Girl Scout Cookie time

We have received our 2009 order of Girl Scout cookies. Love those sinful morsels. I was a Girl Scout for 8 years. I'm a sucker for a Girl Scout selling cookies. (note: my husband will tell you that I'm a sucker for almost any kid selling anything, but particularly on GS cookies, willpower = zero!) We ordered five different flavors this year. Always 2 Caramel deLites for T. Always. Always Thin Mints. Always Shortbread. And then, a couple of whatever sounds good at the moment.

So, in honor of Girl Scout cookies, and because it's been a good ol' long while since there's been a quiz at ProneToWander, enjoy figuring out which cookie you are...

You Are Thin Mints

You are bold and brave. You dare to be different, and you are confident about who you are. Your fearlessness has paid off. You are extremely well liked and popular. You are charismatic and charming without even trying to be. People appreciate your unique take on life. You are willing to take risks, speak your mind, and live life to the fullest.

What Girl Scout Cookie Are You?

Writer's Workshop- A to Z poetry

MamaKat at Mama's Losin' It has issued her weekly writing assignment prompts.

My choice this week?
Write a 26-line poem using all the letters of the alphabet, where the first line starts with the letter "A," the second "B," the third "C," etc., culminating with the final line starting with "Z."

I do love A to Z lists. For several years, I have been writing our Christmas letter in A to Z format. Poetry? That's a new challenge.

On a Thursday Morning.

Awake later than I would like,
Beginning the day with the Word and
Coffee

Daybreak dawns,
Evening seems
Far away.

Girls wander to my bedroom,
Hoping to watch the weather report,
Indignant that rain clouds the forecast.

Jump into the shower,
Keeping an eye on the clock,
Lingering not allowed today.

Make haste to pick up a lady
Needing a ride to the hospital for
Outpatient surgery today.

Parenting a toddler,
Quickly chasing,
Running down the halls.

Stop to pick up daughter,
Time for basketball practice,
Umbrella might be necessary.

Van returns home.
Welcomed with rice for lunch,
eXceedingly capable daughter serves.

Yearning to glorify Him,
Zealous for what is next.

Interfere?

from CNN.com, on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's recent trip to China-

The headline: "Chinese human rights can't interfere with other crises"

"The United States will continue to press China on issues such as Tibet, Taiwan and human rights, she told reporters accompanying her.

"Successive administrations and Chinese governments have been poised back and forth on these issues, and we have to continue to press them. But our pressing on those issues can't interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis, and the security crisis," she told reporters in Seoul, South Korea."

Chinese Christians continue to be jailed and are subject to human rights abuses while imprisoned.

China remains near the top of the Open Doors World Watch list in regards to the world wide persecuted church.

No. We wouldn't want protecting human rights to interfere...

(photo credit: me! taken at the Temple of Heaven in early March 2008)

Psalm 99

I love playing with Wordle.
I found these three small words in Psalm 99 this morning- "Holy is He," it reads, more than once.
But in Wordle, think about it-
Holy is He.
He is Holy.
Holy He is.

Is He Holy?
absolutely.

Simple

FOR TODAY, Monday, February 23, 2009...

Outside my window... the pastel palette of sunrise

I am thinking... of the wonder of the weekend past.

I am thankful for... this bit of truth from Psalm 94 this morning- "if the Lord had not been my help, my soul would soon have dwelt in the abode of silence. If I should say, "My foot has slipped," Thy lovingkindness, O Lord, will hold me up."

From the learning rooms... back to school today after a day off Friday, planning for the month ahead.

From the kitchen... for dinner tonight, Thai Green Curry Simmer Sauce from Trader Joe's.

I am wearing... a long sleeve Life is Good t-shirt and pajama pants, for another few minutes, anyway...

I am creating... order, as we pick up the pile of sleeping bags, pillows, and bags that we left at the front door when we stumbled in last night.

I am going... to the library drop box today, to turn in overdue books that didn't make it last week.

I am reading... All Things for Good by Thomas Watson- two chapters and two mornings to go.

I am hoping... for a good turn-out at ESL classes this evening.

I am hearing... my daughter turn the pages of the newspaper comics, my son talk to himself about the sports page, the upstairs radio mumble at my husband.

Around the house... children begin to stir, preparations for the day ahead begin.

One of my favorite things... the quiet and still of the break of day.

A few plans for the rest of the week: normal life at home- school, service, sports...

Here is picture thought I am sharing... the view from my seat typing at the dining room table, an attempt to capture the brightness of dawn through my front windows facing east.

Take time to check out other Simple Woman Daybook entries...

and try it yourself!

Wordful Wednesday- 10!

