…to us in so many ways. This week, he is apparently speaking to me through blog posts.

I just found Toni’s blog through another today and went back to read her earlier posts. This one brought tears to my eyes. This is what it is supposed to be like; this is what God wants from us, even though it is not easy or comfortable. And, really, what in life that is truly good is? A Broad in Athens: The one

Still fighting the fatigue and trying to get caught up…but in better spirits today than I have been lately. I have no commitments this evening after work and I am hoping my body will allow me to get some things done before I need to collapse – there is much to be done! I’m holding out hope that it will.

Some happy thoughts for today:

Beginning Friday at 1 PM, I am off until Thursday. We are closed Monday and Tuesday but I asked if I could have off Wednesday as well. Sarah & Joe are hosting their annual 4th of July extravaganza and Kim, Brian & Emma will be visiting from Connecticut, so I want to be able to relax and catch up without feeling like I have to rush home and get to bed to get ready for work the next day. Plus there is much to be done at home and I have at least one home improvement project I WILL get accomplished this weekend (if I can coerce my dad or David into helping!!)

I’m having the ladies over Friday night to work on a project for the youth to take to Workcamp and give to their residents as gifts. We are decorating terra cotta flower pots and giving them a packet of flower seeds. Any ideas for good verses to put on the seed packets?? Last year, our kids felt like they were not supported by the church so this year, we are endeavoring to change that in quite a few ways.

I’m having dinner and seeing the great Tommy Conwell this weekend. I love Tommy! And my dear friend Kris has never seen him, so we are having an outing. Outings are good…especially to The Blue Comet!

I am really excited about Workcamp. It’s coming up fast! I’ve really been struggling with that being my only “vacation” scheduled this summer and feeling like I needed to do something for myself (selfishly) when I read Bev’s blog

today. Her post not only convicted me but reminded me that a missions trip can be a vacation – a vacation from the norm, a vacation from not focusing on what’s important as you should and reevaluating how you spend your time. I am thankful for the opportunity to go on this trip and minister to the people we’ll meet…and as always, God brought me that reminder at just the right time.

This weekend passed by in a haze. Friday was somewhat busy in terms of VBS (which was awesome, by the way – so much fun!) and trying to get laundry done and the house back into some semblance of order after my time away. Saturday there was more of that and running errands in the torrential rain. Then yesterday was the quintessenial way my life is sometimes. My friend Robert came to be our guest speaker since Pastor Glenn is now officially gone and we had planned to go out to lunch afterwards with his family. We ended up with about 30 people – which is fine – except the restaurant we ended up at couldn’t accomodate us properly. It was 30 people in several booths, so you had to get up and walk around to talk with anyone. I had scheduled the youth to come over at 2 PM to make tie dye shirts for workcamp (which, as an aside, I had no clue how to do!) but ended up having to move that back until 2:30…but forgot to call one of my kids who was sitting at my house at 2. I felt terrible!

Anyway, the tie dyeing was actually fun. I hope they turn out. They are currently “drying” in my damp & humid basement…we shall see. After that was the race back to church for a prayer, praise & vision night for which I had agreed to coordinate childcare. All that worked out well – many thanks to everyone who helped!

When I got home, I watched part of a movie but then decided to get into bed and work on a new study I am doing, “Small Changes for a Better Life” by Elizabeth George. The title, of course, is intriguing and so far the first chapter has been good. I feel like I need something more structured to get me into the Word these crazy days lately than just my devotional book or online email devotions I get every day. I also bought a commentary this weekend by John MacArthur (at the suggestion of my study – though she suggests a commentary only on Proverbs but I couldn’t see spending the money when I could get an entire Bible commentary.) Cindy is apparently planning to offer a study this summer in the evenings and I think I will seriously consider that as well. I have been feeling a hunger for more lately but we haven’t had anything available that I could participate in in the evenings so this may be a good option, even if it is only for the summer. I miss doing the Operation Timothy study with Cindy, Kathy & Michelle weekly…maybe I need to find something like that as well. I don’t know. I desperately need the accountability of studying with others and I always enjoy the great discussions that come along in the course…studying something on my own just isn’t the same.

Anyway, I digress. I was exhausted when I woke up today – to more rain – and ended up getting a late start. I slipped in the shower and very nearly killed myself – which, let me tell you, is NOT the way I want to go! Then I got halfway to work and realized that I forgot my sweater…which led me to realize that, MORE IMPORTANTLY, I forgot my laptop, which I cannot work without, and which was under the sweater so I wouldn’t forget it. So I had to go all the way back home.

Eegads. I really do need a vacation.

Appetizer

On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how much do you like your job?

I’d have to give it a 5. I enjoy the field I am in and think it’s important work. But it doesn’t give me the joy I get from the things I do OUTSIDE of work….

Soup

When was the last time you think you were lied to?

I’m not really good at knowing when people lie to me unless it is blatant. Probably yesterday at some point.

Salad

Share some lyrics from own of your favorite songs.

Here I Am by Mercy Me. I love the chorus – taken from the book of Isaiah (6:9).

On the other side of the world
She stands on the ocean shore
Gazing at the heavens
She wonders, is there something more
Never been told the name of Jesus
She turns and walks away
What a shame [oh yeahh]

Just across the street in your hometown
Leaving from his nine-to-five
Gazing down the road
He wonders, is this all there is to life
Never been told the name of Jesus
He continues on his way
What a shame [oh yeahh]

Whom shall I send?
Who will go for me?
To the ends of the earth
Who will rise up for their King
Here am I, send me
Here am I, send me

Whether foreign land or neighbors
Everyone’s the same
Searching for the answers
That lie within your name
I wanna proclaim the love of Jesus
In all I do and say, Unashamed

Whom shall I send?
Who will go for me?
To the ends of the earth
Who will rise up for their King
Here am I, send me
Here am I, send me

How beautiful are feet of those who bring good news
Proclaiming peace and your salvation

Whom shall I send
Who will go for me
To the ends of the earth
Who will rise up for their King
Here am I, send me
Here am I, send me
Here am I, send me

Main Course

What do you do/take when you are in pain?

