Hot chocolate confessions!

We had just returned from a puddle stomp. (Puddle stomps are defined as follows: forays into the wet Oregon rain with the sole purpose of stomping through every rain puddle within a five block radius.)

Our coats were in the dryer.

We had changed into dry clothing.

We were warm.

We were dry.....

...and we were sitting at the kitchen table sipping hot, vanilla chocolate with whipped cream.

Quite unexpectedly my five year old daughter looked up over her hot chocolate and in that sweetly pitched voice of a five year old child announced, "Momma, I think this is the best day of my life!"

OMG!

For a moment, time stood still and as I gazed into her chocolate mustached face, I swear the bottom dropped out of my soul. My love for her spilled out of my toes, welled up out of my eyes and it was all I could do to reply, "Oh yes! This just has to be one of the best days of my life too!"

Laughing, we "clinked" our cocoa mugs and toasted to the best day of our lives!

Dear God in heaven, does life get any sweeter?

Blog fodder...

How Does Jerri Live Her Life?

Jerri is honest and direct. She tells it like it is. Jerri tends to avoid confrontation and stays away from sticky situations. Jerri's friends tend to be as quirky as she is - which is saying a lot! Jerri tends to always dream of things within reach - and she usually gets them.

How Do You Live Your Life?

So, here's one more goofy quiz....a small innocuous piece of uninspired blog fodder to fill the void.

Evil creeps in on beautifully manicured toes.....

More often than not, evil creeps in disguised as beauty.

This time, an evil has revealed itself disguised as two gorgeous, blonde haired, blue eyed girls. Their names are Lynx and Lamb, and they call themselves "Prussian Blue". They are the young, thirteen year old sisters/musicians who are being hailed as the Olsen Twins of the White Nationalist Movement.

"Nurtured" from birth in their racist beliefs by their mother April, the twins sing songs which praise the characters of men like Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler's deputy Fuhrer.

If that isn't enough to disturb you, try imagining Lynx and Lamb modeling this:

Happy Hitler Girly Tee

Yes, both girls modeled this same tee shirt for Aryan Wear....scarey, huh?

Am I saying the girls themselves are evil?

No. I am not.

The Nazi symbols and Aryan philosophy that both of their parents are stuffing into the girls' hearts, minds and souls are evil.

The hate speech these girls spew in the form of their sweet singing, is evil; but the girls themselves are just pawns.

At this point in time, they are merely beautifully dangerous pawns in the hands of a greater evil....

I don't know about you, but this scares the patooties out of me.

Bodily disdain

I have been fascinated with the early Christian mystics for some time now.

Women like, Angela of Foligno, Catherine of Siena, Hildegard von Bingen, Julian of Norwich, and Mechthild of Magdeburg are fascinating to read if one has the energy to probe through their writings for the little gems of truth and love that are present and available for discovery.

Recently, I happened across this quote by Mechthild of Magdeburg:

Do not disdain the body
For the soul is just as safe in its body
as in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Mechthild writes: "Do not disdain the body."

Do you "disdain" your own body?

Disdain is a feeling of contempt. One online dictionary defines disdain this way.

Disdain
intense scorn: extreme contempt or disgust for something or somebody

So, I ask again.

Have you ever felt disdain for your own body?

I know that I have.

Over the past decade and a half, I have born and nursed five children. Without question, motherhood has irreversibly changed my body. Gravity has taken its own toll. All the while, I've been growing older, (an inevitability we must each face if we live long enough) and that too has altered my body scape in surprising and undesired ways.

In no way do I resemble Western society's vision of feminine beauty. If anything, I am its antithesis.

It would be easy for me to scorn my own body, to hold my body in contempt, to look upon myself with disdain.

I confess now that I sometimes do.

The thing is, I don't want to do this. I believe the Bible when it says that this body is a temple. I believe that this body is sacred. I believe that this body will be resurrected and that every stretch mark, every skin tag, every wrinkle will be glorified.

So what does this mean for me, here and now?