It's Wordful Wednesday!

My twins are 10.
10 years old!
A decade!

When we had one very little girl, a cranky little baby, but absolutely a genius first born in the eyes of her parents :-), I thought I knew a lot. Then we had a very chubby and extremely content little boy, and I thought “NOW I know everything! A girl. Fussy, sleeps rarely. A boy. Happy, sleeps and eats.” And then I had number 3, and if it is possible for there to be yet another 180 degrees of difference, it was that little girl. “OK! NOW we’ve seen it all!” That was about the time I received the biggest and most unexpected surprise of my life. I was at a standard 17 week ultrasound appointment when a friendly radiology tech told me, “Your husband is going to be surprised when you tell him that you are having twins.” TWINS! “OK Lord! I surrender! I confess I don’t know a thing!”

I am convinced that parenting is the ultimate example of the old adage, "the more you know, the more you realize you don't know." But I do know that God is good. I do know that my children, and these two girls that arrived in a span of 8 minutes, are our delight. These two girls make me laugh every single day. They love each other like an old married couple. They love others selflessly. And their dad and I absolutely rejoice at watching them grow.

Happy double digits girls!

Click over to SevenClownCircus for more Wordful Wednesday posts...

Teaser Tuesday

From ShouldBeReading-
TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:
Grab your current read.
Let the book fall open to a random page.
Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
Please avoid spoilers!

I have, hmmm?, four? books going right now?
I'm going to share "teasers" from the two that will take the longest to complete.

In the evenings after dinner as a read-aloud with my family, we are reading Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome. It was a gift from a friend- and we are loving it. It is a great read-aloud for a family! A tease...

"Roger and I pulled her right up," said Titty. "She couldn't have drifted off."
"Spread out again," said Captain John. "Then listen. Advance as soon as the mate blows her whistle. A hoot like an owl means all right. Three hoots means something's up. Blow as soon as you're ready, Mister Mate." p. 111

Slowlyslowlyslowly, I am reading War and Peace, yes, THAT War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, with a friend. We decided to conquer something big this year. W&P is big, 1273 pages of bigness. I'm barely started- we are to finish Volume One, Part One on March 1. But I'm excited to be doing it. Slowly. A tease...

"Prince Andrei held her hand, looked into her eyes, and did not find the former love for her in his soul. Something suddenly turned over in his soul; the former poetic and mysterious delight of desire was not there, but there was pity for her woman's and child's weakness, there was fear before her devotion and trust, a heavy but at the same time joyful consciousness of duty that bound him to her forever..." p. 479

What are you reading?

...For those who love God

Love is not only full of benevolence, but beneficence. Love which enlarges the heart never straitens the hand. He that loves Christ will be liberal to His members. He will be eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. The backs and bellies of the poor shall be the furrows where he sows the golden seeds of liberality. Some say they love God, but their love is lame of one hand, they give nothing to good uses. Indeed faith deals with invisibles, but God hates that love which is invisible. Love is like new wine, which will have vent; it vents itself in good works.

Thomas Watson, All Things for Good

for Valentine's- on marriage

from Russ Ramsey, at The Rabbit Room:

"But there is only one human relationship we come know in life that is meant by God to defy this pattern—the marriage relationship. This one is meant to be intimate in affection, proximity and purpose until death itself separates you. Though the people in your lives change, in marriage you are given a gift from God of incredible worth—a sworn partner for life. That’s what we promise at the altar, anyway.

When the Puritans used to talk of marriage, they’d say you got married in order to fall in love. Their thinking went a little like this: how could a man and woman possibly hope to really know the wonder, joy and depth of real love—the kind where you are truly loved and truly known at the same time— without sharing in the waking and the sleeping, in the ordinary and the extraordinary, in the comedy and the tragedy? Without marriage?"

Read the entire piece here.

(photo credit- Wayne Leal Relief Sculpture)

Writer's Workshop- Five Favorite Things

One of the prompts this week at Mama's Losin' It's Writer's Workshop:

List your five most recent favorite things:

I was hoping that I'd have a reason to write about these things, five of my most recent favorite things.

1. Tul Pens-
Not just ANY ol' Tul pen. My favorite is the Gel Retractable Rollerball 0.5mm fine point black ink.
I realize that makes me sound extremely high maintance. Generally I'm not. Except about pens. I really struggle with bad pens. These are good pens. My son wanted to take one to Latin class on Tuesday, and I had him sign a contract pledging to bring it back or, or, or... well, I never got to what but he knew it would be bad. He brought the pen back. phew.


