The above is a picture I took at a friend's birthday party this last weekend. I love it!
Homeschooling.
Finally knowing how to scoop and help himself to ice cream. Fortunately, we don't keep a lot of it in the house.
Studying.
Monday, March 23, 2009
fun
The above is a picture I took at a friend's birthday party this last weekend. I love it!Homeschooling.Finally knowing how to scoop and help himself to ice cream. Fortunately, we don't keep a lot of it in the house.Studying.
Boutique...but not for a week
So I was awaken by God about 2 months ago now, with a very vivid dream/vision. It was to start a boutique/sale about..well, here's some emails I sent out to some peeps here.
"Dear Elaine,
I just thought I'd share an idea that God lead me to. A couple Sunday's ago, Matt Hammet (our pastor, as you know) was talking about making a difference in my community with the things God's given me. So, here's my mission thought: I want to host a boutique. People bring their used, but great, clothes (we'd have to define sizes and whether it's just kids and women's, men's and women's, etc.) ahead of time, we post a sign, "all shirts $5 and all pants $7" (just for an example) and then all the proceeds go to Soul Care.
Here are some things I've been thinking about:
-Find a time that's potentially good for sale
-Have simple eats and drinks so people can be comfortable while they might shop
-I'd love to have it at a place where families could be encouraged to participate (whether in donating, bringing hangers, etc.)
That's the beginning of the idea. I've totally given this to the Lord and am willing to follow wear God leads on it, but not sure what that looks like right now, so thanks in advance for any thoughts etc.."
So I asked my small group and one of the ladies said she was interested. So now here's the development of it, after just a few meetings. Now granted, the YWCA is not completely all Christian, but are doing such a fabulous job of giving women hope, as is SoulCare, that I feel good about this. So, here' s some more text:
"Dear Lisa,
The Soul Care project supports women affected by domestic violence and homelessness. We exist to remind these women of their beauty and strength and to create energy for change by inspiring hope and restoring dignity. We offer a variety of events, classes and workshops which focus on creative expression, physical health, psycho-education, relaxation, meditation and social interaction. These events, classes and workshops are lead by a diverse group of women (professionals in their fields and experienced volunteers), who share a similar perspective, that whatever our life circumstance, we are more alike than we are different. We are mothers, wives, women, each with our own story and struggles. Our goal is to offer a safe,
authentic community of supporters, who walk alongside, equipping and
empowering women in need.
The Soul Care Project has been offered a home at 4848 Seminole Drive, San Diego, CA 92115. The goal is for the Soul Care House to be a beautiful, restful, environment for clients of the YWCA to come and seek inspiration and empowerment. There will be classes and groups, opportunities to enjoy quiet time in the mediation room and garden. It will be a safe place where women will find the support and friendship of one another.
The Soul Care House will host teas and retreat days for women in the community and create a Vintage Boutique to help raise money to cover it's services to women in need."
So, the next thought, after another meeting, is that I'm hosting this BENEFIT, (I love play on words...benefit...get it?) on Nov. 7 and the house should be close to finished by then. So we'll host a luncheon, an exercise activity (whether it be hip hop or some sort of dance class) the boutique and have a small little encouragement chat. It will bring women from the streets and in the program and mesh/amalgamate (for lack of a better word) them with the church ladies!!!
WHAT??!!! This is crazy and great! So, between now and then, I'm helping completely organize the "closet" portion of the ministry and take donations every 2nd and 4th Fri and then sorting and tagging etc. all getting ready for our big BENEFIT on Nov 7th. Can you pray with me?
"Dear Elaine,
I just thought I'd share an idea that God lead me to. A couple Sunday's ago, Matt Hammet (our pastor, as you know) was talking about making a difference in my community with the things God's given me. So, here's my mission thought: I want to host a boutique. People bring their used, but great, clothes (we'd have to define sizes and whether it's just kids and women's, men's and women's, etc.) ahead of time, we post a sign, "all shirts $5 and all pants $7" (just for an example) and then all the proceeds go to Soul Care.
Here are some things I've been thinking about:
-Find a time that's potentially good for sale
-Have simple eats and drinks so people can be comfortable while they might shop
-I'd love to have it at a place where families could be encouraged to participate (whether in donating, bringing hangers, etc.)
That's the beginning of the idea. I've totally given this to the Lord and am willing to follow wear God leads on it, but not sure what that looks like right now, so thanks in advance for any thoughts etc.."
