Transformation and Writing

I was elated today when I opened the mail and received a complimentary copy of Tabor College's Devotional Book A Tradition of Tranformation that was compiled in honor of their centennial. I received my copy as a thank you for being a contributor. ...Yes, I have six devotions in it. I submitted them probably two years ago, and only recently received any acknowledgement of them. And, I had since forgotten about them.

Close to a decade ago, I started working on a devotional journal. My idea was to have a passage of scripture, a short devotional, a prayer and then space for the reader of the journal to write their own personalized prayer to God. I completed over half a year's worth of entries. It is an unfinished project. My family started and my desire to complete it diminished after I started seeing the devotional journals on the market written by Beth Moore and other leading speakers. On a couple of occasions I've pulled the devotions out and have used them for encouragement or for a ladies' retreat held at our church. And so when Tabor was looking for devotional contributions, I mailed some in.

The minute after I was excited to see the book in my hands, fear gripped me. What had I written? I opened up to the pages, and read my words. The format is vastly different than the other devotions in the book written by various alum of different ages, pastors and professors. What is the wife of Russ Claassen doing submitting her juvenile entries into this collegiate devotional? And why are her prayers of a decade exposed on written page? What had I done?

And so I've thought about the process of writing a lot today. I love to write. Do I write well? Not really. I would need to write a lot more to hone my skills. Why is it I have sought to publish anything? It is the constant struggle between wanting your voice to matter - to be heard - and yet retaining anonymity. I have been reminded that the written word is as powerful as it is permanent. What we read that reflects on someone, will not accurately reflect on them any other time than when their words were originally penned. Life continues, and we continue to change and grow. While I am excited for this success in my meager publishing dream, I am also monumentally guilty of feeling fear and trepidation today.

http://jayshop.tabor.edu/shop_product_detail.asp?mscssid=A1CEDA51E19449CE90A0350475B82B41&catalog_group_id=MQ&catalog_group_name=R2VuZXJhbCBNZXJjaGFuZGlzZQ&catalog_id=10&catalog_name=R2VuZXJhbCBCb29rcw&product_name=QSBUcmFkaXRpb24gb2YgVHJhbnNmb3JtYXRpb24gVGFib3IgQ29sbGVnZSBEZXZvdGlvbmFs&pf_id=9780000000000GB&type=3&target=Default.asp

Dallas Birthday Weekend

We took a family mini-vacation and headed down to Dallas to celebrate our birthday boys. Top agenda - swimming at a hotel and attending the dinner show at Medieval Times, which focuses around knights.

Our hotel was directly next door to the event, and we were able to walk right on over.

The King and Princess came out to invite us in.

There is a lot of waiting around before the show. The boys bought wooden swords with some birthday money, and it wasn't long before they had joined in some mock sword fighting of their own. One grandma commented to me "boys will be boys". Too true. What a blessing to see children make friends so easily. They just stare for a couple of seconds, and then step forward, and before you know it they are battling.

Dellen makes us laugh so much and very often. Sometime, I need to take several pictures of his facial expressions. This picture is absolutely worth clicking on to enlarge.

We were lords and lady all night long and enjoyed a most fabulous feast.

The show begins.

The costumes were amazingly beautiful. Some were for sale. I found a lovely princess dress I could have just snatched up if it wasn't for it costing $150!

Everyone is seated and wears a crown according to a knight that you will be cheering for. We were thrilled to be assigned to the green knight, who turned out to be the villain in the plot. We still cheered obnoxiously all the same. My sober husband gave the drunks next to us a run for their money. There was a magnificent Andalusian horse show. What beautiful animals; so strong and majestic.

(My camera is total junk. None of these pictures do the evening justice.)

There was a down right knight tournament with jousting and foot battle. A very well done show. Sparks fly when the steal swords meet.

