Funny House Church Story

Here's that funny house church singing story:

A while back my husband and I went to our WONDERFUL house church.

By the way, let me just stop there and say that if you aren't getting to know some fellow believers in a deep way and being known in a deep way, you are missing out.  Find a house church.  It's worth the search.

Commercial over.

Our church is blessed by some amazing worship leaders. We have an abundance of artists of all kinds and when I say our worship leaders are amazing, I mean that we have a LOT of AMAZING worship leaders/singer/songwriters.  One of them, Kelsey, leads our housechurch worship.  God blesses us each week with His presence as we worship together.  

One night Kelsey sang a song over us, which means she sang it and we listened and meditated on it and then she invited us to sing along with her.  It was a beautiful song and we all wanted to join in but it wasn't on the printout of words.  So, our group did the best we could.  Picture thirty people, ages 20-80, following a song they just heard.  It was a quiet, meditative song and all of a sudden I got this picture in my head (after the ad go to 1:03 to get to the picture that was in my head):

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(I really have to tell you that our house church didn't look like that AT ALL.  We were just a little behind Kelsey and kind of mumbly but it made me THINK of that skit and that was all it took.  I am so immature.)

. . . anyway, I couldn't get that picture out of my head and I started laughing.  It was tragic.  Then to make matters worse, in answer to Wade's worried look at me, I whispered "this reminds me of that SNL skit" to him and he started laughing.  By the end of the song, we were practically crying from trying so hard not to laugh out loud.

I always thought laughing in the quiet parts of a church service was the worst.  Trust me.  Laughing in the quiet parts of house church can be just as uncomfortable.

Maybe worse.

A Garden Tour

This morning I took a photographic tour of my tiny garden.  There are some exciting things happening out there and also some lessons learned.

Happy Cucumbers

My cucumbers are deliriously happy.  I planted a bunch of them because we ran out of Grandmother Atkinson's Lime Pickles this year and THAT CAN NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN.  Cucumbers and tomatoes are the main reason for my garden's existence.  And basil.  More on that later.

Roma Tomatoes with Parsley and Cucumbers in front

My Roma tomatoes are also blissfully growing alongside their parsley and cucumber cousins.  This year I am trying a new support system.  I put in bamboo stakes on either side and ran twine between the stakes.  When the tomatoes look droopy, I run more twine and tighten things up.  We'll see how this goes when the plants get really heavy with yumminess but so far I like this system.

Can you see all those blooms and baby romas?  

This is gonna be yummy!

The reason this makes me so happy is that I love Caprese Salad!  Have you had it before?  It's sliced tomatoes with basil and sliced mozzarella cheese (the wet kind) with Balsamic vinegar.  Grocery store tomotoes are hardly worth the effort but if you have a delicious garden grown tomato . . . Oh Honey!  You have deliciousness!  I planted a lot of basil but so far only one of the plants is really happy.

Happy Basil Plant

Last year we didn't get ONE tomato but our basil went crazy.  Hopefully, the other basils will come on quick.

We also planted strawberries

One of two plants and the lonely strawberry

and squash

Can you see the baby squash under there?

I don't think we'll have enough strawberries for jam, so that's one lesson learned.  Next year I'll plant about eight strawberry plants.

In the interest of keeping it real, here is the other side of my garden.

The sad, pitiful Better Boy tomatoes and the killer dill plant (with a few zinnias and thyme thrown in)

I put in these robust Better Boy tomatoes, looking forward to some yummy slices on sandwiches this summer.  Then I planted a tiny, little, grown from seed in my kitchen, dill plant in front of it.  The dill went crazy.  This is cut back to about half it's size in an effort to encourage my tomatoes to live and not die.  The tomatoes looked much worse before I did that, if you can imagine.

I couldn't figure out what was wrong with those plants except that "Better" Boy was apparently NOT better, so I called my master gardener Mom about my problem.

She said, "I don't know" and we continued garden talking.

I told her how much I love the fresh dill on my scrambled eggs and she said, "Oh!  I bet you will have some beautiful butterflies this summer.  They love dill too."

Mystery solved.  Butterfly babies killed my better boys.  Or at least bullied them.  Those butterflies had better be pretty!

Multi-Tasking

I have developed a really bad habit of multitasking. All the time.

I used to think it was a good thing but it has become a problem - even an addiction.  At first, I just didn't like sitting to watch t.v. without something to do in my hands because it felt like a waste of time, but now I really can't just sit and watch something and I even find it difficult to stay tuned in to a whole conversation, especially when I am in work mode - which is most of the time.

And there in lies the problem.

If I'm watching t.v. with my family I am also usually crocheting or (sigh) playing solitaire.  This doesn't seem like a big deal but I frequently miss important parts of the t.v. show while I'm looking at my game or project.  Then I either ask hubby to rewind or I spend the rest of the show trying to figure out the plot line without an important piece of the story.  This isn't a  big deal with a sitcom or even a movie but I have noticed that it has bled into real life interactions and there's no rewind button on real life.

The problem isn't the crocheting, it's the lack of focused attention and it has blurred into most areas of my life.  When I'm driving, talking on the phone, or even just waiting for a program to load on my computer, I find myself looking for something else to do.  The other day I realized I was doing it while a family member was talking to me and decided I need to stop.  It caused me to wonder how often I do that to my loved ones?  Do I tune out with them while they are talking to me?  If so, I'm sure I am missing out on important pieces of their plot line as well.  This is a real problem since I am a main character in those stories.

