Joy Dare 2013 - Day 5

Keeping it simple tonight!

Today's gifts are:
Something I'm reading, making, watching.

Something I'm Reading:
Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith

Super excited about this book that we'll be doing with our small group next month. Getting a jumpstart on reading it already!

Something I'm Making:

I'm working on a WordArt for my sister-in-law. No picture of this one just in case she happens to wind up over here.

Something I'm Watching:

Well the girls in my house have been watching endless episodes of Saved By the Bell this weekend. I've been trying not to watch. Hearing "Preppy" so much can get annoying after awhile.

But what I did enjoy watching today was my 7 year old playing basketball. This picture obviously wasn't from today (although I wish it looked like that outside). But this kid can play. 

Today we went to the gym on Notre Dame's campus so he could shoot around for a while.

He was so excited before we left home that he had butterflies in his stomach. Watching my kids do something that brings pure joy is a gift indeed.

Joy Dare 2013 - Day 4

Never did I ever think I would be here 4 days in a row!
But I am loving this Joy Dare thing.
And I have a friend who has come along side me in the journey. Every day we share our gifts through text messages. What an extra blessing that is!

Today's Joy Dare was a gift old, a gift new, and a gift blue.

I admit when I first read this I thought it would be a piece of cake.

It made me think of my wedding day when as a tradition the bride has something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. On my wedding day my old was a handkerchief incorporated into my bouquet that belonged to my Grandma Jackson. My new was my dress (really creative, I know). My borrowed was a diamond earring that I wore in my upper ear piercing. And my blue was my garter.

But for some reason, today's gift old, gift new, and gift blue were more challenging to come up with. I thought about it all day and then finally within the last hour they came to me.

A gift old:
My oldest memories are of my Grandma Jackson. I've blogged about it before. So when I was thinking about something old tonight I was trying to remember if I had anything that had belonged to her. Then I remembered my mom gave this to me-

It's an old yellow bowl. It belonged to my grandma. It's the one I remember mixing potato salad in when I was at her house. I was only 3.

A gift indeed.

A gift blue:

With this one I had a hard time deciding what the definition of "gift" should be. Originally I thought these gifts should be something that someone has given to me. But then I got to thinking that maybe it was more important for me to find something in my routine day and appreciate it more than I normally would. To see it as a gift.

And when I thought of it that way I found my gift blue-

My blue Notre Dame mug filled with hot caramel mocha.

A gift indeed.

A gift new:

And my new gift falls into the same gift category as my blue gift. Not something given to me, but something I recognize as special. Or should I say someone I recognize as special. 

Tonight we have a new sleepover guest at our house. My middle school daughter's new best friend. God definitely knew what He was doing when He matched these two up. This girl is the answer to so many of my desperate prayers regarding my daughter's survival of middle school. 

It's so cool when you clearly see God answer prayers.

It's even cooler when that answer is another person.

A person you can invest in.

A gift indeed.

Joy Dare 2013 - Day 3

Coming in under the gun again tonight. A few minutes to spare.

Today's Joy Dare was a bit more challenging than the previous 2 days.

3 Graces Overheard

When I'm stuck at home with 3 kids on winter break from school, grace is one of the things I hear least coming out of their mouths. Especially when they've been together for 13 days straight. Quite honestly, grace is one of the last things coming out of my mouth too as I'm constantly playing referee. *sigh*

So today I had to keep my ear especially peeled because dagumit I needed to overhear some grace!

Oh, no pictures today either. How am I supposed to take pictures of what I overhear?

Overheard Grace #1:

Location - Sav-A-Lot

Participants - 2 shoppers

Scenario - Shopper #1 with an overflowing cart asks Shopper #2 with 4 bananas to please cut in front of her so he can check out quicker. 

Overheard Grace #2

Location - my living room

Participants - 7 year old son & 4 year old son

Scenario - 7 year old compliments 4 year old on his Lego creation (which truth-be-told looks like nothing)

Overheard Grace #3

Location - In my Van

Participants - Yours Truly and a very new friend

Scenario - After a series of unexpected events today in which I help out my new friend who is taking care of her dying father out of town I receive this text message from her "I thank God that I have a friend like you." (Bending the rules a little as I didn't really "overhear" this grace since I read it on my phone. But it's definitely a grace because how often do friends really say stuff like this to one another? Let alone brand new friends?)

Joy Dare 2013 - Day 2

Today was spent sweeping dust bunnies, washing curtains, washing floors, rearranging furniture, finding homes for new toys, and picking up a gazillion Legos. All in the room of the 2 smallest men in my house. Boys sure can be messy and dirty. But they bring me joy. Joy.