So I asked my small group and one of the ladies said she was interested. So now here's the development of it, after just a few meetings. Now granted, the YWCA is not completely all Christian, but are doing such a fabulous job of giving women hope, as is SoulCare, that I feel good about this. So, here' s some more text:
"Dear Lisa,
The Soul Care project supports women affected by domestic violence and homelessness. We exist to remind these women of their beauty and strength and to create energy for change by inspiring hope and restoring dignity. We offer a variety of events, classes and workshops which focus on creative expression, physical health, psycho-education, relaxation, meditation and social interaction. These events, classes and workshops are lead by a diverse group of women (professionals in their fields and experienced volunteers), who share a similar perspective, that whatever our life circumstance, we are more alike than we are different. We are mothers, wives, women, each with our own story and struggles. Our goal is to offer a safe,
authentic community of supporters, who walk alongside, equipping and
empowering women in need.
The Soul Care Project has been offered a home at 4848 Seminole Drive, San Diego, CA 92115. The goal is for the Soul Care House to be a beautiful, restful, environment for clients of the YWCA to come and seek inspiration and empowerment. There will be classes and groups, opportunities to enjoy quiet time in the mediation room and garden. It will be a safe place where women will find the support and friendship of one another.
The Soul Care House will host teas and retreat days for women in the community and create a Vintage Boutique to help raise money to cover it's services to women in need."
So, the next thought, after another meeting, is that I'm hosting this BENEFIT, (I love play on words...benefit...get it?) on Nov. 7 and the house should be close to finished by then. So we'll host a luncheon, an exercise activity (whether it be hip hop or some sort of dance class) the boutique and have a small little encouragement chat. It will bring women from the streets and in the program and mesh/amalgamate (for lack of a better word) them with the church ladies!!!
WHAT??!!! This is crazy and great! So, between now and then, I'm helping completely organize the "closet" portion of the ministry and take donations every 2nd and 4th Fri and then sorting and tagging etc. all getting ready for our big BENEFIT on Nov 7th. Can you pray with me?
Thursday, March 19, 2009
More Skye-isms and status
Hi. I'm so not in the mood to do this, but I just treasure keeping in contact with so many of you that I need to.
So, here's one more Skye-ism from this morning. You can tell we are under the fire over here from the evil surrounding us.
"Momma, you know that God sent us to earth for challenges, not just to walk around. I pray like every 2 weeks and I don't even drink alcohol. I just blow in the tops of the bottle that daddy has. That's all. I don't even like the taste of it. I'm not like the bad guys sitting around drinking bags of it."
Hmmm, not sure how to comment after that one. But, we do have our work cut out for us and it appears there are some things getting through to him, although how accurate? I don't know!!
I posted some of this over email, but basically our neighbors want us gone. They are arguing things that aren't even argue-able. Whether or not gasoline stored in open containers is dangerous...and now they don't like that our shoes are outside of our house. It's just basically one fire dart after the other. Instead of ignoring them and being passive or whatever you might call it, we've chosen to try and work it out. It's just tricky how that looks. In the next month, a new board will be chosen. Please pray that we will get in, IF that's what God wants. Personally, I have my things that I want and most of them just stem from wanting to be comfortable and not bothered. But we just don't always know the fine line between being a witness, stating truth (to those who are NOT interested and who see it as being hostile towards them) and just not doing anything but nodding our heads in passing.
On the home front, I've been very lax in my planning and organizing for school. I was doing great getting up at 5:30 to to devos etc...but because the house is so small, the kids are now hearing me and getting up too. (or at least that's what I sometimes tell myself when I'm lying there in bed after hitting the snooze button) I just gain so much more from my day when I'm up and at least showered before everything gets going. I like coffee, but if I don't get it right away, I'm not a mess. It's just that I notice that I prefer a little quiet and coffee before everyone rises (well the kids...Alan's long gone even before I arise for my early morning pee break)...but if I go to bed with the rest of the crew at 9ish...I just don't have any unwind time in the evenings as the boys are now fallin asleep (cuz of the time change and light) about 8:30-9. So, I'm needing to sort of sit down and look at everything I'm involved in and reassess. Skye did great on his school testing and is passing with A's and B's, which is good. I've started getting to know some of the moms at school which is VERY important for me.
On another note, I've taken the strength finders tsts and that has also helped with our marriage. and just with how I feel about myself...it's pride I know, but I'm just too over analytical with each thing that I feel/do.
Here's a pic of me completing my coin collection. AND I'M PROUD OF IT, SO NO SENSE MAKING ME FEEL WEIRD...IT'S ALREADY TOO LATE. And the second picture is so goofy..we have had so much fun at the zoo already and we've only been twice! (I know, I need a reduction)
So, here's one more Skye-ism from this morning. You can tell we are under the fire over here from the evil surrounding us.
"Momma, you know that God sent us to earth for challenges, not just to walk around. I pray like every 2 weeks and I don't even drink alcohol. I just blow in the tops of the bottle that daddy has. That's all. I don't even like the taste of it. I'm not like the bad guys sitting around drinking bags of it."
