at a loss for words

I enjoy blogging and the blog world in general…but i often don’t know what to write about.

i’m a Christian and see God’s hand in my life daily, but i would write novels if i wrote about it.

i love my husband, but i think you guys would get sick of hearing about how great he is all the time.

i love kid’s ministry, but i’m not an expert.

i love movies, music and books, but i’m not inspired to write about them.

i love decorating and creating, but my artsy-craftsy hand is not as perfected as i’d like it to be.

 

i think i need a kid to write about.

what should i write about? should i just quit blogging?

some weird things about me

i’ve come to realize i have some quirks. ok, i didn’t just realize this, but it has come to my attention lately in recent office discussions.

1. i hate birds. i cringe when they are around me, when there are a mass of them, even if i’m in a car and they are outside. i just imagine them coming in for the kill. blame it on a bad childhood experience and alfred hitchcock, but i hate birds.
2. i don’t like aluminum foil. it’s like nails on a chalkboard kind of feeling when i have to touch it. i avoid using foil at all costs.
3. i don’t care for bar soap. ew, especially if you try to pick it up and it gets under your fingernails! don’t worry, i do use soap, just liquid soap.
4. i like to drink milk out of glass. it tastes better out of glass instead of paper. drinking milk out of paper cartons was not my favorite thing, but when i was a kid, i used to think it was a lucky day if the paper carton opened cleanly. #weirdiknow
5. when i make hot tea with honey, i like to to pour the hot water over the tea bag and honey. it tastes better to me that way.

this is all random, but Emily has been laughing at me lately, so I thought I’d share. Did I get them all, Emily?

what our kids know about Jesus

[no, i don't have kids myself....just about 200 adopted Oak Leaf Kids ]

i’m just temporarily back to blogging to post this one thing that i thought was cool. a few weeks ago, we had the k-5th graders (City kids) write on cards what they know about Jesus.

here are their answers:

• always by our side
• he forgives us
• jesus is always by their side
• jesus was born in a stable
• jesus is gracful*
• jesus birth was propesizes*
• jesus helps us
• jesus cares about us
• jesus did miracles
• jesus turned water into wine
• jesus had 12 deciples*
• jesus healer many people*
• jesus rose from the dead
• jesus carried his cross
• jesus is powerful
• jesus forgives us
• jesus is the son of God
• jesus is holy
• jesus is the messaih*
• jesus is perfect
• jesus is our savior
• jesus is our friend
• he love me
• jesus healer the leper
• jesus loves everyone
• jesus healed the blind man
• jesus died on the cross
• jesus fed 5000 people
• jesus loves me
• jesus loves oak leaf church and he loves God
• loveing*
• He’s on our sholder*
• born as a baby
• born perfect
• powerful
• died on the cross
• holy
• dose’nt need anything*
• son of God
• rose from the dead
• our friend
• careing*
• graceful
• he had twelve disciples
• turned water into wine
• he healed people
• makes miracles
• could walk on water
• impossible to diffeet*
• raise people from the dead
• mary was his mother
• can do anything
• made the world
• couldn’t sin
• made us
• our savior
• loves us

*incorrect spellings are intentional. that is how that child wrote it.

I’m pretty impressed with the kids’ thoughts about Jesus. My favorite is “impossible to diffeet.” What’s challenging is to look closer and see what it is that we aren’t getting across to our kids about God. I’d love to see a kid’s curriculum that walks through the infinite attributes of God. Maybe I will write that one day…I’d never run out of material!

What’s new?

last I updated, we were in the midst of the Daniel Fast. we did make it through 10 days. The last few days were much rougher than the beginning. I had evening meetings several days in a row, so I had to think about packing breakfast, lunch & dinner to go. it was not easy. my love was so good to me and got up early one morning to cook a meal for me to take to work. he’s great.

a few other things going on lately:

