Tony and I have had a pretty eventful and social weekend. His mom was in from Colorado to visit. We showed her around Murfreesboro, taking her to a couple of our favorite restaurants and shops, and attended the Renaissance Festival. It was a first for all of us and definitely and interesting experience. The place was huge and had a ton of vendors and stages with different shows. They had a jousting competition, fights, juggling, comedies, and so much more. It was a neat place just to watch people… all kinds of people. We also watched a couple of movies (she was sick one afternoon, so we relaxed at home), sat out on the back patio and enjoyed the outside (and our wonderful yard and flowers) a lot, and cooked some good meals as well.

For Memorial Day, we spent the day in Clarksville with the other part of Tony’s family. We saw Indiana Jones with his dad and step-mom. It was entertaining, for sure, but I missed all the one-liners that Harrison Ford made in the old movies, and the story was a tad far-fetched. Not that any of them could be completely believable, but the old ones were close enough that you could almost imagine it could have actually happened. We then joined his siblings and grandparents for a cook out (the rained stopped just long enough in Clarksville for us to sit outside for dessert and Julie to open birthday presents).

In between all the great visiting, we did have Sunday afternoon and evening to ourselves. We had originally panned to take his mom to walk around downtown Nashville and eat at the Melting Pot earlier in the weekend, but since she wasn’t feeling up to par, we changed the reservations to just the two of us on Sunday night after she left. It’s been a while since we’ve had a good romantic date, so we were excited. The food was delicious, and of course, just a fun experience. About half-way through the chocolate fondue, he looked across the table and said, “This would be an okay night to die.” I, of course, was dismayed at his morbid comment and was at first offended by his remark in response to our romantic evening. He continued with, “I mean, this is so good, so perfect, that if God decided to take me tonight, I would be okay with it.” He proceeded to say that God had created him to enjoy this chocolate and he was intensely glorifying Him through eating it. 1 Corinthians 10:31 does say, “So whether you EAT or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God…” and Tony was simply being obedient.

There were a couple of things I really disliked about my house when I first saw it.  One was the bright gold light fixtures, door knobs, old fans, and such.  Well, I’ve spraypainted one fixture and I’m really pretty happy with it - the one over the kitchen table - but I’ve since lost motivation with the others.  I’ve been able to look past the reflective gold.  The second eye sore was the landscaping.  Instead of any sort of mulch were small, smooth, white stones.  Some may like that look, but I am not a fan.  I’ve waited a year and a half to take it out and during the wait, just haven’t quite known what to do with the multitude of weeds and disagreeable bushes. 

My vision of a yard finally came true last weekend.  My parents (master gardeners themselves) came to help Tony and me.  We moved countless wheelbarrows of stones to an alternate location (now used for draining rainwater in a ditch) and probably a hundreds of pounds of large rocks to my dad’s truck to transport to the lake.  We removed rotted black weed prevention fabric and pulled up wild onions, snails, spiders, bushes, weeds, and the biggest worms I’ve ever seen in my life!  I’ve included a picture of the end result of our biggest flower bed below.  Tony said (while he was thinking during his many trips to Lowe’s for mulch and supplies) that he now feels mature.  Mature and grown up not only because of the amount of yard work he was doing for his own house, but actually caring about it, and paying attention to all the yards in the neighborhood.  I have to say that I agree… we’re definitely on our way to being grown ups.

