Dec. 25, 2009 - Home Spun strip #428
Merry Christmas Everyone!
My Christmas wish for all my friends and family is for a day so filled with joy and laughter it carries you through all of next year!
Dec. 24, 2009 - Home Spun strip #427
Dec. 21, 2009 - Home Spun strip #426
Murphy's Law of Christmas cards: You always receive cards from people you didn't send a card to. And they are most likely to arrive on December 24th.
Dec. 19, 2009 - His Best for You
Well, it's been awhile, hasn't it? What a weird, six-plus months since Charming lost his job. I had hoped it wouldn't be a journey this long, you know?
OF COURSE, God has provided, as He always does. As He has promised. As His character dictates. We still have food and lights and heat. And even internet. But I am looking forward to the time our bills are paid on time, and we have a plan "in place" to get out of debt, which is our "heart's desire."
The Lord has taken us many places in this journey. At first, it was a little scary. Breaking the habits of a lifetime of sloppy spending took a little time, but we have accomplished it. Every dollar is weighed. Sometimes we even have a "pros and cons" list to decide where it will be best used. Fast food is not just an easy answer to a busy afternoon. We may have leftovers from a meal, but they never get so old that they are thrown away. It's a Good Thing.
In five months, Charming had only two interviews. In the past two weeks, he has had three. There will be an end to this, Sometime. Nobody stays unemployed forever, after all.
Very lately, I've been a tad discouraged. Maybe weary is a better word. I seem to be in a "holding pattern" where I'm just surviving. At times in this journey, I've discovered jewels in God's word. I've felt that the Lord had something for me to learn, and, by golly, I was learning! But sometimes He leads us to a desert place. Not exactly a Dark Night of the Soul or anything (at least this time!) but someplace Dry. Windy. Lookin' like it will go on Forever.
Yesterday I had the thought, "just what is God doing?" And the answer immediately came to me: He is doing His best for me.
His Best. That is what He always does. In every situation, for every person. That is His only way--He doesn't have a good, better, best plan. Only the Best plan, always. And doesn't that make sense? Why would the Creator of the universe waste time with anything other than Best? Didn't He plan the earth and the heavens? They are perfect in their design for us. We're the ones who introduced sin into the equation.
You know how the pastor will say "God is good!" and we respond "all the time!" Do we believe it?
When Forget-me-not had had her driver's license only a few months, she took four of her friends to the mall to get t-shirts for a school event. She rear-ended a car in front of her which had braked suddenly. I picked up all of the kids, and took them home one-by-one. I told the first and second parents I spoke to the same thing: God was good; there was no one hurt. After that, the Lord gently rebuked me. He said, "I would be "good" if all of the children had died."
Wow.
How many people have you known that have gone through a crisis and said this: "I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy, but I wouldn't trade what the Lord has taught me through it for a million dollars." I'll bet you've said that, as well. That is because He is giving you His best plan, always.
God gave His best when He gave us His Son. The magnitude of the sacrifice in Jesus coming to earth as a human, then giving up His life so that we could be reconciled to God, when we messed up the thing to begin with? Unbelievable. Unspeakable.
So as this Christmas approaches, that's what I'm thinking about.
"Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift."
Dec. 18, 2009 - Angel Christmas Card
Here is the second card. I was playing with the coloring in my photo studio, so it has much more color than the cards I sent out.
This one has deeper, more personal meaning for me. It is always harder for me to draw what is in my heart, because my heart doesn't think like my head. It is more impulsive and intuitive. Sometimes I feel this disconnect from my hand when I draw this way and I surprise myself with what comes out. I don't know if that makes sense. It's hard to explain. Anyway, I hope you like it.
Dec. 17, 2009 - Home Spun strip #425
Dec. 16, 2009 - A Christmas Card for you
I feel so unprepared this week because I am full tilt into my Christmas preparations as well as the general middle-of-the-month busy-ness, so I don't even have a comic strip to post. Never fear! I did at least get the majority of my cards in the mail, so I will post the ecards here for my online friends. I will post one today and one on Friday, that way if I still don't get my act together, I have something to put up.
Of course, crazy artist that I am, I hand colored the cards I sent out. Marina helps me with that, which is nice. I used to send out over one hundred cards, but now the list has whittled down to around fifty. I want to thank the computer and the internet for making my card sending a little easier. I scan my designs onto the computer to do finishing touches and to print. This year I also let the computer do my lettering, which saves a lot of time and frustration, especially since my pen usually decides to drip an ink blob at the final word. My husband also saves me time by printing out address labels for me. I haven't enough patience to learn this label-printing skill, and it helps him feel like he's part of the process.
Checking through the addresses this year was difficult. We suffered several losses over the past year. I find myself hesitating over the delete button. It's hard to watch another name disappear from my address book. It feels like I'm deleting a part of myself. Maybe it's just me.
Feel free to use this card. I will make it public on my Flickr account, where the original version is somewhat bigger.
Dec. 14, 2009 - Home Spun strip #424
I will hope that this one needs no explanation. Thank goodness for digital cameras. Thirty pictures later and I have something decent for this year.
So tell me, how did your family photo come out?
Dec. 11, 2009 - Home Spun strip #423
True story: I thought it would be a great idea for us to paint pottery at one of those craft shops one year. I figured some of it would make nice gifts for Christmas. In particular, I wanted something unique for Sierra's godmother. I found a clay plate that I painted a simple angel onto. Just a circle head with halo and a triangle body. Then we would have Sierra (then 1 or 2 years) put hand prints on either side for wings. What kid doesn't like sticking their hands in paint?
Apparently, my kid doesn't.
After the screaming fit we decided to leave and go to a restaurant nearby, hoping she would calm down before the shop closed. After she ate, we returned to the pottery shop. The best we managed were two fist prints. And this from the child who would eventually decorate my wall when she was five (I dug the picture out of my archives for your amusement)...
Dec. 9, 2009 - Home Spun strip #422
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