Several weeks ago, I started a Facebook discussion that really got me thinking about body image and our perception of beauty. I watched the Emmy’s and noticed the beautiful Christina Hendricks…the redhead that plays Joan in Mad Men. I saw her standing next to someone, maybe a friend or member of the press, and noticed that in comparison to the woman next to her she was very tall and almost “Larger then life” looking. After a little more research about her, I discovered that at her first Emmy’s in 2010, she couldn’t find a designer to give her a dress. She’s a size 14, and that makes her 7 sizes larger then the largest sample size produced by designers. That same year, she was selected as Maxim Magazine’s Sexiest Woman Alive….

All this started me thinking about how skewed our standards for beauty are. Men (and women) the world over find Christina Hendricks to be wildly beautiful, and yet, designers say she is too fat for fashion. Ridiculous.

Back to Facebook…I posted a link to a picture of Christina at the Emmy’s, gave a little information about her, for example that she is  5’8 and her measurements are 42-30-36 and she wears a size 14. Based on that, I asked people to guess what she weighed. We may never know what Christina weighs unless she comes out and tells us, but I was more interested in hearing people’s perception of weight and what they thought she should weigh. People guessed everything between 130 to 200 lbs. Let me tell you this…there is no way she is any less than 160 lbs.

I will admit, I had an agenda. I am a tall girl. 5’10 barefoot. I can’t remember weighing less than 100 lbs. I was taller than my second grade teacher. I got married at 20. The lowest weight I have registered in my adult life (if you can consider 20 an adult) was on my wedding day. I was 135 lbs. I was skin and bones. Not because I tried to be, but because I was a full time college student, worked 3 part time jobs, volunteered on highschool staff at my church and sang in 3 different bands. Plus, I had just planned my wedding in 4 months. I lived on my own and didn’t know how to cook, so I ate things like minute rice and butter, deli turkey, string cheese, bagels and pizza…lots and lots of pizza.

Other than getting my period at 13, my body didn’t seem to change at all until after I had my first baby at 22. I basically had the body of a teenage boy until my body needed to change to accomodate feeding my child.

Now, I’m 32 and a mother of 2. I gained 55 lbs with my first pregnancy and 48 with my second. I lost the weight both times. It’s amazing what happens to a metabolism exactly at age 30. It’s like someone flips a switch. I now have to be concious to eat healthy, excersize (which I loathe) and take care of this temple. I have dieted, and not always in a moderate way.

In highschool, I remember my friends talking about weighing 95, 100, 110 lbs. There was no way I was telling them my weight. Sure, I was at least 6 inches taller than most of them, but somehow, we don’t seem to take that into account.

So. Without belaboring this any longer, this morning I weigh 167 lbs. That can fluxuate 10 lbs in a day. I guess I retain water. I wear a size 14, my measurements are 40-30-43…Yes, that’s a badonkadonk. My husband loves it. Here is me, wet hair, no makeup. This is the image of God, and when you look in the mirror, that’s what you’ll see as well, God’s image staring back at you.

Often we botch it. I’m grateful for the Grace that undoes the damage I cause and repairs broken roads.

But, the times that we tap into the power of God and get it right reverberate in the souls of our kids forever. We had one of those moments this morning.

One of the prayers that I consistently pray for my children is that they will get caught in every lie that they ever tell. My parents always prayed the same for me. It might seem like an unusual prayer, but I want dishonesty to become so unworkable, so ineffective for my kids that they stop attempting it. Even in the times when they aren’t found out by someone else, I pray for the Holy Spirit to make them so uncomfortable, so disquieted that they confess to their lies just to have relief.

You see, God put a conscience inside us all. Once we invite the Holy Spirit to indwell us, that conscience becomes super-charged. But, if we consistently repress it; If we beat it back and ignore it for long enough, we can become immune to its leading. God save us from ourselves in this sin! I pray that all the members of my family always remain sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, and to the restlessness that our sin ought to bring.

Today, one of my daughters had to face a lie. Well, actually, a cheat and then a lie to cover it up. She had to come early to class, me by her side, and confess to her teacher what she had done, ask for forgiveness and then face whatever consequences that came. After she confessed to me last night, and the watershed of guilt released, she knew what she would have to do this morning. It was a double lesson in honesty and courage.

