The little black dress

Update: :) thank you all for your kind words. As Trish was inquiring, I was on my way to a fund raiser/party with my hubby for his work. Unfortunately I had laryngitis and couldn't talk to anyone..:( lol...He's been bugging me for weeks to get a dress and come with him...it was actually fun... He does lots of this stuff but I rarely go...I'm thinking of making it more of a priority. :)

Things to do...

1. Help with the neighborhood Yard Sale (huge traffic yesterday!)
2. Shop for a little black dress...party on Thurs...MUST find something!!
3. Grocery Store run
4. Pick up Mom at the airport
5. Check out a great chair I found on Craigslist (well that may have to wait) but its a really great chair!

Stories

I should preface this by saying that we have never been rich...hardly even middle class by most standards, though rich in life...therefore every purchase, every possession must serve its purpose, even dual purposes, well. When we were young and starting out each acquisition was of significant importance....many possessions were gifts or hand me downs from family or friends. The art work and knick knacks, mementos, books, photos...everything, even the frames for the photos had significance...even sentimental attachment. I loved living in a house full of stories. On any given day...a guest in our home, and there were many, could point to an object or pick up an item of interest and there would be a story to tell, a history that was inexplicably interwoven with ours, with the church, with the people we loved. Glorious stories...stories of miracles and Life, laughter, hope and Love...lots of love.
Upon moving to Atlanta we packed everything up and loaded our truck. All our possessions...all our history, all our stories,...were boxed away into storage while we lived an aesthetically clean life for some months in an apartment. Needing only the bare necessities, we lived a sterile kind of existence with few mementos around us.
Sometime later we purchased our home and began the lengthy process of unpacking, determining the new "look" for our new surroundings and settling in. At first only the basics went into the house..sofas and beds, tables and chairs...no pictures on the walls, no artwork or mementos in place. All those boxes...and there were lots of them, went into the garage to be sorted through at a later date. All those memories and treasures were there awaiting our new "look", our new life...
But during that interval,...
some things happened, big things that changed everything....and by the time we discovered that our new "look" wasn't going to be anything like our past life...it was decided that all that history would be better left in those boxes in the garage.

These days my home is a work in progress...we still aren't rich...we can't just go get a new whatever when ever we think about it...we have to plan and shop and save..and because our history is boxed up in the garage we have lots of empty places in our home and our hearts...places waiting for replacements...waiting for a new persona...we are reinventing ourselves I suppose, or being reinvented by the Lord who is ultimately in charge and the possessions we currently own and display are much more recent...our history is, in some ways...very short. Almost nothing in my house has a story now...everything is straight off the shelves at TJ MAxx or Craigslist and the only story associated with it is how much of a bargain we got it for or how well it matches our decor.

Our community is planning a neighborhood yard sale in May. I knew I really needed to clean out and get rid of some things, though I wasn't exactly sure what, So......

Yesterday I opened those boxes in the garage.....
30 years of stories came rushing out... all with voices clamoring...
Some gently and sweetly,
Some with stabbing pain and grief...
and I have to say, I'm getting rid of a lot of stuff...history...baggage...stories....its almost all going.
Someone else will use these things and never know...the love, the joy,... the grief, they have meant.

It was a hard day yesterday...I felt emotionally wrung out....but today is a new day...new stories waiting to be written..I have drawn a deep breath and put many a piece of history into the Yard Sale pile...cried over a few, smiled over a few...kept a few...to be boxed away again...stories to be kept in the dark...yet in my heart...waiting for a day when it might not be impossible to bring them to the light again.
Stories worth the telling....

OH MY GOODNESS!!!

Did you see this?
Youtube won't allow me to upload the video but you must check out this link

Christian Music Video Body Worship Dance - Worthy Is The Lamb

Isn't this beautiful? I should have posted it for Easter...but then He is Worthy and Risen every day ...so every day is Easter...right? :)

Let's have a Tea Party!

On April 15th this is happening all across the country. There will be a massive one held right here in Atlanta. What do you think?... are ya feelin' patriotic...or just plain fed up?

You've got to read this!

This post, by my dear friend, Vicki, is absolutely wonderful. I've been thinking about this topic myself a lot lately. Please go and check this one out. Have a great weekend!

Upside Down

I've been thinking lately...with the recession, mortgage crisis, financial crisis, new currency standard, world unrest etc. etc....ever feel like we are spinning round and round and may very well have fallen down a well...we may very well be on a road going nowhere as a nation, as a people..as a world? I think perhaps we have been in this state for quite sometime but haven't realized it...it reminded me of these lyrics...or I should say, these lyrics reminded me of this upside down state we find ourselves in today in our world. Nothing is as it appears, right becomes wrong and wrong becomes right. All I can think to say is "Lord, Help!"