Well, quite simply, it means that the little things matter. Drinking enough water matters. Proper exercise, matters. A diet rich in complex carbohydrates, protein, and whole foods, matters. Rest, matters. Prayer, matters. Relationships matter!

These are the simple ways that I show respect to this body. This is how I honor this body's holiness.

So, take the time.

Attend to the little things.

Honor yourself.

Which Soft Drink Are You?

Me?
Which soft drink am I?
Well, I'm a Pepsi of course!



According to Quizilla, "I'm very popular, and way better than coke; but unfortunately for me, coke has a way better logo!"

(There are waaay too many "way better's" in that last sentence, but what the hey! Who cares anyway?)

Want to see which soft drink you would be, if it were possible to be a bubbly, liquid beverage?

Click here!

Just look at those eyes!

Yikes!

This little guy looks like he's about ready

to poop a brick!

Poor thing!

Happy Turkey Day Everyone!

The fullness of a fast.

Early this morning I stood on the front lawn, and I watched the sun rise.

I was intentional about doing this.

Why, you ask?

Why in the world would I choose to stand on our frost crunchy lawn, and watch as the new dawn slowly creeped across the chilly eastern sky?

Why?

Let me see if I can begin to explain....

Yesterday I began my first 24 hour spiritual fast. Now, to some of you this might not seem like such a big deal; and I suppose in the grand scheme of things, it really wasn't. Truth be told, abstaining from food and drink wasn't as difficult for me as I had imagined it might be.

I did suffer from one desperate craving for a steaming cup of java; but other than that, the cravings and hunger pangs were fairly manageable. What wasn't, and isn't manageable however, are the new insights I've gained into my own character.

What were those insights?

Put quite simply, I have so much and I am grateful for so little.

It's not a pleasant moment when one is rocked by the sheer force and depth of one's own ingratitude....

So, just take a moment and try to imagine me in the darkness of early morning.

I'm standing there, shivering, and cradling a cup of sweet, creamy coffee. The coffee I am holding is steaming hot, and sweet, and rich. My belly is empty, but my hands and my heart are full.

For me, this coffee represents the fullness I feel in my own soul even though my belly is empty. It represents the fullness of the plenty I experience day in and day out. A plenty that is both spiritual, material, and relational. It represents my new found gratitude and my desire to share what I have...a gratitude that is warm, and rich, and steaming with invitation.

That is why I intentionally rose earlier than normal. That is why I stood shivering in the icy stillness of the early dawn with a cup of coffee in my hands.

I was determined to begin this day by acknowledging the fullness of my own life.

I was determined, if only for the moment, to live from a place of gratitude.

I was determined to thank God for the entirety of my whole life: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

....and I must say, that when I took my first sip of coffee, neither the coffee, nor my life had ever tasted so good!

Simple Thanksgiving

When I awoke this morning, the air was crisp and clear.

The sky was a glorious mirror of blue.

Has there ever been a more perfect morning?

I do not know. I only know that when my eyes first saw the glistening white of the evening frost and the azure calm of the morning sky, an irrepressible bubble of thanksgiving welled up from within me.

The words of Carl Sandburg immediately came to my mind...words I have memorized just to recall on mornings such as these.

Let me share them with you now, on this, a most blessed day.

Bless Thee, O Lord,
for the living arc of the sky over me this morning.

Bless Thee, O Lord,
for the companionship of night mist
far above the skyscraper peaks I saw
when I woke once during the night.

Bless Thee, O Lord,
for the miracle of light to my eyes
and the mystery of it ever changing.

Bless Thee, O Lord,
for the laws Thou hast ordained holding fast
these tall oblongs of stone and steel,
holding fast the planet Earth in its course
and farther beyond the circle of the Sun.

carl sandburg

Jerri needs...

The latest MEME (whatever that means) is to plug your name plus the word "needs" into the google search engine and then share whatever pops up!

Here are the top five things that appeared when I typed "Jerri needs"

Five simple things that Jerri needs....

