What is a promise?

Here's the video we showed last week to get us thinking about what it means to keep a promise. The "Big Picture Point" was that God keeps his promises to show us He is faithful. Our story this week was about God's promise to Abrahan that he would have a child even in his old age. Interesting... his wife Sarah was twice my age! Yikes!

Spinning Plates

I guess I'm not alone. Every woman in America probably feels like she is spinning plates. On a great day she may even feel like she has all the plates spinning! I have not feft like that in a very long time. Today... seems like I only have a few plates spinning. My house? Yikes! I won't even go there. In case you didn't know, I'm the interim Director of Children's Ministies at my church. I've been seeing my work there as at least eight plates that need spinning. I can even hear the silly carnival music. The problem is that I can only seem to get 3 or 4 of those plates spinning at one time. The second I leave one alone to get a fifth one going one of the others drops to the ground. I guess it's so frustrating because I believe a healthy children's ministry is incredibly important to the over-all health of a church family. I really want to see all of the plates spinning joyfully! Maybe even with a little more peaceful music too!

I really should think about my house and my home... same problem. Like every mom - the laundry plate, dinner plate, grocery plate, homework plate, paying the bills plate, quality time with my husband plate, diet plate, exercise plate, house work plate, mountain of messy toys plate, MAN! see why I didn't wanna go there? How do we decide exactly how many plates we should be spinning? How many plates we should let others help us spin?

Quite a while ago I jokingly created a list of rules for myself - I'm quick to share them with others.
Rule #1 NOT MY JOB
Rule #2 LET IT GO LOUIE
Rule #3 REMEMBER WHERE YOU ARE
Rule #4 REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE

Ray and I tease each other with the rules. When things get us going we will just say, "that's rule #1" or "remember rule #2" But seriously, I have really thought about these rules - especially when I feel overwhelmed.
NOT MY JOB. Sometimes I waste so much energy worrying about someone else's responsibility.
LET IT GO LOUIE. I can get so bogged down with past mistakes or hurts.
REMEMBER WHERE YOU ARE. I use this rule when I realize my expectations are out of wack or when I am out of my comfort zone.
Last but not least - when all else fails. REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE. I am a child of God. He loves me so much. Even when... hummmm especially when I have trouble keeping the plates spinning.
Does that make sense?
Can you hear the silly carnival music?

Halloween

Halloween was a lot of fun at our house. Nobody loves Halloween more than Micah. His favorite toy is a little witch he named Witchie-Poo. He loves everything about it ~ the toys, the scary stories, TV shows, the candy, the decorations (but not the REALLY SCARY ones... he has not been in Krogers in a month!) But, he is VERY afraid of the scary costumes - especially the older kids. For the past 3 years he has planned to be a ghost. The first year we cut the appropriate holes in a piece of polar fleece... but at the last minute he changed his mind and wore his spiderman outfit from the year before. Last year he as very excited to be a ghost again. But, he was very sick and rested on the couch the whole evening. THIS year again he was very excited to be a ghost. He even took his "outift" to school. Bit, when it was time for trick or treat... the doorbell rang... our first little beggar. Where was Micah? Behind the chair. Poor little guy.

So... he decided to stay home with daddy. Daddy sat on the porch and passed out candy and glow bracelets. Micah watched from the window. Once and while daddy would come in the house to check on Micah. Micah would say, "Okay daddy, I'm fine. You can go back outside again." He really did not want that doorbell to ring again!

The trick or treating champ is Hope. What a cutie! She wore the fox tail and ears I made for a program I did for the library. She wore it all day to school and told me that she was so proud. She would hug her tail and tell her friends that her mommy made her tail! We were out trick or treating for over a hour and a half. We found a school friend and she walked together... so much giggling. I think they were speaking their own language... very high and squeaky. I didn't understand a word. They didn't stop talking all evening... I'm not sure they even took a breath. The sweetest thing about my little girl though? The whole time she was collecting candy it never occured to her that it was all her candy. It was ALWAYS for her and Micah. She could not wait to get home and show him what she had collected. Not a selfish bone in her little body. Reminded me so much of "The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown." Hope was so much like Lucy collecting candy for her brother Linus, who was waiting for the Great Pumplin. Of course, Hope never called her brother stupid like Lucy did.
I'm quite proud of my little girl and her sweet little heart.

Noah's Ark

This YouTube video clip is from Disney's Fantasia 2000. We used it for today's lesson on Noah's Ark...

Buffy and Muffy go to the Mall

This is the video Ray and I made for Jr Worship. It is a great example of the over-use of the word LOVE.

Latte Art

I LOVE COFFEE

The Evening News and a Worship Service

What does the evening news and a worship service have in common?
I just watched an interview with Howard Kurtz regarding his new book, Reality Show. His book talks about the influence on the network evening news on society and whether or not it will continue to remain relevant in the next generation. The funny thing to me was how much it sounded like the discussions we have pertaining to our worship services. How do we balance the important issues, keeping people interested and yes, entertained? One of the things I found most interesting about their discussion was the fact that network news needs to consider content - are there too many stories about menopause and retirement? Reminded he of our talks about whether we should keep hymns in our services or are we too seeker sensitive. Does that make sense? I think too much.