Tom Brady, your questions have answers by Tom Ascol

Tom Brady, the 3-time Super Bowl champion quarterback of the New England Patriots was featured the week in a 60 Minutes interview with Steve Kroft on CBS. Brady is already a sports legend in one of the citadels of professional sports in America, Boston. His current team is 15-0 and is poised to finish the season undefeated, something that hasn't been done in the NFL in 35 years. He has won the Super Bowl MVP twice and been named to the Pro Bowl 4 times. He also was recently named the Associated Press' "Male Athlete of the Year."

He has dated actresses and supermodels and makes millions of dollars a year. He has been called America's most eligible bachelor. By most popular standards, he has it all. That is why I was struck by hearing him make the following statement during the interview:

"Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there's something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, 'Hey man, this is what is.' I reached my goal, my dream, my life. Me, I think, 'God, it's got to be more than this.' I mean this isn't, this can't be what it's all cracked up to be."

When Kroft asked him, "What's the answer?" Brady responded, "I wish I knew. I wish I knew. I love playing football and I love being quarterback for this team. But at the same time, I think there are a lot of other parts about me that I'm trying to find."

Here is what I would say to Tom Brady, if given the chance to discuss this with him.


You can read the rest of the article here

Quelf, in the land of the farm!

We had been playing for an hour. I looked around the table and couldn't help but laugh.

My dear sweet husband was wearing a homeade snorkle.



My sister and her husband had to spin around 7 times with their eyes closed.




Everytime anyone spun a 4 on the die, my dad turned into a weeping willow tree and had hum sad movie tunes.



Then there was my mom. She had so many rules, she didn't know what to do. Each time anyone picked a card, she had to clap three times and mystically twirl her hands and say "Abracadabra". Every time a game piece moved she had to fill in the blank "Holy ____ Batman!"

I was fortunate to have no personal roolz cards, but due to my sore throat, whenever it was my turn, I had to perform the toast "To ancient times and distant music".

There is much more that went on. We woke up the next morning making our own sign language. My dad made up a new language....among many other goings on.

I can't even remember who won. That wasn't really all that important. We had a lot of fun. This is probably one of the whackiest, funnest games we've played in a long time. I can't wait to get a bunch of people together to play it again!

Our Christmas

We had a great day! There was fun, games, laughter and family. It is so nice to get together with everyone.

The kids were adorable. Haddon felt like he had to carry around all of his gifts, which he couldn't quite handle and was dropping them left and right and was getting very frustrated. They have a train table yet to see since we left it in Tennessee. They did get conductor hats and their own trains, so they will be quite surprised when we get back home :)



I got the boys each a corn cob pipe. They were VERY happy and VERY cute!



Yes, I didn't get many pictures of Jamison, but he was there. He was feeling a bit under the weather and ended up sleeping away about 4-1/2 hours of the day. With the noise and organized chaos that is often any of the Kelly family gatherings, it was amazing he slept that long. He is feeling better now though....I am still hacking up several lungs a day though!

We had an excellent ham and an array of other goodies to eat. We had quite a full house. We had upwards of 30 people eating, playing games and sleeping....all at the same time!

John was pretty surprised to receive the most awesome watch in the world, lol.



Awww....my brother Chris, hugging my mom after the reading of a very sentimental card.



My mom made my niece, Cosette, and my niece, Ashtyn, dolls for Christmas. The pictures don't do them justice! They are just toooooo cute!



After an exciting game of 'I'm Satisfied', it came down to the Mem vs my mom. They shook hands and the play continued. Mem was the winner, much to my mom's dismay!



We finished our day with a rip roaring game of Quelf...but that definitely deserves its own entry!

Merry Christmas

I write this as I relax in a nice warm (I use that word loosely as I am bundled up cause I am a bit chilled) house in Maine!

We ended up leaving Saturday afternoon and made it here yesterday around 5:15pm! Overall, it was a great trip! The kids were soooooo good in the car. Our trip took us about 16 hours....compared to last Christmastime it took us over 19 hours. That is the difference between traveling with a 3 week old vs a one year old who doesn't nurse every 3 hours :)

I will have some pictures of the drive up for you soon. I haphazardly snapped some shots while we were on the road. I got a couple cute ones too.

When Gideon started seeing snow on the ground....his response was: "Look! It's Christmastime!"

Nolan was thrilled that our van didn't break down. Can you tell we've had issues in the past? He seemed genuinely surprised yesterday morning, when we left the hotel, that our van was in working condition, lol. Last night, he and Gideon were even playing a game called "the van breaks down". Yeah, real cute!

We made it here safely and are blessed to be able to spend Christmas and New Years with my family.