1) Jerri needs to walk!
Uhhh, heck yeah Jerri needs to walk! Jerri loves to walk, she just doesn't walk often enough! (Jerri feels a little like Bob Dole when Jerri writes like this! Cracks Jerri up!)

2) Jerri needs chocolate and sex, in that order!
Ooooh! Jerri likes this one!

3) Jerri needs to change her attitude.
Jerri is the first to admit that her attitude can be a problem. She is an ardent believer that an attitude of gratitude makes all things better.

4) Jerri also needs to shut up.
Yup, Jerri needs to practice the art of listening. Rambling, self-important chatter often contributes to Jerri's own down fall!

5) Jerri obviously needs a slap!
Hmmmm, the only person who gets to bitch slap Jerri is the Holy Spirit. Jerri won't tolerate human hands hurting herself, or anyone else for that matter. The Holy Spirit now, well that's a whole other matter. The Holy Spirit has Jerri's permission to slap her into holy awareness where ever, and when ever the need is evident!

My blog plug of the week!

Would you like to visit a blog that will delight both your eyes and your soul?

Then check out Jen Gray's blog!

This gal rocks!

Really...she does!

Bread of Life!

For some time now, I have been toying with the notion of implementing the discipline of weekly, spiritual fasting.

I am very drawn to the idea of practicing a 24 hour fast once a week and I believe that I am ready to commit to doing this for a two year period.

I don't think playing with this discipline and just trying it once or twice will serve any useful purpose. I do think however, that if I commit to this practice, in the simplest, most straightforward and intentional way possible, that God will accomplish great things in and through me.

The other day, I read a line from a blog that said, "If you have a pulse, God has a purpose for you."

That line prompted a deeper thinking in me, as it relates to both my own purpose and to the discipline of fasting.

You see, I believe that my purpose in this life, is to be a living bread for others. I believe that I am here to nourish, to enrich and to "feed" others. I believe my purpose is to help satisfy the hunger of individuals, who like myself, are hungry for more than mere physical sustenance.

Somehow, in some mysterious way, I think spiritual fasting will help me to become a more wholesome and satisfying bread for others.

No, I am not elevating myself to the level of God. I know that God, and God alone sustains all life; but isn't it wonderful to think of each of our lives as a kind of living bread?

Isn't it wonderful to think that each of us has the power to sustain and to nourish life in unimaginable ways?

I want to be like Christ Jesus. I want to be living bread for others!

Lord, bless this unworthy vessel and make it so!

5 Random Thoughts!

It's a foggy day outside, and my brain is even foggier inside. I have so many random thoughts running through my head, that I thought it might be fun to lasso a couple for our mutual entertainment!

Five Random Thoughts!

1) Good parmesan cheese is a blessing! I recently bought an off brand can of parmesan because our pennies are tight this time of year. Baaaad idea! Trust me, a good quality parmesan cheese is worth every dollar per pound!

2) Why do my children need to use an entire roll of toilet paper every time they have a bowel movement? Their poopers are smaller than mine, so what's the deal? Poor wiping technique?

3) Is it possible to affect a person's life now, by praying about a traumatic event that happened years ago? How does this affect the spiritual world? After all, God isn't bound by time.....

4) I have become a blasterball addict! How could this happen? Blasterball is such an insanely stupid game. A monkey could play blasterball.....

5) I don't want to clean! I don't want to clean! I don't want to clean!
(So I blog instead!)

Breasts

I've been thinking a lot about breasts lately.

Specifically, I've been thinking a lot about my own breasts.

Now, if this topic either offends or arouses you, I would suggest that you quit reading. I'm fairly certain that many of you will find this particular post offensive and I'm equally certain that not a single one of you will find it arousing! So just quit reading now!

Here's the thing.

Over the past seven months, I have had my breasts poked, prodded, bombarded with radiation, as well as sliced and diced for a biopsy. I have taken oral antibiotics, applied an entire pharmacy of topical ointments trying to control a medical condition that up until recently, no one could diagnose.

Now that I am on the other side of this whole experience I've realized something rather important.

I love my breasts.

