For Lost Children of Newton, CT

"And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groaning that cannot be expressed in words."     Romans 8:26 (NLT)

This was the scripture my Kinlde had for me this morning.  Perfect for the events of the recent past.  Guns and threats of shootings in a Target on Black Friday,  last week a shooting and killing at a mall full of shoppers and most recently the tragedy of loosing the children to a shooting in a school in Newton Connecticut.
    
I think these events are unrelated.  Just random acts of violence.  At the same time we have the news on TV, the chatter on facebook, the radio, the internet,  to bring all of these events to our attention.  I am not blaming the media at all.  It makes them all come together in some strange way.  I think there is a fine hard line between reporting the news, being respectful of these tragic events and reporting the really awsome wonderful news stories.  Like  the Beitel School 4th graders  hosting a garage sale where all the proceeds went to  hurricane relief , over $2000 was raised and donated.
    
There are no answers.  I do not even know how to pray.  I take comfort in  knowing that the Holy Spirit knows what is in my heart.  He will pray for me. 

 I do know that prayer is not enough for me.  I am an action oriented person.  I  take God's commandment seriously to "GO OUT into the world."  So my reaction to recent events is not to tell people to lock up thier guns.  Not to find cynical pictures to post on facebook.  I will selfishly thank God that my family is safe for the moment.  Hug the daughter who is begging for pizza for breakfast.  Revel in the fact that the adult members of this family are either first responders or at this moment in class learning to be. 

At work, I will defend beyond what the administration deems ok, those children who are being bullied on the playground. I would hope that they could have a safe zone with me, to talk to share to cry to work things out before the big explosion happens. Everyone needs an adult to care about them.  To the bullies beware, I will be watching.  You are not allowed on my playground.  Come out expecting to make a fellow classmate feel bad.  I can guarentee that you will be stopped.  How? I don't know exactly, there is always garbage to pick up around the school grounds or nasty lunchroom trays to be stacked, or extremly windy and cold corners to stand in. Whatever you will not take delight in making others feel bad.
         
Everyone, every child deserves to feel safe and cared for when they are at work.  Kids your work is your school. 

I have written enough.  These are  my thoughts and nothing more.  So I leave you to spend some quality time with one of my children watching a movie and eating pizza for breakfast.  We may even get around to gettingout of our pajamas sometime today.


    








    

Christmas, phases of life.

 



Candy Canes from years past.

   

 Christmas music playing, tree up and decorated and actually snow on the ground. I find myself in a wierd new faze of my life.  All these things used to bring the excited energy of having kids in the house during this season.  The shaking of gifts, the teasing about naughty or nice, dancing to the Muppet Christmas Carols.  Somehow we skipped all  the excitement this year.
    
 Margo is grown into her own woman and the excitement of (can you believe this..) people her own age have drawn her away from home today.  Max is studying for his first finals at College, Jerry is Ski Patrolling today and Toni being Toni would rather watch a movie than help me. Today is a good indicator that the family unit that I have been so comfortable with is changing.  Growing maturing, fledglings are leaving the nest, etc. Growing my children go do their own thing is what I have training them up to do.  Why is it so hard.?

      Children at the Hamann house get a Christmas tree ornament every year. .  Setting up the tree every year has been the excitement of unearthing all the older ornaments, exploring all the different ones (and I have come up with some pretty interesting ones,) and wondering what this year will bring to the collection.  This year was different.  Quiet.  Sort of sad sort of proud.  Parents of young children, let them have as much fun as possible.  Make noise, spill the hot chocolate..  Believe me this transition is really hard.

Max this one is yours 2011

    And Spot the Beta continues to live!

Stop the Madness and My Fish Still Lives!

For those of you following the Beta Saga at our house.  The new one "Spot" is still alive and learning how to swim in a tank rather than in the plastic cup he had spent all of his life in.  So far so good.  Personally I have had a hard week so keeping a Beta alive for a few days is a huge plus.

     I saw a friend on Wednesday (after the election on Tuesday) and asked her how her week had gone so far.  With no school Monday and Tuesday my week had been long already.  My friend exploded, with spew for our nation and the results of the election.  How we now live in a Socialist world and her grand kids will never see the freedoms she had growing up.  That our elected President is a Muslim because his name is Barak Obama, forgetting that he goes to a Christian Church, and that the US has lost it's Christian values.  Much more came from her than I have room to say.
     The world knows that I am a Christian.  I am very "out of the closet" with my faith.  At the same time the US constitution guarantees  the separation of Church and State. It guarantees me the right to worship as I need under whatever label I put on it.  It guarantees me the right no not be persecuted because I am not the proper believer.  Do I care if our President is  a Christian?  No not really.  I care that this person now and future cares about the issues, the people and the future of the United States.  And no I won't tell you who I voted for.  As a Christian it is my job to pray for the current President.

    On to the idea of things our grandchildren will not have....  If we as a people continue to dump trash into fields, oceans, desserts ,and rivers, the physical world as we know it will be gone.  These open spaces are fragile! Their ecosystems cannot handle foreign objects in huge quantities.  Maybe that is why I am drawn to nature photography.  So that there is evidence of what it was like. (back then)
     As a Christian I have a responsibility to take care of this world.  God gave it to mankind to live in.  He also put us in charge of all living creatures.  Good intentioned people who feed the wild creatures canned food are not doing them any good.  When said person does not pick up the empty cans then there is now 2 hurts.  Please just stop feeding and stop littering. 

 Picture:   Cat food cans I picked up in the field by my house Wednesday. I now know why we have skunks.