Birds and Squirrels

So.. this is what is making me laugh and smile most recently. For Christmas, I got a bird feeder from my mother-in-law. It twirls around when any animal that is more than one pound tries to land on it. And.. dum duddee dum...It works! Mr. Chuckles (Randy named the big fatty squirrel that comes to feast every day) has had many attempts at conquering the feeder with no luck! I love it when he looks at me with his chubby face eating and furrowing his brow. Hah!



The birds are fun to watch too.. am I getting old or what?! My favorite are the cardinals in brillant red. They are beautiful. This bird feeder is so cool! When too many birds get on the feeder, it exceeds the weight limit and twirls around. The birds all fly away and within thirty seconds, fly back and fight for the food.



Watch the video to see what I mean...
(sorry it is the wrong way!)

Christmas Lights

I love Christmas lights! They are romantic, festive, fun and generally put me in a good mood. Last year Randy (my husband) and I strung these lights in our backyard for Christmas. We liked them so much we left them up all year!

One of our neighbors commented this summer that "it looks like Christmas at the Setsmas." Oh well. We love it! I think we'll keep them up for 2008 as well.

And another bonus: We can see how much our pine trees are growing from year to year. I think the one on the left grew three feet!

Celebrate!

I recently read a book titled Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequist. It was a gift from my husband for Christmas. I loved it! Actually, I loved it so much that I went to her website and read more about her! She lives in my neighborhood... and get this.. around the corner from us! Wow what a small world. My neurotic mind wants to walk over there and tell her just how great I think she is and tell her we should be new best friends... well, maybe I'll leave out the friends part. While reading this book I started to think about ways that I could to celebrate the little things in life that God gives us (me.) I think that is what this blog is going to be about.. how I have or can celebrate the little moments that God gives me each day. To celebrate the good.



I choose the word "Jubilee" for this blog because I hope that through sharing my moments I can bring a sense of sighing happiness or laughter to others. In the Old Testament of the Bible it talks about the "Year of Jubilee." During this year, all debt was forgiven to those who owed. Land that was leased was returned to the owners. There were no crops planted. It was a year of Sundays. Doesn't that sound rad? It only happened once every 49 (or 50, depends on the source) years. It was, in short, a year of--at least if you ask me--joy.



And that is what I want my life to be about--joy. In my dining room I have one of those old-looking signs that says "Live Life Joyfully." And I am still trying to figure out how to do that more... maybe focusing on the small things in life will help me to experience joy--and to CELEBRATE life--a little more often.