Shout out to ISU

I wanted to give a little shout out to the girls of ISU, in case anyone decides to stop by. I had a great time last weekend at the Illinois State women's retreat. It is so much fun to get to know people from different campuses and see the unique personality of each church.

These girls - they know how to have fun! I have never seen anything like the Friday night Pirate Booty game we played. It was a high speed scavenger hunt, and I'm still amazed that no one was seriously injured and there were no major squirmishes as they fought to get back to the hostess/game god with their booty.

I don't know if it's the Chicago competitive influence going on or what, but here in Indiana our girls tend to be a little more laid back.

Thanks for inviting me to teach on The Walls of Jericho. As I said before, I got so much out of my preparation that I was praying that God intended this teaching for you, too. Thanks to your responses, I was able to see that God did speak to you throughout the weekend. Thanks for welcoming me in and allowing me to share the things that God put on my heart with you.

I'll be praying for your walls to come down.

Oh, and I am still struggling to find any more specific definition of "heap." I'll let you know if I get a better picture of just what God did with the waters of the Jordan when the Israelites walked across on dry land.

This weekend I head north to do my God of Romance seminar at a women's conference. I'm excited for my first opportunity to teach women in a different age bracket (30-50 year olds) and see how God speaks to them through His word.

And I get to meet the reigning Mrs. Michigan (she's the main speaker). You can all look forward to a picture of me posing with royalty next week.;)

A Little Oscar for Once

Well, I for one stayed up far too late last night watching the Academy Awards. Ever since reading about some fun and creative ideas for hosting an Oscar party I have dreamed of throwing my very own night of Academy Awards fun. Unfortunately, I do not have enough friends with the same shallow obsession with Hollywood that I possess, therefore I watched them alone (okay, hubby was in the room but typing away on the computer). I explained to him that this is like the Super Bowl of movies and therefore I must give it my full attention.

I love seeing all the famous people arrive in their beautiful dresses and dapper tuxes, it's as close to royalty as we seem to get these days. I was so eager to hear all of Ryan Seacrest's mind-numbing interview questions that I actually shushed my children and attempted to send them off to bed without their good-night kisses. Don't worry, I caved, and only missed a few minutes of the festivities and was back on the couch as what's his name took the stage.

I did not make any Oscar predictions, I didn't much care about best actor or actress this year and it appeared that the only real contenders in the movie category were two terrifying movies that I refuse to see. (My imagination is wild enough, I don't need anyone else's horrific visions adding to what goes on in this head.) But I am so glad I saw the show for one main reason - the music!

As you know, Once is a gem of a movie and you can't help but fall in love with the main characters who appear to be much like the actors themselves. After watching the two lackluster performances from Enchanted (one without Amy Adams), I was glad to watch two truly talented musicians perform their own song with such beauty and emotion. The fact that two relatively unknowns even got to be up there was inspiring.



When they won their oscar I was clapping and screaming along with them. Though it was heartbreaking to watch as Marketa wasn't even aloud to say her thanks to the audience, but what a classy thing for what's his name to invite her back up for a proper acceptance speech - if you've ever watched before, you know that is never done. So if you missed it, enjoy!




I can't help smiling every time I watch that, I just almost started cheering again.

Also so glad that the score from Atonement won for it's category. What haunting music to carry you through such a heart-wrenching story. I thought the acceleration of the typewriter keys being punched throughout was brilliant.

Nothing Like a Good Humbling

I am so often humbled by my children. They are my humblers, as my friend, Stan, would say. A couple days ago I was driving my 5-year-old home from preschool and becoming frustrated with my 3-year-old daughter's endless crying. Her crying seems to be a response to everything these days.

"Mommy, can I have a cookie?"
"No, honey, you haven't had any breakfast yet."
Big pouty lip, large tears begin to fall, then the grand finale - she runs to her room crying and screaming and closes the door. (I forget, is she 3 or 13?)

So, on this particular day I had asked my little girl to wait in the car, as she always does, while I ran out for 5.2 seconds, grabbed her brother out of the cold and pouring rain, and got back in the warm dry car. Well, though she opposed this plan, mommy insisted. My punishment - by the time I returned to the car the full-on wailing was underway. She had clearly been abandoned on the side of the road and left for dead.

As I attempt to ignore said wailing I am actually getting more and more annoyed. Finally I say, "If you cannot stop crying it means that you are tired and need to take a nap!" I am using tried and true parenting logic/scare tactics now.

Then, my 5-year-old, who has apparently been bearing the shrill sound of 3-year-old abandonment issues much better than I, says, "No, mommy, that's just how God made her."

I stop for a moment, the sound of grace and acceptance lingering in my ear. He's right. He's used to this. From the time my little girl arrived on the scene she has cried. I never actually called it colic (I have friends whose children actually cried for 12 hours a day), but this little creature of mine has cried - a lot.

Maybe she's just sensitive, maybe she's emotional (like me, huh, my brother did call me a cry baby quite often when I was young), maybe this is the way God made her.

I grab my Sesame Street CD and pop it in. Soon the tears subside as Elmo sings along with Hootie and the Blowfish and all is well in the world. Elmo always seems to make everything all better. Even mommy feels better as I realize that I've been humbled and given just a little bit of perspective by my 5-year-old.