Christmas Day

It seems like the darkness has lasted so long
and now in the silence of this night
I feel a deep joy, the breaking light of your presence.

Welcome!
Welcome to this earth and into our lives.
I have longed for your to come into my life
and to be with me here in this life-and you are.
And I feel a hint of the pure happiness and peace
that awaits us in your glory.
My heart bursts with joy
and my feet dance with abandon.

Fourth Week of Advent: Christmas Eve

Thank you for your promises
and for the way I can trust in you.
I feel a new freedom in my life
and a courage I have not known before.

Fourth Week of Advent: Thursday

Purify my heart
with the hottest flame of your love.
Give me the courage of your prophets
and let me do what is right
when others do not understand.

Bless my heart with generosity
and make e ready to receive you.

Fourth Week of Advent: Wednesday

Thank you for this Advent journey.
The anticipation has filled my life
and me me long for
a closer relationship with you.

My life gets so busy that I forget to focus.
Thank you for guidance.
Thank you for the quiet moments
when I have felt your love.

Fourth Week of Advent: Tuesday

Thank you for these weeks of prayer.
In the spirit of the season
my waiting and my patience feels sacred.

Bless me heart with generosity
and make me ready to receive you.

Fourth Week of Advent: Monday

I know you are ready to answer my prayers,
ease my doubts and calm my fears.
Sometimes I don't hear your messages
because they aren't what I expect.
They aren't wearing wings or halos
but are the people standing in front of me.

Fourth Sunday of Advent

Oh, Jesus who descended from Jesse,
you are a signs of God's love;
I feel hopeful and expectant,
filled with a rebirth of joy and love.

I depend on you so much.
You are the rock of my belief
and a sign of God's love.

Fill me with your praise!
I want to sing your glory,
filled with joy
for the message of hope you send.

Third Week of Advent: Saturday

Renew my spirit and free my soul.
Please, open my heart
whick you have bathed in the longing of Advent.

Third Week of Advent: Friday

Thank you for the peace.
You promise peace in my life.
I ask that I be always aware
of the strength of you great power;
May it never leave me.

Third Week of Advent: Thursday

As I ponder the blessings of the days ahead,
and am so grateful for your forgiveness,
I ask to feel the jubliation and song
break out in my life today.

Third Week of Advent: Wednesday

You promise your saving help
and I know it is the only thing that can heal me.
I feel your presence in my life
and am aware of the growing joy I feel
as I anticipate celebrating the birth of your son.

Third Week of Advent: Tuesday

I look over the heads of my more humble brothers and sisters,
not seeing how they rely on you so much more than I do.
Help me to learn from them to make you
the center of my life.

Third Week of Advent: Monday

I pray to you and feel the power of your coming,
like a light on the path before me
guiding me to return to you love even more.

Third Sunday of Advent

I pray and listen to the good news you send;
I ask and feel the healing.
I am freed by you
from the things in this world
that let me hide from you.

Here Comes Santa Claus!

Second Week of Advent: Saturday

Let me look forward in hope
and turn to you with great trust,
knowing that you will guide my steps
along the unknow path of this day.

Second Week of Advent: Friday

In the darkness of these Advent nights
let me guided by the light of your word.
Give me the humility to be led by you
and the wisdom to learn from you.

Second Week of Advent: Thursday

Thank you for the way you bless my life.
Thank you for listening to my prayers
and for planting deep in my heart
the knowledge that with you,
nothing is impossible.

Second Week of Advent: Wednesday

Grant me the gift of hope, patience and waiting in these Advent days
because I want the focus of my waiting to be on you.
I want to praise and glorify you with my life.
Let me live my gratitude to you, rejoicing.

Second Week of Advent: Tuesday

I feel my heart stir in anticipation,
and I sense that you are inviting me
to enter more deeply
into the mystery of your birth.

I have been like a lost lamb,
but I hear your voice calling me
and I feel how deeply you want me to return.
I know that you rejoice in my desire to find you.

Second Week of Advent: Monday

Give me the humility to ask for your help
and open my heart to accept
your healing and love in my life.

Happy Feast of St. Nicholas

Second Sunday of Advent

Through the darkness, I look for your wisdom.
I want my heart to be open to you.
But sometimes in these days, it seems that
so many things come between us.

Help me to be awake and aware
of the radiance you bring to my life.
Help me to be grateful each day
for the blessings of family and friends.
Let me be a peacemaker
in my own life, and in the world.

First Week of Advent: Saturday

Lord of Hope,
From out of the darkness
I sense a dim light ahead;
the light of your coming into the world.

I so long for the time
when you are no longer hidden from me
and my deepest desire is
to trust in your gentle voice I hear behind me,
guiding me along a path I do not know.

Help me to wait for the dawning of the dim light ahead,
with a brighter vision of healing and freedom.

First Week of Advent: Friday

In the busiest of times, it is often difficult to realize
that our worst enemy is our own sinfulness.
Whem we do realize this,
however, we can really beg God to save us.

First Week of Advent: Thursday

God of strength and protection,
I turn to you because I need help.
I long to be free enough
to trust that I can lean on you.

But I become afraid.
Help me to trust in you, Lord.
Your strength and power
are a gentle place of protection.

Be a safe refuge when I am being trampled.
I long for your help, your protecting care.
Help to deliver me from the cold
loneliness of these dark nights.

First Week of Advent: Wednesday

Lord of all,
you are a God of plenty, a Lord who provides
for us in our need.
As I begin these early days of Advent
help me to believe that you know what I need.
Give me the courage to listen to your voice
and the freedom
to open my heart to the graes you are
offering me to place my trust in you.

First Week of Advent: Tuesday

God of forgiveness,
I turn to you in my great weakness
and beg for your help.
Let me feel the joy growing in my heart
as I anticipate your coming.

I hear the message of the prophets of old
and know that the Messiah will bring
new life and new ways of living.

From the humbleness of my life,
help me to grow and bloom
and hear the words
that will change the world.

Lighting the Candle

Lord, the light I choose to let into my life today is based on my trust in you. It is a weak flame, but I so much desire that it dispel a bit more darkness today. Today, I just want to taste the longing I have for you as I carry out the responsoibilities of my work and face the frustration of some difficult relationships. Let this candle be my reminder today of my hope in your coming.

First Sunday of Advent

Lord God,
only you can see into my heart and know
that under all the busy-ness of my life,
there is a deep longing
to make this Advent on that welcomes you
more deeply into my own life.

My heart desires the warmth of your love
and my mind searches for your Light
in the midst of the darkness.

Help me to be a peacemaker this Advent
and to give special love to those
who disagree with me.
Give me the strength and courage
to forgive those who have hurt me.
Help me to free my heart
from the prison of my anger and hurt.

Baby's First Christmas

Materials: 8 inch and 10 inch cake boards; pack of 70 size 2 diapers; small white netting (2 yards), ribbon, small clear ealastics, and cake toppers...

Baby Hats

Minnie and Friends

Keep on Swimming; Invitational

Sewing Green

To use up my flannel scraps, I decided to make reuseable swiffer sheets. Following the dimensions of the original sheets, I cut the flannel into 81/2 by 10 inch pieces and finished them with a zigzag finish.

The San Francisco Treat

Keep on Swimming!! Flowing Wells

Keep on Swimming!! Cienega

Keep on Swimming!

Keep on Swimming! St. Augustine

Keep on Swimming!

Keep on Swimming! Rincon

Finished Tie Dye Onesies

Tie Dye Onesies

Want S'more?

Chip and Dale have wisdom teeth removed!!

Hula Hoop!!