My Rosie Pic and WE CAN DO IT!!

Almost done with school. Just a few weeks left.... to all my other friends in the same boat, we can do it!! WE CAN DO IT!!

Laura

Lolita

Jessica

Shontell

WE CAN DO IT!!

Blowing off some steam

I am supposed to be writing a 5 to 7 page observation for one of my ECE classes today. I started it yesterday and as I was typing I got completely irritated because I can't even begin to tell you how many of these I have already done and will have to do to get my degree. The only good thing about where I am at right now is that I can make up my observations where as when I get closer to being done with my degree I have to give away many free hours of time to prove I am ready to work with children. Wait...what?? Yes, this is where my frustration came in yesterday. I have been in school( off and on mind you ) since 1993. That's right I graduated high school spring of 93 and that fall I started taking college classes at WNCC(so there Laura another person who survived WNCC). My frustration is that I should have a bazillion degrees by now. They don't give out degrees for being the mother of 4 children or for working at so many preschools, day cares, latch keys, and or sunday schools that you can't even count them on two hands. Nope, no degree for real life experience. They still want your free work and your countless observations to know that you know for the bazillinenth time that you know the difference between a large motor skill and a small one.

Thanks for listening to me rant and rave I am off to go write my paper now.

Love, Acceptance, and Forgiveness Chp 4

Chapter 4 is entitled , "People equipped to Serve" and it has many many quotes in it's small content but here are my favorites;

"The gifts of the Spirit as I understand them, are God's means of getting to men and meeting their needs through believers. I do not believe that spiritual gifts were meant primarily for the sanctuary. Some of them can operate there, that's  fine. But many of them were primarily designed for the street."

I had a chance to operate in  hospitality in the most unlikely place. During my daughter Emma's parent/teacher conference I noticed that every time her teacher would speak of Chicago where she recently moved from her eyes would well up with tears. Even though we were there for Emma and her education(of which I am not worried about in the slightest, her mother is a teacher after all) I decided to derail the conference from it's usual course and ask her teacher how she was adjusting to living here in Nevada. Long story short I invited her over for dinner. Strange, I know but that is  what I think Jerry is talking about in the above quote.

"Christianity is not difficult to communicate. It's simple. We make it hard by our extreme efforts."

"We specialities out of ministry. We make Christian service difficult. The reason we make it so tough sometimes is to massage the ego of those who want to be specialists. I've seen specialty ministries come and go. God uses them for He will use anything as much as He can , but the majority of the time they are raised up for the ego satisfaction of men."

Finally, here is my favorite quote of maybe the whole book;

"The fastest most valid way to originality is to be oneself. You see , I am an original(and so are you). As I forgive myself for being as I am , as I learn to trust God's good judgement in creating me as He did and begin to accept myself, I am original. I can't  help it. God has put my brain together and tutored it so that no one else can pick up the Word and see exactly what I see in it."

I think that is why I enjoy so much reading scripture with others because I love to hear the spin that their brain might have on a particular passage. It is what the makes the world go round all our differences and how we see things and I LOVE IT!!

Some of Moses latest Permanent Body Art

You won't be disappointed

Well, I have to say that I am extremely happy about our new President. I am disappointed that more friends and family are not as excited about this as I am. I understand that the media put out alot of information about Obama that would cause people to be afraid or alarmed but I thought my friends and family were smart enough to know that you can't believe everything you read and hear.

I have read Obama's book "The Audacity of Hope" and am planning on reading his other publishing's but for everyone who has only been listening to the media or the 700 club version of life as we know it I would encourage to take a second look at the man who will soon be your president too.

I would have to say that I wasn't an Obama fan until I went to see him in person way back when he was still running against Hillary. At that event I saw in this man the President I always read about in history books been never actually experienced in my life time. He has a way with words that not only inspires but makes you want to stand up and shout. I believe he will prove to be the right man for the job ahead of him. What a job it is.