I am definitely a person of tradition.  I like knowing what to expect and also the excited anticipation waiting for what I know is to come.  For example:  my family doesn’t necessarily eat traditional food at Thanksgiving - we love cooking and are each in charge of picking/finding a new recipe to try and then make for dinner; we have always put up Christmas decorations the weekend of Thanksgiving - we will always get something new each year to add to the collection and remembering where everything goes is always a challenge; we had a family (just the four of us) meal on Christmas Eve after attending the worship service at church and then opened presents on Christmas morning; we always receive some sort of kitchen utensil or gadget, some kind of cleaning something (shower gel/lotion/facewash), and of course underwear for gifts; we would have steak and potatoes every Saturday night for dinner; and go to the lake the week of the 4th of July.  The list could actually go on and on (I remember when I was younger watching a Disney show/movie on Sunday afternoons while eating popcorn and then when Disney afternoons ended, it was Murder She Wrote).  Obviously, now that I’m married, some of those will change as we incorporate time and traditions of both families and begin to make some of our own.  We’re still figuring out the holiday thing, and I expect that to even take a couple of years to fine-tune.  However, Tony has gladly jumped on board with the Saturday Steak Night plan and it has become one of our favorite times together.  It’s a night that we treasure together after busy weeks to sit and talk about whatever or relax watching a movie.  We’ve also just begun Sushi Sundays.  Sunday evenings are when we have small group and we never are ready to eat beforehand, so we usually want something little after.  Sushi is one of those things that’s not very heavy and won’t leave you overly stuffed.  We’re still “beginner” sushi eaters, but when our most frequented source is Kroger’s fresh daily sushi bar, it’s difficult to be very daring.  The best I’ve ever had was at a place in Destin last summer.  So… I’m in need of some good Sushi hot spots in the Murfreesboro area!

In my last post I gave some attention to the Daniel Doss band.  Let me say that Daniel Doss is one of my dear friends, married to one of my absolute best girlfriends (Emily).  Daniel and his band have been on tour for a couple of months now and I’m missing time with my friends.  Emily has joined them on tour as a representative for World Vision.  I’m so excited and proud for their new outlet for ministry, but selfishly can’t wait for some fun and relaxing one on one hang out time with them.  Communicating about life through email gets a little challenging… especially when this is who I divulge all my deep “stuff” to!   But, so is the life of the rich and famous.  Ha!

One of my other long time friends and her husband are about to move to Ohio to be a part of a church plant.  God has taken us both in different directions over the last several years and recently we’ve been able to see each other more because we’re living much closer… but Ohio is now taking her away, and I’m very sad.  But again (like with Daniel and Emily), I can’t express my pride in watching their relationship with God grow and see how they are being stretched to be used in a great way to make God known in a new area.

These girls (and their husbands) have walked many a tough road with me and I them; we’ve laughed together way too many times to count and can still sit for hours and tell stories of high school, college, and crazy old boyfriends.  We’ve never doubted that a late night phone call would always be answered.  We’ve taken road trips, served together, worshiped together, been frustrated, and been welcomed and treated as family by parents.  They introduced me to my husband, the love of my life!  And so even though I get a little teary that we won’t always be within an easy driving distance, the excitement of God’s plan for them overwhelms any sadness.  We will truly be friends forever, and I know it’s a treasure that’s rare.  They are girls I know will be there at any time I’m in need, both big and small… and I hope to always be available to serve them as well.  Because that’s what friendship is all about.

I was needing a little dose of joy and encouragement this afternoon… for no particular reason, really. And I got out this little book I found when cleaning out a closet recently given by my mom for one of my birthdays several years ago. It’s called “Pure Joy” by Alicia Britt Chole. She quoted Psalm 36:7, “How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings. [It goes on to say in verses 8-9 the following] They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.”  And then Chole goes on to say… My life, my job, my relationships, my responsibilities, my needs, my wants, my worries, my God, where are YOU!? All we can see is imperfect and needy ME. No wonder we feel overwhelmed.

How freeing it would be to open our eyes to the light of God’s love. When placed in the light of our awesome God, our lives find new perspective: ANXIETY is replaced by hope when we see that nothing could ever be bigger than God. FEAR looses its strength when we recognize that God’s power and love are infinitely greater than our weakness and failure. PEACE floods our lives when we remember that all our needs are safely encompassed by God’s brilliant sufficiency.

As I was reading, the words of the song Abba Father playing in the background caught my attention…

Abba Father you have loved me /With a love like I’ve never known /Abba Father you have saved me /From the depths that I’ll never know /What a great Father you are /What a great Father you are /You have loved with arms wide open /You have helped me through it all /You are faithful to the broken /Lord you help me when I fall /Thank you Lord for all that You’ve done /Thank you Lord for giving your Son /When I was lost you came after me /When I deserved such great penalty /What a great Father you are / What a great Father you are /You have loved with arms wide open /You have helped me through it all /You are faithful to the broken /Lord you help me when I fall /What a great Father you are /What a great Father you are /Lord you hear me when I call /You have loved me through it all

Thanks, Daniel Doss band for a little dose of joy this afternoon in my moment of need.

