Midnight 14/30

Tonight at Vertical, Pastor Bruce discussed worshiping God even when it seems He is nowhere in sight. He talked about how we all go through the midnight...the dark times in our lives that test our faith. Citing various stories throughout the Bible where Christ followers were going through their darkness, it was remarkable that the stories were often not so much focused on what an individual was going through, but how they handled themselves. Remember when you are in the valley, you have a choice...of how to react, how to learn from the trial, and how to continue worship the loving God who made you. And don't think no one notices...people are always watching...interested to see how you will handle and persevere (or not) through your midnights.

Lucky Harm 13/30

Tonight Rich and I went out on the town (downtown that is) to celebrate our friend's birthday as well as experience a little Blue Ridge Rollergirls action. What an experience! If I was about 10 years younger I might even consider trying out for the team...once upon a time I was a bit of a daredevil, but those days are long gone. :-( Our Gage free evening made us realize how important it is to have date night every now & then. Even though we weren't sitting in a little cafe gazing into each other's eyes (I mean, really?!?! Does anyone ever do that?), we had a blast just as a couple. Someday G-man will be grown & on his own, so Rich and I need to continue developing our relationship...it'll be just the 2 of us again before we know it!

I Heart Mullets 12/30

Sadly, one of our American Idol favorites this season, Alex Lambert, was voted off last night. His most notable attributes (other than an amazing voice) are his humble personality and a rockin mullet. Rich knows I've been doing a lot more praying lately and I got the cutest text from him this afternoon:
Say a prayer for mullet guy. Just think how he is feelin today.
I just love my husband...squeeze his cheeks and put him in my pocket I could. :-) Well, sing on Alex Lambert...we won't see you anymore on AI but I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of you!

Home 11/30

I was reading through the Jabez chapter on enlarging one's territory and one particular paragraph stood out to me:

Suppose Jabez had been a wife and a mother. Then the prayer might have gone: "Lord, add to my family, favor my key relationships, multiply for Your glory the influence of my household." Your home is the single most powerful arena on earth to change a life for God.

What a powerful idea for a woman who wants to enlarge/enrich her family to pray the Jabez prayer this way. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the daunting task of reaching the masses for God, but really it all starts at home...and expands from there.

Lost Boy 10/30

I woke up this morning to learn that my first celebrity crush, 80's actor Corey Haim, died of a drug overdose. He was only 38 years old. I started this blog to keep our family & friends informed about how addiction was impacting our family and I realize more every day how much of an epidemic drug & alcohol addiction is in our country. A couple of days ago I was reading a magazine article that was interviewing Lindsey Lohan and she talked about how she was still drinking in spite of her 3 different stints in rehab. She even had the nerve to say rehab was a vacation. As the spouse of a recovering alcoholic, it both saddens and angers me at the way addiction is almost glamorized by the media. Listen to me...addiction ruins lives, marriages, and friendships...and all too often the end result is not recovery, it's death. I do hope Corey's soul has finally found peace, but I wish he didn't have to leave the inevitable wake of sadness behind him. His loved ones have to live out the rest of their lives knowing he was never able to find peace and recovery in this life, never having the chance of so many possible good memories with someone they lost way too soon.
If the Lord has blessed me in any way, it has been His gift of recovery that has both healed and saved my marriage. I know life after addiction is possible. My family is living proof. That is never to say we are without problems (just look at my pity party yesterday!), but we have learned to live in it, with it, and through it with the help of God. He will never give us anything we cannot handle.

Grrrr... 9/30

I'm not going to write much today because I'm frustrated, tired, & grumpy. I was wonderfully blessed with a full day of clients which is so important as our bills are piling up. But my mind and heart have moved on. I'm not into my career the way I used to be. Maybe it's just another phase. I don't even really know what I would do if I had any job in the world to choose from. Sleep tight world...tomorrow is a new day.

Oscars 8/30

I stayed up late last night to watch the Academy Awards. I was overall pretty bored with the whole show (but darn if they don't save the best categories for last!)...I did enjoy the 80's movie montage (honoring the movies of the late John Hughes) that ended with this quote from Ferris Bueller's Day Off:
"Yeah, life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
Today I had a lot of things I needed to do...errands...joy. But last night a friend from out of town called to say she was going to be coming into Asheville and wanted to see if I wanted to spend the day with her. Honestly, my first thought was, "Well...I have a lot of things I need to do."...but then I started prioritizing my list, and nothing I had planned for today was an absolute necessity. What was a necessity was spending time with my friend who has 3 small children and lives in a tiny town with no friends. We had a wonderful time drooling over all the fun possible art projects at Michael's (stuff our husbands absolutely hate doing!). And I even got a couple of the errands on my list crossed off! I have to give a shout out to Ferris for reminding me to stop & enjoy life! I'll close this blog entry with a photo from the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off...one of my most favorite things to do...singing in the shower!