MERRY CHRISTMAS 2012

When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Matthew 2:10-11

May your Christmas be filled with the awe of the star, the joy of the presence of the king and the wonder of a child!

Blessings to you and your Family

Happy Easter

He is Risen!

Christ the Lord is Risen Indeed!

Praying you have a blessed Easter.

Love.............MiPa

Easter Sabbath

Taking a time of silence in honour of Easter week.  See you soon...

Marriage Monday--Financial Contentment in Marriage

German and I are a good balance of one another in terms of finances in our marriage. Neither of us are huge indiscriminant spenders--both having encountered getting into financial trouble before our marriage and having worked hard together to get out of it. So, I came to this month's four topics a little perplexed as to what to write. I've settled on speaking of

Our Christmas Spending Plan

which is simply Spend more Time than Money.

We both feel that Christmas gets way too commercialized and we decided early on that we did not want to focus on spending. Instead the girls each get three small gifts to open (a la the magi) and one of those gifts is always clothes. They also get a small gift of pj's to open on Christmas eve and a Father Christmas gift. For extended family and friends we send a family gift of either gift certificates to go out and spend time as a family or a family game they can enjoy together. My niece and nephew each get a gift.

We always say that we don't exchange gifts with each other--but somehow something small always finds its way under the tree. I can usually count on the latest celebrity cookbook, he can count on a new set of cufflinks. Small things we love but do not cost us much.

We always splurge on Pantomine tickets as a family. We have found that time laughing together to be some of our best memories.

The focus of the holiday however is time spent together. Time spent playing games or riding bikes or going for walks. Time spent going to the carol service and Christmas morning services at church. Time in the car looking for Christmas lights. Just time being. We have found that we do not have to break the bank in order to bank a ton of memories. And that keeps us content.

Join us at Chrysalis' home to follow the links to other great advice and stories about Financial Contentment in marriage.

Ephesus

The last two days of our Turkey holiday we visited the seaport of Kusadasi and the ruins of Ephesus.  The juxtoposition of the the new city with the huge cruise ships a few miles from ancient ruins was a treat.  Our hotel looked out over the sea and we could see the ships come and go.  It was lovely to wander up and down the seafront and largely experience local life after the boats pulled out for the evening.

Ephesus itself was amazing.  It takes my breath away to walk on streets that old, to see places that Paul and Timothy and John would have seen.  To stand in the amphitheater and imagine what it was like in its prime.  The girls even went down on the stage and sang "Here I am to Worship" to the crowd.  It was great!  Although the library ruins are cool, my favorite part of Ephesus were the houses on the slopes.  This was an extra charge, but I had read about them the night before and knew I wanted to see them.  Breathtaking.  This is where current excavation is taking place and we could see them piecing together marble walls, uncovering mosaic after mosaic floor and unearthing amazing frescos on the walls.  It was such a shame that the tour groups all missed it--we had the entire complex to ourselves for an hour! Our budding archaeologist was in heaven.

Here are just a few of the incredible shots we took.  Enjoy!

Recipe for a Perfect Holiday

1. Choose the perfect villa

2. Sleep late and greet the day with a view of the Mediterranean Sea.

3. Eat breakfast by the pool.  

4. Swim (or lay by the pool and read)

5. Have Lunch by the pool.

6. Move to roof top terrace to nap/read/stitch/veg

7. If you must check your blog or work, make sure you have a view.

8. Swim

9. Shower and get ready to go to town for dinner

10. Eat dinner on a rooftop terrace whilst watching the sun set.

11. Return to villa and put girls to bed.

12. Have nightcap on terrace and stargaze. Over the two weeks watch the full moon become a sliver. Use telescope for better views of Jupiter.

13. Go to bed.

14. Lather, rinse, repeat for two weeks.

If in desperate need of variation, walk down to marina and play in the Mediterranean Sea,

do a little shopping, 

or take 30 minute dolumus ride to Patera beach for an awesome day out exploring ruins and playing in the sand and water!

If really desperate for something to do, hike up the olive grove to get great views of the sea.  Bring Mommy back pictures!

We did take a road trip to Kusadasi and Ephesus.  I'll post pictures from that leg of the trip tomorrow.  This was a magical holiday.  The first time I can ever remember that we were content to stay within 30 minutes of the place we were sleeping for days on end.  Restful, warm and perfect place to vacation.

Branson Holiday Part Three

Wow, talk about taking a month to finish a series of posts. Sorry about that. I managed to throw my back out in mid-August. Not so bad as to stop me from doing the things I needed to do, but enough to kick me off the computer. It seems the only chair in the house that really hurt to sit in was the computer chair. I guess God was trying to tell me something about priorities. Slowly over the last 2 weeks I've been able to tolerate computer stuff--but my priority was to get school stuff prepped for the coming school year. (more on that later) But for now, the almost-forgotten final post about our U.S. trip.

Here is the last installment of the Branson holiday. As I mentioned earlier my Dad, Dix and Amy joined us. Dad actually drove up a couple of days before Dix and Amy flew in (because work got in their way!). He came up so that German and I could travel to Birmingham on our own. We knew that it would be a crazy-hard drive to go Birmingham, take care of some needed business and drive back the next day. We did not really want to do that with the girls. So Dad came spent a day with us, then kept the girls while we traveled to B’ham. He and the girls drove to Tulsa to get Dix and Amy. We saw them late the next night. This was the first time we had ever gone away and left the girls with anyone. Moreover, it was the first time that he and Dix were able to just be grandparents without us around. The girls had a blast, and I think the grandparents did as well!

They spent the day at the Titantic Exhibit, playing at the playground and attending the Shanghai Circus.


After we took care of the things that needed done in Birmingham (most importantly renewing my driver’s license), we met up with friends to catch up and go out for dinner. Because we are total idiots, we forgot to take a picture!

The next morning, we got up early and made a side excursion before getting on the road. We went to the 45th Birthday Mustang Celebration!

We had so much fun. We spent hours looking at the Mustangs from all years. Although we were only able to see about half the lots of cars before we needed to get on the road, we were in heaven. Then we made the long trek back across Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and into Missouri. Here are a few of the lovely cars we saw.





We could never have done that without your help. Thanks Guys!