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Thanksgiving and Prayer (Repost)

September 6, 2009 in gratitude,Phillipians,prayer with 9 Comments


I really don’t have a post today, just a scripture that has been on my heart that I wanted to share:

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

(Phillipians 1:3-11)

With a grateful heart,

Katdish

Thanksgiving and Prayer

May 23, 2009 in gratitude,Phillipians,prayer with 12 Comments


I know that I have been mostly abundantly silly this week (as opposed to how I am ordinarily?) I really don’t have a post today, just a scripture that has been on my heart that I wanted to share:

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

(Phillipians 1:3-11)

With a grateful heart,

Katdish

Dear God:

May 17, 2009 in friendship,gratitude,heaven with 11 Comments


Dear God:

Thank you for Pat. I suppose we were unlikely friends, what with our differences in age, background, etc. But the Body of Christ is like that, isn’t it? It matters not how vast our differences may be on the surface. When we share a love for Jesus, most things don’t really seem to matter.

Thank you for showing me through Pat that all things can be used for your glory. That something like a loss of a leg because of illness might appear at first to be a curse, then turn out to be an incredible blessing.

Thank you for:

  • her infectious laughter
  • her love of me and my family
  • her cinnamon rolls
  • her gift of gab
  • her generosity and thoughtfulness
  • her creativity
  • her wicked sense of humor
  • her wonderful family that she shared with us all
  • her servants heart
  • her friendship through good times and not so good times

I know that she is with you now. I’m missing her right now, but I know she is dancing with the angels. And probably cracking them up.

Goodbye my friend. Until we meet again. I love you.

Things I learned and some I didn’t from my mother

May 10, 2009 in gratitude,mother's day with 8 Comments


(For the record, I’m the adorable one in the middle with the Fred Flintstone feet.)

What my mother didn’t teach me that I learned the hard way:

  • that forgiveness is a gift you give yourself

  • that God is my everything

  • that having a newborn is not for the faint of heart

  • that seeing your child in pain is excrutiatingly more difficult than your own pain

  • that I really am creative, just not in the same ways she is

  • that not all men are creeps

  • that marriage isn’t a fairy tale, it’s a constant work in progress

  • that just because it’s true, doesn’t mean it’s not gossip

  • that mother’s aren’t perfect, but love covers a multitude of sins

Things I learned from my mother:

  • to make lemonade when life give you lemons, even if it’s still a little bitter

  • that creativity and a little elbow grease can go a long way

  • to respect your elders even if you don’t agree with them

  • to always say please and thank you

  • that steamed rice goes with just about anything, even spaghetti sauce

  • that when there’s nothing to laugh about, you can always laugh at yourself

  • to always put the needs of others before your own

  • to do an honest day’s work

  • that happiness is a warm puppy – even the 3 legged variety

  • that sometimes life is just about endurance

  • that actions always speak louder than words

  • to pick myself up and dust myself off

  • to never say “I’ll never do that with my kids.”

  • that the youngest child usually gets their way by means of wearing you down

  • that the youngest child gets sucker punched in the back when mom’s not looking (okay, my sisters and brother taught me that one – frequently)

  • that cute goes a long way, but character will go the distance

  • to be a subservient and submissive wife (okay that one didn’t really take)

  • that giving to others is infinitely more satisfying that hoarding things for yourself.

  • that true beauty comes from within

Thanks, mom. I am a better mom because I am your daughter.
Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms, daughters, grandmothers and granddaughter!

Hope springs eternal

November 21, 2008 in all things fancy,but I digress,children,family,gratitude,heredity,hope,turkey with 15 Comments