It was a lesson in courage because she was terrified to talk to her teacher, but she did it anyway. Often we think bravery and courage come because we don’t feel afraid, but in reality, to quote the great John Wayne, “Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.”

Lord, may I always teach my children that what is right is not often what is easy; that sometimes the path of least resistance is the current pulling you over the waterfall. Most importantly, make those holy truths present in my life, so that I will go first and lead my children to You.

I love the words of the following hymn, which was written in 1933, the short pause in history between the two great wars. We must remember that Christmas receded the classicist, feudal, slave culture that came before it. While remnants of that evil will always persist in our fallen world, His birth is the only reason we have to strive for freedom, liberty and equality.

Christ is the World’s True Light

St. Joan/George Wallace Briggs 1933

1. Christ is the world’s true light,
Its Captain of salvation,
The Day-star clear and bright
Of every man and nation;
New life, new hope awakes,
Where’er men own his sway;
Freedom her bondage breaks,
And night is turned to day.

2. In Christ all races meet,
Their ancient feuds forgetting,
The whole round world complete,
From sunrise to its setting:
When Christ is throned as Lord,
Men shall forsake their fear,
To ploughshare bear the sword,
To pruning-hook the spear.

3. One Lord, in one great Name
Unite us all who own thee;
Cast out our pride and shame
That hinder to enthrone thee;
The world has waited long,
Has travailed long in pain;
To heal its ancient wrong,
Come, Prince of Peace, and reign. Amen.

His hope is Light

His name is Word

and Word is sight.

He’s called the Alpha

for God did send

a fresh new Start

to earth descend.

He’s called Omega

which means the Last

redeem our future,

present, past.

His way is easy

His yoke is light

Salvation came

that holy night.

His advent here

upon the earth

provides a pathway

to Rebirth.

Immanuel

our God With Us

o’er sin’s dark scourge

Victorious!

Copyright 2011 Karis Murray–All rights reserved.

I understand that these songs are simply meant to be fun. Maybe I wouldn’t hate them so much if they weren’t played constantly on every radio station and in every store. And if you like these songs and they put you in the spirit of Christmas, there’s no judgement from me…this is just my preference and my lament of the fact that I am not old, but in my lifetime, I have seen Religious Christmas music all but disappear from mainstream radio stations. We focus on presents and shopping and eating and consuming (I am just as guilty). We come to the Birthday Party, eat all the cake and open all the gifts, but we never greet the Guest of Honor. We may give Him passing acknowledgement, but not the exuberant celebration deserved by One who is “Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus our Immanuel.”

And so our Honored Guest, the Word, the First and Last, the Great Light, the Prince of Peace waits patiently and humbly in the manger. He is content to let us enjoy His birthday party, to bask in the lavish grace His party implies: That the One who deserves our all came to give His all.

Oh Blessed Day, When First Was Pour’d

By, Afreton and Chandler 1708

O blessed day, when first was pour’d
The Blood of our Redeeming Lord:
O blessed day, when first began
His sufferings borne for sinful man!

Scarce enter’d on this life of woe,
His Infant Blood begins to flow;
A foretaste of His death He feels,
An earnest of His love reveals.

From Heav’n descending to fulfil
The bidding of His Father’s Will,
A Victim even now He lies
Before the day of sacrifice.

For love of us His woes begin;
The sinless suffers for our sin;
The Law’s great Maker for our aid
Obedient to the Law is made.

The wound His through the Law endures
Our freedom from that Law secures;
Henceforth a holier law prevails,
The law of love which never fails.

Lord, circumcise our hearts, we pray,
And take what is not Thine away;
Write Thine own Name within our hearts,
Thy law upon our inmost parts.

O Lord, the Virgin-born, to Thee
Eternal praise and glory be,
Whom with the Father we adore
And Holy Ghost for evermore.

I have decided that I will post lyrics to Christmas Hymns this month, both on this blog and on my personal and blog FB page as a way of reflecting and discussing what Christmas really means. (Although I make no promises about how often I will post these…this may be all you get! )

I shared the above Hymn because it clearly defines for us the reason that Christ came to earth. We cannot fully appreciate the enormity of grace at Christmas until we acknowledge who the Little Baby is, and what He came to do.

