Prayers of Thanksgiving!

Our dear friend Emma was in a nasty car wreck today. We were all on edge for quite a while waiting to hear how she was. So far, it looks as if she just has a broken arm or wrist and will be sore for a while. We thank God for His abundant mercy and grace! There is no other way she could have made it through all of this with such minor injuries. Please join us in thanking Him for keeping His child safe!

Over Simon!

I know, when you watch Idol you are supposed to be over Simon. Last night he knocked down a great guy who did a great job rocking down the house because he had a boring clip before he sang! I thought this was a singing competition! He also called him boring, because the clip was about the fact that he loved vocabulary and doing word puzzles. He called himself a word nerd. Just another time in our society when it tagged as being "uncool" if you are smart! It drives me crazy! One of the reasons we watch Idol is because it is something are entire family can watch together. I don't have to worry about the language or moral issues. I cannot say the same about last night. I was furious that he emplied that they guy was boring because he is smart!

New Jewelry

For those of you who check out my jewelry, I have put a FEW new things up. I am going to work much harder to put more up on a regular basis. Just click on "My Shoebox" on the right and it will take you to see some of my designs. Let me know what you think! Thanks!

Country Livin'

When you move from the big city to the country strange things begin to happen. An example may be that you no longer say van, a one syllable word, instead you may say vay-un, two syllables. Or, strange creatures may appear in your back yard. We have had deer, opossums, chipmunks, rabbits, woodpeckers the size of a small child, a fox, skunks, possibly a coyote, and on this particular night, a raccoon. We couldn't figure out why Orange Kitty was freaking out. Her hair was standing on end and her tail was about three times it's normal size. Then we looked out of our sliding glass doors. This little fellow was just looking in, hoping to come in for some warmth and a snack. He was so cute. Orange Kitty was not as amused!

You can make some of the people happy some of the time...

I will admit it, sometimes I am hard to please. Today was one of those days. There have been SO many days that we have been off of school when there is absolutely no reason for it. Today, every school surrounding us was closed, we were on a two hour delay. Today, we should have been off of school. I am not sure what they use to make these decisions! I was missing 1/3 of my class today! Thanks for letting me vent. I thought maybe some of you would have liked to know how the day turned out! The trees are just beautiful though. It was foggy, and they were all covered with a 1/4 inch of ice. It was so lovely.

Our Poor Beautiful Tree

The poor tree in the front of our house just never gets a chance. It always gets warmer in the late winter, the trees starts budding, and then we get cold and ice. Just look at the beautiful red buds covered in a layer of ice. I feel bad for the tree, but it looks beautiful! It looks like branches that they try and recreate for holiday decorations. I just had to take some pictures! They don't even do justice to the beauty of it! I love winter!

Taking Wagers

I am not the betting type, but I wonder what everyone here in Southern Indiana (and those who used to be from here) are thinking about school tomorrow. We started with sleet today around 11. We left school by 12:15. It all started much sooner than they expected it to. Now, we are in for another round of freezing rain. The big question is if we will be on a two hour delay or if school we be canceled altogether. They say it is supposed to do this until 9 a.m. If this is true I just cannot imagine having school. We will just have to wait and see. The cars are moving down are road quite slowly.

I have to say that I sorta like the slowing down of life. We have had such a busy week. Monday we had a PTL meeting. Ben played a teacher in his class devotion. They did a great job. Tuesday we had our Cub Scout Blue and Gold dinner. Ben got several honors. I am proud of his involvement in scouts! He got a special award for the amount of things he turned in to the Goodwill. They haven't seen anything yet! :0) Yesterday I had to tutor after school. I had bell choir at 5:45 followed by Lenten service. It has been a busy one. Tonight we would have had choir. I hate that we are missing practice. Easter is just around the corner, but I am glad to have a night at home.

So, place your vote, no school or a two hour delay? I hate to miss another day of school. At this pace we will be in school till the middle of June!

Tagged

Wow, I have been waiting to be tagged for a meme, and Glenda did tag me! Thanks. I didn't even notice my name at the bottom of her post. Rich pointed it out to me! Here is how it works.

1. Pick up the nearest book that has at least 123 pages.
2. OPen the book to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. POst the next three sentences.
5. Tag 5 people

So, the nearest book to me is "Organization Tips for Scrapbookers." Page 123 is a beautiful picture of a storage container of scrapbooking tools. I choose to post for page 122 then.

