If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls, but do not show love to my family, I’m just a decorator.
If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing gourmet meals and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime, but do not show love to my family, I’m just another cook.
If I work at the soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home and give all that I have to charity, but do not show love to my family, it profits me nothing.
If I trim the tree with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes, attend a myriad of holiday parties and sing in the choir’s cantata but do not focus on my love for Christ, I have missed the point.
Love stops the cooking to hug the child. Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the husband. Love is kind, though harried and tired. Love doesn’t envy another’s home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens.
Love doesn’t yell at the kids to get out of the way, but is thankful they are there to be in the way. Love doesn’t give only to those who are able to give in return but rejoices in giving to those who can’t.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust, but giving the gift of love will endure.

Crabby Old Man
What do you see nurses? .What do you see? What are you thinking.... .when you're looking at me?A crabby old man, .not very wise,Uncertain of habit .with faraway eyes?Who dribbles his food.......and makes no reply. When you say in a loud voice....'I do wish you'd try!' Who seems not to notice .the things that you do.And forever is losing ........ A sock or shoe?Who, resisting or not......... ..lets you do as you will, With bathing and feeding .... The long day to fill? Is that what you're thinking? Is that what you see?Then open your eyes, nurse..you're not looking at me.I'll tell you who I am ......... As I sit here so still,As I do at your bidding, ...as I eat at your will. I'm a small child of ten.......with a father and mother,Brothers and sisters .........who love one another A young boy of Sixteen ..with wings on his feetDreaming that soon now. .....a lover he'll meet. A groom soon at Twenty ......my heart gives a leap.Remembering, the vows......that I promised to keep. At Twenty-Five, now . I have young of my own.Who need me to guide .... And a secure happy home. A man of Thirty ........ My young now grow n fast, Bound to each other ....... With ties that should last.At Forty, my young sons ...have grown and are gone,But my woman's beside me.......to see I don't mourn. At Fifty, once more, ......... Babies play 'round my knee,Again, we know children .... My loved one and me.Dark days are upon me ............ .. My wife is now dead. I look at the future ....I shudder with dread. For my young are all rearing..... .young of their own.And I think of the years...... And the love that I've known.I'm now an old man......... and nature is cruel. 'Tis jest to make old age .look like a fool. The body, it crumbles.... ......grace and vigor, depart.There is now a stone....... .where I once had a heart.But inside this old carcass ...... A young guy still dwells,And now and again my battered heart swells I remember the joys... I remember the pain.And I'm loving and living...... .......life over again.I think of the years all too few......gone too fast.And accept the stark fact........ that nothing can last. So open your eyes, people ..........open and see..Not a crabby old man. Look closer.see.. ......ME! !

Remember this poem when you next meet an older person who you might brush aside without looking at the young soul within...we will all, one day, be there, too!

I have such a soft spot for old people. I love the soft contours of their faces and hands. The gentel yet strong way they grip your hand. The knowing smiles, the twinkle in their eyes as they recount a story the remember so dear. I have a dream, that one day I will make a difference in the lives of old people. I know it sounds strange that I have a passion for old people. Most people think of sickness, smells, crabby people that revert back to childhood. I see a knowing person who has weathered life's storms and wants to hold the dignity and respect as a smart, knowledgable person as they inevitably fight the turning hands of time. It's sad when I see people give an old person a sigh or roll of the eyes or the 'I'm glad it's not me' look as they pass by.
I want to help them keep their dignity and their health and make sure they are given sacantaty in their golden years. I want to build a bridge of hope as people pass from one era of their lives into the next and connect them back to the younger generation of this world.

An Atheist In The Woods

An atheist was walking through the woods.
"What majestic trees!" "What powerful rivers!""What beautiful animals!"He said to himself. As he was walking alongside the river, he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. He turned to look. He saw a 7-foot grizzly bear charging towards him.

He ran as fast as he could up the path. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the bear was closing in on him. He looked over his shoulder again, and the bear was even closer. He tripped and fell on the ground. He rolled over to pick himself up but saw that the bear was right on top of him, reaching for him with his left paw and raising his right paw to strike him.

At that instant the Atheist cried out, "Oh my God!" Time Stopped. The bear froze. The forest was silent.As a bright light shone upon the man, a voice came out of the sky. "You deny my existence for all these years, teach others I don't exist, and even credit creation to cosmic accident. Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament? Am I to count you as a believer?" The atheist looked directly into the light and said, "It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask you to treat me as a Christian now, but perhaps you could make the BEAR a Christian?""Very Well," said the voice. The light went out. The sounds of the forest resumed.

