Groundhog Day all over again. And that’s just what it was. One of those normal days, not super fun, but definitely not bad. That dumb groundhog saw his shadow so it looks like 6 more frigid weeks. When I drove to tutoring I could feel the wind whipping my truck around, it was so windy and so cold.
Also, I’m tired of blogging about December. I really want to blog about our wonderful summer. It was a Harry Potter, most beautiful places in Maryland, waterfall, ice cream trail, lighthouse, adventure, bonding summer. It was one of those magaical times. But I’m still stuck in December. Huge trials, I know. But I’m over it.
That said, back to December. Addie loves Maker Space. Partly because she loves indoor recess and partly because she’s a creative thinker. Here she is in the scarf she made herself and then wore everyday for a few weeks. They made these cool light up gingerbread houses. (Matt and I had helped place the food electric tape and set these up) Love this unique girl!
Delaney’s class had a performance and party. Daddy couldn’t come, so Bubba did.
But bubba’s can be annoying.
They were so cute singing with their fun Rudolph hats. D is a little dancer too, and momma loves it.
Every December we hold a combined RS with all the women from primary and yw. I’ve been meeting monthly with kelly and Nola as yw and primary presidents and we had come up with a plan for each of us to teach together. Nola took the first 20 minutes, kelly the second, and I was the last. We each brought refreshments and decorations and worked hard to make it nice for the sweet women we serve. It was such a good day, I just loved it. Nola and kelly did amazing, and I felt very lead to what I shared also. I took a few candids.
A few months earlier I had read this amazing story from my girl Jen Hatmaker. I stuck a pin in it and knew I needed to share it at some point. This was how i started.
I want to share a story. It’s about female elephants. You know, as all good stories begin. See, in the wild, when a mama elephant is giving birth, all the other female elephants in the herd back around her in formation. They close ranks so that the delivering mama cannot even be seen in the middle. They stomp and kick up dirt and soil to throw attackers off the scent and basically act like a pack of wild bodyguards.
They surround the mama and incoming baby in protection, sending a clear signal to predators that if they want to attack their friend while she is vulnerable, they'll have to get through 40 tons of female aggression first.
When the baby elephant is delivered, the sister elephants do two things: they kick sand or dirt over the newborn to protect its fragile skin from the sun, and then they all start trumpeting, a female celebration of new life, of sisterhood, of something beautiful being born in a harsh, wild world despite enemies and attackers and predators and odds.
Scientists tell us this: They normally take this formation in only two cases - under attack by predators like lions, or during the birth of a new elephant.
This is what we do, girls. When our sisters are vulnerable, when they are giving birth to new life, new ideas, new ministries, new spaces, when they are under attack, when they need their people to surround them so they can create, deliver, heal, recover...we get in formation. We close ranks and literally have each others' backs. You want to mess with our sis? Come through us first. Good luck.
And when delivery comes, when new life makes its entrance, when healing finally begins, when the night has passed and our sister is ready to rise back up, we sound our trumpets because we saw it through together. We celebrate! We cheer! We raise our glasses and give thanks.
There is no community like a community of women.
~Jen Hatmaker
Photo cred: David Yarrow Photography
I love women. We are amazing, and when we come together in unity, miracles can happen. I love that JH is such a powerful advocate of women.
Rainbow ellie sparkles made her own tiny chain to match the one Delaney had made in class.
Delaney loved it!
And one day I snapped this. Not sure when or where, but it’s pretty!
December continues.
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