“LIVING LIFE UPSIDE DOWN” lyrics by Russ Lee

Chorus:
What if we’ve fallen to the bottom of a well
Thinking we’ve risen to the top of a mountain
What if we’re knocking at the gates of hell
Thinking we’re heaven bound
What if we spend our lives thinking of ourselves
When we should have been thinking of each other
What if we reach up and touch the ground
To find we’re living life upside down.

The Very First

Jada's very first test...ever. :)

My daughter...the model

My lovely daughter is appearing as a model in an ad for an upscale hair salon in the Atlantan magazine. The ads will run every edition for the entire year. How cool is that?? Check it out.

Urgent message

UPDATE 03/10/09

I ran this by my hubby last night and he pointed out to me that prophesy in the NT...is always about Christ...hardly ever about "what's going to happen", and never about the end times etc. He also pointed out that Christians in scripture and the early church were usually taken by surprise when calamity came and forced to rely on the Lord for help. Only the book of Revelation deals with the future in any real meaningful way and there are 2 ways to look at it...one is that its about the end times...the other...that its the Revelation of Christ and His Church...I go with that one personally...SOOOO...then he pointed out that David Wilkerson has been saying such things for years(Constance you aren't that off:))...and that Americans tend to get all into the "calamity" "end times" mode whenever the stock market in this country goes down...totally ignoring the persecution of Christians in Darfur or China, who I'm sure think its the end of the world on a regular basis with far more reason.
He was not impressed...consequently...as well as following my own gut...I will say as I noted below, like the 5 virgins with their laps filled with oil, I intend to practice common sense and stock my pantry...on the other hand I'm not going to get too bent out of shape over things like this.
***************************************
Have any of you seen this?
I have great respect for David Wilkerson so I'm listening up. It won't hurt me to have some extra supplies on hand either.

The hook takes you back....

Ever notice how a song can take you back?
Lately I've been listening to an online praise radio station while I'm at work (I can plug in my earphones and no one knows...:)) Its called Praise on Fire Radio and I get them here. They play really awesome praise songs one after another with no commercial interruption...you should try it. Anyway...the music is mostly wonderful with very little of the Top 40 kind of thing, although in the middle of the day it can get kind of weird with music that sounds like it was written and recorded by someone sort of wandering with nothing to say.
but MOSTLY...its really really good!

ANYWAY...I sometimes hear the song "This is the air I breathe" Not the commercial version but a very "living" kind of version.

With those earphones in....

.... I am instantly transported back in time to the first time I ever heard it...ever have that happen?

Try filing mindlessly for hours with your earphones plugged in...its like being in another realm...and when this happens...that "other realm" becomes amazingly real.

***************************************************

Suddenly I am standing in a large living room with about 40-50 people...yeah, I mean large, but the room is full...there are a few chairs, a love seat and one sofa but everything else has been moved out of the room and everyone is standing in a large circle. When we stop singing everyone will sit down right where they are now standing its so packed. Three fourths of the people there are under 30 (not me, but almost everyone else)..and boy can they sing! There is no music but as they raise their voices in this song, every harmony imaginable rises toward heaven...it is trapped between the walls and bodies all around and it seems to reverberate off the surroundings, penetrating your very being til you can't tell if its on the inside or outside of you.

I am standing with hands raised, in direct contact with brothers and sisters on either side of me,... and its incredible!... Since I am usually singing at the top of my voice but don't yet know this song...I am quiet....enjoying the priviledge of being washed...being poured into...being ministered to in a deep way...

and they sang it like this:

"This is the air I breathe, this is the air I breathe your Holy Presence, living in me.
This is my daily bread, this is my daily bread, your very Word, spoken IN me.

And I , I'm desperate for You, desperate for You....

She is the air You breathe, She is the air You breathe. Your holy presence, living in Her.
She is Your daily bread, She is Your daily bread, Your very Word spoken in Her.

And She, She's desperate for You, desperate for You....

And we, we're desperate for You...desperate for You

And I, I'm desperate for You...."

Times like these...the veil of flesh gets mighty thin, people....

*********************************

Then, all the sudden..my boss rings me to ask how my project is coming along.....

Deep...or not...

