Missing Christmas Puzzle Pieces...

I don't know what's wrong with me, but this year I seem to be in a Christmas "funk". Anyone else feeling that way? Normally by now, a week from Christmas Eve, I'd have had the tree up and the house decorated for the past six weeks or so, we'd have had at least one big family potluck meal, and several potlucks at work, as well as an office ornament exchange. I'd have practiced the church Christmas cantata for hours on end, and walked through the Festival of Lights with my mug of cocoa, all of which help ready my heart for Christmas. I'd have watched several friends in their own church cantatas, and felt the love of Jesus and the season overflow from my heart.

But this year, something's missing. Really, all of it's missing. To start with, we don't have our tree up. Attribute that to the fact that we've (or mostly I've) been out of town 23 out of the past 36 straight

30 days of... Oh look, a squirrel!

They came like chicken pox. First one, then two, then bam! They were everywhere. The Facebook statuses of my friends showed one after another: "30 Days of Thanks, Day 1:" followed by something they were thankful for. From spouses, children, and jobs, to homes and morning coffee.

I, on the other hand, woke up November 1st and said "Huh. Maybe I'll post something I'm thankful for every day instead of just on Thanksgiving." Of course there was no rhyme or reason to it. No predetermined end-date like they all had. Just a 6:00 am thought that I should extend my period of thanks for awhile.

I started with "Day 1: Today I am thankful for...", figuring I would go til Thanksgiving day. Somewhere around day 9 or 10 - oh look! A squirrel! - I lost the day number and just began my posts with "Today I am thankful for..." Then, somewhere around Thanksgiving Day, I decided maybe I

Sweet Spots and Goat Farming...

Someone shared an expression with me recently: you can't ride two horses with one butt. I have tried, sometimes even attempting to ride three or four at once. It begs the question, are any of the horses being ridden as they were intended?

I've been feeling ineffective lately... In case you weren't aware, I retired from job (horse?) number one on October 20th, 2012. Since that time, I've been steadily busy with horses two and three, and often find myself wondering where on Earth I even had time for horse one to begin with! Rather, I've been slowly trying to find what baseball players call "The Sweet Spot".

Granted, I'm not a baseball fan, but growing up in a big baseball town, even I know what the sweet spot is. It's the area on a bat where the ball makes the most effective contact, and goes the farthest

Casting Cares...

Twenty-four. That's the number of days I have left at my "real" job. You see, my company is making some cuts and has a need to reduce the workforce. Following God's leading, I volunteered to leave of my own accord, before I was asked to leave via layoff. I felt as if between 31 and Disney, God was allowing me the income avenues that could lead to the blessing of being more of the woman He wants me to be. To stay home with my kiddos, be a better mother and begin the writing legacy I've dreamt of - to write for the sheer love of writing, to publish and hand-deliver the magic of childhood and love of Jesus to children who, for whatever reason, were never given the chance to know that child-like wonder... to visit orphanages, childrens' homes, and YMCAs to share God's love with them through my stories... to leave the stories with them, so they will always have a physical reminder.

A Terrible Engineer

Several years ago, there was a fellow about my age that I worked with named "Tom". Tom didn't have an engineering degree, yet he was placed in an engineering position because management needed a body to fill that spot, and he had a degree... in something. I thought he did well, especially given his lack of formal training.

Management, however, did not.

They were on him constantly to perform, produce, and have expertise in many things an engineer should know. At some point early within his tenure, he got a prestigious job at a government entity. Once he left, the finger-pointing began... the name-calling, and why he didn't get this done, or that done, and how he wasn't a "good" engineer, which always bothered me because at that point, he'd never asked to be an engineer.

Recently, I had the opportunity to touch base with him. Tom, it seems, had been busy after he left us.

If You See a New Bald Spot...

I have to hand it to Apple. They’ve really spoon-fed me for years. I've had my own website for about 6 years now. And not the “Here are all our family photos for the 3 people on the planet who might be remotely interested in seeing them” website. Rather, this site was built for public consumption! Christianbedtimestories.com was built on the premise that parents need great stories to read to their children, that our society needs to return to the simple every now and then, and that children should be given the opportunity to return to childhood if even for 5 minutes at a time.

Well whadya know, my Mac just happened to have a wonderful program called iWeb, where you just type everything onto a fantastic template, drag some stuff over here, and drop in a picture over there. You hit the magical “publish” button and *poof* just like the magic in my stories, all sorts of great

Of Facebook and Potatoes

Sometimes Facebook makes me crazy. Like today. I have a friend who confided in me the problems they were having in their marriage. And then they followed that up with an updated status picture of the four-person-happy-family.  The one where it looks like everyone is in love with each other, and where no one is neglected or lonely or certifiably insane.  Ironically, I have several friends going through this, and yet, you'd never know it from the beautiful lives they seem to have.

Another friend is going through an earth-shattering financial crisis. And another through divorce. One suspects her husband is cheating. One has problems with her children. (Don't we all?) But you'd never know it based on the profiles they have.  It begs the question, "why?". Why do we put up that curtain of happiness, whilst closets full of skeletons are hiding just beyond?

Is it because on Facebook, we have so many "levels" of friends? There are acquaintances, friends,