Forty Days without Facebook

A few years ago, a good friend of mine told me that she was giving up chocolate for Lent.  I was surprised.  Kelli wasn't Catholic and I had always thought that participating in Lent was just something that Catholics did.  She told me that she had decidced to specifically give something important up (chocolate) for 40 Days (from Ash Wednesday to Easter) in order to focus more on Christ and his sacrifice for us on the cross.

I thought it was a great idea.  Even though the Bible doesn't mention it and Lent is an invention of the Roman Catholic church, I, personally, still think it can be a good thing (when not taken to a legalistic extreme).  Yes, as Christians, we are supposed to sacrifice all 365 days of the year for Christ.  And, yes, we are to daily deny ourselves of things for him.  But in this land of spoiled and home of the glutton that we call America, it's sometimes hard for me to really feel like I'm giving anything up.

Since that conversation with Kelli and her chocolate, I have given something up each year for Lent.  Honestly, it's mostly been chocolate related because that is something that I LOVE.  This year, though, I read a friend's post that she was giving up FB for Lent.  I liked it and decided to do it.

So during my 40 days without Facebook, what did I accomplish?  Well, I memorized the whole book of Matthew, climbed Mt. Rainier, taught the boys 40 Bible verses, and...just kidding.  Of course, I didn't do any of those things.  I'm still doing good just to get my quiet time in the Bible done most mornings.  I found that time I usually spent on FB, I just filled with other distractions (hello, Pinterest).  BUT, every time that I thought about FB, missed FB, or was tempted to just peak at FB, I remembered why.

I remembered that coming up was the "Superbowl" of all days for Christians, as my friend Jennifer puts it.  This day, Easter, is the most important of all days of the year for us.  It is the reason we live.  The reason we read the Bible.  The reason we set ourselves apart from the world.  The reason we move across the country and leave our wonderfully comfortable lives behind.

He took my punishment.  He defeated death.  He is risen.  And 40 days without Facebook is just a minuscule way for me to thank him.

Obsessed

I must confess.  I have a love affair with something that is not my husband.  (Chocolate doesn't count!).  I love the mountains!

I have always loved the mountains.  I come by it naturally.  My mother has a love affair with Colorado & the Rockies, so I know that some of that rubbed off on me.  I grew up in the hills of TN, but they are nothing compared to what is here in the Northwest.

The Cascades (from our recent trip to Leavenworth)

Since moving to Seattle, I have been obsessed with the those mountains.  I will ignore my boys, interrupt conversations, and nearly drive off the road just to look at them.  I STILL gasp every time that I see Mt. Rainier.  It is truly awesome.  It is just this HUGE, snow-covered rock that demands attention.  It's visible for hundreds of miles.  It's on our license plate for Pete's sake!

Rainier in the background of the Space Needle (not my photo)

Besides Mt. Rainier, we have the Olympic Mts. & the Casade Mts. flanking us on the west & east, respectively.  After turning out of our apartments onto North Road, our street immediately runs into a major road called 164th.  While sitting at the stoplight there, I can look to the east and see the Cascades.  Then when I turn west onto to 164th and head up the hill, I can see the Olympics.  So hypothetically (if the clouds weren't constantly there), I could see 2 mountain ranges every day; just on my way to the grocery.  See?!  Can you blame me for being a little obsessed?

I'm not the only one suffering from MO (mountain obsession), though.  Who can forget that the "hills are alive" as Maria sang about them in The Sound of Music?  Songs and poems have been written about them.  Men die just trying to reach the top of some.  They are a wonder to behold.  I am amazed how my fellow Seattlelites can look to those mountains every day & not wonder who created them.  And how they cannot want to know more about that Creator.  Because when I see them I just want to break out in song.

"Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.  Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep."  Psalm 36:5

Last look when leaving the Cascades back towards Seattle

Irreplacable

Today is my grandmother's Murr's funeral.  When I got dressed this morning, I automatically put on my funeral clothes.  Even though I can't be there, it just felt right to do so.  I'm not at the funeral by choice & by circumstance.  I could have begged, borrowed or stolen the money for the airfare, but having the stomach flu this weekend sealed the deal on the decision I knew was best. 

