My darling husband came home yesterday, put some money in my hand and said, "Go enjoy yourself this afternoon!" (Sorry, ladies- he's taken!!) So I took myself out for a quiet afternoon movie. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day was one of the most adorable movies I have seen in quite a while, and was perfect for an afternoon of escape. If you haven't heard of the film do yourself a favor and check out the preview.

First off, the amazing set decoration and costumes from the pre-war, art deco period were like truffles for the eyes. Amy Adams seemed made for the figure-flattering, lady-like fashions of those days, and the makeup was a product junkies dream! As a fan of period dramas, I was impressed with the attention shown to the gorgeous interiors. All of this served as a jewel-box of a backdrop for the story of a day of change for two very different women.

On a deeper level, watching the relationship between Delysia and her unlikely new social secretary, Miss Pettigrew, develop over the day they spend together is truly heart-warming. In a classic sense, both characters prove a foil for the other. They each need the other's strengths and help the other to develop into a fuller character. At the end of the movie, I wanted a Miss Pettigrew of my own! The performances by Francis McDormand and Amy Adams are "spot on", as the posh Londoners in the film would say, with Adams taking her adorable-ness from Enchanted to a new level!

Having seen another pre-WW II film lately, Atonement, I was astounded at how opposite the two films are. Atonement was a dark, dreary story with a highly unsatisfactory ending, while Miss Pettigrew was seemingly light on the surface, with a depth of story that tugged at your heartstrings in the end. It was the kind of film that felt just like a classic from the time period in which it is set, calling to mind the fantastic 1939 film The Women and I plan on buying the DVD as soon as it is released. If you get the chance, go and have yourself a lovely afternoon too!

PS-Keep in mind that there is a flash of male bum, some profanity, and Delysia's moral character certainly leaves a little to be desired, but nothing over the top. Delysia's immorality amazingly helps us to develop sympathy for her as the movie goes on. Just wanted to warn anyone who might have delicate sensibilities.

Kids Update

A few of you long-time readers may be wondering how Nathan and Carissa have been doing during my long absence from blogging.

Nathan is doing great! He's coming up on twelve this summer (and I'm trying to practice admitting I have a twelve year old!), and 6th grade has been his best so far. He attends a great school with two of the best teachers on earth, and loves participating in adapted sports such as volleyball, bowling and basketball. He has been quite healthy and his CMS is in a very stable phase. He constantly entertains us all with his sense of humor and has really been working on making sounds and vocalizing recently.

Carissa is a wonder. She has finally finished potty-training and is smarter than her Daddy and I combined, although we are fighting hard to keep her from figuring that out yet! I must admit that I loooove having a three-year old-I never know what she will say next, and her observations on life force me to look at things through brand new eyes. She has become Mommy's buddy lately, and loves helping with any type of housework or chore (which I'm sure she will completely outgrow long before the teen years start!) She has a cadre of about six imaginary friends that she "leads/bosses" all around the house, and is convinced that all girls are princesses.

States I've Visited

I came across this neat website that makes a map of all of the countries or states that you have visited. Since I have yet to go out of the good ole USA, I chose the states map, but for a little girl from South Carolina, I've traveled far more than I thought would be possible. And I'm looking forward to more, so New England & the Midwest-watch out!


(By the way-I've been meaning to post this since our sabbatical ended in September, so that may give you some idea of how busy things have been for us lately, and will hopefully help to explain my absence in cyberspace.)

"This Temple is going to end up far better than it started out, a glorious beginning but an even more glorious finish: a place in which I will hand out wholeness and holiness." Haggai 2:9b (The Message)

I often wonder if I am the only person who aches for wholeness. Stout, sturdy, dependable wholeness to replace the cycle of brokenness that occupies so much of my time and attention, taking me away from all of the things I could be doing for God. Just when I think I'm getting it all together and going in the same direction, I discover that the damage from the brokenness was more extensive than I had thought, and that the last patch-job I pasted over it will not be enough to hold. It will require more demolition, tearing out long-rotten beams and moldy, unsteady wood, and more down-time until the repairs are complete. In those times, wholeness and holiness become the unattainable, that golden ring at the far away end of the long, dark tunnel. A longing so silent it moves from being a prayer with words to just a sigh.

