A lot of stress has rolled into my life in the past day or so. Some of it was expected, some of it was very unexpected. As I’ve been searching for some comforting words, for some peace in the midst of all this, the Lord led me to this classic hymn. I think it says everything.
It Is Well With My Soul
When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet,
though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Going to the dark side
I’ve decided to take a darker turn for fall this year. No, not my attitude or my spirit – my hair. I had it colored earlier this week and went back to my original brunette, if not a hair (pun completely intended here) darker. This has been a big adjustment. Okay, a huge adjustment. I’ve been blonde for so long now. It just fits my personality. Bubbly and optimistic, yet smart, and sunny. But blonde is getting rather expensive and extremely high maintenance to maintain. I’m high maintenance enough without adding anything else to the mix.
Here’s a Before and After, sort of:
Before (except I wasn't that blonde):
After:
We’ll see how long this lasts. I have a feeling I’ll be back to blonde by next spring or maybe even by Christmas. That’s the good thing about color – you can always change it if you don’t like it.
Here’s a Before and After, sort of:
Before (except I wasn't that blonde):
After:
We’ll see how long this lasts. I have a feeling I’ll be back to blonde by next spring or maybe even by Christmas. That’s the good thing about color – you can always change it if you don’t like it.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Normal is as Normal does
Sheila at http://lifeatnumber17.blogspot.com tagged me for Normal is as Normal does.
Normal is:
- Realizing I need a cup of milk for a recipe when I actually need a whole cup and I'm halfway through said recipe
- Knowing that no matter how bad the day has been, Brady will always be happy to see me
- Hitting the snooze button two more times
- Buying a magazine only to get the same issue in the mail a day later
- Having way too many magazines to begin with
- Always looking forward to the next season, but enjoying the season I'm currently in
- Finishing my Christmas card list in August
- Making sure I have a good supply of note cards and little "happies" for dear friends
- Looking forward to the daily email from my dad, telling me how his day is going
- Struggling to get everyone to church on Sunday mornings, but always being so thankful we made it
- Getting my goodnight kisses from my little man and my big man every night
Normal is:
- Realizing I need a cup of milk for a recipe when I actually need a whole cup and I'm halfway through said recipe
- Knowing that no matter how bad the day has been, Brady will always be happy to see me
- Hitting the snooze button two more times
- Buying a magazine only to get the same issue in the mail a day later
- Having way too many magazines to begin with
- Always looking forward to the next season, but enjoying the season I'm currently in
- Finishing my Christmas card list in August
- Making sure I have a good supply of note cards and little "happies" for dear friends
- Looking forward to the daily email from my dad, telling me how his day is going
- Struggling to get everyone to church on Sunday mornings, but always being so thankful we made it
- Getting my goodnight kisses from my little man and my big man every night
Long time, no blog
Long time, no blog. Things have really picked up here lately in our little neck of the woods.
For starters, my in-laws are arriving on Friday and staying until Wednesday. That puts me into the usual tailspin of cleaning behind stoves, dusting ceiling fans, and sweeping underneath beds, plus a thousand other household chores. We have a whole weekend of plans including a Greenville Drive game and a trip to the NC Apple Festival in Hendersonville. We rarely have houseguests, so I like to do things up right. We’re all about Southern Hospitality at my house. There will be pecan bars ready when they arrive and fresh towels in the bathroom. It’s all those little things that really make folks feel welcome. My greatest fear would be to have guests and them feel like they’re an inconvenience or unwanted.
Fall is right around the corner, too and am I ever ready. This has been a long, hot summer. Very reminiscent of Memphis. Now the fall decorations and even Christmas trees are hitting the stores. I usually do my fall decorating Labor Day weekend, but I’ll be pushing that back a week due to our guests. I’d love to find a new wreath for the front door and a couple of fall candles. Maybe Yankee Candle Macintosh. Yummy!
This fall we’re teaching the 2 and 3 year old Sunday School class at church. This should be quite the experience, as none of us has ever taught a Sunday School class before. At least they’re too young to ask the tough theological questions. We’ll save that for the 5 year olds. I’m also doing a lot with my MOPS (Mother’s of Preschoolers) group this year. I was fortunate enough to be asked to serve on the steering team, so I get to help lead small group discussions and plan events and such. The perfect job for me! Our first meeting is next Thursday and I’m so excited to meet all the ladies in my group. I’m sending them all little “Welcome” notes this week in the mail. I love getting notes. It really brightens the day, so I hope it brightens theirs.
Well, it’s back to work. Have a fantastic day!
