A good day today

Last night was glorious! The food was amazing at The Melting Pot. The hotel we stayed at was really cool. We went to a bar in Westport to celebrate my sister's birthday for a bit after dinner and that was fun. Today we ate at First Watch and then Mandy and I went to a new favorite store...Pryde's. It is a store with all things kitchen with gadgets, pots, pans, teas, mugs, towels...you name it and if it goes in the kitchen they've got it. I loved the store and got some cute things for our kitchen. Above all the food and hotel and bar and cool kitchen store it was amazing to spend so much time with Andie and Mandy. I really love them and treasure the time we spend together. On the other side of that I did miss being away from Mike and Anna and was happy to get home this afternoon and spend the evening with them. One thing that is not cool is the cold that Mike and Anna had earlier this week has now made a home in my head. Boo on that. I've been pretty stuffy today and will try to get rid of some of that with the good 'ol Neti Pot tonight. I took the Neti to the hotel with me last night. When I told Mike he said that it looked like we were going to have a wild night....oh, yeah, nothing says party like nasal irrigation. Tomorrow night we are hosting a birthday dinner for Rachel and Dave. I started doing birthday dinners last year for my family and really enjoy it. The idea is to make a special dinner for the person (or persons) with food that they love. I have a red plate that says "You are special today" and they eat off of that. It is a special night to share a meal, be together, and celebrate the birthday of someone we love. I look forward to birthday dinners and enjoy making the meal. Preparing it is part of the gift. You put a lot of intent and love when you make a good meal for someone you love. Tomorrow we will have fried chicken, potato salad, coleslaw, baked beans, rolls, and lemon cake w/ raspberries and whipped cream. I made the potato salad and coleslaw today and will make the lemon cake tomorrow afternoon. It should be a fabulous dinner...if I do say so myself :) We are going the easy route with the chicken and are getting it from Popeye's. I told Rachel I'm glad to make the food for dinner, but didn't want to be frying chicken all day long for nine people tomorrow. The weather tomorrow should be nice, too. It might rain, but will be warm. With all the nasty, cold weather this past week it was awesome to have a warm, sunny day today. The prospect of a warm day tomorrow is good as well. Definitely makes it easier when it is warm outside for Anna to go out and play in the backyard. Everyday this past week she asked to go out and play. I felt bad that I didn't let her, but I didn't want her going out and getting cold and wet. Especially because she had a cold. Hopefully, the weather has made a turn for the warmer and we'll get into some legitimate spring. A long day tomorrow is leading me to actually go to bed at a decent time tonight. So, I am heading off and will resume writing on Monday :)

I'm off!

Tonight I will be enjoying some time with my best friends and won't write at the end of the day. Here is my day in a nutshell....woke up, threw up (boo hiss), ate breakfast, got ready, went to my mom's school for the bookfair w/ Anna, Andie, and Henry, came home, ate lunch from Sonic (yum), watched a bit of "Pocahontas" (Anna's latest fav), put Anna down for a nap, snoozed myself, went in Anna's room and cleaned up the mess she'd made and put her to bed for the 2nd time (this time it took), slept some more (glorious), woke up, looked up directions to the hotel we're staying at tonight, and now I'm writing. I need to go pack before Mike gets home and then head downtown to meet the girls! I hope Mike and Anna have a good night together. I am really looking forward to a good dinner from The Melting Pot and time with the girls!!! Very thankful for that. Thankful for a wonderful husband, a beautiful daughter, amazing friends, and good food!

I did have a weird dream that Mike and I moved into a house we had been looking at, but hadn't bought yet. At the end of the dream it just hit me that that isn't what you do and we needed to leave, but we had tons of stuff in the house. A realtor was there to show it to people and was really mad I was there. The doors kept opening and Lucy would get outside and run around. For some reason Anna wasn't there. Weird.

Why am I still awake?

