Little happenings

Today my alarm went off. Silently. And when my eyes finally popped open, I jumped out of bed. 10 minutes before I was supposed to leave my house.
Once I scrambled out of the door, I scraped the ice off of my car and opened the door. Only it didn't open.
As I shivered in the cold, I realized: I locked my keys in the car (again).

Today I walked across West Main Street to eat at Subway. Crossing a "busy" street in a small town may seem like a small feat to you, but to me it was quite the adventure.

Today a man in his eighties tried to convince me to get a Big Mac from McDonald's with him.

Today I learned a new word. In Spurgeon's Morning + Evening, he says, "Let your conversation be redolent of heaven."

red·o·lent  

/ˈredl-ənt/

Adjective Strongly reminiscent or suggestive of (something): "names redolent of history and tradition". Strongly smelling of something: "the church was old, dark, and redolent of incense".

Synonyms fragrant - odoriferous - odorous - aromatic - scented

Today the whole family gathered in the living room for lovely music, laughter, and conversation.

Today I learned once again that Romans 8:28 is absolutely and completely and wonderfully true.

of a cold November eve

As the chilling air grows fiercer and fiercer out-of-doors, inside, protected from the harsh November winds, the fire dances, glistening before her eyes. The light is mesmerizing, the warmth, delightful.

She is curled up in a chair, which has been edged, little by little, closer to the brick fireplace. In her lap lay the worn pages of a precious book, a book so precious it cannot possibly be read too many times.

Now, let us take a step back. There is a brood of children, grasping plastic swords, running in circles around her, shouting excitedly and rather haphazardly in gay (but awfully loud) voices.

Now zoom back in. The fire is still crackling. Idyllic.

Pan out again: reality.

Zoom: picture perfect.

Pan: life.

Life is not like the movies. It's not even always like the pretty pictures we post on Instagram. There's so much more to it than that. There is depth to life that cannot be portrayed in a picture. Life...is real. Yet even the most real thing we know, is not real. Life is but a picture of eternity, a shadow of true reality.

So, yes, life is so much more than a picture. But eternity -- true life with a living God -- is far more real and better than anything we could ever know here in this life.

I am so thankful for evenings like this one, rowdy siblings and all. But I am also thankful that this is not our home.

Heaven is our home.

Nota Bene: Happy 200th post, Flow Gently Sweet Afton!

Weekend according to Instagram

I spent Columbus Day weekend with (most of) the family at our friend's penthouse in Fort Walton Beach, FL. There was a hammock. On the deck of the penthouse. The weather was perfect and my weekend consisted of sleeping on the beach, sleeping in the hammock, sleeping in my bed, reading on the beach, reading in the hammock, reading in my bed. Oh, and a liiittle bit of watching movies, playing bananagrams, and snuggling with friends' puppy. It was wonderful. Did I mention there was a hammock on the deck of the penthouse?

Seven, the number of perfection

I sit in the back of the car surrounded by quiet, peaceful sleepers. The sun's golden light quickly fades behind the gray Tennessee mountains. And I can't help but think how very blessed I am. For one thing, we all needed that vacation. And what better way to spend it in the mountains surrounded by those you love and those who love you? For another thing, God has blessed us with not eight, but a big ol' family of NINE. We kids have grown from six to seven - seven, the number of perfection. 
Ermias is the newest addition to the Crampton Crew and has many endearing traits and talents, such as making crazy silly faces, breaking out the dance moves (especially when anything by Michael Jackson comes on the radio), singing, cuddling, and laughing. And, boy, can that kid laugh. With his laughter, he could make a hyena smile, Puddle Glum giggle, and Eeyore would surely bust a gut. Oh, how I love him.

I'm in Santa Fe, New Mexico with the whole family. We're staying in a hobbit house. It's wonderful, beautiful, and I had to wear a sweatshirt on the back porch. I'm loving it already.

Effervescent is an understatement.

12 days until Joseph graces us with his presence once again.


13 days until the last Friday of my Sophomore year.

