Prepping

I know... I haven't really blogged more than a song since Thanksgiving day!* But here's the thing, blog friends, I'm getting ready. And this year is taking some preparation.

*how was your Thanksgiving, blog friends? I really want to know, really!

Ready for what you ask? Well, if you've been following my blog for the last couple of years, you may remember what's coming up. Yep! My annual Christmas video blogging! An this year? This year it's going to be the 25 days of Christmas! 25 VIDEOS!!

I have no idea how I'm going to come up with 25, and I'm promising there will be some duplicates, but I'm looking forward to posting away and keeping up with a master list for all to see!

What's your favorite Christmas song/movie/video?

I'm Not Starting Yet

My multiple days of christmas videos, that is... but I heard this today and it prompted me to want to watch Holiday Inn and White Christmas both tonight! So take a listen and enjoy Bing...

Thankful Thankful Thankful!

I started this blog in 2007 (hard for me to believe its been that long!) and every year I do a Thanksgiving post.

See... 2007, 2008, & 2009.

Well, blogging friends, this year is no exception to that truth and here I go again!

Things I'm Thankful For:

1.God. I'm thankful that He saved me, and I'm thankful that He hasn't given up on me. I'm even thankful for the growing pains I seem to be feeling lately ;o)
2. My parents! They're here visiting me this year for Thanksgiving and while I'm so thankful for Godly parents, I'm also thankful that they're being my guests for Thanksgiving. There is nothing that comes close to holidays with family!
3. My brothers and sisters-in-law... I really love them so much!
4. The kiddos! CG, DC, CJ, & EB... I'm so thankful for happy and healthy niece and nephews. And I"m thankful that I'll get to see them in less than a month!! =oD
5. The smell of pumpkin pie baking in my oven while I type this out. Yum!
6. Work. Not only for having a job considering so many people don't, but for a job I like working for truly the best boss I've ever had.
7. Freedom of religion. What a good reason to come to America, pilgrims! I'm grateful that they risked their lives to come to a strange place and that I'm able to celebrate Thanksgiving and pray for a meal and worship God with others because of their tenacity.
8. America's Armed Forces. Thank you for missing Thanksgiving with your own families so that I can sit with mine and pray over a meal together. You're keeping our freedom secure and risking your lives for it. Thank You.
9. Not working retail on black Friday. If you've read the other lists, you should know by now that this shows up on them all.Ha. This will be my 4th black Friday since I worked my short stint in the retail industry, but I'm still so thankful to be out of it!
10. Sisters ;o)
11. Friends who are my family.
12. My church home. It really is a home and a place I like to go. I love serving there alongside so many and it's truly an honor to spend so much time teaching and playing with "your" kids. They are wonderful and I love that I get to make that a part of my Sunday as well. 
13. Books that kick my but into gear and make me want to be more for Christ.
14. This renewed desire to read my Bible...
15. Being halfway done with Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving. It goes against my strong like of Thanksgiving, but I love that I'll be able to relax a bit more over the next few weeks because of it!
16. Thanksgiving day leftovers. I know that it will all taste better on Friday. ha
17. Perhaps last on the list, but not least my any means. I'm thankful for you, blog readers. You keep me writing ;o)

I hope you enjoy these lists as much as I do. And I hope even more that you're at least mentally making a list of your own! Happy Thanksgiving, blog friends! I hope you're enjoying a very wonderful holiday!!  =o)

Wordless Wednesday: Thankful

Thankful for a New Perspective

So yesterday I tweeted. I said, "I need to stop being surprised when God answers prayer..."

It was, in the grand scheme of things, something trivial that I was so thankful for. My laptop was acting up and I needed to get photos to people I did a couple of shoots for. I couldn't copy the photos. Both the family and the couple were friends of mine and they would have understood. But there I sat in my chair staring at my laptop and praying. I restarted my computer. Everything worked.

 I praised God, there was some happy dancing while I was getting ready for church, and I tweeted. "I need to stop being surprised when God answers prayer..."