My last picture with Murr

Like most in this situation, I am overwhelmed with grief.  I feel like I can hardly breathe.  But at the same time, I am so thankful.  Thankful that:

• My grandmother is a Christian.  I don't have to worry about where she will spend her eternity.  What a blessing!!
• I got to spend three glorious nights with her.  We didn't plan our Christmas trip to TN as such, but God did.  I got to spend one terrifying night with her at the hospital & 2 nights at hospice with her.  She was awake, alert, coherent & talkative with me during some of that time.
• I had 35 wonderful years with her.  I know that I am blessed more than most with the time I got to spend with her.
• She died rather quickly.  I know she didn't feel like it at the end, but she spent less than 2 weeks in the hospital/hospice, which really is a blink of the eye.  She didn't have cancer, Alzheimer's or a dozen other things that so many have faced.

The boys' response to her death has been interesting.  Luke simply said, "O.K." when I told him.  In all fairness, though, he and Jason did have some deep discussions about heaven & Christianity later on.  Jonah gasped when I told him & said, "So now it's just Grandpa?"  He also had a ton of questions about eternity.  Gideon's response was:  "Awww. (pause)  Maybe I can get another one."  No, my sweet, we can't.

And that's one thing that I've gotten out of this week.  I want to be irreplaceable, too.  Don't you?  I want people to think I was the best mommy, wife, daughter, friend, neighbor, whatever, so that there will never be a replacement.  I want to live bigger, be nicer, smile more, be friendlier, more serving, so that my presence will be known to others.

One of my favorite pictures of my irreplaceable Murr & my mom, spring 2010

When I asked Murr Sunday night what her favorite Bible verse is, she shared these two with me:

"...in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your make your paths straight."  Proverbs 3:6

"A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit dries the bones."  Proverbs 17:22

And, indeed, HER merry heart did just that.

It'll never be Pippa's

I've started running again.  And I, of course, use the term "running" very loosely.  When "running" is defined as "slowly jogging at a steady pace, that, by the way, most four year olds could keep up with"; that's the kind of running I do.

I have the same love/hate relationship that I have always had with it, and I suspect most real runners do as well.  I hate getting up earlier in the morning.  I hate being drizzled on.  I hate feeling tired and sore, BUT...I love that I actually got up and did it.  I love that I am being proactive with my health.  And I love the feeling of accomplishment.

Currently, I'm running 2 miles about 3-5 times a week.  I run to I-5 and back.  Not super far, but it is a start and helps me get back on track to running a 5K.  There almost as many 5K races here in Seattle as there are Starbucks (welllll, not exactly, but you get my drift).  I haven't picked out which race I'm going to try for yet, but I'm hoping to run one in January or February.

I know you're dying to know what my motivation is for my running restart, right?  Reading about so many friends running the St. Jude marathon?  Nope.  Wanting to lose a few pounds before going back to TN for Christmas?  Nada.  It was simply something my brother said.  Well, the 14-year-old version of my brother, that is.

I had on black jogging pants a couple of weeks ago (because the maid was getting behind with the laundry, curse her!).  For whatever reason, I was checking myself out in the mirror.  I suddenly noticed that my rear was, well, not in best form.  INSTANTLY, I was zipped back to a scene in the kitchen when my brother and I were teenagers.  I was getting ready for prom/had a new pair of jeans/something like that and decided to ask Will how I looked.  Being the sensitive, supportive brother he was, he said something like "O.K., I guess.  At least your butt doesn't jiggle."  Ahhh, words a teenage girl can live by.  And a grown one for that matter.  No matter how big I was compared to my friends, how my body has changed through child-bearing years,  I reminded myself of those words.  Until a couple of weeks ago.

So here I am.  35 and mother of 3.  Pastor's wife.  Wanting to love the lost and care for the hurting.  Still trying to figure out who I'm going to be when I grow up.  And determinded to get up at 5:30 a.m. and run, so my bum won't jiggle.

How to Order Cards from me

1. Look through the pictures posted on my FB page and choose the ones you like.  Each card has a letter as it's description to the right of the picture.
2. Click this link (https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/make-online-payments).  You will fill in your e-mail adress, mine (melissajoysmith@yahoo.com) & the amount you are paying me (click here for pricing guide: https://www.facebook.com/note.php?saved&&note_id=429726483757989#!/ServingInSeattle/notes).
3. In your "note to seller", specify which cards you want.  For the Scripture Card Pack, you will receive 10 random pictures of my choice OR 10 of the same pictures of your choice. Please specify when ordering ("random scripture card pack", "ten of picture M", etc.).  If ordering a personalized pack, please let me know the name & the picture of your choice in your "note to seller."
4. After your purchase, I will send you a confirmation of your order & an approximate date of delivery.  I will mail your purchase via USPS First Class Mail.  I can mail your cards directly to you or to an address you specificy if they are a gift.

