Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?  Do you observe the calving of the does?  Can you number the days they fulfill, and do you know the time when they give birth, when they crouch, bring forth their offspring, and are delivered of their young?  Job 39:1-3

As humans, we think we have it all down.  Scientifically, we understand how conception happens and from experience we know that there is a typical time of gestation for a fetus.  However, we do not know when conception actually happens.  We don’t see it.  God does.  Not every child is born after the typical nine months gestation period.  Cupcake was born two weeks past her due date.  One of Cupcake’s friends was born almost a month before the date she was expected to be born.  God has an appointed time for every person, animal, and plant to arrive on earth and an appointed time to depart.

There are some things that we will never completely know and those are things that God alone can answer.  Why is it so easy for some couples to conceive and not others?  Why do the people who do not want to have children get pregnant, while those who desperately want to be parents cannot?  I don’t know.  God knows.  God sees our sufferings.

Hannah wanted a child so bad that she wept and wouldn’t eat (1 Samuel 1:1-8).  Her anguished prayers for a son were so emotional that the priest thought she was drunk in the temple (1 Samuel 1: 9-16).  When Eli heard Hannah’s explanation, he told her, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to Him” (1 Samuel 1: 17)

And in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Samuel, for she said, “I have asked for him from the LORD.” 1 Samuel 1:20, emphasis mine

In due time, God will make a way for you.  Whatever that may be.

Rejoice in the Lord always.  Again I will say, rejoice!  Philippians 4:4

Why is it so important to rejoice in the Lord?  Our current circumstances, be they terrible or wonderful, are temporary.  Life itself is temporary:

Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.  What is your life?  For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.  James 4:14

But God is not.  He stands the test of time.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”  Revelation 1:8

God is good.

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!  Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!  Psalm 34:8

God is love and nothing can keep us from His love for us.

For I am sure that neither life nor death, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39

He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  God never changes.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. James 1:17 (emphasis mine)

He will never leave you or forsake you.

It is the LORD who goes before you.  He will be with you; He will not leave you or forsake you.  Do not fear or be dismayed.  Deuteronomy 31:8

Jesus said that He is with us always, “even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).  And that is something to rejoice about!

Psalm 56

Be merciful to me, O God, for man would swallow me up;
Fighting all day he oppresses me.
² My enemies would hound me all day,
For there are many who fight against me, O Most High.

³ Whenever I am afraid,
I will trust in You.
⁴ In God (I will praise His word),
In God I have put my trust;
I will not fear.
What can flesh do to me?

⁵ All day they twist my words;
All their thoughts are against me for evil.
⁶ They gather together,
They hide, they mark my steps,
When they lie in wait for my life.
⁷ Shall they escape by iniquity?
In anger cast down the peoples, O God!

⁸ You number my wanderings;
Put my tears into Your bottle;
Are they not in Your book?
⁹ When I cry out to You,
Then my enemies will turn back;
This I know, because God is for me.
¹⁰ In God (I will praise His word),
In the LORD (I will praise His word),
¹¹ In God I have put my trust;
I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?

¹² Vows made to You are binding upon me, O God;
I will render praises to You,
¹³ For You have delivered my soul from death.
Have You not kept my feet from falling,
That I may walk before God
In the light of the living?

It is awesome to know that God can direct you toward what you need to hear.

12 Life Lessons

1) It’s not always going to be pretty

I remember being a kid looking at the decorated cookies in a magazine or a cookbook thinking, All I have to do is follow this recipe and I will make these beautiful cookies.  They never looked as beautiful when I decorated them.  Thanks to the magic of reality TV, I now know that only experienced bakers, those will extreme talent (usually older than 5), and those with extreme OCD have cookies as beautiful as the ones in the cookbook pictures.  Life is like that, too.  It’s not always pretty, but that doesn’t make it any less wonderful.

2) Use what you have

I own two Flirty Aprons and one half apron that belonged to my Gramma.  She had a drawer full of aprons when I was growing up, which attributes to my love for aprons.  Less than a foot away from where Cupcake and I were flouring and rolling out dough, hung my aprons.  Did I put one on?  No.  Cupcake and I had flour all over our clothes.  I had a coffee date with some friends that evening, so this was not the best time for me to get messy.  If I had used one of my aprons, I would have been on time to see my friends.  But I didn’t think about it until after Cupcake got flour everywhere.  I could have saved myself some trouble IF I had used what I had.  You have it for a reason.  Use it.

3) Metal cookie cutters are the only ones worth using

We have both metal and coated metal cookie cutters.  You have to use the metal ones.  The coated ones are harder to get through the dough and the cookie sticks to it, which makes for upset toddlers and oddly shaped lumps of dough.

