Hello, my name is Robin

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. Most important: visit, comment, encourage the person before you.
OK, are you ready? Give me your best five minutes on:

Open…

I love what Lisa-Jo said at her space

"May we dance with abandon before you and be willing to become much more foolish than we’re comfortable with."

That pretty much sums up where our word "OPEN" touches me in this moment.

With that said, asking the Lord to help me become more willing and foolish stirs up anticipation and anxiety if I'm to be perfectly honest. It almost has the flavor of praying for patience and we know where that gets us... more patience =)

I yearn to flow with life's momentum.

I'm not talking about tearing my clothes off and running naked through the neighborhood kind of abandonment, but more of a...

shedding of old habits, tearing off masks, letting go what others think and beginning to feel the vibrancy of momentum hitting me square in the face and splashing across my soul kind of abandonment.

Well maybe the occasional behaving silly in the supermarket with my family.
At any rate...New Year, 2012 Hello my name is Robin. I'm here and open to what you have which ever way I may have to stretch!

STOP

~photos via pintrest~

Matthew 18:4

1,000 Word Thursday

~photo via pintrest~

Our Christmas story

 

 

#236 - 252

• Sweet Bec giving us the gift of song. Thanks for learning it and playing
• That at 18 y.o, you still run for your bucket-o-dinosaurs
• Warm homemade apple pie in an apple, thanks Bec!
• Singing the 12 Days of Christmas loudly as we drove through WINTER WONDERLAND. Never get tired of the lights
• Funny looking snowman cookies that make me LOL you're the best Reece
• Pies galore from my guy who loves to bake
• Candles candles everywhere
• Taking sweet Betty to her 1st trip to the Spaghetti Factory
• My new gold sparkly leaf
• Colorful Christmas ornaments
• All kinds of Christmas music
• Stocking hung by the chimney with care
• New recipe for Crock Pot Maple Brown Sugar Ham
• Our eternally patient pets that let us dress them up
• Working together as we face a year of 1st's with a Dad's passing
• Sweet Betty telling us all the Chrimas story from memory
• Most of all the reason for the season

Stashing

Funny Friday

~photo via pintrest~

With all your might

1,000 Word Thursday

Hospitality, a matter of the heart not the architecture.

Wednesday's Word

I 've read a lot of awesome posts this year. Really I have. Many times I've found myself gasping and looking around the room for someone to read the words aloud to.

I found myself doing that this very morning, glad my Becca was handy so the words could be freed from the screen to the surrounding. It was perfect and my favorite thus far this year. Even she said, "Mom those are good words for you."
Thank you Lisa-Jo

It touched a nerve!

An ongoing goal for me: To be as comfortable sharing my home as I am myself.

Three years ago when we opened our home to care for our in-laws I experienced immediate anxiety regarding ENTERTAINING.

You see my mother in law has always played that role.

She had the fine china, REAL silverware that lived in a velvet lined box. Fantastic food from scratch and made with love. Her home was clean and finely decorated. Her table long and elegant seating for many much like an episode of The Walton's.

We live in a mobile home, small and... I'm not fancy. As I've said before I liken myself to a Proverbs 32 1/2 kind of woman. 




I do love to decorate but outside of that I have an eclectic set of dishes and glasses because I can't make up my mind what I like. I buy them individually at Ross or Goodwill. I love fancy coctail glasses and we enjoy having milk out of martini glasses.
It depends on my mood for the day.

My silverware go from picnics to the table. My dishes are chipped and cooking is always an adventure. If something doesn't seem to be working right this southern girl just adds butter because butter can fix anything.

Just ask Paula Deen.



Anyhoo moving my in laws in to provide care meant that I (the unlikeliest of hostesses) would become the hostess to the entire family that lives all over the country and descends in droves on holidays...hungry and expectant.

