Retreat Exhaustion!!

If you take a gander at these lovely mustached ladies- one would think that they are beautiful, caring, kind and amazing people; so how is it that after a weekend of leading a retreat of these gals, I come home exhausted?

Could be because all the preparation-work to lead a weekend wears me out before the fun begins on a Friday night.

Could be because I never sleep well away from home.

Could be that I stay up way too late thinking, mulling, praying and talking through the next events of the weekend that I get little sleep.

Could be that helping others grow and gain in spiritual depth wears a person out.

Could be that I am not drawing deeply enough on God's reservoirs as I am lead by the Spirit to lead others.

Or it could be that retreat weekends are just so full a body is bound to be tired.

Anyway- it was not until maybe late Tuesday that I came up for air after this retreat.  Now I know why former co-leaders enjoy and relish their year off retreat leadership!  :)

I am grateful for all the folk who made this weekend happen so that I could get 'worn out' from doing the work of God!  Like ....

• My hubby for feeding the dog.  
• My retreat roommate for making my bed and dealing with my sheets.
• My mother and step dad for entertaining my kidlet.
• My music ladies for all their great sounds!
• My co-leaders for their leadership and help!
• My prayer partner for all her prayers and well wishes.
• My retreatants for their affirmations of God working through me in spite of my fatigue.
• Our Holy Spirit for being so awesome to move through us....

The Fish are Coming! The Fish are Coming!

Our kidlet's tenacity has paid off because her parents (aka my husband and I) relented and got a fish tank.

Since my husband's motto is "go big or go home"... we have a 37 gallon tank in our daughter's room.  Of course, the rocks are purple and pink and the tank stand shines with a lovely lavender color.

As soon as the water is 'right'... we are adopting fish!  She has names picked out.  We have selected various fresh water tropical breeds who will live well together (we hope).

So, here is to fish!  Maybe I will learn a thing or two that will help me fish for people!

Who knows!

Back in School

All the humans in my house are now back in their respective classrooms.  Just the dog and I do not have homework.

 Not sure if third grade or graduate school will have more homework (I am betting on grad school).  But the pressure is on for competitive excellence in their grades.

A few weeks before our daughter returned to her elementary school we drove up to the West 71st Street office building that houses my husband's graduate classes (Indiana Wesleyan).  We took a picnic supper and met my husband there after work and before his class.

Needless to say the boring-undecorated office building failed to excite my daughter's imagination.  She commented (loudly) about the lack of playground equipment, gym, bulletin boards, color photos, library niches, and fish tanks in her daddy's school.  Her only compliment was that the cafeteria was nice and quiet.

As we drove off, she said while shaking her head and snapping her seat belt, "Momma, poor Daddy, how does he learn with so little color?"

Indeed, color and fun make all the difference in school!  :)

YAY! We did it!

After lots of submission attempts, re-reading the writing guidelines, editing, and pouting... the good folks at Upper Room Ministries wrote me this week to say, "We like your submission on 1 Corinthians 1:9!  We want to publish it!"

Happy dance!

And wouldn't you know it was the submission about how my mother in law gave witness to God throughout her 12 year experience of breast cancer!  She would be so pleased and proud to know her story will be translated into multiple languages and shared around the world!  Awesome!  Gives me glory bumps just thinking about it.

I have no doubt she encouraged things from heaven!

Look for it in the July/August 2014 Upper Room.

Best and Worst of 2013 Summer Break

My failure to blog more frequently was do to the fact that I was too busy 'sucking the marrow out of life'.  In other words... life got full and blogging remained at bottom priority.  To share some tidbits of life around my house and ministry here are some of the extreme highlights of our eight week summer.

Best...

• the moment when my kiddo finally, finally took off on her bicycle with confidence and joy! Screaming, "Look at me!  Look at me!  I am doing it!"

Worst...

• visiting my mother-in-law's grave the first time since her June 10 funeral and burial... and how fresh the tears and sorrow became in my husband and daughter's eyes.

Best...

• swaying in our green striped hammock with my kidlet cuddled up to me while she reads, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, which was my favorite chapter book as a young girl.

Worst...

• bathing my dog after his third seizure in less than 45 days.

Best...

• praying through scripture to select a Bible verse for each of the cast, crew, board, and pit orchestra for TFC's production of  You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.

Worst...

• finally getting a week away with my family without church, work, or grad school... and my husband spend the week sick and it rains.

Oh, well the extremes of anything make it more enjoyable... and if not that, at least, memorable!

Summer Goals- Here and Gone

Eight weeks seems like a decent amount of time to accomplish lots of wonderful projects, tasks and experiences. Besides my summer goals this year were less zealous than previous year's, I think.

What do you think of my summer goals?

1. scrapbook all of Diana's 8th year
2. exercise 2-3 times week
3. file the mountain of reciepts that are filling 4 shoe boxes
4. read 5,000 pages
5. help Diana read 30 chapter books on HER OWN
6. make Diana ride her bike on HER OWN
7. pass her summer piano theory challenge

All are completed with the exception of number one and number three.  Since September 20th is the first official day of autumn, I do have plenty of time.  But because we returned to our fall school schedule, yesterday, on July 31... I needed to get these projects done this week.  

By Friday afternoon, they will be!  Whew- that was cutting it close!  

What were summer goals?  And what remains unfinished for you... you've probably got more time than me!