Christmas Letter 2011

From Nicaragua

to the top of Tumalo mountain a few days ago

we have had an amazing year. Every year seems like a better one then the last, and this one is no exception. It's been such a full year that somehow the news that we sold our home (in 5 days!) in September barely even made the list to be mentioned here!

Cory is working hard to develop and implement the engineering program at Redmond High School, as the department head. He loves the hands on classes he is teaching that inspire kids to come in during their lunch and groan when class ENDS. Julie continues to teach High school Spanish, elementary music, and piano at Central Christian School (and in our private home studio) where Cade and Bekah are 5th and 3rd graders. Both kids have found a love for soccer and are progressing nicely on the piano (and a little guitar!). My big project of the year culminated on Dec. 14th, with our elementary Christmas musical of 2 showings to a crowd of at least 700 folks that watched us sing, dance, and act out the truth that it truly is better to give than receive!

Our summer adventures began on June 20th when we hooked up the trailer and said goodbye to our home for a 10 week life on the road. It started in Zion National Park for 10 days. Then off to Nicaragua for 3 weeks. After Nica, we "convalesced" at Bryce National Park as Nica was quite exhausting. It was nice to get home to safe water, food, dry air, and our own vehicle after giving 110% for 3 weeks.

We then enjoyed a 5 week stay in Eastern California where we backpacked over 150 miles in the Sierras and camped in between trips. Nothing beats the Sierras for the O'Neills!!



Our mission trip in Nicaragua for 3 weeks was life changing, to say the least! It is our sincere prayer that we will get to return in a summer. I loved being able to connect with the locals through Spanish conversation and Bible schools I lead but it was amazing to watch all 4 of us discover our niche there. The kids played with the kids day after day as if they knew Spanish - Love knows no language! Cory and I got to spend a day fitting folks with eye glasses and never grew tired of watching faces of young and old light up when we found the right prescription and they could see for the first time! Cory also spent about 10 days working on an orphanage property installing solar panels - this was not pre planned. We heard about the orphanage, gave them a quick call, showed up and found that they had been praying for an engineer to come and help them with this project (and needed a worship leader too which Cory enjoyed doing in the evenings). Cade helped daddy a lot while Bekah and I played with the kids, led a Bible school, and helped in the kitchen.



Here's the main solar tower completed and ready to be anchored in the ground:The truth about short term mission trips is that it allows us to go to a different part of the planet and see a different face of God in the lives of those that live there. We did get to do some amazing hands on helping type projects, but the real lessons were the ones our hearts learned through the gracious people we met while there.

With all these epic trips, some of the best memories are contained in the simple essence of those moments when we deeply connect with someone -(Bullfrog lake below: another 12,000 foot lunch at an exquisite lake!) holding hands with Cade as we walk across a campground, a killer run that gets the sweat pouring, going out to coffee with a friend, a hug from a student, tea time with Bekah or a quick surprise visit from someone all weave the days together with true joy. We do feel so blessed at our full and bountiful life and for your friendship in our lives. May you have an amazing 2012, where you seize each day with joy and hope.

Love, the O'Neills
Cory, Julie, Cade, and Bekah

Our next adventures

In 2 years, for our 15^th wedding anniversary, how about we take the family on a mission trip to serve others in need as a way to celebrate being a family for 15 years...?”

- Cory, August, 2009

Dear Friends and Family,

It's hard to believe that we are on the precipice of celebrating 15 years of marriage, but we are. As a way to commemorate our 15 years together as a family, Cory dreamed, as we hiked in a high-Sierra trail in 2009, that during the summer of our 15^th year together, we'd take our entire family to Nicaragua on a mission trip. The trip is being planned through our church, Redmond Community Church for the Mustard Seed Missions, which was started by our friends Michael and Lisa Perkins over 5 years ago. http://www.themustardseedmission.org/

It is our heart's desire to give our children experiences that will immerse them in what it truly means to give, selflessly, and to recognize the need for Jesus goes beyond our political country boundaries to all people. Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in Latin America with very little infrastructure or modern conveniences. Families often have little choice but to let their young children scavenge in garbage dumps for food and their daughters to work the streets for money. Unlike in the U.S., there is not a safety net of social services that provides basic needs like food, medical care, and education to people in poverty. By joining efforts with the ongoing ministry that Michael and Lisa have established, we strive to be part of a loving movement that is breaking family cycles and changing legacies. Vocational training for women, feeding and nutritional training programs for the hundreds of people that are living in the Managua city dump, and building projects for homes in major disrepair are just a few of the things we will have the privilege of being part of. Our days there will be jam packed!

