Move the Couch and Deal With It

I have a group of ladies coming over for my Java at the Jooses get together tomorrow. It's a wonderful and relaxing time of fellowship, getting to know each other, and a time in God's Word together. I'm cleaning house today. There's a "cleaning of the house" that you probably do on a weekly basis (or at least we try, right?), and then there's a Cleaning The House that we do when ladies are coming over. It's not like my HBC ladies get on their hands and knees or put on their white gloves to check and see how I'm doing in the House Cleaning Department, but I just like to do a more thorough cleaning when they come.

One thing that I did this morning that I obviously hadn't done in a while, was vacuum underneath the couches. It's that hard-to-get area that requires more effort on my part to get to, so it doesn't get done often. But I know it is there. Waiting. Now my house gets dirty just like the rest of yours, but it can have the appearance of cleanliness, especially if I've hit all of my clutter. Just don't go poking about and actually looking for dirt because you just might find it. Sooo, today the couches got moved, I worked up a sweat, and it got vacuumed. It needed it. It was gross. Think: bugs, dust, marbles, Legos, paper, lint, strings, thread, small Playmobil parts, and even potting soil (how did that escape me?)! I was mortified that this had been lurking mere inches from my comfy cozy chair where I do my devotions every day. I couldn't see it, but it was definitely there.

And then it struck me. Many times we as Christians deal with problems in this very way. In my minimal years of experience (almost 13 years of full time ministry), I see this so often. Too often. There's conflict. Maybe there is a huge blow up (Mt. Vesuvius, maybe?), and then an Ice Age of silence. Or maybe there is a low & quiet seething coupled with surface-y friendliness until the heat dies down, and you just "forget it" (but not really). Guess what? It's all lurking there. It's in your comfy cozy chair where you spend time with the Lord. It's in your pew where you supposedly worship the Lord every time the church doors are opened. It's there beside you when you bow your head to pray. It's waiting for you to move the proverbial couch and clean it out. And we wonder why we have no spiritual victory?

It haunts you. It waits. And then something happens again. Feelings get hurt again and then the dirt is exposed. You see it, and everything (in HD detail) is brought back to your mind. It would be as if I had moved the couch, looked at all of the garbage there and just shrugged my shoulders (after all, vacuuming IS hard work, right?), and moved the couches back to where they were. That would be ridiculous, right? You're right. It is. We have to deal with it.

Just like my house might have a resemblance to cleanliness, I (you) might have an appearance of godliness or spirituality, and yet the sin is there all the time. Ladies, it's time to move the couches (i.e. prIde), confess this sin to the Lord with a heart of humility & true repentance, and then go to that brother or sister and tell them that you were wrong in having a spirit of unforgiveness. Wrong in being bitter toward them. Wrong in not glorifying God in your relationship with a fellow believer. Don't tell them that they hurt your feelings. Don't tell them how they wronged you. It could be that maybe, just maybe, it's your feelings that are wrong. You will not answer to God for your friend. You answer for you. You worry about YOU. I don't know about you, but I've got my hands full just taking care of me, my sinfulness, and my walk with the Lord.

"Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." (Matt. 7:3-5)

"Put on then, as God's chosen one, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful." Col. 3:12-15

I pray that you will take some time with the Lord today and ask for forgiveness from the Lord for your sinful spirit with your brothers and sisters in Christ, and then immediately call, email, text, FB your friend and set up a time to make things right. Face to face.

Only then will your heart be really clean.

Basement Progress

Taigen has been using his spare time to work in the basement. It's looking really, really good. Or, maybe I should say that it is looking more and more like a blank slate. This is a good thing. A very good thing! After staring at a poorly completed sports bar/man cave for over four years, it was time to, as President Reagan would have probably said, "Tear down this wall!"

All of the walls have been torn down, most of the insulation has been pulled out, carpet remnants have been pitched, and the ugly carpeting has been torn off the stairs. It looks SO much better.

Dale (from church) has come over and helped build the new walls. They have spent countless hours down there. I cannot wait to see how the finished project will look, but we're looking forward to seeing it done.

Good job, Babe!

Pretty Peanut

This dress was a hand-me-down from Elise up at Cornerstone Baptist Church (Scarborough, ME). It is absolutely adorable. Shaylen put it on for the first time today and I just had to take a picture of her in it. Doesn't she look so pretty? And so grown up? (gulp)

Guess Who Was In Town?

We always love it when we can have the Pileggis up for a visit. Soon they will only be an hour away. Their house is almost finished. Joni & I will definitely have to be disciplined to work out a playdate more often than we get now. This every-great-once-in-a-while thing just isn't enough, in my opinion.

The whole gang

Precious Gianna

Julia

Lily

The original quartet. Look how they have grown!

Just look at these kids! Aren't they adorable? I want to gobble them up and slather them all with "joosey" kisses.

Fighting Children

This gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, "My kids have been fighting all day." I love seeing & hearing their imaginations at work.

Mysterious Feathered Friend

With our basement all packed up and in the garage, I don't have access to my bird book that was given to me by my friend Danette. Can anyone help me in identifying this adorable feathered friend that was on our deck today? I've never seen one before here. He is so beautiful!

