I'll Take What I Can Get

Unlike the Dashboard Confessional song. 

Here are just a few examples of when I have heard my boyfriend, Blake, say this phrase in regards to spending time with each other.

#1. It was leadership weekend I was pretty busy, and Blake drives in from Dallas to be in Tyler for the weekend, and makes it to the Pine Cove area around 8pm. Yet, he says "I know you're busy, but I'll take what I can to see you." So he finds friends to hangout with and then waits all the way till 12:00pm when I am free just to see me for 15 minutes. He waited three hours to see me for 15 minutes!

He's so great!

#2. Blake works in Dallas and we don't get to see each other very often. But I got the chance to drive to Dallas when I volunteered to pick up the Forge group at DFW airport after their trip from Israel. I wanted to pick them up because I went last year! Since I would be in Dallas for just a few short minutes Blake and I tried to work it out that we could see each other maybe at lunch or something, but it didn't seem to work. Yet, as I am pulling up at the arrival gate with a 15 passenger van to pick up the the Forge group. There is Blake at the gate waiting with them. We hugged and he said "even if I get to see you for 30 seconds it's worth it, I'll take what I can get." He took time from work to drive to DFW (his office is close to the office) to pay the $2.00 for parking just to see the Forge and I.

I have tons of other examples of Blake doing whatever he can when time was short to spend time with me. Whether that be for a couple hours or a few seconds.

"I'll take what I can get."

When Blake says that phrase, it gives me value and speaks volume of his care for me. When I do have those 10 minutes with Blake I will do WHATEVER I can to stretch out that time and soak up every minute I can.

I love my quiet times in the morning and spending that time to simply sit and enjoy the word. On good days my goal is to spend 30 minutes to an hour with the Lord. Yet, I have those mornings when I hit snooze too many times or other distractions happen to cut my time short in getting ready in the morning. Sometimes I am so late that "by the grace of God" I was able to make it to work in time! Sadly, this often causes my time with the Lord to be the first to go. Even if I have 10 minutes to spare, I think its not enough time to sit down and read, so unfortunately I will use that time to either add one extra curl to my hair or pick a different shirt to wear!

"I'll take what I can get"

The Lord speaks this to me just the same.

If I can soak up 30 seconds to 15 minutes with Blake, why wouldn't I be able to do the same with the Lord! God wants to spend time with us, he desires that we sit in his presence and share our concerns and open our hearts to him. God knows no time. Who am I to think that the Lord wouldn't be able to speak to me or wouldn't appreciate 10 minutes of my time. He can create life and take it away in seconds. He says that we are but a blade of grass that grow and whither away. What is time to him?

I know the hours that I spend with the Lord are still precious and deep, but Blake has taught me that even the little moments I have are just as sweet.

"I'll take what I can get."

Painting Pottery

I tried my hand in pottery a couple weeks ago with a few of my wonderful friends.

  

Adrianne was on spring break from teaching and Ally, Brett, I were off from Leadership Weekend. It was a perfect day for coffee so we met up at Downtown Coffee Shop for a nice morning and a cup of joe. This place is so good and cheap, but it is only open from 8-5pm. So if you're in the Tyler area you may want to hit that up early in the day. Then, Adrianne had a wonderful idea to hit up pottery cafe and take a jab at painting. So Ally, Brett, and I grabbed a coffee mug and Adrianne grabbed some super cute salt and pepper shakers, and away we went.

 

I have never painted pottery in a cool place like this before, and the lady was so helpful. She practically picked out my colors for me! There was so much to choose from I just couldn't pick. Thank you Lady! 

Adrianne was a veteran, Brett did this as Father/Daughter dates when she was younger and she so artsy, and Ally is creative! So needless to say I had a lot to learn. 

I learned I am not an artist.

 Brett took an artsy picture with my mug. Brett is so artsy. My mug is not.

Here we are with our painted pottery before the kiln.

Then a week later and ta-da we have our finished products. 

I am happy with my mug, but I am still not an artist. I was hoping the kiln or the nice lady would have worked their special magic on it, but they didn't.

I guess I should have slipped a Washington to her.

Yet, the mug holds a very special purpose, and that is to keep my early morning coffee nice and warm.
 No complaints here!

(I did fail to mention that the date on the bottom of my mug says 20011. I guess I will be saving it for my grandchildren's grandchildren's...oops)

Followership Weekend

I work at a Christian Summer Camp in Tyler, Texas called Pine Cove. There are eight camps total with 6 in Tyler and 2 in Columbus, TX. College students from all over the country are hired to work at each camp and then at each camp there is a leadership team of former summer staffers that stay for the whole summer. So one weekend before summer camp starts rolling into gear all the leaders from each camp get together and learn what it means to lead and make plans for the summer.

