Taking some time off...

I had the opportunity to go to a Catalyst church leaders conference this past Monday. There was a lot of great information that quite frankly, I need time to fully process. There was one thing that really stood out to me...that I should be the best wife and mom that I can be as those are the roles that only I can do. With this in mind, I will not be updating the blog for a few weeks. My husband is having shoulder surgery in a few hours and I need to be a full time nurse and as Thanksgiving arrives, I want to be fully focused on my relationship with God and my family. I trust that you too want to be the best you can be for your family in the roles that are uniquely yours. I also pray that you count your many blessings as we celebrate Thanksgiving. Look for a post the first week in December. We are planning a great Christmas activity for December 5th!

Catching up

This morning it was so great to sit in the newly refinished auditorium at church. I was a bit sleepy as I sank into the comfortable chairs, but something Pastor Steve said really caught my attention. You see, I do want to be a genuine Christian and want to be growing in my faith. But being real and genuine, I have to tell you that this past week I faced a few trials and instead of growing through them, I checked out. I didn't spend time in the Word or in prayer like I know I should do. I wasted time that could have been more productively used and I took naps instead of calling on friends to give me hand. I'm thankful for our pastor who is willing to preach the truth of the Word even when it is convicting.

That brings me to the topic I would have blogged about last week. October is Pastor Appreciation Month or ministry appreciation month. I like to use this forum to thank Pastor Steve, Josh our worship leader, Donald our youth pastor, Sherri our Children's ministry director and all the others who serve faithfully in our church. Even though it's November, it is never a bad time to thank those who minister to you and your family and I encourage you to do so!

I also want to remind ladies of our upcoming activities:
FP4H Bible study Saturday, Nov 7th from 9-11 am at the church office
Celebrate Life Open House this Saturday, Nov 7th from 2-4 pm at the church office
Under Grace and Over Coffee with Jessica Ellison Sunday, Nov 8th from 7-8:30pm at Wegmans.

You can get more detailed information on the church website!

Feedback is always welcomed and wanted...

I often wonder if we are meeting the needs of the ladies at LCC. While I know we can never meet every need, I also know that we can't attempt to meet those needs if we don't know what they are. At LCC we have a great group of ladies who serve on the women's ministry leadership team. We spend a great deal of time thinking about activities and Bible studies and then in planning. This fall we have had quite a few opportunities for women to connect - we have three Bible studies and several activities throughout each month. Recently however, we have also had a decline in attendance at our activities and I always wonder why when this happens. I also realize that no one can attend every activity - life happens in most unexpected ways!

What I would love to know is what activities appeal to you, what are the best days and times to meet and any thoughts you'd like to add.

What I'd also like for everyone to know is how thankful I am for all those ladies who are serving in women's ministries. We have two new Bible study leaders this fall, Michelle Boice and Jessica Ellison. They are both doing an outstanding job! Lisa Downing will be starting another First Place for Health group the end of this month. Jessica recently planned and led our prayer walk which Lisa Downing hosted for us. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate, but God blessed just the same! I appreciate each one who serves the LCC women as well as each of you who attend.

So, thanks and please share with us!

Daddy

This morning I got up with my boys, then decided another hour of sleep would be welcomed in my very busy life. I woke up to Maryn singing. She is in that phase of making up her own songs. She was singing about her Daddy. Her song starts off with "Only a boy named Daddy..." (to the tune of Only a Boy named David) that's as far as the song goes, but she repeats it many times. She was also just singing the word "Daddy" over and over. When she came out of her room she was all smiles and helped her daddy get all the things for his pockets. Rich is a great father and I love watching him interact with each of our children!

As I laid there trying to fully wake up (still working on that about 90 minutes later) I thought of God as my Father and how He must love when we sing praises to Him. Our songs can be as simple as Maryn's or borrowed from our worship time at church.Today or at least this week, let's sing a song of praise to Our Father.

This Week's Laundry Blunder...

Lest anyone think I have it all together I share yet another blunder and the following adventure that followed. Keep in mind that I'm a bit overwhelmed with the 2 weeks of construction that was going on at the house (two bathroom remodels, painting outside and other outside work). The dust from the construction was mounting by the day and starting to drive me crazy not to mention the sneezing that went along with it. So Friday I set out to start cleaning our bedrooms.

