Of Carols, Bells, and Snow!

This week......ummm, I only had to work the first 3 days which was WAY cool! My boss went to NY on a business trip. So my week was DELICIOUSLY short. I thought I would have to work late hours because of it being short and because they were getting ready to go on a trip. However, they had the entire week off, both of them so I had easy hours, like 9-5 all three days. This is my very first time in my life that I get paid vacation! It just doesn't sink in, that I'm getting paid for having fun! Not that my job isn't fun, cause it is! But I mean just plain old fun like visiting with friends!

Monday night I went over to my mentor's house and visited with her. I love my mentor! She's been such a tremendous blessing in my life! I love her to pieces! This is totally weird, and I have only talked about it once with someone......(and that is because they told me they have this weird feeling)...but have you ever wanted to just disappear inside someone because you liked them that much? Okay, don't get any dirty ideas because I don't mean it in any dirty way. I hope no one reading this is the kind of jerk that would get a dirty idea! But sometimes I love people so much that I just want to disappear inside of them and be held there, right by their heart! Okay, laugh at me if you will, I know I'm strange. I'm the girl that smells every book that I lay hands on! I love the smell of old books and the smell of new books! Shall I stop now, so you don't find more out about how weird I am? LOL!

Tuesday night was shelter, like always. Wednesday night I was going to go to my mentor's house again and taking 2 friends along but that fell through so I went to my family for family night. That was enjoyable. Thursday all day I was with a friend I had not seen for a few years, I had went to school with her. We had lots to catch up on. Thursday night I went singing with Steve & Rhonda Hurst, we caroled at the Cocalico home. Friday all day I was at a widow's house with my mom and grandma. We talked alot and played Rummicube. The day flew so fast! I'm telling you, it is so COOL to get paid to do fun things like that.

Now this is what I have to write about Friday night...

Bells
~Edgar Allan Poe

Hear the sledges with the bells
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens, seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.

II

Hear the mellow wedding bells,
Golden bells!
What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!
Through the balmy air of night
How they ring out their delight!
From the molten-golden notes,
And all in tune,
What a liquid ditty floats
To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats
On the moon!
Oh, from out the sounding cells,
What a gush of euphony voluminously wells!
How it swells!
How it dwells
On the Future! how it tells
Of the rapture that impels
To the swinging and the ringing
Of the bells, bells, bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells,bells,
Bells, bells, bells
To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!
III

Hear the loud alarum bells
Brazen bells!
What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
In the startled ear of night
How they scream out their affright!
Too much horrified to speak,
They can only shriek, shriek,
Out of tune,
In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,
In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,
Leaping higher, higher, higher,
With a desperate desire,
And a resolute endeavor,
Now - now to sit or never,
By the side of the pale-faced moon.
Oh, the bells, bells, bells!
What a tale their terror tells
Of Despair!
How they clang, and clash, and roar!
What a horror they outpour
On the bosom of the palpitating air!
Yet the ear it fully knows,
By the twanging,
And the clanging,
How the danger ebbs and flows:
Yet the ear distinctly tells,
In the jangling,
And the wrangling,
How the danger sinks and swells,
By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells
Of the bells
Of the bells, bells, bells,bells,
Bells, bells, bells
In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!

IV

Hear the tolling of the bells
Iron Bells!
What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!
In the silence of the night,
How we shiver with affright
At the melancholy menace of their tone!
For every sound that floats
From the rust within their throats
Is a groan.
And the people - ah, the people
They that dwell up in the steeple,
All Alone
And who, tolling, tolling, tolling,
In that muffled monotone,
Feel a glory in so rolling
On the human heart a stone
They are neither man nor woman
They are neither brute nor human
They are Ghouls:
And their king it is who tolls;
And he rolls, rolls, rolls,
Rolls
A paean from the bells!
And his merry bosom swells
With the paean of the bells!
And he dances, and he yells;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the paean of the bells
Of the bells:
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the throbbing of the bells
Of the bells, bells, bells
To the sobbing of the bells;
Keeping time, time, time,
As he knells, knells, knells,
In a happy Runic rhyme,
To the rolling of the bells
Of the bells, bells, bells:
To the tolling of the bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells
Bells, bells, bells
To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.

I have loved this poem for years! But what prompted me to look it up and share it with you all? This is what inspired me......last night we went on a hayride pulled by horses to Christmas carol. It was hanging around 29 degrees, so very cold. But so neat! There were two wagons, one that had no sides at all, just a lip to keep the hay bales on. The other one had seats and was a bit smaller, but also no sides. The one I went on was the one with haybales. The horses were work horses, with their stocky thick legs! They had bells on the horses. I was very mesmerized with the horses, watching their rumps bounce up and down to a rythmn of their own as they pulled us along. They were not always in sync though! It seemed as though they tended to drive in the middle of the road and they were lazy cause they are used to walking to do their work, not jog! Or whatever the proper word is for a horse who is walking faster than walking....maybe cantor??? It was so cool though to be on an old fashioned horse drawn caroling party! I had lots of clothing on and I was fine for most of the trip but I sure got cold for the last 45 minutes. We started at 7pm and got back at 10:45. We sang at 3 different places. Then we had lovely hot chocolate and cookies and cheese and meat for a snack afterward.

