Papers and file boxes laying everywhere, feeling a little bit like the absent-minded professor for brief periods of time…

Computer screen numbing my eyeballs while I ‘chase rabbits’ at times, cutting and pasting and re-creating, clickety-clack, clickety-clack…

Necessary distractions to stay sane in the middle of my exhaustive word searches and tedious re-writes: late morning exercise, check the mail at 2:30, indulge in a self-made latte at 3 p.m. (yesterday was a mocha-lite, today an eggnog-lite ), throw in a load of laundry, organize a drawer…and when I can’t bear to read the words on the screen for one more minute, I walk to the sink, get a glass of water and look at my beautiful flowers.Hubby surprised me with them last week on a particularly difficult day, when I had been especially petulant (bad-tempered, cross, irritable, snappish, touchy, testy, disgruntled and cranky – aren’t words just so perfectly expressive?!) just before he left the house on errands.

He walked in the door later that day and handed me grace in a vase! I think that’s why they’re especially dear to my heart. I water them daily.

Anyhoo…back to my wearisome task…and I’m loving almost every minute of it!

Popper is in the kitchen with Mommer, cooking up our traditional Italian feast for the fam! We were chatting about the holiday fare and deciding if Italian would be on the menu. I said “if the boys arrive and there’s no garlic in the air, their jaws will drop to their knees and Christmas just won’t be the same.” LOUD LAUGHTER! Here’s my man making the meatballs…

Frying up those spicy Italian sausages…My messy corner where the ‘please-Lord-let-it-be-perfect’ sauce begins!

Gently simmering now with the meatballs and sausage…mmmm! Visions of bolognese dancing in our heads!

Never fear – I have my hairnet on as you can see below and I lint-brushed hubby and I before food preparation so no ‘fly-aways’ in Mama Mira’s sauce…

Yes, it’s true, I do possess some obsessive eccentricities But you can feel good about eating when the cook promises never to lick her fingers or double dip a tasting spoon, right?! (No cat hair either, I promise!)

One of my favorite ways to connect with God.

Gotta Keep Movin’!

I seriously like to find boxes on my porch.
My mom had warned me they were about to arrive, but still…it’s a surprise because you don’t know what’s inside! My mom is the best gift giver. She listens and knows just what you want and sets out to make it happen. She always thinks of stuff you forget you even wanted and there it is in the box!

Well, seeing that it’s Gregory and my 29th Wedding Anniversary today, she and my dad wanted to bless us with a little treat. I thought it was particularly creative seeing that we’re coffee lovers.

Here you see, I opened the boxes to reveal a 2+pound of dark roast coffee beans and a box of assorted scones. YUM and YUM!

Now, I will simply push the ‘on’ button on the Delonghi espresso machine hubby bought me recently (lucky me!) then pour in these new beans and in about 60 seconds have a cup of steaming hot, fresh, amazing java for both me and hubby. I will then warm a scone in my toaster oven and sit and drink in the moment with my guy as we celebrate 29 years together. Yep, I’m married to my irresistible, Italian man. Sigh.

Wrestling with big/little brothers, hugging friends, filling up our plates, chillin’ with instruments, watching Christmas movies…so grateful for the abundance of good things God has given to us freely to enjoy! May we use everything for His glory and Kingdom.

on the rental car…

If you’ve been in church your whole life, and you happen to get this number on your plate, well, (I’m giggling now) it strikes you in an odd sort of way. You laugh nervously, then correct yourself with “that’s just stupid to even think like that!” Luck isn’t even real and I don’t believe in superstitions.

Kind of like when you look at the calendar and find yourself traveling in an airplane on a FRIDAY which has happened to land on the 13th of the month. You know better than to be concerned, but your lifelong ‘training’ in our culture of superstitions, traditions, and old wive’s fables has conditioned you to think twice when such a thing occurs. (And, yes, I was traveling on Friday the 13th! haha! (Now I’m laughing uproariously!) So – knock on wood! – the sun will come up tomorrow!

Next day…YES the sun rose quite beautifully against beautiful blue skies!

