Messy Everyday Wonder

summer book club, week 2

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 22:45:00 +0000

So here are the books we've been reading this week:

Thy Friend, Obadiah by Brinton Turkle
*Cute story about a seagull who follows a little boy, Obadiah, around. Nice pictures, made me hungry because the mom bakes muffins and homemade bread.

Snipp, Snapp, Snurr and the Magic Horse by Maj Lindman
*This story just weirded me out completely. Although these are recommended on K's book list, this one convinced me to not check any more out. Nothing sinister - it was just strange.

The Four Seasons of Brambly Hedge by Jill Barklem
These were originally published as 4 separate books, obviously following the seasons (Spring Story, Summer Story, etc...). Tells stories of a little community of mice, who wear clothes, and have great houses in trees and bushes and tree stumps. Great illustrations - my girls really love them because of the whole "animals wearing clothes" factor, but I think boys might like it because of the details of the factories & things like that.

Nursery Classics by Paul Galdone
Great collection of classic fairy tales/fables (Little Red Hen, Goldilocks & The Three Bears, The Three Little Pigs), with fantastic illustrations.

Summer Book Club

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 02:07:00 +0000

So it's summertime!! One of the ways we try to stay cool in our neck of the woods is with a weekly visit to the library. Miss K has a summer reading list we need to help her work through before school starts in the fall, and as the list is (in my opinion) a super-great resource for those of us parenting wee ones, I'm going to blog my way through the list....or at least attempt to! We'll make a visit to the library tomorrow to pick up our first 5 books from the list, but for now I'll share some selections we already have here at home, and thoughts as they pop to mind about some of my favorites:

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, Virginia Lee Burton
The Little House, Virginia Lee Burton
*I adore Burton's books. If you haven't read any of her books, by all means, do so today!!

Animals, Animals, Eric Carle (or any other Carle book)
*I could seriously decorate an entire room with nothing but Carle's illustrations. So gifted!

Prayer for a Child, Rachel Field

Corduroy, Don Freeman (or any other Freeman book)

The Market Square Dog, James Herriot (or any other children's books by Herriot)
*James Herriot is fabulous...the children's books are beautifully illustrated, kiddo-appropriate versions of the tales he writes of his days as a vet in the English countryside. He also has a series of books for adults that are so much fun to read.

The Story of Ferdinand, Munro Leaf

The Little Engine that Could, Watty Piper

The Tale of Tom Kitten, Beatrix Potter (or others in this series)

Another thing Miss K's school has the children work on is recitation, both scripture & poems. Her class recited Robert Louis Stevenson's The Swing for the end of the year party, and she regularly spouts it off when she's playing in the backyard. Encourage those little minds to memorize! You'll be amazed at how much they retain...

how He loves

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:47:00 +0000

I love seeing things that I've become used to through my children's eyes. I don't know that Easter is ever something that one should become "used to," but as the years have passed, it's become another holiday that marks how quickly the years are flying by, as in "Good night, is it Easter already?? Didn't this just happen??"

Anyway, Miss K drew this last night with her daddy. She wasn't prompted, she just drew it. She's got such a tender heart - it's really amazing to see the Holy Spirit working in her life, drawing her to Christ in such a sweet way. So hopefully this year I can really stop, and focus on the wonder of Christ, the wonder of His love for us all, His love for the Father, displayed in the cross. A song that keeps ringing in my mind is John Mark McMillan's "How He Loves" - if you haven't heard it yet, click here, find "How He Loves," and have a listen...

you are beautiful!!

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 02:17:00 +0000

Friday at MOPS, Dr. Deborah Newman, a Dallas counselor and pastor to women, came to talk to all of us mommies about body image issues with our preschoolers. The statistics she mentioned were shocking - so many of our littles think terrible things about their bodies - and I think they get most of it from listening to us. It makes me cringe to think of the number of times I've looked at my reflection in the mirror, in front of their impressionable little ears, and uttered "so fat..."

I'll be the first to admit that I don't look like I looked at 18, or 22, or even 26 for that matter...but WHO DOES after having kids, and the old metabolism slowdown that comes with being in your 30's, and WHY do I try to live up to an impossible standard? Why can't I just be content with who I am, with how God has made me?? I'm not saying that I need to just give up, and stop exercising, and eat junk all day...but I need to realize that God has made me to do way more than obsess about the way I look in a pair of jeans.