Well its Sunday afternoon and I'm sitting at the computer licking peanut butter off my fingers to try and type something. Today I have bought groceries and cleaned a little, I have wondered if my brakes need work and if my husband is feeling ok. I have conversed with my mom, my daughter, the auntie who had J overnight and the aforementioned hubby who answers in monosyllables...which makes me wonder if he feels ok. I have a pain in my cheek which makes me wonder if I have a sinus infection and I have appreciated, for the umteenth time, the gorgeous paintings I found and hung over my bed...ok, so all this sounds rather humdrum and boring...not terribly deep nor interesting...and that, my friends, is the point...I am ordinary, humdrum and even dare I say it,... boring. I haven't had a deep thought in ages...I can't actually remember when the last time I did have a deep thought... well maybe a few weeks ago when I read The Shack...but certainly that didn't last long nor has one crossed my mind since.
Apparently I don't think very deeply anymore...which means I have nothing to say...nothing worth writing about in cyberspace anyway...so if you used to come here for inspiration or something I suppose you'd better just give up on that...I'm a pretty shallow pond these days and not likely to bring forth any timely wisdom any time soon. I have become my worst fear...ordinary.
Will I one day again sip from the deep inner wells of the spirit and have life to share?....maybe...but for now...I'm just one of those completely surface kinda folks I usually can't bear to be around.

Lists

I am a list person..
at least I always have been in the past.
These days I'm flyin more by the seat of my pants
less gets done...
but more fun is had by all. :)
This weekend the agenda includes( and notice that I am including the entire weekend in the general scope of things as opposed to specific lists for specific days)



1. Shop for household decor(I am still trying to get decorated after living here 4 yrs)
2. Shop for sales on slacks and any remaining sweater that may still be on the shelf somewhere (they are just about replaced with t-shirts down here)
3. Shop for shower gift (baby is a girl)
3. Shop for groceries(Snyder's has out a new chocolate covered, peanut butter filled, pretzel..OMGosh!)
Are you noticing a trend here??

5. Church attendance
6. Hiking
7. Jada time
8. Pay bills
9. Eat out
10. Super Bowl! (We are a house divide on teams this year:))



What are you doing this weekend?

Alive

It's amazing how His Spirit works...don't you agree?
I'm not sure what it is...but I can go for a period of time without feeling His presence, without sensing Him...without having that quickening....sort of missing it, sort of feeling overwhelmed with the busyness of life and not really remembering what it is I am missing...then something small...ever so small, will spark in me...usually brought on by an inner urging, turning me to focus on Him for a time...paying attention to His Word or some book about Him or turning the words of a song into a prayer or a conversation with another believer, one of those kind where your spirits do more talking that your mouths...and suddenly...almost without noticing, with little effort on my part...I feel alive.

Do you know what I mean by alive?

That sudden burst of creative energy that causes you to have incredible ideas and thoughts and to know that anything is possible or that awe filled inspiration of looking at nature and sensing something so much greater...in the very same landscape you took for granted only yesterday. Its like looking through His eyes...I think it IS looking through His eyes and sensing by His Spirit and knowing with His confidence that you have power inside and can accomplish anything or that there is a high purpose to this walk and life has real meaning... thinking thoughts outside of your own depth...that come from God knows where...literally...

And when I slip away from this incredible Aliveness...usually without even noticing how the cares of my life are taking me away or how I haven't connected with Him lately... for a time I don't even notice that my life has become dead and boring and dreary...so monotonous and colorless...I only know that something is wrong...terribly wrong...and I think " it can't have always been like this....surely it won't always be this way"...then I remember that I used to feel alive...and I miss it so...but most of the time I can't seem to remember how to get back there...and Christian music or Sunday sermons or daily devotional do little to help.

Then after a while...sometimes after I have given up on ever sensing that Aliveness again...His Spirit is gracious to prompt me and draw me...and I turn again into Him...and Life is there. Sometimes only a tiny spark...but enough to remind me...and quicken me,...a glimpse into what is and what can be that causes me to hunger for more.

Crashing

Well, its Sunday night...the Eagles have lost the NFC championship game to the Cardinals...the ribs are gone...
and my son and his girlfriend, who have been visiting for a couple of days are preparing to head back to FL tomorrow. Sigh...I suppose all good things must come to an end.

At least I have one more day off to look forward to...thank you Martin Luther King Jr! :)

Jack is Back!

Yeah!
In case you missed the 4 hour premier Sun. and Mon. you can catch up here.

A miracle in my heart

01/10/09 - 11:04AM
(A bit of a disclaimer if you will;
I removed this post earlier because I was afraid it might embarrass my husband, might be misunderstood, might sound...a little over the top. Upon several requests, I am re-posting it. Those of you who know him know that I am understating if anything....)


