Updates

Today is just an update on some stuff:

I have finally been almost diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome,(Thanks for the straight answers Doc.)

This has been an ongoing issues for nearly 2 years. I have the final testing scheduled for the 11^th of March.I don't get the results until the 14th. Now I probably know why my hand is going numb and losing feeling. If the test comes back positive for carpal tunnel there are a few options. J  Until then I get to wear a brace most of the time.

I am going to work on getting healthy by:

• ·         Walking at least  10 min daily
• ·         pushing water
• ·         work on not stressing ( for me that is a big issue) .

Mom continues to recover. Today, it will have been 2 weeks since her surgery, which was actually 4 procedures all done at once. She has managed to do quite a bit by herself. She has gone to town and she has even done some grocery shopping with me. Still no driving for at least 6 weeks. L I will be so glad when mom can start helping in the kitchen again. She did chop a few veggies today but when she can do more it will be wonderful.

Who's Birthday? Oh Mine

My birthday is this week. There have been so many other things on my mind that I didn't even remember until I looked in the bulletin at Church. Oops

Birthdays are important. But for me they come with issues. Enjoy life and the people you love.  I will be celebrating by not doing anything special except maybe going to the book store and getting a book, a cup of coffee and maybe a slice of cheesecake.

Sunday Sponges Sandwiches ???

Sunday-Sponges-Sandwiches-

What do these have in common??

Believe it or not the answer is CHURCH!!

The object lesson was about being a sponge.

 The sermon was about private devotional time and that is where the sandwich came into play.Feeding yourself daily is important.(both real food and spiritual food)  How to do devotions is like building a sandwich, I learned this at a camp but it was used again today in church. It is an easy formula to remember.

Update: My mom is healing well she got the staples out, is up and moving more, she is wanting to go out and do stuff like fabric shopping :)


If you want to know more ask me. I am keeping it short today . There is still a potluck at church, a forum about a new building and Minion Meetings tonight. ( My day is only partway done)

?

I had a slow start to the day. I am an insomniac, I will fully admit it.

First: I couldn't find my glasses, then mom got up and moving, made sure the hubs got to work and checked email. I hopped in the shower, got dressed and had some breakfast/lunch.Dad had left way earlier

Next, took mom with me to the store to get ingredients for dinner for the next few days and stopped to get coffee. Mom needed out of the house..But  after those two stops she was pretty tired when we arrived home.

At the moment,I am working on designing a business card, drinking coffee and listening to music. I do have some church work to get done.

And dinner to start and A DATE to plan :)

I might post again tonight after I get some of the laundry done

Thoughts on Balance

Today is almost done. Dinner is done and everyone has eaten. Dad is doing the dishes, my hubby is getting ready for work, mom is relaxing in the recliner and George is laying on the floor guarding mom. This is the 1st time I have gotten on the computer today. I have checked FB and email. I wasn't going to write anything today but I figure if I don't I will get out of the habit. After all....

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."-Aristotle

Since I want to eventually excel, I will have to work at it. I was going to write down a kids sermon idea but decided that it was not what was really on my mind. 

I want to take a few minutes to write about balance, as far as I can see there are 3 parts to balance (feel free to disagree) there is: your head(mind), your heart (spiritual/emotional) and physically(body).

 I am in the process of relearning that balance is very important. I have been working on the mental part( I am learning new stuff)  and I am in the process of training for a 5k so my body is in the physical  process but.... the heart(spiritual ) part? 

 Well I need to focus more on it. 

 Am I meeting my spiritual needs? Honestly? NO. "Well what are you going to do about it?"   I have a 3 step plan:

1: Pray

2 :Find Substitutes teachers for youth and Sunday school

3 :Find a Bible study that doesn't meet on Sundays that I can attend and learn from someone with more knowledge than me.

Ok, 4th Step - Let God figure out the rest. 

Thanks for taking a glance, I have some ideas peculating but I need to think them out some before I post them here. Hang in there. 

Fri,Sat,Sun: Highlights

My mom did great during surgery and is recovering . If you want to know more feel free to ask me.

Valentines day is done!
Thank You God.

I had wonderful helpers for the banquet. I had a few kids who really worked their butts off.  I had great support .If any of you are reading this "Thank YOU".

The food was well received.
We had: beef tenderloin, baked potato's ,green beans with bacon, rolls with butter and brownies Ala mode for dessert with whipped cream and chocolate sauce, there were also chocolate cupcakes for the minions who helped.

 I did not have to make the above mentioned dessert, I delegated that responsibility to another member of the congregation. One of my better moves if I do say so myself.

The rest however, myself and 1 of my older youths knocked out.