Last night, I stayed up with my mom making goodies that we could easily live off of for the next several months, lol. Ok, that was an exagerration, but there are a lot of treats! I spent what seemed like hours, forming peanut butter balls. We even got a little festive and delicately layered intricate strings of melted white chocolate over them after the initial layer of chocolate had set. Ok, there were some blobs and clumps but it had nothing to do with me! It was fun to do that with my mom :)

Our plan is to go out to eat tonight at the annual Christmas Eve hangout of Amatos (an italian place), get those stockings hung and then go to sleep! I'm sure my dad will be setting his alarm clock to wake up as early as possible, much to my mother's dismay, lol.

The kids are already talking about checking the manger to see if baby Jesus has arrived. We don't put him there until Christmas morning! They are very excited about Jesus' birthday :)

I pray that everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

My lists

I've been tagged...for the first time! Now I really feel like a blogger!!

I was tagged by Need a Nap 2 :)

THE RULES:
1. Each player starts with 5 gifts that they would want for Christmas.
2. People who are "CARDED" need to write their own Blog about their 5 things & post these rules.
3. At the end of your Blog, you need to choose 5 people to get "CARDED" and list their names.
4. Don't forget to leave them a COMMENT telling them they're "CARDED", and to read your Blog.

My Materialistic Gift/Wish List:
1. a nice watch
2. a dirt devil...you gotta be practical when you've got four boys!
3. an embroidery machine
4. some new shoes...my current most favorite pair of shoes are falling apart, and it is painful just to talk about it.
5. a new computer desk

My Spiritual Gift/Wish List:
1. work on the spiritual disciplines (especially Bible reading, study, and prayer)
2. to be more Christ-centered in raising my family
3. to be more supportive of missions
4. to pray more for my husband
5. to keep my tongue in check

The people I have carded:

Julia at All About Us

Melanie at Moss Family Blog

Megan at Free to Be

Angela at thoughts from a ragamuffyn

John at A Reforming Dad

A few thoughts on Jamie Lynn Spears

By now, everyone should have heard the outrage that Britney Spears' 16 year old sister is currently 12 weeks pregnant.

Was she wrong to sleep with her 19 year old boyfriend?

Yes.

Should we condemn a 16 year old who has chosen life over abortion?

No.

It would have been very easy for her to get an abortion. I don't even think she would have needed her parent's permission. It would have saved her the current judgement she is under. It would have saved her job, which is currently up in the air. It would have saved her family from more ridicule and heartache. It would have stopped prideful Christians, such as you and I, of shaking our heads at her, feeling good about ourselves that we would never be as foolish as she. When, in fact, we are just as foolish and sinful. The only difference is that our sins have been washed in the blood.

I request that instead of pointing the finger at the Spears Family, instead, we pray for them. They are in much need of a Savior. They need Jesus.

I am thankful that the decision was made to keep this unborn child. My prayer is that this little inconvenient baby, grows up to know Christ.

The Assembly Interview: A Pastor with a Church in Need

Our good friend Mark felt lead to interview a couple of local pastors. They are all dear friends of ours, and I am happy to have the opportunity to share it with you.

I met a couple of pastors, Charlie Scalf and Adam Fann, at the Southern Baptist Building Bridges Conference a few weeks ago. They pastor a church called TheAssembly Baptist Church in downtown Johnson City, TN. I met them through my good friends John and Shannon Jordan who I have known for several years. I also got to meet the Jordans’ pastor, Reggie, who you will read about below. Reggie was nice enough to buy us all Tom Schreiner’s newest book on baptism.

After spending a few days sitting with and eating with these guys I got to know them a little better. They don’t "look” like your typical Southern Baptist and this intrigued me somewhat, basically, because of the label “Southern Baptist” being attached. I was encouraged to learn of the type of ministry they were doing, but discouraged to
learn that their funding is basically gone.

I had an idea about reaching out for them through blogging. I prayed about it, asked John what he thought and then approached Charlie and Adam with the idea on the final morning of the conference. The idea is somewhat similar to Timmy Brister’s post on another way to support Southern Baptist churches. Needless to say, we were all on board with having an interview and asking that if anyone felt led to help this church out to please do so. What follows is an interview with Pastor Charlie giving more insight to their ministry at The Assembly.

You can read the interview here

Mike Huckabee on CNN...setting the record straight!

Romney on Huckabee

Another attack ad has started in Iowa that is stating false information.

You can read the Newsweek article here.

Ain't that the truth!

A Chipmunk's Christmas

My boys received gift cards to Walmart from their great-aunt in Illinois for Christmas. I was going to hold onto them and then after Christmas, let them pick out a few things. But I decided that since we are taking a long road trip to Maine, I would let them pick out some new books and a couple of movies.