We have a tradition in our house...it is this:

On Christmas morning when everyone is first up and before we go down to the living room, we stop on the stairs...the landing, just out of sight of the tree...(when we had no stairs, all the kids came in and sat on our bed)...and my husband...the gentle, and wise man of God and father that he is, tells the story of Christmas...the real story of Who He is and why He came...and how that impacts our world, our family...how it makes all the difference.

He has done this for some 25+ years...for as long as we have had children of any age to understand at all. Always done with their age level in mind...thoughtfully and spirit filled....one of the many ways he has changed lives...our lives...the lives of myself, my mom and each of my kids, everyone who really hears him....and now its time for another generation.
This is the first year that Jada has been old enough to know what awaits downstairs and at the same time old enough to wait and to listen...and to understand that this day... Christmas Day and what it represents...is bigger than her, bigger than us...it is bigger than the whole world.

This man.... that God has given me as a husband, my children as a father and now my granddaughter as a grandfather....has the uncanny ability...the anointing if you will...to speak Life...literally, into the lives of those he comes in contact with...be it at work, in the grocery store, at the hair salon, on the bike trail, where ever he spends any time...and you know what...people long to hear Life...they crave food for their spirits and don't even know what it is...or why the sound of his words help them.
He is real and amazing and filled with God...and overflowing with a God given ability to deposit Christ into hearts and spirits. There are so few who can do this...it stuns me...literally stuns me to hear what is perpetrated as Life to those who are so desperate for it, by those who have NO idea whatsoever how to impart Christ. .....yet my household is incredibly blessed, this man, this gifted man, this master of impartation, sits today...in suburbia USA, on the stairs on Christmas morning...imparting Life into those around him who at this moment happen to be his family...a gift hidden from the world...yet oh so powerful.

I came to know the Lord through this voice, I mean really know the Lord. I came to know His house and His purpose through words spoken from this Christ filled heart,... as have many many others. I love to hear it still, Life that is, I need to hear it always...Life never grows old and never ceases to be birthed in us if we have opportunity to hear and receive.
... and now he begins again...with a new little heart....

This quote from the latest Thoene book "The Eighth Shepherd" really said it for me....

"I can hear his voice creating a miracle in my heart..."
Bodie & Brock Thoene- The Eighth Shepherd


Roms. 10:14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

Happy New Year!

I pray this new year brings you all the colors of Joy and the ability to find it in the most unusual places.

The blue in the flames of your fireplace, the blue in the eyes of someone you love, the blue in the sky on a cold winter's day.
The red in your grandchild's cheeks and lips, or a crisp apple or juicy tomato.
The green of new leaves, or fresh paint, a tennis ball or an old green comfy sweatshirt.
The yellow of the sun on a bright summer's day or daffodils in spring or squash in summer.
The purple of twilight, eggplant parmigiana from your favorite cook, your son's faded purple favorite ball cap or the birthday card your little one makes for you.
The orange of sunset, a leaf in the fall...or your favorite sales catalog.

...and though every day in the coming year will not seem glorious....and some days will even seem dark and difficult....may each of us feel the arms of our Savior around us and His perfect Joy in our hearts.

Happy New Year!

Christmas Stuff

I guess you can tell I'm a pretty busy girl. :) So forgive me if I combine several good post ideas into one.

Jada and her caroling friends at our neighborhood caroling night.

Waiting for the caroling wagon with Aunt Bekah, just in from Hawaii.

Too much Christmas fun and a late night with "Chronicles of Narnia"

The local Candy Cane Hunt with new friends.

Building gingerbread houses at the local Candy Cane Hunt. It was about 30 degrees that day with a stiff breeze making gingerbread house building a chilling event. :) Of course the Caroling night it was about 55....Thats the South for you. Up and down like a yoyo this time of year.

So...there's some of what we've been up to. The Christmas Program at church is tomorrow night and J is excited that her mommy, daddy, auntie Bekak and Papi will be present..I only get a slight nod along with her Granny. :)

Hope you're having fun along the way this holiday season too!

Stethoscope

The Amazing Scarf

I promised I'd let you know how the scarf adventures turned out so here it is....

After Thanksgiving stroll
Making holiday goodies

shopping on Black Friday

I kept the scarf for 10 days...which fell over Thanksgiving and Black Friday. The scarf accompanied me for our holiday celebrating, family time and afterward for shopping on Black Friday and Christmas cooking on the weekend. To my thinking, the entire time was just a little piece of Americana...things almost every American was doing in their on way at about the same time, individually, yet the same. This is the thing, maybe more than any other, that makes America great, the bonds of sameness that we all enjoy...or suffer for that matter...our commonality.

