Wednesday, March 31, 2010

remembering...

this week i have worked very hard to remember...

the expensive perfume used to annoint His feet...what a precious sacrifice and way to honor her King...

those who were scheming to arrest and hurt this One by whom they felt so threatened...

the palm branches that waved and the people who shouted praises for their King...

the water, the basin, and the towel...an example to follow

the betrayal that ended with a kiss...

the denial that ended with weeping...

the arrest, the beating. the crown of thorns, the purple robe, the cross, the blood, the sacrifice...


Lord Jesus, may we never walk through this week lightly but may we remember all that happened before the empty tomb on resurrection day. may we allow the enormity of Your sacrifice permeate every aspect of our lives this week...may we remember.


"for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing ,but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God." ~1 corinthians 1:18

**originally posted april 8, 2009**

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

still here...

just taking a quick moment to check in. i'm still here and around but one-handed typing isn't as much fun as it sounds ;).

i also am popping in to announce that hubs is going to post a blog or two this week :). make sure to check in so you don't miss it!

until then...

Monday, March 15, 2010

just a few charleston pictures...

sunset at the battery...

cooper river bridge

shopping on king street

charleston food and wine festival...top chef competition challenge

(we had lots more pictures but i didn't want to do a massive picture post. for more charleston pictures, check out the charleston albums on my facebook page.)

checking in...

hey there! just thought i'd take a second to check in. life has been busy lately. hubs and i were both out of town for a week (he was away on business and i flew down to dallas to spend time with some of my best friends on the planet ;) and the next week hubs and i took a mini-vacay to charleston (it was incredible). throw in a week of sickness (thank you, boston, for sending that horrible flu-like virus home with my hubs) and trying to get our house ready to go on the market (this week!!) and we have been some busy, busy people!

so, here's a quick little recap...

dallas: i had an incredible time with friends. andrea was an amazing hostess (with the mostess ;) and cari drove up from round rock to be with us for a few days. it was great being with those two again because we pretty much laugh 24/7. we, of course, had a blast shopping (sam moon, swoozies, charming charlie....which, is my new favorite store on the planet, by the way) and enjoying the incredible food you can only find in the dallas (or texas) area. i also got to catch up with other friends, marty and nanette, and have brunch with stephanie.

boston: hubs will have to give you an update about boston. i do know he worked...a lot...but that was the whole purpose of the trip ;). he did get to experience candlestick bowling (no idea...google it) and a bit of a cold boston winter.

while i had a blast in dallas and hubs had a successful business trip in boston, we were ready to be home and together by the time i flew in friday evening. and then.....sunday evening hubs started getting sick and by monday afternoon, i started getting sick. we have never been sick at exactly the same time before and it was an interesting week ;). you see, i like to be around people when i'm sick. i'm a big baby and i don't like to be left alone....misery loves company, you know. well, hubs is completely the opposite. he wants to suffer alone in silence. like i said, it was an interesting few days but we made it just in time to head to charleston!

charleston: we had an absolutely amazing time in charleston. we stayed in the downtown/historic district and it was absolutely beautiful. the weather was wonderful (maybe just a little chilly but i'd rather have that than die in heat and humidity!) and we loved walking around charleston and enjoying the sunshine. we had reservations at incredible restaurants (magnolias, peninsula grill, high cotton) and we also enjoyed some other fun charleston restaurants like hymans, kaminsky's, tbonz, and cupcake. shopping on king street was a lot of fun (hubs was a great sport ;) and we enjoyed 2 different carriage rides. we also happened to be there during the charleston food and wine festival...when we found out that kevin and eli from top chef: las vegas were going to compete against each other, we were sold. we bought tickets and had the best time! we sampled some incredible food and got to watch kevin and eli cook and richard blais was the mc. fun times! i was spoiled with getting to spend so much time with hubs (we were sick earlier in the week and then while we were in charleston) that it made me so sad when he had to go back to work on monday. (i'm going to post pics from charleston in my next blog post.....)

we've spent this last week working on getting our house ready to go on the market. we don't have a lot of major things that need to be done but just a lot of little things that can still take some time to get them accomplished. i've been organzing closets, the pantry, the laundry room (i just might take a picture of my laundry room to show you because, really, who ever goes in there but i worked so hard...you should get to see the fruit of my labor. i bought white baskets to organize all of my cleaning supplies and thing in the laundry room that have been living on top of the washer/dryer, and i bought a clear glass jar that holds my laundry detergent. if a laundry room can be pretty...i think ours is kinda pretty ;). hubs has been hard at work consolidating stuff upstairs that has been cluttering our office and bonus room, cleaning out the closets in the bonus room and office and moving all of that stuff to the attic. most of the stuff in the closets has been there since hubs moved into this house (before we even knew each other) so i let him decide what to keep/throw out/move to the attic. it will be nice, though, to have that closet space to use it to store the things that haven't yet found a home!