A short while later, I got this tweet back from my friend Riley, "@JoyMelinda haha I feel ya! But I sometimes feel that if I lose the surprise factor, I'll lose excitement. And that I never wanna lose!"

It really got me thinking (and can I say how much I love it when twitter gets me thinking? 140 characters or less...). We always say God answers prayers. It's a yes or a no, sometimes its (my least favorite) a wait. And then we hear things about how we should always realize that He will answer and why are we so surprised when He does?

Would we lose excitement? Would we lose some of the extra joy we feel when He does answer?

And then I started wondering if I really feel that kind of joy even when God tells me no. Joy in the difficult times...

I don't have any answers... I haven't gotten any farther than this.

But it's Thanksgiving week.

And today?

Today I'm thankful for a new perspective.

Wordy After a Wordless

I know. I already posted my wordless Wednesday. But here I go, typing out words and posting them up for the world … who am I kidding… for you guys to see.

I just feel the need to write today, blogging friends. It could be the holidays being right among us, or the sleepiness I’m experiencing from a lack of sleep followed by a long drive… whatever the reason, blog friends, bear with me because I just don’t know what will come out of my brain today.

I miss my family. I do. I miss ‘home’. My youngest nephew E started walking more than a couple of steps this week and I think based on photos, that my niece C grew a foot since her birthday party (when I last saw her). I miss playing the occasional game of pool with my dad and watching movies with my parents; and don’t get me started on all the hugs I’m missing.

And I know, blog friends, that my parents are coming next week. That we’ll spend all kinds of time together while they visit for Thanksgiving going to some historical sites and playing cards. We’ll have conversation and hang out for a couple of days and I’ll get to cook my second ever Thanksgiving dinner for them. And I’m looking forward to it. I really am.

But right now I just miss ‘home’.

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. For as long as I can recall, I enjoyed that it was still a big holiday and my family would all be there and it was literally centered around spending time with family. Not presents. But if I was to be truly honest with myself this year, I think this is the first time ever in my life that it’s not yet Thanksgiving and I’m looking forward to Christmas. Not for presents, because frankly I’d be ok without them (God gives me all I need – Psalm 23:1); but because as time marches on and as I become more and more at home in Tennessee, I find myself realizing that Christmas means spending time with family more than Thanksgiving does.

Christmas means going to IL for a week or so. It means spending a lot of time with my parents and siblings and the kids. It means seeing extended family that I only end up seeing once a year. It hopefully means some snow. It means time spent with friends who’ve known me for over a decade and people I’ve known for over a decade that I’m calling friend again…

I still love Thanksgiving. And I love that I’m going to get about 2 ½ days of time with my parents. And I love cooking a Thanksgiving meal. And I love remembering the spirit of thankfulness that God gives us and we don’t show often enough (at least I don’t).

But I think I’m ready for Christmas………………………

Wordless Wednesday

Speaking of Wanting to Get Married Someday...

I like the band Train a lot. I know they're kind of poppy and that's not a norm for me, but ever since high school I have really dug their music. I admit to not being thrilled with their new album at first, but it has completely grown on me & this could be one of the most beautiful songs they've ever had. So guys out there, play this for your wife or for your future wife. And to the guy that I will marry someday, whoever you might be and wherever you are right now? Someday you should play this for me, too...

Reading Blogs

It’s no secret, blog friends, that I not only blog, but I also read and follow several blogs. A lot of them are blogs written by friends of mine. And the one I’m about to mention is one of those. My friend G (we all know I like using initials) blogs; and while we like to tease him that its pretentious to only blog in Europe, about a year ago he started a non-Europe blog.

He’s only written a dozen or so blogs since then, but he’s trying =o)

One of the blogs he posted Tuesday this week included song lyrics, and we all know I love good song lyrics. These aren't the lyrics he blogged about but here they are:


And lackluster in dust we lay
Around old magazines.
Fluorescent lighting sets the scene
for all we could and should be being
in the one life that we’ve got.
                    (Wait It Out – Imogen Heap)


I feel like it describes my life. Maybe not lately, but for years. Decades. Of course it describes it in a lovely lyrical way, but it does, nonetheless.

