My heart is pretty full right now.  J4 has been working his butt off to keep our home in good condition.  Spent the hot hours of the day treating our driveway.  I love that man.

We have lived in this home for over 11 years.  Neighbors have come and gone.  Ashamedly, after really good friend neighbors on either side of us moved away, and then we had J5, we retreated into our home and have not reached out to know our new neighbors.

Today, we were blessed with several moments of kindness.  One neighbor helped out when our tar-spreader-squeegie-thingie broke by loaning us his.  Then, he brought over peaches from their tree in the back yard.  Seriously yummy.   A little while later, another neighbor stopped by with a bag of fresh tomatoes from his garden.  I’m eating a fresh tomato sandwich as I write.  Doesn’t get much better than this!

In turn, I plan to make a double batch of my Corn, Avocado & Tomato Salsa (Ok, it’s not MY recipe, but I make it a lot…) and return the neighborly gesture.  Maybe even go a step further and give to a neighbor who didn’t do something nice for us today?  I really want to develop a much stronger pay-it-forward mentality!

Hey there - here’s one of the great new books I hope to read in the next month or so. Until I complete the 60-60 Experiment and Soul Revolution, I will probably be out of commission for book reviews. But the look out! I’ll crank back into book reading mode like crazy!

Book Summary:

Most of us have no idea where we’re going most of the time. Perfect. “Celtic Christians had a name for the Holy Spirit–An Geadh-Glas, or ‘the Wild Goose.’ The name hints at mystery. Much like a wild goose, the Spirit of God cannot be tracked or tamed. An element of danger, an air of unpredictability surround Him. And while the name may sound a little sacrilegious, I cannot think of a better description of what it’s like to follow the Spirit through life. I think the Celtic Christians were on to something…. Most of us will have no idea where we are going most of the time. And I know that is unsettling. But circumstantial uncertainty also goes by another name: Adventure.” –from the introduction

Author Bio:

Mark Batterson is the lead pastor of Washington, DC’s National Community Church, widely recognized as one of America’s most innovative churches. NCC meets in movie theaters at metro stops throughout the city, as well as in a church-owned coffee house near Union Station. More than seventy percent of NCC’ers are single twentysomethings who live or work on Capitol Hill. Mark is the author of the best-selling In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day and a widely read blogger (www.markbatterson.com). He lives on Capitol Hill with his wife, Lora, and their three children.

It’s been a rough couple of days.  I have been wrestling, fighting, struggling.  With God, with myself, with doubt and frustration, with anger, with fear.  Lots of white noise in my head.

I sat down for my coffee and Bible time today and was brought to this:

But now God has shown us a different way of being right in his sight - not by obeying the law but by the way promised in the Scriptures long ago.  We are made right in Go’s sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins.  And we can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done.
– Romans 3:21-22

I do not know why it is that I must always return to my default way of thinking…that I need to earn my place in God’s favor.  That in order to be loved and approved I must obey.

Everything in my being screams, but we MUST OBEY.  I just have many years of being warned against the “slippery slope” thinking that I run to the opposite, which is legalism.  Hateful, miserable, no hope legalism.

I want grace.  I want to have it.  I want to “get it”.   I want to really understand it.  I want to be a channel of it.  I want to fully accept it.  God help me…

Click HERE to visit
I’m an Organizing Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday

Much more on target this week with the menu plan.

Weekday Dinners & Weekend Breakfasts

Monday - Butter Beef on Egg Noodles; Edamame

Tuesday - Leftover Beef

Wednesday - Crock Pot Thai Chicken Thighs; Asian stir-fry mix veggies

Thursday - Leftover chicken

Friday - Carryout or Pizza or Spaghetti…who knows?

Saturday - Canadian Bacon, Egg & Cheese Sandwiches

Sunday - Bacon, Eggs, & Hash Browns

There’s a lot going on in my head, in my life, in my spirit.  I have wanted to blog about it several times, but I don’t yet have the words.

This Experiment has, so far, been the most profoundly impactful thing I’ve done.  It’s bringing things to the forefront that I haven’t really dealt with yet.  It’s humbling me and refining me.  It’s also giving me a level of connection with God that I don’t know if I’ve maintained very often, but don’t want to do without.

