Christians and Entertainment

I came across this great article at a blog I stumbled upon today. The author (another Sarah!) expressed my thoughts so well on this subject that I am just going to link to her post. What are your thoughts?
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WHAT'S HAPPENING TO MY GENERATION?

What’s happening to my generation? (Long pause for thought) Our society has become a wicked society, like the days of old, like those mentioned in the Bible, like Sodom and Gomorrah, and like the wicked nations God wiped off the earth. Many young people constantly poison their minds and their spirits with lust and evil thoughts, evil entertainment. Where anything goes as long as it’s labeled “art” or “a movie.” Do Christians no longer know how to discern between good and evil? ...click here to keep reading

I love being an Auntie!

It was so great to spend 10 days with my sister Anna and her family following the birth of my nephew Aaron on Dec. 5th -- I love these little guys so much! Ben has such personality, and is so smart! I can't wait until he starts talking. And Aaron is just so sweet and new...I can't wait to see his personality develop over the next few years!

















And of course, I miss Anna already. It was a privilege to get to help her through that first week with two little ones at home. She's a great mommy.
















Hopefully I'll get to see them again in a few months when we go back up for my cousin's wedding. I really wish we lived closer!

You know you're in California when...

...it's December 5th and you hear the ice-cream truck driving up and down the street with its annoying little jingle.

Seriously, in Portland that would be seasonal work. Here? They work year round.

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In other news, my sister had her second baby this morning! I was supposed to be there for the birth, but he came a day earlier than planned, so... not much you can do about that! I'm flying up tonight...

Here's little Aaron Edward (8 lbs. even, 20 in. long) looking all newborn-y. It's the only picture I have so far!

What a cutie!

So I got to hang out with my nephew Ben all last week -- it was great! He's developing quite a little personality!

Here we are enjoying some mindless entertainment...



















I think this kid is advanced for his age...he sat here with his mommy for more than half an hour coloring. How many almost-18-month-olds have that kind of attention span?

















Of course, he deals with the normal toddler temptations of forbidden fruit (in this case, the computer room). I'm sure he'll soon figure out the door-opening thing, and that will make life a lot more interesting for his parents!



















I am very excited to fly back up to Oregon this coming week for the birth of Ben's little brother, Aaron!

Ahhh...the lovely liquid sunshine of Oregon!

I'm currently visiting my sister in the lovely state of Oregon. And I'm trying to figure out what all this wet stuff falling from the sky is...oh yeah, RAIN! I remember rain! :-) All kidding aside, we do get rain in Sacramento (although we've had some lovely, sunny weather there recently). Oregon wouldn't be the beautiful, green state that it is without all the rain, though, so it does serve a purpose!












I'm loving hanging out with my nephew, Ben, and getting to know him a little bit. He's much more fun now that he's almost 18 months old (last time I saw him was in June). Here's a recent pic of the little cutie:

















I'm thankful for my family, and for the opportunity to spend time with them this week!

Fa la la la la, la la la la!

I couldn't help it...I gave in early this year! My favorite Christmas songs have made their way into my daily listening repertoire, and my head is full of visions of sleigh rides, chestnuts roasting on open fires, and of course, a silent, holy night in a little town called Bethlehem.

I used to wait until after Thanksgiving, but now it's more like the beginning of November. So I get two whole months of Christmas music! And I love it!

How about you? Are you listening to Christmas music yet?

Happy Birthday, Little Brother!!

It's hard for me to believe that my brother Nate is 27 years old today! I'd like to share a poem I wrote about him when I was a senior in high school, oh-so-many years ago:

"Little Brother"

I was three and a half when
they brought you home from the hospital.
The third child.
The first son.
My first and only brother.
Sweet, chubby babyness.
I held you in my three and a half year old arms;
my baby brother.
Up through the reckless toddler years,
the motorcycle, He-Man, and G.I. Joe phases.
Now you are thirteen;
athletic, strong.
No longer my baby brother,
but many memories to cherish.
And more memories to make.

