Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real... Better Late Than Never?

Uh, I'm joining up with {phfr} at LMLD - a day late (and a dollar short, as the old folks say.)

Pretty

I call this my "starter" icon corner.

Here's my icon corner. I think it's pretty. It's also a very peaceful spot in my home.  Am I the only Southern Baptist with an icon corner? Maybe so, but I don't care. I love my icons, and the saints that they depict, and our Lord Jesus Christ.  We are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses!

Happy

My Barton Method teaching manuals. 

Last week I started a new job! I started training to be a Barton method tutor at our little elementary school. I used to be a special education teacher, and I've been looking for something to do part time, and a friend at church told me about the tutoring program in our school district. Right now I'm just a substitute for when the regular tutors have to be out, and I've only worked one day, but I really enjoyed it. It's basically one-on-one tutoring for students who are showing symptoms of dyslexia, whether they actually have a diagnosis of it or not.  I think it's a great program and I'm hoping that next year something will work out so that I can be a regular tutor and not just a "substitutor."  It makes me so happy that I have this opportunity!

Funny

The Boy and I are taking a sick day today.  The Boy has a nasty cold and spent much of last night coughing, poor thing.  I've started working on a cold myself, which is not unusual, since whatever he comes down with, I eventually come down with it, too.  Fortunately, he's normally a very healthy young man.  Anyway, I know that having a cold is not funny, but we've been entertaining ourselves today by watching our favorite "Jeeves and Wooster" series from the BBC.  The Boy and I find these shows extremely funny...The Professor finds them annoying...so we watch them when he's not around.  Hugh Laurie simply is Bertie Wooster. 

What, ho and tootle-pip!

Real

The song says "It's the hap - happiest season of all..."

Well, I know it is a happy season, but I also know that my prayer list is full of those who may not be experiencing the "hap-happiest" feelings right now:

A friend from high school who just learned that the colon cancer she's been fighting has spread to her liver.

The family of a young man from a near-by town who was killed in a car accident earlier this week. He was a senior in high school.

The high school football coach in another near-by town who was shot and injured in his own back yard after his wife was shot and killed, evidently by the same intruders, also earlier this week. They have a three year old daughter. 

Matushka Anna, grieving over the loss of her unborn baby.

A neighbor whose husband died suddenly in August, having to spend her first Christmas in 40 years without him.

Real is the fact that it's NOT the "most wonderful time of the year" right now for many.  There is pain, and suffering, and loss.  I am at a loss as well. I wish I could do more. All I can do is lift them up in prayer and trust God to bring each one of them through these difficult circumstances.