that's pretty much been our life in a nutshell the last few weeks. i'm having hand surgery (nothing big...it's outpatient) at the end of this week but i'm not going to be allowed to type or blog or (gasp!) facebook on the computer for a few weeks so blog posts may be few and far between (unless...i just had a brilliant idea to ask hubs to run the blog while i'm gone....maybe i can talk him into doing some blogging. i'm going to work on that). so, be patient and check in every now and then. i'll be back as soon as i can!

until then...enjoy the longer days with (hopefully) more sunshine and warmer temperatures!

Friday, March 5, 2010

in the in-between

as i was thinking through this particular post i realized that most of my blog entires lately have been more on the serious side and while that's not a bad thing...sometimes you just want to read something funny and lighthearted. so, i promise to work on that for future entries.

but, for now, back to the more serious post...

(although, the potential for a funny blog entry just increased dramatically as i lay here and watch my husband try to re-attach the hotel curtains i pulled out of the ceiling. yes, it's a long story and i didn't intentionally mean to vandalize our hotel room...really. it just happened. i promise. btw--success! he was able to get them back into the wall. good times.)

lately i have just felt as though i'm floundering a bit in life and what i'm really supposed to be doing. i have to constantly remind myself that i'm exactly in the place the Lord has called me to be but it isn't easy. i've always had very clear direction for my life and have always even been able to map out the steps that i was supposed to take but not anymore. i almost feel like i'm in some sort of holding pattern (or perhaps just in a season of waiting...haven't i mentioned that before ;) and if i'm not careful and focused on the Lord and what i know to be true of Him and true of what He has been so gracious to reveal to us, it's easy to doubt myself in this period. i'll be honest, i would like a clear and direct plan to fall from heaven (complete with time frames, expectations, lots of details, and outlook calendar entires with appointment requests ;) but it seems as though that is not the Lord's plan.

my goal, though, is to not rely on my feelings (hello, can you spell d-i-s-a-s-t-e-r? ;) but to rely on the source of all Truth and to believe in His faithfulness to me and to my husband and to perhaps begin asking Him what He is teaching me during this time in the in-between.

Monday, March 1, 2010

while it's still called today...

i've seen the quote, "life is what happens when you're busy making other plans," several times and honestly, i've shrugged it off. it almost seemed more like a cliche' but lately, i'm beginning to see how it can be true. i've had some days lately where i just feel like my life is a complete blur almost to the point that i feel like life is in fast forward. do you ever have days or weeks like that? you know, where you sit down at the end of the day and it feels as though you were just trying to keep your head above water...forget trying to do something important or meaningful with your time. well, i'll be honest and say i have felt that way lately more often than not and i'll be honest to tell you that i don't like it.

i had lots of great plans when i resigned from my full time job....spend lots of time organizing my home, spend more time with family and friends, cook amazing {and healthy} meals for my husband and i've been able to accomplish some of these things. it almost makes me chuckle to myself, though, that i still haven't learned in my 31 years of life that being disciplined with your time, resources, etc. doesn't come easy.

the Lord has also been so very gracious lately to remind me to live in the moment while keeping eternity in perspective. i remember when i was single {and had no dating prospects nearby} feeling like i was waiting on God to move and allow me to meet my future mate. i did my best during that time in my life to not put my life on hold just because i was single. i didn't want to feel like i was waiting on life to begin when i got married so i did what i could to invest in my friendships, poured myself into fulltime ministry, and most importantly, sought to spend as much time with the Lord as i could. now that i'm married, i see another potential "waiting game" and again, i'm challenging myself to make the most of my life. i want to do everything i can do grow in my relationship with the Lord, with my husband, to use this season of life as an opportunity to organize our home, and to get healthy.

lately my prayer has been that the Lord would reconcile my desires and wants for my life with His. i don't want to feel like i'm just sitting here waiting on "the next step" in life and not making a difference in the here and now. honestly, we're not promised another day or even another breath so let's make the most of today while it's still called today {thank you, steven curtis chapman}.