I feel like for years I waited around while life passed me by.

I waited for things to happen to me. For me. I want so much for my life. I want to honor God in it, but for so long it would happen someday when I got married.

Well, blog friends. I’m 30. And while I still do think it is in my future that I will get to be a wife and sometime after that a mother, I realized (not recently) I can’t just sit around and wait for life to come my way and then watch it pass me by.

It’s one of the reasons for the 101 in 1001 list.

I’m just sad it took me so long to realize it. I wish it had happened at 25 or maybe younger.

But oh well! It’s time now and I’m so grateful that God finally knocked some sense into me and that I’m getting to do things that I always wanted to do ‘someday’.

I’m hoping that “Fluorescent lighting sets the scene/for all we could and should be being/in the one life that we’ve got.” Doesn’t stay the truth for my life.

I hope that someday this life leads me to outdoor worlds of sunlight and rain and that I stop hoping for what could be and start being who I should be being…

Thanksgiving Songs

I have some coworkers who are starting to gear up for Christmas, including Christmas songs for ringtones on their phones. It's fun teasing each other (I often tell them Happy Thanksgiving) about the holiday's, but one of them asked me the other day if there were any Thanksgiving Carols. So, to Beth and Lauren, The Thanksgiving Song...

Wordless Wednesday Part II

Wordless Wednesday

Still Reeling From the Weekend

But amused at Jason's Deli. I ordered this at lunch today:

Yummy French Onion Soup! And in the bag with it?

4 MINTS!! I guess they thought I'd need 'em... =o)

I Can't Watch This Without Tears

Can you?

Why Love Orphans? from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

Yesterday was Orphan Sunday for a lot of churches around the globe and my church was one of them.

God has given me a heart for orphans and adoption, so expect me to show you things like this, blogging friends. And pray for all of these children and those that work with them, And pray for me as I seek God's direction...

Please.

10-7

Those are my hours for work this week and I LOVE THEM!

I may be one of the only people who think so, but I think these are the very best hours to work. At least for a single girl with no family to go home to ;o)

Here’s the thing. 7 is early enough to go out with friends after work or work out. It’s early enough to relax and chill out at home and get laundry done (on laundry night). It’s still enough time to feel like I have time to do something or nothing after work.

And starting at 10? Well now, that’s just legit! I still tend to get up around 7:30 (except for this morning, ha!) spend time reading my Bible, shower, get ready for work and tidy up my house. It’s great and it’s leisurely and I just love the calm of my morning. AND did you know that when you start at 10, 2:30 in the afternoon appears before you know it? It’s like my day is flying by!

And I won’t leave out that I’m working with yet another awesome team at the financial institution I work for =o)

*sigh*

I get to work here next week too…

*dreamy*

Wordless Wednesday

Before I start writing….

#66 on my list is to participate in NaNoWriMo. November is National Novel Writers Month! Which means I’ve just signed up with the organization to try my best to write 50,000 words by midnight of November 30^th! I’m glad I didn’t say I’d complete NaNoWriMo, just try it unlike my former roommate A! So, I thought before I started trying to write a bunch of words in a frenzy, I’d let you all know that I’m starting! Maybe my constant trying to write there will keep me going here =o)

Also, I just this weekend filled out an application to be a volunteer at Heaven Sent Children. It’s a non-profit adoption agency here in the town where I live. I mentioned earlier this year that adoption (both spiritual and physical) is something that has been on my heart, and while I didn’t follow through with blogging on it (it just feels like I don’t need to right now) I have decided to do something about it. So, hopefully soon I’ll be volunteering in a place that helps families with adoption. I’m looking forward to it.

That’s it for this Monday! I hope you all had a safe and fun-tastic Halloween!