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” James 1:17
I honestly believe that. I believe that whatever good traits and talents we have are His gifts to be used for His Glory. I also believe that if it is God’s will for you to be a great writer, even if you don’t know how to read, He will provide circumstances in your life to see His will accomplished. With God, all things are possible.
Having said that, I also believe that certain abilities and traits (good and bad) are passed down either by heredity or simply by growing up around said traits and abilities. I’d be willing to bet that anyone who has a child over the age of 3 has seen a personality trait in their child that they immediately recognize as one that is shared by either themselves or their spouse. Of course, the bad ones can usually be attributed to the spouse, but I digress.
Both my children are good examples of this hypothesis. But I will focus on my daughter Rachel for the purposes of this blog post. She loves all things creative (me), is a problem solver (Ron), a bit of a diva (Ron, okay me), loves to sing (me), paint (me), is good at building things (Ron), likes to read (me), is sensitive to the feelings of others (hopefully both of us), laughs easily (me), and is a total grouch in the morning (totally Ron). And while she is completely unique and has her own distinct personality, she is also a combination of the two of us. She looks more like me, but I’ve got dominant genes on my side (brown hair, eyes, etc.).
There is one thing about her that kinda baffles me. She is a total girly girl. It’s not that I don’t love that about her, I think it’s incredibly adorable. I just don’t know where that came from. She love pink, Barbies, her American Girl dolls, fashion (i.e. – all things fancy), and jewelry. I’m just not like that at all. And Ron, well, don’t even go there. As evidence, I present Exhibits A, B and C: Rachel’s room circa 2004, 2006 and 2008, respectively. Not to stray off topic, but I feel the need to say that while I have redecorated this space several times, everything you see was either given to me, bought from a garage sale, made by my own hands, or bought at a low, low sale price. (Elbow grease and paint can go a long way and retail is for suckers.)
Now, back to the my original train of thought. As a parent, I secretly delight when I see my children take interest in or excel at something that I’m into. Just as I cringe when I see a less desirable trait that I share, like forgetting where they put anything, rear its ugly head. But in all honesty, as long as she is true to who she is, I’m good with it. I have accepted the fact that my daughter is the living embodiment of “Fancy Nancy”.
Tonight was open house at the kids’ school. When I walked into my daughter’s classroom, her teacher greeted my husband and me, then immediately asked if we had seen Rachel’s turkey. Typically, kids this age and younger make a paper turkey, and on each feather write something they are thankful for. On this particular turkey, their instructions were to imagine the turkey could talk and write some of the things that he or she would say. (Her teacher is awesome.) Imagine my surprise when I read the following on Rachel’s turkey:
-Please do not eat me because I am pregnant.
-Please do not eat me because I am krazy.
-Please do not eat me because I am too big for your oven.
-Please do not eat me because I will explode in your oven and cover it with blood.
-Please do not eat me because I have diarrhea.
Perhaps the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree after all. (*smile*)

Dear Lurker: A love letter

November 17, 2008 in but I digress,cluster map,Crocodile Dundee,gratitude,hobbits,hyperlink codes,other blogs with 10 Comments

“Lurker” has such a negative connotation to it. I prefer the term “Friends without Comments”, or FWOCs. As is often the case, yesterday I started out at a blog that I read on a regular basis, found a comment that peaked my curiosity, which lead me to numerous other sites. One of the blogs I went to was called Blog Around the World. It’s a really cool site where fellow bloggers can get tips and share ideas. There’s even a little button widget that you can paste on your sidebar. I considered putting it on here, but it seems that the target audience is female. And while I am a female and most certainly write from that perspective, I don’t consider this a “women’s blog”. I hope it’s not, anyway. Okay, that last post was not something many men could relate to, but I don’t write too many of those. That post has, however, inspired me to re-write the lyrics to Kelly Clarkson’s song “Beautiful Disaster” and devote my version to my new friend Beth. I’m calling it “Muffintop Disaster”. (That STILL cracks me up!) But once again, I digress…
Anyhoo, here’s where I was going with this: In researching this post, I found some blog articles that were centered around why people should comment on other people’s blogs, how to get people to comment on your blog, yadda, yadda, yadda. If I’m being honest, I WOULD like more people to comment. Partly because it is a boost to my ego (a bad thing), and partly because I’m really curious who is reading and why. (Well, maybe not so much why. I’m not even sure why I WRITE some of the things here.) If you scroll waaaaay down to the bottom of HLAC, you will find a site hit counter and a cluster map. Now, the counter updates each time someone views my blog – even me – every time they check my blog. But, according to the FAQs on the cluster map feature, it only counts the hits from any particular html (or whatever it’s called) in one 24 hour period. And while I think cluster map has some kinks in it (for instance, I know Mare checks in on a regular basis, but there’s no dot in Nigeria), using my daft math skills, I figure even with my chatty girl blogger pals going back and forth on each other’s blogs, there’s still quite a few others reading and not commenting. Besides, with the exception of Mare, we’re all here in the states. I have friends that have told me they read this blog, and I can see their dots on the map, but that doesn’t explain all the dots in states where I don’t know anyone or the dots in South America, Africa, Western Europe, Indonesia, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, et. al. Incidentally, Australia and New Zealand are the two places I most want to visit before I go to heaven. Although I’m sure Aussies probably want to kill us when we go over there sporting horrible Crocodile Dundee accents and saying things like, “Gooday mate!” Just as I’m sure Kiwis probably roll their eyes when a bunch of silly Americans come over there looking for Hobbits. I promise if I have the privilege of visiting “down under” I won’t do that…..much. Yet again, I digress.
The point I was trying to make about 100 words ago is this: Whether you comment or not, I’m incredibly humbled and grateful that you would take the time to check in on me and my ramblings and rantings. I hope that I have provided a giggle or two; maybe even challenged you in one way or another. So, again — thank you so very much. If you have any suggestions or ideas about the content of this blog, feel free to leave me a comment…(Hey, it was worth a shot.)

And speaking of being grateful, I am incredibly grateful to my blogger pal Angela, without whose help I would not be able insert hyperlink codes with such annoying frequency.

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