For starters, my in-laws are arriving on Friday and staying until Wednesday. That puts me into the usual tailspin of cleaning behind stoves, dusting ceiling fans, and sweeping underneath beds, plus a thousand other household chores. We have a whole weekend of plans including a Greenville Drive game and a trip to the NC Apple Festival in Hendersonville. We rarely have houseguests, so I like to do things up right. We’re all about Southern Hospitality at my house. There will be pecan bars ready when they arrive and fresh towels in the bathroom. It’s all those little things that really make folks feel welcome. My greatest fear would be to have guests and them feel like they’re an inconvenience or unwanted.
Fall is right around the corner, too and am I ever ready. This has been a long, hot summer. Very reminiscent of Memphis. Now the fall decorations and even Christmas trees are hitting the stores. I usually do my fall decorating Labor Day weekend, but I’ll be pushing that back a week due to our guests. I’d love to find a new wreath for the front door and a couple of fall candles. Maybe Yankee Candle Macintosh. Yummy!
This fall we’re teaching the 2 and 3 year old Sunday School class at church. This should be quite the experience, as none of us has ever taught a Sunday School class before. At least they’re too young to ask the tough theological questions. We’ll save that for the 5 year olds. I’m also doing a lot with my MOPS (Mother’s of Preschoolers) group this year. I was fortunate enough to be asked to serve on the steering team, so I get to help lead small group discussions and plan events and such. The perfect job for me! Our first meeting is next Thursday and I’m so excited to meet all the ladies in my group. I’m sending them all little “Welcome” notes this week in the mail. I love getting notes. It really brightens the day, so I hope it brightens theirs.
Well, it’s back to work. Have a fantastic day!
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Bean Salad or Bust
Our Sunday School class is the Bereavement Class for August, so we’re responsible for providing the food if someone has a death or illness in their family. We had two deaths in the first week, so it’s looking to be a busy month.
Friday I got an email asking if I could bring bean salad or coleslaw to the church at 11:30am on Saturday morning. For some unknown reason, I said I’d bring the bean salad. I don’t eat bean salad, let alone make it, so I don’t know what possessed me to volunteer for that. But I found a Paula Deen recipe and planned on picking up the ingredients Friday evening so it could chill overnight. No big deal.
Brady and I run some errands Friday evening and that’s when the trouble started. We were at Barnes and Noble. Brady was playing at the train table in the children’s department (in the very back of the store) and I was sitting there, reading the newest Rachael Ray magazine. Then I smelled it. We had to go to the car, so I told Brady we had to leave in 2 minutes (trying to give him some warning). The 2 minutes were up and then I proceeded to take the Walk of Shame. He screamed, and I do mean SCREAMED, from the very back of B&N to the very front of B&N. That was one of the longest walks ever. So I get him in the car and manage to wrestle with him long enough to get his diaper changed and then he refused to get in his car seat. I practically had to sit on him to get him strapped in. I’m sure people were taking down my license plate number to call social services.
I should have known better at this point, but I had to go by the store to get the ingredients for this bean salad. We stop at our beloved Bloom store and I get Brady in his race car shopping cart which normally keeps him occupied for a short shopping excursion. Not tonight! We barely get in the door before he starts screaming for something. Remember it was 105F on Friday evening and that made things even worse. I turn right around and take him back to the car, where again I have to fight to get him in the car seat. Two teenage girls pulled up next to us during this scene and I’m sure they decided right then and there to never have children. So I go home, with no ingredients for this bean salad.
I figure I’ll just hit the deli in the morning and pick up some bean salad, put it my own bowl, and call it a day. However, I didn’t realize that bean salad should be on the endangered species list after going to 3 grocery stores and finding no bean salad, just a well-meaning stock clerk who tried to give me 3 bean soup and didn’t understand why I was about to cry onto his apron. By this time it was 10:30am on Saturday morning, I was arguing with Lennon about why I agreed to bring bean salad in the first place, I had other groceries melting in the trunk and Brady was looking for his morning snack. I say I’ll just make the bean salad I was going to make and hopefully it would be okay at room temperature, only to discover that Brady had used to recipe as a coloring page and dropped it somewhere in Walmart. So I scour my cookbooks looking for another recipe and give Lennon the list of ingredients so he could go pick them up and I could make it just minutes before I had to leave.
He comes back, I throw together this damn bean salad and finish it at exactly 11:20am, the precise time I need to walk out the door.
The moral of the story is, if someone gives you the choice between bean salad and coleslaw, always pick the coleslaw.
Friday I got an email asking if I could bring bean salad or coleslaw to the church at 11:30am on Saturday morning. For some unknown reason, I said I’d bring the bean salad. I don’t eat bean salad, let alone make it, so I don’t know what possessed me to volunteer for that. But I found a Paula Deen recipe and planned on picking up the ingredients Friday evening so it could chill overnight. No big deal.