2. Moleskine journals- This is not really a recent favorite thing. I found these over a year ago. But, I don't want to live without them. I keep this with my Bible for morning notes and thoughts and prayer. It is the perfect size. It is tough. The paper is lovely(especially with the #1 pen). They come in a pack of three, which lasts me several months and means I can have one stashed away for an emergency. I am so unabashed in my devotion to Moleskine that I give them as gifts. You need a Moleskine too. You do.

3. William Hendricksen's New Testament Commentary on Colossians-
My church recently purchased the Hendricksen's 12 volume commentary on the New Testament. And I'm sure that the entire set is just fine, but I'm partial to the book that includes Colossians because I'm teaching a Sunday School class on Colossians right now and Hendricksen makes that work much more clear. Thank you Mr. Hendricksen!

4. Whole Foods 365 Shower Gel-
I looked all over for a picture, but alas. None.
This is good stuff. I like the lavender and the citrus the best. My girls like mint, but the shower experience reminds me of my sister's favorite ice cream. And, bonus, it's cheap. A fat 32 oz. bottle is less than $5, and a couple of pumps on your bath scrunchie thing will do ya. So a bottle lasts a while, which is important when 6 people share a shower. (well, USE the same shower, not SHARE the shower all at once...!!!)

5. Dove Rich Dark Chocolate Covered Almonds- (you did not think that I'd finish a list of my favorite things without some form of dark chocolate...!)
Oh these little things. I found them wasting time waiting for a friend at WalMart late one night.
Dark chocolate morsels of rich and crunchy goodness.
mmmmmmm.

Thanks, MamaKat, for the chance to tell you all about five of my most recent favorite things! Go to Mama's Losin' It to see what others are writing about this week!

More battles to fight

"I grew up with a great love for reading history, and I used to wonder, How would I have fared in the great moral struggles of the past? Would I have been on the right side? Would I have acted with courage? Would I have made my grandchildren proud?

Would I have been a supporter and confidant of William Wilberforce and his Clapham sect in fighting the British slave trade, or would I have been part of the detached and oblivious middle-class masses who said and did nothing?

Would I have stood shoulder to shoulder with Harriet Tubman in secreting slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad, or would I have been left flatfooted with apathy, moral neutrality, or fear?

Would I have walked with Dietrich Bonhoeffer in a journey of costly discipleship during the Nazi era in Europe, and would I have been known as a righteous Gentile during the Holocaust? Or would I have been immobilized by confusion and fright, or perhaps preoccupied with smaller things?

In many respects such speculation feels idle. Who knows what we would have done?

Besides, it feels as history has perhaps passed us by. The great struggles of good and evil, right and wrong, seem to be of a bygone era. All the great and heroic battles have already been fought, haven't they? In the twenty-first century we are left only petty battles in gray areas, certainly nothing our grandchildren will ask us about. Right?"

from Terrify No More by Gary Haugen, with Gregg Hunter

Wrong.

Those great and heroic battles are still being fought, by courageous and determined people like these, around the world.

Lord, make me a solider.

Wordful Wednesday- International Dinner

This weeks edition of Wordful Wednesday features photos from the ESL International Dinner on Monday. Notice "photos"- as in more than one. I couldn't decide on one!

Food- delicious food! Homemade tamales and frijoles and posole from our Hispanic friends. Potato chaps (say: "chop") from our Nepalese friend. A rice dish from Colombia. Chinese noodles. Meatballs. Icelandic cake (from a staff member from Norway!). Apple pie.

Friends- lots of friends. Here you'll see a couple members of my family- the gringos in the pictures. Two friends from Mexico played accordion and guitar. We have grandmas and toddlers and everyone in between. We have students from 7 or 8 countries. Including our staff, we have 5 continents represented.

So we feasted and fellowshipped and then went off to class- a good Monday night.
Good for a Wordful Wednesday!

K game

Thanks to Krikoma for a fun Tuesday game...

Rules: It's harder than it looks! (but not TOO hard!)
Copy, erase my answers, enter yours, use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions.
They have to be real . . . nothing made up! You cannot use any word twice and you can't use your name for the boy/girl name question.
Have Fun!
(thanks to my kids for helping!)

1. What is your name: Kristy
2. A four letter word: kick
3. A boy's name: Kurt
4. A girl's name: Kim
5. An occupation: Kite-fighter
6. A color: khaki
7. Something you wear: knickers
8. A food: kabobs
9. Something found in the bathroom: kids
10. A place: Kentucky
11. A reason for being late: knitting
12. Something you shout: Keilah!! :-)
13. A movie title: Kung Fu Panda
14. Something you drink: Kool-aid (well, actually, I don't drink it...)
15. A musical group: Kansas
16. An animal: Kangaroo
17. A street name: Klicitat Street (where Henry Huggins and Beezus and Ramona Quimby live)
18. A type of car: Kia (yawn!)
19. The title of a song: "Kiss Da Girl" (from the Little Mermaid)
20. Place you would like to visit: Kenya

Now you try!

