Holiday Weekend

Yesterday was Memorial Day, fka Decoration Day. Thank you to corporate America, the general public follows the traditions of barbecuing and searching for big sales at Sam's Club, instead of taking time to decorate the tombstones of fallen soldiers, remembering the sacrifice they all made for our country. Ashamedly, I am one of those citizens that shopped and failed to recognize the reason for the holiday. So, for that I am sorry.

So, with that confession said, I'll give a re cap of my 3-day weekend. Friday night Brad and I met up with some friends at Mars Hill Cafe for dinner. Thank you, Corky, for the amazing dinner and the mango tea. Saturday I don't remember the details. I really hate when that happens. I do remember that I slept in some, worked out at the gym and went to see the new Indiana Jones movie with Brad, Will met us there. Thanks Will, for saving us seats.
I really liked the film. It got rave reviews from tough Hollywood critics, but the general public is kinda "meh" about the whole thing. I thought it was great.

Sunday we went to the morning service at church, People of Mars Hill and then I did some grocery shopping. I also bought a jalapeno plant. That day Brad worked in the yard and I cleaned the house. We had our "small group" friends over for a grill-out that evening. We wanted to do one big get together to visit before Brad left for his long trip. Man, the food kept coming! I made baked beans (for the first time, my own recipe), roasted potatoes, queso dip, and a strawberry shortcake. It was a bring-your-own-meat deal, and I filled up the grill three times, I think. It was a great night. Brad was awesome, he did most of the clean up while I was still visiting with friends.

Monday we really took the day off. I meant to go for a run, but it didn't happen. We slept in, watched some Monster Quest on the History Channel, then decided to do some shopping. He needed electric guitar strings and I wanted some more herbs. So we went to Musical Walmart, I mean, Guitar Center, then to Lowe's. We bought a few hanging planters, a thyme plant, and a cucumber plant. So now, in the yard we are growing:
tomato
cucumber
jalapeno
thyme
sweet basil
rosemary

Over the weekend, we discovered we have 6 gladiolas plants! For the past 3 years we thought they were only tall decorative grass. This year they are budding in bold red flowers. I am ecstatic! We plan on laying a pallet of sod in July. Our backyard is shaping up beautifully.

I took a few pics of some things we are growing and I also got a few of the babies.
Here's Lucille looking like she wants to kill me.

Here's a pic of my sweet basil plant, and you can see Arwen in the back ground going to town on a rawhide.

Here's Batman with HIS rawhide, in his favorite "chew spot".

And last but not least, is our fearless feline, Robin.


I finished the 6th Harry Potter book last night. I wanted to re read it before the movie came out. It'll be released in November, so I'm kinda ahead of myself.
Now I will finish reading Echoes of His Presence. I should have that done by next week if I don't allow myself to get too busy and distracted. After that I'm going to dive into more C.S. Lewis. I'm not sure where to start. I began to read Mere Christianity this past fall, I may just start that one over and go from there.

Today is a weight lifting day. I'll do that after work, hopefully I'll have time to put in some good cardiovascular exercise afterward. I have already cleaned the house for small group tonight so I have no excuse.

I'm looking forward to our discussion tonight. Jack's teaching this past Sunday was really good. I need to listen to it again though.

Hummph... I'm having a hard time getting into the swing of things today.

Our Small Group Meeting

We had a great night of discussion with our small group. We had 10 people, including Brad and I. I made some cupcakes as well. They were dark chocolate with buttercream and I topped them with bright blue sprinkles. This dark chocolate cake recipe is one I've used so many times, it's one of my favorites.

We got on a discussion later in the evening concerning Luke 4:28-30.
Jesus speaks in the synagogue in His hometown and reveals that he has fulfilled a prophesy. The crowd gets all riled up and you can read below what happens:
28) All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29) They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. 30) But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.
I've always just thought that since this wasn't the time, place or method for Jesus to die, the people were miraculously subdued and Jesus passed through the crowd and went on His way. One person from last night's group said he had thought Jesus made Himself invisible and walked through the crowd to avoid the uprising. I mean, to me, the scripture could go either way. It made for an interesting conversation for sure. The word "through" is another of one our languages ambiguous terms. In later scriptures, after Jesus' resurrection, He "walks through" a wall. But He can also "walk through" a crowd, which doesn't mean he passes through a person, necessarily. It's debatable, for sure and I may need to find a reference that relates to the Greek language, concerning this passage for further insight.

