Random and Rare acts of kindness

"A random act of kindness is a selfless act performed by a person or persons wishing to either assist or cheer up an individual."

RARE indeed! But today I actually experienced one and I was blown away! I can’t remember the last time anyone (excluding family) gave me a gift, especially for no apparent reason other than they wanted to bless me. Someone actually took the time to think about ME. Not because they had to or because it was expected, but just because they cared about me. It was totally RANDOM, and so appreciated!

Darryl is all over the house making progress on the lighting fixtures and stuff. Too bad I didn’t think to take “before” pictures. Let’s hope the “after” pictures are fab.

My flower is looking like bright red trumpets. It’s very cool. I think there will be 4 by the time it’s done blooming. Can you tell I love it? I feel like lately I haven't been killing things as much. It encourages me to have a bigger garden this year. I was scoping out our lawn the other day to imagine where I would put it. I think I can see one out there taking up the entire side yard. hahaha... I haven't told Darryl yet.

2 YouTubes for you

Since both of my boys just uploaded videos to YouTube, I thought I'd share them with you. Ryan is singing his newest song in his dorm room. And Kyle has completed his Nokia8 video in our dining room. Enjoy! hehe





Now I will go back to sneezing, coughing, and feeling terrible.

just a quicky

So here it is 5 am and I’ve been awake for hours. Stupid cold!

How do you like my flower now? Once it’s done blooming, I gotta figure out how to keep it until the next season. And that reminds me, I want to get a tomato and take the seeds out of it and try to make it grow in the house. I don’t see why I can’t have fresh tomatoes in the winter. After all, all of my herbs are doing great!

I made fresh pasta (and sauce) the other night. No pictures. It wasn't that pretty, but man was it gooood! I will do it again.

I finished 1 Samuel last night. So much drama and adventure in God's word!!

Darryl is working on the bathroom downstairs.

cake balls have landed

At long last we got cake balls. Aren’t they pretty? I’m looking forward to sampling all of them!
My Amaryllis is almost ready to open up all the way!
Here’s the new fan that Darryl got up yesterday. I think it fits our living room perfectly. Only problem is I can’t reach it to turn it on unless I stand on the coffee table!

I will not be taking the summer job at the camp in Michigan. It seems there’s no place for me and my kids to live there at the camp. So, that does put a bit of a damper on things. Oh well. Maybe next year they will have a trailer.

What do a mama bear and a loving mother have in common? They both turn into vicious animals to protect their offspring from harm. Trust me.

renovations of the heart

My amaryllis is about ready to burst! It’s gonna be great!
Darryl had to rip down the light that he just put up in the bathroom because he wants to raise it up a bit. Otherwise the bulbs hang down too far and reflect off the mirror and blind me. So now there is no light in there at all. Ok, moving on… he took the fan down from the kitchen and made the hole in the ceiling bigger. He got the track up for the new lights and I am happy to report that I do now have SOME light over my counter where I do my prep work. We are going to add 2 pendant lights. It has been a new experience to be able to stand facing the counter straightaway rather than have to turn on an angle so that I get some light from behind me. I can actually see what I’m doing now. It is wonderful! So now he only has to finish the light in there, take the fan down again and patch the sheet rock, and then put the fan back up again. Well I THINK he is putting it back up. After like 3 years he is now telling me he has always hated it, so we’ll see what happens with that. Here’s what it looks like. And here’s what it looks like in our dining room. Hopefully the sun will come out long enough for Kyle to record some videos. Tonight Darryl began the installation process of a new fan and light in the living room. That will be nice because I like to sit out there to read.

So I’ve been thinking a lot about relationships lately: how they started, how they have changed over time, where they have ended up. Sometimes we have to ask ourselves if they are balanced, or out of whack. Sometimes we find that we give way more than we ever get back, and so we realize things aren’t the way we thought. And then other times we realize we need to give more of ourselves. We need to be more patient, more loving, more forgiving. It seems almost always that the more we invest in people’s lives, the more it hurts.

I just finished the book of Judges. Pretty gross stuff. I’m looking forward to the psalms.

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
Ephesians 4:2

Yeah, I need to work on that.

Full moon tomorrow. Watch out!

SURPRISE!

Today Darryl wanted to surprise me by putting up the lights we bought for my bathroom. I WAS surprised considering there is still a huge hole in our kitchen ceiling! Unfortunately the idiots who did the original wiring in the house made such a mess of things that the lights we bought couldn’t be wired in, so we had to take them back to get different ones. Even though this wasn’t my first choice for a lighting fixture, at least it is done (aside from some spackle work) and now he can concentrate on the kitchen!

Thank you, Darryl! You are the best! Just think, all you got left now is the kitchen, the small bathroom downstairs, the 2 mirrors, your bathroom, and the fan in the living room to install. That’s it, right? And then I can start redecorating our bedroom. Hehe

I despise this time of year. So much to do! Gotta file a year’s worth of bills/receipts and stuff. Gotta go through all our financial junk to get figures for tax return. Gotta put stuff away in some organized fashion as to not lose the one stinking receipt that we always seem to need but can never find, and it’s always the most expensive purchase of the year. Why is that?

My wonderful son, Ryan just made the Dean’s List with High Honors at Grace Bible College. That’s so awesome! I knew he had something like a 3.8 grade point average but then when we got the letter in the mail today that he made the Dean’s List I was so excited. That’s just so astounding!

My other wonderful son, Kyle, and I tried setting up a “studio” of sorts in our dining room for him to do his Nokia N8 competition video in. It’s not too bad where we have it but it’s not the greatest either. Maybe we can still make it better! We have less than 2 weeks left to get something super terrific back to Nokia.