What a great picture of our lives in Christ...different and certainly individual, yet connected by the sameness that makes it all something deeper, powerful and infinitely worthwhile.

....Funny how something like a winter scarf could do something amazing....

The Scarf

I am a part of a sisterhood....
so big and so diverse that I cannot fully comprehend it. The faces and lives of my sisters reflect that of Christ to me if I will only stop to notice. Everyone of them different yet the same..in Him. I am so blessed to be a part of His great family in the earth and to share that in a micro way with 11 other beautiful sisters through the magic of the traveling scarf....it is a link to these eleven sisters scattered around the country even the world. Through the travels of our scarf we are connected, a picture of our true reality. Because though separated by miles and timezones, cultures and continents we actually stand outside of time and space, hand in hand together with our Lord. Our traveling scarf denotes this, a cord that binds us together. It is a tangible representation of what is true, the invisible made visible. Its a magical bond that reflects His binding of us together. I'm up for an adventure...with the scarf...with my sisters! I'll let you know how it turns out. :)

James

Tomorrow my wonderful son in law will leave on his deployment to Iraq. Please keep him and my daughter in your prayers. This will be a long separation for them and she will be alone in a strange place while he serves his country in a dangerous foreign land. Pray God's keeping and blessing on them both and may the time fly. He is truly a second son to us and we are so blessed to have him in our family! We love you James!

A couple of weeks ago we traveled to Jacksonville, FL to see them before his deployment. My son and his girlfriend and my daughter and granddaughter joined us for a great family time together. Here are some pics from the weekend.

James, Bek, Irene, and Jeff

Me and my daughters

Poppi and his Jada

My sweet girls

I Voted!

Hooray! I did it! I stood in line for one and one half hours in the cold (GA cold that is) and voted my conscience. The lines here in Atlanta are long and I believe that on Nov. 4th they will be extraordinarily so....I didn't want to miss out on this opportunity. It is SO important, especially this year and we see it here in our state clearly. Please pray...please vote.

Pour My Love On You (worship video w/ lyrics)

Just heard this song for the first time this morning in a worship service. Amazing chorus! I immediately thought of my husband whose entire life consists of pouring out himself on his Lord. Those of you who know him can agree I'm sure. He is continuing to do so even as our lives are so very different these days...he has always maintained that His Lord was, is, and always will be ENOUGH....and so He is proving Himself to be. God what a song! God, what a heart to be able to pour yourself out on HIm no matter what!

32 years

Tomorrow it will be 32 years since I walked down the aisle and pledged my self, my life, my love to this man.

Did I know what I was getting into? Absolutely not!

Have there been hardtimes? yes

Times I thought we wouldn't make it? yes, those too

Would I do it all over again? Absolutely, yes!

It has been the adventure of a lifetime and I would love doing it all again!

He is my life, my love, and my salvation. He has shown me the world in ways I would never have known and shown me the Lord in ways I could never explain nor can hardly comprehend even now. Without him I would be one of the many lost sheep wandering in the wilderness not only of this life but of the spirit. With his gentle guidance I have found great joy in this earthly existence and incredible freedom and purpose in the kingdom of God. I thank my God daily for this man He has given me to walk with me, to be my friend and lover, and to show me the way home.

The journey thus far has been amazing...not stoppin now.

Happy anniversary, baby, I love you.

This moment

I have a friend who often speaks of living IN the moment....I look at the world of finance...of life as we, my generation, have known it and see clearly that what has always been will not necessarily always be and I am reminded to see...really see the moment I am in. Yes, there is eternity...but when does that actually begin?

This moment....that truly is what our lives should and must consist of isn't it...this moment in Him, this moment of turning to Him...the NOW...this is where eternity and time intersect, where spirit and body connect...this moment.

Progressive Party

My neighborhood association is planning a Progressive Dinner Party for the holidays. Won't that be fun?!?
...and in case you don't know what that is, here is a description I found on line.

"If you're looking for a way to socialize that requires little work or expense and that keeps the party moving all night, then a Progressive Dinner Party may hold the answer for you. At a Progressive Dinner a group of friends plan a meal together where each course is served at a different participant's home, so that the party literally moves from place to place throughout the evening.
This party style works especially well for friends who live close to one another either in a neighborhood, an apartment building or a condo complex. Then everyone can walk from home to home without worrying about organizing cars and designated drivers. It also facilitates digesting between courses!"

