365 Days of Service

Day 49 - July 29

I spent the evening serving at the Internet Campus at LifeChurch.tv tonight. It seemed as though a lot of the people who reached out for help were having connection problems. I’d accept their request and they would ask a couple of questions and then get disconnected. I hope it wasn’t a technical problem on the church’s end - what a bad first experience! I did get to talk to one man for a while tonight and by the end of our conversation I was able to see that he needed some additional help. I gave him Robert Davis’s information to hopefully get him into a men’s LifeGroup or at least be able to ask some more searching questions. I try not to get too involved with the men that I speak with at the campus just because I know that Robert has a great ability to speak to them far better than I could most of the time. It was a good worship experience, too, the At the Movies series ended with “Amazing Grace”. That movie is a great one to see anyway and Craig did a great job sharing the underlying theme about being blessed with a burden.

I didn’t cook tonight since we ate chicken enchilada leftovers (I added the enchilada sauce - yum). After church we played some Wii and I continued working on a painting I started while on vacation in Nashville. It’s a new idea and I hope it works out well. I’ll probably have to start including pictures of my paintings in posts too. That would require taking a picture, though…

Oh, I also watched the latest show of Design Star from Sunday. I hadn’t had a chance to see it yet. Is anyone else watching Design Star? I voted for Jennifer. I just liked her personality from the beginning and I really like the painting she does on the walls. I am probably partial to painting. I love David Bromstad’s stuff too.

This is just a post to introduce you to two wonderful little guys. I’ve hand-raised these two kittens since they were 10 days old. Kittens don’t get much funnier or sweeter than these guys. Friends of mine found them in their attic after mama abandoned them. I had never hand-raised or bottled orphaned kittens before. Trust me, I won’t be doing it again anytime soon. But this was a great experience and I truly couldn’t imagine a better outcome than these two hilarious brothers. They are ready to be adopted and I really hope they go to awesome families. Ponder is black and white with a cute pink nose. Pickles (because when he was tiny he managed to get into some pretty interesting situations) is all black with a speck of white here and there. Are you interested? You can find out more about the adoption process through the Oklahoma Humane Society’s web site. I’d be happy to answer any questions!!

Day 48 - July 28

As I have established the pattern of going to Mercy Ministry to serve on Monday nights, tonight was no exception. I arrived around 6:30 to find just two guys from the LifeGroup scheduled ready to work - just three of us! No worries, though, these guys had an incredible system for getting the groceries in the (at least) 150 bags we had to fill. They would fill one of the two bags for families with 1-2 members first, all at once, then they would go to the next bag and fill all those at once. It’s difficult to explain, really, but their system was genius. I can’t wait to tell other people about it. We were done in no time at all and I was expecting to be there much later than usual. So what a great night. And it was also the hottest day of the year in Oklahoma so I got to sweat a bunch in the warehouse. I decided a workout at the gym was unnecessary.

I made mexican food tonight - well, probably more tex-mex - but it was delicious. You can find the recipe on Real Simple’s web site. I found it in the magazine and made just a few adjustments. I didn’t use the salsa at all - none of the ingredients in it would be on my list. I also used a little sharp cheddar in place of the Monterey Jack cheese and also sprinkled some on top before baking (that was the cheese I had). I served it with sour cream, so it wasn’t too dry but after making it once I would recommend a can of green enchilada sauce (find it at any grocer) before baking to maintain moistness and add a little flavor (following the recipe the enchiladas got too dry after just 10 minutes of baking and no sauce). These were delicious and packed with veggies and protein from the chicken. Definitely will be made again.

Oh, and as a side note, I spend about an hour cooking everyday. This is not feasible for busy families and people with small kids, two jobs, etc. So I just wanted to warn you about the time required before you got started. But, maybe you’re not as slow as I am so you might give it a try anyway.

Day 47 - July 27

Now, having just returned from a week with a 5-year-old and at nearly 2-year-old, you’d think I’d have been able to walk right into a room full of 3-year-olds and feel like I knew what I was doing. But I wasn’t sharing my vacation with a room full of 3-year-olds, so I didn’t exactly get to practice that particular scenario. I went to the Oklahoma City Campus of LifeChurch.tv today to serve in the toddler room like I do every Sunday afternoon. This week, however, they were short on volunteers to work with the 3-year-olds and asked if I would mind jumping in there. I said, of course not! Haha, how easily God redirects my energy!

It was a room full of very energetic kids, to say the least. Half of them got scared or upset when they were dropped off so I spent a lot of time consoling kiddos. It was sweet to see them warm up to the room, the other kids, and most especially all of the different kinds of entertainment in there (now I better understand all those toys and accessories parents have with them at restaurants, movie theaters, grocery stores). These guys are non-stop and they need a lot of entertainment! Other than a few little disagreements about the balls for basketball - some of the boys are going to need to work on their sharing - we had a good time. It was definitely a unique experience and I was happy to get home to the quiet again.

I love to cook, this is random I know, but I am going to start posting what it is I am cooking here too, so I can look back and remember the recipes that I really loved. Today was Chinese food day. I’m off the gluten-free diet right now because I am going to have a blood test done Monday. You have to have the glutens in your blood to know if you’re intolerant of them, does that make sense?

I found a couple of used Chinese cookbooks this weekend and decided I was going to give Moo Goo Gai Pan a try. After about an hour of labor, it was a total success. It was missing something, some spice that I am still at a loss to name, but otherwise very good. I served it with brown rice. Definitely a recipe I’ll try again soon. There are a lot more in the new cookbooks that I want to try too. Can’t wait for some lo mein or chow mein.

