I needed a recipe for quick pumpkin muffins and went straight to Pinterest – a lady I don’t know in a place I’ve never heard of gave me a great recipe!

I needed an idea for a homemade ornament exchange and I went straight to Pinterest. A lady I don’t know in a place I can’t recall walked me through the process of adding beads to clips and making adorable angels.

I needed an idea for displaying Christmas cards – big enough to hold each one I receive but not so big and bulky that it is messy or distracting. I went straight to Pinterest and a lady I don’t know in a town I couldn’t name shared how she covered foam board and used straight pins. WAH LAH.

I never felt truly needy in the first 30 years of my life; if anything, I felt invincible and, well, awesome. Over the past 10 years reality has sunk in deep and I have been overcome by my neediness. Whether it is as silly as a recipe or something more serious, I am not enough.

It’s interesting, though, that so many of my needs can seemingly be met online. I have been unable to get the downstairs tub really clean and just this week I was trying a concoction I read about on Pinterest. People, it was working and it was easy and I was marveling. Then this thought actually crossed my mind, “Pinterest is like the Body of Christ for homemakers!” I had a need and Michelle from Alabama pinned this mixture of vinegar and Dawn and told me how wonderful it was and I took that input and it changed my life!

I admit I thought the concept was pretty fantastic originally and that I was just so clever to compare Pinterest to the Church, but over the next couple days I became sad. If I could contemplate the internet as a means for meeting the needs in my life than I am certain others have done the same. With sermons online, scripture online, and websites with hints  for every trial one faces daily, it may seem silly to GO to church and BE with God’s people.

Hebrews 10:25 came to mind, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” This is a verse that I loved in college because, as an extrovert, it thrilled me that the Lord wanted us to be with people! I may have even used it (incorrectly, of course) to justify skipping homework to be with friends. Now I listen to it and hear words of challenge; it’s like the Lord knew that the internet, media/entertainment, and busyness would tempt people toward seclusion.

So, Thursday night we were presented with parenting concerns for a specific child and I was faced with a choice: Google it or “meet together” to “be encouraged by another”.  I chose to send an email and a woman I know from the church met me on the playground after carpool yesterday. While the children played I asked for parenting input and her reply was timely, wise, and laced with laughter (no ads, pop-ups, or need to avert my eyes).  And the vulnerability one might expect to feel when revealing their neediness to another . . . it wasn’t even an issue. It turns out Sisters who have raised children and seen their own needs are slow to judge and quick to love and can instruct me in ways Google can’t.

Ooooh – now just think of how awesome it would be to meet together with six to ten friends and share our favorite finds on Pinterest! The best of both worlds?

1.  The other day on Shutterfly you could get 10 free Christmas cards and so I thought I would take advantage.  I created three that I really liked and decided to let the family vote on which they preferred.  I asked three children (they were alone and uninfluenced by siblings) and each picked a different one.  Guess Honey was the tie-breaker.  The code didn’t work.  All that and no free cards.

2.  Bubba was reading Psalm 1 to me the other night and said,

“Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who medicates on it day and night.”

Truer than he knows!!

3.  I was trying to talk to my kiddos about the difference between Christmas songs about Jesus and Christmas songs about the holiday itself or winter.  KB cut in and said, “Mom – all the songs are about Jesus because they are about Christmas.” It was kinda precious, really.  It must mean that in her mind Christmas = Jesus.  Right? So I asked her, “Then what is the most exciting thing about Christmas?” Her response, “Opening presents!!” Obviously there is more to learn here.

4.  I love Christmas cards.  We haven’t sent them in a few years because of cost and “the times” but I really want to send them this year.  I love writing an update about our family that fits in a 4×6 space (we have typically sent picture postcards), I love addressing each one and remembering special things about each family, and I love writing a note and hoping friends will know they are still special to us after all these years.

Christmas cards are one of the reasons I don’t like Facebook.   For all it’s good points, I hate that folks expect you to get your season’s greetings there and don’t take that extra personal step.  Facebook is the antithesis of Christmas cards, equalizing the masses and allowing no one to feel special.

5.  Yesterday I helped a friend create an image she then used to create and order fabric.  The image contained scanned recipe cards in her Grandma’s handwriting and she is going to make dishtowels from the fabric.  BEST CHRISTMAS IDEA for extended family.  Seriously! They are going to be precious.

6.  The Sensory Integration stuff they are doing at Little’s school has been wonderful on so many levels.  She is able to feel her body more than ever and that is evidenced by more trips to the bathroom and more hugs! Last night I put her to bed and she hugged me five times while we were talking.  To put that into perspective, I was only in there 7 minutes and each hug was more than a squeeze.  Her new preference is long and tight hugs (deep pressure is what an OT would call it).  When she wasn’t hugging me, she would take my hand and put it on her back so that I would rub her back while we talked and sang.  7+ years of little to no affection from this gal and now this.  Merry Christmas to me!!!

7.  I just read a friend’s post from Thanksgiving and he listed 30 things he was thankful for.  It was a beautiful list and beautifully written (he is a writer, afterall) and included all the things you would expect to read about : wife, each child individually, parents, job, etc.

At our house we always give the limitation, “you can’t list family, friends, or Jesus” – those are givens.  This year we put butcher paper on the fridge and at dinner listed things from the day that we were thankful for (very Ann Voskamp) and used the same constraints.  Our list ended up being pretty comical but VERY real.  Examples?

My sewing machine
St. Luke’s and staples
bathrooms (added by a very sincere KB who had been caught in the car twice that day really needing a bathroom!)
art at KDS (Bubba loves art)
SMZ (sensory motor zone at Little’s school)
Nathan Fillion (Honey’s contribution)

That’s it for now. My brain seems clouded a good bit these days and blogging has been hard. I think this is my first real rough patch since I started in 2007. While life is bigger than a blog, I don’t like what my absence represents. Please pray for a clear mind, self-control, and discipline. And have a good weekend – a personal and purposeful weekend!

gratuitous photo of cute kids: