Monthly Archives: December 2014

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I'm constantly thinking of things I want to write about. Some ideas become nine-hundred word posts. Some ideas don't become.  ......
I have gobs of titles with no words to follow. Some float around in my head.  Other titles flood my "Notes" app on my phone. These titles stay just titles for a couple of reasons. Sometimes it's because I end up getting too busy and lose passion for the topic; other times I lack creative energy.
But more often, I have a title that begs an answer I don't have. Answers often come with experience which brings about perspective. Sometimes I'm inexperienced.  Sometimes I'm just a slow learner.
That's where you come in. I'm serious. There are burning questions for which I need answers (and I'm probably not the only one). So I'm looking for guest writers... (people who can type words).  Really, that's all you need to be able to do.

Or maybe you have your own "dying to share with the world" topic.

In either event type it up in the next week or so (or tonight). Send the response to one of these titles or a self-inspired guest post to me in an email. Pretty please.  It's my Christmas wish.  I'll make you a Christmas treat.  Or maybe I'll buy you one.  (Read on. I can't cook.)

Here are the titles:

How to get your dog to stop barking at the mailman

Griffin and Ashlee, our canine friends, bark ferociously and incessantly at the mailman every day for about twenty-five minutes.  This, and the fact that we're terrible at taking care of our yard, makes us the worst neighbors on Memphis Avenue. How do we get them to stop? Someone help.

One of the Yippers -She's not as sweet as she looks
One of the Yippers
-She's not as sweet as she looks

A Christmas Story

Relay a Christmas story from this week or when you were a kid. With pictures. I love stories. I love pictures too.

When you Know you Shouldn't Worry; How Not to

I know the anti-worrying scripture (Cast your cares on the LORD....) but I'm still a ball of worry. Worry, worry, worry.  What you know and what you feel are two different things.  How do you live secure when so many fragile things are perched about you? Give more advice than just pray, but that's good too.

Foolproof recipes for Christmas

I'm not shy about telling this. I can't cook.  I guess its really more of a warning. The kids once mistook my burritos for lasagna.  I need a couple of recipes and maybe a short story about where you got the recipe or a story about something bad you've cooked before (to make me feel better).

How to decorate a Christmas tree without it looking like you have twelve years of different fads hanging on boughs.

One year I loved all things black and bought black Christmas balls and felt ribbon to go on the tree.  The next year it was all those bright hues- hot pink and turquoise... I bought some antique looking ornaments at our youth garage sale not too long ago. Then there was burlap. I never buy enough to fill the tree.  I simply add things that have no business sharing tree space.  Suggestions?

Why forty is fabulous.....or is it?

Twenty four days is all I have before I hit forty.  I hear it's fabulous.  Is it true?  What does it mean if you've felt forty for the latter part of your thirties and it was more flabbergasting than fabulous?

Your Thoughts About Santa

I have many thoughts.  And they fight each other.

Things to get a Man for Christmas

I drew the name of two of my brother-in-laws for Christmas (or would it be brothers-in law-that sounds so weird).  I have no idea what to get them and quite frankly I never have any idea what to get Jason or Hayden for that matter.  Men are hard to buy for.  I would love to hear from a man on this.  Any ideas (in addition to gift cards)?

How to prepare for your kid going off to college (both emotionally and all the other stuff)

I have a lot of friends, and I mean a lot (because a lot of you are older than me) that have already went through this traumatic event they call "the Senior year".  I need help in knowing how to sit back and enjoy it when there is little time and so much to do, including moping.

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Why it's ok to wear the same pair of socks several days in a row if your feet don't stink.

Jason recently realized that I'd been wearing the same pair of black and gray socks for several days.  I know that sounds bad.  But I think the litmus test for sock changing should be based on smell rather than the number of days. My feet don't stink. What are your thoughts on sock changing?

Not all feet are created equal
Not all feet are created equal

Meant to say "All feet are not created equal".  I should stop now.

Wait.  Did I mention I love guest posts?

Send your post response or your thoughts on another matter.

kristiburden@gmail.com

 

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unnamed (120) There's no other time of year that we're so busy and frankly so distracted. December starts off with "good will towards men" in the form of charity like the Angel Tree and Operation Christmas Child. We pencil in parties where we'll get the chance to chat with seldom-seen friends and try a new chocolate dessert. We add "something red to wear" to our shopping list for our nine year old in the Christmas program. We buy gifts doing dizzying math making sure to spend a near equal amount on each family member. We fight crowds in stores only to go home to bake and wrap gifts and bake some more. The entire month of December, which now November is now trying to cash in on, is busting at the seams leaving me to wonder if there is really "peace on earth".

Christmas is a challenge.

For Christ is born of Mary

And gathered all above

While mortals sleep,

the angels keep

Their watch of wondering love

(O Little Town of Bethlehem)

We do so much good in our busy-ness. We give. We share. We love. But if we're not careful we get caught up in the busy and, like sleeping mortals, we miss out on the entire reason for Christmas-celebrating Emmanuel,

God with us.

When I have family come in, I do my best to clear the schedule. I want to spend time with them. I want to talk with them and enjoy their company without the interruption of a thousand other activities. God with us.  He's here with us always, but Christmas is the time we've set aside to celebrate his humble coming.......and his presence with us. It's hard to do with so much going on.

I like prescriptions. Like when the doctor says take one of these every day and within a week you'll probably stop coughing. I don't have a prescription for the December debacle. There's so much need in the world for servanthood and I'm glad December gives us the charge to go out there and love on people. But there's not enough of us to cure all the ills, even in hyper-kind mode, as we are in December.

Maybe the overwhelming nature of it all has purpose.

Some of us are already decided on the second day of December that we can't do it all. We know that all our doing is but a drop of water in an ocean of need. And on the flip side, we know that so many of the things we're doing aren't really needed at all (Why did I buy that Elf on the Shelf? ).

It all causes me wonder.

There's a song written by John Jacob Niles. He writes of his inspiration for writing the  song

A girl had stepped out to the edge of the little platform attached to the automobile. She began to sing. Her clothes were unbelievable dirty and ragged, and she, too, was unwashed. Her ash-blond hair hung down in long skeins.... But, best of all, she was beautiful, and in her untutored way, she could sing. She smiled as she sang, smiled rather sadly, and sang only a single line of a song.

Based on the line the little girl Annie Morgan sang, Niles wrote the song "I wonder as I wander".

We're all Annie Morgans.

....all of our righteous acts are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6)

We spend much of December singing in an untutored way.  Still we sing.  And our song is beautiful if only we sing with wonder in our hearts.

I wonder as I wander out under the sky

How Jesus the Saviour did come for to die

For poor on'ry people like you and like I'

I wonder as I wander out under the sky.

Make time this December to wonder.