Thanksgiving.... my post holiday perspective

So. Thanksgiving has come and gone. The turkey has been cooked, eaten, cleaned up and recycled into tonights dinner (turkey soaked in yummy gravy and heated in the crockpot served as an open-faced sandwich with cranberry, dressing, and other good stuff on top with a delicious green salad with shaved parmesan, dried cranberries, slivered almonds, grape tomatoes, salt and pepper and dressing) and I am left with the realization that Christmas will be here in one month. I am actually already sad that Christmas is on its way to being over and my decorations aren't even hung yet...

anyone else with me? It's kind of like a really good book. You jump in, read it, get hooked, race through the pages only to be disappointed when you reach the last chapter and realize it will all be over.

That is how I feel about Christmas. I love it so much that I can barely enjoy it because I know it eventually comes to an end.... something to work on this year for sure.

I always seem to look at any given holiday and find all of the things that went wrong with it instead of relishing in the season's joys. This year was no different. Jason wound up being sick the day before Thanksgiving and has spent his much needed 3 days off really ill. I, being the good wife that I am - doing the love dare and all - lavished him with tenderness and mercy because of his illness  Unfortunately - NOT. I was bitter and angry because my few days of holiday fun were ruined. But as I sit here tonight with him snoring next to me and choking on his phlegm I realize how lucky I am. Yes, he is sick BUT   he will get better. He is not suffering from some terminal illness or disability. He has a cold. He has another day. He has an opportunity to feel better; to look forward to, or with disdain, getting up and going to work on Monday. He is sick, but he knows he will get better.
I am thankful, most of all, for this.
A few years ago he was given a diagnosis that was a death sentence. And, while God chose to grant him a reprieve from certain death, I have walked every day of my life not thanking him for that. So today, in the spirit of the season, I offer my most heart-felt thanksgiving to the One who saved my husband, and me as well... <3 Jesus!

I Dare You......

This is pretty much what Jesus says - I dare you .....
                   I dare you to love like Me
                   I dare you to live like Me
                   I dare you to pray like Me
                   I dare you to be like Me.....

But he adds one more caviat.....I dare you to do these things, yet, I will not make you do them on your own. It is through Me, Christ Jesus, that all things are possible.
So....

I accept Jesus. I am going to embark on, "The Love Dare" - A journey I tried before and failed, but try again I will.

40 days
40 days of being obedient
40 days of being wholly commitmented
40 days of action expecting nothing in return (and if I do expect something in return - I am only human - laying those expectations at His feet)
40 days of loving as Christ loved
40 days that just might make my marriage be a mirror that reflects just a fraction of the love of Christ in its' actions.

Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.
.......Theodore Roosevelt

Young Love.....

Things around my house changed dramatically this week. My daughter, whom I could count on to be in bed by 1000   okay 1100, has been coming in at 100 in the morning. My DVR is loaded with the shows we watched together on any given night of the week - Glee, The Event, Sixteen and Pregnant, World of Jenks and ((gasp)) even the Buried Life go unwatched.
It is funny how you push for somehting, and the when it happens - SHOCK!
I have always encouraged her to, "get out of the house" - "go out and do something" - "stay out late" - "be a teenager" but secretly I have loved those evenings cuddled on the couch in a blanket, laughing together about something funny on television, discussing the whoa's of teen pregnancy - insert life lesson - and just hanging out with my first born daughter, who has also become my friend.
Last night, after watching GLEE by myself (Gwenyth Paltrow gave all of us 40ish year olds hope we could still be a rock star) I realized - as I reached for a big handful of my lonely food (BBQ chips) - I realized things are as they should be. She should be out hanging with friends, learning how to navigate the world of relationships and dating, and becoming a strong young woman. What I also realized was that the life lessons she has experienced while under our roof are nearing an end, and the lessons she is to learn now will be experienced autonomously - on her own - and she may decide to include me in some of those experiences.

She is in the throws of young love.....a burdgeoning relationship......a new identity as a "girlfriend"....... and now I know why parents cry at weddings. While you feel excited for your child - that someone loves them and thinks they are as great as you do - there is an inexplicable feeling of loss. Not the deathly kind of loss, but almost like there is something missing

I am thankful for the 18 years I have had with such a special and unique girl that I have had the priviledge of calling my daughter, and I am  looking forward what the next several years will bring...

~~~Dawn

Give kids the benefit of the doubt? - ummmm no!

This game is TOTALLY CONSUMING my 11 year old sons life. This game was purchased on Friday after he traded in some apparently WORTHLESS games! So I basically paid for the whole thing. After assurances of no homework or special projects to work on he began playing, and play he did. Remnants of water bottles, juice boxes shoes, socks, wrappers, crumbs of food that could be rapidly shoved into his mouth while playing littering the floor. And so the weekend went, “Dylan - what are you doing?” ….silence…… Louder - DYLAN “what are you doing?”    finally the reply - playing my game.
Stop and go play outside. “okay let me finish my match…” then, he proceeds to ride his scooter down the hill, back up and returns to gaming within 5 minutes.
»»>Fast forward to this morning and we are leaving for school when he hands me a test I need to sign (while I am backing the car out of the garage)  that he failed on Wednesday. Needless to say he admitted to hiding it from me and now will experience the horrific experience of black ops withdrawl as he is off of video games until next Monday due, not to failing the test, but his dishonesty about it.
He may be able to take down zombies, but I can make an entire game evaporate!!

Gotta love motherhood!