Get Ready, Get Set...

Eeep! It just occurred to my crowded little brain tonight that a week from now we are leaving on our big vacation (well, big for us).

I have A LOT to do!!

...cue hyperventilating...

We'll leave this coming Sunday after services on our grand adventure to St. Louis, Missouri, where we will be meeting up with RevDad's family for some vacationing craziness. We'll be gone for almost a week and a half, which is a major trip for us. This means we need a lot of clothes for every kind of possible weather, plenty of snacks, many toys & books & movies for Lil' Princess, and so much more.

And then there's all the stuff to get done for work so that we CAN leave.

Uffda!

I do wish this was going to be a relaxing, recharging kind of vacation, so we could recover from all this crazy rushing around. But the vacation will also be the crazy rushing around variety, so take a deep breath, and dive in! It will be good to have time with the in-laws, it has been YEARS since we've had time together. Plus it will give me plenty of stories to tell, I'm sure!

Did I ever tell you about the time we went on vacation with hubby's family and...

I'll let you know how that sentence gets finished!

Hopes for Spring

We're supposed to get snow tonight. While we desperately need moisture, I'd rather have spring showers! So here's a little wishful thinking and lovely inspiration...

Never Works Out Quite as You Expect

Things just have not turned out the way I thought they would for this weekend. Because of poor weather, I won't be able to got away for the weekend, and now I've been asked to be a speech tournament judge all day Saturday at one of the local high schools.

Funny how things work out. I am actually excited to be part of the speech tournament. I loved competing during high school, and in the back of my mind I'd always hoped to be involved as an adult. I hope this will be a first step to this being something fun for me to be involved in, and a great way for me to have a greater involvement in local communities.

I do feel disappointment that I couldn't get away, but at least I still don't have to lead worship and preach on Sunday, and I'll be here for hubby's birthday on Friday. So Lil' Princess and I will finish our shopping for him tomorrow, and bake him a cake. She really wants me to decorate it with a dragon, but I think my cake decorating abilities would be pretty strained by a dragon! I'll have to think about how to manage this one. Another nice thing will be worshiping together. She and I will go to the later of RevDad's services. We get to sleep in!! Whoo-hoo!!

Monday is Our Sabbath

It's been a lovely day off. Went to the 60th birthday party of my pastor-friend down the road this morning, and ended up spending several hours chatting and having lunch with her. Haven't done that in ages! Did a quick bit of shopping to find a birthday present for RevDad, and then back home to hang out with Lil' Princess while RevDad takes a nap. We're watching cartoons and giggling on the couch, and snuggling all we want. It feels so good to actually RELAX. I think it is only after Easter Sunday that the feeling of joyous new life comes for many in ministry. Today is Monday, but it really is our family's Sabbath.

Tonight I have to go to an annual meeting for one of the church supported hospitals (delegates from all the Lutheran churches plus pastors are expected to attend). Not the most fun way to spend the evening, but it will give me the chance to meet more people from the area.

I'm still working on what to do for my weekend off. I'd like to go see friends where we used to live, but I'm not excited about the l-o-n-g drive. I'd like to truly be able to relax and have fun, not spend most of my time driving this weekend. So still pondering my options.

Happy Easter

Christ is risen!

He is risen indeed!

It's been a good and long Holy Week, and I'm grateful that it's the evening of Easter Sunday. The schedule was grueling for hubby and me today, and we're both ready to just...sleep. Not think, not be "on", not be theological or even all that coherent. Just unconscious. So as soon as our lovely little one gets with the program and decides play time is over and it's time to sleep, we're join her in sweet dreams.

I think the best moment today happened at the last service, at the church that normally has absolutely NO children attending. Today we had a whole passel of them, with all the visiting families, so I got to do a children's sermon. They were mostly little ones, and so sweet, and so excited to come up and be a part of the service. The butterfly activity I had for them went over well, and you could tell they were enchanted by the whole thing. As I gazed over the mostly elderly faces of my regular attendees, you could tell they were enchanted too. It was good for them to have these young ones among them, and it fit well with my theme of "Signs of Life." Everyone was just beaming through the whole service, and as they left. Including me, even with the complete exhaustion dogging my steps!

I'm off this next weekend, so now I can shift focus to planning a little trip to visit friends in the town where we last lived. Aahh. Now that's something to look forward to in the morning!

Eeeeek!

Maundy Thursday part II

It is now around 3:30 pm

I got about a quarter into a sermon, hated it, and am now back at square one.

One and a half hours until I start freaking out.

Crunch Time

Today: Maundy Thurday
Sermon - none
Time: almost 2 pm
Service - 7pm
Anticipated time of hyperventilation and total freak out because of lack of sermon: 5pm

So I have three hours to write a sermon to avoid a personal melt-down and to be prepared for tonight's service, while at the same time I need to entertain a four year old and eventually come up with something for supper.

"It's me, it's me, it's me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer..."