A knock at the door.  O-no thanks, we don’t really need any.  But o my aren’t you just so cute and it is so cold out there and you are learning to be a good and caring citizen and can probably win a reward if we buy some and…O – wait!  Are those Thin Mints??? BAM!  They get us again.

Can’t resist the Thin Mints.

Those Girl Scouts, I’ll tell ya.

Meanwhile, the little K-kids spent the night and here is a tiny tidbit of our post-breakfast activity.

In other news…Starring Guini and Gemma May; produced by Gavin and directed by the nonna.  It is in post-production as we speak.

In other news…

Meanwhile, filmmaker, Gavin Kelley, has started doing impressions of his Nonna (mostly her “cuss words” like “O pooey,” and “O booger-snots”),  which send her into convulsions of laughter.

My dad played this so loud on the Hi-Fi, I’d come running home to listen from 2 blocks away.  My mom always wanted him to turn it down a little, but 1723 York Street, 1970, pulsed to the rhythm of, especially, this song, “(Come and Go with Me to My) Father’s House!”

FOUR kisses

Four hugs

Four winks

and four LOVES!

All for my little Averi-kins!

I love to hear you talk.  I love to hear you sing.  Your eyes are simply intoxicating.  I like it when you dance and arrange everything so perfectly.  You are Lucy (from the Peanuts comic strip; your name means “elf counselor” and you sure do like to give advice, o yes you do!) and you ever and always are my sugar-pie-honey-bunch!

~~~

Back by popular demand – last years’ birthday video (when she was just turning 3) by Averi and Nonna!

Here are some birthday Bible words for Y-O-U!

Remember, Averi-J, to faithfully pray to God

so you can always find Him;

God is your BEST hiding place;

and He will protect Averi from trouble

and surround her with songs of deliverance.

And God will instruct Averi and teach her the ways she should go;

And He will counsel Averi with His love – remember,

He is watching out for you, Averi!

Do not be like a naughty mule,

which has no understanding

and has to be controlled by bit and bridle

or it will not come to you.

Naughty people have lots and lots of troubles,

but the LORD’s unfailing love

surrounds you, Averi, when you trust in Him.

Rejoice (get up and do a happy dance) in the LORD

and be glad, you righteous little booger, you;

sing to God, Averi, because He has made your heart clean!

Psalm 32

Your Nonna L O V E S you!!  Happy birthday!!

01/08/12 – Worship from Resurrection Fellowship on Vimeo.

Rocky with the Rez team recently. Loveland, CO

LIVE Stream Sunday at www.rez.org, go to media, live webcast at 8:30 or 10:30 am.

Off to Chicago in a few. Looks like a super full flight.

I love Pinterest.

I think I may have mentioned that before?  Much as I enjoy it, sort of the coming together of all the best stuff on the web, I also love all of the poking-fun-of-Pinterest things popping up on boards.  I enjoy the humor and can laugh at myself.

Here are some Pinterest thoughts that make me smile.

To be the first one of the people who follow you and whom you follow to pin something?  Delightful.  Feign to deny it, my friends!

There are some major super-achievers not only pinning, but actually doing {EVERYTHING} they find.    I’d have avoided it more if I’d known what an extreme-domesticity-DOing it was going to command.  But luckily, I am past the sheer drive to do, and just enjoying the gathering of my interests.  Just looking at my boards makes me happy.  {click here so you can be happy, too} However, I’d like points for a lot of the wedding stuff I did, please.

Actually, I applaud my peeps who have started madly getting things done – all the projects and recipes they have discovered on Pinterest!  However, for me, Pinterest is what my “idea notebook” has always been: interesting and powerful images for {inspiration}.  I may not replicate what I see, but it will all eventually impact the things I create, design and yes, even eventually do.

BEWARE :: After awhile, they all come back around!

At least I will be organized somewhere.

If you’d just look at my Pinterest boards, you’d always know what you could get me!  Haha.

The conundrum.

Pinterest does indeed make me feel creative.

This is when Dave would put his foot down.

I cannot deny it.  A slight addiction going on.

And my favorite, although please remember: we really did have a wedding to plan and there is much fun to be had with the grand-boys-and-girls.  And I refuse to give up my dream-home dreams…on a big farmable acreage…with my very own park shelter…and horses…and self-sustaining gardening…and a go-cart track…plus an indoor hockey rink…a giant playroom with lots ‘o dress-up clothes for the girlies…great light through massive windows…a slide from the top floor down…a swing in the family room…in a big, red barn.  No, no – you can’t take that away from me!

I should mention, I have been invited to my very first Pinterest-Party. I wonder if I can win an award for having the most pins with the fewest actual follow-throughs?

Pinterest = Inspiration

I used to hate when some one would trot out that scripture from Ephesians 4 that included the phrase “Instead, speaking the truth in love…” because its’ reference usually preceded a round of scripture-ammunition aimed to pierce the heart and kill the soul.   BAM {huge criticism fully bloated by cynical opinions = you are a big-fat-failure} + followed by  “I’m just speaking the truth in love.”  *Harumph.

If you read that last sentence and winced from the memory of it, it has probably been hurled at you, too.  If you looked it and made a mental list of people you’d like to speak-the-truth-in-love to, you are probably the BAM-aid.

It is sad to see such an amazing exhortation reduced to a justification for calling out the slightest infractions against fellow believers when in fact, Paul was inviting us to encourage and motivate one another about the reality of our high and holy calling in Christ, which was what the whole first part of Ephesians was about.  This is how we HELP each other – we remind each other (because of love) of our amazing and glorious place in Christ!  See Ephesians 1-4, s’il te plait.

What Ephesians 4 actually says is:

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.

Instead, speaking the truth in love,

we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.   From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

And I am finding that my words are never more true than when they are spoken from the depths of my love.  Then, even though  they are hard to say and possibly even  difficult to hear, they set people free.  They loose the chains and bondages the enemy has been heaping on.  Speaking the truth in love-with love-because of love-by love causes people to grow (life surging through their veins), green and fruitful, established and strong.  Speaking the truth in love brings a maturity in those around us, a connection to Jesus rather than a condemnation that sends them running the other way with fear and shame.

And the truth you speak in love?  It is your truth.  Tell on yourself.  Admit your own stuff.  Tell your truth so you can help others avoid your pitfalls.  Tell your truth about how the enemy has come at you so other people won’t feel like they are on the ledge alone, but then be sure to tell the part about the faithfulness of God who has never left you nor forsaken you.  When we come clean, speaking the truth of how we are weak (and He is strong), of how we have failed (but He has been faithful), about how we have been the biggest sinners (and He has become our most wonderful Savior), then – we will become the “body,” the Body of Jesus Christ…

joined

and held together

by every supporting ligament

growing-growing-growing

being   b u i l t   up in L O V E

as each part does its’ work

And guess what?  Speaking the truth in love is a ministry of all of us Jesus-loving, New-Testament believers.  We get to join our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in shattering an accusation-ridden religion we can never hope to keep and step into the power of an overwhelming love from a Father who will not let us go.  Oh wow.