Roses and Stumps

John 15:1-11

1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.4Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.6If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.8This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.10If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

My son loves to go outside and smell the roses.  There are several rose bushes in our yard, after all, our dwelling has a name: 'The Rose Cottage' .  Well this morning, we stepped outside and George asked me, "Mom, where are the roses? I want to 'mell the roses!".  The fact that I did not even notice that they had all been chopped down is surely worthy of exploration in another post.  For whatever reason, I did not feel up to an explanation as to why we humans chop down the beautiful flowers and leave them looking so stumpy.  I mean, I  get it…. I  understand that if the roses were not pruned, they would not produce pretty roses next season.  I have experienced over 30 years of the change in season.  I have practiced this technique myself and have seen that it works.  If you don't "dead head" your pansies, they just get leggy and gross.  If you continuously pop the heads off the dying ones, the bush gets more and more blooms, and even the shape of the plant as a whole benefits.  But geesh, how do you explain this to a three year old? I am not sure what I told him to pacify him but I am sure that it was not the best explanation.  He just asks SO MANY questions and it was morning, and y'all, I have to pace myself!  He was really upset by the stumps you see above and every time we leave the house we go through this over and over.   There have even been tears. 

This morning, I finally opened a devotion book given to me by my grandmother for Christmas (Thanks Marty!) and the very first entry was the above verse.   That's Jesus who speaks about the vines and the branches and about gardens and how to keep your plants fruitful.  That's Jesus- who most likely felt the same way as my son when he first saw a pruned rose bush (or some other Middle Eastern version).  I imagine He felt the pain of the loss of such beauty.  The difference is that he took this and (I would like to think) immediately made a mental note : "This is what God does.  Takes away the dead part of our human selves, the part with no life, the part that does not produce good beautiful things.  Only then can the person have room for correct teaching,  which produces new growth and eventually something beautiful emerges to take the place of the dead, yucky part that all women and men carry around.  Someday I am going to have to explain that to the human race and I want to use rose bushes (or the like) as my example, It's perfect!"

I am so thankful that God was here on earth.  How else could he explain these really hard concepts to us? How else could we children understand.  Like me, the parent who knows why the roses had to be pruned but couldn't find the words for my child, God had to find a way to explain the mysteries of the universe to us.  He found a way to explain. He chose Jesus to come and help us and walk us through the hard, ugly, otherwise inexplainable things of life.  I am so thankful he did.  So take advantage of this gift of knowledge.  Listen to Jesus, remain in His love and you will find joy.  I would look for it soon after something has been "pruned" from your life.  Joy and beauty grow after the ugly and unfruitful have been removed.  

"I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete."

What we've been up to lately-The Show of the Century

Since most of our friends here in LA are in the movie business George couldn't help but to try his hand at the movie industry.  Here's the result.
The Show of the Century

Week With Mom and Dad!

A picture update (again).  Do I have writers block? 

Rose Parade 

Disney's "A bug's life" show.  I hope he had fun because thats the last time I go back into that room with creepy crawly 8 legged you-know-whats hanging from the ceiling.  Not my idea of fun.

But the 3D glasses were funny

King Arthur's Carousel

Dumbo, the flying elephant

He loved to ride the rides with PaPa

Tow- Mater and thats George really tiny under the rear view mirror

Me and mom having fun!

Dad- captain of the rocket ship. He's got it all under control

Nana and Georgie

Tow- Mater's Junkyard Jamboree

Silly Monkeys

Date night! The next few pics are taken at Perch- a rooftop bar with a great view of the city

I still can't believe we live in this city!

I still cant believe I am married to this guy. Handsome!!

More handsomeness on New Year's Day

Nana and George swingin'

George pushing PaPa on the swings

Cutie Pie Bat Man

Father and son on the beach. Does it get any better?

Yes it does: "to the bat cave robin!"

Those blue eyes. shoo mercy!

Picture update

Is quicker than words :)

"gingerbreadboyhouse" and one George carefully following instructions.  

Christmas breakfast: French Toast Casserole and sausage

my Christmas present (Chemex and kettle) and our Christmas coffee!

fresh squeezed orange juice- an Edwards tradition we could not forget!

I love that man!

I love this lil man too, but he only has eyes for candy right here.

Great Christmas lights in Pasadena

cute George snuggles

Post Christmas Blues and 2014!