The dates of our trip are July 2 – July 10^th, 2011. We are very excited for this amazing opportunity! We hope to bring our own special touch to the team through leading worship as well as Julie's understanding of the Spanish language, that will hopefully allow her to connect with the local people at a deeper level. Our children are natural ice breakers as they easily make friends and will be a vital part of the team as they reach out and connect with Nicaraguan children in a way that only other children can do. And finally, Cory, being the talented work horse that he is, plans to put in long hours, building and repairing infrastructure.

We are humbly writing to you to ask you, first and foremost, to please keep us in your prayers over the next months and during the time we are in the country. Specific prayer requests are:

• Health and safety while in Nicaragua (no malaria or dengue fever please!)

• That this time of ministry would draw our family closer together and closer to God

• That our time in Nicaragua would allow us rich connections with the people in Nicaragua

• That God would open or close doors as He leads to pave the way for us to bring high school students and our family back to Nicaragua in future summers

• That funds for the trip would be provided for

We are also writing to you to ask you to consider partnering with us financially to make this trip possible. The total cost for the trip is $5000. As I type that number, I truly feel all at once overwhelmed by it and confident that since God Has prompted our hearts to want to go that He will clear all obstacles to making that happen. To help keep track of your support, we are asking that you send any donation through our church. Address the checks to RCC and note “O'Neill Nic trip” in the memo line. Your entire donation will be tax deductible. We will send you a tax statement (and a big smiley thank you note/letter of what we did on the trip ) in time for your April 2012 taxes!

Leave a comment with your email address so I can send you a support letter and address of where to send your donations to. Thank you so much for considering joining us in this new adventure into God's Great Plan!

Santa is still coming to our house

Over this issue of Santa Claus I can sense that I might be in the minority in our Christian school but our family has had fun with the idea for years. Bekah still enjoys the giggling fun of Santa. My own pastor dresses up as Santa for his kids (when they were younger anyway!). It's just fun. And fun is good! :)

We also celebrate Advent all month as well as St Nick's day where we learn about St Nick - but on Christmas morning, Santa Claus and his reindeer visit our house. I actually kinda believed in this fun little fantasy through 7th/8th grade.

As a mom now, I love that I can give to my children "in secret" as this is a Christ like model of giving that someday, my kids will be able to do for their own children. I now look back on Christmases of my youth and tearfully realize, that my parents were the sacrificial givers of those gifts I knew had to be from Santa because "there was no way they could afford it." That's Christ like love personified.

I whole heartedly agree with James Dobson's perspective on this and thought I'd send it along:



"Can Teaching Your Children about Santa Claus Interfere with Their Spiritual Beliefs Later in Life."

James Dobson: "I don't believe that those early, early fantasies really interfere with later Spiritual beliefs. I haven't seen any evidence of that, either in the life of my kids or in the lives of those I have had anything to do with. To allow a little bit of fantasy in a child's life enriches his intellectual life and I think he needs it. Children thrive on fantasy. It enriches our mental existence. Reality can be a pretty cold and hard place. I think children need the fantasy that Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and other childhood mythical creatures bring.

Dr Bill Maier: Childhood fantasies can be fun and help develop a child's imagination. As long as the fantasies are not unhealthy, there is no need to "correct" your kids any earlier than necessary"

For this same commentary in audio form here is the link:

http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/James_D...?bcd=2007-12-10

Summer sun has set

We play hard. We do.

A 2 month road trip (5,000 miles of road gravy!)? There were some moments when I might have wanted to dilute the concentrated togetherness, when the trailer or tent seemed a bit too cozy, and when I did wish I could just drop them off to play with someone else for a change. I knew I would and sure enough I am, kicking myself for even daring to think these thoughts. In these precious few years where I am still "Mama" and the playmate of choice, I am so grateful that our lives allow for such concentrated time together. So, YES, I will go toss the football with you all afternoon after swimming with you all morning. YES!! Summer months are rather liberating for kids, I think, because the adults in their lives can say Yes more - sure we can have icecream for lunch, why not! - sure we can get up, skip chores, and bike all day, why not! - sure we can swim all morning and eat berries and honey all day - why not! It's that blessed time of year where "No, it's a school night" turns into "YES!"