Time will tell if he brings hope or more of the same but I would have to say I am already more hopeful about America's future than I was yesterday. You have to give this man credit for getting the most voters out there than we have seen in a long time. 

And to all you Nay-sayers who have nothing but gloom and doom to project now that he won I say, give him two seconds to prove you wrong. You will not be disappointed.

Election Party at my house tonight at 6p

YOU ARE INVITED!!

Love, Acceptance, and Forgiveness Chp 3

Chapter 3 of Love, Acceptance, and Forgiveness is titled "The Church as a Force" and really if any of you have read Monday Morning Church then this chapter is just a pre cursor to that book. Still some of my favorite quotes I will post here in case you haven't read either.

"When people differentiate between the church and Christ, when they say,  'We're going to write off the church but we surely do love and believe in Jesus,' something is seriously wrong."

* This is something that I felt for a while. Never will I turn my back on my Savior, where else would I go but if I stop going to Hillside I doubt I will ever step foot in another church again. That's how tired I am of the things that go on when people gather together for the purpose of glorifying God and encouraging each other, this isn't what I have seen over the years. More like a social club that makes each other feel good and isolates, judges and criticizes everyone including themselves all in the name of church.

"When we think that the believer's meeting place is where the work is to be done, we have departed from the concept Jesus originally established. Instead of the world being the field, we have made the church the field."

*Again nothing happens up on that Hill and in those four walls that couldn't be happening in my living room or in my car or at the Grocery store. In fact I think the more powerful life changing moments don't happen there.

*This is the part of the book that really changed my whole way of thinking about church.

"Ministry becomes a positional identity within the organization. That is, if you are going to minister you must be a director of something or minister of something or associate of something. You will have a title and a position within the organizational structure. As a result, the individual member is easily misled about the meaning of Christian service and is often reduced to a spectator. You see, once he's in the field, unless he wins a position he has little relevance except to help keep the machine going"

*I remember reading that for the first time and it was like a light bulb lit up and I finally realized why it made me want to vomit in my mouth every time I was introduced as a position instead of a person. It still makes me sick the way that we as human beings look to a person for a position only Jesus and Jesus alone should fill. So then what are we to do with the church as a field instead of a force mentality? How do we change ? Do we want to change? I do believe this kind of change takes time and alot of changes that are uncomfortable and even frightening. In the end though it is so worth it and really is what I believe Jesus would want us to do. 

This chapter really is so good. There is one part that made me laugh when he talked about in the early days he wanted to start a commune, sound like anyone else we know?  He then says, 

"This was how I finally awoke to the fact that God didn't want us to be separate subculture, He wanted us to penetrate every segment of the society in which He had placed us."  

*This is something that I want to be about.

One final quote that gets the wheels spinning, "Among other things, I'm saying that we need to direct the church away from professionalism and into the hands of people who do not know what they are doing." 

* What does that look like, really?  Why isn't it happening right now? How do we get to this place that sounds so right and yet seems so far off?

Okay maybe just one more quote, "People get bored just waiting for heaven. So what do they do? They start complaining, griping, gossiping.  The reason they are bored is that they don't know what they are saved for. They know what they are saved from and what they are saved to but not what they are saved for."

* This reminds me of that scripture that says, " Fight the good fight of faith; lay hold of the eternal life to which you were summoned and for which you confessed the good confession of faith before many witnesses." 1 Tim 6:12

That's what I want to do. I want to remember always why my life is different because of what Jesus has done and continues to do for me and I want to spend my time and energy on thanking Him in everyday ways by loving Him and His people. Still if I am being honest I get tired and weary and I need to be reminded of this and do you know who reminds me? My friends, family and others who are walking out this fight of faith. I am thankful for them. For their honesty and sincerity in their personal struggles for they remind me of why we need each other , why there needs to be a walking church everyday.

Halloween 2008

We had alot of  fun this year in make believe. Here are our costumes, hope you enjoy!!

