The stress is building

It is 2pm. So far today I have sat in an 1 1/2 long staff meeting, helped Fabulous Office Manager put a new program on her computer, walked around the high school campus visiting students, started my computer, eventually answered emails, put lunch in the microwave and made a list of things that I need for tonight.

In the next 3 1/2 hours I need to print out the insert for Sunday's bulletin, write and print out the brochure for the High School Snow Trip, buy supplies for tonight, wrap the white elephant gifts for tonight, compile songs for tonight's "carol-a-thon", write a letter to an unhappy person, put finishing touches on the media stuff for Sunday's worship service, send in the deposit and contract for a rental house for the Snow Trip, put together an estimate for the Snow Trip expenses, set up for tonight's games, post a blog on the Pearlington site about where we stand financially, put together a song list for R.A.W. and make sure I have the overheads, check out the memory information on Church computer and send that information to a friend who's helping figure out the memory problems...and the list goes on. Wait, pastor just called me, add to that list put together a lyric sheet so we can sing Silent Night out underneath the stars on Christmas Eve (if it doesn't rain).

Tomorrow is my silent retreat day, Christmas is a week away in 9 days I leave for Mississippi and I can feel the stress building, building, building.

Tuesday's Tips part 3

This week was the our Christmas Celebration at church. We had little drummer people, a whole pageant, lots of music, laughter and audience participation moments that were a lot of fun. Nothing like singing Jingle Bells with a group of people ringing bells. It was a great night. Music always is a huge part of these evenings and I realized that we have an amazing group of musicians, young and older, in the church. I love to see how God uses our unique, distinctive gifts to combine into one amazing celebration!

Which brings me to tip number one. There have been over 9 million viewings of this video and if you haven't heard it before, well, it's time to join the fun. Ready to smile? Watch this video.


Looking for Christmas music that is mostly original? Mary Chapin Carpenter just put out a CD called Come Darkness, Come Light that is fantastic with lots of original songs. My favorite song is the title track and any pastor doing a Blue Christmas service should take time to listen. It's good.

Need a little time out to just play? Try Elf Bowling! I stumbled upon this gem a few years ago, even had it on a floppy disc but lost it somewhere along the way. You can play for about 60 minutes for free at this site. And then you can try Polar Bowling for even more fun! Make sure the sound is on, they are pretty silly to listen too as well...but if you are at work, keep the sound low!

Looking for silly gifts for someone? Try the Container Store. They have great stocking stuffers, though they are a little pricey. Yo Momma and G.G. got luggage tags last year...which reminds me, one got lost off of Yo Momma's luggage this year. Hmmmm...

Now, just because I liked it, I share with you the following video which my friend Kimi shared with me last week. The object was to share the the Christmas Story in under 30 seconds at Churches Advertising Network and this is the winning video. I'm not sold on the whole church advertising thing but I like the creativity! Happy Tuesday!

Unbloggable

Unbloggable. I've read that term on my favorite blogs over the past couple of years but haven't really given it a lot of thought...until the last couple of weeks when issues or topics have come to mind and I really, really want to blog about them but yet there are complications. #1--Non-anonymity and #2--blogging about them could cause more issues than were originally there, thus rendering certain subjects unbloggable.

It makes me sad, really, to not be able to blog about some things going on in life because this place has become an outlet for me. I've found freedom here to put words on "paper" that sometimes would normally stay in my head...and there's the added bonus that friends and family whom I love dearly but tend to neglect get caught up on whatever is running through my mind at the moment. I'm also sad because I've found that whenever I start writing things down here, I begin to process them on a deeper level. I read the words that I write and then have to think about them, very carefully, before hitting that publish button. I could do as Meg suggested and write them all out and then erase, erase, erase. And maybe I will, though there is some kind of strange satisfaction with having my words read by someone else somewhere...and now I'm rambling.

There are things in life that are bloggable and there are things in life that are unbloggable. Unfortunately, today, is a pretty much unbloggable day.

Chips

A few years ago a young man came to youth group. He was not my favorite teenager. In fact I really dreaded when he came to youth group. There was a chip on his shoulder a mile wide that ran head long into any adult who dare, oh I don't know, discipline him! But I'm a youth director, and God has called me to be a vessel of love, hope and understanding to the young people whom I meet in life and so I grudgingly accepted this young man in our program and "put up with him".


Fast forward a couple of years and that young man has changed. The chip on his shoulder isn't quite as wide. I don't run head long into it anymore, in fact I realized recently that I haven't run across that chip in a long time. I will see him on the school campus at lunch and he will approach me to say Hi. He smiles more than he frowns and a while back when the rest of the group was getting kind of loud and I was trying to get the attention of the group, he was the first one tell everyone to quiet down. Yep, things have changed.


I was sitting by another young man a few weeks ago. Another one whom God had placed in youth group that I really, really struggled with. He came to group for awhile, disappeared and has reappeared again. You know, the same thing has happened. He's changed, though the chip on his shoulder is pretty prominent still. I enjoyed spending time talking with him, listening to the unspoken words as well as those spoken.

There are days when I wonder what God is doing, what the future holds and how much longer I will be in Youth Ministry. Don't get me wrong, I love what I do there is just always this voice in the back of my head saying "You can't do this forever.". I'm not sure whose voice it is, God's, Satan's or mine, and until I figure it out I will continue to do what God has called me to do...be a vessel of love, hope and understanding to the young people whom I meet in life. It's not an easy road but it's the road that God has me walking.

