaction I enjoyed more. Bottom line, I missed my family and friends, and it was GREAT to see everyone. EVERYONE.

Thanksgiving/Christmas celebration with the Kelly gang. Thanksgiving with my family. My mom preparing a FEAST. A surprise party for Timm's 40th. Lots of kind words shared. I said the next day "That was weird, it felt like a eulogy. We usually wait till someone is dead before we say all kinds of nice things about them!" Lots of cousin play time for the girls. Some play time with friends who came to Daddy's party. And, a marathon play date of about 10 hours with our dear friends and former neighbors! Watching my nephews in a play that I VERY much enjoyed. Those are a few of the highlights. I'm going to try to include some pics of the highlights. Still not a pro at the pic thing. Meanwhile, I must just say, I am so thankful to my God. How good He is to us! I have so much to be thankful for, and I love to pause on THanksgiving and really count my blessings.

A good "weep", a broken heart

Aaahhhh. Had myself a good old weep today. I would call it a cry, but when it just keeps flowing out like that, it must be referred to as a weep. It kinda exhausted me.
I tend to be more of a "thinker" than a "feeler". So, I can often go stretches without being overly emotional.
That includes my spiritual life. I tend to intellectualize my faith most of the time. I have to stretch myself to really connect at a spiritual level with Jesus. Even when I am in a really good place with Jesus, I don't find it easy to connect with him beyond my rational, cognitive belief. So, once in a while, when He gets ahold of my heart like he did today, oh boy. It exhausts me.
Today we had an extended time of music and worship at our church gathering. So, I chose to keep the kids in the gathering, rather than take them out like I usually do. DC visited and shared his incredible gift of music with us. Some others took the time to put together some amazing visuals to accompany the music. And I thank them. It really penetrated my soul and I was OVERWHELMED by the power and love of God.
It's difficult to pinpoint the cause of the weeping. I think I was just so overcome with JOY. And, then I was overcome with grief. I have never in my life felt such a broken heart for people who DON'T KNOW THE JOY of God.
That's the bottom line. My heart is broken. To think about going through life without the HOPE and JOY of faith in a God who is so trustworthy and powerful. I just wish everyone could find that kind of hope.
And yet, it's so hard....to talk about those deep issues like faith. Right? I feel like I am intruding or being pushy or crazy if I really express how much I care about someone at a SOUL level.
If you haven't immersed yourself in a worship environment lately that inspires you, perhaps you should. Have yourself a good weep, have your heart break, but be filled with hope beyond measure.

Thankful

So much to be thankful for!
Each night when I tuck the girls into bed, I try to have them thank God for at least three specific things. It is a great habit to get into, reflecting on blessings. I truly feel that having a thankful heart can change our perspective on life.
So, thanksgiving is coming up this week. Another great reminder to reflect on blessings with gratitude.
My heart overflows with gratitude. Just this weekend, on Friday night we were able to have some friends over for dinner. Had a great time just visiting and eating and drinking. Have had the blessing of getting to know our next door neighbors better. My sweet neighbor was able to come over, along with her sister who is visiting from out of town. It was lots of fun.
Saturday morning, we dropped our girls off at our other sweet neighbor's house to play so that Timm and I could go into Manhattan and join Communitas at NYC rescue mission. No kids allowed there. So, we were very happy to have our neighbors offer to let the girls hang out so that Timm and I could enjoy the serving time together. ANyways, we spent a few hours filling lots and lots of gift bags/boxes for people in need. A little bummed to come out and discover a parking ticket on the van!!! Crap. It's an expensive learning curve trying to figure out parking in the city. $115 fine!
Saturday evening we went to the school where we gather for Sunday mornings, and we helped set up the band and sound equipment. The school let us in the night before so that we could have more time Sunday morning for the band to rehearse. We have the blessing of our music director from Kensington church here this weekend. He and our band are going to lead us in an extended time of praise and worship today. YAY!
After that, we enjoyed an amazing time together at our friend's place on the upper west side. Once i get over the blatant coveting of their great apartment, I can always enjoy myself there! We had pizza and dessert and a time of sharing and prayer and then some music and singing with D.C. playing guitar. Seriously, couldn't have imagined a more enjoyable evening.
So, Timm had to go in very early to church this morning. I decided to let the girls sleep in. We'll be taking the train in very soon. So, gotta go.
Three days....and we will be travelling to MI to see family...YAY! More to be thankful for!

filthy mouth!

Wow. We have noticed a significant difference in the language people use freely here in NYC. And, I sure hope I never pick up on it! The use of profanity crosses ethnic and social divides. It seems everyone is doing it! And, in my utter frustration just minutes ago, I am going to admit...uh oh, I just freaked out... and out of mouth flew extremely filthy language. I can get SO frustrated with technology. Again, the problem arises of my inability to simply transfer some photos to my computer. I'm not going into detail, let's just say, I may need to work on my self control of the mouth. Ya think?