It is a huge responsibility and I couldn't think of a better team to have this year at the Bluffs!

Top, Left to Right: Jimmy "Blotter", Heidi "Whirl Sup Champ", Laura "Choc Foe", Kallie, John "Take Out", Matt "Pi Ramma", and David "Props".

Middle, Left to Right: TJ "Schmee", Me, Emily "Silly Sing", Melissa "Half Asleep"

                                   Bottom, Left to Right: Chris "Hip Shot", Raychel "Smacks", Meredith "Scuba Snacks"

Phew, that was a lot to type, because we have the biggest Bluffs Leadership team in history! We have added a new position to the team called the S.W.A.T. (sounds cool right?) and I know that Take Out will be the man for the Job! Plus since I have been on staff its the first time we have the Media Production Manager, thanks Props for coming back!

Leadership weekend is an incredible weekend to reconnect with the staff and come together in unity as a Bluffs Leadership Team and I had a blast. We talked about our Highs and Lows from the year and of course played games like Fish Bowl. Plus the resident staff introduced them to SPIKEBALL!! (Probably one of the best new games out there! Thanks Andrew for bringing it west!)

Yet, more importantly we spent the weekend hearing wonderful wisdom in leadership from Kevin "Opee" East our Executive Director of Ministries. PLEASE read his blog here.

Pine Cove has INCREDIBLE leaders and working here I have learned a lot from them about myself in Leadership, so weekends like this are sweet reminder of how much I need Jesus. Matt Lantz the director of the Forge said that leadership is followership inspiring followership.

Leadership can be a scary thing and often the question is where am I leading our staff? Am I leading them to myself  or am I leading them first and foremost to Christ. So Kevin's first question in his blog and for the weekend was, Why are we here?

The Gospel

That's the answer nothing more and nothing less. We are all broken leaders but Christ has died for our sins so that we are no longer separated from God and can walk freely under his leadership. Through his death we are able to follow a perfect example as we lead those around us to his presence.

What a refreshment if you ask me. Alone I would lead our summer staff to me, my sin, and to too many trips to Salsaritas. Yet, my prayer is that because I am following Christ the staff will join me and follow close after his heels.

More pictures from the weekend and the classic, "my lip is stuck" routine

The Lovely Ladies and the Mighty Men

Man, I can't even WAIT to spend the summer with this Team! 8 weeks and counting!

In Reponse to the Fruit in Season

My roommate Jenn Crouse is a very wise women and I have received encouragement from her for three years now. One of her blog posts last month still resonates in my heart so I wanted to share what I have learned.

http://www.jenncrouse.com/2011/02/embracing-whats-in-season.html

When a fruit is in season there are TONS of it. It is in abundance and filling the shelves with its color. This is the same way with the season of our lives. There are seasons that our hearts of full of encouragement and love and seasons in drought and our thirst for the Lord is unquenchable. We are constantly going through certain seasons that bear different types of fruit. Not that one fruit is better than the other, just different kinds of fruit. Like Jenn's Blog  the nectarines still taste good they are just different then apples. They look different, feel different, and one tastes better with peanut butter then the other.

The Lord has definitely blessed me with a year of bountiful harvest, the fruit that has been sweet. My fruit comes in the form of a fun job, amazing roommates, and an incredible boyfriend. Yet, as time goes on its hard not to look in the future. What kind of job will I have in the fall? Where will I live? What will my community look like? And I so easily get caught up in the future looking forward to a different season, looking forward to change. Now planning and preparing is not all bad, but when it causes me to worry and forget this season is where I struggle. 

How many times have I been unsatisfied in a season of life, no fruit is popping up, not even a small little bud, and to add the results have been bitter.

Jenn's blog was an amazing reminder to continue in the harvest I am now. The Lord has me working and toiling in a specific field that he has created for me and this field will bear specific fruit by his hand. All the toiling and hard work will bear fruit that is sown only from him anyway. Even if I try to toil in a different field my work will be in vain, because that fruit is not mine. For the field I glean in now is specific to my needs and only from him can I enjoy the harvest.

Ecclesiastes 2:24-25 says, "There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?"

So while I am toiling in the field set before me the question is how could I be a better roommate? How could I be better co-worker? How could I be a better girlfriend?

The seasons will change. They will change from a season of battle to a season in a desert wasteland. They will change from a season of comfort to a season of uncertainty. So instead of worrying about what other fruit is out there I will take a big giant bite out of the fruit in front of me!

Thanks to Jenn and her sensitivity to the spirit and thanks to Ecclesiastes:
"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, an a time to die; a time to plant, an a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill an a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace." (Ecc. 3:1-8).

Budgeting

Budgeting is evil.

I could be calling it evil only because it's hard, but I still think it's evil.