Todays Joy Dare = A gift outside, a gift inside, and a gift on a plate

A gift outside. We have 2 beautiful Thornless Hawthorne trees in our front yard. When we first bought our house I had no idea what these beauties could do. We looked at and moved into our house at the end of summer. Imagine my delight when our first winter we saw our trees do this!

And in the spring they have these delicate small white flowers which unfortunately drop with the rain, but they are pretty while they last. 

A true gift indeed.

A gift inside. Part of my toy purge clean-up in the boys room today consisted of a lot of clothes swapping. I go through clothes that Ty has outgrown to hand down to another little boy we know. Then I go through clothes my nephew has outgrown to refill Ty's drawers. Then I go through clothes that Zane has outgrown to hand down to my nephew. Then I go through clothes that have been given to us from friends and family to refill Zane's drawers. Now you see why it takes me all day to clean their room! It's a lengthy process...

All that to say, my joy inside today came from these-

Tubs filled with clothes for my boys. Given to us.

A gift indeed.

A gift on a plate. This one took me a while. I thought about it all day and figured it was going to be tricky since I forgot to eat breakfast, warmed up a leftover piece of pizza for lunch, and then had a bowl full of chili for supper. Lots of edible gifts, but no plates. How does that happen?

Then it was time for a snack.

And I went to my old faithful.

Which I don't usually eat off of a plate. But tonight I did. Because these things are a gift.

Please don't confuse this with a Pop-Tart. This is most definitely not a Pop-Tart. 

This is better than a Pop-Tart. This is a Toaster Tart. And you'll never guess where I get them.

Aldi

That's right. Aldi. Grab a quarter (for your cart, of course) and go get yourself some. 

A gift indeed.

Thank me later.

Seek Joy! Be Grateful! Love Jesus!

Joy Dare 2013 - Day 1

Truth be told, I'm a little nervous returning here.
Truth be told, the date on my last post makes me a little sad.
Truth be told, I've returned just for me.
Truth be told, I'm probably the only one here anyway. I've been gone so long it's probably a ghost town around these here parts.

I'm coming back to the roots of my blog. I originally started blogging back in 2006 because I was lonely. We had just moved to a new city where I knew no one. But I saw and grasped on to the glimpses of God in my life...of what He was showing me and teaching me...and I wanted to document them. And by documenting them I started looking at life through a new lens. A healthy and fun and grateful lens.

I have no earth shattering prose or analogies. I offer no recipes for success or fortune. But I will find joy...daily...and I will share. I take the dare and will do my best to share.

January 1 Joy Dare: 3 Gifts Heard

The sound of my boys sorting through Legos (and believe you me we have a lot of Legos to sort through)

The sounds of Uno Roboto during Family Game night (unfortunately Mr. Roboto didn't drown out the sounds of the 4 year old crying every time he had to draw another card)

Hearing this girl say "I love you, Mom". The older they get, the less they say it (embarassing!) but I'll take it every chance I can!

And in my true procrastinator fashion, I'm posting this one just before the deadline of midnight.

Happy New Year!

Seek Joy! Be Grateful! Love Jesus!

Letter From A Friend

Dear Friend,
Thank you for being my best friend. I really appreciate what you do for me and for being respectful, helpful and caring. You are the only friend that has been faithful and you are fortunate that you have a lot of caring friends.

From your friend,
Jane

I would love to be able to share that this letter was addressed to me, as this is the type of friend that I aspire to be. I mean, shouldn't we all strive to treat others in a way that would result in someone writing a letter like this to us?

Yes. Yes we should.

But last week, I learned that there is one thing better than reading a letter like this addressed to me.

To read a letter like this that's been addressed to my child... now that's worlds better.
To read a letter like this that's been addressed to my child from a girl in her class at school... Universes better.

I tell you.

I could learn a thing or two from my girl.

My Text Message

I had a realization today. It's kind of silly. It's kind of fun.

I'm fairly new to texting.
And no, that was not my realization.
I know I'm behind the times and there's probably some newer more fandagled way to communicate than texting. I'll probably get to that when it's outdated too.
So, I sent a text today and at the end I was running out of room. All I had left that I needed to say was "thank you" and I only had 3 character spots left to use. Is "character spots" even a legitimate texting term? Probably not. But I don't care because the spellchecker on here keeps putting that red squiggly line under the word "texting" every time I type it. I guess I'm not the only one behind the times.

Anyway, I was running out of room....I couldn't leave off that important part and I didn't want to send a whole other text. Suddenly I remembered the shortened text for "thank you."
TY

And then it hit me.
That's my little man's name.

So today I declared that my youngest is now my daily and eternal text of gratitude to God.

If God had a cell phone, I'd send him this text daily:

TY for TY.


But God doesn't need a cell phone, so I'll just be praying it instead.