25 days until dear Katie comes back to the States, to Tupelo, home.

My 9-year-old brother and his friend are playing chess in my front yard.

I love my family.

My little Fred is in a happier place now. We'll always love you, Fred.


*Yes, Fred is a fish. He died after 3 years with me. Just because he's a fish, doesn't mean I can't love him. Maybe I'm a little pathetic, but stop laughing.

Bye forever, Fred.

A quick glance at the Crampton Crew and all their quirks

In case you don't know the Clampetts Cramptons:

Dad: How old is he again?, "The Great Melvini" (don't ask); when he's not in the court room, he's constantly researching various conspiracy theories (particularly 9/11 and the J.F.K. assassination), playing Text Twist, speaking of writing a non-fictional book but about what remains a mystery, or playing volleyball. Brilliant, funny, has a thing for cheesy puns and has many, many stories from his childhood/early adulthood (just ask him about it. I'm sure he'd like that). He lives for Christ, is a wonderful example of the way a true Christian ought to live and speaks for those who cannot speak for themselves.

Mom: 29 (forever), "Concha"; juggles cooking, cleaning, and doing laundry for 6 kids, homeschooling, driving kids to cross country, soccer, and softball, teaching two classes at Excelsior, and working at home as a tax preparer. Master of the art of bargain-hunting. When she's not doing all that she enjoys reading, relaxing, napping, and gravely reminding us that "Lawyers should never marry other lawyers because it only makes for more lawyers and idiot children."


Joseph: 22, "Joey" or "Steve Jo" at Liberty; loves reading and making lots of reading lists of books he has yet to get around to read. Has a passion for music; formerly played the trumpet and enjoys messing around on his guitar and occasionally playing around on the piano. Currently a student at Liberty University. Don't be offended if you introduce yourself (once, twice, or even ten times) and he forgets your name 5 minutes later. Happens all the time. Trust me. Maybe he'll get it on the 17th time.

Katie: 21, "Bessie #1"; the artist; Manager at Etta B Pottery, enjoys painting, drawing, reading, photography, traveling, puzzles, and kids. Has a strange obsession with Napoleon Bonaparte. With Katie, everything must have a  name, a name of its own. Like her car for instance, which is called Violetta, or her pillow, Rosemary. For her, it's a hobby. Don't ever compete with her in a battle of 'Who's the most knowledgeable in obscure grammar rules?' She'll win.

Jamie: 18, "Jim Bob"; sort of effortlessly brilliant and super talented with a frisbee. Currently learning Greek. Has a fascination for Welsh revivalism. Has traveled to Ethiopia with a missionary friend and visited Wales with our pastor. When he's not working as an Elder Script "delivery boy," he'll most likely have his head in a book. His great love for Christ and concern for the spread of the Gospel are so clearly evident through his life and all that he does.


Kelley: 11, "Goosie"; our tries-very-hard-to-be-a-tom-boy-but-still-has-that-element-of-girlishness-in-her girl. Plays softball, soccer, and runs cross country. She loves to laugh. She and Jonathan are best friends; always playing together, making strange concoctions, getting into trouble, building tents with virtually every sheet, pillow, and blanket in the house, and running, or riding bikes, scooters, ripstiks, or whatever else they can find up and down, back and forth, over and again all throughout the neighborhood.


Jonathan: 8 (soon to be 9! Yikes!), "Jon Jon"; a crazy, soccer-playing, silly, wild, energetic, yet sweet, loving, cuddly goofball. Make sure you are nowhere near him when he's with Andrew, because there's sure to be some kind of explosion. Andrew and Jonathan are two peas in a pod, best friends, wrecking havoc side by side. He recently wrote a book entitled The Life of a Parrot. It's soon to be a New York Times best seller, I'm sure.