Here is a funny story. Almost daily, we are reminded that the years are slowly adding up. Russ and I sat with our two children in between us, being bookended by two younger couples carefree and very physically in love on either side. The knights would come out and kiss carnations and throw them to ladies in the crowd. The lovely Dallas lady next to me, and her cleavage, received one of the first. Oh well, I never get the things tossed out into the crowds. But wait, the knight returned, we have eye contact...and still nothing. When he returns later on, Russ is even hollering and pointing to me. Eye contact again...and still nothing. And then, as I'm hardly prepared for and not paying as much attention as I should be, I look up and the green knight has ridden his horse and stopped directly in front of me. His lance is extended and there is a green sash tied to the end of it. I have the wits about me to take the sash and truly whisper thanks to him. What a surprise for this nearing middle aged- mother of two- sitting three seats away from my husband- trying not to pay attention to the make out session next to me- woman feeling very ugly and obviously rejected. Turns out I was the green section's Queen of Love and Beauty. I soaked in the cheers and smiles around me. Later during the autographs, I noticed several little girls with their colored sashes from the different seating sections. Maybe I wasn't the normal little girl that the knights usually give their sashes to, but our villainous knight helped spare me some harsh feelings that night. Thank you green knight. Unfortunately, the professional photo that was taken shows a smile full of gum line and a double chin that goes from ear to ear, and will not be shown here. And so instead, we'll just show the picture that Russ took later on.

After the show, the boys took their wooden swords around and got all the knights and casts' autographs.

Some reenactment before heading back to the hotel.

New camou pj's are given.

We swam some more in the morning before driving home. We picniced in the Wichita Mountains on the way home. It was fun to see our spring time calves growing up since May when we camped there.

Sam Is Seven!!!!!!!

Or he will be tomorrow anyway. Because of a planned trip to Dallas to celebrate these special November birthdays, we celebrated in Sam's classroom and at home in the evening one day early.

Russ, Dellen and I went up to Sam's classroom 30 minutes before school let out for the day, and brought some of his favorite toys, baby pictures, cupcakes baked in ice cream cones (worth repeating and a lot less messy in the classroom), and capri sun drinks. We shared about Sam and then each of his classmates stood up and read a paragraph about him they'd written. What a fun time.

Then following work, Papa and Mema took us out to the restaurant of Sam's choice. Drum roll please.....McDonald's. I knew it. But, he was in birthday heaven.

We came home, and in his opinion, finally opened presents (that can never come soon enough). He enjoyed birthday phone calls from loved ones farther away. And then we ate cake!

I'm continuing to add to our birthday traditions for this family. We have the birthday banner that flies out front, the Happy Birthday plate that we can put candles in, and the newest addition is this silly cake hat I found in New Mexico earlier in the fall. Lucky Sam got to be the first to wear it for his birthday. Dellen was a bit more attached and wore it most the afternoon while we were decorating. And by the way, he can hardly wait until his birthday.

Life is pretty fantastic at seven! We love you Sam! Blessings to you and for many more opportunities to wear this hat!

A Spectacular Fall Day!

After what was a rather disappointing beginning to fall following a scorching Oklahoma summer, November has turned out beautiful. Fall here is always better than springtime, because it is equally green and gorgeous without the wind. And I'm thinking all that October rain has had something to do with how beautiful the colors have been in Western Oklahoma. I believe this fall to be the best of the eleven so far!


At last, it had become absolutely necessary to get Russ' motorcycle back out of the garage. We are in shock that it hasn't been ridden since June. The boys love to ride with their daddy. Dellen has absolute hissy fits when his turn is over. One afternoon, I thought he'd nap with his helmet on. And on very special occasions thanks to Mema, I get to ride. The following pictures are from our twenty minute ride this afternoon. I think the last time we went north out of Corn, the wheat was being harvested. What a contrast to its birth here.

One of these days, we are going to drive past this old farmstead and see its total demise. If you look closely in the picture, you will notice the wind farms that are near Weatherford. What a poetic picture of new and old.

