If Given A Chance

On Monday my sister and I made the trip home to gather with our family and say goodbye to one of our most precious members. After 38 years of living with Cerebral Palsy , my cousin Chance, left his wheel chair to dance in the presence of God.

How awesome it was to sit shoulder to shoulder with those who were blessed to know him and celebrate his full and fun life. He did more in 38 years than most do in a lifetime. His journey, while not an easy one, was clearly blessed by God. He had family, friends and caretakers that adored him. He had opportunities and he led.

Perhaps the most beautiful thing about his life was his desire to know God. He certainly questioned.  Who wouldn’t? But he never doubted. It was as if knowing God was his life’s mission and toward the end of his life, that relationship with God was sealed and strengthened. What a beautiful thing to watch.

We sang this song at Rock City on Sunday and as we sang it, I could picture Chance, no longer confined to his cumbersome wheel chair and limited speaking ability, running, dancing and singing with Jesus.

If given a chance, wouldn’t you want that? I look forward to playing all of the games we missed out on as children when I see him again someday. My bet is he’ll be a much faster runner than me.

Pinterest Makes Me Mean

I have always been a magazine lover. On any given day, you might find a Martha Stewart, Rachel Ray, Real Simple or Oprah magazine peeping out of my mailbox. I love to read through them, get ideas, recipes and make plans. Admittedly, I rarely, if ever actually do anything with those plans and I can probably count on one hand the times I have actually used a recipe found in one of my magazines. But it’s ok. Because magazines are just entertainment. They are produced by people who get paid to be creative and crafty. They aren’t real.

Enter Pinterest.

I was an early adopter of Pinterest. I jumped on the bandwagon fairly quickly because I loved the concept of endless creative sharing and evolution. And to my surprise, I find that I actually use quite a few of the ideas I come across on Pinterest. They seem a little more within reach. It’s a “if she can do that, I can do that,” type of thing.

But …

Pinterest also makes me mean. Or maybe it’s jealous or maybe sometimes after a perusing I feel like a big old loser.

I mean, who really has the time to wax seal monogram children’s birthday invitations or who, when at a dollar store, sees a pot scrubby and thinks: “I could make a gorgeous wreath out of that?” And then on top of that, who has the time, in between their homeschooling and making all of their own organic vegan baby food to blog about it with gorgeous layouts and pictures?

Who does that?

It’s the plight of women isn’t it. The constant comparing. The constant feeling like we’re not doing enough.

I love what Galatians 6:4 says to me about this very topic:

Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.

This hit me like a ton of bricks last night as my sister and I set out for our annual McCall Sister Christmas Cookie Baking Extravaganza. She’s a super busy ER Nurse with a little side business that is growing like a weed. You can see that HERE! I am coming off of the busiest week of my year and gearing up for another busy weekend ahead and then of course there’s Christmas.

Anyways … let’s just say we were ambitious. We had plans to make 5 or 6 kinds of cookies to share with all of our friends but after our first batch of peanut blossoms we looked at each other and said: “that’s it … we ain’t got no more to give.”

We popped our last blossom onto the cooling rack and then plopped ourselves right on the couch. And there we stayed for about two hours.

There was nothing Pinterest-worthy about it. But we had a wonderful time there on the couch and I left feeling recharged after a good long talk with my sis and lots of laughs instead of exhausted and cookie’d – out.

As we head into the Christmas homestretch, I challenge you to write out that verse in Galatians and post it somewhere where you can see it each day.  And then when your sister-in-law shows up to your family Christmas with home-made soaps wrapped in paper she pressed out of fresh pine leaves and organic wild oats, you won’t be quite as tempted to think bad thoughts about her in your pretty little head.

Shopping Local Marathon 2012

One of my very, very, very best friends came into town on Saturday for our Annual (this was technically the first year, but it was so fabulous, we feel confident in saying annual) Saturday-Before-Thanksgiving Local Shopping Marathon.

Sally and I met in college. She lived in the dorm room next to me our Freshmen year and the rest is history. She and the two other girls we lived with throughout college have been super close ever since. We have shared so many belly laughs and tears in the many years since that first year, it’s hard to remember my life before Sally.

Our friendship has seamlessly moved into this phase of “having children” and although we talk frequently throughout the week, these conversations are often cut short due to our children being, well, “children.” In fact just a few weeks ago, after hanging up abruptly, Sal called back to say: “Sorry I had to hang up so fast – Katie (her 2 year-old and my proud namesake) was opening the door of the car while I was on the highway.”

You get the idea.

