The name of God, Elohim, Mighty Creator - the one who was there before the beginning. God's creation is a gift to us, a way to show Himself to us, to appeal to us and teach us about HIM!! There is power in creating all that we see. We each are created and are sacred. I want to renew my sense of wonder and gratitude for the things He made.
Thoughts of people being created incapable of loving is hard to imagine. I love the thought that we come into the world made in the image of God and part of that is the capability to love. Good question to ponder - Why do we love?
I want to grasp the beauty of today and not be focused on its' flaws. As I walked this morning I prayed for several people in my life and one of them was my mother in law, Alice Orozco. I want for her to be able to see what God still has for her in life. Her life has changed with her husband now living in a nursing home in Austin, 25 minutes from her home. Please join me in prayer. I know there are more experiences God has for her. I get into this spiral so easy myself. It has to be very intentional that I choose to look at the beauty and not the flaws. God is sustaining us each day with His creative power. How do you think God wants to bless you today as He is Elohim?
Friday, January 13, 2012
Monday, January 2, 2012
Merry Christmas
Yes, that is an armadillo from Texas at Perini Ranch!
We were so blessed in November and December of 2011 to have such wonderful time with both of the girls and their husbands and grandchildren. Our hearts are over flowing with gratefulness to God!!
I like to list all of the things I would like to experience with the family during a visit. Our time has a beginning and end and I know myself too well to not list what I would like to see happen. Of course not all of the experiences I list happen, but we did get to almost all of it.
My list: play games, have conversation about God and His Word and read some in the Bible, a visit to Monks (a favorite place of Hannah and Jason in Abilene), out to eat to celebrate the completion of all classes for Jason's Masters degree in International Affairs at GWU, cook together, take pictures, of course - exchange gifts, a little shopping (I'm still learning what Jason's style is), have a time at Hope worshiping God together in song (I love to sit next to Alison and Hannah and hear them sing).
A really fun night at the Massingill home was one of the unplanned events that was a favorite. We gathered around and sang while many played their favorite instrument!!
We also were able to visit with some of Hannah and Jason's friends who have married and stayed in Abilene!!
Abby and Evan Young, Hannah and Jason, Justina and Marshall Thompson
Playing Phase 10 at Monks!
Treat from Hannah - We got our nails done together!
Our crew we had for Christmas Lunch - complete with a surprise entertainment from Robert Butts!
We have a tradition of putting books under the tree each year. We have packed up the books and all is back in the attic. Jason is back at work and the rest of us will return tomorrow. Good bye to our Christmas of 2011!!
We were so blessed in November and December of 2011 to have such wonderful time with both of the girls and their husbands and grandchildren. Our hearts are over flowing with gratefulness to God!!
I like to list all of the things I would like to experience with the family during a visit. Our time has a beginning and end and I know myself too well to not list what I would like to see happen. Of course not all of the experiences I list happen, but we did get to almost all of it.
My list: play games, have conversation about God and His Word and read some in the Bible, a visit to Monks (a favorite place of Hannah and Jason in Abilene), out to eat to celebrate the completion of all classes for Jason's Masters degree in International Affairs at GWU, cook together, take pictures, of course - exchange gifts, a little shopping (I'm still learning what Jason's style is), have a time at Hope worshiping God together in song (I love to sit next to Alison and Hannah and hear them sing).
A really fun night at the Massingill home was one of the unplanned events that was a favorite. We gathered around and sang while many played their favorite instrument!!
We also were able to visit with some of Hannah and Jason's friends who have married and stayed in Abilene!!
Abby and Evan Young, Hannah and Jason, Justina and Marshall Thompson
Playing Phase 10 at Monks!
Treat from Hannah - We got our nails done together!
Our crew we had for Christmas Lunch - complete with a surprise entertainment from Robert Butts!
We have a tradition of putting books under the tree each year. We have packed up the books and all is back in the attic. Jason is back at work and the rest of us will return tomorrow. Good bye to our Christmas of 2011!!
Sunday, December 18, 2011
I Love to Cook
A phone call came yesterday asking me to make communion bread for our church, Hope church of Christ. It is quite a treat that we have homemade communion bread each week. I would like to share the recipe and encourage you to make it sometime. It is nice to have communion with the family while they are in town for Christmas! It is a great recipe that even young bakers can make.