(Photo credit to Elpster)

Keeps me giggling

I saw this video last week and it kept me and my kids giggling all day long.
It's a little on the long side, but I promise, it's worth it!

Enjoy!

(giggle credit to Rachael at Over the Ord and Back and to Tara at Considerable Grace)

Daybook

FOR TODAY, Monday February 9, 2009...

Outside my window... bright sun, especially delightful after a morning of wind and rain.
I am thinking... I need to get started on cooking.
I am thankful for... the hope of spring ahead!
From the learning rooms... 2Samuel, The Raven, the trans-continental railroad.
From the kitchen... pizza cooking.
I am wearing... blue jeans, a long sleeve coral tshirt and an ivory cardigan.
My kids are creating... Valentines for their friends and teammates and boxes to collect them in.
I am going... to ESL tonight. We are having an International Dinner before class time.
I am reading... All Things for Good by Thomas Watson, and a couple of others.
I am hoping... there's enough food for dinner tonight.
I am hearing... my kids chatter, the wind blow, the dog squeak toy.
Around the house... we could use some serious picking up of clutter!
One of my favorite things... my bed (I crawled back into it for a short time this morning...).
A few plans for the rest of the week: sports practices, Wednesday night at church, Valentines party and exchange for the girls, dinner out on Friday night...
Here is picture thought I am sharing... this is a shot of the rain and gloom on the way to piano lessons this morning, which give an idea of how beautiful the current blue skies are.

(photo credit to the passenger side photog, k.)

Be sure to visit The Simple Woman's Daybook to see what others are ing-ing today...

Marriage is

From This Momentary Marriage by John Piper:

Reflecting on his forty years of matrimony, Piper explains:

Most foundationally, marriage is the doing of God. And ultimately, marriage is the display of God. It displays the covenant-keeping love between Christ and his people to the world in a way that no other event or institution does. Marriage, therefore, is not mainly about being in love. It’s mainly about telling the truth with our lives. And staying married is not about staying in love. It is about keeping covenant and putting the glory of Christ’s covenant-keeping love on display.

“If you are married, this is why,” says Piper. “If you hope to be, this should be your dream.”

(photo credit to Box of Light at Flickr, and the story with the photo is very sweet indeed)

7 Quick Takes

1. Current temperature- 59F! I am wearing no socks! And I'm not cold! (& it's still February, so every single exclamation point is justified... :-)

2. Yesterday I received a letter from this group notifiying me that I am "a potential candidate to represent the professional and business community" of my town. Huh?

It did make my entire family laugh out loud, however...

3. Our new fish, Finneas, jumped loose when S. was moving him to clean the bowl today. And then, when I went to scoop him off the table, he flipped off and slid down the wall. And amazingly, survived! Bet that experience raised his little piscatorial heart beat.

4. We bought these daisies today at Whole Foods. We love daises. We love Whole Foods. If there is a Whole Foods near you, go here to enter to win flowers for a year. (& if there isn't WF near you, and you know who you are..., take consolation that you do have the beach...)

5. I'm reading A Year in the World: Journeys of a Passionate Traveler. A friend asked why? It's the closest I'm getting to warm weather exotic travel right now...

6. Today the newspaper reviewed this restaurant, that is near my neighborhood. I am ready to go.

7. This week, I've been mourning and praying for a family going through a tremendous amount of suffering. Here is hope for a time of immense sorrow-

We went through fire and through water;

Yet Thou didst bring us out into a place of abundance.

Psalm 66:12

Be sure to check out Conversion Diary to see other quick takes this week.

Global Warning Protest

This photo was sent to me under the heading "Hundreds Attend Global Warming Protest".

:-)

Personally, I've been cold this winter. I'm thankful for the local weekend forecast, which does include warming, all the way up to 50F!

(photo credit to my friend Sandy, always the source of a good chuckle!)

Hope

Sometimes when I'm lonely,
Don't know why,
Keep thinkin' I won't be lonely
By and by.

Hope by Langston Hughes

in the morning

But as for me, I shall sing of Thy strength;

Yes, I shall joyfully sing of Thy lovingkindness in the morning,

For Thou hast been my stronghold,

And a refuge in the day of my distress.

O my strength, I will sing praises to Thee;

For God is my stronghold, the God who shows lovingkindness.

Psalm 59:16-17

(photo credit to barbarachebet)