Nothing yells as loudly as an empty house. That's my made-up proverb for today. We had about thirty people here for the long Thanksgiving weekend and the last ones left for home yesterday. Boy is it quiet today. We went to Pizza Hut buffet for lunch after church, (you'll remember from earlier entries that's my favorite comfort food) but I still couldn't shake the blues. Sometime tonight, though, while we were watching an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, I snapped back to normal and was able to savor the time with my immediate family doing something the four of us enjoy that no one else in our extended family understands. I think they always expect us to turn up at the next family gathering wearing Star Fleet uniforms with kid-sized ones for the girls.

This was a cool episode. Course: Oblivion. Halfway thru the episode, the crew figures out that they're duplicates. Turns out they were un-sentient lifeforms from a demon class planet Voyager had run onto several episodes back. The crew donated samples of their DNA before leaving the planet so that the lifeforms could become sentient. After awhile, the newly-aware lifeforms, now looking just like the crew members, forgot where they came from and began to think they were the real Voyager crew, so they tried to get to Earth. But once they left the safety of their radiation-soaked atmosphere they were doomed as their cells broke down at the molecular level. They did turn back toward their real home finally, after much death and suffering.

Sometimes we do that. Forget where we came from, forget where we're going. Forget that it's not imperative for us to fit in on this crazy planet. We sang a song tonight at church - I can't feel at home in this world anymore. As I said those words, I wondered how true they are for me. Sometimes I feel too at home in this world. The part of my life that centers on God becomes the add-on, the extra, the thing I fit in when I can around my "real life". I'm thankful God has given me the ability and desire to constantly turn back to Him when I lose my focus. And I'm thankful for His grace that covers me as I bumble along trying to get home.

Love and peace to all and to all a goodnight!

"You say it's your birthday. It's my birthday, too."

I loved the Beatles, but I never did really get that song. I've been humming it all day, though. Maybe because it's my birthday. (If you want to say it's your birthday, too, feel free. Lennon and McCartney said it first.)

Today isn't a milestone birthday. Sweet sixteen and the ever-sought-after 21 are both faded memories. The big 5-0 still looms far enough on the distant horizon to be an insignificant speck. Nevertheless, I'm another year older and hopefully another year wiser. I spent a little while tonight looking back on the last twelve months. Guess what? I have very few regrets. Now, that's what I call a good year.

Still there are those few niggling things. I wish I'd hugged my children more and listened to their long drawn out stories with better attention. I wish I'd told my husband more often how much I treasure him as a best friend, besides being madly in love with him. I wish I'd drank more water. Sorry. I just had to throw that in to see if you were paying attention. I am a little dehydrated, though. And pretty determined to not have those same regrets next year at this time. So look out, family, it's the post-birthday lovefest! :)

I'm having a houseful for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, but I'll try my best to squeeze in a Turkey Day blog entry. If not, remember I Thessalonians 5:18, and in everything give thanks. Even for birthdays!

Peace and grace to you all!

The aforementioned sinus junk turned into the full-blown flu, so I've been off the computer for awhile. Sorry for the long blog blank. :)

I'm really excited to see my website shaping up, aren't you? It's fun to check out the wee-hours magic Dianna works while we're all tucked snugly in bed. I feel like the shoe-maker when I log on in the morning. Of course, lately the only thing I've been logging on to is the Kleenex box.

It's funny but when I stay offline for awhile, either by design or by accident, my "real" life takes on a sharper focus. I'm more keenly aware of my family and their needs, wants, and just the everyday happenings in their life. Maybe that's why I came back from this bout of sicky-ness with a renewed commitment to cut back on my instant messaging and incessant checking of email.

Do you ever sit down at the computer at 9:00 to check your email and at noon, you realize that, like a donkey following a carrot, you've been reading the one more email that dribbled into your inbox all morning long? I do.

So, here's my new deal. (Yes, just call me Roosevelt. Or was that Hoover? Now you know why I don't write historicals.) I check my email quickly three times a day. If it's not there when I check, it will be there next time. Nine chances out of ten, any email I receive is not going to require immediate action. Unless it starts with "You've been outbid by another ebay bidder. . ." in which case, I always lose those auctions at the last second anyway, so why bother? When you're waiting for a particular email (as I confess, I am) this restraint is especially hard, but I'm determined. I will not be a slave to the call of Yahoo! anymore.

