Thanksgiving Thursday

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(Note: This post was written on my Bluetooth in the car Thursday evening, but I wasn’t able to post it until now.)

Yay! I’m glad to get back to Thanksgiving Thursdays. I really need the thankful thoughtfulness it promotes.

This week, I’m thankful for:

1. The haircut and highlight I got today. It’s not different, it’s just that it was getting long and my roots were REALLY showing. It makes me feel sooooo much better after I get my hair did!

2. My very first Inspired Verses party. It went very well and it is beginning to catch on. People have been asking about it and showing a lot of interest. I can’t wait until my customers receive their orders so that they can show them off, especially the jewelry!

3. My thoughtful hubby. Yesterday I stopped at Kroger to pick up something for dinner and got the ingredients for pineapple upside down cake. It is his favorite and I wanted to surprise him. When he got home, to my surprise, he had brought dessert home for me! I guess great minds think alike!

4. A repainted classroom! I put in a work order to have portions of my classroom touched up over the summer. Mostly where chairs and desks had scuffed the wall. When I went in to get some work done this week, they had painted virtually the whole room. I hadn’t intended for them to have to do that much work, but the guys who did it stopped in while I was in my room and I got to say thank you!

5. Beautiful weather! The weather is supposed to dip down in the upper 70’s this week and we are on our way to visit my in-laws. Yay for blue skies, comfy tips and a nice drive!

6. Rest. One of my favorite parts of summer. I usually get up with my husband in the mornings, but occasionally I give him a kiss and snuggle back into my pillow. And it’s nice to know even when I do get up with him that I don’t HAVE TO. Plus the occasional nap is pretty nice too!

7. My country. I was watching a program on TV the other day where some Americans were bashing the United States and putting down this glorious country we live in. My response to them would be, “so leave!” I’m proud of my country and I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else in the world. If they’re so disgusted with the United States, I’m sure there are plenty of people all over the world who would gladly trade places with them. Okay, I’ll get off my soapbox now.

8. My nephews and nieces. Whether it’s my two-year-old niece who entertains us with her hijacks or my 18-year-old niece who is headed off to college, I just enjoy being an aunt so much!

9. Sweet tea. I know, I say this a lot, but I don’t think I’ve ever explained it. Not only did I grow up on sweet tea, but it’s also one of the few things I CAN drink. Carbonated beverages give me the hiccups, so I rarely indulge in one, and fruit juices don’t agree with my stomach. This leaves alcohol (ha ha!), water, and milk. Oh yeah, and sweet tea! 

10. Our jobs. I heard on the radio today that the unemployment rates are misleading because so many people are employed but have had their hours cut, or have gone from full time to part time, or have lost significant benefits, or have lost a job and found employment by making far less than they did before. Thank you, God, for our relatively stable jobs.

I acknowledge and am very thankful that everything I have and everything I am is a gift from the Almighty Creator of the Universe. And the best part is, not only is He generous with blessings, He’s also generous with love!

Lessons Learned: Part 1

I miss St. Louis.

A lot.

I miss being able to get something to eat any time of the day or night. I miss going to a professional sporting event on a moment’s notice. I miss having lots of choices when I want to go shopping. I miss the variety of food and people and culture and events. I miss my church.

Sometimes I wonder why God had me move to St. Louis after college graduation only to turn around and move back 7 years later. Some of the reasons I moved back to my hometown aren’t valid anymore. Granted, I am married now and have a beautiful niece and nephew here and a dad, sisters, and grandma I want to spend time with. But what I’ve wondered is, why did He ever send me to St. Louis in the first place?

There’s no doubt in my mind that it was all God when I moved to St. Louis. There were just too many “coincidences” involved not to believe that it was God. But this is a question I’ve been pondering ever since I moved back.

In the 5 years since I moved back, God has been showing me the ways in which He has grown me and the lessons that I learned while I lived in St. Louis. I still sometimes wonder why God chose St. Louis to teach me the lessons I needed to learn, but I’m grateful for the experiences nonetheless. And I realize that they were lessons I desperately needed to learn. Not to mention that they prepared me for where I am now.