What the pictures look like on the cards

How your cards will be wrapped before packaging

Blackberries

No, mother, this isn't a post about our childhood cat (as you can guess, was named "Blackberry").  This  post is about the real, actual berry.

One of the fabulous things about living in the Pacific Northwest is the abundance of fruits and vegetables.  Alot of them are brought over from Eastern Washington, but many are found in our own backyard.  Literally.

Apparently, the Himalayan blackberry really loves living in Seattle.  They grow everywhere! (Southerners, think Kudzu)  By the side of the road, behind office buildings, along sidewalks, bordering parking lots, you get the picture.  Last year, I vaguely noticed them and had interest, but this year I knew more.   I knew that I had to figure out where to get some.  So starting about mid-August, I'd notice the berries starting to ripen.  Yum!  But to my great dismay, the juiciest ones were always off cliffs or in peralis ditches or RIGHT beside the busiest roads.  The conversation I imaged having with the cop, and more importantly Jason, as to why I caused a 10-car pile up never seemed to justify the urge to stop. ("But officier, can't you see how big those berries are?!")

So what's a girl to do?  Thankfully for me, I have a big God that cares about little things.  I didn't pray about, I didn't come to Him with my longing for those succulant, little berries (insert licking lips sound here), I just continued looking for a fence that I could scale to try and get some.  But He knew my desires and provided for me anyway...

One day after church, I noticed a couple in the kitchen with a couple of big containers packed with blackberries.  "Where did you get those?!"  "Um, behind the church" was Amy's sweet reply to the berry-crazed woman.  Are you kidding me?  Behind the church?!  I had been willing to risk life and limb to try and get those berries and all I had to do was walk out the back door of the church?!

So at the next available opportunity (5 minutes later), I herded all the boys out and we picked the first of many containers of blackberries.   And yes, they were as delicious as I had imagined.  I just couldn't believe how easily assessible they were. 

Isn't that just like God?  Something that I thought was difficult and literally out of reach, He made available so even my baby boy could enjoy them.  What an awesome God we have!

"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?  If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"         Matthew 7: 9-11



A Tale of Two Ladies

This week sealed the fate of two women from my past.  They weren't really friends, rather godly women that I looked up to.  We never hung out, went shopping together or had play dates with our kids.  But the news of their lives still had a impact on me.

The first is Willie Dupree.  She is a lady I befriended while we lived in Halls.  Over the course of several months & years, we developed a special friendship.  She feel in love with each of our boys after they were born.  I think she considered them her grandchildren.  You see, Willie never had children.  Talk about unfair.  She had a heart of gold & would have been a wonderful mother.  Her husband died 20+ years ago, so I can't imagine the loneliness she has felt.  But so strong in her faith in the Lord.

Her birthday was at the end of July.  I tried to call for several days.  No answer.  I finally called the church secretary at our old church.  She couldn't find out anything either.  I was in distress and had come to the conclusion that she must have finally died.  So on Wednesday, I started calling the funeral homes.  I couldn't think of any other way to figure out how to find her.  After the 3rd funeral home, I finally found her.  Alive!  She had set up a plan with the funeral home, but hadn't used it yet. :-)  They gave me her next of kin's number and I was able to learn where she was.  She was moved this summer to an assisted living center (finally! She just turned 95!) and I was able to get her name and address.  Yay!  I pray that I will get to visit with her again on our next trip back to TN.



Mrs. Willie and baby Gideon

 The second story has a happy ending, just of a different sort.  Dottie Danley, rather suddenly, went home to the Lord.  Even though I haven't seen or talked to her in years, I was still shocked and deeply sad when I learned the news.

Dottie was the wife of the pastor at the first church that Jason served at.  Talk about a godly woman.  She was such an encouragement to me and a model of what I could only hope to become when I grow up (because I'm certainly not there yet!).  I know she had faults, as we all do, but she always displayed grace, elegance and wisdom when I talked to her.  And a great sense of humor!  I remember a story she told me once of trying to clean up a spot from her carpet.  She scrubbed & scrubbed at that spot only to discover that it was a shadow cast from the window pane.  I can still see her laughing at herself over it.

Mrs. Dottie (stolen from my friend Jennifer's FB page).  All my pictures with her are pre-digital. :-(

Even though these two ladies really have no effect on my day to day life, they still have affected who I've become.  And that's exactly what I would like to be remembered for.  As a woman that loved the Lord and encouraged others to do the same.  So thank you Dottie & Willie for doing just that.