Just One More Cup of Cheer?

I sometimes wonder if my kids are missing out by living in this concrete jungle here in the city.  And then I hear stories of Lee's childhood shenanigans and think to myself, "thank you, Lord, for our fence."  Amen.  But every once in a while it sure is nice to see them cut loose with their cousins and find adventure...Strickland style.

Our sweet Katie, whom we keep very, very busy.

Jillian, "sneaking" to play with Mimi's Christmas pretties.

Ho, ho, ho!

I have so much to say.  She's begged for a vest like this since she first spotted one.  We went with her new favorite color, purple.  She's paired it with her favorite heels and insisted on wearing this witch card from the Disney Headbandz game we got from Aunt Dawn & company.  The witch.  Uh-huh.

Just a swingin'.

Benny shot bb guns every chance he got.  Which was basically the entire Christmas vacation.  He was in heaven! 

Donovan made sure he got his fair share of shooting cans, too.

Our gorgeous cousin Gracie.  You know how people always say their sons are "all boy"?  Well Gracie's all girl.  All princess, to be exact.  (Although I may or may not have seen her and Jillian hike up their little Christmas dresses to dig in the dirt, hop on a bike, or ride a skateboard.  Maybe.)

Our cousin Joel, all-around-rad guy.  Truly.  Laid-back, super-cool, and a natural at this skateboard.  And all kinds of things.

Super cute, too.

Sweet cousin Jonah.  A gentle, generous soul with a great big heart.  Also super-cute.  

Fellow lover of anything computerized or remote-controlled.

She called him cousin Santa.  Still does.  :)

Sweetness!

We squeezed lots of fun into a couple of fantastic days.

We princessed.

We played with fire.

A lot of fire.

We slept good.  ;)

We made memories.  Really great memories.  We're both blessed with the very best families.  So thankful we were able to see some of them for Christmas.

...............

I've been a little under-the-weather lately.  And also hyphen-crazy.  It's almost as bad as my comma addiction...almost.  Oh, don't even get me started on the ellipses...  Anyhoo.  Punctuation aside, I've been pretty worn out with some kind of cold-y deal.  And I'm really feeling the need to be busy because my to-do list is overwhelming me right about now.  (And my tree is still up.  Shhh.)  But today I woke up singing these lyrics to one of my very favorite songs about Mary and Martha, appropriately titled Shh Shh Shh.

Martha, you are worried and distracted by so many things.

But leave it all behind, 

Empty out your mind,

And you'll have wings!

-Justin Roberts

Why Not Sea Monsters?

Songs from the New Testament   

Ahh.  Sounds good to me.  I need a little time at His feet today.  Time to mellow out and hear what He has to say about things.

Jesus says we've all the got time for the shh shh shh.  

Sit and stop and listen to the shh shh shh.

Don't mind if I do.  I hope this day finds you all healthy, happy, trouble-free, and perhaps hyphen-filled.  But if it happens not to be so, join me in taking a little pause for the cause.  A little rest for the weary.  I believe He'll meet us here and His joy will be our strength.   

Let your troubles pop like bubbles in the wind...