Communion Bread
2 cups of wheat flour
1/3 cup of brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Mix and then add the liquid
1/3 cup oil
2/3 cup water
Roll out and cook for 20 minutes on 350. Serve when you are ready. I cut mine in quarters because we use four trays!
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Thanksgiving ~Christmas
The celebrating time came and the details had come together. I want to give a shout out to Alison and Justin-- Alison is the planner of all planners. She loves to have people in their home, and to prepare for all of the children. There were a total of 24 adults and 18 children!! Everyone had a chair and LOTS of choices of food. Justin cleaned windows, set up tables, prepared the yard and helped in EVERY way Alison asked!! Notice the children's table!! The table had brown paper on it and there were crayons for the children to draw, there was popcorn, candy and marshmallows, and fruit on skewers on each of the tables. We all took leftovers home!!
We got to help Alison create these little "Mayflower" boats for each child with their name on the sail!
Chelsey and Lindsey from TAMU (interns) and Kami
One of the families made a trophy and organized a washers tournament complete with a tournament seeding, with a poster. The washers tournament brought lots of cheers! John Mark is trying his best!
Wes and Stacey Yoakum won!! Notice the trophy - it may have to be passed on year after year!!
There was a salad bar put together by the four interns with everything you can imagine.
The children had a trampoline in the front and a joy jump castle in the back yard and at some point in the evening there was the showing of the Polar Express. Corban, Kellen, and Kase - the Joy Jump Castle was enjoyed by all!!
Tara and Kase, Sarah, and Stephanie - even with all of the people we had plenty of room!
START THE CHRISTMAS MUSIC!
We decided we would not wrap presents but we would have door 1 and door 2 - we put sheets over 4 chairs. Daniel and I would put a gift behind the sheet and call someone to lift up the sheet and get their gift. It was a fun time! "Christmas Morning" - really the day after Thanksgiving began with donuts!!
Excuse the bulk of pictures of Corban -- but if I only had a video! Before opening presents we talked about our anticipation of the gifts and how that was the excitement we wanted to grow when we thought about Jesus coming. We decided to get into the excitement about Jesus with a song. "Give me a J - J, Give me an E- E, Give me an U-U......what does that spell?? Jesus!! Well, Corban became the most animated ever, moving to the tune! Great laughter came from all of us and as you can see Cailyn stood waiting for the part where she would say JESUS!! (that was her part, not the dancing as Corban proceeded to do) There was definitely JOY by ALL!! Do you see Door 1 and Door 2 in the background??
Down on the floor - lifting his leg!! So funny!! Can he express himself any louder!!
Peaking under the door to grab a present!! We may have to make this a tradition!
Thursday, December 1, 2011
JOY~JOY~JOY
We enjoyed more than two weeks in Lima and just returned home today, Wednesday, Nov 30. I would like to give you a glance at how most of our days were spent in Lima. Alison and Justin gave us their bed and they slept in Cailyn's room. Her room is very big and even with her trundle bed there is room for an extra mattress. So we slept in comfort and enjoyed our own space. On the first morning Corban and Cailyn headed to our bed and we read and talked!!
Cailyn has to be at school by 9:00am. She wears a uniform which makes for a simple dressing time. Breakfast time before Cailyn is off to school.
While she is at school, Corban enjoys us reading and playing with puzzles, stacking blocks and playing with all of the animals that he has. One of the new animals we learned about was the Ibis!!! He is just getting into dinosaurs and so we enjoyed pretending with all of sounds they make. The door to the back yard is a sliding glass door and Corban is ready for it to be unlocked as soon as breakfast is over. Out he goes to kick balls and find snails....we brought a magnifying glass and he loves to check out all of the snails and leaves in the backyard. The boy can really kick the ball and he is always ready for a ride on the tricycle or walk to the park (he calls his adventures)!!
