The Gift

To my dear Savior,
at this time of year,
the very best and only real gift I can give
is to choose each and every day to fully live
focused on them and their way for me
to work really hard and begin to see
how to fill myself with Their loving bright light
and shine it forth into the world so dark as to be like  night.

How do I fill myself full of his light and love, I wonder?
It's simple to follow His command yet simple doesn't mean easy, I've learned as a I blunder.
Simple to read His word each day
and pray in a whole-hearted child-like way.
Simple to hear His Will and, His Word, obey.
As I leave my Will upon the alter each and every day.
It flutters about and years to fly like a bird
Not content to obey His Word.
I recognize this for what it is, for sure:
the natural man a constant temptation and lure.

Each day I must remember my covenants through prayer
and study the scriptures like it's some kind of dare.
Focusing my mind, heart, and soul on Him,
otherwise my commitment will grow dim.
And this gift of me is worth very little
if I don't mind every jot and tittle.
For Christ has shown me the way
and though I will not arrive today
My agency combined with consistent efforts toward who He would have me be
are the only gifts precious enough for the One who is Three.

Once I'm able to collect some of His bright and loving Light,
How do I shine it forth into this world so dark as night!?
Could it be a smile?
Shared with everyone within a mile...
Could I help another?
For each and every one is my brother.
Might I step out of my comfort zone?
And help someone find Him who did Atone!
Yes, all that and so much more
the options are like a door...
You open one and there's always another
God's Love is even more perfect than that from our Mother.

He desires the gift of ourselves.
And as we give, He doesn't put it on some shelves.
He teaches us how to more and more perfectly give
how to more and more fully live.
For His work and His Glory
Are the real purpose of our life's story.

December 5, 2014

Gifts for Girls

I have four girls, so I know what mine love!  If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear what gifts YOU think girls would love.

As for mine: My eldest daughter asked for the complete set (books and movies) of Star Wars, a music box, and any series of mytery books.

My second daughter asked for a white dress, boots with fur (what girls doesn't love shoes??), a ballerina doll, a muff or mittens, and a toy pig.
 

My third daughter asked for: jewelry (she specifically wants Lilla Rose so she can set up for sales!  SO awesome!  At 5 she wants to be in business for herself!), yarn and a crochet hook, sewing machine, Chick-Fil-A toy, and a puzzle.

My youngest daughter is 6 months old.  She will get a gift and play with the box more, at least initially... so there's that funny thing about kids.  ^_^

My girls are pretty assured of getting some Flexis for Christmas, so they didn't specifically ask for that.  Flexis are awesome for every girl in your life... little ladies love them as much as older ones.  And they are lovely for anyone.

I'm a girl... but more accurately a woman and more specifically, I hope, a lady.  My wish list includes things that that are behavior more than tangible.  Probably also related to the fact that I'm a Mama!!  ^_^

A Very Merry and totally Miraculous Christmas!

It all started back in late October or sometime in early November.  Projecting our finances, especially after the demotion at River Grille on The Tomoka, I knew we wouldn't be able to afford our "regular" $10 gift Christmas (giving each person $10 to spend on each other person in our little family).  While our norm is really quite reasonable, when you do not have enough coming in, there isn't anything else to go out!

While, in truth, this was at first sort of depressing to me, I came up with a plan that was exciting to me and would include wonderful lessons for our whole family...  The plan?  To allocate only $50 ($10 each), which would be a stretch but much easier than the alternative, and spend it on gift certificates which we would then give to individuals at the homeless camp near-ish our home.  When we discussed this plan as a family, the girls were, at first, sort of disappointed about not getting any presents themselves, but then they caught the vision and were excited about giving to those who need so much more than we.  Ria even came up with a plan to have an art show to sell their art work so that they could have more money to buy gifts for those in need.  Jess agreed with the plan.

Unbeknownst to me, Jess began to reconsider our family agreement.  He was trying to figure out ways he could have gifts to give our girls on Christmas.  Then he was fired from RG and he became, it seems to me, even more anxious to provide gifts for the girls even though the way for him to do so in and of ourselves was even more impossible.  All this without telling me a thing about his thoughts or feelings.

Then, one day in early December he received a phone call from our midwife.  He was out grocery shopping.  She told him about an organization that chooses 100 Chef's in the area each year and then provides gifts for theChef's children.  (My midwife did not know Jess had been fired from RG.)  Jess told me he was in shock when he heard her tell him this and then ask if she could submit wish lists for our girls.  He thanked her while on the phone, but the magnitude of the magnitude of the blessing only hit him when he got to his car, where he promptly began to shed tears of gratitude.

He came home and told me all about it.  I felt angry at first (because he started by telling me he'd been trying to think of how to get gifts for the girls), but as I listened I became aware of the blessing and miracle.  My reaction: "You know this is not about our girls.  This is about YOU.  This is a gift from Father to YOU for our girls because He knows your heart and the wishes of it and He wants to show you that He loves you and that you are worthy in His sight."  I think Jessie heard me this time....  He acknowledged the truthfulness of what I said, at least.

There's more.

My Ward family (earth angels, in my sight) gave us gift certificates to use at Wal-Mart for the girls.  A lot of them.

There's more.

A really sweet family in our Ward was given dresses (just about the sizes of our daughters), which they wrapped and gave to our girls as well as a matching shirt for Mama.  Then, Christmas Eve that same thoughtful family came over to deliver gifts for the girls (2 each, I believe, plus a few gifts for all three)!  A whole family of earth angels, that!

