Today I cleaned my son's room.

Usually, I just shut the door and walk away.  I feel like it's HIS mess to clean up.  He gets grounded a lot.  We've taken away privileges.  When he was younger, we spanked him.  I've sort of come to the conclusion that this is a "pick your battles" sort of thing.  It's easier to shut the door and let it go than to constantly be at odds over a messy room.  It could be worse.  He could be using drugs.  Or running the streets getting into trouble.  Or sneaking out of the house at night.  Or abusing animals.  Or a million other things.  Perspective is a healthy thing when you're raising kids.  Right?

But every now and then, my sweet boy child goes to a summer camp or away for a visit with his cousin and I attack the mess that is his bedroom.  His room is kind of a wreck.  I only took this 1 "before" picture today and it only shows what it looked like under his bed.  But I think you can get the general idea from this one picture.

Umm...yeah.  It was all that bad. 

I know.

But here's the thing.  When I tackle his bedroom it's sort of like a treasure hunt.  Today, I found out that there is carpet in his closet floor!  Who knew?!

Seriously, though..check out all the cool stuff I discovered as I cleaned!

First of all, if we ever have an adhesive emergency, I know where to look!

And if anyone in the house needs scissors, pens, pencils, markers or colored pencils, Sam is THE MAN!

If one of us should have an illness, we can stop by the pharmacy... or save money by visiting Sam's room to pick up some vitamin C.  What a sweet boy to help us with the budget!

And while we recover from the illness, there is plenty of reading material to keep us busy.

In case of a regional hygiene crisis, we can visit Sam's room to pick up a razor, comb, deodorant or shower gel.  He has plenty.

Have I mentioned that Samuel is getting his braces taken off next week?  (This is orthodontic wax.)

Should we decide to visit the pumpkin patch again next Fall, we already have a game board for the corn maze.  You know, from our last visit there (in 2012.)  Sam takes that Boy Scout motto to heart about being prepared.

It's good to see that my 14 year old son is well-rounded.

No matter how messy he is, this crazy boy of mine is still a cool kid.  After all, how many other teenaged (white) boys do you know who have a poster like this on their bedroom wall?

And I'm sure he must've been holding onto all these outgrown clothes with the intention of donating them to his younger cousin who can enjoy them.  After all, why else would they all have been wadded up under his bed, in his dresser drawers, at the bottom of his closet and behind his TV?

And last but not least....when you have a boy, sometimes it's best to just let things (dishes) go & buy new.  I don't even know what this was!

Of course, the 9 month old Mountain Dew in his backpack from last year, along with the crushed (and spilled) bag of pretzels that accompanied it, were a nice treat to find as well.  I'm sort of amazed that we have not had rats or ants in his room!

Thank heaven for little boys.

Year of Dates: March 2014

Tonight we went on our March date.  It was a little less "formal" than usual.  Larry was coming from work, where he's been dealing with some super stressful stuff this week, and I was coming from the house where I'd been cleaning all day.  We went to a very public, small Mexican place here in town where we ran into 500 people we know.  So it wasn't so much a date night.  And that's totally OK!  They are not all hotels & wine & roses!  (well, hotels & water bottles & roses, anyway!)

After eating plenty...

...we headed home.  I tried to get Larry to pose for our usual date night picture but couldn't get him to cooperate.  ha ha!  That's ok.  I took a few pictures anyway!  ha ha!!

We had a good supper and enjoyed our time together.  And now...we're home.  He's parked in front of the TV with his work laptop & a bunch of files and I'm parking in front of the computer.  Back to reality!  ha ha!

So...this happened.

I think it was last week that I spent 12 hours in labor & had this 7 lb 6 oz bundle of screaming craziness.  And then this week we got a package with THIS in it.

And we got a copy of another senior picture from our favorite adopted aunt/photographer that will go into her senior ad in the yearbook.  And I sent in the final drawing/sketch for that senior yearbook ad.

And we set up the final details for a college visit that we're headed to on Monday.

And then today one of her teachers sent me a copy of the recommendation letter she wrote for a scholarship Savannah has applied for.  Oh my Lord, it was amazing.  I bawled.

