Here's a reasoned reminder that we can pray for God to protect our children, but our prayers do not obligate or constrain Him. Many of us want to trust God, but we want some sort of guarantee in exchange for the trust. 

And that's not trust.

It was a strange weekend. San Antonio got hit with a freak 3/4" snowfall on Thursday, which would have been very welcome under normal circumstances (well, there's nothing normal about snow here)...but the precipitation and the icy air ruined all Nathan's BMT graduation activities AND made it impossible for all the north Texas and Oklahoma family to get here to see him before he leaves for Mississippi tomorrow morning. Nevertheless, we partied as hard as we could with the San Antonio crowd and we LOVED having Nathan at the house for two days. What we failed to do was to get many good pictures, but we'll make sure we remedy that on the next visit.

Too bad he couldn't have hung around for the Super Bowl...we've had a good time watching the game and playing Super Bowl Bingo with all the commercials! (The game ended well.)

The Papa missed most of the game as well, since he's once again in the Islands and made it to his hotel room just in time to catch the 4th quarter.

Yep, that's a snowball in my freezer. Who put that there?

Happy to see that Planned Parenthood is again getting some of the press they deserve. Shocked, they say. "We were profoundly shocked when we viewed the videotape released this morning, which depicted an employee of one of our health centers behaving in a repugnant manner that is inconsistent with our standards of care and is completely unacceptable." Uh...right. The whole organization is built on repugnance.

Is it just me, or has Hillary been looking REALLY tired lately? I don't think she could wake UP to a 3am phone call, do you?

Can you OD on corn dogs? Okay, just wondering.

And wouldn't this be wonderful. (But if you think your LAST flu shot made you sick...)

Did I mention that this week I ate the World's Best Fried Chicken Livers? Yeah, well I knew you'd want to know, even if you're glad that I ate them and you didn't have to. My brother definitely got whatever cooking genes were to be had in our end of the pool.

And this month...another one of our kids starts driver training. How many more times do we have to get to do this? It's not having young drivers that I mind...it's the stupid state laws that change every three weeks so you can never be sure of what they're going to ask for this time.

Ummm...is there a mute button on Ron Reagan? Just checking.

Tomorrow: Sourdough Banana Bread. Definitely gotta use these bananas. 

If you're reading One Thousand Gifts, you'll understand: this week I want to make progress in living eucharisteo.

Have a great week, y'all!

Oklahoma is OK!

I'm sitting here on a Sunday morning with my feet up, snug in my warm house in this, for south Texas, very cold winter. Difficulty with my leg has kept me in and away from church this morning and I'm missing it, but thankful for a comfy place to sit and for shelter from the cold wind. I've used the time to get started on the week's memory work (see left sidebar) since this is an 8-verse week. I love being in the house of God to worship with His people, but His word speaks to me whenever and wherever I'm listening. That's a good thing.

It's my first son-in-law's birthday today, and we're celebrating with a steak and baked potato dinner this evening, just before his beloved Steelers meet the Jets for the AFC championship. Sure hope his birthday ends well for him...Happy birthday, Dirk! May it be a fabulous decade ;-)

In less than two weeks, Nathan will graduate from Air Force basic training. We're all looking forward to celebrating with him the weekend of Feb. 4-6 before he flies off to the next phase of his training at Keesler AFB, Mississippi. He's had a lot of ups and downs and is very anxious to have this part behind him.

Isn't it interesting that most of the buzz about Tuesday night's State of the Union speech has more to do with who will be sitting next to whom than about the real state of the union. I'm wondering if they'll figure out some way to clap using one hand from a Dem and one from a GOP'er. Now THAT would be union. Or not.

Did you get your copy of One Thousand Gifts this week? Wow. What a God we serve.

I'm taking a trip this week! I'm going to head up to Fort Worth on Thursday, spend a night with the Slaughter elves and see my brothers, and then on up to visit sweet CJ at her new Oklahoma home that I haven't ever seen yet! Capping that off, she and I will have lunch with a blog friend in OKC before I head home on Monday. I can hardly wait. I'm not usually an early packer, but I think I'll start right now!

Firewood is my friend. A very good friend.

I complained so much about my Dell printer for so long that I thought I should tell you that after more than a year with my Canon, I still LOVE it. Get one. However, always looking to the horizon, I'm eagerly awaiting the availability of this. You can see it in action here. Incredible.

My cello playing is coming along nicely. I think I'm going to look for a teacher :-)

Throwback to the past: this week I ordered some Avon Skin-So-Soft. My grandmother would be proud. Her Avon lady was her BFF.

Hope it's a great week for you. I'll see you when I get back from Oklahoma!

It's been the week of winter here. Five days out of the last seven we've had day-long fires in the fireplace, and that's never happened in the nearly ten years we've lived here. Wish I knew what I could do to make it stay...

If I were a victim or the relative of a victim of last weekend's shooting in Tucson, I would feel victimized all over again by the way the debate morphed into something it was never about.

