877

i've been counting thankfuls for months
counting one to one-thousand....

i'm at my sister's house
in the city
and
we have the same dishtowels
because we have the same mother
but
carol has a
hedgehog-that-runs-all-night
and
a daughter-who-is-thirteen
and
a snaggle-tooth-kinder-boy
i'm at my sister's house
comfy
and
relaxed
and this is 877

how about you? what are your gifts other than those under the tree?

linking with:

grace for FYBF, michelle for caffeinated randomness and studio jru for sneak peek friday

little utopia

i drove 159 miles

to my twin sister's house
on friday
for
her poetry in motion
as carol finley dance group
performed
little utopia and other dances
i drove 159 miles
to my twin sister's house
on friday
for
nephew bounding to my car
upon arrival and announcing
in his best almostfiveyearsoldvoice
kendal! i'm building a worm
house for the worms!!!
came see!!!!
i drove 159 miles
to my twin sister's house
on friday
for
niece sitting next to me at the
show counting the number
of people who approached
me believing i was my sister
(one lady popped me on the
head with her program as
she walked past me down the aisle!)
i drove 159 miles
to my twin sister's house
on friday
for
laughing until we cried
talking late into the night
drinking hot coffee with our reading
for
just
being
continuing to count his gifts to 1000 -

482. chris, my husband. he loves me. 
483. a husband who enjoys hanging out with his children
484. my sister's awesome work as choreographer
484. my girl, the one i mentor. she joined the praise team at her church!
485. nieces and nephews
486. a community of bloggers that prays

linking with

ann for 1000 gifts

l.l. for on, in, and around mondays
richella for grace imparted
laura for playdates with god

jen for soli deo gloria
shanda for on your heart tuesdays
emily for tuesdays unwrapped

the short version of the story

carol (left) & me (right)

my twin sister and i are
country mouse
and city mouse
she can walk to and from a
grocery store
faster than i can drive to one
i have dirt roads
forest
mountains
spring water
deer
she has
museums
coffee shops
high schools that offer mandarin chinese
target
sidewalks
she visited this week
and stayed with mom and dad
i was up early tuesday morning
and found a frantic email from her
a portion:
...at least two humans came
close enough to mom and dads to
trip the motion sensor light.
They made bad imitation animal calls to
each other....
what? why didn't she call someone????
i was there before 8:00
she had recorded the
robbers or teenagers
on her phone and played
the sounds for me...
owls
she heard owls
i.love.this.woman.

the thursday-friday links:

emily at in the hush of the moon for imperfect prose

casey at the wiegand's

beki at the rusted chain for fingerprint friday

michelle for caffeinated randomness

studio jru for sneak peek friday

four random happies

and these make me happy:

ilovelocopops.com

1. waking up without a headache after a bad-headache night. it's like magic.
2. visiting sister in the city - cousins, coffee, irregardless cafe, locopops (mexican chocolate)
3. reading the ultimate guide to dinosaurs to my four-year-old nephew. he corrected my pronunciation of compsognathus.
4. remembering, that in humility and with courage,  i may take my worries out of the pit in which i wallow with them and place them on an altar.

the thursday-friday links:

emily at in the hush of the moon for imperfect prose

casey at the wiegand's

beki at the rusted chain for fingerprint friday

michelle for caffeinated randomness

studio jru for sneak peek friday

upon a sunday, happy

these three things from today made me happy. and peaceful. and wishing for more.