We were not indoors (other than our trailer or our backpacking tents) once. But what we were doing is a lot of looking into each others eyes, holding hands, eating every single meal together - all day - laughing - a ton - swimming, running, jumping, and of course....
walking miles of trails, getting gallons of water out of pristine streams, seeing God paint the canvas above with insane colors every evening...

Courtesy of www.coryjoneillphotography.com

To get to these locations, we had to also work. Work hard. (100 trail miles for the Sprouts!!) It's that gentle tug of balance - play hard, work hard - and God smiles down. He seems closer when you are up at 11,600 feet after boulder hopping and climbing your way up, up, up for an entire day, seemingly reaching for Him. His sunsets up here inspire awe. Instant awe. The surrounding ragged 13 and 14,000 feet peaks that surround create humility. ("God you are so huge...yet you know ME and love ME!")

It's these moments and the thousands of other moments we just cherished together as a family, as a team, conquering mountains, lakes, streams, together that have filled us up, refreshed us and will send us forth this year to work hard, to bless our classrooms full of precious children, and to keep our family team thriving in His Love.
courtesy of www.coryjoneillphotography.com

Light light light up the sky
You light up the sky to show me You are with me
I I I can't deny
No I can't deny that You are right here with me
You've opened my eyes
So I can see You all around me
Light light light up the sky
You light up the sky to show me

From the Afters song, "light,light,light up the sky"

Dear Cade

Since he wrote us a letter, I decided I oughta write him one. How fun it is to write love letters back and forth! Thank you Bo, from http://bostern.wordpress.com/ for your inspiration for my letter.

Dear Cade,


I look at you and see a boy who knows for sure that he is a fast runner, a good leader, a strong kicker and a smart thinker.

At nine, your only kryptonite is "perfectionism", but somehow your weakness with that seems to make everything else more charming. You love to play and love to win, but you also love to try. You give everything 110%, even though it scares the perfectionist in you to find your limits.

I love your spark, your joy, your refusal to – almost never - give up. I love that you believe in the goodness of the people around you and pray that someday you'll believe in the goodness in you. I love how your eyes twinkle when you are learning, that you crave to learn about anything and everything, including your insatiable desire to read the Bible.

But I wonder (and this is where the mom road gets a little rough)…

…who will be the first to bend your belief system? Someone will do it. Someone will make sure you understand that you aren’t that great or that fast or that kind. Someone will disregard your sparkling storytelling abilities and define you by your internal struggle to define everything in this world as black or white as you painfully learn, this is an impossible pursuit.

A boy who hasn’t been well-loved will want to become a winner by making you a loser. An insecure girl will make herself feel beautiful by convincing you that you are ugly. It will happen.

And sometimes – as crazy as it sounds – I am tempted to pave the way for the breaking. Sometimes I feel like I should prepare your heart for the sting of reality. To soften the blow of that moment when you will feel the rush of the wind, only to discover it’s someone passing you by; winning your race. I wrestle with the dueling desires to “build-you-up” and “let-you-down-easy” and so I ask for wisdom.

Wisdom that keeps me from speaking words that would define or destroy.

Wisdom that helps you learn to define yourself less in terms of black and white, because that system will only leave you believing you are less than your Creator made you to be, and more in terms of the beautiful rainbow of colors that make you YOU.

Wisdom that helps you find both your breaking and building in the arms of Jesus.

Wisdom, to hold you close and launch you freely into a world that isn’t kind, but so deeply needs someone a lot like you.

So I stand in the shadows of your indefatigable optimism and I pray that when the day comes that you discover that there are those who cannot cheer you on, no matter how much they may secretly want to; you will hold tightly to the knowledge that there are those who always will. No matter what.

We love you more than words can say,

your Mommy and Daddy, Bekah, Grandma, Grandpa, Nana, and Papa

--

Is it possible that I learn more from my kids then they do from me?

My little Wildman Sprout has been leaning more towards the "wildman" then the "sprout" in his 3rd grade year. He is testing the waters, figuring out what might work in this world and finding out, the hard way, that, darn it, life is hard.