It really is cute though, you should hear it. When I get an email (and I have my speakers on) I have it set to play a mountain-dew-drinkin' hillbilly-yodeling "Yaaaahooooooo!" Of course, if I happen to have my monitor on, too, when I hear that tell-tale sound, I can always happen to cruise by right that minute on my way to vacuum or load the dishwasher and see who the email is from without touching the keyboard or breaking my resolution. Maybe that's just fooling myself, but as long as my rear doesn't touch the chair, I feel strong and successful in my quest to break loose from the email chains. So leave me to my illusions, okay?

I'm off to bed now. Barring any unexpected bumps in the road, I'll be back soon. Until then, I leave you with one of my favorite verses - "I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me." - Phillipians 4:13. Even cut back on internet time. :)

I woke up yesterday morning with a yucky sore throat and sinus pressure. By last night, I craved comfort food. Nothing says "comfort" to me like hot thick-crusted pizza dripping cheese, so we ended up at Pizza Hut's Tuesday night Kids Eat Free buffet. (Don't worry, no fever, I wasn't contagious. Besides I scrubbed my hands and didn't sneeze at all.) After we filled our plates and started eating, I tried to press my pounding sinus headache away with my fingers, then I looked at Kevin. "Did you thank God for the food?" He nodded. (He had his mouth full.) "Out loud?" Another nod. "Ok, I thought so, but I wasn't sure."

Our 7-year-old daughter tugged on my sleeve and flashed me a mischievous grin. "Mom? Do you have short term memory loss?" Kevin and I gaped at each other and burst out laughing. She laughed, too, then got serious. "You don't usually laugh at my jokes THAT much."

Right there in Pizza Hut, she learned a lesson that I'm still learning. Sometimes you just hit a sweet spot with a line. And sometimes you don't. She probably thinks those jokes she makes up (If you have a 7-year-old, you know the ones) are just as funny as her short term memory comment. But it doesn't matter what she thinks. It's all in the audience's reaction.

When you write you have to learn to be your own audience. Write it and rewrite it, then read it through fresh eyes and cut the lines that don't hit the sweet spot. Yep, that's right. Writers have to have a split personality. Oh, and short term memory loss doesn't hurt either. :)

At our church Ladies' Night Out tonight, the speaker, Brenda, asked us to list our goals on a tablet. She gave us the tablets to keep. Mine had zebra stripes. So cool.

But I digress. . . She told us that to be more focused in our lives, we need goals. I figure she's been reading my blog.

The instructions were to list general goals at first and then narrow each broad goal down to specifics. We did a lot of "Hmming" and even a little "Hawing" but finally we started to write.

I have no idea what everyone else wrote. Not that I didn't try to catch a quick glimpse just to make sure I was on the right track, but these ladies kept their arms around their papers like we were taking a college entrance exam. All I ended up with was a pain in the neck and my own list of goals.

I want to have:

1. A Happy Family (Can you sing the Barney song with me? My kids have outgrown it, but from time to time I still long to hear "I love you, you love me, we're a happy family." Actually, I feel pretty good about this one, but it's a long-term, ongoing goal. Just because they seem happy now, doesn't mean that Oscar the Grouch won't move in during the night.)

2. Health (I figure this is general enough to include all my specific pipedreams, er. . .um. . .goals about eating right, losing weight, walking, taking supplements, getting adjusted more regularly, etc.)

3. A Clean House (Forget it. I can think of too many smart remarks to make about this one. I'm just going to let it stand on its own. Those of you who clean house like I do will be laughing anyway. To figure out if this is you, ask yourself the question - "When unexpected company's coming, do I grab black garbage bags and find one room with a door that locks to stuff them all in when they're full?" We call this "From Dump to Dazzling in twenty breathless minutes".)

4. A closer relationship with God (As soon as I wrote this on my list, I remembered that we often grow closer to Him through trials. I was hoping for warm fuzzy devotional time and maybe even going on a mission trip to Mexico to build houses for people in need. But I can't bring myself to ask for trials.)

After we finished, Brenda asked us to read a "fun" goal on our list. Hmm. . .Nobody told me we were supposed to have FUN goals. I looked back over my list. I think a mission trip to Mexico sounds fun, don't you?

Going on a cruise was the overall "fun goal" winner for the group. I think the lady sitting next to me may have voted twice, though. (Just for the record, I wanted to make a crack here about her probably being from Florida, but I'm refraining on behalf of my friend, Rachel.)

Speaking of that, remember - if you don't VOTE, you can't COMPLAIN at all for the next four years! :) Goodnight!