25 out of 50 things I'm thankful for

I've always known how to have fun on my birthday! 

Tomorrow is a big day for me. I used to think 50 year old people were old. Now I think they are, well, they are...me as of January 27. 


Here is half of the 50 things I'm thankful for. 

Class of 2016 = woot

1. My middle OS has been accepted to Moody Bible Institute!
2. This means I will have a semi-regular pizza delivery boy! 
3. I had a wonderful experience speaking to a local MOPS group and I want to do it again! 
4. My topic was "Raising Mighty Oliveshoots" and I'm sensing the Lord is creating something. 
5. My oldest OS has done so well as West Point that he will be getting his first choice for his post and unit. This means that Nate will probably be going to Fort Carson in Colorado. I suggested "Fort" Cary (we live in Cary!) but he seemed disinterested. No worries though!
6. My orange hair, freckle face OS's basketball team is currently in first place and his back pain is subsiding.

Few moments are as epic as when you
and your OS get to meet Mary Jo!

7. I'm going to MaryJo's Cloth Store in Gastonia on Saturday with friends. Ignite endorphin levels!
8. I soaked some almonds overnight in water and evaporated cane juice. I drained the water and just before putting them into the dehydrator, I sprinkled cinnamon on them. They taste GOOD! 

I'm having a bibimbap birthday! 

9. We are having a Korean exchange student stay with us for the weekend and she is going to teach me how to make bibimbap! 
10. We're also going to be serving squash pancakes and green onion pancakes. This should be interesting!
11. My six year old nephew Jon aka Goo, told me he has drawn me a picture for my birthday. I can't wait to see it!
12. My aunt and uncle from Chicago sent me two birthday pizzas. I have them safely hidden in the freezer, only the Hubs seems to know. I do not want to share. Does that make me a bad person??? Do not tell a soul. 
13. I'm reading my seventh book since Christmas. Shablam! Current read - Saving Leonardo. Here's a great quote "One of the greatest injustice we do our young people is to ask them to be conservative. Christianity is not conservative, but revolutionary...We must teach them to be revolutionaries, revolutionaries against the status quo." Click to read this review that compelled me to buy this for my Kindle Fire. 
14. It struck me last night as I was sitting with my monthly writing friends, how immensely blessed I am with a diversity of friendships culled from many parts of my life. 
15. My house is neither immaculate nor filthy, right now as I type this, it's right in the middle. 
16. I love my weekly Bible Study and the women I share life with. As I look around the table, I admire their strength, beauty and stories about leading redeemed lives. 

Bible Study just before the Army/Navy game!
Had to bring Nate!

17. My stepfather said he would go with me for my colonoscopy! I don't have one scheduled but since I took him to his, he said he would accompany me on mine! 

18. I just finished reading a book about a vacuum cleaner and it made me cry. I thought about the stories my family's appliances could tell.
19. When I told my mom that sometimes her birthday cards to me are so sappy, I could become diabetic, she didn't get offended. She laughed and scoffed. We had fun! 
20. Loves it when the pastor speaks a sermon custom made for our family! 
21. And REALLY loves it when we apply the sermon to daily life!
22. So blessed to have a praying family. We rallied around one of our OS this weekend and prayed with and for him one night. I want to leave this kind of legacy.
23. Realized that I along with the Hubs are raising a first generation Christian family. I didn't see that modeled in my own family and we're super imperfect but still, we're doing it!

A recent creation I made

24. My sewing machines and I are getting along. We are enjoying our time together.
25. I made a dinner this week for a teacher who has cancer. I wasn't sure what to make and brought sesame seed crusted salmon, wilted spinach with a white wine sauce and quinoa pepper salad. She said her favorite thing to eat was fish! I didn't know that! 


On the eve of a big day, it makes sense to have some jollity. Life is a gift. I'd love to hear from you, any of these 25 jump out at you?

May the words of my mouth be pleasing to you

MOPS blessed me so much
when my OS were younger!

On Tuesday, I will be speaking to a local MOPS (Mothers of Pre-Schoolers) group. The first time I was scheduled to speak, I had to cancel due to a delay in my oldest OS's surgery. When the group asked me again, I debated about if it was really the right thing to do, not because of MOPS at all, (I love MOPS)! but because of me.


Have you ever tried to come up with an answer for not doing something? I have, I do, I'm sure I will do it again, unfortunately. Sometimes I've got good reasons and other times the reasons are really just excuses. They are petty and selfish, utterly lacking sound judgment. 

"Wow, I've got a lot going on
but I'm not going to let it stop me!" 

David Brainerd, the man

The great and humble missionary to the North American Indians, David Brainerd was the man. Soon I must share the impact David Brainerd's life and testimony have had on me though he lived in the 1700's. He struggled with depression and suffered greatly. I highly recommend reading The Life and Diary of David Brainerd. 