Seriously. It is late, or early for that matter, and I should have been in bed asleep two hours ago. Mike and I have gotten into a very bad habit of staying up too late at night. I've always been more of a night-owl and love, love, lurve to sleep in. Having a young child doesn't really help with the sleeping in part, not to mention that we are going to start over with all the crazy sleeping patterns this fall. I look forward to the days when the kids can get up on their own, fix an easy breakfast, and watch some shows in the morning all on their own! That will be glorious :) Tonight I was at music practice for a while and that was fun. We worked out a cool song for the opener. It took a little while for the instrumentals to come together, but once they did it sounded great. After practice was done I went over to a friend, Moree's, house to hang out with some of the Haiti Ladies. The group of women I went to Haiti with get together every so often and tonight was one of those times. We were supposed to have a book discussion about, "Half the Sky", but when I got there at 9:30 they had already been hanging out for two hours and hadn't really started talking about the book :) I left at 11:00 and we hadn't so much started talking about the book. I don't mind that at all b/c I'm not done reading it yet and look forward to a good discussion with the ladies. Driving home I was thinking that I am very thankful to have really good girl friends in my life. Tomorrow I am spending the evening with my two best friends, Andie and Mandy. I've known Mandy since third grade and Andie since eighth grade. We don't get to spend a whole lot of time together just the three of us, so when we do it is precious. We are going to The Melting Pot, which will be divine in itself, and then have a hotel on the Plaza for the night. I am REALLY looking forward to time with my besties :) tomorrow. I also really appreciate and love the newer friendships I've grown with the Haiti ladies and other women from Lakeland. Having good friend support is so important and vital. I remember in St. Louis I would get really sad that I didn't have any of my friends around. I made good friends through teaching and church in time, but there was something missing in the first few years of living there and that was good girl friends. Spending time with my mom and sister the other night also made me really grateful and thankful that I am great friends with them. We are very close and have been for a long time. I am blessed with good, strong, supportive friends who help me be who I am. I hope that Anna has good girl friends when she grows older. Ones that she can count on for anything and will help through whatever comes her way. When many people look back on high school with disdain and distaste I am thankful I can remember those years with a smile. I know that is because I had a really good group of friends. So tonight the thought and feeling I have is one of thankfulness for the friends in my life...ones that have been there for a long time and ones that have just come along side for the journey.

Short and sweet

I have two sickies at home tonight. Both Anna and Mike have colds. Anna is stuffed up and has a low fever, but was acting fine today other than being a bit emotional. She thought Henry took one of her chicken nuggets at lunch today and literally had a melt down complete with crying, running nose, drool, and half-eaten food falling out of her mouth. It was really great, let me tell you. Mike doesn't have a fever (I think), but felt like "walking death" by the end of the day today. I hope they both sleep well tonight and feel better tomorrow. I also hope that I don't get a cold from them. It is very possible that I will, but I hope that doesn't happen. Maybe my prenatal vitamins will keep me healthy. Having a cold sucks anytime, but when you are pregnant it is even worse b/c you can't really take much to feel better and what you can take doesn't really do much. Fingers crosses and hands washed that I stay healthy! I just finished watching "America's Next Great Restaurant" and now am hungry. I am hungry almost all the time (thanks, baby) and would really love a good snack right now. Not gonna do that because it is 11:30 and I need to go to bed, but I am hungry none the less.
  Tomorrow my plans are to make some chicken soup for Mike and Anna, go up to get things done at the office, and then go to music practice in the evening. When I started working at Lakeland I took a leave from the music team and have really missed it. Not singing on a regular basis has helped me see other ways I can serve in the church, which is good. However, I did really miss serving on the music team and am glad that I am getting back to singing once a month again. This week Jenn and I are doing a cool Sara Barellies (sp?) song for the opener. It's always a good time when we sing together :)  I need to listen to that songs more tomorrow, too. Sheesh, there are a lot of songs I need to learn right now! On Friday I am practicing with the Haitian Music Team for the concert on the 23rd. I listened to the three songs tonight to practice. The first two are good...I need to listen to them more, but will get the words and melody soon. The third one I don't have the words to. I thought I had the words, but when I listened to it tonight and was following along with the music book Joseph gave me they didn't match up. The problem is all the songs are just numbered (and out of order) so I didn't know where the right song lyrics were. I'll have to go on Friday and have them show me where the right words are to practice.
  To wrap up today's writing I'll end with a song my mom would sing to me when I was young and that I sing to Anna. It's a sweet good night song for anyone you love.