So on Friday, Dr Newman had us pair up, and say a statement about who we are, in light of being God's children, to each other. It made me cry...I just get so caught up in what the world would have me think of myself, that I can't even remember the truth about who I am to the One who created me. I'm not going to put it here, because I think that everything on her website is copyrighted, but I'd love to challenge you to visit her website here, and find "You are beautiful," about 4/5 of the way down the page, at the bottom of the section "What's a mom to do?" Find a trusted friend, a sister, someone you connect with, and say it to each other. You can certainly tell yourself this in a mirror...but it was so powerful to hear these words spoken over me by a trusted mentor and dear friend.

Again, here's Dr. Newman's website - I'd challenge any of you who might be inadvertently passing on lies about body image to visit. It's going to be a regular stop for me!

Laissez les bon temps roulez!

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:46:00 +0000

Happy Mardi Gras everyone!

Even though it's been (gasp!) 12 years since I've called Louisiana home, and 25 since my family lived just outside of New Orleans, there's still something special about Fat Tuesday to me. Like Kelley said on facebook, it's probably more because of the days we had off school than anything else, but I've got some fun Mardi Gras memories lurking around in my brain, and I'm glad to have them!

One of my favorite Mardi Gras memories, I think, is one of me & Jenny playing Mardi Gras parade on the swingset in our backyard in Kenner. The swingset was the float, and we'd take turns throwing beads and doubloons to one another....can't even imagine how much junk my poor dad must have mowed over, with junk getting thrown everywhere, but I'll always giggle when I think of us doing that.

Doing my best to pass on the fun to my kiddos. They already know what a king cake is, baby baked inside & all (yes, Susan, to me it's never going to be weird!), and after I told them the story of auntie & me playing Mardi Gras, K found a flyer from Party City advertising beads & doubloons, and wants some so she & MA can play Mardi Gras, too. Just might have to fulfill that wish today (sorry, honey - I'll do my best to pick up before you have to mow)!

thinking of pop

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 04:28:00 +0000

Haven't been writing much lately (obviously!). I've been attributing that to a case of mid-winter "mully-grubs" (yes, I still use that phrase Bro. Doyle!), and acclamation to the world of facebook (ha!). But as I've been thinking about it today, I think it's because I just really miss my pop. Some of you know he passed away a few months ago - what you might not know is the last time I was with him, I was a complete brat.

Pop, like lots of other 87 year-olds, didn't have the best hearing in the world. Some granddads might put it more delicately, but that old marine who'd raised 8 kids of his own had taken to commenting on my girlies' "screechy little voices" in the last few months he was with us. He never had anything ugly to say about my girls...he loved them - they always got big kisses and hugs from pop-pop whenever we went to see him. But he was tired of what their high-pitched little-girl voices did to his ears, to his head.

So the last time I saw him, I pitched a fit when he fussed about their "screechy little voices." And I didn't give him a chance to apologize when he tried to...and I didn't give my girls time to say goodbye to their pop-pop as I stormed out of his house.

The next time I saw him was on a table in the emergency room, tubes coming out of his mouth, still warm although he was gone. All I could do was kiss his head (his hair was always so soft), and whisper "I am so so sorry..."

And I will always regret that I never got the chance to make things right with pop this side of heaven. I will always, always regret that my girls didn't get to give pop their usual hugs and kisses before we left. I hate that.

I'm praying that I'll learn from this, that I'll be more careful with the precious time I'm given with those I love. But I know that I'm stubborn, that I tend to forget lessons all too quickly, and that sometimes the only way for me to really get something is when it really, really hurts. Think this one qualifies. Father, thank you for tender mercies that are new every morning...how thankful I am that you don't take off in a huff when I insult You, or Your Son with my words and actions. Please, please help me to learn a lesson here, to love well, and to forgive quickly. How desperately I want to grow up to be like Jesus...

can't handle the peer pressure!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 19:47:00 +0000

