I have the best of intentions for this blog, and often write amazing long-winded eloquent posts in my head while feeding the baby, or while trying to fall asleep at night.  Of course, since I’m never sitting at the computer during those times, you’ll have to take my word about the “amazing” and “eloquent”.  Lately when I do sit here to write, the scrapbookin’ obsession takes over, and I use that as an easy out for posting.  Of course I want to share the layouts and my hobby, but it seems this blog has turned into not much more than a showcase lately.  I’m mostly ok with that, but would prefer to write more posts of substance, at least occasionally.

So, a departure… a bit of substance, if I can muster it.

This has been a week full of sadness, discussion, anger, more discussion, and more sadness.  And lots of prayer.  Why?  Well, it’s somewhat difficult to explain, because we don’t fully understand our emotions about it all, but Allan and I have been heavily affected by the killing of a minister that we don’t even know from Selmer, TN.  Matthew Winkler was found shot in the back, and a day or so later his wife Mary allegedly confessed to killing him.  Their three daughters are now in the custody of Matthew’s parents, and Mary is in jail, looking at first-degree murder charges. This is a tragic story from many angles, but why does it affect us so much?  Again, we didn’t know them… but yet… we feel like we could have.  We are members of the Church of Christ.  Matthew was a minister for a Church of Christ in Tennessee. 

It probably seems silly to folks not affiliated with our churches, but there is a deep kinship that exists among members of the Churches of Christ, whether you know one another or not.  And there also exists a kind of “six degrees of separation” within the church family, even though our churches are considered autonomous and individual.  More often that not, if we are travelling or visiting a congregation other than our home church, we find someone we know.. or meet someone who knows someone we know.  I don’t think this kind of thing exists as much in the larger denominations, at least not to the extent it does in the Churches of Christ.  Some would argue, probably quite fairly, that this exists because we have a tendency towards being “exclusive”.  That’s a possible reason, but I prefer to focus on the positives (with the hope and prayer that we are continually evaluating our exclusive tendencies, and becoming more inclusive in the ways Jesus would want us to be). We don’t have a denominational “head” somewhere, but we have deep kinship all the same.  That’s a pretty amazing quality, and for all my frustrations (a post or two for another day), I am proud to be a part of this family. 

And I have to say this – we believe, (as most other cofc’ers do) that we are not the ONLY Christians.  Our fellowship has been blasted by certain “media personalities” this week, and it’s been a source of frustration, sadness, anger, and resignation.  I’ve read some quality posts and comments on various blogs and sites, and I hope this attack will be a wake-up call.  To paraphrase a post I read, we aren’t doing a very good job representing, if mainstream America doesn’t know who we are or what and who we stand for.  There is a lot we could be doing better, as individual churches and as a community as a whole. 

On a more positive note, I am so proud of the way the church family in Selmer is handling this horrible tragedy.  With every news article we read we have felt comforted by the loving reactions and caring, thoughtful, wise comments made.  I can’t even begin to imagine the depth of emotion running through that little town and through that congregation, but they are being Christ to the world right now in this situation.  I pray that they can continue doing just that through the coming months as this drags on.

There is much more to say, but my brain is jumbled.  Perhaps another day…

May God bless Mary Winkler, Matthew Winkler’s family, their children, the church family, and everyone affected by this. 

 

 

I purchased a new camera shortly before Samuel’s birthday at the beginning of this month.  Of course that means I have TONS and TONS of pictures to scrap, and I’m adding more every day.  The camera is awesome, as is the new memory stick which holds something like 350 high res pictures!  (Be still my beating heart!)

Anyway, below are a few more Samuel B-day pics in my latest layout.  This is the layout I did for Traci’s sketch challenge mentioned in the previous post.

There are also a few new layouts in the gallery, in the Baby Allan category.  Be SURE to check out “Scarf-Boy”.

I have lots to say, but not the gumption to sit and write, so more later!

If you are a digi-scrapper, be sure to check out the contest on Traci’s (THE Scrapmommy) blog – http://thescrapmommy.typepad.com/life_as_a_scrap_mommy/. 

More from me soon…

Time for a new post!  It’s been a long week, full of runny noses and coughing.  Baby Allan and Daddy Allan are starting to get over their colds, but Samuel and I got it (of course) about mid-week.  He is FAR sicker than I am, and it’s a little pitiful to hear him talk.  (He is all stopped up, making his voice very high pitched and even harder to understand).  He keeps telling me he needs more medicine, and that his “mouth hurts”, and then he points his finger down his throat.  My poor, poor babies!!