We hardly ever get uninterrupted time just the two of us so we planned long ago to take a Saturday before Christmas without our husbands or kiddos. We mapped out our day with the intent of sticking with the many wonderful local stores here in Columbus. As expected, we had a blast and got some great, unique Christmas gifts and even a few things for ourselves.

If you are in the Columbus area, I encourage you to think about shopping local this Christmas. I love the Gap as much as the next girl, but shopping local is much more fun and it puts money right back into our economy. The receivers of your gifts will thank you.

Here’s the run down on the places we hit on Saturday:

We started off by taking a whirl through the Craftin Outlaws show at the Gateway Film Center. This ain’t your mama’s graft show.  There were no goose costumes or teddy bear figurines. Just super cool local artists. Sal and I both scored some great things here and met some great people. We’ll definitely be hitting this again next year. It was a great way to start out our day.

Then we hit a few of my favorites in the Short North. Bink Davies and my favorite Short North store to window shop and dream, Ladybird. I am still semi-regretting not buying the coat I looked at for like 20 minutes from Ladybird. I am hoping I might be able to snag it on sale after Thanksgiving.

Even though our tummies were rumbling and more than tempted by all the yummies in the Short North, we pressed on to a Dublin fav … The Morgan House. It’s kind of a Christmas must. Although I did see a goose costume there, it is so fun to walk through their endless rooms of Christmas fun. We got quite a few good stocking stuffers there and ate a delicious lunch.

Refueled and ready to go, we headed over the river to adorable Downtown Powell. I love all of the little antique stores in Powell. They are all very organized and their selections are great. My favorite is A Paris Flea Market. After antiquing it a bit, we made a quick stop into The Candle Lab and then ended the day at my favorite place in Columbus to buy children’s gift’s, Cute As a Button. I found some adorable things this trip for the girls. It never disappoints.

We had some pretty grand plans of making our day last into the night, but with Sally being 8-months pregnant and me being … well just tired, we called it an early night. Satisfied and chatted – out, the day was a success.

Till next year!

Oh and for those of you who don’t know what a Goose Costume is, here you go:

Days Away

We just returned from some wonderful time off. We’ve been blessed with some days away here and there since we launched Rock City in April of last year, but this was our first “Sunday” away and our first family vacation since we launched. The girls are at the perfect “Disney” age so we headed South just as the crazy cold rain hit Columbus.

Disney is a bit overwhelming. There are so many choices … stay at Disney or not? Dining plan or not? Drive or Fly?

Luckily, I had the assistance of an amazing travel agent who literally helped me plan every detail of our trip. She booked our dinner reservations, and even planned which days we should go to which parks to avoid the crowds. It was awesome and right up my “detail obsessed” alley.

If you are looking to head to Disney in the near future, I’d definitely give Amanda from Mouseketrips a call. Her services are free and she rocks.

Here are a few of my favs from our trip. The girls had an absolute, over the top, blast (as you can see). And Chad and I loved every minute of watching their little imaginations explode.

On The Phone With Santa

The Christmas Crazies hit our house this week. This may seem strange considering we haven’t even crossed into November yet, but I’ve been on edge all week. I couldn’t figure out why until yesterday.

I was on the phone with Santa (yes you heard me correctly) talking details with him about our outreach events in December. The girls were coloring in the dining room quietly. A little too quietly. While on the phone I walked in to check on them and realized they had gotten out about 8 bottles of sugar sprinkles and were in the middle of a massive craft mess. Without even thinking I barked, “Do you know who I’m on the phone with?” They looked up at me. “I’m on the phone with Santa. That’s right … Santa!”

It’s not every day you get to say that.

Apparently it made quite an impact on them because when I returned a few minutes later the room was spotless and the girls were sitting quietly staring at each other.

Mission Accomplished? No. First of all, I’m pretty sure that Santa thinks I’m crazy now which is never a good thing. Second, this was not the first time I had acted ridiculously this week with the girls. They are kids. They make messes. They know better but so do I.

When you are in ministry, the Christmas season comes to visit you in about July and comes to a head the last week of October (if you are organized and good at planning). It hit me as I hung up the phone with Jolly Old St. Nick that what I had this week was a full-blown case of Christmas Crazies. Somewhere in the midst of print deadlines, proof reading, marketing planning and scheduling, I had kind of lost it and my children were baring the brunt of it.

I am reminded of this quote from Lysa TerKeurst’s book “Unglued“:

“I am more than the sum total of my feelings and perfectly capable of that little gift from Jesus called self-control.”

I really need to tape that to my mirror. And probably my dash-board, fridge and forehead.