Somebody seriously needs to stop all this or slow it down.  I've got less than 3 months until she walks across the stage & embarks into adulthood.  I'm going through all the things she needs to know to survive as an adult and trying to determine if I've missed anything on the list.  I'm not readyyyyyyyy!

Women of Faith Unwrap the Bible Conference February 21-22 Houston, TX

About 5 or 6 months ago, our ladies at church began talking about attending a new Women of Faith conference called Unwrap the Bible in Houston.

It was advertised to be produced by the Women of Faith organization, but would be done a little different than the typical Women of Faith conference.  It was presented with more of a focus on Bible study, more "meat" to the lessons than the usual conferences, and a different feel in the worship.  When I heard the list of the women who would be speaking, I may have climbed over a table and elbowed a lady to get to the front of the line to sign up.

Okay, so maybe it wasn't quite that dramatic, but folks...the speakers who would be at this conference are women who have had deep, immeasurable impact on my faith over the years, so there was no way I would miss this conference.  So I put my name on the list to attend.


And then I promptly forgot all about it.  Yeah, I know..it's like spiritual amnesia.  I didn't forget about the speakers who would be there or what the conference was supposed to be all about.  I just didn't write it immediately on my calendar so I didn't think about it again until last month when our ladies' trip organizer mentioned it.  I think I sort of gasped & said "Wait...when is that?  Are we still going?  I didn't put it on the calendar so I'm not sure if I can go.  Eeek!  Quick, tell me the date!"  After a brief moment of panic, I found that this weekend was blank on my calendar so I wrote it down.  In permanent marker.  'Cuz you know, that makes it more official.

Over the years, I have been to quite a few Women of Faith conferences and every single time I've come home feeling richly blessed.  And with my excitement about the ladies who were speaking, I knew this time would be no different.

So yesterday, I took the day off work so I could finish packing and get to the church in time to leave with the group.  Thursday night I checked the laundry to make sure that the clothes I wanted to wear were clean, but I waited until yesterday morning to really start packing.  I got everything together and into my bags early yesterday morning and then fooled around at the house until it was time to leave.  As I picked up my bags & threw my jacket over my arm I noticed that my jacket looked a little dirty.  Our weather keeps going back & forth so I thought I might need it.  I sniffed.  It wasn't really stinky, but it was sort of stale-smelling.  It needed a little freshening up, so I did what every smart girl would do.

Ok, so fast forward about 7 hours until I was sitting in the giant Lakewood Church of Houston, TX.  And friends, I mean HUGE.

(I sat at approximately 7 o'clock from Joel Osteen's face on the big screen, on the floor near the front.) 

Kari Jobe, who is such a little cutie, stepped onto the stage first last night and completely knocked my socks off.

I kept thinking to myself "I hope she sings Revelation Song" and "Healer" and several others ...and she did.  But later she did this song that I hadn't heard before called "Forever" and man oh man, I could hardly stay in my row of seats.  I wanted to dance in the aisles.  It brought out the Pentacostal girl in me.  Seriously, how can you possibly sit still when you hear these lyrics?

"The ground began to shake...the stone was rolled away...His perfect love could not be overcome...Now death where is your sting?...Our resurrected King...Has rendered you DEFEATED.....Forever He is glorified....forever He is lifted high...forever He is risen, He's alive, He is alive."  (You can watch the video for the song HERE, but when you do be prepared.  Powerful stuff!)

And then after about 15 years of reading her books & working through her studies, I saw Beth Moore in person.

 
I mean, we were about 50 yards from the stage and she doesn't know I was in the crowd at all, but I got to SEE her with my own eyeballs...not just on a video or a simulcast.  We're best friends now.  Or at least she feels like a girlfriend now.  She is so down to earth and NORMAL acting.  Girlfriends, she is just as precious in person as she is on all those videos we've all watched as we worked our way through Breaking Free & James & Esther & Psalms & Jesus the One and Only & To Live Is Christ and all the rest of her Bible studies.  She is able to pull you in with her southern belle charm, her sense of humor and her knowledge of the Word.  A few notes I took from her talk last night (but there was SO much good stuff it was hard to write fast enough):

*There is nothing in your background, in where you've come from, that He can't use where you're going.
*You are not strong enough to mess up bad enough to foul up His plan for you.
*In Gen. 21, when Hagar & Ishmael are in the desert and she puts him under a tree to die, God brings a well to them.  Sometimes that's just how life is.  We can't pray or work hard enough to get to God, but He comes and meets us where we are.
*No matter how deep a pit you dig, He'll show up with gifts in His hands.