4) Laugh it off

Sometimes things get hectic like when you let a toddler flour your rolling surface.  You can’t get upset about every little thing.  You have to laugh.  Sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying.

5) Go with the flow

This may sound like a rehashing of “Laugh it off,” but it isn’t.  You don’t always laugh when you go with the flow.  Going with the flow is “rolling with the punches,” more about enjoying the moment and releasing expectations.  Something I have to work on frequently.

6) Eat the dough

Go on!  You know you want to.  As long as you don’t eat all the dough.

7) There’s a waiting period between dough cookie and edible cookie

Cupcake would get so frustrated when I put the cookies in the oven.  She wanted to eat them now.  I pointed to the timer and tried to explain that it would be ten minutes before they would be coming out of the oven.  She even tried to shove the cookie cutout into her mouth before I could put them on the baking sheet (Don’t worry.  I didn’t let her eat a whole dough cookie!).  You have to wait for the dough to become a cookie.  Let it become something better in the heat of the oven.

8) Hot cookies are like molten lava, not meant to be ingested 

There is a difference between hot cookies and warm cookies.  Hot cookies scald your mouth and make your life miserable for a couple of weeks.  Warm cookies are relaxing and give milk a reason to exist.  Sometimes things in life are like that.  Take the time to know the difference between hot and warm.

9) Rinse the pan in cold water between batches

Ok, that’s not really a life lesson.  It’s a trick that real bakers use.  They never use a hot cookie sheet.

10) Have Some Kind of Plan

The old saying, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail,” is true about many things.  Baking with a toddler is one of those things.  Even though I decided to do it on the spur of the moment, I knew that I was going to have the dough ready so that all she had to do was use the cookie cutter.  I think things went more smoothly because I had an idea of how to involve her with the cookie baking.

11) Use the Sprinkles

I have always been a girlie girl.  But on the way to adulthood, I lost some of that sparkle that comes with being female.  All females have it, whether you are a girlie girl or not.  I didn’t realize I had lost my sparkle until Cupcake came along.  She loves glitter.  She loves all things shiny.  I’m adding the sparkle back into my life in lots of little ways, but my favorite way is sprinkles.  Sprinkles are like edible glitter.  Sprinkles can bring a smile to any face.

12) Nothing Else Matters

The only thing that matters in this moment is now.  Be present.  Don’t let the worries of things around you and the drama that other people try to create ruin your happiness.

I hope you enjoyed my 12 Days of Christmas.  Thank you for reading.

God bless you! Merry Christmas!

Our December has been… How shall I put this delicately?  A crap festival.  I’m not even kidding.  From Hunny’s employment status to being lied about to health issues, it has been a string of horrendous catastrophes.  Something that has helped keep our sanity intact has been singing Christmas songs.  It’s also stated in the Bible that the Lord consoles us.  He can give you “the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness” (Isaiah 61:3).  One day that was particularly hard, I started singing Go Tell It on the Mountain and it completely changed my mood.  I wasn’t depressed.  I was happy again.

Another thing Hunny and I do to change our outlook on life is to say five things we are thankful for that day.  Some days are harder than others.  Some days I say things like running water, the ability to breathe, or that I’m not dead yet.  Those are all valid things to be thankful for, but they aren’t heartfelt and they don’t take much thought.  Even when saying things like this, it still turns my heart away from selfish pity and opens my eyes to the things God has given me.

I don’t know if you are having a jolly holiday season or not.  If you aren’t, consider listing five things you are thankful for right now.  Or sing along with this song.  This song focuses on what Christmas really means, and it has helped me redirect my focus.

He can’t see his granddaughter because he and his son had a fight and they don’t speak.  Other than being called the “South Bend Shovel Slayer” by the neighborhood kids, this guy doesn’t seem like the type of grandfather you would want to shield from your child.  He’s the real hero of this movie.  He saves Kevin from Harry.  The happiest part of the movie is not when Kevin’s mom comes home or when the rest of the family arrives for Christmas, it’s when Kevin looks out the window to see Old Man Marley hugging his granddaughter in the softly falling snow.  If that doesn’t move you, you must be the Grinch.

A little Home Alone Trivia for you:

• Home Alone was the highest grossing film of 1990
• The idea for Home Alone came to John Hughes when he was filming the scene in Uncle Buck where Macualy Culkin’s character talks to the baby sitter through the mail slot (which explains the mail slot scenes in Home Alone)
• John Hughes wrote the part of Kevin for Culkin, but the director auditioned hundreds of boys to make sure he was the right choice
• The picture of Buzz’s girlfriend is actually a boy made up as a girl because the director, Chris Columbus, thought it would be cruel to make fun of a real girl that way (Isn’t that awesome?)
• John Candy filmed his cameo in one 23 hour day.  He ad libbed the part about leaving his son in a funeral home.