Check out more from the Daniel Doss band at www.danieldossband.com.

I don’t know if you’ve heard… but the new thing is Twitter. My oh-so-up-to-date hubby introduced me to it… keeping me young and hip. Let me tell you, though, that I specifically ordered my own personal Rolodex to keep up with personal and business contact information at the office. I have a Georgia O’Keefe engagement calendar that I carry around with all my appointments and special dates and it probably adds about 5 pounds to my purse. I have post-it notes pasted all around my cubicle to remind me of payments due, people to call back, and whatever else on my mind. Tony keeps trying to get me to use google for all my calendaring and contact needs along with Word, Excel, etc. so that I can access files from anywhere, but I’m a little attached to the old school ways. So as you can see, keeping up with the latest technology thing isn’t quite priority.

Anyways… Twitter allows you to post whatever you happen to be doing at the moment… eating a sandwich, going to training, mowing the grass, just killed a spider in the car, or some short profound thought. The point is to be short… it even has a limit to the number of letters/characters you can use. You sign up to follow people, and their updates are not only posted on your Twitter page, but you also have the option of having all their updates sent to your phone. That way, you can immediately update as many friends who choose to follow you of all your mundane tasks and random thoughts throughout the day. Tony first signed up right before he went to California to be with family and I signed up to have updates sent to my phone through a text message. I was always aware of all his comings and goings… but I had to tell him that Twitter updates couldn’t replace personal calls from him to me… I mean, I’m his wife, not just oONE of 20 people choosing to follow him.  He assured me that there is even a way to send personal messages - however that works.  I’m not sure how I feel about the whole idea yet… part of me thinks that it’s just one more way of becoming more and more impersonal - it’s a mass update, not person to person.  Between email, texting, MySpace messages and bullitens, Facebook, and now Twitter… why would we ever pick up the phone to hear someone’s voice and know their feelings?  Hmmm… We’ll see…

www.twitter.com

I just finished spending a weekend with 12 other wonderful ladies and greatly enjoyed some time of relaxing, laughing, eating fabulous food, playing games, and getting in the Word.  Our theme verse for the weekend was John 3:30.  The NIV Bible says, “He must become greater; I must become less.”  The Message Bible says, “This is the assigned moment for [Jesus] to move into the center, while I slip off to the sidelines.”

We studied the sisters Mary and Martha (Lazarus, the guy Jesus raised from the dead… he’s also their brother).  John 11 tells us that Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.  He had a special relationship with them and cared deeply for them.  I think it’s such an amazing thing that Mary and Martha were mentioned with such care in Scripture showing us that they were important to Jesus and important for us to learn from.  WOMEN!  Important WOMEN in Scripture that set an example for us. 

I am most definitely a modern-day Martha.  I am the one who immediately unpacks after returning from vacation or any weekend out of town despite how late it may be; I’m thinking a week in advance of the day I will be cleaning and cooking and have a menu prepared for my next party at the house; a messy house drives me crazy and I feel slightly guilty when I spend a morning laying around in my PJ’s doing nothing (I should be doing laundry, looking at cookbooks for the next week’s meals, hanging the curtains I purchased over 2 months ago, be shopping for Mother’s Day and other upcoming birthdays, working on choreography for my close-approaching recital, and so much more); I believe rules/boundaries exist for a reason; and I don’t spend much time stopping to smell the roses, but immediately choose the best, cut the stems at an angle and arrange them in a vase with baby’s breath and ferns.  And honestly, I often end up exhausted.

