Weekend Happenings

Good Friday morning!

Parade pictures have been added to the Gallery today. It was so cold, but dry. Roxie rode on the middle school Volleyball Float. Can you say "hot chocolate?"

REMINDER #1 - If everything goes well, I'll be adding pictures to Belinda's Project 365 tonight, Saturday and Sunday. It's easier to make pictures during the holidays, I think.

REMINDER #2 - If you are a Newbie, click on Newbie Info on my sidebar for explanations of how A Simple Life works. (It ain't as simple as the name implies!)

REMINDER #3 - Another reminder about the 300th Post Contest and the rules are as follows:

CONTEST! CONTEST! CONTEST! The Contest winners celebrating my 300th post of A Simple Life will be awarded their very own Mystery Bag Party. That's right! We had such a good time in October, I have decided to have another Mystery Bag Party in January... and the six women who will accompany me on this "journey" will be selected from the women who enter the contest.

Just leave your name under my Comment Section, on Facebook or my e-mail with the word "CONTEST" beside it, and I will put your name in the bowl. I will draw SIX NAMES December 18... the day of my 300th post. You have about two weeks to enter. It will be a very fun party! I've also changed things a little from the first party, so it will be an unique event. I'll be reminding you once a week or so until December 18, so go ahead and get your name in today! A good time will be had by all who win!

CHRISTMAS EVERY DAY IN DECEMBER

DAY 4

6. Drive to a nearby neighborhood, bundle up and get out of the car. Take a stroll and enjoy the light displays as you walk along. Remember to keep a thermos of hot chocolate in the car for when you return. Take your time, enjoy walking hand in hand and just have a little fun.

7. Pick a night to sleep under your lit Christmas tree. Use couches, air mattresses, tons of pillows and blankets and just camp out under the tree. What a fun way to fall asleep.

Again, you'll notice the cost of these little treats is NADA! I'll have 18 more ideas for you next week (two or three a day).

Weekend Happenings

The plans for the first weekend in December is not as hectic as I had originally feared (Code for HANG ON TO YOUR JINGLE BELLS).

Austin should be home around noon today, so I'm taking him out to lunch. (I'm thinking he won't put up a fuss.)

Friday night is our family party at our house. We drew out of the "Movie Bowl" Thanksgiving and my brother-in-law, Tommy, was chosen to pick the Christmas movie this year. We'll be eating green chicken and rice soup and green potato soup with all the fixings before we settle down to watch... The Grinch (Jim Carrey's version). Thus, the green food.

Saturday you'll find the Faulkner Five sledding down snow covered hills, rosy-cheeked and smiling... Actually, we'll be sitting in a circle eating the five loaves of bread and drinking the three gallons of milk I bought because James Spann said the words, "snow showers." Nothing super exciting going on here Saturday. Just hanging out and around. Roxie and her friend, Hannah, are planning on making a pre-fab gingerbread house, and then perhaps a Christmas movie. Simple, simple fun.

After church Sunday, Austin has to leave for JSU to attend a study group for his finals coming up next week. I hate for him to leave early, but he'll be home earlier, too... Thursday instead of Friday. And then the fun really begins!

Roxie, Mom and I will be attending the Aegis Christmas Home Tour Sunday afternoon. Roxie and I started this tradition last year, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Well, except for the all the times I had to drag her off the doors and drawers that said, "Please do not open."

"What do you think they're trying to hide?" she would say with eyes glazed over. And then she would make a dash for the door (and I would pry her surprisingly strong hands off the doorknobs and push her into the next room). I think she's read too many Trixie Beldon/Nancy Drew mysteries. Closed doors and drawers with, "Do not open" signs are just too much for her.

Josh is meeting with a group to work on/finish a project due in Geometry next week before church Sunday night.

As always, we'll end with (everyone say it in unison) Amazing Race. It's the finale, so it is "must see TV" around here.

And that will be it for the Faulkner Five the first weekend in December. But there will be many more events taking place in the days and weeks to come... for everyone.

JUST A THOUGHT - It seems every time I get in the car (with the radio set on 96.5), the song I am most likely to hear is "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year." And it is. It is a wonderful, fun, hectic, magical season... especially when children are involved.

However, Christmas 2009 will not be a wonderful season for many this year. I don't have a huge circle of people I know well, but of the people I do know there are several who have lost their jobs this year. I know people battling cancer, and people who have lost someone they loved in an accident or from illness in recent months. I know people who suffer from depression, and no matter how many times others tell them to "cheer up" or "pray harder," they are unable to conquer their illness.

I know people who live in unhappy homes. I know people who are struggling with family relationships this year. I know people who are not saved, and I know people who are saved but feel so distant from God right now they cannot even pray.

I know people who have beloved family members overseas fighting a war in a desert... they will not even be able to be with their sons or husbands (or daughters or wives) this Christmas.

In the Faulkner household, we are specifically dealing with mental illness (both Josh and myself) each and every day. And while this is one of the best Christmas seasons our family has enjoyed in the past few years, I remember Decembers when the singing and the lights and the Hallmark movies just made everything much, much worse.

I know there are people who will not have a Merry Christmas this year.

For those people, I would love to give you some encouragement this year using three words we hear a lot during December.

JOY - "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." James 1:2-4. Honestly, this is a hard one for me in the midst of a trial or storm. It is much easier to "consider it all joy" when there is some distance from the trial, and I am able to look back and see some of the good which has come from the pain. (But that may just be me.)

PEACE - "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful." John 14:27. (Thank you, Janet.)

HOPE - "My soul, wait in silence for God only, for my hope is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I shall not be shaken." Psalm 62:5-6.

I don't know what everyone's situation or story is who may be reading this, but under no circumstances do I want you to think everything is "perfect" over here. It isn't, and it never will be. But there is joy and peace and hope... if not every minute of every day, then in moments... big and small. For those of you who will not be having a Merry Christmas this year, I pray someone will come along to listen to your story, to pray for you when you feel you're unable to pray for yourself and to lift you up and encourage you as you struggle through this "happiest season of all." You are not alone.

And I pray this time next year there will be a very different chapter in your story.

Have a good, safe weekend. I hope you and your family and friends make many, many sweet memories. Next week will be a busy week on A Simple Life. Lots of ideas (stolen or borrowed, of course), pictures and a seasonal topic of the week.

Take care, and I'll talk to you Monday.

Sincerely,

The Enchanting (and Cold From the Parade) Belinda