After Beth spoke, we sang a few more songs with Kari Jobe and then retreated to the hotel for the night.  It was after 11:00 when we got there and close to midnight before I got into bed.  (I would whine about how late that is, but let's just be honest.  That's pretty close to my regular bedtime.)  There isn't much about the hotel to share, but I had to take a pic of this showerhead.  It was so cool and made it feel like you were taking a shower in the rain.

And in case you are not from Texas and somehow think that it is all cow pastures and horseback riding, this was my view out the hotel window.  (Of course, this is Houston, home of the worst traffic in the state, where it's way more populated and than any city I've ever lived, so this isn't my personal reality but there is a LOT of this sort of scenery in Texas.)

Anyway, when we finally made it through traffic and arrived at the event today, we walked in as Lisa Harper was about to exit the stage.  I was so bummed because good golly I love her!  I only caught the last minute or two of her talk.  I'm not sure what she talked about, but if you have a moment, say a prayer for Lisa.  She is a single lady who is in the middle of adopting internationally.  She is giddy and anxious for her little girl, Missy, to come home!

After Lisa spoke, one of the wisest, funniest and most Godly women anywhere took the stage.  Priscilla Shirer (daughter of Tony Evans) is, I think?, the youngest of the WOF speakers.  I've done two of her studies and have watched numerous videos of hers on youtube.  She is so gifted in speaking.  And all of that is awesome, but to top it off, she's gorgeous, too!  See?

A few notes from Priscilla's talk:

*Your best will never be good enough.  God wants us to realize that we need Him in every situation, so when we do our best work, put our best foot forward, bring our A game, we still need HIM.
*Running out is the prefix to your run-in with Jesus.  If you feel like you're running out of time, running out of money, running out of faith, just hold on...you're going to run into Him.  The primary way we see God in our lives is not with our best/brightest scenarios -- it will be in the struggles & hard places when we've "run out".
*Don't ever let it become a casual thing to discuss what He did for us on the cross!
*Salvation is every day.  If it was a 1 time experience, God would have taken us up to heaven the same day we accepted Him.  Daily living, longing for Heaven, trusting in Him...that is salvation.
*When you run out, just own it.  And then when He tells you how to handle it, don't question, just do it!

After Priscilla, Sheila Walsh took the stage.  I have written about her and her books on my blog several times.  See that search bar at the top left of this page?  If you type in Sheila Walsh, you will find several posts, so clearly I love her!  Her talks are always so awesome & today's was no exception!  She spoke from Esther, and through the course of her talk, she walked us through the ENTIRE book.

A few notes from Sheila's talk:

*Evil always demands worship.
*We have an Enemy who is hell-bent on destroying us, but we have a Savior who is earth bent on delivering us!
*People are ruined not as much by doing what's wrong, but by doing it & never repenting.
*There is restoration and healing for every daughter of the King.
*Until we are ready to leave all the consequences to God, we may celebrate the resurrection, but we are not living in its power.
*Sometimes God will take you to a prison cell to set you free!

We took a break after Sheila's talk to venture into the church building and locate the bookstore and WOF product tables.  Since I knew that I could find all the speakers' books online if I really wanted to buy one, I went to the church bookstore instead.  It was very similar to my local Lifeway and every other Christian bookstore I've been to over the years, so I headed back to the auditorium to make sure I didn't miss the next speaker.

I have only seen Christine Caine online so I wanted to make sure & hear all of her talk.  She is a little fireball.  She is a tiny little lady with the most beautiful Australian accent so even if she had stood on the stage & sang Jesus Loves Me off tune, I would've loved listening to her for that accent!  Between she and Shelia Walsh (who has a really cool Scottish accent), WOF is becoming quite a multi-cultural affair.  Love that!

