Faith

The Spirituality of Births, Graduations, Weddings and Funerals

This is NOT my daughter's cake topper choice, but just an illustration of the whimsy involved recently in fun wedding choices. Click photo if you want to purchase this one.

Lamar is taking a break, so I have prepared a short thought for our Simple Sabbath post this morning. I sat down at my computer and the first thing I noticed on my desktop was two images; items my eldest daughter had picked out for her upcoming wedding.  One is the cake topper.  People don’t just use plastic molded standing brides and grooms for cake toppers any more.  And the other is a little “accent” for the wedding – to be used at just the right time.  I love it.

They are both secrets so I’ll just have to leave them here on my computer until they can be revealed during their wedding day.  But thoughts about the wedding led to other thoughts…musings about life events.

Christmas will be here soon, my eldest daughter is deeply involved in planning for her upcoming wedding in March, we’re picking up a new “family member” today (a six week old Alaskan Malamute puppy), my younger daughter will be finishing her hair stylist program this summer and a friend of mine died last week.  Births (I know, I’m using a puppy birth and the Christmas season for my example…), graduations, weddings and funerals.  I’m 47 years old and I’ve been sitting through or experiencing all these occasions literally since my own birth in one way or another.

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Man Cave

My Sports Wish List

Only a week til Christmas, so its a little late for wish lists.  I won’t be asking for anything extraordinary from my family and friends at this point.  Get me the sweater, the book, the DVD, and I’m a happy guy.

But let’s pretend for a moment there is a sports Santa Claus.  A sports version of St. Nick who is very interested in making the wishes of sports fans come true.  Well Mr. Claus, I’ve been pretty good this year and I have a few requests.

Here is what I want for Christmas:

I WANT A COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF

Don't the unbeaten Horned Frogs at least deserve a shot at a national championship? Maybe one day they'll get that chance. (courtesy realclearsports.com)

I know Santa, you get this one a lot, but I’m never going to stop wishing for this.  I’m thrilled with an Oregon/Auburn matchup in the title game, but the BCS continues to get lucky and that can’t last forever.  I’ll even admit TCU probably isn’t as good as Oregon or Auburn, but shouldn’t that be decided on the field?  The Horned Frogs did absolutely everything that was asked of them, but won’t get a sniff of a championship simply because of discrimination toward smaller schools and non-traditional powers.  I don’t care how big or small the playoff is, I just want a level playing field here.  And spare me the excuses of extra games, protecting student-athletes, and preserving the bowl system.  The bowl system is a middling mess of mediocrity.  You mean we might miss out on Florida International vs. Toledo in the Little Caesar’s Bowl?  Good, I’d rather watch curling anyway.  Trust me Santa, if you want to stop receiving these letters, you’ll find a way to make this happen for me and the countless fans who hate seeing this sport’s champion be crowned by ignorant human voters and soulless computers.

I WANT THE NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT TO STAY AT 65 TEAMS

College football may get it wrong, but college basketball gets it right.  There is no need to expand March Madness to 96 teams as is being discussed by the NCAA.  65 teams means the little guy still has a shot and that’s all the little guy is asking for.

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Homestead and Garden, Oklahoma culture

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch: All’s FAIR in Love and War

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“You should enter some of your peppers in the fair.”

tenspeed
Julie with her bike at the Chickasha county fair

The county fair.

When I was in fifth grade I performed a baton routine at the Grady County Fair in Chickasha,Oklahoma.  That same night I won a ten-speed bike that I really wasn’t able to ride comfortably for about five more years.   It didn’t matter that my mom bought all of the tickets that she was supposed to sell.  I had won.  It was a fabulous night.

The memory of that fabulous night was all it took to peak my interest and begin a perpetual thinking cycle this past week.  Here’s what happened…

Our local extension agent and his wife were attending a party at my house, and we were touring my garden.  He innocently suggested that I participate in the local county fair.  My mind started spinning like a Ferris wheel.

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Foodie Page

Crunch Time, Countdown to Christmas

This is our poor Christmas Tree we just put up!

With Christmas fast approaching I am going to deviate from our usual Stockyards City Cookbook recipe and share a favorite family recipe with you.

If you are like me you are close to panic mode. Christmas is just around the corner, there is shopping to be done, presents to be wrapped, baking, cleaning and in my case – decorating the house. Yep, you read that right! It is the 16th of December and this self proclaimed “Mrs. Claus” has not decorated her house yet. I waited too late to get a real tree so I drug the fake one out of the attic. My husband took it downstairs for me, put it together and plugged it in. Let’s just say it is going to take a lot of work to get that tree ready for decorations! So rather than work on the Christmas tree I decided to start my baking. I didn’t have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen so I decided to make a quick, easy recipe that my grandmother always made. I’m sure it has an official name but we call it Nana’s Graham Cracker Treats. If you need a quick treat to take to a party or even a cookie exchange this can be whipped up in no time at all.

Nana’s Graham Cracker Treats
Loyce Robinson

2 pkgs. of Graham Crackers (1/2 box)
1 C. Brown Sugar
1 3/4 sticks Margarine (1 stick plus 6 T of  margarine)
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 C. chopped Pecans (optional)

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Reading Room, Relationships

I Don’t Recommend Books…But If I DID (Part 2)

Kelly M. Roberts, MS, LMFT

Last week, I wrote a post beginning my answer to a common question I receive in my academic or therapeutic role.  That question is, “What book would you recommend for couples experiencing (enter any category) issue?” or, “I’m going to buy a good book for (x) couple, what do you recommend?”  I decided to break the answer down into the top five “couples issues” areas I hear about most frequently, and first begin by addressing the “core three.”  I named these as:  parenting, financial struggles, and sex/intimacy.  In my first post, I covered book recommendations and some discussion over parenting and finances.  Today I’m going to talk about sex and intimacy issues, and then move into topic number four: developing yourselves as individuals within a marriage or relationship.

Sex or Intimacy Issues

To begin, let me just say that couples all seem to have their own strength areas within their relationship.  I’ve spent a good amount of time with some couples who excel at sex and/or intimacy together, but have multiple challenges in other areas.  However, I’ve seen just the opposite as well.  Some couples I know are excellent at parenting as a team, managing their finances as a team, and seem to otherwise (at least from those on the outside) have a strong and capable relationship.  But when it comes to intimacy (sharing vulnerabilities and deep-felt support) or sex, some of the seemingly greatest “power couples” run into problems.  A lot of problems.

Many of these intimacy and sex related problems have to do with trust, or strong patterns developed from their own families of origin.  I’ll cover these problems in the last entry.  Some challenges, however, are simply a matter of thinking, learning, growing or communicating, becoming comfortable with each other and asking for (and meeting) needs. And many are simply the result of leading overscheduled lives in a stressful environment.

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Showcasing Red Dirt culture ~ authored and managed by contributors with connections to the great state of Oklahoma.