I haven’t done much scrappin this week, due to the illnesses (holding a baby all day doesn’t make for easy digi-scrappin!) and business being a bit busy.  But, I did manage to get three Christmas layouts done on Saturday night at a crop at ScrapMommies.com.  (I’m ALMOST caught up with Christmas 05!)  You can see them if you click the thumbnails below.

     

I’m off to work on a few more, while the Baby naps! 

If you are asleep, how lovely for YOU! 

Yes, we are once again battling with the youngest child over sleep patterns.  Actually in his nearly 11 months of life, when HAVEN’T we been battling this?  Maybe a week or two here and there… that’s about it!  The child is awake right now – sitting in his intellitainer, watching late night TV with Daddy.  I put him there after he tried to eat my hair, slap my face, and laugh at me when I frowned at him for spitting on me.  Oh yea, and he giggled when I strongly told him NO.  Why oh why does he like to eat my hair?!  And WHAT is up with the spitting?? 

I should feel bad about abandoning him to the intellitainer seat, as the last few days have been rough on little Allan.  He has been dealing with a cold, and you know how well babies deal with colds.  Poor little guy kept looking up at me, and if he could have spoken the words, they would have been ”why is my nose not working?!”  I’m fairly certain that he sneezed on me over 100 times in the last three days.  Well, I said fairly.. it may have been more like 50.  But oh my word, can that boy sneeze!  I still haven’t come down with the cold, but I’m sure since I just typed those words I’ll have it tomorrow. (Or later today, since it IS 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning)!  Poor Daddy DID get the cold, and he’s been home veggin on the couch all day. 

So, that’s how things are here!  I did manage to get a lot of work done today, amidst the sick folks, and I started a couple new scrapbook layout ideas.  I think I’m in a creative slump unfortunately… and I think I need to get out of the house more than once every couple of weeks.  I realized today (when I ran a couple of errands) that it’s been far too long since I’ve gotten out.  When you are over-the-moon excited about a trip to the Post Office, it’s time to make some changes.  What do you think?

Ok, off to take pity on the baby and see if I can get him to sleep without further maiming of Mommy!

I’ve been reading blogs for close to two years now and really have far too many in my “must read” list, as I continue to find new ones almost every day.  I started reading a few secular blogs that I found by accident, and then wondered who in the Christian community was writing daily.  I did a search at google, and one of the first Christian blogs I started reading was that of Mike Cope’s.  He is a minister in Abilene, TX, and his blog is a mixture of (but not limited to) spiritual thoughts, everyday ramblings, book reviews, prayer requests, sermons, and more.  (I am a huge fan of his, ever since I first heard him speak at the Pepperdine lectureships several years ago on the topic of Job.  I still get goosebumps and tears in my eyes when I recall listening to him speak that night).  Anyway, when I first found his blog, I read through the archives a bit, and then clicked on a few links.  The links led me to more blogs, which led me to more, and so on.  Reading the online journals of people I don’t know (or rather, don’t know me) occasionally makes me wonder about myself, but I continue doing it anyway!

So, this week Mike has been writing on the topic of the Bible.  These posts are a must-read  You can read them here:

The B-I-B-L-E #1

The B-I-B-L-E #2

The B-I-B-L-E #3

I don’t think he’s done yet, so I will list more links as he adds posts.

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And for those of you who are interested in more layouts, I’ve updated the gallery with about 6 new ones.  I need to take a couple of days and get caught up on business stuff, but I expect I’ll have a few more on Monday.

I keep trying to write posts that don’t include layouts, but for some reason it’s just not happening.  I’ve hit delete on several attempts in the last two days. 

So, here is the latest layout.  It’s a picture of my niece from last summer-ish. 

Credits:  All the papers/elements were made by me, from a “Spring is in the Air” paper pack I created.  I also “chalked” the edges of the papers with a mix of white and purple chalk.  It’s just amazing… digital chalk!

 

My boys are growing up so fast! 

Two layouts so far for Samuel’s birthday:

Here and Here

And one layout with 10 Month Pics of Allan:

Here

Are you tired of layouts yet?   One of these days I promise to write about something other than digi-scrappin.  I spend a lot of time mulling over ideas for blog posts, but then I freeze when I sit to actually type them out.  It’s a fear of what others might think, I suspect.  I’ve got lots to talk about, but I’m afraid to let it all hang out.  You might realize I’m not perfect, and then what would we do?  What’s that, you already know?  Well, shush… I am not ready to accept it yet!