Happy Birthday, Daniel!

Today is my brother-in-law's birthday........when my sister brought him home to meet us, we knew almost instantly that he would fit in well with our sometimes-crazy family. Dan, I hope you have a great day celebrating you and another year! Thanks for treating my sister like the precious queen that she is.....you are the best, Brother! We will see you on Friday for a little family celebration...looking forward to seeing you guys this weekend.

Visual Delight.

One of the reasons that I love the fall season is that it is a time where colors and textures and temperatures and smells all seem so much more vivid that at other times of the year. These photos are just a few of the sights that I love......old wooden crates filled with bright orange pumpkins just waiting to be plucked and turned into pies or jack-o-lanterns or porch decor. The perfect swan-necked gourd just poised to be on somebody's harvest table. And tall and proud sunflowers, bowing under the weight of their seed-filled heads. It is a just a season of real treats for all the senses. At our house, we are looking forward to our annual trip to the pumpkin patch and apple orchard for fresh cider, homemade doughnuts and gooey-yet-crisp caramel apples. Today, we picked out some delicious fresh apples, and looking at them tucked into a round basket on my counter just makes me happy every time I walk by them.

We are enjoying this little fall break. Tomorrow brings with it a short trip to the mall for Hayden and myself, our second-t0-last football game, and an after-game party at some friends' house. It is supposed to be 35 degrees, so we are prepping our winter coats and hats and blankets and already anticipating that post-game cup of hot cocoa and bowl of hot chili. Who would have guessed that last week's game boasted near-90 degree temps and tank tops. Ahhh, lovely Michigan, how unpredictable you are.

Fall Break.

About 5 years ago, the administrators at the university where I teach came up with a stellar idea: Let's give students and faculty a break during the fall right around mid-term time. Hence.....Fall Break! Starting today, I have a week off from teaching, and I am so in need of this little breather. I plan to just relax and do some organizing around the house and enjoy the fall. Now where are those Halloween and harvest decorations.....?

You might notice a new look to my blog today. This is a just a little taste of the changes to come next week....stay tuned.

One of my friends and fellow scrapbookers posted some thoughts yesterday on the power of song lyrics. Every time fall comes around, it brings to mind the great song, like "How Great Thou Art." To have the power and majesty and creativity to create and change the seasons......if that doesn't bring you to your knees, I'm not sure what will.

I have always loved a song by Nichole Nordeman, entitled "Every Season." It speaks of the different seasons and how everything has a season and how God can be seen in each of the seasons, if only we pay notice. Every time I listen to this song, my soul gets warm and I get goosebumps. Enjoy, and if you don't know the song, I highly recommend that you take a quick hop over to I-Tunes and give it a listen....it's a great dose of joy for only 99 cents....or maybe you can find it on Ruckus or SpiralFrog for free.....Savor these words:

Every evening sky, an invitation.....to trace the pattern stars
and early in July, a celebration...... for freedom that is ours
and I notice you in children's games, in those who watch them from the shade
every drop of sun is full of fun and wonder
You are summer.

And even when the trees, have just surrendered to the harvest time
forfeiting their leaves in late September, and sending us inside,
still I notice you when change begins and I am braced for colder winds
I will offer thanks, for what has been and what's to come
You are autumn.

And everything in time, and under heaven finally falls asleep
wrapped in blankets white, all creation.....shivers underneath
and still I notice you, when branches crack and in my breath on frosted glass
even now in death, you open doors for life to enter,
You are winter.

And everything that's new, has bravely surfaced, teaching us to breathe
what was frozen through, is newly purposed, turning all things green,
So it is with you and how you make me new, with every season'ss change
and so it will be, as you are all.....create in me

Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring.

Everyone {Even Little Boys} Need a Little PINK!

Dress-up is a favorite activity of choice in our house. In any given day, we can be pirates, teachers and students, Mary and Jesus, and princesses and kings. As a play therapist, I am so thrilled when I see kids pretending and dressing up and pushing their imagination--it is a major way that children explore the world and try on different possible roles. And, in spite of the educational and developmental value of dress-up play........IT IS JUST FUN! Growing up, I remember spending hour after hour in imaginative worlds......two of my favorites were Swiss Family Robinson, where myself, my sister, and the neighbor kids set up a tree house up in a tree and used twigs, mud, leaves, etc. as food and survival gear. So fun. And another favorite was Leaf House, which we played in the fall when our yard was covered with leaves. We would rake the leaves to make walls, hallways, etc. until we had a huge maze of rooms and hallways. We would then pretend that this was our house and we would play Leaf House Family. I am smiling in memory as I am typing.

Last night, my kids wanted me to play dress-up with them, so I donned my fancy hat and feather boa and started playing. My son started out as a prince, but soon decided that he needed to wear a pink dress, too. So this is what the little cutie looked like. And then he ran with his sister out in to the front yard to twirl and whirl and dance around in the grass. Even now, as I am showing this blog to him, he smiled widely and said, "That's me. I'm a princess boy!"

His Daddy is so proud.

Weekend Highlights.

