Monday

First: BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR !!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was 80* Friday. Currently 34*. No wonder we never get used to the cold here!

Had a girls' night out at Journey's Inn Bed and Breakfast. What a wonderful place. If you need a place to stay while in Abilene, or just would like a romantic 'staycation' with your hubs, that would be a great place to go! Check them out! We watched movies and played Apples to Apples which was definitely fun, but I think made all the more fun by my exhausted state of delirium. That comes a LOT earlier in the evening than it used to...

Susan -- co-owner of Journey's Inn -- has such a delightful way of looking at life. And it is SO different than the way I look at life. She mentioned recently what 'color' a day had been. Must be the artist in her...! I love that she is going to keep a record of the colors of days for a while. Beautiful!

Ashley also had a basketball tourney this weekend. I shall state this under a spiritual guise so it doesn't sound TOTALLY like bragging on my kid, but God has given that girl a gift! Oh, what joy to watch her play, delighting in using her gift! Made me wonder how God must feel when we take delight in using the gifts He has blessed us with. It also convicted me about being more purposeful about USING my gifts, instead of letting the control of the calendar rob me of that ability. Falcons played HARD for 3 games (Ashley missed the middle game -- taking the SAT) and came in 2nd in the tourney. The last game was a tough one to lose (I guess they all are...) Never fear! More basketball is on the way! Game Thursday, then ANOTHER tourney Friday and Saturday. Yay! More using of the gift! :-) And, Riley will be using his gift on Friday, as well. Austin's Spelling Bee is coming up! Spelling is definitely a gift of Riley's, and I'm excited to see him in the Bee! Very exciting weekend!

Our church is trying to transition into having 'groups' ministry: small groups to insure the care and inclusion of all members. We are a large church, and the elders are trying to see to it that no one falls through the cracks. Groups are also meant to be a family-focused time -- no 'youth group' during groups time. This has some people all in a tizzy, which kind of makes me crazy. We have a new youth minister, Ricky Pruitt. I love what he said to a group of us in class yesterday, "Your kids will look like you, not me, spiritually." Absolutely. And eeek, to boot. Just makes me wonder: of those folks that are all in a tizzy about missing that 1 hour of youth group time for their kids, how much are they worried about the other 167 hours in a week? As for me and my family -- well, yes, we shall serve the Lord, but also? We don't need one more hoop to jump through and place to show up for the kids to be entertained. I absolutely agree that having a small group of church family is imperative to spiritual survival these days. Maybe I'll write a book about that someday...

May you all have a yellow day with shades of pink and blue dabbled in!