Shannon Yee

Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of mourning with those who mourn. But, tonight I am rejoicing with those who rejoice. I hope you will join me too!

Here is the good news.

Pain hurts. Seeing those you love in pain is itself painful, and it’s even worse when you cannot do anything to ease their pain. I don’t like to sit by and not help when help is needed. But sometimes there is nothing that I can do to help and even my prayers feel weak and wasted.

There are too many hurts in this world that I cannot fix and cannot help make better.

I know that God is big and mighty and good. I know that one day He will take away all the pain, but right now it hurts.

Sometimes I know we are doing too much and need to slow down. I know that we aren’t eating as well as we should and aren’t getting enough sleep and yet we just keep going and plod on as if all is fine. Until, we are forced to stop and stay home and relax. When all of us are struck together, we have no choice but to cuddle up, read lots of books, watch a few movies, take naps together and spend hours laying or sitting around playing, talking, singing, doing laundry. While relaxation is not bad, I would rather not be forced into anything and hope that I finally have learned to look at all the warning signs and take corrective action before it’s too late.

It seems like everywhere I look, people (and blogs and other blogs) are suggesting that listing what you’re thankful for is a really good idea. So, I think I will.

Here are some things I’m thankful for today:
-Naps all together in a warm bed on a cold afternoon
-Eila getting her stride circle: success after lots of hard work
-Brian being well last night and not complaining about the clean-up he did
-Boxes full of books to read and time to read some
-Quiet in the evening; time to myself

I wasn’t going to make any New Year’s Resolutions this year, just because I hadn’t thought about it at all before New Year’s Eve when Brian and I were talking about it. However, I think there are a few changes I like to see in myself this year…

So, I plan to be intentional in finding and then restoring a treasure that I lost some time ago. (not my wedding ring… that has already been replaced!)
I would like to review my life goals every month, so that I can remember what I want to do and who I want to be when I grow up.
And, I want to stop waiting and start doing.

Since it’s already the second week of January, I figured I should finally review my year in regards to my resolution to be gracious. Well, I have been mostly successful. I must admit that I had sort of forgotten about it by the end of the year, but the work had been done in me and so the change is there. While, I’m still a perfectionist and would love to be completely right in all ways and at all times, I have learned a bit and am able to extend grace to myself and others, on occasion.

2011 was amazing for our family – with two fabulous vacations (LA and Disney), plus lots of time with our extended families (love them), but it was also hard with unexpected twists (Elizabeth). It was a year of tremendous growth for me personally (PTL!). It was a year full of really good home improvement and decorating ideas (kitchen & living room), and with some actual change in at least one room (boys). This was also a year with a pretty big loss (wedding and engagement ring). 2011 was a year of waiting, and yet there were lots of signs and steps toward where I’m waiting and wanting to go, so I rejoice as I look back.

But, I’m also looking ahead.

Sometimes there just aren’t words to describe how we feel.

Sometimes there just isn’t an adequate explanation for why.

Sometimes there just won’t be a way to make things better.

Always, there’s a choice of how we respond to the sometimes…

“This is the day the Lord has made I will rejoice and be glad in it.”

This year we’ve been getting ready for Thanksgiving using this idea and our Thanks & Giving Trees are full. It has been easy to think of things to be thankful for each night, but focusing on giving really helped us to think of others too and appreciate even more how much we have to be thankful for.

I am thankful for so much, but especially for the life and love that I have because of my repentance and belief in a powerful and gracious God. I am also really thankful for the many blessings that are mine because I am His! I hope that you too can be thankful for that. If not, check out this…

They say (I don’t really know who “they” are, but I’m sure someone somewhere has said it before) that time goes even faster the older you get. Well, this fall has flown by. I can’t believe that it’s Halloween already. We have had a lot of fall fun in our house. We’ve made several of the requisite cider mill outings complete with donuts as well as feeding the ducks and petting the farm animals. We’ve raked leaves and jumped in the piles (ok, only some of us have done that). We took many nature walks together. We watched some football. We carved a jack-o-lantern and put up some decorations in the window. We’ve eaten lots of apples and made applesauce, but not pie… We’ll have to fix that soon before time runs away from us all together.

On Labor Day, we had a family meeting and brainstormed some things we wanted to do this fall. We have accomplished most everything on our list, which was extensive and included such things as rollerskating and whoopie cushions. And, while I don’t feel like it was a blur at all, I have sort of felt that life has been a bit hectic this fall. We’ve changed the schedule a bit to be home more together, but maybe as I’m aging, we’ll need to cut back further or guard our time still more fervently to ensure that it doesn’t go any faster because I really don’t want to miss any of this!

How do you cope with the daily rush of life?

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Morning Light Home in Taiwan, where my adorable nephew lived and was cared for during his first few months of life, needs money. Enough said, go and donate your money to help them!