And we have made many great memories together since that poem was written...all-night, spur-of-the-moment drives from Sacramento to Portland, exploring the small towns in the foothills outside Sacramento, traveling to Israel and Egypt, movie watching and board game playing, shopping at Whole Foods Market, discussions about the Bible and Christian living, playing with the best cats in the world (Skipper and Gilligan), and the list could go on.

Nate is one of my best friends, and I count it a great privilege to be his sister. He loves the Lord with his whole heart, and desires to live a pure and godly life. He cares about others and seeks to serve them. God has great things in store for him, and I can't wait to see how God is going to use him in the years to come!

I'm also excited that Nate is moving back in with us at the end of November (he lived with us for a few months when we first moved here in 1999, and again for about seven months a couple years ago). He makes a great housemate (and I like having someone to help me carry in the groceries)!

I love you, little bro. Thanks for being you!

The Love of God

As a writer, I love this last verse of the hymn "The Love of God" --


Could we with ink the ocean fill,












And were the skies of parchment made,












Were every stalk on earth a quill,












And every man a scribe by trade,


















To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

Autumn has arrived...

And the weather is finally getting cooler...yay!

(Although this picturesque scene is not something I'd be able to find around here!)

I do rather miss Oregon weather at this time of the year...

God's Amazing Friendship Glue!

Some of my dearest friends are women I never would have guessed I could have a heart connection with. But God has a wonderful way of bringing friends into my life, and He has done it again recently.

I am from Oregon. Natasha is from Ukraine. I am not yet a mother. She has two beautiful daughters (I was privileged to be with her this past Sunday when she gave birth to her youngest). Our backgrounds and upbringings are totally dissimilar. But God, in His wisdom and plan, applied His friendship glue to our hearts, and she has come to be a very dear friend -- more like a sister.

Natasha commented recently that she never thought she could have such a close friendship with an American, because of the cultural differences (she's only been in the States for three years). I replied that we may have different cultures, but we have the same Spirit. Come to think of it, I guess He is the glue that connects our hearts!

Here's a picture of Natasha and me:















I am so thankful for ALL of my dear friends around the country (and even overseas) that God has chosen, in His infinite wisdom, to "stick my heart to." They are treasures, and I am a rich woman, indeed!

Nephew Number Three!

Congratulations to Andrew's brother, Serge, and his wife Olga, on the arrival of their son James Ryan, born September 18!

Welcome to the world, baby James!



















Here he is with his Aunt Sarah and Uncle Andrew:

Onomatopoeia

Main Entry: on·o·mato·poe·ia
Pronunciation: "ä-nuh-"mä-tuh-'pE-uh"
Function: noun
Etymology: Late Latin, from Greek onomatopoiia

1 : the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it (as buzz, hiss)

2 : the use of words whose sound suggests the sense
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I love onomatopoeic words -- they add zest to a language! When writing, especially writing for children, you want to use lots of these types of words. I've listed some of my favorites below...leave me a comment with some of yours!

These are words that beg to be said aloud, with feeling -- go ahead, give it a try (you might want to wait until you're alone, otherwise you might get some funny looks)!

CRUNCH

SWOOSH

ZIP

TINGLE

SMASH

BONK

SNAP, CRACKLE, POP :-)

BUZZ

BEEP

HUSH

Thanks for indulging the ramblings of a language lover!

Optical Illusion

Stare at the yellow circle.

Cool, huh? :-)

A new nephew!

Ben now has some competition in the cute nephew department, as Andrew's sister Evelina and her husband Serge celebrated the arrival of their first son, Austin Samuel, yesterday. We are all thankful for this precious gift from God, and that mom and baby are both doing so well!



















Welcome to the world, little Austin (and at 6 lbs. 1 oz. and 18 inches long, "little" is the appropriate word)!

Austin with his Aunt Sarah and Uncle Andrew:

And the award for cutest nephew goes to....

...Ben, sporting shades at the local pool.















And showing off his pearly whites!















Ben was a year old in June. I get to see him again in November! Kinda' sad that my sister and I live so far apart... but thanks to technology, I don't have to miss out on cute moments like these!

From a distance...