Does anyone want the recipe? I was wondering if it would benefit anyone to include that.

Day 46 - July 26

After a week away from the house and honestly, a few weeks away from good cleaning, I spent the day taking care of our house. I try to keep the place clean, but it’s not easy with a lot of pets, work, life and all the other things I’d rather choose to do. I knew I just needed to bite the bullet and get the place cleaned out. When all was said and done I think I’d thrown out 4 garbage bags full of stuff. Several of those bags was old records I’ve been shredding for a while (don’t ask me why I have records of bills we had at the house in Houston three years ago - why do we keep this stuff??)

It was a good day that felt really productive. I didn’t schedule any outside service and just focused on our family’s needs and the need for good old-fashioned cleanliness. It helped me really feel like I accomplished a lot and made our home a nice place to come home to after vacation. Hopefully now that it’s all straightened up it will stay that way. We’ll see how long it lasts…

Day 45 - July 15

Sadly, today is the last day of our vacation and time with family. We’ve had a lot of fun touring Memphis with them and playing and taking it easy in Nashville. My sister-in-law wrote her own post about our time together. I have some photos I need to add here.

We got up this morning and attempted to put my brother’s house back together. Ryan and I aren’t exactly slobs but we definitely don’t compare to Julie’s idea of neat house guests. I took the sheets off the bed and carried them upstairs. I tried to gather up all the trash and dishes we’d accumulated in our room and picked up the toys that I knew how to put away. When the morning had passed and we were packed and ready to go I thought the house was at least presentable. I don’t think Julie minds having us all over, but I noticed a lot less cleaning as the week went on… perhaps she thought she was wasting her time picking up after us!

Thanks Ethan, Julie, Alyssa, Megan and JoJo for a wonderful vacation and break from reality. It’s a lot of fun to insert yourselves into another family for a little while and see what fun you can have together! We miss you guys and can’t wait to do it all again at Christmas time.

Day 44 - July 24

I was going into and out of my brother’s backyard when I was mowing, which also meant going into and out of his gate. The first time I opened it I had to move this big rock out of the way to even get it open. That’s dumb to have a rock there, I thought. Then it occurred to me that the rock was actually a “part” of the gate - meaning the gate had to rest on the rock to be able to latch shut! To me, that was hilarious. So, I spent this evening repairing my brother’s gate. It is strange how they built the fences in his neighborhood. Not only does it create challenges to lawn care - mowing and edging are much more difficult - but I think it also made their gate unusually heavy. Basically, the solution was to remove the 1 1/2 bolts holding the hardware in place and replace them with 3 1/4 inch bolts. It was a fun little project and I am proud to say that the rock is no longer a necessary part of the gate.

Day 43 - July 23

Still on vacation with my family, I was doing my best to help out around the house. At some point today I got cold sitting on the couch in my brother’s living room so I turned off the ceiling fan. My sister-in-law asked about it later and I said that I had turned it off. This turned into a funny discussion about how they never turn them off so that she doesn’t have to clean them. (I guess when they are still, you notice the dirt more than when they are running?) At our house I have to clean our ceiling fans on a regular basis. I’m no stranger to that task. So, although it isn’t terribly exciting I volunteered to clean their ceiling fans. It wasn’t until some days later that I realized I missed one. Well, the girls were sleeping in that room, so is that my fault?

Day 42 - July 22

When we arrived in Nashville at my brother’s house I noticed his lawn was a little long. Well, maybe Ryan noticed and mentioned it, but either way it was ready for a cut. I decided to serve my brother today by cutting his lawn. It was actually a pretty nice morning for the task - not too hot, not too sunny and I even had a slight breeze blowing. It is funny how drastically different their grass is from our own in Oklahoma. I got out about five trash bags expecting to use every one of them for the grass clippings - pretty normal for a cut at our house. I didn’t even fill an entire bag when I was done. This grass grows crazy and not very dense. So it turns out it was an easy gesture that I hope will make my brother’s day a little easier. My sister-in-law was giving us a hard time (because Ryan mentioned edging the grass when I was done cutting) and I guess since we’re on vacation it might be a strange thing to get out of bed and do. But since I’ve been serving people everyday, it comes so naturally to seek out those opportunities. It just doesn’t seem all that weird anymore. Besides, I sweat and worked hard enough I can avoid the gym for one more day. Works for me.

Day 41 - July 21

Ryan and I drove to Memphis Tennessee on Sunday night to meet up with our family there. We were then driving today to Nashville where they live to stay with them for a few days. I really appreciate Ryan’s ability to drive hours at a time with minimal stops and few needs. I purchased an audio book for us to listen to and as long as I kept that going, he was a driving machine. I, on the other hand, know that I missed a few minutes or chapters here and there - nodding off in the car is my specialty.

Thanks to Ryan’s vigilance we arrived in Nashville safe and sound and I was finally able to take a much needed nap. Riding in the car is exhausting. After I woke up I wanted to serve Ryan to thank him for all his driving. He’s a pretty undemanding person so serving him comes naturally to me. I wanted to make a point of doing something special to thank him so I made him some dinner. He just wanted salad and sandwiches. But hey, I hope the gesture was enough. We’re in Nashville now spending time with my brother’s family . It should be a very nice visit and a great break from normal life.