2014 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.



Here's an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,400 times in 2014. If it were a cable car, it would take about 23 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

cookie exchange devotional

Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

Well, last week was a bust for my blog posts. I'm hoping to be better about it this week but it's so hard to do that without my computer which is still waiting for the Doctor. In the meantime, I thought I would share with you a devotional that I am giving this weekend at my cookie exchange:

Luke 10:41-42 New International Version (NIV)

⁴¹ “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, ⁴² but few things are needed—or indeed only one.^[a] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
There has been a lot of talk about Mary and Martha this December. Some of it pro-Martha, some of it con-Martha but in the midst of it, I think we can gain a really good balance of pros and cons from Martha. My friend Faith wrote a really beautiful blog post about finding peace on your earth this Christmas. In it she wrote, “Ironically enough, it's at Christmas that we are so busy trimming the tree, planning Christmas parties, addressing Christmas cards and belting out carols in celebration of Jesus' birth, that we neglect truly worshiping and spending time with that same Jesus. If we learn anything from the Mary and Martha passage it's that sitting at Jesus' feet is much more important than all our Christmas festivities.”

It’s so true, isn’t it?! In the midst of all of the good things we may be doing we forget to worship. We forget to sit down and truly fellowship with one another for our own spiritual benefit. We can so easily go through the motions of “the good Christian” at Christmas time and yet completely forget that the whole reason we celebrate Christmas is to remember what Christ did and to celebrate and be thankful for his gift for us.

On the other side of that, what Martha was doing was so right. She was doing what God called her to do and gifted her to do…

 1 Peter 4:9-11 

⁹ Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. ¹⁰ Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. ¹¹ If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
She just didn’t realize that at the time, all she needed was BALANCE. I’m sure whatever you are doing this Christmas is sprung from the giftings that Christ has given you but, are you remembering to balance them with reflection and devoted time to him? I know that I’m not. Even in the midst of my deep desire to teach my boys to be intentional about what Christmas is about, I have neglected to give myself intentional quiet times. I have been relying solely off of the things that I read to the boys or what the most recent sermon was about. Even when I gather with close friends and family, I forget to really focus on WHY we are gathered. WHY we are doing what we are doing.

I tend to be very much a “Martha”. I have been gifted with hospitality and I love it but sometimes I forget that the reason I do it is to share Christ’s love more than just to make someone feel welcome or have a good time. In the midst of planning this cookie exchange with JoEllen, I was so excited to make a Stupendous party but I struggled with it missing something and JoEllen mentioned perhaps we should do a devotion and it filled in the missing piece for me. Yes, let’s gather and enjoy one another and some coffee and some much needed-chocolate BUT, let’s make the midst of it remind us of what is important and WHY we come together. What brings us together.

I was sitting in church yesterday by myself and as people filed in at the beginning of service I watched them and just thought to myself, “I am so thankful to be part of such a neat family.” Here at ACV I have felt so at home. More so than at other churches that I have tried and I am just so thankful. The entire reason that I can feel comfortable here is the gift of fellowship and hospitality. There is always someone that acknowledges you and gives a friendly face and you have to know that it is the love of the Christ that they do that. How neat to come together and celebrate in fellowship and confidence that we serve something bigger than our worries, desires, happiness, selves or whatever else.

The Master Creator came as a gross, screaming, pooping, puking Babe through the birth canal of an unwed, young , unknown girl that we might one day have eternal life with him. WHAT A GIFT. I cannot think of anyone better to spend time with at Christmas than with him; the husband that never fails us, the friend that never misses a holiday, the Daddy that is ever-so-near to us. Let’s just spend some time thanking him and basking in the greatness of his grace, presence and gift and enjoy our time together with him in the midst of us!

what to do when your computer crashes

Ye, that's right, my computer crashed. Either the day before Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving day, I don't remember which, I didn't put much concern on it. No, I don't have everything backed up safely... No, I'm not panicking, surprisingly enough. I JUST finished passing a couple of projects off so if there is anything lost, at least my clients have their pieces  my new projects I just consulted on on Saturday so it eliminated a lot of work there. All of my stuff is easy enough to reproduce so far...Most of my products my printer has and will be more than happy to pass them back to me and my photos, they are almost all on Dropbox. As I am typing this it's looking more and more bleak to me BUT I am almost 100% positive it's just a hard drive issue and not a memory loss thing. So we will see. It has an appointment with the local computer doctor and they will hopefully be able to revive her quickly and effectively.

In the meantime, I am having to re-arrange all of my posts because I was going to kick off a give away of an all-new, custom blog header, buttons, and so on but since I don't have my programs to work on right now that will have to wait. I am taking this as a simple, lay back and be focusing on the reason of the season and am working on not getting lost in the commercialism and business of the season and trying to post every day. I am still going to try to post every day but they aren't going to be as long and elaborate as I was initially intending them to be during December.



Today the boys and I are going to decorate our tree and later this week I am going to share our Advent with you and MAYBE a printable, I'll have to see if I can get my document or not.

I took a little break here to take out the garbage, get a couple of packages in the mail and snap a couple of photos that I can use, had to reset my Dropbox password and email and looked at a couple of blog updates that I had received. I want you to go and read this one today because it is so beautiful and refreshing. It is full of heartache but hope, hurt but love. Her story is beautiful and I just really think it is such an encouragement to really appreciate our own situations right here and now.

http://breeloverly.com/2014/12/joy-after-loss-the-holidays/

This post is just a really good stopping point. What I am going to do while my computer is crashed is take a little break from the work that I have been pushing myself to get done and just bask in the joy of the season and spend more time focusing on teaching my boys the real meaning of Christmas. Beyond the presents which are fabulous, I want them to really learn the joy and passion of GIVING instead of getting. And appreciating what they have and the people that they have. What a fun opportunity to be able to teach our children these precious things.

Have a great day friend!

<3
Kayla