Family Stories

They love to hear the stories. They usually ask me for one as we are driving down the road and my mind is elsewhere and I am concentrating on the traffic ahead. Sometimes I'm really frustrated at their interruptions. Car time's often reflection time and a moment for quiet, unnoticed worship. Today my heart is in a worshipful place. The songs of the season bringing tears to my eyes and even the boy in the front seat is moved by the music.

In this sacred moment they asked for the story of Grammie. The way they ask, so precious, "Mom, tell us the story of OUR Grammie". She is theirs and they adore her. All her Grandchildren adore her.

Grammie is a beautiful story of God's redemption. Our Grammie, well she had an almost abandoned childhood. This most precious women was a child of divorce in that era of our country when divorce was shameful and it was a scarlet letter she wore, burning on her shoulder. The divorce was instituted by her mother and her father loved his children but felt at a loss to care for them and so he handed them over to the state. She suffered at the hands of those workers, paid good money in exchange for a child's care. But there is no substitution for a mother's love and a father's protection.

Then our Grammie, well, she met Grandfather and he loved her from the first.  He vowed to care for her all the days of his life. Grammie and Grandfather had their first baby and then they met Jesus and everything changed, they were forever changed. There was one more baby and then our Daddy was born and we are all a family. Grammie is a model of the Proverbs 31 woman. She had everything to complain about, justifiable reasons to be bitter and yet she is meek with a servants heart and together they are fierce prayer warriors in the kingdom. Grammie will tell you that God does miraculous things.

There is silence in the car. We didn't know Grammie's story started sad. We are so glad Grandfather took care of Grammie. He is like a knight. I smile because I think Grammie has said that about him too.

 

Sharing with them the stories removes the blinder. It reveal the blessings they have, earned on the back of others. As they understand Grammie and Grandfather's union and the purposeful choices of these precious folks they can truly appreciate the cornerstone that is the warm family unit they know as, The Negvesky Party of 5!

So Thankful for Grammie and Grandfather and ....

#514.
The blustery wind has ceased

#519.
Waking to piano practice of Christmas music

#520.
Finally getting to put all the rugs back (had to wait 6 weeks after the floors were refinished and the rolled rugs in the corner looked like a person standing waiting to pounce...really freaked me out)

#521.
Dad's silly antics at the Full Sail Christmas Party

#522.
Stuff your Santas in a Sack....or Santa and the eight tiny reindeer I made the kids win for me and then I had to stuff 'em all in my purse

#523.
Kids using their present of Gift Cards to shop and give gifts to others

#524.
The entire family knocking around Target and shopping for each other and trying to avoid each other so we don't see our gifts.

#525.
Actually making my Bed today

#526.
Being handed the Grocery Shopping list for our Christmas eve dinner neatly printed and organized in a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet.

Holding onto the manger

It's the day after.
He Came.
We celebrated.
I blinked.

And my expectations were high and today there is a mess. 

Our family stretched and pulled to be changed,

morphed  into something different. 

Something set apart with eyes fixed on the babe,
gaze drawn from the glitter and lights.....

focused on the manger.

We missed the mark.

Stunned the day has passed and in the wind of today our manger has been turned upside down and....

 He is Here!

And today I clean up the abundance from our celebration,
I fight the return to the everyday,

the mundane, 

the ordinary that is only ordinary to me.

I battle the Depraved Indifference that holds a place in my heart.

My children are fed like kings in the country God chose for them,

Yet they starve because of Depraved Indifference. 

Today we embrace change in our household.

We embrace change and I go to war against Depraved Indifference

Today I return to the manger, I peek at the waxy, wrinkled skin and ask for eyes to  

SEE 

differently and a 

HEART Moved....

I rebel against comfort and on my knees declare and ask Jesus Christ, 

Jeremiah's Prayer

 (song by Summit Worship)

You are the light that shines in the dark

You are what shadows cannot comprehend

You are the one who lives in my heart 

filling me up to be poured out again.

If you change the world by changing me

Then make me whatever you want me to be

If you're lifted up when I'm on my knees

Then break me so all the world may see

Your Beauty, 

Oh Lord.

Mine is the sin that tears me in two

Mine is the pride that refuses to yield

Yours are the hands that make me anew

Yours are the words that will strengthen and heal

Break my heart with what break yours

Break my heart and make it like yours

2010 Christmas Tour

Love, love, love the Nestor's Place Tour of Homes. 

Such inspiration and beauty and creativity all at the click of a button. 

Thank you to all you wonderful folks who share their homes this Holiday Season.

