Proverbial Light

-
You can tell I'm out of school because this is my third blog post for the month.
Ah. Free time.

December is an odd month in Houston. Temperature swings can be between different seasons: yesterday it was in the 70s and sunny; today it is in the 30s and more overcast.
This last fact made Mark happy, because it was more in line with the Christmas he knows.

Singing in the car to xmas tunes. Note the short sleeves; he loves the chill.

I am more familiar with shorter days and longer nights in the Christmas season; when I go to work it is dark, and 12 hours later when I come home it is dark. [This is probably more true the more north you go, but I meant as essentially the sole indicator that Christmas is coming.]
But this is a fantastic setting for the Christmas season, because it allows us to celebrate Light.

 In a neighborhood of houses we know we will never be able to afford, we looked at how magical the world seems when Christmas lights are emphasizing the best and most beautiful things on earth.

Life.
Hope.
Love.




Maybe Christmas lights don't mean anything religious to some (as cute as the penguins and snowman are, I doubt they were in Israel as time changed from B.C. to A.D.), but I cannot look at these trees and not think of Divine Glory






I feel like I lead a blessed life. School is hard, but it is Opportunity. Work is physically draining, but it is Fulfillment.
Mark doesn't like apple pie, but he still is my Soulmate.
God doesn't give us everything we ask for, but I've noticed that sometimes He gives us something Better.
Hang in there, world. There is still Beauty and Kindness and Light out there, especially if we look for it, but most especially when we Live it.
#LIGHTtheWORLD

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dogsledding: Guest Post

-
Image
 Happy Birthday to Mark, and he wrote this post.  One of the benefits of traveling to snowy northern Norway is that there are a plethora of winter activities to do.   Besides the usual skiing/snowboarding, snowshoeing, and snowmobiling, there are also things more unique to Tromsø, such as reindeer sleigh rides and dogsledding.   We went dogsledding twice during our Norway travels.   This is the story of the first of those adventures.   The dogsledding company of our first experience is located at the Tromsø Golf Club, the northernmost 18-hole golf course in the world.  Buried in snow in the winter, it becomes the perfect place for an amazing dogsledding experience.  The dogsledding company runs shuttle busses from Tromsø city center to the dogsledding camp.  It takes about an hour to get there and the views along the way are spectacular. The noise on arrival was also spectacular.   They have well over 100 dogs there and they all want to talk to each other at full volume. The dogs
Read more

RATS! A Guest Column

-
Image
  On May 10, we began the move into our new apartment.  It is in the same building as our old apartment.  In fact, it is just down the hall on the same floor.  Our lease renewal was coming up on our old apartment and the rent on our old apartment was going up significantly.  If we were going to pay a bunch more for our old apartment, why not get a bigger and refurbished apartment for slightly more than what our new rent was going to be?  The new apartment would still be a one-bedroom, but would have a study and would also have a half-bath by the front door.  The big draw for us is the study, which is too small to be considered a second bedroom but will be big enough to have a crib [because SPOILER! pregnant].  The half-bath is unnecessary (except for if we have guests over who want to use the bathroom without going through our bedroom, but we almost never have guests) and is actually a hindrance as it takes away from kitchen space. Our lease on the old apartment did not run out until t
Read more

Thoughts on Pregnancy

-
Image
 I have hit the 6-month mark in gestation. I'd like to say that means I'm two-thirds of the way done, but actually, * psych! * pregnancy is 10 months, not 9. I don't know why we say pregnancy is 9 months; maybe it averages in all the preemies. So far, I have to say first trimester is the worst. Constant nausea, and too early to tell people why you feel terrible. Mark likes to point out that I never threw up, but nausea is terrible all on its own, so I didn't find that comforting. Second trimester has less nausea, but also less energy. Like, I was running 2-3 miles a day up until 2nd trimester. Now I'm running 1 mile a couple times a week, but as of this week I think even that is going to stop because the 2 times I ran this week left me with such pain in my pelvic area--and that's even with a belly band thing to try to support the extra tummy weight--that changing positions hurt all day. Also, I'm not a fan of the nighttime leg cramps. These are charley-horse
Read more