The decorating was done by another person from church and she is marvelous.  The skits went off without a hitch. Thanks dad for handling that while I was in the kitchen finishing plating.

We started the banquet at 6:00 pm on the nose.
Clean up was easy as we had disposable everything. People stayed to help transform the church basement into the pancake breakfast space. By 8:00 pm the last person had left the building and locked up for the night.

Sunday was a semi typical Sunday

 Sunday school at 9:15- we talked about worship as a discipline. That opened a can of worms. I don't have all the answers and I told my students that. However we are making progress. One of the things that was pointed out today is your translation of the Bible can really make a difference in your interpretation of a specific scripture. We were in Exodus today and in most of the translations the word used is "worship" but in the King James version it is "serve" . This meant some research for me. What did the passage say in Hebrew? Out came the concordance and research time began.

I did have to do a bunch of cooking in between Church and the next event . Beef , pork and chicken had all defrosted and needed to be cooked.

Then at 3 pm,it was over to the assisted living facility. I love going to see the people there , they are very lively and have great stories to tell. The people there want to worship. They are excited to see me and normally Dad. We sing, pray, Dad does a mini sermon and then Dad leads them in communion. It is more a time of worship for me than on most Sunday mornings as I am working as basically a stage manager during most of them.

Got home , finished cooking dinner and did coffee (x3) - Mom,Dad, Me)

Checked the church Facebook page to see if there were any responses to the 2 questions posted. Which were.:

1 : What was Pastor Carl's sermon about today?- This one is witness (most of you, if not all of you weren't there)

2 : What is the most awesome thing you have ever seen?

Please feel free to leave an answer to the second question in the comments - Keep it PG please.

This past week is done and that is good. This next week holds its own challenges. Dr. Appointments among them. I'm sure there is more to be done tonight yet, but I am going to go ahead and post this and call it a night on the blog unless something major happens.

Thankful/surgery/thoughts

 I am grateful for the short break  that I find myself with, it wasn't planned at all. I know tomorrow is going to be long.

 Dad took mom to the hospital for surgery so, I have been home most of the day doing the other stuff. The beds are made, most of the laundry is  done. (The dryer decided today was a good day to stop working :( it may fix itself again later tonight , I would have liked to get done with moms laundry first though.), dinner cooked and the valentines day banquet back planned. My hubby is resting and I have had time to play the X-box for the first time in a while. 

I am going stir crazy not being able to talk to mom and dad. Dad's phone doesn't work well in the hospital so he has to go outside to txt me.  I may run to town this evening just to get out of the house. Coffee and/or  a cookie could be in my future.

George (moms dog) is pouting on the couch, he has his head on the armrest and is looking mournfully  out the window watching for mom to get home. He is going to be pitiful when he figures out he will be sleeping out on the couch for a few days. 

When I was younger I would have said dogs/horses/animals don't pout/have emotions but as I have gotten older I have observed what appears to be that kind of behavior. I know for a fact George knows how to pout and how to let us know he is not a happy pooch.

Prep for Next 72 hours

Ok everyone, this is the short list of the next 72 hours,it is not complete by any means. It will be fine just a bit crazy. If you are so inclined you can pray for me and my family.

tomorrow
10:00 am  - Mom heads to surgery to fix her shoulder, recovery is 6-12 weeks then pt
11:00 am - I head out to go to town .
12 ish - finalize skits/poems/grace for V-day
1:00 pm Home
2:30 make soup and finish dinner, check to make sure moms room is all prepped

4pm at latest mom will be home
Done for most part

Friday - Valentines day!!
Check on mom throughout day
9am-12 simple prep for Banquet.
1-4:30 finish cooking
5:00 run through skits with minions
6:00 banquet.
7:15 cleaned up and set up for Sat pancake breakfast.

I will post up dates on mom.

Sunday ReCap

This is going to be a recap of my Sunday, its normally a different kind of insane.

8:30 get up and ready to teach Sunday School

9:00 head to church and give 15 min warning to the teens for Sunday School.

9:05 get reminded its Scouting Sunday so the youth will be distracted. O well.

9:15 ish get all youths onto stage where their class is held.

9:30 get everyone focused and start the actual class.

10:00 gather prayer requests, pray

10:15 release the youth to the Scout in charge so they can go over the worship service.

10:15- 10:20 talk to other adults and more prayer.

10:30 Church - I have nothing to do but worship this Sunday its amazing!!

11:35 last hymn sung- not a typical service but good.

11:35-12:45 fellowship, short coordination meeting and cancelled youth meeting.

12:45 ish -1:30  make lunch,eat lunch, change clothes, check email and check church FB page for questions.