Ha! So I've finally decided to cave to the phenomenon called facebook....let me know if you're already on, and I'll see if I can figure out how to make friends! ;o)

great expectations

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:54:00 +0000

I can't believe it's already January 6th...the holidays, so soon gone, are a frenzied blur in my mind. We had such high hopes - it was the first year we were able to spend the holidays with all of honey's siblings (and all of the grandkids) up in PA. So I braced myself for a road trip to remember, and the Monday before Christmas, off we went. Tuesday night we arrived, exhausted but happy, ready to celebrate. Everything seemed perfect - everyone was there, everyone was on their best behavior, and the kiddos were all so cute together! Then, in the wee small hours of Christmas morning, I heard the horrid sounds of my oldest child throwing up. MA soon followed, with honey not far behind. Turns out that one of the families there had just recovered from a stomach bug, and had passed it on, not only to our family, but to just about everyone. Of the 31 people there for Christmas, 27 had the stomach bug sometime during our time together. Turned out to be a 24 hour bug, but my sweet family was very weak for days following. Stomach bug was followed by an pretty bad asthama flare for MA, and colds for all four of us. I think I got to feeling better about the time we rolled back into the DFW area.

Needless to say, it was a Christmas to remember.

As we look at another year, and all the expectations that go with it, I hope I can remember some lessons I learned from the great Christmas adventure of 2008. Sometimes, things just don't go the way you hope they will. However, there are still blessings to be found even when your expectations are dashed - you just have to be willing to keep your eyes (and heart) open to see them. And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in You. Psalm 139:7

merciful

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 14:49:00 +0000

My pop (mom's dad) passed away Saturday night. He was sitting in his "big chair," watching OU play football - one minute he was here, the next he was gone. It's hard for us all, because we knew this was coming, but we didn't know it would happen so suddenly. But we know it's mercy, for him, for us, that he didn't have to spend miserable days or weeks in the hospital, but still...we miss him.

Miss K asked yesterday if we could call him on the phone - don't we all wish we could! We'd love to tell him how much we love him one last time. But it doesn't work that way, so we have to do with remembering, and sharing stories. Please keep our family in your prayers this week, especially my dear Nana...

shattered dreams

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:57:00 +0000

Sunday was our first time to meet as a church in our new building! What a day... Our pastors had us all read the following prayer together:

Disturb us, Lord, when We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love. - Sir Francis Drake

Last week I had been struggling (emotionally and physically), because our sweet MA has been battling her asthma in a BIG way since the middle of October. It's no surprise to anyone that I like to be in control of things, and there's just this feeling of complete & utter helplessness that I feel holding my child at 2am, giving her a breathing treatment so that she can breathe easily, while she fights me, because all she wants to do is be left alone. A feeling of "what in the world do we do now?" when she's on an albuterol high at 11pm, tired out of her mind, but unable to rest because her little heart can't stop racing because of the medicine that helps her to breathe.

So after Sunday's sermon, all I could do was ponder the idea of change and challenge (which I typically hate!) as a impetus for growth in my life. It's always been after my dreams have been completely shattered that the Lord has graciously used my brokenness to help conform me to the image of Christ, to direct my life in such a way to bring Him greater glory than I could have where I was.

Yet another reminder that I must trust Him, must dare to allow my too-small dreams to be shattered, because He knows my pain (my baby's pain!), and He knows my shortcomings, and He has a purpose in the challenges I face that I cannot yet see.

skeletons & such

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 03:30:00 +0000

So Halloween is over! It was a HUGE disappointment for us this year, so much so that we're thinking of doing away with it altogether as we've been doing it, and just having a costume party with other people dedicated to a non-scary Halloween....sheesh! Out here they've, for some bizarre reason, decided to take scary Halloween to an entire new level. Not just cute scary spiders & bats, mind you. We've got to have impaled skeletons on spears, and haunted graveyards, and freaky ghost things like the ghost of Christmas future in a super-scary version of "A Christmas Carol." We're done. That mess is NOT appropriate for preschoolers in any way, shape or form.

We've been dedicated to doing Halloween, mostly because of a great lecture I heard in seminary about putting out a jack-o-lantern at your house at Halloween because it's a great way to reach out to the culture around you. I believe the argument was along the lines of, "Hey, it's the one time of year each and every one of the kiddos in your neighborhood will willingly come by your house. Show them that Christians can be friendly!" (I'm sure it was much more nuanced and theologically appropriate than that explanation, but work with me here...). So every Halloween we sit outside, and hand out candy to all our neighbors...except that we only maybe saw 4 neighbors out of about 300 kids, and just as we were packing up to go inside, a boy in a "scream" mask decided that it would be funny to run up to my sweet Miss K and scary-scream at her as loudly as he possibly could. NOT funny. She turned white as a sheet, and when her daddy picked her up, she burst into tears, and didn't stop crying for an hour!

