My favorite elf

I am happy to say that my little elf participated in Christmas pictures with Santa.

 

I knew when he put on that smirky smile that it was going to be a great shot.

 

I was right....

 

 

 

I was a little disappointed, however, when I picked Cliffy B up off of Santa's lap and realized the reason for the smirk. 

 

Shat pants.

Like, shat clear through his pants and desecrated Santas lap. 

Sorry Santa.....

Merry Christmas.

 

Salty

You all, by this point, know that I love New Hope.

It is a church that leaves me thinking for an entire week about the sermon, and that's the kind of church I want to attend. 

 

Please, let this be a formal invite from me.....If you are looking for a church, you are more than welcome to come check out New Hope.  I'd be happy to have you attend with me any Sunday.  You pick the date, and show up and catch a ride with Clifford and I.  Seriously.  Do it.

 

Now that the inviting is over...time for the post.

 

On Sunday we talked about a strengthening our communities and what we need to do/who we need to be to do so. One of the verses we talked about was Matthew 5:13 that states

 

¹³ “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot."

 

If you will recall, salt used to have a more significant impact on people's day to day lives, as it was a major preservative.  Still is, but today most people aren't messing around with curing their own meats...

 

Anyway, notice the second sentence in the verse, "salt loses its saltiness."  Salt is a chemical compound that is incapable of losing its "saltiness."  The only way for salt to become less salty, is to cut its purity. 

 

Think about those 2 things for a minute.  We are to be the salt of the earth.  The "preservatives" of God's purpose on earth.  The way we fail at this, is to lose our purity.

Pretty darn easy to do.

 

In the world we live in, we are constantly bombarded with distractions from our Christian purpose, which is to spread the word of God, be reflections of his unconditional love, and draw others nearer his kingdom so that they might repent and be saved in Jesus' name. 

That is it.  That's our job.

 

Most of us identify ourselves as the things that we do.  I, for example, am a wife, a mother, a chiropractor....but am I the salt of the earth?  Am I more focused on the things I do each day that earn me those titles, than I am on my faith?  Absolutely.  Some days I miss the point entirely.  Some days I sit next to one of my best friends and watch Jersey Shore, and am unaffected by the gross absence of Christ in their lives. I am literally sitting next to my friend that doesn't attend church, and I'm unaffected by the absence of Christ in HER life.  And the more I sit, the more I am immersed in  a society and culture that not just ignores the presence of God, but can be openly antagonistic to those that are faithful, that mocks morality, the less salty I become.....and the easier it is to become so. 

 

One thing that I have found to be true, is that the higher I rose in academia, the more the people around me had dismissed God as some sort of ridiculous mythological being.  Belief in God, in Jesus, was part of lower level thinking. Generally speaking, I frequently saw that our intelligent minds (that God gave us) have become too "educated" to believe in Him.

We have become a society that must see to believe.  That wants data to prove facts.  That has no interest in the conjecture we call faith.  A society that wants to blame gun control, or absence of God in our schools and government for the evils that occur due to a lack of God IN OUR HEARTS!    

 

We have stopped "preserving" our faith.  I would venture to say that we spend more time shopping for each other at Christmas than we do praying for each other at Christmas.  The purity of our belief  system is being diluted.  Chipped away at by the societal status quo, and we just sit and watch and judge. 

 

We are called to be the light of the earth.  That light does not come from us.  It is a reflection of God's love for all of us!  Just imagine how much room we would have in our lives for God, if we got rid of some of the things that are diluting our purity. 

Imagine how much God could move in the lives of others, if they just accepted the possibilty that He exists...imagine how much he could move in your life if you accept Him. 

 

These are the things I need to focus on (that I will pray for others to focus on). 

I need to start cutting out some of the distractions and the things that make it easy for me to list my faith and salvation below #1 on my list of priorities. 

 

I have got to work on being more salty.

 

3 months

Guess who is now more than 3 moths old?  

Unbelievable isn't it?

He is now 17lbs, and just about to move out of 3-6 month clothes. 

Enjoy.

Oh Fordy Stu, you are amazing.

Chicken curry

Every so often I like to switch up our rather traditional meals.  I grew up with homemade.  Mom cooked every night...well, most nights.  We had spaghetti, baked steak, roast, stew and chicken soup.  We had a meat and potatoes diet and I loved it.  Seriously, I didn't have salmon until college.  Why bother when your dad raises cows? 

But, I like to switch things up a little more now.  One pretty easy dish, chicken curry!