And the bear dropped his right paw, brought both paws together, bowed his head & spoke: "Lord bless this food, which I am about to receive from thy bounty through Christ our Lord, Amen."

National Pig Day is this Saturday, March 1

On Saturday I want to go to the zoo. Pig day sounds fun! Who knew there was a pig day?It might make me feel better about leaving my house in the condition it has been in lately.
Here are the details...
You can celebrate the first day of March, as well as National Pig Day at Brookfield Zoo, 8400 W. 31st St., Brookfield. You don’t have to live in a pig sty—but it’s OK if you do—to enjoy the festivities, which include a pig parade, led by the Pigmobile. Pig-related activities will have your kids tickled pink and they’ll be squealing with joy when they see Pinto, the Yucatan miniature pig, show off a few tricks. This event will be held in the Children’s Zoo and the Hamill Family Play Zoo from 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m. and is free with museum admission.

The Vote Is In, We Are Out

BOARD OF EDUCATION 300 protest decision to 'turn around' 8 failing facilities, close others; magnet overhaul plan OKd
February 28, 2008
BY ROSALIND ROSSI Education Reporter/rrossi@suntimes.com
Over protests, tears and jeers, Chicago School Board members Wednesday approved plans to shake up 18 schools -- the beginning of what could be 50 school closings over the next five years.
With 300 protesters scattered inside, upstairs and outside of Board of Education headquarters, board members doled out stiff medicine for two of the system’s nagging problems — chronically low-scoring schools and dwindling enrollment.
» Click to enlarge image
Carman Soto speaks out Wednesday before the Chicago Board of Education voted on its plan to shake up 18 schools. (Brian Jackson/Sun-Times)
RELATED STORIESStudents walk out in protest
RELATED PDFMap of schools that are closing
By a unanimous vote, they approved plans to “turnaround’’ four flagging high schools and four of their feeder elementary schools; to close, consolidate or phase out eight half-empty elementary schools, and to relocate two others.
In doing so, they primed CPS to attract more middle class and high-scoring kids by creating three new magnet schools, opening a neighborhood school in Edison Park, and doubling the size of Edison Gifted, one of the top-scoring schools in the state.
“We heard some very impassioned comments today,’’ said School Board President Rufus Williams. “Change is hard. I understand that....But we’ve got to get better and get better right now.’’
Subhed
CPS officials insisted they had finetuned some plans in response to public hearings and emerged with a better set of recommendations.
But some parents walked away feeling they had been steamrolled. They accused CPS officials of using stilted statistics, of courting kids in “gentrified’’ areas and marginalizing poor ones, and of experimenting on children. CPS changes didn’t go far enough, they said.
Rev. Charlie Walker derided plans for the third major attempt to fix Orr High School since Mayor Daley’s 1995 city school takeover.
“You keep dropping the ball,’’ an angry Walker told school board members. “We need to get a grand jury to investigate the school board.’’
Edison Gifted parents also were miffed. They had fought relocating Edison’s 300 kids into Albany Park Middle, saying Edison’s youngest students would be intimidated by all the teens in the building and needed their own school. CPS officials said Edison kids would have a separate, sectioned-off area of the building instead.
“We never asked for a Berlin wall,’’ said Edison parent Matthew Farmer. “We just don’t want to be guinea pigs for a politically expedient social experiment.’’
A handful of parents supported CPS plans. Catonya Withers said she that last year she fought a summer “turnaround’’ at Harvard Elementary, but now was thrilled with the results. “Welcome change. Don’t be afraid of it,’’ she advised.
Subhed
Parents and little kids walked up to protest plans for Andersen Elementary wearing large yellow stickers that said “excluded’’ on their foreheads.
Andersen parents said plans to eventually replace their school with a second campus of popular LaSalle Magnet meant Andersen kids would be “excluded’’ from boutique programs and extra resources offered new LaSalle kids.
In the end, Board members voted to “turnaround’’ Harper High, the three small schools on the Orr High campus, and feeder schools Fulton, Copernicus, Morton and Howe; to close Gladstone, Johns Middle, Miles Davis and Midway for lack of enrollment; to fold Carver Middle and Irving Park Middle into other schools; to phase-out Andersen and De La Cruz; and to relocate Edison Gifted and DeDuprey Elementary.
Also approved was a magnet overhaul plan that gives college prep high school principals the power to handpick five percent of freshmen, despite lower overall admission scores, if they meet certain criteria.

