My mom was so great to lend some of her best classic movies to us to watch during Christmas, even though she wouldn't get to be here to watch them. One of them was Disney's Pollyanna.  It was a big hit with everyone, who asked me several questions about it.  That's when I realized how little I knew about this favorite story of mine.  I dove into Google and found out it was a novel by Eleanor H. Porter in 1913, an instant success, followed by a sequel, a blockbuster silent film in 1920, and many other films and mock sequels thereafter.

 I downloaded the Google book, and for the next several days, my computer became my bedtime book.  I devoured every nuance, dialog and plot twist, in a much more complete and consistent story than the one with which I grew up.

Like the Disney movie, Pollyanna is a smiling, happy-go-lucky girl with two fat blonde braids and ill-fitting clothes.  After her father dies, she goes to live with her wealthy aunt whom she's never met, because her late mother was cut off from the family for marrying a poor pastor.  Despite her aunt's cold elitism and bad treatment of her niece, Pollyanna finds something to be happy about everywhere she goes and in everything she does, with her "Glad game."  She unwittingly, pure heartedly brightens up the entire run-down town in which she now lives.

Unlike the movie, the original Pollyanna is a very consistent character.  She doesn't have the tempter streak shown by Hayley Mills, but innocently and sincerely wants to make others happy.  It is her innocence and oblivion, in fact, that are so attractive to others.  She is a three-dimensional character, and does go through emotional difficulties, but she responds to those by crying and being by herself, or looking to others for consolation, not by throwing a tantrum.  Also unlike the film, Aunt Polly does not own the town.  It is not named after the family, and Miss Polly is just a very wealthy person who keeps to herself.

The book also weaves several mini stories into a beautiful collection of conclusions tied together.  The ending is somewhat unexpected, except for the intentional little clues placed strategically throughout the story.  And even the guessability of the ending is enjoyable in the anticipation.  It's a wonderfully crafted "old style" book, where all the strings are tied off at the end, and everything is in balance.  And I believe the lesson taught in it is as powerful as even the radical movie "Pay it Forward", though in much more wholesome surroundings.  Finding the true and present good in everything you go through, and being honestly thankful for it is, indeed, a godly way to live, and can, in fact, change the world.

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After finishing the first glad book, I, like so many people in the early 1900's, was hungry for more of the "glad girl".  I found the sequel on Google books as well, and continued.  "Pollyanna Grows Up" continues the basic message of the first book, but necessarily had to tackle some hurdles of Pollyanna getting older and not being as innocent and wide eyed as she was when she was 11.  Porter did this well, skipping over several years of her adolescence and jumping back into her early adulthood, with many more twists and turns and love stories that come to a dramatic and heartwarming end.  I was very satisfied, and would recommend these books to anyone who enjoys good, old-fashioned but interesting story telling.

This was the second in my investigative reads of my favorite stories.  The first was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming, last summer.  Next, I think I'll dive into either Mary Poppins or Bed knobs and Broomsticks, and see what those are really about!

In the wake of our business sale, Dan and I have started to discuss our new direction in life.  We have been talking about where to go to school, when, how much school I should do, when, and when to have more kids.  I would really like to get pregnant soon, but we also discussed adoption -- a passion of both of ours.  We discussed which to do first, and many details and issues involved.  It was a very deep conversation, one which we hadn't touched on for years.

Funny, on our way to church today Daniel pummeled me with a plan I didn't know about.  He was staying after church for a media workers' lunch, to train in the new guys.  Hmm.  What would Eddy and I do?  We had no time to plan a visit to Connie's house, and didn't see her, but during announcements noticed that right after church there would be a lunch for those interested in orphan care -- childcare included.  Is that great timing or what?

