I Need Help.

So...I am so tired of the way my blog looks...I need a facelift but don't know how or where to go to do that. I see so many pretty blogs some you should check out on my list...To those friends with the pretty blogs, help me! How can I make mine more personal? More me? Links would be helpful! :)

An Off Day.

The only way I can describe today as is "off". Not because I was overly busy today. Not busy like the previous two weeks anyway. My day started out by going on a field trip with 16 preschoolers. Can you believe I survived?!! I volunteered to drive our 15 passenger van out to a farm so the kids at Megan's daycare could enjoy a horse drawn hayride, see some baby calves and colts, pet some newborn kittens and play with the goats. So after loading up many carseats off we went for some hot fresh air. It was so nice. After that I went back to the office where Mike filled me in on his morning meeting with a man who is a retired pastor, drug councellor and who worked in finances...He wants to volunteer with us to teach basic budgeting courses for our clients! That is answered prayer. After I was filled in, I went downstairs to make up some hampers for our appointments tomorrow. In the process of that I forgot about my hair appointment that was scheduled for 3pm. BOOOO! I was looking forward to my haircut. It was at about 3:30 when I realized I had missed it. THEN I realized that today is dance day not only is it dance day but it is her final class before the recital! Dance begins at 4pm so Mike rushed off home to get Meg's dance gear but on the way realized that the car seat was still in the van...GRRR...So he had to come back and get that. I told him he should have taken the van but he already had the seat out....See? Off. While getting Megan ready for dance apparently she had a massive fit in the washroom. Mike called to tell me about Megan's real "melt down" and it just seemed to add to the craziness. SO...Mike and Megan finally came to pick me up at the office and while we were in the car Megan said, "Mommy, today I had a real "milk out" at dance." I looked at Mike and smiled. Suddenly the day didn't seem so "off".

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Alright...So it has been a little while since I have been able to come on here and share about what has been going on in my life. It has been BUSY! Last weekend our church pulled together a fundraiser for Partners in Mission. We had a garage sale, bake table and BBQ. It was such a blessing to have so many people pour through the doors of the church! A bonus is that we raised $692.05 for missions! My sweet little girl was such a huge help. She was sitting at the bake table which was also the place you paid for your goods...Strategic? Yep. Having my three year old at the bake table taking money...Strategic? Ummm, nope but it sure didn't hurt! Anyhow here is how she helped...She would take their money for the goods and then offer them cookies. She wouldn't just say "You should buy some cookies." Ohhhh NO...She would describe the cookies like "These ones have Hershey's chocolate chips in them or these muffins are organic carrot ones..." BUT my favorite was when a lady said she didn't need baking (refusing an adult who had asked) my three year old chimed in by telling this lady that the money was going to kids who need clean water. She told her that the money was going for missions so that we can take the poison out of the kids' water! I heard her tell the lady that the kids would also get some clothes and some toys. She was colorful in her descriptions and my mouth hung open as I listened to her share her knowledge. The lady bought two trays of baking and smiled on her way out. This exchange really opened my eyes. Sure we as her parents have taught her about why we do what we do BUT what really got me is that she learned her information from the Partners in Mission DVD that we had been playing all through the garage sale. We just had a TV set up and we played the various videos throughout the day. If she picked up that information in that small amount of time, I have got to wonder what else she picks up from cartoons or other television shows. AMAZING! I am reminded once again to mind my manners and watch my actions because I have a bright three year old sponge who is just waiting to share what she has learned with others! Lord help me be more like you!

On another note...Today is my day off but true to form, I ended up in the office. It was a God thing today because one of my employees came in to drop off a deposit slip before heading to work and she shared about how much she enjoyed church yesterday. She has come to church twice now so that is great. Anyhow, she shared a few things about her life and after a while I really felt God telling me to go on over to the Thrift Store to talk to her so I did. I was not in uniform so that was great! I told her that I wanted to talk to her as a pastor and not as her boss (because I couldn't as her boss) and we talked about God and I told her that when she was ready I would be willing to pray with her to make her commitment sure. She told me she was ready right then! So right there at the till of the Thrift Store we bowed before God as she gave her life over to Him. It was so real! Another awesome element to this praise report happened when one of our new adherents, a baby himself and who is working on becoming a soldier, came into the store. Our employee shared her news with him right away and he shook her hand and asked her if she was interested in becoming an adherent! Out of the mouths of babes. LOL! He is on fire...and she (our newest convert) wants to become an adherent already! WOW! God is SOOO good and is moving like crazy. Day off or not...This was worth it!

Toddlers & Tiaras (Dance version)

Have you ever seen that show "Toddlers & Tiaras"? If not, allow me to sicken...I mean enlighten you. TLC has this one show devoted to sharing the lives of parents who put their children in beauty pageants. These kids (sometimes younger then my 3 year old) are spray tanned, fake haired, caked on make up wearing...Fluffy dressed kids with fake teeth. They prance around in dresses that cost more then my wedding rings and sport bathing suits and show case what talent they have to a panel of judges who do just that. They are judged on looks and presentation. Need I say more about that? I am sure most of us can come up with biblical reasons why this SUCKS. Anyhow, I am not here to talk about those poor kids/parents. I am here to tell you about my experience. I feel like I had a similar experience today. Only this was the dance version.

