What I love

So, after reading my sister Kellee’s blog post today about LOVE, I’ve decided to end my hiatus from blogging and make a post similar to hers about some of the loves in my life at this moment in time.

Here are some things I LOVE:
1. I LOVE my husband. After six plus years of marriage, he is still the man I love. Even though we are different people now than we were then, we have grown together in this journey. Going into this marriage at 25 years old—an independent and strong-willed single woman, I would have never thought I would be the person I am today. So much of who I am today is because of him and who he is. Our conversations about God, life, people, and ministry have impacted and changed my own views on these areas. His way of seeing the world and the kingdom of God have made me want to be a part of that vision more than anything else. I love that my husband has committed himself to a life of ministry, even though it can be challenging, draining, and discouraging. I love my husband more and more every day. He teaches me things. He shows me love and compassion and forgiveness. He keeps no track of wrongs. He is loyal, and he is oh so very smart. I adore my husband. And he’s just so doggone good-looking.

2. I LOVE my daughter Elizabeth. Sweet, independent, stubborn Elizabeth. So like me and so like Shane. She tells me she loves me over and over throughout the day—verbally and by showing me the sign. She has a mind of her own, and even when I try to re-direct her, she usually wins (not because I’m not being stubborn with her either!). And I love that about her. She loves to play. She loves her babies—fake and real (Peyton). I love listening to her sing: “I love my Peyton Poe. I love my Peyton Poe. I love my P-E-Y-T-O-N-P-O-E.” Clap. Clap. Clap. I love how she loves church and people and having people over. I love her hugs and kisses and how excited she gets when we get excited. I love how she treats animals, especially our new puppy Shiloh. I adore her eyes and her smile.

3. I LOVE my son Peyton. What a joy Peyton has brought to our lives. He is so sweet and kind. He’s happy ALL THE TIME (except when he’s hungry or when his big sister is tackling him, but who can blame him?). I love how smart he is in figuring things out and making sense of his surroundings. I love how he loves me. I love how his eyes fixate on mine whenever I walk into the room and how he wants to come to me above all other people in this world (sorry, Honey, but you know it’s true!). I love how he flirts with anyone and everyone and how he’s always ready to flash a smile.

4. I LOVE living a life in ministry. It’s hard, but I love it. I don’t want to be doing anything else but loving God, loving people, and living a life formed by the Cross. I love that I get to do ministry with my husband and am so glad the Lord placed me alongside someone who has such a clear picture of what we are doing.

5. I LOVE my sisters. Kim and Kellee are very special to me. They are mature, godly women who teach me so much through their words and actions. They are women whom I look up to and admire and strive to be more like.

6. I LOVE my job. I love teaching students—not just about my subject but about the world as well and how they can use writing to impact and affect the world. I also love researching and creating new knowledge. I LOVE it!

7. I LOVE my parents. My mom and dad are examples to me of sacrifice, love, and forgiveness. They will never know how much they mean to me. I also love my in-laws and how they have welcome me into their fold from the beginning. Both sets of parents are examples of what it means to be godly people seeking to live more like Jesus. And I love how much they love my children. What a blessing.

8. I LOVE the evenings. After both kids are in bed and Shane and I can spend time by ourselves. I love this time of day most of all.

9. I LOVE that Jesus came to this earth and showed us how to have life more abundantly. I love that I'm journeying towards that life.

Although today is Valentine’s Day, I hope I show the love of Christ to those around me throughout each and every day. All the year around.

Waco Art Fest

This weekend the family headed to Downtown Waco for Waco's annual Cultural Arts Festival. I've wanted to go since we moved to Gatesville, and it was nice to finally go since we live in Waco now. They had a lot of fun things to do for the kids, and what's best is that all of it was free. What an amazing community event! Elizabeth painted art on canvas and she and I both painted masks. What a great way to get out into the community and be artistic. Here are some pics from our enjoyable time.

Shane and Elizabeth at the "paint table."

Our little artist at work.

Of course pink was the first color she chose.

She also wanted to write an "E" for her name. It didn't last, though. She covered it up with another color paint.

Here we are watching E paint.

She did this all by herself. She requested a color and Shane went and got it for her. What fun!

The finished product and the proud artist. This piece is now hanging in our dining room.


And here's sweet little Peyton. What a wonderful smile!

If you live in Waco or the nearby area, you should definitely try to make it next year. Fun for the whole family.

My Day

Well, I have about 30 minutes before my graduate class and decided to come here and post a blog. My family is all gone today to Strawn, Texas, where Shane is performing a funeral for his great aunt on his mom's side. She died during Hurricane Ike when a tree fell on her home and she had an apparent heart attack. Shane's parents went, too, and they took the kids because they wanted to show them off to some family they'd never met before on his mom's side. I have my graduate class tonight from 4-7 and am excited because we are talking about multimodality and literacy and they get to compose an essay in a medium other than the alphabetic print traditional research essay, which is (sadly) the only medium most of them have ever composed in (yes, I just ended that sentence with a preposition. Who cares?!).

