Sunday Snippits: good, bad, & awesome!

GOOD: This past week was filled with vocational adventure feeling out my authority & lack thereof. I am always a team player, but some times I want to work individually & then come together as a team. Friday topped off the adventuresome week with Slow Cooker Lasagna, baptismal discussion, & no knead ciabatta bread. Then a surprise visit just to go pick up some farm fresh eggs. MG had herself a very full evening with a baby around & then hanging out with a bunch of people. Of course she made herself at home right away by trying to eat the plastic cat dish. Thankfully it was the lid of a Country Time Lemonade container. The Spirit was spilling hospitality abounding!

BAD: Remember that whole not burning one's candle at both ends thing? Yeah, failed.

AWESOME: Ice cream traditions, like geegunks (google doesn't give much on this) that my Dad's side of the family carried on from my Grandpa's days in the Navy. So I just kept searching & found this gem about geedunks. Kinda fun, but a geegunk in my family is chocolate milk with vanilla ice cream. You can doctor it up however you please, but it's just as good plain.

WORD: Matthew 25:1-13 - What do you do to prepare for the coming of Jesus in your life? There are many (& that's an understatement) interpretations of this scripture. For me, it is a daily life style & a belief that Jesus is with us always, at all times as Jesus's Spirit gives us each breath. Thus we are called to live a life worthy of our calling (Eph. 4) to be like Jesus in the flesh for others, for community.

coming up: Most likely a bit more snow. It's already fallen at least 2 or 3 times. Though somehow I missed the one time. I suppose I didn't look at the roof tops. Also a road trip to Ikea & a conference where I get to see at least one friend I haven't seen in something like 7 years. Looking forward to the continuing education & the dreaming up of new ways to be the church with colleagues.

Friday Favorites!

Happy Halloween from a Madd House Wife!

It's better late than never to post a Friday Favorites!

All week I've been paying special attention to my high lights. And for the most part I would say that the turkey quinoa meatloaf dinner we made Tuesday night. We substituted the tomato paste with Apple & Onion Jam from American Spoon & my oh my it was delicious! We made a garden salad & baked acorn squash for our sides.

Then Halloween came & it snowed & people were in all sorts of a funks. So my new favorite was dressing up with these great crazy glasses, wig, pearls, sequined headband, tiara, & apron to make people laugh.

Not to forget the nice little surprise of a McD's treat from two of my fave local high schoolers at the end of the work day. Definitely makes the list of favorites for this Friday!

Sunday Snippits: good, bad, & ugly

GOOD: This past week was a good week to watch movies & do some house work & catch up on a few other things. I started the week with Zumba class on Sunday afternoon & then went into recovery mode for my head cold. Let me tell ya, intense physical exertion with a severe soar throat is not a good idea! My favorite movie that Z & I watched was Miss Potter about the life of Beatrix Potter. It is one of those movies I remember seeing advertised possibly before it came out & I couldn't believe that it came out in 2006. Renting mainly from a Redbox in the last couple of years has greatly changed the availability of what we rented. Now living in a town with a Family Video & no Redbox, there's a different variety of movies to rent. There's also something nostalgic of actually going into a video store & browsing for the right movie for that day. The other exciting peace of my week is taking on more work that will use my skill sets & allow me to work out of my strengths. More about that to come later!

BAD: Feeling cooped up so much of the time. Lucky for our fur ball, it has been warm enough to take her on several walks lately. Not so lucky for her is that she usually needs rinsed off afterwords from all the mud & dirt that has flung up on her underbelly. These pictures are the state of our back patio & yard to date. This was yesterday evening. I'd been wanting to walk out into the huge snow drift for quite some time & Z hit a point that he wanted to try & shovel it. Well, as you can see it is SO solid that I'm as tall as the house standing on the drift. We may need a heat lamp at this point to use our patio any time soon.

UGLY: All the back & forth about World Vision & their hiring policy. They made a well thought & I'm assuming prayed out written decision that upset the fruit basket & quickly took it all back. Talk about whiplash! Then there was something going on with Hobby Lobby, but I'll be honest, I was so tired of all the controversy over World Vision & things going on around the world that are less than uplifting that I didn't even read up on any of the Hobby Lobby information.

WORD: Today I suggest reading The God Article

coming up: Hunkering down & figuring out the details of some my new work. Reading b/c I'm slow at reading stories that I already know & want to finish The Help before our Paris trip. And getting outside as much as possible because while it doesn't totally look like it, Spring is here!

Sunday Snippits!

This picture sums up my life lately!

Christmas day came & went & for the last weekend of 2013 Z & I headed to The Gathering with 3 youth from church. It was a fun weekend of networking, socializing, & worshipping.

Then just in the past couple of days I drove back to the same area for another youth event, this time Youth Encounter's Quake with no youth & abandoning Z with no car.

Then the snow whispers started whispering & a little over 24 hours later I was headed home to avoid the snow & being stuck.

Not to mention we attended/led the worship for our first funeral of 2014 already. Just a little excitement to finish out 2013 & welcome in 2014. We also had a good time hanging with friends on NYE.

In other news, I'm hosting a Pampered Chef party through this Thursday! So check it out here to pamper yourself, a friend, or simply to spruce up your kitchen gadget collection!

Zumba classes start this Wednesday too! Click on the tab above for more info.

AND we might actually get to watch the season premier of Downton Abbey because we're randomly picking up PBS right now.

There's the GOOD, BAD, & UGLY of the start of 2014.

Tuesday Tea Time!

Happy Tuesday Tea Time!

We woke up to a sea of white fluffy snow this morning. You might think this would be obvious considering I live in Northern MI, but the last week had been rare late Fall rain. It's hard to believe it's still Fall for another 10 days!

Last week I watched the people line up for the local food pantry (across the street from our home) in the rain & this week in the blowing snow.

I'm inspired by their perseverance & by the many people that come together to make the food pantry possible. I'm inspired to start a ministry of serving coffee & tea for those standing out in the cold.

Maybe this will be a new sort of tea time!

Tuesday Tea Time

Tuesday Tea Time! Anybody wanna write a theme song for that?! I think it'd be fun & quirky.....

First I want to say thanks to my followers. Yall don't comment very often, but it means something to see the stats provided by Blogger & even something extra special when you tell me in person that you like reading my blog.

 Mission Blog Makeover Success!

While I sit here sipping on my Tuesday Tea, I wonder when the snow will actually stop falling for the season. Here in the great white North, it just keeps dumping on us! It'll occasionally warm up to around 40 degree fahrenheit & then drop just low enough for another half foot of snow. I have to believe that in a month there will be significantly less snow & even better yet, would be no snow. It has snowed on my birthday in WI, not too far away from here, on my birthday before. Please, Lord, no more snow past March!

What will Spring bring for you?

For me it'll bring many walks & hopefully bike rides. It'll bring deadlines that will mean graduation is just around the corner. Graduation is 9 weeks from this past Sunday! It'll bring knowledge of future work and networking opportunities. It'll bring green grass & pretty flowers.

Spring will bring lighter, fruity flavored teas!