So I haven’t.

Then I picked up Tim Keller’s The Reason for God. And I read this:

A faith without some doubts is like a human body without any antibodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic. A person’s faith can collapse almost overnight if she has failed over the years to listen patiently to her own doubts, which should only be discarded after long reflection.

Believers should acknowledge and wrestle with doubts – not only their own but their friends’ and neighbors’. It is no longer sufficient (in this increasingly skeptic world) to hold your beliefs just because you inherited them. Only if you struggle long and hard with objections to your faith will you be able to provide grounds for your beliefs to skeptics, including yourself, that are plausible rather than ridiculous or offensive. And…such a process will lead you, even after you come to a position of strong faith, to respect and understand those who doubt.” – Tim Keller, The Reason for God.

I was like, Tim Keller? Have you been reading my mind?

So I am going to plunge ahead, as time allows, exploring my questions. I am really excited about it. Part of my excitement comes from just being able to dig into God’s word with more depth to seek in order to find, even if it takes a long time. My other bit of excitement is in knowing that I can share what I find with anyone who has the same questions. I know I am not the only one who wonders the things I wonder.

I want to look into God and suffering, the doctrine of election, the mystery and glory of Jesus Christ, the beauty of the Gospel, Hell, Heaven and whatever else the Holy Spirit prompts me to investigate.

So for 2012, I plan to be all up in Jason’s apologetic books. Please lift me up in prayer as I begin my adventure!

I got nothing here. Seriously, I have them on Facebook but they are no where to be found on my external hard drive. Grrr….

I suppose I will share my favorite shot off Facebook. That picture would be the kids that caused my mom to turn into a “Grandmaholic.”

Speaking of, my sister Lisa, who owns 1/2 of the kids pictured, shared her favorite Christmas Card Outtakes with me. I love them!

The first she shared was from 2006. She entitled it, “Devil Dogs.”

Yes indeed. The dogs look possessed. Willow (the lighter dog) looks like she might enjoy drinking blood. Or playing fetch with zombies. Eek!

The second submission of Lisa’s was adorable. She wrote, “This is when Ryan was still adjusting to the fact that he had two sisters and his life would never have a dull moment.”

Thanks for the giggles Lisa! If you want to check out more of her adorable family and their adventures, you can read her blog here.

Christmas 2011 –The Field of Dreams

There is this hay field really close to our house. Ever since we moved here, I have been wanting to trespass on it and take some incredible pictures of my family. A couple weeks ago, I told Jason that I wanted my Christmas present to be some picture taking in the field without any moaning or groaning.

Santa came early for Mommy this year.

Yes, we got some outtakes:

Apparently, Anthony wants to play fetch with the devil dogs here.

Here Abby is hamming it up, as usual.

No more kisses, please!

Spending time with the Droid.

Looking tired and being munched on.

But buried in all the funny outtakes, there were some wonderful captures.

I think 2011 was finally the year I got it right. I love these pictures. They were the best present a mom could have!

Jason and I looked through all the jewels and finally decided on this as the official 2011 Piteo Family Christmas Photo. We couldn’t decide between the the following two:

or

I argued for the bows but he really liked the Santa hats. So we came to a compromise:

Keeping it simple this year. It’s my very favorite picture.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, sweet friends and family. I am truly blessed to know you and be loved by you all.

]]> http://myprideaside.com/2011/12/23/christmas-card-outtakes-the-present-years/feed/ 2 jillpiteo Cousins Devil Dogs ryan and the girls 2011-12-14_16-30-39_608 IMG_2021 IMG_2027 Lucy Eyes Closed IMG_2034 Tired IMG_2012 IMG_2028 IMG_2063 IMG_2071 IMG_2082 IMG_2093 IMG_2046funny IMG_2046silly IMG_2046 http://myprideaside.com/2011/12/21/christmas-card-outtakes-the-later-years/ http://myprideaside.com/2011/12/21/christmas-card-outtakes-the-later-years/#comments Wed, 21 Dec 2011 22:00:39 +0000 jillpiteo http://myprideaside.com/?p=2121 ]]> Continuing on from yesterday…

Christmas 2007 –Mommy’s Having a Breakdown

Unfortunately, Christmas 2007 was not the best Christmas ever, as I was hurling headlong into my fight with anxiety and depression. Needless to say, I didn’t really have it in me to do any awesome Christmas pictures. All I have is these:

The top one looks like a little four year old protecting his two year old sister from the constant sobbing of their mother. It breaks my heart.