"Save time and money by taking goood care of your toos as you go. Before you retun trimmers, scissors and punches to their container, ensure they're ready for the next use with these maitenance tips: Change trimmer blades often to prevent ragged cuts through paper and photos (better yet, keep a few extras in your tool storage so you don't have to finish this batch
of cutting, albeit with ragged cuts before you can make it to the store to purchase more).

Pretty earth shattering stuff huh? But to the dedicated scrapbookers in the world, those punches and trimmers are our best friends. We just have to take good care of them!


I tag Susan (http://www.cafescrapper-scrapsoflife.blogspot.com/), Jessica (http://www.john-jess-emma.blogspot.com/), Rebekah at (http://www.koester-littlethings.blogspot.com/), and Rich (http://www.revfrheinz.blogspot.com/)
Sorry, my collection of blog friends isn't big enough to tag 5 people who have not yet been tagged! Help me out! Start a blog!

I Love You Brother!

If you are an Idol fan, you surely know Renaldo Lapuz. Simon has promised that his original song he used for his audition will become a hit. We will see. Rumor has it that is acutally going to be at Higher Things this summer! Check it out at http://www.higherthings.org/!

What do you think of Jesus?

I would love to hear how you would answer that question! Post your answers if you want!

What do you think of Jesus?

Today, Steve Cohen, of Apple of His Eye Mission Society, spoke at our church. He is a Messianic Jew who came to know Jesus Christ as his Savior by just one person, whom he didn't even spend a lot of time with, coaxing him to read the New Testament, which he states is a great Jewish book. He is remarkable. He started Apple of His Eye so that he could help to spread the news of Jesus Christ to those who are still practicing Jews, and those who just don't know Jesus or refuse to accept that he is their Lord and Savior. He has grown this group and has done amazing things! You can read about them at www.aohems.org.

He spoke of the need for everyone one of us to make sure we are taking every opportunity to share the Good News to all we can. He suggested that asking "What do you think of Jesus" can be a very easy way to get the ball rolling. He says he asks it of every server he encounters at a resturaunt. I loved one of his suggestions. He said that he always enjoys having a telemarketer call his home. He first tells them that he is so very glad that they have called and that he knows they have some really important things to share with him, but before they do, he needs to ask them a question. "What do you think about Jesus?" He shared many examples of where this small question has lead many to faith. I LOVE this idea. I cannot wait for a telemarketer to call now! Try it with me! Let me know how it goes!

Also, if you please will, pray for Apple of His Eye. Pray for the missions that they are carrying out. Pray for our church, St. John's, that they have heard his words and are ready and willing to ask the question. Pray for all those who are waiting to have that question asked!

I thank God for Steve and his mission work. He is an amazing man and I believe our church was blessed by his presence today!

"Senioritis"

I just returned from our Indiana Pastor's Wives Retreat! It was wonderful as always! I just love spending time with other pastor's wives. We are like our own little sorority. We all understand each other so much!

While we were there, I led a session on jewlery making. We made my 23rd Psalm bracelet. We also made bracelets to be taken to the Sudan to be sold in the market to help "Hands of Mercy" (More on that in another post.) I talked about my jewelry business all weekend. These women are the ones who have really inspired me to quit teaching and dive into the beads! They are so loving an encouraging. Now my husband says I have "Senioritis". I came home thinking I didn't have to go back to school! I was so pumped about my business that I felt it was all so real already. I did go to school today. We had a wonderful day. I do get tomorrow off because the sky is falling, I mean we got some snow! I'll make some jewelry and maybe get the chance to post some new things!

The retreat was to start with Bible study. The woman leading the study got up and said something about how we had just gotten there and that no one really was in the mood to do a Bible study. Okay, first of all, it REALLY bugs me when people who don't even know me try to tell me how I feel. Actually, I was REALLY looking forward to Bible study. I love the deep topics that we as pastor's wives can dive into! She thought it would be better if she led us in "guided meditation". Oh brother! Okay, we had to sit still for 30 minutes or so. I don't find that relaxing at all, and this was to help us relax. Then, I had to think about myself in a field of grass with Jesus, or I had to look in a pool of water and see Jesus' face. So now I am not relaxed and I cannot "see" Jesus' face in the water. I just wanted it to end. It was NOT what I was looking forward to. Needless to say, I didn't really appreicate the "Bible study". It just made me tired and made my back hurt.

Saturday the same person was leading "Bible study". She went through a list of cute little phrases and found bible verse that she might, if she worked hard, make some sort of connection to the little corney saying. It was so disappointing. I WANTED to study God's word. I wanted to grow in knowledge and faith with my sisters in Christ. I DID NOT want to be entertained. By the way, it was not all that entertaining.