Count me in!

Reading....or trying to

I don't usually have a reading list one but just now I do have a few things lined up.

1. A.D. Chronicles #8 (I don't know the name yet but I know I have to read it)
2. Millionaire Women Next Door
3. Duct Tape Marketing
4. Book Yourself Solid
5. The Secret to the Christian Life (again)

Can you tell I'm trying to focus on business?

What's on your list?

What Big Bang?

Have you heard what's happening tomorrow..Wednesday, Sept. 10th our time ?
This is what's happening...scary isn't it? and the Grid that they are using is what is supposed to replace the internet in time...
I emailed this story to my children and here is the response I received back from my daughter, Bekah,the science girl...

"I've heard rumor and mention of some project to attempt to simulate the Big Bang. Scientists kind of baffle me with this one. If you think about it, there are very few laws in science. Lots of theory, little law. One is the Law of Conservation of Matter, another Conservation of Energy. Neither can be created nor destroyed. Matter can be reconfigured. Blocks can build new things, and large things can be broken down into pieces. Energy can be used or produced or converted. When you burn a log, the matter doesn't go away, it just changes form. Its energy changes from a measurable potential energy into heat that is dissipated in the air. Going with these 2 laws, how do you come up with a "big bang theory?" Where did this matter come from? Where did this unfathomable amount of energy to cause the combustion come from? Think about all the matter and energy, just on earth. Spontanaity doesn't explain it to me adequately. Faith and creationism allow me to accept and explains what science cannot. I don't think science and faith are competing schools of thought. I think the only way science makes any sense at all is through the prism of faith."

I'm So proud!

I agree with Mrs. Mac

My friend Mrs Mac says it nicely so let me just agree..."Way to go, Sarah!" ...."She makes McCain shine."

and now..a Jadaism

Jada (a new kindergardener): "We have a new girl in our class, she's blind and uses a white cane."

My Mom: "How can the teacher teach her anything since she can't see?"

Jada: "Well she doesn't have an ear infection."

Duh :)

LIF

Having a LIF moment(see this post for reference).....I'm liking the words to this song....

I can't remember the last time I heard a contemporary Christian song that spoke so much Truth. I hope Christians are listening..., anything else really is NOT us.



Identity
John Waller

You are love

So I am love

You are joy

And so I am, joy

You are peace

So I am peace

Lord everything you are

Now becomes me

The line between

Where you begin

And where I end

Is gone, now I'm in… YOU,



(Chorus)


I know who I am

You're my true, born identity

I'm not the one I used to be

For now there is no separating You…from who I am



You are strong

So I am strong

You are power

And so I am…powerful

You are mercy

So I am mercy

Cause everything you are

Has now become me



Anything less is not us

Anything less is not us

Anything else is not who we are

Islam vs Christianity

Wow...did you see this?

Pink and Blue Chairs

Pink and blue camp chairs changed my life......

I know...very strange you say, well, if you've got a minute, here's the story...or at least part of it.

Some years ago, not too long after we had departed from the traditional church world, we stumbled upon a lovely group of people who amazingly enough, all wanted the same thing we did in our Christian experience...reality in Jesus Christ.
God led us to them and that is a story for another day...but today I will tell you a bit about how we achieved the impossible...we explored and experienced real church life, just as you imagine it to be from reading the book of Acts and we did it together with this group of people.

We did it from those pink and blue chairs...

The very first corporate thing we did together was to throw out the Sunday church service...we moved the meetings to Sat. and Tues nights...then we added different kinds of meetings...song meetings..picnic meetings...brothers meetings, sisters meetings...business meetings (yuck!)
We went along like this for a while and God said it was good.
Then one day we decided that this wasn't enough...we could hear our Lord calling us onward, we couldn't really get to know Him sitting in a pew...so what could we do next to make our relationships with Him and within the body more real?
We felt we should erase the line between clergy and laity and become simply brothers and sisters....so we decided to push back all the pews and sit on the floor...except that didn't go over so well for very long with the, shall I say, grownups in the group...that's when we decided to purchase the chairs. They would be low enough to the ground to keep the playing field leveled yet comfortable and portable for the variery of meetings we were enjoying.

And so the pink and blue camp chairs came into our lives...
and God said it was good!

And boy did they change things too!

Suddenly people spoke up in meetings, those who had never done so before started songs or prayed aloud. People asked questions and answered them, they laughed outloud in meetings, some took off their shoes while others told them to put them on again. The casualness of life invaded our church and we became family.
Everywhere we went as a church, those chairs went with us. To conferences and potlucks, to campouts and bible study, to backyard barbecues and baptisms, literally everywhere.
When the pushed back pew set up was no longer cutting it we discussed moving together into a neighborhood so we could spend more time together loving our Lord in daily life...eventually some moved...some didn't...but one weekend we planned an experiment...we held an entire weekend of meetings, meals and fun in the neighborhood some had moved to...and eveyone else was to come for the weekend, to stay and eat and sleep over. It was an experiment in community. How would this lifestyle work? could it work? Would we love it? or hate it? did we need it or could we live without it? That weekend everyone came...we all piled into the few homes already available in the neighborhood, kids, bibles, casseroles and all. Then we walked between the homes for every meal, meeting and event. Everywhere we traveled during the weekend...we brought our bibles, our song books and our chairs. We set up shop wherever we happend to be and church life sprang up among us. Then we knew it...this was no longer optional, we needed this kind of church and each other, daily, to see our Lord more fully. This became our lifestyle...brothers and sisters living and loving Him together and God said it was very good.
For the next several years we grew up there in the church and in the Lord and some of the dearest saints in this world sat next to me in those pink and blue camp chairs. ..

A few years ago, and many miles down the road, with our own two chairs in tatters, I was forced to make the very difficult decision to throw them out. It was in effect the end of an era, the end of innocence perhaps, the end of so much.
And though time marches on and I no longer have the luxury of seeing saints outside my door on a daily basis...I will never regret nor forget, nor recover and I do not wish to. In this environment our lives were turned upside down and melted together in ways beyond imagining, not just for this lifetime but for all eternity.

Who would have ever thought it could all begin with pink and blue camp chairs?

Life and Death

I read an interview this week with actor Kirk Cameron..you know the kid from the television show Growing Pains? Well he's all grown up and a serious Christian now with a new movie coming out by the same producers as Facing the Giants. Its called FireProof. While I know nothing about the movie I other than it will be glorifying to the Lord (that's what these people do) I was taken with something Kirk said in his interview...
He said " You wouldn't walk through an Aids hospital with the cure for Aids in your pocket and never get it out or mention it...well we have the cure for death."
Wow...I was really taken by that...we Do indeed have the cure for death...that cure is Life...Jesus Christ conquered Death...He IS the cure our world needs.
Have a Living, Breathing, Glorious Sunday.

More of our summer

Jada and her daddy..she was so excited to see him.

4th of July in the Georgia mountains

My most favorite picture of all time I think

My kids who are headed off to Hawaii to serve our country... on the beach of course

They did help me paint before they left...what do you think of my red wall? We're not done yet.....:) What are you up to?

Tony Snow

I'm shedding tears this morning for Tony Snow. America has lost a friend.

Summer so far...

Here are some of the things we have been up to this summer so far:

The Renaissance Fair
Jada's Pre-K graduatioin
Going to the park
Enjoying cousins ....
Watching them hit home runs and hanging with the family.

It takes a champion to give himself a chance when nothing's going his way.

Did you see this? Wow!

Why do I need the Church?

Now take this in context...if you know me you know I DO NOT mean "why do I Go to church?" Going to church and living the Church are completely different things to me....:)
I can think of a zillion reasons why I need the church but I recently heard a beautiful prioritizing of why I need the Church. Here are the top 5 reasons that were given, I even like the order.

1. The Church helps me focus on Christ = Worship
2. The Church helps me face life = Fellowship
3. The Church helps my faith to develop = Maturity
4. The Church helps me find my purpose = Purpose in His house
5. The Church helps me fulfil life's mission = Purpose in the earth

Oh my goodness, it actually...

Oh my goodness, it actually works. The voice you hear when you click on listen is me is that cool or what. listen

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Hey, hope you are having...

Hey, hope you are having a great night. I am just checking out my new Jott Program. Give it a trial. listen

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LIF

I heard this song today for the first time. I don't know if its new or old.

It touched me....I love these words for they express where I am just now.

"Come and fill my soul with who you are
In my silence, You still hear me"

Wow. Thank you, Lord that you hear even when I don't/can't speak, when I am at a loss for words.

You DO fill me up with WHO you are.