One of my dear friends lives in a country on the other side of the world. She celebrated a birthday this past week, and because I did not plan ahead well enough to send her a package in the mail, I pondered what else I could do for her besides sending an e-card. Then I thought, why not send her flowers? In this day and age of the Internet, it should be as simple as a few clicks of the mouse! So I promptly went online, found the website of a florist in her country, and ordered a beautiful bunch of daisies to be delivered on her special day. (It even cost half as much as sending flowers to a friend two states away, and the bouquet is bigger, too!)

Here's my friend holding her gift -- she told me that it really made her day. I'm so thankful for the technology that allows me to bless a friend half a world away!

The Boys

It's been a while since I posted a picture of Skipper and Gilligan. So here are my little fuzzy fellows! I love having them in my life...I'm so glad God created cats, and that He created these two in particular!

I think I've discovered a new talent!

Yesterday evening I attended a baby shower for Andrew's sister Evelina, who is due to give birth to our nephew Austin Samuel in about a month... I was asked beforehand to make a "diaper cake" as a decoration, so I looked online for inspiration and got carried away with how fun and easy it was and ended up making three of them! The idea is for it to be something beautiful but practical -- and for a new mom, what could be more practical than diapers? ;-)

The "ingredients" for these cakes are simple: rolled up diapers (cloth or disposable, depending on what the new mom plans to use) and whatever you want to decorate them with. I used straight pins to hold the ribbon and fringe on. This decoration is very easy to make (I put all three cakes together in less than two hours, including driving to Walmart to get the supplies). But it looks so elegant! Similar cakes like this sell for around $40 to $60 online, but it's so much less expensive to make your own. You could probably also do the same thing for a bridal shower using rolled-up new white washcloths or cloth napkins.

So, without any further ado, I give you my first attempt at diaper cake making -- Evelina's favorite flower is the calla lily, so I incorporated them in two of the cakes (click on the pics to see them larger):

























































So what do you think? Maybe I should make some more and sell them at craft fairs this coming holiday season! That would be kind of fun!

Have you heard of these countries?

Andrew and I were looking at a world map today, and I noticed so many countries that we never hear anything about on the news (to be honest, some of them I don't remember ever hearing about before in my life)... Thankfully we have the Internet, so we can learn all about these "mystery countries" if we choose!

Oman, Eritrea, Central African Republic, Gabon, Mali, Togo, Benin, Mauritania, Bhutan, Myanmar, Macedonia, Tunisia...

I just thought it was interesting that apparently there's nothing happening in these countries (and some of them are pretty large) that would make them "newsworthy" in the eyes of the American press. How strange that, before this evening, I really had no concept of these countries; yet all the years I've been living my life here in America, people have been living, loving, and dying in each one of these countries. It doesn't matter if I knew they existed or not. A simple, obvious thought, but one that is making me "ponder" this evening...

Walking in the Light

"If we walk in the light as He is in the light...the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin."
1 John 1:7

"The love of God working in me causes me to hate, with the Holy Spirit's hatred for sin, anything that is not in keeping with God's holiness. To 'walk in the light' means that everything that is of the darkness actually drives me closer to the center of the light."

~ Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest

Celebrating our 11th anniversary

Andrew and I had a lovely vacation to Southern California last week to celebrate our 11th anniversary, which was on the 8th. We drove down on Wednesday and spent two nights at a KOA in San Diego, staying in one of their one-bedroom Kamping Kabins. While in San Diego, we explored Seaport Village, Point Loma, Coronado, and the San Diego Zoo.

Then we headed to Riverside for two nights at the Mission Inn. On Saturday, our anniversary, we attended the wedding of Andrew's cousin's daughter, then on Sunday we visited the Slavic church in Hollywood and then had lunch with friends afterwards before driving home to Sacramento.

I'm so grateful to the Lord for giving us 11 years together. The years have gone by quickly! I look forward to many more years together as we continue on in this journey of marriage.

A few pictures:

The view from Point Loma














Us (the happy couple) :-)














Andrew enjoying the Pacific Ocean

I wish I were a better blogger!