I've plugged it on Facebook but I must do it here, too. Please, go see The King's Speech. It's easily the best film I've seen in a decade, and I'll be seeing it again. I'll probably even buy it. Please don't be deterred by the inexplicable R rating...I can't get my head around why PG-13 movies can be so raunchy and yet this beautiful, wholesome movie where everyone keeps their clothes on and which explores so many lovely themes should be scarred with an R rating for the utterance of some curse words that are important to the story. Take your kids 12 and up, or at least wait for the DVD and watch it as a family.

How about them Spurs? San Antonio NBA fans are in heaven about now, so proud of our guys!

I'll be rooting for the Steelers and the Packers next week...and after that my son-in-law will have to put up with family rivalry: If it's the Packers and the Steelers in the Super Bowl, I'll be wearing a cheesehead  :-)

I guess you saw the most disgusting news of the week?

Got plane tickets for my trip to see the Weltys at the end of February. Can I put in an order for a long winter there??

In books: Enjoying the very moving, heartrending Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi, and still working my way through the quite lengthy but delicious Some Sing, Some Cry (Ntozake Shange, Ifa Bayeza) in the audio version. Hoping to get through both of them this week because I have books piling up like crazy!

I just love fried chicken livers and cream gravy. It's a throwback to my childhood, one I've never gotten over. There aren't many places you can still get them, and making them at home is messy and unpleasant. This is just one of the reasons I still love Cracker Barrel. If there were one next door I'd be eating there three times a week. When I have done long stints in the hospital, John has kept me sane and nourished by bringing me a take-out meal of chicken livers from CB now and then. Anyone in the San Antonio area know of other places that are still serving them?

It's just my luck, of course, to buy a dishwasher and pay for a four year extended warranty and then really hate the thing. As bad as my luck is with appliances, I'm sure this one will NEVER break. Why, then, do I hate it? Because the inside is so small and the loading configuration so bad that we need to run it four times a day instead of two. Thinking about trying to sell it on Craigslist. To a small family.

My Scripture memory project is going well and has been a blessing I couldn't have anticipated. As I mentioned before, it's been a very long time since I committed a large chunk to memory and I've been nervous about how much I could really do. But even if I don't get much farther than this it's already contributed a treasure to my life that can't be taken away...

Anxiously anticipating the arrival of Ann Voskamp's new book, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are. I don't think it's one I will be reading quickly. Soon, but not quickly. [I just now checked, and mine is due to arrive on Thursday!]

Hoping you are living fully right where you are today...have a great week.

It was wonderful to sing all the verses of "How Firm a Foundation" in worship this morning...what a great beginning to a new year, singing about the foundation laid for us by God in His word. And then The Papa preached a fine sermon on "holding fast the word of life" from Philippians 2. It's a Happy DayAfterNewYear's!

And how good it was to have CJ (Tony had to drive back this morning) and Kristen and Dave and family with us in church. If Aubrey hadn't broken her foot this week she'd have been with us this morning, too, but she's being carefully tended at home to make sure that the multiple fractures heal properly...

I'm wondering...can we have a Christmas do-over now that the weather has turned [somewhat] cold? 

The Fighting Irish might have just barely managed a winning season, but they didn't have too much trouble showing the Miami Hurricanes who was boss in the Sun Bowl on Friday. Way ta go, ND!

And what about them Horned Frogs, huh? I know, I'm almost embarrassed writing their name...I'm thinkin' that now they've hit the big time they might need to reconsider that.

Notice how the traffic has already thinned out?

Crying and singing my way through Some Sing, Some Cry. Do get the audio version...this book is full of several dialects, songs, and ethnic characters and it's very much enriched by the fabulous narrator, helping me to process things I know I'd miss if just reading it.

Nathan is beginning his fourth week in Basic Training. He sounded tired when he called Friday, but things are going well and he's being challenged to the max!

Waiting to see how the effort for the repeal of Health Care Reform Destruction fares. I don't think it has much of a chance but it will certainly require that each congressman clearly flies a flag and goes on record, and that may be almost as important right now as repeal. Later, they can worry about starving it bit by bit. Either way, I think the cat will be skinned.

Come on now, the crab dip is GONE? ALL OF IT?

By tomorrow all the holiday visitors to Granny's House will be gone, as well as some of the normal occupants who are heading north today to visit CJ and Tony's new home in Oklahoma. It's going to be awfully quiet here!

I don't make a list of New Year's resolutions each year, but some years I do, and this is one of those years. I'll spare you my entire list, but two of the most formidable: 

First, I've committed to memorizing the entire book of Philippians with the goal of completing it by Easter. It's been a very long time since I've done any lengthy memory work, so this will be a serious challenge to my aging mind. But I don't think there's any age limit to the command to hide God's Word in my heart. I'm attempting this with the support and company of many others...you can find out about the Partnering to Remember (P2R) project (and get started yourself) at Tim Brister's site. You can also follow the P2R project on Facebook and Twitter.

Well, I think it's been long enough since I blogged...there's been too much IRL to do and I haven't had time to sit and write. But what that means is that the hours have been filled with fun tasks, visiting with family, and traveling, and I'm more than okay with that!

