A Random Thursday

Today is a day of rambling thought.

Nothing profound.

Just a string of disjointed Pooh brained musings.

Are you ready for some reading?

Here goes.

I started jury duty this week.

In our county one is on jury duty for four months. I am not sure if that means there are a lot of trials by jury in our county or not very many. I am supposed to call a hotline in every Monday evening to see if I am needed to go to the court house for duty that week.

My initial thoughts when I received my notice last month was utter panic. I was not sure if this timing had God's hand in it or not. I know by faith it does but in my Pooh brain it seems so unfortunate.

Of course, if I am off in a jury Jeff will not get paid and that will be very bad. Then again, this is the beginning of Jeff's new vacation period so I could not claim that being on a short trial would create a hardship on our family. It would not be what I would call a fun use of Jeff's vacation time but then again we really do not use his vacation time for vacations anyway. They are usually used for things like taking the kids to the doctors or dentist,car troubles, or if Jeff or myself are sick.

The biggest thing that bothers me about the timing is that there are friends of ours that will be going to trial sometime in 2012. I assume it would be a trial by jury. That could fall within my four months of service. Although, Jeff is sure because we know them and a bit about their situation I would not be picked as a juror as it would be hard to be non-biased. I still lay awake at night worrying a bit. Still sitting on a jury no matter who is on trial will be stressful. Besides in a county our size wouldn't most of the jurors know each other and possibly the ones on trial?

One thing I know is God's timing is good. I might even enjoy the time away from the house for a bit. It would also be exciting to see how a non Law and Order trial would be like. This four months will go fast enough and I probably would find my worries are not needed.

On a much more exciting note, Jeff and I made the decision to take our kids out of the AWANA program at our church. Currently, Jeff is one of the AWANA T&T leaders,our six older kids are AWANA helpers, and our other nine children participate in the AWANA program (ok,ok I just stayed home to relax). HaHa Do you think our absence will be noticed?

We so enjoyed the AWANA program. It worked well for our family for so many years but it is time to move on. We had been seeing the signs for a couple years. There were recent circumstances that motivated us to make this decision mid year but then again these circumstances were a blessing in disguise.

What will we do instead? This is the exciting part.

Jeff will head our own Wednesday night kids church and I am his side kick! I really think Jeff will shine doing this. I REALLY am looking forward to being a part of Jeff's vision. The things Jeff is the most excited about is the singing/worship and what AWANA referred to as council time. The meaty/teaching part. He is good at that. Some of the older kids will help Jeff with behind the scene planning or helping the kids work on their verses etc...much like they did for AWANA. HaHa and guess who gets to plan the projects?! Me!!! I LOVE that part!! The news was met with a mixture of tears and/or enthusiasm but even with tears this is a good thing. The older kids will still go to their own youth group,though.

Now this is an answer to desire for me. Why? well, most of you will understand what I am saying...or maybe not...I am an odd-ball. We can as husbands and wives, forget that we were put together to work together. God had a plan, a vision. We are one as husband and wife. It is false (in my opinion) to think that we will have greater success independent from each other. Second to our independent relationships with the Lord, our spouse is the well we should be drawing from. In the case with Jeff and myself, it seems that Jeff and I have been maintaining things side by side but not together, not as one. We can raise kids side by side, have a relationship with each other side be side but forget that we will be most usable by God being a unit of one. It is kind of like two people putting together the same puzzle but using two different tables to place their completed pieces on. Sometimes all it takes is just one thing, to work as one to remind us of God's vision for our family. In this case, Wednesday night kids church. Of course, not forgetting to mention that we have the greatest group of kids around to work with!!

Ok, I understand that there must be SO many holes in my reasoning. Please forgive me for that. A reminder this is our situation, our family, our experience, our leading by God. My words fail me in getting my point out but I get it and so does Jeff. He understands my disjointed thoughts

Whew...long winded I am today...

I need to end my post with a few highlights of this week.

Grant is playing his different cell phone ring tones to Joel and Lily.



A couple computer artwork pictures from Joel.




Ham and noodle soup with my ultimate favorite, fresh cilantro. SO SO good. If you ever met me in person you would understand my food pictures on my blog. I am not a thin woman. I am short but not thin. And I LOVE food.



Warmly,A Patchwork Mommy