My oldest son wanted to start his laundry before he left for school (just so you don't think I'm a tyrant, he is a senior in high school and going to college next year). I told him I needed the washer during the day that he'd have to wait. But in the midst of all the cleaning I decided to throw his clothes in the washer so they'd be ready to dry when he got home from school. I patted myself on the back thinking what a nice, thoughtful mom I was. It turns out that it wasn't such a helpful thing to do...I washed an entire pack of gum which had made its way onto most every article of clothing in the load. My poor son, he was so upset but realized I was just trying to help.

So, last week book washing, this week I'm on to stickier situations! This story had an easier ending when my mom came and jumped right in to help get the gum off the clothes. I truly don't know what I'd have done without her. She and my dad even took the more difficult clothes home and worked on them, laundered them and returned them about 14 hours later. I'm not sure how they slept.

I will not tell you that the moral to this story is not to help your children, but I do suppose we need to learn our children's routines before we step in and "help."

Tip of the Week...

If you need to wash a book, I'd recommend a damp paper towel. Why you ask? Well last week in my hurry to get a load of laundry in the washer I accidentally left a book in with the clothes and it went through the washer. You can only imagine my surprise when I lifted the lid to transfer the clothes to the dryer and saw all this white stuff on my clothes. I first thought I left a tissue in one of my pockets, that's certainly been known to happen, but this seemed a bit...well not just a big more...like perhaps an entire jumbo package of toilet paper!

I could not imagine what had caused so much mess until I discovered the plastic wrapper of the book...in case you didn't know, the card stock cover is covered with a plastic film that has the picture and information on it. My washer had totally obliterated the entire book into the tiniest little shreds you can imagine and it COVERED everything...especially the darkest clothing.

When I say covered, I mean after the first pass through the dryer, it was still covered. Oh, and just to give you some context, Caleb's marching band show shirt was one of the worst hit items and he needed the shirt in about an hour. He was so angry and frustrated! I ended up vacuuming the shirt to get as much off as I could and then used one of those lint removers, lots of elbow grease, patience and about 90 minutes or so to get it good enough to deliver (late) to the game. When I discovered the mess I literally stood over my washer and dryer and prayed for God's help, well begged for his deliverance from this terrible situation!

I couldn't bear to deal with anymore of the mess until the next day. I had my contractor (who was here all that week) to look at my washer to see how I should best proceed. I took the offended laundry outside to shake as much off as I could. My contractor offered to string up a clothes line, but I decided that I didn't need to share my undergarments with the neighbors! After repeated washing and drying most everything is back to normal. I had friends tell me last week that some day this will be funny...I know it will, but it was a trying experience.

Over the weekend, I resumed my normal laundry...my younger son left some money in his pants pockets. Interestingly, the money remained in tact. My contractors though could not pass up the opportunity to tease me about not only book laundering, but money laundering! :)

So, the lesson learned that I'd like to share with you all is...don't put your books into the laundry! Oh, and for those wondering the book was Missing by Beverly Lewis and yes, it's really missing now!

Kids...

Two weeks ago we had our kick off for our new kids programs at LCC! I was away so I got my first taste of it yesterday and I must say I was impressed! I was impressed by one of our young moms who had her two little ones in tow, an infant who was having her first nursery experience and her two year old...who showed up early to be ready for our elementary students. I was impressed by our little staffer boys who have to come early with their parents, yet they did so well in their classes. I was impressed by the preschool staff who look on my little girl for the first time. When I peeked in on the class they were having a blast with our teen helpers building towers!

And speaking of teens, I think LCC has the best teens in the country...I wonder if there are any other churches who have such a great group of kids who serve their church and their Lord, like ours do! I am so thankful for them as they help care for my little one and because I get to serve right beside them and because God has blessed me with two teens as well!

I know there has been lots of talk about where you are serving. I hope you don't turn a deaf ear to it, because it really does take everyone one of us doing out part to make our church function properly. I also have to tell you of the untold blessings that come from serving. Yesterday I was blessed seeing a husband and wife serving side by side in the nursery...who can say they know a dad who loves to sing Veggie Tale songs?! I saw joy and contentment on the mom who got to hold that precious little infant and rock her to sleep. I saw laughter when our littlest ones smiled. Personally, I got to see little toddler faces light up when I sang their name! And I absolutely love to see when little ones make the connection that our story is from the Bible, God's Word. Yesterday we learned about creation and after every day God said it was very good.

I'd have to echo, very good indeed!