Saturday was a joy, spent with some very special girls and God. These darlings are so dear to my heart and as I look at these photos I’m reminded of just how precious real relationships are. Here’s a few shots of some of my treasured friends…

Intently peeling my Satsuma (don’tcha just love these yummy winter oranges?!)

Don’t forget the pumpkin-chocolate goodies…

And, what’s a Saturday morning without coffee???

I always have my radar on and my internal scanner going. I sense the slightest change, look, and tweak in modus operandi of those around me. I can be doing ten things, but my peripheral vision catches every movement. Scary, I know. I think God equipped me with such apparatus due to the fact that He planned to bless me with some very gifted, creative and busy young men. Or perhaps I evolved and grew the new antennae out of neccesity because of living with such clever and industrious children, in order to survive . Anyway…

Friday around noon I phoned my son on his 25th birthday. He was really on my heart and I was missing him. I briefly blogged about the day he was born back in 1984, because it was so clear in my mind. (September 25th ‘Walking down memory lane’). I cracked open the old, fading photo albums and scanned some of his newborn photos so I could send he and his wife a special cyber greeting since I couldn’t celebrate with them in person. They had just flown in late the night before from New York City after traveling all day, so I assumed they’d be wiped out with the time zone changes and travel slog and I didn’t want to call too early – I figured noon was cool.

So when I reached them, they were on their way out of town again – heading for a beautiful spot in a state park only a couple hours away. They were determined to spend the last few days of their vacation out of the loop of real life since work and college classes would begin again in a few short days. I was thrilled they could set out on another adventure.

The day wore on with a grocery trip and all the odds and ends of life before the weekend, and I began to prepare dinner. (Mexican pizza mmmm-I’ll share the recipe with you soon!) It was about 6 when the doorbell rang – odd. I said to my 14-year old, “Don’t open the door ’til you peek through the blinds – I DON’T want to talk to any salesmen!” Last time the doorbell rang at dinner it was some guy pretending he lived in the neighborhood, schmoozing me and then pulling out his magazine sales information ugh. I didn’t want to relive that experience – so stresssssful!

I hear a bunch of commotion, whirl around the kitchen and set my eyes on my son and his wife…they had driven 12 hours ‘on a whim’ to pay us a visit. WOW, just in time for dinner and some weekend fun – OMGosh…I’m like, in shock! Then….

My daughter (in-law, but I really don’t like that term, ’cause she’s ALL OURS FOREVER!) pulls out this little onesie and announces, SHE IS GONNA HAVE A BABY!
So friends, that means I’m gonna be a GRANDMA! And I couldn’t be happier!

I realized I needed to hang a couple of hooks in the closet. My purse (or two?!) is always sitting around cluttering up the house, so I thought a hidden hook would make the perfect place to stash my handbag. So I went to my husband’s workbench – he was out of town – and grabbed the power drill and extra battery. I confidently proceeded to position the hooks and screws where they needed to be to commence the hanging process as I’d seen my hubby do on countless occasions. The drill s l o w l y and ever-so-slightly turned and died. OK, figures…the one time in my whole life (pretty much) that I need to use a power drill to get a job done and the battery isn’t charged. So I charged it for several hours and tried again. No luck. So I changed batteries, wall plugs and charged it again.

Apparently it was so drained that the battery needed to be connected to power for an extended period of time, rather than a couple of relatively short stretches. By now I was feeling pretty irritated about the whole process, I mean, why do we spend money on good tools only to have them fail us when we need them the most! The drill had been sitting on the shelf being useless for quite a long time and now he had been chosen for a very important task and he wasn’t ready! Grrr….

I’m trying to build Rome here, wanting to surprise my hubby, Mr. Clean, (poor guy, when I married him all his clothes were lined up in the closet by type and his socks and undies were in color order neatly arranged in his dresser drawer, whereas I felt accomplished just getting my clothes in the closet and drawers! How he has survived my cyclone tendencies is truly a mystery…)

I’m not asking for anything fancy – JUST A DRILL THAT WILL WORK FOR 3-5 MINUTES, THANK YOU VERY MUCH! (sort of like the ‘bold’ setting on this computer I’m using- I cannot disengage it to save my life…is it me?!) Anyway I began to think about US. God’s people.

