The screaming of coaches echoed off the walls.  Anxious parents with brows furrowed together in anxiety or others with smiles that spread across their face lined the stands ready to pounce and save their child during a match. I watched as this scrawny boy jumped up and down.  He had 72.2 and a C marked on his little arms with black permanent marker.  He rolled his head around, shaking out those arms, loosening up for the match coming up. His ribs almost poked out of his singlet. I looked over at his opponent.  The marks on his arm said 85.  Those marks told me his weight. This little 72 pounder was going to wrestle someone 13 pounds heavier than him. What was his mental game like? Was it just as strong or stronger than his opponent? Was he nervous at all? His body language didn't say so. He calmly stepped onto the mat, taking the green band and attached it to his ankle.  He stood, shook hands with his opponent and waited for the referee to signal the beginning of the match.  I scooted down to the edge of the mat, and pulled out my camera.  This was my safety, I knew how to behave behind the lens. I wasn't going to dig my nails into my palms as I watched this boy wrestle.  I wasn't going to run onto the mat if he was hurt and forfeit the match for him. I was going to support this kid. Why did he chose a sport that he was going to have a hard time finding opponents to wrestle? The next lowest weight bracket for his age group was 30 pounds heavier. This kid wasn't in his age bracket. Looking at the brackets, it had Job Parks, bye Round 1. Job Parks, bye Round 2. Job Parks, 1st Place.  There was no one.  He could take 1st place before the tournament started without even wrestling. He could only wrestle for exhibition, meaning he had to find his opponents from other age divisions and ask if they wanted to wrestle.  They were often meatier or taller and still heavier than him. I looked around, did we really fit in?  Was this our sport? I loved cheering for it high school but this sport for my boy, this boy that is so thin, am I ready for the challenge, the mental game?

Advent calendars and activities abound on Pinterest and other social media sites at this time of year. They have all these cute little gifts packaged up and put on display as if it was in a store.  Twenty four little gifts so that you get something before the big reveal of gifts under the tree.  Gifts all month long.  I remember as a kid getting the chocolate advent calendars in the mail from my Grandparents in Europe.  These advent calendars with chocolate in the shape of some Christmas thing such as a poinsettia or ornament inside and a beautiful illustration on the cover.  Of course Christmas Eve, the chocolate would be bigger and it might be in the shape of Santa Clause.  Then there were the advent calendars that had a scene on the outside and a different picture on the inside.  You would get up in the morning and excitedly open a "window" to see what the picture would be.  We were excited over the picture or the one tiny piece of chocolate.  Of course I was a child that couldn't wait to see each surprise and I would carefully secretly open all the windows in one day and then close them again.  I loved these advent calendars and would look forward to them all year long, sad when they were done. We didn't get little gifts at all, just opening a window was enough to stir up our excitement for Christmas day. Fastforward 30 years. Yikes, it has been that long. The advent calendar has morphed into a big production of shopping for the perfect little gifts and then wrapping them up and making a store worthy display.  I get caught up in all of it too, trying to create the magic of Christmas that I felt when I was a kid, forgetting that the simplicity of it all was magic in itself.  Last year I decided after Christmas to scale down and create my own advent calendar with pictures.  I thought about all the activities that already dominate the month and then thought about little things that are fun and don't require me to do anything special.  I had hoped that I might be able to package them and sell them but haven't quite figured that out yet.  Some of the activities can be done on the way to activities we already participate in and some are just at home anyway.  Making an orange pomander or eating Christmas candy, wearing bells on your shoes are just a few activities that don't require me to purchase another gift. In fact they don't require much at all.  Christmas candy abounds at this time of year just in time for the Halloween candy to be finished.

I found the perfect car I told my husband over the phone.  I wanted to believe it so badly.  It was perfect too.  Small tin can, just right for hauling my 16 year old all over the place.  It would get great gas mileage. It would be a commuter car to get him to and from school and practices. It could haul the other kids as well.  My husband the practical and cautious guy wasn't so sure. Let's have it checked out.  Well it needed a little bit of work but not bad. We had some stuff fixed by our very trust worthy mechanic who also informed us that the alternator needed to be fixed as well. We decided to put it off for a little bit.  This car took our very mobile 16 year old all sorts of places and I was happy. Yes this was the dream kid car.  I was able to stay at home more and get things done. I wasn't the chauffeur and could participate in a small group because of this car. I was able to talk at church because of this car. Then a Tuesday hit.  This was a Tuesday that I was giving a talk to other moms, Job needed to be picked up from the high school at this same time.  Lona needed to be taken to the orthodontist also at the same time. This was the kid with the car that could do all that for me. Tuesday while getting set up for the talk I get this message, "my car barely made it home from the high school and smoke is pouring out of the engine". Are you kidding me?  Today of all days?  This couldn't happen yesterday or tomorrow? Today? Our very gracious and kind church secretary drove to my house, picked up the two kids, brought them down to church so they could get my van to go to the orthodontist.  My husband never said I told you so but the guilt of being too hasty weighs on me. It was my decision to purchase this car. I pushed for it. I saw my freedom from being pulled in multiple directions and I leaped. I think it still might be a good car, it just is out of commission for a while like over a month. The alternator did need to be replaced just sooner than we thought or hoped for. The radiator is sitting on my garage floor waiting for a replacement as well.  I'll have that freedom back again and the 16 year old is learning a little bit about mechanics.  He installed the new alternator and will install the radiator with my husband's help so it has become a learning project for him too. But oh, it is a learning lesson for me too.