Anyway...here are a few notes I took during her talk.

*There are no expiration dates on God's promises.
*Until we replace the facts of our circumstances with the truths of God's word, we will never live in faith.
*We have become so enlightened by science and education that we have forgotten the truth of God.
*Most of what we pray for is a management issue, not a miracle issue.  We should be praying for miracles!  If you mismanage small things, why would He give you more to manage?
*God has an appointed time for His work in our lives - don't put a due date on His hand.

The conference closed with more music from Kari Jobe.  Awesome, my friends.  That's the only word to describe the last 24 hours.

Oh.....and here's a crazy thing.  Or at least it seems crazy to me!  When we arrived last night, my seat was 2 away from the end of our row.  Shortly after we sat down, 2 ladies from Atlanta, GA showed up & sat in those seats.  I briefly spoke to Lynn, who sat next to me, before the evening began.  She was friendly and kind, but that's about all I learned about her last night.  This morning, I was digging in my bookbag and accidentally dislodged a package of crackers that flew out & landed between our seats.  We both looked for them, but decided that they must've landed in her purse.  She reached for her purse to retrieve them but I told her to keep them.  I had several packages of crackers in my bag, so I would not miss those.  In thanks, she handed me a card for a free ChickFilA sandwich.  I laughed and told her that my daughter works there.  She then laughed and said that she & the lady she was there with work for the corporate offices in Atlanta, so somewhere along the way, she's probably seen paperwork for my daughter.  Ha!  I looked her name up on the company's website tonight & found that she's actually one of the Vice Presidents of the whole company!  Of all the seats in that giant building where she could sit, she landed next to me!  I realize it's not that major of a 'connection' but to be able to meet one of the people who runs the company my daughter works for was pretty cool!

I'm heading to bed tonight, thankful for this weekend...thankful for the sleep I am about to get...thankful for the Word spoken into my soul in the last 24 hours....thankful for the ministry of Women of Faith...thankful for my life.

Now ladies, I'm going to grab my sword & charge off into the night.  Goodnight!  God bless!

A Year of Dates: February 2014

This month's date was to visit the gun range and then go out for ice cream sundaes afterward.  Remember, my honey is in law enforcement.  While we were dating, he was in school to become a cop, so I sort of went through the police training with him.  I remember lots of nights when he hung out at my house and taught me different self defense maneuvers, restraint holds, tactical "tricks" of the trade and of course, we spent a lot of time target shooting.  So for us, this is a fun date!

Today we went to a local indoor gun range to shoot.  When we arrived (at 10:40 AM) we found a sign on the door stating that they would be closed for a private group to use the range from 8-12.  We were bummed!  Fortunately, they are located next door to a little cafe, so instead of having "Shooting & Sundaes" we opted to have brunch and then return to the gun range.

After eating, we returned to the gun range and we were able to watch the private group do their practice drills.  It was fun to watch the group -- both young and old men -- go through shooting drills at different targets, from behind obstacles, running from one target to the next.  They finally finished up shortly after 12:00 and we were able to get to our reserved lane.

Friends, I grew up shooting guns outdoors and since meeting Larry in '92, I have done plenty of target shooting --- usually old milk jugs, aluminum cans and the like.  Today was my first day at an indoor range.  And let me tell ya, it is clear that it's been a while since I shot.  ha ha!  I used to be a better shot than Larry, but today I was not so great.  {As a side note, if the target was a burglar, I would've still killed him/her, but I wasn't as great a shot as I used to be!}

I didn't get pictures of our brunch, but here are a few from our time at the gun range.  First, Larry shooting...

Then me!

After shooting, it was time to clean the guns.  Fortunately, my sweetie is proficient and quick at this job!

Does it help make this look any less sad to know this was the target we BOTH shot at?  With 2 separate guns?  ha!

And of course, the date picture we always get together!