Love, Acceptance, and Forgiveness Chp 2

Chapter 2 of this book is titled, " The Need for a Guiding Philosophy". It basically talks about how when a church gathers together they need to know what their guiding philosophy for gathering should be about and then BE about that.  It also talks alot about what the role of the Pastor is supposed to look like. Here are some of my favorite quotes from Chp 2;

"One basic premise in my own philosophy of the church is that people themselves are the ministers.."

"Two things are necessary: people must be trained to use their own gifts in ministry; and the church must grant the people the right to minister in crisis situations on the spot."

"We must begin to see what Christ is seeing and respond accordingly. He didn't start a political movement. In fact He shunned politics. Yet He was involved politically, not from a movement point of view but because what He did had fantastic political implications. The prophetic lifestyle is person oriented."

"To live prophetically in the world is to speak Christ's love and redemptive power into the heart of the individuals caught in sin. We see Jesus doing this. He didn't speak generally to the world but He did confront individuals- He touched this sick person, He released that demon-possessed person, He forgave the other person who was notorious sinner."

"The dynamic for church growth is Spirit-filled people meeting other people's needs in Jesus name wherever they are. You can't reduce that to methodology."

There were so many things in this chapter that made me happy I go to a church that does exactly this. There were also some things that convicted me to do better. I could've quoted the whole chapter but I will leave you with this last one that is so true and right on as far as I am concerned;

"If we are isolated from others, living within the context of monologue so far as church life goes, we will probably accept uncritically many practices which have no validity. Or if they are valid, we don't why and therefore cannot use them to best advantage. And we are totally unaware of alternatives that might suit our particular situation better."

A few favorites from Apple Hill

For  a first time experience of a place that I have heard about and even been invited to go to for many years, I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day. These are just a few of the several photogenic moments this spot on the planet provided.  I am now enjoying not only my apples but the tool I bought to peel and cut them.  I will post more Halloween pics later but just so you know this year our theme was Wizard of Oz. Emma went as Dorothy, Chloe was Glenda the good witch, Sol the Scarecrow, and Isaiah was a perfect Lollipop kid. Jordan Lear is also in one of the pics here he would have made a great Tin Man but alas, better than that he was a Baseball player, because you know he is.

Every stop we made they got freebies left and right and I am thinking that if we make Apple Hill a traditional spot for the Scofield's we might have to go in full costume mode every time.

Fall 2008

Well the tree has dumped all it's leaves. We have played, and played, and played some more in them and now it is about that time to bag them up and send them out. My tree will soon be barren and that makes me quite sad but at least I feel I enjoyed all the colors while they lasted.

Re-visiting some old truths

I have recently decided to pick up the book, Love Acceptance and Forgiveness, by Jerry Cook again. In reading the first few pages I was again struck by how hard his words in this book are to do.  Here are some of the quotes that have thus far struck a chord with me ;

"Because we are accepted  in the Beloved, we must be accepting of the beloved. I can't give up on you till God does, and He won't! We're safe with God, and we've got to be safe with one another."

"Love means accepting people the way they are for Jesus' sake. Jesus hung around with sinners and if we're too holy to allow people to blow smoke in our faces, then we're holier than Jesus was. He didn't isolate himself in the synagogue. In fact, He mixed with sinners so much that the self-righteous got upset about it." (I love this about Jesus. Truly this is something about Him that attracts me to Him over and over. He was close friends with some that the church of his time wouldn't and didn't approve of )

"Remember you are not the Lord. None of us is to function as Lord in anybody's life, ever, under any circumstances. There's only one Lord, and that's Jesus Christ."

These were just from the first chapter. I am again reaffirmed and convicted at the same time. What a great book. Thanks for being ego centric enough to publish your own book Jerry :)

I think I will share my highlights or favorite quotes from each chapter just for fun and if you haven't read this book yet, you really need to.

Some more Random Thoughts

I think I am finally getting the hang of this family, working, school thing and getting into some what of a groove. I keep reminding myself that it is only for a few more weeks that I will constantly have the feeling of an ulcer forming in my stomach, feel guilty for blogging or any other Internet thing I do other than school and homework, and  in the back of my head always have  my grades that are looming.