Yard Pics

Time With A Faithful Friend

Our friend, Scott Aniol has been with us at Heritage briefly in the past to speak in our Wednesday evening service. We kept him up late yakking his ear off and peppering him with questions! I cannot say enough how much he has been a huge help and encouragement to us. Talk about an iron-sharpening-iron friend!

When we heard he was going to be back in New England, Taigen got on the phone with him, and with the help of Matt Fagan of Heritage Baptist Church in Windham, NH, we were able to procure him for a weekend! After much discussion between the three of them, we set up what we were going to call the Sound Worship Conference. Scott would preach all day for the conference on Saturday, teach Sunday school on Sunday, preach in the morning service & again in the evening service. It was a spiritually beneficial time for us. Not only could we listen to him several times, but we also got to spend a great deal of time with him in our home.

If you have not had Scott in your church, let me encourage you to talk with your pastor & ask him to contact him today and do whatever you can to have him come teach and preach on this very important topic of worship. On a personal level, no personal library would be complete without Scott's book Worship in Song and/or Sound Worship. They are both excellent reads. I highly recommend them.

Fly High In the Sky

We had a beautiful day today so I encouraged the kids to get out and play. They took their bouncy balls outside and were flying all over the lawn. It was hilarious to watch them. These balls have been one of those inexpensive gifts (from Sherry) that have provided hours and hours of entertainment! I absolutely love them.

Needless to say, they slept really, really well!

My Version Of "Better Homes & Gardens"

Good Housekeeping, Better Homes and Gardens, Ethan Allen, Pottery Barn, HGTV & Martha Stewart have NOTHING on the design in my upstairs hallway today! It has been redesigned by the world's greatest designers: Marshall & Shaylen. Their creative imaginations have been at work on this rainy day and there is a Lego city now relocated to my main walkway.

One day this space will house an overstuffed chair & ottoman, a bookshelf with all of my books & Bibles. Maybe there will even be a small side table with a cup of hot coffee, but for now, I'm content to carefully step over their clever creations. The time for fancy-schmancy will wait.

Second Annual Twinsday

The twins had been looking forward to this year's Twinsday. Do you remember the story behind "Twinsday?" Last year they had said, "How come there is a Mother's Day & a Father's Day, but no "Kids' Day?" They thought it would be fun to have a day for them when they could choose what they could eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I know, I know, it could have the tendancy to lean toward a selfish day, but we're going to head that off at the pass. So, we created "Twinsday." We allow it to fall on their half-birthday and celebrate (very) quietly...similar to Father's & Mother's Day.

We ended up getting them each a book which they devoured quickly, and some candy...which was also devoured by the end of the week. Their have-to-have request was molasses cookies, so we were sure to get those done for dessert!

It was a wonderful day to let them know we are so thankful for them.

Cutey Patutey Cards

If you have looked at the blog for any extended period of time, you know that I love to make cards. There's a little rectangle on the right sidebar that "advertises" the cards I make and list for sale in my Etsy shop. Etsy has proven to be a wonderful vehicle for earning a little bit of extra cash. I mostly sell my handmade, handstamped cards, but one thing has brought in some business that I didn't expect.

Many of you know that my step-mom works for Leanin' Tree greeting cards. She is the manager of the sales department. Let me just tell you that she is very good at what she does. She is a hard worker, a wonderful manager, and a very valuable employee. She is able to purchase cards right there at her company so she doesn't typically need cards from me. She has expressed an interest in me making cards for her so that she could give gift cards as thank you's or encouragements. She needed gift card holders. So this was my inspiration, but how could I do it?

I had gotten a gift card from a company for my birthday last year. It had come in a gift card holder that was so nice, but simple. I carefully tore it apart to see how they had assembled it.

"I bet I could do something like this." I said.

I took a scrap piece of paper, and an old gift card, and played with it. I figured out where to score the paper, how to fold it and place my adhesive, and how to get it to stay closed. It was easy. So, I made a couple and put them in my shop. They weren't expensive and weren't fancy-schmancy, but they were a big hit.

So far, I've been able to sell custom-made gift card holders to many individual customers, three salons, a photographer, and most recently Judith Bright, a jewelry designer who has locations in Tennessee and Georgia (with another location preparing to open up in LA). It was quite an honor to prepare her gift card holders and I had a lot of fun. Her work is amazing. To be honest, it's somewhat intimidating to be working with someone on this scale. I want to make sure that even these little gift card holders match her quality of product!

I'm currently working on her second of three batches. She's a gem to work with and I appreciate the business.

Judith Bright's first batch, ready to have her logo attached.

I LOVE her colors: dark brown & a pretty pale aqua.

 



 

All packaged up and ready to ship!

Making cards is proving to be a wonderful hobby and I'm thankful for the opportunities it brings and the wonderful people I get to "meet."

