10 on the 11th

It's time for my annual Christmas ornament post! This year, here are 10 friends I think about when I look at my Christmas tree:
1. Mendy

When I was little, we lived in Dale City, Virginia, for 5 years. There were a few families at our church who truly became family. Most were military families, but not all. The Barretts lived up the street and around the corner, and to this day I know if I needed anything, they'd be there for me. Mrs. Barrett made ceramics, and made me this kitty when I was 5.
2. Alyssa

We moved from Dale City to San Diego when I was 10. I didn't meet Alyssa until I started going to Spring Valley Jr. High in the 7th grade, but we had most of our classes together and the same hair (except hers was blond). We had some really deep conversations...and some really silly moments! She gave me a surprise going-away party when we moved to Arkansas, and the next summer flew to Arkansas to visit! It was her first time to see lightning bugs and to hear cicadas. And it was also her first time to meet Jesus! She was blessed with lots of artistic talent, which she uses today to teach art to children. She painted this sled for me.
3. Amanda

After my family visited First Baptist Church of Conway for the first time, Amanda and her mom visited us in the duplex we were living in while our house was being built. We sat on the cot I slept on (our furniture was in storage) and got to know each other, and we were practically inseparable from that day on. What fun it was, after living away from Conway for 21 years, to move back for a year and go to Sunday School together again and realize that some friendships never change.
4. Angie

Angie and I lived next door to each other on Flippen First Floor our freshman year in college, and were part of a group of 12 girls who knew how to laugh and cry together. After a campus revival of sorts broke out during Global Focus Week that spring, we bonded together as sisters. The next three years we were roommates, even though she was an RA and could have had a room to herself. Then after she married Charlie and I moved to Fort Worth to teach...she and Charlie moved to Fort Worth for seminary, and ended up joining the church I went to. And a certain Mike Sandusky joined it the year after that. :) It's been fun watching our families grow from opposite sides of the world, but it's even more fun now living an hour away from each other so her family can come have supper and a White Elephant Christmas gift exchange with us. In which I get a yam.
5. Mandy

Another of my Flippen First friends was a frail, small girl with a heart defect. I was always afraid I would break her if I hugged her too hard. She and Sandra became my rides to church every week, and somehow we ended up with this thing of quoting "Have Faith in God" to each other. She had more patience than I did--enough to cross-stitch lots of beautiful things like this. She went to heaven about 15 years ago.
6. Sandra

One more Flippen First friend! We shared a lot of hoped and dreams together. When I lived in Fort Worth and she lived in Little Rock, we took a vacation together to see Laura Ingalls Wilder's home in Missouri, something we'd always wanted to do. I bought this ornament at Silver Dollar City and gave it to Mike, who I had just started dating...secretly hoping I'd get it back someday.
7. Karrry

Karry and I became friends on a mission trip with our Fort Worth church when we discovered (along with another friend, Amy) how this one guy was stringing all of us along with the same lines. Haha--funny thing is, we all stayed friends with him, too! Karry and I ended up rooming together for a couple of years before I married Mike...and I was in her wedding 6 weeks after I had Jessica!
8. Denise

After Mike and I had been married for a year and he graduated from seminary, we moved to Lewiston, Idaho. One of the first things we did was go eat with Tim and Denise, and I hopped up on her kitchen counter and we talked and talked and talked! The 4 of us were instant friends. We always had a Christmas get-together, and were there for the births of all our children, and the deaths of some of our parents. We even sang in church together once, something my husband has never done since! We went on vacation together in San Antonio, and my family stayed with her family when we went back to the Northwest for a wedding/vacation...but I really miss her. I wish she could come see me.
9. Matt and Jackie

Matt was one of our first college students when we moved to Moscow, Idaho, and became a part of our family--especially around our Easter table. He and Mike have a lot in common. We were so happy when he and Jackie started dating...and then got married...and then had little Owen! I can't believe he's over a year old now and I haven't even been able to hold him yet. But I'm SURE his parents tell him we love him...right, Jackie?
10. Kim

Our next-door-neighbors in Moscow became like adopted grandparents to our girls. When we trick-or-treated their house, they had special treat bags for my girls. :) 'Cause they were special. At Easter we would show them the girls in their dresses, and at Christmas, when we took them baked goodies, she gave us stained glass! They were really good neighbors.