It will get better and I will pass all of these classes and be one step closer to getting the hell out of the school system, at least in this way.

Tonight my baseball team gave it up to Tampa Bay. I have to say that I was so proud of them the other night when they came back from the dead and tonight...well.....I will admit I knew from the start that Tampa Bay wanted it real bad this season. SO now on to the playoffs which aren't nearly as fun without my team but I will be rooting for the Phillie's. Not sure exactly why that is except for that I can't exactly root for the team that beat my boys. It was a great season for the Bo Sox's anyways and as long as we have the Yankees beat we are good as far as I am concerned.

I experienced the most embarrassing moment of my parenting career this week. It was so embarrassing that I am not sure I want to share it here with you all except to say that can you guess who was the culprit??

We took the family into Scheels today and if you haven't gone into this Mega mini mall of a store yet I suggest you make the trip. It is well worth it. I thought for sure it would be boring , what could I possibly find entertaining in a sporting goods store but it is so much more. If just for the scenery make the trip over there. It is pretty cool, Farris wheel and all.

Well, I hope you all had a great weekend. I will be thinking of a topic soon to actually blog about other than my thoughts that are oh so random.

Some of my thoughts

Here are some of my thoughts for this Thursday afternoon-

-My love/hate relationship with my dogs is one that I have been pondering lately. They are the cutest dogs I have ever owned they are also the most destructive annoying dogs. I am not sure why I have allowed as much as I have with their shenanigans!! I am not sure why I agreed and even sought out this scenario in my life again. They do bring me some small piece of joy or I am sure I wouldn't keep them. However, this morning when they had eaten a whole pack of new bubble gum I was considering doing alot of things to these 4 legged creatures and these things were not nice.

-My thoughts on all writers being egocentric - I had this thought the other day. All writers have to have a certain sense of ego in order to think that their ideas are first of all good enough to be published in a book and second of all great enough ideas that people should pay money to read them. This thought had me a bit perplexed once again about my aspirations of becoming a published author and even why I have a blog. 

-Friends and some disappointments that I have finally come to realize in that area of life are this; some of my friends that have left stronger imprints than others still influence me today even though I haven't seen or heard from them in a while. One friend I have used to love to write with a plain old Bic pen , still to this day I like to write with a Bic pen because of her and when school supply shopping time comes around that is one item that is always on my list. Other friends I wonder was it just that we went to the same church that even barely classified us as friends. I am excited that Louie is blogging about this topic because it's something that I have been thinking alot about lately. Also, I am quickly learning in my 30's that every person who wants to be my friend maybe I don't want to be theirs and how to navigate through that one has been interesting. There are circles of friendships. The inner circle for me consists of my family first which right there makes it a big circle, then a middle circle of friends that are like family to me and that I share everything with, and finally an outer surface circle or what I would like to say is the acquaintance circle of friends.

-Music, why have I been given so many songs and what should I do with them. Why are we given certain gifts without the time to really pursue them. Will I ever move these songs out from the notebook and on to a recording. Dunno. I am however looking forward to going back to my Uncle's recording studio and getting some songs that my Grandmother wrote recorded. 

-The current political thoughts, honestly isn't this over already? But in reality I told Mo the other night that I think either of these guys are crazy for signing up for this job. You could not pay me enough money... no way would I ever take this job. Not on your life!! Also to the shock and awe of those of you who think I am an Obama groupie I will have you know that I do believe both of these gentlemen would do a fine enough job and I don't really care at this point. By that I mean, I won't be moving to Canada if Mc Cain does win. But he won't!! Last debate sure was interesting.

-Motivation, where it comes from , why it's lacking for me right now, and What can I do about that?

-Deja Vu's - This is my topic of research currently in my Psych class, lots of thoughts there. What are they really? Why do some have more than others and some none at all?