My guy is a bit too smart for his own maturity. His little body has not caught up with his brain and all this is trying to wrestle itself out, crammed in a school desk all day.

His loving teachers are constant reminders to me that, sigh, it does indeed take a village to raise a child and they are part of our village.

Instead of coming up with excuses today like, "why should I do homework when I get As in everything?" he took the advice in stride, seemingly understanding that in the real world, we all have to do things we don't want to do or even sometimes see the point of at all and that part of responsibility is sucking it up and being willing to do our best, always, even when it's the last thing we want to do.

And then he wrote us this letter (note: Character grades are given in 7 different areas with 2s and 3s being the lowest and 1s being the highest):

Dear Mommy and Daddy,
I am a new kid now. I have changed very much. I won't lie. I won't be a distraction in class. I will slow down in my work. Everything you said I will do. You will find me getting nonstop 1s on my report card. You will find As on tests. You will find the teacher saying "Cade has been wonderful." All those bad memories are gone. I have a brand new start.

What I learned from this: May I always be as teachable and willing to be molded by God as my son is.

May I: find the eternal treasure in the temporary trial.

Filled up

Simple post to say how filled up I am today -

• With the joy of spending my life with such an amazing friend, gentle man, and the encourager of my soul
• With my son's joy and exuberance for every thing he does, his swimming lessons he is doing with his class, his soccer practice in the evenings with his traveling team, his book reports, his family
• With my daughter's creative approach to life - through cards for every one for anything, her eagerness to dance to an Uncle David song at the school talent show, how she sings and twinkles during most moments of her day
• With my many jobs - from teaching my students piano to hanging out with high school students in my Spanish classroom and co-creating choreography with my elementary students during music class to touring the country with my brother doing shows

FILLED to overflowing. Our GOD is so good.

What is your heart filled with today?

Sex part 2

The actual words of her lovely "Kid" appropriate book: "Do not have sex with anyone other than your husband or wife." Or another wonderful line from her new book:

It's better to marry than to wish for sex all the time.


Where did she read this? No it was not in a Playboy Magazine for kids...it was her brand new, Kids Bible for 6 to 10 year olds. The Day by Day Children's Bible. http://karynhenley.com/site_pages/Bibleprod_new.htm#anch_7minutes


She has now been asking about sex, mentioning this new word around Cade (who said he's never heard it either...what is that?) and trying to figure it out.

Obviously, we had to do some explaining. And we did. And we kept it simple. But I am appalled at this author's decision to write it that way...so obviously a verb...so poorly written. She could have written this a ton of ways like

• You can only be married to one man or one woman - the original verse is about adultery anyway.
  

I never remember being told in Child development 101 in college to make sure we include stories about "Not having sex with anyone but your spouses" at circle time for 1st graders or to encourage them to make sure they get married someday so that they don't wish for sex all the time. It's insanity. Pure insanity.

There is a time and a place. God tells us that He will disseminate knowledge to us as adults as we can handle it...so why do we dump stuff like this on young kids? I don't care if it's in the Bible. It's not appropriate for young kids. Period. The Bible is full of stuff that is not appropriate for young kids.

I am now descending from my soap box.

I feel better now. Thanks for listening.

Don't buy the Day by Day Children's Bible. (Now I feel even better!)

Sex

Thought that title might catch your eye.

So, anyone out there think this is appropriate reading for a just turned 7 year old girl? Just wondering if you ever ran across this in any kid's stories out there:

And a man should not have sex with anyone but with the person they have married....

Oddities while looking for a Bible

My kids are 6 and just 9. They both read. My 9 year old can read any thing...highschool level is not a problem. My 6, almost 7, reads chapter books.

So, they have been begging me to read the Bible. But it is a book full of violence, sex, immorality, and rock and roll...if you know what I mean.

Does my 6 or 9 year old need to be reading about "women lusting after women and doing depravous acts with their bodies" ? etc. (Straight quote from Romans. )

Just because they can read, do they have to be reading about the horrendous violence in the Old Testament - simply because it's in "God's Word".

Today I went to the Christian Bookstore. Maybe that was my first mistake. Of course, they had cute covered Bibles for all different ages. The covers were different, but the inside was always the exact text. No editing out of "prostitutes" and "men lusting after men" or "sexual sins with their bodies"...just all the raw gorey details of the Bible.

