Thirty Days of Thankfulness

So it's November.  Where does the time go?  I often find myself pondering over how quickly time goes by.  I recently heard someone say "Don't spend your whole life waiting for your whole life to start." and oh how true that is!  So, last fall I did this challenge called Thirty Days of Thankfulness.  The point is to think about something you are thankful for each day of November.  I really enjoy doing this challenge because it reminds me of all that God has given me.  He has blessed my life so much.  I have decided this year I would also like to allow myself time to reflect on what each of those things I'm thankful for says about my Savior!!  I will not blog every single day due to practicality, but I will try to on some days at least.  It gives me a reason to blog I guess.  So here is what it says on my Facebook as my thankful statment for today...

Tracy Leigh Huffman

‎30 Days of Thankfulness-Day 1::Today I am thankful for my girls. In conversations with my mom we often refer to them as "the bridesmaids" because if I ever get married they will be the girls who deal with my crazy side!! Thanks for being the best friends I could ever imagine...I would be lost without you all and that's for sure! Mandy Harris Alisa Van Zante Charline Copenhaver Jamie Kropf and Leslie Ricketts (@Philip Ricketts).

I love them! Jamie and Leslie are not in this picture because it's impossible to get us all in the same place at the same time.  This picture was taken in the summer and it was hot outside and we are not loving the way we look in this picture...but we were having fun.  Actually I believe at the moment we were laughing at Mandy and her inability to take a normal looking picture. 

My friends amaze me.  But here's the God part...guess what...IT'S NOT ABOUT ME!!  It's so hard to remember that things are not about me sometimes.  You would think in friendships it's easy to think of the other person.  But that's not always true.  When someone asks why these ladies are my best friends I would rattle off a list of reasons about how they are always there for me and how they listen to my problems.  I want to be the kind of person who thinks about what I can do for my friends, not what they can do for me.  I also want them to know without question or hesitation that I love Jesus and Jesus loves them (and me)!  And even that is not about me.  It's not really about them either.  It's about Jesus.  He allows us to have friendships with people to strengthen and bless us.  He desires for us to do life together.  He desires us to work together to find a way to bring glory to His name.  How lovely it is when you find friendships that do just that. 

I am forever thankful for the gift that God has given me in the blessing of my friends.  Women who love me and love the Lord and will bring me back to reality when I need it.  Women who encourage me to strive for excellence because our God is not a God of mediocrity.  How beautiful the gift of friendship.  I truly am thankful for them. 

Two Month Vacation

Wow.  Time away from a computer is a strange thing.  So after my computer crashed this summer I could have gone to the library and posted things.  Or made more of an effort to post things from my parents' house.  (Which is where I actually currently am located.)  But truthfully I kind of enjoyed the silence from technology.  It gave me time to think and read and plan.  I worked a lot on plans for a Halloween party and a Christmas Tea.  I got both of those fully planned out and I am happy to tell you that I am now a successful party planner.  It was strange to plan a party for someone else...and actually get paid for it.  It was fun though.  Really fun.  I tell you what...planning a Halloween celebration like that one made my plans for the evening seem really boring though!  So anyways, now that I have decided to write again I hope to do so more regularly.  We'll see how that goes!

Some big news in my life is that I am training for a 5K.  That will not come as a surprise to some of you since I posted it on Facebook.  But, it's going fairly well.  People keep asking me how I am feeling.  I am thankful that they want to know but I also want to scream "my body feels like it's screaming and my shins are on fire"!!!  I have never been athletic in my life.  Ever.  I played soccer when I was a younger child but it was for fun and I was not really good at it.  I don't run.  I don't really exercise.  I just don't.  So this is hard.  It's really hard.  My shins really do feel like they're on fire.  I have to ice them like every day.  But I also feel good about it.  I feel like I am  making progress.  I may finish last in the particular 5K I am training for, but I will finish because I am determined.  Have you ever run a 5K?  Have you ever felt like you were going to die but knew that something was good for you?  I must push through!!!

Ok...so I guess that's all I have for now.  I am going to a friend's for dinner with her and her family tonight.  A friend who is immensely encouraging.  A friend who I am enjoying learning from.  I am looking forward to it.   Do you have people like that?  I hope so!

Making Pepper Jelly

A few days ago I spent the afternoon with my friend Marie.  She is a lady that I absolutely adore!  Her children range in age from like 8-18 (four boys) and are some of the most well mannered kids I have ever met.  Marie makes homemade pepper jelly every summer with the peppers she grows in her garden.  In case you didn't know this already I am a big fan of pepper jelly.  I sometimes buy the Harry & David kind but not often since I'm poor.  Well...Marie invited me to come spend the afternoon at her house and learn to make pepper jelly.  All she asked me to bring was some jars and some sugar.  She grew all the peppers herself.  And she had the vinegar and pectin.  I came home with ten jars of pepper jelly.  I had so much fun.  I had intended to post pictures but I got so caught up in actually making jelly I forgot to take pictues of us making jelly. 