Hmmm, not sure how to comment after that one. But, we do have our work cut out for us and it appears there are some things getting through to him, although how accurate? I don't know!!
I posted some of this over email, but basically our neighbors want us gone. They are arguing things that aren't even argue-able. Whether or not gasoline stored in open containers is dangerous...and now they don't like that our shoes are outside of our house. It's just basically one fire dart after the other. Instead of ignoring them and being passive or whatever you might call it, we've chosen to try and work it out. It's just tricky how that looks. In the next month, a new board will be chosen. Please pray that we will get in, IF that's what God wants. Personally, I have my things that I want and most of them just stem from wanting to be comfortable and not bothered. But we just don't always know the fine line between being a witness, stating truth (to those who are NOT interested and who see it as being hostile towards them) and just not doing anything but nodding our heads in passing.
On the home front, I've been very lax in my planning and organizing for school. I was doing great getting up at 5:30 to to devos etc...but because the house is so small, the kids are now hearing me and getting up too. (or at least that's what I sometimes tell myself when I'm lying there in bed after hitting the snooze button) I just gain so much more from my day when I'm up and at least showered before everything gets going. I like coffee, but if I don't get it right away, I'm not a mess. It's just that I notice that I prefer a little quiet and coffee before everyone rises (well the kids...Alan's long gone even before I arise for my early morning pee break)...but if I go to bed with the rest of the crew at 9ish...I just don't have any unwind time in the evenings as the boys are now fallin asleep (cuz of the time change and light) about 8:30-9. So, I'm needing to sort of sit down and look at everything I'm involved in and reassess. Skye did great on his school testing and is passing with A's and B's, which is good. I've started getting to know some of the moms at school which is VERY important for me.
On another note, I've taken the strength finders tsts and that has also helped with our marriage. and just with how I feel about myself...it's pride I know, but I'm just too over analytical with each thing that I feel/do.
Here's a pic of me completing my coin collection. AND I'M PROUD OF IT, SO NO SENSE MAKING ME FEEL WEIRD...IT'S ALREADY TOO LATE. And the second picture is so goofy..we have had so much fun at the zoo already and we've only been twice! (I know, I need a reduction)
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Skye-isms
"Mom, did you know that the holy mammoth was alive during the ice age?"
"Mom, You smell like a bad pear."
We often say to each other, "this is the life" and then we say what our status is and/or what we think is fantastic. Skye says to me that his "life" would be to snuggle all day and night with me. Awh. fun.
"Mom, You smell like a bad pear."
We often say to each other, "this is the life" and then we say what our status is and/or what we think is fantastic. Skye says to me that his "life" would be to snuggle all day and night with me. Awh. fun.
Friendship....a good article---with my thoughts at the end
Be Flexible Years ago a pastor offered this advice. He said, "Expect nothing from other people." At the time, I thought this was a strange idea. I figured that if you expected nothing, you would get what you expected. Over the years, I've come to see that while I do need to set reasonable goals for myself, I do well to keep my expectations for others modest. If we can break free from high expectations for others, than we are more likely to be able to accept — and enjoy — them as they are. Perhaps the quickest way to kill a new friendship is to expect — or demand — too much. I tend to retreat from people who expect things from me that I can't give. These days, with two small children to care for, I can barely finish a thought, let alone have a decent phone conversation. Amber has patiently stuck it out despite my tendency to drop the phone on a whim, along with some ongoing technical problems, which I like to refer to as our "phone curse." She describes this phenomenon on her blog, under the post What to do on a Rainy Day. She writes, "Call Jenny. A brief conversation ensues, followed by a sudden cry, a crash, and dead line. Further calls get only the sound of a fax connection." If you can lower your expectations, not only are you likely to reduce your own frustration, but you might be able to better see the other person's gifts. Sometimes our own expectations blind us to the grace before us. We become so fixated on what we want — or what we imagine we need — that we miss the gift that is being offered. Years ago, Amber and I were at a Chinese restaurant, and she cracked open a fortune cookie to reveal this ticklish proverb: "Alas, the onion you are eating may be someone else's water lily." An unopened water lily does resemble an onion, bitter and unappealing. But often things are more than they appear at first glance — and it is often this way with relationships. If you can take a step back and allow a friendship to unfold on its own terms, you're more likely to glimpse the water lily. Preconceived ideas of how things should or must be leave us grasping after onions. Rejoice in the Other It becomes more possible to weather another person's shortcomings when you're able to see their strengths. I can tell that a friendship is growing when I begin to genuinely enjoy another person's gifts — not feel threatened or envious of them, but rejoice in them as if they were my own. I've never understood why some people provoke envy, while others — even extremely talented people — don't. It might have something to do with transparency. The