Merchandise Credit is from God

...so are 3 hour long gymnastics camps.

Oh, seriously. It was heaven on earth. No one who knows me would ever doubt my undying love for my family, but gosh is was good to drop Eve off for an extended time at her gymnastics studio.

Ashlyn and I headed over to TJ Maxx to use a Merchandise Credit voucher we had left over from a gift we returned. See, those stores that let you get cash back when you return a gift just screw those of us that are overly responsible with our money. If we get cash, it immediately goes into our budget and ends up paying for something like rent or lights. But I had no choice today other than to go and buy something that I would never buy for myself - ever.

We've had this card since Christmas, and Billy insisted that I take today to get some new pajama pants, since mine have no fewer than 5 holes in the upper legs and, ahem, other areas. I ended up getting the pants, a father's day present, sandals for Eve, and a pair of goggles without spending a thing.

It was nice to get a treat and not feel guilty about where my money should be going.

So, thank you, God, for merchandise credit.

Beautiful Day

I'm about to unveil the extent of my dorkiness. Mark this day on your calendars, it won't happen again. Billy will love this. He accuses me of always wanting to look cool and not doing fun things because I'll look like a dork. He's right. But here, in all my dorkdom, let me tell you about my beautiful day.

As you faithful readers know, I've been gearing up to be organized. With a new baby and selling a house, schedules flew out the window. But now that we're fairly settled in the new place, I've been aiming to get some structure back in our lives. Oh, my gosh! Is it ever glorious!

Last night, I spent some much-needed time planning my week. I use Google Cal, and I have 4 calendars that I keep. Here's what my week looked like online:


So, here, I have my green events, my red reminders (i.e. anything Billy doesn't need cluttering up his calendar view), my purple meal planning, and Eve's pink. Google rocks and e-mails me one agenda for the day to print out and reference.

The day was highly organized, highly productive, and highly full of scheduled fun (and delicious food, I might add).

Commenting on my brilliant rigidity may now commence.

June Goals

Here's how I did on goals for the month of May:

• Work out 3 times a week - eh...it was more like 2, but it was something, at least.

• Pick out photos for Ashlyn's first year baby book - we're up through 8 months on this one.
  

• Figure out a scheduling/calendar system that works for us - looking good...Billy and I use GoogleCal to coordinate between the two of us, and I have a separate calendar book for taking with me. It's a little cumbersome to have both, but since I don't have a way to carry Google around, I have to use both for now.

• Read a couple of non-fiction books - The Emerging Church and Why We're Not Emergent. I also read The Bridge to Terebithia.
  

• Change address on magazine subscriptions - I called mags to do this, and found out that the post office did this one for me! How sweet of them.

• Use the decluttering calendar a couple times a week - Ok...so I only used it a couple time this month. The result is a couple of very organized dresser drawers. Long overdue!

• Spending Fast Update - We did it! The only thing that we bought that was not a utility or food was a bathing suit for me. I know, I know...it doesn't seem like a necessity, but trust me... when your plan is to stay home as much as possible all summer in order to save gas, you have to take advantage of the complex pool. I thought about putting the purchase off until June, but I was at Wal-mart getting diapers (total necessity!) and I figured I should just go ahead and get the suit to save another trip.
  

June's Goals -
Continue "real" exercise 2x a week, but also add in mini-sessions 2 evenings
Find out about new car and drivers' licenses
Decrease auto fuel usage by 10% (in terms of dollars!)
Figure out some ways to eat healthy and cut the grocery bill
File all my crazy papers/shred unneeded ones
Finish choosing photos for the baby book

Book Review: Why We're Not Emergent by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck

I found out about this book from my old buddy Dan Kimball. It's a critique on emergent that he recommended as a fair look. You can read Dan's review, too. But read mine first.

The Set-Up

This book is written by two very different guys. One is a theology-loving logical kinda guy. He's a 30-year-old pastor in a college town. The other is a story-telling journalist, artsy type. He goes to the pastor's church.

In the intro, they tell the reader that they won't try to combine their personalities into one voice; rather, they each wrote separate chapters, and the rest of the book kinda flip-flops back and forth chapter by chapter.

The Good

These guys did tons of reading to prepare for this book, especially the pastor. His source list was insane long. I have to give a lot of credit because it can be really difficult to trudge through books that go against your deep-seeded convictions. It can be an angering process and an overwhelming one, too. But these guys kept at it and really had some determination.

They also presented their concerns with love. I thought their hearts were very much in the right place as I read their beefs with emergent. I've read lots of critiques on the "movement" and this one was by far the nicest spirited commentary. So many of the critiques lose all credibility because they appear to be rants showcasing a laundry list of grievances and sentencing participants of emergent to hell.

