Santa came to our neighborhood.  The *real* Santa.  He has a real beard, and a real belly and a real twinkle in his eye.  He listens so carefully to all the children and gives them good advice on how to be the best little children possible.  Cadence and Walter went with me to see Santa (who had to take cover under the pool cabana since it started to rain so his pretty surroundings turned into cinder blocks lol).  He told them that it was really important that they didn't argue with each other because that made mama and daddy sad.  I think he knew his stuff!

My prayers are with the families in Connecticut.  I could not imagine losing a child.  And it being the Christmas season seems to just make it harder in many ways as this season is all about joy for children. 

Today on Facebook all the posts are along the line of

• "OMG, what has our world come to?"
• "how could someone do this?"
• "What would drive a person to do this?"
• "Unbelievable"

Yes, it is absolutely horrible what happened in Connecticut today with the school shooting.  It is horrid.  It is evil.  It unbelievable.

Yet it isn't.

Way back at the beginning of time God saw the heart of man.  In fact he regretted even making man.  In Genesis chapter 6 it reads.  "The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time."

That is the reality of our world and our humanity.  Man is evil.  In his heart.  I think it is in every man, woman and child and we all have the choice to give in to it or to not.  Some people have help in avoiding evil.  Their families teach them truth, love and honor.  They learn to value life and learn that truth isn't relative, it's concrete and real and not "just for me", it's for everyone.  Then others do not have that foundation, either through their family or through church.  Some are given over to a society that teaches them that you can't determine what is right for anyone else, only yourself and so much becomes areas of grey, not black and white.  No wonder there is confusion in our country as to what is acceptable behavior and what isn't..... we don't even call right right and wrong wrong anymore.

Was what happened today evil.  Without a doubt.

Am I any better?  No.

I've never killed anyone.  But in my heart there is evil.

But the evil doesn't have to stay there.  I have forgiveness when I ask for it from God through Jesus.  I can give him my evil thoughts and actions and say, "I'm sorry, I was wrong.  Please forgive me."  And God in his goodness does.  Because God is good.  I am not.  And God continues to change and mold me, making more like Christ as he deals with my evil heart.  He doesn't just leave me where I am wallowing in my nature.

In the days to come we will hear a lot about the shooter.  His home life.  His parents.  The reasons he killed.  He was possibly bullied.  He was mentally depressed.  He was disabled.  He was failed by the system.  We will see the government blamed because they didn't see this coming.  His parents, even though dead will be blamed.  Guns will certainly be blamed and the gun control issue will be raised.  We will see blame everywhere.  But the truth is at the heart of the whole situation, no matter what circumstances or events led to this..... the heart of man is evil.

I am so tired of being sick.  I have felt lousy for about three weeks now.  I had two days of "wow, this is great" and I'm back to sick.  It started last night around six and progressed to the point that I pretty much live with a tissue in hand.  I can't stop sneezing and my nose is running like a faucet.  Lovely visual I know. 

I need a nose cork.

I did a load of all mugs.  Mugs mugs mugs.  Most of these are gifts to the other men in the company management group and their wives.  Almost all of them turned out but two had small runs (the two green ones).  One is just too small to be used by an adult, it shrank more than the 15% I expected.  Sometimes random items do that.  I have no idea why....  Anyway, my latest endeavor at being creative.  I'm going to be having an open house next week and offer my left over wares and rejects for people who might want them.  It will be by donation, a $5 suggested donation per item.  All donations are going to be sent to Women of Hope, a ministry of Divine Holistic Ministries in Jinja Uganda. These are some people that I met and worked with on my trip to Uganda.  Hopefully my stash of unwanted and odd items will raise some money for their ministry.

My husband thinks I should settle on one design and mass produce it.  I think having a variety is more fun.  Besides, if I mass produce I might feel obligated to sell them and that would be work, not hobby/fun.

This is our season of birthdays.  Well, our second round.  The first is one month during the summer.  Actually since the kids all married and the grandkids have come along every month is a month of birthdays.  Almost.  

Today my "baby" turns 25.  On Saturday my oldest turned 34.  I don't know which event makes me feel older.  They both do.

Today started out with me realizing my *baby* boy turned 34 years old today.  Wow.  Time really does fly.

My husband and I went diving.  Just in the scuba shop's pool but we wanted to play with our new underwater video camera.  Ah the fun....

This evening we got our son's kids for the night so he and his wife could go to his company party.  Tomorrow he is running a 30K race and they will be back to pick up the kids after that is over.  So to entertain the kiddos we went for a walk around the neighborhood.  1.5 miles for we adults, about three miles for the kids who kept running back and forth.  We went after dark so they could see the pretty lights.  Once home we unloaded my kiln (pretty stuff, pictures later) and then made gingerbread houses.  Wren wanted special designs on hers and Otto, once he learned he might get to eat his later on decided the goal was to stuff as much candy on his house as possible.

After the houses were done it was bath time, prayers and into bed.  They were both asleep within minutes.  Ah, a successful evening!

Watch this video. It's fun!

Unusual Instruments

This video is produced by the California Federation of Teachers Union.  Marxism is alive and well in California.  No mention of out of control spending.  Lack of budget controls and fiscal responsiblility.  Unqualified borrowers in the home mortgage market (forced upon the lenders by the govt.).  And since when does the federal government control the police, fire and schools?  Unfortunately this is probably going to be shown to school children everywhere demonizing good people who make any amount of money more than nothing.  Why would anyone want to succeed if this is how they will be viewed?

We have politics as usual it seems. 

Geithner Plan's Assault on Small Businesses

"Republicans understand the dire circumstances facing our country's economy and the small businesses that drive its growth, and as a result, have put forth serious and sensible solutions to avert the fiscal cliff. We want to protect job creators and the millions of Americans they employ. The Geithner plan protects special interests and bloated government budgets, while providing a refuge for spineless career politicians. "

From all I have read the Republicans are trying to be responsible. The Democrats are trying to make points. With whom I am not sure.  Unfortunately I doubt the general public view it this way.

I have decided to start the Congressional weight accounting program.

I need to lose 15 pounds.  I decided to downsize my expectations to 10 pounds.  So I have already lost 5 pounds!  Go me!

We have elected idiots.