Resurfacing!

Have you ever had one of those months?

I think I have just come through one of the busiest falls of my entire life! I finally hit the writer’s- block -wall this last weekend and got thrown right out of the blogging truck. You know it’s bad when you can’t even come up with a decent photo blog on the theme “green”.

Anyway, as I was laying there on the literary pavement trying desperately to come up with something witty to say to y’all, I realized I was going to miss a few days. I can’t tell you how hard it was to just stay silent  so my thoughts could catch up with me. I hate setting goals (like daily blogging) and not meeting them but now I am resurfacing!

I think this song says it all!

Have you ever been here?

Oh BTW how do you like the new look?

A Nice Kind O’ Dumb

     So this has been a big week of discovery for Pastor Wrinkles. There have been so many epiphanies I hardly know where to begin. I was sitting at lunch this week with the church staff eating my Greek yogurt. It was a new kind that just went on sale at the market. It is very tasty. My only objection is that they put the yogurt and the fruit in adjoining containers. Well all week long I have been scooping the fruit into the yogurt with a spoon…making a mess of myself, the table and anyone bold enough to get close to my “lunch mess”.

    The youth pastor’s wife joined us for lunch the other day and upon observing my yogurt issue she offered, “You know the container folds in half so that you don’t make such a mess.”

 

the angels in Heaven sang as I discovered the best invention ever! Folding yogurt containers! What genius thought that up?

But Jesus wasn’t finished with me yet! For years I have been having a daily argument with the office coffee pot.

When the coffee is made it won’t come out! You have to turn the top and if you don’t turn it right the top comes off and you end up with a coffee mess. So I usually just take the top off altogether and pour sans top. Usually I over pour and end up with that nasty coffee ring that travels with you everywhere you put your cup down (of course I never think to wipe the bottom of the cup with a napkin that would be too brilliant).

     One of the secretaries noticed me pouring out the other day and remarked “You know you don’t have to take the top off to pour. It will stay on and pour perfectly if you just line up the arrows.”

 

The angels sang and the people rejoiced!

Of course I have taken a bit of ribbing over these discoveries. To all this I say “My elevator may not go all the way to the top. I may be a few ants short of a picnic. Yes I may be dumb, but I am a nice kind o’ dumb!” 😉

Share Your World With Cee Cee Pt. 11

Here are another great bunch of questions from Cee Cee!

1. Are you left or right-handed?
   I am totally right-handed! Even after thirty plus years of piano playing I can still only do rudimentary movements with my left hand.
2. What is one thing you love about being an adult? I didn’t start feeling like an adult until I was thirty-five. I sort of like the respect that comes with a little bit of age and experience.
3. What do I need to unlearn? My fear of people and the idea that I am only as capable or adequate as other people see me. I am learning that what I can do has nothing to do with what other people expect from me.
4. What is success for me? Fulfilling God’s purpose for my life and experiencing His joy over that obedience.

Here are a few pictures of the lighter side of our church!

This is me at youth convention a few years ago. I was cast in a skit in the dual role of Granny and Baby Boy!

                                     And this is my boss!

                     We really enjoy helping people find the humor in life!

Share Your World With Cee Cee Pt. 3

Here we are in week three for me (week 16 for some others) of sharing my world. This week’s questions are great!

1. If you had a choice, which would be your preference: salt water beaches, fresh water lakes, hot tub, or desert? My definite favorite is salt water beaches. Not because I like salty water but because there is something powerful about the ocean. I love to watch the waves from under a beach umbrella! 🙂
2. What book do you think everyone should read and why? Wow this is a long list but way up at the top far above all others is the Bible because it is the true revelation of God and His plan for redemption and the single authoritative rule for faith and conduct!
3. What’s your favorite way to wake up and what’s the first thing you do?  I like to wake up slowly. I love to push snooze for at least a half hour. Then I walk the dogs and pray and read the most important book which everyone should read (see question  number 2 if you skipped it as soon as you saw the “B” word)
4. What do you do to relax? I read a lot, I  pray, I go to the movies, and I absolutely love  getting my fingers into the earth and planting!

Here are this week’s photo offerings.                                                    French Rose

                                              Mountain Laurel

                                           Black Locust Flowers

Ahh! Yes I am looking forward to my yard this summer!

Not Strong Just Shiny

In my thirty years of Christianity one of the most poignant lessons I have learned is that following Christ doesn’t make you exempt from the battle, it just causes you to shine through it. I may not be very strong but I’m shiny and I’m impossible to kill! I’m on my way to the hill now to shine my light! 🙂 Anyone care to come along?

“though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again,” Prov. 24:16 NIV

Versatility

I got a great New Year’s gift from Debby at http://twominutesofgrace.wordpress.com/.  This is my first award and I am giddy with excitement…no really I have been telling everyone!  I’m afraid I have become a little bit of a braggart 😦 But this too shall pass! For the moment I am going to bask in the sunshine of the honor! Thank you Deb!

Now this particular award requires that I nominate 15 of my favorite bloggers for the award; So I nominate:

1. Nicole at Simple Moments : http://lovingsimplemoments.wordpress.com/

2. Sarah at the Flying Onion: http://theflyingonion.wordpress.com/

Thanks Nicole and Sara for giving me the push to blog in the first place!

