Our stories

We have a wonderful class at Oak Lawn United Methodist Church called Search Warrant. Search Warrant is taught by the incredible Rev. Patsy Brundige. Search Warrant is about the write way to celebrate life. This past Monday Patsy brought in an old suitcase that had duck tape around it because the locks had been broken (I am assuming due to age). Patsy shared that she had been cleaning out her garage and found this old suitcase that had been her mother's. Patsy opened the suitcase with much suspense and revealed the many pictures that were inside. Patsy had no idea who was in any of the pictures. She thought that some were of her uncle who had died of influenza at an early age, but the pictures had no names on the back, no dates, no stories. Those faces just stared out at us. They had no stories to share.

Patsy was trying to bring home the importance of recording our stories, she said that if she had opened up the suitcase to find reams of paper filled with stories about the people in the photos, then the people in the photos would have come alive. Instead, she only had unknown faces.

I thought of helping my mom clean out her house on Galveston Bay. I remember a huge table filled with photographs. If the photograph had people in it that we knew, we kept it. If it was a scenic photo, we threw it away. The people were what was important for us, but we have to tell their stories, tell who they were, and how they impacted our lives or else they will just be unknown faces.

And that made me think of Christmas letters. Every year my mom has produced a Christmas letter and a few years ago she had them all bound. "An Anthology of Christmas Greetings from 1980-2005." 25 years of Christmas letters. That is something that I treasure, and one of the reasons why I love to write a Christmas letter.

Anyway, I have been thinking about our stories and how we can write them down and share them. The write way to celebrate life...

Happy Birthday Jesus

We are so blessed to be at Oak Lawn United Methodist Church with the wonderful children's choir. On December 5 at 11:00 am the kids will be singing "Happy Birthday Jesus." Here are the words:

Happy Birthday Jesus. I’m so glad it’s Christmas. All the tinsel and lights, and the presents are nice, but the real gift is you. Happy Birthday Jesus. I’m so glad it’s Christmas. All the carols and bells make the holidays swell, and it’s all about you. Happy Birthday Jesus. Jesus, I love you.

and here is a link to a movie of Everett singing.

A quote

I have a lot to write about, Halloween, our possum that has been living in our attic, and most importantly my experience walking 60 miles with my mom for the Susan G. Komen 3-day for the Cure. But today I have to clean my house because I am hosting a Thanksgiving potluck for the neighborhood moms group, so here is a quote that someone shared at book club on Tuesday evening:

Life is like pizza. When it's good it's really good. When it's bad it's still pretty good.

36

So, when I turned 35 I was really sad because I was not sure if I would still be considered a young adult clergy in the United Methodist Church. This article shares that "in 1926, 20% of United Methodist elders were under the age of 35. By 2005, only 4.69% of elders were under the age of 35." I was ordained an elder in 2006. I was not sure if under 35 included 35 but I figured that either way, my getting older was hurting our United Methodist young adult clergy statistics! Young adult clergy definitely does not include those who are 36. I can now remember the good ol' days when I was considered young adult clergy...

36 does not seem that bad. I am now solidly in my mid 30s... I have lots of stuff, a nice house, a nice car, an iphone 4 (baby!). I have amazing relationships, with my husband, with my two beautiful kids, with my family, with my friends. I am so happy that I am able to work part-time as a pastor so that I can enjoy these precious years when my children are so young. I get to pick up my daughter from first grade every day! I am so blessed. I am in good health, next weekend I will be walking 60 miles with my mom for the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure.

And yet, there is so much more to look forward to. I feel like I have not got it all figured out yet. I say "yes" to too many things and to too many people. I can definitely improve in the area of self-care! I want to get more massages and relax more. I want to be less busy and worry less. I want to go on more trips and show our kids the world (or at least, you know, more of Texas). I want to feel less guilt, about everything. I want to walk more confidently, feel more sure of myself. I want to feel like I fit into my shoes more (and I am not quite sure what that means).

I look forward to feeling more comfortable in my own skin. These past years I have worked really hard at becoming more healthy, and as I struggle with eating healthy and exercising more, may I continue to keep my health in the forefront. May I continue to be thankful to God for all of the ways that I experience God's presence and joy in my life. May I continue to thank God every morning for the incredible gift that I have been given, simply by waking up each day!

So, once there was this art program...

So, once there was this art program, called Reflections. Last year when Madeleine was in kindergarten, art workshops were advertised in the PTA newsletter and I signed up to go with Madeleine and help. Since Madeleine goes to art only once a week in school (and she loves it), I wanted to encourage her love of art in any way possible. So, I went to the first workshop, and the next and the next. It was such fun to watch children create art to a theme. The theme last year was Beauty is...

So, this year I am one of the three parents in charge of the program. The theme this year is Together We Can.... We had three workshops after school, and at the first workshops 53 K, 1st and 2nd graders attended. 53 kids! The last two workshops we only had 30 kids at each workshop. Only 30 kids! HA!

So, now the three parents are mounting all of the work on posterboard and next Thursday the art will be judged. I know, it sounds like an art contest, but it is an art program. They told us that at the District Training, so it must be true.

Visual Arts are the bulk of our entries at Madeleine's school, but there can also be music, dance, photography, film and literature. Last year Moss Haven had 140 total entries, and this year we hope to have more than that. After the art is judged, the top 20% go on to district, and the top 20% from there go on to state. Last year we had one beautiful picture from a 6th grader go on to state. Then, 2 entries from each state go on to nationals.

Madeleine wanted a camera for her birthday this summer, so I finally downloaded the pictures from her camera. We picked 4 pictures to submit for Reflections, here are some highlights from her camera.

The PTA Reflections website is so fun, you can see all of the national winners from last year.



Madeleine took a picture of the TV showing the 4th of July show in Washington, D.C.

One of many, many, many pictures of Madeleine's willing subject, her brother.

This is Launa's Little Library. At the top of these stairs is the kindest woman in Lake Highlands.


A self portrait, one of many, but this one is mostly in focus!

Love this one! It is Madeleine's arm. Her skin, she says...

Children's Choir

The Children's Choir sang in church yesterday, here is my photo description of the occasion.

This is at rehearsal, everyone is doing great!

But then Everett starts zoning...

And does not like his stole during worship and the actual singing (he is on the right taking off his stole).


And then Everett disappears because he is laying on the ground right it front of me.

Ahh... children :)

The choir did great, they sounded wonderful!

Playing in the fountain

There is a new Whole Foods by our house and right next to this fancy steak place is these awesome fountains. So, a couple of times this summer we went to get frozen yogurt (across from the fancy steak place) and played in the fountains. Once the kids even wore bathing suits! We went to use my last groupon at the frozen yogurt place on Friday and I thought that it would be fun for the kids to have one last fountain playtime before it got to be too cold. So, they got drenched and had a blast! These were taken on my iphone, that thing is amazing!



this is what Madeleine and Everett did when I said to smile...


This was the response when I requested a photo where they smiled...