These guys were consistent in their overarching complaint: emergent is an over-reaction against an extreme example of conservative (and I would add - unChristlike) Christianity. These guys point out that emergents offer false dichotomies based on reacting to judgemental, stuffy, legalistic Christians. In shifting so far the toward liberty, they are just as guilty at straying from the Christian message.

The Bad

These guys did tons of reading to prepare for this book. While I admire their persistency to trudge through this, I thought everyone knew that emergent is a conversation and you have to talk about it for years on end to understand what anyone has to say. I say that mockingly, but honestly, I would've appreciated if these men had had conversations with some of the guys whose books they quoted. As it were, the journalist "interviewed" people who were probably not qualified to give much opinion, certainly not any expert opinion. For example, his story about how post-modernism hasn't really taken over the culture to the extent that emergents claim it has was based on a conversation with a college kid. That doesn't really hold a lot of water for me. I mean, how much did you really know as a college kid?

In fact, I'm not really sure the journalist added much to the book except some clever style. Not to say his clever style wasn't appreciated. I actually quite enjoyed his chapters. But I think the book as a whole would have been better if they hadn't separated the chapters by author. As it is now, the book has 2 kinds of chapters -- boring ones with tons of great information (by the pastor), and interesting ones with no real point (by the journalist). Had they worked to use the pastor's info and the journalists style, they could've had a book that was great, instead of just good.

The Verdict

If you're looking for a critique of the emergent church, this is a good choice. Though a bit difficult to trudge through at times, it is generally easy to read and clear. It presents a fair look and offers better solutions to the problems that emergents are also trying to solve.

I recommend it as part of your investigation into what the emergent church is.

My New Calling

Okay...maybe I won't be going into graphic design full-time, but I am pretty excited about the graphics that I made for this morning's worship service at Chase Valley.

I used to mess around on Photoshop and do goofy things like this:



But then I met Billy, and he showed me how to actually use the program, and now I can do cool things like this:

original photo by *hiro008

May Goals

Well, it seems like life has settled down again. It's good to be back together as a family, and we're pretty much settled in except for the stuff that never had a place in Indiana, and will take forever to get a place here in Alabama.

So, I'm looking for a bit more structure to our days, and I thought a good place to start would be in monthly goals. Sure the month's half over, but I've been working on these all along anyway. I just thought I'd share them with you.

Goals for the months of May:

Work out 3 times a week
Pick out photos for Ashlyn's first year baby book
Figure out a scheduling/calendar system that works for us
Read a couple of non-fiction books
Change address on magazine subscriptions
Use the decluttering calendar a couple times a week
Open a bank account down here

Book Review: The Emerging Church by Dan Kimball

The Set-Up

Kimball writes about where the church needs to go in the post-modern era by dividing his book into 2 parts. The first part is an overview of post-modern thought and the "crisis" that the modern church is in as they look at reaching upcoming generations (as well as those crazy hippy fogies who are more post-modern in thought). He gives a thorough and interesting synopsis of where our culture is and why that affects the church.

Part 2 is more of a methods book, although Kimball is careful to say that using methods without understanding the background of culture will turn out a disaster. He goes through several functions of the church (i.e. corporate worship, evangelism, discipleship, leadership structure) and discusses how these may need to change as the church engages the post-modern mindset of those around us.

Throughout the book, Kimball has included comments by about 5 or 6 people who read the manuscript. These are not just quotes that go along with his ideas, but they are people's comments about his words. Most are in agreement with him, but he was mature enough to also include some comments that disagree with his point, or expand his point to include something that may seem omitted. The commenters include Brian McLaren and Rick Warren.

The Good

First, I have to say that I love Kimball's heart in this book. So many times, I get frustrated with "emergents" (or friends of them, whatever that means) being condemning of the modern church. It bugs the crap out of me to have people use the same arrogance in their emerging rhetoric that they accuse the staunchy theologians of having.

But Kimball's heart is amazingly humble and generous. He quotes the adage that goes, "In essentials - unity. In non-essentials - freedom. In all things - charity." I feel like this really is his way of life. He criticizes without condemning, and he encourages all the while.

Another thing that I liked about the book was that he is aware of the risk of consumerism, even in positive changes. He emphasized over and over that the changes he's made must be made to put the focus on Christ and cannot be made solely to cater to the people we're trying to reach. He seems to understand how easy it is to head that direction and maintains that consumerism in the church is harmful, whether it's cheesy bumper stickers or deep spirituality of candles and incense. Consumerism is consumerism, and it needs to stay out of the church. In this vein, he also speaks against the "corporation" structure of many churches. Amen!