Out for a run last week and had this conversation with Georgie:
"Hey Mom…..Mom?…..Mom………Yes, honey what is it?……..Where are all the blow-up things?…….What are you talking about, baby……..You know the blow up 'no man and reindeers…...Oh, honey, they are gone, its not Christmas anymore…….Whaaaaaaaat? What is it then? Is it Halloween?"

Poor baby. Its so hard to say goodbye to Christmas.  Last week I cleaned up Christmas and made room for my parents who would arrive the next day.  I learned the hard way that the tree should probably be undecorated while he is fast asleep.  Note-to-self for next year.  It was traumatic.  His sobs were about to break my heart so I kept the tree on the back porch so he could say goodbye to it over time, in his own time.  Yes, Christmas is fun for little ones but also really difficult to understand.  And no one warned me about the Christmas day fallout.  Its a thing.  It happens in the afternoon when the sugar drops you and you should have been put down for a nap hours ago and all the toys have been opened and played with and mom and dad are pooped out.  I seriously had to throw Georgie in the shower to snap him out of the crazy-Santa-came and went-stupor.  After a short rest we went to our Pastor's house for a Christmas dinner.  It was lovely.  Fine china, a ham, creamed corn and all kinds of wonderful dishes were shared. Music and laughter, the whole bit!  I made biscuits and cranberry sauce.  George sat at the "kids" table (his first experience) and I think he really enjoyed the fact that mother hen could not watch his every move.  I am not sure he ate anything at all but I kind of enjoyed not being so concerned.  The day after Christmas was just like any other Thursday.  George headed off to work and Georgie and I emerged from all the boxes and tissue paper and played with new toys all day.  Friday was a gorgeous day so we took off for the beach. I found a place to park for free where the beach is not a mile wide.  I call that a score.  Bigger score- I ended up in my bathing suit and even got in the water waist deep.  Great day, it was cold in the water but I still wanted to say that I got in the Pacific Ocean in December.

beach Friday 12.27.13

 beach Sunday 12.29.13

 I am not sure what happened between that day and New Years Day (and it wasn't because I had an all night long great New Year's Eve celebration).  Then my parents came to visit on New Years Day.  We had such a full, fun week that I was unable to find time to blog, or even journal the whole time.  I am not sure we even left a moment to think!  So I find myself here on my little favorite perch, having survived Christmas and  New Years in California and on the other side of an occasion I had looked forward to since we moved here.  Having my parents here was such a treat, but now what do I do?  I can't possibly think about the fact that I will not see them for six months.  I can't plan my next trip to NC because I have decided *again* never to go to LAX- except to return home for good.  I guess I will have to just document our visit to the best of my ability.  But I must not neglect New Year's Day.  George's boss got the two of us tickets to see the Rose Parade. Three days before the parade, we found out little George could go too.  I was thrilled because parades are the sort of thing that entertain children and adults alike.  He had a great time.  We set the alarm for early, Shirley, and hit the road to Dr. Stevo's house.  It was cold out before the sun was up but warmed up nicely over the course of the morning.  Our favorite thing was the extreme pogo -ers.   They would jump on these huge pogo sticks and even do flips before the return to earth.  Amazing!  Then a brunch at Dr. S's house with a bunch of his family and friends while the traffic died down.

This was brunch after the parade at Dr Stevo's house. I wish you could see the view, his house overlooks the Rose Bowl Stadium!

My parents arrived while we were at the brunch so we went to LAX to pick them up.  The trip is never as eventful when George drives us to LAX.  When I drive to LAX there's always a story.  Don't worry, there's one coming up for ya.  We are all ok, thats what matters….

So began our wonderful week of togetherness!