Cailyn gets out of school around 12:30 except on Wednesday and that is because she has ballet. We went early to pick her up and looked at the ballet class practicing through the window. She will have a ballet performance the day after we leave. Pictures will have to do!! The little girls at her school have their hair always fixed with hair twisted and then in rubber bands. Alison enjoys fixing Cailyn's hair, but Cailyn is very good at fixing it herself. On the first Sunday night as we went to meet with the community of believers here we noticed she had fixed three ponytails and had some hair hanging down also...made us think of some others in our lives who are free spirited with their taste in fashion. She is also very good at dressing herself. She wears leggings under most of her outfits and so she has one of every color. When she matches it all up we are always surprised to see her outfits!! I remember Alison wanting to pick out her outfits at four years old.
Corban is quite the charmer. He loves to smile and move around with lots of activity. Some of his favorite question are "what was that sound?" or "what does that mean?" There are workers everywhere you look - shoeshiners, workers in the parks raking leaves, workers cutting trees, workers cleaning windows, workers helping you get a parking place when getting into the grocery store or coffee shops, workers sweeping in front of residents and watering the yards. Corban notices each one and is constantly saying, "he working". He is able to say everything he wants to in English and Spanish. He talks constantly.
When Corban wakes up there is time to play in the backyard - we talked about some of Jesus' followers being fisherman and we pretended to go fishing. We also had a grand game of kickball. Cailyn is very celebratory when she wins!!
Each evening as the children went to bed the four of us played Settlers of Catan, speed Scrabble, and talked about their lives in Lima, the ministry of teaching about Jesus and enjoying outings with girls and guys groups.
Lee Fletcher and Wes Yoakum getting ready for Catan.
The girls (alison, angela, cathie, tara, stacey, and kami) gathered for a time of meditation and praying. This is a new monthly activity lead by a friend,who is in Lima with her children and husband (he is the director of Feed the Hungry in Lima, Angela and Ryan Smedes.
Cailyn has to be at school by 9:00am. She wears a uniform which makes for a simple dressing time. Breakfast time before Cailyn is off to school.
While she is at school, Corban enjoys us reading and playing with puzzles, stacking blocks and playing with all of the animals that he has. One of the new animals we learned about was the Ibis!!! He is just getting into dinosaurs and so we enjoyed pretending with all of sounds they make. The door to the back yard is a sliding glass door and Corban is ready for it to be unlocked as soon as breakfast is over. Out he goes to kick balls and find snails....we brought a magnifying glass and he loves to check out all of the snails and leaves in the backyard. The boy can really kick the ball and he is always ready for a ride on the tricycle or walk to the park (he calls his adventures)!!
Cailyn gets out of school around 12:30 except on Wednesday and that is because she has ballet. We went early to pick her up and looked at the ballet class practicing through the window. She will have a ballet performance the day after we leave. Pictures will have to do!! The little girls at her school have their hair always fixed with hair twisted and then in rubber bands. Alison enjoys fixing Cailyn's hair, but Cailyn is very good at fixing it herself. On the first Sunday night as we went to meet with the community of believers here we noticed she had fixed three ponytails and had some hair hanging down also...made us think of some others in our lives who are free spirited with their taste in fashion. She is also very good at dressing herself. She wears leggings under most of her outfits and so she has one of every color. When she matches it all up we are always surprised to see her outfits!! I remember Alison wanting to pick out her outfits at four years old.
Corban is quite the charmer. He loves to smile and move around with lots of activity. Some of his favorite question are "what was that sound?" or "what does that mean?" There are workers everywhere you look - shoeshiners, workers in the parks raking leaves, workers cutting trees, workers cleaning windows, workers helping you get a parking place when getting into the grocery store or coffee shops, workers sweeping in front of residents and watering the yards. Corban notices each one and is constantly saying, "he working". He is able to say everything he wants to in English and Spanish. He talks constantly.
When Corban wakes up there is time to play in the backyard - we talked about some of Jesus' followers being fisherman and we pretended to go fishing. We also had a grand game of kickball. Cailyn is very celebratory when she wins!!
Each evening as the children went to bed the four of us played Settlers of Catan, speed Scrabble, and talked about their lives in Lima, the ministry of teaching about Jesus and enjoying outings with girls and guys groups.
Lee Fletcher and Wes Yoakum getting ready for Catan.
The girls (alison, angela, cathie, tara, stacey, and kami) gathered for a time of meditation and praying. This is a new monthly activity lead by a friend,who is in Lima with her children and husband (he is the director of Feed the Hungry in Lima, Angela and Ryan Smedes.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Lord Willing, Lima, Here We Come!