"Who cares about a little consumption
and depression? I've got work to do!" 

Thanks to the trusty stylus harnessed to my Kindle Fire, I have highlighted many of his spiritual insights. Here's one fitting of my upcoming message and bespeaks my heart "...when God enables me sensibly to find that I have done something for him, this refreshes and animates me, so that I could break through all hardships, undergo any labors, and nothing seems too much either to do...". Yeah, I so get this. 

I'm so diggin' this

Now I'm wondering, what have you been recently asked to you? Did you do it? What has recently refreshed and animated you? The message I prepared this week isn't the one I originally intended but I sense a prompting to share it. Let me be your instrument O God, feeble as I am. 

One of these things just doesn't belong here!

My most recent experience with a foreign object trapped in my own body involved a chopstick. I was at our favorite local sushi restaurant and after removing the paper sheath from the chopsticks, I rubbed the tops of them together to enjoy a smooth eating utensil. This was a really bad idea. As my finger slid along the chopstick ever so gingerly, a tiny wood shaving lodged deep inside my finger where it stayed for THREE STINKING WEEKS!


Despite my best efforts, I couldn't see the sliver nor could I tweeze or soak it out. The Hubs and the OS learned of my sliver woes on a daily, if not hourly basis for nearly a month. Each time my West Point OS called home, I gave him a "sliver update." I even thought about going to the doctor. And then one day, in a pain I liken to childbirth, the sliver decided to move elsewhere and poof, it was gone. Huh.

oh herro dere, sewing needle! long time, no see!

Many of us have weird corpus alienum stories. Take, for example my cousin's husband who fell a few days ago. Concerned, Ben went to the doctor and got an x-ray. Ben learned three things that day.  
1. He hadn't broken anything
2. He had a moderate to severe sprain requiring rest
and 3. (prepare yourselves, friends)...Ben has a sewing needle in his foot. 


Apparently when Ben was a kid, he must have stepped on a sewing needle. It has been living in his heel peacefully for 20+ years.


The post on his facebook has elicited much conversation. I have removed names of people who have commented on Ben's status but I had to show you what his friends and family have said.

• That is my lifelong fear.
  

  Yesterday at 11:29am ·  ·  1
• 
  

  
  

  that is awesome!
  

  Yesterday at 11:31am · 
• 
  

  
  

  
  
• 
  

  That happened to me when I was 6...stepped on a needle and it broke off...had to have it surgically removed:)
  

  Yesterday at 11:36am · 
• 
  

  
  

  coolest thing ever. i hope your heel doesn't start hurting during bad weather when you're older.
  

  Yesterday at 11:37am · 
• 
  

  I had a thorn buried in my head for a couple years that I didn't know about.
  

  Yesterday at 11:41am · 
• 
  

  
  

  
  
• 
  

  
  

  that's crazy
  

  Yesterday at 11:53am · 
• 
  

  
  

  
  
  
• 
  

  
  

  dude thats crazy..u are the talk of my cubicle group lol.
  

  Yesterday at 11:54am ·  ·  1
• 
  

  
  

  
  
• 
  

  
  

  Ur my new hero. This is pretty crazy.
  

  Yesterday at 12:20pm · 
• 
  

  
  

  
  
• 
  

  
  

   Do you need a hug??
  

  23 hours ago · 
• 
  

  
  
• Man, I stepped on a sewing needle when I was in high school and limped around for a while. After a week, or so it felt beter so I went on about life. Three months later a boil appeared on my thigh and when I popped it I saw what looked like a splinter. I pulled a sewing needle out with tweezers.
  

  16 hours ago · 
• 
  

  
  

  
  
• 
  

  
  

  I feel like a terrible mother. The sewing needle had to be mine or Grandma's.
  

  14 hours ago · 
• 
  

  
  

I can't figure out if my favorite comment is that my uncle had a thorn buried in his head for a couple of years that he didn't know about (which explains a lot!) or if it's Ben's friend who said he stepped on a sewing needle in high school. The guy limped around for a while and after a week or so, he felt better. Then three months later, a boil appeared on his thigh. When he popped it (sorry about the disgusting word picture!), he saw what looked like a splinter. But it wasn't a splinter, instead he pulled a sewing needle out of his thigh with a pair of tweezers.

At least one of these guys, (all members of 
my extended family, btw), currently has a 
sewing needle living in his foot. Good times. 

So here's my question. Do you have a strange splinter, chopstick or a sewing needle story? I'd love to hear about it. I'll even sweeten the deal, I will write on a slip of paper the names of each person who comments on this post and next Friday, January 27th, I will draw a winner. I will then send the person a little something I've made with a sewing needle! I'll announce the winner on January 28th. If you comment on my blog or on my facebook about this post, you'll be in the epic drawing!