Christmas Eve

I fear this has become a weekly update instead of a blog. I read somewhere that a good blog should have a pattern so that readers would not have to wonder if you've written or not.  Well, thats just not me. Sorry readers, I am always and forever gonna keep you guessing.  After the holidays I will try my hardest to have more of a schedule but until then….who knows.
So- weekly update:
Last Wednesday we had a Christmas party for George's preschool.  He made ornaments, wrote a letter to Santa, and did sticker puzzles, made funny faces for the photo booth-but mostly followed Olivia around because she had an Ariel shirt on and a "dancing dress" skirt.  Boys.
Thursday we were supposed to go to Disney but it rained and was cold so we decided not to.  We went to the grocery store and I picked up two more pounds of butter for Christmas baking.  I feel like you should use at least three to four pounds of butter in the month of December to make a good Christmas.
Friday night we had our usual pizza movie night but had a special appearance by Rudolph.  I found the Christmas classic at the grocery store and the three of us sat entranced by claymation.  One of us for the first time and two of us for the millionth time-and it never gets old, especially when Rudolph says, "Im cuuuuuuuuuute!!!!!!!" and flies because Clarice bats her long eyelashes at him.  Everyone has their favorite Claymation moment, this is mine.
Saturday George had to go into work in the morning so it felt like a regular work week day until he got home and we decorated a gingerbread house.  Little George had the best time and was very proud of his handy work.  He informed us about forty times that if the candy didn't stick, he'd have to just eat it.  I can see the logic.
Then we went to look at lights. Big George found us two places: Christmas Tree Lane and the Ice Cream Man's house.  They were both amazing.
Sunday we went to church and then came home to rest.  Monday was spent on Colorado Blvd with my favorite little shopper.  We got frozen yogurt for lunch because it seemed like the right thing to do on Christmas Eve Eve.  No nap yesterday led to crazy child syndrome and the result was a deep scalp cut and a little too much blood for this girl.  I was pretty calm but glad to see big George when he came home a little after six to a popsicle-eating, iPad-watching injured three year old.  He graciously told me to go read or sit in front of my computer screen, a task I accepted generously.  I am almost finished with the Hunger Games series and at that point where you slow down purposefully because you've enjoyed the plot so much.

Today my goal is to post this and finish up all the things that I think will make this Christmas in California special for this family of three.   But before I go I want to invite you into my next goal:

It's the Christmas Eve service.  A lot more folks go to the Christmas Eve service than on a regular Sunday.  Its tradition, its beauty, its candles, and smiles, and song.  I had a realization two days ago.  Invite someone.  I bet they will come. And secondly, pray for your preacher.  Because while you shop for those last minute gifts, bake those favorite cookies of Santa's, wrap gifts, put together toys, pull stocking stuffers out from their hiding places, preachers are surely up to the same thing- only with their sermon.  Can you imagine the pressure of many listening ears that might only hear the good news once or twice a year? I bet preachers know this pressure like the backs of their hands.  The music is easy to love and to sing along to- pop culture has adopted most of the hymns of Christmas so we all know the words, plus they mean Christmas to most people no matter how many times you attend church every year. The sanctuary invites us to comfort with the beautifully lit candles, heavenly scented greenery, and warm cozy glow.  Friends and family are also a draw, with a huge Christmas smile and arms that warmly embrace.  But the real meaning of Christmas should come from the few moments of reflection in the sermon the pastor is expected to deliver.  I can imagine if I were a preacher I would spend all of Christmas Eve engrossed in my sermon.  I would take out words that sounded too dreadful, switch paragraphs around, highlight sentences I wanted to say with boldness, add and subtract content so that the sermon was just short enough to to hold everyone's attention but just long enough to hold the miracle of Christmas in the forefront of everyone's minds.  While you run your last minute errands, remember to take a few moments to lift up the one who will deliver the good news to you tonight.  To you and to that person who sits in the back who you've never seen before and may never see again.  To the friend you invite who may not make a habit of church-going, or who may….after this service.

This post may have typos, poor grammar and punctuation errors and it may be disjointed but I have a little three year old who right now asks me, "Where are we going today? is it Christmas? Watch this…." I guess its good enough and I had better go but I wish you all the most sincere Merry Christmas.  How can it not be? Christ came to us on Christmas.  Find one moment to come to him, the Prince of Peace, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, today.  The Babe...the King...  Jesus.

A weeks worth of news

So I owe you a post.  I, as most of you, have found myself extremely busy with this Christmas Season's activities.  But thats no excuse.  Maybe I haven't found time to write because all last week George decided not to nap.  Still not good enough…OK,  my real excuse……. someone loaned me the first book in the Hunger Games series.  There's an excuse for you.  

Last Tuesday was the last post and the beginning of the no-nap week. To pass the time, I tried to walk Dean while George scooted on his scooter and that was a disaster.  Dean was TERRIBLE.  Ran after kids, growled and barked at dogs, pulled me, yanked me, bolted after squirrels. I have never felt that out of control of him.  Never again.

Wednesday we decided on a different adventure.  The mall.  Usually scary at this time of year in North Carolina, CA malls are no different.  Except I had to navigate a brand new one which made it that much harder.  We emerged with three gifts purchased, one bowl of Fro-Yo for lunch and one carousel ride under our belts.  George again did not nap.  So at five we headed over to Lauren's house to make dough ornaments.  We got to meet all her friends and their kiddos, mostly around one year of age, like her son.  George was pretty nice to and gentle with them overall and behaved reasonably well for not having had a nap.  We got home and I put him straight to bed.  Also, I should add that I haven't mentioned big George because he made it home after dinner both of these "no nap" days.