Something else we spoke on at the end of the discussion was something Jack (our teaching pastor) had said. "I need to view myself as God sees me, not as I see myself". Um, okay, that shouldn't be too hard :rolls eyes: . I can be very negative and hard on myself, because I know what goes on in my head, I know the emotions I have, I know the things I say and do. I know that God understands, fully, those things as well, but He still trusts that I can carry out His will and make a representation of His Son to the world. That's a very heavy idea for me. It's humbling, for sure, but also frustrating. How can I do it?
To follow Christ is an ongoing experience. From the initial acceptance to our final breath, we undergo a continuous process. We are always learning, always sharpening, always growing. At least, we should. I do have lulls in my life where I feel as if I've hit a plateau, but the desire is always there to be more and do better. I want to make my Father proud. I don't think I've quite done that yet, overall. I know I have done things in His name, for His purpose and given Him the glory for it. Those things do make Him proud. But I've also displayed a rotten attitude, and abandoned compassion for others. This must disappoint Him.
I don't really know what He sees, exactly. So I'm not sure where to go with this one.
I do know that I can take this from that statement: I should see other people, the way God sees them. Because I know myself, it's difficult to imagine what a perfect God would view, but I can estimate His perspective on someone else, if that makes sense. I think keeping that in focus would create a different relationship dynamic in my life. I'm still there in completely understanding all this, but like I said it is a process. Time itself does not make progress, but it is God working in my life as I receive the grace to accept it and put it into practice.

In other news, I am making a new meal tonight: Vegetable Lasagna Rolls. Brad and I are going to visit some friends of ours who have recently welcomed their first child into the world. I'm looking forward to seeing them. I hope the dish turns out great. If it does, I will post the recipe.

I'll take some good with some bad

After work I attended a meeting at church to discuss our vision for our small bible study groups. I met some new people, and may have some new people join my home group. Praise God! It was really great being able to hear testimonies of other group leaders in our church. We all have the same vision basically; to create real relationships with other people and encourage one another in our faith.

You know with all church gatherings there are sweets and other unhealthy foods. Sweets is a HUGE obstacle for me. However, tonight there was a large table of amazing looking brownies. I, however, did not partake. I decided when i walked in that I wasn't going to have anything because I had just eaten dinner and I was not hungry. I decided to be a social butterfly and go around the room, ignoring the table of chips and brownies. Anyone who knows me, knows this is a great big step. I can hardly ever resist chocolate. But I did and it was somewhat empowering to be able to say NO and stick to it.

I'm going to go over my new exercise program here at home a few times before I do them in the gym. I'm contemplating doing m workouts in the morning. This would mean a 5am alarm clock. Y'all know this ain't me. However, if I know if I can get in the habit of an early morning workout I would be more consistent. Often in the afternoons there are way too many distractions. Either the gym is way too packed, or there's somewhere I have to be after work, or whatever else. So.... any feedback on this would be great. I could really use some positive thoughts and encouragement on that.

Well, it's past my bed time. Me and the pups are goin to bed!

(brad's on his way to Vegas)

Another busy week

This will be another busy week. Yesterday after work, I went to the YMCA, home, showered, then Brad and I went to the Kidd's house (Anthony and Anna) for dinner. Anthony is the keyboard/piano/saxophone player for Seraph. His wife, Anna, and I have become good friends. They just bought a house last week and rescued two kittens from a shelter yesterday. So I had to go see them. One is black the other is silver tabby. We believe they're about 8 weeks old; simply adorable. Anna's chicken stew over rice was amazing! I'm going to try to recreate this later in the week. We played the Wii and I ALMOST beat Anthony in bowling. After that Brad and I fueled up the truck for the long trip he's taking today and stepped into Walmart for a few things, tapes and batteries for the cameras. Seraph is taking a trek over the Las Vegas. Um, yeah, I'm a tad jealous.





Now for the rest of the week:





Today (Tuesday) after work I'm meeting Sarah Beth and the two Laura's for coffee at Moka's to discuss a bridal shower and other details of SB's wedding, taking place in late June. I expect by dress will be in by May 5th. I had to guess on the size since we're ordering online. Depending on how long we meet I may or may not go to the gym to lift. I get my new program today! Yay!! At 7pm every Tuesday Brad and I host a "small group" at our house, which is a bible study organized through our church, People of Mars Hill. We've been doing this for 3 years now and 4 of our small group members have been attending from the very beginning. I'll post more about my small groupies later. I truly LOVE them! Oh, and I need to buy groceries at some point today. I'm out of oatmeal. ((GASPS!!)) I know... it's terrible.





Wednesday I will work, of course, like everyday. We can make work an assumed task. The days after I lift are designated cardio days. After that I will go to the Mars Hill Cafe, where my church meets on Sundays, for a small group kickoff meeting. I'm going to share about the small group I host to the people who are interesting in either starting one or attending one.





Thursday I pick up the Love children (my neices and nephews) to take them to soccer practice. They practice on the field behind the Y, so while they're doing that I'll go inside for about half an hour or so and get my workout in. We'll go home and hopefully I'll be able to catch a new episode of Scrubs. Oh, how I love that show.





Friday I'm going to attend the Nasser Spring Festival to watch Mikayla (my sweet baby sis) for her gymnastics 'recital'. I. cannot. wait. She really has an amazing talent for gymnastics. It must be in her blood.






Saturday is pretty open, I'm not sure what's going on that day. I'm scheduled to lift that day, I'd like to clean house too.

Sunday Anna and I have coffee service duty at our church for the evening service. I'm pretty sure I'm going to sleep in that day.