When I look at my tree, I see so many ways I am blessed beyond measure.

Kids say the darndest things...

Especially Mikayla! Last year, one of Mikayla's history questions asked: How did the Egyptians use the Nile River.
Mikayla's answer:  Nicely.

I was reminded of this when I read one of her history questions last week: What did Paul Revere and William Dawes ride to warn the town of Concord of?
Mikayla's answer:  Horses.
Guess she missed that last word!

This science homework also made me laugh:

Yes, she got her artistic ability from her mother. Should she get extra credit for Baby Bop?

Finally, look at the sentence Rebecca wrote with her spelling word "pear."

Can you figure out the first sentence? I couldn't. I had to ask. And it says exactly what it looks like, "Jena pear tree."
"Like the song...and a partri jena pear tree!"
:)

Grateful Praise

For the beauty of the earth

For the glory of the skies

For the love which from our birth

Over and around us lies

Lord of all, to Thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I started writing this post a week ago...guess it's time to finish it. :)
I've already had 2 Thanksgivings, and have 2 to go!
Last weekend my Mom, oldest brother, his wife, and about half of his family came to our house for an early Stuart family Thanksgiving. They came Saturday in time for a big dinner with all the fixin's. We ate, watched football, played dominoes, and then everyone spent the night! We had people sleeping everywhere. It was so much fun. They all went to church with us the next day, filling up a pew, and I was so proud of them. One of my choir friends said my nephew Jason looks like me. :)

What do you think? Is it the facial hair?

the spread

Kid table

Tuesday night at BCM our church provided a turkey dinner for our college students, and then we had a share time, when students were invited to tell how God has been working in their lives as well as words of good-bye to the 2 graduating in December. I get teary-eyed every time, especially when the students leaving us are ones we've known since they were freshmen. Hard to believe we've been here that long!
Tomorrow night is our church Thanksgiving meal, another time I always enjoy. This year our missionary speaker is J.P. Manley, whom we worked with in Slovenia. He and the four girls who went with me came over tonight for brisket and catching up, and tomorrow night he'll speak and Mikayla and Rebecca will sing with the children's choir. And I'll take dill green beans and potato salad and be thankful.
Then of course this week is the official Thanksgiving Day. We are spending it in Texas with Mike's family, and all they asked of us was Mike's chicken and dumplings, so it'll be like a day off for me! I will miss 2 of my nieces who have grown up and moved away, but it will be good to see everyone else. What are your plans?

10 on the 10th: Missions Ed. 101

For my Southern Baptist friends, this is the time of year we begin to focus on international missions and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. And my non-Southern Baptist friends, who don’t know Lottie Moon from Goodnight Moon, are thinking about Operation Christmas Child and Compassion International and other ways to give this Christmas season. So in that spirit, here are 10 things I learned on mission trips:

1. Not all missionaries live in grass huts. All the missionaries I have personally visited lived in homes very similar to mine OR in inner city missions.

2, Few other countries put ice in their drinks. And it’s really not that big a deal.

3. Kids are kids are kids. From Ecuador to Houston to Vail to Mozambique, kids like attention and love and playing and having their picture taken.

4. Missions involves hard work. But not always unpleasant, dirty work--sometimes it’s the most fun, most beautiful work you’ve ever done! (Hmm…and sometimes the unpleasant, dirty work could be the most beautiful work you’ve ever done…)

5. Toilets drain in the opposite direction in the southern hemisphere.

6. People appreciate your attempts to speak their language, no matter how bad you are at it.

7. The missionary mealtime prayer ("Lord, I’ll swallow it down if you’ll keep it down") works. Sometimes you just can’t think too hard about what you’re eating or where you’re eating it.

