Bonita Springs

North Carolina is one of the states that I wish were closer to Massachusetts. 

One of the primary reasons for this is the Larson family. 

Kathy was the college intern for my church youth group while I was in high school. Now our families get together every year or two. 

Typically this happens where they live, in North Carolina, but this January we had the opportunity to spend that time in Florida.

We watched our girls catch up right where they had left off, as we did the same. We enjoyed palm trees without passports and sunsets after which people clapped. 

Three out of the five children could swim, and the hot tub served as a makeshift kiddie pool. We discussed careers and theology, ate hot dogs and homemade waffles cones. 

Kathy has been a constant in my life, an encourager of my faith, the kind of person I didn't fully appreciate until I had my own children, and realized how much I hoped they would have the same. I pray that throughout their youth and adulthood they will have such relationships and I continually give thanks for mine.

Acacia's First Birthday

We had the privilege of joining the Farmers for their daughter's first Birthday. 

J holding A

While we were there Sarah honored Sophia by giving her a doll that had belonged first to her grandmother and then to her Mother who had passed away the previous month.

The following morning we attended the church where Ronnie is serving as a pastor and their oldest son Elisha was singing a solo.

E's fan club

Christmas 2017

Christmas is the most unsentimental, realistic way of looking at life. 

It does not say, “Cheer up! If we all pull together we can make the world a better place.

If you think Christianity is mainly going to church, believing a certain creed, and living a certain kind of life, then there will be no note of wonder and surprise.

The Bible never counsels indifference to the forces of darkness, only resistance, but it supports no illusions that we can defeat them ourselves.

 Christianity does not agree with the optimistic thinkers who say, “We can fix things if we try hard enough.” 

Nor does it agree with the pessimists who see only a dystopian future. 

The message of Christianity is, instead, “Things really are this bad, and we can’t heal or save ourselves.Things really are this dark—nevertheless, there is hope.”  

The Christmas message is that “on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.” 

There is light outside of this world, and Jesus has brought that light to save us; indeed, he is the Light (John 8:12).” 

― Timothy J. Keller, Hidden Christmas

Why Christmas?

Dear Sophia,

I told your four year old self that Santa Claus wasn't real and you didn't believe me.

You told me that wasn't true because you had seen him, and I love that about you.

I love your determination and belief in what you have seen despite even your Mama saying otherwise. 

As you look up at me with bright eyes, head adorned with tinseled garland, and wings peeking over your shoulders, I think about my prayer for what Christmas will someday mean to you. 

May you carry hope in your heart, even if others tell you there is no reason for it. 

May you foster peace, even if it disrupts the peace in your own life.

With each Christmas that you celebrate, may you continue to both experience and spread joy. Not a fleeting happiness based on circumstance, but a deep joy rooted in faith. 

And may you extend love to everyone, including those others have deemed unlovable, or the ones you sometimes find it the hardest to love.

Be generous with this love out of gratitude that there is nothing you can do to matter more or less to the one who loves you the most, the One that we celebrate at Christmas.

With hope, peace, joy, and love,

Mama

Thanksgiving 2017

Thanksgiving week began the Saturday before the holiday with our church family.

Monday was Sophia's Preschool Thanksgiving Feast:

Each student created a turkey feather with what they were thankful for:

 Wednesday, Nana & Bop-Bop visited the trucks and trains with us at Edaville.

Thursday morning we attended the 30th annual Thanksgiving Breakfast at Pageant Field with a marching band and Ocean View.

We warmed up by watching the parade and cooking a 24 lb turkey from our friends at the Sentas Farm.

Our friends Susan and Hazel joined us for the meal:

We ended the festive week on Friday evening with Sophia participating in a puppet show prior to the city tree lighting.

Rolling out the Rug

We recently participated in a lantern walk which was happening across the country to “welcome winter”. Sophia was delighted by the real flame of her lantern tea light, which she carried around the perimeter of the pond. I appreciated the opportunity to celebrate something I make conscious efforts not to dread. I love the changing of the seasons but, like many, struggle with the length of winter.

We unhooked the hammock from the front porch, and things I find satisfying during warmer weather, like walking to school and hanging the laundry on the line will be traded for indoor activities.

Another signifier of cooler weather was the rolling out of our living room rug, which we had tucked behind the couch in the spring when the floor didn’t require warming. Both children enjoyed the production of moving all of the furniture and witnessing a flood of red wool consume the wood.

Sophia quickly determined that this seemingly new open space was a stage. It was the window of time after dinner and before bedtime which we stretched longer than usual to enjoy being together on the couch while watching our daughter and son perform a mix of dancing, yoga, singing and storytelling.

I am ready to welcome more of the ‘rolling out the rug’ nights that winter brings. When that first snow comes we will drink hot chocolate while it falls and do it again every day it falls (I will have to keep reminding Sophia that we only do this when snow is actually falling, not every day that it is simply on the ground). We will curl up under blankets in front of fires and read the entire stack of library books in one sitting. We will bake with cinnamon to make the house smell good, because we will be spending quite a bit of time in this home over the next few months.

Come March we will be itching to shed our sweaters, but in November, and for as long as we can, we will savor what this season brings. The season of cold days inside a warm house with a four and two year old enchanted by the rolling out of rugs.

Uncle James and Aunt Rachael's Wedding

On Sunday October 29th, 2017, Rachael officially joined our family. 

We enjoyed the opportunity to see many friends and family, including our cousins from Louisiana (Benji pictured below with Sophia).

Joshua was the best man for the happy couple and Sophia delighted in her role as flower girl.

The evening concluded with a very active dance floor!

*Photo credits thank you to Lulu Reeks and Jeanni Trout