- A Loss For Words -

Charles Billingsley
I've prayed in the silence

And felt your presence near

I've walked in the garden

And found you waiting there

I have stood with the masses

To lift my hands in praise

I've knelt there all alone and called your name

Yet today I'm just not sure

Of what I should say

I am empty, You are holy

Come and fill my soul with who you are

In my silence, You still hear me

CHORUS

You are holy, you are worthy

The blessed Son of God, the morning star

You are glorious, you are marvelous

But there's so much more, to who you really are

To who you really

Absolutely Beautiful

I'm so distant from His "breath", His "ways" my true "habitation" these days that this is almost over my head. But I still hear enough of His voice to recognize Life when I hear it. Oh my goodness!! Doesn't it just take your breath away??

Birthday Girl!

What an exciting weekend I have just lived through! As long as 6 months ago my hubby began getting things, including me, ready...In Feb. he insisted we get tanning packages (remember Valentines Day??), he encouraged me to get my highlights done...we mapped out our vacations for the year( I complained they were all biking trips!)but he trudged ahead anyway...he arranged all our lodgings and even when our vacation dates changed from Memorial Day weekend to the weekend before my birthday(his sister was supposedly going to be out of town on the holiday) I wasn't too suspicious...though of course I figured he'd do something for me, he's not the type to forget and after all.... I was turning 50!

Come the weekend we loaded up and traveled to our hometown in Alabama to just chill out, lie in the sun and visit relatives. Sounds exciting, right?? He asked me to bring a nice outfit for Saturday night cause he was taking me out to a new restaurant for my birthday. Okay...so I was a little bummed that he wasn't doing much...but then I figured I'd get a great present instead. :) Friday we basically lazed around, meeting in-laws for a T-ball game and dinner out. (Little did I know that my sisters and friends were eating out just across the highway and hubby was on the phone periodically to amke sure our paths didn't cross! Had we run in to any one of them I would have caught on right away). On Saturday we dropped Jada off at the cousins and then spent the day across the river in a neighboring town just tooling around eating lunch and ice cream and just hanging out. Hubby wanted us to get home and get ready for our dinner out at a rather early time I thought but hey, if we were driving any distance I could understand that. So we headed home to get dressed about 3pm with plans to leave the house around 4:30..on the way his mom called and asked if we could run her out to a local restaurant where she was supposed to meet her Sunday School class for dinner. I was just a tiny bit irritated that now we would have to be on a schedule..her schedule and I did inquire as to who would have taken her out there if we hadn't been in town...since we're never in town....but he pointed out that he never gets to do things for her and it was right on our way...How could I argue??

As we arrived at her destination...a cool little country barbecue type place with a logcabin feel and red checkered table cloths...she mentioned that my hubby's aunt and uncle would be there and we should come in and see them for a minute. I truly never thought a thing about it. It was so completely something she/we would do that I never gave it a thought, of course we would run in and say hi. Upon on entering the restaurant we headed upstairs to the loft which is an area you can reserve for groups with my mother-in-law leading the way and my husband in the rear. When we reached the top of the stairs my mother in law stepped aside and 50+ guests, who had all been squatting so as not to be seen from the first floor, jumped up and shouted surprise! I about fell over! I was completely in shock! At first I wasn't registering what was happening,,,,then I saw my son (who lives in Orlando),then my daughter and her hubby(who live in Jacksonville)...then my cousin whom I haven't seen in at least 10 years! then an old old friend and another and another...it began to dawn on me! They were all here for me! To see me! I couldn't decide whether to laugh or to cry so I did some of each! I hugged every single person and exclaimed over them and how they had managed to get there or to keep the secret. Unbeknownest to me, my sisters and cousins had spent the two days before hanging out and scrapbooking a memory book for me. I think they had as much fun doing that as they did surprising me. :) My kids had jumped through numerous hoops to make it happen and to get themselves there without me knowing, wisely keeping Jada out of the loop, :) and several people had come from afar. It was wonderful seeing them all again and so much fun having everyone there at the same time!

Its really kind of weird being on the receiving end when you are the one who usually does the planning for such events but it was done very well and I had a wonderful time!

The food was good, I blew out all the candles and opened lots of gifts. I also got to sing (not happy birthday either) with my extended family for the first time in probably 30 years. It was so awesome!...and we still sound pretty good together too!

With so many cameras on hand, I felt like a victim of the paparazzi the entire night. I'm looking forward to getting all those pictures back...but here are a few I already have....

Here they are lying in wait for me...

The look on my face!

Here's my gang, minus Jada but then she was busy with her cousins running wild. :)

My lovely sisters!

Happy Birthday to ME! Loved it!

Check this out!

What a blast I had this past weekend! My hubby, along with some helpers pulled off a surprise, 6 months in the planning...and I was truly clueless! Go here to read about it!