Tea and Sweatpants...

What a fun day I had today. I LOVE dreaming and planning! It is what moves me, it's what keeps me sane, it propels me to do more and be better.

Started the day with a 2 hour meeting collaborating about Thanksgiving food boxes, a Christmas tea, a large community Christmas event, and other things along the way. I had this meeting with two women who continue to inspire me. The boys ran around terrorizing the office but because these two are experienced mothers they continued talking around, over and through it like only mother can:)

I came home and cooked up a warm soup like lunch.

I spent the boys nap time writing all that I could about anything that needed done in November and December to make ministry happen through Koinonia and Bridgetown.

I then planned and started another creative Birch dinner. Tonight it was a whole baked chicken, frozen cooked potatoes (thawed partially by microwave and broiler), a can of peas, and more gravy! The chicken and peas were good but the taters were nasty mush. We ended up having chicken sandwiches.

Nick and I spend the majority of the evening talking about the morning meeting and planning our next major community project!

Oh how I love the planning, dreaming, listing, tweaking, detailing day I had.

I took the boys to The Art Park at the community center:

Little feet
Wet paint
Sticky stamps
Tiny fingers
Slimy glue
Salty dough

Squeaky voices
Pounding stamps
Splattering paint
Crinkling paper
Affirming mothers
Giggling children

Dinner was creative tonight:

We get our food from Birch and are blessed to have a full kitchen. All be it random, it's full! In my search for things to make spaghetti I found everything but what I needed for any kind of sauce. The dinner I pulled together seemed really weird to me, Nick didn't seem to mind (or so he faked) and the boys had 3 bowls.

Boiled pasta and frozen corn
Made peppered white gravy according to the package
Added what I had left of jack cheese (about a cup)
Put the gravy/sauce over the pasta and corn
Sprinkled dried parsley and bread crumbs on the top.

Haha, and that was it! Not so bad for my family but wouldn't be serving it to a guest unless they were under the age of 6!

Love your enemies. I've read the passage many times and as scripture happens to do, it took on new meaning yesterday.

I was reading Half the Sky and was thinking about doing something "great" for God. I spent some time chatting with God about what we are doing here in NoPo. I began glamorizing missionary life and praying that God would send us far away for a period of time to "refresh." Now, missionary friends, forgive me. Forgive me for spending any amount of time romanticizing your life or saying that it is easy or refreshing in any way, shape, or form. In that moment I was reminded that God called us HERE. He called us to this place and I must search for His love and my call to love in this place.

Later, at church, we were talking about this passage in Matthew. In something that Nick was sharing with us it stood out to me that God is asking us to take the supernatural and make it natural. Hmmm, sounds like what I had been praying about earlier. Later, in prayer/praise time us women were talking about how God blessed us. Our praises were simple. Thank you God for a peaceful morning, another said praise for connecting with an old friend, and another for some days without morning sickness. Simple love. A deep love for the ordinary. This is my God, one who loves the ordinary and cares deeply about our need for divine love in our ordinary daily living. This is my call, to show attention and care to the ordinary and simple in others the same way God does in my life.

I think this is what the passage is about but even more importantly it's all of these things for all people even our "enemies." To me this is a long list of people in my life who aren't necessarily enemies but people who aren't just naturally my friends. This includes people who stress me out, make me nervous, eat our food, call late at night, don't show up to commitments, walk away from our ministry after committing, have kids who teach our kids naughty things,and those who uninvitedly tell us how to parent. With the love of God calling me to pay attention and care to them and the ordinary in their lives I find such beautiful things in these people. These same people are the ones that (in the same order) bring our trash from the curb, stop by to learn some manhood from my husband, is learning healthy eating habits on a budget, desires to be in community, is vulnerable when here, developing a missions heart, learning to parent with love, and sharing Somali parenting techniques.

My prayer is that I would find such love and passion in loving better in all ways and in all things.

The disinfectant wipes are still going strong!

I made dish soap: http://www.diylife.com/2009/08/03/how-to-make-your-own-dish-soap/ Using method 3

Another frugal switch I've made is using bar soap instead of liquid. You get the exact same foam on the luffa that you do with liquid and if everyone is using luffas and wash cloths you don't have to think about where the bar has been! It is MUCH cheaper to use bar soap.

I've decided that for all my cleaning supplies that require a bar of soap it is a MUST to use a different scent than what's in the shower. I don't like washing pots and pans and smelling the Dove soap I just bathed in:O)

Nick and I have been cleaning the garage in preparation for finishing it and we found MOUNTAINS of napkins! This makes me proud because it is evidence of our use of the cloth napkins.

The only thing that's been difficult is the comfort and familiarity of the smells of the store bought cleaners. I know the evidence shows that the cleaning power is the same but my nose makes me doubt. Several times I consider running to dollar tree and getting a small thing of laundry soap just so I can have a few loads smell like the old days. Then, I remember my little boys and how I'm protecting them.

Anyway, that's the update!