how do you teach your children to be thankful?

dear emily,

it was such a thrill to have your five beautiful children this
weekend!  they are kind, respectful, thankful, affectionate,
and joyful.  you are such a loving mommy and have given us the
gift of loving your little ones.

how have you taught your children to be thankful when they have
so much?  their tummies are full of nutritious food, their bodies are
clothed with warm garments, and their hearts are fed with faith,
hope, and love.

most moms admonish their little ones to say, "thank you", which is
a great start,  but there is something more we can do that does not
require a bit of coaching.  it's easy as pie, tastes just as yummy, and
you are already good at it.

we can be grateful and express it to the fullest.  when little max
sees his mommy say "thank you" to the grocery clerk, bankteller,
and milkman (yes, i have a milkman!), little max will pick up the
habit, too.

on the other hand, if little max sees mommy complaining all day
about the terrible service she gets everywhere she goes, he will
pick up that habit even more quickly.  they do what we do more
than what we tell them to do.

i am thankful that my friend meg sent me this cute little zombie
she knit by hand.  she is so creative, and i'm always begging her
to make more of these ornery things . . . wait, he's about to knock
the lid off of my coffee pot!

love,
lea

ps.  "thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!"  2 cor. 9:15

tricking halloween

even though i love scary movies, i've never been a fan of
halloween.  one of the many inconsistencies in my life.  my kids
love to dress up and enjoy the holiday to the fullest now that they
are grown up and make their own decisions.

does that make me sad?  not really.  it would break my heart if
they chose to turn their backs on the Lord, not if they want to
have some silly fun.   i've been invited to a party myself and
plan to not wear any make-up.  that should scare everybody!

i will rebel by playing Christmas music all day on halloween.
this year i even have some norwegian Christmas cookies made
by my favorite norwegian, sonja.   look how adorably she
painted the can in which she sent them!

see janette and sonja's unhappy faces?  their beloved UT lost to my
oklahoma  sooners.   janette posed in an OU jersey, but sonja opted
to make me cookies.  both were women of their word and made me
very happy!

yum!!!!!

love,
lea

ps.  "let your 'yes' be 'yes', and your 'no' be 'no.'"  matthew 5:37

to dress or not to dress

dear emily,

my son isaac returned from visiting his grandfather in the
hospital with a funny story.  we need all the laughs we can get,
and i bet you do, too.

isaac was wearing a lovely checked, buttoned down, and tucked
in shirt, straight from church.   his grandmother did not think he
was dressed up enough, however.   she has been putting on hose,
high heels and a beautiful suit every sunday for eight weeks . . .
then marching up to the ICU to sit with her beloved husband.

she said, "my mother always taught me that you must dress up
for church, because even if you don't go to church, people will
see you and think you did . . . and that will make them feel bad."

hee hee!

love,
lea

"therefore i tell you, do not worry about your life, . . . what you
will wear.  is not life more important then food, and the body
more important than clothes?"  matthew 6:25

and now a word from our sponsor

dear emily,

a year ago my friend patricia shared a definition for being offended:
the bright light hurts.  another friend and i were then talking about
how much angrier we get when our loved ones have been treated
harshly than when we are treated that way.

we're taking up an offense on their behalf, shining a bright light on
behavior we find reprehensible.  and you know who that hurts?  us.

when i was a little girl, my grandmother used to love her 'stories'
which were really soap operas.    i thought they were silly, but
occasionally i would get drawn in when a pretty lady would shout
at a handsome man for something i didn't understand.  right then at
the most interesting part, the program would transition to a boring
commercial, and a voice would say, "and now a word from our
sponsor."

sometimes my family has felt like that soap opera, pretty woman
yelling at handsome man.  :)  when i was terribly discouraged,
then i would hear a word from my Sponsor, "He who began a
good work in you, will carry it on to completion until the day of
Christ Jesus."  philippians 1:6

love,
lea

ps.  this is an edited post from a couple of years ago.

the sooner nation

thank you, sonja and janette, for having a little fun with our great

football game.  i can't think of a bigger competition, maybe ohio

state and michigan, or the presidential election!

janette has shared an inspiring story about her love for UT, and

she has the temerity to ask, "what is a sooner anyway?"  i'm glad

she asked.

'sooners' is the name given to the settlers who entered the midwest 

in the unassigned territory of oklahoma before the indian appro-

priations act of 1989.  they were denied the right to claim the land 

on which they settled, because they cheated by sneaking in early.   

many 'sooners'  eventually became US marshals, which is ironic

considering they had broken the law themselves.   my husband's

great grandfather was one of those US marshals, which explains

some of my husband's own tendencies.

the 'sooner nation' is exemplified by our colorful, rambunctious,

victorious behavior on the football field.  we occasionally sneak

into the end zone.

class dismissed,

lea

"all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."   romans 3:23

boomer!

dear janette and sonja,

i never enjoyed football until i had honest to goodness
texan friends.  so here is my challenge to you:

if texas gets closer than this:

OU 37
TEXAS 21

i will send you each some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

if texas wins (which ain't gonna' happen,)
i will post a picture of myself wearing a
longhorn t shirt and some chaps.  i may
even get on a horse or something.

Now, what are you ladies willing to do when OU wins?

love,
lea

"seek the Lord and his strength;
seek his presence continually."
1 chronicles 16:11

that's a lie!

as i was sitting beside my father in law's hospital bed, i found a
copy of the "new yorker" magazine.  before i ever read those, i
thumb through to see the hilarious cartoons.  the first one i saw
depicted a "blog pie chart."

google image

i was a little downcast, because i knew just what third i fit in.  i
don't sell anything, and even though i love the movie, conspiracy 
theory, i'm not into writing about them.  my stories clearly fall into
the first group . . . boring, boring, boring.

so i decided to shut down the old blog, but then i read a couple of
the blogs i love.   each one shared an inspiring story that burrowed
into my heart.

why in the world did i let the new yorker influence me in even the
smallest way?  i only read it once every ten years or so.   and why
do i still, at 53, care what other people say?  when am i going to
grow up?  who cares if i'm boring?

boring is the new black.

love,
lea

"we do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who
commend themselves.  when they measure themselves by them-
selves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not
wise."  2 corinthians 10:12