It’s true. Despite what is going on around me, how many things are on my to-do list or how many things my kids have broken that day, the God of the universe is with me and I don’t have to lose it. I don’t have to come unglued. And I certainly don’t have to drag Santa into it.

As we head into the Holiday season, let’s resolve to make this our mantra. Let’ not let the Christmas Crazies catch us. Let’s enjoy our children and all of the fun that surrounds this time of year.

And only…and I mean only as a last resort, should we call Santa. I can get you his number if you need it.

 

 

9 Things To Help Your Marriage Now! – Pt 3

Here are the final three of the 9 Things That Will Help Your Marriage Now.

You can read the first three HERE!

And the second three HERE!

7. We affirm each other publicly and privately. There’s nothing like hearing my husband was bragging on me to someone else. Husbands and wives want to know that their spouse is proud of them. What they do. What they’ve accomplished. The type of person that they are. Along those lines, Chad and I are both the type of people that desire honest and constructive feedback. There’s not a week that goes by that Chad doesn’t walk up to me after preaching a message to get my feedback. And I give it to him. Honestly and openly. But the tone in that moment must always be affirming. Even while pointing out some things that he could tweak to make it better, he needs my affirmation. He does the same for me.

8. We pray sneaky prayers. (This isn’t as weird as it sounds) I’m not the deepest sleeper. In fact, I normally wake up 2 or 3 times a night. This used to frustrate me to no end but several years ago, God really started to show me how much my husband needed me to pray for him. So, I started using those late night interruptions to do just that. Even if it’s just for several minutes each night. He has no idea I’m doing it, but I just quietly pray for him. Sometimes they are simple prayers, sometimes they are bold and crazy God’s-gonna-do-it prayers.  Rather than just laying there frustrated that he is sleeping like a bear in hibernation next to me and I’m wide awake, I make the most of my time and get some work done with God.

9. We just say no. I’ll never forget our first Christmas as a married couple. The thought had never occurred to me that I would no longer be waking up at my parents house on Christmas morning. When I mentioned this to Chad, I thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head. “Katie, we need to begin our own family traditions.” He was right, our lives had changed. It didn’t mean we didn’t see our families on the holidays, of course we did. But it meant that we had to start disciplining ourselves to ensure our family (and especially once we had kids) had the time and space to connect and be strong. This means that sometimes we have to say no. Even to our families. It means we don’t hop to 7 houses on Christmas Day and drag our kids to 6 Thanksgiving Dinners. It means our kids actually enjoy the holidays and aren’t beyond exhausted by the end of them. I’m thankful to Chad for making this a priority for our family. I never could have imagined the difference it would make and how good it would feel to just say no!

That’s a wrap. Obviously, this is not an exhaustive list. Marriage is much more than these 9 simple things, but perhaps you are at a place in your life, like I often find myself in, where you just need to start somewhere. Take some step forward. Start today. Start something simple toward making your marriage what you want it to be. I’d love to hear how it goes!

9 Things To Help Your Marriage Now! – Pt. 2

Yesterday I shared with you three simple things that Chad and I have found help prevent us from throwing the remote at one another (come on don’t act like you’ve never done that!). You can see them HERE.

And here’s three more that work for us:

4. We let each other sleep in. I know many women who have the “well…if I have to be up at 5:30am with the kids, my husband’s going to be up with me.” attitude. Why? This has never made sense to me. Perhaps their husbands are pleasant and polite when they get up at 5:30, but mine is not. 9 out of 10 days, I get up early with the kids. And I am ok with this. When I need sleep, he let’s me sleep. I don’t assume he knows when I need sleep. I tell him. “Chad – I need sleep or something really bad is going to happen.” Then he rolls out of bed  (albeit grumbly) and entertains the kids. It’s great. There is absolutely no sense in us both being exhausted. So we let each other sleep when we need it.

5. We put our phones away. Once our kids are in bed (and often right when we get home from work), we put our phones away. And by away I mean on silent and out of sight. Our type-A, overachiever, workaholic tendencies go into overdrive when we hear our little phone dinging away with retweets, new emails and texts. We are busy. So that means our time at home has to count.

6. We don’t talk about anything serious after 9:00pm. This includes money, a fight that’s been brewing, major work stuff or major family stuff. We find that if we do, we end up saying things we don’t mean because of our exhaustion. This is hard for me to do because I have “deal with it now” tendencies. But nothing discussed after 9:00pm ever ends well for us. So we try not to do it.

Thanks for all the feedback. Keep it coming! I’d love to hear what works for you! And check back tomorrow for the final three.