Lastly (although I could go on and on about "the good"), Kimball's theology is just very sound. We hear so much about emergent theology being wayward and post-modern itself. But Kimball is clear that theology is important and doesn't need to be sacrificed in order to reach new people. While methods may change to provide a deeper spiritual experience, truth is truth and the Jesus of the Bible is that Truth. It was relieving to read this strong focus on Jesus being the only way to heaven and a relationship with him being the only way to spiritual growth.

The Bad

The one thing that stood out to me the most as a negative in this book was the lack of variety in Kimball's methods. On one hand, he speaks to diversity, but on the other, his methodology indicates that ancient-future is the one way that post-moderns will feel connected. In honesty, I just can't see a lot of people liking the intensely deep, mystical, dark thing all the time. I tend to be deep and melancholy. More so than a heck of a lot of people I know, but I don't think week after week of dark depth is what would be effective toward a holistic spiritual growth. I realize that this is what has worked for his church, and this is what he uses in his community, but I would have liked to hear some other methods that work in other churches that reach to post-moderns.

Another thing that I wasn't crazy about with his methods was that many of them seemed very "Jesus and Me" worship. I'm sure I missed something here because community is so important to post-moderns and is talked about so much in the emerging movement. But a lot of Kimball's examples talked about people leaving their seats to go do something on their own, be it give offering, take communion, or pray. I tend to believe that corporate worship ought to be corporate. If I wanted to pray alone in the dark, I'd put on a CD, light some candles in my bedroom and pray. Being in the community gathering should be about communally worshiping God. It's not just me and Jesus. It's a family of believers worshiping together, and there's something about that kind of worship that cannot be done alone.

The Verdict

This is a fairly old book... that is, it's from 2003. But these days that's ancient, right? I mean, there's so much new stuff coming out everyday that most of the stuff in Kimball's book is now over-discussed. But this book is worth the read.

For one thing, it gives a good impression of what the emerging church can be when it holds fast to doctrinal truth and returns to depth of worship and relationship. It shows that these two ideas are not mutually exclusive. Even though this book was written previous to a lot of the current criticism over the emerging church, it's a good counter to show that the phrase doesn't just point to the liberal whackos who don't want to know anything with certainty. For this reason, I've recommended it to a friend, who has heard a lot of the criticism but none of the positives.

It's also a great read for people who haven't yet heard or investigated the term. I've already recommended it to my mom.

Spending Fast

Now that we're down here and getting settled, Billy and I have had a chance to look over our money stuff.

The move and related things (house repairs, organization needs [read: a kitchen trash can and such], bedding for Eve) have caused us to spend more than we normally do. Add to that an obnoxious bill for car repair, and we're downright tired of shelling out the cash.

So, we decided last night to participate in a "spending fast" for the month of May. This means that we won't be spending any unnecessary money.

"Necessary" will be categorized as anything that would make creditors come after us if we didn't pay. We will be paying rent. We will pay for power. We will pay for gas and groceries, although our efforts will go toward decreasing these expenditures.

"Superfluous" spending would include things like picture frames that I really want so I can hang up family pictures. These are only $2 each at Wal-mart. But $2 here and $2 there is what ends up adding up to big bucks in the long run.

I will be waiting to buy curriculum for next year until June. I'll also have to wait on getting Ashlyn's year-old pictures printed. (Heck! She's already 15 months, what's 30 more days???)

If we want, we can choose to write down things that we wanted to spend money on. Then, at the end of the month, we'll see what we really wanted by seeing if we still want it.

The idea for this came from My Simpler Life.

New

My church has been focusing on newness in Christ for the last several weeks, and today, the sermon series wrapped up with "New Strength." The biblical example was Gideon and his 300 men.

I've appreciated this whole series because my friend Elaine has pounded into my head over the last year that I'm a new creation. I've spent a lot of time learning about what that means. I've begun to understand how to take that truth -- which I've always "known" -- and appropriate it in my daily life. It takes the head knowledge and adds to it a knowledge of experience.

My church has talked about several different areas of life that our new identity and the power of Christ's resurrection in us. Some of the include

New Relationships
New Freedom
New Attitude

As I think on these phrases, I remember that the Gospel message is truly revolutionary.

Proud

Just wanted to invite you all to take a look at the current issue of Evansville Parent magazine.

It's always full of fun and helpful articles, but I'm particularly interested to know your views on my article in this issue. It's on page 15.

Here's a link to the 2nd half of the magazine. My article will be on page 2 of this electronic copy.