OK, minus the photos, I'd like to say, I just had a fabulous birthday. I was reflecting yesterday...why do we celebrate birthdays? I mean, the person was simply "born". They didn't accomplish anything special. Shouldn't we, as a culture that celebrates accomplishments, effort and hard work, honor the MOM every time there is a birthday. She's the one who did the work!

However, it makes perfect sense. I am reading another book by Donald Miller. Love this guy. It's called "Searching for God knows what." He articulates perfectly something that I already "know" but need to be reminded of. He explains an Epiphany where he realizes that he feels something missing in himself. He craves some bit of something to make him feel special or important or valued. So, he tried to attach himself to a certain identity because it made him feel smart (or more honestly, it made other people tell him he was smart). So, he starts to realize that he is wired in a way that other people told him who he was. Like, he needed something outside of himself to tell him who he was. Well, we all crave that! And, the truth is, God is offering to do just that! He is waiting for a relationship with us where HE can fill us up and give us our true identity. But, if we neglect to be filled with HIM telling us who we are, we will turn elsewhere to seek it. We not only crave it, we need it. We will ascribe ourselves value based on SOMETHING. Why not let it be the value God created us with!!!????

So, maybe that is a tangent you don't find so intriguing. That's fine. I'm sure it is more relevant within the rest of the text I'm reading. However, it made me realize that, as much as I HATE to admit it.....I do this. Here it was my birthday, and of course it was great to be acknowledged by so many! I felt valued, important, loved. That's how God will make us feel all the time, if we just turn to him instead of the world. And, because every single one of us has this deep need to feel loved and valued and affirmed, we created a way to assure that at least one day a year, you have the opportunity to experience that feeling of being special. Right? Interesting. And, it's great. I just wish we could realize that God is there every single moment to fill that deep need with more love and affirmation than we will EVER get from the world. He created us and loves us unconditionally!

OK, so, my birthday :) I received a ton of happy wishes on facebook, email and texts. Thanks to all. I was honored by my sister in her blog. I treated myself to "eyebrow five dollah" and had my eyebrows waxed. Went out for a run, and it was the first time I have done that in a week because I needed to rest after feeling sick. I got a nice picture from Liv and beautiful flowers from Timm. I got some cards in the mail, and a few phone calls that meant a lot! Thank you to everyone who made me feel special! Then, I went out to dinner with my family to an EXCELLENT restaurant and I overate quite a bit. But it was so good and I justified every bite beyond full by saying "It's my birthday".

Birthdays are a great time to be reminded of how much you are loved by others! But, I hope I can remember that as special as I felt yesterday, God feels that way about me every second of my life. More than I can even grasp! That deep need I have to feel special, important, valued and worthwhile....I want HIM to affirm that. And, I hope you can find that affirmation in HIM too. Quit looking for other things to give you that and to fill you up, like what others' think, or your accomplishments or your talents and abilities, or your looks or your possessions, or whatever it is that makes you feel special. You already are special...just because you are you!

Time to slow down

Ugh. I'm tired. Time to slow down.
I was so pumped up on Sunday after running like a wild woman in the 5K, then going strong all day.
But, on Monday I felt very very tired. I volunteered at the book fair at school all day, and I was dragging so bad! So, I thought maybe I had over exerted myself on Sunday.
By last night (Tues) I conceded that it is more than being tired. During the day, I was having trouble making it up and down the stairs to do the laundry. My friend came over to do our book study, and she had to do some filming for church (she is doing "the real housewives of Communitas"!) and I was not my chipper self. And when it was time to walk Liv to dance and back, I didn't know if I could do it. I'm not well. Low grade fever and achy body and cough. Dang it.
I was in bed at 8:30 last night. The girls have today off for Veteran's day and we were planning to go to see the USS New York (A Navy ship made of materials salvaged from the wreckage of the world trade center) which is docked in NY until tomorrow. But...I need rest. We won't be able to go. I'm not very good at resting.......
Times like this I just thank God that I can rest. I don't have to use up sick days to take it easy. What a blessing.

water, water everywhere....but

I'm sure you have heard the saying "water, water, everywhere, but not a drop to drink.

That's how I feel right this moment about technology. But, it just doesn't have the same ring to it, so I doubt it will ever become a cliche. "Technology, technology, everywhere, but not a byte to eat." The amount of technology available at this very moment, is literally staggering to my mind. And, I am doing fairly well with my laptop, dvr and high def tv, digital camera, ipod, and my phone that seems to do just about everything from storing all of my contacts, email, navigation, picture taking, texting, and.....oh yah....making phone calls.

