plain scenes (Christmas).

Saturday December 18^th was Antioch’s (my church) Christmas Show and it was phenomenal! The evening started with an hour of free desserts, chatting, and fair trade Christmas shopping. The lights dimmed at eight and the show started. Beautiful solo carols were sung, poetry was read, break dancers wowed the audience with their flips, worship was beautiful, and as the night was coming to an end a ballet was performed with a perfect 4 year old angel (Collette Curry) that stole the show.

There was also a live painter, Ashley Setzler, at the front of the stage all night. Her painting was displayed the next morning at Sunday service as well and as I worshipped, the Lord really brought it to my attention. At first glance it is a rather plain scene, a bare lamp stand, a light bulb with no shade illuminating a shabby brick wall covered in moss. But if you look long enough you realize that the orb of light coming off the bulb forms an ocean blue circle. That is at least interesting…brick isn’t usually blue. Then the moss begins to look too calculated, not just random splotches but perhaps something more intentional. And then the entire message of the painting becomes clear. Here is this rather ordinary looking site that upon closer inspection is actually setting the entire world alight.

            This really ministered to me. So many days feel so ordinary in life. Wake up, go to school or work, take out the trash, worry about spending too much money on Starbucks, make dinner, try and go out every once in awhile, get some sleep, do it again. I sometimes forget that I have the living God inside of me, the same power that rose Christ from the dead, that my Savior came to give me abundant life! Looking at this picture I felt challenged to let God use what I consider to be my very ordinary life to do unfathomable things. I felt challenged to take more risks for the Kingdom, to ask God for more divine appointments in my life, to use me to love a very dark world. In the midst of very ordinary moments God can use us to illuminate the world. When things feel cold, damp, dark, and moldy God surprises us with beautiful miracles that seem to come out of nowhere.

            Is this not the first Christmas story? A dark night, a young girl everybody thought was a tramp, no place in the hotels or motels, a baby being born in the coldest most unglamorous place imaginable…and then God did it. Lit the world on fire with the glorious miracle of his perfect son.

The stork flew by, baby delivery.

On Monday night at midnight we drove to the hospital because my sister went into labor. Are they not the cutest couple ever? My brother-in-law Cody is holding the go-bag (that they've had in the car for a month) and her purse. Aly, my sister, had contractions all the way into the labor and delivery department and we knew this baby was coming quick!

My family slept in half-hour increments throughout the night in the fluorescent lighting of the hospital waiting room. At 5am my dad and I made a starbucks run and by 6am everybody sort of had their wits about them again.

Carter Reef Padrnos was born November 9, 2010 at 6:09 am, weighing 7.9lbs, and 20in long. perfection.

Welcome to the family little one, we love you so so so much!

10 perfect little toes :-)

Daddy and son.

Aunty Nata loves you precious lil guy.

cute little going home outfit.

as an aunty this is by far my favorite picture, look at those big doe eyes!

It started out as a joke with my sister, but I'm thinking of keeping it:

how do you feel about the name "aunty mongo"?

Children in Nature.

Nature 

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

As a fond mother, when the day is o'er,

Leads by the hand her little child to bed,

Half willing, half reluctant to be led, 

And leave his broken playthings on the floor,

Still gazing at them through the open door, 

Nor wholly reassured and comforted

By promises of others in their stead,

Which though more splendid, may not please him more;

So Nature deals with us, and takes away

Our playthings one by one, and by the hand

Leads us to rest so gently, that we go

Scarce knowing if we wish to go or stay,

Being too full of sleep to understand 

How far the unknown transcends the what we know

Baby Shower Cupcakes

I'm going to be an aunty very soon! My older sister,  Aly, was due on Halloween, and while we were glad not to have a little goblin, it seems like he should've come by now! He is 6 days late and we are so anxious to hold him! His name is Carter Reef Padrnos, pictures coming soon of him hopefully!!

Anywho...I did the cupcakes for her shower and had a lot of fun with them. 

I handmade the toppers out of scrapbooking stickers and lollipop sticks, really affordable and easy method.

I used really simple recipes for vanilla, devils food, and strawberry cupcakes because I was baking for over 80 women and everyone likes the basics :-)

I'm starting to get the hang of frosting with tips, adding a bit of Meringue powder to the frosting really helped.