Now let me preface this by saying that my boys LOVE the Chipmunks. Remember Alvin, Simon and Theodore? It started when they saw a preview for the new movie that was released last week in the theater. Nolan counted down the days, and I was able to go on a date with my two oldest boys...and we went to the movies. They were so excited they couldn't contain themselves!

Ever since last week, it has been Chipmunks 24/7. Which I don't mind, since they were my favorite cartoon to watch Saturday mornings when I was a kid!

Yesterday, when I let them pick out a couple new movies for our trip....Gideon found The Chipmunk's Christmas. You wanna see excited? You should have seen my little Giddy, lol. It has been less than 24 hours and they are watching it for the 4th time. It's all they want to watch at rest time.

There is a line in the movie that cracks me up. It really shouldn't, since it is not a funny line. It just seems funny for it to be in a children's movie.

"Mommy, Tommy will just die if he doesn't get a new harmonica!"

"Don't say things like that, you know how very sick he has been. We
just hope he lasts through Christmas."

I feel bad for Tommy...I do. This line just makes me laugh. Poor Bobby.

There is one other line that also seems funny to me.

Alvin is bringing Tommy a gift and when Tommy finds out he has a delivery, his response is:

"Is it more medicine?"

Alright already...we get it. The boy is sick, lol.

Here is my post about nothing really. I hope you enjoyed!

Thank you for my scarf, Melanie :)

This morning, I visited a good friend and exchanged gifts. I made her a patchwork scarf, and she crocheted a nice, warm, cuddly scarf for me. (Obviously, she has caught on to my scarf obsession.)

On the way home, as I drove with my new scarf around my neck, Nolan said to me:

"Mommy, I love your new scarf. It looks just like a kiwi!"

lol

How to make the BEST baked ham EVER!!

Last year, we tried something different. A friend told me about how her family has always prepared their Christmas ham. It is quick and easy, and you will end up with a juicy, sweet, and just salty enough ham. I have never been a ham lover because of the saltiness of it. This recipe changes that and gives it a sweetness instead!

1 big ham, no added flavors, cannot be spiral cut, with bone (I always get the biggest I can find)
16-24 ounces of pure maple syrup, cannot be the fake stuff
1 large baking bag...I usually use the turkey-sized bag

Preheat your oven to 250-300 degrees. Open up your ham, and rinse it off. With a sharp knife, start sticking it into the ham, not making slices, just slits all over the ham. Get out your baking bag and place ham inside. Be sure to have a sturdy pan to place it in. Pour the maple syrup all over the ham. Close up the baking bag with the ties that are provided for you, getting out most of the air. Once it is closed up, make a few slits in the baking bag, on the TOP, to let air escape during baking...you don't want your bag to explode!

Cook your ham about 12 minutes per pound, until the internal temp is 155-160 degrees.

When your ham is done, be sure to save the drippings from the inside of the bag! I will use a baster to suck it all out before I take the ham out. It is great when used as a dipping sauce. Also be sure to let your ham rest for 15-20 minutes before slicing.

ENJOY!

I wonder as I wander...an old Applachian carol

Sources differ as to the early history of the carol, although its collection is attributed to folk singer, John Jacob Niles. He claimed to have composed the piece in 1933, influenced by three lines of a folk song sung to him by a girl while working as a surveyor in Appalachia.

John Jacob Niles (b. Louisville, Kentucky, April 28, 1892; d. Lexington, Kentucky, March 1, 1980) was an American composer, singer, and collector of traditional ballads. Called the "Dean of American Balladeers"[1], Niles was an important influence on the American folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s, with Joan Baez, Burl Ives, and Peter, Paul and Mary, among others, recording his songs.

I wonder as I wander out under the sky,
How Jesus the Savior did come for to die,
For poor orn'ry people like you and like I,
I wonder as I wander, ... out under the sky;


When Mary birthed Jesus 'twas in a cow's stall,
With wise men and farmers and shepherds and all,
And high from God's heaven a star's light did fall,
And the promise of the ages, ... they then did recall;


If Jesus had wanted for any wee thing,
A star in the sky or a bird on the wing,
Or all of God's angels in heaven to sing,
He surely could've had it... 'cause he was the King

A first haircut

I live in the south where I see many mullets. If that is how you want to wear your hair, that is your thing, but if you are one of my children, I can only let it go so far. That is why Jamison was in desperate need of some scissors.

I did it on a whim. It was not planned. I just looked at him and decided that the time was right.

He didn't enjoy it. He fussed while he ate his graham cracker. The results are just what I expected. I've got a mullet-free little man!

I should have taken a picture of the back of his head. You could have really been able to see the length. It's too late though!

Before

After

One of God's amazing creatures

Fun with accents

Big Mac anyone?

How does he do that?

:)

Paul Washer: Man's Two Problems