We're done.

On another note, honey and I went to a party a few weeks ago for a game night. I should have known it might not be a perfect fit for me upon seeing the house - beautiful, and immaculate! Crazy immaculate....I threw something in a trash can at the beginning of the evening, and when I went to throw something in it later, the trash can was empty! When it came to game time, we wound up with a song game, where someone read a word, and teams had to go back & forth singing songs with that word in it. The first word was hot, and all I could think (and of course, say, because I have no filters): "Don'tcha wish your girlfriend was hot like me!" I got a few funny looks, and a few people said, "Is that a real song?" When it came our turn again, honey said "It's gettin' hot in herre!" More funny looks. "Real song?" Honey said, "Well, I did work for DISD..."

So bizarre! That night, I just kept thinking, "I really need to find a skeleton in a closet somewhere in this house! Everything is so perfect..." People didn't know Nelly songs, trash disappeared from trash cans, and everything was so amazingly in place and beautiful. I don't do well in the midst of perfection - it just tends to make me nervous; I need a little mess to function properly (I heard that AMEN from all of you who've been to my house!).

I find that's true with my relationships, too. Authenticity is a key for me. People who seem to have it all together, who are "practically perfect in every way" mystify me. I know I'm a mess...I live it every single day, and because I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve, anyone who's around me for longer than 5 minutes can pick up on it. So bring on the skeletons, girls - they'll always be welcome here, so long as you don't run screaming at my girlies on Halloween.

random thoughts from a late night coffee buzz...

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 03:55:00 +0000

I read an interesting article the other day (I'd link to it, but I can't remember if it was online or in the paper, and I'm to lazy to go look for it now) stating that blogging is now all but dead, thanks to the annoyance called Facebook. Yes, annoyance...maybe I'm just completely techno-challenged, but I can't make heads or tails of it! Each time I look at honey's page, all I can think is "HUH?" Our MOPS group had us all sign up on Cafe Mom, which is just facebook for moms, so I'm trying it out over there. It still mystifies me, though! Oh, and the article also said that twitter was to blame for dying blogs...I tried to read Slate's twitter about the Olympics when they were on, and I kept trying to find articles attached to the "twitters." I just need more than a few sentences to keep me informed, I guess!

So, for now, I'm going to keep blogging away. Behind the times, I know, but that's just my comfort zone!

Great sermon Sunday, here, if you'd care to take a listen. We've been in a short series entitled "In God We Trust," and this week our pastor tackled worry from a biblical perspective. SO many take away points from this sermon, but one that's stuck with me all week is the fact that while fear is a normal emotion, if we choose to worry as a result of our fears, we're choosing to sin, because we aren't choosing to trust God. If you're struggling with worry in these uncertain times, I'd love to challenge you to listen to this sermon! Key passage was Philippians 4:4-9:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

So I'm going to try to go sleep now...I've actualy started drinking coffee (that may be the last thing in the world I should have taken up - although "coffee" is probably a big stretch, because it's a little bit of coffee with a lot of milk, and chocolate syrup...), and tonight had a meeting at a real coffee place, and had a mocha...and am wired! Happy weekend!

somebody pass the ketchup

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:57:00 +0000

It's time once again for me to make a feast of my words! It's been a tradition in our family to craft the girlies' Halloween outfits, and we've had fun with that. So much fun, that in the past few years, I'm sure I've said (smugly, to myself): "WOW! I am such a great mom. I make my kiddos costumes! No store-bought stuff for us, thanks. Crafty critter here is able to make anything that her little ones' hearts desire!"

Humph.... Yeah, not so much this year. This year Miss K and Miss MA are set on being mermaids. I've tried to talk them out of it. "How about poodles? Belly dancers? Cheerleaders?" "Mermaids, mommy! MERMAIDS!!" Good night, Irene... How in the word does a crafty critter, who's probably more critter than crafty, make mermaid costumes? I looked at patterns (which I don't really understand the mechanics of, anyway), and sparkly fabric...and then stopped by Party City, just to see what I might spend on boughten costumes, were I to buy mermaids rather than try to craft them. Ariel costumes were on sale. Hmmmm.... I could go buy sparkly material, and then spend hours trying to craft mermaids, or just be done with the whole thing in the next 10 minutes for the same amount of money.