8. Music reaches beyond language barriers.

9. If you feel sick on an airplane, don’t mention it to the flight attendants until after you are in the air. (More explanation of that one can be found here.)

10. Missionaries are real people. The only difference between them and the rest of the body of Christ is where God calls them to serve Him. More times than not, they consider where they live “home,” and it’s right where they most want to be. (They just wish it was easier to visit the US sometimes.) And they come in all shapes and sizes and job descriptions. Whatever skills and talents God has blessed you with can be used to serve Him and build His kingdom, wherever He places you! What a relief to know that He’s in control of all these things, and we can trust Him to work His will in our lives. So His yoke really is easy and His burden really is light!

I’m sure there are some readers out there with more mission experiences than I have, and who are deeper thinkers than I am…so what have you learned on mission trips?

Jesus loves me!

When I went outside this morning to get the newspaper, I saw this as soon as I stepped out from under the carport:

 I told my family God was sending me kisses!

Then Mike took the girls and me up to Crater of Diamonds State Park where we dug for diamonds but ended up with jasper, calcite, agate, and quartz. Along with brisk sunshine and togetherness.

After having our rocks identified, we took a short hike to the Little Missouri River where (among other things) I saw this:

It's heart-shaped! God was showing me His love again! Maybe it was because of the heart-shaped rocks I'd seen in the gift shop, but it gave me an idea I suggested to the girls, and I'd like to share it with you, too. From now on, whenever you see anything heart-shaped in nature--clouds, leaves, rocks, etc.--say to yourself, "God loves me!" Because He really does, and who knows, maybe He put it there for that very reason--to remind you of His love for you.

Psalm 96:13
Let all creation rejoice before the LORD, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness.

Grasping the wind and other thoughts

*We're all busy, and all our kids are growing up in the blink of an eye. I know that. But lately I have felt almost desperate about how time is flying by because of our busy-ness. I want to grab hold of time and make it slow down--make Jessica fit in my lap again, and Mikayla have chubby cheeks and not say her r's, and Rebecca...well, okay, she's still pretty little. :) But instead of slowing down, life just seems to speed up. Jessica will be in high school next year, and Mikayla will be in youth group. Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner. The only day that doesn't seem to sneak up on me is pay day. So I'm trying to savor moments of peace, like our time in Conway a few weekends ago. I sat on the hay ride out to the pumpkin patch as the sun was beginning to set and just breathed. Looked at my beautiful daughters and nieces and the fall colors around me. I hadn't felt so relaxed in a long time.
*I have always loved this time of year. Halloween may not be my favorite holiday, and sometimes I'm even ready for it to be over, but watching Mikayla and Rebecca trick-or-treat the other night, and seeing my neighborhood filled with families roaming door to door just made me happy--gave me a sense of community. (But that didn't keep me from being scornful of the candy beggars who didn't even dress up or say trick-or-treat. If you wanna play, follow the rules.)
*Jessica's Algebra is making both of us pull out our hair. Maybe Mike should take over this subject...
*Tomorrow it will be 10 years since my Dad went to heaven. Sometimes his voice still echoes in my head. And the funniest things make me think of him. For instance, Wednesday night at "prayer meeting" we sang "Softly and Tenderly." Now, my dad was not a music minister but he was the "song leader" at our church in Virginia when I was a kid. And I grinned at the chorus when I heard "O ssssssssssssinner, come home." That always bugged him! He was so much fun. I miss him.
*One of the bad things about being such a sporadic blogger is that I think of things to write when I can't get to the computer, then when I get to the computer I can't think of the things I thought of. So I'll stop now and help Jessica made a pumpkin pie cake. And enjoy the moment.