Sunday Snippets: good, bad, & awesome!

GOOD: Check out this orange fuzz!?!?! This is the lint from my dryer after drying the ELCA Youth Gathering Proclaim Justice Day t-shirts. It's the little things folks, the little things that bring good in each week. This week we celebrated birthdays again - as talked about in Friday Favorites - & the new birth of my cousin BH becoming a grandma to LEO. She was a good sized baby verging on being large, but just right for her mama & papa. I may have to make a road trip to IN sooner than anticipated to meet this little one. Bah! Also fun in the last week was conversations had while out & about for Z's birthday with church members & total strangers. There's a lot goin' on around here in Chebooboo!

BAD: A few weeks ago it came up that Chebooboo wasn't appreciated by all. This complaint didn't ask for the story of where the term comes from. It is not meant to be derogatory to the town or any people or person, it is simply a 'you had to be there' sorta endearing term I use. This is the struggle with inside jokes. Though, it is not an inside joke. It just isn't as funny for people not familiar with my home area & the seriousness that was behind the person who asked if I had said Chebooboo when I clearly had not. Each of us have some sort of little name we may use to refer to our home & this is mine. Take it or leave it. I do love this place.

AWESOME: Mt. Everest for VBS is awesome! I'm so excited in the assurance the Holy Spirit has provided for how great this week is going to be from VBS to continuing ed. opportunities to appointments.

WORD: Mark 4:26-34 Is this weeks Gospel lesson. I was originally slotted to preach, but with recent transitions I willingly gave this one to Z. What stands out to me is how simple it seems it is to grow mustard seeds, despite their size, & their perseverance. This stands out because no matter what I try, I don't seem to have much of a green thumb. So what sort of good news is this parable for me? Maybe if we stick to the basics & trust that God has already taken care of it - which God has & does - then there not much else for us to do other than try & try again. And to grant & show yourself much grace in this trying & trying again. Grace is a beautiful thing!

coming up: VBS! You Matter event! VBS! and LIFE SPIRIT SPARKLE!

Sunday Snippets: good, bad, & awesome!

GOOD: Finding new ways to do something creative every day & allowing that creativity to be as simple or as complex as the day calls for. While I have always loved being artsy, I've never spent too much time learning new techniques. After seeing a friend post her new purchase of an Adult Coloring Book, I decided to use some gift money to purchase my own. So while I'm eagerly waiting for that creative outlet to come in the mail, I've also been using my sketch pad & colored pencils to doodle & draw this or that to release some energy. This past week was apparently all about releasing said energy as I even woke up early one morning totally on my own & did a 30 Minute Yoga Flow. It's much safer to try some of these yoga routines at home than in front of other people some days, if ya know what I mean. There's a reason my middle name isn't "grace."

BAD: Realizing the dwindling of a family. At the recent death of my Uncle it has become more apparent to a few of us in the family who is left & who has gone before us. It's not so much bad, just sorta sad & weird. Life is weird. Death is real. Birth is better? *mer mer* Also, along the line of things outside of our control, prayers for those affected by the earthquake in Nepal. Many lives & landmarks have been taken at a moment's notice. Be on the lookout for ways you can help the efforts for Nepal to start to recover!

AWESOME: Keeping in touch & being able to use goofy means like Google Hangouts that allow you to wear cat masks & draw on your friends your in conversation with. Very entertaining!

WORD: This week, little by little, I've been reading pieces from Dr. Andrew Root's Children of Divorce. So far I've taken away that everybody has a secret & families take work (which I hope everybody knows).

coming up: A little work & a little play in the land of Hoosiers!

Sunday Snippets: good, bad, & awesome!

GOOD: A few days away with the sights of Northern MI in the Spring is good for the soul. The cherry trees have yet to blossom, but there's beauty in the promise of their blooms in the coming weeks. Here you see this beauty on the peninsula looking out onto the West Bay in Traverse City. The West Bay was far from being unfrozen, yet the East Bay seemed ice free to the eye & ear. It was also fun to hear & see the buzz of the locals preparing for the tourist season. There were many painting, repairing, & patching jobs going on around the city. As a former vacationer to the area, I highly appreciate all this work that goes to making the place a romantic piece of Northern MI. Here in Traverse City you can spend your days on the beach or shopping down town & evenings around the camp fire at the local state park. There's miles of trails to hike, ride bikes, roller skate or whatever you desire to do for fun or to equal out all the goodies that you're sure to try while you're shopping. A perfect place for a girl like me & I didn't even mention the dozens of delicious cherry delicacies that one can find here. I was given a taste of the award winning Moomers ice cream, but of course they have SO many options I don't remember which kind of cherry ice cream it actually was. I'm pretty sure you can't go too wrong with ice cream.