So, there, I said it. I also was able to confess my sins at the divine service for the ill feelings I was having about this situation. I did, with much joy, worship with my sisters and partake of the Lord's gifts. That was WONDERFUL!

I had a fantastic weekend. I loved chatting with my friends. Pat Nuffer, a deaconess and missionary, spoke on Saturday. She was WONDERFUL! I will tell you about her and "Hands of Mercy" in my next post. She is AMAZING!

Thanks for letting me vent. I seem to be getting in a bad habit of that. I will not complain in my next post!

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fair warning, this is a venting post....if you are not in the mood to hear me vent I won't be offended if you sign out right now!

Tomorrow I leave for the Indiana District's Pastor's Wives Conference. I LOVE this conference and am usually thrilled. I am leading a session on jewlery making. Everyone will be making a bracelet that is based on the 23rd Psalm. They will also get to design a bracelet that will be given to Pat Nuffer to take with her to the Sudan for the people in "Hands of Mercy" to sell on the market.

So, I needed some supplies that I thought I had enough of. I placed an order on Monday. Okay, Rich placed the order for me, thanks hunny, but that is beside the point. We paid a nice hefty amount to get it delivered in three todays.....today. I come home to dig into my package and finish getting things ready for tomorrow, and there is no package! What?!?!?!?! I then go online to check the tracking. Yesterday it was in Lousiville, 20 minutes away! Today it went to Indianapolis, why???? The delivery date says: Rescheduled for 2-8-08. Yep, that is tomorrow....our UPS comes at 4ish.....I am leaving at 1:00. I called the company I ordered it from. They offer to deal with UPS for me and find out what the problem was. They say that I should get my shipping money back. $20.00. However, this does not give me the items in time for the conference, AND they also said that there are some reasons in which UPS does not have to refund for. I am guessing that they will use the weather as the reason and I will not get that money back. We DID have terrible weather here. MANY tornados were around the other night. What I don't understand is why it was close to me and then they shipped it out to Indy. Does that make sense? If they are having problems with the weather would it make it easier for them to send my package FARTHER away? UGH! I am cranky!

Thanks so much for listening to me grumble. I am thankful to Rings and Things for handleing UPS for me. That was nice. Now I don't have to feel all bad because I was not so kind on the phone!

Pray that I have creative inspiration on how to solve this small little mess. It won't be too difficult. The problem is, I can get most of the things that I need, but it will cost me more money. I ALREADY purchased these items, and they will be here tomorrow evening. I also bought them at a MUCH cheaper price than I am ever going to find them around here.

Okay, I will stop for now before this gets any worse.

Thanks for letting me vent!

Children in Church vs. Children's Church

My friend Rebekah posted a great story in her blog today. www.koester-littlethings.blogspot.com She was talking about her almost 2 year old holding the hymnal in church, standing and sitting at the proper times, and "singing" with the congregation! Those are priceless moments! I will never forget the Sunday I was in church with my cousin Jana and her kids. Ethan was probably 4ish. Our pastor was preaching, and for some reason which I cannot recall at this time, he mentioned "hakuna matata!" Well, Ethan's eyes became so wide! He couldn't believe that pastor was talking about his favorite Disney movie! He was listening. He was gladly hearing the word of God and he was learning it. (Yes, I do realize that "Hakuna Matata" is nowhere to be found in scripture....you got my point!)

If our children left us, and went to their own church service for the kids, would we get to experience these wonderful moments? Would they learn how important worship is to their parents by watching them? Would they realize that the words being preached at the "adult" service are God's Word for them too? I am so glad that I get to worship with my son every Sunday. I love that we can talk about the pastor's sermon because we were both there gladly hearing and learning. I love that he whispers in my ear when he doesn't understand something the pastor just said. I love hearing his sweet voice singing the beautiful hymns. I am blessed to
worship with Ben every Sunday! (I might not have said that quite so entusiastically when he was around 1 :0)

Boy Rebekah, I wish I could see that big girl with her hymnal!

SNOW???????????????

I am confident we are NEVER going to get a good snow here! We have been lucky to see an inch. Everyone is writting about their snow...friends are calling letting me know they are having snow days up north....and we have tornados! They are supposed to be moving through again tonight. Just a week ago today some ripped through parts of Louisville. I pray that everyone will be safe here in our area. I also pray that we would get some silly snow! If you have more than you want, just send some our way!