So, our Christmas Tree, when we moved all the gifts to places around it, was so very FULL of gifts.... More full than any Christmas I can remember from my childhood... and I have 5 siblings!  More full than any Christmas Jess can recall (though he does have only one sib).  The only "match" for this Christmas is the Christmas Jessie's sister Anni visited and my sweet, dear friend Heather came to deliver more than 3 large black garbage bags full of presents for our family on Christmas Eve back in 2008 (I think)....  We are so very blessed!!!

Now, some might consider all this story a series of sweet coincidences.  Some might write it off to synchronicity.  Others might say it's a chance collaboration of unlikely events.  Another might say it's luck, or a happy accident, fate, or some other such verbal "write off" of what is REALLY miraculous.  You see, to see miracles, I have learned, it takes an Eye of Faith.  It requires Spiritual Eyes, which are only ever opened BY Fiath, to see what can not be seen by those who would name away that which is plainly seen through Faith... who would close their eyes to what is real and readily before us, but easily explained away.  Yes, it IS easy to explain away!  I used to do it.  Jess has only recently stopped!  But let's call a miracle a miracle and open our dimmed eyes to see the fine threads, invisible without Faith, of Father's awesome plan.  Let's see them as they intertwine and combine to create this magnificent tapestry we live, it makes up our lives!  God's got it!  For sure.  Let Go, Let God.  He will bring so much more than we can provide, if we'll just WAIT ON THE LORD in ALL things!

And so, seeing with my Spiritual Eyes, opened by Faith, I proclaim that THIS, my friends... this Christmas is for Jessie (as well as our daughters, of course... and for me, too, I'm sure, but I just feel SO much that it's FOR Jessie most of all cause it's the wishes and hopes of HIS heart that was answered upon the heads and into the hearts of our children!).  Do you see how the Lord loves him??  And our Father loves us ALL this way!!!  Isn't His Love amazing??!!!??  The way our AWESOME God knows the wishes and hopes of our heart and manifests them in the world when we are simply TRYING to live as He would have us do to the best of our ability at any given time!??!!

Our God is a personal God.  He knows us as individuals and Loves us no matter what.  He knows what we are capeable of right now... as well as what we MAY do in the future if we'll just submit to Him and His knowledge and His guidance and do our best understanding of His Will!  And He blesses us so tremendously for our pitiful and puny efforts to be like our Dear Savior, Jesus Christ.  I must confess Christ in all things.  We are commanded to do so and so I do: This is ALL from Him and we are SO VERY THANKFUL!!!  We are so thankful to those who have acted as instruments in His hands to bless our lives, to bring such temporal manifestations of God's Love into our world this Christmas.  THANK YOU!!!!

Thank you, God.

Merry MERRY Christmas!  I hope His Birthday was a lovely day for you and yours and that some of the wishes and hopes of YOUR heart were manifest in this temporal and saddly fallen world of ours!  :)

This is my truth.  This is my testimony.  And I bear this, my testimony, in the name of our Savior and Risen Lord, Jesus Christ.  AMEN!

An Additional Adventure

So, I've been considering trying to sell some of the things I make. Honestly, I was heavily pressured by Jessie's sister and her fam and after the other people who had commented that I should really sell the Christmas ornaments I make, I've decided to try and do it. I'm actually pretty excited now!

Basically, I'm going to try to place some items in a few stores locally, but initially I'm going to try ETSY. I guess I'm a big ol' chicken. My ego is very fragile, contrary to what some would believe and I want to see if there's any interest via the web before I go to an actual living person to see if they will put my items on consignment in their stores. We'll see what happens. I hope you will wish me very well because any income from this venture will help pay some debt and/or (depending upon how much it is) enable us to do some things that we'd like to do, but just cannot afford at all. For instance, I really want to go to Disney this year. Mostly because it's Ria's 4th birthday year and she just loves the princesses SO much. So, I want to try to get her to see then when it might be a wonderful first memory, or something like that. Of course, Kitty will get a kick out of it too, probably, but she's lots less likely to remember it.

Anyway... I'm really quite excited and very hopeful. ETSY is really classy and very affordable. I'll have my own shop and be able to list as much or as little as I want because it only costs $0.20 per listing and then a 3.5%fee AFTER the item sells. If the item does not sell, I'm only out twenty cents for it. Oh, and the item remains listed for FOUR months. Great, huh? Of course, if you just let it sit there it's less likely to appear in the early part of the time machine II, which I gather is a popular way for buyers to search through the products for something they are interested in.

As far as my Christmas ornaments go, I haven't seen anything else like them on ETSY. Of course, that could because we're quite a while before Christmas... but I'm still hopeful! Also, I'm going to make ornaments similar to the ones I made for Evelyn's and another wedding gift AND try a few styles of Baby's First Christmas and such as potential Baby Shower listings.

Crocheted items are much more plentiful on ETSY, but even so there aren't as many baby items as I might have expected. There are some really AWESOME hats for little ones and probably more items than I've run across thus far. As a bit of an aside, this site is just generally FABULOUS for gifts!!! I found a necklace I totally want to buy for my sis... alas the money lacking.... I haven't seen any of the stuffed animals I make. Amiguri (or something like that) is the most popular look for crochet stuffed things and some people might not prefer that. So, I could well have a market! Again, I hope you'll send me some high fivin vibes and well wishes so that this might take off. A great dream I have is that this could bring in enough moola so that Jess wouldn't have to work TWO jobs even if he doesn't make more at The Club! A good dream, right!

I've started working on a little newborn baby jacket for my sister Eves. It's going to be very sweet with little pockets and fun trim, a matching hat, and booties! Oh, I hope she and her hubbie like it. They are very gracious, so even if they didn't like it, they wouldn't let on, but I want them to REALLY like it. Ya know?