Trey's First Day of Kindergarten

Monday was Trey's first day of Kindergarten. He was SO excited! I think it was easier than I thought it would be on me because Trey was READY to go. He had his bag packed, his clothes laid out, teeth brushed...raring to go! (THANK YOU to all my sweet friends who called the night before and the day of to check on me! It meant SO much to me!!)

I prayed long and hard about where to send Trey to school. I instantly fell in love with Treetops the first time I visited. It is a public charter school that sits on about 20 acres and depends on parent involvement though coop hours to run efficiently. Each family is required to volunteer a minimum of 80 hours per school year. The only downside is the drive...I will spend about 1 - 2 hours a day commuting to and from school. If this proves to be the best educational situation for my son, then it will all be worth it.

I just got a call from Trey's teacher. I am now the official "Classroom Coordinator" I am SO excited! It will be hard work, but I want to be an active part of Trey's education.

Let the year begin...

Involuntary Solitude

God has blessed me with awesome friends. I always adore our time together, but I am also a person that enjoys being alone. Even as a teenager I remember hanging out in my room listening to music or reading a book...fully content with my "aloneness." Now as an adult I try to head out every once in a while by myself and drive, window shop, stop by Hobby Lobby, check out the bookstore, etc. During those times I really enjoy the silence. I enjoy not talking. I enjoy going where I want to go on a whim. But what happens when "aloneness" or solitude occurs in your life outside of your control?

Here is how the Merriam-Webster's dictionary defines solitude:

1 : the quality or state of being alone or remote from society : seclusion
2 : a lonely place (as a desert)

I also liked the synonyms listed:

synonyms solitude, isolation, seclusion mean the state of one who is alone. solitude may imply a condition of being apart from all human beings or of being cut off by wish or circumstances from one's usual associates. isolation stresses detachment from others often involuntarily . seclusion suggests a shutting away or keeping apart from others often connoting deliberate withdrawal from the world or retirement to a quiet life.

On Sunday, July 27th I woke up with a wonderful surprise: PINK EYE!! I was already going to stay home from church due to Shaefer having a fever the night before. She woke up absolutely fine. I woke up with eye cooties. Thus began my two weeks of involuntary solitude. In my personal opinion, time alone is totally different when it's of your own volition! :) I wish I could say that I was pity party free during those 2 weeks of being home bound. I wish I could say that I didn't lose my patience and say some really "mature" things like, "This is SO not fair!" I wish I could say that every minute of those 2 weeks were filled with meaningful conversations with God. But alas...I cannot. I did learn some things about myself that I will share with you a bit later.

I've written many times about our current church home and how God has used the people and the teaching to sharpen us like never before. I had never heard of solitude being taught as a spiritual discipline before coming to 121 Community Church. For those of us raised in some sort of church environment, we probably had the concept of having a daily "quiet time" with God preached week in and week out. The discipline of solitude is different than and in addition to our daily time with God. Solitude is intentionally carving out time to totally unplug ourselves from the noise of the world to spend time with our Creator. It may be just an hour. It may be 4 hours. It may be an entire afternoon. It may be for an entire day. It may be for an entire weekend. The point is this: no phones, no ipods, no T.V., no radio, no distractions. Just you, your Bible, maybe a journal, an open heart and your Father giddy as He awaits your arrival. Please don't get me wrong...daily time with God is vital! I honestly couldn't get through my day without spending time with my Father. Sometimes we just need to unplug and intentionally seek out some peace and quiet.

Are you ready for my list? Here is what I learned about myself:

1. I use shopping (even for bargains) and food to settle my emotions, to fill voids in my heart and to quiet my stress. I couldn't leave my house because I was contagious and I couldn't shop because of our new budget. So now I get to learn how to deal with this stuff the old fashioned way...through hard work.

2. I hug and kiss my family A LOT!! I never realized what a touchy-feely person I was until I couldn't touch them. It made me SO sad! Don't worry...I made up for it as soon as I was cootie free.

3. I place unspoken expectations on people around me and get upset when they don't meet those expectations. I am setting them up to fail. Very sad, but I am working on it!

4. My family & friends bring so much life to me! I missed them terribly when I was stuck in my house. I couldn't see their bright faces. Our kids couldn't play together. We couldn't attempt to have a conversation while our kids played together. (All you moms know what I'm talking about...it takes the entire 3 hour time slot to finish one simple conversation!) I never want to take them for granted. I WANT to spend time with them. I NEED to spend time with them. The other stuff can wait...relationships can't...and shouldn't.

