One Saturday Morning I Wasn’t Busy

Busy is the worst 4 letter word.  It separates you from friends, family, God and taking care of yourself.  The worst is part of it is that it socially acceptable.

How are you doing?

Busy.

Me too…

and then life is about the things we do and rather than enjoying life.

Part of direction for this year is to not be proud of being busy.  The to do list will probably always be there.  I love what I do.  I love the local church.  I love what God can do in people’s lives.  I love people coming to know God.  That list will always be there. Busy is about misaligned priorities.

1) God isn’t first… He’s center.

2) My hubby (ick word) husband is next.

3) I can order everything else after.

Honestly if God is center, I don’t have to worry about the other stuff too much.. He’s good like that.

As I look to 2012.. here are some other things I am banking on helping rid the busy.  Once a month cooking,  Vacation. Working Out.

 

 

After Christmas Letter 2011 AKA Happy 2012

From all of us to you, we wish you a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!  We hope that you find yourself with friends and/or family and that it is filled with joy and peace.  There are too many people on our list of those we love and like that we did not get to see this year and I hope that in the next year we can fix that.

2011 was not unlike any other year in that it was busier than the last.  As we get older I find it is harder to do that so this year is about working smarter, not harder.  Matt and I are still at Grace Church in Camas.  He is the Youth Director and pastors 6-12th grade students. I am the Communications Director and I do everything from graphic design and web to internal processes and more.  It has been a learning year and I am still pushing forward.  Here are some of my favorite pictures & stories from the last year.

Fun in the snow in January.

March was busy with my trip to Palm Springs and then Matt and I taking 90+ people to the United Generation Conference.  Nothing like coordinating a fleet of 15 passenger vans, home stays and meal times.

I got crafty this year.. from spray paint to sanders to glueguns.  After celebrating a year in our home in January, we got to making it our own.   Matt tried his hand in home improvement too.

See that chair rail?  Matt did that!

Summer as Youth Pastors is a lot about hanging out with students and camps.

In July we took 50+ middle school students and 50+ leaders to the middle of no where for our middle school camp.  From extreme hot to extreme cold, we had an amazing time under the stars.  I’m forever thankful for how God moves and air mattresses and the occasional generator.

10 days later Matt got on a plane with my mom, two other leaders, and about 12 high school students and made then their way to Haiti.  They returned 11 days later with amazing stories.  They worked with a few orphanages and at the Foursquare Base in Haiti.  You can read about their journey here.

The people of Haiti truly need our prayers.  The next generation has the potential to change a nation that is stuck.   Foursquare is working to give the people a hand up by teaching things from basic skills to how to raise tilapia, chickens and more.

Matt and the team returned safely.  Matt and I celebrated 6 years of marriage in August.  We also did a high school retreat at the end of the month and had blast at Wild Waves, Sky High and hanging out with our students.

Summer came and went and we realized we needed a vacation!

We traveled around the state, saw family and basically bummed around.

We kicked off fall with our second fall Rise Together.   Here is a video recap of the event.

Fall soon became winter.   I became involved in our church Creative Team and got a little nutty over Christmas.  I was first excited about designing the logo and series design which was fun and challenging.  I loved the vintage feel and hand drawn elements. I also loved having stencils made from it AND spray paint.

That was only the tip of the iceberg.  We also got into our heads that we wanted to create a backdrop of downtown Camas in the winter with snow.  There were two problems.  1) Need a super high-resolution image 2) It was fall and no snow in sight.  I took 20+ photos of an area of Camas and went to town in Photoshop.  Here was the end result.

So if you read my blog occasionally and you noticed I haven’t written anything, this is why.

So now I sit here New Year’s Eve under a blanket.. resting!  We are looking forward to 2012: new adventures and chapters.  You can look forward to hearing about our cruise in February as I ring in 30 and plenty more.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy 2012.

Drift Away – SOAP 12.11.11

Hebrew 2:1

We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.

Hebrews 4:12 – 13

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. ¹³ Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Observation

I couldn’t pick just one!  Hebrews 2:1 really spoke to me this morning and Hebrews 4:12-13 is really the answer.  Rarely does one make a decision to walk away from God.  Even if someone says they have, there have been a series of events or conversations or situations leading up to that moment when they said they couldn’t do this anymore.

A  few weeks ago someone told me their friend wasn’t going to church anymore because, “it was too hard to believe.”  I thought of a moment that person had had over the summer that seemed like a turning point and I can’t imagine what happened to make them change their mind.  Was it coming back to non – supportive family or friends, hypocrisy they witnessed, or simply not having the right people around them?  This was truly the parable of scattered seed.

