25 Dec 2024 Merry Christmas and Creativity

December 26, 2024 by saymber, posted in Food, history, Home, Leading Life by Example, Spirituality and Religion, Writing and blogging

How are you creative?

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you! The past couple of days have been full of blessings and I am so grateful! On Christmas Eve I went with my Aunt Ruth and Uncle John to my cousin Tony and his wife Tawna’s house for a wonderful meal and visit. They ordered a feast through the restaurant Cracker Barrel and everything was so good! We were joined by Tony’s son and his wife who is in the process of becoming a doctor and Mitchell was just promoted to Captain! They may be moving to Arizona so that made this visit even more special!

A Captain and a lovely doctor in the making!

After dinner there were gifts to open and everyone was too full for dessert! We got to see Tawna’s little old man dachshund Eli – so sweet!

Tawna and my cousin Tony – these two are so dear to me! Part of my earth angels here in Idaho

Today I was awakened by a call from my Aunt to wish me a Merry Christmas which was so sweet. I was in bed late as I woke up at around 3 am and had trouble going back to sleep. I had one of my shadow people dreams that scared me awake. I got up and Link and I went over to my Aunt and Uncles house for Christmas dinner. They had the table set with nice plates and the turkey was already cooked. They did the bag kind and it was perfect – so moist and tender! They made a bunch of dressing which is my favorite side dish. We had mashed potatoes and some salad. Everything was so good! We watched the squirrels and birds they feed at the feeder they have. So cute and entertaining! After dinner there were a couple gifts to include a new baby for Link. Ruth got him to tear the paper off which surprised and delighted me! He’s never done that before. He hid it somewhere we couldn’t find. He does that with his favorite toys. My Aunt is one of his favorite people! Then we watched a holiday edition of Sister Boniface which is one of our favorite shows we watch when I go over to their house. I didn’t have room for dessert so they sent me home with leftovers and pie. What a special day!

Uncle John and Aunt Ruth more earth angels

As I reflect on this holiday I find myself feeling so grateful and blessed! So many special memories have been made with my family here. They help chase the Grinch I can be away this time of year!

My creativity these days is this blog. Writing is my only real outlet these past couple of years.

This passage is very fitting for how my family is: and is teaching me to be:

1 Corinthians 13New International Version

13 If I speak in the tongues^[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ²If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³If I give all I possess to the poorand give over my body to hardship that I may boast,^[b]but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸Love never fails. But where there are prophecies,they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹²For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror;then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.But the greatest of these is love.

23 Dec 2024 Christmas Is….

December 23, 2024December 23, 2024 by saymber, posted in Food, Spirituality and Religion, Writing and blogging

Hello to you! It’s almost Christmas! Yesterday at church Pastor Jayson asked us in one word what Christmas is to us and I wrote down family. For me Christmas has seldom been about the gifts. For me it’s presence not presents! Presence makes memories long after gifts are broken and or forgotten.

Last night we had our family Christmas party and we filled my cousin Laura and her husband Richie’s home with great food, love and laughter. It was everything I think is special about the holidays. Good food and family. We had pulled pork, a couple different macaroni and cheese dishes and salads. We got to FaceTime with my Uncle Bill and his wife Anna who live in California. There were meaningful gifts from my Aunt and Uncle to us kids. They had stockings stuffed with goodies and gift bags that had cutting boards Uncle John made out of maple – beautiful! Cove, my cousins granddaughter, got a Moana doll and she loved it. The kids pitched in and gave my Aunt and Uncle a treasure box shaped tin full of gift cards for things like the movie theater and places to eat. We had dessert of cherry pie, cheesecake and pumpkin pie – so good! What a memory we all made together!

There are some members of the family not here because of sickness – we have a big family and it’s growing! A new little is due in June.

I loved my stocking. My Aunt gave me a little book she found called The Things Trees Know and it was perfect for me. Trees are such great teachers! Along with the book we’re my Aunts famous chocolate bon bons! So good! I had told her when she asked me what I wanted for Christmas that all I wanted was those. She puts so much work into them.