While we were waiting for the jelly to cool a little Marie told me about how to make other kinds of jelly.  She said if you can make one (and I did in fact make a batch of the pepper jelly) that you can make any kind.  I am excited to try and make some strawberry jam.  I am excited to have a skill that I have always wanted.  I feel like I can make something and give it to people as a gift and they will think I am so cool for knowing how to make this! Ha!  I am such a dork.

So this has me thinking about other things I want to learn to make.  So I am making a list of the things I want to learn to make.  I already have a list of things I want to learn to do.   I will probably post these at a later date.  I am excited that I am learning how to make things from scratch.  Oh, this is a random side note but my grandma gave me a bunch of vegetables from her garden so I am cooking lots of FRESH things this week and that makes me happy too! 

I guess this post was kind of random...but it's all I've got for now!

The Chronicles of Narnia

In March I started reading the Chronicles of Narnia series.  This was the first time I had read these books.  I remember in college I went with a group of friends to see The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.  It was actually a midnight showing and was used as an outreach event to tell people about Jesus.  When the movie was over I said to one of my friends who was with me "That would have been a really cool book."  He looked at me like I was crazy and said "It is a book."  I think I probably said hmm.  I don't know why, but not only had I never read these books, I had never even heard of these books.  So, I decided I would read them.  Then you know how that goes, that plan got put on hold...then I kind of forgot about it.  Then awhile back the whole boxed series showed up in a book order I was sending home with my students.  I decided I would buy the series for myself and finally read them.  I originally thought I could read them all in March.  I probably could have if I had been able to stay focused.  And if I had not decided that was also a good time to read the House of Night series.  So, I just finished the last one on Tuesday night.  Here are my thoughts...

I chose to read the books in the order that they were in when I got them.  I did some research before I started reading because I know there is some dispute as to what order the books should be read in.  Here is how I got them (it was labeled 'Author's Order'):

The Magician's Nephew

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

The Horse and His Boy

Prince Caspian

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The Silver Chair

The Last Battle

I was not really sure about reading The Magician's Nephew first since it was not the first movie.  My only exposure to this series had been the first movie.  I am so glad I started with this book and I am so glad I followed this order in reading the books.  My favorite part about this first book was reading about the founding of Narnia.  It could have been so easy to get lost in the other stuff.  The strange dialect.  The characters who seemed not fully developed in a literary sense.  But then it gets to the part where it talks about the Lion's Song.  About how Aslan himself called Narnia into being.  About everything springing up and being brand new and being like things they had never seen before.  I was in awe.  It was beautiful and inspring and tear jerking.  I wondered a lot about how this compared to the creation of the world. 

The next book-The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe-was all I had expected it to be since I had seen the movie.  However, as it usually is, the book was better.  I usually like to read books first because the amount of detail that is in them that it is just impossible to include in the movie.  I enjoyed reading about all the things I had enjoyed watching.  The shapes that came to life and danced in the fire while Mr. Tumnus first played his song for Lucy, the emotion when he realized what a horrible thing he had done, the despair Edmund felt when he realized he was wrong about the Whtie Witch, the way Aslan spoke and roared and commanded his followers.  It was beautiful.

The Horse and His Boy was an interesting read.  For those of you who are not familiar it is simply a story about an adventure that happens while the children are in Narnia.  It is in the years between when they defeat the White Witch and when they go back through the wardrobe to find that though it had been many years in Narnia (almost a lifetime) it had been only fractions of a second in their own world.  Nothing happened that left me in awe, but this book was a quick and easy read.

Prince Caspian is maybe my favorite of these books.  I loved it so much I have decided I want to name a kid after Prince Caspian.  Caspian is brave and valiant and a gentleman.  He leads his people with ease yet gives respect to Peter the High King.  My favorite part of this book is the description of the battle.  I could literally see this happening like a movie in my head.  Few books pull me in the way this one did.  I love how when Aslan asks Caspian if he is prepared to be the King, Caspian says no and Aslan knows that is exactly what will make him a great King.  Peter and Susan so bravely and willingly walk away from Narnia in this book.  Some may not see it this way, but to me it was about sacrifice.  Peter would have loved to stay in Narnia forever and ever.  But he was willing to leave because he knew that was what Aslan wished. 