I got a copy of Soul Reflection yesterday (Thanks, Mike!), and I can tell you this…when it’s released, I’ll be recommending it to anyone who wants to change their life.

God is good.  God is here among us.  And he’s ready for you, whenever you ask!

Click HERE to visit
I’m an Organizing Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday

Ok, so I’m a little slow.  Just realized why it’s a phenomenal idea to be part of this Menu Plan Monday.  Sure, it’s fun to be part of something, and yeah, I like a little extra traffic, but DUH!  When I sit down to do this most hated of all household chores, there’s actually a whole bunch of other women who have shared what they came up with for the week!  And some of them even actually link to recipes and show pictures!  Woo-HOO!  (I still hate doing it, but thanks for making it all a bit easier!)

Weekday Dinners / Weekend Breakfasts

Monday - BLTs & Chips

Tuesday - BBQ Crockpot Chicken, Salad

Wednesday - Leftover Chicken, Salad

Thursday - Easy Roasted Pork, Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes, Mixed Veggies

Friday - Leftover Pork, Potatoes

Saturday - Biscuits & Sausage gravy

Sunday - Leftover biscuits & gravy

Wow. That’s all I can say, really. I probably won’t be posting a great deal of details about my journey. I am journaling offline. I do hope to post once in a while with any particularly impactful discoveries.

I’ve been carrying around a kitchen timer all day.  It’s amazing how fast an hour can go sometimes.  But I’m not complaining.  There’s a lot to be said for choosing to remember on an hourly basis that I am not alone - that God is RIGHT HERE all the time, ready to interact with me whenever I want/need to.

I’m still praying and looking for a few people to participate in this challenge with me.  If anyone is interested, you can click HERE to view the first two chapters of John’s book.   And if anyone is already participating in the Experiment, I would love to hear how it’s going for you!

“For the next 60 days, try to stay in a continuous, honest conversation with God, willing to do his will moment by moment.”

– SoulRevolution.net

This is the beginning of a challenge put forth by John Burke in his soon to be released book, Soul Revolution: How Imperfect People Become All God Intended.

John Burke spoke at the Leadership Summit and lodged some serious nuggets in my brain.

I missed out on being able to buy an advanced copy of his book.  :(  Sadly, I was unaware that it had not yet hit stores, so I just figured I’d pick one up from Amazon.  It will not be shipped until October 1.

But God is moving in my mind and in my heart.  I am going to start the challenge by myself, right now.  Life’s too short, and this is too important, to put off until later.

Anyone want to join me?

I read Dave Ferguson’s blog entry last night on hearing from God everyday.

I watched portions of a video on the DARPA Grand Challenge, a competition to create driverless cars.  In the video they explained how the software had to be written to handle the plethora of course corrections needed to keep the vehicles on course as things in the environment changed around them.

I realized that we’re made exactly the same way.  We can’t expect our weekly “church fix” of guidance from God to keep us fed and motivated and guided through all the “stuff” that comes up throughout the week.  Goodness - try all the “stuff” that comes up throughout a single DAY!

Not unlike the satellites that feed directions to the GPS units, we have a Father who has the birds’ eye view of life as we know it.  Why WOULDN’T I tap into that?  He’s free.  He’s available 24/7.  No hardware needed.

Yeah.  Just a thought…

• 721.  Working for an organization whose owners believe in enabling genuine leadership.
• 722.  The sound of my son “reading” his books.  Happily.  In bed.
• 723.  A day spent with my mom.
• 724.  A spiritually refilling day to prep me for more potentially stressful health news.
• 725.  Finding ways to “pay it forward”.
• 726.  Hot coffee in a new thermal mug.
• 727.  Finding I can use Yahoo Messenger with my very antiquated cell phone.
• 728.  Scripture reading assignments for church (currently Nehemiah) - love to learn new stuff, and know that others are reading about the same things as I am.
• 729.  J5 getting to spend time with BOTH his grandmas.
• 730.  Sunshine