argyle sweaters and red hair coloring

As a faithful long time employee of the State of Georgia, I am celebrating my first furlough day by, what else? spending money!  Actually, I have been secretly excited about this day for a while.  I don't know about you, but it's really hard to take a day off for no good reason. Most of the time I am going on vacation, sick, or tacking it on to a long weekend. I never take a day off in the middle of the week.  Well, thanks to the recent recesssion, depression, economic turndown, whatever you want to call it, I get a whole day off smack dab in the middle of the week.
Today,  I am getting my hair done.  My roots are 3 inches long and screaming for some beautiful red hair coloring.  After that, I am going to  have a little retail therapy, and hopefully find an argyle sweater. Why? I have no explanation other than I have really fallen in love with those crazy diamond sweaters and want one. Maybe it's the cool in the air.   After that I am meeting the prettiest man in Putnam county and going to lunch.
I have no complaints about my furlough day......at least not until payday!

snapshots of my weekend

shrimp and grits from Bone Island Grill.....amazing. ( and I don't use that word often!)

Big Lots..... my all time favorite place to shop...quality closeout merchandise at fabulous prices.

4 mile runs.......back in the swing...I think

grilling chicken in the rain with my favorite man in the world......

sleeping with the window open and the rain pouring outside

praise and worship....essential to understand that God requires nothing else from us.....wholehearted worship

community......finding that the people I worship with are people I love.......

knitting......relaxes me and inspires my creativity......

Monday mornings are the perfect time to eat Kim Byrd's cookies for breakfast instead of my standard oatmeal.......welcome new week!

That one small hour

Now that I have come to terms with Leslie driving (which basically means I am no longer stalking her every move once she leaves the driveway) I am beginning to realize the benefit of no longer being the main Welch chauffeur.
Every morning I have an hour that is totally mine. The girls leave the house at 7:30, then Wayne follows after that leaving me all alone. I have one hour of uninterrupted peace and tranquility. It's my favorite part of the day. I can do whatever I want in the hour. I can leisurely get ready for work, with the Today show blaring in the background. Or I can sit out on my porch drinking my second cup of coffee and read or watch the squirrels play. I can even do laundry and clean up the kitchen. I usually waste it on the internet, reading my favorite blogs. But its my hour. That one small hour makes all the difference in my day!

Fall Reads

I'm gearing up for some fall reading. What is better than a cool afternoon on my porch wrapped up in a blanket with a cup of coffee and a good book? Here is my list of books I want to read this fall:

1. Mad Church Disease by Anne Jackson. Who is not been burnt or burned out that has worked in church? My sister, recuperating herself from burnout suggested this book.

2)Forgotten God by Frances Chan. His first book, Crazy Love has got to be one of my all time favorites! I love his writing style. He's blunt, and soul searching.

3)Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult. My sister got me totally hooked on her about a year ago. I have to admit, the last book I read, Harvesting the Heart was a bit of a dud, but I am usually deaf, dumb and blind to anything else in the world when I'm reading her.

4)Finally Alive by John Piper. Piper, oh how I love to read his books. They are deep, but rich. It takes me forever to get through them, but you are so more aware of who God is after reading his works.

5)Religion Saves and Nine Other Misconceptions by Mark Driscoll. He is my absolute favorite preacher in 2009! I listen to his Sunday sermon every Monday. He is relevant, but uncompromising. I love his blunt manner.

What are you reading this fall?

850 miles

That's about how many miles I've logged in these shoes. I'm a little obsessive about my running shoes. I never ever wear them for anything except running. After I've logged about 800 miles they are shot and then they can become outside shoes, but until then, to wear them everyday would break them down too quick. These particular shoes were a new brand, Saucony. They were OK, but my heart and feet really belong to Adidas Cushion Response. Best running shoe for someone like me with really high arches. I bought these on a whim, and while they are OK, I'm going back to Adidas. I usually only put about 500 miles on a pair of shoes, or roughly 6 months, but I didn't run all spring, and then this summer I ran like a mad woman. When I felt my inner left knee begin to ache a little I knew the tell tell sign of worn shoes. I sat down and roughly figured that I probably put about 850 miles on these girls. That would be like me running to my sister's house in Michigan. I always feel a little sadness at letting go of my old pair. They have run many a mile with me, listened to many a Toby Mac song, sometimes heard me cry, and many times carried me while I sorted out the complexities of my life.

I can't say they make me feet any prettier, but at least my lungs and heart are strong and they sure have helped in the fight to keep my mind sane!

Goodbye, Saucony's your job is done, and come this weekend, there will be a new pair of girls in town, a shiny pair of Adidas Cushion Responses, size 9. Maybe even pink!

Go get your praise on

I have been thinking about this all week.......What is the chief end of man? Yeah I know pretty heavy duty thinking. According to the Westminster catechism. It's to honor God and love Him forever.

I had a thought this week that I could not seem to shake and the more I thought it the more I realize it was a question from God to me........

What is church really all about?........Learning? Outreach? Worship? Fellowship? Is church about what I do? Or is it about what I get when I'm there? Is the morning hour wasted if no one accepts Christ? Is it wasted if I don't learn? These are good thoughts to meditate on. It should drive me to Scripture to find answers.

Revelations 4:11- You created everything, and it is for your pleasure they exist and were created. News flash. I was created for God's pleasure. My worship is more about him and less about me. He's most honored when I have filled up in my heart with how good He is.

