Today Resolutions

This is the time of year when many people make "New Year's Resolutions" which they plan on putting into effect on January 1st, saying "2008 is the year that I will finally..lose weight, do my devotions daily, not lose my temper at my kids, send everyone I know a birthday card (on time,) spend more time with family, keep the house sparklingly clean, make sure my car has all needed maintenance on schedule, tithe regularly, go on a monthly date with my spouse"...you get the idea. Then they go out and do whatever they want for the next few days with the idea that they'd better get in all their fun before they have to shape up and start living up to their resolutions. I'm not saying that it's wrong to make some decision to change for the better, or to make long-range life goals. In fact, I need to make some of those resolutions myself..or maybe all of them. But why wait until January 1st to start? Why not start today? One resolution I have made is to stop procrastinating. I read Mick Huckabee's book Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork: A 12-Stop Program to End Bad Habits and Begin a Healthy Lifestyle recently, and one of his main points is that people need to stop putting off change for lame reasons that don't really matter. So my problem with New Year's Resolutions is two-fold. First, if you break them it's too easy to say, "Well, I didn't make it this year, I'll try again next year" or to just give up, thinking that you have no will-power. Second, we try to make these changes on our own, as though somehow if we just wish for it enough or think about it enough, we'll change. A better approach would be to look back over the past year, confessing to the Lord the ways in which our lives have not pleased Him, and asking for His help to change. Change may be painful, but it can happen slowly and steadily in our lives.

So I propose making Today Resolutions, which would sound something like this: "Today, with God's help and under His guidance, I will strive to (insert resolution here). If we fail at it, we ask God's forgiveness and make the same resolution the next day. We lean on His strength and not our own to change. We enlist accountability partners to check on us and our progress. We scrutinize our lives for what small things need to change in order to effect change on a grander scale. And speaking of scales, that's my first Today Resolution: never get on a scale again Instead of worrying about the scale, I need to exercise daily, eat healthy balanced meals, and avoid refined sugar and fried foods. But I can only do this with the Lord's help. I'm not waiting for January 1st to make some resolutions in my life. I'm starting today.

Christmas Traditions and Fun

I'm just going to post a few pictures of what we've been doing around here...It's been a wonderful Christmas, and even sweeter this year knowing that our son is alive and cancer-free. We have treasured this time with our children more than ever.
First, we made cookies with Grandma and Aunt Esther:Then, we drove around Savannah one night looking at Christmas lights:Then, we took the kids ice skating at the Civic Center:After that we went to the Westin Hotel lobby, where they have an impressive display of gingerbread houses, including a four-foot tall replica of the hotel itself: Finally, yesterday we had a blessed Christmas day:

Homeschool Family...

Here is a great video one of my friends sent us recently. (Thanks, Jenny!) Enjoy.

And in the same vein, here are some Christmas lyrics I really like; feel free to sing along as you read them:

To the tune of "Twelve Days of Christmas:"

On the first day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "Can you homeschool legally?"

On the second day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "Are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?"

On the third day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "Do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?"

On the fourth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "What about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?"

On the fifth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "YOU ARE SO STRANGE! What about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?"

On the sixth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "How long will you homeschool, YOU ARE S0 STRANGE, what about P.E. , do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?"

On the seventh day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "Look at what they're missing, how long will you homeschool, YOU ARE SO STRANGE!, what about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, do you homeschool legally?"

On the eighth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "Why do you do this, look at what they're missing, how long will you homeschool, YOU ARE SO STRANGE, what about P.E. do you give them tests, are they socialized, do you homeschool legally?"

On the ninth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "They'll miss the prom, why do you do this, look at what they're missing, how long will you homeschool, YOU ARE SO STRANGE!, what about P.E. do you give them tests, are they socialized, do you homeschool legally?"

On the tenth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "What about graduation, they'll miss the prom, why do you do this, look at what they're missing, how long will you homeschool, YOU ARE SO STRANGE!, what about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?"

On the eleventh day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "I could never do that, what about graduation, they'll miss the prom, why do you do this, look at what they're missing, how long will you homeschool, YOU ARE SO STRANGE, what about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?"

On the twelfth day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "Can they go to college, I could never do that, what about graduation, they'll miss the prom, why do you do this, look at what they're missing, how long will you homeschool, YOU ARE SO STRANGE, What about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?"

