merry christmas!

merry christmas everyone!
have a wonderful day of celebrating with those who are most special to you!
i have always loved this song and it's message. [this should NOT surprise you, since i am, admittedly, a huge fan of babies!] i thought you might enjoy pondering it a little bit today amidst your celebrating . . . what an amazing gift we received thousands of years ago in the form of a tiny little babe!

this baby
by: steven curtis chapman

well, he cried when he was hungry
did all the things that babies do
he rocked and he napped on his mother’s lap
he wiggled and giggled and cooed
there were the cheers when he took his first step
and the tears when he got his first teeth
almost everything about this little baby
seemed as natural as it could be.

but this baby made the angels sing
and this baby made a new star shine in the sky
this baby had come to change the world.
this baby was God’s own son,
this baby was like no other one
this baby was God with us,
this baby was Jesus.

and this baby grew into a young boy
who learned to read and write and wrestle with dad
there was the climin’ of trees and the scrapin’ of knees
and all the fun that a boy's born to have
he grew taller and some things started changing
like his complexion and the sound of his voice
there was work to be done as a carpenter’s son
and all the neighbors said "he’s such a fine boy"

but this boy made the angels sing.
this boy made a new start shine in the sky
this boy had come to change the world.
this boy was God’s own son,
this boy was like no other one
this boy was God with us.

this boy became a man
and love made him laugh
and death made him cry
with the life that he lived
and the death that he died
he showed us heaven with his hands and his heart
‘cause this man was God’s own son.
this man was like no other one
holy and human right from the start.

this baby made the angels sing.
this baby made a new star shine in the sky
this baby had come to change the world.
this baby was God’s own son,
this baby was like no other one.
this baby was God with us,
this baby was Jesus.
this baby was Jesus,
this baby was Jesus.

merry, merry christmas!
happy birthday Jesus!

miracle of the week!

God is so good, God is so good, God is so good. He's so good to me!
He cares for me, He cares for me, He cares for me. He's so good to me!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow . . .

so, usually doing laundry doesn't make me want to burst out in song (and since i'm not the best singer around, i'm sure my family appreciates that) but today doing the laundry brings these two songs to mind (and ALMOST to my lips too, but anna's sleeping so i'll hold myself back). this is our "new" washing machine. it was delivered, FREE OF CHARGE, to our garage yesterday and last night kirb and my dad lugged it out of the garage, down the basement steps and hooked it all up in my laundry room! yeah! our 10-year-old washer broke about 2 weeks ago and we'd been hunting for a replacement, but without much extra cash to spend on it, that was a little tricky!

now, this is kind of a long story, but it's good so stick with me: my mom was talking to her friend peggy, and mentioned that our washer had "died" (she may have mentioned it due to the fact that in the interim between the old washer breaking and getting the new one my mom had been our laundry lady . . . picking up dirty baskets full and delivering them back to us clean and folded: admittedly i had a pretty good gig going) now peggy's husband, bob, is buddies with gary who does remodeling work. (i've never met gary in my life) now peg knew that gary was remodelling a house on lake of the isles (this is a good sign!!) and that the homeowners had ordered some new appliances to go with the remodel (sounds rough, i know) and they had asked gary to "get rid" of the old ones . . . are you still with me? well, when peg heard my mom say our washer had broken she got really excited and told my mom she knew where we could get one and told my mom about gary. as it turns out gary was out of town fishing and she woudn't be able to get a hold of him for a few days. peg left messages on all gary's various phones and when he got back to town he called her and she told him of our plight. gary, who was planning to sell the washer (and dryer . . . did i mention we got a "new" dryer too?), took pity on us because back in the day he had 5 little kids too! (thanks anna for tippin' the scales for us and bringin' us up to a 5-kid family!) and said that he would give them to us and that he and bob would even deliver them to our house the next morning . . . he had to have them out that exact day! what a miracle. (thanks again mom, peg, bob, & gary . . . and God!!) do you believe it?

so the washer (which is only 2 years old!) is in and hooked up and has already been tested (the laundry had piled up just a little even with my moms hard work . . . 7 people make lots of diry clothes!!) and the clothes are comin' out cleaner than they went in and there isn't a trail of water coming out from under it . . . praise the Lord! (which was what happened with the old one). so we are thrilled!! since we got a "new" dryer out of the deal too, we have an appliance repair guy (who is a friend of my brother's) coming to make a new gas hook up in our basement so that i'll have 2 dryers, which is great because if you know anything about laundry you'll know that it takes longer to dry than it does to wash, so this way i can just keep the laundry flowin' and stuff can get cleaner and dryer faster then ever! plus he'll take away the broken washer (and a broken dishwasher that's been sitting in our garage for quite a while!) while he's at it. anyway, what an unexpected answer to prayer, a blessing and a true miracle our family got this week. we are so grateful! (plus anna's cute little butt is grateful too . . . she usually wears cloth diapers, but given our situation had switched to disposable for a time and she got a nasty little diaper rash. just one day with the cloth ones back and her little butt is rash-free and cute as ever! yeah!)

note: i realize that a new washer does not make my yucky laundry room that much prettier, so just ignore the ugliness of the unpainted sheetrock behind and just look at the washer. also, note the pile of CLEAN laundry on the dryer . . . yeah! we're back in business!