Broken

The past week has been really busy with a conference in Dallas and the usual Allen calendar. I have many things I wanted to blog about in this diary of my family, but guess what? My camera is BROKEN! Yes, BROKEN... I pulled it out to take a photo of all my friends eating BBQ in Dallas and the screen is white.

SO...

I can't show you Sydney's first tooth-

Or, her orange face after eating carrots-

Or, Brett's latest Lego creations all over his playroom bed-

Or, his adorable "Kid Manual" he had to write for homework this week.

No, you can't see any of those things. You also can't hear Sydney's new sounds (they are SOOOO cute and Greg thinks she's saying Da-Da. It's not true).

My camera tricks me by making the clicking sound a camera makes when it takes a picture, but the picture is just white. It is broken.

4D

I heard a great leadership teaching by Steven Dilla, the Preschool Pastor at Fellowship Church yesterday. We were attending the C3 Kids Conference at the Grapevine campus and it was an amazing 2 days with 17 of our team from Celebration. About midway through Steven's message, I had an epiphany: this was the same message I heard 3 years ago when I attended this conference with Elizabeth and she asked me to work as a volunteer Director on her team. WOW!

The message applied to my life in a much different and bigger way, but impacted me greatly again! The Four D's represent the process in making a dream become a reality.

Dream asks the question "What could be?"
Design asks the question "How will it be?"
Develop asks the question "What is needed for it to be?"
Do asks the question "When can I begin?"

When I heard this message three years ago, it was more geared toward figuring out whether or not you are a Dreamer, Designer, Developer, and/or Doer. Yesterday, the talk inspired me to think about the actual process. I remember specifically sitting in my chair daring to DREAM some dreams about ministry three years ago yet not having any idea how they would come to pass. I can honestly say that more than I imagined would happen has already happened in my life at Celebration Church.

I assessed myself back then as a Dreamer and Developer and I must say that hasn't changed. I am able to see a big picture and Dream big things. I know God has called me to do this and He has gifted me with the ability to Develop those dreams using a great team. I was inspired to dream even bigger and to push the envelope yesterday. I know there are people in all four of these categories on my team and I can only imagine the potential we have to move mountains as we work together.

I am so excited to get started and to watch God work through all of us!!!

Milestones

Today was a big day! Sydney is just over 5 months old and she tried some rice cereal AND we can see her first tooth just below her gums. So exciting to watch her grow and develop. I think we'll wait to try cereal again in another week or two. Here's why:

The Nut Club

I found out that my precious son is a proud member of "The Nut Club" last night. I am wondering how I missed this very detailed and obviously important part of his life. It seems that the Nut Club has been around for quite some time.

Brett is the Second Master. Courtney is the Commander. Your favorite color must be purple to be in the Nut Club. Who decided this? Court-Nut, of course. She's the Commander. Who is in the Nut Club? The entire 1st grade Mrs. Burkett class, even Mrs. Burkett is a member. How do you get in? Well, you have to do the midget hop and say the password like this:


What does the Nut Club do? They do midget hops at recess and say things like, "We are in the Nut Club. We're in the Nut Club." Everyone has a Nut Club name. For example, there's Brett-Brett-Nut, Morgo-Nut (she's not in Mrs. Burkett's class, but she's in the Nut Club anyway), Chris-Nut, Bay-Nut, and on and on.

Court-Nut started this whole thing. After hearing about her great influence and how she rallied everyone around her cause in such an overwhelming way, I'm thinking she might be President one day!

To Cry or Not to Cry?

I don't know about you, but I am a proponent of letting my babies "cry it out" in their beds. As soon as Sydney was old enough to squirm and fight her sleep while I was holding her, I decided she was old enough to squirm and fight her sleep in her own bed. Oh, don't get me wrong. I hate it. I hate listening to her cry especially when it's the kind of crying that leaves her sighing and sniffling even when she's done.

I have a strategy: If she's fighting her sleep, I flip her on her tummy and pat her bum firmly. If she slows down enough to slip a binky in her mouth, I do that. If not, I keep patting and hope that she will settle. When she doesn't settle, she just gets to cry in her bed for a bit. After 10 minutes or so, if she is still crying I will go back in and try again. Today, she was screaming so hard and flipping over when I tried the "lay-on-your-stomach-while-I-pat-your-bum-technique." So, I gave in and held her until she calmed. When I laid her back down, she still cried.

So, I let her "cry it out." She cried a few more minutes while I walked away, closed the door and distracted myself by talking to Brett. Suddenly, just when I got used to the screaming and it didn't really bother me anymore, I stopped to listen. Oh, she's not screaming anymore. VOILA... here she lays, fast asleep:

Easter...

Spring is my favorite season; I love the chilly mornings and warm afternoons. The smell of my jasmine blooming and all of the new growth on the trees sets off a feeling of great anticipation within me. Growing up, I loved this time of year because the countdown to school being out is ON... I think all those years of excitement to finish classes must have ingrained something in me that will never go away. I just get excited when it's Spring!

This weekend is Easter weekend, or "Superbowl weekend" in the church-world. We have been preparing for some time now. Spring cleaning, budgets, fresh paint and wood chips, decor, service planning, etc. Why do we do this? Why all the fuss about one weekend every year?

Well... the facts are more people come to church on Easter weekend than any other weekend all year. I have been pondering this phenomenon and I can't seem to put my finger on it. Tradition? Easter dresses and bonnets? Egg hunts? Why is it that so many people come to church on Easter when "Bedside Baptist" was much more popular most of the year?

The fact is, Easter is a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christianity is the only religion where God came out of heaven to earth, paid the ultimate sacrifice and then conquered death and the grave after 3 days! All of this for YOU and ME so that we can have eternal life with God in heaven. Hmmmm... sounds like something worth celebrating to me.

I find myself so moved this time of year... thinking about the hope of what's to come because of the sacrifice of Christ. For us, Easter is about celebrating this hope. Because we work in ministry, Easter is also about laying down our lives to prepare for the thousands of people who will come to the "hill" at Celebration Church to experience a taste of this new life that's available to them in Christ. We want to put our best foot forward... have the MOST FUN services... make parking a breeze... serve coffee and doughnuts so no one gets a headache... we are opening the doors for lives to be changed forever.

My prayer this year is that the people who come b/c of the helicopter candy drop, to show off their new bonnets, or because grandma's tradition says to come or Easter lunch will be tense will experience something so life-changing that they will be compelled to come back! Christ rose from the dead so that we could experience a real relationship with Him and spend eternity with Him. This spring motivates me to do more to get to know Him. I'm excited about Easter weekend, yes. But, I am more excited about the weekend after that and the weekend after that. I really believe in what happened on Resurrection Day. I am compelled to come back to church every weekend to find out more!