A few things I will miss

Saying goodbye to our friends at church feels like a long process and it’s not very much fun. We know we have a few more weeks with them but every time we see them it just feels different. Mitchell and his friends haven’t totally realized the finality of the move yet but they still are saying their goodbyes each Sunday. Below are two of Mitchell’s good friends. Grayson is a beautiful girl and she plays great with the boys and that’s one reason Mitchell thinks she is the coolest girl out there. He really likes her a lot and will miss her greatly. They play “spies” every Sunday morning together. I’m sure they are pretending to be the spies that went in with Joshua and Caleb. Okay, that was a joke that wasn’t funny at all.

The other friend, Ian, is a great friend too and he recently informed his parents he would be moving to our new state as well.  I wish he would because I love that little fellow!

I had to throw this picture in because it cracks me up. This is me frantically tracing Randy right before the Sunday morning service. I was teaching on Goliath and I needed to trace an adult. It would have felt strange to trace anyone other than my man so that’s what we did. And what cracks me up even more is this…..we played Pin the Rock on Goliath’s forehead, or fore-noggin as Mitchell would call it. I thought it was a fabulous idea. I wish I could take credit for it but I can’t because it was in the curriculum. These are just a few things I will miss at C3. The people, the community, the outreach and the unique feel that the Spirit of God has created and formed over the last 12 years. Yes, I will miss it greatly!

Zhu Zhu Pets Overrated

 

Have you seen these popular little creatures in the stores or heard about them in the news? They are the latest craze for kids. They are little toy hamsters that scoot around and make noises. The only problem is that you can’t find one anywhere right now. Stores are getting limited supplies and are having to keep them behind the counter in order to limit the sales to customers….only 2 per person. The hamster costs $8 and the accessories (wheel, car, bed, etc) are $15 a piece. I just went on Ebay the very same $8 Zhu Zhu pet is starting at $30. You can buy an entire set of all the accessories and two hamsters for $250+.  Is that insane or what?

Here’s the funny thing. Sophie’s birthday was a few weeks ago and Mitchell took $8 of his money to buy her something at Walmart and he picked up a Zhu Zhu hamster and said, “Oh Mom, I saw this thing on TV, this is what I want to get Sophie!” I made him put it back at first because I thought it looked “el cheapo” but I ended up letting him get it for her because it was his money and he really wanted to buy it for her.

So we actually have a Zhu Zhu pet but I promise it’s not at all what it’s cracked up to be. It’s like a wind up toy that scoots around but it’s battery operated instead. Sophie played with it some but it is currently buried in a pile of toys. Maybe it wasn’t a hit for my kids because we didn’t have any of the accessories or maybe it’s because we have a REAL hamster at home. I don’t know.

My friend in Atlanta always updates me on what’s the hottest toy item each year and she asked me if I had heard about the Zhu Zhu pets and I told her we had one she about died because she’s been all over looking for them. She just might be one of the ones that waits in line at 4am in order to get one!

It’s amazing at what the power of marketing will do to a parent. Just hearing the craze and knowing I can’t get ONE makes me want to get TWO even if I have to pay THREE times as much!

Tension Reliever

I wrote a post on Friday afternoon giving an update on where we are in regards to leaving our church and selling our house. But after reading it I realized it turned too quickly to “venting and whining” which is one of my “Come on, Mel, don’t do that!” blogging rules.  Well, I thought I deleted it until I received a comment from a sweet follower and friend who promised to pray for us (which I so appreciated).  So I tried one more time to delete the post and it worked. I will give an update soon but I needed to back away from the stress of the current situation and go lighten up some, so that’s what I did.

We have a house to pack and get ready to sell and what do I do, but go to a Crop! We do live in a small town but when I say “Crop”, I am not talking about a big ole’ corn shuckin’ party. I’m talking about scrapbooking for hours on end. One of my best friends invited me to a weekend long “Crop til ya Drop” close to where we live and so I went. I got a year’s worth of albums finished for both the kids and our family album. It was an incredible feeling of accomplishment and just a lot of fun being with other ladies doing the same thing.

At one point about 9 ladies broke away from the rest of the group and did a Yoga class for anyone who was interested. A certified instructor led it and I wish I had joined in instead of guaking and laughing at grown women standing on their heads. At one point they were all in a circle sitting down with their eyes closed and listening to their breath. I so badly wanted to run around the circle and slap everyone on the head in a good old fashion round of duck duck goose but I held myself back since I was a guest. And I was pretty proud of myself for practicing restraint in at least one area of my life.

So after working several hours Friday night and all day Saturday my good friend and I went to a cute shop in town, ate dinner at a cool new Pizza joint and then came home and made these cute pilgrim hats for our Thanksgiving lunch at church today.