There are too many lessons learned to put them all in one post, so I’m going to share them in a series of posts over the next few weeks. But here’s the first lesson I learned:

1) To Accept Help

I’ve always been an independent little bugger. Determination, independence, and sadly, pride have always been a part of my makeup. This was part of what led me to St. Louis in the first place. I wanted to prove that I could make it in the city on my own. And I did. But God had to bring me down a notch or two because, as the Good Book says, pride goeth before a fall. He really began to show me how much I needed others the last year that I lived there. I bought my first house almost a year to the day before I sold it to move back home. Friends, family, church members, and even kids from the youth group helped me move, clean, paint, and decorate. But I didn’t think much about that. Everyone gets that kind of help when they move, don’t they? Allowing others to help me move wasn’t admitting anything. It wasn’t admitting that I NEEDED others. That I couldn’t make it on my own. That I wasn’t completely independent. So I began paying my own mortgage, cleaning my own house, and mowing my own lawn. That is, until the mower broke.

I tried to fix it. I tried to find a repair shop to fix it. I began to save up to buy a new one. But the one thing I refused to do was ask for help. Meanwhile my grass grew taller and taller. And I’m sure my neighbors hated me.

Then one night I came home after dark and collapsed on the couch. My phone rang. It was the father of two of the kids in the youth group I helped lead. He wanted to know what I thought of the yard. The yard?
I hadn’t even looked.

I went back outside and looked around in the dim glow of the street lamp.

Not only had my yard been mowed, but also trimmed and yard trimmings disposed of.

I thanked them profusely and hung up the phone. And then I lost it.

Part of me wanted to be angry. I hadn’t asked for help. What right did they have to mow my yard without permission?

But that lasted about half a second. I was so very grateful for the help, but I was also incredibly humbled.

I realized that God had orchestrated this entire event not only because I needed my yard mowed, but also because I needed to learn a lesson.

If this family had come to me and asked for permission to mow my yard, I would have turned them down. If they had offered to let me borrow their lawn mower to mow it myself, I probably would have still turned them down.

I was stubborn. And determined. And prideful.

And God had used them to teach me that I was part of the body of Christ. A body part on its own is useless. I needed the rest of the body.

Not just for spiritual reasons. Not just to encourage me and lift me up and help me draw closer to Christ.

But also for day-to-day-just-getting-through-everyday-life-reasons.

It was one thing to be strong and determined.

It was another entirely to think that I didn’t need anyone else.

I did.

And I learned that lesson that day.

I still have difficulty sometimes with this. I still sometimes find it hard to ask someone for help. Or to admit that I don’t know how to do something.

But God always brings me back to that summer day in 2003 when he taught me about being part of the Body of Christ. It was a small event on one little summer day. But it’s had a major impact on me.

And the best part of it is that I have had so many opportunities to return the favor. To help others with everything from words of encouragement to a little manual labor. And it feels good to know that I’m helping others in my Family. My big worldwide family.

And maybe it’s not so much that they need my time or skill or expertise. Maybe it’s just that God is using me to help someone else learn a lesson.

A lesson that I’m still learning myself.

Inspired Verses Newsletter

Oh yeah, I've started an Inspired Verses blog that I am going to use like a newsletter. If you're interested in checking it out, go here.

I'm baaaack!!!

I know, I know. I haven’t blogged in like . . . forever.

I really don’t have an excuse for it. Except maybe that I’m on summer vacation and blogging just seems like work for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love blogging. But the fact of the matter is, I’m an English teacher. If I write a blog, I have to perfect it before I’ll let the public see it. I write it. And rewrite it. And then edit it at least once. Usually twice. Then, and only then, will I post it. So it’s a lot of work. And time. Maybe if I could break myself out of my (pardon my French) anal retentiveness, I might get more blogging done.

But I promise I will try. Really.

So what else have I been up to? Well, let’s see.

I’ve been working on some units for this upcoming school year. The writing unit came pretty easily. It’s pretty thorough, so I’m very pleased with it. But then I started on the reading unit and I just hit a brick wall. I’ve spent several days staring at my laptop and materials and getting nothing done. So I’ve taken a break from it for a while. I still have a poetry unit to do after that, but I think it will come pretty easily so I’m not too worried about it.

I’ve spent some time with my grandmother. Not nearly as much as I would like, but it’s so hard. I hate seeing her struggling. I’ve talked about this before, but she’s not the grandmother I grew up with. Still, I love her with all my heart.

I’ve started reading the book The Shack. I wasn’t going to read it at first because it’s gotten so much criticism in regard to its theology, but at the same time I wanted to be able to judge for myself. Also, everyone is talking about it so much that I wanted to be able to participate in the conversation. Everyone I know who has read it usually responds with the need for me to read it myself when I asked them what they thought. So as of right now I’ve only got about 35 pages left. And what do I think? Well. . .

