The Life of Mrs. Miles

NEW YEARS SOUP ELEMENT

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I thougth you all might like a little giggle this morning so I'm copying this blog comment here from blog reader Anne. Thank you so much for sending this - it has made me and Mr. Miles have a good old belly-laugh!

I wanted to tell you thank you for multiple freebies, but most of all for the funny picture of the no pirating. I was perusing one of the files I had recieved from you, and my kids just giggled and I explained how I was getting all the "freebies", but that they weren't mine to give, just recieve. That I had promised these people well more specifically, Mr. and Mrs. Miles not to and they would be upset if I did.A few days later, I had a really great friend over and was explaining digiscrapping to her and showing her what I had learned. She asked can I make a CD of some of the things you have and fiddle with them? I said, nope, sorry, I promised I wouldn't do it. All of sudden my girls (twins age 7) exploded and said my mom can't be a pirate or miles and miles of people will be upset. I burst into laughter, and explained to my girlfriend the story. I wanted to share that with you and let you know that no pirating is going on in this house!Merry Christmas from our home to yours!

What a sweet story - and thanks for not pirating! What an impact we have on children's minds, hey?

OUR BEAUTIFUL COMMUNITY

And now, dear friends, its time for Miles and I to take some quiet family time to ourselves. Before we 'drop out of site' (pun) for a few days, Miles has today's blog entry written up. We hope you and your family have a Blessed Holiday and we will return later next week and catch up on all of your holiday adventures. Your stories, layouts, ideas, interesting photos are welcomed and published if there is room on this blog. You know what 'they' say - my blog es su blog - ha ha!

CHRISTMAS MESSAGE FROM MILES

What about that Virgin Birth Anyways?

If you are like me you probably have wondered about this aspect of the Christmas Story. Virgin birth...come on now that just doesn't happen...does it? My co-worker also had recently expressed his doubts about this recorded world event, even going so far as to taunt me, "you don't really believe that do you? After all, you are trained in science!". So how do I believe in this mystery of virgin birth?

As I was driving home today, an interesting article was on National Public Radio in the U.S.A. which caught my listening ear. Strangely enough, scientists are anticipating a virgin birth of sorts this Christmas. A komodo dragon is expecting 7 offspring to be born or hatched this Christmas day and has never even seen a male of its species. A komodo dragon is a very large reptile which can measure 9 feet in length and has a voracious appetite. It is one of 70 invertebrate species in the world that is capable of Virgin Birth.

Now some of your are thinking, "he's not going to make a comparison between invertebrate females or komodo dragons and human females is he?". Certainly not... not even in joking...I know my audience here in the scrap booking world.

On the other hand, if you think about it, if a lower species is capable of conception with out the help of a male, then why couldn't this occur in mammals? Furthermore, this is only the second time in scientific history that a virgin birth has been noted for Komodo dragons. This begs the question that if this event is so rare... who is to say that we just have not scientifically witnessed it in higher species...maybe it is even rarer. Perhaps the Christmas Virgin Birth was one of those incredibly rare events...

Of course we could argue about this from various scientific perspectives for ages...perhaps eons! Ultimately, if GOD wanted to intervene in humanity and cause a virgin conception...than why not?...especially since many species can do it naturally? Who are we to say that it absolutely can not happen...we can say that it has not been witnessed under laboratory conditions. But I believe that it has been witnessed and has been recorded for all in the Christian text.

What it comes down to of course is faith. I often tell my wife that if I ran into a wall many times, that one of those times it is possible that I could actually go through the wall. You are probably thinking I'm nuts... but this is what quantum theory predicts. Scientists have actually observed this behaviour on an atomic level (thus the scanning tunneling microscope) and have extended this theory to include larger objects. I believe that it takes a certain amount of faith to believe that larger objects such as me could actually go through a wall since it is only predicted by theory and has not been observed.

So the Virgin Birth, all arguments aside, requires faith. The bible says that faith is the substance of things hoped for and not yet seen. (I'll extend that to say - not yet seen by our own eyes). We all have faith in many things. Some people have faith in man-made things, others in science and others, in things that are not measurable by instruments available at this time. The mysteries of this world will never be known completely and as scientists repeatedly say, “that as each question is answered, there are 10 more new ones waiting”. Since this world will never be understood, we must operate with a certain level of faith.

I would like to encourage you this Christmas to give faith a chance. I have found that for me, with all of my scientific knowledge and rational thought, that the greatest gift has been to let go of this and to just trust in the word of GOD, knowing that I will never know everything in this lifetime. Some of you this Christmas will feel disillusioned, detached especially with all of the commercialism. I ask you to dig deeper and penetrate this facade to see that the real gifts of Christmas are so much more profound and heart-warming. Jesus did come to this earth (that is a fact) and the events surrounding his entry were miraculous (that must be accepted on faith by trusting those who observed it).

Please take time to open your heart to the reality of the living GOD who invites you by faith to have a relationship that is more intimate than any other can possibly be. This alone is that one thing that will truly satisfy in this world where ads have been carefully crafted to spawn dissatisfaction.

Please forgive me for my "preaching" if you want to call it that...I just must share the most important parts of my faith on this day that we honour Christ’s Birth, just as I can not keep silent about my wonderful wife. I have enjoyed helping her create the elements for the blog and I look forward to helping her in the new year as time permits.

I wish you a wonderful Christmas and the best for the new year. I feel that I have gotten to know some of you well as I listen to my wife talk about her interactions with you...I want to especially thank Gina, Sonya and Kristen for all of your encouragement for my wife!

- Miles

BARB'S HANDY TIP #161

Have a (snow) Ball With Your Friends!

I found these very sweet holiday e-greetings (involving throwing snowballs) Enjoy hitting your

friends safely! Sure, send me one at lalalime@hotmail.com!

SNOWBALL ECARDS