hellomarylou

So, I just wanted to do a quickie post to document a tiny bit of my tiny bit of  Christmas decor.  We skipped the tree this year and did something a bit different.

Ehh….those walls are gray, but they look quite green in this photo.

Strings of lights and glass balls hanging above our heads…..I’m just thankful we haven’t broken any!

Here’s an aeriel view….my sister stood on my shoulders to get this shot. Just kidding.

Delightfully simple nativity set….a wedding gift that keeps on giving!

Why yes…I’ve even decorated my laundry room. This is what you do with a glass container from your MIL, extra ornaments, and a short string of lights. It was set rather precariously on top of an overturned basket and has since been moved to my kitchen counter.

“Light of the world, You stepped out into darkness….”  I love “hand” art.

The Incarnation, God becoming man, is what most amazes me every year. When we celebrate Christmas today there’s so much music, festivity, feasting, rejoicing, and opulent displays of decor. And the past few days I’ve been thinking more than ever about what it might be like to leave a celestial home and body and come to this earth. Where you are bound to experience most of the following:

1. dirt under your nails

2. getting your thumb smashed by a hammer

3. burping, sneezing, coughing, and lots of other fun bodily functions

4. torn relationships

5. aching muscles/bones

6. the limits of gravity

And I’m sure you could add lots more to that list. But He CAME……from His Father’s right hand and everything He had ever experienced or known or felt….and joined our human experience. He was God and He walked among us! The humility of that act astounds me. I have so much pride in my heart at times………there was a part of me that did not want to share these pictures of my mobile home living room. And of course I had to run around like a crazy person for  a few minutes picking up all the clutter so that I could try to fool you into thinking that this is the condition you would find my living room in should you drop by un-announced.  But really, who do I think I am and from what throne am I descending?!

Do you know how much He loves you? Do you know how far He traveled to make sure you know it? How can we do anything but RUN….run towards  such a wild and crazy love? He is madly, passionately in love with us. He’s committed to being with us for eternity; He offers us redemption when we’ve done nothing to deserve it. Celebrate Him!

One final note…

My favorite song this season is Panis Angelicus. Unbelievably beautiful. Barlow Girl does  a gorgeous version that I tried to upload but could not. I’ll post the words below and hope that you can find the song and listen to it yourself. Have a blessed Christmas!

Latin:

Panis angelicus

fit panis hominum;

Dat panis coelicus

figuris terminum:

O res mirabilis!

Manducat Dominum.

Pauper, servus et humilis.

Te trina Deitas

unaque poscimus:

Sic nos tu visita,

sicut te colimus;

Per tuas semitas

duc nos quo tendimus,

Ad lucem quam inhabitas.

Amen.

English:

The angelic bread

becomes the bread of men;

The heavenly bread

ends all prefigurations

What wonder!

consumes the Lord

a poor and humble servant.

Triune God,

We beg of you,

that you visit us,

as we worship you.

By your ways,

lead us who seek

the light in which you dwell.

Amen.

“Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.” -Samuel Ullman

As a stay at home wife it’s easy sometimes to let the days just meander past you as you stumble around aimlessly in your pj’s ’til one in the afternoon. (not that that’s ever happened to me!) Somewhere between drifting from blog to blog to blog online (I hate the internet, I love the internet) and turning on the tv too much I realize the day has passed me by and my list of accomplishments and world-changing endeavors is drastically shorter than I had imagined. I know this is the first time in my life since I was like about…13ish that I haven’t been at work, holding down a job. So, I give myself a little break…but its been more than a little break now, and I apologize to all you moms out there who are probably wondering WHAT my problem is.

My sanguinity does not help in the matter, as I take up new experiences (like being a full-time housewife) with great enthusiasm and then fizzle out in great boredom long before something becomes a serious habit. The flip side of this weakness is not being able to hold a grudge or stay mad at someone very long; I just get bored with all the animosity and forgive and move on. But lo, I’m trying to confess my weaknesses here today. I have moments of brilliance (like the day I TOTALLY re-did David’s office in one day) but my consistency of schedule in most areas of household duties is sketchy at best.