After much research into the different schools of dance in town, we put our sweet little girl into dance class (ballet and tap) it was one class where the instructor (WONDERFUL lady) did 15 mins. of tap first to teach rhythm, then 15 mins. of ballet for coordination. The cost was only $30/month and I can claim it on my income tax so that is a bonus! Plus it got us out in the community more. What I didn't know was all that came along with the recital. WOW!!! First of all I would like to mention that our little one LOVES dance class so we were enjoying this activity with her. BUT things got hectic when they decided to put the picture/rehearsal day on a SUNDAY! Not only that but the time for her pictures conflicted with church. Right away I got in contact with the dance instructor and explained that this set up would not be possible for us. I told her that both of us are pastors and it would be impossible for us to get to the site on time for this event. Also I mentioned that if the actual recital was at the same time and on a Sunday that we would have to rethink our future in dance. This really made me sad for Megan because I know how much she loves her dance so I left it in God's hands. The next day we were told that the whole rehearsal/recital times had been changed to accommodate our family. Apparently it had slipped the instructors mind and she had meant to accommodate us all along. So we felt very blessed to be able to have the best of both worlds. We had the chance to share and rub shoulders with people outside of our circle. I also feel like God blessed our faithfulness. We were not willing to compromise our first commitment and I believe we were honored for that.

BUTTTTT I did not enjoy the atmosphere. We showed up on site and I felt as if I was in the middle of an episode of Toddlers & Tiaras. Megan had two costumes with two pairs of different tights, she had to have a bun with a hairnet (standard ballerina stuff) then I placed a hair piece on her!...We were told that she needed red lipstick, brown eye shadow and bronzer for her cheeks! All that was missing was the fake teeth and spray tan. She was ushered in for pictures, then she went on stage then she was whisked off where we did a wardrobe change, pictures again and then she hit the stage again however she didn't get to dance because she twisted her little knee. Poor thing bawled because she didn't get to dance. We assured her that she did get to go on stage again sometime. Dance was not over...

The chaos was too much. We showed up in the outfit that we were told to and when we arrived we found out that it was changed. So we rushed to switch tights and the outfit. Apparently I was more gracious about the mix up. Another Mom was SOOO mad about the mix up that she was dropping the *F* Bomb in the change room and completely yelling at the dance instructor...Thankfully we didn't hear it. I was able to communicate to one of the instructors that the Mom was probably not mad at that incident. She was most likely reacting to something else negative that happened during the day and unfortunately this was her outlet. So that was a neat exchange. Regardless...I am glad it is over and thankfully the competition day/time conflicts with our Sunday schedule. This means that Megan will not be judged and we will get to take part in the less stressful event which is the recital (just for fun). However, now that we have had this complete dance experience we will be choosing another activity for Megan. We asked her if she would like to dance again next year and thank God she said no...for now anyways. She said she would like to swim or play soccer. No make up or fake hair involved. WHEW! Anyhow...I couldn't get away without sharing some pictures of our experience so I hope you liked them!

Time for Change...And Not Just my Hair!

Hello Friends!

I am back to share some thoughts of mine and maybe a funny conversation we had with my sweet daughter.

Before I share the funny, I am sure some of you have noticed that I have recently closed my Facebook account. Allow me to share my thoughts on why I did this. After a really tough week of many trying events, I found myself turning to Facebook rather then to God for a break. Which is horrible I know...I should have prayed, read my Bible...Or even called a friend to talk. I didn't do those things. Instead I decided to kill some time by "creeping" my "friends" and family. I put friends in quotations because most of friends I have are from my past life. One that definitely did NOT glorify God. Yes, it is nice to connect with them, to see how they are doing...and yes I had the opportunity to share my life with them as a witnessing tool. However, I found this "opportunity" was a time waster for me. I felt convicted and I was no longer using these opportunities to share and connect but I used it more often to escape for a while and I often wasted more time on Facebook then I would like. To top it off, I realized that I was bringing my work home with me. I would read people's statuses and at times they were not good at all. I would focus too much attention on the hurts and I was becoming wrapped up in the turmoils of life that did not belong to me. I am not a big fan of conflict and I find that it is much worse when done though email or through Facebook because you cannot hear the tone or fully understand what is trying to be communicated through those brief interactions. I also got really tired of the games (not just Farmville or Mafia Wars etc.) but the emotional turmoil that without my fully noticing, was able to shift my focus from God. Some may think I am so weak because I couldn't just let other people's hurts roll off my back but that is alright. My main concern is that Facebook became too much of a distraction for me. At times I find it hard to balance my personal devotional life let alone the turmoils of the Facebook world. So the decision came quick...One evening I was sifting though my friend list weeding through trying to decide who to let go of when I said (out loud) "This is ridiculous!" That is when I decided to delete it all. I spent one hour looking though my friend list in order to cut it down...That is a whole hour I will never get back! One hour I could have been praying or reading my Bible ORRRR actually connecting with my friends by telephone or dropping a letter in the mail...I LOVE mail...Not just email but REAL mail. Then I thought why sift through, why not just get rid of it all and blog instead? When it came down to it I realized that while there are many pros to using Facebook examples include: Mass email for events, sharing pictures, witnessing to long time friends...None of them could compete with the greatest con: distracting me from my goal...To know and be known by my Creator. I was so busy trying to "connect" with others that my time with God was shorted. So, that is how I came to my decision. Will I miss Facebook?...Sometimes. Will I miss connecting with those friends that I cherish? No, I won't. I figure that I can personally email them or who knows...I may even use the archaic form of letter writing :O!! All I know is that God is leading me. He will place people on my heart and we will connect. Those who know me and want to connect will find a way other then on Facebook. I too will connect with them but more importantly I feel that I am already connecting better and more intimately with my Creator. So that is PART of my thoughts on this issue. Now would you like to hear a funny daughter moment? I thought you would...

While sitting at the supper table discussing our next event of swimming with our church family:

Megan:"Daddy do you want to wear shorts to the swimming pool?"
Daddy:(looking at his stomach)"Ummm no."
Megan:"Don't worry Daddy, your big fat belly won't explode in the water."
The laughter began! The funniest part is that she was really trying to console. Isn't she sweet?

Until next time my friends: Stay close to God and to each other!