Tuesday Tips Week 2

This week has been jammed packed with all kinds of things happening. Mostly good, some frustrating and a few unexpected twists but overall good. Though the fact that the guy at the local Taqueria knows that I don't like salsa on my items probably isn't good nor the fact that upon walking into Starbuck$ on Sunday morning both people behind the counter knew exactly what I order. I am there too much!


I am a creature of habit, which is why doing these Tuesday Tip things are so fun. It's my chance to explore new things and pass those tidbits along to you, my internet friends! Are you ready?


Looking for music? I love Christmas Music. A lot. It's hard to just listen to Christmas Music for a month, I want to listen all year long. Loading my I-pod with Christmas music is on my list of things to do this week. In the meantime several people mentioned http://www.pandora.com/ this week. It's a free music site that is just too hard to explain but is pretty cool. Check it out for yourself. Oh, and it's got a lot more than Christmas music on there.


Time for a Christmas Tree? Yo Momma and I went Christmas Tree hunting with Train Guy and Adventure Boy on Friday. Last year we got a tree that we thought was the perfect height, until we cut it down...it was way too short. This year Yo Momma had the fabulous idea to bring a tape measure. It was great. We measured our tree before cutting it and wound up with a tree that is just about the right height. So, if you are going out to cut your own tree, bring a tape measure and figure about a foot and a half difference in the height...if you cut like we do!
Got pictures? I am horrible at printing out pictures. I have billions of pictures from all the adventures of the youth group, not to mention my own life. I've got a program that helps me fix pictures but my printer isn't the best and it tends to jam a lot, so I don't print out the pictures that often. But the other week I got a coupon for free photos from Costco. I uploaded my pictures to Costco.com, chose the size and number of photos and chose to pick them up at my local Costco, which I did the next day. It was so easy and the pictures looked good too. There will be several family members getting pictures for Christmas!

Planning on going on vacation and don't want to stay in a hotel? Try Vacation Rentals By Owner. People with Vacation properties in the US can list their homes on there with pretty reasonable prices...especially if you are going with a big group of people. I found a house in Mississippi for our March trip and have rented it again for the trip this December...as well as another one just down the street. I am scouring that site for a rental house in Tahoe for the High School Snow Trip. There are several great possibilities.

Enough said! Have a great day!

No room

"And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David's ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. He took with him Mary, his fiancee, who was obviously pregnant by this time.

And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the village inn." ~John 2:4-7 (NLT)

A couple of years ago some of the youth group members and I reenacted the Nativity story for our all Church Christmas Celebration. There were 5 people and a couple of the people had to play multiple parts, which always makes for a fun time. Train Guy was just a year old then so he got to be Baby Jesus...very cool. One of the youth, Doug, played the Inn Keeper in the story...not just one inn keeper but multiple inn keepers, for added effect. He's a man of few words anyway but we found that we never knew quite what Doug was going to do. One time he looked at Mary and Joseph and just said "No", another he just shook his head and pointed in the opposite direction. I think the last one went something like "I've got this barn out back." I haven't laughed so hard at a Christmas Pageant since then.

It's always been fascinating to me how much gets added to the Nativity story when we begin to retell it. Mary riding on a donkey into Bethlehem...find that one in the Bible. The Magi kneeling by baby Jesus' manger with the shepherds by their side...yeah probably not. And then there's the inn keeper. While I don't doubt the existence of the inn keeper, no mention is made about who this inn keeper actually was or if the inn keeper even offered Mary and Joseph a stable out back. For all we know, they could have just stumbled upon the stable and that's where they camped out for the night. The story is a little vague.

The point, though, is pretty clear. There wasn't any room for them in the inn. The place where it would be natural for an obviously pregnant woman (I love that translation!) to rest for the night had no rooms available. So Mary and Joseph wound up in a stable and the Savior of the world's first bed was a manger because there was no room for him.

I was struck the other day by this thought...there still isn't room for Jesus. We still find ways to block Jesus out of the most natural resting place for him, our hearts. I can spend much of my day doing a lot of busy work for Jesus and I can spend my nights talking to teenagers about Jesus but how much of my day is actually spent with Jesus. How much room do I make in my heart for Jesus every day? The sad truth is that there are far too many days that go by where I don't think about Jesus at all.

No room. That's the easiest line in a Christmas Pageant and really an easy line in my life. I have no room, no room for stuff, no room for people, no room for more...yet when I tell Jesus I have no room what am I missing out on? That's quite the question to ponder

Tuesday's Tips

So, this being the Christmas season and it seems fitting to share my most recent fun finds with y'all every Tuesday from now until Christmas. Hope you enjoy!

Looking for silly gifts? Fredflare.com is the place for you. There aren't words to explain, just look for yourself. I've found a gift for Cousin T (and if any of you family members are tempted to buy something for her from this site, please check with me first!), the perfect gift for Opinionated Friend and just all kinds of fun items.

Like coffee? Like chocolate? Like Yo Momma's Chocolate Torte Cake? Why not try it in beverage form? Starbuck$ new Espresso Truffle tastes just like that cake!

For the last few years I've enjoyed an online Advent Calendar at Banjobunny.com. There's a new door to open everyday with something fun on the other side. If you have sound on your computer turn it up!

And the final Tuesday Tip is this...if you are tired of getting Christmas presents that you don't use, that aren't practical to your life or that you just wind up returning, why not make a wish list! I've got two so far online so friends and family can find them and get me things off that list. The best part is it really works! So go to your favorite store online and start wishing! Oh, but it only works if you tell the rest of us where to find your list!