Then Sings My Soul: To God Alone, Aaron Shust

This is my first foray into this meme. I wish I'd found it sooner, as this is one that has meaning for me (not something you can say about a lot of memes out there).

This week's song is To God Alone, by Aaron Shust. The first thing that hooked me was the music, but the more I sing and listen, I come face-to-face with my self. I see the tendency I have to want credit for the things I do, to want recognition, appreciation, or praise. I remember all the way back to my school days, when I was often the "curve-buster" on test days. Never once did it occur to me to give God the credit for my ability to remember things (maybe that's why that ability seems to be disappearing these days!). Even more so in these days, when I am in the process of trying to lose my pride, fear, and a million other character defects that prevent me from following Christ more fully... there is the tendency to look at what *I* am doing, forgetting that I am only doing it because of Him. This song reminds me that He is the one really doing it all, not me.

Enjoy:

To God Alone

Aaron Shust

Can you take me by the hand

Can you use me as I am

Break me into who you want me to be

When the time is finally right

You will open up my eyes

Show me everything you want me to see

This life is not my own

Chorus:

To God alone be the glory

To God alone be the praise

Everything I say and do

Let it be all for you

The glory is yours alone

Yours alone Take the offering

I bring You want more than what I sing

Can I give you every part of me

Turn these pennies into gold

Take this life I call my own

Until I'm running after your heart

I'm needing to let go

We will rise and we will fall

But you remain after all

You're glorious and beautiful You're beautiful

To bring you up to date...

Plans are underway for Brian's retirement. We've selected a date for the ceremony (Dec. 17), chosen a place for the dinner, and are working on choosing a caterer. He is looking for a post-retirement position near Huntsville, AL so that we can move close to my sister and her family. There is MUCH excitement from my kids at the prospect of living near their Aunt Pam, Uncle Kirk, and their 4 boys. (Never mind that these boys are already adults (ages 23-28)... thankfully there is enough kid left in them that they make great company for my gang.) Brian has had a lot of email and phone communication with one hospital and is headed back there in a couple of weeks for an on-site interview. We are trusting God that it will happen if it is meant to be.

I realize I didn't post anything while we were at Saddleback last week. Honestly, it was just too busy. Our nights all lasted until 9 or so... even the one early night we went out to dinner with our gang so wound up not getting back to the RV until after 9. All we were ready to do was hug on the kids a bit and then head to bed.

Anyhow, it was a great time. Rick Warren spoke at the opening session... I have never sat and listened to someone for an hour and a half when it didn't feel like at least that long or longer before. He had some really cool stuff to share. You can see it here. It's the webcast from August 12, 2009, titled "The Jesus Model for Healing - 2." There is also a link at the top of that page that will allow you to download a .pdf file of the notes from the sermon.

One of the coolest parts of the conference was meeting other folks. This is made really easy by the fact that not only were people wearing name tags with the name of their church and city on them, but an overwhelming portion also had shirts with that info as well. I bumped into one woman from the Harpeth Hills Church of Christ in Nashville and made a point of asking her if she knew a couple there who used to attend the church I grew up in. (I had heard through their son that they were in Nashville and attended there.) She did, and then in the course of the conversation mentioned she had moved there from Dexter, MO.... this couple were the first people she had met in Nashville who knew where that was (because it was maybe 30 miles from us!). Well.... my niece is married to a guy who grew up in that church, and his folks are the caretakers of the church youth camp... and connection after connection was made. She knew his folks, knew my brother and his wife (on the camp board)... Small world, huh? All this in a crowd of 3500 people. I also bumped into a couple of guys from Tulsa, OK... they know a worship leader there in Tulsa that I know because I went to church with his mom and sister back in Omaha. And one of them grew up a half hour away from me as well.... and his sister goes to church with my niece. The world is shrinking a little more...

But the best is yet to come. I should point out that one of the neat things the conference organizers did was to put a colored dot on everyone's name tag; this dot identified the attendee as being from a particular region. We had a green dot as part of the Western region. I had been on the lookout for red dots (Southeast region, of which AL is a part). For most of the conference, all the red dots I had seen had been FL, NC, GA... but not AL. On the very last evening on our dinner break, I happened to notice a woman talking on her cell phone... I saw the red dot and inconspicuously got close enough to see her location: Huntsville, AL. So I struck up a conversation with her after she hung up. Turns out she and her husband had met Brian the night before at another workshop, so she already kinda knew about me. But here is the wow thing: they want to start a CR ministry at their church some time next year... probably *in the first quarter*. Hmmm. We will probably be moving there by the first of the year. Other cool things... their 2 youngest kids are the same ages and sex as Halle and Joel, and they homeschool. I kinda felt like meeting them and getting their contact info was a little present from God, and another indication that he approves of our desire to be in Huntsville.