I think that there is a lot of truth in the book. There is a lot of deep wisdom in the book and it has really made me think. Like put down the book and just sit and think about it for a while. But I don’t think everyone should read it. There is also a lot in the book that makes me very uncomfortable. And I think that someone who is not very well grounded in the truth of Scripture might be misled. But at the same time, I might recommend it to someone who is very entrenched in the rules and law of religion. It points you back to the central truth that it’s all about Jesus. That’s a nice reminder. I’ll have to post another blog after I finished the book and let you know if I still feel the same way when I’m done.

I’ve also started selling Inspired Verses. I’ve been signed up to do it for a while, but last night was my first party. My sister hosted it, and although some people who RSVP’d weren’t able to make it, it was still a nice party. The best part is that I received my jewelry shipment yesterday morning, so I had time to go through it before the show. It was my first time seeing the jewelry other than online and I was very excited. Y’all, if you’re not familiar with Inspired Verses or Inspired Verses Jewelry, go check them out! You can only buy non-personalized canvases online, but through a consultant (THAT’S ME!), you can purchase canvases personalized with names, dates, and photos and also jewelry.

If anyone in my area would be interested in hosting a party, just let me know!! I REALLY need to schedule some parties right now to help me get started before school starts.

And if you would like to order something personalized, I can do that for you no matter where you live! It only costs $6.95 to have an order drop-shipped to your house! Leave me a comment with your e-mail address if you’re interested, or e-mail me at IVersesJC@aol.com.

I’ve also been working on the house a little bit, although nothing big. We got a pet vac, which works wonderfully, so I’ve been vacuuming all over the place. And I cleaned out a couple of kitchen cabinets (mostly trying to get rid of anything plastic). We brought my husband’s old PC from my in-laws’ house, so we bought a new computer desk and I put it together (yeah, it was “some assembly required”!) and set everything up.

I’ve spent some time with my family and laughed a lot at my niece and nephew. Cutie pies I tell ya’!

But mostly, I must confess, I’ve gotten addicted to Mafia Wars on Facebook. There you go. There’s my confession. Now it’s all out in the open. If anyone knows of a 12-step program, I might be in need of one soon.

The rest of this summer, I have a short class to take at the end of the month, a trip or two to Indiana, another one to Chicago, units to finish, a house to work on, and hopefully some Inspired Verses parties coming up. And I will try to get quite a bit of blogging in as well. That is if I can drag myself away from Mafia Wars!

THANKSGIVING THURSDAY

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This week, I am particularly thankful:

1. for only 2 hours of school left this year. That’s right, 2 HOURS! Yippee!!

2. that my in-laws are finally moved into their new house. The house they were in was not a good place for DH’s dad, who has difficulty getting around. We saw it before they moved in, and I can’t wait until we can see them in it!

3. for awesome women in an awesome church! Our church had a women’s event last night. About 60 (or more) of us gathered at the church, were given money, and were sent out into the community to find creative ways to bless people. We then gathered back at the church to share our experiences. AWESOME! I’ll have to share more about it in an upcoming post.

4. for everything material that God has blessed me with. I know that material things aren’t important, but last night’s event helped to remind me that not everyone has a comfortable house, nice clothes, a nice car, and good food.

5. for my husband. I just love him!

6. for great blog friends. Sara over at Grace Gets Greater just gave me two awesome blog awards. I’m going to pass them on this weekend, but for now you can check them out over on the right.

7. for God’s Word. I sometimes forget how powerful God’s Word can be in our lives. I’ve been reminded this week and I am so grateful.

8. that I get to accompany my hubby on a business trip next week. He has to take classes, but I get to hang out in Chicago with no responsibilities or obligations!

9. that God helped us find a great home gym for cheap. We’ve wanted to get one for a while, but didn’t want to spend that much money. A couple that we go to church with was moving and wanted to get rid of one. They sold it to us cheap, so we both were blessed!

10. that t-ball season has started. My five-year-old nephew had his first game Monday night. I love getting together with my family at the ballpark. They don’t keep score and nobody ever gets out. The players spend more time playing in the dirt and waving to their moms than paying attention, but they’re so darn cute!