  

Get a couple pots and pans going.  

Saute 1 apple, 1 onion, about a dozen baby carrots, and a few stalks of celery in butter. 

As that cooks away, drop some chicken breasts in water, add 2 bay leaves and garlic with some salt and pepper.  

Once the chicken is cooked, I shred it into the pan with my veggies.   I add a tablespoon of flour, 1and 1/2 tbsp of red curry powder, cumin, a bit of cinnamon and stock from the chicken I just cooked, to make the sauce.  You could puree the veggies and stock, then add the chicken, but I don't mess around with making more stuff dirty.  I also don't measure my spices, but wingin it doesn't seem to matter.  

 

I also use the stock to make rice.  

Simply serve the chicken over the rice.  Boom!  Meal.  

You should try it!  It has some heat, but it is not like melt your face off hot (which Zac specializes in).  Curry will also make your house smell fab!  And plus you get to put something new, and uncomplicated to make, on the table.  

Eat up folks!

Flying Solo

Monday the 5th was my first day of solo practice. 

I am officially in business for myself.  Talk about intimidating.

I put press releases in the local papers and sent them to the radio stations too.  I sent out friends and family letter and attempted to let everyone who wanted to know where I am located now.  

I was thrilled when I got to the office Monday and had a voicemail from a patient wanting to get in that day. 

I set him up with an appointment, and went to town setting up the "refreshments."

They looked pretty amazing, if I do say so myself.  

I saw two patients that day.

And spent a lot of hours learning my medical records software.

And figuring out how to bill people using my new insurance clearing house.  

I also took a trip to Cliff's daycare to feed him at lunch.

Then I cried in the parking lot because I had to leave him and he was exhausted and red eyed. 

But I made it through my first day. 

And then I made it through my first week.

Things are slow, but promising.

I've done a radio interview and had 2 different marketing events with a 3rd in just a day or two. 

Plus, my friends and family sent me flowers and notes of congratulations.

They believe in me.

I am so appreciative for everyone's supoort. 

I may or may not have cried over my flowers.

I may or may not be a hormonal disaster all the time. 

I am officially a small business owner. 

Ya'll better be prayin. 

2 Months

So Cliff will be 11 weeks tomorrow and I'm just getting around to posting this....one of my 20 blogs in the "drafts" folder of my account which I can't seem to find the time to finish.. anyway.

Cliffy B had his 2 month appointment on the 9th.  He is growing like a weed.  These are his new stats

Now weighs 14.5 lbs (94.6%) 

is 24.5 inches long (98.11%) 

and has a 16.44 inch dome (99.25%).

In case you are keeping track, that's another 2lbs, 1and 1/2 inches in length and 3/4 of an inch added to his head in 30 days.  He is huge.

Sadly, I have reached my photo storage max on blogger and don't know how to fix it without paying a fee which I am not about to do, so you will simply have to hop over to facebook and look at the 2 month pictures I took myself.

Prepare yourself.

He is amazing. 

http://www.facebook.com/abbiejfox

Just find his 2 month album and have yourself a great day.

When Mommy is away...

the men will play.

 

Last night I had my first real marketing event. 

Cliff spend the night with his dad.  They were flyin solo.

Mom met me to pick up Little Bitty around 1, and I didn't get home until about 9.

It was a long time to not see my little manny.

 

At about 6, I sent Zac a message to see how Clifford was holding up.

Making sure he was not a disaster.

I was expecting a text back like, "good, ate 3 ounces" or "peed through his outfit, sleeping now."

 

Instead, I got this picture....

 

with the message....

 

"he's shitfaced"

 

Hahahaha! Cracked me up.

I literally laughed out loud.

It is totally a drunk face!

How many times have you seen that same expression on a college student's facebook page?

 

Suffice it to say, that response was unexpected.

By now you'd think that I would have a handle on my husband's special brand of ridiuclousness.

 

 

 

Poor Cliffy.

  Let us all hope that in the future that you are a bit more photogenic.

 

 

Ladie's

Hey Ladie...can I use your bathroom?

As I understand it, the bathroom belongs specifically to you.

Perhaps if there was a "ladies" room around here I could use it instead. 

Darn the bad luck. 

I love unnecessary ' marks. 

I also enjoy public stupidity.

Big men

This is baby Clifford the day he turned 1 month old. 

He is wearing a 3 to 6 months outfit. 

Something tells me Cliff may end up big too big for this world. 

He gets it honest.