I’ve got a variety of tactics to combat physical pain…ibuprofen, Thermacare heat wraps, muscle relaxers, sleep aids, etc.

Dessert

Fill in the blanks: My __________ is very __________.

My house is very messy. I had originally written, “My sweet Norman is very loving and happy I am home.” But the internet ate my post and now I am redoing it all…and looking around at the laundry & luggage & MESS. Oh my.

Home at last! I can’t begin to tell you how glad I am to be home. It was a long week and I am completely exhausted. The furry ones were glad to see me, which was nice, and I was able to go over to the VBS tonight and see what a great job David and some of our lovely and talented youth were doing. I am so proud of them. I am also so upset to have not been able to be a part of this all week long. Tomorrow I have a role in the finale, but it just isn’t the same when you missed most of it.

It always amazes me just how much I enjoy working with the kids. It’s so easy to slip into that persona of “Miss Trish” and just have fun. I helped out with the preschool class this evening and it truly was the highlight of an otherwise somewhat unthrilling week.

Although, on the bright side, I did have dinner out two nights this week with coworkers and that was nice. I hope that friendliness continues when we get back to the office next week. It would really be great to have some friends there! (Although no one will ever replace my peeps from NCCN! Love you guys!)

Seriously? Pure exhaustion. I am running on empty. Every part of my body is aching.

This week is my company’s annual meeting. The sheer size of this thing is like nothing I have ever worked on before and the immensity (is that a word?) of the meeting area is quite astounding. I feel like I have been back and forth across it 87 times today alone. We are actually using pedometers to track how many steps a day we’re doing. I just got mine but based on everyone else, it’s got to be at least 10,000 – 12,000.

It doesn’t help that I am wildly out of shape. This is a lot of physical activity for extended periods of time for one who does exceptionally little physical activity…any time.

I have a funny story to tell but it will have to wait until I have a bit more time.

TTFN

Appetizer
What is a word that you use that would not be considered common?

I actually use a lot of words that are uncommon…it’s part of my charm : )

Tomfoolery
Willy nilly
Indeed (somewhat common but not as commonly used as I use it)
Rammy
Ruchy

Soup
What theme of calendar do you have on your wall this year?

On the wall at home it is animal friends and at work it is the seasons

Salad
Name 3 people you speak with by telephone a regular basis.

Mom
Michelle
Kym (though not lately for some reason)
I’m really more of an email girl…

Main Course
If you could buy a new outfit for someone you know – who would it be and what would you purchase for them?

I would probably buy something for my mom. She doesn’t really like to shop and doesn’t really buy too much in terms of clothing for herself.

Dessert
What is the last beverage you drank?

Seagram’s ginger ale…

NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY — by Robert Frost
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

I’m feeling reflective today. I’m not sure why…maybe it is the loss of Jacob this week combined with all the other stressors I have been dealing with. I was going to simply post another Thursday Thirteen but couldn’t come up with anything even vaguely entertaining and the Frost poem above kept coming into my head.

The year I was in sixth grade, The Outsiders came out in the movies and the book by SE Hinton was THE book. All of my friends were obsessed with it. We all read it and cried our eyes out. I know for me, I felt a deep connection with the characters in the book – I could completely understand them. If you’ve never read it, I highly recommend you do. On the surface, it is about conflict between the haves and the have nots. But really it’s about relationships and about the hard realities we face in life. In the angst and the drama, the main character, Ponyboy, shares the poem with his friend Johnny and they talk about how nothing gold can stay, life is always changing and things can’t stay the same, even when we want them to desperately. In a particularly poignant scene not long after, Johnny says to Ponyboy, “Stay gold”.

Today, this keeps coming in to my mind. I used to be able to recite this poem from memory and probably still could today. I remember my friends and I signing notes to each other, “Stay gold”. If there is any memorabilia in my mom’s house from that year, I’m certain I’ll find it written somewhere.

Back then, I think we truly thought we could “stay gold”. That things would stay as they were, we would always be friends, and life would be as it was then forever. But Frost was right. People pass away, friends move on, children get sick, jobs change…life changes.

And nothing gold can stay.

I am exhausted, I am stressed, I am sad. I really don’t know what to post or where to begin, so I am going to take the easy way out and do a meme. I found this one at http://www.musicalmemoirs.blogdrive.com.

Musical Firsts (How many can you remember)

First CD/Album Purchased: I think it was a 45 of “Beth” by KISS

First Concert: Def Leppard (I was 12; Stacy Queen’s dad took us at the Fairgrounds)

First Over 21 Show: Age of Exposure at the Ambler Cabaret

First Musical Obsession: Very first was Shawn Cassidy. Somewhere in the mix was a long obsession with Prince…

First Musical Crush: Shawn Cassidy

First Musical/Musical Movie: The first musical movie I saw was Mary Poppins when I was 5 (at the drive in)

First Stereo: Don’t think it even had a brand name

First Portable Device/Player: Cassette deck of some kind

First Musical Format Owned (i.e. LP, Cassette, 8 Track, CD) LP (45)

First 45/CD Single Purchased: Again, I think it was “Beth” by KISS but am not sure…

Tagging anyone interested in doing this one!