5. God revealed some "bratiness" in my heart. It sucks. I am working on it.

I think I may try this whole solitude thing out again. Hopefully I can carve out the time myself and not have to wait for more cooties to attack my body.

Have you ever taken time out to unplug? What was it like? What did you learn?

No Backups

First, let me begin by saying this: When dealing with God NEVER say NEVER! :) When Alf and I left St. Louis in June of 2004, we swore off full time ministry for all time. We just couldn't imagine going back to that vocation...EVER! Don't get me wrong, the 6 years we spent there grew us in numerous ways. Our church home was awesome. The people rocked. And we loved our students will all of our hearts. We were just plain exhausted...and quite honestly, we felt we weren't cut out for it. Maybe we weren't "ministry lifers." Maybe ministry was just a season for us. Well, we were wrong and we are SO glad we were!!

Let's take a trip back to 2004 when we left St. Louis. We heard God speak to us numerous times that it was time to head back home to Texas. That fact we do not doubt one iota! We left believing we would start a youth and family camp. We had the passion. We had the land. We thought we had it all planned out. Almost immediately after moving back, God began slamming doors shut on the camp front. We ran the gamut of emotions during this process. Did we not hear Him at all? Did we hear Him incorrectly? Was this all in our heads? What would friends and family think when the camp didn't happen? God had an entirely different plan in mind...

I wrote here about Alf and I finding our current church home. God knew what we needed even before we did. First and foremost, He moved us to save our marriage. We were in a horrible place as a couple and we both needed healing and refining. We found that in our church body and through an awesome, Spirit-led counselor. He needed us pliable and usable when He presented this current chapter in our lives.

On its 3 year anniversary, I am proud and humbled to introduce you to Wakeboard Church. When I met Alf in the Fall of 1995, he was already deeply addicted to wakeboarding as a sport. I mean the let's skip class and hit the lake kind of addicted! :) Little did we know that God could and would use it to bring people into a personal relationship with Him.

Here's what it looks like: Every Thursday night anyone who wants to can reserve a spot on whatever boat is going out on the lake. The group rides until dark. When the sun is gone, they tie up all the boats in the cove and have a devotion and a time of prayer. What began as an idea in Alf's head has turned into full time ministry for our family. Alf quit his job at a local boat dealer on Saturday, July 12th. We had a informational/support meeting for Wakeboard Church on Friday, July 18th. We were blown away as 65 of our closest friends and family filed in to learn about this thing called Wakeboard Church and how they could get involved. We shared the vision for the ministry along with our heart for the culture. We discussed what we needed financially and closed with a question & answer time. It totally rocked!! I wish I could say that we walked out of that meeting with all the money we needed. We didn't and that is okay because we are witnessing some COOL ways that God is providing for us as a family and for the ministry.

A few months before Alf and decided that we needed to step out in total faith, we began to ask God what His PERFECT will was for our lives. I will be the first to admit that I was terrified at the thought of Alf quitting his job. Things were already tight so how on earth would we make it? Would Wakeboard Church be able to totally provide for our family's needs? Time and again we heard the Lord tell us NO BACKUPS. When I say time and again, I really mean it. It got to be absolutely humorous! He continued to have patience with us as we asked for more and more confirmation. He had grace when we kept conjuring plans B, C, D...backups. So, on the July 12th, we totally stepped out. It was the most peaceful, freeing, and scary day of our lives.

It's been a month and we are still completely floored at what He is allowing us to do. It's hard. It's awesome. It's exhausting. It's exhilarating. It's humbling. It's hard to balance it all. We are learning that each day and each week looks differently from the one before...and that is okay. Our home is always filled with stinky boys and I LOVE it! They now have a safe place to hang out, be real, ask questions about life and God. They are now part of the family...

My advice is this: NEVER say NEVER! If you are open to it, God has a plan so awesome it will completely boggle your mind. You wouldn't want to miss out on that, would you?

I am driving myself CRAZY!!

Okay, so really my perfectionism is driving me crazy. I can't tell you how many times I have sat down to write and immediately retreated to another room. Here is the deal...God is doing some AWESOME stuff right now and I want to tell you all about it! My hang up is that in order to get everything out of my head I will need to tell you our latest adventure BACKWARDS. My personality cannot handle that!! It needs to be in chronological order!! But if I try to tell it in chronological order then I will get even more behind... I know I sound like a CRAZY person, but this is how my brain currently functions.

So here is where I need some accountability: my plan is to write tonight while the kids are asleep and Alf is at Wakeboard Church. If you wake up Friday morning and there is not at least one new post, then you have my permission to call me and yell at me!! :)