Happy New Year 2012

Happy New Year 2012

Another year begins and with that a new understanding and wisdom from things learned over the past year. I think it is interesting how the New Year brings that wonderful hope built into the holiday that we have another chance to get it right!  It provides that feeling that we can start fresh and work toward making this year the best ever.  I love that anticipation I feel, even though I know it is just another day.  It is a nice, positive expectation for the future and that has to be a "Good thing!!" 

My hope for the New Year is to do my best to make every day as good as it can be!  I will try to make "good things" out of whatever challenge comes my way.  It sounds like a nearly impossible feat, but just trying is the key!!  I am going to TRY my hardest to be more positive, more loving, more forgiving.  I am going to try to smile more and worry less.  I want to be a better friend, wife, sister, mother and grandmother!  I want to TRY harder in whatever I do.  Trying has got to be a "Good thing!!!" 

So, here is to a more positive New Year...and may your 2012 be a happy, exciting time!!  

Merry Christmas 2011

Christmas 2011

Christmas is such a special time for so many reasons, but most of all for remembering!  

As a child, I loved all the holidays because of the hustle and bustle of seeing mom preparing food and decorating the house.  (Mom was great at decorating for the holidays!!) I loved going to all the special events, which were plentiful when you were a "PK" (preacher's kid).  We used to always go to Purdue's Christmas Show which was a highlight of the season.  Usually, while in grade school, I was in some sort of Christmas program, and oh how I loved the excitement of getting ready for the special evening.  One of my fondest memories was singing "The Twelve Days of Christmas" where I got the part of singing "Five Golden Rings" along with the rest of my class.  I also remember a special red and white dress with a little Christmas bell attached that my mother and dad gave to me right before the program.  I felt like a princess and will always remember that feeling.  

Another special memory was walking with my mother to the church where she would get the Christmas wreaths for the front church doors.  She would carefully hang the wreaths and fluff up the bow and step back to look at each one, making any adjustment to make them just right.  This was a special tradition and something that she loved doing each Christmas while dad was the pastor of the church.  Another special memory was listening to the choir practice along with my dad as they prepared for the church Christmas Cantata.  Dad had such a beautiful tenor voice.  I really have missed hearing his voice!  The beautiful Christmas music along with the memory of my Dad as he directed the choir and sang are such wonderful memories and I feel so blessed to have been a child to remember such special times!   

  I have found over the years how "traditional" I truly am, because as everyone is looking for new ways to celebrate, I am holding on to memories of the traditional holiday of my youth.  I think that is why I started playing traditional Christmas music at the end of Thanksgiving!  I think our childhood memories are the most precious and these memories stay with us forever.  It is not that we think new ways of thinking are not good, it is just that when you are a child, those memories are your fondest!  I guess that is why we hold onto those memories because we feel the warmth and wonder of being a child again.  There was such an innocence and a belief that everything was wonderful!!  I think we need to search back into our childhood memories and hold onto those warm feelings!!

This Christmas I want to remember those special memories I had as a child.  I want to remember how special Christmas was because of the gift of a small child who was born to an uncertain world.  Being given the greatest Christmas gift of all, being raised as a Christian, feeling hope when there is no hope,  and believing that we always have someone to turn to in the hardest of times, is truly the best part of Christmas.  We just have to remember and not forget the innocence of our childhood beliefs and think how easy it was to accept the miracle of Christ's love!!  Today, I will remember as a child and I will not forget this miracle of hope. I will remember why Christmas is so special! It is not the things that make Christmas special, it is the memory and belief, the joy of a child's heart, the warmth of feeling peace and hope that make Christmas special!  I thank God for my Christian Christmas memories!!  

Happy Thanksgiving 2011!

Thanksgiving

For each new morning with its light,

For rest and shelter of the night,

For health and food, For love and friends,

For everything Thy goodness sends.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson~

The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts.  
No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, 
nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving. 
 ~H.U. Westermayer~


If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, 
"thank you," that would suffice. 
~Meister Eckhart~


So once in every year we throng
Upon a day apart,
To praise the Lord with feast and song
In thankfulness of heart.
~Arthur Guiterman, The First Thanksgiving~


 As we express our gratitude, we must never forget 
that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, 
but to live by them.  
~John Fitzgerald Kennedy~


Remember God's bounty in the year.  String the pearls of His favor.  
Hide the dark parts, except so far as 
they are breaking out in light!  
Give this one day to thanks, to joy, to gratitude!  
~Henry Ward Beecher~


Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, 
once a year; to the honest man it 
comes as frequently as the 
heart of gratitude will allow.  
~Edward Sandford Martin~


Our rural ancestors, with little blest,
Patient of labour when the end was rest,
Indulged the day that housed their annual grain,
With feasts, and off'rings, and a thankful strain.
~Alexander Pope~

Within My Hidden Nook

Within My Hidden Nook

Sometimes you need to open a book 

When dreams seem far away.

And slip into the cloudy moments

Of any given day.

You will find a spark; a great escape,

A moment that opens your mind.

And for a special time away

A dream is what you'll find.

I sometimes walk into this room

When life's tasks seem hard to bear.

I sit and open up the pages

And find great solace there.

Laughter, sadness, enlightened phrase

Are held in every book.

My dreams begin to soar again,

Within my hidden nook.

by Steph Drake - November 19, 2011

November 11, 2011

November 11, 2011

Today I say thank you to all the veterans and their families!  I especially thank my husband and sons for their service to their country in honor of freedom. We honor those who believe in freedom and peace so much, that they would give their own lives, to protect those freedoms that our great nation holds so dear. With great respect, we honor you!

There are 3 movies that come to mind when I think of why someone would fight for what they believe. These 3 movies are Braveheart, Dances with Wolves and the Last Samurai!  War in itself seems like a senseless choice, but when faced with the choice of fighting for freedom from tyranny, fighting for our religious beliefs, fighting for what is right, believing that all man are equal, and as honorable human beings, we must stand up.  It is not war that is glorified, it is our beliefs that are glorified. To live in a world where war no longer exists and where good man prevail would be heaven!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Quotes from Braveheart


William Wallace:  You have come to fight as free men, and free men you are. What will you do with that freedom? Will you fight? Aye, fight and you may die, run and you'll live. At least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom! 

Quotes from The Last Samurai

Katsumoto: You believe... a man can change his destiny?
Algren: I think a man does what he can, until his destiny is revealed. 


Emperor Meiji: You were with him when he died?
Algren:  Yes.
Emperor Meiji:  Tell me how he died.
Algren:  I will tell you how he lived.


Katsumoto: A perfect cherry blossom is a rare thing. 
You can spend your whole life looking for one, and it will not be a wasted life.


Emperor Meiji:  But we cannot forget who we are. Or where we come from. 



Quotes from Dances With Wolves


John Dunbar:  It was hard to know how to feel. I had never been in a battle like this one. This had not been a fight for territory or riches or to make men free. This battle had no ego. It had been fought to preserve the food stores that would see us through winter, to protect the lives of women and children and loved ones only a few feet away. I felt a pride I had never felt before.