I know it seems trite but I really do think the Lord dropped this incredibly fun weekend in my lap with one of my best friends, that I will be leaving behind in a few weeks, at just the right time to send encouragement and release my way. What an awesome weekend and what an awesome God who cares about the little things. I firmly believe he orchestrates the huge things, like uprooting and moving, and the little things like having a perfectly timed relaxing weekend.

Oh, here are the pilgrim hats: easy to make and cute cute!

Keebler chocolate striped cookie turned upside down; chocolate dipped marshmallow on top; chill or waiting about 15 minutes and then put your yellow squares on with icing.

Potty Mouth Pinocchio

My Mother- in- Law is so sweet and she stayed at our house and kept Mitchell and Sophie while we house hunted for two days. She took Mitchell to school, Sophie to ballet, helped with homework, etc. What a relief to know our kids were well taken care of while we were gone. We were so excited to come home and see everyone. After “Grandma” left and we were catching up with Mitchell he said, “I had a yellow day at school” (meaning he got in trouble). I asked him why and he said, “Mom, I said Jack-azz and that’s a cuss word, but I didn’t know it was a cuss word.” I said, “ Well, how did you use the word?” You know, just in case he was talking about a stubborn donkey pulling a plow. I had to give him the benefit of the doubt for a half second. Okay, so maybe it was more like denial. He said, “I drew a picture of a turkey and then held it up and said ‘does that look like a jack azz?’” After he was ratted out by another student (and I’m glad he was) he asked his teacher what a jack azz was.  As he was telling me all this I was thinking to myself: Do I really correct him on how to say it right? Do I just let him think that’s how you say it or what?

Something about correcting my son on how to say jack ass right felt very wrong. But rest assure I did explain that it was inappropriate to say and why.  I was sure this encounter with Mitchell’s first cuss word was the product of “public school” but when I asked him where he had heard that word before he said, “It’s on Pinocchio.” We just bought the movie for Sophie recently thinking it was a good old classic. I remember watching the movie and cringing at that part but was hoping neither of them would pick up on it but obviously I was wrong! And of course this would happen on the one day, out of the entire first semester, that his Grandmother picks him up from school. I guess it could be worse, though. It could have waited to come out on his first day of Christian School in a few weeks!

Practical Ideas for Reaching Out

This time of year most people are looking for ways to reach out into their community. Buying a turkey dinner for someone is the popular thing to do, it’s easy and it brightens someone’s day for sure. But I’d like to throw out some other ideas as well. Things that can be done throughout the year with children in tow or not.

• See if your church has outreach projects you can get involved in. Many times these opportunities will grow into something amazingly divine if you simply get involved in that initial service project. If your church doesn’t have someone coordinating this you might consider organizing a simple service project.
• Meals on Wheels is a great chance to meet some elderly shut ins who would love to have company….almost more than the meal! Check with your Chamber of Commerce to find out where Meals on Wheels is outsourced. Our community’s Meals on Wheels works out of the Senior Center.
• Nursing Homes – are always in need of some sunshine and encouragement. If you have children this is a great opportunity for ministry. Elderly people love children. Don’t worry about what to do or what to say: just show up and they’ll do the talking! The kids can make a cheesy card out of construction paper the night before and you’d think you had brought them a Rembrandt! It doesn’t take much to bring pleasure and joy to an elderly soul. And you just might be surprised at what this will do to our own hungry souls.
• Check with your local Department of Family and Children Services to see if you can help a family. Some agencies have a mentor program for the mothers. A lady in our church is now involved in mentoring because she just showed up to bring brownies at a recent outreach and they asked her to be a mentor to one of their single mother families.
• Schools – if your son or daughter is in school then be aware of the child/ren who might appear to be in need. You can usually figure this out by eating lunch with your child and observing the other kids and helping out in the classroom. Try to make contact with the parent to set up a play date at the park or your house. And then pray for God to give you more opportunities to encourage and love this family.

While it might be helpful to consider some of these starting places in helping the needy, the most important way of making contacts with needy people is to simply pray and ask God. He is the one that set up the system of caring and loving one another and He will surely hear you as you seek to do his will.

Our first Sunday

I was a bit nervous visiting the church (Community Baptist Church) we were candidating at.  Randy and I had been several times but three weeks ago was our first time as a whole family. New surroundings, little sleep, the six hour drive and only having known one church nursery for her entire life were just a few things that concerned me regarding Sophie, our three year old. My concerns with Mitchell were more like: will he run laps around the pews at 45 mph or at 60 mph? Will he talk all through Sunday School about the frozen lizard we found that morning or would he wax eloquent about King David which is what any pastor’s wife would want. But I decided early on that I needed to let my expectations of having perfectly behaved children go. I needed to focus on just being a supportive wife to my husband and a good Mom to my children and with what I had left over…..get to know the people at CBC.

