not my words

"When huge pain comes into your life—like divorce, or the loss of a precious family member, or the dream of wholeness shattered—it is good to have a few things settled with God ahead of time. The reason for this is not because it makes grieving easy, but because it gives focus and boundaries for the pain.

Being confident in God does not make the pain less deep, but less broad. If some things are settled with God, there are boundaries around the field of pain. In fact, by being focused and bounded, the pain of loss may go deeper—as a river with banks runs deeper than a flood plain. But with God in his firm and proper place, the pain need not spread out into the endless spaces of ultimate meaning. This is a great blessing, though at the time it may simply feel no more tender than a brick wall. But what a precious wall it is!"

...you can read John Piper's whole article here.

(HT: Todd Bolen)

random assortment

i'm sure you've heard that it's been the biggest storm in 80 years up here the last few days.

on monday, when the storm was at it worst we found ourselves together in a warm home...with random people along. it was a lot of fun trying to 'brave' the storm. cooking, baking and being together. here in vancouver we're fine, so maybe that's where the romanticism comes from. i know there are those who don't feel that way about the storm.

i had made plans for our friend bev to come over on monday. every so often she takes a day off work to come be with us. some friend, i know. she's one of those friends where you're baffled that you've only known them for 2 years....seems like she's always been in our life.

on sunday my cousin ashley came to stay with us while she's in between houses. it's been so great to get to spend time with her and get reacquainted. i'm sorry to say that it's been many years since i've even seen her.

jake heard that ashley was around and was in the portland area cutting down free christmas trees for everyone he knows. so he decided to come and hang out. but one exit from our house his flatbed truck that was carrying 20 christmas trees broke down. he and his friend chris had spent the morning cutting down christmas trees. yes, in the biggest storm in 80 years. in jake's words, it was the wettest he's ever been in his life. they were wet, cold and broken down on the side of the road.

once everyone was dry, fed and at the house it was quite fun. bev, ashley, jake, chris, mom, dad, isaiah, alaythia, matt and me. a random assortment of people together on a blustery day. soup, mom's famous cornbread and chocolate chips cookies....sometimes the severe weather can create a cool memory...like it did on monday.

Say What!?! Wednesday

i pulled the family together on friday afternoon to go get a christmas tree. it doesn't feel like christmas until the christmas tree is up. so we all piled in grandpa's car. even moses came along in his crate in the trailer. we went down the street to a u-cut farm. we were bundled and walking through the trees. grandpa would ask isaiah, 'how is this one?' 'no, not that one.' he would say. we walked for quite some time and not one tree was working for isaiah. finally i said, 'isaiah what kind of tree are you looking for?' he said, 'we need to get one with lights!'

report card time

alaythia turned 9 months old this week. so i took her in for her check up. for a stay at home mom a check up feels a little like a report card. are they developing properly, are they healthy, are they growing? what you should be expecting the next few months as you try to imagine life with a crawler, walker and talker.

so i walk into the appointment with alaythia clean, fresh, fed, with her best face on. she's a healthy, growing, perfect girl. i'm feeling pretty good about myself thank you. at the end of the appointment the doctor throws something out, almost as a tack on. an 'oh yeah'.

'alaythia's growth chart shows that she hasn't gained much weight in the past few months. sometimes when you have a toddler you think your 2nd is eating enough when in fact, they might not be. i would encourage you to watch carefully how much alaythia is eating, you might be surprised at how much she can eat.'

wait...is she telling me i'm not feeding my kid enough? is she really saying that i could be keeping her hungry? do you know me? do you know the family i come from? we are professional eaters. you could accuse me of a lot of things, but not feeding my kids enough? no way.

i come home determined to see if in fact she can eat more.... i try and try at lunch time. not interested. see, i'm doing okay. she's not hungry. i try to convince myself. dinner rolls around, new tactic, i try more fingery foods. and sure enough alaythia ate about 3 times the amount i usually give her. i sat there in turmoil. glad that she was enjoying and eating to her hearts content. sad that she might have been hungry these past few months. and being the sweet little girl she is, never complained.

well my dear daughter, it's confirmed. welcome to the family that loves to eat. i'm afraid you're one of us.

deadline #2

so for one of the school's matt is applying to, he has to make a proposal of what he would do his dissertation on. no small decision. this is what he will give his life to for the next several years. it's not something that you just pick randomly. as you may or may not know, a dissertation has to be on something unexplored. or if explored, not to the fullest extent. when you're dealing with the Bible, it would seem the options would start to get fewer and fewer. but matt did find a topic that 1 - interests him, 2- interests the guy he would be studying under and 3 - hasn't been explored - fully.

so with much trepidation he send it off to the professor he would be sitting under if accepted to this particular school. even though he's in the application process the school wants the prof to sign off on it. we fully expected this process to go back and forth. but much to our surprise we got an email just hours after sending the proposal. it is accepted. done deal. moving on.

i can't tell you the weight that was immediately lifted.

we're quickly running out of deadlines....#2 done. deadline #3 is to turn the applications in. and that should be done in a few weeks. people, we're moving forward. i still can hardly believe it.

stuff of interest

so here's some new cool stuff i want to share with you....

first is this website, www.franklinguitars.com

this is rosemary's dad -- who builds guitars in his shop at their house. they were up to be with jake and rose for thanksgiving and one of the times i popped in on them ken was showing them his new website. amazing stuff. jake and rose have 2 of his guitars...ken calls one of them 'the dog'. supposedly it's not a very good one...yet it looks better than any guitar i've ever seen. check it out. we think we're cool to be connected to him in a round-about way.

second is a new blogger. julie martin. where the name isaiah martin godshall comes from. i won't go on and on about how i feel about her, for fear of totally freaking her out as a new blogger. but if you've got the time, i'd say it would be well worth your time to check out her thoughts.

Say What?! Wednesday

on monday matt was heading out the door to go study at powell's. isaiah and i were sitting at the table playing play doh. we exchanged details of what the day was going to look like. at the end of the conversation matt said, 'have a fun afternoon.' before i could say anything isaiah said, 'thanks, we will.' and as matt turned to go he added, 'see ya later babe!'

matt and i laughed and laughed. it's amazing what they pick up from you. not only your words but your intonations as well. scary if i'm honest.