INSPIRED VERSES

I’m starting a new adventure and I wanted to tell you about it. A few months ago, I ran across Inspired Verses. Inspired Verses is a company that prints motivational, inspirational, or scripture quotes on beautiful canvases to hang on your wall. You get to choose your quote and the background that best matches your décor. I fell in love with them! Originally, I just intended to find a unique graduation gift for my student teacher, but when I visited their website I discovered that they were seeking consultants to begin a new home party program. I jumped at the chance.

Several years ago, when I still lived in St. Louis, I was a consultant for a well-known candle company. I LOVED my part time job. I loved getting out and meeting new people, getting to see inside people’s homes, and helping people decorate their homes. I didn’t continue as a consultant when I moved back to Illinois, but I’ve missed the experience.

I’m excited to get started with Inspired Verses. You can purchase a canvas from their website with a quote and a background of your choice, but consultants are able to offer one aspect that is not available online: personalization.

Through a consultant (me), you can add a picture, name, dates, or stats. For instance:




I’m excited about the personalization part because it will make for great gifts! You can create a great wedding gift with a picture or quote and the married couple’s names and wedding dates. You can create a great baby gift with a quote or picture of the newborn, the baby’s name, and birth and weight. Graduations, vacations, Mother’s and Father’s Day, and other accomplishments would also make a great gift. As a matter of fact, I’m going to be taking advantage of upcoming baby showers and weddings that I will be attending this summer myself. . .

As if I’m not excited enough already, we also received a notice from the owner recently that they’re going to start offering jewelry! Check these out:




The jewelry will not be available for another month or so, but I’m looking forward to ordering and wearing some of the jewelry myself!

Sorry for the advertisement-like tone of this post, but I really am excited about Inspired Verses. I hope that you’ll check them out and let me know if you’re interested in personalizing one!

What's on my Heart

Tomorrow we are headed to Indiana to spend the Memorial Day weekend with my in-laws. We are going to be helping my mother and father-in-law pack for a move and celebrating my niece's high school graduation. I love my in-laws, and so I always look forward to our visits. We always have an enjoyable, laid back time and it's nice to get away for a little while.

But as we pack and prepare for our trip, there are a couple of things on my heart tonight.

This week at school has been very long, but good. The kids have eased right back into the routine after the week off due to the storm. A lot of our kids have been displaced from their homes and a large majority had damage and lived without electricity even into this week. So we have been very careful not to overload the kids with work. I only gave one homework assignment on Monday, and it's not due until tomorrow.

But one student in particular has been on my mind. He came to our school because his family lived on the Gulf coast and lost their homes after Katrina. We found out when we returned to school this week that they lost their home again two weeks ago when the storm hit. This is a student who has been an underachiever in my class this year. He's not a disruption or behavior problem at all, but you can tell there's a lot going on behind those dark eyes of his. My heart goes out to him.

Another person on my heart is my husband's former pastor. We found out tonight that he has colon cancer. My husband is torn up. This is the pastor that he grew up with and was like a second father to him. He's taking it pretty hard. My husband thinks the world of him and is struggling tonight with the "why's" of it all.

I've been reminded today of the uncertainty of this world that we live in. But I'm also reminded that this fallen world we live in is not our home. I don't understand the "why's" either, but I'm thankful that this painful life is only a very, very short blimp on the radar of eternity. Someday we'll be whole. Someday we'll live in mansions that can't be destroyed by weather. Someday we'll see our loved ones again.

Sometimes that's what gets me from one day to the next.

May 21, 2008

Tomorrow (Thursday) is the one year anniversary of Maria Sue Chapman's death. If you don't know, Maria was the daughter of Christian singer Steven Curtis Chapman. Her older brother accidentally ran over the five-year-old little girl in the family's driveway. The news shocked and devastated the Christian community, including me. I'll never forget the sick feeling in my stomach when I heard the news. I grieved with the family as I watched the news reports and interviews.

The amazing part of the story is the strength and faith that the family has displayed since then. Some of the details that have come out since the accident are incredibly moving and inspirational as the family has truly been a witness of God's love and mercy through their trial. This morning I was listening to Steven Curtis Chapman on Focus on the Family. He told an incredible story about a picture and message that Maria left her family.

If you have time, listen to the broadcast through the link on this page. If you only have a minute, click on the "Maria Sue's Drawings" link in the Web Exclusives box. It will give you a short synopsis of the incredible story of this drawing that the family found after Maria's death. Wow! God is amazing.

TO DIE FOR!

Okay, I know that I already posted today, but I just had to get back on here and share my joy!