There was a lady checking out who overheard my questions and decided to jump on her opinionated box to declare to me, "well, if your kids can read it then I feel they are ready to know about the full sinful nature of mankind. It's God's Word after all. If they can read it then they should know about it all." Blah blah blah. I sort of tuned out to the rest of her speech. I did let her know that I did not agree with her.

Truly, do non-Christian, loving parents, seeking to raise their kids morally look at the things that are taught to kids in Sunday schools at early ages about extremely violent acts in the Bible and think we are crazy? If I stopped for a moment and stepped out of my Christian bubble, I'd definitely be confused as to why we think we need to be talking to 2 year olds in Sunday school about some of the violent moments in the Old Testament like Cain killing Able or having them memorize the 10 commandments asking mommy as she changes their diaper,"What is adultery?"

Just because my daughter mastered the English language by 2, she was not ready to be sat in front of any English spoken R- rated movie. Just because they are great readers does not mean they have to be burdened down by our adult issues of sexual lust, violence, and all the rest. That's not their burden to bear yet.

I would love to hear your thoughts! I just want a truly age-appropriate Bible!!

In the meantime, I ordered this Bible for my soon to be 7 year old: http://www.karynhenley.com/site_pages/howsdiff.htm

Chin up everyone

I know it's gray. I know it's STILL January. ( I had to remind my husband of that today - Do you know, I told him, that it is STILL January??!)_

We haven't seen the sun in a long time. THis vitamin D deficient soul is relying on a dwindling backup supply to keep the 'ole smile.

So sometimes, I sort of force a smile - it tricks my body - my body must not be so smart as it says to itself, "Self, the face is smiling...we must be happy...let's get those happy endorphines flowing 'cause the owner is clearly smiling...."


And then, soon enough, the smile that tricked the body now has a happy body, and the happy body tells the face to keep smiling....and this is probably why January takes so long.

To read more about why this actually can and does work: http://runninggalinsights.blogspot.com/2008/11/are-you-down-try-this.html

So, CHin Up everyone. Let the words from Wilbur remind you to choose JOY!!



Chin up, chin up
Everybody love a happy face
Wear it, share it
It’ll brighten up the darkest place
Twinkle, sparkle
Let a little sunshine in
You’ll be on the right side
Looking at the bright side
Up with your chinny chin chin…

Chin up, chin up
Put a little laughter in your eyes
Brave it, save it
Even though you’re feeling otherwise
Rise up, wise up
Make a little smile begin
You’ll be happy hearted
Once you get started
Up with your chinny chin chin!

Chin down, you can't come frowning
Turn around
Start clowning
Think sad
Your troubles double
Think glad
To burst white bubbles

Chin up, chin up
Every little time your spirits wilt
Chin up, chin up
Give your attitude an upward tilt
Twinkle, sparkle
Let a little fun begin
You’ll be on the right side
Looking at the bright side
Up with you chinny chin chin
Chin up!

How great thou art

2010 I welcome with wide open arms!

I have very strange reaction to the New Year. It's change. And I really don't like change, of any sort. I get used to my rut and like to stay comfortable, wallowing in it's sameness. I cried every time a new term started in college (that's a lot of crying! Undergraduate and graduate years - the tears just flowed)

Why? Well, I'd get used to the schedule. I learned to like the new schedule - liked when I could squeeze my runs in, study, see friends, go hiking, have an easier day and then boom, right when I absolutely fell in love with the new routine, it was done...and the next one was upon me and darn it, it was different.

So, I usually find that Jan 1st is my least favorite day of the year. I am sad that the year I have worn like a comfortable blanket is now done. I worked so hard to do all the details of the year - b-days, holidays, vacations, - ahh the glory of a well-oiled, smoothly flowing, familiar system - and now, it's all done and I Start over????

But, this year I am actually finding I am noticing amidst my typical melancholy woes of a new year that I am excited. 2009 was so full of conversations with hurting people - economically, spiritually, emotionally, and bodily health - and what became familiar in 2009 was comments about the sad state of affairs with the economy, the housing market, the health of our nation, our government, the bleak future....

And well into the year, I did get tired of it because I like to smile more then these conversations ever allowed me to do, but unfortunately, I more often then I care to admit, fell into the negativity myself. It became the 2009 thing to do.