3.  Notes from Rumbly Cottage: http://notesfromrumblycottage.wordpress.com/

4. From My Front Step: http://frommyfrontstep.wordpress.com/

5. Perfect Puddles: http://perfectpuddles.wordpress.com/

6.  David at : http://desertvoices.wordpress.com/ Give this a read if you want to read some great missionary stories.

7. Tom at : http://tomraines.wordpress.com/

8. Ben at:  http://justifiedfreely.wordpress.com/

9.  Sowing Seeds Of Orthodoxy at: http://sowingseedsoforthodoxy.wordpress.com/

10. Deb at: http://iftodaywehear.wordpress.com/

11. Goforth at: http://hardcore-christian.com/

12. Ann at: http://tonirand.wordpress.com/ I can never thank you enough for how you have inspired so many of us in the blogosphere!

The above are all awesome devotional blogs.

13. Lori at: http://marriagegems.com/ research based marriage tips. An awesome read!

14. Leaving the Fast Lane… at: http://lujos.wordpress.com/ 

15.  And Julian at: http://julian-hoffman.com/ He only blogs once in a while but his words taste like honey to my reading taste buds!

This award also requires that I tell you 7 things about myself. I’m not really sure why 7…maybe because it’s the number of completion. Whatever the reason I willingly acquiesce:

1. I come from a long line of musicians. At family reunions everyone used to bring their instrument and we would throw an impromptu band concert.

2. My first instrument is the flute( yeah my Dad told me it wasn’t very manly but I had a crush on my elementary school music teacher and the flute was her favorite). These days I stick primarily to piano and vocals.

3. I have been leading church worship since I was sixteen (that’s 28 years for all those of you trying to figure my age)

4. I have been pastoring since 1991.

5. I am pretty good with driving directions but you don’t want me leading on a hike through the mountains.; That’s a good way to end up on an episode of “I Shouldn’t Be Alive”; Just ask my kids!

6. I once had a youth group steal my car. Good thing they didn’t know how to drive stick!

7.  Hmmm….what else? Oh yeah chewing is my favorite form of exercise!

Thanks again Deb! 🙂

 

Christmas Joy!

Our head elfette (lead pastor’s wife) sent this to our staff for Christmas.

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/4OqcSdw725ZWDVve?cmpid=jj_fb_friend_holidays

Starring in order of appearance and from left to right:

Lead Pastor: Rev. Barry Risto

Church Administrator: Charlotte Dorais

Asst. Pastor: Rev. J. Lillie

Youth Pastor: Rev. Brad Hackett

Church Secretary: Wendy Brouillet

Merry Christmas All!

Christmas Joy Monday Pt. 3

  I could subtitle this post “Hat-Head”.

    At our church’s recent Christmas movie event we were overrun by Christmas elves and their hats!It was all the head elf’s idea!

But it was fully endorsed by his wife, the head elfette. She was in charge of the movie and cookie decorating!

Santa and his reindeer showed up to make the pop corn. Looks like Santa has some fattening up to do between now and Christmas Eve!

These elves were part of a line up, to find out who stole the cookies from the cookie jar.

It turned out to be this elf.She was too embarrassed to show her face after getting caught.

It’s a good thing this strapping young elf was there to shed some light on the subject!

For my big finish I leave you with this Christmas blessing!

What exciting plans does your community have going on this season?

How To Make Crab-Apple Jelly Err…Sauce

      Muddy’s property has some wonderful crab apples.

 

So this year I decided it would be fun to make some wonderful crab apple jelly sauce for Christmas presents.

Below are step by step instructions for crab apple jelly sauce!

Step one: Pick the apples and put them in a pot. Contrary to popular opinion these suckers don’t hop off the tree into a basket. If you wait for them to fall they get really nasty!

 

Step two:  Put the pot on a stove and cook them to mush.

 

Don’t forget to stir. Burnt mush could ruin the flavor of your jelly sauce.

Step three: Strain the mush!

 

 

Jelly sauce is great with little chunks of apple in it but leaves and stems sort of ruin the experience.

 

Step five: Totally disregard the instructions on the pectin box and add all the sugar (9 cups to 7 cups of apple mush) before you add the pectin. Bring to a rolling boil.

Step six: Add your pectin and boil for one more minute making the pectin totally ineffective.

Step seven: Ladle  the mush into jars. Close the tops and put in your hot water bath for 10 minutes.

AND TADAHHHH! YOU HAVE PERFECT APPLE JELLY SAUCE! 🙂

Ho! Ho! Boo!

My sister is moving to Amsterdam before Christmas. Since this may be our last opportunity to have a family Christmas for a few years, we thought we would celebrate on Halloween.

I think God loves her a lot. Because this weekend we had a HISTORIC  Halloween snow storm.

I shoveled a foot of snow Saturday night. Then Sunday morning I had another foot to shovel!

 

So today is Christmas and Halloween. We have decided to greet all our trick-or-treaters with a mixed greeting “Ho! Ho! Boo!”

Have you been effected by our HISTORIC world weather? What do you think it is?