THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful I got to chat with Dad on the phone yesterday. What's one thing you're thankful for?

LIFT OFF

I've been listening to Cally Mae's first album, Lift Off, on Spotify almost daily since it released earlier this month and the CD I ordered for the van just arrived. So excited! This young teen is such a talented musician and composer, and I'm not just saying that because of personal connections. She's truly gifted! I encourage you to give her music a listen and/or purchase some for yourself. Here are some options.

* Amazon

* Apple Music

* CD

* Instagram

* Spotify

Happy listening!

CHRISTMAS EVE WITH A BONUS W

I love this kid. One of our bonus Ws, he used to be in our home nearly every day when he lived next door. His family moved across town a year ago and we only saw him on weekdays when we picked him up from school. Then the world stopped in March and we didn't see him at all for six long months. Two visits in September, then nothing again for three months. He and his parents asked a few days ago if they could come over on Christmas Even. My heart and head needed an evening with them even more than I realized.

When our time together ended, we were given this. Gabi's initials. A craft. Mounted on a cardboard frame for hanging. Made literally and figuratively of love. To our family from one of our bonus Ws. So sweet! 

 

CHRISTMAS - 2020

I thought last year was as low-key as we could get on Christmas, and I even vowed we'd kick things back up a notch this year, but the reality is this year was even more low-key because we didn't see anyone outside of our family and never set foot out the front door. Food, treats, watching our church's Christmas Eve service a day late, gifts, games, Tim reading The Legend of the Three Trees, Christmas music, messages and phone calls with family, and quite a bit of laughter. Plus a little conflict and tears, because that's real life. 

I'm always taking pictures of everything, but told the fam the only one I was taking today was our usual family picture. But several hours later I busted out an inflatable antler ring toss, similar to this one. Tyler and I were the only Ws who ended up playing and it's a lot harder than I expected, so I felt compelled to document our only successful tosses with a picture. 

It was a good day, both fun and relaxing, but we also had a few other Christmas highlights over the last several days.

On Saturday we watched The Christmas Ships. Those volunteers have been cruising the river for a couple weeks every December for fifty years and I always enjoy the times we're able to watch their parade. 

Tuesday night we drove through Keizer Miracle of Christmas Lights, as well as through some streets of Woodburn. From classy displays to tacky ones, simple to elaborate, Christmas lights are inherently cheerful and I think it's fun to look at them.

I'd decided not to bake this year because we already had some treats for Christmas day. Then I hopped on Facebook Wednesday morning and saw posts in my memories of the cookies I'd made previous years. So, I made a spontaneous decision on Christmas Adam to crank out some goodies. But not before we headed over to our neighbors to check out his most recent LEGO Christmas decor. So fun! Then it was time to don a Santa hat, choose three cookie recipes, and start pulling out ingredients. 

I ended up with thirteen dozen cookies, most of which we distributed to friends and neighbors. I'm glad I chose not to bake this year because I needed to not feel pressure to get more done. I'm also glad I changed my mind and could enjoy an unexpected day in the kitchen that satisfied lots of taste buds. Here's a little glimpse of what we ate - honey & spice, maple-glazed oatmeal, and a new cranberry orange recipe I don't have up yet. 

Finally, yesterday I posted this picture on Facebook of this ornament from a friend and asked people to link their church's online Christmas Eve services. In a season where many people are choosing not to venture out and are missing their tradition of gathering at a church to celebrate the birth of Jesus on Christmas Eve, I thought it would be nice for folks to have some options of services they could watch from home. Several friends shared links and I spent a good portion of the day listening to, singing along with, and sorta watching to four different ones as I went about my day. Not only was it a mood booster on a day of exhaustion-driven emotions, but it was also neat to get a glimpse into a little piece of my friends' lives. 

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THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful I ran into a friend as she showed up for work during a quick errand this morning. What's one thing that you're thankful for?

THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful my 18 year old texted my 9 year old a couple days ago to check the evening's schedule in hopes the two of them could read Look-Alikes Christmas together, and that later I got to see the youngest sitting on the oldest's lap, both of them piled on a rocking chair that's been in my family for sixty-seven years, as they read one of our household's favorite Christmas books. What's something you're thankful for?

SOMETIMES

Family relationships can be fun and rewarding, but sometimes sharing a life and roof with people is discouraging and hard. Social media can be a great way to stay connected with people you like, but sometimes it shows you just how condescending and snarky those people can be toward those they disagree with. Having life slow down can be beneficial in many ways, but sometimes nine straight months of trying to balance the physical, mental, and economic health of yourself, your family, and your community under unusual circumstances, knowing one half or the other of the people you know will criticize you no matter what you do, is overwhelming. Holidays can be filled with special moments and fun traditions, but sometimes making sure they don't feel like just another ordinary day for your loved ones can feel like a burden. 