These breasts have served me well my entire life; they have served my husband well for more than 22 years; and what's more, they have also nourished all five of our children.

My breasts are worthy of respect.

Gravity has taken its toll. These breasts of mine are no longer the perky 36 C's of my younger years. They aren't beautiful by modern society's standards; but to me, and to those who know and love me, they are more beautiful than there are words to describe them.

Last April, I was ashamed of my breasts. Ashamed of their size, of their shape (or increasing lack there of), and of their overall appearance. This experience has given me a whole new perspective and a new understanding not only of my breasts, but of my entire body.

This body, like these breasts, has served me well.

Oh, I know that my physical body is made of mere dust; but while my spirit and the spirit of God dwell within this fragile shell, it is both a temple and a sanctuary.

From this moment on, I vow to love, to nurture, and to honor this body of mine.....

...and I urge you to do the same!

Singing the mammary blues

Today is the day I finally get to see a "breast health specialist".

As some of you know, I've been struggling with a breast health issue for some time now. Two mammograms and one breast biopsy have ruled out breast cancer; but my breast problem remains unresolved and undiagnosed.

The concern at this point is two fold. First, my "condition" is worsening; and second there may some undiagnosed disease process at work.

So, today is my lucky day! I get to whip out the ole mammaries one more time for yet one more examination.

I cannot help but wonder if I weren't under insured, older, overweight and generally less "valuable" to society, if my medical care might have been better?

Yes, well I have no time today to ponder such things. I must shower and powder and prepare for my appointment!

If you are inclined to pray for me.....for wisdom, for patience, for whatever, I would be deeply appreciative!

***************

Doc Appointment Update: Good news! I finally have a diagnosis, prognosis and treatment plan! Yippeee!

Blog Plug of The Week!

I don't think I've made a blog plug in quite a long while.

Everytime I write "blog plug" I crack myself up! For some reason, those two little words sound so damned funny, forbidden and irreverent!

Ahhh, but I digress!

Would you like to read a blog that is intelligently written, funny and irreverent in its own right?

Then check out "A Redneck Mother's" blog!

Now I must warn you, if you are of a conservative bent, or easily offended, this blog is not for you. Don't bother clicking the link. You'll only ruin your day.

However, if you enjoy sharp wit and good writing check out this blog!

You won't be disappointed!

Where the heck are Honeydew's eyes?

According to Quizilla, if I were a muppet I would be Dr. Bunson Honeydew.

So who was Honeydew anyway? Do any of you remember Dr. Honeydew?

And where the heck are Honeydew's eyes?

LOLOL!

You are Dr. Bunson Honeydew.
You love to analyse things and further the cause of
science, even if you do tend to blow things up
more often than not.

HOBBIES:
Scientific inquiry, Looking through microscopes,
Recombining DNA to create decorative art.

QUOTE:
"Now, Beakie, we'll just flip this switch and
60,000 refreshing volts of electricity will
surge through your body. Ready?"

FAVORITE MUSICAL ARTIST:
John Cougar Melonhead

LAST BOOK READ:
"Quantum Physics: 101 Easy Microwave
Recipes"

NEVER LEAVES HOME WITHOUT:
An atom smasher and plenty of extra atoms.


What Muppet are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Merry Mince Pies!

Can you feel it?

Christmas is in the air!

...or maybe it's a tad early for you to sense the Christmas cheer that most certainly awaits us all after the gluttony of Thanksgiving?

Oh lighten up!

Go see this hilarious ad for Merry Mince Pies!

Sacrebleu!

FRENCH RIOTS

One man killed
4,700 cars torched
1,200 people arrested
17 people sentenced
108 police and firefighters injured
Figures as of 7 November

And of course, let's not forget the two teenagers, Zyed Benna and Bouna Traore, who were electrocuted after climbing into an electrical sub-station in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois on October 27, 2005

Mes prières sont avec vous tout !

Ordinary Acts of Faith

Last week, my husband and I were part of a teaching team at our church. The topic was "The Faces of Christ".