• we’ve launched the Canton campus of Oak Leaf Church and are now meeting in the Old Ford Building downtown. Amanda is the volunteer kids director over there and she is doing a great job.
• hosted a great Open House at church for families with kids birth-12th grade. just like a family would attend an Open House at school, we had one for family ministry. we casted the vision for why we do what we do, gave the parents a calendar of important dates for the year and had some fun activities planned for all in the family to enjoy. first year doing it, we had 250 people come! great start to something we will make an annual event.
• Matt has begun travel season, meaning he is out on the road quite a bit. it’s not a fun time for either one of us as we love spending lots of time together, so we’d appreciate the prayers!
• i think we are finally finished with the wedding season for now. we have been to so many weddings in the last year, it has been ridiculous! i do love weddings, but it can get costly and i usually have to take time away from our Saturday night service at church. the plus side is a wedding means two things — cake and some kind of reunion with friends or family (or both!). it’s a great excuse to spend time with those we don’t see often.
• Mountain Day 2010 is coming!!! This is one of my favorite times of the year and one of my favorite traditions of my alma mater, Berry College. It’s an odd tradition, but we make it great with some amazing picnic food. I’m looking forward to some time with our Berry family.
• I finally finished Eat Pray Love. i really enjoyed it — mostly the Italy & Bali sections. still haven’t seen the movie though.
• I am finally getting myself and house organized and decluttered. It’s boiled down to scheduling the days I am cleaning out certain closets, giving myself a deadline. sad, i know, but it’s what has worked for me.

Well, there’s my update! I will hopefully have something more inspiring to blog about next time.

Daniel Fast: Days 5 & 6

Fridays are always a little sketch for me on the eating. I have the day off and always forget to eat breakfast and lunch, leaving me very shaky by 2:00 in the afternoon!

Here’s what we ate Friday:

• breakfast: well, i just had hot decaf tea
• lunch: i had a rice cake?
• dinner: Quinoa pilaf and potato wedges. My first experience with quinoa. very interesting pasta/rice thing. Very simple though to boil and i added a bag of frozen mixed veggies. Also roasted some potato wedges that were tossed in olive oil, sea salt and paprika. tasty!

Saturday:

• breakfast: cereal w/ soy milk (granola & flax mixed together)
• lunch: leftovers from the past couple of days. just as tasty as the first go around!
• dinner: Matt made himself some whole wheat pasta w/ peppers & marinara sauce while I was at church. I came home and ate more leftovers. (Very proud of Matt for fixing such an elaborate dinner for himself!)

A definite takeaway from this fast is to eat more fruit. It’s such a good alternative to unhealthy snacking!

The next few days are going to be interesting as we are very busy. Lots of late meetings and such, so I am going to have to prepare food beforehand.

Daniel Fast: Day 4

This was probably our best day. Our stomachs have grown accustomed to the new eating habits and our bodies have mostly decided it’s ok to not have caffeine.

Here was the menu for the day:

• breakfast — granola, soy milk, fruit
• lunch — i don’t actually know what Matt ate, but I had rice cake, almond butter sandwich and a naked green machine drink (all kinds of fruit and stuff in those drinks).
• dinner — *new favorite* Bean and Barley Soup. I had a bag from Trader Joe’s of all kinds of beans and barley mixed together. I added vegetable stock, carrots, onion, celery, bell pepper, canned tomatoes (had to make sure they were Daniel Fast approved), garlic, basil & italian seasoning. I had to soak the bag of beans and barley all day in cold water. Had never done that before (shows how much legumes I cook!), so it was cool to see at the end of the day the beans had soaked up all of the water. I sauteed the chopped vegetables in olive oil and dumped all of the other ingredients together in a large pot. Simmered it for an hour. At the last minute, I decided to boil up some whole wheat rotini to add to the soup, to make it even heartier. This was so tasty. And we had plenty leftover to use for lunch today or tomorrow.

We haven’t really lost weight with this, but it has felt good to be eating healthy. Also, drinking lots of water and having healthy snacks has been something I will definitely carry on to normal life.

Daniel Fast: Days 2 & 3

Days 2 & 3 were a little of a blur. I had one plan, but we found out Monday that Matt’s great-grandmother had passed away (she was 91 years old! incredible). So, Tuesday and Wednesday were a little thrown off from what I had originally planned.

Here is what I think we ate those days:

Tuesday

• breakfast– granola w/ soy milk (and i mixed almond butter in mine); fruit
• lunch — leftover brown rice dinner for Matt, almond butter sandwich and banana for me
• dinner — tofu & vegetable stir fry, (not the best, since it was my first time cooking tofu. i couldn’t get over the texture even though i’ve had it before)

after we inhaled dinner, we drove 2.5 hrs to Commerce where Matt’s Grandmama and Pop live on a beautiful farm. love going there so much.

Wednesday

• breakfast — oatmeal and peaches (from Pop)
• lunch — oh, was lunch torture! the church made a meal for the family and so we had to see all of these amazing casseroles and fried chicken. i had packed some granola, rice cakes and peaches. we did find some things to eat at the meal. lots of beans – lima, pinto, etc.
• dinner — (back @ home) whole wheat spaghetti & organic marinara sauce. i carmelized some onions with minced garlic to add to the sauce to give a little more kick. Matt loved this meal!* i also made some polenta “biscuits” — very interesting, it’s like a grits cake.