A Run-In With the Driver

You all probably know that Taigen is a golfer. It's a wonderful & relaxing pasttime for him when he can get out on the golf course. The kids have also taken a liking to it. They have a set of clubs that they got eons ago from our dear friends Mike & Brenda. Every once in a while, Marshall and Shaylen pull out Taigen's practice matt and practice balls and launch a few into the yard. They typically remember to draw a nice, big square around the practice area so that no one gets whacked in the head. The key word in that phrase was "typically."  They typically remember. This weekend, they did not.

I was at the church working on secretarial stuff. I had been particularly busy and didn't wrap things up until close to four o'clock. I got in the van and was on my way home when I got a call from Taigen.

"Can you stop by the store and pick up some Band-Aids?"
"Yes. We needed to get some anyway."
"Make sure you get some big ones. All we have are those little dot ones. Those aren't big enough."
"Okay." Pause. "Why? Who got hurt?"
"Shaylen. I don't think it's bad though." I can hear the reassuring tone in his voice. Don't panic, Crystal. Don't panic. "We just need big Band-Aids."
"What happened?" I ask.
"Shaylen got hit in the head by a golf club. Marshall's driver. She got in the way of Marshall's upswing. I don't think it's too bad, but it's a head injury and so it is bleeding pretty badly."
"Do you think she needs stitches?"
"I don't think so, but I'll let you make that judgment call when you get home."

I blitzed to Wal-Mart and was in and out fairly quickly. When I came home, Shaylen was sitting on a non-cloth chair and Taigen was rinsing out a cloth to re-apply to her head. There was blood on her shirt, and her pants had already been changed. I took a look. Thankfully the big mess was already gone, or I might not have been able to take a good look. Blood makes me squeamish. Blood makes me faint. The cut was not large. Maybe the size of big blueberry. It was still bleeding, so we covered it back up. I didn't think she needed stitches, but she definitely did need cleaning up. There was blood all in her hair, on her face, on her clothes and arm. I put a Hello Kitty band-aid on it and went upstairs to start her bath.

After getting her all cleaned up, the moisture had loosened the Band-Aid. Blood was still trickling. I rinsed it off one last time, dabbed it dry, got her out of the tub and took another look. The wound was deep. It was deeper than I liked and I thought, "They [the doctors and nurses at the ER] are going to think I'm a bubble-wrap parent, but I think they need to take a look at it."

Taigen had been mowing the lawn when all of this happened. Now before you pass judgment on him that he wasn't watching the children, I want you to know that he was. He would mow, look up, mow, and look up. It was during one of those "mow" times that the swing happened because when he looked up, Shaylen was holding her head and crying. It all happened in a split second! Upon closer inspection, there was blood dripping down her arms. Uh oh.

So while Shaylen had been in the bath, Taigen was finishing up his mowing job. I called to him from the upstairs bathroom window and told him that I thought I ought to take her in. It was deeper than I had originally thought and it was still bleeding pretty badly. He agreed, Marshall started worrying, I got Shaylen dressed. My Peanut and I headed in.

Of course, something like this would have to happen on a Saturday when the doctor's office isn't open. Of course, it would happen on a Saturday when we're trying to prepare for Sunday. But of course, the Lord knew. Thankfully the ER wasn't packed with people and we were seen immediately. The doctor was super-child-friendly with Shaylen and informed us of the three options: butterfly bandage (probably wouldn't do it's job), glue (would probably not hold it properly), or stitches (his personal recommendation if it was his daughter). Shaylen started tearing up, but not crying or bawling, for which I was thankful. She's always been the braver of the two (Shhh, don't tell Marshall). The doctor started by numbing & cleaning it. Food Network was on the little television in the room so Shaylen was fascinated (distracted?) with the (muted) cooking competition. She had to get four shots. The numbing had helped, but she could still feel some of the pain. She didn't cry, but her eyes overflowed a few times. I think I teared up too! My poor baby! Shaylen got an inside stitch and three exterior stitches. We got done around 8:15. The hospital staff was impressed with Shaylen and proud of her bravery. I was proud of her too.

This picture was taken the following morning. Sorry it's blurry. You get the idea though. There was really no bruising or swelling. She's my toughy.

2012 HBC Ladies' Banquet - Light of Life

Every year we hold a banquet for our ladies & their guests. It's our biggest ladies' function of the year and a lot of planning goes into this special day. This year, we decided to hold it in the evening. Two dear ladies from our church approached me, asking if I would like for them to undertake the decoration part of the banquet. Since this is not my forte, I promptly agreed. I cannot tell you how much of a help this was to me.

What they produced was absolutely stunning. The fellowship hall was transformed! I loved their colors of yellow and white and how they incorporated jars, lemons, and candles. Didn't they do a fantastic job?

Dale & his crew of men created a feast for the ladies. He always plans the menu on their trek down to Florida in February. By the time they drive down and back, it's finished. The result is always scrumptious.

This year we had Sarah Beals as our speaker. She is a pastor's wife down in Brockton, Massachusetts. I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know her. She has a blog Joy-Filled Days that you would love to read and no doubt, benefit from.

The HBC girls sang "Jesus Bids Us Shine" tonight. The song fit nicely in with our Light of Life theme, stating that Jesus is the Light of the world, the salvation for all mankind. We were challenged to go and tell others in both word and deed about the gospel.

It was a memorable evening.