The Stingy Seamripper

Hannah Giving Her Son to the Priest (Jan Victors, 1645) A while back, I became intensely interested in Hannah of Old Testament fame.  I can’t remember what initially sparked my interest… I just started thinking about her and couldn’t stop.  It seemed that everywhere I turned, I would see or hear something about Hannah.  I began specifically studying her, which led to a crazy intense study of first and second Samuel over the course of the next 2 years.  I don’t know how many times I went back and reread Hannah’s story. Since then, the Lord showed me why He continued to guide me back to Hannah, which maybe I’ll share about sometime.  I think it’s safe to say that she’s my favorite lady in the Bible and she’ll always have a special place in my heart.  I’ve heard people say, “When I get to Heaven, after I see the Lord, I’m gonna go see so-and-so.” If that notion holds any water at all, then I’ll be going to see Hannah.  She’s my sister of long ago. It’s a familiar story to mos

gratuitous picture of my stompin grounds taken on the day of our special service Hi all... I wanted to share a little with you about the time capsule that we buried at Old Union back in September.  We planned this project over the course of nearly a year and filled it with biographical information of members of the congregation, photographs, historical information, and a lot more.  There are copies of all of those things available for viewing at the church. The day of the service was special and unusual, having our service outside and everyone who wanted to throwing a scoop of dirt in on top of the capsule. One of my favorite parts is the marker that was designed to look like a compass rose and cut from a stone brought from the same area of North Carolina where the first pastor and congregation of Old Union came from.  The marker sits on top of the spot where we buried our time capsule and points to true north, which is symbolic of keeping our focus on th

Hi all, I'm coming out of blog-land obscurity because a day like yesterday had to be documented. Feel free to laugh.  I did. You'll understand the picture later... Here's my adventurous day for your amusement: After our usual school-day proceedings on Thursdays, we scurry into town for MK's speech therapy. We got away later than I meant to (no shock there) and went to Wendy's where, upon attempting to pay, the cashier who had at first failed to notice me because he was chatting with his buddy from across the restaurant swiped my card, looked at it, and asked if I had another card. This, of course, struck panic in my heart until he informed me that my card had just expired. Which I knew, but never activated my new one as I had intended to through the entire month of October. Fortunately, I had cash, so no further angst there. By the time we sat down to eat, we had... oh... 10 minutes to scarf down our food and sprint out the door so as not to be

one of my very favorite moments of 2014 (and all time) It has been nearly a year since I’ve written anything of a personal nature that I cared to publish.  I’ve started several times to write something I hoped might turn into a blogpost, but it never was shareable or even finishable in most cases.  They all turned into these selfish, writhing pity parties that are embarrassing to even reread myself.  Blah.  You’re not missing out, trust me.  At the start of last year, I was so hopeful to “keep better memories.” That was my well-intentioned, silly little resolution for 2014.  I had great plans of taking more pictures, writing more, keeping mementos, and teaching my kids (and me) to savor moments and seek out joy in the everyday.  I bought a little divided tray, which I think I may have mentioned in one of the blogposts that actually happened last January, and intended to sort of catalog each month in that tray.  I bought adorable scrapbooking paper, trimmed it down to size, wrote

It's something I do approximately 2 times per year.  Well, ok... I guess it's technically a lot more times than that, but only for approximately 2 occasions.  Once to put Christmas lights up and once to take them down.  David did the ones "way up" in the eave of our porch (and some of the others in the putting-up process), but due to his angry feet/ankle issues, I do the lion's share of the ladder climbing these days. And before I go any farther... yes, yesterday's date was January 16.  Perhaps some of you are more punctual about removing your outdoor Christmas decor, but I don't mesh well with freezing or rain or gale force winds or any combination thereof, so ye olde twinkle lights... they stayed put way past Christmas and New Years and Epiphany (or whatever the Catholic holiday is some people want to leave their stuff up until).  There's no rhyme or reason to my decoration removal other than, if it's the day after Christmas, I want the inside