So today I am checking my Facebook page and noticed a post from Keith Lancaster that referred to a blog post about a cappella music. I checked out the blog and felt an almost instant kinship with the author. I left her a comment, she responded to me in an email, and after a few more emails between us, here is what we know: She lives in the Huntsville area. She homeschools. She knows my sister and brother-in-law because they used to attend church together. And of course, we already knew we were both into music. We are totally convinced this is a God thing. Just one more thing to help me feel like we are walking in God's will for our future.

Is it any wonder I can't keep from grinning ear-to-ear tonight? Do any of you have similar stories to share? I'd love to hear them.

6 days on the road

Today is Day 6 of our summer adventure on wheels. Not much of an adventure, really. Mostly me and the kids and dogs sitting around the KOA. But it's still been fun. We left home last Wednesday and drove to Bakersfield. The excitement started almost as soon as we arrived. While Brian and the boys went in the RV resort office to register us, Halle and I took the dogs out for a potty break and the RV door locked behind us. Here we are in 97-degree temps, no shade except what little the RV provided, the RV was running (and thankfully the generator too)... After about 20 minutes of trying all the windows, Brian was finally able to get the front passenger window unlocked and open from the outside and we hoisted Joel through. Lesson learned. Don't leave the RV unmanned without a set of keys in hand.

Thursday morning, we took our time getting stuff together before heading on down to San Diego. We made it here a little after 3pm. The KOA here is very big and was very busy when we arrived. It has since cleared out a little.... but not much. The kids have enjoyed swimming a few times. The dogs are happy that there is an off-leash area here for them to go in. My only complaint about it is that it is nothing but mulch, which gets up in my shoes and clings to Campbell's fur. I'd much prefer grass.

On Saturday, we went downtown with Brian after his meeting was over and spent a little bit of time touring the USS Midway. The boys were really interested. My favorite thing (don't know if Brian got a picture or not) was the giant statue nearby that recreated the famous LIFE magazine picture of the sailor kissing the nurse in Times Square when V-J Day was announced. Here's a photo I found online of it. It is HUGE.



The boys and Brian went to the Padres/Mets game later that evening (actually, we had just enough time after our Midway tour for them to drop Halle and me off at the RV and rush back downtown to meet some of Brian's CRNA friends for the game). Halle and I spent the rest of the evening kicking back with the dogs, watching TV and/or playing games on the laptop.

Tomorrow morning, Brian has one last meeting until 10:30 or so. Then we'll gather things together and make the drive up to Newport Beach. We'll be staying here while we attend the annual Celebrate Recovery Summit at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest. Newport Beach was as close to Saddleback as we could find an RV park.... about 30 minutes away. Emily is flying down tomorrow evening and will be here to keep the kids company while we're away. Just 4 nights there and we head back home on Saturday.

Before the month is gone....

Life is zooming along as usual here.... Halle had a great time at church camp, despite falling off of the top bunk one night. Actually, I think it was more of a slither than a fall. She was wrapped up in a sleeping bag and managed to wiggle herself into just the right position so as to slide off through an opening less than 2ft. wide. She didn't even wake up! I imagine this will be one of those "remember when?" stories we will be telling in years to come.

Lots of changes in the neighborhood. Summer tends to be a busy moving time on base, with folks trying to get settled so kids don't miss any school. Out of the 10 units on our street, we have 4 new families (and will eventually get more; we have 3 empty units). Yesterday we were able to meet several of our new neighbors when I hosted a neighborhood ice cream block party (I won it from Dreyer's a few weeks ago). Turns out there are several other hospital folks on this street and the adjacent one (including one of my husband's new residents). Always nice to have something else in common with the neighbors besides the payor on the paycheck!

Our big trip for August is getting closer. We've reserved our RV spots and our rental cars. I'm hoping it won't be too hot in SoCal. Just checked the almanac on Weather Underground and looks like the record high for the time period is in 80s, so shouldn't be too bad. Last year when we took our big 3-week trip, the mid-90s and 100+ temps we had on portions of our return trip made it nearly impossible to cool down the front half of the RV. Hopefully that won't be a problem this time.

Off to chillax for the rest of the evening....

Twice in one month?

Wow, 12 days into the month, and I'm already making a second post. I might be on a roll!

Halle leaves for church camp today. It's her first time, but she will be bunking with a friend from church and her friend's mom is the cabin counselor, so I'm sure she is going to do great. This camp is different from the ones we're used to. Each cabin has its own bath facilities and there are activities like archery and canoeing (and probably more I don't know about). Apparently it has a regular staff already; the churches just supply the counselors and a camp nurse. Anyhow, she is all packed and ready to go... she leaves after church today.

After Halle leaves, the rest of the kids and I will be headed back to base to get in line for a FREE early showing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I am sure the base theater will be packed to the gills. We've been looking forward to it for a couple of weeks, since we found out about it.