Either way I doubt it was one day they decided God wasn’t there.  We drift.  Usually slowly like a boat on still water.  I think of my childhood boating adventures with my dad, brother and grandpa.  If we got  to a harbor to late we couldn’t tie up to the docks and had to anchor out.  I always equated being at the dock to being at a hotel and anchoring out camping.  I loved the stability and convenience of being tied up to the dock – and the regular bathrooms and showers.

Even with an anchor, boats can float around.  Without the anchor and unmanned, you might not find the boat the next day or know where you are depending on which side of the boat you are on.  To keep from drifting we must return to the anchor- God’s word.  It judges the attitudes of the heart and thoughts, separates  and penetrates.  Any time we get off track, it is there to remind us of God’s love and promises.  Drifting is unfocused wandering in a direction we never intended to go.

Application

I think I already covered this but it bears repeating.  I must be all about God’s word.  When I get off track I need to have the right people around me to lift me up and return me to the path that God has placed me on.

Prayer

Lord, Thank you for your word that continually guides and shapes me.  I can think of many that have drifted from your love and promises and I do not want to be in that collective.  Thank you for not giving up on me.  I have given you many reasons to give up, but you still love me. Bless me and my family today.Amen

Living beyond the surface – SOAP 12.7.11

Colossians 2:6 & 7

And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. ⁷ Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.

Observation

Paul knew about commitment.  He knew that in order to walk a life of true faith that it had to seep down into every part of your file.  The imagery of letting your roots grow down into him is pretty powerful.  I imagine a giant tree with roots that have overcome obstacles of rocks and boulders, debris and sometimes man made blocks to continue to root down into the earth to find nourishment and stability.  There is this crazy tree on the way to Starbucks near our house that has wrapped itself around a column on the front porch of this house that is a little run down.  I’m sure someone “trained’ the tree around the column but it still amazes me that even when someone bent it out of shape and took it in an unnatural direction, it still thrived and is a pretty big tree at this point.  (As the new owners renovate, I wonder if they will cut it down.)  Our faith must grow like that.  Despite rocks and sometimes other people, we need to root down into the truth we were taught.  The gift we receive will be thankfulness.

Application

This month I have committed myself to make room for God, primarily making sure I have room for times in the Bible, stillness and being in prayer.  I have felt rocks in my life and even some attempting to bend me around a column to train me to be as they would like me.  I’m not sure if a tree feels pain, frustration, or confusion, in fact I doubt it does, however I do.  Just like a tree get scars on it’s bark or damage in it’s rings, I know I am healing from rocks and obstacles.  Now, more than ever, I know that God is with me and He is for me. I will continue to let me roots go deep into God.

Prayer

Lord,  Thank you for your gentle reminders and the way you speak to me.  I caught a glimpse of how you must feel when we stray off track.  I pray I would follow you all the days of my life and that I would help others root down into you.  Bless my family today.  I love you. Amen

Living beyond the surface – SOAP 12.7.11

Colossians 2:6 & 7

And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. ⁷ Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.

Observation

Paul knew about commitment.  He knew that in order to walk a life of true faith that it had to seep down into every part of your file.  The imagery of letting your roots grow down into him is pretty powerful.  I imagine a giant tree with roots that have overcome obstacles of rocks and boulders, debris and sometimes man made blocks to continue to root down into the earth to find nourishment and stability.  There is this crazy tree on the way to Starbucks near our house that has wrapped itself around a column on the front porch of this house that is a little run down.  I’m sure someone “trained’ the tree around the column but it still amazes me that even when someone bent it out of shape and took it in an unnatural direction, it still thrived and is a pretty big tree at this point.  (As the new owners renovate, I wonder if they will cut it down.)  Our faith must grow like that.  Despite rocks and sometimes other people, we need to root down into the truth we were taught.  The gift we receive will be thankfulness.

Application

This month I have committed myself to make room for God, primarily making sure I have room for times in the Bible, stillness and being in prayer.  I have felt rocks in my life and even some attempting to bend me around a column to train me to be as they would like me.  I’m not sure if a tree feels pain, frustration, or confusion, in fact I doubt it does, however I do.  Just like a tree get scars on it’s bark or damage in it’s rings, I know I am healing from rocks and obstacles.  Now, more than ever, I know that God is with me and He is for me. I will continue to let me roots go deep into God.

