Halloween 2012!

Halloween or All Hallows Eve is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate. I take the approach of a more fun celebratory tradition as opposed to the sinister version practiced by some. I think that the history of Halloween is interesting. You can read about the history of Halloween here. At our church we calibrate All Hallows Eve with wonderful Bible readings and beautiful music that seem to invoke the celebratory nature of Halloween.

 We had another wonderful celebration this year and brought along a friend to attend the All Hallows Eve service and fun afterwards at the Halloween party and trunk or treat.

 This year, Emma-Caroline and Sophie chose to dress as the two latest featured Disney princesses, Merida from the movie "Brave" and Rapunzel from the movie "Tangled."

  On Halloween night, we enjoyed a neighborhood soiree with lots of neighborhood friends and Emma-Caroline and Sophie's Godparents, Patrick and Anna. We hope you all had a wonderful Halloween too filled with lots of happy trick-or-treaters and candy too!

Finding Grace in the Middle of a Corn Maze

 Yesterday morning I awoke to my almost 17 year old dog, Lucy, scratching at the door to say she wanted to go out. After several attempts at ignoring her as well as a few unpleasant thoughts that passed through my head, I begrudgingly got out of bed murmering to myself resentful words. It was 5:45 am after all and Saturday, so why should I be pleasant. I stomped downstairs only to find that it was cold outside and rainy. I do not like being wet and cold, who does? The morning ensued with me attempting to change my attitude towards my untimely awakening by baking muffins for those who still slept soundly in their beds and by getting a jump start on the morning laundry and house work. As I attempted to bake the muffins, I dropped two eggs on the floor (which I have never done before) and then gritted my teeth as I angerly cleaned up both messes. I was certain I would not prevail in my attempt to change my attitude from bitter and resentful to chipper and accommodating. In my odds, I was also scheduled to go to the corn maze and pumpkin patch with the choir group in the cold rainy weather which I was certain would also produce lots of mud. I crossed my fingers, to no avail, that the pumpkin patch excursion would be canceled with the rain. I arrived at the church with a semi-smile on my face and greeted the parents waiting with a very curt, "I do NOT like rain and the pumpkin patch," when they laughingly told me it was the best kind of weather to go to a corn maze. After boarding the bus with six eager little friends, my attitude towards the trip began to slowly turn as I chatted with our music director about the early '90's and times when we both remembered the Tennessee Vols being on top of the SEC instead of on the bottom. As the van crossed over the Tennessee River making it's way towards Maple Lane Farms, I felt myself allowing a gradual attitude change. We arrived at the corn maze, purchased tickets and made two groups, one of boys and one of girls. With the girls leading the way, I entered the corn maze eager to get through it and to move on to the next activity. As we wound our way amongst the tall spent corn stalks, I felt myself actively thinking about my group's next strategy in our attempt to find our way through and out of the maze. With each step closer to the goal coupled with the laughter of the four little girls in my company, my attitude grew brighter until I realized, "This is fun and I am actually having a great time!" Yes, it was cold. Yes, it was rainy. Yes it was muddy. But I was actually having a great time!

 It was then that I realized the grace I had been granted in an attitude adjustment from God. I often say it is of no consequence that Jesus said, "Let the children come to me and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these." At the beginning of the morning my world was glum because of my own uncomfortableness of the way life was presenting itself to me at the given time. My attitude was dictated by my inability to see past the inconvenience of the dog and the hassle of the broken eggs and the uncomfortableness of the cold and rain and mud. It was not until I became a "child" once again and allowed myself to become an active participant of the corn maze that I was granted grace from God that allowed me to see his Kingdom through the eyes of the very children I was privileged enough to spend the morning with. My facebook status for the morning became,"I am always humbled when God grants me and attitude adjustment. I was grumbling about the cold rainy weather and going to the corn maze this morning. Sure enough I have had the best time with these choir kiddos from Ascension. The smiles and laughter of children sure does put everything into perspective. I am blessed and privileged to be with these friends this morning!" I went on the trip to the corn maze as a chaperon to the children who were with me. Little did I know that I was the one who needed the chaperon on my trip to see God's Kingdom in the middle of a corn maze.