Our family has had a memorable Christmas already, and there's still more to come. We returned to San Antonio today with the Slaughters and the Longenbaughs, and we'll share our gifts tomorrow night and then bake Christmas New Year's cookies on Thursday with an army of children. Then Friday night we'll celebrate David's 13th birthday and have a New Year's Eve bonfire, providing our county escapes a burn ban with the current rain. And of course we'll have a mountain of snacks and drinks and a smidgen of champagne!

We miss Nathan and the Weltys and look forward to the next time we're ALL together.

Well, here we are at Christmas week. The last Sunday of Advent, and a beautiful one it was in the Lord's house. Praise Him for beautiful music, meaningful communion, sweet baptism, the Word preached powerfully, and the loving family of God worshiping together...

Nathan has now been in AF Basic Training for two full weeks. We miss him but are so proud of his commitment and his willingness to serve our country in this way while he finishes his education. We've talked to him twice, but only briefly, and not enough to get many details about his days. We're hoping to get some mail this week and/or another phone call. If you'd like to write to him, his address is:

AB Warren, Nathan J.
320 TRS / Flt 129 (Dorm A-4)
1320 Truemper St. Unit 364028
Lackland AFB TX 78236-6430

And speaking of the military, this week we have seen our country give its stamp of approval to the continuing degradation of our culture by the repeal of the already pathetically weak laws on allowing homosexuals to serve openly in the armed services. We took the kids out to eat today after church and had quite a vigorous discussion on the rationale and inevitable consequences of the repeal...a good chance to share our views and hear them out on where they are in the midst of a culture and social structure that are obviously changing.

I'm SO behind on Christmas tasks. And while I don't like that, at least I've had lots of time to dwell on Advent themes and follow Mary's example of "pondering in her heart" all that the incarnation of the Redeemer means in the story God has written...

I love my UPS man.

Why do I watch "Chopped"? I hate that show. 

This week, a good friend loaned me her cello. She's going to be out of town for two or three months and wanted me to pick it up and see if I can recover some of my early skills so that perhaps I could join the lovely group of strings already contributing to our worship services. That remains to be seen, but just the sight of the instrument has taken me back in time over forty years to my first attempts to play and to the wonderful man who inspired me. I'd love to be able to regain some level of competence, but just the memories nourish my soul. Thank you, Julie.

Another friend loaned me some CDs with messages by R.C. Sproul on finding joy in suffering. She's been through a special brand of suffering in the past few years, and she knows that I've also experienced quite a bit and wanted to share some of Sproul's preaching in 1 Peter with me. It's priceless. Thank you, Robyn.

Every year I watch "Christmas in Washington", currently aired on TNT. What a disappointment this year, despite its gorgeous venue. One big political agenda set to really, REALLY bad music. On the other hand, this year's CMA Country Christmas on ABC (Nov. 29) was a pure delight!

Is it too much to hope for an Alaskan cruise within the next 18 months?

It felt really weird to go out to a buffet today and look for a table for six. Some people probably looked at us and thought, "Wow, big family."

We're putting off our annual Cookie Day until after Christmas when the Slaughters and Longenbaughs will be with us. Something about a house with four teens/twenty-somethings makes it not as much fun...so we'll wait for elves to join us :-)

From this morning's worship:

Leaving riches without number

Born within a cattle stall

This the everlasting wonder

Christ was born the Lord of all

Merry Christmas to all of you dear ones...Maranatha...Come, Lord Jesus!

'Round these parts, we spend so much time pining for fall we don't know what to do when it gets here...we know the minute we blink it'll be gone anyway. By the time we get cold weather we're putting up Christmas lights, so the fall that is fall just for its own sake, with no holidays, is pretty much non-existent. Guess I won't ever get used to that part. 

Nevertheless, we had a splendid Thanksgiving. We spent 48 hours in north Texas, one whole day of which was just down time, visiting and enjoying the family. That needs to happen way more often.

On the way home I watched a movie on my iPhone--Tuck Everlasting. Sweet movie.

Granddaughter Molly, 12, came home with us and will spend a week or so hanging out here and visiting with friends. So nice that she's old enough to do this, and that she wants to! I remember going to spend a week with my grandma when I was this age, and I always wanted her to teach me to make something on the sewing machine, or teach me to knit or to decoupage. Molly got here and said, "Granny, will you help me set up a Gmail account?" Ah, yes, a new millennium.

The shopping is going great, and it looks like I might get to the end of the list before I get to the end of the money. Always a good thing. Seldom realized  ;-)

And the Papa is off again to You-Know-Which-Paradise, pretending he doesn't want to go. 

San Antonio needs an IKEA. Georgetown is too far away. And besides, Austin is in between and that is just totally inconvenient.

I was sick this morning and didn't get to be at church for the first Sunday of Advent, but I have marked it in my heart nevertheless. We are, after all, created to be a ceremonial people...it's hardwired into us by the Creator that knew we would need ways to mark the years and reminders to stop and honor Him in extra-ordinary ways. I'm tickled to death that I've gotten so many inquiries this month about the Jotham's Journey trilogy, because it's been one of our family's favorite ways of observing and celebrating Advent through these last years.