Prayer

Lord,  Thank you for your gentle reminders and the way you speak to me.  I caught a glimpse of how you must feel when we stray off track.  I pray I would follow you all the days of my life and that I would help others root down into you.  Bless my family today.  I love you. Amen

It’s Been Awhile. Top Ten

I don’t think I have gone this long without writing something. The other day someone even asked if I still had a blog.  What can I say it has been a busy fall.  Sometimes not so busy and I haven’t really uses my time wisely. I am working on that.  Here are the top ten things I have been doing instead of writing.

10)  finding that my stick shift car had rolled into the middle of the walmart parking lot

9) being totally enthralled with pinterest

8) learning how to do bulk cooking or OAMC

7) being a youth pastor (one large event, multiple small groups, countless late Wednesdays)

6) releasing my stress by way of crafts but not finishing things as fast as I should be

5) making it back to the gym

4) learning new tricks.. specifically in photoshop

3) working my tail off at Grace.  It has been a blur of publications,  Christmas prep, building expansion prep and general brain leaking.  Holy wow.. am I still part time?  Not sure.

2) getting our house decorated for Christmas

1) when there is a spare moment I am probably with Matt.  We are planning a cruise in February.

This week I plan on posting some of my recent projects and maybe even a few of our tree!

September Vacation in Pictures

That’s right we went to Antarctica.  Well not really but these are a few of my favorite pictures from our vacation.  First stop, Oregon Zoo.

I decided that this is what a Chupacabra must look like.  This is after hearing Nate Dumlao’s eye witness account.

Mmmmm Zebra Stripes.  A lot of inside jokes came out of camps this year.

not so semi artistic picture but I laughed when I uploaded the pictures.

And because all sleeping animals are cute, this river otter stole the show (and because the sea otter was being very inappropriate that day).  Look at his (?) little hands and sweet smile and snaggle tooth.  Come ON!  I want me a river otter.  Not really.  Although I do love animals with short appendages (Penguins, otters, Owen).

Our next adventure took us to Olympia, the city I grew up in.  We hung out, did all the normal things like go to the waterfront, gaze at the capital building and lots of sleeping.  We are party animals.

Matt took this!  And the camera didn’t end up in the water (family joke).  Good job Matt!

Now if I eat these broken mussels that have dried on the concrete, will I get sick? – Owen

And then on to other adventures.  We drove to Eastern Washington to visit family.  We made it Ephrata where I took no pictures.  Not because it isn’t lovely.  Just because my grandma’s Chihuahua Vanna isn’t exactly a pleasant model.  YAP YAP YAP YAP GROWL.

Then onto Yakima, but not before getting stuck on I-90 for an hour due to a brush fire & 10 car pile up.  Yikes.  We made the best of it and I played around with the camera.

Lens was doing something crazy with the smoke and haze.  And there is probably something wrong with it.. but the effect is still interesting.

You can even see a bit of smoke in some of the pictures coming off the ground as we slowly drove through.

We finally made it to Yakima and got to hang out with my other Grandparents and this cute pup:

Isn’t Sky adorable?

On the way back we hit up Lilo’s in the Dalles (yummy plate lunch) and spent the afternoon and evening in Portland.  Matt treated me to the Waffle Window.  Now we are back to non vacationy foods. Until next year (or sooner!)

 

Bad News Gives God Room

Today we got some less than stellar news and my stomach turned a bit.  Not that I lost faith but a deep uh oh rang through me. 

Then as I sought God in my drive to Target I started to think about all the things that I thought God did to get us to that spot and honestly I started to wonder if it was him.  You know it had to have been easy for the Israelites to do that when bad news hit in the promise land.  That manna just grew on trees right?  That was God.  I remember specific prayers and how they specifically were answered.

So what so you do with that.  God brought me here and stuff out of my control has happened.  Where are His promises now? I promise I haven’t lost my faith. God never said his will would ne without obstacles. 

On my drive I realized that when bad news happens and I get out of God’s way.. there becomes room for a miracle.  And I figure that the badder the news.. the bigger the miracle.  If you are in a spot like that doesn’t that get you charged up for what God is about to do.  If not… check out the Bible.  There is some seriously bad news that God turns into serious miracles.  In the words of my hubby.. can I get an Amen?!

I am pretty excited to see what God does. 

SIDENOTE: Neither Matt or myself have an illness nor have we lost a job etc.  Can’t wait to share what God does.