Good night, the Lord is watching o're you. Good night, His blessings go before you. Good night, and I'll be praying for you. So good night, may God bless you.

music practice

It was a long, but good day today. I was in the office at Lakeland most of the day, Anna was playing over at Henry's house, and then we went over to my mom's for dinner after I picked Anna up. Mike and Rachel came over for dinner, then Mike and Anna went home and Rachel/Mom/I practiced music for a women's worship night that is coming up in a few weeks. It was fun to sing and play with them b/c we don't do that very often. Things started to get silly toward the end (no surprise there) and there was more laughing and joking than singing or playing. I'm glad that we are able to have fun with each other and also make good music. There is one song we started off with that I think will be really cool. It ends with use in three part harmony a cappella and it sounded really good. It's amazing when you get people from the same family to sing together how similar their voices are and how well they blend together. I am singing in a concert for Glory House Services at the end of April and think it would be cool if we did that song.
   Glory House Services is an organization that supports Haitian-Americans in the KC area and also supports schools and medical work in Haiti. It's founder, Idalbert Joseph, is the teacher of my Creole class and has become a friend of mine. The event on the 23rd is to get information out about GHS, the Creole class offered through UMKC, and to accept donations. Idalbert asked me if I could sing with his church's praise team and also do some songs on my own. This Friday I am going to practice with the worship team and try to get three Creole songs under my belt :) I think it will be fun....we'll see what I write about on Friday night!
  Music has always been something very present for me for as long as I can remember. I say 'very present' because it is always right there with me. Either a song running through my head, listening to Mike play his guitar (like I am now :)  ), singing at Lakeland, practicing with Mom and Rachel, singing in my car....it is always there. Music stirs my soul and is a way for me to connect and worship more than any other medium. So I am grateful and thankful for being able to sing and play with my mom and sister tonight and look forward to when we can do it again. A line from a song I sang in college just popped in my mind, so that is what I will end with tonight...

"My life flows on in endless song above earth's lamentations. I hear the real though far off hymn that sings of new creation. Through all the tumult and the strife I hear that music ringing. It sings an echo in my soul. How can I keep from singing?"

Here I sit...

...in my new bed. The king size behemoth was delivered this morning. It took a little while to get it all set up with sheets and such b/c Anna, Lucy, and Jack were all very excited about the new thing in our room. It will take some getting used to, but it is really nice so far. The previous mattress we had was a soft pillow-top and this mattress is firm. I tend to like softer beds, but I think this one will be better for my back and shoulders. For the past six months or so my upper back/shoulders have been sore on and off and I think it was because of our mattress. We had only had it for about five years, but with it being a pillow-top you could see the indentions of where we slept. There is definitely more room and with baby 2 on the way I think that will be good for those early days when she/he may be sleeping with us. Now I need to work on finding a new home for a queen and full size bed, plus some bedding.
  We had our small group tonight. I really like getting together with everyone and spending some time as a group. Tonight was a busy one with kids moving about, but that's how it goes sometimes. We started with an activity called Lectio Divina. In Lectio you pick a passage of scripture and read it through numerous times in sets of three. During each reading you focus in on a phrase or word that stands out, what that means to you, and how you can act on it. It is a great way to examine the scripture, your thoughts, and put the two together. Tonight's scripture passage was from John 7:14-18. It is when Jesus is teaching and the rabbis are wondering how he is so knowledgeable without any formal teaching.

Jesus goes on to say, "“My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. ¹⁷Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. ¹⁸ Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him."