Today it all just felt too ... everything. Too many unpleasant people, too little kindness. Too many responsibilities, too little rest. Too much judging, too little empathy. Too many hard decisions, too little confidence. Too many tears, too little joy. Too many conflicts, too little peace. Too much of the hard stuff, too little of the good stuff. 

So, as one is prone to do when one feels overwhelmed by everything, I cried. In the car, to the store. And I prayed, just asking God to show me a little glimpse of his love through some part of my day. Something to boost my spirits. Now, there's no magic formula here. Sometimes those prayers are met with silence, other times by my own blindness to the answer. Today, though, my request was granted. 

I pulled into the parking lot, wiped the last tear off my cheek, took a deep breath, and went inside to grab a few things. I wasn't in the store thirty seconds when I saw a couple we've been acquainted with since the summer of 2012. They're in their mid-70s, an older couple we see multiple times each summer at the library's weekly outdoor concerts. Due to the pandemic, the 2020 concert series was canceled, so I haven't seen them since August 2019. In all the years we've lived here, I've never seen them around town. Never. But there they were, right in front of me.

I said hi, but they didn't recognize me with my hair chopped off, a beanie on my head, and a mask over my face. I backed up, pulled my mask down briefly, and said hi again. Then they knew who I was. We spent about ten minutes chatting, looking at pictures of the Ws, hearing about their great-grandkids, and just catching up on life a bit before they gave me air hugs and went on their way. It was wonderful! 

I checked the mail when I got home and there was a package for me. I was expecting something because the sender had confirmed my address last week, then contacted me yesterday to see if I'd received anything from them. The estimated delivery date was Saturday, so I figured whatever it was just got delayed in all the holiday mail. Sure enough, it arrived today. Check out what part of the package was. 

A blue and green W, handmade by the sender! The picture doesn't do it justice, but it has multiple layers, all cut slightly different than the rest so different colors peek through the holes. Isn't that cool? I told my friend that God must have known I'd need that happy mail more today than I did on Saturday.

The kids and I gathered a few minutes later to do our Advent reading for the day. My portion was Psalm 23, the famous Bible passage about the peace, refreshment, guidance, comfort, and love of God. How's that for perfect timing?

The rest of my day was ordinary, but that hour or so was a gift. 

You may feel like you can't get anything right, but sometimes God shows you that he sees, knows, and loves you anyway. You may believe adulthood is overrated, but sometimes God gently reminds you that hard things generally aren't as bad as they feel. You may be discouraged by the attitudes of many people, but sometimes God puts kind people right in your path. 

I'm sure glad he does those things sometimes.

SMOKED CHEESE

Devon's wanted to try smoking cheese for quite a while and recently had a chance to do it. A friend of his had a taste and decided he wanted some of his own, so he bought three blocks of cheese for Devon to smoke. Two were for him, the other for Devon as payment for smoking all of it (which Devon split with Tim as payment for using the smoker and pellets). 

Saturday was cheese smoking day and I caught Devon in action, dealing with cheese and trying not to inhale all the smoke.

And then I had him pose later with some of the smoked pepper jack and cheddar he'd created. So tasty!

 

2020 - ANNUAL FAMILY & KID PICTURES

It's December, which means it's time to share all the professional pictures the Ws had taken this year. I realized as I started to load these that I never posted 2019's pictures. What in the world?! I'll have to do that soon and backdate them.  

Our tradition is to have the kids' individual portraits taken during their birthday months, then our family ones taken in late November or early December. Due to the widespread business closures in our state over the spring, the studio we've gone to for nearly a decade shut down completely by the time we needed to schedule Silas and Devon's pictures in June. Such a bummer! The next closest one was completely backed up by that point because of all the people who missed pictures over the spring and/or had to change locations, so the big boys didn't get to go in until Naomi's birthday rolled around in August and all three of them went in at the same time. Better late than never, right? And we were treated so kindly during that visit, which was a silver lining to the delayed pictures. So, without further ado, the pictures. 

Devon turned sixteen in June. As we've always expected would happen, he's now the tallest W.

Silas turned eighteen in June, which means this is his last set of annual pictures. Hello, adulthood. 

I never buy enhancements, but I loved this one, even with the hair covering one of his eyeballs, and bought it impulsively since it's his last year of pictures. 

Naomi turned thirteen in August, officially a teenager. She continues to bring a healthy dose of femininity to our home.

Tyler turned nine this month. I can't believe he's in his last year of single digit ages.

The kids get to choose their own outfits for their individual pictures because the goal is to capture who they were at that particular point in time. Tyler wears this outfit multiple times a week and loved this black and white enhancement. I mean, loved it. And begged me to get it. I didn't want it as a regular picture because his face isn't completely visible, but I gave in and bought a sheet. It is pretty cute, after all. 