Where has this week gone? Actually.....where, oh where, did September go? And now we are nearly mid-October......Sweet Fall, where art thou? This weekend, temps have been near 90 degrees here in Michigan and very, very, VERY humid. So, most of the weekend was spent wherever the air conditioning was....some weekend highlights included:

*Kennedy and Hayden were on a weekend camping outing with Grandma and Grandpa, so they had lots of fun swimming, hiking, and doing all the campfire fun stuff.
*I spent yesterday scrapping with my sister, Kendra. We had a great time and got some cute layouts accomplished to boot....and how about that yummy Mexican lunch?
*My husband and I just enjoyed some seriously needed down time.....taking a nap, watching a few movies, just being. We don't get much of that these days, and our souls and bodies are tired.
*We celebrated the one-year birthday of Compass Church, the church-plant we have been involved with since pretty much the beginning. It was fun to reflect back with the kids on how God has blessed.
Speaking of birthdays, I am nearing the one-year mark of Half-Baked and Firefly Free's inception.....and I am going to celebrate with some changes. So stick around next week to see what my vision for the next year is for this blog....gotta' go.....time to study spelling for tomorrow's test. Enjoy your Sunday evening.

What Does it Take?

No, this post's title does not refer to that wise old owl who pondered how many licks it would take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop......After all.......the world may never know.

This past weekend, we had the joy of celebrating my in-laws' 50 years of marriage. Wow. 50 years. This led me to wonder......in a world where marriage is viewed as throw-away and "try-it-on-for-size", what does it take to stay together for the long haul?

One word: God.

This world is one where everything is against the sanctity of marriage. Sexual allurement is around every corner. The financial world says "have it now, pay the price later." If our needs are not met, we look for greener grass. Oprah, in an episode that I caught this week, even proclaimed that the trend in 2007 and beyond is to redefine and individualize marriage.....have it your way. Wow, have we fallen far from what God intended marriage to be.

Gary Thomas, in his amazingly written book "Sacred Marriage," puts it this way: Marriage is about making you holy. Hmmmmm. Chew on that for a minute. You mean....marriage isn't about meeting my needs? About sexual fulfillment? About a joint bank account and joint accumulation of stuff? No....marriage is about making us more like Christ. It's about filing off the jagged edges. It's about working through the difficult times in order to purify our hearts and minds. That is powerful stuff.

I admire my in-laws for their commitment. I know that my father-in-law would say that after living with him for 50 years, my mother-in-law ought to be about as holy as they get! So the key to a successful and long marriage is Christ-centeredness, but out of that flows several other things that increase the likelihood of success:

• Work hard. Marriage is not automatic. It is hard work most of the time. But the benefits are well worth it.
• Not 50-50.....but 100. You are not opposing parties trying to ensure equity. You are a team, submitting to Christ so that everyone wins.
• Communicate. Men and women are so different in how they perceive human behavior and the world. Add in there the diversity of personal experience and personality, and you have a potentially explosive mix. Keep those lines open every day.
• Play together. Find something that you can do together that you both enjoy. Make it yours.
• Play apart. Keep your individual interests and hobbies alive. Make time to pursue your own interests. Becoming one with another person does not have to mean sacrificing your personal dreams, goals, and interests.
• Date each other. Prioritize time together. This gets harder when you have kids. But I strongly believe that the best gift you could ever give your kids is a healthy and loving marriage, as this gives them a sense of security and safety.
• Realize that there will be times of loneliness in marriage. Where you feel on completely different pages, if not entirely different worlds. Turn to God at these times, and in doing so, you will be turning toward your partner.
• Have a mission statement for your marriage and family. What, in a nutshell, is your marriage about.
• Just....stick....with......it. There is something grand to be said about just honoring your commitment. Do not allow the idea of or the word "divorce" to even enter your vocabulary. God has promised an outflow of blessing to the faithful.
• And in doing so, will come great joy. Will come the richness of blessings that God intended for marriage.

And one more, just for my father-in-law: ALWAYS KEEP A SENSE OF HUMOR! The best man from his wedding, at the open house on Sunday, gave my father-in-law one of those "EASY" buttons. My father-in-law proceeded to hold it against my mother-in-law's back as they danced, with her being unaware. Remember that this life is a journey, we are aliens here, and we need to be able to laugh and maintain God's joy in our circumstances. So is this an appropriate joke for my in-laws?

Nine children later, I'll let you be the judge.

40 years ago.....

..........this photo was taken. A four-year-old boy with his little St. Bernard puppy. What you can't see is that there is a proud Momma dog named Queenie with several more little puppies from the litter. And something else you don't see is that this is just two of the boys....there are four other boys not shown, all from the same parents.

This is a sweet photo of my husband in his boyhood. Before this past weekend, I had never seen this photo. I love its simplicity and warmth. My husband often tells our kids stories about Queenie and her puppies, and Kennedy and Hayden love, love LOVE these stories. So this photo is an extra special tie between generations of our family.

How fitting that I would get this photo on my husband's 44th birthday.

We celebrated my husband today......had a dinner out at the Outback.......cake with candles, that we all (of course) had to help make, decorate, and blow out the candles on. We gave Matt 4 new pillows (he is always complaining about the down pillows that we have...they tend to shed lots of little feathers all over), and a digital photo frame loaded with photos of the kids and us for his office. Happy 44th, Honey! We love you and are always on your side. Thanks for taking care of us and working hard for us and loving us.