Just Wait

Wait is one of my least favorite four letter words.  I’m not good at it.  I don’t like the idea of it.  I’m good at content but wait usually means something else has made the call.  Wait.  Wait implies that you had your shoes tied, coat on and hand on the door handle.  Wait.  It means that you had the papers in the envelope, licked the disgusting adhesive on the top and had embraced the blue handle on the mailbox.

However, it is helpful and hopeful to remember that wait is not always synonymous with stop (another unfortunate four letter word).

It also good to recognize what those words mean to God.  I don’t think he likes them too much either in context with what He wants to do.  But then again, who tells God “wait” or “stop”?  Stupid people.  Sometimes me.  I hate it when that happens.  I digress.  When God says wait it is about timing and preparation.  When God says stop it is about His plan vs yours.  His are better. Every time.

What do you do with wait?  Prepare.  Be ready in and out of season.  Have that word on the tip of your tongue.  Enjoy the moment that God has you in.  Keep your eyes open.

Be careful when you wait.  This is when it is easy to be tempted, fall and stop trusting God.  You are not in a season of relax.  You are in a season of wait.  Stay armed.  This is not a vacation.

Just wait.  Just around the corner is more than you can imagine and more than you are prepared for… for now.

 

 

 

TA DA! Living Room Redo

Welcome to our home.  Well at least our living room.  I started this project well over a month ago and normally projects don’t take this long but in this time… Matt came back from Haiti, whole family decided to stop by for dinner, we had our anniversary, we had high school summer camp and really so much more.  So it took awhile!  But we are done (sort of).

Here is where we started.Now while I love the orange color, I felt the need for something a little more cohesive.  Sooooo…. here we go:

The color is a little off on the account that I didn’t feel like editing pictures today.  After you hang a couple ledges in a 80 degree home with your hubby.. you just lose a little momentum.  However you get the idea and someday if you are lucky enough you will see it in person.  As stated earlier I painted the top light grey and the bottom light grey.  In the middle we hung a chair rail.  Wow that was harder than I expected.

This is the reason we started the whole project.  The fireplace desperately needed some presence in the room.

I am personally loving all of our DIY projects. Check out those gallery ledges.  I couldn’t bare punching 40 nails into the wall again and then having to patch it up.  So instead we have ledges.  8 screws.  Done.  I’m not sure if I will ever move them so no worries about patching up.

Happy surprise.  We had these UGLY college style lights with the plastic shades that on top of everything didn’t even match.  The lamps had long ago broken to these shades that had been sitting in the garage.  I finally put 2 and 2 together yesterday.  Wa-bow… Much cooler lights.

Painting from Haiti.  Frame recycled.  See that blanket holder.. it has a story!

It is part of this cool ladder that was chopped into bits after it tried to wound two of our staff members.  On day my husband and another guy were climbing up both sides of this old wooden 15 foot ladder to fix a projector.  They got a little bit up and the other guy asked my husband how much he weighed… at that very moment the ladder collapsed underneath them.  Alas the ladder’s days were over and it was sent out back.  When the church garage was cleaned out it lay there unwanted and unloved and I saw it and stuffed in the back of the Cavalier.  Some sand paper and spray paint… new blanket holder.

And now to the ugly chair.  I have disliked this chair since it resided in my husband’s bachelor pad.  He knew this and decided that he would sit me down in it and propose to me.  Little did he know I am fairly unsentimental.  I knew it would hurt him to part with it, so we have kept it.  For 6 years, it has lived in a guest room or hidden away under boxes, etc. until the other day when I thought… huh.. I wonder if I can recover that thing without sewing or taking it apart.  Check out what it looked like before…

Yuck… check out that pattern and faded colors.

I searched the house for fabric and came up with this duvet cover from Target that Owen had chewed on the corners of.  Bless his puppy heart.  But it was brown, thick, had a cool pattern.. hmmm… still usable!

So armed with a staple gun and $2.30 worth of furniture nails.. I went to work.  By the way, this was harder than I thought it would be.  There are lots of artful tucks to this project.  And it still needs some smoothing.. but for $2.30.. I am currently satisfied.  I also took off the legs and spray painted them glossy black as most of our furniture is black or black/brown.

Griffin is modeling the comfort of our chaise lounge.  He is actually pretty ticked about this project.

So for now we are done.  We still need to move the cable box with a help of a friend and caulk the molding/fireplace.  I also have some sewing to do.  That lump behind the chair will be cushions for extra seating and then the BW union jack pillows still need to be washed and sewn as I only painted them last night.  I just wanted to see how they were looking.   For now, this works for me and I feel like we finally have the room back!  Welcome to fall!  (almost)