Find Beauty Where You Are

I read an article today over at The Inspired Room. She wrote a wonderful piece about looking for the beauty in our homes and being content with what we have. It was quite an insightful piece.  One of the hardest things, I think, this day in age, is to be content with what we have. We are surrounded by advertisements, glossy magazines, store fronts and more, showing us that next best thing that we "need" to make us happy. And then there are the "neighbors" who have just what we wish that we had.  One scripture that is so important and yet so difficult to live by is this one:

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,

"Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

Hebrews 13:5 (NIV)

I fall into that trap quite often. I look at the messes and not at the love and creativity that goes on here. I look at the piles and not the precious lives of friends and family that gather here. 

As I think back on it, the most beautiful place that I spent time, other than my own home, was that of my grandmother. She lived in a two-bedroom farmhouse that she raised her four sons in (my father being her youngest). She had a natural art of making things lovely.  She would go out into the garden and snip off flowers, branches, whatever caught her eye, and put them all over her house.  It was always beautiful.  But the most important thing I remember was the love, affirmation and acceptance I felt there.

Hopefully, today I can take this message to heart and stop being so hard on myself. I have the most important thing in my life - the Lord- and I have my family and  a beautiful, loving home.  I need to learn to be content with that. How about you? Are you content with what you have?

 

 

This is a typical gathering at the Leng household with friends and family.  Lots of food, fun and love.

A Halloween Review

We had a wonderful night of treats and friends and FUN! We have a tradition that everyone gathers at our house and goes Trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. It got started years ago when my bff had a new little guy and they live way out in the rural part of the county with no place to go Trick-or-treating, so....they came here and the rest is history. My college age daughter and her friends along with my high school daughter and her friends are still taking the "little guy" around, even though he is 9 now. They still LOVE taking him around. My 24yo ds and one of his friends got into the act by carving Darth Vader there and assembling our scary-guy mannequin. Some of our smaller trick-or-treaters were taking a closer look to see if he was real. It was soooo cute.


So here are some pictures of the fun. We had a total of twenty-two people! And that doesn't include the pets! What I love about these Halloween gatherings is that all my friends pitch in and bring goodies to share and while the kids go out, the adults get to hang around and socialize.

My dd as a gypsy.

She and her syncronized swimming pals.

The Jonas Brothers?!?

 

You may not be able to tell, but that is Hanna Montana on the left.

My other dd and her kitty, Elliot.

Her college friends!

The Trick-or-Treating Crew minus the boys

Does this kitty look like she wants to go Trick-or Treating? Not!

We had chili and bean soup, chips, dip, brie cheese and crackers, cupcakes, cake, ice cream, pretzels and hot mustard dip, cider and coffee and more. It is sort of funny how much food we have because all the kids want to do is eat their candy!

The Pumpkin Cupcakes! Yummy!

Well, this is a Halloween tradition that I hope continues for many years - even as the little guy gets older, I hope I'll have some grandchildren some day to add to the mix.  But for now, we just have lots of good, clean FUN!

TRICK-OR-TREAT!