Dance

When my oldest daughter, Amber, is happy, she smiles. When her little sister, Autumn, is happy, it shows from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet. To say that she jumps for joy would be an understatement. Autumn has always been our little expressive one, from her many facial expressions to the way she dances around the house to how she jumps on the couch, her bed, anything that has a bounce. She's kind-of like Tigger from the Winnie the Pooh movies.

So last night when we took a family trip to Trader Joe's in Ventura, her enthusiasm should not have surprised me. In the two or three blocks it took to get to the main road, we passed by a few houses with their Christmas lights already up and shinning. With every house she saw, Autumn got more and more animated with excitement. It's a good thing she was belted into the car or she may have jumped through the moon roof.

"Oooh, look at this one, sissy," she said as she pointed to a lit-up house.

"Oh, I love that one!"

"Oh, that one is my favorite!"

"Sissy, look out my window. Look at that house!"

"Oooh, there's Santa!"

"Oh my goodness, that one is my favorite!"

"Thank you, daddy, for showing us the lights!"

We were just driving to the store. Next week we will officially take the girls out to look at Christmas lights. Just think how excited she will be that night!

Autumn's enthusiasm for just about anything got me to thinking about my own life. Am I full of joy? Do I simply smile or do I jump up and down with delight, even if only in my heart?

The Bible tells us that David danced before the Lord. He threw off his outer clothing and, in reckless abandon, he danced. He danced at the risk of being ridiculed, mocked and misunderstood. He was joyful and he let it show.

Now I'm not suggesting we go dancing around in public in our underwear. But I'm wondering if we adults--if I--should throw caution to the wind more often and take real delight in things, even ordinary things. I tried to do that this morning on my walk. I tried to delight in the fall leaves on the ground, in the wreaths hung on the doors of my neighbor's houses, in the fact that I am breathing. Who knows, maybe tomorrow on my walk I'll even lift my hands in joy. And hopefully, my 4-year-old's zest for life will rub off on me and I'll even learn to dance.

Craziness?

I haven't been blogging much because of my headaches, but I thought this was cute. It happened a few weeks ago and I wrote it down on a little piece of paper and am just now getting around to blogging about it...

Amber, who is 6, "helps out" in the toddler room on Wednesdays during the ladies Bible study. A few weeks ago we got in the car after Bible study and I had a CD playing in the car. Autumn asked me to turn it up and after cranking up the dial, Amber said, "I don't want music on right now. All the kids were really crazy today and I want to settle down from all the craziness."

This is not the first time she has mentioned the toddler room being a little out of control. I just had to laugh!

To Blog or Not to Blog?

That is the question.

I'm thinking of quitting the blog thing. And if I do quit, it will be cold turkey. None of this blog posting once every three months or whatever. I won't erase my blog, but I might just stop posting stories & pictures.

The reason I am thinking of this is that out of my last 7 blog entries I have received zero comments. I'm not complaining, I'm just wondering if it's worth it--writing stories & posting pics if people aren't even checking in anymore. I do know three people who read my blog and don't comment, but two of those people live in Ojai and I see them every Sunday, so it's not like they don't know what I'm up to. The other person is my mom, and I talk to her at least once a week on the phone.

The only downside of not blogging is that this has become like a journal. I rarely write in my journal anymore because I post things on here. And, I do love writing things for other people to read, but once again, if people aren't reading...

I blame Facebook. Oh yes I do. It's just like every other technological advance; something else suffers. Before email came along, I actually corresponded with friends the good old-fashioned way--snail mail. I am still sad that people email instead of writing letters or cards. Some people even send Christmas cards by email. Oh just shoot me if I ever succumb to that! Anyway, after email there was blogging and then came Facebook (maybe not in that order). Once Facebook really took off, people started posting less on their blogs and people started reading less and commenting less on other blogs. Sometimes I wish I'd never joined the Facebook world. Even if I didn't though, the inevitable would happen.

Gosh, I sound like the world's going to end, don't I? It's not that bad, of course, but it is sad to see the blogging craze die down. Hey, maybe that's why it did. Maybe it was just a passing craze.

Anyway, for those of you who are still reading this and can take a few moments to comment, what do you think?

Husband of the Year

Sunday night Eric slept in the living room. It's not what you think...

Early Sunday morning I woke up with a horrible headache and took
some headache medicine on an empty stomach (yeah, bad idea, but I was in too much pain to think straight.) Anyway, I had a bad reaction to the medicine--and it didn't even work on my headache--so I was in bed all day Sunday, trying to fall asleep so I wouldn't feel the pain. Long story short, after hours of being awake--watching Netflix on Eric's laptop, writing in my notebook, just lying there--I finally was asleep at 8:30 p.m.

The next morning I awoke and the headache was gone, but so was something else. I looked over to find the other half of the bed empty. Later, Eric told me that he slept all night in the living room by the fireplace. He said he was cold. He only had two little dinky blankets to cover up with. I asked why he didn't get the thicker, bigger blankets and he said they were in our room. I said that he could have come in and gotten them because I wasn't using them. He said, "You had finally fallen asleep after trying all day. I did not want to wake you by coming in the room."

Not only did he take care of me all day Sunday, but my sweet husband froze his toes for me. He definitely gets the "Husband of the Year" award.