Needless to say, I walked out of Party City with two Ariel costumes tucked under my arm.

So I'm in a quandry. One that I tend to find myself in often in parenting... thinking that MY way is the ONLY way, only to discover that that's absolute rubbish, and that a great deal of flexibility is required as we help our girls grow into the women that God created them to be. That's not to say that there aren't absolutes in parenting - there are - but as regards stuff like this, I'm so thankful that there are so many other people out there who can help me stretch and grow, and learn that MY way isn't the ONLY way for things to be done well.

That doesn't mean that I'm going to leave the Ariel emblems on the costumes, though. Still have to add a bit of originality for crafty critter's sake. I'll post pics after Halloween!

better moms...

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 02:10:00 +0000

Returned yesterday from the annual MOPS convention at the crazy-big over-the-top gaudy but-still-has really-comfy-beds-and-pretty-rooms Gaylord Texan (has anybody ever been there? It really is crazy big, and pretty impressive, but the boots & hats & belt buckles in the carpets in the conference rooms got to me after a while!). Anyhow, the MOPS convention. Really a great time of team-building with the ladies on the MOPS steering team at our church. Some super-great speakers, and some weird workshops (which I won't go into, other than to say there was a guy talking about communicating with your man, and he had people handing cards - I don't know what they said on them - to anyone who seemed to disagree with him, which totally made me cringe), but a great reminder that what we do as moms is so very important. The MOPS logo is "better moms make a better world," and I was just so inspired by the time I spent with the WONDERFUL women from our steering team, and the speakers there.

One inparticular, Erwin McManus, had great things to say about not being that mom who says to her kids, "I really did some amazing things for the Lord before I had you guys!" A great reminder that part of being a "better" mom is pursuing the passions that God has given you as you continue to pursue the passion He's given you to raise godly kiddos. So great....challenged me to think about those things that I just love doing, those passions that I know are God-given (like writing children's curriculum, and studying the Bible, digging deep into the Word, with other women), that have just been put away for now, under the excuse of "I'm just too stinkin' busy..." Because I know that I'm a better mom when I'm actively pursuing the passions and gifts that God has birthed in my heart...and I want my children to see me actively energized as I serve God, so that my life continually points their little hearts toward pursuing Him.

Good stuff! It's so hard to get away for things like that, but it's always so worth it. I love how it renews my heart, and challenges me, and helps me appreciate my sweet people at home!

fall faves

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 21:37:00 +0000

OK, it truly only felt like fall for a few days this week, but since tomorrow is the official first day of autumn for the year, I thought I'd share!

1) Check out this amazing pumpkin (or maybe these 3 amazing pumpkins?)!
Found it at Whole Foods this week. It's called a Fairytale pumpkin, and I think it's well deserving of it's name. I'm hoping that it will last through Thanksgiving, but we'll see... I just love having things in the house that just remind me of the creativity of the Father! I love places like Whole Foods and Central Market for the same reason. I was at CM a few days ago with super great SIL Sha, and was marveling at His creativity shown in a display of tomatoes - red, orange, and yellow all lined up in a row- and then in a display of cauliflower- purple and yellow (geaux tigers!) right next to a green coral variety. So fabulous!

2) Also am excited about whole wheat pastry flour - read about it in a magazine last week, and am using it as a substitution for all-purpose flour in recipes now. Have already tried it in these buttermilk waffles, and am even going to go for it in chocolate chip cookies. I'll try anything once!

cake balls....

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 02:20:00 +0000

So many jokes that I could make that I shouldn't even allude to...

Anyhoo, Dallas Morning News yesterday had a wonderful article (complete with recipes) on these cake balls, which are apparently all the rage these days! They're just so cute, and look like they should be fairly easy to make. The girls and I experimented today, and found that getting them coated with the almond bark in a pretty fashion is a bit tricky...but we'll definitely keep trying! Yum-o! I can't wait to try a yellow cake with chocolate frosting combo...

just shoulda stayed in bed?