The Day After

I survived (play Rocky music here) Yeah! We made it through the party. There were only a few tears and a few fights that needed to be broken up. Overall, letting 12 kids loose in a gym with an inflatable jumpy and a bunch of balloons and balls went really well.

They had fun. They ran, jumped, ate, opened presents and ate again. Not one of the kids noticed my mess of a cake and the adults appluded me with an "A" for effort.

Reagan got knocked in the head and is still complaining that her teeth are loose, but if that is all the casualties, we did a good job.

Payton was so excited to get Star Wars Lego game for DS. I think that was his best present besides all the cash.

We were so tired the next day from all the fun we slept past 9am! Everyone! We missed church and stayed home all day. Over all it was a good weekend.

The Day Before

today is the day, now night, before payton's 5th birthday party. he is having a star wars theme this year. at first he wanted a star wars, pokeman and power rangers theme combo, but we talked him out of it. so now, the night before, we have all the party preps ready for action. i did all my due diligence and looked on ALL the birthday party web sites on the net. planned, shopped at like 16 different stores to make sure i had every ingredient for dark side vs. light side necessities. we will have the yoda soda and darth malt to drink. jedi mix and darth mix to snack on, light sabers to battle with, an asteroid game, a battle scene cake and even a jumpy for jedi training. yet somehow after all the stores, purchases, baking and prep work, i feel like i didn't do enough. like somehow, my famous five year old star wars birthday isn't going to live up to the "famous five year old star wars birthday" protocol. which is posted where? i didn't quite find some elite standard i had to attain when i was searching for the themed goods. no one said, "you will be a failure as a mom" or a "party planner" or a "jedi" if you do or don't do it this way... i always have these perfectionist tendencies that haunt me. i go on this auto pilot ride called "this is your standard", "this is what you must achieve" and don't want to get off...

well, i'm off, i've exited the ride, for this party at least.

when i was making the cake tonight i was so excited, ready to cut that rice krispie treat full of chocolate frosting at just the right angle so the lava could flow out of the volcano that anikin and some other dude would be battling on shortly. well, oops, just as i was about to be so proud, the side of the volcano fell off. then the side of the cake did the same. as i watched the cake slowly crumble onto the side of the tinfoil wrapped cardboard i somehow equated it to my pride in being the best starwars throwing party, the best mom of payton, the best cake maker... it was like i watched myself fall apart as i watch the cake crumble. but you know what, when i went to tell payton about it as reagan licked all the pink (and i couldn't quite make red frosting since i ran out of food coloring) off the spoon, i saw he was sleeping. peacefully. and i think knowing he went to bed probably thinking "wow, i have the best mom in the world. she is doing ALL this for me" made it all ok. so here i am, ready to face the 5 year old critics tomorrow with a half collapsed cake, knowing the next strive in the quest for perfectionism is just around the corner. and hey, even though i know it is me to do it, i know i will still be loved if i don't. i just have to remember that!

before the crumble

after the crumble

heaven's gate

I was shocked, confused, bewildered
As I entered Heaven's door,
Not by the beauty of it all,
Nor the lights or its decor
But it was the folks in Heaven
Who made me sputter and gasp
The thieves, the liars, the sinners,
The alcoholics and the trash
There stood the kid from seventh grade
Who swiped my lunch money twice.
Next to him was my old neighbor
Who never said anything nice
Herb, who I always thought
Was rotting away in hell,
Was sitting prett y on cloud nine,
Looking incredibly well
I nudged Jesus, "What's the deal?
I would love to hear Your take.
How'd all these sinners get up here?
God must've made a mistake
"And why's everyone so quiet,
So somber - give me a clue."
"Hush, child," He said, "they're all in shock.
No one thought they'd be seeing you."
JUDGE NOT.

the condition of a heart. it's such a loaded statement. we talk of the 'condition of our hearts' in so many ways. our heart as a muscle. our heart as our source of emotion. our heart as our guide. what is the condition of my heart, i wonder? i don't think i have taken the time to get to know my heart. i need to. the bible says the heart is desperately wicked, who can know it? i want to give my heart to god, to help me know it, to guide me through the life he wants it to live. to feel to grow. to give my heartach to him when its to much for me to hold on to. i want a healthy heart, free of judgement. so i will give and try to be patient when i let go.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”~~Nelson Mandela