On the thirteenth day of homeschool I thoughtfully replied: "They Can go to college, yes you can do this, they can have graduation, we don't like the prom, we do it cuz we like it, they are missing nothing, we'll homeschool forever, WE ARE NOT STRANGE!, We give them P.E., and we give them tests, they are socialized, AND WE HOMESCHOOL LEGALLY!

What about really fat guys?

A FOX NEWS story today shares that some scientists think women "evolved" differences in their backs in order to compensate for the extra weight they must carry when pregnant, thus keeping them from toppling over forward. The differences include an extra vertebra, specialized joints in the spine, and a larger hip joint. "This elegant evolutionary engineering is seen only in female humans and our immediate ancestors who walked on two feet, but not in chimps and apes, according to a study published in Thursday's journal Nature" states this delightful piece. The scientists in question, Katherine Whitcome and Daniel Lieberman from Harvard University in Cambridge, and their colleague Liza Shapiro of the University of Texas at Austin, don't offer any proof that these differences have evolved, merely evidence that they exist, and have existed (according to them) for at least 2 million years. Because these differences are not existent in chimps and apes, they assume that humans adapted and evolved once they began walking upright. Since no fossils have ever been found that show evolution of such primates into humans, this is a faulty assumption to make. Now, if they were to find human female skeletons where these differences did NOT exist, and then some where they seemed to be developing, and then some where they suddenly existed, I would have to rethink my entire worldview. But as evidence stands, it seems much more logical to believe that women were DESIGNED this way ("male and female He created them...") and have been like this since, oh, Eve was created. Saying that "evolution has tinkered..." to produce these differences just seems silly.

But if it's true, then we should be expecting American males of the human species to evolve similar changes in their spines and hips within the next few thousand years, since many of them have similar weight distribution issues:

O Tannenbaum...

Last Saturday night we put up a Christmas tree. Now, I understand that some Christians refuse to put up a tree due to its pagan origins, (see here for an excellent explanation by a lady I respect of why they don't celebrate Christmas the way most people do,) and I appreciate the sentiment of not wanting to Christmas to be commercialized, losing its real meaning. But this year putting up the tree was even more meaningful for us than ever. We were blessed with a free tree from a local Home Depot--(long story short: they were donated to our brother-in-law's school, the principal didn't want them, she told him to take them, we got one of them.) We went to Esther and Nate's attic and got our lights and ornaments that we had left there. It was like a mini-Christmas going through the ornaments and remembering where we got them, whose they were, and what special significance they have. We put on Christmas music and spent a happy time together as a family, even indulging in molasses cookies and hot chocolate.
Last year at this time we had a tiny artificial tree with a few of our favorite ornaments, which are now stuck in India....But this year, we have a large, beautiful tree to remind us to thank God for the gift of His son, and we thank God for healing our son.

Our Hairs are Numbered

So, I haven't posted in almost three months, and several of my relatives--my Dad and Mom, brother Peter, and sister Mary--have all nicely nagged me to get back to writing. I sure haven't stopped thinking....I guess my problem is that I'm always thinking that I need to have something earth-shattering to write about before I can post, or that my posts must be finely-crafted, witty, worthy-of-publication pieces. Well, enough of that. I'm going to start writing several times a week, even if it's utter nonsense.

Lately I've been thinking about Luke 12:7 "Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered."

Our family read the verse last week during family devotions, in its context of Luke chapter 12. But that verse just keeps playing over and over in my head. It has taken on a whole new meaning for me. I've always thought of it this way: God knows us each intimately in every way, even our bodies. But I never really thought of its literal meaning--He actual knows EACH OF OUR HAIRS. This year that means much more to me. I watched my son lose all his hair in April and May, then remain bald for three months. He was devastated, and refused to let most people see him without a hat on his head. His hair re-grew during July and August, first coming back in dark brown and very fine, like baby hair. Today it is back to his normal thick, wavy, beautiful coppery-red. Just the thought that God knows each of Bobby's hairs, and has caused them all to re-grow, is a beautiful thing. It shows us just how detailed our Creator is. It also tells me that God knows every cell of Bobby's body, and is in control of his recovery from cancer. What an amazing God!