What Can You Say...

What can you say to a friend whose mom passed into the Gates of Glory only a few short days ago?

Not "I know how you feel."

Everyone says "Let me know what I can do to help you."

And "I'm praying" while it is adequate, just isn't enough words, although it is true.

It all leads me to cry out "God, what do I say to her?!?"

And He whispers in my ear, "Just be there for her. Hug her. Show her that you are there whenever, all the time. Show her the tears in your eyes. Show her your love- and through that love, MY love."

So I hug her. I text her. I'm present and all there.

And I keep praying earnestly, that she can feel His presence.

She does.

And even in the hardest days,

He is good.

Marissa and I~ Wonka 2012

Because We All Need Some Cuteness on a Monday Morning...

If Only...

The twinsies and I were sitting at the counter last night having a great little discussion when I said something like:

"Jesus died on the cross for us so that we could live."

to which Hannah replied:

"Ohhhhh, that's really niiiiiiice."

Sweet girl, if only you realized how "nice" it is!

{When Our Plans Are Thrown Crazily Out of Loop}

My schedule for list Tuesday included:

Devotions
Finish all written assignments {history}
Make Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
Learn A major chord
CD for Mrs. Gol----
5 gifts

Do you also see how almost nothing's crossed off?

sigh.

Tuesday morning I was making smoothies for breakfast. Nothing too abnormal about that, right? I sent Jenna out to the garage freezer for some blueberries and turned on the blender. J came back, and said we had a problem. Ellie had left the freezer door cracked the night before and the freezer... wasn't cold. And neither was most of our food.

double sigh.

The kiddos drank their smoothies while Mom and I went out to access the damage. The completely full freezer had thawed raspberry juice dripping down onto every shelf, one could actually poke the squishy meat, and a container of ice cream looked more like milk.

triple sigh.

We threw out 16 cups of cooked, diced chicken, all the raspberries, 16 hamburger patties, a few bags of corn and that ice cream. We decided to keep all the blueberries and all the jam.

That left us with 6 roasts and 3 packages of stew meat, all 75% thawed.  We buy our beef in bulk. :)

Momma and I spent the rest of the morning cleaning the freezer, calling neighbors to borrow crockpots, picking up crockpots in the wagon, mixing up recipes and browning stew meat. That afternoon, I began to see the comedy in the situation when our counter looked like this:

There was stew meat, shredded BBQ beef, beef for Beef and Noodles, and a roast in the oven.

But there were positives to the situation. I started counting them and before long, I was adding them to the list. 

1. That we caught this before all of our food was ruined

2. The fact that we were able to save the jam and blueberries

3. We now have several meals already cooked and in the freezer

4. Our freezer has never been this clean!

5. Our freezer was actually pretty empty- by the end of the year, it will be full to the brim with our new 1/2 cow, around 40 pounds of blueberries, fresh freezer jam, more chicken and who knows what else! God had a perfect time planned for this to happen.

6. The fact that...

 My history assignments didn't get done. (They actually still aren't.) I was worn out of kitchen work and so didn't make the muffins.  I don't know the A major chord for the guitar, and Mrs. Gol----'s cd still isn't in the mail. 

BUT...

My schedule was thrown out for God's schedule.

and maybe that's worth a sigh of delight.

"Without Our Traditions..."

"Our lives would be as shaky as... As a Fiddler on the Roof!" bum, bum, bum. Boom, Boom. The music still echoes through my head. And it will still. for years. but I'm okay with that. :)

Getting ready for Fruma-Sarah to come back from the grave

Being goofy :P

Elizabeth!!!!

Abby-Doodle and I

It would have been scandalous for a Russian Jewish girl to even look at a Catholic priest, much less wear his hat. But, as you can see, I am a very scandalous daughter.

My and Katherine's pre-show dance... another one of my favorite traditions

Our devotion committee praying before devotions one evening... this was one of my favorite parts of the entire day.

Crew and Libby

Brye... and a random penguin found sitting on a stool

The tv in the makeup room

Our amazing bottledancers

6 perfect shows... never dropping a bottle

My family :)

Full cast, crew and staff. If we had been missing a single person, none of this would have been possible. (And Breilen's sign reads "Peter Sinko..." Peter was really, really sick and so had to be represented in that way. :) )

It's her birthday!!!

My dear friend Elizabeth turns 17 today and I wanted to publicly wish her a very happy birthday. :) She is such an amazing friend, always leading me back to Jesus. I don't have much time to say anything right now, but hop over to her blog to wish her happy birthday. :)

And She's a Freshman {Again}

Friday, one of my bestest friends walked down the aisle and accepted her diploma from her parents. It's so hard to believe that she finally is no longer a highschooler, but instead a college freshman.

Over this past month and a year, we've made so many memories. Our friendship began in the midst of a rough time for her, but it really built our friendship upon Christ.

Let's see, my favorite memories include:

• praying together backstage before each AGYG show... and about every hour during those weeks.
• Writing out verses on torn notebook paper and leaving them in random places
• long talks on the phone over the summer
• looking for sea glass along the shore of Lake Michigan for hours
• being in Fiddler together!
• those really long practices where we both didn't want to move and did anyway.

•  The way we can look at each other from across the room and tell the other's emotional state
• Getting paired together in the Chava dance and being each other's "best friend" on stage as well
• All the tears we've shared, all the pain we've endured, all the laughter, the smiles and the fun that has all come from Jesus Christ.
• The extra special bond we shared on closing night...

Katherine, 
I've loved having my freshman year blessed with the friendship of you. You never fail to make my day, make me smile, make me laugh. My life has been forever changed because of you. And you know that words will never express how much you mean to me. 
Love always, 
Sunshine