And may the Grace who was the Gamechanger of human history, the One who’s sacrifice flies in the face of cause and effect, the Light that broke the darkness, the Freedom who brought equality to all mankind, the Cornerstone on which the Church stands firm, the divine Reset Button of our depravity, Who’s hope gave the calendar keepers reason to start over…May He fill you with His peace this year. Merry Christmas!

We treated them and spent the next 48 hours doing comb out’s and vaccuming and/or boiling every atom in our home. After about 6 weeks (yes, you read that right) we eradicated them from our heads and house. (Did I mention that I got them too? Yep, my loving husband stayed up till 2 am one night doing a comb out of my hair.) Of all the lice treatments I used, I liked this one the best. It worked better than over the counter lice treatments and better than the prescription treatment.

A Slacker Mom does not like to vacuum/boil every atom in her home everyday. I’m not sure there’s a type of mom who does. That’s why I decided that it has to be easier to prevent lice then to treat them. I offer this lice repellent recipe with this disclaimer: This has worked for me. It is not scientifically proven, nor will it ever be. Unless something is a patentable drug, it will not get funding for testing and therefore will never have the backing of science. Science is a whore that is sold to the highest bidder. Wow, this disclaimer got seriously out of hand. Where is that old bottle of Valium? *end disclaimer*

Lice repellent spray/detangler/leave in conditioner:

You will need a new 12 oz. plastic or aluminium spray bottle…

Into the spray bottle add:

2 tbsp conditioner of your choice (or just give the conditioner bottle 2 big squeezes…this isn’t science, remember?)

10 drops clove essential oil

Warm water to fill the bottle

Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Use the spray after washing hair, and daily when combing. Bonus: It smells delicious. We haven’t had lice once since using this repellent even though I get a least one notice a week from the girls school that lice has been found on the head of one of their classmates. Lice are rampant in many places, especially warm places like Arizona. One of the reasons that lice are rampant is that people are ashamed to admit their kids have lice, send them to school anyway, and then continue to infest others. We’ve got to come out of the shadows ladies! All kids can get lice. Lice actually prefer clean hair. It has nothing to do with being poor or dirty!

Hospitality is a dying art. Its not enough to want to have people over, to want to be a beacon of hospitality. You have to do it. I have friends who I have known for many years who’s homes I have never seen. Maybe that’s more a commentary on me than on them, but I can’t help but think that’s becoming the trend. Meeting up for coffee, or at a restaurant to catch up rather than sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee and talking for hours.

I blame HGTV. Everyone thinks their home has to be perfectly clean or lavishly appointed so that their friends don’t think they are total schmucks. That’s a fallacy. We are all schmucks who make messes in our houses. None of our homes look like the ones on CSI Miami. Seriously, who believes that every time they find a dead person on that show that they are going to be laying in a posh lawn chair in a perfectly manicured backyard?!? Come on. Okay, so I guess I blame HGTV and CSI Miami. And backyard fences. And attached garages. There’s a lot of blame to go around. And a lot of benign, inanimate objects to accept that blame. I blame, blame.

The last 2 homes we have lived in have not been what I would consider ideal spaces for entertaining guests…especially my kitchens. Cooking in the kitchen in my first home was a whole lot more like camping than anything else. Only one of my 4 burners on my 60 year old stove (that’s no exaggeration) worked consistently and the inside of the oven was not big enough to fit a turkey and only worked when set to 500 degrees. My next kitchen was better functioning, but the size of a postage stamp. Still, we made delicious things and had wonderful parties out of those kitchens. And somehow everyone stood around in my ridiculously small kitchens! No matter how little money we had and how shabby my drapes were, we have always loved having people in our home.

We recently moved in to a new home. It is (in my mind) the perfect home for entertaining. (Thank you Lord Jesus for this wonderful blessing!!!) We have been here 2 weeks and are having a housewarming open house tomorrow. We’ve already had guests for dinner 3 times. All three times we were only partially unpacked. This is not to say that we are these great hosts, we are not. It’s just to say that if you open your home to others, regardless of its size, appointments and cleanliness, people respond. People, I have found, are hungry for real hospitality.

