Well, considering how cold it got for a few days in October then the insane cold in December and early January, I knew we would be in for it this winter here in NC. This past weekend there was a “storm”. Having lived in New England, I knew it wouldn’t be a thing like the snows we would get there, but the issue here would be people not knowing how to drive in this weather and ice is more of a problem than anything else. And…who likes ice? No matter if you’ve lived in an area where it snows a lot or you think you know how to expertly drive in it, ice is a whole other ballgame.
So, we got an itsy bitsy bit of snow and a bunch of ice. They are calling for freezing rain tomorrow morning and another wintry mix this coming weekend. We already have a snow/ice day today because yesterday things melted a bit, but refroze due to temperatures in the teens. It should melt a good bit away today though. We’ve now lost the February 19 workday and I’m hoping this coming weekend won’t take the March workday from us. I can handle delays or early releases a few times though!
This is what I saw when I was leaving Harris Teeter Friday coming home. I’d stopped in to get a few things and pick up a couple movies from the Red Box since I knew I wouldn’t be going anywhere Saturday with all the ice. You would have thought the end of the world was coming with all the cars there! The snow was coming down at a good pace then.
I wish I’d thought to take a picture of the 2 inches of solid, packed ice and snow that covered the whole parking area here at the apartment. I’d gone out to wipe off my windshield and back windows to make getting going for church Sunday morning a bit easier. It was insane. I didn’t know if I’d get out Sunday morning because I’m in the back of the complex and all of the ice. Took me a half an hour to scrape my driver’s side window and I finally did get out. Parking at the lot at Providence High for church was hilarious. You couldn’t see a thing, so we all just did the best we could and that was fine. Coming out after things had melted a bit, it was humorous seeing where the lines actually were and where cars had ended up.
And so…we have a snow/ice day. This is a later in the day version of the ice that covers the parking lot here. Frozen mess.
I do like snow… My favorite things about it…
- Watching it fall from inside – always a pretty sight.
- Having a white Christmas. When I was younger and we lived in Maine I wouldn’t let my family open the window shades on Christmas morning unless there was snow on the ground. Who wants to look at a brown Christmas?
- Building forts – ’twas much fun in elementary school.
- Taking pictures of the scenery.
- Snow means winter means football means Patriots. I love my logic. The end.
And here is the barbecue chicken alfredo pizza I made a few weeks ago. Yum.
The last couple of weeks have been busy and brutal, both in a good way and at times, in the worst possible way.
In the last 3 months I can think of 4 people who have been relatively significant in my life who have passed away. If you want to consider impact on me and those around me though I may not have known one person well, that number could be raised to 5. In November, a wonderful woman named Kori with 3 girls was killed in a car accident. In December a woman with great spiritual strength in the church my dad pastors passed away. In January the husband of my third grade teacher died. He and his wife attended the church we were at when we lived in Maine. If I remember right, he was also my Sunday School teacher while I was in elementary school at some point. This past week another big hit came when I found out that Holly Sue Dobson had passed away. I have significant memories of her. Memories from Camp Nomacca when she directed and I was a camper and times when I was a counselor, memories of singing with her when she was an advisor for the Northern Lights Youth Choir, NLYC Spring tours, singing on Sunday mornings, late nights at camp when she’s come by after lights out to sing outside the cabins to the campers… She had a great voice and boy, did she have her song. WOW, could she sing “On My Own” from Les Miserables. She even had her own little version with the line “I love Tim…” And who Tim was, or wasn’t…remains a mystery. Part of the hilarity that was Holly Sue. Such a phenomenal person with such great gifts.
All of this has a point. Today at church Pastor Steven was talking about in Galatians when Paul tells the people that they will reap what they sow. Later on he says not to grow tired or weary, but to keep serving. Connecting this with all that has gone on the last couple of months with the passing of many great individuals is obvious…at least it seems so to me. Each of them had sown seeds in their life and they may never get to see what is reaped from their crop until the Lord returns. From my perspective, thinking of the life they each lived and those they have impacted (and could still impact), they are still sowing seeds.