What a blessing our daily devotion with Ann Voskamp's family and the wonderful gift they offered of the Jesse Tree Advent Devotional book complete with ornaments. We didn't have one tree to hold all the expectation so we feel great abundance as we load up our little trees with the lovely ornaments. 

Thank you Ann for sharing your wonderful gift. I even printed extras to give to loved ones and we are enjoying being in the same devotion this season, linked together as a true body.

Here in the home of the 'Party of 5!' holiday decor took an entirely new direction. 

Year's past Nativity Scenes have been set out. 

This year they came front and center with another love, books. 

 

This morning the man told me if we ever move 

we'll need an extra truck just for the books. 

It warmed my heart. 

I guess that's what happens when you decide to read 50 books every year.

Been collecting advent resources for a while now. I love the collection. 

Not all is in pretty book form, we also have a lot of manila folders full of wonderful print outs.

So many pretty paper nativities thanks to the folks at Creche Mania. 

I go back to their site over and over again. Many of their downloads are free.

I 

Saint Nicholas kneels to the Christ Child. He really did! 

I am loving reading William J. Bennett's Book 

The Real Saint Nicholas.

 

 A candy dish made by my oldest. Christmas is a time for beautiful pottery.

 Hand made makes my heart swell. I am surrounded by talented people. The above tree a gift from the boy and the stable below crafted from pine bark and twigs gathered on a nature walk. 

They were glued and manipulated by my precious man's strong hands 

becoming the stable for the Holy Family.

 Thank you for stopping by. If you were a human visitor I could shove a mug of cocoa spilling with marshmallow into your hands and joyfully question you, for at least a minute, so I can know you, who you are and what makes you...well You! You are a blessing and I wish you the Merriest of Christmas'. May your heart overflow with God's redeeming love.

A Present Presence

We just wanted to get the boys room cleaned. The mess had been building for weeks. It's the type of mess you shut the door to and try to ignore; the type of mess that no quick pick up will put to right. A weekend to tackle his room. It would include a fresh coat of paint and full spring cleaning of all toys, clothes etc... as well as completing several tasks left over from the original installation of boy to room.

In I went and I made it worse before it got better. In the process I pulled out an old white dresser. Years ago his dad had crafted him a heirloom bed and I had painted it a boy red, stadium red and then antiqued it to look like leather. The white dresser was a leftover from baby days and it had seen three of them. It's time had come to join the ranks of furniture for our growing boy.

In two days time that stadium red finally covered the white. High humidity and unseasonable heat meant long dry times. It's morning and I wake to a dry base. It's a freakishly warm November day and I'm sweating as I sit on the dirty garage floor. My nearest neighbor the kitchen garbage that didn't make it to the curb. I'm working diligently to transform the piece, my mind wanders through images of our growing boy playing near it, his underwear being stacked neatly in its drawer and the nicks, dings and wear it has ahead of it.  When reaching stopping points for dry time I sit on the floor admiring and imagining while inhaling scents from my unwelcome neighbor.

I'm finishing up after about an hour of work. My brushes have been cleaned, rags folded and yet I still find myself sitting indian style on the garage floor in the presence of my newest creation. It looks exactly the way I want it. I'm just enjoying being amidst its newness and beauty, I sit to admire my work and I can't help but think, "It is beautiful" and as I sit there my heart explodes as a still, small whisper breezes through my mind,

"I feel exactly the same way".

There is no denying where that whisper originates. It leaves me breathless with emotion, overwhelmed, speechless at this God...

This God,

who began a good work in me and His son came and lived here so the trinity could forever dwell and soak in the beauty and pain of His creation.

They are here amongst my sin and my selfishness and they sit and soak in the joy and whisper things like,

"Daughter, you are beautiful."

This kind of savior, what a blessing, and to know His love for me.

He is willing to dwell on a dirty earth amongst my garbage just to be in my presence.

COUNTING BREATHLESS, EMOTION FILLED MOMENTS....
#460.
Boy's laughter coming from the guest bedroom

#461.
Catching up with long time friends through quiet talks deep into the night

#462.
House bursting at the seams with people and joyful noise

#463.
Dirty floors as living proof loved feet have been here

#464.
Oreo-Newman O's blindfold taste test

#465.
A passionate hunt for Nativities

#464.
Assembly line Christmas Card making with my girlies

#467.
Baking my Mama Gee's banana bread

#468.
$6 Old Navy Polar fleece for when Florida feels like a Polar Ice Cap

#469.
An entire day at home in our P.J.s

#470.
The man and I taking turns reading aloud Dicken's A Christmas Carol