I love to see the rows of green wheat popping through the soil. I waited too long this season and didn't get the best pictures showing the contrasting green with Oklahoma's red dirt.

A little glimpse of the Corn Coop and the cotton field nearby. Last year's wheat crop was a disaster and we are seeing many more fall crops than usual; lots of Mylo and cotton around.

I'll be sharing some more local scenery pictures in the near future.

Trick or Treat

Below are several pictures telling some Halloween activities we enjoyed. Dellen and Mommy enjoyed our annual trip to the Corn Nursing Home for the Halloween parade, where Mema (the Activity Director) reads a story and hands out candy. Sam's class went down later in the day for their own parade for the residents.

On Saturday, we carved four of our six pumpkins. We had such cute little pumpkins this year, but it did make for some carving challenges. Later on Russ took the boys, aka Superman and a Star Wars' Clone Trooper, trick or treating while I stayed home and handed out candy. Speaking of candy, we have loads of it! It will have to start disappearing soon. We'll eat the good stuff and start pitching the rest. Otherwise, it will last for months.

During the month of October, Russ and I, alongside several friends, have been taking beginners ballroom dancing classes at the votech school. It had long been something we'd wanted to do, and it finally worked this year to do it. So over the course of the month, we've spent eight hours loathing and laughing, and being dizzy with an overload of information and spins. We've learned the Waltz, the Rumba, the Foxtrot, the Swing, the Tango and the Cha Cha.

The Waltz was the hardest dance for us to master as a couple. While I thought this dance experience would be the icing on our marriage cake, we learned that it was much more. It was exercise in the sense of physical exercise, as well as, exercise in learning to lead and follow one another and learning to be in harmony with one another when we were both lost in directions. If one of us got the steps, the other one didn't. And the second the latter had it, the first of us didn't. We never stepped on toes, but at times we were definite stumbling blocks for one another. It was at these moments, that I feared we would come away from this event cold to one another rather than more in tuned because of the dreamed of date experience. Even worse, was the fear that we encouraged our friends to join us and this exercise would be more harmful for their marriages than beneficial.

While I would imagine we have all had some of those moments through the course of the month, I hope we've all had some of the laughter as well. I had wanted to come out of my shell some through the dance steps, and felt energized by the movement the steps required. I couldn't hide behind anyone else. I had responsibility and I performed. As a result of performance and practice and proper placement of feet, I had a lot of fun. Favorite dances were the Cha Cha, the Foxtrot and the Tango.

Overall, ballroom dancing classes were different than I imagined. Before they started, I dreamed of wearing heals and a swirling dress the last evening of class. In my ideal world, I would be able to retain everything I learned with ease. Instead, if we don't practice soon, we (or at least I) will lose it all. We wonder if we will remember any by the first opportunity to put it to practice. Perhaps, it will be the lessons learned in our communication and daring to try new things together that will be put into practice sooner than the dance steps. It was an experience worth repeating, and like much of life, one that is harder than we anticipate before hand. But all the same, worth going through with people you love. I love you Russ. Thanks for journeying with me in all the different kinds of steps through this life!

Cracked Eggs and Conversation

Dellen and I just finished enjoying our lovely lunch together just the two of us. He started talking about God and Jesus and people's hearts. As conversation continued and I tried to give a little more detailed explanation of Jesus, somehow we start talking creation. Dellen was asking questions about who made him, etc. I shared that God created people, but then He also gave people the ability to continue to procreate/make people. I shared that God gave Mommy and Daddy each special genes, even named them an egg and sperm. And that our love joined those genes and then he grew in my belly. I shared the verse in Psalms about God knowing Dellen even when he was in my belly. Dellen was just in joy and couldn't believe it all. So happy!

....about ten minutes later, out of the blue, Dellen is processing out loud and says, "You made me...you cracked eggs and put one in your belly?"

Well, not exactly son, but glad you were listening to what I was sharing.