Just for fun, I pulled Caleb’s First Day of School pictures from elementary school so far: Kindergarten 1st Grade (I’m just now noticing he wore the same shirt 2 years in a row on the first day of school! Nice!!) … Continue reading
I really should plan ahead more for the first day of school, but I let it get to the weekend before school starts before I’m willing to get myself in gear. Every year! Never fails! So, on Friday, I finally decided that we needed to put a plan in action!
Every year, I feel the need to get life as much in order before school starts as possible! Now, I’ve never actually achieved the feeling of complete order, but I try. When Caleb started Kindergarten, the twins were 6 months old. So that year, my standards were very low! He had clothes, a lunch, a few pictures were taken, and he was on time which equaled a success for me! But every year, I up my game plan of getting this place in order!
Here’s what we accomplished this weekend:
Of course, there were things on my list that didn’t get done. I tend to make unreasonable to-do lists. But I feel better about the start of this school year than I have any others so far, and that’s a pretty good feeling.
The two bonus items of the night were going on a quick impromptu dinner date (thanks mom and dad!) and praying with the kids before bed. I’ll be honest, I don’t do this enough! When it’s the kids’ bed time, I’m normally ready to do whatever it takes to get them in bed and settled as quick as possible! But it’s the beginning of the school year! Time to start and renew things around here. To get a little more organized and have a little more routine and structure up in here! Time to dream about what lies ahead for the Carroll family over the next year!
And I’m excited!
What all did your family do to get ready for school?
Wouldn’t it be nice if new things came easy? I like the idea of trying new things. New is exciting!
But more often than not, new things are hard. And even kind of scary! It’s sometimes hard to decide to change and do something new. For some people, change is about the last thing they want. Change is not something I typically get excited about. Well maybe eventually after I have my chance to worry.
Our family has had a number of new experiences lately that have reminded me how hard but also exciting new things can be.
We got a new kitchen table. I had to clean the old table like crazy to get it ready to sell. Hard work! Especially since it’s had 8 years of little kids eating at it! Then it was a little sad to get rid of the only table our family has ever known. But also very fun to get a new one!
Chris started a new job in January and also started his masters degree. It’s a ton of work for him, and it was scary making the jump to completely change careers, but it’s a good change for him and our family. Especially as we look to the future.
I went for my first run last night in my plan to get back in shape. It was no fun at all, but it will be worth it a few weeks from now. At least I hope so. I don’t look forward to what it’s going to take to feel better, but I know it needs to be done.
Just a few examples.
New things and change can be hard, but they’re also worth it.
Change is healthy. A lack of change is not.
I read a quote a few weeks ago that went something like: “If your organization is not constantly changing, you have a problem”.
And that goes for our individual lives too. Change is constant. Change can sometimes be a not-so-good thing, but the vast majority of the time, it is a good thing. It stretches us. Helps us learn. Helps us rely on God. Can help to get us outside of ourselves.
My friend Lindsay and I discussed this morning that we might as well embrace change.
What if when we felt the fear creeping up inside of us over new things, we leaned into it? Pushed past the fear and met the new experience head on.
Change will always be difficult. Be we can choose how difficult we will allow it to be.
What is new in your world?
Caleb got a free ticket to Six Flags (which is great but still means we spent a ton of money!) at school this last year for reading a lot, and he’s been dying to go! The ticket expires this weekend, … Continue reading
I have 3 awesome kids. They have a lot of fun and enjoy each other. (In between fights.) 🙂 I had a pretty hard weekend, so Chris suggested that I take Luke out on a date to get away and … Continue reading
Most of the furniture in our house was lovingly given to us by family members. I love that our family members were so generous to us over the years, and we have thoroughly enjoyed everything given to us! So it’s … Continue reading
Hands down, my worst parenting moment has to be those few moments in our day when we are getting in and out of the car. In the mornings, I’ve done my best to get the kids up, get them dressed, … Continue reading
One of the keynote speakers at my conference last week, Reverend Susan Sparks, had a great point that I can’t help but share with you! It really spoke to the room full of church administrators and was pretty convicting. So here it is:
Churches should learn to operate more like food trucks.
People love food trucks! They are all the rage these days! We flock to them! We get excited when we see them! We tell our friends about them! We want more from them!
Susan gave us two ways that the church should be like food trucks, and I’m going to throw one more at the end of my own.
So, how do you feel about this food truck analogy? What are other ways that churches should work toward being more like food trucks?
We’ve all been there! It’s a quiet moment in church. Like prayer time. Or the preacher is really getting into the groove in his sermon.
And a cell phone goes off.
Everyone looks around wondering whose phone it is. Some people can’t believe the nerve of the person for not turning the sound off their phone before church. Some think it’s amusing to look around and see who it belongs to. Some are instantly paranoid that it could be their phone. Some remember times when their phone went off in church and they’ve wanted to crawl under the pew to hide!
But cell phones going off in church (or anywhere else) do not bother me as much as they once did.
Recently, a church administrator friend of mine told me a story…
He was sitting in church really into the morning and feeling the Spirit moving when someone’s phone started ringing. And they answered it in the service!! He was immediately distracted, annoyed and ticked off at the irresponsible person who was disturbing the service. It really got to him.
After the service, he went up to the preacher and mentioned the phone going off. Surely the preacher would be angry too! Phones going off during sermons had to be a pet peeve of the preacher! The preacher calmly looked at him and said that it was actually a really great thing that the phone rang! It was an answered prayer! The owner of the phone had been waiting on that call for a long time! They had been on an organ transplant list for years, and when their phone rang, it was the hospital telling them that the organ that they needed was ready! This person had to answer that call! It was a life-changing call!
Now, the vast majority of times, phones going off are not that much of an emergency. But sometimes they are.
We let ourselves get worked up about so many small things, don’t we? I know I do! I’m sad to say that sometimes it doesn’t take much to rile me up!
But I’m thankful for friends, stories, etc. who help me see different perspectives.
There is always more to things and life than meets the eye!
I went to a church administration conference last week that was held in Orlando, FL. The special event of the week was a night at Disney. And who can say no to Disney?!! And while I was there, I took … Continue reading
Stephanie Carroll 