Many more people came than the two couples hosting it were expecting.  Extra pizzas were brought in and the fireside room was packed.  It was so encouraging to see so many other people also passionate about God's call to us (James 1:27, "Pure religion and undefiled is this, to visit the widows and orphans in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world."). We got loads of valuable information, not only about orphans, but child work or sex slaves (there are 127 million of those), as well.  There were two videos, and for the first (below), not an eye was dry in the room.  For the second -- an inspiring film about the International Justice Mission (see ijm.org), it made everyone emotional and angry!  But here is the TRUTH about orphans... orphans my family is committed to help.  How about yours?

We did it!  We're free!  The latter half of this week has felt like chains were falling off and our minds were gradually releasing all that stress we kept up there to prepare for another season of drudgery.  But this year is different.  On with life, on with future, on with family.  The next several months will be a lot of business transitioning, but since Dan, has he put it, will be "partially unemployed," I think our family will have a good chance to breathe and regroup.  Then comes fall semester!  No telling where we'll end up, but we're working on that one, too.

After years of waiting and working, we couldn't be happier.  Kinda feels like a different kind of graduation.  We fulfilled our responsibilities, we learned a ton, and now we have the opportunity to take our lessons in the direction we've been longing for, take them to the next level, and dive into more directed studies.

Whatever we do will be a grand adventure at this point!

Dan left yesterday for some very important meetings in the twin cities.  There has been a lot of exciting activity the last month and a half -- even without the holidays.  We've allowed ourselves to dream now, to make plans, to get our hopes up.  He has even started renting a room near Minneapolis to commute to & from Eau Claire and his family.  It's month-to-month, so it can be short-term.  If all goes as we hope, it will be.  Dan's meetings should be over Thursday -- our anniversary.  So, here I wait.

The last couple weeks I've been engrossed in one Harry Potter book, but at Dan's departure I felt the urgency to take a break.  These few days require a lot more prayer and reflection than I'd devoted time to before.

Life changing decisions are being made over there.  A world of opportunity, or not.  I tingle with excitement, while even now bracing for defeat.

It's a special time, this waiting...a sacred time.  The lingering dissident chord before resolution.  I'll think I'll go pray some more...

This Christmas I ran across a several-year-old word list I had compiled from international magazines, college, and random happenchance.  I realized -- and agonized -- that I never learned those words for which I had been so thirsty when first I saw them.  My vocabulary is still horridly small, so near New Year's I resolved (in spite of my misgivings of the tradition of January 1st resolutions) to put these to celebration and use.  With newly-received 2011 wall calendar in hand, I was inspired to jot down each word onto a day in the calendar, in order to look it up, and use it at least once in a real conversation that day.  The words strung through July on the calendar, and I was super excited!

With family still present, this project began very exciting.  We sat down to dinner directly after I'd finished my transcribing, and as soon as the opportunity arose, I proceeded to mention how pleased I was that Eddy was comporting tonight!  It was received with quiet confusion.  In my usual way, I gushed forth with a rapid and exuberant explanation of my plan.  They were fine with it (not nearly as excited as I, but I was used to that).  And after a few days of histrionic, taciturn, and alacrity (all behavioral words, to my immense satisfaction), I was taken aback by Forrest's aptitude for word usage!  The man who hesitates to read to someone on account of clumsiness was thinking it the most obvious thing in the world that minutiae were small, unimportant details and correcting me on the pronunciation of echelons.

Perhaps these are all elementary level to you as well, but for an, apparently novice learner of words like me, it was a bit disconcerting and...just a tad humbling?  But it was all fascinating information, just the same.

One evening we visited our friends, Jonny and Taylor, for dinner while Eddy and Gramma were at a cousin sleepover.  For the next fleeting FIVE hours, we soaked in the contagious insouciance of our friends.  With our overpowering intensity of our personalities, Dan and I need that every so often.

I'll leave it to you to look it up.  Enjoy the words around you, and preserve the language you love!
insouciance 

I'm a girl.  As such, I naturally clashed with my mother a bit, when a teenager.  But over the years of adulthood, I'm growing to appreciate more and more the treasure I have in a mother.  There are things she never had, that I take for granted.  There are lessons her parents never taught, that she spent years instilling in me and my siblings.  Now as I travel through parenthood, unsure and inexperienced, I realize just how much I still have to learn.  And I never seem to catch up to her!

