bsmiles and sunny days

For four years we have been out of conventional ministry and serving as lay people in the church on various levels. Sheffield has proven to be a safe landing pad for us in past two years, but our feet starting to shuffle in anticipation of the next step and so we ventured out on a whim to visit a new church just to change things up. I am always curious to see how things run in different churches across the county, it's like being in someone else's house. I am also very critical when I walk into a church as I have learned not to throw the welcome mat to my heart out for every person that needs a place to wipe their feet. I was pleasantly surprised to be warmly greeted by not only those posted at the door, but also people at several stations along the way as we were taken to the childrens corner of the building and carefully instructed as to where they would be and what they would be doing. The music was good, the message was good, the service was good. A guy that met us at ...

I'm hoping to post something worth reading tomorrow as I have lots of time to study tonight. I just wanted to leave an update on Leila as this week in NUTS and I won't have time to chat mindlessly on the telephone... Yesterday I told the kids they could play in the sprinkler, for the third time this summer. I can be a real drag as a mom. ANYway, I put Leila in her walker on the concrete in the shade and then went to drag out the sprinkler. She was only a few feet from me and started crying and then screaming. I thought she was mad. Turns out the concrete was really hot and she was standing full force on one foot. I picked her up and discovered blisters on her feet!!! I am not in all arenas a terrible mother, but I have my moments. I spent a couple of hours consoling her and then decided to check out the internet for a little self-assurance. Turns out she had a second degree burn, very prone to infection, so I called the doctor who sent me to the ER. They treated her ...

I posted yesterday in a daze of emotion, and then reread my post and thought, "Eek. None of this makes any sense at all. I'll rewrite it." Unfortunately I have not gotten back to it, no promises... who knows if it's worth publishing. Time will tell. Flwrptls who are you??? I don't mind annonymous comments unless I can't guess who it is. Makes me loco, jyou know? SO today is weigh day, an exciting day in the life of Dale and Becca. I gotta tell you, that guy blows my mind. He is like the incredible shrinking man. I'm all excited about losing one pound a week, he is still dropping 6 to 8 a week! It's completely healthy, the way he's doing it, I wouldn't say it's out of balance at all. We needed such drastic changes in our lifestyle, I can only attribute his success to God's blessing. I love it. I'm so proud of him and he continues to change in spirit and character. The glimpses I see of the old guy he used to be make me...

When people say "a day in the life" they are referring to a day at Nana's. My mom is so amazing and so incredible with little children. I have always been a little blown away by the things they can do when they come home from her house. In summers past, two of my kids came home from her house potty trained. When I asked her what she did, she said, "I just put them on the toilet and asked if they wanted some big girl/boy pants." We sent Leila to her this time, who was on a food strike. She has been eating solids off and on for six months, in month six she quit. She'd take two bites and that was it. She came home and inhaled two bowls of macaroni like a two year old! Yeah. It's like that. Naturally, when she asked if she could keep them for a week this summer, I was elated. This year she took the girls first and then the boys. It wasn't a baby sitting week. It was a week for adventure for all of them. Late nights watching movies, bubble baths in the ba...

SO... Dale is whittling away to nothing and I am losing gradually. I will tell you this, I am smaller than I was when I got married- only by a few pounds, but smaller none the less. I love it. It is a great feeling to know that the numbers are moving and that if God blesses us with another baby, I can take the weight off- it is not an impossible feat. About six months or more ago, I read an article in prevention magazine. They had done side-by-side evaluations of several of the current trends in diets. It was interesting as I have always been obsessed with/addicted to dieting and physical fitness and reading such articles- not always practicing... SO at the end of the article, they posed the question to a panel of big name national nutritionists, like the FDA guys, "which one is the best?" and one of them said something that stuck with me. He said, "It's all about the math." You eat calories everyday. You burn calories everyday. If the numbers equal each other, ...

Master of all mastery master me, please master me. Master heart and soul and mind; Find what only you can find. Tame tempestuous the tide of soul and flesh that war inside. Where wrong will battle for the throne, extend Your hand, make me Your own. Master good intentions taught; Surface treasured where truth ought. Plow the stony surface deep; Pluck away my soul to keep. Master, my sweet Master, mine, master me and make me Thine.

There's nothing magical or fantastic about what's happening in our lives right now outside of the obvious... It's waiting. Waiting is happening. It's the everyday-waiting-for-the-phone-to-ring-watching-for-the-mailman- hoping-for-a-sign-from-heaven-no-word-from-anywhere waiting. It makes you question everything; is my heart not right, have I not learned a lesson, is someone close to me waiting for me to share Christ with them, is there something that has to happen in order for the walls of Jericho to fall down, or maybe we just miscounted our steps, did we make a mistake, an error in judgment? I drew out a map of the coming events for the duration of the summer and as I looked at the encroaching weeks, tears filled my eyes. I had not grieved the loss of my expectations until that moment. My need to make the best of things and chronic optimism has forced me into a corner that some people might call reality. What I thought was going to happen, what I expected to happen, w...

Since I was a teenager I led worship in youth group, church meetings, the local rally at the park... I thought it was the crown jewel of all church positions to lead worship, thus making me the crown jewel. (I am embarrassed to admit that.) It was like I was something when I was behind the piano with a microphone. I never believed I was the greatest singer or that I had phenomenal gifts for worship, I just thought I had a special anointing, like it was what I was born to do. And then when we moved to Missouri I took on the glamorous position of Certified Nurse's Aide. That means I do everything that a higher paid, more educated person doesn't want to do, the jobs that are beneath them. I used to quake every time someone told me to do something petty because they didn't want to walk up the hall. I would think, "Do you have any idea who I am and what I'm capable of?" and the Holy Spirit would whisper into my heart "This is who you are, are you capable of it...

Is this someone's idea of a sick joke, or I am reverting back to puberty? My face is breaking out like I'm 14 going to the dance at the skating rink on Thursday night! YIPES! It's not funny, and it's not nice. So, naturally I got on the internet to research my new complexion, and at 30, it's normal!?!? I'm a pimple-faced freak! On the other hand, in honor of our nation's freedom and the celebration therein, I made a big bucket of frozen ice cream; five ingredients, such natural yummy deliciousness, and a new frozen dessert made with nutter butter cookies and a cream cheese, a little layer of chocolate, whipped cream, and sugar. Yowzah! That thing may not make it to the bar-b-que. I just took a little bite after freezing it all night, and look out girls, it's better than a reeces peanut butter cup blizzard. (which has 500 calories in a small we just discovered...) I used lite cool whip and lite sour cream and it's still fantastic. I ran into a girl I ...

It's the complexities of suffering that trouble me the most, I think. I walked into a public restroom last night and there was a fairly large beetle hanging upside-down in a tiny web, just above the floor. It was flailing around trying to get free. I was mesmerized immediately, until the bug was completely still and I saw this tiny spider creeping down to the point of its caught leg and then he flailed again, as if he knew his fate. And I thought, "How cruel." Being removed from the situation, I could rescue the giant beetle, but then my only inclination would've been to stomp it a few minutes later. Now on the other hand, letting the beetle remain left a colossal meal for the tiny spider, just trying to make its way in the world. Right? I also considered stomping them both, but then what good is that? I thought about the bug hanging there waiting for its slow death, already creeping down its leg. Was it afraid? Was the spider excited to have baited its prey? Was ther...