Play me a song Mr. Violin Man...

      My husband is a wonderful (I mean he is really, really, super good) violinist.  He is practicing now.  I am  glad he knows how much I need a happy atmosphere to create a fun entry.  That holly jolly theme from Schindler's List is really doing the trick.

      It's funny how environment can affect the way you see things.  These pictures usually bring me great joy and laughter.  But, with the sweet sad melody in the background, All I can think about is how fast these guys are growing up, and how much I'll miss this.  Hopefully, I can get the reverend to wind down with some good 'ol Turkey in the Straw.

He's done.  Bad feeling gone now.

Feeling guilt and negligence for leaving you depressed, I am including a really cheesy joke.  The more I thought about it's corniness, the more I chuckled.  In fact, I laughed at laughing at such a dumb joke.  Then, I thought about Michael laughing at a dumb joke (usually his own) and that really got me going.  Later, I looked at the pictures above and smiled.




                     PROVERBS 17:22


A woman has twins, and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named "Amal." The other goes to a family in Spain; they name him "Juan". Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his mum. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Amal. Her husband responds, "But they are twins. If you've seen Juan, you've seen Amal."



Love you.  Thanks for reading.

My Groovy Granny

     I placed the dreaded call - AGAIN.  "Hi is Grandma there?" "Hang on, I'll find her."  Once located, "Hello there, Christina, what are you up to today?" (still chipper because I haven't dropped the bomb yet)  I gulped involuntarily. "Hello my wonderful grandmother." said I in my sweetest voice.  Not sure why, but she never reciprocates my tone when I talk to her like that. "Oh GOD. Now what do you want?"  (Well excuse me lady, if you didn't want me bugging you to sew stuff, then you shouldn't have learned how to do it in the first place, you know, like thirty years before I was born.) 

     
   This time it was a pretty simple request, and as always, last-minute.  I asked her (via Facebook - She's deep into digital agriculture.) to do it at 8am this morning.  She was at my house cutting material at 8:45.  Today, at church, the 6-12 year old class hosted a 60's/70's themed Sunday.  Lucy's outfit was groovy enough, but I felt her pant bottoms could use a little more oomph in the bells.  Granny came over, cut, sewed, rebuked me for my lack of foresight, and watched the munchkins while I enjoyed a shower before church, AND (bonus) she did my dishes. We were out the door at 9:25.  Yay!

     Thanks, Grandma (Gloria), for all the outfits, even the SIMPLE:) (total sarcasm there) ones that made you pop pills and see spots for days. (Note: Apparently, some patterns on material, can cause severe trauma if you stare closely at them for several hours. See my psychedelic dandy below.) 
    The photos with Michael and I are from a Groovy Sunday and some sort of space-themed Sunday ten years ago.  The one with the girls and me is a snapshot of my "Divine Divas", the beauties in my bunk at summer camp.  Grandma made my costumes for all of these.  I never imagined back then, she'd be creating them for my kids just years later.  Grandma, I  found a bible verse that describes you well.

Psalm 37:26 (Amplified Bible)

"All day long they (Gloria) are merciful and deal graciously; they lend, and their offspring (ME :p) are blessed."

Thanks much!




All other photos were taken this morning, a decade later, in the same place, directed by the same never-ceasing, faithful children's pastors, Mr Chuck and Miss (really Mrs. but she likes the young feeling of Miss) Becky Siglow, who were there back in the day, training up Michael in the way he should go.  You guys blow me away.

PS.  This is NOT a photo of Mr. Chuck and Mrs. Becky.  These cool cats are teachers, Desiree Jinks (one of the Divas above, if you can believe it), and Emily Siglow.



 If you're looking for a church to attend, I HIGHLY suggest this one,  Faith City Church. If you are not fortunate enough to live close enough to physically attend, you can still see all the action online.  I thoroughly enjoy the videos, podcasts, and blogs connected to the website.  


Have I told you I love you?


Christina

Silent Saturday

Some things you just can't put into words.  Enjoy highlights of my day.

Have a wonderful day everyone.

LOVE, AMOUR, AMOR

Christina

She did it for my own darn good.

    When I was five I received some jewelry making supplies. (Sorry, whoever gave them to me - back then I only checked the cards for money and never got to the bottom part where your names were. I look for names now, but I still shake the envelope to see if I missed something important.) I loved creating my own jewelry.  I remember making one necklace-bracelet combo I was particularly proud of.  It was stunning and I wanted to wear it on school picture day.  I picked out my dress I was going to wear days in advance and informed my mother that I would also be modeling my trendy bling.  Her reaction was not what a brilliantly gifted-in-beadwork kindergartener wanted to hear.  "You are NOT wearing that to school on picture day young lady."  Ouch.  I had hoped my mom had more style sense than that. We went around quite a bit about it.  I eventually came to the conclusion that being in her eight month of pregnancy had affected her fashion judgment as much as it did her judgement on how many times a person really needed to use the bathroom in a day.
        I decided to give it one more shot.  Picture day morning had arrived and maybe, just maybe, if she actually saw how nice it all looked ON me she would change her mind.  (Unfortunately my mother is as stubborn a person as I am.)  "Christina Middle name Last name I told you that you CANNOT wear those to school."  I thought about her words as I went to my bedroom and removed my beaded treasures.  Then I slipped them into my back pack, zipped it, and skipped myself to the bus stop.  After all, she said I couldn't WEAR them to school, right?
      Right before our class had our pictures taken, we were given a moment to fix ourselves up a bit in the bathroom to make sure we looked nice enough to be displayed on the fireplace mantel the following month.  I looked decent I guess, until I slipped that beautious artwork over my head.  Then I was sharp enough to cut diamonds.  Fortunately for me, I remembered to remove the jewelry before getting off the bus.  Not sure why it never crossed my mind that Mom would actually see what I had done.  Hindsight is 20-20.  (She gave birth right about the time pictures came back. She was too distracted with the new baby to woodshed me.  God's mercy was evident in my life at a very young age.)
       Several years later as we stumbled upon my kindergarten photo, I immediately recognized her good judgment.  It turns out the beads really were hideous. "You were right, Mom. Those things are goofy looking.  You were right to tell me not to take them."  Her reply stunned me.  "I liked your beads because they were so important to you.  I didn't want you taking them because you lost everything you touched, and I knew you would cry when your necklace was gone." Whoa.  Revelation.
        I thought with all her "Do this", and "Don't do thats" she was just being stern for the heck of it.  Turns out she did that stuff out of love for me.  You know where I'm going with this. (I stole that from your blog, M.H.)
       The Bible is a big book of dos and don'ts.  God the father put them there because He loves us - not because He thinks we deserve to be beaten with a stick.  His commandments are there to keep us from harm.  He tells us plainly what will happen if we don't heed them, and He tells us plainly what will happen if we do.  He delights in our pleasure. The choice is ours.  Check out all the good he offered to the Isrealites (fancy word for Jews).  There are even bigger and better benefits available after Jesus was made alive again.  I hope you embrace His rules for your own darn good.  Because I, like God, delight in your pleasure.

As always,

I LOVE YOU

Christina Middle Name Last Name

P.S.  I DID lose the jewelry.

P.P.S.  I did something techie that I'm kinda proud of.  See that envelope icon down there?  If you click on that you can email this post to, well, whoever you want to.  May I recommend your mother?