First Impressions

So, we've been here about 2 weeks. And I figured it was high time to get back to blogging. (Disclaimer: No promises here about how often I'll post at first, cause I still have boxes that need my attention, but it's getting significantly better!)

A few things have stuck out to me as first impressions while acclimating to the area:

1. It's super easy to find your way around here.
Pretty much everywhere I've ever gone has involved the interstate. You basically hop on and take it to your exit. Sure there are a couple of turns once you get off, but all in all, the interstate makes for a quick and easy drive.

Sometimes, it's too quick for my country-girl tastes. Coming from Indiana, I'm used to lots of open fields with 30 mph speed limits. The fastest limit in Evansville was 50 mph on the Lloyd. (The interstate up there doesn't count cause people only used it to leave town for the most part.) So, I get on 565 and see signs for 70 and it kinda freaks me out. Plus, I've never had to merge so much in my life.

2. Our apartment complex is awesome.
We have a huge lake that has been the highlight of our living experience so far. Nightly walks are a great way to get exercise when you're low on childcare. Ashlyn's taken quite a liking to the ducks, and Eve is convinced that she can call the beaver up to us by speaking Beaver language she learned by watching The Chronicles of Narnia too many times.

The complex is also in the process of renovations. Our interior renovation was complete before we moved in, but now we're scheduled to get a screened in porch sometime this summer.

The downfall of the apartment living is having a weird upstairs neighbor who vacuums at 9:30 at night and doesn't speak English.

3. There's actually stuff to do here.
Now, this may not be fair to Evansville. This could be just that I grew up in Indiana and take for granted stuff that goes on, but I doubt it.

It just seems like there's more culture here than Evansville has. This weekend, we went to an amazing art festival called Panoply. It was beyond fun.

Other interesting stuff includes The Big Read, Thursday Night Concerts, and Big Spring Jam.

Looks good to me.

4. My new church rocks.
Sundays are amazing. This goes without saying, as I get to worship God being led by the hottest leader ever. Not that worshiping God is about how hot the worship pastor is, but you know....

Plus, I'm super excited about the sermon series that I got to come into. It's called "New: the power of resurrection for today." I think that the single biggest grower in my recent faith journey has been learning and studying about my new identity in Christ and what it means to have him living through me. I'm geeked that this is the message that my pastors have chosen to preach starting on Easter.

So, am I liking it here? All in all, I'm down.

Clothes that Fit

The last few months, I've been hardcore about working out in order to (1) get in better shape, and (2) not be forced to buy a new wardrobe. I'm convinced that buying new clothes because you're fat is a big waste of money. I'd rather spend my money on the gym.

So, for a year, I was wearing a rotation of no more than 5 shirts and 2 pairs of jeans (actually, the 2nd pair, I only purchased in December, so most of the year was 1 pair of jeans).

But 2 months ago, I enlisted Blake at Bob's Gym to help me cut the blubber, and I couldn't be happier, as today, for the first time, I'm wearing pre-pregnancy clothes that fit again.

Okay, okay...they don't fit quite the same way. The waist of the jeans digs in a little and you can see a fat roll or two through my shirt. So, I still have a few inches to go. But I'm wearing them. And I am actually going to wear them in public!

The workout didn't just help my body shape and size, it also increased my fitness level. I went down 4% in fat percentage, I have better cardio health, and I increased my upper-body strength by 230% (based on a push-up test).

So, I owe a huge thanks to Blake for making my workouts challenging and fun, do-able and effective.

Retarded Car

Ok, I know... I'm supposed to be packing and whatever. But I saw one of these on the road the other day and just couldn't stop laughing.

They call it smart fortwo. The name style pretty much indicates how cramped it must be. And I wonder if they thought about ever traveling anywhere with luggage. Doesn't seem too smart to me.

brb

Well, today was the magic day. We closed on our house. What a relief. I'll write more on the trauma of the weeks leading up to today, but for now, I just have to say that I'll be gone for a while.

I'm planning to sell the desk that my computer is on and will be breaking the computer down here soon.

It should be back up and running by mid-April.

So, keep me in your reader, and I'll catch you up on the hassle of moving day.

Looking Good on a Lousy Day

Today was beyond hard. The details aren't relevant, but trust me, it wasn't a pretty day. BUT, that's no reason why I can't be pretty!

I've been feeling just plain worn out lately. I'm not the only one. Pianomomsicle feels it, too. It's part of being a mom to a baby and having... well... basically anything else going on at all.

So, as a light-hearted break from some of my normal heavy stuff, I wanted to share some of my favorite "look alive" make up solutions for those days when you're feeling like dropping over dead.