This year, 2010, despite the fact that probably none of these bleak conversations have been concluded in anyway, I plan to try to turn the tide, one conversation at a time. I hope to talk more about the beauty of humanity, God's creation (www.coryjoneillphotography.com), and the good to behold in each and every day.

Yes - this year I resolve to focus on How Great He Is.

How Great Thou Art (as performed by my brother David Klinkenberg and I in Molina, IL for a radio station listener appreciation concert we put on for their community):

Our family Christmas Card video

Merry Christmas video! If a picture is a thousand words, then this video is beyond!

Clips of family fun in the snow, of the major production I directed (specifically featuring the parts where my 2 kiddos had solos!), and some ballet and soccer times.

Enjoy!

My little gal singing Happy Birthday Jesus

She made the 500 person crowd tear up with her sweet rendition of this song -

She is planning on touring with her Uncle David by 10. She calls him about once every other month to remind him of this fact. scroll down to see my previous post with more clips on it of the show.

Best Christmas Present Ever!

A few clips from our amazing night

My sweet son is one of the Wise guys - the one in the full suit.

Bring on the snow

Grabbed this post from my favorite blogger - Bo Stern - she pastors at WestSide in Bend, Oregon. THis post was so well written I wanted to duplicate it here so you can read it:


Oh, Snow!
December 3, 2009 by bolovesjoe
I really like snow. I used to hate driving in it, but 15 years living in a mountain town necessitated a change in attitude. I employed a bit of the crazy-eyed if-I-perish-I-perish spirit and now it’s more of an adventure than a heart attack waiting to happen.
I’m not sure what it’s like where you live, but in my city, snow is money. Without snow, our economy – built primarily on tourism – is toast. So we embrace the falling flakes and we wrap ourselves in woolly scarves and thick gloves and – like a city filled with Snow Farmers – thank the Lord for a robust harvest.

My husband travels regularly to Orlando, Florida. Orlando’s economy depends on people like us getting sick of living where we live. It relies on our soul-deep need to sometimes enjoy a tan without goggle lines. They need us to need their sun (and let’s be honest, their giant Mouse) and we need them to need our snow.

This same concept works emotionally as well. One needs help and another needs to be needed. Most friendships in life are built on shared need. Most dating is done the same way. Often the magnet that initially pulls our hearts to other people is that they have something we feel we need…identity, funny jokes, romance, wisdom, money or one of a million other intangibles.
Marriage, however, can’t operate indefinitely on this system. Parenting doesn’t even last through the first week home from the hospital on this system. Real life and real commitment moves beyond the mad grab for what I need, when I need it. Real love sometimes means giving up what I need when I need it. And this concept runs against every grain of my self-focused little heart.

So I’m asking Jesus for a new level of loving that grows even when there’s a small chance of a good return on my investment. Do you see a theme in my life right now? Yep. The Holy Spirit is definitely challenging the way that I love. Even at Christmas, He’s challenging the way that I love and it seems like I could get it right on my own at Christmas, doesn’t it? Nope. I really need Him. I really want to be like Him. I really want to learn to love like Him.
Praying for snow,
Bo

Climbing a mountain...one move at a time

My friend over at http://www.diaryof1.com/ in pondering about Never giving up hit home. As I take on this monumental task of working full time, teaching 1st through 12th graders, being a mom, a wife, a follower of God, a friend, a sister and still trying to maintain ME I too have wanted to give up, throw the towel in and walk back into my past life of getting to stay home, live on my own schedule, and be free to come and go as I wished. I miss catching planes to locations all over the US to perform with my brother, David. I miss going for a run in the middle of the day along the river banks. I miss just being out and about.

But these times, these super hard times, are really cool too. It's in these times that I find myself learning, growing, and becoming faster then I ever did when life was not so rigorous.

I get to a spot in the climb and it appears at first, impossible. I stare. I ponder options. I stare some more. I ponder more. And finally, I see a possible place to put a left foot that just might allow me to pull myself up and be in a whole new place on the rock...I try it, it's working....I slip...back to the begininning....

Stare....ponder....plan....Try again....

I slip again....

Stare...ponder...plan....Try AGAIN!

It's working! And I get my right leg to a foothold, push up a bit, allowing my left hand to grab a great hold and pull up and suddenly, I am moving into a brand new position, a brand new plateau, a brand new perspective.

