The Broughton Home

Have you ever had a friend, or a family member who had a spouse that you liked at first, but started to resent? For any real number of reasons, but tried not to say anything about it so as not to seem rude, prying, pushy, or divisive? This has happened to myself more than I'd like to admit. With friends AND family. Things start out fine, but then things don't go quite right.. and then your loved one is in some sort of abusive or neglectful relationship/marriage. My heart breaks. I hate feeling like I shouldn't butt in, but if I don't things won't get better.. even if they don't get worse. I don't want to be "that friend" to the spouse, I fear that would actually make the spouse try to alienate me... which would be harmful to my relationships. Really, my main goal, is to encourage my friend/family member to be happy. I want them to be as happy as I am. We're poor, and probably going to be more so next year, but we love eachother and have...

The Broughton home has a mystery gifter. That's right, and anonymous friend who leaves gifts on our door step and leaves. We don't know who, and we're not quite sure why... other than they love us. :) The first strike was bewildering. Saturday night/Sunday morning at around 12:30am I was almost asleep after a late night of a company dinner, a movie with the hubby and no kids in the house. All of a sudden I found myself jumping out of my bed in a semi panic cause the doorbell had rung several rings. Thinking it might be my dad with an unhappy child I ran to the door, only to find no person, and a gift bag. I picked it up and returned inside... still holding the bag. I opened it to find a lovely candle hurricane lamp and a pillar candle to match. The second strike was right after dinner the next night. I just walked to the door after one ring and there lay a wrapped gift with a tag. To the Broughan Girls, From Santa. Two books had arrived for my girls, and we read ...

My sister and I have had a couple disagreements on whether Christmas or Easter is a more important Holiday in the Christian faith. Well, I claim Christmas, and she's for Easter. I've been thinking about it a lot lately, being the Christmas Season and all. I've come to a couple conclusions in my own mind, and I hope they come out in some kind of intelligible order. There's a song, Welcome to Our World by Chris Rice. If you haven't heard it, you need to. When it comes to Christmas, I'm all for the "magic" of lights and carols and sparkly things... I am, after all, easily entertained. More than those though, I love the imagery of God becoming man. Jesus' sacrifice is definitely important, and the fact that He wanted to save us from eternal damnation is priceless and so profound.... but, the LOVE He showed, by not just saving us... but becoming us. That's the hugest thing for me. The fact that He cares so MUCH for us that He was willing to...