Tuesday Tea Time!

Hello Tuesday Tea Time!

I'm here with many thanks today after a celebratory weekend filled with birthday shenanigans. Growing up birthdays were always made fun for a few reasons. One reason was it was always the start of summer & another was that it always meant good food shared with family & friends. Of course it's always fun to be gifted too. And there was always somebody else with a birthday within days of mine to celebrate too, such as my friends KPK, HG, & 3MD!

Over the years I've had some memorable birthdays. For years my birthday meant my Mammaw would make me whatever kind of pie I wanted. Generally I chose cherry. I was 'kidnapped' more than once by friends & surprised once in Hong Kong. The HK surprise was pulled off so well because I was actually returning to the states a few weeks before my actual birthday, but my friends wanted to celebrate with a cook-out in the park. My birthday has always been an excuse for adventure of new life pieces.

This year we went on a hike, enjoyed a Starbucks treat, took part in the monthly pancake breakfast at our apartment complex, saw Alice in Wonderland: through the looking glass in IMAX 3D (it was excellent), then had dinner at Patisserie Amie. That was all the day before my actual birthday! My actual birthday was filled with a wonderful Sunday morning at work, a quiet afternoon, & a graduation party in the evening. 

The biggest surprise this year was when my children's message got hijacked in the best way possible. My message was highlighting church camp & I had just mentioned camp fire songs when I was told they had a song for me. Before I knew how to respond, the entire congregation was singing 'Happy Birthday' to me. I was blown away in the best way possible. Not only did they sound good, they weren't even prompted to do such a thing & it is quite powerful being sung to by roughly 100+ people.

So today as I enjoy my Kombucha Tea (he picked up the right kind this year!), I am thankful for the fun & the memories & the many well wishes from around the world. This year is bound to be a little better & healthier than the last. Farewell to a beautiful Lusty Month of May!

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!

Friday Favorite!

It's my birthday!!! Call me narcissistic, vain, or whatever, but it's one of my favorite days of the year. 

It's always filled with lots of love & well wishes & a touch of adventure. Today's adventure is exploring more of Pure Michigan with my partner who never fails to lead an adventure or two while jumping in full energy to the adventures I provide.

Life together is beautifully crazily overflowing with Life, Spirit, & Sparkle thanks to Z & all of you!

A giant donut to help with the morning birthday shenanigans!

Sunday Snippets: good, bad, & awesome!

GOOD: This past week was a blur, but a good one at that. After a business trip I got to spend some quality time with some of my favorites (including little miss E & her owl). It's a blessing to have people who take you in, shower you with love, & let you decompress from the every day chaos on only a few days notice. I am forever grateful for the friendship of miss E & her parents (& our parents!). I could've never dreamed of having such rich relationship that started at birth & carries on. Speaking of carrying on, it's the end of the month, it's graduation day for many in the area, & it's my birthday week! There's so much good in that sentence it's crazy. There's many reasons to celebrate!

BAD: Realizing at the end of the day, when all steam was gone, that I had not kept my rhythm of blogging this last week. It made it more real & y'all got to travel with me a bit more that way. In the news this week we continue to hear about murder, sex offenders, victims, hunger, & other illness. You don't have to look far.

AWESOME: Spending a few days decompressing from life's recent happenings that are out of my control & being met where I was with good company, baby snuggles & laughter (& snot & poo), & sunshine & food & a quick lunch with family for my bday is all pretty fabulous in my book.

WORD: Commentary on Acts 2:1-21 because it's Pentecost & the Holy Spirit is here.

coming up: so much Life, Spirit, Sparkle, I don't even know which end is up!

Sunday Snippits: good, bad, & awesome!

GOOD: I'm typing my blog from a computer again! The last couple of posts have been from my Iphone or Nexus tablet. This past week was WONDERFUL! It started with worshipping with 26 of my family members from my dad's side of the family out in CO where we were all gathered to celebrate my cousin's wedding. The worship was Spirit filled, the wedding was beautiful, & the family time was fantastic. One highlight from church is receiving an entire loaf of bread just for being a visitor! Monday was K&D's wedding & I got to hang out with my cousins' M&A's little guys H&C the entire morning. SO much fun! Fill the rest of the time with family meals & games & that's a family reunion for us. We made our way back towards home mid-week & stopped in Chicago to really visit with good friends from college & a few from other pieces of life. I say really visit because up till now all we had taken time to do was a brief visit passing through the city or at each other's wedding receptions. I thought we were spent from all our travels, but we took it easy & went to one museum a day. It was fun to show Z some of Chicago after having traveled through the city dozens of times either to visit friends or going from wherever I was living North of Chicago towards my parents' South of Chicago. And yes, as everyone should, I celebrated my birthday ALL week long. It started with my family & ended with my friends. What more could a girl ask for?!

BAD: BUGS! They're out like crazy now & I'm scheming up new ways to be able to enjoy spending time outside. Ideas that don't cost a lot of money are welcome! Also, that i just planted some of my outside plants today. You may not think this is bad, but they "should've" planted them apparently more like 6 weeks ago. Here's to growth! Plus our poor puppy keeps having what is known as 'reverse sneezing' attacks. I think she maybe has some allergy problems. And yes, my heart is heavy yet again, truly heavy, from the death of a leader, mentor, & friend from MN.

AWESOME: Being gifted a movie from Z that I gifted him for Christmas. Yes, this really happened. We hadn't watched it & it was actually the second copy of the DVD due to the first one cracking (on a night that Z & I were watching 6 kids 10 & younger!). So I'm still waiting on what Z will pick out as he has diligently returned the 3rd copy of 'How to Train Your Dragon.' AND all the ways people wished me a happy birthday. Seriously, I think the only way I wasn't told 'happy birthday' was via e-mail & that's saying something because I received wishes by FB, phone call, voicemail, text, Instagram, Twitter, Linked-in, snail mail, & in person.

WORD: Acts is hot on my brain right now with this coming Sunday being Pentecost. Plus tonight, I will finish 'The Color of Tea.' Then hopefully in the next few days I'll finish 'The Help.'

coming up: Today after worship we spent a bit of time outside & I painted our new doormat you see above! This is just in time to welcome a visit from J&E! Then prepping to head off to camp for most of the Summer. I haven't figured out how to keep up with the blog over the Summer so no fear, there will be random posts & most definitely more posting come Fall.

Friday Favorites!

I love celebrations! Life has been a glorious 30 years so far & I hope for another glorious 60+ years. 

The past month has been greatly over stimulating for this extrovert. It has been nicely balanced with pieces of quiet & reflection though too.

Here's to the winner of SO many photos from this week! I couldn't figure out how to attach a video of birthday wishes from my phone so a random picture it is. 

Love & thanks to all of my friends & family that helped celebrate all week long from around the world. And to my friends in the photo, God knows what we need to keep being who we were made to be & a large piece of that is each other.