The last spot that had me stuck is now figured out, it's now a part of my tricks, adds to my confidence. I get to enjoy the peace that comes when I make it past a sticky spot, but only for a moment.

It's time to take what I learned and think through how to make it past the next spot. And so it goes, one maneuver at a time, all the way to the top.

Gaining perspective one move at a time.

Which won't come if I give up.

And oh view , the sweet view from the top, a little taste of God's perspective on the little planet we wander around on.

I will lift my eyes, to the maker of these Mountains I am climbing!

A post for all moms

Go check out Bo's post about raising her son. It is so amazingly written that I think I just might print it out, stuff it in my son's scrapbook, and keep it forever.

http://bostern.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/dear-joe/#comment-1545

Bright eyes, Richard Simmons, and sweet thoughts

What my life is full of these days as I teach full time (FULL TIME!!! if I would have been able to see what future posts on my blog would say a year ago, I'd never have imagined reading that I was working FULL TIME!!!) is

• Bright eyes full of pride on a student that just "got" it
• Sweet comments about sending love notes to Jesus from a 1st grader drawing a picture about John 14:7 (Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength) (and this student happened to be my very own princess)
• 60 kids in unity with praise hands in the air during a rehearsal for our Christmas musical
• 5 high school boys gathered around my computer You Tubing for Christian Spanish Praise music
• Folders full of hopeful lesson plans
• Listening to a student tell me after music class how "his heart is full of emotions - not on the outside, but on the inside...It feels GOOD! Like Christmas morning!"
• Blowing kisses to my son as I cruise by his classroom
• Early morning, daily staff meetings; 8 different classes to prep for; a Christmas musical to organize with 120 singers, 20 actors, choreography, and tons of solos; and 170 students to learn names of
• Sweating all day long like Richard Simmons himself as I teach high energy choreography to 120 students that circle through my music classroom throughout the week
  

But, I still run just as much as I ever have. Got in a gorgeous 7 mile run through Shevlin Park - lots of trails, hills, and sunlit golden leaved trees. I smiled the entire run with my God and I.

I still play barefoot in my garden. Harvested 50 plus pounds of potatoes yesterday and half that in carrots. Potatoes are a must to eat organically as they are basically poisonous otherwise, but organic taters are so expensive. We are stocked for months now!

Made some yummy zucchini/banana honey and agave sweetened cookies yesterday, cooked down 10 pounds of tomatoes into a delicious sauce, and did laundry.

Somehow doing chores at home is just refreshing when you are gone all day. Somehow doing chores all day at home when there is nothing else to look forward to doing was not as fun...how could adding a full time job make home chores fun? I don't know how, but it has. I just like the variety I suppose. And this year, I do my chores with 3 hard working partners, all with their own jobs turning what used to take me a couple of days into a little over an hour and we are done.

In a moment....

.... you can accidentally push delete and suddenly every picture you took in 2009 is gone. It doesn't matter that you have not printed any pictures yet and have no way to ever see those 28,000 pictures again...you pushed delete, they are gone.


This was how our school year started. I was blissfully reading a book on the couch, sipping some tea, relaxed and happy until I heard the strangest gutteral noise come from my Renaissance man that I have ever heard. I came running. Something disastrous happened, I just never would have imagined what.

There is nothing like the moments right after you realize that everything is truly gone that memorializes 2009. Birthday parties, holidays, vacations, school days...it all flashed before my eyes and I just started to laugh. I was too shocked to cry.

We called a dear friend from church - now renamed our computer doctor - and he has spent the last 6 weeks working on seeing if he could recover these pictures. Hundreds of dollars later, weeks of work, and lots of waiting....he is sitting in the studio right now loading all our pictures back into our computer. It's still a massive mess as recoveries like this are never neat - some pictures are gone forever while others are duplicated hundreds of times. It's a pile to sort through - where there once was 26,000 pictures, neatly filed away in monthly folders there is now 110,000 pictures in one giant random mess.

But I don't care - I get to remember, through pictures, what my little gal looked like on her 6th birthday and what soccer stud looked like scoring his umpteenth goal.

Feeling light and happy. Such a close call makes me realize how precious pictures are to all of us. They help us remember this amazing thing we call life. Without them, it's just a blur...but with them, moments are captured, memories preserved, and our stories memorialized.