And now for the end of the year family shots. First, me and Tim, the original Ws who started this whole crew of people.

Then the little Ws, sibs who aren't very little anymore.

And, finally, a few shots of all the Ws together. 

My favorite family shot is the piggy-back one, no doubt about it. I love fun poses!

Credit for all the pictures goes to JCPenney Portrait Studio at Washington Square. Funky lighting is from me taking pictures of pictures.

MY NEW CHRISTMAS PILLOW

I received this handmade pillow on Wednesday night, a quilted gift from an acquaintance I met a couple years ago and don't really know. She enclosed a note that mentioned a couple specific interactions we've had (probably the only ones we've had), described how this pillow came to be, and explained why she gave it to me. And I cried. For quite a while.

You may look at this pillow and have opinions about Santa, Jesus, Christmas, home decor, or quilting. For me, someone who regularly struggles with feeling like a failure and who's much quicker to point out the negative than to verbalize the positive (particularly at home, because that's where our expectations tend to be highest and our behavior the worst), this pillow will always be a special reminder of a few things. 

First, God wired us all differently, with each person having a unique combination of personality and skills. No one is going to be awesome at everything, but everything's awesome when each person's strengths are in the mix. Whether through intentional words and actions or through unintentionally doing what comes naturally to us, we have countless opportunities to make life a little better for someone else.

Second, just because you're failing at something (or lots of things) doesn't mean you're a failure. Sometimes you're succeeding at something and don't even know it. And failure is a little bit subjective anyway. 

Third, people matter, and they need to know they matter. It's important to reach out in whatever ways we're able so that no one feels invisible. And it's important to let people know how they've positively impacted us, whether in trivial or significant ways.

This pillow will be a constant visual reminder for me through the rest of the Christmas season to focus on objective facts instead of subjective feelings, look for opportunities to bless other people, and speak words of praise and gratitude as often as I can. All of which sounds lovely, but actually takes some effort and discipline. 

And in case you wondered, quilting is absolutely not one of the skills God gave me. Now you know. 

THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for reliable transportation. What's one thing you're thankful for?

A LITTLE CELEBRATION WITH FRIENDS

I needed to deliver a special gift to Dad and Debra and was trying to figure out a day that would work to head their direction. My top two preferences were to go alone with Tim and turn the one day road trip into a date of sorts or to have all the Ws come along. As it turned out, neither of those options was going to work in the near future. With less Ws' schedules to work around, I decided to try combining my special trip with our friend's special day. Mission accomplished. I got to make dinner for this crew, Cindy made dessert, the kids all played, two little Ws got to meet Betty, and the adults visited while we celebrated Shon. So fun! 

Cindy's been one of my favorite people for decades and I'll never turn down a hug from her. Also, I'll never turn down brownies or lemon cookies when she offers them.

I'm thankful for the long friendship I've had with Shon and am so proud of him. Being able to have part of my family celebrate with part of his was fantastic!

I said something to Shon about how cute his mom is and Michael chimed in to say he's the cutest. Well, alrighty then. I can't head home without getting a picture with the cutest person, right?

I asked Devry if I could get a picture with him before the Ws headed home. He agreed, but wanted the puppet to be part of it. Deal! 

And thus concluded an awesome day. 

Well, not really. We still had a long drive home. And then I had to come down off my emotional high of the long-awaited delivery of Dad and Debra's gift and the fun of celebrating Shon's life, as well as the extrovert high of getting to be with people all day. But, whatever. My day may not have ended until nearly 4:00 in the morning, but the people part of it wrapped up with these pictures. 

A BIBLE VERSE & A BIKE

In September 2015, Dad and Debra posed in front of a framed Bible verse hanging on their wall and he shared the picture on Facebook. He posted it in reference to what their pastor taught about that weekend. 

Five years later, in September 2020, I mentioned to Beep in a message that there were four things from the loss of Dad and Debra's home in the Almeda Fire that felt like a personal loss to me. One of them was this print of Joshua 24:15b. 

Dad and Mom received the framed verse as a wedding gift in the summer of 1975 and it hung in a prominent place in every home they lived in for the sixteen years and seven months of their marriage. Then it hung in a prominent place of every home Dad lived in as a single guy for ten years. Then it hung in a prominent place of every home Dad and Debra lived in for eighteen years and eight months of their marriage. 

That verse had been part of my dad's home for over forty-five years. Then it burned with everything else he and Debra owned. 

I mentioned to my sister that as I was typing out my message to her it occurred to me that I could buy them a new version of the verse to hang in their current home. It's a popular verse and I knew I could find countless options on Etsy. Then she, being the artist she is, mentioned the possibility of finding someone who could duplicate the original. 