Christmas break

Wow. Thank goodness for Christmas break. Mine has consisted of:

-belting out Christmas carols as often as possible
-decorating the tree, hanging lights, and wreaths everywhere (can I keep the Christmas tree in my room up until...March? Is that okay?)
-making and decorating cookies
-watching White Christmas way more than once
-seeing Bourne Ultimatum for the first time with Katie and Savannah (that's intense stuff right there)
-wrapping presents
-laughing around a game of Balderdash with the family + Savannah
-waking up Christmas morning to a "spider web" (a.k.a, colored yarn wrapped all through the house)
-having our annual brunch with the Moellers and the Robbins
-playing Catchphrase with all the kids
-trying to make some progress on an impossible puzzle
-reading Mansfield Park (I'm still not finished. But I'm getting there!)
-dominating Kelley and Jonathan in a game of Monopoly
-catching up on the scrapbooking I've neglected

(This was the only remotely good picture of all the kids)

P.S. Can you believe we're only about a day away from 2010? 2010...wow, that looks so strange.

Thanksgiving...the most original title this world has ever laid eyes on

How many times have you been asked around Thanksgiving what you're thankful for? And how many times have you said, "My family" or "My house" or the oh-so-original, "My friends". Well, I don't know about you, but I've lost count. Yes, we ought to be thankful for all those things. God has given us so much. He has given us countless blessings. But He has provided so much more than mere physical needs. He has given us His Son, Jesus Christ! What more could we ask for? How often do we forget Our Savior? And we ought to remember always what a Gift has been bestowed upon us - poor, wretched, undeserving sinners as we are. We must not only remember and be thankful at Thanksgiving, but always.

Okay, here's where I get boring and tell you about my Thanksgiving week.

We drove 7 hours to Pioneer, Tennessee (which is pretty much the middle of nowhere) to Crampton Farm and visited my family. It was a lot of fun; we played countless card games, hiked (once even in the snow! But Katie would tell you I'm exaggerating and it was just a few flakes. Even so, there was snow), played a few very long games of Risk (one in which I actually dominated, thank you very much), some frisbee (a new Crampton tradition), ate a ridiculous amount of Aunt Carla's should-be-world-famous-cookies, stayed up late, lost a lot of sleep, and went home with very sore arms...and legs...and whatever else can be sore.

Then, we had a wonderfully non-eventful car ride home.

Not really. We're the Cramptons, remember?

Our trip home was more like a Griswold trip. 15 minutes down the road, we broke down. Luckily, we had two cars and at least one than was running properly. So, we decided to try to make it to the city (if you can call it that) and find a car repair shop. I knew it would be a long trip. Little did I know. We found an Advance Auto Parts shop and we got an employee to look at the car. He said it was just a battery problem and replaced it. After a that little detour, we drove on. After a while, we decided to split up. The car I was in planned to take a quick stop at York's home and burial ground (since we're homeschoolers and all) while Mom's car went home. I didn't really care to go explore the world that was Alvin C. York, but was too drained to switch cars. So off I went to the home of General Alvin York. (By the way, any detour remotely educational will not be "quick" with this family.) We finally leave and after an hours or so of driving we get a call from my mom. She's at the mall and we decide we'll have dinner at the food court. Notice anything? Yeah, I got to go explore the house of one called Alvin (hmm, future son-o'-mine's name? I think so!) and the girls got to go to the mall. Lucky me. But at least I'm not bitter or anything. After dinner, we set out for home. After only a little while on the road, guess what? We got home really quickly? Guess again. We stopped for ice cream? No. The newly replaced car battery was dead. So we searched for another Advance Auto Parts shop (a place we got to know well), finally found one and stopped. We got there just 10 minutes before they closed, hired an employee after closing time so he'd be free to work with us. It wasn't a battery problem after all, it was...some other car term that I can't remember right now. Anyway, the important part is he fixed it.

God was at work even then. It wasn't chance that we happened to break down as soon as we got back into the city. It wasn't chance that we were near an Advance Auto Parts shop when the battery died. It wasn't chance that we drove up to the shop exactly 10 minutes before no one would have been able to help us. It wasn't chance that after the store closed, the man could help us and that he would find the problem and fix it.

So, yes, I'm thankful for a whole lot. Especially handy-dandy-Advance-Auto-Parts-employees.