Hunny and I did not grow up believing in Santa Clause.  Both of our mothers were traumatized when they found out Santa Clause was not real.  I was strictly coached by my mother to NOT tell other children that Santa Clause was fake.  Fast forward to first grade, I was still relatively new at school and two boys were arguing about whether or not Santa Clause was real.  I turned away to keep from being dragged into the discussion, but no, for some reason, I was chosen to settle the score.

Boy #1 hastily asked me, “Is Santa Clause real?”

I don’t know.

Boy #2, “No.  Tell us the truth.”

I don’t know.

Angrily, Boy #1 asked for the last time, “Come on, tell us.  Is Santa Clause real or what?”

I don’t know.

Man, my six-year-old self would have been a rockin’ politician!

I watched Miracle on 34th Street for the first time ever this year.  Hunny insisted that it should be included in my 12 Days of Christmas.  This movie has a great opening.  An older gentleman is walking around New York City and he stops to watch a man dress the window of a shop.  He tells the guy that the display is all wrong.  Dasher is on his right and Blitzen has four points on his antelers, but no one would know that except him.  From the beginning, we see that this gentleman, who looks like the embodiment of Santa Clause, knows things only Santa would know.

Is he not the most perfect Santa you have ever seen?  If you haven’t seen the movie, you should watch it to see what Santa would be like if he were real.

I don’t care too much for the look of this Santa.  I really like the original, so I don’t really feel like I should watch the remake.  Is there anyone out there who would care to change my mind?  I could be swayed if enough people prefer it to the original.

This movie has a very clever opening.  After the credits roll, there are eight distinct voices asking God to help George Bailey: Gower, Martini, George’s mother, Ernie, Bert, Mary, Janie, and Zu Zu.  We haven’t seen any of these people, but it speaks volumes about them and George’s character.  We know that George has helped people and has made an impact in their lives and we know that he is in major trouble.  We know all of this from overhearing the prayers of the people.

The most redeeming part of the movie for me is that those prayers were answered.  George’s friends and family prayed for God to help him, and God did help him.  As I’m sure you know, George does not kill himself and the town pitches in to raise the money Potter stole.  I love that this movie shows God’s hand in the life of a person.

One of my favorite scenes:

Out of the servants in the castle, I never had a favorite.  I love the interactions between Lumiere and Cogsworth.  Lumiere chasing the Feather Duster is pretty entertaining.  Especially after they had transformed and she was beautiful and he was… Not so much that… Mrs. Potts is a very influential character.  She’s a maternal figure to both Belle and Beast.  Not to mention, Chip’s actual mother.  I always wonder if Mrs. Potts and Maurice get together.  He smiles at her a lot in the end.

Beauty and the Beast Trivia

• Chip originally had one line, but the producers liked Bradley Pierce’s voice so much that they expanded the character
• One of my favorite lines in the film “Chocolates, flowers, promises you don’t intend to keep” was ad libbed by David Ogden Stiers
• In the French release, Cogsworth’s name is Big Ben
• The voice of Belle was going to be the done by the same person who voiced Ariel from The Little Mermaid, but they didn’t feel like her voice was European sounding enough
• First Disney film to receive a Best Picture Nomination in the Academy Awards since Mary Poppins
• First Full Length Animated Feature to win the Golden Globe for Best Picture
• Art Director Brian McEnte color keyed Belle so that she is the only person in town wearing blue, symbolic of how different she is from everyone else.  Beast, another misfit, also wears blue.  (This might be my favorite trivia fact.  Does that make it bonus trivia?)

Don’t miss out on the re-release of Beauty and the Beast!  I can’t wait to see it in theaters!!

Cary Grant plays Nickie Ferrante, a womanizing playboy who has just been engaged to an American heiress.  While on a cruise to visit his grandmother abroad, he meets Terry McKay, played by Deborah Kerr.  She’s engaged to a wealthy businessman.  Although they are not trying to be anything more than friends, they fall in love on their voyage.  Cary Grant’s character asks for six months to learn how to make a living so he will prove himself worthy to have Terry as his wife.  They agree to meet up in six months on the top floor of the Empire State Building.

The most poignant scene, to me, that does not give away the plot, is when they leave the boat.  Nickie and his heiress pose for paparazzi and Terry gets between them saying she has “an important meeting to get to.”  Terry finds her fiance and hugs him.  Nickie walks by with his heiress.  He stops and watches the embrace, glaring jealously.  Terry motions him to keep going.  Before he does, he kisses his fingers and taps them on Terry’s glove.  She pulls away from the embrace, immediately brushing her glove against her lips.

I love this movie poster.  The French title is translated, “She and Him,” which I think fits the film.  If anyone is still wondering what they should get me for Christmas… Here you go.