I am a lover of all things Cheerio. I love every flavor of Cheerios available. My particular favorites are the Berry Burst and Yogurt Burst flavors. Well, until now.



Have you tried these? The name Banana NUT is true to form. They're definitely banana-flavored, but also have that subtle nutty flavor that I love about Banana Nut Bread.

They're, as my husband likes to say is my favorite phrase, TO DIE FOR!

P.S. If you click here, you can get a 55 cent coupon!

A Sundress and a Board Game

My niece turns two next Tuesday. She’s the cutest little thing. She was born about 6 weeks premature and spent several weeks in the NICU. I remember holding her shortly after she was born and if you closed your eyes you wouldn’t even know she was in your arms. That’s how little she was.

To this day, she’s still tiny. She has no developmental delays and is progressing normally, but she is just very petite. Which makes her extra cute. She’s just now beginning to grow out of 12 month clothes, but 18 month clothes look so big! I went shopping today for her birthday present, as my sister is having her birthday party tomorrow. I wanted to buy her both a toy and an outfit, but you should have seen me looking at the clothes!

First of all, everything is TOO cute for little girls that age! It took me forever to decide on just one outfit. I could have bought her a whole new wardrobe. It’s so fun having a little girl to buy for!

Another problem was that the 18 month clothes looked WAY too big for her, but my sister says that 12 month are beginning to be too small. I finally decided on this adorable sundress. I love pink and brown! I hope it’s supposed to be a maxi dress, though, because I think it might drag on the ground! Oh well, she’ll be that much cuter, I guess!



I went to Toys R Us to buy her a toy and finally decided on this Fisher Price Shopping Cart. I can just see her short little legs pushing this cart around the house and collecting everyone else’s belongings as she goes.



Note to my sister: If your watch, sunglasses, or house shoes come up missing, look in the shopping cart!

My niece and her five-year-old brother get along extremely well. As a matter of fact, they seem to adore each other. My nephew is infinitely patient with her and will let her play with any of his toys.

Except his cars.

He has been a car freak since way before he could walk. He used to lie on the floor and watch the wheels turn as he rolled his cars back and forth. He has quite an impressive collection. He even has a collection of cars that resemble the cars of real adults that he knows. He’ll show you your car when you visit if he knows you.

But they’re his cars. And little sister’s fingers are off limits.

So I also bought her two cute little cars that I found that are shaped like bugs with wheels on the bottom. And they’re pink and yellow and purple. No mistaking they were made for a little girl!

On another note, while I was at Toys R Us, I checked out the board game aisle, which is my favorite aisle in the whole store! My family has always been big on board games. It’s one of our traditions to play board games for hours on end after we open presents on Christmas Eve. And board games make frequent gifts between my siblings and me. But they can be expensive, so we’re always scouting for games that are on sale. A year or so ago, Toys R Us was having an $8 dollar sale and I bought several of my favorite board games.

But I digress. . .

The reason I mention this is because I wanted to express my complete horror and disgust at what I saw in the board game aisle today. I was scanning the aisle for pink boxes to see if they had any games for two-year-old girls (they did and I came THIS CLOSE to buying one!) when I happened across a pink box that made me do a double take.

Did you know that they sell PINK Ouija boards?

It looked like a regular girly board game, as if it should have Barbie or the Disney princesses plastered on the front of it. It didn’t, but it looked unmistakably girly anyway.

I also noticed that they were located on the BOTTOM shelf. Which, as we all know, is strategic marketing to appeal to the shortest people in the family!

I though about googling a picture of it so I could show you what it looked like, but I decided I didn’t want a picture of a Ouija board on my blog. Heck, I don’t even like having the NAME on here!

I know a lot of people think Ouija boards are perfectly harmless, but I don’t. I don’t necessarily think that evil was emanating out of the box right there in Toys R Us, but I do think that using one makes you vulnerable to forces that the Bible explicitly tells us to stay away from.

Part of me wanted to leave Toys R Us in protest right then and there. But then I noticed that the game was made by Parker Brothers, which means that most likely any store that carries Parker Brothers board games would also sell it. I can’t boycott everybody.

I don’t know, maybe I should have left anyway. I do believe in making our voices heard, but if I started boycotting every store that carried something I disagree with, I would be pretty busy growing my own food and sewing my own clothes!

What do you think? Would you have left?

* By the way, I did google Ouija board when I got home and discovered that Parker Brothers is the sole manufacturer of Ouija boards in the U.S. Just thought that was interesting.