That Good Part

There is a huge backstory behind this photo...who these men are, where they are, why they are on razor carts, and why I care....I know the story, you probably won't care unless you follow Formula Drift. I love the boyish joy on the faces of grown men who are already living the dream of driving fast cars for a living.   Tomorrow I will have my picture taken with at least one of these men, (probably not on a Razor) and then watch them drive sideways at around 100 mph.  I will take 400 photos and leave smelling like burnt rubber and it is the best birthday present a girl can receive.   In our family, we tend to celebrate the 12 days of birthday, because we can't stop giving each other gifts.  What a joy it is to give, what a joy it is to share experiences, what a joy it is to love.   What can you give that will be a gift of joy to someone today? 

This is what my nightstand looks like most of the time.  There is always a Bible or two, and a variety of books I'm meandering through for various purposes.  Some of what I'm reading is usually for the purpose of previewing product for our church resource ministry.  Sometimes I'm going through a book with somebody or I've been asked to look at it to make sure it lines up with scripture.  Some of what is there I'm reading because I want to and in all of my reading, I'm enjoying it.    I have been an avid reader since I could hold a book, but I realize many people are not.  You probably are because you are reading a blog, which is longer than a tweet, so you must be okay with more than 125 characters.  I used to read a lot of fiction, which I rarely do now, and I have always loved a book that I could learn from.   In the fall of 2011, most of what I enjoyed in life went into hibernation, like a sleepy bear getting drowsier and drowsier...

I have spent the last three days in the company of somewhere around 900 women.  I know probably less than 20 of them.  It is interesting to me how women can become friends in less time than it takes to make a soy chai latte.  Because of that truth I now know  21 of them.  That's pretty good for me, because I'm a real introvert, and there is very little about being in a group of any size that makes me comfortable.  Even writing about this makes me vaguely uncomfortable. This is a pastors wives retreat, so we have some unique ties that bind, joys and challenges that most women will never experience.  Some years ago, maybe even the first year I attended this retreat I went to a workshop that was about being a Spirit filled pastors wife.  The speaker made a statement that always stuck with me. "Let the Holy Spirit pick your friends, He knows the ones you need." Among these 900 women are my Holy Spirit friends.  They are women with whom I h...

Two day a week I have a pair of dirty baby feet running in and out of my house.  This picture is early in the day so it doesn't really represent what a full morning at my house produces on the bottom of her feet.  My whole house is tile, and we've yet to find non slippery cute shoes for the busiest 14 month old you'll ever meet.  At some point, the back door gets opened and that's the end of clean feet.  Nobody cares, not her, and certainly not me.   Neither does her mother, who wrote this  over on her blog, the Motherhood Memoirs .  She knows a little something about enjoying life, especially with a side of dirt.    

I was at Trader Joe's today and almost every end cap display was pumpkin related.  It is October, after all, even if it is 80 degrees in SoCal.  I even bought some pumpkin butter, and I recommend you do as well, since it rocked on whole wheat toast.  I like most things pumpkin, except pumpkin pie which is really a weird texture thing rather than a flavor thing. Apples are a different thing all together.  I'm not sure there is any apple related thing I don't like. There is homemade applesauce cooling on my stove as I write.  For a while apples were the main item in my fall home decor before I decided to simplify, which is a whole other post.  But my favorite fall thing about apples is Honeycrisp apples, and especially Honeycrisp apples on sale.   Every day for the last week, I've eaten a Honeycrisp apple and a piece of bread with peanut butter for lunch.  Some mornings, I also had one at my granddaughters second breakfast, which has become her ...