HURRY UP CARTER!! 

Identity.

Recently I had a dream that I believe was from the Lord.

 I was standing in the ocean with water up to my knees and my sister was standing next to me. I was holding my wallet in one hand and my license in the other. I accidently dropped my I.D.  into the ocean and had to scramble to get it as is rode up and down in the choppy water. This happened a few times in a row, I just wasn't paying attention to it and it would slip out of my grip. Eventually I did not retrieve it quickly enough and it was drawn out to sea, far out into the horizon. I became aware of a presence behind me on the shore. There was an overweight woman in a black bathing suit under an umbrella on the sand. She served as a "voice of wisdom" in my dream and had a New Jersey accent and a little bit of an attitude (don't tell me God doesn't have a sense of humor).

She said, "Oh don't worry about it honey, I've had that happen lots of times. Just pray that He'll bring it back to you, and He will."

I prayed and my license floated back to me. I picked it up and she chimed in again.

"Well no, don't be an idiot! Now that He has given it back to you put it in your wallet where it belongs!"

And so I did.

I woke up and God showed me that this was His answer to all of the prayers I shoot up to Him about identity.

Sometimes we drop our identities into things around us like it was a piece of trash, into unhealthy relationships, into hopes that our bosses will affirm us, into getting an A on that next test, into our possessions, looks, etc.

There is a place for our identities and His name is Christ. It sounds cheesy but He is our wallet, He is where our I.D. belongs and is most secure.

The problem is that we MUST be intentional. If we keep dropping our identity  into the ocean it is going to float so far away that we won't know who we are anymore.

I dare you to pray that God will bring it back, all of who you are and who He created you to be. But once He does it is up to you to pick it up, put it securely in Him, and make sure it isn't dropped again.
The main point in all this is that we are precious, our identities are precious to the Lord, and if we treat them like they are nothing we might lose out on everything He created us to be.

There is more to come on this subject that God showed me, so look out for more clarification in part two!

<3

denominations spenominations. and coffee.

I have gotten myself into a little routine I am loving. I workout early in the morning and then head across the streets for a cup of coffee, time reading scripture, praying, and writing. Today I was feeling guilty for not getting out of the house until 9am as compared to 5am. However, doesn't God always surprise us with His will when we think we have made a mistake?


As I sat in my seat, covered in sweat and reading scripture, I heard a sweet elderly woman's voice coming from behind me.

"Are you reading scripture??" she said.

"Yes," I replied.

"Oh, good for you sweetie! Do you have two minutes to hear a story about romans 8:28?"

"Ummm, sure?"

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

She told me that her and her husband were very worried about her son who was a sheriff in Moreno Valley, CA because of the gangs in the area. They began to pray everyday for his safety, thanking him in advance for any problems that would come up because they knew He would use them for good. 

A few weeks later her son pulled over a car full of gang members and was shot 3 times. One went through his shirt pocket and was caught by his bullet proof vest. Another grazed his wrist. Another went through his abdomen and out his back. Miraculously it did not rupture any organs or his intestines, he was perfectly fine.

Here is the kicker, this happened over 20 years ago and this woman, Ruth, was still beaming with joy about it.

Our conversation moved on and she told me she was part of a catholic movement that was involved in planting home churches with very tight community. I shared about my wonderful church, Antioch, that has the same heart although a different denomination.

As she walked away I began to realize how beautiful the interaction was. So  often there is a nasty divide between denominations and even churches. However this morning over espresso, the word of God and his loving miracles brought two women of different generations together with nothing but love.

We are the church, of every denomination, and I love to see the Spirit moving all of us in the same direction of tight, loving community.

Thank you my loving God and Friend.

rainy afternoon

The Rain :: J.L. Borges

The afternoon grows light because at last

Abruptly a minutely shredded rain

Is falling, or it fell. For once again

Rain is something happening in the past.

Whoever hears it fall has brought to mind

Time when by a sudden lucky chance

A flower called “rose” was open to his glance

And the curious color of the colored kind.

This rain that blinds the windows with its mists

Will gladden in suburbs no more to be found

The black grapes on a vine there overhead

In a certain patio that no longer exists.

And the drenched afternoon brings back the sound

How longed for, of my father’s voice, not dead.

[From Dreamtigers, by Jorge Luis Borges, translated by Harold Morland]