Five Finds Friday (six)

I finally finished that article.

Take that, procrastination.

Piper keeps announcing how many days are left until Christmas and that’s making me feel a little antsy or unprepared or something because, maybe it’s the weather, but it doesn’t feel all that Christmas-y to me yet.

Although we did tour some Christmas trees downtown this week and that helped us all to get in the festive mood I think.

It’s Friday though now, friends – and that means …..

FUNNY

It’s a great age when your kids are genuinely funny people.

Not potty humor funny or toddler mispronounced words funny or teenager kind of ridiculous funny but just straight up seriously funny humans funny.

We laugh.  A lot.  And London is turning out to be one entertaining person.  Her jokes are subtle and delivered with a straight face and her timing is spot on.

Tonight at dinner we were laughing until some of us were crying.  I can’t recall what started us going, but we were sort of making a scene, we were laughing so hard.  She balances just the right edge of poking fun at herself and poking fun at us and turning hard into light to make us all crack up.

It’s a side of her not everyone sees and I feel honored that we get to bear witness to her funny.

We especially made her laugh and sigh recently when we were downtown at a fancy hotel and I encouraged the kids to practice their cartwheels in a huge hall when no one was looking.  (We were touring The Festival of Trees hosted annually in this hotel’s lobby.  It was called The Hyatt but Berg kept thinking we were calling it The High End.  Which was also funny.)  Then I scored major mom points by shocking five faces when I laid down my bag and did a cartwheel too.

FASHIONABLE

You know who’s going to be fashionable soon?

Me.

When I get that gorgeous bag from Noonday!

You guys – I still can’t believe how that worked out!!

His name will be Sean Penn and he will make me a more fashionable adult.

My friend Hannah thought I was crazy to host a party just to get a free bag.  I disagree.  But we’re still friends.

But until the bag officially arrives and I can post a photo here for you (and by the way, HUGE thanks to all of my buddies who purchased Noonday stuff to help toward that goal!) I will share another fashionable and very cool product line.

It’s called Honor Emblem and it’s gorgeous and meaningful jewelry for dudes and women.  The pieces are all crafted here locally and the family that owns the company are just really neat people who you would be happy to hand over your money to if you met them in real life.  (Melanie is the reason I wear arm warmers nearly every day in the winter.  She was the first person I ever saw wearing them and I immediately went home and ordered a pair.  That was at least five years ago.)

I love this eagle because, well, because eagles always make me think of Piper and her beloved stuffed eagle friend.

And this peace emblem is so pretty too.

FLAVORFUL

Christmas is a holiday that’s loaded with food and the memories that go with the food.  Am I right?

So much good stuff to eat and to drink during the holidays.

So many good smells and so much fun cooking with your friends and your family.

Last week it was Snickerdoodles.

My mom’s battered recipe card in her trademark writing style and a simple favorite.

Not much to them really, but just a cinnamon-sugary goodness that tastes like childhood to me.

FAITHFUL

This one gets me every week.

There’s so much I could share and so much that sits so personal up in my heart that I just can’t work out through my fingertips just yet.

Give me a few years, okay?

God is faithful.  God is sustaining.  God shows up and sticks around and keeps His promises.  (Even when it looks like He doesn’t.)

This week faithful felt like:

Friends visiting this weekend.  Making a long drive for a day just to be with our family.  That’s humbling.  And sweet.  And bigger than you think.

A letter thoughtfully written and powerfully worded that tasted like hope and dripped with empathy and contained provision and grace, all in a simple envelope.  It feels good to be seen.

The opportunity to help another family.  You guys – when you are on the receiving end of So Much Generous it is a literal gift to offer a hand back.  It was a funny day and circumstances added up to land us in just the right place at just the right time to be able to say yes, we can do that.

FEELS

Jaded and cynical is an easy place to land.  It’s an easy place to park it and pitch a tent.

There is a lot of hard in the world.  Piles of Unknown and a heap of Messed Up.

When our family began the foster care journey more than fifteen years ago, we started getting an eyeful and an earful of the Sad and the Broken and the price that gets paid by the some of the most helpless members of our society.

And I have two dear friends right now who are struggling in and through the mires of some of the hardest of what foster care has to shove at them.  They’re holding strong and they’re bringing peace and they’re coming up short and they’re pushing back dark and they’re sleepless and they’re hopeful and they’re burdened and it’s really really astonishingly difficult daily labor but they keep showing up.

There’s another friend too, a new friend, who co-created this whole Five Finds Friday.  She and her husband are young and have just begun their foster care journey.  And it’s hard too – I don’t want to candy coat that.  But, where they are, it’s also so sweet.  And it has been so lovely and hopeful to me to read Holly’s words on their journey.  To see another angle of foster care and to be reminded of the youthful exuberance and the tangible and immediate good in certain circumstances in the system too.

We’ve got to have eyes to see both.

I’ve loved reading about their journey and their growth and the space they are creating for this little guy in their lives.