  The phrase that stuck out to me was "there is nothing false about him". We live in a culture where so much is false. False stories on how to be beautiful, how to find love, how to be successful. False stories on what is true and what is worth living for. That phrase jumped out at me and I thought that it isn't easy to have nothing false about you. Being completely true means doing things that are not popular, do not go with common opinion, and will ruffle some feathers. Jesus definitely did all of those things during his life and ministry. I was thinking how I can be more honest and true. How can I cut out some of the false-ness? I know for me that I tend not to speak up in certain situations to share what I am thinking for various reasons. I think it takes discernment and sensitivity to share certain things. There is a time and place for speaking your mind...and I also believe there is a time and a place for keeping things to yourself. I was thinking during Lectio tonight, I do think I tend to err on the side of staying quiet more often than not and could be more confident in sharing what what I am thinking. One thing that enters in is my processing speed. I tend to take things in and think on them for a while, so in the moment of a discussion I might not have much to say. Half and hour later after I've thought about it I can come up with all kinds of things to add or disagree with. That is frustrating sometimes b/c I wish I could think of those things immediately. Sometimes I can, but not usually. 
  "There was nothing false about him." That is a big thing to say about someone. To live your life in a way for others to say that there is nothing false about you carries some weight. It is easy to hide things and conceal them away. It is easy to be false even if it feels like it's not a big deal. I'm not one to sit around thinking about when I die, but I'm going to right now. If I can live with love, grace, and compassion and do that through honesty and truth I can only pray that the story it tells is one that has little to do with being false. I hope that for my children as well...that their lives will have a vision and purpose fueled by compassion and love for anyone they meet and those they will never even see. There is so much depth and meaning in the call to "love one another". I can do so many things without love being behind it and if that is the case do those things really even matter? Ginny Owens is a singer I love and she has a song, "I am nothing" where she names off numerous things we can do in our lives, but always comes back to saying, "If I do not love, I am nothing." If I don't do this with genuine love in my heart I am nothing. That was the main focus of mine during my first couple years of teaching. I had students who lived in the city in St. Louis and were bussed in to our school district. They were dealing with rough home lives, getting utilities shut off, not having enough food, and many other struggles. I knew that my first job was to love them. Yes, they needed to read and write. Yes, they needed to add and subtract. But first, I needed to show them love and support. Many times when I was teaching Ginny Owen's song would run through my head and I knew that if I didn't love these kids I was nothing. The last verse in the song says:

"Songs will fade to silence,

Stories they will cease,

The dust will settle covering my selfless deeds.

But your life here has made it clear enough for me to see

That if I do not love, I am nothing"

So many things fade away with time, but love is a lasting story that endures. May we all live with grace and compassion so our life stories are not nothing, but something with substance and above all love.

A little of this and that

Tonight Mike, Anna, and I went to a Ceili tonight to hear my sister's band, Dog Tree play. A Ceili is an Irish dance. I think it can also be called a Feis. It was a fundraiser for an Irish dance company in KC, so there was a silent auction, food, and lots of kids out on the dance floor. I was amazed at their energy and it was really cool to see all the dances. I tried to do a group dance and ended up just hopping and skipping around cluelessly, but it was fun and are really good workout for your calves. Anna had a good time, too. There were some friends of ours there and she liked seeing them. She also liked all the other kids and watching the dancing. Anna isn't much of a dancer herself (although I have seen her bust a move a few times). She is more of an observer and takes it all in. At one point there was a line of teenagers sitting over on a bench and Anna walked up to one girl and said, "Hi, what's your name?" She's friendly one. My parents were there, too, and they took Anna back to their house to spend the night. She so loves going to their house to spend the night. I am very thankful to have my parents live so close and even more thankful that Anna gets to spend a lot of time with them. They'll bring her to church tomorrow morning, so Mike and I then had a little date night. We went and got some coffee (I got hot chocolate b/c I'm cutting down on my caffeine) and are now home to chat about upcoming things. Our date nights usually end up being pretty lame. Not always, but usually it includes running some necessary errand and then going home to hang out on the couch. Exciting stuff after being together for 13 years. We are getting our new bed on Monday and I am pretty excited for that. My writing on Monday will be from a nice, big king size bed and I forsee much time being spent in the new bed. We want to move forward in putting our house on the market, so I am going to talk to some friends tomorrow and get the name of the realtor they just used. We figure that if we don't go ahead and at least try to see what happens we'll always think about it. The weather has really sucked the last couple days. It's been cold and snowy today and I think the temperature isn't supposed to get above 45 over the next week. Boo on that. It's spring now and we need warmer weather! I am going to think about birthday party ideas for Anna and search for doll houses. We want to get Anna a doll house for her birthday and I am debating on whether to get one that is fully furnished or one that you buy the rooms separately. Such decisions. I think she'll be really excited with whatever kind of doll house we get. She is so into imaginative play right now and LOVES any kind of doll house. So long for now...