The prophet Haggai was speaking God's words to the leaders and the people who had dragged themselves back from captivity to nothing but brokenness and damage, intent on rebuilding the glorious temple in Jerusalem. The mind-boggling promise is extended to them by the Almighty Himself that the rubble they were laboring over would one day eclipse the glory of the former temple, whose walls were made of gold and floors of precious stones. Almost buried at the end of this amazing, improbable, illogical promise is a tiny little statement that changes this resurrected temple from a magnificent, museum-like structure to a working, bustling place of business. The eclipsing, consuming, glory-saturated second temple would become a place where the broken themselves could line up to help themselves to the stacks of wholeness and holiness that God will be handing out over His counter. My imagination sees the equivalent of a middle-eastern bazaar mixed with a roadside lemonade stand, only with a business owner whose motive isn't profit at all, only blessing others with his much-needed product.

As we study any prophecy in the Bible we understand that God is speaking to both that specific people and place in time as well as to the future church. So essentially, God is saying that our churches today can be this glory-laden, fully-stocked, holy trading post where wholeness and holiness are flying off the shelves. If you woke up tomorrow, logged on to the Internet and found out that the store right down the street from you was giving away the thing you've always wanted most in the world, whatever it is, for free as long as the supply lasted, wouldn't you run out the door and down there as fast as your feet would take you? I know I would forget my day's schedule, my makeup, even whether I still had my pajamas on just to get there.

My heart is rejoicing today, as I pray yours is as well, that the longed-for wholeness I seek is finally within reach. All I have to do is respond to the merchant's voice, crying out from behind his crowded counter, "Wholeness! Get your free wholeness here!" He is waiting, smiling and patient, to hand over that which we can never fully obtain ourselves, having already completed the purchase price with his own life.

Trendy Toddler?

My 2-year old daughter just looked at me with her little brow furrowed, pointed at my shirt and said, "Mommy, are you going to wear that to church tonight?"

Dear God, does it start this early???

Proverbs 32

A PW (Pastor's Wife) friend of mine informed me of this, courtesy of the website Lark News:

JERUSALEM — Archaeologists and scholars say a scroll unearthed in present-day Palestine is a long lost chapter of the ancient book of Proverbs. The so-called "thirty-second chapter" reveals that the industrious woman portrayed in Proverbs 31 was a myth, albeit a cruel one.
"This is a day of liberation," said Jennifer Scorgan, the speaker at a women's retreat in Ohio, when news about the discovery filtered in. The meeting was interrupted to make the announcement, and women burst into tears, then stood on their chairs and cheered.
"Four thousand years of impossible expectations have just been lifted," Scorgan bellowed as hundreds of women embraced each other and gave high fives.
"'Revolutionary' is not too strong a word for the chapter's content," said Wanda Benedict of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, lead researcher for the team. "As we translated it, we started getting tingles."
The scroll, viewed by journalists in Jerusalem, includes the final words of Proverbs 31 — the famous chapter which lays out a lifestyle for godly women. The text then continues: "Ha ha ha, fooled you. Anyone who took the last part seriously must have a major performance complex. Here's the deal. Forget the home business, making clothes for the kids or putting a hot meal on the table every night. A woman ought to do what she can to get by. Raising a family can drive you nuts, so just try to survive. If that means waking up late and lolling around in your jammies until noon, go for it. Go to the mall, buy something nice for yourself. You deserve it, girl. It's your life. Don't sweat it too much. God loves you no matter what. Here ends the holy book of Proverbs and the sayings of King Lemuel, learned from his mother."
As news of Proverbs 32 spread through Christian circles, women around the world erupted with joy. In India, a women's prayer group stood in the streets and ripped Proverbs 31 from their Bibles, then danced on the pages.
"We are free!" they chanted.
In Australia, Christian women openly rejoiced.
"I've been shamed by that chapter far too long," said Sally Winters, 42, of Brisbane. "Every Mothers Day I grit my teeth through sermons about the so-called ideal wife. This [new scroll] is unbelievably refreshing. The writer of Proverbs was wiser than I thought."
"Now if only they'd find a chapter about the Proverbs 33 man," added another woman.
Publishers say they will add Proverbs 32 to Bibles beginning in 2004.•

I cannot even begin to put into words how ecstatic this make me! For years that woman has intimidated the heck out of me. I cringe every time I see a new book about her in the Christian bookstore. I get hives whenever someone invites me to a bible study on her. I become especially nervous when Chris is reading in that general area of Proverbs-I don't want him getting any ideas about that 'makes all her own clothes' bit! Well, now we can all breathe a sigh of relief, sleep 'till noon, and go splurge on shoes and manicures! Yeah!