I have to pass on this video I saw at Carrie's a few nights ago.... some people think the beginning is cool, and I suppose it is, but I enjoy the rest of it even more. Enjoy!

The times, they are a-changin'

Hope everyone had a great Independence Day holiday (all 3 or 4 of you who read this...). We had a relatively relaxed weekend. Brian grilled some rib-eyes for our dinner on Saturday, then we headed downtown for a spot to watch the fireworks. I still am not used to needing to wear a jacket to watch fireworks.... it was quite windy and cool out. The fireworks were OK; nothing spectacular, but the finale was definitely the best part. We were several blocks from the park where the fireworks were being shot off and it was pretty loud to me from there; I can only imagine how loud it sounded to the folks actually in the park!

Our neighborhood is changing quickly this summer. The kids' best friends moved away at the beginning of June and last weekend their house and the one next to it got new occupants. One family is another homeschooling family with 6 kids ranging from 13 down to 1. The other is actually one of Brian's students. My kids have hit it off with the newcomers. There were several times last week when I had 9 kids in my house (8 if you don't count Emily, since technically she really wasn't hanging out with the others). Talk about chaos! But it was a good kind of chaos.

Big news in our family is that Brian has decided to retire from the Air Force. He has submitted his "application to apply" for retirement and is waiting to hear back. It is entirely possible we could be moving before the end of the year. Don't ask where, because we don't know yet. We are entirely open to God's leading on this. We'll have to see what kind of jobs are out there for him. Ideally, we will find something in a fairly homeschool-friendly state that isn't too far away from family. Brian is exploring all options. It's exciting and scary all at the same time! All prayers are greatly appreciated.

Alive and well

Much has happened since the last post. I spend most of my time on FaceBook and haven't taken the time to write anything here. But since today is my birthday, I decided I can spare the time. Thanks to all my FaceBook buddies who have sent me wishes over there. I feel very loved.

We had a great time in Malibu. It made me miss my church of Christ roots a lot. I know we are here for just a season and I am gaining much from being here, but all the same... I am looking forward to getting back to my roots a bit.

Emily finished up her junior year of high school with a cumulative GPA of 3.74. Not too shabby, considering she didn't take any weighted classes. She plans on finishing her senior year through independent study with University of Nebraska Lincoln's online program. We are waiting on the transcript evaluation from them so we can get her enrolled and decide on her last few classes. We found her a used Honda Civic to drive just before the end of school, so I got a reprieve from my 2 round trips to her school daily... that was nice. She is looking for a summer job to help keep gas in it.

Noah has passed me up in height now. At 13 1/2, he is almost 2 inches taller than me and about 2 inches shorter than his dad. I think he really is going to pass him up, too. He is still taking guitar lessons and learning a lot there.

Halle had a piano recital after we got back from Malibu. She did a great job and if she was nervous, certainly didn't show it. She is on hiatus from lessons right now (her teacher is in and out a lot in the summer), but is continuing to practice.

Joel is still taking drum lessons and is doing great. I love listening to him when he and his teacher "jam" together. Mynor (his teacher) will pull out his guitar and play and have Joel accompany him. I've recorded a few of their sessions on my iPhone.

Next week, the 3 younger kids are taking golf lessons at the base golf course. It's just a couple of hours in the morning, and they each get a set of clubs out of the deal. I figure so many people play golf, it's a good chance to learn the sport.

No big plans for the summer until August. We are taking the RV down to San Diego with Brian to attend the AANA conference down there, then head to Lake Forest at the tail end of that conference to attend the Celebrate Recovery Summit at Saddleback Church. We'll get home from that just in time to celebrate our 23rd anniversary on the 16th.

I won't make any more promises about how often I'll be back. No sense disappointing myself or anyone else.

Morning in Malibu

Howdy from beautiful Malibu, CA! We drove in yesterday in our RV and set up camp at Malibu Beach RV Park, just 2 short miles from the campus of Pepperdine University. We're looking forward to attending the Pepperdine Bible Lectures for the second time, the first being 3 years ago when we attended with several friends from Eastside Church of Christ in Antioch, CA.  This year, the trip was solo, but we're looking forward to seeing our Eastside friends again (Hi, Rick!), our good friend Jim from Omaha, and hopefully a few others, including some we've only known online. Tomorrow we are lucky to get to celebrate Jim's birthday with him by taking him out to eat. 

We had a good trip down yesterday. We left the base around 4:30-4:45am, after filling the tank at the base gas station. One more stop to top off the tank again and clean the windows, and we arrived here before noon. It's so nice to not drive/ride all day long!  I must confess though, Malibu Canyon Road is a little unnerving for me in a 35-ft. motorhome. It is very twisty and curvy, with some steep parts. I definitely prefer straight and level roads!