In the eKidz lead team we are also talking about preparing for the future, digging in to make what we do now ready for what is to come. We “run a good ship” right now, but we have a new campus that will be opening at the end of the year. The challenge has been put down for us to take steps now to pursue a higher standard of excellence in what we do so that we don’t become content with where we are. For me, that’s means that I want to be in more conversation and dialogue with the volunteers I work with about what we are currently doing and what we could do better. I want to cast a vision to them where we see where we are and because of what we know we can do, we want to improve it, to set a standard of excellence for our future campuses to model. This is a discontent that comes from God as we work to improve ourselves and the children’s ministry because lives and families are at stake. I am blessed to say that I feel that there are seeds being sown into the lives of kids, families and volunteers in eKidz and I know there is more to come.
Taking all of these things into consideration, I’ve thought about reaping and sowing in many areas of my life – church, home and school. Where do I need to step it up? What else can I do? As Pastor Steven stated…
- You ALWAYS reap what you sow.
- You ALWAYS reap MORE than you sow.
- You ALWAYS reap LATER.
It’s a great message. You should catch it on elevationchurch.org later.
Kind of a big ball of random thoughts going in my head that I tried to put into some order… If it makes sense, great. If it doesn’t, I don’t care – I had to get it out, think it out.
I’ve had several thoughts for posts pop into my head in the past couple of weeks. Lots of things going on with church, school getting back in session, etc. has taken away from the time I would take to be patient and awake enough to write a worthwhile entry. With Monday off, I’m hoping I can put a few entries in here to post over the course of the week about Christmas, taking a look back at the past decade of my life, and finding joy again certain areas. At present, I’m exhausted and could go to bed and wake up at 5:30am tomorrow to get ready for school and not even miss the next couple of hours. 
Christmas details will soon be forthcoming, but for right now, I’m just going to get out the one New Year’s resolution I’m making. Yep. Just one.
A couple weeks ago I was in a meeting with a friend and someone who I greatly admire. He said something that has stuck with me and I figured I’d make it a resolution to try to stick with this one thought he shared.
You know when you’re talking with someone, whether the conversation is an easy, everyday convo or one of the hard ones and you say everything you meant to say, except that one thing that you wish you could say but you don’t because you don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings or you don’t think it’ll come out right? Or sometimes we practice what we want to say in our heads before we have that discussion, but it’s always easier to say it in our head than to get it out… Well, that’s the last 10%. We say about 90% of what we need to or mean to say, but we leave out that one thing that could really take the conversation or that relationship/friendship to a new level – in a good way most of the time.
So that’s it – say the last 10% in 2010. And trust me, it’s not going to be easy. I don’t like confrontation and there have been times I haven’t said something because I wonder what the consequences might be (whether they may be good or bad). But, in the long run, if we don’t say that last 10% aren’t we only hurting ourselves by keeping it inside and not letting God do the rest after it’s been said? Saying that last 10% could change a lot of things…for the better.
I say “feel” because it doesn’t look quite like Christmas yet down here. That could change very soon in the next couple of hours down here. Quite cold and rain may change over to snow later! I did a little snow dance and wore my snowflake necklace to school today. haha.
It’s been quite the week. Quite a month, actually. In a good way, especially with church. Very challenged by our Kingdom Come series. If you didn’t watch the Africa video, catch it at www.elevationchurch.org. Powerful stuff. We are doing our commitment pledges to make the Blakeney campus happen and it’s going to be amazing. The leadership commitment event was incredible. The land was $1.5 million and wouldn’t you know, the leaders (which I feel honored and humbled to be a part of this group) pledged that exact amount for this weekend alone. That will pay for the land! Then we have the rest of the building to pay for, but what an example of faith and trust to present to the rest of the church. Add to that some great days at school, volunteering with a great outreach partner alongside some awesome friends, getting to spend almost two full days with Jessi Welch, time with some great friends, a challenging meeting (in a good way), time with volunteers at church and you’ve got the makings of a great month.