All the credit for my any sense of hospitality I have goes to my mother. She has always been the ultimate hostess! Not because she is “Martha Stewart” but because when a neighbor down the street would call with a trouble, my mom would tell her to come right over, and she would have a pot of coffee on and a pan of brownies in the oven before the neighbor could walk down the street. And she would do that before she would wash the dishes that were in the sink. She cared more about making her guest feel welcome (coffee and brownies) then making herself look good (clean dishes.)

Once all us kids started in school, you could almost always count on extra dinner guests. Our house was the “hang-out” house. It was where all of our friends wanted to come. Not because it was the biggest, nicest or had the best toys, (in Scottsdale there are many wealthy people who had homes MUCH swankier than ours) but because they felt loved and accepted. And also because my mom always fed them. Teenagers of both genders can be won over easily with food.

So I encourage you, dear readers (all three of you) to be hospitable. Especially to your neighbors! You should know all the people that live in close proximity to you! Have a block party, or a holiday brunch, or iced tea on the porch…whatever it takes. Be the weirdo that comes over (even after years of living next door) with a plate of cookies and breaks the ice. Let them see the pile of unfolded laundry on your couch. It will make them feel better about theirs. Let them see the crumbs under your kitchen table. They will know you actually eat there. Let them see the little finger smudges on your doors. They will know that kids are allowed to be kids in your home. I’ve done the math…a pot of coffee and scratch snickerdoodles cost exactly $.14. And take it from me, you’ll want to sweep the floor after the party, not before it.

The only hope that those captive to the bonds of slavery had was a kinsman redeemer. This was the only way that they would ever be able to live a life of freedom. There are 4 requirements in order to fulfill this Old Testament law:*

• He must be near of kin. (Leviticus 25:48; 25:25 Ruth 3:12–13)
• He must be able to redeem by being free himself.(Ruth 4:4–6). 
• He must be willing to redeem (Ruth 4:6)
• Redemption was completed when the price was completely paid (Leviticus 25:27; Ruth 4:7-11).

Christ is our kinsman because he took on flesh. He was 100% man while still being 100% Divine. He became our kinsman not just in the sense that he had a physical body. He also experienced the grief, betrayal, temptation, and anguish that we do. He is a God who can relate to our tremendous struggles.

For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted. (Hebrews 2:18).

Christ was able to redeem us because He is free himself. He was the only man on earth who was not in bondage to sin. In order to pay the debts of all mankind, it wasn’t enough for the kinsman redeemer to be merely free in the physical sense. He had to be a sinless, divine being. That’s the only ransom that would cover the debts of a bankrupt humankind.

Of all of the requirements of the kinsman redeemer, the one that astonishes me the most is that He was willing. Mankind was the equivalent of a ruined pot of soup, the logical solution would have been to feed it to the dog, scrub the pot, and start again. Instead, God the Father was willing to sacrifice His own Son to redeem it.

I am overcome by how radical Grace is. It literally upended the law of the universe. It is undisputed natural law that you reap what you sow, that what goes up must come down, that you get back what you put in.  And then…Grace shatters everything we know about karma. Suddenly, we get what we don’t deserve. Because of love, Jesus gives His perfect, sinless, precious life to heal us, to buy us back, to redeem us. We are worth the Son to the Father.

He goes to the cross, the grave, and then the very pit of Hell until our ransom’s paid. And if that were the end of the story, it would be no story at all. Satan and all his minions could not keep Him under. Because He resurrected He not only bought us back into freedom, He abolished slavery forever.

“He was wounded for our transgressions;  He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him,  And by His stripes, we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5

Rejoice this day in your Kinsman Redeemer-The hope of all mankind! The price is completely paid. He lived, He died and most imperatively, He rose.

*If you would like to read an in depth essay on the Law of the Kinsman Redeemer, I loved this site.

Plus, I love the way spray paint smells! Which, probably explains alot of other things about me. Imagine my elation when I learned (I’m sure late) that there is a type of spray paint that turns just about anything into a chalkboard! Pick your jaw up off your desk. So, here are 2 ideas that I have done using chalkboard spray paint: First, Chalkboard Animals. 

Christmas Morning! I love homemade gifts.