The weather looks to be gorgeous this week, with highs in the mid-upper 70s and lows in the upper 50s. We slept with the windows open last night and didn't get cold at all. Our RV site has a great view of the ocean, which is just across the street.  Brian and the kids spent 20-30 minutes at the beach yesterday afternoon. We have the better part of today to ourselves until the Lectureship starts this evening. Not sure what we'll do with our time. Brian and the kids may go back down to the beach. I brought a few books with me to pass the free time. 

Looking forward to getting up to the University tonight, especially for the opening song session. It's been a LONG time since we've heard some good a cappella singing and I am pumped!

Easter weekend recap

Hope everyone is recovered from their weekend. I sure hope I am, because I didn't do a lick of housework or laundry. So I know what I'm doing this morning...  I have some excuse, though.  I had some mighty full days this weekend. Brian was out of town and I had a lot of stuff on my plate. Saturday morning, I had Easter choir rehearsal at 10:30. It was nearly 1 by the time I left the church building from that. I had to make a stop to hunt up something to use for the kids' Easter baskets on my way home. So that left me getting home a bit after 2.

Then Halle and I went to see the Hannah Montana movie together. She redeemed her Christmas stocking coupon for "1 movie with the parent of your choice" so we could have a mommy/daughter date. Call me a sucker, but I liked the movie. I wouldn't even mind having the soundtrack (especially if it includes Rascal Flatts singing "Bless the Broken Road"). Just don't ask me to dance the "Hoedown Throwdown." Nothing good would come of it. 

Hung out with the kids the rest of the evening and hit the hay around 10ish since I needed to be up early for Easter. Unfortunately, it took me a while to fall asleep and then I kept waking up every hour or so through the night ... for some reason I tend to do that when I know I need to get up early. Wound up getting up around 5:30 to play Easter Bunny for the kids and get ready for church. Left at 6:30 so I could grab a couple boxes of donuts to take with me. Since the choir/worship team was going to be at church from 7-12:30, we all brought something to share/snack on between services. We had 3 services beginning at 8am. The second service was packed, and it made it even warmer than usual in the auditorium. But the singing was great... I could have sung all day if it wasn't for the standing up part!

Got home a little after 1 and grabbed the kids for lunch. We went to Outback (saw another family from church there, too). Then after we got home from there, I took a nap because I was plumb tired out. It sure felt good. Just kinda chilled the rest of the evening. So today I pay the piper: laundry, some housework, and probably grocery-shopping to round it out.

Happy April

I started to title this post 'Appy April, but then I thought folks might think I had an appendectomy... thus the boring title above.

Things are still moving at a breakneck pace around here, although yesterday was refreshingly laid-back. We actually had NO outside commitments. Didn't do a whole lot of anything, which was a nice change from the usual way things go. Joel stayed outside for a good part of the day and wound up with a sunburned neck (thankfully he was wearing long sleeves). 

Brian and Noah are leaving for Denver in the morning. Brian has a quick trip there to brief a General about something, and we had an airline voucher that was due to expire soon... so he took the opportunity to treat Noah to a father/son trip. They should have a lot of free time tomorrow to do some stuff together. They'll be back Tuesday night.

Spring break starts Wednesday afternoon for Emily. She doesn't go back to school until the 20th. There is a chance she will have play rehearsals during break... unless too many people will be out of town. This year's musical is "Grease," and she is playing the "Teen Angel" role (rewritten for the movie... Frankie Avalon's part). The really fun part of this is (and I am being totally tongue-in-cheek here) is that the dates for her play coincide with Halle's piano recital and a Christian music festival at which we are supposed to be helping man a CR booth.  It is going to be wicked crazy here that weekend in May, let me tell you!

Speaking of Emily and school... she is not going back next year. There have been a lot of changes in the last 3 years she has been there and most of them aren't ones we are too happy with. So she is going to finish up and complete her senior year here at home, probably with UN-L (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) and their online high school. She doesn't have too many credits left, since she had 8 classes a day the last 2 years.  And it will be loads cheaper than the $8K we were spending on this school for a year. Hopefully she will be able to get a part-time job as well to save up some $$ for college and stuff. The other cool thing about UN-L's program is that it's self-paced, so she can finish up as quickly as she wants... knock out the easier subjects (like English) and take as much time as she needs with others (like chemistry, if she decides to take it).

Anyhoo, the rest of April will be challenging as well. Just as spring break is ending, Brian will leave for another TDY and be gone another 9-10 days. Then he'll have one full week at home before we take the RV down to Malibu for the Pepperdine Lectures. Should be fun.... will get to see folks we haven't seen in a long time!

Heading to bed in a few minutes, after the dryer is done. Had to wash jeans for Noah to take to Denver with him and they are still going.