Within the first few minutes of arriving in the foyer of CBC Sophie and Mitchell had met five new people and were already laughing and cutting up. Sophie was “twirling”  in her dress for our new friend, Mrs. Mary and then Mrs. Mary asked her to twirl for about six more people. We decided to stop twirling when it appeared that the Pastor’s daughter was a bit tipsy.  Mitchell on the other hand, was showing off his hearing aids to the older generation of the church. They were comparing hearing aid models and I think Mitchell was convinced his were the coolest with the neon green and yellow swirls. Soon enough Mitchell found about three other boys his age to hang out with and he was having a blast without running laps around the sanctuary…..somebody slap your neighbor and say “HALLELUJAH!”

We talked to the kids about sitting in the adult Sunday School class with us and then going to Children’s Church after that but when we got to church and after the wonderfully sweet welcome we received the kids wanted to go to their own children’s class. We were really shocked that Sophie wanted to do this but she did. So both the kids, like they have lived there all their life, pranced into their Sunday School classes without looking back. What I loved is that each of their teachers were the sweetest ladies with grown grandchildren. Teaching Sunday School was their ministry and you could tell they loved it. This warmed my heart so much because you don’t always find Grandparents willing to teach on a regular basis. What warmed my heart even more was to learn that Mitchell won the Gigantic Hershey Bar award for…….get this……being still and quiet. Get out of town! Okay, yes, we were the visiting pastor’s family! Mitchell was so excited about this award he could hardly stand it. We were excited for him too.

Randy taught Sunday School and then preached and he did awesome. I was so proud of him. He spoke what the Lord put on his heart even though he was a bit nervous about how it might be received. Then we had a covered dish lunch. I was corrected when I called it a “pot luck” because that’s not what it was. It was fancier than pot luck. It was a covered dish and let me tell you, we hadn’t eaten that good in a long time! It was about 6 tables put together of nothing but casserole to casserole of home made goods. I kept looking for the rotisseri chicken that I buy at Ingles for our pot luck dinners but there was not one single store bought item. It was all home made. Unbelievable. Our current church is filled with young Mom’s with 3-4 children and to bring something homemade every time is almost impossible so this was a pleasant surprise to me. I mentioned this to one of the ladies and she said, “Well, we need more young Mom’s in our church to bring store bought chickens!” I laughed and wondered if they would really vote a pastor in whose wife would dare bring a store bought chicken to a covered dish lunch. This is a Baptist Church you know!

But sure enough……they voted us in and CBC will be our new church home in a matter of months. And while our hearts are heavy with leaving our current church we have no doubts we are being called to this new body of believers. It will be different, for sure, but it’s exciting to look forward to. I’m not wanting to look too far ahead for fear of “checking out”’ where we are currently. I want to finish strong where we are and not trample over these last few months in efforts to get to the next assignment. But at the same time I feel God drawing my (our) heart to the people of our new church as well. I feel sort of in the middle of two places right now and I don’t know how to feel about that….. a good thing? a bad thing? or just a thing?  It’s just where I am right now.

You are…..

Today wasn’t the best of mornings. I woke up feeling the weight of leaving people in our church that I have grown to love so very much. Several phone calls Sunday night and even this morning ended in tears and sadness and maybe even feelings of not understanding our call to relocate (from the other person’s perspective). And then to top it off I got a phone call from a very close loved one who had been admitted to the hospital and I was flooded with thoughts of being six hours away (when we move) and being totally helpless. Needless to say, I was getting close to having a panties-in-a-wad attack.

But here’s how the Lord encouraged me. I opened up a book that I have that I write down special verses/ insights that the Lord gives me when I spend time in his word. And there I found something titled: “You Are”  I remember sitting by a river bank a year ago and meditating on all the things that came to my mind and heart  when I thought of what God was to me. I remember just writing what rolled off my heart without skipping a beat. This might be one of those things that was just meant to be special to me but I still want to share it for some reason. Some of the things almost seem weird to me now…just a few….you’ll probably see what I mean. But anyways, here it goes…..this is how God spoke into my heart personally today.

YOU ARE….Creator of all, sender of the breeze, the maker of green (does it surprise you my chair was perched in front of a tree?) , magnificent, king of kings, with me, everywhere, keeper of all things, my Dad, with me still, beautiful, constant, full of surprises (oh really?!!!), creative, playful, the lover of my soul, my prize possession, my everything, my lifeline, my boss, my friend, my savior, master of everything, still with me, my advocate, precious to me, awesome, lover of beauty.

I know everyone’s list would be different and maybe it changes. Hear me right….God doesn’t change but how we experience God at different times in our life does change. Today God reminded me of His faithfulness to always be with me even in the midst of his awesome power, majesty and duties of ruling the universe. He encouraged me that I can trust that He is at work in situations that seem too heavy to carry. And I love that he cared enough to remind me of the things that I know of Him to be true.

So I wonder, what is God to you? I’d love to know.