The church of today

Have you ever heard anyone say that today's youth are the church of tomorrow? There was a time I bought into that idea, but I've come to realize it just isn't true. They are the church of today. I think of what Paul told Timothy: "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity." I don't know how old Timothy was when he wrote those words to him, but I dare say any child who is putting his faith in Jesus could accept that statement as a mission statement for his/her life. I have truly come to believe our kids don't need to wait until they are in high school to take their places alongside adults in kingdom work.

I experienced a great example of this principle this morning. Today was "Youth Sunday" and the worship team was composed of 4 adults and 6 or 7 6th-8th graders. 6th-8th graders! 2 young girls led most vocals with minimal backup from our regular worship leader and another adult male, while the rest of the kids were on guitars (electric, bass, electric acoustic...). The other 2 adults were on keyboard and drums. These kids were nothing short of awesome. If I had been blindfolded, I would not have known it wasn't one of the regular worship teams up there. I was definitely encouraged by those kids today.

Spring reading update

Since my last update, I'm still working my way through my original list; of the 9 books on my fiction list, I've read all but one and just began the last... The Ultimate Gift. But I've also read a bunch not on the list:

• The Church Ladies, Lisa Samson
• The Living End, Lisa Samson
• Halfway to Forever, Karen Kingsbury
• A Moment of Weakness, Karen Kingsbury
• Gideon's Gift, Karen Kingsbury
• Maggie's Miracle, Karen Kingsbury
• A Thousand Tomorrows, Karen Kingsbury
• Outlander, Diana Gabaldon
• Home for the Holidays, Meredith Efken
  

As far as my non-fiction list, I'm a couple of chapters into the Yancey book on Prayer, and maybe halfway through How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth. I have the Lucado book (Facing Your Giants) from the library and will start it as soon as I finish the Yancey book.

The kids and I gave up on The Twenty-One Balloons ... just way too much extraneous material to hold their attention. We're about 6 chapters into The Apprentice now.

3 Characters book meme

I was tagged by Ellen at Above the Clouds for this book meme:

From books you have read:

Name 3 Characters you wish were real so you could meet them.

Name 3 Characters you would like to be.

Name 3 Characters who scare you.

My answers:

3 characters I wish were real:

Aslan
Melanie Wilkes (from Gone With the Wind)
Elizabeth Baxter (from Karen Kingsbury's Redemption series)

3 characters I would like to be:

Trixie Belden: I really did want to be Trixie when I was a kid.
Nick Cominsky: Just imagine really sitting down to dinner with Jesus!
Katy Hart (from Karen Kingsbury's Firstborn series)

3 characters who scare me:

Screwtape
Junior Cain (From the Corner of His Eye, Dean Koontz)
Edgler Vess (Intensity, Dean Koontz)

Very cool song

They've been playing this song a lot on XM32; it's a new group called Rush of Fools. Love the lyrics and the harmonies in it! I wanted to post the actual group video, but they don't have it on YouTube. You can see their video at their website, though. At least this way, you get to see the lyrics.

On the road again

I'll be picking Emily up from school at 11 today to get her some lunch and drive her to the airport. After this afternoon, it will just be me and the 3 youngest at home until Tuesday night, when I get to go back to pick her up. The choir has some busy days planned in Chicago... museum tours, the zoo, a night at a Blue Man Group show, and chapel at Moody Bible Institute are just a few of the scheduled activities.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Did anyone else's heart stop for just a moment last night watching AI?? Emily threw the remote at the tv, she was so ticked off.... she had vowed never to watch the show again if Jordin were to be kicked off. I thought it was a no-brainer when it was down to Chris and Jordin, so when he said Chris was safe, I was dumbstruck. What a relief when he said that she was safe, too. I guess since it was a night of charity, they decided to extend it to the contestants as well. I can't believe we have to wait another week to narrow the field, though. It's getting tougher, but I am starting to think it's Kiki's time to go. She just doesn't look happy to be there and her last few songs have been sorely lacking.

It's back!

Actually, 2 its. It number 1: the mysterious stomach bug working its way through the family. When I went to wake up Emily for school this morning, she told me she had been up half the night throwing up. Needless to say, I let her stay in bed. She was better by afternoon and will be able to go to school tomorrow.

It number 2: Heroes! After what seemed like forever and a day, the first of the last 5 episodes of this season aired tonight. For some reason, this episode just had a different feel to it for me, and was a little harder to follow. But I cannot wait to see what happens next week.