1:30-1:45 talk to hubby and make plans for next few days

1:50  at church to set up for the Lay Servant Basic Class. 

2:00-5:45 Class 

5:45-6:10 ish Fellowship from class

6:15 Home-- eat dinner, change into comfy clothes

7:00-8:00 in front of tv watching the Olympics spending time with my hubby.

8:00 hubby leaves for work. Comes back for his glasses. 

Watch Olympics the rest of the evening and relax.

1:00 am Today headed to sleep.

 

It was slightly nuts and yet I do something similar every Sunday and I wouldn't trade it.

My parents are amazing.

 My dads schedule is worse, his day starts at 5 am and ends around 9 pm.

My mom deals with both of our schedules and makes sure we eat/ have everything for each event. Plus, she just got a volunteer position that appears to be almost full time. 

The two family motto's comes into play every Sunday. "Always flexible" and "God is in Control"

Plans change

Today is Saturday.

Relaxing, sleeping in, drinking a cup of coffee in jammies. That was the plan.

Not what happened at all. I was up and moving by 8 am. Looking for clothes and realizing I haven't done laundry in a few days(oops) meant my wardrobe selection was limited. I ended up in skorts ,running tights and a hooded sweatshirt.

Mom and I picked up coffee in town and proceeded to head to Chesterfield, MO.There is an  Eddie Bauer store. We were just there yesterday but, we did not purchase anything. We went back today because they had a great sale and pants that fit mom.They were right where we left them. We also explored the mall and enjoyed the other fun stores.

We found a teaching supply store that was very tempting. I will more than likely be going there when I have cash to spend.   Everyone was polite and helpful. The only thing Mom and I couldn't find was slippers. 

 I did find a store that may completely blow my budget called "Charming Charlie" , they have scarves in every color and the set up is wonderful. All the accessories are grouped by color. Its Amazing! I picked out 2 scarves and then had to stop. But I am planning another trip soon. 

Dinner is already planned for tonight. I am so excited because its an easy simple meal. Its.....Beef and broccoli night. I made beef tenderloin last night, so the leftovers are perfect for it. I am planning on sending dad to pick up pre-cooked rice at the Chinese place in town. 

And its date night , No idea what we are doing. We might just get a movie and chill at home. 

I have Sunday School  and a"Minion Meeting"( aka Youth Group) to prep for , So its off to date night for now. 

Snow day

It snowed again.. when I was young snow days meant no school. Now they mean rearranging the to-do list. Work gets rescheduled. But I get more time to drink coffee and write. I might even work on plans for Valentines day.

I have to go to town to run errands,  I forgot to get a couple of key ingredients for dinner.My mom is making teddy bears and has to go buy eyes and noses. I guess we are taking the 4x4 vehicle, even though there is not that much snow, the main roads are clear its just the street and driveway that are a problem.

My "job" in the teddy bear process is to stuff them and make them squeezable. It has taken some practice to get it just right. The teddy bears often get clothing. A vest or tie but my favorite part is when I get to put a tutu on a teddy. I make the  tutus out of tulle and other materials.I discovered on teddy bears poofy tutus work better. They help the bear stay upright and little girls normally like to dance with them. Tulle is a "fun" material to work with, it wrinkles, sticks to everything and ends up all over the house. But, it does look great when its done. My family and I decided it was time to put the tulle away until it gets warmer though.

Signing off for now.

Writing with salt

Why write with salt?

When I was a kid my fine motor skills were not so great. Writing with paper and pencil was painful, difficult and embarrassing. The occupational therapists had me practice writing letters in salt. I could use my fingers and not a pencil.It gave my brain a chance to learn what letters should look like. My handwriting is still horrible but computers are my friends :) I had a teacher in 2nd grade tell my mom that I would never have legible handwriting and to get comfortable with the computer. I did.

As I got older salt took on a whole new meaning. This time it referenced Christianity. Christ became the salt and seasoning of my life. Salt cleans and heals wounds, it makes things better, it gives food flavor and it preserves.

My life has not been simple but it has been full of flavor.

Introduction (updated)

Ok, so this is my first blog, hang with me. I know there is a learning curve.
I am:

• an Army B.R.A.T.
• a Preachers Kid
• a Sign Language Interpreter Student ( for one more semester)

I live in small bedroom community , most people either work on a military installation or in St Louis MO.

I am not your typical 20 something woman. I live with my family, I do not have a degree yet.(soon). I read voraciously . I go through 500 page books in a few hours on a daily basis. Some of my favorite quotes are by Albert Einstein and Walt Disney.

 my family told me that  I needed to start writing . So Here it goes.