In other news, Christmas Decorating by L. Gallagher was in full swing this week. There IS an art to “fluffing” the Christmas tree, if you weren’t aware. I shall now show off. Some year I will remember to take pictures of the process instead of just the finished product. However, in a few words, it’s all about layering and the circular pattern. I am available by appointment next year starting in November.
Also, check out this gingerbread house one of my students made for me. She’s also on my OM team. Love it. She put “O” on one side and “M” on the other.
Moving right along, here is a Friday 5 for the holidays…
iTunes Five: Christmas Edition
1. What song do you play the most? Do You Hear? by Elevation Worship (Big surprise, right?)
2. What song do you play the least? Silent Night by Andrea Bocelli (But that’s only because I just got it.)
3. What’s the last song you added? Silent Night by Andrea Bocelli
4. What’s your favorite playlist? Christmas, obviously. It’s pretty awesome.
5. What kind of iPod (or MP3 player) do you have? iPod nano
This year our Christmas series at church is called Kingdom Come. We are talking about ways to be generous and have faith that could help build the Kingdom of God here on Earth. The creative department at Elevation continues to blow my mind. They created this cartoon that is just awesome. Check it out.
Who doesn’t love ear candy? I’m a big fan. I love having music in the background and I REALLY love Christmas music. As it has already been stated, the Christmas music has been on for a while for me. I was just reading the Elevation Worship blog (that London, Chris, Mack and Wade collaborate on) and they have put up a 3 song Christmas EP on there and DOWNLOADS are FREE. The best kind of Christmas gift – music AND it’s free.
Check it out. Great great great.
I’ve been pretty bad lately at the whole update thing on this here blog. I’ve had plenty to write about but been exhausted or just incredibly busy this month. Lots to share and having a few days off this week, maybe I will finally be able to process them. Among things to share… Musings about my Patriots, BBQ madness, UNCC application and GRE stuff, hard conversations and leadership, mom’s visit to the Queen City, and life in general.
Presently, however, I am dealing with the aforementioned Patriots and trying to ward off a sinus infection…so I’m going to get back to that.
The 26th birthday has arrived. It’s crept up on me. This school year is really flying by so quickly, granted it we are only entering November and there are months to go. It has been just a busy, busy time. Not that that is a bad thing. Things have been going well and I’ve been learning a lot and am being stretched in many areas. I’m thankful for that and hope I’m up to the tasks set in front of me.
I never got to a “Holi-birthday List” this year, so clearly it will be just a Christmas list at this point, though I’m not sure what all that might entail. The thing is, I can’t really think of anything I really “want” or “need”. It’s all icing at this point. I’m grateful to have a job, have wonderful friends and family, have a roof over my head and clothes to wear and those are the things that count because I know God’s got it all under control and He’s blessed me with another year. One of the best gifts I’ve gotten on my birthday this year has been a nearly three hour conversation with two amazing friends in Pennsylvana last night. Speaker phone, pictures, video, guessing games…all included in this conversation that took place at 10:70 (and if you’re curious about that, just ask…it’s a thing from back in college). It’s nice to know technology can bridge the gap between people in some small way.
In other news, as is customary for me at this point in the year, it is ON. The Christmas music, that is. It IS the most wonderful time of the year, starting TODAY!
Last night at a meeting I was in with several other Quest volunteers, I decided that our icebreaker would be sharing what we would like our super power to be…if we had one. One of them, a music teacher, shared that she’d love to have the power to make people break out into song thus making life…a musical. I like that idea quite a bit. The great thing is that this is a reality. This is the greatest video ever. I wish life were more like this…. So many more smiling faces.
The first guy’s dance moves are hilarious and watching people constantly run in and join is entertaining. And when you think it doesn’t get any more awesome, techno Julie Andrews comes in and we see them doing the macarena and many other hilarious dance moves. Then they all go on their merry way.
Further proof that life CAN be like a musical…
Love it.