Arrrghh

Here I sit three years later, even as I type, this little mobile home is full. Twenty people come to pay respects to their fathers first Christmas in Heaven and fellowship.
Oh I create some things, my son has become an amazing chef and saves the day as others donate their favorite yummies. It's a group effort.
We have found a rhythm for the most part and when I need a moment to breathe and be still I find my way to my bathroom and just sit on my toilet to hear the rolling of dice in the "near" adjoining room.

So as I said up there at the top =) Read it, read her blog and I'm sure if this too rings true to you, you will be blessed.
Click the link to travel to her blog as her photos add so much, or be content in this space below.

Your House is Only as Big as Your Hospitality

Thanks Lisa-Jo
"I am a reluctant renter.

The size of your house, my friends, is entirely in your own hands."

Infinite God becomes infant

Tuesday's quotes


"Christmas cannot be bought. Christmas cannot be created. Christmas cannot be made by hand. Christmas can only be

found...

in the creche, in the cradling trough, in the mire and stench in the unexpected and unlikely and only in the person of Christ.

The mystery so large becomes the babe so small — and infinite God becomes infant.

Christ, the babe,

comes in Christmas as Christ the Savior comes on the cross —

Seeking only our embrace."

~ Ann Voskamp

Heart of Christmas

This story...

 The Son of God coming as a human, born of a virgin, living a life of sinless love, and dying for sinners that all who believe might have eternal life...

is a story that sits deeply in our minds this time of year.

We think fully on the babe.

Wrapped in swaddling clothes, the fragrance of his dear, soft mother.

• He had the right to be born in the mightiest castles
• He had the right to be born to the richest parents
• He had the right to be born in the most favorable of times.

In order to save man, He stooped with arms open in humility

to humanity.

To be born and known as 'Jesus in a manger'.

Comprehending this, one can't help but think in unison of the sacrifice, His life, which is the most precious gift of all.

• HE CAME AS A RANSOME FOR MANY

Christ took on human flesh so that he could die and in dying pay a ransom and free us from the power of death.

That is the meaning of Christmas

• HE CAME TO CALL SINNERS TO REPENTANCE

'Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.'"

This is the meaning of Christmas

• HE CAME TO GIVE SIGHT TO THE MORALLY BLIND

This is why Christ came: That those who do not see may see.

This is the meaning of Christmas.

• HE CAME TO GIVE US ETERNAL LIFE

Christmas means that God sent his Son so that we could believe and have eternal life.

This is the heart of Christmas!

 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

#220-235

• Friends support through calls, messages, meals
• Sweet Betty's tears on my cheeks as we embrace
• Wrapping my arms around my husband and holding his heart
• One last goodbye
• Helping my kidlets win the tackiest sweater contest
• Goodwill and Salvation Army
• That we can still hear their bells ringing
• The most amazing school talent show, watching my sweet girl beat those drums like there was no tomorrow
• Abundance of family filling to overflowing our little house
• The sound of dice
• My camera capturing memories
• Christmas movies (ELF=) huddled in blankets
• Funeral service full of friends and family
• Pandora (Christmas station)
• A great pastor
• 3 brothers hugging my neck in unison with love and gratitude for care that flowed from Christ, these hands to their dad

I'll be home for Christmas

1,000 Word Thursday

His first Christmas in Heaven

The time has come.

We never really thought it would. He has done better than any thought and we just kind of figured he may defy science and medicine.

Death, in our shared faith of Christianity, is actually a birth into Jesus' arms. It's a temporary separation for us as a family because we know that we know we will soon be together.

As we talk about this process with our children we describe it as holding hands with their grandpa and walking into the foyer of Heaven, as far as these earthly bodies can take us.

What an honor.

My sweet Betty whispers in his ear how much she loves him while stroking his face tenderly with her hand. His eyes open momentarily as she begins to pray.

We gather round bout the bed recalling our favorite memories, stories and jokes that caused him to giggle.
Like...
"What do you get when you goose a ghost? A handful of sheet!"

We love you Ruben Melvin Larrabee and though we are so thoroughly heartbroken for our loss we know you are so excited to spend your first Christmas in Heaven!

Just the way He wants it

Tuesday's Quotes

~photo via pintrest~