So much wisdom in this little book I got from my Auntie

I got a much appreciated ride to the party with my cousin as I knew it would be dark by the time we were finished. My cousin Tony picked me up and his wife Tawna got me home. It was nice to have some one on one time with them! Tawna and Tony have been earth angels to me for several years now. They are the ones that inspired me to really surrender myself to Jesus.

Isaiah 7:14“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel”. Immanuel means “God with us”.
Isaiah 9:6“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace”.

It’s important to remember the reason for the season.

3 May 2023 Favorite Holiday

May 3, 2023May 3, 2023 by saymber, posted in history, Home, human rights, Leading Life by Example, Native American Culture, Nature, photography, Spirituality and Religion, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

What is your favorite holiday? Why is it your favorite?

Hello to you – how is your day going? I’m doing ok. Todays prompt is a tricky one to talk about. My favorite holiday used to be Halloween but with all the controversy around it I decided Thanksgiving is my favorite instead. Really there isn’t a holiday we celebrate that doesn’t have some conflict about it. Most if not all holidays have pagan origins! I like Thanksgiving because it’s about food and family – being grateful for everything we have.

Halloween got ruined for my ex and I living in Texas. The churches would do trunk or treat which meant less trick or treaters in the neighborhood. A lot of the families that took their kids to the trunk or treat would then come to the neighborhoods anyways! It felt hypocritical to us that towns that forbid trick or treating came to our town. When the new houses went in, the kids mostly went there and we hardly had any kids come through our neighborhood. Halloween is kind of a holiday like Easter and Christmas. There are double meanings. Is Easter about bunnies and Easter egg hunts or about Jesus rising from the dead? Is Christmas about Santa Claus and presents or about celebrating Jesus being born? A lot of Christians do pagan things with their children – they do both as a right of passage. The holidays have been for so long about how much money can be made – so materialistic!

https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween

I have a lot of happy memories of Thanksgiving. It was a time of getting together with family and sharing food. My favorites have always been the desserts – pumpkin pie. Sadly as our country has become more aware, there are some not so happy things about the history of Thanksgiving from a First People perspective:

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/holidays/thanksgiving-ideas/a33446829/thanksgiving-history/.

Philippians 4:6-7
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

20 December 2022 Family

December 20, 2022 by saymber, posted in Bipolar life, Home, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

Hello to you. How are you? I hope we’ll. I’m doing ok. Still having the swaying motion and stuff but can tell the prayers are helping. This past Sunday we got together to celebrate Christmas. We had a full house to include new baby Suton. The house was full but we had a nice time. My Uncle Bill catered the meal like normally does – bbq and a side dish of macaroni and cheese. We are all so grateful he does that as it makes getting together so much easier especially for my Aunt and Uncle.

We did the traditional gift exchange game and that was fun. I ended up with yummy See’s candy. My gift contribution was a fuel gift card and chocolate.

For Christmas Eve I will be going over to my cousins for brunch which will be nice. No plans for Christmas Day. They are doing construction on the main road I take to get to my Aunts and the route around is quite a detour.

3 December 2021 Crap House (Gingerbread House Kit)

December 4, 2021 by saymber, posted in Bipolar life, Home, Spirituality and Religion, Veteran Affairs, Writing and blogging

Hello! How are you doing tonight? Today was a good day – made much brighter by my friend who came over and spent some time with Link and I. She is one of Links favorite special friends! We love her so much!

She brought over a gingerbread house kit for us to put together. We listened to Christmas music and did our best lol! The kit looked like this:

Well we both agreed we ended up with a house that was crap lol! The kit didn’t even have all the materials in the picture. There was supposed to be a box of Dots candy and all we got was an empty box! We did the best we could with the inferior materials provided. “T” said its like making mud pies but for adults! Our house came out like this:

For those familiar with the baking show Nailed It – we definitely nailed it on this house !

She left the house with us so now I officially have one Christmas decoration out AND I wrote out 4 Christmas cards today! Omg I’m doing Christmacy stuff!! God has it figured out for me! Just keep doing the next right things!