Merry Christmas!

I can't believe we are already to Christmas in a day! I just took out my batch of magic bars for our gathering tomorrow that will be here at our place. I also made a cheesecake and 2 stromboli's. Cooking here makes my recipes either better or different, so we'll see!

We've enjoyed this whole week off of language and only had our helper come 3 days. We baked, slept in, read books, drank lots of tea and hot cocoa, ate big breakfasts, hummed along with the Carpenters, built train towns, and skyped with friends and family. It's been good for us to step back and slow down. And I'm thinking about what our new year holds and how I can grow even more in love with my Savior... But for today I will quiet my heart and rejoice that He came to earth as a frail, weak baby to give me full life and joy!

May your Christmas be full of rest, joy and passion for the new year!

Merry Christmas

To Your Family!

Reason #5,437 why kids are so much fun.

After a long language day with your brain feeling like mush, as you almost drift into sleep on your bed... your children find your clothing, layer various pieces (some being - oh yes - your very own sports bra) and make their funniest faces for your camera. Oh, and have I mentioned my daughter has personality?

The peace sign is something everyone here does in pictures...I think it's carrying over to my 3 and 4 year old.

Mind the present.

Photo Credit

It has been well said that no man ever sank under the burden of the day.

It is when tomorrow's burden is added to the burden of today that the weight

is more than a man can bear. Never load yourselves so....If you find yourselves so loaded, at least remember this :it is your own doing, not God's.

He begs you to leave the future to him, and mind the present.

George MacDonald

Grace for the now.

So I've been mulling over some things the past couple weeks. I think we are doing well living here. Over 5 months now we have been here! I'm definitely more content with living here and not feeling as out of sorts as those first couple months. That's a great thing. But I can honestly and openly say I still feel pretty tired most days. Pretty weak. Pretty needy. Tempted to feel overwhelmed by life here. Those feelings are still very near and I have to battle them. I am finding that...

His Gospel's big enough for my here and now.

2 Peter 1:3 says By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to Himself...

Really - everything?? There tends to be some gaps in my thinking and my doing. These are little guideposts telling me what I am truly trusting in or looking to for joy. You know what I mean? Monday mornings as I rush to get things going, when my child is whining for the umpteenth time today, when language feels like it will never come or my days are too full. I think we will always struggle with a "gap" as we grow in our walks (1 Cor. 13:12). But, I keep thinking about this verse and how Jesus came to save me from what I'm currently struggling with. This news is still saving me. This is a grace that reaches down to where I am, in my current battles. This is a very good thing because it keeps me prizing the gospel. It's liberating to realize I am still very much a mess - but the gospel is for messy people! The closer I draw to a Holy Father the more His blazen purity reveals my stains. I'm tempted to pretend I don't see those stains or try to work those stains white again. My pride wants me to try to liberate myself. Feel good about myself. Justify myself. Prove myself. In a myriad of ways we can all do this. Hear key word? Self. Listen to this liberation:

He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.

2 Cor. 5:15

True change comes as I experience grace for myself each messy or miraculous moment. I'm often more shaped by my circumstances or the world than I am by this grace. It's a fact that I have this storehouse of grace available for me right where I am so I don't have to live like a spiritual miser each day. Listen to this story I read that's a great illustration for reminding myself of what I have each moment in Christ...

"A friend recently recounted to me the story of Hetty Green, known as the Wicked Witch of Wall Street in the early part of the last century. The story goes that she took so long trying to find a free clinic to treat her son's broken leg that he had to have it amputated after it had gone gangrene. Yet, she was born into a wealthy family and died with a net worth of millions of dollars. My friend summed up Green's life with the statement 'she never tapped into her wealth.' "

Taken from By His Wounds You are Healed: how the message of Ephesians transforms a woman's identity by Wendy Alsup.

Funny Phin.

This kid cracks me up...last night at dinner here's what I heard:

Paul : I'm reading in the book of Numbers right now.

Job: Hey Phin, your name is in the book of Numbers.

Phin: Yeah! And Job, your name's in the book of Letters.

My morning.

Enjoying sweet steel cut oats sent from a thoughtful mother in law, so delicious. And continuing our second year of using our homemade Jesse Tree advent calendar with devotions which reminds us all of why Jesus came.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

We finally found a tree this week! It looks pretty good (for here). We decorated one morning a few days ago. I'll have to put up a picture of the whole thing soon. We love Christmas!

I love seeing ornaments from years past that are full of memories...

like this one from our very first Christmas together.

This one from last year that my mom bought for us to bring to Asia.

And there's this insanely bright yellow bear that came with a package of ball ornaments here. It sticks out pretty clearly, you can see it in the picture with the kids below. Think cheap, gaudy, trailor park. I guess it works with our living room lights, right? When Phin said "Oh little bear, I love you so much!" and kissed it, I knew then my dreams of slipping it in the trash were gone...

We got a special skype date with Papaw where he played Christmas carols on his guitar for us.

I made Rasberry Thumbprints with this sweet girl over the weekend.

She loves to help me cook/bake.

Little fingers are perfect for these cookies.

Mother Justification vs. Jesus Justification.

And He also told this parable to some mothers who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt...

Two women went down to pray, one, an outwardly "perfect" mom and the other clearly struggling under her load at home and her mothering.

"Perfect Mom" stood praying: God I thank you that I am not like other moms: messy houses, unfinished to- do lists, children who don't listen right away or a woman who would think of making unhealthy meals for her family. I do crafts twice a week. When I promptly wake at 5:am each morning, my bible reading never gets pushed aside. And wow, how much homeschooling we got accomplished today - all thanks to my planning ahead!

But the broken, tired mom fell to her knees at her sink full of days' end dishes and cried "God - have mercy on me, a sinner! I failed to love in so many ways today! I struggled to keep your Word as first priority and spoke harshly to the kids. I'm really having a hard time getting everything done each day. Oh how I need the grace you offer me in Jesus!"

I tell you this mom when to sleep justified rather than the other because she saw her daily need for a Savior. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled but he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Adapted from the parable told in Luke 18: 9-14.