I see from Martha (in Luke 10:38-42) that she very easily was “distracted by all the preparations that HAD to be made” to entertain Jesus and his disciples.  I’m so often distracted by all I believe HAS to be done, that I neglect quiet time with Jesus (as Mary was doing in this passage) and even quality time with Tony and other friends and family.  Martha was obviously gifted with hospitality and kept a good home and was probably a good cook.  She was the “hostess with the mostess” and a picture of what Martha Stewart would have been like had she lived in Biblical times.  Martha stayed busy and was proactive in accomplishing things both for herself and other people.  However, I believe that although she had good intentions to welcome Jesus and his disciples, she could very well have had a poor motivation - shown in her frustration with her sister sitting around doing nothing in her eyes.  I also learn from Martha in Luke’s recording, as well as an account in John, that Martha was honest about her thoughts (quite realistic) and had great faith… she knew who could help comfort and also solve her problems - Jesus - and she didn’t hesitate in times of frustration and hurt to run to him. 

And so I’m encouraged by Martha’s hard work and diligence, I relate well to her frustration with her sister… and I’m also convicted and challenged by Jesus’ response to her that she was “worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed.  Mary has chosen what is better” (Luke 10:41-42).  Jesus was encouraging her not to do more, work harder, be better… but to stop and allow herself to do less, to BE less… so that HE could be greater in her life.

We laughed much as a group deciding which sister we were most like and challenged to be very aware of the times that we begin to show indications of being in an unhealthy state in our walk with Christ as well as our relationships with other people.  I’m excited about my new friends and loved the opportunity to go a little deeper with those I already knew.  And so I encourage my fellow ladies not to ignore the hunger inside you for intimacy that can only be satisfied by a growing relationship with our Creator, and also don’t quench the craving to spend time with girlfriends.  We Marthas may have to make a plan to schedule those times and be willing to stop whatever we may be doing to make it possible, but it will ALWAYS be worth it.

wanted to post about my husband’s awesomeness.  That’s it… just that.  I’m loving being married to him and think he’s great.  A few of my favorite things:  he’s a little odd (those of you who know him personally or have read previous posts know this).  He informed me last night he has a fear of his eyes being poked out, therefore I can only come so far with my fingers, elbow, random object, to his eyeball.  He is very considerate of my time and space and most of the time my feelings.  He is an excellent dish washer despite how much he dislikes it.  He’s really quite funny in one of those ways that you have to tilt your head, squint your eyes, and think twice about what he said kind of ways.  I like shopping with him and having his opinion on fashion (it’s ok, you can giggle at that).  And, most of all, I love that he loves to read my thoughts about himself on my blog.  Although I really believe him to be awesome, I was highly motivated to post something new today… something interesting… something about his awesomeness.  I’ll let you guess where the motivation came from…

Here’s how this morning went…

Tony has gotten his morning coffee and is sitting on the bed waiting for me to get up. He looks to the wall where I have hung a very nice Southern Living plate rack and displayed two very cute teal plates with brown flowers - perfect for the room. He responds with, “It’s very weird to have plates hung on the wall in the bedroom. What led you to do this?” I asked what he would rather have hanging there, and he replied, “A picture of Brittany Spears.” I then questioned, “Which Brittany… pre or post crazy?” He stated that definitely pre-crazy Brittany would be better, but due to the craziness, that has even knocked pre crazy Brittany down from a 10 to a 7. Of course I had to then ask, “So… what do I rate?” His very clever response was, “Baby, there’s no scale for you. You’re above all that.”

He then looked me in the eye and said, “Now, that’s something to blog about.” What I THOUGHT I heard him say was, “Now that’s something to lie about.” He then had a big laugh that even my subconscious was being a little self-conscious. And then he said that he wished we had a web-cam in our house because our life really is that entertaining. (I’m sure you would probably disagree.) The best way I know to describe many of our conversations is to direct you to pay attention to the Sonic commercials with the husband and wife. Then you’ll see a little glimpse of our normalcy. And speaking of a web-cam of our entertainment…

That leads me to also share our experience with nature last weekend… (the following is rated NSAL - not suitable for animal lovers)

After the break in the rain, Tony was finally able to mow our yard for the first time this warm season. Because of all the rain, the grass (and many weeds) had grown to mid-shin length… on the way to jungle-esque. As I walked across the front yard after he had finished to look at one of our many troubled flower beds, I noticed lots of grey fuzz scattered along the yard. It looked like he had emptied and tossed the dryer junk in the yard. I asked what it could be and he came over for a closer look. His solution was that we had a gopher in the yard and he must have run over it with the mower. (Now, there were no “parts,” only fuzz. So, I figured we had a bald gopher running around somewhere in shame.) He was in the process of spraying the house for spiders, bugs, etc. and still had the pesticide in his hands. Naturally, the next response was to spray the odd fuzz. It then began to move a little. We jumped back a few steps and realized the fuzz was ALIVE!

