New Season

  I love the change of seasons.  I think fall is my favorite season, though.  I love the bright leaves and the chilly weather.  I love sitting with a blanket and my crocheting in the crisp evening.  Ooh, that makes me think of apple crisp.  I love that too.  I love pumpkins, mums, apple picking, cider donuts ...  The only downside of fall that I can see is that it ushers in winter.  But, you know, isn't it just like God to give us the most beautiful season right before the hardest one?  He awes us with His beauty in the fall, making the blow of winter somehow softer.  I love the tree in front of our house.  It's a late turner.  When all the other trees are almost bare, our tree turns bright red.  Right now all the trees around are tinged with red, yellow and orange.  Our tree is still perfectly green.  It'll change though.  It always does.  And it makes fall last longer.  When the first snows come, there stands that flaming red tree as a reminder of the beauty of the fall.
  This fall brings a new season to our family.  We are saying goodbye to our wonderful church family where we've been loved, cared for and encouraged for 9 years and we're moving into the wide unknown of God's leading.  I purposefully don't say "scary unknown"  because somehow it's not scary when God is leading.  It's wide.  We really don't know what God has next for us, but we know that if God is leading, it's good.  So we've put our beautiful house up on the market.  We're saying goodbye to all of our "kids" who will always stay in our hearts.  We're packing up and gearing up for adventure.  The road ahead is not really clear, but God never promised that, right?  He never said that He would tell us far in advance what our steps would be.  He promised to the the light to our path, and to direct our steps - and I'm okay with that.

Storms, school and adventure ...

  So, we survived the hurricane.  Actually, we fared much better than many areas around us.  Our yard looks like we had quite the windstorm, with leaves everywhere.  But we are alright.  In fact, we didn't even lose power.  Quite a difference from what we see around us.  A tree fell onto the house next to the church parking lot.  We have friends who are still without power or water.  In fact, we have some friends staying with us until their power and water are restored.  The devastation is amazing to see.  Not so much the wind, but the flooding.  The Hudson overflowed it's banks onto the bridge exits and there was a beautiful dock floating by ... with boats still attached!  Roads are washed away and a whole town is underwater not too far from us.  Whole fields of crops almost ready to harvest are underwater.  Businesses are caked with mud, bridges are damaged.  Please be praying for the people around here as the water recedes and the damage is seen. 

 Here's a link to some pictures ... the first one is where my husband and another youth pastor friend meet for breakfast.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2330021532462&set=o.216538205051499&type=1&theater

Hello?

Hi!  Can you tell that my camera hasn't been working much this past few months?  I feel like life is happening and I'm forgetting it!  It's the middle of April already ... agh! 
  So I've been reading in 1 Corinthians about being a part of the body ... and I'm encouraged to be me.  I was created to have the gifts and personality that I have.  I will never be anyone else and I might as well not try because I would definitely be terrible at it.  I will never cook as well as Betty Crocker (just look at last night's dessert as evidence ... things definitely turn out better with baking powder).  I will never have as clean a house as ... most people I know.  I will never be as eloquent in my blog as other people I know.  I will never be as sweetly gentle as many pastor's wives.  I am not fashion queen (though I don't ever want to give up on that one).  I am not a perfect mother (and yes, I am aware of the fact that my children were loud today in the library, thank you). That's not who I am.  I am not giving myself an excuse not to grow ... since that would be incredibly prideful and stupid.  But at the same time, I just have to me who God made me to be.
So who am I?  Me!
  When I was in college there was a time where we could each receive personal prophecy.  As the prophets came to me they laughed and said, "You are a spark plug. Don't let anyone try to change your personality or who you are.  God made you that way."  I recently listened again ... and reminded myself.  That's who I am.