PS-This post is entirely 'tongue-in-cheek', as the article is a joke, and is in no way trying to imply any disbelief in the infallibility of scripture on my part.

Spectacular Seattle!!

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Since I have already shared some of our pics from Orlando in earlier posts I thought you might enjoy some snapshots of our time in Seattle, Tacoma and Gig Harbor. I really think this part of the country is pretty close to heaven on earth!

Farewell, Sabbatical!

I can't believe that our five-week sabbatical is over already! This time away from our responsibilities of caring and planning for our congregation has been more restful, more enriching, and more restoring than I had dared to hope. I now have a better perspective on just how close to total burnout Chris and I both were. That noted, I must say that after this month I am more relaxed, centered, healthy and happy than I remember being in years. But the really good news is that I feel we have laid the ground work for both of us to remain on this track of better health and perspective for the foreseeable future.

One of the main highlights of our month for me was seeing United at Team Church '07. That concert was one of those transcendent experiences you remember your whole life. And it wasn't just the concert, it was the time that we got to spend hearing the members of United talk about their music and their heart for worship and justice that made this a memorable experience.

I freely admit that I am a United junkie. I have loved their music since I heard my first United CD, and if I were a twenty-one year old, I think I would just travel the world going to all of their concerts! (In fact, it is quite possible that I have a crush on Joel Houston! He's like a modern day David. He's really tall, he has a ruddy complexion and he's pretty cute to look upon, if a middle-ish-aged preacher's wife may observe. Add in his deeply moving song lyrics, and all I can say is "Ahhh!" I have always had a thing for musicians-Chris was a drummer when we fell in love. I told Chris that if I were a teenaged girl I think I'd have his poster on my wall!) Okay, back to reality now...

I came away from their sessions during the conference deeply impressed with the spiritual maturity of these young men and women-their naked hunger for God and His presence, and their undeniable commitment to seek justice for the poor and downtrodden. There was a passion and a driving purpose in these young people that I have not seen even in career ministers of the gospel! And to hear their hearts and then to go see them in action, using their phenomenal talents for the glory of God and seeing hundreds of youth worshipping with abandon after waiting in line for hours to get in to the venue was truly a life-changing experience.

Not only did I enjoy this from a music and worship standpoint-their example has spurred me on to work on discover what I am passionate about in this world and to find a way to do it! Motherhood and ministry remain the things I care most deeply about, but I also believe that there is a unique purpose within me and over the next few months I intend to search for it. During our sabbatical I was challenged to come up with an action plan of things to do to keep burnout and fatigue from reoccurring once we came back, and this is one of the items on my plan. I plan to spend more time exploring things outside of my normal realm of church and home, such as the great museums and galleries in our metro area, and maybe even take a class or two at the community college. So we'll see what develops from there!

So Sorry, SeaWorld!

I owe Sea World an apology. In 2004, during our Make-A-Wish trip, we spent a morning there, and it was just not on par with Disney for their disability support. We experienced a long, frustrating time, fighting crowds and long lines with a wheelchair and seeing staff just shrug their shoulders over and over because there was no policy or training in place for them to know how to help us to help Nathan experience things. (As a special-needs mom, I must give a shout out to Disney because I have never seen a staff more well-trained about how to help families navigate their park and experiences!!) After that, I swore I would never go back.

Well, I am eating those words as I sit here typing. After weighing the pros and cons of Sea World vs. Universal with a toddler, Sea World won. And we had a great day! The temps here were 96 with a heat index over 105, but SW seemed much cooler than Epcot because of all the shade trees over the walkways. We fed the dolphins again, which was the highlight of our last trip, but we found so much more to do. The shark tank was amazing and the sea lions were hilarious! Carissa thoroughly enjoyed the Elmo Rocks show-she (and we!) got to see all of our beloved Sesame Street characters, from Cookie Monster to Bert & Ernie.

I humbly apologize to you, Sea World! Thanks for the great day!