 I ripped this idea off from Etsy. I saw these as I was browsing for ideas of crafts to make for my kids for Christmas. I made a lot of their gifts this year. We actually had more money to spend on Christmas then we had the previous year, but the trials of the past few years have made spending our usual amount on Christmas less palatable. I wanted Christmas to be more meaningful, so I worked like an Elf on Adderall and made them lots of stuff (I promise I’ll post it all someday.) This was one of the only non-sewing crafts I did. Went to Goodwill and a few antique stores until I found some sturdy vinyl and plastic animals that were nice and smooth, coated them with a few coats of chalkboard paint, and there you have it. 

Chalkboard horse, pony, zebra and giraffe. The lighting is very poor in this photo, sorry.

I have to say, these initially faded into the background once the electronic toys and flashy presents arrived from relatives, but most of those are broken now, and my girls play with these nearly
every day. They leave them around the house with messages for each other to find…so sweet. 

Since my kids are on spring break this week, I got the itch to do another project, and I found an unused can of Chalkboard paint in the closet that was calling my name. We had a sad little school desk that was a garage sale hand-me-down from our in-laws. It had potential, but was an eyesore. I decided this was exactly the revamp it needed. Now the kids can doodle to their hearts content, or scratch out a math problem during homework time. I can’t even tell you how much I love this stuff! The possibilities are endless! I present to you, the Doodle Desk Redesign: 

This is what happens when someone with an ADD brain like mine does a project like this. First, I start. Then, I decide I should do a tutorial of it on my blog. Oops! Should have taken a before picture. Well, I guess a semi-before pic will have to do. The entire desk was the honey color, and was covered in crayon and permanent marker from the previous owner.

U-G-L-Y You ain't got no alibi! You UGLY! But not for long!

All complete and ready for the doodles of young minds!

I couldn't wait! I had to try it out! This is how my girls found it when they came home from their playdate.

 Do’s and Don’ts of Spray Paint

Do it outside. This is kind of a “duh” but you know if I didn’t say it…

Don’t hold the can of spray paint too close to what you are painting. It will pool and cause drips. This usually happens to me even though I know better.

Don’t hold the can of spray paint too far away from what you are painting. It wastes lots of paint. It’s a delicate balance this distance thing.

Don’t stop moving the can around while spraying. Remember the drips?                                                   

Do use short, quick-moving strokes.                                                                                                              

Don’t get into a conversation with your neighbor while you are doing the project and get so distracted that you forget to keep moving your can. More drips.                                                                                  

Don’t run out of spray paint half way through your project and have to take the bus (for the first time in your 30 year life) to the hardware store because your husband has the car and you don’t want to leave the project in the grass in front of your townhouse and get fined by your HOA.

Alright, that is all for tonight! Have you done any projects using chalkboard paint? If so, link them up in the comments! I’d love to see all your creativity!

This half-witted tutorial has been brought to you by:

My theory is that the world is no more dangerous today then it ever was. We are just keenly aware of that reality. That being said, I am still uncomfortable sending my kids out to play by themselves.

I’m not sure I’ve ever mentioned that my family lives at a resort. (My kids like to tell people we live at a hotel and they can’t seem to understand why we blush when they mention it.) More specifically, we live in a town home in a complex that is on the resort property. Scottsdale, Arizona is already like a bubble in terms of safety. We have like 1 homicide a year. Our resort is like a bubble within a bubble. Even still, I feel a sense of worry when my kids beg me to let them go to the basketball court, or go feed the ducks, or ride their bikes around the grounds.

I always make them go together. Strength in numbers. They look out for each other. The other rule is that they have to be home before the lamps come on. The resort is lit at night by old fashioned gas lamps (they’re electric.) They work by light sensors. When they come on it means its almost dark.

Today was one of those spring afternoons when you just can’t stay inside. So the girls were allowed to go out until the lamps came on.

Somehow, it seems like the Lord knows that we need to come back to Him before the darkness falls. We need the protection of His fortress, His warm home once dusk starts to bring with it the unknown. If we are to parent our children the way God parents us, we must at times set our worries aside in the interest of allowing our kids to live a great adventure. After all, we have a big God, who has His eyes on them even though they have ventured past the view from our kitchen window. But we also need to remember to urge them to come home before the lamps come on.