Isaac is a typical high school student except that he's attending Whatcom Community College.  He's involved with our youth group at church, played tennis in the fall, chess during the winter season. He played on an outdoor recreation soccer team and an indoor soccer team.  He also referees soccer games on the weekends.  His life is one of a typical high school kid, sometimes arrogant.  He spots hypocrisy and is quick to call it out except when he's involved in it. Usually he uses his brain and thinks except when he doesn't, yet that is like all of us.  If we are to be truthful, we don't always think before we act/speak.  Like all high school kids he has a couple of nemesis whose whole job at this point of their young life is to torment Isaac.  He smiles, shakes his head, ignores them or grabs them and shakes them upside down.  I think he teases them back too.  The other day the little minion came over and hung out with me. It was just the two of us for a while and then Isaac came home.  He walked in the door and immediately walked over and sat down on the couch next to his little nemesis. They talked video game, which is a whole other language and Isaac showed him some stuff.  Then they threw the football around for a while.  There was this little truce between them and I think a uneasy friendship between a high school kid and a grade school kid is slowly being formed.

Something so small such as cupcakes can bring two people together from two different age groups and two different personality traits.  I am not a cupcake maker.  In fact I am not a cake maker; not at all.  I may have baked a cake once, but I really can't remember.  The little cupcakes that are floating around pinterest are so beautiful and I have three cake stands!  I really can't resist cake stands.  They are so elegant and beautiful and they keep my croissants quite nicely, but to use them for cupcakes or cakes, sacre bleu.  It can't be done.  However, we needed to bring cupcakes though to the carnival at church for a cake walk.  I enlisted Danica who is oh so talented with all things cake (she gets it from her mother) to help out.  I stood back and watched with my camera as Danica patiently took Lona under her wing and showed her how to put frosting into a frosting bag, twist it and then pipe out these beautiful flowers on the cupcakes.  She would gently hold the petite cake in her left hand and she deftly swirled both hands around with the frosting perfectly landing on top.  She is such a gentle, quiet and sweet girl.  She spent her afternoon with a wild one and teaching not only Lona but me as well.  The friendship these two have is special and I don't think she knows how much it meant to Lona or to me to invest that little bit of time doing something so simple for her.

Excited can not contain how I feel on the inside. Things are bubbling out of me. I am discovering learning, enjoying, experimenting with art, with journaling, with my Bible reading. I have often admired those who have daily quiet time, but was never motivated beyond a couple of days to read and to apply.  Enter my Grace Girls as I affectionately like to call them and they call me Mom. My middle school girls that I get to interact with each week are inspiring me to dig deep in the word. We are using art and journals to record what we are learning. We are going through the book of Mark in Youth Group and so in our small break out groups we get to dig deeper and to play.  Questions have been asked and things have been discovered. I've discovered that I am forgiven just like the paralytic was forgiven. Jesus forgave him and that was a proclamation of his state as a believer. Yes, I will still sin.  Daily. Hourly. Yet I am forgiven. Had I not dug deeper using art journaling I would have glossed over this. I've been told this many times yet really looking at studying has made a big difference. I love beautiful stuff and if I decorate my journal pages, and try different water color techniques so that I can make a beautiful background for my notes, then why not do it.  It makes me think of the beautifully illustrated bibles that monks worked meticulously on in monasteries.  My brush strokes can't compare but my faith is strengthened and I am excited.

I am from many long nights staying up with the family
from the smell of freshly made waffles on Sunday as I wake up
and the long days spent in the car on our way to Grandma's.
From waking up early in the morning to find that I have to do school.
From wonderful summer days swimming in the pool with the neighborhood kids.
From the frustrating morning of shedding tears over math.
And the Wednesday nights of going to youth group, looking through thoses doors and seeing my friends smiling at me.
From the peace tea and candy at Greene's Corner a block away to waste all my money on.
From the days where ya just need a cup of tea and a hug.
From the soccer games in the rain and wind while family stands there...cold and wet yet cheering me on.
And from the Autumn days listening to the trees groan and shedding their leaves, while summer goes away and winter and Christmas grow near.
I am from Ferndale, Where friends are, tears are shedded but family and friends support and help you grow stronger.

By Lona Parks

Silence in the car,
Gently lapping waves against the hull of a boat,
Cooing of doves,
Rustling of dried leaves on a crisp Autumn day,
Crackle of hard snow under my boots,
Whimpers from a sleeping puppy,
"I love you" whispered by my husband or my children,
The sighs of a tired boy cuddled close on the couch,
A sincere thank you by the kids after going out for dinner,
The ticking of a clock late at night,
Snap Crackle Pop - Rice Krispies
Raindrops hitting the window on a warm summer night,
Children laughing in a swimming pool,
Creaking floor boards settling for the night,
My mother's voice,
A bagpipe being played on a summer's night in an alley,
My daughter playing the piano
Geese honking while flying overhead