In the bottom one, their expressions remind me a little of American Gothic:

Christmas 2008 –Christmas or Pentecost?

Christmas 2008 was an interesting year for Christmas Pictures. I formulated this idea that we’d pose in front of the fireplace all wearing matching white shirts. I thought it would look cozy. Jason built a fire. I wrangled the kids into their button-down shirts. We had all been through the ringer that year and by golly, we came out stronger and it was going to show!

Pretty good, huh? Some of the smiles looked forced, some are non-existent, but it is good enough.

But I took one more shot.

OH MY! We are all smiling! Most of the smiles are genuine. There is unity! Closeness! Love! It’s a keeper!

We printed off a bazillion and sent them across the world. We even blew the picture up to give to both sets of parents. Who wouldn’t want to display this beauty?

But somewhere along the way, someone made a comment that it looked like Jason’s head was on fire. It was probably my brother. I haven’t been able to enjoy this picture as much ever since that was pointed out.

Christmas 2009 – The Year Mommy Found Picnik.com and Lost her Sense of Good Taste

It all started so innocently. The kids were playing in front of the Christmas tree and I started to take some pictures of them. Then I thought I would do some editing through this new website I had been told about called Picnik. Then I spent too much time playing with the new website and here are the results.

I call this one,  “Choir Boy and Princess Artificial Flowers Get Stuck in a Mall Santa Picture without Santa.”

Oh, there are more where that came from:

Fa-La-La-La-La…La, La, Laaa, Laaa!

She is a vision in pink and plastic!

Then, as if that wasn’t cheesy enough, one snowy, 20 below zero day in Cleveland, Ohio, I had what I thought was a COMPLETELY BRILLIANT idea. I would drive down the street to a church that had set up a plywood cutout nativity scene.

I would bring two white sheets. Wait for it…wait for it…

and I would have the kids wrap themselves up in the sheets and pose in the midst of the plywood and reverently look toward Baby Jesus! It was gonna be my best Christmas Card idea EVER.

So we trespassed onto the church property. The weather was HORRIBLE. It was a wind chill advisory day, I am pretty sure.

But when Mommy gets an idea, the idea sometimes forces out common sense.

Here’s poor Anthony, freezing his arse off with the wise men.

I can promise you that the kids tried to be reverent here, but their faces were so frozen (with both cold and anger). I remember yelling and yelling at them, “Pull the sheets around your  coats!! I see the coats!” Maybe I thought I was actually going to fool someone into believing that we weren’t in the front yard of a church we don’t belong to, but we were indeed in Bethlehem. From the way Abby’s smiling at me, she looks about ready to wrap me up and drag me off to a place where it’s warm and moms don’t subject their kids to frostbite for Christmas pictures.

Major fail.

I did my best, in the year of Picnik.com, to salvage the dream. By golly, my kids were going to be honoring the Christ child in our 2009 Christmas Card. So I worked for hours…and here is the final result:

Coming up tomorrow Christmas 2010 and the reveal of the Piteo Family Christmas Photo 2011!

Also thanks so much for the submissions of your own Christmas Card fails!  It makes me laugh and I feel like I am in good company! Please keep them coming! Send them to jill@piteo.net and I will share them on Friday!

I never listen and am always optimistic as fall turns to winter that THIS will be the year I get the shot that makes for the best Christmas card ever.

I am still waiting, but in the meantime, I have quite a few gems from Christmas Card Photos Past.

Christmas 2003 – Our First Christmas Photo

What we didn’t send:

Christmas 2004 – No Christmas Picture…too busy making cookies with a 13 month old.

Christmas 2005 – No Christmas Picture – Too exhausted from having two kids under two.

Christmas 2006 – The Year Mommy Tries Too Hard

What we sent:

What we didn’t send (Love these!!!):

These last two…some of my all time favorites. I am sure I was throwing a huge fit/bribing/cajoling and it wasn’t working.

The above one is what I should have sent. It looked more like a typical, average day in my life.

Finally…the kids’ body language seem to indicate that they are done.

Anyone else out there brave enough to share their “not so perfect” Christmas shots? Please e-mail them to jill@piteo.net! More tomorrow…and if I get any submissions, I will post them later this week!

5 days and counting! Merry Christmas!