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 21:56:00 +0000

I should have known when the simple task of making my morning oatmeal turned into almost setting my kitchen on fire that I just shoulda stayed in bed yesterday. Yes, ladies, yesterday was one of those days that absolutely convinces me that there is indeed an enemy of our souls, who will employ any tactic necessary to render us completely useless for the Kingdom.

In my life, it's not big stuff, like car wrecks or sickness or financial instability that renders me useless (although I'm sure if any of those were to happen, they would absolutely wreak havoc on my life). It's red crayons in the dryer with a load of whites, and red strawberry soda on the carpet that I JUST steamed cleaned last week. These are the things that just paralyze me....they just make me want to go running back to the safety of my big cozy bed, away from the demands of community and accountability, away from the opportunity of learning anything new from others' perspectives on the madness in my life. So I missed out yesterday. I was so overwhelmed by my morning that we were late to church, then I slept right through most of the season opener for my beloved Dallas Cowboys (honey joked that if I watched it from the beginning I might jinx their chances of winning), and I didn't even attempt to go to community group last night. Completely missed out on several opportunities that the Lord provided to redeem my day.

I'm thankful for chances at redemption...thankful that when my day completely overwhelms me, and I walk past opportunities for renewal, that the Lord continues to send them my way, even when all I deserve is to be sent to my room for a time-out. Thank you, Father, for your steadfast loyal love, and that your mercies are new every morning (and afternoon, and evening...).

tapestry

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:38:00 +0000

Hi girls!

Some of my absolute favorites (one I have the amazing privilege of calling SIL) have come together in Tapestry, a new website featuring some amazing women who have lovely and thought-provoking things to say. The Tapestry website says this: Tapestry features leading Christian writers and thinkers who have come together to engage culture about the person and work of Jesus Christ. It's a new daily favorite of mine....

in over my head

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:29:00 +0000

This week marked a new era in my life: that of publicly being honey's wife, as relates to his new role as head of middle school at new job. I just have to say, I feel so very overwhelmed as relates to this role....Monday night was Parent's Night, and I felt such pressure (from myself alone, I'm pretty sure) to be practically perfect in every way. I'm not sure why I still struggle so much with that, as I haven't felt this in a while, but there's something about having your little Honda Civic surrounded by BIG, shiny, not-banged-up, luxury cars that can make one feel a little overwhelmed.

That's not to say that anyone has been unkind - they haven't. In fact, I haven't met anyone yet who's anything but gracious. But it's still been scary.

Sunday night miss K came in, and wanted to get something from the playroom, but the light was off, and she wanted me to turn the light on. I told her to get a stepstool (because she's ever-so capable of handling that alone), and as she marched out of my room, I heard her say to herself, "Be brave."

"That's it..."I thought to myself.

But of course there's so much more to it than that. I have to be renewed, secure in who I am in Christ, in who I am as honey's beloved wife, apart from role as wife-of-head-of-middle-school. Have to be able to just relax, and be authentic, banged-up Honda Civic & all.

Off now to rescue the girlies from Mermaidia yet again. Why, oh why, do my children love the Barbie movies so much? Best to everyone as school gets started up again, and we all find ourselves wearing new hats, getting in over our heads with new roles to fulfill. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. II Corinthians 3:5

shoo-wee HOT!!

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 02:26:00 +0000

That's just something silly I've taken to saying to the girlies just about every time we head outside these days... It's just plain ol' hot down here in Texas, and we're content to stay inside as much as we possibly can! We're also looking for fun, new ways to cool off....

So tonight our CG (small group) took a spontaneous field trip to Bahama Buck's in Rockwall, and I had one of the best sno-cones I've had in a long time...although it did give me brain freeze a few times. Most everybody got the sno-cone with a scoop of Blue Bell in the bottom of the cup, but I just stuck to plain ol' strawberry with cream on top. I'm hooked, though...think we might just have to head that way tomorrow!!

thoughts on worship

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:59:00 +0000

At mom & dad's house over the break, sis got her latest edition of her college magazine (from Baylor - go Bears!), and she pointed out this super-great quote regarding worship from Baylor grad David Crowder (obviously of the David Crowder Band):

But yet, Crowder is ever suspicious of musical moments. He sees worship as much more than music and instead gravitates towards Paul's description in Romans of offering ourselves as living sacrifices.

