Happy Birthday, Mumzy!

We had a wonderful holiday week and weekend. Allison came home on Wednesday and we attended a beautiful church service that night, and then we had 15 people at our Thanksgiving feast. We did a lot Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) including Allison and me going to a special class at my gym (which left us sore), baking lots of food, eating and sharing thanks, and playing football (my team one) and then Settlers (I won) in the evening. It really was a great day ;-).

The pumpkin pie made from pumpkins we bought at a nearby farm! It was exceptionally good, if I do say so myself:-)

We also celebrated my wonderful mother's birthday on Saturday. It is always extra-special to celebrate my mom's birthdays as several bouts with cancer have threatened her life. We are so thankful for her.

We had homemade lattes and cranberry bread in the morning and then Qdoba in the evening before Mom, Dad, Allison and I saw The Help in a local old-school theater. I was really glad to share the movie with them since they hadn't seen it before and I expected them to like it as much as I did. Overall, it was a great day.

Aren't they cute??

(Any bragging above is intended for the eyes of Pops and Allison only)

Black Friday FAIL

Allison and Adjua, maybe a little too excited?

Last night I stayed up until MIDNIGHT, so tired from my busy Thanksgiving. My sister Allison and I took Adjua, our Ghanaian sister, and several of her friends for their first Black Friday experience. We decided to go to Target when it opened at 12.

We prepped the girls with strategies for how to handle a stampede and instructed them about how to look for good sales. Since we were in it for the experience we didn't have a very good plan of what to buy.

We walked around the store in the midst of a crazy crowd. We selected a few small gifts and were in contact with the others via phone. At around 1, we began looking for the line so we could check out.

It took us about 10 minutes to find the end of the line, 2/3 of the way to the back of the store, weaving through each aisle and with a forecast of an hour to wait to check out.

We all decided it was time to go to bed. So we put everything back and went home.

= Black Friday FAIL

For the Beauty...

I wrote most of a post earlier about Thanksgiving but after singing this beautiful hymn in church this evening I decided to share the lyrics instead (or for now). I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

For the beauty of the earth
For the glory of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies.

Lord of all, to Thee we raise,
This our hymn of grateful praise.

For the beauty of each hour,
Of the day and of the night,
Hill and vale, and tree and flower,
Sun and moon, and stars of light.

Lord of all, to Thee we raise,
This our hymn of grateful praise.
For the joy of ear and eye,
For the heart and mind’s delight,
For the mystic harmony
Linking sense to sound and sight.

Lord of all, to Thee we raise,
This our hymn of grateful praise.

For the joy of human love,
Brother, sister, parent, child,
Friends on earth and friends above,
For all gentle thoughts and mild.

Lord of all, to Thee we raise,
This our hymn of grateful praise.
For Thy Church, that evermore
Lifteth holy hands above,
Offering up on every shore
Her pure sacrifice of love.

Lord of all, to Thee we raise,
This our hymn of grateful praise.

For the martyrs’ crown of light,
For Thy prophets’ eagle eye,
For Thy bold confessors’ might,
For the lips of infancy.

Lord of all, to Thee we raise,
This our hymn of grateful praise.

For Thy virgins’ robes of snow,
For Thy maiden mother mild,
For Thyself, with hearts aglow,
Jesu, Victim undefiled.

Lord of all, to Thee we raise,
This our hymn of grateful praise.

For each perfect gift of Thine,
To our race so freely given,
Graces human and divine,
Flowers of earth and buds of Heaven.

Lord of all, to Thee we raise,
This our hymn of grateful praise.

Words: Fol­li­ot S. Pier­point, in Lyra Eu­cha­rist­ica, by Or­by Ship­ley, se­cond edi­tion, 1864. http://cyberhymnal.org/htm/f/b/fbeautye.htm

Be Present

I had an absolutely fantastic trip to the East Coast last month to visit my friends in Maryland and then to Atlanta for the Catalyst Conference. I am struck again and again by how blessed I am to have a whole network of amazing friends. Especially as a young single, there is great potential to be alone and lonely. I am so thankful for years in Maryland where God blessed me with the best group I can imagine.

The conference theme was "Be Present," which was perfect. I didn't blog about it, but I figured I should mention it. I think the conference organizers hit a cultural reality on the head -- with the wonders of technology we have the ability to be everywhere at once. The dark side of that amazing ability is that we can fall into the trap of never really being anywhere at once. What a way to waste our lives!

The cool thing is that it wasn't just a criticism, but the speakers brilliantly presented ways to be present in many angles: spiritually, in leadership, in service, as we plan our time, and on and on. If you're interested, ask -- I'd love to share more.