As I layed down last night to go to sleep I asked Daniel to read to me the entry for November 12th in Jesus Calling. Side note - I reached to get something out of the car yesterday as we were doing a last errand and a sharp pain came in my back! It has stayed with me as I have put ice on it and prayed for God to relieve me.
So I wanted to know what was written in the book for November 12th. It started out "This is a time of abundance in your life. Your cup runneth over with blessings. After plodding uphill for many weeks, you are now traipsing through lush meadows drenched in warm sunshine. I want you to enjoy to the full this time of ease and refreshment. I delight in providing it for you." Sounds like He wants me in Lima!! HaHa!!
I do see this trip from the Lord so I leave you with some pictures of preparation!! I know God will take care of this back muscle issue. I'm expecting and know He has a plan!!
As we put our 4 duffle bags in the back of the car Cele, (short for Celebration, she was born near Thanksgiving) our Australian Shepherd thought she was going too!!
Gluten free snacks for the flights.
And most important . . . books and scripture to keep my mind busy as I fly. Daniel laughed and said he shouldn't be surprised after all of these years why I would have so many books to take. I can't wait to dive into some that I have never started! Hope to memorize some new verses and let them take me to places the Spirit wants to encourage me in!!
Luke 11:9-10 So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be open.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Libraries
My first memory of a library is the one that I volunteered in when I was a girl scout. My mom would drop me off and I would work for an hour or two. I went to locate it on the google map but I can't seem to find it. My next memories of libraries were more about socializing than actually reading. Reading a book wasn't something I enjoyed for many years. So naturally why would I go to the library except to visit with friends. I certainly did not like to read during this season of life!!
As my senior year of college came to an end I realized my mom was right. It would be helpful to get certified to teach school -- just in case I didn't find a job with my criminology degree. Doesn't make sense now, but it did then. Enter the time in which I realized what I had missed growing up. The children's literature classes in college exposed me to the best of all of the children's books. I loved it!!
So as I marched on I couldn't get enough of great books. I enjoyed watching Reading Rainbow with the girls. I would write down all the books they suggested and try to check them out at the Bryan Library. I plan on having some Reading Rainbow time on youtube with Cailyn and Corban real soon!! During this time, 1987, College Station opened a small library and it was so nice to have it close to the house. As our girls grew up they also didn't like the library. I had so many books on the shelves out in the garage that they wanted to just go get one out of the garage. They did enjoy the summer activities at the library and even enjoyed the A&M church of Christ library!!
The girls will remember the Bryan Public Library but if they go back to find it; they will find it has a new name!!
I'm glad to say both of the girls enjoy reading and have found the wonders of all of the free items that are in the public library!! Alison has even found a small one in Peru for the kids. When Cailyn and Corban were here last year, we went every Tuesday morning for reading circle time. What fun!!
So it makes sense when I went in today to get a library book -- lots of memories flooded my mind. I put a smile on my face. I love to read!!
As my senior year of college came to an end I realized my mom was right. It would be helpful to get certified to teach school -- just in case I didn't find a job with my criminology degree. Doesn't make sense now, but it did then. Enter the time in which I realized what I had missed growing up. The children's literature classes in college exposed me to the best of all of the children's books. I loved it!!
So as I marched on I couldn't get enough of great books. I enjoyed watching Reading Rainbow with the girls. I would write down all the books they suggested and try to check them out at the Bryan Library. I plan on having some Reading Rainbow time on youtube with Cailyn and Corban real soon!! During this time, 1987, College Station opened a small library and it was so nice to have it close to the house. As our girls grew up they also didn't like the library. I had so many books on the shelves out in the garage that they wanted to just go get one out of the garage. They did enjoy the summer activities at the library and even enjoyed the A&M church of Christ library!!
The girls will remember the Bryan Public Library but if they go back to find it; they will find it has a new name!!
I'm glad to say both of the girls enjoy reading and have found the wonders of all of the free items that are in the public library!! Alison has even found a small one in Peru for the kids. When Cailyn and Corban were here last year, we went every Tuesday morning for reading circle time. What fun!!
So it makes sense when I went in today to get a library book -- lots of memories flooded my mind. I put a smile on my face. I love to read!!
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