Under-eye Concealer

My current favorite is a liquid concealer from Neutrogena. It goes on smooth and blends well. I use a color 2 shades lighter than my normal foundation because it gives a more natural look. Just blend in the foundation to the bottom area of the concealer and you have a nice fade into your face color. All of Neutrogena's products have built-in skin care elements, also. So, I feel fairly confident that this concealer isn't clogging my pores to no end.

Pressed Powder Highlighter

Physician's Formula has a great product to bring extra glow to your skin to help you look brighter and more lively. I learned about this product in college, but never tried it for myself until I was shopping for wedding make up. The first time I applied it, I was sold. The last powder I got was a neutral, solid color, and I was so glad to run out the other day so that I could get this one again.

Quotable

From Lifetime Guarantee by Bill Gillham:

"It's easy to praise the Lord when everything's cool, but you can "offer up a sacrifice of praise" (Heb. 13:15) only when it's not. A sacrifice costs something. It hurts to give it. Praising the Lord when you feel bad is not being a phony either; it's being obedient. Your heart can be in it even when your emotions are not."

I highly recommend this amazing book.

Friends are a Waste of Time

Last night, my pastor was talking about friendship and our great need for it. He mentioned that in our society today, we are always busy. We always have places to be, things to do.

Sometimes simply spending time with people seems like a waste. But this "waste of time" is the most valuable time we can spend.

Today, I walked down to my old friend Mary's house and "wasted" about 45 minutes. The other night, I "wasted" time on Kara.

Who do you need to waste time on this week?

Asleep in the Light

Last week, Shaun Groves posted about Larry Norman's death, wondering if the Christian music community would really miss him. He noted that other conviction-filled Christian musicians, such as Rich Mullins and Keith Green, are rarely referenced well these days.

Now, I don't know much about Larry Norman. My knowledge is limited to a song that dc talk covered with end times theology that I don't agree with, but Rich Mullins has been a favorite of mine for years. I remember seeing him in concert when I was a wee lass in junior high. I thought he was weird for performing barefoot. I would pay lots of money today to see him perform barefoot. Since he's dead, that won't be happening. But fortunately, I have a DVD of one of his last concerts that I can play over and over.

Anyway, Keith Green is one that I haven't listened to in a long, but I got out my Keith Green: The Early Years CD today, and jammed to the first few songs on the way home from the gym.

Man! This guy has some hard-hitting lyrics. The CD opens up with "Asleep in the Light." This song is one where he chastises Christians for not caring that others around us are dying.

But it's easy to rip on the church, right?

What I liked was that Green also isn't scared to offend non-believers. It seems to me like young, hip, emerging Christians of today hold un-believers up as the idol du jour. There are calls to make things relevant for the un-believer (read: cater to them). We consult non-Christians on how they would like to be reached for Christ, and then we sell books on the topic.

But the 2nd song of Green's album is called "Soften Your Heart," and it comes with lines such as,

"You're so proud of saying you're a seeker
But why are you searching in the dark
You won't find a thing
Until you soften your heart"

So, what I appreciate so much about Keith Green -- okay there are TONS of things I appreciate, and I learned most of them in the biography of him that his wife Melody wrote -- is that he's able to call a spade a spade whether he was in Christian circles or with non-Christians.

Cause after all, we all need the same thing: Truth.

Are You Serious????

Apparently my husband forgot about this post.

Let the Journey Begin

Today was carefree.

Without jackets, we headed to the Ohio River in Newburgh.

It's been a long time since we've been down there, and it was great to walk along the river petting dogs and playing in fountains, looking at overpriced artwork and beat up used books.

We stayed there for about 90 minutes, doing everything that we won't get to do for much longer.

It's supposed to snow on Tuesday. And we'll be gone in a month.

As I walked around in Newburgh, I thought about how much I'm going to miss it. This is my town, you know? This is where I grew up, went to high school, came home to during college, bought my first house, got married, had children.

And through all that there was this quaint small-town remnant along the southern part of the Ohio, one state before it merges with the Mississippi.

This downtown where I marched in parades and went for countless walks with strollers. Where I have taken pictures year after year, even exposing photography students to the artistic possibilities all around us when we're only aware.

This is the downtown with the tree that withstood the tornado, where Billy and I made a point to go on our wedding day -- a symbol that our home will be strong through all kinds of storms.

There were so many reminders of good times and special memories. It could be easy to be upset right now. To be uncertain of the future, trying to hold on to the past.

But today was carefree. It wasn't the sadness of loss, so much as the joy in the moment. The happy remembrances of years gone by and the eager hopes for years to come.

Because more memories will be made, no matter where we are. Other places will earn my favor and become attached to the beauty of a memory. And there will be other times to mourn.

Today was a time for laughing.