1. karrie from life from here delivered the message at her church. and i went! and i loved it! here's what i learned - god redeems us from ourselves. because he can. because he wants to. and then? he walks with us while we go about the new living.
2. visited my girl, the beautiful young lady i mentor, for three hours.  i love her physical surroundings - i will be able to picture her now as i pray for her. the language she's speaking - it's positive. i'm so very proud of how hard she is working. still a long way to go. but some progress.
3. i'm writing this while sitting beside my twin sister!!!! i drove on in to see her after visiting my girl. we're sitting criss-cross-applesauce on her couch, our laptops up and running. bliss!

and for these i am also thankful:

86. lattes
87. chocolate
88. my husband, who will take the kids to school for me in the morning!
89. front porch swings
90. nephews who ask me to play

linking up with three awesome writers today!

gates

i was seven and at church camp with my family. camp susan barbour jones. i remember losing a tooth. my brother remembers a pool/swamp. he calls it the crappy camp. but i remember something else. a speaker. he was in a wheelchair, maybe? he had been to heaven. i perked up as he told his story of a car crash, being declared dead, going to heaven and being revived. i hung on every word. scripture isn't very detailed about heaven. maybe because we wouldn't be able to think about anything else if we knew it all?  i have to admit that i've had reservations about heaven. not that i don't want to go there, but i can't imagine not missing earthly things. and what if i get tired of singing? or what if it isn't real and i don't get to see family members? i feel like a horrible christian for admitting it.

i was intrigued by a human perspective on heaven then, and now, thirty-three years later, i still am. even though it's been out since 2004, i just read 90 minutes in heaven (on my kindle. which is awesome) by don piper. a truly compelling story not only of heaven but of courage and perseverance and faith. so, this guy, too, has been to heaven. again, a car crash, the pronouncement, heaven and revival. what i loved most was learning that he saw family members, didn't worry about earth, loved the music and felt an overwhelming sense of joy. all the time.

i told my sister and her daughter about it. they gasped. my niece's eyes lit up. she moved in closer. is it a true story? you bet, kiddo. we didn't say it, but we were thinking it - we'll get to see cameron and pops for sure. and there will be no more night and no more tears. and all things, all things, will be made new. (revelation 21 & 22) amen.

what are your thoughts on heaven?

hey, sister

my sister said this today:

i saw myself in the mirror at work

gray hairs were sticking up

i was wearing a
black cowl neck sweater

i realized that the only thing

separating me from the
crazy old lady professors

is that i'm not covered in
cat hair

and i told her about:

feeling incredibly sore from

hula-hooping on Wii Fit
and
slamming into my dresser
with my knee and face

yesterday morning

 

she is my twin

and

a gift

and

i wish i could see her

every

day



Linking up with some great ladies today:

Fingerprint Fridays at The Rusted Chain
Thankful Thursday at Life from Here
Imperfect Prose on Thursday at in the hush of the moon
Caffeinated Randomness at Lost in the Prairies

admitting on a tuesday

While Emily is Blooming on a Tuesday over at Chatting at the Sky, I am admitting on a Tuesday:

I have admitted, in public, my deficiency in the sewing hormone. Now I will admit that I am also deficient in the hormone that controls my cleaning mechanism. I see that the living room is trashed, but I don't care. Messes trigger sleepiness, an intense desire to read and a tendency to surf the web, but rarely a cleaning frenzy. I will now allow the public to read my piece, now two years old, that describes my living room one afternoon in August. My house is not this bad right now, but....

at this moment on my living room floor
sometimes carol and i play
this game in which we
describe
the mess we see at the moment
it’s a coping mechanism
if someone else is as bad as
or worse than me at keeping
house
i feel better about myself
and can spend
the rest of the day reading – guilt free
at this moment
on my living room
floor -
a yardstick
chris’s new balance one lying on its side
a christianity today magazine
a dvd atop a bible
the papers I started grading yesterday
(in seven stacks)
a pair of drumsticks
a gym bag
a slingshot
hank’s nikes one lying on its side
a puzzle out of its box
operation all set up but i can’t tell who won
a sports illustrated magazine
a roll of red duct tape
half a yo-yo
a netflix mailer
two d batteries
a roll of ritz crackers half eaten
two remote controls
indiana jones in lego form
a yankees hat
a plastic parachute attached to a little man
a diminutive darth vader action figure
a pair of football pants
sans protective pads
can you beat that sister?