BAD: Taking a week off only to realize it's been almost a year, if not a year, since you last took a full week off. This is not good self care, but we're working on that.

AWESOME: Playing princess & king on a train to see Michi with our niece via FaceTime. 

WORD: Today we read that the risen Lord Jesus eats fish. What's that all about? See Luke 24:36-48

coming up: A little of this, that, & a whole lot of Life, Spirit, & Sparkle as we blaze into the end of April.

Sunday Snippits: good, bad, & ugly!

  

GOOD: Epiphany is upon us! We continue to celebrate the birth of Jesus - the Savior - with the coming of 3 'Wise Men.' A curious addition on to the story indeed! With a deep breath I take in the new air of 2015. 'Head Up. Heart Out. Move to the Beat.' Being a new year & a few months into my new job each week has been a little different, yet a swing of ministry happenings have started to take hold on my calendar & mind each month. With a bit of a break from work this past week I experienced a little bit of cabin fever, a little bit of nostalgia, & a touch of excitement for the future that is this new year. The family enjoyed the fresh snow fall, the continuation of holiday music, a couple of fires, & many movies. We even ventured out to the movie theater for the first time since Valentine's Day 2014 to see the third installment of The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies. I do believe Cate Blanchett was phenomenal even if her part was minimal & I'm already looking forward to it's release for purchase so we can have true movie marathons with the Hobbit series & Lord of the Rings Trilogy. With the quiet of January already upon us & the often grey skies above us I'm honestly inspired to read many fictional books this month. Though I know that it'll have to be time intentionally taken from each day to make this happen without falling asleep (like I usually do at the end of a day).

BAD: This past week I saw many colleagues commenting on this article not simply about teen suicide, but about transgender teen suicide. These comments were wonderings of why this is still happening & why people don't intervene more heavily. Nobody is invisible, though we've all allowed ourselves to feel that way at one point or another due to others actions. Yes, we have all experienced this, so why don't we all do more to step up & take care of one another even with a simple "hi" & stop to hear how somebody is actually doing now & then rather than the fleeting "Hi, how ya doin?" as you walk by each other. No, we can't expect people to always give a full answer or maybe even a totally truthful answer, but we can give them a few minutes of acknowledging them in that moment.

AWESOME: This past week was just a lazy, low key week. 2014 ended with retirement, over a million dollars, 3 kids, & a few trips around the world (thanks to the game of Life).

WORD: Addiction & the Church

coming up: Diving into January with my 'Head up, Heart out, & (ready to) Move to the Beat!'

Sunday Snippits: good, bad, & awesome

GOOD: While Z's & my travels to new things has come to an end, my travels for the summer have only begun. For a couple of months now I was planning to work alongside the staff at Michi-Lu-Ca for part of the summer & by part of the summer it really was planned to be most of the summer. Due to some changes in others' summer plans, I am now at camp all summer long! It is a challenge in my career as I have gone back & forth with my love for outdoor ministries, but it is one that I am choosing to not be afraid of & simply jump in running. As long as I continue to center my heart & my head in that still small voice of God, then I know that I am in the right place & bound to make a few of the right choices.

BAD: This means that posting here may be a challenge. At most I will be able to post using my phone & therefore things will be short & formatted funny. So look for random sparkles throughout the summer when I happen to have WiFi. I wish I could've been more put together to pre-write my posts, but that is not the life I live.

AWESOME: Meeting new people. Hearing people's stories & being asked to share mine. Camp is a great place for this.

WORD: I finally finished 'The Color of Tea.' It took some very unexpected, yet well done turns. I encourage it for a good read. I'm fully submersed in a variety of scripture for this summer's worships, so today I shared the image I shared from K-Love's site on Facebook in my picture.

coming up: FULL FORCE SUMMER MINISTRY!