Here's a small portion of what Tom and I shared which I've modified somewhat for the blogging format:

Speaking in front of you all today is very uncomfortable for both Tom and myself. I think the reason it's so uncomfortable for us isn't necessarily because we fear public speaking, but because we live a "show", "don't tell" kind of life.

Consequently, ours is a "show", "don't tell" kind of faith. I've come to believe that this is actually a quiet evangelism; and because it is done so quietly, I think it is vitally important to share how this "quiet evangelism" is lived out in our lives and in the life of our family.

So, I've compiled what I like to call, "Jerri's laundry list of ordinary acts of faith, lived out in everyday life", and it reads like this:

We call on elderly neighbors to check on them, to visit with them, and to pray with them if they desire prayer.

We buy tamales from a family in our neighborhood, whom we know supports their family through this income.

When a teenager rides by on their bike and bites the pavement, we invite them in to wash and bandage their wounds.

We introduce ourselves to our neighbors.

When we see new neighbors moving in, we offer to help them with their heavy items when they arrive and we assist them when they leave.

We help scrub soot off of a neighbor's walls when there has been a house fire.

We prepare and deliver meals when there has been a new baby born into our neighborhood and community.

We help trim blackberry bushes for elderly neighbors, who lack the strength and the means to trim and clear by themselves.

Tom and I believe it is love in action, expressed through relationship that has the power to reach, and to transform both the world within and the world around us.

Love in action, expressed through relationship.

Quiet, simple, and intentional acts of faith lived out in everyday life.

God's love, flowing through me, through you, through each one of us, out into a world which hungers to know the simple truth that it is loved by the one who has made all things.

.........I won't bore you all now with the remainder of our "speech". I'd just like to conclude this blog entry by saying one thing.

The world is a very broken place. People are hurting and afraid.

Words are no longer enough to woe this wounded world back to its one true Lover and Healer; but words spoken in love, combined with love in action have the power to transcend time, space, life and even death.

...and I believe this is how, even now, God is transforming our world.

PS-The concept of a "show", "don't tell" faith was introduced to me by Kathleen Norris in her book, "Amazing Grace". I did credit the author when I spoke last Sunday, but failed to do so earlier in this blog post.

The remaining 20 of Jerri's top 40!

Yesterday, my sister was razzing me about my "Jerri's top 40" post.

Zaftig wrote: "Where are the other 20? Your title says "Jerri's top 40". Any contempory music in there???"

I responded: "I'm old. Old people don't listen to contemporary music. Every now and then I do spin a piece of vinyl instead of the eight tracks; but that's as "contemporary" as I get! LOL!"

Seriously though, I guess I don't listen to much contemporary music. Oh, I do have CD's by Damien Rice, Beck, Bright Eyes, Death Cab for Cutie, Arcade Fire....but that's about as contemporary as I get.

Sometimes I'm in the mood for a little Norah Jones. I'm even down with the Kaiser Chiefs or The Killers now and then; but it's the moldy oldies I love the most!

Here are the remaining 20 songs of "Jerri's Top 40"...some contemporary, some not so contemporary!

21) "Hurt" Johnny Cash

22) "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" Marvin Gaye

23) "Always Love" Nada Surf

24) "You and Me" Lifehouse

25) "Respect" Aretha Franklin

26) "Oh Holy Night" Chappeau de Roquemaure

27) "Tears in Heaven" Eric Clapton

28) "Slowburn" Revelation Theory

29) "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone" Paula Cole

30) "Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music" Larry Norman

31) "Complicated" Avril Lavigne

32) "Thrill is Gone" BB King

33) "She Will Be Loved" Maroon 5

34) "Amie" Damien Rice

35) "Beautiful" Christina Aguilera

36) "It Is Well With My Soul"

37) "Women Should Be" Sweet Honey in the Rock

38) "My Immortal" Evanescence

39) "Stormy Monday" Bobby Bland

40) "The Promise" Tracy Chapman

Me? Einstein?

E=mc²

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Sheesh, I take a famous leader test and instead of Ghandi, I get Einstein.

Go figure!