Messages were sent. Referrals were given. A connection was made. Questions were asked. Answers were given. Process pictures and videos were sent. Buckets of happy tears were shed upon receipt of every single one of those pictures and videos. A parking lot meetup was arranged. I posed with Amanda LeDoux, long-time acquaintance and current worker of miracles.

This is what she handed me at the back of my van on a drizzly afternoon. 

You guys, she nailed. As my sister said, perfection. As Tim said, wow. That pretty much sums it up. I immediately went to get it framed, then got a call to pick it up a couple weeks later. 

So beautiful and special!! I cried in the store. Yes, I did. No shame.

Today (and I'm still counting this as Tuesday, even though it's technically Wednesday, because I've been up for twenty-one hours since crawling out of bed Tuesday morning) Naomi, Tyler, and I drove down to Medford to deliver it. 

I asked Dad a few days ago if we could bring lunch over today. He said yes and asked what the occasion was. I told him he was the occasion. And that was that. So we brought lunch for everyone, including Beep, and visited for a bit. Then I said I had something to show them. (Sidenote: It wasn't the pregnancy announcement he thought it was going to be. Ha!) 

I asked him and Debra to side next to each other and close their eyes. They were very obedient. 

Then I set the frame across their laps and told them to open their eyes. 

Oh, you guys! This whole verse project has been so incredible. Needless to say, they were grateful for the gift. Also, let the record state that I didn't cry today. Evidently I got all my crying done through every single step that led to today's delivery. 

So, here's a picture of a man and his wife with their new wall decor. 

And a picture of a man with his daughters, the one who came up with brilliant idea to have a replica made and the one who took on the project. 

Here's a final shot that shows what an incredible job Amanda did. 

Folks, she had one super poor quality picture of something she'd never seen in person and recreated it in a way that impressed my whole family. And now Dad and Debra will have this hanging in a prominent place of every home they live in from now on. 

Amazing. Just amazing.

Before I move on to the next thing, I want to thank Drew for giving me names of people who might be able to help with this meaningful project; Jenny for letting Amanda know I'd messaged her; Tyler and Sara for helping with flower identification; the Creekers who gave me feedback about Michael's for framing; Jordan at the Tualatin Michael's for helping me choose a frame and Jamie for inviting me back to the store and talking me off the ledge when I was second-guessing the frame choice; Natie, Sonja, and Shon for being the only non-family members not involved in the process who knew about it a little bit earlier than everyone else and shared in my excitement; and to all of these people for keeping it a secret.  

And, of course, more thanks than I could ever possibly give, and believe me when I say I've given a lot, to Amanda. As an aside, this kind of thing, as well as other art of hers I've seen, isn't even what she does for a living. Her real job is digital interactive design. (I say that as though I have a clue about what all that encompasses. I don't. But you can check out her work here.)

So that's the scoop about the Bible verse. Now let's talk about the bike. I didn't realize until now that I'd only given the following update on Facebook, so I'll start by copying what I said there back on 10/31/20. 

*****

I shared on 9/9 that three members of my extended family lost two homes in the Almeda Fire. My sister, knowing that I love to rally the troops, mentioned to me that Dad had been riding his bike several miles each week and maybe I could work on replacing it. His insurance could cover it, but this was something I could work on as a gift to him.

I posted about different ways folks who wanted to help out financially could bless my extended family, one of which was a bike fund. Some donated specifically to that cause. Others donated and said I could apply the money wherever I saw fit, so some of that money went toward a bike.

The money was ready a couple weeks later, but Dad wasn't. Until this week. I sent him money two days ago, he happily spent it the same day, and sent me this picture just a few minutes ago. This is his first bike ride in almost eight weeks!

I've thanked all of you repeatedly for the support you've shown my family through tangible items, money, prayer, and simply asking how they're doing since the fire. Today I want to specifically thank those who made purchasing this bike and accessories possible. I'm so happy Dad can enjoy some fresh air and exercise in this beautiful autumn weather!

 

*****

Today he got to show me the bike in person. So cool!

We struck a pose together - him and his bike, me and my awkward braces smile. Because that's my reality these days.

It wasn't until we were driving home later that Tyler mentioned we didn't get a group shot that included him and Naomi while we were at Dad and Debra's. I was so focused on the verse, which I've been giddy about for months now, that I forgot about my offspring. Oops! At least I remembered to feed them. That counts for something, right?

Once again, a huge thank you to everyone who donated to the GoFundMe that one of my nieces did for Dad and Debra, the GoFundMe I did for Ashley, the bike fund for Dad, and cash for me to distribute as I saw fit. That cash is what allowed Dad to replace his bike and the replica of the sentimental framed verse to be made. Thank you for caring for my extended family during this crazy season. I'm so very grateful. 

And big thanks to my sister for coming up with great ideas that she knows I'll enjoy taking on as projects. We make a good team like that. And for taking pictures without me asking, then texting them to me without me asking. She's good like that.