My mom is a trucker now, and far away most of the time.  Oh, how I miss her presence in our lives!  But thank goodness for cell phones and facebook. Between conversations and photo albums, we get to feel like a part of so exciting adventures and sights across the country, in the life of a female long-haul deliverer.  And though I don't know how she does it -- I don't know if I could -- she has even been able to grow in faith with other lovers of Jesus and the Bible, in a dramatic and inspiring way.

In love with Hebrew and the Jewish nation, and in need of a church and something to do one Saturday morning, my mom experimented with visiting a Messianic synagogue one weekend and was amazed.  The fervor and solid doctrine of the congregation, along with all the symbolism and meaning of the Jewish culture, drew her to a new level of faith and motivation for growing and seeking God.  Amazingly, God arranged it for her to be able to pass through that town three weekends in a row, which almost never happens in her job, establishing lasting relationships with some of the people there.

Now she visits Messianic synagogues wherever she goes, and has worked her way out of trucker solitude.  It also pushed her to relearn her beloved Hebrew, now that she knows some people who speak it, she has found a Christian music she likes, that of Jewish praise, which also employs her Hebrew.  And in addition to sharing her testimony with those she meets, which she had been doing, she is now excited to help in the work of re-introducing the gentile church with their Jewish brothers, and introducing Jews to their Messiah.  Check out where she's been finding community, at Beit Simcha .org .  And check out Mom's blog, at http://kjontheroad.blogspot.com.

My eccentric, homey,  traveling mother.  Gotta love her!

I sat here in the kitchen of our farm home, fiddling on my computer in the quietness of night.  Suddenly from the quiet I heard, skuttle, scratch...then quiet...then skuttle scratchity, then the tiniest squeery-squeery-squeak-squeak breaking the silence and sending shivers through me.  The mice were back.

Earlier today I'd seen one scamper across the floor and under the dishwasher, but it had been several hours, and I'd all but forgotten about them.  Now they were relentless.  Scratching and squeaking and scratching and squeaking...every few minutes pulling me into the pantry to investigate.  Every time looking and searching thoroughly, I found nothing.  I finally assumed they were in the box of paper bags, tried but failed to find a mousetrap, alerted Dan, and returned to the table.

 Sritchy scratchy...no, no.  It's okay.  Dan will handle it later.  Back to work.  squeaky squeak...oy, I hope they don't find food somewhere.  Then it happened.  Aha!  On the counter a mouse had inwittingly revealed himself -- amid the bread, no less!  Now I'd had it.  Forming a standoff with Mr. Mouse in the corner of the counter, behind the bread basket, I stared him down and would not let him escape.  At the same time I picked up the phone and dialed Dan, upstairs in his office, to come down to help immediately.  He did, and with long thick gloves, a rustle and some awful squeaks, he had caught him in his gloved hands.  I rushed to open the door for him, and way out in the snow the mouse went.  Victory!  Back to work.

Ten minutes later: scritchy scratchy scrawl scrawl.  Oh, no!  Is this another one, or the same mouse! On the counter again.  A stand off, a call, a few strategically placed countertop items, a brave husband and some mouse violence that thankfully did not go through the glove, and out again...or perhaps to keep his friend company.

Ten minutes later yet: more scratchig and a flash of brown and a tail runs behind the toaster.  Really?  This is beginning to be routine.  A call, a tussle, but no!  He slipped behind the stove and we lost him in the pantry.  More waiting.

In the pantry the noise stops, then picks up when all is quiet.  I'll leave him be.  Then, Uh-oh.  I can't believe it!  In the breadbasket, crawling around the bread!  It keeps getting worse!  Another call, another tussle, and way way out this time, halfway down the driveway he went, to find a new home in the woods.

