Carson Village, Birmingham, Alabama
Then they moved on from Bethel. While they were still some distance from Ephrath (the older name for Bethlehem, it’s also sometimes called Ephratha in scripture), Rachel began to give birth and had great difficulty. . . the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for you have another son.” As she breathed her last – for she was dying – she named her son Ben-Oni (son of my trouble). But his father named him Benjamin (son of my right hand). So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath. Over her tomb Jacob set up a pillar, and to this day that pillar marks Rachel’s tomb. ~ Genesis 35:16-20 It seems, according to Bible scholars, that Joseph (Jacob’s favorite son with the special coat who saved Egypt) was ten years old when Benjamin was born. I found it sad that on her deathbed, she was focused on herself, rather than the fact that God provided her another son. How would you feel if your mother ascribed that name to you? I think Jacob did the right thing by re-naming him. We all like to focus on ourselves, especially nowadays when social media propagates narcissism. However, that’s not God’s way. He calls us to live for His glory, not our own and also for the betterment of others.
There was not much to report from these two days.
I got to do some creative wrapping of Christmas gifts! Mom sent along her gift for David and admonished me to see that they were wrapped for him, so I did. With what little I had on hand – a roll of brown paper, felt, colored pencils, multihued yarn, pine needles from the yard, and hot glue. I was happy, and had a wonderful time, and most importantly, I sent pictures to Mom and she was happy. 😊
We spent the days visiting with David at his home. Friday, we played cornhole until our arms were tired (I actually won once!), and then grilled marinated pork chops in his Green Egg, and we were all still so full from yesterday, we only ate the thick pieces of pork and a Napa cabbage salad. Well, Blaine had a helping of leftover mashed potatoes too.
He’s got these lilies blooming along his fence. 
They smell like honeysuckle! Wonderful!
With both Ohio State and Alabama playing games on Saturday, it was all day football for the guys, while I sat at the kitchen table on my laptop listening to them yell at the TV. 😊 As you probably know, OSU was beaten by Michigan for the first time in ten years. To hear the guys talk, apparently OSU beat themselves. Final score was 27-42. Alabama fared better, although they struggled. But at least they were able to pull it together to squeak out a win after four overtimes. Final 24-22.
We spent the entire day grazing on Thanksgiving and buffalo chicken lasagna leftovers. Tomorrow, we really should give our tummies a rest.