Thursday was another school day and I was able to run several errands during that very short short two hours.  Another trip to the post office finished up my elf duties for the season and a trip to the spa to clean up for our date night Saturday night. Thats right, I said it, DATE NIGHT.  This is a perfect time to interject that I freaked out Thursday night about the babysitter.  I imagined a million things that could go wrong.  From small things like George "bunking" his noggin' all the way to major disasters, like a kidnapper sitter and a ransom note.  I do not exaggerate.  I do worry like this.  God helped me remember to look at Psalm 91.  And then I found my nugget that would help me sleep that night in verses 9-10.

 "If you make the most high your dwelling- even the Lord-who is my refuge-

 then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent"

Friday I cleaned. Usually I clean on every other Monday but I have this weird obsession about cleanliness when someone else will be in my house for any extended time.  So yes, that would mean I cleaned for the babysitter.                ?                      IDK.  

Saturday was AWESOME. Why? Because I read the Hunger Games, and followed the score tracker on ESPN to help the Tarheels to a victory over Kentucky.  Always love to beat them.  Always hate to loose to them.  Then, George napped for the first time all week and when he awoke, big George and I were already ready for the date night to begin.  We sat and nervously fidgeted until she came.  I already described her in a previous post.  She's great.  But even Mother Theresa would be questionable to two parents not from Skopje, Macedonia.  George took a picture of her license and then got her to write down her address.  He asked for two phone numbers for each of her brothers.  This was all to my surprise and utter satisfaction.  All week, he concealed his own second thoughts about our date night and sitter. To leave your heart and soul, your one and only son in the hands of someone you've only just met-it was a feat about which both of us had reservations.  But we also had reservations at a restaurant so we kissed him and hit the road, all the while telling ourselves, "People do this. Normal people go on dates.  Normal people leave their kids behind while they spend quality time together".  And by the time we arrived at the restaurant we were miraculously both ready to do just that.  Spend two uninterrupted hours together.  And it was niiiiiiiice.  The wine was great, the food was okay, the bill was high but all of it was worth it.  And we justified the bill by our recollection that we have not really done this since June after George finished boards.  We did not even celebrate when we found out he passed boards.  So there, we had a blast and paid for it but we were so thankful for the chance to be out and about- just us.  And wouldn't you know it, when we got back home, George was still there- all in one piece with a smile on his face and giggles that melted our hearts.  He was still awake, which was less than ideal, but who cared at this point?  Not one of us.  

Sunday we woke up and thought we were headed to Palm Springs to hang out with George's friend Zoe and her parents when we got the call that her daddy was really sick.  So we changed our plan and decided to go to early church and then Point Dume near Malibu (because, hate to break it to you East Coasters, it was supposed to be 85 degrees and sunny).  Point Dume was where we went Labor Day weekend but it was too crowded to enjoy.  When we got there George said, "Hey, we are only an hour from Santa Barbara…. why not?"  I had no reason why not so onward we went.  As George is never really one to alter the plan, I was a little worried but it turned out to be the best day ever.  We took turns playing with George on the beach as the other ran on the hard packed sand and witnessed cliffs, sailors,   a harbor, dogs off the leash, and finished the day as we dined by sunset at a cute beach front restaurant with fish tacos and Bloody Marys.  Just about then George uttered these words, "I am retiring here".  I let him have his moment and then I said, "Seriously? Or does that just mean you are having a great day?" I will let you guess the North Carolina boy's response.  Don't worry family, I am sure you guessed it correctly.  

Monday was low key and Today has been a little bit of a challenge.  I worked in the classroom which is always tricky but today was the last day of school before the break.  A little more to clean and organize for the break, plus a lice outbreak (which always gets folks stirring) and many of the kids and their parents gave gifts today.  George wanted to open them all while I tried to clean up from the day.  It was difficult to urge him to wait on that bright red candy cane.  Then we got home and he did not want to nap.  Shew, of all days! Three hours with 12 three year olds, clean up their mess and then return with a sugared up three year old of my own who just WANTS TO PLAY WITH HIS NEW TOYS.  I really can't blame him.  Christmas is such an exciting time of year for all of us.  I just sincerely hope this is not the end of the naps.  I need them…Oh- I mean- HE needs them!

 roses in our yard

sunrise 12/17

 sunrise