My Abby really loves fashion.

Rolling the perfect cuffs (which I can’t even do), layering different pieces, walking God’s green earth with her trademark black boots. She has a style all her own, and she isn’t afraid to be risky and break the rules.

Because we don’t have cable, she doesn’t have access to Nickelodeon or the Disney Channel. So how she has learned to model for the camera, and do it so well, I have NO IDEA.

She doesn’t like getting out of bed in the morning. She is not a morning person. I have tried to motivate her by getting her excited about the events of the day, or the promise of warm, gooey waffles or even threatening to just take her to school late so she can receive the natural consequence of a tardy. None of this was motivating.

What is motivating? The promise of doing a braid in her hair if there is extra time. Her being allowed to wear one of my scarves to school. Reminding her that last night she laid out a super cool outfit that she spend 30 minutes carefully piecing together.

She is a beauty. She knows it and she shows it.

I think one of the biggest challenges Jason and I pray about for her is that she would see her  inner beauty as more important than her outward appearance. We have told her a lot about how the way someone treats another person truly shows their beauty, and that a loving heart shines through and makes someone beautiful.

But as a parent, you say things, and you wonder if your words are actually going down into their heart or just in one ear and out the other.

Especially when you have such an independent, marches to her own beat kind of kid. Well, the other day, I saw a glimmer of hope, more radiant than the butterfly that covers her face.

Abby had painted a gorgeous picture one day. I was so excited for it to dry because it was really outstanding and I wanted to frame it.

She had other plans for it.

A couple days ago, I asked her if she’d like to come along with me to run some errands. Basically, “the errands” were going to Bed Bath and Beyond to get my K-Cup fix. Mama was out of K-Cups and Mama needs her K-Cups.

She happily agreed and grabbed her painting on the way out the door. Of course, like a spoiled child, I said, “No!! Abby you are not bringing the painting with us! Mommy’s going to frame it and love it forever!”

She, in her cool, collected Abby way, said, “No, I am going to give it to an old lady today.”

I was sort of flabbergasted. First, I had plans for that masterpiece. Secondly, I had no idea how she was just going to give away a painting to a stranger. What if they reacted strangely? What if they didn’t love her masterpiece the way I do?  What if she ends up hurt or rejected? Thirdly, what if she says something like, “Here Old Lady” or “I wanted to give this picture to an Old Lady, so here you go.”

But she wanted to give, and so I mourned the loss of my masterpiece but told her OK, as long as she didn’t call the lady “Old Lady.”

We arrived at BB&B. At this point, I was so craved for caffeine that my 20% off coupon was shaking in my hand. What do I want? Donut Shop? Something holiday flavored?

Abby, on the other hand, found her Old Lady. The Old Lady was looking at bath mats. She leaned over and whispered, “That’s the Old Lady I am giving my painting to.”

I said, “OK, go ahead.”

She walked down the aisle and tapped the lady on the sleeve.

The Old Lady turned, saw Abby and smiled radiantly.

I don’t know the exact exchange, because I was about 10 feet away, hiding amidst K-Cups. I did hear Abby say, “I want to give this to you,” and I could tell from the  Old Lady’s expression that Abby may have made her entire month. Old Lady went ga-ga over the painting, pointing out how much she loved the trees and the clouds and the sky. They chatted politely for a minute or two and then Abby excused herself and came bounding over to me, shouting, “She loved it! She said she was going to hang it up on her refrigerator!”

It dawned on me, right there in the K-Cup aisle of Bed Bath and Beyond. Abby, for all her love of fashion and beauty, IS LISTENING. Right there, she showed her beautiful heart to a complete stranger, giving what she had to someone who needed something, even if that something was a little interaction with a Kindergardener and a picture to make her fridge a little less bare.

I told her how proud I was of her beautiful heart. I was almost brought to tears as I watched  how she brought love and light into that woman’s day with a simple, childish act of kindness.

Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God. (1Peter 3:3-4)

She could be the CEO of Anthropologie some day. Who knows?

One thing I am sure of though…as much as she loves to dress up and enjoy her outward beauty, day by day, God is also helping her cultivate an inner beauty too.

I love watching God at work.

I love my beautiful girl.

Every time I turn around,
I see the girl that turns my world around.
Standing there…

Everytime I turn around,
Her spirit’s lifting me right off the ground.

- Punky Brewster Theme Song

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