Can you imagine if the main characters of the shows you watch spent the majority of the show trying to figure out what just happened so they can respond to it appropriately?  It reminds me of one of my favorite skits on SNL, Garth and Kat.  It's funny on t.v. but not so funny in real life.  (Although I have a hilarious house church singing story to tell you sometime that reminds me of this skit!)

So, I have decided to attempt to correct this problem and be in the moment.  I think my first exercise will be to force myself to watch a 30 minute sitcom without doing anything else.  I don't think I'd better try a one hour show.  That might be like running a marathon your first time out.  I am also going to try putting down whatever I am doing with my hands when a loved one starts talking to me so that I can listen, really listen.

I don't want to catch the highlight reel of my family's life.  I want to be a main character.

Pray for me.

All Things

Today I woke up overwhelmed.

There is some pretty major stuff going on with the budget at work right now that will effect my practice.  I work for a non profit medical facility and sometimes 'non profit' means 'no money'.  Things were really picking up with my caseload and then WHAMMEE!  I had to slam on the brakes while we figure out how to work with what we have.

The thought that was on my mind was 'When am I ever going to just coast and enjoy having a little extra money and time and peace?'  That's what I thought was about to happen heading into last week.  I was pretty grumpy as I brought that thought to the Lord and you know what he said?  He said "All things work together for your good."  Since that was what he was saying to me, I thought I would look that passage up for my morning devotional and it is so meaty!  It's Romans 8:26-30 and here are a few of the things the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart:

• I don't really know what to pray for but the Spirit prays/intercedes for me.  He helps me by praying for me because I am weak.  By the way, Jesus also prays for me but that's another verse.
• The Holy Spirit helps me by praying the will of God for my life.  So while I might pray 'please make my path easy', the Holy Spirit is helping me by praying 'not my will but thine be done'.
• I am destined to be transformed into the image of Christ.  That is what God is doing in me through everything that happens in my life.  
• If I really know Jesus I will love him enough for that to be gloriously wonderful but that's a hard test for my love because sometimes I can get pretty pouty about not getting my own way.  

This morning I decided that it is enough to be changed to be like Jesus.  He is glorious.  He is strong.  He is loving.  He is true.  He is so wise.  He is everything I want to be.

Gratitude

Today I am so grateful for so many things.

1.  I woke up to a Facebook message from a cousin-in-law thanking me for Meem's green enchilada recipe that I sent her and telling me how much she misses Meem and wishes she had her turkey stuffing recipe.  And I had the stuffing recipe! Happiness!!!  My husband loves green enchiladas so one time while I was at Meem's house I got her to let me follow her around in the kitchen and write down what she did to make it.  Then a year or two later Meem said she thought it would be the last time she made her stuffing so I wrote that down too.  I miss her.  We all do.  But I am so grateful that I got to be one of her grandkids.  You want those recipes, don't you!?  I think Meem wouldn't mind.  She was sweet like that.

Green Enchiladas

1.5 lb ground beef, browned with ½ - 1 onion

1 can cream of mushroom soup, 1 can cream of chicken soup, 1 large and 1

small can chopped green chilies, warmed with ¾ can of water

1 lb longhorn cheese, grated

Layer – Doritos, Meat, Cheese, Soup

Finish with cheese then soup.

Bake 350 for 25 – 30 min.

 Meem's Turkey Stuffing

1 large pan of cornbread

< 1 loaf of white bread, toasted

6 eggs, beaten

4 stalks of celery, chopped

4 onions, finely chopped

chicken broth to moisten

sage to taste (~1-2tsp)

salt and pepper to taste

Crumble breads.  Mix in eggs, celery, onions, chicken broth, sage, and salt and pepper until very moist.  Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes or until top is slightly crusted and eggs are cooked.

2.  I am so grateful for Compassion today.  My little girl's name is Anna.  She is eight and will turn nine July 1st.  I remember this because Compassion sent me a reminder that it takes three months for gifts to get to her.  I hope that my gifts make her birthday special and bless her family.  I pray for her often and hope to meet her someday.  My tiny monthly gift, that just posts to my credit card so I don't even have to think about it, feeds and educates her and makes it possible for her very old parents to have peace of mind for their late in life little girl.  If you want a little piece of this joy, just log on to Compassion and pick a child.  You won't be sorry.  It has been one of the things I have been grateful for a lot of days.

3.  I am grateful for peaceful music.  This morning I am enjoying Gungor.  You might enjoy them too.

4.  I am grateful for my big bathtub.  I take a bath every other day (I shower on the other days, don't worry) and it's a little bit of an event every time because I have this big jacuzzi tub.  The jacuzzi jets aren't really placed well and it has some cracks.  Someday we should replace it.  But everytime I use it I am just grateful for it, even a year and half after we moved here.  It's just one of those little joys that makes my life beautiful.  

5.  I am grateful for the men in my life.  My hubby is putting a beautiful wood parquet floor down in the office today.  It came out of my mom and dad's old bedroom and my dad pulled it up piece by piece so that it wouldn't go to waste.  That's just like my parents.   They don't waste anything.  They were green before it was cool, but don't tell them that.  They like to think they are just frugal.

6.  Speaking of men in my life, my son is going to a concert in Dallas tomorrow with some wonderful friends.  I am so glad he gets to do that.  It has been such a joy to have him home and see him grow into a wonderful young man.  

7.  I am grateful for my job and the opportunity to learn and grow in it.  Speaking of which, I'd better finish getting dressed and get to work!