The Nearness of God

There have been times in my life when I felt God's presence with me with every breath that I took knowing that his very Spirit was what powered my being. There have been other times in my life when I wondered where God was and why I felt so alone and heavy burdened. Why is that? The only difference in the the times of my life in which I felt the nearness of God completely and when I felt the absence of God is simply my own state of mind at the given time of the situation. I have learned in my life that in all reality, God is ALWAYS there whether I feel his nearness to me or not. It is at times when I feel the urge to be super in control of every. last. detail. of. my. life. that I feel very distant from God. I am too busy checking off my to do lists, vacuuming my house a hundred times a day, folding the laundry, cooking meals, writing lesson plans, preparing for next week, month, year . . . that I tune God out as if his voice were the intermittent sound of the air conditioner turning on and off. In those times of realizing God was there but ignoring his gentle whisperings, my life felt full of tension, stress, strife . . . but yet, I WAS in control, right? Along with ignoring the gentle whisperings of God, I also ignored those feelings of stress my body was undergoing until . . . SNAP. . . my body said, "ENOUGH," you can not go on in this way any longer. You NEED to stop!!! But how? How could I stop? I couldn't let all the balls in the air come tumbling down for no one else to pick up. It was up to me to keep it all going, right? I think at times we have all felt this way. It is not until our bodies become broken that we stop and listen and realize that our spirits are broken too. We wonder and we cry out, "Oh God, where are you?" We don't hear him at first because we are too engulfed by our own feelings of doubt and pity. As the sobbing turns into a quiet whimper, we begin to hear IT. We begin to hear the whispers of God saying, "I am with you. I have always been with you. Come to me and I will give you rest." As I have grown older, I recognize the signs sooner that I am trending towards doing it all my self and tuning God out. I recognize the empty feeling I begin to feel as I systematically become more like a well oiled machine rather than a human being with the capacity to stop and enjoy life as I go along. I have learned that God's whispers are really in-your-face shouts of life in everything that occurs around me from the quiet stillness of the early morning to the loud boom of construction on the neighbors house behind me. All of the world that we encounter from nature to human beings have a piece of God in them. It still takes my conscience effort to tune in to God and his nearness all around me. It doesn't ever get any easier to make that effort to recognize God in all that I encounter; but it sure is worth it!

iPhone cameras and Instagram

After my 365 project, I felt a great need to NOT take photos anymore. Of course, I have continued to snap away with my Nikon D90 and still enjoy photography. What I suppose I needed to take a break from was the editing and the posting of my photos as well as sometimes the "burden" of my heavy DSLR hanging like an albatross around my neck. Enter the iPhone 4S into my life early in 2012 and my life has been transformed. I will not say that a phone camera takes the place of a DSLR. It just simply can't touch what a DSLR camera has the capacity to do. However, when you are out walking around New York City, shelping your heavy DSLR and gear and you feel like your arm may go numb from the weight of all the stuff you are carrying around, well, the iPhone camera with the aid of Instagram comes quite handy and actually produces some pretty nice photos to boot. In reality, the type of camera a photographer uses is only part of the equation. The other part comes from the eye and skill of the photographer.  Now, I am not attempting to say that I am the best and most gifted photographer out there, far from it. What I do say though is this, in photography, it is more important to use what you have on hand and attempt to capture the best image that you can while enjoying the experience that you are capturing over having really awesome equipment that you may  or may not be able to capture a good image with and/or weighs you down to the point that you are somewhat miserable because of the equipment that you are hauling. Case in point, I chose to not take my DSLR on our pumpkin patch excursion this past weekend. Instead I captured our trip using my iPhone and Instagram. I was happy not to have my DSLR hitting my hip every time I reached down to get a pumpkin and I think I couldn't have gotten any better images like the one above even if I had had my DSLR. I still love shooting images with my D90, and no, it has not started to collect dust; however, sometimes, depending on the situation, it's very nice to have a lighter alternative to capture the moment at hand.

Maple Lane Farms

We have been yearly visitors to the pumpkin patch since Emma-Caroline was a baby. The Knoxville and surrounding area has many wonderful farms and pumpkin patches and corn mazes. We have been to at least four different ones, however, we think the Maple Lane Farms corn maze and pumpkin patch is the best that we have visited. Today we ventured out to Greenback, Tennessee for our annual family trip to the pumpkin patch. It was a beautiful sunny day and we took full advantage of the mild weather for our pumpkin patch excursion.

 The girls found a spot in the middle of all these pumplins that was perfect for a photo op!

 Aren't these the two cutest little pumpkin farmers you ever saw!

 Beautiful sunflowers, perfect for photos!

 I can't believe how clear this photo from instagram is! I love it!

 The girls thought these were so much fun. I secretly wished i could take a set or two home with me!

 Emma-Caroline has grown so much since her first trip as a 1 year old to Maple Lane Farms!

 Sophie was an infant in a baby Bjorn on her first trip to Maple Lane Farms!

 Making our way through the "Monkey" corn Maze!

 Emma-Caroline found the perfect little pumpkin! She later dropped it and broke it's stem off which led to many tears and a second pumpkin.

 A little pumpkin for a little punkin'!

The two prettiest pumpkins in the patch!