more deeply we know another person's secret hopes and anguishes — and the more we can identify with their struggles — the less inclined we are to envy them, the more eager we are to see them succeed. Be Transparent I love that REM song, Night Swimming. Although the song is suggestive of skinny- dipping, I've always sensed that Night Swimming is a metaphor for much more. The song is about friendship, about the innocence of making oneself vulnerable. One line captures something essential: "You, I thought I knew you, you I can not judge." As I get closer to people I'm less inclined to jump to simple conclusions about their life and struggles (or how I might fix them). As the "armchair adviser" in me recedes, compassion, sadness and hope grow. As one of my mentors told me, "When you really get to know another person, sometimes all you'll want to do is weep." Transparency fosters this continual revelation. And the more open another person is with me, the more clearly I see the truth of Plato's saying, "Be kind to everyone you meet, for everyone is waging a terrible internal battle." The Ever New Friendship is not static. It grows as we do — each leg of the journey reveals a fresh landscape, transforming our inner geography as well. The twists of the journey keep friendship fresh, even as the years wear on. Christopher Bamford, editor-in-chief of Steiner Books, expressed this eloquently when he wrote, "When we speak, even when it is the intimate expression of a deep, personal experience, we are a single voice. We have forgiven each other a thousand times. We have let go of so much that could divide us that we have let go of ourselves. Our relationship seems to exist in and out of the unknown, the ever new." Our deepest friendships offer a sense of continual discovery, but they can also provide a sense of consistency during years of change. When I am around Amber — who knows my history, foibles and failings and loves me anyway — I am more whole. This wholeness is fertile soil. We often don't see or appreciate that soil, but so many seeds sprout here. According to a saying from the Talmud, "Every blade of grass has an angel that bends over it, whispering, 'grow, grow.'" And this is what friends do best — they see us, fragile as we are, and whisper "grow, grow" as we push our way up through the soil. | |
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| Copyright © 2007 Jenny Schroedel. All rights reserved. International copyright secured. This article was published on Boundless.org on August 9, 2007. __________________________________________ O.k. so quickly (as my life is pretty out of control right now, I just wanted to add that I'm working on being a good friend. I've been terrible at times, holding expectations (not necessarily always on purpose, and then, on purpose) and really have been hurt or hurt. If you're one of those, please, please forgive. I just think about how much I can grow in this. Journey with me? eh? and thanks to dearest for sending this to me. |
Monday, March 2, 2009
Once again randomness
Only a moment here to blog and then off to life again..well, you know what I mean.
It's been a hard day. I have a little picture here that might be worth, oh--I don't know, a million words? At least to me.
Things I'm grateful for right now:
--2 healthy kids (Chase has been really sick and Skye had a tick in his skin that he didn't tell us about--for 7 days--so we're done with him being sick.. diarrhea, fever, fatigue)
--March (you know how I feel about celebrations and this is my birthday month...it's also daylight savings time which Alan and I really look forward to)
--Craigslist/ebay..I've recently gotten a few things off both of these for significantly discounted prices
--praises such as our complex meeting going well; we also have handed out 2 of our books we will be doing a book study club here in our complex (I'll post my recent email to family about the meeting and the small miracles God did for us)
--hard working husband
--hard working wife...I am grateful for this busy season of life, as I know many who can't hold it together and who are struggling soooo. I'm glad that this week/day that I feel fine and know my weaknesses!
--my dear friends (which includes my sisters) and my parents.
So, here's that picture....ready???!!!!
Usually when it's a hard day for Skye, or he feels overwhelmed in the afternoon, I offer him a bath. This time, I came upon it. I spared you the picture of the floor and surrounding area. Poor buddy.
It's been a hard day. I have a little picture here that might be worth, oh--I don't know, a million words? At least to me.
Things I'm grateful for right now:
--2 healthy kids (Chase has been really sick and Skye had a tick in his skin that he didn't tell us about--for 7 days--so we're done with him being sick.. diarrhea, fever, fatigue)
--March (you know how I feel about celebrations and this is my birthday month...it's also daylight savings time which Alan and I really look forward to)
--Craigslist/ebay..I've recently gotten a few things off both of these for significantly discounted prices
--praises such as our complex meeting going well; we also have handed out 2 of our books we will be doing a book study club here in our complex (I'll post my recent email to family about the meeting and the small miracles God did for us)
--hard working husband
--hard working wife...I am grateful for this busy season of life, as I know many who can't hold it together and who are struggling soooo. I'm glad that this week/day that I feel fine and know my weaknesses!
--my dear friends (which includes my sisters) and my parents.
So, here's that picture....ready???!!!!
Usually when it's a hard day for Skye, or he feels overwhelmed in the afternoon, I offer him a bath. This time, I came upon it. I spared you the picture of the floor and surrounding area. Poor buddy.
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