I read so many different blogs with witty, insightful entries. I'm a writer...I should be able to do the same! I don't work very hard at my writing, though. It's a gift that needs cultivating...too often I let it stagnate. I lack the motivation I need to really write... not just put words on a page to convey information, but use words as tools to create something new, something beautiful.

Maybe that's part of the problem...wanting to write something new, but feeling like anything that I could say has already been said, and probably much better, by others before me. It often feels like, what's the point? What do I have to say, or write, that hasn't already been said or written a million times before?

But if God has given me this gift, as I believe He has, He obviously intends for me to use it -- in a way that glorifies Him. So although I won't promise it will happen overnight, expect to see different kinds of blog entries here in the future. More of a variety...not just pictures and vacation notes (although those things have their place, too).

What better place than a blog to experiment with words?

Friends and Family

I had a wonderful visit in Oregon, and was able to see many friends and family members while there!

Here are a few photos taken during my time in the Great Northwest:















My dad had all four of his kids with him for Father's Day...it might be a long while before that will ever happen again!















My sister Anna and I took my nephew, Ben, to the mall, and he got to ride in the car stroller...it was so cute!















Without prompting, he even did the "typical guy thing" of driving with one hand on the wheel and the other resting on the "windowsill" -- it was funny!















We got to see our friends Nate and LaSarah and their two kids, and spent a whole afternoon with them! What fun! Here's LaSarah and me on Multnomah's campus...oh, the memories! (We all met while attending college here!)















I also got to visit my friend Galina and see her newest daughter, little Jenny. She's a month old. I was privileged to be present for the birth of Galina's first baby, Miriam, in 1999. Jenny is her 4th child -- where does the time go!

Remember, you can click on the pictures to see them larger!

God is so good to surround me with such great friends and relatives in my life...He knows just what we need!

I'm in lush, green Oregon!

I drove to Oregon yesterday, to visit my sister for a week...the drive was about exactly 11 hours, and I was listening to a 1960s radio dramatization of The Lord of the Rings trilogy (on CD) the whole way...as I pulled up in front of my sister's house, I was almost through the end of Return of the King! It made the drive go quickly for me, which I'm grateful for!

So I get to hang out with my nephew Ben for a while...he's walking now! That is a new thing since I saw him last. He'll be a year old on June 24th. He's quite the little cutie pie, as I think you'll agree:


I'm loving the new town my sister and her husband moved to a few months ago...it's a small town, and closer to the coast, so there are LOTS of trees...and the air smells fresh, like being at a camp! I'd love to smell that every day!

Anyway...I'm happy to be here...I really miss hanging out with my sister. I'm glad for times like this when we get the opportunity to be together!

Time flies, I guess...

It must be 2026 already...that's the only explanation I can think of for the letter I received in the mail today, which reads, in part:

Dear Sarah,

Our records show that you haven't yet registered for the benefits of AARP membership, even though you are fully eligible.

...As a member, you'll have the resources and information you need to get the most out of life over 50.

The letter went on to tout the benefits of belonging to the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons): Exclusive discounts. Dependable insurance programs and investment resources. Important health-related information. And so much more.

Hmmm...and I have a hard time convincing people I'm 30! I don't think it would go over so well if I flashed an AARP membership card for discounts when eating out or shopping!

Not that getting older is a bad thing...there's just no need to rush it!

Sorry so quiet...

I haven't been able to think of anything to blog about recently...sorry! I know it gets kind of boring when you keep checking someone's blog and there's never a new entry!

How can I make this worth your visit?

Hmmm.... Do you see a family resemblance here?

Say Cheese!

My mom and my sister Anna were down here in California last Thursday through Saturday to attend a Women's Prayer Summit with me. We had a wonderful time of fellowship with the ladies from my church.

Before we left for the event, I asked my mom to take a picture of Anna and me. The flash wasn't on, so she didn't realize the picture had already been taken, so she kept her finger on the button. What follows is the progression of photos she took as I realized she was taking more than one photo!

Notice how the beautiful smile never leaves Anna's face; she's like, frozen in time!