Romans 12:1- Present yourself to him as an act of worship. Worship is not doing for God. It's being for God. When I realize that there isn't much I can do for Him to impress Him, that's when I realize it's more about knowing Him. I'm not "saving" anyone. He does that. God's much more happy with me when I'm am longing to know Him with all I have. All my acts of service flow out from how much I love Him. Leave it to us to turn our Chrsitian journey into a works based contest.

These are my thoughts on a Sunday morning. I'm gonna go to church, and open up my heart to praise Him. I'm gonna take one uninterrupted hour this week to tell Him how great He is. It's gonna be an hour that is not about what I do for Him, but what He has done for me.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go blast some CeCe Winans while I get ready. It's never too early to get your praise on!

splurge

Once in a while you love a good splurge. This weekend I am going to Belk and splurging on this super cool Clinique eyeshadow.
According to Chic Critique it lasts all day. I don't usually spend $15.00 on eyeshadow, but if it lasts all day I'm all for it. I'll let you know. It's been a while since I had a splurge. What was your most recent well spent money on yourself?

Who in the heck is Lottie Moon?

I was raised independent baptist. The implications of becoming southern baptist would fill up a post longer than you are interested in reading, trust me. One of my most favorite things about being southern baptist, besides wearing "britches", and singing praise and worship, is the missions program. My past experience is that God called you to be a missionary and then you went around to almost every independent baptist church in the US begging for support, and usually in about 4-5 years you gathered up enough funding to go to your ministry.

Southern baptist have an awesome system for sending missionaries to foreign lands. You sign up with IMB, are interviewed, attend training after meeting the qualifications, and being accepted. After training, you are sent to your field of ministry.

No traveling around for years on end begging for money. No, thanks to Lottie Moon offering, missionaries are supported fully.

So who in the heck is Lottie Moon?

I have been studying her life over the last few weeks and she totally rocked international missions in China.

Lottie Moon was a short little woman (4 ft. 11 in), the daughter of rich Virginian aristocrats (that means rich land owners). She was pretty much destined for easy street, hang around the plantation, dress up and going to parties, marry a rich good looking aristocrat in training, have babies, and fan your self down by the river.

Well, she captured the eye of many young men, but she knew God had a plan for her life that did not involve plantation parties. She attended school, almost never heard of in that time, and became a teacher. She then even started a school for indigent children in our own state of Georgia.

I think what I like best about Lottie Moon was she had a fiercely independent, outspoken personality. She blazed the path for women in the southern baptist church. She was told over the things she wanted to accomplish were too hard for a woman. She informed her critics "I'm not asking your permission, I am informing you that this is the task to which I have been called."

How did she move from a Virginian schoolteacher, to a ethnically entrenched Chinese missionary?........stay tuned......

Things I find disgusting...

1) Snakes

2)Skinny women who eat french fries and don't work out

3)Lukewarm coffee

4)Vomit that does not belong to my children

5)Pantyhose (does anyone actually wear them anymore?)

That's my disgusting list, what's yours?

Unnatural

This is the conversation I overheard (eavesdropped) on in Kroger line between two college girls this morning:

Girl #1- "What are you getting for your cold?"
Girl # 2 (sipping on a Diet Coke)- "I'm trying this echinacea."
Girl #1- "Why don't you get some of that Tylenol Cold and Sinus? I used it for my cold and it worked good."
Girl #2- (still sipping the Diet Coke full of aspartame) "No way, I'm taking this herb stuff. I really don't want any unnatural chemicals in my body."

My new favorite song

We sang this song in worship a few weeks ago and again today. I love it! My favorite line is 'We don't want blessings, we want you" Hard words to sing, because most the time I'm searching pretty hard for blessings and less for God Himself. I'll be humming this the next couple of days.....

living water

If you believe in me, come and drink!

For the Scriptures declare that rivers of living water will flow out from within.

John 7:38

nine

Now this is just too cool!

look what I got

Dillard house is my favorite spot to eat lunch when we go to the mountains, and look what Wayne bought me when we were through eating.....a salt and pepper shaker set! Aren't they cute?

Minus One

This weekend we spent four wonderful days catching up with my family. My three sisters live in different states, so it's always a fun time when we get together. We love to take pictures and I never look at a picture without thinking---we are minus one. My oldest sister, Laurie died when we were all kids, even before Liz was here. To be honest, I seldom think of her much, it's been so long now. I was younger than her namesake, my niece Kara Laurie, when she left us.

But when we're all together I often think, "we're minus one." What would her husband be like? Would her kids tease mine and splash them in the creek? Would she sit in the rocker and give me some good recipes to try? I miss her. I wish I could have known her as an adult. We're minus one.

Once in a While.......

it's nice to change things up. Do things a little different. Look at it from another point of view. Keeps things interesting. Prevents boredom. Like.........

..............taking the girls to Walmart at 10:00 at night, on a school night.

.............ordering soy chai latte instead of the standard mocha.

.............take a different route home.

.............listen to my kids ipod instead of my own.

.............paint my nails orange.

............wear pearls to work.

............listen to NPR instead of "the Fish" on the way to work.

.............ride a bike after work instead of running.

Yeah it's a wild and crazy life around the Welch household. We know how to live dangerous. Keep things interesting. Expect the unexpected.