Today, Saturday I was going to go to a Christmas banquet, but that got canceled due to the weather. Oh, lovely snow. I cannot say how thankful I am that it came over the weekend. Glorious beautiful snow! Always a reminder that my sins are washed away, my heart is whiter than snow, thank you JESUS!!!!! I am loving this day, I keep looking out the window, it's hard for me to get anything done fast because I keep glancing out the window to see the awesome slideshow God put on just for me! It's captivating, to stare at the falling snow.

Sharon came home so it's nice to have someone to talk to and be snowed in with. I was going to have Junise overnight (a girl from the shelter) and take her to church in the morning but I'm not going anywhere now! And I wonder if there even will be church in the morning? I guess I'll have to wait and see! Sunday afternoon I was going to take Junise to carol on the streets of Lancaster with the Heart to Heart but that might be canceled too, I just don't know! Sunday night I have a family dinner with Mom's side of the family. Then after that I plan to carol with Steve's again, this time at Rhonda's parents! So I have a full weekend, and it was going to be fast paced and busy, but now it is so very deliciously lazy, thanks to the snow! My Jesus knows just what I need! Sometimes (too often) I have a hard time slowing down and when it snows like this I am forced to slow down and take it easy!

Anyway, I am totally "written out". Goodbye til next time!

Life is Good!

Well, it's been kinda long since I've taken time to write. I have some people reminding me that I need to get busy typing again! It's not that I don't enjoy keeping up a blog! I do enjoy it! It's just that it is hard to find time these days. Maybe I need to straighten up my priorities, eh?!:) I just wonder how many people even read it! I had given it only to certain people. Later on I found out maybe half of the people don't even read it. Oh, they did a few times but they don't follow up on it. You know what, that doesn't exactly encourage me to keep writing! If I'm going to bother to take the time then I would hope somebody reads it. I still want it to be private and only for certain people, those whom I select but.......well.....anyway, I know at least 2 people are reading it and I guess it's worth it if those 2 are at least! You know who you are, so I won't mention names!:)

My fingers hurt. I have two cracks in my hand. One on each hand. It hurts to type as well as every time I bump those spots, which is like constantly! So why am I typing when it hurts? Well, I finally have a bit of time to do this so I just have to grin and bear it! What does a person do for dry hands. It's worse at my new job because I am forever changing diapers and of COURSE I wash my hands after each change! I'm forever wiping things up so that doesn't help matters any. I clean every day and that is rude for my hands too:( I will have to find out what I can do for my hands besides putting lotion on often!

Well, this coming Saturday, Lord willing, I am having some friends over for a cookie bake/exchange. That should be fun! And I'm having a Bible study here and then in the evening I am going to my family Christmas dinner. That will be a fun day! Sunday is full too, I am going to church, then practice for a Christmas program that I'm helping with in the church, then go Christmas caroling on the streets of Lancaster, then help put on the program in my church Sunday night. Wow, I hadn't realized it's gonna be that full! Looks like one of those weekends that will have no rest for the weary. But I should be okay I think! I don't know when I'll wash but I'll worry about that then I guess!

Next week should be easier on me I believe! I have off for Thursday and Friday. But I'm already packing those days full! Thursday I have some errands to do as well as visit with a married friend I have not seen in ages! Friday I plan to spend with a widow friend who is like family to me. So my special days off are taken up already! But it's with good things, things that don't just benefit me!

Life is not all good. I wrote that title because I want to focus only on the good! I have had some struggles recently and they were nasty ones that were hard to shake off! But as far as I know, for the moment anyway, Me and God got it all taken care of. But even as I speak, I'm sure that spiteful old enemy is seeing what he can come up with next, nasty old devil. I sure can't wait to enter that realm where he will not be able to mess with me! Maranatha! I used to ask God to wait to rapture His church til I get married, I want so badly to experience married life and I know there won't be marriage in heaven! However, I fully believe that our marriage to God and all the other pleasures there will far exceed any joys that an earthly marriage can bring forth! So with that being said, I am ready to be beamed up to my Abba this very moment! Even so come, Lord Jesus!

Work is going well. I really like my job. I do wish someone would give me advice on how to get the children to respect me more. I know they like me but they don't respect me. This meaning that they don't listen to me very well. I don't know if I need to be more firm. I don't want to be this meanie old ogre that is forever putting them on time out but at the same time if I let everything slide now, will I ever be able to establish order and immediate obedience? This is not a boot camp, but it surely would be nice to hear a "Yes Dawn" when I ask them to do something instead of a "NO, NO, NO"!!! Little Evan used to say "okay" so sweetly alot of the time but more and more I hear him copy his brother and say NO when I ask him to do something. Even simple things like when I ask him to come here he simply ignores me and doesn't come or he says no. I am forever running after him because he simply don't listen. And at home I was taught that when you are told to stop something, you do it immediately, we got punished if we did it one or two more times, like say you were making an obnoxious noise or hitting someone or spraying water or whatever it was we had to stop PROMPTLY. Well, these boys don't know the definition of obedience or PROMPT!! ARGH! I do hope I can come up with something to help them listen! I can't lay a hand on them so I need to be creative in other ways........

Well, I must close now and I promise I will try my best to write again sooner!!!