*Matt also exclaimed I had been holding out all of the pasta on him. He loves an Italian meal.

Daniel Fast: Day 1

As mentioned in the previous post, Oak Leaf staff is participating in a Daniel Fast. Others are welcome to join us as we pray and prepare for the launch of our second campus. Click here to know more about this particular fast.

Matt and I are pretty excited about this fast as we’ve never done anything like it. We are usually major carnivores and shameless caffeine/sugar junkies. No caffeine and meat is tough, but we are determined to make it. I’m most excited about 1) being intentional in prayer with Matt over specific things and 2) having a cleansing diet to springboard me into a better lifestyle of eating habits.

My lovely mother (who happens to be a nurse) is very concerned about my protein, so I’m going to blog what it is we are eating so that she can stop worrying! Also, I’ve enjoyed reading others’ blogs on Daniel Fast experiences for good recipe tips.

Our menu today:

• breakfast: Oat Bran (found just regular Oat Bran at Kroger) w/ honey (locally grown!), banana and walnuts
• lunch: spinach strawberry/orange/walnut salad (w/ homemade honey, orange & olive oil dressing), whole grain wheat bread with almond butter, brown rice
• snack: banana, nuts, acai berry drink
• dinner: Brown Rice dinner (brown rice w/ fresh salsa, corn and bell pepper added in), stir fry veggies

and of course, drinking lots and lots of water!

Matt and I praying over some big things during these 10 days. Please pray the Lord gives us wisdom and guidance!

I needed that

i needed a break. one less “responsibility” on my plate. funny how blogging can seem like work. and when you work at a church, there are times you really really really just do not want to work. there has to be some time that you are just unplugged.

here are 10 things i’ve been thinking through lately:

1. my husband. i love Matt’s servant heart. marriage is one of the toughest things i’ve ever experienced, but i’m learning and growing so much. i’m so glad Matt is who God gave me for the rest of my life.
2. travel season — it’s almost here. and while i’m excited for Matt as he loves travel season, i’m so not excited for myself.
3. multisite church — it is finally here, Oak Leaf is launching its second campus this month. we’ve been learning so much through this. and i’m sure we have lots to learn yet.
4. Daniel Fast — before the grand opening of the second campus, we are doing the Daniel Fast. i’m intrigued, nervous and excited about it. Matt and I have some BIG prayers for this time. excited to seek God for those things. also, i’m excited to try a different kind of diet.
5. kid’s small groups — very excited about what is coming for The City kids at Oak Leaf.
6. my iphone — i love my iPhone, but it is falling apart! the lock button no longer works, the phone has to catch up to my typing, it freezes, closes out of apps….oh, and i can no longer hear a person talking on the phone unless it is on speaker phone. think i could sell it for very much and get an iphone 4?
7. Italy. i want to go back. period.
8. writing a book — i will do it one day. i’m already keeping a small notebook to jot down some thoughts, stories and concepts for it.
9. writing curriculum — i’ve enjoyed, stressed over and loved writing this month’s lessons for The City. it’s hard and taxing work, but i’ve really enjoyed putting my fingerprint on what k-5th graders are learning this month.
10. fall. i need the crisp fall air to come soon.

there’s so much more that has been swirling around my head in my 40 minute drive to work and keeping/waking me up at night, but this is just a taste of the randomness.

Orange Conference, Part 2

Yes, I’ve already posted about how excited I am to be attending The Orange Conference next week, but I just wanted to share my breakouts for all of my kidmin readers out there. (Sorry, family, this post will make no sense to you.)  I’d love to chat and meet up with blog/twitter friends!

Breakout A: Family First

Breakout B: No More Volun-Tears

Breakout C: Orange is a Special Color Too!

Breakout D: Unpacking Baby Dedication

Also, I made a list of a few of the things I’m seeking wisdom on during this conference. If we meet at Orange, you’ll probably hear me asking questions about these things specifically!

• special needs — where to begin on adapting kids ministry for special needs kids?
• child salvation and baptism — how do other churches take this process? is it a class? one-on-one meetings?
• volunteer discipleship — ensuring that those leading kids are following God in their everyday life, what kind of systems/methods do other ministries do this by?
• baby dedication — the varieties of methods. what fits with Oak Leaf and our vision for families?
• multi-site church! — how do others plan for the unknown!? how do others adapt their curriculum to fit another campus?

Total variety of stuff that I am seeking God on. These are just a handful of the things swimming around in my head!