-School , I am so over it. Really, what's the point that I am going through all these hoops and for what? To get paid a measly teacher's salary. Sorry but I am just thinking it might not be worth it anymore. Although if Obama gets in, he has mention ECE several times in all his speeches and has some good plans for those of us pursuing that degree, hint hint Jessica :)

Those are them folks, hope you enjoyed the journey inside my brain for this week.

The "Fall" has begun

The leaves have begun to fall in our backyard. We have three gianormous trees on our property. These are trees that made the value of this house go up for me by about 10,000 dollars. That's how much I love trees surrounding my house. I distinctly remember telling my husband that part of why I didn't want to buy the brand new house we were looking at in North Valleys was because there are no trees in new neighborhoods. There is something about trees and the foilage they bring every fall that just makes my heart happy.

So I am sitting here in my living room, looking out my living room window right at the big tree whose colors are changing right before my eyes. Okay maybe not that quick but it seems with the crazy weather lately that they are changing quick. Something I tell my kids every fall is to pay attention to the trees everyday because before you know it the leaves will all be gone and so will all the colors.

I have described the autumn season before as God's natural fireworks. The colors explode in every tree and every year it's different. If you don't think we serve a creative God then you are sadly mistaken. 

Isaiah was so excited to see the leaves falling in the backyard that he first said, "Mom it's snowing" then he ran to the front of the house saying, "I am going to jump in the pile of leaves mom" but alas, the leaves on the tree in front have yet to fall. Weird. I told him that soon the leaves on the front tree would be falling but we have to wait until most have fallen off so we can make a huge pile to jump in.

I think I will jump in them this year!!

On turning into Ellen

My daughter has a boy from class over. 

Not sure how I feel about this and how different she is acting. She assures me that he is only a friend and I do believe she is telling me the truth because we talk about these things all the time and I happen to know who her real crush is on. So there!!

Anyhew, this boy was best friends with the boy Alex who died tragically last spring. I blogged a bit about that one and sorry if you missed it cause I don't know how to do the fancy thing where it will bring you to that blog so if you are interested you will just have to look. 

Emma was telling me that ever since Alex died this boy Kevin has been really sad and that she had overheard him telling one of his buddies the other day that he eats dinner alone most nights. His mom and dad work and older sister who is like 19 is never home. This really just broke my heart. I know God has strategically placed us in this neighborhood for a reason, more reasons than one, and there have been many reasons already revealed but this was like one loud gong going off inside my heart.

At the dinner table last night when Emma was telling her dad the same story he replied, "Well did you say, Good for you , bummer you eat alone every night. Stay warm and well-fed and then walk away" To which she cocked her head to his sarcasm, and said "What?" He then explained.

My brothers and sisters would say that I am turning into to my mother, Ellen because of this gesture of inviting him over for dinner, to which I would say,  SO BE IT!! 

Motivation Bug

I am getting the bug , the motivation bug to finish up my books and send them out. As of the last email from the publishers I have done a whole lot of nothing with them and the email sits in my inbox haunting me. Reminding me of what a big sissy I am for not sending in my scripts. Last night I had a thought that really motivated me. I can 't really put into words what it was that clicked but today after finishing up some homework I am going to blow the dust off of my scripts, go to the post office, and mail this baby out.

It really has been a strange thing my reaction to this. As I have said in previous posts I really am afraid of the rejection and it has paused me for the last few months but I am motivated today. 

I will feel a huge sense of relief when they are out and no longer in my hands. When the move is in their courts then there will be nothing else I can do, but hope and pray that if this is meant to be it will be.

Oh how I hope it is meant to be!!

Solomon turned 7

Boston Red Sox....

...made it to the playoffs.

 This makes me happy.

The Yankees didn't.

This makes me even more happy.

Can't wait for Darrell to get traded so then I will feel absolutely no guilt in saying that.

www.ontheissues.org

This is a great website to check out anything and everything on politicians. I have found it to be a really helpful resource when there is so much out there flying around that is so off base. As far as the he said, she said game is concerned this site might help you decide for yourself.

Just thought I would say this is a site that even my professors are okay with so you know it's got to be good then.  :)