{Note:  Sorry!  No pic of the envelope and card inside this month!}

Year of Dates: January 2014

Tonight was our first date night of 2014.  The month is almost over, but tonight was the first time we had a chance to work it in.  We actually planned to do this earlier in the month, but then we had car repairs to be made on the day we had planned the date, so we had to put it off.  You know...old married people reasons to skip a date night.  ha ha!  Seriously though, that's how life is.  If we don't make an intentional effort to have a date once a month, it will never happen.  We have good intentions and talk about it, but unless it's on the calendar, we will forget about all our good intentions.

Today we decided that after we both got home from our evening of commitments, we'd have our date.  That mean we were in the kitchen at 9:30 cooking grilled cheese sandwiches and busting out the legal pad, but we did it!  To me, focusing on making it happen is just as important and special as the date itself.  Seeing my husband take the time to stop everything else and spend devoted time with me is what it's all about, y'all.

So this month's date was Grilled Cheese & Goals.  I should tell you that my husband makes a mean grilled cheese sandwich.  We call them "Larry's Famous Grilled Cheese" around our house.  I don't ask him to cook often but when I do, it's either grilling something or making grilled cheese sandwiches.  Yum!

Tonight we sat down over plates of ooey-gooey warm cheese sandwiches and made some plans for the coming year.  We talked about spiritual, physical, financial, relationship and home goals.  We got some things on paper that we'd like to see happen this year.

It was brief, but the time spent was sweet.

College Decisions

Savannah is struggling with college decisions.  I guess most high school seniors go through this, but it's my first time to have a child dealing with this, so her stress is my stress.  I'm walking this path with her, trying to take it all in and learn as we go.

Before we go any further, let me say that I am ALMOST to the point where I can say "My child is nearly ready to move off to college." without hyperventilating.  It still freaks me out and makes me cry, but I have reached a healthy level of sanity in these discussions so I don't have to stop and take a moment to breathe into a brown paper sack these days.  {grin}

How it all began:
While she was still in 10th grade she started receiving letters and brochures and post cards from colleges all over the country.  I'm not really sure how that happened, but it did.  We just laughed and tossed the majority of them in the garbage.  After all, it was a TAD premature for us to start considering a college decision when she didn't even have her driver's license yet...and before she had taken the SAT!  Many of these college mailers were from places we had never even heard of!  None of us were ready to consider shipping her off to Rhode Island or Montana or Crazy Drunk Frat Boy Party School, USA when she was 15!

Then, later on.......
Her 11th grade year rolled around and we thought maybe it was time to start at least talking about it.  But over and over, she told us that she had no idea what she wanted to be, no idea what she'd major in and she just wasn't ready to start talking about it yet.  We didn't push the issue and reminded her that 99% of college freshmen don't have any idea what they're going to do and those who do still usually change majors halfway through college.  So in 11th grade, at age 16, that's totally fine!

And then the clock started ticking.
Boom!  Just like that, she's a senior.  I'm telling you, moms of young ones, it happens SO fast.  Just yesterday, she looked like this.

First day of 2nd grade & playing with her buddy Melissa during the same year.

And now...well, she does not look like the same kid.  She's beautiful and talented and so very smart.  Folks, I'm telling you, she's the kind of kid that every parent wants to have.  She makes me proud to be her mother every single day.

A picture the photographer, her beloved "Aunt" Tara, snapped with her phone during their senior pic photo shoot last week.  Seriously?  So beautiful...and I don't mean the lighting.  (Although that is nice, too!)

Last summer, we visited 2 schools.  Both are 4 year universities.  One was a local state school, 10 miles from home.  We were shuffled around in a herd of other people who had also come for a tour.  It felt like she'd be lost in a giant crowd of people there.  Everything was cold & sterile-feeling.  The tour felt weird and it just didn't "fit" her.  The other was a private Baptist school, about 1 1/2 hours away.  We were greeted with a sign that welcomed her by name.  The employees were warm and friendly and spent HOURS with just us---not us & a crowd of others.  The campus is small and we ALL fell in love.  I would have loved to go to school there myself.  Heck, even my 12 & 13 yr olds were saying they wanted to go there!  It was SUCH a great fit for Savannah.  Small town, solid faith-based school, required chapel time every week...all the things she was hoping for in a college.  She applied that day & we waited a few weeks before we got the official word that she was accepted!! 