After reading Voyage of the Dawn Treader I watched the movie and was so disappointed in the movie.  I could so identify with Eustace.  It is so easy to think that I have it all together.  I love how he talks about being scratched out of the dragon.  He says that it hurt but it was worth it.  I love Reepicheep.  He is so ready to take on any adventure for Aslan.  How many times could we benefit from that example?  To be ready and willing to go into the unknown in pursuit of our God.  This books surprised me in it's descriptions of places.  I enjoyed the adjective rich text.  My favorite part of this story was when Aslan told Lucy she would have to come to know Him by another name in her world.  How profound.

The Silver Chair was one of the hardest for me to read.  It was slow going.  I had a really hard time getting into the book, but once I did I read the last half pretty quickly.  It was a good story about the rescue of Prince Rilian.  It just seemed somehow disconnected from the other books.  And I guess I don't have much more to say about it.

The Last Battle.  Oh how I enjoyed this book.  I was not expecting it to end the way it did.  If you are reading this blog, you MUST read the book.  And when you do I want to hear all about your thoughts.  I don't want to give everything away, but I guess I assume that most people have read this.  The fact that the author refers to the world as "Shadowland" is perfect.  I like that it's talked about how when they go into "Aslan's Country" it is like Narnia and also like their world but somehow better and brighter as if they has been only looking at a reflection.  And as beautiful and awe inspiring as it was to read about the founding of Narnia, it was just as tragic to read about the end of it.  Not at all what I expected, but satisfying. 

So, that said I am now done reading The Chronicles of Narnia.  I am going to start reading the True Blood series next.  Don't think I can pick anything much different from Chronicles of Narnia than that.  I now anxiously await the rest of the movies to come out.  I will be interested to see what movies they make and what movies they don't make and how they do them.  And that is all my thoughts on that!

Update

So I think this blogging thing would be so much easier if I had the internet at my house!  Oh, and on top of that my computer crashed.  Lame.  Good thing Ben pulled my hard drive.  He saved it and turned it into an external hard drive so all the stuff that was on my computer is still there...there is just no computer anymore.  I am hoping that that doesn't add a whole new level of difficulty to working on school stuff at home.  So a lot has happened lately.  Let me think.  Here is a quick update...at least the things I can think about...

*I had my birthday.  It was maybe the best birthday I have had in a long time.  First of all Alisa was here.  So I started my birthday with her singing to me and Charline texting me shortly after midnight.  This reminded me that I have two of the very best friends ever!  I woke up to birthday greetings from my family which is a tradition in my family and I love it.  I miss the days that we all lived in the same house and I got woken up to in person birthday greetings...but phone greetings are good too.  I love this tradition.  When I have a kid(s) I want to always wake them up on their birthday and tell them the story of how special they are and how God brought them to me cause those are some of the best moments.  The day continued by me finding out that Erica was in town two days early.  I got to go spend some time with her and Trevor for the morning.  Then I got to have lunch with Ringo.  I was so thrilled that he was in town and the timing was perfect.  I met his friend, we had lunch and then went to the high school to show her where we went to school.  This was so fun!  Then I took a nap and got ready for Bible School.  At Bible School the kids all sang to me.  After Bible school Shelley and Charline came over for cake and punch.  My day was so great.  My friends and family are so amazing.

Me, Ringo and his friend!

*I got to have lunch with Erica, Jamie and Alyse.  We started out with Trevor but he did not want to be at lunch so he hung out with his daddy and we had a girls lunch.  It was so good to hang out with them all at the same time.  We wished that our friend Dana had been able to make it, but she couldn't come.  Alyse entertained us all.  She talks so much!

*Oh, our family celebrated other birthdays!  We had birthday parties for Alyse, then Hunter, then Levi.  Levi was so sleepy at his party he couldn't even really enjoy opening his gifts.  I love seeing him discover new things though.  I am amazed by little kids!

* I went to the Kindergarten Conference at the Lake of the Ozarks.  This is where lots of Missouri kindergarten teachers get together for a few days to learn about new things in education and ideas about bringing fun things into your classroom.  It was pretty good.  I got some good ideas and I got to know the girl I will be teaching with next year. 

*I went to see the newest (and last ever) Harry Potter movie which was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.  Gosh I love that movie.  I did not read the books when they first were popular.  I was not part of the crowd who stood there in line waiting to get a book.  I was a late comer to the HP phenomenon.  But I did in fact read every single book BEFORE I watched ANY of the movies.  I prefer to have my own pictures in my head of how the characters look before I see them on screen.  I read the books quite quickly and then saw all the movies.  The last one I went with Mepps and I waited in line to see the midnight premiere.  It was well worth it.  As a matter of fact I am going to see it again tomorrow night with my sister. 

I am sure that there are more things I could write about to update you on my life...but I guess that's all I can think of for right now.  I still have some things coming up this summer and soon it will be back to school.  Soon it will be time to navigate my way through the chaos of kindergarten while adding as much sparkle as possible.  When I think about all the new adventures that lie ahead of me I am excited and nervous all at the same time.  Some kind of big things are happening in my life...things that will eventually be a whole other blog post and that I am excited for you to read.  Basically I guess until then I am just trying to stick to the status quo! 