We also watched Dancing with the Stars tonight. Joey is still my favorite, but I also have a soft spot for Billy Ray. It will be interesting to see if he makes it past elimination tomorrow night. I'm thinking (and hoping) John will get the boot instead.

Ready to crash

This has been a l-o-n-g weekend... not a bad weekend, but just long. Or maybe it just seems that way because today started so early. I was up at 5 to get ready to take Brian to the airport. Originally, the plan was for the kids to stay home while I went alone, but Emily spent the night with friends in Antioch last night, so we had to scrap that idea. We woke up the other 3 this morning around 5:30 and headed out a little after that. Halle fell back asleep in the van, but the boys stayed awake the whole time. We only had a little over an hour from the time we got back from Sacramento until it was time to leave for church. We usually go to the 10:45 worship/class; the kids are in class while we are in worship. But today was my turn to help out in one of the kids' classes, so we went to the 9:00 service so I could still get to participate in worship before class.

We went out for lunch and then stopped at Target to pick up a birthday present for one of Halle's friend's sister. Back home with just a little less than 2 hours to spare before needing to leave the house again. This time I took Halle to her friend's house so she could go to the birthday party, then the boys and I went to the church; I was going to a meeting to get to know more about the church. We were there about 3 hours.... then went to pick up Halle, and then on to meet the folks Emily stayed with at a halfway spot. We made it home around 9. I think most of the kids zonked out by 10. Gee, I wonder why?

Tomorrow, Halle gets a tooth pulled in the morning... then we have piano lessons and gymnastics in the afternoon/evening. Unless I forgot to put something on my calendar, we actually don't have ANYTHING on the schedule for Tuesday. Hallelujah!

Can we be done with it?

So I told you that Brian had to be up early to go to the airport today, right? Doncha know, last night's game went into extra innings... all the way to the 12th (and doggoneit, the Cards lost!). I'm not even sure what time he and Noah got home; I'm guessing it was at least 1. His alarm went off around 4:30 or so this morning. Noah enjoyed the game, though. He said "Stone Cold" Austin was sitting not too far from them in the next section over, and Rob Schneider was also on hand for the game (but down on the field for some kind of celebration for the city of Pacifica).

Anyhoo... the stuff here just keeps on keepin' on. Halle threw up in the van this morning on our way home from dropping Emily off at school. She's been fine the rest of the day, so hopefully we are done with this. And as for Joel, he is putting weight on his foot again, although still not full weight. I am just hoping this stuff isn't any indication of how the next 2 weeks are going to go around here. I will be ready for a padded room by the time Brian gets back from his Texas trip if this keeps up!

Today's news

Halle had an orthodontist appointment this morning. We are done cranking her palate expander. Now she will have 2 teeth pulled on bottom, lose a baby tooth on top that is already loose, and in 8 weeks will get braces on top and bottom. She's not feeling great today though... right now she's napping on the couch.

Joel is not putting weight on his foot yet. So I had to carry him in when we went to the orthodontist. Around the house, he either hops or crawls. This will get old if his foot doesn't heal soon.

Brian and Noah are going to San Francisco later this afternoon to see the Cardinals play the Giants. It will mean a late night. They probably won't be back until midnight. Then Brian has to be back at the SF airport for an 8am flight to Vancouver tomorrow. He'll be back on Friday. On Sunday, I have to drive him to the Sacramento airport before church so he can fly to Wichita Falls; he won't be back from there until late May 2. Yeah, things are just a tad busy around here.

Emily is gearing up for her choir trip to Chicago. She'll leave while Brian is gone, on the 26th. I was thinking that the school would transport the choir to the airport, but according to Emily, everyone is going in separate vehicles. They even are on different flights: boys on one, girls on one, and chaperones on another. That doesn't make much sense to me.... but what do I know?? Anyhow, I don't have any information on when her flight is yet, and that could throw a wrench into plans I had here; Noah was supposed to take a class at the base library that afternoon, but if I have to drive to Sacramento, that will have to be scrapped. This whole thing of homeschooling 3 and having one at school outside is getting to be quite tiresome.

Show the love

Today's the day, folks... In the immortal words of BooMama, it's time to "Bless Heather's socks off." The above graphic will take you to BooMama's post for today, which has a "make a donation" button at the bottom. You can use a credit or debit card, or PayPal. Or if you want to send a check, you can email BooMama and she will give you the info for that.