Halloween

Picture Update

So excited for MDO!!!!

Parties, parties and more fun!

Picture update

Pictures from Andrew’s first birthday, creative arts camp at Fwd. Community Church and Papa’s bday!

Beach, Swimming and all things summer

 

Jesuslovesme… OUCH!

weekend

the four of us have not been in the same room together in 10 years…but we picked up right where we left off…good times 🙂

spontaneous Sunday– went to the beach

new blog

I’ve started a new blog so I can have a place to put my written wonderings.  I want to keep the martin-moments blog free from all my written work so that it will remain a place for family news.

http://thoughtthinkers.wordpress.com

In hopes of creating some sort of portfolio this is the new home for all my random thoughts.  In the coming days/weeks it will contain written assignments that turned out okay, a couple published pieces, poetry/lyric and some funny things. Warning: If you’re not a pondering person take a pass; but for those of you who look at the world from a different place you might enjoy it.

 

Forgotten Fruit:

I think in pictures; blame the dyslexia, but there you have it. The bank of my thoughts is like a never ending image fiesta. So when I want to communicate something of value I like to bring a visual aid. So here it is.

Picture an airplane that is tightly packed and the recycled cabin air is as thin as the patience of the passengers. Got it? Good. Moving on- now, imagine you are one of the last people to board said aircraft. As you walk down the “tube shoot” the airlines like to call an aisle you embarrassingly bump the elbows of your fellow passengers with your unusually large carry-on, apologizing along the way. When you reach the rear of the plane you arrive at a familiar choice, two empty seats. Like any rational person, you look to the people that neighbor those empty seats for the answer to your seat-filling dilemma.

You could sit next to the prickly looking businessman whose annoyance is visible and whose social cues are punctuated by his red-faced scowl and the wall of gadgets that litter the “empty” seat next to him. Or you can sit next to the smiling little old lady who looks like she could be the offspring of Betty Crocker and Santa Clause.

No brainer, right?

My on-line dictionary has informed me that the definitions for gentleness are being free from harshness, sternness, or violence; and becoming intentionally mild. Synonyms for the word are tender, kind, careful and, much to my surprise, obedient.

Conversely, a single antonym for gentleness is imperviousness or in blunter terms, immunity. In our world immunity might conjure images of a reality television show where immunity is a prize that is hotly sought after through bare bones competition. Immunity in our world is a positive word.

I’ll come back to that one.

Back to gentleness; if we put gentleness in the context of where I first found it we will locate it in scripture next to a heap of other words labeled as fruits. Fruits of what? Fruits of God’s Spirit that we, as Christians, were told to emulate. Since these words were written at a time before processed sugar the word “fruit” was the sweetest thing the author could tempt the reader with.

I’m sure if it could be rewritten today we might use the ice cream of the spirit, the chocolate of the spirit, the-, well you get the idea—sweetness; and who doesn’t like sweet?

Back to my obvious visual aid, would you rather sit next to the businessman or the old woman? The one who is immune to everyone else around him, or the one who looks as sweet as the cookies from her kitchen? The answer is clear.

But, suppose for a moment that there is no old woman. Suppose, that your choice is between the annoyed business man and an angry middle aged woman whose complaints can be heard from nose to tail. “The plane is too crowded”, “the wait is too long”, “the air is too warm”; now, which seat do you choose?

Did I hear you mutter, “the lesser of two evils?”

There it is. When did that happen? When did our world go from a world of good vs. evil to a choice between two evils?

I believe the day we forgot the Fruit was the day the world became two-evil or more aptly put, too-evil. We all ignored the fact that gentleness really is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. Or maybe we didn’t forget, maybe we decided that gentleness equates to weakness and therefore not a part of the American mantra. Perhaps, we reasoned that gentleness was not part of our personality type and gave ourselves permission to be the antithesis of gentle: immune.

Immune to the stressed out mom, immune to the overworked waitress, immune to the jobless father, immune to the crying child, immune to the difficult co-worker, immune with our words, actions, thoughts, immune to all the people around us. Immune. Immune. Immune.

I am guilty of it and by the looks of our world so are you. The good news is that we serve a God who loves us enough to forgive us and wise enough to provide us with a guide book complete with a to-do list; Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Self-Control and “Ta-Da!”-Gentleness.

“Let your gentleness be evident to all.” Philippians 4:5

good times…

pics from the weekend, as always there were jokes, smiles and laughs to go around 🙂 I thank God every day for the family that I have.

  so lady like…

  

Dad, Scott and the lovely Ginny

sweet pic of Grammie and Marlie at the Martin festivities.

 

Children are not like the pottery barn catalog!

Remember when you were pregnant and you thought that having a child would be like dressing a doll, gently rocking a sleeping babe, pushing a stroller gentely down the mall or holding said child in an ultra soft baby blanket…then reality set in…and well, while you might have had flashes of the moments mentioned above they are in stark contrast to daily life. At least that is what it is like for me.

I have noticed that my darling Marlie has a bit more energy than most of the children she is surrounded by and has the same amount of curiousness that our little monkey friend on PBS has. Just this week I discovered that she was not in her bed a naptime, but in her closet with the door closed watching a DVD that she opened, started and played. Several things have gone down the sink drain (like my tanzanite necklace), remote controls have been found in the trash can, vital power cords have been found in her tricycle compartment and she has defaced almost everything in the house.

But back to my point; this morning is Good Friday and on this day for the last four years our darling sister-in law Jessica has made “the girls” a brunch to celebrate the day that Josh proposed. I look forward to this every year because it is always a delicious homemade “Jessica” meal that is as scrumptious as it is elegant.

So I got up, made breakfast for Marlie, gave her a bath, fixed her hair (very cute, I might add) put her in a sweet little denim dress (also very cute-and CLEAN) then left her to watch Sesame Street while I got dressed. I was in the middle of applying mascara when little Marlie came into my bathroom looking like this…

No, that isn’t chocolate…it is permanent Sharpie marker! So, instead of walking out the door for some fine feasting, I had to start all over again with a bath of nail polish remover and lots of soap. I have been told numerous times that one day I will look back on these little moments and laugh; while I am far from laughing this morning–perhaps you can.

Happy Easter Everyone!