Of course money was an issue. Any private university is INCREDIBLY expensive!  The school gave her an automatic scholarship for about 1/2 the tuition, but even that left us with a huge bill.  We advised her to get busy filling out scholarship applications because anything she doesn't get in scholarships or grants will have to be covered in student loans.  We just don't have the money to pay to send her to school.  It breaks my heart that we can't write a check and cover it, but we can't.  We had it settled in our heads (Savannah, too!) that she would go to the private school and one day would deal with student loan bills.

But then God threw us a monkey wrench.  Isn't He funny like that?

In November, out of the blue, she was offered a full ride scholarship to another local school.  This one is a junior college.  She had not applied there.  They came looking for her!  She was offered the scholarship based on her grades.  We encouraged her to take it --- after all, it's FREE SCHOOL.  She could always transfer to the Baptist school for her junior/senior years!  She is such a sensible, responsible girl that she couldn't help but recognize how much wiser it would be to accept the junior college scholarship.  She asked adults in her life what they thought.  Everyone gave her the same advice and she talked about it with us at length.  But honestly, every time she talked about it, you could hear the resignation and disappointment in her voice.  She and I literally laid in the kitchen floor talking about it for 2 hours on the day she received the scholarship package and letter.  It was so sad to hear her say that she had always thought of this school as her last choice and now she was going to go there.  She never complained or whined about it.  It was just as if she realized that this was her best choice but not her first choice.  Life is full of things like that:  situations that weren't our first choice but turn out being what we do.  We tried to help her see the bright side, reminding her that while this wasn't her first choice, it meant her potential student loan bill payments would be drastically reduced in the future and she wouldn't be paying on them into her 50s like most of us do!  There's just not much way to beat FREE.  Plus, she could stay at home and not have to pay rent anywhere.

For at least a month, she sort of shrunk and looked like she might cry every time the junior college came up.  Let me say again that she was not griping and complaining in the least.  You could just tell she was sad.  My kids have spent most of their lives being told no about things we couldn't afford to do.  Don't get me wrong.  They have never missed a meal or gone without something they need.  But there have been lots of camps or retreats or church events or new clothes that we've had to say no to.  I'm not talking about indulgences or extravagant things (although we've said no to those things, too.) I just mean things that would've been great experiences for them that we couldn't afford.  Larry and I are hard workers, but the money has always been tight so Savannah is accustomed to hearing "I'm sorry honey, but we don't have the money for that."  This felt like that...like she was having to give up something really special and important to her because we can't afford it.  And as her mama, that is hard.  However, I believe it grows my children to face that reality and find ways to make new plans, earn money to put toward a new goal, learn the value of responsibility and saving money.

 We finally told her to look into some other state/public schools if she wasn't totally convinced about attending the local junior college.  After all, maybe one of those schools could offer her a large scholarship as well!  And since state/public schools are MUCH, MUCH cheaper, a big scholarship there could mean free or nearly-free school, too!  We got online & started searching public schools that she might consider.  She's applied to quite a few of them, but they don't make acceptance decisions quickly like the private schools do, so now it's a waiting game.

She decided to chance it & applied to 1 more private school, just to see how they compared money-wise to the Baptist school.  Today she received an acceptance letter from them with scholarship information.  Again, she was offered a big scholarship based on grades, but even with that, it leaves her in the same position as she was in with the Baptist school.  Still super expensive...and when compared to getting 2 years of school for FREE, it just doesn't compare.

On Monday, we are visiting the local junior college to go on a tour and talk to the scholarship lady to get the details on what all her scholarship covers.  (Maybe she could still move into the dorm here since she is really hoping to get the full "college experience", but she readily tells me that it would be silly since it's 10 miles from home!)  I'm sure we will come home with a lot to think about and talk over.  Fortunately, we have a couple more months before she must make a definite choice about where she will attend school next Fall.

It blows me away that just yesterday I was reading "What to Expect When You're Expecting" and tonight we were pouring over pictures of dorm rooms and campus maps and the majors offered at another school.  I am stunned by how quickly we've moved from those first wobbly steps across the living room floor to caps and gowns and tassels and college applications and SAT scores.  Somebody really should slow down this ride!