Brady and I run some errands Friday evening and that’s when the trouble started. We were at Barnes and Noble. Brady was playing at the train table in the children’s department (in the very back of the store) and I was sitting there, reading the newest Rachael Ray magazine. Then I smelled it. We had to go to the car, so I told Brady we had to leave in 2 minutes (trying to give him some warning). The 2 minutes were up and then I proceeded to take the Walk of Shame. He screamed, and I do mean SCREAMED, from the very back of B&N to the very front of B&N. That was one of the longest walks ever. So I get him in the car and manage to wrestle with him long enough to get his diaper changed and then he refused to get in his car seat. I practically had to sit on him to get him strapped in. I’m sure people were taking down my license plate number to call social services.
I should have known better at this point, but I had to go by the store to get the ingredients for this bean salad. We stop at our beloved Bloom store and I get Brady in his race car shopping cart which normally keeps him occupied for a short shopping excursion. Not tonight! We barely get in the door before he starts screaming for something. Remember it was 105F on Friday evening and that made things even worse. I turn right around and take him back to the car, where again I have to fight to get him in the car seat. Two teenage girls pulled up next to us during this scene and I’m sure they decided right then and there to never have children. So I go home, with no ingredients for this bean salad.
I figure I’ll just hit the deli in the morning and pick up some bean salad, put it my own bowl, and call it a day. However, I didn’t realize that bean salad should be on the endangered species list after going to 3 grocery stores and finding no bean salad, just a well-meaning stock clerk who tried to give me 3 bean soup and didn’t understand why I was about to cry onto his apron. By this time it was 10:30am on Saturday morning, I was arguing with Lennon about why I agreed to bring bean salad in the first place, I had other groceries melting in the trunk and Brady was looking for his morning snack. I say I’ll just make the bean salad I was going to make and hopefully it would be okay at room temperature, only to discover that Brady had used to recipe as a coloring page and dropped it somewhere in Walmart. So I scour my cookbooks looking for another recipe and give Lennon the list of ingredients so he could go pick them up and I could make it just minutes before I had to leave.
He comes back, I throw together this damn bean salad and finish it at exactly 11:20am, the precise time I need to walk out the door.
The moral of the story is, if someone gives you the choice between bean salad and coleslaw, always pick the coleslaw.
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Random Thoughts
I don’t have anything in particular to write about today, so here are some random thoughts.
Last night I switched over to CNN and first saw the report on the bridge collapse in Minneapolis. Unbelievable. Cars everywhere, many having fallen into the river. People just stunned. I always thought about the bridge collapsing when I lived in Memphis and would drive over the Mississippi river to get to Arkansas. You just never know what’s going to happen and what day will be your last. These people were just driving home after a long day at work or school.
I know I’m way behind the times, but I recently discovered Chris Tomlin (thanks in part to Big Mama!) and bought his “Arriving” cd yesterday. It’s so good! There’s a lot of great music out there now. I’m particularly excited about the new Point of Grace cd coming out this fall.
Tonight I’m going to see “No Reservations,” the new Catherine Zeta-Jones movie. I’m going with some girls from our Sunday School class for a Girl’s Night Out. We should have a great time.
My grandmother flies in tomorrow night from Ohio and boy, will she be tired. *Ba-dum-dum* I know, that was really bad. Seriously, though, we’re picking her up. She comes every year for a week, which I think is really nice. I hope I can travel like that when I’m her age.
Found a great shirt at Target yesterday. It’s by Isaac Mizrahi and is this gorgeous shade of peacock blue. Hints of fall in the air!
Fondly,
Serah
Last night I switched over to CNN and first saw the report on the bridge collapse in Minneapolis. Unbelievable. Cars everywhere, many having fallen into the river. People just stunned. I always thought about the bridge collapsing when I lived in Memphis and would drive over the Mississippi river to get to Arkansas. You just never know what’s going to happen and what day will be your last. These people were just driving home after a long day at work or school.
I know I’m way behind the times, but I recently discovered Chris Tomlin (thanks in part to Big Mama!) and bought his “Arriving” cd yesterday. It’s so good! There’s a lot of great music out there now. I’m particularly excited about the new Point of Grace cd coming out this fall.
Tonight I’m going to see “No Reservations,” the new Catherine Zeta-Jones movie. I’m going with some girls from our Sunday School class for a Girl’s Night Out. We should have a great time.
My grandmother flies in tomorrow night from Ohio and boy, will she be tired. *Ba-dum-dum* I know, that was really bad. Seriously, though, we’re picking her up. She comes every year for a week, which I think is really nice. I hope I can travel like that when I’m her age.
Found a great shirt at Target yesterday. It’s by Isaac Mizrahi and is this gorgeous shade of peacock blue. Hints of fall in the air!
Fondly,
Serah
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