That's all for now.  I finally finished reading the Chronicles of Narnia books so I'm working on writing a review for them.  :)

My Dad Rocks

**Note-I wrote this yesterday, but didn't get it posted.**

Earlier today one of my friends put as her Facebook status "my dad is cooler than your dad".  It was cute.  I could see her saying it.  But then I thought, no way, my dad is way cooler than any dad I know.  I have been blessed to have a lot of good men in my life.  It has been a joy watching some of those men (like my brother Neal) become amazing fathers.  Fathers who are active in their children's lives and aren't afraid to play with toys and act silly.  The dynamics of the father/child relationship fascinate me.  So today here are some reasons why my dad rocks...

*He chose to be my daddy.  He could have picked someone else.  That's the reality of adoption.  My daddy picked me-bald head, chubby cheeks, chicken pox and all-he picked ME.  Because of that choice I grew up knowing that I would never be alone in the world. 

*He taught me about hard work and surviving the hard times.  Let me just clarify that I was a brat when I was little.  (Some may argue that I still am a brat!)  I was probably really demanding and wanted lots of things.  My dad worked hard (as did my mom) so that we could have the things we needed and wanted.  When I was very little he worked on building bridges.  He would be gone for days at a time.  I know it was hard to be away and it was hard work...but he loved us enough to make sacrifices for us.  That never changed.  I can not even begin to fathom the things my dad has given up so I can have a good life. 

*He showed me what a good husband and a good father does.  My daddy cooks, cleans, does laundry, helps with homework, plays baseball in the yard, works with 4-H animals...he does it all.  He taught me by example the way that I should expect to be treated.  He taught me that I am worth much more than I often realize.

*He makes my friends feel loved.  In college my friends and I would call my dad about everything.  What kind of meat should we buy to grill or how do you get charcoal to light or what do we do if our sink is leaking.  We just knew that he would know.  And he always did.  Through the years I have had several "best friends".  My dad has always welcomed them and wanted to help them as much as he wanted to help me.  From giving advice on water leaks and car problems, to mixing drinks, to buying my friend a tire when she was visiting...he makes my friends know that they are welcome and loved in my family.

Quite simply...my dad rocks.  He always tries his best and everything he does and has done in his life has been for the benefit of his family.  I love him so much!

And because this year I had the honor of meeting Doug I have the number one reason why he rocks...

*He always WANTED me, even when he couldn't keep me.  He never gave up on me.  And when he found me he did not try to pressure me into being a part of his family.  He let me take my time and let me know that there was always a place for me there.  And he did not try to make my relationship with my daddy any less important.  He (and Dawn) acknowledged from the beginning how important my family is and how thankful they are that I had a good life.  

I am so lucky to be surrounded by such cool guys.

Class Reunion Planning

I have been a blogging slacker lately.  In my defense I have been super busy with other stuff.  Like watching multiple seasons of Dawson's Creek on DVD and unpacking TONS of boxes from my storage building and buying vintage Cabage Patch dolls and antique books at estate sales.  Also, I don't have the internet at my house currently.  I know...I've reverted to the dark ages.  Today I have lots to say but I'm gonna have to break it up into multiple posts due to time restrictions.  Right now at this very minute I am sitting in my office at church (where I am the Administrative Assistant and Children's Ministry Coordinator) and I am actively finding ways NOT to work.  I should be planning fall curriculum or working on Bible school stuff...but instead I'm writing this blog about something that has consumed much of my time lately...my high school reunion.  That's right folks...I graduated from high school ten years ago.  That makes me feel really old.  So I am going to be posting about party planning for the reunion.  (The event planner in me is so excited about planning this and sharing about it that it's almost disturbing.)

This is the invitation I designed for the event.  This weekend I got them back from the printer and I immediately found a flaw.  Not in the printing but in my design.  The yellow circle is slightly misshapen.  But I still love them.  And better yet I designed them.  I didn't have to order a pre made design from somewhere.  No, they're not ultra special or anything.  But it's a start.  I scribbled out my phone number on this one before I posted it.  But if you're reading this you probably already have my phone number. 

Other reunion updates...I have gotten addresses collected of about half of my class.  I am still working on the others.  I am searching online for graduation party decorations that say Class of 2001 but have had no luck so far.  I am thinking about designing some.  I am also considering doing cupcakes as favors...but the night could progress into more...uhm..."celebrating" (there is a bar next door to the event location) and carrying around cupcakes would not really be an ideal situation.  We'll see what happens.

Ok, that's all for now.  Back to work.  Later I plan to write about why my dad rocks.