Several hours later and no sounds.  Perhaps we threw three mice brothers out, perhaps one very hungry one.  We'll never know.  But it sure was a rush!  Never underestimate the importance and glee of excitement in marriage and home life...even if it does give you the jitters.

My whole family has come and gone, and Dan's whole family has come and gone -- except one: Dan's mom.  In this breath of calm and back-to-normal, the remainder of one relative actually makes it more relaxing and easy-going around here.  This year Dan's "off-season" is busier than ever, but with Cathy here, there's always someone for Eddy and me to see and talk to.  Eddy keeps bouncing between us for attention, which makes it much easier to get things done in between parenting.  And how great is it to surprise and be surprised by meal making, favors and chores!  There are plenty of things that neither of us like to do, which makes plenty of opportunities to joyfully help each other out, just to see the smile at the other end.  And after four years of householding, I still find myself watching Cathy to see how to do things better.  She is so efficient!

 Ah, the joys of family.  Free babysitting, camaraderie, wisdom, and so many other pleasures.  Now we just need to move to a place that has family all year long...

Mom-in-laws, they're pretty awesome.

At the tail end of the holidays, having trickled down to only one relative in the house, all the fun and excitement has turned inward to memories and reflection.  I'm sure you, as I, ponder the good and the bad of the season now gone.  We consider the weight and responsibilities of the season at hand, and there is an element of somberness.

It is during these first two weeks of each year when I find myself in a predictable melancholy.  I rest from the chatter, but become weary in the work.  My body complains and refuses to be energetic, after growing accustomed to rich foods and much sleep.  Most of all, I wake up to the dryness of my soul and neglect of my spirit.  Apparently all the rush and roar succeeded to keep me just a tad too busy for God, once again.  What a fool I was!  It happened again.

Last night I was fed up with the sloth I'd become, and resolved to get back on a healthy routine, in getting up, in exercise, in housework, bookwork, and Bible.  It has been no amazing day.  More than anything I've been tired.  But while reacquainting myself with my neglected radio speakers, I was inspired.

Someone had a guest on their show.  This man told of a sudden sickness and an encounter with God.  I trusted the host, so I turned up the volume and listened.  He spent a night with the Lord, in conversation and communion, in his unconsciousness at the hospital.  When he awoke he remembered the Lord's message.  Don't worry, it was the same message God had been speaking to his heart the last decade or so.

He is a man who runs a car care show on television, "Car Crazy," and he has been slowly slowly responding to God's call in his life, which is the same call to all Christians: share the news.  But there was a specific call he had ignored.  He felt led to reach other lay believers and encourage them to share their faith as well.  For years he ignored this tug on his heart.  Then came a random terrible virus.  Others spoke of not knowing whether this man would even survive.  As the man put it, God got his attention by throwing him down and putting His foot on the man's neck, from which he struggled and wiggled for two weeks and finally was calm.  When he was listening, God spoke to him again.  He was emphatic this time.  Do it now.

But despite the description, he didn't seem upset at all at the experience.  There was joy in this man's voice I don't remember the last time I heard.  Every word brought forth laughter.  You could see the sparkle in his eyes and glow in his cheeks even over the radio.  He said God's people seem weighted down by all the same things as unbelievers.  They become middle aged and complain of lack of purpose and fulfillment.  They get to the end of the day tired and unsatisfied.  This should not be so!

God has given us a purpose!  How can we find purpose outside of obeying God?  Love God with all your heart, all your mind, and all your soul, and love your neighbor as yourself.  Care about their souls, and prepare yourself to give an answer of the hope that is within you.  In this all believers can be filled with joy, from feeling their purpose, their meaning in life.  Our joy comes not from this world, but from God!  And searching the ground, our lives, and our relationships to find it will only make us unhappy.  We knew this when we met the Lord, so know it again.  Don't cling to this life as others do.  Embrace your eternal hope and purpose, and laugh for joy!

It made me smile just listening.