I think it’s often that we’re not prepared. We look prepared, but our batteries aren’t charged, we’re not filled with God’s Word and God’s Spirit – we can quote movies and dress to the nines but so many times lack the substance that is our reason for existing on the planet. Sigh. Let’s plug in this week. Let’s be prepared. Let’s count for God.
Let’s get the job done.

After being gone for most of the summer, I pulled into the garage last week here on the home front. As my eyes scanned the stuff seemingly piled everywhere along the garage walls, jammed this way and that way – boxes with who-knows-what in them stashed on the floor, in the rafters, I groaned.

As I shared on the blog this summer (Less Can Most Definitely Be More July 13th), I was living quite minimally while away with the fam., and I was enjoying the sense of less stuff surrounding me. I didn’t realize I was getting used to the sensation. It felt like freedom. I also shared about helping my friend reduce her mountains of clutter (Pack Rats in Recovery July 17th) and the drama and humor of shoveling out our personal stuff when we’re attached to it. Although I’ve come a very long way in my tendency to accumulate, it seems to me that a ’saver’ personality is one who continually must sift and toss. I have a perpetual ‘get-rid-of’ box sitting in my garage along with regular trips to the Goodwill to drop said box, and even with that habit in place, as I surveyed the bulk around me at that very moment, I thought I would suffocate if I didn’t begin to liquidate immediately! (I looked in my dictionary and liquidate is defined: ‘to eliminate, usually by violent means!‘ ha.)

I woke up the next day and began attacking my boxes violently! Nothing was safe; no closet, no drawer, no shelf, no under-bed stuff…I even ventured into my sons’ rooms to see what I could conquer.

This time I phoned the Salvation Army to request a truck to come and haul off the discards. They came and went and then hubby arrived and passionately continued the process. He’s not a ’saver’ and he went for the jugular…by the time he was finished taking my purging to another level, I needed oxygen! He had the back end of the car filled once again and before I could change my mind or start rifling through the giveaways, he pulled out of the drive and I said a nearly tearful good-bye to the last wave of stuff-that-can’t-stay…

I visited a big, new church building by accident. Actually it was their food festival that drew me to the parking lot – and it turned out they had the building open for informal tours. So I strolled into the auditorium – some call it a sanctuary – out of curiosity, to take a peek. I walked to the front of the ornate structure and bumped into this barricade.

When I read the sign, I’m sure my jaw dropped as I wondered, “what Bible did they base that regulation on?” The Holy Bible makes it clear that Jesus Christ removed every hindrance to drawing near to ‘the holy altar’ by His supreme sacrifice on the cross. Hebrews 4:14-16 is clear: “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

I’m grieved to think how many well-meaning church organizations unknowingly drive more folks away from the presence of God, than to Him. They may be sincere, but they are sincerely wrong! He longs for us to enter His presence to experience Him – I LOVE to worship Him freely! It’s what I long for, look forward to and bask in – the experience of experiencing the living God.

Would you like to know how many churches I walked into as a young girl, knowing I was looking for something…yet time and again being discouraged from drawing near to God?! The very thing churches are meant to do – show the way to God and yet so many putting so many obstacles in the path of those seeking to find the God they’re offering!

How many faithful church-goers will actually miss heaven because of the traditions of men, the religious rituals of organizations, the politics of modern-day Pharisees? Ephesians 2:13 is the key to our quest, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.” So many so far away from true life – the living God! Stumbling in the dark, seeking water but finding a big fat scary manmade dam, smack dab in the way of the God-life they’re needing…and let’s be careful of blaming ‘them’ when it could be us who are also guilty of the same crime of erecting those barriers.

Let’s remind ourselves today (and tomorrow and the next day and….) of our marvelous, awesome privilege – a perpetual invitation extended to us, to be with HIM, because of what Jesus gave. Let’s utilize it, share it and shout it from the rooftops!