I think there are a number of different reasons for the lethargy I’ve been feeling but I think a lot of it is a mental game, what I spend my time thinking about. I know its good to be informed of the news of the day….but when the news of the day is mostly corruption, crime, and sin, it has a way of getting you down subconsciously.

And so….in the next few days/weeks I’m going to endeavor to live with ENTHUSIASM, to PURPOSEFULLY go throughout my day. This is not just about becoming a working machine, it’s about THINKING with purpose, actively living in the HAPPY TRUTH that the Creator of the universe loves ME, and He pursues me with His great love everyday! What kind of response does that warrant from me?

Two verses:

“And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” Phil. 4:8

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.” Ecc. 9:10

And lastly, this lovely poem I found when searching for the opening quote on this post:

“Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips, and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.

Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity of the appetite, for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of sixty more than a body of twenty. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.

Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust.

Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing child-like appetite of what’s next, and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station; so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from the Infinite, so long are you young.

When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at twenty, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch the waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at eighty.” Samuel Ullman

Live and THINK with purpose and ENTHUSIASM!

photo by d. kauffman

Here’s a fun little excercise I found on THIS lovely blog.  I’d love to hear your answers to this question:

If life were a movie, which movie would you want to live in?

For me this a very difficult question, being a person who falls in love so quickly with so many things, and often so many things at once! But I’ll try to keep it within my TOP 5. This is not neccasarily a list of my TOP5 favorite movies; the Lord of the Rings trilogy is my favorite EVER but I don’t really want to live in it. Except maybe in the Shire…I’d no longer have to be so self concious of my hairy feet! (TOTALLY kidding) This is merely a list of times/places/moments in movies I would love to experience.

5. PENELOPE

This modern day fairy tale captured my heart from the very beginning. This movie is made so beautifully it left me swooning about the colors in it for weeks. If there is a baby nursery in my future its decor will be inspired by Penelope’s room……no pastels for my poor baby! But most of all, I love the message of loving and accepting ourselves the way we ARE, and not striving for the approval of a world whose ideals of beauty change with the wind.

4. THE PATRIOT

Seriously, how exciting and yes, how difficult, would it have been to be alive during the American Revolution? Imagine all the hopes, all the dreams, the weariness, the possibility, the tragedy, the honor you would have experienced in those days.  Thanks to the sacrifices made by our founding fathers and the men and women who surrounded them, we are still free to experience all those things today.

3. ANNE OF GREEN GABLES

Anne : Don’t you ever imagine things differently from what they are?
Marilla : No.
Anne : Oh Marilla, how much you miss.

Anne is fully caught up in the drama and reality of today, with the mischief she gets into and in her interactions with other people; at the same time she can be easily swept away by her imagination to a far off “better” place and is quite comfortable just being by herself. She dreams of all that COULD be….however impossible it seems to be. I can relate to all of that.

2. MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

If I could count the times I’ve watched this…..oh my. I admit, I love the witty character named Beatrice. Seeing the difference between her and Benedict’s relationship and that of Hero and Claudio left an impression on me from a young age. I definitely preferred the former. And I have it with my husband…in a manner of speaking. This movie is everything a Shakespear film should be. And who doesn’t want to live in HIS imagination?!

1. Chocolat

I can’t really find words to describe this one.  I want to learn to be hospitable the way Vianne is in this film. I want to learn to expect the best in people instead of judging harshly by whatever my first impression of them is. I want to throw dinner parties like Vianne does. I want to serve chocolate gravy over chicken. I want to NOT conform to what organized religion expects of me; I want to pursue being who my Creator calls me to be, and to use the gifts and talents He’s given me to bless others. I want to NOT be so absorbed by own expectations and needs that I fail to see the needs of those around me.  And on entirely different note….Vianne, the main character in this film always reminds me of my oldest sister Celesta.

BONUS ROUND! Just about every Jane Austen movie ever! (I just could not resist!)

Ladies, you understand, no?

Its not Monday anymore but I’ll post this anyway. Tomorrow morning I’ll probably wake up and think of 5 other films I’d like to live in more than these. I totally “winged” it on this one…just wrote about 5 films that have inspired me and that came to mind when I thought about this question. What film would you like to live in? Do tell!