Tony proceeded to the garage to get the shovel to knock what was thought to be a gopher-like rodent living beneath our ground. As he hit the ground with much of his might, our fuzz ball began to wince and cry. Luckily, our “go-to neighbor” Bill was sitting in his yard enjoying the nice day. Good ‘ol Bill came over to offer his wisdom. Immediately, he ruled out gopher due to the fact that there were no mounds or trails in the yard. He then stuck his hand through the pile of fuzz into the hole (as Tony and I both held our breath) to uncover 4 baby bunnies. Although we found they were still living after the unintentional torture, we decided that they would be slightly mutated and brain damaged. Tony was miserable most of the remainder of the day, but they have since left their home and we hope are happily jumping around. He is outside again now mowing, so we’ll see what new discoveries we have this weekend… stay tuned for more… entertainment?

The last several weeks have gone by in a blur.  There has been so much in preparation for a new adventure…  at the end of March I traveled to Brazil with several of our juniors and seniors.  It was my first time out of the country (I knew and have been affirmed that going to Canada doesn’t really count).  Everything seemed to be smooth sailing until just a few weeks before departure.  We had great stress over getting visas approved for students under 18, but we pressed through the challenge.  My super-prepared and mostly organized self had a difficult time not knowing every detail of what would happen - the schedule, knowing exactly what to and how to pack, how to answer questions, etc.  So, it was a little uncomfortable even in the preparation stage.  Because you have to know - I don’t willingly do much that I’m not SURE I will succeed in.  For example - I don’t play basketball beacuse I’m no good.  I don’t really enjoy playing Monoloply with my dad because it’s almost certain I will lose.  I have sworn off snow skiing because of several devastating falls.  I choose not to face all situations that require confrontation for fear I might be wrong.  And so I knew in signing up for this trip that I was up against some big unknowns and I had no I idea of what to expect.

We received our visas and passports the morning of departure (nothing like cutting it close) and all traveling was a breeze.  We flew overnight and immediately headed off to meet some new people upon arrival in Sau Paulo.  You can read a few more details about our days on David’s blog (www.davidmccaman.org) because he updated fairly regularly to inform families at home what all was going on. 

It was an experience like I’ve never had before.  I hardly knew what to expect each day as we traveled to a few different areas, met different people, did different things, ate different foods, tried desperately to understand a different language… I feel like I did a lot of observing.  I watched as our students learned about a new culture; I watched as children ran down filthy dirt roads made of rocks, sewage, sharp objects and went in homes that were constructed and filled with whatever they could find.  I watched the missionaries continue to build lasting relationships with people who didn’t have much hope; I watched Brazilian young adults study Scripture and extend their zeal for Christ through everything they did.  I watched our group smile, laugh, play and hug children and people who didn’t understand much more than the fact that we were there to help and care.  I watched as several of our teenagers worked harder than they may ever have planting trees, shoveling gravel, sanding walls, and learning to be flexible.  I felt often as though I was living in pages of National Geographic or whatever current magazine is publishing Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s latest service (haha).

And here’s what I saw…  This is what loving is all about.  This is what serving is all about.  It’s not about what’s easy.  It’s not about what’s comfortable (because a lot of the week I sure wasn’t).  It’s about seeing God’s creation and noticing their needs.  It’s about realizing that Jesus served the poor and healed the broken hearted.  It’s about continually doing things to grow in your relationship with God.  And the more He shows you of His world, the more He shows you of Himself.  And the more God shows me of Himself, the smaller I become.  He must become greater and I must become less (John 3:31).  I am confident in knowing that God has designed me to work with teenagers in America, but I am also confident that He needed me to go beyond my bounds to learn and grow.