I've also been invited to play Bunko tonight by a friend of mine at Robinson (Jennifer Paltjon--For those of you who went to ACU, it's Jason's wife, not his sister, though they do share a name). I'll be getting there a little late since my class lets out so late, but I'm looking forward to it. I haven't played Bunko since my 8th grade birthday party. Yes, I had a Bunko party back then. It was my mom's idea and we ended up having a lot of fun. I'm anxious to see if I remember how to play. Maybe I'll even win something!

Quotes I'm Currently Pondering

"Christianity is at its best when it is peculiar, marginalized, suffering, and it is at its worst when it is popular, credible, triumphal, and powerful." --Shane Claiborne, Jesus for President

"A nation that continues to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." --Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“This is what Jesus had in mind: folks coming together, forming close-knit communities and meeting each other’s needs—no kings, no major welfare systems, no presidents necessary. His is a theology and practice for the people of God, no a set of suggestions for empire. But Jesus’ vision of cultivating alternative communities of sharing, debt cancellation, and mutual aid didn’t just end with the people of Israel. His jubilee was a liberation of all the poor and broken peoples of the empire” (Claiborne, p. 90).

“Jesus reminded Israel that God’s plan wasn’t for them to be God’s favorites or to be more blessed than others. Rather, they were blessed to be a blessing for the whole world. In this case of the jubilee, practicing economic justice was not just an ancient dream but was to be practiced among and for the poor and broken of the world. Was it also possible that the new king Jesus taught that Israel should practice jubilee, forgiveness of debts, and communal love toward outsiders? Whatever we find in Jesus’ opening statement in Nazareth, one thing is for sure: in the here and now, he was all about the economy of God, the forgiveness of debts, and the release of slaves, all in accordance with the jubilee economics of the ancient exodus desert tribes” (Claiborne, p. 91).

636 pictures

I downloaded my camera yesterday and found out that I had 636 pictures on my camera! Wow. I had no idea my card even held that many. My favorite ones are those I didn't realize I had taken. See below...

The picture above is the letter "I", but what I didn't upload are the pictures she took of the entire alphabet! I laughed out loud when I saw the 113 pictures Elizabeth had taken with my camera. We love you, girl!

Peyton at 5 months

So I know I just posted a blog about Peyton at 4 months less than 1 month ago, but he just turned 5 months yesterday and so I am going to post some recent pictures of him. He's such a cutie!! He's still our blonde and blue-eyed boy.

All smiles!

We LOVE the Bumbo (Thanks, Lynley and Alison!).

Hair today, Gone tomorrow

I made a drastic change in my life this week when I cut off 15 inches of my hair. I haven't had it short in years, partly because Shane likes my hair long but also because I like to put it in a ponytail and I want EASY maintenance, which "short" isn't in my mind. I had been growing my hair out for quite some time now so that I could donate it to Locks of Love. And that's what I did. I feel good that my hair is going to a child who has lost their hair, whether it be from chemo or leukemia or cancer or disease. And even though my new haircut is a little shorter than I want it, I have to remind myself, "Hey, it'll grow." And THAT is a huge blessing that I take for granted--my hair will grow again. And other people's hair doesn't. Although it's not my favorite haircut, I'll live with it this way for a while knowing that my locks have been sent in love to help someone else. Who knows? Maybe I'll repeat the process again and again and again until I get to the point where I don't have any hair and then need to benefit from other people who have donated their hair to similar causes. So, here's to the locks. Maybe I'll see you around sometime.

BEFORE

AFTER
Front view

Back view

Happy Birthday, Dad

Over the weekend, we all headed to Houston for my dad’s 60th birthday party (Today is his actual birthday, though—Happy birthday, Dad!). The four kids hosted a party for him at his favorite barbecue restaurant: The Tin Roof. We had a great time. Good food. Good fellowship. Good fun. Elizabeth, Barrett, and Shaelyn sang him a revised tune to his favorite song (“This is the day that the Lord has made”):

This is the Day; this is the day.
That Teddy was born. That Teddy was born.
We are so glad; we are so glad.
‘Cuz he’s our granddad; ‘cuz he’s our granddad!

He loved it! Here are some pics from the event.

Barrett, Shaelyn, Elizabeth

The Poe Family All Grown Up (and Kurt's son Jackson!)

The Poe Family: The Extended Version
4 spouses and 7 grandchildren

Sisters: Kellee, Kim, Suzy, Me

Our Family: Elizabeth (3) and Peyton (4 months)

One of Dad's favorite dessert: Peach cobbler with Blue Bell ice cream

We made Dad a bulletin board of all these pictures. There were some really funny ones of when my parents were dating. What outfits they wore. In one of them here, Dad is in a purle suit!

Elizabeth and her cousin Shaelyn

Shane and Peyton. Ahhh....