Tag! You're It!

My friend Carrie from Live, Learn and Love Together "got me" the other day in a bloggy game of tag.  She gave me 8 questions to answer, and after I answer them, I make up some of my own and then tag 8 other bloggers. 

Sounds like fun, huh?

So here are the 8 questions Carrie asked me, along with my answers:

1. What is your favorite Bible verse? How did it become your favorite? (If you don’t have a single favorite, please share one of your faves.)
One of my all-time favorite passages is Psalm 103:8-10:  "The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.  He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor His anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities." 

I memorized this passage in BSF several years ago.  I loved focusing on these attributes of God and meditating on his unconditional love, so Greg and I kind of adopted it as our marriage verse.  (Jennifer is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.  She will not always accuse, nor will she harbor her anger forever; she does not treat Greg as his sins deserve or repay him according to his iniquities.")  Not that either Greg or I are capable of loving with the perfect love that God alone lavishes on us, but it has still served us well as a reminder of what that love looks like when it is perfect, as a goal to work toward.

2. What is currently on your nightstand? Are you reading a good book? Are you into Sudoku or crosswords? Do tell!
Hmmm . . . can I cheat a little and tell you about a book that's usually on my nightstand but is not there right now because a friend is borrowing it?  It's Heart of Wisdom by Robin Sampson, which is hands-down the best homeschool resource I've found!  What you will find on my nightstand right now is a well-used copy of Wise Words for Moms by Ginger Plowman and a stack of Homeschool Enrichment magazines.  And would you believe I've never done a Sudoku puzzle in my life???  And honestly—dare I even say it—it doesn't even look fun to me.  Too much brainpower going into a chunk of time that could be better filled with a nap! 

3. If you have a Saturday where there is nothing on the calendar (Yeah, I know you’re laughing right now!!), how would you most like to spend the day? Are you a homebody? Are you a compulsive cleaner? Would you go shopping? Meet a friend for lunch?
Oooh, that's a tough one!  I would want to spend the day being productive at home!  I'd like to think I would clean the kids' bathroom closet, reformat my hard drive and reinstall all the software I need, catch up on the year that's missing from my blog.  (Like all of that could be done in a day!)  Realistically, though, I'm pretty sure if I had a day, I could find the end of the Internet.  :)

4. I’ve recently finished Dr. Kevin Leman’s book The Firstborn Advantage. Do you think there is anything to “Birth Order?” Do you see any birth order characteristics in you, your hubs, and/or your kids?
I think there's some truth to it, but I also think a lot of it is God-given personality.  I definitely see lots of the firstborn traits in Hannah (my firstborn), but I also see lots of middle child traits in my peacemaker hubby, yet he's the baby.

5. Do you plan to grow old gracefully or fight it every step of the way (within reason – i.e. age-fighting moisturizers, covering gray hair, etc.)?
Again, a tough one.  If you had asked me this when I was 16, I would have said I want to grow old gracefully.  But now that a small colony of gray hairs has decided to camp out on my head, I'm rethinking that!  When I'm having a day where my focus is on who I am in the flesh, I want to fight it.  But when I'm having a day where my focus is on who I am in Christ, I'm actually honored to be "maturing" (how's what word?!) because it means more years I've spent walking with the Lord.

6. Do you like Starbucks? And are you a fan of their seasonal coffees?
Puh-leez!  Starbucks is for cool people, and that is so not me!  In my world, it's all about a cup of Great Value coffee in the morning.  And if I really feel like treating myself, I'll get a caramel flavored Frappe from McDonald's.  (Oh my goodness gracious, they're good!)

7. How do you decorate and/or prepare for fall?
I've always wanted to decorate my house for fall, but this is the first year I've actually done it!  I love the colors, the smells . . . it's actually going to be hard for me to take this stuff down and put the Christmas decorations up!  I'm not a decorator by any stretch of the imagination (see #6 above—I'm as uncool as they come!), but here are some pictures of what we did:


Fall leaves, cornucopia, and pumpkins on the mantle, along with fall pictures of the girls.



Fall wreath with a ginormous candle on the coffee table.  (It's ridiculous how good this candle smells!)

 

Fall centerpiece from Kirkland's on the kitchen table.



The girls helped me with this one.  I loved the plate, and Hannah and Camille wanted the Pilgrims and Indians since they just studied Plymouth in U.S. history. 

I even added a splash of color in our waaaaay neutral kitchen!

And this is the front door.  The pumpkin on the left reads Give Thanks, and the one of the right reads Welcome.

I would love to do a display in the front yard with bales of hay, mums, a scarecrow, and a bushel basket overflowing with pumpkins, but that will have to wait for another year.

8. What is your favorite fall recipe?
What?!  There's such a thing as a fall recipe?!

Now here are the 8 questions I came up with . . .

1.  What's one thing about your hubby that still makes you weak in the knees?  Is it the same thing that gave you that feeling when you were dating, or has it changed with time?

2.  How have you seen God working in your life lately?

3.  Does your family have any favorite family traditions?

4.  What has one of your kids done lately that has caused you to laugh out loud?

5.  If you could be alone in the car with a CD of your choice, what would it be?

6.  Do you have a hidden talent, even if it's not something practical?  (For example, I can pick up almost anything with my toes!)

7.  If the you of today could go back in time and tell the you of high school one thing, what would it be?

8.  If money wasn't an issue and your schedule was free, what would you spend your days doing?

I'll go ahead and tag 8 people just for the fun of it, but if you read this and want to play along, consider yourself tagged!  Just comment so I know to go to your blog and read your answers.  No blog?  No problem!  Just answer in the Comments area below!  I can't wait to read what you have to say!  :)

My "official" tags are . . .

Monica at Discover Their Gifts

Gator Mommy at Baby Gator University

Hetal at Out of My Hands

Erika at Once Upon a Time . . .

Laura at Mine Ebenezer

Ashley at My Magillah

Shannon at Little Things from Texas

Lainie at Mishmash Maggie