"Paul's words help put music in its place. It minimizes music's role. These moments in music to me are not completely trustworthy, just because there's so much emotion-you can go to a concert or be in a musical environment that is not intended to be a corporate worship experience. You hear people say, ‘Wow, that was a spiritual experience. Man, that was otherworldly,' very transcendent language.

"I trust musical experiences less than I do moments stuck in traffic and moments when you're encountering someone you might not like to be around all that much. I think that's when we're able to see our true intentions and motives and what's inside us perhaps better than when we're all together singing. I think Paul might've had something there."

The entire article is here if you're interested in seeing the rest of it... I was just really challenged by the thought that my attitude, as I'm sitting in traffic, or around some of my not-so-favorite people, is an accurate reflection of "worship," much more so than when I'm singing with the community on Sunday mornings...

little shop of horrors?

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 03:22:00 +0000

We have squash growing in the backyard, and the rate at which the vines grow truly remind me of the big freaky plant in "Little Shop of Horrors." I'm just waiting for Dixie to disappear one of these days.... Luckily, neither of us know anything about tending to a vegetable garden, so I guess it can just overtake the backyard, and produce squash (which I don't even really like) like mad. All I really want are a few tomatoes, but we'll see...I think the squash just might claim those for itself.

Honey's been out of town all stinkin' week! I'm going a little crazy. It was our anniversary on Tuesday (how has it been 8 years already???), so I'm ready for him to come home so we can celebrate...sushi maybe?? The girlies are also in need of a daddy fix in a big way. They miss him so much when he's gone! And I'll even give him an extra hug because I convinced myself Wednesday after I couldn't get in touch with him all day long (it was 11:45pm his time!) that he must have had a stroke and was stuck in his hotel room with no way to call for help (a stroke because I listened to an interview earlier that day on NPR about a brain doctor lady who'd had a stroke, who's written a book about it, and it was a real struggle for her to remember how to call someone for help once she'd had her stroke). Anyway, I guess I need to add listening to stories about people having strokes to the list of things I shouldn't do when somebody I love is far, far away....

sleep deprived?

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 03:49:00 +0000

One of the funniest things (I think) that I did in college was make a speech on sleep deprivation in a speech class that I couldn't ever stay awake in. I think the prof even thought it was funny. I'm pretty sure it was an early morning class (for me, anything before 11). Keeping that in mind....

As most of you all know very well, I am definitely not a morning person. Never have been. A girl at work (mom's day out, 2 days a week) even commented a few weeks ago about how funny it is that I'm so quiet in the morning when we first all get there...and we get there at 8:30! Even then I'm still sleepy! So I found this article in slate very interesting, on how a girl who is absolutely-not-a-morning-person is trying to reset her internal clock, in an effort to switch out her night-owlishness for morning-personality... I'm thinking about trying it, but, then again...

a new fave...

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 16:58:00 +0000

Yum-o. Out here at mom & dad's, mom & I have discovered the lovely, new (to me, anyway) mint crisp M&M's. They're dangerous, ladies... I'm thinking of putting some in some brownies I'm making tonight!

Nana

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Fri, 23 May 2008 02:48:00 +0000

So my sweet Nana (mom's mom) had a heart attack Monday! That was the last thing any of us ever expected.... I've waited for a few years now for a call like that from my mom about my Pop (mom's dad), but didn't ever expect it about Nana. Sweet thing! She had to have a triple bypass, and is still in ICU. I was with mom & dad until last night, but needed to get back today to try to finish up the year at preschool... Am going back out Sunday afternoon, unless things get bad between now & then, which I don't anticipate, but you never know. (BTW, it's amazing to watch your parents care for their parents. I'm in awe of how great my folks are with nana & pop...hope I'm raising my girls to be as amazing as my parents are! Anyhow...)

It was sweet, when mom talked with her Monday morning before the surgery, she said, "Just think, if I wake up in heaven, I'll have nothing to do but sit and adore my precious Jesus!" Made me cry, of course. It was comforting to know that Nana was ready to go, but I don't think any of us are ready for her to go... seems like she might get to stay for a while longer, but I hate that she has to go through the pain of recovery and rehab from open heart surgery.

So if you still have a Nana around, go give her a big hug if you're able to. If you can't give her a hug, send her a card (my Nana loves cards, and I just kinda assume all Nanas out there love cards, too). And if you think of my sweet Nana, pray for her.