I have been trying to budget my money for the past three years and so far I have a gained an okay grasp on what it should look like. I mean I divide the money into specific allowances for specific categories and haven't spent outside my means. Yet, the reality of me sticking to the budget is as real as Big Brother 15.

Every time my card swipes thoughts of excuses flows through my head:
"I think I had $20.00 left in my eating out budget last week when I looked, I should be fine" "Eating out is a social thing and I definitely can't miss out on that." "If I eat out this time I'll 'transfer' that money over from groceries. I rarely buy groceries anyway."

So over the past few months I have paid closer attention to my budget and found out that my previous method of budgeting has proven to be unsuccessful, to say the least. I would tease my savings and sometimes put money in that account, but not if it competed with a group night out! So I have decided to put my foot down for casual spending and raise my fist to disciplined savings and a maybe little less spending.

Hopefully just a little less.

I have sought advice from many people here at Pine Cove, who are financially wise, as to what is the best method in taking care my money. Each one has stated, that first and foremost this money is given to me from the Lord and the focus should not be on me and my work, but how I can steward this money in God's design. So, after many chats with my fellow budgeters I came to the conclusion to use the popular envelope system from Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. http://www.daveramsey.com/article/dave-ramseys-envelope-system/lifeandmoney_budgeting/.

After reading the process and working this new budget into my life I have now coupled the budget system to all things evil like the Grinch and Cruella Deville 

Here is my log of recent battles with this budget

March 1: Dear Diary, after spending the day in town I am tired and hungry and want to pull into Taco Bueno to eat their dip combo, but instead the budget crept in on me and made me eat food at home!
Budget: 1 Fun: 0

March 3: Dear Diary, it's me again today was a better day with Mr. Budget. Its Thursday and everyone, really everyone goes to Chic-fil-a for lunch and I love Chic-fil-a. The decision came to go our not and this budget tried to keep me stuck at home so instead  I jumped into the vehicle with my co-workers and hit the road for lunch. I decided that today I am going to use this money and budget well for this meal. Instead of fighting with the budget I will work with it. Yet, before we headed into town we stopped in to check the mail and there I find a St. Patrick's Day package from my grandma with $20.00 inside! Thank you Grandma, that came at perfect timing I will use this for Lunch! So not only did I receive an amazing gift of cash I was blessed with eating at Salsarita's with my co-workers too! We passed on Chic-fil-a only this time to enjoy some white queso.

I will eat white queso any day. I could have a problem.

Already I have learned a lot from this system and I know I still far to go. But maybe budgeting is not all THAT evil and if I use it well I can still eat out AND have white queso.  I also learned that I should slow down on eating at the fast food Mexican restaurants.

In Response: The Preface

I have an addictive personality and lately my new addiction, along with white queso, is reading blogs. My Google reader account makes it a lot easier to read all the blogs in one place and I find myself subscribing to new blogs daily.

Maybe not daily. I tend to exaggerate. 

I have received great inspiration from people like the Pioneer Woman (http://thepioneerwoman.com/confessions/), Hostess with the Mostess (http://www.hostessblog.com/), The Sisco Family (http://siscofamily.blogspot.com/) and my roommate Jenn (http://www.jenncrouse.com/) to only name a few. So here is my attempt to begin blogging.

In confession what has kept me from blogging in the past is that I thought it was a form of narcissism and who would even care to know what is going on in this life I live anyway. Yet, after reading so many blogs I have been constantly encouraged by others on so many levels. And these people are far from narcissistic. So I have learned that blogging could be more than a personal newspaper, but a creative form to express the gospel. So I not only begin this blog to write down my thoughts to hopefully become an encouragement to those of you reading, but to share the saving grace God has lavished on us.

So choosing the name of a blog was a daunting task, because of course I want it fun and catchy yet deep and heartfelt and I wanted a name that would summarize what I would blog about. So why the name "In Response" you say?

• In Response to Other Blogs: 
• Like I said earlier I love reading other blogs and I often read them and carry their encouraging nuggets with me throughout the day and share my thoughts with those around me. So I will share my comments of others blogs here.

• In Response to Everyday Life and my Role as a Woman of God:
• I love to squeeze the fun out of everyday and why not document the big and little things that happen. Not only for my own memories, but also for those reading. More specifically as a woman I have responsibilities and roles to play in all my relationships and I will be able to write out what I have learned through these life situations. 

• In Response to God's Love:
• John 15:9 is my anthem verse, "For as the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love." This is the weight of my response to God's love for me. The love he poured out on us by sending his sinless son, Jesus Christ, to die for the sinful. Saving a sinner like me from the pits of Hell and bringing me into a new life with him. And my response can be demonstrated in my obedience to him and my pursuit of holiness. 

So here is to the beginning of a new journey and more white queso.