Friendship....how do we tell the difference between a true friend and a friendly acquaintance? Something to think about.

visions of cake balls floating in zero gravity

Here is a picture of an Amaryllis bulb that I got for my birthday. It is getting so BIG, and I have to keep spinning it around so it doesn’t bend over reaching for the sun. Haha… It is going to be so pretty when it blooms. I will definitely post a picture when it does. It’s going to be red.

Well, Ryan is off on tour these days; Alabama, Florida. So, they leave Grand Rapids and then travel south only to get hit with snow there! Georgia is under about 6” of snow. Weird weather all over. Must be that global warming…. Ryan’s having a really great time though! I can’t wait to see the video. Somebody better be recording my son’s beautiful voice or I will have to contact the college and cause a ruckus. Hehe…

Let’s see. Kyle finally got back to Gen Y Sunday night. So, he was glad about that. Next time I need to bring a heater to plug in because I was shivering the whole time. Packers won their game on Sunday. That was good. So they might actually make it to the Super Bowl this year, and WIN. That would make a few people very happy I’m sure, especially since they didn’t win it last time they had the chance. ;)

Yesterday my new knife arrived to replace the burnt one. Can you believe that is a $45 knife? And today Sears came and replaced the burnt stove top, so now it is as good as new! Yay! It only took 3 ½ weeks. I promise to be more careful from now on and not start any more fires.

Supposedly there's a big snow storm coming tonight into tomorrow. I’ll believe it when I see it. Seems people these days get all nervous over a little bit of snow. Kyle is going to miss CBC this week if we do get snow and the schools are closed. That means he missed it for like a month. I think he should go into Children's ministry somehow. Maybe with his yoyo skills? I can’t wait to see where God is going to lead him. Today he received a really sweet camera from the UK to borrow for 2 weeks. He has to make a yoyo vid with it with the hopes of winning a trip to Florida and to experience this anti-gravity thingy…which sounds really awesome! I’d love to do that. It’s like a dream of mine to float around in zero gravity. You go, Kyle! You are awesome!

We were going to get some Sweet Jane Lynn cake balls delivered tomorrow at church. But alas, my mouth will have to wait one more week for those delicious balls of yumminess because of the impending snow storm. Ah well...I can wait.

dear diary,

Last week Brett came over for supper. I made him a seafood dinner (lobster tail and baked shrimp scampi). It wasn’t the BEST, but it was pretty close. Brett made us blizzards for dessert with my new Ninja! Lol Kyle and Darryl went skiing with him a couple days later. Only reason I’m writing about it is because Kyle told me if I didn’t we would forget about it, and we sure can’t let that happen! You see, whatever I write about is here forever, but whatever I forget to write about is gone forever. Haha...funny. My life on a blog. Who would’ve thought?

I’m up to Deut. 8. Plus I read 1st and 2nd Timothy, Titus, Joel, and Hebrews.

Ryan and I tried swing dancing...epic fail.

Today was Kyle’s Bible class...fun times.

Tomorrow Ryan has to go back to GBC...sad times.

But I know he will have a great adventure touring with the Grace Singers when he gets back! We love you, Ryan!

resolutions...

After years of nagging, my husband surprised me by buying lights to go over our kitchen counter. I do an awful lot of cooking and it is pretty dark right where I do all my prep work. So, here’s how far he has gotten. Big hole in ceiling
Yesterday I got offered the position of Food Services Manager/Head Chef at the Lake Michigan Camp for the summer. I was blown away! This offer came from someone who has never met me personally or eaten my food, but only knows me from Facebook. I can imagine it would be pretty thrilling to spend the summer on the lake, and I consider it an honor to be asked, but there are some real issues that stand in the way of taking the job. For one, my husband would be here in NJ all alone for the summer. My kids would be ripped away from their home, friends, and church ministries. And I would probably not be able to do all the work I do for Preakness. I can imagine it would be a tough job planning meals and ordering food and preparing meals three times a day for a mob of hungry little kids. It’s not something I have ever done before. I imagine I would be exhausted (even though I would have the boys there to help). But I’m leaving the door open for just a little while to see what happens.

Today I made these really scrumptious Pepperoni Pizza Puffs to go with our Pasta dinner. They were outrageous!! Will plan to make them again for Super Bowl, maybe with hot sausage next time.

What else? I have decided to join this program for reading the Bible in 90 days. (B90X) So far so good. And since I am a terrible reader, I am going to listen to it on CD while I'm reading it so that I don't miss anything. When I read, I get distracted, or I can't read things right because of a bit of dyslexia. But if I read along with the CD man, I catch everything! So far it has been so captivating I can barely put it down. I started on Jan 1 and I'm already finished with Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers. I'm about 12 days ahead of schedule. And now I think the worst is behind me...

Tomorrow Kyle and I are going to church for Bible class for me and a Bible lesson for Kyle.

So, what are my resolutions? Read the Bible in 90 days, and get in shape physically. I'm psyched...

It's a new year!

We had such a great time last night at the Grace Church New Years Eve party. It was so nice to have some place to go for a change, rather than sit home again. We didn’t realize they were serving a full dinner, so we ended up eating twice, not to mention the huge assortment of yummy desserts, including this one that I made, Fudgy Bonbons with peanut butter cups inside. So delicious!We enjoyed a wonderful time of worship after dinner, and then an amazing comedian named David Ferrell did a show. We just loved it, and laughed so hard. It was great to be there with my family and meet up with some old friends and acquaintances! What a perfect way to end the year.

Looking forward to seeing what God is doing this year, and wondering if Jesus is coming back soon. Happy 2011 everyone!

...forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead...
Philippians 3:13