But, I sat down here to do something fairly simple. To blog about my weekend, and download a few pictures. And, I can NOT get the pictures from my phone to the computer. It is so frustrating! So, here I sit, with my digital camera, it's memory card, my phone, it's memory card and the memory card it plugs into, my handy dandy card reader/writer, my laptop....and yet....I cannot do this simple task. WHATEVER! The problem is, I don't know how to problem solve when something doesn't work. Ugh.

ANYWAYS.....I will proceed with my update with minimal pictures, only the one from my actual camera :)

Let me just say....AWESOME weekend.

Friday night we had a great time for our small group. Guitar hero, pizza, baking a pumpkin pie (you go Val!), sharing and praying and studying some of God's words.

Saturday I went to women's prayer breakfast and was reminded of how God loves me and was challenged to REALLY believe it. Ahhh, refreshing!

Then we went to a birthday party for a friend of Olivia's. As I sat there with my girls, visiting with new acquaintances, I was acutely aware of how different this experience was from anything I would have normally found myself in back in MI. Nothing huge, just that I am in such a different environment here. As I sat there eating Tai food and Sushi (at an 8 year old b-day party) while the conversations around me were about current biographies someone was reading, particular art techniques and artists, architects and design styles of people like Frank Loyd Wright (who I didn't even know).....it was just interesting to me to listen and realize the diversity of trades and interests and lifestyles that tend to migrate to an urban environment. Very fun.

Anyways, the BEST day of the week was SUNDAY It was decided that we would forgo our traditional Sunday morning worship time and instead celebrate the sabbath together in the evening. We call it "second sunday" and it is a time to come together for FUN and an opportunity to invite people in our lives who we would love to introduce to our "church friends". So, since we didn't have church on Sunday morning, I thought I'd look and see if there were any 5K races going on that TImm and I could do. Sure enough, right in our neighborhood, there was the "Fuggitaboutit 5K" It was an absolutely GORGEOUS morning. Craig joined Timm and I for the 5K, Neal, our iron man, signed up for the duathalon (5K run, 14 mile bike, 5K run) and sweet Val stayed with the girls.

Not only was it a gorgeous fall morning, running in the most beautiful park, through the leaves and grassy hills....but we cleaned house! We each got a medal (fuggitabout the fact that it was a leftover medal from the mother's day 2009 triathalon), I won first place overall for the women with a time of 20:40 , and I got a really cheesy trophy. We all placed in our age divisions and walked away with a really nice pedometer. And, they fed us some really yummy bagels. You all know how much I love free food. Was it a great morning or what? Fuggitaboutit.

OK, my computer is freaking out. Gonna have to wrap this up. All I will say is that the rest of Sunday was equally as glorious. Took the train to the city, neighbor boys came along, went to an open art show of some friends of Timm's from WAY back when, then went bowling. Several of our neighbors ended up joining us, as well as the family who had the b-day party Sat. We all had a BLAST bowling and visiting. GREAT SUNDAY.

One up, the other one down!

Well, I am very glad to say that Alli is back up from her week of illness! YAY!. However, she did not make it to school Friday for the Character Day festivities. Olivia practically ran to school in her excitement! She dressed up as Ginger Pye, a dog from a book we read together last year.

Alli was so looking forward to her special day at school. So, I promised her we would have our own party at home if she couldn't go. So, here is a picture of Alli on character day.

Stayed in her jammies all day. And, here is a picture of her at our home party. Pizza from her favorite pizzeria.

So, Saturday was halloween. We cheered in the morning when Alli took her temperature and for the first time in 7 days, it was NORMAL!!!! YAYYYY! HOOORAY!!!! Alli feels better.

But, wait a minute? What's up with Olivia? She has a splitting headache and just threw up the water she drank? She has a low grade fever and stomach pain and can't eat or drink anything? COME ON! So, Olivia laid on the couch all day, taking tiny sips of Gatorade, trying to get to a point where she was hydrated without throwing up. And, being the trooper that she is, when the time came, she got up and got dressed up as Cleopatra. Make up and all. But, if it weren't for the make up, you might have been able to see how pale she really was. Poor thing.

It was an absolutely GORGEOUS day. About 65 degrees. And, the local kids starting trick-or-treating early in the afternoon and went all day/evening. Alli and Liv made it for about 30 minutes before needing to come home. It was all I could do not to drag them further! I was having so much fun, but they just couldn't hang. If I had my own costume, I would have gone out by myself :) But, it turned out to be a wonderful day in the neighborhood. Some friends came by to hang out, pass out candy, and have some soup for dinner.

This guy showed up and just sorta hung around, making us all a little uncomfortable.....but we invited him in for dinner too.

Ha! Do you know who this is?